1. business and industrial
2. energy
3. natural gas

Colombia rebel group opens door to peace
France: Europe needs to act
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s
second-largest rebel group said it’s willing to lay
down its weapons if government-brokered peace
talks open political space for leftist groups.
The National Liberation Army made the announcement by releasing a video of the group’s
top commander, Nicolas Rodriguez, best known
by his alias Gabino, addressing guerrilla fighters
at a recent jungle congress. The date of that
meeting was not known.
In the video Gabino says the group is willing
to enter dialogue with the government aimed at
ending the half-century conflict. He didn’t provide further details.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a much larger and potent fighting force, has
been negotiating a peace deal with President Juan Manuel Santos’ government for the past two years in Cuba.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — France’s economy minister
says Europeans should work together to pressure
Russia for a solution over Ukraine so that all sides can
ease sanctions that are hurting European economies.
Emmanuel Macron (pictured) told The Associated
Press that Europe has a “collective responsibility” to
maintain pressure on Russia over its involvement in
tensions in eastern Ukraine and its annexation of
Crimea.
In an interview in Las Vegas on Tuesday, he said
the European Union sanctions can’t be eased or lifted
“without a change on the Russian side.”
But he also expressed “concern” about the “economic side effects” of the sanctions on European
businesses, such as oil companies and food producers that do business with Russia.
Despite those concerns, some EU members are strongly opposed to easing
sanctions and no changes are expected soon.
Established 1894
Today in History
Today in History
On January 8, 1815 - The Battle of New
Orleans takes place with Andrew Jackson defeating the British army in the closing engagement of
the War of 1812.
The victory would put Jackson in the national
spotlight and he would go on to become our 7th
president. He is pictured on the $20 bill.
“This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. …
It will not be a short or easy struggle, no single
weapon or strategy will suffice, but we shall not rest
until that war is won. The richest nation on earth can
afford to win it. We cannot afford to lose it.”
— Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, January 8, 1964
Iowa Bystander
Carl T. Rowan Pinnacle Award Winner
January 8, 2015 •
Fear God, Tell the Truth & Make Money • Volume y120 Number 37
Don’t sound the death
knell for the PC just yet
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A year ago,
pundits were declaring the personal
computer dead. Smartphones and tablets were cannibalizing sales, and the
once-revolutionary PC seemed unnecessary — and boring.
Sure, a smartphone is great for checking emails, snapping photos and playing games. Tablets are perfect for watching videos and shopping online. But
don’t count the PC out just yet. Manufacturers are crafting high-resolution,
curved screens for desktops and other
new features you can’t get in a handheld device, while trying new laptop
designs that mimic the tablet’s appeal.
“For the last couple of years, mobile
devices have been the hot commodity,”
acknowledges Dell executive Neil Hand
(pictured). “But we’re seeing a re-emergence of innovation in the PC space.”
For years, PC innovation consisted
mostly of putting faster processors or
a bigger hard-drive inside the same basic
box. That didn’t really matter when the
personal computer was a mostly unchallenged commodity. Global PC shipments peaked at more than 365 million
units in 2011. But then sales fell off
dramatically as tablets stole hearts and
wallets. PC sales plunged 10 percent in
2013 alone, according to research firm
Garter Inc., marking the worst annual
decline in the industry’s history. They
slipped a little further last year, to
about 314 million units. PC makers say
they understand the need to evolve, and
at the annual gadget show International
CES in Las Vegas this week are showing
off many new features aimed at wooing
back consumers.
Depth-sensing cameras, for example,
are popping up in high-end desktops
and laptops. Intel vice president Navin
Shenoy said his company’s “RealSense”
camera can recognize its owner’s face
and unlock a PC without requiring a
typed password. Intel is also promoting software that uses the camera in
games that respond to a player’s head
or hand movements.
PC makers are borrowing ideas from
tablets, with laptops that are increasingly thin and lightweight, with longer
battery life. Dell’s new XPS 13 notebook has a screen that extends nearly to
the edge of the frame, like the screen on
many tablets. By eliminating wider
borders, Dell says it can fit a larger
screen into a smaller frame.
Several companies have hybrid or
convertible devices that resemble a tablet with a physical keyboard attached.
Lenovo, the Chinese company that has
become the world’s biggest seller of
PCs, is rolling out several new models
of its Yoga hybrid, first introduced last
year, with a keyboard that fully folds
back so you can hold the display like a
tablet.
Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing told
The Associated Press in an interview
that the new “convertible” hybrids will
eventually replace the laptop computer
for most people, because they are lighter
and have longer battery life. “Now it’s
only a cost issue,” he said. Many of the
new hybrids are priced well above $500,
while cheaper laptops are available.
“We definitely should bring the cost
down,” he added.
ASUS on Monday announced a new
series called the Transformer Book Chi,
with lightweight keyboards that can
detach completely by unsnapping a
magnetic hinge.
“Our Chi is thinner than Air,” quipped
The PC: Continued on page 7
Foundation to pay off slain NYC police officers’ mortgages
NEW YORK (AP) — A foundation created to honor a firefighter
killed on Sept. 11 has raised enough
money to pay off the mortgages of
two slain New York Police Department officers.
The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation says $860,000 has
been donated, and another $150,000
has been pledged.
Foundation officials made the announcement at an event with the widows of Detective Rafael Ramos and
Wenjian Liu.
Liu’s widow and Ramos’ sister expressed their appreciation. The crowd
was made up largely of police officers, including members of the men’s
precinct.
The foundation says the money
will be used to pay off mortgages and
make repairs to the homes, with any
left over going to the two families.
ooo
Tomorrow’s Weather Forecast
Tomorrow’s sunrise is at 7:41 a.m. Tomorrow’s forecast is mostly sunny with a 0%
chance of precipitation. The high is predicted to be 7F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph.
Tomorrow’s sunset is at 5:02 p.m. Tomorrow night’s forecast is clear skies with a
low around -10F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.
Good news is back!
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January 8, 2015
Page 2
Today In History
January 8th
Wilson outlines points for peace!
By The Associated Press
Today is Thursday, Jan. 8, the 8th day of 2015. There are 357 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1499 - France’s King Louis XII marries Anne, Duchess of Brittany.
1654 - Ukraine joins Russia.
1679 - French explorer la Salle reaches Niagara Falls.
1806 - Britain occupies Cape of Good Hope.
1912 - The African National Congress is founded in Bloemfontein.
1915 - Heavy fighting breaks out in areas of the Assee Canal in Belgium and Soissons,
France, in World War I.
1923 - France begins military occupation of Ruhr valley in Germany.
1926 - Ibn Saud becomes king of Hejaz on King Hussein’s expulsion and changes
name of kingdom to Saudi Arabia.
1959 - Charles de Gaulle assumes the presidency in France, inaugurating the Fifth
Republic.
1972 - Bangladesh leader Sheik Mujibur Rahman arrives in London after being
released by Pakistan and appeals for recognition of his new nation.
1973 - Secret peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam resume near
Paris.
1974 - Khmer Rouge in Cambodia intensify pressure on Phnom Penh with strikes
north and south of the capital.
1982 - Settling an antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Justice Department, the American
Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) monopoly divests itself of the 22 regional Bell
System companies.
1987 - The Dow Jones industrial average closes above 2,000 for the first time, ending
the day at 2,002.25.
1989 - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev says Kremlin is besieged by financial
problems that are sapping his reforms.
1990 - East German official discloses that 60,000 members of secret police are still
on government payroll despite the previous month’s pledge that organization would
be dismantled.
1991 - Four Belgians held captive for three years by a Palestinian group in Lebanon
are released.
1992 - U.S. President George H. W. Bush collapses to the floor at a state dinner in
Tokyo. The White House says he is suffering from stomach flu.
1993 - The deputy prime minister of Bosnia is shot to death by Serbian gunmen while
Serbian rebel leaders consider an international peace settlement.
1995 - Russian troops pound Chechnya with rocket and mortar fire.
1996 - A cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire (Congo), killing
255 people by the official count. The unofficial death toll reaches 1,000.
1998 - Ramzi Yousef, an Arab of uncertain nationality, is sentenced to life in prison
plus 240 years for masterminding the World Trade Center bombing in New York that
killed six people in 1993.
2001 - Lawmakers in Manila say they will decide by Feb. 12 whether to impeach
the Philippine president, speeding a trial that has battered the economy and set the
country on edge.
2003 - A U.S. Court of Appeals rules that U.S. citizens detained in combat abroad
could be held indefinitely, without access to a lawyer, with only “limited judicial
inquiry” into their detention.
2004 - Britain bans airlines from Albania, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia,
Liberia, Tajikistan, Congo and Cameroon from flying in British airspace, citing
inadequate safety and security regulations.
2005 - More than 100 police and security agents backed by five armored personnel
carriers surround a house in the restive southern Russian region of Ingushetia and kill
five alleged militants in a shootout.
2006 - A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crashes and kills all 12 Americans
believed to be aboard, while five Marines die in weekend attacks in Iraq.
Today in History: Continued on page 14
On January 8, 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
outlines his 14 points for peace after World War I.
· Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after
which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always
frankly and in the public view.
· Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas,
outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war,
except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by
international action for the enforcement of international
covenants.
· The removal, of all economic barriers and the
establishment of equality of trade conditions among all
the nations consenting to the peace and associating
themselves for its maintenance.
· Adequate guarantees given and taken that national
armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent
with domestic safety.
· Free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such
questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations
concerned must have equal weight with the equitable
claims of the government whose title is to be determined.
· The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a
settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure
the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the
world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination
of her own political development and national policy and
assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free
nations under institutions of her own choosing; and,
more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that
she may need and may herself desire. The treatment
accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to
come will be the acid test of their good will, of their
comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their
own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish
sympathy.
· Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be
evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the
sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other
free nations. No other single act will serve as this will
serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws
which they have themselves set and determined for the
government of their relations with one another. Without
this healing act the whole structure and validity of
international law is forever impaired.
· All French territory should be freed and the invaded
portions restored, and the wrong done to France by
Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which
has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty
years, should be righted, in order that peace may once
more be made secure in the interest of all.
· A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be
effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.
· The people of Austria-Hungary, whose place among
the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured,
should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development.
· Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free
and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the
several Balkan states to one another determined by
friendly counsel along historically established lines of
allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees
of the political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be
entered into.
· The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire
should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other
nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should
be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently
opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of
all nations under international guarantees.
· An independent Polish state should be erected
which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a
free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and
economic independence and territorial integrity should
be guaranteed by international covenant.
· A general association of nations must be formed
under specific covenants for the purpose of affording
mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.
Good news is back!
Page 3
January 8, 2015
Medtronic shareholders OK
$48 billion Covidien acquisition
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Shareholders
of medical device maker Medtronic on Tuesday approved the acquisition of Dublin,
Ireland-based surgical supplier Covidien PLC
in a corporate deal valued at about $48
billion.
The owners of about 75 percent of
Medtronic’s outstanding shares voted in
favor of the acquisition, which is the largest
transaction in the history of the Minneapolis company.
About 100 people attended the investors
meeting in Minneapolis, where Medtronic
chief executive Omar Ishrak fielded some
pointed questions, the Star Tribune reported.
Some shareholders were angered by the acquisition because it moves the legal headquarters of the combined company to Ireland, where the company can benefit from
that country’s lower tax rates.
The plan to buy Covidien was announced
in June. The new company, called Medtronic
PLC, will keep its executive offices in Minnesota and plans to invest in new jobs in the
state. The acquisition will nearly double
Medtronic’s annual revenue, to $27 billion,
and help it expand in smaller and emerging
countries, the newspaper reported.
“The completion of the acquisition of
Covidien by Medtronic will usher in a historic new chapter in the history of Medtronic
and will help us advance our long-standing
mission of alleviating pain, restoring health
and extending life for patients all over the
world,” Ishrak, who will lead the new company, told shareholders Tuesday moments
after the votes were tallied.
The deal was also approved by Covidien
shareholders Tuesday. It still needs approval from the Irish High Court.
Medtronic is paying $35.19 per share and
exchanging each Covidien share for 0.956
shares in the new company.
Dissenting shareholders bemoaned the
loss of a storied local company founded 65
years ago in northeast Minneapolis.
“Medtronic’s turned their backs on shareholders, the United States, the state of Minnesota,” said John Hilger, who voted against
the deal.
New Arizona attorney general
touts sex trafficking crackdown
PHOENIX (AP) — New Arizona
Attorney General Mark Brnovich
(pictured) is following in his
predecessor’s footsteps by focusing
on sex trafficking as a key priority.
Brnovich will join Cindy McCain
to announce a new campaign by a
billboard company to raise awareness
of sex trafficking in advance of the
Super Bowl.
McCain has been extremely active
nationally on the issue. She worked
with former Gov. Jan Brewer to craft
a new human trafficking law last year
that toughens penalties for trafficking
adults for prostitution and targets businesses advertising shady services
online. She also is working with the
state to distribute anti-trafficking
materials through her family business,
Hensley Beverage Company.
Brnovich says he intends to ramp
up efforts targeting sex trafficking
crimes.
Former Attorney General Tom
Horne also focused on the issue.
Iowa Bystander
Good news is back!
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January 8, 2015
Page 4
Chinese upstart takes lead in fast-growing drone market
SHENZHEN, China (AP) — An amateur photographer in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, drew
crowds when he used a drone mini-helicopter
made by China’s DJI Technology Co. to capture
images of historic church steeples and other sights.
“I get some amazing photos with it,” said Scott
Richardson, a voice teacher who bought DJI’s
four-rotor Phantom 2 Vision+ model in May.
“With a drone, you can hover three feet above the
steeple and get a picture you can’t get any other
way.”
Founded in 2009 by an engineer with a childhood love of radio-controlled model planes, DJI
has become the world’s biggest supplier of civilian
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Advertise!
drones — possibly the first Chinese company to
achieve that status in any consumer industry.
It has grown from 20 employees to a workforce
of 2,800, including Chinese, Americans and Koreans at its headquarters in this southern Chinese
city and at outposts in Los Angeles, Tokyo and
Frankfurt, Germany.
“It’s really amazing what they have managed to
do,” said industry analyst Maryanna Saenko of
Lux Research Inc. in Boston.
From the start, DJI was “very polished, had
just the right capabilities and the right price point”
— less than $1,000 when most rivals cost at least
$5,000, Saenko said. “They hit the sweet spot.”
DJI’s latest model, the Inspire 1, released in
November, carries a camera that can send live
video to a smartphone, with a GPS system to
compensate for wind and hold it still in midair.
The company is part of an emerging wave of
Chinese startups in fields such as robotics, clean
energy and telecommunications. The Communist
Party hopes they transform this country from the
world’s low-wage factory into a creator of profitable technology.
DJI and its rivals, including France’s Parrot SA
and 3D Robotics Inc. of the United States, foresee
demand for drones to shoot movies and news
footage, survey farmland or oilfields, inspect power
lines and oil pipelines and give firefighters a bird’seye view of burning buildings.
Privately owned DJI, based in Shenzhen, on the
outskirts of Hong Kong, declined to disclose sales
or profit figures. But founder Frank Wang told the
South China Morning Post in Hong Kong that
revenue in 2013 was $131 million. The company
says revenue grows by 300 to 500 percent a year.
For professional use, DJI launched its Spreading Wings series of bigger copters with up to eight
rotors last year. They offer advanced steering and
image-stabilizing systems and sell for up to
$10,000.
Richardson, a former news photographer, said
he got on DJI’s waiting list for the latest Phantom
model as soon as he read about it.
“I use it mostly to take pictures from vantage
points that you couldn’t get any other way,” he
said. Portsmouth’s North Church has been around
since the 1600s, but he gets photos of it that “have
never been taken, ever.”
In February 2012, DJI released its first fullfledged drone, the spindly Flame Wheel. Later that
year, it added a camera to the first Phantom after
seeing customers mount GoPro Inc.’s wearable
video cameras on their drones.
Since then, research has spread to include cameras, software for imaging and control and stabilization systems. Expanding beyond drones, the
company has used its know-how in stabilizing
images to create the Ronin, a hand-held camera
mount. Priced at $3,000, it is marketed as a lowercost alternative to steady cam systems used by
film and TV studios.
The company has opened its software-development process to outsiders to create additional
tools. A Swiss software maker, Pix4D, has designed an application to transform images shot by
DJI or other drones into three-dimensional maps.
Huawei says its next smartphone model will have
an app to control a DJI drone and receive live
video.
In October, the company briefly entered American pop culture when characters on the “South
Park” cartoon used a video-equipped drone modeled on DJI’s Phantom to spy paparazzi-style on
their neighbors.
DJI rolls out new models as little as five months
apart, a rapid pace that reflects intense competition with smaller brands promising lower prices
and more features.
“The development cycle is tricky,” company
spokesman Michael Perry said. Referring to the
Inspire 1, he said, “One of the main reasons we
wanted to get this out is, we didn’t want anyone
else to do it first.”
Unusually for a startup, DJI handles almost
every step of its process itself, from research and
production through worldwide sales and repairs.
That has led to complaints as repair centers
struggle to keep pace with sales.
Richardson had to wait 2 1/2 months for his
radio control unit to be returned after a broken
switch was replaced.
“I’m very happy with the product,” he said,
“but costumer service wasn’t so great.”
Iowa Bystander
Good news is back!
Page 5
January 8, 2015
MT. HEBRON MISSIONARY
BAPTIST CHURCH
1338 9th St.
Des Moines Ia 50314
515.280.9163
SERVICES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
Morning Prayer: Monday-Saturday at 7:00 a.m.
Adult Bible Study: Tuesdays 7:00 p.m.
Feeding Program: Wednesdays 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Youth Bible Study: Wednesdays 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Dunkin’ strikes deal to
open 1,400 stores in China
NEW YORK (AP) — Dunkin’ Donuts said it struck a deal
to open more than 1,400 locations in China over the next 20
years.
The chain said in an email there are currently 16 Dunkin’
Donuts locations in the country.
Parent company Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc., which is
based in Canton, Massachusetts and also owns Baskin
Robbins, said it entered into a master franchise agreement
with Golden Cup Pte. Ltd. The group is a joint venture
between Jollibee Worldwide Pte Ltd., based in the Philippines, and Jasmine Asset Holding Ltd, a unit of RRJ Capital
Master Fund II, L.P.
The deal was noted Wednesday by Janney analyst Mark
Kalinowski, who cited a report about it in the Nikkei Asian
Review. Kalinowski said the agreement could lead to “a very
nice international growth platform” for Dunkin’ Donuts if
successful. He noted that Jollibee is a “premier restaurant
operator” and the largest quick-service concept in the Philippines.
A year ago, Dunkin’ Donuts also announced a separate
agreement with Fast Gourmet Group to develop more than
100 stores in eastern China. And on Monday, the chain said
it signed a franchise agreement to open more than 100
locations throughout Mexico.
Dunkin’ Donuts ended the most recent quarter with about
3,200 international locations. In the U.S., it had about 8,000
locations, giving it more than 11,100 locations. The chain has
been expanding domestically as well, and recently opened its
first traditional location in Southern California.
Starbucks Corp. had more than 19,700 locations around
the world at the end of its most recent quarter.
SUNDAY SERVICES:
Sunday School: 9:30 a.m.
Sunday Morning Worship Service: 11:00 a.m.
Those that be planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
— Psalms 92:13
Michigan juniors to take SAT,
not ACT, starting in 2016
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan high school juniors
will take the SAT college entrance exam instead of the ACT
starting in the spring of 2016 under a change announced
Wednesday by state officials who said the SAT’s bid was
better and cheaper.
Since 2007, high schools have given the ACT free of charge
to roughly 115,000 juniors every March as part of the
Michigan Merit Exam, a mandatory college assessment that
also includes job skills appraisals and state-specific tests in
math, science and social studies.
The College Board, a company that administers the SAT,
won a three-year, $17.1 million contract. The ACT will
continue providing its WorkKeys job skills test for $12.2
million over three years.
State Superintendent Mike Flanagan said the SAT is
“respected and used around the country,” and is familiar
because of its Advance Placement program that lets high
school students earn college credits.
“Their bid was rated the highest; provides valuable assistance to Michigan educators, students and parents; is more
aligned to Michigan’s content standards; and saves the state
millions of dollars over the court of the three-year contract,”
he said in a statement.
The bid evaluation committee included officials from the
state Education Department, the Michigan Department of
Technology, Management & Budget, a high school principal,
a school superintendent, an intermediate school district
testing consultant and a community college vice president.
The ACT’s contract with the state is worth $78.8 million
overall. It began in 2008 and was renewed three times, in
2011, 2013 and 2014.
ACT Inc. will continue to provide its WorkKeys assessment for all high school students under a three-year, $12.2
million contract. It’s a job skills assessment.
Where justice is denied, where poverty
is enforced, where ignorance prevails,
and where any one class is made to
feel that society is an organized
conspiracy to oppress, rob and
degrade them, neither persons nor
property will be safe.
~ Frederick Douglass
And walk in love, as Christ also hath
loved us, and hath given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a
sweet-smelling savor.
— Ephesians 5:2
Good news is back!
Iowa Bystander
January 8, 2015
Page 6
FBI director gives new clues
tying North Korea to Sony hack
NEW YORK (AP) — The FBI director revealed new details
Wednesday about the stunning cyberattack against Sony Pictures
Entertainment Inc., part of the Obama administration’s effort to
challenge persistent skepticism about whether North Korea’s
government was responsible for the brazen hacking.
Speaking at the International Conference on Cyber Security at
Fordham University, FBI Director James Comey (pictured) revealed that the hackers “got sloppy” and mistakenly sent messages
directly that could be traced to IP addresses used exclusively by
North Korea. Comey said the hackers had sought to use proxy
computer servers, a common ploy hackers use to disguise their
identities and throw investigators off their trail by hiding their true
locations.
“It was a mistake by them,” he said. “It made it very clear who
was doing this.”
The Associated Press reported Dec. 20 that the FBI had discov-
ered that computer Internet addresses known to be operated by
North Korea were communicating directly with other computers
used to deploy and control the hacking tools and collect the stolen
Sony files. The FBI previously said its evidence also included
similarities to other tools developed by North Korea in specific lines
of computer code, encryption algorithms and data deletion methods.
“I have very high confidence about this attribution to North
Korea, as does the entire intelligence community,” Comey said.
North Korea has denied it was involved in the hacking.
Comey said the Sony attack had “clear links” to malware
developed by North Korea, Comey said. The same tools were used
in an attack last year on South Korean banks and media outlets, he
said.
Finally, the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit studied statements
and threats purporting to be from Guardians of Peace and compared
them to other known attacks by the North Koreans, Comey said.
The unit told him, “Easy for us - it’s the same actors,” Comey said.
Comey said the evidence should undermine persistent skepticism by some cyber experts that individual hackers or a disgruntled
insider were the culprits behind a hack that sabotaged the wide
release of “The Interview,” a comedy about a plot to kill North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“They don’t have the facts that I have, don’t see what I see,” he
said.
Comey said he was hesitant to reveal more about how U.S.
officials learned that North Korea was the source “because it will
happen again, and we have to preserve our methods and sources.”
Earlier Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper also warned North Korea will continue the attacks against
American interests unless the United States “pushes back.”
Clapper told the audience of government and private cybersecurity
experts that he had gained insight into North Korea’s anti-American
mindset while dining with a top North Korean general last year when
he went there to negotiate the release of two U.S. prisoners. The
general would have been the one to give the green light for the attack
on Sony, he said.
North Koreans “really do believe they are under siege from all
directions,” and “are deadly, deadly serious about affronts to the
supreme leader,” he said.
Earlier this week, Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai broke his silence about
the attack, saying his employees were victims of a “vicious and
malicious cyberattack,” while adding that he’s proud of them for
standing against “the extortionist efforts of criminals.”
Objections filed to federal land
swap for ski development
MONTE VISTA, Colo.
(AP) — About 10 objections have been filed to a
proposed federal land
swap that would allow
construction of an access
road to a residential development near the remote
Wolf Creek Ski Area in
southwestern Colorado.
National Forest Service
officials said Tuesday that
triggers a 45-day period
for them to try and resolve the objections with the groups that
filed them.
Some of the objections cited environmental concerns, but
most of the filings weren’t yet available to the public.
The deal would give developer Leavell-McCombs Joint
Venture about 200 acres of national forest land. That would
allow a road from a nearby highway to the proposed ski village
with about 1,700 residential units at the base of Wolf Creek.
The federal government would get 178 acres of privately held
land.
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Good news is back!
Page 7
January 8, 2015
Don’t sound the death
knell for the PC just yet
The PC: Continued from page 1
ASUS CEO Jonney Shih, boasting that at
1.65 centimeters, the Chi T300 is slimmer than a MacBook Air laptop. The
Transformer uses efficient new Intel
processors that don’t require a cooling
fan, which allows for a skinnier profile.
And manufacturers are experimenting
with new shapes. Samsung is showing
off a new all-in-one model, the ATIV One
7, with a slightly concaved, 27-inch screen
that’s designed to produce a more
immersive experience for watching videos or playing games. Dell and HP are
introducing new curved display monitors for desktops, too.
Of course, fancy features don’t come
cheap. Apple’s new iMac, unveiled last
fall, comes with a huge, ultra-high resolution, 27-inch Retina screen and equally
big $2,500 price tag, for example. For
about $1,900, you can control HewlettPackard’s specialized machine Sprout
with a touch-sensitive mat instead of a
keyboard and use its sophisticated cam-
era to scan physical objects and project
the resulting image back onto the mat to
incorporate into 3D printing designs.
“We don’t think of it as a desktop. We
think of it as a purely new category,” said
HP executive Ron Coughlin. Analysts
say both the new iMac and the Sprout are
probably best suited for artists and designers, but that some high-end features
could find their way into mass-market
PCs eventually.
To attract consumers at other price
points, manufacturers are even trying
different software: While Microsoft
promises to release an improved version
of its ubiquitous Windows operating
system this summer, several leading PC
makers are selling low-cost laptops that
run Google’s Chrome instead.
“The industry has to figure out how to
cater to the different desires of individuals, and not treat them as one big, monolithic market,” says Intel’s Shenoy.
“Those days are over.”
Don’t know your credit
score? You can see it for free
NEW YORK (AP) — Good news for
those resolving to keep a close eye on
their credit history in 2015: There’s no
need to pay a dime to do so.
It’s never been easier for consumers to
get a hold of their credit scores or credit
reports for free. Major credit card issuers, including Discover and Capital One,
offer cardholders a monthly look at their
three-digit scores, which are used by
lenders to gauge your financial health.
And
CreditKarma.com,
CreditSesame.com and Quizzle.com offer free scores along with free credit
reports, which are a detailed list of any
outstanding or past debts or any missed
payments.
“As a consumer, the more options the
better,” says John Ulzheimer, president
of
consumer
education
at
CreditSesame.com. “For decades, the
only way to get these things was to buy
it.”
Making sure a score or report is correct is important. People with higher
credit scores — they typically range
from 300 to 850 — are offered lower
interest rates for mortgages, credit cards
and other loans. Those with low scores
might not be able to take out a loan, rent
a home or even be hired for a job, since
some employers check credit reports,
too, says Eleanor Blayney, a certified
financial planner and a consumer advocate at the Certified Financial Planner
Board of Standards.
If you check your score or credit
report from more than one place, they
will likely be slightly different. That’s
normal, says Ulzheimer. All credit scores
are derived from one of the three credit
reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian or
TransUnion. Discover, for instance, lets
its customers see their FICO score on its
website and credit statement. (A FICO
score is a brand of credit score developed
by Fair Isaac Corp.) In Discover’s case,
the score is derived from a customer’s
TransUnion credit report. Quizzle.com
comes up with its score based on a
customer’s
Equifax
report,
CreditSesame.com uses Experian and
CreditKarma.com uses both Equifax and
TransUnion.
Formulations for coming up with a
credit score are similar, so if you see a
score that’s extremely different than the
others, it’s a cause for concern, says
Ulzheimer. If that happens, check which
credit report the company is using and
pull up the report to see where the error
is. Mistakes or fraud should be reported
to the credit reporting agency that issued
the report.
Credit scores and reports change
monthly, so checking on them more often
than that is not necessary, says
Ulzheimer.
At the very least, credit reports should
be checked once a year, says Blayney. At
AnnualCreditReport.com, credit reports
from each of the three reporting agencies
are available once every 12 months. You
can stagger them, says Blayney, by looking at the Equifax report in the first month
of the year, and Experian a few months
later, for example.
Some companies offering free credit
scores and reports may also try to get
you to sign up for credit monitoring
services, which costs money, and should
be avoided, says Blayney. “That is a
waste of money,” she says.
Send us your tributes!
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tribute — a local philanthropist or volunteer, a
little league coach or scout leader, a pastor or
church choir director, a teacher or principal, a
grandparent, a father or mother or sister or
brother, an employer, an employee, a friend? If so
send your tribute to:
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Iowa Bystander
January 8, 2015
Page 8
Civil &H Human
Ri Rights
h C Commission
i i
You Can Stop Discrimination
You can help stop
discrimination by contacting the
Des Moines Civil & Human
Rights Commission. We are
here to help you file your
complaint, understand your
Rudy Simms • Director
rights and to educate the public
about civil and human rights! Call us at 515-2834284 or come see us at the Armory Building First
Floor, 602 Robert D. Ray Drive, Des Moines, Iowa
50309.
Asheville executive pushing
propane to power cars
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — If it’s possible to be a
visionary regarding a product that’s more than 100 years
old, Stuart Weidie might be one.
The Asheville executive is a national leader in an effort
to convince more Americans that propane is a viable fuel
to power vehicles.
Beyond that, Weidie, 50, seeks to convince environmentalists, among others, that the fuel is a natural “bridge”
from burning dirtier fossil fuels to relying on clean-energy
renewables, such as solar power.
“We can do this right now using a market-based
approach, without government incentives,” said the president, CEO and chairman of Blossman Gas Inc., a 685employee company with dual headquarters in Swannanoa
and Ocean Springs, Mississippi.
“I understand that environmental groups say propane
is still a fossil fuel,” Weidie said. “Until we have accessible
solar and wind power, this is the best we got.”
Weidie and his colleagues opened the National Autogas
Research and Technology Center in October on Sweeten
Creek Road. Center employees develop propane-powered engines for Alliance AutoGas, a Swannanoa-based
company Weidie founded in 2009.
During the next 18 months, Weidie said he expects to
hire 20 new employees to work at the center. Jobs will
range from administrative positions to technical ones such
as engineers and pay from roughly $40,000 to $150,000
a year, he said.
The work done there could enable Weidie to expand
beyond the 395 fleet customers Alliance Gas already has.
Depending on who’s speaking, the reaction to Weidie’s
concepts is mixed. Those who work in or analyze the
propane industry hail Weidie’s vision, saying it makes
sense and has potential.
Environmentalists and scientists, on the other hand,
either haven’t examined propane as a possible bridge fuel
or state that Weidie’s claims about propane are a stretch.
“Propane is somewhere between natural gas (methane)
and gasoline/oil in terms of how much carbon dioxide is
generated per unit of energy produced,” Michael Mann
said in an email.
Mann is director of Pennsylvania State University’s
Earth System Science Center and a meteorology professor
at the school’s main campus in State College, Pennsylvania. He is a co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for
his research on climate change.
“One would be somewhat hard pressed to call (propane) a ‘green’ source of energy,” Mann said. “It’s not
nearly as bad as coal, and not quite as bad as oil, but worse
than natural gas, as far as carbon footprint is considered.”
Researchers at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a
nonprofit organization that uses science to solve world
problems, haven’t studied propane in the context Weidie
described, said Ashley Siefert, a union spokeswoman
based in Washington, D.C.
And researchers at the Center for Climate and Energy
Solutions, a nonprofit organization in Arlington, Virginia,
which focuses on the challenges of energy and climate
change, “have never studied propane specifically,” Senior
Fellow Michael Tubman said through center spokesman,
Martin Niland.
About 55 percent of propane comes from natural gas
and 45 percent comes from petroleum during the refining
process, according to the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Weidie decided to join Blossman Gas in 1991, when he
was 26, after earning a master’s degree in political philosophy and international relations at The College of William
& Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
His stepfather ran the company at the time and asked
Weidie if he might be interested. Weidie said yes and he
began managing Asheville-area Blossman retail stores and
driving propane-delivery trucks.
By 2000, he had become the company’s president and
CEO.
With propane prices lower than gasoline and no widespread, readily available or reliable renewable vehicle fuel,
Weidie’s second company, Alliance AutoGas, is poised
for growth.
That operation provides propane to fleets. If necessary, Alliance AutoGas workers can convert vehicle
engines to run on propane, Weidie said. That costs from
$5,000 to $6,000 per vehicle, he said.
“It’s not a niche market,” said Michael Sloan, a principal and propane analyst at ICF International, a consulting firm in Fairfax, Virginia. “It’s a very viable fuel for
certain segments of the motor-fuel market. That market
has been growing relatively quickly during the last three
or four years, and I expect that growth to continue.”
Sloan said no updated, accurate government data exist
that show that growth. Instead, the evidence is anecdotal,
shared with him during conversations with those in the
propane industry.
As an example, he cited the number of propanepowered vehicles on roads today.
“Four or five years ago, there might have been 3,000 or
4,000 — maybe not even that many,” Sloan said. “Now,
there’s about 18,000. And I’ve heard estimates as high as
30,000.”
Sloan said propane-powered engines need fewer oil
changes than gasoline-fueled engines. Propane engines
also run cleaner, he said. Propane can be up to $2 a gallon
cheaper than gasoline. All that adds up to cost savings for
those who use propane rather than gasoline, Sloan said.
Sloan identified school bus, airport shuttle and delivery
truck fleets as ideal candidates for conversion to propane
engines.
Blossman Gas collected $250 million in revenue last
year, Weidie said, and for the last few years has been
growing at a rate of 10 to 12 percent.
Local customers include Mountain Mobility (Buncombe County’s public-transportation system) vehicles;
Biltmore Estate vehicles, and several Buncombe County
Sheriff’s Office patrol cars. National customers include
DHL delivery trucks and taxis in Detroit.
Among the projects at the center is one exploring the
possibility of producing renewable propane from landfill
waste, Weidie said.
“The process would be scalable so we could make
significant amounts,” he said.
Weidie ticked off more reasons why propane is environmentally friendly, relative to other fossil fuels. Using
propane in vehicles would produce up to a 35 percent
reduction in emissions.
“One thing people forget, even if we switched to
electric vehicles, is that a significant percent of our
electricity still comes from coal,” he said.
That number stood at 39 percent, the highest proporPropane cars: Continued on page 13
Iowa Bystander
Good news is back!
Page 9
January 8, 2015
Raise your home’s IQ: McCarthy, Sandler win early
smart gadgets take
People’s Choice Awards
center stage at CES
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Imagine a world in
which your garage door opens automatically
as you pull into the driveway. The living
room lights and heater turn on — perhaps the
oven starts warming up, too. In the so-called
“smart home,” cars, appliances and other
devices all have sensors and Internet connectivity to think and act for themselves, and
make your life easier.
We’re not there just yet, but we’re getting
closer.
The smart-home concept is known in tech
circles as the Internet of Things. Current
iterations primarily include our ability to
control gadgets such as lights and security
alarms or view data remotely through a
smartphone app. At the International CES
gadget show in Las Vegas this week, manufacturers will promote more devices and
functionality. Some gadgets will be able to
talk directly with one another, not just to an
app. The four-day show opens to the public
Tuesday.
That garage door? Mercedes-Benz would
like people to imagine their luxury car of the
future pulling in all by itself, without a driver
behind the wheel, to bring its passengers
home.
The carmaker unveiled the sleek concept
car that it is calling F 015 Monday night when
it turned a stage inside The Cosmopolitan on
the Strip in Las Vegas into a scene usually
reserved for annual car shows, attracting a
swell of people on stage afterward wanting
a closer look.
The car’s futuristic look belies some historic inspiration in its design. Dieter Zetsche,
head of Mercedes-Benz, said the wheels
were pushed to the outer edges much like a
horse carriage, giving ample room inside for
seating rather than wheel wells — in this case
four modern swivel chairs that can face each
other.
And much like those horse carriages, the
passengers inside the car of the future can
chat, read a newspaper, or even take a nap
while their car would ferry them home.
“Mankind has been dreaming of autonomous cars since the 1950s,” Zeetsche said.
He said his company has been working to
make it a reality, albeit still a concept and not
in production yet, since the 1990s.
“It’s basically a revolution,” he said of the
car.
The Internet of Things could mean big
business for gadget makers. The Consumer
Electronics Association projects U.S. sales
of smart energy and security systems alone
will total $574 million this year, a 23 percent
increase from 2014. Although that pales by
comparison to the $18 billion spent on TVs
and displays, growth has been swift. In
terms of people smartening up their homes
in earnest, though, it will probably be another two years before devices are cheap and
widespread enough for the typical consumer,
says Eduardo Pinheiro, CEO of Muzzley,
which makes a hub that allows devices to talk
to each other.
For now, the smart home is more about
possibilities than practice. Many companies exhibiting at CES are laying the foundation for what a smart-home system will
eventually do, hoping to entice consumers to
start thinking about upgrading to smart gadgets. It’s not always an easy sell.
Consider wearable devices that track fitness and other activities. In many cases, the
novelty wears off quickly, and devices end
up in drawers. But what if a wearable device
that tracks sleep could tell the coffeemaker
to start brewing as soon as you awoke? When
the coffee’s done, what if the sprinklers on
the front lawn automatically turned off so
you didn’t get wet walking out the front door
to work?
“It’s these great benefits that we need to
explain,” says BK Yoon, Samsung’s CEO
and chief of consumer electronics. “We can’t
just talk about the Internet of Things because
it’s so impersonal like a bedtime story for
robots. We have to show what’s in it for
them.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Melissa McCarthy (pictured) and Adam Sandler are among the early winners
at the 2015 People’s Choice Awards.
McCarthy was honored as favorite comedic movie
actress for “Tammy,” while Sandler was selected as
favorite comedic movie actor for “Blended” at the fanfavorite ceremony Wednesday night at the Nokia Theatre.
Other early winners included Iggy Azalea as favorite
hip-hop artist and Hunter Hayes as favorite male
country artist.
The People’s Choice Awards honor stars in television, music and film and are selected through online
voting. This year’s ceremony is hosted by “Mom” stars
Anna Faris and Allison Janney.
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Iowa Bystander
That includes freeing people from chores
to spend more time with family, pursue
more hobbies and, in his case, spend “quality time on the putting green,” he says.
Some examples: Lucis Technologies will
soon ship a smart-lighting device called
NuBryte that can learn your behavior, such
as what time you tend to come home. Sensors can turn on the night light if you wake
up to use the bathroom but switch on brighter
lights during the day. A coffeemaker from
Smarter will soon use data from fitness
trackers such as Fitbit. If you had a bad night
of sleep, the coffeemaker will know to make
the java stronger that morning. Other products focus on better notifications: a battery
for a smoke detector to alert you on your
phone when the alarm goes off, or a bracelet
that vibrates when the baby cries in its crib.
(Moms rejoice: the bracelet is even smart
enough to alternate which parent it alerts to
get up.)
“It’s got to be something people are
seeing it can do and want it to do,” says Chris
Penrose, AT&T’s senior vice president for
the Internet of Things. “It’s got to make their
lives better and be incredibly easy to use.”
“True consumer value will come when
devices work in concert with one another
and in many cases across manufacturers,”
adds Brett Dibkey, a Whirlpool Corp. vice
president. “The home adapts to the way
consumers live rather than the other way
around.”
At CES, Whirlpool will showcase dryers
that can run at a slower, energy-saving cycle
if you aren’t home and thus aren’t in a rush.
The dryer integrates with Google Inc.’s
Nest smart thermostat, which has sensors to
figure out that no one’s home and then
lowers the heat automatically. Meanwhile,
a smart-home hub called DigitalStrom plans
to take cues from Nest. If Nest is trying to
cool down the house, for instance,
DigitalStrom will lower automated window
shades to block out sunlight.
These are the building blocks for an eventual automated home. Once those building
blocks are in place, services can better predict what you want. For example, Netflix is
already good about recommending movies
to watch based on your preferences, but it
might suggest something different if it could
read data from a wearable device or camera
and tell that you’re with friends, or stressed
out, says Shawn Dubravac, senior director
of research with the Consumer Electronics
Association.
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“Fair Housing Is Your Right. Use It!”
THE Des Moines Civil & Human Rights Commission WANTS
YOU TO KNOW THAT Fair Housing is your right!
YOU MAY ENCOUNTER Housing discrimination BY
SEEING advertising THAT SAYS “no kids allowed!”
IT’S UNLAWFUL TO DISCRIMINATE BY
ADVERTISING ABOUT THE SALE, PURCHASE,
LEASE, RENTAL OR FINANCING OF A DWELLING
IN A MANNER THAT INDICATES ANY
PREFERENCE, LIMITATION OR
DISCRIMINATION.
IF YOU LIVE IN DES MOINES AND WANT MORE INFORMATION, Call
the Des Moines Civil & Human Rights Commission AT 515-283-4284.
Rudy Simms, Director
Des Moines Civil & Human Rights Commission
602 Robert D. Ray Drive
Des Moines, IA 50309
Webpage: http://www.dmgov.org/Departments/HumanRights/Pages/default.aspx
Please visit our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/DSMHumanRights
Civil & Human Rights Commission
Good news is back!
Iowa Bystander
January 8, 2015
Page 10
Nebraska court could hold up Keystone pipeline
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Republican-led Congress appears ready
to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline, but no matter what actions are
taken in Washington, the entire 1,179mile project could be delayed until
Nebraska signs off on the route.
After several years of intense debate, the routing process is before the
Nebraska Supreme Court, and depending on how the justices rule, months or
years could pass before construction
begins in that state.
Even if approval comes from Washington and the high court, opponents
are looking for new ways to block the
project, including filing a federal lawsuit on behalf of Native American tribes
in Nebraska and South Dakota over the
possible disruption of Indian artifacts.
The court is considering whether an
obscure agency known as the Nebraska
Public Service Commission must review the pipeline before it can cross the
state, one of six on the pipeline’s route.
Gov. Dave Heineman gave the green
light in 2013 without the involvement
of the panel, which normally regulates
telephones, taxis and grain bins.
The justices have given no indication
when they will render a decision.
President Barack Obama has said he
is waiting for the court’s decision, and
the White House on Tuesday threatened to veto the bill in what was expected to be the first of many confrontations with the new Congress over
energy and environmental policy.
New $12M homeless shelter to open in Omaha
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A grand opening ceremony for the new $12 million
Stephen Center homeless shelter has been set for this week.
The Omaha World-Herald reports the ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held
Friday for the center, which includes the Pettigrew Emergency Shelter for
short-term stays and 62 low-income apartments for long-term residents.
Architects started developing plans nine years ago for the new facility that
was financed by both private and public organizations.
The center’s CEO says he and staff are excited about the upcoming opening,
which he adds has been a long time coming.
Support services will be offered at the center and at nearby sites. The center
has a relationship with the Salvation Army Kroc Center that will allow
residents to use its recreational and health and fitness programs.
“There’s no confusion from our
perspective that the White House
knows this route is still risky,” said
Jane Kleeb, executive director of Bold
Nebraska, a leading opposition group.
The $8 billion pipeline would carry
oil from Canada through Montana and
South Dakota to Nebraska, where it
would connect with existing pipelines
to carry more than 800,000 barrels of
crude oil a day to refineries along the
Texas Gulf Coast.
Six years ago, the project faced little
opposition. TransCanada already had
an oil pipeline in place to carry crude oil
from Canada through North Dakota,
South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois.
But the massive oil spill in the Gulf
of Mexico in 2010 followed by another
spill in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan only months later rattled both Nebraska landowners and lawmakers, who
worried about what a spill could do to
the Ogallala aquifer, which supplies
drinking water to about 2 million people
in eight states and supports irrigation.
Supporters of the pipeline say those
fears are exaggerated, and that the project
would create jobs and ease American
dependence on oil from the Middle
East. A State Department report raised
no major environmental objections, they
note.
The original route “was the least
disruptive in terms of the amount of
land that we had to dig up, and that’s
generally the principle that you look at
when you are designing these routes,”
TransCanada spokesman Shawn
Howard said Wednesday. “I think some
of these opponents think that you can
just draw a route on the back of a napkin
and hand that in and say, ‘Here’s what
we’re considering.”’
Nonetheless, TransCanada bowed
to pressure to redraw the route through
Nebraska to avoid the most ecologically sensitive parts of the Sandhills
region and the aquifer. In 2012, lawmakers approved a law that allowed the
governor to give TransCanada Corp.
the power to force eastern Nebraska
landowners to sell their property for
the project.
Several landowners sued, arguing that
state law placed regulation of pipelines
and other utilities with the public service commission. A lower court sided
with landowners last year, and the state
Supreme Court is now considering the
state’s appeal.
In recent years, pipeline opponents
have sought to persuade Nebraska landowners not to accept TransCanada’s
money. In response, TransCanada has
blitzed the state with newspaper, television and radio ads to try to sway
public opinion and offered property
owners as much as $250,000 for access
to their land.
But no amount will shake the resolve
of some opponents.
“They could offer $50 million. We
don’t care,” said Jenni Harrington, partowner of a family farm on the pipeline
route near Benedict. “We’re not going
to sell out the next generation for any
amount of money.”
TransCanada, which says it’s already facing billions more in costs as the
project lags, is just as resolute.
“We know that some people will
never be satisfied with the route,”
Howard said. “But some of these groups,
it has nothing to do with the route. It has
nothing to do with Nebraska. It has to
do with a political ideology and an
opposition to fossil fuels.”
Iowa Bystander
Good news is back!
Page 11
January 8, 2015
“You educate a man; you educate
a man. You educate a woman; you
educate a generation.”
— Brigham Young
Salina record-maker
revels in vinyl’s comeback
SALINA, Kan. (AP) — Both Chad Kassem and the
vinyl records he sells are making an unexpected comeback from near oblivion.
Kassem, who is Cajun, started as an unwilling transplant to Kansas from Louisiana. He now spends his
days behind a messy desk covered with stacks of LPs
thinking about how to extend his unlikely music empire
based on an obsolete technology, The Wichita Eagle
(http://bit.ly/175O2Nk ) reports.
His Acoustic Sounds and its several subsidiaries
employ 90 people spread over three buildings in the
city’s industrial north end.
He has businesses that press new vinyl records, make
and distribute high-quality digital downloads, buy and
sell old records, and buy and sell audio equipment. He
even has a recording studio in an old church downtown.
He owns a record factory, Quality Record Pressings,
at a time when vinyl is again a hot thing in music after
nearly disappearing in the early 1990s. Through the first
11 months of 2014, 8 million vinyl records were sold,
a 49 percent increase over the year before, according to
Nielsen SoundScan.
As a result, demand is red hot for time at his plant.
He put a second shift at his record-making company,
Quality Record Pressings, this summer and company
makes 6,000 albums a day. He expects to put on a third
shift in the next few months. He has to tell record
companies they have to wait to get their product on his
presses.
“The whole industry is months and months behind,”
he said.
The reason for the revival is simple, he said: People
love the sound of vinyl.
The analog sound is warmer, fuller, richer than what’s
delivered by the mass market compact discs.
He’s married to the sound, not necessarily the technology. In the last year, he also launched a digital
download service, Super HiRez digital, that provides
the same high quality sound in digital that it does in
analog. It produces reissues under its Analogue Productions label and its new music under APO Records label.
Earlier this month, Kassem was in Los Angeles to
receive the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio
Society’s 21st annual Founders Award for extraordinary contributions to audiophiles worldwide.
To some extent the vinyl revival is a luxury niche, like
curated adventure travel or Rolex watches. The new
records, heavy at 180-200 grams with beautifully laid
out art and liner notes, cost in the range of $30 to $50.
It’s easy to spend a few thousand dollars a year on vinyl.
Audiophiles, the people who really love the music, are
willing to pay for it.
The company’s main demographic is upper-income
middle-aged white men, said David Clouston, the
company’s communications associate.
Some can even afford the $30,000 turntables sold in
the company’s catalog.
“The people who spend that kind of money tend to
set up listening rooms in their homes - I hate to say 1
percent, but yeah,” Clouston said.
But it’s not about money, it’s about the music.
“I’m really no different from the guys who buy
records from me,” he said. “What’s fun is to come in and
hear my favorite music. Reissue an album and hear it
sounding better than it’s ever sounded before.”
A visit to Acoustic Sounds can be a startling experience because the staff here are touching, even tweaking,
some of the most emblematic music of the last 70 years.
Earlier this month, a visit through the pressing room
revealed Neil Young’s new solo “Storytone” on a
couple of the record-pressing machines, and reissues of
Bob Dylan’s “Bringing It All Back Home” and the
Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ Safari” on other machines.
The reissues start with the original masters, hidden
away in vaults in Los Angeles or New York. A master
engineer recuts a first copy, called a “lacquer,” which
is delivered overnight to Salina. He has a crew that
handles the high-skilled work of making stampers, the
dies that put the grooves on the vinyl.
Production workers coat the “lacquer” with silver
and then a nickel alloy. That is used to create a second
copy, “the mother,” which is used to create “stampers,” the dies used to stamp the grooves on the hot vinyl.
The result of this reprocessing can be pretty impressive.
He and his staff played Sam Cooke’s “Bring it on
Home to Me” in the company’s listening room. The
original featured Cooke’s soulful voice, but the vocal
edges were ragged and the sound a little muddy as if
coming from the next room - caused by time and the
limitations of a 1960s-era mass market disc. The
company’s reissued version, taken from the original
master and reproduced on high quality vinyl, is clearly
the same song, but considerably cleaner and brighter.
Sam Cooke’s voice had moved into the same room as
the listener.
“Sometimes we blow them away, sometimes it’s
just a little bit better,” Kassem said.
In the graphics department, workers were cleaning
up the original photos of those Beach Boys covers
where Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, Mike Love and
Al Jardine are frolicking on a beach. The designers work
with the studios to get the original photos or, sometimes, to create their own designs if it’s something like
a boxed set.
The company also retains it longtime business of
buying and selling records. The company now has
nearly 100,000 records in the company headquarters
and in its climate-controlled warehouse.
Kassem’s big corner office is messy, his desk piled
high with records and CDs that he is in the midst of
evaluating.
Next to his desk sits a turntable. On the floor in front
of his desk are more stacks of records and beyond those,
a couple of large speakers directed at his chair, making
it the room’s “sweet spot.”
It wasn’t very obvious in 1984 that Kassem was
headed for success.
He grew up in Cajun country, Lafayette, La., and
even after 30 years in Kansas, he still has a Cajun accent.
He freely acknowledges that he partied, drank and
smoked pot heavily in his teen years, barely graduating
high school. By age 21, he faced a judge and a choice:
jail time or a drug treatment/halfway house in Salina.
Coming to Kansas was the best thing that ever
happened, he said.
After seven months, his brain finally cleared, and he
started to see the world a little more clearly. He
remained in Salina, at first, because Kansas had a law
that allowed him to cut his probation if he stayed sober.
He also realized that going back to Louisiana would
probably mean going back to his old ways.
As he killed time waiting, he continued his business
of buying and selling records. By 1985, he was living
in a small apartment, and he placed an ad in the back of
Audio Magazine.
Vinyl’s comeback: Continued on page 12
Good news is back!
Iowa Bystander
January 8, 2015
Page 12
Average Mohamed counters
terror message with cartoons
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — In the war for young
people’s hearts and minds, Mohamed Ahmed hopes to
use cartoons to dissuade a generation raised on “The
Simpsons” and “South Park” from taking up arms for the
Islamic State group and other extremist causes.
Ahmed, a convenience store manager from Minneapolis, has launched AverageMohamed.com, a website
offering homemade videos aimed at countering the
messages and images terrorists use to lure disaffected
youths.
“I don’t want my children fighting this war. Let’s end
this in my generation,” said Ahmed, a married father of
four young children.
Sitting in his sparsely furnished recording studio,
Ahmed, 39, said he started his videos out of frustration.
“I’ve decided to take on one value at a time, one item
at a time, to shoot down extremist ideology and philosophy,” he said. He took the moniker “Average Mohamed”
because of the worldwide popularity among Muslims
of the Prophet Muhammad’s name.
Ahmed is operating out of an urban area that has been
a target of terror recruiters. Minnesota is home to the
largest Somali population in the U.S. Since 2007, an
estimated 20 to 25 young Minnesotans have traveled to
Somalia to take up arms with al-Shabab, a terrorist group
linked to al-Qaida. Authorities say a handful of Minnesota residents have traveled to Syria to fight with
militants within the last year.
Ahmed, who shows his videos at community centers
or mosques, uses bright, simple cartoons aimed at kids
ages 8 to 16. “Easy to use, easy to understand, easy to
tell others,” he said.
Ahmed records voiceovers with the help of an engineer and has a friend in Southeast Asia create the
animation. Each video costs up to $4,000 to make. His
website features seven cartoons — in English, Somali
and Swahili — that have drawn more than 11,800 views
in the last six months and also can be found on YouTube.
Ahmed said he hopes to get funding from a government
agency to allow him to produce many more videos in the
next two years. He’d also like to hire a social media expert
to spread the messages rather than relying on word of
mouth.
In response to “Flames of War” — a slickly produced,
55-minute extremist propaganda video featuring images
of exploding tanks and wounded U.S. soldiers — Ahmed
released a minute-long video, “Flames of Hell,” showing
a cartoon masked gunman shooting bound captives in the
desert.
“How many innocent children, women and men has
Islamic State killed just today? Do you want to save
mankind or kill mankind? That is your choice,” the voice
of Average Mohamed intones between gunshots.
Omar Jamal, a local Somali community activist, said
he thinks the Average Mohamed videos, which incorporate citations from the Quran and the sayings of
Muhammad, counter the core message of extremists that
God is on their side against infidels. He said a recent
presentation of Average Mohamed videos at a community center in Minneapolis triggered an “amazing” discussion among young people who need to hear the antiterrorism message.
“It’s another resource that we need, that we can say,
‘OK, why don’t you watch this video, instead of
watching videos that are misleading you?”’ said
Abdirahman Mukhtar, a youth coordinator at Brian
Coyle Community Center in Minneapolis.
Ahmed wants to make creating anti-terrorism videos
his life’s work.
“One thing I know is that an extremist is not made.
They are not born that way. Somebody trained them to
become an extremist,” he said. “And somebody has to
train people to become non-extremists. And that is my
job. That is officially my job now.”
Vinyl’s comeback: Continued from page 11
His business took off. By 1990, he said, he was doing
$100,000 a month in record sales out of his house. City
inspectors came down on him.
“I don’t think they minded the UPS trucks coming to
the house every day, but when the 18-wheelers started
coming ... ,” he said.
He’s moved the business five times since then, and
every time he moves, he thinks he’s arrived and will
never have to move again. But he’s an entrepreneur,
always looking for new or complementary niches.
He took major financial risks in opening the pressing
plant in 2011 and the digital download business last
year.
Next year, he plans to open a printing plant for labels
and add more vinyl pressing machines.
“I could never have imagined you can do what you
love for a living,” he said.
He’s still torn by his Cajun heart and his Midwestern
head. He still loves Louisiana, its culture and its funloving attitude. But he’s stayed in Salina because, he
says, Kansans are hard-working, modest and conscientious. It’s a good place to build a business, he said.
Plus, he’s trying to prove a point.
After he completed his probation in Kansas, his
probation officer wrote a letter to officials in Louisiana.
The result: Louisiana then-Gov. Edwin Edwards actually issued Kassem a full pardon.
His life, to some extent, is a validation of that gesture.
He’s stayed in Salina, stayed out of trouble, built a solid
business that employs a lot of people.
Kassem is still kind of emotional about it.
“They didn’t waste their pardon,” he said.
Send your organization’s good news to:
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Good news is back!
Page 13
January 8, 2015
Jonas to help present Lincoln
Awards for service to veterans
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nick Jonas
(pictured left) is joining forces with
Jerry Lewis, Gavin DeGraw and other
entertainers to honor those who serve
and support U.S. veterans and military
families with a new award.
Ten individuals and corporations will
receive the inaugural Lincoln Awards
during a musical special that comes at
a time when many service members are
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The honorees include Bruce
Springsteen (pictured right) for supporting veterans for decades through
his music and charity work; Segway
inventor and bionic arm creator Dean
Kamen for major advances in prosthetics for amputees; Fisher House Foundation CEO Ken Fisher for housing
families of hospitalized military personnel and veterans; and Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. for the company’s commitment to hire 100,000 veterans by 2018.
Jonas, 22, who launched his solo
career last year after performing for
years with his two brothers, said he is
honored to help salute veterans and
those who are easing their transition
back home. He will sing his hit single
“Jealous.”
“Anytime as a performer you’re
able to use your voice to honor veterans
and military families, it’s incredibly
important and fulfilling,” he said in a
recent interview. “I think our job is to
bring light and encouragement to people,
and these people have done so much for
us.”
NBC’s Brian Williams will host “The
Lincoln Awards: A Concert for Veterans and the Military Family” at the
Kennedy Center. The audience will
include about 1,900 veterans and military family members. The show will be
broadcast in May on PBS. An exact
broadcast date has not been set.
The New York City-based Friars
Club for entertainers created the new
awards program through its charitable
arm in the name of President Abraham
Lincoln, who had issued a call for the
care of the nation’s veterans and their
families in the last months of the Civil
War.
“‘With malice toward none, with
charity for all ... let us strive on to finish
the work we are in, to bind up the
nation’s wounds, to care for him who
shall have borne the battle and for his
widow and his orphan, to do all which
may achieve and cherish a just and
lasting peace among ourselves and with
all nations,” Lincoln said in his second
inaugural address 150 years ago.
While other awards honor veterans
themselves, members of the Friars Club
wanted to also honor the work of those
who support veterans.
“That’s why we’re calling it the
Lincoln Awards — to honor companies
or people that have really made a huge
difference in veterans’ lives,” said award
co-founder Cappy McGarr.
Additional honorees include Justin
Constantine, a veteran wounded in Iraq
who advocates and raises funds for
veterans in distress; Jackie Garrick, a
veteran and social worker who has advocated for treatment of post-traumatic
stress disorder; Britnee Kinard, a
caregiver for her veteran husband who
also assists veterans and disabled children with the costs of owning service
animals; Team Rubicon, a charity that
deploys veterans to disasters around
the world; Kayla Williams for portraying veterans through her writing; and
82-year-old Dick Young for his lifetime
of service in the Navy and as a volunteer.
Propane cars: Continued from page 8
tion of all sources, in 2013, according to
the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“I try to stay away from talking
about climate change,” Weidie said.
“But we can all agree on wanting cleaner
air, cleaner water and preserving our
land.”
Sloan, the propane analyst, said,
“Propane is not a carbon precursor,”
therefore, not a global-warming or climate-change precursor.
“In many ways, it is a step toward
a cleaner environment, especially relative to diesel and gasoline,” Sloan said.
Weidie’s willingness to push the
boundaries of how people view and
consume propane is an example of the
type of leadership that the fuel’s industry generally lacks, said Bob Myers, a
Boulder, Colorado-based propane consultant, who sits on the Blossman Gas
board.
“That’s why he sets himself apart
from the rest of the market,” Myers
said. Weidie has become an influence
within a fragmented industry composed
of many business owners who run different-sized companies, from the local
mom-and-pop shops to big corporations, Myers said.
“There’s an attitude that we got to
Iowa Bystander
get rid of all the oil and gas, that everything has to be green,” Myer said. “Well,
you can’t run an 18-wheeler on battery
power. It doesn’t exist and will never
exist.”
Myers, like Stuart, believes that propane may be marketed legitimately as a
clean fuel — even though it is a fossil
fuel, he said.
“We’re going to need the cheapest
fuels to be competitive during the next
75 to 100 years,” Myers said. “It would
be nice to be green, but solar (power),
for example, is not particularly cheap
and not available all the time, just like
wind (power).”
With a plentiful supply and an effective business model, Weidie has what he
needs to be successful, Myers said.
“We supply the infrastructure at no
cost to the customer,” Weidie said. He
and his colleagues provide refueling
sites, he said. That combined with lower
costs and the environmental benefits
Weidie touts make propane a fuel fleet
customers can’t afford not to use, he
hopes.
“The biggest barrier is the status
quo,” Weidie said. “Just making change
is challenging to people. We need progressive thinking.”
ooo
Good news is back!
Iowa Bystander
January 8, 2015
Page 14
Mercedes departure adds to
calls to lower New Jersey taxes
MONTVALE, N.J. (AP) — Some New Jersey
Republican leaders are renewing their call to lower
taxes after Mercedes-Benz’s announcement this
week that it’s moving its U.S. headquarters to
Atlanta.
Assemblywoman
Holly
Schepisi, a Republican whose district includes
Montvale, where Mercedes has its offices, says
the state’s incentives are helping cities but are not
doing as much for Bergen County.
She says there need to be bigger changes to the
tax system to keep companies from moving.
“We’re almost competing against ourselves to
the detriment of the county I represent,” she told
The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The luxury German automaker announced on
Tuesday that it would move its headquarters from
Montvale to Atlanta beginning later this year.
About 1,000 workers are to be moved.
In the last two years, rental car company Hertz
and Bubble Wrap maker Sealed Air Corp., have
announced moves from Bergen County to the
South.
A new set of business incentives adopted in
2013 has been helping attract and keep businesses
elsewhere in New Jersey, but it has not been much
of a factor in Bergen, which borders New York
City and is the state’s most populous county.
Gov. Chris Christie’s spokesman, Michael
Drewniak, also said on Tuesday that company’s
move underscores the need for tax cuts in New
Jersey.
There’s a constant battle over taxes between
Christie and the state’s Democrat-controlled Legislature. Key Democrats say the state should raise
its income tax rate for the highest-earning residents
in order to pay for services the state needs.
Christie has vetoed such a plan repeatedly, though
his proposals to lower taxes have not been approved by lawmakers.
The Mercedes-Benz U.S. President and CEO,
Stephen Cannon, told The Record (http://bit.ly/
1BzZyLV ) that it was not just tax incentives that
lured the company away.
“Incentives, when you
look at the whole picture, it’s just a small
piece,” he said. “We’re
making a 50-year decision,
and a pile of incentives in Year One, Two or Three
over a 50-year decision doesn’t make a gigantic
impact.”
Lawsuit alleges Dr. Dre,
Jimmy Iovine swindled
Beats partner
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Rapper Dr.
Dre (pictured) and record producer Jimmy
Iovine are being vilified as scam artists in a
lawsuit alleging the duo duped one of their
former partners in Beat Electronics before
selling the trendy headphone maker to Apple
for $3 billion last year.
The complaint filed Tuesday in San Mateo
Superior Court accuses Dre and Iovine of
double crossing Noel Lee, the founder of audio
cable maker Monster.
Lee once held a 5 percent stake in Beats as
part of a partnership between the headphone
maker and Monster that ended in 2012. The
lawsuit alleges Dre and Iovine orchestrated a
“sham” deal that helped terminate the Monster alliance.
The suit alleges the shady maneuvering
costs Lee tens of millions of dollars.
Apple Inc. declined to comment on the
lawsuit.
Today in History: Continued from page 2
2007 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
announces plans to nationalize the country’s
electrical and telecommunications companies,
one of his boldest moves in trying to transform
Venezuela into a socialist state.
2008 - Sudanese troops shoot a U.N. convoy in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, destroying a fuel tanker and wounding a driver in
the first attack against the peacekeepers since
their mission began earlier in January.
2009 - Leonidas Vargas, a convicted Colombian drug baron with links to two major smuggling cartels, is shot dead in a Madrid hospital.
2010 - The top U.S. military leader says the
United States has no plans to send troops into
Yemen, and that country has made it clear it
does not want U.S. ground forces there.
2011 - Spain’s leading broadcaster says it
will no longer show the country’s centuriesold tradition of bullfighting in order to protect
children from viewing violence.
2012 - Iran begins uranium enrichment at a
new underground site built to withstand possible airstrikes, a leading hard-line newspaper
reports, in another show of defiance against
Western pressure to rein in Tehran’s nuclear
program.
2013 - Obama administration officials say
publicly for the first time that the U.S. might
leave no American troops in Afghanistan after
the end of combat in December 2014, an option
that defies the view of Pentagon officials
2014 - President Nicolas Maduro hastily
gathers state governors and mayors to talk
about the country’s violent crime amid outrage
over the killing of a popular soap-opera actress and former Miss Venezuela.
Today’s Birthdays:
Jose Ferrer, Puerto Rican-born actor-director (1912-1992); Elvis Presley, U.S. singer
(1935-1977); Shirley Bassey, Welsh-born
singer (1937-); Yvette Mimieux, American
actress (1942-); David Bowie, English singeractor (1947-); Michelle Forbes, U.S. actress
(1965-); Gaby Hoffman, U.S. actress (1982).
Thought for Today:
Curses are like processions. They return to
the place from which they came.
— Giovanni Ruffini, Italian writer
Iowa Bystander
Good news is back!
Page 15
January 8, 2015
U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller heads into retirement
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Sen.
Jay Rockefeller and West Virginia were
an odd mix at first — a Harvard-educated
native New Yorker from one of the
nation’s richest families arriving in one of
the poorest states.
Through a half century of public service, he made it work. And as he heads
into retirement as the last member of the
Rockefeller family dynasty in political
office — and the only Democrat — the
five-term U.S. senator leaves a blueprint
for fighting to fix real-life problems for
burdened families and to protect the
nation’s coal miners.
“As this chapter of my Senate career
comes to a close, I feel fortunate to have
been able to dedicate 50 years to public
service,” Rockefeller, 77, said in a statement. “I could not imagine a more rewarding career.”
Or one that lasted so long in his adopted
state. Rockefeller’s stay was intended to
be brief when he arrived in 1964 to work
in an anti-poverty program a few years
out of college. He never left, transforming
from a volunteer social worker to a career
politician.
John D. Rockefeller IV — universally
known as Jay — was born in New York
City in 1937. His father, John D.
Rockefeller III, was a well-known philanthropist. Uncles Winthrop (Arkansas) and Nelson (New York) were Republican governors. Another uncle, David
Rockefeller, ran Chase Manhattan Bank.
Jay Rockefeller took a different path.
At 27 he moved to the mining community of Emmons in 1964 to participate in
the anti-poverty Volunteers in Service to
America program. Two years later, he
broke from his family’s Republican tradition and was elected to the state House
of Delegates as a Democrat.
“Because of his good fortune, he could
have chosen a very different life,” said
former President Bill Clinton, who has
known Rockefeller since the pair were
governors. “Instead of self-indulgence,
he chose service to people and places too
often left out and left behind.
“West Virginia and America are
better off, because as a young man Jay
Rockefeller chose a life of service.”
A turning point came after
Rockefeller’s only political defeat in
the 1972 governor’s race to Republican Arch Moore, whose daughter,
Republican Shelley Moore Capito,
was elected in November to take
Rockefeller’s seat.
After the defeat, Rockefeller remained in West Virginia, a decision he
called the most important of his career.
He became the first without a theological degree to become president of
West Virginia Wesleyan College in
1973. His popularity there translated
to a landslide win over Republican
Cecil Underwood in the 1976
governor’s race.
After first winning election in 1984,
Rockefeller served 30 years in the
U.S. Senate.
“In a sense, he proved the critics
wrong by not leaving,” said Robert
Rupp, a longtime political science
professor at West Virginia Wesleyan.
“His longevity in the Senate and his
service as governor proves his acceptance.”
Rockefeller was the state’s junior
senator for 25 years, yet carved his
own path of influence in Sen. Robert
C. Byrd’s immense shadow. Byrd
died in 2010 as the longest-serving
senator in U.S. history, winning an
enduring reputation for steering billions of dollars over many decades to
boost his impoverished state.
Rockefeller’s influence was less
showy. As chairman of the Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science,
and Transportation, he championed
consumers’ rights, upgrading broadband infrastructure and sponsoring a
bill to block companies from tracking
online activity of their customers.
Rockefeller also served as head of
Vatican earmarks $3.55 million for Ebola care
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is increasing assistance to Western
African countries hard-hit by the Ebola virus, setting aside 3 million euros
($3.55 million) to fund protective gear for care-givers, transport for sick
patients and care for orphans left behind.
Vatican charity organizations and offices that deal with the developing
world issued a joint mission statement Wednesday on beefing up the Catholic
Church’s response to the Ebola crisis in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Most funding will focus on helping local parishes provide grassroots
support to victims and help fight the Ebola-related stigma for survivors. Some
of the funds will be used to train clergy to help them better provide physical,
emotional and support for victims, the Vatican said.
Muslim groups donate $100K to prevent shutoffs
DETROIT (AP) — Two Muslim organizations are donating $100,000 to
provide assistance to Detroit residents facing water shutoffs or recovering
from recent flooding.
The Michigan Muslim Community Council has partnered with Islamic
Relief USA, the largest Muslim charity organization in the country, to help
thousands of households at risk of having their water shut off. The grant will
be divided between the Detroit Water Fund, United Way of Southeastern
Michigan and Wayne Metro Community Council.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan spearheaded an effort to assist families
struggling to pay utility bills by establishing the city’s water fund and a plan
for residents to receive help. More than 31,300 customers have had their water
shut off since January 2013.
The two Muslim organizations hope their contribution will encourage
others to do the same.
Boy Scouts to sell central New York camp
WOODGATE, N.Y. (AP) — A Boy Scouts organization in central New
York has decided to sell its nearly century-old camp because of declining
enrollment and economic reasons.
The Utica-based Boy Scouts of America’s Revolutionary Trails Council
owns Camp Russell, located on White Lake in the Oneida County hamlet of
Woodgate, on the Adirondack Park’s southwestern boundary. The property
was donated to the Scouts in 1918.
Council officials tell the Observer-Dispatch of Utica that they’re selling the
camp and another property this year, but Camp Russell will remain open for
the 2015 camping season. The organization plans to keep a third property,
Camp Kingsley.
Boy Scout officials say participation in scouting in the western Mohawk
Valley has declined significantly over the past decade. The officials say it
makes better economic sense to operate one camp instead of three.
ooo
Intelligence and Veterans’ Affairs.
College studies in Tokyo laid the
groundwork for his efforts to bring
business from Japan to West Virginia.
He has known Toyota’s founding family since the 1960s and was instrumental in helping the Japanese automaker
pick a Buffalo cornfield for an engine
parts plant in 1996. The plant now
employs about 1,200 workers.
In 1997, Rockefeller authored legislation that created the Children’s Health
Insurance Program, which covers more
than 8 million children nationwide in
poor families with incomes too high to
qualify for Medicaid.
Clinton, whose time as Arkansas
governor coincided with Rockefeller as
West Virginia’s governor, said in a statement through his foundation that
Rockefeller was a “tremendous ally”
during his administration, “particularly
on our efforts to connect rural schools
to the Internet and to cover millions of
children through the Children’s Health
Insurance Program.”
Despite his support of the health
care overhaul of President Barack
Obama, who remains deeply unpopular in West Virginia, voters re-elected
Rockefeller to a fifth term in 2008.
Coal companies and their conserva-
tive allies accused him of being out of
touch for defending clean-air regulations and other policies they claimed
imperiled tens of thousands of mining
jobs.
In a 2012 Senate floor speech,
Rockefeller blasted the industry’s talk
of a “war on coal” and called out coal
operators for what he viewed as an
onslaught of messages meant to “strike
fear in the hearts of West Virginians.
“Instead of facing the challenges and
making tough decisions like men of a
different era, they are abrogating their
responsibilities to lead,” Rockefeller
said.
Good news is back!
Iowa Bystander
January 8, 2015
Page 16
Warren aims to shape Democrats’ debate as 2016 race begins
WASHINGTON (AP) — Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren hammered Washington’s leaders — Republicans and Democrats alike — for failing
to help middle-class workers since the
1980s. Left unsaid: That time period
includes President Bill Clinton’s administration.
As Warren continues to insist she
won’t run for president, and all of
politics is waiting for Hillary Rodham
Clinton to announce her candidacy, it
was a notable omission during Warren’s
speech at a conference sponsored by
the AFL-CIO.
Bill Clinton famously declared “the
era of big government is over” in 1996,
and Warren’s indictment of three decades of economic policy referenced
complaints among liberals that the policies of Democrats contributed to Wall
Street excess in the past decade.
“Pretty much the whole Republican
Party — and if we’re going to be honest,
too many Democrats — have talked
about the evils of ‘big government’ and
called for deregulation,” Warren said,
arguing the policies turned loose “big
banks and giant international corporations” and “juiced short-term profits
even if it came at the expense of working
families.”
That sort of rhetoric has some liberals pining for Warren to enter the Democratic presidential contest, a move that
would likely pit her against Hillary
Rodham Clinton, the party’s leading
contender should she enter the campaign as is widely expected.
It wasn’t just Warren who didn’t
mention a Clinton by name. One panelist, Jennifer Epps-Addison of Wisconsin Jobs Now, won applause from the
audience when she suggested the party
was hurting itself by appearing ready to
simply anoint the apparent favorite as
its next presidential nominee.
“I don’t want to get in trouble, but
I’ll say it anyway,” Epps-Addison said.
“It starts with this idea that we have a
presumed front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, because if we don’t accept that ... if we say
that we demand somebody to actually
meet our needs before we’re going to
give them a candidate for the presidency, then that can make a difference.”
Clinton, the former secretary of state,
New York senator and first lady, has
dominated early polls, but is being
pushed by many Democrats to take a
more populist stance on economic issues. Warren has resisted calls to enter
the campaign, but her appearance before labor leaders served notice that she
intends to influence the agenda this
year.
“For more than 30 years, Washington has far too often advanced policies
that hammer America’s middle class
even harder,” she said.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
called Warren “an inspiration” and said
the labor organization would hold similar summits this year in the first four
presidential primary states — Iowa,
New Hampshire, Nevada and South
Carolina — to advocate for policies
aimed at boosting wages.
During last year’s midterm elections,
Clinton touted the 1990s economic
growth during her husband’s administration, noting that it helped bring prosperity to many middle-class families.
She voiced support for raising the federal minimum wage and promoting paid
family leave policies to help working
families, particularly mothers.
Bolstering wages and household in-
come remains at the top of the agenda
for many Democrats, who acknowledge that while the labor market has
begun to recover from the deep recession that began in 2008, wages have
barely kept up with inflation. President
Barack Obama unsuccessfully sought
to increase the federal minimum wage
last year but several states and big cities
have taken steps to boost their minimum wages.
Warren said the economy had made
strides — a soaring stock market, rising
corporate profits and economic growth
— but that progress had failed to translate into higher wages for workers. She
said Washington leaders too often had
chosen to shackle the “financial cops,”
bail out Wall Street banks, sign trade
deals that hurt workers and cut taxes for
the wealthy.
Neera Tanden, a former Hillary
Clinton policy adviser who leads the
Center for American Progress, said
Warren was “absolutely right,” adding
the country shouldn’t be “fatalistic”
about its ability to overcome economic
challenges.
“So many people in Washington and
in the country are pessimistic about our
country’s chances and believe this kind
of story out there that stagnating wages
in the United States are just the way it
is. That is false,” Tanden said.
Florida’s Marco Rubio says he can win presidential election
WASHINGTON (AP) — Florida
Sen. Marco Rubio said he believes he
can win the next presidential election,
offering an unusually aggressive assessment of his chances while dismissing concerns they’re threatened by
potential rival and his political mentor,
former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
In an interview with The Associated
Press, the 43-year-old first-term senator said he had yet to make a final
decision about whether to seek re-election to the Senate or run for president
in 2016, but he spoke more confidently
about making a bid for the White House
than he has in the past.
“I believe that if I decide to run for
president, we have a path to be a very
competitive candidate, and ultimately
to win,” Rubio said.
“I can’t guarantee a victory. Certainly these races will be very competitive, and there’s factors outside of our
control that will determine a lot of it,”
he said. “But if we made the decision to
run for president, I believe that we can
put together the organization and raise
the money necessary to win.”
Should he run for president, Rubio
reiterated, he’ll do so at the expense of
seeking re-election to the Senate.
“If you decide that you’re going to
run for president of the United States,
that’s what you need to run for. You
need to be focused,” Rubio said. “If I
decide to run for president, I’ll run for
president. And I’m not going to be
looking for some exit strategy or off-
ramp in case things don’t work out.”
Should Rubio get into the race, he’ll
join a field expected to include several
high-profile Republicans, including
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Texas
Sen. Ted Cruz. His greatest potential
challenge, however, may come from
Bush, who last month announced plans
to actively consider a presidential run
and has spent recent weeks laying the
groundwork for a national campaign.
“We have a lot of talented people in
the Republican Party,” Rubio said of
Bush, who served as Florida’s governor
while Rubio was rising in state politics.
“Jeb is one of them. But there are
others, too.”
Rubio has become one of the GOP’s
more aggressive voices on international
affairs during his four years in the Senate. The senator also occupies a unique
place in the Republican political spectrum, having championed the Senate’s
unsuccessful push for immigration reform in 2013 in addition to carving out
more traditionally conservative positions on cultural issues, health care and
international affairs.
Rubio is set to appear in a series of
interviews next week to promote his
new book, and will follow with a more
comprehensive book tour during the
Senate’s February recess. In the book
to be released next week, Rubio confronts his immigration critics while refusing to apologize for pushing for a
comprehensive approach that included
a pathway to citizenship for immi-
grants in the country illegally.
“When people hear that we have
over 12 million people here illegally,
they feel as if we are being taken advantage of,” Rubio writes in “American
Dreams: Restoring Economic Opportunity for Everyone.” “They see how
hard it is to find and keep a steady and
well-paying job, and they worry that
more people will mean more competition for already scarce work.
“That’s not nativism,” Rubio continues, referencing a preference by some
people for native-born residents over
immigrants. “That’s human nature.”
Rubio’s comments on “nativism”
counter what President Barack Obama
told The Economist in an interview
published last August criticizing Republicans’ opposition to immigration
changes. The GOP, Obama told the
magazine, “knows we need immigration reform, knows that it would actually be good for its long-term prospects, but is captive to the nativist
elements in its party.”
While Rubio criticizes “detractors”
in his own party who argue against any
updates to the nation’s immigration
laws, he again says in the book that he
now favors the one-piece-at-a-time
approach supported by some conservatives.
In the Wednesday interview, Rubio
said he was more interested in fixing the
“broken” immigration system than the
politics of the debate.
“I ran for office to identify problems
and try to solve them,” he said. “Now,
we tried to solve them last year through
a comprehensive bill. And it’s clear that
that approach won’t work.”
Iowa Bystander
Good news is back!
Page 17
January 8, 2015
Edging closer to 2016 bid, Republican Jeb Bush forms new PAC
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Jeb Bush
on Tuesday announced the formation of a political
action committee designed to lay the groundwork
for a 2016 presidential campaign.
The announcement thrust Bush, the son and
brother of former presidents, into the top-tier of
likely Republican presidential contenders, although
the field is expected to be crowded.
In a video posted in English and Spanish on
Facebook, the former Florida governor said that
the “Right to Rise PAC” will allow him to “support candidates who believe in conservative principles to allow all Americans to rise up.” An aide
confirmed that the organization also allows Bush
to hire staff, conduct polling, and pay for travel as
he courts key donors and Republican officials
across the country.
Political action committees are common in
politics and allow candidates and organizations to
collect funds to help advance their cause.
Bush signaled the formation of a PAC last
month when he announced plans to actively explore a presidential bid. Tuesday’s move also
represents an effort to play catch-up of sorts for
Bush, who has been out of office since 2007.
Several potential Republican presidential candidates formed similar PACs months or even
years ago. The group includes Sen. Rand Paul,
Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Marco Rubio,
who have used political action committees to help
build goodwill among other Republicans and build
the infrastructure needed for a national campaign.
Bush’s new organization is already adding
high-profile operatives to his team. Rob Engstrom,
political director at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, informed colleagues on Tuesday that he is
moving to Florida to volunteer for the Right to Rise
PAC.
At the same time, Bush allies on Tuesday
formed a so-called super PAC with the same name
that allows them to raise and spend unlimited
sums of money as he moves toward a formal 2016
campaign. The group’s treasurer, Charlie Spies,
also served as treasurer for the super PAC dedicated to former Republican presidential nominee
Mitt Romney, which raised more than $142 million in the 2012 election.
Bush struck a populist tone in a message posted
on his organization’s new website, charging that
“millions of our fellow citizens across the broad
middle class feel as if the American Dream is now
out of their reach ... that the playing field is no
longer fair or level.”
He continued: “Too many of the poor have lost
hope that a path to a better life is within their grasp.
While the last eight years have been pretty good
ones for top earners, they’ve been a lost decade for
the rest of America.”
The message comes as Bush continues a private
fundraising tour across the country.
Good news is back!
Iowa Bystander
January 8, 2015
Page 18
Democrats press Gov. Jerry Brown to increase help for poor
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) —
Anticipating a second year of surplus,
Democratic state lawmakers are pressuring Gov. Jerry Brown to increase
spending on welfare, health care, child
care and other social programs to assist
the poor.
California is expected to reach record
spending levels behind an influx of tax
revenue when the Democratic governor
releases his budget proposal Friday.
The state’s Legislative Analyst’s
Office projected state revenue of $111.4
billion for the 2015-16 fiscal year, a 3.7
percent increase over the current $107.4
billion general fund budget.
MIDDLE SCHOOL
VICE PRINCIPAL
Provide building culture, climate, and
instructional leadership, support student
achievement, and supervise and evaluate
all personnel. Plan, implement, and
evaluate district and building programs
collaboratively. Manage the building
and all resources and assume total
responsibility to manage all activities of
the school.
Complete formal evaluations of certified
and non-certified staff members. Follow
criteria of Iowa Standards for School
Leaders. (ISSL) This position requires
continuous use of independent
judgment.
The essential functions as shown below
represent only the key areas of
responsibility; specific position
requirements will vary depending on
the needs of the district.
For information on how to apply,
go to Jobs @ DMPS.
Positions open until filled.
Minority applicants are
encouraged to apply.
Equal Opportunity Employer
We think sometimes that poverty is
only being hungry, naked and
homeless. The poverty of being
unwanted, unloved and uncared for
is the greatest poverty. We must
start in our own homes to remedy
this kind of poverty.
— Mother Teresa
Brown, however, fended off several
new spending plans last year and has
continued to emphasize restraint. At
his inauguration this week, Brown said
the state already has made massive
financial commitments to health and
human services and education. He noted
that about 4 million more people are
enrolled in the state’s low-income health
care plan, as compared to 2012.
New legislative leaders, Assemblywoman Toni Atkins and Sen. Kevin de
Leon, have said they want Brown use a
projected $2 billion surplus for education, housing and jobs. They both have
said that growing up poor has shaped
their political outlook.
“It’s going to be a good discussion to
have with the governor about where we
can add some funding for programs that
people need,” said Atkins, whose father was a coal miner. “Not all Californians have come back from the recession.”
De Leon, raised by an immigrant
single mother, agreed. “Austerity alone
is not going to grow this economy,” he
said.
California’s poverty rate remains
higher than the national average and
advocates for the poor want to increase
welfare, child care and funding for adult
education.
Debora Avalos, a 28-year-old high
school dropout working on her GED at
Del Mar High School in San Jose, wrote
to the governor as part of a class assignment, asking for adult education increases. “It’s a good investment because we want better jobs,” said Avalos,
who wants to pursue a nursing career.
“It’ll be better for California because
we’ll be making more money — and pay
more taxes,” she added.
Bob Harper, director of the adult
education program at Campbell Union
High School District, which includes
Del Mar, said recent changes to the
state’s education funding formula has
stripped support for adult education
programs, which tends to serve high
school dropouts and English learners.
He would like to see both funding
increases and changes to the education
code.
Even though the state has been able
to restore funding to K-12 schools, pay
down debt and tackle unfunded public
pension liabilities, some advocates suggest Brown has ignored the issue of
income inequality.
They note that California continues
to give less in monthly CalWORKS
welfare grants, has fewer subsidized
child care slots and provides less cash
assistance to low-income seniors and
people with disabilities than it did before the recession.
“The governor’s management of the
budget has clearly shown an ability to
take the long view,” said Chris Hoene,
executive director of the left-leaning
California Budget Project. “The general
public should be asking why there isn’t
a similar effort in play around helping
the low- and middle-income Californians who still aren’t experiencing the
recovery.”
Good news is back!
January 8, 2015
Iowa Bystander
Page 19
Huckabee says faith, not finances, greater divide in US
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says the biggest gap
among Americans involves faith, not finances.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported
Wednesday that Huckabee, who is considering
another run for president, had an interview Tuesday with televangelist Jim Bakker in Blue Eye,
Missouri. Bakker, who was famously convicted
of fraud and conspiracy charges in 1989, intends
to air at least two shows featuring Huckabee later
this month.
The former governor promoted his upcoming
book and discussed his Christian faith, corporal
punishment and concealed-weapons permits.
Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister,
also said a wealth gap among Americans is exceeded by other differences.
“The biggest gap there is in America is not
economic; the gap is spiritual and cultural,”
Huckabee said.
Huckabee left his Fox News show last weekend
to ponder a White House run. In the Bakker
interview, Huckabee said the only place he’d
consider living in Washington was the White
House.
Bakker is a defrocked former Assemblies of
God minister. An earlier TV ministry, which
included a Christian theme park, crumbled amid a
sex and money scandal.
The televangelist said Tuesday’s interview with
Huckabee was “one of my great moments.”
Bakker preaches that the end of the world is
approaching and sells “survival items” — including foldable solar panels in return for a $450 “love
gift” to the ministry. He asked Huckabee about
steps to protect the nation’s power grid and
warned that disruptions could be cataclysmic.
Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart told
the newspaper said the ex-governor may appear
with other televangelists during a “huge media
rollout” for the new book, “God, Guns, Grits, and
Gravy.”
“The faith community is a great audience for
this book. I mean God is the first word in the title
of the book, so obviously we’re going to target
God-fearing readers,” she said.
HIGH SCHOOL
VICE PRINCIPAL
Provide guidance for staff and students.
Provide building culture, climate, and
instructional leadership, support student
achievement. Plan, implement, and
evaluate district and building programs
collaboratively. Manage the building
and all resources and assume total
responsibility to manage all activities of
the school.
Complete formal evaluations of certified
and non-certified staff members. Follow
criteria of Iowa Standards for School
Leaders. (ISSL) This position requires
continuous use of independent
judgment.
The essential functions as shown below
represent only the key areas of
responsibility; specific position
requirements will vary depending on
the needs of the district.
For information on how to apply,
go to Jobs @ DMPS.
Positions open until filled.
Minority applicants are
encouraged to apply.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Iowa Bystander
Good news is back!
January 8, 2015
Page 20
A House Divided...
House GOP tries to regroup
after divisive speaker vote
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are divided over
whether conservative dissidents who opposed Speaker John Boehner
(pictured) in his election as speaker should be punished for it.
The divisions surfaced in a closed-door meeting a day after Boehner
suffered 25 defections on the way to winning re-election as speaker.
Boehner moved swiftly in the hours after the vote to deny two of
his opponents, Reps. Daniel Webster and Richard Nugent of Florida,
reappointment to the House Rules Committee.
However he indicated Wednesday morning that the decision was not
final. Some Boehner allies are arguing that the speaker should make
those punishments stick, and take other steps against those who
opposed him.
But other lawmakers say House Republicans need to move on and
put their internal divisions behind them.