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Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Nine firefighters were killed on Monday while battling a massive fire at a furniture warehouse in Charleston, South Carolina.

Firefighters were called to the scene of a massive blaze at the Sofa Super Store in Charleston, S.C. at around 6:30 p.m. EST. At around 7 p.m., nine firefighters were sent inside the inferno to rescue people who were trapped inside the building. They rescued two before the ceiling collapsed on top of them. All nine firefighters who were inside the warehouse died. They are:

• Capt. William Hutchinson, 48
• Capt. Mike Benke, 49
• Capt. Louis Mulkey, 34
• FF Mark Kelsey, 40
• FF Bradford Baity, 37
• FF Michael French, 27
• FF James “Earl” Drayton, 56
• FF Brandon Thompson, 27
• FF Melven Champaign, 46

The disaster recalls Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire that killed six firefighters on Dec. 3, 1999, in Worcester, Massachusetts. The chief of the Worcester Fire Department flew down to South Carolina for the memorial service.

Sunday, June 26, 2005

MTV Networks’ MTV and VH1 have secured the rights to distribute over cable networks the Live 8 series of concerts which will be taking place at 8 venues in Europe, North America and Japan. The concerts are meant to raise awareness of poverty in Africa and charitable donations to fight it.

America Online holds the rights to broadcast Live 8 over the Internet and is currently in talks with American Broadcasting Company to also broadcast the concert.

MTV, VH1, and its college network, mtvU will broadcast the concert from noon to 8 PM. This will be the second outing for MTV, as they broadcasted the original Live Aid concert. If ABC decides to air the concert as well, this will also be their second going as well. According to MTV, this is the longest MTV has gone without a televised event since the coverage of the violent, riot-filled Woodstock 1999.

Two radio networks will also broadcast the concert. The subscription-based XM Satellite Radio will broadcast the original five announced concerts but will not broadcast the Tokyo or Barrie concerts. Premiere Radio Networks will broadcast the concerts tailored to the three genres of urban, rock and roll and pop music.

Some of the performers slated are: U2, Coldplay, Madonna, Dave Matthews Band, Jay-Z, Destiny’s Child and a reunited Pink Floyd.

Sunday, July 3, 2005

São Paulo, Brazil —On June 30, in Brazil, deputy Roberto Jefferson testified to deputies and senators of a Commission that is investigating the alleged Post Office Service scandal. Jefferson’s testimony along with new evidence supporting his testimony are putting the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a difficult situation.

Roberto Jefferson’s testimony ran from 4 p.m. to close to 2 a.m. (local time). The deputy further explained the alleged corruption scheme involving the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT).

The testimony of Jefferson was at times very tense, and sometimes discussions between Jefferson and deputies of the Workers Party become heated. In one instance, a Workers’ Party deputy attacked Jefferson’s credibility, calling him a liar on the basis that he supported the former Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello, who suffered impeachment for corruption related to Treasurer Paulo Cesar Farias, who worked on Collor’s campaign. Jefferson answered: “PC Farias is a chick when you see the corruption in PT”, and accused the former governor of Rio Grande do Sul Olivio Dutra (Olivio Dutra is the minister of Lula at the present time) of involvement with the “Jogo do Bicho” (illegal gambling).

According to Jefferson, the President of the Worker’s Party José Genuino, former Minister José Dirceu, Secretary-General Sílvio Pereira, and Treasurer Delúbio Soares, head a widespread national corruption scheme which involves the Workers Party, members of the Government, the Brazilian Agency of Intelligence, and both government and private enterprises. Jefferson said the President was unaware of this scheme. Some members of parliament from the opposition see this claim as strange.

During his last testimony, Jefferson said that entrepreneur Marcos Valério was responsible for finacing the payment of deputies of the alleged Votes-for-cash scandal. This week, investigations by the police showed that Marcos Valério withdrew, in cash, large sums of money from Rural Bank. According to Jefferson, this money was used to pay deputies. Valério said that he used the money to buy cattle and that farmers don’t like to receive cheques, just “real money”. His explanation was considered suspect and his former secretary said she does not know of any farms owned by Valerio.

Marcos Valério is part-owner of SMPB and DNA. Documents from the Agrarian Reform Institute (INCRA) showed that Valério’s enterprises owned 10 big farms. According to an article published by the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo on July 1, at least two of these farms do not exist. The Brazilian Federal Police said that there is evidence sufficient to indict Valério. The accusations against Valério are tax evasion and money laundering.

According to Internal Revenue Service, Marcos Valério’s fortune was R$ 230,000 (97,676.27 USD – Live mid-market rates as of July 3, 2005, 12:47:43 UTC.) in 1997 and R$ 14,000,000 (5,945,511.97 USD) in 2004, a growth of 6086%. The enterprises of Valério, SMPB and DNA, have contracts with five Ministeries and eight big public enterprises, including the Post Office Service.

Before his testimony to the Commission, Jefferson said that Furnas, an energy company in Brazil, was involved in a corruption scheme. According to Jefferson, money from the enterprise was moved to the Workers’ Party of Minas Gerais, to the treasurer Delúbio Soares, to be used to buy deputies. Furnas denied this. Presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that the allegations should be investigated. Under pressure the Furnas’ directors resigned.

On July 2, newspapers reported that according to Brazilian Central Bank’s documents, in February 17, 2004, the Workers’ Party borrowed R$ 2.4 millions (1,019,230.62 USD) from Marcos Valério. In addition, the documents named José Genoíno (the President of the Workers’ Party) and Delúbio Soares (the treasurer). After initially denying that the magazine had taken out this loan, the President of the Workers’ Party acknowledged it to journalists on Saturday, July 2.

Delúbio Soares cried during his speech last week and said that the accusations are not true and that the “right” is trying to impeach President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on false charges.

The testimony of Jefferson is at the center of discussions in Brazil. According to the PMDB leader, Senator Ney Suassuna, the denunciations are “nitroglycerine which are thrown into the arteries of the Republic every minute”. Leader of the PSDB, Arthur Virgílio Neto, said that the government lives in darkness. Senator Peter Simon (PMDB-RS) appealed to President Lula to do an ethical turn-around, and respect the imperatives of morality and seriousness in government. According to Simon: “Today society is still saying that president Lula is a man of good. However, shortly, nobody is going to say that anymore”.

On July 1, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened the celebration of the 15th Anniversary of the Foro de São Paulo, in São Paulo. At 7:30 p.m. the forum was opened and, according to the Workers’ Party, the participants expressed support for the government of President Lula. Lula spoke during the encounter with the semblance of a tired and worried man affected by the crisis.

It is expected that the government will began a Ministerial reformulation next week.

Monday, November 28, 2005

U.S. Representative Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R–CA) pled guilty today to conspiring to take bribes in exchange for using his influence as a member of the House Appropriations Committee to help a defense contractor get business. In total he pled guilty to one count of income tax evasion and four counts of conspiracy, namely mail fraud, wire fraud, bribery of public official and accepting bribes. U.S. District judge Larry A. Burns scheduled Cunnigham to be sentenced on February 27. He is facing up to 10 years in prison and nearly $500,000 in fines, as well as forfeiture of unspecified amounts of cash and property.

In the court hearing, Cunningham admitted to accepting “bribes in exchange for performance of official duties” between “the year 2000 and June of 2005”, taking “both cash payments and payments in kind” and following up by “trying to influence the Defense Department”.

The federal investigation against Cunningham was triggered by his sale of his California residence to defense contractor Mitchell Wade in late 2003. However, Wade never moved in and sold the house at a $700,000 loss three quarters of a year later. At the same time Wade’s company MZM won tens of millions of dollars in defense contracts. Subsequent investigations discovered more questionable business transactions, including interactions with the defense contractor ADCS. In his plea agreement he testified that, among other charges, he “demanded, sought and received at least $2.4 million in illicit payments and benefits from his co-conspirators in various forms, including cash, checks, meals, travel, lodging, furnishings, antiques, rugs, yacht club fees, boat repairs and improvements, moving expenses, cars and boats.”

Cunningham announced his resignation after the hearing. In a written statement released by his law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP he declared “The truth is — I broke the law, concealed my conduct, and disgraced my high office. I know that I will forfeit my freedom, my reputation, my worldly possessions, and most importantly, the trust of my friends and family.”

Thursday, July 7, 2005

A Florida man is being charged with 3rd degree felony for logging into a private Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) Internet access point without permission. Benjamin Smith III, 41, is set for a pre-trial hearing this month in the first case of its kind in the United States.

This kind of activity occurs frequently, but often goes undetected by the owners of these wireless access points (WAPs). Unauthorized users range from casual Web browsers, to users sending e-mails, to users involved in pornography or even illegal endeavours.

According to Richard Dinon, owner of the WAP Smith allegedly broke into, Smith was using a laptop in an automobile while parked outside Dinon’s residence.

There are many steps an owner of one of these access points can take to secure them from outside users. Dinon reportedly knew how to take these steps, but had not bothered because his “neighbors are older.”

Saturday, May 7, 2005

Testing began on a chemical reactor at the Newport Chemical Depot near Terre Haute, Indiana on Friday morning. If successful, the reactor will be put to use destroying the large VX nerve gas stockpiles stored at the facility over the course of the next two years. After the disposal project experienced several delays, the facility announced it would begin pumping VX into a completed disposal unit for testing. The unit consists of a chemical reactor in which the VX will be mixed with water and sodium hydroxide, heated to 194°F while mixed with paddles. The resulting chemical, called hydrolysate, is chemically similar to commercial drain cleaners and has similar properties. If the test is successfully completed , the unit will continue processing the VX until the entire stockpile has been neutralized, a process projected to take two years. Administrators expect to complete testing on May 10, 2005.

According to the controversial plan, the finished waste product would be shipped to New Jersey for final reprocessing. The inert chemical would then be emptied into the Delaware River where natural attenuation would occur.

Residents near the proposed river disposal site in New Jersey oppose this idea. The contractor for the final component of this disposal would be the DuPont Corporation.

NCD is a bulk chemical storage and destruction facility in west central Indiana, thirty miles north of Terre Haute. Originally founded during World War II to produce RDX, a conventional explosive, it later became a site for chemical weapons manufacturing during the Cold War. It is now used to securely store and gradually neutralize part of the US stockpile of VX.

VX was manufactured by the U.S. in the 1950s and 60’s as a deterrent to possible Soviet Union use. It was never deployed, and the manufacture was halted in 1969 after an order signed by then-president Richard Nixon.

In 1999, the Army announced it awarded a disposal contract to Parsons Infrastructure & Technology, Inc., a business unit of Parsons Corporation. Some 220 civilian Parsons employees work at the facility, which is supervised by an Army officer reporting to the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, and a board of civilian government overseers called the Indiana Citizens’ Advisory Commission, some of whose members are appointed by the state governor.

Security at the facility is controversial. A private security service, supplemented by a complement of Indiana National Guard soldiers, guarded the facility until April 14, 2005, when the soldiers were withdrawn. An Indianapolis television station has questioned security measures in some of its special reports.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

In an opinion piece published by CNN on Tuesday, Georgetown University law student and women’s rights advocate Sandra Fluke insisted she will not allow slurs from critics to silence her and other women from continuing to speak out on issues regarding women’s health and contraception.

Fluke has faced slurs and personal attacks after speaking before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee in the United States House of Representatives about women’s health and contraception. She was called a “slut” and a “prostitute” by talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh. In response to these attacks, Fluke has received public support from women, members of the media, and politicians including the President of the United States.

In her piece for CNN, Fluke took the opportunity to thank her supporters, writing, “By now, many have heard the stories I wanted to share thanks to the congressional leaders and members of the media who have supported me and millions of women in speaking out.” She characterized the “opponents of reproductive health access” who issued personal attacks against her as being motivated by an attempt to change the topic of conversation away from a dialogue about women’s health, and “to silence women’s voices regarding their own health care.”

Fluke wrote that the efforts by some to drown out women from speaking out about women’s health were unsuccessful. She came to this conclusion due to the multitude of positive comments and encouragement sent to her by both female and male individuals urging that contraception medication be considered a medical necessity.

Asserting that she would not remain silent on this issue of women’s health, Fluke wrote, “Attacking me and women who use contraception by calling us prostitutes and worse cannot silence us.”

She noted that a significant majority of women have utilized contraception medication, and commented that there exists a social disconnect between politicians attempting to make it more difficult for women to access this type of health care, and the views of society-at-large about the matter: “Restricting access to such a basic health care service, which 99% of sexually experienced American women have used and 62% of American women are using right now, is out of touch with public sentiment.”

Fluke concluded her piece by emphasizing that those in power should not govern based on ideology: “I am proud to stand with the millions of women and men who recognize that our government should legislate according to the reality of our lives — not for ideology.”

After being banned by Congressman Darrell Issa from speaking before a Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on February 16 which consisted mainly of male panelists, Fluke appeared before a meeting of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee convened by Minority leader of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi on February 23.

Fluke spoke to the committee about the need for contraception to be covered by health care plans offered by employers, as a matter integral to women’s health. She cited multiple cases where women take contraception medication as part of their health care for treatment of medical conditions unrelated to birth control, including two women who suffer from polycystic ovarian syndrome, a woman who is afflicted with endometriosis and another who takes contraception in order to prevent seizures.

Speaking before the United States Senate on February 17 along with fellow members Patty Murray, Kirsten Gillibrand, Barbara Boxer, and Charles Schumer, Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire expressed her support for Fluke. Like Fluke, Senator Shaheen pointed out the need not to silence the voices of women in the public government debate about women’s health care: “Time and time again, women have been silenced in this discussion, a discussion about our own very personal health care decisions.” Senator Shaheen concluded her remarks with an explanation as to why she believes women should have significant representation in discussions about their health care: “Women deserve a voice in this debate because, after all, in the end this is about our health and it is about a health care decision that is between women, their families, their doctors, and their own faith.”

President Barack Obama called Fluke on March 2 to express his support for her courage to speak out on issues of women’s health. In his first press conference of 2012 on March 6, he discussed his reasons for deciding to call Fluke.

The President cited his personal thoughts about his own two daughters: “And the reason I called Ms. Fluke is because I thought about Malia and Sasha [Obama’s daughters], and one of the things I want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about, even ones I may not agree with them on. I want them to be able to speak their mind in a civil and thoughtful way. And I don’t want them attacked or called horrible names because they’re being good citizens.”

President Obama went on to state that Fluke served as a positive role model for citizen participation in democracy and society: “And I wanted Sandra to know that I thought her parents should be proud of her, and that we want to send a message to all our young people that being part of a democracy involves argument and disagreements and debate, and we want you to be engaged, and there’s a way to do it that doesn’t involve you being demeaned and insulted, particularly when you’re a private citizen.”