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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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Jos‚, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 238
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 Ministerio de Gobernaci¢n,
Polic¡a y Seguridad P£blica
photo
Fuerza
P£blica officers found this stash of some 512 explosivefireworks devices over the weekend in Siquirres. A local merchant was gong to sell them. Lawmaker wants plan to end street wars By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
On the anniversary of the day when Costa Rica abolished its military, a lawmaker called on the central government to eliminate the new armies, the violent street gangs that cost human lives everyday. The lawmaker, Maureen Clarke Clarke, said that there have been 285 murders already in 2014. "We abolished the army many years ago, but today the violence in the streets do not honor this accomplishment," she said on the floor of the Asamblea Legislativa. The Liberaci¢n Nacional lawmaker called upon the central government to outline and make public a strategy to combat these statistics. Juvenile prosecutor now is No. 2 By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The nation's high court has selected a 25-year veteran of the prosecutorial agency for a one-year term as deputy fiscal general. The individual is Mayra Campos Zuñiga, who is now in the juvenile justice section. The Poder Judicial said she will fill in when Jorge Chavarría, the current fiscal general is absent. However, the experience will give her access to other possibilities in the judiciary. Ms. Campos joined the judicial agency when she finished law school at the Universidad de Costa Rica when she was 21, the Poder Judicial said. Since then she has held a number of positions and even earned a doctorate. The Spanish title for her new post is fiscala subrogante. Cartago declines to pass ban By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The council of the Municipalidad de Cartago declined to pass a ban on genetically modified crops during a Saturday meeting. Activists say they kept the council from voting against the measure. The activists attributed the council's lack of action to pressure from the Escuela de Biotecnolog¡a of Tecnológico de Costa Rica, the local public university. Activists say they are expecting that the legislature will pass a national ban on genetically modified crops. Such a bill is in committee. Our reader's opinion
Great Thanksgiving dinner for $18Dear A.M. Costa Rica: We get so tired of hearing about the rip-off prices in Costa Rica for restaurants. The other day we had Thanksgiving dinner at the Hotel Quality Inn in Santa Ana for $18 per person, tax included tip included. Huge serving of great turkey, six salads, various meats, rice, camote pure better than mashed potatoes, great heaping of cranberries, various fruit drinks, breads, marinated mushrooms, carrots and green squash, pumpkin pie, tres leches, and one mimosa per plate. We often go to Yorgos, which in our opinion is 5-star cooking maybe not as elegant as the $600 tasting menu at Per Sec in New York, which our friend frequents but as soon as he arrives in Costa Rica he goes to Yorgos the next day. We know that the middle class has financial limitations, and we have lowered the prices of our rental condos to a point they are lower than equivalents in cities like Dallas, Atlanta, etc. Angela Jimenez Rocha
Architect and appraiser www.orbitcostarica.com/real.htm
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 238 | |
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| Hang on to your hat for another of those blustery days |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Today will be another one of those times when a high pressure system in the Caribbean generates high winds in Guanacaste and the Central Valley. The national weather services said there would be gusts of up to 90 kph in Guanacaste. That's about 56 mph. In addition there will be rain, perhaps heavy, in the Caribbean and the northern zone, according to the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional. The institute issued a late afternoon warning about the winds. The warning also said there was a chance of brief spells of rain in Guanacaste, the Central Valley and other parts of the country. In some places the rain may be as much as an inch. Naturally the temperature is expected to fall because of the wind and also cloudy weather. |
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 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía y Seguridad Pública photo
Conservation
officials inspect the lumbered trees.
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Logging
operation accused of exceeding permit boundaries By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Most expats know that permits are required to lumber trees even on private property. So Fuerza Pública and staffers of the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía acted to break up a lumbering operation on a finca near Upala. Police said that although the individual had permits, they were working outside of what the permits allowed. For example, officers said that a truck contained four cedro logs when the permit called for transporting just one log. The finca is in the community of Birmania. The persons caught engaged in the logging will be presented to the prosecutors in Upala, said the police. Meanwhile, ministry workers will assess the damage for a civil settlement. |
| Boatload of
marijuana intercepted By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas intercepted a boat carrying 1,400 kilos of marijuana Sunday off Limón in the Caribbean. The crew of four tried to dump some of the packages into the sea, but they were recovered, said the coast guard. The craft was flying a Costa Rican flag, and three of the four men on board were Costa Rican, said the coast guard. The interception was about 12 nautical miles off the Limón coast. Although Costa Rica produces many tons of marijuana, the product from Jamaica is said to be of higher quality. Security officials said that eight tons of marijuana have been confiscated so far this year. |
 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía y Seguridad Pública photo
Anti-drug police survey the
marijuana cargo. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 238 | |||||
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| Leading nations, including China, agree on plan to fight
corruption |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
The G20 nations, comprising the world’s largest economies, met in mid-November in Brisbane, Australia, and came up with an action plan on how to fight corruption. The plan is an outgrowth of what happened in 2010 when G20 leaders created the Anti-Corruption Working Group at a summit in Toronto. The push at the 2014 Brisbane meeting was for member nations to pass laws compelling corporations to identify who owns and controls them, the beneficial owners. It fell short of demanding that these persons and entities be known to the public as well as regulatory authorities. That has drawn criticism from some good governance groups, including Global Financial Integrity. Ahead of the summit, some observers voiced concerns that China would block action regarding identifying corporate owners. China’s use of inducements has been well known, especially in Africa, where the Asian giant has employed cash and other means to gain access to raw materials it needs to feed its industrial production. “The Chinese people are generally far less concerned about foreign bribery than domestic bribery,” said Andrew Spalding, a law professor at the University of Richmond. “As the developed world increasingly enforces foreign bribery rules, this puts them at a competitive disadvantage in developing countries, especially in Africa. China knows that it can exploit this.” By the summit’s end, though, China made no attempt to block the action plan or suppress use of the word bribery. “G20 countries recognize that bribery imposes a heavy price on both international business and society as a whole,” the action plan document said. “Combatting bribery remains an important priority for the G20 growth agenda, including by helping to level the playing field for business, and giving the private sector the confidence it needs to invest…G20 countries also commit to comprehensively and effectively criminalize bribery - as well as the solicitation of bribes - and enforce such laws through civil and criminal actions.” The plan also addressed what it calls high risk sectors where corruption can invade legitimate market activity. The plan notes one area it calls the extractive sector, the mining and collection of raw materials from iron ore to timber. |
“For companies in
any of these industries, it is the areas of
interaction between private and public sectors which are most likely to
generate opportunities for corruption – for example, public procurement
and customs,” wrote Brook Horowitz in the FCPA Blog, which focuses on
corruption. “Effectively preventing and combating corruption in these high-risk sectors is essential to create an environment conducive to investment, and to ensure critical assets and resources are not diverted away from economic growth and development,” the plan said. Public sector transparency and integrity is also a focus of the G20 plan. They are essential for “preventing the misuse or diversion of public funds and conflicts of interest, which can have a significant negative impact on economic growth and development,” the plan said. Public official immunity – meaning persons in office are not prosecuted while in those positions – is a practice seen in many countries. It has been widely criticized by good governance groups as a means by which elected officials can engage in criminal activities such as corruption and get away with it – at least during their terms. The Action Plan also calls on the private sector to adopt transparent and accountable standards of corporate behavior. It calls on G20 countries to institute and step up “developing anti-corruption education and training for business – and by examining best practices for encouraging businesses to implement robust compliance programs and self-report breaches of corruption laws.” Another section calls for G20 members to approach the anti-corruption fight globally as well as within each state’s borders. The plan says they must commit to helping to end impunity for corruption offenses, by working together to investigate and prosecute offenders, to recover the proceeds of such offenses, and to deny entry and safe haven to corrupt officials and those who corrupt them – including mutual legal assistance and extradition consistent with the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. Greg Thompson, with Transparency International Australia, says now that the words of the 2014 G20 Summit have been put to paper, it’s time to carry them out. “The devil,” he says “will now be in the detail of what every country – including Australia – does post-Brisbane to implement these actions.” |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| U.S. soldiers given warning that extremists are watching By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are warning of possible attacks by Islamist terrorists on American military troops inside the United States. ABC News reported Sunday it had obtained a joint intelligence bulletin sent to law enforcement agencies warning Islamic State forces may be targeting the United States within its borders. The bulletin warns those who serve in uniform to erase from their online social media accounts anything that would draw attention from violent extremists or reveal service members' identities. Stars and Stripes newspaper reports the Defense Department says a similar warning to troops was sent after two uniformed Canadian soldiers were killed by self-proclaimed Islamic State supporters last month in Ottawa. Plight of Native Americans on agenda at White House By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Nearly 100 kilometers from the nearest city, amid rolling hills of grazing cattle, Cannon Ball, North Dakota, with a population of less than a 1,000 people, is an unlikely place for a presidential visit. Randi Dogskin remembers the June day when President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama came to Standing Rock Indian Reservation with a pledge to improve the lives of Native Americans. “I grew up here in Cannon Ball and my family is from here and that was just an amazing thing,” said Ms. Dogskin. On this cold November day, Ms. Dogskin is helping a group of young kids and their parents make snow globes during family night at Cannon Ball Grade School. As more than 500 tribal leaders gather in Washington Wednesday for the annual White House Tribal Nations Conference, the mother of two, who works in suicide prevention, has a message for the Obama administration. “We just need a lot more funding for programs, so we can come out and do a lot of activities for the youth, especially because they are going to be our leaders one day and we want them to have to that opportunity,” said Ms. Dogskin. Obama became only the fourth sitting U.S. president to visit a Native American reservation when he traveled to Standing Rock, which stretches across more than 800,000 hectares (two million acres) of North and South Dakota June 5. Some 40 percent of residents here live below the poverty level, and the unemployment rate is near 80 percent. In his speech at Standing Rock, Obama touted his administration’s investments in job training, tribal colleges and infrastructure, as well as a commitment to improving the tribal justice system. The issues will also be a focus when administration officials meet with tribal leaders Wednesday. Above all, he pledged to strengthen tribal communities through economic development and education. “Let’s put our minds together to improve our schools because our children deserve a world-class education, too, that prepares them for college and careers," Obama said. "And that means returning control of Indian education to tribal nations with additional resources and support so that you can direct your children’s education and reform schools here in Indian country.” The president and the first lady met with tribal leaders and spoke to a group of young people at Cannon Ball Grade School about some of the challenges they face. For school board member Sue Isbell, some of those challenges are more apparent. As she walks through the school that was built in the 1930s, she points to mold, leaky ceilings and cramped, cold classrooms as stumbling blocks for Native American students, who already struggle with among the highest high school drop out rates in the nation. “We need more funding for a new school. These kids have already been through so much," she said. "With a better facility, we can recruit more teachers, and give students a fighting chance.” As one of the first master's degree students in environmental science at Sitting Bull College, Louis Walking Elk eventually wants to use his degree to help those on the reservation. The 24-year-old is one of the first in his family to go to college. “My dad and mom both encouraged me all throughout my life, my dad especially. He didn’t finish high school and he was always like, 'you have to do something,'” he said. Situated on Standing Rock Indian Reservation, Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota, is one of more than 30 tribal colleges in the United States. Some 300 students, including student body president Dakota Kidder, are completing their higher education at this federally-funded school in hopes of defying statistics that show only about 10 percent of Native Americans have a college degree, roughly half the national average. “We do have a lot of problems on the reservation. And Sitting Bull College does all that it can to make sure students are getting to class, whether it be transportation, child care,” said Kidder. The mission of getting more Native Americans to college and making sure they leave with a degree is crucial to the school's president, Laurel Vermillion. “A huge majority are first generation students, college students, who don’t have a lot of experience," she said. "They don’t have parents who can tell them or talk about college. And so when they leave the reservation and go onto these big, mainstream campuses, they are lost.” Ms. Vermillion said many young Native Americans, particularly men, are looking for that sense of direction and purpose. The school has begun offering classes in welding and oil drilling, in hopes of boosting the 30-70 male to female student ratio. Scott Davis, the executive director of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, is also working to close the unemployment gap, helping tribal colleges get millions of dollars to start such workforce development programs. Obama wants more money to improve police forces By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama is calling for millions of dollars more in federal spending to improve police forces around the country, in response to the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman during a street confrontation in the central town of Ferguson, Missouri. After meeting at the White House Monday with his cabinet, civil rights leaders and law enforcement officials, Obama announced spending proposals of more than $260 million for police forces across the U.S. He also said the country needs an honest conversation about the state of law enforcement. The president said Americans of color do not feel they are being treated fairly by police, creating what he called a simmering distrust in communities and weakening the country. Protests have continued in Ferguson and elsewhere since a grand jury's decision last week not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Obama said the additional money would pay for 50,000 body cameras for police to wear to record their interactions with civilians, as well as to fund more training for police. The president also announced he will set up a task force to study how to improve policing. Obama said federal programs that provide military-style equipment to local police departments must be more accountable, but he did not say whether the programs would be pulled back. Since August, roughly 300 people have been arrested in Ferguson-related protests, which have been marred by looting and arson attacks. Those arrested face charges of unlawful assembly and trespassing, interfering with police activity and resisting arrest, as well as felonies, including second degree burglary, arson, unlawful firearm possession and assault. Abandoned tropical land presents many options By the Technische Universität
München
news staff Every year, 130,000 square kilometers of rainforest disappear from the face of the earth, an area equivalent to the size of Greece. The majority of this land is cleared for agricultural development even in tropical mountain areas. These fields are quickly overgrown with weeds, however. Bracken is particularly tenacious. It cannot be permanently eliminated using herbicides or by burning the land. As a result, farmers often abandon the land after a few short years and start clearing new areas of forest. “This cycle has to be broken,” explains Thomas Knoke from the Institute of Forest Management at Technische Universität München. Knoke is lead author of the study that has just been published. “We've been investigating whether this abandoned pasture land can be recultivated, and if so, how.” The team did not just look at economic benefit when evaluating the different concepts. For the first time, this study also took environmental and socio-cultural criteria into consideration, factoring in issues such as the amount of carbon dioxide and nitrogen assimilated by plants and soil, biomass production, soil quality, impact on climate, water management and acceptance among farmers. The area under investigation (around 150 hectares) is located in the Ecuadorian Andes at an altitude of between 1,800 and 2,100 meters. The researchers looked at five different concepts: * No land use – abandoned land is left to nature; * Forestation – planting a native species of alder; * Forestation – introduction of a non-native pine species * Extensive pasturing – mechanical weed control followed by initial fertilization and land use, and * Intense pasturing – chemical weed control and land use with regular fertilization Forestation with alder and pine species proved particularly sustainable. In addition, forested regions offer the best protection against erosion in the long term. “Our study also showed that afforestation with the native Andean alder had a much more positive impact on the climate and water balance than the other land use options,” added Jörg Bendix from Phillips-Universität Marburg. Typical rainforest flora and fauna are also able to gradually recolonize forested regions. Intense pasturing scored much higher on the ecological scale than extensive pasturing. Economic benefits stemmed from the sale of wood or the sale of meat and milk. Alder plantations achieved the greatest financial returns. A survey conducted among land users showed that the majority of livestock farmers also viewed forestation as the best land use option due to the positive ecological balance and greater long-term earnings potential. “If we want recultivation concepts to be a success, the people using the land have to be engaged,” elaborates Bendix. The sustainable land use concepts all come at a cost, however. Over a period of 20 years, farmers who do not use slash-and-burn techniques are exposed to an annual loss of earnings. This amounts to $87 per hectare for forestation and $100 per hectare for intense pasturing. The researchers regard compensation for recultivation as an important incentive for encouraging farmers to replant abandoned grazing land. In the long term, trade with CO2 certificates could also provide an additional source of income. The researchers also believe that their study could be used as a reference for evaluating recultivation concepts in other tropical mountain forests, for example in Brazil or Africa. “Abandoned agricultural land is a huge resource that is not being harnessed,” summarized Knoke. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 238 | |||||||||
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 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía y Seguridad Pública photo
Fuerza
Pública officers in Paso Canoas at the Panama borderdiscovered these illegal immigrants early Monday morning. They were mostly from Nepal. They have been detained. Hacienda reports flood of declarations By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Even though some expats report that the computers at the Ministerio de Hacienda have been out of service for several days, the agency still enforced the midnight deadline for reports of economic activity. These are the D-151 forms that now must be filed electronically on the ministry's Declar@7. The report specifies professionals who were paid, rents and big purchases. Later these will be incorporated into the tax return that is due in two weeks. The ministry said that some 248,394 declarations had been received through the weekend. Accountants were working into the night Monday to meet the midnight deadline. The computers appeared to be working Monday. There are stiff fines for errors or misrepresentations on the forms. The ministry compares the forms that are submitted. For example, if an individual reports they have spent $4,000 in the last tax year on a home rental, tax inspectors are going to look for a report of that income on the declaration submitted by the landlord. Most individuals who do contract work such as Web designers or similar, may find themselves on the forms submitted by others because to do so would mean the expense can be declared as a deduction on the income taxes. U.S. shoppers take to the Internet By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. holiday shopping season got off to a slow start last Thursday, as the number of people seeking bargains in stores and online fell from last year. The Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday is traditionally the largest shopping day of the year, and a time when many merchants make enough money to go from loss to profit. Bookkeepers record losses in red ink and profits in black ink, giving rise to the term Black Friday for this key part of the business year. The National Retail Federation says more than 133 million Americans have shopped in person or online since Thursday. That is down more than 5 percent from the same period last year. Retailers are watching on-line sales closely Monday because "Cyber-Monday" has seen a shopping peak in the past four years, as a growing number of shoppers avoided crowded stores and made purchases online. ComScore, which tracks on-line commerce, says the first few weeks of November saw stronger online sales than the same period last year. It also predicted $2.5 billion in total online sales for Monday. |
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| From Page 7: Drug discovery brings call for security By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The exportation of 300 kilos of cocaine to Rotterdam has embarrassed officials here and has caused them to crack down on port security. The drugs were in a container holding agricultural produce. Dutch police intercepted the load. Alexander Mora, minister of Comercio Exterior, called the drug shipment an isolated event. Still he has enlisted a host of government agencies and the Cámara de Exportadores de Costa Rica to create more secure ports in Moín and Limón. The minister said that such events tarnish the image abroad of Costa Rica. The additional security will include scanners and other non-intrusive devices that can check containers, said the ministry. |
