|
|
|||||
 |
 |
||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for more details |
|
||
|
San
José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 199
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
 Ministerio de Obras Públicas y
Transportes photo
The
process is long and confusing now under which vehicles like thiscan be sold as junk. Bill would
speed up handling junk cars
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Policía de Tránsito and the transport ministry are spending about $1.5 million a year to keep some 31,000 confiscated vehicles. And that does not count the fines for harboring places where mosquitoes can breed. So the Partido Acción Ciudadana introduced a bill Wednesday that would speed up the process and allow the government to claim title to vehicles three months after judicial approval is given. The ministry said that the system now is confusing and complex. The vehicles end up on traffic police lots for a variety of reasons, including accidents or because the driver was issued traffic tickets. The fines now range into the hundreds of dollars, and many drivers simply walk away from the vehicle. The fines usually go with the vehicle instead of the driver, and owners cannot register their vehicles each December if there are fines outstanding. The bill also will clarify which part of the ministry is in charge of handling the confiscated vehicles. Vehicles that are suitable will be used by the ministry or the traffic police, under terms of the bill. Those that are not will be handled as junk. Men targeted for making street comments By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Defensoría de los Habitantes is embarking on a campaign to eradicate the tradition of men whistling at women or making complementary remarks. The Defensoría de los Habitantes issued a statement Wednesday in which it characterized such actions as violence toward women. Also included were other actions, such as making obscene gestures, making sexual comments, taking photographs of woman as well as unwelcome touching or exhibitionism. The agency said that an educational campaign would be directed at these actions. The campaign will be joined by the Insituto Nacional de Mujeres, said the Defensoria. The women's institute already is engaged in a campaign against machismo, the Latin American glorification of the male. The Defensoria also used the word piropos as something to be eradicated. These are terms of endearment directed by a male to a women in an effort to gain her attention. Some are humorous and others are crude. The Defensoria cites international agreements that support the eradication of these comments.  Ministerio
de Seguridad Pública
photo
A student displays the product of
the garden project.Garden project
flowers in Quepos
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A tourist police officer, Johan Barrantes, has spent a year at the Escuela de La Inmaculada in Quepos teaching hydroponics and also working in some opinions against violence and bullying. The school garden has been producing vegetables for the lunchroom, said a school official. The Policía Turística and other Fuerza Pública officers are involved in the Mi Escuelita Segura round the country, and Barrantes has some specilized knowledge in hydroponics, growing plants without soil, said the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública. Honduran trio called money launderers Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated three Honduran businessmen and seven businesses as money launderers for the narcotics trade. The three individuals are Jaime Rolando Rosenthal Oliva, his son Yani Benjamin Rosenthal Hidalgo and his nephew Yankel Antonio Rosenthal Coello. The Treasury department says the three provide money laundering and other services that support the international narcotics trafficking activities of multiple Central American drug traffickers and their criminal organizations. As a result of the action, all assets of these individuals and entities that are under the jurisdiction of the United States or in the control of U.S. persons are frozen, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them, said the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York also took action to target the Rosenthal family. An indictment charging the trio along with a fourth individual, with money laundering was unsealed, and Yankel Antonio Rosenthal Coello was arrested in the United States. “This action targets the three Rosenthal family members and their properties for their money laundering and drug trafficking activities,” said Adam J. Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. “This step underscores that the U.S. government is fully committed to protecting the U.S. financial system from criminals like the Rosenthals. We are fully committed to working with the Honduran authorities to take the necessary steps to protect the Honduran financial system from abuse by drug traffickers and other illicit actors, in order to further safeguard Honduran financial institutions.” The action targets seven key Rosenthal businesses including their principal Panamanian holding company, Inversiones Continental (Panama), S.A. de C.V., known as Grupo Continental. Grupo Continental is the parent company of a conglomerate of businesses in Honduras involved in banking, financial services, real estate, agriculture, construction, tourism, and media. Cited along with Grupo Continental is its agricultural arm, Empacadora Continental S.A de C.V. (now known as Alimentos Continental), and two of its key financial components, Inversiones Continental, S.A. (a.k.a. Grupo Financiero Continental) and the Honduran bank, Banco Continental S.A., headquartered in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Banco Continental S.A. has served as an integral part of the Rosenthal money laundering operations and facilitated the laundering of narcotics proceeds for multiple Central American drug trafficking organizations, said the U.S. announcement. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this Web site are
copyrighted by Consultantes Ro Colorado S.A 2015 and may not be
reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
|
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 199 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| Repairs planned for austere building associated with Carmen
Lyra |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Repairs are planned for the structure that housed the country's first Montessori school that was founded by the woman who now is on the 20,000-colon bill. This is what cultural ministry officials call an austere building adjacent to the Escuela Buenaventura Corrales. known to many as the Escuela Metálica. The woman is María Isabel Carvajal, who is better known by her pen name of Carmen Lyra. She was a teacher with a European education who founded the Escuela Maternal Montessoriana in 1925 for the benefit of poor children. It was the first pre-school in the country. The Centro de Investigación y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural said it is investing some $19,000 to repair the roof and the facade. The frame building now is two-story and used by the adjacent school as a computer law and library. The work probably is as much because of the woman as the building. María Isabel Carvajal is known as one of the country's most famous writers, a campaigner for women's rights, a social agitator and one of the founders of the country's Communist party. Her best-known work is still in print. It is "Cuentos de Mi Tia Panchita," translated as "Tales of My Aunt Panchita," a collection of short stories and folk tales. But she also wrote a novel about the banana workers that probably contributed to their strikes. Like many famous Costa Ricans, she was exiled after the 1948 revolution and died the next year in México. When the school was founded, the building had just one |
 Centro de Investigación y
Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural photo
This is the building that will
be
repaired. Museo
de los Niños - Fundación Ayúdenos para Ayudar photo
This is a school scene probably
from the 1930s.floor. The second was added later. The building will not win any beauty awards. Ms. Carvajal is quoted in a 1929 newspaper article calling the structure ugly and badly lighted. And, she said, the roof leaks. |
| Monday is a day to recognize the many cultures that make up
nation |
|
|
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Monday is the Día del Encuentro de las Culturas in Costa Rica, a time to celebrate the many cultures that are found here. This is the Costa Rica version of Columbus Day, which is celebrated in the United States. The day has more meaning this year because the legislature in June just defined the nation as multi-ethnic and multicultural by amending the Costa Rican Constitution to say that. A number of nationalities and even undocumented immigrants are listed in the legislative measure as those |
making
the country
multicultural. North Americans are not listed specifically. The day is a legal holiday, but it is one of the lesser ones. Employees can take the day off if they wish, but they will not be paid. They are not paid double for working. The U.S. Embassy noted that it will be closed, as will government offices and other diplomatic posts of other countries. Christopher Columbus did visit the Caribbean coast in 1502 but settlement by the Spanish provoked lengthy wars with the native inhabitants that still resonates today. |
| A.M. Costa Rica proudly presents three new members of our hotel directory: |
 |
 |
 |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| 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. 2015 and may not
be
reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
 |
|
||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 199 | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| New study detects increase in price of sugary drinks with
soda tax |
|
|
By the University of California at Berkeley
news staff
Not long after Berkeley became the first city in the United States to levy an excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, questions arose about whether the move would have its desired effect by increasing the retail price of soda. The latest signs, coming from a new study by University of California, Berkeley, researchers, say yes. The findings, published in the American Journal of Public Health, come nearly a year after Berkeley voters approved an excise tax of one cent per ounce on sugary drinks. Unlike a sales tax, which is paid by consumers at the register, an excise tax is levied before the point of purchase, potentially leading to higher retailer prices, so buyers are more aware of the higher cost before they pluck the beverage from store shelves. These new study results differ from those of a working paper on Berkeley soda prices published in August, which suggested that a smaller proportion of the tax was passed through to the retail price of soda. “No one knew how retailers would deal with the added costs of the tax,” said study lead author Jennifer Falbe, a university postdoctoral researcher in public health nutrition. “Increasing the price of sugary drinks is a critical first step in discouraging consumption, so it’s incredibly encouraging that we’re seeing pass-through of the tax to higher retail prices so early after implementation," she said. "We expect higher price increases in the future as small business owners learn more about the tax.” To establish a baseline comparison, researchers collected data on most beverage prices in fall 2014, before the soda tax was passed. They not only looked at stores in Berkeley, but also included retailers in Oakland and San Francisco to account for other factors that may affect prices regionally. Data was collected again three months after the tax went into effect. The researchers found that in Berkeley, soft drink prices increased by about seven-tenths of a cent more per ounce than in other cities. Given the tax was 1 cent per ounce on distributors of sugar-sweetened beverages, this means that about 70 percent of the tax was passed through to the retail price. Fruit-flavored drinks, including cranberry cocktail and lemonade, saw a slightly smaller increase of about half a cent per ounce. For all categories of sugar-sweetened beverages, the overall price increased about half a cent per ounce. |
 University of California at
Berkeley/Jennifer Falbe
Supermarkets like this are where most
shoppers buy soda.
The researchers also looked at the price of non-sugary beverages, which did not change more in Berkeley than in comparison cities during the study period. The differences between the results from this new research and the earlier working paper may be due to when and how stores were sampled in the two studies, Ms. Falbe said. Also, the Berkeley study distinguished between retail store types. The price of sugary beverages changed little at chain drugstores but more at supermarkets. “This is important because most Americans do their primary grocery shopping at supermarkets,” said Ms. Falbe. The study comes as other cities are considering their own soda tax measures. But even with the limited success of getting such sin taxes passed, sales of soda, particularly the full-calorie versions, have been experiencing a steady decline over the past decade. According to a youth survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of high school students reporting consumption of soda in the prior week dropped from 33.8 percent in 2007 to 27 percent in 2013. “Regardless of price increases, soda taxes can be a means of sustainably funding public health efforts,” said study senior author Kristine Madsen, an associate professor at Berkeley’s School of Public Health. |
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
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| 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. 2015 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
|
A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
 |
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 199 | |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| U.S. trade rep says new deal will end thousands of tariffs By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said Wednesday that the newly signed Trans-Pacific Partnership would cut 18,000 tariffs imposed by other nations on U.S.-made exports. Such tariffs raise the cost of American products on international markets, putting them at a disadvantage. The trade deal signed Monday would reduce or remove many tariffs. Froman told journalists in a phone conference that boosting exports boosts jobs and wages in the United States. He said exports are crucial to the U.S. economy because 95 percent of global customers are outside the United States, and the Asia-Pacific region has many fast-growing economies that are good markets for U.S. wine, software and many other products. Last year, U.S. manufacturers sold $639 billion worth of products to Pacific Partnership nations, and supporters say that will rise as the tariffs are eliminated. Froman said that without the trade deal, U.S. aircraft parts and orange juice face a 30 percent tariff, while exports as diverse as steel and headphones are hit with taxes of about 24 percent in some cases. The Trans-Pacific Partnership was signed by the United States, Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim nations. Before the deal can go into effect, it must be ratified by the participating governments, which in the United States is a job for Congress. The treaty is controversial in the United States and some other nations. For example, leaders of the Teamsters, a large U.S. labor union, say trade deals have been a bad deal for American companies and workers. The union and other critics have said the Trans-Pacific Partnership does too little to protect workers' rights, food safety and U.S. jobs. Mrs. Clinton now opposes the Pacific trade agreement By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that she did not support the new Trans-Pacific Partnership, a huge trade deal she advocated when she was secretary of State. The United States, Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim nations completed years of negotiations and signed a deal Monday. But the Trans-Pacific Partnership must be ratified by its member governments, and in the United States, that is the job of Congress, where a major fight and a close vote are predicted. Mrs. Clinton said the Trans-Pacific Partnership would do too little to protect U.S. workers from the impact of currency manipulation by other nations and too much to help major pharmaceutical companies at the expense of patients. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is also seeking the Democrats' presidential nomination for 2016, also has come out against the treaty, while Vice President Joe Biden, who some speculate may seek the nomination, supports the pact. Democrats are generally supported by labor unions, which worry that the trade agreement will continue the sharp decline of manufacturing jobs in the United States. Business and industry are usually allied with Republicans, and many members of that party support trade agreements, although some have not yet decided whether to support this particular, lengthy and complex deal. President Barack Obama said the agreement would help American companies and workers by eliminating thousands of tariffs on U.S. exports and cutting other barriers to trade. He said the Trans-Pacific Partnership also included provisions to protect labor rights and set strong environmental standards. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto called the Trans-Pacific Partnership a bold agreement that would expand opportunity in Asia and Latin America for exporters in his nation. Analysts at the Wells Fargo Economics Group said the immediate impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership would be limited in the United States because Washington already has free-trade agreements with many of these nations. But the analysts said this pact would cover about 40 percent of the world's economy, and that is encouraging more nations to try to join. Wells Fargo noted that talks were already underway with another five nations. A separate analysis by the Fitch rating agency said it might take years for the impact of Trans-Pacific Partnership to be felt, and it noted that some developing nations like Vietnam would see far more benefit than the United States. Death penalty on docket for U.S. Supreme Court By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Supreme Court began hearing arguments Wednesday questioning how the death penalty is carried out in the country. Executions are carried out unevenly in the United States, with 31 states still sanctioning the death penalty for a range of crimes, while 19 states have banned capital punishment. None of the cases the Supreme Court has agreed to consider represents an attempt to overturn capital punishment in the United States but rather to raise legal questions on how states conduct executions. In the first of at least six capital punishment cases it expects to consider during the next several months, the court heard lawyers argue whether death sentences should be reinstated against two brothers involved in a 2000 crime spree in the central state of Kansas that left five people dead. The state's highest court threw out death sentences against the brothers. The case centers on whether each brother should have been entitled to a separate sentencing hearing and whether the trial judge erred in his instructions to jurors. A ruling is expected by next June. In other cases, the high court is considering whether judges have too much discretion in imposing death sentences, whether prosecutors improperly struck all four prospective jurors who are black from a capital punishment case, and whether a judge who initially prosecuted a death penalty case should have removed himself from considering an appeal in the case. U.S. Coast Guard ends search for missing ship By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Coast Guard is suspending its search for survivors from a cargo ship believed to have sunk in a fierce hurricane near the Bahamas last week. The search for the El Faro and its 33 crew members, including five Polish sailors, has turned up one body, an oil slick and a variety of debris, including life jackets and cargo containers. Coast Guard officials say there is little chance of finding any survivors. The National Transportation Safety Board says deep waters will hamper its plans to send divers to look for the sunken vessel, as the investigation into why it went down continues. The El Faro was carrying cargo from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, last week when it got caught in Hurricane Joaquin, a powerful Category 4 storm with winds as high as 215 kilometers per hour. The ship sent out a satellite message that it was in trouble before authorities on land lost contact with the crew. Officials think the El Faro may have lost engine power, preventing the captain from sailing clear of the storm. Congress sending Obama challenge with military bill By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Ignoring a veto threat from the White House, the Republican-led Congress has authorized U.S. military programs and activities for the coming year, while temporarily sparing the Pentagon from the effects of automatic spending cuts. By a vote of 70 to 27 the Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday, days after the House of Representatives approved the measure that lays out how much the Defense Department can spend and to what ends. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called the measure “a win for our forces and a win for our country at a time of seemingly incalculable global crises.” The legislation drew criticism from Democrats, including President Barack Obama, for siphoning funds from the military’s emergency contingency account in order to offset across-the-board cuts designed to shrink America’s fiscal imbalances. The Senate’s Democratic leader, Harry Reid, decried the accounting tactic as a gimmick and funny-money funding, adding it “does nothing to support the security we need at home.” “Everyone knows the president is going to veto this,” Reid added. Reid’s comments underscore a larger spending battle being waged on Capitol Hill. Republicans want to exempt the Pentagon from so-called sequester cuts while maintaining austerity in other federal agencies and programs. Democrats insist domestic priorities be included in any effort to undo the sequester. “We are concerned about non-defense stuff,” Reid said last week. “We're concerned about the FBI, the federal court system. We’re concerned about our forests that are burning down. We’re concerned about money to build our highways. And rightfully so.” A presidential veto of the bill would come one week after Congress narrowly avoided a partial government shutdown by extending federal spending authority for 10 weeks. During that time, talks are expected between the White House and congressional leaders on total government expenditures for the coming year and beyond. By blocking a temporary fix of the military sequester, Democrats believe they will maintain leverage for a larger budget deal that includes austerity relief for domestic programs. Republicans accuse Democrats of playing a dangerous partisan game with national security. “This bill contains the funding authorization that the president asked for,” said McConnell, adding that vetoing the bill “will be the latest sorry chapter in a failed foreign policy based on campaign promises rather than realistically meeting the threats before us.” Obama has 10 days to sign or veto the bill. Exercise pill not the same, expert reports after study By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Wouldn’t it be great to take an exercise pill and get all of the benefits of a workout with none of the work? Such drugs are now in the pipeline. But an expert cautions not to expect too much from a pill that simulates exercise. There are approximately eight compounds now in the works that would give users the benefits of a workout for as long as people take the pill. Along with colleagues, Ismail Laher, a pharmacologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, did a systematic review, published in the journal Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, looking at the physical benefits of a number of experimental drugs that would help build muscles without moving a muscle. Laher says there are at least a thousand different positive impacts that exercise has on muscles. But the exercise compounds mimic the physiological benefits of only one muscle function, the building of skeletal muscles without the danger and side effects of steroids. “My sense is, you know, this is not a magic pill for exercise. What these pills do is take the magic out of exercise,” he said. Laher stresses that physical exercise has a number of health benefits, including improved cardiovascular health and helping diabetics manage their disease, which exercise pills cannot match. But Laher says they would be useful in helping people with spinal cord injuries who are unable to move to get some of the benefits of a workout. “Let’s focus on where we can make a positive impact on this and then go from there, and target those populations. But not target the able-bodied person who can exercise,” he said. Laher says clinical trials in humans still need to be done to find out whether exercise pills are a wonder drug. Motion sickness device suppresses that feeling By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
It’s a sickening feeling, the dizziness, nausea and vomiting that comes with motion sickness. People have tried wristbands or taken anti-nausea drugs to prevent it, but often nothing works. Scientists at Imperial College London are working on a new device to counteract motion sickness, which occurs when the motion a person senses with the inner ear is different from the one visualized. “You imagine being on a bicycle or motorbike. You go around the corner, you lean into the corner, which remains perfectly upright in physics,” said Michael Gresty, a motion sickness expert. But, he noted, “you don’t do that in a car. You don’t do that on a ship. You’re actually struggling to find out what is upright, and what’s the best way of dealing with it.” The researchers said the device stops motion sickness by suppressing certain signals in the brain. In the research, conducted in a hospital laboratory, volunteers sat in a motorized, tilting chair for about 10 minutes, experiencing the motions that make people ill. Then a mild electrical current sent through electrodes on the volunteers’ scalp caused the brain to suppress signals that affect the inner ear. "We found that it took longer for the individual to develop motion sickness, and that they also recovered faster," researcher Qadeer Arshad said. And there are no reported side effects. “These are very small amounts of electricity that you’re putting through the brain,” Gresty said. The next step is to test the device outside the laboratory. The scientists hope a device that plugs into a smartphone and attaches to the scalp will be available within 10 years, saving a lot of people from the misery of motion sickness. Three win Nobel Prizes for work on DNA repair By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Nobel Prize committee in Stockholm, Sweden, has awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry to three scientists for their work on human DNA repair, which can be used in treatment of cancer. The laureates are Tomas Lindahl of the Sir Francis Crick Institute and Clare Hall Laboratory in Britain, Paul Modrich of Duke University and Aziz Sancar of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, both in the eastern U.S. state of North Carolina. Lindahl is Swedish, Modrich is American, and Sancar is Turkish. Tuesday, the 2015 Nobel Physics prize was awarded to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur MacDonald for their discovery of neutrino oscillations, which show that neutrinos, the second-most abundant particles in the universe, next to photons, have mass and change identities. Nobel Prizes are awarded each year in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, and peace. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| 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. 2015 and may not be reproduced anywhere without
permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
|
||||||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 199 | |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
||
|
U.S. will
release thousands from prison
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Thousands of U.S. federal inmates jailed for a variety of drug crimes will be released at the end of the month as new sentencing guidelines come into effect. In April 2014, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to lower the federal drug sentencing guidelines as part of an effort to reduce prison overcrowding and curb excessive sentences. The new rules were set to affect to future drug sentences, but those changes were later applied to inmates already convicted. Thousands of inmates have since petitioned to have their sentences revised under the guidelines and the first wave of prisoners, estimated at close to 6,000, are set to be released by Nov. 1. Most of them have already completed their sentences and will be released from halfway houses or home detention. More than 45,000 federal prisoners will be eligible for sentence reductions in the coming years. As of August 2015, a total of 17,446 inmates applied for hearings, 13,187 or 75.6 percent were given reduced sentences while 4,259 or 24.4 percent were denied their requests. The sentencing commission says the majority of drug offenders eligible for release were convicted of distributing of methamphetamine (30.9 percent), followed by powder cocaine (27.2 percent) and crack cocaine (20.5 percent). More than 3,000 of those granted reduced sentences are non-U.S. citizens with many expected to be deported after their release. According to the non-profit organization, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, offenders eligible for a reduction could have their sentences reduced by an average of just over two years, serving nine year sentences, on average. The sentencing changes does not affect mandatory minimums for drug cases, but rather the drug sentencing ranges, which in many cases is significantly higher than the minimum sentences. In a statement Wednesday, a spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he welcomed the decision for early release. "States should only apply deprivation of liberty as a measure of last resort and only after alternatives have been duly considered," said the statement. "Over-incarceration constitutes one of the major underlying causes of overcrowding, which results in conditions that can often amount to ill-treatment or even torture." Earlier this year, U.S. President Barack Obama met with law enforcement officials and nonviolent drug offenders at a federal prison in Oklahoma as part of his push for a fairer justice system and prison reform. Obama called for either reducing or eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug crimes, reconsidering solitary confinement for prisoners and increasing job training programs for people while they are incarcerated. The president has said that overly harsh sentences are responsible for the doubling of the U.S. prison population in the last 20 years. He has urged Congress to pass a sentencing reform bill by year's end. The United States is the world's largest jailer accounting for nearly 25 percent of the world's prison population despite making up just less than 5 percent of the world's population. |
| Costa Rican News |
AMCostaRicaArchives.com |
Retire NOW
in Costa Rica |
CostaRicaReport.com |
| Fine Dining
in Costa Rica |
The CAFTA Report |
Fish
fabulous Costa Rica |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| 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. 2015 and may not be reproduced anywhere without
permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| From
Page 7: Electrical quality will be measured at homes By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The nation's utility regulator is beginning a program to measure the quality of electrical service from eight distribution firms. Homeowners and others who receive power found to be below standards will be eligible for compensation. However, the agency, the Intendencia de Energía, said that the system probably will not be functioning completely for two years. The Intendencia, part of the Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos, has made an agreement with engineers at the Universidad de Costa Rica to measure power at customer locations. The Intendencia said that low power can damage appliances and electrical motors. The quality of the electricity provided also will play a role in setting rates, the agency said. The Autoridad has set up an email for complaints: usuario@aresep.go.cr |
