This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman
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By Winston Ross The Register-Guard Posted to Web: Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 09:45PM Appeared in print: Friday, Feb 20, 2009 DEPOE BAY — Not wanting to look like a fool, Morris Grover kept the otter to himself for the first few hours. The whiskered, web-footed critter looked like a sea otter, to be sure, but there have been no confirmed sightings of the marine mammals in Oregon since 1906. There have, however, been plenty of false positives. “A lot of people accuse river otters of being sea otters,” said Grover, coordinator of the Whale Watching Spoken Here program based in Depoe Bay. “I didn’t dare tell anybody what I thought.” But sea otters are bigger than river otters, and Grover has seen plenty of those. Both have webbed flippers, but sea otters’ flippers are significantly larger. And only sea otters spend prolonged periods of time in saltwater. The eagle-eyed volunteer in Depoe Bay who first spotted the animal saw it “with a crab on its chest, having breakfast inside Depoe Harbor,” Grover said. But he had to know for sure. So he shipped pictures of the otter to Jim Rice, coordinator of the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network, and to Jim Estes, the leading expert on sea otters on the West Coast. Both replied with zero doubt: Enhydra lutris. “We’re ecstatic,” Grover said. “These are supposed to be extinct here.”... Depending on whether Depoe Bay’s new resident brought relatives, the discovery could have big implications for Oregon, which lost its population of sea otters more than a century ago, five years before the Fur Seal Treaty of 1911 ended the harvest of sea otters in Russia, Japan, Britain and the United States. By the time that treaty and a 1913 law were passed, the species was eradicated in Oregon and Washington and barely hanging on in California and Alaska. In 1970, researchers attempted to re-establish the species in Oregon, transporting 31 sea otters from Alaska and depositing them near Port Orford. Sixty-four more were brought in the following year. They all disappeared. Depoe Bay’s otter is certainly not from Oregon, Rice said, but a transient from California or Washington, which is still noteworthy given the distance it would have had to swim to make it this far down or up the coast, he said. “This is not somebody who snuck over the border for a free lunch,” said Grover, who believes that the otter is male but isn’t sure. “If he came from California, that’s half a state (away).” What would be even more significant, Rice added, is if the otter sticks around and multiplies. “How long has it been here, and how many other are there?” Rice said. “Hopefully the otter will discover there’s a good food supply and will be able to make a go of it here.” Sea otters are a “keystone species,” which means they have a big effect on their environment, even in small numbers. That’s because they munch on sea urchins, which in turn gobble up large amounts of kelp. Because there’s nothing significant preying on urchins at the moment, kelp forests are suffering in Oregon. “Urchins have taken over the seafloor,” Grover said. “This could be a mecca for this guy and anybody he wants to bring with him. It would bring balance back to our ecosystem.” Because Thursday was the third day in a row the otter was sighted, it’s possible he’ll be around today and in the near future. But Grover warns visitors to search for it only from shore. Disturbing federally protected marine mammals is a felony, punishable by a $25,000 fine. Contact Winston Ross at (541) 902-9030 or at winston.ross@registerguard.com.Related stories do not exist.
Issue 1, June 1999 Alaskan Sea Otters and Toxic Algae Blooms: Researching Marine Predator-Prey Interactions (click here) Mary PatytenEarth Systems Science, CSU Monterey Bay patyten@jyi.org This summer, Mary is studying the behavior of high-level predators in the presence of algal toxins under Rikk Kvitek, of CSU Monterey Bay. We asked her to tell us about her experiences. In this feature, Mary outlines the background of her research.To the best of our knowledge, marine mammals rarely die from ingesting the algal toxins that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) in humans, even though the animals appear to be physiologically just as susceptible to the toxins as we are. How do marine mammals, such as sea otters, detect and avoid the toxins which seasonally accumulate in their prey?...
Members of three Seattle City Council committees just got an hourlong update from three city department heads, and one of their own analysts, on more hindsight regarding the December ‘08 snowstorm woes, and what’ll be done to improve city response next time. The highlights: Emergency Management director Barb Graff says the storm was overall a “$3.5 million hit” to the city budget (Councilmember Jan Drago said she wished there’d been a report on the private-sector “hit” too), though there’s hope that federal disaster-relief dollars could help cover some of that, if a presidential proclamation is made (word is expected within a week). SDOT director Grace Crunican says the city now has two more snowplows: 29 total, up from 27. The two additions cost $40,000 each....
The 'moron' makes these statements standing in the middle of a FAILED Wall Street buying floor. Hello? You can tell he's well 'clued in,' huh? He still believes the markets will rebound without any help. Sure. "CLUELESS" We all need to learn a lesson. I thought we already did.
Trustee: Some Madoff stock trades were fiction (click title to entry - thank you) By TOM HAYS – 58 minutes ago NEW YORK (AP) — Investors wiped out by the Bernard Madoff scandal got more bad news on Friday: Investigators have confirmed suspicions that the monthly statements showing the disgraced financier was making stock trades for them were pure fiction. "We have no evidence to indicate securities were purchased for customer accounts" in the past 13 years, said court-appointed trustee Irving Picard at a packed, town-hall style meeting at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in lower Manhattan. "This is a case where we're going to be looking at cash in and cash out" — the shorthand definition of a Ponzi scheme. Picard, who is overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, called the meeting to give the investors a progress report on his efforts to unravel the alleged fraud. Madoff was arrested in December after investigators said he confessed to his sons that he had swindled investors of $50 billion in a Ponzi scheme. The 70-year-old former Nasdaq chairman remains confined to his Manhattan apartment under house arrest....
....Participants now expect GDP in 2009 to fall by 0.5% to 1.3%, much worse than the Fed's central tendency of -0.2% to 1.1% GDP growth. Participants anticipate a 'broad-based' decline in the first half of this year as consumer spending is dampened by a deteriorating labor markets, tight credit conditions, falling house prices and stock market losses. However, as in October, the Fed still sees some recovery in the second half of the year, though at a gradual pace....
S.F. to get $19.8 million aid to homeless (click here) Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, February 20, 2009 (02-19) 18:11 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco has received $19.8 million in federal grants to help the homeless and stands to gain a lot more federal funds in the coming months....
TALLAHASSEE – Governor Charlie Crist today, continuing his efforts to strengthen the economy and help Floridians affected by the current economic downturn, signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor to increase weekly unemployment benefits by $25 per week, bringing $345 million to Florida during the 2009 calendar year. By signing the agreement today, the increased benefits take effect starting Sunday, February 22, 2009. The Unemployed Workers and Struggling Families Act is a result of federal funds authorized through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009....
* FTSEurofirst 300 down 2.9 pct, having hit six-year low * Miner Anglo American tumbles 15 percent * UBS sinks 13 percent on U.S. tax probe * For up-to-the-minute market news, click on [STXNEWS/EU]
By Peter Starck FRANKFURT, Feb 20 (Reuters) - European stocks fell sharply on Friday, hitting six-year lows, on worries about more capital increases and wider financial industry woes as the economic downturn deepens. "The ongoing flood of bad news has increased the risk aversion of investors," said Markus Reinwand, equity strategist at German bank Helaba. "A trigger for a rapid shift in sentiment is not in sight," he said....
By Lisa Jucca ZURICH, Feb 20 (Reuters) - No sooner has Marcel Rohner, the chief executive of UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research)(UBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research), put out one fire than another blaze breaks out elsewhere. Only one day after agreeing to a painful, though vital, tax fraud settlement with U.S. authorities, Rohner was hit by a dramatic civil lawsuit against Switzerland's biggest bank that is sending shivers through the entire Swiss banking industry. The ongoing U.S. tax woes, together with an uphill struggle to restructure the crisis-hit bank, make what used to be the pinnacle of any Swiss banker's professional ambition an unenviable poisoned chalice. "This is the last thing he would want," said David Williams, Head of European Banks Research at Fox, Pitt-Kelton. "A difficult task has become even more difficult." Under former, all-powerful chairman Marcel Ospel, UBS, the world's largest wealth manager, waded deep into U.S. subprime assets and was hit in 2008 by a net loss of nearly 20 billion Swiss francs ($16.92 billion), the largest annual loss in Swiss corporate history....
By Nick Allen, James Quinn and Alex Spillius in Fredericksburg
Last Updated: 10:15PM GMT 20 Feb 2009
He currently faces a £6.4 billion civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission but US law enforcement sources said criminal charges may be filed. Federal prosecutors will investigate whether his Stanford International Bank (SIB) was operating a form of Ponzi scheme, in which money from new investors is used to pay high returns to older investors. They are also moving towards seizing his six private planes, worth £70 million, and his 120ft yacht. A group of investors also announced they are suing Sir Allen for the return of their money and filed a class action suit in a Texas court. Their complaint alleged that SIB "fraudulently peddled" certificates of deposit which promised rates of return far above those available from other banks. In a statement the investors said: "Now that the real estate and private equity markets are in freefall, many of those who purchased SIB's certificates of deposit have recently been informed that they cannot redeem them."...
McCain campaign donates Stanford contributions (click here) Robert Allen Stanford accused by SEC of $8 billion investor fraud By Ronald D. Orol, MarketWatch Last update: 1:53 p.m. EST Feb. 20, 2009 McCain campaign donates Stanford contributions SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Senator John McCain on Friday reported that he is donating all his 2008 presidential campaign contributions from Robert Allen Stanford, the Texas financier accused of an $8 billion fraud, to charity. "The McCain campaign is donating all contributions from R. Allen Stanford, and from individuals associated with Stanford Financial, to charity," wrote a McCain spokesperson. McCain was the Republican candidate for president in 2008. A political action committee formed by Stanford and his wife donated almost $1 million to various candidates; the rest was doled out via the Stanford Financial Group's political action committee, the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics said in research released Thursday. "Robert Allen Stanford now has two things in common with embattled investment manager Bernard Madoff: Both have been accused of defrauding their investors, and both have given significant funds to politicians," the group said. In addition to McCain, big-name recipients of Stanford's donations included President Barack Obama and Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., of New York. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, also received donations. Obama ranked third among individual lawmakers receiving funds, the CRP report said, collecting $31,750 from the company's employees during his 2008 presidential bid, including $4,600 from Stanford himself....
Surely only a fraudster with a supreme sense of invulnerability – or a shaky grasp of cricket slang – would have the nerve to call his restaurant the Sticky Wicket. But then Sir Robert Allen Stanford has clearly never been short on Texan-style chutzpah. Amid claims that not only the FBI, but also a notorious Mexican drugs cartel are now on his case, Sir Allen is at the crease and facing some very tricky balls. That said, one could understand if the flamboyant, 6ft 4in financier and sports promoter now at the centre of $8 billion fraud allegations had felt more than usually secure on the small Caribbean island of Antigua....
NEW YORK - The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled to its lowest close in more than six years on Thursday as sharp declines in key financial shares led the market lower. The blue chips broke through a psychological barrier established in November to close at their lowest level since Oct. 9, 2002, the last bear market low....
Mary Wakefield, SORH; Tami Lichtenberg, TASC; and Bob Redford, AR Valley Rural Health Coop presented Funding Opportunities for Rural Health Projects.
Obama names nurse to head healthcare access agency (click here) Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:29pm EST WASHINGTON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama has named a University of North Dakota rural healthcare expert to head the federal agency in charge of improving access to care in the United States, the White House said on Friday. Mary Wakefield, a nurse who heads that university's Center for Rural Health, was chosen to head the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, the White House said. The agency will oversee the outlay of $2.5 billion in the economic stimulus bill signed by Obama this week for training healthcare professionals and improving the nation's healthcare infrastructure....
Michael and his family probably witnessed everyone else getting short sentences and dishonorable discharges and simply went along with it all. He didn't act alone.
...Ribordy testified that he had helped stand guard as the prisoners were killed by other members of his patrol in early 2007. He said he approached the scene after the shots were fired and saw three bodies lying in a pool of blood, and then the fourth already in the canal. Ribordy told the court he saw three other members of the patrol — Sgt. John E. Hatley, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph P. Mayo, and Sgt. Michael P. Leahy Jr. — at the scene and smelled gunpowder in the air. "They all seemed calm," he said....
...In closing arguments earlier, Leahy's civilian lawyer, Frank Spinner, argued that Leahy went along with the killings because he was dazed from a lack of sleep and numb from being in a war zone for months. It was a sentiment bolstered on Thursday in testimony from Col. Charles Hoge, a doctor and director of psychology and neuroscience at the Army's Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He testified that Leahy was unable to reason properly because of the constant danger of living and operating in a war zone and getting little sleep for months on end. "The tragedy resulted not so much by design but rather the working of fear, danger and madness attendant on many combat operations," Spinner said in his closing arguments. The Iraqi prisoners were taken to the U.S. unit's operating base in Baghdad for questioning and processing, although there wasn't enough evidence to hold them for attacking the unit.(click here)(Paranoya set in and they saw themselves 'being lucky' to have lived through the attack THIS TIME, but, were worried that they would not live through the next attack if the prisoners were to be let go. They were tired and decided to protect themselves regardless of what their 'processing' produced.)Later that night patrol members took the Iraqis to a remote area and shot them in retribution for the attacks against the unit, according to testimony....
Everybody forgets this occurred for a reason. These soldiers weren't joy riding in a Humvee and decide '...today we are going to kill some Iraqis...." They were attacked before this occurred and were seeking to secure the area.
Basically, they either didn't believe any of the detainees, because of what they knew, or they didn't have command of the language and/or felt any translation was incorrect. They didn't want to be attacked again and decided to secure the area regardless of regulations for whatever reason existed.
They might have been worried that if released the enemy now, the detainees knew where they were and how better to kill them.
A lot goes on in a soldier's mind, not all of it rational when fatigue sets in. I don't believe any of this was handled well.
