Monday, July 21, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Obama to Putin: Stop rebels from impeding Malaysia Airlines investigation
By REBECCA KAPLAN CBS NEWS July 21, 2014

President Obama offered a stern warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he must convince separatists in eastern Ukraine to allow international investigators full and unimpeded access to the site of the shoot down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

The president condemned the Russian-backed rebels for removing bodies and evidence from the scene and threatening international investigators who have tried to access the wreckage, calling it "an insult to those who have lost loved ones."

"All of this begs the question: what exactly are they trying to hide?" Mr. Obama said at the White House Monday.

Noting the close ties between Russia and the separatists in eastern Ukraine, the president issued his strongest call yet for Putin to intervene.

"Russia and President Putin in particular has direct responsibility to compel them to cooperate with the investigation. That is the least that they can do," Mr. Obama said. "President Putin says that he supports a full and fair investigation and I appreciate those words by they have to be supported by actions."

The administration has stepped up its criticism of Russia in recent days, with Secretary of State John Kerry all but directly blaming them for the downing of the Malaysian airliner in a series of interviews Sunday.

On CBS News' "Face the Nation," Kerry said there is an "enormous amount of evidence" that ties Russia to the crash, including providing weapons and training to the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Kerry also called on Russia "to become part of the solution, not part of the problem" and urge the separatists to allow a fair and full international investigation to proceed.

Mr. Obama also said that the "immediate focus" of the world is on recovering the bodies of the approximately 300 passengers and crew who died and determining exactly what happened. He said the nations that lost citizens on the flight "remain in a state of shock, but frankly also in a state of outrage."

Just a day before the plane was shot down, Mr. Obama had moved to increase sanctions on key sectors of the Russian economy, including the defense industry, in an attempt to reduce tensions in Ukraine. He said Tuesday that he still prefers a diplomatic solution.

"But," he said, "if Russia continues to violate Ukraine's sovereignty and to back these separatists ...then Russia will only further isolate itself from the international community and the costs for Russia's behavior will only continue to increase. Now is the time for president Putin and Russia to pivot away from the strategy that they've been taking and get serious about trying to resolve the hostilities."

Mr. Obama also addressed the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas and called for an fast cease fire to end the fighting.

"Israel has a right to defend itself against rocket and tunnel attacks from Hamas. And as a result of its operations, Israel has already done significant damage to Hamas's terrorist infrastructure in Gaza," the president said. "I've also said, however, that we have serious concerns about the rising number of Palestinian civilian deaths and the loss of Israeli lives."

He dispatched Kerry to Cairo Sunday evening to push for a cease fire based on a November 2012 agreement between Israel and Hamas.

"Obviously, there are enormous passions involved in this and some very difficult strategic issues involved. Nevertheless, I've asked John to do everything he can to help facilitate a cessation of hostilities. We don't want to see any more civilians getting killed," he said.




"President Putin says that he supports a full and fair investigation and I appreciate those words by they have to be supported by actions.'... Now is the time for president Putin and Russia to pivot away from the strategy that they've been taking and get serious about trying to resolve the hostilities." If things continue in this way I expect Obama will announce tighter sanctions on Russia within the coming days. In his TV address this morning he did also mention taking the matter to the UN, which I hope will be done very soon. I don't expect Putin to discipline his Ukrainian followers without their help. At any rate he has shown no sign of it yet, though he has promised to intervene. I will continue to look for news articles updating this standoff between the Russians and the rest of the world. Hopefully something will break soon.





Police probe other attacks after transients killed in N.M. – CBS
By CRIMESIDER STAFF AP  July 21, 2014

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Police were investigating whether three teenagers suspected of beating two homeless men to death with cinderblocks, bricks and a metal fence pole were responsible for dozens of other attacks on transients in recent months.

Alex Rios, 18, and two boys, ages 16 and 15, are being held in Bernalillo County detention facilities a day after allegedly killing the two sleeping men in an open field in an attack so violent it left the victims unrecognizable, police spokesman Simon Drobik said. A third man said he was able to escape.

The teens said they wanted to look for someone to beat up and possibly rob. One teen told authorities the other was "very angry" over a breakup with his longtime girlfriend. A criminal complaint said one of the teens told police that they had attacked more than 50 people in recent months.

"I personally, after reading that complaint, was sick to my stomach because of the nature of the violence and the age of the offenders," Drobik said.

Officers responded Saturday around 8 a.m. to a 911 call reporting the two bodies in a field. They found one victim lying on a mattress and another lying on the ground. Jerome Eskeets, a third victim who said he was able to flee, was hospitalized for his injuries.

Eskeets told police that he recognized one of the "kids" hitting and kicking him as someone who lived in a house nearby, and police found the trio of suspects there. The homeowner said the 15 and 16-year-old were his sons and Rios was a friend who had spent the night.

The complaint says Rios has been charged with two counts each of murder, among other charges. The younger boys will likely be charged with murder as adults, Drobik said. CBS News is withholding their names because of their age.

Rios told investigators he acted as a lookout while the other boys attacked both men with bricks, sticks and a metal fence pole. The younger suspects, however, told police that Rios also took part in the attacks.

Both describe how all three covered their faces with black T-shirts before walking over to the victims. According to the 15-year-old, they all took turns picking up cinderblocks and repeatedly smashing them into the men's faces.

The suspects said after the attack, they took one victim's driver's license and debit card. The license was found in the teens' home, police said.

Investigators have not yet confirmed the identities of the two victims. Their transient background and the severity of their injuries have made identifying them difficult, Drobik said.

The department is asking anyone in the homeless community with information to get in touch with them. Drobik said any transients uncomfortable approaching police can also contact them through any social service agency.

"Just please come forward," Drobik said.




“The teens said they wanted to look for someone to beat up and possibly rob. One teen told authorities the other was "very angry" over a breakup with his longtime girlfriend. A criminal complaint said one of the teens told police that they had attacked more than 50 people in recent months.... Jerome Eskeets, a third victim who said he was able to flee, was hospitalized for his injuries.... Eskeets told police that he recognized one of the "kids" hitting and kicking him as someone who lived in a house nearby, and police found the trio of suspects there. The homeowner said the 15 and 16-year-old were his sons and Rios was a friend who had spent the night.” Rios told police that he only served as a lookout, but another boy said that he actively participated in the beatings.

“The suspects said after the attack, they took one victim's driver's license and debit card. The license was found in the teens' home, police said.” That doesn't sound like a homeless man if he still had a debit card from a bank and a driver license. Police have issued a statement saying that if members of the homeless community don't want to come to the police station for fear of being arrested, that they can “come through any social service agency.” I do hope the police have a solid case against the boys, and that they are sent to prison for many years. There will be further investigation, I'm sure, to identify some of the other fifty victims mentioned by the boy. The only reason that was given for the attack was that one of the boys was “very angry” at his girlfriend who had dropped him. It's sickening and sad.





Police in Fla.'s "Friendly City" were KKK members – CBS
AP July 21, 2014

FRUITLAND PARK, Fla. - Ann Hunnewell and her central Florida police officer husband knelt in the living room of a fellow officer's home, with pillow cases as makeshift hoods over their heads. A few words were spoken and they, along with a half-dozen others, were initiated into the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, she says.

Last week, that five-year-old initiation ceremony stunned residents of the small town of Fruitland Park, who found out an investigative report linked two city officers with the secret hate society (PDF) that once was violently active in the area. Ann Hunnewell's ex-husband, George Hunnewell, was fired, and deputy chief David Borst resigned from the 13-member Fruitland Park Police Department. Borst has denied being a member.

James Elkins, a third officer who Ann Hunnewell says recruited her and her husband, resigned in 2010 after his Klan ties became public.

The violence against blacks that permeated the area was more than 60 years ago, when the place was more rural and the main industry was citrus. These days, the community of less than 5,000 residents about 50 miles northwest of Orlando has been infused by the thousands of wealthier, more cosmopolitan retirees in the area.

Those who live in the bedroom community, which is less than 10 percent black, have reacted not only with shock, but disgust that officers could be involved with the Klan, the mayor said.

"Maybe I'm ignorant, but I didn't realize that they still met and organized and did that kind of thing," said Michele Lange, a church volunteer.

Mayor Chris Bell says he heard stories about a Klan rally that took place two years before he arrived in the 1970s, but he has never seen anything firsthand. As recently as the 1960s, many in law enforcement in the South were members but "it's exceedingly unusual these days to find a police officer who is secretly a Klansman," said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups.

While the Klan used to be politically powerful in the 1920s, when governors and U.S. senators were among its 4 million members, nowadays it is much less active than other sectors of the radical right and has less than 5,000 members nationwide, Potok said.

"The radical right is quite large and vigorous. The Klan is very small," he said. "The radical right looks down on the Klan."

Fruitland Park, though, has been dealing with alleged KKK ties and other problems in the police ranks since 2010, when Elkins resigned after his estranged wife made his membership public.

Last week, residents were told Borst and the Hunnewells had been members of the United Northern and Southern Knights Chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, though its presence in their town wasn't noticeable. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement sent the police chief a report linking the officers to the Klan based on information from the FBI. Both men didn't return repeated phone messages to their homes, but Borst told the Orlando Sentinel he has never been a Klan member.

Ann Hunnewell -- who was a police department secretary until 2010 -- told Florida investigators that former Police Chief J.M. Isom asked her and her ex-husband to join the KKK in 2008, trying to learn if Elkins was a member. Isom, though, shortly after Elkins resigned, also quit after he was accused of getting incentive pay for earning bogus university degrees.

Current Police Chief Terry Isaacs said he took a sworn oath from Isom, who called Ann Hunnewell's account a lie, and that there was no record of such an undercover investigation.

The disclosure of the officers' Klan ties harkened back to the 1940s and 1950s when hate crimes against blacks were common. That era was chronicled in the 2012 book "Devil in the Grove." Then-Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall shot two of four black men, dubbed the "Groveland Four," who were dubiously charged with raping a white woman.

"Things have improved, of course," said Sannye Jones, a local NAACP official who moved to Lake County in the 1960s. "But racism still exists, just not in the same way. People are not as open and not as blatant."

Isaacs said three years ago, he inherited a police department of 13 fulltime officers and five part-time officers -- none of them black -- that had a "lackadaisical culture."

"I've taken great steps to overcome that. I've brought in diversity training for the officers and laid down orders that will get you fired," Isaacs said.

Hunnewell previously had been suspended for misconduct for the way he handled a case. Last year, he received five "letters of counseling" from supervisors for showing up late and writing reports incorrectly. He was promoted to corporal in 2012 but then demoted the next year for allowing personal problems to affect his job, Isaacs said.

"I felt he was beyond the point of being saved at this point," the chief said of Hunnewell's firing.

Cases the officers worked on also are under scrutiny. On Friday, prosecutors dismissed three cases -- two traffic offenses and a misdemeanor battery.

The news about sworn police officers perhaps being part of the Klan doesn't sit well with many in Fruitland Park, which calls itself the "Friendly City," the mayor said. Adding to the influx of retirees, The Villages has plans to build housing for 4,000 residents, which would almost double the city's population.

"I'm shocked, very shocked," said Chery Mion, who lives in The Villages but works in a Fruitland Park gift shop next door to the mayor's office. "I didn't think that organization was still around. Yes, in the 1950s. But this 2014, and it's rather disconcerting to know."




“Ann Hunnewell and her central Florida police officer husband knelt in the living room of a fellow officer's home, with pillow cases as makeshift hoods over their heads. A few words were spoken and they, along with a half-dozen others, were initiated into the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, she says.... James Elkins, a third officer who Ann Hunnewell says recruited her and her husband, resigned in 2010 after his Klan ties became public....”

Relatively wealthy northerners have moved into the town, and the article says that they have reacted “with disgust” over the disclosure of KKK involvement in law enforcement. Having KKK members on the police force is not new, however, at least in many parts of the South. “As recently as the 1960s, many in law enforcement in the South were members but "it's exceedingly unusual these days to find a police officer who is secretly a Klansman," said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups.... nowadays it is much less active than other sectors of the radical right and has less than 5,000 members nationwide, Potok said.... 'The radical right is quite large and vigorous. The Klan is very small,' he said. 'The radical right looks down on the Klan.'” I wonder if he means the Tea Party, or people farther right such as the “Militia” groups and Neo-Nazis. Poverty and too much ignorance are still common in the South, though it's getting better, and among such people the hate groups thrive.









Autism risk linked to common gene variants – CBS
By ROBERT PREIDT HEALTHDAY July 21, 2014

Most of the genetic risk for autism appears to come from common gene variants rather than spontaneous gene mutations, according to a new study.

Researchers compared about 3,000 people in Sweden with and without autism and found that about 52 percent of autism was linked to common gene variantsand rare inherited variations. Spontaneous genetic mutations accounted for only 2.6 percent of autism risk.

The investigators also found that genetics seem to play a stronger role in autism risk than environmental factors, according to the study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The study, which the researchers said was the largest of its kind to date, was published in the July 20 issue of the journal Nature Genetics.

"From this study, we can see that genetics plays a major role in the development of autism compared to environmental risk factors, making autism more like height than we thought -- many small risk factors add up, each pushing a person further out on the spectrum," co-lead investigator Kathryn Roeder, professor of statistics and computational biology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said in a university news release.

Autism spectrum disorders describe a range of developmental disabilities that can cause social, communication and behavioral difficulties. About 1 in 68 U.S. children has an autism spectrum disorder, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.

"Genetic variation likely accounts for roughly 60 percent of the liability for autism, with common variants comprising the bulk of its genetic architecture," co-lead investigator Joseph Buxbaum, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, said in a news release from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

"Although each exerts just a tiny effect individually, these common variations in the genetic code add up to substantial impact, taken together," explained Buxbaum.

Roeder added, "These findings could not have happened without statistics, and now we must build off of what we learned and use statistical approaches to determine where to put future resources, and decide what is the most beneficial direction to pursue to further pinpoint what causes autism."

According to NIMH Director Dr. Thomas Insel, "Knowing the nature of the genetic risk will help focus the search for clues to the molecular roots of the disorder. Common variation may be more important than we thought," he said in the Carnegie Mellon news release.

Buxbaum explained that "within a given family, the mutations could be a critical determinant that leads to the manifestation of [autism] in a particular family member."

He concluded: "The family may have common variation that puts it at risk, but if there is also a [new] mutation on top of that, it could push an individual over the edge. So for many families, the interplay between common and spontaneous genetic factors could be the underlying genetic architecture of the disorder."




"Genetic variation likely accounts for roughly 60 percent of the liability for autism, with common variants comprising the bulk of its genetic architecture." "Although each exerts just a tiny effect individually, these common variations in the genetic code add up to substantial impact, taken together," explained Buxbaum.... "The family may have common variation that puts it at risk, but if there is also a [new] mutation on top of that, it could push an individual over the edge. So for many families, the interplay between common and spontaneous genetic factors could be the underlying genetic architecture of the disorder." This study did rule out environmental factors as primary causes of autism. About 1 in 68 children in the US has Autism. The test group contained 3,000 people in Sweden. There was no information on which ethnic or national groups might have a higher incidence of the illness, nor of what the genes that produce Autism are. There seems to be no traits to go by which might predict it, although I imagine if there are one or more cases of Autism in a family it might be a clue to create caution about having children.




'We Will Fight': Keystone XL Pipeline Foes Fear Worst for Water Supply – NBC
BY BRIAN BROWN

Editor's note: This story is one in a series on a crisis in America's Breadbasket – the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer and its effects on a region that helps feed the world. 

IDEAL, South Dakota – Facing the sunrise on a frigid morning, Rosebud Sioux tribal leader Royal Yellow Hawk offered an ancient prayer in song, his voice periodically muffled by the whistling prairie wind. Behind Yellow Hawk was a cinematic scene from another century: 30-foot-tall tipis arranged in a half circle, quickly brightening in the morning light.

This tipi encampment was erected this spring to be a visible and ongoing embodiment of opposition to the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, which, if constructed, would hug the reservation’s territory in transporting diluted bitumen oil 1,179-miles from Canada’s tar sands to Steele City, Nebraska.

The Keystone XL is being built by the Canadian energy company, Trans Canada. This fourth and final phase of the project—still awaiting approval by the Obama administration—will cost an estimated $5.4 billion. Other segments of the Keystone–at an estimated cost of $5 billion—have been in operation since 2010, bringing the tar sands oil from Hardisty, Alberta, to refineries in the American Midwest and the Gulf Coast.

The tribe’s principal fear is that a pipeline leak could have devastating consequences for their main source of water—the vast, underground Ogallala Aquifer. Although the proposed route of the pipeline does not cross their land, water in an aquifer is constantly moving and doesn’t observe manmade boundaries. According to the Rosebud, many of their wells are within miles of where the Keystone would be buried.

The health of the Ogallala Aquifer is not only an issue on these lands where the Lakota once hunted buffalo; it’s the fountain of life for the entire American Breadbasket. This subterranean sponge of water spreads southward from South Dakota all the way to Texas, touching eight states and covering a massive 111.8 million acres.

“We are taking this prayer all the way through to the end of the fight,” says Gary Dorr, who is committed to living at the tipi encampment, on this wind-whipped mesa near the village of Ideal, until the Keystone Pipeline is stopped.

Dorr served in the U.S. military for 11 years, served in Iraq and the Middle East, and was wearing a hat affixed with the insignia of his unit, the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division.

If construction of the pipeline does begin, Dorr says, the next step will be civil disobedience.

“We will have men staked out on the corridor of the pipeline,” he says. “As they get arrested, more will step up. There are no weapons here, you notice. The only military attire right now is my hat from my old unit. We’re not projecting that image. ”

The Ogallala widens and deepens as you go south into Nebraska, where it flows beneath the state’s vast Sand Hills, a kind of endless beach of undulating grassy dunes. This bounty of water is inseparable from the success of Nebraska’s estimated $24-billion farm economy.

Nebraska farmers–unlike many of their counterparts in Texas and Kansas, where the Ogallala is quickly being sucked to the last drop—know that they are blessed to have wells of gushing water, especially as the grip of a drought across the Great Plains extends into a fourth year and, moreover, as scores of scientists forecast a future climate drier, hotter, windier – in all, more punishing.

This precious water, and the risk that it could be poisoned by oil piped from Canada, has galvanized not only the tribal nations of South Dakota, but also a coalition of Nebraska farmers, ranchers and concerned citizens. Together, they’ve formed something called the Cowboy-Indian Alliance, and it includes grandmothers and grandfathers suddenly radicalized.

“I’m not rich, been a school teacher all my life,” says Art Tenderup, 62, who retired to a small Nebraska farm with his wife, Helen. “We don’t live in a fancy house. We don’t have fancy cars. We’re just common people. But I know the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong … and this whole thing is wrong.”

“I’m not a violent person,” he continues, “but I think there’s a place for civil disobedience. I never thought I would be talking about something like that. But Helen and I have had some very serious discussions, and we’re going to fight this thing as long as we can.”

Byron “Stix” Steskal is one of the leading figures of another anti-pipeline group that calls itself the “Pipeline Posse.” He lives in Stuart, a town of 590 people with no police officers. Over burgers at The Cast Iron Bar and Grille, his eyes water and his voice trembles as he considers how an unapologetic blue-collar Republican – a guy who installed irrigation rigs for 25 years and now drives trucks and works at Stuart Fertilizer – has turned green and is battling pro-pipeline politicians and a multi-billion-dollar project by a multi-national corporation.

“I waited until I was 60 years old to stand up for something,” he says.

“It’s about the water,” Stix continues. “It’s about the kids. What are they going to say if this goes through? They’ll wonder: ‘What the hell were you thinking?’ This way if it still ends up going through, it shows that some of us did fight it.”

What is initially sucked out of the Alberta tar sands is a new version of crude oil – thick, peanut-butter-like bitumen. And it has a potentially devastating quality if it leaks into any body of water: it can sink.

Of recent major spills involving Canadian dilbit, the most notable occurred four years ago, in Michigan, and the clean-up isn’t finished yet.

In 2010, a 30-inch pipeline operated by Canada’s Enbridge Energy, carrying oil from the Alberta tar sands, spilled nearly a million gallons into the Kalamazoo River, closing it for 35 miles. The tear in the pipe was only five inches at its widest point. Within days, the bitumen sank to the river bottom. At $1 billion, it is already the costliest on-shore cleanup in U.S. History.

In an e-mail responding to the claims that the Keystone XL presents a threat to the Ogallala Aquifer, Trans Canada spokesman Davis Sheremata noted that “phase one of the Keystone Pipeline, which has been operating since July 2010, has safely moved over 600 million barrels of oil to market, and traverses the entire states of South Dakota and Nebraska.”

Regarding Trans Canada’s safety response, Sheremata wrote: “We monitor our pipeline system through a centralized high-tech center 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We use satellite technology that sends data every five seconds from thousands of data points to our monitoring center, and if a drop in pressure is detected, we can isolate any section of our pipeline by remotely closing any of the hundreds of valves on the system within minutes.”

But after what has been a relentless, five-year campaign to secure permission to build the Keystone XL through 12 Ogallala-fed counties in Nebraska – 10 of which do not have oil pipelines – reportedly more than 100 landowners have rejected significant offers from Trans Canada, as high as six figures.

“This lady makes us feel like we won the lottery,” says Tenderup, of the offer he received. “You know, we’re going to get a lot of money; the oil is going to reduce our fuel prices; it’s going to give Americans jobs. It’s going to do all these wonderful things. It was like I’d be un-American if I didn’t jump on this bandwagon.”

Tenderup, who says he rejected a $130,000 payment for an easement, sees Trans Canada waging a war of attrition all around him. Recently, he said, one neighbor received an added signing bonus of $45,000.

“My wife is very passionate about this farm,” Tenderup says, his voice tinged with determination and emotion. “This farm has been in her family for about 100 years. Her parents, her grandparents, they took care of this land. They survived through the Dust Bowl. We’ve got to be strong like they were … We’ve got to preserve what’s here, because it’s not just the fact that it’s our land. It’s the fact that life is underneath it … in … that … water!”

In part, these holdouts have not been assured by Trans Canada’s safety promises. In an independent report by the University of Nebraska’s engineering department, Professor John Stansbury said Trans Canada had underestimated the time it would take to detect a spill and also underestimated worst-case scenarios. Stansbury noted that it took Enbridge Energy technicians in Edmonton, Alberta 17 hours to stop the Kalamazoo leak. He also said just one spill from the Keystone XL could pollute 4.9 billion gallons of Ogallala groundwater.

Sheremata, Trans Canada’s spokesman, indicated that since Keystone began operating in July 2010, there have been “10 reportable releases of oil” in the United States, totaling 427 barrels (approximately 18,000 gallons). Of that total, Sheremata claimed only five barrels “left our pump station property.”

The pipeline fighters have also been enraged but what one landowner has called “eminent domain running amok.”

Many were first shocked to learn that a 1963 state law allowed even a foreign oil-pipeline corporation, like Trans Canada, to take the land of Nebraska residents if they didn’t cooperate. In 2012, that law was superseded by another which gave Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman– who first opposed but now supports construction of the pipeline — sole power to execute the authority to exercise eminent domain. Three Nebraska citizens challenged the law as unconstitutional, on the grounds that it was a piece of special legislation for the benefit of Trans Canada.

A Nebraska district judge agreed in February; the state is appealing. Citing the ongoing litigation, in April the Obama administration again postponed a decision on allowing the Keystone XL.

“Both Trans Canada and our elected officials underestimated the people of Nebraska, underestimated the unique bond we have with our land and water,” Nebraska’s York News-Times publisher Greg Awtry wrote in a May editorial, “(they) underestimated the fact that we would not allow a pipeline company to influence our state legislature into passing a law that was clearly unconstitutional, and underestimated the fairness of allowing a foreign corporation to threaten landowners with eminent domain to build a project that poses unacceptable risk and very little reward.”

After the morning prayer greeting sunrise on the Rosebud reservation, visitors were invited into a nearby mess tent to speak with tribal leaders about their deep opposition to the Keystone XL. Hot soup and coffee were waiting.

“This land is what we’re fighting for,” Dorr said. “We will fight to protect the land. We will fight to protect the resources that are here.”

For much of the time, Keith Fielder – a member of the Land & Nature Committee of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe – chose to listen quietly, patiently standing in a corner. But he would have the last words.

“We have to return to our hearts and be smart about how we want to live,” he said. “Do we want to live in prosperity and love for one another, and respect for all things? Or do we want to be what the Sioux called the non-Indian back in history: ‘the grabbers of the fat’? If people want to be like that, we’re going to seek our demise at an earlier time.”

“We’re connecting here with our spiritual side, because that will overcome anything. I never dreamed I’d be talking like this, let alone praying. But it makes me feel good to be connected again.”





This tipi encampment was erected this spring to be a visible and ongoing embodiment of opposition to the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, which, if constructed, would hug the reservation’s territory.... According to the Rosebud, many of their wells are within miles of where the Keystone would be buried. The health of the Ogallala Aquifer is not only an issue on these lands where the Lakota once hunted buffalo; it’s the fountain of life for the entire American Breadbasket. This subterranean sponge of water spreads southward from South Dakota all the way to Texas, touching eight states and covering a massive 111.8 million acres.”

Gary Dorr, an Iraq veteran, has taken up residence in a tipi “until “until the Keystone Pipeline is stopped.” He says that if the pipeline is not stopped the next step will be civil disobedience. “'We will have men staked out on the corridor of the pipeline,' he says. 'As they get arrested, more will step up. There are no weapons here, you notice. The only military attire right now is my hat from my old unit. We’re not projecting that image.'” A group called the Cowboy-Indian Alliance, made up of Native Americans, ranchers and farmers from Nebraska, is combating the pipeline.

“Byron “Stix” Steskal is one of the leading figures of another anti-pipeline group that calls itself the “Pipeline Posse.” He lives in Stuart, a town of 590 people with no police officers.... an unapologetic blue-collar Republican – a guy who installed irrigation rigs for 25 years and now drives trucks and works at Stuart Fertilizer – has turned green and is battling pro-pipeline politicians and a multi-billion-dollar project by a multi-national corporation.” A hundred landowners in the Nebraska counties that are involved have refused to sell their land to the oil company in order to keep them out.

“'Both Trans Canada and our elected officials underestimated the people of Nebraska, underestimated the unique bond we have with our land and water,' Nebraska’s York News-Times publisher Greg Awtry wrote in a May editorial, '(they) underestimated the fact that we would not allow a pipeline company to influence our state legislature into passing a law that was clearly unconstitutional, and underestimated the fairness of allowing a foreign corporation to threaten landowners with eminent domain to build a project that poses unacceptable risk and very little reward.'”

Obama's failure to pass on this pipeline is one of the things that the Tea Party is criticizing him for. They want the money from the pipeline, but don't care if the precious water source for much of the Midwest is polluted. It doesn't seem to matter to them that American Indians, average citizens, farmers and ranchers would have no potable water. That would be a disaster. Trans-Canada claims that their satellite system will spot any change in oil pressure in the pipeline almost immediately, but one leak mentioned in the article from a mere 5” tear in the pipeline shut down the Kalamazoo River for 35 miles and spilled a million gallons of oil in the water. That was in 2010 and the cleanup is still ongoing. The risk is just too great of something similar happening again.





Afghan Vet, Who Held Off Taliban Attack On His Own, Will Receive Medal Of Honor – NPR
by EYDER PERALTA
July 21, 2014

Army Sgt. Ryan Pitts will be the ninth living veteran to receive the nation's highest award for valor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan, when President Obama presents him with the Medal of Honor later today.

As NPR's Tom Bowman reports, Pitts is credited with holding off a brutal Taliban attack back in 2008. Tom filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"Soldiers from Chosen Company were setting up an outpost in the rugged hills near the Pakistan border. Suddenly they came under attack by more than a hundred Taliban fighters.

"Mike Denton and the other soldiers saw much of the fire was focused on Chosen Company's separate observation post or OP, set a hundred yards away on a hillside.

"Ryan Pitts was in that OP and the only one left alive. He tossed grenades, helped call in airstrikes, and comforted the dying. Denton and others eventually were able to come to Pitts' aid.

"'Him staying up there and holding that position definitely kept the day from getting a lot worse,' Denton said.

"Still the attack was one of the worst of the Afghan war: Nine Americans killed, 27 wounded."

According to the Army, after Pitts realized he was all alone, that all the soldiers around him were gone, he radioed the command post, but was told they had no one who could help.

Pitts said he wasn't angry about that. Instead, he kept fighting.

"I basically reconciled that I was going to die, and made my peace with it," he told the Army. "My personal goal was to just to try and take as many of them with me, before they got me."

Public Radio's Here And Now spoke to Pitts earlier this month. He told the news magazine that when he was first told about the honor, he wasn't happy, because he didn't think he deserved it.

"But time has allowed me to process it," Pitts said. "And this was a team effort. It belongs to every man there that day and I'll accept it on behalf of the team. It's not mine."




Ryan Pitts was left alone fighting after some 100 Taliban fighters attacked the Chosen Company who were setting up an encampment. “"Mike Denton and the other soldiers saw much of the fire was focused on Chosen Company's separate observation post or OP, set a hundred yards away on a hillside.” Eventually they were able to get to Pitts and render aid. “'I basically reconciled that I was going to die, and made my peace with it,' he told the Army. 'My personal goal was to just to try and take as many of them with me, before they got me.'" He didn't give up and kept throwing grenades against all odds. He will receive the Medal of Honor in a ceremony later today from President Obama.