No Agenda 470 - Civil Society

No Agenda Episode 470 - Civil Society
  Civil Society
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  Art By: SuperLeone
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Credits
  Civil Society
  Executive Producers: Sir Richard Bagwell, Sir DJ Anonymous, Sir Mike Keeler
  Associate Executive Producers: Sir Anthony Leone, Sir Dean Bertram
  Become a member of the 471 Club, support the show here
  Knighthoods: Ralf Nellessen, Mike Keeler, Anthony Leone, Gerald Gionet, Felix Schudel
  Art By: SuperLeone
  ShowNotes Archive of links and Assets (clips etc) 470.nashownotes.com
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  Nothing to See Here!
    Obama releases Gitmo report amid news of Conn. shooting
      Link to Article
      Source: Stuff Ain't Right åÈ Uncategorized
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:37
      The White House released a required report on its anti-jihad operations Friday, showing the administration is holding 166 suspected terrorists in the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention camp, despite President Barack Obama's 2008 promise to close the facility permanently.
      ''Combat-equipped forces '... conduct secure detention operations for the approximately 166 detainees at Guantanamo Bay under Public Law 107-40 and consistent with principles of the law of war,'' said the report.
      The release came Friday afternoon and was buried under a wave of news about the brutal murder spree in a Connecticut school.
      via Obama releases Gitmo report amid news of Conn. shooting | The Daily Caller.
      Like this:Be the first to like this.
    Letter from the President -- War Powers Resolution | The White House
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:06
      The White House
      Office of the Press Secretary
      For Immediate Release
      December 14, 2012
      Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
      I am providing this supplemental consolidated report, prepared by my Administration and consistent with the War Powers Resolution (Public Law 93-148), as part of my efforts to keep the Congress informed about deployments of U.S. Armed Forces equipped for combat.
      MILITARY OPERATIONS AGAINST AL-QA'IDA, THE TALIBAN, AND ASSOCIATED FORCES AND IN SUPPORT OF RELATED U.S. COUNTERTERRORISM OBJECTIVES
      Since October 7, 2001, the United States has conducted combat operations in Afghanistan against al-Qa'ida terrorists, their Taliban supporters, and associated forces. In support of these and other overseas operations, the United States has deployed combat-equipped forces to a number of locations in the U.S. Central, Pacific, European, Southern, and Africa Command areas of operation. Previously such operations and deployments have been reported, consistent with Public Law 107-40 and the War Powers Resolution, and operations and deployments remain ongoing. These operations, which the United States has carried out with the assistance of numerous international partners, have been successful in seriously degrading al-Qa'ida's capabilities and brought an end to the Taliban's leadership of Afghanistan.
      United States Armed Forces continue to pursue and engage remaining al-Qa'ida and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan while transitioning to an Afghan security lead. The Afghanistan Force Management Level is approximately 66,000, under the 68,000 level directed by June 2011 Presidential guidance. Approximately 61,000 of these forces are assigned to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
      The U.N. Security Council most recently reaffirmed its authorization of ISAF for a 12-month period until October 13, 2013, in U.N. Security Council Resolution 2069 (October 9, 2012). The mission of ISAF, under NATO command and in partnership with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a safe haven for international terrorists. Fifty nations, including the United States and all NATO members, contribute
      forces to ISAF. These forces, including the U.S. "surge" forces, all of which had redeployed by the end of last summer, broke Taliban momentum and trained additional Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). The ANSF are now increasingly assuming responsibility for security on the timeline committed to at the 2010 NATO Summit in Lisbon by the United States, our NATO allies, ISAF partners, and the Government of Afghanistan.
      United States Armed Forces are detaining in Afghanistan approximately 946 individuals under the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40) as informed by the law of war. On March 9, 2012, the United States signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Afghan government under which the United States is to transfer Afghan nationals detained by U.S. forces in Afghanistan to the custody and control of the Afghan government within 6 months. Since the MOU was signed, approximately 3,100 detainees have been transferred to Afghan control.
      The combat-equipped forces, deployed since January 2002 to Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, continue to conduct secure detention operations for the approximately 166 detainees at Guantanamo Bay under Public Law 107-40 and consistent with principles of the law of war.
      In furtherance of U.S. efforts against members of al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, and associated forces, the United States continues to work with partners around the globe, with a particular focus on the U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility. In this context, the United States has deployed U.S. combat-equipped forces to assist in enhancing the counterterrorism capabilities of our friends and allies, including special operations and other forces for sensitive operations in various locations around the world.
      In Somalia, the U.S. military has worked to counter the terrorist threat posed by al-Qa'ida and associated elements of al-Shabaab. In a limited number of cases, the U.S. military has taken direct action in Somalia against members of al-Qa'ida, including those who are also members of al-Shabaab, who are engaged in efforts to carry out terrorist attacks against the United States and our interests.
      The U.S. military has also been working closely with the Yemeni government to operationally dismantle and ultimately eliminate the terrorist threat posed by al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the most active and dangerous affiliate of al-Qa'ida today. Our joint efforts have resulted in direct action against a limited number of AQAP operatives and senior leaders in that country who posed a terrorist threat to the United States and our interests.
      The United States is committed to thwarting the efforts of al-Qa'ida and its associated forces to carry out future acts of international terrorism, and we have continued to work with our counterterrorism partners to disrupt and degrade the capabilities of al-Qa'ida and its associated forces. As necessary, in response to the terrorist threat, I will direct additional measures against al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, and associated forces to protect U.S. citizens and interests. It is not possible to know at this time the precise scope or the duration of the deployments of U.S. Armed Forces necessary to counter this terrorist threat to the United States. A classified annex to this report provides further information.
      MILITARY OPERATIONS IN CENTRAL AFRICA
      In October and November 2011, U.S. military personnel with appropriate combat equipment deployed to Uganda to serve as advisors to regional forces that are working to apprehend or remove Joseph Kony and other senior Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leaders from the battlefield, and to protect local populations. The total number of U.S. military personnel deployed for this mission, including those providing logistical and support functions, is approximately 79. United States forces are working with select partner nation forces to enhance cooperation, information-sharing and synchronization, operational planning, and overall effectiveness. Elements of these U.S. forces have deployed to forward locations in the LRA-affected areas of the Republic of South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Central African Republic to enhance regional efforts against the LRA. These forces, however, will not engage LRA forces except in self-defense. It is in the U.S. national security interest to help our regional partners in Africa to develop their capability to address threats to regional peace and security, including the threat posed by the LRA. The United States is pursuing a comprehensive strategy to help the governments and people of this region in their efforts to end the threat posed by the LRA and to address the impacts of the LRA's atrocities.
      MARITIME INTERCEPTION OPERATIONS
      As noted in previous reports, the United States remains prepared to conduct maritime interception operations on the high seas in the areas of responsibility of each of the geographic combatant commands. These maritime operations are aimed at stopping the movement, arming, and financing of certain international terrorist groups, and also include operations aimed at stopping proliferation by sea of weapons of mass destruction and related materials.
      MILITARY OPERATIONS IN EGYPT
      Approximately 694 military personnel are assigned to the U.S. contingent of the Multinational Force and Observers, which have been present in Egypt since 1981.
      U.S.-NATO OPERATIONS IN KOSOVO
      The U.N. Security Council authorized Member States to establish a NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) in Resolution 1244 on June 10, 1999. The original mission of KFOR was to monitor, verify, and, when necessary, enforce compliance with the Military Technical Agreement between NATO and the then-Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now Serbia), while maintaining a safe and secure environment. Today, KFOR deters renewed hostilities in cooperation with local authorities, bilateral partners, and international institutions. The principal military tasks of KFOR forces are to help maintain a safe and secure environment and to ensure freedom of movement throughout Kosovo.
      Currently, 22 NATO Allies contribute to KFOR. Eight non-NATO countries also participate. The United States contribution to KFOR is approximately 760 U.S. military personnel out of the total strength of approximately 5,989 personnel, which includes a temporarily deployed operational reserve force.
      REGIONAL SECURITY OPERATIONS
      As noted in my report of September 14, on September 12 a security force deployed to Libya to support the security of U.S. personnel in Libya. Further, on September 13, an additional security force arrived in Yemen in response to security threats there. These forces will remain in place until the security situation no longer requires them.
      I have directed the participation of U.S. Armed Forces in all of these operations pursuant to my constitutional and statutory authority as Commander in Chief (including the authority to carry out Public Law 107-40 and other statutes) and as Chief Executive, as well as my constitutional and statutory authority to conduct the foreign relations of the United States. Officials of my Administration and I communicate regularly with the leadership and other Members of Congress with regard to these deployments, and we will continue to do so.
      Sincerely,
      BARACK OBAMA
    Philippines typhoon death toll tops 1000 - Yahoo! News Singapore
      Link to Article
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 08:44
      The death toll from the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year has topped 1,000 and could still rise sharply, the government said on Sunday.
      Typhoon Bopha killed 1,020 people, mostly on the southern island of Mindanao, where floods and landslides caused major damage on December 4, civil defence chief Benito Ramos said.
      A total of 844 people remain missing, about half of them fishermen who ventured out to sea before Bopha hit, Ramos said, adding he feared many of the missing were dead.
      "The death toll will go higher. We found a lot of bodies yesterday, buried under fallen logs and debris," he told AFP.
      He expressed fears the toll from Bopha would exceed the 1,268 confirmed dead after Typhoon Washi hit the southern Philippines in December last year.
      "We prepared. We were just simply overwhelmed," said Ramos.
      "They did not expect this intensity. The last time (this part of the country) got hit by a strong storm was 1912," he added.
      He added that even evacuation centres were destroyed by the typhoon.
      More 27,000 people remain in such centres almost two weeks after Bopha hit as the search for the dead and missing continues, the civil defence office said.
      The storm has also caused massive damage to infrastructure and agriculture, destroying large tracts of coconut and banana trees, said Ramos.
      The Philippines is hit by about 20 major storms or typhoons each year that occur mainly during the rainy season between June and October.
    Statement by the Press Secretary on H.R. 6156
      Link to Article
      Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:20
      The White House
      Office of the Press Secretary
      For Immediate Release
      December 14, 2012
      On Friday, December 14, 2012, the President signed into law:
      H.R. 6156, the "Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012," which authorizes the President to extend to Russia and Moldova Permanent Normal Trade Relations and to sanction persons who are responsible for gross violations of human rights in Russia.
    Friday Afternoon News Dump: Obama Quietly Grants Amnesty To More Than 100K Illegal Immigrants'... | Weasel Zippers
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:59
      Now pass the EBT cards, food stamps and Obama phones!
      Via Washington Times:
      The administration has issued stays of deportation for 102,965 illegal immigrants under President Obama's new non-deportation policy, officials announced Friday.
      Another 157,151 applications are still under review under the policy, officially known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which grants a tentative legal status to illegal immigrants who qualify '-- though it does not grant them a path to citizenship.
      U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Homeland Security branch that administers the program, said 12,014 applications were rejected off the bat, while as many as 177,000 more applications are having their biometric data taken before entering the final review.
      Mr. Obama announced the policy in June, saying he would no longer deport illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children as long as they haven't committed any major crimes.
      Mexicans make up the vast majority of applications, topping 70 percent of those submitted. Next highest is El Salvador with less than 5 percent. South Korea has the largest contingent from outside Latin America at less than 2 percent.
  Agenda 21
    Solar firms probed for 'misrepresentations' in getting public money - The Washington Post
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:19
      By Carol D. Leonnig,Three of the country's most prolific installers of residential solar panels are under federal investigation to determine if they inflated the cost of their work to increase the payments they would receive from the government, according to government and industry officials familiar with the probe.
      SolarCity, SunRun and Sungevity have received subpoenas from the Treasury Department's office of inspector general for financial records to justify more than $500 million in federal grants and tax credits the firms tapped for performing work. The probe seeks to determine whether the companies accurately reported the market value of their costs when applying for federal reimbursement, which was calculated at one-third of the costs.
      The solar companies received money through the Treasury's $13 billion program, known as the 1603 program, which used funds from President Obama's stimulus initiative to offer cash grants to clean-energy developers. The goal was to spur the spread of wind farms, solar panels and other clean power sources nationwide.
      SolarCity, SunRun and Sungevity have been by far the largest recipients among companies installing solar panels on homes. Working heavily in the sunny states of California and Arizona, the three firms collected hundreds of millions of dollars in federal cash grants to pick up a share of their costs on thousands of home installations during the past three years.
      But the prices some of these industry leaders charged for their work were sometimes far higher than the broader industry's market rate, according to solar experts and details of the Treasury investigation released in company reports. While firms can install solar panels for roughly $5 per watt of energy and make a comfortable profit, some firms were charging as much as $7 and $8 per watt.
      SolarCity spokesman Jonathan Bass said Thursday the company believes its estimates were fair, does not know of any specific representations that are in question and says its costs were often at or below the recommended amount in guidance the Treasury Department provided at the time.
      Sungevity and SunRun declined to comment.
      The companies could be forced to repay the government millions of dollars if problems are found, as well as face penalties. SolarCity said if the government reduced the project cost estimates on its portfolio by an average of 5 percent, the firm could theoretically lose $17 million of the $341 million it has received or expects to receive through such grants. It could be ordered to repay the government some of those funds.
      During the past year, senior administration officials and leaders in the solar industry have been privately discussing concerns that a few major solar companies '-- along with their financial partners '-- may be taking improper advantage of the program.
      ''We want to be good stewards of these incentives,'' said Barry Cinnamon, a solar industry expert and former chief executive of Westinghouse Solar. ''We don't want to be perceived as being greedy or pulling the wool over taxpayers' eyes. If it's not ethical, then we don't want companies in the industry taking advantage like this. If it's lawful and ethical, then everybody should be able to do that.''
      In meetings earlier this year, Treasury officials overseeing the 1603 program complained to some solar company applicants about their cost estimates and said it would lead to improperly lucrative subsidies, according to government and industry officials familiar with the conversations. The companies and their lawyers said the cost models were proper and well-established.
      The current investigation started with the concerns of the program officials. The Treasury Department then referred information about costs to Inspector General Eric M. Thorson, according to two officials familiar with its origin.
      A Treasury spokesman declined to discuss the matter Thursday, citing rules prohibiting public comment in the middle of a sensitive investigation.
      Richard Delmar, Thorson's spokesman, said the office could not confirm which or how many companies are under investigation beyond SolarCity, which has disclosed the information.
      ''(W)e can generally say that we are carrying out our Inspector General Act-mandated duties to monitor the process by which public funds are distributed, to be sure that they are granted properly and used properly, consistent with applicable law and intended use,'' Delmar said. ''The 1603 program is a high-impact and high-visibility program involving a significant amount of public funds. Thus it has a high priority in our audit and investigative plans.''
      Thorson's office is working with the Justice Department's Civil Division in the investigation, looking at ''possible misrepresentations'' by the firms about costs, according to a SolarCity corporate filing. In preparation for its public stock offering this month, SolarCity disclosed in October that it had received a subpoena from the inspector general's office in July.
      Sungevity's and SunRun's role in the inquiry has not been previously reported.
      The three solar companies have found financial partners in such major household names such as Google, U.S. Bancorp, Credit Suisse and Citigroup. There is no suggestion that these financial partners engaged in any improprieties. But SolarCity notified investors in a security filing that the IRS is auditing two of the 23 investment funds it created with partner firms to finance its work. SolarCity did not name the partners in the funds but said the audits are focused on whether project costs are based on fair market values.
      SolarCity and SunRun have been generous political supporters of Obama. At SolarCity, for example, officials in the company and its two key venture capital firm backers, along with their relatives, donated an estimated $579,000 to Obama in 2008 and 2012, according to campaign reports.
      On Tuesday, SolarCity postponed its scheduled public offering as investors balked at the proposed $13 share price. On Wednesday, SolarCity slashed its stock price to $8 and began trading Thursday.
      In a securities filing related to the stock offering, the company reported that the Treasury had notified SolarCity it was reducing the rate at which it would be reimbursed for some solar installations and might reduce others. The company said it may have to repay the government and its investors.
      The Treasury said that in some California projects, the priceSolarCity could claim would fall by 12 percent, and in some Arizona projects, it would fall by 24 percent, the company reported.
      The Treasury's 1603 program has been lauded as a major boon for creating clean energy power.
      As of July, the Treasury estimated it had provided $13 billion in government cash grants to help fund 45,172 energy projects.
      Alice Crites contributed to this report.
  Superhero Shooters
    Connecticut school shooting: Adam Lanza's survivalist mother was obsessed with guns | Mail Online
      Revealed: Connecticut school gunman's 'survivalist' mother was obsessed with guns and was stockpiling supplies for economic collapse
      Nancy Lanza, 52, a 'survivalist,' was preparing for the end of the world economy by stockpiling food
      She was killed by her son, Adam Lanza, before the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut
      She had five guns registered to her name, two of which her son used for killings
      Adam's father, Peter, is divorced from the mother and lives with new wife in Stamford, Connecticut
      By DANIEL BATES IN NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT and HAYLEY PETERSON
      PUBLISHED: 05:00 GMT, 15 December 2012 | UPDATED: 16:01 GMT, 16 December 2012
      Comments (10)
      Share
      Gun lover: Nancy Lanza had reportedly become 'obsessed' with guns and taught Adam how to shoot
      The mother of Newtown school massacre gunman Adam Lanza was a survivalist who was stockpiling food because she thought the world economy was on the verge of collapse.
      Nancy Lanza began hoarding such items because she feared that the financial crisis was going to bring about the end of civilized society.
      She reportedly became 'obsessed' with guns and taught Adam how to shoot, but on Friday he turned on her and blasted the woman to death while she laid in her own bed.
      Law enforcement sources-told the Hartford Courant
    Aurora and Newtown Killer's Fathers Involved in LIBOR Scandal? | EndFed.org
      The father of Newtown Connecticut school shooter Adam Lanza is Peter Lanza who is a VP and Tax Director at GE Financial. The father of Aurora Colorado movie theater shooter James Holmes is Robert Holmes, the lead scientist for the credit score company FICO. Both men were to testify before the US Sentate in the ongoing LIBOR scandal. The London Interbank Offered Rate, known as Libor, is the average interest rate at which banks can borrow from each other. 16 international banks have been implicated in this ongoing scandal, accused of rigging contracts worth trillions of dollars. HSBC has already been fined $1.9 billion and three of their low level traders arrested.
    Index to SSRI Stories
    Two Gunmen at Elementary School Shooting - Yahoo! News
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:12
      A shooting involving two gunmen erupted at a Connecticut elementary school this morning, prompting the town of Newtown to lock down all of its schools and draw SWAT teams to the school, authorities said today.
      State Police confirm that one shooter is dead. A second gunman is apparently at large and multiple people have been shot, sources told ABC News.
      The shooting occurred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, about 12 miles east of Danbury.
      Watch State Police News Conference Live at 1 p.m. at ABCNews.com
      State Police received the first 911 call at 9:41a.m. and immediately began sending emergency units from the western part of the state. Initial 911 calls stated that multiple students were trapped in a classroom, possibly with a gunman, according to a Connecticut State Police source.
      A photo from the scene shows a line of distressed children being led out of the school.
      LIVE UPDATES: Newtown, Conn., School Shooting
      While some students have been reunited with their parents on the school's perimeter, one group of students remains unaccounted for, according to a source with a child in the school.
      CLICK HERE for more photos from the scene.
      Three patients have been taken to Danbury Hospital, which is also on lockdown, according to the hospital's Facebook page.
      "Out of abundance of caution and not because of any direct threat Danbury Hospital is under lockdown," the statement said. "This allows us simply to focus on the important work at hand."
      The shooting comes just three days after masked gunman Jacob Roberts opened fire in a busy Portland, Ore., mall killing two and injuring one before turning the gun on himself.
      Newtown Public School District secretary of superintendent Kathy June said in a statement that the district's school were locked down because of the report of a shooting. "The district is taking preventive measures by putting all schools in lockdown until we ensure the safety of all students and staff."
      State police sent SWAT team units to Newtown.
      All public and private schools in the town are on lockdown.
      "We have increased our police presence at all Danbury Public Schools due to the events in Newtown. Pray for the victims," Newtown Mayor Boughton tweeted.
      State emergency management officials said ambulances and other units were also en route and staging near the school.
      A message on the school district website says that all afternoon kindergarten is cancelled today and there will be no mid-day bus runs.
      Also Read
    Presidential Proclamation -- Honoring the Victims of the Shooting in Newtown, Connecticut | The White House
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:10
      The White House
      Office of the Press Secretary
      For Immediate Release
      December 14, 2012
      HONORING THE VICTIMS OF THE TRAGEDY IN NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT
      - - - - - - -
      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
      A PROCLAMATION
      As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, December 18, 2012. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
      IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.
    Report: Sandy Hook Shooter Adam Lanza Had Asperger Syndrome And Another ''Personality Disorder'''...
      Link to Article
      Source: Weasel Zippers
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:28
      I highly suspect it was the other ''personality disorder'' that drove him to commit this, not Asperger's. He was at the age when schizophrenia typically becomes pronounced.
      Via Breitbart:
      According to ABC News, Ryan Lanza, the older brother of 20-year-old Connecticut school massacre perpetrator Adam Lanza, has told police that his brother has Asperger Syndrome and another ''personality disorder.'' ABC News reports:
      Neighbors described the younger man to ABC as ''odd'' and displaying characteristics associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
    Nightly News: Profiler: [33]Gunman may have had 'combatant or superhero' fantasy
    Clint van Zandt: Inside the Mind of an FBI Profiler
      David Koresh (Branch Davidian Compound). Van Zandt was sent to the scene reluctantly. Someone had decided that Van Zandt's Christian faith might leave him susceptible to Koresh's evangelical teachings. Van
      Zandt spent hours with Koresh, working diligently to pierce his veil of spirituality, trying to make sense of his wild ramblings while at the same time trying to talk some sense into him. Koresh addressed Van Zandt as "Brother Clint" because he knew Clint was a practicing Christian. Van Zandt says this drawn out ordeal took an emotional toll on him at a time in his career when he was "one fuse short of burning out."
    "What Are Warning Signs That People Should Be Looking At For Someone That Might Start Killing Kids
      Link to Article
      Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:43
    Lise Van Susteren - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
      Van Susteren received her medical degree in 1982 from the University of Paris. She interned at the Hospital St. Anne and the American Hospital in Paris, and at Hospital Tokoin in Lome, Togo. She completed her residency training in psychiatry at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. Van Susteren is board certified in general and forensic psychiatry. She has worked as a consultant to the Central Intelligence Agency conducting psychological assessments of world leaders, as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University Department of Psychiatry, and at community mental health centers in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. Van Susteren is a volunteer with Physicians for Human Rights, evaluating and testifying on behalf of torture victims seeking political asylum in the United States. She has been a volunteer reader for Metropolitan Washington Ear, an organization that records written material for the blind, and as a volunteer provider at homeless shelters, for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and the earthquake in Haiti.
    VIDEO-"...this tragedy we're participating in here in Newtown." - YouTube
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:05
    22 Children Stabbed Outside Primary School In China
      Link to Article
      Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:14
    S.F., Oakland gun buyback nets hundreds - SFGate
      Link to Article
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 08:40
      Arturo Hurtado of Richmond was still stricken with grief over the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 schoolchildren dead when he awoke Saturday morning.
      So he decided to get rid of his gun - "that darn thing," he called it - and purged it from his home.
      "I've got kids, man," said Hurtado, who works at Waste Management in Oakland and has children ages 14, 10, 6 and 1. "Kids are curious. Kids don't know any better. I had it locked in a toolbox, so I don't know. ... I just know it had to go."
      Hurtado was among hundreds of Bay Area residents who dropped off their firearms at buyback locations in Oakland and San Francisco on Saturday, collecting $200 cash for their weapon, no questions asked.
      Organizers said both locations saw crowds twice as large as expected. In East Oakland, a mile-long line of cars waited on 82nd Avenue to enter a parking lot at St. Benedict's Church, with some running out of gas while idling. In San Francisco, people stood in pouring rain outside the Omega Boys Club in the Dogpatch neighborhood to exchange their guns for cash.
      By the end of the day, organizers expected more than 600 guns to be turned in.
      Hurtado was a rare customer. Not only was Friday's school shooting his primary motivation, but also he walked away without taking the cash.
      "I'm just glad it's out of my house," he said.
      Some spending moneyMost, however, were happy to make off with a little spending money for the holidays while checking a concern off the to-do list. One Oakland resident who declined to give his name said his uncle suffered from dementia and it was time "to tie up the loose ends around the house." Another 79-year-old woman sold three handguns that belonged to her deceased husband. Elizabeth Jackson, 59, said she was moving to Tracy and wanted to sell two handguns and a shotgun before she left town. "But I'm keeping one for protection," she added.
      George Harris, 66, of Montclair said he was selling back three handguns he had inherited. He said he feared his home would get burglarized, putting his guns in the hands of criminals.
      "I'm happy to do this," Harris said as his wait in line passed the two-hour mark. "But I wish it was more efficient."
      Olis Simmons, president of Youth UpRising, the East Oakland nonprofit that helped coordinate the buyback effort, said while the school shooting on the other side of the country was still fresh on the minds of locals, the strong turnout was driven more by the continuing gun violence in Oakland. Just hours before the buyback began at 10 a.m., for example, four people were wounded by gunfire about six blocks from the church.
      Oakland homicides a factor"One hundred twenty-plus homicides in Oakland this year is the driving force for today," Simmons said. "Yesterday's tragedy was a tragedy. People feel despair about gun violence in America and the question is, 'What can I do?' Well, this is it."
      In San Francisco, residents wrapped hunting rifles in wool blankets and carried their handguns in pillowcases. People waiting in line said a neighbor brought carnations to "lighten the mood" and some residents corked their guns with flowers.
      Tony Vaughn, 52, who had a flower sticking from his .22-caliber rifle, said he had hidden the gun behind a water heater years ago. After Friday's shooting rampage in Connecticut, he remembered where he put it and decided to turn it in.
      "Not just better for this city," Vaughn said of the weapon that will be destroyed, "but for the whole world."
      San Francisco Sgt. Hector Jusino recalled a department buyback day in 2007, when officers set up shop at the Civic Center and collected 100 guns. He predicted 300 guns would be taken in Saturday.
      "Based on this success," he said, "I think our department would be open to doing it again."
      In Oakland, so many residents had lined up that the private donor who financed the paybacks doubled the resources and sent more cash to the church parking lot.
      Capt. Ersie Joyner looked at the long line of cars.
      "Unfortunately, we'll still run out of money before we run out of guns," he said.
      Justin Berton is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jberton@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @justinberton
    Connecticut School Shooting: President Obama Will Meet With Victims' Families on Sunday
      Link to Article
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 03:50
      President Obama will travel to Newtown, Conn., on Sunday to meet with the families of the the 26 people who were slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the White House said today.
      The president, who will also meet with first responders, is scheduled to speak at an interfaith service in Newtown at 7 p.m., according to a statement from the Office of the Press Secretary.
      One day after Obama addressed the nation, mourning the children who "had their entire lives ahead of them -- birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own," the world learned just how grim the scene inside Sandy Hook was.
      The gunman massacred 20 first graders, shooting some of them as many as 11 times, the medical examiner said today.
      "I've been at this for a third of a century so my sensibilities may not be the that of the average man, but it's probably the worst I've ever seen," said Chief Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver II, who has been a medical examiner for 36 years.
      A team of 14 medical technicians worked through the night to complete the grisly job of identifying the children killed by Adam Lanza, 20, in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre so their names could be released today.
      Several weapons were found in the school, including a semi-automatic rifle.
      "All the wounds that I know of at this point were caused by the long weapon," Carver said, and many were shot at close range.
      CLICK HERE for full coverage of the tragedy at the elementary school.
      "I believe many of them were hit more than once," and he said the wounds were "all over" the children's bodies.
      "I only did seven of the autopsies. The victims I had ranged from three to 11 wounds a piece," Carver said.
      The names of the children slain Friday in the school were released today.
      To carry out the identifications, Carver said they "did not bring the families and the bodies into contact." He said the identifications were made through photographs of the children's faces.
      "It's easier on the families," he said.
      Additional work is needed to complete the autopsies and identifications of the seven adults slain in Lanza's killing spree.
      Fresh details of the massacre emerged, including the fact that all of the young victims were first graders in two rooms.
      Based on the Sandy Hook school directory, all the kids killed were in the first grade and were in two classrooms.
      In one class, 15 of the 16 students listed were killed. In the other class, five of the 16 students died along with their teacher, Victoria Soto. Also, nine of the deceased students have siblings in the school.
      At a nearby firehouse that has become a center for the town, a makeshift memorial and vigil has emerged under a sign that reads "Sandy Hook School." People have left flowers, candles, signs that read "Rest in Peace" and "God Bless Sandy Hook Elementary," as well as a cross made of blue flowers and a wreath of teddy bears
      With the tally of Lanza's carnage complete, authorities and the grieving people of Newtown are left to wonder why he turned the elementary school in this quaint New England town into a slaughter house.
      Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance said the investigation "did produce some very good evidence" about motive, but he would not go into further detail.
      He indicated the evidence came from the shooting scene at the school as well as at the home where Lanza's mother, Nancy, was slain.
      Also key will be the lone person shot by Lanza who wasn't killed. The female teacher has not been publicly identified.
      "She is doing fine," Vance said at a news conference today. "She has been treated and she'll be instrumental in this investigation."
      Vance said it appears that reports of an altercation involving Lanza at the school in the days before the mass slaying are not checking out.
      Vance said that Lanza forced his way into the school, but did not say how.
      Evidence emerged today that Lanza's rampage began in the office of school principal Dawn Hochsprung while the school intercom was on. It's not clear whether it was turned on to alert the school or whether it was on for morning announcements, but the principal's screams and the cries of children heard throughout the school gave teachers time to take precautions to protect their children.
      Hochsprung was among those killed in the Friday morning killing spree.
      READ: Connecticut Shooter Adam Lanza: 'Obviously Not Well'
      Authorities have fanned out to New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts to interview Lanza's relatives, ABC News has learned.
      According to sources, Lanza shot his mother in the face, then left his house armed with at least two semi-automatic handguns, a Glock and a Sig Sauer, and a semi-automatic rifle. He was also wearing a bulletproof vest.
      Newtown Police Hunt for Motive in School MassacreLanza then drove to the elementary school to carry out his murderous plan, authorities said.
      It appeared that Lanza died from what was believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
      Lanza's father, Peter Lanza, released a statement today saying the family is "grieving along with all those who have been affected by this enormous tragedy."
      "No words can truly express how heartbroken we are," he said. "We are in a state of disbelief and trying to find whatever answers we can. We too are asking why. We have cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so. Like so many of you, we are saddened, but struggling to make sense of what has transpired."
      CLICK HERE for more photos from the scene.
      This is the second worst mass shooting in U.S. history, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 when 32 were killed before the shooter turned the gun on himself. The carnage in Connecticut exceeded the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in which 13 died and 24 were injured.
      Friday's shooting came three days after masked gunman Jacob Roberts opened fire in a busy Oregon mall, killing two before turning the gun on himself.
      The Connecticut shooting occurred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, which includes 450 students in grades K-4. The town is located about 12 miles east of Danbury, Conn.
      ABC News' Emily Friedman, Michael S. James and Shushannah Walshe contributed to this report.
    Holder Strongly Hints At Crackdown On Guns After Newtown Shootings: ''We Have To Ask Ourselves Some Hard Questions,'' ''Talk About The Freedoms We Have'''...
      Link to Article
      Source: Weasel Zippers
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 03:36
      Via Fox News:
      Attorney General Eric Holder made remarks a short time ago on the tragic school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, where a 20-year-old gunman killed 20 children and six adults. Holder appeared to suggest the country's gun laws may need to be looked at more closely in the wake of the latest mass shooting.
      ''As a nation I think we have to ask ourselves some hard questions. We gather too often to talk about these kinds of incidents. We need to discuss who we are as a nation, talk about the freedoms that we have, the rights that we have and how those might be used in a responsible way. But for now I think we should concentrate on dealing with the situation in Connecticut and we are doing, as I said, the best that we can at the Justice Department and throughout federal law enforcement,'' Holder said.
    UPDATE: CT State Medical Examiner Says Bushmaster Rifle Did The Killing
      Link to Article
      Source: Crooks and Liars
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 03:14
      Earlier reports claiming that Adam Lanza's primary weapons during the massacre were a pair of handguns has been refuted by Conn. Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H Wayne Carver, who said early today that the deaths can be attributed to the long rifle, which means it was the .223 Bushmaster. It's a very destructive weapon.
      The weapons that use .223 caliber ammunition range from bolt-action rifles to the more "assault" type semi-automatic rifles. New Jersey and Connecticut both have strict gun laws in place banning their own definitions of "assault" rifles '-- and anything over a 10 round magazine '-- but a simple trip across the border into Pennsylvania can secure weapons illegal in both those aforementioned states, or one can just buy weapons on the web.
      The .223 round is slightly lighter than the military grade version, but reacts the same on impact and is pretty much as deadly. It's designed to bounce around inside the body once it makes contact with bone.The AR-15 is the civilian version of the military's M16 and has been in production since Vietnam. The caliber is the same used in the DC sniper shootings. It was also used in the Colorado shooting.
      It appears Lanza's mother, who he killed before his attack on Sandy Hook, was a gun enthusiast.
      Nancy Lanza was an avid gun collector who once showed him a "really nice, high-end rifle" that she had purchased, said Dan Holmes, owner of a landscaping business who recently decorated her yard with Christmas garlands and lights. "She said she would often go target shooting with her kids. "Newtown was ranked the fifth safest city in America by the website NeighborhoodScout.com based on 2011 crime statistics.
      Information is coming out very slowly. The police say they believe they have a motive to the shootings, but haven't shared them yet.
      Authorities indicated today that they have "some very good evidence" about the motive behind Lanza's shooting spree at the school in Newtown, Conn.
      ... Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance, who had compared the investigation to "peeling back the layers of an onion," said the investigation "did produce some very good evidence" about motive, but he would not go into further detail.He indicated the evidence came from the shooting scene at the school as well as at the home where Lanza's mother, Nancy, was slain.
      We're waiting to see if Lanza left behind an explanation of his "thinking," such as it was.
    A Modest Proposal: What If We Required Mandatory Gun Insurance?
      Link to Article
      Source: Crooks and Liars
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 03:13
      This first ran in January 2011.
      First of all, this isn't my idea. It's my oldest son's, and he told me about it a few years ago when he was trying to figure out a way he could make money. (Did I mention the kid is a genius? If you use this idea, you owe him.)
      He said it made more sense to sidestep the entire gun control controversy and instead pass state laws that require anyone who owns a gun to carry insurance. If they have risk factors (like teenagers in the house), their rates go up. If one of their kids sneaks a gun out of the house and gets caught, or uses it to commit a crime, the insurance gets canceled for some meaningful period of time -- say, 10 years.
      And if someone steals your gun and you don't report it in a 24-hour window of you finding out, your insurance is suspended for a long time.
      If you have a rifle and it's only used for hunting, low rates. If you have a Glock and you carry it in an open-carry town or state, your rates will be very high -- because odds are so much higher that innocent bystanders may get caught in a shootout.
      The more training and safety classes you take, the cheaper the premium.
      If you've ever been convicted of domestic abuse or are the target of a protection order, you are not eligible for insurance.
      Homeowners could be required to carry gun insurance as long as they're still paying on a mortgage, because a gun accident or misuse could result in a large legal judgment against the house.
      Oh yeah, and you have to buy coverage for each gun you own.
      I think it has real possibilities. What do you think?
    New Haven Police Hiring Forensic Expert Henry Lee
      Link to Article
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 02:17
      Former Connecticut Department of Public Safety Commissioner Henry Lee in 2004. (PATRICK LIN/AFP/Getty Images)
      NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) _ New Haven police say they're hiring famed crime scientist Henry Lee as the department's lead forensic consultant.
      Police Chief Dean Esserman and other department leaders are set to announce Lee's appointment Friday morning at police headquarters.
      Lee rose to national prominence through his work on infamous crimes, including the O.J. Simpson and Jon Benet Ramsey cases. The 74-year-old Branford resident served as head of the Connecticut state police crime lab from 1978 to 2000 and as the state's public safety commissioner from 1998 to 2000.
      Lee was born in China, and his family fled to Taiwan in World War II. His father was killed by communists, and his mother raised Lee and his 12 siblings. He came to the United States in 1965, after having served as a police captain.
      (Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
    Henry Lee (forensic scientist) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
      He has worked on famous cases such as the JonBenÃ©t Ramsey murder, the Helle Crafts woodchipper murder, the O.J. Simpson and Laci Peterson cases, the post-9/11 forensic investigation, the Washington, DC sniper shootings and to reinvestigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
      Dr. Lee investigated the 3-19 Shooting Incident of R.O.C. President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu.
    Tom Cruise's Jack Reacher Premiere Canceled Out Of Respect For Newtown Families, Victims
      Link to Article
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 02:19
      The premiere of Tom Cruise's new film, "Jack Reacher," has been canceled out of respect for the victims and families of Friday's tragic school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
      "Due to the terrible tragedy in Newtown Connecticut, and out of honor and respect for the families of the victims whose lives were senselessly taken, we are postponing [Saturday's] Pittsburgh premiere of 'Jack Reacher.' Our hearts go out to all those who lost loved ones," Paramount Pictures, the studio behind the new action film, said in a statement to Access Hollywood late Friday night.
      PLAY IT NOW: Jack Reacher, Les Miserables & Zero Dark Thirty - Worldwide Premiere Night!
      Tom plays an ex-military investigator, Jack Reacher, in the film, a man who is trying to prove the innocence of a soldier who was framed for a deadly shooting.
      The film opens with a sniper shooting unarmed civilians.
      VIEW THE PHOTOS: Stars We Lost In 2012
      "Jack Reacher" is set to open in movie theaters on December 21.
      Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
    Anti-Gun Fanatic Michael Bloomberg Attacks Obama For Saying We Need To Take ''Meaningful Action'' '' Tells Him We Need ''Immediate Executive Action'''... | Weasel Zippers
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:05
      Anything less than an all-out ban on guns isn't going to satisfy these people.
      Via Politico:
      New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn't satisfied with President Obama's promise Friday to take ''meaningful action'' to prevent future mass shootings.
      ''[T]he country needs him to send a bill to Congress to fix this problem '' and take immediate executive action,'' he said in a statement in his capacity as co-chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. ''Calling for 'meaningful action' is not enough. We have heard that rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership '' not from the president and not from Congress. That must end today. This is a national tragedy and it demands a national response. My deepest sympathies are with the families of all those affected, and my determination to stop this madness is stronger than ever.''
      ''With all the carnage from gun violence in our country, it's still almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergarten class could happen,'' Bloomberg said. ''It has come to that. Not even kindergarteners learning their A,B,Cs are safe. We heard after Columbine that it was too soon to talk about gun laws. We heard it after Virginia Tech. After Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek. And now we are hearing it again. For every day we wait, 34 more people are murdered with guns. Today, many of them were five-year olds.''
      Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Bloomberg's fellow co-chair, said he is ''overcome with both grief and outrage'' after the shooting and called for more to be done.
    Mark Glaze-The Raben Group
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:26
      Mark Glaze brings more than fifteen years experience in politics, communications and law to clients whose interests lie at the intersection of those fields. He specializes in helping clients achieve public policy goals by crafting strategies to influence the audiences they need to reach'--policymakers, the press and the public.
      Before joining the Raben team, Mark led Glaze Strategic. His writing for clients has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, Time, the Chicago Sun-Times, Roll Call and many other journals.
      Mark developed his skills in moving public policy as director of the Campaign Legal Center's government ethics and public affairs programs. Mark also served as assistant counsel and communications director at CLC, where he was on the team that successfully defended the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act from constitutional challenge before the U.S. Supreme Court. As CLC's first employee, he launched a communications effort that led Roll Call to name the new group an ''industry leader."
      Prior to entering the nonprofit world, Mark practiced law at Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells in the firm's media law department. From 1993 to 1996, Mark worked as an aide to Rep. David Skaggs (D-CO).
      Mark was an academic advisor to the 2005 Jimmy Carter-James Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform, and he served as an on-air Democratic strategist for Logo-CBS News in 2006.
      Mark is an honors graduate of the George Washington University Law School and Colorado College and a Truman Foundation Scholar.
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    Police reveal more details about Sandy Hook killings | euronews, world news
      Link to Article
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:53
      Police investigating the Sandy Hook elementary school shootings in America, in which 27 people died, now say they have ''some very good evidence'' to explain the tragedy that has shocked the nation.
      Police now say Adam Lanza, 20, a former pupil at the school, forced his way into the building early on Friday and killed six adult women and 20 children, 12 girls and eight boys aged around six or seven. All were shot between three and 11 times. He is also suspected of killing his mother at home before going to the school.
      Newtown was once in the running as the best place to live in America, listed as the nation's fifth-safest city.
      ''Our investigators at the crime scene, the school, and secondarily, at the secondary crime scene that we discussed where the female was located deceased, did produce some very good evidence in this investigation that our investigators will be able to use in hopefully painting the complete picture as to how and more importantly why this occurred,'' said Connecticut State trooper Lt. Paul Vance.
      A refrigerated trailer was needed to take all the bodies to the morgue, and a small crowd watched as it drove away.
      Around the school floral tributes are piling up. Nearly everyone in this community of 27,000 is being affected, directly or indirectly, and there are already fears the town's children will be scarred by the events.
      More about:Attack, Inquiry, Shootings, USA, VictimsCopyright (C) 2012 euronews
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    Will The Massacre At Sandy Hook Elementary School Push Congress To Do Something About Gun Control
      Link to Article
      Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:13
    NY Congressman Jerrold Nadler Calls NRA 'Enablers of Mass Murder' | MRCTV
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:15
      MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them -- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.
      MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 325 South Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.
      Copyright (C) 2012, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.
    Vigil Outside The White House "These Are People Wanting Gun Control"
      Link to Article
      Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:04
  Obama Nation
    Barack Obama is following another pornographic Twitter feed | Twitchy
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:24
      Twitchy reported back in October that President Barack Obama's official Twitter account, @BarackObama, is following the porn feed @ILikeTitsDaily.
      @AaronWorthing helpfully points out that @BarackObama is at it again, this time following the feed @PlayBoyMan, which contains sexually-explicit photos of women's breasts.
      We got in trouble last time for posting photos. We won't make that mistake again. If you want to see the feed, you know where to go.
      Like this:Be the first to like this.
  2TTH
    Jacintha Saldanha: Suicide note criticising senior hospital staff found among possessions of nurse at centre of Duchess of Cambridge phone call hoax - Home News - UK - The Independent
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:19
      One of the three suicide notes written by the nurse who took a hoax phone call at a hospital treating the Duchess of Cambridge was critical her colleagues, it was reported today.
      Jacintha Saldanha was found hanged in her apartment in the nurses' quarters at the King Edward VII hospital last Friday following a prank phone call from Australian DJs Mel Grieg and Michael Christian.
      Yesterday a coroner heard that Mrs Saldanha left three suicide notes before she died.
      Two were in the room where the 46-year-old was found hanging by colleagues, while a third was found among her personal possessions, police said.
      Mrs Saldanha's family has been given typed copies of the three notes and has reportedly read the contents.
      One note apparently deals with the hoax call from the 2Day FM DJs, another details her requests for her funeral, and the third addresses her employers, the hospital, and contains criticism of staff there, according to the Guardian, who say they have spoken with two separate sources.
      Giving evidence at Westminster Coroner's Court yesterday, Detective Chief Inspector James Harman said Mrs Saldanha was found by a colleague and a security guard in the hospital's nurses' quarters.
      He confirmed that the nurse was found hanging and that she had cuts on her wrists. DCI Harman added that Scotland Yard expected be in contact with police in New South Wales in the very near future to interview witnesses to ''put the best evidence before'' the coroner about the circumstances of the death.
      He said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding Ms Saldanha's death.
      The body of Indian-born Ms Saldanha had been visually identified by her accountant husband Benedict Barboza, the court heard.
      Mrs Saldanha was the senior nurse on duty at the hospital in Marylebone when two Australian radio DJs pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles made the call at 5:30am on Tuesday last week.
      The mother of two then transferred the hoax call to the ward where the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated for acute morning sickness.
      A second nurse then revealed personal information about the Duchess' condition to the hoax callers.
      On Wednesday, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced that it has opened a formal investigation into the prank. The investigation will focus on the compliance of the licensee, Today FM Sydney Pty Ltd, with its licence conditions and the Australian Commercial Radio Codes of Practice, it said.
      Chris Chapman, the ACMA chairman, said the investigation would not focus on the presenters. ''The ACMA will be examining whether the licensee has complied with its broadcasting obligations,'' he said.
      The station 2Day FM has been criticised in the past over its broadcasting standards. In 2009, a 14-year-old girl was encouraged to reveal that she had been raped while strapped to a lie-detector on air. And the same presenter Kylie Sandilands later called a female journalist ''some fat slag'' and a ''piece of shit''.
      The station's parent company has pledged to donate £326,000 from its advertising profits to a memorial fund set up in Mrs Saldanha's name by King Edward VII Hospital.
      2Day FM's chief executive expressed his sorrow. Rhys Holleran said: ''It is a terrible tragedy and our thoughts continue to be with the family.''
      The coroner opened and adjourned the inquest this morning, giving a provisional date of March 26 2013 for it to continue.
    Egypt's Mubarak slips in bathroom, bumps his head
      Link to Article
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 02:45
      And now, in pressing news...ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was treated for head injuries after he slipped and fell in a prison bathroom, a security official revealed to the Associated Press.
      The former Egyptian leader, 84, is serving a life sentence after he was toppled from power in a popular uprising in February 2011.
      The Egyptian official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told AP Mubarak was taken to Cairo's Tora prison for treatment after the fall. He said he sustained head wounds and a light chest injury.
      The wave of interest in this odd little report presumably adds insult to injury.
      One Egypt-watcher complained on Twitter:
      http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/egypts-mubarak-slips-bathroom-bumps-his-head
    Hillary Clinton flauwgevallen
      Link to Article
      Source: VK: Home
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 18:34
      Bewerkt door: redactie '' 15/12/12, 18:31 '' bron: ANP
      (C) afp. Hillary Clinton
      De Amerikaanse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Hillary Clinton is herstellende van een hersenschudding nadat ze was flauwgevallen. Dat heeft een woordvoerder vandaag gemeld.
      Volgens de verklaring had Clinton een buikvirus, raakte ze uitgedroogd en viel ze flauw, waardoor ze een hersenschudding opliep. Ze is thuis om te herstellen. Volgende week werkt ze vanuit huis, op aanraden van haar artsen. Afgelopen week zegde Clinton een reis naar Noord-Afrika af omdat ze ziek was.
    Mandela Remains Hospitalized as Questions Grow
      Link to Article
      Source: NYT > Home Page
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:58
      JOHANNESBURG (AP) '-- Where is Nelson Mandela?
      As the 94-year-old patriarch of South Africa's democracy entered his seventh day of hospitalization Friday for a recurring lung infection, confusion grew as government officials appeared to contradict themselves over where he is being treated.
      With the government refusing to say where Mandela is, concern grew across this nation of 50 million people about the health of the anti-apartheid icon.
      Mandela, admitted Saturday to a hospital, was thought to have been at 1 Military Hospital near South Africa's capital, Pretoria, after Defense Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said she visited the leader there Monday. But when local media reported that Mandela wasn't at that hospital Thursday night, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj declined to give the whereabouts of the ailing politician.
      "President Mandela is being treated at a Pretoria hospital as said from the first statement we issued," Maharaj said. "We have refrained from disclosing the hospital in order to ensure privacy and also to allow doctors space to do their work of caring for (him) without interruptions or undue pressure."
      It was not immediately clear if Mandela had been moved or if he had been at a different facility during his entire seven-day hospitalization, his longest since 2001, when he underwent radiation therapy after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
      On Monday, addressing journalists after her visit, Mapisa-Nqakula said: "We confirm that former President Mandela is in (the) hospital, 1 Military Hospital, and he's doing very, very well."
      Sonwabo Mbananga, a defense department spokesman, said Friday that "the minister is not going to clarify anything" about her remarks Monday and declined to comment further.
      On Friday, journalists saw a convoy of presidential security cars and an ambulance leave a private Pretoria hospital and later arrive at 1 Military Hospital. However, it could not be immediately determined if the convoy had anything to do with Mandela's care.
      Speaking to The Associated Press on Friday afternoon, Maharaj again declined to identify which hospital Mandela was staying at, saying officials are "trying to protect his privacy." When asked about the defense minister's comments, Maharaj said the presidency had been consistent in avoiding identifying the hospital and declined to comment further.
      Mandela "has been comfortable the past 24 hours and continues to receive care," Maharaj said.
      South Africa's government has said Mandela, initially admitted for medical tests, was being treated for a lung infection. Mandela has a history of lung problems, after falling ill with tuberculosis in 1988 toward the tail-end of his 27 years in prison before his release and being elected president. While doctors said at the time the disease caused no permanent damage to his lungs, medical experts say tuberculosis can cause problems years later for those infected.
      Mandela had an acute respiratory infection in January 2011 and following the chaos surrounding Mandela's stay at a public hospital the South African military took charge of his care and the government took over control the information about his health.
      ___
      Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .
  Syria
    Joint Press Point with NATO Secretary General and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands
      Link to Article
      Source: DVIDS Unit RSS Feed: Natochannel
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:05
      Choose quality 'ö¹Embed code 'ö¹<iframe width="500" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none; overflow: hidden; width: 500px; height: 300px;" allowtransparency="true" src="http://www.dvidshub.net/video/embed/193259"></iframe>
      Joint press point with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte. Following opening statements, the secretary general and prime minister answer questions from the media. Also available in high definition. Transcript of the opening remarks by the NATO Secretary General: Good afternoon. It is indeed a great pleasure to welcome Prime Minister Rutte back to NATO headquarters. The Netherlands is a strong and reliable ally. And I would like to thank you, to thank your country for your staunch support of NATO's missions and operations. We welcome your intention to contribute two batteries to the expected deployment of Patriot missiles to Turkey. This is a strong signal of Allied solidarity. The deployment will be defensive only. It will in no way support a no-fly zone or any offensive operation. Its aim is to deter any threats to Turkey, and to defend Turkey's population and territory on NATO's south-eastern border. Because the ultimate task of our Alliance is the protection and defense of our members. In Afghanistan, your police training mission does great work in the Kunduz province. Your jets provide necessary air cover for ISAF troops. Your naval forces have just ended a successful rotation in our anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia. And you contribute to our efforts to provide a safe and secure environment for all the people of Kosovo. This shows the value and importance the Netherlands places on its membership in NATO. And we are very grateful for all your contributions. We know they are made despite difficult economic times. In fact, the Netherlands is leading the way on Smart Defense. This enables you to use your defense budget more efficiently. Of the 22 multinational projects which we approved at the Chicago Summit this year, you participate in no less than 17. That is remarkable and we are very grateful for that. You are also working closely with Belgium and Luxembourg to make your maritime command and other capabilities more effective. This is collective security at its best. So once again, let me thank you for your country's commitment to NATO. I look forward to continuing our close cooperation in the future.
  Fiscal Cliff
    White House Wants To Cut Charitable Deductions. Why? | Crooks and Liars
      But the White House is also looking to limit the charitable deduction for high-income earners, and that has prompted frustration and resistance, with leaders of major nonprofit organizations, such as the United Way, the American Red Cross and Lutheran Services in America, closing ranks in opposing any change to the deduction.
      "It's all castor oil," said Diana Aviv, president of Independent Sector, an umbrella group representing many nonprofits. "And the members of the nonprofit sector I represent don't want any part of it. It's a medicine we're not willing to drink."
    Matt Damon: 'I Need To Pay More Taxes'
      Link to Article
      Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:20
      MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them -- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.
      MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 325 South Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.
      Copyright (C) 2012, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.
  Bengahzi Bad Actors
    State Dept Hiding Benghazi Survivors
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 13:46
      ''My understanding is that we still have some people in the hospital. I'd like to visit with them and wish them nothing but the best but the State Department has seen it unfit for me to know who those people are'--or even how many there are,'' Rep. Chaffetz said. "I don't know who they are. I don't know where they live. I don't know what state they're from. I don't even know how many there are. It doesn't seem right to me."
      ''This is so patently different than any other experience I've had. Unfortunately, people have been killed and maimed and in harm's way in Afghanistan and Iraq and in points beyond. It's typically been the case that they would release those names but in this case, they won't. My challenge is to the media. You try and figure it out. They won't let Congress know. They won't seem to let the media know either.''
      Breitbart News sent an inquiry to the State Department regarding those who survived the attack in Benghazi and is awaiting a response.
    Chaffetz: State Dept Hiding Benghazi Survivors - [VIDEO]
    Hillary Cinton Will NOT Testify On Benghazi Attack Beconcussion.mpg
      Link to Article
      Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:14
  RacialRIce
    NBC's Andrea Mitchell: Republicans Forced Out Woman of Color Susan Rice
      Link to Article
      Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:20
      MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them -- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.
      MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 325 South Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.
      Copyright (C) 2012, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.
    NBC's Williams to Rice: 'Were You Set Up? Were You a Victim of Circumstance?'
      Link to Article
      Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:53
      In an exclusive interview on Thursday's NBC Rock Center with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice following her withdrawal of her name to be secretary of state, host Brian Williams worked to portray her as a victim of unwarranted political attacks: "She's been under withering attack for weeks....Were you set up? Were you a victim of circumstance? Bad data? Bad information?...Are you blameless in all this?"
    Susan Rice Withdraws As Candidate For Secretary Of State
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      Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 12:34
    MSNBC Hag Andrea Mitchell: Women In White House ''Very Angry'' With Obama Over Susan Rice'...
      Link to Article
      Source: Weasel Zippers
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:11
      What a shame.
      ANDREA MITCHELL: A lot of Democrats are saying that the president did not show enough loyalty. A lot of women in the administration are very angry tonight, and I'm saying this at a very high level. Angry because they feel that she was not treated with respect, she was not given the support she needed and she was left to twist in the wind.
      RACHEL MADDOW: They're angry, with whom though?
      MITCHELL: Angry with the White House. And with the boss, with the president, for not be willing to fight this out. That he's backed down in the face of a challenge from the Republican minority, after having won a reelection victory. And most people in the foreign policy community understand that as qualified as John Kerry is, and he's superbly qualified, he was trained '-- he lived for this post '-- a son of a diplomat, and clearly wanted this job and will get this job.
      But the anger is that she was not responsible for Benghazi. And that what was said on those Sunday talk shows '-- if you were to deny a promotion to everyone who misspeaks or gets something wrong on Sunday television, including all of us, there would be no one left in Washington. So, for her to be punished for Benghazi, which was not even her responsibility. If there were failures '-- and this independent review board is coming with its report next week, or its going to be presented to Congress next week. Hillary Clinton, we're told, from the House and the Senate, is scheduled to testify next Thursday. That is likely to conclude that the State Department was largely at fault for failure, security failures prior to Benghazi.
  Elite$
    Condoleezza Rice's RiceHadleyGates Partners With Khosla Ventures - Forbes
      Link to Article
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:40
      (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
      Khosla Ventures has partnered with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's consulting firm RiceHadleyGates LLC to bring strategic assistance on a variety of global issues to its portfolio companies.
      Rice's three other principals at her firm are former national security advisor Stephen Hadley, former Secretary of State Robert Gates and former special assistant to under secretary for political affairs at the U.S. Department of State Anja Manuel. The firm will help Khosla's companies navigate international markets, regulation, policy and other issues.
      Despite the firm's government expertise, the firm prides itself on technology and Silicon Valley knowledge as well, Manuel says. Manuel and Rice, the former provost of Stanford University, are based in Silicon Valley, while Gates is in Seattle and Hadley is in Washington.
      ''We're particularly excited about this relationship with Khosla and helping young entrepreneurial companies,'' Manuel said. ''We can give a lot of ideas on navigating emerging markets. As selling into emerging markets or who have development teams there. We can help them understand regulatory environment and governments in particular countries.''
      The firms wouldn't discus the financial arrangement of the partnership, but presumably the deal is less financial than it is for long term goals. For RiceHadleyGates, it gets access to some of the hottest technology companies.For Khosla, having Rice and her team involved provides practical assistance as many startups are moving to international markets quicker than ever.
      RiceHadleyGates also adds a selling point as Khosla competes with other venture firms for top startups. Today many venture firms offer a variety of services in addition to the actual venture capital investors, such as marketing, recruiting and business development assistance. Bringing in geopolitical expertise from a former Secretary of State ups the ante. ''As a number of our companies are thinking of going international they may face delicate policy and regulatory issues,'' said Samir Kaul, a venture capitalist at Khosla Ventures. ''This is an important skill set for a number of our companies. It's one that most VCs on Sand Hill don't have. It's a great way to continue our venture assistance model.''
      One other firm that has brought in a major statesman is Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with partner Al Gore.
      Rice, in addition to her international and government expertise, has specific corporate experience having been a director at Chevron, Charles Schwab and Hewlett-Packard. Rice also has been on the board of Khosla portfolio company Kior with Vinod Khosla.
      As an example of the type of work RiceHadleyGates has done, Manuel said the firm worked with a company that wanted to expand to five new emerging markets. ''We helped them think through the policy risks,'' Manuel said. ''And where they might get positive reception from governments. We helped introduce them to those countries and help them get started.''
      With another company, RiceHadleyGates helped work on issues of Internet freedom in India and how to navigate and influence those issues there, Manuel said.
      ''All of us at RiceHadleyGates share Khosla Ventures' vision and passion for helping the next generation of entrepreneurs change the world for the better,'' Condoleezza Rice said in a prepared statement. ''We look forward to putting our experience to good use by helping Khosla's impressive portfolio companies navigate the tricky waters of political, policy, and regulatory issues around the world.''
      Khosla Ventures has invested in a variety of information technology and clean technology companies. Khosla has spoken often about the potential of clean tech and his interest in big risky bets.
  Shut Up Slave!
    City buses across America now covertly recording passengers' conversations
      Link to Article
      Source: usfollowme
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:07
      http://boingboing.net/2012/12/13/city-buses-across-america-now.html
    Federal Register | Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Event Data Recorders
      Link to Article
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:47
      You should submit your comments early enough to be received not later than February 11, 2013. In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, NHTSA is also seeking comment on a new information collection. See the Paperwork Reduction Act section under Rulemaking Analyses and Notices below. Please submit all comments relating to new information collection requirements to NHTSA and to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at the address listed in the ADDRESSES section on or before February 11, 2013. Comments to OMB are most useful if submitted within 30 days of publication.
      The following persons at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
      For technical and policy issues: Christopher J. Wiacek, Office of Crashworthiness Standards, NHTSA, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., West Building, W43-320, Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: (202) 366-4801.
      For legal issues: William Shakely, Office of the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., West Building, W41-227, Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: (202) 366-2992. Fax: (202) 366-3820.
      You may submit comments, identified by the docket number at the heading of this notice, by any of the following methods:
      Online: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments on the electronic docket site by clicking on ''Help'' or ''FAQs.''
      Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
      Mail: U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket Operations, M-30, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590.
      Hand Delivery: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
      Comments regarding the proposed information collection should be submitted to NHTSA through one of the preceding methods and a copy should also be sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, 725 17th Street NW., Washington, DC 20503, Attention: NHTSA Desk Officer.
      Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and docket number. Note that all comments received will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. Please see the Privacy Act discussion below. We will consider all comments received before the close of business on the comment closing date indicated above. To the extent possible, we will also consider comments filed after the closing date.
      Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov at any time or to 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. Telephone: (202) 366-9826.
      Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78) or you may visit http://www.dot.gov/privacy.html.
      Confidential Business Information: If you wish to submit any information under a claim of confidentiality, you should submit three copies of your complete submission, including the information you claim to be confidential business information, to the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, at the address given under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. In addition, you should submit two copies, from which you have deleted the claimed confidential business information, to Docket Operations at the address given above. When you send a comment containing information claimed to be confidential business information, you should include a cover letter setting forth the information specified in our confidential business information regulation (49 CFR part 512).
      I. Executive Summary
      II. Background
      A. Overview of Event Data Recorder (EDR) Technology
      B. EDR Regulatory History'--The Establishment of Part 563
      C. Summary of Part 563
      1. Data Elements Recorded
      2. Data Retrieval
      3. Data Survivability and Crash Test Performance Requirements
      D. NHTSA's Validation of and Reliance on EDR Data in Its Crash Investigations Relating to Unintended Acceleration
      III. Proposal
      A. Overview
      1. Overall Plan for Reviewing and Upgrading EDR Requirements
      2. This Proposal
      B. Reasons To Mandate the Installation of EDRs
      C. Reasons To Place Mandate in a Safety Standard
      D. Privacy Issues
      1. Agency Tailored EDR Performance Requirements To Minimize Data Gathering
      2. Agency Seeks Vehicle Owner Permission To Access EDR Data
      3. Necessity of VIN Collection
      4. Agency Protects VIN Information Needed To Download EDR Data
      5. Agency Uses and Stores EDR Data in Ways To Preserve Privacy
      E. Lead Time
      F. Benefits and Costs of This Proposal
      IV. Rulemaking Analyses and Notices
      V. Request for Comments
      Appendix A Part 563 Tables
      Regulatory Text
      An event data recorder (EDR) is a function or device installed in a motor vehicle to record technical information about the status and operation of vehicle systems for a very brief period of time (i.e., a few seconds) and in very limited circumstances (immediately before and during a crash), primarily for the purpose of post-crash assessment of vehicle safety system performance. [1] EDR data are used to improve crash and defect investigation and crash data collection quality to assist safety researchers, vehicle manufacturers, and the agency to understand vehicle crashes better and more precisely. Additionally, vehicle manufacturers are able to utilize EDR data in improving vehicle designs and developing more effective vehicle safety countermeasures. EDR data can also be used by Advanced Automatic Crash Notification (AACN) systems to aid emergency response teams in assessing the severity of a crash and estimating the probability of serious injury before they reach the site of the crash.
      The installation of EDR technology has increased considerably within the light vehicle fleet, as most manufacturers have voluntarily chosen to install some type of EDR capability in their vehicles. The light vehicles most likely to be equipped with EDRs are those that are required to be equipped with frontal air bags, i.e., passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles (MPVs), trucks, and buses with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 3,855 kilograms (kg) (8,500 pounds) or less and an unloaded vehicle weight of 2,495 kg (5,500 pounds) or less. We estimate that about 92 percent of model year (MY) 2010 passenger cars and other vehicles with a GVWR of 3,855 kg or less have some EDR capability.
      In August 2006, NHTSA established 49 CFR Part 563 (Part 563), which sets forth requirements for data elements, data capture and format, data retrieval, and data crash survivability for EDRs. The requirements apply to light vehicles required to have frontal air bags (those with a GVWR of 3,855 kg or less and an unloaded vehicle weight of 2,595 kg or less) [2] that are manufactured on or after September 1, 2012, and are equipped with EDRs. Thus, the regulation applies to only those vehicles that are voluntarily equipped with EDRs.
      This notice of proposed rulemaking would establish a new safety standard mandating the installation of EDRs for all light vehicles that are required to have frontal air bags and are manufactured on or after September 1, 2014. The EDRs in those vehicles would be required by the new standard to meet the data elements, data capture and format, data retrieval, and data crash survivability requirements contained in Part 563. The agency is issuing this proposal because we believe that, without a regulation, EDRs will remain absent from the estimated 8 percent of the current light vehicle fleet that lacks an EDR. We believe that requiring all light vehicles required to have frontal air bags to be equipped with EDRs would help improve vehicle safety for consumers, while imposing relatively limited costs on the automobile industry.
      NHTSA is proposing today's NPRM under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (''Motor Vehicle Safety Act''). Under 49 U.S.C. Chapter 301, Motor Vehicle Safety (49 U.S.C. 30101et seq.), the Secretary of Transportation is responsible for prescribing motor vehicle safety standards that are practicable, meet the need for motor vehicle safety, and are stated in objective terms. [3] ''Motor vehicle safety standard'' means a minimum performance standard for motor vehicles or motor vehicle equipment. When prescribing such standards, the Secretary must consider all relevant, available motor vehicle safety information. [4] The Secretary must also consider whether a proposed standard is reasonable, practicable, and appropriate for the types of motor vehicles or motor vehicle equipment for which it is prescribed and the extent to which the standard will further the statutory purpose of reducing traffic accidents and associated deaths. [5] The responsibility for promulgation of Federal motor vehicle safety standards is delegated to NHTSA. In proposing to require the installation of EDRs in most light vehicles manufactured on or after September 1, 2014, the agency carefully considered these statutory requirements.
      Placing the mandate in a FMVSS, instead of Part 563, would expand its ability to avail itself of the enforcement authority of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, making it possible to seek civil penalties for failure to provide an EDR or for failure to provide one that performs properly. We believe that this step is necessary to ensure that all manufacturers install EDRs and that the agency has full and accurate EDR information for all light vehicles required to have frontal air bags.
      The benefits of this proposal would be to expand and, therefore, enhance the utilization of the recorded information and lead to further improvements in the safety of current vehicles as well as future ones. A disproportionately high percentage of the light vehicles that would be affected by this proposal are relatively expensive vehicles and thus are significantly more likely than the typical light vehicle to be equipped with advanced safety features and systems, including advanced collision avoidance technologies. Thus, the light vehicles that would be affected by this proposal are the ones on which data regarding real world performance will most likely first be generated. It is important to have EDR data relating to the crash experiences of vehicles with these advanced safety systems so that the agency can, at the earliest possible time, gather enough information about emerging advanced technologies to conduct reliable analyses and make policy judgments. Additionally, the agency's experience in handling unintended acceleration and pedal entrapment allegations has demonstrated that EDR data from a particular vehicle model can have significant value to both the agency and the vehicle's manufacturer to identify and address safety concerns associated with possible defects in the design or performance of the vehicle. To serve this purpose for all light vehicles required to have frontal air bags, EDR data must be available for all such vehicles.
      This proposal would not change any of the substantive requirements of Part 563. The agency recognizes that there have been advances in vehicle safety systems and the implementation of new FMVSSs since the publication of the EDR final rule in 2006. [6] However, the issue of whether there should be any changes to the amount and type of information that EDRs must collect is not being considered in this rulemaking. This proposal would also not modify any of the requirements or specifications for EDRs voluntarily installed between September 1, 2012 and September 1, 2014.
      We believe that the costs of installing EDRs are minimal because the devices involve the capture into memory of data that are already being processed by the vehicle, and not the much higher costs of providing sensors to obtain much of that data in the first place. The cost for an EDR is estimated to be $20 per vehicle. The estimated total incremental costs associated with this proposal would be $26.4 million (2010 dollars), which reflects the need for technology improvements, as well as assembly costs, compliance costs, and paperwork maintenance costs for those 1.32 million vehicles that have a GVWR of 3,855 kg or less, but do not currently have EDRs. Technological improvements account for the majority of these costs.
      The agency acknowledges that consumer privacy concerns persist regarding EDR data: Who owns it, who has access to it and under what circumstances, and what are the purposes for which it may be used. Approximately one dozen states have enacted laws addressing these issues. While these issues are of continued importance in the public discussion on the use of EDR technology, as an agency, we do not have the statutory authority to address many of these privacy issues because they are generally matters of State and Federal law that we do not administer. Within the limits of its authority, NHTSA has consistently sought to promote the recording of vital crash event information and to access and use that information in ways that safeguard privacy. For example, the agency seeks to access EDR data only with the vehicle owner's permission.
      A. Overview of Event Data Recorder (EDR) TechnologyAn EDR is a function or device installed in a motor vehicle to record technical information about the status and operation of vehicle systems for a very brief period of time (i.e., a few seconds immediately before and during a crash), primarily for the purpose of post-crash assessment of vehicle safety system performance. [7] In most cases, the type of crash that leads to the capturing of data is a frontal or side collision that is sufficiently severe to cause the air bags to deploy. Data collected from the EDR of a crash-involved vehicle can provide valuable information on the severity of the crash, operation of its air bags, and what air bag deployment decision strategies were used during the event. Additionally, the data can be used to assess whether the vehicle was operating properly at the time of the event, or to help detect undesirable operations that may lead to a recall of the vehicle to remedy the problem. The information obtained by manufacturers from EDRs aids them in improving vehicle performance in crash events.
      In recent years, the installation of EDR technology has increased considerably within the light vehicle fleet, as most manufacturers have voluntarily chosen to install some type of EDR capability in their vehicles. The light vehicles most likely to be equipped with EDRs are those that are required to be equipped with frontal air bags, i.e., passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles (MPVs), trucks, and buses with a GVWR of 3,855 kilograms (kg) (8,500 pounds) or less and an unloaded vehicle weight of 2,495 kg (5,500 pounds) or less. These vehicles compose the vast majority of light vehicles. We estimate that about 92 percent of model year (MY) 2010 passenger cars and other vehicles with a GVWR 3,855 kg (8,500 pounds) or less have some EDR capability. This estimate is based on information that was taken from manufacturer-reporting to the agency regarding their 2010 vehicles and then weighting using 2010 corporate-level vehicle projected sales figures to estimate an overall industry-wide fleet figure.
      For manufacturers that install EDRs in most light vehicles on or after September 1, 2012, the current regulation, 49 CFR Part 563 (Part 563), requires that their EDRs record 15 data elements at a minimum, and sets requirements for the range and accuracy of the EDR data collected under the regulation. The discussion below explains in detail the requirements of Part 563.
      For more background information on NHTSA's rulemaking actions regarding EDR technologies, please see the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) at 69 FR 32932 (June 14, 2004), [8] the final rule at 71 FR 50998 (August 28, 2006), [9] and amendments to the final rule and responses to petitions for reconsideration at 73 FR 2168 (January 14, 2008), [10]76 FR 47478 (August 5, 2011), and 77 FR 47552 (August 9, 2012).
      B. EDR Regulatory History'--The Establishment of Part 563For more than a decade, the agency has been assessing the potential value of real-world EDR crash data for improving our understanding of vehicle safety system performance and our analysis of vehicle crashes. Several years ago, NHTSA working groups [11] examined data elements for the purpose of identifying the most useful set of crash data to aid the agency in achieving its goal of reducing highway deaths.
      On August 28, 2006, following public notice and comment, the agency's early research efforts culminated in the publication of a final rule that established Part 563. [12] Part 563 establishes uniform performance requirements for the accuracy, collection, storage, survivability, and retrievability of that set of onboard motor vehicle crash event data in passenger cars and other light vehicles equipped with EDRs.
      In response to petitions for reconsideration, the agency amended Part 563 in January 2008 to make several technical changes to the regulatory text and to set a later compliance date of September 1, 2012. [13] The new compliance date helped manufacturers to avoid incurring significant redesign costs for EDR system architectures outside of the normal product cycle. Again in response to petitions for reconsideration, the agency amended Part 563 on August 5, 2011, to revise the acceleration data elements, clarify the event storage definition and make other minor technical modifications. [14] Finally, in response to further petitions for reconsideration, the agency amended Part 563 on August 9, 2012, to revise the steering input data element and delay the compliance date for the data clipping flag requirement. [15]
      C. Summary of Part 563Part 563 regulates EDR-equipped vehicles by specifying a minimum core set of required data elements and accompanying range, accuracy, and resolution requirements for those elements. The regulation also specifies requirements for vehicle manufacturers to make data retrieval tools and/or methods commercially available so that crash investigators and researchers are able to retrieve data from EDRs. Part 563 is technology-neutral, permitting the use of any available EDR technology that complies with the specified performance requirements.
      Part 563 applies to passenger cars, MPVs, trucks, and buses with a GVWR of 3,855 kg (8,500 pounds) or less and an unloaded vehicle weight of 2,595 kg (5,500 pounds) or less, [16] that are voluntarily equipped with an event data recorder. It also applies to manufacturers of these vehicles, who must ensure the commercial availability of data retrieval tools. The regulation became effective on September 1, 2012. [17]
      1. Data Elements RecordedPart 563 specifies minimum requirements for the types of data that EDR-equipped vehicles are required to record. In all, there are 15 data elements that must be recorded during the interval/time and at the sample rate specified in Table I of Part 563. [18] Some of the required pre-crash data are vehicle speed, engine throttle position, brake use, driver safety belt status, and air bag warning lamp status. Some of the required crash data are measured changes in forward velocity (delta-V) and air bag deployment times.
      In addition, a vehicle equipped with an EDR that records any of the 28 data elements listed in Table II of Part 563, identified as ''if recorded,'' must capture and record information according to the minimum interval/time and at the sample rate specified in that table. [19] There are two data elements listed in Table II, identified as ''if equipped.'' If a vehicle carries this equipment, it must record the specified information (i.e., ''frontal air bag deployment, time to nth stage, driver'' and ''front air bag deployment, time to nth stage, right front passenger''). [20]
      When retrieved, the data elements collected by the EDR pursuant to Tables I and II must be reported in accordance with the range, accuracy, and resolution requirements specified in Table III. Reported Data Element Format. [21] All three tables have been included in Appendix A to this preamble. [22]
      2. Data RetrievalPart 563 requires that each vehicle manufacturer ensure, by licensing agreement or other means, the commercial availability of retrieval tool(s) for downloading or imaging the required EDR data. [23] The data-imaging tool must be commercially available no later than 90 days after the first sale of the vehicle for purposes other than resale. [24]
      3. Data Survivability and Crash Test Performance RequirementsTo ensure that data are recorded in a crash and that the data survive the crash, EDRs must record and retain in retrievable condition certain data when the vehicles in which they are installed are tested in accordance with crash test procedures specified in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) Nos. 208, ''Occupant crash protection,'' and 214, ''Side impact protection.'' [25] These crash tests represent the modes of a majority of real-world crashes and severities observed. For example, several FMVSS No. 208 crash tests are performed at speeds of up to 56 km/h (35 mph), which represent the cumulative delta-V for 99 percent of frontal crashes. [26] The EDR data must be retrievable for no less than 10 days after the crash test.
      D. NHTSA's Validation of and Reliance on EDR Data in Its Crash Investigations Relating to Unintended AccelerationBased on the agency's experience with EDRs over the past decade, as well as with recent investigations of alleged unintended acceleration and pedal entrapment, the agency has found EDR data to be an important tool that provides valuable insight. EDR data provides vehicle-recorded pre-crash information, supplementing information obtained from the driver and physical evidence from the scene.
      A number of technical papers have been published on EDR accuracy in the crash test environment. Early studies focused on the full frontal barrier crash test environment where the reported EDR data was compared to instrumentation grade accelerometers mounted on the vehicle. Due to the limited availability of EDRs at that time, these studies were exclusively based on EDRs produced by General Motors. The studies reported a small amount of underestimation in the EDR delta-V reporting. [27]
      More recent technical papers [28] have incorporated EDRs from other vehicle manufacturers, such as Ford and Toyota. They have also looked at a variety of impact scenarios including full frontal, offset frontal, side impact, and vehicle-to-vehicle angled tests. Better correlation between EDR and crash test delta-V were reported, particularly at higher impact speeds where more serious injuries occur. Accurate reporting of seat belt use and pre-crash data was also observed. The findings from these studies are generally consistent with the agency's experience to date; however, monitoring of EDR performance will continue as more vehicle manufacturers incorporate EDRs into the fleet. Furthermore, the agency continues to emphasize that EDRs provide one valuable piece of information, along with on-site evidence, needed to reconstruct crash events.
      In March 2010, the agency began to obtain data from Toyota EDRs as part of its inquiry into allegations of unintended acceleration (UA), and as follow-up to the recalls of some Toyota models for sticking and entrapped accelerator pedals. [29] The agency conducted a thorough process of validating the accuracy of Toyota's EDR data and has high confidence in the accuracy of the data recovered. [30] In the NHTSA report [31] on the analysis and findings concerning UA in vehicles manufactured by Toyota, the validation efforts were described. The validation work was extensive and ultimately NHTSA established a high level of confidence in the veracity of pre-crash data recovered from Toyota's EDRs. Those data were found to be very valuable when considered in concert with the physical facts of a given incident.
      When the agency received an allegation of UA or pedal entrapment, it interviewed the complainant and obtained permission for agency investigators to inspect the vehicle and, if it was EDR-equipped, attempted to download any data on the EDR. [32] NHTSA investigators also visited the location of the alleged incident to evaluate the complaint fully. [33] Complainants might state that while coming to an intersection, the vehicle suddenly accelerated without warning, resulting in a crash, or while driving on the highway, the vehicle continued to accelerate without the complainant's having stepped on the accelerator pedal and the brakes would not stop the vehicle.
      Typically, EDRs store data specific to the dynamic state of the vehicle just prior to a crash, the performance of the air bag system in a crash, and a deceleration trace. The EDRs in Toyota vehicles examined by NHTSA captured vehicle speed, accelerator pedal voltage, brake light switch status, and engine revolutions per minute (rpm) at five, one-second intervals prior to a crash. A sixth and final interval of data was recorded at algorithm enable or when the EDR sensed an impact. While non-crash impacts such as curb and pothole strikes might enable an EDR algorithm and cause it to store data, aggressive throttle application or braking (without impact) would not enable the EDR.
      For further information on the agency's field inspections of recent crashes alleging one or more forms of UA and the contribution of EDR data to the agency's investigations, please see Technical Assessment of Toyota Electronic Throttle Control (ETC) Systems, February 2011.[34]
      A. Overview1. Overall Plan for Reviewing and Upgrading EDR RequirementsBased on its experience with EDR data in the unintended acceleration studies and on the potential role of EDR data in investigations of future vehicles and technologies, the agency has been reviewing the requirements of Part 563 and assessing whether the applicability of the requirements should be expanded or the capabilities of EDRs should be increased. NHTSA plans on publishing an advance notice of proposed rulemaking in the near future to explore the potential for, and future utility of, capturing additional EDR data in light vehicles.
      2. This ProposalThe agency proposes a new FMVSS, FMVSS No. 405, ''Event data recorders,'' which would mandate the installation of EDRs in most light vehicles manufactured on or after September 1, 2014. This proposal would also require that the vehicles meet the requirements for data elements, data format, and data capture contained in Part 563. Additionally, this proposal would require compliance with the crash test performance and survivability requirements in Part 563. This would mean that the data elements required by the regulation, with certain exceptions, must be recorded in the format specified by the regulation, exist at the completion of the crash test, and be retrievable by the methodology specified by the vehicle manufacturer. This proposal would also require manufacturers to comply with the requirements for such data retrieval tools listed in ¤ 563.12. Finally, this proposal would require that the owner's manual in each vehicle contain the statement regarding EDRs required by ¤ 563.11.
      A key priority of this NPRM is for the agency to require EDRs in light vehicles with a GVWR of 3,855 kg or less and an unloaded vehicle weight of 2,595 kg or less, without disrupting the initiative and efforts of those manufacturers who already have voluntarily installed Part 563 compliant EDRs. Accordingly, we are not now proposing any modifications to Part 563 itself, e.g., not to any EDR data elements, data capture and format requirements, data retrieval specifications, or data survivability and crash test requirements. Likewise, we are not proposing revisions to the definitions section of Part 563.
      The agency recognizes that that there have been advances in vehicle safety systems and the phase-in of new FMVSSs since the publication of the EDR final rule in 2006. [35] However, the issue of whether there should be any changes to the amount and type of information that EDRs must collect is not being considered in this rulemaking. Any significant revision to the substantive components of Part 563 is outside the scope of this NPRM.
      B. Reasons To Mandate the Installation of EDRsIn the 2006 EDR final rule, the agency chose not to mandate installation of EDRs at that time for purposes of encouraging the voluntary development and installation of EDRs and alleviating costs on automobile manufacturers and consumers. Although we did not mandate EDRs in 2006, we stated that it was our intention that their use continue to expand. [36]
      The agency explained further that the ''marketplace appears to be adopting EDRs and we do not currently see a need to mandate their installation.'' [37] The agency gave the following reasons for reaching this conclusion:
      Thus, the agency did not deem it necessary to propose to require the installation of EDRs, but remained open to considering this in the future. We are now revisiting that decision and the reasons given to support it. The agency has tentatively reached different conclusions about the issues it discussed in its 2004 and 2006 explanations of its decision not to seek to mandate EDRs.
      Our first line of reasoning for an EDR mandate is driven by a need to fully cover light vehicles required to have frontal air bags (those with a GVWR of 3,855 kg or less and an unloaded vehicle weight of 2,595 kg or less) in order to improve vehicle safety and aid the agency in investigating potential safety defects. Although the percentage of light vehicles voluntarily equipped with EDRs has steadily increased as anticipated, EDRs remain absent from about 8 percent of the current production of all light vehicles regulated by Part 563. We believe that EDRs will remain absent from these vehicles without a regulation.
      While it remains true that the current and expected levels of voluntary installation of EDRs may be sufficient to generate data for assessing performance of the general vehicle population to support future rulemaking, the agency notes that many of the vehicles without EDRs are high end vehicles and that advanced safety technologies, including advanced collision avoidance technologies, are typically first introduced on high end vehicles. Thus, it is particularly important to be able to obtain EDR data generated by the crash experience of these particular vehicles so that the agency has as much information about emerging advanced technologies as possible.
      In its 2006 determination, the agency did not take into consideration the significant value that EDR data from a particular vehicle model can have, as subsequently shown in the recent Toyota unintended acceleration study, in aiding the agency in assessing the performance of that vehicle model in the course of a safety defect investigation. To serve this purpose, EDR data must be available for all applicable light vehicles.
      Finally, the agency does not believe that a mandate whose practical effect would be to require the installation of EDRs would impose unnecessary burdens on less expensive vehicles or hamper future improvements to EDRs given that vehicle electronics on even the least expensive vehicles are much more sophisticated today than they were in 2004 and 2006.
      C. Reasons To Place the Mandate in a Safety StandardAs noted above, we are proposing to establish a new FMVSS that requires each light vehicle having a GVWR of 3,855 kg or less and an unloaded weight of 2,495 kg or less to be equipped with an EDR capable of recording, at a minimum, the data elements specified in Table I of section 563.7. These vehicles would also need to meet the data capture and data format requirements for these elements. FMVSS No. 405 would further require that these vehicles meet the crash test performance and survivability requirements in section 563.10 with respect to the required data elements. This would have the effect of requiring that all required data elements in Part 563, except engine throttle, engine RPM, and service brake status, be retrievable for 10 days after the specified crash test. Section 563.10(c) also specifies the use of the data retrieval tool in section 563.12, and FMVSS No. 405 would make such a tool mandatory by incorporating the requirements of section 563.12. Finally, FMVSS No. 405 would require that the owner's manual in each vehicle contain the statement regarding EDRs required by section 563.11. Although by virtue of being equipped with an EDR, the vehicles affected by this rule would still need to meet all other applicable requirements of Part 563, the expanded enforcement authority available for a FMVSS, described below, would only apply to requirements listed in FMVSS No. 405.
      NHTSA recognizes that it previously expressed the view that the requirements for voluntarily-installed EDRs should be placed in a regulation instead of in a standard:
      We have reconsidered that position in light of subsequent experience and in the different context of this rulemaking, which seeks to mandate the installation of EDRs. Our experience in addressing unintended acceleration and pedal entrapment allegations demonstrated the value that EDR data can have for the safety of current as well as future motor vehicles. EDR data from a particular vehicle model already on the road can aid NHTSA and the model's manufacturer in their efforts to identify and address safety concerns associated with possible defects in the design or performance of those vehicles.
      As to our 2006 statement about a failure to meet EDR requirements being subject to an enforcement action, we note that there is more than one form of enforcement action. Collecting penalties is one. Seeking an injunction is another. We had the latter type of enforcement action in mind when making that statement.
      Placing the mandate in a FMVSS, instead of Part 563, would expand our access to the Safety Act's enforcement authority, enabling us to assess civil penalties for failure to provide an EDR or for failure to provide one that performs properly. We believe that being able to avail ourselves of this authority is necessary to ensure that all manufacturers install EDRs and that the agency has full and accurate EDR information. Such information can be vital to an agency investigation seeking to determine whether there is a safety defect in vehicles that are being driven by consumers on the road and to agency efforts to assess the performance of advanced safety technologies for possible future regulatory action. Not having an EDR or not recording such safety information has assumed even greater importance in the last several years and is far more consequential than a minor informational error, such as those involving the regulation on Vehicle Identification Numbers, for example. [40]
      Failure to comply with a FMVSS would violate the prohibition in 49 U.S.C. 30112 against manufacturing for sale, selling, offering for sale, introducing or delivering for introduction in interstate commerce, or importing into the United States any motor vehicle that does not comply with any applicable FMVSS. It would also subject them to the recall and remedy provisions of 49 U.S.C. 30118 and 30120. In turn, violations of that prohibition or the recall and remedy provisions would be subject the violator to civil penalties under 49 U.S.C. 30165(a)(1).
      For the reasons stated above, we tentatively conclude that placing the requirements, including the EDR requirement itself, in a FMVSS is better than placing the requirements in Part 563. We acknowledge, however, that placing all of the requirements in Part 563 is an alternative to placing them in a FMVSS. We seek comment on the relative merits of placing the requirements in a FMVSS versus in Part 563. The agency requests comments on (1) which, if any, portions of Part 563 should be moved to the new FMVSS and which portions should remain in Part 563, and (2) whether some provisions should be set out in full in both or at least be set out in full in one and be incorporated by reference in the other. Should FMVSS No. 405 require that only some of the Table I elements be recorded? Should the requirements for the optional data elements listed in Table II not be incorporated into FMVSS No. 405? Would it be preferable to simply rebadge Part 563 in its entirety as FMVSS No. 405? What would be the potential problems with such an approach? How do manufacturers verify or plan to verify EDRs meet the recording requirements of Table I and II elements in Part 563?
      Because EDRs, unlike other safety equipment, do not directly mitigate the risk or severity of a crash, the agency is considering how the recall and remedy provisions of the Safety Act would apply to noncompliance with the proposed FMVSS. The agency notes that 49 U.S.C. ¤ 30118(d) authorizes the Secretary to exempt individual manufacturers from the recall and remedy provisions if the Secretary decides that a defect or noncompliance is inconsequential to motor vehicle safety. [41] The Secretary has delegated this exemption authority to NHTSA. NHTSA established 49 CFR Part 556, Exemption for Inconsequential Defect or Noncompliance, to implement the statutory provisions concerning these exemptions. The agency requests comment on what factors the agency should consider, if the proposed FMVSS is adopted, in determining whether an identified noncompliance is inconsequential. Should any noncompliance with the proposed FMVSS be subject to remedy and recall? Should recall and remedy be limited to noncompliance with certain requirements, such as noncompliance with the Table I data element requirements or the crash survivability requirements? Should noncompliance with the optional data element requirements be considered inconsequential?
      D. Privacy IssuesThe agency acknowledges that consumer privacy concerns persist regarding EDR data: Who owns it, who has access to it and under what circumstances, and what are the purposes for which it may be used. While these issues are of continued importance in the public discussion on the use of EDR technology, as an agency, we do not have the statutory authority to address many of these privacy issues because they are generally matters of State and Federal law that we do not administer. Currently, 13 states [42] have EDR laws to address vehicle owners' privacy and consumer concerns. Since 2006, more than a dozen other states have considered enacting similar legislation.
      Within the limits of its authority, NHTSA has consistently sought to promote the recording of vital crash event information and to access and use that information in ways that safeguard privacy.
      1. Agency Tailored EDR Performance Requirements To Minimize Data GatheringMany of the public's concerns about EDRs appear to arise from misconceptions about how long and under what circumstances EDRs capture and permanently store data. Concerns raised in the past about EDRs and privacy arose from the misconceptions that EDRs record data for prolonged intervals and that they record personal information. We have sought, in developing and establishing the EDR requirements, to minimize the types of data recorded and the duration of any recording. We do not require the recording of data for prolonged intervals (i.e., several minutes) or audio/visual data that the public may associate with event data recorders in other modes of transportation. We believe that our objectives can be met by using a very brief snapshot of EDR data in the time period immediately surrounding a crash.
      The EDR requirements we adopted standardize EDR data recording for an extremely short duration (i.e., a few seconds immediately before and during a crash). EDRs compliant with Part 563 requirements continuously record and seconds later erase data unless and until a frontal air bag or in some cases, a side air bag deploys. If no frontal or side air bag ever deploys, no data are ever permanently captured and stored. [43] Other types of events can result in storage of data that can be overwritten by subsequent events. Data are only required to be locked and cannot be overwritten when an air bag deploys in a crash event. When recordable events do occur, EDRs only capture data for a few seconds. EDRs do not record any personal information. They do not record either location identification information or any audio or video data.
      2. Agency Seeks Vehicle Owner Permission To Access EDR dataNHTSA does not have any authority to establish legally binding rules regarding the ownership or use of a vehicle's EDR data. [44] Its authority to regulate safety performance of new vehicles, prohibit commercial entities from rendering federally required safety performance features inoperative and require the recalling and remedying of noncompliant vehicles and vehicles containing a safety related defect does not enable NHTSA to control who has access to the data, specify the circumstances in which access can be obtained, or regulate how those who obtain access to the data use it.
      Nevertheless, the agency strives in its own actions relating to EDR requirements and data to avoid or at least minimize any impacts on privacy. NHTSA's longstanding policy has been to treat EDR data as the property of the vehicle owner. (Note, however, that complications may arise when ownership of the vehicle or EDR is transferred after a crash.) For this reason, before we attempt to obtain EDR data in a crash investigation, our first step is always to obtain the vehicle owner's consent. Once we obtain EDR data, we take measures to protect all personally identifiable information (e.g., the vehicle identification number (VIN) may be associated with the identity of the vehicle owner), and we assure the vehicle owner that all such information will be held confidential. In handling EDR and related personal information, the agency carefully complies with applicable provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974, the Freedom of Information Act, and other statutory requirements that limit the disclosure of personal information by Federal agencies.
      3. Necessity of VIN CollectionPart 563 does not require the EDR in a motor vehicle to record that vehicle's VIN. However, for the reasons set forth in the next paragraph, when NHTSA collects the EDR data from a vehicle, the agency also separately collects the VIN of that vehicle. The following discussion explains why it is necessary for the agency to collect VIN in connection with EDRs, how the VIN is used by the agency, and the safeguards the agency takes related to avoid the release of the VIN.
      Collecting the VIN is necessary to download and process the EDR data correctly. The commercial EDR download tools require a vehicle's VIN be inputted into the program in order to link the EDR data from that vehicle with parameters that ensure proper conversion of the data to a usable format. A partial VIN will not suffice for this purpose. The full VIN of a vehicle must be inputted into current EDR extraction tools as a key to ensure proper output and to account for running changes that may occur during a particular model year, thereby rendering it infeasible to use a shortened VIN.
      4. Agency Protects VINs Needed To Download EDR DataNHTSA takes care to protect the VINs that are collected along with EDR data. The VIN data identify the vehicle itself and do not provide name, address, or other personal identifier information regarding an individual. Further, EDR data alone cannot establish who was driving the vehicle at any given time (e.g., vehicle owner or other individuals (either with or without permission)).
      Nevertheless, NHTSA has taken steps to prevent the release of any VIN because it can be used in various commercially-available programs to determine the identity of the current owner of a vehicle. As a practical matter, information contained in these records that has the potential of indirectly identifying individuals is not made public by the agency, except as specifically required by law. Further, prior to the release of information from databases containing EDR data (usually aggregated reports), the agency strips out the last six characters of the VIN (i.e., the portion that would allow identification of a specific vehicle and, potentially by indirect means, the identity of the vehicle's current owner).
      5. Agency Uses and Stores EDR Data in Ways To Preserve PrivacyIn using EDR data, the agency takes the EDR-generated information that it collects and incorporates the information into large crash-related databases in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of certain crash events. The information contained in these databases is not retrieved or retrievable by name or other individual identifier.
      In light of the above, we believe that the agency has taken adequate steps to ensure individual privacy vis--vis its use of EDR data. Additional information on EDRs may be found on the agency's Web site where we address a range of EDR issues. The Web site is accessible at http://www.nhtsa.gov/EDR. For more background information on privacy issues related to EDRs, please see the NPRM at 69 FR 32932 (June 14, 2004), the final rule at 71 FR 50998 (August 28, 2006), and amendments to the final rule and response to petitions for reconsideration at 73 FR 2168 (January 14, 2008) and 76 FR 47478 (August 5, 2011).
      E. Lead TimeWe are proposing an effective date of September 1, 2014. The agency estimates that approximately 92 percent of the light vehicle fleet is equipped with Part 563 compliant EDRs. The lead time we are proposing is sufficient to ensure that manufacturers of the remaining portion of the fleet that are not equipped with an EDR can redesign the data bus architecture, air bag control module, other electronic hardware and software calibration, conduct the requisite validation testing, and ensure that a tool that can retrieve the EDR data is commercially available. The proposed lead time should address the practical concerns of small volume manufacturers and many new electric and hybrid electric manufacturers who are entering the market and who may not have been planning to install EDRs.
      F. Benefits and Costs of This ProposalMandating the installation of EDRs in light vehicles required to have frontal air bags would provide for a standardized set of EDR data elements and formats throughout most of the light vehicle fleet rather than on just those manufacturers who chose to voluntarily install EDRs. This would expand and, therefore, potentially enhance the utilization of the recorded information and lead to further improvements in the safety of current and future motor vehicles.
      Although the benefits of this NPRM derive from expansion of EDR coverage, we will briefly review the general benefits related to EDRs. EDR data improve crash investigation and crash data collection quality to assist safety researchers, vehicle manufacturers, and the agency to understand vehicle crashes better and more precisely. [45] While crash investigators gather insightful information about the dynamics of crashes, some of these parameters cannot be determined (such as anti-lock braking system or electronic stability control functioning status) or cannot be as accurately measured (such as the change in velocity) by traditional post-crash investigation procedures such as visually examining and evaluating physical evidence, e.g., the crash-involved vehicles and skid marks. Further, some vehicle crash dynamics related to rollover (such as roll angle, roll rate and normal acceleration) cannot be effectively estimated by crash investigators post-crash. Data collected by the EDR can provide a direct means for measuring these needed crash parameters.
      Similarly, vehicle manufacturers are able to utilize EDRs in improving vehicle designs and developing more effective vehicle safety countermeasures. Additionally, many vehicle manufacturers are developing active safety systems (or crash avoidance systems) that assist drivers in reducing the likelihood of crash occurrence. EDR recorded pre-crash data (e.g., vehicle speed and engine throttle) could be used to further improve active safety systems and reduce crash involvement rates. Additionally, the data can be used to assess whether the vehicle was operating properly at the time of the event, or to help detect undesirable operations.
      Currently, Advanced Automatic Crash Notification (AACN) systems may make use of some of the Part 563 required data elements such as change in velocity, air bag deployments, and safety belt status to aid emergency response teams in assessing the severity of a crash and estimating the probability of serious injury before they arrive at the scene of the crash. [46] Overall, we believe there are many safety-related benefits that would derive from requiring light vehicles to be equipped with EDRs.
      In addition to the general benefits derived from EDR installation, there are benefits specific to this NPRM to mandate EDRs. As shown in the recent Toyota unintended acceleration studies, EDR data from a particular vehicle model can have significant value in aiding the agency in assessing the performance of that vehicle model and in determining the need for, or conducting, a safety defect investigation that may lead to a recall of the vehicle model for repair or replacement of problem parts or systems. To serve this purpose for all light vehicles required to have frontal air bags, EDR data must be available for those vehicles.
      EDR data can also aid in the improvement in existing safety standards and the development of new ones. Many of the vehicles anticipated to continue to lack EDRs, absent a mandate, are high end vehicles that have advanced safety technologies, including advanced collision avoidance technologies. Such technologies are typically first introduced on high end vehicles. Thus, it is particularly important to be able to obtain EDR data generated by the crash experience of these particular vehicles.
      The cost for an EDR is estimated to be $20 per vehicle. The estimated total incremental costs associated with this proposal would be $26.4 million (2010 dollars), which is measured from a baseline of 91.6 percent EDR installation to 100 percent installation, assuming the sale of 16.5 million light vehicles per year with a GVWR up to 4,536 kg. This cost reflects the need for technology improvements, as well as assembly costs, compliance costs, and paperwork maintenance costs for those 1.32 million vehicles with a GVWR of 3,855 kg or less that do not have EDRs. Technological improvements account for the majority of these costs.
      A. Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 and DOT Regulatory Policies and ProceduresNHTSA has considered the potential impacts of this proposed rule under Executive Order 12866, ''Regulatory Planning and Review,'' and Executive Order 13563, ''Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' and the Department of Transportation's regulatory policies and procedures. This document was reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget under those orders. This document has been determined to be significant under the Department's regulatory policies and procedures. While the potential cost impacts of the proposed rule are far below the level that would make this an economically significant rulemaking, the rulemaking addresses a topic of substantial public interest.
      The agency has prepared a separate document addressing the benefits and costs for the proposed rule. A copy is being placed in the docket.
      As discussed in that document and in the preceding sections of this NPRM, the crash data that would be collected by EDRs under the proposed rule would be extremely valuable for the advancement of vehicle safety by enhancing and facilitating crash investigations, the evaluation of safety countermeasures, advanced restraint and safety countermeasure research and development, certain safety defect investigations, and AACN. The improvements in vehicle safety will occur indirectly from the collection of crash data by EDRs. Since the establishment of Part 563 in 2006, the agency has observed an increasing percentage of light vehicles utilizing EDR technology, and researchers, vehicle manufacturers, AACN and emergency medical service (EMS) providers, government agencies, and other members of the safety community are using the EDR data in ways that contribute to overall vehicle safety. EDR data can also have significant value in aiding the agency in assessing the performance of particular vehicle models in determining the need for, or conducting, a safety defect investigation that may lead to a recall of the vehicle for repair or replacement of problem parts or systems, as was made evident in the recent UA investigations involving Toyota vehicles, discussed earlier in this NPRM.
      We estimate that about 92 percent of new light vehicles are already equipped with EDRs. As discussed earlier, vehicle manufacturers have provided EDRs in their vehicles by adding EDR capability to their vehicles' air bag control systems. The costs of EDRs have been minimized, because they involve the capture into memory of data that is already being processed by the vehicle, and not the much higher costs of sensing much of that data in the first place.
      The costs of the proposed rule would be the incremental costs for vehicles currently not equipped with EDRs to comply with the proposed EDR mandate and Part 563's requirements. We estimate the total annual costs of the proposed rule to be $26.4 million. While the potential costs include technology costs, paperwork maintenance costs, [47] and compliance costs, the paperwork maintenance and compliance costs are estimated to be negligible. The proposal would not require additional sensors to be installed in vehicles, and the major technology cost would result from a need to upgrade memory chips and hardware for housing the recorded data. The total cost for the estimated 1.2 million vehicles that do not have an EDR to comply with the proposed mandate and Part 563 requirements is estimated to be $26.4 million (2010 dollars). A complete discussion of how NHTSA arrived at these costs may be found in the separate document on benefits and costs.
      B. Regulatory Flexibility ActNHTSA has considered the impacts of this rulemaking action under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601et seq.). We certify that the proposed amendment would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
      The following is the agency's statement providing the factual basis for the certification (5 U.S.C. 605(b)). If adopted, the proposal would directly affect motor vehicle manufacturers, second stage or final manufacturers, and alterers. SIC code number 3711, Motor Vehicles and Passenger Car Bodies, prescribes a small business size standard of 1,000 or fewer employees. SIC code No. 3714, Motor Vehicle Part and Accessories, prescribes a small business size standard of 750 or fewer employees.
      Nine motor vehicle manufacturers affected by this proposal would qualify as a small business, as identified in the Preliminary Regulatory Evaluation. [48] Most of the intermediate and final stage manufacturers of vehicles built in two or more stages and alterers have 1,000 or fewer employees. However, these small businesses adhere to original equipment manufacturers' instructions in manufacturing modified and altered vehicles. Based on our knowledge, original equipment manufacturers do not permit a final stage manufacturer or alterer to modify or alter sophisticated devices such as air bags or EDRs. Therefore, multistage manufacturers and alterers would be able to rely on the certification and information provided by the original equipment manufacturer. Accordingly, there would be no significant impact on small businesses, small organizations, or small governmental units by these amendments. For these reasons, the agency has not prepared a preliminary regulatory flexibility analysis.
      C. Executive Order 13132 (Federalism)NHTSA has examined today's proposal pursuant to Executive Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999). Because multiple States have enacted laws related to EDRs and may thus have a particular interest in this rulemaking, NHTSA has initiated efforts to consult with associations representing officials of those States [49] to obtain their views of the impact, if any, of this proposed rulemaking.
      NHTSA rules can preempt in two ways. First, the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act contains an express preemption provision: When a motor vehicle safety standard is in effect under this chapter, a State or a political subdivision of a State may prescribe or continue in effect a standard applicable to the same aspect of performance of a motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment only if the standard is identical to the standard prescribed under this chapter. [50] It is this statutory command by Congress that preempts any non-identical State legislative and administrative law addressing the same aspect of performance. Thus, to the extent that aspects of EDR performance would be addressed by a safety standard, States would be expressly preempted by section 30103(b)(1) from adopting or maintaining any non-identical statute or regulation addressing those aspects of performance. With respect to this proposal, such aspects would include State EDR technical requirements requiring that EDRs record specific data elements, and/or requiring EDRs to meet specific technical performance or survivability requirements. Further, it is our view that any State laws or regulations that imposed, for the types of EDRs addressed by this proposal, additional disclosure requirements on vehicle manufacturers or dealers would likewise create a conflict and therefore be preempted. The disclosure requirements in Part 563, which we are proposing to incorporate into FMVSS No. 405, require a statement in the owner's manual to make the operator aware of the presence, function, and capabilities of the EDR. We believe that inconsistent or additional State disclosure requirements would frustrate the purposes of our regulation by potentially creating confusion or information overload, thereby reducing the benefit of the required statement.
      In promulgating Part 563, the agency stated that it was our intent to provide one consistent set of requirements, including a specified statement in the owner's manual, for vehicles equipped with EDRs. In proposing to establish FMVSS No. 405, we continue to believe that this approach will enhance the quality of EDR data by standardizing the content, format, and accuracy of such data, thereby increasing its comparability and overall usefulness. We further believe that the standardized data will be of greater benefit for safety equipment analysis and crash reconstruction.
      This proposed rule does not address certain other issues generally within the realm of State law, such as whether the vehicle owner owns the EDR data, how EDR data can be used/discovered in civil litigation, how EDR data may be used in criminal proceedings, whether EDR data may be obtained by the police without a warrant, whether EDR data may be developed into a driver-monitoring tool, and the nature and extent that private parties (including insurance companies, car rental companies, and automobile manufacturers) will have or may contract for access to EDR data.
      The express preemption provision described above is subject to a savings clause under which ''[c]ompliance with a motor vehicle safety standard prescribed under this chapter does not exempt a person from liability at common law.'' [51] Pursuant to this provision, State common law tort causes of action against motor vehicle manufacturers that might otherwise be preempted by the express preemption provision are generally preserved. However, the Supreme Court has recognized the possibility, in some instances, of implied preemption of such State common law tort causes of action by virtue of NHTSA's rules, even if not expressly preempted. This second way that NHTSA rules can preempt is dependent upon there being an actual conflict between an FMVSS and the higher standard that would effectively be imposed on motor vehicle manufacturers if someone obtained a State common law tort judgment against the manufacturer, notwithstanding the manufacturer's compliance with the NHTSA standard. Because most NHTSA standards established by an FMVSS are minimum standards, a State common law tort cause of action that seeks to impose a higher standard on motor vehicle manufacturers will generally not be preempted. However, if and when such a conflict does exist'--for example, when the standard at issue is both a minimum and a maximum standard'--the State common law tort cause of action is impliedly preempted. See Geier v. American Honda Motor Co., 529 U.S. 861 (2000).
      Pursuant to Executive Order 13132 and 12988, NHTSA has considered whether this rule could or should preempt State common law causes of action. The agency's ability to announce its conclusion regarding the preemptive effect of one of its rules reduces the likelihood that preemption will be an issue in any subsequent tort litigation.
      To this end, the agency has examined the nature (e.g., the language and structure of the regulatory text) and objectives of today's rule and finds that this rule, like many NHTSA rules, prescribes only a minimum safety standard. The agency does not anticipate any State common law tort judgments concerning EDRs that could create any actual conflict. Without any conflict, there could not be any implied preemption of a State common law tort cause of action.
      D. Executive Order 12988[52] (Civil Justice Reform)This proposed rule would not have any retroactive effect. Under section 49 U.S.C. 30103, whenever a Federal motor vehicle safety standard is in effect, a state may not adopt or maintain a safety standard applicable to the same aspect of performance which is not identical to the Federal standard, except to the extent that the state requirement imposes a higher level of performance and applies only to vehicles procured for the state's use. General principles of preemption law would apply, however, to displace any conflicting state law or regulations. If the proposed rule were made final, there would be no requirement for submission of a petition for reconsideration or other administrative proceedings before parties could file suit in court.
      E. Paperwork Reduction ActUnder the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501, et seq.), Federal agencies must obtain approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of information they conduct, sponsor, or require through regulations. This proposal would mandate the installation of EDR devices in most light vehicles manufactured after September 1, 2014, and would require such vehicles to meet the EDR requirements contained in Part 563.
      In compliance with the PRA, we announce that NHTSA is seeking comment on a new information collection. [53]
      Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
      Title: Event Data Recorders.
      Type of Request: New collection.
      OMB Control Number: Not assigned.
      Form Number: The collection of this information uses no standard form.
      Requested Expiration Date of Approval: Three years from the date of approval.
      Summary of the Collection of Information:
      NHTSA is proposing to create a new FMVSS in Part 571 that would require vehicle manufacturers to install EDRs in most light vehicles manufactured on or after September 1, 2014. The EDRs in those vehicles would be required by the new standard to meet the data elements, data capture and format, data retrieval, and data crash survivability requirements of Part 563, the existing regulation setting forth requirements for voluntarily-installed EDRs. This proposal would also require manufacturers to comply with the Part 563 requirements for ensuring the availability of EDR data retrieval tools and the requirement that the owner's manual in each vehicle contain a specified statement regarding EDRs.
      Description of the Need for the Information and Use of the InformationThe agency believes that requiring all light vehicles to be equipped with EDRs would help improve vehicle safety for consumers, while imposing relatively few costs on the automobile industry. EDR data are used to improve crash investigation and crash data collection quality to assist safety researchers, vehicle manufacturers, and the agency to understand vehicle crashes better and more precisely. Similarly, vehicle manufacturers are able to utilize EDRs in improving vehicle designs and developing more effective vehicle safety countermeasures, and EDR data may be used by AACN systems to aid emergency response teams in assessing the severity of a crash and estimating the probability of serious injury.
      Additionally, the agency's experience in handling unintended acceleration and pedal entrapment allegations over the past year has demonstrated that if a vehicle is equipped with an EDR, the data from that EDR can improve the ability of both the agency and the vehicle's manufacturer to identify and address safety concerns associated with possible defects in the design or performance of the vehicle. Moreover, this proposal to mandate EDRs across the entire light vehicle fleet would contribute to advancements in the designs, particularly with respect to occupant restraints and other safety systems, of future vehicles.
      Description of the Likely RespondentsThe respondents are manufacturers of passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses having a GVWR of 3,855 kg (8,500 pounds) or less and an unloaded vehicle weight of 2,495 kg (5,500 pounds). The agency estimates that there are approximately 30 such manufacturers.
      Estimate of the Total Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Burden Resulting From the Collection of InformationThere are no annual reporting or recordkeeping burdens associated with this proposed rule. Vehicle manufacturers are not required to retain or report information gathered by EDRs because the devices themselves continuously monitor vehicle systems and determine when to record, retain, and/or overwrite information. The information is collected automatically by electronic means. Data are only required to be locked and cannot be overwritten when an air bag deploys in a crash event. When recordable events do occur, EDRs only capture data for a few seconds.
      The costs to respondents are the costs of designing and equipping each covered vehicle with a compliant EDR. These costs include technology improvements, assembly costs, and paperwork maintenance costs. [54] Technology improvements account for the majority of these costs. Because the costs of EDRs under the PRA are those associated with the capture of data that is already being processed by the vehicle, the additional burden hours necessary to equip vehicles with EDR capability are minimal.
      In determining the costs of this proposed rule under the PRA, we estimate that there are approximately 15.71 million applicable vehicles produced annually, 14.39 million of which are already voluntarily equipped with EDRs. The cost to install an EDR meeting the requirements of this proposed rule is $20 per vehicle if a vehicle does not have an EDR. The costs of this proposed rule under the PRA include the costs of installing compliant EDRs on all applicable vehicles, even those that are currently equipped with EDRs. Accordingly, the annual total costs of this proposed rule under the PRA would be $314.20 million.
      We emphasize that the regulatory costs of the proposed rule would only be the incremental costs for the 1.32 million vehicles not currently equipped with EDRs to be equipped with an EDR meeting Part 563's requirements. As discussed above, we estimate the total annual regulatory costs of the proposed rule to be $26.4 million.
      Comments are invited on:
      Whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Department, including whether the information will have practical utility.Whether the Department's estimate for the burden of the information collection is accurate.Ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology.Please submit any comments, identified by the docket number in the heading of this document, by any of the methods described in the ADDRESSES section of this document. Comments are due by February 11, 2013.
      F. National Technology Transfer and Advancement ActSection 12(d) of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (NTTAA), Public Law 104-113, section 12(d) (15 U.S.C. 272) directs us to use voluntary consensus standards in regulatory activities unless doing so would be inconsistent with applicable law or otherwise impractical. Voluntary consensus standards are technical standards (e.g., materials specifications, test methods, sampling procedures, and business practices) that are developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies, such as the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The NTTAA directs us to provide Congress, through OMB, explanations when we decide not to use available and applicable voluntary consensus standards.
      There are several consensus standards related to EDRs, most notably those standards published by SAE and IEEE. NHTSA carefully considered the consensus standards applicable to EDR data elements in establishing Part 563. Consensus standards for recording time/intervals, data sample rates, data retrieval, data reliability, data range, accuracy and precision, and EDR crash survivability were evaluated by NHTSA and adopted when practicable. This particular rulemaking, however, does not involve such matters. It is limited to establishing a mandate for certain light vehicles to be equipped with an EDR.
      G. Unfunded Mandates Reform ActSection 202 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA) requires Federal agencies to prepare a written assessment of the costs, benefits, and other effects of proposed or final rules that include a Federal mandate likely to result in the expenditure by State, local, or tribal governments, in the aggregate, or by the private sector, of more than $100 million in any one year (adjusted for inflation with base year of 1995). In 2010 dollars, this threshold is $136 million. [55] Before promulgating a rule for which a written statement is needed, section 205 of the UMRA generally requires NHTSA to identify and consider a reasonable number of regulatory alternatives and to adopt the least costly, most cost-effective, or least burdensome alternative that achieves the objectives of the rule. The provisions of section 205 do not apply when they are inconsistent with applicable law. Moreover, section 205 allows NHTSA to adopt an alternative other than the least costly, most cost-effective, or least burdensome alternative if the agency publishes with the final rule an explanation why that alternative was not adopted.
      If adopted, this proposed rule would not impose any unfunded mandates under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995. This proposed rule would not result in costs in excess of $136 million (2010 dollars) annually to either State, local, or tribal governments, in the aggregate, or to the private sector. Thus, this proposed rule is not subject to the requirements of sections 202 and 205 of the UMRA.
      H. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)NHTSA has analyzed this rulemaking action for the purposes of the National Environmental Policy Act. The agency has determined that implementation of this action would not have any significant impact on the quality of the human environment.
      I. Executive Order 13609 (Promoting International Regulatory Cooperation)The policy statement in section 1 of Executive Order 13609 provides, in part:
      NHTSA requests public comment on whether (a) the ''regulatory approaches taken by foreign governments'' concerning the subject matter of this rulemaking and (b) the above policy statement have any implications for this rulemaking.
      J. Regulation Identifier Number (RIN)The Department of Transportation assigns a regulation identifier number (RIN) to each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (the Unified Agenda). The Regulatory Information Service Center publishes the Unified Agenda in April and October of each year. You may use the RIN contained in the heading at the beginning of this document to find this action in the Unified Agenda.
      How do I prepare and submit comments?Your comments must be written and in English. To ensure that your comments are filed correctly in the docket, please include the docket number of this document in your comments.
      Your comments must not be more than 15 pages long. (49 CFR 553.21) NHTSA established this limit to encourage you to write your primary comments in a concise fashion. However, you may attach necessary additional documents to your comments. There is no limit on the length of the attachments.
      Please submit one copy (two copies if submitting by mail or hand delivery) of your comments, including the attachments, to the docket following the instructions given above under ADDRESSES. Please note, if you are submitting comments electronically as a PDF (Adobe) file, we ask that the documents submitted be scanned using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process, thus allowing the agency to search and copy certain portions of your submissions. [56]
      How do I submit confidential business information?If you wish to submit any information under a claim of confidentiality, you should submit three copies of your complete submission, including the information you claim to be confidential business information, to the Office of the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, at the address given above under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. In addition, you should submit a copy (two copies if submitting by mail or hand delivery), from which you have deleted the claimed confidential business information, to the docket by one of the methods given above under ADDRESSES. When you send a comment containing information claimed to be confidential business information, you should include a cover letter setting forth the information specified in NHTSA's confidential business information regulation (49 CFR Part 512).
      Will the agency consider late comments?NHTSA will consider all comments received before the close of business on the comment closing date indicated above under DATES. To the extent possible, the agency will also consider comments received after that date. If a comment is received too late for the agency to consider it in developing a final rule (assuming that one is issued), the agency will consider that comment as an informal suggestion for future rulemaking action.
      How can I read the comments submitted by other people?You may read the comments received at the address given above under COMMENTS. The hours of the docket are indicated above in the same location. You may also see the comments on the Internet, identified by the docket number at the heading of this notice, at http://www.regulations.gov.
      Please note that, even after the comment closing date, NHTSA will continue to file relevant information in the docket as it becomes available. Further, some people may submit late comments. Accordingly, the agency recommends that you periodically check the docket for new material.
      Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78) or you may visit http://www.dot.gov/privacy.html.
      In consideration of the foregoing, NHTSA proposes to amend 49 CFR part 571 as follows:
      begin regulatory text
      1. The authority citation of part 571 continues to read as follows:
      Authority:49 U.S.C. 322, 30111, 30115, 30117, and 30166; delegation of authority at 49 CFR 1.95.
      2. Add ¤ 571.405 to subpart B to read as follows:
      S1. Purpose and scope. This standard specifies requirements for equipping motor vehicles with event data recorders (EDRs) and for the post-crash survivability and retrievability of onboard motor vehicle crash event data to help ensure that EDRs record, in a readily usable manner, data valuable for effective crash investigations and for analysis of safety equipment performance (e.g., advanced restraint systems). These data will help provide a better understanding of the circumstances in which crashes and injuries occur. That understanding will aid efforts to assess and address safety problems in motor vehicles currently on the road and to develop requirements for safer motor vehicles in the future.
      S2. Application. This standard applies to passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses that have a GVWR of 3,855 kg (8,500 pounds) or less and an unloaded vehicle weight of 2,495 kg (5,500 pounds) or less, and that are manufactured on or after September 1, 2014, except for walk-in van-type trucks or vehicles designed to be sold exclusively to the U.S. Postal Service.
      S3. Definitions.
      Event data recorder (EDR) means a device or function in a vehicle that records the vehicle's dynamic time-series data during the time period just prior to a crash event (e.g., vehicle speed vs. time) or during a crash event (e.g., delta-V vs. time), intended for retrieval after the crash event. For the purposes of this definition, the event data do not include audio and video data.
      S4. Requirements. Each vehicle shall be equipped with an event data recorder and meet the requirements of ¤ 563.7 of this chapter for data elements, ¤ 563.8 of this chapter for data format, ¤ 563.9 of this chapter for data capture, ¤ 563.10 of this chapter for crash test performance and survivability, and ¤ 563.11 of this chapter for information in owner's manual. Each manufacturer of a motor vehicle equipped with an EDR shall comply with the requirements of ¤ 563.12 of this chapter for data retrieval tools.
      Issued on: December 7, 2012.
      Christopher J. Bonanti,
      Associate Administrator for Rulemaking.
      end regulatory text
      [FR Doc. 2012-30082 Filed 12-10-12; 4:15 pm]
      BILLING CODE 4910-59-P
  Bank$ters
    Dutch not planning to examine gold reserves held abroad, including in Canada - Winnipeg Free Press
      Link to Article
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:08
      The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION
      By: The Associated Press
      Posted: 12/13/2012 3:40 AM | Comments:
      AMSTERDAM - The Dutch central bank has no plans to physically inspect its gold reserves held in other countries, despite recent moves by Germany's Bundesbank to do so.
      Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem cited yearly accounting procedures and his trust in foreign central banks where Dutch gold is stored, in a letter to parliament published today.
      Dijsselbloem said that 51 per cent of Dutch gold reserves are in New York, 20 per cent in Ottawa, 18 per cent in London and 11 per cent in Amsterdam.
      According to a 2010 publication, the Dutch central bank owns 612 tonnes of gold, worth roughly '­Â25.7 billion ($33.6 billion) at current prices.
      The Dutch bank sold off more than half its reserves during the 1990s and a little in the 2000s, stopping in 2008.
  Sandy
    Robin Hood Nest Egg Draws Scrutiny From Congress (Update1) - Bloomberg
      Now one of the charity's projects -- a rainy-day fund that has grown to $144.5 million from $20 million in less than a decade -- is drawing scrutiny from lawmakers in Washington. Their main concern: About half the money is invested in hedge funds run by Robin Hood donors or board members, who have been paid the industry standard fee of 2 percent of assets and 20 percent of profit for managing the donations.
    Sandy Aid Package Includes Millions for Smithsonian, Space Center, Forests - ABC News
      The Obama administration's $60-billion emergency aid package for victims of superstorm Sandy is now caught in the crossfire over the "fiscal cliff," with some critics questioning why millions of dollars are directed to areas far from the epicenter of the storm.
      The request, which still needs the approval of Congress, includes billions in urgently needed aide. But it also features some surprising items:- $23 million for tree plantings to "help reduce flood effects, protect water sources, decrease soil erosion and improve wildlife habitat" in forested areas touched by Sandy; $2 million to repair roof damage at Smithsonian buildings in Washington that pre-dates the storm; $4 million to repair sand berms and dunes at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida; and $41 million for clean-up and repairs at eight military bases along the storm's path, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
      The FBI is seeking $4 million to replace "vehicles, laboratory and office equipment and furniture," while Customs and Border Protection wants $2.4 million to replace "destroyed or damaged vehicles, including mobile X-Ray machines."
      Related: Get the Latest on the "Fiscal Cliff"
      The Small Business Administration is seeking a $50 million slice of the pie for its post-storm response efforts, including "Small Business Development Centers and Women's Business Development Centers."
      The relief package also includes a whopping $13 billion request for "mitigation projects" to prepare for future storms.
      These line items, and dozens more like them, have some Republicans balking at the size of the relief request and calling for more time to review the deal. The $60 billion price tag, they say, represents nearly the entire amount of additional revenue the government would collect next year by raising rates on the top 2 percent of taxpayers, as Democrats desire.
      They also point out that FEMA still-has $5 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund -- enough to last until March. Therefore, they see no reason to rush through a bill so large with no hearings or negotiations on the size of the bill or how to pay for it.
      Democrats defend the entire package -- including the funds for federal agencies, which only amount to two-tenths of one percent of the $60 billion price tag -- saying it addresses costs incurred by Sandy.
      "The White House and Governors Cuomo and Christie have documented extensively the severe need resulting from Sandy," said Rep. Nita Lowey of New York. "Foot-dragging in Congress only delays state and local governments from beginning the rebuilding process and prevents families, homeowners, and small businesses from getting back on their feet."
      Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the mitigation efforts an essential part of the rebuilding effort.
      "It doesn't make sense to pay to fix subway stations, rebuild a dune or repair a home if we don't protect it from the next storm,"- he said.
      A White House official also dismissed criticism of the size of the overall request and the specific amounts sought by federal agencies. The vast majority of the money would go to the affected region.
      "The aid to federal agencies is a very small percentage of the entire package," the official told ABC News. "On the federal items, we know what the damage is because we are the federal government. The storm damage has to be paid for at some point."
      PHOTOS: Superstorm Sandy's Wide Swath of Destruction
      "On other things -- larger state-level infrastructure items, like hospitals -- in many cases it still hasn't been determined whether it's cheaper to repair them or replace them," the official said, noting that the less-specific "pots" of funds for states were intended to provide greater flexibility during allocation.
      Governors of the states that bore the brunt of Sandy's impact -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy -- had pressed the White House for an $80 billion package. But the administration decided a smaller amount was appropriate in light of deficit concerns.
      "Private insurers must fulfill their commitment to the region; public assistance must be targeted for public benefit; resources must be directed to those in greatest need; and impacted States and localities must contribute, as appropriate, to the costs of rebuilding," OMB director Jeff Zients wrote to Congress as part of the request.
      In a joint op-ed in the Washington Post today, the governors pressed lawmakers "not to leave Washington" until they provide Sandy aid to the northeast.
    Shocker! Dems Pack $60 Billion Sandy Relief Package With Pork'...
      Link to Article
      Source: Weasel Zippers
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 12:58
      Pathetic.
      Via ABC News:
      The Obama administration's $60-billion emergency aid package for victims of superstorm Sandy is now caught in the crossfire over the ''fiscal cliff,'' with some critics questioning why millions of dollars are directed to areas far from the epicenter of the storm.
      The request, which still needs the approval of Congress, includes billions in urgently needed aide. But it also features some surprising items: $23 million for tree plantings to ''help reduce flood effects, protect water sources, decrease soil erosion and improve wildlife habitat'' in forested areas touched by Sandy; $2 million to repair roof damage at Smithsonian buildings in Washington that pre-dates the storm; $4 million to repair sand berms and dunes at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida; and $41 million for clean-up and repairs at eight military bases along the storm's path, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
      The FBI is seeking $4 million to replace ''vehicles, laboratory and office equipment and furniture,'' while Customs and Border Protection wants $2.4 million to replace ''destroyed or damaged vehicles, including mobile X-Ray machines.''
      The Small Business Administration is seeking a $50 million slice of the pie for its post-storm response efforts, including ''Small Business Development Centers and Women's Business Development Centers.''
      The relief package also includes a whopping $13 billion request for ''mitigation projects'' to prepare for future storms.
      These line items, and dozens more like them, have some Republicans balkingat the size of the relief request and calling for more time to review the deal. The $60 billion price tag, they say, represents nearly the entire amount of additional revenue the government would collect next year by raising rates on the top 2 percent of taxpayers, as Democrats desire.
  War on Christie-Fat Boy!
    MSNBC and WaPo: Show us the Medical Records Christie!
      Link to Article
      Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:03
      On today's edition of Daily Rundown, Chuck Todd predicted that Governor Chris Christie's medical records will be 2016's version of Mitt Romney's tax returns. Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post argued that Christie's weight was completely relevant to his presidential prospects, and Chuck Todd agreed.
  War on Weed
    President Obama On Legalization Of Marijuana In Washington & Colorado
      Link to Article
      Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 03:08
    Owner of plane in Jenni Rivera crash under DEA investigation - CNN.com
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:57
      By Mariano Castillo, CNN
      December 14, 2012 -- Updated 1903 GMT (0303 HKT)
      [File photo] Jenni Rivera performs at the GRAMMY Awards at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, November 11, 2010, Las Vegas.
      STORY HIGHLIGHTS
      The company that owns the plane that crashed, killing Jenni Rivera, faces DEA probeAuthorities confiscated two of firm's planes this year, court records showDEA spokeswoman confirms the investigation is ongoing(CNN) -- The Drug Enforcement Administration is investigating the company that owned the plane that crashed this week, killing music star Jenni Rivera and six others, the agency said Friday.
      Court records that surfaced after Sunday's fatal crash revealed that the aviation company, Starwood Management, had two planes authorities seized this year.
      The company remains under investigation, DEA spokeswoman Lisa Webb Johnson said.
      Read more: Jenni Rivera's remains returned to family
      The planes in question were seized in February in Arizona and in September in Texas.
      The DEA declined to give further details, citing the ongoing investigation.
      Some indications of why the planes were seized became known through court records.
      Read more: Jenni Rivera's plane plunged from 28,000 feet, Mexican official says
      Insurance firms QBE and Commerce & Industry Insurance Co. filed suits this year seeking to rescind contracts with Starwood Management, alleging falsehoods.
      The lawsuits against Starwood focus on the man who signed the insurance paperwork on its behalf, Ed Nunez. Nunez is also known as Christian Esquino, the insurance companies allege, a businessman with a criminal record that includes falsifying airplane records.
      The DEA confirmed Friday the link between Starwood and Esquino.
      In another court action, Starwood distances itself from Esquino and denies he is the owner.
      Starwood had one plane, a Hawker 700, confiscated by U.S. marshals acting on behalf of the DEA in September once it landed in McAllen, Texas, after arriving from Mexico, according to one of the insurance company lawsuits.
      Read more: Rivera crash puts spotlight on charter jet safety
      In February, marshals seized a Starwood Gulfstream G-1159A in Tucson, Arizona, that lawsuit said.
      Starwood or its representatives have not responded to repeated requests for comments about the plane that crashed with Rivera or the DEA investigations.
      Rivera was a Mexican-American star with a rising cross-border appeal. She sang traditional Mexican ballads and was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award in 2002 in the category of best banda album.
      Born in Long Beach, California, to Mexican immigrant parents, Rivera, 43, released her debut album in 1999.
      In October, People en Espanol named Rivera to its list of the 25 most powerful women.
      The singer was also known for her tumultuous personal life. She was a single mom at age 15, was married three times and the mother of five, her website said.
      Rivera's "I Love Jenni" reality show began airing on Telemundo's mun2 network last year.
  Drone Nation
    Pain Continues after War for American Drone Pilot - SPIEGEL ONLINE
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:03
      A soldier sets out to graduate at the top of his class. He succeeds, and he becomes a drone pilot working with a special unit of the United States Air Force in New Mexico. He kills dozens of people. But then, one day, he realizes that he can't do it anymore.
      For more than five years, Brandon Bryant worked in an oblong, windowless container about the size of a trailer, where the air-conditioning was kept at 17 degrees Celsius (63 degrees Fahrenheit) and, for security reasons, the door couldn't be opened. Bryant and his coworkers sat in front of 14 computer monitors and four keyboards. When Bryant pressed a button in New Mexico, someone died on the other side of the world.
      The container is filled with the humming of computers. It's the brain of a drone, known as a cockpit in Air Force parlance. But the pilots in the container aren't flying through the air. They're just sitting at the controls.
      Bryant was one of them, and he remembers one incident very clearly when a Predator drone was circling in a figure-eight pattern in the sky above Afghanistan, more than 10,000 kilometers (6,250 miles) away. There was a flat-roofed house made of mud, with a shed used to hold goats in the crosshairs, as Bryant recalls. When he received the order to fire, he pressed a button with his left hand and marked the roof with a laser. The pilot sitting next to him pressed the trigger on a joystick, causing the drone to launch a Hellfire missile. There were 16 seconds left until impact.
      "These moments are like in slow motion," he says today. Images taken with an infrared camera attached to the drone appeared on his monitor, transmitted by satellite, with a two-to-five-second time delay.
      With seven seconds left to go, there was no one to be seen on the ground. Bryant could still have diverted the missile at that point. Then it was down to three seconds. Bryant felt as if he had to count each individual pixel on the monitor. Suddenly a child walked around the corner, he says.
      Second zero was the moment in which Bryant's digital world collided with the real one in a village between Baghlan and Mazar-e-Sharif.
      Bryant saw a flash on the screen: the explosion. Parts of the building collapsed. The child had disappeared. Bryant had a sick feeling in his stomach.
      "Did we just kill a kid?" he asked the man sitting next to him.
      "Yeah, I guess that was a kid," the pilot replied.
      "Was that a kid?" they wrote into a chat window on the monitor.
      Then, someone they didn't know answered, someone sitting in a military command center somewhere in the world who had observed their attack. "No. That was a dog," the person wrote.
      They reviewed the scene on video. A dog on two legs?
      Invisible Warfare
      When Bryant left the container that day, he stepped directly into America: dry grasslands stretching to the horizon, fields and the smell of liquid manure. Every few seconds, a light on the radar tower at the Cannon Air Force Base flashed in the twilight. There was no war going on there.
      Modern warfare is as invisible as a thought, deprived of its meaning by distance. It is no unfettered war, but one that is controlled from small high-tech centers in various places in the world. The new (way of conducting) war is supposed to be more precise than the old one, which is why some call it "more humane." It's the war of an intellectual, a war United States President Barack Obama has promoted more than any of his predecessors.
      In a corridor at the Pentagon where the planning for this war takes place, the walls are covered with dark wood paneling. The men from the Air Force have their offices here. A painting of a Predator, a drone on canvas, hangs next to portraits of military leaders. From the military's perspective, no other invention has been as successful in the "war on terror" in recent years as the Predator.
      The US military guides its drones from seven air bases in the United States, as well as locations abroad, including one in the East African nation of Djibouti. From its headquarters in Langley, Virginia, the CIA controls operations in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.
      'We Save Lives'
      Colonel William Tart, a man with pale eyes and a clear image of the enemy, calls the drone a "natural extension of the distance."
      Until a few months ago, when he was promoted to head the US Air Force's Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Task Force in Langley, Tart was a commander at the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, near Las Vegas, where he headed drone operations. Whenever he flew drones himself, he kept a photo of his wife and three daughters pasted into the checklist next to the monitors.
      He doesn't like the word drone, because he says it implies that the vehicle has its own will or ego. He prefers to call them "remotely piloted aircraft," and he points out that most flights are for gathering information. He talks about the use of drones on humanitarian missions after the earthquake in Haiti, and about the military successes in the war in Libya: how his team fired on a truck that was pointing rockets at Misrata, and how it chased the convoy in which former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and his entourage were fleeing. He describes how the soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan are constantly expressing their gratitude for the assistance from the air. "We save lives," he says.
      He doesn't say as much about the targeted killing. He claims that during his two years as operations commander at Creech, he never saw any noncombatants die, and that the drones only fire at buildings when women and children are not in them. When asked about the chain of command, Tart mentions a 275-page document called 3-09.3. Essentially, it states that drone attacks must be approved, like any other attacks by the Air Force. An officer in the country where the operations take place has to approve them.
      The use of the term "clinical war" makes him angry. It reminds him of the Vietnam veterans who accuse him of never having waded through the mud or smelled blood, and who say that he doesn't know what he's talking about.
      That isn't true, says Tart, noting that he often used the one-hour drive from work back to Las Vegas to distance himself from his job. "We watch people for months. We see them playing with their dogs or doing their laundry. We know their patterns like we know our neighbors' patterns. We even go to their funerals." It wasn't always easy, he says.
      One of the paradoxes of drones is that, even as they increase the distance to the target, they also create proximity. "War somehow becomes personal," says Tart.
      'I Saw Men, Women and Children Die'
      A yellow house stands on the outskirts of the small city of Missoula, Montana, against a background of mountains, forests and patches of fog. The ground is coated with the first snow of the season. Bryant, now 27, is sitting on the couch in his mother's living room. He has since left the military and is now living back at home. He keeps his head shaved and has a three-day beard. "I haven't been dreaming in infrared for four months," he says with a smile, as if this were a minor victory for him.
      Bryant completed 6,000 flight hours during his six years in the Air Force. "I saw men, women and children die during that time," says Bryant. "I never thought I would kill that many people. In fact, I thought I couldn't kill anyone at all."
  Internet Freedom
    Internet remains unregulated as UN Internet treaty fails | The Raw Story
      The failure to reach accord could mean that there will be regional differences in internet efficacy. "Maybe in the future we could come to a fragmented internet," Andrey Mukhanov, of Russia's Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, told the Reuters news agency. "That would be negative for all, and I hope our American and European colleagues come to a constructive position."
      The US and Europe have indicated that they instead want private companies to drive internet standards.
      McCarthy, who has published ITU planning documents that would otherwise have been kept out of sight on dot-nxt's website, criticised the conduct of the meeting: "attendees were stunned to find a conference style and approach stuck in the 1970s," he said.
      Writing on the dot-nxt site, he said: "A constant stream of information was available only in downloadable Word documents; disagreement was dealt with by increasingly small, closed groups of key government officials; voting was carried out by delegates physically raising large yellow paddles, and counted by staff who walked around the room; meetings ran until the early hours of the morning, and "consensus by exhaustion" was the only fall-back position."
      Attempts by the ITU to encourage the US to sign the proposed treaty by removing clauses -- such as one that would give individual countries rights over website addresses -- failed.
  Monsantooo
    Monsanto Cucumbers Cause Genital Baldness -- Immediately Banned in Nova Scotia
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:21
      A six-month study by AgriSearch, an on-campus research arm of Dalhousie University, has shown that genetically modified (GM) cucumbers grown under license to Monsanto Inc. result in serious side effects including total groin hair loss and chafing in "sensitive areas", leading to the immediate and total ban of sales of all that company's crop and subsequent dill pickles.
      The tracking study of 643 men and women in Nova Scotia came about after reports began to surface about bald field mice and the bald feral cats that ate them being discovered by farmers on acreages growing the new crop.
      "The bald wild animals raised a huge flag and we immediately obtained subpoenas for the medical records of all 600 plus adults who took part in focus groups and taste tests of the cucumbers by Monsanto in Canada," said Dr. Nancy Walker, Director of Public Health Research at Dalhousie. "Fully 3/4 of the people who ate these cukes had their crotch area hair fall out. This is not a joking matter at all...these people now have hairless heinies."
      Nova Scotia became the first province or state in North America to ban a Monsanto GM food product, although GM corn and other food crops are currently outlawed in Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece and Hungary. Governments in Australia, Spain, UK, France, Turkey, India and Mexico have public petitions or legislative bills under consideration. Californians recently voted down a bill that would have required all GM foods to be clearly labeled. Monsanto cucumbers have been ordered removed from all food stores in Nova Scotia, while Quebec stores have begun a voluntary removal, partially because the UPC code stickers contain some English.
      "I pulled down my boxer shorts to get ready for bed one night and there it was...a pile of hair that looked like a chihuahua puppy," said Eric LaMaze, who was paid $50 by Monsanto to compare the tastes of natural cucumbers to Monsanto GM cucumbers in March of this year in Halifax. "Then I saw my bits and whoa they were like all shiny skin. Bald."
      Mr. LaMaze and other taste test participants said the GM cucumbers tasted the same as the naturally grown cucumbers but made a slight "fizzing noise" when swallowed. The participants also complained of raw skin in their genital area and some bed wetting.
      Monsanto Inc., a self-described Sustainable Agriculture Company based in Creve Coeur, Missouri, where they share offices with major shareholder Bain Capital, issued a statement saying, "Next generation fruits and vegetables, including VO5 cucumbers, are safe for human consumption with some potential minor side effects. Some fine-tuning is underway."
      McDonald's Corp. issued a statement following the Nova Scotia ban announcing that they will replace dill and sweet cucumber pickles on their burgers with non-GM pickled zucchini as a precaution until it is proven that no Monsanto pickles were sold into the North American market. McDonald's website contains a bulletin to that effect and includes a revised hip-hop Big Mac jingle that now sings, "Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickled zuke, onions on a sesame seed bun."
      Federal Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq said a Canada-wide recall and ban will be issued within 24 hours. "The Government of Canada takes this very, very seriously," said the Minister. "Being hairless down there should be a matter of personal choice for Canadian men and women and not one taken away by a cucumber."
      "They used to have the real cucumber slices in those salad things at the City Hall Dining Club," sighed Former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford on the courthouse steps after being impeached by a Provincial Judge. "Those were good times..."
      Robin SteelReporting for The Lapine
  EUROLand
    G(C)rard Depardieu levert Frans paspoort in
      Link to Article
      Source: VK: Home
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:04
      Belga.be '' 16/12/12, 10:14
      Acteur G(C)rard Depardieu
      De Franse acteur G(C)rard Depardieu, die zich 'gekwetst' voelt door de kritiek op zijn fiscale vlucht naar Belgi, levert zijn Frans paspoort in. Dat schrijft hij in een open brief gericht aan de Franse premier Jean-Marc Ayrault, die is gepubliceerd in de Journal du dimanche.
      'Anderen die Frankrijk hebben verlaten, werden niet zo gekwetst als ik', schrijft Depardieu. Hij kreeg bakken kritiek na zijn verhuis naar Belgi. Ayrault zelf noemde zijn vertrek 'nogal armzalig'.
      145 miljoen euro belastingenDe acteur schrijft dat hij is beginnen werken toen hij 14 jaar oud was. "Ik heb nooit iemand vermoord, ik heb 145 miljoen euro belastingen betaald in 45 jaar, ik heb 80 mensen een baan bezorgd (...). Ik ben niet beklagens- en niet prijzenswaardig. Ik lever mijn paspoort in en mijn sociale zekerheid waarvan ik nooit gebruik heb gemaakt. We hebben niet meer hetzelfde vaderland, ik ben een echte Europeaan, een wereldburger', zo staat in de open brief.
      BelastingvluchtelingenDe 63-jarige Depardieu kocht onlangs een huis in het Belgische N(C)chin. Hij voegde zich daarmee bij een groepje andere Franse 'belastingvluchtelingen'.
  Ministry of Truth
    BBC told to put more gay presenters and characters on children's TV to 'familiarise' young people with different sexualities | Mail Online
      Link to Article
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:54
      Study said gay presenters would 'validate' the feelings of gay childrenIt said this was important for young people in their ' formative years'Report said BBC News gave too much time to 'homophobic' viewpointsIt also recommended having more gay characters in dramas and soapsBy Daily Mail Reporter
      PUBLISHED: 04:16 EST, 14 December 2012 | UPDATED: 07:40 EST, 14 December 2012
      The BBC should have more gay presenters and characters on children's TV, a report has concluded.
      This could mean following ITV's lead in using personalities such as former Big Brother star Brian Dowling, who presented SMTV Live on Saturdays for two years.
      The BBC was called upon in the report to ensure that audiences are 'familiarised' with different sexualities 'from an early age'.
      Exposure: Audiences should see lesbian, gay and bisexual people on television 'during their formative years', the study said
      The study claimed that lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people are still 'relatively invisible' across the media.
      It said that it was important to help validate the feelings of gay children by 'incorporating representation within programming for children who are going through their formative years'.
      Demonstrating positive experiences and outcomes will stop LGB children feeling isolated, it said, particularly in rural areas.
      The report commissioned by the broadcaster, which drew on audience surveys and nine 'LGB experts', concluded that all genres of programming should regularly feature non-heterosexual people, with news and drama currently the biggest problem areas.
      Of BBC News, the study claimed that too much time was given to 'homophobic' viewpoints.
      'As a public service broadcaster and a standard bearer on moral issues, the BBC is asked to reconsider the way in which it is perceived to set up these debates with two extreme perspectives and to be more creative and nuanced in its presentation,' wrote Clare Luke of Solitaire Consulting, who produced the report.
      Role models: Gay actor Andrew Payden-Smith, left, starred in CBBC drama Byker Grove and presented its breakfast shows for children. Former Big Brother Brian Dowling, right, hosted a showbiz slot on BBC Radio 1
      For dramas and soaps, she recommended bolder storylines featuring gay characters, while documentaries were deemed to need more LGB presenters and portrayal of gay people in history.
      As for comedy, the report concluded that the 'biggest risk' was LGB people being the focus of a joke.
      This was judged as only truly acceptable when the comedians themselves were gay.
      The report drew on a survey of around 3,000 viewers, in which one in five heterosexual men said they thought there were too many LGB people on BBC television.
      More than one in ten people said there were uncomfortable with the portrayal of gay, lesbian and bisexual people in the broadcast media.
      Acting director general Tim Davie, chair of the BBC Working Group which commissioned the review, said: 'The BBC has a fundamental obligation to serve all its audiences. In fact, it's one of the BBC's public purposes to reflect the diversity of UK life.
      Stalwart: BBC children's presenter Kirsten O'Brien said in 2007 that 'everyone at CBBC is either gay or childless and don't like kids'
      'I'm proud to have led this work for three years, and this review underlines our commitment and sets a direction for the work to continue.'
      Big Brother star Dowling became the first openly gay children's TV presenter in the UK when he began presenting ITV's SMTV Live in 2002.
      In 2002, Dowling co-hosted the Elle Style Awards with BBC Radio 1 presenter Jo Whiley and he hosted a showbiz slot on Vernon Kay's BBC Radio 1 Saturday morning show from 2004 to 2006.
      Gay actor Andrew Hayden-Smith made his name as Ben in CBBC youth drama Byker Grove, and in 2002 became half of the main presenting team for the afternoon slot on BBC1, a position he would hold for just under four years.
      During that time, he also occasionally presented the CBBC breakfast shows on BBC1 and BBC2 as well as the digital CBBC channel.
      Performer John Barrowman, who has since appeared on BBC shows Doctor Who, Torchwood and Strictly Come Dancing, began his career presenting CBBC's Saturday morning show Live and Kicking.
      Gay rights campaigner Anthony Crank, best known for fronting Channel 4 youth show T4, works for BBC Radio Manchester as a regular cover presenter and presented BBC family shows including Holiday and Holiday Hit Squad.
      BBC children's presenter Kirsten O'Brien said in 2007 that 'everyone at CBBC is either gay or childless and don't like kids'.
      However, the corporation insisted that her remarks about her colleagues during a stand-up show at the Edinburgh festival had been made in jest.
      The SMart presenter's words came shortly after a series of gaffes relating to BBC children's shows.
      Blue Peter was found to have used a studio guest to pose as a competition winner and presenter Richard Bacon admitted taking cocaine.
  Real News
    Oreos Delivered To Antarctica
      Link to Article
      Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:16
  Vaccine$
    CRIMINAL PROBE ADDS TO TEXAS CANCER AGENCY WOES
      Months of upheaval has become even too much for one public relations superpower. Hill & Knowlton Strategies severed its consulting deal with CPRIT last week, telling the agency in a letter that "the ongoing issues and challenges that have confronted the organization over recent months have greatly exceeded the scope of work outlined in the original contract."
    Federal Register | Compliance Policy Guide; Radiofrequency Identification Feasibility Studies and Pilot Programs for Drugs; Notice To Extend Expiration Date [RFID]
      Link to Article
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:06
      Notice; Extension Of Expiration Date.
      The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is extending the expiration date of compliance policy guide (CPG) Sec. 400.210 entitled ''Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) Feasibility Studies and Pilot Programs for Drugs'' to December 31, 2014.
      Connie Jung, Office of Compliance, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 51, Rm. 4268, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002, 301-796-3130.
      In the Federal Register of November 17, 2004 (69 FR 67360), FDA announced the availability of CPG Sec. 400.210 entitled ''Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) Feasibility Studies and Pilot Programs for Drugs.'' Previous extensions of the expiration date of the CPG were published in 2007, 2008, and 2010 (72 FR 65750, November 23, 2007; 73 FR 78371, December 22, 2008; 75 FR 80827, December 23, 2010). FDA has identified RFID as a promising technology to be used in the various efforts to combat counterfeit drugs. The CPG describes how the Agency intends to exercise its enforcement discretion regarding certain regulatory requirements that might otherwise be applicable to studies involving RFID technology for drugs. The goal of the CPG is to facilitate performance of RFID studies and to allow industry to gain experience with the use of RFID technology and its effect on the long-term safety and integrity of the U.S. drug supply.
      On September 27, 2007, the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 110-85) (FDAAA) was signed into law. Section 913 of FDAAA addressed pharmaceutical safety and created section 505D of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD Act) (21 U.S.C. 355e). Section 505D(b) of the FD Act requires the development of standards for the identification, validation, authentication, and tracking and tracing of prescription drugs. Section 505D(b)(3) of the FD Act states that these new standards must address promising technologies, which may include RFID technology.
      In implementing section 505D of the FD&C Act, FDA is currently addressing issues, such as promising technologies, that also are relevant for the CPG. In addition, FDA is considering further the experience of stakeholders and the Agency under the CPG. As we consider all of these issues, the CPG will remain in effect until December 31, 2014.
      Dated: December 11, 2012.
      Leslie Kux,
      Assistant Commissioner for Policy.
      [FR Doc. 2012-30297 Filed 12-14-12; 8:45 am]
      BILLING CODE 4160-01-P
  VIDEO
    Nightly News: Profiler: [33]Gunman may have had 'combatant or superhero' fantasy
    Joint Press Point with NATO Secretary General and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands
      Link to Article
      Source: DVIDS Unit RSS Feed: Natochannel
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:05
      Choose quality 'ö¹Embed code 'ö¹<iframe width="500" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none; overflow: hidden; width: 500px; height: 300px;" allowtransparency="true" src="http://www.dvidshub.net/video/embed/193259"></iframe>
      Joint press point with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte. Following opening statements, the secretary general and prime minister answer questions from the media. Also available in high definition. Transcript of the opening remarks by the NATO Secretary General: Good afternoon. It is indeed a great pleasure to welcome Prime Minister Rutte back to NATO headquarters. The Netherlands is a strong and reliable ally. And I would like to thank you, to thank your country for your staunch support of NATO's missions and operations. We welcome your intention to contribute two batteries to the expected deployment of Patriot missiles to Turkey. This is a strong signal of Allied solidarity. The deployment will be defensive only. It will in no way support a no-fly zone or any offensive operation. Its aim is to deter any threats to Turkey, and to defend Turkey's population and territory on NATO's south-eastern border. Because the ultimate task of our Alliance is the protection and defense of our members. In Afghanistan, your police training mission does great work in the Kunduz province. Your jets provide necessary air cover for ISAF troops. Your naval forces have just ended a successful rotation in our anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia. And you contribute to our efforts to provide a safe and secure environment for all the people of Kosovo. This shows the value and importance the Netherlands places on its membership in NATO. And we are very grateful for all your contributions. We know they are made despite difficult economic times. In fact, the Netherlands is leading the way on Smart Defense. This enables you to use your defense budget more efficiently. Of the 22 multinational projects which we approved at the Chicago Summit this year, you participate in no less than 17. That is remarkable and we are very grateful for that. You are also working closely with Belgium and Luxembourg to make your maritime command and other capabilities more effective. This is collective security at its best. So once again, let me thank you for your country's commitment to NATO. I look forward to continuing our close cooperation in the future.
    22 Children Stabbed Outside Primary School In China
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      Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:14
    VIDEO-"...this tragedy we're participating in here in Newtown." - YouTube
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:05
    Hillary Cinton Will NOT Testify On Benghazi Attack Beconcussion.mpg
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      Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:14
    NBC's Andrea Mitchell: Republicans Forced Out Woman of Color Susan Rice
      Link to Article
      Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:20
      MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them -- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.
      MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 325 South Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.
      Copyright (C) 2012, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.
    Police reveal more details about Sandy Hook killings | euronews, world news
      Link to Article
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:53
      Police investigating the Sandy Hook elementary school shootings in America, in which 27 people died, now say they have ''some very good evidence'' to explain the tragedy that has shocked the nation.
      Police now say Adam Lanza, 20, a former pupil at the school, forced his way into the building early on Friday and killed six adult women and 20 children, 12 girls and eight boys aged around six or seven. All were shot between three and 11 times. He is also suspected of killing his mother at home before going to the school.
      Newtown was once in the running as the best place to live in America, listed as the nation's fifth-safest city.
      ''Our investigators at the crime scene, the school, and secondarily, at the secondary crime scene that we discussed where the female was located deceased, did produce some very good evidence in this investigation that our investigators will be able to use in hopefully painting the complete picture as to how and more importantly why this occurred,'' said Connecticut State trooper Lt. Paul Vance.
      A refrigerated trailer was needed to take all the bodies to the morgue, and a small crowd watched as it drove away.
      Around the school floral tributes are piling up. Nearly everyone in this community of 27,000 is being affected, directly or indirectly, and there are already fears the town's children will be scarred by the events.
      More about:Attack, Inquiry, Shootings, USA, VictimsCopyright (C) 2012 euronews
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    28 feared dead in migrant tragedy off Greek coast
      Link to Article
      Source: euronews
      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:51
      Only one male survivor has been found by Greek coastguards following the sinking on Saturday of a small boat loaded with migrants near the island of Lesvos.
      The man says the boat set off from the nearby Turkish coast with 27 Iraqi passengers and the captain. Some 20 bodies have been recovered.
      ''They are looking around the coast to find anyone alive. It is a tragedy. We have heard that 28 people were in the boat. It is a tragedy,'' said coastguard Kostas Fatas.
      There was a safer outcome for 440 African migrants on two boats that managed to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa. Italian coastguards say they probably came from Libya, and were detected when still out at sea before being escorted into the harbour.
      JavaScript is required in order to view this article's accompanying video
    Matt Damon: 'I Need To Pay More Taxes'
      Link to Article
      Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:20
      MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them -- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.
      MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 325 South Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.
      Copyright (C) 2012, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.
    NY Congressman Jerrold Nadler Calls NRA 'Enablers of Mass Murder' | MRCTV
      Link to Article
      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:15
      MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them -- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.
      MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 325 South Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.
      Copyright (C) 2012, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.
    NBC's Williams to Rice: 'Were You Set Up? Were You a Victim of Circumstance?'
      Link to Article
      Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:53
      In an exclusive interview on Thursday's NBC Rock Center with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice following her withdrawal of her name to be secretary of state, host Brian Williams worked to portray her as a victim of unwarranted political attacks: "She's been under withering attack for weeks....Were you set up? Were you a victim of circumstance? Bad data? Bad information?...Are you blameless in all this?"
    MSNBC and WaPo: Show us the Medical Records Christie!
      Link to Article
      Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:03
      On today's edition of Daily Rundown, Chuck Todd predicted that Governor Chris Christie's medical records will be 2016's version of Mitt Romney's tax returns. Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post argued that Christie's weight was completely relevant to his presidential prospects, and Chuck Todd agreed.
    Oreos Delivered To Antarctica
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      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:16
    Will The Massacre At Sandy Hook Elementary School Push Congress To Do Something About Gun Control
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      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:13
    President Obama On Legalization Of Marijuana In Washington & Colorado
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      Sun, 16 Dec 2012 03:08
    Vigil Outside The White House "These Are People Wanting Gun Control"
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      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:04
    "What Are Warning Signs That People Should Be Looking At For Someone That Might Start Killing Kids
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      Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:43
    Susan Rice Withdraws As Candidate For Secretary Of State
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      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 12:34
    Chaffetz: State Dept Hiding Benghazi Survivors - [VIDEO]
    MSNBC Hag Andrea Mitchell: Women In White House ''Very Angry'' With Obama Over Susan Rice'...
      Link to Article
      Source: Weasel Zippers
      Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:11
      What a shame.
      ANDREA MITCHELL: A lot of Democrats are saying that the president did not show enough loyalty. A lot of women in the administration are very angry tonight, and I'm saying this at a very high level. Angry because they feel that she was not treated with respect, she was not given the support she needed and she was left to twist in the wind.
      RACHEL MADDOW: They're angry, with whom though?
      MITCHELL: Angry with the White House. And with the boss, with the president, for not be willing to fight this out. That he's backed down in the face of a challenge from the Republican minority, after having won a reelection victory. And most people in the foreign policy community understand that as qualified as John Kerry is, and he's superbly qualified, he was trained '-- he lived for this post '-- a son of a diplomat, and clearly wanted this job and will get this job.
      But the anger is that she was not responsible for Benghazi. And that what was said on those Sunday talk shows '-- if you were to deny a promotion to everyone who misspeaks or gets something wrong on Sunday television, including all of us, there would be no one left in Washington. So, for her to be punished for Benghazi, which was not even her responsibility. If there were failures '-- and this independent review board is coming with its report next week, or its going to be presented to Congress next week. Hillary Clinton, we're told, from the House and the Senate, is scheduled to testify next Thursday. That is likely to conclude that the State Department was largely at fault for failure, security failures prior to Benghazi.
Clips and Stuff
  Bengahzi
    CHaffetz survivors.mp3
    HIllary wont testify.mp3
  EUROLand
    Belgian Austerity Elitism.mp3
  FaceBook Inc
    Terrorists and Facebook.mp3
  Fiscal Cliff
    Matt Damon on more taxes.mp3
  JCD Clips
    bahrain.mp3
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    FCC trying to kill #822CD27.mp3
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    patriots in turkey.mp3
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  NA-470-Art-BIG.jpg
  RacialRice
    Andrea Mitchell 1.mp3
    Andrea Mitchell-Maddow.mp3
    Rice statement.mp3
    williams to Rice.mp3
  Real News
    Oreos in antarctica.mp3
  Sandy
    Sawyer intro 60b aid.mp3
  Superhero Shooters
    CBS Killing Kids moves.mp3
    Pierce Moron-rep Nadler.mp3
    superhero fantasy.mp3
    van susteren and Gupta.mp3
  Syria
    Dutch SMART Defense.mp3
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    War on Christie.mp3