Month: May 2017

UN Climate Chief: Cities Best Armed to Fight Climate Change

Posted on 05/05/2017 by Cosc

Cities are places where action on climate change can have most impact because they are engines for innovation and also highly vulnerable to a warming planet, the head of the U.N. climate program said on Thursday.

More than 140 countries have ratified the Paris agreement on climate change and they are looking for leadership from cities to help them implement commitments their national governments made, Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said.

“As each country looks to meet their emissions reduction, energy efficiency or renewable energy goals, they will look to cities as places where transformational change can make the most difference,” Espinosa told a conference on urban resilience in Bonn.

She said cities have a big responsibility in tackling climate change not only because they are large contributors to environmentally harmful greenhouse gas emissions but they also have potential to deliver prosperity and economic opportunity.

“Climate action in cities is the key that unlocks a low emissions and resilient future,” she said.

Climate change risks will become even more pressing as around two-thirds of people are predicted to live in cities by 2050, with developing countries in particular poised to see their urban populations soar.

“Cities should welcome a transformation to sustainable development because cities are uniquely vulnerable,” said Espinosa.

Local action and educating citizens about climate change will be key drivers in reaching the goal agreed under the Paris deal — in effect since last year — to keep global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, she said.

“It is on the ground in the real world where everything comes together,” Espinosa said.

She cited data that shows more than two thirds of the world’s largest cities are in coastal regions, making their citizens vulnerable to sea level rises, flooding and other extreme weather.

“The risk to cities from climate impacts carries great social and economic cost, and of course, the loss of human lives,” said Espinosa.

“The ability of communities to meet their most basic needs — food, water, energy, sanitation — is threatened by climate change.”

These risks will not only affect cities in the developing world, she stressed, citing the impact of Hurricane Sandy in New York and the fact that flooding in Europe has more than doubled in the past 35 years.

Shhh. Hear Rustle of Grass? Not So Much Now in US Parks

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Cosc

The call of the wild is getting harder to hear.

Peaceful, natural sounds — bird songs, rushing rivers and rustling grass — are sometimes being drowned out by noise from people in many of America’s protected parks and wilderness areas, a new study finds.

Scientists measured sound levels at 492 places — from city parks to remote federal wilderness. They calculated that in nearly two-thirds of the Lower 48’s parks, the noise can at times be twice the natural background level because of airplanes, cars, logging, mining and oil and gas drilling.

That increase can harm wildlife, making it harder for them to find food or mates, and make it harder for people to hear those natural sounds, the researchers said. Colorado State University biologist George Wittemyer said people hear only half the sounds that they would in natural silence.

“They’re being drowned out,” said Wittemyer, a co-author of the research.

In about 1 in five public lands, there’s a tenfold increase in noise pollution, according to the study in Thursday’s journal Science .

“It’s something that’s sort of happening slowly,” Wittemyer said.

Sounds are crucial

Except for city parks, though, the researchers are not talking about sound levels that people would consider unusually loud. Even the tenfold increases they write about are often the equivalent of changing from the quiet of a rural area to a still pretty silent library.

But that difference masks a lot of sounds that are crucial, especially to birds seeking mates and animals trying to hunt or avoid being hunted, Wittemyer said. And it does make a difference for peace of mind for people, he said.

“Being able to hear the birds, the waterfalls, the animals running through the grasslands … the wind going through the grass,” Wittemyer said. “Those are really valuable and important sounds for humans to hear and help in their rejuvenation and their self-reflection.”

No escaping the noise

For study lead author Rachel Buxton, a Colorado State conservation biology researcher, it can be personal. She points to a Thanksgiving weekend hike last year with her husband in the La Garita Wilderness in southern Colorado.

“We went to escape the crowds. We went to be totally isolated and have a real wilderness experience,” Buxton recalled. “As we’re hiking, aircraft goes overhead. You’re walking along and you can hear the jet coming for ages.”

The research team, which includes a special unit of the National Park Service, not only measured sounds across the U.S., but they also used elaborate computer programs and artificial learning systems to determine what sounds were natural and which were made by people.

‘Study makes perfect sense’

“The study makes perfect sense to me,” George Mason University biology professor David Luther, who wasn’t part of the research. He said in an email that he’s noticed more noise at many sites throughout the U.S.

“Olympic National Park is currently suffering high amounts of noise pollution from military flight trainings low over the park and visitors have been complaining loudly about the diminished wilderness experience,” he wrote.

But there are still some places where you can get away from it all, Buxton said, highlighting Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.
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Facebook, Twitter, Google Sued Over San Bernardino Attack

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Cobiz

Family members of San Bernardino terror attack victims sued Facebook, Google and Twitter, accusing the companies of providing platforms that help the Islamic State group spread propaganda, recruit followers and raise money.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles alleges that the companies aided and abetted terrorism, provided material support to terrorist groups, and are liable for the wrongful deaths of three of the 14 victims killed in the Dec. 2, 2015, attack on a health department training event and holiday party.

Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the husband-and-wife shooters who carried out the attack with high-powered rifles, were inspired by the Islamic State group, authorities said. Malik had pledged her allegiance to the group on her Facebook page around the time of the shooting, which also wounded 22 people.

The lawsuit mirrors claims targeting social media providers in courts around the country for deaths in attacks abroad and at home. The same lawyers have sued the same companies for the 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Some of those lawsuits have been dismissed because federal law shields online providers from responsibility for content posted by users.

Facebook said it sympathizes with the victims and their families and that it quickly removes content by terrorist groups when it’s reported.

“There is no place on Facebook for groups that engage in terrorist activity or for content that expresses support for such activity,” the company said in a statement.

Google and Twitter didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit claims the companies don’t do enough to block or remove accounts by the Islamic State group and they profit from ads placed next to IS postings. It also says Google shares revenue with the group.

“Without defendants Twitter, Facebook, and Google [YouTube], the explosive growth of ISIS over the last few years into the most feared terrorist group in the world would not have been possible,” the lawsuit said, using an acronym for Islamic State.

The suit filed by relatives of Sierra Clayborn, Tin Nguyen, and Nicholas Thalasinos seeks unspecified monetary damages.
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Scientists Propose More Precise Way to Measure Greenhouse Gas Effects

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Cosc

Researchers from Harvard University, Princeton University and the Environmental Defense Fund proposed a new, more precise way to measure the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on Earth’s climate in an article published on Thursday in the academic journal Science.

The proposal would create a two-digit measurement system the scientists likened to blood pressure readings in medicine, which show the pressure on blood vessels both during heartbeats and in between them. It would help scientists and policymakers account for the fact that some greenhouse gases last longer than others in the atmosphere.

“Different gases have widely different lifetimes in the atmosphere after emission and affect the climate in different ways over widely different time scales,” said co-author Michael Oppenheimer, a geosciences professor at Princeton.

The system would show the effects of greenhouse emissions on a 20-year scale and a 100-year scale. Having a measurement that shows both numbers, the scientists argued, would let governments and other institutions trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming decide which policies would be best in the short term and which should be adopted over the long term.

Opposing groups’ methods

It would also help in disputes between opposing advocacy groups. For example, according to the researchers, advocates for using natural gas as an energy source base their arguments on a 100-year timescale. But their opponents, activists lobbying against natural gas, use a 20-year time scale to show the effects of burning natural gas on the climate.

An overwhelming majority of scientists believe emissions of gas like carbon dioxide, which is produced from burning fossil fuels, are contributing to global climate change, triggering sea level increases, droughts and more frequent violent storms.

For the two-value proposal to be successful, the scientists argued, it would have to be widely adopted, not only by individual government agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but also by international bodies like the United Nations and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change.

Science is a weekly, peer-reviewed journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Trump Tax Plan a Hastily Drawn Wish List, Analyst Says

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Coeco

Last week, the White House unveiled what it called “the largest tax reform in U.S. history.” Gary Cohn, who heads the President’s National Economic Council said, “We’re going to cut taxes for businesses to make them competitive and we’re going to cut taxes for the American people, especially low- and middle-income families.”

But analysts say to call the one page proposal a plan, may be a bit of a stretch.

Policy documents from the White House usually provide pages of detail says Scott Greenberg, a tax analyst at the conservative leaning Tax Foundation. He says it’ s more of a wish list.

“That being said, it opens a window onto what the administration’s main priorities are,” he said.

Aside from simplifying the nation’s notoriously complicated tax forms, the plan includes doubling the current standard deductions. For individual tax filers, that means zero taxes on the first $12,000 of income, and for couples filing jointly, no taxes on the first $24,000.

According to Greenberg, “We estimated that the average household making between the 40th and 60th income percentile, so households right in the middle would be about 1.3 percent richer as a direct result of the various tax cuts.”

But the Tax Foundation’s estimates show wealthier Americans would enjoy much larger gains, up to 16 percent more of their after tax income.

William Gale, a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution says, “It’s basically a massive tax cut for the very highest income households.”

While Trump’s tax plan eliminates some loopholes used by wealthy Americans, the Tax Foundation says the proposal aims to level the playing field for high income earners who have traditionally shouldered the country’s tax burden.

But given the widening income gap, Gale says it makes no sense to reward wealthier Americans with more tax breaks.

“They’ve done enormously well over the last two, three, four decades, their average tax rates is actually lower now than it was in the past,” he said.

Without corresponding cuts to government programs, analysts say the Trump tax cuts are likely to “blow a hole in the deficit” (expand the deficit shortfall).

New estimates show the revenue lost to tax cuts would add between $5 to $7 trillion to the U.S. debt over 10 years. But U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says tax reforms combined with sensible trade policies would, over time “help the economy grow at a sustained rate of three to four percent”, a claim many economists say is unrealistic.

“What I like about this plan is that it is bold in attempting to lower the business tax burden in the United States and to create a more competitive economic climate. In that I think perhaps the heart of the plan is in the right place,” says Greenberg.

Small business owners like Rick McVey who runs the Dilly Lily Flower Shop says the tax cuts would help his business grow.

“I think with the decrease in the tax rate, I may be able to re-invest the money to buy some capital equipment,” he said.

And Donna Seabusch, the owner of Cookie Creations in Atlanta, says tax cuts will help businesses still trying to recover from the downturn.

“The economy was so bad several years ago, it hurt everyone. And I think this is going to give people a jump start. When your taxes are lowered – from your income tax, corporate taxes – it gives more people more money to spend,” she said.

The administration says slashing the the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent could also potentially bring back trillions of dollars from companies that have moved capital and investments offshore in search of lower tax rates. But William Gale, who is also co-director at the Tax Policy Center, says it’s a mistake to think other countries will not respond.

“If we cut our rate to 15 percent other countries are going to cut theirs, and we’ll end up in a sort of race to the bottom on the corporate rate,” he said.

Analysts who spoke with VOA believe there is little chance the president’s tax reform proposal will become law in its current form. But at a recent panel discussion hosted by the Conference Board on the president’s first 100 days, William Hoagland at the Bipartisan Policy Center added yet another political wrinkle.

Hoagland told the audience, “I think its going to be very difficult for Congress and Democrats to provide that 60 votes for tax reform unless the president of the United States releases his tax forms.”
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US Congress Funds Federal Government Through September

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Coeco

The U.S. Senate cast aside partisan acrimony Thursday and overwhelmingly passed a trillion-dollar spending bill that keeps the federal government funded through September.

The 79 to 18 vote came one day after the House of Representatives approved the measure, which now awaits President Donald Trump’s signature to become law.

“This represents the first demonstration of Republicans and Democrats in both houses of Congress working with the White House in order to pass an important piece of legislation and keep the government up and running,” said Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas.

“It [the spending bill] is proof that Washington can work when we work together,” said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat. “In my view this is a very good bill for the American people.”

The product of weeks of negotiations between congressional leaders and the White House, the bill boosts U.S. military spending and provides increased funding for U.S. border security.

“This funding will help the Department of Homeland Security hire more border patrol agents and customs officials, improve the infrastructure at our ports of entry and checkpoints, and hire more immigration judges to process more immigration cases,” Cornyn said.

To the delight of Democrats, the bill sidesteps numerous promises made by Republicans in general and Trump in particular. There is no money for constructing a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and no provision to punish local governments that refuse to cooperate with federal authorities in identifying and removing undocumented immigrants. The spending bill continues funding for Obamacare as well as Planned Parenthood, a women’s health organization that performs abortions.

“Not only does it preclude funding for an unnecessary and ineffective border wall, it increases investments in programs that the middle class relies on,” Schumer said. “The National Institutes of Health will get an additional $2 billion. Infrastructure programs … will get an increase.”

Democratic Senator Bill Nelson, whose home state of Florida includes Cape Canaveral, praised a boost in funds for NASA.

“We now stand on the precipice of a new golden age of exploration and discovery,” Nelson said. “The can-do little agency, NASA, is now on the way [for a mission] to Mars.”

But the bill’s bipartisan nature rankled hardline conservative Republicans who argued minority Democrats won too many concessions.

“Last November, the American people voted to give Republicans control of both houses of Congress and the White House,” said Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in a statement. “We should be funding our priorities, not perpetuating Democrats’ big government programs.”

Taking to Twitter, Trump has praised the spending bill but also said a government shutdown may be necessary at the beginning of the next fiscal year, which begins October 1.

Senators of both parties rejected the president’s thinking.

“We were elected to govern, not to shut down the government,” Cornyn said.

Schumer said that if congressional leaders “work as well on the 2018 budget as we did on the 2017 budget, we will have a product we can be proud of with no worries about any kind of government shutdown.”
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‘Exercise Without Workout’ Pill Being Tested

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Cosc

Pill Could Help People Who Can’t Exercise
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Tillerson Meets ASEAN Ministers to Seek Support on North Korea

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Coeco

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Southeast Asian foreign ministers on Thursday to seek their support in pressing North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programs.

Tillerson’s first meeting with all members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations will also address another pressing regional issue – China’s assertive pursuit of territory in the South China Sea, where several ASEAN members have competing claims.

Tillerson told reporters at the start of the Washington meeting that he and his counterparts would discuss North Korea.

Last week in the U.N. Security Council, Tillerson called on all U.N. members to fully implement U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang, which has ignored demands to abandon its weapons programs and is working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States.

He also called on countries to suspend or downgrade diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, saying it abuses diplomatic privileges to help fund the arms programs. Tillerson warned countries that if they did not do so, Washington would sanction foreign firms and people conducting business with North Korea.

All ASEAN members have diplomatic relations with North Korea and five have embassies there.

The Trump administration wants Southeast Asian countries to crack down on money laundering and smuggling involving North Korea and restrict legal business too, U.S. officials said.

The administration has been working to persuade China, North Korea’s neighbor and only major ally, to increase pressure on Pyongyang. U.S. officials say they are also asking China to use its influence with more China-friendly ASEAN members, such as Laos and Cambodia, to persuade them to do the same.

U.S. efforts have included a flurry of calls by President Donald Trump at the weekend to the leaders of the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore.

Diplomats say U.S. pressure has caused some irritation in ASEAN, including Malaysia, which has maintained relations with Pyongyang in spite of the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged half brother at Kuala Lumpur International airport on Feb. 13.

On the South China Sea, ASEAN has adopted a cautious approach recently toward China, with a weekend summit of its leaders avoiding references to Beijing’s building and arming of islands there.

Analysts say this reflects concerns among some in the region that former U.S. President Barack Obama’s “pivot” to Asia has been abandoned in favor of Trump’s “America First” agenda, leading to more countries being pulled into Beijing’s orbit.

SpaceX to Launch Internet-providing Satellites

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Cobiz

Elon Musk’s SpaceX says it will begin launching Internet-providing satellites in 2019.

The move was announced Wednesday by SpaceX vice president of satellite and government affairs, Patricia Cooper, in testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

She said the company eventually plans to field 4,425 small satellites into low Earth orbit by 2024 using the company’s partially reusable Falcon 9 rockets.

“SpaceX intends to launch the system onboard our Falcon 9 rocket, leveraging significant launch cost savings afforded by the first stage reusability now demonstrated with the vehicle,” Cooper said, adding the company will field two prototype satellites by the end of 2017 and in early 2018.

Internet access via satellites can be slow, but Cooper said technological advances will make SpaceX able to offer speeds comparable to terrestrial providers.

The company says Internet speed in the U.S. lags behind other developed countries. Furthermore, rural areas are not served by standard broadband providers. The company’s “constellation” of satellites could deliver high speeds without cables.

Cooper added that space-based Internet avoids some of the pitfalls for terrestrial providers.

“In other words, the common challenges associated with sitting, digging trenches, laying fiber and dealing with property rights are materially alleviated through a space-based broadband network,” Cooper said.
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NASA Video Reveals Cassini Ring Plunge

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Cosc

NASA has released stunning video taken by the Cassini space probe as it took the first of its “grand finale” dives between Saturn and its rings.

The images were taken April 26 as Cassini made a southerly pass over Saturn. It captures the vortex on the planet’s north pole and continues to the hexagonal jet stream.

“I was surprised to see so many sharp edges along the hexagon’s outer boundary and the eye-wall of the polar vortex,” said Kunio Sayanagi, an associate of the Cassini imaging team based at Hampton University in Virginia, who helped produce the new movie. “Something must be keeping different latitudes from mixing to maintain those edges,” he said.

During the plunge, Cassini dropped from 72,400 kilometers to 6,700 kilometers above the clouds.

The Cassini probe was launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004. Some mission highlights include the possible discovery of an ocean and hydrothermal activity on the moon Enceladus as well as liquid methane seas on Titan, another icy Saturn moon.

Its mission is scheduled to end in September as the probe dives into Saturn’s thick atmosphere where it will burn up.
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Egypt: 4,000-Year-Old Funerary Garden Discovered in Luxor

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Corts

Egypt’s antiquities ministry says that a Spanish archaeological mission has discovered a nearly 4000-year old funerary garden in the southern city of Luxor.

In a Wednesday statement, the ministry said the rectangular-shaped garden was found during excavations in an open courtyard of a rock-cut tomb belonging to the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt.

The garden is divided into four squared sections. Each covers 30 square centimeters and is believed to have contained different kinds of plants and flowers.

The head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector, Mahmoud Afifi, says the discovery is the first of its kind in the area.
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Alanis Morissette’s Ex-Manager Gets 6 Years in Jail for Stealing $7M

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Corts

A business manager who stole more than $7 million from Alanis Morissette and others was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison and ordered to pay $8.6 million in restitution.

Jonathan Todd Schwartz, 47, wept and apologized at the hearing, saying he took full responsibility for his behavior and would have a life of shame because of it.

“I alone am responsible for the devastation,” he said, adding: “I will spend the rest of my life asking for forgiveness.”

He could have faced more than 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and tax crimes but Judge Dolly Gee hewed to sentencing guidelines that suggested around five to six years.

In a victim statement at the hearing, Morissette had urged a stiff sentence, saying Schwartz had stolen her trust and her money for years.

“He did this in a long, systematic, drawn-out and sinister manner” that would have bankrupted the singer within three years had the thefts continued, Morissette said.

Schwartz acknowledged stealing nearly $5 million from Morissette between May 2010 and January 2014 and more than $2 million from five unnamed clients when he worked at GSO Business Management, a firm that touted relationships with entertainers such as Katy Perry, 50 Cent and Tom Petty.

Schwartz was a high-flying partner making $1.2 million a year, according to court papers. His crimes cost the firm at least $2 million above what insurance covered, led to layoffs of about a dozen employees and is expected to cause some $20 million in financial fallout because of the blow to the firm’s reputation, according to founder Bernard Gudvi.

The embezzlement was discovered by a new money manager Morissette hired.

“It was at this time, I realized he also stole my dreams,” she said.

When the firm was contacted about the apparent theft, Schwartz made “wild accusations” that his former client was in the throes of drug addiction and mentally unstable, Gudvi said. Schwartz also falsely claimed he invested the money in an illegal marijuana growing business.

“As the walls were closing in on the scheme to steal client funds … he was unable to turn away from the lies,” Gudvi wrote in a letter to the court. “The worse things became, the more easily he seemed to dispense with the truth.”

Schwartz has blamed the crimes on a gambling addiction but prosecutors said he took the money to finance a lavish lifestyle and never showed sincere regret.

“Every expression of remorse he has made and every purported act of self-improvement he has taken occurred only after he realized he had no ‘choice’ to do otherwise,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ranee Katzenstein said in court papers.

Schwartz, who was fired, had offered financial guidance to some of the biggest stars and was said to represent Beyonce and Mariah Carey, who both appeared at a fundraiser last year in support of a heart disease charity he founded.

Schwartz penned a mea culpa in The Hollywood Reporter last month. He said his father was a gambling addict who abandoned his family and he sought refuge in sports betting and drugs to deal with the stress from his business.

“The spiral I was in was toxic,” Schwartz wrote. “Winning did not make me feel better but losing was intolerable. If I lost, then I had to make it back and when I lost again, the hole I had dug got deeper and deeper. I felt weak and powerless, terrified by my internal demons that I was turning into my father.”

EU Accepts Amazon’s e-book Commitments

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Coeco

The European Union’s competition watchdog says it accepts commitments made by online giant Amazon to change part of its e-book contracts to avoid fines for anti-competitive behavior.

Amazon has promised not to enforce any contract clause that might oblige other publishers to offer it similar terms and conditions as those offered to competitors.

The EU Commission said Thursday that it has made the commitments legally binding. Amazon could be fined 10 percent of annual turnover if it reneges over the next five years.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the “decision will open the way for publishers and competitors to develop innovative services for e-books, increasing choice and competition to the benefit of European consumers.”

The Commission says Europe’s e-books market is worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).

A Fort to Protect the American Southwest

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Corts

Eurozone Economy Growing at ‘Fastest Rate in 6 Years’

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Coeco

A closely watched survey indicates that economic growth across the 19-country eurozone struck a 6-year high in April.

Financial information company IHS Markit says Thursday that its purchasing managers’ composite output index — a broad gauge of economic activity — rose to 56.8 in April from 56.4 the previous month. The reading was at its highest level since April 2011.

Anything above 50 indicates expansion.

Chris Williamson, the firm’s chief business economist, said the survey portrays “an economy that is growing at an encouragingly robust pace and that risks are moving from the downside to a more balanced situation.” He said it’s consistent with quarterly growth of 0.7 percent.

On Wednesday, figures showed the eurozone grew by 0.5 percent in the first quarter.
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Basketball Body Lifts Hijab Ban

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Corts

Muslim women basketball players are now allowed to wear hijabs in international competition, basketball’s international governing body has ruled.

The headgear was previously banned by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), which said hijabs posed safety problems.

“The new rule comes as a result of the fact that traditional dress codes in some countries, which called for the head and/or entire body being covered, were incompatible with FIBA’s previous headgear rule,” according to a statement on the FIBA website.

FIBA began to look at allowing the hijab years ago and granted some exemptions from the ban in 2014. The new rule, which was announced Thursday, will go into effect in October.

Hijabs must be FIBA approved and have to be the same color as the player’s uniform.

In 2014, the Qatari women’s basketball team pulled out of the Asian Games due to being forbidden from wearing hijabs.

Soccer’s governing body, FIFA, ended its ban on the hijab in 2014 as long as it was not attached to the shirt and was the same color as the uniform.
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Trump Chooses Expert on Addiction to Lead Mental Health Agency

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Cosc

President Donald Trump’s pick to marshal the government’s response to the opioid epidemic and assist people with mental illness doesn’t quite fit the mold of some of his other nominees.

Psychiatrist Elinore McCance-Katz isn’t an outsider bent on disrupting the system.

Instead, she’s an academic expert on addiction with extensive state government and federal experience, and a reputation for relying on science. She spent time at the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the agency she has been nominated to lead.

The strongest opposition to her nomination isn’t coming from Democrats and advocacy groups, but from a Republican who says she’s been part of the problem.

Helped draft action plan

McCance-Katz, 60, now serves as chief medical officer for the Rhode Island agency responsible for substance abuse and mental health services. She was on a task force that produced a nationally recognized opioid action plan for the state.

After a stint at SAMHSA during the Obama administration, McCance-Katz penned an article last year strongly critical of the federal agency, alleging “hostility toward psychiatric medicine” and failure to address the treatment needs of mentally ill people.

That may have caught the eye of the White House, along with a post-election piece that cast Trump’s victory as positive change for people with mental illness. Now the president wants to send McCance-Katz back to SAMHSA.

Coordinating 112 programs

Congress recently elevated the job of agency director to a new position with the higher rank of assistant health secretary, requiring Senate confirmation. Lawmakers want an executive to instill coherence and coordination among 112 federal programs for people with serious mental illness. Up to now, the main purpose of the roughly $4-billion agency has been to distribute grants.

Advocates for people dealing with mental illness and substance abuse see an opening. They were heartened that the White House invited advocacy groups to meet as officials were sifting candidates for SAMHSA.

“The early signs that we are seeing are that the importance of mental health is recognized,” said Ron Honberg, a senior policy adviser with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which is supporting McCance-Katz. “The administration has come out very strongly on the opioid issue.” The budget deal increased federal spending.

On Capitol Hill

In the Senate, the nomination of McCance-Katz goes to the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a committee member active on mental health issues, called her a “qualified and experienced leader who will make mental health reform a reality.”

But in the House, Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., says he was “stunned.” The congressman earlier had led an investigation of SAMHSA that revealed poor coordination of mental health programs and gaps in the oversight of grants. Although McCance-Katz criticized the agency after she left, Murphy says she failed to say anything while she was there, serving as chief medical officer.

Advocates say the problems Murphy highlighted have been addressed, and McCance-Katz would find the agency in better shape than she left it.

Within the mental health community, there’s a longstanding tension between those who favor medical treatment for problems like addiction, and those who favor “peer support.” The latter involves approaches similar to Alcoholics Anonymous, while the treatment usually involves medication. McCance-Katz is seen as firmly in the treatment camp.

The Rhode Island plan McCance-Katz helped develop starts with steps to curtail prescriptions of highly addictive drugs, promotes the antidote naloxone as the standard of care for overdose rescue, provides medication-based treatment for criminal justice inmates, and expands peer support services.
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Ringling’s Last Show Will Be Broadcast on Facebook Live

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Corts

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus first wowed audiences in the 19th century. For the iconic American spectacle’s final act, it will broadcast the final performance on a 21st century medium: Facebook Live.

The company told The Associated Press this week that the final circus show on the evening of May 21 will be streamed live on the social media network and on the circus’s website. The final performance will be in Uniondale, New York.

Earlier this year, Feld Entertainment, the company that owns the iconic circus, announced that the show would end in May.

Many reasons for decline

The circus’s decline happened because of a variety of factors. Declining attendance, combined with high operating costs, changing public tastes and prolonged battles with animal rights groups all contributed to its demise.

Sam Gomez, the circus’s vice president of digital and relationship marketing, said Ringling did something similar, although on a smaller scale, during the final elephant act performance in 2016.

During that broadcast on Facebook, Ringling showed a pre-recorded intro, then cut to the live act. For the May 21 show, the entire performance will be broadcast live from start to finish and will be hosted by Kristen Michelle Wilson, Ringling’s first female ringmaster.

Organizers have taken into consideration that most people will probably tune in on phones or tablets.

“It’s basically a TV shoot and we’re certainly thinking about lighting and sound,” said Gomez. “How will this look when you’re looking at it on your phone or your tablet? We’ve had lots of conversations about tight shots so you can see the performer’s skill and expressions and their artistry.”

Gomez said Ringling would leave the video up for a short while — it’s unclear how long — but not forever.

Witness end of an era

The live show allows people to “witness the end of an era.”

“We wanted to give families around the world one last chance to experience ‘the greatest show on earth’ together,” he said.

Ringling Bros. has two touring circuses; one will perform for four nights in Providence, Rhode Island, starting Thursday and ending for good in that city Sunday. The other touring show will end at the Nassau County Coliseum in New York on May 21.

The circus, with its exotic animals, flashy costumes and death-defying acrobats, has been a staple of entertainment in the United States since the mid-1800s. Phineas Taylor Barnum made a traveling spectacle of animals and human oddities popular, while the five Ringling brothers performed juggling acts and skits from their home base in Wisconsin. Eventually, they merged and the modern circus was born.
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Scientists Track Beetles to Stop a Plant Plague

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Cosc

Modern agriculture is feeding more people more cheaply than ever, with large-scale farms that grow just one or a few crops. But there are risks in this way of feeding the world. A new book explores how large-scale agriculture invites large-scale attacks of pests and diseases. VOA’s Steve Baragona met the author, who is enlisting the public to try to stay ahead of the next crop plague.
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‘Mr. Trash Wheel’ Gobbles up Garbage

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Cosc

An unusual machine working in Baltimore, with more than 20,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter, has just celebrated its third birthday. Imaginatively named “Mr. Trash Wheel,” this hybrid-powered contraption is responsible for preventing the city’s trash from reaching its inner harbor. VOA’s George Putic reports.
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WhatsApp Back in Service After Global Outage

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Cobiz

WhatsApp, a popular messaging service owned by Facebook Inc., suffered a widespread global outage Wednesday that lasted for several hours before being resolved, the company said.

“Earlier today, WhatsApp users in all parts of the world were unable to access WhatsApp for a few hours. We have now fixed the issue and apologize for the inconvenience,” WhatsApp said in an email late Wednesday afternoon.

WhatsApp was down in parts of India, Canada, the United States and Brazil, according to Reuters journalists. It affected people who use the service on Apple Inc’s iOS operating system, Alphabet Inc.’s Android and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows mobile OS.

WhatsApp is used by more than 1.2 billion people around the world and is a key tool for communications and commerce in many countries. The service was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion.
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Alec Baldwin: Trump Is ‘Saturday Night Live’ Head Writer

Posted on 05/04/2017 by Corts

Alec Baldwin welcomes the chance to share the screen with President Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live.

“I think if he came it would be a great show,” Baldwin said in an interview Wednesday. “I think it would be better for everybody. It’s always fun to defuse some of the tensions and unpleasantness of all this because we are mocking him — by no means with more frequency or more maliciousness, if you will, than other people.”

But he will have to wait. The actor, whose Trump impersonations became a staple this season and helped propel SNL to its best ratings in years, said the president recently turned down an invitation to appear on the NBC show.

“We invited him to come when I hosted recently, but he refused to come, which is fine,” Baldwin said. “I’m hoping SNL was the one thing he chose to ignore so he could actually do his job.”

Trump has repeatedly bashed SNL and Baldwin’s impersonations on Twitter, but the actor said his performance is driven by Trump’s words and actions.

“Trump himself is responsible for nearly all of the content,” he said. “Trump is the head writer at SNL. Nearly everything, every consonant and every vowel, is something that Trump himself has rendered in some way. So I think Trump is even more frustrated because he has only himself to blame for that.”

He also praised ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who on Monday night detailed how his son was born last month with a heart defect and required surgery. Kimmel’s tearful monologue included a plea for all families to have access to lifesaving medical care.

“Good for him to get real about that,” said Baldwin, who’s a father of four. “I’d love to see this country turn in a direction where it makes things easier for moms and dads.”

Baldwin said he has reached out to Kimmel, who was his co-star in the animated film The Boss Baby.

“I can’t imagine any time in your life when you buckle down more and kind of batten down the hatches more than when you’re going through that with your wife,” Baldwin said. “That’s just mind-blowing. Mind-blowing. And I hope everything is great for his son.”
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