For years, China hawks here in the U.S. have been warning about the dangers posed by China's growing fleet of submarines. The "capability of the United States to project power in the world may be seriously and competently challenged by [these] submarines," one National Academies study warned. Last fall's incident, in which a Chinese sub was found shadowing an American carrier group only seem to reinforce the danger, to those warily eying Beiing.
But how fierce, and how aggressive, is China's undersea armada, really? According to the documents unearthed by the Federation of American Scientists:
China's entire fleet of approximately 55 general-purpose submarines conducted a total of six patrols during 2007, slightly better than the two patrols conducted in 2006 and zero in 2005.
The 2007 performance matches China's all-time high of six patrols conducted in 2000, the only two years since 1981 that Chinese submarines conducted more than five patrols in a single year.
The new information... also shows that none of China's ballistic missile submarines have ever conducted a deterrent patrol.
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/01/chinas-subs-six.html
Russia rattles sabres in Obama’s direction
Published: February 6 2009 17:20 | Last updated: February 6 2009 17:20
Russia may face a grim economic downturn but one would scarcely think so to judge by the sound of sabre-rattling emerging from the Kremlin. Unless, of course, it is intended as a domestic distraction from the gathering gloom.
The double-act of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin has come up with a series of security initiatives that seem designed to provoke, or at least irritate, the new administration in Washington. Without even waiting to hear how President Barack Obama intends to conduct his relations with Moscow – something that Joe Biden, his vice-president, may well address on Saturday at the annual Munich Security Conference – the Russian leaders have thrown down the gauntlet.
First, they leaked details of naval and air bases to be established on the shores of the Black Sea in the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia, whose independence is recognised by Moscow alone. Then they signed an air defence treaty with the former Soviet republic of Belarus, apparently paving the way for an anti-missile defence system to counter one planned by the previous US administration across the border in Poland. Moscow appears to have persuaded the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan to oust the US from its air base at Manas, outside Bishkek, in exchange for $2bn (€1.6bn, £1.4bn) in loans, and $150m in financial aid.
Russia and the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – the so-called Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) – have agreed to form a “rapid reaction force” which is intended to be just as good as the equivalent force operated by the Nato alliance, according to President Medvedev.
Outside analysts are sceptical whether any of these moves amounts to a particularly effective military gesture but they are certainly intended to suggest that Russia is not rushing to embrace the new US administration.
The air defence deal with Belarus is on a par with Mr Medvedev’s announcement, on the day Mr Obama was elected, that Russian Iskander missiles would be sited in the Kaliningrad enclave to counter the US missile defence system. It appears to negate a subsequent conciliatory gesture from Moscow, saying those missiles would not be deployed if the US also held back.
As for the Abkhaz naval base, it may be intended as an insurance policy for the day when, or if, Russia is forced to vacate the existing base for its Black Sea fleet at Sevastopol in the Crimea, which is leased from Ukraine until 2017. Oksana Antonenko, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, believes all the actions are part of a pattern, intended to provoke a US reaction, and give Russia more bargaining chips in negotiating a new relationship with Washington. “In Russia there has never been any euphoria about Obama as there has been in the rest of Europe,” she says. “Russia is still very mistrustful of the US, and Putin profoundly so.
“But there is an overwhelming view in Moscow now that the Americans are in decline and will be forced to negotiate with Russia from a position of weakness. They seem to expect all the concessions to come from Obama. It is very unrealistic.”
The response from Washington has been muted. Russia is simply not a high priority for the new president. Western analysts believe Russia’s production of Iskander missiles is not enough to base any significant numbers in Belarus as well as on its southern borders. As for the rapid reaction force, it is regarded with wry amusement in Brussels. None of Russia’s would-be allies wants to be used as a pawn in some muscle-flexing contest with Washington. Even Abkhazia is unhappy about becoming a vast military base for its neighbour.
So perhaps the entire operation is for domestic purposes. That way it might at least make sense.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/85fd2362-f46e-11dd-8e76-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
Teacher placed on leave for questionable Facebook postingBEAVER DAM (WKOW) -- Beaver Dam school officials placed a middle school teacher on administrative leave after discovering a photograph of the teacher with a gun on the teacher's Facebook page.
In the photo, teacher Betsy Ramsdale is training a rifle at the camera.
Ramsdale emailed 27 News in response to our inquiries saying she "removed the photo immediately" and that she is not "interested in any controversy." Ramsdale did not comment on her motivation for posting the photo.
Schools superintendent Donald Childs told 27 News he is unaware of any sinister intent on the teacher's part and said the use of the photo "appears to be poor judgment."
Childs said the Facebook photo was brought to the attention of school district officials by a concerned staff member at Beaver Dam Middle School.
Ramsdale's biography on the school district website states she is in her first year of teaching at the middle school. Department of Public Instruction records show Ramsdale has been licensed to teach since 1996.
Middle school parent Jennifer Buzzell said the teacher's decision to post the photograph was concerning.
"I don't think it's appropriate," Buzzell told 27 News. "I'm not sure why this would be on the computer at all."
"I don't see anything wrong with it," school parent Mark Hagstrom said. "She's on her time to do what she wants."
School parent Chad Van Loo said the photograph sends the wrong message.
"With the way things are going these days, with the kids bringing guns to school and bomb threats, (photograph) is something to be concerned about."
Ramsdale's union representation is through the Beaver Dam Education Association. Association president Janet Schumaker has yet to return a call from 27 News.
Read our Assistant News Director's Blog on this topic:
http://addins.wkowtv.com/blogs/behindthenews/
To comment and provide news tips, contact reporter Tony Galli at tgalli@wkowtv.com
http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9781795&nav=menu1362_10
Got this nugget from 411man at FRC forum
Hawaii Bill to Outlaw Folding Knives
Folding knives in Hawaii going away
Common Sense has left the Islands...
THE SENATE
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009
STATE OF HAWAII
JAN 23 l009
S.B. NO. '_f,
A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO DANGEROUS WEAPONS.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. Chapter 134, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is
2 amended by adding a new section to part III to be appropriately
3 designated and to read as follows:
4 n§134-Pocket knives; sale prohibited; penalty. Any
5 person who knowingly manufactures, sells, transfers, possesses,
6 or transports a pocket knife in the State shall be guilty of a
7 misdemeanor.
8 As used in this section:
9 "Pocket knife" means a knife with a blade that folds into
10 the handle and which is sui table for carrying in the pocket."
11 SECTION 2. Upon the effective date of this Act, no person
12 shall import or manufacture pocket knives into the State for the
13 purpose of selling or distributing pocket knives.
14 SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.
15 SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on January 1, 2010.
16
INTRODUCED BY:
2009-0182 SB SMA. doc
S.B. N0./~
Report Title:
Dangerous Weapons; Pocket Knives; Sale
Description:
Prohibits sale of pocket knives. Defines pocket knife.
2009-0182 SB SMA. doc
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/sessio...lls/SB126_.HTM
http://frc4u.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=368
3 more banks bite the dust and so far that makes 9 in the first month and few days of the year. That is like 33% of all of last year.
Regulators close failed banks in Ga., Calif.
Regulators close 2 failed banks in Calif., 1 in Georgia; 9 US bank failures this year
* Marcy Gordon, AP Business Writer
* Friday February 6, 2009, 10:48 pm EST
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Regulators on Friday closed FirstBank Financial Services in Georgia and two California banks, Alliance Bank and County Bank, marking nine failures this year of federally insured institutions.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the three banks. FirstBank Financial, based in McDonough, Ga., had $337 million in assets and $279 million in deposits as of Dec. 31. Alliance Bank, based in Culver City, Calif., had about $1.14 billion in assets and $951 million in deposits as of year's end. Merced, Calif.-based County Bank had around $1.7 billion in assets and $1.3 billion in deposits as of Feb. 2.
Twenty-five U.S. banks failed last year, far more than in the previous five years combined. The six failures announced in the last two weeks are double the total for all of 2007.
It's expected that many more banks won't survive this year amid the pressures of tumbling home prices, rising mortgage foreclosures and tighter credit. Some may have to merge with other institutions.
The FDIC said FirstBank Financial's deposits will be assumed by Regions Bank in Birmingham, Ala. Its four branches will reopen Monday as offices of Regions Bank. Regions Bank also agreed to buy around $17 million of FirstBank's assets; the FDIC will retain the rest for eventual sale.
The parent company, Regions Financial Corp., is a large regional bank company that received $3.5 billion from the Treasury Department under the government's financial rescue program. In August, Regions Bank took over deposits and some assets of another failed institution, Integrity Bank of Alpharetta, Ga.
Alliance Bank's deposits will be assumed by San Diego-based California Bank & Trust, which also agreed to buy about $1.12 billion in assets. The FDIC will keep the rest for eventual sale. In addition, California Bank & Trust agreed to share losses on the assets with the FDIC. Alliance Bank's five branches will reopen Monday as offices of California Bank & Trust.
Westamerica Bank, based in San Rafael, Calif., agreed to purchase all the deposits and assets of County Bank. Westamerica also is sharing losses with the FDIC. County Bank's 39 branches will reopen as branches of Westamerica, some on Saturday and others on Monday.
A number of banks have failed and been shuttered in recent months in California, an area that's been especially battered by the mortgage and housing crises.
The FDIC estimated that the resolution of FirstBank Financial will cost the federal deposit insurance fund $111 million while that of Alliance Bank will cost $206 million and County Bank, $135 million.
Regular deposit accounts are insured up to $250,000.
Since October, the Treasury Department has been using most of the first half of the $700 billion federal bailout fund to buy stock in banks and other financial institutions, with the idea that cash injections will spur banks to get lending again.
But with banks clamoring for the second $350 billion installment to be doled out, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other top officials are readying a plan to overhaul the rescue program. Those efforts are expected to be announced Monday.
Seattle-based thrift Washington Mutual Inc. failed in late September, the biggest bank collapse in U.S. history. It had $307 billion in assets. Wall Street powerhouse JPMorgan Chase & Co. bought Washington Mutual's deposits, branches and loan portfolio from the FDIC for $1.9 billion.
The FDIC estimates that through 2013, there will be more than $40 billion in losses to the deposit insurance fund, including an $8.9 billion loss from the failure of IndyMac Bank last July. The agency has raised insurance premiums paid by banks and thrifts to replenish its fund, which now stands at around $34.6 billion, below the minimum target level set by Congress and the lowest level since 2003.
An FDIC official asked Congress this week to more than triple the agency's line of credit with the Treasury Department to $100 billion from the current $30 billion, as a way to reassure the public that the government stands firmly behind insured bank deposits.
The FDIC has in place a program to guarantee as much as $1.4 trillion in U.S. banks' debt for more than three years as part of the government's financial rescue plan. Under the program, which is meant to thaw the freeze in bank-to-bank lending, the FDIC is providing temporary insurance for loans between banks, guaranteeing the new debt in the event of payment default by the borrowing bank.
Of the roughly 8,500 federally insured banks and thrifts, the FDIC had 171 on its confidential list of troubled institutions as of Sept. 30 -- a nearly 50 percent jump from the second quarter and the highest tally since late 1995.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Regulator ... 85646.html
Alaska volcano on verge of venting
Area braces for what scientists see as likely
By Oren Dorell
USA TODAY
Brent Hibbert will replace the air filters in his 18 taxicabs every 50 to 100 miles if the volcano at Alaska's Mount Redoubt erupts and coats his hometown of Kenai with engine-choking ash.
"It gets into everything," Hibbert said.
He and other residents are preparing for what geologists say could be imminent. Steam and tremors emanating from the 10,200-foot Redoubt Volcano, located about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, are more likely than not to result in an eruption.
If that happens, the abrasive ash could blanket the state's most populous area and threaten commercial air traffic in the region, said geologist Tina Neal of the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Volcano Observatory.
The Redoubt Volcano produces thick, grayish lava that rises in a dome. The ash can spew up to 40,000 feet, observatory volcanologist Dave Schneider said.
"This is rock fragments, mineral fragments and glass," Schneider said. "It has the density of rock, not fluffy ash like when you burn wood."
For the past few weeks, the gurgling mountain has prompted residents to make a run on dust masks and health officials to warn the old, young and people with respiratory problems to stay indoors if the volcano blows.
George Sides, 52, a sales clerk at Andy's Ace Hardware and Radio Shack in Anchorage, said his store received a new shipment of dust masks after running out this week.
Shoppers also were buying safety goggles and emergency radios, said Sides, who was in Anchorage in 1992 when another volcano, Mount Spurr, erupted.
"It was just dirty," Sides said. "We had to sweep our roof. We had to wear dust masks for days."
Sgt. Robb Quelland of the Soldotna Police Department, said public safety officials are prepared to be extra busy if Mount Redoubt erupts, especially if the wind continues to blow in the direction of his town of 4,000 residents.
The last time Mount Redoubt erupted, in 1989, a Boeing 747 flew through the plume at 40,000 feet. It lost all four engines and dropped 30,000 feet before pilots were able to land safely.
Neal said new technology and better communications developed since that incident make a repeat less likely.
As they wait, businesses and residents prepare.
At the end of each day, city workers cover their computers with plastic bags so the ash won't damage them, said Minta Montalbo, a spokeswoman for the Anchorage Department of Health and Human Services. Power companies are prepared to shut down turbines, which could lead to blackouts.
Day care worker Anna Coleman, 41, has stocked her workplace with extra food and supplies in case parents can't pick up their children before the ash cloud arrives. "We're all prepared," she said.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090206/volcano06_st.art.htm?loc=interstitialskip
If you have interest in watching the volcano live, there is a live feed video and automatic updates with the latest info at FRC
http://frc4u.org/id33.html
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