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| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 21
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as Fed reduces bond purchases By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Expats can expect another bump in the colon-dollar exchange rate because the U.S. Federal Reserve decided Wednesday to reduce by $10 billion its monthly bond purchases. This is the second time that the Fed reduced the amount of bonds it would buy. The central bank had been purchasing $85 billion a month. In February the central bank will buy $65 million. The reductions will take place each month until in December the Fed will purchase the last $15 billion. The bond purchases were designed to bolster the sagging U.S. economy and keep interest rates low. The first effects of the announcement were felt on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed nearly 200 points lower. Earlier today in Asia stocks were down. As the program tapers and interests rates edge higher, analysts worry investors will pull their money from emerging economies and seek higher returns in the U.S., according to wire service reports. The value of the dollar jumped eight colons to 516 on the MONEX market during the day. The Banco Central was quoting the dollar at 518.14 colons to purchase at the end of the day. Selling a dollar would bring 505.13 colons. In prices posted for this morning, Banco Nacional was quoting the price to buy a dollar at 523 colons. Those selling dollars would get 509 colons for each one. The increase is about 15 colons from the currency prices for months, about 3 percent. Bankers are reasoning that with fewer dollars being pumped into the U.S. economy, the value of the greenback will rise. In addition, there is far more effort being expended now to halt money laundering, something that has been depressing the value of the dollar here for years.  Judicial Investigating Organization
photo
Boxes and boxes of crackers are
stored by police after they managed to recover them. Cracker bandits
take trucks,
and four suspects detained By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Some food stores can undercut their rivals because they are buying stolen property. But they will not get their hands on 811 boxes of crackers that judicial investigators managed to locate . The crackers are part of some 3,000 boxes that bandits stole Saturday night and early Sunday. Two men arrived at San Rafael de Alajuela property, pulled a gun on a guard and tied him up. Then they stole one tractor trailer loaded with a container holding about 1,500 boxes of crackers. Later they returned with the empty truck and took another with about the same size load, said the Judicial Investigating Organization. Finally the guard managed to free himself and alert police. Four men who are suspects of at least receiving stolen property were detained in Concepción de Atenas, after someone phoned in a tip to police. That is how agents managed to recover 811 boxes. Judicial police said they would love to receive a call from someone who knows where the location of the other boxes are. U.S. South continues to get a taste of icy winter weather By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Icy chaos gripped the U.S. South Wednesday as an unusual snow and ice storm forced thousands of children to shelter in schools overnight and left thousands of motorists stranded. The storm, which has killed at least seven people, Tuesday swept over a region of about 60 million largely unaccustomed to ice and snow. The area stretched from Texas through Georgia and into the Carolinas. In Atlanta, motorists remained trapped in their cars on icy interstates Wednesday, some of them having spent as long as 18 hours on the road. About 800 traffic accidents were reported in the city, but there were no serious injuries. At least five deaths in Alabama and two in Georgia were blamed on the weather. Airlines canceled thousands of flights, with nearly 1,000 of them canceled by Wednesday afternoon at the world's busiest airport -- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International. Just north of Atlanta, a woman and her husband had to deliver their baby girl alongside Interstate 285 with help from a police officer who arrived just in time. The parents and infant were reported to be fine. Forecasters predicted little relief, with temperatures unlikely to rise much above freezing, before dipping below freezing again across the Southeast early Thursday. Two robbery suspects caught at Guachipelin roadblock By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Fuerza Pública officers captured two robbery suspects in Guachipelin, Escazú, Wednesday afternoon at a check point they had erected about 500 meters north of the Caldera highway. Police had been alerted to robberies of pedestrians in the area. Two men, one 18 and the other 23, were detained and two .22-caliber pistols were confiscated, said the Fuerza Pública.
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 21 | |
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| Appeals court upholds Florida jurisdiction over law firm here |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A Florida appeals panel has upheld a lower court order that says a civil case against Costa Rican lawyers will be heard in that state. The case is of interest to expats because the decision shows that there are options to becoming involved in the complexities and delays of the Costa Rica court system. The plaintiff, a Florida resident and attorney who had a business here, claims that two San José lawyers and some Florida investors entered into a conspiracy to extort money from him and caused his business to fail. He also alleged that they filed a frivolous complaint against his Florida law license and also with the U. S. Department of Homeland Security. The key point for expats is that the appeals court decision said that jurisdiction in the Florida courts is possible even if individuals outside the state and country only send emails or make telephone calls into the state. In this case, some of the defendants live in Florida, too. The trial judge has issued an injunction against some of the defendants prohibiting them from participating in or continuing their extortionate actions undertaken in support of their attempted theft from the plaintiff. However, the case has not yet been judged on its merits. Another aspect of the case is that it involves one of Costa Rica's leading law firms, Facio & Cañas, and names individually all of its partners, including Enrique Castillo, the current minister of foreign relations. The law firm and partners are named because they hired Federico Torrealba Navas and Gianna Cersosimo, two Costa Rican lawyers accused of setting up a conspiracy earlier. The decision filed Wednesday by the Third District Court of Appeals in Miami also gives the defendants the opportunity to file for a rehearing. The appeals court of three judges was unanimous in upholding the lengthy lower court decision of Circuit Judge John W. Thornton. In fact, the decision by J. Suarez even praised him, saying the trial court judge was exceedingly thorough in his analysis. The decision said that Facio & Cañas argues it has no direct connection with Florida. However, it is unlawful for anyone |
employed by an
enterprise to directly or indirectly, participate in criminal activity
– including extortion, which is sufficiently alleged in Brand’s
complaint, it said. The plaintiff, Craig A. Brand, said in an email that the trial court will allow him to ask for punitive damages. These are damages as a form of punishment that are in addition to any actual losses. Brand ran a pharmacy business here with investors from Florida. According to the decision filed Wednesday: Defendants in Florida "alleged that Brand coerced them to invest, either directly or indirectly, in his Costa Rican businesses, and then defrauded them. Brand alleges that the Florida defendants, in an attempt to recoup their investments, hired the Costa Rican lawyers Torrealba and Cersosimo to file a 'public' criminal investigation against Brand and others for theft and fraud in his dealings with the Florida defendants and other non-parties. Brand alleges that the Florida defendants, through Torrealba and Cersosimo, successfully obtained a Costa Rican immigration stay order that prevented him from leaving Costa Rica. "Brand alleges that, as a result of the fraudulent criminal investigation, suppliers refused to offer credit and his pharmaceutical business was forced to close. "In 2009, the Costa Rican prosecutor’s office advised Torrealba and Cersosimo that there was no evidence with which to proceed criminally against Brand, and it would dismiss the criminal investigation and drop the immigration hold against him. Brand immediately moved to Florida. The record indicates that Torrealba traveled to Florida to meet with the Florida defendants. Shortly thereafter, Torrealba and Cersosimo, through the Costa Rican law firm of F&C, and the Florida defendants converted the criminal case into a private civil case against Brand, which they filed in Costa Rica and which remains pending there." The decision also noted that the Facio & Cañas law firm has about 50 clients in the State of Florida. That was another argument for jurisdiction. In a separate order earlier this month, the current trial judge, José M. Rodriquez ordered defendants in Florida to dismiss any court actions against Brand in Costa Rica. Last month, all the defendants, including the partners in the Facio & Cañas law firm, were ordered to submit summaries of their financial worth. |
| Barrio Otoya, the city's smallest, is
next stop on walking tour |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Barrio Otoya, the former home of the rich and famous, is the subject of another Alianza Francesa tour. The capital's smallest barrio is just east of Parque Bolívar and contains some of the city's finest residential architecture. It is bordered by the Río Torres in the north and Avenida 7 to the south. The eastern border is the rail line to Heredia. The best-known building there is Casa Amarilla, the foreign ministry. Architect and historian Andrés Fernández is leading the tour Feb. 15 as he has done in other sections of the city and Central Valley. The walking tour includes a brunch at the nearby Le Café of Alianza Francesa. Fernández said the barrio began undergoing development in 1907. It is adjacent to Barrio Amón which was another location for the wealthy in those days. The elevation is a little higher than the center of the city, and residents say they hear . |
 Alianza Francesa photo
One of the stately homes in
Barrio Otoyathe roar of the Bolívar zoo lions in the morning There is an admission of 18,000 colons, about $36 to the tour. More information is available from Alianza Francesa at 2222-2283 |
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| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 21 | |||||
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| Rutgers University study links DDT exposure to Alzheimer's
disease |
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By
the Rutgers University news service
Scientists have known for more than 40 years that the synthetic pesticide DDT is harmful to bird habitats and a threat to the environment. The pesticide DDT was banned in the United States in 1972 but is still being used in other countries throughout the world. Now researchers at Rutgers University say exposure to DDT, banned in the United States since 1972 but still used as a pesticide in other countries, may also increase the risk and severity of Alzheimer’s disease in some people, particularly those over the age of 60. In a study published online today in JAMA Neurology, Rutgers scientists discuss their findings in which levels of DDE, the chemical compound left when DDT breaks down, were higher in the blood of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease patients compared to those without the disease. DDT, used in the United States for insect control in crops and livestock and to combat insect-borne diseases like malaria, was introduced as a pesticide during World War II. Rutgers scientists, the first to link a specific chemical compound to Alzheimer's disease, said they believe that research into how DDT and DDE may trigger neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's, is crucial. “I think these results demonstrate that more attention should be focused on potential environmental contributors and their interaction with genetic susceptibility,” says Jason R. Richardson, associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a member of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. ”Our data may help identify those that are at risk for Alzheimer’s disease and could potentially lead to earlier diagnosis and an improved outcome.” Although the levels of DDT and DDE have decreased significantly in the |
United States over
the last three decades, the toxic pesticide is still found in 75 to 80 percent of the blood samples collected from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a national health and nutrition survey. This occurs, scientists say, because the chemical can take decades to breakdown in the environment. In addition, people may be exposed to the pesticide by consuming imported fruits, vegetables and grains where DDT is still being used and eating fish from contaminated waterways. In the Rutgers study, conducted in coordination with Emory University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center, 74 out of the 86 Alzheimer’s patients involved whose average age was 74 had DDE blood levels almost four times higher than the 79 people in the control group who did not have Alzheimer’s disease. Patients with a version of a gene which greatly increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s and high blood levels of DDE exhibited even more severe cognitive impairment than the patients without the risk gene. Brain cell studies also found that DDT and DDE increased the amount of a protein associated with plaques believed to be a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. These sticky amyloid proteins, which may form in regions of the brain involved in memory, learning and thinking, break off and clump together in the brain and increase as the disease progresses. This new research is important, Richardson says, because it suggests that DDT and DDE may directly contribute to the process of plaque development. Although the exact cause of Alzheimer’s disease is not known, scientists believe that late-onset Alzheimer’s may be linked to a combination of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors. Much of the research into Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases has mostly been centered on finding genetic connections, Richardson says. Five million Americans suffer now for the disease and millions more expected to fall prey with the graying of the Baby Boom Generation. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 21 | |||||
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| Online educational classes blocked in sanctioned lands By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. education company Coursera, which offers free Internet-based classes in subjects ranging from medicine and mathematics to business and social sciences, says it had to make changes to its accessibility in some countries. Writing on its online blog, Coursera says that under certain U.S. export control regulations, it is prohibited from offering services to students in countries such as Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria, because of U.S. sanctions. It explains that as of this week, students from those countries will have restricted access to course pages. Coursera’s classes are prepared in partnership with many of the world’s top universities and organizations and include lectures by renowned scholars. In an e-mail, a U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman says the agency’s Office of Foreign Assets Control requires Coursera and any U.S. entity involved in certain exchange programs to seek a license in order to provide programs that benefit people in sanctioned countries. In its blog, Coursera says it is working very closely with the State Department and the Office of Foreign Assets Control to reinstate access for students in countries under sanctions. Intelligence officials claim Snowden helped terrorists By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
National Intelligence Director James Clapper says terrorists have gone to school on U.S. surveillance efforts following Edward Snowden's information leaks. Clapper told a U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee because of the former National Security Agency contractor's leaks terrorists have changed their communication methods, making the intelligence community's work more difficult. During testimony Wednesday, Clapper called the leaks the most massive and damaging theft of intelligence information in American history, begging Snowden to return unreleased documents. “Terrorists and other advisories of this country are going to school on U.S. intelligence sources, methods, and tradecraft, and the insights they are gaining are making our job much, much harder,” he said. “Snowden claims he has won, and his mission is accomplished," Clapper added. "If that is so, I call on him and his accomplices to facilitate the return of the remaining stolen documents that have not yet been exposed to prevent even more damage to U.S. security.” National Counterterrorism Director Matthew Olsen also told the committee there has been an uptick in terrorist threat reports before the Winter Olympics next week in Sochi, Russia. “This is what we expected, given where the Olympics are located," he said. "There are a number of extremists in that area; in particular, a group, Imirat Kavkaz, which is probably the most prominent terrorist group in Russia.” Olsen said the greatest threat is not to the athletes or spectators within the venues at the Olympic Games. “There is extensive security at those locations, the sites of the events. The greater threat is to softer targets in the greater Sochi area and the outskirts, beyond Sochi, where there is a substantial potential for a terrorist attack," he said. During the annual hearing on current and projected U.S. national security threats at home and abroad, Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein said Syria is a growing concern for terrorists. "I think the most notable development since last year’s hearing is actually in Syria, which has become a magnet for foreign fighters and for terrorist activities," said Sen. Feinstein, a California Democrat. "The situation has become so dire that even al Qaida’s central leader, Ayman al Zawahiri, has renounced the activities of one group as being too extreme.” The committee also expressed concern about Afghanistan, saying it cannot lose a must-win war in the country. Norwegian politicians back Snowden for Peace Prize By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
NSA leaker Edward Snowden has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The nomination was made Wednesday by two Norwegian politicians, Snorre Valen and Bård Vegar Solhjell, who say Snowden made the world more safe by revealing the scope of U.S. data monitoring. Solhjell is Norway’s former environment and education minister from the Socialist Left Party, and Valen is a fellow member of parliament. “There is no doubt that the actions of Edward Snowden may have damaged the security interests of several nations in the short term,” the two wrote in a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. “We are, however, convinced that the public debate and change in policy that have followed in the wake of Snowden’s whistleblowing has contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order.” The two added that the “level of sophistication and depth of surveillance that citizens all over the world are subject to have stunned us, and stirred debate," adding that revelations of widespread surveillance "led to the reintroduction of trust and transparency as a leading principle in global security policies." Last year, a Swedish professor named Stefan Svallfors nominated Snowden for the prize. Nominations for the prestigious award can be made by government officials, previous winners, university professors and members of international organizations. Last year, the Nobel committee received 259 nominations, a record number. The winner was the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The deadline for 2014 nominations is Saturday, and this year’s winner will be announced Oct. 10. House OKs new farm bills with $23 billion in reductions By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a farm bill, bringing changes in farm subsidy programs and reforms to international food aid one step closer to passage. The 10-year, $1 trillion bill includes $23 billion in cuts in conservation measures, nutrition programs and crop subsidies. It ends a politically unpopular $5 billion subsidy that paid farmers regardless of need. In its place, lawmakers added subsidized insurance programs that compensate farmers for crop losses or price declines. Backers say it will provide support only when farmers need it. But opponents see it as providing the bulk of the benefits to the wealthiest farmers, and they expect large payouts as prices for major crops decline from recent record highs. “Almost surely, farmers are going to get a lot more money out of these programs than they got out of the direct payments program,” said Montana State University agricultural economist Vincent Smith. Critics also say the subsidy changes may trigger an international trade dispute. Smith said by cushioning U.S. farmers against price declines in global markets, these programs interfere with international trade more than the programs they replace. “Expenditures are all going to be viewed as distortionary programs. They are all going to be grist for the mill for trade disputes, and the U.S. is going to be in the wrong,” Smith said. American Farm Bureau Federation chief economist Bob Young said he expects a case to go to the World Trade Organization, but says the programs are sound. “Somebody is going to be very hard-pressed, I think, to challenge us on this front,” he said. The U.S. has already lost a trade case to Brazil on cotton subsidies. It is unclear if the new farm bill will resolve the dispute. The farm bill also increases funding to purchase international food aid closer to where it is needed. Advocates say local and regional purchase is faster, less costly and helps more of the needy than the current model of U.S. food aid, which involves shipping U.S.-produced crops on U.S. flagged ships. Former agriculture secretary Dan Glickman says the $80 million measure is a small improvement in the $1.5 billion annual food aid budget. “It doesn’t go all the way. It will still largely be commodity-based. But it still moves in that direction,” he said. Funding for domestic food aid programs has been among the most contentious parts of the bill. Negotiators compromised on $8.6 billion in cuts, mostly to stiffer eligibility requirements. Conservatives wanted more cuts and tighter enrollment for a safety net program that has continued to grow as the economy has improved. But liberals fought against a bill that they see as cutting protection for the hungry while increasing it for farmers. The farm bill went through three years of difficult negotiations through partisan divisions and fights within the Republican Party. It now goes to the Senate for a vote expected later this week. Obama walks a narrow path with his go-it-alone strategy By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Call it a reset, reboot or Obama 3.0. Whatever it is, entering the sixth year of his presidency, President Barack Obama has decided he will go it alone if he has to. After five years of fits and starts in trying to work with Republicans in Congress on divisive issues like health care reform and cutting the debt, Obama set a new course in his State of the Union address. “America does not stand still and neither will I,” he said. His declaration drew a pop-up ovation from Democrats in the House of Representatives chamber. Republicans sat on their hands staring straight ahead. Obama did renew an appeal to Congress to work together if possible and seemed to indicate that immigration reform represents the best potential for success, adding that it was time to “fix our broken immigration system”. Unlike past years, he did not hammer Republicans for blocking a path to citizenship. Several Republican lawmakers seemed to appreciate the soft-sell approach and there are indications that leaders like House Speaker John Boehner and others may be open to a compromise that eventually might offer a path to legal status to the millions of residents who entered the country illegally. Republicans have an incentive to defuse immigration as a political issue. A kinder, gentler approach to the growing Hispanic population would help blunt Democratic attacks in this year’s congressional midterm campaign that Republicans are anti-immigration. It’s also another sign that mainstream Republicans believe the Tea Party is in retreat after last October’s politically disastrous government shutdown that hurt the Republican Party across the board. One of the first actions the president announced was increasing the minimum wage for new federal contract workers from $7.25 an hour to $10.10. But this action also points up the limits of executive power. The wage increase only applies to future contracts and will impact very few workers initially. Most of the other actions announced by the president are small-bore steps and programs designed to buttress his fundamental goal — to make the middle class more secure and to try and narrow the growing income gap between the wealthiest 1 percent in the U.S. and everyone else. That’s not to say executive orders and presidential proclamations can’t have a major impact. Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 freeing slaves in the southern states. President Harry Truman issued the order to desegregate the military in 1948, and President Bill Clinton unilaterally declared millions of acres of federal land as protected national monuments in the 1990s. But the Constitution sets limits on unilateral presidential action and executive orders are not immune from court challenges that occasionally wind up being decided in the Supreme Court. Given the conservative slant to the current high court, the president may wish to avoid that if possible. The Republican reaction to the president’s go it alone strategy has been predictable. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a possible presidential contender in 2016, described the approach as borderline unconstitutional. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Texas senator and Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz decried the president’s persistent pattern of lawlessness. Since the earliest days of his presidency, many Republicans, especially those aligned with the Tea Party, have promoted the narrative that Obama is bent on pursuing an imperial presidency. They point to the enactment of the health care law as the prime example of the president running roughshod over the objections of the tens of millions of Americans represented by Republicans in Congress. No Republicans supported the law when it passed Congress in 2010. The Republicans will try to turn the executive order strategy against the president and Democrats in the November elections. And they will continue to focus on what they contend is the failure of Obamacare in this year’s campaign, even though the president made it clear in his State of the Union that he believes voters are not interested in refighting old battles over health care again in 2014 and he will resist any effort to kill the law. In any election year, the president’s State of the Union serves as a blueprint for his party’s campaign strategy. For Democrats in 2014, the emphasis will be on bolstering the middle class with practical government assistance that includes raising the minimum wage across the board, extending unemployment benefits for the jobless, greater access to college and funding pre-school programs. Polls show these types of initiatives are popular not only with Democrats but with independent voters, a group that has vacillated in its support of the president in the past. Obama and the Democrats are trying to tap into a growing sense of middle class angst that is leftover from the last recession, the fear that the American Dream is in decline and that children will not have it as good. It’s the same fear that underlines poll numbers that show for the past 10 years, Americans have generally felt the country is headed in the wrong direction. It’s also partly why Obama’s approval rating is mired down in the low to mid-40s even though there are numerous signs of an improving national economy in terms of job growth and a strengthening housing market. Republicans are trying to tap into the same fears. Their pitch will be to limit the government’s involvement in the lives of Americans and rely more on individual initiative and the power of the free market. They will point over and over again to the flaws of the president’s health care law as the best example of government overreach. And so the midterm battle begins with significant political stakes for the president and for both political parties. If the Republicans can hold or increase their majority in the House of Representatives and also gain the six seats they need to take control of the Senate, they will be able to block anything the president wants to do in his final two years, rendering him a true lame duck. Democrats are panicked at the thought of losing the Senate and will pour all the resources they have into holding enough seats to keep their majority. Their problem is that many of the key Senate races this year are in Republican-leaning states that have soured on Obama. If the president’s poll ratings stay low, history says that Democrats could have a long and difficult night when the elections are held on Nov. 4. Opinions differ on reasons for U.S. economic divide By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Many analysts agree there is a wide economic divide in the United States between the destitute and the wealthy. And they say it's not getting any better. But there are differing opinions about what led the country to this divide, and whether President Barack Obama can do anything to close the gap, as he suggested in his State of the Union address Tuesday. Tiffany Beroid can think of little else except bills as she struggles to make ends meet. She works part-time, making minimum wage at Walmart. If she takes a full-time job, she won’t be able to afford child care for her two daughters. Ms. Beroid calls herself the working poor. And she recently added the label of sole breadwinner, because her husband just got laid off. “It makes it very very tough for us now, so now we have to really buckle down and there’s nothing extra that we can afford," she said. "After we buy diapers and things for the girls, that’s just it.” Ms. Beroid works at her neighborhood Walmart in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Here, there are no boutiques and no places to stroll. But 29 kilometers away, life is far different in upscale Chevy Chase, Maryland. Locals refer to an area in the center of the suburban city as the Rodeo Drive of Maryland, named after the famous celebrity shopping district in Beverly Hills, California. The main shopping district is lined with high-end stores for people who can afford them. People in this neighborhood live in houses that doubled their median value in the past decade to nearly $1 million. A University of California Berkeley study says the salaries of America's top 1 percent wage earners soared by 30 percent over three years. While everyone else's salary grew less than half a percent. Peter Cappelli, who is with the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, blames the outsourcing of union jobs as paychecks ballooned in the financial sector. "The big question is are things going on that have kind of changed the rules and stacked the deck further in favor of people who are already pretty wealthy," he said. Back in Chevy Chase, another explanation. “In the last few years because of the economic crisis I would think a lot of people lost jobs,” one woman said. “Because of greed in the world,” a man added. Ms. Beroid is fighting Walmart to raise its minimum wage. Walmart says its wages are higher than average. As a private employer, the store would not be affected by the president's expected order to raise wages for federal contractors. Obama had pushed to raise the minimum for all workers, but Congress argued that higher wages would lead to more layoffs. Cappelli says raising wages is only a short-term fix. “I don’t think anybody would choose this as the best way to help the working poor, but it’s in place," he said. "We can increase the minimum wage more easily than we could put in place an entirely new program.” Capelli says the country should focus on future generations and preserving America's middle ground, because that's what it's losing. Fed again reduces amount of monthly boost for economy By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Policy makers at the U.S. central bank are again trimming their direct support of the world's largest economy. The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it will buy $65 billion worth of securities in February to pump more money into the economy, boost job growth and keep interest rates low. But that asset purchase would be $10 billion less than this month, and would keep the central bank on course to wind down the program altogether by the end of the year, if the U.S. economy continues to advance. In a statement after a two-day meeting in Washington, the Fed said it sees economic activity picking up, with growing underlying strength in the broader economy. The bank said it is keeping its benchmark interest rate near zero, and likely will continue to keep it that low well past the time that the country's unemployment rate reaches 6.5 percent. The jobless rate now is at 6.7 percent, a five-year low. The central bank cut the asset purchases at the last policy meeting headed by outgoing chairman Ben Bernanke, as his eight-year tenure expires. Fed vice chairwoman Janet Yellen will become the first woman to head the century-old agency Saturday. For more than a year, the central bank bought $85 billion worth of securities every month to pump money into the American economy as it steadily, but unevenly, recovered from the 2008 recession. The Fed's cutback in its direct support for the U.S. economy has roiled markets and currencies in emerging economies throughout January. Growth had advanced in the emerging economies during the depths of the world downturn. But now, investors fear that as the Fed eases off its securities purchases, and long-term interest rates edge higher in the U.S., billions of dollars of investment money will be pulled from the emerging economies. Instead, the money could be invested in the U.S. and other advanced economies for bigger returns. One barometer Fed policy makers watch is the U.S. jobless rate. Even though the figure has fallen over the last year, the Fed noted that "labor market indicators were mixed in recent months, even as they generally improved. Much of the decline in the unemployment rate has been the result of discouraged long-term unemployed workers ending their search for new jobs, and thus not counted in the jobless figure. U.S. employers had been adding about 200,000 new jobs a month through the latter half of 2013, but just 74,000 in December. Kerry honors three companies for good citizenship overseas By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has honored three U.S. companies for their favorable treatment of workers and advanced use of renewable resources at their operations in Cameroon, Honduras and Mexico. Kerry gave Awards for Corporate Excellence Wednesday in Washington to Taylor Guitars for its work in Cameroon, the Fruit of the Loom textile company in Honduras and the electronic products company Plantronics in Mexico. The top U.S. diplomat said the actions of the three companies represented the best of American values. "Every single one of the winners today have set a high standard and they've all done really remarkable work in communities around the world as a result of the choices that they have made in the corporate boardroom." He cited Taylor Guitars for buying an ebony mill in Cameroon and using all shades of ebony in manufacturing its guitars, not just black ebony once used exclusively, so that the country's forests are not depleted. Kerry honored Fruit of the Loom for its ground-breaking labor agreement with workers that boosted wages, and provided free transportation for workers to their jobs and free lunches. The company partly powers its operations with biomass electricity generation using seaweed. He said 70 percent of the power needs at Plantronics' operation in Tijuana, Mexico is provided by rooftop solar panels. Modern humans acquired traits in some cases from Neanderthals By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
According to new research, ancient human ancestors acquired some skin genes that helped them survive outside Africa by mating with Neanderthals. When humans wandered out of Africa and into Europe and Asia around a hundred thousand years ago, their closest hominid relatives, the Neanderthals, had already been there. “So, of course, there’s always been the possibility that they would have met and that they would have interbred,” said genetics graduate student Benjamin Vernot at the University of Washington. “But there hasn’t been evidence for that. And we finally got evidence in 2010.” That 2010 discovery found that non-Africans inherit about 1 to 3 percent of their DNA from Neanderthals. The next question was, which 1 to 3 percent? Vernot and his colleagues went looking through the genomes of 665 people for statistical patterns that would identify Neanderthal genes. They published their findings in two scientific journals, Science and Nature. The scientists found several genes dealing with a protein called keratin, found in skin, hair and fingernails, that trace back to Neanderthals in more than 60 percent of those studied. Vernot says those genes must have helped human ancestors adapt to the environment outside Africa. But he said they don’t know exactly how. “We know that two of the genes are associated with pigmentation. So, it could be that we inherited lighter skin from Neanderthals,” he said. “But it’s really difficult to pin that down.” “These two papers provide the first evidence that genes from Neanderthals affected modern humans in an important way: they were favored by natural selection,” said University of California at Berkeley geneticist Montgomery Slatkin, who was one of the scientists who sequenced the Neanderthal genome but was not involved in this research. The scientists also were struck by how unevenly Neanderthal genes are spread throughout the human genome. “There are places where lots of us share genes with Neanderthals, and there are places where nobody does,” said Harvard University geneticist Sriram Sankararaman. The researchers found almost no Neanderthal versions of genes, called alleles, in parts of the genome dealing with fertility, for example. And that makes sense, he added. “What we are seeing is the action of alleles that are causing incompatibilities being driven out of the population.” Humans and Neanderthals were different species, and offspring of these kinds of mixed marriages “tend to be less fit or less fertile, or sometimes sterile,” said Sankararaman. For example, horses and donkeys can mate, and they are more distantly related than humans and Neanderthals were. But they produce mules, which are sterile. So, genes that cause infertility would not survive. Researchers also found Neanderthal genes in parts of the genome linked with a number of ailments, including diabetes, lupus, Crohn’s disease and smoking behavior. “There, the interpretation is not very clear at all,” Sankararaman said. Researchers don’t know if those genes raise or lower the risk of disease. “It doesn’t mean that the Neanderthal allele is causing a certain disease,” he added. “It’s just associated with that.” |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 21 | |||||||||
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International
audience to see a chilly Super Bowl this year By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
America’s biggest sporting event, the Super Bowl, has a major global following. Viewers around the world will tune in to American football’s championship game this Sunday to watch the Denver Broncos face the Seattle Seahawks. It’s the first outdoor, cold weather Super Bowl in NFL history. This year it is being held at MetLife stadium in New Jersey, just outside New York City. There was quite a frenzy Wednesday at Media Day in Newark, New Jersey. The Super Bowl is the biggest media event in all of American sports, but it's not only domestic fans who clamor for coverage of the big game. "Super Bowl is a great event for us internationally, something that is known around the world. Even if people aren’t NFL fans, they know about Super Bowl," said David Tossell of NFL International. "Super Bowl is a great chance for us to, it’s really the showpiece for what the NFL is and gives us a chance to reach a whole new audience around the world." The New Jersey stadium has been packed with media from around the world leading up to the game, which will be broadcast to more than 200 countries. More than 500 international broadcasters are registered to cover the event. Several said that the Super Bowl attracts big audiences in their countries. “We have good ratings and in Moscow the sports bars, all sports bars are full,” said Dmitri Khaitovsky, a Russian sports commentator. “In England and all over Europe the game of American football, which is what they call it, has been played for decades. It’s just now there’s more of an attention and emphasis by the NFL in doing games in Wembley Stadium," said Cecil Martin, of Sky TV in England. "In Mexico, the Steelers, the Cowboys, also the Denver Broncos, the 49ers-San Francisco, now the four or five teams have very much popularity in our country," said Luis Garcia of Mexican TV. It’s not just teams that are well-known. Many NFL superstars are well-known in other countries. Peyton Manning, quarterback of the Denver Broncos, has many fans in Japan. "He’s pretty big. He’s pretty famous. We are pretty interested in how he does against the Seahawks,” said Yuki Makino of NHK Television in Japan. With an estimated one billion fans worldwide watching the Super Bowl, the NFL just might be poised to expand its franchise to other parts of the globe. “There’s obviously a lot of discussion whether we would have a franchise in London," said Tossell. "The commissioner himself has spoken about that and said that if we continue to do well in the U.K. it is something to be looked at." Twin quakes rattle coast and are felt in Central Valley By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Twin earthquakes took place Wednesday at a point about 6 kilometers north of Quepos on the central Pacific coast. The first was at 7:41 p.m., and it was felt lightly in the Central Valley even though the magnitude was reported at 4.5. The second came at 9:21 p.m. and was felt more strongly even though the reported magnitude was 4.2 The reports are from the Laboratorio de Ingeniería Sísmica at the Universidad de Costa Rica. Early today at 16 minutes after midnight a 4.4 quake took place just south of Costa Rica in the Pacific near Panamá. |
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| From Page 7: Caja says hotels and restaurants owe $11 million By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social said Wednesday that 2,587 hotels and restaurants are behind on their monthly payments. The total is an astounding 5.5 billion colons or about $11 million. The nation's health provider said that it is conducting 862 procedures for closing establishments and that there are more than 4,500 court actions. Employers have to pay the Caja a percentage based on employee salaries each month. Employees contribute to the payment, too, so when an employer fails to remit money to the Caja some of the cash belongs to the employees. The Caja said that 10 companies represent 15 percent of the total debt. Among the top 10 are two Arenal area hotels. However, the Caja did not fully identify the bulk of the 10 firms, and some have names shared by several companies. |
