Soldiers in Iraq--men and women who have honorably taken oaths to defend the Constitution--and their loved ones may have had their own rights violated when Bush's terrorist surveillance program, which allows the intelligence community to monitor phone calls between the United States and overseas without a court order (if someone on the call is actually a terror suspect), was abused. ABC reports on the investigation into allegations that U.S. intelligence officers shockingly intercepted, recorded, and shared hundreds of phone sex calls between U.S. citizens:
"Adrienne Kinne, a former U.S. Army Reserves Arab linguist, told ABC News the NSA [National Security Agency] was listening to the phone calls of U.S. military officers, journalists and aid workers overseas who were talking about 'personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism.'"
In fact, what amused the workers most was phone sex, which was common between partners separated by the war.
"[David Murfee] Faulk says he and others in his section of the NSA facility at Fort Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of "cuts" that were available on each operator's computer.
'Hey, check this out,' Faulk says he would be told, 'there's good phone sex or there's some pillow talk, pull up this call, it's really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, 'Wow, this was crazy',' Faulk told ABC News."
Cute, right?
The Patriot Act has always been controversial because its critics have maintained that giving the executive branch of the government seemingly limitless surveillance powers might open up a Pandora's Box of abuses. The allegations currently being brought forth against the National Security Agency seem to confirm that. Personally, I don't know about you guys but the whole move seemed to have an awfully menacing Big Brother tone at the time, and I sure as heck don't feel any better about it now.
How would you feel if you're making all these personal sacrifices and the country you were working hard to defend was listening in on your most intimate phone calls? I mean, WTF is going on?
Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/sex/the-government-is-listening-to-our-phone-sex-293420/
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Bottled water has contaminants too, study finds
Tests on leading brands of bottled water turned up a variety of contaminants often found in tap water, according to a study released Wednesday by an environmental advocacy group.
The findings challenge the popular impression — and marketing pitch — that bottled water is purer than tap water, the researchers say.
However, all the brands met federal health standards for drinking water. Two violated a California state standard, the study said.
An industry group branded the findings "alarmist." Joe Doss, president of the International Bottled Water Association, said the study is based on the faulty premise that a contaminant is a health concern "even if it does not exceed the established regulatory limit or no standard has been set."
The study's lab tests on 10 brands of bottled water detected 38 chemicals including bacteria, caffeine, the pain reliever acetaminophen, fertilizer, solvents, plastic-making chemicals and the radioactive element strontium. Though some probably came from tap water that some companies use for their bottled water, other contaminants probably leached from plastic bottles, the researchers said.
"In some cases, it appears bottled water is no less polluted than tap water and, at 1,900 times the cost, consumers should expect better," said Jane Houlihan, an environmental engineer who co-authored the study.
The two-year study was done by the Washington-based Environmental Working Group, an organization founded by scientists that advocates stricter regulation. It found the contaminants in bottled water purchased in nine states and Washington, D.C.
Researchers tested one batch for each of 10 brands. Eight did not have contaminants high enough to warrant further testing. But two brands did, so more tests were done and those revealed chlorine byproducts above California's standard, the group reported. The researchers identified those two brands as Sam's Choice sold by Wal-Mart and Acadia of Giant Food supermarkets.
In the Wal-Mart and Giant Food bottled water, the highest concentration of chlorine byproducts, known as trihalomethanes, was over 35 parts per billion. California's limit is 10 parts per billion or less, and the industry's International Bottled Water Association makes 10 its voluntary guideline. The federal limit is 80.
Wal-Mart said its own studies did not turn up illegal levels of contaminants. Giant Food officials released a statement asserting that Acadia meets all regulatory standards. Acadia is sold in the mid-Atlantic states, so it isn't held to California's standard. In most places, bottled water must meet roughly the same federal standards as tap water.
The researchers also said the Wal-Mart brand was five times California's limit for one particular chlorine byproduct, bromodichloromethane. The environmental group wants Wal-Mart to label its bottles in California with a warning because the chlorine-based contaminants have been linked with cancer. It has filed a notice of intent to sue.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Shannon Frederick said the company was "puzzled" by the findings because testing by suppliers and another lab had detected no "reportable amounts" of such contaminants. She said Wal-Mart would investigate further but defended the quality of its bottled water.
The researchers recommend that people worried about water contaminants drink tap water with a carbon filter.
Source: http://green.yahoo.com/news/ap/20081015/ap_on_sc/impure_bottled_water.html
The findings challenge the popular impression — and marketing pitch — that bottled water is purer than tap water, the researchers say.
However, all the brands met federal health standards for drinking water. Two violated a California state standard, the study said.
An industry group branded the findings "alarmist." Joe Doss, president of the International Bottled Water Association, said the study is based on the faulty premise that a contaminant is a health concern "even if it does not exceed the established regulatory limit or no standard has been set."
The study's lab tests on 10 brands of bottled water detected 38 chemicals including bacteria, caffeine, the pain reliever acetaminophen, fertilizer, solvents, plastic-making chemicals and the radioactive element strontium. Though some probably came from tap water that some companies use for their bottled water, other contaminants probably leached from plastic bottles, the researchers said.
"In some cases, it appears bottled water is no less polluted than tap water and, at 1,900 times the cost, consumers should expect better," said Jane Houlihan, an environmental engineer who co-authored the study.
The two-year study was done by the Washington-based Environmental Working Group, an organization founded by scientists that advocates stricter regulation. It found the contaminants in bottled water purchased in nine states and Washington, D.C.
Researchers tested one batch for each of 10 brands. Eight did not have contaminants high enough to warrant further testing. But two brands did, so more tests were done and those revealed chlorine byproducts above California's standard, the group reported. The researchers identified those two brands as Sam's Choice sold by Wal-Mart and Acadia of Giant Food supermarkets.
In the Wal-Mart and Giant Food bottled water, the highest concentration of chlorine byproducts, known as trihalomethanes, was over 35 parts per billion. California's limit is 10 parts per billion or less, and the industry's International Bottled Water Association makes 10 its voluntary guideline. The federal limit is 80.
Wal-Mart said its own studies did not turn up illegal levels of contaminants. Giant Food officials released a statement asserting that Acadia meets all regulatory standards. Acadia is sold in the mid-Atlantic states, so it isn't held to California's standard. In most places, bottled water must meet roughly the same federal standards as tap water.
The researchers also said the Wal-Mart brand was five times California's limit for one particular chlorine byproduct, bromodichloromethane. The environmental group wants Wal-Mart to label its bottles in California with a warning because the chlorine-based contaminants have been linked with cancer. It has filed a notice of intent to sue.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Shannon Frederick said the company was "puzzled" by the findings because testing by suppliers and another lab had detected no "reportable amounts" of such contaminants. She said Wal-Mart would investigate further but defended the quality of its bottled water.
The researchers recommend that people worried about water contaminants drink tap water with a carbon filter.
Source: http://green.yahoo.com/news/ap/20081015/ap_on_sc/impure_bottled_water.html
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Repossession 'is mental threat'
The fallout from the economic downturn could be a significant threat to mental health, according to a survey.
House repossession was rated as the event most likely to cause mental health problems, ahead of redundancy, or finding out about infertility.
Charity Rethink called for action to prevent a "mental health disaster".
The survey was published as a UN report showed England spends more of its health budget on mental health care than any other European country.
Rethink's director of public affairs Paul Corry said: "I wouldn't be surprised if we see a rise in the number of people going to their doctor because of mental health problems in the coming months.
"Even for people lucky enough to hang on to their home, the stress and worry of arrears building up can be enough to harm your mental health - this survey shows it worries millions of us."
He said that people who already had mental health problems were likely to be treated less well by their lenders, and did not have a "safety net" to protect them.
He said: "There's an urgent need to do something to prevent a mental health disaster."
Another mental health charity agrees with that assessment - Mind, which is launching its own £16m initiative to link exercise to better mental health, and to reduce stigma, released its own report earlier this year warning about the dangers of debt.
High ranking
The survey of 2,000 people was released to mark World Mental Health day.
The World Health Organisation report contained a far cheerier message about the services in place to tackle the UK's mental health problems.
It compared spending on mental health in European countries, and found England and Wales spent 13.8% of its health budget on mental health - the highest level in Europe.
Scotland spent 9.8%, according to the report, and in the UK as a whole, the numbers of psychiatrists per 100,000 people was found to be above the European average.
More detained
Health Secretary Alan Johnson said he was "delighted" by the report, citing a huge rise in investment as the reason for the UK's present position, and said that the focus was now on community-based teams to treat patients.
"The pernicious concept of the asylum is over, but our commitment to improving services further is undiminished," he said.
However, a report in this week British Medical Journal suggested that, over the past 10 years, the use of inpatient mental hospitals has increased, rather than lessened.
Dr Patrick Keown, a Newcastle-based psychiatrist, calculated that the number of patients "sectioned" under the Mental Health Act increased by a fifth between 1996 and 2006.
At the same time, the number of psychiatric beds in England fell.
A spokesman for the charity Sane said: "Improvements in community care are supposed to reduce the need for compulsory admission when someone reaches crisis point - yet precisely the opposite appears to have happened.
"We urgently need to find out why this is the case."
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7662119.stm
House repossession was rated as the event most likely to cause mental health problems, ahead of redundancy, or finding out about infertility.
Charity Rethink called for action to prevent a "mental health disaster".
The survey was published as a UN report showed England spends more of its health budget on mental health care than any other European country.
Rethink's director of public affairs Paul Corry said: "I wouldn't be surprised if we see a rise in the number of people going to their doctor because of mental health problems in the coming months.
"Even for people lucky enough to hang on to their home, the stress and worry of arrears building up can be enough to harm your mental health - this survey shows it worries millions of us."
He said that people who already had mental health problems were likely to be treated less well by their lenders, and did not have a "safety net" to protect them.
He said: "There's an urgent need to do something to prevent a mental health disaster."
Another mental health charity agrees with that assessment - Mind, which is launching its own £16m initiative to link exercise to better mental health, and to reduce stigma, released its own report earlier this year warning about the dangers of debt.
High ranking
The survey of 2,000 people was released to mark World Mental Health day.
The World Health Organisation report contained a far cheerier message about the services in place to tackle the UK's mental health problems.
It compared spending on mental health in European countries, and found England and Wales spent 13.8% of its health budget on mental health - the highest level in Europe.
Scotland spent 9.8%, according to the report, and in the UK as a whole, the numbers of psychiatrists per 100,000 people was found to be above the European average.
More detained
Health Secretary Alan Johnson said he was "delighted" by the report, citing a huge rise in investment as the reason for the UK's present position, and said that the focus was now on community-based teams to treat patients.
"The pernicious concept of the asylum is over, but our commitment to improving services further is undiminished," he said.
However, a report in this week British Medical Journal suggested that, over the past 10 years, the use of inpatient mental hospitals has increased, rather than lessened.
Dr Patrick Keown, a Newcastle-based psychiatrist, calculated that the number of patients "sectioned" under the Mental Health Act increased by a fifth between 1996 and 2006.
At the same time, the number of psychiatric beds in England fell.
A spokesman for the charity Sane said: "Improvements in community care are supposed to reduce the need for compulsory admission when someone reaches crisis point - yet precisely the opposite appears to have happened.
"We urgently need to find out why this is the case."
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7662119.stm
Friday, October 10, 2008
Foreclosure Victims Often Leave a Lot Behind
Personal Belongings Collected, Auctioned Off
More then 300,000 foreclosure notices of some type went out in August alone, according to a report by RealtyTrac. Hundreds of thousands more have gone out since then.
The numbers can be numbing to many, but not to John Plocher.
Plocher owns WSR Preservation, a California property maintenance company that specializes in cleaning up foreclosed homes. It is Plocher's job to gather whatever is left behind after a family is forced to leave one of those homes, to root through the debris of a broken life, where the humanity behind the numbers is inescapable.
"People always say that the first thing they'd take in any disaster is photographs," Plocher told "Good Morning America." "We find pink slips. We find birth certificates. ... We've found dozens of things. One of the things we found more recently was an urn with somebody's remains that had been cremated and they left the urn at the house.
"This is disaster on a grand scale," he said. "This is not something we are excited about doing."
Although people usually know months in advance that they are headed towards foreclosure, Plocher said they often leave in a hurry. In one house he entered, there was still food in the refrigerator.
"These people didn't take much," he said. "They took what they needed. Perhaps wallets and purses, shirts on their back, literally, and they're gone. I guess if you're losing everything, what's the point of cleaning up, right?
"I think people that have gotten to this point are depressed," he added. "They've lost their home and they're probably not thinking straight. They've lost everything, and a lot of good stuff is still here, so they must be in great despair."
WSR employee Arik Jensen is still stunned by what he finds.
"I mean, I have to pick up children's toys. I pick up dolls and I wonder if this was a little girl's best friend," he said. "I wonder what this was to somebody else, and now it's going in the dumpster."
If the property does not end up in a dumpster, it is sold off at auctions or requisitioned by the bank that foreclosed on the home.
"I wonder how I would feel," Jensen said. "What I would leave behind, and what I would tell my kids before I leave."
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5998297&page=1
More then 300,000 foreclosure notices of some type went out in August alone, according to a report by RealtyTrac. Hundreds of thousands more have gone out since then.
The numbers can be numbing to many, but not to John Plocher.
Plocher owns WSR Preservation, a California property maintenance company that specializes in cleaning up foreclosed homes. It is Plocher's job to gather whatever is left behind after a family is forced to leave one of those homes, to root through the debris of a broken life, where the humanity behind the numbers is inescapable.
"People always say that the first thing they'd take in any disaster is photographs," Plocher told "Good Morning America." "We find pink slips. We find birth certificates. ... We've found dozens of things. One of the things we found more recently was an urn with somebody's remains that had been cremated and they left the urn at the house.
"This is disaster on a grand scale," he said. "This is not something we are excited about doing."
Although people usually know months in advance that they are headed towards foreclosure, Plocher said they often leave in a hurry. In one house he entered, there was still food in the refrigerator.
"These people didn't take much," he said. "They took what they needed. Perhaps wallets and purses, shirts on their back, literally, and they're gone. I guess if you're losing everything, what's the point of cleaning up, right?
"I think people that have gotten to this point are depressed," he added. "They've lost their home and they're probably not thinking straight. They've lost everything, and a lot of good stuff is still here, so they must be in great despair."
WSR employee Arik Jensen is still stunned by what he finds.
"I mean, I have to pick up children's toys. I pick up dolls and I wonder if this was a little girl's best friend," he said. "I wonder what this was to somebody else, and now it's going in the dumpster."
If the property does not end up in a dumpster, it is sold off at auctions or requisitioned by the bank that foreclosed on the home.
"I wonder how I would feel," Jensen said. "What I would leave behind, and what I would tell my kids before I leave."
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5998297&page=1
Friday, October 3, 2008
Fannie Mae forgives loan for woman who shot herself
Fannie Mae said it will set aside the loan of a woman who shot herself as sheriff's deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed home.
Addie Polk, 90, of Akron, Ohio, became a symbol of the nation's home mortgage crisis when she was hospitalized after shooting herself at least twice in the upper body Wednesday afternoon.
On Friday, Fannie Mae spokesman Brian Faith said the mortgage association had decided to halt action against Polk and sign the property "outright" to her.
"We're going to forgive whatever outstanding balance she had on the loan and give her the house," Faith said. "Given the circumstances, we think it's appropriate."
Residents of Akron have rallied behind Polk, who is being treated at Akron General Medical Center. She was listed in critical condition Friday afternoon, according to Akron City Council President Marco Sommerville.
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, mentioned Polk on the House floor Friday during debate over the latest economic rescue proposal.
"This bill does nothing for the Addie Polks of the world," Kucinich said after telling her story. "This bill fails to address the fact that millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, are facing the loss of their home. This bill will take care of Wall Street, and the market may go up for a few days, but democracy is going downhill."
Neighbor Robert Dillon, 62, used a ladder to enter a second-story bathroom window of Polk's home after he and the deputies heard loud noises inside, Dillon said.
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"I was calling her name as I went in, and she wasn't responding," he said.
He found her lying on a bed, and he could see she was breathing. He also noticed a long-barreled handgun on the bed, but thought she just had it there for protection. He touched her on the shoulder.
"Then she kind of moved toward me a little and I saw that blood, and I said, 'Oh, no. Miss Polk musta done shot herself,' " Dillon said.
He hurried downstairs and let the deputies in. He said they told him they found Polk's car keys, pocketbook and life insurance policy laid out neatly where they could be found, suggesting that she intended to kill herself.
"There's a lot of people like Miss Polk right now. That's the sad thing about it," said Sommerville, who had met Polk before and rushed to the scene when contacted by police. "They might not be as old as her, some could be as old as her. This is just a major problem."
In 2004, Polk took out a 30-year, 6.375 percent mortgage for $45,620 with a Countrywide Home Loan office in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The same day, she also took out an $11,380 line of credit.
Over the next couple of years, Polk missed payments on the 101-year-old home that she and her late husband purchased in 1970. In 2007, Fannie Mae assumed the mortgage and later filed for foreclosure.
Deputies had tried to serve Polk's eviction notice more than 30 times before Wednesday's incident, Sommerville said. She never came to the door, but the notes the deputies left would always disappear, so they knew she was inside and ambulatory, he said.
The city is creating programs to help people keep their homes, Sommerville said. "But what do you do when there's just so many people out there and the economy is in the shape that it's in?"
Many businesses and individuals have called since Wednesday offering to help Polk, Sommerville said.
"We're going to do an evaluation to see what's best for her," he said. "If she's strong enough and can go home, I think we should work with her to where she goes back home. If not, we need to find another place for her to live where she won't have to worry about this ever again."
For his part, Dillon hopes his neighbor of 38 years can return to her home.
"She loves that house," he said. "I hope they can get her back in. That would make me feel better because I don't know what they're going to put in there once she leaves."
He said the neighborhood is declining because so many people have lost their homes.
"There's a lot of vacant houses around here. ... Now I'm going to have a house on my left and a house on my right, vacant," he said. "That don't make me feel good, because we were good neighbors, we trusted each other, and we looked out for each other.
"This neighborhood is shot, to me, from what it used to be," he added.
"When I moved here, if it were like it is now, I would have never moved here. But it was a nice neighborhood. ...
"I'll just tough it out. I'm too old to start thinking about buying another house."
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Sommerville said that by the time people call for help with an impending foreclosure, it's usually too late.
"I'm glad it's not too late for Miss Polk, because she could have taken her life," Sommerville said. "Miss Polk will probably end up on her feet. But I'm not sure if anybody else will."
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/03/eviction.suicide.attempt/
Addie Polk, 90, of Akron, Ohio, became a symbol of the nation's home mortgage crisis when she was hospitalized after shooting herself at least twice in the upper body Wednesday afternoon.
On Friday, Fannie Mae spokesman Brian Faith said the mortgage association had decided to halt action against Polk and sign the property "outright" to her.
"We're going to forgive whatever outstanding balance she had on the loan and give her the house," Faith said. "Given the circumstances, we think it's appropriate."
Residents of Akron have rallied behind Polk, who is being treated at Akron General Medical Center. She was listed in critical condition Friday afternoon, according to Akron City Council President Marco Sommerville.
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, mentioned Polk on the House floor Friday during debate over the latest economic rescue proposal.
"This bill does nothing for the Addie Polks of the world," Kucinich said after telling her story. "This bill fails to address the fact that millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, are facing the loss of their home. This bill will take care of Wall Street, and the market may go up for a few days, but democracy is going downhill."
Neighbor Robert Dillon, 62, used a ladder to enter a second-story bathroom window of Polk's home after he and the deputies heard loud noises inside, Dillon said.
Don't Miss
* Revamped bailout bill picks up 17 votes in House
* Jackson: Bill should address root cause, not symptoms
* iReport.com: Begging for bailout help
* The human face of economic uncertainty
"I was calling her name as I went in, and she wasn't responding," he said.
He found her lying on a bed, and he could see she was breathing. He also noticed a long-barreled handgun on the bed, but thought she just had it there for protection. He touched her on the shoulder.
"Then she kind of moved toward me a little and I saw that blood, and I said, 'Oh, no. Miss Polk musta done shot herself,' " Dillon said.
He hurried downstairs and let the deputies in. He said they told him they found Polk's car keys, pocketbook and life insurance policy laid out neatly where they could be found, suggesting that she intended to kill herself.
"There's a lot of people like Miss Polk right now. That's the sad thing about it," said Sommerville, who had met Polk before and rushed to the scene when contacted by police. "They might not be as old as her, some could be as old as her. This is just a major problem."
In 2004, Polk took out a 30-year, 6.375 percent mortgage for $45,620 with a Countrywide Home Loan office in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The same day, she also took out an $11,380 line of credit.
Over the next couple of years, Polk missed payments on the 101-year-old home that she and her late husband purchased in 1970. In 2007, Fannie Mae assumed the mortgage and later filed for foreclosure.
Deputies had tried to serve Polk's eviction notice more than 30 times before Wednesday's incident, Sommerville said. She never came to the door, but the notes the deputies left would always disappear, so they knew she was inside and ambulatory, he said.
The city is creating programs to help people keep their homes, Sommerville said. "But what do you do when there's just so many people out there and the economy is in the shape that it's in?"
Many businesses and individuals have called since Wednesday offering to help Polk, Sommerville said.
"We're going to do an evaluation to see what's best for her," he said. "If she's strong enough and can go home, I think we should work with her to where she goes back home. If not, we need to find another place for her to live where she won't have to worry about this ever again."
For his part, Dillon hopes his neighbor of 38 years can return to her home.
"She loves that house," he said. "I hope they can get her back in. That would make me feel better because I don't know what they're going to put in there once she leaves."
He said the neighborhood is declining because so many people have lost their homes.
"There's a lot of vacant houses around here. ... Now I'm going to have a house on my left and a house on my right, vacant," he said. "That don't make me feel good, because we were good neighbors, we trusted each other, and we looked out for each other.
"This neighborhood is shot, to me, from what it used to be," he added.
"When I moved here, if it were like it is now, I would have never moved here. But it was a nice neighborhood. ...
"I'll just tough it out. I'm too old to start thinking about buying another house."
advertisement
Sommerville said that by the time people call for help with an impending foreclosure, it's usually too late.
"I'm glad it's not too late for Miss Polk, because she could have taken her life," Sommerville said. "Miss Polk will probably end up on her feet. But I'm not sure if anybody else will."
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/03/eviction.suicide.attempt/
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Reuters WaMu is largest U.S. bank failure
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON - Washington Mutual Inc was closed by the U.S. government in by far the largest failure of a U.S. bank, and its banking assets were sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co for $1.9 billion.
Thursday's seizure and sale is the latest historic step in U.S. government attempts to clean up a banking industry littered with toxic mortgage debt. Negotiations over a $700 billion bailout of the entire financial system stalled in Washington on Thursday.
Washington Mutual, the largest U.S. savings and loan, has been one of the lenders hardest hit by the nation's housing bust and credit crisis, and had already suffered from soaring mortgage losses.
Washington Mutual was shut by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was named receiver. This followed $16.7 billion of deposit outflows at the Seattle-based thrift since Sept 15, the OTS said.
"With insufficient liquidity to meet its obligations, WaMu was in an unsafe and unsound condition to transact business," the OTS said.
Customers should expect business as usual on Friday, and all depositors are fully protected, the FDIC said.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said the bailout happened on Thursday night because of media leaks, and to calm customers. Usually, the FDIC takes control of failed institutions on Friday nights, giving it the weekend to go through the books and enable them to reopen smoothly the following Monday.
Washington Mutual has about $307 billion of assets and $188 billion of deposits, regulators said. The largest previous U.S. banking failure was Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust, which had $40 billion of assets when it collapsed in 1984.
JPMorgan said the transaction means it will now have 5,410 branches in 23 U.S. states from coast to coast, as well as the largest U.S. credit card business.
It vaults JPMorgan past Bank of America Corp to become the nation's second-largest bank, with $2.04 trillion of assets, just behind Citigroup Inc. Bank of America will go to No. 1 once it completes its planned purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co.
The bailout also fulfills JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon's long-held goal of becoming a retail bank force in the western United States. It comes four months after JPMorgan acquired the failing investment bank Bear Stearns Cos at a fire-sale price through a government-financed transaction.
On a conference call, Dimon said the "risk here obviously is the asset values."
He added: "That's what created this opportunity."
JPMorgan expects to incur $1.5 billion of pre-tax costs, but realize an equal amount of annual savings, mostly by the end of 2010. It expects the transaction to add to earnings immediately, and increase earnings 70 cents per share by 2011.
It also plans to sell $8 billion of stock, and take a $31 billion write-down for the loans it bought, representing estimated future credit losses.
The FDIC said the acquisition does not cover claims of Washington Mutual equity, senior debt and subordinated debt holders. It also said the transaction will not affect its roughly $45.2 billion deposit insurance fund.
"Jamie Dimon is clearly feeling that he has an opportunity to grab market share, and get it at fire-sale prices," said Matt McCormick, a portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel in Cincinnati. "He's becoming an acquisition machine."
BAILOUT UNCERTAINTY
The transaction came as Washington wrangles over the fate of a $700 billion bailout of the financial services industry, which has been battered by mortgage defaults and tight credit conditions, and evaporating investor confidence.
"It removes an uncertainty from the market," said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital in Sydney. "The problem is that markets are in a jittery stage. Washington Mutual provides another reminder how tenuous things are."
Washington Mutual's collapse is the latest of a series of takeovers and outright failures that have transformed the American financial landscape and wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars of shareholder wealth.
These include the disappearance of Bear, government takeovers of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the insurer American International Group Inc, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, and Bank of America's purchase of Merrill.
JPMorgan, based in New York, ended June with $1.78 trillion of assets, $722.9 billion of deposits and 3,157 branches. Washington Mutual then had 2,239 branches and 43,198 employees. It is unclear how many people will lose their jobs.
Shares of Washington Mutual plunged $1.24 to 45 cents in after-hours trading after news of a JPMorgan transaction surfaced. JPMorgan shares rose $1.04 to $44.50 after hours, but before the stock offering was announced.
119-YEAR HISTORY
The transaction ends exactly 119 years of independence for Washington Mutual, whose predecessor was incorporated on September 25, 1889, "to offer its stockholders a safe and profitable vehicle for investing and lending," according to the thrift's website. This helped Seattle residents rebuild after a fire torched the city's downtown.
It also follows more than a week of sale talks in which Washington Mutual attracted interest from several suitors.
These included Banco Santander SA, Citigroup Inc, HSBC Holdings Plc, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Wells Fargo & Co, as well as private equity firms Blackstone Group LP and Carlyle Group, people familiar with the situation said.
Less than three weeks ago, Washington Mutual ousted Chief Executive Kerry Killinger, who drove the thrift's growth as well as its expansion in subprime and other risky mortgages. It replaced him with Alan Fishman, the former chief executive of Brooklyn, New York's Independence Community Bank Corp.
WaMu's board was surprised at the seizure, and had been working on alternatives, people familiar with the matter said.
More than half of Washington Mutual's roughly $227 billion book of real estate loans was in home equity loans, and in adjustable-rate mortgages and subprime mortgages that are now considered risky.
The transaction wipes out a $1.35 billion investment by David Bonderman's private equity firm TPG Inc, the lead investor in a $7 billion capital raising by the thrift in April.
A TPG spokesman said the firm is "dissatisfied with the loss," but that the investment "represented a very small portion of our assets."
DIMON POUNCES
The deal is the latest ambitious move by Dimon.
Once a golden child at Citigroup before his mentor Sanford "Sandy" Weill engineered his ouster in 1998, Dimon has carved for himself something of a role as a Wall Street savior.
Dimon joined JPMorgan in 2004 after selling his Bank One Corp to the bank for $56.9 billion, and became chief executive at the end of 2005.
Some historians see parallels between him and the legendary financier John Pierpont Morgan, who ran J.P. Morgan & Co and was credited with intervening to end a banking panic in 1907.
JPMorgan has suffered less than many rivals from the credit crisis, but has been hurt. It said on Thursday it has already taken $3 billion to $3.5 billion of write-downs this quarter on mortgages and leveraged loans.
Washington Mutual has a major presence in California and Florida, two of the states hardest hit by the housing crisis. It also has a big presence in the New York City area. The thrift lost $6.3 billion in the nine months ended June 30.
"It is surprising that it has hung on for as long as it has," said Nancy Bush, an analyst at NAB Research LLC.
Found at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080926/ts_nm/us_washingtonmutual_jpmorgan_news
Thursday's seizure and sale is the latest historic step in U.S. government attempts to clean up a banking industry littered with toxic mortgage debt. Negotiations over a $700 billion bailout of the entire financial system stalled in Washington on Thursday.
Washington Mutual, the largest U.S. savings and loan, has been one of the lenders hardest hit by the nation's housing bust and credit crisis, and had already suffered from soaring mortgage losses.
Washington Mutual was shut by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was named receiver. This followed $16.7 billion of deposit outflows at the Seattle-based thrift since Sept 15, the OTS said.
"With insufficient liquidity to meet its obligations, WaMu was in an unsafe and unsound condition to transact business," the OTS said.
Customers should expect business as usual on Friday, and all depositors are fully protected, the FDIC said.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said the bailout happened on Thursday night because of media leaks, and to calm customers. Usually, the FDIC takes control of failed institutions on Friday nights, giving it the weekend to go through the books and enable them to reopen smoothly the following Monday.
Washington Mutual has about $307 billion of assets and $188 billion of deposits, regulators said. The largest previous U.S. banking failure was Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust, which had $40 billion of assets when it collapsed in 1984.
JPMorgan said the transaction means it will now have 5,410 branches in 23 U.S. states from coast to coast, as well as the largest U.S. credit card business.
It vaults JPMorgan past Bank of America Corp to become the nation's second-largest bank, with $2.04 trillion of assets, just behind Citigroup Inc. Bank of America will go to No. 1 once it completes its planned purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co.
The bailout also fulfills JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon's long-held goal of becoming a retail bank force in the western United States. It comes four months after JPMorgan acquired the failing investment bank Bear Stearns Cos at a fire-sale price through a government-financed transaction.
On a conference call, Dimon said the "risk here obviously is the asset values."
He added: "That's what created this opportunity."
JPMorgan expects to incur $1.5 billion of pre-tax costs, but realize an equal amount of annual savings, mostly by the end of 2010. It expects the transaction to add to earnings immediately, and increase earnings 70 cents per share by 2011.
It also plans to sell $8 billion of stock, and take a $31 billion write-down for the loans it bought, representing estimated future credit losses.
The FDIC said the acquisition does not cover claims of Washington Mutual equity, senior debt and subordinated debt holders. It also said the transaction will not affect its roughly $45.2 billion deposit insurance fund.
"Jamie Dimon is clearly feeling that he has an opportunity to grab market share, and get it at fire-sale prices," said Matt McCormick, a portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel in Cincinnati. "He's becoming an acquisition machine."
BAILOUT UNCERTAINTY
The transaction came as Washington wrangles over the fate of a $700 billion bailout of the financial services industry, which has been battered by mortgage defaults and tight credit conditions, and evaporating investor confidence.
"It removes an uncertainty from the market," said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital in Sydney. "The problem is that markets are in a jittery stage. Washington Mutual provides another reminder how tenuous things are."
Washington Mutual's collapse is the latest of a series of takeovers and outright failures that have transformed the American financial landscape and wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars of shareholder wealth.
These include the disappearance of Bear, government takeovers of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the insurer American International Group Inc, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, and Bank of America's purchase of Merrill.
JPMorgan, based in New York, ended June with $1.78 trillion of assets, $722.9 billion of deposits and 3,157 branches. Washington Mutual then had 2,239 branches and 43,198 employees. It is unclear how many people will lose their jobs.
Shares of Washington Mutual plunged $1.24 to 45 cents in after-hours trading after news of a JPMorgan transaction surfaced. JPMorgan shares rose $1.04 to $44.50 after hours, but before the stock offering was announced.
119-YEAR HISTORY
The transaction ends exactly 119 years of independence for Washington Mutual, whose predecessor was incorporated on September 25, 1889, "to offer its stockholders a safe and profitable vehicle for investing and lending," according to the thrift's website. This helped Seattle residents rebuild after a fire torched the city's downtown.
It also follows more than a week of sale talks in which Washington Mutual attracted interest from several suitors.
These included Banco Santander SA, Citigroup Inc, HSBC Holdings Plc, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Wells Fargo & Co, as well as private equity firms Blackstone Group LP and Carlyle Group, people familiar with the situation said.
Less than three weeks ago, Washington Mutual ousted Chief Executive Kerry Killinger, who drove the thrift's growth as well as its expansion in subprime and other risky mortgages. It replaced him with Alan Fishman, the former chief executive of Brooklyn, New York's Independence Community Bank Corp.
WaMu's board was surprised at the seizure, and had been working on alternatives, people familiar with the matter said.
More than half of Washington Mutual's roughly $227 billion book of real estate loans was in home equity loans, and in adjustable-rate mortgages and subprime mortgages that are now considered risky.
The transaction wipes out a $1.35 billion investment by David Bonderman's private equity firm TPG Inc, the lead investor in a $7 billion capital raising by the thrift in April.
A TPG spokesman said the firm is "dissatisfied with the loss," but that the investment "represented a very small portion of our assets."
DIMON POUNCES
The deal is the latest ambitious move by Dimon.
Once a golden child at Citigroup before his mentor Sanford "Sandy" Weill engineered his ouster in 1998, Dimon has carved for himself something of a role as a Wall Street savior.
Dimon joined JPMorgan in 2004 after selling his Bank One Corp to the bank for $56.9 billion, and became chief executive at the end of 2005.
Some historians see parallels between him and the legendary financier John Pierpont Morgan, who ran J.P. Morgan & Co and was credited with intervening to end a banking panic in 1907.
JPMorgan has suffered less than many rivals from the credit crisis, but has been hurt. It said on Thursday it has already taken $3 billion to $3.5 billion of write-downs this quarter on mortgages and leveraged loans.
Washington Mutual has a major presence in California and Florida, two of the states hardest hit by the housing crisis. It also has a big presence in the New York City area. The thrift lost $6.3 billion in the nine months ended June 30.
"It is surprising that it has hung on for as long as it has," said Nancy Bush, an analyst at NAB Research LLC.
Found at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080926/ts_nm/us_washingtonmutual_jpmorgan_news
Astronomers spot a 'bizarre' strobe light star
A "most bizarre" strobe light star reported by European astronomers likely belongs to a long-sought family of compact "neutron" stars.
It initially showed up as a gamma-ray burst, leading astronomers to think it was the death of a star in the far-off universe. But after that first gamma-ray pulse, there was a three-day period of activity during which this odd celestial object emitted 40 visible-light flashes before disappearing again. Eleven days later, there was a brief near-infrared flaring episode recorded by ESO's Very Large Telescope. Then the weird object went visibly "silent" again.
"We are dealing with an object that has been hibernating for decades before entering a brief period of activity," said Alberto J. Castro-Tirado, lead author of a paper in this week's issue of Nature.
Astronomers now think this celestial enigma is a 'magnetar' located in our own Milky Way galaxy, about 15,000 light-years away in the area around the constellation of Vulpecula, the Fox. Magnetars are a type of young neutron stars. They boast a magnetic field that's a billion billion times stronger than Earth's.
To put that in perspective for those of us with the financial crisis willies: “A magnetar would wipe the information from all credit cards on Earth from a distance halfway to the Moon,” explains Antonio de Ugarte Postigo, the study's co-author.
Because magnetars can be celestially silent for decades at a time, they're hard to pin unless we're looking at the right place at the right time. Postigo says there's likely a large population of them in the Milky Way even though we've only identified about 12.
The magnetar, known as SWIFT J195509+261406, is a candidate for what scientists have been looking for: A magnetar moving towards a pleasant retirement as its magnetic fields decay.
Photo: The twisting of magnetic field lines in magnetars give rise to 'starquakes', which will eventually lead to an intense soft gamma-ray burst. In the case of the SWIFT source, the optical flares that reached the Earth were probably due to ions ripped out from the surface of the magnetar and gyrating around the field lines.
Found at: http://blogs.usatoday.com/sciencefair/2008/09/astronomers-spo.html
It initially showed up as a gamma-ray burst, leading astronomers to think it was the death of a star in the far-off universe. But after that first gamma-ray pulse, there was a three-day period of activity during which this odd celestial object emitted 40 visible-light flashes before disappearing again. Eleven days later, there was a brief near-infrared flaring episode recorded by ESO's Very Large Telescope. Then the weird object went visibly "silent" again.
"We are dealing with an object that has been hibernating for decades before entering a brief period of activity," said Alberto J. Castro-Tirado, lead author of a paper in this week's issue of Nature.
Astronomers now think this celestial enigma is a 'magnetar' located in our own Milky Way galaxy, about 15,000 light-years away in the area around the constellation of Vulpecula, the Fox. Magnetars are a type of young neutron stars. They boast a magnetic field that's a billion billion times stronger than Earth's.
To put that in perspective for those of us with the financial crisis willies: “A magnetar would wipe the information from all credit cards on Earth from a distance halfway to the Moon,” explains Antonio de Ugarte Postigo, the study's co-author.
Because magnetars can be celestially silent for decades at a time, they're hard to pin unless we're looking at the right place at the right time. Postigo says there's likely a large population of them in the Milky Way even though we've only identified about 12.
The magnetar, known as SWIFT J195509+261406, is a candidate for what scientists have been looking for: A magnetar moving towards a pleasant retirement as its magnetic fields decay.
Photo: The twisting of magnetic field lines in magnetars give rise to 'starquakes', which will eventually lead to an intense soft gamma-ray burst. In the case of the SWIFT source, the optical flares that reached the Earth were probably due to ions ripped out from the surface of the magnetar and gyrating around the field lines.Found at: http://blogs.usatoday.com/sciencefair/2008/09/astronomers-spo.html
Monday, September 22, 2008
Atlanta gas crunch: 'We've got no gas here'
Mohammed Hussain got 3,000 gallons of gas delivered to his Chevron station in suburban Atlanta on Saturday. By Sunday morning, all of the gas, priced at $4.39 per gallon for regular unleaded, was gone.
"We're dry. We've got no gas here," Hussain, the station's manager, said Monday morning.
He said he has "no idea" when the next shipment will come, even though he's been in constant contact with the local terminal.
"It could be days," he said. "Obviously, we're disappointed. We're being patient. That's all we can do."
Across metro Atlanta, drivers in one of the nation's largest commuter cities are running into the same thing: a lack of gas and no clear idea when the situation will get better. State and industry officials say they're working as fast as they can and are urging people not to panic.
Christina Wedge, a resident of the Atlanta suburb Decatur, said her tank was on empty Sunday. When she went to fill up, she passed six stations closed down before finally finding one with gas for nearly $5 a gallon. She got just enough to continue looking for a cheaper price.
About a mile away, she found a station with long lines for gas around $4.29.
"I waited 30 minutes to get gas," she said. "It does concern me. I'm actually frustrated that the prices are so high."
Michael Lanfreschi, an iReporter from the suburb of Alpharetta, shared a similar story. He said he left work around noon to fill up his tank "when I started noticing all of the gas stations were empty."
"There was no gas to be found, then panic set in as I approached a gas station with a 40-car line," he said. "This is causing complete chaos. Why is this happening, and what actions are being taken to prevent this from happening again, and why did it happen in the first place?"
According to AAA, Atlanta's drivers are in for sticker shock when they do find a station with gasoline. The average price in metro Atlanta, as of Monday, for a gallon of regular unleaded was $4.02, nearly 30 cents higher than the national average of $3.74.
The gas supply has taken a major hit as refineries in the Houston area try to get back up to full capacity in the wake of Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, state and industry officials say. The Colonial Pipeline, which typically delivers 100 million gallons of gasoline, aviation fuel and other petroleum products throughout the southeastern United States, is not running at full capacity.
"Since the hurricanes both hit, we have been tapping the reserves of the stockpiles of the fuels that were made before the hurricanes hit, and we've been delivering those," said Steve Baker, a spokesman for the pipeline.
"That's caused us to operate at a reduced rate, less than we're capable of. So that's been part of the problem that we've faced, and we're trying to overcome."
Further complicating matters is that metro Atlanta has more stringent environmental requirements than other areas, meaning gas from other cities can't be brought in because it doesn't meet the city's smog requirements. The state is working with the state energy agency and the Environmental Protection Agency about getting a temporary waiver of that rule, said Bert Brantley, a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue's office.
"I don't want anyone to think that's a panacea," he said.
But he added, "Anything that would help us get another truckload or two ... is going to help the situation."
Brantley said the state has already lifted some regulations allowing for drivers to work more hours to get fuel from the main terminal to stations and for heavier trucks to be allowed to carry larger loads than normal. The state is asking people who don't need to fill up their tanks to wait until later before doing so.
"There's somewhat of a shortage right now, but it certainly could get a lot worse if people were to panic and react in a way that would cause a run and drain what supply there is out there now," Brantley said. "That's why we're encouraging Georgians to conserve as much as possible."
The state would not offer a timeframe on when the situation might return to normal. Brantley, however, said the situation with Houston's refineries is getting better every day.
Jim Tudor, the president of the Georgia Association of Convenience Stores, which represents about 2,600 stores, praised the state for lifting some of the restrictions to allow for quicker delivery of fuel.
"We are working as fast as possible to try to get as many stations refilled," he said. "Having said that, we're still in catch-up mode."
That brings little relief to consumers.
iReporter Dustin Gatlin said he waited 45 minutes Sunday at an Atlanta QuikTrip before it shut down. He then waited for well over an hour at a different station.
"Yesterday, we were in line for about two hours and they actually had people [who worked for the gas station] out there directing traffic because there were people jumping in line, and they actually had to get people out there to watch," he said.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/09/22/atlanta.gas.crunch/?iref=mpstoryview
"We're dry. We've got no gas here," Hussain, the station's manager, said Monday morning.
He said he has "no idea" when the next shipment will come, even though he's been in constant contact with the local terminal.
"It could be days," he said. "Obviously, we're disappointed. We're being patient. That's all we can do."
Across metro Atlanta, drivers in one of the nation's largest commuter cities are running into the same thing: a lack of gas and no clear idea when the situation will get better. State and industry officials say they're working as fast as they can and are urging people not to panic.
Christina Wedge, a resident of the Atlanta suburb Decatur, said her tank was on empty Sunday. When she went to fill up, she passed six stations closed down before finally finding one with gas for nearly $5 a gallon. She got just enough to continue looking for a cheaper price.
About a mile away, she found a station with long lines for gas around $4.29.
"I waited 30 minutes to get gas," she said. "It does concern me. I'm actually frustrated that the prices are so high."
Michael Lanfreschi, an iReporter from the suburb of Alpharetta, shared a similar story. He said he left work around noon to fill up his tank "when I started noticing all of the gas stations were empty."
"There was no gas to be found, then panic set in as I approached a gas station with a 40-car line," he said. "This is causing complete chaos. Why is this happening, and what actions are being taken to prevent this from happening again, and why did it happen in the first place?"
According to AAA, Atlanta's drivers are in for sticker shock when they do find a station with gasoline. The average price in metro Atlanta, as of Monday, for a gallon of regular unleaded was $4.02, nearly 30 cents higher than the national average of $3.74.
The gas supply has taken a major hit as refineries in the Houston area try to get back up to full capacity in the wake of Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, state and industry officials say. The Colonial Pipeline, which typically delivers 100 million gallons of gasoline, aviation fuel and other petroleum products throughout the southeastern United States, is not running at full capacity.
"Since the hurricanes both hit, we have been tapping the reserves of the stockpiles of the fuels that were made before the hurricanes hit, and we've been delivering those," said Steve Baker, a spokesman for the pipeline.
"That's caused us to operate at a reduced rate, less than we're capable of. So that's been part of the problem that we've faced, and we're trying to overcome."
Further complicating matters is that metro Atlanta has more stringent environmental requirements than other areas, meaning gas from other cities can't be brought in because it doesn't meet the city's smog requirements. The state is working with the state energy agency and the Environmental Protection Agency about getting a temporary waiver of that rule, said Bert Brantley, a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue's office.
"I don't want anyone to think that's a panacea," he said.
But he added, "Anything that would help us get another truckload or two ... is going to help the situation."
Brantley said the state has already lifted some regulations allowing for drivers to work more hours to get fuel from the main terminal to stations and for heavier trucks to be allowed to carry larger loads than normal. The state is asking people who don't need to fill up their tanks to wait until later before doing so.
"There's somewhat of a shortage right now, but it certainly could get a lot worse if people were to panic and react in a way that would cause a run and drain what supply there is out there now," Brantley said. "That's why we're encouraging Georgians to conserve as much as possible."
The state would not offer a timeframe on when the situation might return to normal. Brantley, however, said the situation with Houston's refineries is getting better every day.
Jim Tudor, the president of the Georgia Association of Convenience Stores, which represents about 2,600 stores, praised the state for lifting some of the restrictions to allow for quicker delivery of fuel.
"We are working as fast as possible to try to get as many stations refilled," he said. "Having said that, we're still in catch-up mode."
That brings little relief to consumers.
iReporter Dustin Gatlin said he waited 45 minutes Sunday at an Atlanta QuikTrip before it shut down. He then waited for well over an hour at a different station.
"Yesterday, we were in line for about two hours and they actually had people [who worked for the gas station] out there directing traffic because there were people jumping in line, and they actually had to get people out there to watch," he said.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/09/22/atlanta.gas.crunch/?iref=mpstoryview
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Happy 113th birthday for world's oldest man
TOKYO - The world's oldest man celebrated his 113th birthday on Thursday, telling reporters at his home in southern Japan about his joyful life and healthy appetite.
"I'm happy," said Tomoji Tanabe as the local mayor presented him with flowers and a giant tea cup glazed with his name and date of birth. "I'm well. I eat a lot," he added.
Tanabe, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living male last year, eats mostly vegetables and believes the key to longevity is not drinking alcohol.
The former civil servant lives with his son, drinks milk every day and has no major illnesses, although he now writes in his diary only once or twice a month. He used to write on a daily basis.
"His favorite food is fried shrimp, but we've heard that he's cut back on oily food," said an official at his hometown of Miyakonojo, about 900 km (560 miles) southwest of Tokyo.
"He's said he wants to live for another 10 years, that he doesn't want to die." The Japanese are among the world's longest-lived people, with the number of those aged 100 or older at a record 36,276, a government report last week showed.
Japanese women have topped the world's longevity ranks for 23 years, while men rank third after Iceland and Hong Kong.
Source:
"I'm happy," said Tomoji Tanabe as the local mayor presented him with flowers and a giant tea cup glazed with his name and date of birth. "I'm well. I eat a lot," he added.
Tanabe, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living male last year, eats mostly vegetables and believes the key to longevity is not drinking alcohol.
The former civil servant lives with his son, drinks milk every day and has no major illnesses, although he now writes in his diary only once or twice a month. He used to write on a daily basis.
"His favorite food is fried shrimp, but we've heard that he's cut back on oily food," said an official at his hometown of Miyakonojo, about 900 km (560 miles) southwest of Tokyo.
"He's said he wants to live for another 10 years, that he doesn't want to die." The Japanese are among the world's longest-lived people, with the number of those aged 100 or older at a record 36,276, a government report last week showed.
Japanese women have topped the world's longevity ranks for 23 years, while men rank third after Iceland and Hong Kong.
Source:
Friday, August 29, 2008
David Duchovny in Rehab for Sex Addiction
David Duchovny has entered a rehabilitation facility for sex addiction. In a statement released Thursday by his lawyer, Stanton Stein, the actor said he did so voluntarily, adding: "I ask for respect and privacy for my wife and children as we deal with this situation as a family."
The actor's publicist, Flo Grace, confirmed the rehab report, which first appeared on People.com.
She and Stein both declined to elaborate further.
Duchovny, 48, plays a sex-obsessed character on the Showtime series "Californication," which earned Emmy nominations for casting and cinematography. The show's second season begins Sept. 28. Showtime had no comment Thursday.
The actor appeared in the film "The X Files: I Want to Believe" earlier this summer. He has been married to actress Tea Leoni since 1997. They have two children.
Source: http://www.11alive.com/life/story.aspx?storyid=120443&catid=37
The actor's publicist, Flo Grace, confirmed the rehab report, which first appeared on People.com.
She and Stein both declined to elaborate further.
Duchovny, 48, plays a sex-obsessed character on the Showtime series "Californication," which earned Emmy nominations for casting and cinematography. The show's second season begins Sept. 28. Showtime had no comment Thursday.
The actor appeared in the film "The X Files: I Want to Believe" earlier this summer. He has been married to actress Tea Leoni since 1997. They have two children.
Source: http://www.11alive.com/life/story.aspx?storyid=120443&catid=37
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
NATURAL BORN KILLERS IN YOUR BACKYARD???
A couple threatened with possible exposure for pimping out a runaway teen are accused of trying to hide the crime by choking the young girl to death, according to a Las Vegas police report.
Gabriel Wayne Yates, 31, and Anne Marie Osburn, 21, then knocked the teen's teeth out, sliced off her tattoos, placed the maimed body in a hockey bag and dumped the victim in a shallow desert grave, police said in the report.
Police said they found the body of 17-year-old Nichole Elizabeth Yegge on Saturday afternoon after surreptitiously following Yates to the site. The report said the victim was involved in a love triangle with the suspects.
Homicide Sgt. Russell Shoemaker said the slaying victim's body was found by police Saturday night about 8 p.m. He said it was clear from the condition of the body that Yates and Osburn were trying to cover up their crime.
"Their intent, as far as we know based on the type of damage to her body, was to prevent her from being identified if found," Shoemaker said.
Yates and Osburn are accused of committing the slaying July 23, Shoemaker said.
Yates and Osburn, the parents of a newborn, were arrested Sunday at the Texas Station casino on charges of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree murder.
The pair are being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center. They are scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning. Both Yates and Osburn denied Review-Journal requests for interviews Monday night.
Yegge was in the Clark County foster care system, but at the end of May was formally listed as a runaway, according to Christine Skorupski, a spokeswoman for the county's Department of Family Services. It's unclear how long Yegge was in foster care.
Police dispatchers received an early morning tip Wednesday from an acquaintance of Osburn's who lives in Huntsville, Ala.
"Her friends Gabriel Yates and 'Anne' were involved in the murder of a 17-year-old prostitute named 'Nikki,' whom Yates had been pimping out on Craig's List," the report says, outlining the woman's tip.
The acquaintance said the killing occurred three days prior to her call and was the result of a love triangle.
A craigslist.com ad for erotic services in Las Vegas included a contact number that is the same as the cell phone number police said Yegge was using. A photo in one of the ads with Yegge's number included a picture of Yates and the victim, police said.
Shoemaker said the victim is a suspected prostitute.
"We do believe there was a relationship between the three of them," he said, declining to describe the relationship further.
Police tracked down Yates and Osburn at their Koval Lane apartment the day the call was received. Detectives explained they were following up on a missing persons report. The two said that Yegge, who would have turned 18 this Friday, did not live in the apartment, but had recently visited.
Armed with a search warrant, detectives scoured the apartment and Yates' vehicle, a black BMW with the vanity plate "GO2GUY." Police found Yegge's property inside the home.
Using surveillance equipment, detectives began tracking the two on Friday.
"Yates was heard to say he worked in a slaughter house as a teenager skinning animals, blood did not bother him and he knew how to get rid of a body," the report says.
On Saturday, detectives followed Yates to a vacant desert area east of the Snow Mountain Golf Course just north of the turnoff to Kyle Canyon. Yates remained in his vehicle at the site, then drove away. Detectives searched the area and discovered Yegge's buried body.
Detectives conducting the surveillance also heard Osburn say Yates hit Yegge.
According to the report, "Nikki began to cry, told them she was leaving and was going to tell the police Osburn and Yates were pimping out an under-age girl. Nikki started for the door and Gabriel hit her again, knocking her to the floor. Anne then choked Nikki to death."
During interviews with homicide detectives after the arrests, Osburn declined to speak. Yates, however, did.
"Yates made the statement that the police had the body and had the right man," the report says.
Clark County School District spokesman Michael Rodriguez said Yegge was listed as a junior at Arbor View High School during the 2007-08 school year.
A neighbor who lives in the same apartment complex as Osburn and Yates believes she is one of the last people to see the 17-year-old alive. The neighbor did not want to be identified for fear of retribution.
The neighbor said the last time she saw Yegge was on July 21. The girl was sleeping inside Yates' BMW in the apartment parking lot. The neighbor knocked on the window after noticing the car's engine was running and asked the girl whether she was OK. Yegge cracked the window and told the neighbor she was fine.
"She did not look happy at all," the neighbor said of Yegge.
The neighbor said Yates came over the next morning to say thank you for the concern shown to Yegge.
"He just said the girl was working for him," the neighbor said. "He didn't use the word pimping, but close enough."
The neighbor said Yates worked for an escort service but didn't try to contact police. The neighbor did not know whether Yegge was a minor or a runaway.
The neighbor speculated that Yates is the mastermind behind Yegge's slaying. She said Yates also had a lot of control over Osburn, to the point where it was almost as if Osburn was brainwashed.
"She was in love with him," the neighbor said of Osburn. "Anything he told her to do she would listen. She was a good dog to him."
Gabriel Wayne Yates, 31, and Anne Marie Osburn, 21, then knocked the teen's teeth out, sliced off her tattoos, placed the maimed body in a hockey bag and dumped the victim in a shallow desert grave, police said in the report.
Police said they found the body of 17-year-old Nichole Elizabeth Yegge on Saturday afternoon after surreptitiously following Yates to the site. The report said the victim was involved in a love triangle with the suspects.
Homicide Sgt. Russell Shoemaker said the slaying victim's body was found by police Saturday night about 8 p.m. He said it was clear from the condition of the body that Yates and Osburn were trying to cover up their crime.
"Their intent, as far as we know based on the type of damage to her body, was to prevent her from being identified if found," Shoemaker said.
Yates and Osburn are accused of committing the slaying July 23, Shoemaker said.
Yates and Osburn, the parents of a newborn, were arrested Sunday at the Texas Station casino on charges of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree murder.
The pair are being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center. They are scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning. Both Yates and Osburn denied Review-Journal requests for interviews Monday night.
Yegge was in the Clark County foster care system, but at the end of May was formally listed as a runaway, according to Christine Skorupski, a spokeswoman for the county's Department of Family Services. It's unclear how long Yegge was in foster care.
Police dispatchers received an early morning tip Wednesday from an acquaintance of Osburn's who lives in Huntsville, Ala.
"Her friends Gabriel Yates and 'Anne' were involved in the murder of a 17-year-old prostitute named 'Nikki,' whom Yates had been pimping out on Craig's List," the report says, outlining the woman's tip.
The acquaintance said the killing occurred three days prior to her call and was the result of a love triangle.
A craigslist.com ad for erotic services in Las Vegas included a contact number that is the same as the cell phone number police said Yegge was using. A photo in one of the ads with Yegge's number included a picture of Yates and the victim, police said.
Shoemaker said the victim is a suspected prostitute.
"We do believe there was a relationship between the three of them," he said, declining to describe the relationship further.
Police tracked down Yates and Osburn at their Koval Lane apartment the day the call was received. Detectives explained they were following up on a missing persons report. The two said that Yegge, who would have turned 18 this Friday, did not live in the apartment, but had recently visited.
Armed with a search warrant, detectives scoured the apartment and Yates' vehicle, a black BMW with the vanity plate "GO2GUY." Police found Yegge's property inside the home.
Using surveillance equipment, detectives began tracking the two on Friday.
"Yates was heard to say he worked in a slaughter house as a teenager skinning animals, blood did not bother him and he knew how to get rid of a body," the report says.
On Saturday, detectives followed Yates to a vacant desert area east of the Snow Mountain Golf Course just north of the turnoff to Kyle Canyon. Yates remained in his vehicle at the site, then drove away. Detectives searched the area and discovered Yegge's buried body.
Detectives conducting the surveillance also heard Osburn say Yates hit Yegge.
According to the report, "Nikki began to cry, told them she was leaving and was going to tell the police Osburn and Yates were pimping out an under-age girl. Nikki started for the door and Gabriel hit her again, knocking her to the floor. Anne then choked Nikki to death."
During interviews with homicide detectives after the arrests, Osburn declined to speak. Yates, however, did.
"Yates made the statement that the police had the body and had the right man," the report says.
Clark County School District spokesman Michael Rodriguez said Yegge was listed as a junior at Arbor View High School during the 2007-08 school year.
A neighbor who lives in the same apartment complex as Osburn and Yates believes she is one of the last people to see the 17-year-old alive. The neighbor did not want to be identified for fear of retribution.
The neighbor said the last time she saw Yegge was on July 21. The girl was sleeping inside Yates' BMW in the apartment parking lot. The neighbor knocked on the window after noticing the car's engine was running and asked the girl whether she was OK. Yegge cracked the window and told the neighbor she was fine.
"She did not look happy at all," the neighbor said of Yegge.
The neighbor said Yates came over the next morning to say thank you for the concern shown to Yegge.
"He just said the girl was working for him," the neighbor said. "He didn't use the word pimping, but close enough."
The neighbor said Yates worked for an escort service but didn't try to contact police. The neighbor did not know whether Yegge was a minor or a runaway.
The neighbor speculated that Yates is the mastermind behind Yegge's slaying. She said Yates also had a lot of control over Osburn, to the point where it was almost as if Osburn was brainwashed.
"She was in love with him," the neighbor said of Osburn. "Anything he told her to do she would listen. She was a good dog to him."
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Airlines warn customers of infected ticket invoices
Attachment in bogus e-mails contains same Trojan horse that stole 1.6M records from Monster.com last year
Several airlines, including Delta and Northwest, have warned customers that bogus e-mails posing as ticket invoices contain malware and urged them to immediately delete the messages.
A researcher at McAfee confirmed the campaign in a post to the company's blog.
The e-mails, which purport to be from an airline, thank the recipient for using a new "Buy flight ticket Online" service on the airline's site, provide a login username and password, and say the person's credit card has been charged an amount usually in the $400 range. An attachment claims to be the invoice for the ticket and credit card charge.
However, the .zip file format attachment is a Trojan horse that steals information, including keystrokes, from the infected Windows PC and transmits that data to a server hosted in Russia, according to McAfee's threat researcher Craig Schmugar. McAfee has pegged the malware as "Spy-Agent.bw," but other security firms have given it different names. Symantec, for example, has labeled the same Trojan as "Infostealer.Monstres."
Infostealer.Monstres first made a name for itself almost a year ago, when it was used to rip off more than 1.6 million customer records from Monster Worldwide, the company that operates the popular Monster.com recruiting Web site.
"Customers should be aware that these e-mails are not coming from the airline," said Northwest Airlines' vice president of e-commerce, Al Lenza, in a statement last week. "NWA itineraries are specific and contain information that a customer will recognize. If the format does not look familiar to you, and you have not recently purchased a ticket, do not open the attachment. Delete the e-mail right away."
Other airlines that issued warnings include Delta Airlines of Atlanta, Sun Country Airlines of Mendota Heights, Minn., and Midwest Airlines of Milwaukee. "Be assured that Sun Country did not send this email, and charged nothing to your credit card," an alert posted to the Sun Country site read. "We have reported these emails to Yahoo, Hotmail, and the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team."
Earlier last week, McAfee raised the alarm about a similar spam run of e-mails harboring the same Trojan. That campaign, however, sent messages posing as invoices from package delivery company United Parcel Service of America (UPS).
Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/07/29/Airlines_warn_customers_of_infected_ticket_invoices-Computerworld_1.html?source=NLC-TB&cgd=2008-07-29
Several airlines, including Delta and Northwest, have warned customers that bogus e-mails posing as ticket invoices contain malware and urged them to immediately delete the messages.
A researcher at McAfee confirmed the campaign in a post to the company's blog.
The e-mails, which purport to be from an airline, thank the recipient for using a new "Buy flight ticket Online" service on the airline's site, provide a login username and password, and say the person's credit card has been charged an amount usually in the $400 range. An attachment claims to be the invoice for the ticket and credit card charge.
However, the .zip file format attachment is a Trojan horse that steals information, including keystrokes, from the infected Windows PC and transmits that data to a server hosted in Russia, according to McAfee's threat researcher Craig Schmugar. McAfee has pegged the malware as "Spy-Agent.bw," but other security firms have given it different names. Symantec, for example, has labeled the same Trojan as "Infostealer.Monstres."
Infostealer.Monstres first made a name for itself almost a year ago, when it was used to rip off more than 1.6 million customer records from Monster Worldwide, the company that operates the popular Monster.com recruiting Web site.
"Customers should be aware that these e-mails are not coming from the airline," said Northwest Airlines' vice president of e-commerce, Al Lenza, in a statement last week. "NWA itineraries are specific and contain information that a customer will recognize. If the format does not look familiar to you, and you have not recently purchased a ticket, do not open the attachment. Delete the e-mail right away."
Other airlines that issued warnings include Delta Airlines of Atlanta, Sun Country Airlines of Mendota Heights, Minn., and Midwest Airlines of Milwaukee. "Be assured that Sun Country did not send this email, and charged nothing to your credit card," an alert posted to the Sun Country site read. "We have reported these emails to Yahoo, Hotmail, and the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team."
Earlier last week, McAfee raised the alarm about a similar spam run of e-mails harboring the same Trojan. That campaign, however, sent messages posing as invoices from package delivery company United Parcel Service of America (UPS).
Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/07/29/Airlines_warn_customers_of_infected_ticket_invoices-Computerworld_1.html?source=NLC-TB&cgd=2008-07-29
Friday, July 25, 2008
Jalapenos The Latest Culprit In Salmonella Search
Talk of the Nation, July 22, 2008
On Monday government inspectors had a big break in their search for the elusive cause of a nationwide salmonella outbreak. They discovered a strain of bacteria on a single Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper in a distribution facility in south Texas.
David Acheson, associate commissioner for foods for the Food and Drug Administration, describes what goes into a food safety investigation, and why this recent outbreak of salmonella has been so difficult to figure out.
Your Health
How Salmonella Investigation Shifted To Jalapeno
by Allison Aubrey
When officials at the Food and Drug Administration announced they had found salmonella on a Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper, it meant investigators finally had a solid lead on a trail that seemed to have grown cold.
State health officials in New Mexico first picked up on multiple people getting sick from the same subtype of salmonella — called salmonella Saintpaul — back in April. They reported the cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
There, officials analyzing information coming in through an electronic surveillance system began to see that, in pockets around the country, many more states were seeing an unusual increase in cases of salmonella Saintpaul.
As soon as they knew they had an outbreak on their hands, investigators began interviewing sick people, asking them in detail what they had eaten before getting sick. In many cases, people reported eating tomatoes — and the sick people were eating them at much higher rates than their healthy neighbors, who officials also interviewed.
Now, three months later, with the first conclusive match of salmonella Saintpaul coming from a jalapeno pepper, not a tomato, the FDA's lead point person on the investigation, Dr. David Acheson, says it doesn't mean his agency got it wrong.
"The original part of the outbreak, the first scientific indications, showed a very clear association with tomatoes — and there is nothing to indicate that that association was incorrect or inappropriate," Acheson says.
Last week, when the FDA lifted its consumer warnings on eating tomatoes, Acheson explained that none of the farms harvesting tomatoes during the early part of the outbreak were still shipping their product and that all of the tomatoes in markets now had come from areas that were not implicated.
At this point in the investigation, Acheson explained that officials had learned more from a few clusters of people who had been exposed to salmonella at the same time and same place, presumably at a restaurant. They found that these people reported eating fresh jalapeno peppers.
When the FDA dispatched its team of investigators to various points along the distribution chain where the fresh peppers had passed, they knew they needed a direct match.
To make that definitive link, they had to find salmonella Saintpaul on a pepper, which is what happened Monday. Now that consumers have been warned to avoid eating fresh jalapenos, the job of the investigators continues.
One contaminated pepper doesn't solve the whole case. The goal is to continue following the production chain from the distribution center in Texas where the pepper was tested back to the farm in Mexico where it was grown.
"Because it enables us to ultimately, hopefully, pinpoint the source of the contamination which has caused the outbreak," Acheson says.
Since the outbreak began, a total of 1,251 people have gotten sick, and officials at the CDC say they do not believe the outbreak has ended.
Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92781517&ft=1&f=1007
On Monday government inspectors had a big break in their search for the elusive cause of a nationwide salmonella outbreak. They discovered a strain of bacteria on a single Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper in a distribution facility in south Texas.
David Acheson, associate commissioner for foods for the Food and Drug Administration, describes what goes into a food safety investigation, and why this recent outbreak of salmonella has been so difficult to figure out.
Your Health
How Salmonella Investigation Shifted To Jalapeno
by Allison Aubrey
When officials at the Food and Drug Administration announced they had found salmonella on a Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper, it meant investigators finally had a solid lead on a trail that seemed to have grown cold.
State health officials in New Mexico first picked up on multiple people getting sick from the same subtype of salmonella — called salmonella Saintpaul — back in April. They reported the cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
There, officials analyzing information coming in through an electronic surveillance system began to see that, in pockets around the country, many more states were seeing an unusual increase in cases of salmonella Saintpaul.
As soon as they knew they had an outbreak on their hands, investigators began interviewing sick people, asking them in detail what they had eaten before getting sick. In many cases, people reported eating tomatoes — and the sick people were eating them at much higher rates than their healthy neighbors, who officials also interviewed.
Now, three months later, with the first conclusive match of salmonella Saintpaul coming from a jalapeno pepper, not a tomato, the FDA's lead point person on the investigation, Dr. David Acheson, says it doesn't mean his agency got it wrong.
"The original part of the outbreak, the first scientific indications, showed a very clear association with tomatoes — and there is nothing to indicate that that association was incorrect or inappropriate," Acheson says.
Last week, when the FDA lifted its consumer warnings on eating tomatoes, Acheson explained that none of the farms harvesting tomatoes during the early part of the outbreak were still shipping their product and that all of the tomatoes in markets now had come from areas that were not implicated.
At this point in the investigation, Acheson explained that officials had learned more from a few clusters of people who had been exposed to salmonella at the same time and same place, presumably at a restaurant. They found that these people reported eating fresh jalapeno peppers.
When the FDA dispatched its team of investigators to various points along the distribution chain where the fresh peppers had passed, they knew they needed a direct match.
To make that definitive link, they had to find salmonella Saintpaul on a pepper, which is what happened Monday. Now that consumers have been warned to avoid eating fresh jalapenos, the job of the investigators continues.
One contaminated pepper doesn't solve the whole case. The goal is to continue following the production chain from the distribution center in Texas where the pepper was tested back to the farm in Mexico where it was grown.
"Because it enables us to ultimately, hopefully, pinpoint the source of the contamination which has caused the outbreak," Acheson says.
Since the outbreak began, a total of 1,251 people have gotten sick, and officials at the CDC say they do not believe the outbreak has ended.
Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92781517&ft=1&f=1007
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The Former 'Pregnant Man' Debuts His Baby
It's been three weeks since his blue-eyed baby debuted in this world, but Thomas Beatie – better known around the world as the Pregnant Man – can already say this about his daughter's personality: "She's easygoing and mellow and intelligent."
On June 29 at 8:55 p.m., Beatie, 34, a former female beauty pageant contestant, made cultural history as perhaps the first legally transgender male to give birth, bringing into the world a 9 lbs., 5 oz. baby girl named Susan Juliette.
"She's so precious, I just can't stop staring at her," Thomas tells PEOPLE in his first interview since he and wife Nancy returned with their bundle from Bend, Oregon's St. Charles Medical Center. "Just holding her is the best feeling in the world."
Susan – named after Thomas's mother and conceived through artificial insemination with donor sperm – arrived after 40 hours of labor, with Nancy at Thomas's side acting as his coach.
"When Susan finally came out, it was like in slow motion," says Thomas. "I was full of wonder." Echoes Nancy: "There were tears of joy."
Both father and daughter came through the birth in perfect health. "I weigh two pounds less than I did before I got pregnant," adds Thomas. "And I don't have a single stretch mark!"
At home, the couple is adjusting to their new nightly schedule: Nancy breastfeeding (by induced lactation, a process using hormones and physical stimulation with a breast pump) and Thomas keeping company while watching TV.
Crows Thomas, "Susan is a miracle! And we're finally the family we've been dreaming of."
Source: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20214360,00.html
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Bush signs new rules on government wiretapping
WASHINGTON - President Bush signed a bill Thursday that overhauls rules about government eavesdropping and grants immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the U.S. spy on Americans in suspected terrorism cases.
He called it "landmark legislation that is vital to the security of our people."
Bush signed the measure in a Rose Garden ceremony a day after the Senate sent it to him, following nearly a year of debate in the Democratic-led Congress over surveillance rules and the warrantless wiretapping program Bush initiated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It was a battle that pitted privacy and civil liberties concerns against the desire to prevent terrorist attacks and Democrats' fears of being portrayed as weak when it comes to protecting the country.
Its passage was a major victory for Bush, an unpopular lame-duck president who nevertheless has been able to prevail over Congress on most issues of national security and intelligence disputes.
Bush said the 9/11 attack "changed our country forever" and taught the intelligence community that it must know who America's enemies are talking to and what they are saying.
"In the aftermath of 9/11," Bush said, "few would have imagined that we would be standing here seven years later without another attack on American soil. The fact that the terrorists have failed to strike our shores again does not mean that our enemies have given up."
Even before Bush signed the legislation, the American Civil Liberties Union said it would challenge the new law in court.
The president said the bill gives the government anti-terror tools it needs without compromising Americans' civil liberties.
Bush was joined at the ceremony by Vice President Dick Cheney, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and more than a dozen members of Congress.
The ACLU's lawsuit was filed on behalf of several civil rights groups. It wants a federal judge in New York to rule that the law is an unconstitutional violation of free speech and the right against unlawful search and seizure. It also asks that the judge permanently block intelligence officials from conducting surveillance under the law.
"The new law gives the government the power to conduct dragnet surveillance that has no connection to terrorism or criminal activity of any kind," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, in a conference call to reporters.
"A law like this is fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution and with the most basic democratic values," he said.
Roger Atwood, communications director for the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights organization for the region, said the new law will impede the group's work.
"The mere suspicion that information provided to us, to our staff, will be accessed by the U.S. government can seriously affect WOLA's credibility and our effectiveness in Latin America in moving our work forward," Atwood said in the conference call.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080710/ap_on_go_pr_wh/terrorist_surveillance
He called it "landmark legislation that is vital to the security of our people."
Bush signed the measure in a Rose Garden ceremony a day after the Senate sent it to him, following nearly a year of debate in the Democratic-led Congress over surveillance rules and the warrantless wiretapping program Bush initiated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It was a battle that pitted privacy and civil liberties concerns against the desire to prevent terrorist attacks and Democrats' fears of being portrayed as weak when it comes to protecting the country.
Its passage was a major victory for Bush, an unpopular lame-duck president who nevertheless has been able to prevail over Congress on most issues of national security and intelligence disputes.
Bush said the 9/11 attack "changed our country forever" and taught the intelligence community that it must know who America's enemies are talking to and what they are saying.
"In the aftermath of 9/11," Bush said, "few would have imagined that we would be standing here seven years later without another attack on American soil. The fact that the terrorists have failed to strike our shores again does not mean that our enemies have given up."
Even before Bush signed the legislation, the American Civil Liberties Union said it would challenge the new law in court.
The president said the bill gives the government anti-terror tools it needs without compromising Americans' civil liberties.
Bush was joined at the ceremony by Vice President Dick Cheney, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and more than a dozen members of Congress.
The ACLU's lawsuit was filed on behalf of several civil rights groups. It wants a federal judge in New York to rule that the law is an unconstitutional violation of free speech and the right against unlawful search and seizure. It also asks that the judge permanently block intelligence officials from conducting surveillance under the law.
"The new law gives the government the power to conduct dragnet surveillance that has no connection to terrorism or criminal activity of any kind," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, in a conference call to reporters.
"A law like this is fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution and with the most basic democratic values," he said.
Roger Atwood, communications director for the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights organization for the region, said the new law will impede the group's work.
"The mere suspicion that information provided to us, to our staff, will be accessed by the U.S. government can seriously affect WOLA's credibility and our effectiveness in Latin America in moving our work forward," Atwood said in the conference call.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080710/ap_on_go_pr_wh/terrorist_surveillance
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