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A.M.
Costa Rica
Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday |
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Published
Wednesday, June
29, 2016, in Vol. 17, No. 127
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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, June 29, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 127
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By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
The words educación dual may seem harmless, but they are enough to ignite the fire in the eyes of many public school educators. That is why they plan a strike today. Educación dual is a system where students work part time in an industry of their choice and spend the rest of the school day in class. The concept is called cooperative education in the United States. In Costa Rica now there are legal and financial restrictions for businesses that want to participate in such a program. They are the labor laws that demand a certain salary level as well as social charges, vacation and various leaves. The current situation provides little incentive for private firms to participate. The legislature has two bills that might make some adjustments to allow the payment of lower salaries to unskilled students. The Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados, which consists of high school teachers, organized the strike for today. Additional support is coming from the Bloque Unitario Sindical y Social Costarricense and other unions, including a token delegation from the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados. Lower salaries for school children might be the specific reason for the strike today, but public employees are concerned at legislative plans to slash their salaries. Bloque Unitario Sindical says the merchant class is out to denigrate the noble labor done by public employees. School teachers staged a preview of their strike Tuesday with a protest with signs at the legislature. Expats with children might want to check today to see if public schools are functioning.
Our readers’
opinions
Britain does not want to stop EU
tradeDear A.M. Cost Rica: Thank you for this story in today's edition, and I wish the President Solis every success in his meeting. I think it is helpful to point out that the vote in Britain to leave the European Union was on a 52 percent to 48 percent result to leave. However, Britain has absolutely no wish to cease trading with Europe (or any other country for that matter) as a consequence of the vote outcome. In fact, tours and flights into Costa Rica from the United Kingdom are being very heavily advertised in the British national press, week after week in colour in the travel pages, as well as several excellent documentaries which have appeared on UK television helping promoting Costa Rica's natural wildlife, resources and superb attractions. Many in the UK who may well not know much about Costa Rica previously, are now much more aware of the country and all it has to offer visitors from the UK. Anthony Ernest.
Penarth, Wales (Son of a Costa Rica-born former coffee planter in Cartago province). Traffic engineers need to find hotspots Dear A.M. Costa Rica: One way to reduce traffic congestion is to use computer programs to identify hotspots, and then focus analysis on those locations. Costa Rica has just been given a computer program to do just that for crime statistics. There are two readily available data sets for traffic analysis. First, reports of accidents, and second, far more powerful, the data from Waze! There are several computer programs that can identify glitches in information flow, such as reported slowdowns or congestion, and even provide analysts with day of the week and time of day. For example, the corner by the Agencia Renault on Route 106, leading to the entrance to the pista, has a traffic light that has been set to blink since it was installed several years ago. Traffic coming off the pista is constantly jammed as far back as a kilometer or more. Turning it on with correct timing will ease the problem. There are many such hotspots that simply need identification plus a little ingenuity to fix. John French
Heredia
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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Colorado S.A 2065 and may not be reproduced anywhere
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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San
José, Costa Rica,
Wednesday,
June 29, 2016,
Vol. 17, No. 127
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| Immigration
police grab two persons as part of major trafficking
sweep |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Law enforcement officials detained two persons Tuesday as their part of participating in a major human trafficking sweeps that included Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Panamá. In Honduras four immigration officers were detained by police there, but in Costa Rica the two persons arrested were living in less than luxury surroundings. One was identified by the last name of Arce Martínez. His home in Peñas Blancas de La Cruz, Guanacaste, is near a house where investigators rounded up trafficking suspects last year. Some illegal migrants also were found at this location Tuesday. The house and outbuildings conveniently are near the Nicaraguan border. The second raid was in Rio Claro de Golfito near the southern border. A man with the last name of Santos Vargas was detained there. Police in other countries detained 23 more persons. Investigators reported that the ring was directed from Abu Dhabi, the capitol of the United Arab Emirates. The nation’s chief prosecutor, Jorge Chavarria, held a press conference to outline the case. Reporters were told that the ring flew migrants to Uruguay and Brazil and then brought them over land through South America and into Panamá and Costa Rica on the way to the United States. Assistance was provided by the United States and México, a statement said. The ring moved many nationalities and was said to be involved in Asian migrants, too. Each paid from $7,000 to $25,000 for the trip, said investigators. The Policía Profesional de Migración and the human trafficking prosecutors were involved in the raids Tuesday. They linked them to a case last Dec. 30 when 51 illegal immigrants were found in a cattle truck in Río Claro and a case in the central Pacific Feb. 25 when 15 illegal immigrants were picked up. They said that six of those arrested for organizing the trips were related to the same ring that generated the two arrests Tuesday. Officials claimed that they have been investigating the ring for eight months. At the home in Peñas Blancas, investigators found identity cards and other documents that may be fake. Costa Rica has been overrun by illegal immigrants, although the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería legalizes them by giving them 15-day permits. There is a tent camp with about 200 Africans not far from where the raid took place Tuesday at the northern border. |
 Dirección General de
Migración y Extranjería photo
This is a living quarters where migrants were
found.A.M. Costa Rica also has documented how a group of 40 or more Africans managed to travel with the help of locals up the Caribbean coast and walked into Nicaragua. They spent the night in Barra del Colorado, and police never responded to multiple telephone calls about their presence. Even with the help of human traffickers, migrants have to make arrangements with border officials to enter the country. There have been several arrests of individuals who are accused of defrauding migrants by offering services that were not delivered. When Costa Rican officials broke up a ring that smuggled Cubans through the country last year, they suddenly were flooded with more than 8,000 illegals who were seeking to make their way to the United States. The central government then became, in effect, a human trafficker, by arranging an air bridge to carry the migrants north to El Salvador and Guatemala. Many have since reached the United States where they were welcomed legally. U.S. news outlets are reporting a surge in Chinese migrants seeking a better life in the United States by illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexican border. Wire service reports say that the San Diego Union-Tribune broke the story earlier this month, saying it obtained U.S. Customs and Border Protection data showing the agency caught 663 Chinese nationals making the illegal crossing from Mexico into San Diego, California, from last October through May. Only 48 were caught in the previous 12 months, it said. The San Diego Union-Tribune quoted a U.S. border patrol spokeswoman as saying smugglers who organize the crossings charge Chinese migrants $50,000 to $70,000 a person, said the wire report. That would suggest that smuggling Asians is far more lucrative than smuggling Africans. |
| Homeland
Security Web site seems to invite migrants to be
refugees |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Migrants who are huddled at the Nicaraguan border can be excused for thinking they will be welcomed when they reach the U.S. border with Texas. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is supposed to secure the borders, says on its Web site prominently that refugees are welcome. The Web site also includes a story about Homeland Security Secretary Jeb Johnson meeting a 9 year old named Jaafar when the man visited Turkey. The account did not say from what Jaafar was a refugee, but the lad and his mother turned up in New York a couple of months later to be photographed again with Johnson in front of the World Trade Center. The department Web site has a number of accounts about refugees marking World Refugee Day, including a naturalization ceremony in Central Park. |
 From the Department of
Homeland Security Web site.
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| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this
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Colorado S.A. 2016 and may not be reproduced
anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, June 29, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 127
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| Researchers
say Caribbean is emitting a whistle below audible range |
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By the National Oceanography
Centre news staff
National Oceanography Centre scientists have discovered the Caribbean Sea works like a whistle. This finding will enable scientists to predict some sea level changes many months in advance and may be an important factor in regulating how the Gulf Stream varies. This research, published in Geophysical Research Letters, has found the Caribbean current flow is unstable, which causes it to shed eddies, or swirling currents of water hundreds of kilometres in diameter. This is similar to the way in which a jet of air sheds eddies when it hits the lip of a whistle. In a whistle the radiating sound comes from a resonating pressure wave created by the eddies, causing mass to be exchanged with the air around it. In the case of the current the eddies create a resonant wave in the ocean basin, which because it is not completely closed, allows water mass to be exchanged with the rest of the ocean. The net result is a sloshing of water into and out of the basin with a period of 120 days, corresponding to a note of A flat, many octaves below the audible range. The sloshing water is big enough to be detected by its gravitational influence on the GRACE satellites. Furthermore, the wave resonance relies on a peculiar effect known as a |
Rossby
wormhole, the wave propagates to the west across the basin
where it seems to disappear, only to reappear in the east. Advanced computer models of the ocean, predicted this should happen. This prediction was later confirmed using a range of observations, including satellite gravity, satellite sea level measurements, coastal tide gauges and a bottom pressure recorder which is part of the global tsunami warning network. Chris Hughes, who led the research, said “It was a real surprise to find this oscillation. We were looking at ocean bottom pressure data from round the world as part of an NOC contribution to the global sea level database, which we host, and found this region. It behaved quite differently from the rest of the tropics, which are typically very quiet. With hindsight we found theoreticians had predicted this kind of behavior, but had never thought to apply their models to the Caribbean Sea. Ironically this seems to be the only place where conditions are suitable.” The oscillation is always present, sometimes with higher and sometimes with lower amplitude. Since the waves can be seen as they propagate across the Caribbean Sea, scientists can predict when the wave will arrive at the coast and cause the sea level to rise or fall at least 120 days in advance. The center is based in Southampton and Liverpool. |
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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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado S.A. 2016 and may not be reproduced anywhere
without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday,
June 29, 2016, Vol. 17, No.
127
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for national unity after attack By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim issued a call for national unity early today, as his country faced a rising death toll from a suicide attack that killed at least 36 people at Istanbul's Ataturk international airport. Yildirim, flanked by members of his cabinet, said three suicide bombers arrived by taxi Tuesday evening at the busy airport and opened fire with automatic weapons, shooting randomly at bystanders before detonating explosives as police closed in. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said the attack wounded 147 people. A reporter in Istanbul said one of the bombers detonated his explosives outside the international arrival terminal. That area is usually packed with people waiting for transportation. The two other attackers are believed to have tried to enter the terminal, which is protected by heavily armed police and X-ray machines. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But Yildirim said early evidence pointed to an attack by Islamic State extremists, whom he identified by the Arabic pejorative Daesh. He called the attack cowardly and vowed his country would continue to press its fight against extremism. "Unity will be the best answer to terrorists," he said. Islamic State is blamed for two suicide bombings earlier this year in Istanbul targeting foreign tourists. The group has not claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack. The Kurdish rebel group PKK also has carried out suicide bombings, but it usually targets security forces, as it did this month in an attack on a police bus that killed 11 people. In the last year, both Ankara and Istanbul have seen scores killed in bombings, blamed both on Islamic State and Kurdish rebels. The attack triggered a closed session of the Turkish parliament, where opposition leaders were expected to question Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag about details of a recent U.S. travel warning for Turkey. MPs also were believed to be focusing on whether any security lapses could have contributed to the airport attack. Ataturk is a major transport hub for international travelers. All flights there were suspended after the attack, but the prime minister said operations had been normalized by early today. Monday, the U.S. State Department had issued the travel advisory for Americans going to Turkey. U.S. Supreme Court denies hearings on abortion curbs By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed appeals from two states which sought to impose restrictions on abortion clinics that were struck down by lower courts. The justices refused to hear appeals about laws in Mississippi and Wisconsin that would have required physicians who perform abortions at clinics to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. The high court denied the appeals one day after it struck down a similar provision in Texas. The denial allows Mississippi's only abortion clinic, located in the capitol city of Jackson, to remain open. The Supreme Court also rejected an appeal by pharmacists in Washington state who are opposed to providing emergency contraceptives to women for religious reasons. The rejection leaves in place a July lower court ruling that upheld a state regulation that requires pharmacies to deliver all prescribed medications in a timely fashion. Washington state first adopted the regulation in 2007 after some women had been denied access to emergency contraceptives. Two pharmacists at a pharmacy in Olympia, Washington, sued, saying the rule required them to violate their religious beliefs. Benghazi report contains no surprises for Mrs. Clinton By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
A Republican-led investigation of a 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Libya that killed four Americans ended Tuesday with no new allegations about the actions of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, now the presumptive 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. Mrs. Clinton, who monitored the incident as it unfolded Sept. 11, 2012, told a campaign rally that the House of Representatives investigative panel found nothing, nothing to contradict findings about the attack in numerous other earlier investigations. "It's pretty clear it's time to move on," she said. The panel's chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, said Tuesday, "No U.S. military assets were ever deployed to Benghazi" despite the orders of President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. "Nothing was en route to Libya at the time the last two Americans were killed almost eight hours after the attacks began," Gowdy said in releasing an 800-page report on the attack after a two-year, $7 million investigation. Military leaders have repeatedly said they did not have intelligence information on what was unfolding in Libya or the resources to respond. But after release of the report, the Defense Department said that it "has made substantial changes to improve our responsiveness based on lessons learned from this incident." Two of the committee's Republican members went beyond the overall committee's conclusions, blaming Mrs. Clinton for misleading the American public about the attack as it was unfolding. Rep. Jim Jordan said that Mrs. Clinton publicly cited an anti-Muslim video circulating in the Middle East at the time as the reason for the assault, but that an hour later privately emailed her daughter, Chelsea, that terrorists had launched the attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the three others. In the contentious presidential campaign, some U.S. Republicans have pasted bumper stickers on their cars that say, "Hillary lied, people died." But Gowdy rejected the sentiment, saying, "You don't see that T-shirt on me. You haven't seen that bumper sticker on any of my cars." Some Republicans, including Donald Trump, the presumptive presidential nominee against Mrs. Clinton, have blamed her for failing to adequately provide enough security to protect the outpost. There have been at least 10 investigations of the incident, with Mrs. Clinton testifying publicly for 11 hours about it last October. The Clinton campaign said Gowdy's investigation had "not found anything to contradict the conclusions of the multiple, earlier investigations." The minority Democrats on the panel released their own report of the incident on Monday in an effort to rebut the majority's conclusions and protect Mrs. Clinton's political fortunes less than five months before she expects to face Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul, in November's national presidential election. The Democrats, in their 344-page report, concluded that the U.S. military, with its nearest support troops across the Mediterranean in Italy, could not have reached Benghazi in time to rescue the diplomats and that Mrs. Clinton was actively engaged in dealing with the attack while it was occurring. Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico, a Democrat, said he did not think the Republican-led investigation "was an impartial search for facts. I think the American people knew this was political. And I don’t really like the way they treated Hillary Clinton for that 11 hours of grilling. I think it left a lot to be desired." The House Benghazi Committee said the Central Intelligence Agency missed warnings about an imminent attack and then wrote faulty intelligence reports after it. Republicans have long claimed that U.S. officials initially blamed the attack, erroneously as it turned out, on reaction to an anti-Muslim video circulating in the Mideast at the time to protect Obama's re-election chances rather than admit that a terrorist attack had occurred. Then, within days, the U.S. acknowledged the assault was a terrorist attack. The alleged ringleader, Ahmed Abu Khattala, is awaiting trial in a U.S. court. Trump raps trade pacts, China and Mrs. Clinton in speech By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump used a speech Tuesday in the Rust Belt state of Pennsylvania to attack rival Hillary Clinton's past positions on free trade agreements and to outline his own plan to create jobs. The billionaire businessman also railed against free trade deals, slammed China as a currency manipulator and lamented the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs in his speech, which he said was meant to "declare America's economic independence." "The era of economic surrender will finally be over. A new era of prosperity will finally begin. America will be independent once more," Trump said. The speech was largely absent of the petty personal attacks that characterized Trump's fiery and unpredictable primary election speeches. It was also more substantial than his past comments on the economy. Trump outlined a seven-step plan to bring back jobs to the U.S. The plan included withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal, renegotiating the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and appointing trade negotiators to identify trade violations by foreign countries. The plan also included several threats against China, the world's second-largest economy. Echoing his past comments, Trump vowed to label China a currency manipulator and to bring trade cases against Beijing both in the U.S. and at the World Trade Organization. "If China does not stop its illegal activities, including its theft of American trade secrets, I will use every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes, including the application of tariffs," Trump said. Trump also attacked Mrs. Clinton for her past support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive 12-country trade deal that would encompass 40 percent of the world's economy. The agreement would be a death blow for American manufacturing, according to Trump. Mrs. Clinton “praised or pushed the TPP on 45 separate occasions and even called it the 'gold standard,'" Trump said. During her time as secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton enthusiastically supported the trade deal, a top foreign policy objective for President Barack Obama's administration. But during her presidential campaign, Mrs. Clinton has said she does not support the deal, saying the way in which it was negotiated does not meet her standards. The issue has been a tricky one for Mrs. Clinton, who was forced to veer to the left by her Democratic rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a socialist who has vigorously opposed free trade deals. Both Trump and Sanders have said that such free trade deals are bad for American workers, and often result in manufacturing and other jobs being sent overseas. The trade pact is a possible weak point for Mrs. Clinton, who was a very energetic supporter of the free trade deal, according to Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C. "I understand the politics of changing her position, being hammered by Sanders and the left wing of the Democratic Party," Hufbauer said. "But the way the negotiation came out cannot be very different from what she anticipated." If elected, Mrs. Clinton may add a few bells and whistles to the pact to protect American workers and satisfy many of her constituents on the left, Hufbauer said. "But it's a very difficult dance," he added. It is not clear how much the trade pact will arise as an important issue in the election. Various polls have consistently shown that a large percentage of Americans do not even know about the free trade deal, which has not yet been ratified. It also isn't clear whether major unions will get behind Trump, who some workers believe has an inconsistent record on trade and economic policies. The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the country, has already thrown its support behind Mrs. Clinton. Tim Waters, the national political director at the United Steel Workers, said his union will support Mrs. Clinton over Trump. "It's not even a question," Waters said. On Tuesday, Trump took particular aim at China, mentioning the country 12 times in his speech. China has responded angrily to Trump's past comments and has suggested it will retaliate if Trump follows through on his promises of punitive measures. It is likely that Trump would not be able to carry out many of his threats against China, as he would need support of Congress. Still, Trump risks starting a trade war with China, according to Anil Gupta, an economist and professor at the University of Maryland. Some senators make effort for Afghan translator visas By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
U.S. lawmakers say they want to make sure a program that enables Afghan military interpreters to immigrate to the U.S. continues without interruption, despite the Senate's failure to extend the program earlier this month. The interpreters are often targeted by the Taliban. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, says she is considering introducing legislation to extend the program that she and many other members of Congress see as a lifesaver for Afghan military interpreters. She is looking to introduce legislation sometime in the next month in the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs. "I'm pleased to say there is a lot of support in that subcommittee to extend the program, so hopefully, we can get that done, and hopefully, that bill will move forward," Sen. Shaheen said in an interview. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who is a member of the subcommittee, remains supportive of the program. "The leader feels that we owe a debt to the translators supporting our forces in Afghanistan," his spokesman Robert Steurer said in an email. The Special Immigrant Visa program was created in 2008. Its goal was to allow military interpreters whose lives were in danger because of their work for U.S. forces in Afghanistan to come to the U.S. The program has since expanded to offer visas to any Afghan who can demonstrate "at least one year of faithful and valuable service" to or on behalf of the U.S. government. More than 20,000 Afghan interpreters and their family members have immigrated to the U.S. under the program, most of them in the past two years. Congress has amended the act every year to ensure enough visas are available. In the past two years, it has authorized 7,000 new visas. However, this year the Senate spending bill dropped the amendment because of procedural disagreements among members, while the House version effectively gutted the program by not authorizing new visas and imposing strict criteria for qualifying. Investors have their pick of two Chinese ride firms By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Powerful foreign and domestic companies are making massive investments into ride-hailing apps in China, even though the legality of such services is still a topic of heated debate. Didi Chuxing, China’s top ride-hailing phone application, has a new investor, China Life Insurance, which is giving the company $600 million. Last year China Life gave money to Didi’s rival, Uber Global. James Roy, associate principal at China Market Research Group, said, “They've become an extremely popular form of transportation and in a very short period of time. There have been issues about the legality, but I think there have been signals by some municipal governments that they have been preparing rules under which app-based ride-hailing services can function legally.” Didi Chuxing and other apps have grown quickly. Didi has 300 million users of its taxi, chauffeur and bus services in China. It works with 15 million car owners, to offer 14 million rides a day. But the company, and other ride-hailing apps like Uber, may be violating Chinese laws. A taxi company in Shanghai recently urged the Ministry of Transport to tighten car hailing regulations. Dazhong Taxi said the apps violate government licensing rules, and argued that the apps don’t have to pay taxi-service taxes, or take their cars off the road after eight years as is required of standard taxi car companies in China. Local Chinese taxi drivers and companies say this gives ride-hailing apps an unfair advantage. Analysts like Li Yujie of the RHB Research Institute in Hong Kong, say the apps fill a need in the market, that until now, with China’s rapid growing urban population, has gone unmet. Li said, “There is actually a lot of demand for taxi-hailing apps, especially in tier 1 and 2 cities, where people find it hard to hail taxis during peak hours, and where taxi drivers’ attitudes are not very good.” As ride-hailing apps have surged in popularity in China, investment money has helped Didi and Uber expand. China Life Insurance’s investment in Didi includes an equity investment of $300 million, and a long-term investment of $305 million. This comes on the heels of Apple’s $1 billion investment in Didi earlier this year, which has helped raise the value of the company to $25 billion. Uber is backed by Hong Kong-based China Taiping Insurance, Baidu, airline firm HNA Group, automaker GAC and China Citic Bank. Hillhouse Capital and Tiger Global have invested in both Didi and Uber. Toyota says it will recall 1.43 million cars for airbags By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Toyota Motor Corp. has issued a recall for 1.43 million vehicles globally for faulty airbags, the Japanese automaker said today. The recall is not related to Takata, the airbag supplier responsible for massive recalls over the past few months. The Prius hybrid, Prius plug-in, and the Lexus CT200h produced between October 2008 and April 2012 are being recalled for having small cracks in some of the airbag inflators that may expand and cause air bags on both the drivers' and passengers' sides to partially expand. Toyota said it is not aware of any injuries or fatalities as a result of this defect. This announcement is the latest in a string of airbag problems across multiple automakers that have resulted in recalls of over 100 million vehicles globally. At least 11 people have died from these faulty airbags, and some 100 more injured. Tennessee basketball coach dies at 64 from Alzheimer's By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Pat Summitt, one of the most successful U.S. college basketball coaches in history, has died at age 64, five years after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Her death Tuesday was so significant that it merited a comment from U.S. President Barack Obama. He noted that Ms. Summitt, who spent 38 years coaching women's basketball at the University of Tennessee, served as a role model to millions of Americans, including the two Obama daughters. Ms. Summitt began playing college basketball in the 1970s, before the United States had laws mandating equal funding for women's school sports similar to men's. So, despite being a talented ballplayer like her three older brothers, she was not eligible for a sports scholarship. She attended a small school in the University of Tennessee system, studying physical education. In 1976, she was co-captain of the U.S. Olympic women's basketball team. That team took the silver medal at the Games in Montreal, losing to the Soviet Union. Eight years later, Ms. Summitt became head coach for the U.S. Olympic team for the Games in Los Angeles, where her players won gold. Meanwhile, she remained true to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, a small city in the mountain foothills of the southeastern United States. Her teams won eight NCAA championships, a record for the division. She is one of very few college basketball coaches to have won more than 1,000 games. Her teams won 1,098. Ms. Summit was known for fierce competitiveness, an icy stare when displeased and an unshakeable loyalty to the young women she coached. She turned down at least two offers from the school to coach the men's team. Her dedication to her job was just as important. Not even the long struggle to have a child, not fully revealed until years later, seemed to get in the way of her work. "I will always remember her coaching while pregnant," said Amy Wainwright of Memphis, Tennessee. "Such a sight. Then watching her son grow up as just a part of the team." An oft-told tale says Ms. Summit went into labor while out of the state on a recruiting trip, and demanded that her plane return to Tennessee, rather than make an emergency landing, so her son could be born in her home state. That son, now 25, has become a women's basketball coach. Summitt announced in 2011 that she had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. She coached one more season, with reduced duties, before retiring with the title head coach emeritus. She spent her final few months in an upscale retirement home in Knoxville, where a stream of family and friends came to say goodbye. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents
of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado S.A. 2016 and may not be reproduced anywhere
without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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| A.M. Costa Rica sixth news page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, June 29, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 127
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Extensive study of coffee is
inconclusive By the Institute of Food
Technologists news staff
Coffee is enjoyed by millions of people every day and the coffee experience has become a staple of modern life and culture. While the current body of research related to the effects of coffee consumption on human health has been contradictory, a study in the June issue of Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, which is published by the Institute of Food Technologists, found that the potential benefits of moderate coffee drinking outweigh the risks in adult consumers for the majority of major health outcomes considered. Researchers at Ulster University systematically reviewed 1,277 studies from 1970 to-date on coffee’s effect on human health and found the general scientific consensus is that regular, moderate coffee drinking, defined as three to four cups per day, essentially has a neutral effect on health, or can be mildly beneficial. The review was used to create an exhaustive list of the potential health benefits and risks of coffee consumption. The authors noted risks and benefits cannot be established with the research currently available as they are largely based on observational data. Further research is needed to quantify the risk-benefit balance for coffee consumption, as well as identify which of coffee’s many active ingredients or the combination of such that could be inducing these health benefits. Turrialba reported to be restless again By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Scientists received indications that the Turrialba volcano was about to erupt again about 10 p.m. last night, but the cloudy condition of the area prevented them from seeing what was happening. The Red Sismológica Nacional said that instruments detected an episode of tremors within the mountain from 9:25 to 9:52 p.m. Such activity usually comes before an eruption of ash, the Red said. There were no initial reports of ash falling, said the Red. The mountain is watched closely, but only infrared cameras are able to pierce the thick cloud cover. The wind was southwest, said the Red. The mountain has erupted dozens of times in the last five days. Cartago lab plans to produce plasma By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Scientists at Tecnológico de Costa Rica plan to create plasma this morning in an experiment that will raise the substance’s temperature to 300,000 C. The university’s plasma and fusion lab has invested $500,000 to build the device to do this. The plasma is contained within a magnetic field in much the same way that Franklin Chang’s experimental spacecraft engine does. The plasma is too hot to be contained by solid matter. The scientists will be using a stellarator built there. The device is one of several that can produce and contain plasma. The goal is to study the plasma and the holy grail of power generation, the fusion reaction. The Cartago university will stream the event at 11 a.m. on the Internet at: www.tec.ac.cr. |
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| From Page 7: Government and business meet on climate By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Industry leaders met with government officials Tuesday to pledge support for adapting to climate change. The government was represented by its Dirección de Cambio Climático and the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía. The session heard that solar panels, gas generation with biomass and the sale of concentrated and recyclable products are parts of the strategy. Some of the firms represented have long experience in reducing the carbon footprint. Costa Rica has a national strategy for climate change that also includes efforts to make the country carbon neutral. Irene Cañas, the acting environmental minster, said that an economy low in emissions is the goal and that being aware of the carbon footprints is a start. Florida Ice and Farm Co. S.A. has a hotel operation, and the ministry reported that the The Westin Golf Resort & Spa Playa Conchal was soon to be certified as carbon neutral. The company also is installing a biomass generator for its beer operation that is expected to save 9,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year, said the ministry in a summary. |
