Saturday, January 11, 2014
CONTACT ME AT: manessmorrison2@yahoo.com


News Clips For The Day



Bank of America recommends work limits after intern's death – NBC
Reuters


LONDON — Bank of America Merrill Lynch has detailed how it intends to improve working conditions for its junior bankers, including some weekends off, after one of its summer interns died. 

In a memo sent to staff on Friday and seen by Reuters, Bank of America said an internal review had outlined measures to ensure such staff take days off and to improve support and supervision. 

The review was announced after 21-year-old Moritz Erhardt died in August toward the end of a seven-week internship at the U.S. bank's investment division in London. 
The new measures are designed to increase "the efficient use of our time and resources, support work-life balance, increase our junior banker staffing levels and enhance the overall work experience," the memo said. 

Erhardt's death highlighted concerns about interns working excessive hours and even through the night after newspaper reports suggested that the German student had worked for 72 hours without sleep before he died. 

An inquest into the death of Erhardt, who had epilepsy, found he died of natural causes. 

Effective immediately, analysts and associates are recommended to take a minimum of four weekend days off per month. Any exceptions must be pre-approved by senior managers, the memo said. 

The memo, from Christian Meissner, head of the bank's Global Corporate and Investment Banking (GCIB) unit, said it would make a current staffer position — responsible for how projects get allocated — into a full-time post in some regions. The staffer will closely monitor work volume, hours and assignments, making sure junior bankers work on a variety of projects and develop key skills

The role of human resources and development officers will also be beefed up. 
The new rules will also apply to those taking summer internships at the bank. 
"We are importantly committed to broader cultural change in terms of how we manage our time and how we best serve our clients," Meissner wrote in the memo. 
Bank of America declined to comment. 



It is surprising to me to see this at a bank. I knew that medical personnel including doctors and nurses, airline workers and truck drivers have very long hours, which is particularly problematic since the public safety depends on the alertness of those workers. The US DOT issued a regulation mandating a maximum of 70 hours a week on July 1, 2013 for truck drivers. This is still a lot of hours.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/hours_of_work/working_week.html deals with other industries. According to this site, “a working week can never exceed 48 hours, it is the average that is important. The average may be calculated in one of the following ways: … Over 6 months for employees working in the security industry, hospitals, prisons, gas/electricity, airport/docks, agriculture and employees in businesses which have peak periods at certain times of the year such as tourism.”

http://news.nurse.com/article/20090130/ALL05/90127005/-1/section reports on nursing hours in the long-term care industries.
“Many facilities are routinely scheduling back-to-back 16-hour shifts (permanent schedules) for their licensed LPNs and RNs. This practice leads to most of these nurses working 16.5 or greater hours and then returning for another 16.5 shift with less than 8 hours between shifts.”

The weakness or absence of unions is partly responsible, I think, for poor working conditions including very long hours. Too many of our present population are afraid to jeopardize their jobs if they have a job, for a union to be supported by workers today. Unions got a bad name in the past, in some cases, by being linked with organized crime, while the public also has become averse to public demonstrations and strikes. Union or no, hours like those given above are abusive and lead to accidents on the job and poor health for the workers. It's one more thing that our society should amend. As long as the workers themselves accept these conditions, they probably won't change. The point of a union is that it gives the workers a power base for rebelling and causing needed changes. Congratulations to Bank of America for voluntarily making changes in its policy.




Christie appointee watched bridge closure in person, documents show – NBC
By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

An appointee of Gov. Chris Christie personally showed up to observe the closure of lanes at the George Washington Bridge that triggered an epic traffic jam in New Jersey in September, according to documents made public Friday.

The appointee, David Wildstein, emailed the general manager of the bridge on the day before the lanes were closed to say, “Will be at bridge early Monday am to view new lane test,” the documents show. Other emails show that he arrived by 7 a.m. on Sept. 9, the first of four days of nightmare traffic in the city of Fort Lee.

The documents also show that Wildstein and Bill Baroni, another Christie appointee, were directly told on the first day that the backups were causing problems for police and paramedics. Lane closures at the bridge continued for four days, until the irate head of the Port Authority, which controls the bridge, ordered them reopened.

The matter exploded this week into the biggest scandal of Christie’s career after emails and texts appeared to show that Christie allies ordered the lanes closed as an act of political payback. 

The documents were released by a committee of lawmakers looking into why the lanes were closed. Some of the information has been reported in news accounts, but the documents — more than 2,000 pages in all — paint a picture of Christie allies pushing forward with the closings and later trying to keep information from the public.

More than 900 pages of documents released Friday offer more insight into "Bridgegate" and the role taken by Gov. Chris Christie's appointed officials.

The documents show Port Authority officials discussing a "test" designed by Wildstein in August, two weeks after he received an email from Bridget Kelly, Christie’s deputy chief of staff, that said: "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee." 
An email from the weekend before the traffic jam quotes the manager of the bridge as saying that he was "instructed by Wildstein to change the traffic pattern."
On Sept. 12, the fourth day of the jam, the Port Authority appears to have put together a PowerPoint presentation labeled "EARLY assessment of the benefits of the trial." The conclusion is given as "TBD."

Wildstein was an executive at the Port Authority, and Baroni was its deputy executive director. Both resigned their jobs in December as questions about the lane closures grew.

New Yorker cover mocks Christie over bridge scandal 
Wildstein was hauled before state lawmakers on Thursday to answer questions but invoked the Fifth Amendment. His lawyer indicated he might be willing to talk if he were offered immunity from prosecution. The governor took pains on Thursday to distance himself from Wildstein, a high school classmate.

The documents show complaints coming in from the public after the lanes were closed, including one woman who called to say that the Port Authority “doesn’t care about their customers and they are playing God with people’s jobs.”

The documents show that a Port Authority employee, Tina Lado, emailed Baroni and Wildstein on Sept. 9 to tell them that police and medics had had trouble searching for a missing child and responding to a cardiac arrest.

David Wildstein, [is] a former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official and an ally of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

It was four days later when Patrick Foye, executive director of the bridge-controlling Port Authority and an appointee of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, sent a blistering note on Sept. 13 ordering all its lanes reopened. Foye wrote that he worried the law was being broken.

When he ordered the lanes reopened and suggested the agency get the word out, Baroni wrote back: "There can be no public discourse." He forwarded the email to Wildstein without comment.

Baroni also forwarded the Foye note to David Samson, the chairman of the Port Authority, who was nominated for the job by Christie. Baroni added: "General, can I call you on this now?"

The governor on Thursday fired Kelly and cut ties with Bill Stepien, who ran both his campaigns, who were mentioned in earlier texts and emails about the traffic fiasco.
Christie apologized to the people of New Jersey — and to the Fort Lee mayor in person — and said he felt betrayed, humiliated, angry and sad. But he insisted that he knew nothing about any scheme to close the lanes as an act of political payback.
A U.S. Senate committee and the Port Authority have pledged investigations, and the Justice Department has opened an inquiry into the fiasco.

Christie is widely believed to be considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and has cultivated an image of himself as a no-nonsense problem-solver unconcerned with partisan bickering.



This article names several officials and gives their actions as the events unfolded. I am afraid some of these people will go to prison, not merely be fired. I will keep publishing followup articles as they come out if they contain new information.




US deploys small military team to Somalia – NBC

By Courtney Kube, Producer, NBC News


The United States deployed a small team of military advisers to be based in Somalia for the first time in more than 20 years.

The team, called the Mogadishu Coordination Cell, began moving in quietly in October and was fully operational by mid-December. The advisers will work with the African Union Mission In Somalia (AMISOM) to help the Somali military plan and coordinate operations against the al Qaeda-linked militant group al Shabab, according to a senior defense official.

This is the first time the United States has had military personnel stationed in Mogadishu since the 1993 operation known as "Black Hawk Down," in which 18 American troops were killed when helicopters were shot down by militants.

"This is a good thing," a senior defense official said, adding that this is another step toward the Somali government getting stronger and more organized.
In its current form, the Mogadishu cell is made up of three soldiers. There are no current plans to increase the size of the cell.

"The U.S. has established a military coordination cell in Somalia to provide planning and advisory support to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali security forces to increase their capabilities and promote peace and security throughout Somalia and the region. The MCC was established in October and is now fully operational," said Col. Tom Davis, spokesman for Africa Command.


This is a welcome change in American tactics. This is no invasion force or deal to sell arms to the government of Somalia, aimed at military control, but a friendly advisory move. Hopefully they will be helpful in controlling the al Qaeda group there, while keeping our influence small. This looks more like a benign US image to me than some of our interventions in the past. I wonder if this was done under Obama's influence or initiated by the military. I like it – it looks like peaceful coexistence.





What did long-extinct Nutcracker Man eat? Nuts of a different kind – NBC
Charles Q. Choi LiveScience


The skull of the Olduvai Hominid 5, also called Nutcracker Man, was found in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge.

A strong-jawed extinct relative of humans called "Nutcracker Man" might have lived up to its name by munching on tiger nuts — that is, grass bulbs known as tiger nuts that are still eaten in parts of the world today, researchers say.

The extinct creature, officially called Paranthropus boisei, roamed across East Africa 1.4 million to 2.4 million years ago, living alongside the direct ancestors of humanity. It earned its nickname because of its massive jaw and huge molars.

Because of its powerful jaw, it was long assumed that P. boisei ate nuts, seeds and other hard items. Mysteriously, a recent study of its teeth did not turn up the kind of pitting one would expect from hard meals, suggesting that Nutcracker Man actually fed on softer fare. [See Images of Nutcracker Man Fossils]

Damage to the tooth enamel of P. boisei suggested it came into contact with abrasive substances. Recent studies on the makeup of these teeth hinted that these ancient relatives of humans largely lived on so-called C4 plants, such as grasses and sedges. However, controversy remains over whether such foods could have been nutritious enough for a large-brained, medium-size hominin. (Hominins include humans and related species after they split from the ancestors of chimpanzees.)

"It bothered me that every time new evidence for P. boisei was presented and celebrated as solving one aspect of its morphology or biology, it contradicted another," said study author Gabriele Macho, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Oxford in England. "There had to be a way that combined all evidence from morphology to biology and environment. After all, P. boisei was a successful species that lived for over a million years. It must have done something right."

How baboons fared
To help solve this mystery, Macho investigated modern-day baboons in Amboseli National Park in Kenya, an environment similar to that inhabited by P. boisei. She focused on year-old baboons, for which there was much data on what they ate and the rate they ate it. These young baboons were also ideal for analysis for another reason: Since they require more nutrients than adults, they may therefore have diets more comparable to the requirements of a larger-brained hominin than the diet of adult baboons. [Top 10 Mysteries of the First Humans]

Year-old baboons there eat large quantities of C4 plants known as tiger nuts, which are actually grass bulbs rather than nuts. These contain sufficiently high amounts of minerals, vitamins and fatty acids especially important for the hominin brain.

"They are crunchy and sweet." Macho said. "I don't know where tiger nuts got their name from — I presume it's from their rugged appearance. It is more commonly known as chufa in Spanish-speaking countries and, when made into a drink, horchata. As a drink it is quite popular in northern Spain today, and in parts of South America."
Macho analyzed past data on how long it took these year-old baboons to dig up enough tiger nuts. From that, she calculated how long P. boisei likely needed to forage in order to collect enough tiger nuts to survive. She estimated P. boisei could have gathered tiger nuts as quickly as an adult baboon, which is at least twice as fast as yearling baboons, due to superior manual dexterity.

Tiger nuts are rich in starches that are abrasive. In order to digest the tiger nuts, P. boisei would need to chew on them for a long time. All this chewing would cause major wear and tear on their jaws and teeth, perhaps explaining why "Nutcracker Man" had such unusual anatomy — features of its jaws and teeth resulted from repetitive chewing, not eating of hard objects.

Mystery solved?
"The most important, exciting aspect for me is that the diet proposed reconciles all apparent inconsistencies," Macho told LiveScience.

Macho calculated P. boisei could gather enough tiger nuts for 80 percent of its estimated daily calorie intake and all of its protein requirements in two and a half to three hours. This fits comfortably within the foraging time of five to six hours per day typical for large-bodied primates. They probably supplemented their diet with fruits and invertebrates such as grasshoppers and worms.

"Tiger nuts, still sold in health food shops as well as being widely used for grinding down and baking in many countries, would be relatively easy to find," Macho said in a statement. "They also provided a good source of nourishment for a medium-sized hominin with a large brain. This is why these hominins were able to survive for around one million years, because they could successfully forage, even through periods of climatic change."

Macho detailed her findings online Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.


This is interesting as it shows an easy way for these hominins to survive, which is still used for food today. Such a diet required no tools, unless maybe digging sticks, and “tiger nuts” would occur in large numbers, as grasses seem to be everywhere. The following is from Wikipedia. According to this they were the first known species to use stone tools.

Paranthropus boisei
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paranthropus boisei or Australopithecus boisei was an early hominin, described as the largest of the Paranthropus genus (robust australopithecines). It lived in Eastern Africa during the Pleistocene epoch from about 2.3 until about 1.2 million years ago.[1]

First discovered by anthropologist Mary Leakey on July 17, 1959, at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, the well-preserved cranium (nicknamed "Nutcracker Man") was dated to 1.75 million years old and had characteristics distinctive of the robust australopithecines. Mary and her husband Louis Leakey classified the find as Zinjanthropus boisei: "Zinj" for the medieval East African region of Zanj, "anthropus" (Gr. ανθρωπος, anthropos) "human being"; and "boisei" for Charles Boise, the anthropologists' team’s benefactor.[2]

Paranthropus boisei (as the species was eventually categorized) proved to be a treasure especially when the anthropologists' son Richard Leakey considered it to be the first hominin species to use stone tools. Another skull was unearthed in 1969 by Richard at Koobi Fora near the Lake Turkana region, in Kenya.




­Same-Sex Couples In Utah Made Eligible For Federal Benefits --NPR
by Mark Memmott
­ ­ January 10, 201412:30 PM

"Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday that the federal government will recognize the 900-plus same-sex marriages that took place in Utah during the two weeks when such unions were legal," NPR's Nina Totenberg writes for us.
That means those couples "will be eligible for all federal benefits," NPR's Carrie Johnson adds.

In a statement, Holder says that:
"Last June, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision — in United States v. Windsor — holding that Americans in same-sex marriages are entitled to equal protection and equal treatment under the law. This ruling marked a historic step toward equality for all American families. And since the day it was handed down, the Department of Justice has been working tirelessly to implement it in both letter and spirit — moving to extend — federal benefits to married same-sex couples as swiftly and smoothly as possible.

"Recently, an administrative step by the court has cast doubt on same-sex marriages that have been performed in the state of Utah. And the governor has announced that the state will not recognize these marriages pending additional court action.
"In the meantime, I am confirming today that, for purposes of federal law, these marriages will be recognized as lawful and considered eligible for all relevant federal benefits on the same terms as other same-sex marriages.

"These families should not be asked to endure uncertainty regarding their status as the litigation unfolds. In the days ahead, we will continue to coordinate across the federal government to ensure the timely provision of every federal benefit to which Utah couples and couples throughout the country are entitled — regardless of whether they in same-sex or opposite-sex marriages."

As Carrie has reported, extending federal benefits to same-sex couples can be a complicated process. When they are, she's written:
"Federal employees in same-sex marriages can extend health and life insurance coverage to their spouses. Immigration authorities say they'll review petitions from people in same-sex relationships the same way they review requests from opposite-sex couples. And at the IRS, tax officials say legally married gay and lesbian couples can now file jointly."

Update at 3:35 p.m. ET. Governor's Office Responds
A statement from Gov. Gary R. Herbert reads:
"The announcement that the Department of Justice will recognize same-sex marriages performed in Utah comes as no surprise and is consistent with previous direction to state agencies. State agencies have always been directed to comply with federal law when providing federal services and will continue to do so. State agencies are directed and will continue to comply with state laws when providing state services."
Update at 2:45 p.m. ET. But State Says 'No' To Joint Tax Returns.

NPR's Howard Berkes notes that:
"Utah's position is that same-sex couples cannot file joint state tax returns. ... And if a federal return is based on joint filing, the federal figures and calculations cannot legally be used for the state return. ... This means that married same-sex couples in Utah will have to go through two completely separate tax-return filing processes — filing as individuals on their state tax returns and then starting over from scratch and filing jointly on their federal returns, if they choose to file jointly as a married couple on the federal return."
­

Two of our previous posts on the news from Utah:
— Same-Sex Marriages No Longer Recognized, Utah Tells Agencies
— Supreme Court Halts Gay Marriages In Utah


­

America
Supreme Court Halts Gay Marriages In Utah – NPR
by Eyder Peralta and Howard Berkes­
January 06, 201411:28 AM

­ The United States Supreme Court has put same-sex marriages on hold in the state of Utah.

The order issued by the court on Monday halts same-sex marriages until an appeal is decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.

If you remember, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby struck down Utah's constitutional ban on gay marriage on Dec. 20, saying it irrationally demeans the dignity of same-sex couples. Since then, Utah has sought to put that ruling on hold, while it appeals the decision to a higher court.

After Shelby and then the full 10th Circuit Court denied Utah's request for a stay, the state asked the Supreme Court to step in. It has now ruled in favor of Utah, halting any new marriages in the state.

Now, the case — known as Kitchen v. Herbert — is before the 10th Circuit. It will weigh an appeal of Shelby's decision, which declared Utah's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. That appeal could take months.

During a press conference, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said it is unclear whether existing gay marriages are valid.
"We don't have the answer and don't want to rush to any legal conclusions," Reyes said. "There's no precedence."

James Magleby, one of the attorneys who argued the case for the same-sex couples who brought the suit against Utah, said while the stay is "disappointing," they believe they can successfully defend Shelby's decision before the 10th Circuit.
"We were confident when we filed the case in 2013, we were confident when we presented the arguments to the District Court, and we remain equally — if not more — confident about our defense of marriage equality before the Tenth Circuit," Magleby said in a statement.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said in a statement that the Supreme Court made "the correct decision today."

"As I have said all along, all Utahns deserve to have this issue resolved through a fair and complete judicial process," Herbert continued. "I firmly believe this is a state-rights issue and I will work to defend the position of the people of Utah and our State Constitution."

That same argument was made in the state brief filed before the Supreme Court right before it issued its stay.

"A stay will eliminate the daily affront to the State and its citizens of being compelled by a single federal judge to solemnize marriages that strike at the heart of State's democratic process and of the conjugal view of marriage embraced by the vast majority of its people," Monte Stewart, a Boise attorney and former BYU law professor who founded the Marriage Law Foundation, wrote on behalf of the state.
Voters in the predominately Mormon state overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in 2004.


This article about the Supreme Court ruling is included above in part, and the full version can be found on the NPR website. I don't know who wins when the Supreme Court battles the Attorney General. I'll collect further articles on the subject when I see them.



­

Marijuana 'Hash Oil' Explodes In Popularity, And Kitchens – NPR
by Martin Kaste
­
If you think the recent liberalization of marijuana laws around the country is only about smoking leaves and buds, think again. For users younger than 25, "hash oil" is where it's really at. This concentrated resin of marijuana is creating new public safety headaches — even in places where it's legal.

There have always been forms of the substance, but the resins available today are much stronger than in years past. That's due in part to the expertise developed by medical marijuana producers, who have learned how to make more potent versions of the oil.

Near Seattle, medical marijuana entrepreneur Jeremy Kelsey shows off a sample of a resin that he markets as extreme pain medication for cancer patients. It looks like dark green Karo syrup. Kelsey calls it "pure THC."

"There's pounds literally that went into this dish," Kelsey says, dabbing at the sticky substance that coats the bottom of a square Pyrex pan.
His product is especially potent because he makes it only from marijuana buds, not, as others do, from leafy matter and stalks. He calls the resin medication, but recreational users have other names for it: "butane honey oil," "wax," "shatter" or simply "dabs" — because a little dab will do you.

Jim Andersen displays butane hash oil at a marijuana growing facility in Seattle in April 2013. The state's licensed producers will be required to use professional-grade equipment when making the extracts.
Elaine Thompson/AP

Exploding Refrigerators
Users smoke it, vaporize it and sometimes even eat it — those people sometimes refer to themselves as "tar babies." High Times magazine jokingly implies that honey oil is best for people who already smoke regular pot every day. The stuff is so strong, it can cause less experienced users to throw up.

Some people make the resin at home. You just soak the pot in some kind of chemical solvent, which extracts the resin from the marijuana. Do-it-yourselfers like using butane, which can be purchased at most hardware stores.

The trouble is, solvents can catch fire — and even explode. Last year, the U.S. Fire Administration, a department of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, issued a bulletin warning of an increase in fires involving the production of hash oil.
In Washington state, which legalized marijuana for recreational use in 2012, authorities have noted an uptick in similar incidents. There was an explosion in a building in Seattle on Tuesday, and Verner O'Quinn, a sergeant with the Seattle Police Department's bomb squad, blames solvents used in the production of hash oil.
There were no victims in the explosion, but it created a big bang. "It blew out the windows, blew the walls 6 inches from the foundation in an area. Cracked the siding," O'Quinn says.

He says fires in the Seattle area often come with a particular twist: They start with exploding refrigerators. Apparently, some people put their marijuana-butane marinade in the freezer. "Maybe the process works better when it's colder," O'Quinn says.
Most freezers have a fan, which then circulates the volatile butane fumes into the rest of the refrigerator, "down to where the compressor is," he explains. "A small spark will set it off, and it generally blows the door off."

Starting Today, You Can Legally Sell Marijuana In Colorado Jan. 1, 2014
A 'Practical Decision' To Legalize
Washington state allows adults to possess up to 1 ounce of pot, so turning it into hash oil isn't illegal, per se. Still, if you're using explosive solvents, you might be looking at a zoning violation or even criminal charges of reckless endangerment.
The state is now getting ready to license commercial marijuana processors, who will be required to use purer solvents and professional-grade equipment when making the extracts.

State officials did waver over whether hash oil should be legal at all. Initially, the Washington State Liquor Control Board, which is writing the regulations for the legalization process, decided the voter-approved legalization did not apply to concentrates. It later reversed course.

Randy Simmons, who runs the legalization implementation process, calls that a practical decision. "We're trying to move as many people out of the illicit marketplace as possible," Simmons says. "And in order to do that, if we would have excluded these oils, we would have left a whole lot of the marketplace in the black market."

In other words, hash oil is too popular not to legalize. But there's no guarantee that will always be true. Simmons points out that after Prohibition ended, liquor laws were constantly fine-tuned with experience. He expects the same thing may happen with marijuana and its more potent derivatives.



I wonder how many people are using marijuana products now, and who they are. It used to be restricted to “hippies” and other people who will do what they want to no matter what the law says. I think it is now members of the middle and upper classes who are free-thinkers. I'm a free-thinker, but I think – in my freedom – that drugs damage the body and mental processes and tend to be abused.

Medical marijuana is one thing, and if it proves to be a good pain killer for cancer patients it is desirable, but the way they are moving in Washington State to authorize the use of this concentrate for recreational purposes will cause more problems than it solves, I feel sure. There are no testing or supervision of the product mentioned in the article, as is the case with most herbal remedies that are sold in health food stores, which doesn't mean that they are harmless. I would like to see some laboratory testing of the “oil” reported, to see what side effects it has.