Rational Review » RRND News

CA: State government sends out IOUs

Thomas L. Knapp — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:59:02 +0000

“Deep in debt and short on cash, California on Thursday churned out its first batch of IOUs in nearly two decades amid grumbles from bankers, growing public outrage and scant progress in negotiations to resolve the state’s widening budget deficit. The state controller’s office fired up a pair of printing presses and began rolling out nearly 29,000 IOUs totaling more than $53 million, most of them destined for residents around the state still awaiting income tax refunds. Recipients also include some businesses, pensioners, health clinics, college students and many others who get checks from the state.” (07/03/09)

North Korea fires missiles; launch toward US feared

R. Lee Wrights — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:58:30 +0000

“North Korea fired a barrage of short-range missiles off its east coast in a possible prelude to the launch of a long-range missile toward Hawaii over the U.S. Independence Day holiday. Firing a ballistic missile on the July Fourth celebration would be a challenge to Washington, which has been rallying international support for enforcement of U.N. sanctions imposed against Pyongyang following a May 25 nuclear test. North Korea is banned from testing ballistic missiles under U.N. resolutions.” (07/02/09)

Iraq: Seven killed, 49 wounded

Thomas L. Knapp — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:57:16 +0000

“In Baghdad, a bomb planted at a bridge leading to the Green Zone from Karrada killed one Iraqi soldier and wounded 10 others. A bomb in Yusufiya killed two people and wounded 15 others. … In Mosul, gunmen killed a man in the Sabatash Tammuz neighborhood. … One person was killed and six others were wounded in a bomb blast in Fallujah. A bomb was planted on a vehicle carrying Captain Khaled al-Dulaimi. He survived, but his driver was killed. An army major was killed when gunmen opened fire on him in Kirkuk. A car bomb in Taza killed one person and wounded six others.” (07/02/09)

Afghanistan: US soldier feared captured

R. Lee Wrights — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:56:43 +0000

“A U.S. soldier serving in Afghanistan has been captured and is believed to be in militant custody, according to U.S. officials in Kabul. The soldier was apparently captured by Taliban forces in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday, though none of the militant groups operating in the area have claimed responsibility for the capture. Officials also tell ABC News that all available assets are being used to find and locate the soldier, whose family has been notified of his situation.” (07/02/09)

Israel: McKinney among unreleased abductees

Steve Trinward — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:56:30 +0000

“Former U.S. lawmaker and Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and several other human rights activists remained in an Israeli prison Thursday after refusing to sign a deportation form that they claim is self-incriminating. In a press release from the Green Party, McKinney said the form states that the Spirit of Humanity, a Greek-flagged relief boat carrying 21 activists, medical supplies, cement, olive trees and children’s toys en route to Gaza, was violating the Israeli blockade and trespassing the country’s territorial waters.” (07/02/09)

WaPo publisher cancels lobbyist “salons”

Thomas L. Knapp — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:55:07 +0000

“Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth yesterday canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000. … The fliers, circulated by the paper’s parent company, offering an ‘intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and publisher Katharine Weymouth.’ The fliers, which said participants would be charged $25,000 to sponsor a single salon and $250,000 to underwrite an annual series of 11 sessions, were reported yesterday by Politico.” (07/03/09)

Guilty verdict overturned in MySpace suicide case

Thomas L. Knapp — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:52:53 +0000

“Lori Drew, the woman convicted of using a hoax MySpace profile to harass a teenage girl to the point of suicide, was acquitted by a Los Angeles judge on Thursday, Wired reported. Judge George Wu overturned Drew’s guilty verdict, which was issued in November, saying that if Drew had been convicted of a felony in the case, she would already have been sentenced. But because she was convicted of three misdemeanors — a significantly lighter offense than prosecutors originally sought — the constitutionality of the guilty verdict was less clear. … Drew’s lawyers had argued that the law being used against the defendant was vague and flawed, which the judge upheld Thursday when he threw out the guilty verdict. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is typically used against malicious hackers.” (07/02/09)

AZ: Bill would allow guns in bars

Steve Trinward — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:05:47 +0000

“The Arizona Senate has given final approval to a bill that would allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry a gun into a business that serves alcohol. The 19-to-8 vote completes legislative action on the bill and sends it to Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican. She has not said whether she will sign it, but she has long been a supporter of gun rights. The measure has pitted powerful groups representing gun and bar owners against each other, sparking a debate about whether guns and alcohol can coexist without bloodshed. Critics of the measure say guns and alcohol are a dangerous combination. … Supporters say they should be able to protect themselves even if they happen to be inside a business serving alcohol.” [editor’s note: Tennessee just passed a similar measure; law-abiding citizens (who are required to refrain from drinking while carrying) protecting themselves (and others?) from aggressors - SAT] (07/02/09)

Consumers likely to find increased bank costs

Steve Trinward — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:04:38 +0000

“An array of government-created insurance agencies — which have long charged bargain-rate premiums to banks, credit unions, and brokerages — are seeking to make up for massive shortfalls in their insurance funds by raising fees and premiums, many of which are likely to be passed on to consumers. The billions of dollars in new fees are the result of decisions by Congress and the agencies to allow the insurance funds and premiums to be capped at levels that proved far too low, according to Jeffrey R. Brown, a finance professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who has studied the issue. ‘This is what happens when you put the government in charge of an insurance program,’ Brown said. ‘Politically, they don’t run them the way the need to be run.’” (07/02/09)

Turkey: Gameshow pits atheists vs. clerics

Steve Trinward — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:02:21 +0000

“It sounds like the beginning of a joke: what do you get when you put a Muslim imam, a Greek Orthodox priest, a rabbi, a Buddhist monk and 10 atheists in the same room? Viewers of Turkish television will soon get the punchline when a new gameshow begins that offers a prize arguably greater than that offered by Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Contestants will ponder whether to believe or not to believe … Those persuaded will be rewarded with a pilgrimage to the spiritual home of their newly chosen creed — Mecca for Muslims, Jerusalem for Christians and Jews, and Tibet for Buddhists.” (07/02/09)

5% unemployment: Still a decade away?

Steve Trinward — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:01:31 +0000

“This could become the third time in a row that Americans struggle out of recession only to find themselves in a so-called ‘jobless recovery.’ The phrase became popular back in the early 1990s, when a frigid post-recession job market paved the way for Bill Clinton to defeat incumbent George H. W. Bush in the 1992 presidential election. Then the pattern was repeated after the 2001 recession, in a more pronounced way. Despite a disappointing monthly jobs report Thursday, the good news is that economists generally expect the US economy to start growing again later this year. But the report, showing 9.5 percent unemployment in June, served as a reminder that the current environment for US workers is unusually tough.” (07/02/09)

Facebook revising privacy settings

Steve Trinward — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:00:29 +0000

“Facebook is revising its privacy settings to give the more than 200 million users of the social network the ability to share as much or as little about themselves online as they want. Chris Kelly, chief privacy officer at the Palo Alto, California-based company, outlined the changes in a post on the Facebook blog. Kelly said Facebook would now offer a tiered level of privacy options for its users including ‘all of your friends, your friends and people in your school or work networks, and friends of friends.’ There is also an option to publicly share with everyone on the Web in what is being seen as an effort by Facebook to compete with the hot micro-blogging service Twitter.” (07/02/09)

UK: “Get real” — Darling warns the bankers

Mary Lou Seymour — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:55:00 +0000

“Amid signs that the bonus culture blamed for excessive risk-taking is creeping back in the City of London, the Chancellor declared in an interview with The Independent: ‘There are people who are too complacent in my view. They need to be brought back to earth.’ Mr Darling disclosed that he will try to end a damaging turf war between the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) by giving them both more powers in a White Paper on banking unveiled next week. He assured the Bank it will play a central role in preventing future booms turning into bubbles and in assessing risks to the entire system as well as individual banks.” (07/03/09)

Scotland: Police warn Orange March bigots

Mary Lou Seymour — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:48:33 +0000

“Strathclyde Police have warned that they will not tolerate ’sectarian behaviour’ at the annual Orange Order parade in Glasgow this weekend. About 8,000 marchers from 182 lodges across the city are expected to take part in Saturday’s parade. … Police said their warning over possible sectarian behaviour had the backing of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland. Assistant Chief Constable John Neilson said: ‘Whilst the parade will have a major impact on traffic in the city centre, the main issue for the force and members of the public is the excessive drinking and public nuisance caused by those who follow the parade.’” [editor’s note: Orange walks are a series of parades held annually by members of the Orange Order during the summer in Northern Ireland, to a lesser extent in Scotland, and occasionally in England, the Republic of Ireland, and throughout the Commonwealth. These typically build up to the 12th of July celebrations which mark Prince William of Orange’s victory over King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 (Wikipedia) - MLS] (07/02/09)

UK: Office workers asked to go naked

Mary Lou Seymour — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:40:09 +0000

“A British business consultant said he was able to improve a firm’s productivity by convincing office staff to work for one day in the nude. David Taylor, a self-proclaimed ‘business psychologist,’ said he was called in to help onebestway, a design and marketing company in Newcastle, England, after the company began losing money and had to fire six workers this spring, The Sun reported Thursday. ‘Inviting an organization to go naked is the most extreme technique I’ve used,’ Taylor said. ‘It may seem weird but it works. It’s the ultimate expression of trust in yourself and each other.’” (07/02/09)

$2.7 billion in “stimulus” money released for schools

R. Lee Wrights — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:36:56 +0000

“Education Secretary Arne Duncan is releasing $2.7 billion in stimulus dollars earlier than planned to help states confront increasingly tighter budgets. Duncan said Wednesday he is distributing $2.7 billion to states that he had planned to distribute in October or November. The money comes from a fund for state government priorities that has very few strings attached. It doesn’t have to be spent on education, although the administration hopes it will be.” [editor’s note: In other words, this is a California bailout - TLK] (07/02/09)

Feds OK theft of groups’ US assets

R. Lee Wrights — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:34:52 +0000

“The Obama administration on Thursday authorized the seizure of assets belonging to an extremist organization in Iraq and an Iranian backer of insurgents, saying both are responsible for deadly attacks in Iraq. The Treasury Department is targeting Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and the Iraq-based group Kata’ib Hizballah for committing, directing or supporting acts of violence in Iraq against U.S. and Iraqi forces.” (07/02/09)

NSA to help defend civilian agency networks

R. Lee Wrights — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:32:22 +0000

“The Obama administration will proceed with a Bush-era plan to use National Security Agency assistance in screening government computer traffic on private-sector networks, with AT&T as the likely test site, according to three current and former government officials. President Obama said in May that government efforts to protect computer systems from attack would not involve ‘monitoring private-sector networks or Internet traffic,’ and Homeland Security Department officials say the new program will scrutinize only data going to or from government systems.” (07/02/09)

Cheney discussed media inquiries into Plame leak

R. Lee Wrights — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:29:09 +0000

“Vice President Dick Cheney talked with top White House officials about how to respond to reporters’ inquiries into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative, according to a court filing. Cheney told the FBI about his recollection of discussions with his former top aide, I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, and other White House officials on the media’s questions. But the Obama administration is fighting in court to keep the substance of what Cheney revealed to the FBI from the public.” (07/02/09)

Nuclear watchdog elects Japanese diplomat as its leader

R. Lee Wrights — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:25:26 +0000

“After a months-long deadlock and half a dozen inconclusive votes, the world’s atomic energy watchdog on Thursday elected as its leader a Japanese diplomat described as colorless by foes and competent by allies. Yukiya Amano, formerly Japan’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, will serve as director-general of the United Nations agency when Mohamed ElBaradei, an outspoken Egyptian diplomat, retires from the post this year.” (07/02/09)