Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus will not seek re-election

Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus will not seek reelection next year, the Washington Post reports.

Baucus plans to fulfill his sixth term in the chamber and will step down before the next session in 2015, according to the report. The lawmaker chairs the powerful Senate Committee on Finance, and he played an influential role in writing the federal health care law that passed in 2010.

Baucus had deeply angered the White House in recent days, first by opposing bipartisan legislation to enhance background checks of would-be gun purchasers. Baucus? ?no? vote helped kill the background check measure, and he was among the lawmakers President Barack Obama targeted with a blistering Rose Garden tirade against ?shameful? inside-the-Beltway politics.

?There were no coherent arguments as to why we wouldn?t do this,? Obama said. ?It came down to politics?the worry that the vocal minority of gun owners would come after them in future elections. They worried that the gun lobby would spend a lot of money and paint them as anti-Second Amendment.?

Baucus also warned at a recent hearing with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that implementing the federal health care law would be a ?train wreck? over the next few years, a comment that angered both liberals supportive of the law and conservatives who pointed out that he helped shepherd it to passage.

Baucus will be the sixth Democrat to announce plans to retire at the end of the current term. His absence will pave the way for yet another competitive Senate election in which Republicans will seek to bolster their numbers in the chamber.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/montana-democratic-sen-max-baucus-not-seek-reelection-142104762--election.html

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Senate DFLers want to raise income taxes for wider group, tax clothing (Star Tribune)

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Source of organic matter affects Bay water quality

Apr. 23, 2013 ? Each time it rains, runoff carries an earthy tea steeped from leaf litter, crop residue, soil, and other organic materials into the storm drains and streams that feed Chesapeake Bay.

A new study led by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science reveals that land use in the watersheds from which this "dissolved organic matter" originates has important implications for Bay water quality, with the organic carbon in runoff from urbanized or heavily farmed landscapes more likely to persist as it is carried downstream, thus contributing energy to fuel low-oxygen "dead zones" in coastal waters.

The study appears in this month's issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research, and was highlighted by the journal's publisher, the American Geophysical Union, as an "AGU Research Spotlight" in their print and online channels.

The study was authored by VIMS post-doctoral researcher Dr. Yuehan Lu (now at the University of Alabama), VIMS Professor Elizabeth Canuel, Professor Jim Bauer of Ohio State University, Associate Professor Youhei Yamashita of Hokkaido University in Japan, Professor Randy Chambers of the College of William & Mary, and Professor Rudolf Jaff? of Florida International University.

Low-oxygen dead zones are a growing problem in Chesapeake Bay and coastal ecosystems worldwide. While most management practices focus on reducing inputs of nitrogen and other nutrients known to fuel dead zones, Canuel says "organic matter from the watershed may also contribute. One goal of our study was to examine the quality of organic matter derived from streams and its potential to contribute to dead-zone formation."

Sunlight & bacteria

As streams and rivers carry dissolved organic matter downstream, bacteria or sunlight can modify it into compounds and forms that are more difficult for organisms to use. While the team's research showed no significant difference in bacterial degradation of organic matter from cleared or forested watersheds, Canuel says it did show that "organic carbon in runoff from watersheds affected by human activity is less susceptible to solar degradation than that from forested watersheds."

"Urban organics" thus remain at higher levels longer, says Canuel, "delivering more organic material to the river mouth and increasing the likelihood that low-oxygen conditions will develop in downstream locations such as estuaries and the coastal ocean."

The research team conducted their study using samples taken from seven small streams that flow into the James and York rivers, major tributaries of Chesapeake Bay. Three of these streams drain forested watersheds, with 87 to 100% tree cover, while the other four drain watersheds largely converted by human activity into pasture, cropland, or pavement and buildings.

The authors aren't yet sure why the organic carbon from the more developed watersheds is less vulnerable to breakdown by sunlight in rivers and streams, but suggest that it might be because it has already been exposed to appreciable sunlight in the less shady urban and agricultural environment.

Says Canuel, "Urban organics may persist downstream because their more photoreactive compounds have already been degraded due to greater light exposure in urban areas, farm fields, and pastures, leaving only the more photo-resistant, refractory compounds to wash into the coastal zone."

The team's findings provide one possible mechanism for an observed increase in the concentration of dissolved organic carbon in the surface waters of North America and Europe during the last few decades, and have implications for management of water quality in coastal zones worldwide.

"Our results show that future studies should assess not only the quantity of dissolved organic carbon entering our rivers and streams, but also its source," says Canuel. "Understanding how organic matter from developed and undeveloped watersheds behaves in the aquatic environment will contribute to the development of more effective watershed management practices and hopefully more successful efforts to reduce the number, extent, and duration of low-oxygen dead zones."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The original article was written by David Malmquist.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Yuehan Lu, James E. Bauer, Elizabeth A. Canuel, Youhei Yamashita, R. M. Chambers, Rudolf Jaff. Photochemical and microbial alteration of dissolved organic matter in temperate headwater streams associated with different land use. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/jgrg.20048

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/7uDnq0N4FDE/130423135117.htm

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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Canada thwarts "al Qaeda-supported" passenger train plot

By Euan Rocha

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police said on Monday they had arrested and charged two men with plotting to derail a Toronto-area passenger train in an operation they say was backed by al Qaeda elements in Iran.

"Had this plot been carried out, it would have resulted in innocent people being killed or seriously injured," Royal Canadian Mounted Police official James Malizia told reporters in Toronto.

The RCMP said it had arrested Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto in connection with the plot, which authorities said was not linked to the Boston Marathon bombings, which killed three and injured more than 200 people last week.

Neither is a Canadian citizen, but the police did not reveal their nationalities.

A spokeswoman for the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique near Montreal confirmed that Esseghaier was a doctoral student at the research institute and that he had been arrested.

Julie Martineau, the school's director of communications, said Esseghaier arrived at the school in 2010 and was about midway through his degree.

"He is doing a PhD in the field of energy and materials sciences," she told Reuters.

A bail hearing for the two will take place in Toronto on Tuesday morning.

Malizia said there was no indication that the planned attacks, which police described as the first known al Qaeda- backed plot on Canadian soil, were state-sponsored.

U.S. officials said the attack would have targeted a rail line between New York and Toronto, a route that travels along the Hudson Valley into New York wine country and enters Canada near Niagara Falls.

Canadian police said only that the plot involved a VIA train route in the Toronto area.

VIA is Canada's equivalent of Amtrak and operates passenger rail services on track owned primarily by Canadian National Railway Co.

JOINT OPERATIONS

Malizia said that the RCMP believed the two had the capacity and intent to carry out the attack, but there was no imminent threat to the public, passengers, or infrastructure.

The arrests come as Bostonians are still recovering from last Monday's bombings, and is one of a handful of terrorism-related investigations involving Canadians or Canadian residents.

Police said earlier this year that Canadians took part in an attack by militants on a gas plant in Algeria in January, while Canadian and Somalia authorities are investigating whether a former University of Toronto student participated in a bomb attack on Mogadishu last week.

And in 2006, police arrested and charged nearly 20 Toronto-area men accused of planning to plant bombs at various Canadian targets. Eleven were eventually convicted.

RCMP Superintendent Doug Best said a tip from the Canadian Muslim community had helped the investigation. The timing of the arrests was due to "logistics."

"Today's arrests demonstrate that terrorism continues to be a real threat to Canada," Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told reporters in Ottawa.

"Canada will not tolerate terrorist activity and we will not be used as a safe haven for terrorists or those who support terrorist activities."

AL QAEDA IN IRAN

The Canadian authorities linked the two to al Qaeda factions in Iran, to the surprise of some security experts.

"The individuals were receiving support from al Qaeda elements located in Iran," Malizia said.

Iran did host some senior al Qaeda figures under a form of house arrest in the years following the September 11, 2001 attacks, but there has been little to no evidence to date of joint attempts to execute violence against the West.

However, a U.S. government source said Iran is home to a little-known network of alleged al Qaeda fixers and "facilitators" based in the Iranian city of Zahedan, very close to Iran's borders with both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The source said the operatives serve as go-betweens, travel agents and financial intermediaries for al Qaeda operatives and cells operating in Pakistan and moving through the area.

They do not operate under the protection of the Iranian government, which has a generally hostile attitude towards Sunni al Qaeda militants, and which periodically launches crackdowns on the al Qaeda elements, though at other times appears to turn a blind eye to them.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball, Louise Egan, David Ljunggren and Alastair Sharp, writing by Cameron French; Editing by Janet Guttsman, Philip Barbara and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-announce-arrests-thwarting-major-terrorist-attack-cbc-180404075.html

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Feds delay plolicy to allow small knives on planes

(AP) ? Airline passengers will have to leave their knives at home after all. And their bats and golf clubs.

A policy change scheduled to go into effect this week that would have allowed passengers to carry small knives, bats, and other sports equipment onto airliners will be delayed, federal officials said Monday.

The delay is necessary to accommodate feedback from an advisory committee made up of aviation industry, consumer, and law enforcement officials, the Transportation Security Administration said in a brief statement. The statement said the delay is temporary, but gave no indication how long it might be.

TSA Administrator John Pistole proposed the policy change last month, saying it would free up the agency to concentrate on protecting against greater threats. TSA screeners confiscate about 2,000 small folding knives from passengers every day.

The proposal immediately drew fierce opposition from flight attendant unions and federal air marshals, who said the knives can be dangerous in the hands of the wrong passengers. Some airlines and members of Congress also urged TSA to reconsider its position.

The delay announced by TSA doesn't go far enough, a coalition of unions representing 90,000 flight attendants nationwide said Monday.

"All knives should be banned from planes permanently," the group said in a statement.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who opposed the policy, said TSA's decision is an admission "that permitting knives on planes is a bad idea." He also called for a permanent ban.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., another opponent, said he will continue to push TSA to drop the proposal entirely.

"People with radical ideas can use everyday objects to cause great harm," Markey said. "If there is an opportunity to decrease risks to Americans, we have a duty to protect our citizens and disallow knives from being taken onto planes."

The proposed policy would have permitted folding knives with blades that are 2.36 inches (6 centimeters) or less in length and are less than 1/2-inch (1-centimeter) wide. The policy was aimed at allowing passengers to carry pen knives, corkscrews with small blades and other small knives.

Passengers also would have been be allowed to bring onboard as part of their carry-on luggage novelty-sized baseball bats less than 24 inches long, toy plastic bats, billiard cues, ski poles, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks and two golf clubs, the agency said.

Security standards adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. agency, already call for passengers to be able to carry those items. Those standards are non-binding, but many countries follow them.

The proposal didn't affect box cutters, razor blades and knives that don't fold or that have molded grip handles, which are prohibited.

Passengers were prohibited from carrying the small knives onboard planes after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Some of the terrorists in those attacks used box cutters to intimidate passengers and airline crew members.

It's unlikely in these days of hardened cockpit doors and other preventative measures that the small folding knives could be used by terrorists to take over a plane, Pistole told Congress last month.

There has been a gradual easing of some of the security measures applied to passengers after the 9/11 attacks. In 2005, the TSA changed its policies to allow passengers to carry on airplanes small scissors, knitting needles, tweezers, nail clippers and up to four books of matches. The move came as the agency turned its focus toward keeping explosives off planes, because intelligence officials believed that was the greatest threat to commercial aviation.

And in September 2011, the TSA no longer required children 12 years old and under to remove their shoes at airport checkpoints. The agency recently issued new guidelines for travelers 75 and older so they can avoid removing shoes and light jackets when they go through airport security checkpoints.

___

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-22-US-Knives-on-Planes/id-5e26717959e5474e80cacb132b3df7b5

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Interrogators wait to query wounded bomb suspect

BOSTON (AP) ? As the lone surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing lay hospitalized under heavy guard, the American Civil Liberties Union and a federal public defender raised concerns about investigators' plan to question 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev without reading him his Miranda rights.

What Tsarnaev will say and when are unclear ? he remained in serious condition and apparently in no shape for interrogation after being pulled bloody and wounded from a tarp-covered boat in a Watertown backyard. The capture came at the end of a tense Friday that began with his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, dying in a gunbattle with police.

U.S. officials said an elite interrogation team would question the Massachusetts college student without reading him his Miranda rights, something that is allowed on a limited basis when the public may be in immediate danger, such as instances in which bombs are planted and ready to go off.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said the legal exception applies only when there is a continued threat to public safety and is "not an open-ended exception" to the Miranda rule, which guarantees the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney.

The federal public defender's office in Massachusetts said it has agreed to represent Tsarnaev once he is charged. Miriam Conrad, public defender for Massachusetts, said he should have a lawyer appointed as soon as possible because there are "serious issues regarding possible interrogation."

There was no immediate word on when Tsarnaev might be charged and what those charges would be. The twin bombings killed three people and wounded more than 180.

The most serious charge available to federal prosecutors would be the use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill people, which carries a possible death sentence. Massachusetts does not have the death penalty.

President Barack Obama said there are many unanswered questions about the bombing, including whether the Tsarnaev brothers ? ethnic Chechens from southern Russia who had been in the U.S. for about a decade and lived in the Boston area ? had help from others. The president urged people not to rush judgment about their motivations.

Gov. Deval Patrick said Saturday afternoon that Tsarnaev was in serious but stable condition and was probably unable to communicate. Tsarnaev was at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where 11 victims of the bombing were still being treated.

"I, and I think all of the law enforcement officials, are hoping for a host of reasons the suspect survives," the governor said after a ceremony at Fenway Park to honor the victims and survivors of the attack. "We have a million questions, and those questions need to be answered."

The all-day manhunt Friday brought the Boston area to a near standstill and put people on edge across the metropolitan area.

The break came around nightfall when a homeowner in Watertown saw blood on his boat, pulled back the tarp and saw a bloody Tsarnaev hiding inside, police said. After an exchange of gunfire, he was seized and taken away in an ambulance.

Raucous celebrations erupted in and around Boston, with chants of "USA! USA!" Residents flooded the streets in relief four days after the two pressure-cooker bombs packed with nails and other shrapnel went off.

Michael Spellman said he bought tickets to Saturday's Red Sox game at Fenway Park to help send a message to the bombers.

"They're not going to stop us from doing things we love to do," he said, sitting a few rows behind home plate. "We're not going to live in fear."

During the long night of violence leading up to the capture, the Tsarnaev brothers killed an MIT police officer, severely wounded another lawman and took part in a furious shootout and car chase in which they hurled explosives at police from a large homemade arsenal, authorities said.

Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau said one of the explosives was the same type used during the Boston Marathon attack, and authorities later recovered a pressure cooker lid that had embedded in a car down the street. He said the suspects also tossed two grenades before Tamerlan ran out of ammunition and police tackled him.

But while handcuffing him, officers had to dive out of the way as Dzhokhar drove the carjacked Mercedes at them, Deveau said. The SUV dragged Tamerlan's body down the block, he said. Police initially tracked the escaped suspect by a blood trail he left behind a house after abandoning the Mercedes, negotiating his surrender hours later in the boat.

Chechnya, where the Tsarnaev family has roots, has been the scene of two wars between Russian forces and separatists since 1994. That spawned an Islamic insurgency that has carried out deadly bombings in Russia and the region, although not in the West.

Investigators have not offered a motive for the Boston attack. But in interviews with officials and those who knew the Tsarnaevs, a picture has emerged of the older one as someone embittered toward the U.S., increasingly vehement in his Muslim faith and influential over his younger brother.

The Russian FSB intelligence service told the FBI in 2011 about information that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a follower of radical Islam, two law enforcement officials said Saturday.

According to an FBI news release, a foreign government said that Tamerlan Tsarnaev appeared to be strong believer and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the U.S. for travel to the Russian region to join unspecified underground groups.

The FBI did not name the foreign government, but the two officials said it was Russia. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the matter publicly.

The FBI said that in response, it interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev and relatives, and did not find any domestic or foreign terrorism activity. The bureau said it looked into such things as his telephone and online activity, his travels and his associations with others.

An uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers said he had a falling-out with Tamerlan over the man's increased commitment to Islam.

Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., said Tamerlan told him in a 2009 phone conversation that he had chosen "God's business" over work or school. Tsarni said he then contacted a family friend who told him Tsarnaev had been influenced by a recent convert to Islam.

Tsarni said his relationship with his nephew basically ended after that call.

As for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, "he's been absolutely wasted by his older brother. I mean, he used him. He used him for whatever he's done," Tsarni said.

Albrecht Ammon, a downstairs-apartment neighbor of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Cambridge, said in an interview that the older brother had strong political views about the U.S. Ammon quoted Tsarnaev as saying that the U.S. uses the Bible as "an excuse for invading other countries."

Tamerlan Tsarnaev studied accounting as a part-time student at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston for three semesters from 2006 to 2008, the school said. He was married with a young daughter. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

As of Saturday, more than 50 victims of the bombing remained hospitalized, three in critical condition.

___

Associated Press writers Denise Lavoie and Steve Peoples in Boston; Michael Hill in Watertown, Mass.; Colleen Long in New York; Pete Yost in Washington; Eric Tucker in Montgomery Village, Md.; and AP Sports Writer Jimmy Golen in Boston contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/interrogators-wait-query-wounded-bomb-suspect-112840023.html

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Monday, April 22, 2013

Why "The Gap" Is the Personal Finance Number That Matters the Most

Personal finance is a numbers game. As much as I like to vouch for the ?personal? part of personal finance, it?s only half of the story??finance? is part of the phrase, too. In the end, you?re still looking at the dollars and cents on your paycheck, on your income tax forms, on your investments, in your retirement accounts, and so on.

This is a guest post from The Simple Dollar.

A long time ago, I wrote a post called Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance on the Back of Five Business Cards. Since this post went up more than five years ago, I?m sure many of you don?t remember it, so here are those five cards.

The first four cards really just focus on one specific thing: the gap. I consider the size of that gap to be the most important number in personal finance.

In more straightforward terms, the ?gap? refers to the percentage of your income that you save for the future.

Here?s a quick way to figure out your ?gap,? and it?s pretty timely since most of us have this information sitting in front of us thanks to tax season.

First, figure out exactly how much your family earned in 2012. You can use either net (after taxes) or gross (before taxes), whatever makes you feel more comfortable, as long as you?re consistent about it. If you use gross for this calculation, always use gross. I usually suggest excluding any big one-time income streams from this calculation?for example, a big one-year bonus can really mess up this calculation.

Second, figure out exactly how much your family saved in 2012. How much of the income that was brought in by your family is now sitting in a savings or investment somewhere? For this info, you might have to look at bank statements and investment account statements.

Then, merely divide the amount saved by the amount earned using your calculator or a spreadsheet, then multiply that by 100 if you prefer to work with percentages. This will tell you the percentage of your income that you?re saving for the future. The bigger that number is, the better you?re doing financially. I haven?t found a single number that so accurately reflects how powerfully a person is working to improve their finances than this single number.

It works for any income level. A person that earns $18,000 a year and saves $1,800 is doing just as well as a person who saves $10,000 on an income of $100,000. Why? They?re both saving 10% of their income, and that 10% is going to have a similar profound life effect on each of them, though it will show up in different ways. It also leads toward self-sufficiency at exactly the same pace for each of them.

You can cause improvement in the number via both frugality and increased earnings. If you earn more without increasing your spending, the amount you save will go up. If you spend less without a change in income, the amount you save will go up. You can tackle this number from both sides if you wish, or focus on just one side or another. It?s also an incredible motivator. Want to push yourself to improve your finances? Focus on finding ways to beat your savings percentage from the previous year.

For us, our percentage has remained almost exactly the same for the last four years?about 35%. Over certain stretches of months, it?s been as high as 50%, but during other stretches, it?s been lower (thanks to vacations and so forth). My focus is mostly on maintaining this number. Another tip?debt repayment accelerates the growth of this number. Paying off a debt early makes it much easier to start saving a higher percentage of your income sooner rather than later.

Where should you be saving? The answer to that question depends heavily on your lifestyle and your goals. A single twentysomething who wants to be ?set for life? at the first possible second is going to save in different ways than a family in their thirties with lifetime career goals. If you?re not sure how you should be saving, sock money away in a savings account for now and start studying up, then use that saved money to set things up as you see fit.

Your ?gap? (or savings percentage) is a vital number. The bigger you make it, the better off you?ll be.

The Personal Finance Number That Matters Most | The Simple Dollar


The Simple Dollar is a blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds ? we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money.

Image remixed from Galyna Andrushko (Shutterstock).

Want to see your work on Lifehacker? Email Tessa.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/BzkSRnhoZ8g/why-the-gap-is-the-personal-finance-number-that-matte-476815605

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