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Topic: Pluto in Cap, the USA, the future of the world (Read 229056 times)
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Re: Pluto in Cap, the USA, the future of the world
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Jul 15, 2012, 07:29 AM »
Hopes high as AIDS conference returns to U.S.
By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, July 14, 2012 22:50 EDT
A cure for AIDS remains a distant prospect but a host of drug treatments and other advances have fueled fresh hope that new human immunodeficiency virus infections may some day be halted for good.
Strategies for ending the 30-year AIDS epidemic through advances in treatment, testing and prevention are high on the agenda of a major meeting of experts in HIV/AIDS when it returns to the United States next week after two decades.
"What we know is absolutely possible is that we can end the pandemic even without having a cure," said Anthony Fauci, a leading AIDS expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Held every two years, the International AIDS Conference has convened elsewhere around the world but not in the US since 1990, due to a travel ban on HIV-positive individuals.
The ban was overturned by US lawmakers under president George W. Bush in 2008 and signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009.
The conference's return to the United States was expected to draw a star-studded crowd of 25,000 — more than the usual 20,000 — including celebrities, politicians, AIDS activists and scientists, organizers said.
Among the key speakers are singer Elton John, former US president Bill Clinton and philanthropist Bill Gates. Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar will address the conference by videolink.
A pre-conference bash staged by amfaR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, on July 21 will feature actors Sean Penn, Sharon Stone and prominent CNN newsman Anderson Cooper, who recently came out publicly as gay.
A series of pre-conference talks and announcements will also set the stage for the six-day meeting in the US capital, themed "Turning the Tide Together," which formally starts on July 22.
On July 19, French Nobel laureate Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, the co-discoverer of HIV, will announce the release of a new global strategy toward a cure that aims to tackle the reservoirs where HIV holes up after it has been attacked by antiretroviral drugs.
"The strategy aims to build a global consensus on the state of research in the HIV reservoirs field and define a roadmap of scientific priorities that must be addressed by future research to tackle HIV persistence in patients on antiretroviral therapy," said a statement by the International AIDS Society.
Another key point is the use of antiretroviral drugs as both treatment and prevention, building on a series of studies that have shown promise in giving the drugs to infected people early and even prescribing them to uninfected partners at risk.
"We see this as probably being a central conversation at the conference — the appropriate initiation for treatment and also how to best take advantage of antiretrovirals for prevention more broadly speaking," said the World Health Organization's HIV/AIDS chief Gottfried Hirnschall.
The WHO will be releasing new guidelines for using HIV drugs as prevention, a strategy known as pre-exposure prophylaxis that has shown some success but also some failures in recent studies.
Funding gaps remain a big concern among experts, with the United Nations funding target set for $22-24 billion globally and the available cash for responding to HIV at just $15 billion in 2010.
Experts will also appeal for a jumpstart to current prevention strategies, which Fauci says have to accelerate in order to end the pandemic that has killed some 25 million people to date.
"If the current slow rate of decline in infections globally — on average just 1.5 percent per year over the past decade — were to continue indefinitely, controlling HIV/AIDS would remain a distant goal," he wrote in Health Affairs magazine in July.
Fauci and co-author Gregory Folkers, his chief of staff, called for optimal use of the prevention "toolkit" that researchers now have at hand.
In addition to antiretrovirals for treatment and prevention, those tools include microbicides that show some effectiveness against HIV when applied to the vagina or rectum, showing up to 54 percent fewer infections in women who used them at least 80 percent of the time.
Voluntary male circumcision has shown some success in Africa toward reducing HIV infection rates by 50 to 60 percent in heterosexuals compared to uncircumcised males.
And researchers are gleaning more clues from a 2009 vaccine trial in Thailand that showed a modest 31 percent reduction in HIV infection, and hope to improve on those results in future trials.
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Jul 15, 2012, 07:31 AM »
Waning Patience: Germany Rejects Greek Plea for More Time
Earlier this week, Greek leaders suggested they would ask for more time to hit austerity targets demanded by their creditors. Germany, though, is opposed, according to Friday media reports. IMF head Christine Lagarde also said it is "premature to discuss extension."
The idea doesn't seem to have gone down well. On Thursday, Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras indicated that the leaders of the three parties represented in the country's governing coalition had agreed to ask for more time to make billions in cuts that have been demanded in exchange for emergency international aid. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras also said this week that he would request that the deadline be pushed back.
But on Friday, the response from Germany and elsewhere would seem to be a resounding no. Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said that "neither the content nor the timeframe of the memorandum are up for debate," using shorthand for the austerity agreement between Athens and its creditors. According to a report in Friday's Rheinische Post newspaper, the chancellor would consider a postponement of "a few weeks" at the most. The paper cites anonymous government sources.
The Chancellery was echoed by the other two parties in Merkel's governing coalition. Speaking to German public radio station Deutschlandfunk on Friday morning, Economy Minister Philipp Rösler, of the Free Democrats, said "I have the feeling that the troika's patience is slowly coming to an end," referring to the trio made up of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He also called into question whether Greece is even capable of being reformed to the degree necessary. "Our experience has, at the very least, made me skeptical," he said.
Alexander Dobrindt, general secretary of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats, went even further. "From day to day, it is becoming more apparent that Greece only has a chance if it exits the euro," he told the daily Rheinische Post.
New Austerity Ideas
Greece has committed itself to saving an additional €11.5 billion ($14 billion) over the two-year period from 2013 to 2014, but is having difficulties coming up with ways to make further cuts in addition to the massive austerity measures it has already passed. A delay of the kind that Athens has requested would almost certainly necessitate billions in additional international aid.
One novel austerity idea that the Greek daily Ta Nea wrote about on Friday is that of cutting by half the amount the state pays for the salaries of priests and bishops in the country. At present, the state pays the entire salary of the 10,368 clerics in the country. Were Athens to make the Orthodox Church responsible for half of their salaries, some €100 billion in taxpayer money could be saved annually.
The government is also considering an increase in the length of mandatory military conscription from the current nine months to a full year as a way of cutting back on the number of career soldiers that need to be paid. Furthermore, university students whose period of study drastically exceeds the norm might be asked to pay significant fees.
Mostly, though, Prime Minister Samaras is at pains to show progress to both his European creditors and his voters. During the recent general election campaign, Samaras promised Greeks that he would request a deadline extension, a pledge that was largely ignored at the time due to the competing promise of his primary competitor, Alexis Tsipris of the leftist Syriza party, to cancel the austerity agreement with Europe altogether.
The troika is currently examining Greek progress on the package of savings measures imposed on the country in exchange for the second bailout package for Athens totalling €130 billion. The next payment tranche for the country is dependent on a positive troika report.
The Rheinische Post story, however, indicates that a negative report is much more likely. Citing an unnamed government source who is familiar with a "preliminary troika report," the paper writes that Athens has failed to fulfill 210 of 300 austerity targets. The German Finance Ministry, however, was quick to cast doubt on the story, although it stopped short of an outright denial. In a statement released on Friday, the ministry said it wasn't aware of a preliminary report.
Germany wasn't the only one of Greece's creditors to reject a two-year extension. "We're not in the position of negotiating the program's objectives," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said on Thursday. "They remain the basis for the discussion."
His boss Christine Lagarde was even clearer: It is "way premature to discuss extension, to discuss additional financing," she said in an interview with American broadcaster CNBC.
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Jul 15, 2012, 07:33 AM »
15 July 2012 - 11H35
China's Wen warns of economic hardship ahead
AFP - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned Sunday that his nation's economic rebound was not stable and the world's second largest economy faced hardships ahead, state media reported.
During an inspection tour of southwest China's Sichuan province, Wen called for greater efforts to strengthen the vitality and dynamism of economic growth, Xinhua news agency said.
"The economic growth rate is still within the government target range set early this year, and stabilisation policies are working," Xinhua quoted Wen as saying.
China's "economic rebound is not yet stable and economic hardship may continue for a period of time," he said.
China's economy expanded during the second quarter at its slowest pace in more than three years as dire problems overseas started to hit home, according to official data released on Friday.
The world's second-largest economy grew 7.6 percent in the second quarter year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics said, the weakest since 6.6 percent during the depths of the global financial crisis at the start of 2009.
The weak second-quarter expansion dragged down growth to 7.8 percent for the first half of the year, a period when the debt crisis in Europe has deepened and the US economy has continued to struggle.
The government earlier this month took the rare step of slashing interest rates for the second time in a month. That came after three cuts since December in banks' reserve requirements, or the amount of money they must keep on hand.
Such cuts are meant to free up funds for lending and thus boost the economy.
Chinese leaders have vowed to take further measures. Wen last week called stabilising economic growth the government's "top priority".
Slowing growth in China is also casting a further cloud over the broader global economy, which is still suffering the effects of the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
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Jul 15, 2012, 07:35 AM »
15 July 2012 - 05H17
Hungary prepares for tough credit talks with IMF-EU
AFP - Hungary and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will take a new stab at a 15-billion-euro credit line deal, starting on Tuesday, following months of delay due to controversial central bank reforms.
A delegation of representatives from the IMF and European Union (EU) is due to arrive in Budapest Tuesday for negotiations until July 25.
An earlier effort had ended in late December, when EU and IMF experts had walked out on credit talks with Budapest, citing reforms that they feared would limit the central bank's independence.
The Hungarian government has since -- reluctantly -- revised its legislation, which received the European Central Bank's approval in June.
However, conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban has already warned the IMF-EU talks could go on for some time, predicting the core issues will only be discussed at the end of the summer.
"Those who are expecting quick negotiations will be disappointed," he told Hir TV television last week.
Budapest hopes a 15-billion-euro ($18.2 billion) credit line from the IMF and EU will allow it to borrow on the bond market at better rates than the current ones -- on July 13, the yield on 10-year sovereign bonds reached 7.85 percent.
Investors' confidence in the country dipped as a result of the government's unorthodox economic policies, including the nationalisation of pension funds and crisis taxes on specific sectors, like telecommunications and banking.
Hungary also saw its debt downgraded to "junk" status by all three major credit-rating agencies, prompting bond rates to jump, while the national currency, the forint, grew weaker.
Still, Viktor Orban has been reluctant to comply with EU demands, sowing doubts as to his intentions. Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy even chose to go on holiday at the exact same time the IMF will be in town.
"The government seems to try to keep the IMF away from Hungary," the economic research institute GKI observed in a recent analysis.
Having to call on the IMF has been an embarrassment for Orban.
Upon coming to power in 2010, the prime minister had loudly claimed that Hungary no longer needed any help from the institution, which had narrowly saved it from bankruptcy two years earlier.
For now, the state has sufficient reserves -- about 10 billion euros, or 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) -- to keep it going until the end of 2013, according to Gergely Tardos, chief economist at Hungary's OTP bank.
"That is why it is not in a hurry to strike a deal with the IMF... We believe the government is just trying to negotiate better terms in the deal," he told AFP.
"But should the international environment worsen, the market could force it to reach a deal very soon," Tardos warned.
In that case, Budapest would have to "quickly accept the IMF's conditions," Adam Keszeg of Raiffeisen Bank added.
Analysts predict the IMF will demand the abolition of crisis taxes, which have hit mostly foreign-owned companies in the banking, retail, telecom and energy sectors.
It could also call for an end to the 16-percent flat income tax, which has created a two-billion-euro hole in Hungary's budget.
These measures were hotly debated, even prompting threats of court action by the European Commission, which deemed they did not conform with EU rules.
Ever-defiant, Orban said Wednesday that he would only accept from the IMF "conditions that will make Hungary a better country."
But this may be just hot air, according to economist Gergely Tardos: "The financing costs coming from the IMF-EU are a lot less (compared to the markets), so it's in Hungary's interest to come to a deal," he said.
In any case, observers predict no deal will be made before December.
Export-dependent Hungary was hit hard by the global economic downturn, with GDP falling by 1.3 percent in the first quarter of this year from the last three months of 2011 -- in the 27-member EU, only Greece and Portugal did worse.
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Jul 15, 2012, 07:37 AM »
U.N. leader urges China to pressure Syria to end violent conflict
By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, July 14, 2012 18:36 EDT
UN leader Ban Ki-moon on Saturday appealed to China's foreign minister to use his "influence" to help bring pressure on Syria'sPresident Bashar al-Assad to end conflict, a UN spokesman said.
China is a key player in a UN Security Council dispute over sanctionsagainst the Syrian leader. It has backed Russia in rejecting western demands for international action to press Assad.
Ban and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi discussed Syria in telephone talks ahead of the UN secretary general's visit to China on Monday, said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky.
The UN leader "called on China to use its influence to ensure the full and immediate implementation" of the peace plan of UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan and an international communique which China agreed on June 30 calling for a political transition in Syria, said the spokesman.
They discussed "the imperative need for the violence to stop at once" and the massacre in the village of Triemsa on Thursday in which at least 150 people died.
Ban highlighted that the fighting involved "the use of heavy weapons in violation of the Syrian government's obligations" under Security Council resolutions on Syria passed in April.
The Security Council has to pass a resolution by July 20 to renew the mandate of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS). Britain, the United States, France, Germany and Portugal want sanctions added to the resolution if Assad does not pull back his heavy weapons in line with Annan's peace plan.
Russia, Assad's key ally, rejects the threat of sanctions.
Russia and China have twice used their powers as permanent members of the Security Council to veto resolutions which just hinted at sanctions.
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Jul 15, 2012, 07:38 AM »
15 July 2012 - 09H13
Australia urges Russia to support removal of Assad
AFP - Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr on Sunday called on Russia to support the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from office, following the latest massacre which rebels blame on regime troops.
"President Assad must go, and the way of getting rid of him is for Russia to exert its influence in Damascus and for Russia to vote in favour of comprehensive sanctions in the UN Security Council," he told reporters.
"With him gone you can have negotiations between other components of the regime in Damascus and the opposition - all elements of the opposition," he said.
Carr was at Borobudur temple in Central Java as part of his official visit to Indonesia, ahead of talks with senior officials in Jakarta this week.
Activists say more than 150 people were killed in last week's deadly attack on the Syrian village of Treimsa, which has sparked international outcry and added urgency to deadlocked Security Council negotiations on a Syria resolution.
Western nations have proposed a resolution that would impose sanctions on the Assad regime over the conflict, which rights activists say has cost more than 17,000 lives.
They also want to give the UN observer mission a new mandate, but for only 45 days. Their mandate ends on July 20.
Russia has rejected as unacceptable any use of sanctions.
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Jul 15, 2012, 07:39 AM »
15 July 2012 - 13H07
Russia's Putin to meet Annan for Syria talks
AFP - Syria peace mediator Kofi Annan was due in Moscow on Monday for talks with President Vladimir Putin amid growing pressure on Russia to finally back the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.
The Kremlin said Sunday the UN-Arab League envoy would arrive in Moscow on Monday and meet Putin the following day for talks in which "Russia will underscore its support for the peace plan of Kofi Annan".
"The Russian side proceeds from the premise that this plan is the only viable platform for solving internal Syrian problems," it said in a statement.
Annan was also scheduled to meet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while UN chief Ban Ki-moon travels to China -- a country that along with Russia has blocked two UN Security Council resolutions sanctioning Assad's regime.
A UN spokesman said Ban appealed to China's foreign minister on Saturday for the Asian powerhouse "to use its influence to ensure the full and immediate implementation" of Annan's peace initiative.
It will be Annan's second visit to Moscow since he won support from former president Dmitry Medvedev for his initial six-point peace initiative for the brutal conflict during talks in March.
Russia has firmly resisted any form of outside pressure on Assad to step aside and make way for a transition government that foreign powers agreed on at a meeting in Geneva last month.
Lavrov met last week with the head of the opposition Syrian National Council, without any sign of a change in his stance on ways to resolve the 16-month conflict.
The mediator has supported the Russian-backed idea of Iran joining international talks on the crisis and has been careful not to openly back any direct call for Assad to go.
But Annan has also acknowledged that most in the armed opposition would refuse to serve on the same government as Assad or any other member of his inner circle.
Annan met Assad in Damascus on July 9 for what he described as "constructive" talks focused on a new political approach to ending fighting that observers believe has claimed more than 17,000 lives.
But after the latest mass killing in a Syrian village blamed on the army, Annan condemned "a violation of the Syrian government's obligations and commitment to cease the use of heavy weapons in population centres".
The Security Council will be the scene of a new diplomatic standoff in the coming days as Russia wrestles with Western powers over the extension of a three-month mandate of a Syrian observer mission that expires on July 20.
Russia has proposed a resolution extending the UN mission for another three months without any threat of sanctions against Assad should violence continue.
A counter-proposal by Western powers demands economic sanctions against his regime should he fail to pull tanks and troops out of villages and otherwise refuse to comply with the Annan's proposals.
Russia has threatened to veto the Western-backed measure in its current form.
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Jul 15, 2012, 07:41 AM »
15 July 2012 - 13H10
Syria denies Treimsa village 'massacre'
AFP - Syria's regime on Sunday denied its forces used tanks and helicopters in an assault on Treimsa, saying what happened in the central village was the result of clashes with rebels and not a "massacre."
Foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said 39 people were killed in Treimsa on Thursday, all but two of them armed men, and that government forces only used light weapons to target five buildings.
Following a visit to Treimsa on Saturday, the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) said heavy weapons were used and several homes were damaged, including five that were burned. It was unable to provide casualty figures.
"Government forces did not use helicopters and tanks," Makdissi told a news conference in Damascus, adding: "What happened was not an attack by the army on innocent civilians."
"The aim of this news conference is to tell people that what happened was not a massacre... It was a clash between regular forces and armed groups who do not believe in a peaceful solution. This is the reality, politically and militarily."
Makdissi staunchly denied reports suggesting that the Syrian army used aircraft in the assault on Treimsa.
"This is absolutely not true. Only troop carriers and lights weapons were used, the most powerful of weapons being RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)," he said.
The ministry spokesman admitted that "the situation is difficult on the ground" but insisted that Syria is "in a state of defence not in a state of attack."
A team of UN observers returned on Sunday to Treimsa to pursue their investigations after saying activists and rebels bore the brunt of an army assault that activists say killed more than 150 people.
Citing an unidentified source who claimed to have buried them, however, Makdissi said that "37 armed men were killed and two civilians only."
In a statement on Saturday, UNSMIS spokeswoman Sausan Ghosheh said after the obervers' visit that a "wide range of weapons were used, including artillery, mortars and small arms."
"The attack on Treimsa appeared targeted at specific groups and houses, mainly of army defectors and activists. There were pools of blood and blood spatters in rooms of several homes together with bullet cases," she said.
But Makdissi said "only five buildings where there were very sophisticated weapons were targeted."
Syria's military has said already that army had killed "many terrorists" in Treimsa, but no civilians, in a "special operation... targeting armed terrorist groups and their leadership hide-outs."
The international community has reacted with outrage to the latest killings, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon appealing for urgent action to stop the bloodshed and urging China -- a key ally of Syria -- to "influence" President Bashar al-Assad in ending the conflict.
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Jul 15, 2012, 07:44 AM »
15 July 2012 - 14H07
Arafat's widow to lodge complaint over poison claim
AFP - The widow of Yasser Arafat is to launch legal action in France over claims that the veteran Palestinian leader died of radioactive polonium poisoning, her lawyer said in remarks published Sunday.
"Mrs Arafat has decided to lodge a legal complaint within the month," the Geneva-based lawyer Marc Bonnant told Le Matin Dimanche newspaper.
He said the legal proceedings would be taken in France where Arafat died at a military hospital in 2004.
He said Suha Arafat, who has said she backs exhuming her late husband's remains, would press charges "against persons unknown for poisoning."
The Institute for Radiation Physics in Switzerland, which analysed biological samples taken from Arafat's personal effects, found "an abnormal quantity" of the lethal radioactive substance polonium, the Al-Jazeera news channel reported in a documentary this month.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Arafat's widow have reportedly already given their consent for samples to be taken from his remains, which are buried in a mausoleum in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Arafat's nephew Nasser al-Qidwa on Thursday accused Israel of poisoning the veteran leader and called for those responsible to be held accountable.
Polonium is a highly toxic substance which is rarely found outside military and scientific circles, and was used to kill former Russian spy turned Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 shortly after drinking tea laced with the poison.
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Jul 15, 2012, 07:46 AM »
15 July 2012 - 10H01
Quality key as Bulgaria snatches France's lavender crown
AFP - The thick scent of lavender fills the sultry air in Bulgaria's central Rose Valley where the flowering rows lose their purple hue under the nimble hands of the lavender pickers.
It's the busiest time of year for local distillers, who industry experts say have dethroned France as the world's top lavender oil producer.
France itself now purchases between 80 and 90 percent of Bulgaria's lavender oil, with buyers including cosmetics firms as well as many distilleries who need it to make up for their own shortage, distiller Filip Lissicharov told AFP at the start of the picking season this week.
"What bigger recognition can we have for the top quality of our oil," he said.
France and Bulgaria together make up almost three-quarters of the world's lavender oil output, but France lost 50 percent of its crops between 2005 and 2010 due to a noxious bacteria, according to Crieppam, the French interprofessional centre for experimentation in fragrant, aromatic and medicinal plants.
Having won the lavender crown, Bulgarian producers "must now turn the focus to preserving this high quality, which will be key for keeping a hold on the market in the long run," said Lissicharov.
His family company, Enio Bonchev Production, is among the biggest lavender producers in Bulgaria, growing 100 hectares (247 acres) of certified organic lavender around the town of Kazanlak, at the foot of the Balkan mountains.
Plamen Stankovski of Bulattars, another major distiller in the same valley, also highlights the need to keep the traditional physical and chemical composition of Bulgarian lavender oil unchanged.
"Quality has started to suffer from a recent drive to achieve higher yields," he said, slamming the planting of non-traditional lavender types by some producers or the use of uncertified plant material.
"Still, we are doing great and can be proud, as the label 'Bulgarian lavender oil' has started to appear on cosmetics packaging as a quality standard."
In the fields, Lissicharov's 180 seasonal workers brave scorching midday heat to pluck the delicate blossoms when their concentration of oil is at its highest.
A good worker can pick some 200-300 kilogrammes (440-660 pounds) per day.
The lavender is then pressed by foot and distilled in the company's installations in the nearby village of Tarnichane, using approximately the same methods for producing Bulgaria's emblematic rose oil, also made there.
But unlike rose oil, which is used by high-end perfume makers and is 50-60 times more expensive, lavender oil is used in common cosmetics and can easily be lifted out of recipes if prices rise too high, distillers warn.
"Lavender oil is not a boutique product. It is used as an ingredient in soaps and shampoos and its price should be more reasonable, 50-60 euros ($61-74)," said Lissicharov.
Prices now are already "dangerously high", at 90-100 euros per kilogramme last year, up 15-30 euros from 10 years ago, he noted.
"We even had buyers offering as much as 105-110 euros per kilo," said Nikolay Nenkov of the Galen-N distillery, another large establishment in the region.
Some buyers have already started using cheaper lavandin oil -- a hybrid type of lavender with a larger yield but poorer quality -- and synthetic substitutes, according to apprehensive distillers.
Last year, France distilled about 25-30 tonnes of lavender oil, while Bulgaria's output was 45 tonnes, according to a market report by French group Elixens, a supplier of aromatic raw materials to the cosmetics industry.
Bulgarian distillers, however, put their production at 55-60 tonnes in 2011, double that of 2010.
The country's booming production is still a far cry from the communist-era years when it was a major supplier of all kinds of essential oils to the huge Soviet market, said Dimitar Kunov from the state essential oil testing laboratory.
Apart from France, the country now ships its lavender oil only to a handful of other countries: Germany, the United States, Switzerland, Australia and Japan.
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Jul 15, 2012, 08:33 AM »
In the USA..
Investment Banking | Legal/Regulatory July 14, 2012, 9:00 pm
U.S. Is Building Criminal Cases in Rate-Fixing
By BEN PROTESS and MARK SCOTT
Barclays is at the center of an interest rate-fixing scandal.Carl Court/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBarclays is at the center of an interest rate-fixing scandal.
As regulators ramp up their global investigation into the manipulation of interest rates, the Justice Department has identified potential criminal wrongdoing by big banks and individuals at the center of the scandal.
The department's criminal division is building cases against several financial institutions and their employees, including traders at Barclays, the British bank, according to government officials close to the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. The authorities expect to file charges against at least one bank later this year, one of the officials said.
The prospect of criminal cases is expected to rattle the banking world and provide a new impetus for financial institutions to settle with the authorities. The Justice Department investigation comes on top of private investor lawsuits and a sweeping regulatory inquiry led by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Collectively, the civil and criminal actions could cost the banking industry tens of billions of dollars.
Authorities around the globe are examining whether financial firms manipulated interest rates before and after the financial crisis to improve their profits and deflect scrutiny about their health. Investigators in Washington and London sent a warning shot to the industry last month, striking a $450 million settlement with Barclays in a rate-rigging case. The deal does not shield Barclays employees from criminal prosecution.
The multiyear investigation has ensnared more than 10 big banks in the United States and abroad. With the prospects of criminal action, several firms, including at least two European institutions, are scrambling to arrange deals, according to lawyers close to the case. In part, they are trying to avoid the public outcry that stemmed from the Barclays case, which prompted the resignation of top executives.
The criminal and civil investigations have focused on how banks set the London interbank offered rate, known as Libor. The benchmark, a measure of how much banks charge one another for loans, is used to determine the borrowing costs for trillions of dollars of financial products, including mortgages, credit cards and student loans. Cities, states and municipal agencies also are examining whether they suffered losses from the rate manipulation, and some have filed suits.
With civil actions, regulators can impose fines and force banks to overhaul their internal controls. But the Justice Department would wield an even more potent threat by bringing criminal fraud cases against traders and other employees. If found guilty, they could face jail time.
The criminal investigations come at a time when the public is still simmering over the dearth of prosecutions of prominent executives involved in the mortgage crisis. The continued trouble in the financial sector, including the multibillion-dollar trading losses at JPMorgan Chase, have only further fueled the anger of consumers and investors.
But the Libor case presents a potential opportunity for prosecutors. Given the scope of the problems and the number of institutions involved, the rate-rigging investigation could provide a signature moment to hold big banks accountable for their activities during the financial crisis.
"It's hard to imagine a bigger case than Libor," said one of the government officials involved in the case.
The Justice Department has jurisdiction over the London bank rate because the benchmark affects markets in the United States. It could not be learned which institutions the criminal division is chasing next.
According to people briefed on the matter, the Swiss bank UBS is among the next targets for regulatory action. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is pursuing a potential civil case against the bank. Regulators at the agency have not yet decided to file an action against the bank, nor have settlement talks begun. UBS has already reached an immunity deal with one division of the Justice Department, which could protect the bank from criminal prosecution if certain conditions are met. The bank declined to comment.
The investigation into the global banks is unusually complex and it could continue for years, and ultimately end in settlements rather than indictments, said the officials close to the case. For now, regulators are building investigations piecemeal because the facts of the cases vary widely. That could make it difficult to compile a global settlement, although some banks would prefer an industrywide deal to avoid the harsh glare of the spotlight, said a lawyer involved in the case.
American authorities face another complication as they build cases. Investigators still lack access to certain documents from big banks.
Before gathering some e-mail and bank records from overseas firms, the Justice Department and American regulators need approval from British authorities, according to the people close to the case. But officials in London have been slow to act, the people said. At times, British authorities have hesitated to investigate.
By contrast, the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have spent two years building cases together. Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice department's criminal division, has close ties with David Meister, the former federal prosecutor who runs the commission's enforcement team.
In the Barclays case, the British bank was accused of reporting false rates to squeeze out extra trading profits and fend off concerns about its health. During the crisis, banks feared that reporting high rates would suggest a weak financial position.
Lawmakers in London and Washington are examining whether regulators looked the other way as banks artificially depressed the rates. On Friday, it was disclosed that a Barclays employee notified the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in April 2008 that the firm was underestimating its borrowing costs. Despite the warning signs, the illegal actions continued for another year.
But in April 2008, a senior enforcement official at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Vincent McGonagle, opened an investigation. He directed the case along with another longtime official, Gretchen Lowe.
At first the case stalled as the agency waited months to receive millions of pages of documents when Barclays pushed back against the American regulators, according to the officials close to the case. By the fall of 2009, the trading commission received a trove of information, providing a broad view into the wrongdoing.
A series of incriminating e-mail and instant messages, regulators say, laid bare the multiyear scheme. In one document, a Barclays employee said the bank was "being dishonest by definition."
The case gained further traction in early 2010, when the agency's enforcement team engaged the Justice Department. The department's criminal division, led by Mr. Breuer, agreed that regulators had a strong case. The investigation continued until January 2012, when the trading commission notified Barclays lawyers that they were entering the final stages before deciding about an enforcement action.
As part of the deal, regulators pushed the bank to adopt new controls to prevent a repeat of the problems. Among other measures, the bank must now "implement firewalls" to prevent traders from improperly talking with employees who report rates.
The bank says that it provided extensive cooperation during the three inquiries, and has spent around $155 million on its own three-year investigation. Because it agreed to settle with British authorities, Barclays received a 30 percent fine reduction.
In the United States, Barclays offered to pay a fine of $200 million to the C.F.T.C., slightly below the initially proposed range, according to government officials close to the case. Mr. Meister's team soon accepted the offer, securing the biggest fine in the commission's history.
On June 27, British and American authorities announced the deal with Barclays, which agreed to pay more than $450 million total. "For this illegal conduct, Barclays is paying a significant price," Mr. Breuer said then.
Susanne Craig contributed reporting.
Washington Post
July 15, 2012
After Massey mine disaster killed their son, settlement of millions is worth little
The company's first offer was $3 million, an amount Gary and Patty Quarles called a "slap in the face." Three million dollars for their only son, Gary Wayne Quarles, 33, one of the 29 workers killed in the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in four decades.
"They couldn't pay us enough for our son," said Gary Quarles. "We said, 'No way, no way. We don't care how far we go, we don't care if we go in front of a jury.' We was going."
So they got a lawyer. Other families got lawyers. And earlier this year, the last of the wrongful-death claims filed by the families against Massey Energy and inherited by the company that bought them, Alpha Natural Resources, came down to four days of mediation at a green and manicured golf resort about an hour's drive from the blasted-out hulk of the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia.
Offers were made and refused. Then Patty Quarles, her head pounding with a migraine, looked at a number, looked at her distraught husband, thought of her two grandchildren, and finally said, "Do it."
With that, and with other families agreeing to settlements whose terms remain confidential, millions of dollars have begun raining down on Appalachia, a bitter resolution for families who had hoped other forms of justice would also materialize.
More than two years after an explosion that an independent panel appointed by former West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin blamed on a corporate culture that put "the drive to produce coal above worker safety," no former high-ranking Massey executives have been criminally charged. No new federal mine safety legislation has passed, a matter Gary Quarles and other families pressed in Washington recently, carrying posters of their lost sons, brothers and husbands into the red-carpeted offices of senators and representatives.
"This was my son, Gary Wayne," Quarles said to lawmakers over and over and to reporters on a day that began with three anti-depressants. "I called him my son, but he was a man, a real man." He paused to compose himself. "We are here for safety . . ."
But he and others left without any new assurances on legislation.
For now there is just the money, money that has poured into local bank accounts and trust funds, more money than most mining families ever had and some say they ever really wanted, bringing a question they did not want either: what to do next.
A few have used it to say good-bye forever to West Virginia. Most, according to lawyers involved, have stayed exactly where they have always been, where their new wealth has settled uneasily.
Gary Quarles sat on the front porch of his trailer in Horse Creek Hollow, a stretch of grass and wild orange lilies in the mountains where he and his wife have lived for more than 30 years.
The trailer had new paint. Two new white trucks were in the gravel driveway. The trailer 40 feet away, where his son lived, had a new roof and new furniture, although no one lives there.
"Money," said Quarles, a bearded, thick-armed 56-year-old. "Yeah."
He sat there through the cool morning and into the afternoon, watching one rain shower and then another, not eating, not drinking, not even a glass of water.
Now that they never have to worry about money again, Patty Quarles retired from a part-time health-care job. Gary Quarles retired from more than 20 years of coal mining, work he respected but never loved, especially when he worked for Massey, a company that was frequently cited for federal safety violations, which it often contested, and whose chief executive, West Virginian Don Blankenship, resigned after the disaster with a payout reportedly worth at least $12 million.
" 'Production first, safety last, haul the coal or haul your a--,' " Quarles said, reciting what he and other miners believed was the true Massey creed. "You were just a number to them. If you were producing, fine. If not, you were just dirt under their feet."
He and his son had an easy rapport. If Gary Wayne ever swore at him he can't remember, and his son's life came to resemble his own in many respects. When Gary Wayne became a coal miner, he moved into the trailer next door. He got a truck, got married, had two kids, got divorced and built a life around the rhythms of fatherhood, hunting seasons and dinnertime, when he would pull up after work, his mom or dad would yell, "Gary, there's food, come eat," and they would talk.
These were the pleasures exchanged for a job that left him so covered in coal dust that he could scrape it off his arms, that had become so precarious with safety violations in the weeks before the explosion one miner said he began studying the sky as he went underground in case it was his last look.
Gary Quarles leaned back in his front porch swing. The sun was out.
"I always wondered what it'd be like not having to work," he said. "I love to hunt. I used to think, 'When I'm retired, when the seasons come in, I can hunt every day.' But see, me and Gary Wayne hunted. It ain't good. It ain't what I hoped it've been. Now when I make the trip I cry going in, I cry in the tree stand, I cry coming home. I never know when I might start crying. I don't really understand it."
His wife said she only ever saw him cry one time before this. Now he cried remembering crying, and cried looking out on the green grass and orange lilies and thinking about the night of the explosion, when families gathered in a building and a woman from Massey holding a clipboard opened the door, keeping it ajar with her foot, a detail that still disturbs him.
"'If I call your name,'" he recalled her saying, "'you are to report to the fire department to identify bodies.' What kind of person says that? People was passing out, falling out."
He cried recalling his hope when Gary Wayne's name was not called, and the frozen face of Don Blankenship as he stood with another Massey official who announced that, in fact, all 29 miners had died, and people began throwing soda cans at them.
He cried last year when he and Patty finally got their son's autopsy report and read it in the parking lot of their lawyer's office. She wanted to know every single detail, to imagine it, to somehow be with her son in his last moment. He was reluctant to see Gary Wayne described so crudely.
"The decedent is identified by recognition of specific coal miner medallion and tracking number . . ." it began. "The decedent is received wearing heavily soot stained coveralls . . . heavy soot deposition on the anterior tongue surface . . . diffuse cherry red lividity . . ." it continued, referring to a sign of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The report noted that Gary Wayne had black lung disease and that the cause of death was smoke and soot inhalation, and it went on to describe his organs. His father was sorry to know how much his son's heart weighed.
Gary Quarles got off the swing and, because he had all the time in the world to do anything he wanted, he got in his new truck and drove down the winding two-lane road, merging with the 5 p.m. traffic of miners heading to work or home, past soaring gray silos and conveyor belts that seem to make factories of the mountains.
"Everybody here knows everybody," he said, describing a tightly woven world in which the coal mining business infuses everything.
"This guy here," he said, passing a house, "me and him worked together forever."
"This guy," he said, passing another. "He's a mine inspector. When the explosion happened and I called, he didn't do nothing but cry."
"This boy here," he said, "he's in one of the [investigative] reports . . . he was with Gary Wayne the night before he died."
There were neighbors who went to high school with him or his son, kids who became mine bosses or safety officials, Massey executives or their in-laws, people who knew the blessings and curses of the business because they were part of it, too, people who felt empathy but also degrees of guilt, and who lined up for three blocks for Gary Wayne's funeral.
Gary Quarles drove past the house of his friend Goose, who survived the Upper Big Branch explosion and who said that when he sees Gary these days, he does not see a rich man but a sad one.
"That was his boy. That was his pride and joy," he said, which was the kind of understanding that made Gary Quarles certain he could never leave here.
He drove past a local school — "Massey paid for that," he said — and past some Little League ball fields — "I was told Massey owned those" — past Upper Big Branch, which now has a sign that reads "Coal River East."
"At one point in time, everyone loved Massey," Quarles said, driving along. "They gave money for ball teams, to restaurants. They owned you."
Ted Pile, a spokesman for Alpha, said the company is committed to resolving problems and issues it inherited when it bought Massey last year.
"Everyone wants to look forward," he said, honoring the standard agreement not to discuss details of the settlement. "It was a terrible thing that happened. I don't think anyone wants to keep reliving that. . . . We've been able to do a lot since June of last year to sort of tie up some of those things and move forward."
That requirement for secrecy is one of the things that bothers Quarles most about the settlements — that none of the families are legally allowed to speak about the details. "I really don't like secrets," he said. "Not at all. What's the big deal? What's the problem with talking about it? I don't know."
He pulled into Pineview Cemetery, a meticulously tended slope of headstones and bright bouquets.
"Massey paid for this," Quarles said, standing before his son's headstone in the early evening. "It was going to be $10,000 or more. It was way up there. Patty was going to use her debit card, but when we got home there was a message saying Massey was going to pay for all of it. All the headstones. All the funerals. All of it, Massey paid for it."
At times, Gary Quarles has not been sure whether to be grateful or disconcerted by some of the ways coal company officials have extended comfort.
During one memorial service, his grandson Trevor was telling about how he killed a turkey.
"And Don Blankenship walks by," Quarles said. "And Don reaches into his pocket and gives Trevor a business card and says, 'You're the only 12-year-old that'll ever have this.' "
He wasn't sure what to make of that.
"I don't know," he said.
The whole time her husband was sitting outside or driving to the cemetery, Patty Quarles, who has an image of her son tattooed on her lower leg, had been sitting on an old leather couch in a living room that has the same furniture it always had. She had watched TV, then taken a nap, then watched TV some more, then gone back to sleep.
"I know it's hard to believe, but I was a busy person before," she said the next day, sitting at the kitchen table. "I loved housework. Loved gardening. I've lost interest in everything. Now we can do whatever we want to do, but now we don't want to."
She had thought about moving, she said, thought about just throwing everything in a bag and heading for Florida, but she realized "wherever I'm at, the same problem will be there."
Also, "him," she said, pointing to her husband, who was sitting in the living room with a new pair of white headphones on, staring out the glass front door and listening to bluegrass songs by Ralph Stanley, including one he plays over and over called "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," which he's known since he was a kid.
He was humming.
"He just listens to that music and cries," she said. "I don't know if it gives him peace of mind. Me, I always liked music, but I don't listen to it now. It makes me sad. Him? It doesn't matter how sad it is."
They have been together since she was 14. Patty Quarles does not cry as much as her husband only because she knows that if she does, then he will fall apart, and then she will fall apart, and if that happens, she said, "I'm afraid it won't ever stop."
During a memorial service, a time Patty Quarles was crying, a high-ranking Massey official touched her shoulder and said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," over and over and gave her his handkerchief, which for some reason she kept.
During another memorial service, the wife of a Massey executive whom some families hold responsible for the accident — a woman Patty Quarles has known for years — came up to her, crying.
"She said, 'Are you mad at me?' " she recalled. "And I said, 'Of course, I'm not mad at you!' "
More recently, before the settlement checks started arriving, a corporate lawyer, after explaining some legal details, leaned over to her and said, "I'm so sorry," and Patty Quarles just nodded.
None of these sorries made her feel better. And the financial settlement, perhaps the biggest sorry of all, brought its own burden.
On one hand, as many miners did, her son had explicitly talked about suing the coal company if anything ever happened to him. After his divorce, he changed his beneficiaries to his two children and, as he wrote on the legal form, "Mom," with her legal name in parentheses.
Her son's decision told her that he trusted her to handle things right, that he wanted to take care of his children, of his dad and of her. And this was what she carried with her into the final mediation at the golf resort, when she was almost blind with a migraine headache, the blackout curtains in the hotel room drawn.
She thought about his wishes, about her grandchildren having a future outside coal mining, about her husband, who was still sitting over there humming to Ralph Stanley.
"I wanted it over," she said. "I wanted it over so bad."
"At the same time," she said, and now Patty Quarles was crying, "this is your mom saying this is what your life's worth. Like your mom has sold you out. . . . When the lawyers said 3 million I was so mad I couldn't see straight. I wouldn't have settled. I wouldn't have settled for one red cent."
And then she did.
She is legally prohibited from saying how much the settlement was. But she can say that when her husband saw the amount, she thought he was going to pass out. And that when she finally agreed to it, she felt anything but better.
" 'Gary Wayne, well, this is what you was worth,' " she recalled thinking, and in that sense, the settlement has inflicted pain on top of pain.
"He was our whole world," Patty Quarles said. "He ate here. He'd been sleeping over here. He'd come to the door and say, 'Hey Mom.' I can almost still hear him. He was a 33-year-old man who never left home. His house was 40 feet away. It's unbearable to think about what's actually gone."
Some weeks later, when the actual check arrived from the coal company, she said, she and her husband felt relieved to have accomplished what they are certain their son wanted them to accomplish. They felt glad for his children, grateful to their lawyers, somehow humbled and vindicated. They felt like they'd reached the end of a necessary process.
And with all of that, Gary Quarles felt as sad as ever.
"It won't never leave me," he said.
Patty Quarles felt something else.
"Sick," she said. "I felt sick."
© The Washington Post Company
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Re: Pluto in Cap, the USA, the future of the world
Reply #1811 on:
Jul 16, 2012, 07:19 AM »
In the USA....
July 15, 2012 07:00 PM
Rahm Emanuel: If Romney 'Whining' About Bain, How Will He Handle China?
By David
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) on Sunday advised presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney to "stop whining" about suggestions that he broke the law or lied to voters by saying he had "retired" from Bain Capital, even though Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents show that he was in charge of the company.
After The Boston Globe revealed on Thursday that Romney was listed as the "sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president" of Bain even after he claimed he had retired in 1999, Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter noted that lying on SEC filings was a felony.
On Friday, Romney scheduled last-minute interviews on five television networks to demand an apology from President Barack Obama.
"He sure as heck ought to say that he's sorry for the kinds of attacks that are coming from his team," the former Massachusetts governor complained to ABC News. "If I were president of the United States, I would put a stop to it and apologize to my campaign for what has been done by his."
"What kind of a president would have a campaign that says something like that about the nominee of another party?" Romney asked during an interview with CBS News.
During an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Emanuel pointed out that Romney's protests made him look less than presidential.
"Stephanie cited the law and it's very clear," Emanuel explained. "Either the filing with the SEC is accurate and his personal financial disclosure is not honest or that's honest and the SEC [filing] isn't. Both can't be accurate."
"Give it up about Stephanie," he continued. "Don't worry about that. What are you going to do when the Chinese leader says something or Putin says [something] to you? Are you going to whine as your way? You cannot do that."
"As Mitt Romney said once to his own Republican colleagues, stop whining. I give him his own advice: Stop whining."
Emanuel added: "If you want to claim Bain Capital as your calling card to the White House then defend what happened to Bain Capital and what happened to those jobs that went overseas, those jobs that were actually cut and eliminated and the companies that went into bankruptcy. And the very companies that went into bankruptcy while Bain was still getting paid, same philosophy that led to him advocating that the auto industry go bankrupt."
July 15, 2012 06:00 PM
Adviser Claims Romney 'Retired Retroactively' From Bain
By David
A senior adviser for Mitt Romney says that President Barack Obama will "say or do anything" to keep his job, including accusing the presumptive Republican presidential candidate of being in charge of Bain Capital when they helped send American jobs to China and other countries.
Ed Gillespie on Sunday lashed out at the Obama campaign for suggesting that Romney either lied to voters or broke the law when he said he retired from Bain in 1999, even though Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents listed him as the "sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president" until 2002.
"He's not a felon," Gillespie insisted to CNN's Candy Crowley. "That's what this campaign on the Obama side was reduced to. And it's sad to see -- and I think Americans now know -- you've got these baseless charges on moving jobs overseas, which independent fact checkers have said are not true; they're, indeed, a lie. Then a completely reckless and unfounded accusation of criminal activity."
"And so it's sad to see -- we now know this president will say or do anything to keep the highest office in the land, even if it means demeaning the highest office in the land."
Crowley asked Gillespie how he could explain a 1999 news release from Bain that announced Romney had taken "a part-time leave of absence" from the company, but did not say that he had retired.
"He took a leave of absence from his company to go save the Olympics," Gillespie explained. "There may have been thought at the time that it could be part time. It was not part time. The Olympics was in a shambles. There was corruption."
"He took a leave of absence and in fact, Candy, he ended up not going back at all and retired retroactively to February of 1999 as a result."
Until a series of last-minute interviews on Friday of last week, Romney had stood by the claim that he "retired" from Bain in 1999.
July 15, 2012 02:00 PM
Rahm on This Week: Why Did McCain Campaign Pick Palin Over Romney?
By Susie Madrak
There are a lot of bad things you can say about Rahm Emanuel (and I believe I've said most of them), but damn, the man is an effective surrogate! Like a pit bull, he grabs on and just won't let go. The Obama campaign smells blood in the water over Mitten's tax returns, and Rahm is the right man for the job of dirtying him up:
STEPHANOPOULOS: The campaign has also been pushing very hard for Mitt Romney to release more of his tax returns. He says the public has everything they need to know to understand his finances. And we do know that Mitt Romney made a lot of money. We know he paid a relatively low tax rate. What more will the returns tell us that we don't know?
EMANUEL: George, just two points here that I think are really important. First of all, Mitt Romney's own father said you shouldn't release one year. And already he has released -- in my view, he's released one year. Let's take a step on two points...
STEPHANOPOULOS: He says he's going to release his second.
EMANUEL: ... one on -- OK, transparency and what that says. He has released only one year. To the McCain campaign, he released 23 years. And he's telling the American people, I'm not going to give you what I've given John McCain's people in 2008. And when he gave them 23 years, John McCain's people looked at it and said, "Let's go with Sarah Palin." So whatever's in there is far worse than just the first year.
I've heard several surrogates use this line (including Martin O'Malley) and it's a good one.
You know, the campaign -- the Romney campaign isn't stupid. They have decided it is better to get attacked on lack of transparency, lack of accountability to the American people versus telling you what's in those taxes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So what do you think is in there?
EMANUEL: Because they're not enjoying this. And he can clear this up, just make it public.
Now the second thing, George, he did not just relatively -- he paid 14 percent, about half of what a middle-class family pays.
Second is, you've learned in just one year about the Caymans, about the Bahamas, about Luxembourg, and about Switzerland, all where his tax and different accounts are. His tax -- his tax filing looks more like the Olympic Village than it does like a middle-class family.
And then, third, next four years, the president of the United States is going to have tax reform, and you're going to have to debate it with Congress and shape it. And unless you have his taxes -- and I've seen this in the Oval Office, George -- there's going to be times in which a president of the United States has to make tradeoffs and choices. Will it be a middle-class family's desired to save to send their kid to college or protecting the loophole in the Cayman Islands? Will it be a middle-class family's desire to get a tax credit for a child and help raise him in a middle-class family, or will we protect the Bahamas, Luxembourg, and Switzerland?
From the rest of this week's show, it's clear that the Republicans are on the defensive. There's no question that there's something in there that Mittens doesn't want us to see.
On a political campaign, not only do you buy opposition research on your opponent, you also pay to have it done on yourself. And on just about every campaign, there's at least one thing in a candidate's background that could sink him or her. Judging from the clenched-teeth reaction of the Romney surrogates, it sounds like the Obama campaign has found it.
There may not be a smoking gun. It may just be that the sheer volume (it's not unusual for someone that wealthy to have a tax return that's 500+ pages) makes it more likely that there is. And I guarantee you that Romney doesn't even know most of what's in it, because when you're that wealthy, you have accountants and lawyers for that sort of thing. But since this is not the first time he's run, he should at least have an idea.
Senior campaign staff always games out this scenario in advance. "If they say this, we're going to say this." But responses that sound effective in a staff meeting don't always work in the free-fire zone of a high-profile campaign.
Florida gets access to federal database for voter purge
By Arturo Garcia
Sunday, July 15, 2012 12:31 EDT
The federal government will allow Florida elections officials to use a law enforcement database to purge non-citizens from the voting roster, according to CNN.
An agreement with the Department of Homeland Security will give Florida access to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE), which is typically used to gauge the immigration status of benefits applicants.
"Florida voters are counting on their state and federal governments to cooperate in a way that ensures elections are fair, beginning with ensuring the voter rolls are current and accurate," Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner said in a statement Saturday.
However, at least one immigrants' advocacy group says SAVE does not verify whether an immigrant is "unlawfully present" in the U.S.
On its' website, the Immigration Policy Center, a division of the American Immigration Council, says, "There is no magic database that can say whether a person is lawfully or unlawfully present. The U.S. has a complex administrative and judicial process for determining whether a non-citizen is lawfully present or may be eligible for lawful status, or whether he will be permitted to remain in the U.S."
The Associated Press reports the state has agreed to challenge a voter's status only if it can provide a "unique identifier" – like an "alien number" assigned to immigrant residents with a visa or another type of permit but who are not naturalized citizens – for the voter. An undocumented immigrant would typically not show up in this kind of search because of a lack of this identifier.
The agreement will prevent Florida from using only a name and birthdate to seek federal data about a suspected noncitizen on voter rolls.
Last month, a federal judge ruled Florida could resume its voter purge, rebuffing a request by the U.S. Justice Department to stop the practice, saying "systematic" purges should be completed 90 days before the election.
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Jul 16, 2012, 07:21 AM »
Hungary shown 'new evidence on No 1 Nazi suspect'
By Agence France-Presse
Monday, July 16, 2012 8:38 EDT
The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre has confirmed that Laszlo Csatary, accused of complicity in the killings of 15,700 Jews, had been tracked down to the Hungarian capital.
"I confirm that Laszlo Csatary has been identified and found in Budapest," the centre's director Efraim Zuroff told AFP.
Ten months ago an informer had provided information that allowed them to locate Csatary, 97, in Budapest, Zuroff told AFP by phone. They had paid the informer the $25,000 promised for such information, he added.
In September last year, they had passed on their information to the prosecutor's office in Budapest.
A statement released Sunday by the centre said Zuroff had "last week submitted new evidence to the prosecutor in Budapest regarding crimes committed during World War II by its No 1 Most Wanted suspect Laszlo Csatary."
The centre said the evidence "related to Csatary's key role in the deportation of approximately 300 Jews from Kosice to Kamenetz-Podolsk, Ukraine, where almost all were murdered in the summer of 1941."
Budapest's assistant prosecutor general, Jeno Varga, said: "An investigation is under way. The prosecutor's office will study the information received."
But Zuroff said in the Centre's statement: "This new evidence strengthens the already very strong case against Csatary and reinforces our insistence that he be held accountable for his crimes.
"The passage of time in no way diminishes his guilt and old age should not afford protection for Holocaust perpetrators."
Zuroff told AFP that the British tabloid daily The Sun had photographed and filmed Csatary, having acted on the information that the Wiesenthal Center had released last September.
The online edition of the newspapers announced on Sunday it had found and identified Csatary.
When its reporters confronted him on his doorstep, he had denied any crimes and slammed the door in their faces, the paper reported.
This was the fourth time that The Sun had cooperated with the Centre to put pressure on officials who were dragging their feet to bring Nazi fugitives to justice, said Zuroff.
The Wiesenthal Centre has urged Hungarian prosecutors to put Csatary on trial.
They say he served during World War II as a senior Hungarian police officer in the Slovakian city of Kosice, then under Hungarian rule.
He was complicit in the deportations of thousands of Jews from Kosice and its environs to the Auschwitz death camp in the spring of 1944.
Csatary had treated the Jews in the ghetto with cruelty, whipping women and forcing them to dig holes with their bare hands, he added.
In 1948, a Czech court condemned him to death after a trial held in his absence. He had fled to Canada and had worked as an art dealer using a false identity, before being unmasked in 1995 and forced to flee.
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Re: Pluto in Cap, the USA, the future of the world
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Jul 16, 2012, 07:26 AM »
African Union chooses first female leader
By The Guardian
Monday, July 16, 2012 8:34 EDT
A South African politician has become the first female leader of the African Union (AU), ending months of bitter deadlock at the continental body.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, South Africa's home affairs minister, was elected chair of the African Union Commission on Sunday at a summit of heads of state and government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Cheering broke out at the AU's headquarters as supporters of Dlamini-Zuma, 63, celebrated her victory over the incumbent Jean Ping of Gabon.
"We made it!" a grinning Zimbabwean delegate shouted, reflecting the strong support Dlamini-Zuma's candidacy received from fellow members of the Southern African Development Community.
The South African president, Jacob Zuma, former husband of the winning candidate, emerged from the conference hall where the voting had taken place to announce that "Africa is happy!" Her victory would empower women, he added.
Dlamini-Zuma is the first woman to lead the continent since the Organisation of African Unity, later the AU, was founded in 1963. She is also the first from southern Africa. She faces the challenge of revitalising a body often criticised for its slow and ineffective response to crises such as those in Ivory Coast and Libya last year.
Dlamini-Zuma's victory was far from certain. She had stood against Ping in elections in January, which ended in a stalemate that extended Ping's term in office by a further six months until a fresh ballot could be held.
In this first contest, neither candidate managed to secure the two-thirds majority needed for an outright win but Ping garnered slightly more support than his opponent.
Many observers felt it would be difficult for Dlamini-Zuma to overcome the widespread discontent with South Africa for breaking the unwritten convention that the five largest contributors to the AU budget – Nigeria, Egypt, Libya, Algeria and South Africa – should not contest the commission's highest office.
Both Nigeria and Egypt, whose strategic interests would not have been served by a South African victory, were strongly in the Ping camp. There are concerns that South Africa, the continent's biggest economy, will use its position as AU chair to further its efforts to secure a permanent African seat on an expanded UN security council.
There had also been widespread scepticism in the South African press, which branded the country's campaign "quixotic".
But hard lobbying from the South African government and its regional partners turned the tide for Dlamini-Zuma. The campaign became personal towards the end of the contest with tempers flaring on both sides. Ping made an angry riposte to allegations in the South African press regarding his candidacy and campaign financing last week that lost him critical support.
His chances of victory were further undermined by the absence of two of his key champions – the continued threat of attack from Islamist militants kept the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, at home, while Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister and the summit's host, has yet to make an appearance at the meeting and is rumoured to be seriously ill and receiving treatment in Europe.
As in January, the election went the distance. In the first round, Dlamini-Zuma had a narrow advantage, beating Ping by 27 votes to 24. In the second she extended her lead, gaining two more votes. By the third she was just one vote short of the 34 needed to secure a two-thirds majority. She contested the fourth and final round alone and managed to succeed where Ping had failed, winning support from 37 out of the 51 eligible member states.
Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, welcomed the result, believing Dlamini-Zuma will be a strong advocate for the continent. "We are used to diplomats and bureaucrats," he said. "Her background as a freedom fighter, this is value addition."
He felt that the rifts exposed by the election had been healed "because we agreed" on Dlamini-Zuma.
Zuma concurred. "I think the AU has done the right thing," he said. "Southern Africa is happy but the whole of Africa is happy." The appointment of Zuma's ex-wife removes her as a potential focal point for opposition to his candidacy before elections in South Africa in 2014.
Before the vote rumours spread of a compromise third candidate. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, a former president of the west African regional block Ecowas, and Joaquim Chissamo, the ex-president of Mozambique, were among those named.
Erastus Mwencha, a Kenyan, the vice-chairman of the AU commission, was re-elected to serve a second term. His support was almost unanimous, with 50 out of a possible 51 votes, and his victory breaks another unwritten convention that dictates that the chair and vice-chair are held by one francophone and one anglophone country. At a press conference before the election, Dlamini-Zuma said that if appointed chair she would assess "what is not working well and what can be strengthened".
© Guardian News and Media 2012
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Re: Pluto in Cap, the USA, the future of the world
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Jul 16, 2012, 07:27 AM »
New Zealand to clamp down on 'legal' highs
By Agence France-Presse
Monday, July 16, 2012 2:03 EDT
New Zealand announced plans on Monday to ban the use of drugs offering so-called 'legal' highs unless manufacturers can provide clinical evidence that they are safe.
Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne described the move as a knockout blow to the market for products such as synthetic cannabis and legal "party pills", which mimic the effects of drugs like ecstasy without using illicit substances.
Dunne said current legislation was failing because as soon as regulators banned a synthetic drug, manufacturers simply tweaked its formula slightly and relaunched it in the marketplace.
"The new law means the game of catch-up with the legal highs industry will be over once and for all," he said.
At the moment, authorities must prove a synthetic drug is harmful before ordering it off the shelves.
Dunne said that under the new law, all synthetic psychoactive drugs will be illegal until their producers can provide clinical proof, such as toxicology reports and evidence from human trials, that they are safe.
"Companies wishing to sell these products will need to apply to this regulator with scientific data similar to that which is required for the assessment of new medicines," he said.
The department of health estimated that carrying out clinical tests would cost manufacturers up to NZ$2.0 million ($1.6 million) for each synthetic drug, effectively deterring them from trying to sell such substances in New Zealand.
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The newest Brit on campus muses about language barriers and the contextualization of the Gospel.
"Say that again...?" So begins another conversation over lunch in the refectory, certain to last not less than a quarter of an hour. After five months, one might think that the novelty of a foreign accent would wear off.
"Oatmeal day!" No, porridge actually. "So you actually live in Downton Abbey, right?" What people really want to know is: upstairs or downstairs? And it's Downton, not Downtown.
In the quip commonly attributed to George Bernard Shaw, it is said that Americans and Brits are "two peoples divided by a common language." Whilst the division between us is not as sharp as it might be if we did indeed speak unrelated languages (say, Welsh and Japanese), the fact of my sharing a mother tongue with most of my colleagues here at the Seminary does mask some of the real differences of culture, experience, and perspective which exist between subjects of the Crown and citizens of the United States in the 21st Century.
On the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, as I sat in an unconvincingly–appointed "typically British" restaurant in the departure lounge of London Heathrow's Terminal 4, with a large plate of chips (= fries) and a gin and tonic for company, I pondered how my time at SVOTS would be. What will the other seminarians be like? How will it feel to make the transition from the diverse intellectual hot–house of Oxford to the more cohesive and prayerful environment of the Seminary? What will it be like living so close to one of the most exciting, most cosmopolitan cities in the world? Will I be able to get a decent drop of Earl Grey in a china cup?
One thing I had not fully anticipated was a language barrier—but that there was. The way we communicate—how we express ourselves idiomatically, what we take for granted as common experience, the particularities of our local dialect, even what we call things ("eggplant" = "aubergine")—is a complex matter, which goes far beyond merely the sounds we make to one another. In the few months I have been living "across the Pond," as we like to say, I have learned much about conscious interpretation and contextualisation, considered clarity, and filtering colloquialisms, in order that we may speak without offense or confusion, building relationships founded on genuine understanding and integrity.
Whilst this has been an experience peculiar to me and my context (though one shared analogously by those other seminarians coming from further afield— Mexico, Bosnia, even Canada!), in some ways it is paradigmatic of the experience of all seminarians at St. Vladimir's. One of the ways in which I have come to understand our purpose here, as we learn what it is to love Jesus Christ above all things, and by extension, to love and serve his Church, is by likening it to mastering a language. Of course, this is true in a literal sense: we may learn Greek and Hebrew, Slavonic or Arabic, and we learn to speak in the mode and within the matrix of academic theology. But the language which is more important, indispensable in fact, is the language of the love of God.
As Orthodox Christians, we stand as the inheritors of the most profound tradition known (and unknown) to the world. Yet it is not enough for us only to receive the truth of the Faith—we must also be missionaries, martyrs, and confessors, spreading the good news of salvation to the ends of the earth, passing on the truth of Jesus Christ to our descendants. As we look around us at a world which, in so many ways, barely knows the Gospel, we must learn to speak anew the language of the Word made flesh, crucified and risen for us. We are called to understand how to articulate and interpret that truth afresh, to engage our partners in dialogue in meaningful conversation, stripped of presumption and circumlocution and jargon.
I pray that, as we each walk the narrow path to salvation set before us, our conversations on the way may be truthful and so transformative, not only for those who join us on the journey but also for ourselves; and that the Holy Spirit may enliven us with the gift of Pentecost to speak the language of the love of Christ to those around us who are yet to confess Him.
Gregory Tucker is an MA student at SVOTS. Raised in a village 25 miles east of London, England, he is a graduate of the University of Oxford, having studied at Keble College for his bachelor's degree in Theology and at St. Stephen's House for his master's degree in Patristics. He came to Christianity as a teenager and was confirmed in the Church of England, and subsequently converted to Orthodoxy. Gregory is a frequent pilgrim to the Holy Land, a passionate foody, and a devotee of the fine arts. After family and friends, he misses oblique conversation and unpasteurised dairy products most of all.

subset: commoncrawl


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Why a Master's?
The Master's is fast becoming the new bachelor's. Standards are now higher; the pool of knowledge is deeper. Advanced positions require advanced education. When a highly sought-after position comes your way, will you be able to compete? If not, a Master of Science in Information Systems could give you that all-important competitive edge.
A Master of Science Degree in Information Systems can prepare you for leading roles in IT, the kind that require professionals who are able to integrate business, management and technical demands. It's an excellent way to prepare you to:
- Develop organizational goals, policies, and procedures
- Manage users, vendors, and technicians to assess computing needs and system requirements
- Coordinate department heads, managers, supervisors, vendors, and others, to solicit cooperation and resolve problems
- Develop computer information resources; provide for data security and control, strategic computing, and disaster recovery
- Recruit, hire, train and supervise staff
- Evaluate data processing proposals to assess project feasibility and requirements
An advanced Information Systems degree can also help you reach many personal objectives:
- Finding a New Job
- Earning a Promotion
- Increasing Income
- Validating Work Experience
For more information about this program and its outcomes, please see the program description in the University Catalog. Information Systems Program Description
Click on the "Why Choose ECPI?" tab to learn how you can earn your Master of Science in Information Systems in just 15 months, even if you're working full-time!
Why Choose ECPI?
Since 1966, ECPI University has been a leader in technology education. Our teaching philosophy has been proven to create graduates who can quickly transfer what they've learned from the classroom to the workplace. Here's how it works:
- While many other graduate programs focus on theory, ECPI's Master of Science in Information Systems balances theory and application, in keeping with its tradition of hands-on learning.
- Courses within ECPI's Information Systems program emphasize applied, constructive research.
- ECPI requires a two-course capstone. This provides more depth and opportunities for collaboration between students and employers/potential employers.
ECPI's industry-driven curriculum has been developed by working closely with IT employers and is constantly reviewed to ensure that it remains relevant and timely. Best of all, our classes are taught by experienced IT professionals who've "been there and done that!"
What's more, you can earn your Master of Science in Information Systems degree in just 15 months through our year-round schedule. And, you don't have to quit your day job! We do this by offering accelerated scheduling, a program which emphasizes short-terms and long blocks. Each term lasts five weeks. On-campus students meet twice per week for four hours each night. We also offer the program completely on line which means you can work around your schedule.
Academically, accelerated scheduling offers a number of advantages:
- Balances workload. Major papers and tests are due three times per semester, rather than all at the end.
- Collaborative learning. Longer blocks provide the necessary amount of time needed to foster collaboration among students.
- "Real-world" level of immersion into a concept. Longer class periods allow faculty to provide more realistic learning experiences that mimic those encountered in the workplace.
"Having this degree is going to be a great asset to my career, and I have no doubt it will open many doors. The curriculum was great. It focused on true software engineering principles and the translation of that high-level theory into practical application. Add to that, Object-oriented programming, version control, security principles and app development, and I feel very confident that I can move to the next level."
Scott Gibson, 2012 Graduate
What You Can Learn In Information Systems
ECPI's curriculum is designed to prepare IT professionals, executives, and baccalaureate degree graduates to deliver added-value to customers through information technology. Our Master of Science in Information Systems program provides students with theoretical, practical, and applied skills in computer-based information systems and the technologies that support them, augmented with broad perspective of the business and management environments in which information system technologies play a strategic role.
Coursework centers on:
- Communication and problem solving
- Theoretical and applied understanding of basic technical concepts, protocols, and software/hardware components of information systems technologies
- Desktop, mobile, and web technologies
- Software and mobile app development
- Database management
- Information assurance and information system security management
- Cloud computing and virtualization
- Systems analysis
- Project Management
Graduates from the Master of Science in Information Systems program will be prepared to:
- Understand how basic software development and networking concepts apply to cloud computing and virtualization
- Design, implement, and manage a complex relational database
- Manage an information system project from conception through closure
- Be aware of information assurance issues, and the essential skills required to implement and maintain security
- Evaluate the impact of information systems on business operations and prescribe remedies
- Design and implement an information system using the appropriate programming paradigm and programming language
- Design and implement desktop, mobile, and web applications
Core Curriculum
DEGREE | Master of Science |
PROGRAM | Computer and Information Science |
CONCENTRATION | Information Systems |
Each student's schedule may vary depending on pre-requisite courses, transfer credits, advanced standing, and course schedules at each campus at the time of enrollment.
Course ID | Course Name | Credits |
IS510 | Object-oriented Programming | 3 |
IS520 | Database Management Systems | 3 |
IS530 | Information Assurance | 3 |
IS610 | Mobile Application Development | 3 |
IS630 | Information Assurance Policy and Practice | 3 |
IS640 | Cloud Computing and Virtualization | 3 |
IS670 | Software Engineering | 3 |
IS680 | Information System Project Management | 3 |
IS698 | Information System Design I | 3 |
IS699 | Information System Design II | 3 |
Course ID | Course Name | Credits |
Course ID | Course Name | Credits |
IS631 | Information System Security Management | 3 |
IS641 | Cloud Computing Management | 3 |
IS650 | Mobile Information System Management | 3 |
IS690 | Special Topics in Information Systems | 3 |
Course ID | Course Name | Credits |
For more information about this program and its outcomes, please see the program description in the University Catalog. Information Systems Program Description
Future Possible Careers for This Program
11.0101 | Computer and Information Sciences, General. | |
11-3021.00 | Computer and Information Systems Managers |
Time frame: July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013 Award Year 2012-13
How long will it take to complete this program?
The program is designed to take 16 months to complete.
96% of graduates from this program finish in this time.
The median time for graduates to complete this program is 14 months.
What is the total cost of this program for me?
At ECPI University, programs are competitively priced and are designed to help you achieve your goals. That can give you the edge over students at other colleges who might still be attending class.
Program Cost/Tuition Chart | |
Books & Supplies | $840.00 |
Tuition and Fees | $24,520.00 |
Total Tuition | $25,360.00 |
Foundation course requirements can result in additional costs and increase the time to graduation. Actual cost may vary depending on actual time to graduate, and subject to any necessary tuition increases. (for all programs and schools)
Time frame: July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013 Award Year 2012-13.
What are my financing options to pay for the program?
In addition to any grant and scholarship aid for which they are eligible, graduates used loans to finance their education. The median debt* for program graduates is:
Loan Type | Amount |
Federal Median Loans | $47,453.34 |
Private Median Loans | $866.84 |
Institutional Median Loans | $0.00 |
*The median debt shown for this program includes debt from undergraduate program(s) for the majority of graduates. As a result, the debt listed here greatly overstates debt incurred for this program alone.


text:
Are you ready? Halloween is just a week away. As most pet parents scramble to put the finishing touches on their own costumes, some are scrounging for the cutest or scariest attire they can find for their pets, too. But hold on—are Halloween costumes really okay for our furry friends?
It depends, say experts. Our vets and behaviorists weighed in and said putting your pet in costume is okay as long as you're certain he's comfortable in his holiday gear.
If you decide to have your pet wear a costume, here are three helpful tips to keep in mind:
Your pet's Halloween garb shouldn't constrict his movement or hearing, or impede his ability to breathe, bark or meow. Be sure to try on costumes well in advance—and if your furry friend seems distressed, try switching to his birthday suit.
Examine your pet's costume and make sure it doesn't have any small, dangling or easily chewed-off pieces that he could choke on. Also, ill-fitting outfits can get caught on external objects or your pet, leading to injury.
Make sure your dog or cat has proper identification on underneath that cute costume. If for any reason your pet escapes and becomes lost during Halloween festivities, tags or a microchip can be a lifesaver.
Are you planning to dress up your pet for Halloween? Let us know in the comment—and be sure to tag us @ASPCA if you upload any pics of your festive friend to Twitter or Instagram.
For more holiday advice, check out our expert Halloween Safety Tips.
Listen up, TV lovers! This laid back pup wants nothing more than to sit next to you on the couch and catch up on all of your favorite shows. Fraggle is ready to relax and cuddle with you.
Fraggle underwent surgery that left him deaf, and he also has some vision limitations. If you choose to open your heart and home to Fraggle, our behavior staff can talk you through the best ways to care for this special dog. Fraggle would do best in a teens-and-up household with patient adopters who'll go the extra mile for him. Adopt Fraggle today!
Fraggle is available for adoption at the ASPCA Adoption Center. If you are interested in adopting please call our Adoptions department in New York City at (212) 876-7700, ext. 4900. To learn more about Fraggle, please visit his page.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has shared some upsetting news: Over the past few years, thousands of dogs and at least 10 cats have become sick after eating various forms of jerky for pets—and around 580 pets have died.
Some of the effected pets have grown ill within hours of eating the treats, sold as jerky tenders or strips made of chicken, duck, sweet potatoes or dried fruit, and primarily made in China. These pets have exhibited decreased appetite, decreased activity, vomiting, diarrhea, increased water consumption and/or increased urination.
The FDA has tested more than 1,200 jerky treat samples over the past few years, but has not determined the cause of the illnesses. If your pet has experienced these symptoms as a result of eating jerky treats, or to find out more information, please visit the FDA's website. The FDA has set up a reporting form to lodge complaints about jerky pet treats.
For other pet poison emergencies, please contact the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) by calling (888) 426-4435.
This summer, the Governor of New Jersey vetoed an ASPCA-backed bill to ban the use of gestation crates. Gestation crates are small cages (about 2' × 7') industrialized farms use for confining pregnant pigs.
We were very disappointed by Governor Christie's veto, but we were also shocked. It doesn't often happen that 91% of a state's residents and an overwhelming majority of a state's legislators—Democrats and Republicans alike—agree on anything. But in New Jersey, the plight of pregnant pigs gave rise to an overwhelming consensus that no animal should be confined in this intolerably cruel manner.
Thankfully, there is still an opportunity to pass the bill to ban gestation crates: State Senator Raymond Lesniak is spearheading an effort to override the governor's veto.
The override effort has been endorsed by New Jersey's leading animal protection groups, national groups, industry experts, and major New Jersey news outlets. Press of Atlantic City called gestation crates "the very definition of cruelty." Banning them, in the words of the Star-Ledger, is "basic decency." The Times of Trenton asked us to "imagine the outcry if dogs and cats were subjected to such treatment."
If you live in New Jersey, please join us in calling on your state legislators to stand by their principles and override the veto. Visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center today to be a voice for New Jersey's pigs.
Piccolo has come a long way since her rescue from a hoarding situation by the ASPCA. After joining Siheun S. in her family's country home, Piccolo has finally had the chance to experience life with a loving forever family. Siheun shared the following story with us:
Piccolo was adopted in September and is living with our family in North Stamford, Connecticut. I had been fostering another cat, but his pet parent came back to the country and reclaimed him. So, Piccolo was adopted to join our family in his place!
I adopted Piccolo at the ASPCA Adoption Center because I have great faith in your organization—and it was my first adoption from ASPCA! In particular, I chose to adopt Piccolo because I was touched by how she head-butted me during my first visit to the Adoption Center.
I thought Piccolo would need some time to get accustomed to her new surroundings, but she is curious, fearless and loves meeting new people. She also loves cuddling and tries to sleep on top of me at night.
Piccolo looks pretty calm and serene in pictures, but she is actually quite energetic and doesn't sit still for too long. She also loves biting my ankles and chasing after people to follow them around the house; you have to be careful not to trip on her.
I wonder how her personality will develop as she matures!
Want to receive more adoption stories like this?
Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, ASPCA News Alert - you'll receive important updates on what's going on and how you can make an impact to save animals' lives!


text:
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text:
Part I.
In December of 2008 I was eight and a half months pregnant with my first baby, and I was feeling pretty good. My husband and I had finally gotten the nursery painted, I had finished the last of my freelance writing assignments, and I was spending my days in the kitchen making homemade candies for Christmas presents. I had an old family fudge recipe and a peppermint recipe from an 1879 edition of the New York Times and a bunch of little white candy boxes and foil wrappers and striped string from the hobby store to put it all up in.
The only blots on this domestic idyll were the bug bites we'd been getting for the past few weeks; from spiders we'd stirred up during the renovation of the baby's room, we figured. My husband even had them on his forehead:
although we thought that might have been some kind of adult acne brought on by the anticipation of the baby. He didn't really feel stressed, but this was our first, and the preparations had been Herculean. We'd memorized the stages of labor. We'd practiced our breathing. We had dozens of tiny white baby washcloths stacked in our dresser drawers.


text:
Utah Valley University
Policies and Procedures
Title | Fund-Raising Coordination | Number | 231 |
Section | Financial Affairs and Development | Approval Date | Jun 08,2006 |
Subsection | Development | Effective Date | Jun 08,2006 |
I. Terms
- Fund-Raising- Any and all activities designed or intended to result in charitable donations to the institution, regardless of sponsor.
- Fund-Raising Activities- Include but are not limited to cultivation activities, name clearance, alumni activities, introduction of new programs, solicitation, processing of gifts, preparation of promotional materials, and public announcements of gifts.
II. Policy
- The Utah Valley University Foundation, Inc., and the Office of Institutional Advancement of Utah Valley University will be the only official agencies empowered to cultivate, solicit, receive, and process charitable gifts for the institution. The Foundation and the Office of Institutional Advancement are the only agencies responsible to authorize and coordinate charitable fund raising in behalf of the institution unless otherwise authorized. No institutional personnel or students are authorized to conduct charitable fund-raising activities on behalf of the institution without the full knowledge and prior approval of the Office of Institutional Advancement.