Sherman A1
Sherman A1's JournalTu-95 bombers: Brits scramble jets after Russian bombers approach
Source: CS Monitor
Dutch, British, and Danish jets scrambled Wednesday afternoon after a pair of Russian bombers approached their airspace over the North Sea.
The Dutch ministry identified the planes as two Russian TU-95 Bears and said it had launched two F-16s from Volkel air force base to intercept them. The Russian jets were escorted by aircraft from the three NATO members until they departed.
"That's why we scrambled, that's why the Danish scrambled and the English scrambled, to ensure they fly out of our air space," said Maj. Wilko Ter Horst.
Anders Fridberg, spokesman for the Danish Defense Command, said the Russian planes came in from the north.
"We just followed them and just turned back when we reached Germany," he said.
The Dutch ministry statement said such incidents have occurred before, citing one from March 21 and another from Sept. 10 last year.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2014/0424/Tu-95-bombers-Brits-scramble-jets-after-Russian-bombers-approach
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2014/0424/Tu-95-bombers-Brits-scramble-jets-after-Russian-bombers-approach
Climate Change Unites Unions and Enviros
Labor unions have for years been pitted against conservationists in a jobs-versus-the-environment conflict. But now, a greater threat to the planet has paired members of the rival movements in a fight against a greater evil: global climate change.
The Global Climate Convergence, a worldwide 10-day “education and direct action campaign” that started on Earth Day (April 22) and ends on May Day (May 1), is the first annual action that fuses several different movements into one common mega-movement with multiple goals, particularly stopping climate change. Lauren Regan, executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center, says to keep in mind that it’s not just labor unions and environmentalists that have joined the movement. Many others including immigrants and students have joined the cause as well.
Some issues, such as the Keystone XL pipeline, have left unionists and environmentalists at odds, with one group touting jobs and the other pointing to climate disaster. “It’s my hope to see what we really have in common,” Regan says. “At the community level we are starting to put that movement together.”
Shelley Pineo-Jensen, the chapter chair of the Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network Jobs with Justice, says that unions will have a big presence with the climate convergence. The UO’s Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation is hosting a May Day march, which starts on campus, with SEIU Local 49, a service employee union and others participating. May Day is an internationally recognized (though not in the U.S.) labor holiday. “Everyday union members are just as aware of climate change as anyone else,” Pineo-Jensen says.
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/20140424/news-briefs/climate-change-unites-unions-and-enviros
Union demands passage of wage-theft bill
SACRAMENTO -- Nearly 100 chanting and placard-waving union members marched to a downtown Sacramento office tower in a staged and futile attempt to serve a $240 million bill on the California Chamber of Commerce.
The "invoice," union officials said, represented the amount of unpaid wages awarded by the state labor commissioner's office to workers that went uncollected from 2008 to 2011....
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-union-demands-passage-of-wage-theft-bill-20140423,0,7320076.story#ixzz2zsvReGq6
NC Judge Blocks Anti-Tenure Law
“RALEIGH, N.C. — A Guilford County judge on Wednesday halted a requirement that North Carolina school districts offer a quarter of their teachers multi-year contracts as an enticement for them to give up their so-called “career status” protections.
“Special Superior Court Judge Richard Doughton issued an injunction that allows Guilford County Schools to evade the requirement, which lawmakers passed last year as part of the state budget.
“Durham Public Schools last month joined a lawsuit filed by the Guilford County school district, and more than a quarter of the 115 school districts statewide have expressed opposition to contract requirement.
“Under career status, commonly referred to as tenure, veteran teachers are given extra due process rights, including the right to a hearing if they are disciplined or fired.
http://dianeravitch.net/2014/04/23/breaking-news-nc-judge-blocks-anti-tenure-law/
Unions plan nationwide protests against Postal Service’s Staples deal
Postal unions have planned nationwide demonstrations for Thursday to protest a recent U.S. Postal Service deal that allows office-supply retailer Staples to sell USPS products such as stamps, mail services and package delivery.
The financially struggling Postal Service has touted its agreement as part of a plan to boost business through partnerships with retail giants and provide customers with greater convenience. But labor groups contend that the deal amounts to a move toward privatization and that the agency is replacing its workers with low-paid employees while putting the quality of its services at risk.
“Staples employees receive minimal training, and the company’s low pay results in high employee turnover,” American Postal Workers Union Local 140 president Dena Briscoe said in a statement. “Mail should be handled by highly-trained, experienced postal employees, who swear an oath to protect your letters and packages and who are accountable to the American people.”
MORE: Staples’ selling postal products without USPS workers stirs fears of privatization
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/04/23/unions-plan-nationwide-protests-against-postal-services-staples-deal/
This Tower Pulls Drinking Water Out of Thin Air
In some parts of Ethiopia, finding potable water is a six-hour journey.
People in the region spend 40 billion hours a year trying to find and collect water, says a group called the Water Project. And even when they find it, the water is often not safe, collected from ponds or lakes teeming with infectious bacteria, contaminated with animal waste or other harmful substances.
The water scarcity issue—which affects nearly 1 billion people in Africa alone—has drawn the attention of big-name philanthropists like actor and Water.org co-founder Matt Damon and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who, through their respective nonprofits, have poured millions of dollars into research and solutions, coming up with things like a system that converts toilet water to drinking water and a "Re-invent the Toilet Challenge," among others.
Critics, however, have their doubts about integrating such complex technologies in remote villages that don't even have access to a local repairman. Costs and maintenance could render many of these ideas impractical.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-tower-pulls-drinking-water-out-of-thin-air-180950399/#mYsipYIBPe7WSO12.99
IBEW members invent bracket that saves time and trouble
Southern Illinois – It’s tough. You’re high up on a ladder, and reaching to make connections and assemblies to install a low-voltage device such as a camera or smoke detector. And there are another three-dozen rooms that need them after that.
Two southern Illinois union electricians, Dennis Glisson and Rusty Pritchett, have invented a solution to make the job quicker and easier.
They showed their new product, the Universal Ceiling Mount Bracket, at the Electrical Expo of the Electric Board of Missouri and Illinois at the St. Charles Convention Center.
Glisson, of rural Pocahontas, Ill. is a member of IBEW Local 309 out of Collinsville.
http://labortribune.com/ibew-members-invent-bracket-that-saves-time-and-trouble/
The Pascua Yaqui: the 1st to use new authority to prosecute non–tribal members for domestic violence
TUCSON, Ariz. — For many of the women on the Pascua Yaqui reservation, life before the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act brings up one very common memory.
“The offenders knew nothing would be done,” said Gloria Zazueta. “So when they were arrested, they would just be like, ‘OK, give me a ride to the Circle K.’”
The Circle K is a small four-pump gas station located just feet beyond the northern border of the reservation. For many years, it was a common destination for tribal law enforcement officers to take non–Native Americans accused of domestic abuse because the officers often lacked the jurisdiction to do anything more.
“That was our remedy back then for law enforcement,” said Alfred Urbina, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe’s chief prosecutor. He explained that until recently, their tribal courts did not have criminal jurisdiction over non–Native Americans, so that trip to Circle K was the most an officer could do in that situation unless the case was severe enough to be prosecuted by a federal court.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/4/23/for-one-arizona-tribeachanceforjusticeafterdecadesoflegallimbo.html
Florida executes man convicted of murdering 2
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — Florida has executed a man convicted of murdering two relatives to prevent one of them from testifying against him in a burglary trial.
Robert Hendrix was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. at Florida State Prison in Starke, shortly after the lethal injection procedure began.
Prosecutors say that in August 1990, Hendrix shot, hit and stabbed his cousin, Elmer Scott, in his Lake County trailer home. They say he then cut the throat of Scott's wife, Michelle, and shot her.
Elmer Scott had planned to testify the next day at Hendrix's burglary trial. Scott had been his partner in the crime but had reached a plea deal.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/florida-executes-man-convicted-of-murdering/article_6eb47a2d-7667-5bb6-a038-d468e59e261e.html
Impeaching Nixon? Republican-led Missouri House holds hearings
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. • A Republican-led Missouri House committee is holding a hearing on multiple measures seeking to impeach Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon.
The hearing on three separate impeachment resolutions includes one citing Nixon's decision to allow same-sex couples who married legally in other states to file joint tax returns in Missouri. Another measure is critical of the amount of time the governor took to call special elections to fill legislative vacancies.
The final measure under consideration by the Judiciary Committee would impeach Nixon for his refusal to fire officials involved with the Revenue Department's decision last year to scan driver's license applicants' personal documents into a computer system.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/impeaching-nixon-republican-led-missouri-house-holds-hearings/article_9597e187-f465-552b-9384-2588c20fd295.html
Profile Information
Gender: MaleCurrent location: U.S.
Member since: Sat May 13, 2006, 07:37 AM
Number of posts: 38,958
