January 17, 2013

US grounds Dreamliner fleet for safety checks

Source: Al Jazeera

The United States has grounded its fleet of Boeing Dreamliners, as have Japan's two largest airlines, after an apparent battery problem forced one of All Nippon Airways (ANA)' jets to make an emergency landing on Wednesday.

The plane landed safely in Takamatsu, and all 137 passengers and crew were evacuated using the emergency slides, according to the airline. Several people were slightly injured during the evacuations.

"During the flight, [the pilots] had an error message saying 'battery problem'," said an ANA spokesman. "We are still investigating what exactly happened."

Later on Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all US-registered Dreamliners to conduct a safety review. United Airlines is currently the only American airline flying the planes.

Read more: http://aje.me/13B2FlA

January 16, 2013

Patrick unveils gun control bill

Source: The Boston Herald

Gov. Deval Patrick announced a gun control bill today that targets mental illness, closes a background-check loophole at gun shows and limits gun buys to one a month.

“Mental illness is a disease that can be treated, and our communities are safer when the appropriate services and supports are available for people in need,” said Patrick in a statement. “I am encouraged by the palpable consensus in our Legislature that the time for action is now. All of us must pull in the same direction to bring about real change in this state and across the country.”

Patrick’s plan comes hours before his State of the State address tonight and a month after the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn.

Read more: http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_politics/2013/01/patrick_unveils_gun_control_bill

January 16, 2013

Wolf destroyer Ken Salazar to leave Obama Administration

This is just part of his legacy:

Wolf Blood Soaks The Ground – Over 600 Dead…



I can hardly believe the numbers. 605 wolves have been slaughtered in the combined hunts since August 30, 2012. In 102 days or a little over three months, hundreds of wolves have been wiped out. Images of their mangled,bloodied bodies litter FB and hunting forums. The smiling, grinning wolf killers are gloating in their blood bath. AND this is only December. Montana opens wolf trapping season on December 15. The Colville Tribes in Washington state are hunting wolves on their reservation.

Seven collared wolves from Yellowstone National Park have been killed.

Killed late October: 824M of the Mollies pack.

Early November: 829F of the Blacktail Plateau pack.

November 10th in WY: 754M of the Lamar Canyon pack.

November 13th in MT: 823F of the Junction Butte pack (sole collar).

Date/location unknown: 762M and 763F of the Madison pack.

Date unknown, killed in WY: 793(?) of the Snake River pack.

December 6th: 832F. Iconic Alpha Female of the Lamar Canyon pack.

Wolves are being gut shot, tortured, trapped, strangled in choking snares, arrowed and god only knows what they’re doing to them in Wyoming’s predator zone, any method of killing is allowed, including poison. Wisconsin wants to hunt wolves with dogs. A temporary injunction stopped it for now BUT the issue is being revisited on December 20, 2012.

This is the state of “wolf management” as of December 9, 2012.

We can thank the Obama administration and its Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid D-N, for allowing the Northern Rockies wolf delisting riderto remain in the budget bill, Senator Jon Tester D-MT, for slipping the wolf rider into the Senate budget bill and the majority of Senate Democrats who voted for it, USFWS for delisting wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes and the state game agencies of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Minnesota for allowing the hunts to take place. Everyone who is responsible for the massacre should hang their heads in shame but it’s fairly obvious they’re not ashamed. This willcontinue until wolf advocates come together and put pressure on the politicians and feds to stop to this insanity. Wolves must be relisted!!

More: http://howlingforjustice.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/wolf-blood-soaks-the-ground-over-600-dead/

January 16, 2013

Prosecutor in Aaron Swartz 'hacking' case comes under fire

Carmen Ortiz was being talked about last month as the next Massachusetts governor. Now she's being investigated for threatening the late Aaron Swartz with decades in prison.



By Declan McCullagh
CNET
Jan 15, 2013

A politically ambitious Justice Department official who oversaw the criminal case against Aaron Swartz has come under fire for alleged prosecutorial abuses that led the 26-year-old online activist to take his own life.

Carmen Ortiz, 57, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts who was selected by President Obama, compared the online activist -- accused of downloading a large number of academic papers -- to a common criminal in a 2011 press release. "Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar," Ortiz said at the time. Last fall, her office slapped Swartz with 10 additional charges that carried a maximum penalty of 50 years in prison.

"He was killed by the government," Swartz's father, Robert, said at his son's funeral in Highland Park, Ill., today, according to a report in the Chicago Sun Times.

Last Wednesday, less than three months before the criminal trial was set to begin, Ortiz's office formally rejected a deal that would have kept Swartz out of prison. Two days later, Swartz killed himself.

More: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57564212-38/prosecutor-in-aaron-swartz-hacking-case-comes-under-fire/

January 16, 2013

Hey gun nuts: Warning Signs of Violent Acts Often Unclear

By BENEDICT CAREY and ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
The New York Times
January 15, 2013

No one but a deeply disturbed individual marches into an elementary school or a movie theater and guns down random, innocent people.

That hard fact drives the public longing for a mental health system that produces clear warning signals and can somehow stop the violence. And it is now fueling a surge in legislative activity, in Washington and New York.

But these proposed changes and others like them may backfire and only reveal how broken the system is, experts said.

“Anytime you have one of these tragic cases like Newtown, it’s going to expose deficiencies in the mental health system, and provide some opportunity for reform,” said Richard J. Bonnie, a professor of public policy at the University of Virginia’s law school who led a state commission that overhauled policies after the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings that left 33 people dead. “But you have to be very careful not to overreact.”

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/health/breaking-link-of-violence-and-mental-illness.html

January 16, 2013

Just another day in gun land: Former St. Louis Stevens Institute student shoots financial advisor

A former student of a St. Louis school shot his financial aid adviser and then himself, according to local reports.

The unidentified gunman, believed to be 21 years old, struck around 3 p.m. inside the Stevens Institute of Business and Arts in downtown St. Louis.

Nearly two dozen police officers rushed to the scene, a helicopter hovered overhead and roads around the institute were closed to traffic, according to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The paper reported that two men were hauled away in ambulances.

More: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/2-shot-st-louis-school-article-1.1240619

SIGN THE ONLINE DAILY NEWS ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN PETITION

January 15, 2013

Gov. Cuomo signs gun control bill making New York first state to do so since Newtown school massacre

Source: New York Daily News

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York has become the first state to dramatically stiffen its gun laws after last month's massacre at a Connecticut elementary school.

With Gov. Andrew Cuomo's signature Tuesday, parts of the measure that sped through the Legislature in two days take effect immediately.

The law calls for a tougher assault weapons ban and provisions to try to keep guns away from mentally ill people who make threats.

It also calls for background checks on ammunition, a ban on large magazines, stiffer penalties for gun crimes and background checks even on private sales, such as those at gun shows.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-passes-1st-gun-control-bill-newtown-school-massacre-article-1.1240644

January 15, 2013

Anti-gun protesters target Newtown-area Walmart

Source: Reuters

 

DANBURY, Connecticut (Reuters) - Gun-control advocates, including the mothers of two victims of mass shootings, gathered at a Wal-Mart store near Newtown, Connecticut, on Tuesday to call on the country's largest retailer to stop selling assault weapons.

About 50 people - many calling themselves proud gun owners and loyal Wal-Mart customers - presented a petition at a Wal-Mart in Danbury that is 8 miles from the Newtown elementary school where a gunman opened fire one month ago, killing 20 first graders and six educators.

"Wal-Mart has a choice," said Adam Bink of the Courage Campaign, one of the groups organizing the rally. "Wal-Mart doesn't sell pornography because they feel it's inappropriate for communities. We believe assault weapons aren't appropriate for communities because they make our communities unsafe."

The petition, signed by nearly 300,000 people, was presented in Wal-Mart's parking lot to store manager John Ruggieri, who wore a green ribbon honoring the Newtown victims.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/15/us-usa-guns-walmart-idUSBRE90E12520130115

January 15, 2013

Zoo's chimp addicted to human porn

By Alice Stewart
Digital Spy
Jan 15, 2013

A chimpanzee at a Spanish zoo has become addicted to human porn.

Gina the chimp's habit began after having a television installed in her enclosure at Seville Zoo.

Primatologist Pablo Herreros told El Mundo: "To enliven Gina's nights, officials decided to install a Freeview television, protected behind glass, and gave her a remote control so she could change the channels herself.

"In the early trials, her keepers visited Gina to check that everything was in order and she did not break the new toy.

"The surprise came when they found that within a few days, Gina was not only using the remote control perfectly well, but that she also chose the porn channel for entertainment, as many of us would have done."

More: http://www.digitalspy.com/odd/news/a451125/zoos-chimp-addicted-to-human-porn.html

January 14, 2013

Senate Republican leader wants 10,000 troops in Afghanistan

Source: Reuters

http://r.m.yahoo.com/api/res/1.2/Vl7nMMKn9j0YlZX3myuxSQ--/Zmk9Zml0O2g9MTgwO3c9MjQw/

WASHINGTON - Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday he thinks that 10,000 U.S. troops should remain in Afghanistan after 2014, when President Barack Obama wants to withdraw most combat troops.

McConnell has just finished a visit to Afghanistan with a small group of his fellow Republican senators, his seventh trip there in the past decade.

"I think we're going to need a minimum of about 10,000 troops here to provide adequate training and counterterrorism in the post-2014 period. And we anticipate there'll be forces from other countries who will remain here beyond 2014 as well," McConnell told reporters on a conference call during a stop in Italy after leaving Afghanistan.

-snip-

The Obama administration has been considering a residual force of between 3,000 and 9,000 troops - far fewer than some U.S. commanders propose. Republicans had cautioned the administration against allowing anything other than conditions on the ground and security concerns to dictate the pace of the U.S. withdrawal.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/14/us-afghanistan-usa-senator-idUSBRE90D0YG2013