The 200 Million Dollar TSA Sham
May 21, 2010
CBS News
By Armen Keteyian
(CBS) Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad was arrested after he boarded a plane headed for Dubai, though the government is spending millions each year on a program that’s supposed to spot terrorists before they reach the gate. As CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports, the program doesn’t seem to be working.
There’s a hidden layer of airport security most people don’t know about. It’s called “behavior detection,” and involves specially trained Transportation Security Administration employees whose primary mission is to spot terrorists.
They look for unique facial expressions and body language that may identify a potential threat. About 3,000 of these officers work at 161 U.S. airports — costing taxpayers nearly $200 million in 2009. This year, the TSA asked Congress for $20 million more to expand the program.
Click here for the full report.
Scientists Create Artificial Life
May 21, 2010
BBC News
By Victoria Gill
The researchers constructed a bacterium’s “genetic software” and transplanted it into a host cell.
The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species “dictated” by the synthetic DNA.
The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms.
Some also suggest that the potential benefits of the technology have been over-stated.
But the researchers hope eventually to design bacterial cells that will produce medicines and fuels and even absorb greenhouse gases.
The team was led by Dr Craig Venter of the J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in Maryland and California.
House Votes To Expand National DNA Database
May 21, 2010
CNET News
By Declan McCullagh
Millions of Americans arrested for but not convicted of crimes will likely have their DNA forcibly extracted and added to a national database, according to a bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday.
By a 357 to 32 vote, the House approved legislation that will pay state governments to require DNA samples, which could mean drawing blood with a needle, from adults “arrested for” certain serious crimes. Not one Democrat voted against the database measure, which would hand out about $75 million to states that agree to make such testing mandatory.
“We should allow law enforcement to use all the technology available to them…to reduce expensive and unjust false convictions, bring closure to victims by solving cold cases, better identify criminals, and keep those who commit violent crime from walking the streets,” said Rep. Harry Teague, the New Mexico Democrat who sponsored the bill.
But civil libertarians say DNA samples should be required only from people who have been convicted of crimes, and argue that if there is probable cause to believe that someone is involved in a crime, a judge can sign a warrant allowing a blood sample or cheek swab to be forcibly extracted.
“It’s wrong to treat someone as guilty before they’re convicted,” says Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute. “It inverts the concept of innocent until proven guilty.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership scheduled Tuesday’s debate on the bill–called the Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act of 2010–using a procedure known as the “suspension calendar” intended to be reserved for non-controversial legislation.
“Suspension of the rules is supposed to be for praising the winner of the NCAA championship or renaming Post Offices,” Harper says. “Things like collecting Americans’ DNA are supposed to be fully debated in Congress.”
In a surprise move, as the U.S. Congress was expanding the FBI’s DNA database, the U.K.’s new coalition government was pledging sharp curbs on its own databases.
Created in the mid-1990s, the UK National DNA Database originally was supposed to store data on convicted criminals, but grew to include records on more than 5 million Britons, including many who were only arrested on suspicion of a crime.
U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg promised once-in-a-century privacy reforms in a speech on Wednesday: “We won’t hold your Internet and e-mail records when there is just no reason to do so. CCTV will be properly regulated, as will the DNA database, with restrictions on the storage of innocent people’s DNA. Britain must not be a country where our children grow up so used to their liberty being infringed that they accept it without question.”
Click here for the full report.
5 Ways Grocery Stores Rip You Off
May 21, 2010
Wallet Pop
By Linda Doell
For most of us, going to the grocery store is unavoidable. And if you’re not careful, leaving too much money in stores’ hands will be unavoidable, too.
Scanners ring up wrong prices, stores overcharge, and you can end up paying more for less in subtle ways as well.
Just this week, we told you the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office filed criminal charges against the California grocery chain Ralph’s, alleging the retailer has been overcharging for prepackaged and weighed goods. Undercover inspectors found overcharges, incorrectly-priced food packages or packages that weighed lighter than they should, according to the allegations.
Stores also pump up the weight in packaged food, by adding ice or water solutions. The nonprofit National Conference on Weights and Measures says consumers may be paying up to $23 a pound for ice in seafood in certain circumstances, according to a 17-state investigation conducted earlier this year. An ice glaze is added during the packaging process to help preserve the quality. It’s legal, but some unscrupulous packagers can profit by pumping up the amount of the solution.
LiveCheap.com, a website dedicated to helping people, well, live cheap, came up with the top five ways grocery stores can get you to pay more than you should:
Click here for the full report.
Stocks Predicted To Tumble Another 20%
May 21, 2010
CNBC
By Jeff Cox
Stocks are likely to continue their aggressive decline and shed another 20 percent in value as the world economy weakens, noted economist Nouriel Roubini told CNBC.As the market slides into correction territory, Roubini said weakness in euro zone countries and a slowdown in the US and other developed countries will make things even more difficult for investors in the months ahead.
“There are some parts of the global economy that are now at the risk of a double-dip recession,” said Roubini, head of Roubini Global Economics. “From here on I see things getting worse.”
Prices in both stocks and commodities are likely to take a hit, and investors may only be safe in cash and other safe havens. Roubini said investors also can use options to hedge against future market risk that he said is sure to come as conditions weaken in the US, Japan, China and through much of Europe.
Click here for the full report.
Europe’s Crisis Poses Risk To USA
May 21, 2010
Yahoo Finance
By Jeannine Aversa
WASHINGTON (AP) — Europe’s debt crisis poses serious risks to the unfolding economic recoveries in the United States and around the globe, a Federal Reserve official said Thursday.
Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo, in remarks to a House subcommittee, said the timing of Europe’s problems on the heels of the global financial crisis is a “potentially serious setback.”
If the crisis were to crimp lending and the flow of credit globally, triggering more financial turmoil, that would endanger both the U.S. and global recoveries, he said.
“Although we view such a development as unlikely, the swoon in global financial markets earlier this month suggests it is not out of the question,” said Tarullo.
As he testified, Wall Street took another nosedive on European debt fears. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 376 points when the market closed.
In a worst case scenario, financial turmoil “could lead to a replay of the freezing up of financial markets that we witnessed in 2008,” he said. That contributed to the worst global recession since the 1930s.
For now, Tarullo said there are good reasons to believe U.S. banks and financial institutions can withstand some fallout from European financial difficulties.
The Euro As We Know It Is Dead
May 21, 2010
Telegraph
By Jeff Randall
For Angela Merkel, leader of the eurozone’s richest country, a queue is forming of high-quality adversaries. As she tips German Geld und Gut into the furnace of a rescue package for the euro, while going it alone in a misguided ban on market “manipulators”, the brass-neck Chancellor has infuriated domestic voters, angered her EU partners (in particular the French) and invited the so-called wolf pack of global traders to do its worst.In one respect, Mrs Merkel is right: “The euro is in danger… if the euro fails, then Europe fails.” What she has not yet admitted publicly is that the main cause of the single currency’s peril appears beyond her control and therefore her impetuous response to its crisis of confidence is doomed to fail.
The euro has many flaws, but its weakest link is Greece, whose fundamental problem is that for years it spent too much, earned too little and plugged the gap by borrowing in order to enjoy a rich man’s lifestyle. It flouted EU rules on the limits to budget deficits; its national accounts were a moussaka of minced statistics, topped with a cheesy sauce of jiggery-pokery.
By any legitimate measure, Greece was unworthy of eurozone membership. That it achieved card-carrying status was down to the sleight-of-hand skills of its Brussels fixers and the acquiescence of central bank bean-counters. Now we know the truth, jet-hosing it with yet more debt makes no sense. Another dose of funny money will delay but not extinguish the need for austerity.
Click here for the full report.
Obama’s Intelligence Chief Resigns
May 21, 2010 by Andrew
Filed under Government
May 21, 2010
Telegraph
By Philip Sherwell
The abrupt departure of Dennis Blair, the president’s appointee as director of national intelligence in Jan 2009, signals that the US is still struggling to overhaul its often-squabbling intelligence agencies.
The retired admiral will hand in his resignation on Friday after Mr Obama called him on Thursday to ask him to step down, ending months of speculation about his future. An administration official said that several “strong candidates” had already been interviewed as replacements – a clear indication that the White House had been planning his exit for some time.
The final blow for Mr Blair came when he was passed over for a crucial mission to Islamabad to discuss new US intelligence on threats by Pakistan Taliban against US targets.
James Jones, the national security advisor, and Leon Panetta, the CIA director with whom Mr Blair had lost previous turf wars, made the trip to present information provided by Faisal Shahzad, the failed Times Square bomber.
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Senate Passes Finance Bill
May 21, 2010
The Wall Street Journal
By Greg Hitt and Damian Paletta
WASHINGTON—The Senate on Thursday approved the most extensive overhaul of financial-sector regulation since the 1930s, hoping to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis that hit the U.S. economy starting in 2007. The legislation passed the Senate 59 to 39 and must now be reconciled with a similar bill passed by the House of Representatives in December, before it can be sent to President Barack Obama to be signed into law.
The controversial measure, supported by the Obama administration, sets up new regulatory bodies and restricts the actions of banks and other financial firms. It is designed to try to make order of the cascading regulatory chaos that ensued in 2008 when mammoth banks and some unregulated financial firms collapsed, and public funds were used to save them. Among other things, the legislation would:
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Video Shows Exactly How Mercury Kills The Brain
May 21, 2010
Prison Planet
This video from the University of Calgary thoroughly shows how brain cells degenerate and die when being exposed to mercury. This is the same neurotoxin that is found in vaccines, which has led the the massive increase with people suffering from autism and other neurological diseases (mainly children). Mercury is one of the most toxic substances you can put in a human body. It is a heavy metal known to contribute to neurological disorders, including autism, dementia, and even Alzheimer’s disease. Mercury also tends to build up in tissues in the human body and is not easily removed, so even small exposures to mercury can accumulate over time and end up compromising the health of the person involved. It’s vital you do the proper research before you plan to get any sort of vaccine injected in you especially if you are planning to have your children vaccinated.
Click here for the full report.
