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San
José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, May 5, 2015,
Vol.
15, No. 87
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Our readers' opinions
Some tips to keep property safeDear A.M. Costa Rica: Phil Baker's article in the Monday issue was of great interest to me, as it should be to anyone contemplating real property purchases here in Costa Rica. Phil and I are well acquainted and have shared mutually beneficial information regarding our respective professional specialties for several years. The accuracy and veracity of the article can be accepted at face value. It is difficult for the newcomer to fully appreciate the breadth, depth and ubiquity of corruption and turpitude extant in this simultaneously strange, beautiful, marvelous and dangerous country. The comments on lawyers are particularly relevant. To quote The Sage of Survival in Costa Rica: "An honest lawyer is one who will do crooked things on your behalf." I have had to recover property in a forceful manner, and, although I don't recommend it, the ability to do so should be in one's quiver. Additionally, you should do the following things: 1.) Visit your property personally and conduct inspections every 29 days at a minimum. 2.) At the Registro Nacional or other location, buy a personeria juridica that identifies you as the controlling party regarding the property in question. Do this every 90 days. 3.) Learn to enter the Web site of the Registro and to enter the identifying numbers of the property to verify lack of movement. This is easy and should be done as often as possible. 4.) Get to know the local cops. The Fuerza Pública will evict precaristas (squatters, although this word appears to be Costa Rican as opposed to Spanish in general use) at times, and under certain conditions. Help them out from time to time. I have bought parts for patrol cars, provided free firearms training and educational material from time to time and, asking nothing in return, consider this an investment in my community's security, not bribery. There are more skills that experience will bring, but familiarizing yourself with the basics above will go a long way. On a personal note, my thanks to Phil Baker. About a year ago, in a state of near total exhaustion after 20 hours of being surrounded in unfriendly territory and managing to prevail in the re-taking of my six hectares in Guanacaste all alone at the age of 70, Phil Baker's voice on the phone was a welcome sound. Thanks, Phil, and good luck. Harv Brinson
San Ramón 'You couldn't make this stuff up . . . .' Dear A.M. Costa Rica: When I was first investigating the possibility of moving to Costa Rica more than 11 years ago, I was given some very good advice from someone who had been here for more than 20 years: Don't buy property! He cited as his reasoning the now defunct development company who, for the upfront payment of $25,000, would allow prospective buyers to look at their project with the promise that if they didn't like what they saw, their money would be refunded. We see how well that worked out, with that company absconding with many millions of dollars and leaving unfinished projects dotting the landscape. It always struck me as strange that anyone would think forking over twenty-five grand before they looked at something was a good idea. Would they do that in the U.S.? I doubt it seriously, but oh, it was Costa Rica in the boom years and people couldn't hand over money fast enough. I found out later than the reason this scam wasn't exposed sooner was that the company's legal muscle promptly threatened a battery of lawsuits against anyone who dared complain that they'd been ripped off. Most people shut up immediately and cut their losses or tried to participate in the myriad class action lawsuits that went mostly nowhere. I did not follow the advice of my friend. I did buy property and built a house, and I guess I was lucky because I have the title and everything seems to have been done properly. But it always amazes me that there were people who did build very expensive houses on land they didn't own and could not get title to. It begs the question "Who does that?" In the States there are title insurance companies that make sure there are no clouded titles when property is transferred, and in the five or six homes sales I have participated in, the title company was the first team member. Why didn't people use a title company here? There is one, and I've heard they are very good. It's hard to muster sympathy for people who threw caution to the wind and didn't do their homework. My sympathies lie with the honorable businessmen such as Sheldon Hazeltine who was the victim of squatters and who has spent the last 16 years of his life trying to reclaim land that is rightfully his only to be harassed and dragged through court on bogus charges of impugning the reputation of the people who, for all intents and purposes, reappropriated his land. A decade and a half of litigation and what does he have to show for it? And where is the system that should be in place to protect people from this kind of swindling? I have been following this case for the last two-plus years, and I swear to God, you couldn't make this stuff up if you tried. I realize that there is a long history of squirrelly land deals in Latin America. A friend of mine whose family owned one of the loveliest stretches of beach in Mexico replied, when I told him how lucky he was that his grandfather bought such pristine property when it was still affordable, "Oh, he didn't buy it; he stole it from dead people!" And while many of us make jokes about Costa Rica being the land of the wanted and unwanted, it doesn't seem like much of a joke if you've been a victim of a property scam. Sheldon and I agreed that Somerset Maugham probably had it right (although Somerset was referring to Monte Carlo): This is a sunny place for shady people! Caveat emptor!! Trishas Spinelli
San Ramón de Alajuela Child labor campaign resumed By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Those expats who had paper routes when they were young might be surprised to learn that Costa Rica considers such activities to be illegal. The country has renewed an effort to eliminate what it calls trabajo infantil and and trabajo adolescente. The first, child labor, includes youngsters who are less than 15 years. The second, adolescents, includes youngsters from 15 to 18. Child labor is prohibited, and youngsters from 15 to 18 work under special rules. The central government is involved in the campaign with the International Labor Organization. The idea is to crack down on the estimated 40,000 jobs held by these youngsters when the jobs are not permitted by law, said the government. The government outlined a 10-year plan in 2010 that is being followed now by the Luis Guillermo Solís administration Part of the plan is to create economic conditions so that children do not have to work, said an announcement. There are plenty of children in the Central Valley who are on the streets with parents trying to sell small items or otherwise make money. Others work in domestic servant roles in homes. In agricultural areas, the jobs are in the fields. The Fundación Telefónica is supporting the government effort. This is a foundation linked to Movistar. Bodies of
boating victims found in gulf
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Searchers have found all four bodies of those killed in a boating accident Sunday afternoon. The Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas said the bodies of three children and a woman have been located. Five persons who also were in the boat were rescued when the small boat overturned. Sunday night searchers found the bodies of Ian Araya Zúñiga, 1, Cristhofer Rojas Araya, 3, and Ericka Arroyo Araya, 24. Monday they located the body of Yendry Rojas Araya, 5, they said. The four- to five-meter boat had nine persons aboard, said the Guardacostas. There were no lifejackets, officers said. The boat overturned just off Golfito in the Gulfo Dulce. New model shows future risk to coral By the Cornell University news staff
New climate model projections show that conditions are likely to increase the frequency and severity of coral disease outbreaks, reports a team of researchers led by Cornell University scientists, published in Nature Climate Change. Conserving coral reefs is crucial to maintaining the biodiversity of oceans and sustaining the livelihoods of the 500 million people that depend on coral reefs. Coral reefs are also important to the global economy, as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates the world’s coral reef systems are worth about $30 billion annually. In the agricultural world, scientists have been modeling disease risk and outbreak timing with weather for decades. However, these new model outputs of future conditions on reefs are the first to examine how expected changes in climate affect the risk of diseases among wildlife in the marine environment. The research team also compares their model outputs for coral disease with expected future changes in the more widely publicized impact of coral bleaching. “Perhaps more than any findings to date, these results indicate that increases in the prevalence and severity of coral diseases will be a major future driver of decline and changes in coral reef community composition, and at least as great a driver as coral bleaching,” said Jeffrey Maynard, a postdoctoral researcher in ecology and evolutionary biology and lead author. Warmer conditions increase the susceptibility of corals to the pathogens that cause disease and increase pathogen abundance and virulence. The climate stress compounds the strain caused by human activities near reefs, such as marine pollution, sedimentation caused by coastal development and overfishing. The research team examined the implications of both of these types of stress to corals to produce global maps of disease risk. Coral reef managers and policy makers now can use these maps to target actions to reduce stress on coral reefs and to test approaches to reduce disease impact. “This is the first attempt to project the effects of synergism between climate and human-related stressors on risk of coral disease,” said senior author Drew Harvell, Cornell professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, May 5, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 87 | |
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| Three chambers issue criticism of Holy Week municipal
alcohol bans |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The tourism, hotels and restaurant chambers have issued a blunt criticism of the 27 municipalities that enforced a dry law over Semana Santa. The joint statement noted that prohibiting the sale of alcohol on the Thursday and Friday of Holy Week damaged the economy and the tourism potential. The statement said that six years have passed since the dry law was obligatory in the entire country. A new law went into effect at that time that gives the municipalities the option of enforcing the law. The law clearly has religious intent. The chambers that issued the criticism were the Cámara Nacional de Turismo, the Cámara Costarricense de Hoteles and the Cámara Costarricense de Restaurantes. The statement said that the dry law favors large supermarkets that sell large quantities of alcohol before the ban is imposed. In fact, residents of Montes de Oca, which maintains the alcohol ban, travel to San José where the ban is not enforced to buy wine, beer and other alcohol those two days. The ban also affects the earning power of waiters and waitresses, the statement noted. Gustavo Araya, president of the Cámara de Hoteles was quoted as saying that the approval of the ban shows a lack |
 of leadership by mayors who let their local municipal councils establish a ban. The chambers urged the municipal governments to evaluate the impact before approving a ban again next year. |
| Mexicans remember the unexpected victory at the Battle of
Puebla today |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Today is May 5, Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican celebration that is not marked widely in Costa Rica. But the day means as much to Mexicans as the 1856 Battle of Rivas does to Costa Ricans. This was the day in 1862 when a smaller Mexican force routed a professional French army. The scene was the plains outside the city of Puebla where Mexican troops held the high ground around the Guadalupe and Loreto forts. The French invaded the country because Mexico's new government would not pay its international debts. Other European countries had reached agreement, but Napoleon III wanted to impose his rule on México. Perhaps it was dysentery, the rains or overconfidence, but the 6,500 professional soldiers of the French forces were overwhelmed by 4,500 Mexicans and lost more than 400 soldiers. The victory was a big boost to Mexican morale and for others in many areas of Latin America. The victory was not to stop the French. They returned reinforced, defeated the Mexicans again at Puebla the next year and then marched into Mexico City where Napoleon III installed Maximilian as the emperor. When French troops pulled out, the republican government of Benito Juárez captured Maximilian and sent him to the wall. Napoleon III had been able to breach the Monroe Doctrine because the United States was in the middle of the civil War. |
 Mexican cavalry charge at Puebla
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| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| Oxford study recounts how strict rules on wildlife sometimes
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By the University of Oxford News
Office
Western conservation groups are seeking stricter law enforcement to tackle a trade in endangered wildlife, but an Oxford University researcher warns that this is not a silver bullet solution. In an article published in the journal Oryx, Paul Jepson highlights the case of the Bali starling, where bringing in tougher laws backfired.The law only serving to make the bird more popular among the elite. He highlighted how sometimes local people who know the realities on the ground get better results. Jepson examines three different conservation efforts made over 30 years to protect the Bali starling (Leucopsar rothschildi), which went extinct in the wild in Bali, Indonesia, in 2006. He argues that the tightening of wildlife laws in the 1980s and 1990s led to the bird becoming a popular gift within Indonesian high society. The relevant Indonesian government agencies felt they could not enforce a crackdown because of the status of the bird-keepers. By owning such birds, members of high society appeared to be above the law, and the birds became a status symbol. The paper suggests through triggering a demand for the bird, tighter laws actually contributed to the species’ demise and extinction in the wild before its reintroduction in 2008. Jepson’s view contrasts with that held by the leading conservation groups who pressed governments worldwide to make illegal wildlife trade a more serious crime at the 2014 London Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade. He highlights two initiatives that emerged independently from the Balinese and Javanese communities that relied on a relaxation of the enforcement of the laws on wildlife trading. First, in 2003, a zoo and a bird-breeder association set up a network of breeders among the owners of Bali starlings on the island of Java. Their model transformed the Bali starling |
into a
species
whose price and source of supply were publicly known,
thereby undermining the status attached to owners of these birds, as
well as the profitability of black market suppliers. Licensed breeders were required to donate some of the Bali starlings for release into Bali Barat National Park. The first such release marked Indonesia’s hosting of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali in 2008. Another initiative highlighted is when a local Balinese conservation organization released captive-bred starlings on the neighboring island of Nusa Penida in 2006. An international conservation organization and the government’s relevant agency tried to block the plan because the island is outside the species’ known native range, saying any such release would contravene a strict interpretation of the law and international guidelines concerning the introduction of endangered species. The governor of Bali intervened and the starlings were given as a ceremonial offering to a local temple before they were released. This gave the bird status as a sacred bird and thereby offered them protection under customary laws. The released starlings established a breeding population and by 2009 third-generation offspring of these released birds were flying free on the island. Jepson commented: ‘I do not want to denounce the international approach seeking tighter law enforcement, but this case study shows we should not oversimplify how we respond to the problem of the wildlife trade. This study adds to a growing body of evidence that shows sometimes more nuanced approaches are needed to fit with the local social and political realities, and we should tailor solutions on more of a case-by-case basis. ‘Calls for stricter enforcement and trade bans represent a straight-forward solution that appeals to politicians and citizens alike. However, the complexity of the wildlife trade issue can be lost in the emotion of conservation campaigns.’ |
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
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| Probe continues into duo who attacked cartoon event By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. federal authorities are investigating two men killed by police in Texas after the men shot a security guard outside a free speech event. Police officials said the gunmen were roommates Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi of Arizona. Court documents show that Simpson had been under surveillance since 2006 and convicted in 2010 of lying to FBI agents over his desire to join violent jihad in Somalia. FBI agents and police searched the two men's home in Phoenix, cordoning off the apartment complex and evacuating residents for several hours. U.S. federal authorities were investigating the two men after they shot a security guard outside a venue holding a contest for Prophet Mohammad cartoons. Joe Harn, a spokesman for the Garland, Texas, police department, said Monday that while the motivation for the attack remains unknown, "obviously they were there to shoot people." Police found ammunition and luggage in the attackers' car, but no bombs despite initial suspicions. The guard was treated for a leg wound and released from the hospital. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said state officials are investigating, and Dallas FBI spokeswoman Katherine Chaumont said that agency is providing investigative and bomb technician assistance. President Barack Obama was briefed on the shooting Sunday night. Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, "We have seen extremists try to use expressions that they consider to be offensive as a way to justify violence, not just in this country but around the world. In the mind of the president, there is no form of expression that would justify an act of violence." An organization called the American Freedom Defense Initiative, also known as Stop the Islamization of America, sponsored the Garland event, which included a contest for cartoons depicting Islam's Prophet Muhammad and offered a $10,000 prize for the winner. The organization's executive director Pamela Geller said the event was about freedom of speech. The group's Web site said more than 350 cartoons were submitted to "show that Americans will not be cowed by violent Islamist intimidation." The Southern Poverty Law Center, which maintains data on hate groups throughout the United States, calls the American Freedom Defense Initiative an anti-Muslim extremist organization. Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism, said Monday the organization is an extremist group because of the messages Ms. Geller puts out. "I would say that she's so extreme at points, in terms of vilifying Muslims, that it creates an atmosphere that is not conducive to discussion," he said. "We've been concerned about Pamela Geller for several years," Segal added, "primarily because she is one of the leading American anti-Muslim bigots, consistently vilifying Muslims and the Islamic faith under the guise, of course, of fighting radical Islamists. They preach that Islam is inherently evil, and she has said that she prefers that immigration from Muslim countries is limited." Ahead of the event, Dallas Muslims had circulated messages on social media urging each other to ignore the event and not give the organizer any attention. Police in Garland said a bomb squad, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a SWAT team and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had been involved in preparations for security around the controversial exhibit and contest, for which organizers reportedly paid $10,000. Geller posted photos on social media ahead of the event, posing with three heavily armed men wearing camouflage. At the new conference, Harn also tried to distance the city from the meeting, which drew about 200 people, saying the group "really does not have much to do with Garland other than they rented the site." Ms. Geller described the shooting on her Web site as a terrorist attack, and said, “this is a war on free speech.” She is known for her efforts to block the opening of an Islamic center near the site of the World Trade Center towers that were brought down in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Dutch politician Geert Wilders, a critic of Islam who said last week the United States should ban Muslim immigrants, was the Sunday event's keynote speaker. He mentioned on Twitter the shots being fired and said he left the building after his address. Many Muslims find depictions of the Prophet Muhammad to be insulting to Islam. The issue has sparked tensions with those who see the drawings as a free speech issue. Lincoln funeral recreation ends in Springfield arrival By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Over the last four years, commemorative events to mark the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Civil War have brought thousands of visitors to battlefields and historic landmarks across the country. In Illinois, the final event in the Civil War's sesquicentennial honors the final journey home of the slain American President, Abraham Lincoln. 150 years ago on a wind-swept spot near Lake Michigan in Chicago, the coffin holding the remains of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln began a somber return to his hometown of Springfield. Dan Weinberg of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago, says a concerted effort was made to remain faithful to the past while planning the 150th anniversary commemoration. "There were 36 states in the Union, and they had one young woman dressed in white with a crepe around a white dress, each with a lily, that stood at the side of the hearse, then at the appointed moment, placed the lily on the coffin," said Weinberg. Equally faithful to the events that unfolded 150 years ago was the carefully choreographed re-enactment of the procession of Lincoln's body as it arrived in Springfield May 3, 1865. "It was total silence, and they took the coffin out of the train and through the large gothic arch 40 feet tall," said Weinberg. The replicated coffin and hearse that traveled through Springfield's downtown streets drew thousands of onlookers young and old, many who dressed in ornately-designed period military uniforms and costumes, like Diane and Charles Sanders. "This is a very special occasion. Lincoln was an Illinoisan. He was one of our favorite sons as well as a renowned national figure," said Sanders. Sanders said the massive turnout for this event 150 years later is a testament to Lincoln's lasting legacy as The Great Emancipator who ended slavery in the United States. "People of all races, people of all persuasions, identify with what Lincoln stood for. We are trying to reconnect today, we are coming back to that, we are trying to reconnect for what Lincoln stood for and what he did," he said. Pemon Rami of the DuSable Museum of African American History says Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 15, 1865, at the close of the Civil War, elevated the 16th President's status in America's collective memory. "He is more of a myth than a man," he said. "It's by no accident that we remember the fact that he was murdered. It was Frederick Douglass who said, had he maybe lived to be an old man, our appreciation might have been different. I think people will always look back and be questioning the impact that he had." Author links top Chinese to prosperous corporations By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The author of a groundbreaking New York Times story on links between China's top leaders and a multi-billion-dollar company says he started his year-long investigation by looking first at the corporation, Wanda Commercial Properties, and connecting it back to senior officials. In an interview, Michael Forsythe said after he discovered the names of investors for Wang Jianlin's corporation, he started looking into the annual reports of investment companies to find links to family members of senior officials, including the sister of President Xi Jinping. He says that what he discovered is that many of the family members have in recent years transferred their sizeable shares in Wanda to third parties who are no relation to the senior official but are employees or close associates of the family. Forsythe said in many ways, the investigation process is even easier than it is in the United States because Beijing keeps better records, including information on companies before they are listed for public trading. “Chinese companies’ materials are very comprehensive. On the Web site you can get some companies’ annual reports, and the report from the Industrial and commercial bureau in China. We use the materials of companies we found from the Web site to prove these people’s wealth. ... We need to interview people, to prove the relationship.” He said his research led him in one case to Pan Yongbin who lives in a modest apartment and does not appear to be wealthy, even though he legally owns tens of millions of dollars in Wanda shares. “Jia Qinlin’s son-in-law, Li Botan, a person named Pan Yongbin worked for him. I interviewed Pan when I was in Beijing," said Forsythe. "He is a very simple person. He said he is now in poor health. He lives at home. However, all the Wanda shares of Li are now under Pan’s name. He has 32 million shares of Wanda. Now it should exceed $200 million. Such a wealthy person only lives in a common apartment at Beijing, and his attitude is completely a worker's attitude, but he is legally very rich.” Most of the individuals detailed in his report were allowed to make investments in Wanda that grew as much as 10 times larger between 2009 and 2013, leaving the families of party officials very rich. The investment opportunities, which were not available to the general public, have become public during President Xi's high profile anti-corruption campaign. Dozens, if not hundreds, of lower ranking Communist Party officials have been investigated and, in some cases, punished for acts of corruption. However, it is not clear if the campaign will extend to all officials or will focus on those believed to belong to Communist Party factions that are rivals of Xi. The government in Beijing has not directly commented on The New York Times report. But in the past, official Chinese media reports have said western articles about the wealth of China's leaders are based on information fed by opponents of the Communist Party. However, Forsythe said his report was not assisted by any anti-Communist groups or individuals. $1.5 million prize offered for capturing wave power By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Sun and wind are seen as the most abundant sources of clean, renewable energy, but as many ocean-hugging countries know, the energy of ocean waves is also both powerful and endless. Looking for the most efficient ways to capture that energy, the U.S. Department of Energy has announced a $1.5 million-prize competition for new ideas. The department estimates that waves and tides along the U.S. coasts generate 1,420 terawatt-hours of energy annually. That is equal to the output of more than 330 nuclear power plants. Unfortunately, the efficiency of today’s technologies for capturing that energy is only about 20 percent, too low for the investment to be economical, says Jose Zayas, director of the Wind and Water Power Technologies Office at the Department of Energy. “We’re really looking to step-change that into the high 30s-40s and I think… once you achieve that, then the economic competiveness of this industry really comes to life and that’s really the target that we are shooting for,” says Zayas. To encourage development of new technologies, the Department of Energy has launched a nationwide competition, called the Wave Energy Prize. Developing new devices to capture wave energy can be a challenge. The environment in which wave capture machines must operate can be very harsh and unforgiving, with crushing blows of notoriously corrosive salty medium. Competition organizers expect that most of the new ideas will be coming from existing energy companies, but also from the academic sector and research institutions. Zayas says testing of the proposed technologies will be done in several phases. “We would have 1/50th scale testing where we would do the first fundamental evaluation of their performance, as well as making sure that they are in a pathway that can assure them success towards a prize. We will then down-select again, and near the end we will have about 10 teams… it’s our hope to be competing at 1/20th scale,” says Zayas. Testing of the scaled models will be done at the U.S. Navy’s huge indoor testing pool, with machines capable of generating ocean-size waves. Zayas says the models will not be required to produce electrical power. Instead they will have to prove how much of the wave energy they can capture. “We are looking at how the companies, architectures, have the ability to capture that energy and, of course, through high degrees of data analysis, acquisition sensing, actually quite easy to convert that mechanical kinetic energy into electrical energy, giving us confidence that at least the attributes of the machine are in line with the objectives of the prize,” says he. Zayas says the ultimate goal of the Wave Energy Prize is to inspire a new set of power-generating technologies for the 21st century. Developers of the three best performing devices will be awarded prizes ranging from $250,000 to $1.5 million. Obama proposes new plan to give minorities success By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama said Monday that recent urban protests show the United States needs to do more to make sure its youth, particularly black and Latino boys and young men, have an equal chance to succeed in America. "We cannot guarantee everyone's success," Obama said, but the country can ensure an equal shot. Speaking at Lehman College in New York, he announced the launch of a nonprofit foundation aimed at carrying out his My Brother’s Keeper initiative to improve education and job prospects for youths across the country, particularly in impoverished communities. Announcement of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance came a week after rioting and looting erupted in the eastern city of Baltimore, Maryland, following the death of a young black man from a spinal cord injury while in police custody. Six police officers have been charged with various crimes in the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. Protesters in Baltimore also cited high unemployment and poor schools in their inner-city neighborhoods. Obama said a sense of hopelessness in such neighborhoods "begins with birth and compounds over time" and helped fuel a week of protests in Baltimore and elsewhere. Minority groups have complained of overly aggressive police tactics in some communities such as Baltimore, a city that has paid out more than $5.7 million to settle lawsuits in recent years. But the president said that merely retraining police would deal with the problem too narrowly. Obama said the nation needs to make certain that equality of opportunity is not an empty promise. "It's about who we are as a people," Obama said. "What kind of society do we want to have?" Leading the nonprofit alliance will be Joe Echevarria, former chief executive of the Deloitte accounting and consulting firm. The White House said it already has gotten more than $80 million in financial and in-kind commitments from Deloitte, American Express, PepsiCo, BET and other firms. Businesses aren't extending help just to assuage society's guilt, Obama said in his speech. "They're doing this because they know that making sure all of our young people have the opportunity to succeed is an economic imperative." Meanwhile, Baltimore slowly returned to normal Monday after a citywide curfew ended Sunday after five nights. National Guard troops started to withdraw and stores began to reopen. Parts of the city exploded in violence after Gray's funeral a week ago, leaving stores and cars burned, police officers injured, and more than 200 people arrested, although many were later freed as police struggled to process arrest records. |
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World Health
cites need for vaccinations
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Wars, disease, even personal choice have left children around the world, in rich countries and in poor, under immunized. The World Health Organization says progress toward global vaccination targets for this year are far off track. "One out of five children is missed out of routine immunization," said the Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, a public health expert with World Health In practical terms, this means that 1.5 million children will most likely die from preventable diseases, such as polio, measles and tetanus. It wasn't until mid-April that immunization programs started up again in the ebola-stricken countries of West Africa. World Health said most of the children who are missing their immunizations live in the world's poorest countries. But some live in rich countries like the United States. The U.S. weathered a measles outbreak that started at the Disneyland amusement park in California last December and lasted until mid-April. Measles can kill. It can also cause blindness, hearing loss and permanent brain damage. Some parents, however, are lobbying for the right to decide whether to vaccinate. Many such parents are concerned that vaccines can cause autism, despite several studies that show it does not. Yet another study disproving any connection between autism and a vaccine against measles and mumps has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This study followed nearly 100,000 children who had been vaccinated up until the age of 5. Anjali Jain of the Lewin Group, a health care consulting firm in Falls Church, Virginia, led the study. She said that "we found no evidence of a harmful association between the MMR vaccine and autism spectrum disorders." On a positive note, the Americas are now free of rubella, a viral disease similar to measles. That's according to the Pan American Health Organization. World Health aims to eliminate rubella from another region by the end of this year and redouble its efforts to make sure more children get the vaccinations they need to stay healthy and lead productive lives. Great Russian ballerina dies at 89 By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Renowned Russian ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, 89, one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century, died Saturday in Germany of an apparent heart attack. Russia’s official Tass news agency quoted Bolshoi director Vladimir Urin as saying “the doctors tried everything, but there was nothing they could do.” He spoke after conferring with Ms. Plisetskaya’s husband, Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin, in Munich. Known as a supreme technical and dramatic performer, Ms. Plisetskaya was a mainstay in Russia’s premier ballet for more than five decades, becoming the Bolshoi’s prima ballerina in 1960. She retired as a soloist in 1990 at age 65. Born into a prominent Russian-Jewish family, Ms. Plisetskaya at age 12 last saw her father, who was arrested in 1937 and shot to death a year later, a victim of Josef Stalin’s purges. She later wrote that she didn't learn the date of his death until 1989. Her mother was accused of treason and sent to a labor camp in Kazakhstan, leaving the teenage prodigy to be raised by relatives. Ms. Plisetskaya in 1983 became one of the first Soviet celebrities permitted to work for a Western dance company without having to defect when she became the artistic director of the Rome Opera Ballet. After retirement, she moved with her husband to Munich in 1991 and later worked as a ballet director and choreographer, teaching master classes around the world. |
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| From Page 7: Boehner backs renewing Export-Import Bank By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner says the beleaguered U.S. Export-Import Bank may need some reforms, but thousands of jobs would disappear quickly if the agency were allowed to go out of business at the end of June. That is when the Export-Import Bank's authorization expires, and without congressional action, it will have to stop accepting new customers at that time. The Export-Import Bank supplies financing and loan guarantees to foreign customers of U.S. companies. Many of the Republican Party's most conservative members criticize the Export-Import Bank as a form of corporate welfare that helps huge corporations with political clout at the expense of taxpayers and other American firms. At a contentious hearing before two House subcommittees Thursday, Republican Jim Jordan said dozens of investigations and a guilty plea in a bribery case show the agency has a corruption problem. Jordan also accused the agency of poor leadership and of losing track of half a billion dollars’ worth of taxpayers' money in one of its biggest projects. Bank President Fred Hochberg says the money was properly accounted for, and the bank supported 164,000 U.S. jobs last year. Supporters of the bank say it offers its services to companies large and small and makes money for the government through fees and interest charges. Critics dispute the claim the bank is profitable. Key parts of the U.S. business community have spoken out in favor of continuing the Export-Import Bank and note that 60 other nations have agencies that help boost their exports. At the hearing, Rep. Maxine Waters, a Democrat, urged her Republican colleagues to stand up for the bank and the jobs that depend on it. |
