Sunday, June 15, 2014


News Clips For The Day



Iranian paramilitary leader is in Baghdad, aiding Iraq's government
By CLARISSA WARD CBS NEWS June 14, 2014

BAGHDAD - U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has ordered an aircraft carrier and two other warships to the Persian Gulf as militants in Iraq have taken control of large sections of the northwestern part of the country.

Hagel says the ships, including the carrier USS George H.W. Bush, will give President Obama added flexibility in protecting American interests there.

Meanwhile, Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al Maliki is rallying Shiite supporters to fight the Sunni insurgents.

And Iraqi troops and Shiite militia fighters apparently slowed down the militants' progress today.

In Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, men answered the call to fight jihad, taking up arms against the Sunni enemy, ISIS, which now control two of Iraq's main cities.

The insurgents have threatened to take the capital as well and today security forces in Baghdad were on high alert.

Thousands have poured into recruitment centers in Shiite strongholds across the country and they're not alone.

CBS News can confirm that the head of Iran's paramilitary Quds force, Qassem Suleimani, is here in Baghdad along with Iranian fighters who are helping the Shiite government coordinate its response.

The complete collapse of the Iraqi army in the north of the country has become a scandal here. Tens of thousands have abandoned their weapons and run away. On Saturday, Iraq's prime minister warned there would be consequences for deserting.

Those who failed to carry out their duties or who abandoned their positions, Maliki said, will stand trial and will face severe legal measures.

But for Iraqi soldiers who are captured by ISIS the punishment is far worse. This video appears to show Iraqi special forces being interrogated by Sunni militants.

The soldiers are denounced as unbelievers and shot one by one in the back of the head.

Yet the stunning success of ISIS in the past few days has been celebrated by many Sunnis in Iraq. This country's sectarian fault lines have never been deeper.

The battle for Iraq pits two branches of Islam against each other - Sunni versus Shia.

The attacking militant force, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS for short, is made up of Sunnis. They are the majority branch of Islam overall, but the minority in Iraq.

The democratically elected government of Iraq, which the United States supports, is dominated by Shia, which is also the dominant religion in the bordering country of Iran.

Iraq jihadists move swiftly, but further gains may not be so easy

Iraqi cleric calls on Shiites to grab a gun to take on Sunni militants

This week ISIS has taken both Mosul and Tikrit. What might be next?

ISIS appears to be moving south toward Baghdad but the current focus is the city of Samarra, which they have reportedly almost surrounded. This is home to one of the holiest Shiite shrines. When Iraq was consumed by sectarian bloodletting in 2006 it was triggered by an attack on that very same Samarra shrine.





“Iraqi troops and Shiite militia fighters apparently slowed down the militants' progress today.... Thousands have poured into recruitment centers in Shiite strongholds across the country and they're not alone. CBS News can confirm that the head of Iran's paramilitary Quds force, Qassem Suleimani, is here in Baghdad along with Iranian fighters who are helping the Shiite government coordinate its response.... On Saturday, Iraq's prime minister warned there would be consequences for deserting.”

The Sunni forces are heading for a holy Shia shrine at Samarra, an attack on which caused fierce sectarian fighting in 2006. The Sunni and Shia separation occurred a few years after the death of Mohammed, so it carries a long history of mutual hatred. The Sunni are considered to be more violent than the Shia, though Hamas and Hezbollah which are Shia are also very violent, the article points out. https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130623101031AANpEXI is a website which invites discussion on this division, with reader comments attached. You may want to have a look at it.






IRS lost Lois Lerner's emails in tea party probe
CBS/AP  June 13, 2014

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service says it has lost a trove of emails to and from a central figure in the agency's tea party controversy.

The IRS told congressional investigators Friday it cannot locate many of Lois Lerner's emails prior to 2011 because her computer crashed that year. Lerner headed the IRS division that processed applications for tax-exempt status.

The IRS acknowledged last year that agents had improperly scrutinized applications for tax-exempt status by tea party and other conservative groups.

The fact that I am just learning about this, over a year into the investigation, is completely unacceptable and now calls into question the credibility of the IRS's response to congressional inquiries," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. "There needs to be an immediate investigation and forensic audit by Department of Justice as well as the inspector general."

The Ways and Means Committee is one of three congressional committees investigating the IRS over its handling of tea party applications from 2010 to 2012. The Justice Department and the IRS inspector general are also investigating.

House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is suggesting the Obama administration is being dishonest by saying these emails are lost.

"Isn't it convenient for the Obama Administration that the IRS now says it has suddenly realized it lost Lois Lerner's emails requested by Congress and promised by Commissioner John Koskinen?" Issa asked in an email statement. "Do they really expect the American people to believe that, after having withheld these emails for a year, they're just now realizing the most critical time period is missing?

"If there wasn't nefarious conduct that went much higher than Lois Lerner in the IRS targeting scandal, why are they playing these games?"

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which has also been investigating the IRS targeting controversy, said the lost emails revelation "is an outrageous impediment to our investigation."

Congressional investigators have shown that IRS officials in Washington were closely involved in the handling of tea party applications, many of which languished for more than a year without action. But so far, they have not publicly produced evidence that anyone outside the agency directed the targeting or even knew about it.

If anyone outside the agency was involved, investigators were hoping for clues in Lerner's emails.

The IRS was able to generate 24,000 Lerner emails from the 2009 to 2011 because Lerner had copied in other IRS employees. The agency said it pieced together the emails from the computers of 83 other IRS employees.

But an untold number are gone. Camp's office said the missing emails are mainly ones to and from people outside the IRS, "such as the White House, Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or Democrat offices."

The IRS said in a statement that it has gone to great lengths cooperating with congressional investigations, spending nearly $10 million to produce more than 750,000 documents.

Overall, the IRS said it is producing a total of 67,000 emails to and from Lerner, covering the period from 2009 to 2013.

"The IRS is committed to working with Congress," the IRS said in a statement. "The IRS has remained focused on being thorough and responding as quickly as possible to the wide-ranging requests from Congress while taking steps to protect underlying taxpayer information."

Lerner has emerged as a key figure in the tea party probe. In May 2013, she was the first IRS official to publicly acknowledge that agents had improperly scrutinized applications.

About two weeks later, Lerner was subpoenaed to testify at a congressional hearing. But after making a brief statement in which she said she had done nothing wrong, Lerner refused to answer questions, invoking her constitutional right against self-incrimination.

The IRS placed Lerner on administrative leave shortly after the congressional hearing. She retired last fall.

In May, the House voted to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress. Her case has been turned over to the U.S. attorney for the district of Columbia.





“Congressional investigators have shown that IRS officials in Washington were closely involved in the handling of tea party applications, many of which languished for more than a year without action. But so far, they have not publicly produced evidence that anyone outside the agency directed the targeting or even knew about it.” Some 24,000 Lerner emails have been “pieced together from the computers of 83 other IRS employees,” as she copied many of them to others, but due to her computer crashing in 2011 many of them are lost.

“Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee said, “'There needs to be an immediate investigation and forensic audit by Department of Justice as well as the inspector general.' … Camp's office said the missing emails are mainly ones to and from people outside the IRS, 'such as the White House, Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or Democrat offices.'" Lerner has been voted in contempt of Congress for her taking the fifth amendment in the hearing. The US Attorney for the District of Columbia is handling her case.

The House Republicans suspect a cover up and conspiracy. Lerner's office said that the IRS had narrowly interpreted a change of rules, and that both progressive and conservative organizations were denied tax exempt status on the basis of how much political action the particular organization was actually doing. They are supposed to be social service organizations only in order to get tax exempt status. It does not look good for the Obama administration that the emails were apparently destroyed, though. Still, the Congressional Republicans need to prove that the denial of conservative applications was intentional and based on political enmity. I will clip other articles on this subject as they appear.





The dandy: Celebrating the exquisite gentleman
CBS NEWS June 15, 2014

With a cane and hat just about anyone can look quite the dandy. Meet the fine and dandy gentlemen our Serena Altschul has been watching:

"My style is a little bit of Jazz Age," said Dandy Wellington. "There's that old Harlem feel." And the fit of his clothes? "A bit looser; my trousers are up to here. My lapels are wider."

And that's just the start. Then there are the socks, the sock garters, the arm bands, the vest, the pocket watch, the Boutonniere -- and eventually a check in the mirror.

"When I feel put-together is when I feel most comfortable," he said.

And he never leaves home without a hat.

He goes by the stage name Dandy Wellington, but this is no act. When Altschul asks if might ever bump into him on the street wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt, Wellington replies, "No. Sorry."

And as his name implies, Dandy Wellington is one of a rare breed of men for whom dressing well is not just a hobby, but a lifestyle.

So what is a "dandy"?

"The definition that we took for our book, is a man obsessed with personal elegance," said Nathaniel Adams, Dandyism.net's current "Dandy of the Year." He and photographer Rose Callahan spent five years studying these unconventional but impeccably-clad men for their book, "I Am Dandy: The Return of the Elegant Gentleman" (Gestalten).

"With Dandies, it's their whole being, -- they couldn't exist any other way," said Adams. "If they were on a desert island, they'd polish their shoes with squid ink, and they'd use a fish bone as a tie pin."

Think Oscar Wilde . . . journalist Gay Talese . . . or screen legend Fred Astaire. But who else is a dandy?

George Clooney? "No," said Adams.

Director John Waters? "Yes," says Callahan.

Justin Timberlake? "I think he might be a little too fashionable," said Adams. "He's always changing his style."

Willy Wonka? "I would say, Yeah. I think so,'" said Callahan. "I'd have to see Willy Wonka's closet to see."

And then there's New York City attorney Edward Hayes. Altschul caught up with him at Beckenstein's Bespoke, with his longtime tailor and friend Jonathan Boyarsky.

Altschul asked, "True or false: there's a rumor that you refuse to wear a bullet proof vest?"

"Oh, that's true," Hayes replied. "What happened was, I represent a guy who beats his wife to death. Terrible, terrible man. I go to his house with the cops, and the cop says, 'Put on a bullet proof vest.' I said, 'No way -- it'll ruin the fit of my suit, and if the TV stations show up I'll look terrible!'"




“Nathaniel Adams is Dandyism.net's current "Dandy of the Year." He and photographer Rose Callahan spent five years studying these unconventional but impeccably-clad men for their book, 'I Am Dandy: The Return of the Elegant Gentleman' (Gestalten).... 'With Dandies, it's their whole being, -- they couldn't exist any other way," said Adams. "If they were on a desert island, they'd polish their shoes with squid ink, and they'd use a fish bone as a tie pin.'"

This kind of man just doesn't fit in with my view of what a man is, just like a French clipped poodle doesn't look like a dog to me. I also don't care for the elitism that is implied in this fad. We don't need that in the US. Too many people are poor here. While my 1890 to 1920 English lit course was one of the most interesting I took in college, I don't tend to consider that kind of man masculine enough. I would be totally unable to live with a man like that, as he would be adamant about so many tiny and unimportant details about our environment and lifestyle, and all his efforts to look perfect would not impress me. I was brought up on Clark Gable and Sean Connery.






Riders Relieved Philadelphia Rail Strike Is Over – ABC

Passengers are relieved that Philadelphia-area commuter trains are back on track before the Monday morning rush hour.

Employees ended a one-day strike early Sunday after President Barack Obama intervened.

Obama created an emergency board to mediate the contract dispute between the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and two of its unions.

About 400 workers had walked off the job Saturday. They've been working without a labor agreement for several years.

Rider Steve Bessler says he was a bit stressed thinking about potential commuting problems he might face getting into work Monday.

Now, Bessler says he's glad to be able to take his normal train from northeast Philadelphia to his job downtown.

SEPTA's regional rail lines carry about 60,000 passengers each weekday.




“Obama created an emergency board to mediate the contract dispute between the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and two of its unions. About 400 workers had walked off the job Saturday. They've been working without a labor agreement for several years.” Some people hate unions for disrupting services at businesses, but I have worked on the lower wage end of things too long to feel that way. Workers need a reasonable pay scale, a path to advancement within the company and good working conditions, and without unions we would still be in the 1890's in our work life.

There are laws in place that protect workers now, especially the minimum wage (pitiable though it is, these days) and the OSHA rules. And let's not forget, there is no more child labor. All of that is due to the determined actions of labor unions. The government didn't make those laws without pressure from the public. Big business unleashed is a rampaging lion, and I'm glad to see unions stepping up to the plate again. For several decades I thought they were dead. I'm especially interested in the fast food workers strike that is going on, also the effort to raise the federal minimum wage. If we could get that up to $10.00 an hour the working class in the US would benefit greatly. It has simply been much too long since an upgrade on the minimum wage was put through, while the cost of living has continued to rise. It's predictable that union are becoming active again, and I'm very glad to see it.





Egypt Police Confiscate Rights Group's Publication



Egyptian security forces confiscated copies of a human rights group's newsletter, and arrested a worker in the print shop, saying the publication threatened the government, the head of the group said Sunday.

Gamal Eid, the head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, said police seized 1,000 copies of the publication, entitled Wasla, or Link, from the print shop the night before. Lawyers said investigators accused the worker in the press of illegally printing material that advocates the overthrow of the government and of belonging to a terrorist group, in reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, said Rawda Ahmed, a lawyer for the group. The government declared the Brotherhood a terrorist organization last year and has cracked down on its members and activities.

It was not clear if ANHRI itself or the content of the newsletter was the source of the accusations, Ahmed said.

In a statement, the group said the worker is not responsible for the published material, and denied it was "seditious." The worker will continue to be held pending further investigation from the national security agency, and Eid has been called in for questioning Monday, Ahmed said.

ANHRI is an Egyptian human rights and legal center focusing on freedom of expression and Internet freedom in the region.

The newsletter is a digest of blogs and social media content that has been distributed to select readers by mail since 2010. The current issue focused on newly elected President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, with activists discussing the sources of his popularity. One of the contributors argued in favor of el-Sissi's left-wing opponent in the elections, while another supported el-Sissi's election, saying he would keep Egypt a secular state. The issue also included an article on journalist who works for Qatar-based broadcaster al-Jazeera who has been in detention since last year, without formal charges and on hunger strike for over 100 days in protest.

Security officials were not immediately available for comment.

Eid called the accusations "ludicrous," and were a violation of the law and unconstitutional. He said the confiscation gave an ominous sign for freedom of expression under the new president, just a week into his term.

Egypt's newly amended constitution states that censorship or confiscation of publications is prohibited, permitting "limited censorship in times of war or general mobilization."

Since last year's overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, the government has shuttered the Brotherhood's daily newspaper and closed a number of Islamist TV stations.

Also on Sunday, police seized a number of supermarket chains in Cairo and its twin city of Giza, owned by a deputy leader of the Brotherhood, Khairat el-Shater, currently in jail, and another wealthy businessman considered a supporter of the group. A government committee has been inventorying the assets of the group and has already ordered the assets of over 500 members seized. Schools and charity groups operated by the Brotherhood have already been targeted by the decision, part of government moves to cripple it by severing its finances.

The Brotherhood denies it adopts violence and has kept up its protests against the current authorities. Interior ministry official Aly el-Demerdash said the supermarkets will be handed over to the ministry of supply which will handle the distribution of the goods.

The supermarkets are among the better known businesses linked to the group, and employ thousands of staff. An economist with a major investment bank said the confiscation Sunday was expected and is in line with government policy to go after the group, downplaying it would have an impact on the general investment atmosphere in Egypt. He agreed to speak on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive business matter.

El-Sissi has made it a priority to attract foreign and domestic investment to help Egypt's ailing economy. He has so far gained strong financial support from Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and other Gulf countries, who opposed the Brotherhood's rise to power.





President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was in the news yesterday for coming down hard on a group of gang rapists, which is a good thing, but now has interfered with a publication which may not be completely against the government, but apparently had some opinions of that sort in it. “The newsletter is a digest of blogs and social media content that has been distributed to select readers by mail since 2010. The current issue focused on newly elected President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, with activists discussing the sources of his popularity. One of the contributors argued in favor of el-Sissi's left-wing opponent in the elections, while another supported el-Sissi's election, saying he would keep Egypt a secular state. The issue also included an article on journalist who works for Qatar-based broadcaster al-Jazeera who has been in detention since last year, without formal charges and on hunger strike for over 100 days in protest.”

It seems to be a publication that allows individuals to speak their mind and publishes a balance of voices. That doesn't sound like a bad thing to me. The publication is said to advocate the overthrow of the government and is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was Morsi's party, and has now been declared a terrorist organization. El-Sissi is in favor of increasing foreign investments and has gained the aid of Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and other Gulf countries who oppose the Brotherhood. Even if he is pursuing a path of suppression of The Brotherhood he seems to me to be trying to establish a secular government, and more advanced attitudes toward women, which pleases me. As much as we have freedom of association and belief in this country, as soon as a group declares itself to be out to overthrow the government, and especially if it gathers arms and organizes itself to fight, the Feds will be down on them like a hen on a June bug, as folks say in the South, and I'm glad of that because I don't want any radical fascist (or even Communist!) organization to be getting control of our government. So I wish el-Sissi well, and hope he will work toward fair and just laws for everyone who isn't “trying to overthrow the government.”





How Trauma Affects The Brain Of A Learner – NPR
by ANYA KAMENETZ
June 15, 2014

Our public media colleagues over at KPCC, Southern California Public Radio, have a fascinating two-part report on the efforts of schools in the Los Angeles area to address the effects of "toxic stress" on student learning.

"As researchers work to solve one of the most persistent problems in public education – why kids in poor neighborhoods fail so much more often than their upper-income peers – more and more they're pointing the finger at what happens outside the classroom.

Shootings. Food insecurity. Sirens and fights in the night. Experts are finding that those stressors build up, creating emotional problems and changes in the brain that can undermine even the clearest lessons."

Eighty percent of the students in the Los Angeles Unified School District are in poverty. Scientists are zeroing in on how it can affect their developing brains.

"Studies show chronic stress can change the chemical and physical structures of the brain.

'You see deficits in your ability to regulate emotions in adaptive ways as a result of stress,'said Dr. Cara Wellman, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University.

Dendrites, which look like microscopic fingers, stretch off each brain cell to catch information. Wellman's studies in mice show that chronic stress causes these fingers to shrink, changing the way the brain works. She found deficiencies in the pre-frontal cortex – the part of the brain needed to solve problems, which is crucial to learning.

Other researchers link chronic stress to a host of cognitive effects, including trouble with attention, concentration, memory and creativity."

Responding in part to this research, Camino Nuevo, a network of eight charter schools, dedicates resources to creating what it calls a "continuum of integrated support" for students. One fourth of students at the schools see counselors to help them build social and emotional skills. The schools hold group sessions for parents to help them deal with stress in their lives too, and employ full-time parent liasions to help families access health care, mental health, housing, legal, or immigration services. To pay for all this, the schools privately raise about $1.6 million in outside funds. They also tap into MediCal and work with private providers to integrate services right within the school.

Blanca Ruiz is a Mexican immigrant and single mother with a child, Luis, at a Camino Nuevo middle school.

"Since she started counseling at the school, Ruiz lost fifty pounds and saved money to buy a reliable car.

Last year, Ruiz moved her kids 15 miles east to a house in El Monte with a tiny porch and big lemon tree. But there was no way she was changing schools.

She still drives Luis to Camino Nuevo in MacArthur Park every day on her way to work. Sometimes she'll bring him a special treat of KFC for lunch...

Luis's sixth grade teacher, Sarah Wechsler, keeps a close eye on him. She tracks even the smallest details, like how often she encourages him. She wants to make sure positive reinforcements far outpace stern talk.

Wechsler said in the last year, she's seen Luis completely turn around and take ownership of his schoolwork."




“'Shootings. Food insecurity. Sirens and fights in the night. Experts are finding that those stressors build up, creating emotional problems and changes in the brain that can undermine even the clearest lessons.' Eighty percent of the students in the Los Angeles Unified School District are in poverty. Scientists are zeroing in on how it can affect their developing brains.” These things actually change the chemical and physical structures of the brain, cause deficits in the ability to regulate emotions in adaptive ways, cause the tentacle-like dendrites which conduct information to the nerve cells to shrink, cause “deficiencies in the pre-frontal cortex – the part of the brain needed to solve problems, causing problems with attention, concentration, memory and creativity.”

Camino Nuevo, a network of eight charter schools in Los Angeles, where 80% of the students live in poverty, has set up a program of support for the children and their parents which includes meetings for the parents to attend where they can discuss their problems, counselors for the students to help them with emotional and social skills, liaison services for families to access health and mental health care, housing, legal and immigration services. Schools pay for this by a combination of private fundraising, MediCal funds and “private providers,” and organize the effort through the school. In addition the teachers monitor the kids more closely than in most public schools to see how they are advancing and try to work with them to solve problems.

Sarah Wechsler teaches and mentors Luis Ruiz, along with helping his mother, seeing to it that “positive reinforcements far outpace stern talk,” and he has made a total turnaround in his school work. He “takes ownership” of it, the article says. This is what students have to do at some point in their schooling, hopefully early on in their development, in order to be B or A students and successfully progress into college work. An all-inclusive program like this needs to be done in other poverty stricken schools as well. Camino Nuevo could be studied for their overall plan which has allowed their eight schools to finance and structure this set up. I am going to email this article to President Obama. I think he or someone in his administrative office will take the time to read it and think about it for Federal plans to improve the failing schools in so many American cities. At any rate, I hope so.