The world of professional politicians and woes of Nigerians

By Adisa Adeleye

It has been a long way from the 1950s when politics was forced on the best of any community (when the best educated were begged to represent the people) to the present time when any candidate (with minimum of a school certificate) would force himself on the people as their representative.

Selection of candidates for any elective post continues to be one of the disruptive factors in the party-politics of our plural society, referred to as Nigeria.

Local politicians could amiably be described as a group of people who are motivated by the common desire to gain political power to rule. The successful ones do form the government of the locality (or country), while the less successful (less favoured ones) become the opposition. The assumption here is in a democratic environment where there is the government and a responsible opposition.

File photo: From Right, President Goodluck Jonathan and PDP National Chairman Bamanga Tukur at 61th National Executive Committee of PDP held in Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.

Nigerian politicians, unlike their counterparts in civilized world, and quite a departure from their predecessors of the First Republic, appear to be motivated into politics by other extraneous factors, not patriotic fervor.

People say loudly, without any equivocation, that politics is the most lucrative business in the country today.

This is evident in the life-styles of many politicians ? legislators and party office holders. The succulent nature of political life has bred a new class of professionals who see politics as a ?do or die? affair and, ready to change political garments in order to protect their personal fortunes. Perhaps, a peep into the past would tend to jerk our conscience, if there is any. Money and personal fortune seem to be the politicians? dividends of democracy.

The former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani of Enugu State, in an interview in the Comet of October, 2002, made an interesting revelation. He was reported to have said that, ?I spent a minimum of $3million to become Governor of Enugu State?. That was about N378million in 2002 or about N.5billion at today?s exchange rate.

The governor said of his angry legislators, ?we have taken care of our assembly men, pay their salaries as and when due up to the last time the civil servants were paid?. Each member receives about two hundred and fifty thousand naira take home every month. Each has a 306 Peugeot Saloon Car and we have given five hundred thousand rent allowances even though they live in government quarters, and they were also given five hundred thousand naira for vehicles and other emoluments. They were also given land as the Golf Estate Layout.

That was the politicians? paradise in 2002. What would be the situation today for our legislators, not only in Enugu State, but in all other states of the country where the ?servants? of the people have suddenly become the opulent masters of the people over the years? The unverified but other tightly guarded emoluments of legislators in state legislatures and the parliament in Abuja run into millions every month.

Many Nigerians would be severely jolted if all emoluments and salaries of Federal and State Ministers, Legislators, Advisers, Chairmen of Local Councils, Supervisors and Councilors are published for public scrutiny. Certainly, the country cannot continue to embrace legislative and executive profligacy in an atmosphere of deepening poverty of majority of Nigerians.

It is sad that the reaction of some Nigerians to poverty is escalation of fraud. According to the Central Bank Annual Report 2001, ?there were 908 reported cases of fraud and forgery involving N2.53billion, US$60.94million and ? 5289.44. Of the cases reported 402 resulted in the loss of N931.40million, $83,250 and ?5,289.44?.

The allusion to figures collated twelve years ago is to remind Nigerians (with short memories) that the financial irresponsibility has a devious history. However, the problem has been the inability of the professional politicians who constitute the ruling elites to combat the evil before it got out of control. President Jonathan to me, seems to have inherited a terrible situation, perpetuated by his predecessors. The antagonism of the present crop of Nigerians to the rising cost of running the government and rising incidents of corruption is a reminder of the fact that all is not well.

Perhaps many reasons are responsible for the inability of professional politicians to perform in (government and oppositions) of which sheepish attitude of the people and the prevalence of ?our son? mentality in body politics.? It is easy for ?our sons? to get away with many things with impunity.

A reference case is that of the 1950s when the NICHOLAS COMMISSION of enquiry set up by the Western Region Government indicted Ibadan District Council (under late Adegoke Adelabu) of corruption and mismanagement of funds.

Many Ibadan citizens condemned the findings of the enquiry because according to them, Ibadan did not complain of any missing funds.? Also, the Coker Commission of enquiry which indicted the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the Action Group (AG) did not go well with majority of the Yoruba at the time.? It was a case of nothing was wrong with ?our son?.

It is apparent that the lack of political sophistication among Nigerians would always prevent the emergence of visionary political leadership in the country.

Many observers believe that there is little or no difference between the governing class and the opposition ? no difference in political principle or economic approach to issues.? Perhaps that is the reason why some people are doubting the genuineness of the opposition in trying to dislodge the present regime.

The opposition parties have failed to address the problems of states as presently constituted from relying heavily on the Federal Government to meet their responsibilities.? Like the Federal Government, many states devout more than 60% of their budget to current expenditures (allocated oil money).

The hope and prayer of all Nigerians is that the present professional politicians (both in government and oppositions) should find one way or the other to ensure lasting peace and prosperity in the country.

This should not be a difficult assignment since they are all well paid.

Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/06/the-world-of-professional-politicians-and-woes-of-nigerians/

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Problem-solving governs how we process sensory stimuli

June 25, 2013 ? Various areas of the brain process our sensory experiences. How the areas of the cerebral cortex communicate with each other and process sensory information has long puzzled neuroscientists. Exploring the sense of touch in mice, brain researchers from the University of Zurich now demonstrate that the transmission of sensory information from one cortical area to connected areas depends on the specific task to solve and the goal-directed behavior. These findings can serve as a basis for an improved understanding of cognitive disorders.

In the mammalian brain, the cerebral cortex plays a crucial role in processing sensory inputs. The cortex can be subdivided into different areas, each handling distinct aspects of perception, decision-making or action. The somatosensory cortex, for instance, comprises the part of the cerebral cortex that primarily processes haptic sensations. The different areas of the cerebral cortex are interconnected and communicate with each other. A central, unanswered question of neuroscience is how exactly do these brain areas communicate to process sensory stimuli and produce appropriate behavior. A team of researchers headed by Professor Fritjof Helmchen at the University of Zurich's Brain Research Institute now provides an answer: The processing of sensory information depends on what you want to achieve. The brain researchers observed that nerve cells in the sensory cortex that connect to distinct brain areas are activated differentially depending on the task to be solved.

Goal-directed processing of sensory information

In their publication in Nature, the researchers studied how mice use their facial whiskers to explore their environment, much like we do in the dark with our hands and fingers. One mouse group was trained to distinguish coarse and fine sandpapers using their whiskers in order to obtain a reward. Another group had to work out the angle, at which an object -- a metal rod -- was located relative to their snout. The neuroscientists measured the activity of neurons in the primary somatosensory cortex using a special microscopy technique. With simultaneous anatomical stainings they also identified which of these neurons sent their projections to the more remote secondary somatosensory area and the motor cortex, respectively.

The primary somatosensory neurons with projections to the secondary somatosensory cortex predominantly became active when the mice had to distinguish the surface texture of the sandpaper. Neurons with projections to the motor cortex, on the other hand, were more involved when mice needed to localize the metal rod. These different activity patterns were not evident when mice passively touched sandpaper or metal rods without having been set a task -- in other words, when their actions were not motivated by a reward. Thus, the sensory stimuli alone were not sufficient to explain the different pattern of information transfer to the remote brain areas.

Impaired communication in the brain

According to Fritjof Helmchen, the activity in a cortical area can be transmitted to remote areas in a targeted fashion if we have to extract ('filter') specific information from the environment to solve a problem. In cognitive disorders such Alzheimer's disease, Autism, and Schizophrenia, this communication between brain areas is often disrupted. "A better understanding of how these long-range, inter-connected networks in the brain operate might help to develop therapies that re-establish this specific cortical communication," says Helmchen. The aim would be to thereby improve the impaired cognitive abilities of patients.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/6nHYw75gbPc/130625121151.htm

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Federer begins quest for 8th Wimbledon title

LONDON (AP) ? As he has six previous times, Roger Federer will begin Wimbledon on Monday as the defending champion. When he steps onto Centre Court he hopes it will be the start of another two-week stay at the All England Club.

It's an honor reserved for the men's titleholder. That scheduling perk is also where any hint of preferential treatment for Federer comes to a halt. Because of the way the draw came out, Federer could have to defeat Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray before even getting to the final.

Federer said Sunday he's "ready for the challenge" and he doesn't shy away from "tough draws."

His quest for a record eighth Wimbledon title begins against 47th-ranked Victor Hanescu of Romania.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/federer-begins-quest-8th-wimbledon-title-170614576.html

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Waterbury Home for Adolescent Girls Closing: 68 Workers Will Lose

Nearly 70 full-time and part-time workers at a home for adolescent girls will lose their jobs when the Department of Children and Families closes Stepping Stone, a 26-bed facility in Waterbury.

Stepping Stone serves girls with psychiatric or behavioral difficulties. The workers that will be displaced include 27 direct care workers, 15 relief direct care workers, four clinical case managers, five teachers, two administrative assistants, two cooks, as well as nurses, a principal, a psychiatrist, eight managers or supervisors, a recreational therapist and a maintenance worker.

NAFI Connecticut, which runs a campus in Litchfield, operates the home. The nonprofit told the Department of Labor this month that DCF notified the organization May 28th that it would close the home. NAFI stands for North American Family Institute.

?This closure was unforeseen and beyond NAFI Connecticut?s control,? the letter to the Department of Labor said.

The jobs will be eliminated gradually as the girls who live there move out, but will finish by the end of August.

?This decision is in keeping with the Department?s direction of moving resources toward more community-based services, more family-based care, and less reliance on congregate care generally,? said DCF spokesman Gary Kleeblatt.

Kleeblatt said there are 16 girls living in the facility, and most will either return to their families or get placed in a foster home.

?We understand that NAFI CT is looking to fill vacancies in its other programs and is exploring ways to shift staff at the residential program,? he said.

Source: http://courantblogs.com/ct-jobs/waterbury-home-for-adolescent-girls-closing-68-workers-will-lose-jobs/

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Source: http://cheap-hotels-rates.blogspot.com/2013/06/waterbury-home-for-adolescent-girls.html

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'True Blood' stars tease 'dark, sexy' season 6

TV

Drusilla Moorhouse TODAY contributor

15 minutes ago

John P. Johnson / HBO

Alexander Skarsgard as Eric and Kristin Bauer van Straten as Pam on "True Blood."

Could "True Blood" possibly be more sexy, sinister and naked? Yes, the stars emphatically told TODAY.com at the sixth season's Hollywood premiere.

When the dark dramedy returns to HBO on Sunday, June 16, the humans have declared all-out war against the vampires. Blame Billith, the bloody, naked reincarnation of Bill Compton.

The premiere is directed by Stephen Moyer, his second time working both in front of and behind the camera.

"Three hours of makeup and then directing my fellow actors naked -- that was a lot of fun," he said drily about his double duties.

When asked whether his own experience made him more sensitive to the actors' nude scenes, he said, "I'm naked for a great time of it; I think I'm quite sensitive -- I'm a sensitive bloke.

"There are all sorts of inappropriate fall-out situations," he added. "John Gielgud once said to one of his leading ladies: 'I apologize to you if nothing happens below, and I also apologize if something does.'"

Stripping down in front of the camera was a new experience for Rob Kazinsky, joining the cast this season as fairy Ben, the new man in Sookie's (Anna Paquin) life.

"I got a lot (of tips) from Anna, which was along the lines of 'Stop being a p---- and just do it.' You can't have an ego on this job," he told us. "If everybody else is getting naked all the time, you better damn well get naked (too)."

"I had a moment a couple weeks ago when I was (dubbing) a sex scene, and I had this out of body experience where I realized I'm watching my own behind from third-person perspective," he said. "That's not something many people get to do. "

Kazinsky called the show's hunky stars -- Moyer, Alexander Skarsg?rd and Joe Manganiello -- "hard acts to follow": "Tall, sexy and Swedish; cool, sexy and British; and ginormous, muscly and American -- where do I fit in being kind of squat, ginger and hairy?" (Trust us, Moyer's fellow Brit is being too modest. He fits right in with his fellow hotties.)

Although his character "has a good heart (and is) ruled by conscience," Kazinsky notes, "he does have a dark side -- he's also ruled by human passions."

Skarsg?rd said he's "having fun going back and forth" between dark and light.

"That's what I loved about Eric since we first started. When you first meet him, he's the bad guy. That's what I responded to when I first read the books and first met with creator Alan (Ball) six years ago. We're still exploring that. This season as well, he's both good and bad."

Although he seemed to turn 100 percent bad when he drank Lilith's blood, we will see glimpses of the old Bill Compton in the premiere.

"He's out to try to find out what he is," Moyer said. "And there's a lot -- you don't know what his purpose is. (When) he drank (Lilith's) blood, he didn't know what he was going to do -- he just knew he'd been led to that point. From then on, you are finding out just at the same time as he is."

But with humans openly persecuting supernaturals, even an all-powerful vampire prophet is going to have some challenges.

"With all the crazy things going down in Bon Temps somebody's gonna need a lawyer," said Courtney Ford, who's reprising her role as Portia Bellefleur, Bill's descendant and attorney. "Portia has her work cut out for her this season," she added with a laugh.

Like her co-stars, Ford's also used to baring all on screen. "I was talking with my husband (Brandon Routh) the other day and said I don't think there's anything I've done that my son is gonna be able to see until he's like 40!"

For those who are allowed to watch the show, Ford promised that season six is "dark, it's sexy -- it's gonna keep you on your toes."

"There are a lot of surprises in store," confirmed new cast member Amelia Rose Blaire, who plays Willa Burrell, the anti-vampire governor's daughter. "It's very unpredictable, so get ready for some shockers!"

"A war has broken out that's made everybody unpredictable," she added. "I think everybody is a threat in some way."

Most everyone agrees that the biggest threat is Warlow, possibly the alter ego of Sookie's grandfather Niall (iconic actor Rutger Hauer). "Warlow is a threat to everything," revealed Kazinsky. "He's a threat to every fairy, he's a threat to every vampire -- not only the biggest threat ever but also only thing that can save them. When he comes into the show, it's going to be pretty scary."

"Just hold onto your hats," warned Carrie Preston, who plays Arlene. "This season goes to a really, really exciting place. I haven't been this excited about a season in a while."

How excited are you about the return of "True Blood"? Tell us on our Facebook page!

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/true-blood-stars-tease-more-nudity-dark-sexy-season-6-6C10314978

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Ark. Sen. Pryor hit from right, left before 2014

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) ? The conservative Club for Growth tags Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor as President Barack Obama's "closest ally" in the state. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun-control advocacy group says Pryor "let us down."

Pryor's re-election race is 17 months away, but the Democratic incumbent seen as perhaps the most vulnerable in 2014 is already taking hits from the right and the left. That's forced the second-term senator to aggressively defend himself and step into re-election mode sooner than planned, even though he has no Republican opponent.

"My goal right now is to put the campaign off until the election year, 2014," Pryor told reporters recently. "They keep dragging me back into the politics, they keep running ads and trying to keep it stirred it up here."

Republicans are trying to unseat Pryor and three other Democratic incumbents who represent states that Republican Mitt Romney won in last year's presidential race: Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

Democrats need to defend 21 seats, including seven in largely rural states that Obama lost in 2012.

Republicans need to pick up six seats to regain Senate control. But the GOP is defending fewer incumbents and could benefit from history: The party controlling the White House usually loses seats during the midterm election of a second-term president.

Pryor, who began airing his first television ad last month, faces pressure especially early in Arkansas. He's trying to survive in a state where Republicans enjoyed widespread gains over the past two election cycles, fueled by Obama's unpopularity.

The GOP controls both chambers of the Legislature and all four U.S. House seats. In 2010, Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln lost her bid for a third term. Last year, Republicans swept all four House seats and won control of the Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction.

National and state Republicans are eager to topple Pryor, whose father, David, was a senator and governor. It's a turnaround from 2008, when Republicans were unable to find anyone to challenge Mark Pryor and he easily won a second term.

"When you hear Arkansas Democrats try to spin things for Mark Pryor, the only things they can point to is he's raised a lot of money, he's got a high name ID and the fact his father is popular," David Ray, a spokesman for the state GOP. "That's not a very strong place to start."

Among Republicans, U.S. Reps. Tom Cotton and Steve Womack are widely viewed as potential challengers.

So far, Pryor is taking heat from outside groups rather than a challenger. The Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee, has begun airing $320,000 worth of television ads criticizing Pryor's 2009 vote for the federal health care law and calling him too liberal.

The conservative Club for Growth, which backed Cotton last year, has aired ads linking Pryor to Obama.

At the same time, Pryor has absorbed criticism from the left after voting against expanded background checks for firearms purchases.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the Bloomberg group, is airing television and radio ads criticizing Pryor for the vote. The ad invokes the shooting death of Bill Gwatney, the state Democratic Party chairman who was killed in his office in 2008. Bloomberg has also urged New York donors to not contribute to Pryor or the other Democratic senators who voted against the background checks measure in April.

"When my dear innocent friend was shot to death, I didn't blame guns. I blamed a system that makes it so terribly easy for criminals or the dangerous mentally ill to buy guns," Angela Bradford-Barnes, who worked with Gwatney, says in the ad. "That's why I was so disappointed when Mark Pryor voted against comprehensive background checks. On that vote, he let us down."

Robert McLarty, a Democratic consultant in Little Rock who's not affiliated with Pryor's campaign, said the senator's biggest challenge right now is that he doesn't have an announced opponent while he's fending off attacks from both sides.

"He's not able to direct a compare and contrast style campaign," McLarty said. "He's not able to take a candidate on the other side and say this is how we differ."

But McLarty and others say Pryor is in a better position than Lincoln was in 2010.

She survived a bruising Democratic primary with the help of former President Bill Clinton, who campaigned for her. But she lost handily in the fall of 2010. Pryor has higher approval figures than Lincoln did and appears unlikely at this point to draw a serious primary challenger next spring.

Clinton headlined a March fundraiser to kick off Pryor's re-election bid, helping him raise more than $1 million in a night. Pryor reported having more than $3.4 million in the bank for the 2014 race.

"The reason this is a race of national significance is because it's about whether a senator who cares about his own people more than ideological purity can be financed, elected, lifted by the people he has served in the face of all these crazy currents that are taking America and tearing it to shreds," Clinton said at the event.

Pryor is trying to find middle ground on issues such as gun control, where he contends his vote represents a constituency that values hunting and gun rights. He's also argued that a competing measure he supported that was endorsed by the National Rifle Association would have done more to address gun violence.

The NRA has also stepped in to help Pryor, with a radio ad airing in the state thanking the lawmaker for his vote.

Without an opponent, Pryor is casting the fight over gun control as one with Bloomberg.

"The mayor of New York City is running ads against me because I opposed President Obama's gun control legislation. Nothing in the Obama plan would have prevented tragedies like Newtown, Aurora, Tucson or even Jonesboro," Pryor says in his television ad. "I'm committed to finding real solutions to gun violence while protecting our Second Amendment rights."

When Bloomberg's group ran ads before the background checks vote, Pryor responded: "I don't take gun advice from the mayor of New York City. I listen to Arkansans."

He's also distanced himself from Obama and national Democrats on other issues. He's opposed gay marriage despite a growing chorus of support from lawmakers from his party in other states and criticized the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative groups.

Pryor said he's trying to keep his focus on Arkansas.

"All I can do is be the very best senator I can be. I wish these outside groups would let me do that and not have to fool around with the election," Pryor said. "People in Arkansas are tired of the election. They want us to get up to Washington and take care of the nation's business."

___

Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.

___

Follow Andrew DeMillo on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ademillo

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ark-sen-pryor-hit-left-2014-085128242.html

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Deleted Scenes: The gene patenting decision from a plaintiff?s point of view

An overwhelming victory, though details remain uncertain

By Tina Hesman Saey

Web edition: June 14, 2013

Arupa Ganguly is pleased with the outcome of her day in court. ?I?m ecstatic,? she says. ?I feel like a tiger that has been released from a cage.?

Ganguly, who directs the Genetic Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania?s hospital in Philadelphia, is one of numerous plaintiffs who sued a company called Myriad Genetics over patents the corporation held on genes that raise breast cancer risks. On Thursday the Supreme Court unanimously decided the case in her favor.

In 1995, Ganguly and Haig Kazazian, now of Johns Hopkins, began offering DNA tests to determine whether women carry faulty copies of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which raise the risk of developing breast cancer. In 1998, Myriad sent the Penn group a letter demanding it cease and desist the testing. Myriad owned the patent on breast cancer genes, the letter said, and nobody else had the right to examine those genes even if they were using methods different from those Myriad uses. In 1999, the group got another more strongly worded letter that Penn?s own patent lawyers urged them to heed. Ganguly and Kazazian stopped their testing.

?I hope no other lab director will ever get a letter like that,? Ganguly says. ?It took the ground out from under my feet.?

Myriad?s patent claim meant that doctors could not look for mutations in the breast cancer genes except by ordering the company?s test. They also could not pass along information gleaned by accident when sequencing a person?s entire genome, unless they paid Myriad, says Ada Hamosh, a clinical geneticist at Johns Hopkins University. The company also locked away data on the mutations that strike the breast cancer genes, she says. Doctors need to know that kind of information in order to determine how a mutation is likely to affect a patient?s health. ??

In 2008, Ganguly and Kazazian signed on to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against Myriad, and other researchers followed.

This year on April 15, Ganguly hopped an early morning train to Washington and sat in the courtroom as the justices heard the case. ?It was pretty clear to me that it would go our way,? she says. She never suspected it would go so far in her favor, though.

In a rare unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled June 13 that naturally occurring genes are not eligible for patent protection. The court also said that companies can patent synthetic versions of genes known as cDNAs. That bit of the ruling has researchers, investors and just about everyone else scratching their heads a bit.

In their natural form, genes are composed of DNA, the chemical units of which are designated by the letters A, C, G and T. Some combinations of those letters can produce proteins, which do much of the work inside cells. The strings of letters used to build proteins are arranged along a chromosome in chunks called exons, and interspersed by bits of DNA called introns, which don?t encode proteins. It is as if sheets of nonsense text were stuck between the pages of an instruction manual. Cells copy the entire gene ? nonsense text and all ? and then discard the extraneous information, stitching the exons into a coherent protein-building blueprint called messenger RNA, or mRNA. Other cellular machinery reads the mRNA and constructs proteins accordingly.

In the laboratory, scientists and technicians can isolate the mRNA and make a DNA copy of that molecule. The result is a cDNA, or complementary DNA. Because cells don?t normally make cDNAs, the court decided that those synthetic molecules are fair game for patenting.

Only Justice Antonin Scalia expressed any doubts about the decision ? he agreed that genes can?t be patented but was a little fuzzy on the molecular biology.

It turns out that Scalia was right to express a little skepticism, says Kazazian. Nature makes cDNAs, too. Retroviruses, such as HIV, store their genetic information as RNA and then have to make DNA copies of themselves ? for all intents and purposes cDNAs ? that will then be inserted into the host?s genome. And the human genome contains more than 8,000 natural cDNAs, which are (mostly) now-defunct copies of genes known as processed pseudogenes.

The provision on cDNAs was probably included to appease the biotechnology industry, but it?s not clear how the decision will affect research on these quirky components of the genome or on retroviruses.

Striking down gene patenting opens the way for other companies and researchers like Ganguly to develop a wide variety of tests for breast cancer risks and other diseases. Many of the tests may be cheaper than Myriad?s $3,000 offering.

?Everybody gets to do business now,? says Hamosh. ?It?s an open market.?

Meanwhile, Myriad still has protection for the methods it uses to test the genes, and probably gets to retain the database of information it has amassed about mutations.

?Because of that database it could be that Myriad won?t lose much business,? Kazazian says.

Although he is delighted that companies can no longer patent genes, the ruling doesn?t benefit him personally and he has no plans to test breast cancer genes again. ?It?s been nearly 15 years. I?m not going to go back and do this.?

Both sides are claiming that the verdict as a victory (even though it is clear the decision breaks Myriad?s hold on the genes). But Ganguly says that people at risk of genetic diseases are the biggest winners because they will have more than one company to turn to for testing. And they may not have long to wait; the afternoon after the ruling came down, a company called GeneDX announced that it would begin BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing later this summer.

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/351049/title/The_gene_patenting_decision_from_a_plaintiffs_point_of_view

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Demotion or termination? How to make the call ? Business ...

If you?re faced with an employee who isn?t a good fit with his or her current job, is termination the answer or is demotion a better alternative?

The answer is, of course, it depends.

Demotions should always be considered on a case-by-case basis. The key factor is whether or not the employee is worth keeping around. However, a demotion will be more effective in some situations than others.

Poor performance. If an employee is underperforming, you must first investigate to find out why. Is the employee simply unsuited for a particular role, but could thrive elsewhere? If so, he might be relieved at the opportunity to be moved back to a position that better suits his talents and skills.

For example, say an outstanding employee was promoted to management, but is floundering in a supervisory role. Some employees are happier (and better at) doing the work than managing it.

Misconduct. Using demotion as a disciplinary tool for misconduct is dangerous. First, does it actually solve the problem, or will the employee carry those same issues to the other position?

Second, is the demotion consistent with similar situations in the past? If not, you could face legal discrimination complaints.

Third, are you creating an unwanted precedent for how to deal with similar situations in the future?

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Finally, what kind of a message are you sending to other employees? (?Goof off and get punished with a lighter workload? ? Hey, I wanna get demoted, too!?)

Restructuring. Losing a valuable employee during a company or departmental restructuring is difficult. It?s tempting to try to shuffle the best performers into new roles, even if that means demoting some.

It could be a good move if the demoted employees are truly appreciative to retain a job. It could be bad if other good workers lose their jobs as a result.

Demotion dangers

There are other important caveats to consider before choosing demotion over termination in any situation:

• An employee who agrees to a demotion only to avoid being fired may feel demoralized and have difficulty performing well even in his old, more comfortable position.
• The employee may be embarrassed, considering the public nature of the demotion, and also if the employee becomes a peer to employees he once supervised.
• If the demotion is accompanied by a corresponding pay cut, the demoted employee is likely to leave for a better-paying job. Tip: To entice demoted employees to stay, consider offering a bonus for staying on board (payable after a certain amount of time) or keeping them at the same pay level, with the understanding that future pay increases will be lower.

Bottom line: The most successful demotions are ones in which everyone agrees it is the best option. It?s a rare situation, however, in which the employee truly wants to take a step back and the employer considers the employee an asset worth retaining. So it is highly important to think through a demotion decision and how you will carry it out.

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NSA leaker claims U.S. hacks China

Alleged NSA leaker Edward Snowden claimed today to have evidence that the U.S. government has been hacking into Chinese computer networks since at least 2009 ? an effort he said is part of the tens of thousands of hacking operations American cyber spies have launched around the world, according to a Hong Kong newspaper.

The newspaper, the South China Morning Post, reported it had conducted a lengthy interview with the 29-year-old former NSA contractor, who is hiding out in Hong Kong after revealing himself to be the source of a series of headline-grabbing stories about the National Security Agency's secret, vast surveillance programs. After their unveiling, those programs were acknowledged and defended by top Obama administration officials.

The Post said Snowden provided documents, which the paper described as "unverified," that he said showed U.S. cyber operations targeting a Hong Kong university, public officials and students in the Chinese city. The paper said the documents also indicate hacking attacks targeting mainland Chinese targets, but did not reveal information about Chinese military systems.

Snowden, a civilian contractor who worked at an NSA facility in Hawaii before his flight to Hong Kong, said he believed that overall the NSA had launched more than 61,000 hacking operations globally, including attempts to spy on hundreds of targets in Hong Kong and in mainland China.

"We hack network backbones -- like huge internet routers, basically -- that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one," Snowden said, according to the paper. "Last week the American government happily operated in the shadows with no respect for the consent of the governed, but no longer."

Snowden told the paper he was releasing the new information to show the "hypocrisy of the U.S. government when it claims that it does not target civilian infrastructure, unlike its adversaries."

As U.S. officials said the Justice Department is preparing to bring charges against Snowden for the NSA leaks, Snowden said he has no plans to leave Hong Kong even though that country has an extradition treaty with the U.S.

"People who think I made a mistake in picking Hong Kong as a location misunderstand my intentions," he said. "I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality? My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate."

As the South China Morning Post published its reports on Snowden, America's top cyber officials appeared before a Congressional committee to discuss American offensive and defensive cyber operations, including those recently revealed by The Guardian and The Washington Post apparently based on information from Snowden.

Previously, top U.S. officials have blamed the Chinese government for being behind "persistent" -- and somewhat successful -- attempts to hack into American government and private networks. In return, Chinese officials recently said their government has "mountains of data" pointing to the U.S. hacking them.

Last week, President Obama signed a directive calling for government cyber tools to be "integrated with the full array of national security tools we have at our disposal," according to The Associated Press. That statement was made after British newspaper The Guardian revealed the directive -- allegedly one of many tips that came from Snowden before he stepped from the shadows.

CLICK HERE to return to The Investigative Unit homepage.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/edward-snowden-claims-nsa-documents-show-u-hacks-215625790--abc-news-topstories.html

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Conservative Men Further Ramp Up Their War Against Women

In the video above, from Tuesday evening, Rachel discusses Republican Party self-interest. She's a smart gal but she can't get her head around how exactly it is self-interest-- considering so many women vote nowadays-- for the Republican Party, as a party, to go so conspicuously out of its way to alienate and further alienate women as a class of people. If you ever had any doubt that the Republicans are waging a war against women-- dictated by their crazy conservative and misogynistic patriarchal base-- just watch the clip. And it's not just in primitive and backward Southern states like Mississippi. Republican governors and legislators in Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio, for example, are going full bore against women as well. In fact, wherever Republicans control both the governor's mansion and the state legislature, they are passing legislation to control women's lives and force women to give up personal freedoms.

And nationally, despite the absolute certainty it will never become law, Eric Cantor and John Boehner have gone ahead and agreed to allow the House to vote on a bill by deformed and bitter Arizona closet case/woman hater Trent Franks that will criminalize abortion nationally after 20 weeks. But what Rachel didn't have time to get into in her excellent blow-by-blow in he latest developments in the brutal Republican War Against Women is a brand new development that was breaking while she was on the air. This one is primitive, savage and patriarchal... but not Republican. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat and a longtime shill for the Military Industrial Complex (as well, alas, as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee) declared he's removing a measure aimed at curbing sexual assault in the military from a defense spending bill.

Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, offered a measure that would give military prosecutors rather than commanders the power to decide which sexual assault crimes to try, with the goal of increasing the number of people who report crimes without fear of retaliation. Mr. Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said he would replace Ms. Gillibrand?s measure-- which has 27 co-sponsors, including four Republicans-- with one that would require a senior military officer to review decisions by commanders who decline to prosecute sexual assault cases. Although Mr. Levin?s measure would change the current system, it would keep prosecution of sexual assault cases within the chain of command, as the military wants.

Mr. Levin?s decision to support military brass in their resistance to Ms. Gillibrand?s proposal sets up a confrontation between a long-serving chairman of the committee with strong ties to the armed forces and a relatively new female member-- one of a record seven women serving on the committee-- who has made sexual assault in the military a signature issue.

?They basically embrace the status quo here,? said Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, a co-sponsor of Ms. Gillibrand?s bill. ?It?s outrageous.?

A recent Pentagon survey found that an estimated 26,000 assaults took place last year. Senior military officials have repeatedly traipsed to Capitol Hill this spring to lament the problem but have been ridiculed by members of both parties of the Armed Services Committee for failing to make a dent in the problem.

In an odd twist Tuesday, Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, told Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that Congress could seek to replace commanders in power with state prosecutors to deal with the military sexual assault cases. ?To do things as they?ve always been done is not acceptable,? Mr. Leahy said.

Mr. Leahy made his comments during a spending hearing that included Mr. Hagel and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ?I?m just throwing that out there,? Mr. Leahy said. ?I?m not looking for an answer.?

State courts already have the authority over rape and sexual assault cases should a victim choose to go to civilian law enforcement, but such cases are rare because the military prefers to prosecute its own personnel.

?If word gets out that the military justice system is not properly attentive to these cases, military personnel will vote with their feet,? said Eugene R. Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School.

The House this week is expected to pass its own defense bill, which contains provisions to punish sexual assault crimes in the military more harshly and make it difficult for commanders to overturn convictions.

The Senate bill is also expected to include measures that would provide victims of sexual assault with a special military lawyer and that would automatically remove convicted sex offenders from the military. Other expected provisions would require a commander to provide written justification for any decision commuting or lessening a sentence after a guilty verdict in a court-martial.

Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, is in the meantime still holding up the nomination of Lt. Gen. Susan Helms of the Air Force to become vice commander of the United States Space Command because General Helms overturned a jury conviction in a sexual assault case without public explanation.

?I continue to have deep concerns with Lieutenant General Helms?s decision, while a commander and courts-martial convening authority, to overturn the jury verdict of a military court-martial in which the jury found an Air Force officer guilty of sexual assault,? Ms. McCaskill said in remarks submitted to the Congressional Record.

Ms. Gillbrand may have a chance to renew her measure on the Senate floor this summer, something she will almost certainly seek. ?Senator Gillibrand has nerves of steel,? Mr. Fidell said. ?Whether her bill is what Congress should enact I don?t know, but I commend her for standing her ground.?

Levin, age 78, won't be seeking a 7th term in the Senate. This is another example of old men trying to control the lives of younger women. There's a deep generational and gender divide on these issues and it's tragic that a Democrat rather than some reactionary fossil like Chuck Grassley, Jim Inhofe, Richard Shelby or Pat Roberts would be holding the banner for Bronze Age misogyny-- and rape-- today.

UPDATE: A Message From The Fighters For Equality At The DCCC

Steve Israel and Co. are up in arms over the anti-Choice Republicans. Let's see how many of the top priority Frontline Democrats they fund-- like Matheson, Barrow and McIntyre for exampl-- vote with the Republicans on this.

An all-male group of House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee is expected to pass a bill today that will ban abortions nationally after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The measures makes no exception for cases of rape, incest or when the mother?s health is jeopardized.

Americans consistently rate jobs and the economy as their greatest concern, not re-fighting battles over a woman?s right to choose. The measure, sponsored by anti-woman zealot Trent Franks of Arizona, is expected to be sent to the full House for a vote next week and would effectively overturn Roe vs. Wade.

?Today, another all-male group of House Republicans will interject their ideology between a woman and her doctor, effectively overturn Roe vs. Wade, reverse our rights and open yet another front in the war on women. Yet again, House Republicans are trying to prove that they?re the most extreme, anti-woman legislature in American history,? said Emily Bittner of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. ?House Republicans are blindly focusing on the tired ideological battles of the past like a woman?s right to choose, rather than focusing on problem-solving. And the American people know that every day House Republicans waste fighting over ideology is a day they refused to solve our country?s problems.?

Source: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2013/06/conservative-men-further-ramp-up-their.html

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Voice-operated dashboard technology still risky

Russ Martin of American Automobile Association (AAA), is seen on a monitor in a research vehicle skull cap to the research vehicle during a demonstrations in support of their new study on distracted driving in Landover, Md., Tuesday, June 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Russ Martin of American Automobile Association (AAA), is seen on a monitor in a research vehicle skull cap to the research vehicle during a demonstrations in support of their new study on distracted driving in Landover, Md., Tuesday, June 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Russ Martin of American Automobile Association (AAA), is hooked to an electroencephalographic (EEG)-configured skull cap, during a demonstrations in support of their new study on distracted driving in Landover, Md., Tuesday, June 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Dr. Eric Strayer of University of Utah, speaks to reporters , during a demonstrations in support of their new study on distracted driving in Landover, Md., Tuesday, June 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Russ Martin of American Automobile Association (AAA), is hooked to an electroencephalographic (EEG)-configured skull cap, during a demonstrations in support of their new study on distracted driving in Landover, Md., Tuesday, June 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Russ Martin of triple A, is assisted by Joel Cooper, left, hooking the electroencephalographic (EEG)-configured skull cap to the research vehicle during a demonstrations in support of their new study on distracted driving in Landover, Md., Tuesday, June 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Dashboard technology that lets drivers text and email with voice commands ? marketed as a safer alternative ? actually is more distracting than simply talking on a cellphone, a new AAA study found.

Automakers have been trying to excite new-car buyers, especially younger ones, with dashboard infotainment systems that let drivers use voice commands to do things like turning on windshield wipers, posting Facebook messages or ordering pizza. The pitch has been that hands-free devices are safer because they enable drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road.

But talking on a hands-free phone isn't significantly safer for drivers than talking on a hand-held phone, and using hands-free devices that translate speech into text is the most distracting of all, researchers reported in a study released Wednesday. Speech-to-text systems that enable drivers to send, scroll through, or delete email and text messages required greater concentration by drivers than other potentially distracting activities examined in the study like talking on the phone, talking to a passenger, listening to a book on tape or listening to the radio.

The greater the concentration required to perform a task, the more likely a driver is to develop what researchers call "tunnel vision" or "inattention blindness." Drivers will stop scanning the roadway or ignore their side and rearview mirrors. Instead, they look straight ahead, but fail to see what's in front of them, like red lights and pedestrians.

"People aren't seeing what they need to see to drive. That's the scariest part to me," said Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, the group's safety research arm. "Police accident investigative reports are filled with comments like the 'looked, but did not see.' That's what drivers tell them. We used to think they were lying, but now we know that's actually true."

There are about 9 million cars and trucks on the road with infotainment systems, and that will jump to about 62 million vehicles by 2018, AAA spokeswoman Yolanda Cade said, citing automotive industry research. At the same time, drivers tell the AAA they believe phones and other devices are safe to use behind the wheel if they are hands-free, she said.

"We believe there is a public safety crisis looming," Cade said. "We hope this study will change some widely held misconceptions by motorists."

AAA officials who briefed automakers, safety advocates and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on the study's findings said they want to limit in-vehicle, voice-driven technologies to "core driving tasks." The National Safety Council, responding to the AAA study, also called on industry and policymakers "to reconsider the inclusion of communications and entertainment technology built into vehicles which allow, or even encourage, the driver to engage in these activities at the expense of focusing on driving."

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers was skeptical. "We are extremely concerned that it could send a misleading message, since it suggests that hand-held and hands-free devices are equally risky," the association said in a statement.

The automakers' trade group said the AAA study focuses only on the mental distraction posed by using a device and ignores the visual and manual aspects of hand-held versus hands-free systems that are integrated into cars.

Other studies have also compared hand-held and hands-free phone use, finding they are equally risky or nearly so. But a recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study of drivers' real world driving experiences found hand-held phone use was less safe than hands-free.

Distracted driving is more widespread in the U.S. than in Europe, according to a survey of drivers about their cellphone and texting habits released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this year. More U.S. drivers reported talking on their cellphones behind the wheel than their counterparts in seven European countries. A larger share of U.S. drivers also reported reading or sending text or email messages while driving. Only Portugal's drivers matched those in the U.S. for this distracting habit ? 31 percent in both countries.

Researchers at the University of Utah who conducted the study for the AAA measured the brainwaves, eye movement, driving performance and other indicators of 32 university students as they drove and performed a variety of secondary tasks, ranging from listening to music to sending emails. Cameras were mounted inside the car to track drivers' eye and head movements. A device that drivers pressed was used to record their reaction time to red and green lights introduced to their field of vision. Drivers were fitted with a special skull cap to record their brain activity.

The students were tested while not driving, while driving in a simulator and while driving a car on a 3-mile loop through a suburban Salt Lake City neighborhood with stop signs and stoplights. A researcher with a backup braking system accompanied the students in the test car.

One reason using voice commands is so much more distracting for drivers, even though they aren't using their hands, is that they often require more concentration than simply speaking to another person, said University of Utah psychology professor David Strayer, an expert on cognitive distraction and lead author of the study. Talking to a computer requires far greater precision than talking to a person, he said. Otherwise, "Call home" may get you Home Depot.

Synthetic computer voices can be harder to understand than human voices, also requiring more attention. The computers used in the study were exceptionally high-fidelity systems that made no errors, but the systems in cars aren't as good, Strayer said. He said that means the study probably underestimates the concentration required of drivers, and thus the ability of speech-to-text systems to distract them.

Another difference: In phone conversations, a person who is listening will give indications that they agree with what the speaker has said or have heard what was said. Computers don't provide that feedback.

"The complexity of trying to say something that is coherent when there is no feedback is much more difficult," Strayer said.

A simple, quick voice command to turn on windshield wipers isn't very distracting, he said. But concentrating on creating a text message and trying to get it right takes a great deal more mental effort and time.

"The more complex and the longer those interactions are, the more likely you are going to have impairments when you're driving," Strayer said.

___

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

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-06-12-Distracted%20Driving/id-a3217c3e29e64ddb9dc85c14806e101a

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E3 organizers set the feds on OUYA over parking lot cheekiness

The next-gen console war is truly on and E3 is the battleground. As IGN found out, though, fighting spirits have extended beyond the walls of the Los Angeles Convention Center, where Android console-makers OUYA and the ESA (which runs E3) are embroiled is an ongoing tussle. It started when OUYA decided to attend E3 "on its own terms," setting up a stand in a parking lot opposite the Expo to attract attention without paying E3 fees. The ESA responded by renting its own parking spaces and using trucks to obscure OUYA's stand. But for every patch, a hack is soon to follow, and OUYA then rented additional spaces in front of the trucks to put up some banners. The ESA then called the fuzz, who turned up on their monster Segways to see what was what. After checking OUYA's permits, the LAPD were satisfied nothing illegal was going on and split. Apparently, OUYA founder Julie Uhrman has contacted the ESA to talk it out, but hasn't received a response. Perhaps the association is too busy planning its next attack, but Uhrman is prepared: "If ten more trucks show up, we'll come up with another idea. I have a few up my sleeve."

[Image Credit: IGN]

Filed under: Gaming

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Sandra Bullock in Early Talks to Join 'Annie' Remake at Sony (Exclusive)

By Jeff Sneider

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Oscar winner Sandra Bullock is in early discussions to play Miss Hannigan in Sony and Overbrook Entertainment's remake of "Annie," two individuals familiar with the project have told TheWrap.

Hannigan, of course, is the mean woman who runs the orphanage where Annie and her friends live. Carol Burnett played the role in the original 1982 film, and Sony has sought to cast an actress with comedic chops and international appeal.

What's especially interesting about Bullock's potential casting is that she initially passed on the role. Now insiders tell TheWrap that Bullock is back at the negotiating table for a family film that may wind up a holiday hit.

Will Smith and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter are producing Will Gluck's updated musical, which stars Quvenzhane Wallis ("Beasts of the Southern Wild") as the titular orphan, who was originally supposed to be played by Smith's daughter Willow. Jamie Foxx will play NYC mayoral hopeful Benjamin Stacks, a variation on the Daddy Warbucks character.

Sony had no comment, while a representative for Bullock, who is traveling with the actress in Europe, did not reply to numerous requests for comment.

The "Annie" remake is the rare musical designed to appeal to African-American audiences, which also made a sleeper hit out of Bullock's 2009 drama "The Blind Side," which grossed $255 million in the U.S. alone.

Gluck is directing from a script by Emma Thompson and Aline Brosh McKenna that the filmmaker recently revised to suit his vision for the movie, which is expected to start production this fall. "Annie" will hit theaters on Christmas Day 2014.\

Joining Jay-Z and Smith as producers are the latter's Overbrook Entertainment partners James Lassiter and Jada Pinkett Smith, as well as Marcy Media's Jay Brown and Tyran "Ty Ty" Smith. Sony's Andrea Gianatti and Devon Franklin are overseeing for the studio.

Bullock, who is coming off another supporting turn in "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," next stars opposite Melissa McCarthy in the buddy cop comedy "The Heat," which 20th Century Fox opens June 28. She's also expected to be in the awards mix this year for Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity," which Warner Bros. will release on October 4.

Bullock is represented by CAA and attorney Clifford Gilbert-Lurie.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sandra-bullock-early-talks-join-annie-remake-sony-222851632.html

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2013 Critics Choice Television Awards: Who Won?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/2013-critics-choice-television-awards-who-won/

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Obama plays golf before return to DC

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) ? President Barack Obama has squeezed in a morning round on a Southern California golf course.

The White House says the president played the nine-hole course at the Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage on Sunday.

Obama played the course on Saturday with Mike Ramos and Bobby Titcomb, childhood friends from Hawaii, where Obama grew up. White House aide Marvin Nicholson rounded out the foursome.

Obama arrived at the estate once owned by billionaire philanthropist Walter Annenberg on Friday for a summit with China's president.

Those talks wrapped up on Saturday, and Obama stayed at Sunnylands through the weekend.

He was scheduled to return to the White House Sunday evening.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-09-Obama/id-63658c7bbcab4cd4beb4ec459f4c9163

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Diamond Multimedia PlugnView Remote Home Monitoring Internet Night Vision Security Camera kit review

I like having the ability to check in on my home even when I’m not there. I do this using small security cameras connected to my wireless network. I’ve reviewed several of these cameras over the years and the latest one to be offered to me for review is the Diamond Multimedia?PlugnView Remote Home Monitoring [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/06/10/diamond-multimedia-plugnview-remote-home-monitoring-internet-night-vision-security-camera-kit-review/

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Bangladesh garment sales soar despite deadly incidents

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh's exports rose 15.43 percent in May to $2.54 billion from a year earlier thanks to stronger clothing sales, the Export Promotion Bureau said on Sunday, even as the country reviews safety standards at factories after two deadly incidents.

Garment exports totaled $19.3 billion for the 11 months that ended in May, nearly 12 percent more than a year earlier.

The sharp increase comes as the government weighs industry reform after the collapse in April of the Rana Plaza factory complex killed 1,129 people. A fire at another factory last year killed 112.

The incidents have put the government, industrialists and the global brands that use the factories under pressure to reform an industry that employs four million and generates 80 percent of Bangladesh's export earnings.

Total exports in the first 11 months of Bangladesh's July-June financial year were $24.32 billion, compared with $21.97 billion over the same period the previous year.

Monthly exports had fallen year-on-year from March through June as the global economic slowdown weighed on demand. But exports have since picked up, with a 10.67 percent rise in the July-May period.

Duty-free access offered by Western countries and low wages have helped make Bangladesh the world's second-largest apparel exporter after China, with 60 percent of clothes going to Europe and 23 percent to the United States.

The European Union and the United States had threatened punitive measures in order to press Dhaka to improve worker safety standards after the collapse in April of the illegally built factory.

(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bangladesh-garment-sales-soar-despite-deadly-incidents-083700587.html

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Intelligence chief defends Internet spying program

President Barack Obama gestures during a statment about the Affordable Care Act, Friday, June 7, 2013, in San Jose, Calif. Speaking about the NSA collecting of phone records, the president said`Nobody is listening to your telephone calls,' just numbers and duration. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama gestures during a statment about the Affordable Care Act, Friday, June 7, 2013, in San Jose, Calif. Speaking about the NSA collecting of phone records, the president said`Nobody is listening to your telephone calls,' just numbers and duration. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama pauses while speaking in San Jose, Calif. , Friday, June 7, 2013. The president defended his government's secret surveillance, saying Congress has repeatedly authorized the collection of America's phone records and U.S. internet use. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

This undated photo made available by Google shows the campus-network room at a data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Routers and switches allow Google's data centers to talk to each other. The fiber cables run along the yellow cable trays near the ceiling. (AP Photo/Google, Connie Zhou)

An aerial view of the NSA's Utah Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah, Thursday, June 6, 2013. The government is secretly collecting the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon under a top-secret court order, according to the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Obama administration is defending the National Security Agency's need to collect such records, but critics are calling it a huge over-reach. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

FILE -- In this file photo taken Wednesday, April 21, 2010, shows Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence James Clapper. Clapper called the disclosure of an Internet surveillance program "reprehensible" Thursday June 6, 2013 and said it risks Americans' security. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Eager to quell a domestic furor over U.S. spying, the nation's top intelligence official stressed Saturday that a previously undisclosed program for tapping into Internet usage is authorized by Congress, falls under strict supervision of a secret court and cannot intentionally target a U.S. citizen. He decried the revelation of that and another intelligence-gathering program as reckless.

For the second time in three days, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper took the rare step of declassifying some details of an intelligence program to respond to media reports about counterterrorism techniques employed by the government.

"Disclosing information about the specific methods the government uses to collect communications can obviously give our enemies a 'playbook' of how to avoid detection," he said in a statement.

Clapper said the data collection under the program, first unveiled by the newspapers The Washington Post and The Guardian, was with the approval of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court and with the knowledge of Internet service providers. He emphasized that the government does not act unilaterally to obtain that data from the servers of those providers.

The National Security Agency filed a criminal report with the Justice Department earlier this week in relation to the leaks, Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said in an email Saturday to The Associated Press.

President Barack Obama defended the counterterrorism methods on Friday and said Americans need to "make some choices" in balancing privacy and security. But the president's response and Clapper's unusual public stance underscore the nerve touched by the disclosures and the sensitivity of the Obama administration to any suggestion that it is trampling on the civil liberties of Americans.

Late Thursday, Clapper declassified some details of a phone records collection program employed by the NSA that aims to obtain from phone companies on an "ongoing, daily basis" the records of its customers' calls. Clapper said that under that court-supervised program, only a small fraction of the records collected ever get examined because most are unrelated to any inquiries into terrorism activities.

His statement and declassification Saturday addressed the Internet scouring program, code-named PRISM, that allowed the NSA and FBI to tap directly into the servers of major U.S. Internet companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and AOL. Like the phone-records program, PRISM was approved by a judge in a secret court order. Unlike that program, however, PRISM allowed the government to seize actual conversations: emails, video chats, instant messages and more.

Clapper said the program, authorized in the USA Patriot Act, has been in place since 2008, the last year of the George W. Bush administration, and "has proven vital to keeping the nation and our allies safe.

"It continues to be one of our most important tools for the protection of the nation's security," he said.

Among the previously classified information about the Internet data collection that Clapper revealed:

?It is an internal government computer system that allows the government to collect foreign intelligence information from electronic communication service providers under court supervision.

?The government does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. electronic communication service providers. It requires approval from a FISA Court judge and is conducted with the knowledge of the provider and service providers supply information when they are legally required to do so.

?The program seeks foreign intelligence information concerning foreign targets located outside the United States.

?The government cannot target anyone under the program unless there is an "appropriate, and documented, foreign intelligence purpose" for the acquisition. Those purposes include prevention of terrorism, hostile cyber activities or nuclear proliferation. The foreign target must be reasonably believed to be outside the United States. It cannot intentionally target any U.S. citizen or any person known to be in the U.S.

?The dissemination of information "incidentally intercepted" about a U.S. person is prohibited unless it is "necessary to understand foreign intelligence or assess its importance, is evidence of a crime, or indicates a threat of death or serious bodily harm.

The Post and the Guardian cited confidential slides and other documents about PRISM for their reports. They named Google, Facebook, Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., Yahoo Inc., AOL Inc. and Paltalk as companies whose data has been obtained.

All the companies have issued statements asserting that they aren't voluntarily handing over user data. They also are emphatically rejecting newspaper reports indicating that PRISM has opened a door for the NSA to tap directly on the companies' data centers whenever the government pleases.

In his statement, Clapper appeared to support that claim by stressing that the government did not act unilaterally, but with court authority.

The Guardian reported Saturday that it had obtained top-secret documents detailing an NSA tool, called Boundless Informant, that maps the information it collects from computer and telephone networks by country. The paper said the documents show NSA collected almost 3 billion pieces of intelligence from U.S. computer networks over a 30-day period ending in March, which the paper says calls into question NSA statements that it cannot determine how many Americans may be accidentally included in its computer surveillance.

NSA spokesperson Judith Emmel said Saturday that "current technology simply does not permit us to positively identify all of the persons or locations associated with a given communication." She said it may be possible to determine that a communication "traversed a particular path within the Internet," but added that "it is harder to know the ultimate source or destination, or more particularly the identity of the person represented by the TO:, FROM: or CC: field of an e-mail address or the abstraction of an IP address."

Emmel said communications are filtered both by automated processes and NSA staff to make sure Americans' privacy is respected.

"This is not just our judgment, but that of the relevant inspectors general, who have also reported this," she said.

Amid unsettling reports of government spying, Obama assured the nation Friday that "nobody is listening to your telephone calls. What the government is doing, he said, is digesting phone numbers and the durations of calls, seeking links that might "identify potential leads with respect to folks who might engage in terrorism."

While Obama on Friday said the aim of the programs is to make America safe, he offered no specifics about how the surveillance programs have done that. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., on Thursday said the phone records sweeps had thwarted a domestic terror attack, but he also didn't offer specifics.

The revelations have divided Congress and led civil liberties advocates and some constitutional scholars to accuse Obama of crossing a line in the name of rooting out terror threats.

Obama, himself a constitutional lawyer, strove to calm Americans' fears but also to remind them that Congress and the courts had signed off on the surveillance.

"I think the American people understand that there are some trade-offs involved," he said when questioned by reporters at a health care event in San Jose, Calif.

Obama echoed intelligence experts ? both inside and outside the government ? who predicted that potential attackers will find other, secretive ways to communicate now that they know that their phone and Internet records may be targeted.

An al-Qaida affiliated website on Saturday warned against using the Internet to discuss issues related to militant activities in three long articles on what it called "America's greatest and unprecedented scandal of spying on its own citizens and people in other countries."

"Caution: Oh brothers, it is a great danger revealing PRISM, the greatest American spying project," wrote one member, describing the NSA program that gathers information from major U.S. Internet companies.

"A highly important caution for the Internet jihadis ... American intelligence gets information from Facebook and Google," wrote another.

Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., who served on the House Intelligence Committee for a decade, said "the bad folks' antennas go back up and they become more cautious for a period of time."

"But we'll just keep coming up with more sophisticated ways to dig into these data. It becomes a techies game, and we will try to come up with new tools to cut through the clutter," he said.

Hoekstra said he approved the phone surveillance program but did not know about the online spying.

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Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

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Follow Lara Jakes Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-08-US-NSA-Phone-Records/id-0459ea354a25412398a05458efd2cf85

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