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José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 163
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 Minsterio de Seguridad Pública
photo
Police officers inspect
cages where they found fighting birds in Fray Casiano de Puntarenas.
The chickens were not in top shape, and they were turned over to animal
health workers. Fighting birds is illegal.
Archaeologist will discuss Garza site By the A.M. Costa Rice staff
The man who excavated an ancient cemetery in Playa Garza and found 111 ocarinas will discuss his discoveries today. He is archaeologist Juan Vicente Guerrero, and his 3 p.m. presentation will be the first in a series. The Garza site is called Rempujo, and Guerrero and his team did the excavations in 2009. So many ocarinas were found that the place has been called the cemetery of musicians. His free presentation today will be at the Museo Nacional where the archaeological work led to the exhibition Música y ritos en Bahía Garza. This is the first of four discussions of pre-Columbian music. The next will be Sept, 16 with ethnomusicologist Jorge Luis Acevedo, who will discuss ancient music. Oct. 14 is the third presentation, pre-Columbian music, also with Acevedo. A roundtable is planned for Nov. 11 with the curators of Paseo de los Museos, Priscilla Molina, Mónica Aguilar and Cleria Ruíz. Paseo de los Museos is a program set up for tourists by the Museo Nacional, the Museo de Jade and the Museos del Banco Central. All three museums are within walking distance, and the Museo Nacional and the Museo de Jade are on opposite sides of the Plaza de la Democracia. Staffers at the three museums are working together to present exhibitions for visitors. Each museum now has an exhibition related to ancient music. The Garza site is in the hills east of the Pacific beach on the Nicoya peninsula. In addition to ocarinas, also discovered were whistles, jade pendants, war and ceremonial maces and axes, according to Guerrero's academic report. Oreamuno will get camera surveillance By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The security ministry said that officials there are responding to concerns expressed by community leaders to install surveillance cameras in the Municipalidad de Oreamuno, province of Cartago. In addition, plans are being made to build a new police station in the district of Cot. In the meantime, the ministry said six more bike patrol officers are being assigned to the area. Teens using
e-cigarettes prone to tobacco
By the news staff of the American Medical
Association.
Electronic or e-cigarettes have grown in popularity over the past several years, especially among teenagers. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that e-cigarette use among American teens tripled from 2013 to 2014. A new study funded by the National Institutes of Health now shows teens who use e-cigarettes are more likely than those who don't to smoke tobacco. Co-author of the study Adam Leventhal, an associate professor at the University of Southern California, specializes in research on smoking cessation and the causes of addiction. Although e-cigarettes come in tobacco flavors, he observed that many of the flavors are those that teens like. “They come in attractive flavors like cotton candy, bubble gum. They’re very hi-tech and, you know, they’re modern and cool,” he said. E-cigarettes, e-cigs, e-hookas, which refer to the same product, are essentially nicotine delivery devices. They use a liquid solution containing varying levels of nicotine that is inhaled, a process often called vaping. E-cigarettes have helped some tobacco users wean themselves from nicotine, but teens seem to be attracted to the drug. Studies show nicotine can affect a teenager's memory. It can increase tension, depression and anxiety. Some doctors are concerned that e-cigarettes set up the adolescent brain for more durable and stronger addiction pathways, not just for nicotine, but for substances such as cocaine, marijuana and other drugs. Researchers surveyed 2,300 Los Angeles area high school students starting at the beginning of ninth grade when most students were about 14 years old. The study also compared tobacco use initiation among 222 students who had used e-cigarettes, but not combustible tobacco products. “We compared teens who had used e-cigarettes to teens who hadn’t, and we looked to see whether there were differences between those two groups and the initiation of smoking of combustible tobacco products," Leventhal said. The students were surveyed again six months later and at the start of 10th grade. “The teens who used e-cigarettes were more than four times more likely to start smoking than the teens who hadn’t used e-cigarettes," said Leventhal. He said the study doesn't show that e-cigarette use directly leads to smoking, but it increases the risk. “If they’re inhaling nicotine and they enjoy the experience of inhaling nicotine via the e-cigarette," Leventhal said, "it’s possible that they might be more open to experimenting with smokeable tobacco products in the future.” The study also raises issues about teen smoking. “While teen tobacco use has fallen in recent years, this study confirms that we should continue to vigilantly watch teen smoking patterns,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Parents and teens should recognize that although e-cigarettes might not have the same carcinogenic effects of regular cigarettes, they do carry a risk of addiction,” she said, adding: "Classically, it is recognized that e-cigarettes are likely to be much less toxic than combustible tobacco because you don't have the carcinogenic chemicals that you get when you are smoking a cigarette. "But on the other hand, nicotine is an addictive substance, and by that nature it produces neuroplastic changes in the brain, and so our concern has been whether early exposure of adolescents to nicotine could prime their brain to the rewarding effects of other drugs including tobacco, regular or combustible tobacco. "And so this study was addressing in a longitudinal way, that whether kids that get exposed to electronic cigarettes, and therefore exposed to nicotine, are then more likely to have increased risk for smoking the regular cigarettes and that's actually what they seem to have found." The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it plans to regulate e-cigarettes, along with cigars and other tobacco products that are not currently regulated in the United States. Some countries restrict the sale of certain types of e-cigarettes, but they are widely available on the Internet which makes enforcement difficult. Chinese stocks continue their decline By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Stocks in China have plunged for the second consecutive day, raising renewed concerns over the stability of the world's second-largest economy. Shanghai was down by over 3 percent today, recovering slightly after losing as much as 5 percent in morning trading. Elsewhere in Asia, shares were also lower, including in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines. Shanghai fell over 6 percent on Tuesday. It was the biggest single-day drop since late July, when a massive sell-off prompted Beijing to artificially prop up the markets. Many investors remain nervous that China may end its support for the market, and there are also fears that Beijing could further devalue its currency, the yuan. Beijing weakened the yuan last week, in a surprise move meant to boost Chinese exports. It also signaled China's economy is worse off than expected. There are concerns that other countries in the region will respond by weakening their own currencies in order to protect the competitiveness of their export markets. Vietnam on Wednesday devalued the dong by 1 percent. The trading band around which the dong could be traded was also widened to 3 percent from 2 percent.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 163 | |
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| They're ramps not long bugs Although they look like giant caterpillars, these ramps are for practicing with mountain bikes. The Municipalidad de Heredia has installed them at Finca las Chorreras in San Rafael de Heredia. There are three skill levels in the same number of circuits. Construction was with red cedar that ages well from the United States. |
 Municipalidad de Heredia photo
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| Dutch scam suspect accused of using laundered funds in Quepos |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A man in Holland accused of being a scammer and his wife are accused of moving some of the ill-gained money to Costa Rica to make investments in the Quepos area. The Judicial Investigating Organization said it is working with Dutch police to locate evidence in the case. Among other charges, the man, who is jailed in Holland, faces money laundering allegations, said agents here. Agents were in Quepos Tuesday morning entering two of the |
properties
owned by the Dutch man via Costa Rican corporations. In
addition, agents searched a lawyer's office on Paseo Colón in
San José,
they said. Dutch authorities told agents here that the man, who was not named, set up a corporation in Holland for the purpose of engaging in the solar energy businesses. But he moved the bulk of the money invested with him to Spain and then moved some to Costa Rica. That was from August 2007 to September 2009, the judicial agency said. |
| Sounds that are produced by reef creatures used to assess
health |
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By the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution news staff
Coral reefs are noisy places, especially the healthy ones. Two new studies assess that health by the sounds the reef dwellers produce. Max Kaplan, a doctoral candidate with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is lead author on both papers. He and colleagues placed acoustic recorders on three reefs in the U.S. Virgin Islands National Park with varying degrees of coral cover and fish density. The autonomous devices recorded short bursts of sounds on a regular schedule over four months. “These sounds are associated with a range of different behaviors from tracking mates, spawning, and finding prey to avoiding predators,” Kaplan said, reached at an international acoustics conference in Denmark. Coral reefs are hotspots for biodiversity, harboring 25 percent of all marine species worldwide. But warmer ocean temperatures and acidification linked to global carbon emissions threaten this valuable resource and the economies they support. Kaplan says keeping an ear on the reef can identify changes in animal abundance and distribution to designate areas for protection. “The idea of the study and of the overall research is just to sort of look at the variation, in terms of the variable frequencies that are represented, and the different times of day that sounds are produced, to link the complexity and variability in sound production to the variability and diversity of the animals living on the reef," he said. Kaplan says that link was most apparent at certain times of day, early morning and early evening, when light is changing. Snapping shrimp, which sound like frying bacon, were particularly vocal. “When we looked at dusk and dawn we found that the strength of this daily trend of increasing sound production, at these two times of day, that trend was correlated with coral cover with fish density at the reefs,” he said. At noon and at other times of day these louder sounds were muted. At those times, the three reefs sounded very much alike. “It was really only the times of day where the soniferous animals, the animals producing sound, that were particularly active that we saw these differences,” Kaplan said. The findings are published in Marine Ecology Progress. |
 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/T.
Aran Mooney
Max Kaplan setting up a
device to record the reef sound.Kaplan's second study, in Marine Pollution Bulletin, used the same raw data to analyze the effect of noise pollution from small craft on reef habitat. He notes that boat frequencies are low and frequently overlap the communication ranges of fish, drowning out vital sounds that organisms need to reproduce, feed and find new homes. “So, there’s a potential masking effect going on there with vessel activity, especially if there is a lot of vessel activity, and it occurs around times when fish particularly use hearing or communication abilities,” Kaplan said. The researchers are taking this work to the next step in a larger study in Hawaii, where they have already begun to monitor sound for 15 months at eight sites with coral cover ranging from 85 percent to almost none. Kaplan says he anticipates getting the signal of a bleaching event, when warming temperatures cause the coral to die. “We can potentially hear that as the fish won’t appear on the sound records,” he said. Kaplan says the low cost recorders can revolutionize how and how often reefs are monitored. He says this tool can help gather critical information, regulate boat traffic and even aid in rebuilding the reef ecosystem by broadcasting sounds that will attract new denizens. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 163 | |||||
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| New study addresses complexities of using marijuana and
tobacco |
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By The Center for BrainHealth news staff
How scientists study the effects of marijuana on the brain is changing. Until recently marijuana research largely excluded tobacco users from its participant pool, but scientists at the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas have found reason to abandon this practice, uncovering significant differences in the brains of individuals who use both tobacco and marijuana and the brains of those who only use marijuana. In a study that appears online in the journal Behavioural Brain Research, scientists report an association between smaller hippocampal brain volume and marijuana use. Although the size of the hippocampus, an area of the brain associated with memory and learning, is significantly smaller in both the marijuana group and marijuana plus tobacco group compared to non-using controls and individuals who use tobacco exclusively, the relationship to memory performance is unique. Hippocampal size of nonusers reflects a direct relationship to memory function: the smaller the hippocampus, the poorer the memory function. Individuals who use marijuana and tobacco show an inverse relationship: the smaller the hippocampus size, the greater the memory the function. Furthermore the number of nicotine cigarettes smoked per day in the marijuana and nicotine using group appears to be related to the severity of hippocampal shrinkage. The greater the number of cigarettes smoked per day, the smaller the hippocampal volume and the greater the memory performance. There were no significant associations between hippocampal size and memory performance in individuals who only use tobacco or only use marijuana. “Approximately 70 percent of individuals who use marijuana also use tobacco,” explained Francesca Filbey, the study’s |
principal
investigator and director of cognitive neuroscience of addictive
behaviors at the Center for BrainHealth. “Our findings exemplify why
the effects of marijuana on the brain may not generalize to the vast
majority of the marijuana-using population, because most studies do not
account for tobacco use. This study is one of the first to tease apart
the unique effects of each substance on the brain as well as their
combined effects.” Ms. Filbey’s research team used magnetic resonance imaging to examine the hippocampus; an area of the brain that is known to have altered size and shape in association with chronic marijuana use. Participants completed a substance use history assessment and neuropsychological tests three days prior to a head scan. The team compared four groups: nonusers (individuals who have not had any marijuana or tobacco in the past three months), chronic marijuana users (individuals who use marijuana at least four times per week), frequent nicotine users (10 or more times daily) and chronic marijuana plus frequent nicotine users (at least four marijuana uses per week and 10 or more nicotine uses per day). “We have always known that each substance is associated with effects on the brain and hypothesized that their interaction may not simply be a linear relationship. Our findings confirm that the interaction between marijuana and nicotine is indeed much more complicated due to the different mechanisms at play,” said Ms. Filbey. “Future studies need to address these compounding effects of substances.” She continued, “The combined use of marijuana and tobacco is highly prevalent. For instance, a blunt is wrapped in tobacco leaf. A spliff is a joint rolled with tobacco. We really need to understand how the combined use changes the brain to really understand its effects on memory function and behavior.” |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 163 | |||||||
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| U.S. immigration remains on front burner in politics By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Businessman and Republican presidential contender Donald Trump, in his latest statements about U.S. immigration reform, said children born to immigrants living in the U.S. illegally should be denied citizenship. "We have to make a whole new set of standards," said Trump. "And when people come in, they have to come in legally." More than half of undocumented immigrants in the United States come from Mexico and about 25 percent more are from other countries in Central America. Trump’s comments concern Maya, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, whose 8-year-old daughter was born in Maryland and is a U.S. citizen. Maya recalled the night in Mexico, 10 years ago, when she crossed the Rio Grande in a small boat that brought her into Texas. “I knew I was going to have many problems because I’m undocumented,” she said. Her boyfriend José, now her husband, illegally crossed the U.S. border six years earlier to get a better job. “Not that finding a job in Mexico is difficult, but the pay is very little,” he explained. “Sometimes you have to skip a meal because you have to buy a pair of shoes.” José works as a landscaper for a company in Maryland that doesn’t ask questions about his immigration status. “I try to do a really good job so I will be valued," he said. “But I worry about whether I’ll be caught and deported.” Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the millions of people who are undocumented should be deported. “There are hundreds of millions of people who would like to move to the United States," said Stein. "It can’t be a self-selecting process for anyone who feels that they might do better, improve their economic situation.” However, George Escobar with Casa de Maryland, a Latino advocacy group in Maryland, called the idea of mass deportation “ridiculous and incredibly expensive. It’s more cost-efficient and beneficial for the American economy if they’re legalized,” he added. In 2014, President Barack Obama announced executive action on immigration that would expand deportation relief to about half of undocumented immigrants. Under the plan, certain documented immigrants, including those with children who are U.S. citizens, would have the opportunity to get work documents. But the initiative is being challenged in court. “The people who are saying we should go back to our countries are close-minded and afraid of change, Maya said. “And once you give someone documents, you are allowing that person to make a change for the better.” Adding fuel to the immigration controversy are sanctuary cities, about 275 cites in some 30 states that do not allow the police to question or stop people simply to determine their immigration status. July's shooting death of Kate Steinle by a Mexican illegal immigrant in San Francisco sparked controversy over that city’s sanctuary city status. Stein pointed out that sanctuary city policies are against federal immigration law and believes police should be allowed to question people they think are in the U.S. illegally. "This needs to be part of the day-to-day policing in state and local communities," he said. Escobar said the police would be overstepping their bounds. “Any collaboration between federal immigration officials and local municipal police is totally uncalled for.” Carlos, an immigrant from Perú living in Washington, D.C., a sanctuary city, thinks illegals like him would be afraid to talk to the police or report crimes, knowing they face deportation. Both Stein and Escobar are in agreement about one thing, however: That the U.S. immigration system needs to be overhauled. “There’s no question that you can’t just leave the door open and keep a flow coming in, said Escobar. “But you’ve got to look at patterns of migration to see which nationals come in and what the economy needs.” But Stein has another formula. “People need to leave the country and conform with the law and then reapply for admission based on the visas that are available.” Mrs. Clinton's email review is tarnishing her campaign By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The political controversy over the email files of former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shows no sign of ending, engulfing her standing as the leading 2016 Democratic presidential contender. A federal judge has set a hearing for later this week on whether the State Department is ensuring the retrieval of all official records that Clinton and her aides had on personal email accounts or devices from 2009 to 2013, when she stepped down as the country's top diplomat. The State Department said in a court filing that a partial review of Mrs. Clinton's emails showed that 305 of them possibly contain classified information. Mrs. Clinton has said she did not send any classified documents on her personal email account or receive any that were marked classified at the time. Mrs. Clinton has said that she used her personal email account for State Department work for her own convenience, but the Justice Department is now conducting a review whether classified government documents ended up on her computer server. The British Daily Mail newspaper reported Tuesday she hired a small technology firm, Platte River Networks of Denver, Colorado, to maintain her computer server, and it was stored in a bathroom closet at her New York home. The Gawker Media online news site said it is seeking to look at the emails between Philippe Reines, who worked for Mrs. Clinton at the State Department, and reporters at 33 news outlets. Gawker reports the State Department said two years ago it found no such records, but last week reversed course, saying it now has discovered more than 17,000 and is examining them to see whether they can be released. After resisting for months, Mrs. Clinton turned over the computer server to investigators last week. But she contends Republican complaints about the emails are merely an attempt to derail her presidential campaign. "I will not pretend this is anything other than what it is: the same old partisan games we have seen so many times before," she told supporters last week in Iowa. A lawsuit was filed against the State Department forcing it to review the emails on Clinton's private server. Those found to possibly contain classified information will be recommended to other federal agencies for further evaluation. Critics have accused her of trying to hide controversial communications in her private account, including those concerning the deadly terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. Mrs. Clinton has said she has turned over 55,000 pages of emails to the State Department and has authorized the agency to make them public. The FBI has launched an investigation into the security of Mrs. Clinton's private email server after the inspector general of the U.S. intelligence community said he found at least four emails that were classified at the time they were sent, including two that were deemed to be top secret, the government's highest classification level. Her campaign spokesman, Nick Merrill, has said Mrs. Clinton has pledged to cooperate with the government's security inquiry, and if there are more questions, they will be addressed. Another top Democrat says he will oppose deal with Iran By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Another well-known Senate Democrat says he will vote against the nuclear deal with Iran, making Congressional passage look even more uncertain. New Jersey's Robert Menendez said in a speech Tuesday at Seton Hall University that he believes the deal will leave Iran with what he calls the core element of a robust nuclear infrastructure. "If Iran is to acquire a nuclear bomb, it will not have my name on it," Menendez said. "I will vote to disapprove the agreement and, if called upon, would vote to override a veto." Menendez said President Barack Obama is wrong when he says the deal will permanently stop Iran's nuclear program. The senator said Iran has broken past promises to give up its nuclear ambitions. He also said the agreement only shrinks Iran's nuclear infrastructure, not dismantle it. The speech by Menendez, a strong backer of Israel, contained a detailed, technical analysis of the agreement. He pointed out that throughout Obama's term in office he has mainly backed the Democratic president, voting for Wall Street and healthcare reforms and other major initiatives. Menendez, however, has parted ways with Obama over his opening of diplomatic ties with Cuba and he questioned Obama's threats to ultimately take military action against Iran if it went ahead with making a nuclear bomb. "We should authorize now the means for Israel to address the Iranian threat on their own in the event that Iran accelerates its program and to counter Iranian perceptions that our own threat to use force is not credible," he said. He also criticized Republicans, who he said reflexively oppose everything the president proposes. Menendez urged the Obama administration to go back to the negotiating table to rework the main elements, something the Obama administration says would be impossible. Last month, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the third-highest ranking Democrat, said he will vote against the nuclear deal and will try to persuade other senators to follow him. Obama has promised a veto if the House and Senate vote against the nuclear deal next month. It is unclear if Congress has enough votes to override the veto. The agreement reached between Iran and five major world powers, Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia, requires Iran to scale back its uranium enrichment to keep it from building a bomb and open its military sites to international inspectors to ensure compliance. In exchange, the six powers would ease sanctions that have wrecked the Iranian economy. Backers of the deal call it the most robust nuclear agreement possible. Opponents, including Israel, say it still gives Iran room to build a bomb and strengthen what they call a terrorist state. But a group of arms control and nuclear nonproliferation specialists have endorsed the agreement, calling it strong, long-term, and verifiable. The Washington-based Arms Control Association said Tuesday the deal "advances the security interest of the...international community." It says "any future effort by Iran to pursue nuclear weapons, even a clandestine program, would be detected promptly." Among the more than 70 signatories in support of the agreement were the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Hans Blix, and John Ahearne, former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It also was endorsed by former U.S. and U.N. officials, as well as dozens of members of groups aimed at preventing the use of nuclear weapons. New drug to boost sex drive wins FDA approval in U.S. By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a libido-enhancing drug for women that has been dubbed Female Viagra. The approval of the drug, flibanserin, which the FDA twice rejected before and now will be marketed as Addyi, comes with a series of explanations reflecting the agency’s concerns about serious side effects. These include a boxed warning that highlights the risks of low blood pressure and fainting in patients who drink alcohol while taking the drug and a requirement that doctors complete a training course before being allowed to prescribe the drug. Opponents of the drug say it's not worth the side effects, which also include nausea, drowsiness and dizziness. They point out that the FDA rejected the drug twice, in 2010 and 2013, because of those risks. The drug is actually the first approved to treat a flagging or absent libido for either sex. Viagra and other drugs available for men are approved to help achieve erections or to treat certain deficiencies of the hormone testosterone, not to increase desire. The drug will be available to women starting in October. Slight breeze is sufficient for power, U.S. Army finds By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
All portable electronic communication devices require regular access to an energy source, which can be a problem for soldiers in the field. The U.S. Army is testing a new device that harvests energy from even the slightest breeze. Solar chargers are effective only when the sunlight is relatively strong, so researchers at the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Illinois turned to the wind as another natural source of power often present in open spaces. Four months of constant measuring in an open field showed that during evening hours 70 percent of average wind speed was less than or equal to three meters per second – too slow for a wind turbine, but enough to make a light strip of fabric flutter. “What has resulted is an innovative prototype with which to generate electricity at remote locations for very low wind situations,” said lead engineer Charles Marsh. The Flutter-Mallard portable sustainable electrical generation device has flexible strips affixed to pick-up coils with magnets that convert the vibrating energy into electrical charge. A special challenge was the design of an electronic device that can turn the constantly changing wind speed, and therefore varying power, into a steady electric current. But that was not the only problem researchers had to tackle. “A concurring effort for the storage side of it, remember it was integrated energy generation and storage, was the development as well of some supercapacitor technology for the purpose of storing the electrical power that resulted in a number of publications and also a second patent disclosure,” said Marsh. Many engineering students from the University of Illinois participated in the project. The device generates about three watts of power. Researchers are now experimenting with strips made of flexible photovoltaic cells that could serve as additional sources of energy during the day. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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 Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad
photo
Technician is installing one of
the panels.Solar panels readied for distant users By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad says it has acquired 850 solar panels that will be provided to native populations in the rural sections Turrialba and Caribbean coast. The purchase came from a loan provided by the Interamerican Development Bank, and the value of the purchase is $750,000. The development bank also has agreed to bankroll the state agency for 500 more panels. The company said that 265 panels will be installed this year, the same number next year and the remainder in 2017. The panels are installed is areas far from the electrical lines. Some native settlements are several days hike from power. So far the company has installed nearly 4,000 systems, it said. The company's rural electrification program began in 1998 to provide basic power to residents but also to schools. Technically the panels will remain property of the state company, but eventually officials there hope to hook the entire country to the grid. White House hires
transgender staffer
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The White House has for the first time hired an openly transgender staff member. Officials say Raffi Freedman-Gurspan will serve as an outreach and recruitment director in the White House's personnel office. She previously was a policy adviser for the National Center for Transgender Equality's racial and economic justice initiative. Advocates hailed her appointment as an important step for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community and for ensuring that the federal government includes the voices and experiences of all Americans. White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said Ms. Freedman-Gurspan's commitment to improving the lives of transgender Americans reflects the values of the Obama administration. The administration has appointed openly transgender people into federal positions before, but not as White House staffers, reported the Washington Blade. |
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| From Page 7: U.S. moves to cut oil well methane emissions By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
In the next step in its plan to lower global warming emissions, the Obama administration announced Tuesday proposed rules to reduce methane and volatile organic compounds from new oil and gas operations. Methane, a key component of natural gas, is the second most prevalent greenhouse gas in the United States after carbon dioxide. Yet its warming effect is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The rules would apply to an estimated 15,000 new wells by 2025. They include finding and repairing leaks and capturing natural gas from fracking wells. These efforts would help meet the administration’s target of cutting methane in the oil and gas sector by 40 to 45 percent. Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation acknowledged that this and other mandates account for about 20 to 30 percent of the national estimated emissions from this sector in 2012. “We will continue working with industry and all the stakeholders who are interested to make sure we get at the president’s goal,” she said. While environmental groups welcomed the new measures, the industry-backed Policy Resolution Group, said they will have a chilling effect on the nation's energy renaissance, the U.S. economy and the significant progress already achieved reducing methane emissions in this sector. The final rules will be released in two months, following a series of public hearings. |
