Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/seth-rogen-dances-with-the-backstreet-boys-watch-now/
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Monday, April 29, 2013
Army says no to more tanks, but Congress insists
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Built to dominate the enemy in combat, the Army's hulking Abrams tank is proving equally hard to beat in a budget battle.
Lawmakers from both parties have devoted nearly half a billion dollars in taxpayer money over the past two years to build improved versions of the 70-ton Abrams.
But senior Army officials have said repeatedly, "No thanks."
It's the inverse of the federal budget world these days, in which automatic spending cuts are leaving sought-after pet programs struggling or unpaid altogether. Republicans and Democrats for years have fought so bitterly that lawmaking in Washington ground to a near-halt.
Yet in the case of the Abrams tank, there's a bipartisan push to spend an extra $436 million on a weapon the experts explicitly say is not needed.
"If we had our choice, we would use that money in a different way," Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army's chief of staff, told The Associated Press this past week.
Why are the tank dollars still flowing? Politics.
Keeping the Abrams production line rolling protects businesses and good paying jobs in congressional districts where the tank's many suppliers are located.
If there's a home of the Abrams, it's politically important Ohio. The nation's only tank plant is in Lima. So it's no coincidence that the champions for more tanks are Rep. Jim Jordan and Sen. Rob Portman, two of Capitol's Hill most prominent deficit hawks, as well as Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. They said their support is rooted in protecting national security, not in pork-barrel politics.
"The one area where we are supposed to spend taxpayer money is in defense of the country," said Jordan, whose district in the northwest part of the state includes the tank plant.
The Abrams dilemma underscores the challenge that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel faces as he seeks to purge programs that the military considers unnecessary or too expensive in order to ensure there's enough money for essential operations, training and equipment.
Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, faces a daunting task in persuading members of Congress to eliminate or scale back projects favored by constituents.
Federal budgets are always peppered with money for pet projects. What sets the Abrams example apart is the certainty of the Army's position.
Sean Kennedy, director of research for the nonpartisan Citizens Against Government Waste, said Congress should listen when one of the military services says no to more equipment.
"When an institution as risk averse as the Defense Department says they have enough tanks, we can probably believe them," Kennedy said.
Congressional backers of the Abrams upgrades view the vast network of companies, many of them small businesses, that manufacture the tanks' materials and parts as a critical asset that has to be preserved. The money, they say, is a modest investment that will keep important tooling and manufacturing skills from being lost if the Abrams line were to be shut down.
The Lima plant is a study in how federal dollars affect local communities, which in turn hold tight to the federal dollars. The facility is owned by the federal government but operated by the land systems division of General Dynamics, a major defense contractor that spent close to $11 million last year on lobbying, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The plant is Lima's fifth-largest employer with close to 700 employees, down from about 1,100 just a few years ago, according to Mayor David Berger. But the facility is still crucial to the local economy. "All of those jobs and their spending activity in the community and the company's spending probably have about a $100 million impact annually," Berger said.
Jordan, a House conservative leader who has pushed for deep reductions in federal spending, supported the automatic cuts known as the sequester that require $42 billion to be shaved from the Pentagon's budget by the end of September. The military also has to absorb a $487 billion reduction in defense spending over the next 10 years, as required by the Budget Control Act passed in 2011.
Still, said Jordan, it would be a big mistake to stop producing tanks.
"Look, (the plant) is in the 4th Congressional District and my job is to represent the 4th Congressional District, so I understand that," he said. "But the fact remains, if it was not in the best interests of the national defense for the United States of America, then you would not see me supporting it like we do."
The tanks that Congress is requiring the Army to buy aren't brand new. Earlier models are being outfitted with a sophisticated suite of electronics that gives the vehicles better microprocessors, color flat panel displays, a more capable communications system, and other improvements. The upgraded tanks cost about $7.5 million each, according to the Army.
Out of a fleet of nearly 2,400 tanks, roughly two-thirds are the improved versions, which the Army refers to with a moniker that befits their heft: the M1A2SEPv2, and service officials said they have plenty of them. "The Army is on record saying we do not require any additional M1A2s," Davis Welch, deputy director of the Army budget office, said this month.
The tank fleet, on average, is less than 3 years old. The Abrams is named after Gen. Creighton Abrams, one of the top tank commanders during World War II and a former Army chief of staff.
The Army's plan was to stop buying tanks until 2017, when production of a newly designed Abrams would begin. Orders for Abrams tanks from U.S. allies help fill the gap created by the loss of tanks for the Army, according to service officials, but congressional proponents of the program feared there would not be enough international business to keep the Abrams line going.
This pause in tank production for the U.S. would allow the Army to spend its money on research and development work for the new and improved model, said Ashley Givens, a spokeswoman for the Army's Ground Combat Systems office.
The first editions of the Abrams tank were fielded in the early 1980s. Over the decades, the Abrams supply chain has become embedded in communities across the country.
General Dynamics estimated in 2011 that there were more than 560 subcontractors throughout the country involved in the Abrams program and that they employed as many as 18,000 people. More than 40 of the companies are in Pennsylvania, according to Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., also a staunch backer of continued tank production.
A letter signed by 173 Democratic and Republican members of the House last year and sent to then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta demonstrated the depth of bipartisan support for the Abrams program on Capitol Hill. They chided the Obama administration for neglecting the industrial base and proposing to terminate tank production in the United States for the first time since World War II.
Portman, who served as President George W. Bush's budget director before being elected to the Senate, said allowing the line to wither and close would create a financial mess.
"People can't sit around for three years on unemployment insurance and wait for the government to come back," Portman said. "That supply chain is going to be much more costly and much more inefficient to create if you mothball the plant."
Pete Keating, a General Dynamics spokesman, said the money from Congress is allowing for a stable base of production for the Army, which receives about four tanks a month. With the line open, Lima also can fill international orders, bringing more work to Lima and preserving American jobs, he said.
Current foreign customers are Saudi Arabia, which is getting about five tanks a month, and Egypt, which is getting four. Each country pays all of their own costs. That's a "success story during a period of economic pain," Keating said.
Still, far fewer tanks are coming out of the Lima plant than in years past. The drop-off has affected companies such as Verhoff Machine and Welding in Continental, Ohio, which makes seats and other parts for the Abrams. Ed Verhoff, the company's president, said his sales have dropped from $20 million to $7 million over the past two years. He's also had to lay off about 25 skilled employees and he expects to be issuing more pink slips in the future.
"When we start to lose this base of people, what are we going to do? Buy our tanks from China?" Verhoff said.
Steven Grundman, a defense expert at the Atlantic Council in Washington, said the difficulty of reviving defense industrial capabilities tends to be overstated.
"From the fairly insular world in which the defense industry operates, these capabilities seem to be unique and in many cases extraordinarily high art," said Grundman, a former deputy undersecretary of defense for industrial affairs and installations during the Clinton administration. "But in the greater scope of the economy, they tend not to be."
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Online:
Abrams tank: http://www.army.mil/factfiles/equipment/tracked/abrams.html
__
Follow Richard Lardner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rplardner
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/army-says-no-more-tanks-congress-insists-115422396.html
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Why This Prom in Georgia Just Changed History
Earlier this month, TakePart reported on the efforts of a group of high school students in Georgia raising funds to hold their county?s first multi-racial prom?otherwise known as regular prom in the rest of the country.
Last night, those kids got their wish at Wilcox County's first-ever "Integrated Prom," where students of all races were welcome. By all accounts, it was a remarkably successful event.
According to local crews, the entrance to the dance was so swarmed with news cameras, it resembled something closer to a Hollywood red carpet event, rather than a high school dance. Students made their way in front of reporters, stopping for pictures while throngs of parents cheered them on and held back tears.
Quanesha Wallace, one of the students responsible for organizing the event, told one news reporter, ?It turned out really well. I didn?t even know this many people were coming. I didn?t even know this many tickets were being sold.?
Wilcox County, GA has had a segregated prom system since the school was racially integrated just several decades ago. The school's dances have always been privately funded and held away from school grounds, allowing for the segregation to continue without any legal consequence.
But this year, a group of students at Wilcox County High School had enough, with one in particular, Keela Bloodworth, explaining to WSFA, ?It?s embarrassing to know that I?m from the county that still does this.?
That?s when Bloodworth, Wallace, and a goup of their friends decided to raise funds on their own to hold an integrated prom. While their initial thoughts were of local bake sales and car washes, those became unnecessary once online news sites got a hold of their story. Just two days after that story broke, those students reached their funding goal, according to their Facebook page. Then they quickly surpassed it.
Since then, they?ve continued to collect donations from supporters across the country, with the excess money going towards their own college scholarships, as well as to funds for two unidentified local families, each of whom have recently ?suffered a major loss.?
In the weeks leading up to the dance, the students reported there had been some community backlash, mostly in the form of their fliers getting ripped down and disappearing.
And though several of Georgia?s lawmakers publicly championed the students? efforts, Georgia?s own governor, Nathan Deal initially refused to comment on the events because he didn't "want to take sides," according to a statement released by his spokesperson.
Nonetheless, after several weeks of mounting public pressure, Deal did release a carefully-worded statement, that concluded with, ?I think that people understand that some of these are just local issues and private issues, and not something that the state government needs to have its finger involved in.? And that may explain why segregation is alive and well in Georgia.
While their governor seemed content to sit this one out, these very determined high school students took it upon themselves to effect a change in their county, one that will hopefully be recognized for generations to come. In the meantime, if these are the kids who are representative of our future, we might be okay.
What would be your response if you found out that your county held segregated proms? Let us know in the Comments.
Related Stories on TakePart:
? These Los Angeles Cops Are Super-Excited About Taffeta and Tiaras
? What Every Parent Should Know: How to Help Your Kids Deal With Peer Conflicts at School
? Could Compassion Be the Key to Reducing Dropout Rates?
A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and medical writer.??In addition to reporting the weekend news on TakePart, she volunteers as a webeditor for locally-based nonprofits and works as a freelance feature writer for?TimeOutLA.com.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-prom-georgia-just-changed-history-185442149.html
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Friday, April 26, 2013
Samsung reportedly launching new 8-inch tablet in June, Galaxy S 4 Active in July
Samsung Gulf president Young Soo Kim reportedly made casual mention of an upcoming rugged take on the Galaxy S 4 at a press event earlier in the week, but left out any details. Sources for the Wall Street Journal claim to know more of the story, and it sounds like the toughened phone won't be alone this summer. The Galaxy S 4 Active, as it's rumored to be called, would arrive in July and carry the dust- and waterproofing of spiritual predecessors like the Galaxy Xcover 2 while maintaining the GS 4's design language. A smaller, 4.3-inch parallel to the GS 4 would appear at the same time -- Galaxy S 4 Mini, anyone? The same tipsters also expect the release of a new 8-inch "Galaxy-line tablet" in June, which suggests the Galaxy Note 8.0 may get a regular Tab counterpart. We wouldn't base our buying strategies around the rumors when Samsung hasn't said anything that's truly on the record, but it might be wise to hold off if you're not in a rush.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Samsung
Source: Wall Street Journal
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/UQYXvR8iaaE/
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013
France legalizes gay marriage after harsh debate
PARIS (AP) ? France legalized gay marriage on Tuesday after a wrenching national debate and protests that flooded the streets of Paris. Legions of officers and water cannon stood ready near France's National Assembly ahead of the final vote, bracing for possible violence on an issue that galvanized the country's faltering conservative movement.
The measure passed easily in the Socialist-majority Assembly, 331-225, just minutes after the president of the legislative body expelled a disruptive protester in pink, the color adopted by French opponents of gay marriage.
"Only those who love democracy are here," Claude Bartelone, the Assembly president, said angrily.
In recent weeks, violent attacks against gay couples have spiked and some legislators have received threats ? including Bartelone, who got a gunpowder-filled envelope on Monday.
One of the biggest protests against same-sex marriage drew together hundreds of thousands of people bused in from the French provinces ? conservative activists, schoolchildren with their parents, retirees, priests and others. That demonstration ended in blasts of tear gas, as right-wing rabble-rousers, some in masks and hoods, led the charge against police, damaging cars along the Champs-Elysees avenue and making a break for the presidential palace.
Justice Minister Christiane Taubira told lawmakers that the first weddings could be as soon as June.
"We believe that the first weddings will be beautiful and that they'll bring a breeze of joy, and that those who are opposed to them today will surely be confounded when they are overcome with the happiness of the newlyweds and the families," she said.
When President Francois Hollande promised to legalize gay marriage, it was seen as relatively uncontroversial. But the issue has become a touchstone as his popularity has sunk to unprecedented lows, largely over France's ailing economy.
But the most visible face in the fight against gay marriage ? a former comedienne who goes by the name of Frigide Barjot ? said the movement named "A Protest for Everyone" will continue beyond the law's passage and possibly field candidates in 2014 municipal elections. She said anyone involved in protest violence would be marginalized, but blamed the government for its failure to listen.
"The violence comes from the way in which this was imposed," Barjot told France Info radio.
French conservatives, decimated by infighting and the election loss of standard-bearer Nicolas Sarkozy, had found a rallying cause in same-sex marriage. Hoping to keep the issue alive, the conservative UMP party planned to challenge the law in the Constitutional Council.
French civil unions, allowed since 1999, are at least as popular among heterosexuals as among gay and lesbian couples. But that law has no provisions for adoption, and the strongest opposition in France as far as same-sex couples goes comes when children are involved. According to recent polls, just over half of French are opposed to adoption by same-sex couples ? about the same number who said they favored same-sex marriage.
Christophe Crepin, spokesman for the police union UNSA, says the extraordinary security Tuesday includes a total of about 4,000 officers in the area near the National Assembly building and water cannon positioned nearby. One group of anti-riot police swarmed the banks of the Seine River about a quarter-mile from the legislature, hours before protests were scheduled there.
France is the 14th country to legalize gay marriage. On the cover of Tuesday's Liberation newspaper, the famed gay photographers Pierre and Gilles took over the front page and several of the inside pages, splashing them with some of their most provocative photos, including one of three soccer players ? nude but for the footwear ? facing the camera.
In New Zealand, where gay marriage enjoys popular support, people gathered outside Parliament and joined in singing a traditional Maori love ballad after a vote last week making it legal. Nine states and the District of Columbia in the U.S. also recognize such marriages, but the federal government does not.
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Follow Lori Hinnant at https://twitter.com/lhinnant
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-legalizes-gay-marriage-harsh-debate-151608251.html
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U.S. security agency delays plan to allow small knives on planes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Transportation Security Administration on Monday delayed a controversial policy change that would have allowed small knives to be carried onto airplanes for the first time since September 11, 2001.
The decision, announced in a letter to TSA employees after a week of heightened security tensions following the Boston Marathon bombings, was greeted with cautious relief by flight attendant unions, which have been waging a high-profile campaign to overturn the plan.
"The 90,000-member Flight Attendants Union Coalition, which has opposed the TSA's ill-advised plan from the start, remains resolute: no knives on planes ever again," the group said in a statement.
Last month, the TSA said that starting on Thursday, it would allow folding knives with blades 2.36 inches or shorter, to be carried onto airplanes, as well as hockey sticks, golf clubs, ski poles and billiard cues.
The agency had determined that these items would not pose a catastrophic threat to an aircraft, and confiscating them from passengers in airport security queues was distracting security officers from screening for greater threats, such as non-metallic explosive devices.
Hijackers in the September 11 attacks used small knives to attack crew members and gain control of aircraft. Cockpits on commercial planes have since been required to have locked doors during flights.
But flight attendants have argued that they could be put at risk from knives carried onto planes and have sought input into the TSA's decision.
"By delaying this policy, the TSA is taking a solid, common sense step in the direction of safer skies," said Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat and one of several lawmakers working with the flight attendants.
"This delay acknowledges that permitting knives on planes is a bad idea. Now the TSA should go the rest of the way and end this flawed policy altogether," Schumer said.
(Reporting by David Lawder)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-security-agency-delays-plan-allow-small-knives-012809424.html
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