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A.M.
Costa Rica
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Published
Friday,
May
5, 2017, Vol.
17, No. 89
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Published Friday,
May 5, 2017,
Vol. 17, No.
89
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Sewage work in San
José on Monday
By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
As of next Monday, the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados will be closing some streets in San José in order to continue the replacement of the sewage pipes. The streets closing will be at Calle 0, between Avenida Segunda y Avenida Primera. That's 200 meters north from the main entrance of the Catedral Metropolitana, the institute said in a statement. The organization sought to assure commuters and pedestrians that traffic police will be on site helping drivers and passersby find alternative routes. The works are expected to improve the sewage treatment and avoid wastewater flooding that has occurred in the past. The institute also advises that the surrounding businesses take proper measures to prepare for this closing.  International Surf
Association photo
Both groups seek to increase
exposure and recognition for sport.Paddlesurfers
seek recognition in sports
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff The International Surfing
Association announced Thursday that it would
be formally teaming up with its sister
Association of Paddlesurf Professionals to
develop the latter’s StandUp paddle sport.
According to a statement by the surf group, the association is acquiring minority ownership in the paddlesurf professionals’ World Tour and providing an official sanction of all its events. This agreement also makes the International Surfing Association the sole governing body for surfing including paddlesurf. In terms of advertising and promotions, this represents a potential boon for the surf group as the World Tour will officially sanctioned and trademarked by it. The two surf groups also see an opportunity to add paddlesurfing into the mix of the Olympic games under the head organization’s leadership and authority. “Stand Up Paddling has seen exponential growth over the past decade as surfing’s most accessible format,” said Tristan Boxford, the CEO for the Association of Paddlesurf Professionals World Tour. “With no geographic limitations or barrier to entry, anywhere there is water, Stand Up Paddling has become one of the most diverse water sports in the world. We are excited to align with the ISA and to combine efforts and resources to creatively promote this sport that we love and are committed to.” Boxford also hoped that the new agreement would bolster the push to include the unique style of surfing into the next Olympic games to be held in Tokyo, Japan in 2020. Our reader's
opinion
In defense of a
realtor-run MLS
Dear A.M. Costa
Rica:
Gary Keenan of San Jose has a point about making real estate more efficient with an MLS, but who is going to run it if not a recognized and regulated board of realtors? Surely we do not want the government involved. But more than that, the issues raised about problems with agents here are exactly why there is a need for organizing and regulating the profession. Doctors have their "Colegio" as do lawyers and I am sure few would want those structures eliminated. Under the new plan, there is to be an educational requirement and an ethics standard that must be adhered to. I have been living here for more than 33 years most of that time working in Real Estate under the Century 21 banner. We do need to professionalize the real estate industry to help protect and serve our clients. By law, lawyers will still be involved in the due diligence and closings and anyone can sell or buy on their own, but some regulations will help eliminate the problems caused by uneducated and unethical "agents" who prey on the unsuspecting client who put their trust in them. This law has been a long time coming and has been refined and improved each time it has been brought up for consideration. The vast majority of professionals in real estate here support it as do many property buyers and sellers who have been negatively affected by not having such regulation. Thomas Ghormley
H.
Playa Jacó
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Published Friday,
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Vol. 17, No.
89
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| Viability
of Costa Rican wine is possible if done tropical-style |
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By Rommel Téllez
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff “It is time for Costa Rica to enter the wine industry, not by emulating what already exists but creating our own variety, our own identity,” said Virgilio Vidor, a tropical wine researcher working at Universidad de Costa Rica. By modifiying seeds in his lab, Vidor has spent 45 years coming up with new types of grapes better adjusted to the Costa Rican weather. His ideal is to obtain a wine whose added value is the particular taste that only the tropics can provide. According to data provided by the Promotora del Comercio Exterior, the government agency in charge of supporting Costa Rican exporters, Costa Rica doesn't really sell it's own wine to other countries other than for marketing or personal purposes. Figures show that 2013 was the year with the most amount of wine exports registered. At the time, the total value of product sold accounted for $13,547. The main destination was Panamá. In 2015 no sales were registered and in 2016 the sales decreased to $1,162. Vidor said this happens because local producers focus on creating versions of American, Chilean or European wines. “Even though we can create our own version of a Pinot, it is a world innovation to sell wine out of seeds adapted to our conditions,” he said. Competing in the traditional market can be hard, as in the case of Víctor Vargas, one of those entrepreneurs trying to forge a path in the taste of Costa Ricans. He is an agronomist who sells fruit wines to the local market under the name of Vinos Don Julián. In his case, he believes the added value of any Costa Rican wine should be the local ingredients and an organic process. “Producing traditional wine is not profitable and there's a lot of competition in that area. It's not nice to say it but Ticos prefer to buy foreign brands than supporting local companies,” he said. “I'm sure there is a better forecast in international markets by offering fruit wines,” Vargas said. “Once, at a fair in Slovakia, some European importers approached me and purchased my product. They found the blackberry wine to be of a very good quality.” According to Promotora del Comercio Exterior, in 2015 Costa Rica imported 10,957 tons of wine, meaning a value of $24.2 million. |
 Virgilio Vidor photo
One of many types
of grapes that hopefully become wine.
In the case of Bodegas de Vinos Saprissa, a family business located in Moravia, San José, it also develops wine out of tropical fruits including blackberries and cashews. The main difference is they do produce wine out of grapes and sell it into the Costa Rican market at an affordable price. This is possible because they import the mosto from Chile. Mosto is the Spanish name of the grape juice that will be fermented, according to Maribel Mora, spokesperson of the company. She also said that any grape produced in the country would not have the required quality. “It's like growing bananas in Europe,” Ms. Mora said. “All you are going to get is a sorry sample of what the real fruit is.” “We know the Costa Rican consumers will turn to wine only if there is no beer, rum or vodka. Anyways, our market is growing and more Costa Ricans now include wine as a regular drink,” she said. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page |
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Published Friday,
May 5, 2017,
Vol. 17, No.
89
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| Mosquito diseases also favor certain temperature range, study says | |
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By the Stanford
University press staff
As temperatures rise with climate change, mosquito season extends past the summer months in many parts of the world. The question has been how this lengthened season influences the risk of being infected with mosquito-born diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and zika. Now, in a paper published on April 27 in “PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases,” Stanford researchers modeled how rising temperatures might influence mosquito behavior and disease risk around the world. The researchers also calibrated their model with field data on human infections of mosquito-borne diseases. “Dengue epidemics have been on the rise in the past couple decades so there’s been a growing effort trying to understand why we’re seeing more dengue, and what the relationship is between dengue transmission and climate,” said study lead author Erin Mordecai, an assistant professor of biology. Temperature controls several factors that underlie the time it takes for a virus to be transmittable to humans. These include how long it takes for a mosquito to ingest a virus during one feeding and then be ready to inject it in a later feeding; the length of the mosquito’s life cycle; and how often mosquitoes bite. “All these traits rely on temperature, but they tend to be nonlinear,” Ms. Mordecai said. “They increase to a point and then drop off.” The group found that mosquito traits favorable to spreading disease peaked when temperatures reached 29 degrees Celsius, or 84 degrees Fahrenheit, but were lower when temperatures were cooler or warmer. When Ms. Mordecai looked at transmission of dengue, chikungunya and zika in people, those results matched what her models predicted. She said that if you graph how transmission rates change with temperature, you get a bell-shaped curve peaking at 29 degrees Celsius. Knowing the optimal temperature for disease transmission is critical for predicting future disease rates, Ms. Mordecai said. Before this study, she said, there was a wide range of temperature predictions from other researchers. |
 Stanford University
photo
Workers in Ecuador spray insecticide to
kill mosquitoes. “If we’re predicting a 29 degree optimum and another model is predicting a 35 degree optimum, the other model will say that climate change will increase transmission,” she said, pointing out that if local temperatures are already close to the optimal level, infection may go down as temperatures rise. The information can also help predict how and where disease might spread with climate change. “We really want to build more predictive models that take climate information and make predictions about when and where we can invest in vector control to try to prevent epidemics,” Ms. Mordecai said. This kind of planning is especially important in countries that have lower socioeconomic levels. “Concentrated urban poverty is really where you see a lot of vector-borne disease transmission,” Ms. Mordecai said. She explained that the mosquito that carries dengue, chikungunya and zika is an opportunist. It will breed in any water container it can find, from bottle caps to water storage basins. “You tend to see a lot of people exposed to a lot of mosquitoes in places where access to piped water is not reliable, because storage basins are where people are storing water.” Mordecai knows there is more work to be done with mosquito-borne illnesses. “There’s lots of discussion about what’s going to be the next thing. What’s the next zika?” She said this model will help researchers predict when and where transmission of the next zika might happen and allow enough time to prepare for the event. |
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 news page |
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Published Friday,
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Vol. 17, No.
89
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House revoking Obamacare By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
President Donald Trump and House Republicans marked the hard-fought passage of their health care bill with a White House victory party Thursday, stopping to savor the first step toward the administration's first major legislative win. The victory gave the White House and Capitol Hill Republicans a vital exercise in working together just weeks after they failed at a first attempt to replace the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence intensified their negotiations the second time around, crafting a bill that passed by just enough votes to move on to debate in the Senate. The White House now faces the tough prospect of getting the health care bill past the Senate's much tighter vote margins. But with elated House Republicans gathered around him in the White House Rose Garden, Trump promised a win. Trump marked the 100-day milestone of his presidency last week with numerous executive orders signed but no major policies passed through the Republican-controlled Congress. "I've never, ever seen any kind of engagement like this," House Speaker Paul Ryan said of the level of involvement Trump and Pence brought to the health care negotiations. In a final morning meeting before the health care vote, Republican leadership played inspirational music from the movie Rocky, read quotes from U.S. World War II Gen. George S. Patton and talked about the president's leadership. "There was a lot of talk about them engaging more than they'd ever seen a president and vice president engage," said Representative Daniel Webster, a Republican from Florida, who said he had received multiple calls from Trump over the past few days. He changed his vote to a yes after receiving reassurances from the White House about his state's Medicaid program. Many Republicans said Trump's deal-making skills would help get the bill passed in the Senate. The stakes for the Trump White House intensified an already-emotional vote that fulfilled seven years of Republican promises to replace Obamacare. As House members anxiously watched the vote totals inch toward the 216 votes required for passage, victory beers arrived in Republican offices and buses bound for the White House idled outside the U.S. Capitol. Furious House Democrats waved and sang "hey, hey goodbye,” from the 1969 song "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye,” on the House floor to remind their Republican colleagues the so-called Trumpcare vote would ruin their re-election chances in the 2018 mid-terms. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Republicans were tattooing themselves with a bill that will forever be held against them, even though it has little chance of passage in the Senate. Senate Democrats voiced concerns about the last-minute changes needed to pass the bill. "Republicans are trying to sneak through their second, even worse version of Trumpcare without debate or any analysis of what it would mean for our country," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday morning. "Trumpcare is a breathtakingly irresponsible piece of legislation." In a move that could foretell a much tougher Senate fight, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted his concerns about the bill just before it passed the House on Tuesday. "I'm concerned with the process," Graham tweeted. "A bill, finalized yesterday, has not been scored, amendments not allowed, and 3 hours final debate, should be viewed with caution." Trump and Turnbull unite following rumors of conflict By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
U.S. President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull have pledged long-term friendship between the two countries, despite rumors of strife between them stemming from a phone call earlier this year. Trump met with Turnbull late Thursday ahead of a dinner honoring U.S. and Australian veterans of a pivotal World War II battle. He called stories that he had once hung up the phone on the prime minister fake news. In remarks at the dinner, Trump said he and Turnbull had discussed crucial issues ranging from international security to trade. He said the two leaders had reaffirmed the tremendous friendship between the two countries and the vital importance of a continued alliance with one another. This is the first face-to-face meeting between the two men since Trump abruptly ended an introductory phone call with Turnbull in February. Trump objected to a pre-existing agreement between Washington and Canberra that the U.S. would accept some refugees currently in Australian custody. The deal also precluded gaining some refugees from the Central American region, some of whom are being held in Costa Rica, under a promise of transfer in exchange. Trump reportedly called the deal dumb and the worst deal ever before ending the call. He also is reported to have told Turnbull that he had spoken to four other world leaders that day, but that his phone call with Turnbull was the worst call by far.  Voice of America photo
View of Fort Davis
from up high.
Fort
Davis historic site gives
a window into the Old West By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
As national parks traveler Mikah Meyer continued his journey across western Texas, he got a chance to immerse himself further in American history. At Fort Davis National Historic Site, he learned what an important role the military outpost played in the 1800s, helping to defend American interests in the West Texas Chihuahuan Desert. Established by Brevet Major Gen. Persifor F. Smith on Oct. 23, 1854, and named for then-Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, Fort Davis was a key post in the defense system of west Texas for almost half a century. From 1854 until 1891, troops stationed here protected wagon trains, mail coaches and travelers on the San Antonio-El Paso Road. High up on the nearby bluffs, Mikah had a bird’s eye view of the entire site, considered one of the best surviving examples of a military post in the American Southwest. The site also honors the Buffalo Soldiers, freed African American slaves who joined the U.S. Army following the Civil War. They were called Buffalo Soldiers because Plains Indians thought the soldiers' hair resembled that of buffalo, an animal the Indians greatly revered. The Buffalo Soldiers stationed at Fort Davis served from 1867 to 1885, where they played a major role in the settlement and development of the American West. Their mission was to protect travelers and the mail on the San Antonio-El Paso Road, and to support military operations to control hostile American Indians. Indeed, today, the National Park Service is proud to preserve this historic site as a lasting memorial to all U.S. soldiers who faithfully served their country for almost half a century. Fort Davis was officially abandoned on June 30, 1891. Congress authorized Fort Davis National Historic Site as a unit of the National Park Service in 1961. Russian opposition leader granted passport he can’t use By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said early Thursday he had been granted a passport, but later posted on social media that government officials wouldn't let him use the documents to travel outside the country. Navalny said after denying him the travel document for five years, authorities unexpectedly issued him a passport so he could travel abroad to receive treatment for his eye. Navalny suffered a severe chemical burn on his face last week when an attacker dumped a green dye on him and, as a result, has lost 85 percent of the sight in his right eye. He was under the impression he could use his passport to travel abroad for treatment, but he said a prison official phoned his lawyer Thursday to inform him that Navalny would not be permitted to leave the country. Navalny had previously been denied the document over an embezzlement conviction many observers believe to be politically motivated. Navalny has said he thinks he may be able to regain full use of the eye. In an earlier post on his blog, Navalny said his doctors suggested he go abroad for treatment, as he may need to receive a cornea transplant. On Wednesday, a Russian court denied Navalny's appeal of the embezzlement charges that were lodged against him over a timber deal he was involved with in 2009. The court's decision to uphold the charges could mean Navalny is ineligible to run for president in 2018. Navalny has said he believes he is eligible to run because he is not imprisoned. However, some Russian legal experts have questioned this. SpaceX says it will launch Internet-providing satellites By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
Elon Musk’s SpaceX says it will begin launching Internet-providing satellites in 2019. The move was announced Wednesday by SpaceX vice president of satellite and government affairs, Patricia Cooper, in testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. She said the company eventually plans to field 4,425 small satellites into low Earth orbit by 2024 using the company’s partially reusable Falcon 9 rockets. Internet access via satellites can be slow, but Ms. Cooper said technological advances will make SpaceX able to offer speeds comparable to terrestrial providers. The company says Internet speed in the U.S. lags behind other developed countries. Furthermore, standard broadband providers do not serve rural areas. The company’s “constellation” of satellites could deliver high speeds without cables. Cooper added that space-based Internet avoids some of the pitfalls for terrestrial providers. "In other words, the common challenges associated with sitting, digging trenches, laying fiber and dealing with property rights are materially alleviated through a space-based broadband network," Cooper said. Scientists tracking beetles in effort to stop plant plague By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
Rob Dunn is trying to prevent squash heart attacks. Carried by the spotted cucumber beetle, a bacterial disease is giving squash, pumpkins, cucumbers and melons the botanical equivalent of clogged arteries. Wilting leaves are the first sign as the bacteria multiply in the plant's circulatory system. The disease can nearly wipe out a farmer's field. "It's a bad way to die," Dunn said. "All your veins have been filled up with some bacteria." Dunn, an ecologist at North Carolina State University, said the way we farm today makes it easy for this and other plant plagues to spread. Modern farms raise just a few crops over wide areas. While they feed more people more affordably than ever, there are risks in this way of feeding the world. For a hungry pathogen, a giant monoculture is “the holy land, right? It's unbelievable. You can eat from one end to the other," Dunn said. The Irish potato famine of the 1840s is the worst-case scenario. About a million people died when a fungus wiped out the one crop on which most of the population subsisted. That kind of catastrophe is rare. But Dunn says devastating disease outbreaks are an inevitable byproduct of modern agriculture. Dunn tells several of those stories in his new book, Never Out of Season. One example: Henry Ford's rubber plantations. The auto pioneer planted millions of rubber trees on land carved out of the Brazilian Amazon in the 1930s. But pests and disease ravaged them again and again. Ford gave up in 1945. Fordlandia, as the first plantation was known, is now an abandoned ruin. Then there's the fungus that nearly wiped out cocoa production in Brazil, a suspected bioterrorist attack that wrecked the economy and transformed the ecosystem; and the cassava mealybug that threatened Africa in the 1980s. Still, Dunn says he doesn't expect agriculture to change anytime soon. "People like cheap food," he said. "We feed more people than we ever have." But, he added, we should be doing much more to prepare for the next inevitable plague. That means collecting and preserving as many crop varieties as possible, plus their wild relatives. In addition, we need to know much more about the complex microbial ecosystem living in, on and around our crops. Dunn is working to fill in some of those gaps and he wants the public to help. Scientists don't know how far squash heart attack disease has spread, and they don't know where the beetles that carry the disease are from year to year. So, scientists want anyone growing squash, or pumpkins, melons, cucumbers or any of the other members of the family, to watch out for them. Dunn hopes to collect millions of images from around the world, which would help scientists get a better sense of which of these beetles is living in which places and eating what. And, hopefully, stay one step ahead of the next plant plague.
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| A.M. Costa Rica sixth news page |
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Published Friday,
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Vol. 17, No.
89
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 United States
Embassy photo
The United States
Embassy to Costa Rica has a new and improved
website for expats to use and critique. The
website has seven sections taken down in a
more user-friendly platform than the older
model. It also added a scrolling, horizontal
newsfeed with updates from the embassy as much
as security warnings. Expats can check out for
themselves the website HERE. Government
gives ok to cut down trees
By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
The Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía has granted permission to cut down trees and trade wood with the purpose of helping small producers in the Huetar Norte Region of Costa Rica. Under the surveillance of the ministry's sub-agencies, property owners that include some of those forested areas within their lines will be encouraged to create jobs in lumber work, transportation, managing and other areas derived from forestry or lumber activity. This would also allow increase in the use of wood instead of more polluting materials such as aluminum and plastics, officials from the environmental ministry said. “The small producers will be linked in a collaboration and support scheme,” said Edgar Gutiérrez, Ministry of Ambiente y Energía, after signing the decree that creates the special cluster. The ministry said in a press release that public and private actors are taking part in this project, which seeks to promote wood production as a development activity for the this and other areas in the near future. |
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| Caja collects more than 85 million colons By the A.M. Costa Rica staff The Costa Rica social security fund just added more coins to its purse, if almost 85 million colons count as coins. The money is part of the collection efforts that the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social has been doing over the first three months of the year on indebted employers. Luis Diego Calderón, the director of collections, said these results were achieved thanks to a policy of tough love that the Caja is imposing on delinquent payers. That included drawing over 1,083 procedures to shut the business down for failure to pay. It included entering over 1,256 payment plans with the Caja and report a total of 13,148 collection notices, Calderón said. Over 26,000 phone calls later to those delinquent payers, the indicator showing the percentage of billing accumulated over the past three months, reached almost 3 percent. The Caja said this reached higher than its target goal when taken with the enormous turnover that the organization made to the Ministerio de Educación Pública back in December. The institution hopes to collect more than 21 million colons and maintain the indicator at normal levels. Interest rates were reduced for conventions and payment arrangements. To aid in those collections of delinquent payments, Caja said in a statement that the deadlines were increased for the formalization of payment agreements from three to four years at an incremental rate. Among other changes, the conditions for the formalization of payment agreements with independent workers were improved, specifically in the payment of the initial payment, the group said. The possibility of making two adjustments to the payment agreement was equally expanded and conditions were improved in the readjustment of payment arrangements. It included the possibility of using as collateral trust contracts. |
