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Two views on Collateral Murder:
Collateral Murder in Iraq/ 5 innocent dead in Afghanistan US attempted Cover Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CLo_WDy-hQ&NR=1
Collateral Murder - My Thoughts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4esNoTr8xBI
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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ONE STRUGGLE! ONE FIGHT! EDUCATION IS A RIGHT!
ALL OUT TO:
THE 2ND STATEWIDE MOBILIZING CONFERENCE AGAINST THE PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
April 24th in Los Angeles, California
Santee Education Complex
1921 South Maple Avenue
Contact Us, Sign Up For Updates, & Send Endorsements To
Conference E-Mail Address:
educationconference0424@gmail.com
Conference Website:
http://education4people.co.cc/
The future of public education in this state - particularly for the working class and communities of color, who are being hit especially hard by the cuts - depends on our ability to unify and push forward the struggle in defense of public education.
The purpose of this Statewide Mobilizing Conference is therefore both simple and extremely urgent: to democratically discuss and decide on a unifying political platform and plan of action capable of bringing together schools, student organizations, labor unions, committees, coalitions, and parent and community organizations across the state to deepen and push forward this powerful and broad movement that shook the state and the country on March 4th.
We ask activists, organizations, and mobilized schools across the state to put their full organizational capacity into helping us collectively to build and promote this conference. We ask for maximum participation from all education sectors - Pre-K-12, Community College, CSU, UC, and Adult Education - and regions, and from all organizations of workers, teachers, and students, and we extend the invitation to all mobilized schools and organizations across the country. Get your union, student government or parent-teacher organization to endorse, attend, and participate in the conference.
The decision to call for this conference was made at the Statewide Mobilizing Conference of October 24th, 2009, where over 800 people from all of the sectors of public education decided together to call for the March 4th Strike and Day of Action in defense of public education.
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April 26th: Demand Justice in D.C.!
ALL OUT FOR MUMIA!
Join the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC), the NAACP-LDF, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Cornel West, Ramsey Clark, the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the Peoples Law Office, and SEIU Local 1199 TO DEMAND A CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION BY THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.
MONDAY APRIL 26, 2010
11 AM: PRESS CONFERENCE AT NEW YORK AVENUE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
1313 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC
1-2PM: RALLY AT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW (betweeen 9th AND 10th St.)
Busses and carpools will leave from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York and other cities.
For more information call 212-330-8029 or go to freemumia.com
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SF Workers Memorial Day
Stand Up For Injured Workers
& Commemorate Workers Killed On The Job
Wed April 28, 7:00 PM
ILWU Local 34 2nd St./Embarcadero SF
Speakers:
Shiela Davis, Executive Director Silicon Valley Toxic Coalition
Mike Daly, Ironworkers Local 377* delegate to San Francisco Labor Council
Leuren Moret, Geo-scientist who worked at the Livermore nuclear weapons lab
Carol Criss, SEIU-UHW Kaiser Steward Transcriptionist
Roland Sheppard, Retired BA Painters Local 4
Dina Padilla, Injured Worker Advocate
Becky McClain, Injure Pfizer Molecular Biologist by telephone
Sandy Trend, mother of injured Agraquest injured biotech worker David Bell
Workers in the bay area and nationally continue to get injured and killed on the job. In California, OSHA inspectors have been threatened and retaliated against for speaking out about the decline of the agency and the failure of the agency to do a proper job protecting injured workers and the public. Additionally all the OSHA doctors for California's 17 million workers have also been terminated thereby threatening the safety of workers and the public. There are more CA Fish and Game Inspectors than Ca-OSHA inspectors and this needs to change.
Hundreds of NUMMI injured workers who have been on disability are also now being discriminated against by the company and treated as 2nd class workers in the compensation plan. Is this fair? Many of these workers have given decades of their lives to the company yet they are now being punished for being disabled. This is cost shifting since their healthcare will now be paid for by the State and SSI when they go on permanent disability. This is yet another example of cost shifting by the corporations making the tax payer pay for their liabilities.
Workers Memorial Day is held every year to commemorate those workers killed and injured on the job. The deregulation of workers compensation has also allowed employers and the insurance industry to deny seriously injured workers prompt healthcare and also has cut the permanent disability payments by 50% as well as completely eliminating retraining.
There is a national struggle to strengthen OSHA protection called the Protecting America's Workers Act H.R. 2067 needs to be supported and also to require that all injured workers are entitled to their exposure records on the job. Health and safety must trump privacy/secrecy laws.
We also support H.R. 635 which will create a US Commission on State Workers Compensation Laws and will study the affect of deregulation for injured workers in the U.S. At the same time, OSHA plans to remove some chemical warnings on exposure limits for workers.
We need to educate and reactivate the labor movement to protect our lives and health and safety in the workplace. Please join with workers and their families at this memorial meeting and speak out and demand healthcare and justice for all workers and people in the community.
California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day CCWMD
www.workersmemorialday.org
(415) 867-0628
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Protest on International Workers' Day
Full Rights for Undocumented Workers
Legalization/Amnesty for All!
Money for Jobs and Education, Not War and Occupation
Jobs for All!
No Budget Cuts or Fee Hikes
Tax the Rich and Corporations!
March and Rally
Saturday May 1, 12noon
March Assembles: 24th and Mission Sts., SF
Sponsored by the May Day 2010 Coalition, of which the ANSWER Coalition is a member.
Proteste durante el Día Internacional del Trabajador
¡Derechos Incondicionales para Trabajadores Indocumentados
Legalización/Amnistía para todos!
¡Dinero Para Trabajos y Educación, No para Guerra y Ocupación
Trabajos para todos!
¡No Recortes o Aumentos-Cobren a los Ricos y Corporaciones!
Marcha y Mitin
Sab. 1º de Mayo, 12pm
Uniéndose sobre la calle 24 y Misión, SF
Patrocinado por la Coalición Día de Mayo 2010, la cual la Coalición ANSWER es un participante.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org
http://www.answersf.org
answer@answersf.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
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Please post and distribute widely -
A message from the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal -
Accusing Cop Is a No-Show, But...
Holly Works Still Faces A Felony Frame-up!
An Injury To One Is An Injury To All -
DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST HOLLY WORKS!
Holly's Trial Continued to May 10th.
Demonstrate & Attend Holly's Trial!
Monday, May 10, 2010
8 AM - demonstrate to drop the charges!
9 AM - attend Holly's trial
Alameda County Courthouse
12th and Oak St, Oakland CA
Holly Works is the last remaining defendant of the "Oakland 100," who were the victims of a vicious and arbitrary police crackdown against the protests in Oakland over the police murder of Oscar Grant, on New Years Day, 2009. (More on Oscar Grant, see below)
Holly's trial was to have begun on April 5th, but the officer, Christopher Cox, who accused Holly of assaulting him with a deadly weapon, apparently had more important things to do on April 5th than repeat this blatant lie in court. He was a no-show!
But, instead of tossing out this garbage "case" when the cop failed to appear, the judge promptly "continued" it to May 10th.
A local musician, bakery worker and activist, Holly was walking with a friend in Oakland in January 2009, to the protest against the police murder of Oscar Grant. But... She was arrested before she even arrived at the protest, and at least an hour before the protest had started! She was detained and fraudulently charged with... assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer!
Originally charged with assaulting the cop with a knife, Holly had no knife, and so a convenient change was made. Since she happened to have a screw driver in her purse, Holly was accused of using this to assault the officer.
A total fabrication! The charge against Holly was made up by the police on the spot, right in front of her! Later, while sitting in a police van, Holly overheard cops on the radio discussing what excuses to use to arrest people in the upcoming protest.
The purpose of the Oakland 100 prosecutions was to tie up protesters with time-consuming prosecutions, and intimidate and silence opposition. Holly particularly was victimized partly in order to blame violence on out-of-town white radicals, "anarchists," etc., who it is said came into Oakland to make trouble. But Holly is a local Oakland activist! She was walking from her home, just a few blocks away from where she was arrested. And she didn't do anything!
Holly in auto accident! Meanwhile, Holly was the victim in an auto accident last Saturday, April 10th. The other driver admitted fault at the scene, but Holly suffered severe whiplash, her head hit the windshield, and her car was totaled. Treated and released at Highland Hospital, she's OK, but... let's send her a little love!
Donate to Holly's Defense! Send Holly a little love, and solidarity, by donating to her defense against the felony frame-up she still faces. She has a good lawyer, but little money to pay him. Donations can be made by Pay Pal at Holly's web site:
www.supportholly.org. Donate to the defense of Holly (Works) Noll at this site. Please be as generous as you can!
Oscar Grant was a young black retail grocery worker in Oakland, and the father of a young daughter. He was out with friends for New Years Eve, 2009, when he and some others were detained by BART police. He was shot in the back at point blank range by a BART cop, as he lay face-down on the Fruitvale station platform early in the morning.
Cell-phone videos taken of the incident by witnesses on the station platform were posted on the internet, and protests erupted in Oakland. Over a week later, the officer, Johannes Mehserle, was finally charged with murder. He was one of the very few police officers ever to be charged with murder in one of the huge number of killings of black males by police in California. Mehserle was granted a change of venue, and is now being tried in Los Angeles.
DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST HOLLY WORKS!
- The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610 • 510 763-2347
www.laboractionmumia.org. 12 April 2010
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CIRCLE THESE DATES!!
Announcing...
A National Conference
To Bring the Troops Home Now!
JULY 23, 24, 25, 2010
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Albany, New York
www.nationalpeaceconference.org
AN INVITATION FROM: After Downing Street, Arab American Union Members Council, Black Agenda Report, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, Campus Antiwar Network, Code Pink, Iraq Veterans Against the War, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, Peace of the Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Progressive Democrats of America, U.S. Labor Against the War, The Fellowship of Reconciliation, Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom [list in formation]
We demand the immediate and total withdrawal of U.S. military forces, mercenaries and contractors from Afghanistan and Iraq. Moreover, we recognize that the Middle East cauldron today also encompasses Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Palestine and Israel, while Haiti, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba and other countries in Latin America are targeted for intervention, subversion, occupation and control as a consequence of a militarized U.S. foreign policy. Our challenge is not only to end wars and occupations, but to fundamentally change the aggressive policies that inevitably lead our country to militarism and war.
Join us in Albany, New York, July 23-25, 2010!
Issued by the United National Antiwar Conference (UNAC) Planning Committee
For more information, write UNAC2010@aol.com, or UNAC at P.O. Box 21675, Cleveland, OH 44121 or call 518-227-6947 or visit our website at www.nationalpeaceconference.org
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B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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URGENT: Support the Fight of Florida Students & Teachers Against Privatization of Public Schools and Resegregation and the Assignment of Students and Teachers in Black and Latina/o Areas to Permanent, Legal, Second-Class Status
Over 1500 Miami/Dade Teachers staged a sick-out and rally today (Monday, April 12) to demand that Governor Crist veto Senate Bill 6.
"If passed, this law will hasten the privatization of public education and the proliferation of charters in Florida, penalize teachers who teach the least privileged students and punish students who perform poorly on standardized tests (particularly English language learners) by withholding a high school diploma from even those who have earned the highest grades," said Ceresta Smith, a teacher from Dade County.
The 1500 teachers who called in sick assembled in Tropical Park, where they were joined by an additional 2500 supporters, including parents, students and community members.
"If passed, SB6 would assign both teachers and students in black and Latino areas to a permanent, legal, second-class status. In the south, where many charters are all white, the charter school movement has increased segregation - SB6 would accelerate this trend by widening the doors to publicly funded, privately-operated schools such as those that the segregationists founded in the 1950's to avoid the mandate of integration ordered by Brown v. Board of Education," said Shanta Driver, spokesperson for BAMN (By Any Means Necessary), the civil rights organization that sponsored a March on Washington to Defend Public Education last Saturday, and is supporting the fight of Florida teachers.
The teachers plan to caravan to Tallahassee later this week to protest at the Governor's office.
For more information and to support and build the movement, contact BAMN National Coordinator Donna Stern 313-468-3398 or letters@bamn.com.
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) (313) 468-3398 letters@bamn.com
Equal Opportunity Now (NOW) Caucus
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Greetings All:
This letter was written by Yuri Kochiyama who has asked us to spread this letter far and wide. Please do :).
Kiilu
---
March 1, 2010
Dear Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal:
Mumia's birthday is April 24 and we would like to celebrate the whole month of April with a gigantic Freedom Birthday Remembrance for Mumia Abu Jamal.
Please join Pam and Ramona Africa and all who love and admire Mumia by avalanching him through the month of April with Freedom Birthday wishes. And, to those who can afford to, please send a few dollars through postal money orders. This would be helpful when he is released.
Mail cards to:
Mumia Abu Jamal AM 8335
SCI Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370-8090
Tell your family members, friends, fellow workers, neighbors, classmates, etc. Also, notify progressive radio stations, newspapers and organizations. Please do so immediately as April is almost upon us. Remember what Mumia has endured at the hands of the U.S. government and the Pennsylvania criminal justice system. Mumia has already done 32 years and is still on death row because of prosecutorial misconduct. Yet he is innocent! Act now before it is too late.
Don't let Mumia become another victim of a government's destructive history. Mumia's life is in peril and must be saved. He is needed to teach us how to fight for a better world for all. If ever Mumia was needed, it is now!
Join us in celebrating Mumia's birthday throughout April and let it be a celebration for Mumia's freedom!
Remember we need him more than he needs us. We need him, not only for today, but for all the tomorrows coming. Join us. Write to Mumia now.
From Friends and Family of Mumia Abu Jamal
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Please sign the petition to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal and
and forward it to all your lists.
"Mumia Abu-Jamal and The Global Abolition of the Death Penalty"
http://www.petitiononline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html
(A Life In the Balance - The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, at 34, Amnesty Int'l, 2000; www. Amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/001/2000.)
[Note: This petition is approved by Mumia Abu-Jamal and his lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, San Francisco (E-mail: MumiaLegalDefense@gmail.com; Website: www.MumiaLegalDefense.org).]
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
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Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense in the U.S. Our legal effort is the front line of the battle for Mumia's freedom and life. His legal defense needs help. The costs are substantial for our litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the state level. To help, please make your checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation indicate "Mumia" on the bottom left). All donations are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501c)3), and should be mailed to:
It is outrageous and a violation of human rights that Mumia remains in prison and on death row. His life hangs in the balance. My career has been marked by successfully representing people facing death in murder cases. I will not rest until we win Mumia's case. Justice requires no less.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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Collateral Murder
[COLD-BLOODED, OUTRIGHT MURDER OF UNARMED CIVILIANS--AND THEY LAUGH ABOUT IT AS THEY SHOOT! THIS IS A BLOOD-CURTLING, VIOLENT AND BRUTAL VIDEO THAT SHOULD BE VIEWED BY EVERYONE! IT EXPOSES, AS MARTIN LUTHER KING SAID, "THE BIGGEST PURVEYORS OF VIOLENCE IN THE WORLD," THE U.S. BI-PARTISAN GOVERNMENT AND THE MILITARY THEY COMMAND. --BW]
Overview
5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff.
Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.
http://www.collateralmurder.com/
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San Francisco City and County Tramples on Civil Liberties
A Letter to Antiwar Activists
Dear Activists:
On Saturday, March 20, the San Francisco City and County Recreation and Parks Department's Park Rangers patrolled a large public antiwar demonstration, shutting down the distribution of Socialist Viewpoint magazine. The rally in Civic Center Plaza was held in protest of the illegal and immoral U.S. wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, and to commemorate the 7th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The Park Rangers went table-to-table examining each one. They photographed the Socialist Viewpoint table and the person attending it-me. My sister, Debbie and I, had set up the table. We had a sign on the table that asked for a donation of $1.25 for the magazine. The Park Rangers demanded that I "pack it up" and go, because selling or even asking for donations for newspapers or magazines is no longer permitted without the purchase of a new and expensive "vendors license." Their rationale for this denial of free speech is that the distribution of newspapers, magazines, T-shirts-and even food-would make the political protest a "festival" and not a political protest demonstration!
This City's action is clearly a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution-the right to free speech and freedom of the press-and can't be tolerated.
While they are firing teachers and other San Francisco workers, closing schools, cutting back healthcare access, cutting services to the disabled and elderly, it is outrageous that the Mayor and City Government chose to spend thousands of dollars to police tables at an antiwar rally-a protest demonstration by the people!
We can't let this become the norm. It is so fundamentally anti-democratic. The costs of the permits for the rally, the march, the amplified sound, is already prohibitive. Protest is not a privilege we should have to pay for. It's a basic right in this country and we should reclaim it!
Personally, I experienced a deep feeling of alienation as the crisply-uniformed Park Ranger told me I had to "pack it up"-especially when I knew that they were being paid by the City to do this at this demonstration!
I hope you will join this protest of the violation of the right to distribute and, therefore, the right to read Socialist Viewpoint, by writing or emailing the City officials who are listed below.1
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein, Editorial Board Member, Socialist Viewpoint
www.socialistviewpoint.org
60 - 29th Street, #429
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-824-8730
1 Mayor Gavin Newsom
City Hall, Room 200
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
gavin.newsom@sfgov.org
Board of Supervisors
City Hall
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244
San Francisco, Ca 94102-4689
Board.of.supervisors@sfgov.org
San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department Park Rangers
McLaren Lodge & Annex
501 Stanyan Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
Park.patrol@sfgov.org
San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission
501 Stanyan Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
recpark.commission@sfgov.org
Chief of Police George Gascón
850 Bryant Street, #525
San Francisco, CA 94103
(I could not find an email address for him.).
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FREE LYNNE STEWART NOW!
Lynne Stewart in Jail!
Mail tax free contributions payable to National Lawyers Guild Foundation. Write in memo box: "Lynne Stewart Defense." Mail to: Lynne Stewart Defense, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.
SEND RESOLUTIONS AND STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT TO DEFENSE ATTORNEY JOSHUA L. DRATEL, ESQ. FAX: 212) 571 3792 AND EMAIL: jdratel@aol.com
SEND PROTESTS TO ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER:
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Department of Justice Main Switchboard - 202-514-2000
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Office of the Attorney General Public Comment Line - 202-353-1555
To send Lynne a letter, write:
Lynne Stewart
53504-054
MCC-NY
150 Park Row
New York, NY 10007
Lynne Stewart speaks in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOQ5_VKRf5k&feature=related
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Troy Anthony Davis is an African American man who has spent the last 18 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. There is no physical evidence tying him to the crime and seven out of nine witnesses have recanted. New evidence and new testimony have been presented to the Georgia courts, but the justice system refuses to consider this evidence, which would prove Troy Davis' innocence once and for all.
Sign the petition and join the NAACP, Amnesty International USA, and other partners in demanding justice for Troy Davis!
http://www.iamtroy.com/
For Now, High Court Punts on Troy Davis, on Death Row for 18 Years
By Ashby Jones
Wall Street Journal Law Blog
June 30, 2009
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/06/30/for-now-high-court-punts-on-troy-davis-on-death-row-for-18-years/
Take action now:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&aid=12361&ICID=A0906A01&tr=y&auid=5030305
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT!
FLASHPOINTS Interview with Innocent San Quentin Death Row Inmate
Kevin Cooper -- Aired Monday, May 18,2009
http://www.flashpoints.net/#GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE
To learn more about Kevin Cooper go to:
savekevincooper.org
LINKS
San Francisco Chronicle article on the recent ruling:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAM517J8T3.DTL
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and dissent:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf
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COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
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C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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1) Soldier Jailed for Rap Lyrics Is Discharged
By Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Report
April 18, 2010
http://www.truthout.org/soldier-jailed-rap-lyrics-is-discharged58678
2)'Tiny' climate changes may trigger quakes
By Emily Beament, PA
Monday, 19 April 2010
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/tiny-climate-changes-may-trigger-quakes-1948432.html
3) Pennsylvania: School District Took 56,000 Secret Photographs
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/us/20brfs-SCHOOLDISTRI_BRF.html?ref=us
4) Goldman Tops Forecast, With $3.46 Billion in Earnings
"Going forward, Goldman should profit from fast-paced growth in overseas markets, Mr. Shahrawat said, but it also may face new pressures like financial regulation and questions about its reputation."
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
April 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/business/21goldman.html?ref=business
5) Benefit for Uninsured May Still Pose Hurdle
[The EVERYBODY'S GONNA PAY EXCEPT THE RICH WHO WILL REAP THE PROFITS, OBAMA PLAN...bw]
By RONI CARYN RABIN
April 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/health/20landscape.html?ref=health
6) Health insurers make big bucks from Big Macs
"Safeguarding people's health and well-being take a back seat to making money."
By Katherine Harmon
April 15, 2010
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=health-insurers-make-big-bucks-from-2010-04-15&sc=WR_20100420
7) Health and Life Insurance Companies Invest $2 Billion in Burgers, Tacos and Pizzas
Harvard study critical of insurers holding stock in major fast-food chains
By Candy Sagon
Source: AARP Bulletin
April 15, 2010
http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourhealth/policy/articles/health_and_life_insurance_companies_invest_2_billion_in_burgers_tacos_and_pizzas.html
8) One-third of Americans say own government a threat: Poll
By Agence France-Presse
Monday, April 19th, 2010 -- 12:53 pm
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0419/americans-government-threat-poll/
9) NATO Apologizes for Killing 4 Unarmed Afghans
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
April 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/world/asia/22afghan.html?ref=world
10) Transit Cuts Are Protested in Atlanta
By SHAILA DEWAN
April 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/us/21atlanta.html?ref=us
11) Ex-Adviser to Obama Now Lawyer for Goldman
By PETER BAKER
April 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/business/21craig.html?ref=us
12) Districts Warn of Deeper Teacher Cuts
By TAMAR LEWIN and SAM DILLON
April 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/education/21teachers.html?ref=education
13) Challenging China in Rare Earth Mining
By KEITH BRADSHER
April 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/business/energy-environment/22rare.html?ref=business
14) Student Suspended after Finger Gun Incident
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Eyewitness News
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=7392273
http://www.puppetgov.com/2010/04/21/terror-tots-girl-suspended-for-terroristic-threat-in-pointing-finger-at-teacher-and-saying-%E2%80%9Cpew-pew%E2%80%9D/
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1) Soldier Jailed for Rap Lyrics Is Discharged
By Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Report
April 18, 2010
http://www.truthout.org/soldier-jailed-rap-lyrics-is-discharged58678
Until April 17, US Army Spc. Marc Hall sat in a military brig at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, facing an imminent court-martial for challenging the US military's stop-loss policy in a song.
Sunday morning, Spc. Hall was granted a discharge by the military.
On December 17, 2009, Hall was jailed for writing a song about the personal impact of being forced to remain in the military beyond the scope of his contract by the stop-loss policy.
Stop-loss is a practice that allows the Army to keep soldiers active beyond the end of their signed contracts. According to the Pentagon, more than 120,000 soldiers have been affected by stop-loss since 2001, and currently 13,000 soldiers are serving under stop-loss orders, despite public pledges by President Barack Obama to phase out the policy.
Hall's song included lyrics the Army claimed were veiled threats of violence.
He was charged with five specifications in violation of Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Conduct, two of those for wrongfully communicating a threat based on song lyrics. Article 134 is a vague rule that outlaws anything "to the prejudice of good order and discipline."
Lyrics included Hall saying he may "go Fort Hood," a reference to the mass shooting at Fort Hood on November 5, which prosecutors for the Army claimed was a threat of violence.
"I explained to [my first sergeant] that the hardcore rap song was a free expression of how people feel about the Army and its stop-loss policy," Hall said at the time. "I explained that the song was neither a physical threat nor any threat whatsoever. I told him it was just hip-hop."
According to Jeff Paterson of Courage to Resist, an Oakland-based organization dedicated to supporting military objectors like Hall, he was not jailed for the song, but was instead jailed "in retaliation for his formal complaint of inadequate mental health services available to him at Fort Stewart. The Army used an angry song that Spc. Hall, a combat veteran of the Iraq War suffering from post-traumatic stress, had produced criticizing the stop-loss policy as the pretext."
What put the 34-year-old New York City native in the brig were, according to Paterson, Hall's persistent assertions of inadequate mental health care that culminated in a December 7 complaint to the Army Investigator General. Just five days after that, Hall was charged with violating "good order and discipline" at Fort Stewart, Georgia, and was shipped out of the country for a court martial in Kuwait.
On Feb. 20 Hall wrote, "A charge that was not a threat before, but all of a sudden became a threat now. I communicated a need for mental evaluation - not a threat."
On Feb. 26 Hall was put on plane to Iraq and transferred to Kuwait for pre-trial confinement. This put him out of reach of his civilian legal defense team, friends and family.
Shipping Hall to the Middle East to be court-martialed was, according to Hall's lawyer, an extreme move by the military.
"Not just the Constitution, but the rules for courts-martial, prohibit prosecutors from holding a court-martial in a combat zone as a pretext for depriving an accused of a public trial, counsel of his choice and necessary witnesses," David Gespass, Hall's civilian attorney and the president of the National Lawyers Guild, told Truthout in February of the Army's decision to try Hall in Iraq. "Whatever the Army may claim, that is exactly what the Army is doing to Marc."
Moving the court-martial from Fort Stewart, Georgia, to the Middle East effectively prohibited Hall's supporters from attending the trial, made it nearly impossible for the defense to call witnesses to the stand and made it dangerous for Gespass himself to attend.
In a message to supporters nationwide who organized a grassroots campaign on his behalf, Hall provided the following message by phone from Camp Arifjan in Kuwait: "I'm out of the confinement facility! Thank you to everyone for all the efforts everyone made. Hopefully I'll be home very, very soon. I appreciate all of the love and support so many people gave me through my ordeal."
Paterson told Truthout that he believes the military backed down because its chances of victory were looking slim.
"We had a real chance of winning this outright at the trial," Paterson said. "The military believed we wouldn't be able to get Gespass and an independent medical evaluator to Kuwait, but we got that together so they then moved it [the trial] from Kuwait to Iraq. But we kept at it, and they gave up. At the end of the day, the military decided it wasn't worth that effort. They did what they should have done four months ago - which was to let Marc out."
According to Paterson, when the Army realized that Gespass had successfully obtained a visa from the Iraqi embassy in Washington and "we were going forward with getting people into Iraq and forcing the military to be responsible for their safety, they backed off. The military was very effective at slandering Marc and portraying him as a dangerous gangster rap artist; it was difficult to overcome that in the mainstream media, but we did. The fact the military had to back down was a great thing for us."
Both Paterson and Gespass contend that an important factor in the case was that Hall has untreated post-traumatic stress disorder.
"Hall was near an IED [improvised explosive device] explosion during his combat tour in Iraq," Paterson told Truthout. "Part of our defense was to put up evidence that he's never been evaluated for TBI [traumatic brain injury]."
Gespass told Truthout that another factor in the Army's decision to discharge Hall was simply the general weakness of its case.
"They had such a terrible case to begin with," Gespass said. "I think it we tried the case we would have won. The things the Army claimed, there were no witnesses to back them up."
Like Paterson, Gespass believes Hall's case underscores the military's unwillingness to care for its soldiers.
"While I'm gratified that the Army finally decided to discharge Marc, I'm appalled at the disregard it has shown for Marc's well-being and fundamental rights for nine months," Gespass stated in a press release. "Whatever lip service the Army gives to its concern for its soldiers, its only real concern is insuring they risk their lives without questioning why. Marc's greatest transgression was asking that question."
Gespass told Truthout that it has not yet been determined whether Hall has PTSD or TBI, because the Army has not had him evaluated.
The president of the National Lawyer's Guild was clear as to why he thinks the Army handled Hall's case as it did.
"I think they waited as long as they did to be vindictive. This is something they should have agreed to weeks ago when we asked," Gespass said.
Hall's discharge is a general discharge under other-than-honorable conditions.
"The VA [Veteran's Administration] is a hard system to navigate, so even though he has service-related injuries, he will have to fight for what he gets," Paterson said. "But we're behind him. We're going to push to get that discharge upgraded."
Gespass feels similarly.
"We are very, very happy with the outcome, and I think there's a good chance we can get him benefits for military related disabilities and we can upgrade the discharge, which is the thing I plan on working on next."
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2)'Tiny' climate changes may trigger quakes
By Emily Beament, PA
Monday, 19 April 2010
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/tiny-climate-changes-may-trigger-quakes-1948432.html
Climate change could spark more "hazardous" geological events such as volcanoes, earthquakes and landslides, scientists warned today.
In papers published by the Royal Society, researchers warned that melting ice, sea level rises and even increasingly heavy storms and rainfall - predicted consequences of rising temperatures - could affect the Earth's crust.
Even small changes in the environment could trigger activity such as earthquakes and tsunamis.
And some evidence suggests the consequences of climate change were already having an impact on geological activity in places such as Alaska, researchers writing in the journal the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A said.
Bill McGuire, of the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre at University College London, and the author of a review in the journal of research in the area, said warming temperatures melted ice from ice sheets and glaciers and increased the amount of water in the oceans.
As the land "rebounds" back up once the weight of the ice has been removed - which could be by as much as a kilometre in places such as Greenland and Antarctica - then if, in the worst case scenario, all the ice were to melt - it could trigger earthquakes.
The increase in seismic activity could, in turn, cause underwater landslides that spark tsunamis.
A potential additional risk is from "ice-quakes" generated when the ice sheets break up, causing tsunamis which could threaten places such as New Zealand, Newfoundland in Canada and Chile.
The reduction in the ice could also stimulate volcanic eruptions, according to the research.
And the greater weight of the water in the oceans where sea level has risen as ice melts can "bend" the Earth's crust. This produces magma and causes volcanic and seismic activity in coastal or island areas - where the majority of 550 volcanoes whose eruptions have been historically documented are found.
Increased volcanic activity could cause more landslides, and have impacts well beyond the area where the volcano is situated - for example by releasing sulphur clouds into the atmosphere or by affecting air travel.
Prof McGuire said the changes could occur in the coming decades or over centuries, rather than thousands of years, depending on factors such as how quickly sea levels rose.
And he warned: "The rise you may need may be much smaller than we expect. Looking ahead at climate change, we may not need massive changes.
"One of the worries is that tiny environmental changes could have these effects."
His review said there was "mounting evidence" of seismic, volcanic and landslide activity being triggered or affected by small changes in the environment - even specific weather events such as typhoons or torrential rain.
Prof McGuire said that in Taiwan the lower air pressure generated by typhoons was enough to "unload" the crust by a small amount and trigger earthquakes.
Other impacts of rising temperatures include glacial lakes bursting out through rock dams and causing flash flooding in mountain regions such as the Himalayas, as well as rock, ice and landslides as permafrost melts.
And he said there may be "tipping points" in the geological systems, where the crust reaches a threshold that causes a step-change in the frequency of such events - but it was not clear where those thresholds might lie.
At times in the past climate change has been seen to have links with enhanced levels of potentially hazardous geological activity - for example after the end of the last ice age.
But they have not been fully considered as potential impacts of the rapid changes in the climate expected in the future and there was a great deal of uncertainty about what might happen in coming years.
Prof McGuire called for a programme of research focusing on the potential geological hazards that global warming could bring, with the leading body on global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), addressing the issue directly in its future assessments.
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3) Pennsylvania: School District Took 56,000 Secret Photographs
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/us/20brfs-SCHOOLDISTRI_BRF.html?ref=us
A suburban Philadelphia school district says it secretly captured 56,000 Webcam photographs and screen shots from laptops issued to high school students. Henry Hockheimer, a lawyer for the Lower Merion School District, said students were most likely photographed inside their homes. He said none of the images appear inappropriate. A tracking program took images every 15 minutes to find missing computers. A student is suing the district, alleging wiretap and privacy violations.
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4) Goldman Tops Forecast, With $3.46 Billion in Earnings
"Going forward, Goldman should profit from fast-paced growth in overseas markets, Mr. Shahrawat said, but it also may face new pressures like financial regulation and questions about its reputation."
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
April 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/business/21goldman.html?ref=business
Beset by accusations of securities fraud, Goldman Sachs nevertheless showed Tuesday that it was still very good at what it does best: making money.
Earnings for the Wall Street giant rose 91 percent in the first quarter of 2010, to $3.46 billion or $5.59 a share, up from $1.81 billion or $3.39 a share in the same period last year. Revenues increased 36 percent to $12.78 billion, up from $9.42 billion in the quarter a year ago.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected revenue of $11.05 billion and earnings of $4.14 a share.
Dushyant Shahrawat, a senior research director for TowerGroup, said the results reflected the depths to which Goldman had fallen during the financial crisis. "Things had fallen off the cliff so badly that frankly the only way from there was up," he said.
Going forward, Goldman should profit from fast-paced growth in overseas markets, Mr. Shahrawat said, but it also may face new pressures like financial regulation and questions about its reputation.
"Unless the Dow goes to 14,000 anytime soon, the revenues are not going to blow the barn doors off," Mr. Shahrawat said.
In the first quarter, the bank's bond, commodities and currency trading once again bolstered the results.
In addition, Goldman said it had set aside 43 percent of revenue in the first quarter for employee salaries and bonuses, down from 50 percent for the period a year ago.
In a statement, the chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein said that the results reflected "more signs of growth across the economy and the strength of our client franchise."
Tuesday's quarterly results showed the dominance of the bank's trading operations. Profit in the trading division jumped 43 percent to $10.25 billion in the quarter. Fixed-income trading had revenue of $7.39 billion, a 13 percent increase. Equities trading earned $2.35 billion, an 18 percent increase from the quarter a year ago.
The strong results are likely to be overshadowed by the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil suit against the firm, filed on Friday, which accuses Goldman of not fully disclosing how the securities were selected, as well as Mr. Paulson's role in advising the selection agent, ACA Management, on the overall makeup of the securities package.
"We would never intentionally mislead anyone, certainly not our clients or counterparties," said Gregory K. Palm, Goldman's general counsel, who joined David A. Viniar, Goldman's chief financial officer, on the earnings call. "We certainly had no incentive to design a transaction that was designed to lose money."
In the earnings statement, Mr. Blankfein said, "In light of recent events involving the firm, we appreciate the support of our clients and shareholders, and the dedication and commitment of our people."
During the earnings call, Mr. Viniar said: "You can see from our results last quarter that our clients still support us. That's the key to our success and has been the key to our success for a very, very long time."
The S.E.C. suit has rocked Wall Street and sent Goldman shares reeling - they fell nearly 13 percent on Friday when the suit was disclosed - before recovering slightly Monday to close at $163.32.
The accusations from the S.E.C. have damaged the reputation of a firm that had come through the subprime debacle relatively unscathed, but which has been criticized more recently for its huge profits and bare-knuckle trading.
According to the S.E.C. suit, the hedge fund manager, John Paulson, helped select securities that had a high likelihood of defaulting, which were then bundled together and sold. The S.E.C. said the European banks ABN Amro and IKB lost more than $1 billion in the deal.
Goldman has denied any wrongdoing. In a statement Friday, Goldman called the commission's accusations "completely unfounded in law and fact" and said it would "vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation."
With its results, Goldman became the fourth major bank to report this quarter, all benefiting from hefty trading profits. JPMorgan reported a profit of $3.3 billion, Bank of America earned $3.2 billion and Citigroup $4.4 billion. Morgan Stanley reports results on Wednesday.
In addition, Goldman's directors declared a dividend of 35 cents a common share.
Javier C. Hernandez contributed reporting.
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5) Benefit for Uninsured May Still Pose Hurdle
[The EVERYBODY'S GONNA PAY EXCEPT THE RICH WHO WILL REAP THE PROFITS, OBAMA PLAN...bw]
By RONI CARYN RABIN
April 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/health/20landscape.html?ref=health
William Mann of Pittsburgh earns just enough to get by. He is 46, doesn't own a car, hasn't taken a vacation in three years and hasn't had health insurance for most of his adult life.
He is just the kind of person who should benefit from the health care overhaul, and he is, in fact, eligible for heavily subsidized insurance that will cost him an estimated $1,845 a year, while the government contributes about $2,756.
But Mr. Mann says he still can't afford it. He lives too close to the edge, and won't be buying insurance, even though he will face a fine under a provision called the individual mandate, which penalizes most Americans who don't buy coverage starting in 2014. The requirement is one of the most controversial aspects of the overhaul.
"I just can't put that kind of money out for a 'maybe' - maybe I'll get sick and use it," said Mr. Mann, who makes just over $25,000 a year as an administrative assistant at a small wine distribution company. "That's a lot of money."
"The people who make all these decisions don't live like the way I do," Mr. Mann added, echoing other uninsured people in his income group. "They don't live like the rest of us."
Legal questions about the individual mandate aside, the choices made by people like Mr. Mann are crucial. One reason the individual mandate was created was to attract as many healthy people as possible to the individual market to offset the demands of the many sick people who will be buying in, and who have medical needs that drive up costs.
Yet no one really knows which way the Mr. Manns of the nation, people struggling in a tough economy, will go.
"Given the choice, a lot of people are going to purchase coverage rather than pay the penalty - they simply want the security of having health insurance," said Jennifer Tolbert, principal policy analyst at the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, an initiative of the Kaiser Family Foundation (not associated with Kaiser Permanente, the health insurance company). She said that had been the experience in Massachusetts under a similar initiative. But she added, "The key is to make coverage affordable."
According to the Congressional Budget Office, some 32 million more Americans will have insurance by 2019 under the new law, about half of whom will be buying health insurance on the individual market for the first time (the other half will be covered for the first time under Medicaid, which is being expanded to include more of the poor).
But Edmund F. Haislmaier, senior research fellow of health policy studies at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group, said he was skeptical that so many uninsured people would actually start buying insurance. "We're premising all this on the idea that we'll cross-subsidize older, sicker people with a lot of young healthy people, whom we assume will buy the coverage," he said. "But what if they don't?"
Many of the uninsured in America are in the same economic boat as Mr. Mann. Some 60 percent of the uninsured earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($21,660 for a single person and $44,100 for a family of four), according to Sara R. Collins, of the Commonwealth Fund, a health care research group. As earnings increase, people are more likely to be insured, experts say.
A recent study by the fund said that about one-third of people who tried to buy health insurance on their own were turned down or charged more because of a medical condition. But three-quarters walked away for other reasons, and most cited price; 60 percent said it was either "difficult" or "impossible" to find an affordable plan, said Ms. Collins, vice president for the fund's Affordable Health Insurance Program.
Jacqui Brownstein, 63, a freelance copy editor and proofreader, said she moved to Lancaster, Pa., from New Jersey in 2004 primarily because health insurance was more affordable there. But she can't afford it anymore; the last time she bought insurance, she paid $4,300 a year, but the rate quoted last year was $5,700. "There was no way I could afford it, so I dropped it," said Ms. Brownstein, a smoker who has Type 2 diabetes and a family history of ovarian cancer.
Premium subsidies, which will be available to people who buy insurance through the exchanges being established, are supposed to address that problem, experts say. A 40-year-old in a medium-cost geographic area who earns $21,660 (200 percent of the federal poverty level) and whose annual premium is $3,500, for example, would receive a subsidy of $2,135 that goes directly to the insurer, while he or she pays $1,365. A family of four with an income of $44,100 would pay $2,778 while the government subsidizes the plan to the tune of $6,656.
The proportion of income people at this level have to pay for insurance is capped at no more than 6.3 percent of their earnings.
As income increases, the subsidy drops; families earning 300 to 400 percent of the federal poverty level are expected to pay up to 9.5 percent of their income, an amount that ranges from $6,284 to $8,379 per year; the federal subsidy is from $3,150 to $1,056. At the same time, however, a provision states that anyone who cannot find a premium that costs less than 8 percent of their income is exempted from the penalty.
It's hard to predict whether the carrots and sticks of subsidies and penalties will suffice to bring people into the system, when there are so many are unemployed or underemployed people, many earning less in today's economy than before and worried about job security and prospects.
From a pure dollars-and-cents point of view, it is cheaper for people just to pay the penalty. Even when fully implemented in 2016, the penalty is limited to no more than 2.5 percent of taxable income, and it starts out even lower, with a penalty of $95 or 1 percent of income in 2014.
"It's hard to analyze because people are making health decisions based on their wallets," said Sara Horowitz, who founded the Freelancers Union, a nonprofit organization that offers health insurance to freelancers.
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6) Health insurers make big bucks from Big Macs
By Katherine Harmon
April 15, 2010
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=health-insurers-make-big-bucks-from-2010-04-15&sc=WR_20100420
Like most businesses, health and life insurance companies are out to make a buck, and one way they augment their income is by investing in other industries.
But a new study has found that $1.88 billion from this industry is backing the top five publicly traded fast food chains. Excessive consumption of this sort of food has been repeatedly linked to a host of health problems, including obesity and diabetes.
"Life and health insurance firms profess to support health and wellness, but their choice of financial investments has raised doubts," wrote Arun Mohan and his coauthors, all at the Department of Medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School, in an article published online April 15 in the American Journal of Public Health.
The largest burger backer was Northwestern Mutual, which had invested $422.2 million in publicly traded fast food corporations, including $318.1 million in McDonald's, according to Mohan's research.
It's already common knowledge that the insurance industry has made even bigger investments in tobacco (handing over almost $4.5 billion, according to a 2009 study), but evidence is mounting that obesity and other dietary diseases are becoming as much of a burden on health-both individual and national-than smoking. People who live near fast food restaurants are more likely to have a stroke than residents living farther away, according to another 2009 study. And high-fat foods have been shown to be rather addictive, at least in animal models.
The researchers conceded that "fast food can be consumed responsibly," but Mohan and his colleagues asserted that "the marketing and sale of products by fast food companies is done in a manner that undermines the public's health."
Although most companies-and many individuals-hand their investment portfolios over to financial firms (or separate company departments) to manage, the authors argued that, "insurers ought to be held to a higher standard of corporate responsibility."
"Our data illustrate the extent to which the insurance industry seeks to turn a profit above all else," Wesley Body, senior author of the study, said in a prepared statement. "Safeguarding people's health and well-being take a back seat to making money."
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7) Health and Life Insurance Companies Invest $2 Billion in Burgers, Tacos and Pizzas
Harvard study critical of insurers holding stock in major fast-food chains
By Candy Sagon
Source: AARP Bulletin
April 15, 2010
http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourhealth/policy/articles/health_and_life_insurance_companies_invest_2_billion_in_burgers_tacos_and_pizzas.html
The fast-food industry is regularly criticized for contributing to Americans' obesity and other health problems, yet a new study shows that major health and life insurance companies have invested nearly $2 billion in McDonald's and other popular fast-food chains.
Researchers at the Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School looked at the stock holdings of major health and life insurers in five leading fast-food companies. The results, published online today in the American Journal of Public Health, found that insurance firms have invested $1.9 billion in stock of companies like Jack in the Box, Burger King and Yum! Brands, owner of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, among others.
The researchers used shareholder data from the Icarus database, which draws on Securities and Exchange Commission filings and other information.
The $1.9 billion represents only about 2 percent of the total value of fast-food company stock, but the researchers argue that insurers "ought to be held to a higher standard of corporate responsibility." They call for insurance companies to divest themselves of holdings in fast-food firms because of the firms' negative impact on public health.
"Life and health insurance firms profess to support health and wellness, but their choice of financial investments has raised doubts," the researchers write.
At least one insurer, however, rejected the study's findings. A spokesman for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, which the study said had invested more than $366 million in fast-food stock, said in an e-mail that the figures were "absolutely incorrect."
Spokesman Mark Cybulski wrote that, as of Dec. 31, 2009, MassMutual's fast-food-related holdings were approximately "$1.4 million, representing less than one-hundredth of one percent of cash and total invested assets of $86.6 billion."
A spokesman for Prudential Financial, which the study also cited as a substantial investor in fast food, declined to discuss specific investments. However, Theresa Miller, Prudential's vice president for global communications, added in an e-mail that the company has a responsibility to its clients to seek "strong investment performance ... while managing risk and investing responsibly."
Senior author J. Wesley Boyd, M.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, contends insurers are more concerned with making a profit than in helping people stay healthy.
"Based on their investments, these companies are showing themselves to be amoral. They're just about making money, and they will make money off bad habits even if those habits are making you sick or killing you," he says.
But Mark Pauly, a professor of health care management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, thinks trying to pressure insurers to divest their fast-food holdings is a bit naive.
"It may be a nice gesture for insurers to say they're not investing in evil things anymore," he says, "but it's hard to imagine that it would have a substantial impact."
A better idea, he says, "would be for the insurance companies to invest a lot more in fast food, then go to the company's annual meeting and get them to change their policies."
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8) One-third of Americans say own government a threat: Poll
By Agence France-Presse
Monday, April 19th, 2010 -- 12:53 pm
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0419/americans-government-threat-poll/
Nearly one out of three Americans view the US government as a "major threat" to their freedoms, and four out of five say they don't trust Washington to solve their problems, according to a new poll out Monday.
Just 19 percent say they are "basically content" with the federal government, against 56 percent who say they are "frustrated" and 21 percent who describe themselves as "angry," the Pew Research Center survey found.
Only 22 percent say they trust Washington to do what is right4 almost always or most of the time, according to the survey, which had an error margin of plus or minus four percentage points.
The first time Pew asked the question, in 1958, 73 percent of Americans said they trusted the government. In mid-1994, just 17 percent said the same.
The US public has historically expressed distrust in Washington, but a sour economy, epic frustration with the US Congress, and an increasingly polarized electorate have fanned the flames, Pew said.
The findings could spell trouble for President Barack Obama's Democrats in November mid-term elections, with 53 percent saying the federal government needs "very major reform," though Republicans do not get high marks either.
When Obama took office in January 2009, 62 percent of Americans said they viewed Democrats favorably, against just 40 percent for Republicans -- and the president's party now only has a 38 percent-37 percent edge over his critics.
Just 25 percent said they had a favorable view of the Congress, just half of what it was one year ago and the lowest in a quarter century of Pew surveys.
But while 58 percent say the government has gone too far in regulating the economy, 61 percent say they want tougher government rules for Wall Street -- a boon to Obama and Democrats who have made that their top domestic goal now that the president has signed his historic health care overhaul into law.
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9) NATO Apologizes for Killing 4 Unarmed Afghans
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
April 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/world/asia/22afghan.html?ref=world
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO apologized Wednesday for shooting to death four unarmed Afghan civilians earlier this week in Khost Province and acknowledged that it had wrongly described two of the victims as "known insurgents."
The shootings on Monday evening marked the latest occasion in which Afghan civilians have been killed by military convoys, at NATO or United States checkpoints, or in bungled Special Operations raids. The spate of civilian deaths have infuriated
Afghan leaders and undermined the West's war plan just as it is about to enter its most crucial phase - a planned summer offensive in Kandahar.
NATO military officials said on Wednesday that they were rushing to deploy training teams across Afghanistan so troops "implement critical lessons learned from previous incidents."
But in some parts of the country American and NATO convoys are already considered by Afghans to be as dangerous a threat as Taliban checkpoints and roadside bombs, raising questions about whether the damage can be reversed to any real degree.
"People hate the international forces," said Bakhtialy, a tribal elder in Kandahar who, like many Afghans, goes by one name. "Their presence at the moment is too risky for ordinary people. They are killing people, and they don't let people travel on the road."
In the shooting on Monday, a NATO convoy opened fire on a Toyota carrying four men returning home about 6 p.m. in a rural district near the border with Pakistan. Local Afghan officials said the four men were civilians, and said they included a police officer and a 12-year-old boy.
In the military's account of the shooting, the vehicle accelerated toward the convoy and ignored warning shots, posing a threat to the troops. After the fact, the military initially said, troops used "biometric data" such as fingerprints to identify two of the dead men as "known insurgents."
But on Wednesday the United States-led NATO military command in Kabul apologized for "this tragic loss of life" and said the biometric data "has not yet been determined to be relevant" to the killings.
Maj. Gen. Mike Regner, a NATO official, said that commanders "at all levels are increasing efforts to protect the Afghan people affected by our operations."
The military said that NATO and Afghan investigators were continuing to review the shooting and that a "formal, more thorough joint investigation may also be conducted."
Taimoor Shah contributed reporting from Kandahar.
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10) Transit Cuts Are Protested in Atlanta
By SHAILA DEWAN
April 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/us/21atlanta.html?ref=us
ATLANTA - When Danielle White boarded her bus to go to work on Tuesday morning, it was emblazoned from top to bottom with a giant, painted red X. Ms. White knew what that meant.
"This is one of the buses that's getting cut," said Ms. White, a security guard at the Georgia Aquarium. "I'm going to have to figure out how to get there."
On Monday night, workers and officials at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority volunteered to paint the X's on a third of the system's buses and trains to symbolize the 30 percent cut in service the agency is facing because of a decline in sales tax revenue and a Republican-dominated Statehouse that has been slow to help.
On Tuesday morning, with a parade of X'd-out buses stopping on the street behind them, more than 200 public transit workers and riders gathered at the system's main hub, Five Points. They were kicking off a week of rallies, telephone campaigns and other events in 11 cities across the country coordinated by the Transportation Equity Network, an advocacy group based in St. Louis, to protest transportation cuts and fare increases.
"We are just crawling out of a recession," said Sam Massell, a former mayor of Atlanta, "but we will be knocked back into another one if the salespersons are not behind the store counters, if the restaurant workers are not in the kitchens, if the office staff are not behind their desks."
About 46 percent of the more than 100,000 people who use Marta to get to work each day say they do not have access to other forms of transportation.
More than 80 percent of the nation's transit systems are considering or have recently enacted fare increases or service cuts, including those in Kansas City, Mo., Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., according to a survey released this month by the American Public Transportation Association.
But Marta, the ninth-largest system in the country, faces a particular difficulty because it is the only major system that does not receive any dedicated money from the state. Instead, it depends on fares and a one-cent sales tax in only two of metro Atlanta's 28 counties, Fulton and DeKalb. While Atlanta chokes on traffic, Georgia ranks 49th in per capita government spending on transportation, according to a report commissioned by Gov. Sonny Perdue.
The agency has requested one significant change in its spending rules that would not require any new state money: a release from a requirement that half of Marta's sales tax revenues be set aside for capital projects. Though the agency ranks very high in efficiency measures, lawmakers seem to think its distress was caused by more than the recession.
"I've been trying to understand how Marta got in the problem they're in," the speaker of the State House, David Ralston, said in an interview with WABE radio this month. "I think that we have to have a better understanding of what brought us to this point before we know how to get out of the problem."
This is the second year that Marta, which faces a $120 million shortfall in its $400 million operating budget, has been in severe financial straits. Last year, the agency raised fares to $2 from $1.75, decreased services, cut health care benefits to employees and required furloughs. This year, in addition to the 30 percent cut in service, it may have to increase fares again and lay off as many as 1,500 of its 5,000 employees, said Beverly A. Scott, the agency's chief executive.
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11) Ex-Adviser to Obama Now Lawyer for Goldman
By PETER BAKER
April 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/business/21craig.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON - Word that President Obama's former White House counsel, Gregory Craig, is now representing Goldman Sachs led the administration on Tuesday to say that it had no advance knowledge of the move and to distance itself from any suggestion that Mr. Craig might try to lobby the government on behalf of the investment firm.
The White House seemed sensitive to the revolving-door quality of a top Obama adviser now representing a financial giant that has been accused of wrongdoing, especially at a moment when the president is lobbying for legislation to tighten regulation of Wall Street firms.
Asked about Mr. Craig's new job, Bill Burton, a White House spokesman, recited the president's ethics policy barring former White House officials from lobbying for two years after leaving office. "I assume that people who leave the administration know those rules and are following those rules," Mr. Burton said.
But the policy applies only to lobbying as defined under federal law and does not restrict former officials from providing advice to clients with business or other interactions with the federal government.
"I am a lawyer, not a lobbyist," Mr. Craig said Tuesday. "Goldman Sachs has hired me as a lawyer - to provide legal advice and to assist in its legal representation - and that is what I am doing."
Mr. Craig, one of Washington's most prominent lawyers, was a top adviser to Mr. Obama during his campaign and went on to serve as White House counsel, but left after a year of tension over issues like closing the prison at Guantanámo Bay, Cuba.
He went to Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which has long represented Goldman, and the financial firm engaged him to advise it on litigation strategy before the Securities and Exchange Commission filed its civil suit last week.
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12) Districts Warn of Deeper Teacher Cuts
By TAMAR LEWIN and SAM DILLON
April 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/education/21teachers.html?ref=education
School districts around the country, forced to resort to drastic money-saving measures, are warning hundreds of thousands of teachers that their jobs may be eliminated in June.
The districts have no choice, they say, because their usual sources of revenue - state money and local property taxes - have been hit hard by the recession. In addition, federal stimulus money earmarked for education has been mostly used up this year.
As a result, the 2010-11 school term is shaping up as one of the most austere in the last half century. In addition to teacher layoffs, districts are planning to close schools, cut programs, enlarge classes and shorten the school day, week or year to save money.
"We are doing things and considering options I never thought I'd have to consider," said Peter C. Gorman, superintendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in North Carolina, who expects to cut 600 of the district's 9,400 teachers this year, after laying off 120 last year. "This may be our new economic reality."
Districts in California have given pink slips to 22,000 teachers. Illinois authorities are predicting 17,000 job cuts in the public schools. And New York has warned nearly 15,000 teachers that their jobs could disappear in June.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan estimated that state budget cuts imperiled 100,000 to 300,000 public school jobs. In an interview on Monday, he said the nation was flirting with "education catastrophe," and urged Congress to approve additional stimulus funds to save school jobs.
"We absolutely see this as an emergency," Mr. Duncan said.
Everywhere, school officials tend to overestimate the potential for layoffs at this time of year, to ensure that every employee they might have to dismiss receives the required notifications.
Whether the current estimates rise or fall will depend in part on labor negotiations under way in hundreds of districts, and on how taxpayers vote on school levy proposals in many states and towns. But those adjustments will affect the likely layoff numbers only at the margins.
Some of the deepest cuts are in Los Angeles, where Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines sent notices to 5,200 of the district's 80,000 employees last month, telling them that they were losing their jobs.
"I've been superintendent in five major school districts, and had responsibility for cuts for years - but not this magnitude, not this devastating," Mr. Cortines said.
And there is no end in sight, he said. He cut his district's $12 billion budget this school year by $1 billion, has prepared $600 million in cuts for the term beginning in the fall and is looking ahead to a deficit for the following year of $263 million.
"I don't see this being over in the year 2014-15," Mr. Cortines added.
In the economic stimulus bill passed in February 2009, Congress appropriated about $100 billion in emergency education financing. States spent much of that in the current fiscal year, saving more than 342,000 school jobs, about 5.5 percent of all the positions in the nation's 15,000 school systems, according to a study by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington.
States will spend about $36 billion of the stimulus money in the next fiscal year, leaving their budgets short by some $144 billion, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning research group.
About a quarter of all state spending goes to public schools, said Jon Shure, a state fiscal expert at the center, so without new aid, the continuing job losses will add to the nation's employment woes.
Warning of an educational emergency, Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, proposed a $23 billion school bailout bill last Wednesday that would essentially provide more education stimulus financing to stave off the looming wave of school layoffs.
"This is not something we can fix in August," said Mr. Harkin, chairman of the Senate education committee. "We have to fix it now."
Michael J. Petrilli, who served in the Education Department under President George W. Bush, predicted that the bill could attract significant support. But even if it is approved, Mr. Petrilli said, it would leave an underlying problem unresolved.
"Is the federal government going to try to prop up states and districts forever?" he said. "If not, we're just kicking the can down the road. Eventually, districts need to learn to live with less."
Senior Democratic aides said that because Mr. Harkin's bill would add to the deficit, it was unlikely to pass.
A survey by the American Association of School Administrators found that 9 of 10 superintendents expected to lay off school workers for the fall, up from two of three superintendents last year. The survey also found that the percentage considering a four-day school week had jumped to 13 percent, from 2 percent a year ago.
One of those districts is Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City in Minnesota, which has asked the state to let it shorten the school week. The district's business manager, Dan Tait, called the measure "another tool in the toolbox" for reducing costs.
"We're a district that's spread across 340 square miles, so we spend an inordinate amount of money on transportation for our 812 students," Mr. Tait said.
The current round of cuts is particularly wrenching, superintendents said, because their financing was already cut to the bone last year. For example, Barbara Thompson, superintendent of the Montgomery public schools in Alabama, said the state used to give her district $975 per student for supplies, technology and library costs.
"They cut it to zero," Ms. Thompson said. "So they can't cut it any more."
Not all school systems are in trouble. State mineral revenues, for instance, have largely spared Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming from serious belt-tightening.
But they are the exceptions. In early April, the Flagstaff, Ariz., school district's preliminary list of people who might not have jobs next year included almost a third of its 1,500 employees - every art, music and physical education teacher, every counselor and librarian, every teacher with three or fewer years in the district, and all temporary hires.
By the time reduction-in-force notices went out April 15, though, the number was trimmed to 223 teachers and 47 administrators. And if Arizona voters approve a 1-cent sales tax next month, the cuts will be much less drastic.
In the U-46 district in Elgin, Ill., José M. Torres, the superintendent, said he also had to contend with a budgeting roller coaster this spring. At this point, the only uncertainty is whether the district's 53 schools in Chicago's western suburbs will feel "high pain or low pain," Mr. Torres said.
Seeking to cut at least $44 million from the district's $400 million budget, Mr. Torres has eliminated early childhood classes for 100 children, cut middle school football, increased high school class sizes from 24 to 30 students, drained swimming pools to save chlorine, and dismissed 1,000 employees, including 700 teachers.
"This stuff really hurts," Mr. Torres said. And what is worse, he said, "I think next year will be tougher than this year."
David M. Herszenhorn contributed reporting.
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13) Challenging China in Rare Earth Mining
By KEITH BRADSHER
April 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/business/energy-environment/22rare.html?ref=business
On a high plateau wandered by burros and jack rabbits an hour's drive southwest of Las Vegas, a chasm hewn from volcanic rock sits at the center of an international policy debate.
The chasm, in Mountain Pass, California - 400 feet, or 120 meters, deep - used to be the world's main mine for rare-earth elements, minerals crucial to military hardware and the latest wind turbines and hybrid gasoline-electric cars. Molycorp Minerals, which owns the mine, announced Monday that it had registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering to help raise the nearly $500 million needed to reopen and expand the mine.
Molycorp is making a big bet that its mine, now a rusting relic, can be made competitive again. Global demand is surging for the minerals. And customers, particularly the U.S. military, are seeking alternatives to China, which now mines 97 percent of the world's rare-earth elements.
As part of reopening the mine, Molycorp plans to increase its capacity to mine and refine neodymium for rare-earth magnets, which are extremely lightweight and are used in many high-technology applications. It would also resume bulk production of lower-value rare-earth elements like cerium, used in industrial processes like polishing glass and water filtration.
But Molycorp, like other foundation stones of U.S. industrial pre-eminence that have cracked or eroded under the pressure of foreign competition, faces challenges that may prevent its bet from paying off.
Even riskier are efforts by nearly six dozen other companies in the United States, Canada, South Africa and elsewhere to open new rare-earth mines.
Worldwide sales of freshly mined rare-earth oxides, although growing more than 10 percent a year, are still worth only about $1.4 billion a year, limiting the potential sales from new mines. Molycorp and the other companies face a challenge in matching China's low costs, a result of low wages and China's willingness to tolerate heavy environmental damage from such mines, which have turned nearby areas into moonscapes.
Very low prices for rare-earth elements from China contributed to cutbacks at the Mountain Pass mine before it closed in 2002. They also discouraged most entrants to the industry until the past two years, when prices began to climb because of strong demand.
According to the Metal Pages database, cerium prices more than doubled to $4 a pound, or $8.80 a kilogram, in 2007 and have barely fallen since. Neodymium prices quintupled at the same time to $23 a pound and slumped before almost fully recovering over the past winter.
"The pricing of the rare-earths doesn't make sense - they've been way too low for way too long," said John Benfield, the senior chemical engineer at the Mountain Pass mine. As he spoke, he watched pumps removing from the bottom of the open-pit mine a deep pond of accumulated rainwater and seepage, dyed violent green by mineral contamination.
Molycorp's plan for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange coincides with a flurry of interest in Washington on whether the United States should reduce its dependence on China for rare-earth elements.
A U.S. Government Accountability Office report, released last week, concluded that American military systems, including army tank navigation systems and navy radars, rely on rare-earth elements from China. The report made no recommendations on what policy makers should do, noting that the U.S. Defense Department planned to finish its own review by the end of September.
Representative Ike Skelton, the Missouri Democrat who is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, announced on the same day the report was released that the committee would hold a hearing soon on the U.S. military's dependence on imported rare-earth elements.
And a bill introduced in March in the House by Representative Mike Coffman, Republican of Colorado, calls for the creation of a national security stockpile and for government loan guarantees for companies that want to mine and process rare-earth elements in the United States. Similar legislation is being drafted in the Senate.
China raised concerns by reducing its export quotas for raw rare-earth elements from 2005 through 2009. A year ago, the Chinese government caused further alarm for Western corporations and governments by proposing a ban on the export of 5 of the 17 rare-earth elements, although no ban has actually been imposed.
China's actions have ignited frenzied investor interest, as pinstriped investment bankers pack conferences and newsletters tout shares in rare-earth mining companies.
But with the exception of Molycorp and Lynas, an Australian company, most of the companies lack environmental permits and mineral processing equipment, much less the experience to handle safely the radioactive thorium and uranium that almost always contaminate rare-earth ore.
With each start-up typically raising $10 million to $30 million and signing up one or two long-term customers, the ventures are fragmenting the market's search for reliable supply sources beyond China. A result could be that few mines actually open outside China, which would remain the dominant supplier.
"The customers and the industry are not being discerning enough, and we're going to end up with 70 rare-earth companies employing geologists and rare-earth directors and no more than five new mines by 2020," predicted Dudley J. Kingsnorth, the best-known consultant in the industry and an adviser to some of the start-ups.
The Kaiser Bottom-Fish Online index of share prices of rare-earth companies soared eightfold last year and has kept most of its gains. That has encouraged worries about a possible bubble.
"Most of them will get nice share prices for a while, and then what goes up, comes down," said Judith Chegwidden, a managing director and longtime rare-earth specialist at Roskill Consulting Group in London.
Canadian and Australian producers like the idea that the U.S. government might buy rare-earth elements for a stockpile, supporting prices. But they hate the prospect that Congress might use government-backed loan guarantees to help American producers.
Nicholas Curtis, the executive chairman of Lynas, which is based in Sydney, said that Australia should be considered as reliable a supplier as if it were the 51st state of the United States.
Meanwhile, Molycorp hopes to turn the various business, geological and political forces to its advantage. The company's Mountain Pass mine, discovered in 1949 by uranium prospectors who noticed local radioactivity, dominated rare-earth element production through the 1980s. Europium from the mine made the world's color televisions possible.
But a reporter who recently visited the mine site noted that everything, including the processing equipment and the buildings' door frames, was rusty. Molycorp plans to replace most of the gear by raising as much as $350 million through the sale of a minority stake in an initial public offering and borrowing the rest, using government-backed loans if they are available.
The Mountain Pass mine shut down in 2002, even as researchers elsewhere were perfecting a welter of green energy applications for rare-earth elements. It closed because China's production costs were lower, because a mine pipeline leaked faintly radioactive water in a nearby desert and because state regulators temporarily delayed renewal of its operating permit.
China increased production in the 1980s, initially hiring American advisers who had worked at Mountain Pass. Cnooc, a government-controlled Chinese oil company, tried to buy the mine in 2005 as part of Unocal, which owned Molycorp then. But Congress effectively blocked the Unocal transaction.
Mark A. Smith, the longtime chief executive of Molycorp, said that after Chevron bought Unocal, Chinese companies were rebuffed in two attempts to buy the mine from Chevron. A group of private equity firms and Mr. Smith bought Molycorp from Chevron in 2008. Goldman Sachs was one of the investors, but it sold its stake to the others last month.
Molycorp hopes to improve safety and environmental protection at the Mountain Pass mine while using new technologies to drive operating costs below the level of those for Chinese mines. The Mountain Pass mine plans to recycle more of the costly acid used in ore processing; use a separate recycling system to reduce the need for fresh water to 30 gallons, or 114 liters, a minute from 850; and install a natural gas power plant to reduce its need to buy costlier, less reliable electricity from distant cities.
At the same time, Chinese costs may be about to rise if the Chinese government follows through on recent pledges to start requiring the rare-earth industry to reduce pollution.
Whatever efficiencies Molycorp achieves, many specialists say that an American national renaissance in rare-earth elements may be a long time coming. The Government Accountability Office said that even if the Mountain Pass mine reopened, the United States had already lost much of its technical capacity to use rare-earth elements in manufacturing.
Molycorp has trimmed its staff of industrial chemists to six, from 30 before the mine closed eight years ago. Chinese rare-earth institutes in Beijing and Baotou have hundreds of researchers.
"They have more employees in rare-earth research," Mr. Field said, "than we'll ever have."
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14) Student Suspended after Finger Gun Incident
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Eyewitness News
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=7392273
http://www.puppetgov.com/2010/04/21/terror-tots-girl-suspended-for-terroristic-threat-in-pointing-finger-at-teacher-and-saying-%E2%80%9Cpew-pew%E2%80%9D/
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A 13-year-old girl was suspended from school after she was accused of threatening her teacher. Her family says it's a misunderstanding under a zero tolerance policy.
Bleyl Middle School student Taylor Trostle and her parents say it's a classroom game that got her kicked out of school, and now has her labeled as a "terrorist."
"I was shocked because it just seems ludicrous and appalling," Bleyl Middle School student Taylor Trostle's mother, Kristin Trostle, said.
When Kristin Trostle and her fiancee got a phone call from the principal's office at her daughter's school, they knew something was wrong. But the story they got blew them away.
"I mean, terroristic threat, to me that's a serious statement," Kristin Trostle said. "That's one of the most serious things you could say to somebody."
Taylor was wearing an NYPD shirt at school. She says in the last moments of math class, she and some friends were pretending to be police officers.
"I was shooting the markers at the front of the board," Taylor Trostle said. "It was just like this and I was like 'pow pow' and then she just turned around."
Taylor was sent to the principal's office and immediately suspended for three days. Her write up says the finger gun was pointed in the teacher's direction.
"That was considered a terroristic threat because the teacher feared for her life," Kristin Trostle said.
According to Cy-Fair ISD's code of conduct, a terroristic threat is a level four violation, which is on par with assault, public lewdness, or selling alcohol or drugs at school. Any threat to a teacher falls under a 'zero tolerance policy.'
"Now she's got a very serious mark on her record and she's labeled," Kristin Trostle said.
Cy-Fair ISD denied our repeated requests for comment, so did Taylor Trostle's 7th grade math teacher. Now- Taylor Trostle says she's being mocked at school, for a silly game that got her kicked out.
"They all say that I'm gonna kill somebody, and...they know that I wouldn't do that," she said.
Her mother wants the school district to take a hard look at policies because she believes can tarnish the reputation of an honor roll student like Taylor.
"Really and truly make an honest decision -- is this a legitimate threat, do i really feel threatened by what this child just said?" Kristin Trostle said.
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