Serbia hints willing to talk about UN seat for Kosovo

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BELGRADE: Serbia, which fiercely opposes independence for Kosovo, hinted for the first time on Tuesday that it may give up its opposition to the breakaway territory's bid to join the United Nations.

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said Belgrade was looking for a "comprehensive settlement" with its former southern province, which may include talking about a seat for Kosovo at the UN.

Since Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008 -- a move Belgrade persistently rejects -- Kosovan authorities have repeatedly said their ultimate goal is UN membership.

Backed by its traditional ally Russia, which wields a veto on the UN Security Council, Serbia had vowed never to allow Kosovo to join the UN and other related international organisations.

But Dacic on Tuesday for the first time hinted at a change in Belgrade's attitude.

"We can agree on everything," Dacic told reporters.

"We are seeking a comprehensive settlement, but for that to happen something has to be given," he said ahead a new round of talks with Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci in Brussels later this week.

Serbia's parliament on Sunday adopted a resolution calling for autonomy for the Serb minority in Kosovo as a part of ongoing EU-backed talks with Pristina.

In return, Serbia would finally recognise Pristina's authority over the entire territory, including the Serb-populated north of Kosovo, currently under Belgrade's control.

Improvement of relations with Pristina is a key condition for Serbia to move toward eventual membership in the European Union.

"They (Kosovo) are pressuring us through the European Union, and we are not letting them into the United Nations. Are we supposed to be spiteful like that for years?" Dacic said.

Ever since the 1998-1999 war, when its forces were driven out of Kosovo by NATO, Serbia has had no control over the territory, except in areas dominated by the Serb minority.

However, Dacic recently told parliament that "Serbia's sovereignty (in Kosovo) is almost non-existent," the first time a top Serbian official admitted so.

More than 90 countries, including the United States and 22 out of 27 EU member states, have recognised Kosovo as an independent state.

- AFP/jc



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10 new faces inducted into Omar’s cabinet

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JAMMU: In a major cabinet reshuffle, Jammu and Kashmir's chief minister Omar Abdullah inducted 10 new ministers in the state cabinet, who were administrated oath by governor N N Vohra on Tuesday.

This is the first reshuffle carried out by Omar after he was sworn-in as chief minister on 5 January, 2009. They included six cabinet ministers and four ministers of state with independent charge. Mohammad Akbar Lone (National Conference), Choudhary Mohamamd Ramzan (National Conference), Ajay Sadhotra (National Conference), Ghulam Ahmad Mir (Congress), Abdul Majid Wani (Congress) and Mir Saif-ul-lah (National Conference) have been inducted as cabinet ministers.

Mohammad Akbar Lone is the state assembly speaker and has often been in the thick of controversy over repeated verbal duels with the opposition, PDP. Ghulam Ahmed Mir, a Congress MLA from Dooru in South Kashmir, staged a comeback after he was acquitted of all the charges by a CBI court in connection with the 2006 sex scandal as all prosecution witnesses turned hostile.

Apart from them, Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo (National Conference), Feroz Ahmed (National Conference), Nazir Ahmed Gurezi (National Conference) and Viqar Rasool (Congress) have been inducted as MoS with independent charge. Besides chief minister Omar Abdullah, deputy chief minister Tara Chand along with state congress president Saifuddin Soz were also present at the oath taking ceremony.

Earlier, the governor accepted the resignations of seven ministers recommended and forwarded to him by Abdullah.

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A Wild Start for Weather in the New Year

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Here we go again. The weather's going to extremes: a snowstorm in Jerusalem, wildfires in Australia, a cold snap in China, a heat wave in Brazil. Based on the first two weeks of the new year, 2013's picking up right where 2012 left off.

(What's up with the weather? Read the September 2012 National Geographic story and see a gallery of extreme weather pictures.)

As much as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of snow fell on Jerusalem (map) last Thursday, closing roads across the city. It was the biggest winter storm there in 20 years. Scores of trees fell from the weight of the snow, snowball fights broke out in the parks, and Israeli President Shimon Peres was photographed building a snowman outside his residence with help from his bodyguards.

In Australia, where a heat wave was smashing records across the country, the national weather agency added two new colors to its maps to handle the possibility of unprecedented temperatures: deep purple for above 122°F (50°C) and pink for above 125.5°F (52°C). The first eight days of the year were among the warmest on record, with January 7 ranking as Australia's hottest day ever, with an average temperature of 104.6°F (40°C). Some beaches were so hot swimmers couldn't walk to the water without burning their feet on the sand.

Elsewhere around the globe, the weather has been equally extreme. While much of the eastern U.S. and northern Europe basked in springlike weather, Tokyo (map) saw 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of snow fall on the city this weekend, nearly half of its typical total for a full year.

In China, the average temperature fell to 25°F (-4°C) in early January, the lowest in nearly three decades. More than a thousand ships in China's Laizhou Bay (map) have been frozen into the ice.

At the same time, a heat wave and drought in northeast Brazil prompted officials to consider rationing electricity for the first time in a decade, and the temperature in Rio de Janeiro (map) reached a record 109.8°F (43°C).

The New Normal

Extremes like these are becoming the norm, a team of 240 U.S. scientists warned in a draft report released Friday. In an open letter to the American people, the authors of the latest National Climate Assessment said that the frequency and duration of extreme conditions are clear signs of a changing climate.

"Summers are longer and hotter, and periods of extreme heat last longer than any living American has experienced," they wrote. "Winters are generally shorter and warmer. Rain comes in heavier downpours, though in many regions there are longer dry spells in between."

The impacts of such changes are easy to see, they added. "Corn producers in Iowa, oyster growers in Washington State, and maple syrup producers in Vermont have observed changes in their local climate that are outside of their experience. So, too, have coastal planners from Florida to Maine, water managers in the arid Southwest and parts of the Southeast, and Native Americans on tribal lands across the nation."

Their report followed by a week the announcement by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center that 2012 ranked as the warmest year on record for the lower 48 states. Across the nation, more than 99 million people sweltered in temperatures above 100°F (38°C) for more than ten days. The average temperature last year was more than three degrees higher than the average for the 20th century.

On top of all the heat waves, the nation suffered 11 disasters with damages of at least $1 billion each, including the severe drought across the Midwest and superstorm Sandy along the East Coast. (See top reader photos of superstorm Sandy.)

Rough Waters Ahead

In another troubling sign of a changing climate, the amount of ice covering the Arctic Ocean shrank to its lowest level ever in late 2012. Nearly half of the ocean was free of ice in mid-September, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported. Some scientists have speculated that the warming ocean is changing the pattern of the jet stream over the Arctic, increasing the likelihood of extreme weather for lower latitudes. (Related: "Polar Ice Sheets Shrinking Worldwide, Study Confirms.")

Even with all this weird weather, things could have been even worse if El Niño conditions had developed this winter, as many experts had predicted. During an El Niño phase, the pattern of storms across the Pacific typically increases the amount of warm, dry weather that reaches places like Australia, leading to severe drought or extended heat waves.

But last November, the anticipated El Niño fizzled out. If it hadn't, the Australian heat could have been even worse. "The fact that we have neutral El Niño conditions this year is helping to keep things less extreme than they might be otherwise," said meteorologist Jeff Masters of Weather Underground.

Looking ahead to the spring, Masters cautioned that the U.S. may be in for still more extreme weather. "The great drought of 2012 is now a two-year drought," he said, referring to the record-breaking dry spell that wiped out crops across the Midwest last summer. "If we come into spring with drought conditions as widespread and intense as they are now, we're at high risk of another summer of extreme drought, which could cost tens of billions of dollars—again." (Pictures: Surprising Effects of the U.S. Drought.)


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NY Passes Nation's Toughest Gun Law

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Today New York became the first state to pass a gun control law -- the toughest in the nation -- since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre last month.


Acting one month and a day since the rampage killing that left 20 first-graders and six educators dead, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into law shortly after 5 p.m.


Called the New York Safe Act, the law includes a tougher assault weapons ban that broadens the definition of what constitutes an assault weapon, and limits the capacity of magazines to seven bullets, down from 10. The law also requires background checks of ammunition and gun buyers, even in private sales, imposes tougher penalties for illegal gun use, a one-state check on all firearms purchases, and programs to cut gun violence in high-crime neighborhoods.


As he signed the bill into law, Cuomo said it was not only "the first bill" but the "best bill."


"I'm proud to be a New Yorker, because New York is doing something, because we are fighting back, because, yes, we've had tragedies, and yes, we've had too many innocent people lose their lives, and yes, it's unfortunate that it took those tragedies to get us to this point, but let's at least learn from what's happened, let's at least be able to say to people, yes, we went through terrible situations, but we saw, we learned, we responded, and we acted, and we are doing something about it," Cuomo said. "We are not victims.








'The View' on NRA Shooting App: Think It Out Watch Video









"You can overpower the extremists with intelligence and with reason and with commonsense," Cuomo continued, "and you can make this state a safer state."


New York's law also aims to keep guns out of the hands of those will mental illness. The law gives judges the power to require those who pose a threat to themselves or others get outpatient care. The law also requires that when a mental health professional determines a gun owner is likely to do harm, the risk must be reported and the gun removed by law enforcement.


The legislation also includes what is called a "Webster provision," named for the two firefighters ambushed on Christmas Eve in Webster, N.Y. The measure would mandate a life sentence with no chance of parole for anyone who kills a first responder.


The National Rifle Association issued a statement after the bill's signing, saying it was "outraged at the draconian gun control bill that was rushed through ... late Monday evening."


"Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature orchestrated a secretive end-run around the legislative and democratic process and passed sweeping anti-gun measures with no committee hearings and no public input," the statement read. "These gun control schemes have failed in the past and will have no impact on public safety and crime. Sadly, the New York Legislature gave no consideration to that reality. While lawmakers could have taken a step toward strengthening mental health reporting and focusing on criminals, they opted for trampling the rights of law-abiding gun owners in New York, and they did it under a veil of secrecy in the dark of night. The legislature caved to the political demands of a governor and helped fuel his personal political aspirations."






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Diversity and the Obama White House

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Sometimes photos tell the story, sometimes not. But our colleague Karen Tumulty noted a contrast in these two images that might raise eyebrows.


The first is a picture on Sept. 11, 2001, of Vice President Dick Cheney on the phone in the White House Situation Room — perhaps talking with President George W. Bush — with several top aides standing by, including three women: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Bush senior adviser Karen Hughes and senior Cheney adviser Mary Matalin. There are also two African Americans in the small group.


Then there’s the iconic photo of Obama in the Situation Room on the night SEAL Team 6 dispatched Osama bin Laden. There’s one woman at the table, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and another woman in the doorway, Audrey Tomason, director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council. There’s only one African American.


Waiting and seeing

Speaking of diversity, President Obama may have been a bit defensive at his news conference Monday when he was asked about his first Cabinet picks.

His first term had “as diverse, if not more diverse, a White House and a Cabinet than any in history,” he said, adding that he “would just suggest that everybody kind of wait until they’ve seen all my appointments . . . before they rush to judgment.”

The White House confirmed Monday that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was staying on in her job. (Ah, we’ve been writing that for some time.)

On the other hand, another very senior woman, Nancy-Ann DeParle, White House deputy chief of staff and a major player in Obama’s health-care program, is leaving next week to join the Brookings Institution as a guest scholar in economic studies and will also lecture at Harvard Law School.

Another official said to be leaving is Mike Strautmanis, now counselor to White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, and before that deputy chief of staff in Obama’s Senate office. He’s probably headed to the private sector.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Department said Monday that Obama asked Secretary Tom Vilsack to stay in his post and the former Iowan accepted. (This long-expected announcement may also mean his wife, Christie Vilsack, who lost a bid in Iowa for a House seat, has landed an administration job here.)


Miles to go






John Kerry
, assuming he becomes secretary of state, will have a difficult, if not impossible, task to best his immediate predecessors’ travel feats.

After all, in terms of miles traveled, Condoleezza Rice set a high bar with a record 1,059,247 miles logged, edging out the current secretary, Hillary Clinton, by about 100,000 miles. And Clinton set a formidable mark of visiting 112 countries during her tenure.

Kerry may decide first to visit those few countries Clinton didn’t get to or perhaps didn’t get to often.

She did leave Kerry a few unvisited places, such as war-torn Mali and Sudan, but those aren’t places one goes to frequently.

She also left him some fine spots.

First, he he can visit Austria. Clinton practically encircled Vienna (though she didn’t go to Slovenia and Slovakia), but, according to the State Department’s list, she never stopped for the Sacher torte, the famous chocolate cake at the Sacher Hotel in Vienna.

On that trip or another, Kerry can also stop in unvisited Luxembourg, Romania and Cyprus.

He could find some reason to go to Italy, which it appears Clinton only visited once in four years, and stop in Rome to see Ambassador David Thorne, a close pal and the twin brother of Kerry’s first wife.

While in Rome he could go to the Vatican, which it appears Clinton skipped, making her only the second holder of the job (Warren Christopher was the other) since Richard Nixon’s first secretary of state, William Rogers, to bypass the Holy See.

Kerry also might want to check in with the Israelis. Clinton visited, but only five times in all, the fewest number of visits since Rogers. (When George Shultz was secretary of state, he practically lived there during a lengthy peace effort.)


Loving Labor lost



The prospect of of post-Cabinet life is looking pretty sweet for Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. We spotted her last week, just a day after she announced her resignation, doing things we can only imagine were tough to manage in the days when her schedule was packed with wall-to-wall meetings.

A woman we’d swear was Solis was standing outside her Capitol Hill rowhouse wearing workout gear (Hitting the gym? On a weeknight? Now, that’s a luxury!) and chatting with two gal pals, also in athletic clothes . The crew appeared to be having a good time while checking out the exterior of the home and contemplating Solis’s putting it on the market. (Solis’s office thought we must have been mistaken, but we’d know our neighbor when we saw her.)

Solis told Labor Department employees last week in a letter that she planned to “return to the people and places” she loves, which most likely means she’s heading back to her native California, where many expect her to run for the powerful Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Sounds as if she had better enjoy that downtime while she can.



With Emily Heil

The blog: washingtonpost.com/
intheloop. Twitter: @InTheLoopWP.

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Euro gains against US dollar in positive market

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NEW YORK: The euro gained ground against the US dollar Monday as positive market sentiment spurred buying of riskier assets, such as the European currency.

The euro fetched US$1.3376 around 2200 GMT, up from US$1.3341 at the same time last Friday. Earlier, the unit brushed US$1.3404, its highest level in almost 11 months.

The euro continued to rise against the Japanese currency, to 119.65 yen from 119.00 yen late Friday, while the US dollar rose to 89.45 yen from 89.18 yen.

The market showed little reaction to a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on the challenges facing the US economy, analysts said.

"I saw nothing very different from what has already been announced by the Fed," whether it be in the minutes from the last Federal Open Market Committee policy meeting in December or the FOMC statement, Charles St-Arnaud, a Nomura economist, said.

Wading into the Washington political fray over the federal budget and the borrowing limit, Bernanke called on Congress to lift the debt limit to avoid putting the country into default.

Kathy Lien of BK Asset Management said the market was waiting for Tuesday's US retail sales data for December, which covers the important holiday-shopping season.

"Consumer spending is the backbone of the US economy, and the only reason why investors obsess over the labour market is because they hope that stronger job growth will translate into stronger spending," Lien said.

The euro rise was buoyed by last week's upbeat comments by European Central Bank president Mario Draghi.

The yen, meanwhile, remained under selling pressure after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday unveiled a US$226.5 billion stimulus plan in the latest bid to boost the world's fragile number-three economy.

The US dollar rose against the Swiss currency, buying 0.9216 francs compared with 0.9135 francs late Friday.

The pound fell to US$1.6074 from US$1.6129.

- AFP/jc



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Kerala drug dealers home deliver banned aphrodisiac

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KOCHI: Illegal drug dealers have found a 'safe' method to carry out their business.

With authorities cracking down on the illegal sale of medicines containing sildenafil citrate — an ingredient in aphrodisiacs, black marketers have started door delivery of such drugs, especially in Malappuram and Kozhikode districts.

"Sildenafil citrate is schedule H medicine, which should be given only under prescription. But over-the-counter sales of the drug have been very high, especially in Malappuram district and interior areas of Kozhikode," said G Ashok Kumar, assistant drug controller, Kozhikode.

He said there was dip in over-the-counter sales after the state drugs control department formed a special team. "But there are reports that the offenders now deliver these medicines at home. Unless there is proper and timely tip off, we will not be able to catch the offenders," Kumar said.

Sources said suppliers in Karnataka have been sending these drugs to the state using their network. "They would lure the salesmen in medical stores with perks. These salesmen would direct the customer to the network. Once the deal is struck, they would give the 'customers' these medicine at their place," an official in Malappuram said.

Most customers were NRIs working in the Middle East, the official said. The drugs bought in the state were taken to Gulf countries, where the medicine has been banned.

Officials, recently, had seized a huge quantity of medicines containing sildenafil citrate from Manjeri. A year ago, such drugs were seized from a shop on TD Road in Kochi, officials said. "On questioning, the shop owners said that the transaction is being carried out through home delivery," the official said.

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Space Pictures: 7 Ways You Could Blast Off by 2023

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Arias Denied Guilt Despite Sex Photos, DNA

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A defiant Jodi Arias insisted she was innocent of killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander even after a detective told her that he had nude photos of them together on the day he died.


"Are you sure it's me? Because I was not there," Arias is heard saying in the police interrogation tape played for the Arizona jury today.


When Detective Esteban Flores tells Arias she is seen in pigtails in the photos, she asks with a tone of incredulity, "Pigtails?"


As Flores laid out more incriminating evidence, including that investigators found DNA of their blood mixed together, her hair stuck with blood and her palm print in blood, Arias was insistent.


"I would not hurt Travis. I would not hurt Travis. I would not do that to him," she told Flores.


At another point Arias said, "If I hurt Travis I would beg for the death penalty."


"Jodi, this is over. … you have to tell me the truth," Flores says. The detective suggests a motive for the killing to be jealousy, and cites the opinion of Alexander's friends.


"They don't just say you were jealous. You were absolutely obsessed… a fatal attraction," Flores in heard on the tape.


Arias, now 32, has since admitted to killing Alexanderfollowing their tryst in 2008, but has claimed it was self-defense. She is accused of stabbing Alexander 27 times in the chest, back, and head, slashing his throat from ear to ear, and shooting him the head with a .25 caliber handgun.


Arias is charged with murdering her ex-boyfriend in a "heinous and depraved" way and could face the death penalty if convicted.


The interrogation tape was played after the jury was shown sexually graphic photos that police recovered from Alexander's digital camera. Among the pictures were shots of Arias and Alexander posing naked on Alexander's bed, as well as pictures of Alexander in the shower.


Those photos were the last pictures of Alexander while he was alive.










Jodi Arias Trial: Jurors See Photos of Bloody Handprint Watch Video









Jodi Arias Murder Trial: Who Is the Alleged Killer? Watch Video





The final photos in the series show a body partly covered in blood on the bathroom floor.


See Full Coverage of Jodi Arias Trial


Watch the Jodi Arias Trial Live


See Jodi Arias Trial Videos


Arias looked away from the screen in the courtroom where the sexual photos were shown, as her mother watched from the gallery. Alexander's sisters, also seated in the gallery, looked away from the photos of their brother.


Computer analysts for the city of Mesa, Ariz., where Alexander lived, went over the photos in detail during the sixth day of testimony in the trial. The photos were time stamped June 4, 2008, beginning around 1:45 p.m.


Prosecutors have said that Arias drove from her California home to Alexander's house, arriving early in the morning on June 4. The pair had sex in the afternoon, took photos of one another, and then Arias killed Alexander, age 30, around 5:30 p.m., they said.


The photos on the bed occurred around 1:45 p.m., according to the data on the camera. The shower photos and the pictures of a bloody body part occurred around 5:30 p.m.


In earlier testimony today, the jury watched video taped interrogations of Arias as she repeatedly denied to police stealing and using the handgun that killed Alexander.


Arias told police that she had never seen a .25 caliber handgun and had no idea her grandparents owned one until they reported it stolen a week before Alexander's killing, according to the police interrogation tapes played in court today.


Police from Yreka, Calif., where Arias lived with her grandparents, described the scene of the home when Arias's grandparents reported a break-in. The door was pushed in, breaking the door jamb, and many drawers were opened in Arias' bedroom and her grandparents' room.


The only things reported taken were the handgun, a DVD player, and $30, while other valuable items, including a large pile of quarters and three other guns, were left untouched. Arias told police that her laptop computer was not taken because she had hidden it in a laundry basket covered with clothes.


Officer Kevin Friedman of the Yreka police department told the court today that burglary struck him as odd.


"I believed it was unusual that small items worth money or money, for instance, that the change was not taken," said Officer Kevin Friedman, of the Yreka police department, who investigated the alleged robbery. "I also thought it was strange that only one of the firearms was stolen from the cabinet."


In the police videos, Arias is seen calmly denying stealing the gun from her grandparents' home and using it when she killed Alexander in June 2008, a week after the burglary.






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Lines harden in debate over guns

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Opposing forces in the debate over the nation’s gun laws staked out starkly different positions Sunday, with the head of the largest gun rights group declaring confidence that a ban on assault weapons would not win passage from lawmakers, while advocates of tightening restrictions on guns said such measures can be approved.


“I would say that the likelihood is that they are not going to be able to get an assault weapons ban through this Congress,” National Rifle Association President David Keene said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”


Keene’s comments came two days before a self-imposed deadline for an Obama administration task force led by Vice President Biden to offer concrete policy recommendations on curbing gun violence.

Obama has already said he supports renewing an expired ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, while gun control advocates on Capitol Hill have promised to lead a charge to pass such a measure. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will soon introduce such a ban in the Senate.

But the staunchest gun rights advocates, led by the NRA, have shown no willingness to endorse tightened restrictions on guns. After Biden’s working group met with the NRA last week, the gun rights group said it was “disappointed” with how little the meeting “had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment.”

The direction of the national gun debate will grow clearer after Biden’s group delivers its recommendations to the president. The vice president said last week that he was beginning to see an emerging consensus from gun control advocates and law enforcement officials he had met with around “universal background checks” for all gun buyers and a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Others have cautioned that any new restrictions on guns must be part of a comprehensive attempt to curb mass violence, including a closer look at security, the entertainment industry and mental health issues.

“An assault weapons stand-alone ban on just guns alone, in the political reality we have, will not go anywhere. It has to be comprehensive,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on “State of the Union.” Manchin, a conservative, is the recipient of an “A” rating from the NRA.

Speaking from Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six adults were fatally shot in an elementary school on Dec. 14, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said on the same program that he disagreed with Keene about the prospects of new gun control legislation winning passage in Congress.

“Newtown fundamentally changed things. And the NRA just fundamentally doesn’t get this,” Murphy said.

Groups on both sides of the debate are gearing up for what could be a tense legislative battle. Neera Tanden, president of the liberal think tank Center For American Progress, vowed a grass-roots effort among gun control advocates for new restrictions.

“I expect the president to play a strong leadership role, but progressive organizations will be working to — working with the states to show that we have the voice and really have the American people,” said Tanden on “Fox News Sunday.”

For their part, gun rights advocates continued to argue in favor of arming qualified citizens in an attempt to curb mass violence.

“We have got to face the reality that we have got to empower average people, including teachers and other people in schools, to be able to defend themselves,” said Gun Owners of America Executive Director Larry Pratt.

Former secretary of state Colin Powell offered optimism that lawmakers can reach an accord on at least incremental measures to curb gun violence.

“I think we’re at a very important point in our national dialogue on this,” Powell said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.” “The NRA feels very, very strongly, gun owners feel very, very strongly, and at the same time the American people are concerned about the kinds of things that are happening in our society. Surely if we can’t get the whole ball of wax, I hope that there will be a way to find something in this continuum of things we can do that we’re able to do to demonstrate to the American people that this problem’s being taken seriously.”

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