 |
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for more details |
A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
|
|
|
San
José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 25
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
|
 |
|
Monkeys came
from Africa, fossil shows
By the Natural History Museum of Los
Angeles County news staff
For millions of years, South America was an island continent. Geographically isolated from Africa as a result of plate tectonics more than 65 million years ago, this continent witnessed the evolution of many unfamiliar groups of animals and plants. From time to time, animals more familiar today, monkeys and rodents among others, managed to arrive to this island land mass, their remains appearing abruptly in the fossil record. Yet, the earliest phases of the evolutionary history of monkeys in South America have remained cloaked in mystery. Long thought to have managed a long transatlantic journey from Africa, evidence for this hypothesis was difficult to support without fossil data. A new discovery from the heart of the Peruvian Amazon now unveils a key chapter of the evolutionary saga of these animals. In a paper published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature, the discovery of three new extinct monkeys from eastern Peru hints strongly that South American monkeys have an African ancestry. Co-author Ken Campbell, curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, discovered the first of these fossils in 2010, but because it was so strange to South America, it took an additional two years to realize that it was from a primitive monkey. Mounting evidence came as a result of further efforts to identify tiny fossils associated with the first find. For many years, Campbell has surveyed remote regions of the Amazon Basin of South America in search for clues to its ancient biological past. “Fossils are scarce and limited to only a few exposed banks along rivers during the dry seasons,” said Campbell. “For much of the year high water levels make paleontological exploration impossible.” In recent years, Campbell has focused his efforts on eastern Peru, working with a team of Argentinian paleontologists expert in the fossils of South America. His goal is to decipher the evolutionary origin of one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world. The oldest fossil records of New World monkeys (monkeys found in South America and Central America) date back 26 million years. The new fossils indicate that monkeys first arrived in South America at least 36 million years ago. The discovery thus pushes back the colonization of South America by monkeys by approximately 10 million years, and the characteristics of the teeth of these early monkeys provide the first evidence that monkeys actually managed to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Africa. Criminal code is under study By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Lawmakers have assembled a committee to study the country's criminal code and devise a new one. The committee includes more than lawmakers. Represented in a meeting Wednesday were the Ministerio de Justicia y Paz, the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública, the Presidencia of the Poder Judicial, the Ministerio Público, the Defensa Pública, the Defensoría de los Habitantes, law professors from the Universidad de Costa Rica, the Colegio de Abogados and a representative from the conference of the justice ministers from Latin America. The committee plans to meet several times a month to make revisions and report them to the public, a press release said. Survey spots worst cities for driving By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Three of the 10 worst cities in the world for traffic congestion are in Southeast Asia. Recently compiled data reveal city drivers around the world are spending an average of one-third of their journey idling. It is a common refrain among drivers in Asia’s big cities to lament they are stuck in the world’s most awful traffic. However, unless one is in Jakarta, staring at the unmoving vehicle in front, it could be worse. An analysis based on satellite navigation data, contributed by motorists in 78 cities around the world using TomTom GPS devices, puts the Indonesian capital just slightly ahead of Istanbul for total stop-and-starts. Mexico City, Surabaya, Indonesia, and St. Petersburg, Russia, are next in the long line. Rounding out the top ten in the Magnatec Stop-Start Index are: Moscow, Rome, Bangkok, Guadalajara and Buenos Aires. Tampere, Finland, and Rotterdam in The Netherlands are the two cities with the fastest moving traffic, the survey said.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Ro Colorado S.A 2015
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 |
|
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 25 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| Page One is HERE! Page 2 is HERE! Page 4 is HERE! | NEXT PAGE |
| A primer on U.S. relations with Latin America for the new
expat |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Expats frequently meet unexpected anti-American opinions when they drift into discussions of world affairs with Latin Americans. There are plenty of valid reasons for that, but most new expats who have relied on the U.S. media for years never really have been exposed to the Latin side of the story. For sure there is some jealously of the wealthy country to the north. The animosity is a lot deeper. The action by Pope Francis to designate the murdered El Salvadoran archbishop, Óscar Romero, a martyr provides a good hook to examine U.S. policies in Latin America. Most Americans probably could not find El Salvador on a map, much less remember its brutal history in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They might be surprised to learn that Costa Rica's own Óscar Arias Sánchez was instrumental in the 1980s and early 1990s to outline with other presidents the Esquipulas Peace Agreement that ending Central American warfare with the intervention of the United Nations. The peace plan generally is seen as ending the civil war in Nicaragua, but it also led to the demobilization of U.S. backed Contras in Honduras and had an effect on the El Salvador civil war. Costa Rica was directly involved in the Nicaraguan conflict as a staging area for Contras, as a supply point and an emitter of propaganda. The principal Contra radio station was in San José. Arias was the president who in conjunction with the Asamblea Legislativa ruled that Oliver North, the then-U.S. ambassador and the Central Intelligence Agency station chief would be forever barred from entering Costa Rica. Much information is available locally on how the Nicaraguan civil war affected Costa Rica. Less well known to expats was the situation in El Salvador in which Óscar Romero played a key role. Simply put, the military junta in El Salvador was prepared to kill everyone to remain in power. The death squads were not very selective, and if someone was a university student, of military age or an intellectual, they were going to be dragged from their homes and shot. Romero was known as a conservative, but his opinions changed drastically when a friend was killed by a death squad. He preached against human rights violations until his murder March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass in a hospital chapel. The best demonstration of the brutality of the civil war is what  E.F. Rojas photo
Burned-out home in El
Mozote.
|
 E.F. Rojas photo
Memorial of massacre site
at El Mozote, El Salvador.happened to the remote town of El Mozote. The residents had been promised protection as a military unit moved in seeking Marxists rebels. Many inhabitants of the area moved into the town on the promise of protection. Instead, Dec. 12, 1981, the Salvadoran soldiers killed 800 persons, including children and women. They used rape as an instrument of war and then killed their victims. At this time, the Salvadoran junta was supported strongly by the United States and the Reagan administration. The bullets that killed the villagers most certainly were made in the U.S. The troops had been trained by U.S. personnel. The U.S. Embassy in San Salvador dismissed reports of the massacre. Reagan administration officials branded Ray Bonner, The New York Times reporter who broke the story the following January, as an advocate journalist. A Washington Post reporter, Alma Guillermoprieto, who also visited the massacre site, was incorrectly said to have worked earlier for a Communist newspaper in México. It turned out that the extent of the U.S. Embassy investigation was to have a plane fly over the site long after the bodies had been buried. In the face of harsh criticism,The Times recalled Bonner, who later quit the newspaper. Eventually, after the 1992 peace accords, an Argentine forensic team unearthed the many hundreds of bodies. El Mozote is just one of many U.S. missteps in Latin America. Assisting the assassination that led to the suicide of Salvador Allende in Chile was another. The change of government brought in the Pinochete dictatorship that murdered and tortured thousands. As for impact on the United States there is the allegations by Gary Webb, a California newsman, that the Central Intelligence Agency was fueling the 1980s crack epidemic by importing cocaine from Central America to raise money for the Contras. The San Jose Mercury News eventually repudiated Webb's three-part series and caused him to quit. Subsequent investigations, including one by the CIA, substantiated many of his allegations. The history of U.S. official and unofficial actions in Latin America, of course, go back much further. Everyone here knows about William Walker and the 1856 Costa Rican campaign against him. So those new U.S. expats who seek to speak intelligently about relations between Latin America and their home country have a lot of homework ahead. |
| Judge in Los Chiles places young mother of tortured tot into
detention |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A judge has remanded a 16-year-old mother into detention in the wake of the death of her 2 year old. The stepfather, an adult, was jailed earlier in the week. Meanwhile, the Patronato Nacional de Infancia, the child welfare organization, has renewed its call for citizens to report suspected cases of child abuse. |
Autopsy
reports on the 2 year old suggest that in addition to
being beaten, the tot was tortured with pins and needles over a
prolonged period. The child was pronounced dead Monday at the Hospital de Los Chiles near the Nicaraguan border. A 5-month-old brother of the dead child has been placed into Patronato custody. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
 |
 |
||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 25 | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| In U.S., births of white babies has become the minority | |
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United States hit an important benchmark in 2011 that many Americans might have missed. That was the first year more minority babies were born than white babies. It was a sign of things to come. In less than 30 years, whites will no longer be the racial majority in the United States. “This is a huge demographic transformation,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution and author of the book "Diversity Explosion." “In 2044, most of the United States, more than half of the population, will be something other than white,” he said. The current racial mix is white, 63 percent; Hispanic, 17 percent; black, 12 percent; Asian, 5 percent, and other, 3 percent. Although whites will still be the largest single racial group in 2044, no single group will actually be a majority. There has been a steady decline in the white population as the so-called Baby Boomers, people born between 1945 and 1964, have aged and entered retirement. They are also beginning to die off. “In a few years, it’s going to be the norm that there will be more white deaths than white births every year as far as you can project,” Frey said. This emerging majority minority will take their place. The number of Asian and Hispanic minorities in the U.S. is expected to double by 2050. The multiracial population is |
expected to
quadruple by then,
according to U.S. Census Bureau projections. These populations are growing, not due to immigration, but primarily because America’s minority populations are young and of child-bearing age. The changing demographics will also be evident in the workplace. The whitest part of the labor force right now is people in their late 40s, 50s and early 60s. As they retire, more minorities will move in to take their place. That’s good news, according to Frey, who points out that while countries like Japan, Italy and Germany are facing a declining labor-force age population and a declining population overall, the United States won’t have that problem because of the fast growth in its young minority populations, particularly Hispanics and Asians. This new future reality presents the United States with the challenge of making sure these minority populations are in schools that are well-equipped to prepare these children to enter the middle class via well-paying jobs once they grow up. The alternative, says Frey, is a larger gap between rich and poor. “Race has been a very important feature in our society, sometimes in negative ways in the past,” Frey said. “People are now going to come to see that our diverse population is going to be a positive, especially in a global economy where it’s important for us to be able to connect with other parts of the world. We have a leg up on other countries, assuming we’re able to take advantage of it.” |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 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
|
||
 |
 |
|
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 25 | |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
 |
| Sept. 11 terror planner links Saudi royal family By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A former al-Qaida member who helped plot the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States has testified that the Saudi royal family gave money and other help to the terrorist group. Zacarias Moussaoui gave his testimony to lawyers for victims of the families killed when planes struck the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon near Washington, and crashed into a field in Pennsylvania apparently on its way to another U.S. government building. Moussaoui said some extremely famous Saudi officials helped al-Qaida, including former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal. Moussaoui also said he personally met in Afghanistan with a diplomat from the Saudi Embassy in Washington and that they had talked about a plot to shoot down the U.S. president's plane, Air Force One. The Saudi Embassy in the U.S. capital said Wednesday Moussaoui is a deranged criminal whose own lawyers called him mentally incompetent. The embassy said the Sept. 11 attacks were the most investigated crime in history and that there was no evidence of official Saudi involvement. Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. for his part in the terror strikes. More horror is predicted from brutal Islamic State By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The fight between the extremist group Islamic State, and the Western/Arab coalition battling to defeat it has become a public showdown of horror. And analysts warn, there could be more to come. “As soon as we get to the point where we think they can’t get any worse than they are, they manage to exceed the brutality of even what we have become accustomed to,” said Mia Bloom, a professor of security studies at University of Massachusetts. “It’s not that we are immune to the violence, it’s just that they are pushing the envelope and engaging in more and more violence,” she said. Images of a young Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage by Islamic State militants shocked and horrified people around the world this week. Crowds took to the streets in Jordan demanding that Muath al-Kasaesbeh’s death at the hands of Islamic State extremists be avenged. The next day, Jordan executed two Islamic State militants it had in custody, including female suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi. The result, Bloom and other experts say, will be a further increase in brutality. “My worry is now that they will take an eye-for-an-eye attitude, and will say, ‘Well, Sajida was killed, so we are going to kill these two women that we have,' and that would then ratchet up the violence to the next level,” Bloom said. The Islamic State is believed to be holding an American female aid worker and three Red Cross workers, including a woman. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the highly produced video of the Jordanian pilot’s killing and videos of other Islamic State violence are being used by the extremist group to rally their core audience. “The videos do embolden a very base set of followers,” the official said, adding that to the minds of Islamic State militants, they show the group’s strength. According to Yonah Alexander, director of the International Center for Terrorism Studies at the Potomac Institute, the Islamic State’s use of brutality and propaganda is a two-pronged effort to keep themselves on an international stage where they cannot win militarily. “You are talking about terrorism as a great equalizer, which means you kill one, you don’t need missiles,” Alexander said. “Their aim is to able to be equal to... a superpower like the United States.” Alexander said that he expects much more violence. “I personally believe the worst is yet to come,” he said. “There is going to be more kidnapping. There is going to be hijacking. There is going to be more killing.” According to an analysis published by the Soufan Intelligence Group, the Islamic State “needs a constant fight to stay relevant.” As such, they keep trying through spectacular acts of violence to goad the international community to overreact. But Bloom, who has written on the psychology of terrorism, said the Islamic State’s use of extreme violence could backfire, turning local populations against the group. The brutality has already outraged many Muslim nations, including Jordan. Yet the killing of the Jordanian pilot, who was flying over Syria as part of a U.S.-led coalition of countries conducting air strikes against the Islamic State extremists, has clearly shaken some nations. The United Arab Emirates on Wednesday announced it was ending its participation in the military effort. But far from stepping back, King Abdullah of Jordan said Jordan will now be relentless in the war against Islamic State. Possible candidates muddy waters on getting vaccines By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The feverish debate over American vaccination policy, sparked by a measles outbreak in December and fanned this week by potential Republican presidential candidates’ comments, has not yet run its course. Presumptive candidates Chris Christie and Rand Paul injected the dimension of 2016 presidential politics into the debate, saying parents should have some choice when it comes to vaccinating their children against diseases. And White House spokesman Josh Earnest, at Tuesday’s daily press briefing, shied away from calling for an inoculation mandate. "The president believes it shouldn’t require a law for people to exercise common sense and do the right thing," Earnest said. "… This is the right thing for them to do both by their own children, but by also other children in the community. They have a responsibility to do this." Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000. But since-debunked theories linking vaccines and autism have led some Americans to decide against having their children vaccinated. So-called anti-vaxers are being criticized in the wake of a measles outbreak that began in California in December and has sickened more than 100 among 14 states. New Jersey Gov. Christie fanned the contentious debate over vaccines during a three-day trip to England early this week, intending to concentrate on foreign policy. Christie, while touring a Cambridge biomedical research facility that makes vaccines, was asked about his views on immunizing children. "All I can say is we vaccinated ours," Christie said, adding that "parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well, so that’s the balance that the government has to decide." Paul, the Kentucky Republican senator known for his libertarian views, also weighed in. Interviewed Monday on the CNBC cable channel, Paul said he’d heard of "many tragic cases of children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines." "I am not arguing vaccines are a bad idea," said Paul, an ophthalmologist. “I think they are a good thing. But I think the parents should have some input.” Late Tuesday afternoon, Rand tweeted to his 538,000 Twitter followers: "Ironic. Today I am getting my booster vaccine. Wonder how the liberal media will misreport this?" The tweet included a photo of his immunization. Some parents worry about possible side effects of vaccines, often citing disproved theories that vaccines are connected to autism or developmental disorders. "Some kids have such adverse effects to them, and if you go online and read, there are horrific stories," said Barbara Acosta, a parent in California, where the outbreak originated. But public health experts told Congress at a hearing Tuesday that parents who refuse to have their kids vaccinated not only put their children in harm’s way but also put others at risk. "You have one of the most highly effective vaccines against any virus, and you have a highly contagious disease, measles, that can have serious complications. So to me, it is really a slam dunk," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in a staunch defense of immunization. The measles virus spreads through coughing and sneezing, and it “can live for up to two hours on a surface” or in air contaminated by an infected person, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus triggers symptoms such as high fever, cough, runny nose and a rash. Complications range from pneumonia to ear infections. In worst cases, measles can lead to convulsions, mental retardation or even death. Likely Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton tweeted, “the science is clear, vaccines work.” House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, agreed. “Well, I do not know that we need another law, but I do believe that all children ought to be vaccinated.” As a presidential candidate in 2008, Barack Obama said the science on the safety of vaccinations was inconclusive. But his view has changed as president, said his spokesman, Earnest. "The science is clear, and it is irresponsible for people to not get their children vaccinated," the spokesman said Tuesday. All 50 states have legislation requiring vaccinations for students, though the rules vary, the National Conference of State Legislatures reports. All grant exemptions based on medical concerns, almost all allow exemptions for religious reasons and 20 do so for personal beliefs. Two states, Mississippi and West Virginia, only permit medical exemptions. A Pew poll last year found 68 percent of Americans believe vaccinations should be required for all children, while 30 percent said parents should decide. But actual immunization rates are considerably higher. For instance, at least 93 percent of kindergarteners in the 2013-14 academic year had been vaccinated, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Republican strategist Phillip Stutts said he sees the vaccine debate as a preview of a spirited and unpredictable Republican Party primary campaign. "We should have a very robust, huge debate," Stutts said. "… We are going to have smart candidates that talk big policy ideas that change this country in ways that I am very excited about." Some of the parents who oppose vaccination might be old enough to remember the swine flu scare of 1976 when the federal government embarked on a major effort to vaccinate the U.S. population. The epidemic did not appear, but hundreds of persons had complications from the shots, and about 30 died. FCC seeks to take control in U.S. Internet proposal By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The head of the U.S. Federal Communication Commission called Wednesday for the government to regulate the Internet like a public utility to keep it fast, fair and open. In what is known as net neutrality, the proposal would prevent big Internet providers from charging content providers, such as wealthy companies that stream movies online, from being able to pay more to get their product to customers faster than smaller companies. "My proposal assures the rights of Internet users to go where they want, when they want, and the rights of innovators to introduce new products, without asking anyone's permission," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wrote in Wired magazine. Internet providers oppose the plan, saying government regulation would discourage investment. Net neutrality had been in place before a federal court ruled against it. FCC commissioners plan to vote on the Wheeler proposal later this month. Obama asks consideration of consequences to illegals By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama says opponents of his efforts to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from being deported fail to consider the human consequences. The American leader met Wednesday at the White House with six young people brought to the United States at an early age by parents who slipped into the country illegally. Under a 2012 order, Obama protected more than 1 million young people from being deported so they could attend college or start businesses in the U.S. He described them as the very best that this country has to offer, and criticized legislation already approved by the House of Representatives and now being considered by the Senate that could lead to their deportation. "I think that's wrong," the president said. "I think most Americans would think it was wrong if they had a chance to meet these young people." The proposed immigration policy changes are included in a nearly $40 billion funding measure for the country's homeland security agency. The legislation also would block Obama's executive order late last year that protected about 5 million other immigrants from being deported so they can continue to live and work in the U.S. As he has in recent weeks, Obama vowed to veto the legislation if Congress sends it to him for his signature and instead wants the homeland security budget approved without the immigration restrictions. He said he is confident there are not enough anti-immigration votes in Congress to override his veto. Immigration policies are controversial in the U.S. Obama's Republican political opponents have accused him of overstepping his executive authority in issuing the immigration decrees without congressional approval. Some Democrats pushing paid leave for childbirth By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Jenny Cheek of Washington, D.C. was pregnant with her first child when she was shocked to discover she would have no paid parental leave from her government job. The United States is one of only two out of 185 countries in the world that do not provide paid maternity leave, according to a 2014 United Nations report. The other is New Guinea. Ms. Cheek used a week of paid vacation and then had to go on leave without pay. At that point, she and her husband decided they could manage on his paycheck alone. Ms. Cheek became a stay-at-home mom to baby Tilley. Ms. Cheek says new moms need time to adjust to parenting. “Almost every other country in the world has figured out the way to make this happen. If every other country can figure it out, I know there is a way for the United States to provide better for its people.” Secretary/treasurer for her family's business, Tricia Baldwin has a different opinion. She agrees paid leave is good, but she knows her company cannot afford it. Reliable Contracting has been in business for 87 years. "It doesn't work for every business and it doesn't work for every position in the company," Baldwin said. “I really believe in our system, the free market system. And I believe it is what makes us strong and makes us flexible. It’s just adding another cost, another mandate.” U.S. law says new parents may take 12 weeks of leave without pay. Businesses are not required to offer it, although some do so voluntarily. There also are no requirements for paid sick leave. 43 million Americans don’t have it. President Obama promoted paid sick and parental leave in his state of the union address in January and called on Congress to act. "Send me a bill that gives every worker in America the opportunity to earn seven days of paid sick leave. It’s the right thing to do," he said. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, is introducing a parental bill she's proposed for several years. It would grant six weeks of paid parental leave for federal workers. "One hundred eighty-three countries can’t be wrong,” she said. Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democratic, also supports the bill. He says his family-owned automobile dealership offers paid leave to entice new parents to return to the job. "When we lose somebody, it can cost a year's worth of income and training somebody new," he said. Jenny Cheek says the bill will help many like her. “People have trouble with breastfeeding sometimes or there is just other adjustment issues and knowing that you’re also not getting a paycheck is really stressful," she said. "There is no way I could have been an attentive mom, a dedicated mom in the same way if I was worried every single day about how I was going to pay the bills.” Ms. Baldwin’s company, Reliable Contracting, uses paid sick leave as an incentive for employees who have worked there at least five years. Ms. Baldwin says giving paid sick and parental leave to all her 400 workers would be devastating to her company, which is still climbing out of the recession and barely making a 2.5 percent profit. "Companies aren't getting out of this recession like others. Adding that additional mandate would be adding additional costs to a struggling company," she said. "When I try to be creative and think, 'Can I do this for employees to help them with this particular issue they are dealing with?' I find out no....It’s frustrating." The president, Democrats and parents may want these bills. But some say they are unlikely to pass. Republicans now control congress and experts say it’s tough to be pro-business and pro-family at the same time. New spike in ebola reported in West African countries By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The number of reported ebola cases has gone up for the first time this year in the three West African countries where transmission is still active. The World Health Organization says 124 new cases were reported in the week ending Feb. 1 with a high of 80 new cases in Sierra Leone, followed by 39 in Guinea and five in Liberia. In its latest update, released Wednesday, World Health said there is an urgent need to end the outbreak before the wet season begins and access to remote areas becomes more difficult. Since the beginning of the ebola outbreak there have been almost 22,500 reported cases in the three countries, and nearly 9,000 deaths. The number of new cases had declined for several consecutive weeks, raising hopes the outbreak was ending. Health experts have cautioned West Africans against becoming complacent about the disease. World Health says an unsafe burial last month in Guinea’s Lola district has caused 11 confirmed ebola cases. Those killed by the virus remain contagious and must be buried by workers in protective equipment. A large-scale trial of two potential ebola vaccines began Monday in Liberia. Organizers of the study, led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, aim to enlist a total of around 27,000 healthy men and women for the trial. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
|
||||||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 25 | |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
||
|
 Ministerio
de Seguridad Pública
photo
Police confiscated
this homemade shotgun from a motorcyclistWednesday in Limón. Later they found two men in a taxi carrying top-of-the-line pistols illegally. Committee to
study status of firearms
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The security ministry has reactivated what it calls the national interdisciplinary committee to consult on the control and proliferation of firearms and munitions. Gustavo Mata Vega, a vice minister, said that officials want a clear outline of both legal and illegal firearms. The committee includes representatives from various ministries and also from the Fundación Arias para la Paz y el Progreso Humano. An organization from all of Central America also is involved. The committee did not suggest any direction that it might follow, but the Arias foundation, at least, is not a supporter of the human right of self defense, as outlined by the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, police said they confiscated several firearms Wednesday, including one that was homemade from pipes. A main complaint of expats is that possession of firearms is restricted to permanent residents and not pensionados or rentists, so a new arrival might have to await four years before being able to obtain a weapon legally. Expats who are eligible to obtain weapon's permits also complain about the delays in processing their application. |
| Costa Rican News |
AMCostaRicaArchives.com |
Retire NOW
in Costa Rica |
CostaRicaReport.com |
| Fine Dining
in Costa Rica |
The CAFTA Report |
Fish
fabulous Costa Rica |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| From Page 7: Del Monte Fresh receives sustainably OK Special to A.M. Costa Rica
SCS Global Services has announced that Del Monte Fresh Produce has received sustainably grown certification for all of its banana plantations in Costa Rica and Guatemala as well as its pineapple farms in Costa Rica. Receiving certification for these operations marks the culmination of a multi-year effort by Del Monte to improve and verify its sustainable farming practices in Central America through third-party assessment, said the worldwide certification body. Del Monte bananas and pineapples will now feature the SCS Kingfisher Sustainably Grown certification mark in stores. First introduced in 2003, the SCS sustainably grown certification program is one of the world's most strict standards for sustainable agriculture, the firm said. The standard includes yearly auditing for compliance and emphasizes continuous improvement, requiring certified farms to build on their sustainable practices over time. "Sustainably grown recognizes agricultural operations that are on the cutting edge of sustainable farming," said Stanley Rhodes, founder and CEO of SCS Global Services. "Del Monte has proven that they are serious about growing bananas and pineapples in ways that minimize environmental impact while ensuring the health and safety of its workers and their communities." |
