Morning Papers - It's Origins

The Rooster
"Okeydoke"

Tomorrow "We don't Belong in Iraq" - Appreciate your patience. I've been involved recently in some activism to save the planet one forest at a time. It's rewarding but I miss addressing the issues of the day here as well.

...tomorrow then...

Seattle Post Intelligencer

2 ships run aground in gales off Britain
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON -- Massive waves and violent winds battered two ships, forcing them aground during storms overnight off Britain's northwestern coast, the coast guard said Friday.
The gale force winds were hampering attempts to rescue the 14-member Spanish crew of a trawler on rocks off St. Kilda in Scotland's Western Isles, coast guard spokesman Fred Caygill said.
The coast guard successfully rescued 23 people off a ferry that ran aground near England's Blackpool beach hours after a freak wave left it listing on its side Thursday night, Caygill said.
The Spaniards were trapped on the rocks under a cliff at St. Kilda, an uninhabited volcanic archipelago 40 miles west of Benbecula. The gale-force winds swirling around the cliff were making it difficult for a helicopter to approach, Caygill said.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103ap_britain_sea_rescues.html


Bitter Canadian weather kills 2
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TORONTO -- Two young sisters wearing only diapers and T-shirts froze to death on a Canadian Indian reservation and police were investigating if alcohol use by their father played a role in the tragedy, officials said Wednesday.
The deaths came as fierce winter weather sweeping the country delayed flights, cut electrical power and forced highway closures.
The scantily clad bodies of 3-year-old Kaydance Pauchay and her 1-year-old sister Santana were found at the Yellow Quill reservation east of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where officials said wind chills approached 50 degrees below zero. The girls' father, Christopher Pauchay, 25, who had apparently been caring for the girls, was hospitalized with frostbite and hypothermia.
Police said they were investigating reports that Pauchay had been drinking and that it might have contributed to the tragedy.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1101ap_canada_winter_weather.html



Michigan town split over disaster firm
By JOHN FLESHER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
PELLSTON, Mich. -- Officials in this small, job-starved community hope disaster pays.
They're welcoming plans by a startup company to build a $79 million center that would help people across the nation prepare for catastrophic events such as terrorist attacks and killer storms.
Sovereign Deed LLC says it will design custom survival plans - alerts, guidance, high-tech gear, food and water, even evacuations - for up to $50,000 up front plus $15,000 a year.
The company plans to build a complex at Pellston's regional airport that would include supply warehouses, training grounds, a hangar for an eventual aircraft fleet and a communications system.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_disaster_capitalism.html


Let impeachment process begin
RICHARD W. BEHAN
GUEST COLUMNIST
"The War on Terrorism" is a facade.
It was launched, we were told, to apprehend Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and to effect regime change in Iraq.
President Bush was handed opportunities to achieve each of those purposes quickly and without resorting to warfare, but he literally refused to do so.
Saddam Hussein offered in February 2002, a month before his country was invaded, personally to leave Iraq for exile in Egypt or Saudi Arabia. His offer was kept secret -- and rejected. Regime change was in fact a facade for a more ambitious objective: The Bush administration was already committed to the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Also kept secret was a standing offer from the Taliban to the Bush administration to surrender Osama bin Laden -- an offer made long before the Trade Towers fell and the Pentagon burned. Three times before 9/11 and twice afterward, the administration refused the surrender. Bin Laden's capture was in fact a facade for a more ambitious objective: The administration already was committed to the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/349590_behan01.html



Snowstorm blankets Midwest, heads east
By CARLA K. JOHNSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
View related video
CHICAGO -- Heavy, wet snow made for treacherous roads and delayed commutes Friday as a huge winter storm that stretched from Texas to the Great Lakes blanketed Illinois and the rest of the nation's midsection Friday.
At least 5 inches of snow was reported at Chicago's Midway Airport by early Friday. More than 600 flights were canceled Thursday at O'Hare International Airport, where hundreds of stranded travelers spent the night awaiting planes from other cities also affected by the storm. Low visibility continued to be a problem.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_severe_weather.html


Tornado victims billed for cable damage
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WHEATLAND, Wis. -- Having a tornado demolish her home was bad enough. But weeks later when Ann Beam received a $2,000 cable bill for destroyed equipment, she was floored.
"I just couldn't believe it," Beam said. "I was like, 'What are they thinking?'"
Time Warner Cable billed a number of Wheatland residents for equipment damaged in the Jan. 7 twister. Beam's bill covered five cable boxes and five remote controls.
She immediately called the cable company, but a man who identified himself as a manager said there was nothing the company could do.
"They said I would have to take the bill and turn it in to my insurance company," Beam told the Kenosha News for a story on the paper's Web site Thursday.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1120ap_odd_cable_bill_tornado.html?source=mypi


Rabbi makes office calls for busy execs
By VERENA DOBNIK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NEW YORK -- Jewish doctors, lawyers and business executives too busy for the formal study of their faith can now order in religious lessons, thanks to an organization whose rabbis make office calls.
Aish HaTorah, an Orthodox Jewish educational network based in Israel, has four rabbis on call in New York City as part of its Executive Learning Program, and similar outreach programs in cities around the world including Los Angeles and Washington.
One of the New York rabbis is Stuart Shiff, who was crisscrossing Manhattan on a recent wintry day to give free private lessons to clients including a partner in an accounting firm and a neuroscientist at a prominent hospital.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_religion_today.html


Solution to health care crisis needs shot of economic reality
ROGER STARKGUEST COLUMNIST
Our country faces some very serious financial problems in the coming years. The largest is the funding of health care previously promised and the funding of the proposed expansion of the recipient base to include the underinsured and the uninsured.
Recently, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office testified that the cost of our current government programs (Medicare and Medicaid) was growing at an unsustainable rate and that some type of major overhaul would be necessary for the programs to survive. Not surprising is the fact that one of the top two issues in voters' minds this election cycle is health care.
So where do presidential candidates stand on the health care issue and what are their respective solutions?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/349585_healthcare01.html



CDC pins name on slaughterhouse illness
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MINNEAPOLIS -- Investigators are closer to understanding a mysterious illness reported by pork plant workers in Minnesota and Indiana and now have pinned a name on it, officials said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report Thursday summarizing the investigation so far that gives the condition a name - progressive inflammatory neuropathy.
Minnesota officials said they were broadening their investigation to thousands of former employees at the Quality Pork Processors Inc. plant in Austin, going back a decade to when a powerful compressed air system was installed to remove brain tissue from pig heads.
Investigators have been trying to determine whether pig brain tissue, sprayed into the air as droplets during removal by the compressed air system, was inhaled by workers and made them sick.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_slaughterhouse_illness.html


Dumplings stir China food scare in Japan
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TOKYO -- Japanese supermarkets, restaurants and schools cleared Chinese food products from their shelves and kitchens Friday in a spiraling nationwide scare over insecticide-tainted dumplings.
The government said at least 10 people have fallen ill since December after eating imported dumplings produced by Tianyang Food Processing. Media reports said the number of victims could be as high as 500.
Heightening the scare, investigators said they found a tiny hole in a dumpling bag recovered from a sickened family, suggesting the food may have been deliberately contaminated, said Kenichi Mizuno, a police official in Hyogo prefecture where three people were hospitalized.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104ap_japan_china_tainted_products.html


Payrolls drop for 1st time since 2003
By JEANNINE AVERSA
AP ECONOMICS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Nervous employers cut 17,000 jobs in January - the first such reduction in more than four years and a fresh sign that the economy is in danger of stalling.
The Labor Department's report, released Friday, also showed that the unemployment rate dipped slightly to 4.9 percent, from 5 percent, as the civilian labor force shrank slightly.
Job losses were widespread. Manufacturers, construction firms and a variety of professional and business services eliminated jobs in January - reflecting the toll of the housing and credit debacles. The government cut jobs, too. All those cuts swamped job gains in education, health care, retailing and elsewhere.
Wage growth also slowed, another indication that employers are tightening their belts amid the economic slowdown.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1311ap_economy.html?source=mypi


Exxon Mobil posts record profits
By JOHN PORRETTO
AP BUSINESS WRITER
HOUSTON -- Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company - $40.6 billion - as the world's biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from historic crude prices at year's end.
Exxon also set a U.S. record for the biggest quarterly profit, posting net income of $11.7 billion for the final three months of 2007, beating its own mark of $10.71 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005.
The previous record for annual profit was $39.5 billion, which Exxon Mobil made in 2006.
The eye-popping results weren't a surprise given record prices for a barrel of oil at the end of 2007. For much of the fourth quarter, they hovered around $90 a barrel, more than 50 percent higher than a year ago.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1310ap_earns_exxon_mobil.html?source=mypi


Bangladesh hit by bird flu outbreak
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Livestock officials slaughtered more than 27,000 chickens and ducks in northern Bangladesh after bird flu was confirmed at a poultry farm near the border with India, a report said Friday.
Officials in India's West Bengal state, which borders Bangladesh, have been struggling to contain that country's worst-ever outbreak of the virulent H5N1 bird flu virus.
Several hundred chickens died at the poultry farm in Dinajpur district, 170 miles north of Dhaka, and laboratory tests confirmed that the H5N1 virus was responsible, the United News of Bangladesh news agency reported.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104ap_bangladesh_bird_flu.html


Court won't reconsider Guantanamo ruling
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court refused Friday to reconsider a ruling broadening its own authority to scrutinize evidence against detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
The Supreme Court is also closely watching that issue.
The decision is a setback for the Bush administration, which was displeased by the court's three-judge ruling in July and had urged all 10 judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review it.
The ruling held that, when Guantanamo Bay detainees bring a court challenge to their status as "enemy combatants," judges must review all the evidence, not just the evidence the military chooses.
When detainees are brought before military combatant status review tribunals, they are not allowed to have lawyers and the Pentagon decides what evidence to present. Unlike in criminal trials, the government is not obligated to turn over evidence that the defendant might be innocent.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1155ap_guantanamo_detainees.html


Canada may end Afghan mission, Bush told
By ROB GILLIES
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TORONTO -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper told President Bush on Wednesday that Canada will end its military mission in Afghanistan if another NATO country does not put more soldiers in the dangerous south, officials said.
Harper's Conservative government is under pressure to withdraw its 2,500 troops from Kandahar province, the former Taliban stronghold, after the deaths of 78 Canadian soldiers and a diplomat. The mission is set to expire in 2009 without an extension by Canadian lawmakers.
The refusal of some major European allies to send significant number of troops to the southern front lines has opened a rift within NATO. Troops from Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and the United States have borne the brunt of a resurgence of Taliban violence in the region, with support from Denmark, Romania, Estonia and non-NATO nation Australia.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1101ap_canada_afghanistan.html



Lawmakers: Extend energy tax breaks
By H. JOSEF HEBERT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITE
WASHINGTON -- Unable to extend tax breaks as part of a broad energy bill two months ago, lawmakers are trying to attach some of them to an emergency economic aid package containing rebates for millions of taxpayers.
But that strategy may also falter when the Senate votes next week on the $193 billion economic stimulus bill that has been expanded over what already was approved by the House. Both President Bush and Senate GOP leaders have warned against adding to the House-passed bill.
But as it emerged this week from the Senate Finance Committee, among the items added was a string of energy tax credits aimed at helping people lower their heating and cooling costs and give a boost to wind and solar energy industries.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153ap_stimulus_energy.html


World captivated by US presidential race
By WILLIAM J. KOLE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Germans are gaga over Barack Obama. He's got Japan pretty jazzed, too, along with Hillary Rodham Clinton. Russia's leaders, not so much: They prefer a Republican - as long as it's not Kremlin critic John McCain.
And Mexico's president? He doesn't have much use for any of them.
America's extraordinary presidential campaign has captivated politicians and ordinary people around the globe. With so much at stake in the race for the White House, the world is watching with an intensity that hasn't been seen since the Clinton era began in 1992.
After eight years of President Bush, the latest mantra in U.S. politics - "transformational change" - is resonating across the rest of a planet desperate for a fresh start.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1131ap_campaign_watching_world.html


Today on the presidential campaign trail
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
IN THE HEADLINES
People focus on candidates' personalities and their views keep changing, AP-Yahoo poll shows ... CNN announces plans for 2 Feb. presidential debates in Ohio ... Obama races to trim Clinton's lead among Latinos as multistate primary day approaches ... Mormon leader's death renews focus on Romney's faith; candidate less reticent ---
Poll: Focus now on candidates' traits
WASHINGTON -- For all the millions the presidential campaigns have spent, it still comes down to this: Ask people what they think of Hillary Rodham Clinton and they say female and feminist. For Barack Obama, it's inexperience. Mitt Romney is known as a Mormon, John McCain for his military service.
And oh, yes, he's old.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1131ap_2008_race_rundown.html



UN says more than 5M will lose jobs
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GENEVA -- More than 5 million people will lose their jobs this year as the world economy slows, an official at the U.N. labor agency said Thursday.
Most job losses will occur in rich countries, but millions of "working poor" in the developing world who won't be counted also will suffer, said Dorothea Schmidt, an economist at the International Labor Organization.
Schmidt said the latest global growth figures from the International Monetary Fund prompted the labor agency to review its jobs forecast for 2008. The Washington-based IMF cut its growth projection from 4.4 percent to 4.1 percent Tuesday.
The Geneva-based ILO published a report last week predicting that the number of unemployed worldwide would increase to about 195 million from 190 million last year.
But with the IMF's revised growth rate, "there will be a larger impact than the 5 million we estimated," Schmidt said. She added it was too soon to give precise figures as job losses would depend on growth rates in individual countries.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103ap_un_global_unemployment.html


UN: climate change may cost $20 trillion
By JOHN HEILPRIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
UNITED NATIONS -- Global warming could cost the world up to $20 trillion over two decades for cleaner energy sources and do the most harm to people who can least afford to adapt, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warns in a new report.
Ban's report provides an overview of U.N. climate efforts to help the 192-nation General Assembly prepare for a key two-day climate debate in mid-February. That debate is intended to shape overall U.N. policy on climate change, including how nations can adapt to a warmer world and ways of supporting the U.N.-led negotiations toward a new climate treaty by 2009, U.N. officials said Wednesday.
The treaty, replacing the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012, could shape the course of climate change for decades to come. The Kyoto pact requires 37 industrial nations to reduce greenhouse gases by a relatively modest 5 percent on average.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1101ap_un_global_warming.html


Prince Charles: Skyscrapers ruin London
By REGAN MCTARSNEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LONDON -- Prince Charles warned Thursday that historic sites like the Tower of London have been "vandalized" by high-rise construction that threatens to ruin the character of the capital.
The heir to the British throne, who spoke at a conference on city planning, argued that poor planning could damage the integrity of Britain's historical areas - particularly criticizing tall buildings that dwarf smaller structures.
"We seem to be determined to vandalize these few remaining sites which retain the kind of human scale and timeless character that so attract people to them and which increase in value as time goes by," Charles said at St. James' Palace.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103ap_people_prince_charles.html


FDA warns of risks from epilepsy drugs
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Epilepsy drugs used by millions of people may increase the risk of suicidal thoughts or behavior, the Food and Drug Administration warned Thursday in an alert to doctors.
The FDA analyzed almost 200 studies of 11 anti-seizure drugs, some that have been on the market for decades. The studies tracked almost 28,000 people given the medications and another 16,000 given dummy pills.
Very rarely were suicidal thoughts or behavior reported. Still, the FDA found drug-treated patients did face about twice the risk: 0.43 percent of drug-treated patients experienced suicidal thoughts or behavior, compared with 0.22 percent of placebo-takers.
Overall, four people in the drug-treated groups committed suicide, and none in the placebo groups.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/1500ap_epilepsy_drugs.html


NASA launching Beatles tune into space
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- The Beatles are about to become radio stars in a whole new way. NASA on Monday will broadcast the Beatles' song "Across the Universe" across the galaxy to Polaris, the North Star.
This first-ever beaming of a radio song by the space agency directly into deep space is nostalgia-driven. It celebrates the 40th anniversary of the song, the 45th anniversary of NASA's Deep Space Network, which communicates with its distant probes, and the 50th anniversary of NASA.
"Send my love to the aliens," Paul McCartney told NASA through a Beatles historian. "All the best, Paul."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/pop/1403ap_beatles_space.html?source=mypi

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501ap_beatles_space.html


Canadian doctor tearfully apologizes
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TORONTO -- A doctor whose expert testimony led to at least seven wrongful convictions gave a tearful apology Thursday to one of his victims, who spent more than a decade in prison for the death of his niece.
Twenty cases are being investigated after experts questioned Dr. Charles Smith's work. Twelve cases led to convictions, and at least seven have been thrown out.
Smith said Monday that he taught himself pediatric forensics and was ignorant of the criminal justice system.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1101ap_canada_pathologist.html


Shuttle disaster memories linger in town
By MONICA RHOR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NACOGDOCHES, Texas -- The bronze medallion embedded in the pavement behind the Commercial Bank of Texas is easy to overlook. About the size of a DVD, it barely registers as a bump for the cars pulling into the drive-thru window.
But it is there - engraved with the name of the space shuttle Columbia and the date five years ago Friday that the spacecraft exploded over the skies of eastern Texas.
The metal disc serves as a quiet tribute to the spot where a piece of the shuttle's wing crashed to Earth in downtown Nacogdoches, and the day this tranquil town of about 30,000 was catapulted



Israeli Embassy in Mauritania attacked
By AHMED MOHAMED
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania -- At least one gunman opened fire on the Israeli Embassy in Mauritania early Friday, setting off a gunbattle with guards that wounded three people, Israeli and Mauritanian officials said.
The assailant opened fire at 2:20 a.m. (9:20 p.m. EST Thursday), Israeli Ambassador Boaz Bizmuth told Israel Radio.
"The local security forces who guard our embassy returned fire," he said. "As of now, we know of one casualty: a Mauritanian citizen who lives near our embassy. All embassy staff are fine."
A Mauritanian government spokesman, Aziz Ould Dahi, confirmed the attack but said three people were wounded. The French Foreign Ministry also said three French citizens, two men and a woman, were wounded.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1105ap_mauritania_embassy_attack.html


Doctors' group pulls staff from Somalia
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS -- Doctors Without Borders has pulled all of its international staff out of Somalia after three of its aid workers were killed in a land mine explosion earlier this week, the group said Friday.
The international aid group, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, said in a statement it was "deeply shocked by the murder of its team" in an attack that it called "probably premeditated." It evacuated its 87 foreign employees this week.
Three staff members of MSF-Holland were killed and one wounded when their vehicle hit a land mine Monday on a road between the international staff members' home and the hospital where they worked in the southern Somali town of Kismayo, said Malika Saim at the group's headquarters in Paris.
Those killed were a Kenyan surgeon, a French logistics expert and a Somali driver, she said. Saim said the road was one the aid workers took almost daily, and that the car was clearly marked as belonging to MSF, suggesting the group had been targeted.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1105ap_france_somalia_aid_workers.html


France sends more troops to Chad
By JENNY BARCHFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
PARIS -- France has sent about 150 supplementary troops to Chad as a "precautionary measure" in response to a rebel offensive in the central African nation, a French Defense Ministry official said Friday.
The troops, stationed in Gabon, arrived in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, early Friday morning aboard two transport planes to help "respond to the evolution of the situation" on the ground in Chad, Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Thierry Burkhard said.
The troops were not to take any combat role and were in Chad to "if it should prove necessary, assure the security of our citizens" there, Burkhard said.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1105ap_france_chad.html


Mexico seeks US probe of border tear gas
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico has formally requested the United States investigate recent incidents in which Border Patrol officers fired tear gas onto the Mexican side of the border, the government said Thursday.
After being upbraided by the country's top human rights agency for failing to press Washington enough on the issue, Mexico's Foreign Relations Department issued a statement calling the tactic "unacceptable."
The Border Patrol says the tactic is necessary to protect its officers from increasing attacks by people hurling rocks and other objects at them from Mexico.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102ap_mexico_us_border.html


Police: New evidence in Holloway case
By MARGARET WEVER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
View related video
ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- Aruban prosecutors said Thursday that authorities are investigating new information in the Natalee Holloway case provided by a Dutch crime reporter.
Information from reporter Peter R. de Vries "may help considerably" in resolving what happened to the American, who vanished during a May 2005 school vacation to the Dutch Caribbean island, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
The statement did not specify the new material, but said it "may shed a new light on the mode" in which Holloway died and the "method by which her body disappeared."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102ap_aruba_missing_teen.html


Separation Of Powers: It is the law
If Congress shared half the public concern about the moral and security dangers inherent in pursuing a permanent military adventure in Iraq, there would already be a firestorm over President Bush's latest anti-constitutional signing statement.
As The Boston Globe revealed, one of the self-described Decider's latest such statements targeted a section of a massive defense spending bill that forbids using federal money to create permanent bases or to control Iraq's oil. While the signing statement is remarkably vague, the president seemed to signal an intent to defy Congress' constitutional power of the purse in order to spend money on bases and control of Iraq's oil.
Several Democratic senators and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denounced the latest Bush-Cheney power grab. But there ought to be a much sterner, bipartisan response. The Constitution is clear about spending authority. Any curbing of congressional spending power threatens the founding ideas of checks and balances. We disapprove of congressional restrictions on spending for abortions, but we respect Congress' authority. We would applaud a president working with Congress to erase the restrictions; a president defying Congress would shock us.
On Iraq, the public generally understands that permanent bases or U.S. control of the oil will threaten any progress toward stability. Congress should consider how to rein in the president so he cannot pursue permanent bases or oil to the detriment of the Constitution, U.S. security and the nation's international standing.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/349589_signinged.html


Program keeps farmers on their land
RANDY UHRICH
GUEST COLUMNIST
The P-I's Jan. 18 editorial, "Farm Bill: A cry for reform," indicated a poor understanding of what is happening in rural America.
I am fortunate to be a fourth-generation wheat farmer in Douglas County. Having grown up with stories of my grandfather and father farming helped me understand how the industry has evolved. This year marks the 100th anniversary of our farm.
I did not have the opportunity to farm after graduating from college, since the farm was not large enough to support two families. I spent 15 years working and waiting for the call that Dad was ready to retire. When it came 10 years ago, I accepted, but times were not as I remembered. Inflation and low prices had ravaged the industry.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/349591_farmbillrebut01.html

continued...

Snoqualmie Pass still closed; new slide overnight
More than 300 cars wait to be escorted down from Snoqualmie Pass on Thursday. The cars and their passengers were stranded at the top when an avalanche closed I-90 Wednesday. State crews were working to stabilize the hillside to prevent further avalanches.

More easily noted in the Enhanced Infrared Satellite, the vortex over the North Atlantic leading to the Equator was interrupted and gives a break to the central continent of North America; through the movement of a Pacific front headed for the western seaboard.

The velocity of the approaching Pacific front is considerable and will deliver more significant weather issues to the northwest NA continent. The cold experienced by the ski resorts in the USA comes from the Canadian system which is primarily stationary at this point. The large volume snow however is due to heat transfer and the significant moisture carried with those to higher latitudes. Heat transfer systems are dependant on clouds. Clouds are water vapor and carry the heat in water's latent forms. Heat transfer systems are water dependant systems.


February 1, 2008
1415z
Enhanced Infrared Satellite (click here)


February 1, 2008

1415z

UNISYS North and West Hemisphere

Snoqualmie Pass still closed; new slide overnight (click here)
By Ashley Bach
Seattle Times staff reporter
SNOQUALMIE PASS — Snoqualmie Pass remained closed this morning as another avalanche dumped snow near the summit and whiteout conditions were reported.
Over the past six days, nearly five feet of snow has fallen on the pass, said Erin Bogenschutz, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation.
She said there was no estimate when the pass might reopen, adding that it was the avalanche danger, not the snowfall, that is keeping it closed
The state had hoped to open the pass at 9 a.m. today.
According to the National Weather Service, from 12 to 16 inches of snow fell on the pass Thursday. The DOT said seven inches of snow between midnight and 6 a.m. today at the pass and another six to eight inches were forecast for today....

Wild weather battered USA in January

Stranded on Snoqualmie Pass and waiting for I-90 to reopen, this skier gets some air next to the snowy freeway. (January 31, 2008)

NORTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. -- Snow blowers and snowplows are getting a workout in North Lake Tahoe as the snow continues to fall.
Back-to-back storms have many ski resorts reporting 10-day storm totals of more than seven feet, and 15 feet of new snow for the month of January alone, the North Lake Tahoe Visitors Bureau reported Thursday.
Another foot to two feet of new snow is predicted before the weekend, according to the bureau.

..."The great thing about (our recent storms) is that they're coming from the north," Herrera said. "That means they're bringing a lot of cold air, which makes for a great snow event."...

The sky resorts know when the snow arrives from the south through heat transfer directly from the Equator, the snow won't last as what follows is warm air that melts all the snow fall. I'll look at the satellite because there is no thing as 'normal' weather anymore.

Snow-covered prayer stands are seen next to the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City. A rare snowfall hit parts of Israel and the West Bank on Wednesday, closing schools and businesses. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
(January 31, 2008)

A boy becomes while playing in the snow in Amman. Snow blanketed the Jordanian capital and most of the desert kingdom, forcing the closure of schools and banks as the government announced a public holiday.

(AP Photo/Mohammad abu Gosh)

(January 31, 2008)

China is trying to cope. When one mixes Climate Change with a billion people it's a challenge.

A sick passenger is carried away from the crowd by police officers as thousands of passengers wait to get inside Guangzhou Railway Station in Guangzhou, in south China's Guangdong province. Train service was restored Thursday in southern China, thinning the massive crowds waiting to go home after the worst winter storms in half a century crippled the transport system during the nation's busiest holiday travel season. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) (January 31, 2008)

The State of the Union address forgot Bush's greatest legacy - Climate Change

A man wearing a US President George Bush mask holds up protest signs outside the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change Agenda conference held at the East West Center, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008, in Honolulu. A group of protesters gathered outside the international conference demonstrating climate. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

Jan. 30, 2008, 11:35PM
Judges feel out delicacy of suits (click here)
KBR Iraq cases involve casualties among contractors
By BRETT CLANTON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
A federal appeals panel, meeting behind closed doors Wednesday, heard arguments over whether three cases involving KBR contractors injured or killed in Iraq should be revived and go before juries.
In the hourlong hearing, the three-judge panel at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans probed lawyers for the victims and KBR about a deadly April 2004 attack on a KBR truck convoy, in which six workers were killed, one went missing and others were injured, according to two lawyers who were present.
"The judges were extremely active" in questioning lawyers from both sides, said Tobias Cole, a Houston attorney representing Kevin Smith-Idol, a KBR contractor shot in the knee and hip during the attack.
Lawyers for the contractors argued that KBR knew the civilian convoy was heading into an active battle zone but sent it anyway, violating pledges to keep workers safe....


Halliburton dismisses Iran accusations-magazine (click here)
DUBAI, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Oilfield services company Halliburton Co (HAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has brushed aside claims the decision to set up a second headquarters in Dubai was aimed at evading U.S. sanctions to resume operations in Iran.
"These assumptions and suppositions are absolutely untrue," David Lesar, chief executive of Halliburton, told Dubai-based .Commerce magazine in an interview to be published on Jan. 31.
The Dubai move sparked controversy among U.S. politicians last March. Senator Frank Lautenberg at the time accused Halliburton of going "to extraordinary lengths in the past to do business with the terrorist government in Iran".


Mitcham Industries Names Robert Albers to Its Board of Directors (click here)

...Previously from 1990 to 1994, Mr. Albers served as Vice President and General Manager of Halliburton Geophysical Products, a $100 million global division of Halliburton. In 1982 he joined Geosource, Inc. and served as President and General Manager, Operations and Technology Group; prior to that from 1963, he held various management and leadership roles at Chevron Oil Company. Mr. Albers holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mining Engineering from Lehigh University. He is a member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists and the EAGE.

Mitcham Industries, Inc., a geophysical equipment supplier, offers for lease or sale, new and "experienced" seismic equipment to the oil and gas industry, seismic contractors, environmental agencies, government agencies and universities. Headquartered in Texas, with sales and services offices in Calgary, Canada; Brisbane, Australia; Singapore; Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia; and the United Kingdom and with associates throughout Europe, South America and Asia, Mitcham conducts operations on a global scale and is the largest independent exploration equipment lessor in the industry.

Kenya - A hollow democracy (click here)

Ban meets Kenyan opposition leader and negotiating teams (click here)

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, center right, and his predecessor Kofi Annan,center left, meet with government, left, and opposition officials, at a Nairobi hotel, Kenya, Friday, Feb. 1, 2008. Ban Ki-Moon is in Nairobi to hold talks to help resolve the monthlong postelection crisis that has killed more than 800 people and forced 300,000 from their homes. He was later scheduled to meet Opposition leader Raila Odinga. EPA/BERNAT ARMANGUE POOL

...It is too early to know whether the new face-to-face meetings between Kibaki and Odinga will produce the kind of answers that Kenya desperately needs to defuse the crisis. If mediation talks do succeed in quelling the violence temporarily, and if both sides agree on a comprehensive overhaul of the political system and electoral process, the current crisis will, undoubtedly, offer the country an opportunity to prepare the ground for a more comprehensive social rehabilitation process.
On the other hand, failure will propel the country towards chaos and the risk of ethnic cleansing -- something the international community would want to avoid at all costs, given the recent memories of Rwanda and of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Besada is senior researcher, working on fragile states, at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Canada. Kariithi is chief financial officer of the Unified Financial Group and a Kenyan analyst.

...and where was he found? Where? Pakistan that is where ! And where is Osama bin Laden? Good Question STILL !!!!

Now that isn't difficult to follow...

Top al-Qaida Figure Killed in Pakistan (click here)
One of al-Qaida's Top Commanders Killed in Pakistan; Was Among US Most-Wanted

By ROBERT H. REID and PAMELA HESS Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Feb 1, 2008 (AP)
A missile from a U.S. Predator drone struck a suspected terrorist safehouse in Pakistan and killed a top al-Qaida commander believed responsible for attacks on U.S. forces and the brazen bombing during a visit last year by Vice President Dick Cheney to Afghanistan, a U.S. official said Thursday.
The strike that killed Abu Laith al-Libi was conducted Monday night or early Tuesday against a facility in Pakistan's north Waziristan region, the lawless tribal area bordering Afghanistan. His death was reported by postings on two Islamist Web sites and confirmed by a U.S. official on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the strike publicly....

...and where is Mullah Omar supposedly leading al Qaeda? Afghansitan. Now, why would Abu Yahya al Libi state Mullah Omar was leading them in Afghanistan IF he was anywhere but Aghanistan. So, the question remains. Where has Mullah Omar, the personal clerk to Osama bin Laden, been? If not in Afghanistan, my best guess is PAKISTAN. So where is Osama bin Laden? Afghanistan? No. But, comfortably situated where he can get services for his health and comfort in Pakistan. Not the moutains of Afganistan, but, the comforts of Pakistan.

In New Video, Al Libi Claims Mullah Omar Personally Leads Battles (click here)

November 02, 2006 4:55 PM
Hoda Osman Reports:

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is personally leading the battles in Afghanistan, according to suspected al Qaeda figure Abu Yahya al Libi, who appeared in a video released today. "I stress, I swear to God, he is leading the battles himself," claims al Libi.
In the 17-minute video, entitled "Combat Not Compromise," al Libi also calls on the "mujaheddin" in Iraq to unite, indicating that he's aware of internal conflicts there.
The video was produced by al Qaeda's "media production company," al Sahab, to commemorate suspected al Qaeda figure Omar al Faruq, who was killed by British forces in Iraq in September....

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