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San
José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 30, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 106
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Cruz Roja team
joins search
for missing Dutch women By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A Cruz Roja mountain rescue team has gone to Panamá to join the search for two Dutch women missing there since April 2. The Cruz Roja here said that the specialized team was requested by the government of Panamá and the Dutch Embassy. The search and rescue team is believed to be based in Barú, near the volcano of the same name, which is the highest peak in Panamá. The area has a lot of rough terrain. The two women vanished about April 2 from Boquete in western Panamá. They are tourists Lisanne Froon and Kris Kremers. The Sistema Nacional de Protección Civil disaster relief organization conducted extensive searchers without success. In mid-May the Panamá News reported that a blouse belonging to one of two missing Dutch women has been found in the mountains, and that the search was renewed and moved especially into Parque Internacional La Amistad. The sprawling park is the largest nature reserve in Central America and straddles the Costa Rica-Panamá border. Taxi driver accused of robbing customers By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
If a customer got in the wrong taxi he or she might end up at the wrong end of a knife. Fuerza Pública officers said they detained a taxi driver on the complaints of three persons who said they had been robbed by the driver. The crimes took place south of the San José downtown. Police said the man was a fully licensed taxi driver who was associated with a prominent cooperative. Police said victims identified the driver and that he was remanded to the flagrancy court for immediate processing. Tamarindo theft suspect tracked to Santa Cruz bus By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Policía Turística said its officers managed to track down a suspect in the burglary of a tourist cabina in Tamarindo. They said the suspect was caught on a Santa Cruz-bound bus along with a television, a smart phone, cameras and camera accessories. The cabina was rented by a foreign tourist, they said. Internet firm suffers major server outage By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Tigo Star, the trade name of the Amnet cable television and Internet provider experienced a major outage Thursday night. Employees at a call center attributed the failures to problems with Internet servers. The company is making a change to increase the download velocity for customers. Playas del Coco arrest uncovers marijuana stash By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Policía de Control de Drogas said it detained an Italian with the last name of Girelli after they raided his home in Playas del Coco. They alleged that he was a major distributor of illegal substances in the beach community. Agents said they confiscated nearly three kilos of marijuana and a small amount of crack cocaine. They said the man was turned in by residents who filed a complaint via a confidential telephone call. Las Vegas firm to purchase Beachfront hotel in Jacó Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
Oriens Travel & Hotel Management said Thursday that it has initiated the process of acquiring a 42-unit hotel on the beach at Jacó. The Las Vegas firm said that it expects that upon the completion of the acquisition, it will immediately move to begin marketing the image of the property under its brand, which will be supported by the company's new Friendly Reservations Online booking system. Laser treatment tested to generate tooth growth By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire service
Cavities in teeth may someday be repaired using laser therapy. U.S. researchers are using the technology to regrow the tissue inside damaged teeth. Since the 1960's, physicians have used laser therapy to repair damaged tissue and destroy unwanted cells. Lasers can be tuned to different wavelengths to remove plaque from coronary arteries, to seal off leaky blood vessels in the eyes of people with diabetes to preserve sight, and to reattach retinas, the light sensing structure in the back of the eye. Now, Harvard University researchers are using low-power lasers to repair teeth. A bioengineer at the school’s Wyss Institute, David Mooney, says scientists aimed laser light for a few minutes on damaged teeth in rats. “We drill through, create this tooth defect and then we shine a laser onto the defect and onto the soft tissues that lies underneath the defect, and then then we place a temporary filling over that to provide some mechanical protection," said Mooney. After about 12 weeks, researchers removed the temporary filling and used x-rays to reveal the growth of new bone-like tissue called dentin. The laser light stimulated the regeneration by activating biologically dormant molecules called growth factors. Doctors have used low-level light therapy to activate a number of biological processes, including hair growth and skin repair, without knowing how it worked. In an article in Science Translational Medicine, the Harvard researchers identify transforming growth factor beta-1 as the regenerative protein. Mooney says it is unlikely that whole teeth could be regrown with laser therapy. But he sees two main applications - growing new dentin for people whose teeth are sensitive to hot and cold food and drink, and as an alternative to a root canal. In that procedure, all of the soft tissue inside the tooth is removed to repair decay or damage to the tooth. “So you could replace the lost dentin with reparative dentin and hopefully then maintain the overall health of the tooth. That is one application we see this could be useful in," he said. Having shown that the treatment is effective in rats, researchers are now planning clinical trials to see whether tooth regeneration can work in humans.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 30, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 106 | |
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| Legislators stress importance of free press in honoring La
Penca victims |
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By
Michael Krumholtz
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff Thirty years ago today a bomb went off during a press conference at La Penca in Nicaragua right by the Costa Rican border. The attack aimed at Contra leader Edén Pastore killed seven people, three of whom were news people. It is one of only two known terrorist attacks in history that happened at a press conference. Thursday lawmakers from Partido Liberación Nacional met with Nelson Murillo, a survivor from the bombing, and Colegio de Periodistas President Marlon Mora. The Asamblea Legislativa members came together to pay homage to the victims and their families, as well as harp on the importance of a sustained freedom of press in the country. Rafael Ortiz Fabrega called it a tragic event that Costa Ricans should remember the dark day so that hopefully no one else from the peaceful country suffers from terrorism. “Some journalists say that 'A journalist never forgets,'” he said. “Today I would like to say that Costa Ricans must never forget what happened at La Penca.“It remains a black mark on this country's history.” Ronny Monge, another Liberación representative, said he still remembers when he was an 18-year-old kid watching soccer with his family when news of the attack came over the television. He said he was forever impacted by those images, but they remind him how important a free press is for Costa Rica. “Thank God that reporters can continue asking questions in this country,” Monge said. |
 Partido Liberación Nacional photo
Lawmakers pause during
Thursday's legislative session for a moment of silence to remember the
La Penca bombing.Murillo also praised the country's continued support of its reporters, but added that the fight for journalism needs to continue. He shared that 30 years later he still feels a pain the bombing left behind. “Having suffered through the attack at La Penca is a living hell,” Murillo said. He and other survivors have campaigned for an international court case to go through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights since 2005. A Tuesday story is HERE! |
| Expats can just blame the zone for those heavy afternoon
downpours |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Most expats never have heard of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, but that is what is getting the blame for afternoon thundershowers. The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional said that the active zone is coming close to the country and that this will bring sometimes heavy rains today along the Pacific coast and in the Central Valley during the afternoon. The storms will be accompanied by lightning, the institute said. That was pretty much the case Thursday when pockets of thunderstorms created by the warm and humid morning marched through parts of the valley. The location and amount of rain was highly variable. The U.S. National Weather Service says that the convergence zone is a band of clouds consisting of showers, with occasional thunderstorms, that encircle the globe near the equator. The zone follows the sun in that the position varies seasonally, and it moves north in the northern summer and south in the northern winter, the weather service said. The zone is where the northern trade winds and the southern trade winds meet and force the air up higher. Sailors used to call the zone the doldrums because sometimes there is little air movement and sailing ships wold be becalmed. The weather institute predicts another hot and humid morning today, perfect condition for the predicted afternoon storms. The institute issued a warning bulletin at 10:30 a.m. Thursday The message noted that temperatures had approached 30 C or about 86 F in the Central Valley and higher along the Pacific coast. The institute noted that heavy rains could provoke slides and cause local flooding. As it turned out the rains did not reach the 30 to 65 millimeters or up to 2.5 inches, that was predicted. At best, the institute's automatic weather stations showed the heaviest rainfall to be about 8 millimeters or a bit more than a third of an inch in a section of Heredia. |
 Public domain graphic
Graphic shows how the zone
changes location in the Western Hemisphere depending on the time of
year. |
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| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 30, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 106 | |||||
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| Working standing up instead of being seated promoted to
improve health |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire service
You can’t tell by looking at her, but Michelle Baxter suffers from chronic pain in her muscles and joints. She now spends her work day standing at her desk as a remedy for fibromyalgia. "Since I’ve been standing my lower lumbar feels much better and, plus, I get to exercise and move more and to have everything circulate in the blood," she said. "It feels good." Baxter works with student records at the George Washington University in the nation’s capital. Her switch to a standing desk has given her more energy and made her more productive. “I can get more done, not even stiff and get up and trying to find a place to exercise," she said. "So I’m moving, I’m exercising as I’m standing.” And she is burning as many as 1,200 calories a day. That's one reason standing desks are slowly moving into cramped cubicles. Research shows the more someone sits, the greater is the risk for major illness, says Amanda Visek, an exercise psychologist with the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. “It causes a number of poor health outcomes including overweight, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, depression, even mortality,” Ms. Visek said. As a young woman, Ms. Visek developed hip and back pain from sitting. Since she converted to a standing desk, she feels better and has more energy. “I could even work a 10-hour work day and still feel good at the end |
of the day," Ms.
Visek said, "instead of feeling lethargic and you just want to go home and then engage in more sedentary activities by lying on the couch." One study finds that for older adults, every hour spent sitting is linked to a 50 percent greater risk of becoming disabled. But no one at any age is spared. “Even if we do make it to the gym at the end of the day and we go for a run and do other things, if we spend the majority of our day sitting in sedentary behavior, that is its own independent risk factor," Ms. Visek said. "One is not the remedy for the other.” So if exercise does not compensate for sitting, what does? Ms. Visek suggests building activity into the daily routine. “In the workplace, instead of shooting off an e-mail or picking up the phone to call a colleague, you can walk to their office to ask the same question or have the same conversation," she said. "One of the things that we can train ourselves to do when we enter a building is to take the staircase first and look for that. That’s an easy substitution in building steps into our day in lieu of riding the elevator up.” The Milken Institute School of Public Health promotes this vision. The central staircase encourages taking the steps, elevated tables in classrooms and lounge areas provide the option to stand and all faculty members have standing desks. Baxter says she takes the long way to the photocopier or to get a cup of coffee. What seems like such a small thing has changed her life and prompted her to offer this advice: “Everybody stand," she said. "It’s good. It’s good for you. Everybody stand, just for a little while. Try it." |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 30, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 106 | |||||||
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| Obama's West Point speech rapped from left and right By the A.M. Costa Rica wire service
U.S. President Barack Obama used a speech Wednesday to broadly define his approach to foreign policy for the remainder of his presidency, while also attempting to silence critics who say he has ceded America’s position of dominance in the world. Speaking to graduates of the U.S. Military Academy, Obama described the U.S. position as finding a middle ground between isolationism and interventionism, using military force when appropriate but using other tools, such as sanctions and diplomacy, when a threat doesn’t merit military involvement. Many reviews criticized this approach. The Washington Post editorial board writes: President Obama has retrenched U.S. global engagement in a way that has shaken the confidence of many U.S. allies and encouraged some adversaries. That conclusion can be heard not just from Republican hawks but also from senior officials from Singapore to France and, more quietly, from some leading congressional Democrats. As he has so often in his political career, Mr. Obama has elected to respond to the critical consensus not by adjusting policy but rather by delivering a big speech. Elliott Abrams of the Washington Post said the policy that Obama outlined on Wednesday is likely of little comfort to U.S. allies and to the cause of freedom in the world. At bottom, the speech was a labored defense of a foreign policy that has come under attack from left and right recently for being weak. Mr. Obama’s response was to say that the refusals to lead here or act there are all in the plan, and the refusals are called multilateralism, and anyway the alternative is constant invasions and wars and Iraqs and Afghanistans. Mr. Obama said early in the speech that “Russia’s aggression toward former Soviet states unnerves capitals in Europe, while China’s economic rise and military reach worry its neighbors.” Their nerves won’t be any better after listening to what he said at West Point. The New York Times wrote that Obama’s speech was largely uninspiring and likely did little to quiet his critics. In his speech, Mr. Obama tried to push back against critics who say he has ceded America’s post-World War II dominance. The question, as he correctly put it, is “not whether America will lead but how we will lead” and he reasserted that “isolationism is not an option.” Mr. Obama was right when he suggested there would be no serious negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program without his approach to American leadership. But he provided little new insight into how he plans to lead in the next two years, and many still doubt that he fully appreciates the leverage the United States has even in a changing world. Falling back on hackneyed phrases like America is the “indispensable nation” told us little. In the Los Angeles Times, Doyle McManus criticized Obama for taking aim at a battalion of straw men. “U.S. military action cannot be the only, or even primary, component of our leadership in every instance,” he said. But no one has argued that military action should come first — not even George W. Bush, who took the nation to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. “A strategy that involves invading every country that harbors terrorist networks is naive and unsustainable,” Obama said, knocking down another argument nobody has made. Or, as The Christian Science Monitor summed it up in its review of the speech: Other than the new counterterrorism partnership fund, the speech was devoid of initiatives or proposals and instead seemed aimed at refuting mounting criticism both domestically and among some worried international partners that his foreign policy is weak and rudderless. Abroad, critics were vocal as well. An editorial in The Guardian finds fault mainly with Obama’s handling of Syria. "Mr. Obama is striving to steer a middle course between the isolationists and interventionists and the outcome is inevitably something of a fudge. … The greatest failure so far of Mr. Obama's foreign policy lies in Syria. Humanitarian interventions aimed at preventing mass atrocities are among the toughest foreign policy calls a leader has to make. … The opportunity to curb Bashar al-Assad's sense of impunity was arguably missed last August as Mr. Obama's 'red line' was crossed without response.” The Daily Telegraph said the speech was disappointing in that it didn’t break new ground. "Anyone expecting the birth of an 'Obama Doctrine' will have been disappointed. Far from marking a departure, the president's speech yesterday fell squarely within the tradition of American foreign policy since 1945. … The argument that America should only wage war in concert with allies and a skillful combination of money expertise and diplomacy can often solve problems more effectively than military action would have found favor with almost every occupant of the White House since 1945." In Turkey’s pro-government Star, Nasuhi Gungor wrote that Obama’s words “give the impression that the U.S. is handing the management of certain international issues to Russia.” Haaretz noticed the lack of any mention of the Israeli-Palenstinian peace process: To say that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was conspicuously absent from U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech at West Point on Wednesday is an understatement. Administration officials tried to downplay the significance of the omission, but the facts speak for themselves: Obama devoted almost 5,000 words to outlining America’s foreign policy in the coming years, none of them touching on what was described until recently as one of its primary, strategic objectives. And the Palestinians? Nothing. Gurnischt. Not a peep. Yet not everyone found fault with Obama's address on U.S. foreign policy. Peter Bergen, CNN national security analyst, wrote that Obama's speech can be summarized as limiting the use of American power to defending the nation's core interests and being smart enough to avoid the temptation to use such power when it embroils the country in costly mistakes such as the decision to invade Iraq. He said: The president's answer is the foreign policy equivalent of medicine's Hippocratic oath "first do no harm." Without directly saying so, it amounts to a cautious but firm repudiation of the decisions made by presidents such as George W. Bush and Lyndon Johnson, who ordered massive commitments of American military power against perceived enemies. A foreign policy of judicious restraint that doesn't sacrifice core American interests is not the sort of foreign policy that lends itself well to emotional rhetoric. But that's exactly Obama's point; it is American hubris and overreach since World War II in wars such as Vietnam and Iraq that cost the nation dearly in blood and treasure, while doing little to protect America's core interests. David Ignatius of the Washington Post wrote, I applaud Obama for trying to craft a foreign policy for the next decade that avoids the mistakes of the past decade. However, he said Obama’s speech shows that he has missed some lessons of his presidency: Obama wisely said he wants “to see the world as it is, with all its danger and uncertainty. ... But Obama ignored the “follow-through” part of U.S. power: Surely he can see that al-Qaeda regained control of Fallujah this year in part because America walked away from Iraq in 2010. Surely the president recognizes that terrorism has a deadly new face in Syria in part because he turned down a mid-2012 recommendation to train moderate opposition forces to counter the extremists. And surely he understands that Afghanistan could become a haven once more for al-Qaeda. The French Daily LeMonde praised the tone of Obama's speech but questioned his “professorial” and “realist” approach to foreign policy. Obama’s critics accuse him “of passiveness, of a reluctance to use force, in other words of a wait-and-see attitude that they claim helps the Chinese and the Russians to assert themselves at America's expense. ... True, there is something professorial about Mr. Obama, and that is a good thing. He learns his lessons from past experiences. Those of a war in Iraq that caused a shockwave for which the Near East is still paying the price. Those of a war in Afghanistan that was neither won nor lost. And the lessons of an intervention in Libya whose consequences are ambiguous, to say the least. “Mr. Obama gives the impression of shunning difficulties rather than confronting them. This perception is perhaps unfair. But in foreign policy style is as important as action." Joe Klein wrote for Time: Obama's West Point Speech Was Not Exciting: And he will be criticized for that. There was nothing “new” in his address to the West Point graduates, some will say. Others — neo-conservatives and blood curmudgeons like John McCain - will say that it was a ratification of the president’s policy of weakness and retreat. And while those of us who generally agree with the president on foreign policy might have hoped for some pyrotechnics, a more passionate defense of his policy, the substance of the speech was solid, just as the net substance of his actions overseas have been. More taxes urged to cut tobacco use by younger set By the A.M. Costa Rica wire service
A lot of smokers start using cigarettes when they are teenagers, only to find later on that they can't kick the habit. It's a huge public health concern. As a result, researchers the world over, in government and in private institutions, are working on ways to help people stop smoking. In Joanna Cohen's office at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Global Tobacco Control, cigarettes come in all types of packages, Some are gruesome, while others are beautiful. With advertising restrictions in so many countries, cigarette companies are using the packages as advertising tools. Governments use them to discourage smoking. Researchers like Ms. Cohen say taxes are the best incentive in cutting back on smoking. "Taxes are a win-win situation. Smokers smoke less and governments increase their revenue so taxes are our most effective strategy and a win-win proposition," said Ms. Cohen. The World Health Organization is urging governments to increase taxes on tobacco products. World Health says higher taxes are especially effective in reducing tobacco use among lower income groups and in preventing young people from starting. The organization says a 10 percent tax increase reduces tobacco use by 4 percent in high income countries, and by up to 8 percent in most low- and middle-income countries. Statistics show there are a billion smokers in the world, almost one out of five people. Tobacco kills up to half of its users. Some people say if tobacco were banned, they wouldn't smoke at all. "I’ve been a smoker for 38 years. It’s something that’s so hard for me to stop on my own," said a smoker. Others say they are so addicted they have to smoke, even if they know the health risks. "One of the worst addictions in the world is cigarette smoking. Inside my heart, something’s telling me to quit. It’s not the right thing to do to my body and the ones around me," said another. Joanna Cohen says governments also have to introduce more strategies so those trying to stop can be more successful. "Seventy percent of smokers say they want to quit. We just need to figure out strategies to help support people in quitting in terms of reducing cues, making the product more inaccessible, harder to get, more expensive and less advertising, less promotion, those sorts of things," she said. Public health experts expect deaths from tobacco use to increase in the years to come, especially in low- and middle-income countries where most of the burden of tobacco-related disease is expected to occur. These experts are hopeful, however, that as proven strategies to prevent smoking are introduced, fewer people will take up the habit. Korea moves to control marriages with foreigners By the A.M. Costa Rica wire service
Tens of thousands of South Korean men have married foreign women over the past decade. According to government statistics, however, many of those marriages have ended in divorce. The South Korean government is trying to change that. Lee Soo-yeon is a Vietnamese migrant bride who now goes by her Korean name. The 36-year-old works as a translator at a center for immigrant women in Asan, a city 48 kilometers south of Seoul. She said her six-year marriage to a Korean man did not go so well. “At first we could not communicate well. And later we began to fight a lot. He hit me. I do not hate him now, but I realized he has a drinking problem,” she said. The couple’s young child now lives with Ms. Lee’s mother-in-law. She said it does not look like she will reunite with her husband. Ms. Lee blamed the marriage agency that introduced them to each other back in Vietnam. “Marriage agencies do not provide any information about the men they introduce to the women," she complained. "We need to know more about these men, their personalities and their financial stability.” Faced with the rising number of divorces amongst international couples, the South Korean government has made new rules for obtaining marriage visas. There are financial requirements, but, the couple also must demonstrate they speak a common language. Chung Chin-sung is a sociology professor at Seoul National University and advises the Korean government on multicultural family policy. She said a language requirement could help improve marriages, but the new visa rules do not address the problem at the core of these unions. “That kind of marriage market where, especially when women become a product, not a human being, should be corrected,” she said. Ms. Chung said that could include banning agencies that arrange quick marriages between people who barely know each other. Jolly Regacho, a counselor at the Asan migrant center, said if the South Korean government wants to make marriages last, more education might work better. “They should also make a project for the husband to learn the culture of their wife, as well,” said Ms. Regacho. Migrant bride Lee Soo-yeon said that despite the break-up of her marriage, she does not plan to go back to Vietnam. She said she will stay in Korea, her new home.  Voice of America photo
A typical New York carriage
in Central Park.Horse-drawn carriages continue as New York icon By the A.M. Costa Rica wire service
A campaign by animal-rights activists to abolish horse-drawn carriage rides in New York gained a powerful supporter with the election of Mayor Bill De Blasio last fall, or so it seemed at first. Even before he was inaugurated, the new mayor said he planned to move quickly and aggressively to ban the horse-drawn carriages, which take passengers on rides through Central Park and, at certain hours, along some Manhattan streets. "They're not humane. They're not appropriate to the year 2014. It's over," De Blasio told a crowd last December. Those in agreement include the Humane Society and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which is responsible for policing the treatment of the carriage horses. Yet polls show that most New Yorkers want to keep the horses. "We're an iconic part of New York City," said driver Christina Hansen. "Even people who don't necessarily take a carriage ride, just being near the horses on Central Park West gives people the opportunity to interact with them, to see how horses work in partnership with people." The industry, which employs about 300 people and 200 draft horses, is regulated by a myriad of animal-welfare rules. Horses may not be worked long hours or in very hot or cold weather, and must have regular veterinary check-ups. Each horse must also be sent for a five-week annual vacation in a Pennsylvania pasture. Driver Conor McHugh helps manage one of the stables in the city. He said every horse has ample room, good feed, and contact with other horses in the next stall. "All we want a horse to do is just give a nice walk through the park. It's relatively easy for the horses, and it's a good life for what I would call a working-class horse," he said, adding that draft horses bred to work would not do well if they spent their lives in pastures. "Their work is their exercise, and it gives them a purpose, and earns their keep," he said. Allie Feldman, executive director of New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets, the main group fighting to abolish the horse carriages, scoffed at that. "Anybody who knows horses knows that horses don't need five consecutive weeks of vacation," she said. "They need daily turn-out. There's no pasture in Manhattan for these horses to go to. They live their lives between the shafts of the carriage and the shafts of their stalls. They don't have time to roll, to socialize, to graze." Ms. Feldman said that horses inevitably suffer from the noise and unpredictability of congested city streets. She and other opponents also point to occasional accidents when carriage horses have bolted and to incidents of abusive treatment or neglect by owners. However, her group does not object to mounted police horses, although their conditions are similar. It also has not campaigned against the Aqueduct Race Track in the city, where at least 10 horses have died in the last five years. Ms. Feldman appeared confident in January that a carriage-horse ban would sail through the New York City Council. "We helped elect 39 pro-animal City Council members, and we're going to be holding them all to their commitment to ban horse-drawn carriages," she said. The proposed legislation, which has not been introduced in the City Council, would replace the horse-drawn carriages with electric vehicles modeled to look like antique cars, each costing $150,000 to $175,000, according to NYCLASS, which commissioned a prototype. The horses would be sent to live out their lives in farm sanctuaries. A more economical proposal would retrofit the carriages themselves with motors. But defenders of the horse-carriages have turned out to be more numerous than expected, and even some supporters are doubtful that tourists would pay to ride through Central Park in cars of any kind. The Central Park Conservancy, the group that manages Central Park, said it opposed allowing motor vehicles inside the park. In recent weeks, Mayor De Blasio has also drawn back slightly, saying that the ban is not an immediate priority. According to reports in the New York Daily News, which is running a petition campaign defending the industry, De Blasio received about $50,000 in campaign contributions from NYCLASS. The group also spent a reported $1.1 million to defeat the early frontrunner in the mayoral race, Christine Quinn, after she refused to support the drive to abolish carriage horses. |
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Apple's
purchase of Beats praised as streaming move By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire service
Apple is striking a new chord with a $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics, a headphone and music streaming specialist, that Apple is hoping will help it catch up in the fast-growing music streaming business. Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and rapper Dr. Dre will join Apple as part of the acquisition of the music streaming and audio equipment company. They should prove key in forging relationships with an industry that historically has viewed Apple with suspicion but in recent years has pressed the iPhone maker to do more on subscription services, a market expected to eclipse song downloads in the long run. "Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple," chief executive Tim Cook said in a statement. "That's why we have kept investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world." Bringing Beats into the Apple fold will offer opportunities to weave iTunes Radio service into more devices, and even spread the App Store for mini programs to other products, according to analysts. Iovine's music industry relationships could ease notoriously difficult licensing negotiations for a future streaming service, recording industry executives say. While the price tag represents an iota of Apple's roughly $150 billion cash hoard, it marks a significant departure for a company that for two decades has stuck mainly to acquisitions worth hundreds of millions of dollars. With music downloads in decline, the move is expected to help Apple, which was a pioneer in online music, ramp up its efforts to counter the successful models of streaming services like Pandora, Spotify and others. “Apple created the digital download business and has had an amazing run, but the industry is going in the streaming service direction,” said Daniel Weisman, a manager for Roc Nation who represents bands. Apple is also gaining a line of high-end headphones popular with a young urban demographic, bumping up its cool factor, analysts have said. But industry executives said the company was most impressed with Beats' 5-month-old music service. The market as a whole is burgeoning. Streaming subscriptions jumped 51 percent in 2013 to $1.1 billion, out of $15 billion spent on music, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Meanwhile, downloads slipped 2.1 percent. Some experts said that the Beats acquisition is a good move. "When you think about what worked for Beats, namely streaming and if you think about what the total size of the streaming potential is in the market for Apple, especially if it combines with the hundreds of millions of downloads they have right now and the leverage that they could equity or asset against, I don't think it's overpriced," said Erich Joachimsthaler, the founder and CEO of Vivaldi Partners Group. The other prize is Beats' co-founder himself. Iovine, 61, is best known as the co-founder of Interscope Records, a rap music pioneer that branched out to include acts like Lady Gaga and U2. "I've always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple," Iovine said. |
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| From Page 7: U.S. economy contracted in first quarter By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A harsh winter appears to have battered the U.S. economy more than first thought. The Commerce Department says the economy actually shrank a full percent in the first three months of the year. That was worse than initial estimates that showed the economy grew, but just barely, by one-tenth of one percent between January and March. The latest estimate of gross domestic output marks the first contraction in three years. But, analysts are confident the slowdown is temporary. A colder than expected winter gets much of the blame for the slowdown in U.S. productivity, but analysts say it’s more complicated than that. “Consumers spent at a healthy rate in the first quarter despite the nasty weather in the eastern two-thirds of the country," said Mark Hamrick, the Washington bureau chief at Bankrate.com. "It was really businesses holding back the economy." Hamrick says businesses may have inadvertently slowed U.S. growth by reducing their stockpiles of inventory and cutting back on investments in anticipation of reduced consumer demand. On Wall Street, investors seemed unfazed by the disappointing news with the major stock indexes remaining in positive territory. Hamrick says that’s because investors are already looking forward to the rest of the year. “We’re really more concerned about what’s happening in the current quarter on out towards the second half of the year," he said. "And it's widely believed that growth in the current quarter is really making up for, perhaps even more than making up for that contraction in the first quarter." Some estimates suggest the U.S. economy could grow between 4 and 5 percent in the second half of 2014. Less certain is the outlook for the housing market. RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist says home sales and prices have slowed dramatically since 2013. “We are seeing decreases in sales volume in the first quarter and even into April, but I don’t think it’s just about the weather," he said. "I think the more fundamental issue is the low inventory." Economists say the smaller inventories may be the result of fewer Americans losing their homes to foreclosure along with tighter bank lending guidelines. On the bright side, the U.S. job market continues to improve. A new report shows the number of unemployed workers seeking government assistance fell by 27,000 this week. That's close to a seven-year low reached earlier this month. |
