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Monday, June 24, 2013

Ecuador says Snowden seeking asylum there

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) ? Ecuador's foreign minister said Monday his country will act not on its interests but on its principles as it considers an asylum request from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, wanted for revealing classified U.S. secrets.

Speaking to reporters through a translator at a hotel in Hanoi, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said the asylum request "has to do with freedom of expression and with the security of citizens around the world."

Patino spoke briefly to reporters on his way to a meeting with Vietnam's foreign minister. He did not say how long it would take Ecuador to decide.

Snowden was on a flight from Hong Kong that arrived in Moscow Sunday and was booked on a flight to Cuba Monday, the Russian news agencies ITAR-Tass and Interfax reported, citing unnamed airline officials.

"We know that he's currently in Moscow, and we are ... in touch with the highest authorities of Russia," Patino said.

Anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said Snowden was bound for Ecuador "via a safe route for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisers from WikiLeaks." The organization's founder Julian Assange, was granted asylum by Ecuador last year and has been staying at the country's embassy in the United Kingdom.

The Russian reports said a plane carrying Snowden arrived in Moscow on Sunday and he was booked on a flight to Cuba on Monday. The reports cited unnamed airline officials and said he intended to travel from Cuba to Caracas, Venezuela. There was also speculation that he might try to reach Ecuador.

Snowden had been in hiding in Hong Kong for several weeks after he revealed information on the highly classified spy programs.

Patino said Ecuador would not base its asylum decision on its potential to damage the country's relationship with the United States

"There are some governments that act more upon their own interests, but we do not," Patino said. "We act upon our principles."

He added, "We take care of the human rights of the people."

Patino was to hold a news conference Monday evening in Hanoi.

WikiLeaks said it was providing legal help to Snowden at his request and that he was being escorted by diplomats and legal advisers from the group.

Assange has spent a year inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about sex crime allegations. He told the Sydney Morning Herald that his organization is in a position to help Snowden because it has expertise in international asylum and extradition law.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ecuador-says-snowden-seeking-asylum-170413690.html

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Judge says no to Trayvon Martin 'shriek' analysis in Zimmerman case (+video)

In a major win for George Zimmerman?s defense, Judge Debra Nelson found on Saturday that disputed audio analysis of Trayvon Martin?s last moments is too tentative to allow into court.

By Patrik Jonsson,?Staff writer / June 22, 2013

A Florida jury won?t hear expert suggestions that Trayvon Martin gave a desperate shriek for help in the background of a 911 call before being killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, a judge ruled Saturday.

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The ruling by Circuit Court Judge Debra Nelson is a clear win for Mr. Zimmerman, whose guilt or non-guilt will be decided by a six-woman jury, with opening arguments scheduled for Monday. Zimmerman is the lone survivor of a Feb. 26, 2012 conflict inside a gated Florida neighborhood that pitted him against an unarmed 17-year-old returning to where he was staying with a bag of Skittles in his pocket.

The lack of an immediate arrest and the appearance of racial underpinnings to the tragedy brought Martin?s death to the nation, where President Obama commented at one point that, ?If I had a son, he would?ve looked like Trayvon.? The case has since become a mirror in which America?s views on guns and race are reflected, and sometimes distorted.

The evidence, however, in the case is scant, which is one reason why both sides hyper-analyzed a rash of 911 calls to the Sanford Police Department. Using techniques dating back to World War II, two expert analysts ? Alan Reich and Tom Owen ? had ruled out Zimmerman as owning the voice that screams out ?help? (or ?stop,? as Reich interpreted it) before a gunshot rings.

?Was it George or not George, Trayvon or not Trayvon ? we had very simple elimination decisions ?,? Reich told the court last Friday. ?The scream levels were almost entirely those of Trayvon Martin

If admissible in court, the conclusion that Martin emitted the panicked shriek would have heavily contradicted Zimmerman?s contention that he was in a defensive, not offensive, position when he fired. Self-defense protections only apply if jurors decide that a reasonable person would have acted similarly to the defendant.

"The evidence should be heard by the jury, and let them decide," Assistant State Attorney Richard Mantei pleaded with Judge Nelson.

But ultimately Nelson ruled the testimony too subjective, likely taking into consideration how heavily a potentially flawed analysis could weight a verdict.

?Defense experts argued that the methods used by Messrs. Reich and Owen deviated from standard procedures. One of those experts, FBI analyst Hirotaka Nakasone, said using screams to peg a screamer is not possible, adding that he was ?disturbed? by the state?s reports suggesting Martin was the one who cried out.

To make his point, defense attorney Donald West singled out Mr. Reich?s analysis that Zimmerman sounded like a ?carnival barker? before Martin screamed ?stop,? notions and words he said nobody else has concluded.

?His report should begin, ?It was a dark and stormy night,?? West said.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/hFhNr1CmcfU/Judge-says-no-to-Trayvon-Martin-shriek-analysis-in-Zimmerman-case-video

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Snowden says US targets included China cell phones

HONG KONG (AP) ? A former National Security Agency contractor says that U.S. hacking targets in China included the nation's mobile-phone companies and two universities hosting extensive Internet traffic hubs in the latest allegations as Washington pushes Hong Kong to extradite the ex-contractor.

The latest charges from Edward Snowden came in a series of reports published over the weekend by the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's leading English-language daily. The newspaper, which appears to have access to Snowden, said Saturday he is still in Hong Kong and not in police custody.

On Saturday, the Obama administration warned Hong Kong against dragging out the extradition of Snowden, reflecting concerns over a possible long legal battle before he ever appears in a U.S. courtroom to answer espionage charges for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs.

A formal extradition request would also pit Beijing against Washington at a time China is trying to deflect U.S. accusations that it carries out extensive surveillance on American government and commercial operations.

The U.S. has contacted authorities in Hong Kong to seek Snowden's extradition, the National Security Council said Saturday in a statement. The NSC advises the president on national security.

Snowden told the South China Morning Post that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." It added that Snowden said he had documents to support the hacking allegations, but the report did not identify the documents. It said he spoke to the paper in a June 12 interview.

With a population of more than 1.3 billion, China has massive cell-phone companies. China Mobile is the world's largest mobile network carrier, with 735 million subscribers, followed by China Unicom with 258 million users and China Telecom with 172 million users.

Snowden said Tsinghua University in Beijing and Chinese University in Hong Kong, home of some of the country's major Internet traffic hubs, were targets of extensive hacking by U.S. spies this year. He said the NSA was focusing on so-called "network backbones" in China, through which enormous amounts of Internet data passes.

Snowden is believed to be hiding in an unknown location in Hong Kong, where he has been holed up since admitting to providing information to the news media about highly classified NSA surveillance programs. He has not been seen publicly since he checked out of a Hong Kong hotel on June 10.

The newspaper reports came after a one-page criminal complaint against Snowden was unsealed Friday in federal court, revealing he had been charged with espionage and theft.

The Obama administration on Saturday warned Hong Kong against slow-walking his extradition, with White House national security adviser Tom Donilon saying in an interview with CBS News: "Hong Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this case."

Some Hong Kong lawmakers have called on Beijing to intervene and instruct the Hong Kong government on how to handle the situation before his case goes through the courts, but Beijing has yet to comment. The Hong Kong government has also not commented.

But China's state-run media have used the case to poke back at Washington after the U.S. had spent the past several months pressuring China on its international spying operations..

A commentary published Sunday by Xinhua News Agency said Snowden's disclosures of U.S. spying activities in China have "put Washington in a really awkward situation."

"Washington should come clean about its record first. It owes ... an explanation to China and other countries it has allegedly spied on," it said. "It has to share with the world the range, extent and intent of its clandestine hacking programs."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-says-us-targets-included-china-cell-phones-073119007.html

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NCCR Launches New RFS Campaign - Restaurant News - QSR ...

The National Council of Chain Restaurants (NCCR) launched ?Feed Food Fairness: Take RFS Off the Menu,? a new grassroots campaign focused on repealing the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and the corn ethanol mandate. Coalition members joined with Virginia representative Bob Goodlatte, to expose the harmful economic effects of the RFS on American consumers, diners, and small business-owners and operators.

?The National Council of Chain Restaurants is committed to repealing the corn ethanol mandate and the Renewable Fuel Standard,? says Rob Green, NCCR executive director. ?Today we are mobilizing the restaurant community to join this coalition - composed of small businesses owners, operators, franchisees, and the entire food supply chain - to urge Congress to repeal the flawed RFS. The law unfairly increases food and commodity costs for chain restaurants and ultimately American diners and shoppers across the country. It is time for small business to engage directly in this important debate and ask their lawmakers to take RFS off the menu.?

Coalition members and partners in attendance at the Capitol Hill news conference included chain restaurant companies, small business owners, operators and franchisees, and supply chain partners who each described how the RFS hurts their business, stifles economic growth, and adversely impacts consumers and diners.

?White Castle is a fourth generation family business,? says Lisa Ingram, president of White Castle. ?We have seen firsthand how increasing food prices caused by the Renewable Fuel Standard affect not only our business, but American families who patronize our restaurants. In total, the RFS and corn ethanol mandate costs chain restaurants up to $3.2 billion annually.?

?I began my career in Jackson, Michigan, training to be a manager for a local franchise,? says Mark Behm, a Wendy?s franchise owner in Michigan. ?Now nearly 40 years later, my partners and I own the franchise. We are in pursuit of the American dream. But operating a small business in the U.S. is hard, especially in Michigan and during these economic times. The federal ethanol mandate unfairly increases the cost of food across the board."

?The Renewable Fuel Standard has directly affected the supply and cost of feed in major agricultural sectors of this country, affecting the family ranch and farm,? adds Steve Foglesong, a cattle producer and former president of the National Cattlemen?s Beef Association. ?Even in the wake of the worst drought in decades, the Environmental Protection Agency refused to grant relief through a waiver, making it apparent that the RFS is broken, and Congress needs to act. Cattlemen and women are not opposed to renewable fuels, but are seeking a level playing field to compete for a bushel of corn.?

?Feed Food Fairness? will mobilize a broad base of small business owners and operators and coalition members to urge Congress to pass the Renewable Fuel Standard Elimination Act (H.R. 1461), introduced by representative Goodlatte, which would repeal the federal RFS mandate.

Source: http://www.qsrmagazine.com/news/nccr-launches-new-rfs-campaign

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FBI pick: Obama poised to name Bush appointee James Comey

The White House announced today that on Friday, President Obama will nominate Bush's Deputy Attorney General James Comey to head the FBI.

By Nedra Pickler,?Associated Press / June 20, 2013

Deputy Attorney General James Comey gestures during a news conference in Washington. President Barack Obama is preparing to nominate former Bush administration official James Comey to head the FBI, people familiar with the decision said Wednesday, May 29, 2013.

Evan Vucci/AP/File

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President Barack Obama on Friday plans to nominate President George W. Bush's former No. 2 at the Justice Department, James Comey, to lead the FBI as the agency grapples with privacy debates over a host of recently exposed investigative tactics.

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Comey is perhaps best known for a remarkable 2004 standoff over a no-warrant wiretapping program at the hospital bed of Attorney General John Ashcroft. Comey rushed to the side of his bedridden boss to physically stop White House officials in their attempt to get an ailing Ashcroft to reauthorize the program.

If confirmed by the Senate, Comey would serve a 10-year tenure and replace Robert Mueller, who has held the job since the week before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Mueller is set to resign on Sept. 4 after overseeing the bureau's transformation into one the country's chief weapons against terrorism.

The White House said in a statement that Obama would announce his choice of Comey on Friday afternoon.

Comey was a federal prosecutor who served for several years as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York before coming to Washington after the Sept. 11 attacks as deputy attorney general. In recent years he's been an executive at defense company Lockheed Martin, general counsel to a hedge fund, board member at HSBC Holdings, and lecturer on national security law at Columbia Law School.

The White House may hope that Comey's Republican background and strong credentials will help him through Senate confirmation at a time when some of Obama's nominees have been facing tough battles. Republicans have said they see no major obstacles to his confirmation, although he is certain to face tough questions about his hedge fund work, his ties to Wall Street as well as how he would handle current, high-profile FBI investigations.

The FBI is responsible for both intelligence and law enforcement with more than 36,000 employees. It has faced questions in recent weeks over media leak probes involving The Associated Press and Fox News; the Boston Marathon bombings; the attack at Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans; and two vast government surveillance programs into phone records and online communications.

The leaker of those National Security Agency programs, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, also is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. And just this week Mueller revealed the FBI uses drones for surveillance of stationary subjects and said the privacy implications of such operations are worthy of debate.

Comey played a central role in holding up Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, one of the administration's great controversies and an episode that focused attention on the administration's controversial tactics in the war on terror.

In dramatic testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2007, Comey said he thought the no-warrant wiretapping program was so questionable that he refused to reauthorize it while serving as acting attorney general during Ashcroft's hospitalization. Comey said when he learned that the White House chief of staff and counsel were heading to Ashcroft's room despite his wife's instructions that there be no visitors, Comey beat them there and watched as Ashcroft turned them away.

"That night was probably the most difficult night of my professional life," Comey testified. He said he and Ashcroft had reservations about the program's legality, but he would not discuss details since the program was classified.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/9SbdPUiY-9k/FBI-pick-Obama-poised-to-name-Bush-appointee-James-Comey

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Friday, June 21, 2013

Pepin County Board adopts frac-free zone along Lake Pepin (Star Tribune)

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Unemployment fell in half of US states in May

In this Thursday, May 30, 2013, photo, job seekers line up to talk to recruiters during a job fair held in Atlanta. The government reports on state unemployment rates for May, on Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/John Amis)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Unemployment rates fell in half of U.S. states last month, led by drops in California, West Virginia, New York and Hawaii.

The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates rose in 17 states and were unchanged in eight.

Hiring has been steady nationwide, leading to a better job market in many areas of the country. Employers added jobs in 33 states last month. The biggest gains were in Ohio, Texas and Michigan.

The unemployment rate dipped in the Northeast to 7.5 percent from 7.6 percent, and fell in the West to 7.8 percent from 8 percent. It was flat in the Midwest at 7.2 percent and edged up in the South to 7.2 percent from 7.1 percent.

California and West Virginia had the largest declines in unemployment among all states. In California, the rate dropped to 8.6 percent from 9 percent in April. West Virginia's rate fell to 6.2 percent from 6.6 percent.

Both states reported job gains.

California has also seen the largest drop in unemployment among the states in the past 12 months. Its rate fell 2.1 percentage points from May 2012. Nevada's decline of 2 percent was the second largest.

New York and Hawaii also had significant declines in May from April. New York's unemployment rate dropped to 7.6 percent from 7.8 percent, while Hawaii's fell to 4.7 percent from 4.9 percent.

North Dakota had the nation's lowest unemployment rate at 3.2 percent.

Nevada had the highest at 9.5 percent. It was followed by Illinois and Mississippi, each at 9.1 percent.

Nationally, the economy added 175,000 jobs in May, nearly matching the average monthly gain for the past year. The unemployment rate ticked up to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent, but for a good reason: More Americans were confident they could find work and began searching for a job.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday offered a brighter outlook for the job market and economy. And Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed is likely to slow its bond-buying program later this year and end it next year if the economy continues to strengthen.

Fed officials now expect the unemployment rate to fall as low 7.2 percent this year and between 6.5 percent and 6.8 percent by the end of 2014.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-21-State%20Unemployment/id-f24c51b329e84309a600ebc7bfc0682f

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