January 24, 2014

No Excuse For Israel's Denial Of Asylum Seekers' Plight

Refugees’ fear of arrest, torture, and death should be sufficient justification for their inability to return their countries of origin. So why is the Israeli government refusing to grant African refugees asylum status? A personal story.

By Guy Josif and Anna Rose Siegel

For the past three weeks, tens of thousands of African refugees in Israel, along with Israeli activists, have participated in demonstrations, hunger and labor strikes, and continual political engagement in opposition to intensified efforts by Israeli officials to detain refugees without due process. In response to these actions, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that these people are not refugees, but rather “people who are breaking the law and whom we will deal with to the fullest extent of the law.”

This statement reflects the destructive denial by Israeli officials of the very real persecution experienced by Africans who have escaped to Israel. To deny refugees’ experiences and then construct policy based on this denial is to rub salt into refugees’ very real psychological and physical wounds. And, I can tell you, it is painful.

I understand the pain felt by refugees in Israel, because I was a refugee there myself. Although, I am now one of only a handful of refugees who have relocated from Israel to the U.S., I was one of the nearly 55,000 who live in limbo on a daily basis while applying for a status that grants temporary protection from deportation, but no other rights.

The 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which Israel signed and ratified, defines a refugee as a person who, “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted…is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu seems to think that my story (and countless other stories of other refugees in Israel) does not fit this definition.

MORE...

http://972mag.com/no-excuse-for-israels-denial-of-asylum-seekers-plight/86093/

January 23, 2014

Olive Branch? Iran Moving Quickly To Normalize Relations With The West

Iran on Thursday stepped up its efforts to woo investors and normalise its relations with the West with an offer to help create a new multilateral body tasked with stabilising global energy supplies.

President Hassan Rouhani told the World Economic Forum in Davos that Tehran was ready to put some of its extensive oil and gas reserves at the disposal of the proposed new body in an initiative designed to underline his government’s desire for a new relationship with the West following the partial easing of crippling sanctions under an interim deal on Iran’s nuclear capacity.

Rouhani told the annual gathering of business and political leaders from across the world that energy provided an important link between economic and security interests.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to engage in constructive cooperation in promoting global energy security by relying on its vast energy resources in a framework of mutual interest,” Rouhani said.

“We are prepared to engage in a serious process to establish a reliable institution for this long-term partnership.”

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/23/olive-branch-iran-moving-quickly-to-normalize-relations-with-the-west/

January 23, 2014

White House Gives Pentagon Budget Guidance With Increase

By Tony Capaccio - Jan 23, 2014

The White House this week gave the Defense Department budget guidance through 2019 that calls for more money after 2015 than congressional budget caps allow, according to U.S. officials.

The Office of Management and Budget guidance, known as the “pass-back,” also includes for the first time an “investment fund” for programs the White House has approved to receive additional funds should they become available, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified because the directive hasn’t been made public.

As part of its budget submission to Congress, the Pentagon is expected to present the OMB investment fund to lawmakers to demonstrate where more money would be added to that allocated in last year’s bipartisan budget deal, one of the officials said. The federal budget, including the Pentagon blueprint, is due to be released on about March 4, the officials said.

The fiscal 2015 total for base defense spending excluding war operations is about $498 billion, or the same amount called for in last month’s agreement, and includes $9 billion in relief from the caps called for in the 2011 Budget Control Act. That’s still $44 billion less than the $542 billion the Pentagon last year said it would request for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

The new guidance calls for greater greater spending in 2016-2019 than those caps, which are $499 billion in fiscal 2016, $512 billion in 2017, $524 billion in 2018 and $536 billion in 2019.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-23/white-house-gives-pentagon-budget-guidance-with-increase.html

January 23, 2014

Security Firm Sued by U.S. Over Bad Background Checks

Source: Bloomberg

United States Investigations Services LLC, whose background checks helped National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis get security clearances, was accused of fraud by the government in a whistle-blower lawsuit.

The U.S. joined the case in October and filed its complaint yesterday, accusing the company of breaking its contract with the U.S. by failing to provide adequate background checks in at least 665,000 instances. The government claims mirror those of the whistle-blower in the case made public last year.

The case doesn’t involve the background investigations of either Snowden or Alexis, a Justice Department official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the case previously said. The two aren’t mentioned in the government’s complaint in federal court in Montgomery, Alabama.

USIS management, beginning at least in March 2008, started “dumping” or “flushing” cases to boost profit and revenue, which involved releasing the investigations to the government for payment and saying they were complete when they hadn’t received quality reviews as required by the contract, the U.S. said in the complaint, which cites internal company e-mails. A USIS employee said in one of the e-mails, “Shelves are as clean as they could get. Flushed everything like a dead goldfish.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-23/security-firm-sued-by-u-s-over-bad-background-checks.html

January 23, 2014

Uninsured Rate Drops as Obamacare Starts, Gallup Finds

By Caroline Chen - Jan 23, 2014

The percentage of adults without health insurance in the U.S. fell this month to the lowest level since the end of 2012 as the core provisions of Obamacare took effect, a Gallup poll found.

The uninsured rate dropped to 16.1 percent in the Jan. 2-19 poll, from 17.3 percent in December, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The uninsured rate fell more for nonwhites and for those 35- to 64-years-old.

The ability to extend health care to most of the nation’s 48 million uninsured will be a main measure of success for the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. The people benefiting most so far appear to be those who are unemployed, where Gallup said the uninsured rate fell 6.7 percentage points.

“The unemployed remain the subgroup with the highest uninsured rate at 34.1 percent, but the initial decline among this group suggests the health-care law may be working as intended for unemployed adults,” Jenna Levy, a methodologist at Gallup, wrote in the report.

The Affordable Care Act, which mainly took full effect Jan. 1, marks the largest U.S. expansion of health insurance in more than 40 years. The law set up government-run insurance exchanges where Americans can buy private health plans with the help of federal tax credits. It also expanded eligibility in some state-run Medicaid programs for the poor.

MORE...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-23/uninsured-rate-drops-as-obamacare-starts-gallup-finds.html

January 23, 2014

Smith & Wesson to Halt California Sale of Some Handguns

By Michael B. Marois - Jan 23, 2014

Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (SWHC) said it will stop selling new versions of semiautomatic pistols in California because of a law requiring the weapons to stamp identifying information onto bullet casings when the guns are fired.

The law, signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007, requires that new or updated semiautomatic handgun models be equipped to imprint the make, model and serial number of the gun on each cartridge case, using a technique known as microstamping.

California’s firearms laws are among the most restrictive in the U.S. The state passed the nation’s first assault-weapon ban in 1989. Microstamping, intended to aid police in solving crimes, is opposed by gun-rights advocates who say the additional cost penalizes lawful gun owners.

In a statement, Smith & Wesson, based in Springfield, Massachusetts, said the technology is “unreliable, serves no safety purpose, is cost prohibitive and, most importantly, is not proven to aid in preventing or solving crimes.”

The provision was supposed to take effect in 2010. It was delayed until the state attorney general’s office in May determined that microstamping technology was available manufacturers unrestricted by patents, a condition of the bill when it was enacted. A gun-rights group, the Calguns Foundation, paid to extend the existing patent in an attempt to forestall the law.

MORE...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-23/smith-wesson-to-halt-california-sale-of-some-handguns.html

January 23, 2014

Report: US Rail Spilled More Oil In 2013 Than In Past 37 Years Combined

A new analysis of data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has shown that more crude oil was spilled in US rail incidents last year than during the previous 37 years, since the federal government began to collect data on rail spills.

The data suggests that in 2013 more than 1.15 million gallons of crude oil was spilled from rail cars. This includes the major derailment in Aliceville, Alabama on the 8th of November when 748,800 gallons spilt as the train derailed in a swampy area and burst into flames, but not yet the derailment in Casselton, North Dakota 30th of December, for which the PHMSA have yet to receive data, although it is estimated to be in the region of 400,000 gallons. Nor does this figure include spills that occurred in Canada, where the 6th of July derailment in Lac-Megantic, Quebec spilled an estimated 1.5 million plus gallons of crude oil.

In contrast to 2013, the total crude oil spilled from 1975, when federal records began, to 2012 was 800,000 gallons. In fact in eight of those years not one drop of crude oil was spilt, and in five only one gallon or less was spilt. (Related article: DOT-111 Safety Major Issue in Crude-By-Rail Debate)

The increase noted last year is due to the fact delivering oil by rail has become a much more popular choice of transport as pipeline capacity has been unable to keep pace with the increases in oil production during the North American shale boom. The Association of American Railroads has estimated that 400,000 carloads of crude oil were shipped last year, and with each car holding 28,800 gallons that totals more than 11.5 billion gallons.

Out of a total 11.5 billion gallons transported by rail, to only spill 1.15 million gallons equals a 99.99 percent success rate, but 1.15 billion is still a large amount.

MORE...

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2014/0123/Report-US-rail-spilled-more-oil-in-2013-than-in-past-37-years-combined

January 23, 2014

Cold Gripping U.S. Preview of Worse Weather Coming Next Week

By Brian K. Sullivan - Jan 23, 2014
Frigid temperatures plunging south across the U.S. will hold on through the rest of the week and are a preview of an even sharper cold snap to come, driving energy demand and potentially crimping production.

Temperatures across the eastern U.S. and parts of Ontario and Quebec will be at least 8 degrees below normal through Jan. 27, said Matt Rogers, president of the Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland. Next week will be worse, he said.

“The crazy thing is that the current cold snap this week looks to be a bit more modest in the face of next week’s outbreak,” Rogers said. “The cold coming for the end of January is sufficient to make this the coldest month of the century so far and the coldest the Lower 48 has felt in at least 20 years.”

January started so cold that temperatures in Chicago fell lower than the South Pole, energy consumption rose, thousands of flights across the U.S. were canceled, and refineries and natural gas production sites reported stoppages because of freezing conditions.

The natural gas-weight heating degree days value for January is expected to reach 1,062.9, higher than the five-year average of 949.5 and the coldest since 2001, Rogers said.

MORE...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-23/cold-gripping-u-s-preview-of-worse-weather-coming-next-week.html

This next wave of cold/snow/wind is just starting to set in here, mid-michigan. It got up to a warm and balmy 15 around 3pm. We are now at 4.

January 23, 2014

Wheat Jumps Most in Three Months on U.S. Freeze Threat

By Jeff Wilson - Jan 23, 2014

Wheat jumped the most in three months on concern that a freeze will damage winter crops from South Dakota to Arkansas, eroding prospects for exports from the U.S., the world’s top shipper. Corn rose, and soybeans fell.

Temperatures as low as minus 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 22 Celsius) from Nebraska to Illinois and less than 10 degrees Fahrenheit through the lower Mississippi River Valley risk harming some winter wheat, World Weather Inc. said in a report. Colder weather next week may damage as much as 25 percent of the Midwest crop and 10 percent of plants in the Great Plains unprotected by snow cover, MDA Weather Services said.

“We probably had some damage overnight, and there’s the potential for more next week,” Mike O’Dea, a risk-management consultant at INTL FCStone Inc. in Kansas City, Missouri, said in a telephone interview. “The potential is there for damage, but we won’t know the full extent until later in the spring” when crops emerge from dormancy, he said.

Wheat futures for March delivery rose 1.6 percent to close at $5.70 a bushel at 1:15 p.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade, the biggest gain for a most-active contract since Oct. 18.

MORE...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-23/wheat-rebounds-as-freezing-u-s-boosts-crop-damage-concerns.html

January 23, 2014

US Stocks Tumble On China Data, Mediocre Earnings

NEW YORK: US stocks sank Thursday following a weak report on Chinese manufacturing activity and the latest batch of lacklustre corporate earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 175.99 (1.07 per cent) to 16,197.35.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 16.40 (0.89 per cent) to 1,828.46, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 24.13 (0.57 per cent) to 4,218.87.

HSBC's China manufacturing sector purchasing managers index fell to 49.6, below the 50 line between growth and contraction, raising concerns about the prospects for the world's second-largest economy.

The China data came amid a mixed batch of corporate earnings reports with strong earnings from Netflix offset by disappointing results from Lockheed Martin and others.

MORE...

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/international/us-stocks-tumble-on-china/966016.html