June 28, 2016

3-day-old girl killed by family dogs, Fresno police say

A 3-day-old baby girl was killed by family dogs in Fresno early Monday, police say.

The girl’s mother thought the dogs were chained up in the back yard when the attack occurred, police said. The baby was attacked at a home on the 3700 block of North Glenn Avenue about 12:30 a.m. Monday and died a short time later at Community Regional Medical Center, Sgt. Dan Macias said.

The 33-year old mother, who was not identified, said she left the child on the couch and “walked away for a few seconds,” Macias said. “She left the door open because it was hot and she thought the dogs were tied up,” he said.

The two male dogs, which are believed to be shar-pei/pit bull mixes, are owned by the woman’s brother, who wasn’t identified. He surrendered the dogs to the Central California Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. One of the two dogs is aggressive, the woman told police. Macias said police are continuing to investigate and charges haven’t been ruled out.

The child, the woman and her 30-year old brother were the only ones in the house, Macias said. “At this point, we believe it was an unfortunate accident,” Macias said. Walter Salvari, SPCA spokesman, said the dogs will be euthanized.

http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article86313057.html

Sad, tragic story.

June 28, 2016

F-15E Strike Eagles unable to shoot down the F-35s in 8 dogfights during simulated deployment

(Crossposted from GD)

The U.S. Air Force F-35A fleet continues to work to declare the Lightning II IOC (initial operational capability) scheduled in the August – December timeframe. Among the activities carried out in the past weeks, a simulated deployment provided important feedbacks about the goal of demonstrating the F-35’s ability to “penetrate areas with developed air defenses, provide close air support to ground troops and be readily deployable to conflict theaters.” Seven F-35s deployed from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, to carry out a series of operational tests which involved local-based 4th Generation F-15E Strike Eagles belonging to the 366th Fighter Wing.

In a Q&A posted on the USAF website, Col. David Chace, the F-35 systems management office chief and lead for F-35 operational requirements at ACC, provided some insights about the activities carried out during the second simulated deployment to Mountain Home (the first was in February this year): “The F-35 recently deployed from Hill to Mountain Home where crews, maintenance and support personnel conducted a number of missions. During that deployment, crews attained a 100 percent sortie generation rate with 88 of 88 planned sorties and a 94 percent hit rate with 15 of 16 bombs on target These numbers provide a positive indication of where we are when it comes to stability and component performance.”

“Feedback from the events at Mountain Home will feed into the overall evaluation of F-35 capabilities. The second evaluation will take place in the operational test environment with F-35 mission sets the Air Force intends to execute after IOC. All reports will be delivered in July and feed into the overall F-35 capabilities report. The ultimate goal is to provide a needed capability to the warfighter to execute the mission. It is not calendar-based or event-based.” “The feedback from unit operators in place today has been very positive for the F-35, not just concerning performance but the ability the aircraft has with other platforms. In particular at Hill, integration with the F-15E (Strike Eagle) has gone very well. We’ve also been demonstrating the ability to put bombs on target. All of that information will be provided to us in the formal IOC readiness assessments.”

The following interesting chart accompanies the Q&A. It shows some stats about the deployment.



The fourth column shows something interesting: during the exercise, the F-35s were challenged by some F-15Es and suffered no losses. Even though the graphic does not say whether the F-35s did shoot back at the F-15Es some analysts (noticing also the “pew pew pew” in the chart….) have suggested the JSFs achieved stunning 8:0 kill rate against the Strike Eagle.

However, the “zero losses” may simply mean that the F-35s were able to complete their assigned strikes without being shot down by the aggressors of the Red Air: considered that the F-15Es were probably equipped with the AN/APG-82 AESA radar and the Sniper ATP (Advanced Targeting Pod), the fact that the Strike Eagles performing DCA (Defensive Counter Air) were not able to “find” and/or “engage” the almost-IOC F-35s can be considered a huge achievement for the pricey, troubled 5th generation multirole combat plane.

Complete articled at: https://theaviationist.com/2016/06/27/f-15e-strike-eagles-unable-to-shoot-down-the-f-35s-in-8-dogfights-during-simulated-deployment/

June 28, 2016

F-15E Strike Eagles unable to shoot down the F-35s in 8 dogfights during simulated deployment

The U.S. Air Force F-35A fleet continues to work to declare the Lightning II IOC (initial operational capability) scheduled in the August – December timeframe. Among the activities carried out in the past weeks, a simulated deployment provided important feedbacks about the goal of demonstrating the F-35’s ability to “penetrate areas with developed air defenses, provide close air support to ground troops and be readily deployable to conflict theaters.” Seven F-35s deployed from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, to carry out a series of operational tests which involved local-based 4th Generation F-15E Strike Eagles belonging to the 366th Fighter Wing.

In a Q&A posted on the USAF website, Col. David Chace, the F-35 systems management office chief and lead for F-35 operational requirements at ACC, provided some insights about the activities carried out during the second simulated deployment to Mountain Home (the first was in February this year): “The F-35 recently deployed from Hill to Mountain Home where crews, maintenance and support personnel conducted a number of missions. During that deployment, crews attained a 100 percent sortie generation rate with 88 of 88 planned sorties and a 94 percent hit rate with 15 of 16 bombs on target These numbers provide a positive indication of where we are when it comes to stability and component performance.”

“Feedback from the events at Mountain Home will feed into the overall evaluation of F-35 capabilities. The second evaluation will take place in the operational test environment with F-35 mission sets the Air Force intends to execute after IOC. All reports will be delivered in July and feed into the overall F-35 capabilities report. The ultimate goal is to provide a needed capability to the warfighter to execute the mission. It is not calendar-based or event-based.” “The feedback from unit operators in place today has been very positive for the F-35, not just concerning performance but the ability the aircraft has with other platforms. In particular at Hill, integration with the F-15E (Strike Eagle) has gone very well. We’ve also been demonstrating the ability to put bombs on target. All of that information will be provided to us in the formal IOC readiness assessments.”

The following interesting chart accompanies the Q&A. It shows some stats about the deployment.



The fourth column shows something interesting: during the exercise, the F-35s were challenged by some F-15Es and suffered no losses. Even though the graphic does not say whether the F-35s did shoot back at the F-15Es some analysts (noticing also the “pew pew pew” in the chart….) have suggested the JSFs achieved stunning 8:0 kill rate against the Strike Eagle.

However, the “zero losses” may simply mean that the F-35s were able to complete their assigned strikes without being shot down by the aggressors of the Red Air: considered that the F-15Es were probably equipped with the AN/APG-82 AESA radar and the Sniper ATP (Advanced Targeting Pod), the fact that the Strike Eagles performing DCA (Defensive Counter Air) were not able to “find” and/or “engage” the almost-IOC F-35s can be considered a huge achievement for the pricey, troubled 5th generation multirole combat plane.

Complete articled at: https://theaviationist.com/2016/06/27/f-15e-strike-eagles-unable-to-shoot-down-the-f-35s-in-8-dogfights-during-simulated-deployment/

June 26, 2016

Is the Democrats’ big gun control stand ending with a whimper?

Since the Orlando massacre nearly two weeks ago, congressional Democrats have spent a total of 41 hours taking dramatic stands (or dramatic sits) in Congress to demand votes on gun-control measures — a 15-hour filibuster in the Senate and a 26-hour sit-in the House. What's come out of all that is decidedly less dramatic.

Take this article, for example. If you're reading this, it's probably because you don't know/don't care/are sick of all the Brexit news. But for the most part, the nation's (short) attention span is currently captivated by Britain's vote to leave the European Union. The House Democrats' 26-hour all-night sit-in on the House floor — a historic moment in its own right — feels like old news at this point. And that was arguably the case even before it ended Thursday, when two major Supreme Court cases came down and quickly took hold of our collective consciousness.

Brexit or not, on Friday morning, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers stepped into the muggy D.C. heat in the shadow of the Capitol and unveiled their version of a gun-control compromise in the Senate. (We explain the compromise here, but its essence is: No guns for people on two of the FBI's terror watch lists that prevent or make it hard for people to fly.) To our earlier point, their unveiling was mostly drowned out by other news. A few of the reporters covering it were also tweeting about Brexit.

But there's a bigger problem for gun-control advocates: For all the coverage they did get on their cause this week, we're not sure what they have to show for it. It remains really, really hard to pass new federal gun-control laws, and the one slim area of compromise lawmakers could find seems destined to fail — or not come up for a vote at all. There are three reasons we don't expect to see much from Democrats' dramatic stands on gun control, and two of them come down to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.). Let's break them down.

Complete article at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/25/is-democrats-big-gun-control-stand-ending-with-a-whimper/

June 26, 2016

No Consensus Among Americans on Gun Control, WSJ/NBC News Poll Shows

About half of those polled favor assault-weapons ban, but nearly half of those polled believe ban would be ineffective



No clear consensus on gun control in the U.S. has emerged in the wake of this month’s mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., as divisions remain over whether the federal government should move to limit people’s access to firearms, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows. In the survey, which was conducted after the shooting, 50% of registered voters said they were concerned the government will go “too far” in curtailing the people’s right to own guns. By contrast, 47% said they worry the government won’t do enough to regulate the ability to get guns. Those numbers are comparable to results from six months ago.

On a separate question, about half of the people polled favor a ban on assault weapons. The survey showed that 51% favored a ban on the set of semiautomatic firearms commonly called assault weapons, while 31% were opposed. A total of 18% had no opinion. In a 2009 poll, the number in favor of a ban was nearly the same, but 45% opposed a ban, with 6% undecided. In 1990, a ban on semiautomatic weapons and assault weapons proved significantly more popular, as nearly three-out-of-four people polled said they were in favor of it.

Even on the matter of assault weapons, the poll numbers showed a lack of confidence regarding whether a ban would prevent future tragedies. When asked if a ban on such weapons would be worthwhile because it might save lives, 45% of those polled said “yes.” Meanwhile, 49% of those polled believed a ban wouldn't be worth it because attackers would get the weapons anyway.

The poll’s findings underscore the ambivalence in the country about gun rights and use. Both presumptive presidential nominees have seized on the gun issue. Democrat Hillary Clinton has called for stricter gun laws, while Republican Donald Trump has sought to portray Mrs. Clinton as an opponent of Second Amendment gun rights. House Democrats staged a 26-hour sit-in on the House floor last week as part of the party’s push to force a vote on some gun-control measures. It isn’t clear, though, that either party will be able to capitalize politically on the issue, given the sharp divisions surrounding guns.



Complete article at http://www.wsj.com/articles/no-consensus-among-americans-on-gun-control-wsj-nbc-news-poll-shows-1466946002

June 25, 2016

Gun Control Effort in Congress Isn’t Dead, but Prospects Aren’t Good

WASHINGTON — Senator Angus King, independent of Maine, was crowing a bit on the chamber floor Thursday when he began reading a staff member’s email about a planning and development meeting the previous night in the town of Sanford, Me.

“Every single person I spoke with either wanted me to convey their thanks to Senator King for his stand on ‘doing something on gun control’ to asking me that he stand firm and do more. People who own guns (and said so) and those who don’t. Every single person expressed dismay that Congress has not acted on this.”

Within hours, however, the Senate had again voted not to act — effectively condemning to legislative purgatory a measure that Mr. King had praised as providing just the sort of common-sense legislation his constituents were demanding after mass shootings like the one this month in Orlando, Fla.

The bipartisan proposal written by Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, was aimed at stopping terrorist suspects on the government’s no-fly list from buying guns. It survived a motion to table that would have killed the measure outright, but fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance it. The vote was 52 to 46.

Remainder of article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/25/us/politics/susan-collins-gun-control-sit-in.html

June 24, 2016

And the Dow Jones is open! Hang on, it's going to be a bumpy ride.....

It's just dropped almost 500 points in 2 minutes(!).

June 17, 2016

EU support falls after Jo Cox murder

Source: USA Today

LONDON — British support for remaining in the European Union has weakened in the wake of the murder of the pro-EU politician Jo Cox, according to an online research company Friday.

Qriously, a London-based technology start-up that gathers data and intelligence about consumers through mobile phone apps, found that backing among likely voters for Britain's EU membership has dropped to 32% from 40% before her death.

The poll was based on 1,992 British adults surveyed on June 13-16, and then 1,002 on June 17 — the day after Cox was shot and killed in northern England. The start-up claims to have held the first such survey on the topic since the lawmaker's slaying. Most of Qriously’s surveys are done for corporate brands and it has not been previously conducted an EU referendum poll.

Respondents were asked: "Imagine the EU referendum were held today. Would you vote for the U.K. to remain a member of the European Union, or leave the European Union?" They were given three options: "Remain in the EU," "Leave the EU," or "Don't know."

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/06/17/exclusive-poll-eu-support-falls-after-jo-cox-murder/86031038/

June 17, 2016

Why Democrats aren't pushing an assault weapons ban

And leading gun control groups don't think they should, either

In a private meeting of Democrats on Wednesday, Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) begged his colleagues to push a measure that might have actually prevented Sunday morning’s carnage in Orlando: an assault weapons ban. Cicilline was answering the call of President Barack Obama and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, to keep “weapons of war” off the streets.

But Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi nixed it. Better, she said, to focus on barring terror suspects from buying guns. That measure’s a no-brainer for Democrats, she reasoned, and easier to explain to the public. "It’s not that we’re not strong enough to make the fight. It’s just that we want to win the fight," Pelosi said to her Democratic colleagues, according to sources in the room. "What we are trying to do — and forget the politics — what we are trying to do is save lives. What we are trying to do is to say that the Republicans will not even go to this place which overwhelmingly the American people support."

The top gun control advocates in the country share Pelosi’s strategy. They emphasize measures that have broad support — like expanding background checks — rather than trying to take America’s most popular rifle and its copy-cat semi-automatics (like the Sig Sauer MCX used in Orlando) off the shelves. “We work hard to try to stay out of the polarizing divisiveness that comes with this debate,” said Mark Barden, who founded Sandy Hook Promise after his 7-year-old son Daniel was killed three years ago by a mentally ill young man with a Bushmaster AR-15. “We’ve identified the lack of engagement as really the No. 1 issue that is keeping this movement from moving forward. By steering around that, we feel like we can bring more people and more voices.”

Barden, reached on Thursday just after returning to Connecticut following a fundraiser in Washington, added, “I want to get something done.” Banning the AR-15 just plays into the National Rifle Association’s warnings about the feds coming to take your guns, gun control advocates reason — and besides, most of the gun deaths that have become miserably routine are committed with handguns.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/gun-control-second-amendment-orlando-shooting-224461

Rest of article at link.

June 15, 2016

Guns: A proposed compromise

Everyone seems to be throwing out what they want on this issue, so here goes:

By definition a compromise means each side has to engage in give and take. Here's my proposal:

The gun control side gets Universal Background Checks.

In return, the pro-gun rights crowd gets NFA (National Firearms Act) reform. SBRs (short barreled rifles) and silencers will no longer be restricted items requiring a $200 tax stamp and months of paperwork.

Each side gets something. Sound good?