THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2014


NEWS CLIPS FOR THE DAY


American flags made in China now banned in U.S. military
CBS NewsFebruary 19, 2014

ROHNERT PARK, Calif. -- Soldiers carry them into battle, fly them high over foreign bases, and triumphantly carry them in processions, but those stars and stripes, until now, have often been made in China.

That irony spurred North Bay Congressman Mike Thompson to write legislation requiring flags purchased by the Department of Defense be 100 percent “Made in America,” reports CBS San Francisco. 

That legislation is now law, signed as part of the 2014 omnibus appropriations bill.
“I thought it was appalling our Department of Defense would have flags made in other countries,” Thompson said. “But it’s also important because we need to be making more in America.”

While the military flag rule passed, a similar bill requiring all government-purchased flags be made in the U.S. has repeatedly failed. The change isn’t cheap. Chinese-made flags cost significantly less than all-American ones.

The new requirements apply the existing Berry Amendment passed in 1941 to flags. That amendment bans the Defense Department from buying food, clothing, military uniforms, fabrics, stainless steel, and hand or measuring tools that are not grown or produced in the United States, except in rare exceptions.

“I am proud to have worked to pass this law so that our men and women in uniform never have to fight under a U.S. flag made overseas, and so that our Defense Department never again spends American tax dollars on a U.S. flag made overseas,” said the Vietnam War veteran and Purple Heart recipient.

Thompson toured North Bay Industries on Tuesday. The Rohnert Park company makes thousands of flags each year, mainly for the Department of Veteran Affairs, which was already required to source memorial flags made in the United States with American-only materials.

North Bay Industries is a vocational rehabilitation center dedicated to assisting mentally, physically, and developmentally disabled adults through participation in agency-sponsored training, housing, and employment programs.
Thompson had visited the Rohnert Park facility last year and found out that not all flags purchased by the military were being made in the U.S, which he said prompted the need for the legislation.




North Bay Industries sounds like a very good organization, helping the disabled to get a start in life. I suppose it does look a little bit bad for our flags to be made in China, besides the fact that we owe too much to China already with our borrowing from them so much. I notice the bill only applies to military flags. I wonder how much a flag from the US costs as compared to one from China? The following biography on Mike Thompson is from Wikipedia. He is, surprisingly enough, a patriotic Democrat. Of course he also wants to create more jobs by having all military flags made in the USA.

From Wikipedia: “Charles Michael "Mike" Thompson[3] (born January 24, 1951)[4] is the U.S. Representative for California's 5th congressional district, serving since 1999. He is the current Chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.[5] He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 1st District until 2013, includes Napa County plus portions of Contra Costa, Lake, Solano, and Sonoma counties.”




UN witness describes horrors of North Korea --CBS
By Evie Salomon

On Monday, the United Nations Human Rights Council released a detailed report concluding that North Korean officials have committed crimes against humanity, including “unspeakable atrocities” ranging from systematic executions to torture, rape, and mass starvation.

One of the major witnesses spotlighted in the report is Shin Dong-hyuk, a North Korean defector who escaped from a prison camp known as “Camp 14” in 2005 at the age of 23. Shin was born and raised in the camp, and he is believed to be the only person to escape and live to tell about it.

Shin’s testimony in the UN report paints a similar picture to the interview he gave 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper in 2012. At the time of the interview, Shin was 30-years-old and living in Seoul, South Korea, where he had begun to build a new life after his escape.

As Shin recounted to Cooper, his family members were confined to Camp 14 as part of the “three generations of punishment” doctrine, in which three generations of a family—grandparents, parents and children—are imprisoned for years in hard labor camps as punishment for the perceived “crime” or disloyalty of one member of the family.

While at the camp, Shin witnessed the execution of his mother and brother, who were put to death for plotting an escape. As Shin told Cooper, as well as the UN panel, it was he who reported his family members’ plot to a prison guard, in hopes of acquiring an extra ration of food.

It was also the promise of food that inspired Shin to attempt his dramatic escape from Camp 14. Watch Anderson Cooper’s full interview in the player above to learn how Shin managed to escape the horrific camp where he suffered for more than two decades.




It is sad indeed that Shin was the witness who turned his own mother and brother in to the prison guard. Of course, he was born in the prison and had known nothing positive in his life, which like in extreme poverty situations in the US and elsewhere, can literally kill the spirit. He was motivated to do that by the promise of some extra food.

The “three generations of punishment” doctrine for a crime such as “disloyalty,” is a horrific law. Harshness of punishment is sometimes “overkill,” as few if any citizens under such rule will have any real loyalty to their government. That level of harshness can cause such fear that people will not dare to rebel, however, or even be able to get together in groups enough to plan a way of getting out. Of course, this man did escape. I would like to see more about him to find out how he did that.





Some Republicans looking to break unemployment benefits deadlock -- CBS
By Rebecca Kaplan CBS News February 20, 2014

Although attempts by Democrats to extend emergency unemployment benefits in the Senate have failed multiple times, the issue stands to reemerge yet again when Congress returns next week thanks to a group of Republicans who are looking for new ways to bring the two parties together on the issue.

Why emergency unemployment benefits are stalled
CBSNews.com Executive Washington Editor talks with RealClearPolitics Political Reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns about the lapse in emergency unemployment.
 
N.C. is ground zero for unemployment benefits debate
More than 1.6 million Americans lost their long-term unemployment insurance when Congress failed to renew the benefits at the end of December.

Republican Sens. Dan Coats of Indiana, Rob Portman of Ohio, Susan Collins of Maine and Dean Heller of Nevada - an original cosponsor of the measure - met last week to figure out a strategy going forward, Politico reported. The Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program, which expired at the end of last year, has largely fallen victim to a feud in the Senate between the two parties, as Republicans are still angry at Democrats for voting to limit their ability to use filibusters. In the fight to renew the lapsed benefits, Republicans first sought a way to pay for an extension, and then wanted the Senate to vote on amendments to reform the program.

Democrats have offered ways to pay for the bill, an even sweeteners like deficit reduction, but Republicans have largely stood firm in saying no. On the most recent failed vote, just four Republicans - Heller, Collins, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska - joined with the Democrats to move ahead with a vote on the latest offer.

The issue can be a tough one for Republicans in states hit hard by the recession. Nationally, extending unemployment benefits is a popular policy that has 58 percent support among voters (37 percent oppose), according to a January Quinnipiac poll. Much of that number is inflated by high Democratic support (83 percent), and dragged down by Republican voters, who oppose extending the benefits by 54 to 42 percent.
The plan that Heller, Collins, Portman and Coats are working on would retroactively extend benefits by about three months, and pay for the $6 billion-plus price tag by ensuring that people are not collecting both unemployment and disability benefits. But the GOP will also want amendments to reform the unemployment program, such as banning people from receiving benefits once they have received at least a “suitable” offer of work, according to Politico. That is something that Reid has shown unwilling to allow up until now.

“We’re still working on the same thing, which is solving the problem,” Portman told Politico. “I continue to believe that we can solve this if Democrats want to.”
Finding an agreement on the issue could help break some of the tension between the two parties in the upper chamber where lawmakers are usually able to make deals. But even if they move past the unemployment insurance issue, Democrats still want to move onto bills like a minimum wage increase, which will likely face a fresh round of Republican opposition.

If no agreement is reached, Democrats will use this as an example to try to hammer Republicans as part of their midterm campaign message of income inequality.




This article mentioned eight Republicans who are trying to meet the Democrats in the middle, or even vote along with them. Maybe there will be a group of Republicans who are not afraid of the Tea Party as time goes on. Can the party be becoming more flexible? I hope so. Deadlock is not a positive thing, and prevents all progress.




Hanford nuclear plant's environmental manager claims she was fired for whistleblowing – CBS
By Carter Evans CBS News February 19, 2014

LOS ANGELES - Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon on Wednesday called for an investigation after a second whistleblower was fired from the cleanup at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state.

CBS News first spoke with the whistleblower, Donna Bushce, last year, when she raised concerns about the project.

 For the last five years, Busche was manager of environmental and nuclear safety at Hanford, which is filled with radioactive waste from building nuclear bombs. She was fired on Tuesday.

"I think they were retaliating against me for my ongoing outspokenness," she said.
In 2010 she warned supervisors and regulators about design flaws that she said could lead to a radioactive explosion at Hanford. The $13 billion government project will dispose of 53 million gallons of nuclear waste. 

"The senior URS manager told me, with no introduction, that I had behaved unprofessionally or had professional misconduct and I was terminated for cause," Busche said.

 CBS News spoke with Walter Tamosaitis shortly after he was fired last fall. He said he was shocked.

The nuclear engineer told Congress in 2011 about the risks at Hanford. Construction was halted because of safety concerns that he raised.

 Tamosaitis said URS told he was fired due to cutbacks.
URS declined requests for an interview, but in a statement said: "URS encourages its employees to raise concerns about safety."
 
 The company claims there was no retaliation. "Ms. Busche's employment was terminated...due to issues unrelated to her purported concerns," it said.
"Summarily removing me from the project sends a clear and present message to the employees that if you speak up, if you stand up you will be terminated," Busche said.
She is now planning a wrongful termination suit.


http://www.urs.com/

URS Corporation is a leading provider of engineering, construction, and technical services for public agencies and private sector companies around the world.

URS Corporation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

URS Corporation’s oldest predecessor company was founded in 1904. URS was established in 1951, and incorporated in 1957 as Broadview Research—a research group active in the area of physical and engineering sciences. In 1967, management developed a growth strategy focused on building a multidisciplinary professional services firm. In 1968, Broadview Research acquired United Research Incorporated of Cambridge, Massachusetts. During this period, the name Broadview Research was changed to United Research Services and later shortened to URS.

As of June 2013, the firm had more than 50,000 employees worldwide, in nearly 50 countries.

ENR– The Top 500 Design Firms
Ranked #2 Overall and ranked as one of the Top 3 Firms for more than a decade.
Among the top 20 in:
#1 in Bridges
#1 in Hazardous Waste




No matter how highly they are ranked, their firing of not one, but two whistleblowers shows that they are not operating as they should be. There shouldn't be two whistleblowers finding anything to report about. Busch said the plant is “filled with” nuclear waste, as though they aren't processing it well, and said that it could lead to a nuclear explosion. The nuclear engineer who was fired testified before Congress in 2011 also about safety concerns, and then two years later was fired due to “cutbacks.” When I see a company using hardball techniques against its workers to suppress their talking about issues, I feel they are not dealing honestly and fairly.

The Wikipedia article went on to describe two bridge projects which collapsed after URS had something to do with the construction of one and the safety evaluation of the other. They are involved in fourteen different types of construction. I think they may be spread too thinly in their activities, with too little expertise in each field.




Coach charged with murdering 10-year-old Missouri girl – CBS
ByCrimesider Staff CBS/AP February 19, 2014

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A middle-school football coach was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the death of a 10-year-old girl who was snatched off a street just blocks from her southwest Missouri home as several residents watched in horror.

Craig Michael Wood also faces kidnapping and armed criminal action charges, according to Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson, who filed the charges late Wednesday afternoon. Craig Michael Wood is charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 10-year-old girl.

 Wood is accused of kidnapping fourth-grader Hailey Owens in Springfield as she walked home from a friend's house Tuesday evening.

Wood was inside a truck parked outside his small, single-story home in Springfield when police arrested him Tuesday night. A probable cause statement released Wednesday said the 45-year-old Wood was holding a roll of duct tape in his hands when officers arrived, and that the girl's body was found stuffed inside two garbage bags in a basement where the floor was still damp from bleach.

Patterson said the girl had been shot in the head.

Authorities won't officially confirm that the body is Hailey's until after an autopsy, but Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams said "we have a high degree of confidence" in the preliminary identification, which indicates that it is the girl.
Witnesses told investigators that a man in a gold 2008 Ford Ranger pickup truck drove down the street several times before abducting Hailey. Williams said the witnesses called 911 to report the truck's license number but could not stop the driver from grabbing Hailey and driving off.

"Our witnesses said it happened just that quick," Williams said, according to CBS affiliate KMOV-TV.

Resident Ricky Riggins told the Springfield News-Leader he chased the fleeing pickup in his car after a neighbor tried to pull the girl away.

"I couldn't keep up," Riggins told the newspaper. "He was probably five to six cars ahead of me. ... It was so fast."

Springfield school officials said Wood is a seventh-grade football coach and teacher's aide who supervises in-school suspensions at Pleasant View School, which has students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Hailey did not attend Pleasant View School. She was a student at Westport Elementary School this year, and attended Bowerman Elementary School last year.
Williams said the girl and Wood apparently didn't know each other.

"There's no connection that we've been able to determine at this time between the victim and the suspect," the chief said.

Norm Ridder, the Springfield district's superintendent, said in a statement Wednesday that Wood began working for the district in August 1998. He said Wood has been suspended since his arrest.

Wood was initially hired as a temporary employee who worked as a substitute teacher before he was hired full time in 2006, school district spokeswoman Teresa Bledsoe said later Wednesday. He has coached football at Pleasant View since 1998 and was also an assistant boys' basketball coach.

"He met all of our qualifications for employment," Bledsoe said, noting that the Springfield district has a more rigorous background check requirement than state law, with an additional screening designed to detect substantiated allegations of child abuse or neglect as well as any past criminal violations.

Williams said police have no idea of a motive for the killing. He said Wood has not talked to investigators since his arrest.




This looks to me like a probable case of mental illness, since there was no obvious motive and the girl was shot, a fairly merciful death. The article didn't say whether she was raped or tortured, or whether he tried to escape the police or not. He was found just sitting in his truck with duct tape in his hand. That sounds like he was not alert and thinking clearly. I'm glad that the neighbors tried to save the girl first by trying to pull her away from Wood and then gave chase to catch him. Someone was also sharp-eyed enough to get the license tag number. It's too bad that the school didn't find enough against him to keep them from hiring him. That didn't have anything to do with this case, though, because the girl went to another school and they didn't know each other. It's just sad. At least he was caught, though, and will face trial.




Homeland Security reverses course on license plate database – CBS
By Rebecca Kaplan CBS News February 20, 2014

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has cancelled plans for a contract with a private company to build a national license plate database that would have helped the agency pursue fugitive criminal immigrants and other wanted persons.

The contract proposal was issued just last week and was cancelled by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson hours after the Washington Post published a story about it.

DHS wanted a private company to build a database using information from license-plate readers employed by both local police and commercial companies using cameras that capture photos of vehicles. It would have allowed agents to quickly compare license plate information against a “hot list” that tracks wanted individuals.

Gillian Christensen, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said that her agency’s leadership was not aware the contract request had been posted.
"While we continue to support a range of technologies to help meet our law enforcement mission, this solicitation will be reviewed to ensure the path forward appropriately meets our operational needs," Christensen said.

Privacy advocates who were concerned the system would amount to a way for the federal government to track Americans in their everyday lives praised the move to cancel the contract solicitation but said that they were still concerned about what might happen going forward.

“While it is good news that DHS has canceled the solicitation, there are many other law enforcement agencies around the country that are already accessing these vast private databases of plate data,” Catherine Crump, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Post.




Local law enforcement, when seeking perpetrators of specific crimes such as murder, need tools to find them; but yet another central government “Big Brother” file, especially if it is being used mainly to track immigrants, is not a good thing I don't think. Besides, according to this article there are already databases available which they could use – why have yet another larger and more comprehensive file? Also, it's interesting that they canceled their plan to pursue the contract shortly after the Washington Post wrote their story about it. Would they have canceled it if the article hadn't been written?