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HERMANN MISSOURI OKTOBERFEST 2010
HERMANN MISSOURI OKTOBERFEST 2010 - CLICK ON PHOTO FOR THIS YEARS SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
The early show looks at several TV commercial claims and test their products.
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Gov. Nixon racks up $400,000 in travel expenses in two years
BY REBECCA BERG St. Louis Post-Dispatch Monday, February 21, 2011
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JEFFERSON CITY •The governor has spent nearly $400,000 on travel since the beginning of 2009, but you wouldn't know it from his official budget. That's because the office of Gov. Jay Nixon has charged nearly all travel expenses to state departments, arguing that many of the trips were made on behalf of the departments and not the governor. House officials, who have been looking into the matter with an eye on possibly cutting the budgets of the governor and other state officials, released the records late last week. The story was first reported by the Columbia Daily Tribune and KMOX. Records kept by the Office of Budget and Planning show that, of 254 trips totaling $388,513, only seven were paid for by the governor's office. In addition, the costs associated with 41 separate trips were split between all departments, even when the trip appears to benefit one particular department or none at all. One $6,751 trip to the National Governors Conference in Virginia was billed to all the state's departments; so too was the cost of a school bonds event, which took place over two days and had a price tag of more than $3,300.
A report from the World Bank reveals rising food prices could cause major ripple effects in the global economy - especially for developing nations.
BY JACQUELINNE MEJIA Anchor: Austin Kim
You're watching multisource business video news analysis from Newsy
If the saying is - ‘you are what you eat’ - what are you if you have nothing to eat? That may be the predicament facing tens of millions of people in developing countries after a 15 percent food price index increase - a rise the World Bank says hits ‘dangerous levels’.
We’re analyzing coverage from CNN, The New York Times, Slate, Xinhua, BBC and the Jamaica Observer on the global food crisis.
“But what are the reasons? Analysts say the weather is one, demand for biofuel is another, and a major concern - rapid growth in emerging markets that has been driving up demand.”
“High corn prices cause higher meat, dairy, wheat and soy prices for consumers. Since last June, the corn price has doubled. [...] And because of increased demand for a dwindling amount of oil which costs more to produce, embedded energy costs in food are another huge driver of today's higher food prices.”
“[...] the simple laws of supply and demand are in play as well. In developing nations, more people are buying more food. Moreover, they are purchasing more meat, which requires not just the cow or pig, but the grain to feed it.”__________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________
February 21, 2011 BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN ANCHOR: CHRISTINA HARTMAN
You're watching multisource politics news analysis from Newsy
It’s a showdown critics are billing an all-out political war on unions. Crowds continue to swarm Wisconsin’s capital -- where the state’s governor is showing no signs of backing down over public sector union benefits. (Video from KOVR)
Still at large - 14 Democratic state lawmakers who fled the state last week in protest over Governor Scott Walker’s Budget Repair Bill. Walker’s proposal -- strips public sector unions of some collective bargaining rights -- and ups state workers’ pension and health insurance contributions.
12K State Workers Could Be Fired Without Budget Deal, Wisconsin Governor Warns
February 20, 2011
FoxNews.com
If changes aren't made to the benefit contributions paid by Wisconsin's nearly 300,000 public sector employees, about 10,000-12,000 workers will lose their jobs, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker warned Sunday.
The Republican governor has been targeted by protesters for nearly a week for negotiating a bill now in the state Senate that would require workers to increase their contributions to pensions and health care coverage, would limit collective bargaining rules and tie raises to inflation.
But Walker said while the state enjoys a lower-than-average unemployment rate -- about 7.5 percent compared to 9 percent nationally -- about 5,000-6,000 state workers and 5,000-6,000 local government workers could lose their jobs if they don't accept changes to their benefits plan.
"I don't want a single person laid off in the public nor in the private sector and that's why this is a much better alternative than losing jobs," Walker told "Fox News Sunday."
The budget vote was supposed to take place last week, but was delayed when state Senate Democrats fled to Illinois to avoid having to vote on the plan, which would cost public sector employees about $300 million over two years, or less than 10 percent of the deficit total.
Sat. Feb. 19, 2011. Protesters gather down State Street in Madison, Wis., after a rally outside the Wisconsin State Capitol. A few dozen police officers stood between supporters of GOP Gov. Scott Walker on the muddy east lawn of the Capitol and the much larger group of pro-labor demonstrators who surrounded them.
Opposing sides meet as Capitol protests enter sixth day
DEE J. HALL, MARY SPICUZZA and CLAY BARBOUR Wisconsin State Journal Saturday, February 19, 2011
Tens of thousands of people are descending on the state Capitol Saturday for the sixth day of protests targeting a controversial budget repair bill that effectively strips public workers of their collective bargaining rights.
Some 40,000 protesters — including the Rev. Jesse Jackson — showed up Friday to help cheer on Democratic lawmakers who successfully delayed action on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's bill by leaving the state and depriving the Senate of a quorum.
Officials expect Saturday's crowd to be even bigger and bring a new dynamic: opposing sides. Union protesters have largely had the Capitol to themselves for the week. But a counter-protest has been organized for Saturday involving pro-Walker and Tea Party supporters.
The union protests got under way at 10:30, and the pro-Walker group starts at noon.
Reaction to the bill, proposed eight days ago, has been intense and has built throughout the week, with bigger protests each day.
On Friday, Walker announced he was pushing back the release of the state's two-year budget, and his budget address, by a week. It was supposed to be delivered Tuesday. The short-term budget repair bill, aimed at getting through this fiscal year, also includes cuts in public employee benefits.
The Legislature may be at a stalemate for now — Democratic senators haven't returned from Illinois since fleeing Wisconsin on Thursday, and the Assembly adjourned after a brief but heated session Friday. — but major union officials came forward Friday to offer concessions. Union leaders offer concessions
Top leaders of two of Wisconsin's largest public employee unions announced they are willing to accept the financial concessions called for in Walker's plan, but will not accept the loss of collective bargaining rights.
Mary Bell, president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, and Marty Beil, executive director of AFSCME Council 24, said in a conference call with reporters that workers will do their fair share to narrow Wisconsin's budget gap.
Walker's plan calls for nearly all state, local and school employees to pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care premiums. That would save $30 million by June 30 and $300 million over the next two years, the governor has said.
The measure also would prohibit most unionized public employees, except local police and fire fighters and the State Patrol, from bargaining on issues besides wages. Wage hikes could be negotiated only if they don't exceed the consumer price index.
"We want to say loud and clear — it is not about those concessions," Bell said. "For my members, it's about retaining a voice in their professions."
The two insisted their positions have not changed and Friday's call was intended to clarify their opposition to Walker's proposal. Bell, who represents 98,000 educators, and Beil, whose council includes 60,000 members, repeated calls for Walker to sit down with them.
Senate Democrats also reached out to Walker, sending him a letter urging him to remove the bargaining provisions from his bill.
But Walker repeated that he would not back down.
MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) – Wisconsin's Republican governor vowed on Friday to press ahead with legislation to curb the union bargaining rights of public employees as part of a deficit-cutting plan even as protests against the measure swelled.
Speaking at a news conference on the fifth consecutive day of demonstrations against the proposal, Governor Scott Walker said the state is broke and cannot pay its bills unless the plan is approved.
"I told the voters what I would do to get Wisconsin working again," Walker said of his election in 2010. "We are going to do what it takes to get this budget on track."
Republicans have majorities in both the state Senate and the Assembly. In a bid to scuttle the proposal, Senate Democrats fled the state on Thursday and Friday to deprive the Senate of the needed quorum for a vote.
The lawmakers apparently left the state because they were concerned that they would be compelled to return to the Capitol by police if they stayed in Wisconsin.
Republicans have a quorum in the state Assembly and could pass the plan there over the weekend.
Police estimated that 35,000 protesters converged on the Capitol grounds in Madison on Friday, with another 5,000 demonstrators packed inside the building itself, said Carla Vigue, a spokeswoman with the Wisconsin Department of Administration.
On Thursday, a crowd estimated at 30,000 people protested inside and outside the Capitol building.
The protests have so far been peaceful and police said there were no incidents or arrests on Friday.
TEA PARTY
But the potential for confrontation emerged when the conservative Tea Party movement, which supports deep budget cuts, announced that it would hold a rally supporting the Republicans at the Capitol on Saturday.
Drew Ryun, the president of American Majority Action, one of the conservative groups planning Saturday's demonstration, said organizers were "meeting fire with fire."
"We have buses coming in from all over the state," Ryun said. "We see this as the opening salvo of the 2012 election season. The Tea Party movement facing off against the unions. And we like the odds."
Wisconsin is the flashpoint for a national struggle over efforts to roll back pay and union rights of state and local government workers. If the majority Republicans in Wisconsin prevail, other states could be emboldened to take on powerful public employee unions.
The Milwaukee Public School system, which serves 85,000 students in the state's largest city, canceled all classes on Friday after nearly 630 unionized teachers called in sick.
"Every day the crowds are bigger," said Jay Heck, the executive of Common Cause Wisconsin, a non-partisan advocacy group based in Madison, said of the union protests.
President Barack Obama sided with the demonstrators on Thursday, calling the governor's proposal an "assault on unions." U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner criticized Obama and said he backed fellow Republican Walker.
Walker's administration puts the deficit for the remainder of the current fiscal year at $137 million and for the next two fiscal years under its biannual budget at $3.3 billion.
Republicans want state workers to increase contributions to pensions to 5.8 percent of salary, and double contributions to health insurance premiums to 12.6 percent.
They also want to limit collective bargaining to the issue of wages, and cap increases to the rate of inflation, with a voter referendum needed for bigger increases.
Walker said the alternative is to layoff more than 10,000 workers.
Walker was to unveil his state budget proposal for the next two fiscal years on February 22, but on Friday his office said that speech would be put off until March 1.
U.S. state and local governments are struggling to balance budgets after the recession decimated their finances. Some states such as Wisconsin, Texas, Arizona and Ohio are relying mainly on cuts in spending to balance the books. Others such as Minnesota and Illinois are raising taxes.
. Other governors facing similar budget crises are watching Wisconsin carefully. More than 40 states are facing a combined projected shortfall of $125 billion for the fiscal year of 2012. The hardest hit are California, facing a $25.5 billion gap, Texas at $13 billion, Illinois at $15 billion, New York at $9 billion and New Jersey at $10.5 billion.
Unions under fire as states try to curtail benefits
Public employees protest Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to limit collective bargaining and require higher benefit contributions.
By Tami Luhby, senior writer CNNMoney February 18, 2011
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Lots of state officials are pressing public employees to shoulder more of their health care and pension costs.
But in some places -- notably Wisconsin and Ohio -- officials are looking to go one step farther. Governors and lawmakers there are trying to limit or end public workers' collective bargaining ability, effectively neutering the unions.
Thousands of Wisconsin's public employees have descended on Madison to protest Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to raise their benefit contributions and limit their collective bargaining ability.
Protests have also erupted in Columbus, Ohio as a bill proposing to eliminate collective bargaining for state workers and public university employees makes its way through the state legislature.
Both states are seeking the flexibility to change employee benefits, and they're not alone.
Health care and pension costs are soaring, making it even harder for public officials nationwide to close massive budget gaps.Forty-four states and Washington, D.C. are facing a total shortfall of $125 billion for fiscal 2012, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
In many places, public officials have little leverage to lower these costs because they are set in union contracts. If benefits were removed from the collective bargaining process, states and localities could change them without having to negotiate with the unions, a process that can drag on for months or even years.
"It gives state and local officials more control over the costs of employing government workers," said James Sherk, senior policy analyst in labor economics at The Heritage Institute, a conservative think tank.
Many state and local governments have been leaning on their employees as they look to cut costs and balance their budgets during the Great Recession. Workers, to varying degrees, have made concessions -- taking furloughs or pay freezes and upping their contributions to their health care and retirement benefits.
State officials have long floated so-called right-to-work proposals that would curtail or eliminate union power. But this year, they are getting more traction because Republicans -- who are generally not big fans of unions -- have gained control of more state capitols and governor's mansions.
For instance, a bill that would end collective bargaining for teachers is currently working its way through the legislature in Tennessee, where Republicans captured the governor's office and took a commanding lead in the house.
And in Indiana, which banned collective bargaining on the state level in 2005, lawmakers are considering a bill to curtail the power of teachers' unions, which are at the local level.
Gov. Walker's controversial proposal
Under Wisconsin Gov. Walker's plan, many state and local workers would pay about 5.8% toward their pension and about 12% of their healthcare benefits. They currently pay little toward their retirement benefits about about 6% of their medical premiums, Walker said.
Walker says these changes would help the state save $30 million in the last three months of the current fiscal year. Wisconsin is facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit for the biennium that starts on July 1, according to the state's Department of Administration.
Even more controversial, Walker is looking to limit collective bargaining for most public employees to wages only. Local law enforcement and fire employees, as well as state troopers and inspectors would be exempt.
That means health care and pension contributions would no longer be subject to contract negotiations, giving state officials greater freedom to raise them.
A bill in Ohio, meanwhile, would not only eliminate collective bargaining but would also make fewer police and firefighters eligible to participate in unions.
Additionally, the Ohio bill would make all public workers pay at least 20% of their health insurance premiums and would eliminate tenure as a consideration when making layoffs. And it would require pay be based on merit for most workers.
Ohio is facing an $8 billion budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year. Gov. John Kasich supports the bill as a way to help stabilize the budgets of the state and localities.
"We need to give our cities, towns and school districts the tools to combat one of their biggest costs -- the cost of labor," said Rob Nichols, his press secretary.
Thousands of teachers and public employees have flocked to Columbus to protest the bill.
"Students need their teachers to focus on them and their classrooms, and allowing the union to represent teachers allows them to do what they do best -- teach," said Philip Hayes, a teacher in Columbus and member of the Ohio Education Association, which sent nearly a thousand school workers to a rally on Thursday.
Concessions from public workers
Given state budget woes, workers' pay and benefits are "an obvious place" to cut back, Sherk said. If employees don't make concessions, state officials will have to cut elsewhere to balance the budget.
"It means there are less tax dollars to fund government services," he said.
But union leaders say that public employees have been giving plenty throughout the recession. Many states have effectively cut pay by instituting furloughs and workers have been contributing more to their benefits.
In California, for instance, workers agreed last year to contribute 10% of their pay to their pensions, up from 5%, said Steven Kreisberg, director of collective bargaining for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Ohio public employees made $250 million in concessions in 2008, including an increase in their health care contributions.
"Public employees, through their unions, are making sacrifices," Kreisberg said. "Any argument that workers are not willing to make concessions is clearly not demonstrated by the facts."
Wis. governor: GOP won't be 'bullied' by union bill protesters
By Jordan Fabian - 02/18/11thehill.com
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) says his party has been emboldened by massive protests against his controversial budget plan.
Walker said demonstrators who filled the state Capitol building in Madison and the boycott by state Senate Democrats — some of whom fled the state in protest — have steeled the resolve of members of his party.
"If anything, I think it's made the Republicans in the Assembly and the Senate stronger," he told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren in an interview Thursday night. "They're not going to be bullied. They're not going to be intimidated."
The unrest in Wisconsin has attracted attention from national lawmakers and political figures, who have incorporated the state's tussle over Walker's budget proposal into the debate over the federal government's fiscal woes.
Public-sector workers are upset with the plan, which calls on them to pay to receive pension and health benefits and removes collective bargaining rights for some.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) issued a statement backing Walker's proposal, saying, governors like Walker "are daring to speak the truth about the dire fiscal challenges Americans face at all levels of government, and daring to commit themselves to solutions that will liberate our economy and help put our citizens on a path to prosperity."
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, meanwhile, has called the plan an "assault" on the middle class and compared Walker's plan to drastic cuts House Republicans in Washington, D.C., want to make.
"This federal budget madness echoes pound-foolish actions we're seeing in state after state, where Republican legislators and governors elected with lucrative CEO support are ignoring the jobs crisis and playing politics as usual with the lives of working families," he wrote in a Huffington Post op-ed.
Wisconsin Democrats in Congress have called for the plan to be taken off the table. President Obama on Thursday weighed in, also accusing Walker of waging an "assault" on unions.
Walker's words are his latest attempt to goad state Democrats back to the capital to vote on his plan. He held a press conference on Thursday afternoon, urging them to return to the state after some fled to neighboring Illinois in order to avoid state law enforcement from bringing them back to Madison.
Asked if he has the authority to retrieve them out-of-state, Walker said, "That's a really big question for us." READ MORE
Wisconsin State Senator Mark Miller Calls Governor Scott Walker's Budget Tactics 'Insulting,' Asks for 'Respect'
February 18, 2011 abcnews.com
hat was the message the Wisconsin state Senate minority leader wanted to send to Gov. Scott Walker after he and 13 fellow Democratic senators fled the state in order to avoid a budget vote that would take away state employee’s bargaining rights and increase health care costs and contributions to pensions.
“The workers of Wisconsin have always been willing to work with the governor when we face a crisis whether it is a national disaster or a fiscal crisis. They did it the last session, they took furloughs equivalent to a 3% pay cut, they will do it again,” Sen. Mark Miller said on “GMA.” “The really insulting thing is the governor never, ever asked them. He just introduced this law last week Friday and expected to be passed yesterday, unacceptable. It is not the way we do things in Wisconsin, it is not the American way.”
Wisconsin is trying to overcome a $137 million budget shortfall which would turn into a $3.6 billion problem over the next two years.
The governor has called on the senators to return to Madison to do the job they were elected to do. But Miller – who spoke from an undisclosed location out of the reach of the Wisconsin state patrol – said the budget crisis is entirely of Walker’s “own making.”
“We had a much bigger deficit at the end of the Bush recession that hit our state and every state like a thunderclap. It was a $6.6 billion deficit and we solved that deficit and employees stepped up,” Miller told me. READ MORE
____________________________________________________________________________ Madison — Amid the third straight day of chaotic but largely peaceful protests at the Capitol, Democratic senators Thursday boycotted a Senate vote on Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair plan, forcing Republicans to put off further action in that house until Friday at the earliest.
With Democrats hiding out just over the Illinois border and drawing national media attention, Republicans had too few lawmakers to take a vote Thursday and had to adjourn. With thousands of demonstrators swarming the Capitol Square, GOP lawmakers vowed to come back Friday morning to try to take up the proposal, which would help solve a state budget shortfall by cutting public employee benefits and would also take away most public union bargaining rights.
Democrats holed up in the Clock Tower Resort and Conference Center in Rockford, Ill., while Republicans said they wanted law enforcement to bring them to the Capitol if they were still in Wisconsin. Walker called for Democrats to call off their "stunt" and "show up and do the job they're paid to do."
"It's either a matter of making reductions and making modest requests of our government employees or making massive layoffs at a time when we don't need anyone else laid off," Walker said.
Walker said he had received more than 8,000 e-mails on the issue, with the majority of them backing his stance.
Democrats and union leaders said their concerns were focused on losing decades-old bargaining rights, not the financial concessions. In a telephone interview from an undisclosed location, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D-Monona) said he was upholding the rights of workers by allowing for more debate on the bill.
Lack of quorum
The Senate convened at 11:30 a.m., with 17 Republicans but no Democrats present. After a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, action immediately was disrupted by demonstrators in the gallery shouting, "Freedom, democracy, unions." One of the two missing Republicans arrived shortly afterward and an aide to the 19th, Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center), said his boss was unable to make it to the Senate through the demonstrators.
Senate President Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) made a call of the house to bring the additional senators needed to vote on the bill to the Senate floor.
Walker and Scott Fitzgerald have said they were confident that the GOP lawmakers had the votes they needed to pass the bill without further changes. Walker said Thursday that the proposal's cuts to worker benefits and union bargaining laws are financially necessary and that he wouldn't accept changes that compromised the saving he's seeking.
The state has a $137 million budget shortfall for the fiscal year ending June 30 and a more than $3 billion shortfall over the next two years. The cuts to benefits would save taxpayers nearly $330 million through mid-2013.
Republicans control the Senate, 19-14, meaning they can lose only two votes and still pass the bill if all Democrats oppose it. Some Republicans have shown reluctance about the bill, though so far none have said publicly that they will vote against it.
Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) said he was uncomfortable about the bill's effects on workers but also concerned about the other alternatives to fix the budget.
"I will probably vote for it" on the Senate floor, Olsen said.
Top GOP leaders in the Legislature have said they expect the bill to pass both houses with the changes adopted by the Joint Finance Committee late Wednesday on a party-line vote. Some GOP senators attempted to make changes to the bill Wednesday that would go further than the Joint Finance Committee changes but had no success.
The biggest change approved by the Joint Finance Committee would require local governments that don't have a civil-service system to create one to address grievances for employee termination, employee discipline and workplace safety.
The committee left major elements of the bill in place. It would require most public workers to pay half their pension costs - typically 5.8% of pay for state workers - and at least 12% of their health care costs. It applies to most state and local employees but does not apply to police, firefighters and state troopers, who would continue to bargain for their benefits.
Except for police, firefighters and troopers, raises would be limited to inflation unless a bigger increase was approved in a referendum. The non-law enforcement unions would lose their rights to bargain over anything but wages, would have to hold annual elections to keep their organizations intact and would lose the ability to have union dues deducted from state paychecks.
JEFFERSON CITY – Starting March 1, Missourians will be able to buy most hunting and fishing permits at home, using the Missouri Department of Conservation’s (MDC) new e-Permits system. The system will allow hunters, anglers and trappers to print permits on regular computer printers and have them in hand them immediately. All sport-fishing and -hunting permits will be available through e-Permits. So will trapping permits and the Apprentice Hunter Authorization. E-permits will look like the old permits and will be about the same size as in the past. Commercial permits and lifetime permits will continue to be sold through MDC’s Central Office by calling 573-751-4115. The change to e-Permits is part of MDC’s continuing effort to improve services and keep permit costs low in spite of declining revenues. Hunters and anglers will be able to buy permits online 24/7 anywhere they have access to a computer and printer. If they prefer to buy permits from vendors, as they always have, that option will remain open to them. They also can buy permits by calling toll-free 1-800-392-4115. Phone purchases are subject to a $2 convenience fee, while the fee for online permit purchases is $1. Vendors will continue to print permits on the existing material until July 2012. The old, Point-of-Sale permit system will stay in use until July 2012, when vendors will be able to switch to the new all-online system. The old type of permits will be phased out between July 2012 and July 2013. After that, permits purchased from vendors will be on regular printer paper. Missourians have been able to buy permits online since 2002. However, under the old online system, buyers received only confirmation at the time of purchase. They used this confirmation while waiting to receive the actual permits through the mail, which could take up to two weeks. This was no help to turkey and deer hunters, who need actual permits to tag game. With e-Permits, turkey and deer hunters will be able to buy permits, print them and have valid permits immediately. Deer and turkey tagging procedures will change with the change to e-Permits. The main difference is that permits no longer will include a removable transportation tag. Instead, the permit itself will be the transportation tag. Deer and turkey permits will have months printed along one edge and dates on another edge. Hunters will notch the month and day as part of recording their harvested game and attach the permit to the animal. They will continue to check harvested animals through the Telecheck system. E-Permits will not be printed on adhesive-backed material, so hunters will need to provide a means of attaching them to harvested game. Hunters are encouraged to put e-Permits inside zipper-type sandwich bags and attach them to deer or turkeys with string, twist-ties, wire, plastic cable ties or tape. Protecting paper permits in this way will keep them readable and make it easier to write confirmation numbers on them when Telechecking deer and turkeys. You also can save e-Permits on your computer and print extra copies of permits in case one is lost or ruined. As always, permits may not be shared and additional copies of a permit do not provide additional valid permits for the buyer or others to use. The change to e-Permits will reduce costs as MDC phases out software, hardware and special permit material used in the old, Point-of-Sale permit system. When fully implemented, e-Permits will reduce the cost of issuing permits by approximately $500,000 annually. Missouri residents pay $12 for an annual fishing permit, while residents in the eight neighboring states pay an average of $20.80 for the same privileges. Missouri’s $17 Resident Firearms Any-Deer Permit is a fantastic bargain compared to the average of $46.63 for equivalent privileges in surrounding states.
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_________________________________________________________________________ 1963 file photo -- President John F. Kennedy, working late at his White House office, wears a slight smile on his face, indicating perhaps he is not completely unaware that his son, John Jr., is exploring under his desk in the Oval Office in the White House. (AP Photo/Look Magazine, Stanley Tretick)
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Caroline Kennedy to unveil virtual President’s Desk
As a little girl, Caroline Kennedy hung out at her father’s desk while he worked in the country’s most famous office. Now she’s introducing a way anyone can sit — virtually — at John F. Kennedy’s desk and learn more about his life and administration.
On Monday morning, Caroline Kennedy was set to unveil a new online feature, The President’s Desk, at the Museum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.
The interactive desktop has numerous objects Web visitors can click — a telephone, a campaign button, a secret recording button — and get video, audio and text from JFK’s era, she said.
“I hope users will feel they are sitting at the president’s desk themselves and will be excited to bring history to life in this dynamic setting,“ said Caroline Kennedy, president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. “My parents shared a love of history, and I know they would have enjoyed this exhibit themselves.“
Caroline Kennedy was to introduce the online feature in front of a replica of the desk, which was made from the timbers of the British ship the HMS Resolute and was given to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria in 1878.
The original desk, which is still used by President Barack Obama, was in the White House broadcast room until JFK’s wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, discovered it and had it installed in the Oval Office in February 1961.
The virtual version has seven clickable objects, each of which holds various layers of information.
Clicking the telephone, for instance, pulls up a list of recorded conversations, and a user can listen to the president talk to his brothers Robert Kennedy and Edward Kennedy.
The campaign button reveals a picture of his campaign headquarters and video from his run for office.
Hitting the secret recording button gives access to transcripts and sound from high-level discussions on the Cuban missile crisis and Vietnam.
Other objects hold information about Kennedy’s family, his military service and his love of the sea.
The President’s Desk can be found at JFKLibrary.org.
Protesters march in Rabat, Morocco to demand a new constitution that would bring greater democracy and an end to corruption. Photograph: Abdeljalil Bounhar/AP
Thousands took to the streets of Rabat, Casablanca, Tangier and Marrakech in peaceful protests demanding a new constitution, a change in government and an end to corruption. Sunday's protests were a test for King Mohamed VI's regime, which boasts that it is more liberal and tolerant than other countries in the region that have seen violence and revolution. Despite a heavy secret police presence, uniformed police stayed in the background as demonstrators carefully avoided overt criticism of the king or Islamist chanting. "Where has the money gone?", "The people of Morocco want change" and "We need a new constitution" were among the cries of 5,000 marchers in the capital, Rabat. "The atmosphere today is peaceful, as it is in our Moroccan nature to be peaceful," a 50-year-old doctor, Mohamed Bebakri, said. Said Benjibli, the creator of Facebook protest group and one of the few prepared to complain about the monarch, said: "The king has too much power and he needs to distribute more money to the people." Much of the rage was directed against prime minister Abbas El Fassi and his many family members in government posts.
Riot police and plainclothed basiji militia fired teargas and wielded batons to disperse thousands of defiant protesters commemorating the death of two pro-democracy demonstrators killed during anti-government protests last week. Supporters of the Green Movement gathered in scattered groups for the second time within a week to denounce the death of Saane Zhaleh, 26, and Mohammadi Mokhtari, 22, who were killed in Tehran on Monday. An opposition website affiliated to Mehdi Karroubi, a former presidential candidate, said that one person had been killed in Haft-e-Tir square in central Tehran when security forces opened fire at protesters. Dozens were arrested. Iran's IRNA state news agency reported that Faezeh Rafsanjani, the daughter of influential cleric and former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, had been arrested in Tehran but semi-official FARS news agency reported later that she had been released. Iran had banned foreign media based in Tehran from reporting the protest. Instead, the opposition turned to social networking websites to spread their voice. Opposition websites claimed the protests reached other big cities, including Shiraz, Isfahan, Tabriz, Mashhad and Sanandaj with scenes similar to those in the capital, Tehran. The Green Wave opposition grouo announced that Ahmad Maleki, the vice-consulate at the consulate general of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Milan, had defected. He is the forth diplomat to defect since Iran's post-election unrest in 2009.
Algeria: Police separate crowds with clubs and shields
Police thwarted a rally by thousands of pro-democracy supporters, breaking up the crowd into isolated groups to keep them from marching. Police brandishing clubs, but no firearms, weaved their way through the crowd in central Algiers, banging their shields, tackling some protesters and keeping traffic flowing through the planned march route. A demonstrating politician was hospitalised after suffering a head wound when he fell after police kicked and hit him, colleagues said. The gathering, organised by the Coordination for Democratic Change in Algeria, comes a week after a similar protest, which organisers said brought an estimated 10,000 people and up to 26,000 riot police on to the streets of Algiers. Algeria has also been hit by numerous strikes over the past month. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has promised to lift the state of emergency, which has been in place since early 1992 to combat a budding insurgency by Islamist extremists. The insurgency, which continues sporadically, has killed about 200,000 people. Bouteflika has warned, however, that a longstanding ban on protests in Algiers would remain in place, even once the state of emergency was lifted. Algeria has many of the ingredients for a popular revolt. It is riddled with corruption and has never successfully grappled with its soaring jobless rate among its youth, estimated by some to be up to 42% despite its oil and gas wealth. "The people are for change, but peacefully," said sociologist Nasser Djebbi. "We have paid a high price."
The leader of Yemen's secessionist Southern Movement, Hasan Baoum, was arrested by an "armed military group" in an Aden hospital, according to his son, and shots were fired at a demonstration in the capital Sana'a, as unrest continued for a ninth consecutive day. Thousands of people also staged sit-ins in the cities of Ibb and Taiz, demanding the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who renewed his call for opposition parties to pursue a dialogue with the government. Security in the southern port of Aden was stepped up with tanks and armoured vehicles out on the main streets.
China: Crackdown after call for 'jasmine revolution'
Chinese security officials questioned or detained scores of activists at the weekend and warned others against staging protests after an online call was made for demonstrations in 13 cities, campaigners said. The message, posted on an overseas website on Saturday, was titled: "The jasmine revolution in China". The swift crackdown underlined the anxiety of authorities in the wake of the Egypt uprising and protests across the Middle East. The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy estimated that more than 100 activists across the country were taken away by police, prevented from leaving home or were missing. Wang Songlian, of the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network, said more than 40 campaigners or dissidents had been summoned or questioned by police or placed under "soft detention" at home or elsewhere. In many more cases, police had visited people to ask them what they were doing or warn them not to take part, she said. "[The message] linked it to the jasmine revolution and I guess that made the government nervous," she said. "It really shows us how much the government has identified with regimes in the Middle East where people are so aggrieved about social injustice." Despite a huge police presence at the proposed demonstration locations, there were signs that at least a handful of people in Beijing and Shanghai had hoped to protest. It is not clear who posted the call for demonstrations on the Boxun website, and the message may well have come from abroad. Many mainland activists appeared to have been unaware of it until police contacted them.
TRIPOLI — Libyan authorities arrested dozens of foreign Arab nationals for allegedly stoking anti-regime protests amid reports that security forces had killed more than 80 people in a deadly crackdown.
Those detained in several Libyan cities were members of a "foreign network (and were) trained to damage Libya's stability, the safety of its citizens and national unity," the official Jana news agency said, hinting that Israel was behind the alleged plot.
Sources close to the investigation, quoted by the agency late Saturday, said the group included Tunisian, Egyptian, Sudanese, Palestinian, Syrian and Turkish citizens.
The people arrested were "charged with inciting acts of looting and sabotage, such as burning hospitals, banks, courts, prisons, police stations and offices of the military police, as well as public buildings and private properties, according to plans drawn up earlier," Jana said.
Noting that "certain Libyan cities have been the scene of acts of sabotage and destruction since Tuesday," Jana said the suspects sought to "take arms from police stations and the military police and use them."
"Sources close to the investigation have not ruled out Israel being behind the network," the news agency added, without providing details.
Human Rights Watch meanwhile said security forces had killed more than 80 anti-regime protesters in eastern Libya in what Britain termed a "horrifying" crackdown.
On the fifth day of an unprecedented challenge to his four-decade regime, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi had still made no public comment.
After regime opponents used Facebook to mobilise protests, as in neighbouring Egypt, the social networking website was blocked and Internet connections were patchy, said Internet users in Tripoli and Benghazi.
Tripoli itself remained calm and state television and the official news agency restricted its coverage to reports of pro-regime rallies.
"Security forces are firing on Libyan citizens and killing scores simply because they're demanding change and accountability," said New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), citing phone interviews with hospital staff and witnesses.
It said thousands of demonstrators had poured into the streets of Benghazi and other eastern cities on Friday, a day after clashes in which 49 people were killed.
"Hospital sources told Human Rights Watch that security forces killed 35 people in Benghazi on February 18, almost all with live ammunition," raising the tally to more than 80.
At least 24 were gunned down in Benghazi, Libya's second city and hotbed of anti-Kadhafi opposition, and on Al-Baida's "day of anger" Thursday, according to HRW.
A medical source at Benghazi's Al-Jalaa Hospital and the website of Quryna newspaper close to Kadhafi's reputedly pro-reform son Seif al-Islam said Friday's death toll in the city was 24.
Libya's attorney general, Abdelrahman al-Abbar, has ordered an inquiry into the violence focused on the east of the country, an official in Tripoli told AFP, on condition of anonymity.
The prosecutor has called for "procedures to be expedited to judge all those who were guilty of death or looting," the official said.
In Benghazi, demonstrators set fire to a local radio station Friday after the building's guards withdrew, witnesses and a security source said.
And Quryna reported that some 1,000 inmates had escaped from a Benghazi prison, while a security source said four inmates were shot dead during a breakout bid in Tripoli.
According to a toll compiled by AFP from local sources, at least 65 people have been killed since demonstrations first erupted on Tuesday. That toll excludes two policemen that newspapers said were hanged in Al-Baida on Friday.
Oea, another newspaper close to Seif al-Islam, said the two policemen had been lynched by demonstrators.
Security forces circled Al-Baida on Friday, a source close to the authorities said, following Internet reports that protesters had seized control of the city.
Another well-informed local source said 14 civilians, including protesters and members of the Revolutionary Committees -- the backbone of Kadhafi's regime -- had been killed in Al-Baida.
US President Barack Obama has condemned the use of violence against peaceful protesters in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen, while Britain, France and the European Union urged Libyan authorities to exercise restraint.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague denounced the crackdown, urging authorities to rein in the army.
Kadhafi, 68, is the longest-serving leader in the Arab world. His oil-producing North African state is sandwiched between Tunisia and Egypt, whose long-time leaders have been toppled by popular uprisings.
Founders of Evermore dog food pledge to solely eat their brand every day for a month...
Y CHRISTINE SLUSSER
Anchor: Jennifer Meckles
You're watching multisource health video news analysis from Newsy.
“Just a couple of girls sitting around polishing off a pint of ice cream...wait a minute! That’s not ice cream, it’s dog food!” (Video: CNN)
If you wouldn’t wolf down your pets dog food--you need to have a chat with the Evermore dog food founders. CNN reports that starting in March, the dog chow duo will eat their hormone-free, all-natural ingredient dog food... everyday.
HANNA MANDELBAUM AND ALISON WIENER: “Because ingredients matter more than ever...”
JEANNE MOOS: “They use only human-grade ingredients like chicken with yams and carrots and blueberries. Hanna’s dog, Connor, licks his bowl clean, but would I? Feed me.”
WIENER: “Feed you?”
MOOS: “Maybe a little smaller...(takes a bite) I mean, I can swallow it.”
...and the inspiration to try the doggie diet carried on to The Brooklyn Paper’s reporter--who says the puppy chow isn’t too shabby.
“It’s meaty and a bit grainy...I could have stopped at one bite — journalism had been served...— but something made me put the fork in again. It’s good. And when I added a touch of hot sauce — human hot sauce, of course. I don’t eat dog hot sauce — it’s actually delicious.”
The Motorola Atrix can be docked on a laptop or HDTV, prompting some to say it's the way smartphones are headed. But is it all it's cracked up to be? BY BRANDON TWICHELL
Is this the future of smartphones? Motorola’s Atrix can be hooked up to a special laptop dock and be used on the laptop screen. (Video Source: The Inquirer)
“Shooting a little video, high definition video, using the Atrix. I wanna see what that looks like on my desktop. Then I come right down here and launch the Entertainment Center icon. Then it gives me full access to everything that’s on my phone--pictures, videos. Let’s launch the videos and see what we just shot. And there it is. Voila!”
The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg also played around with the Atrix, but he says the phone-laptop combo is a little flawed.
“I found it a little more awkward to use these phone apps with the keyboard and touch pad than with the touch screen for which they were designed.”
“It’s essentially a hollow shell that won’t even turn on unless the phone is docked in the back. The OS only comes with a few apps such as Firefox and a media center....There’s no way to download new apps, so you’re stuck with what comes out of the box.”
“Motorola and AT&T deserve some credit for doing something that’s really new and different. As our mobile devices become evermore powerful and evermore ubiquitous, consider it a glimpse of things to come.”
“With a phone as powerful as the...Motorola Atrix, the future of Android and mobile computing will lie in the smart docks that are being created as we speak.” Click Here to Read More.
