August 1, 2013

Exclusive: NSA Pays £100m in Secret Funding for GCHQ ('wants to "exploit any phone, anywhere..."')

Source: Guardian

Thursday 1 August 2013 11.04 EDT

Exclusive: NSA pays £100m in secret funding for GCHQ

• Secret payments revealed in leaks by Edward Snowden
• GCHQ expected to 'pull its weight' for Americans
• Weaker regulation of British spies 'a selling point' for NSA

The US government has paid at least £100m to the UK spy agency GCHQ over the last three years to secure access to and influence over Britain's intelligence gathering programmes.

- snip -

Snowden warned about the relationship between the NSA and GCHQ, saying the organisations have been jointly responsible for developing techniques that allow the mass harvesting and analysis of internet traffic. "It's not just a US problem," he said. "They are worse than the US."

As well as the payments, the documents seen by the Guardian reveal:

• GCHQ is pouring money into efforts to gather personal information from mobile phones and apps, and has said it wants to be able to "exploit any phone, anywhere, any time".

• Some GCHQ staff working on one sensitive programme expressed concern about "the morality and ethics of their operational work, particularly given the level of deception involved".

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/01/nsa-paid-gchq-spying-edward-snowden

August 1, 2013

Standard & Poor's 500 Index Surpasses 1,700 Points for First Time

Source: Associated Press

@AP: BREAKING: Standard & Poor's 500 index surpasses 1,700 points for the first time. -MM

m.twitter.com/AP

Read more: Link to source

August 1, 2013

Breaking: Jobless Claims in U.S. Decline to Lowest Level in Five Years

Source: Bloomberg

Jobless Claims in U.S. Decline to Lowest Level in Five Years
By Lorraine Woellert
August 01, 2013 8:30 AM EDT

Claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly dropped to the lowest level in more than five years, extending swings typical for the month of July.

Applications for unemployment insurance payments declined by 19,000 to 326,000 in the week ended July 27, the fewest since January 2008, from a revised 345,000 the prior week, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. The median forecast of 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 345,000. A government analyst said no states were estimated, and the data were still being influenced by the auto plant shutdowns that play havoc with the figures at this time of year.

Businesses have been operating with tight workforces as they wait for signs of a sustained pickup in consumer demand. A slowdown in firings might signal that employers are becoming more confident in the recovery and preparing to grow payrolls, which would encourage household spending, the biggest part of the economy.

“The labor market is still improving,” Aneta Markowska, chief U.S. economist at Societe Generale in New York, said before the report. ”It underscores the resiliency of this economy and the underlying momentum in the private sector.”
Claims estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 333,000 to 365,000. The Labor Department revised the previous week’s figure to 345,000 from an initially reported 343,000.

Read more: http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-01/jobless-claims-in-u-s-decline-to-lowest-level-in-five-years.html

August 1, 2013

Henry Blodget: "This One Tweet Reveals What's Wrong With American Business Culture And The Economy"

http://www.businessinsider.com/business-and-the-economy-2013-7

This One Tweet Reveals What's Wrong With American Business Culture And The Economy

HENRY BLODGET JUL. 31, 2013, 12:18 PM 25,681 181

- snip -

A sharp drop in government spending this year is, in fact, temporarily hurting economic growth, but that's not the real problem.

The real problem is that American corporations, which are richer and more profitable than they have ever been in history, have become so obsessed with "maximizing short-term profits" that they are no longer investing in their future, their people, and the country.

This short-term corporate greed can be seen in many aspects of corporate behavior, from scrimping on investment to obsessing about quarterly earnings to fretting about daily fluctuations in stock prices. But it is most visible in the general cultural attitude toward average employees.

Employees are human beings. They are people who devote their days to creating value for two other groups of people: customers and shareholders. And, in return, at least in theory, they are people who share in the rewards of the value created by their team.

In theory.

In practice, American business culture has become so obsessed with maximizing short-term profits that employees aren't regarded as people who are members of a team.

- snip -

This view of employees was expressed succinctly yesterday by a Twitter user named Daryl Tremblay, who was appalled by the suggestion that McDonald's should increase the wages of its restaurant workers and pay for this by making a bit less money. (I was arguing that McDonald's employees should not be treated as "costs," but instead as valuable members of a successful team who shouldn't have to work that hard and still live in poverty.)

Here was Daryl's response:


Now, Daryl is hardly alone in this view. Most senior managers and owners of big American corporations think this way these days. They regard the human beings they work with — the human beings who create the value that pays their salaries — as "costs" to be reduced to create "maximized earnings." Because "maximized earnings," it is now frequently said, is the only thing that any business owner or manager should care about.

Whenever you suggest to folks like Daryl that it doesn't have to be this way, that some companies can and do balance the interests of shareholders with the interests of customers and employees — and, in so doing, create a symbiotic relationship that supports all of these constituencies — folks like Daryl call you a "socialist."

- snip -

It doesn't have to be this way.

There is no capitalist law that says companies have to view employees as "costs" and pay them as little as possible.

- snip -

If American corporations were struggling to earn money these days, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

But they aren't.

MORE[p]

August 1, 2013

Pa. Police Chief Suspended After Video Profanities

Source: Associated Press

PA. POLICE CHIEF SUSPENDED AFTER VIDEO PROFANITIES

Jul. 31 10:24 PM EDT

GILBERTON, Pa. (AP) — A small-town police chief who appears in online videos using profanity and shooting automatic weapons has been suspended for 30 days without pay.

The borough council of Gilberton voted 5-1 at a meeting Wednesday night to suspend Chief Mark Kessler, saying he misused borough property. It said he used the weapons without permission.

Kessler has said he made the videos to draw attention to the erosion of the constitutional rights of free speech and to bear arms and he increasingly fears a government out of control.

He said after the meeting that he wouldn't apologize for making the videos and didn't regret having done so. He said he looked forward to getting back to work after the suspension.

- snip -

In one video, Kessler criticizes U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's support of a United Nations treaty aimed at controlling the international arms trade, which some gun rights advocates fear could lead to restrictions on domestic weapons. Kessler then fires a weapon and screams, "Come and get it!"

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/pa-police-chief-suspended-after-video-profanities

August 1, 2013

Nuptials at Midnight as Gay Marriage Hits Minn. (R.I., D.C.)

Source: Associated Press

@AP: R.I., Minn. becoming 12th and 13th US states to allow gay marriage along with District of Columbia: http://t.co/mkmEKigO6G - VW

NUPTIALS AT MIDNIGHT AS GAY MARRIAGE HITS MINN.

By PATRICK CONDON
— Jul. 31 10:34 PM EDT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Dozens of Minnesota gay couples made last-minute preparations Wednesday for midnight marriages, determined to exchange vows at the earliest possible moment under a new state law legalizing same-sex marriage.

Weddings were scheduled to start at the stroke of midnight at Minneapolis City Hall, St. Paul's Como Park, Mall of America's Chapel of Love and at county courthouses around the state. One group planned a cluster of weddings in a Duluth tavern.

"I don't think either of us ever thought we'd see this day," said Mike Bolin, of the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield, who was marrying Jay Resch, his partner of six years, at Minneapolis City Hall. "We met at low points in both of our lives, and to have arrived at this point — there's going to be a lot of tears."

Rhode Island was joining Minnesota on Thursday in becoming the 12th and 13th U.S. states to allow gay marriage, along with the District of Columbia. The national gay rights group Freedom to Marry estimates that about 30 percent of the U.S. population now lives in places where gay marriage is legal. The first gay weddings in Rhode Island were planned for later Thursday morning.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/nuptials-midnight-gay-marriage-hits-minn

---

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak takes a moment to himself as he prepares for the evening's weddings at City Hall, Wednesday, July 31, 2013 in Minneapolis. Dozens of Minnesota gay couples made last-minute preparations Wednesday for midnight marriages, determined to exchange vows at the earliest possible moment under a new state law legalizing same-sex marriage. (AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Jim Gehrz) MANDATORY CREDIT; ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS OUT; MAGS OUT; TWIN CITIES TV OUT

August 1, 2013

N.C. State Health Director Resigns from DHHS (with copy of resignation letter)

Source: NC Policy Watch

State Health Director resigns from DHHS (with copy of resignation letter)

Post on July 31, 2013
by Sarah Ovaska

Last night, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services announced that state health director, one of the top positions in the agency, has resigned.

Dr. Laura Gerald, a pediatrician who had been in the position since for the last 18 months, had served as the State Health Director and the director of the state division of public health.

No reason for her resignation was given by Wos, but a copy of Gerald’s resignation letter obtained by N.C. Policy Watch indicates she was uncomfortable with the policies being pushed in DHHS.

“Although I have demonstrated the ability to produce accomplishments that require work and collaboration with diverse groups and across political aisles, I acknowledge that I have significant differences and disagreements with many of the policy and administrative directions that I see unfolding in North Carolina and in the Department of Health and Human Services,” Gerald wrote. “These differences are making it increasingly impossible to continue to be effective in my current role.”

- snip -

N.C. Policy Watch obtained a copy of Gerald’s resignation letter from a reader, and have confirmed it is real. She cites “significant differences and disagreements with many of the policy and administrative directions that I see unfolding in North Carolina and in the Department of Health and Human Services” as her reason for leaving.


Read more: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2013/07/31/state-health-director-resigns-from-dhhs/