Everything

Skim Milk

2012-01-29T17:53:00.001-05:00

Enriched skim milk good for gout, study suggests

If you have gout, drinking enriched skim milk may help reduce the frequency of painful flare-ups, new research suggests.

The new study included 120 patients who had experienced at least two flare-ups in the previous four months. They were divided into three treatment groups that consumed either lactose powder, skim milk powder or skim milk powder enriched with glycomacropeptide (GMP) and G600 milk fat extract (G600).

Gout, a common form of arthritis, is caused by uric acid buildup in blood. Often, the big toe is the first place where gout strikes. Previous research has shown a higher risk for gout among people who consume fewer dairy products, and earlier work suggested that GMP and G600 tone down the inflammatory response to gout crystals.

The powders were mixed in roughly 8 ounces of water as a vanilla-flavored shake and consumed once a day. The patients recorded their flare-ups and went to a rheumatology clinic once a month.

The findings from the 102 patients who completed the three-month study showed that those who drank the enriched skim milk had a much greater reduction in gout flare-ups than patients in the other two groups.

The patients who drank the enriched skim milk also had greater improvements in pain and the amount of uric acid in their urine, and a trend towards having fewer tender joints, according to the report published online Jan. 23 in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Drinking enriched skim milk did not lead to weight gain or a rise in levels of potentially harmful blood fats, the study authors noted in a journal news release.

"This is the first reported randomized controlled trial of dietary intervention in gout management, and suggests that daily intake of skimmed milk powder enriched with GMP and G600 may reduce the frequency of gout flares," Nicola Dalbeth, associate professor in the department of medicine at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and colleagues concluded.

More @ http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/2012-01-29/Enriched-skim-milk-good-for-gout-study-suggests/52824366/1

Tacos

2012-01-29T17:05:00.001-05:00

East Haven, Connecticut (CNN) -- Two days after a Connecticut mayor delivered an errant comment about eating tacos to support East Haven Latinos, some of whom are the alleged victims of police mistreatment, Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. apparently got his wish.

Some 500 tacos were delivered to his office Thursday after a Latino activist group called Junta for Progressive Action launched a text-for-tacos campaign to draw attention to the comment, which Maturo later apologized for.

In the interview Tuesday, a local reporter pointed out that there were no Latino officers on East Haven's police force.

"And your point being?" Maturo responded.

Asked what he planned to do for the Latino community in light of the discrimination allegations, the mayor said, "I might have tacos when I go home, I'm not quite sure yet."

That set off the activist group, a local branch of the Reform Immigration for America organization, which said that anytime someone texts the word "taco" to 69866, it will deliver a taco to the mayor on their behalf.

They've received more than 2,600 texts, the group said in a statement Thursday.

"The mayor has shown a total lack of respect for the constituents he has been sworn to serve to the best of his ability," said Henry Fernandez, spokesman for the group.

Maturo twice apologized for the comments, saying his words were largely a product of stress.

Still, some 500 tacos were placed inside his office; the rest are already being rerouted to local food-assistance outlets.

"The town of East Haven has received an abundance of tacos as a result of the campaign initiated by the group 'Reform Immigration for America,'" said Maturo in a statement. "Recognizing that there are many in need in our state, we have arranged for all of the tacos to be donated to local soup kitchens and pantries, including the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen in New Haven."

He added that "the events of the past few days have focused our town, and my administration, on the need to deal sensitively and compassionately with the challenges currently facing our town."

On Tuesday, FBI agents arrested four East Haven police officers accused of playing a role in abuse of Latino residents and business owners, performing illegal searches, making false arrests and harassing immigrant rights advocates.

The arrests are the first to stem from a federal investigation into racial profiling in the city and follow a scathing December report from the U.S. Justice Department that accused the town's police of engaging in "discriminatory policing against Latinos."

Wheel of Fortune

2012-01-29T17:03:00.000-05:00

Pat Sajak's hosted 'Wheel of Fortune' drunk.

Not being entirely sober is certainly one way to raise the stakes on "Wheel of Fortune."

It turns out the game show's longtime host Pat Sajak, who's been with the show since 1981, would sometimes head out for drinks with Vanna White while on a break from taping.

As he explained in a recent interview on "Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable," when he first started - "and was much younger and could tolerate those things," Sajak said - the show was somewhat of a snooze.

"We had a different show then. You didn't win money, you won fake money with which you could buy cheesy prizes. A turntable would go around, and housewives from Teaneck would say, 'Ah, for $100, I'll have the lamp...' It was the most boring two minutes in television."

All of those prizes allowed for "endless time between shows. Our dinner breaks would be two-and-a-half hours long while they drove in new cars and boats and gazebos and stuff."

Rather than just hang around, Sajak and Vanna White would head over to a spot called Los Arcos in Burbank, where they served "great margaritas," the 65-year-old host recalled.

"Vanna and I would go across [the street] and have two, or three or six. And then come and do the last shows and have trouble recognizing the alphabet," he admitted. "The average number of drinks was 'cuatro.'"

So has anyone ever spotted a suspiciously giggly or slurring Sajak in any old "Wheel of Fortune" clips? As Sajak says, "They're really good tapes to get ahold of."

more @ http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/26/pat-sajaks-hosted-wheel-of-fortune-drunk/?iref=obnetwork

Solitary Confinement

2012-01-29T17:01:00.000-05:00

Former inmate wins $22 million over 'forgotten' solitary confinement

(CNN) -- A New Mexico man held in solitary confinement in a county prison for nearly two years without ever being prosecuted has won a $22 million jury award for violation of his constitutional rights, officials said.

It is one of the largest federal civil rights settlements in history involving an inmate. Stephen Slevin alleged he was essentially forgotten while in custody.

"This has never been about the money," Slevin said in a halting voice outside the federal courthouse in Santa Fe, just after the jury's decision.

He suffers from post-traumatic stress from what he called physical and mental mistreatment by corrections officials in Dona Ana County, in the southern part of the state.

"We made a statement about what happened to me," he said of the verdict.

Slevin, 58, was arrested in August 2005 and charged with driving while intoxicated and receiving a stolen vehicle near Las Cruces. His lawyers said the prison segregated him because he had a lifelong history of mental illness.

Albuquerque civil rights attorney Matthew Coyte said his client then began to deteriorate while in isolation.

"They threw him in solitary and then ignored him," said Coyte. "He disappeared into delirium, and his mental illness was made worse by being isolated from human contact and a lack of medical care."

Slevin's lawsuit alleged he became malnourished, lost significant weight, developed bedsores, fungus and dental problems and was not aware of his situation or surroundings.

He was transferred to another state facility for two weeks, where he was given a psychiatric evaluation and then sent back to the Dona Ana County Detention Center, where he was again placed in solitary confinement. Coyte said Slevin did receive a brief competency hearing a year into his imprisonment, but the case against the man never proceeded.

After 22 months as a pre-trial detainee, Slevin was released and the charges dismissed. He then filed suit, claiming his rights of due process were violated since he was not given a hearing before being placed in solitary confinement.

Photos taken before and after his confinement show dramatic appearance changes. The plaintiff said things were so bad he was forced to pull his own tooth while in custody, and that his pleas for help were dismissed.

In pre-trial motions, the county denied "that there was lack of medical care. For most of the other allegations, officials either denied them or said they were "without knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief" of the veracity of the claims.

The defendants also said Slevin waited too late to file his suit, and that as government employees, county officials deserved immunity from liability, believing they acted in good faith as to Slevin's treatment in custody.

The county had refused any public comment before the trial. There was no immediate reaction to the verdict from county officials.

Slevin's legal team said the county in recent days had offered to settle the case for $2 million, just before the jury went to consider a verdict and award.

Coyte told CNN he hopes Slevin's court victory will send a message throughout the state for more humane treatment of inmates, especially those with mental or physical issues.

Slevin continues to have serious medical issues, and is fighting lung cancer, his lawyer said.

The case is Slevin v. Board of County Commissioners of Dona Ana County (1:08-cv-01185).

Polygraph

2012-01-29T17:00:00.002-05:00

Atlanta (CNN) -- The day after little Jorelys Rivera's mangled body was found in a suburban Atlanta trash compactor, Ryan Brunn sat in a stark room for a police interview. He began with confidence, but ended with trouble.

Keith Sitton, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, hooked up the jeans-clad Brunn to a polygraph machine. Then, he fired off a series of questions to the 20-year-old maintenance man. A videotape of Brunn's polygraph test was released Thursday.

"Regarding that girl, do you intend to answer these questions truthfully?"

"Yes."

"Did you participate in any way in causing the death of that girl?"

"No."

"Did you cause the death of that girl?"

"No."

"Do you know for sure who caused the death of that girl?"

"No."

Sitton asked the questions three times. Each time, Brunn said he had nothing to do with Jorelys' killing.

By the end of the interview, Sitton knew better. Brunn had turned into a prime suspect.

In the videotape, he tells Brunn that he did poorly on the questions regarding his alleged participation in Jorelys' death and the disposal of her body.

"I can see you're not doing good on this test," Sitton says. "Those two questions are really bothering me."

"I'm not holding back," Brunn says. "I promise you. I'll take the test again."

But that was not an option for Brunn.

The next day, on December 7, he was arrested.

Eventually, he pleaded guilty and, standing before a judge in a Cherokee County courthouse, he described in detail how he enticed, molested and killed Jorelys, 7, in Canton, 40 miles north of Atlanta.

After he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Brunn hanged himself with his sweathshirt in a prison cell.

It was that polygraph test that was started Brunn's unraveling.

"I've been doing this for a long time," Sitton tells Brunn at the start of the session.

But Brunn seems not at all concerned about the questions he is about to face.

Some people think they can beat a polygraph test, said Dr. Peter Ash, a forensic psychiatrist at Emory University in Atlanta.

"The fact is that most of them can't do it," he said. "You can control how you look. You can't control how you sweat."

Besides, said Ash, criminals are not known for good judgment.

His shirt sleeve rolled up to his shoulders, Brunn begins by telling Sitton that on a scale of one to 10, he is a 7.5 on the truth meter. That he had lied the day before when police asked him whether he'd run the trash compactor at the River Ridge Apartments in Canton, where Jorelys's body was found.

"I should have just told the truth straight up," Brunn says. "But I didn't. I was scared."

Brunn tells Sitton that his family was originally from New York but he had been living in Dahlonega, Georgia. He moved to the Canton complex in November, where he was living at a discount and working in maintenance.

He'd finished 10th grade but no more. Sitton tells him it's never too late to graduate.

Brunn went to Honduras a few years back on a church mission to help rebuild houses for the needy.

Sutton asks him if he smoked marijuana. Brunn admits to smoking the night before.

He answers Sitton's questions with apparent ease, not as a man who had committed a heinous crime. Later in court, he would describe how he used a roller skate to lure Jorelys into a vacant apartment. He told the judge he made the girl undress and wanted to take her for "sexual purposes."

He said he got scared that she would go home and tell her parents what had happened. So he struck her with the skate, slit her throat and tossed her body into the compactor. He even taped a handwritten note telling investigators that Jorelys was in there, almost as though he wanted his crime to be discovered.

By the end of the polygraph test, Brunn's voice is slight. He appears more nervous and goes outside to smoke a cigarette.

When he returns, Sitton confronts him about his lies.

"There's something on this that you're not telling us. Something that you are keeping to yourself," he says. "What is it you're holding back? Because we're trying to solve this thing."

Brunn fiddles with his cell phone.

Sitton tells him not to worry about his calls, that he's got more important things to worry about.

"It's just written all over you. Something's bothering you."

"I am not bothered at all."

"You haven't told the complete truth about everything."

"I have."

It turns out Brunn lied about smoking pot, as well. He had smoked that morning, not the night before, as he said previously. Sitton tells him that he is concerned about Brunn's marijuana habit.

Brunn says he gets high but "it doesn't make me crazy. I promise you that."

Before the video cuts off, Sitton asks Brunn about allegations he faced in Virginia before his move to Georgia. He had been accused of sexually fondling another girl.

"You know what I'm talking about," Sitton says.

"I don't," Brunn replies.

"Remember I said you had to be 100% truthful? I asked you if anyone made accusations. So what you done is told me a lie. You also lied about the trash compactor."

"They put things in that child's head," Brunn says. "I'm a good person. I didn't do nothing to that little Spanish girl and I didn't do nothing to (the other) girl."

There is little remorse in Brunn's words.

Later in court, he would tell Jorelys' family that he was sorry. "Lo siento," he said in Spanish.

But in front on Jorelys' sobbing mother, Brunn's apology fell far short.

Two days later, he, too, was dead.

Canada

2012-01-29T17:00:00.001-05:00

Kingston, Ontario (CNN) -- A Canadian jury Sunday convicted three members of a family of Afghan immigrants of the "honor" murders of four female relatives whose bodies were found in an Ontario canal.

Mohammed Shafia, 58; his wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 42; and their son, Hamed, 21, were found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of Shafia's three teenage daughters and his first wife in his polygamous marriage. Sunday's verdicts followed a three-month trial, in which jurors heard wiretaps of Shafia referring to his daughters as "whores" and ranting about their behavior.

All three were sentenced to life in prison immediately after their convictions, with no chance of parole for 25 years.

"This is a good day for Canadian justice. Our democratic society protects the rights of all," Gerard Laarhuis, the chief prosecutor in the case, told reporters outside the courthouse in Kingston. "It's a very bad day, because this jury found that four strong, vivacious and freedom-loving women were murdered by their own family."

At least one Shafia family supporter interrupted Laarhuis with shouts of "lies" and called the verdict a "miscarriage of justice." But others cheered the verdict as Laarhuis continued.

The three Shafia sisters -- Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13 -- were found dead inside a car that plunged into the Rideau Canal in Kingston on June 30, 2009. Shafia's first wife, 50-year-old Rona Amir Mohammad, also died.

The verdicts came on the second day of deliberations for a seven-woman, five-man jury in Kingston, about 280 km (175 miles) west of the family's home in Montreal. There was no immediate comment from defense attorneys.

Prosecutors said the girls' father, mother and brother all plotted to kill the four women in an "honor" murder. Investigators claimed that hours of wiretapped conversations reveal a premeditated plan to punish rebellious, Westernized daughters and their permissive advocate, Rona.

Shafia and Yahya admitted on the stand that they were upset with Zainab for running off to marry a Pakistani man they hated, that Sahar wore revealing clothes and had secret boyfriends, and Geeti was failing in school and calling social workers to get her out of a home in turmoil.
'No faith on earth justifies this'

Prosecutors argued that under instructions from his father, Hamed Shafia used the family Lexus to ram the other family car carrying the women into the canal. The shattered headlight on the Lexus, they claim, matches the damage on the rear bumper of the family Nissan in which the women were found dead.

Investigators also believed the victims might have died before they hit the water, because they were unable to escape despite their seat belts being unbuckled and the car being submerged in just 7 feet of water.

In the three-month-long trial, Shafia testified, "My children did a lot of cruelty toward me," as he wept openly on the stand. He went on to say he believed his children "betrayed" him by dating and he did not hide his anger, saying a father would never expect that kind of behavior from this daughters.

In taking the stand, Shafia swore to tell the truth on the Quran and he again invoked the holy book to say Islam does not condone killing people to preserve a family's honor.

In a direct response to a question from prosecutor Laurie Lacelle, Shafia said, "To kill someone, you can't regain your respect and honor. Respected lady, you should know that. In our religion, a person who kills his wife or daughter, there is nothing more dishonorable. How is it possible that someone would do that to their children, respected lady?"

"You might do it," Lacelle calmly replied, "if you thought they were whores." Shafia had used that term in a conversation captured by wiretaps.

Investigators played hours of the wiretap recordings in court, alleging many conversations involving the three suspects prove they were plotting murder. In some of the most shocking conversations, Shafia launched into a rant about his daughters' behavior.

"I say to myself, 'You did well. Would they come back to life a hundred times, you should so the same again,'" he says. And in another played in court and translated from the Afghan language Dari, he says, "May the devil defecate on their graves! This is what a daughter should be? Would a daughter be such a whore?"

Shafia and his lawyers tried to explain that his shocking words are traditional expressions in Dari that should not be translated literally. But the jury also heard from an expert witness on honor murders -- a term CNN is using in the interest of clarity rather than the more common "honor killings" because the latter phrase does not properly describe the alleged crime.

That witness, University of Toronto professor Shahrzad Mojab, said that in some families, honor is worth more than life.

In an interview with CNN, Mojab said that many times, honor crimes are calculated acts that involve more than one family member.

"There is a very important difference between honor killing and violence against women in the form of domestic violence. It is plotted, it is premeditated." Mojab said.

"What we need to understand is that the male power and the male desire for the control of the woman's body and the woman's sexuality -- the honor resides in that sort of understanding and the ownership of women's body and sexuality," he said. "So when that is being presented in a way that is not acceptable to the social norm, then the only way the honor can be restored is by purifying that. And the purification is through blood."

Jada Fire

2012-01-29T16:22:00.004-05:00

Occupy

2012-01-29T15:49:00.001-05:00

(CNN) -- Occupy protesters broke into Oakland City Hall, damaging displays and burning an American flag, the culmination of protests Saturday that saw police and protesters trade allegations over who was responsible for clashes in the northern California city that ended with the arrest of more than 100 people.

Undeterred, the protesters -- who remained on the street early Sunday morning -- said they will forge ahead with a planned "Rise Up Festival" at an area park later in the day.

Protesters tossed metal pipes, bottles and burning flares at Oakland police, who responded with tear gas, smoke grenades and bean bag bullets.

The clashes started after demonstrators attempted to take over the long-vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center and turn it into a protest center.

Three police officers and one protester were wounded in the clashes, city and police officials said.

Occupy protesters disputed the report, saying more than a dozen of their group suffered burns and other injuries after being struck by police "flash bang" grenades, according to accounts posted on the group's Twitter feed.

Oakland has been a flash point of the Occupy movement since October when police used tear gas to break up demonstrators who refused to leave downtown. One demonstrator, an Iraq war veteran, suffered a skull fracture after being hit with a police projectile, according to a veteran's group. Police said they acted after the crowd threw paint and other objects at officers.

Occupy DC protesters demonstrate outside VIP dinner

Occupy Oakland is part of a larger movement that began last year in New York and quickly spread across the globe. While the protesters have highlighted a number of causes, the overarching theme remained the same: populist anger over an out-of-touch corporate, financial and political elite.

The protests are scheduled to continue Sunday with what the group was touting as a "Rise Up Festival" at Oscar Grant Plaza, where protesters have been camping out despite a city ordinance.

The latest tension between Occupy protesters and police began Saturday afternoon when about 250 people gathered in a park across from Oakland City Hall, where they announced plans to take over the convention center.

The protests turned violent when they were turned back by police in their attempt to break into the convention center. By nightfall, the group attempted to take over a YMCA and City Hall.

"It's not a lawful protest by any means," Deputy Police Chief Jeffrey Israel told reporters late Saturday. "They gathered with the intent to break the law."

From the beginning, the group acknowledged on its website that the action -- touted on its website as "Move-In Day" -- to take over the convention center was illegal.

But the group said the move was necessary, in part because "since November, the city of Oakland and its police force have made it impossible for us to meet, to serve food and to provide a place for people to stay."

Omar Yassim called the police response, which included additional officers from nearby counties, "despicable."

"They are shooting rubber bullets at us. We have pictures of people whose clothes were burned by flash bangs," Yassim said.

"What we were doing today was civil disobedience."

But Mayor Jean Quan called the protesters at the center of Saturday's violence a fringe group of the larger Occupy Oakland movement.

"It was really only about 250 people. But they are very violent," she told reporters Saturday night.

She also disputed reports that police were heavy-handed in their response, saying the officers were measured.

"Frankly, the majority of the demonstrators who were clashing with police were not being peaceful," Quan said. "Destruction of property, thing and charging (the police), it's almost as if they are begging for attention. They are hoping the police make an error."

Posts on Occupy Oakland's Twitter feed claim that police met the protesters "with munitions and violence." One read: "#OccupyOakland being teargassed smoked bombed & shot at w rubber bullets."

Oakland police said they used only smoke and tear gas. They did so after warning protesters who had begun "destroying construction equipment and fencing" around the Kaiser center, according to a police statement late Saturday. Officers were "pelted" with bottles, metal pipes, rocks and burning flares, according to another police statement released earlier in the day.

By nightfall, Occupy protesters moved toward Oakland City Hall where police and city officials accused the group of breaking in and vandalizing the building.

Protesters denied breaking into City Hall.

"The doors were open," Yassim said.

But City Administrator Deanna J. Santana said she was told it was a "forced entry" into the building.

Quan said trash cans were overturned, flags in the building were burned, a children's recycled art exhibit was destroyed and a historic model of city hall was overturned.

Yassim said he was not aware of any damage inside the building.

The Oakland Police Department has been under heavy scrutiny since its response to Occupy protests last year.

Elsewhere, the Occupy movement in Washington protested outside the 99th annual Alfalfa Club dinner for high-level dignitaries, including President Barack Obama.

The Washington protest comes two days before the National Park Service is slated to end overnight camping at the Occupy DC sites.

Gingrich

2012-01-29T15:48:00.001-05:00

Washington (CNN) -- Front-runners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich traded accusations of dishonesty Sunday as the increasingly vitriolic Republican presidential campaign headed for its biggest primary to date.

With two days to go before Florida voters decide who gets the state's winner-take-all 50 delegates, Romney held a widening lead over Gingrich in the competition to become the first of the four remaining candidates to win two contests in this year's nominating process.

With former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum canceling campaign events Sunday due to his young daughter's hospitalization and Texas Rep. Ron Paul forgoing Florida to focus on Maine, Romney and Gingrich shared the spotlight in the Sunshine State and continued to ratchet up the rhetoric.

Stung by Romney's resurgence, which has benefited from strong debate performances last week and advertisements that harshly attacked Gingrich, the former House speaker accused Romney of waging a dishonest campaign.

"He would say thing after thing after thing that just plain wasn't true," Gingrich said of the former Massachusetts governor in reference to last Thursday debate's on CNN. "I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false. "

In particular, Gingrich cited Romney's claim that he had never voted for a Democrat when a Republican was on the ballot, including Romney's support for Democrat Paul Tsongas in the 1992 Massachusetts presidential primary.

Incumbent President George H.W. Bush and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan were on the GOP ballot in the primary, but Romney has said he registered as an independent and voted for Tsongas as a strategic move against Bill Clinton.

"He can't even remember his own voting record," Gingrich said Sunday on the ABC program "This Week."

"The debate the other night, what he said was just plain false."
Romney and Gingrich campaign in Florida
Romney stays on offense in Florida
Campaign attack may be good for Obama

To Gingrich, such a statement by Romney raised questions about Romney's suitability to be president.

"You cannot be president of the United States if you cannot be honest and candid with the American people," Gingrich said. "And that's compounded, frankly, by a number of the ads he runs, which are just plain false."

In particular, Gingrich cited claims in Romney ads that he resigned in disgrace from the House in 1999 after being cited two years earlier for an ethics violation.

"I did not resign in disgrace," Gingrich declared, and he also rejected the assertion that the $300,000 he paid to cover the cost of the investigation against him was a fine.

Romney's campaign responded that Gingrich, a historian, was trying to "re-write history."

"He admitted to violating House rules and providing false and misleading information to the ethics committee," said an e-mail from Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul. "He released a statement saying he was wrong and agreed to pay a $300,000 penalty. He said, 'My actions did not reflect creditably on the House of Representatives.' Nearly 90% of House Republicans agreed."

At a Naples, Florida, campaign event Sunday, Romney touted his debate performances in Florida, drawing cheers by asking: "Wasn't that a hoot?"

Referring to Gingrich's complaints about the two Florida debates, including the former House speaker's protest against organizers telling the audience to keep quiet at the first one last Monday, Romney said Gingrich was "now finding excuses everywhere he can" for his falling support.

"My own view is the reason that Speaker Gingrich has been having a hard time in Florida is that people of Florida have watched the debates, have listened to the speaker, have listened to the other candidates and have said, 'You know what, Mitt Romney's the guy we're going to support,'" he said.

Romney also revived an attack on Gingrich's past consulting work for troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac, and in doing so, highlighted the housing crisis that has ravaged Florida.

"Your problem in Florida is that you worked for Freddie Mac at a time when Freddie Mac was not doing the right thing for the American people," Romney said. "And that you're selling influence in Washington at a time when we need people who will stand up for the truth in Washington."

The sharp campaign attacks caused some Republicans to lament infighting that they fear will hurt the surviving candidate's chances of defeating President Barack Obama in November.

Veteran Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, called for a halt to the GOP debates -- 19 so far this campaign dating back to May -- that he said emphasized infighting.

"Unfortunately, they have deteriorated into wrestling matches and that's not what the voters want to hear to start with, but second of all, it has driven the negatives, the 'unfavorables' of all of our candidates in these debates way up, and uh, look, that detracts from you ability to take on the real opponent, which is Barack Obama," McCain said.

On the CBS program "Face the Nation," real estate tycoon Donald Trump also noted what he called "a very nasty race."

"The level of hatred, I guess you could say, there's no other word for it, it's unbelievable," Trump said, adding that the eventual GOP winner might emerge a stronger candidate, but it was "very possible they're hurting themselves."

In addition, Trump -- who has in the past expressed interest in running for president but never followed through -- again raised the possibility of mounting an independent campaign if he believes the Republican nominee would be unable to beat Obama.

Gingrich argued Sunday that even though Romney is leading, the conservative supported reflected by backing for himself and Santorum exceeded Romney's support, according to the latest polls.

One poll that came out Sunday morning and straddled the Thursday night CNN debate in Jacksonville, showed Romney at 42%, Gingrich at 27%, Santorum at 16% and Paul at 11%.

Romney also led in a Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 survey of likely GOP voters conducted January 24 through January 26 -- before the CNN debate -- and released Saturday evening. Romney received 42% to 31% for Gingrich, 14% for Santorum and 6% for Paul.

"We have no evidence yet that Romney anywhere is coming close to getting a majority and I think when you take all the non-Romney votes, it's very likely that at the convention there will be a non-Romney majority and maybe a very substantial one," Gingrich told reporters. "My job is to convert that into a Gingrich majority."

On Saturday, Gingrich received the endorsement of tea party favorite Herman Cain, who cited the former speaker's "big ideas" and his willingness to go through what he called the "sausage grinder" of the campaign process.

'I know what this sausage grinder is all about," said Cain, a businessman who dropped out of the race after allegations of sexual harassment in his past. "I know that he is going through this sausage grinder because he cares about the future of the United States of America."

Meanwhile, Santorum canceled a series of events -- including an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" -- after his 3-year-old daughter Isabella was admitted to a Philadelphia hospital.

The girl, known as Bella, suffers from a chromosomal condition called Trisomy 18 caused by extra material from chromosome 18. It is three times more common in girls than boys, and patients who survive past the first week experience serious medical and developmental problems, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Running a distant third in Florida polling, Santorum insists he will continue in the race. So far in the campaign, Santorum narrowly defeated Romney to win the Iowa caucuses, while Romney won the New Hampshire primary and Gingrich won the South Carolina primary.

Paul, who has conceded Florida because he knew he had no chance in the state's winner-take-all format, campaigned Saturday in Maine for caucuses taking place there through February 11.

He told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that he expects to do well in Maine, but acknowledged he lacks the financial backing to compete head-on in every state.

"The rough road isn't, you know, presenting our case," Paul said. "The rough road is competing with, you know, establishment money, the big money. ... We can raise those millions, but we can't compete with tens of millions of dollars for each individual state. And that's what, you know, came up in Florida. You need a lot of money. So it's a money game. And I think that's one of the things that frustrates a lot of people."

Apple

2012-01-29T15:44:00.000-05:00

Apple's outrageous success has a dark side. But does that mean it's time to stop buying Apple products?

Before we go there, let's get a few things out of the way. The focus of the New York Times iPad human cost story was Apple because:

Fame: Like anything that is constantly in the public eye (such as, say, a Republican presidential candidate) Apple is a magnet for reporters. There's lots and lots of reporting about Apple, some invariably negative.

Profits: While analysts and journalists trip over each other to applaud Apple's profit juggernaut, the way Apple achieves those profits can be pretty ugly. And the company's most recent quarterly profit of $13 billion puts it right up there with the likes of Exxon--a firm synonymous in some people's minds with the Valdez oil spill--and Exxon has certainly not been immune to harsh criticism.

Secrecy: Apple's hermetically tight secrecy serves as an open invitation for probing.

But should you boycott Apple products, as many commenters have suggested and some publications are now calling on you to do? That question opens a pandora's box that taken to its logical conclusion would mean eschewing pretty much all devices made in China--including the one on which you're reading this post.

And stop buying these things, too:

Furniture and home accessories made in Guangzhou
Lingerie made in Shenzhen
Char-broil grills and gas stoves made in Foshan
Nickel-cadmium batteries made in Guangzhou
Devices that use IBM parts made in Shenzhen

Obviously, that only scratches the surface. The larger point is that human-intensive mass production is ugly and has a long history of ugliness.

Let's begin with Japan--Asia's device manufacturing goliath in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. I lived in Japan for many years and worked at one time as an analyst. I remember a long discussion I had with a Japanese analyst colleague about the working conditions at a large, well-known Japanese device manufacturer (which will remain anonymous as this was told to me in confidence).

What I remember most distinctly was my colleague's description of the stark segregation between upper-level management and workers at a particular factory (which he had witnessed as a former employee of this company). The production line workers were treated like cattle (or chattel, take your pick), with little regard for working conditions, while upper-level management were treated as humans.

And lousy working conditions were not just isolated cases. In the manufacturing sector in Japan at that time, certain factories, which made products for the biggest Japanese consumer-electronics companies, employed workers who could be laid off in an instant (no lifetime employment here). In short: lousy pay, lousy working conditions, and lousy job security.

Dare I mention the good old U.S.A.? When America was an up-and-coming industrial power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, factory conditions were squalid.

In fact, factory horror stories almost seem to be a right of passage for new industrial economies. Ever heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Manhattan? Almost 150 factory workers died. That made the factories building Apple products look like the Four Seasons.

Yes, that was a long time ago, but I'm always amazed how little is learned from the past. And I'll bet that even today there are factories out there not much better than the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory (and worse than Foxconn). That's a bet I'm confident I'd win.

So, you really want to fix the working conditions for people on the iPad production line? Then insist that Apple make products in the U.S. according to U.S. laws. (Though recent examples of working conditions at U.S. defense contractors don't necessarily inspire confidence in the U.S., either. And Amazon has had its own problems at U.S. facilities.)

But that's a pipe dream, of course. Apple will never do that. Such a move is diametrically opposed to the principals of the company's low-cost production model. And how many Americans would live in dormitories and make a 24/7 on-call commitment to Foxconn for low wages?. (Note that Foxconn is building a plant in Brazil because the cost of labor is cheap there too).

The best Apple can do (apparently) is get processors for its Macs from U.S.-based Intel, and A5 and A6 chips from Samsung's Austin, Texas, plant. There are other opportunities too, such as getting flash memory chips from U.S.-based IMFT (Intel-Micron Flash Technologies). But IMFT is now building its newest plant in Singapore.

The point is, those U.S. plants, relatively speaking, are not worker intensive. And that's what the U.S. has become pretty good at. Very high-end high-tech manufacturing that doesn't require many workers.

Like it or not, high-tech worker-intensive manufacturing--what Foxconn does--is an unstoppable Chinese juggernaut. And peek inside a lot of those factories--like factories in Japan and the U.S. years back--and you'll get sick watching the sausage get made.

So, the most realistic solution is for Apple to keep pressuring Foxconn to improve working conditions while also taking responsibility by toning down the impossible demands it makes on the Chinese supply chain.

more @ http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-57367030-64/wont-buy-apple-products-anymore-then-dont-stop-there/?tag=mncol;cnetRiver

Arisa Kuroki

2012-01-29T15:27:00.011-05:00

ipad

2012-01-29T14:58:00.002-05:00

Layoff

2012-01-29T10:23:00.001-05:00

When Wegmans Food Markets has to eliminate a position, they make sure they find the displaced employee another job that they will be passionate about within the company. When their Britton Rd. store in Rochester, N.Y. closed last summer, they offered all of the store's employees a job at another location in the same city.

Within two weeks, all 250 employees from the Britton Rd. store knew exactly what they were going to be doing. "When it comes down to it, we are in the people business, but we just happen to sell groceries," says Kevin Stickles, vice president of store operations and human resources.

The Container Store

his retail chain did everything it could to cut costs, including using less expensive toilet paper throughout the company, to ensure that they didn't have to lay off a single employee. "If you put your employees first, they will truly take the best care of their customer," says Kip Tindell, CEO of The Container store.

Tindell talked to every one of his employees in the country during the company's monthly conference call to let them know that they would not be laid off. "When you don't have a tremendously nervous employee, they will perform better," says Tindell.

When assessing the company's budget, the executive team realized they didn't need two people working in employee travel services, so they moved one of those staffers back to a store position (that employee has stuck with the store, but they've since added staff to the travel department). "Even though our sales have bumped back, a lot of the expenses we were able to reduce have stayed off [the balance sheet]," says Tindel.

Nugget Market

In 85 years of business, this family-owned grocery store chain has never had a layoff. By slowing down its hiring, the company been able to increase hours for current part-time associates who want to work more hours to compensate for an employee who leaves a position, and younger workers who leave for college often come back to work during the holiday season and summer breaks.

Nugget Market says they actively promote from within, and when they do hire from the outside, it is typically to fill an entry-level position.

Taxes

2012-01-29T09:53:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has preached that all Americans should pay their fair share in taxes, but a government report finds that tens of thousands of federal employees — from staffers in Congress to federal agencies and even Obama's executive office — collectively owe the government billions in back taxes.

Data from the Internal Revenue Service found that more than 279,000 federal employees and retirees owed $3.4 billion in back income taxes as of Sept. 30, 2010.

The data showed that 467 employees of the House of Representatives, or about 4.2 percent of the workforce, owed more than $8.5 million. In the Senate, 217 employees, or about 3 percent of the workforce, owed $2.13 million.

Obama's staff was not immune, either, with 36 people in Obama's executive office of nearly 1,800 workers — about 2 percent — owing the government $833,970 in back taxes.

Obama used part of his State of the Union address Tuesday night to promote economic fairness, arguing for changes in the tax code that would create a minimum tax rate of at least 30 percent on anyone making more than $1 million. The finances of one of his chief Republican rivals, Mitt Romney, has been scrutinized because he, like many millionaires, pays a lower rate because most of his income came from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate.

The IRS report attracted the attention of Republicans, who said it undercut the president's argument on taxes. "If Obama wants people to pay their 'fair share,' perhaps he should start with his own staff," tweeted Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus.

White House officials noted that the delinquency rate among executive office staff had fallen from nearly 3 percent in 2008. In 2009, 41 employees in the president's executive office owed about $830,000, representing about 2.3 percent of its workforce.

White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said the annual report was released by the IRS because there is a "high standard for government employees."

"Though the report shows that fewer executive office employees owe taxes than in the last year of the previous administration and we expect all employees to pay their taxes in full, more needs to be done to ensure compliance and the president has asked his team to work on this issue," Brundage said.

Overall, the total amount owed is down slightly from September 2009, when more than 282,000 federal workers owed $3.3 billion in taxes.

The report does not offer specific explanations for the delinquencies. Many people who owe back taxes file returns but cannot pay the full amount when their taxes are due, said IRS spokesman Anthony Burke. Others may be disputing the bill, may have filed jointly with a spouse who owes taxes or may have had their tax bills increased by an audit and cannot pay the higher amount.

The statistics on federal employees do not include those who are on payment plans. The IRS doesn't provide a comparable delinquency rate for income taxes paid by the public.

Among Cabinet agencies, the departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development had the highest delinquency rates, at nearly 4 percent. The Treasury Department had the lowest delinquency rate, at nearly 1 percent.

Call of Duty

2012-01-29T09:51:00.001-05:00

Imprisoned Megaupload founder loses ‘Call of Duty’ crown.

The founder of file-sharing site Megaupload isn't just considered one of the most notorious digital pirates in the world: he's also one of the best Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 players around.

Unfortunately for Kim Dotcom, he's no longer on top of either game.

Last week, Dotcom was arrested in his New Zealand mansion over accusations that Megaupload cost copyright holders $500 million in lost revenue by facilitating millions of illegal downloads. That's keeping him tied up in court, which means he's not doing what any hardcore gamer should be doing: protecting his high score.

Dotcom, born Kim Schmitz, plays Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 under the name MEGARACER. And on New Year's Eve, MEGARACER managed to become the number 1 ranked player in the world -- no small feat for a game that sold over 15 million copies (and no small irony, considering he ran a site responsible for sharing illegal copies of the game).

Thanks to his brush with the law, however, he's slipped to the number 2 spot, usurped by a most-definitely-not-in-jail gamer named Azaros. Seeing as how Dotcom's been denied bail -- he's been deemed an 'extreme flight risk' -- it looks like Azaros' score is pretty safe for now.

Not that anyone should feel sorry for Dotcom. Though he's denied allegations that he was responsible for one of the world's biggest entertainment piracy operations, his lavish lifestyle has become a focal point of the investigation. Thanks to Megaupload's popularity, authorities believe he has roughly $175 million in assets.

And boy, does it show. In addition to pricey art and a fleet of expensive automobiles -- including a 1959 pink Cadillac and a Rolls Royce Phantom -- he reportedly owns a swimming pool filled with imported spring water. Even cooler? One entire wall of his mansion is outfitted with seven 60-inch HD screens, each with its own Xbox 360 console and Lazyboy recliner. That's some serious man-caving.

More @ http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/imprisoned-megaupload-founder-loses-call-duty-crown-205144239.html

Taxes

2012-01-29T09:47:00.002-05:00

BERLIN – In Greece, tax officials fly helicopters over residential areas to spot swimming pools of the alleged poor. In Italy, inspectors raid elite ski resorts to catch the down-and-out in their Ferraris. In Spain, taxmen snoop about homes rented to sun-seeking vacationers — then visit the owners who neglected to report the income.

Evading taxes is almost a national pastime in European nations such as Greece, Spain and Italy, and for years their governments largely looked the other way.

On Monday, the 27 nations of the EU will meet in Brussels to focus on how to boost growth and jobs. But as the southern European nations struggle with a debt crisis that threatens to overwhelm the European Union, their recently installed governments feel they must become more like their more solvent northern neighbors, where the crime of tax evasion is taken seriously.

Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and other countries are raising taxes and clamping down on those who have found creative ways not to pay them. Many people admit they cheat, but the wealthy say they are being unfairly singled out to cover for government overspending — and people in the middle class, who have seen their household incomes crumble, are bitter about losing even more to taxes.

"In this country, (most of us) are struggling day-to-day in order to make ends meet," said Argiris Eleftheriou, 76, of Athens. "The pensioners and the employed are the only ones that aren't evading taxes. We're paying the taxes of the rich, too."

EU officials blame part of the economic mess on a culture of tax evasion in debtor nations that has cost billions in revenue that could be used to shore up their finances.

Greece has a projected debt burden of 162% of GDP this year. The amount of taxes past due to the state is $78 billion, according to a 2011 report by the EU's Task Force for Greece. EU officials say that about half of that will never get collected, and the other half is tied up in 165,000 pending court cases.

Paying for things in cash is the norm in Greece (and Italy and Spain), making it hard for tax inspectors to track. In Greece, cash transactions accounted for 25% of GDP, according to a 2011 report by Friedrich Schneider, a professor of economics at the University of Linz in Austria. And the EU believes tens of millions of dollars in Greek income has been deposited out of sight in Switzerland banks.

Greece is pushing back with a "naming and shaming" campaign. This week, the Greek Economics Ministry published the names of 4,151 individuals who owe a total of more than $19 billion in taxes including a famous singer, a professional basketball player and a former newspaper publisher.

"Our sovereignty is being chipped away because some are not paying their taxes," said Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, referring to the strict fiscal oversight imposed by the EU and IMF in return for bailout funds.

Meanwhile, new taxes keep coming. In the past two years Greeks have seen a self-employment tax of $390 to $650, a solidarity tax of about 1% to 5% of income and a property tax. More are expected, but locals say they can't pay.

"Life has drastically changed; we don't go out anymore; we're locked in our homes and close to depression," said Eleni Benekou, 48, a middle-class housewife in Athens. "(Recently) I went to the flea market to buy some things, but I didn't dare open my wallet."

In Italy, the focus is on tax evasion by the super-rich, which ran rampant under the leadership of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi— also accused of tax dodging and who once famously said that evasion of high taxes was a God-given "right."

Berlusconi successor, technocrat Mario Monti, has vowed to get Italy's house in order by reducing spending and increasing tax revenue. One of his first actions has been to clamp down on "the pretend poor," as Italian media have dubbed the super-rich tax evaders.

While one in four Italians — 15 million — reported no taxable income last year. Italy says that at least 3 million of those own at least three homes. Meanwhile, Italian taxpayers reporting incomes of less than $26,000 owned 188,000 Ferraris and Lamborghinis, more than 500 private airplanes and about 42,000 yachts.

Monti has ordered tax police to go to the super-rich wherever they are. In raids on the elite Italian Alps ski resort of Cortina in early January, officials found 42 high-end sports cars belonging to owners who reported less than $26,000 of income annually.

The Italian government is also cracking down on money-laundering, lowering the maximum allowed for cash transactions to from $3,200 to $1,275 and putting dogs at the Swiss border to sniff out large sums of cash. (It is common for Italians to drive their money over the Alps to Swiss banks, tax agents say.) So far, Italian officials say this has netted $52,300 on average per day at the border, up from almost zero a year ago.

Since Monti took office in November, Italian tax police have identified $65 billion in untaxed money, officials announced Wednesday. Monti is also pushing for a new tax bracket for the super-rich and a financial transaction tax. Even TV commercials appeal to Italians to help find these "parasites of society."

And while Italians hang effigies of tax officials at protests, some agree with the push.

"Everybody has to do their part, but the rich should do more than their part," said Angela Perin, 56, a school administrator in Rome. "They've had it easy too long, and now everybody is suffering because of that."

In Spain, officials also declared "an open season" on tax evasion. They have capped cash transactions at $1,300 and are cracking down on tax havens.

Spain has taken hundreds of tax evaders to court, and tax police have caught about 200,000 individuals who had not declared income from rental properties — a large source of income in the sunny tourist destination — and an easy source of under-the-table cash, officials said.

One of the first actions of Conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy upon taking office in mid-December was to break a main campaign promise by raising taxes: The government has passed measures to raise income and property taxes by more than $7.64 billion a year and has added a new tax bracket for the rich — which increased the cap by 7% to a maximum of 56% in some Spanish federal states for those earning more than $390,000 annually.

Some say the zeal for taxes as the solution to a country mired in debt and high unemployment of 21.5% will backfire.

"The tax hike is going to have a perverse effect on the Spanish economy," said Miguel Borra, president of CSI-F, the main civil servant union in Spain. "That will include a growing lack of trust among the population (in government) as well as diminishing purchasing power."

In crisis-hit but tax-averse Ireland, officials haven't raised income tax but rates on many other things have risen: taxes on pension contributions, property, carbon dioxide emissions and a hated "universal social charge," along with hikes in sales taxes.

"They get called stealth taxes, but they're not particularly stealthy as we can see them coming," said Gerard Casey, professor of philosophy at University College Dublin. "They do it so they can say with a relatively straight face, smirking perhaps, 'We've not raised taxes.' "

Emeline Callan, who runs a barbershop in Celbridge, County Kildare, says she earns less than minimum wage despite working nine or 10 hours a day — and the cost of her commute has doubled with the gasoline and car tax increases. Her frustration may be a warning to Europe's governing elites that they must find another way to balance the books.

"The tax I pay gets me nothing that I need," she said. "The social charge is just a cover to gain more money from us to pay for the government's mistakes. It's loan repayment on a loan we the people didn't take out."

More @ http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-01-29/tax-evaders-greece-spain-italy/52822942/1

Amber Rose

2012-01-29T09:11:00.003-05:00

When Amber Rose was 19, she looked in the mirror and did what most women her age have nightmares about: She took a razor to her scalp and shaved her head.

At the time, Amber was living in a housing project in The Bronx and supporting herself as a stripper, working the pole at Sue’s Rendezvous in Mount Vernon, in Westchester.

Her first reaction to running her hand over her bald scalp was deep regret.

“After I shaved, it I cried for a few days, until I realized it looked dope,” she recalled. “Sinead O’Connor was a bald-headed bad-ass, and I loved her.”
Amber Rose with current boyfriend, rap star Wiz Khalifa, who is helping her break into music.
Reuters

“After I shaved [my hair for the first time],” Amber Rose says, “I cried for a few days until I realized it looked dope. Sinead O’Connor was a bald-headed badass and I loved her.” That impulsive buzz cut made her a star, and today, Rose, 28, shaves her head twice a week

It was that impulsive teenage buzz cut that would make her a star.

Today, 28-year-old Amber shaves her head twice a week to maintain her signature look. “I don’t even know how girls deal with hair,” she said.

You might not know her by name, but you’ve probably caught a glimpse of her face. She’s plastered on Times Square billboards, as the current face of Smirnoff Vodka. She’s been shot by world-famous fashion photographers and posed as a nude model in a Louis Vuitton sneaker campaign.

She’s appeared in rap videos and rakes in tens of thousands of dollars in cash a night to attend parties at nightclubs.

Over the past three years, Amber has risen from obscurity to infamy, stalked by the paparazzi on the arms of some of the world’s biggest rap stars — and not afraid to stir up trouble with her female rivals.

“I’ve had two men in the music industry who loved me to death — and I have a bald head,” Amber explains of why she’s a controversial hot rod in the hip-hop world. “Well, one man that loves me to death, and the other that loved me halfway.”

In 2008, rapper Kanye West became obsessed with Amber’s unique look after seeing her dancing in the Ludacris “What Them Girls Like” video. Amber, whose father is Irish and whose mother is from Cape Verde, stood out in a sea of video vixens.

“I was home in The Bronx, and he called me on my cellphone,” she recalled. “I’d never met him before. He was like, ‘Hey, it’s Kanye.”

She promptly hung up on him, mistaking the famous rapper for a prank caller.

Kanye called back and finally convinced her he was serious about flying her to LA to star in his Robocop video.

The video was never released, but Amber and Kanye struck up a friendship and he invited her to the Grammys.

“We weren’t dating yet,” said Amber. “ We were still just friends, and we had never kissed or anything. I was in the back with his family. I didn’t sit in the audience. We didn’t do the red carpet or anything like that.”

“I had never had Chanel before,” she cooed over the bodysuit he bought her for the occasion. “I’d never had anyone go out and buy me a really expensive outfit. When I told him I was an [exotic] dancer, he was like, ‘I don’t care if you’re a crackhead. I don’t care if you’re a prostitute. I just want to be with you.’ That’s what made me love him.”

For two years, she was on his arm, front row at Fashion Week or strutting the red carpet at the Video Music Awards, when Kanye famously interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech to announce that “Beyonce had the greatest video of all time.”
Amber Rose with current boyfriend, rap star Wiz Khalifa, who is helping her break into music.
Reuters

“After I shaved [my hair for the first time],” Amber Rose says, “I cried for a few days until I realized it looked dope. Sinead O’Connor was a bald-headed badass and I loved her.” That impulsive buzz cut made her a star, and today, Rose, 28, shaves her head twice a week

Amber was taken into hip-hop’s inner circle. She flew to Paris with Jay-Z and Beyoncé, who taught her the trick of sleeping in a full face of makeup, she says. She was signed to Ford Models and became as famous for her big booty as her bald head after sexy shoots for fashion and men’s magazines.

But now, Amber admits she was unhappy in her high-profile relationship. Earlier this month, she blamed her 2010 break-up on reality television star Kim Kardashian, whom she called a “home-wrecker” for having an affair with Kanye.

But she also blames him.

“He is your typical rapper in the industry,” Amber told The Post over dinner at The Lion, a celebrity hot spot in the West Village. “He can’t be faithful, and it’s not just with one person. He’s just unfaithful with a lot of different women. I got to the point where I thought, my heart can’t take it anymore. I don’t deserve this. I don’t care when people say that I owe him my life because I’m famous now. I don’t owe him nothing.”

Today, she lives in LA with current squeeze, rapper Wiz Khalifa, the 24-year-old who shot to mainstream fame with his ode to Pittsburgh, “Black and Yellow” last year.

After the Kanye breakup, Amber “totally separated myself from hip hop,” she said. “I didn’t listen to the radio, I just totally got out of the world. I listened to heavy metal.”

But she was single for only a few months before she met Wiz Khalifa via Twitter.

“I was scared, because he’s four years younger than me, and he’s in the same industry as Kanye and I was so over all that,” said Amber. “All odds were against him, but I couldn’t fight the feeling. Wiz is the better man.”

The couple has been dating for a year — they have each other’s names tattooed on their hands — and Amber said they’re thinking about marriage, babies, and buying a home together.

“We both travel a lot, so when we do see each other, we lay up in the bed, get sticky with each other, and watch movies,” said Amber. “If Wiz felt insecure about me dating Kanye, I wouldn’t be with him today. Everyone is someone’s sloppy seconds, unless you’re a virgin.”

Amber admits that her jetset life can sometimes feel surreal.

“Like every poor person, I used to dream about winning the lottery,” said Amber, who estimated she’s worth millions today. “I didn’t just get money, though. I got fame. And I got fame before I got money, and it was scary. It f---ing sucks.”

Amber’s Bronx housing project was a step up from her childhood in Philadelphia, where she says that she and her mother were homeless when she was a young teen.

Her father, who served in the military for 20 years, divorced her mother when she was young, and she started stripping on the sly when she was 15, under the pseudonym “Paris.”

“I was already developed,” she said. “I looked like a young 18-year-old.”

Her rise to the limelight over the past three years is the inspiration for her debut single, released earlier this month, titled “Fame.”

She’s currently recording the rest of the album, which she hopes will make her more famous and rich, at Jungle studios in Manhattan.

Now that the money is also rolling in, it makes the constant attention easier to deal with.

Amber peels off four $100 bills from a thick wad of cash she carries in her pocket and throws it casually on the dinner table.

“Let’s go,” she says, scooting out of the leather booth like she was born in one. She’s ready to strut out the door at dinner, where a cameraman from TMZ waits for her outside.

SEC

2012-01-29T08:45:00.001-05:00

SEC Goes After Online Trading Firms That Unwittingly Helped Latvian Hacker

In an effort to crack down on hacker/stock traders who hijack brokerage accounts and exploit the stock market for gain, the Securities and Exchange Commission has, in a novel move, gone after four online trading companies and eight executives who they say helped a Latvian hacker make more than $850,000 from fraudulent trades.

According to the complaint, filed by the SEC in federal court in San Francisco (.pdf), a 34-year-old individual using the name Igors Nagaicevs hijacked the online brokerage accounts of numerous customers over a 14-month period between June 2009 and August 2010 and began selling off their stocks. Using the equity in their accounts, he then made fraudulent purchases of other stocks he already owned, in order to artificially inflate the price of those stocks so he could sell them off at a profit.

Nagaicevs was able to do this more than 150 times without being stopped, in transactions that cost customers more than $2 million in losses before they were reimbursed by their brokerage firms.

Nagaicevs conducted the activity, in part, through accounts that he opened with eight online trading firms, four of which are U.S.-based outfits that are accused by the SEC of operating unregistered trading firms. According to the SEC, which can only bring civil or administrative charges against a company or individual, not criminal charges, the companies failed to implement safeguards that would have caught Nagaicevs’ activity much sooner — safeguards that they would have been required to implement had they been registered trading firms.

“These firms gave Nagaicevs a gateway to the U.S. securities markets while circumventing the protections of the federal securities laws, including requirements for brokers to maintain and follow adequate procedures to gather information about customers and their trading,” reads an SEC press release on the case.

The SEC’s Market Abuse Unit, headed by Daniel M. Hawke, conducted the investigation.

Hawke, who called Nagaicevs’s scheme “diabolical,” told Threat Level that it was “the access that was provided by these firms that really makes the case novel and significant. We’ve never brought a case charging these kinds of registration violations in connection with account intrusions.”

Nagaicevs first opened accounts with the unregistered firms and purchased stocks. He would then set up buy and sell orders through the firms’ brokering partners. Turning to the hacked accounts, he would then buy up shares of the stock he already owned, without the account holders’ knowledge, thus inflating the price of the stock until it triggered his sell order, earning him a profit in the transaction.

The transactions were always completed on the same day, usually within 15 to 20 minutes. According to the complaint, Nagaicevs’s activity was often “responsible for more than 50 percent of the subject stock’s daily trading volume as a result of the manipulative scheme.”

In one case involving stock for Greenbriar Companies, within the span of 32 minutes on Oct. 26, 2009, Nagaicevs generated more than $14,000 in illegal profits by twice driving up the price of the stock. The opening price of the stock on the morning of Oct. 26 was $9.94. But at 12:02 p.m. that day, Nagaicevs purchased 20,000 shares of the stock at an average price of $10.05.

Minutes after the purchase, an online brokerage account that was illegally accessed purchased 49,000 shares of the same stock at prices between $10.20 and $10.40. Around the same time, Nagaicevs’s own account was selling off his stock at prices ranging between $10.40 and $10.49, netting him a tidy profit of $7,066. When the stock price plunged following his sell-off, he bought it again through another account and proceeded to inflate the price a second time in the same day, using the hacked account, until he’d earned another profit of $7,076.

He repeated this activity 159 times using various accounts, acting as a virtual one-man market, before he was halted.

Nagaicevs has been charged by the SEC for deceptive conduct and transactions, but given that he’s believed to be based in Eastern Europe and outside the jurisdiction of the SEC or the Department of Justice, the SEC went after the firms that enabled his fraudulent activity through their own violations of the law. The SEC’s charges against the firms are administrative in nature, so the executives are not facing jail time but do face fines, and will be required to register their firms going forward.

The electronic trading firms, and the targeted executives, are:

Mercury Capital of California, through which Nagaicevs made more than $433,000 in fraudulent profit from 77 intrusions into victim accounts. The charges extend to Lisa R. Hyatt, president, and Douglas G. Frederick, an associate with the firm.

Alchemy Ventures, also in California, helped Nagaicevs make more than $140,000 in fraudulent profit. The charges include Mark H. Rogers, president of the firm, and Steven D. Hotovec, vice president.

KM Capital Management of Pennsylvania, whose service helped Nagaicevs rake in more than $121,000, along with co-owners Joshua A. Klein and Yisroel M. Wachs.

Zanshin Enterprises, of Idaho, along with Frank K. McDonald, managing member, and Richard V. Rizzo, an associate.

One of the firms, Mercury Capital, and two of the executives, Hyatt and Rizzo, have agreed to settlements acknowledging their failures. Hyatt and Rizzo have also agreed to pay a $35,000 penalty each.

More @ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/latvian-securities-hacker/

Egypt

2012-01-28T19:51:00.000-05:00

For more than 30 years the United States and Egypt had a pact: America would stuff Egyptian coffers with military aid to ensure Egypt upheld its 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

But now this bargain is jeopardy. Even with former President Hosni Mubarak out of power and on trial, the military leadership continues to rule with a seemingly iron fist and the Muslim Brotherhood has just taken power in a landslide election.

The Obama administration hopes by helping rebuild Egypt's economy, on the verge of collapse, it will endear itself to the new government. Delegations of top U.S. officials have visited Cairo in recent months for meetings with Brotherhood officials to pledge support and show desire to forge a new partnership.

But after the Arab Spring, there is no free lunch. The administration has so far resisted suggestions on Capitol Hill about imposing conditions on U.S. aid to Egypt. But new conditions imposed by Congress dictate that future aid will depend on Egypt's ruling military council showing it is taking tangible steps toward democracy.

The recent tug of war between Washington and Egypt's rulers over the activities of U.S.-funded democracy groups, including the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, is raising questions about whether it's time to rethink how the United States gives aid to Egypt going forward.

At stake is $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid and some $250 million more in economic assistance for 2012.

Last month, Egyptian authorities raided the offices of these nongovernmental organizations, confiscating cash, computers, documents and other property, accusing them of using foreign funds to support unrest in Egypt. The offices were sealed and the groups are currently not allowed to operate.

Egypt is barring at least six Americans and several other nationals from leaving the country, including IRI's Egypt office director, Sam LaHood, son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, until an investigation into the group's funding and registration status is complete.

When President Obama called Egypt's top military official, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, last week to hail the seating of Egypt's democratically elected parliament, the White House said he made clear "that nongovernmental organizations should be able to operate freely."

A day later LaHood was stopped at Cairo's airport.

Already Congress is making threats about the aid.

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), IRI's chairman, issued a statement Thursday expressing "outrage" at the action and warned the crackdown on the groups "could set back the longstanding partnership between the United States and Egypt."

Senior officials say they are already feeling the heat, which is why the administration isn't pulling any punches in public by saying Egypt's actions going forward could tie their hands.

Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner, who is responsible for human rights issues, was in Cairo speaking with Egypt's military rulers about the importance of the issue. Speaking to reporters, he warned "It is the prerogative of Congress to say that our future military aid is going to be conditioned on a democratic transition.

"Obviously any action that creates tension with our government makes the whole [aid] package more difficult," Posner said.

The United States is in a difficult spot - on one hand wanting to protect American citizens and the important work these groups do to promote democracy in Egypt. On the other hand, officials are loath to interfere with Egypt's judicial system, as flawed as the Obama administration finds it to be.

What's more, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has to certify that Egypt is taking moves toward a genuine transition to democracy before any of this year's funding is released.

Senior U.S. officials say the administration wants to resolve the issue before Egypt comes calling for the aid and Clinton is forced to make a certification.

But given the heavy hand of Egypt's military to date, officials point to a growing debate about whether the many U.S. assistance programs can go forward.

More @ http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/27/will-egypts-crackdown-end-u-s-gravy-train/

Hunters

2012-01-28T19:50:00.002-05:00

treasure hunters think they have made the find of a lifetime.

The problem is, they're not exactly sure what it is they've uncovered.

Out searching for shipwrecks at a secret location between Sweden and Finland, the deep-sea salvage company Ocean Explorer captured an incredible image more than 80 meters below the water's surface.

At first glance, team leader and commercial diver Peter Lindberg joked that his crew had just discovered an unidentified flying object, or UFO.

"I have been doing this for nearly 20 years so I have a seen a few objects on the bottom, but nothing like this," said Lindberg.

"We had been out for nine days and we were quite tired and we were on our way home, but we made a final run with a sonar fish and suddenly this thing turned up," he continued.
I have been doing this for nearly 20 years so I have a seen a few objects on the bottom, but nothing like this
Peter Lindberg, team leader Ocean Explorer.

Using side-scan sonar, the team found a 60-meter diameter cylinder-shaped object, with a rigid tail 400 meters long.

The imaging technique involves pulling a sonar "towfish" -- that essentially looks sideways underwater - behind a boat, where it creates sound echoes to map the sea floor below.

On another pass over the object, the sonar showed a second disc-like shape 200 meters away.

Lindberg's team believe they are too big to have fallen off a ship or be part of a wreck, but it's anyone's guess what could be down there.

"We've heard lots of different kinds of explanations, from George Lucas's spaceship -- the Millennium Falcon -- to 'it's some kind of plug to the inner world,' like it should be hell down there or something.

"But we won't know until we have been down there," said Lindberg.

The Head of Archaeology at Sweden's Maritime Museums, Andreas Olsson, admits he's intrigued by the picture, but remains sceptical about what it could be.

The reliability of one-side scan sonar images is one of his main concerns, making it difficult to determine if the object is a natural geological formation or something different altogether.

"It all depends on the circumstances when you actually tow the [sonar] fish after the boat," he said.

"What are the temperature conditions, the wave conditions, how deep is your fish in relation to the sea bed etcetera and all those parameters also affects what kind of image you have in the end," he explained.

Even Lindberg agrees the image "isn't the best it could be." But his crew are still planning to return to the site in the calmer waters of spring to investigate their find.

It's a risky and expensive business, and not one that always pays off.

British maritime historian, Professor Andrew Lambert, says the costs of recovery are now too high for most.
If you want to stand in a cold shower tearing up £50 notes, go shipwreck hunting.
Professor Andrew Lambert, British maritime historian.

"If you want to stand in a cold shower tearing up £50 notes, go shipwreck hunting," he said. "Most shipwrecks are rotting away, or carrying dull things -- all the romance has been taken out of it."

It's a problem Lindberg and his team are aware of.

"It's a very difficult industry to be in -- it's money all the time," he confessed. "The best thing it could be, would be 60 meters of gold -- then I would be very happy."

"This thing is very far out, it's really off-shore, so first of all we need a bigger ship... more equipment.. and we have to do bottom sampling, water sampling, to see if it is something poisonous."

But even if the mystery object doesn't contain retrievable treasure the site could still prove to be a gold mine for the Ocean Explorer team, with tourists and private investors paying to see it up-close, in a submarine.

"The object itself is maybe not valuable in the sense of money it can be very interesting whatever it is, historical or a natural anomaly," said Lindberg.

In the North Atlantic, one American salvage company is also hoping to beat the odds.

Odyssey Marine Exploration -- a company made up of researchers, scientists, technicians and archaeologists -- have at least 6,300 shipwrecks in their database that they are looking to find.

Their latest discoveries include two British war-time shipwrecks off the coast of Ireland that could be laden with hundreds of tonnes of silver.

Mark Gordon, president of Odyssey, says at least 100 ships on their watch-list are known to have values in excess of $50 million dollars.

"When you think about the fact until the mid 20th century, the only way to transport wealth was on the oceans and a lot of ships were lost, it adds up to a formula where we have billions of dollars worth of interesting and valuable things on the sea floor," he said.

The lure of treasure has lead to an increasing number of discoveries in recent years. But one which doesn't come without its dangers, warns Olsson.

"I think recently we're entering a time of a lot of discoveries," he said of the technological advancements in finding shipwrecks.

"The professional shipwreck discoverers are doing a great effort for cultural heritage management in the long run... what we don't support is the action of actually taking up items and selling them," he said.

Arab League

2012-01-28T19:50:00.001-05:00

Damascus, Syria (CNN) -- The Arab League has suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of a sharp spike in violence, the group said Saturday, the same day opposition activists reported at least 98 deaths.

Among those killed by government security forces were three children, one woman and 11 defected soldiers, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria (LCC), an opposition group that organizes and documents anti-government demonstrations.

Syria "escalated the security situation," an Arab League statement said. Deaths are up and innocent citizens have been affected by "continuing violence and exchange of assaults and gun firing," it read.

The decision comes just days after President Bashar al-Assad's government agreed to a one-month extension of the mission, which began December 26.

The Syrian government "regrets and was surprised" by the move, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported, citing an official source. The Arab League made the move to pressure the U.N. Security Council into approving foreign intervention, the source said.

Part of a peace initiative in Syria, the 22-member Arab League has called on al-Assad's regime to stop violence against civilians, free political detainees, remove tanks and weapons from cities, and allow outsiders -- including the international news media -- to travel freely in Syria.

It has been monitoring government activities in various hotspots.

In the past two days, opposition activists reported scores of deaths, with one group, the LCC, listing 135 deaths Thursday and Friday.

CNN cannot independently confirm events in Syria because it is limited from reporting on the ground.

The Arab League's statement said the Syrian government has taken "the events toward a direction far from the nature" of the monitoring mission, despite its commitments to the league's initiative.

Secretary-General Nabil el-Araby decided to halt the mission after discussions with several Arab League foreign ministers.

El-Araby also instructed the mission's chief, Sudanese Lt. Gen. Mohammad Ahmad al-Dabi, "to take all the necessary to ensure the safety of all members of the mission."

Violence raged again Saturday as seven soldiers died in an attack, state-run media reported. It blamed an "armed terrorist group."
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SANA said the attackers fired at a bus on the outskirts of Damascus and killed the soldiers, one of whom was a junior officer. They were traveling between the towns of Douma and Adra.

Terrorists were also blamed for an explosion on an oil pipeline in northeastern Deir Ezzor province, SANA said, quoting a source at the oil ministry.

The SANA report said production wasn't affected by the attack but that 2,000 barrels of oil were lost. Firefighters extinguished the blaze and crews began repair work. SANA said the pipeline had been attacked before.

The United Nations last month estimated that more than 5,000 people have died since March, when the government launched a crackdown against peaceful demonstrators. Activist groups estimate a higher death toll, with counts near or exceeding 7,000 people.

Opposition activists blame the deaths on government actions. The Syrian government says terrorists are responsible for the casualties.

Diplomats at the U.N. Security Council are considering a draft resolution that calls on al-Assad to step down and transfer power to his vice president.

Friday, the council discussed the measure introduced by Morocco.

The resolution also supports "full implementation" of the Arab League report that called on Syria to form a unity government within two months but stopped short of supporting military intervention. The Arab League report was released about a month after it sent observers into Syria.

Noting the mission's suspension, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said now is the moment for the "international community to unite" and agree to a U.N. Security Council resolution.

El-Araby and Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, are expected to brief the council Tuesday about the observer mission's findings.

When asked whether that briefing would lead to a vote next week, France's U.N. envoy, Gerard Araud, responded with just one word: "Inshallah," or god willing in Arabic.

There will be a Monday meeting of experts from the missions of the 15 countries on the Security Council.

Syrian ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja'afari dismissed the proposed resolution.

"Syria will not be Libya; Syria will not be Iraq; Syria will not be Somalia; Syria will not be a failing state," he told reporters.

Shark Diving

2012-01-28T19:45:00.000-05:00

TSA

2012-01-28T17:59:00.000-05:00

TSA rail, subway spot-checks raise privacy issues

(CNN) -- Rick Vetter and his teen son got a pretty good look at the legal line between privacy and security last month, as they wrapped up a day trip to Charlotte, North Carolina.

After watching the NFL's Atlanta Falcons beat the Carolina Panthers, they were looking forward to a three-hour train ride back home to Raleigh when they arrived at the train station.

Walking up a ramp toward the platform, they noticed what appeared to be a uniformed Transportation Security Administration officer holding a leashed police dog.

"He just loosened the leash on the dog, and the dog came over to check me out," Vetter said. Standing on the platform above Vetter were three other officers who appeared to be wearing bullet-proof vests.

As the guard dog smelled him, Vetter -- who has two dogs of his own -- told the officer that it probably was reacting to the smell of Vetter's pets.
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"The TSA officer said 'OK' or something like that. Then it was clear that the dog had done what he needed to do, and we went on up the ramp to get on the train."

"I'm sure somebody who wasn't comfortable with dogs would have found it a lot more disconcerting than I did, but I sort of didn't worry about it," said Vetter, an attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Vetters had encountered VIPR -- special TSA Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response teams that are tasked with performing random, unpredictable baggage and security checks at passenger train, subway and bus stations as well as trucking weigh stations across the nation.

TSA officials like to point out that the acronym stands for Transportation Security Administration, not the Airport Security Administration. And that's where VIPR comes in.

Born after 2004's Madrid railway bombings, VIPR suffered some embarrassing coordination struggles, transit officials say.

The program has 15 teams and is expanding to get access to 12 new teams to spot-check thousands of transportation depots across the nation.

VIPR teams conducted 3,895 operations in "surface modes" nationwide in 2010, according to the Department of Homeland Security (PDF).

The expansion comes after intelligence from Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound revealed al Qaeda plans to target U.S. rail systems on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

At a time when TSA airport searches are unpopular among many air travelers, civil liberties groups say VIPR's joint participation with local police in "warrantless" searches have been "flying under the radar" in violation of constitutional protections. Transit police say it helps them better guard against attacks like those that have hit Madrid, London and Moscow since 2004.

VIPR teams join local authorities for many of their operations aimed at searching passenger bags. Authorities say officers include plainclothes and uniformed team members -- some of them armed -- who arrive without telling passengers in advance.

Officers in the joint operations then randomly ask travelers for permission to search their bags for explosives. To prevent accusations of profiling, searchers choose a random number -- eight for example -- and then search the bags of every eighth passenger before they board.

Also, VIPR observers may be in the vicinity, keeping an eye out for suspicious behavior, police say.

Local and federal authorities insist the searches are not mandatory.
... in a surprise situation like that, I would not have been pleased.
Rick Vetter, Amtrak passenger

But passengers who refuse are not allowed on the train, forcing some travelers to make a tough decision.

"If you're going to make a choice between having somebody search you -- even though you question whether they have the right to do that -- or having to find another way home, I'd probably have let them search me," Vetter said. Luckily, he said, it didn't come to that. Officers did not ask to search his backpack.

As an attorney for the EPA, Vetter is pretty familiar with his Fourth Amendment constitutional right protecting him from "unreasonable searches."

"At the airport, everybody now understands it's part of the process," he said. "You can either choose to deal with it or not. But in a surprise situation like that, I would not have been pleased."

'Security theater'

New Jersey Transit Police Chief Christopher Trucillo, who works regularly with VIPR teams, acknowledged that the search system isn't perfect.

Potential attackers carrying explosives who refuse searches are free to simply drive to the next station on the line and board there.

"Because of the sheer number of passengers, there's nothing that would prevent you from doing that," Trucillo said. But there also are "things behind the scenes that are not visible to the traveling public that we employ to keep our system safe."
The administrative search does not require probable cause.
Kimberley Thompson, Transportation Security Administration

This isn't security, Christopher Calabrese of the American Civil Liberties Union says. It's "security theater."

Such searches offer no protection to society at the cost of passengers' civil liberties and convenience, he says. "We're very troubled by the VIPR program."

A high-profile example of VIPR's growing pains, transit officials say, is a VIPR-assisted passenger screening a year ago at Amtrak's station in Savannah, Georgia.

Instead of screening passengers as they boarded trains -- which is standard security procedure -- officers were screening passengers as they were getting off trains.

Security experts know that makes no sense, because potential terrorists probably would be interested in bringing explosives onto trains, not taking them off.

When Amtrak's police chief, John O'Connor, got wind of it, he "was very clearly angry," said Trains Magazine reporter Don Phillips, who spoke to O'Connor at the time.

O'Connor and TSA officials then hammered out an agreement on how future VIPR/Amtrak operations would be conducted.

The chief now says the Savannah operation simply "didn't make a whole lot of sense, and VIPR has since realized their misunderstanding and have corrected what they do."
The TSA needs to understand that train stations are not airports.
Sean Jeans-Gail, National Association of Railroad Passengers

"We were pleased with the way O'Connor responded," said Sean Jeans-Gail of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, who fears that the searches might affect a more than century-old tradition in America's train stations.

"The TSA needs to understand that train stations are not airports, they're publicly open hubs for community activity, which often include shopping facilities. The TSA needs to be more mindful of that."

VIPR-assisted transit and rail searches haven't been challenged in court, but it's likely, civil liberties groups say. "I think expanding the program will be problematic politically and legally," said Ginger McCall of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Any courtroom battle over VIPR searches will pick apart the Fourth Amendment, which bars police searches unless there's "probable cause" to believe a crime has been committed.

But the TSA claims "administrative search authority" to conduct random checkpoint searches of passengers and baggage at "surface transportation venues" without probable cause, according to TSA spokeswoman Kimberley Thompson.

"... the administrative search does not require probable cause, but must further an important government need, such as preventing would-be terrorists from bringing an explosive device onto a crowded commuter train," Thompson said.

In certain very limited circumstances, especially after the 9/11 attacks, courts have ruled that Fourth Amendment rights don't apply because of the threat of terrorism.

In a 2006 case that didn't involve VIPR, subway rider Brendan MacWade and three others sued the City of New York and its police commissioner, challenging passenger bag searches at subway entrances where people were chosen at random. MacWade lost on appeal because the court ruled the searches were legal under the Fourth Amendment's "special needs doctrine."
... subways are a harder call because so many people ride them and they don't fly in the sky.
Jeffrey Toobin, CNN Senior Legal Analyst

"The courts have said that -- because airplanes are so vulnerable to hijacking and bombs -- certain privacy interests have to be sacrificed," CNN Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin said. "I think subways are a harder call because so many people ride them and they don't fly in the sky. But because they're underground and vulnerable, the court said the searches were OK. Would it be the same at a bus station or a busy city street? The line starts to get very tough."

Few Amtrak passengers have ever refused to be searched, O'Connor said. "We've done thousands of them, and I would say less than a handful of people have chosen to seek other transportation."

The TSA says VIPR is performing the searches often at the invitation of local or state authorities. "TSA is not arbitrarily going out there now and searching passengers and trying to violate their rights," Thompson said. "We're conducting searches in conjunction with the stakeholders."

Is VIPR working? It's hard to know.

When asked if VIPR has ever directly resulted in discovered explosives or the arrest of suspected attackers, Thompson said, "Specific operational results are considered security sensitive information. Although the value of deterrence is difficult to measure directly the presence of law enforcement transportation security personnel VIPR assets increases the difficulty with which potential terrorists plan and conduct terrorist activity."

VIPR's spot-checking role, rail security experts say, saves the high cost of deploying officers at every passenger transportation depot in the nation -- which they point out would be virtually impossible.

The surprise element of a VIPR team accompanying local police at a train station or truck weigh station on the day of a planned attack might force a terrorist to cancel the attack. "This kind of unpredictability is another tool in the toolbox to manipulate and play with their minds and cause a level of tactical deterrence," Rand security analyst Brian A. Jackson said.

As Amtrak's O'Connor puts it: "You never know where those search scenes are going to show up."

Watching the truckers

Truckers driving their rigs through Tennessee last October were surprised to be caught up in a VIPR joint exercise with local law enforcement targeting five freight truck weigh stations and two bus stations, CNN affiliate WTVF reported.
Unpredictability is another tool in the toolbox to manipulate and play with [terrorists'] minds.
Brian A. Jackson, Rand security analyst

"Transportation Security officers did not search the trucks," the TSA's Thompson told CNN. "Technically, if you think about a dog walking around a truck, sniffing for trace explosives, from my understanding is still technically a search. That's the only search the VIPRs were actually involved in." TSA officers, she said, were mostly handing out fliers. "They weren't out there searching people, and they weren't out there searching trucks."

The action was described as a statewide VIPR operation, and officials told WTVF that it wasn't a response to any particular threat, which troubles the American Trucking Associations.

"Adding security personnel at weigh stations in unfamiliar federal uniforms is not likely to raise the comfort level of commercial drivers entering weigh stations, unless there is a threat to the highway sector," ATA spokesman Martin Rojas said. It "doesn't seem like the best use of TSA resources unless there is information or intelligence that supports increased highway security."

What other countries are doing

Spain and Russia significantly beefed up their rail security in the years after deadly terrorist bomb attacks killed 191 in Madrid in 2004 and 40 in Moscow in 2010.

Although there are no regular baggage checks for passengers on Spanish trains, subways and buses, the nation's bullet trains do use electronic scanners. Far more undercover plainclothes agents and uniformed officers are believed to be stationed in or near major transit hubs. Madrid's metro trains use a private security patrol force and closed-circuit video surveillance.

Moscow -- with the world's second-busiest subway system -- has spent $1.6 billion over three years to strengthen its transit security, said security analyst Rick Nelson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

U.S. transit officials look to VIPR to augment security during tough financial times for many communities.

"We'd prefer to see a greater investment directly with the transit agencies," said Greg Hull of the American Public Transportation Association. "Failing that, having the ability to draw upon these resources that are under the control of the Department of Homeland Security certainly is a viable alternative."
They could have provided some advance warning.
Rick Vetter, Amtrak passenger

For the Vetters, their father-and-son brush with train passenger searches offered a real-world life lesson.

Rick Vetter remembers that his wife recently gave him a refrigerator magnet featuring a quote from Ben Franklin: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

"The VIPR operation certainly didn't amount to that," Vetter said. "They could have handled it better in the sense that they could have provided some advance warning that they're expanding this to train stations and bus stations."

The Ben Franklin magnet sprang from his son's government lessons in school, Vetter said, which led to a family discussion about tradeoffs in society.

"You've got to decide in society where you're going to draw some of those lines," Vetter said. "You, as an individual, may or may not agree where that line is drawn, but once it's drawn, you've got some choices to make."

more @ http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/28/travel/tsa-vipr-passenger-train-searches/index.html?hpt=us_t2

American Express Sucks

2012-01-28T17:29:00.001-05:00

Seven-night cruise through France, Italy, and Spain on the Costa Concordia, only $749! Embarrassment as American Express promotes trip on doomed liner

An American Express mailer was recently sent out advertising a seven-night cruise touring Italy, France, and Spain for the tantalising price of $749.

The only problem was the ship to which American Express referred was the stricken Costa Concordia, which is currently half-submerged off the coast of Italy.

The cruise special was slated to run from February 25 to October 29 of this year.

On January 13, the behemoth ocean liner ran aground near Giglio, Italy with more than 4,200 people on board.

The adverts were sent to certain card holders in Florida, and later surfaced on a Washington Post blog, the New York Daily News reports.

The mailer encouraged cardholders to ‘immerse yourself in a truly European experience.’

American Express spokeswoman Christine Elliot said: ‘The mailing was already underway when the accident occurred.

We apologise for any inconvenience to those who received it,’ she told the News.

According to Ms Elliot, production time for mailers is anywhere from six to eight weeks, meaning they were completed long before the accident.

Divers have just found a body of a woman, which brings the death toll up to 17. At least 15 people are still missing.

A Dutch salvage company said today that it plans to begin pumping the some 2,300 tonnes of fuel out of the ship.

‘We were ready (Saturday) morning to commence oil pumping in the course of the day,’ Smit spokesperson Martijn Schuttevaer said at a news conference.

He said that bad weather prevented the effort, and pumping will be delayed until at least next Tuesday because of the continued forecast.

According to BBC News, the efforts will take nearly a month to complete, and is a delicate undertaking, in part because of the environmental hazard that could result if diesel leaks into the ocean.

The ship’s captain Francesco Schettino remains under house arrest as the investigation into his behaviours continues.

The shamed captain is charged with multiple counts of manslaughter, as well as causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated.

In the meantime, Costa has offered $14,500 per passenger as settlement. Those who accept the compensation would not be allowed to seek further legal action against the company.

The blunder of advertising a voyage before the ship arrives in port is nothing new.

White Star Line, which owned and operated three of the largest cruise ships at the turn of the century - including the Titanic - would advertise trips before the ship’s arrival in local newspapers and in fliers.

Various adverts were taken out, including those promoting the Titanic’s trip on April 20 out of New York’s Pier 59.

The ship famously sank in the middle of the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912 on its maiden voyage. More than 1,500 passengers and crew perished of the 2,228 aboard.

More @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093127/Costa-Concordia-Embarrassment-American-Express-promotes-trip-doomed-liner.html

Jada Fire

2012-01-28T15:07:00.002-05:00