Traffic inches along the connector of Interstate’s 75 and 85 as snow blankets Metro Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 28, 2014 as seen from the Pryor Street overpass. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is preparing to declare a state of emergency as a winter storm coats the region with snow and ice. State transportation officials said a mass of commuters leaving downtown Atlanta at once created traffic jams on interstates and surface streets. Photo: BEN GRAY, AP
ATLANTA (AP) — A winter storm dumped snow on parts of north Georgia and coated the metro Atlanta region. Much of Georgia was under a winter storm watch for Tuesday and Wednesday, with some areas forecast to see as much as 3 inches of snow.
People stocked up on ice-melting chemicals, school systems closed and road crews fought against heavy traffic to treat highways to stave off black ice accumulations.
Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency. Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said the emergency declaration would free up resources the state can use to address emergency situations as they arise. State government offices were expected to be closed until noon Wednesday, Robinson said.
“I know many people are trying desperately to pick up their children or simply to get home, and I hope they can get to safe, warm stopping point soon,” Deal said in a statement. “Once at your destination, if at all possible, please stay off the roads until conditions improve.”
The threat of snow and ice prompted the closure of schools districts and government offices throughout the state, and stranded travelers at airports nationwide.
The airport hardest-hit by cancellations Tuesday was also the world’s busiest: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where more than 806 flights were canceled by 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware.
Nationwide, more than 3,200 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were canceled Tuesday, according to statistics from FlightAware. Only a couple of hundred flights are canceled in the U.S. on a typical day.
In Atlanta, Pam Sullivan, 46, bundled up in a thick pink scarf as she walked to work downtown. She took the impending winter storm in stride.
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal will declare a state of emergency as a winter storm coats the region with snow and ice.
Deal’s spokesman, Brian Robinson, said Tuesday that the declaration covers all 159 counties in the state and will help free up resources that are needed to address emergency situations as they arise.
A winter storm coated the metro Atlanta region with snow Tuesday afternoon.
Snowy chaos in the South; 800 kids stuck at schools
Posted on: 8:09 pm, January 28, 2014, by CNN Wire, updated on: 08:26pm, January 28, 2014
(CNN) — Cars stuck in ditches. Children stranded at schools that parents can’t reach. Icy roads and snow that shows no sign of stopping.
As a winter storm slammed into a broad swath of the South on Tuesday, authorities warned drivers to stay off the streets.
“This is a very dangerous situation,” Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said in the afternoon. “People need to stay at home. They need to stay there until conditions improve.”
Motorists in major metropolitan areas including Atlanta sat trapped in gridlock as schools and offices shut down, unleashing hordes of vehicles onto slushy roadways.
While Northerners may laugh at their Southern friends’ panic over a dusting of snow, the threat is real: With relatively few resources to battle snow and ice, public works crews may have a difficult time keeping up with any significant accumulation.
Add to that the fact that millions of Southern drivers aren’t used to driving on snow or ice, and things were getting tricky fast.
Students stuck at schools
In Alabama, where freezing rain made driving perilous, Bentley declared a state of emergency and said he had activated 350 National Guard troops to help respond to the storm. Emergency officials warned drivers to stay off the roads and urged people stuck in their cars to stay inside.
“The weather right now, the temperatures and the wind chill, if you step out of your car, are very dangerous,” said Art Faulkner, the state’s director of emergency management.
In Birmingham, Melanie Wilson tried to drive after she got a message that her children’s school was closing Tuesday morning.
South blows the dust off snowplows for rare winter storm
Police and emergency crews have responded to hundreds of accidents in several states that stranded cars along the road and caused dozens of pileups and major traffic jams. Thousands of flights were also canceled. NBC’s Dylan Dreyer reports.
By Gabe Gutierrez, Erin McClam and M. Alex Johnson, NBC News
Up north, snowplows are armadas — hundreds of them that fan out over and over to clear the streets during the punishing storms of winter. If they’re handled carelessly, as more than one mayor of New York has learned, there’s political hell to pay.
Not so for Columbia, S.C., which has a grand total of nine.
“They usually hang in the shed,” said Robert Sweatt, the city’s superintendent of street maintenance. “When we need them, we pull them out.”
On Tuesday, the city was ready to give them a workout for the first time in at least three years. A rare winter storm stretched from Texas to Virginia, grounding thousands of flights and making a snowy, icy mess of roads.
Traffic came to a complete stop in the Atlanta area, where a traffic officer delivered a baby late Tuesday afternoon in the back seat of the car for a couple who were stranded in icy conditions on Interstate 285 in the suburb of Sandy Springs. A spokesman for the Sandy Springs police said mom and baby, who weren’t identified, were doing fine.
The Arctic weather system is expected to move north, producing a shift in current weather patterns. NBC’s Al Roker reports.
Classes were canceled from Texas to the Carolinas, while some school districts that did open told parents it would be safer to simply let their kids stay at school overnight.
“Students who are at school will remain until our roads are safer,” Cherokee County, Ga., school officials told parents Tuesday afternoon, adding that they were “prepared to shelter students as necessary.”
Hardware stores across the South, meanwhile, were wiped clean of shovels and rock salt.
“Yesterday was the big grocery panic day,” said Andy Smith, who runs the Nickelodeon, a nonprofit theater in Columbia. He decided to cancel showings of “Inside Llewyn Davis” and close his doors Tuesday and Wednesday.
He said his friends were divided evenly between people joking about overreaction and people “actually freaking out a little bit.”
The intense winter of 2013 – 2014 over the Eastern U.S. adds another remarkable cold blast to its resume this week, as a new outbreak of Arctic air surges southwards from Canada. Temperatures of -24°F and colder were common in northern Minnesota on Monday morning, and strong winds were bringing dangerous below-zero wind chills to 23 states. The core of the cold air will thrust southeastward on Monday and Tuesday, and more than half of the contiguous U.S. will experience temperatures 15°F – 30°F below normal. This cold blast will be just as widespread as the cold wave three weeks ago, but about 5° warmer. In Chicago, where the winter of 2013 – 2014 ranked as the 13th coldest winter on record for the period December 1 – January 25, the temperature fell below zero at 6 am CST Monday morning, and may remain below zero until late morning on Wednesday, a period of up to 50 consecutive hours. This would rank near 4th place for the longest stretch of below-zero temperatures on record. The 36 consecutive hours Chicago was below zero three weeks ago was not quite a top-ten below zero streak.
Figure 1. Blizzard conditions in Woodbury, MN on Sunday, January 26, 2014. Image credit: Wunderphotographer 26mileman.
Nasty ice storm for the Deep South
An area of low pressure will track along the Gulf Coast over the next two days, moving east-northeast to a position off the coast of South Carolina on Tuesday night. With cold air firmly entrenched over the deep south, a significant winter storm is expected from Southern Louisiana to Eastern North Carolina. The anti-fun starts in New Orleans Monday night, when rain will change over to freezing rain. Ice accumulations of 1/4″ – 1/2″ are possible along a swath from Southeast Louisiana through Southern Mississippi, Southern Alabama, the Northwest Florida Panhandle, Southern Georgia, Southern South Carolina, and Eastern North Carolina though Wednesday morning. Snows of 2 – 4″ are possible just to the north of the freezing rain swath. This storm has the potential to cause significant damage to trees and power lines, resulting in widespread power outages. Travel will be very dangerous in the areas affected by the heaviest freezing rain and snow.
To view local information, select area of interest and click on the image below.
Recent U.S. Snowfall and Snow Depth Maps
Snowfall maps are available for the most recent 1, 2, 3 and 7-day period by state or for the entire Contiguous U.S. Current snow depth maps are also available. (Posted accumulations may underestimate actual accumulations due to missing observations.)
Period: Region:
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Potentially Major Winter Storm to Bring Snow, Ice to Gulf Coast, Georgia and Carolinas
By Nick Wiltgen Published: Jan 27, 2014, 0:43 PM EST weather.com
Winter Storm Ahead for South?
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Winter Storm Ahead for South?
Snow and Ice for the Deep South
ANOTHER Arctic Blast on the Way
We are watching for a potentially major winter storm to affect a long swath of the Deep South this week – including places better known for their beaches, balmy breezes and hurricanes. This will include some of the areas affected by Winter Storm Kronos just last week – but it includes millions of people farther east as well.
The threat stems from the combination of a bitterly cold arctic air mass plunging southward behind a sharp cold front, while moisture streams northward from the Gulf Coast. As the moisture crosses into the cold air behind the front, a swath of frozen and freezing precipitation is likely to break out.
The National Weather Service has issued winter storm watches, warnings and advisories from southeast Texas eastward along the Gulf Coast through Georgia, the southern half of South Carolina, eastern North Carolina and far southeast Virginia. For Charleston, S.C. and Savannah, Ga., it’s the first winter storm watch issued for those two cities since Feb. 11, 2010. For Houston, it’s the second time with a winter storm watch in just five days.
Let’s step through the forecast and get into the details and uncertainties.
Long Stretch of Ice and Snow
Tuesday Forecast
Tuesday Night Forecast
Wednesday Forecast
The latest blast of arctic air, already bursting south into the Midwest, will reach the Deep South Monday night. Temperatures should be at or below freezing by Tuesday morning along the Gulf Coast from Houston to Pensacola, Fla., as well as portions of the Carolina coast.
As Tuesday wears on, a broad zone of rising air will develop across the entire Gulf Coast (except for southwest Florida) and the Atlantic Coast of the Southeast, along and behind the arctic cold front. This will allow an elongated area of precipitation to develop from South Texas all the way to the Carolinas.
Since much of this precipitation will be falling over areas where near-ground temperatures will hover below freezing, the result will be a mess of wintry precipitation.
Exactly which form the precipitation takes will depend on temperatures several thousand feet aloft. In some areas, the entire atmosphere will be below freezing, and those areas will be vulnerable to snow. In areas closer to the Gulf Coast, there is likely to be a layer of above-freezing air above the ground, setting the stage for sleet and/or freezing rain.
But model projections disagree on exactly how far south the all-snow scenario will get – not just Tuesday, but for the duration of the storm. For that matter, it is not entirely clear just how far north (inland) the wintry precipitation will fall. More on that later.
By Tuesday night, as an upper-air disturbance moves into the western Gulf of Mexico and a separate area of weak low pressure develops off the Carolina coast, we expect areas of heavier precipitation to break out from the central Gulf Coast to the Carolinas. This will bring the potential for heavier snowfall and/or ice accumulation in these areas, again depending on the precise vertical temperature profile in the atmosphere.
Precipitation should end west of the Florida Panhandle by Wednesday morning, but Wednesday will see precipitation lingering from central and northern Florida to southeast Virginia. While wintry precipitation will probably stay north of the Florida/Georgia border (though not by far), leaving the Florida Peninsula just wet, there could be additional snow and ice accumulations from south Georgia northeastward.
Where, How Much, and How Bad?
Snowfall Forecast
Significant Icing
Forecasting snow and ice accumulations in the Deep South is, as you might expect, always tricky.
There are two main factors contributing to the uncertainty this time:
How far south will the entire atmosphere be below freezing, allowing for pure snow?
How far inland will the precipitation fall?
Computer models continue to differ on the exact placement of the heaviest snow and ice accumulations.
This does appear to be a fairly moisture-loaded system for areas along the coasts, so snow and ice accumulations could be quite heavy, particularly from central and south Georgia to the eastern Carolinas.
Greatest Icing Threat: Right now, it appears the most significant icing is possible from southeast Louisiana to south Alabama, south Georgia and coastal South Carolina. This could lead to falling limbs, trees, and significant power outages.
The Weather Channel Meteorologist Mike Seidel snapped this picture from Powhatan, Virginia on Thursday, January 17, 2013.
2/22
Bristol, Virginia
A Food City employee uses an umbrella to stay dry as she goes to work during a heavy snowfall Thursday afternoon in Bristol, Va. as shoppers make a last-minute trip to the grocery store. (AP Photo/The Bristol Herald-Courier,Andre Teague)
A woman walks past a frozen fountain in Atlanta on Friday.
By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
The latest — but certainly not the last — brutal blast of winter weather stretched so far south Friday that even Texas and Louisiana got a taste of the pain.
Ice caused traffic accidents all over Houston, and sleet slicked rooftops outside Austin. Freezing rain was reported in Baton Rouge, and snow fell within 150 miles of the Mexican border. Fort Hood was closed to all but essential military personnel.
Alexandria, La., where it snows roughly once every five years, had an inch on the ground for only the 23rd time on record, said Jonathan Erdman, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel.
Arctic Weather Bears Down On U.S. Midwest, Northeast
Reuters | Posted: 01/04/2014 4:02 pm EST | Updated: 01/23/2014 8:17 am EST
By Victoria Cavaliere
NEW YORK, Jan 4 (Reuters) – Many parts of the U.S. Midwest braced for a blast of Arctic air this weekend that could bring some of the coldest temperatures in two decades before advancing to the Northeast, where residents are still digging out from a deadly snowstorm.
Starting Sunday, the deep freeze will be felt in the northern U.S. plains, including North and South Dakota, and through the Great Lakes region and Ohio Valley, according to the National Weather Service.
It will be some of the coldest weather to grip the region in two decades, with blizzard conditions expected in the Central Plains and Great Lakes regions, forecasters said.
“The last really big Arctic outbreak was 1994,” said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. “Outbreaks like this don’t occur every day.”
In northeastern Canada, about 110,000 customers were without power due to a transformer fire on Saturday linked to heavy snow, government officials and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro said.
The push of Arctic air could bring record low temperatures from Montana to Michigan, before moving the Northeast, where it will arrive by early Tuesday, forecasters said.
Temperatures in Chicago could drop to about minus 20 (minus 29 Celsius). Pittsburgh could see temperatures about 11 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 24 Celsius) by early Tuesday.
Temperatures were forecast to fall to 30 below in parts of the north central United States early Sunday morning, and in Grand Forks, North Dakota, wind chills were expected to exceed 50 below. A high of 19 below is forecast for Sunday.
“You grin and bear it and bundle up,” said Rachel Osowski, a clerk at Hugo’s Supermarket in Grand Forks. “You have to survive and function, you can’t let the weather stop you.”
In such conditions, frostbite can set in on exposed skin within five minutes, forecasters warned.
Eastern U.S. to Be Locked in Cold Until Start of February
By Brian K. SullivanJan 24, 2014 8:44 AM CT
Colder temperatures will grip the most of the eastern U.S. and Canada through the start of February, according to forecasters.
The region is expected to have readings about 8 degrees Fahrenheit (4 Celsius) below normal through Feb. 2, said Matt Rogers, president of Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland. Colder weather is forecast across the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley from today through Jan. 28, said Rogers and MDA Weather Services of Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Below-normal temperatures in the high population areas of the U.S. Northeast and Midwest boost energy demand as more people turn up their thermostats to heat homes and businesses. Natural gas is heading for its biggest weekly gain since September 2012 as frigid weather persists.
The tugboat Commissioner breaks up ice in Burnham Harbor near the Loop on January 21,… Read More
Parts of southern Texas may get a rare coating of ice as temperatures plunging across the U.S. portend an even sharper cold snap to come.
Temperatures across the eastern U.S. and parts of Ontario and Quebec will be at least 8 degrees below normal through Jan. 27, said Matt Rogers, president of the Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland. Next week will be colder, he said.
“The crazy thing is that the current cold snap this week looks to be a bit more modest in the face of next week’s outbreak,” Rogers said. “The cold coming for the end of January is sufficient to make this the coldest month of the century so far and the coldest the Lower 48 has felt in at least 20 years.”
Temperatures in Chicago fell lower than the South Pole this month as freezing weather boosted energy consumption, grounded thousands of flights across the U.S. and disrupted operations at refineries and natural gas production sites.
The natural gas-weight heating degree days value for January is expected to reach 1,062.9, higher than the five-year average of 949.5 and the coldest since 2001, Rogers said.
The value is determined by subtracting the daily average temperature from a base of 65 degrees Fahrenheit, the resulting number is a measure of how cold it is and how much energy is needed to keep homes and warm.
Updated: Sat, 11 May 2013 22:42:04 GMT | By CBC News, cbc.ca
Wall of ice destroys Manitoba homes, cottages
Area officials told CBC News the wind pushed built-up ice off Dauphin Lake on Friday evening and caused it to pile up in the community, located on the lake’s southern shore.
The piles of ice, which were more than nine metres tall in some cases, destroyed at least six homes and cottages, according to the Rural Municipality of Ochre River.
Another 14 homes suffered extensive damage, with some structures knocked off their foundations.
Clayton Watts, Ochre River’s deputy reeve, said it’s a miracle no one was hurt.
He told CBC News one minute people were watching hockey in their living rooms, the next they heard something that sounded like a freight train near their homes.
“It happened so quick,” said Watts. “And you can’t predict it — not like water that slowly comes up.”
Watts said there are several cabins that were completely flattened by the wall of ice that came at them.
“The ice is over top of them, they’ve been crushed, there’s nothing left,” he said.
“There are other cabins that have been knocked right off their footings,” he continued. “There’s ice right over top of some of the cabins, coming over the roof on the other side.”
Updated: Sun, 12 May 2013 20:48:20 GMT | By CBC News, cbc.ca
Ice wall damage leaves Manitoba community devastated
A massive cleanup effort is underway in Ochre Beach after a wave of lake ice swept up by strong winds destroyed or seriously damaged 27 homes in the community on Friday night.
Winds gusting at 80 km/h pushed ice off Dauphin Lake and caused it to pile up along the lake’s southern shore where the community is located.
A local state of emergency was declared in the Rural Municipality of Ochre Beach after the piles of ice, which in some cases were more than nine metres high, destroyed 13 homes and cottages and severely damaged 14 others.
Several homes were completely crushed, others knocked right off their foundations.
Many devastated homeowners are still in disbelief about what happened.
Myles Haverluck was outside barbecuing when he noticed something was wrong. He said he could hear a big roar as he saw the wave of ice coming.
“By the time we went around the front the cabin, next door was moving 10 feet off its foundation,” he told CBC News.
“Then we heard these cracks, and we went inside the house and the ice had come through the windows of the kitchen and living room” Haverluck continued.
Andrew Barnet was also working outside when the wind storm came towards the lakeshore homes.
“Looked out and the ice started coming out over the house and the ice started shifting,” Barnet told CBC News.
Scientists have long believed that comets and, or a type of very primitive meteorite called carbonaceous chondrites were the sources of early Earth’s volatile elements-which include hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon-and possibly organic material, too.
Understanding where these volatiles came from is crucial for determining the origins of both water and life on the planet. New research led by Carnegie’s Conel Alexander focuses on frozen water that was distributed throughout much of the early Solar System, but probably not in the materials that aggregated to initially form Earth.
The evidence for this ice is now preserved in objects like comets and water-bearing carbonaceous chondrites. The team’s findings contradict prevailing theories about the relationship between these two types of bodies and suggest that meteorites, and their parent asteroids, are the most-likely sources of the Earth’s water. Their work is published July 12 by Science Express.
Looking at the ratio of hydrogen to its heavy isotope deuterium in frozen water (H2O), scientists can get an idea of the relative distance from the Sun at which objects containing the water were formed.
Objects that formed farther out should generally have higher deuterium content in their ice than objects that formed closer to the Sun, and objects that formed in the same regions should have similar hydrogen isotopic compositions.
Therefore, by comparing the deuterium content of water in carbonaceous chondrites to the deuterium content of comets, it is possible to tell if they formed in similar reaches of the Solar System.
It has been suggested that both comets and carbonaceous chondrites formed beyond the orbit of Jupiter, perhaps even at the edges of our Solar System, and then moved inward, eventually bringing their bounty of volatiles and organic material to Earth. If this were true, then the ice found in comets and the remnants of ice preserved in carbonaceous chondrites in the form of hydrated silicates, such as clays, would have similar isotopic compositions.
Alexander’s team included Carnegie’s Larry Nitler, Marilyn Fogel, and Roxane Bowden, as well as Kieren Howard from the Natural History Museum in London and Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York and Christopher Herd of the University of Alberta.
They analyzed samples from 85 carbonaceous chondrites, and were able to show that carbonaceous chondrites likely did not form in the same regions of the Solar System as comets because they have much lower deuterium content. If so, this result directly contradicts the two most-prominent models for how the Solar System developed its current architecture.
The team suggests that carbonaceous chondrites formed instead in the asteroid belt that exists between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. What’s more, they propose that most of the volatile elements on Earth arrived from a variety of chondrites, not from comets.
“Our results provide important new constraints for the origin of volatiles in the inner Solar System, including the Earth,” Alexander said. “And they have important implications for the current models of the formation and orbital evolution of the planets and smaller objects in our Solar System.”
OBAMA LAWYER ADMITS FORGERY BUT DISREGARDS “IMAGE” AS INDICATION OF OBAMA’S INELIGIBILITY
DAMAGE CONTROL: A recent ballot challenge hearing in New Jersey exposes a desperate strategy by Obama to distance himself from his forged certificate and induce the contrived value of his transient political popularity as the only “legitimate qualification” needed to hold the office of the presidency.
Commentary by Dan Crosby
of THE DAILY PEN
Updated 04/17/12
Obama’s lawyer, Alexandra Hill, agreed with arguments that the image of Obama’s birth certificate was a forgery and made the absurd claim that, therefore, it cannot be used as evidence to confirm his lack of natural born citizenship status. Therefore, she argued, it is “irrelevant to his placement on the ballot”.
Hill went on to contort reasoning by implying that Obama needs only invoke his political popularity, not legal qualifications, in order to be a candidate.
During the hearing, Hill’s concession was showcased by the following exchange:
Judge Masin asked Hill, “I understand you have a general objection before we get to the question of what is his (Obama’s) qualifications?”
“Yes, I have an objection as to relevance,” replied Hill, as to the plaintiffs’ witness testimony regarding the authenticity of the image of Obama’s alleged 1961 ‘Certificate of Live Birth’.
Hill then attempted to have the judge declare that Obama was preeminently eligible without any legal responsibility to prove with documentation that he was, in fact, qualified to hold the office of the presidency.
“The objectors carry the burden of proof to show that a candidate is not eligible under New Jersey statutes,” Hill said.
Hill’s misunderstanding of administrative law reveals a strategy to defend Obama’s fraudulent election in which our legal system has reversed the legal assignment of burden of proof in order to equate eligibility with a legal definition of innocence of a crime for Obama.
Unfortunately for Obama, eligibility for political office does not fall under the precepts of criminalogical reasoning of “innocent until proven guilty“, unless a charge is made that a crime has been committed, such as forgery or fraud, in order to deceive people about your identity or citizenship status. Obama’s ineligibility, by itself, is not a crime…being fraudulently elected by deceiving voters is.
Delegates at the Colorado Democratic Party state convention in Pueblo Saturday formally endorsed Amendment 64, the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act. Because support for the initiative was so strong at the convention, the endorsement becomes part of the party’s “essential” platform.
The initiative had already won the support of Democrats in 15 counties, including eight of the 10 most populous. Those counties are Boulder, Delta, Denver, Douglas, Eagle, Elbert, El Paso, Garfield, Jefferson, La Plata, Larimer, Pitkin, Pueblo, Routt, and Weld.
Lobbyists are making sure to schedule their vacations before the November election in anticipation of a frenzied congressional session at the end of the year.
Many on K Street are living in fear of the lame-duck session that will begin when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill after ballots are cast. Big-ticket items — including the expiring Bush tax rates, budget sequestration and an increase in the debt ceiling — will have to be dealt with by Dec. 31.
Votes on those politically tough issues are unlikely during campaign season, so lobbyists are preparing for November and December to be their busiest work period of 2012.
“I don’t think anyone is taking a vacation after the election. It’s the lame duck to end all lame ducks,” Steve Elmendorf, president of Elmendorf Ryan, told The Hill.
Obama threatens to veto Cantor’s small business tax cut, calls it a ‘giveaway’
By Peter Schroeder
The White House has threatened to veto a small business tax cut bill being pushed by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), calling it a $46 billion “giveaway” to the “most fortunate.”
In a lengthy policy statement, the White House blasted the 20 percent cut to companies with less than 500 employees as a salve to high-priced lawyers, consultants and “other wealthy individuals and corporations with the biggest profits.”
It cited independent analysis that found nearly half of the benefit from the bill would to go to taxpayers making more than $1 million a year, adding that it would benefit the wealthiest of those who would qualify.
“This bill is not an effective way to incentivize small business investment and job creation,” the administration said. “If the President is presented with H.R. 9, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill.”
TREVISO, Italy — On New Year’s Eve, Antonio Tamiozzo, 53, hanged himself in the warehouse of his construction business near Vicenza, after several debtors did not pay what they owed him.
In Veneto, Italy, Stefano Zanatta leads a support group for struggling businesspeople.
Three weeks earlier, Giovanni Schiavon, 59, a contractor, shot himself in the head at the headquarters of his debt-ridden construction company on the outskirts of Padua. As he faced the bleak prospect of ordering Christmas layoffs at his family firm of two generations, he wrote a last message: “Sorry, I cannot take it anymore.”
The economic downturn that has shaken Europe for the last three years has also swept away the foundations of once-sturdy lives, leading to an alarming spike in suicide rates. Especially in the most fragile nations like Greece, Ireland and Italy, small-business owners and entrepreneurs are increasingly taking their own lives in a phenomenon some European newspapers have started calling “suicide by economic crisis.”
Many, like Mr. Tamiozzo and Mr. Schiavon, have died in obscurity. Others, like the desperate 77-year-old retiree who shot himself outside the Greek Parliament on April 4, have turned their personal despair into dramatic public expressions of anger at the leaders who have failed to soften the blows of the crisis.
Obama says US trade deal with Colombia has strong protections for workers and the environment….
“It’s not a race to the bottom, but rather it says each country is abiding by everything from strong rules around labor and the environment to intellectual property protection. And so I have confidence that as we implement this plan, what we’re going to see is extraordinary opportunities for both U.S. and Colombian businesses.”
Between 2008 and 2011, 26 major American corporations paid no net federal income taxes despite bringing in billions in profits, according to a new report (PDF) from the nonprofit research group Citizens for Tax Justice. CTJ calculates that if the companies had paid the full 35 percent corporate tax rate, they would have put more than $78 billion into government coffers.
Here’s a look at the 10 most profitable tax evaders and the politicians their CEOs, employees, and PACs give the most money to.
Verizon Communications
Profits: $19.8 billion Effective tax rate: -3.8% Top recipients, 2011-2012
President Barack Obama: $51,493
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.): $24,450
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.): $23,700
Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio): $22,500
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.): $15,000
General Electric
Profits: $19.6 billion Effective tax rate: -18.9% Top recipients, 2011-2012
Mitt Romney: $53,750
President Barack Obama (D): $30,493
Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.): $23,900
Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.): $21,860
Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.): $19,750
Boeing Profits: $14.8 billion Effective tax rate: -5.5% Top recipients, 2011-2012
Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.): $31,750
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.): $25,000
Former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.): $23,500
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.): $23,125
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas): $20,986
The problem of plenty is once again troubling the Indian government as it does not know where to store the bumper grains to be harvested for the third year in a row. Fears are rising that the grains would be out in the open, rot and be eaten by rodents even as millions go hungry in the country which is planning to enact a right to food law.
The government’s plans to create additional storage space have so far moved at a snail’s pace. For instance, of the additional storage capacity of 19 million tonnes (MT) planned by 2012-13 through public-private partnership (PPP), only 0.5 MT could be created till January 2012.
“The states fail to provide land for the purpose,” said a food ministry official, citing the reason for the tardy progress of the scheme.
Experts say the government’s move to attract private players to build warehouses and other infrastructure has not succeeded because it does not offer tax benefits to them.
Biraj Patnaik, adviser to the Supreme Court-appointed food commissioners, told IANS: “The government should drop the idea of involving private players in building godowns and let the states do the job.”
With wheat procurement having started this month, the government is looking at a record crop over 90 MT this April-June season.
But the total storage capacity available is 53.4 MT, including 33.4 MT with the Food Corporation of India functioning under the central government, and 20 MT with the states.
Of this, ministry sources said, storage utilisation is 76 percent, leaving around 24 per cent capacity unutilised due to lack of proper planning.
According to one estimate, up to seven percent of the country’s annual grain production goes waste due to insufficient storage space and inefficient transport and distribution networks.
The lack of adequate storage capacity would bother authorities as procurement of wheat from major producing states like Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh picks up. Together, the three states account for over 80 per cent of India’s total production.
One way of solving the problem, Patnaik told IANS, is that the government should distribute more grains among the needy if it is not able to create enough storage capacity.
To reduce stockpiles, the government had allowed traders last year to export wheat and rice surpluses.
The government’s food grain stock up to January 2012 was 46.7 million tonnes. Ministry officials said most states failed to lift the additional 2.5 MT grain allocated to them last year.
To deal with the emerging situation, the finance and food ministries are trying to dovetail a food-for-work scheme with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
But the idea has not found favour with the rural development ministry.
Seeking the Truth About U.S. Targeted Killing Strike That Killed Dozens of Women and Children in Yemen
By Nathan Freed Wessler, Fellow, ACLU, and Pardiss Kebriaei, Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights
April 17, 2012 “” —Today the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking information about a horrific U.S. missile strike that killed dozens of civilians in Yemen.
This was the Obama administration’s first known missile strike in Yemen, carried out with one or more cruise missiles launched from an American warship or submarine on December 17, 2009. The U.S. military reportedly used cluster bombs, killing at least 41 people in the remote mountain village of al-Majalah in Yemen’s Abyan province. The government was purportedly targeting “militants,” but those killed include at least 21 children and 14 women. Entire families were wiped out. It is the worst reported loss of civilian life from a U.S. targeted killing strike in Yemen to date.
Although Yemen initially claimed responsibility for the attack, the press soon quoted unnamed American government officials acknowledging that in fact the U.S. had launched the strike. Those reports were confirmed when WikiLeaks released a secret diplomatic cable from January 2010 describing a meeting between then head of the U.S. Central Command General David Petraeus and then Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The cable describes General Petraeus and President Saleh discussing an apparent agreement that Yemen would help conceal U.S. involvement in the al-Majalah and other missile strikes in Yemen by publicly taking responsibility for those attacks. Even now, the U.S. government refuses to publicly discuss its role in the strike.
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SANAA, Yemen, April 17 (UPI) — Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh isn’t letting go of power and may launch a campaign to “bring down the building of change,” a defense official said.
Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi won a one-man presidential election in Yemen in February. His election followed a decision by Saleh to sign a deal in late 2011 to step down following nearly a year of protests in Yemen.
Denmark has demanded an explanation from the Israeli government for video footage showing a senior Israeli army officer striking a Danish activist in the face with an M16 rifle, an act which has been sharply criticised by the Israeli prime minister, president and chief of staff.
In the video, Lt Col Shalom Eisner, deputy commander of the Jordan Valley territorial brigade, is clearly seen slamming his rifle into the face of Andreas Ias. There was no obvious reason for the assault in the clip, which was broadcast on Israeli television and posted on YouTube. The soldier was suspended by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) pending an investigation.
The video emerged on the same day as Israel launched a security operation to prevent hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists entering the country en route to the West Bank, claiming they were provocateurs and were planning acts of violence. The assault on the Danish man and the operation to block the entry of Palestinian sympathisers have led to questions about whether Israel’s response to activists is excessively heavy-handed and will damage its image.
How an Anti-Democratic, Corporate-Friendly Pennsylvania Law Has Elevated the Battle Over Fracking to a Civil Rights Fight
The upcoming legal fight over Pennsylvania’s pro-fracking law, Act 13, pits the civil rights of people against the economic rights of corporations.
Editor’s note: This is the second article in a two-part series about the battle over Pennsylvania’s Act 13. You can read the first one here.
In a handful of communities in eastern states, local anti-fracking activists have been heartened by recent lower court decisions that have upheld local zoning ordinances and statewide moratoriums to keep the controversial natural gas wells out of their towns.
But in Pennsylvania, the epicenter of the controversial drilling, the legislature recently stripped all local zoning authority to prevent drilling, overturning the kinds of steps that have frustrated drillers in neighboring states. As a result, a different and riskier strategy is emerging in the battle to keep drilling at bay: local ordinances and organizing elevating the civil rights of communities and nature while limiting the legal rights of corporations.
Immigration violations are civil, not criminal infractions. But for many non-criminal immigrant detainees living alongside criminal inmates at the Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama, that distinction carries little meaning. Far removed from families and legal orientation programs, many of the 350 immigrant detainees housed at the Etowah Detention Center have received deportation orders, but for various reasons cannot be deported. Many are serving the maximum allowable time in detention, and are doing so under poor living conditions at a great cost to American taxpayers. In fact, a recent report by the Women’s Refugee Commission reveals that ICE continues to operate facilities like Etowah that fail to meet even its own detention standards.
It’s a day ending in Y, which means if you glance around, you’ll find yet another piece of evidence showing the persistence of the gender wage gap, and Tuesday is Equal Pay Day, which means there’s an actual study on pay disparities. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research has released an analysis showing that:
…women have lower median earnings than men in all but one of the 20 most common occupations for women, ‘bookkeeping and auditing clerks,’ where women and men have the same median earnings. In one of the twenty most common male occupations, ‘stock clerks and order fillers,’ women out-earned men by 3 percent of median male earnings.
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Obama campaign website yanks BET videos following TheDC’s reporting
President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign website has removed several videos that pitched alarmist messages to African-American voters, following reporting by The Daily Caller and the Fox News Channel.
In one video that the campaign yanked from the “African-Americans for Obama” section of its website Tuesday, actress Tatyana Ali seemed to predict that a second Obama term would bring a host of benefits to African-Americans once the president no longer had to concern himself with campaigning.
“What really excites me … is that a U.S. president has only two terms,” a laughing Ali said in the footage that the Obama campaign scrubbed from its website Tuesday. “In the second term, ‘it’s on,’ because we don’t have to worry about re-election.”
President Barack Obama’s labor secretary, Hilda Solis, has authorized new posters in elevators throughout the Department of Labor’s Washington, D.C. headquarters building. The posters feature a photo of her marching in protest alongside the Rev. Jesse Jackson and MSNBC television host Rev. Al Sharpton, among others.
The photo depicts Solis acting as an emissary of the Obama administration protesting against Alabama’s strict new law combating illegal immigration. Solis has her arms locked with Sharpton, and Jackson is a few feet away. The poster also carries a message for federal government employees — who are traditionally expected to be apolitical in the performance of their duties.
“Whether we take to the streets or simply do our work with integrity and commitment here at the U.S. Department of Labor,” the poster reads, above Solis’ signature, “We are all marching toward the same goals: safer workplaces, fair pay, dignity on the job, secure retirement and opportunities to make a better life. I believe in the power of collective action.”
Stanford’s Lazear: US Suffering Worst Economic Recovery in History
By Forrest Jones
The United States is experiencing its worst recovery in U.S. history thanks to excessive regulations and punitive taxes, writes Edward Lazear, a former economic adviser to President George W. Bush and Stanford professor.
Economies normally snap back when recovering from recessions, but that hasn’t been the case this time around.
From 1947 to 2007, the average annual growth rate for the U.S. was 3.4 percent, Lazear writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.
Since the recovery began from the Great Recession, growth has averaged 2.4 percent, Lazear adds, citing National Bureau of Economic Research data.
While many argue the financial nature of the recent recession means recovery should be slow, other recoveries stemming from similar downturns in the past didn’t go as tepidly as today.
Even the Great Depression saw stronger snapbacks between downturns.
“Threats of higher taxes, the constantly increasing regulatory burden, the failure to pursue an aggressive trade policy that will open markets to U.S. exports, and the enormous increase in government spending all are growth impediments,” writes Lazear, who was chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2006-2009.
Iran, Oil Prices and Gambling with the World Economy
By Daniel J. Graeber
The White House last week acknowledged problems in the global oil market but said the situation was secure enough to move ahead with tighter sanctions against Iran. President Obama said he was confident about the current state of the global economy and had assurances there was enough spare capacity to buffer against a severe shock to energy markets. The measure is meant to ensure Tehran doesn’t have the finances to back what’s seen as a nuclear weapons program. It might be something of a political and economic gamble, however.
Obama had until Friday to decide on pushing ahead with sanctions that would bar financial institutions from the U.S. economy if they don’t substantially cut their oil transactions with Iran. Some countries have already decided to back away from Iranian crude and others received some concessions from Washington for at least cutting back.
Concerns over Iran helped push oil prices up, however. The International Energy Agency said from Paris last week that oil prices are “very high again.” IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said the agency was keeping a close eye on oil markets, noting concern because of lingering fragility in the global economy. And she’s right to be concerned because last week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned the British economy was at risk of sinking back into recession.
President Barak Obama gave a speech to newspaper executives about the recently passed Republican budget in the House of Representatives. It proposes to cut spending by more than $5 trillion over the next ten years. Yesterday’s speech was, basically, a declaration of war against the GOP and its vision of the government’s budget. The President said, “This Congressional Republican budget is something different altogether. It is a Trojan horse disguised as deficit reduction plans. It is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. It is thinly veiled social Darwinism. It is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everybody who is willing to work for it. A place where prosperity doesn’t trickle down from the top but grows outward from the heart of middle class.”
Folks, it is officially “game on,” and every American should be scared speechless about this budget showdown. It is unlike any the nation has ever faced.
The country has never been more in debt, and this comes at a time when countries like China are shunning U.S. Treasuries. There are more than 12 million “officially unemployed.” (The unofficial is 22 million.) Home prices are falling despite near record low mortgage rates. The BRICS nations are actively seeking an alternative to the U.S dollar for settlement of trade, which could threaten the dollar’s reserve currency status. We are threatening financial war with any country that trades with Iran, and the nation is facing yet another shooting war in the Middle East. The only question is will it come before or after the election.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Tuesday that a nuclear-armed Iran or a conflict over its ambitions would both destabilize the region as she pressed Tehran to make progress in key talks.
As Israel voices growing impatience over Iran, Clinton credited US sanctions with inflicting pressure on the Islamic republic but warned of the “very difficult situation that the world faces” moving forward.
“There is no clear path. We know that a nuclear-armed Iran would be incredibly destabilizing to the region and beyond. A conflict arising out of their program would also be very destabilizing,” Clinton said.
“There is no way to balance this. You have two very difficult paths here,” Clinton told a dinner in Norfolk, Virginia, on a day trip to visit the only NATO command in the United States.
Clinton, who traveled over the weekend to Turkey and Saudi Arabia, voiced concern that a nuclear Iran would trigger an arms race in the region….
USDA Orders 326,000 Rounds of Ammunition As Homeland Security Stays Quiet Over 450 Million Round Order
What exactly are the preparing for ??????
Apparently Homeland Security is not the only domestic government agency that has bought a large amount of ammunition in the last 7 months.
In a post published on the now infamous Fbo.gov website, the US Forest Service (USDA) solicited and secured a bid for over 300,000 rounds of ammunition (scary raw milk farmers beware) including:
Added: Sep 28, 2011 5:15 pm
(1) 40 caliber, 180 grain, 120,000 rounds or equivalent,
(2) 9 mm, 124 grain, 50,000 rounds or equivalent,
(3) .38 caliber, 135 grain, 10,000 rounds or equivalent,
(4) .380 caliber, 90 grain, 6,000 rounds or equivalent,
(5) .223 caliber, 64 grain, 87,500 rounds or equivalent,
(6) 12 gauge 00 buck, 15,000 rounds or equivalent,
(7) 40 caliber frangible, 10,000 rounds or equivalent,
(8) 9 caliber frangible, 10,000 rounds or equivalent,
(9) .223 caliber frangible, 10,000 rounds or equivalent,
(10) 12 gauge 1 oz slug, 7,500 rounds or equivalent
The cartridges shall be delivered to Albuquerque, NM.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services require the following items, Exact Match Only, to the following:
2. Remington .40 Caliber Pistol Ammunition (180 grain) Full Metal Jacket – 6,000 rounds
3. Remington .223 Caliber Rifle Ammunition (62 grain) Full Metal Jacket – 3,000 rounds
4. Remington FX Marking Cartridges (9 mm) – 2,000 rounds
These requirements seem normal considering the possibility of running into grizzly bears and wolverines. These, to me, are acceptable quantities to order.
And of course the FBI needs about 100,000,000 rounds of .40 caliber ammunition for law enforcement needs. It posted the request November 15, 2011 and the order will be awarded this week. Oddly, it states a fixed price indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity type contract; however the pricing requirements go up to 100,000,000 rounds.
Ex-New Orleans officers sentenced to decades in jail for Katrina bridge killings, coverup
Cain Burdeau, Michael Kunzelman
Ex-New Orleans officers sentenced to decades in jail for Katrina bridge killings, coverup
NEW ORLEANS – Five former New Orleans police officers were sentenced Wednesday to prison terms ranging from six to 65 years for their roles in deadly shootings of unarmed residents in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, with the judge lashing out at prosecutors for two hours on their handling of the case.
Police shot six people at a bridge on Sept. 4, 2005, killing two, less than a week after Katrina made landfall. To make the shootings appear justified, officers conspired to plant a gun, fabricate witnesses and falsify reports. The case became the centerpiece of the Justice Department’s push to clean up the troubled New Orleans Police Department.
Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon were convicted of federal firearms charges that carried mandatory minimum prison sentences of at least 35 years. Retired Sgt. Arthur “Archie” Kaufman, who was assigned to investigate the shootings, was convicted of helping orchestrate the coverup.
Faulcon, who was convicted on charges in both fatal shootings, faces the stiffest sentence of 65 years. Bowen and Gisevius each face 40 years, while Villavaso was sentenced to 38. Kaufman received the lightest sentence at six years.
Afterward, U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt accused prosecutors of cutting overly lenient plea deals with five other officers who co-operated with the civil rights investigation. The former officers pleaded guilty to helping cover up the shooting and are already serving prison terms ranging from three to eight years.
“These through-the-looking-glass plea deals that tied the hands of this court … are an affront to the court and a disservice to the community,” Engelhardt said.
The judge also questioned the credibility of the officers who pleaded guilty and testified against those who went to trial.
Read it on Global News: Global Edmonton | Ex-New Orleans officers sentenced to decades in jail for Katrina bridge killings, coverup
The US Department of Homeland Security and the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Office have placed an order for 450 million rounds of .40 caliber bullets. The amount of ammo exceeds the amount of people that live in the US and many wonder the motives behind the vast purchase. The contractor Alliant Techsystems is the company supplying the ammunition to DHS and ICE and although the agencies claim these bullets are to be used for target practice many believe they have something else in mind. Jason Bermas, radio host and Filmmaker, joins us for more on the questionable purchase.
Senators Who Voted To Protect Oil Tax Breaks Received $23,582,500 From Big Oil
By Rebecca Leber
In a 51-47 vote, 43 Senate Republicans and four Democrats filibustered to protect $24 billion in tax breaks for Big Oil. Although a majority voted for Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) bill, it fell short of the 60 needed. The only two Republicans to break rank were Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME).
A Think Progress Green analysis shows how oil and gas companies have funneled cash to the same senators who protected its handouts:
– The 47 senators voting against the bill have received $23,582,500 in career contributions from oil and gas. The 51 senators voting to repeal oil tax breaks have received $5,873,600.
– The senators who voted for Big Oil’s handouts received on average over four times as much career oil cash as those who voted to end them.
– Overall, Senate Republicans have taken $23.2 million in oil and gas contributions. Democrats received $6.66 million.
– Since 2011, Senate Republicans have voted seven times for pro-Big Oil interests and against clean energy three times.
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Traffic inches along the connector of Interstate’s 75 and 85 as snow blankets Metro Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 28, 2014 as seen from the Pryor Street overpass. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is preparing to declare a state of emergency as a winter storm coats the region with snow and ice. State transportation officials said a mass of commuters leaving downtown Atlanta at once created traffic jams on interstates and surface streets. Photo: BEN GRAY, AP
WTVR.com
Winter Storm Ahead for South?
Snow and Ice for the Deep South
ANOTHER Arctic Blast on the Way
Family Survival Protocol - Microcosm News 
Reuters | Posted: 01/04/2014 4:02 pm EST | Updated: 01/23/2014 8:17 am EST