U.S. and Canada Planning North American Perimeter
December 17th, 2010Via: National Post:
The Conservative government is set to announce a landmark security and trade deal with the United States, designed to create a perimeter around North America and allow people and goods to flow more freely across the border.
Sources suggested that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama will sign the broad-ranging agreement in Washington as early as next month.
“It’s big on ideals but maybe not so great on details,” said one person familiar with the negotiations. “But it does use the word ‘perimeter’ many times…The question is, will it reduce the compliance burden at the Canada-U.S. border?”
The New Border Vision is being billed as a 21st century border management system that will include new common consumer product regulations, a pre-clearance agreement for goods crossing the border to expedite waiting times and the use of advanced technology to utilize biometric data for travelers at airports and land crossings, according to people familiar with the plan.
Related: Australia and New Zealand Working on “Common Border” Policy
Ireland’s Credit Rating Cut Five Levels by Moody’s With a Negative Outlook
December 17th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
Ireland’s credit rating was cut five levels by Moody’s Investors Service and further downgrades are possible as the government struggles to contain losses in the country’s banking system.
The rating was lowered to Baa1 from Aa2, Moody’s said in an e-mailed statement from London today. That’s three levels above non-investment grade and the same level as countries including Russia and Lithuania. The outlook on the rating is “negative,” Moody’s said.
Nashville: Sheriff Rolls Out Mobile Booking Unit
December 17th, 2010Via: WSNV:
The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office has a new mobile booking unit. It’s a bus bought and outfitted with a $300,000 grant from the state to help police officers get back on the street more quickly after an arrest.
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But there’s a missing step that’s causing some concern: the officer never appears before the commissioner.
Attorney David Raybin said the officer’s sworn statement before the commissioner is a crucial step that can’t be cut out.
“It’s unconstitutional. It’s illegal. The warrant is worthless if you do that,” Raybin said. “The felony bus makes a lot of sense, but it’s a step backward if they are going to cut out the constitutional requirements.”
Hall said he’s gotten a legal opinion that it’s OK for a sheriff’s department employee to present the officer’s case.
“The question becomes, who appears before the commissioner? We agree that someone has to. Who has to be that person?” Hall said.
The sheriff said the process may need some tweaking.
Food Price Inflation
December 17th, 2010Via: San Francisco Chronicle:
For the first time since 2008, inflation is hitting consumers in the stomach.
Grocery prices grew by more than 1 1/2 times the overall rate of inflation this year, outpaced only by costs of transportation and medical care, according to numbers released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Economists predict that this is only the beginning. Fueled by the higher costs of wheat, sugar, corn, soybeans and energy, shoppers could see as much as a 4 percent increase at the supermarket checkout next year.
There Are Now Enough Vacant Properties In China To House Over Half Of America
December 17th, 2010Via: Business Insider:
Property stocks in China were weak today due to media reports that the Beijing and Shanghai authorities were investigating the high vacancy rate for Chinese property. Markets are worried they’ll be shocked by what they discover and clamp down on speculation even harder than they have.
How large might the vacancy problem be? Here’s a taste:
Finance Asia:
Recent statistics show that there are about 64 million apartments and houses that have remained empty during the past six months, according to Chinese media reports. On the assumption that each flat serves as a home to a typical Chinese family of three (parents and one child), the vacant properties could accommodate 200 million people, which account for more than 15% of the country’s 1.3 billion population. But instead, they remain empty. This is in part because many Chinese believe that a home is not a real home unless you own the flat.
And so people prefer buying to renting, and as a result, the rental yield is relatively low.
Research Credit: ltcolonelnemo
Vi Hart
December 17th, 2010Vi Hart might be interesting for Cryptogon homeschoolers out there.
We Briefly Interrupt the Rubber Hose Beatings…
December 17th, 2010Court Rebuffs Obama on Warrantless Cell-Site Tracking
Appeals Court Holds that Email Privacy Protected by Fourth Amendment
Context:
Mark Klein on AT&T/NSA Domestic Surveillance Program: “The NSA is Getting Everything.”
Ship of Fools by Ted Kaczynski
Washington, DC Subway Police to Begin Random Bag Checks
December 17th, 2010Via: Reuters:
Officers will start random bag inspections on the sprawling Washington subway system, the Washington Metro Transit Police said on Thursday, a week after a man was arrested for making bomb threats to the rail system.
Metrorail police officers plan to randomly select bags before passengers enter subway stations and they will swab them or have an explosives-sniffing dog check the bags, according to the Metro police.
There is “no specific or credible threat to the system at this time,” Metro said in a statement. Passengers who refuse to have their bags inspected will be denied entry into the subway system.
“The program will increase visible methods of protecting our passengers and employees, while minimizing inconvenience to riders,” Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn said in a statement announcing the new checks.
Mexican Drone Cashes in Backyard of El Paso Home
December 17th, 2010Via: El Paso Times:
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating Tuesday’s crash of a Mexican drone in El Paso’s Lower Valley.
“We are collecting data about the crash. We don’t have the aircraft because it was returned to its owner,” said Keith Holloway, spokesman for the NTSB, which investigates aircraft crashes in the United States and in other countries that requests its help.
Holloway said the aircraft that crossed into the U.S. air space is a mini orbiter unmanned aerial vehicle developed by the Aeronautics Defense System.
…
Baranyay said the U.S. Border Patrol seized the aircraft, which was transported back to one of the international bridges so that Mexican officials could recover it.
‘9/11 on Steroids’ Dry Run Shows Urban Nuke Attack ‘A Survivable Event’
December 16th, 2010Mmm hmm.
Via: USA Today:
The plotters decided to trigger their bomb in Los Angeles during the morning rush, at a metro station a stone’s throw from Universal Studios and the set where Steven Spielberg filmed scenes from “War of the Worlds.”
This was no ordinary explosive. It was a 10-kiloton nuclear device packing roughly the destructive force of the Hiroshima bomb. A blast of that magnitude could engulf 50,000 to 150,000 people and reduce parts of L.A., Hollywood and Studio City — the historical heart of the movie industry — to radioactive rubble.
Al-Qaeda played no part in planning the July 28 attack. The conspirators were the leaders of a dozen state, local and federal agencies who were taking part in a simulated L.A. County security exercise code-named Operation Golden Phoenix. Their mission: to assure that if a terrorist does detonate a nuke in Los Angeles, first responders will be prepared to wade into the devastation and rescue survivors suffering from traumatic injuries, radiation sickness, shock and flash-blindness.
“This is a survivable event,” says Brendan Applegate, of the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Asymmetric Warfare, who helped design and carry out the exercise. “L.A. isn’t going to fall into the ocean and be gone forever. It will be a really bad day, but we need everyone to show up to work and save lives.”
Operation Golden Phoenix offers a rare public glimpse of the government’s behind-the-scenes effort to bolster national preparedness. Few places take the threat more seriously than Los Angeles and post-9/11 New York.
