Wednesday, April 30, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Mystery Oregon Corpse Could be Oldest Missing Man Marvin A. Clark
NBC News' Alexander Smith contributed to this report.
— The Associated Press
First published April 30 2014

Forensic DNA sleuths may be close to finding the truth behind one of the oldest unsolved missing persons cases in U.S. history.

The breakthrough will be too late for Marvin A. Clark, who vanished during a trip to Portland on Halloween weekend 1926 and would be more than 160 years old were he alive today, according to a report Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The case has been cold for 90 years but investigators have used modern DNA technology and several online databases to find three great-great-grandchildren on Clark's paternal side.

They are now working to locate someone on his mother's side to shore up the results.

Clark was a "well-known" Tigard, Ore., resident who went missing while traveling by bus to visit his daughter in Portland on Oct. 30, 1926, according to The Oregonian newspaper at the time. He was reportedly between 60 and 75 years old.

A frantic search and a $100 reward — more than $1,300 in today's money — returned no results, despite police across the Northwest being told to look out for Clark, who was partially paralyzed and had a "hanging gait."
Then 60 years later, on May 10, 1986 loggers in Portland discovered a skeleton alongside some unusual belongings: a 1888 V nickel, a 1919 penny, a pocket watch, leather shoes, wire-rimmed glasses, a Fraternal Order of Eagles pocket knife, and four tokens with the inscription "D&P," believed to be tavern tokens awarded in card games and used to buy alcohol.

Police also found a corroded revolver, and an expended .32-caliber bullet. A single shot had entered the skull at the temple. Medical examiners, who said at the time said it was the oldest case they ever had, ruled the unknown man's death a suicide.

The case went cold again. That was until Dr. Nici Vance, of the Oregon state medical examiner's office, made the recent breakthrough when she entered Clark's name into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), a free system used by officials to try to put names to unidentified corpses.




1926 was the year Marvin Clark disappeared while on a bus trip to Portland, OR to see his daughter. He was slightly disabled, being partially paralyzed and walking with a limp. Despite a modest reward for information there was no sign of him until 1986 when some loggers found a skeleton with a bullet hole in the skull and some small possessions. That skeleton was investigated by police, but it was decided that it was a suicide. That sounds unlikely to me if he was on his way to see his daughter. A pistol, some wire rimmed glasses, a pocket watch, two old coins, a pocket knife and some bar tokens were found with the body.

Recently, Dr. Nici Vance of the state medical examiner's office has taken up the case. Forensic DNA testing is underway to confirm his identity. It is not said in this article how Vance matched his name to the body. Perhaps it was on the Fraternal Order of Eagles pocketknife. She did find some relatives on his father's side for DNA matching. Hopefully the family will have some answers soon.




Archaeologists Discover Lost Cities in Cold War Spy Imagery -- NBC
By Alan Boyle
First published April 29 2014

An exhaustive survey of decades-old spy satellite pictures has turned up thousands of previously unknown archaeological sites — including the vestiges of lost cities.

The revelations come from the CORONA Atlas of the Middle East, a database of annotated Cold War imagery that received its formal unveiling last week at the Society for American Archaeology's annual meeting in Austin, Texas.
"The thing that's most exciting about this is the bigger picture that we're getting from mapping the region," University of Arkansas archaeologist Jesse Casana, a co-director of the project, told NBC News. "Within our study area in the Northern Fertile Crescent, we've documented 15,000 sites, and only a third of those have previously ever been even rudimentarily documented. Only a tiny number have been excavated."

The black-and-white images, spanning areas that stretch from Egypt to Iran, were captured by the United States' CORONA spy satellite in the 1960s and early 1970s, and declassified in 1995.

Casana and his colleagues at the University of Arkansas' Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies have been rectifying the raw CORONA images and checking them for the telltale signs of bygone settlements.

Today's satellites provide higher-resolution, full-color views of the same areas, but the CORONA imagery comes from a time when the Middle East's ancient sites were less disturbed by modern development. "It preserves the picture of a landscape that in many cases no longer exists," Casana said.

One of the CORONA pictures reveals the circular outline of a 370-acre (120-hectare) fortified city at Tell Rifaat in Syria. That outline "was never documented by archaeologists, and now is covered by the modern city," Casana said. Another picture shows what appears to be a previously undocumented 125-acre (50-hectare) city in south-central Turkey. That settlement probably dates back to the Bronze Age, more than 3,000 years ago.

Many of the newly recognized sites may well get a closer look, but the CORONA Atlas also shows how ancient settlements were distributed on a large scale, even in places where archaeologists can't go. "We can map the extent of settlements outside survey boundaries and across national boundaries," Casana said.




“The revelations come from the CORONA Atlas of the Middle East, a database of annotated Cold War imagery that received its formal unveiling last week at the Society for American Archaeology's annual meeting in Austin, Texas.” Apparently, until now, archaeologists either hadn't thought of using the photographs or they were still classified and unavailable. They have been using aerial photos for at least 15 or 20 years.

University of Arkansas archaeologist Jesse Casana, said that 15,000 sites have been documented in these pictures, only a third of which were known before, with even fewer being excavated. The Fertile Crescent is, of course, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where the Semitic tribes including the Jews first came to develop cities and national identities. “Today's satellites provide higher-resolution, full-color views of the same areas, but the CORONA imagery comes from a time when the Middle East's ancient sites were less disturbed by modern development. "It preserves the picture of a landscape that in many cases no longer exists," Casana said.

Every now and then a really big scoop occurs in archeology – the famous “Ice Man” of the Alps, King Tut's tomb, or Heinrich Schliemann's excavation of Hissarlik, believed to be the ancient city of Troy from the Homeric poems. To people who love old things it is always very exciting, and opens up the possibility of some totally new knowledge about human history. In England archeologists took aerial photos of primitive plow marks in a field, believed to be from the New Stone Age. Many sites in the Fertile Crescent go back that far, too. Hopefully these photos will stimulate lots of new excavations and interesting stories in the news.




Ukraine "unable" to stop pro-Russia militants in eastern regions, President Oleksandr Turchynov says -- NBC
AP April 30, 2014


HORLIVKA, Ukraine -- Ukraine's police and security forces are "helpless" to quell unrest in two eastern regions bordering Russia, and in some cases are cooperating with pro-Russian gunmen who have seized scores of government buildings and taken people hostage, the country's president said Wednesday.

Oleksandr Turchynov said the goal now was to prevent the agitation from spreading to other territories.
"I will be frank: Today, security forces are unable to quickly take the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions under control," Turchynov said at a meeting with regional governors.

"The security bodies ... are unable to carry out their duties of protecting citizens. They are helpless in those matters. Moreover, some of those units are either helping or cooperating with terrorist organizations."

Turchynov instructed the governors to try to prevent the threat from spreading to more central and southern regions.
He spoke hours after pro-Russian gunmen seized more administrative buildings in eastern Ukraine. Insurgents wielding automatic weapons took control and hoisted a separatist flag on top of the city council building Wednesday morning in the city of Horlivka in the Donetsk region. They also took control of a police station in the city, adding to another police building which they had controlled for several weeks.

An Associated Press reporter saw armed men standing guard outside the building and checking the documents of those entering. One of the men said that foreign reporters will not be allowed in and threatened to arrest those don't obey orders. Similar guards were also seen outside the police station in the city.

The insurgents now control buildings in about a dozen cities in eastern Ukraine, demanding broader regional rights as well as greater ties or outright annexation by Russia. The militiamen are holding some activists and journalists hostage, including a group of observers from a European security organization.

In Luhansk, one of the largest cities in eastern Ukraine, gunmen in camouflage uniforms maintained control of several government offices they seized Tuesday.

Eastern Ukraine, which has a large Russian-speaking population, was the heartland of support for Viktor Yanukovych, the ousted president who fled to Russia in February. The government that replaced him in Kiev has resisted the insurgents' demands, fearing they could lead to a breakup of the country or mean that more regions could join Russia, as Crimea did.
Kiev and Western governments accuse Moscow of orchestrating the protests in eastern Ukraine. The United States and the European Union rolled out a fresh set of economic sanctions against Russia this week, but Moscow has remained unbowed, denying its role in the unrest and saying the actions were Kiev's fault.


http://www.ukrinform.ua/eng/topic/ukraine___presidential_elections_2014 is a helpful website I have found that tells many reports of interest on the upcoming Ukrainian elections of May 25 and other Ukrainian stories, if any readers would like to keep up more closely on a daily basis.

According to this article, police and security forces have been “unable” to control the situation and “in some cases,” have started cooperating with the Russian forces, Turchynov said, and that the new goal is to “prevent the spread” of the disorder. “Foreign reporters will not be allowed in” to Russian guarded areas and will be arrested for not obeying orders. The pro-Russian groups are demanding more freedom from Kiev and alliance with Russia, while holding hostages including observers from “a European security organization.”

“The government that replaced him [Yanukovych] in Kiev has resisted the insurgents' demands, fearing they could lead to a breakup of the country or mean that more regions could join Russia.” It is possible that if both sides would follow the plan agreed upon in Geneva that they could reach a truly peaceful solution, but the separatists have complained that they were not a part of the discussion and agreements that day. Russia was, however, but they also are making no effort to influence the rebels to leave the Eastern government buildings. I must say, though that Kiev also has not put the constitutional changes in place which were suggested. They said they are afraid it would cause the country to split up.

The problem with Kiev is that they either have insufficient armed forces to effectively combat the rebels or they lack the will power to do it. Also maybe they aren't organized enough from Kiev down to be a powerful opposition, because there are individual groups of them who have in some cases started to cooperate with the Eastern rebels. They aren't even putting up a fight. If they keep that up they will inevitably be vanquished. We can try to help them, but in the end it is their effort and not that of the US.

I hate to sound hawkish, but we need to do more than apply sanctions. That isn't really popular in the US, though. Our population doesn't usually want the US army to go into any foreign country until the President or Congress forces the issue. I wonder what will happen now? I was so happy when Western and Russian forces began to cooperate during and after Glasnost, but clearly just because Russian leaders are “modern,” it doesn't mean that they will be like Gorbachev. The trend in Russian society to be mainly aggressive still holds sway. I used to dislike the Russians intensely, and now maybe I'll have to go back to that position. I despise a bully, and that's what Putin and his cronies are.




Clippers potential buyers include boxers, musicians, media moguls
CBS/AP April 30, 2014

After the NBA gave Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling a lifetime ban for racist comments he made on a recorded conversation, Commissioner Adam Silver said he would call on the owners to vote to force Sterling to sell the team.

It didn't take long for a list of deep-pocketed suitors to express interest in buying the Clippers. 
CBS News has confirmed that Oprah Winfrey is considering teaming with media mogul David Geffen and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison to make a bid to buy the team.

Geffen told Forbes Tuesday that he "would very much like to buy" the Clippers if Sterling is forced to sell the team. Forbes says Geffen has an estimated net worth of about $6.2 billion. The Los Angeles Times reported that Geffen tried in vain to buy the team in 2010.

Meanwhile, boxing champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. said Tuesday that he's interested in putting together a group - with himself as a majority owner - to buy the team if it is put up for sale.

"Do we want to buy the Clippers? Yes we do," Mayweather said. "I'm very, very interested in buying the Clippers."
Mayweather may not have enough money to buy the Clippers by himself, but he's certainly got enough for a good down payment. The boxer will make another $40 million or so Saturday night when he takes on Marcos Maidana in the third fight of a six-fight deal with Showtime that is reportedly worth $250 million.

And he's plenty familiar with the team. Mayweather has a condo next to Staples Center and is a courtside fixture at both Lakers and Clippers games.

"We want to buy the Clippers and we can afford to buy the Clippers," Mayweather said.
Full coverage of the Donald Sterling scandal at CBSSports.com

Sterling bought the Clippers for $12.5 million in 1981. Forbes says the team's value now totals at least $575 million, however, it could sell for much more than that. Earlier this month, investors purchased the beleaguered Milwaukee Bucks, which Forbes had valued at $405 million, for a record $550 million. Mayweather said he had nothing bad to say about Donald Sterling, who he said often invites him to sit next to him and his wife at the games and has always treated him with respect.

Mayweather could have a few issues if he decides to pursue a purchase. He served a jail term in 2012 after pleading guilty to domestic violence and harassment charges in a case involving the mother of his children and he's a big sports bettor, often wagering six-figure amounts on NBA games. Meanwhile, former boxing star Oscar De La Hoya told reporters that he would be interested joining forces with Mayweather on the purchase.

"When it comes to business, what better than two minorities? The commissioner wanted to see more minority ownership in the NBA," said De La Hoya, who already has an ownership stake in the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer. "If he wants more minorities involved in the NBA, what better than me and Floyd to be part of a potential ownership group?

Actor Matt Damon told CNBC that he is also interested in entering into a minority ownership role with the team.

Meanwhile, real estate tycoon Rick Caruso told the L.A. Times that he also had interest in joining a group that would buy the franchise.

Magic Johnson, who has an ownership stake in the Los Angeles Dodgers, had been mentioned as a possible buyer for the Clippers but the Hall of Fame basketball player knocked down that report via Twitter on Monday: 
Forcing Sterling to sell the franchise would require approval of three-quarters of the current owners, and the process wouldn't be easy, experts say.

"They'd have huge legal hurdles," CBS News legal analyst Jack Ford said. "It'd be tough to go into a court of law and say we're going to force him to give up his property, what he owns, because of his comments."




I'm not really interested in sports, but I am concerned about the still too prevalent tendency for whites in this country, largely in the south but in other places, too, to have such hard set views against a whole other race of people that they don't want themselves or their friends to be seen “associating” with them. It's too unfair. I will associate with anybody of any race, economic status or religion on an individual basis. If people would just evaluate others one at a time and in depth – until they can see “the content of the soul” as Martin Luther King said rather than as a group and by superficial appearances, racism would simply disappear.

Not everybody wants to be fair or kind, however. Some people are hardhearted to the core and without mercy. Some of those people even think they are “Christians,” because they believe a certain set of stories, but if they don't read and follow the instructions of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule, in my book they are neither truly Christians nor even slightly “good” people. Their high self-esteem is purely egotistical.




Deaths spark effort to rewrite marijuana rules in Colo.
CBS NEWS April 30, 2014

Colorado is re-thinking the rules for pot-infused food after two recent deaths.

A voter-approved ballot measure legalized recreational marijuana use in January. Colorado's Marijuana Enforcement Division meets Wednesday with lawmakers and edible-pot producers to discuss how much THC should be in a serving size. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana.

Concern about regulation of so-called "edibles" comes in the wake of two high-profile deaths linked to the products.

Edible marijuana comes in many forms, but labs that test the products say it's hard to know exactly what kind of buzz to expect.

Joseph Evans, of Steep Hill Halent, a cannabis testing laboratory, said, "Do you know if your marijuana is safe that you're buying? You really don't."

Genifer Murray, of CannLabs, said, "I think that there's been a misconception that all of this stuff has been tested, and it hasn't."

Last month, a 19-year-old student jumped to his death off a Denver hotel balconyafter friends said he ate a single marijuana cookie.

Tests showed it was the strength of six high-quality joints.
And the autopsy report cites "marijuana intoxication" as a "significant contributing factor."

In another case just this month, a woman called 911 saying her husband had eaten pot candy and was hallucinating. Denver authorities say he shot and killed herbefore police could get there.

It's unclear if edible pot is to blame. But, this week, the state will begin mandatory testing for potency. State lawmakers are also calling for new labeling rules to make sure users know what they're putting into their bodies and how it works.

Colorado state Rep. Jonathan Singer was one of the only state legislators to endorse legalizing recreational marijuana back in 2012.

He said, "What a lot of people do is they'll take a bite of a brownie, and maybe that's a serving, and they won't feel anything, and so they'll take another bite and another bite, and all of the sudden you've got an overdose situation."

But Singer wants to make sure it's regulated properly, the same as alcohol and prescription drugs.
He said, "We need to take the same steps that we did with those two drugs to make sure we're implementing marijuana in a way that's legal but, also, more importantly, safe."
Ten milligrams of THC is considered a serving size of the drug, but Colorado has no requirement that edibles be packaged in single servings, at least for now.


“Colorado's Marijuana Enforcement Division meets Wednesday with lawmakers and edible-pot producers to discuss how much THC should be in a serving size.... Joseph Evans, of Steep Hill Halent, a cannabis testing laboratory, said, "Do you know if your marijuana is safe that you're buying? You really don't.... Genifer Murray, of CannLabs, said, "I think that there's been a misconception that all of this stuff has been tested, and it hasn't."




There are too many questions here, plus individuals differ in their tolerance for drugs, and marijuana has never been exactly “safe” because it does do brain damage and can induce hallucinations. It can drive some people who are just a little bit bonkers already all the way around the bend. The same New Age thinkers that have banned sugar because it was supposedly so dangerous are now welcoming the possibility that kids can get their hands on the parent's supply and use it, plus maybe taking it to school and selling it on the playground. There are too many real problems here. What ever happened to mandating that the THC would be removed or greatly reduced in medical marijuana? If it is possible to get high on it people will and that is not the point of pain killers or asthma drugs or whatever they want to use it for.

Mandatory testing for potency and very thorough and clear labeling rules will both help, but why didn't they do that before they put the products on the market? “Ten milligrams of THC is considered a serving size of the drug, but Colorado has no requirement that edibles be packaged in single servings, at least for now.”

Those legislative people still have a lot of work to do on these laws to make this a fairly safe and reliably dosed product. From my (long ago) experience with it, smoking it gives results very fast, and eating it is slower. The body has to absorb it through the stomach walls.

The example that Rep. Jonathan Singer gave of continuing to take bite after bite because the user doesn't “feel” anything yet is very dangerous. With smoking it you know within 10 seconds that you have had a hit and you will feel some effect. That's one reason why marijuana cigarettes are usually shared between a group of people. Nobody needs a whole one.

Using too much THC can make you hallucinate and get paranoid. That's clearly what happened to the young man who jumped off the balcony. He ate one whole marijuana cookie and that was too much. As the article says, the dosages are not reliable or necessarily measured well from product to product. I wish the whole thing hadn't been legalized. It is too risky.




Pollution Report Paints Gloomy Picture of Smoggiest U.S. Cities – ABC
By LIZ NEPORENT

More than half of Americans breathe in unhealthy air, according to a new American Lung Association’s “State of the Air 2014” report.

The Association found that air pollution throughout the nation has gotten a little worse since last year’s report. In particular, ozone levels rose in the three year period from 2010 to 2012, possibly because of climate change.
“We’re making progress but some of that could be reversed with rising ozone levels,” said Janice Nolen, the Lung Association’s vice president of national policy. “A changing climate is going to make it harder to protect human health.”

Court Upholds EPA Rule on Cross-State Pollution
Many of the smoggiest cities are in car-heavy California, with Los Angeles topping the list for the fourteenth time in fifteen years. The Fresno-Madera area in California also stayed near the top of the list for worst particle pollution, a measure of tiny solid and liquid particles that can get deep into the lungs causing irritation and illness.

Air filled with filthy particles can be harmful even if in inhaled over just a few hours or days, and even if the year-round averages are low, the Lung Association warned.

Particle pollution increases the risk of heart disease, lung cancer and asthma attacks. People with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, really struggle to breathe dirty air, and it’s especially dangerous for children with developing lungs and seniors with weakened lungs.
Large metro areas in the Golden State aren’t the only places where it’s hard to breathe. Houston Texas and New York City rank among the worst cities for ozone levels and particle pollution. And Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago and Phoenix remain high on the dirty air list.

Air Pollution Tied to Premature Births
Want to breathe the cleanest air in the country? Head to Bangor, Maine, or Bismark, ND. These cities had zero days of unsafe air pollution levels. In general, smaller cities throughout the Midwest and West and parts of Florida enjoyed the least polluted air.
Nolen said that Maine used to be “America’s tailpipe,” with industrial pollution blowing in from other states. But thanks to tighter government and industry regulations, not to mention some fortunate weather patterns, it’s enjoying much cleaner air in recent years.

“Even with the same ingredients for pollution, location and wind patterns make a difference,” Nolen said.




“State of the Air 2014” – now that has a ring to it. Ozone is worse, and smog remains a big problem in California due to the auto pollution. Houston, NYC, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago and Phoenix are also high in both ozone or particulates. The good news is that Bangor and Bismark are among the best. Smaller cities in the West, midwest and Florida are very good. “..thanks to tighter government and industry regulations, not to mention some fortunate weather patterns,” Maine's air has cleaned up in recent years.

The statement that climate change can worsen the ozone level is a surprise to me. The following is on that subject: http://www2.ucar.edu/climate/faq/what-does-ozone-hole-have-do-climate-change. From this article comes the passages below. “The ozone hole does not directly affect air temperatures in the troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere closest to the surface, although changes in circulation over Antarctica related to the ozone hole appear to be changing surface temperature patterns over that continent.

Ozone is actually a greenhouse gas, and so are CFCs, meaning that their presence in the troposphere contributes slightly to the heightened greenhouse effect. The main greenhouse gas responsible for present-day and anticipated global warming, however, is carbon dioxide produced by burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heating, and transportation.

Higher up, the loss of stratospheric ozone has led to some cooling in that layer of the atmosphere. An even larger effect comes from carbon dioxide, which acts as a cooling agent in the stratosphere even though it warms the atmosphere closer to ground level. This paradox occurs because the atmosphere thins with height, changing the way carbon dioxide molecules absorb and release heat.
Together, the increase in carbon dioxide and the loss of ozone have led to record-low temperatures recently in the stratosphere and still higher up in the thermosphere. Far from being a good thing, this cooling is another sign that increasing levels of carbon dioxide are changing our planet's climate.

Keeping up with all the current information about climate change and which pollutants do what is very difficult. Hopefully the article from UCAR.EDU will shed some light. I had been under the impression that the ozone hole had closed up, but it appears that it reappears seasonally. We need ozone in the upper layers, but in the lower part of the atmosphere it increases global warming like CO2 does. Unfortunately smog has a great deal of lower level ozone in it, so the climate change is being made worse. Another article said that the amount of water vapor affects the ozone level, and global warming would, I think, increase the amount of water vapor held in the air. Air masses that are warm are also more moist. I can imagine that causing the more frequent and active storms that we have been having, too. The good news in this article is that the pollution is improved at least in several places. That's some progress.