Showing posts with label States Rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label States Rights. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Eeyores news and view

Patriots wage war on Obama socialism
States line up to 'opt out' of government health care
Citizen protest movements against taxes, deficit spending and wildly escalating federal social welfare programs under President Obama are gaining momentum, despite attempts by the administration and their supporters to ridicule such movements, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.
With a new round of tea party tax protests held during the Independence Day holiday, Arizona has added a new dimension to the revolt against Obama's policies by passing a law designed to opt the state out of any universal health care insurance plan the administration manages to get passed through Congress.
Republican Nancy Barto, state representative in Arizona, has been responsible for advancing though the Arizona legislature a bill that would amend the state constitution so that no resident would be required to participate in any public health care program.
"HCR2014 is proactive and will protect patients' fundamental rights," Barto told the Examiner. "We are a front-line battle state to stop momentum of this powerful government takeover of your health care decisions. Health care by lobbyists thwarts your rights and can be stopped here."
Known as "Arizona's Heath Care Freedom Act," the initiative will be on the 2010 Arizona ballot.
Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming are all considering similar legislation to opt out of "Obamacare," the current effort by the administration to pass a government-funded universal health care insurance bill.
Meanwhile, tea party organizers are fighting back against Obama administration supporters who derisively used "tea bagging" in reference to certain homosexual practices.
Organizers of the Texas Tea Party invited actress Janeane Garofolo to join them in Texas on July 4 and posted a video of their invitation on YouTube.
Garofalo, an actress on Fox television's drama "24," called tea partiers "a bunch of tea-bagging rednecks," adding "this is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up."
According to the Tenth Amendment Center, at least 70 percent of the states have launched provisions to exert state sovereignty based on the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which stipulates that "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
"What we are trying to do is to get the U.S. Congress out of the state's businesses," said Oklahoma Republican State Sen. Randy Brogdon, lead sponsor of the Oklahoma version of the sovereignty bill.
Brogdon is currently running for governor in Oklahoma in 2010.
WND's June 2009 issue of the Whistleblower magazine, entitled "Don't Tread on Me: Rebellion in America's Heartland," also covers the move by several states to exempt guns from federal regulation.
The state of Montana has drawn a land in the sand, challenging the federal government to decide whether guns and ammo made, sold and used in Montana require federal registration.
Following Montana's lead, Utah Rep. Carl Wimmer has prepared a bill that would gain new protections for gun owners by asserting the state's sovereignty under the Ninth and 10th amendments.
WND has reported that Wimmer intends his legislation to exempt from federal gun regulations any Utah resident seeking to own a firearm made in Utah.
"What is clear is that millions of Americans are getting increasingly turned off by the Obama administration's move to increase dramatically the size and control of the federal government," Corsi wrote. "With no end of trillion dollar deficits anywhere in sight under President Obama, average Americans are saying 'no more' to escalating taxes and programs such as 'Obamacare.'"
In writing "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," Corsi predicted that Barack Obama was a Saul Alinsky radical who would rule from the far left, not from the political center.
"With President Obama's rating dropping and the global recession deepening, this is the time we need to fight back by returning to the principles of limited government espoused by our founders," Corsi wrote. "Now is the time to defeat the Obama administration cap-and-trade bill in the Senate and to fight the Obama health care plan in the House."
Before 2009 is over, the Obama administration plans to introduce to Congress yet another version of the "shamnesty" bill, euphemistically packaged as "comprehensive immigration reform," says Corsi.
Having twice defeated the Kennedy-McCain version of that bill, Red Alert believes American patriots will once again reject "guest worker programs" and "pathways to citizenship" on the call to secure U.S. borders and enforce our existing immigration laws.
"The time to save America from Obama socialism is running short," Corsi noted, "but the battle has only just begun."
Red Alert's author, whose books "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command" have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972. For nearly 25 years, beginning in 1981, he worked with banks throughout the U.S. and around the world to develop financial services marketing companies to assist banks in establishing broker/dealers and insurance subsidiaries to provide financial planning products and services to their retail customers. In this career, Corsi developed three different third-party financial services marketing firms that reached gross sales levels of $1 billion in annuities and equal volume in mutual funds. In 1999, he began developing Internet-based financial marketing firms, also adapted to work in conjunction with banks.
In his 25-year financial services career, Corsi has been a noted financial services speaker and writer, publishing three books and numerous articles in professional financial services journals and magazines.
For financial guidance during difficult times, read Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium, online intelligence news source by the WND staff writer, columnist and author of the New York Times No. 1 best-seller, "The Obama Nation."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=103208

Social Security number code cracked, study claims
WASHINGTON (AP) — For all the concern about identity theft, researchers say there's a surprisingly easy way for the technology-savvy to figure out the precious nine digits of Americans' Social Security numbers.
"It's good that we found it before the bad guys," Alessandro Acquisti of Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh said of the method for predicting the numbers.
Acquisti and Ralph Gross report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they were able to make the predictions using data available in public records as well as information such as birthdates cheerfully provided on social networks such as Facebook.
For people born after 1988 — when the government began issuing numbers at birth — the researchers were able to identify, in a single attempt, the first five Social Security digits for 44 percent of individuals. And they got all nine digits for 8.5 percent of those people in fewer than 1,000 attempts.
For smaller states their accuracy was considerably higher than in larger ones.
Acquisti said in a telephone interview that he has sent the findings to the Social Security Administration and other government agencies with a suggestion they adopt a more random system for assigning numbers.
Social Security spokesman Mark Lassiter said the public should not be alarmed by the report "because there is no foolproof method for predicting a person's Social Security number."
"The suggestion that Mr. Acquisti has cracked a code for predicting an SSN is a dramatic exaggeration," Lassiter said via e-mail.
However, he added: "For reasons unrelated to this report, the agency has been developing a system to randomly assign SSNs. This system will be in place next year."
The researchers say their report omits some details to make sure they aren't providing criminals a blueprint for obtaining the numbers.
The predictability of the numbers increases the risk of identity theft, which cost Americans almost $50 billion in 2007 alone, Acquisti said.
A problem in the battle against identity thieves is that many businesses use Social Security numbers as passwords or for other forms of authentication, something that was not anticipated when Social Security was devised in the 1930s. The Social Security Administration has long cautioned educational, financial and health care institutions against using the numbers as personal identifiers.
"In a world of wired consumers, it is possible to combine information from multiple sources to infer data that is more personal and sensitive than any single piece of original information alone," he said, warning against providing too much data on social network sites.
Acquisti, who researches the economics of privacy, said he got interested in what could be learned from easily available by looking at social networks, which he termed "a great experiment in self-revelation."
People were willing to include their date of birth and hometown, he said, and he already knew that was part of the information used in issuing Social Security numbers.
So the researchers turned to the SSA's "Death Master File," which lists the numbers of people who have died. The purpose of making that file public is to prevent impostors from assuming the Social Security numbers of deceased people.
But by plotting the data for people listed on the file between 1973 and 2003 the researchers were able to develop patterns for number issuance.
"I was surprised by the accuracy of certain predictions," Acquisti said.
The system can produce a range of possibilities for the last four numbers, making it easier for a computer to test the possibilities until the correct number is found for an individual, Acquisti explained.
In addition, "attackers can exploit various public- and private-sector online services, such as online "instant" credit approval sites, to test subsets of variations to verify which number corresponds to an individual with a given birth date.
While it was well known that the numbers have a geographic component, past studies have used the patterns plus other data to estimate when and where a specific number may have been issued.
"Our work focuses on the inverse, harder, and much more consequential inference: it shows that it is possible to exploit the presumptive time and location of SSN issuance to estimate, quite reliably, unknown SSNs," Acquisti said.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Army Research Office, Carnegie-Mellon University and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.
___
On the Net:
PNAS:
http://www.pnas.org
http://newsok.com/social-security-number-code-cracked-study-claims/article/feed/55257?custom_click=rss

This is part of the why the NAACP whats to declare martial law
15-year-old girl becomes fifth victim
GAFFNEY — A teenage girl on Saturday became the fifth victim of a suspected serial killer terrorizing this small S.C. town, further darkening a day planned for celebrations.
Abby Tyler, 15, died about 11:15 a.m. at a Spartanburg hospital after fighting for her life for two days, Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler said.
She was wounded and her father was killed Thursday as they worked to close the family’s furniture and appliance store near downtown Gaffney.
Abby Tyler, 15, died about 11:15 a.m. at a Spartanburg hospital after fighting for her life for two days, Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler said. Photo provided by the Gaffney Ledger.
Gallery: Gaffney memorial services 07.05.09
“A lot of (people) are bad scared. They’re keeping their doors locked,” said Ed Bolton, who sells fireworks from a trailer on S.C. 11 near Gaffney.
He said customers are subdued and more consumed with talk of the killings — and the killer at-large — than they were with July 4th festivities.
Investigators released few new details about the case Saturday, readying for a long night of responding to calls from people who mistake fireworks for the sound of gunshots.
Authorities told The Associated Press they can’t afford to let any lead in the case slip by.
“Every tip that comes in, we are sending out investigators and following any lead,” Gaffney Police Chief Rick Turner said at a news conference Saturday.
In addition to the Tylers, an 83-year-old mother and her daughter were shot to death Wednesday, and a 63-year-old peach farmer was found dead at his home a week ago.
County Sheriff Bill Blanton said investigators believe the killings are linked, and the search is on for a man is in his 40s, with salt and pepper hair, about 6-foot-2, and roughly 200 pounds.
Blanton said all the victims were shot, but he would not say how the deaths were linked. The shootings all occurred within about 10 miles of each other.
On Saturday, police cruisers filled the streets, as officers from across the state descended on the rural county of 54,000 people set amid peach orchards and farms.
Police set up checkpoints throughout the county and stopped any vehicle that looked remotely like the silver 1991 to 1994 model Ford Explorer that authorities believe the killer is driving.
Hundreds of officers are on the case, working as hard as they can even though they are physically drained, Turner told the AP.
"Some have been out here for well over 24, 48 hours, maybe even longer than that, with very little cat naps here and there,” Turner said.
Some residents canceled Independence Day holiday plans, and some were arming themselves. The sheriff has warned door-to-door salesmen to stop knocking and anyone who breaks down on the county’s rural roads to wait instead of walking to a house for help because he worries “people are going to start shooting at shadows.”
Wendy Phillips was afraid to go to work Saturday at Hardees, where she works the counter. When she got there, she was greeted by a poster on the door with a sketch of the killer, offering a reward.
“When I came to work I was a nervous wreck. I was shaking,” said Phillips, 33, who had been an elementary school student of Gena Parker, one of the killer’s victim.
Phillips wondered if she had served the man food — and worried that she still might.
The killings began a week ago Saturday when the wife of 63-year-old peach farmer Kline Cash found him dead in their home. Then last Wednesday, relatives found 83-year-old Hazel Linder and her 50-year-old daughter, Gena Linder Parker, bound and shot to death in a separate shooting at Linder’s home.
Dozens of local, state and federal investigators were assigned to the case. But a day later, the killer struck again, less than a half-mile from the sheriff’s office serving as the headquarters for the investigation, killing 48-year-old Stephen Tyler and mortally wounding his daughter.
Abby Tyler’s death heightened the mourning in Cherokee County. She would have been a junior at Gaffney High School.
Friends and relatives gathered Saturday at the Tylers’ home, a brick ranch in an affluent section east of Gaffney.
“The family is hurting,” said Ashley Wilson, 20, an acquaintance of Abby’s.
She described Abby as a nice girl: “She went to church and everything. She had a good life.”
The killings have also sparked anger. One man said he had a surprise for the killer: “It’s got a bang but it’s not a firecracker.”
Mostly though, people just want the killer caught.
“We’re knee-deep in the investigation,” Blanton said. “There’s fear and concern here and there should be concern.”
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/852063.html

Residents say Internet down in Xinjiang riot city
BEIJING, July 6 (Reuters) - Internet users have not been able to go online in Urumqi, the northwestern Chinese city hit by ethnic violence that killed at least 140 people, residents said on Monday.
Locals took to the streets on Sunday, some burning and smashing vehicles and confronting ranks of anti-riot police. Over 800 people were injured and police have arrested "several hundred" participants, the official Xinhua news agency said. [ID:nSP491283]
"Since yesterday evening I haven't been able to get online," store owner Han Zhenyu told Reuters by telephone.
"No Internet here, friends said they cannot log on, either," said a mobile phone seller who gave only his surname, Zhang.
News of the apparent outage was also spread by messages on social networking services like Twitter and its Chinese competitors.
"The incident has largely subsided, but armoured cars were still in town this morning. Internet in Urumqi is still down, someone said it would last for 48 hours," one user, who said he was in Urumqi, wrote on domestic site fanfou.com.
China has previously shut down communications in parts of Tibet where ethnic unrest had erupted or was feared.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK335819.htm

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Eeyores news and view

Need to watch out for these people, when traveling through there or give thought if you planned to move there. If your there, run away as fast as you can.
TN State Senator Paul Stanley - wants your fingerprint?
Mickey at 6:22 pm on Thursday, May 7, 2009
There is a bill that passed the TN state senate committee that Republican Paul Stanley is a member, the Judiciary committee. He has voted AYE for the HB 2220/SB 2153…
SB2153 by Haynes - S. JUD COMM.:
Recommended for passage - refer to: S. Cal. Comm. 5/5/2009
Passed
Ayes…………………………………………9
Noes…………………………………………0

Senators voting aye were: Beavers, Black, Bunch, Faulk, Jackson, Kyle, Marrero B, Overbey, Stanley — 9.
Criminal Procedure - As introduced, authorizes use of fingerprint as form of acknowledgment in lieu of, or in addition to, a person’s signature for citations and certain other notices and documents. - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 63; Title 16, Chapter 1; Title 40, Chapter 7 and Title 55, Chapter 50.
Bill Summary
This bill authorizes, in regard to the issuance of a citation in lieu of arrest for violating a law, ordinance, or traffic violation, the affixing of the person’s fingerprint to the citation instead of or in addition to the person’s signature. Furthermore, this bill authorizes the courts of this state to implement procedures for the use of electronic fingerprint captures in the signing of pleadings, court orders, judgment orders, affidavits of complaint, arrest warrants, a mittimus or other court documents.
Mr. Stanley wants your finger print if you get a speeding ticket. Now, the way I understand it, you are not FOUND GUILTY until you have your day in court… So why does the STATE want this? Whats next, DNA, Retina scans, arm, leg?
And we wonder why the Republican Party is self destructing.
I would hope that this is challenged in the courts. I wonder if the Governor will Veto?
http://bluecollarrepublican.com/blog/?p=1965

Here is another article about government stupidity, just seperated by an ocean.
German government plans to curb use of guns
Published: Thursday 07 May 2009 12:55 UTC Last updated: Thursday 07 May 2009 13:42 UTC Germany's coalition government of Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and Social Democrats (SPD) has agreed on a series of measures to curb the use of guns. They come two months after a 17-year-old youth killed 15 people with a pistol at his former school.The measures also include a proposal to ban paintballing, a game in which players use air rifles to shoot paint at opponents. MPs say the "simulated killing" trivialises violence and lowers the threshold for committing violent acts. German media report the government is also considering giving police the right to check up on people who own guns. Also, an amnesty will be offered to people who turn in illegal weapons.

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/6290273/German-government-plans-to-curb-use-of-guns

Montana gun law targets states' rights clash
Kahrin Deines, Associated PressSunday, May 10, 2009(05-10) 04:00 PDT Helena, Mont. -- Montana is trying to trigger a battle over gun control - and perhaps make a larger point about what many folks in this ruggedly independent state regard as a meddlesome federal government.In a bill passed by the Legislature earlier this month, the state is asserting that guns manufactured in Montana and sold in Montana to people who intend to keep their weapons in Montana are exempt from federal gun registration, background check and dealer-licensing rules because no state lines are crossed.That notion is all but certain to be tested in court.The immediate effect of the law could be limited, since Montana is home to just a few specialty gun makers, known for high-end hunting rifles and replicas of Old West weapons, and because their out-of-state sales would automatically trigger federal control.Still, much bigger prey lies in Montana's sights: a legal showdown over how far the federal government's regulatory authority extends."It's a gun bill, but it's another way of demonstrating the sovereignty of the state of Montana," said Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who signed the bill.Carrie DiPirro, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, had no comment on the legislation. But the federal government has argued that it has authority under the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution to regulate guns because they can so easily be transported across state lines.Guns and states' rights both play well in Montana, the birthplace of the right-wing Freemen militia and a participant in the Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s and '80s, during which Western states clashed with Washington over grazing and mineral extraction on federal land.Montana's leading gun rights organization, more hard-core than the National Rifle Association, boasts it has moved 50 bills through the Legislature over the past 25 years. And lawmakers in the Big Sky State have rebelled against federal control of everything from wetland protection to the national Real ID system.Under the new law, guns intended only for Montana would be stamped "Made in Montana." The drafters of the law hope to set off a legal battle with a simple Montana-made youth-model single-shot, bolt-action .22 rifle. They plan to find a "squeaky clean" Montanan who wants to send a note to the ATF threatening to build and sell about 20 such rifles without federal dealership licensing.If the ATF tells them it's illegal, they will sue and take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if they can.Similar measures have also been introduced in Texas and Alaska."I think states have got to stand up or else most of their rights are going to be buffaloed by the administration and by Congress," said Texas state Rep. Leo Berman.Critics say exempting guns from federal laws anywhere would undermine efforts to stem gun violence everywhere."Guns cross state lines and they do so constantly, and this is a Sagebrush Rebellion-type effort to light some sort of fire and get something going that's pleasing to the gun nuts and that has very little actual sense," said Peter Hamm, communications director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.In a 2005 case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the enforcement of federal laws against marijuana in California, even if the drug is for medical purposes and is grown and used within the state. The court found that since marijuana produced in California is indistinguishable from pot grown outside the state, the federal government must have the authority to regulate both to enforce national drug laws.Randy Barnett, the lawyer and constitutional scholar who represented the plaintiff in the California case, said that Montana could argue that its "Made in Montana"-stamped guns are unique and sufficiently segregated as to lie outside federal regulation.Supporters of the measure say the main purpose is not extending gun freedoms, but curbing what they regard as an oppressive interpretation of the interstate commerce clause and federal overreach into such things as livestock management and education."Firearms are inextricably linked to the history and culture of Montana, and I'd like to support that," said Montana state Rep. Joel Boniek, the bill's sponsor. "But I want to point out that the issue here is not about firearms. It's about state rights."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2009%2F05%2F10%2FMN4V17BCF2.DTL

Chávez seizures fuel Venezuela oil fears
By Benedict Mander in Caracas Published: May 10 2009 12:41
A fresh round of expropriations in Venezuela has raised fears that the Opec producer’s already declining oil output could sink to its lowest level in the past 20 years.
Troops were mobilised over the weekend to assist Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, in seizing the assets of some 60 oil service companies, after a law was approved last week that paves the way for the state to take increasing control over its all-important oil industry.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Venezuela oil group gears up for $2bn issue - May-07Chávez wins vote to scrap term limits - Feb-16Oil-rich nations ‘seek majors’ expertise’ - Mar-10“To God what is God’s, and to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” said Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, as he presided over the expropriation of at least a dozen rigs, more than 30 oil terminals and some 300 boats.
“Today we also say: to the people what is the people’s,” the socialist leader said to roars of approval from red-clad supporters on the shores of Lake Maracaibo, the heartland of the nation’s oil production.
This move forms part of a broader assault against the private sector, which Mr Chávez has increasingly blamed as Venezuela slides into recession. Simultaneously he is engaging in what opposition leaders say is a campaign of persecution of his political foes.
Manuel Rosales, a former presidential candidate, has been granted asylum in Peru to escape arrest over corruption charges, while congress has removed almost all the spending powers of Antonio Ledezma, the anti-Chávez mayor of Caracas. Other opponents have been jailed or gone into hiding.
PDVSA, which is suffering from a sharp fall in export income, made the surprise move against the oil service companies in response to their threat that they would suspend operations until it paid a backlog of invoices. Some, including Helmerich & Payne and Ensco International, abandoned rigs this year.
PDVSA, which is under pressure to cut expenses by 60 per cent because of tumbling revenues, is estimated to owe as much as $12bn (€8.9bn, £7.9bn) to contractors since suspending payments to them last August, shortly after oil prices began their precipitous decline.
It has demanded that companies accept a 40 per cent cut in their bills, arguing that the decline in oil prices means they are charging too much.
The new law will also enable PDVSA to pay debts with bonds rather than cash, and compensate assets at book value.
The move is the latest sign of the deepening cashflow crisis that has bedeviled the state oil company for at least two years as it has become overburdened with responsibilities far removed from its core business – in particular funding and running the massive social programmes that have become the bedrock of Mr Chávez’s support.
But analysts say that by shifting its problems onto its suppliers, PDVSA is storing up even bigger problems for the future. Not only does it lack the ability to operate as efficiently as the service providers, but it sends a grim signal to companies considering investing in Venezuela. Consequently, future oil production is under threat.
Perhaps most worrying is the impact this could have on foreign companies’ interest in a major auction currently underway to develop the Carabobo block in the oil-rich Orinoco Belt, which is the first oil investment opportunity in Venezuela in the last decade, and represents the oil dependent country’s biggest hope for reviving sagging production. According to the IEA, production fell to 2.36m bpd in 2008, compared to 3.18m bpd in 1997, although PDVSA claims it actually increased to 3.27m bpd in 2008.
Some 19 companies – including BP, Chevron, Shell, StatoilHydro, and Total – have expressed interest in bidding for the Carabobo projects that could collectively produce over 800,000 bpd, and require investments of $25-30bn.
But adding to worries about the lack of legal security in Venezuela, intensfied by recent developments, international oil companies are also concerned by prohibitively high start-up and financing costs as well as tight profit margins due to fiscal terms that were drawn up before oil prices began their precipitous decline last year.
David Voght, a director at IPD Latin America, which advises several international oil companies operating in Venezuela, said: “Venezuela’s aggressive fiscal terms and the country’s persistent trend toward nationalisation of oil industry activities will make it more and more difficult to attract foreign investment and competitive bids from qualified operators.”
Taxes and royalties have been hiked four times since 2004, with an 85 per cent windfall tax introduced last year, while companies were ordered to give up operational control over four multibillion-dollar projects in the Orinoco two years ago, prompting Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips to exit the country and opt for international arbitration.
Although most companies are keen to have a stake in Venezuela, which now claims to have 172bn barrels of proven oil reserves making them the second largest in the world after Saudi Arabia, the government’s unpredictability and inflexibility are a serious deterrent.
“It’s a great paradox. There are companies that want to invest in Venezuela and to remain on a long-term basis, bringing capital, technology and know-how, but they may not do so because the government is refusing to recognize that the outlook for oil prices has changed,” said an industry source in Caracas, who requested anonymity. “They have to face up to reality.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b332e432-3d54-11de-a85e-00144feabdc0.html

Shortages stir coffee and sugar prices
By Javier Blas and Jenny Wiggins in London Published: May 10 2009 22:30
Caffeine addicts face higher prices for their daily fix as the wholesale cost of both coffee and sugar rise sharply because of poor crops and robust demand.
“We are in a dangerous situation,” Andrea Illy, chief executive of Italy’s leading coffee ?company, told the Financial Times, warning that prices could “explode” due to supply shortages.
His comments echo those of other industry players – and point to a sharp shift in sentiment among analysts.
Until recently, it was widely assumed that the global economic crisis would damp consumption and prices for coffee. However, that forecast proved wrong, since demand for coffee has remained high, even while consumers have moved from cafés to home drinking.
International coffee prices last week hit a seven-month high, rising to $1.28 per pound, up 22 per cent from their December low, in New York trading.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Raw materials surge as crude hits $58 level - May-08Raw materials rises fuel hedging - May-07Analysis: Retail suppliers chase the value in a shift to thrift - May-06Meanwhile, the spot price of Colombian coffee – which commands a premium because it is sought by gourmets – jumped to almost $2.20 a pound, a 12-year high, due to supply constraints.
The crop in Colombia was damaged by heavy rains and the scarcity of supplies from the country is now “absolute”, says Néstor Osorio, head of the International Coffee Organisation.
Kraft, owner of the Maxwell House coffee brands, raised retail prices on its Colombian blend by almost 19 per cent last month due to the rising prices of Colombian coffee beans. Nestlé declined to comment on whether it has been raising prices on Nescafé.
Separately, sugar prices in New York and London rose last week to their highest in almost three years. White sugar prices rose above $450 a tonne, a 52 per cent gain from mid-December, as traders bet that India, the world’s largest consumer, will require hefty imports to compensate for the failure of the local crop.
Swings in Indian sugar output, which move the country back and forth from exporter to importer, are a critical factor in global prices. Traders forecast that the country’s output will drop 40 per cent to about 15m tonnes in the 2008-09 season, well below the country’s consumption of about 23m tonnes a year.
Peter de Klerk at London-based sugar merchants Czarnikow said that importing countries will “need to see retail prices rise to match the surge in the cost of sugar in the wholesale market”.
Traders said that the mood at last week’s sugar dinner in New York, the industry’s annual gathering, showed the market is bullish overall. At present, the International Sugar Organisation predicts a second consecutive market deficit in 2009-10.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/64955332-3d90-11de-a85e-00144feabdc0.html

Scientists Learn Why The Flu May Turn Deadly
by Staff Writers
Washington DC (SPX) May 08, 2009
As the swine flu continues its global spread, researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have discovered important clues about why influenza is more severe in some people than it is in others.
In their research study published online in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology , the scientists show that the influenza virus can actually paralyze the immune systems
of otherwise healthy individuals, leading to severe secondary bacterial infections, such as pneumonia. Furthermore, this immunological paralysis can be long-lived, which is important to know when developing treatment strategies to combat the virus.
According to Kathleen Sullivan, M.D., Ph.D., the senior researcher involved in the study and Chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, "We have a very limited understanding of why some people who get influenza simply have a bad cold and other people become very sick and even die. The results of this study give us a much better sense of the mechanisms underlying bacterial infections arising on top of the viral infection."
Sullivan and colleagues recruited pediatric patients with severe influenza and examined the level of cytokines, which serve as the first line initiators of immune response, in the blood plasma. Although they found elevated levels of cytokines, they also found a decreased response of toll-like receptors, which activate immune cell responses as a result of invading microbes.
This suggests that the diminished response of these receptors may be responsible for the paralysis of the immune system, leading to secondary bacterial infections. The influenza patients were compared with patients with moderate influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and a control group of healthy individuals.
The immune paralysis appeared to be specifically a result of influenza infection and was not seen in patients with respiratory syncytial virus. This process might explain why one quarter of children who die from influenza, die from a bacterial infection occurring on top of the virus.
"Despite major medical advances since the devastating flu outbreak of 1918 and 1919, influenza virus infection remains a very serious threat," said John Wherry, Ph.D., Deputy Editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, "and the current swine flu outbreak is a grim reminder of this fact. The work by Dr. Sullivan and colleagues brings us a step closer to understanding exactly what goes wrong in some people who get the flu, so, ultimately, physicians can develop more effective treatment strategies."
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Scientists_Learn_Why_The_Flu_May_Turn_Deadly_999.html
Thought this is much like the government, stimulus money is to help the economy, then spend the money where it is needed least. If it was a movie script you would say it is unbelievable and no one would go see it. But it is congress, i guess what do you expect.
STIMULUS WATCH: Early road aid leaves out neediest
By MATT APUZZO and BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE – 4 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Counties suffering the most from job losses stand to receive the least help from President Barack Obama's plan to spend billions of stimulus dollars on roads and bridges, an Associated Press analysis has found.
Although the intent of the money is to put people back to work, AP's review of more than 5,500 planned transportation projects nationwide reveals that states are planning to spend the stimulus in communities where jobless rates are already lower.
One result among many: Elk County, Pa., isn't receiving any road money despite its 13.8 percent unemployment rate. Yet the military and college community of Riley County, Kan., with its 3.4 percent unemployment, will benefit from about $56 million to build a highway, improve an intersection and restore a historic farmhouse.
Altogether, the government is set to spend 50 percent more per person in areas with the lowest unemployment than it will in communities with the highest.
The AP reviewed $18.9 billion in projects, the most complete picture available of where states plan to spend the first wave of highway money. The projects account for about half of the $38 billion set aside for states and local governments to spend on roads, bridges and infrastructure in the stimulus plan.
The very promise that Obama made, to spend money quickly and create jobs, is locking out many struggling communities needing those jobs.
The money goes to projects ready to start. But many struggling communities don't have projects waiting on a shelf. They couldn't afford the millions of dollars for preparation and plans that often is required.
"It's not fair," said Martin Schuller, the borough manager in the Elk County seat of Ridgway, who commiserates about the inequity in highway aid with colleagues in nearby towns. "It's a joke because we're not going to get it, because we don't have any projects ready to go."
The early trend seen in the AP analysis runs counter to expectations raised by Obama, that road and infrastructure money from the historic $787 billion stimulus plan would create jobs in areas most devastated by layoffs and plant closings. Transportation money, he said, would mean paychecks for "folks looking for work" and "folks who want to work."
"That's the core of my plan, putting people to work doing the work that America needs done," Obama said in a Feb. 11 speech promoting transportation spending as a way to expand employment.
Also, Congress required states to use some of the highway money for projects in economically distressed areas, but didn't impose sanctions if they didn't. States can lose money, however, if they don't spend fast enough.
The AP examined the earliest projects announced nationwide, the ones most likely to break ground and create jobs first. More projects are continually being announced, and some areas that received little or no help so far may benefit later. The Obama administration could also encourage states to change their plans.
To determine whether there was a disparity in where the money would go, the AP divided the nation's counties into four groups by unemployment levels. The analysis found that, no matter how the early money is measured, communities suffering most fare the worst:
_High-unemployment counties, those in the top quarter of jobless rates, are allotted about 16 percent of the money, compared with about 20 percent for areas least affected by joblessness.
_In low-unemployment counties nationwide, those in the bottom quarter of jobless rates, the federal government is spending about $89 a person compared with $59 a person in the worst-hit areas.
_In counties with the largest populations, the government is spending about $69 a person in areas with the lowest unemployment and $40 a person in places with the greatest job need.
The analysis also found that counties with the highest unemployment are most likely to have been passed over completely in the early spending.
Among them: Wheeler County, Ore.; Steuben County, Ind.; Macon County, Ga.; and Crowley County, Colo.
Many others are getting minimal help in this round: Vermillion County, Ind.; Lapeer County, Mich.; Presidio County, Texas; Tallahatchi County, Miss.
Those counties still will benefit from job creation elsewhere in their states, said Lana Hurdle, a Transportation official overseeing the agency's stimulus money.
"Even if you have to drive to it, it's better than no job," Hurdle said.
Joel Szabat, who also oversees the stimulus for the Transportation Department, said the agency presses states to build projects in struggling areas but does not normally consider how much money is going to each county.
Presented with AP's findings, he said: "I will be going back to ask our folks to do this kind of analysis, the overall amount for the projects."
"Our goal, and I think it is a goal that will be achieved, is that you will see that a fair share of this money will go to these areas," Szabat said.
Obama's plan sends $38 billion to states and local governments for roads, bridges, transit and other infrastructure, about 5 percent of the overall program that also includes money for, among other things, schools, community development, technology, worker training and tax breaks.
All counties will receive some stimulus relief eventually. But the haste voiced by the White House is not reflected in the flow of highway money so far.
"We cannot wait," Vice President Joe Biden said last week when announcing a $30 million transit project in his hometown of Wilmington, Del., where the 7.7 percent unemployment rate remains below the national average. "We're spending a lot of time and money. Why? It's about ... jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. That's why we cannot wait."
Yet residents of Perry County, Tenn., will have to wait. County Mayor John Carroll said he's disappointed his community, which suffers from 25.4 percent unemployment, won't receive a dime any time soon for its road needs.
"It's pretty easy to draw a connection between the high unemployment rate and the lack of any four-lane highways," he said.
Federal auditors acknowledge they can't yet track the transportation money that is leaving Washington and there is no single list of the thousands of projects planned in each state. For its analysis, the AP used lists of projects approved through March by the Transportation Department and collected lists of stimulus projects that have been announced in 49 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Federal officials have approved 2,800 projects. The remaining projects on the AP list represent the states' official plans for the money. Only Virginia, which has not announced its plan, is not included.
As the number of projects grows, places like Elk County, Pa., could still be left out because they could not afford the upfront costs needed to put proposals in the pipeline.
"It's all based on this 'shovel readiness,'" said Elk County Commissioner Daniel Freeburg. "That's been our stumbling block."
Elk County surely could use jobs. The once thriving north central Pennsylvania county is home to metal factories that equip the nation's auto industry. Layoffs are mounting.
Freeburg is pinning hopes on getting future stimulus money, such as for energy conservation programs, that will create jobs and rekindle the local metal and lumber industries.
In promoting his plan, Obama went to hard-hit communities such as Elkhart, Ind., and Peoria, Ill., and promised the jobs would come.
"Now, I know that some of you might be thinking, 'Well that all sounds good, but when are we going to see any of that here in Elkhart?'" Obama said. "'What does all that mean for our families and our community?' Those are exactly the kind of questions you should be asking of your president and your government."
Obama kept his promise to Elkhart, which so far is expected to receive $13.7 million, and Peoria, which should receive at least $10.6 million. But other, similar counties have not been so lucky.
For now, laid-off workers in Elk County, Pa., question why they've missed out, while money flows to more prosperous places.
"Why are they helping them?" asked Wendy Cameron, 50, of Saint Marys, Pa., who lost her job in a metal factory last year. She doesn't have health insurance and would gladly take road work. "They're not in need. We are.
"What are these people going to do? Is everybody going to go on welfare? I've never been on welfare. I don't want to be on welfare."
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