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Cato Op-Eds
Beware of the Kremlin's Propaganda
Dalibor Rohac
Since the beginning of the turmoil in Ukraine, some have attributed a large part of the blame for the crisis to the European Union and the United States, whose meddling allegedly brought down the President Viktor Yanukovych.
While, as a general rule, the foreign policy of the EU and the US deserve to be criticized on various grounds, it should not be forgotten that other actors are present on the world's geopolitical scene as well – some of them quite malevolent. The idea that the eclectic, bottom-up movement that fueled the revolution in Kyiv was somehow orchestrated by the United States (and/or by the notoriously unimaginative bureaucrats in Brussels) is grotesque – as is the notion that Russia's invasion of Crimea is a response to genuine secessionist desires of the citizens of South-Eastern Ukraine.
In short, one needs to be careful to avoid the trap of falling for the propaganda spread by Russia's current regime, as Alexander McCobin and Eglė Markevičiūtė, both from Students for Liberty, argue here:
It's much too simplistic to solely condemn the United States for any kind of geopolitical instability in the world. Non-interventionists who sympathize with Russia by condoning Crimea's secession and blaming the West for the Ukrainian crisis fail to see the larger picture. Putin's government is one of the least free in the world and is clearly the aggressor in Crimea, as it was even beforehand with its support of the Yanukovych regime that shot and tortured its own citizens on the streets of Kyiv.
Some libertarians' Kremlin-style speculation about pro-western Maidan's meddling in Crimea's affairs is very similar to what Putin's soft-power apparatus has been trying to sell in Eastern Europe and CIS countries for at least 15 years. Speaking of the Crimean secession being democratically legitimate is intellectually dishonest given that the referendum was essentially passed at gunpoint with no legitimate choice for the region to remain in Ukraine's sovereign power.
Politico: Private Schooling a Threat to Science Education and Freedom of Conscience
Andrew J. Coulson
In a lengthy piece released this morning, Politico asserts that publicly-funded private school choice programs are teaching creationism around the country and implies that public schools do not do likewise. It then quotes several sources as worrying about the impact that private school choice programs will have on science instruction, and as fretting that their money is being used to promote ideas they strongly disagree with. There are two serious problems with this story.
First, citing the work of activist Zach Kopplin, Politico states that "over three hundred" private schools participating in school choice programs are teaching creationism. Kopplin's figures have been tabulated by the Friedman Foundation which reports that he identifies 305 creationist schools operating in 10 school choice programs. Those programs are served by a total of 3,084 private schools, so just under 10 percent appear to be creationist.
That may seem like a lot, particularly when you consider that, according to Politico, "Decades of litigation have established that public schools cannot teach creationism or intelligent design." But that characterization is inaccurate. Public schools cannot constitutionally teach these things, but that doesn't mean it never happens. In a nationwide poll of public school biology teachers, 21 percent "agree[d] with at least one statement concerning creationism or ID as a valid scientific approach." What's more, 14 percent of public school biology teachers both agreed with creationism and/or ID and actually taught about them in class. Though some of these teachers may stop short of endorsing these ideas to their students, it is naive to imagine that all are so self-disciplined.
So a core premise of the Politico story, that private school choice programs represent an unprecedented threat to biology instruction, is simply false. Nor should that come as a surprise. Public schools enroll 90 percent of American students and have done so for generations. And yet, the share of American adults who say that humans evolved as a result of purely natural processes is just 15 percent. Those of us who fear weak and mistaken science instruction should arguably be more concerned with our $600 billion / year public school system than with a relative handful of private schools.
The second problem with the Politico story is that it denies a crucial distinction among different types of education policies: some make use of public money, while others do not. Under voucher and "education savings account" programs as well as traditional public schooling, all taxpayers are required to fund types of instruction they may violate their most deeply felt convictions. As noted above, both private school choice programs and public schools have teachers who believe in creationism and teach about it to their students. It is entirely natural that more secular, science-oriented taxpayers would object to this—as does one of the sources cited by Politico.
But education tax credit programs avoid this problem, because they do not rely on public funds. The most common type of education tax credit is called a "scholarship donation" credit. Under these programs, donors who give to a non-profit tuition-subsidy organization receive a credit to cover some or all of their donation, and the organization then distributes their money to families who wish to send their children to private schools. There are two critical features to these programs. First, they are voluntary. If you don't want to support the private school choices of needy families, you simply keep paying your taxes as you always did and your money goes to the traditional public school system as it always did. Second, if you do choose to participate, you select the scholarship organization that receives your funds, and you can choose one that comports with your own convictions. While some scholarship organizations specialize in serving families of particular faiths, many others do not. So both religious and secular families can find scholarships, and both religious and secular donors can find organizations to help them.
How important are these features? They were the deciding factors used by the U.S. Supreme Court when it rejected a challenge to Arizona's scholarship donation tax credit program. Plaintiffs had alleged that the program forced them to support religion because, they claimed, it relied on public money. The court explained that "that is incorrect." The justices went on to explain that since the plaintiffs did not participate in the program, none of their money had gone to religious education. Just last week I shared a pair of video links in which I talked about this issue in more detail.
The Supreme Court decision finding that donations made under education tax credit programs are not government money seems to have escaped the Politico writer, who incorrectly characterizes these donations as public funds on several occasions. They are not. And because they are private funds, voluntarily given, they free taxpayers from the conviction-violating compulsion that besets them under all publicly-funded school systems. Those who value freedom of conscience should thus prefer education tax credits to both public schooling and to vouchers or education savings accounts. Perhaps someday, civil libertarians on the left will come to understand that.
Family Moving to Colorado for Access to Medical Marijuana
Toyota Stumbles Into a Dark Legal Alley...
Walter Olson
…and the U.S. Department of Justice emerges whistling with $1.2 billion. I explain how it happened in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece today (more: Overlawyered). Toyota's cars are very safe indeed, and "sudden acceleration" was a concoction of media-fueled panic, as the government's own safety engineers have confirmed. But now the company is being punished not just for alleged data-reporting and compliance infractions unlikely to have caused any genuine material risk to the public, but also for defending itself and its products at Congressional hearings and in the arena of public opinion. DoJ's demagogic press release cites, among the instances of supposed fraud for which Toyota is now being punished by the gigantic forfeiture, such standard exercises in bland crisis communication as, "The safety of our owners and the public is our utmost concern and Toyota has and will continue to thoroughly investigate and take appropriate measures to address any defect trends that are identified."
A couple of other points I didn't have room for in the WSJ piece: Toyota is settling the government's trumped-up single charge of mail fraud by way of a so-called Deferred Prosecution Agreement, or DPA, and its terms really must be seen to be believed. "Toyota understands and agrees that the exercise of the Office's discretion under this Agreement is unreviewable by any court," appears on clause 14 on page 6, with "Office" referring to the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, currently Preet Bharara. And if you are expecting even the tiniest squeak from anyone at Toyota in contradiction to the government line, even around the coffee machine at the local dealership, consider clause 13, which states: that Toyota "agrees that it shall not, through its attorneys, agents, or employees, make any statement, in litigation or otherwise, contradicting the Statement of Facts or its representations in this Agreement." If DoJ catches wind of any such statement it can revoke the agreement not to prosecute, without of course having to give back the billion dollars. "The decision as to whether any such contradictory statement shall be imputed to Toyota for the purpose of determining whether Toyota has violated this agreement shall be within the sole discretion of the Office."
When people talk about federal prosecutors having become a law unto themselves, this is the sort of thing they mean.
Why Don't Public Schools Give Parents What They Want?
David Boaz
The Washington Post reports today that it's "harder to describe" the mission of one of the magnet schools in Arlington County, Virginia: Arlington Traditional School. Not that hard, if you just read the quotes from the principal and parents:
"Our emphasis is on basic education," Principal Holly Hawthorne said….
"The word 'traditional' implies a cachet to us," said Craig Montesano, a lobbyist for the shipping industry who visited Arlington Traditional with his wife. To him, the word conjures ancient Rome and Greece and the promise that his daughter will be "grounded in the learning that has come down through the ages in Western civilization."
Some parents say the selective nature and more disciplined culture remind them of private school.
And it seems to work:
The federal government has twice named Arlington Traditional a National Blue Ribbon School for its academic performance. And its students routinely outscore district averages on the Standards of Learning tests.
And parents like it:
Last spring, 298 families applied for 72 slots.
So why doesn't the Arlington County School Board expand it, or build more such schools around the county to accommodate all the parents who want their children to get this exotic thing called "traditional" or "back to basics" education? Maybe they just didn't realize until today – or last spring – how popular it is? Well, as it happens, I live in Arlington, and I recall that the Washington Post has been reporting on the popularity of Arlington Traditional School since the late 1970s. Parents used to camp out overnight to get their children into the school until they created a lottery system. Through the Nexis service, I found some of the stories I recalled. Most of these articles are not online.
Here's what the Post reported in September 1982 when the school, then called Page Traditional School, was three years old:
For Arlington school board member Margaret A. Bocek and her husband, the first day of school this year began late Monday night when they and 40 other parents camped out on the lawn of the county's Page Traditional School to ensure that their 3-year-old children could attend there on opening day, 1984….
In the last three years, such parent stakeouts have become commonplace at Page, a public alternative school that stresses a traditional format of self-contained classrooms, regular homework and strict standards for behavior and appearance. Page parents have been lobbying recently for expanding the program to the eighth grade and for expansion of the school's program to other schools.
And here's a report from September 1985:
This year, the line began to form at 10 a.m. on Labor Day, 23 hours before Page Traditional School in Arlington would begin accepting applications for the kindergarten class of 1987.
By the time Principal Frank Miller arrived at 9 a.m. the next day, about 80 parents were waiting on the lawn – more than triple the 25 slots that would be available in the school's one kindergarten class.
Seven years after its much-heralded establishment as a back-to-basics, structured alternative to the open-classroom schools popular in the mid-1970s, Page is a cause of both enthusiasm and consternation in Arlington.
Each September, eager parents camp out on the lawn at 1501 N. Lincoln St. to put the names of their 3-year-olds on the kindergarten waiting list.
December 1991:
In an effort to stop overnight campouts by parents eager to register their children at Arlington's three popular alternative schools, county school officials have proposed dropping the first-come, first-served admissions policy in favor of a random drawing.
An October 1999 headline:
School's Excellence Is in Demand
Now you'll notice that the 1991 story mentions three "popular alternative schools," and indeed the other two, Drew Elementary and H-B Woodlawn Secondary, offer a very different alternative, a more informal, individualized style of education reflecting the "alternative" ideas of the 1960s and 1970s. The Post referred in 2004 to Woodlawn's "quirky, counterculture ways." In November 1991 the Post reported that "Last weekend, dozens of parents camped in front of H-B Woodlawn to register their children for the 70 sixth-grade slots."
In 2012 the Arlington school board did vote to expand Arlington Traditional School by 12 classrooms. But why did it take so long? And why not open more "back to basics" schools, and also more "counterculture" schools, if that's what parents want?
I wrote about that years ago in a book I edited, Liberating Schools: Education in the Inner City.
In the marketplace, competition keeps businesses on their toes. They get constant feedback from satisfied and dissatisfied customers. Firms that serve customers well prosper and expand. Firms that don't respond to the message they get from customers go out of business. Like all government institutions, the public schools lack that feedback and those incentives.
No principal or teacher will get a raise for attracting more students to his or her school. A successful manager in a private business gets a raise, or gets hired away for a bigger salary. A successful entrepreneur expands his or her store or opens a branch. Can one imagine a public school choice system allowing a successful principal to open another school across town and run both of them?
If Virginia were even a little bit tolerant of charter schools, or if Virginia allowed real private school choice, parent groups or entrepreneurs could organize to deliver the kinds of schools – from traditional to counterculture – that families want. But in a bureaucratic monopoly, the local paper can run thirty years of stories about parents desperate to get their children into particular types of schools, and the central planners can ignore them.
The Federal Spying Budget
Chris Edwards
The latest revelations regarding the NSA's bulk data collection illustrate the vastness of the government's spying apparatus. That vastness costs taxpayers a lot of money.
The cost of the federal spy budget used to be secret, which was a bizarre thing for a government that is supposed to be of the people, by the people, and for the people. But in recent years, policymakers have taken a step toward transparency and released figures on total intelligence spending.
The federal spy budget consists of spending on the National Intelligence Program (NIP) and the Military Intelligence Program (MIP). The Federation of American Scientists has summarized the data. In 2013 the NIP and MIP cost $68 billion. (For 2015, the administration is requesting $46 billion for the NIP and $13 billion for the MIP.)
Even by Washington standards, $68 billion is a lot of money. The chart shows that the spy budget is two-thirds as large as the $96 billion Americans spend on state and local policing activities. And the spy budget is far larger than spending on state and local fire activities ($42 billion), the NASA budget ($17 billion), and the National Park Service budget ($3 billion). (Police and fire data are for 2011; NASA and Park Service data are for 2013.)
What do the NIP and MIP spend so much money on? I assume it's mainly the wages and benefits of their skilled workers, plus lots of spending on computers, drones, and other technology.
In an analysis of the spy budget (or "black budget") last year, the Washington Post found that the NIP and MIP spanned 16 agencies and had 107,000 employees. The largest agency is the CIA with a $15 billion budget and 22,000 employees. Further details are here and here.
I don't think we know what share of the total $68 billion goes toward worker wages and benefits. Let's take a wild guess and say that the average compensation of intelligence workers is $200,000. If we apply that figure to the workforce of 107,000, we get a total compensation cost of $21 billion. But that's less than one-third of the total spy budget. So it appears that the great bulk of the spy budget goes toward procuring goods and services from contractors.
The good news is that the spy budget has come down from a peak in 2010. Further cuts would have the beneficial effect of forcing agencies to better prioritize and hopefully cut some of their excessive data collection activities and most intrusive programs. In many areas of the federal budget, spending and civil liberties can be inversely related. Cato analysts have proposed reducing the spy budget by one-quarter in conjunction with an array of other federal spending cuts.
The Silver Lining in the Florida School Choice Expansion Loss
Jason Bedrick
Supporters of the Florida Tax-Credit Scholarship (FTS) program are understandably disappointed that the state senate abandoned legislation to expand the program on Thursday. The FTS assists low-income families that want to enroll their children in private schools by offering tax credits to donors of nonprofit scholarship organizations. This year, the state's only active scholarship organization, Step Up For Students, was able to aid more than 60,000 students but there were not enough funds to aid the more than 30,000 additional applicants. The proposed expansion would have provided enough funds to aid about 6,000 more students. The bill's withdrawal therefore leaves 6,000 students without the funds they need to attend the school of their choice.
However, the disappointment should be tempered by a large measure of relief. While the legislation contained several praiseworthy changes and eliminated some red tape (including a requirement that would-be scholarship recipients spend a year in a government-run school first), legislative negotiations threatened to add a poison pill that would have severely affected school autonomy and parental choice.
The FTS currently mandates that all participating schools administer a nationally norm-referenced test. Nevertheless, Florida Senate President Don Gaetz insisted that the FTC expansion bill include a provision requiring that scholarship students take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), which is soon to be replaced by a Common Core-aligned assessment.
While the existing mandate is unnecessary because private schools are already directly accountable to parents, it still allows schools and parents some measure of flexibility in deciding how best to measure performance. By contrast, the proposed state testing mandate would have forced all schools into a uniform testing regime. Since tests dictate what is taught, when, and how, this mandate would have induced conformity at the expense of diversity and innovation. As explained in the open letter on choice and accountability that the Cato Institute recently issued along with the Heritage Foundation, Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, and others, such mandates undermine the central purpose of educational choice:
Educational choice has also been repeatedly shown to produce far higher levels of parental satisfaction than does centrally planned schooling. That's because choice empowers parents to find the best education for their children, and test scores are not their only consideration. Research shows that many parents care more about safety and discipline, graduation and college acceptance rates, and moral values.
Dictating uniform standards and tests threatens those other valued features by redirecting educators' focus from serving families to catering to bureaucrats. It also contributes to a culture of "teaching to the test" that has already resulted in several large-scale public-school cheating scandals.
Children are not interchangeable widgets that can be beneficially fed through their education on the same conveyor belt. Even within a single family, children often learn different subjects at different speeds. Myriad new options are arising in response to that reality that allow students to learn at their own pace in every subject, helping all to fulfill their individual potential — the very antithesis of uniform government mandates.
Fortunately, the FTS already contains an "escalator" provision that allows it to grow over time, albeit not as quickly as it would have under the expansion bill. Hopefully, Florida legislators will take a second look at some of the important reforms that would have expanded access to the program. Meanwhile, other states that are considering scholarship tax credit legislation should learn from Florida's experience. Design matters.
Frank Underwood Wants a Subsidy
David Boaz
House of Cards is a Netflix television series about a powerful, manipulative politician who gets what he wants with little regard for the public good. Here's an example:
"House of Cards" star Kevin Spacey is booked to appear in Annapolis on Friday night as the fate of a tax credit that has benefited the production of his Netflix series hangs in the balance.
Gerard E. Evans, an Annapolis-based lobbyist for the show, has invited the entire Maryland General Assembly to a local wine bar to meet the two-time Academy Award winner who plays the scheming Vice President Frank Underwood in the series. An invitation describes the event as "an evening of Annapolis, D.C. and Hollywood."…
The visit is scheduled just a few days after the Senate voted to increase the amount the state can spend next year, to $18.5 million, on a tax credit that rewards movie and television production companies that choose to film in Maryland. "House of Cards" has been the biggest beneficiary in recent years.
The House of Delegates has yet to act on the bill, with about two and a half weeks remaining in this year's 90-day legislative session in Maryland. Evans said he has been encouraged by recent meetings with House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) and other key delegates.
A few weeks before the second season of "House of Cards" debuted online, the show's production company sent letters to Busch and Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) making clear they could film elsewhere if the debate over the tax credit didn't end well.
It's hard to imagine a better example of rent-seeking, crony capitalism, and conspiracy between the rich, the famous, and the powerful against the unorganized taxpayers. A perfect House of Cards story.
The Tax Foundation has been covering film tax credits in general and the House of Cards saga in particular. The Mackinac Center has been campaigning against Michigan's film tax credits, and Gov. Rick Snyder has tried to rein in the program. But it's hard to beat Frank Underwood.
RIP Tonie Nathan, the First Woman to Receive an Electoral Vote
David Boaz
Theodora (Tonie) Nathan, the 1972 Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee who became the first woman in American history to receive an electoral vote, died Thursday at 91.
Tonie Nathan was a radio-television producer in Eugene, Ore., when she attended the first presidential nominating convention of the Libertarian Party in 1972. She was selected to run for vice president with presidential candidate and philosophy professor John Hospers. Although the ticket received only 3,671 official votes, Virginia elector Roger L. MacBride chose to vote for Hospers and Nathan rather than Nixon and Agnew, thus making Nathan the first woman in American history to receive an electoral vote. MacBride, an author and former legislator, had been elected on the Republican slate. As I wrote in Liberty magazine when he died in 1995, "MacBride became a 'faithless elector'—faithless to Nixon and Agnew, anyway, but faithful to the constitutional principles Rose [Wilder] Lane had instilled in him."
Brian Doherty, author of Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement, writes:
It is a shame that her historical status for the advancement of woman's role in what had been entirely a man's world has been little noted or long remembered, mostly I suspect because the Libertarian Party is not much respected by institutional feminism (though it should be).
Nathan was also the first Jewish person to receive an electoral vote.
After her vice-presidential run, she ran for office as a Libertarian candidate during the 1970s through the 1990s for numerous offices, vigorously though never successfully. In the 1980 U.S. Senate election in Oregon, Nathan participated in three statewide television debates with incumbebt Bob Packwood (R) and then–state senator Ted Kulongoski (D). She served as national vice-chair of the Libertarian Party, and at the 2012 Libertarian National Convention she announced former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson as the presidential nominee. She founded the Association of Libertarian Feminists in 1973 and served as its chair.
Note: Premiering tonight on Showtime is a new documentary about Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 Democratic vice presidential nominee, whom many people would likely identify as the first woman to receive an electoral vote.
Conspiring to Be Civil
Andrew J. Coulson
A few days ago, a reporter asked me to comment on a conference video in which I appeared. The event was four or five years ago, but the Florida teachers' union must have just discovered the video and apparently was circulating it to the media. Couched as a smoking gun, it was purported to reveal school choice advocates' "true intentions." But the media, apart from some left-leaning Florida bloggers, seem to have concluded it was wasn't newsworthy (not enough hand-wringing or maniacal laughter, I suppose).
That's really too bad, because upon rewatching the clips that the union selected, I'm really pleased to have attention drawn to them. Several deal with the strongest argument that can be leveled at government-funded school choice: that, like state-run schools, it can force taxpayers to pay for the promotion of ideas that violate their convictions, leading to social conflict.
Here's my take on how to address that problem:
And here's how I responded to the claim that violating taxpayers' freedom of conscience isn't a big deal:
Litt on Warrants for Searching American Communications: Either Misleading or Terrifying
Julian Sanchez
At a hearing Wednesday, members of the Privacy & Civil Liberties Oversight Board asked intelligence official Robert Litt a crucial question: If the sweeping general warrants authorized by the FISA Amendments Act are only supposed to be used for "targeting" foreigners for surveillance, shouldn't a judicial warrant be necessary before NSA can intentionally dig through its massive database of intercepts for Americans' communications? Otherwise, after all, such "backdoor searches"—currently allowed under NSA guidelines—seem a dangerous loophole that enables an end-run around the rules that would require court approval to directly target an American's communications for interception.
Litt's answer was either extremely misleading or extremely disturbing. He told the oversight board that the number of annual queries to the intercept database was "considerably larger" than the few hundred analysts currently run against NSA's vast archive of telephony metadata records. That would make the "operational burden" of a warrant requirement utterly impractical, Litt asserted, and that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court "would be extremely unhappy if they were required to approve every such query."
Now, it's possible that Litt was talking about the total number of queries analysts run against the database of intercepted communications as they sift through it for nuggets of foreign intelligence. No doubt that number is very large indeed. But it's also utterly irrelevant to the question PCLOB was asking. Nobody, after all, is suggesting that a warrant be required for every query of NSA's databases—including queries for topical keywords or "selectors" associated with known foreign intelligence targets. The question, rather, was whether a warrant should be required for the subset of those queries involving the name or e-mail address of a particular U.S. person—the very query terms that the government would be forbidden from using as selectors to task interception without first obtaining a particularized, probable cause warrant. If Litt was answering that question by alluding to the total number of queries, then his answer had little bearing on what the PCLOB was trying to discover, and would vastly overstate the practical burden of such a requirement—seriously misleading overseers about the feasibility of a proposed civil liberties safeguard. Litt ought to correct the record if that is what he meant.
What would be hugely more disturbing, however, is if Litt really was giving an answer pertinent to the question he was asked. In that case, he would be representing that NSA runs "considerably more" than a few hundred annual queries for the names and e-mail addresses of specific U.S. persons, against a database of private communications gathered via general warrants—an authority justified on the premise that it is "targeted" exclusively at non-Americans located outside the United States. That would suggest that the blanket surveillance authority created by §702 of the FISA Amendments Act is precisely what civil libertarians feared: A Trojan Horse mechanism for spying on Americans using the pretext of "foreign targeting."
In short, either added safeguards on NSA's use of the §702 database are far more feasible than Litt led the PCLOB to believe, or the authority is being used in a way that circumvents constitutional and statutory protections for Americans' communications on a chilling scale. Litt should clarify which it is—and then Congress should hasten to reform §702 accordingly.
Death Of An Honest Taxman
Walter Olson
The New York Times notes the death at age 100 in Atlanta of Randolph Thrower, "a Republican lawyer who headed the IRS under President Richard M. Nixon from 1969 to 1971 before losing his job for resisting White House efforts to punish its enemies through tax audits." When White House staffers began pressuring Mr. Thrower to apply hostile tax scrutiny to the Administration's critics, including journalists and Senators, he assumed President Nixon had no knowledge of what was happening and requested a meeting with the chief executive so as to warn him. Instead he was summarily fired, with the White House putting out the story that Thrower had departed "for personal reasons."
In White House tapes and memos released in later years, Nixon described the situation differently. "May I simply reiterate for the record that I wish Randolph Thrower, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, removed at the earliest feasible opportunity," he wrote on Jan. 21, 1971, five days before the White House announced that Mr. Thrower was stepping down.
That May, as the administration continued to look for a successor to Mr. Thrower, Nixon made clear what kind of IRS commissioner he wanted. "I want to be sure he is a ruthless son of a bitch," he was recorded as saying, "that he will do what he is told, that every income tax return I want to see I see" and "that he will go after our enemies and not go after our friends."
It's a good thing Nixon isn't in power any more.
Free Trade: Do It for the Children
Simon Lester
Here's a WSJ article describing a Chinese investment in France, made for the purpose of exporting back to China:
Mayor Christian Troadec is trying a new formula to revive his sleepy town in central Brittany: quenching Chinese thirst for baby milk.
On a recent damp morning at exactly 08:08—a lucky number in Chinese culture—workers broke ground on a 37-acre tract the municipality sold to Synutra International Inc., one of China's top 10 baby-formula makers, to build a milk plant.
"In Brittany, we produce some of the world's best-quality milk but we don't have enough [economic] activity," said Mr. Troadec, walking the muddy field where a dozen Caterpillar bulldozers and other earth movers lined up to start laying the foundation for the factory.
Synutra is investing €90 million ($125 million) to build what will be the region's largest milk-drying factory and the first infant-formula plant on French soil entirely in the hands of a Chinese company.The plant feeds two needs. China's voracious demand for infant formula is surging as the middle class flourishes. But since a 2008 scandal, when Chinese-made formula tainted with the industrial chemical melamine killed six infants and sickened 300,000, parents have preferred to buy formula from well-known Western brands. Now, dairy companies in China, already the world's largest importers of milk, are racing to win back consumers by tying up with producers abroad.
At the same time, Chinese investment offers a lifeline to Brittany, a farmland on the western tip of Europe that has been hurt by the unwinding of European subsidies.
Synutra plans to ship the entire output from its new plant swiftly to China. The company teamed up with French dairy cooperative Sodiaal to secure access to 300,000 million liters of milk a year over the next decade—the entire milk production of farmers within a radius of 20 kilometers of Carhaix—and 30,000 tons of whey, all of which will be transformed into dried baby milk and sent by boat.
So it's a win-win. France gets investment; Chinese consumers get high quality products, for babies nonetheless. It can help to put a human face on free trade, especially when it's this one:
WaPo Blogger Wrong About School Choice... Again
Jason Bedrick
Once again, the Washington Post's education blogger, Valerie Strauss, failed to do her due diligence before posting a hit piece on school choice. A year ago, she falsely claimed that scholarship tax credit programs benefit corporate donors and wealthy recipients. In fact, donors break even at most and the best evidence suggests that low-income families are the primary beneficiaries even in the few programs that are not means-tested. Unfortunately, Strauss has still failed to issue a correction.
Now Strauss has posted an op-ed from an anti-school choice activist in Florida that contains numerous additional errors, which the good folks at RedefinED.org have thoroughly debunked, including the following canard:
"Any way you look at it, private entities receive public tax dollars with no accountability."
One can certainly debate whether there is sufficient accountability, but there is certainly more than none. All scholarship students take state-approved nationally norm referenced tests such as the Stanford 10 or Terra Nova. The gain scores are reported publicly, both at the state level and for every school with 30 or more tested scholarship students. Additionally, schools with $250,000 or more in scholarship funds must submit independent financial reports to the state.
Not only did the op-ed's author fail to correctly explain the law, she failed to understand that school choice is accountability. As explained in an open letter that the Cato Institute recently issued along with the Heritage Foundation, Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, and others: "True accountability comes not from top-down regulations but from parents financially empowered to exit schools that fail to meet their child's needs."
Moreover, the claim that "private entities receive public tax dollars" is also false. The money flows from private donors to private nonprofits to private citizens to spend on their children's tuition at private schools. That the donors receive a tax credit does not transmogrify their donation into "public" money. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this view erroneously "assumes that income should be treated as if it were government property even if it has not come into the tax collector's hands. Private bank accounts cannot be equated with the … State Treasury." Likewise, neither tax deductions for donations to a church nor the church's own property tax exemption mean that churches are therefore funded by "public tax dollars."
The Washington Post has an in-house fact-checking team. They should not have to rely on RedefinED.org or others to ensure the veracity of what their bloggers post.
Putin's Animal Farm
Chris Edwards
In today's Washington Post, Pamela Constable describes the scene in Crimea, and it reminds me of George Orwell's Animal Farm.
Vladimir Putin is playing the starring role of Napoleon the pig. To consolidate his power, Putin is employing menacing dogs, just as Napoleon did. Constable writes:
As the referendum approached, the capital was calm, but the streets were filled with a swelling number of stocky security men on corners and outside government facilities … For the most part, they stood around looking tough, but their mere presence was intimidating …
As on Orwell's farm, Crimea has a few skeptical donkeys, but most people are apparently gullible sheep:
Occasionally, I met someone who questioned the official line … One was a stocky former soldier in his 50s named Volodya who was downing shots of vodka between bites of potato salad at a working-class cafe. "They say my pension will go up, but so will this meal," he said. "People in a crowd tend to hear slogans and get excited."
In Orwell's book, the animals are propagandized with "four legs good, two legs bad." In Crimea, people are being told that the folks in Kiev have two legs. Constable talked to one person who: "confided that his parents had been won over by the barrage of pro-Russian propaganda warning of fascist threats from Kiev. 'They told me to be careful and not to associate with people there,' he said with chagrin. 'It is like a demon that possesses people and they are no longer able to think.'"
Finally, the Russian national anthem is stirring the nationalist sole in Crimea, just as "Beasts of England" did on Animal Farm. Constable says:
Even if you don't know the lyrics, the state anthem of the Russian Federation is one of the most stirring national anthems ever written. This week, on assignment in Crimea, I heard it in full rousing splendor, sung by a chorus of uniformed young men standing at attention, and I had to catch myself from being swept up in the moment.
The Administration's Plan to Kill Elephants and Treat Americans as Criminals
Doug Bandow
Today the Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking is meeting near the nation's capital to plot the administration's impending ban on ivory sales. The plan is typical for counterproductive government regulation.
The panel's proposals would accelerate the slaughter of African elephants and turn millions of law-abiding Americans into criminals. The Council also would destroy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property legally acquired by everyone from antique dealers and restorers to tourists and retirees.
Elephants are magnificent creatures—intelligent, social, and expressive—and threatened by widespread poaching. Unfortunately, international activists sometimes appear more interested in feeling virtuous than in deterring poaching. In 1989 an international convention outlawed the sale of new ivory.
Unfortunately, the ban increased the price of ivory, which remains in high demand, especially in Asia. Daniel Stiles of the IUCN/SSC African Elephant Specialist Group explained: "The inconvenient truth is that the CITES ivory trade ban and [subsequent CITES] votes to cut off legal raw ivory supplies are the real causes of the recent elephant holocaust."
Yet the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans what it calls "a nearly complete ban on commercial elephant ivory" trade.
Talented craftsmen long used ivory to make items both practical and beautiful. Today these objects—created, sold, given, and bequeathed legally over decades and centuries—have made their way into private collections and public museums across America and the world.
Outlawing this trade makes no sense. In September 2012 USFWS admitted: "we do not believe that there is a significant illegal ivory trade into this country." Most ivory in America, 95 percent or more, is older and legal.
Obviously, buying and selling objects derived from elephants long dead does not endanger elephants today. USFWS argues that it is hard to distinguish between new and old ivory, so the agency's answer is to turn most everyone who attempts to sell most any ivory into a criminal.
Targeting the law-abiding is a tactic of the indolent, not the serious. Differences between antique and modern items are many and numerous aspects of age are hard to fake. Enforcing the law requires effort, but that is no reason to treat innocent and guilty alike.
Turning everyone into a criminal would accelerate the slaughter of elephants. Greatly increasing the amount of illegal contraband and number of illegal traffickers would dissipate already limited enforcement resources.
Moreover, USFWS would turn every owner of legal ivory today into an enemy. Some Americans would respond by turning to people who know best how to flog illegal ivory objects—those currently dealing in poached ivory.
Criminalizing otherwise legal conduct also would be unfair to the millions of Americans who followed the rules in building businesses and collections involving ivory. Imagine Washington declaring that since it is difficult to distinguish between legitimate diamonds and "blood diamonds" used by warring groups in Africa, diamonds no longer could be sold in America.
Most dramatically, the administration would ban the interstate sale of anything not an antique, meaning 100 years old. Newer, legal items dating before 1989 could be sold only within states: it would be illegal for Americans across the nation to trade with one another!
Sellers also would have to prove age "through documented evidence." Alas, documentation does not exist for most ivories owned by most people since it has never before been required. Unfortunately, carvers from decades and centuries ago did not provide notarized affidavits and certificates of authenticity. Deceased parents didn't include original receipts and descriptions with their bequests.
The administration should act. It should develop a strategy targeted against the real criminals—those guilty of killing elephants, poaching tusks, and selling illegal objects.
A ban on ivory sales might appear to be of interest only to a few people. As I point out in my latest Forbes column: "But it raises fundamental questions: Is the U.S. still governed by the rule of law, does government still respect private property, and can citizens expect law enforcement to treat them with basic fairness?" If not, all Americans will have lost something very important.
Government Infrastructure Is Inefficient Everywhere
Chris Edwards
An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today indicates that Edwards' Law of Cost Overruns is an international standard. If a politician says that a project will cost $100 million, it will end up costing $200 million or more.
The WSJ piece by Bent Flyvbjerg and Atif Ansar examines the results of an Oxford University study looking at 245 dam projects around the world. The projects had a "dismal track record" in terms of sticking to their promised budgets. The "actual construction costs of large dams are globally on average 96 percent higher than their budgets," say Flyvbjerg and Ansar. That means a doubling, which is right in line with Edwards' Law.
Rachel Maddow has drawn the lesson from Hoover Dam that big government projects are really great. But Flyvbjerg and Ansar describe a more typical government project: "Brazil's Itaipu Dam was built in the 1970s. It cost nearly $20 billion, 240 percent more in real terms than predicted and it impaired Brazil's public finances for three decades."
I've written in detail about the history of U.S. government dam building, which has been chock-full of economic and environmental mismanagement. One reason for large cost overruns is that policymakers lie or conceal. I wrote that the Bureau of Reclamation "began constructing the Grand Coulee Dam with $63 million in funding from Congress, but it later became clear that the agency had a $270 million project in mind." And I wrote regarding Jerry Brown's father that "in pushing for approval of the huge State Water Project in California in 1959, Gov. Pat Brown kept throwing out a bogus cost estimate of $1.75 billion, even though he knew it would cost far more, as he later admitted."
Liberals, such as Maddow, who hunger for big government infrastructure projects would cure their misguided lust by reading Cadillac Desert. Written by an environmentalist, I think it is one of the best public policy books of recent decades.
I've written about government cost overruns here, partly drawing from Flyvbjerg's excellent research on the topic.
The Economics of House of Cards
Caleb O. Brown
Doing his best "Weird Al" impression, my friend Andrew Heaton stars in this explainer entitled "The Economics of House of Cards." It's produced by our friends at EconStories.tv. Enjoy.EconPop - The Economics of House of Cards
Their debut effort was a quick analysis of some of the economics of Dallas Buyer's Club.
While You Fill Out Your Bracket, Chris Christie Busts the NCAA's Racket
Ilya Shapiro
After considerable debate, the Founding Fathers elected to give the new federal government the power of regulating commerce among the several states. We've all seen what's become of that power, but in the beginning, giving the federal government the ability to regulate—literally, to "make regular"—interstate commerce made good sense as a way to avoid the otherwise inevitable collective-action problems, like trade wars and anti-competitive jockeying for monopolies. The goal was to ensure that federal law would not permit or bestow any unfair competitive advantage to any one state or group of states over the others.
Throughout much of our nation's history, the federal government has, for the most part, succeeded at this particular goal. Thanks to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), however, Congress's power to keep states from obtaining unfair advantages is being used to grant some states (most notably Nevada, but also Oregon, Montana, and Delaware) an unfair advantage: a special right to license gambling, which PASPA prohibits to other states.
In 2012, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed a sports-gambling bill into law, and as a result was sued by the NCAA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA, who believed that additional sports betting would result in corruption and game-fixing. Christie defended his actions by arguing that PASPA violates the 10th Amendment by restricting New Jersey's right to govern itself, and also that it violates the equal-sovereignty doctrine by giving an unfair advantage on certain states.
The federal district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit failed to recognize these constitutional flaws, so New Jersey has now asked the Supreme Court to hear its case. Cato has joined the Pacific Legal Foundation on a brief supporting New Jersey's petition.
We explain that the principle of equal sovereignty was central to the creation of Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce, and that conferring state-specific advantages is precisely opposite to the federal power that the Framers created. We think it important that the Supreme Court hear this case because it offers an excellent opportunity to explain the equal-sovereignty doctrine and how it furthers federalism, and to provide guidance as to the scenarios in which the doctrine applies. Congress shouldn't be able to pick winners and losers among the states.
The Supreme Court will likely decide whether to take the case of Christie v. NCAA before recessing for the summer at the end of June.
This blogpost was co-authored by Cato legal associate Julio Colomba.
How Has Your State's Academic Performance and K-12 Spending Changed over the Past 40 Years? Find out Here.
Andrew J. Coulson
Last summer, I stumbled across a clever 1993 paper by education statisticians Mark Dynarski and Philip Gleason that proved it was possible to adjust average state SAT scores for variations in the test participation rate and demographic factors, making them comparable to one another. Barely able to contain my excitment (hey, don't judge), I set about extending their method so that it could discern trends in state SAT scores over time, and improving the validity of its estimates by using more data, fewer assumptions, and more exhaustive methods. Last week, I released the technical paper presenting those extensions. Yesterday, I released a paper that uses them to chart academic achievement and spending trends, for every state, back to 1972. How did your state do? Find out here.
To pique your interest, here's the chart for Masschusetts:


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Microsoft Sculpt Touch Mouse
No Payments + No Interest if paid in full in 6 months with Bill Me Later. See Terms
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Looking for a portable mouse that helps you get things done? Sculpt Touch Mouse saves time in long documents and works virtually anywhere, with no cables or transceivers to connect. And it's designed to fit comfortably in either hand.
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The four-way touch scrolling pad on the Sculpt Touch Mouse lets you breeze up and down, left and right, and through windows and documents with just the swipe of your finger. While you scroll, you'll feel the nice surprise of tactile feedback. Sculpt Touch Mouse is also a powerful complement to Windows 8, navigating fluidly and intuitively around the Start Screen.
Sculpt Touch Mouse
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Fly for less from Glasgow Prestwick Airport
Get the latest cheap flight deals to Glasgow. Flight deals for domestic and European destinations departing from Glasgow Prestwick Airport.
Latest flight information for Glasgow Prestwick Airport, flight arrivals and departures.
Discount package holidays flying from Glasgow Prestwick are now available in our new travel shop.
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M77/Glasgow Southern Orbital (GSO) Resurfacing Works
Please allow additional time travelling to the airport if you are travelling via the M77 from the end of March to mid May.
Ready for Take-off: Prestwick Airport's NEW Summer Schedule Starts March 30
THE sun-drenched Spanish Costas and a new route to the rugged west coast of Ireland head up Prestwick Airport's bumper summer schedule which starts on Sunday March 30
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Brooklyn >Food & Dining > Riviera Grill & Sushi
3100 Ocean Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY | Directions 1123540.575877 -73.969353
Daily 12pm-1am
Neighborhoods: Coney Island
Best Sushi!!Beyond my expectation! – "This place has the best sushi that I have had in New York, ever. Overall I would definitely place in my favorite 3 spots for sushi of all time. The presentation and flavors were both beyond my expectations. These guys have done their homework and every roll that I tried was among the most delicious I have eaten in my lifetime. We tried a couple of appy's and they were also excellent. If you go here, you must have the "crunch roll", it was tops of the rolls that we tried.Great service here too as our cups were never empty and it felt like at least one of the servers was paying some attention to us. Good decor and very cleanly environment too which is lacking in other restaurants in the same genre.Highly Recommended!"
WOW!! – "They have quite an expansive menu of items. We tried a few of their unique ""Americanized"" sushi items and some out of the ordinary rolls I have not seen elsewhere. They had truly an amazing flavor.Our server was amazing. She took the time to explain the menu items and made suggestions, ect. She was patient with us as this was our first trip there. The pricing was reasonable, I thought, typical sushi menu prices.If you go, you have to try the desserts.. Those are amazing. we had the chocolate rasberry rolls . WOW. my son had the fried icecream. Both desserts were enough for 2-3 people.They have a cool texting system, however, so you can walk around downtown and they will text you when your table is ready.
Very ecclectic atmosphere as well.""
Feast for the eyes and for the taste buds. – " At Riviera Grill and Sushi, I experienced two kinds of feast. Feast for the eyes and feast for the taste buds. The food tasted good and was well presented. Perfect!"
Best dining experience – Went to NY for a business conference, as we stroll along the beach, we decided to try Riviera Grill and Sushi. I enjoyed my dining experience so much, that everytime I knew someone is heading for NY, I recommend the place.
Bad Business, Rip Off, Stay away – This place has bad food, for the price of good. The chef is a very dishonest man. Stay away from this place.
UJASNOE MESTO !!!!!!!! – Oficianti prosto UJAS!!!!!!!!
Topyatsya na bare i reshayut svoi dela !!!!!!!!!
good modern russian fusion, chef visible – i agree with most of the reviews. by dining there you will have a great experience--presentation of food, service and drinks are really gourmet. it's a classy restaurant and be prepared to leave behind some serious cash at the end. one thing might be a catch to an unexperienced eye--they add 20% gratutity to your bill 9we went there with family so it was a party of 6 plus child) and it is not noted anywhere! we had a great time, awesome meal, my ginger martini was fabulous. highly recommended for a romantic date or a family dinner!
3 THINGS U NEED 2 KNOW – Food is really good. Service is great if you come on a non busy day. Prices are OUTRAGEOUS!LY HIGH!!!
Smoke den – New york has the best and the worst dining experiences. On our visit, we were treated by rude and inattentive service cold food (grilled lamb), and SMOKING that management refused to address despite our repeated requests. Management conceded that there were smokers in our room and offered to move us to a different room where there was supposedly no smoking (there was plenty). We were moved to a table with no glasses for water, or napkins and summarily ignored for the next 15 minutes by staff. When we asked to speak to the manager, he did not want to come to our table. We went to him and he stated that the patrons were too drunk for him to do anything. To add insult to injury, there was no adjustment to the bill or any other concessions made. I wouldn't go here again if I was starving and it was the last place on earth. At best, if I were a smoker and wanted a place I knew I could smoke without being asked to stop, I would go here knowing I was in for cold food and terrible service. The other reviews on this site are clearly written by management and friends. Appalling.
Best restaurant – I am a visitor from out of state and every time I come to NY I go to Riviera. I really enjoy their service and food is incredible! Their passion fruit suffle is wonderfull among other great tasting dishes! I had best experience ever!
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Helen LoveJanuary 29,2013
Helen LoveHelen Love
SPRINGFIELD Helen Love, 84, died Monday, Jan. 28, 2013, at her home.
She was born April 14, 1928, in Copake, N.Y., the daughter of Barney and Anna (Finkle) Cussuttica, and attended local schools.
On Dec. 26, 1961, she married Osmon Love in Copake. Mr. Love predeceased her Jan. 23.
She was employed as a machine operator with Becton Dickinson in Canaan, Conn., for many years, retiring in 1986.
Survivors include five children, Gilbert Klahn Jr. of Pittsfield, Mass., Anthony Love of Keaau, Hawaii, David Love of West Unity, N.H., Rodney Love of Ludlow and Karen Ruane of Long Lake, N.Y.; 19 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
The graveside service for Mrs. Love and her husband will be at a later date in Oakland Cemetery in Springfield.
Memorial contributions may be made to American Cancer Society, 55 Day Lane, Williston, VT 05495.
Arrangements are under the direction of the Davis Memorial Chapel in Springfield.MORE IN ObituariesSamuel Kelson Full StoryKimball E. Mann Full StoryWilliam Fisher Full Story
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INTERPOL Group of Experts on Corruption
The INTERPOL Group of Experts on Corruption (IGEC) develops and implements new anti-corruption initiatives to strengthen the law enforcement response in the fight against corruption.
Representing all of INTERPOL's regions, the IGEC is a multi-disciplinary group which facilitates the coordination and harmonization of the different national and regional approaches to combating corruption.
In addition, the group involves a wide range of other international stakeholders in the global anti-corruption campaign. The rationale underlying this structure is the general belief that law enforcement should tackle corruption as a phenomenon holistically, in cooperation with all major players and the community at large.
IGEC's role and activities
The IGEC provides essential information and feedback to INTERPOL on matters pertaining to all aspects of corruption, and is mandated to advise INTERPOL on how best to combat this phenomenon, both operationally and strategically.
The experts generally meet twice a year, and the IGEC is present at all major anti-corruption meetings and participates in most international anti-corruption forums. It has also conducted numerous anti-corruption workshops and seminars and hosted several conferences. The group has established substantial credentials as being an innovative leader in the fight against corruption globally.
The IGEC has put in place a number of best practice guidelines and references for the law enforcement community worldwide.
- It has conducted two Police Integrity Surveys of INTERPOL's member countries dealing with existing anti-corruption measures and their efficiency, with the objective of better addressing and meeting the needs of member countries.
In response to the results of the surveys, the IGEC has produced:
- A Declaration of Intent for law enforcement, encompassing a Code of Ethics and a Code of Conduct, adopted by the INTERPOL General Assembly in Seoul in 1999.
- A set of Global Standards to Combat Corruption in Police Forces/Services. The aim is to ensure that police in each INTERPOL member country demonstrate high standards of honesty, integrity and ethical behaviour in the performance of their police functions, and to promote measures to bring to justice any officers who are corrupt. The Global Standards are available in five languages – English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese.
- A Library of Best Practice designed to aid investigators in corruption cases. It covers a number of topics, including anti-corruption strategies and structures and their potential weaknesses, operatives and techniques in undercover investigations, witness protection, corruption legislation, prevention, training and education. It also includes a comprehensive list of agencies with an anti-corruption mandate and their contact details. It is available to law enforcement on CD and on INTERPOL's restricted website, and to other stakeholders in the anti-corruption community by request.
Previous meetings
The IGEC meets regulary, usually twice annually. Here is a list of past meetings that have been held across the world:
- Informal gathering, November 2010 – Bangkok, Thailand, during the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC)
- 25th IGEC, November 2009 – Washington D.C., USA
- 24th IGEC, February 2009 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- 23rd IGEC, October 2008 – Athens, Greece
- 22nd IGEC, April 2008 – New York, USA
- 21st IGEC, October 2007 – Lyon, France
- 20th IGEC, May 2007 – Vienna, Austria
IGEC's mission statement
"We believe in a free and just society. To be truly just, society must embrace high standards of integrity and openly resist corruption.
To this end, we join with the community to ensure such standards and accept responsibility to fight all forms of corruption through education, prevention and effective law enforcement."
The following resolutions, adopted at various sessions of the INTERPOL General Assembly, give support to the initiatives of the IGEC:


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"I am absolutely still motivated and I want to thank all my fans for their support over the years, it means a lot to me and keeps me going," said Campbell-Brown, who went on to explain her reasons for skipping the upcoming indoor season.
"I decided to forego the indoor season this year, I just want to focus on training and get ready for the outdoor season. I do love Indoors and will definitely miss competing indoors, but I think it's what I want to do, I just want to take a break from it this year," said the back-to-back 60m World Indoor champion.
Thankfully, I have qualified for the 200m already after getting the bye, so I will come to the trials and focus on the 100m so I can do the double. I cannot resist, I have to do both events and hopefully I can secure a spot in the 100m as well," said Campbell-Brown.
"I will just run the 100m (at trials) and sit and enjoy the 200m from the stands, that will feel very good," Campbell-Brown smiled.


text: vintiques By Jackson August 1, 2011 3:00 PM Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Category: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter More Leave a comment Send to a friend! Print this page Pin it! Reddit This! Share on Tumblr! More from 929thebull.com A Born Outsider: Ronnie Dunn 'Comfortable' With Isolation and Independence 5 yr Old Miracle Child Sam Receives His Super Cape To Help Raise Money For CMN (VIDEO) Tim McGraw to Discuss Family Secret During Sit Down With Oprah Dog Goes Totally Bonkers After Seeing Squirrel Best of the Web


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Read documents relating to Port of Port Angeles-sponsored investigation
By Peninsula Daily News staff
Print This | Email This
Most Popular this week
Here are the whistle-blower's complaint and subsequent investigatory documents written by an attorney relating to former Port of Port Angeles Executive Director Jeff Robb.
The whistle-blower complaint, a June 10 executive summary on the complaint, a June 17 executive summary regarding "conflicts within the organization" and a June 29 supplemental report that includes recommendations and details of interviews were obtained by the Peninsula Daily News under a state Public Records Act request.
Each document, with redactions by port sources, is accessible as a PDF file beginning with the whistle-blower complaint, and then the June 10, June 17 and June 29 reports:
Last modified: July 15. 2013 7:00PM


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About Mermaid
Mermaid Marine Air began operation in 1983, providing quality marine air conditioning products to thousands of satisfied customers, both nationally and internationally.
In 1999, the company was purchased by by Mr. William Banfield, a United States Vietnam Veteran who proudly served in the Marine's.
After extensive research and development, Mr. Banfield and Team diversified the company to begin manufacturing Medi-Kool® products that serve the EMS and Firefighter communities. We have been Mermaid Manufacturing of Southwest Florida, Inc. ever since.
Our customer base stretches across the United States, Canada, Europe, Asian, Africa, South America, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean. This extensive network ensures the same quality, service and low cost to Mermaid customers.
The majority of the employees here at Mermaid Manufacturing have been on board since 1999 when Mr. Banfield purchased the company.
We are currently in the research and development phase for new products, so be sure to check back and see what's new.
We operate as a family here and look forward to serving you any way we can!
Click in here to learn more about what Mermaid has been up to! Over the years we have done our best to keep up to market trends and requests by our customes for products you would like to see offered by us here at the Mermaid factory. Please take a look around and we welcome your comments.


text: Escapes Kit: • A Two-Night Stay in a Garden Room for Two, Sundays through Thursdays ($147) or Fridays and Saturdays ($160) • Daily Breakfast for Two • Included Parking, Wi-Fi, and Late 1 p.m. Checkout The Destination Winding roads hug dramatic cliffs that spill over into the rolling Pacific Ocean, and the beaches are as pristine as the eco-friendly and upscale residential neighborhoods that dot the hills just a ways inland. If Orange County, California, looks like a scene out of a Hollywood surfer movie, that's because it frequently is. Huntington Beach is a mecca for wave worshipers, and Laguna and Newport Beach are veritable postcards of an American paradise. Affluent and glamorous in typical laid-back SoCal style, Orange County is happy to help you unbutton your designer collar. The Digs Centrally located near an array of OC attractions—from amusement parks to the Pacific Ocean—Laguna Hills Lodge is a truly appealing family-owned-and-operated inn that pour


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Search & Rescue
From MeritBadgeDotOrg
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|Search and Rescue merit badge
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Search & Rescue requirements
|A Note About Unauthorized and Restricted Activities
The BSA's Guide to Safe Scouting states under "Unauthorized and Restricted Activities" that flying in aircraft as part of a search and rescue mission is an unauthorized activity for youth members. For complete information, see the Guide to Safe Scouting.
| A FREE workbook for Search & Rescue is available here!
with the maps, charts, links, diagrams, and checklists you need!
Or click here to print just the Search & Rescue requirements.
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See also
General Merit Badge information
- An Introduction to Merit Badges – how to get started, who chooses the counselor, etc.
- Merit Badge Worksheets & Requirements – with the revision dates, diagrams, charts, checklists, logs, and links you need.
- Merit Badge Application – offers online resources to let you print "Blue Cards," etc.
- Merit Badge FAQ – answers dozens of questions like: Who can be a counselor? Can requirements be added or removed?
- Merit Badges Requiring Prior Approval – Certain requirements need prior approval. Most do not. Here is the list.
- Also see: List of how many boys have earned each Merit Badge – Merit Badge policies – Merit badges required for the Eagle Scout rank – Merit Badge Days
- Additionally: List of Merit Badges by Field of Study – Merit Badge Pamphlets & Libraries
- Merit Badge Counselors must complete Youth Protection Training, file an Adult Application (and Merit Badge Counselor Information Form); and be approved by the local council. (See the Guide for Merit Badge Counselors for additional details.)
External links
Official BSA Press Release (June 6, 2012): BSA To Introduce "Search and Rescue" Merit Badge — (Last accessed: June 7, 2012)


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Great post. Thanks for your willingness to share and thanks for your service as a Marine and law enforcement officer.
Thank you, Scratchshooter!
I dunno 'bout everybody else, but I found your information quite valuable.
And, it didn't change my opinion of the .25 ACP cartridge and the guns that shoot it. (Death isn't the object. Stopping the fight is the object.)
I'm glad that you survived the 12.7mm hit. I hope it was very peripheral, and not especially disabling.
Great post. Thanks for your willingness to share and thanks for your service as a Marine and law enforcement officer.
In a UH1-B as FAC over a column of tanks headed to the barn after a long, hot, live fire drill. Someone had no secured the pintle mounted 12.7 on the Russian armor. Somehow it discharged and the sole round that struck anything came up through the bottom of the helo and through the seat pan into my posterior, right. Just clipped the hip joint very slightly. Enough so that I have some pretty severe arthritis in it now with a replacement scheduled for this winter, but as they say every day above ground is a blessing. God gives us tomorrow so that today, however bad or trying becomes the past and we have the opportunity to serve others and become a blessing to them. Okay, 'nuff said. Night all, gotta get my daughter in the morning.
From the weapons I have fired there are a couple that I do not like:
Beretta 96D DAO .40 S&W = For me because of the longer and heavy trigger pull I could never get used to this pistol and I always threw off my shot.
Taurus PT145 = I was never very accurate with this pistol, I found it uncomfortable and always shot low.
I dont like american guns or revolvers. just realiable ones like HK, Walther,etc.
Just about everyone is gonna want and try and get small in a hurry when/if they hear gunfire no matter what it is...at least at first.
My father was a cop. He responded to an attempted suicide with a .25ACP. Contact distance shot to the side of the head. The bullet deflected off the skull and traveled under the scalp behind the head, coming to rest above the opposite ear. Dad reports the scene was bloody, but the ambulance came and hauled the guy to the hospital, where he recovered completely and quickly.
This does not inspire confidence in .25ACP for me.
Employed by Galco Gunleather - www.galcogunleather.com / Veteran OEF VIII
Donate to the Christian and Stephanie Nielson Recovery fund: http://www.nierecovery.com/.
All opinions, particularly those involving politics and Glocks, are mine and not Galco's.
totally agree with NO on the 25acp
this months american rifelman reports a guy was broken into and he was laying on the sofa and the BG put a gun at his face and the GG pulled out a 25acp from the sofa - 3 bullets and killed him
he got lucky
me 2!
oh, and not a fan of hi-point


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The RLI Day fee includes all Thursday RLI meetings and events. Meetings are open to all registered attendees unless the meeting title includes a qualifier such as (Closed Meeting), (By Invitation Only), (Ticketed Event), (Advance Enrollment Required), or (Attendance Limited to…).
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Scarlett_Blue on Nov 23, 2012 at 21:51:39
Very nice
rajbir on Nov 12, 2012 at 15:30:07
gentleman's game :)


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Delphi started in August 2008. The purpose was to create a living-learning community for our first-year students. We wanted to create an environment where students living together had the opportunity to attend the same classes, build friendships, and support each other throughout their first year of college.
Delphi is housed in Martin Hall. It consist of 320 new students, 12 Resident Assistants, 6 Argo PALs, and a Hall Director. The size of the hall allows the students to feel like they are part of a small community. The Delphi community is intended to challenge and support each resident so that every individual has an amazing experience their first-year on campus, both in the classroom and in the Delphi community.
Delphi is built on three principles called pillars:


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After last season, would like to see the team wait until they played better than they talked to start talking. Just saying, first SEC game is away against a team whose coaching staff will use that.
During SEC Media Days, Florida linebacker Lerentee McCray said he and his teammates want to make teams scared to play Florida again. Yesterday, defensive back Matt Elam took things a step further:
"We're predators. We're looking to knock heads off or making people scare to run across the middle or do a post or run a sideline and see us coming. We want to be the rude nation. People come in and we want them to be like, 'Oh, gosh, we might have a long night in The Swamp.' Just being rude and making people afraid of us."
Will Muschamp's comments from yesterday were slightly different: "We need to stop talking and start playing."
Additionally, center Jon Harrison even said: "We kind of saw (smack talk) as a little bit of a problem (last year). Everybody had kind of talked about just concentrating on football and if somebody (talks smack) we'll pull them aside and tell them to stop it."
Someone might want to get Harrison and Muschamp together with Elam.


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ORU Mourns the Passing of Ken Trickey
TULSA, Okla.-The Oral Roberts athletics department has lost one of its former men's basketball coaches, Hall of Famer Ken Trickey.
Trickey spent two stints (1969-74, 1987-93) leading the men's basketball program, coaching for a total of 11 years and left in 1993 as the winningest coach in school history, having since been passed by current Head Coach Scott Sutton.
In his first five years, Trickey led the then Titans to three postseason appearances, including a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight in 1974. Trickey took over a 14-10 team and in his first year led ORU to a 27-4 record. He posted at least 20 wins in each of his first five seasons and finished his career with a 214-116 (0.648) record.
Trickey was elected into the ORU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009 and was the first coach inducted. He coached six All-Americans at ORU, including Hall of Famers Richard Fuqua and Anthony Roberts, and had 10 players drafted by the NBA or ABA.
Statement from ORU President Dr. Mark Rutland
"Coach Trickey was a great part of ORU's history. He created an exciting and fun basketball program that competed at the highest level, while maintaining our integrity and mission. Thanks to his work ORU became known throughout the nation. The ORU community is praying for the Trickey family."
Statement from ORU Director of Athletics Mike Carter
"Ken Trickey was a pioneer in the industry in terms of offensive basketball. He brought significant recognition to the university because of his success at ORU, and his program put ORU athletics on the national map in the 1970's. We are grateful for his significant contributions to ORU athletics and will miss him."
Statement from ORU Men's Basketball Coach Scott Sutton
"I was saddened to hear about Coach Trickey's passing. He was so supportive of me and my time here. When you talk about the history of ORU athletics, the first person you think of is Ken Trickey and what he meant, not only to the men's basketball program, but the athletics department in general. His success in such a short period of time was remarkable. To take a team that is less than 10 years in existence and take them to within a game of the final four is amazing."


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Helen Klein's valentine collection, which spans five generations, includes three cards received by her great aunts during the 1890s. (Staff Photo by BONNIE VCULEK)
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The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today's most challenging problems. Pew applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life.
Mar 24, 2009
The unsuccessful effort last year to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike to private investors provides valuable lessons for other cash-strapped states seeking to fund their highways and bridges, according to a new report by the Pew Center on the States. With an annual funding gap of $47 billion between the roadway projects the nation needs and those it can afford, states with large deficits and an urgent need to fix aging infrastructure are looking closely at public-private partnerships—a financing approach used in other countries for years but only recently adopted in the United States.
In Pennsylvania, lawmakers debated a proposal to lease the cross-state turnpike to Citi Infrastructure Investors and the Spanish firm Abertis Infraestructuras for an upfront payment of $12.8 billion. The high-profile deal was shelved last fall after a number of legislators refused to support the plan over concerns about the state's financial assumptions and oversight, among other reasons. Pew conducted an in-depth analysis of the state's effort to help policy makers around the country learn from the Pennsylvania experience. The report identifies the information states need and the issues they should consider when evaluating proposed agreements with private companies to fund infrastructure improvements. States considering public-private partnerships to fund infrastructure should have clear, data-driven answers to key questions.
"If states want to compete economically, they need sound infrastructure that helps businesses thrive and improves residents' quality of life," said Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States. "The failure of the Pennsylvania Turnpike lease proposal offers important lessons because private capital is likely to play a growing role in helping states pay for their infrastructure needs."
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DealChicken has found a great deal on a one-of-a-kind property in Winchester, Va., that gives you and a traveling companion a great starting point for exploring historic sites and celebrating the founding of the United States. When you're not exploring, you'll want to take advantage of the George Washington's Roman-style indoor pool, the Dancing Goat restaurant and the Half Note Lounge, featuring live jazz performances. Area attractions include the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, Shenandoah National Park, Old Courthouse Civil War Museum, George Washington's Office museum and more.
Bill Brown's Plaza Travel brings you this great deal at the George Washington, a Wyndham Grand Hotel. Winchester has become a popular destination for weddings and other special occasions, and the George Washington provides everything you need to stage that special event, including luxury accommodations.
Bill Brown's Plaza Travel does not guarantee availability at these locations during the length of the promotion.
$129 for 2 nights at The George Washington in Winchester, VA ($260 value)
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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." "
—Edmund Burke
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I have received a degree in Theoretical Physics from Moscow Lomonosov University and completed my graduate studies at Yale. The only things I have ever published were science papers. I am an experianced translator of technical literature and fiction from...


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Canada's French cultural heritage informs every aspect of Quebec life - including the skiing. The narrow, cobbled streets and brightly painted buildings of Tremblant give this town a delightful Gallic feel. A holiday in this picturesque Laurentian Mountain town is the closest you will get to European-style skiing in North America. Tremblant is Eastern Canada's most popular ski resort. Although it offers a smaller piste area than some of the Western resorts, it has a genuine appeal to all levels of skier and snowboarder. The spread of terrain across Tremblant's four skiing areas, Versant Sud, Versant Nord, Versant Soleil and Edge offer a good variety for even the keenest skiers. The extensive lifts and excellent snowmaking mean that conditions stay good throughout the season. In addition, Tremblant's three large terrain parks, cross-country skiing and good childcare facilities give the resort a great all-round appeal.
Tremblant has the superb, two-acre, Équilibre area dedicated to absolute beginner skiers and snowboarders. Here you will be able to master the basics with the assistance of the highly rated instructors. There are 16 easier green pistes to take advantage of as you progress. Many of the easiest ones are located in the Versant Sud area.
Both Versant Nord and Sud offer a good selection of blue runs through the trees and on the groomed slopes. The former faces the sun during the morning, whilst the latter is in the sunshine in the afternoon. Tremblant has 31 intermediate ski runs overall, whilst some of the easier black runs might be tempting for the more experienced intermediate.
More than half of the trails in Tremblant are graded black or double black. Advanced skiers will enjoy the variety of steep and moguled runs across the four areas, with Edge in particular offering stiff challenges. For snowboarders there are 40 acres of ramps, jumps and rails across three separate terrain parks, the largest being Gravité. Freestyle skiers and snowboarders will also enjoy the Olympic calibre super-pipe.
Average temperatures in Tremblant can fall as low as minus 15 degrees Celsius during January and February. It is worth keeping this in mind if you are travelling with young children. Aside from that, the tuition and childcare facilities are excellent here. Children from age 1 to 11 can be cared for until 9.30 pm and the ski school has small classes for children aged from 3 to 12 years old.
Temperatures drop to freezing in late October and snowfall increases dramatically at the beginning of November, meaning there is a good chance of an early start to the season. Temperatures can also stay low well into April so it is worth checking the weather and snowfall in Tremblant for the chance of a last-minute break early or late in the season.
The pretty streets and colourful buildings of Tremblant make a truly beautiful setting for a skiing holiday. The French influence is reflected in the cafés, creperies and stylish designer clothing boutiques of the traffic-free centre. There is a good variety of different cuisine to sample in the restaurants of Tremblant - notably Mexican, Italian and, of course, French. Later in the evening, the main square has a great atmosphere - often showcasing live music. Café d'Époque, le Petit Caribou and La Forge are all popular bars in which to while away the evening in.
140 km (approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes transfer). British Airways flies direct to Montréal from London Heathrow.


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Roberto Matus
Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of Chile Minister Counselor
Chile: a Road to Development
Deputy Chief Matus will discuss the model of economic development that Chile has applied for more than 30 years and how it has impacted the political, economic and social structure of the country; and provide a brief analysis of how this process has defined the relationship between Chile and the US and why this is considered to be successful for both countries.
Baushuan Ger
Director General, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago
Taiwan—A Strong Partner of the U.S. in East Asia
Director General Ger discussed Taiwan-U.S. relations, the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement and its impact, and Taiwan's role in promoting trade and regional economic integration.
Thomas Schnöll
Consul General of Austria in Chicago
The Future of the Eurozone: The European Project at a Crossroads
Consul General Schnöll discussed the role of smaller states in the European Community and in addressing the Euro crisis.
Ronald K. McMullen
US Ambassador and Diplomat-in-Residence at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas
America's Foreign Policy Challenges: Where do You Cross the Line?
Ambassador McMullen discussed the diplomatic challenges facing the United States and argued for a greater US Department of State role in managing US national building activities.


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Events Calendar
Del Mar Beer Fest
When: 08/31/2013
Treat your taste buds to over 100 flavors of cold brews during the Del Mar Beer Fest at the Seaside Cabana and Seaside Concert area. During this grand beer tasting event, attendees will taste delectable brews, encounter local brewers, learn how beer is made, and more.
For additional information on events taking place in Del Mar please visit the Del Mar Village Association calendar of events


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|The Juno Sports Bra is built for maximum support and comfort. It's perfect for C cup-plus women who want a racerback style that covers, supports, and looks as good as it feels. Seam-free interior molded cups give you support and shape. Moderate contour cups give some modesty and maximum moisture transfer with a seamless look. Bonded material for less bulk and smooth, no-chafe comfort. Front and back mesh zones to keep you cool. Encapsulation/compression style. High impact level. 88% polyester/12% spandex. Imported.