Urban Advocates Say New Gun Control Talk Overdue

For years, voices have cried in the urban wilderness: We need to talk about gun control.

Yet the guns blazed on.

It took a small-town slaughter for gun control to become a political priority. Now, decades' worth of big-city arguments against easy access to guns are finally being heard, because an unstable young man invaded an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., with a military-style assault rifle and 30-bullet magazines. Twenty young children and six adults were slain.

President Barack Obama called the tragedy a "wake-up call." Vice President Joe Biden met Thursday with Obama's cabinet and law-enforcement officers from around the country to launch a task force on reducing gun violence. Lawmakers who have long resisted gun control are saying something must be done.

Such action is energizing those who have sought to reduce urban gun violence. Donations are up in some places; other leaders have been working overtime due to this unprecedented moment.

The moment also is causing some to reflect on the sudden change of heart. Why now? Why weren't we moved to act by the killing of so many other children, albeit one by one, in urban areas?

Certainly, Newtown is a special case, 6- and 7-year-olds riddled with bullets inside the sanctuary of a classroom. Even in a nation rife with violence, where there have been three other mass slayings since July and millions enjoy virtual killing via video games, the nature of this tragedy is shocking.

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But still: "There's a lot of talk now about we have to protect our children. We have to protect all of our children, not just the ones living in the suburbs," said Tammerlin Drummond, a columnist for the Oakland Tribune.

In her column Monday, Drummond wrote about 7-year-old Heaven Sutton of Chicago, who was standing next to her mother selling candy when she was killed in the crossfire of a gang shootout. Also in Chicago, which has been plagued by a recent spike in gun violence: 6-year-old Aaliyah Shell was caught in a drive-by while standing on her front porch; and 13-year-old Tyquan Tyler was killed when a someone in a car shot into a group of youths outside a party.

Wrote Drummond: "It has taken the murders of 20 babies and six adults in an upper-middle class neighborhood in Connecticut to achieve what thousands of gun fatalities in urban communities all over this country could not."

So again: What took so long? The answers are complicated by many factors: resignation to urban violence, even among some of those who live there; the assumption that cities are dangerous and small towns safe; the idea that some urban victims place themselves in harm's way.

In March, the Children's Defense Fund issued a report titled "Protect Children, Not Guns 2012." It analyzed the latest federal data and counted 299 children under age 10 killed by guns in 2008 and 2009. That figure included 173 preschool-age children.

Black children and teens accounted for 45 percent of all child and teen gun deaths, even though they were only 15 percent of the child/teen population.

"Every child's life is sacred and it is long past time that we protect it," said CDF president Marian Wright Edelman in the report.

It got almost no press coverage — until nine months later, when Newtown happened.

Tim Stevens, founder and chairman of the Black Political Empowerment Project in Pittsburgh, has been focusing on urban gun violence since 2007, when he said Pennsylvania was declared the worst state for black-on-black violence.

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Strong 6.8 quake strikes off Vanuatu: USGS

SYDNEY: A strong 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of the South Pacific island of Vanuatu on Saturday, the US Geological Survey said, but no immediate tsunami warning was issued.

The quake struck at a depth of more than 200 kilometres around 2230 GMT Friday some 130 kilometres north of Santo, USGS said.

"It's quite deep ... so there's no tsunami," said David Jepsen, a seismologist with Geoscience Australia which measured the quake at 6.6 magnitude.

"I think it's well away from (the capital) Port Vila... but it's closer to some of the islands further to the northwest, but they would have had some moderate shaking really," he told AFP.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a destructive tsunami was not generated, based on the earthquake and historical tsunami data.

Vanuatu lies on the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire", a zone of frequent seismic activity caused by friction between shifting tectonic plates.

It has been rocked by several large quakes in recent years, averaging about three magnitude 7.0 or above incidents every year without any major damage.

- AFP/jc

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Enormous impact of Food Security Bill on farm sector: Panel

NEW DELHI: The National Food Security Bill (NFSB), in its present form, throws up major operational and financial challenges and would have enormous ramifications on the cereal economy, markets and the farm sector, a government paper has said.

The discussion paper by the commission for agricultural costs and prices (CACP) said the long-term feasibility of the strategy under NFSB needed to be carefully analyzed and debated in the national interest.

The CACP is an entity under the ministry of agriculture which advises the government on price policy for major farm commodities.

The paper comes at a time when Congress president Sonia Gandhi has said that the food security bill would be brought to Parliament soon.

"It is imperative that a holistic approach is adopted while analyzing the entire system of food production, food procurement and distribution of food for achieving food security on sustainable basis," the paper authored by CACP chairman Ashok Gulati and six others drawn from various fields including CACP said.

The authors said the discussion paper series by CACP was an attempt to encourage unbiased discussion on critical issues affecting the agricultural sector and food security. However, they made it clear that the views belonged purely to the authors and did not reflect the views of the organizations they belonged to.

The paper said it was important to ensure adequate availability of grain with the public authorities to fulfill the underlying obligation in the bill.

"Given the current trends and volatility in rates of growth in food grain production and yields, the growing pressures on land and water in the wake of climate change, dependence on monsoon rains — there is a possibility that food grain availability on sustainable and stable basis would require lot of government intervention in augmenting production, enhancing procurement, and stocking large amounts of grains to meet the commitments of food distribution," the paper said, adding that this may have several undesirable side effects.

It said that any further procurement by the state would crowd out private sector operations and this would have an adverse effect on overall efficiency of procurement and storage operations, as well as on magnitude of food subsidies and open market prices.

The government already procures one-third of the cereals production (which amounts to almost half of marketed surplus of wheat and rice).

"This would also slow down or even regress the process of overall diversification in agriculture, and go contrary to the emerging demand patterns in the country," the paper said, referring to any fresh increase in procurement.

It said the food subsidy in coming years will balloon due to the lower central issue price of grain, a significant rise in the number of entitled beneficiaries and the need to keep raising the minimum support price (MSP) to cover the rising costs of production and to incentivize farmers to increase production of cereals.

The document said the existing food security complex of procurement, stocking and distribution would further expand and increase the operational expenditure of the scheme given its creaking infrastructure, leakages (which amount to about 40%) and inefficient governance.

"This raises not only the issue of sustainability of the financial obligations entailed in NFSB, but also its efficacy in trying to extend food security," the paper said.

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Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit

Photograph courtesy Stephanie Mounaud, J. Craig Venter Institute

Mounaud combined different fungi to create a Santa hat and spell out a holiday message.

Different fungal grow at different rates, so Mounaud's artwork rarely lasts for long. There's only a short window of time when they actually look like what they're suppose to.

"You do have to keep that in perspective when you're making these creations," she said.

For example, the A. flavus fungi that she used to write this message from Santa grows very quickly. "The next day, after looking at this plate, it didn't say 'Ho Ho Ho.' It said 'blah blah blah,'" Mounaud said.

The message also eventually turned green, which was the color she was initially after. "It was a really nice green, which is what I was hoping for. But yellow will do," she said.

The hat was particularly challenging. The fungus used to create it "was troubling because at different temperatures it grows differently. The pigment in this one forms at room temperature but this type of growth needed higher temperatures," Mounaud said.

Not all fungus will grow nicely together. For example, in the hat, "N. fischeri [the brim and ball] did not want to play nice with the P. marneffei [red part of hat] ... so they remained slightly separated."

Published December 21, 2012

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Obama Says He Is 'Ready and Willing' to Get Deal

President Barack Obama says he is "ready and willing" to get a big package done to deal with the "fiscal cliff" and says there's no reason not to protect middle-class Americans from tax increases.

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

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Obama says he spoke Friday with House Speaker John Boehner and met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He says Congress should pass a plan to extend tax breaks for the middle class and extend unemployment benefits.

Obama says no one can get 100 percent of what they want and there are "real consequences" to how they deal with the across-the-board tax increases and steep spending cuts scheduled to kick in Jan. 1. Economists fear the combination could deliver a blow to the U.S. economy.

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Dollar steady as investors await fiscal cliff sign

WASHINGTON: The dollar lost a little bit of ground against the euro and was largely flat against the yen in quiet trade on Thursday as investors awaited a clear sign from US "fiscal cliff" talks.

The euro stood at $1.3241 towards 2200 GMT, up from $1.3226 late Wednesday. It also rose against the Japanese yen, reaching 111.72 yen compared to 111.59 yen a day earlier.

The dollar held steady against the yen, after reaching its highest level against the currency since April 2011 on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the greenback edged lower to 84.38 yen towards 2200 GMT from 84.39 yen a day earlier.

Japan's central bank unveiled more huge monetary easing earlier on Thursday in the wake of a weekend election won by the Liberal Democratic Party.

With an end-of-year deadline approaching, the markets are watching whether Washington can avert the so-called fiscal cliff, a mix of tax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect in January that could plunge the world's biggest economy back into recession.

Analysts said remarks by top Republican John Boehner had sparked slight optimism, increasing investors' appetite for risk, for the euro among other things.

Talks between President Barack Obama and Boehner on averting the "fiscal cliff" have stalled amid accusations of political grandstanding on both sides.

In other currencies, the dollar slipped to 0.9115 Swiss francs, while the pound rose to $1.6280.

- AFP/fa

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Kerala high court permits naval guards to visit Italy for Christmas

KOCHI: The Kerala high court on Thursday allowed the two Italian naval guards, accused of fatally shooting two Indian fishermen close to the coast in the Arabian Sea on February 15, to visit Italy to be with their families for Christmas on a bank guarantee of Rs 6 crore (around $1.1 million). The shooting had triggered a major diplomatic stand-off between Indian and Italy, with the police beginning a murder inquiry against the two sailors who were part of the crew of oil tanker, MV Enrica Lexie.

Justice P Bhavadasan, who considered the petition by Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, held that it would be improper of the court to reject their petition after the Central government informed the court that undertakings given by the Italian ambassador and consul general may be given due consideration.

Italy's ambassador to India Giacomo Sanfelice and consul general Giampaolo Cutillo had provided sworn affidavits ensuring return of the naval guards after a two-week visit to Italy. The government also gave a letter to the court from the foreign minister of Italy, certifying that the two officials were authorized to provide such an undertaking.

Allowing the petition, the court held: "Denial of relief to the petitioners is easy. But this court must remind itself of the whole issue. If the Union of India is of the view that after considering the various aspects and interests involved, the undertakings given to this court are sufficient guarantee to ensure that the petitioners will return to India as directed by this court, it may not be proper for this court to hold otherwise."

Dismissing the state government's contention that the motive of the petitioners was suspect, the court noted that it is for the Union of India to consider the acceptability and reliability of the undertakings and it will not be proper for the court to impose its view as those aspects fall within the realm of executive function. The case is not just regarding the presence of the naval guards for trial but, crucially, the relationship between two nations, the judge observed.

The court has asked the Italian government to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs 6 crore and as well as provide undertakings by the ambassador and consul general to ensure return of the naval guards on January 10 next year. The court also asked the Centre to issue the necessary travel documents if the undertakings were satisfactory to them.

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Hollies Get Prickly for a Reason

With shiny evergreen leaves and bright red berries, holly trees are a naturally festive decoration seen throughout the Christmas season.

They're famously sharp. But not all holly leaves are prickly, even on the same tree. And scientists now think they know how the plants are able to make sharper leaves, seemingly at will. (Watch a video about how Christmas trees are made.)

A new study published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society suggests leaf variations on a single tree are the combined result of animals browsing on them and the trees' swift molecular response to that sort of environmental pressure.

Carlos Herrera of the National Research Council of Spain led the study in southeastern Spain. He and his team investigated the European holly tree, Ilex aquifolium. Hollies, like other plants, can make different types of leaves at the same time. This is called heterophylly. Out of the 40 holly trees they studied, 39 trees displayed different kinds of leaves, both prickly and smooth.

Five holly leaves from the same tree.

Photographs by Emmanuel Lattes, Alamy

Some trees looked like they had been browsed upon by wild goats and deer. On those trees, the lower 8 feet (2.5 meters) had more prickly leaves, while higher up the leaves tended to be smooth. Scientists wanted to figure out how the holly trees could make the change in leaf shape so quickly.

All of the leaves on a tree are genetic twins and share exactly the same DNA sequence. By looking in the DNA for traces of a chemical process called methylation, which modifies DNA but doesn't alter the organism's genetic sequence, the team could determine whether leaf variation was a response to environmental or genetic changes. They found a relationship between recent browsing by animals, the growth of prickly leaves, and methylation.

"In holly, what we found is that the DNA of prickly leaves was significantly less methylated than prickless leaves, and from this we inferred that methylation changes are ultimately responsible for leaf shape changes," Herrera said. "The novelty of our study is that we show that these well-known changes in leaf type are associated with differences in DNA methylation patterns, that is, epigenetic changes that do not depend on variation in the sequence of DNA."

"Heterophylly is an obvious feature of a well-known species, and this has been ascribed to browsing. However, until now, no one has been able to come up with a mechanism for how this occurs," said Mike Fay, chief editor of the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society and head of genetics at the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens. "With this new study, we are now one major step forward towards understanding how."

Epigenetic changes take place independently of variation in the genetic DNA sequence. (Read more about epigenetics in National Geographic magazine's "A Thing or Two About Twins.")

"This has clear and important implications for plant conservation," Herrera said. In natural populations that have their genetic variation depleted by habitat loss, the ability to respond quickly, without waiting for slower DNA changes, could help organisms survive accelerated environmental change. The plants' adaptability, he says, is an "optimistic note" amidst so many conservation concerns. (Related: "Wild Holly, Mistletoe, Spread With Warmer Winters.")

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Obama, Boehner Not Far Apart on 'Cliff'? Not Really

Dec 20, 2012 5:09pm

Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo; Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

There are some in Washington and around Capitol Hill who keep saying that House Speaker John Boehner and President Obama really aren’t that far apart on the “fiscal cliff” and there will be a deal despite Boehner’s proposal to hold a vote on his “Plan B.”

Let’s deconstruct the two parts of that thinking.

Boehner and Obama really aren’t that far apart?

Not really.

The differences are more significant than just tax rates.  Republicans say the Democratic offer is really $800 billion in spending cuts and $1.3 trillion in tax increases.  That is because the inflation adjustment applies to tax rates* as well as Social Security — resulting in less than $100 billion in added tax revenues.

Democrats count that as a spending cut.  Republicans say that is a tax hike.  So the real difference, from their perspective, is $450 billion.  The $400,000 vs. $1 million threshold for tax rates hikes is just one part of this.  Republicans want more spending cuts and fewer tax increases.

Related: Read More About the Fiscal Cliff

Obama and Senate Democrats are fond of saying they are this close (fingers close together).  They say Boehner should just accept the president’s offer.

But, as I asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., earlier today: If you are this close why not just accept Boehner’s offer?  He dodged, saying that Boehner’s offer wasn’t really an offer and likened him to Lucy and the football — you’ll recall the routine in which the “Peanuts” character would pull away the ball at the last second and leave Charlie Brown kicking at nothing but air.

Both sides like to talk about Lucy and the football, but that is another story.  Will there be a deal?

They should be able to do a deal.  I know where the deal should be.  So do you.  But, really, they aren’t quite as close as the nifty charts like this one from the Washington Post suggest. And this is about much more than the $400,000 tax-rate threshold.

*By lowering the government’s calculation for inflation, the income level for the top rates would rise at a slower rate, putting more and more people into the top rates.

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Fundraising starts up soon after election, filings show

Election Day marks the end of a political campaign. It also marks the beginning of fundraising for the next campaign.

Federal disclosure filings show that plenty of money was flowing through Washington immediately following Nov. 6. The most active political action committee in the weeks after the election belonged to the U.S. subsidiary of Swiss banking giant UBS AG. The company gave $122,000 in the three weeks following Election Day, the latest period for which information is available.

UBS has been ramping up its political giving in the past few years at the time that it has been sharply criticized, and even penalized, in Washington. UBS announced Wednesday that it has agreed to pay a $1.5 billion settlement with the U.S., British and Swiss governments for trying to manipulate a key interest rate used for price borrowing around the world.

The bank’s $122,000 in contributions from Nov. 7 through Nov. 26 are more than twice the $51,500 given by the second-most-active PAC, belonging to the Credit Union National Association. Other top PACs included those of Verizon, which gave $47,500, and General Electric, which gave $32,500.

The UBS PAC favored Democrats, giving $26,000 to 10 party members of the House Financial Services Committee, including Reps. Gregory W. Meeks (N.Y.) and Michael E. Capuano (Mass.).

A few lawmakers sought to draw in contributions for recounts and to retire debt from the campaign. But the most prolific fundraiser in the House, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), appeared to be getting a head start on 2014 before her Nov. 26 announcement that she would challenge Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D) in what’s expected to be one of the tightest Senate contests in two years.

Capito raised $146,000 in the weeks after Election Day, almost all of it from corporate PACs, including more than $100,000 on the day she announced her bid. Four PACs gave Capito the maximum $10,000 donation: the Credit Union National Association, the National Beer Wholesalers Association, the American Bankers Association, and FirstEnergy Corp., which provides power to most of her home state.

Kent Gates, a political adviser to Capito, said that the congresswoman has stepped up fundraising throughout the cycle in anticipation of pursuing the Senate seat.

Several in the incoming class of senators wasted no time in setting up a “leadership PAC,” a fund that allows them to accept political money that they can give to other lawmakers or use for political or personal expenses. Sens.-elect Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Timothy M. Kaine (D-Va.), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Heidi Heitcamp (D-N.D.) have all created leadership PACs.

Leadership PACs were so named because they were first created by leaders in both parties to support allied lawmakers, building allegiances within their caucuses and helping to secure the votes needed for plum leadership posts and chairmanships. But in recent years, lawmakers further and further down the totem pole have begun forming the committees, making the political PAC into a standard accoutrement for any aspiring Hill power player.

Several House candidates created leadership PACs even before the election, including Republicans Ron DeSantis (Fla.), Ann Wagner (Mo.) and Roger Williams (Tex.).

Rep.-elect Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), already in tune with trends in PAC nomenclature, formed the Defense, Economic Renewal, Education and Knowledge PAC, or Derek PAC, on Oct. 2, a full month before he was elected to the seat of retiring Rep. Norm Dicks (D).

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