EPA staffers linked to 'alleged serious misconduct,' agency reveals

EXCLUSIVE: Eight Environmental Protection Agency employees who racked up a total of more than ten years’ worth of paid “administrative leave” between 2011 and 2014 -- valued at more than $1,096,000 -- apparently did so because they were involved in “cases of alleged serious misconduct,” Fox News has learned.
In a memorandum sent from EPA’s acting assistant administrator, Nanci  E. Gelb, to EPA’s inspector general, Arthur Elkins -- a draft also was given to Fox News -- the agency has revealed that at least three of the affected employees have now left EPA.
All of the eight “were or are subject to a disciplinary process,” an EPA official told Fox News, adding that, “we cannot comment on the circumstances of their departure from the agency for those who are no longer employed by EPA.”
The exact nature of the alleged wrongdoings has not been revealed, nor the specific times when they took place. But the lengthy absences -- up to three years in one case -- seem to indicate that the alleged misconduct actions, whether linked or separate, cover a substantial period of time, even after their discovery.
The document from EPA’s Gelb to EPA’s inspector general, intended as an elaboration on the highlighted periods of administrative leave, made no mention of the issue of wrongdoing in relation to the departures or to the leaves granted to any other employee included in the OIG report.
In response to questions from Fox News, OIG officials indicated that they had, to date, received no word from EPA in any form about any misconduct allegations.
The revelations about misconduct came as an email  response to questions from Fox News regarding the extraordinary paid absences.
In it, an EPA official declared tersely that the agency had “carefully exercised its discretion” in placing “certain employees”  on the paid form of absence “in cases of alleged serious misconduct,” and added that “the agency must work to address these [cases] in a way that is consistent with the law.”
Nothing in the EPA response indicated whether any of the allegations had been proved.
The existence of the huge amounts of paid time for just a few EPA employees for doing nothing -- in one case, more than three years -- has special resonance at EPA, where the revelation first became public knowledge on November 19, in a special “early warning” report published by EPA’s watchdog Office of the Inspector General, or OIG.
(Tallies for each of the eight employees, ranging from less than two months to about three years, are included in the document.)
CLICK HERE FOR THE REPORT
Almost exactly a year ago, a top EPA official named John Beale was sentenced to 32 months in prison for getting $800,000 worth of paid time off while falsely claiming that he was an active CIA agent, a whopper that apparently went unchecked for years.
In the intervening months, OIG has charged that various EPA officials have stonewalled its efforts to investigate the Beale scandal, and that a separate EPA branch for homeland security has illegally prevented OIG interviews of employees and kept other evidence out of the watchdogs’ hands.
The stonewalling also has been mentioned in a special letter signed by 47 of the administration’s 73 inspectors general, spread across a spectrum of government agencies, and complaining about  “serious limitations on access to records” that were creating “potentially serious challenges” to “our ability to conduct our work thoroughly, independently and in a timely manner.”

Almost exactly a year ago, a top EPA official was sentenced to 32 months in prison for getting $800,000 worth of paid time off.

As Kevin Christensen, the OIG’s assistant inspector general of audit, told Fox News, OIG in October launched the payroll research that led to its November 19 revelations precisely in order “to see if there are other John Beales around.”
In the process of uncovering the absentee eight, the inspectors also made a further intriguing discovery. One of the off-work staffers also had run up more than seven months of additional absences -- at a cost of $57,636 -- that were charged to payroll codes for “dispute resolution” and “general labor management.”
According to an EPA official, “federal regulations allow the use of these codes when an employee is involved in a dispute resolution and/or engaged in working with their union representative to work on their case.”
In response to questions from Fox News, EPA revealed that the staffer in question was a member of the American Federation of Government Employees, or AFGE, one of five unions that have status with EPA allowing specified members to gain such paid leave under the referenced payroll codes.
The OIG’s office declined to specify which of the eight employees tallied in its “early warning” report -- all identified only by numbers -- had also rung up the labor-management-related absences.
So far, much EPA effort has apparently been devoted to questioning or downplaying the methods and conclusions of the Inspector General’s Office, as drawn up in the “early warning” report.
In her letter to Inspector General Elkins, for example, EPA’s Nanci Gelb claims that only three EPA employees were on leave for more than a year, rather than four, as the OIG report alleges. Moreover, the document says that much of the leave was not continuous.
An OIG official notes, however, that the existence of such things as intervening federal holidays or sick leave could technically create formal conditions for the discontinuous claim
Just how firm EPA is in its defenses is not clear.
In the draft copy of the memorandum given to Fox News, one of the agency’s top lawyers, principal deputy general counsel Kevin Minoli, indicates in a sideline note that he’s having difficulty coming to the rebuttal conclusions based on the evidence in his hands. 
Minoli asks another individual named “Don”-- presumably another EPA official -- to “please walk me through it.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE DRAFT MEMORANDUM
How all the new revelations of possible wrongdoing at EPA will play out is equally unclear.
But at a time when EPA is aggressively launching a massive escalation in its regulatory campaign to limit carbon emissions, among other things, a red flag like prolonged periods of paid-for time off linked to “serious misconduct” is unlikely to be overlooked.  

George Russell is editor-a

Obama's plan to shut down Guantanamo Bay suffers major setback

President Obama’s plan to close the federal prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba hit a major snag Monday as lawmakers finalizing the annual defense policy bill rejected the steps in order to shut down the facility.
The final defense bill will not have a provision giving the president the power to transfer terror suspects to the U.S.  if Congress signs off on the plan, said Sen. Carl Levin.
"Our language ... (on Guantanamo) ... will not be in," Levin said.
Levin backed the authority for Obama to transfer the suspects and enthusiastically herald it in May as the “path to close Guantanamo.”
The House and Senate are expected to vote and overwhelmingly approve the sweeping policy bill in the coming days, sending it to Obama.
The president has pushed to close the post-9/11 prison since his inauguration in January 2009. He has faced strong resistance from Republicans and some Democrats in Congress who don't want terror suspects housed in U.S. facilities and have warned of suspects returning to the fight when they are transferred back to their home countries.
In the previous version of the defense bill, the Senate Armed Services Committee included the provision authorizing the transfer of terror suspects to the U.S. for “detention, trial and incarceration.”
The House version of the defense bill prohibited the transfer to U.S. soil, and Republican and Democratic lawmakers who have repeatedly and successfully fought White House efforts to move detainees prevailed in the final version of the defense bill.
Currently, the prison holds 142 men, including 73 already cleared for release.
Obama was approached by a store patron during his holiday shopping Saturday.
"Hope you can close Guantanamo," said the patron.
"We're working on it," Obama replied, then jokingly added to the nearby crowd of shoppers: "Any other issues?"
The U.S. has released a number of prisoners over the last few weeks.
Saudi national Muhammad al-Zahrani was allowed to return to his country Nov. 22 after five prisoners were released a few days prior.
The board cleared him for release in October, citing a number of factors including his willingness to participate in the Saudi rehabilitation program.
Al-Zahrani was the 13th prisoner to leave Guantanamo Bay this year and the seventh in just the past couple of weeks. Officials have said more prisoners will be released in the coming weeks as part of a renewed effort to close the site. Seventy three are already cleared for release.
The Associated Press contributed to this report

St. Louis police group demands punishment for Rams players in Ferguson protest

A St. Louis police officers' group called on the NFL to punish five Rams players who stood with their hands raised before trotting onto the field for pregame introductions Sunday. 
The St. Louis Police Officers' Association said it was "profoundly disappointed" with what it called a "display that police officers around the nation found tasteless, offensive and inflammatory." It called for the players involved to be disciplined and for both the league and team to issue a "very public apology."
The so-called "hands up, don't shoot" gesture has been commonly used by demonstrators protesting the decision of a St. Louis County grand jury to not indict Officer Darren Wilson in the August 9 shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in suburban Ferguson. Some witnesses said Brown, who was black, had his hands up before being fatally shot by Wilson, who is white. 
Prior to kickoff of their game against the Oakland Raiders, Rams wide receivers Tavon Austin and Kenny Britt came out together and raised their hands, but the move was obscured by a smoke machine in the upper reaches of the Edward Jones Dome. Jared Cook, Stedman Bailey and Chris Givens then came out and stood together with hands raised in the fog.
"I just think there has to be a change," Cook said after the Rams' 52-0 win. "There has to be a change that starts with the people that are most influential around the world.
"No matter what happened on that day, no matter how the whole situation went down, there has to be a change."
Coach Jeff Fisher said he'd not been aware the gesture had been planned by the players, all of them black.
Cook said players have been too busy to go to Ferguson, plus "it's kind of dangerous down there and none of us want to get caught up in anything."
"It takes some guts, it takes some heart, so I admire the people around the world that have been doing it," he added.
SLPOA Business Manager Jeff Roorda was quoted in a statement released by the organization as saying " All week long, the Rams and the NFL were on the phone with the St. Louis Police Department asking for assurances that the players and the fans would be kept safe from the violent protesters who had rioted, looted, and burned buildings in Ferguson ... then, as the players and their fans sit safely in their dome under the watchful protection of hundreds of St. Louis's finest, they take to the turf to call a now-exonerated officer a murderer, that is way out-of-bounds, to put it in football parlance."
Across the street from the stadium, about 75 protesters gathered in the second half as about 30 police wearing riot gear watched from a distance. Protesters chanted "Hands up, don't shoot!" ''No justice, no football!" ''This is what democracy looks like," and "We're here for Mike Brown."
James Weaver of St. Louis was among the protesters outside the stadium and argued with two fans leaving. They were separated by police.
"People don't understand what this is about," Weaver said. "This is about a young man lying on the street for four hours. People are mad."
Weaver added that police are "clicking their boots like the Gestapo."
The Rams had additional security measures in place for the game, including armed personnel from the National Guard. The team has wanded fans outside entrances all season.
Roorda also played down the notion that the players were exercising their right to free speech, saying ""I know that there are those that will say that these players are simply exercising their First Amendment rights. Well I've got news for people who think that way, cops have first amendment rights too, and we plan to exercise ours.
"I'd remind the NFL and their players that it is not the violent thugs burning down buildings that buy their advertiser's products," Roorda added. "It's cops and the good people of St. Louis and other NFL towns that do. Somebody needs to throw a flag on this play. If it's not the NFL and the Rams, then it'll be cops and their supporters."

ObamaCare's small business site reportedly opens to scant interest

A long-delayed section of the federal health care exchange website intended to help small business owners enroll their employees in health insurance plans for 2015 has drawn relatively little interest compared to the site's plans for individuals, according to a published report. 
The Washington Post, citing data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, reported Sunday that the home page for the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) drew 200,000 visits during its first week. By contrast, more than 1.5 million people visited Healthcare.gov's plan page for individuals over the same period. It was not immediately clear how many employers have offered health coverage to their employees through the plans or how many employees have bought them. 
The Post also reported that insurers are having trouble accessing their accounts on the site and are not appearing in the system's master lists of professionals available to advise small businesses. The paper reported, citing confidential federal documents, that parts of the online marketplace are still being tested. CMS spokesman Aaron Albright claimed that the sections of the site needed to explore and select health plans has been "thoroughly tested."
The SHOP Marketplace was originally intended to debut on Oct. 1 of last year, along with the other health care exchanges. However, amid massive problems with the launch of Healthcare.gov, the Obama administration announced that the start of online enrollment would be delayed. Initially, the postponement was only supposed to last until November of 2013, but the White House ultimately pushed the launch back to November of this year. 
The administration also postponed a requirement that small business employees be offered a choice of health plans in their area. Earlier this year, federal health officials told states that they still didn't have to honor that requirement. In all, the Post reports, 18 of the 32 states using SHOP to offer coverage declined to offer choices. 
Brokers tell the paper that another reason for the tepid interest in the SHOP website as that under ObamaCare, businesses only qualify for tax credits if they have fewer than 25 workers, specified salary levels and other characteristics. Even if businesses do meet the criteria for tax credits, they only last for two years.

Iraq's Prime Minister said Sunday that the country's army has been paying salaries to at least 50,000 soldiers who do not exist, the latest sign of corruption in a force that the U.S. hopes to help contain the Islamic State militant group. 
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the country's Parliament that the practice was revealed as part of a preliminary investigation, and that further probes would likely show "more and more" false names. 
"Ghost soldiers" refer to people whose names appear on military rolls and who are paid salaries, but are not in military service. The Washington Post reported that the practice is often carried out by officers, who pretend to have more soldiers on their books then they really do and pocket the extra salary. 
The Post reported that an entry level soldier in the Iraqi army receives a salary of approximately $600 per month. If the 50,000 figure is accurate, the "ghost soldiers" are costing Iraq's treasury at least $350 million per year. However, Iraqi officials say that the true number of false names could be far greater than al-Abadi reported. 
"It could be more than triple this number," Hamid al-Mutlaq, a member of the parliamentary defense and security committee, told the Post. "The people who are responsible for this should be punished. Iraq’s safe has been emptied."
Widespread corruption and mismanagement in the Iraqi army under former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been blamed for the collapse of four of its divisions this summer in the face of an Islamic State offensive that overran Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul. 
The Pentagon has already requested $1.2 billion from Congress to better train and equip Iraq's army to improve its performance against the militants. U.S. officials told the Post earlier this week that the military hoped to build up nine new brigades that could work with Kurdish and Shiite fighters against the Islamic State.

Incoming senators talk compromise on jobs, immigration but partisan divide still an issue

Newly-elected senators from both parties agreed Sunday on several issues facing the incoming Congress, including job creation and the passage of immigration-reform legislation, but also hinted that elusive bipartisan compromise will be difficult to attain.
Arkansas GOP Rep. Tom Cotton, elected in November to the Senate, said the House wants to pass an immigration reform bill, just as the Democrat-controlled Senate did last year. However, the lower chamber’s bill will likely be different.
“I think we should pass a bill that addresses our problems,” Cotton told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
He said the priorities in a House version would be border security and enforcing existing laws on people living illegally in the United States.
Cotton also repeated his concern that Middle East terror groups could be trying to cross through security gaps in the U.S.-Mexico border.
The House faces increasing pressure to pass a bill to override the executive action President Obama took earlier this month on immigration reform.
Incoming Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., also agreed that their parties should work together to create more and better-paying jobs for Americans and to bring overseas manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.
“I think there are a number of opportunities for Republicans and Democrats to work together,” Tillis told CBS’s “Meet the Press.”
Peters agreed, adding that “I’m sure we can find ways to get people back to work and … find common ground.”
Still, their remarks, though perhaps unintended, suggested the continuing divide that frustrates Americans.
Tillis said Obama needs to find “consensus” for administration nominees, including those for the open posts of U.S. attorney general and Defense secretary, that work for “both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue,” meaning the White House and Congress.
He said Congress has failed on immigration reform but agreed with Cotton that border security comes first and argued that Obama’s executive actions could “set us back.”
Peters, the only Democrat newly elected to the Senate in November, called Congress’ inaction on the issue a “constant frustration.”
“Congress needs to act, instead of wringing our hands about the presidential action,” he said. “We have a bill that's been on the table for a year-and-a-half in the House. I believe that if the speaker would put it on the floor, it would actually pass. … If my Republican friends want to work in a bipartisan way and find common ground, we're already almost there.”
Tillis also suggested voters dumping some incumbents during the midterms and giving Republicans control of the Senate was not a mandate to change or compromise, only a “chance” in part to “work across the aisle.”

America Wants Cartoon

Fight brewing over Social Security benefits for illegal immigrants

A new clash over retirement benefits has come to a head following President Obama’s decision to unilaterally protect up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation.
The White House now acknowledges that many of the illegal immigrants spared from deportation under Obama’s sweeping executive action will become eligible for Social Security and Medicare benefits once they reach retirement age.
The conservative backlash has been swift and will certainly extend into a GOP Congress’ deliberations in 2015 over how to limit the reach of the president’s immigration blueprint.
A central argument in Obama’s defense of the most extensive overhaul to the immigration system in decades was that those given reprieves from deportation would not qualify for Obamacare benefits. The president reminded critics that Dream Act-eligible immigrants previously granted deportation deferrals could not enroll in federal health exchanges.

Resignation of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson unlikely to halt protests

Bailey Comment: "Cutting off the Welfare Checks, Free Housing, Free Food, Free everything would stop all these protesters! It's hard to attend a riot when your having to work for a living!"

City officials in Ferguson, Mo. were due Sunday to address the resignation of Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed teenager Michael Brown in a confrontation in August that fueled protests in the St. Louis suburb and around the nation.
Stephanie Karr, Ferguson city attorney, told the Associated Press that city officials planned to make a statement regarding Wilson's resignation. Karr earlier this week said Wilson had been on paid leave pending the outcome of an internal police investigation.
Wilson's resignation was announced Saturday by one of his attorneys, Neil Bruntrager, who said his client's decision was effective immediately.
"I have been told that my continued employment may put the residents and police officers of the City of Ferguson at risk, which is a circumstance that I cannot allow,” Wilson said in his resignation letter released late Saturday.
“It was my hope to continue in police work, but the safety of other police officers and the community are of paramount importance to me. It is my hope that my resignation will allow the community to heal,” the letter read.
Meanwhile, Brown's parents planned to attend services at the church where their son's funeral was held, with the Rev. Al Sharpton scheduled to preach. 
"We were not after Wilson's job," Sharpton wrote in a statement. "We were after Michael Brown's justice."
On Saturday night, more than 100 protesters gathered near police headquarters, where they were outnumbers by officers, following the news. At least one person was arrested after a brief standoff with officers, while others wearing white masks sat in a nearby street blocking traffic. Another protester burned an American flag. By midnight, only about two dozen protesters remained.
But many seemed unfazed by the resignation. Several merely shrugged their shoulders when asked what they thought, while Rick Campbell flatly said he didn't care about the resignation, noting: "I've been protesting out here since August."
A grand jury spent more than three months reviewing evidence in the case before declining in November to issue charges against Wilson. He told jurors that he feared for his life when Brown hit him and reached for his gun.
The U.S. Justice Department is still conducting a civil rights investigation into the shooting and a separate probe of police department practices.
After the shooting, Wilson spent months in hiding and made no public statements. He broke his silence after the grand jury decision, telling ABC News that he could not have done anything differently in the encounter with Brown.
Wilson said he has a clean conscience because "I know I did my job right." Brown's shooting was the first time he fired his gun on the job, he said.
Asked whether the encounter would have unfolded the same way if Brown had been white, Wilson said yes.
 Away from the protests Saturday night, resident Victoria Rutherford said she believed Wilson should have not only resigned, but been convicted of a crime.
"I'm upset. I have a 16-year-old son. It could've been him. I feel that he was absolutely in the wrong," she said.
Another resident, Reed Voorhees, said he hoped Wilson could find similar work "someplace where he would enjoy life, and move on with his life."
In the days after the shooting, tense and sometimes violent protests popped up in and around Ferguson, a predominantly black community patrolled by a mostly white police force. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon called in the National Guard to help.
Then on Monday night -- when prosecutors announced that a grand jury declined to indict Wilson -- the St. Louis suburb of 20,000 residents was ravaged by looting and violence.
At least a dozen commercial buildings were destroyed in Ferguson and neighboring Dellwood, mostly along West Florissant Avenue, not far from where Brown was killed. By Tuesday, Nixon had sent more than 2,200 National Guard members to the Ferguson area to support local law enforcement.
Demonstrations, which also have been held other U.S. cities, are expected to continue, though a sense of normalcy -- or at least a new normal -- has begun to settle on the city.
Police earlier Saturday reopened several blocks of West Florissant that had been barricaded off since Tuesday. Although most store windows were still boarded up, many have been decorated or spray-painted with messages saying the stores are open and welcoming shoppers.
Some business owners spent an unseasonably warm day Saturday tidying up, hoping customers soon would return.
Tracy Ballard, 44, brought her 7-year-old daughter to a store on West Florissant to buy candy and soda, before a trip to the beautician up the street.
"I feel sad for the business owners," Ballard said. "It's really sad it had to come from this. We just wanted justice. If we'd have had justice, none of this would have happened."

The Mighty Moms of Walter Reed: Caring for children wounded in war

As Americans give thanks, there is one group of women they especially need to remember over the holidays: the Mighty Moms of Walter Reed. They pick up the pieces when their children return from war.
The stories of ten mothers and their children are featured in a new book, Unbreakable Bonds,The Mighty Moms and Wounded Warriors of Walter Reed.
Some of these mothers have spent up to four years living with their child at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland while they recover from multiple amputations and traumatic brain injuries.
The stories they tell of the challenges they face as caregivers to our nation's wounded warriors are searing, inspiring and uplifting. Fox News interviewed half a dozen of these mothers to learn what they’ve been through and the "band of mothers" that they have formed as a result.
Stacy Fidler's son Mark stepped on a mine while wearing a belt of grenades in Afghanistan. He and his mom have been at Walter Reed since October 2011.
Fidler said she finds support in the group of mothers. “We share the good things and the bad things,” she said. “We clap when they take their first steps and get sad when they get sent back to the ICU.”
Fidler, like many of the mothers, spends almost all her time at the hospital caring for her son. “Eventually you just end up living in a hospital room. It's your home. You end up moving in, sleeping there, eating there, everything with your kid.”
One theme common among the Mighty Moms is that almost all of them had to leave their jobs and dedicate themselves to caretaking full time.
“Eventually I did lose my job in the end,” said Lynn Braden-Reed.“It's been hard. I have a 10-year-old daughter and five other children.”
Her son, Christian, described in the book as a “strapping U.S. Marine,” stepped on a pressure-plated improvised explosive device in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in December 2011. The blast, Braden-Reed said, “blew him up in the air, and blew one half of his body off with it.”
Christian has since returned to his home in Tennessee and has begun a nonprofit called Gunslinger Outfitters, which takes other wounded vets on guided hunting and fishing trips.
Julie Keys and her son Adam are the longest residents at Walter Reed, staying in Building 62, where the most severely injured rehabilitate.
Adam was injured in July, 2010 when his unit was hit by a roadside bomb, killing his best friend and three others. “Adam was the sole survivor of that blast,” Keys said. Lost were fellow soldiers Sgt. Chase Stanley, Spc. Matthew Johnston, Sgt. Zachary Fisher and Spc. Jesse Reed.
Although Adam had all his limbs after the blast, doctors had to amputate three of them after he suffered a severe infection. In all, he had to endure 140 surgeries.
“He's a fighter and he's my personal miracle,” Keys said. The other moms helped her though. “I thought, I can do this.
“Six months, a year. I've now been there four years and four months.” And when she wasn’t with Adam, she was with the Mighty Moms. “We've sat out front and had the best of times laughing and carrying on and then some nights, we're out there and we're all crying.”
Tammy Karcher’s son, Jeffrey Shonk, was shot by his roommate, an attack that proved as confusing and upsetting as it was physically debilitating. The surgery, Karcher said, was intense.
“They removed his skull - the left side of his skull at 6:05 in the morning, the same time he was born,” Karcher tearfully explained.
“They told me he may never walk or talk again. And he's walking and talking and he can drive. I have a grandson that I never thought I'd have.”
Karcher also had to resign from her job -- as did Lyn Braden Reed, Valence Scott, Carolee Ryan and Soibhan Fuller-McConnell.
Ryan’s son, Thomas McRae, lost both his legs above the knee and his left arm. He also suffered brain trauma and was blinded in one eye.
His gradual recovery is one of the more inspirational stories to come out of Walter Reed.McRae was described in the book as “poised, confident, self-deprecating and often funny.”
Ryan was faced with caring not just for Tom, but also for his young daughter, Aidan, who was essentially raised at Walter Reed. “It has brought me and Tom closer together. I feel like we have a second chance. It's brought our family very close,” she said.
Valence Scott had to care for her son after he suffered a devastating traumatic brain injury. He would soon get divorced, leaving his mother as his sole caretaker. Authors Dava Guerin and Kevin Ferris summed up Scott’s dedication to her son this way:
“Even under normal circumstances, moms take care of their young like fierce lionesses. But, when those children are catastrophically injured during war, there is no stopping their roaring maternal instincts.”
The most difficult story of the Mighty Moms is that of Siobhan Fuller-McConnell and her son Derek McConnell. Derek stepped on an IED in while on patrol in Afghanistan. After recovering from horrific wounds, the loss of two legs, and infections, he died suddenly from medical complications from his treatment after being released from Walter Reed.
He had planned to marry his fiancé, Krystina, after they won a contest to have their wedding paid for by a New Jersey jeweler.
Fuller-McConnell described his recovery period: “We would sit in his room and sing… and tell him that we weren't going to stop singing until he opened his eyes and looked at us. And he finally opened his eyes and looked right at us and gave us a little smile. He was strong, he was doing really, really good until March 18, 2013.”
Before Derek died, he recorded a YouTube message for his mom after he moved from his bed to his wheelchair for the first time.
“My mother hasn't seen the video yet, so you guys are going to get a sneak-peak before she even sees it. I still love her so much and I'm so thankful for everything she's done,” he said in the video.
Every mother has a story to tell.
Paulette Mason got a call at 10:30 one night from an Air Force base in Afghanistan informing her that her daughter had been in a serious car accident. Staff Sergeant Stefanie Mason suffered a traumatic brain injury when her up-armor SUV lost control and her head crashed into the bullet-proof windshield. She also suffered a badly broken leg, a broken jaw and a degenerated disc in her back.
“All I can remember is Stephanie saying, Mom I need you, and that was, I was helpless. She was 8,000 miles away,” Mason said, adding her heart was broken.
Mason moved into Walter Reed with her daughter during her recovery and became a fierce advocate for her daughter and others recovering there. She is described in the book as someone who encouraged others to speak up when they thought something needed to be said to the medical staff.
“I don’t think some of the military was that used to working with strong women, women who were mothers,” Mason is quoted as saying. “Because we would ask questions.Instead of saying, ‘Yes,’ we’d ask, ‘Why? How come? What are you doing?’ And they didn’t like that, so they had trouble with us.”
Stephanie has recovered well. Despite the original diagnosis that she may never run again, she has since run the Army Ten-Miler, logging a time just 20 seconds slower than the day she ran it before suffering her injuries. Her mother played a huge role in her recovery.
Mason said she wants to organize a group for Silver Star mothers -- mothers of the wounded -- so they can be coached on how to overcome the challenges ahead and take advantage of the nonprofit assistance that’s available.
As Fidler put it, these women in the book are not the only Mighty Moms to be thinking about. “It's not just about us ten moms. It's about all the moms who are going through what we went through.There's hundreds of Mighty Moms out there.”

Why did this teacher's union ban Coca-Cola?

American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers unions in the United States, passed a resolution last week to ban Coca-Cola from its facilities and events.
The teachers union stated its decision was based on human rights violations, which have been detailed in three books published several years ago.
The questions remain: why now and why is this important to a teachers union?
Because AFT is a labor organization, it will stand in solidarity with other labor organizations that have taken a stance against Coca-Cola, AFT spokesman Michael Heenan told Watchdog.org.
Coca-Cola responded to AFT’s claims in an email to Watchdog.org, saying they were based on “outdated and erroneous allegations that we have repeatedly addressed.”
This may be more about the union resenting the beverage companies’ practice of subcontracting instead of hiring permanent employees, which is cited in the AFT resolution, said Larry Sand, president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network.
“Obviously they (Coca-Cola) were not using unionized workers,” Sand said.
This was probably to avoid having to deal with the costs associated with unionized employees, he added.
Sand is skeptical of the unions’ ability to ban all Coca-Cola products.
“Look at what else Coca-Cola makes: Minute Maid, Nestea,” he said. “They’re going to have to go after all these products.”
When asked about the subcontracting issue in the resolution, AFT communications representatives said they would get back to Watchdog.org, but did not do so before deadline.
Banning products or boycotting stores isn’t outside of the unions’ mode of operation. Earlier this year, AFT decided to boycott Staples, the office supply store chain, because it started selling stamps.
The union claimed Staples selling postage would jeopardize 80,000 postal workers’ jobs.

US flies roughly 85 percent of airstrikes against Islamic State, in complex mix of tactics, politics

The United States is conducting roughly 85 percent of the multi-national air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, according to the most recent Pentagon report.  
U.S. fighter planes and drones have conducted 819 strikes, compared to 157 from the 10 other countries, states the detailed report obtained last week by FoxNews.com.
The U.S. began the strikes in Iraq on Aug. 8 and was joined roughly five weeks later by Australia, followed by France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. They joined as part of President Obama’s plan to have international support in the effort to stop the militant group’s foray into western Iraq and eastern Syria. Canada was the last to join, on Oct. 7, and the last to launch a strike.
France on Sept. 17 became the first Western county other than the U.S. to launch an air strike, destroying an Islamic State depot.
The U.S. ordered the strikes in Syria on Sept. 23, about 72 hours after five Arab nations -- Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates -- agreed to participate.
The five other countries flying attacks in Iraq have committed at least 30 fighter jets and four support aircraft. Their missions have destroyed Islamic State military equipment such as vehicles and depots. And at least one mission last month targeted a captured oil refinery, a top Australian military official said.
Still, U.S. military officials have release few specifics about the missions including information about the accuracy of the strikes, which has been questioned.
U.S. Central Command did not respond this week to several requests for information about strike accuracy and why the U.S. flies the vast majority of the sorties.
And David Johnson, vice admiral of the Royal Australian Air Force, recently told The Guardian that he wouldn’t discuss enemy casualties or target locations for fear of Islamic State’s “aggressive propaganda campaign.
However, one clear challenge is that pilots -- out of concern for killing civilians -- have only a limited number of targets and reportedly can attack only at night.
Another is that Islamic State, a combination country and army, presents an elusive and unconventional target.
Dakota Wood, a defense expert at the Heritage Foundation and retired Marine Corps special operations officer, said Monday that the decisions about which countries will fly which missions or how many mission involves several logistical and political factors.
“You have to find the right pilot to execute a mission in a given tactical environment, which includes fuel time, moving targets and anti-air defenses,” he said. “This takes a certain amount of skill.”
Wood also said the other countries could have joined in the effort under limited rules of engagement, like Germany did in the war in Afghanistan. He said, for example, that the Arab nations might not be willing to attack vehicles because such a strike would kill a lot of fighters.
Another possibility is that Central Command could be marshaling the majority of sorties to U.S. pilots, Wood said.
Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is among those expressing concern about the challenges of zeroing in on ISIL or ISIS, as Islamic State is also know.
“We need more targeting capability,” he recently told The New York Times.
That the combined 10 other countries have flown fewer attack missions is perhaps no surprise consider the U.S. essentially has the world’s biggest, most powerful military -- including roughly 4,800 attack and fighter planes among more than 13,600 aircraft.
That’s compared to the Royal Bahraini Air Force, which reportedly has less than 50 planes capable of dropping bombs on strategic enemy targets.
A Central Command report Wednesday said pilots conducted 17 more strikes, which bring the total to rough 1,000. But officials did not provide a breakdown on which countries flew the missions.

Media, Obama, Sharpton, Cartoon

California water wars: Man vs. fish (and the fish are winning)

“If You Give A Mouse a Cookie”… well, you know what happens.  Chaos.  
It reminds me of what happens when you give a little power to a federal agency.  It’ll run amuck and do its best to ruin lives and livelihoods.      
Take the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which was given a little power under the Endangered Species Act.  It decided a three-inch translucent fish called the Delta smelt needed protecting.  So the agency went about inflicting economic and agricultural disaster by shutting off the water valves to some 25 million Californians. 

The Endangered Species Act does not give the government unfettered power to protect species, whatever the cost.  The human and economic impact on society must be always be weighed.  But the feds seem to have glossed over that part.

Some of the most fertile farmland in the world began to dry up.  The nation’s bread basket, the San Joaquin Valley, evolved into a veritable “dust bowl” evocative of John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”.  Thousands of jobs were lost, and billions in agricultural revenue vanished.  Food prices rose.  Thirsty residents of central and southern California were deprived of their main drinking and household water source.  The prospect of water rationing is now quite real.   
Where did all the water go?  This is the truly stupefying part of the story. It was diverted away from the people who need it, and emptied into the Pacific Ocean. Call me crazy, but wasting a precious resource like fresh water is not only irrational, it’s insane. Which, I realize, is endemic in government.    
There is plenty of water for both people and crops, mind you. Over the decades, the state has constructed an elaborate and ingenious complex of dams, reservoirs, canals and aqueducts.Water flows from the mountains into a vast delta controlled by dykes and levees.  From there, the water is both stored and distributed.  Two-thirds of Californians get their water from this source.  Moreover, water spinning turbines provide abundant electricity for the state.  It is a system that has worked superbly since the early 1900’s.   
Enter environmentalists and government regulators –a dangerous combination, to be sure.  Armed with dubious evidence, they determined that the pumping stations which push the water were harming the smelt population.  Forget that the pumps have been running for more than half a century and the tiny minnows are still around.  Forget that shutting down the pumps spells economic and human catastrophe for tens of millions of people who subsist on this water.  The Fish and Wildlife Service forced the water supply to be cut off.   
During a trip to California recently, I was able to see for myself some of the devastated farmland.  What were once rich fields of fruit, vegetables, grain and other agriculture products is now dry, fallowed land.  The hardship on the affected communities has depressed the state’s economy.  
People are starving for water.  The same water which is being dumped recklessly into the sea.  Think of parched people stranded on a boat while the captain jettisons potable water overboard.  Mutiny?  You bet.          
But wait, President Obama to the rescue.  During a visit to California he pronounced a bold and novel solution.  A government bailout.  Naturally.  
He wants to throw around $ 160 million dollars of taxpayer money to help out thirsty residents.  That, of course, is his solution for everything.  Toss money at a problem.  No real plan.  No long-term strategy.  Just give money to farmers who can’t farm their withered land.  
“It’s a Band-Aid solution –a sop to deflect attention from the real issues”, lawyer Damian Schiff of the Pacific Legal Foundation told me.  As counsel for farmers, he has filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to intervene. 
I grew up in California. It is an arid climate. Droughts are common and cyclical. But residents survived and flourished thanks to the brilliant water systems devised over the course of a century.  That is, until environmentalists started whining about the smelt.  Their lawsuits, together with the actions of the Fish and Wildlife Service, have given a tiny bait fish supremacy over humans.  It’s man versus fish.  And the fish are winning.   
Those who blame man-made global warming for California’s current water woes are beyond naïve.  It’s a man-made calamity, all right, caused by the men and women at a federal agency who seem to care more about minnows than the health and welfare of the people they serve.  They have also conveniently misread or misinterpreted the law.                    
The Endangered Species Act does not give the government unfettered power to protect species, whatever the cost.  The human and economic impact on society must be always be weighed.  But the feds seem to have glossed over that part.
Congress specifically wrote such a protection into the law so as to avoid the kind of disastrous consequences Californians are now experiencing.  Congress knew that if you give a federal agency vast power, with no constraints, it would pursue its agenda zealously and unintelligently.   
 “If You Give A Moose a Muffin”… well, you know.

Ferguson protests continue leading to mall closures, arrests

Protesters forced three large malls in St. Louis to close their doors on one of the busiest shopping days of the year Friday, as other protests were held nationwide to protest a grand jury's recent decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed teenager Michael Brown.
The protests were organized on Twitter and other social media platforms using the hashtags #NotOneDime, #Blacklivesmatter and #Stlblackfriday, MyFox2Now.com reported.
Several stores lowered their security doors or locked entrances as at least 200 protesters sprawled onto the floor while chanting, "Stop shopping and join the movement," at the Galleria mall in Richmond Heights a few miles south of Ferguson, Missouri, where Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Brown, who was unarmed, in August.
The action prompted authorities to close the mall for about an hour Friday afternoon, while a similar protest of about 50 people had the same effect at West County Mall in nearby Des Peres. It didn't appear that any arrests were made. Later Friday, the appearance of several dozen demonstrators led to the early closing of the Chesterfield Mall.
Small business owners told MyFox2Now.com that the protests were hurting them financially on a day they count on to make money.
Cell phone case salesman Abdullah Noman held out as long as he could, telling MyFox2Now.com, “Basically we’re losing a lot of business...I think we’re going to leave in a minute if we stay like that.”
Protests continued in Ferguson during the night leading to the arrests of 15 people for disturbing the peace and impeding flow of traffic. Two others were arrested with resisting arrest and the other with assault.
This stemmed after group of 100 protests marched down West Florissant Avenue in front of Ferguson’s police and fire departments.
The demonstrators began to chant, block traffic and stopping in front of businesses.
"I served my country. I spent four years in the Army, and I feel like that's not what I served my country for," said Ebonie Tyse, 26, of St. Louis as National Guard trucks and police cruisers roamed the street in front of her. "I served my country for justice for everyone. Not because of what color, what age, what gender or anything," she said
The protests, along with demonstrations in Chicago, New York, Seattle and northern California -- where protesters chained themselves to trains -- were among the largest in the country on Black Friday.
"We want to really let the world know that it is no longer business as usual," Chenjerai Kumanyika, an assistant professor at Clemson University in South Carolina, said at a rally at a Wal-Mart in Manchester, another St. Louis suburb.
Monday night's announcement that Wilson, who is white, wouldn't be indicted for fatally shooting Brown, who was black, prompted violent protests that resulted in about a dozen buildings and some cars being burned. Dozens of people were arrested.
The rallies have been ongoing but have grown more peaceful this week, as protesters turn their attention to disrupting commerce.
Mindy Elledge, who runs a watch kiosk at the Galleria, said it was working.
"I think people are afraid to come here," Elledge said. "With the protests going on, you never know when or where they're going to happen."
In northern California, more than a dozen people were arrested after about 125 protesters wearing T-shirts that read "Black Lives Matter" interrupted train service from Oakland to San Francisco, with some chaining themselves to trains. Dozens of people in Seattle blocked streets, and police said some protesters also apparently chained doors shut at the nearby Pacific Place shopping center.
In Chicago, about 200 people gathered near the city's popular Magnificent Mile shopping district, where Kristiana Colon, 28, called Friday "a day of awareness and engagement." She's a member of the Let Us Breathe Collective, which has been taking supplies such as gas masks to protesters in Ferguson.
"We want them to think twice before spending that dollar today," she said of shoppers. "As long as black lives are put second to materialism, there will be no peace."
Malcolm London, a leader in the Black Youth Project 100, which has been organizing Chicago protests, said the group was also trying to rally support for other issues, such as more transparency from Chicago police.
"We are not indicting a man. We are indicting a system," London told the crowd.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pentagon prepares for more detainee releases from Guantanamo Bay

The Pentagon is preparing to transfer more detainees from Guantanamo Bay in coming weeks despite continued Republican opposition, according to defense and congressional officials.
The Wall Street Journal reports that, after five detainees were transferred last week, there will be another round in December, but defense officials refused to disclose further information on their numbers or nationalities.
Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, complained at a recent hearing of an increase in notifications by the administration to lawmakers on coming transfers from the detainment facility.
President Obama promised since before he took office that he would close the controversial detention center, a move that has been opposed by many Republicans.
The transfers come shortly after the announcement of the resignation of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who was criticized by administration officials who spoke to The Wall Street Journal for moving too slowly to certify detainees for release.
Senior officials at the White House are impatient as the president’s term in office draws nearer to its end with the promise of the closure of Guantanamo unfulfilled, according to the Wall Street Journal.
House and Senate negotiators are debating whether to revise the rules governing transfers as a part of this year’s defense authorization bill, which sets Pentagon policy. The House version of the measure has proposed much stricter restrictions on transfers.
The House proposed its restrictions in the wake of the Obama administration’s decision to move five Taliban detainees out of the camp as part of the deal to secure the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held in Pakistan by a militant group.

Egyptian court dismisses charges against Hosni Mubarak

CAIRO –  An Egyptian court on Saturday dismissed murder charges against former President Hosni Mubarak in connection with the killing of hundreds of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ended his nearly three-decade rule, citing the "inadmissibility" of the case due to a technicality.
The ruling marks another major setback for the young activists who spearheaded the Arab Spring-inspired uprising nearly four years ago -- many of whom are now in jail or have withdrawn from politics. It will likely reinforce the perception that Mubarak's autocratic state remains in place, albeit led by a new president, former military chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
Saturday's verdict concludes Mubarak's retrial along with his two sons, his security chief and six top security commanders, who were all acquitted. Also acquitted was wealthy businessman Hussein Salem, a longtime Mubarak friend tried in absentia.
Mubarak, 86, was also acquitted of corruption charges that he faced along with his sons Alaa and Gamal -- his one-time heir apparent -- over a statute of limitations. The case involves their purchase from Salem of luxury villas in a Red Sea resort at a vastly discounted price, something that the prosecution had said amounted to bribery. The two sons face a separate trial on charges of insider trading.
All rulings can be appealed.
It was not immediately clear whether Mubarak would now walk free since he is serving a three-year jail term for corruption charges he was convicted of in May. He has been in detention since April 2011, but it is unclear if the past 3 1/2 years will be considered as time served.
"There is no justice for the poor," said Ramadan Ahmed, whose son Mohammed was shot dead in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria during the uprising. "This is Mubarak's law!"
Nearly 900 protesters were killed in the 18-day uprising that ended when Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, handing over power to the military. The trial, however, was concerned only with the killing of 239 protesters, whose names were cited in the charges sheet.
The early days of the protests were marked by fierce street battles between the demonstrators and both police and government supporters. Vehicles plowed into crowds, and bricks and stones were hurled from the rooftops of buildings onto demonstrators gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square. At one point, men on camels and horses galloped into the square and beat protesters with batons and whips.
Nearly 170 police officers and security officials put on trial in connection to the killings since 2011 have either been acquitted for lack of evidence or because they were found to have acted in self-defense. Some received short, suspended sentences.
Mubarak was greeted by jubilant well-wishers when he was helicoptered back from court to the Nile-side military hospital where he has been staying. A television interviewer reached him by telephone and asked whether he had ordered the killing of protesters.
"I did not do anything at all," Mubarak replied.
Mubarak was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2012 on charges related to the killing of protesters, but the verdict was overturned on appeal the following year.
He has spent virtually all the time since he was detained in hospitals due to poor health. On Saturday, he was brought to the defendants' cage on a gurney. He wore dark glasses, a navy blue tie and a matching cardigan.
Presiding judge Mahmoud al-Rashidi said the dismissal of the charges did not absolve Mubarak of the corruption and "feebleness" of the latter years of his 29-year rule and praised the 2011 uprising, saying that its goals -- freedom, bread and social justice -- were legitimate.
Al-Rashidi said Mubarak, like any other human, erred at times and suggested that his old age should have spared him a criminal trial. He also cited Mubarak's long years in public service and what he called the enshrinement of "constitutional legitimacy" following the ouster of Mubarak's successor, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi.
Mubarak was a career military pilot who led the air force during Egypt's last war against Israel in 1973. He was made vice president in the mid-1970s and assumed the highest office in 1981 following the assassination of Anwar Sadat.
"To rule for or against him after he has become old will be left to history and the Judge of Judges, the Righteous and the Justice (God) who will question him about his rule," said the judge.
The reaction to the verdicts was muted, after the judge threatened to jail anyone attending Saturday's 45-minute hearing if they interrupted the proceedings. After the trial was adjourned the courtroom broke into cheers and applause.
Morsi, the Islamist who succeeded Mubarak, is also detained and faces a slew of charges, including some related to the killing of protesters, which could see him sentenced to death. He was elected in Egypt's first democratic presidential election in 2012 but was overthrown by el-Sissi a year later amid massive protests calling for his resignation.
Since then the government has launched a sweeping crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group and other supporters, killing hundreds and jailing thousands. It has also jailed scores of secular activists, including some of the leaders of the 2011 uprising, for violating a draconian law regulating street protests that was adopted a year ago.

Should Obama take a cue from Australia on immigration?

Stand For Justice Cartoon

US-backed Syria rebels make new push south of Damascus

 

Syrian rebels backed by the United States are making their biggest gains yet south of the capital Damascus, capturing a string of towns from government forces and aiming to carve out a swath of territory leading to the doorstep of President Bashar Assad's seat of power.
The advances appear to be a rare visible success story from efforts by the U.S. and its allies to train and arm moderate rebel fighters.
The rebel forces are believed to include fighters who graduated from a nearly 2-year-old CIA training program based in Syria's southern neighbor Jordan. The group known as the Friends of Syria, including Jordan, France the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, are backing the rebels with money and weapons, said Gen. Ibrahim Jbawi, the spokesman for the Free Syrian Army's southern front.
The gains are a contrast to northern Syria, where U.S.-backed rebels are collapsing in the face of an assault by Islamic militants. Notably, in the south, the rebels are working together with fighters from al-Qaida's Syria branch, whose battle-hardened militants have helped them gain the momentum against government forces. The cooperation points to the difficulty in American efforts to build up "moderate" factions while isolating militants.
"The goal is to reach the capital ... because there is no way to bring down the regime without reaching Damascus," said Ahmad al-Masalmeh, an opposition activist in Daraa.
But few are under the illusion that the offensive in the south can loosen Assad's grip on power in the near future. The Syrian leader has benefited from the U.S.-led coalition's war against the Islamic State group, which has had the side effect of freeing up Assad's forces to focus on more moderate rebels elsewhere in the country. Government forces have seized several key areas around the capital.
Rebels in the south say they hope the new push will be just enough to pressure Assad to negotiate a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Jbawi said the international support for the assault "is not enough to let the rebels win the battle militarily. They are backing (us) to pressure Bashar Assad's regime to bring him to the negotiating table."
The Islamic State group's onslaught in Syria and Iraq has given greater urgency to international efforts to find some sort of solution for Syria's conflict, which has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced millions. Previous attempts and two rounds of peace talks in Switzerland earlier this year failed to make any progress as each side remained convinced it can win the war militarily.
The U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has now proposed local cease-fires starting with the northern city of Aleppo as a building block for a wider solution — an idea that Assad has said is "worth studying."
Speaking by telephone, Jbawi said 54 rebel factions consisting of 30,000 fighters are taking part in the battles in southern Syria. Activists say that Jordan is also facilitating the rebels' push by arming some rebels and allowing them to cross freely to and from the country.
The rebel offensive gained momentum two months ago, leading to the capture of much of the Quneitra region bordering Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as well as large areas in the southern province of Daraa on the border with Jordan.
These included the town of Nawa and the Harra hill, a strategic hill where Syrian troops had stationed monitoring equipment because of its proximity to Israeli army positions in the Golan. The hill, one of the highest in Daraa province, also overlooks a main road that rebels use.
More recently, the fighting has been concentrated in and around the contested village of Sheikh Maskeen and the nearby Brigade 82 base, one of the main government units in the province. If the rebels capture the village and the base they will be then able to threaten the Damascus-Daraa highway, a main lifeline for government forces.
The rebel offensive could eventually link opposition fighters' positions in Daraa and Quneitra with Damascus' rebel-held Ghouta suburbs.
"The military objective is to secure lines of communication and to put pressure on the capital," said Faysal Itani, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council.
However, despite the rebel advance, Assad's forces remain strong in the area, holding bases in critical locations that the rebels will find difficult to capture, he said.
Daraa-based activist Ibrahim Hariri said that while government forces collapsed in some parts of the province, they still hold much of the city of Daraa and control the Daraa-Damascus highway, "the spine of the province."
"The regime always has a very big force in Daraa because it is close to the front with Israel," Hariri said. "Any attempt to reach Damascus will not be an easy mission."

 

OPEC keeps oil output steady despite falling prices

VIENNA –  Reflecting its lessening oil clout, OPEC decided Thursday to keep its output target on hold and sit out falling crude prices that will likely spiral even lower as a result.
Oil prices fell sharply on the news. Even though the decision was largely expected, it showed the once-powerful cartel is losing the power to push up markets to its own advantage.
OPEC has traditionally relied on output cuts to regulate supply and prices. But it appeared to realize Thursday that with cheap crude in oversupply, a reduction would only cut into OPEC's share of the market without a lasting boost in prices and with others outside the cartel making up the difference.
Instead, the move to maintain a production target of 30 million barrels a day appeared to reflect acceptance of the Saudi view within OPEC that short-term pain had to be accepted for later gain.
The Saudis and their Gulf allies hope to put economic pressure on rival producers in the U.S., which need higher prices to break even. In the long term, that could help reaffirm OPEC's dominance of the oil market.
It would also be good news for consumers and oil-importing nations.
The global price plunged $5 to a four-year low of $72.76 a barrel. As recently as June it was around $115.
Oil ministers had come to Thursday's meeting facing two unpalatable choices: Cut their production from 30 million barrels a day in an effort to boost prices and see OPEC's market share fall, or do nothing in hopes of riding out the crisis.
Paring output may not have been very effective because supply from non-OPEC countries, like the U.S., remains high. Also, discipline within the 12-member organization is lax and overproduction by some members would have cut into the effectiveness of any production cut.
In any case, OPEC could have not afforded to scale back production by more than 1 million barrels a day — too little to make a sizable dent in supply.
OPEC Secretary General Abdullah Al-Badry suggested all members were on board with the decision to stick to the present output level, telling reporters "the ministers are happy."
"I see no nagging from consumers, no nagging from producers," he told reporters.
In fact, the decision once again appeared to reflect Saudi Arabia's clout over less powerful OPEC rivals.
By opposing an output cut, Saudi Arabia appears to be hoping to drive prices below the level at which shale oil production is economical. Experts say shale oil production turns too costly at the $60 a barrel level.
"When it comes to the raw decision-making, that is left to the unofficial leader, Saudi Arabia," said Alfa Energy chairman John Hall.
Accounting for about a third of OPEC output, the Saudis can weather lower prices because their coffers are well-padded and its production costs are relatively low.
But poorer OPEC members like Venezuela and Nigeria need levels close to $100 or above to fund national budgets. Saudi rival Iran is suffering, too, with the price drop adding to huge revenue losses due to sanctions on its crude sales imposed over its nuclear program.
If sanctions were to be lifted as part of a nuclear agreement next year, Iran still would need prices close to $140 a barrel to finance the government budget. Crude export revenues finance more than 50 percent of the government's outlays.
In the case of Venezuela, the International Monetary Fund says it needs to sell oil at around $120 a barrel to avoid the threat of national bankruptcy. Bank of America estimates that for every dollar that oil prices drop, the state loses $770 million in net revenue over a year. That puts revenue $12 billion a year below peak levels even if current prices don't fall further.
Nigeria also needs a stronger market to flourish. Analysts say the government has organized its 2015 budget around an oil price of $78 a barrel based on production of 2.4 million barrels a day — but the country is pumping only about 2 million barrels a day.
Angola, Ecuador and other OPEC members with limited production may also suffer — but not so Saudi Arabia's wealthy allies Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said the "OPEC decision was not entirely what we wanted," and analysts suggested that others share that view.
"I think you're going to see additional tension between the OPEC ranks," said Jamie Webster, senior director of crude oil markets at IHS consultants.

Ferguson protesters move from streets to stores on Black Friday

Protester Johnetta Elzie.

 Chenjerai Kumanyika

Dozens of protesters interrupted holiday shopping in the St. Louis area late Thursday and early Friday as part of the ongoing reaction to a grand jury's decision to not indict the Ferguson police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown this past August. 
Protester Johnetta Elzie, who who had been tweeting and posting videos of the demonstrations, told the Associated Press that the group went to a Wal-Mart and Target in Brentwood, two Wal-Marts in St. Charles and one Wal-Mart in Manchester. KTVI-TV reported that in the suburbs of Maplewood and Kirkwood, several police cars and some National Guard vehicles patrolled Wal-Mart stores in case of protests. 
Protesters spent a few minutes at each store, shouting inside. Officer in at least one store ordered them to leave. There was no immediate word of any arrests.
At the Manchester Wal-Mart, about two dozen people chanted "no justice, no peace, no racist police" and "no more Black Friday" after officers warned that protesters risked arrest if they didn't move at least 50 feet from the store's entrance, then began advancing in unison toward the protesters until they were moved further into the parking lot.
The mostly black group of protesters chanted in the faces of the officers -- most of whom were white -- as shoppers looked on.
"We want to really let the world know that it is no longer business as usual," said Chenjerai Kumanyika an assistant professor at Clemson University. He added although part of the aim in disrupting Black Friday was to call attention to disagreement with the grand jury's decision and the way the case was handled, Kumanyika said it was also to highlight other forms of injustice.
"Capitalism is one of many systems of oppression," he said as the group cleared out of the parking lot.
Ferguson itself was quiet overnight as the Thanksgiving holiday put a break on the protests that had rocked the town over the previous three nights. No police officers or Missouri National Guard members stood sentry outside the Ferguson police station, which had been a nexus for protesters since Monday night's announcement that officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted. Early Friday, St. Louis County Police said no arrests had been made overnight. 
On a downtown street, beneath a lighted "Season's Greetings" garland, three children used paintbrushes to decorate the plywood covering many storefront windows that was put up to foil potential vandals. One quoted from "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss: "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not."
"We thought we'd do what we could to make it a little more attractive and then try to bring the kids into it and get them involved in making the businesses appear a little less scary, depressing," said Leah Bailey, as her 7-year-old son Dennis climbed a ladder to finish an orange dragon.
Several hours after dark, a few people continued painting, but there was no visible protest activity. National Guard troops occasionally patrolled the area and surrounding neighborhoods in vehicles and on foot.
Greater St. Mark Family Church sits blocks from where several stores went up in flames after the grand jury announcement. A handful of people listened to the Rev. Tommie Pierson preach Thursday that the destruction and chaos was by "a small group of out-of-control people out there."
"They don't represent the community, they don't represent the mood nor the feelings of the community," Pierson said. "I would imagine if you talked to them, they probably don't even live here. So, we don't want to be defined by what they did."
In downtown St. Louis, a group gathered near Busch Stadium for what organizer Paul Byrd called a "pro-community" car rally meant to be peaceful and counter the recent Ferguson violence he suggested has tarnished the region's image.
Byrd, a 45-year-old construction worker from Imperial, Missouri, declined to say whether he supported Wilson but noted, "I totally support police officers." The cruise was escorted by a city police vehicle; no protesters showed up. 

Maybe some who read this blog should email or give Mr. Kumanyika a call and ask him how he can spare so much time protesting, when he is getting paid to teach.

Kumanyika, Chenjerai
Assistant Professor
Email: kkumany@clemson.edu
Office: 414 Strode
Phone: 864-656-1567

Democratic Party divides come to forefront following midterm defeat

Tensions within the Democratic Party over policy and strategy have begun to surface after a midterm defeat that saw the party lose control of the Senate after eight years and cede more seats to Republicans in the House of Representatives. 
The most glaring example came Tuesday, when Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, criticized President Barack Obama over the 2010 health care overhaul. Schumer said the party should have focused on helping more of the middle class than the uninsured, whom he called “a small percentage of the electorate." Schumer added that ObamaCare was just one of a "cascade of issues" that the White House had bungled, a list that included the scandal over wait times at VA hospitals and responding to the threat of the Ebola virus. 
Schumer's remarks drew sharp criticism from former White House staffers, with former Obama campaign manager David Axelrod telling the Wall Street Journal "If your calculus is solely how to win elections, and that is your abiding principle, it leads you to Sen. Schumer’s position. But that’s precisely why big, difficult problems often don’t get addressed in Washington, and why people have become so cynical about that town and its politics."
On that same Tuesday, the White House surprised Democratic leaders in the Senate by threatening to veto a tax package negotiated by both parties. The White House statement said the deal would help "well-connected corporations while neglecting working families" because it did not include a proposal backed by liberals to make tax credits for the working poor permanent. 
Ahead of the 2016 presidential race, Democrats find themselves at odds over what economic message to present to voters. Worried that they lacked a compelling position in the midterms, the party is split over whether to advance a centrist message or a more populist economic argument that casts everyday families as victims of overly powerful corporations and benighted government policies.
“You’re going to get a fight within the Democratic Party," Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-NY, told the Journal, adding that what he called "a substantial disagreement was looming between the progressive and centrist wings of the part, the latter of whom fear that liberal economic policy proposals are unpalatable to most voters.
In contrast to the rifts so prominent in the Republican Party, Democratic infighting has largely been out of public view since Obama was elected president in 2008. But following the defeats earlier this month, the strife broke into the open. The Wednesday after the election, Harry Krone, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., criticized President Obama in The Washington Post for not transferring millions of dollars in party funds to struggling campaigns. 
Another flashpoint between the White House and congressional Democrats has been immigration, with House Democrats criticizing Obama for delaying the timing of his executive orders on immigration until after the midterm elections in what they saw as a misguided effort to save vulnerable senators. As a result, they believe, the delay hurt turnout among Hispanics and contributed to Republicans expanding control of the House by at least 10 seats.

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