July 1, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-and-cuba-to-announce-agreement-to-open-embassies/

U.S. and Cuba to announce agreement to open embassies
CBS/AP
June 30, 2015

19 PHOTOS -- Cuba Today

WASHINGTON -- President Obama will announce Wednesday that the U.S. and Cuba have reached an agreement to open embassies in Havana and Washington, a senior administration official said.

The announcement marks a major step in ending hostilities between the longtime foes.

"We will formally announce tomorrow that the United States and Cuba have reached an agreement to re-establish formal diplomatic relations and open embassies in each other's capitals," a senior administration official confirmed to CBS News.

The U.S. and Cuba have been negotiating the reestablishment of embassies following the Dec. 17 announcement that they would move to restore ties.

CBS News correspondent Portia Siegelbaum reported officials in Cuba are anticipating a visit from Jeffrey DeLaurentis, head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. He is expected to deliver a message from Castro about new diplomatic relations between the two nations.

At the same time President Obama announced the new US-Cuba policy, he also announced Cuba's release of 5-year prisoner Alan Gross. Also, a spy swap took place: the U.S. released three Cuban intelligence officers in exchange for an unnamed Cuban national "intelligence asset."

On April 11, Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro sat down together in Panama during the Summit of the Americas, the first time heads of state from the two countries had met in more than 50 years. Also, on May 28, the U.S. removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terror.

For Obama, ending Washington's half-century freeze with Cuba is seen as a major element of his foreign policy legacy. He has long touted the value of engagement and argued that the U.S. embargo on the communist island just 90 miles south of Florida was ineffective.

Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are expected to speak Wednesday morning about the embassy openings. The official insisted on anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter ahead of the president.

Since the late 1970s, the United States and Cuba have operated diplomatic missions called interests sections in each other's capitals. The missions are technically under the protection of Switzerland, and do not enjoy the same status as full embassies.

While the opening of embassies marks a major milestone in the thaw between the U.S. and Cuba, significant issues remain as the countries look to normalize relations. Among them: talks on human rights; demands for compensation for confiscated American properties in Havana and damages to Cuba from the embargo; and possible cooperation on law enforcement, including the touchy topic of U.S. fugitives sheltering in Havana.




“On April 11, Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro sat down together in Panama during the Summit of the Americas, the first time heads of state from the two countries had met in more than 50 years. Also, on May 28, the U.S. removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terror. For Obama, ending Washington's half-century freeze with Cuba is seen as a major element of his foreign policy legacy. He has long touted the value of engagement and argued that the U.S. embargo on the communist island just 90 miles south of Florida was ineffective. …. Since the late 1970s, the United States and Cuba have operated diplomatic missions called interests sections in each other's capitals. The missions are technically under the protection of Switzerland, and do not enjoy the same status as full embassies.”

I will never forget the time Fidel Castro, while on a diplomatic mission to the US, shocked us all by bringing in a bunch of chickens into his luxurious hotel suite and slaughtered, plucked and somehow managed to cook them. Presumably that was because he feared being poisoned at American hands if he ate the food served to him here. It’s also equally possible that his desire to be outrageous simply won out and he decided to have some fun. I have to confess I thought it was hysterically funny. Anybody who has ever been around to see chickens being plucked will understand – feathers from the long and graceful wing feathers to those tiny, fluffy, impossibly clingy ones spread all over the floor and furniture. See this article in the NY Daily News which describes his escapade fully. It’s a much bigger and more interesting story than what I have described here.

Many years have passed and the Castro brothers have calmed down considerably. Fidel and Raul both have proven to be leaders who have tried to improve the lives of their populace, and they have never tried to harm the US except when they agreed with Krushchev to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. That was in response to the ill-fated US CIA backed invasion of Cuba in 1961 called Bay of Pigs. The US didn’t win on that one, and Cuba decided to let the USSR place nuclear missiles on their territory to protect themselves. The result was that President Kennedy declared a blockade on Cuban ports and an embargo. Further negotiation ended with Russia withdrawing it weapons from Cuba, but a complicated set of further squabbles ensued ending with Russia building the Berlin Wall. Russia was very upset by the fact that US nukes had been placed in Italy and Turkey so as to threaten the USSR directly. The result was that Russia agreed to pull all their missiles out of Cuba and the US agreed not to invade Cuba again without a specific attack on Cuba’s part. (See a very good Wikipedia article called “Cuban Missile Crisis” which goes into great detail.)

Nato is now placing weapons in the ex-Soviet nations of Eastern Europe in a situation which is pretty similar today, except that it is in response to actions by Russia to infiltrate and take over the governments there. That is because Russia is threatening Ukraine and possibly other similar nations which have a large percentage of Russian speakers in their population. Russia claims that the Russian speakers are in danger from “Neo-Nazi governments in those places. The difference now is that Russia is the clear aggressor as it continues, despite its denials of the matter, to nudge its way even deeper into Ukraine after fully invading Crimea. Of course it denies that it invaded Crimea, also. Krushchev was characterized by his sheer toughness, and Putin by his lies and subterfuge as he inches into territories in an attempt to set up a new USSR. I do hope we don’t end up with a nuclear war over this, yet it would be equally perilous to give Putin a free hand by failing to oppose him. I don’t know what will happen in Europe, but we do need for those nations to be our allies, and in firm, but benign, control over their people. We definitely don’t need a new Nazi government in Europe. World War II was hard fought and would be heartbreaking were it to recur.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/latest-emails-show-top-officials-aware-of-clintons-private-address/


Latest emails show top officials aware of Clinton's private address
CBS NEWS/AP
July 1, 2015

Photograph -- Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials' (NALEO) 32nd Annual Conference at the Aria Resort & Casino at CityCenter on June 18, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. ETHAN MILLER, GETTY IMAGES

Senior Obama administration officials, including the White House chief of staff, knew as early as 2009 that Hillary Rodham Clinton was using a private email address for her government correspondence, according to some 3,000 pages of correspondence released by the State Department late Tuesday night

The chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, requested Clinton's email address on Sept. 5, 2009, according to one email. His request came three months after top Obama strategist David Axelrod asked the same question of one of Clinton's top aides.

But it's unclear whether the officials realized Clinton, now the leading Democratic presidential candidate, was running her email from a server located in her home in Chappaqua, New York - a potential security risk and violation of administration policy.

Axelrod told CBS News that he had always known Clinton used a private address but that he was unaware of her use of a private server.

"I have been very open that I knew that she had a non State address," Axelrod told CBS News' Julianna Goldman. "I didn't know she used it exclusively or that she had her own server."

The nearly 2,000 emails ranged from the mundane details of high-level public service - scheduling secure lines for calls, commenting on memos and dealing with travel logistics - to an email exchange with former President Jimmy Carter and a phone call with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Carter mildly chided Clinton about how to handle the release of two hostages held in North Korea, while Clinton recounted that Rice, her predecessor, "called to tell me I was on strong ground" regarding Israel.

One day in November 2009, aide Huma Abedin forwarded Clinton a list of 11, back-to-back calls she was scheduled to make to foreign ministers around the world.

"Can't wait. You know how much I love making calls," Clinton responded.

In one email, Clinton tells Abedin, "I heard on the radio that there is a Cabinet mtg this am. Can I go? If not, who are we sending?" Clinton was later informed it wasn't a full Cabinet meeting.

The emails also reflect the vast scope of Clinton's network, after several decades in Washington. She asks aides for restaurant recommendations for a meal with California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (whom she refers to as DiFi), advises her future 2016 campaign chairman John Podesta to wear socks to bed, and passes on advice from former campaign strategist Mark Penn with the note "overlook the source."

Maryland Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski even exchanged emails with Clinton after the former secretary took a nasty fall in 2009 and fractured her right elbow.

"Oops. When I wanted you to trip... I didn't mean that literally. Be careful. Do the therapy. Get well," Mikulski wrote.

Clinton responded: "Barb--Thanks, my dear friend, for your good wishes. I am on the mend... Let's try again for dinner soon."

The latest batch of emails also includes a few exchanges showing Clinton's unfamiliarity with certain technologies -- including fax machines.

One back-and-forth between Abedin and Clinton showed the long-time aide informing the then-secretary on how to use a fax line.

"[C]an you hang up the fax line, they will call again and try fax," Abedin's subject line read. Another message in the email chain instructed: "Just pick up phone and hang it up. And leave it hung up."

One email exchange also showed that Cheryl Mills, Clinton's chief of staff, was concerned over someone "twittering" in Clinton's name.

"Not sure who is Twittering at DOS," Mills wrote in a subject line, before continuing that "we should not be twittering in the Secretary's name since she is not the person actually twittering."

Clinton's emails have become an issue in her early 2016 campaign, as Republicans accuse her of using a private account rather than the standard government address to avoid public scrutiny of her correspondence. As the controversy has continued, Clinton has seen ratings of her character and trustworthiness drop in polling.

Conservatives have also been suspicious of her communications with non-State employees, including Sidney Blumenthal, an old confidant and advisor to the Clinton family. Blumenthal, who makes a number of appearances in the released emails, reached out to the Secretary on a variety of topics.

Blumenthal appeared before the House Select Committee investigating Benghazi in June and produced several memos to Clinton regarding the 2012 attack in Libya.

The emails, covering March through December 2009, were posted online as part of a court mandate that the agency release batches of Clinton's private correspondence from her time as secretary of state every 30 days starting June 30.

The newly released emails show Clinton sent or received at least 12 messages in 2009 on her private email server that were later classified "confidential" by the U.S. government because officials said they contained activities relating to the intelligence community.

At least two-dozen emails were also marked "sensitive but unclassified" at the time they were written, including a December 2009 message from Abedin about an explosion in Baghdad that killed 90. Though Clinton has said her home system included "numerous safeguards," it's not clear if it used encryption software to communicate securely with government email services. That would have protected her communications from the prying eyes of foreign spies or hackers.

Still, Clinton's correspondence from her first year as the nation's top diplomat left little doubt that the Obama administration was aware that Clinton was using a personal address.

"The Secretary and Rahm are speaking, and she just asked him to email her - can you send me her address please?" Amanda Anderson, Emanuel's assistant, wrote.

Abedin passed along the request to Clinton. "Rahm's assistant is asking for your email address. U want me to give him?"

Less than a minute later, Clinton replied that Abedin should send along the address.

In June, Axelrod requested her address, according to a message to Clinton from chief of staff Cheryl Mills.

"Can you send to him or do you want me to? Does he know I can't look at it all day so he needs to contact me thru you or Huma or Lauren during work hours," Clinton replied, referencing some of her top aides.

The White House counsel's office was not aware at the time Clinton was secretary of state that she relied solely on personal email and only found out as part of the congressional investigation into the 2012 Benghazi, Libya, attacks, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Once the State Department turned over some of her messages in connection with the Benghazi investigation after she left office, making it apparent she had not followed government guidance, the White House counsel's office asked the department to ensure that her email records were properly archived, according to the person, who was not authorized to speak on the record and requested anonymity.

Hillary Clinton says personal email use a matter of "convenience"

Separately, the State Department on Tuesday provided more than 3,600 pages of documents to the Republican-led House committee investigating the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, including emails of Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations at the time, and former Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan.

The regular releases of Clinton's correspondence all but guarantee a slow drip of revelations from the emails throughout her primary campaign, complicating her efforts to put the issue to rest. The goal is for the department to publicly unveil 55,000 pages of her emails by Jan. 29, 2016 - just three days before Iowa caucus-goers will cast the first votes in the Democratic primary contest. Clinton has said she wants the emails released as soon as possible.

Clinton turned her emails over to the State Department last year, nearly two years after leaving the Obama administration. She has said she got rid of about 30,000 emails she deemed exclusively personal. Only she and perhaps a small circle of advisers know the content of the discarded communications.

Terrence A. Duffy, the executive chairman of the CME Group in Chicago, writes to Clinton that he had dinner on Dec. 1 with "a mutual friend of ours," South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham. "Lindsey always talks about how much he likes you and said if I were to be in contact with you to say hi from him."

Graham is now running for president, primarily on a foreign policy platform focused heavily on attacking Clinton's credentials.

State Department aide P.J. Crowley wrote to Clinton in November 2009 that she'd earned a front-page New York Times photo upon her arrival in Afghanistan. The picture prompted an online poll in which 77 percent liked Clinton's coat.

"Thx!," Clinton responded. "I bought the coat in Kabul in 03 and thought it should get a chance to go home for a visit!"




“Senior Obama administration officials, including the White House chief of staff, knew as early as 2009 that Hillary Rodham Clinton was using a private email address for her government correspondence, according to some 3,000 pages of correspondence released by the State Department late Tuesday night. The chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, requested Clinton's email address on Sept. 5, 2009, according to one email. His request came three months after top Obama strategist David Axelrod asked the same question of one of Clinton's top aides. But it's unclear whether the officials realized Clinton, now the leading Democratic presidential candidate, was running her email from a server located in her home in Chappaqua, New York - a potential security risk and violation of administration policy. …. As the controversy has continued, Clinton has seen ratings of her character and trustworthiness drop in polling. …. The newly released emails show Clinton sent or received at least 12 messages in 2009 on her private email server that were later classified "confidential" by the U.S. government because officials said they contained activities relating to the intelligence community. …. Though Clinton has said her home system included "numerous safeguards," it's not clear if it used encryption software to communicate securely with government email services. That would have protected her communications from the prying eyes of foreign spies or hackers. Still, Clinton's correspondence from her first year as the nation's top diplomat left little doubt that the Obama administration was aware that Clinton was using a personal address. …. Once the State Department turned over some of her messages in connection with the Benghazi investigation after she left office, making it apparent she had not followed government guidance, the White House counsel's office asked the department to ensure that her email records were properly archived, according to the person, who was not authorized to speak on the record and requested anonymity. …. The goal is for the department to publicly unveil 55,000 pages of her emails by Jan. 29, 2016 - just three days before Iowa caucus-goers will cast the first votes in the Democratic primary contest. Clinton has said she wants the emails released as soon as possible. Clinton turned her emails over to the State Department last year, nearly two years after leaving the Obama administration. She has said she got rid of about 30,000 emails she deemed exclusively personal. Only she and perhaps a small circle of advisers know the content of the discarded communications.”

I do hope the Republicans are avidly reading her emails – telling someone to wear socks to bed, for instance – and apparently the contents will be periodically in the news until Jan. 29, 2016. I can’t help thinking that this whole thing is like the Whitewater investigation – endless and pointless. Of course, from that investigation came the magical name “Miss Lewinsky.” “(I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman….”) I will await hearing the contents of these emails with trepidation, though I don’t think Clinton was in any way involved in the attack at Benghazi. Her lack of knowledge about the situation may be the worst problem. I’m sure nobody actually told the marines to “stand down.” See the following Snopes article below:

“http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/benghazi.asp -- This is a summary of a long and informative SNOPES article which is published under my Thoughts And Researches site at “manessmorrison2.blogspot.com” which was published today. This Snopes article is very interesting reading for those whose goal is not to destroy Hillary Clinton and all inconvenient liberal thought.

“Claim: Various critical statements about the September 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya:

FALSE: Administration officials watched the attacks unfold in real time but did nothing to intervene.

FALSE: Requests issued by U.S. personnel for military back-up during the attacks were denied.

FALSE: General Carter Ham was relieved of his command for attempting to provide military assistance during the Benghazi attacks.

FALSE: Rear Admiral Charles M. Gaouette was relieved of his command for attempting to provide military assistance during the Benghazi attacks.”





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ferguson-justice-department-say-police-antagonized-crowds-violated-free-speech-rights/

Feds: Police violated free-speech rights during Ferguson unrest
CBS/AP
June 30, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Ferguson police routinely discriminated against blacks, DOJ says
Play VIDEO -- Ferguson makes history with new city council

FERGUSON, Mo. -- Police antagonized crowds gathered to protest in Ferguson, violated free-speech rights and made it difficult to hold officers accountable, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report summary obtained by CBS News.

The summary cited "vague and arbitrary" orders to keep protesters moving that violated their rights of assembly and free speech. It is part of a longer "after-action" report to be delivered this week to top police officials in Ferguson, St. Louis city and county and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The summary suggests that unrest that followed the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown was aggravated by the community's hostility toward Ferguson police and worsened when authorities didn't quickly divulge details of his death, the newspaper reported Tuesday.

"Had law enforcement released information on the officer-involved shooting in a timely manner and continued the information flow as it became available, community distrust and media skepticism would most likely have been lessened," according to the document.

Ferguson police routinely discriminated against blacks, DOJ says

Brown, who was black and unarmed, was fatally shot Aug. 9 by officer Darren Wilson, who is white. A grand jury and the Justice Department both declined to prosecute Wilson, who later resigned, but another Justice Department report released in March was critical of Ferguson police and the city's profit-driven municipal court system.

The after-action report, which then-Attorney General Eric Holder announced in September, looks at the way the four agencies responded in the first 16 days after the shooting and is separate from other federal civil rights inquiries into Brown's death and the overall policing practices of the Ferguson force, and done by the Justice Department's Community Oriented Policing Services office.

The new report, which the newspaper said is subject to revision, cited other problems, too: The use of dogs for crowd control incited fear and anger, and the DOJ suggested that the practice be prohibited. The report also said that tear gas was sometimes used without warning on people who had nowhere to retreat.

There were inconsistencies in the way police used force and made arrests, the report said, having dedicated "officer training on operational and tactical skills without appropriate balance of de-escalation and problem-solving training."

The full report is expected to contain about 45 "findings," each including a recommendation for improvement, the Post-Dispatch reported.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson told the newspaper he didn't have enough information yet to comment on the report, but that he hopes that it provides a blueprint for dealing with similar situations in the future.

St. Louis County chief Jon Belmar declined to comment, saying he would address his concerns directly to federal officials.

The city of Ferguson issued a statement saying officials are "reviewing these latest findings and will act accordingly." The Missouri Department of Public Safety, which oversees the highway patrol, did not respond to the newspaper's request for comment.

The summary found that from the beginning, use of a "highly elevated tactical response" set a tone that "limited options for a measured, strategic approach." It acknowledges that a tactical response was sometimes called for, but an "elevated daytime response was not justified and served to escalate rather than de-escalate the overall situation."

The report also found that police "underestimated the impact social media had on the incident and the speed at which both facts and rumors were spread and failed to have a social media strategy."




“The summary cited "vague and arbitrary" orders to keep protesters moving that violated their rights of assembly and free speech. It is part of a longer "after-action" report to be delivered this week to top police officials in Ferguson, St. Louis city and county and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. …. "Had law enforcement released information on the officer-involved shooting in a timely manner and continued the information flow as it became available, community distrust and media skepticism would most likely have been lessened," according to the document. Ferguson police routinely discriminated against blacks, DOJ says. …. The after-action report, which then-Attorney General Eric Holder announced in September, looks at the way the four agencies responded in the first 16 days after the shooting and is separate from other federal civil rights inquiries …. The new report, which the newspaper said is subject to revision, cited other problems, too: The use of dogs for crowd control incited fear and anger, and the DOJ suggested that the practice be prohibited. The report also said that tear gas was sometimes used without warning on people who had nowhere to retreat. There were inconsistencies in the way police used force and made arrests, the report said, having dedicated "officer training on operational and tactical skills without appropriate balance of de-escalation and problem-solving training." .... The summary found that from the beginning, use of a "highly elevated tactical response" set a tone that "limited options for a measured, strategic approach." It acknowledges that a tactical response was sometimes called for, but an "elevated daytime response was not justified and served to escalate rather than de-escalate the overall situation."

The first TV news report out of Ferguson did, I have to admit, look like the police crackdown in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. That was the first time I had ever seen all those military vehicles and body armor in use by a police department, and the sheer number of officers present. It frightened and disgusted me, and I believe it produced the same response in many other Americans including Congress and the Senate. Public reaction began to be voiced within a week of that first news report.

Luckily, official moves have since been made to limit the military gear that is being provided to our policemen, and are now to be sanctioned only when the departments voice a need for all that. Pres. Obama was in the news for making an executive action on that issue several months ago, I believe. It is not surprising that the Pentagon giveaway program was started under George W. Bush in the aftershock of the 9/11 disaster, and is linked with the Patriot Act.

Our country needs to back away from using a heavy-handed response such as that in a protest situation when communication was needed more at the time, and there are other things in the Patriot Act that present problems. This police practice of confiscating and selling -- for city profit -- the personal possessions of suspects is another, though I think that is authorized under RICOH. The very wealthy fight every attempt to diminish their personal wealth, but the poor are apparently not so protected by the Constitution. The car in which drugs are found can be confiscated, supposedly to be evidence in the trial, but many people in the South go to Police Auctions regularly to buy “as is” cars at a good price. The city benefits from that.

That practice and the aggressive ticketing of the poor, racking up fines that are very hard for an unemployed person to pay, and often for a simple broken taillight, are both immoral and unethical actions. The police officer gets browny points with his administration, and the city gets money for their pension fund. That practice is widespread across the country, and needs to be declared unconstitutional if possible. I would like for a sharp class action lawyer to collect some of those cases and file suit. Smart alecks when I was young used to say, “take it to the Supreme Court,” and that’s exactly what I hope happens. I will try to remember to collect further articles on this newest DOJ report to see if there are any legal results.






http://www.cbsnews.com/news/authorities-anti-vaccine-doctor-dead-in-apparent-suicide/

Authorities: Anti-vaccine doctor dead in apparent suicide
CBS/AP
June 27, 2015

Photograph -- Police say Dr. Jeff Bradstreet (seen in this undated photo from the Autism One Facebook page) died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, shortly after his Georgia office was raided by agents from the FDA. FACEBOOK/AUTISM ONE

CHIMNEY ROCK, N.C. -- Authorities say Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, who published research based on the medically disproved claim that vaccines cause autism, has been found dead in an apparent suicide in North Carolina.

The Rutherford County Sheriff's Office said in a news release issued this week that Bradstreet died of what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.

Bradstreet, who was from Braselton, Georgia, was found in the Rocky Broad River in Chimney Rock on June 19. His body was found by a fisherman. The sheriff's department said Tuesday that a handgun was also pulled from the river.

Authorities are still investigating.

Bradstreet ran a clinic in Buford, Georgia. He also owned Creation's Own, a maker of dietary supplements, which he also prescribed.

The Gwinnett Daily Post reports that agents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, aided by the Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency, raided the Bradstreet Wellness Center last week. The FDA did not reveal to the paper why agents had searched Bradstreet's office.

Bradstreet's family is now raising funds online to investigate his death, including "an exhaustive investigation into the possibility of foul play."

The Bradstreet Wellness Center's website describes the practice's focus as "treating children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, PPD, and related neurological and developmental disorders," through the use of measured biomarkers.

"Our mission is to positively impact children's lives by meeting their biological, behavioral, and nutritional needs," it states. "Properly identify and address the underlying issues so that the child's brain, gut and immune systems can begin to function and heal."

In 2009, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Office of Special Masters found Bradstreet's research claiming causation between autism and environmental mercury exposure, which were published in non-peer-reviewed journals, and his testimony about links between a young patient's autism and his MMR vaccination, to be unconvincing and unsupported by evidence.

The court's opinion also questioned Bradstreet's treatment of a Florida boy whose family had filed a claim under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Over several years, Bradstreet prescribed a variety of dietary supplements, "de-yeasting," secretin infusions, immunoglobulin therapy and chelation therapy, as well as numerous non-standard laboratory tests which were not FDA-approved.




“Authorities say Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, who published research based on the medical-ly disproved claim that vaccines cause autism, has been found dead in an apparent suicide in North Carolina. …. Bradstreet ran a clinic in Buford, Georgia. He also owned Creation's Own, a maker of dietary supplements, which he also prescribed. The Gwinnett Daily Post reports that agents from the U.S. Food and Drug Admin-istration, aided by the Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency, raided the Bradstreet Wellness Center last week. The FDA did not reveal to the paper why agents had searched Bradstreet's office. …. In 2009, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Office of Special Masters found Bradstreet's research claiming causation between autism and environmental mercury exposure, which were published in non-peer-reviewed journals, and his testimony about links between a young patient's autism and his MMR vaccination, to be unconvincing and unsupported by evidence.”

“Bradstreet prescribed a variety of dietary supplements, "de-yeasting," secretin infusions, immunoglobulin therapy and chelation therapy, as well as numerous non-standard laboratory tests ….” Those “newspapers” that are sold at the grocery store checkout counter are full of ads for these things. You can also find copper bracelets for arthritis and some kind of silver colored bracelet which is sold to simply “make you feel better,” with rave reviews from buyers on how much better they feel now that they bought it!

It is shameful, however, that products like that are still to be found on the market for the gullible to spend their retirement money on. In addition, his followers are refusing to get their kids vaccinated and causing public health woes with what could cause a serious epidemic. Measles does sometimes kill children, after all, sometimes deafness. I’m sorry to hear that this “doctor” killed himself, but I have no sympathy for him. He was undoubtedly making money hand over fist with his Autism clinic and medical fakery. He probably thought he was about to go to jail and couldn’t deal with it.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-may-see-more-money-in-their-paycheck-soon/

Some Americans may see more money in their paychecks soon
By MAJOR GARRETT CBS NEWS
June 30, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Obama to expand overtime pay eligibility for millions

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As many as 5 million Americans could get a raise under a plan the president announced today to make more people eligible for overtime pay.

Right now, Americans who make more than $23,660 per year for their 40-hour work are not eligible for overtime pay. Under the new Labor Department rule, that salary cap would be raised to $50,440 per year.

That's the first overhaul of the overtime rules since 1975.

Richard Trumka is president of the AFL-CIO.

"When you put more money in the pockets of workers, businesses get new customers and when they get new customers there's new demand and that new demand creates jobs and that's what this is likely to do," he said.

Jamie Richardson, vice president at fast-food chain White Castle, disagrees.

"We know it costs us $8-12 million more per year. As a family owned business, $8-12 million is a lot of money," he said.

"It's gonna make it really difficult for those general managers who want to get to the next level - who through their own hard working spirit and desire to achieve are told now 'Geez, we really can't have you do that,' we need you to just work 35 hours a week or just 40 hours a week," he said.

For the first time, the federal wage level for overtime pay will be adjusted for inflation each year. The administration estimates business will now pay $1.2 billion in wages they were not paying before.




“As many as 5 million Americans could get a raise under a plan the president announced today to make more people eligible for overtime pay. Right now, Americans who make more than $23,660 per year for their 40-hour work are not eligible for overtime pay. Under the new Labor Department rule, that salary cap would be raised to $50,440 per year. That's the first overhaul of the overtime rules since 1975. Richard Trumka is president of the AFL-CIO. "When you put more money in the pockets of workers, businesses get new customers and when they get new customers there's new demand and that new demand creates jobs and that's what this is likely to do," he said. …. For the first time, the federal wage level for overtime pay will be adjusted for inflation each year. The administration estimates business will now pay $1.2 billion in wages they were not paying before.”

White Castle is a pretty large chain. When I lived in DC there was one in Georgetown, and they’re down in FL, too. I doubt that they are so poor that they can’t pay overtime to a worker making less than $50,440 per year. Most of those workers probably have a family and a mortgage to pay, and $50,000 doesn’t go that far, these days. I’m more worried about the workers than I am about that hamburger chain. They advertise daily on TV down here, which is a very large expense. If they have financial trouble they could stop that.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-auschwitz-guard-oskar-groening-asks-god-for-forgiveness-at-trial-in-germany/

Former Nazi guard asks God for forgiveness at trial
CBS/AP
July 1, 2015

Photograph -- Defendant and German former SS officer Oskar Groening , 94, dubbed the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz", sits on July 1, 2015 at the courtroom at the 'Ritterakademie' venue in Lueneburg, northern Germany ahead of his trial. RONNY HARTMANN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

BERLIN -- A 94-year-old former SS sergeant who served in Auschwitz testified Wednesday he helped the death camp function in his role sorting cash and valuables seized from Jews after they arrived in cattle-cars.

Oskar Groening told the Lueneburg state court in a statement read by his attorney that it was hard today to understand the blind obedience he had to the Nazi system even when witnessing the terrible atrocities perpetrated at the death camp in German-occupied Poland.

"There was a self-denial in me that today I find impossible to explain," Groening said, the dpa news agency reported. "Perhaps it was also the convenience of obedience with which we were brought up, which allowed no contradiction. This indoctrinated obedience prevented registering the daily atrocities as such and rebelling against them."

Groening is accused of helping Auschwitz function in his job at the camp for which the German press has dubbed him the "Accountant of Auschwitz." He guarded prisoners' baggage on the ramps, but his main task was to collect and tally money stolen from the new arrivals and then send it to Berlin.

Though pleas are not entered in the German system, as Groening's trial on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder opened in April he told the court he felt a moral guilt for what he had done. He faces a possible three to 15 years in prison if convicted.

In testimony Wednesday, Auschwitz survivor Irene Weiss, 84, told the court she vividly remembered arriving at the death camp as a 13-year-old and being immediately separated from her entire family except for her older sister.

She said she asked other prisoners when she would see them again.

"A woman pointed to a chimney and said: 'Do you see the smoke? There is your family,'" she said, according to a transcript of her statement from her attorneys.

Weiss, who joined the trial as a co-plaintiff like many other Holocaust survivors as allowed under German law, said she considered Groening more than just a "small cog in the machine."

"If he were sitting here today wearing his SS uniform, I would tremble, and all the horror that I experienced as a 13-year old would return to me," said Weiss, who lost her parents, younger sister and three brothers in Auschwitz. "To that 13-year-old, any person who wore that uniform in that place, represented terror and the depths to which humanity can sink, regardless of what function they performed."

In his statement, Groening said even though he had known what was going on at Auschwitz, the personal stories of the co-plaintiffs during the trial had brought home the enormity of the atrocities.

"I can only ask my God for forgiveness," he said.

In April, an Auschwitz survivor who lost 49 family members in the Holocaust said the fact that Groening was on trial is more important than any punishment. Eva Pusztai-Fahidi, who lost relatives including her parents and sister, told the Lueneburg state court that seeing Groening in court is "a kind of satisfaction."

Another Auschwitz survivor, Eva Mozes Kor, made headlines in April when she shared an embrace with Groening during his trial.

"I know many people will criticize me for this photo, but so be it," Kor wrote in a Facebook post. "It was two human beings seventy years after it happened. For the life of me I will never understand why anger is preferable to a goodwill gesture. Nothing good ever comes from anger."




“A 94-year-old former SS sergeant who served in Auschwitz testified Wednesday he helped the death camp function in his role sorting cash and valuables seized from Jews after they arrived in cattle-cars. Oskar Groening told the Lueneburg state court in a statement read by his attorney that it was hard today to understand the blind obedience he had to the Nazi system even when witnessing the terrible atrocities perpetrated at the death camp in German-occupied Poland. "There was a self-denial in me that today I find impossible to explain," Groening said. …. .

"Perhaps it was also the convenience of obedience with which we were brought up, which allowed no contradiction. This indoctrinated obedience prevented registering the daily atrocities as such and rebelling against them." This blind obedience issue is one that simply doesn’t occur as much in the US. We were brought up with cultural heroes who were impudent and determined to resist the British Crown in its’ Stamp Act, and other unfair actions against the colonists. Where I have seen it is in cults, such as the Jonestown cult, the Heaven’s Gate cult, and some say the current US “religion” called Scientology. What they all have in common is that they take emotionally under-confident and “needy” people, approach them one by one with praise and personal attention, and then make them feel worthwhile. What the cult-leader gets out of it is personal power and money. The cult leader is either a hardcore con artist or is possessed of some very strange ideas about the nature of reality. In other words, the leader may himself believe in the cult. I have to include the beginnings of Mormonism in this. Joseph either believed the lengthy book he wrote or he spent a lot of time and energy on something that he himself may have seen as absolutely bizarre.

The video clips I have seen of Hitler shows a manic, raving, ranting speaker who played on the deeply seated societal hatred of Jews to incite the crowd into a frenzy. I have see fundamentalist Christian preachers do the same thing. Some people are prey to that kind of approach because they don’t have a very good capacity for analysis and critical thinking. Sometimes they are borderline insane, given to hysteria especially group hysteria, and other times they are simply of limited acumen. Others are emotionally what I consider to be weak individuals and have no strong foundation in their own personal worth. They want above all else to be accepted and “popular.” This kind of thing shows up in teenagers, oftentimes. They will do things that even they don’t believe are good just to “fit in.” They are lemmings. Those are the ones that this Nazi was describing. I feel sorry for them, but at the same time I feel disgust. “In his statement, Groening said even though he had known what was going on at Auschwitz, the personal stories of the co-plaintiffs during the trial had brought home the enormity of the atrocities. "I can only ask my God for forgiveness," he said. Maybe if there is a Judgment Day, God will forgive him. According to his story he didn’t personally kill or torture anyone.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/victorias-secret-on-call-policy-remains-under-wraps/

Victoria's Secret on-call policy remains under wraps
By KATE GIBSON MONEYWATCH
July 1, 2015

In the face of a legal challenge in California and a probe by the New York State attorney general, underwear purveyor Victoria's Secret is said to have pulled the plug on a controversial labor practice known as on-call scheduling.

BuzzFeed reported the chain informed employees on Monday that it would no longer require its workers be available for shifts that could then be canceled with little notice and zero pay.

Victoria's Secret, one of five brands run by Columbus, Ohio-based L Brands (LB), on Tuesday said it was working on a response to the online publication's story but was not yet ready to do so seven hours after being called for comment.

In addition to Victoria's Secret, L Brands operates Bath and Body Works, La Senza, Victoria's Secret PINK and Henri Bendel. The company rang up $11.5 billion in sales in 2014 and runs nearly 3,000 specialty stores in the U.S.

"It feels like a safe bet to say that Victoria Secret's is feeling pressure," Elianne Farhat, deputy campaign director for the Fair Workweek Initiative at the Center for Popular Democracy, said. "We've seen a growing demand across the country for fair schedules because of the extreme chaos it creates."

Workers and labor activists say on-call scheduling can create havoc for livelihoods and personal lives, with the unpredictable hours making tasks such as taking classes, working another part-time job and covering child care difficult.

The practice of having on-call shifts has historically involved professions including emergency and medical workers, "but they are fairly compensated," Farhat said. "Over the last 10 years, as the retail sector has become the source of many jobs in our economy. It has seen the increased use of on-call scheduling."

If Victoria's Secret is shelving the on-call practice, "they are probably doing it to err on the side of caution, and not spend the time or money litigating the issue," said Los Angeles attorney Laura Reathaford, a partner at Venable who specializes in management-side employment issues. "California is a very employee-friendly state -- it's a very litigious state too."

If the company is indeed discontinuing the system, it would be offering some of what is sought in a lawsuit pending against the retailer in California.

"We're suing to recoup wages, and we're also seeking to put an end to the practice," David Leimbach, an attorney at Marlin & Saltzman, said of the litigation filed on behalf of two former Victoria Secret workers.

The complaint was filed on July 9, 2014, and the proposed class includes all individuals who worked at Victoria's Secret in California from July 9, 2010, to the present. L Brands told the court the proposed class numbered around 20,000, Leimbach said.

The federal judge presiding over the case dismissed the workers' claim that they were entitled to compensation under the state's reporting-time-pay law for on-call shifts for which they did not have to show up for work. But he also granted the two the right to appeal, saying the question of on-call shifts presented a question of law that could go either way.

"I can see the judge's point, no one really showed up, no one took the bus only to turn around and go home," Reathaford said.

"The district court dismissed that one claim, but said it's something the 9th circuit should immediately consider," Leimbach said.

Beyond the pending suit, no-call scheduling is drawing the attention of the New York state attorney general's office, which in April sent letters to 13 retailers, including Victoria's Secret, seeking information about their scheduling practices. A spokesman on Tuesday said the AG's office had no further comment.

And San Francisco next week begins enforcing an ordinance that requires major retailers give at least 24 hours notice to workers when changing or canceling shifts, or give them at least two hours of pay. The measure, which took effect in January, applies to retailers with at least 20 stores worldwide and 20 or more employees in San Francisco.




“BuzzFeed reported the chain informed employees on Monday that it would no longer require its workers be available for shifts that could then be canceled with little notice and zero pay. Victoria's Secret, one of five brands run by Columbus, Ohio-based L Brands (LB), on Tuesday said it was working on a response to the online publication's story but was not yet ready to do so seven hours after being called for comment. …. . The company rang up $11.5 billion in sales in 2014 and runs nearly 3,000 specialty stores in the U.S. "It feels like a safe bet to say that Victoria Secret's is feeling pressure," Elianne Farhat, deputy campaign director for the Fair Workweek Initiative at the Center for Popular Democracy, said. "We've seen a growing demand across the country for fair schedules because of the extreme chaos it creates." …. If Victoria's Secret is shelving the on-call practice, "they are probably doing it to err on the side of caution, and not spend the time or money litigating the issue," said Los Angeles attorney Laura Reathaford, a partner at Venable who specializes in management-side employment issues. "California is a very employee-friendly state -- it's a very litigious state too." If the company is indeed discontinuing the system, it would be offering some of what is sought in a lawsuit pending against the retailer in California. "We're suing to recoup wages, and we're also seeking to put an end to the practice," David Leimbach, an attorney at Marlin & Saltzman, said of the litigation filed on behalf of two former Victoria Secret workers. …. . L Brands told the court the proposed class numbered around 20,000, Leimbach said. The federal judge presiding over the case dismissed the workers' claim that they were entitled to compensation under the state's reporting-time-pay law for on-call shifts for which they did not have to show up for work. But he also granted the two the right to appeal, saying the question of on-call shifts presented a question of law that could go either way. "I can see the judge's point, no one really showed up, no one took the bus only to turn around and go home," Reathaford said. …. And San Francisco next week begins enforcing an ordinance that requires major retailers give at least 24 hours notice to workers when changing or canceling shifts, or give them at least two hours of pay. The measure, which took effect in January, applies to retailers with at least 20 stores worldwide and 20 or more employees in San Francisco.”

Work conditions for low wage workers is unfair, and always has been. In restaurants the owners have for years been requiring their wait staff to give the management a share of their tip money (for shame!), work long hours without overtime if they are above the minimum pay grade, work double shifts at short notice, and other things that are sleazy and unethical. If the worker wants a better deal he may have difficulty getting another job in economic times like ours today. Those businesses will likely fire a worker who talks to a union rep or tries to start a union in the business.

Within the last year or two strikes have been in the news anyway. McDonald’s has given in and raised all their lowest paid workers wages, but there’s still “a fur piece to go.” (Look that up on Google if you don’t know what it means.) Thank goodness President Obama in 2014 called on Congress to raise the national minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Now that would really stimulate the economy. Wal-mart and several other entities from businesses to states have elevated the pay scale voluntarily. I believe they thought, when strikes broke out at McDonalds and some half dozen other fast food companies, that the handwriting was on the wall.

I hope Congress will follow the lead and raise the federal minimum wage as Obama is challenging them to do. Republicans are always loathe to raising wages, but it is a fact that if the poor receive more money they will spend most of it quickly on things they need, which makes the overall economy prosper and businesses to expand as the DEMAND for their products increases, thus reducing joblessness and the number of people who are “on the dole” from the government. It’s a win-win, but businesses don’t want to do it for the most part and as a result neither do Republicans. They have been taught only one form of economic theory and they believe in it like they say they believe in the Bible.