text:
Terry Collingsworth, a well-known attorney specializing in Alien Tort cases against defendants like Chiquita, Coca-Cola, Dole, and Chevron over alleged overseas misconduct, is enmeshed in a bitter fight with the Alabama-based, privately held Drummond Coal empire in which heated allegations are flying in both directions [Daniel Fisher, Forbes]
Posts tagged as:
Alien Tort Claims Act
- Boston's North End, the home-as-one's-castle doctrine, and how we got the Fourth Amendment [Ted Widmer, Globe]
- NYT sniffs at Origination Clause as basis for ObamaCare challenge, but many framers of Constitution saw it as vital [Trevor Burrus, Forbes; Ilya Shapiro; four years ago on another Origination Clause episode]
- Justice Scalia, concurring in Schuette, knocks the fabled Carolene Products footnote down a peg [Michael Schearer]
- SCOTUS lets stand New Jersey's very extreme gun control law. Was it serious about reviving the Second Amendment? [Ilya Shapiro]
- Didn't link this earlier: Kenneth Anderson discusses his excellent Cato Supreme Court Review article on Kiobel, the Alien Tort case [Opinio Juris]
- Kurt Lash guestblogs on 14th Amendment privileges and immunities clause [Volokh Conspiracy]
- Supreme Court reviving law/equity distinction? (Hope so.) [Samuel Bray, SSRN via Solum]
- U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities remains a bad, bad, bad, idea, but Senate Foreign Relations Committee has now scheduled hearings for Nov. 5 and Nov. 12 in effort to push it through;
- Proliferation of human rights treaties not necessarily good for, well, human rights [Jacob Mchangana et al. via Sullivan "Dish"; cf. David Kopel, NYT "Room for Debate" last year]
- Claim: Urban planning schemes are a human right [Wikipedia on "Right to the City"] U.N. Special Rapporteur calls for legally enforceable international right to food [UN]
- CRPD cited in Spain by group campaigning against "disability-selective abortion" [Pablo de Lora, Harvard "Bill of Health"]
- Some forms of national sovereignty OK after all? Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP) cited in Indian tribal claims [Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Truthout] "Lakota to file UN Genocide Charges Against US, South Dakota" [Jeff Armstrong, CounterPunch]
- "N.Y. state appeals ruling opens courthouse door to foreign victims" [Alison Frankel] First post-Kiobel ATS case smacks down plaintiffs on South Africa claims [Julian Ku/Opinio Juris, Fed Soc Blog]
- Panel from Cato's Constitution Day includes Kenneth Anderson discussing his excellent article on Kiobel in the Cato Supreme Court Review; also includes presentations by Ilya Somin on property rights and Andrew Grossman on City of Arlington, with Roger Pilon moderating [Cato video, podcast]
- U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to Germany: to comply with your treaty obligations, you must punish this insensitive discussion of immigrants [Volokh, Bader]
- California's Armenian genocide law entrenches on federal foreign affairs power [Ku/OJ]
- Heritage Foundation urges feds to overrule state marijuana laws on grounds of international treaty obligations [via @LucyStag]
- UN conventions ban torture, but that can bear meanings very different than in common parlance [Wesley Smith, Weekly Standard]
- Kiobel-aftermath marathon at Opinio Juris: Spiro, Lederman, Ku, Bellinger and Kontorovich, Alford, Phillips, Moyn, earlier here, here. More: Eugene Kontorovich podcast, Federalist Society.
- Underreported: how international vote buying influences outcomes in UN, similar bodies [Natalie Lockwood/OJ]
- Adding a Protocol: U.N. human rights chief "today welcomed the birth of a new mechanism which will empower individuals to seek out justice when their rights to food, adequate housing, education or health are violated." [UN]
In my offhand judgment, Justice Breyer's argument about the ATS and its "fit" with the presumption [against extraterritoriality] has force. (The Chief has an answer, but it's a very close call.) What this is actually about, though, is a monitoring problem; and on that, the Chief is right.
The ATS has become a playpen for a cabal of international law enthusiasts and plaintiffs' lawyers. Couple the former's wild-eyed global aspirations with the latter's eagerness to drag corporations through our one-of-a-kind tort system, and it's Katy, bar the door. The Chief's rule blocks all that: if it happened abroad, that's it. Justice Breyer's position, in contrast, would compel the Court to monitor all the places and institutions where this stuff gets out of hand: the Ninth Circuit; the wildest district courts in the country; the folks who are in charge of the Restatement of Foreign Relations; and the people who crank up "customary" international law (which becomes "customary" when someone at Yale Law School says it is, and the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs agrees). If some foreign employees of a U.S. company sue other employees of that company over tortious sexual harassment at the company's foreign plants, has the defendants' conduct "substantially and adversely affect[ed] an important American national interest," that of serving as a beacon of sexual equality in the world? You tell me.
To ask the Supreme Court to keep an eye on this is to declare surrender. So it's good that the Court has drawn a line. Whether it'll hold, we'll see.
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This morning's big Supreme Court decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum was a huge win for good sense. While splitting 5-4 on reasoning, the nine justices unanimously rejected the lefty view of the Alien Tort Statute that had been popular on campus, in the foundation world, and so forth. Here's my Cato take:
Just as the United States should not play policeman to the world, so our courts should not play tort-suit venue to the world. Today the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously and decisively buried the misguided, decades-long hope of some lawyers and academics that they could turn the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) into a wide-ranging method of hauling overseas damage claims into American courts. All nine Justices agreed with the Second Circuit that the statute does not grant jurisdiction for our courts to hear a controversy over alleged assistance in human rights violations outside the U.S. against non-U.S. plaintiffs by a non-U.S. business. A majority of five justices reiterated and relied on our law's strong traditional presumption against extraterritoriality, that is to say, presumption against applying the law to actions that take place in other countries. While parting from this reasoning, four concurring justices nonetheless endorsed a view of ATS as applicable extraterritorially only to very extreme misconduct comparable to piracy, and also as sharply limited by considerations of comity with foreign sovereigns.
It is a good day for a realistic and modest sense of what United States courts of justice can successfully do, namely: do justice within the United States.
Notably, all nine Justices sidestepped the issue that had caused extensive angst among many popular commentators, namely whether the statute could be applied to corporations as distinct from natural persons. Other views: Ilya Shapiro, Cato ("an exceedingly complicated case with a relatively simple solution"); SCOTUSBlog; Julian Ku/Opinio Juris ("this means that the ATS wars over corporate liability are almost over…. A theory that the ATS can be justified in universal civil jurisdiction cases has been rejected, 9-0.") and more (death of "universal civil jurisdiction" idea, and speculation that Breyer's shift of ground to a narrower ATS rationale was an unsuccessful attempt to pick up Kennedy); Sarah Altschuller (reading opinions, "struck by amount of time that must have been dedicated to debate re: pirates and shipdecks"); Josh Blackman (getting all nine justices to agree on a personal jurisdiction question isn't easy, but it happened here); Hans Bader; Roger Alford (ATS "as we know it is dead… [Kiobel] has destroyed an entire cottage industry"; transnational state-court torts and choice of law likely to rise in importance as replacement); Eugene Kontorovich (academics scoffed when "foreign-cubed" ATS lawsuits were called into question, yet all nine justices have now embraced that position); earlier here; Cato's amicus brief. Disapproving reactions on the left from Alliance for Justice, Center for Constitutional Rights (which unsuccessfully invoked the ATS to sue bulldozer maker Caterpillar Tractor over the death of anti-Israel protester Rachel Corrie, a story mentioned in Schools for Misrule, which discusses law-school and foundation enthusiasm for the ATS), and Human Rights First. More on the recent ATS defense by Judge Pierre Leval, cited by Justice Breyer in his concurrence for the four liberals.
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- Let's hope not: is Kony case reconciling conservatives to International Criminal Court? [New Republic] Sea Shepherd case shows Alien Tort Statute can serve "conservative" as well as "liberal" ends [Eugene Kontorovich, earlier]
- "Why the U.S. Shouldn't Sign On to Empty Human Rights Treaties" [Eric Posner, Slate, earlier]
- Or maybe non-empty? U.N. Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities said to require enactment of strong Europe-wide equivalent of ADA [Disability Law]
- A questionable free speech victory at the U.N. on defamation of religion [Jacob Mchangama]
- Tales of "independent" court reports that weren't: "Chevron-Ecuador case expert switches sides" [SF Chron, December]
- New Kenneth Anderson book getting lots of recommendations: Living with the UN: American Responsibilities and International Order [Amazon]
- "Revive Letters of Marque and Reprisal to Launch Cyber-Attacks Against China?" [Julian Ku/OJ]
- Decline Medicare benefits, lose your Social Security? Tell it to SCOTUS [Trevor Burrus and Kathleen Hunker, Cato]
- "Castle" protections against official home intrusion aren't forfeited just because you're a renter [Ilya Shapiro and Sophie Cole, Cato]
- Was Hitler a pirate? Answer could shape SCOTUS Kiobel decision [Alison Frankel] Inside the effort to rein in the Alien Tort Statute [Reuters] Editorials urge limiting ATS [WaPo, WSJ] More: Bainbridge, Kenneth Anderson, roundtable at Opinio Juris, Ted Frank.
- Major takings case (Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. U.S.) argued at SCOTUS [Ilya Somin, Damon Root, Federalist Society with Richard Epstein, Gideon Kanner] Court also decides to hear important regulatory takings case, St. Johns River Waste Management District v. Koontz [Somin]
- On the supposedly pro-business Supreme Court [Stephen Richer, Forbes; Ted Frank]
- Previews of the Court term [Adam Freedman, Point of Law, Federalist Society/C-SPAN, Above the Law]
- Are we nearing a "constitutional moment"? [Michael Greve with responses from William Galston and William Voegeli, Law and Liberty]
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- Human rights roulette: Senate could take up UN disabled-rights treaty in September [Stefano Gennarini, Turtle Bay and Beyond; earlier]
- Intense opposition from gun rights community slows drive for U.N. small arms treaty [David Kopel, Steve Hayward/PowerLine, Krayewski/Reason, Opinio Juris]
- SEC moves on complex, costly conflict minerals rule [Bainbridge, more, earlier]
- Series of Eugene Volokh posts takes up proposals to restrict reception of foreign law, including Islamic law, in American courts [Volokh Conspiracy]
- U.N. human rights establishment urges Iceland to crack down on gender-stereotypical speech [Volokh]
- Welfare rights, the U.N.-system way [International Labour Organization]
- When may American courts hear suits over international law violations on foreign soil? Cato files amicus brief in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch [Shapiro] SCOTUSBlog symposium on Kiobel and future of Alien Tort Statute;
- Damir Marusic reviews Aryeh Neier's book on international human rights [American Interest]
- Top Europe court: workers who happen to get sick on vacation legally entitled to another vacation [Tabarrok]
- U.N. rapporteur presses "right to food but not so much you grow obese" on Canada [UN, earlier]
- "The Federal Government Can't Give Itself More Power Just By Signing a Treaty" [Ilya Shapiro, Cato on U.S. v. Bond]
- Andrew Spalding on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) as "unwitting sanctions" against poorer countries [Fla. L. Rev.] One big loss, one little win for DoJ prosecutors on FCPA [AmLaw, NLJ]
- Turkey of the sea? Opinio Juris debate and discussion on whether Law of the Sea Treaty is a good idea for U.S.; Doug Bandow, Cato; views of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Donald Rumsfeld, Heritage Foundation, Julian Ku; Jeremy Rabkin 2006 critique of the treaty; John Norton Moore defense.
- "Left Wing Sovereigntism! Public Citizen Assaults Investor-State Tribunals" [Julian Ku/OJ; my 1996 piece on the Loewen case, which led to an international tribunal complaint by the victimized defendant]
- "Taming International Law With Presidential Supremacy" [Ted Galen Carpenter, LLL, Yoo response, earlier, AEI event]
- Alien Tort Statute: "U.S. Government Stabs Kiobel ATS Plaintiffs in the Back" [Ku, FedSoc]
- More on the really amazingly bad idea of turning Internet governance over to the United Nations system [Gordon Crovitz,"The U.N.'s Internet Power Grab," WSJ; C-SPAN video of May 30 Free State Foundation event; Reason; Daily Caller and more, Instapundit and more on House reaction; earlier]
- U.N. rapporteur lectures U.S. on Indian rights, calls for "some form of land restoration" [IPSNews] "So, the UN Wants the U.S. to Return Land to Indian Tribes…" [Claudia Rosett] In Chapters 10 and 11 of Schools for Misrule, I discuss the growing cooperation between Indian land-claim activists in this country and international organizations both within and without of the U.N. system. (More: I expand theme into a Daily Caller piece).
- "Union Uses NAFTA To Fight Alabama Immigration Law" [Sean Higgins, IBD]
- "UN hunger expert investigates Canada" [Hillel Neuer, National Post]"Everyone's grievances can thus be transformed into human rights violations" [Jacob Mchangama and Aaron Rhodes, Freedom Rights Project, PDF]
- Admittedly, at a "lefty Quaker school in the Northeast": "You know international law is getting some traction when your fourth-grader is being taught about the Convention on the Rights of the Child." [Peter Spiro, OJ]
- New Third Circuit opinion in remanded U.S. v. Bond case, which tested limits of treaty power, could tee up issue for another SCOTUS outing [Spiro/OJ, FedSoc Blog, Liberty and Law; earlier]
- "Canada's Much Better and Very Different Alien Tort Statute" [Ku/OJ]
- Implementation of United Nations' Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) could draw inspiration from U.S. experience with institutional reform lawsuits [Michael Perlin via Bagenstos]
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- Supreme Court orders rebriefing in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum case, could address extent of permitted extraterritoriality in Alien Tort Statute [Kenneth Anderson/Volokh quoting John Bellinger, Point of Law featured discussion, Ilya Shapiro on Cato brief]
- UN "food rights" official: trade, investment pacts should not go forward without "human rights impact assessments" [De Schutter; his paternalist food-policy agenda] UN panel reviews Canada's record on race, lectures on need for more multiculturalism [OHCHR]
- Courts still reluctant to restrain parents' physical discipline of kids, but UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, for which ratification push is expected in the U.S. this year, could change that [Elizabeth Wilson, ConcurOp]
- Golan v. Holder: "Copyright Case May Have Profound Effect on Treaty Power" [Ilya Shapiro, Jurist]
- Web accessibility litigation spreads to UK [Disability Law, related on role of U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, earlier and background]
- New tone under Ambassador Joseph Torsella: "Obama Comes Around on U.N. Reform" [Brett Schaefer, NRO]
- Reviewing new John Fonte book Sovereignty or Submission, Temple lawprof Peter Spiro contends that trend toward transnational governance isn't "reversible…. It's mostly wishful thinking to suppose that we can stick to the vision of the Founders." [OJ, earlier here, etc., and see chapters 11-12 of Schools for Misrule]
- Dante's Divine Comedy "offensive and should be banned," per UN anti-discrimination consultancy [Telegraph]
In the case of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, scheduled for argument Tuesday, the Supreme Court will consider curbing the modern scope of the Alien Tort Statute, which asserts U.S. jurisdiction over various human rights controversies arising within the bounds of other countries. [Reuters, earlier] Considering that it amounts to the Law of the Hegemon, the Statute is oddly popular in some Left circles [Kenneth Anderson/Volokh] European governments (Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands) have filed amicus briefs on the defense side [John Bellinger, Lawfare; more, WaPo]
More: The New York Times's Room for Debate discussion includes a contribution by my Cato colleague Ilya Shapiro. And Point of Law is having a featured discussion on the case with David Weissbrodt of the University of Minnesota and Julian Ku of Hofstra.
- ABA, NFIB protest NLRB "persuader" disclosure regulations [ABA Journal, Schwartz, earlier] Might regs place replacement workers' home addresses in hands of unions? [Labor Union Report, Boyle, Daily Caller]
- Swiss animal welfare law is catalyst for founding of guinea pig matchmaking service [Spiegel/Cowen]
- "Jail time for overdue library books" [Lowering the Bar]
- Busybody lawprof (at a different law school) continues to sue Catholic U. demanding coed dorms [WSJ Law Blog, Mystal/AtL]
- So does air pollution cause childhood asthma, as the American Lung Association claims in its ads? [Hayward] "Obama's Smog Standard Capitulation Enrages Environmentalists" [AW]
- A look inside the Shell Nigeria Alien Tort cases [Goldhaber, AmLaw]
- In the mail: Garner's Dictionary of Legal Usage (Bryan Garner)
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- Simon Singh on need to reform UK libel law [BoingBoing]
- Complaint: Scalia's too darned principled on religious liberty [rebutted by Ponnuru at NRO]
- Air Force sued after teenage rave in abandoned bunker turns bad [PoL]
- Scathing Kleinfeld dissent in Ninth Circuit Alien Tort case [Volokh, Fisher, Recorder]
- "Law Firm Accused of Requiring Heels, Then Discriminating When Injury Occurred" [ABA Journal]
- Parent's angry letter to Kansas City school board complaining that teacher laid hands on son; best part are the demands [Something Awful forums]
- Australia: "Iconic Merry-Go-Round Is Deemed an Insurance Liability" [Free-Range Kids]
- "Meatpacker to pay $3m for using strength test" [five years ago on Overlawyered]
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- Wal-Mart spending millions to fight $7,000 OSHA fine? Not so paradoxical when you think about it [Coyote]
- Proliferation of product recalls, as with warnings, can result in consumer fatigue and inattention [WaPo via PoL]
- Settlement said to be near between casino and gambler who lost $127 million [WSJ, UPI, earlier]
- "Think Globally, Sue Locally: Out-of-Court Tactics Employed by Plaintiffs, Their Lawyers, and Their Advocates in Transnational Tort Cases" [study, PDF and press release; Jonathan Drimmer for US Chamber, related WSJ]
- "End of an Era? Another Crunch Berries Case Dismissed" [Lowering the Bar, California Civil Justice, earlier on "froot" cases here, here, etc.]
- New Jersey: "School legal costs are a killer" [Rayner, Daily Record]
- ABA Journal profiles Ted Frank;
- We're the ones who write the laws around here, not you legislators: Washington Supreme Court strikes down med-mal notice law [SeattlePI.com]
So argued former State Department legal adviser John Bellinger III in the WSJ last week, with special reference to the overreaching, extraterritorial Alien Tort Statute. But it's not as if the efforts to turn the U.S. into the courtroom for the world are slackening at all:
- As Curtis Bradley and Jack Goldsmith note in the Washington Post, a federal court recently allowed to proceed a lawsuit seeking to blame the evils of South African apartheid on Western multinationals, even despite strong opposition to the suit from both the U.S. government's executive branch and today's duly elected multiracial South African government. Unfortunately, the State Department's up-to-now-staunch opposition to this and similar lawsuits is imperiled by the installment of Harold Koh as legal adviser at Foggy Bottom: "Koh is an intellectual architect and champion of the post-1980 human rights litigation explosion. He joined a brief in the South Africa litigation arguing for broad aiding-and-abetting liability."
- If asked what should happen to frozen Cuban-government assets under U.S. control, reasonable possibility #1 might be "hold them against the eventual day when a non-tyrannical regime emerges there, it will need help." Reasonable possibility #2 might be "divide the assets among Castro's many victims in some deliberate and step-by-step way, knowing that their injuries are so numerous and severe that even very deserving victims will get only small payments". The answer you'd think makes no sense at all is "encourage first-come-first-served tort lawsuits, so that the first couple of cases to maneuver their way through the legal process get handsome compensation, while no money is left for either #1 or #2″. So naturally, the latter is what our legal system is doing, previously in $188 million and $253 million verdicts involving single incidents or families, and now in a new case in which the family of Gustavo Villoldo has been awarded $1.179 billion. One of the plaintiff's lawyers in the case actually boasts that the new award may obstruct a warming of relations between the U.S. and a post-Castro successor regime: "with the opening of relations between the U.S. and Cuba to come, there are debts to society to be paid before that happens" (more on Che Guevara, via).
- On the brighter side, the Obama administration has joined its Bush predecessors in correctly drawing a line against litigation by some September 11 victims and insurance companies: under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act, the courts are no place to pursue theories trying to link the rulers of Saudi Arabia to the terrorist attacks.
(cross-posted from Point of Law)


text:
Official Title: An act to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for a voluntary prescription drug benefit under the medicare program and to strengthen and improve the medicare program, and for other purposes.
HR1, S1 Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Bill
House bill passed 216-215, 4 not voting June 27, 2003.
Senate bill passed 76-21, 3 not voting June 26, 2003.
After the two bills were unified in Conference, the legislation came back to the
House, where it passed 220-214, November 22, 2003.
Three days later, Senate passed this final version, 54-44, November 25, 2003.
Synopsis: The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act provided prescription drug coverage for the elderly and gave private health plans (a.k.a., "Medicare Advantage" plans) a much larger role in the Medicare program.
This was not the first time that Washington tried to nudge seniors into private-sector plans, hoping that that free-market competition would bring down the cost of care. In 1997, Medicare began giving beneficiaries a choice between traditional Medicare (with the government paying medical bills directly) and "Medicare + Choice," a program that paid HMOs to provide Medicare benefits to seniors. The theory was that the private sector would do a better job of finding innovative ways to trim costs while enhancing benefits.
Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way. First, many HMOs found ways to shun the sickest seniors by charging high co-pays for items like chemotherapy, hospital care, oxygen and dialysis. As a result, they wound up with a relatively healthy pool of customers. Meanwhile, Medicare paid the HMOs a lump sum per enrollee, without adjusting for the fact that private insurers had winnowed out so many of the most expensive patients. Thus, in 2003, Medicare shelled out roughly 4 percent more for Medicare + Choice enrollees than it would have spent if these same healthy seniors had stayed in traditional Medicare where they would have used fewer services.
Even so, insurers soon began to grouse that Medicare's payments were not high enough to keep up with the soaring cost of care, and they began bailing out of the Medicare + Choice. From 1998 to 2003 the number of Private M +C plans fell by 50 percent. Other private Medicare + Choice insurers raised co-pays and deductibles. As a result, over the five years ending in 2003, the list of beneficiaries enrolled in M+C plunged from 6.2 million to 4.6 million.
Enter the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. This time around Congress hiked payments to private insurers. These payments varied in different parts of the country, reflecting differences in health care costs in different regions. In some places insurers enjoyed enormous increases: for instance, in Long Island's Nassau Country, Medicare lifted payments to private insurers by over 24 percent.
It seemed that Congress had given up on the theory that private sector insurers could provide better care for less. But some still believed that if private insurers were given enough time to let market forces kick in, the cost of care would, in fact, fall.
But the Medicare Modernization Act also greatly expanded coverage–and costs– by providing prescription drug coverage to seniors under Medicare Part D. The legislation explicitly barred the federal government from negotiating directly with drug companies to lower prices.
The Medicare Modernization Act would roil Congress, and the roller-coaster votes on this bill would set history.
The legislation was supported by President George W. Bush. But in 2003, not all Republicans were willing to vote along party lines. As a result, the political pressure was intense when the bill came up for a vote in the House in June 2003. A dramatic roll-call lasted more than 40 minutes, with the ''nays'' outnumbering the ''yeas,'' while House Republican leaders feverishly pressured legislators to vote for the bill.
Three Republican representatives then changed their votes. One opponent of the bill, Ernest J. Istook, Jr. (R-OK-5), changed his vote to "present" upon being told that C.W. Bill Young (R-FL-10), who was absent due to a death in the family, would have voted "aye" if he had been present. Next, Republicans Butch Otter (ID-1) and Jo Ann Emerson (MO-8) switched their votes to "aye." At 2:30 a.m. the bill passed by one vote, 216-215.
A day earlier, the Senate had cleared its version of the bill by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 76 to 21 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/27/us/house-and-senate-pass-measures-for-broad-overhaul-of-medicare.html?pagewanted=3&src=pm Although the House and the Senate had now each passed their versions of the legislation, the two bills had to be reconciled in "Conference" – the place where the House and Senate compromise
A final version of the bill did not come back to the House until November 21. At that point, one of the most contentious votes in the history of Congress began to unfold. The legislation didn't come to a vote until 3 a.m. on November 22. After 45 minutes, the bill was losing, 219-215. Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay began working to convince some of the dissenting Republicans to switch their votes, as they had in June. Ernest J. Istook, Jr. (R-OK-5), who had always been a wavering vote, consented quickly. The tally was now 218 to 216. In a highly unusual move, the House leadership held the vote open for hours as they sought two more votes.
Representative Nick Smith (R-Mich.) would claim that he was offered campaign funds for his son, who was running to replace him, in return for a change in his vote from "nay" to "yea." Smith later said that no explicit offer of campaign funds was made, but that he was offered "substantial and aggressive campaign support" which he had assumed included financial support.
About 5:50 a.m., the leadership convinced Butch Otter (ID-1) and Trent Franks (AZ-2) to switch their votes. With passage assured, Democrats Calvin M. Dooley (CA-20), Jim Marshall (GA-3) and David Scott (GA-13) changed their votes to the affirmative. But Brad Miller (D-NC-13), and then, Republican John Culberson (TX-7), reversed their votes from "yea" to "nay." The bill ultimately passed 220-215.
The Senate's consideration of the compromise "Conference" bill was somewhat less heated–until Tom Daschle raised a budget point of order. Since 60 votes were necessary to override this challenge, some observers thought he had a credible chance of blocking the legislation.
For several minutes, the vote total was stuck at 58-39 – until Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Trent Lott (R-Miss.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) voted in quick succession, bringing the tally to 61-39. The bill itself was finally passed 54-44 on November 25, 2003. It was signed into law by President Bush on Dec. 8.
Related vote:
More: select a member to see his or her other key health care votes.
Yes (216)
No (215)
Not Voting (3)
Present (1) : Ernest Istook
03/29/2012 Ryan Budget Bill 2012
04/15/2011 Ryan Budget Bill 2011
11/19/2009 Revising Physician Fee Schedules, Reinstatement of PAYGO
01/12/2007 Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act
06/27/2003 Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Bill

subset: commoncrawl


text:
When you're writing a book there are half a dozen times you think you're done. You hand over the whole thing, in one great wodge, and breathe a sigh of relief. What follows though, is a frenzied month of bits and bobs - mostly tweaks to ensure sections are not ending halfway down a page, that the balance of images across the book works well etc, before it goes to the editor. The editor is the person who takes your words and puts order the right in them.
I take most of the photos in the books I write, so when there are a few extras needed to punctuate the lines of genius (thank you, editor) I have to get out there with the camera. Horse poo, creme de cassis and blueberries this week. I'll spare you the horse poo. The blueberry pages have space for another image to go with the fruiting one, so, when they have such amazing flowers, I thought I'd take one while they're in blossom.
Blueberries are as beautiful as they are delicious - later in the year when the fruit comes along, check out the base of the fruit where the blossom formed, away from the stem. This lazily lobed, five-pointed star on each fruit was seen by Native Americans as a sign that the Great Spirit had sent 'starberries' to ease hunger in times of famine. They make a mighty fine muffin too. Now's the time they're in flower. Go and buy a plant or two right now.
They like growing in acid conditions, so if you're growing them in pots it's best to use ericaceous compost and to water them with rain water as it's mildly acidic. I had no ericaceous compost to top dress these potted blueberries so Homebase (it's near) were lucky enough to get my custom earlier in the week. I noticed Jamie Oliver has a range of grow your own stuff out - seeds, compost and all that. And for some reason I lifted up one of his growbags to have a look at what was in it. There was no ingredients list, just an indication of the peat content: 60%. I'm still not sure I've read that right...60%...so I will check before I publish this*.
I came home, took the blueberry picture and slunk into the bath. I have a stack of magazines (pipe down, not that kind) just inside my office, that I never get around to reading. I grabbed the top one, the latest Gardeners World magazine. All fine, until I got to the last page. Alan Titchmarsh, much loved, highly experienced and very influential gardener excusing us gardeners and growers who use peat.
The combination of Jamie O and Alan T promoting peat got me all righteous and boring - I grizzled on like I grizzle at the TV when watching Question Time. Then I wrote a really boring and self-righteous blog. This is my attempt to make it less so - I don't think I've succeeded, so you might want to look at the pictures and go make yourself a nice cup of tea instead.
The reason I got all worked up is because Jamie O and Alan T aren't the usual muppets: these are two of the good guys, both highly influential and rightly appreciated for promoting positive stuff. People listen to what they have to say.
Peat usually forms in wet areas when plants and fungi, with a few animals thrown in, are prevented from decomposing completely by acidic and/or anaerobic conditions. It accumulates rapidly when conditions are very wet, less so in drier times. Its character reflects the conditions in which it was laid down - it becomes a prime indicator of historic climatic conditions as well as providing a window into the local ecology of the time. It is a subterranean museum.
Give it a few extra millions years and peat often develops into coal. It is full of carbon, which makes it a valuable fuel in some parts of the world - more importantly peat is a valuable carbon sink, locking up carbon at a time when our atmosphere needs it sequestered. Allow peat to dry out or dig it up and it ceases to be a carbon sink, it becomes an emitter - a cause of climate change.
This isn't a minor issue - it is estimated that, globally, peat stores around twice the carbon that forests do. If Alan T and Jamie O were cutting down the rainforest to line their pockets or raise a few tricky ornamental plants there'd be an outcry.
You might think what we gardeners and growers do is inconsequential in the wider scheme of things: not so. We amateur gardeners use way more peat than anyone else - around 2 million cubic metres of peat a year, or 3 billion litres if you prefer. It has been conservatively estimated that banning it's use in gardening compost would save the equivalent amount in carbon emissions as taking 350,000 cars off the road. Or taking all the motorcycles and mopeds off the road.
We have already accounted for 94% of the UKs lowland raised bogs. The government response: Hillary Benn announced a plan to phase out the use of peat by amateur gardeners by 2020. Not especially dynamic or responsible, especially when you look back to 1999 when the government announced it would eliminate peat from all but 10 per cent of compost by 2010 - it is still present in 46 per cent of the compost sold in Britain.
Peat isn't fertile in itself, but it has the rather handy property of retaining moisture when there is little about and holding on to any excess so that roots don't rot when conditions are overly wet. There's an impression perpetuated that nothing compares to peat. This may have something to do with peat being comparatively cheap for commercial growers. Which? commissioned trials in March 2010 that showed peat-free composts outperforming the best peat-based composts. So we can put that one to bed.
Yet Alan T won't use coir based composts in preference to peat: "those based on coir have, I reckon, used up too many air miles". This is the sentence - and especially the 'I reckon' - that gives me hope: Alan T must be getting poorly advised because in the context of peat and coir the concept of air miles is a red herring.
We are fed air miles as a handy index of a product's carbon footprint but it can be highly misleading. British tomatoes, for example, grown in heated greenhouses have used far more energy and consequently have far greater embedded carbon than Spanish tomatoes grown in the sun and shipped or even flown to us. The only relevant number is the total carbon consumed in the whole process of production rather than the number of miles travelled.
Coir is the outer husk of a coconut. The long fibres go to make coconut matting but the finer covering was incinerated (releasing carbon) before it started being used in compost. Having been stripped from the coconut (and washed to remove salt if grown in coastal areas), the coir is dried and highly compacted, minimising its weight and volume before being shipped. A full 40ft cube container will take 4400 coir bales weighing 5kg each, which when hydrated expands to almost 300,000 litres of coir. It's a very efficient system that minimises the energy required to transport it.
Once here, containers are loaded onto lorries and dispatched to depots and stores around the country: a highly inefficient system. So inefficient that (per tonne) more fuel is used to move the coir around once it reaches these shores than it does to ship it here from Asia.
Only around 40% of the peat we use comes from these shores, around half from Ireland and the rest from Europe. Peat is weighty and mostly transported by lorry at a huge carbon cost.
Air miles, air schmiles.
I'm not sure Gardener's World would have run Alan T's article if he had advocated slashing down rainforests so gardeners could grow a few delicate plants a little more reliably. Carbon-wise, using peat is worse. And I haven't got stuck into the wildlife, ecosystem and habitat issues - I'll leave someone else to be dull about that.
I can only assume Gardener's World and Alan T didn't know the whole picture.
It's hard to disagree with some of the sentiment of the column - many gardeners and growers do much to enhance our biodiversity - but if we want that to be taken seriously we can't ignore our responsibilities.
Alan T's garden is 'teeming with moths, butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, and all kinds of other organisms that I cannot see'. So is mine and I'm not half the gardener Alan T is. I also never use peat. I don't think it's ok for us to say that because our garden 'contributes to the greater good' that we can contribute to the far greater bad because a few delicate princesses might not take to coir. If they won't grow in something other than peat, let's not grow them - garden biodiversity won't be compromised one jot.
It is us, you and I, not the big commercial boys, who account for three quarters of peat consumed. We needn't.
I've gone on too long, as ever, but I have nothing better to do.
It is deeply boring to wave a flag saying "Please Don't" on it. I try not to but once in a while you should. Many are doing it and not all are boringly worthy individuals who are certified organic, are climate change activists, knit their own yoghurt and cycle to work on a tandem. Of the many, Kew have long supported peat-free growing, as have Monty and the National Trust and last time I looked their gardens were quite good.
I'm still surprised that Jamie O and Alan T are promoting something so at odds with what they usually stand for, especially when there are a fine alternatives out there. It must be because they are being poorly advised or are unaware of the implications of using peat.
I hope, if they knew the facts, they'd agree.
*I checked: it is.
*I think I should be awarded bonus points for not writing 'For Peat's Sake' anywhere.
Friday, April 8, 2011 at 8:31 AM
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Go to Otter Farm | by Mark D


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One Direction Fan Fiction Now the Fastest Route to a Book Deal
In the old days, back before single-serving Tumblrs and pithy Twitter accounts, you had to be talented or rich or well-connected to nab a book deal. Now, with the democratization power of the Internet, you need a wifi connection and a slightly unhinged obsession with raunchy BDSM sex or a boy band. Welcome to 2012, you guys. Aren't you just so proud of how far we've come? Read More


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I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on the Top Tier system (three burner) and plan on adding the Tower of Power with one controller to start. I'll add the other later. I'm not a DIYer, so I've decided its the best one for me for a number of reasons. Plus, I really feel comfortable with the quality of Blichmann products. That being said, has anyone incorporated the Tower of Power into their system? If so, I'd love to hear how you like it and any tips you may have. I'm also curious how you mounted/incorporated it into your Top Tier system. tx in advance, Cheers SG
I don't have the top tier system, but if you read through the TOP manual it says there is a utility shelf you can purchase that you can then set the TOP control panel onto. I've only used my TOP CP for one brew session so far, but it's pretty slick!
I just received my Power of Tower and Top Tier stand yesterday. Started to put together the Top Tier tonight and hope to put everything together this weekend. The instructions state that you can get an optional mounting bracket that will allow you to mount tower to the top tier stand. As a default, the tower comes as a free standing unit. I think the tower will be hand, because all of the plumbing is taken care of in a compact way. I can't seem to find this "optional mounting bracket" for sale anywhere. Going to give Blichmann a call tomorrow. I'll post update to this thread as I complete the build and try it out. I'm really excited about this system. I know lots of people say it's overpriced, but you are getting a modular, well engineered system. You can probably replicate it yourself, but it will take a lot of hours and lot of headaches. I prefer to spend my limited time on brewing, so this was a perfect solution for me.
Thanks, i haven't seen the optional mounting bracket (to mount the tower to the top tier) either. Would love to hear what you learn from Blichmann. I also pulled the trigger on the tower and one controller for now. Although, I plan to upgrade to two controllers in the not too distant future.
Sounds good. I'll be interested to see how you set yours up. I haven't decided yet, but I'm leaning toward putting HLT up high and MLT and BK at the same level low.
That's exactly what I was thinking. Trying to figure out plumbing now.
I just got off the phone with Northern Brewer. It turns out that the optional mounting bracket for mounting the ToP to the TT has not been released by Blichmann yet. They suggested that I just set up the ToP with the legs provided for now and then when Blichmann releases the mounting bracket, I can mount to tower. (It will just be a matter of taking off the legs, mounting bracket onto TT and then snapping ToP onto bracket). He said he believes the bracket will retail for $150. I was surprised it is going to be that much, but will have to wait and see the design to figure out if it is a complete ripoff or not. With regards to plumbing, I'm also trying to figure out how to set up autosparge so that it can work for both mash recirculation and sparging. I think it might be one of those things that becomes more obvious once I have everything set up. Also trying to figure out how to drain to boil kettle and whether or not you can monitor this flow rate through the flow meter included on ToP.
I like the ability to move the tower.
Can you explain your setup? Do you have HLT up high, MT at mid level and BK at low level? It looks like you only have controller for MT. Do you just control sparge water temperature manually? If you could post more pics or an explanation of your setup, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!
Check out the video on the Blichmann website if you haven't yet. It shows how to hook up the sparge and HLT basically using the same piping. It may only work using their proprietary autosparge...


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Reviewed By John P (Lombard, IL) Reviewed for a 2004 Cadillac CTS —7/23/2014 6:21 PM
This is well built ,note is not water proof, fits the car , Kept the car cool inside
Reviewed By Scott Q (Dorchester, MA) Reviewed for a 2010 Cadillac CTS —2/13/2014 9:41 AM
I bought a custom fit one for a CTS-V. Overall It seems like it will hold up well. Installation is easy, however it felt like I had to pull a good deal to get it over my side mirros even when following the directions which say to put it on the side mirrors before stretching over the front and back. I'm a little afraid of ripping it, but it is OK so far. It amy just need to stretch a little too. Overall it seems well made and should stand up to the light use in my garage.
Reviewed By John S (Harrisburg, PA) Reviewed for a 2010 Cadillac CTS —1/29/2014 9:04 PM
The ease to cover the vehicle wasn't as easy as picture pictured it, plus it wasn't packed so it would roll on top and down. It took a few times to locate the front and turn it around. Even with the minor detail i am very satisfied with the cover and how it looks and protects my CTS.
Cadillac CTS Luxury Outdoor Car Covers Cadillac CTS Performance Outdoor Car Covers |
Cadillac CTS Premium Outdoor Car Covers |
Cadillac CTS Sport Outdoor Car Covers |


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On today's show, Skeets and Tas pick up "double technicals" for being awesome. (Kidding. That would never happen.) Should the NBA rescind one (or both) of Perkins' questionable techs? Where was this push-the-freakin'-tempo Magic team earlier in the series? And could we possibly see a Brian Scalabrine sighting in Game 6? All that, plus Tas accidentally channels Raymond Babbitt for a moment. Find it!
(Reminder: Don't forget to make your TBJ Book-Off picks.)
Thank you for being a friend! Join The Basketball Jones' Facebook page.
Subscribe to the video show on iTunes | Download the .m4v directly
Subscribe to the audio show on iTunes | Download the .mp3 directly


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From a mother torn between her husband and son to a mother who raises her children all by herself; Bollywood has showcased every aspect of a Mother who is capable of doing anything when it comes to her children. Here's a look at the top ten mothers of Bollywood. Nirupa Roy...read more
Farida Jalal News
Reellife mothers can be influential in our lives, just like our real life mothers. A mother is considered as an object of devotion in our culture that is the reason why film makers try to make the mother's character stand apart from the others in typical Bollywood movies....read more


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Latest News
EXCLUSIVE: Suzanne Somers Goes On Trial Monday In Kentucky
Suzanne Somers is expected in a Lexington, Kentucky courtroom at 8:30am EST Monday, RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting.
The fitness legend is exp… READ MORE
EXCLUSIVE: Suzanne Somers Sued In Failed Food Venture
Suzanne Somers is known as one of the most successful business women in Hollywood. The former sitcom star become a multimillionaire thanks to her lines of n… READ MORE


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It has been a while - but I saw a photograph by tall_bastard that lets me continue my "Photo of the Day" series
Here is the photo that I like so much I am writing this little blog:
So what is it that lets me make THAT photo my "Photo of the Day"?
I think I had already seen it before browsing through the photos of tall_bastard , but today it made something with me that let me stop. Maybe it is the little detail of the energy saving lamp or was it the nail polish?
But first a little description. What do we see?
First I would say that we "just" see a girl with her rabbit.
If you want to look at it that short than you can just continue and look at other photos. I see way more.
The angle the photo was taken implies that that girl is bigger than she actually is. Her view is somehow strong and she is facing the camera. I guess she was placed there by her brother to make a portrait of his little sister. But again – there is more. This girl is between 10 and 13, in between girl and woman and that is what you can see in every detail.
The hands holding a rabbit – and the finger nails have polish on them. She does not wear childish clothes, though there is still a little detail on her jeans, those flowers. And her pink hair band holding her hair in position – one pigtail in front and one behind her ear. But it is her view, the way she looks into the camera that is so interesting. She is looking wise, she is looking at you like a grown up woman would.
You should really check out the LomoHome of tall_bastard – he has many very good portraits!


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Yoga Tune-up(R) with Amanda Winkler |
Boundless Yoga Studio (formerly Sundari Yoga) - Yoga Workshop |
Yoga Workshop: | Yoga Tune-up(R) with Amanda Winkler |
Stroudsburg Pa USA | ||
Event is Over | ||
Hatha, Vinyasa, AcroYoga, Zenyasa, Yin | ||
Boundless Yoga Studio (formerly Sundari Yoga) | ||
Sunday, October 6th 11-1:30pm Yoga Tune Up ® is a challenging yet accessible practice that incorporates movements from classical yoga, calisthenics, and body therapy to explore every micro-region of your body's anatomy; systematically and intelligently priming your body, mind, and spirit. This workshop is designed to teach you the fundamentals of the Yoga Tune Up ® methodology, in order to inspire your knowledge of human anatomy, and get you moving in ways that open, energize, and inform your tissues! Therapeutic self-massage techniques enhance the unique combination of strengthening, stretching, and relaxation work. This workshop is for all levels. Yoga Tune Up® brings a practical Yoga philosophy to the nuts and bolts of healthy human movement. Gain strength, flexibility, and resiliency in every system of your body! |
$30.00 | ||
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Welcome to Commissioning 2015
Driving quality, integration & person-centred care
There is only one Commissioning Show and it returns as part of Health+Care, to Excel, London on the 24 - 25 June 2015.
Register for your complimentary ticket here now
Providing a world class learning, and inspirational networking environment for everyone involved in the delivery of health care, the largest national event for the health care sector will be even better, streamlined and personal than ever.
Over 300 speakers will deliver real 'for and 'against' debates, case studies will address real issues and give attendees practical solutions that they can implement in their organisations immediately.
Post election The Commissioning Show will host the latest ministerial speakers, who will giving one of their first public addresses to the sector at the conference.
The keynote sessions that provided delegates with everything from organisational development and governance advice, new approaches to commissioning patients with multiple long-term conditions and everything in-between.


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on June 5, 2008As we learned yesterday, being president isn't exactly good for your health -- a grand total of eight American presidents have passed away while in office -- and all of them were much younger than John McCain would be if he gets elected this November. While it may seem incredible that nearly one of five of U.S. Presidents have died in office, this statistic could have been even worse, given how many American leaders have had close calls.
George Washington
The Father of Our Country took office in 1789 at 56 and seemed a long shot ever to make it to 60, nearly dying twice before the midpoint of his first term. In 1789, he ran a high fever as a result of a large abscess on his shoulder that needed to be drained. He came even closer to closing time in 1790 when he contracted pneumonia. Despite a worried letter from Thomas Jefferson ("We have been very near losing the President"), Washington recovered and served out two terms.
A notorious duelist before his election, Jackson continued to have good luck with the guns once in the White House. An attempted assassination failed when a gunman had not one, but two pistols misfire at close range (the odds of this occurring have been estimated at 125,000 to one).
The presidency ain't an easy job. Only 49 at his inauguration -- a toddler by presidential standards -- Polk set four goals for his term: to re-establish the Independent Treasury System, buy California from Mexico, resolve a border dispute in the Pacific Northwest, and reduce tariffs. Polk accomplished all of them, declined to run again, and died a completely spent and broken man less than four months after he left office.
Bumped up to the presidency by the assassination of William McKinley, the former Vice President sought a full term in 1884 and failed even to get the Republican nomination. It turned out to be just as well. While in office he discovered he had the kidney disorder Bright's disease (then regarded as a death sentence), and though he decided to press ahead, he died just a year out of office in 1886 at age 57.
In 1893, 56-year-old Cleveland had an operation to remove a cancer from his upper jaw. Already a risky procedure to treat a life-threatening condition, he upped the stakes by having the operation performed on a friend's yacht to ensure total secrecy (he was afraid of worsening an ongoing financial crisis). The treatment worked and remained unknown to the public until 1917, by which point he'd been dead for almost a decade.
As 1919 wound down, 52-year-old Wilson was already frustrated and exhausted from his failure to gain support for U.N. precursor the League of Nations. Then he suffered a paralyzing stroke and his First Lady took power that Hillary can only dream of. While Edith Wilson insisted she faithfully carried out the President's instructions, she controlled all access to him, meaning only papers she deemed worthy of his attention reached him during the months it took him to recover. He never completely regained his health, dying just three years after leaving office.
President James Madison had to flee Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812. Truman, however, remains the only President nearly gunned down in his home. During White House renovations, Truman lived in Blair House. Two activists for Puerto Rican independence attacked the dwelling, killing a guard in the process. How laidback was security at the time? Truman actually wound up watching one of the gunmen from a window until someone suggested that he get the hell out of the line of fire.
62 when he took office, Ike survived a heart attack, a stroke, and a bowel obstruction. Impressively, he not only served out his two terms, but also lived for eight more years after leaving the White House.
1975 was a year of living dangerously for Jerry, as Charles Manson-follower Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme and "revolutionary" Sara Jane Moore tried to gun him down in separate incidents within a 17-day period. Neither came particularly close, as Fromme improperly loaded her gun and Moore managed only a single shot from 40 feet away in an act committed for reasons even her own attorney admitted to never quite understanding.
Almost 70 when he took office in 1981, the Gipper barely survived John Hinckley's failed attempt to impress Jodie Foster. He later underwent surgery to deal with a potentially cancerous polyp, resulting in a transfer of power to George Bush the Elder for roughly eight hours. Recent years have inspired debate about another aspect of his health. In 1994, he announced he was suffering from Alzheimer's ("I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life"), triggering speculation over whether he was showing symptoms before he left office in 1989, with his staff insisting he was in complete command of his faculties but reporter Leslie Stahl noting she had an interview with him where he was so disoriented she nearly reported the President was senile.
Follow Esquire Magazine on RSS and on Twitter at @Esquiremag.
What To Read Next


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Tue, Feb 14, 06 at 20:33
Costco is selling a blender very similar to The Magic Bullet (of informercial fame) called "Back to Basics, the Blender Express". It's a mini blender with clear plastic mug that you invert onto a base. I bought it because it was $30 and it looked like it would work along the lines of the Magic Bullet. I've been looking online for reviews for this lesser-known brand but I'm not finding any.
If you have bought this mini-me version of a blender, a knock-off of the Magic Bullet, please tell me what you think of it. I can still return this box if you hate it. In the meantime I'll test it out myself and report back. I want to see how well it blends a smoothie which is the main reason I bought it.
Follow-Up Postings:
I can't verify how good the Back to Basics Blender Express is, but I've had fantastic success with their Smoothie Maker. And with Back to Basics you can order replacement parts for just about any of their products. I'm very happy with their products. |
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The hyperlink to a bill draft that precedes a summary contains the most recent version (Introduced/GA/Enacted) of the bill. If the session has ended, the hyperlink contains the latest version of the bill at the time of sine die adjournment. Note that the summary pertains to the bill as introduced, which is often different from the most recent version.Includes opposite chamber sponsors where requested by primary sponsors of substantially similar bills in both chambers and jointly approved by the Committee on Committees of both chambers. Opposite chamber sponsors are represented in italics.
AN ACT relating to low-income heating energy assistance, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring an emergency. Appropriate $10 million from the natural gas severance tax receipts for the General Fund in fiscal year 2007-2008 to support the crisis component of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP); EMERGENCY.
(Prefiled by the sponsor(s).) Jan 8-introduced in House Jan 10-to Appropriations & Revenue (H)


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Former Gov. Thompson says son feels terrible for Obama remark
From: Fox News | October 16, 2012
Wisconsin's Republican Senate candidate, former Gov. Tommy Thompson, says his son feels terrible for suggesting that voters should send President Barack Obama back to Kenya.
Filed Under The Wire
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Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 15:26
We have finished basement about ten year ago, contractor did it. We did not get permit at that time. Now we plan to sell our house and our township is asking for permit. We have started to call general and electric contractors and most tell us that they do not do checking of finished basements for the purpose of getting permit. Any suggestions on what we can do to get permit ? Thank you for all replies Many thanks for all replies |
Follow-Up Postings:
- Posted by LuAnn_in_PA (My Page) on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 16:58
What does the township suggest? What did the guy who did the work say when you asked for the permit? |
I'd ask the agency responsible for granting the permit what's required. |
I had a similar situation when I sold my mother's house. I simply went to the town and spoke with them in person. I told them the work was done several years before, but we didn't know a permit was needed for this type of work. We apologized and asked them what to do. They were very nice about it. They just said we had to apply for the permit retroactively, the inspector had to inspect, and that was that. |
- Posted by GreenDesigns (My Page) on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 21:31
Contractors do not inspect things for permits. Your code inspectors do that. You would need to make an appointment with them and discuss the issues pertaining to the lack of permits. They could be nice and let you ":get by" and just pay the cost of the permit. Or, they could be rigid and technically correct by requiring that you rip everything out that was done that wasn't permitted and then fine you. Where IS the contractor whose services you engaged and who failed to follow proper procedure? |
Also, in most towns it means you haven't been paying RE taxes on those improvements for the last 10 years. You might be fined for the permit and taxes owed. |
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text: Curley has taught in a range of programs — associate, bachelor and RN to BSN — around the world including in New York City, Hawaii, Israel and Uganda. Her background includes extensive work in emergency nursing and mental health/psychiatric nursing. Curley has worked at a Level I Trauma Center in Harlem and Long Island, N.Y., the second busiest emergency department in Hawaii and a Level 2 Trauma Center in New Jersey. She has also worked in psychiatric settings including acute and chronic psychiatric units in Hawaii. | Credentials: Doctor of Nursing Practice, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio Master's degrees, nursing and education from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City Bachelor of Science, nursing, Lienhard School of Nursing at Pace University Graduate, Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing in New York City


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Several days ago, the New York Times ran an op-ed written by former legal advisor to the Secretary of State John B. Bellinger III. In it, Bellinger called for swift action in ratifying international treaties. If you didn't catch it, I highly recommend giving the essay a read.
Following a not so brief hiatus from blogging, forced in part by technical difficulties, I return today with a story that has generated several headlines over the past several weeks.
While the United States has largely focused on trials of Casey Anthony and Roger Clemens, one significant international legal drama has received far less attention.
Tomorrow, Thursday, July 7, 2011, Texas is scheduled to execute Humberto Leal Garcia, Jr. for the rape and murder of a sixteen year old Texas girl.
Human rights activists, international law experts, the United Nations, the United States Department of State, and others are petitioning for a stay of Garcia's execution because Texas did not provide Garcia with protections guaranteed under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
Garcia is a Mexican citizen, and because both Mexico and the United States are signatories to the Vienna Convention, Garcia is afforded certain rights under the Treaty. Under Article 36 (reproduced below), Garcia should have been notified (but was not notified) of his right to contact the Mexican Consulate, which could have provided legal aid and assistance in his defense.
Despite calls for a stay of execution, Texas Governor Rick Perry has signaled that he will not halt the execution, and the Obama administration has filed a brief supporting a stay with the US Supreme Court.
It may be unlikely that Garcia's trial would have had a different outcome had he obtained access to the Mexican Consulate's services; however, allowing an execution to occur when the defendant's rights under international treaty law were not properly afforded is a serious infraction of international law. The US Supreme court has until tomorrow to intervene in the case.
More info concerning the facts of this case and opinion can be found in the following easily digestible articles:
Texas Is Pressed to Spare Mexican Citizen on Death Row, by Adam Liptak, New York Times.
In Texas, a Death Penalty Showdown With International Law, by Nicole Allan, The Atlantic.
Supreme Court to Decide on Mexican's Execution, by Reid J. Epstein, Politico.
Article 36
1. With a view to facilitating the exercise of consular functions relating to nationals of the sending State :
(a) consular officers shall be free to communicate with nationals of the sending State and to have access to them. Nationals of the sending State shall have the same freedom with respect to communication with and access to consular officers of the sending State;
(b) if he so requests, the competent authorities of the receiving State shall, without delay, inform the consular post of the sending State if, within its consular district, a national of that State is arrested or committed to prison or to custody pending trial or is detained in any other manner. Any communication addressed to the consular post by the person arrested, in prison, custody or detention shall also be forwarded by the said authorities without delay. The said authorities shall inform the person concerned without delay of his rights under this sub-paragraph;
(c) consular officers shall have the right to visit a national of the sending State who is in prison, custody or detention, to converse and correspond with him and to arrange for his legal representation. They shall also have the right to visit any national of the sending State who is in prison, custody or detention in their district in pursuance of a judgment. Nevertheless, consular officers shall refrain from taking action on behalf of a national who is in prison, custody or detention if he expressly opposes such action.
2. The right referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be exercised in conformity with the laws and regulations of the receiving State, subject to the proviso, however, that the said laws and regulations must enable full effect to be given to the purposes for which the rights accorded under this Article are intended.
Sorry for the infrequency of posts over the past few days, but travel has kept me from actively blogging.
In case you have not been watching the news, US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) today in Prague. The treaty would significantly cut the US and Russia's stockpile of nuclear weapons.
The New York Times covers the treaty and its political implications.
The Christian Science Monitor detailed the significance of the treaty's terms:
"For the Russians, because of the deterioration of the conventional weapons projection capability, nuclear weapons are more important in their overall military doctrine," says Andrew Kuchins, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "That gets to the question of how possible or how difficult future agreements are going to be [for] getting to a next round of reductions with the Russians."
It is important not to "oversell" the significance of the new START, says Mr. Kuchins. The US and Russia, with a new limit of 1,550 nuclear warheads each, will remain by far the world's predominant nuclear powers.
Of course, to be ratified the treaty must garner 67 votes in the US Senate. ABC News reports that it is unclear whether President Obama can garner Senate approval.
The Washington Post examines a commonly overlooked in US news coverage – the Russian political reaction and the ratification process. After all, the treaty must also be approved by the Russian Duma.
The full text of the treaty and protocol can be found here via the White House.


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Statistics indicate that in western societies, approximately 10% of the population is afraid of the dentist. With statistics like these, to successfully enter the dental profession would require academic ability, manual dexterity, and highly developed people skills. To that end, preparation for entering dental school should focus on academic success along with development of professional skills.
Academics: The prerequisite courses for entering dental school are somewhat substantial and it can become difficult pairing these necessary courses with every major on campus. Admission requirements vary by school, so consult the ADEA guide to dental schools to ensure you are properly prepared for the application. Typically, students who enter dental school major in a traditional science and often minor in a related non-science field such as business or music (yes, music!!) However, you must be committed to academic excellence. A strong GPA (3.7 or higher) coupled with an outstanding DAT score (19 or greater average) is an important beginning to your dental school application. And building a strong academic record begins early in your undergraduate career with sustained performance in ALL classes, engaging and participating fully both inside and outside of the classroom. For every 1 hour in the class, you should be spending 2 hours outside the class learning on your own through reading and homework.
Extra-curricular: The need for exposure to the field of dentistry is important. You should plan on shadowing and volunteering in ways that build your people skills. Developing and demonstrating your manual dexterity is also an important part of your preparation. Many students participate in art or music classes or take up hobbies which require careful manipulation of hand tools. Whatever you choose, make sure you're continually processing the activity and asking why is this beneficial and how will it help me become a better dentist.
Four-Year Plan for Pre-Health Students
Dental School
View the presentation from the 2014 Junior Committee Meeting Meeting (powerpoint)
Self Assessment Table
Personal Statements
Advising Sheets


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Free Wifi is Coming to Six NYC Subway Stations This Summer
The dog days of summer are upon us, but there's a bright spot gleaming like Gatsby's green light from the West side of Manhattan. Google Offers, which apparently still exists, has teamed up with Boingo to provide free Wifi in six subway stations this summer. Can you imagine the awesomeness of being able to check your email while waiting on a sticky, rat-ridden platform for the ever-elusive M train? Read More


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Women at the top - part one: Athene Donald
9 June 2011
Dame Athene Donald, DBE, FRS is Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Cambridge. She has pioneered research into soft matter physics and its application to living organisms. She recently received a lifetime achievement award in the UKRC's 2011 women of outstanding achievement awards.
Congratulations, you must be very proud?
Yes, it's quite an achievement. Although it feels a bit funny to receive a lifetime achievement award whilst I'm still working, I'm not dead yet!
Dame Athene Donald with her portrait as part of the Women of Outstanding Achievement Awards 2011.
© Philip Reeson/The UKRC
Did you receive a copy of the photo? Where did you put it?
I have a small copy which is sitting on my desk at home. I might bring it into the office, I haven't decided.
So it goes without saying that you've had a successful career, how did you get to where you are today?
I was a physics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge at a time when there were very few women studying physics. At the time I had no intentions to follow a career in physics; I just found it really interesting.
I stayed in Cambridge to complete a PhD and then moved to the USA as a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University where, for my second postdoc, I moved into the polymer research field. At that point I met and worked with Professor Ed Kramer, who was a really inspirational person. He persuaded me that I should think about an academic career; that's when my career really started to take off.
After that I came back to Cambridge with my husband as he had secured a College Fellowship. I was lucky enough to be awarded a SERC Fellowship in the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science. Two years later I was awarded a Royal Society Fellowship at the Cavendish Laboratory and then, at the age of 33, I was offered a lectureship, the first female lecturer in the Department of Physics. Coincidently it was around this time when I found out that I was pregnant.
How did starting a family affect your career decisions?
I remember Sam Edwards, a former Council member of the AFRC (BBSRC's predecessor) who was Cavendish Professor of Physics at the time, and another hugely inspirational character, telling me that 'intelligent women should have babies'. That really stuck with me and encouraged me.
I was also fortunate that my husband was prepared to give up his career to be the primary carer of our children and so I steadily progressed, moving into food physics as part of a large AFRC-funded project with the Institute of Food Research. My work became increasingly focussed at the biology interface and now has included studying proteins, polysaccharides and cellular biophysics – areas that, at the time, were considered odd for a physicist but are now more mainstream.
In making these decisions I was able to carve out a distinctive position, both as a female scientist and in my chosen field.
And you're now a Dame Commander of the British Empire, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a L'Oreal/UNESCO science laureate, all prestigious accolades...
The appointment as dame came as a complete shock.
The great thing about the L'Oreal award was that, with it being such a large company, they are very good at interacting with the media. This led to me appearing, for instance, on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, which was a good platform to talk about the subject of women in science and I felt well qualified to do so being a visible female scientist and having had a family myself.
So what's next?
I want to seize opportunities to get across the message that science is creative and is a key part of life. Some people have preconceived notions that science is sterile, I find this idea quite dangerous. I also feel passionate about getting across the notion that scientists are not a peculiar breed of people.
I was involved in two debates, with philosophers and bioethicists, at the HowTheLightGetsIn Festival at Hay recently – one on human enhancement, the other on homeopathy – as well as giving a solo talk on unconscious bias and the impact on women entering science. I started a blog last year where I can develop some of these ideas – both about the joys of interdisciplinary science, but also about science culture and particularly how it affects women. This has become a useful platform and I have been very encouraged by how people have reacted to it.
I also Chair the Royal Society Education Committee, where we work with a variety of people – the government and other opinion formers – on the importance of science, both for an individual's success in life and to sustaining a thriving economy.
You're also trying to engage with science teachers...
I always worry that when kids are wheeled in to big science events that a proportion of them will be completely switched off. Perhaps it would be better to engage directly with, and hopefully enthuse, their teachers. Teachers don't get much of a chance for continuing professional development.
I'm speaking at two teachers' conferences over the next few months, which will provide great opportunities for teachers to step back and get a fresh outlook on science.
What is preventing girls from choosing science careers?
It appears that subtle messages can strongly influence career choices, particularly when it comes to the physical sciences, where female undergraduates still only represent about 30% (more in chemistry, less in physics), compared to maybe 75% in life sciences. This starts at birth: the way we handle and talk to newborns and babies is determined by their gender. Take advertisements for toys and a recent word cloud analysis for example. This showed that the two words used most heavily in advertisements for boys' toys were battle and power, for girls the corresponding words were love and magic. Any girl who thinks she is going to sail through life on the basis of magic rather than power is in for a nasty shock.
At school, girls are bombarded with messages like 'girls can't do maths' and they tend to underperform in tests as a result. By the age of 14, their career choices are pretty much set. You may have heard the story last week of a couple who are refusing to state what sex their baby – called Storm – is, to try to overcome this. Whether this will work or just cause confusion in the adults around as well as the growing child is of course unclear. But it does raise a valid point that each and every one of us should scrutinize how we perceive those around us – be they women scientists or male nurses – to check our unconscious biases are not taking over our rational thoughts.
Why does this matter? Why do we need more girls entering the sciences and staying there?
Many people have argued that diversity means exactly that – not just a diversity of constitution of boards or workforce or whatever, but also a diversity of approaches and mindsets. It has been claimed that companies with a higher proportion of women on their board fare better, so one could produce an economic argument for companies to employ more women scientists.
Secondly, there is a shortage of skilled workers in STEM, as reported by – for instance – a recent CBI study. If we are discouraging half the population from entering the workforce – or even university – in these areas, we are creating a massive and unnecessary problem for society.
Finally, there is the issue of fairness for the individual. Is it reasonable that talented young women are not being assisted to fulfil their potential due to out of date thought processes and unconscious bias? None of this has anything to do with the issue of families and children, or even overt hostility, or harassment. But, cumulatively, we are disadvantaging half the workforce in ways that are fairly systematic if unintended.
As a community we must do better. We need to start at the earliest stages – as parents, teachers and friends – to make sure we are not subliminally giving off messages that say girls can't do science, engineering and maths. We need to be sure working practices don't discourage women who do enter the scientific professions. That we support and encourage those who do, where necessary providing mentoring and confidence–building exercises; that we celebrate women who do succeed and ensure that young women can see visible role models. We need to get the best talent performing to the best of their ability.
Compared to when you were starting out in the 1970s, with changes to maternity leave and the increased availability of childcare, do you think that women starting a science career today have got it easy?
In some ways it is harder because their choices are more explicit.
When my husband took a career break it was really difficult for him, it was very uncommon back then. It is more common to share childcare responsibilities now though. The changes to paternity leave that came into effect this year will make a big difference to men who feel constrained by social norms and also to employers' attitudes to flexible working and equality for both sexes.
What's the biggest piece of advice you could give to a woman at the start of her science career?
Have courage; don't allow fears to undermine you. The indicators are that women are more often risk–averse, less adventurous than men, more fearful that if they attempt something new they may fall on their faces and make a fool of themselves.
Too often individuals, not only women but perhaps more of them than men, don't feel able to jump off the edge off the cliff believing that their parachute really will open and let them take flight serenely. My advice would be that constantly shivering at the edge will itself be at least as likely, if not more so, to lead to bad outcomes – be it disappointment, resentment or stagnation – than taking the risk that seems so terrifying.
If we analyse each opportunity to death, do the sums (consciously or otherwise) so that the 'play safe' option always wins, then we are defeating ourselves.
Tracey Duncombe
tel: 01793 414695


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869 results for "cincy"
Biggest remaining needs for contenders
Buster OlneySAN DIEGO -- As the winter meetings kick off, here are the most significant needs for 12 teams that view themselves as top contenders in 2015: 1. Boston Red Sox: A starting pitcher Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval are unique in this winter's m...
Blog | December 07, 2014 -
Reds already focused on '15 bounce back
Buster OlneyST. LOUIS -- The 2014 season began evaporating for the Cincinnati Reds the first week after the All-Star break. Three straight losses against the Yankees, three more against the Brewers, another to Washington ... a flurry of failure from which the...
Blog | September 22, 2014 -
Trading Cueto makes sense for the Reds
Buster OlneyThe Cincinnati Reds will finish this season with a losing record, but their 2014 struggles may well take them beyond that bit of ignominy. It's possible they will finish last in the National League Central, and they have a chance to finish with one o...
Blog | September 18, 2014 -
How Bailey changed the pitching market
Buster OlneyHomer Bailey's career ERA is 4.30, and he's had two seasons in which he has thrown over 200 innings. He has not pitched to the level of a Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, or even a Matt Cain. He's never had any kind of a vote for the Cy Young Award...
Blog | May 07, 2014 -
A record-setting day for pitchers
Buster OlneyThere had never been a day in which at least eight different Major League Baseball starters each threw at least seven innings while allowing no more than three hits. Well, on Sunday, this happened a record 10 times. From ESPN Stats and Info, how h...
Blog | April 28, 2014 -
Pitcher safety back under the microscope
Buster OlneyThe impact of the moment hit Salvador Perez instantly, as he saw Aroldis Chapman fall to the ground after being struck by Perez's line drive Wednesday night. Perez raised his hands to his hands to his head: Oh, no. Chapman suffered fractures ...
Blog | March 20, 2014 -
Reds won't play by normal relief rules
Buster OlneyThis is very, very interesting: New Reds manager Bryan Price -- a longtime pitching coach -- is not going to adhere closely to lefty-righty matchups with his bullpen. From John Fay's piece: "Perhaps the biggest difference between [Dusty] Baker a...
Blog | March 15, 2014 -
Players I'd reach for in fantasy
Buster OlneyColleague Andrew Feldman asked some of us to jump into an ESPN draft room yesterday and pick teams as part of #MockDraftMonday. With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, I figure I should've gotten a better core of relievers. But after the first three ...
Blog | March 11, 2014 -
Ranking strength of early NL schedules
Buster OlneyIn following Tuesday's column ranking the American League's early-season schedules, Wednesday we have the National League. The teams are ranked toughest to easiest in caliber of early-season schedule. 1. Chicago Cubs Games vs. teams with reco...
Blog | February 26, 2014 -
Phillies will have to explain draft charges
Buster OlneyThe Phillies reportedly turned in one of their unsigned draft picks to the NCAA. Here is Aaron Fitt's story. From Aaron's piece: Several sources have confirmed to Baseball America that the Phillies, who drafted Wetzler in the fifth round last Ju...
Blog | February 20, 2014 -
A predictable bidding war
Buster OlneyBronson Arroyo has been like baseball's version of an old, dependable pickup truck. The odometer is well over 100,000 miles at this point, but year after year, he always starts, in all kinds of weather... 2004: 27 starts, 178.2 innings 2005: 32 s...
Blog | February 06, 2014 -
Top 10 defenses in the majors
Buster OlneyThere probably has been more focus on evaluating and maximizing defensive efficiency than any other part of baseball in the last five years. If we're looking for explanations about why offensive production has been declining, increased defensive prod...
Blog | December 29, 2013 -
10 potential bargain starting pitchers
Buster OlneyBaseball executives expect the posting fee for Japan's Masahiro Tanaka -- just the cost to start negotiating a contract with him -- to go way beyond previous records. Because Matt Garza is not attached to draft-pick compensation, he's going to cost u...
Blog | November 07, 2013 -
Why Baker is out as Reds manager
Buster OlneyBOSTON -- There was a moment in the midst of the Reds' playoff loss to the Pirates the other night when Dusty Baker walked over to Johnny Cueto and looked directly into his eyes. He tried to connect, cajole and encourage. It was classic Dusty, whose ...
Blog | October 04, 2013 -
Mets' struggles creating value
Buster OlneyThe New York Mets' loss Friday was the 87th of their season. And it was a really important loss. With that defeat, the Mets moved back into position to have the No. 10 pick in the 2014 draft -- and if this holds over the last two days of the regul...
Blog | September 28, 2013 -
Big concerns for playoff-bound clubs
Buster OlneyEven for teams that know they are going to play October games, questions hover. Such as ... Boston Red Sox: What's the status of Jacoby Ellsbury? He met with reporters Wednesday, Alex Speier among them, and Ellsbury said he can't wait...
Blog | September 19, 2013


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Surveillance at the Derby
BY Axel Gerdau | May. 3, 2013 | 3:14
In the days before the Kentucky Derby, officials will have 24-hour security surveillance of the 20 Derby horses in an attempt to restore confidence in a sport damaged by widespread drug culture.
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Batik Clothing – Historical Javanese Material With Beautiful Motif Choices And Perceptions
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The debate over Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital has been a series of cul-de-sacs and rabbit-holes. When the Republican primary contest was roiled by an argument over how many jobs Bain's companies had created or destroyed, factcheckers and other journalists dutifully debunked the risible claims made by Romney and his rivals before settling into a rough consensus that private equity was never about job creation in the first place—and that any full accounting of Bain's impact on employment is necessarily imprecise, because many of the effects are indirect or even unknowable. (The leading academic study found net job losses of less than 1 percent at companies taken over by private equity firms.)
More recently, political media have been dominated by an argument over when Romney left Bain, and what responsibility he bears for actions, like offshoring jobs, taken by Bain's companies after 1999. As an exercise in journalistic factchecking and scrutiny of what the campaigns are saying, this debate has been worth having—but it still feels vaguely spurious, because while both Romney and President Obama now pretend to believe that sending jobs overseas is a cardinal sin, based on their records there's little reason to take them at their word.
If the abundant discussion about Romney and Bain has been often unsatisfying, however, there is an important angle that demands more attention, from both elite national media and local reporters out along the trail: How, exactly, would the lessons of Romney's business career inform the policy course he charts in the White House?
Romney's campaign rhetoric mostly consists of criticizing Obama. But to the extent that he offers a case for himself, it is rooted in his career at Bain. In the introduction to his economic plan, he writes, "I know what it means to meet a payroll. I know why businesses hire people, and why they become forced to lay them off." In a recent interview with National Review, he said, "The 25 years I spent in business gave me an understanding of how business decisions are made, as well as an understanding of the actions that are destructive to job creation and the actions that encourage job creation." And in his stump speech, he has said that this business career taught him "about the transforming power of our great free enterprise system"—and that this understanding is at the heart of his differences with Obama.
When it comes to how that transforming power actually works, though, Romney is characteristically vague. He frequently calls for leaner regulations and lower taxes. But that is boilerplate embraced by every Republican (and some Democrats)—one hardly needs to be an extremely successful private-sector innovator to see virtue in those things.
And there is no dispute that Romney was an extremely successful private-sector innovator, even if there is plenty of disagreement about just what distinguished the line of work that he pioneered at Bain Capital. Critics of the private-equity model see it as little but financial engineering—a strategy for exploiting the tax code's encouragement of debt that "privatized the gains and socialized the losses," as a recent Bloomberg View column put it.
But that's not the only perspective on Bain's work. Benjamin Wallace-Wells, in a New York magazine cover story from last October that should be required reading for anyone interested in Romney's career, writes:
The leveraged-buyout industry in its early days functioned as a laboratory for reinventing business. Most of the promising firms were based in New York and specialized in financial innovation—reengineering a balance sheet or making use of new tools like junk bonds. Romney's team in Boston looked down on them as "just deal guys," and at financial engineering as a "commodity product." Bain Capital focused instead on the way a business runs.


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Forbes' top billionaires list includes Hoosiers Gayle Cook, Herb Simon, Dean White, Jim Irsay
Cook, Simon saw fortunes climb
INDIANAPOLIS - Four Hoosiers again rank among the richest people on the planet , according to Forbes' list of the world's top billionaires.
Ranking the highest among Hoosiers, Gayle Cook, 79, the widow of medical device maker and philanthropist William Cook, moved up one spot this year to 329 with a fortune of $4 billion, up from $3.4 billion last year.
More: Forbes list of billionares
Mall magnate and Pacers owner Herb Simon, 78, jumped to the 670th spot this year with an estimated worth of $2.2 billion, up from $1.8 billion and a ranking of 719th last year.
Meanwhile, Crown Point businessman Dean White, 89, kept his estimated fortune steady at $1.8 billion, but dropped in the ranking from 719 to 831.
Colts owner Jim Irsay's estimated fortune increased slightly from $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion, but the 53-year-old also fell in the rankings from 913 to 974.
Mexico's Carlos Slim remains the world's richest man for the fourth year in a row, while Warren Buffett dropped out of the top three for the first time since 2000.
A record 1,426 people around the world made Forbes magazine's latest annual tally of billionaires, up 16 percent from last year. Their average net worth was $3.8 billion, rising 3 percent from 2012. The total net worth for the list's billionaires was $5.4 trillion compared with $4.6 trillion a year ago.


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Gear Review
Alex Allred
I love Smartys
686 for the win bro! I bought this jacket 3 seasons ago and I absolutely love it. It has lots of pockets and stash places, it's compatible with 686 snowboard pants meaning you can connect the powder skirt to your pants, it comes with the inside liner which keeps you really warm (although I never use the liner). It's a quality coat, definitely worth the money
View More Details on 686 Smarty Command Jacket - Men's