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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 1,
2014, Vol. 14, No. 151
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives are trying to resurrect a border funding bill they had abandoned Thursday after they failed to secure enough votes. The $659 million supplemental would respond to the crisis of tens of thousands of children from Central America who have crossed the border into the United States. After a chaotic day, House members were told to delay their five-week August recess to try to pass the border bill again today. Another article HERE!
The plan was for the Republican-led House to vote on a border spending bill early Thursday afternoon, and then for members to head for the exits for their long break. The House bill is much smaller than the $3.7 billion President Barack Obama has sought. It also calls for policy changes to make it easier to deport the migrant children. A rival bill in the Senate is bigger and does not make policy changes, but is not expected to pass before the recess. House Republican leaders had changed their bill, directing two-thirds of the funding to border security and law enforcement to try to win the support of the most conservative members of their party. House Democrats made it clear that they would not support the bill, saying it does not contain enough money to provide food and shelter for the children. “This is not a border security crisis." said Rep. David Price, a Democrat. "This is a humanitarian crisis. We don’t need to deploy the National Guard or surge our border capacity; because we are not failing to catch individuals as they cross, in fact these young people are turning themselves in," said Price. After the debate, House leaders abruptly pulled the bill, leaving members in confusion and disarray. First, they were told they could leave for the recess. Rep. Joe Barton, a Republican, told reporters he was on his way to catch a plane and speculated “Well, we will have to deal with it when it happens, and the president can shift money around, and I guess if we had to we could be called back for a dire emergency supplemental vote, for a day or two. In my opinion it is too bad we did not do it today," said Barton. Moments later, House members got word that there might be votes later in the day. This was the angry and surprised reaction on the floor. House Republicans met in the basement to try to find a path to an elusive majority. Rep. Spencer Bachus, a Republican, said the House needs to find a bill members can agree on. “We are going to stay here, I can tell you that. We are going to stay here until we have the votes," said Bachus. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House would be glad if the House approved much needed border funding four weeks after the president asked for it. “And the fact that House Republicans have waited literally until the very last day of their session to even consider taking a vote on this is an indication that they’re not operating with the best interests of the American people in mind, that’s for sure," said Earnest. Now it looks like the House will have an extra last day today to make another attempt to pass a bill. Paso Ancho work scheduled to begin By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Work is scheduled to start next week on the Paso Ancho traffic circle on the Circunvalación. Eventually a bridge will replace the circle which now slows traffic. The first step, according to highway officials is the destruction of some structures adjacent to the circle. This is the circle that also is known as the Rotonda de la Guacamaya because the Guacamaya auto repair facility is on the south side. MECO S.A, will be doing the work. Officials said they expect no problem with traffic while the demolition is taking place. The entire project is valued at $4.7 million. Fines await motorists with '4' plates By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The process by which the government is changing license plates has not been well published since it began, but Thursday was the last day for those with plates that end in 4 to renew them. If motorists are caught on the highway with such a plate, the fine is 21,000 colons. about $40. The new plates are supposed to prevent fraud. They also include a window sticker plus special markings on the new plates. The turnover of old plates for new is being run by the Registro Nacional. But post offices and some banks will make the change, too. The process will take more than a year. Those with license plates ending in 5 have until Oct. 31 to exchange them.  Smithsonian Tropical Research Center
photo
Max
Adams delighted in climbing trees and playing with bugs when
he was a toddler in Louisiana. Two decades later not a lot has changed. Ants that live
in trees called understudied
By
the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center news staff
Max Adams spends his days climbing 30 meters into the forest canopy on Panama’s Barro Colorado Nature Monument for a doctoral-level peek into the world of tropical canopy ants. Unlike their terrestrial counterparts, canopy ants are relatively understudied. “Ants play such an important role on the ground but there are still many questions about what they do in the canopy,” said Adams while standing in the crown of a Dipteryx panamensis, the forest floor hidden by underbrush and the Panama Canal visible in the distance. Adams is part of a research team led by Stephen Yanoviak of the University of Louisville. They look at the role lianas, or woody vines, play in maintaining canopy ant species richness. Some 20 species can nest in a single tree. Vines provide connectivity between trees. They may also increase available nest space and food resources for ants. Adams’ trees are on experimental plots used by many scientists. Smithsonian staff scientist Joe Wright and research associate Stefan Schnitzer have shown lianas are increasing in abundance in the New World tropics. More lianas can decrease carbon uptake by forests but may be a boon to canopy ants. “Preliminary findings indicate trees with more lianas have higher ant species richness,” said Adams. “If lianas are increasing, we may see increased canopy ant species diversity and community complexity.”
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 1, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 151 | |
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| Unveto by Solís will benefit small merchants who sell
items to tourists |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Every expat knows that court cases are never finished. There are appeals after appeals. In fact, a truth about Costa Rica is that there usually is a footnote to reverse or change just about any official action. Now, it turns out, even a presidential veto is not final. President Luis Guillermo Solís announced Thursday that he was unvetoing a measure that had been vetoed by Óscar Arias Sánchez when he was president in 2009. The measure, which now become law, involved the mercado de artesanía on the west side of the Plaza de la Democracía. This is the string of stalls that are covered by a rusting steel roof. The market occupies Calle 13 bis, a public right-of-way, and runs from Avenida Central to Avenida Segunda. For years officials have tried to shoo away the merchants to a newer facility some blocks distant. The merchants did not like this idea. Some remember being shooed away from the Plaza de la Cultura some 20 years ago. San José officials designated the street as the Calle Nacional de la Artesanía in 1995, but some local and national officials saw the stalls as an embarrassment and much too close to the new Museo de Jade. The merchants there have real businesses. They have licenses and pay sales tax. Solís noted that about 200 families depend on income from the market. The merchants there have waged petition campaigns and protests to keep their spots. That was why the legislature passed the measure that ended up on the desk of Arias. Solís in a visit to the market said he was correcting an injustice so that the merchants will have a dignified place to show the goods. Most goods are products of Costa Rica. The presidential action was not without criticism. At the legislature |
 Casa Presidencial photo
Every tourist who visits
San José knows the mercado.Rolando González Ulloa, a member of Partido Liberación Nacional, the party of Arias, said the president was hurting municipal governance by taking this action. He noted that the Municipalidad de San José will continue to try to evict the merchants. The matter probably will end up in court as the municipality challenges the presidential authority. |
 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía y Seguridad Pública photos
Fish to be discarded, iguanas to be reintroduced and orchids
to be salvaged
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| Police are busy with those who would sidestep plant and
animal laws |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The time is long past when Costa Ricans can get away with taking souvenirs from the wild. That includes orchids, iguanas and even fish. Police in Upala have confiscated orchids believed to have been stolen from a protected zone in the country's north. More than 130 fish were also retrieved in a separate seizure Thursday in Alajuela's capital city, according to a Fuerza Pública report. Officers detained a Nicaraguan man who they said had been transporting the fish in an illegal and unsanitary manner. The report said police immediately threw out the fish, citing worries |
for eventual
consumers
who could have bought the product. Also in Upala, police found 26 various orchid plants inside a sack that a local was carrying through the street. Authorities said the orchids were taken from the Volcán Miravalles protected zone in northern Guanacaste. The plants were handed over to officials from the environmental ministry who are responsible for putting them back into their natural habitat. At a checkpoint in southern Costa Rica on the Interamericana highway officers found two young iguanas hidden in a shoebox in a car. They were confiscated, too, and the driver faces criminal charges. Police pointed out that the Ley de Protección a la Vida Silvestre prohibits taking wild plants or wildlife from their habitats for home gardens or as pets. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 1, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 151 | |||||
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| At least one TV station taken in by fake clipping from
newspaper |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
At least one local television station has been hoaxed by a fake reprint critical of conditions at the Costa Rican consulate in Managua. Someone emailed to news outlets what appears to be a copy of a page from the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa. The headline says there is disorder at the consulate and appears to have been written by the news agency ACAN-EFE. Three photos show a crush of persons, presumably Nicaraguans seeking Costa Rican visas. Embassy officials in Nicaragua took the email seriously enough to call it an anonymous libel. In an email to news outlets, the embassy noted that both the newspaper La Prensa and the news agency disavowed the supposed news story. Included was a note from Luis Felipe Palacio of the news agency saying the supposed story was unprofessional and certainly was not written by his staffers or staffers of any other news agency in Nicaragua. The photos also appear to have been taken at another activity elsewhere. The embassy said that a Costa Rica television station aired the information without checking with the news agencies, La Prensa or Javier Sancho Bonilla, the Costa Rican ambassador. The embassy statement said that there was disorder outside the installation but blamed local Nicaragua officials for permitting all sorts of street vendors, taxi drivers and others doing business. Inside, business was normal with some 900 visas being issued daily. |
 The
offending fake news clipping
The fake email certainly points out the ease with which someone can fake a news story or some other official document with Photoshop or some other type of graphic program. The embassy in Nicaragua sent its statement as a bitmapped graphic that could not be manipulated easily. Casa Presidencial puts its news releases and photos in a Google file that others can access only to download. |
Here's reasonable medical care
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 1, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 151 | |||||||
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| Training center for kids offers hope in Honduras By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama and Central American leaders recently agreed to come up with a plan to address poverty and crime in the region that is fueling the surge of young migrants trying to illegally enter the United States. One such program in Honduras - funded in part by the United States - gives street kids not only food and safety but a chance for a better life without, crossing the border. Carlos Lato walks the poor market district of Tegucigalpa, looking for children living on the street to make them an offer that seems too good to be true. “We will give you food, transportation. We will give you an education and your family won't have to pay any money," he said. Lato is a recruiter for Casa Alianza, a U.S.-based Catholic Church assistance organization. It provides young people an alternative to a life of poverty, drug abuse and gang violence. However, many of the children he encounters decline his offer. Some, like one 12-year-old boy who works some days hauling trash, must help support their families. “It's that I cannot go because it's my mother's decision whether I go or not," he said. But those who do join find shelter and education. “They protect us. They help us with everything we need, school, everything that we need," said Jesenia Chevez, who has been with the program for four years. "They help us and it's a better opportunity here." In addition to traditional academic subjects, training coordinator Nelly Garcia says these former street kids also learn how to trust each other. “Work as a team, collaborate, participate and show respect, these are the kinds of training we give them," said Garcia. And they provide vocational training. Nery Venagas was twice apprehended trying to cross into the U.S. before he came to Casa Alianza. Here he learned a trade, cutting hair, and says now his future is in Honduras. “I realized that if God was going to bless me, he would do it here in my country,' he said. "I don't see traveling as something outside the law, but sometimes the experience is not the best." Advocates for increased U.S. assistance to the region say the success of programs like the Casa Alianza helps demonstrate that the best way to end the surge of illegal immigrants to the U.S is to provide young people in Central America more opportunities for a better life at home. Giant facility for batteries planned by Tesla Motors By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors and the Japanese Panasonic Corp. agreed to build the world’s largest battery manufacturing plant. According to a deal signed Thursday, the plant, known as Gigafactory, will be built in the U.S. and managed by Tesla, while Panasonic will supply equipment for the mass production of lithium-ion cells. The finished products will be used in electric cars manufactured by Tesla Motors and for stationary storage of energy. In Tesla’s view, the high price of batteries prevents electric cars from advancing to the mass market. The company hopes it will be able to lower the cost of long-range battery packs by optimizing the manufacturing process and locating all aspects of production at one site. Tesla says Gigafactory may employ as many as 6,500 people by 2020. U.S. issues travel warning for ebola outbreak areas By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United States has issued travel warnings for Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three countries hardest hit by the ongoing ebola outbreak. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging U.S. residents to avoid non-essential travel to the West African countries because of the outbreak, which it calls unprecedented. In a Thursday statement, the Centers said there had been instances of violence against aid workers in the region, and that Liberia's public health infrastructure is being severely strained. The U.S. health authority also said that at least three Americans had been infected, including two health care workers at an ebola clinic. The overall death toll from the ebola outbreak has climbed to 729, including more than 50 new fatalities reported since last Friday. The latest update from the World Health Organization came as officials in Sierra Leone and Liberia moved to enact intensive new measures to stop the ebola virus from spreading. Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma said the government will quarantine areas where the disease is found, restrict public meetings, search houses to find infected people and screen passengers at the country's main airport. In Liberia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced the closure of schools, the shutdown of markets along border areas and said all public facilities would be disinfected and chlorinated today. Guinea has the largest number of Ebola-related deaths at 339, followed by Sierra Leone at 233 and Liberia at 156. Another man with U.S. and Liberian citizenship died in Nigeria last week soon after arriving on a flight that made stops in Ghana and Togo. World Health says Nigerian authorities have identified 59 people who may have come into contact with the man before he died. In another development, World Health said it is launching a $100 million response plan to deal with the ebola outbreak, which it also called unprecedented. In a Thursday statement, the agency said World Health chief Margaret Chan will meet with the presidents of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in Conakry today to discuss the plan. World Health said the new measure will focus on finding ways to stop the virus' transmission in the affected countries and preventing ebola from spreading to neighboring nations. Doctors Without Borders is among the medical groups that have been trying to fight the spread of ebola in Sierra Leone. The group's Anja Wolz said it lacks the manpower to fully address the problem. "We only have the possibility to work in the case management centers and we don't have the capacity to go outside. The situation is quite difficult. I would say, we are on the top of an iceberg in the moment because the contact tracing is not really functioning. This is one of the major issues what we have. Because, to find the patient as soon as possible and to refer them to the case management center, it's the basic for an ebola outbreak." Meanwhile, two U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in Liberia have been isolated after potential exposure to ebola. A spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday the two “had contact with an individual who later died of the ebola virus." The Peace Corps is temporarily removing all of its volunteers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea as a precautionary measure. There is no vaccine or cure for ebola, which can be fatal in up to 90 percent of cases. The disease is characterized by fever, vomiting, diarrhea, body aches, and unstoppable bleeding from areas such as the eyes, ears and nose. The ebola virus is transmitted through contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person. Health officials are warning people to not touch ebola patients and to avoid burial rituals that require handling the body of an ebola fatality. Resistance to malaria drugs reported growing in Asia By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
From Vietnam to Burma, the leading drug against malaria is losing potency, according to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. On the plus side, the same issue of the journal reports that a new antimalarial drug looks promising in an early test. Artemisinin-based drugs have helped make dramatic gains against malaria worldwide. “If we lose this class of drugs, it’s really going to be a global health catastrophe,” said Chris Plowe at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “There’s nothing on the shelf that’s ready to replace those.” Plowe and colleagues studied resistance rates in seven Asian and three African countries. The worst problems were along the Thailand-Cambodia border, where the first artemisinin drug failures were reported. But they found significant resistance from southern Vietnam to central Burma. The fact that it’s on the move in Southeast Asia “speaks to the possibility that from there it can jump into Africa, which is the big concern, ultimately,” said Columbia University microbiologist David Fidock, who was not involved in the research. That’s what happened with resistance to previous malaria drugs, and it cost countless lives. In fact, Plowe said that part of the world has proved to be a drug-resistant malaria hotspot. “It’s happened again and again, with at least four different antimalarial drugs, where resistant parasites popped up along the border between Thailand and Cambodia,” he said. It’s not clear why. It could be the quality of the drugs available, or how they are taken. Plowe doubts that, though, considering that both are issues elsewhere, too. Or it may be something to do with the genetics of the parasite. Researchers are looking into that, too. The good news is Plowe’s group did not find artemisinin resistance in Africa. And the drugs still work, although they take longer. But he adds, “We don’t have very much time with the artemisinins based on the rate at which resistance appears to be emerging and spreading.” In another study in the same issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, the pharmaceutical company Novartis reports its new drug spiroindolone quickly rid 21 patients of malaria parasites. It is on track to be the first to take over when the artemisinin drugs fail. “It’s very early days,” Plowe cautions. “This is a very small study. But the initial news is pretty good.” Fidock notes, however, that the drug’s target is known to mutate quickly. “It’s already to some degree susceptible to resistance,” he said. Spiroindolone would be combined with at least one other drug to slow down resistance. And other drugs are in the pipeline, racing to be ready for the day when artemisinin fails. Test shows Earth fossils could be found on moon By the University of Kent news services
Kent physicists have tested what would happen if a piece of rock containing microscopic fossils from Earth was launched into space and hit the surface of the moon. In order to do this, Mark Burchell and researchers from the University’s Centre for Astrophysics simulated the condition that fossilized diatoms – microscopic algae with detailed shells – might have faced if traveling from earth to the moon. The team turned fossil-filled rock into powder which was mixed with water and frozen to replicate a meteoroid. The replica meteoroid was then fired into a bag of water using a large gas-powered gun to allow it to experience the impact of being launched into orbit, whilst the rapid deceleration and high pressure as it hit the water simulated how it might have smashed into the moon at high speed. This suggests that if earth meteorites are ever found on the moon – in the same way that lunar meteorites are found on earth – then they may contain fossils from the Earth’s past. Although this idea has existed for over a decade, the researchers have now shown by simulating the ‘explosion’ that it may be possible. This could then shed light on what life was like on Earth. The research has been published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. E-cigarette research seen as important regulator step By the Queen Mary University of
London
news staff A major scientific review of available research on the use, content, and safety of e-cigarettes has concluded that – although long-term health effects of e-cigarette use are unknown – compared with conventional cigarettes they are likely to be much less harmful to users or bystanders. The review of current evidence about e-cigarettes, carried out by Queen Mary University of London and published by the scientific journal Addiction, concludes that despite gaps in the knowledge which require further research, the current evidence about e-cigarettes does not justify regulating them more strictly than, or even as strictly as, conventional cigarettes. Regulatory decisions will provide the greatest public health benefit when they are proportional, based on evidence, and incorporate a rational appraisal of likely risks and benefits. The scientific review was conducted by an international team of leading tobacco researchers led by Peter Hajek at the university Hajek comments: “The evidence we currently have is clear: e-cigarettes should be allowed to compete against conventional cigarettes in the marketplace. Health care professionals may advise smokers who are unwilling to cease nicotine use to switch to e-cigarettes. Smokers who have not managed to stop with current treatments may also benefit from switching to e-cigarettes.” Electronic cigarettes have gained considerable popularity over the past few years. While public health researchers investigate their potential harms (reducing motivation to stop smoking, providing a gateway to smoking) and benefits (giving smokers safer access to nicotine and reducing or even virtually eliminating cigarette use), regulatory bodies around the world are currently debating whether, and how heavily, to regulate e-cigarettes. Their verdicts likely will feature among the key public health decisions of the time. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 1, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 151 | |||||||||
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Cocoa growers to
benefit from grant
Special to A.M. Costa Rica
Lutheran World Relief has won a $500,000 award from the Pathways to Prosperity Innovation Challenge to scale up its innovative cocoa programs in Central America. The challenge, a region-wide competition conducted by the World Environment Center on behalf of the U.S. Department of State and the Pathways to Prosperity Initiative, sought to discover existing innovative, high-impact solutions that are helping create strong micro and small enterprises in Latin America and that have potential to be scaled up to larger populations and new geographies. Twelve finalists, out of more than 600 entrants, pitched their solutions in person before a panel of judges and invited guests at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. Lutheran World Relief's program, Mobile Cocoa: Using Technology to Improve Farmers' Lives won in the Empowering Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise category. This project represents the latest evolution in Lutheran World Relief's cocoa package for small-scale producers in Central America and will integrate the successes and lessons learned from previous work. Using the new Pathways funding, Lutheran World Relief will help 4,000 farm micro-enterprises in Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador with potential expansion to additional countries to improve their competitiveness in marketing cocoa. The project will combine Lutheran World Relief's community agriculture extension model, existing printed Cocoa Toolkit, and the currently under-development Mobile Cocoa platform to assist farmers in growing better crops and accessing the global cocoa market. "Cocoa farmers in Central America face a lot of challenges," said Jenny Wiegel, Lutheran World Relief's Nicaragua-based regional representative. "Cocoa originated here, but today the region isn't well known for cocoa production. However, we've seen that with the right training and access to resources, cocoa farming can be a viable livelihood -- and the global market is growing, so we want to be able to help more farmers tap into that potential. We believe that satisfying the growing demand for cocoa, and helping farmers, can and should go hand in hand." Lutheran World Relief published a print version of its Cocoa Toolkit in 2013, and is now in the process of translating the content to a mobile platform to make it accessible to any farmer with a smartphone or tablet. "We are so thrilled to win this competition," Ms. Wiegel said. "We are excited about the potential that cocoa farming holds for Central American farmers, and are so happy to have the opportunity to share our work with even more farmers." The work in Central America is part of Lutheran World Relief's broader Ground Up initiative to improve the lives of coffee and cocoa farmers worldwide. Lutheran World Relief currently works with coffee and cocoa farmers in 10 countries to create linkages that benefit small farmers, contribute to environmental sustainability, and create profits for socially responsible businesses. |
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| From Page 7: Construction chamber seeks a better Costa Rica By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The construction chamber is ready to roll out its 10th annual congressional meeting, called "A Route Towards Building a Better Costa Rica." The meeting will take place on Thursday and next Friday at the Hotel Real Intercontinental in Escazú. A central theme for this year's congress centers upon the challenges facing the construction industry for the next four years. Marco Gonzalez, the head of the Cámara Costarricense de la Construcción, said committee members will focus on specific issues of water and sanitation infrastructure, procedures, housing, and environment. "These issues will be analyzed by experts and proposals will be generated from the recommendation of the current government to take into account the problems we find in each topic," Gonzalez said. The event's schedule has already been set, as the opening day will focus on talks about infrastructure and procedures. In infrastructure discussions, members will assess the current state of drinking water and sanitation in the country and create a proposal that could improve institutional planning on the matter. For process talks, the congress will address the problem of paperwork and bureaucracy in terms of slowing down construction. Aug. 8, attention will shift solely towards housing and environmental operations. With housing, the construction experts are looking to generate ways to improve efficiency in terms of financing and land management. The agenda says the congress is hoping to create a single governing body for housing systems. Finally, in terms of environmental discussions on the docket, members are planning to analyze how to better incorporate sustainable urban development projects into Costa Rican cities. The congress begins at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday. |
