Gov. Making Killing By Killing Pets Tom Knudson, Sacramento Bee Published: Nov 19, 2012 As founder of one of the nation's largest urban wildlife damage control companies, Kevin Clark is no stranger to competition. But one competitor costs him more business than any other: the federal government.... His concern is directed at an agency called Wildlife Services, which is already under scrutiny for its lethal control of predators and other animals in the rural West. A Bee investigative series earlier this year found the agency targets wildlife in ways that have killed thousands of non-target animals, including family pets, and can trigger unintended, negative ecological consequences. Now the agency's killing of other species in more populated settings is drawing fire from entrepreneurs who say it siphons jobs away from private companies, lacks transparency and overlooks nonlethal alternatives. "It's been such an uphill struggle," said Erick Wolf, CEO of a California firm called Innolytics, which developed a form of birth control for Canada geese and pigeons with help from Wildlife Services' scientists in Colorado. Wildlife Services -- which has killed 170,000 geese and more than 950,000 pigeons since 2000 -- does not use it. "All they want to do is shoot, trap and poison," said Wolf. "They don't want to consider anything else."...
Officials at the NSA arenât very happy about the Commander in Chief throwing them under the bus in the recent high-profile spying scandal in which it was revealed they spied on leaders of foreign allies like Germany and Mexico. Some of them are now speaking out, saying President Obama not only knew about the bugs, he authorized them. from LA Times: The White House and State Department signed off on surveillance targeting phone conversations of friendly foreign leaders, current and former U.S. intelligence officials said Monday, pushing back against assertions that President Obama and his aides were unaware of the high-level eavesdropping. Professional staff members at the National Security Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies are angry, these officials say, believing the president has cast them adrift as he tries to distance himself from the disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that have strained ties with close allies. The resistance emerged as the White House said it would curtail foreign intelligence collection in some cases and two senior U.S. senators called for investigations of the practice. France, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Sweden have all publicly complained about the NSA surveillance operations, which reportedly captured private cellphone conversations by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, among other foreign leaders. On Monday, as Spain joined the protest, the fallout also spread to Capitol Hill... The "Obama was unaware" excuse has been spread so thin at this point, itâs not even plausible. Some European allies are now even milling the idea of placing sanctions against the United States over the spying. "good job mr president"
NYC council votes to make tobacco-buying age 21 Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/10/30/3067768/nyc-council-set-to-up-cigarette.html#storylink=cpy Except for a rare cigar I don't smoke. But stupid shit like this makes me boil. I guess next they'll want to limit the length of cigarettes. Commensurate with the soda serving size stupidity.
It's not only the US that has a long history of " own goals ". The current scandal for instance. How many billions have been spent on the NSA ? Has it been money well spent ? Not if you listen to the World's Heads of State. Incompetence and stupidity are words that spring to mind. How many hearts and minds have those billions won ? A pretty small figure I would guess. A lesson for future generations may be the silver lining in this latest debacle.
Did they predict the fall of Communism and the Berlin Wall ? - NO Did they predict the Arab Spring ? - NO etc. So what are YOU paying $11 billion a year for exactly ? It seems to me a saving could be made here. Somewhere in the $10 billion a year ball-park figure. Phoning up friends over there could be the answer guys. Or is that too easy ? Ditto 50% cut in the defence forces budget and so on......................................
The politicians just can't learn from the past it seems and are therefore condemned to making the same mistakes over and over again. Prohibition was a brave attempt but only benefitted the Mafia.
Thought I heard that our deficit is down significantly due to "increased revenue" Wonder what any of the bigoted, unreasonable, angry, right-wing zealot losers [you few guys know who you are on ET] have to say about that since they dislike Obama. OR how the stock market is making new highs for so long. Does Obama or anyone else get ANY credit for that??!!!! You can bet these losers will have a lot to blab about when the market corrects. So, I was just wondering if any of the far right-winger, anti-sex, anti-gay/black/hispanic/female etc. even has a glimmer of an idea.... as to WHAT they are in FAVOR of since all we hear is what they are against. ??! LOL
Bolstering revenue this year were higher payroll taxes Congress allowed in January, while spending growth has been limited by across-the-board cuts known as sequestration that lawmakers failed to prevent in March. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...-narrows-to-5-year-low-on-record-revenue.html you can extract money from workers at the margin at will. why not just screw the working class some more. Raise taxes on them... and devalue the dollar they earn with some more deficit spending. Then say... income inequality and raise taxes again. Good plan for a sadist.