Eeyores news and view

Gates remark steals focus for Obama
Police unions voice anger

President Obama infrequently wades into issues of race, but his unscripted foray into a racially charged debate about the arrest of a prominent Harvard professor kicked up a controversy Thursday, drawing the ire of police unions and distracting from the White House's health care message.

The white Cambridge, Mass., police sergeant derided by Mr. Obama for acting "stupidly" said the president was way "off base" and suggested Mr. Obama was merely sticking up for his friend, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., who is black.

"I support the president of the United States 110 percent," Sgt. James Crowley told WBZ Radio. "I think he's way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts."

The White House has since backpedaled, with aides insisting the president was not calling the officer stupid, and with Mr. Obama telling ABC News that Sgt. Crowley, an expert in training police how to avoid racial profiling, was an "outstanding" officer.

But the president insisted that his remarks on the arrest of Mr. Gates, made at the end of his Wednesday night news conference on health care, amounted to nothing more than straightforward commentary.

"You probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane in his own home," the nation's first black president said in an interview with ABC. "Everybody should have just settled down and cooler heads should have prevailed."

Mr. Gates was arrested inside his Cambridge home on July 16 by police responding to a report that two black men were trying to break into the house. Mr. Gates said he had forgotten his key and jimmied the door but was already inside when the police arrived.

Words were exchanged and the professor was arrested but the charges were later dropped. At his press conference, Mr. Obama said he did not have the facts of the case but he thought the police had "acted stupidly" by arresting Mr. Gates after he had identified himself.

The subsequent back-and-forth has generated the same kind of cable chatter Mr. Obama often derides as a distraction from more important issues, raising questions about why a president who often avoids commenting on sensitive racial issues chose to speak so bluntly.

Police organizations - including one that backed Mr. Obama's election and one that didn't - have complained.
Mr. Obama attended Harvard Law School.

Republicans also jumped on the dust-up, asking if Rep. Michael E. Capuano, the Massachusetts Democrat who represents Cambridge, agrees with Mr. Obama's comment. The National Republican Congressional Committee said Mr. Obama had offered a "questionable rush to judgment."

Comedian and actor Bill Cosby, a prominent black social critic, said he is worried about the direction the conversation is headed and warned that people "who don't know" should probably take a step back and refrain from commenting. Asked by a Boston Fox affiliate if that was directed at Mr. Obama, Mr. Cosby responded: "Whatever the president said, I have to take into consideration that he lived in Cambridge for some time so he may know more than he's saying about situations of that sort."

Cambridge police are asking a panel to review the matter.

Mr. Gates, 58, is a renowned scholar and director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. He said in an interview with TheRoot.com, a daily online magazine, that he was the victim of racial profiling.

"It's clear that [the arresting officer] had a narrative in his head: A black man was inside someone's house, probably a white person's house, and this black man had broken and entered, and this black man was me," he said. "He demanded that I step out on the porch, and I don't think he would have done that if I was a white person."

Mr. Gates added: "It's not about me - it's that anybody black can be treated this way, just arbitrarily arrested out of spite. And the man who arrested me did it out of spite, because he knew I was going to file a report because of his behavior," he said.

Sgt. Crowley has insisted "I've done nothing wrong" - when asked about the charges of racism he said, "It almost doesn't even warrant a comment it's so ridiculous."

Sgt. Crowley said there was a "lot of yelling" when he encountered Mr. Gates at his home near the Harvard University campus.

"Mr. Gates was given plenty of opportunity to stop what he was doing. He acted very irrational," the officer told the radio station. "He controlled the outcome of that event. ... There was references to my mother, something you wouldn't expect from anybody that should be grateful that you're there investigating a report of a crime in progress, let alone a Harvard University professor."
Mr. Gates has asked for an apology, saying he'd been treated unfairly by the white police officer.

Mr. Obama said Wednesday, "I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played" in the arrest.

But he said it was a "fact" that there is a long history of blacks and Latinos being targeted for racial profiling in America, adding "the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home."

Chuck Canterbury, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona last year, said he has told the White House he was disappointed by the remarks and offered his support to Sgt. Crowley.

"Police officers, like all Americans, rely on President Obama's leadership to guide us through an extraordinarily difficult period of change in a variety of areas: To be successful in this effort, he will need the help and support of all of us," he said.

"Statements of this nature, made without the facts, do little to narrow the void of distrust that too often separates the community from the men and women who work to keep it safe."

In his ABC interview, Mr. Obama noted the 42-year-old sergeant's commendable record.

According to the Associated Press, Sgt. Crowley has taught a class on racial profiling for five years at the Lowell Police Academy, and the academy director called him a good role model who was hand-picked by a black police commissioner.

In 1993 Sgt. Crowley repeatedly tried to save the life of black Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis after he collapsed during practice. Even though Mr. Lewis had no pulse, the officer, who was then with Brandeis University, kept attempting to revive the player who had died of cardiac arrest.

Sgt. Crowley's own force came to his defense, saying nothing he had done was racist.

"The whole story hasn't been told," Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Hass told reporters, adding the panel would help to "really disclose" everything that happened.

The commissioner said Mr. Gates' attorney had approached the police with a request to drop the charges, which they did this week after working with the district attorney. He also disclosed that while Mr. Gates was away there had been a break-in at his home which was investigated by Harvard police.

In his official police report on the incident, Sgt. Crowley said he could see the man he later identified as Mr. Gates in the foyer of the home through the glass paned front door. He identified himself, explained the report of a break-in, asked for Mr. Gates to come outside but the professor refused and then shouted "Why, because I am a black man in America?"

The report said Mr. Gates accused the officer of being racist and was "leveling threats that he wasn't someone to mess with." Sgt. Crowley wrote in the report that the professor kept yelling and when they went outside it drew the attention of people on the street. He then arrested him for disorderly conduct.

Mr. Gates said in his interview with TheRoot that he couldn't have been yelling since he had a severe bronchial infection.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/24/gates-remark-steals-focus-for-obama/



Sure looks like to me that the idiot is screaming. People throw the race card around way to easily. Racism pimps, like this professor, the President, Sharpton and Jackson, are like the little boys that cry wolf. They try to incite a riot when they are wrong. They should be arrested.

Eeyores news and view

I was reading these articles this morning and i will admit i don't have all the facts, but i bet neither does the President when he made is declaration of guilt. I bet he never even talked to the officer. The case reminds me of Cynthia McKinney in DC. She called racism when she struck at the officer for asking for her id. People should mind there own business or at least try to find out what they are talking about before they run there mouth. Makes me sick that this President will promote racism just because the black person is being attacked. If the roles were reversed, he would never said that it was racism. Does not he see he is being used like a punk

President says Cambridge cops acted ‘stupidly’
President Obama ripped Cambridge police for acting “stupidly” in the arrest of Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and said the noted scholar, a personal friend, was justified in being “angry” at his treatment.The president said he does not know whether, as Gates maintains, race was a factor in the controversial case now making national headlines. But he said racial profiling is a “fact” in America today. His remarks came in response to a question at the end of last night’s press conference on his health-care initiative Obama acknowledged that he did not know all the facts of the case in which Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct by cops investigating a report of a break-in at his Cambridge home after Gates had to force open a jammed door.
“I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that,” Obama said. “But I think it’s fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry... (you can read the rest at)
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1186574

Officer in Henry Gates flap tried to save Reggie Lewis Denies he’s a racist, won’t apologize he Cambridge cop prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. claims is a racist gave a dying Reggie Lewis mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in a desperate bid to save the Celtics superstar’s life 16 years ago Monday.“I wasn’t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn’t working on a black man. I was working on another human being,” Sgt. James Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Herald, said of the forward’s fatal heart attack July 27, 1993, at age 27 during an off-season practice at Brandeis University, where Crowley was a campus police officer.

It’s a date Crowley still can recite by rote - and he still recalls the pain he suffered when people back then questioned whether he had done enough to save the black athlete.
“Some people were saying ‘There’s the guy who killed Reggie Lewis’ afterward. I was broken-hearted. I cried for many nights,” he said. Crowley, 42, said he’s not a racist, despite how some have cast his actions in the Gates case. “Those who know me know I’m not,” he said.Yesterday, Lewis’ widow, Donna Lewis, was floored to learn the embattled father of three on the thin blue line of a national debate on racism in America was the same man so determined to rescue her husband.
“That’s incredible,” Lewis, 44, exclaimed. “It’s an unfortunate situation. Hopefully, it can resolve itself. The most important thing is peace.”

Gates, 58, an acclaimed scholar on black history and a PBS documentarian, went on the attack against Crowley on Tuesday, demanding he apologize for arresting him for disorderly conduct last Thursday while investigating a reported break-in at his home. Gates, returning from a trip, was seen by a Malden woman trying to force his front door open. Police alleged he initially refused to identify himself. Though he harbors no “ill feelings toward the professor,” a calm, resolute Crowley said no mea culpa will be forthcoming.“I just have nothing to apologize for,” he said. “It will never happen.”
Attorney Charles Ogletree, Gates’ close friend and fellow Harvard savant, told the Herald, “It’s regrettable and unfortunate that the officer feels that way, and I do hope that some progress will be made in healing this wound.”

Gates, who upon his arrest allegedly bellowed to a gathering crowd on Ware Street, “This is what happens to black men in America!” believes he was targeted by Crowley - whom he called a “rogue” cop - because of his race. Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas, with Gates attorney Walter Prince’s consent, agreed Tuesday to drop the charge of disorderly conduct, calling the incident “an unfortunate set of circumstances.”Crowley, an 11-year veteran of the force, oversees the evidence room, paid details and records unit. He also coaches youth basketball, baseball and softball.
Joseph McDonald, a former director of public safety at Brandeis, said Crowley was “a real pro,” calling Gates’ racial profiling charge “strange.”

“You just do the job as a cop. You don’t look at the color of skin. You’re just trying to help people,” said McDonald, 57.
In a statement expressing its “full and unqualified support” for Crowley, the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association called its brother a “highly respected veteran supervisor with a distinguished record. “His actions at the scene of this matter were consistent with his training, with the informed policies and practices of the department and with applicable legal standards.”
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1186567

Eeyores news and view

Senate to vote on concealed weapons measureBy JIM ABRAMS (AP) – 5 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Gun control and gun rights advocates are heading for another clash with a Senate vote on a measure that would allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry those hidden weapons into other states.

Backers, led by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., say truckers and others with concealed weapons permits should be able to protect themselves when they cross into other states. Opponents say the measure would force states with strict procedures for getting permits to accept permits from states with more lax laws.

The Senate has scheduled a vote Wednesday on the measure, which Thune offered as an amendment to a major defense policy bill. Under an agreement reached among Senate leaders, 60 votes will be needed to approve the amendment.

The vote comes a day after the Senate completed what is probably the most controversial issue connected to the defense bill, voting 58-40 to eliminate $1.75 billion in the $680 billion bill that had been set aside for building more F-22 fighters. President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates campaigned hard for removing the money, saying the Pentagon had enough F-22s and the money could be spent on more pressing defense needs.

The gun proposal would make concealed weapons permits from one state valid in other states as long as the person obeys the laws of other states, such as weapons bans in certain localities. It does not establish national standards for concealed weapons permits and would not allow those with permits to carry weapons into Wisconsin and Illinois, the two states that do not have concealed weapons laws.

"Law-abiding South Dakotans should be able to exercise the right to bear arms in states with similar regulations on concealed firearms," Thune said. "My legislation enables citizens to protect themselves while respecting individual state firearms laws."

National Rifle Association chief lobbyist Chris W. Cox said the last two decades have shown a strong shift toward gun rights laws. "We believe it's time for Congress to acknowledge these changes and respect the right of self-defense, and the right of self-defense does not stop at state lines," he said.

Gun control groups were strongly in opposition.

Concealed handgun permit holders killed at least seven police officers and 44 private citizens during a two-year period ending in April, according to a study by the Violence Policy Center. "It is beyond irrational for Congress to vote to expand the reach of these deadly laws," said the center's legislative director, Kristen Rand.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the bill would "incite a dangerous race to the bottom in our nation's gun laws." He said his own state, which has strict gun control laws, would have to accept concealed weapons permits from states such as Arizona, which issues permits to people with drinking problems, or Alaska, where people with violent misdemeanor convictions can get permits.

"Folks in Minot, N.D., and New York are going to have different conceptions about what's right for their locality," said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist think tank that supports gun rights. "In some states you have to show a real need" to get a permit, he said. "In other states you have to show that you can stand on two feet."

So far this year gun rights advocates have had the clear advantage in Congress. They managed to attach a provision to a credit card bill signed into law that restores the right to carry loaded firearms in national parks, and coupled a Senate vote giving the District of Columbia a vote in the House with a provision effectively ending the district's tough gun control laws.

House Democratic leaders, unable to detach the two issues without losing the support of pro-gun Democrats, abandoned attempts to pass the D.C. vote bill.

On the Net:
■Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov


It is happening there it can happen here also.
Iran recruits foreign security to maintain order
July 22, 2009 - 8:36am

J.J. Green, WTOP Radio

WASHINGTON - A showdown is looming in Iran.

Friday prayers will be led by Ayatollah Khameni as foreign security forces are being brought in to maintain order.

At the end of June, there were scattered reports that the Iranian government was flying in members of Lebanon's Hezbollah military wing to help patrol the streets. Flights from the airport in Beirut to Iran were booked solid by these additional security forces.

Sources say the extra security is gearing up for a showdown Saturday, when a huge global protest is being planned to coincide with an Iranian protest.

Between now and then, the strife is expected to continue, as Khameni's power is being challenged and President Mamoud Ahmadinejad's re-election is being questioned.

Already there are reports of nighttime home invasions, including security forces shooting at un-armed Iranians.

Meanwhile, more details are emerging about corruption at the highest levels of the government, including reports of "shell companies" for the IRGC set-up to siphon off money from wire transfers.

http://wtop.com/?nid=778&sid=1723007

Eeyores news and view

This topic may have been out of the news lately but seems to have come back with a vengenace lately. Which is a good thing here is an article on illegal imagration. Heavy emphases on ILLEGAL.

Feds shift gears on illegal immigration
The Department of Homeland Security is changing the way it tackles illegal immigration, in many cases remaking or rescinding Bush administration policies.
The changes put heavier emphasis on employers, including more investigations of hiring records and fines for violations, says John Morton, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in DHS.
"We have to come to grips with the market for illegal labor," he says. "To get there, we have to move beyond individual cases."
The arrests of hundreds of illegal workers at a time in raids at factories and meatpacking plants were a visible component of President George W. Bush's immigration enforcement strategy.
The largest workplace raid under the Obama administration was in February, when 28 illegal immigrants were arrested at an engine manufacturer in Bellingham, Wash.
Guidelines issued since then make it clear that raids targeting employees won't be a priority. The agency still will arrest illegal immigrants as it conducts investigations, Morton says, but "we are going to place our focus … first and foremost on the employer."
On July 1, ICE notified 652 businesses that it would inspect their hiring records to make sure they verified their workers' legal status, and Morton says the push will expand. ICE began 503 such audits in all of last year.
Other changes:
• DHS announced on July 8 that it would rescind a Bush proposal to crack down on businesses that don't fire workers whose Social Security numbers don't match government records. The plan, tied up by court challenges, never went into effect.
The agency said it will move ahead with another Bush plan to require businesses with federal contracts to verify the legal status of employees using an online government database. The DHS says the system will catch inconsistencies earlier.
The department estimates that the rule will cover 3.8 million employees.
• Two days later, DHS announced new standards for a program that gives authority to enforce immigration laws to state and local law enforcement agencies that sign agreements with the department and undergo training. The revised contracts direct police to focus mainly on illegal immigrants who are already in jail or have been convicted or arrested in drug or violent crimes, not those involved in minor offenses such as traffic violations.
Tamar Jacoby supports the enforcement changes because, she says, ICE is using limited resources to target the worst offenders. Jacoby is president of ImmigrationWorks USA, a group of employers who want changes in the law to allow more foreign workers to enter the country legally.
"If we as a nation can prove to the public that we're able and willing and serious about enforcing the law, the public will be potentially more open to immigration reform," she says.
Rosemary Jenks of NumbersUSA, which calls for reduced immigration, criticizes the shifts, saying they will lead to fewer arrests of illegal immigrants. "The message is, if you come here illegally, you can get a job, you can stay under the radar, don't commit a crime and you'll be fine," she says. "It's essentially a de facto amnesty."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-20-immigration_N.htm?csp=34

Watchdog: TARP tab could hit $24 trillion
Think last year's $700 billion Wall Street rescue package was beaucoup bucks to spend bailing out the nation's floundering financial system? That's chump change compared to what the overall price tag could be, a government watchdog says.
The inspector general in charge of overseeing the Treasury Department's bank-bailout program says the massive endeavor could end up costing taxpayers almost $24 trillion in a worst-case scenario. That's more than six times President Obama's proposed $3.55 trillion budget for 2010.
Much of the bailout's attention has focused on the Treasury's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, which Congress hurriedly passed last fall. But about 50 other federal programs that began as early as 2007 could push the government's total financial support of the private financial sector to at least $23.7 trillion, says TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky.
The estimate - which the Treasury strongly disputes - was included in Mr. Barofsky's second-quarter review of TARP on Monday.
"TARP does not function in a vacuum, but is rather part of the broader government efforts to stabilize the financial system," said Mr. Barofsky in a statement ahead of his appearance Tuesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to discuss his report.
Extra costs include $2.3 trillion in programs offered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), $7.4 trillion in TARP and other aid from the Treasury, and $7.2 trillion in federal money to support Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, credit unions, Veterans Affairs and other federal guarantee programs, he said.
The committee's top Republican, Rep. Darrell Issa of California, said the size and scope of the government's involvement in rescuing the struggling financial sector has reached a mind-boggling level.
"If you spent a million dollars a day going back to the birth of Christ, that wouldn't even come close to just $1 trillion; $23.7 trillion is a staggering figure," he said.
But the Treasury called Mr. Barofsky's estimate "inflated," saying that less than $2 trillion have been doled out to so far by all the programs he identified in the report.
The estimate also doesn't take into account the the repayment of TARP loans, the Treasury says, an increasing tally that so far has reached about $70 billion.
The Treasury has committed $643.1 billion of TARP money and has spent $441 billion.
In the nine months since Congress authorized TARP, the Treasury has created 12 programs involving funds that may reach almost $3 trillion, Mr. Barofsky said.
Although the Treasury is only authorized to spend the $700 billion approved last year by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush, the FDIC and the Federal Reserve are expected to invest up to $1 trillion each in partnering with the Treasury on TARP.
Mr. Barofsky complained that while the Treasury has taken some steps toward improving transparency in TARP programs, it repeatedly has failed to adopt many recommendations that his office considers essential to providing "the highest degree of accountability and transparency possible."
The Treasury for months has refused his recommendation that TARP recipients be required to reveal exactly what they do with the money, a practice that the Treasury has called "meaningless" in light of the inherent "fungibility" of money.
Oversight committee Chairman Edolphus Towns said he was disappointed that the Treasury hasn't done more to increase transparency, adding that Mr. Barofsky's report "demonstrates more than anything why we need" a TARP watchdog.
"If the banks can't tell us how they're spending TARP money, then maybe they shouldn't have it," the New York Democrat said. "How can Treasury commit billions - and potentially trillions - of taxpayer dollars, but not ask recipients what they're doing with the money? That takes 'burying your head in the sand' to a new level."
The report also shows that the inspector general's office authorized 35 criminal and civil investigations involving TARP money through June 30. These investigations include suspected accounting fraud, securities fraud, insider trading, mortgage-service misconduct, mortgage fraud, public corruption, false statements and tax investigations.
Mr. Barofsky told The Washington Times earlier this month that "almost certainly we are going to be seeing a number of [criminal] indictments" coming from the investigations.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/21/watchdog-says-tarp-tab-could-hit-24-trillion/

Maloney apologizes for using N word
Posted: 05:20 AM ET
(CNN) – New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat, apologized Monday for using the N word in a recent interview while recounting a phone call she had received.
"I apologize for having repeated a word I find disgusting," Maloney said in a statement. "It's no excuse but I was so caught up in relaying the story exactly as it was told to me that, in doing so, I repeated a word that should never be repeated."
Maloney, who is challenging Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand for the 2010 Democratic Senate nomination in New York, used the full racial slur in an interview with the Web site City Hall while taking aim at Gillibrand's record.
"I got a call from someone from Puerto Rico, said [Gillibrand] went to Puerto Rico and came out for English-only [education]. And he said, 'It was like saying n—r to a Puerto Rican,'" Maloney said. "I don't know-I don't know if that's true or not. I just called. I'm just throwing that out. All of her-well, what does she stand for?"
Earlier Monday, the Rev. Al Sharpton — a supporter of Gillibrand's bid — sharply criticized Maloney for using the word.
"The quote by Congresswoman Maloney if accurate is alarming and disturbing at best," he said in a statement. "No public official even in quoting someone else should loosely use such an offensive term and should certainly challenge someone using the term to him or her."
The controversy comes the same day Maloney is set to hold a big-ticket fundraiser that includes an appearance from former President Bill Clinton. Clinton has also attended a fundraiser for Gillibrand.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/21/maloney-apologizes-for-using-n-word-2/

Eeyores news and view

This is in my backyard (sotospeak)it is going this way all over the country. I expect this kind of stuff in Russia or other communistic or socialistic countries.
make me sick.

Housing complex owners vote to ban smoking

By Julian Emerson
Leader-Telegram staff
It's not just indoor public places in Eau Claire where lighting up is prohibited. Now residents of a south side, owner-occupied housing complex will have to snuff out smoking in their homes, the most recent sign of public anti-smoking sentiment.

Members of the Fairfax Parkside Homeowners Association on Wednesday voted to outlaw smoking inside residences that are part of the 34-unit development. The ban also prohibits smoking in shared spaces, such as porches and garages, but does allow it in yards and on patios.

Of the 19 association members who voted on the issue, 15 favored the anti-smoking regulation proposed by association President Dave Hanvelt, while four argued that residents should be allowed to smoke in their homes.

"This doesn't restrict a smoker from living here," Hanvelt said of the smoking prohibition. "It just means that there are restrictions on where they can smoke."

Fairfax Parkside is believed to be the first Eau Claire development in which homeowners aren't allowed to light up indoors.

"I'm not aware of any other instances where that is the case," said Julie Marlette, coordinator of the Tobacco Free Partnership of Eau Claire County.

The adoption of the indoor anti-smoking rule likely won't impact many Fairfax Parkside homeowners, as Hanvelt said he doesn't know of any smokers in the development. But it does restrict future homeowners there from smoking, and visitors also won't be allowed to smoke inside.

"You don't want to have to worry about your non-smoking neighbor moving out and a smoker moving in," he said.

Hanvelt proposed the regulation earlier this year because homeowners in the development own twin homes, or each side of a duplex-style home. Because of their close proximity, smoke from one unit could flow into the one next door.

"If we all lived in separate units, this wouldn't have been necessary," Hanvelt said, noting homeowners association members made sure to allow outdoor smoking so as to not be too restrictive.

The Fairfax Parkside regulation marks an extension of non-smoking rules from public places to private residences. Last year the Eau Claire City Council approved a controversial ban on smoking in indoor public places, including taverns.

The issue prompted heated response from people on both sides of the issue, and opponents were concerned that the ban could open the door to prohibitions on smoking in people's homes.

Word of the smoking restriction enacted at Fairfax Parkside has some people fuming.

"We worried that this might happen, and now it appears that it has," said Sally Jo Birtzer, a nonsmoker who is president of the Eau Claire City-County Tavern League and general manager of Wagner's Lanes. "As long as tobacco is a legal product, people should be allowed to smoke it in their own homes."

While preventing smoking in privately owned homes is unusual, prohibiting the practice in rental residences isn't unheard of in Eau Claire and elsewhere. Some landlords don't allow renters to smoke indoors in an effort to keep those living quarters cleaner and to reduce the chances of a house fire.

Stomping out smoking in multifamily rental units is a growing trend in other parts of the U.S., Marlette said.

"I think people are recognizing the exposure that is occurring to secondhand smoke in multiunit housing," she said. "It is definitely a bona fide health issue, and I think we're going to see more requests for those units to go smoke free."

Dave FitzGerald, one of the Fairfax Parkside developers who also lives there, initially questioned whether the non-smoking measure would hinder future sales in an already tough housing market. But FitzGerald, a nonsmoker, said the anti-smoking rule could attract buyers too, especially given that nearly four of every five people don't smoke.

"Could we lose a sale to somebody who is a smoker? Certainly," FitzGerald said. "But I think there is a better chance of having somebody be willing to live here because there isn't any smoking."

Hanvelt knows firsthand the frustrations of living next to a smoker in a shared-space residence. He previously spent thousands of dollars at a former residence retrofitting his unit to prevent cigarette smoke from a next-door neighbor from making its way to his home, but the effort proved unsuccessful, he said.

Now he looks forward to living in a smoke-free environment.

"We adopted this for our own safety and health," Hanvelt said. "This is a very nice place to live, and we want to keep it that way."

http://www.leadertelegram.com/story-news.asp?id=BKKD5TMRL20

Eeyores News and view

Legal guns in D.C. not used one year later
No report of one being fired, stolen, used in crime. It's been a year since a Northwest D.C. housewife carried a Ruger .357 Magnum into police headquarters in a blue plastic grocery bag and became the District's first legal handgun owner since the Supreme Court overturned a decades-old ban. Today, Amy McVey's handgun is one of just 515 that have been legally registered with the Metropolitan Police Department -- a number that pales compared with more than 2,000 illegal weapons that have been seized in the same period. She hasn't had to use it to defend her home. Nor has anyone attempted to steal it and use it against her or to commit some other crime -- undermining the most widely used arguments for and against permitting guns. In fact, police say they have no information that would indicate any gun legally registered since July 17, 2008, has been fired by its owner in defense of life or property, or that one has been stolen or used in the commission of a crime. "I just wanted to have the gun in my house for protection," Mrs. McVey, 46, told The Washington Times on Thursday. She said she has taken her gun to Maryland for target practice -- much as she did when she kept it stored outside the city before it was registered. "No, I've never had to pull the gun to protect myself. There have been times I was startled -- you hear things outside. Is it on your front porch? -- but you assess the situation. There was no harm to me inside the house." Asked where she keeps it, she said simply: "I can get to it." Lynda Salvatore, 38, bought a Glock 21 to protect herself and her Columbia Heights home. Miss Salvatore, a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office employee, bought the gun recently because she said she feels unsafe since she moved into her neighborhood three years ago. "I mean, people are regularly shot within a three-block radius of me. I've seen three dead bodies on the streets since I moved here," Miss Salvatore said. "I've been harassed by kids on the street. ... They'll catcall after me and when I don't answer them they call me white bitch and throw rocks at me."Miss Salvatore said she feels safer now that she has a gun. During the year residents have been allowed to register guns, preliminary police statistics say violent crime and property crime have gone down citywide -- a modest decline that even the most ardent gun rights advocate would have difficulty attributing to legal gun ownership. Police also say they have seized more than 2,000 illegal guns from D.C. streets in the last year. Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said the fears of gun-control advocates -- that having more guns would lead to increased gun violence -- were unfounded. "All the handgun bill people's predictions have proved to be wrong," Mr. LaPierre said. The Supreme Court ruled in June 2008 that the city's near-total ban on handguns was unconstitutional and that residents should be allowed to keep guns in their homes for personal protection. City officials began rewriting the laws immediately after the decision. The new laws still forbid semi-automatic and other high-powered weapons. Peter Hamm, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said the District's new gun regulations are "sensible." "We think the District has adopted sensible gun laws. If every jurisdiction in the U.S. had reasonable laws and common sense laws ... we would be fine with that sort of system," he said. Litigation is pending over the gun restrictions the District implemented in the wake of the Supreme Court decision. Last month, city officials expanded the types of pistols that can be legally registered. The list now includes any handgun that is legal in Maryland, Massachusetts or California. Some of the original plaintiffs in the landmark case that overturned the gun ban say their work paid off. George Lyon, a McLean attorney, registered two guns. "Certainly to the extent that I am allowed to have a functional firearm in my home for self-protection, yeah, I feel safer," he said. Gillian St. Lawerence, a real estate investor and Georgetown resident who was another plaintiff in the case, owns three guns with her husband. Mrs. St. Lawrence, 30, said she had a recent experience in which she heard someone running across her roof. When confronted, the man said he was there to clean the gutters but that he must have the wrong address. "I told him to get down and called the police," she said. "I didn't have to take my gun out."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/17/legal-guns-not-used-one-year-later-no-report-of-on/

So much for all the neisayers and people that love there gun laws. Honest citizens will not abuse their God given rights and of them.

Eeyores news

Snooping through the power socket
Power sockets can be used to eavesdrop on what people type on a computer.
Security researchers found that poor shielding on some keyboard cables means useful data can be leaked about each character typed.
By analysing the information leaking onto power circuits, the researchers could see what a target was typing.
The attack has been demonstrated to work at a distance of up to 15m, but refinement may mean it could work over much longer distances.
Hotel attack
"Our goal is to show that information leaks in the most unexpected ways and can be retrieved," wrote Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco, of security firm Inverse Path, in a paper describing their work.
The research focused on the cables used to connect PS/2 keyboards to desktop PCs.
... read the rest at the following link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8147534.stm

Powerful Ideas: Military Develops 'Cybug' Spies
Miniature robots could be good spies, but researchers now are experimenting with insect cyborgs or "cybugs" that could work even better.
Scientists can already control the flight of real moths using implanted devices.
The military and spy world no doubt would love tiny, live camera-wielding versions of Predator drones that could fly undetected into places where no human could ever go to snoop on the enemy. Developing such robots has proven a challenge so far, with one major hurdle being inventing an energy source for the droids that is both low weight and high power. Still, evidence that such machines are possible is ample in nature in the form of insects, which convert biological energy into flight.
It makes sense to pattern robots after insects - after all, they must be doing something right, seeing as they are the most successful animals on the planet, comprising roughly 75 percent of all animal species known to humanity. Indeed, scientists have patterned robots after insects and other animals for decades - to mimic cockroach wall-crawling, for instance, or the grasshopper's leap.
... read the rest at the following link
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090714/sc_livescience/powerfulideasmilitarydevelopscybugspies
Beamed Power For Dragonfly Spies
DANGER ROOM reader Justin posted this comment on yesterday’s piece about the British Police’s New Spy Drone :
During the Republican National Convention in 2004, I swear I saw a jet-black dragonfy hovering about 10 feet off the ground, precisely in the middle of 7th avenue. About six blocks later, marching toward Madison Sq. Garden, I saw another. Hovering. Motionless but for the wings beating. Dead center of the street, ten feet off the ground. Watching us.
In other words, I’m pretty sure smaller and stealthier gadgets are already in use for surveillance. Call me crazy.
Not that crazy. As far back as the 1970’s the CIA were experimenting with a micro air vehicle which looked like a dragonfly. Flight International reported last year:
Developed during the 1970s, the CIA has displayed a mock-up of the micro UAV in its museum at its headquarters in Langley,
Virginia since 2003. However until now no media organisation has been given access to the material that proved that the artificial dragonfly had been flight tested.
. In the 1970s the CIA was interested in the dragonfly concept as a small unmanned surveillance device. Flight cannot reveal exactly what materials have been seen, but can confirm the four-winged robotic insect achieved sustained flight…. The CIA’s entomopter dragonfly’s power supply and actuation system for its wings are still highly classified subjects.
The CIA drone really does look like a real dragonfly – see the photo to the left. The problem was apparently with the flight control system, as the craft could not cope with crosswinds. This type of problem can be solved much more easily with modern electronics. The big issue with a craft so small is the power supply. Until we can get something as compact and efficient as the biological version (and there already ecobots that power themslves by digesting insects), the answer for robotic insects is likely to be beamed power.
There has been a lot of serious work on this already (and let’s not talk about Tesla). As long ago as 1964, pioneer Bill Brown demonstrated a mini-helicopter powered by microwaves on the CBS News with Walter Cronkite. The craft was developed under a contract with the Air Force. NASA seem to believe that miocrowaves will be inherently inefficient because of how they spread out with range, and have been working on micro air vehicles remotely powered by laser.
But there has been more recent work on microwaves to power UAVs, using the body of the craft as an antenna to pick up power:
"We’ve already demonstrated we can transfer power with microwaves. We’ve performed tests on the safety issues of microwaves, and we’ve shown that having multiple ground stations [sending microwaves] is the best possible method, said Jenn. "Now we plan to show how we can power these UAVs using radar systems — systems the
Navy already has."
That was almost ten years ago. Beamed power micro UAVs would have obvious limitations – they’re not going to be flying hundreds of miles away over enemy territory. But for covert surveillance in the domestic arena, they might be just the thing. I have no idea whether there are any dragonfly spies out there yet; but if there aren’t now, there soon will be.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2007/09/beamed-power-fo/

Australia swine flu passes 10,000, prefers 'young'
Australia's swine flu cases have topped 10,000 with officials in the worst-hit Asia-Pacific country reporting two deaths and warned the virus "preferred young people."
Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the national tally was now 10,387, more than 10 percent of the global total confirmed by the World Health Organization with 123 people in hospital.
South Australia and Queensland states reported two deaths of people with the disease, taking the national flu-linked toll to 22. A(H1N1) however has not yet been confirmed as the cause of any of the
... read the rest at the following link
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.5eef86ae79464179681179084700cbde.be1&show_article=1

Swine flu fears close more summer camps
By KRISTEN WYATT – 9 hours ago
DENVER (AP) — Swine flu is keeping kids with asthma home from camp this summer.
The American Lung Association has advised its affiliated camps to close, including one in Colorado that was scheduled to begin next week. Champ Camp in Ward was a traditional sleep-away weeklong camp for boys and girls with asthma — no campfires allowed.
The decision came after four campers were hospitalized when they became sick at an affiliated camp in Julian, Calif., said Heather Grzelka, spokeswoman for the Washington-based Lung Association.
Grzelka said the association has about 50 affiliated camps nationwide, but that they are not run by her group and that she wasn't sure how many would close.
The American Lung Association of the Southwest called off three summer camps — the Champ Camp, plus camps in Tooele, Utah, and Reno, Nev. All were scheduled for July.
... read the rest at the following link
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gyauxLxf2zgbM64GMDO7DjcnrkZgD99EKHRG0
Here is a place you can find a current swine flu map all the time and it is a good forum also
http://frc4u.org/portal/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?2

Eeyores news and view

We are on the brink, the only time we have ever spent this far in a deficit was never. Even during the wars when we went deep into debt, it was never this far and never did we give away so much of the money. In the past the money always went into local economies not to subsidies the rest of the world. We are mortgaging not only our futures but that of great grand children. It is not the fault of either party, it is the mind set on capital hill. Governments are not any different then private individuals, it just may take longer before they go bankrupt, or before it becomes public.

Budget deficit tops $1 trillion for first time
Jul 13, 8:20 PM (ET) By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
WASHINGTON - The federal deficit has topped $1 trillion for the first time ever and could grow to nearly $2 trillion by this fall, intensifying fears about higher interest rates, inflation and the strength of the dollar.
The deficit has been widened by the huge sum the government has spent to ease the recession, combined with a sharp decline in tax revenues. The cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also is a major factor.
The soaring deficit is making Chinese and other foreign buyers of U.S. debt nervous, which could make them reluctant lenders down the road. It could also force the Treasury Department to pay higher interest rates to make U.S. debt attractive longer-term.
"These are mind-boggling numbers," said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at the Smith School of Business at California State University. "Our foreign investors from China and elsewhere are starting to have concerns about not only the value of the dollar but how safe their investments will be in the long run."
The Treasury Department said Monday that the deficit in June totaled $94.3 billion, pushing the total since the budget year started in October to $1.09 trillion. The administration forecasts that the deficit for the entire year will hit $1.84 trillion in October.
Government spending is on the rise to address the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and an unemployment rate that has climbed to 9.5 percent.
Congress already approved a $700 billion financial bailout for banks, automakers and other sectors, and a $787 billion economic stimulus package to try to jump-start a recovery. Outlays through the first nine months of this budget year total $2.67 trillion, up 20.5 percent from the same period a year ago.
There is growing talk among some Obama administration officials that a second round of stimulus may eventually be necessary.
That has many Republicans and deficit hawks worried that the U.S. could be setting itself up for more financial pain down the road if interest rates and inflation surge. They also are raising alarms about additional spending the administration is proposing, including its plan to reform health care.
President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have said the U.S. is committed to bringing down the deficits once the economy and financial sector recover. The Obama administration has set a goal of cutting the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
In the meantime, the U.S. debt now stands at $11.5 trillion. Interest payments on the debt cost $452 billion last year - the largest federal spending category after Medicare-Medicaid, Social Security and defense.
The overall debt is now slightly more than 80 percent of the annual output of the entire U.S. economy, as measured by the gross domestic product. During World War II, it briefly rose to 120 percent of GDP.
The debt is largely financed by the sale of Treasury bonds and bills.
Many private economists say the administration had no choice but to take aggressive action during the financial crisis.
"We have a deep recession hammering tax revenues and forcing the government to provide a lot of help to the economy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "But without this help, the downturn would be even more severe."
History shows the dangers of assuming too soon that economic downturns have ended.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt made that mistake in 1936. Believing the Depression largely over, he sought to reduce public spending and to balance the federal budget, but that undermined a fragile recovery, pushing the economy back under water in 1937.
Japanese leaders made a similar mistake in the 1990s when they temporarily withdrew government stimulus spending, prolonging Japan's recession into one that lasted a full decade.
Republicans in Congress are seizing on the deficit - and the persistence of the recession - to attack Democrats.
"Washington Democrats keep borrowing and spending money we don't have," said House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio.
So far, interest rates have remained low.
This is partly because the Federal Reserve has kept a key short-term rate at a record near zero. Also, all the economic troubles in housing and the rest of the economy have depressed demand for credit by the private sector, meaning the government's borrowing costs are relatively low.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury security has risen by about a percentage point in recent weeks, but analysts note it is still trading at historically low levels of around 3.35 percent.
Geithner travels later this week to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where he is expected to face questions about the U.S. deficit. As he did during a visit to China last month, Geithner will try to reassure investors in the Middle East that their U.S. holdings are safe from a calamitous bout of inflation.
The deficit of $1.09 trillion so far this year compares to an imbalance of $285.85 billion through the same period a year ago. The deficit for the 2008 budget year, which ended Sept. 30, was $454.8 billion, the current record in dollar terms.
Revenues so far this year total $1.59 trillion, down 17.9 percent from a year ago, reflecting higher unemployment, which cuts into payroll taxes and corporate tax receipts.
Under the administration's budget estimates, the $1.84 trillion deficit for this year will be followed by a $1.26 trillion deficit in 2010, and will never dip below $500 billion over the next decade. The administration estimates the deficits will total $7.1 trillion from 2010 to 2019.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090714/D99DSUG00.html

Boost in Food Stamps Helps Economy - Obama's stimulus plan has put more money into the hands of the poorest Americans by boosting monthly food-stamp http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/article/boost_in_food_stamps_helps_economy/

The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think
The recent unemployment numbers have undermined confidence that we might be nearing the bottom of the recession. What we can see on the surface is disconcerting enough, but the inside numbers are just as bad.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminary estimate for job losses for June is 467,000, which means 7.2 million people have lost their jobs since the start of the recession. The cumulative job losses over the last six months have been greater than for any other half year period since World War II, including the military demobilization after the war. The job losses are also now equal to the net job gains over the previous nine years, making this the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all job growth from the previous expansion.
... read the rest at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124753066246235811.html

U.S. mulling mortgage aid for unemployed
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is mulling new ways to delay foreclosure for jobless homeowners who are unable to keep up with monthly payments, an administration official said on Monday.
The official told Reuters it was reasonable for policymakers to consider options for loan forbearance -- allowing borrowers to delay, defer or skip payments -- that are more effective than those currently available in the private sector.
The number of failing home loans has been climbing for three years as risky borrowers have defaulted on their easy-to-get loans, property values have sunk and the unemployment rate has climbed.
But the official said the idea, which is still evolving, was difficult from a policy perspective and carries potential hazards. It could help more people struggling with economic difficulty, but it also could create perverse incentives that distort the housing market, said the official, who did not want to speak on the record about internal administration debates.
The official said such a program would be in keeping with other measures to help workers who have lost jobs in the current recession.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56D04920090714



Down the Mississippi: Barack Obama effect ends white rule in Deep South town
A tiny Mississippi delta town has elected its first black mayor after the white incumbent, unopposed for 30 years, faced a young challenger inspired by President Barack Obama's feat in winning the White House.

Here are a few quotes from the article, it is the problem with the way America thinks
...
Mr Brown was the first black man ever to stand for Mayor of Alligator and it took Mr Obama’s election to galvanise him into action. “Obama was a major influence on everybody,” he said, almost drowned out by the chirping of crickets in the sweltering afternoon heat. “He inspired me. I’m not going to take that from him.
...
"If we don’t look after our youth, what do we have? The population is dying out and I want more people here. I want better living conditions.
I just want the people to be comfortable. Small towns like this depend on government funding and that’s what we’re seeking."
...
The town’s facilities were substandard, he said, gesturing towards the humble town hall, where a “No Loitering” sign is nailed next to the door. “There isn’t even a phone or a fax machine in there. How can we communicate with the outside world and ask for things?" There was jubilation among the town’s blacks after Mr Brown’s victory.
(read the whole article link below, bolds are added by me) http: //www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/crossingamerica/5810701/Down-the-Mississippi-delta-town-elects-first-black-mayor.html

Eeyores news and view

This one will make one year of posts, that is what i had planned to do, so we are complete with this one (373 post's in 365 days). I think the blog will continue, it will just take on a new look and go a new way. Maybe one article a day and with a little more commentary (or views). It might not be everyday also, we shall see.

Thank you to the people who have checked it out in the past.

Here is a list of frequency of each of my topics, interesting, i think. Knowing me (or at least i thought i did) i would have predicted different emphasis, but how does the old saying go? "figures never lie, but liars figure".

2nd Admendment (53)
4th of July (1)
5th Columnists (11)
9-11-2001 (1)
Abortion (11)
Abstinence (1)
Airplane car (1)
Alternative Currencies (3)
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American Culture (80)
American Terrorist (5)
Animals (6)
april fools day (1)
Aqua Car (1)
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Being a Man (1)
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Deficit (1)
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government waste (1)
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Groups demand that jail stop censoring religion
Civil and religious rights organizations are demanding that a Virginia jail stop removing Bible passages and other religious material from letters written to inmates.
Anna Williams, whose son was detained at the Rappahannock County Regional Jail, says officials cut out entire sections of letters she sent to her son that contained Bible verses or religious material. She says the jail cited prohibitions on Internet material and religious material sent from home. John Whitehead, founder of The Rutherford Institute, represents Williams. His organization is challenging censorship of the mail. "She's a devout Christian, and her son's in jail there and she's been trying to send him letters with Bible passages and whatever -- and the jail has actually been going through snipping out portions of letters," the attorney explains. "[S]ome of the letters are full of Bible verses, so what her son is getting is absolutely at the end of the letter where she says goodbye, I love you, and those kinds of things." According to Whitehead, the situation is not an isolated case. "Various Christian organizations are trying to give Bibles to prisoners...and prisons and local jails are actually prohibiting [that], saying such materials could be dangerous -- and they're actually stopping them," he laments. "So this is a nationwide thing that we're seeing, and [it's] one reason why we're trying to get involved in this case and stop it and nip it in the bud." Whitehead tells OneNewsNow that courts have ruled there must be a compelling reason for censoring inmate mail -- and Bible verses, he says, hardly represent a compelling reason. Prison Fellowship, the ACLU, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and other groups sent a letter to Rappahannock Regional Jail Superintendent Joseph Higgs, Jr., calling the policy illegal. Higgs issued a statement saying the groups' letter prompted him to launch an internal investigation.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=598800
additional info can be had at
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/072009/07102009/478761

Globalize of the world is what it is about, the currency the borders and government and laws. Socialism and Communism.
Gore: U.S. Climate Bill Will Help Bring About 'Global Governance'
Former Vice President Al Gore declared that the Congressional climate bill will help bring about “global governance.”
“I bring you good news from the U.S., “Gore said on July 7, 2009 in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by UK Times.
“Just two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey climate bill,” Gore said, noting it was “very much a step in the right direction.” President Obama has pushed for the passage of the bill in the Senate and attended a G8 summit this week where he agreed to attempt to keep the Earth's temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C.
Gore touted the Congressional climate bill, claiming it “will dramatically increase the prospects for success” in combating what he sees as the “crisis” of man-made global warming.
“But it is the awareness itself that will drive the change and one of the ways it will drive the change is through global governance and global agreements.” (Editor's Note: Gore makes the “global governance” comment at the 1min. 10 sec. mark in this UK Times video.)
Gore's call for “global governance” echoes former French President Jacques Chirac's call in 2000.
On November 20, 2000, then French President Chirac said during a speech at The Hague that the UN's Kyoto Protocol represented "the first component of an authentic global governance."
“For the first time, humanity is instituting a genuine instrument of global governance,” Chirac explained. “From the very earliest age, we should make environmental awareness a major theme of education and a major theme of political debate, until respect for the environment comes to be as fundamental as safeguarding our rights and freedoms. By acting together, by building this unprecedented instrument, the first component of an authentic global governance, we are working for dialogue and peace,” Chirac added.
Former EU Environment Minister Margot Wallstrom said, "Kyoto is about the economy, about leveling the playing field for big businesses worldwide." Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper once dismissed UN's Kyoto Protocol as a “socialist scheme.”
'Global Carbon Tax' Urged at UN Meeting
In addition, calls for a global carbon tax have been urged at recent UN global warming conferences. In December 2007, the UN climate conference in Bali, urged the adoption of a global carbon tax that would represent “a global burden sharing system, fair, with solidarity, and legally binding to all nations.”
“Finally someone will pay for these [climate related] costs,” Othmar Schwank, a global tax advocate, said at the 2007 UN conference after a panel titled “A Global CO2 Tax.”
Schwank noted that wealthy nations like the U.S. would bear the biggest burden based on the “polluters pay principle.” The U.S. and other wealthy nations need to “contribute significantly more to this global fund,” Schwank explained. He also added, “It is very essential to tax coal.”
The 2007 UN conference was presented with a report from the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment titled “Global Solidarity in Financing Adaptation.” The report stated there was an “urgent need” for a global tax in order for “damages [from climate change] to be kept from growing to truly catastrophic levels, especially in vulnerable countries of the developing world.”
The tens of billions of dollars per year generated by a global tax would “flow into a global Multilateral Adaptation Fund” to help nations cope with global warming, according to the report.
Schwank said a global carbon dioxide tax is an idea long overdue that is urgently needed to establish “a funding scheme which generates the resources required to address the dimension of challenge with regard to climate change costs.”
'Redistribution of wealth'
The environmental group Friends of the Earth advocated the transfer of money from rich to poor nations during the 2007 UN climate conference.
"A climate change response must have at its heart a redistribution of wealth and resources,” said Emma Brindal, a climate justice campaigner coordinator for Friends of the Earth.
http://www.climatedepot.com/a/1893/Gore-US-Climate-Bill-Will-Help-Bring-About-Global-Governance.

For many, a simpler life is better
Shrinking paychecks and rising environmental concerns are prompting Americans to pare back their lifestyles.
"Perhaps the silver lining (of the recession) is that people are coming to realize they can live with less and their lives are richer for it," says Michael Maniates, professor of political and environmental science at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa.
A third, 32%, say they have been spending less and intend to make that their "new, normal" pattern; 27% say they are saving more and plan to continue, according to a Gallup Poll in April.
Nearly half of consumers, 47%, say they already have what they need, up from 34% in November 2006, according to the 2009 MetLife Study of the American Dream.
"People are feeling forced and inspired to get back to what is core to them," says Julie Morgenstern, author of Shed Your Stuff, Change Your Life. She says they're valuing objects less and experiences and people more.
Eric Dykstra, pastor of Crossing Church in Elk River, Minn., read Morgenstern's book, then ran across a blog by Dave Bruno of San Diego. Bruno launched a "100 Thing Challenge" in November and says he pared his own possessions to fewer than that.
Dykstra began encouraging members to reduce their personal possessions to 100 items. They took on the challenge — although some counted treasures such as a shoe collection as one item.
"People have really taken this to heart," Dykstra says. They donated so much to charity — boats, furniture, snowblowers — they filled a warehouse.
"The purpose was to break the hold of materialism," he says. He went from five suits to one, from a dozen ties to two. "It was very freeing."
Other signs of change:
• Enrollment in "voluntary simplicity" courses promoted by the non-profit Northwest Earth Institute in Portland, Ore., is up 50% in the past year.
"It was a perfect time to show people they're really not giving anything up" by buying less or eating at home, says acupuncturist Deborah Waddell, who hosted a course in February in Long Valley, N.J.
• Hundreds of schools have shown a 20-minute film, The Story of Stuff, on the environmental costs of consumerism, and more than 6.6 million people have viewed it online since December 2007, according to the Tides Foundation in San Francisco.
. Websites on living close to nature are getting more traffic. The Thoreau Society, devoted to naturalist Henry Thoreau, got 400 members in its first two months this year. The non-profit Simple Living Institute in Orlando has seen online hits double in the past year, says founding member Shirley Silvasy.
Bruno says, "The recession is like a wake-up call."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2009-07-12-simplicity_N.htm

Is Tougher Airport Screening Going Too Far?
The Transportation Security Administration has moved beyond just checking for weapons and explosives. It’s now training airport screeners to spot anything suspicious, and then honoring them when searches lead to arrests for crimes like drug possession and credit-card fraud.
But two court cases in the past month question whether TSA searches—which the agency says have broadened to allow screeners to use more judgment—have been going too far.
A federal judge in June threw out seizure of three fake passports from a traveler, saying that TSA screeners violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. Congress authorizes TSA to search travelers for weapons and explosives; beyond that, the agency is overstepping its bounds, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley said.
Two recent court cases question whether TSA searches have been going too far.
.“The extent of the search went beyond the permissible purpose of detecting weapons and explosives and was instead motivated by a desire to uncover contraband evidencing ordinary criminal wrongdoing,” Judge Marbley wrote.
In the second case, Steven Bierfeldt, treasurer for the Campaign for Liberty, a political organization launched from Ron Paul’s presidential run, was detained at the St. Louis airport because he was carrying $4,700 in a lock box from the sale of tickets, T-shirts, bumper stickers and campaign paraphernalia. TSA screeners quizzed him about the cash, his employment and the purpose of his trip to St. Louis, then summoned local police and threatened him with arrest because he responded to their questions with a question of his own: What were his rights and could TSA legally require him to answer?
Mr. Bierfeldt recorded the encounter on his iPhone and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in June against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, claiming in part that Mr. Bierfeldt’s experience at the airport was not an anomaly.
“Whether as a matter of formal policy or widespread practice, TSA now operates on the belief that airport security screening provides a convenient opportunity to fish for evidence of criminal conduct far removed from the agency’s mandate of ensuring flight safety,” the ACLU said in its suit.
‘Mission Creep’?
TSA said in a statement on the Bierfeldt incident that travelers are required to cooperate with screeners, and while it is legal to carry any amount of money when flying domestically, the agency believes cooperation includes answering questions about property. As a result of the recording, however, TSA determined that “the tone and language used by the TSA employee was inappropriate and proper disciplinary action was taken.”
The cases will likely inflame TSA critics and frequent travelers who believe screeners take a heavy-handed approach and worsen the hassle of getting through airports with layers of rules and sometimes inconsistent policies between different cities.
“TSA agents don’t get to play cops,” says Ben Wizner, an attorney who filed Mr. Bierfeldt’s suit. The ACLU has heard an increasing number of reports of TSA agents involved in what he called “mission creep,” he says.
TSA spokesman Greg Soule says airport screeners are trained to “look for threats to aviation security” and discrepancies in a passenger’s identity. TSA says verifying someone’s identity, or exposing false identity, is a security issue so that names can be checked against terrorism watch lists. Large amounts of cash can be evidence of criminal activity, Mr. Soule says, and so screeners look at the “quantity, packaging, circumstances of discovery or method by which the cash is carried.”
Questioning travelers is part of TSA’s standard procedures, and the agency gives its employees discretion. “TSA security officers are trained to ask questions and assess passenger reactions,” Mr. Soule says. “TSA security officers may use their professional judgment and experience to determine what questions to ask passengers during screening.”
No one questions arrests made after TSA runs into evidence of drugs or other crimes during weapons searches. A bulge in baggy pants can be investigated, for example, because it might be an explosive. If it turns out to be cocaine, TSA is expected to report it to police or Drug Enforcement Agency officials.
.But once TSA has determined that someone doesn’t have weapons or explosives, agents sometimes keep searching—leading some legal experts to wonder whether questioning people about how much cash they’re carrying, the number of credit cards they have and even prescription drugs in their bags stretches the intent of airport security law.
Congress charged TSA with protecting passengers and property on an aircraft “against an act of criminal violence or aircraft piracy” and prohibited individuals from carrying a “weapon, explosive or incendiary” onto an airplane. Without search warrants, courts have held that airport security checks are considered reasonable if the search is “no more extensive or intensive than necessary” to detect weapons or explosives.
In testimony to Congress last month, Gale D. Rossides, acting TSA administrator, said the agency had moved past simply trying to intercept guns, knives and razor blades to “physical and behavioral screening to counter constantly changing threats.”
Every screener has completed a 16-hour retraining that “provides the latest information on intelligence, explosives detection and human factors affecting security,” she said. “We have revised our checkpoint Standard Operating Procedures to enable officers to use their judgment appropriately in achieving sensible security results.”
In the fake passport case, a man named Fode Amadou Fofana used a valid driver’s license with his real name at a Columbus, Ohio, TSA checkpoint. Because he had purchased his ticket for a flight at the airport just before departure, he was flagged for secondary screening. He didn’t set off metal detectors and TSA’s X-ray equipment didn’t see anything suspicious, according to court testimony. The bags were swabbed for explosive residue and did not trigger any alarms. TSA agents opened the bags and searched inside because he was selected for extra screening.
According to the judge’s ruling, the TSA agent involved testified that she had been instructed to search for suspicious items beyond weapons and explosives and to “be alert for anything that might be unlawful for him to possess, such as credit cards belonging to other people, illegal drugs or counterfeit money.”
The agent found envelopes with cash, which she considered suspicious. Three other envelopes had something more rigid than dollar bills. She testified she didn’t believe there were weapons inside, but opened them looking for “contraband” and found three fake passports.
Limiting Searches
Judge Marbley said the TSA had no authority to open the envelopes. In his ruling, he said prior cases clearly established that airport security searches should be aimed only at detecting weapons or explosives.
“A checkpoint search tainted by ‘general law enforcement objectives’ such as uncovering contraband evidencing general criminal activity is improper,” the judge wrote.The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbus has filed notice that it will appeal the judge’s order.
Mr. Bierfeldt’s suit, filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, seeks to bar TSA from “conducting suspicion-less pre-flight searches of passengers or their belongings for items other than weapons or explosives.”
Mr. Bierfeldt, who was released by TSA after an official in plain clothes saw political materials in his bag and asked if the cash was campaign contributions, said he just wants to save others from harassment by TSA. “It’s the principle of the matter,” he said. “I didn’t break any laws and was no threat.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204556804574261940842372518.html

Amendment to Allow Guns in Public Housing Thursday, July 9, 2009
A House panel voted to add an amendment allowing guns in public housing. This is a huge policy shift - the Clinton administration made a big deal out of barring guns for Section 8 residents, along with requiring them to submit to warrantless searches and such. It's enough to make you think that the gun control was somehow linked to people control generally...
Carolyn McCarthy , D-N.Y., a longtime gun control advocate, said opponents of the Price amendment would try to remove the language from the bill at a later point
in the legislative process, without subjecting the issue to a recorded vote.
“What we’re trying to do will not involve votes,” McCarthy said.
Wow. Democrats are crossing the aisle to vote for this, and all she can do is hope to kill it procedurally.
Not only are we winning, we are crushing them.
http://defensivehandgun.blogspot.com/2009/07/amendment-to-allow-guns-in-public.html

Eeyores news and view

This coin comes from an interesting source http://www.futureworldcurrency.com/ If you go to there manifesto and look at what they want it is truely amazing, look at #10

ART. 10
It will be the responsibility of the world's future citizens and the governments they put in place to make our Project a reality. This project is driven by a firm belief in the unification and co-existence of different peoples. It aims to promote an increasingly equal distribution of the planet's resources and human intellect.

Medvedev Shows Off Sample Coin of New ‘World Currency’ at G-8
By Lyubov Pronina
July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev illustrated his call for a supranational currency to replace the dollar by pulling from his pocket a sample coin of a “united future world currency.”
“Here it is,” Medvedev told reporters today in L’Aquila, Italy, after a summit of the Group of Eight nations. “You can see it and touch it.”
The coin, which bears the words “unity in diversity,” was minted in Belgium and presented to the heads of G-8 delegations, Medvedev said.
The question of a supranational currency “concerns everyone now, even the mints,” Medvedev said. The test coin “means they’re getting ready. I think it’s a good sign that we understand how interdependent we are.”
Medvedev has repeatedly called for creating a mix of regional reserve currencies as part of the drive to address the global financial crisis, while questioning the U.S. dollar’s future as a global reserve currency. Russia’s proposals for the G-20 meeting in London in April included the creation of a supranational currency.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aeFVNYQpByU4

Lawmaker says CIA director ended secret program
WASHINGTON (AP) - CIA Director Leon Panetta has terminated a "very serious" covert program the spy agency kept secret from Congress for eight years, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a House Intelligence subcommittee chairwoman, said Friday.
Schakowsky is pressing for an immediate committee investigation of the classified program, which has not been described publicly. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has said he is considering an investigation.
"The program is a very, very serious program and certainly deserved a serious debate at the time and through the years," Schakowsky told The Associated Press in an interview. "But now it's over."
Democrats revealed late Tuesday that CIA Director Leon Panetta had informed members of the House Intelligence Committee on June 24 that the spy agency had been withholding important information about a secret intelligence program begun after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Schakowsky described Panetta as "stunned" that he had not been informed of the program until nearly five months into his tenure as director.
Panetta had learned of the program only the day before informing the lawmakers, according to a U.S. intelligence official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity Friday because he was not authorized to discuss the program publicly.
Panetta has launched an internal probe at the CIA to determine why Congress was not told about the program. Exactly what the classified program entailed is still unclear.
The intelligence official said the program was "on-again/off-again" and that it was never fully operational, but he would not provide details.
Schakowsky, D-Ill., said Friday that the CIA and Bush administration consciously decided not to tell Congress.
"It's not as if this was an oversight and over the years it just got buried. There was a decision under several directors of the CIA and administration not to tell the Congress," she said.
Schakowsky, who chairs the Intelligence subcommittee on oversight and investigations, said in a Thursday letter to Reyes that the CIA's lying was systematic and inexcusable. The letter was obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.
She said Reyes indicated to her the committee would conduct a probe into whether the CIA violated the National Security Act, which requires, with rare exceptions, that Congress be informed of covert activities. She told AP she hopes to conduct at least part of the investigation for the committee.
She said this is the fourth time that she knows of that the CIA has misled Congress or not informed it in a timely manner since she began serving on the Intelligence Committee two and half years ago.
In 2008, the CIA inspector general revealed that the CIA had lied to Congress about the accidental shoot down of American missionaries over Peru in 2001. In 2007, news reports disclosed that the CIA had secretly destroyed videotapes of interrogations of a terrorist suspect.
She would not describe the other incident.
Schakowsky said she thinks Panetta is changing the CIA for the better, adding that the failure to inform Congress was indicative of "contempt" the Bush administration and intelligence agencies under him held for Congress.
"Many times I felt it was an annoyance to them to have to come to us and answer our questions," she said. "There was an impatience and a contempt for the Congress."
The House is expected to take up the 2010 intelligence authorization bill next week. It includes a provision that would require the White House to inform the entire committee about upcoming covert operations rather than just the "Gang of Eight"_ the senior members from both parties on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and the Democratic and Republican leaders in both houses.
The White House this week threatened to veto the final version of the bill if it includes that provision.
Democratic aides said the language may be softened in negotiations with the Senate to address the White House's concern.
But Schakowsky said the wider briefings are the best remedy to avoiding future notification abuses.
Republicans charge that Democratic outrage about the Panetta revelation is just an attempt to provide political cover to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who in May accused the CIA of lying to her in 2002 about its use of waterboarding.
What Pelosi knew about the CIA's interrogation program and when she knew it _ and why she did not object to it sooner _ is expected to be emphasized by Republicans during debate over the intelligence bill.
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=27&sid=1699547

84 sick cadets isolated at Air Force Academy
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) - The Air Force Academy says 84 cadets with flu-like symptoms have been isolated are being tested for swine flu.
Academy spokeswoman Capt. Corinna Jones told The Gazette in Colorado Springs Thursday that most of the cadets are "doolies", members of the incoming freshman class who began training June 25. She said the cadets under isolation in a dormitory began coughing and showing other upper respiratory symptoms over the past two days.
The academy has contacted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Air Force Surgeon General's office.
Jones says tests have been sent to a laboratory in San Antonio for analysis, and results are expected within 24 hours.
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=29&sid=1714503

Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears
Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he'd bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car.
It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker's gold.
Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner downloaded to his laptop the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.
Increasingly, government officials are promoting the chipping of identity documents as a 21st century application of technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country.
But Paget's February experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates had feared for years: That RFID, coupled with other technologies, could make people trackable without their knowledge.
He filmed his heist, and soon his video went viral on the Web, intensifying a debate over a push by government, federal and state, to put tracking technologies in identity documents and over their potential to erode privacy.
Putting a traceable RFID in every pocket has the potential to make everybody a blip on someone's radar screen, critics say, and to redefine Orwellian government snooping for the digital age.
"Little Brother," some are already calling it - even though elements of the global surveillance web they warn against exist only on drawing boards, neither available nor approved for use.
But with advances in tracking technologies coming at an ever-faster rate, critics say, it won't be long before governments could be able to identify and track anyone in real time, 24-7, from a cafe in Paris to the shores of California.
On June 1, it became mandatory for Americans entering the United States by land or sea from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean to present identity documents embedded with RFID tags, though conventional passports remain valid until they expire.
Among new options are the chipped "e-passport," and the new, electronic PASS card - credit-card sized, with the bearer's digital photograph and a chip that can be scanned through a pocket, backpack or purse from 30 feet.
Alternatively, travelers can use "enhanced" driver's licenses embedded with RFID tags now being issued in some border states: Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York. Texas and Arizona have entered into agreements with the federal government to offer chipped licenses, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has recommended expansion to non-border states. Kansas and Florida officials have received DHS briefings on the licenses, agency records show.
The purpose of using RFID is not to identify people, says Mary Ellen Callahan, the chief privacy officer at Homeland Security, but "to verify that the identification document holds valid information about you."
An RFID document that doubles as a U.S. travel credential "only makes it easier to pull the right record fast enough, to make sure that the border flows, and is operational" - even though a 2005 Government Accountability Office report found that government RFID readers often failed to detect travelers' tags.
Critics warn that RFID-tagged identities will enable identity thieves and other criminals to commit "contactless" crimes against victims who won't immediately know they've been violated.
Neville Pattinson, vice president for government affairs at Gemalto, Inc., a major supplier of microchipped cards, is no RFID basher. He's a board member of the Smart Card Alliance, an RFID industry group, and is serving on the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.
In a 2007 article published by a newsletter for privacy professionals, Pattinson called the chipped cards vulnerable "to attacks from hackers, identity thieves and possibly even terrorists."
RFID, he wrote, has a fundamental flaw: Each chip is built to faithfully transmit its unique identifier "in the clear, exposing the tag number to interception during the wireless communication."
Once a tag number is intercepted, "it is relatively easy to directly associate it with an individual," he says. "If this is done, then it is possible to make an entire set of movements posing as somebody else without that person's knowledge."
Echoing these concerns were the AeA - the lobbying association for technology firms - the Smart Card Alliance, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Business Travel Coalition, and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security has been promoting broad use of RFID even though its own advisory committee on data integrity and privacy issued caveats. In its 2006 draft report, the committee concluded that RFID "increases risks to personal privacy and security, with no commensurate benefit for performance or national security," and recommended that "RFID be disfavored for identifying and tracking human beings."
For now, chipped PASS cards and enhanced driver's licenses are not yet widely deployed in the United States. To date, roughly 192,000 EDLs have been issued in Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York.
But as more Americans carry them "you can bet that long-range tracking of people on a large scale will rise exponentially," says Paget, a self-described "ethical hacker" who works as an Internet security consultant.
But Gigi Zenk, a spokeswoman for the Washington state Department of Licensing, says Americans "aren't that concerned about the RFID" in a time when "tracking an individual is much easier through a cell phone."
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks - and the finding that some terrorists entered the United States using phony passports - the State Department proposed mandating that Americans and foreign visitors carry "enhanced" passport booklets, with microchips embedded in the covers.
In February 2005, when the State Department asked for public comment, it got an outcry: Of the 2,335 comments received, 98.5 percent were negative, with 86 percent expressing security or privacy concerns, the department reported in an October 2005 notice in the Federal Register.
Identity theft and "fears that the U.S. Government or other governments would use the chip to track and censor, intimidate or otherwise control or harm them" were of "grave concern," it noted. Many Americans worried "that the information could be read at distances in excess of 10 feet."
Those citizens, it turns out, had cause.
According to department records obtained by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, under a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed by the AP, discussion about security concerns with the e-passport occurred as early as January 2003 but tests weren't ordered until the department began receiving public criticism two years later.
(AP) In this May 28, 2009 photo, a new "enhanced" United States passport lies, at left, beside an...
When the AP asked when testing was initiated, the State Department said only that "a battery of durability and electromagnetic tests were performed" by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, along with tests "to measure the ability of data on electronic passports to be surreptitiously skimmed or for communications with the chip reader to be eavesdropped," testing which "led to additional privacy controls being placed on U.S. electronic passports ... "
In 2005, the department incorporated metallic fibers into the e-passport's front cover, to reduce the read range, and added encryptions and a feature that required inspectors to optically scan the e-passport first for the chip to communicate wirelessly.
But what of concerns about the e-passport's read range?
In its October 2005 Federal Register notice, the State Department reassured Americans that the e-passport's chip would emit radio waves only within a 4-inch radius, making it tougher to hack.
But in May 2006, at the University of Tel Aviv, researchers directly skimmed an encrypted tag from several feet away. At the University of Cambridge in Britain, a student intercepted a transmission between an e-passport and a legitimate reader from 160 feet.
The State Department, according to its own records obtained under FOIA, was aware of the problem months before its Federal Register notice and more than a year before the e-passport was rolled out in August 2006.
"Do not claim that these chips can only be read at a distance of 10 cm (4 inches)," Frank Moss, deputy assistant Secretary of State for passport services, wrote in an April 22, 2005, e-mail to Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "That really has been proven to be wrong."
The chips could be skimmed from a yard away, he added - all a hacker would need to read e-passport numbers, say, in an elevator.
In February 2006, an encrypted Dutch e-passport was hacked on national television, and later, British e-passports were hacked. The State Department countered that European e-passports weren't as safe as their American counterparts because they lacked safety features such as the anti-skimming cover. Recent studies have shown, however, that more powerful readers can penetrate that metal sheathing.
The RFIDs in enhanced driver's licenses and PASS cards contain a silicon computer chip attached to a wire antenna, which transmits a unique identifier via radio waves when "awakened" by an electromagnetic reader.
The technology they use is designed to track products through the supply chain. These chips, known as EPCglobal Gen 2, are intended to release their data to any inquiring Gen 2 reader within a 30-foot radius.
The government says remotely readable ID cards transmit only RFID numbers, which correspond to records stored in secure government databases. Even if a hacker were to copy an RFID number onto a blank tag and place it into a counterfeit ID, officials say, the forger's face still wouldn't match the true cardholder's photo in the database.
Still, computer experts say government databases can be hacked. Others worry about a day when hackers might deploy readers at "chokepoints," such as checkout lines, skim RFID numbers from people's driver's licenses, then pair those numbers to personal data skimmed from chipped credit cards (though credit cards are harder to skim). They imagine stalkers skimming RFID tags to track their targets, and fear government agents compiling chip numbers at peace rallies, mosques or gun shows, simply by strolling through a crowd with a reader.
Others worry more about the linking of chips with other identification methods, including biometric technologies, such as facial recognition.
Should biometrics be coupled with RFID, "governments will have, for the first time in history, the means to identify, monitor and track citizens anywhere in the world in real time," says Mark Lerner, spokesman for the Constitutional Alliance, a network of nonprofit groups, lawmakers and citizens opposed to remotely readable identity and travel documents.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N. agency that sets global standards for passports, now calls for facial recognition in all e-passports.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090712/D99CRDAG0.html

Gay couple detained near Mormon plaza after kiss
SALT LAKE CITY – A gay couple say they were detained by security guards on a plaza owned by the Mormon church and later cited by police, claiming it stemmed from a kiss on the cheek.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said that the men became argumentative and refused to leave after being asked to stop their "inappropriate behavior." The men say they were targeted because they are gay.
Matt Aune said he and his partner, Derek Jones, were walking home from a concert nearby on Thursday night, cutting through the plaza near the Salt Lake City Mormon temple.
Aune, 28, said he gave Jones, 25, a hug and kiss and that the two were then approached by a security guard, who asked them to leave, telling them they were being inappropriate and that public displays of affection aren't allowed on the property. He said other guards arrived and the men were handcuffed.
"We asked what we were doing wrong," Aune told The Associated Press.
Church spokeswoman Kim Farah said in a statement Friday that the men were "politely asked to stop engaging in inappropriate behavior — just as any other couple would have been."
"They became argumentative and used profanity and refused to leave the property," she said. The church did not immediately respond to a request for more comment.
Police later arrived and both men were cited with misdemeanor trespassing, Salt Lake City Police Sgt. Robin Snyder said.
"It doesn't matter what they were asked to leave for," Snyder said. "If they are asked to leave and don't they are ... trespassing."
The church has been the target of protests over its support of a ban on gay marriage in California.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090711/ap_on_re_us/us_mormon_church_trespassing_1

Mosquito pools test positive for West Nile virus
July 11, 2009 - 5:04pm
WASHINGTON (AP) - D.C. Department of Health officials say three mosquito pools have tested positive for the West Nile virus.
Officials said Saturday the mosquito pools were collected from a block on Washington Boulevard southwest, near Fort McNair.
No one in D.C. have been infected by West Nile virus this year. In 2008, six residents tested positive for the virus.
The health department recommends that residents eliminate mosquito breeding areas around their home by removing standing water.
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1715806