Right wing smear machine begs to stay relevant, as public opinion shifts
to favor the Affordable Health Care Act with success in KY. Rep. Yarmuth and Rep. Connolly
join Ed Schultz.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Friday, November 8, 2013
BREAKING: Thousands of Votes Discovered 'Unaccounted For' in Virginia AG Race
Inexplicably low absentee results in parts
of Fairfax County, which uses paper ballot op-scan systems with history
of dropping votes
UPDATED: Diebold op-scan
probs 'suspected' by County Registrar: 'Machine totals either didn't
print tapes, or didn't show full tallies'...
By Brad Friedman on 11/7/2013, 11:01 P.M. PT
We reported yesterday
on the incredibly close race for Attorney General in Virginia. With more
than 2.2 million votes cast, the margin between Mark Obenshain (R) and
Mark Herring (D) has been within a few hundred votes since Election
Night on Tuesday.
Within the last few hours, an unexplained discrepancy has been
discovered by those combing over the reported numbers in Fairfax County.
The county leans heavily Democratic and, unlike much of the rest of the
state which uses 100% unverifiable touch-screen, Fairfax uses
optically-scanned paper ballots for its main vote tabulation system.
After Democrats reportedly won both the Governor and Lt. Governor races, only the AG's remains undecided at the top of the ticket. For the last 24 hours or so, the Republican Obenshain has been leading during the canvassing of ballots by about 700 votes, as absentee and provisionals are tallied and doubled-checked.
But now, thanks to some smart detective work by both a Democratic political team in Fairfax County and by Dave Wasserman of the non-partisan Cook Political Report, the fortunes for the Democrat candidate Herring may just have taken a big turn, even as a new mystery is added to the equation...
'Missing' Votes
Ben Pershing at Washington Post tonight reports what's happened over the past few hours this way...
It remains unclear, according to WaPo, "whether a recording error occurred when Fairfax reported its numbers or when the state board recorded them."
We would add the possibility of a tabulator error, given the history of the particular optical-scan systems in use in Fairfax County, but more on that in a moment.
"The more I look at the data, the totality of the evidence points towards the likelihood that there are [approximately] 3,000 untallied Fairfax Co. votes," tweeted Dave Wasserman, political analyst at the Cook Political Report, tonight. He's been going over the state's reported numbers with a fine tooth comb --- and a publicly crowd-sourced Google spreadsheet --- since Election Night.
"And if there are indeed [approximately] 3,000 missing Fairfax #VA08 absentee votes, that'd almost certainly be the miracle Herring (D) needs to pull ahead," he continued. "What a complete reversal of fortune in #VAAG race in just the last few hours."
"The 2,500-3,000 missing votes happen to be from some of the most Democratic precincts in Fairfax County. Big margin for Herring," tweeted Ben Tribbett tonight, who Wasserman lauded on Twitter. "No one knows Fairfax politics more intimately than" him, he said.
"It appears to me there is solid evidence of missing votes," Tribbet observed, before later adding that he spoke tonight to the Republican election board member Schoeneman "and explained the issue to him." Tribbet added: "Glad to have a Republican on Elec-Board making sure every vote counts."
For his part, Schoeneman tweeted a "Thanks to Ben [Tribbet] and Dave [Wasserman] for their doggedness on this. I'm heading to bed, heading back in early AM."
Bug in theOintment Diebold Tabulators
As if it wasn't clear previously, this race will likely end up in a "recount" no matter what. As if it wasn't a certainty before, tonight's events should seal the deal. Our report yesterday described the difficulty --- if not impossibility --- of "recounting" most of the votes cast across the state, thanks to the 100% unverifiable touch-screen systems in use in much of it. The best that can be done with those machines, by and large, is to push the buttons again to produce the same results they produced the first time. There is no way to know if any of the votes cast on those systems actually reflect the intent of any voter. And, to make matters worse there, as we reported on Election Day, a number of voters complained that the touch-screen systems were repeatedly checking the box for the Republican candidate as they were trying to vote for the Democrat.
But the largest single voting jurisdiction in the commonwealth is Fairfax County and the race is close enough that the results could flip just based on untallied votes in that one county alone. It also happens to be heavily Democratic, as noted by others above. So tonight's discovery --- whatever it turns out to be --- could very well become unexpectedly good news for Herring.
One last point we should note for now. The optical-scan systems used to tally paper ballots in Fairfax County are, according to Verified Voting, made by Diebold/Premier. Those systems, as has been discovered elsewhere, have been known to simply drop entire stacks of ballots --- potentially hundreds at a time --- from the results without notice to the system operator. Worse, as Diebold once admitted to the state of California, ballots dropped by the system may not be noted at all in the system audit logs.
In other words, the only way to know whether or not the system recorded votes accurately is to count them by hand, even though Virginia's recount law seems to require a computer re-tally of most votes that have been previously tallied by a computer [emphasis added]:
Paper ballots initially counted by hand are to also be recounted by hand...Additional ballots to be counted by hand include ballots tabulated by optical scanners that contain "write-in votes, overvotes, and undervotes," and "any ballots not accepted by the tabulator, and any ballots for which a tabulator could not be programmed to meet the programming requirements." However, all other ballots tabulated by optical scanners are retabulated by machine.
The specific VA statute notes, however: "The result calculated for ballots accepted by the tabulator during the recount shall be considered the correct determination for those ballots unless the court finds sufficient cause to rule otherwise."
We don't know what version of the Diebold optical-scan hardware and software may be in use in the Fairfax County systems, and if the particular bug discovered and confirmed in CA in 2008, has since been corrected in them. But it seems worth noting here, given the --- for now --- unaccounted for, seemingly "missing" ballots in the results.
Either way, the only way to know for certain that an optical-scan tabulating system has tallied ballots correctly is to count them by hand. Both candidates in this race would do well to prepare a pleading to the court to show "sufficient cause" for a full hand-count of the paper ballots in (at least) Fairfax County.
* * *
UPDATE: Just after publishing this story, Wasserman tweeted
a few more times, with information from the Fairfax County Registrar
that seems as if it could dovetail with the section of this report above
about concerns with the tabulators. Here's what he tweeted [emphasis added]:
"Breaking: Fairfax Co. voter registrar Cameron Quinn concedes in email
(I just obtained) that #VA08 absentee totals are 'in error. ... given
that on 11/4/13 there were 2014 [Absentee Ballots] returned by mail
& 5113 by in person, it appears the problem is the in-person numbers
are incomplete, but this is pure speculation on my part. ... I suspect there are machine totals that either didn't print tapes, or didn't show full tallies on the tapes. ... I expect that the Electoral Board will make figuring out what happened the first order of business in the morning.'"
After Democrats reportedly won both the Governor and Lt. Governor races, only the AG's remains undecided at the top of the ticket. For the last 24 hours or so, the Republican Obenshain has been leading during the canvassing of ballots by about 700 votes, as absentee and provisionals are tallied and doubled-checked.
But now, thanks to some smart detective work by both a Democratic political team in Fairfax County and by Dave Wasserman of the non-partisan Cook Political Report, the fortunes for the Democrat candidate Herring may just have taken a big turn, even as a new mystery is added to the equation...
'Missing' Votes
Ben Pershing at Washington Post tonight reports what's happened over the past few hours this way...
The Fairfax County Electoral Board is investigating a
possible irregularity in the number of absentee ballots cast in
Virginia's largest jurisdiction that Democrats say could shift votes in
the still-unresolved race for Virginia attorney general.
...
One oddity was flagged in Fairfax County by the political team of Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.).
...
The State Board of Election's site shows absentee ballots cast in each county broken down by congressional district. Fairfax County includes portions of three districts: Connolly's 11th, Rep, Frank R. Wolf's (R) 10th and Rep. James P. Moran Jr.'s (D) 8th. According to state numbers, Fairfax reported an unexplainably lower number of absentee ballots cast in the 8th District than in the other two congressional districts.
The county keeps track of how many voters request absentee ballots as well as the number who actually turn them in. In the 10th District, 88 percent of voters who requested a ballot actually voted, while 86 percent did so in the 11th District.
But in the 8th district, the state board shows that only 50 percent of those who requested ballots - 4,168 out of 8,363 requests - actually cast ballots, a response rate not only lower than the other portions of Fairfax County but lower than any other congressional district in the state, according to the Connolly campaign.
...
A Republican member of the electoral board, Brian Schoeneman, agreed in several tweets late Thursday that a discrepancy exists. "I am convinced now too that there is an issue," he tweeted.
"Top priority tomorrow will be canvass of 8th District [absentee ballots]," he said. "We will figure this out."
The 8th District portions of Fairfax are more heavily Democratic than the rest of the county, with more than 70 percent of voters in many of its precincts having voted for Herring in Tuesday's contest. In other words, any discovery of previously uncounted absentee votes in the 8th District is likely to benefit Herring more than Obenshain.
...
One oddity was flagged in Fairfax County by the political team of Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.).
...
The State Board of Election's site shows absentee ballots cast in each county broken down by congressional district. Fairfax County includes portions of three districts: Connolly's 11th, Rep, Frank R. Wolf's (R) 10th and Rep. James P. Moran Jr.'s (D) 8th. According to state numbers, Fairfax reported an unexplainably lower number of absentee ballots cast in the 8th District than in the other two congressional districts.
The county keeps track of how many voters request absentee ballots as well as the number who actually turn them in. In the 10th District, 88 percent of voters who requested a ballot actually voted, while 86 percent did so in the 11th District.
But in the 8th district, the state board shows that only 50 percent of those who requested ballots - 4,168 out of 8,363 requests - actually cast ballots, a response rate not only lower than the other portions of Fairfax County but lower than any other congressional district in the state, according to the Connolly campaign.
...
A Republican member of the electoral board, Brian Schoeneman, agreed in several tweets late Thursday that a discrepancy exists. "I am convinced now too that there is an issue," he tweeted.
"Top priority tomorrow will be canvass of 8th District [absentee ballots]," he said. "We will figure this out."
The 8th District portions of Fairfax are more heavily Democratic than the rest of the county, with more than 70 percent of voters in many of its precincts having voted for Herring in Tuesday's contest. In other words, any discovery of previously uncounted absentee votes in the 8th District is likely to benefit Herring more than Obenshain.
It remains unclear, according to WaPo, "whether a recording error occurred when Fairfax reported its numbers or when the state board recorded them."
We would add the possibility of a tabulator error, given the history of the particular optical-scan systems in use in Fairfax County, but more on that in a moment.
"The more I look at the data, the totality of the evidence points towards the likelihood that there are [approximately] 3,000 untallied Fairfax Co. votes," tweeted Dave Wasserman, political analyst at the Cook Political Report, tonight. He's been going over the state's reported numbers with a fine tooth comb --- and a publicly crowd-sourced Google spreadsheet --- since Election Night.
"And if there are indeed [approximately] 3,000 missing Fairfax #VA08 absentee votes, that'd almost certainly be the miracle Herring (D) needs to pull ahead," he continued. "What a complete reversal of fortune in #VAAG race in just the last few hours."
"The 2,500-3,000 missing votes happen to be from some of the most Democratic precincts in Fairfax County. Big margin for Herring," tweeted Ben Tribbett tonight, who Wasserman lauded on Twitter. "No one knows Fairfax politics more intimately than" him, he said.
"It appears to me there is solid evidence of missing votes," Tribbet observed, before later adding that he spoke tonight to the Republican election board member Schoeneman "and explained the issue to him." Tribbet added: "Glad to have a Republican on Elec-Board making sure every vote counts."
For his part, Schoeneman tweeted a "Thanks to Ben [Tribbet] and Dave [Wasserman] for their doggedness on this. I'm heading to bed, heading back in early AM."
Bug in the
As if it wasn't clear previously, this race will likely end up in a "recount" no matter what. As if it wasn't a certainty before, tonight's events should seal the deal. Our report yesterday described the difficulty --- if not impossibility --- of "recounting" most of the votes cast across the state, thanks to the 100% unverifiable touch-screen systems in use in much of it. The best that can be done with those machines, by and large, is to push the buttons again to produce the same results they produced the first time. There is no way to know if any of the votes cast on those systems actually reflect the intent of any voter. And, to make matters worse there, as we reported on Election Day, a number of voters complained that the touch-screen systems were repeatedly checking the box for the Republican candidate as they were trying to vote for the Democrat.
But the largest single voting jurisdiction in the commonwealth is Fairfax County and the race is close enough that the results could flip just based on untallied votes in that one county alone. It also happens to be heavily Democratic, as noted by others above. So tonight's discovery --- whatever it turns out to be --- could very well become unexpectedly good news for Herring.
One last point we should note for now. The optical-scan systems used to tally paper ballots in Fairfax County are, according to Verified Voting, made by Diebold/Premier. Those systems, as has been discovered elsewhere, have been known to simply drop entire stacks of ballots --- potentially hundreds at a time --- from the results without notice to the system operator. Worse, as Diebold once admitted to the state of California, ballots dropped by the system may not be noted at all in the system audit logs.
In other words, the only way to know whether or not the system recorded votes accurately is to count them by hand, even though Virginia's recount law seems to require a computer re-tally of most votes that have been previously tallied by a computer [emphasis added]:
Paper ballots initially counted by hand are to also be recounted by hand...Additional ballots to be counted by hand include ballots tabulated by optical scanners that contain "write-in votes, overvotes, and undervotes," and "any ballots not accepted by the tabulator, and any ballots for which a tabulator could not be programmed to meet the programming requirements." However, all other ballots tabulated by optical scanners are retabulated by machine.
The specific VA statute notes, however: "The result calculated for ballots accepted by the tabulator during the recount shall be considered the correct determination for those ballots unless the court finds sufficient cause to rule otherwise."
We don't know what version of the Diebold optical-scan hardware and software may be in use in the Fairfax County systems, and if the particular bug discovered and confirmed in CA in 2008, has since been corrected in them. But it seems worth noting here, given the --- for now --- unaccounted for, seemingly "missing" ballots in the results.
Either way, the only way to know for certain that an optical-scan tabulating system has tallied ballots correctly is to count them by hand. Both candidates in this race would do well to prepare a pleading to the court to show "sufficient cause" for a full hand-count of the paper ballots in (at least) Fairfax County.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
How Social Security Keeps Divorcées and Widows in the Dark About Their Benefits
By Larry Kotlikoff
Social Security cites misguided "privacy" restrictions, Larry Kotlikoff argues, for not sharing information about former spouses' earnings records with surviving and ex-spouses. Photo courtesy of Flickr user João Ferreira.
Larry Kotlikoff's Social Security original 34 "secrets", his additional secrets, his Social Security "mistakes" and his Social Security gotchas have prompted so many of you to write in that we now feature "Ask Larry" every Monday. We are determined to continue it until the queries stop or we run through the particular problems of all 78 million Baby Boomers, whichever comes first. Kotlikoff's state-of-the-art retirement software is available here, for free, in its "basic" version.
Larry Kotlikoff: Here are some questions I've been receiving a lot since Paul asked me to write this column 15 months ago:
This policy, which Social Security claims is for privacy purposes, is simply outrageous.
I suspect a darker explanation. Congress, which sets Social Security's "privacy" rules, remains an old boys club. Keeping ex-wives from getting access to their former husbands' earnings records keeps ex-wives from demanding higher alimony if their former husbands start earning more money. Of course, this could go both ways, men could demand higher alimony too. But the Social Security Administration does spouses a disservice by not letting them see what their ex or late spouses were earning.
I may be off base about the underlying explanation for these provisions. But what I know for sure is that given Social Security's benefit formulas, the earnings histories of, say, Mary's ex-husband, Joe, and Linda's late husband, Sam, are just as much the private property of Mary and Linda as they are of Joe and Sam.
Mary and Linda have a legal claim to benefits based on their former
husbands' earnings records. But if they can't get access to these
earnings records, they can't properly plan when to retire, how much to
save for retirement, in which order to take their spousal, retirement
and survivor benefits, or when to take them at all.
Yes, once Mary and Linda are in spitting distance of being able to collect benefits on their ex or their deceased husbands, which is very late in the day, they can find out from Social Security what these benefits will be. And if they are really knowledgeable about the system, they can roughly infer what their husbands must have made and then run through the potentially thousands of combinations of benefit collection dates to figure out which one is optimal. But this is not something I recommend anyone try on their own.
As for learning whether your ex is collecting benefits, don't expect Social Security to notify you. First off, the Social Security Administration doesn't know who is or was married to whom. You need to establish you are or were married by providing a copy of your marriage certificate or your final divorce decree. But to collect divorcée spousal benefits, you need to have been married at least 10 years, have an ex who is at least age 62 and have been divorced for two or more years or have an ex who has filed for his or her retirement benefit. Because of those requirements, knowing whether your ex has filed matters a great deal if you were divorced less than two years ago. But the only way to know if your ex has filed is to ask him or her.
The AARP, which has close to 40 million members, should lobby Congress to make the Social Security Administration provide access to former spouses' earnings records because it's the private information of the surviving and ex spouses as much as it is of their former spouses.
Kathy C. -- McKinleyville, Calif.: Is it possible to benefit from a previous spouse's Social Security if I married and divorced again?
Larry Kotlikoff: Provided you're not now married yet again and that you were married to both former spouses for 10 or more years, you can take the larger of the two spousal benefits (provided you are eligible for both). To collect a spousal benefit as a divorced spouse, your ex-husband needs to be over 62 and either he has to have filed for a spousal benefit or you need to have been divorced for at least two years.
Given those conditions, some divorcées may need to take a spousal benefit from their lower-earning ex first and then switch to taking a spousal benefit from their higher-earning ex. Make sure you let Social Security know about both former spouses.
Also, be aware that if one or both of your 10-years-or-more-in-the-saddle exes dies, you can collect survivor benefits based on the deceased ex's earnings record. The survivor benefit of the lower-earning spouse might well exceed the spousal benefit from the higher-earning spouse. So you might, under the right circumstances, go from taking a spousal benefit on the lower-earning spouse to taking a spousal benefit on the higher-earning spouse or even from taking a survivor benefit on the lower-earning spouse to taking a survivor benefit on the higher-earning spouse.
Keep on top of the Social Security Administration to determine from whom you should be collecting benefits and when because they won't necessarily keep track.
Anne J. -- Oakland, Calif.: My husband of 25 years started drawing his reduced Social Security benefits 10 years ago at the age of 62. Is there a spousal benefit for which I am eligible? I am 65, and we are thinking about my filing for spousal benefits at 66 and deferring my own Social Security until 70. Since he is on reduced benefits for taking it early, would my spousal benefit be based on his current benefit amount or what he would have received if he had waited until 65?
Larry Kotlikoff: If you wait until 66 to file, you'll be, as you correctly understand, able to apply just for your own spousal benefit while letting your own retirement benefit grow by 32 percent through age 70. In this case, your spousal benefit will equal your full spousal benefit, which is half of your husband's full retirement benefit -- not half of what he's currently collecting. What he's currently collecting is a reduced retirement benefit since he started his own benefit at 62. So your spousal benefit will be more than half of the retirement benefit he's now getting.
David -- Calabasas, Calif.: My question is about a wife who receives a Social Security disability benefit. The husband, who's turning 65 in December, has applied for his Social Security benefits, but the Social Security Administration says that the wife's disability benefit will terminate once the husband receives his retirement benefit. This doesn't seem right, but I cannot locate anything on this situation. Help, please.
Larry Kotlikoff: It doesn't seem right for a good reason. It's not. The wife's eligibility for a disability benefit doesn't depend on the husband's taking his Social Security retirement benefit. Her eligibility for receiving an excess spousal benefit, in addition to her disability benefit, is conditional on the husband filing for his retirement benefit.
Perhaps the Social Security staffer was referencing what happens to the wife's disability benefit when she, not her husband, reaches full retirement age. At this point, unless the wife withdraws her retirement benefit, her disability benefit automatically converts to her retirement benefit.
The wife, in the situation you describe, can choose to not take her excess spousal benefit and withdraw her retirement benefit when she reaches full retirement age, then apply, at full retirement age, just for spousal benefits, and wait until age 70 to restart her retirement benefit, at which point it will be 32 percent higher (and adjusted for inflation).
Sydne -- Pottstown, Pa.: My husband will be 62 next February. I am 60 and have been the higher wage earner for many years. He is a farmer and I'm a nurse. With what I've been reading, it sounds like, if necessary, it would be best for my husband to apply for his retirement benefits early, and then check when I turn 66 to see if the spousal benefits would be greater than his reduced retirement benefits. Does that sound right? (I provide health benefits through my employer.)
Larry Kotlikoff: My mom was born in Pottstown! But back to business. No, this doesn't sound right. What may be the best option is for you to take your retirement benefit at age 64, thus permitting your husband to apply, at his full retirement age, just for his spousal benefit based on your earnings history. When he reaches age 70, he can then apply for his own retirement benefit. When you reach age 66 (your full retirement age), you would suspend your retirement benefit and start it up at age 70.
Robert C. -- Palm City, Fla.: My wife passed away 18 years ago and had worked 15 to 20 years. Can I collect survivor benefits? I am 63 and plan on working until 66. Her earnings were quite high during her career, so how does that affect my benefits?
Larry Kotlikoff: Survivor benefits are available starting at age 60. Let me ignore for the moment the fact that you're still working and assume that your age-70 retirement benefit exceeds your survivor benefit. If you start taking your survivor benefit immediately, it will be permanently reduced because you'll be taking it before reaching full retirement age. Still, this is likely to be the best move if you were the higher earner. At 70, you should collect your own retirement benefit when it will start at its largest possible value. Social Security will pay you the larger of either your own retirement benefit or your survivor benefit, so at 70, your survivor benefit will disappear.
Now let's add the fact that you are working. If you are earning enough to lose all your survivor benefits to the earnings test, which wipes out a portion of benefits for those still making a certain amount of money, you might as well wait until you reach January 1 of the year you'll turn 66 to take your survivor benefit. The earnings test will apply in that year until the month you reach your 66th birthday. After you reach your 66th birthday, the earnings test ends.
On the other hand, if you have been a low earner, it may be best to take your own retirement benefit for the few months between January 1 of the year you reach 66 and your 66th birthday. Then, upon reaching full retirement age, you should start taking your survivor benefit, which I'm now assuming will exceed not just your full retirement benefit, but also your age-70 retirement benefit -- the retirement benefit you'd collect if you first file at age 70 for a retirement benefit.
This entry is cross-posted on the Rundown -- NewsHour's blog of news and insight.
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Social Security cites misguided "privacy" restrictions, Larry Kotlikoff argues, for not sharing information about former spouses' earnings records with surviving and ex-spouses. Photo courtesy of Flickr user João Ferreira.
Larry Kotlikoff's Social Security original 34 "secrets", his additional secrets, his Social Security "mistakes" and his Social Security gotchas have prompted so many of you to write in that we now feature "Ask Larry" every Monday. We are determined to continue it until the queries stop or we run through the particular problems of all 78 million Baby Boomers, whichever comes first. Kotlikoff's state-of-the-art retirement software is available here, for free, in its "basic" version.
Larry Kotlikoff: Here are some questions I've been receiving a lot since Paul asked me to write this column 15 months ago:
- Why can't I get access to my ex spouse's earnings record? I need this information to do my own Social Security planning.
- Will Social Security notify me if my ex starts collecting his or her Social Security retirement benefit? This decision can, in special cases, affect when I can start my divorcée spousal benefit.
This policy, which Social Security claims is for privacy purposes, is simply outrageous.
I suspect a darker explanation. Congress, which sets Social Security's "privacy" rules, remains an old boys club. Keeping ex-wives from getting access to their former husbands' earnings records keeps ex-wives from demanding higher alimony if their former husbands start earning more money. Of course, this could go both ways, men could demand higher alimony too. But the Social Security Administration does spouses a disservice by not letting them see what their ex or late spouses were earning.
I may be off base about the underlying explanation for these provisions. But what I know for sure is that given Social Security's benefit formulas, the earnings histories of, say, Mary's ex-husband, Joe, and Linda's late husband, Sam, are just as much the private property of Mary and Linda as they are of Joe and Sam.
MORE FROM LARRY KOTLIKOFF:
When Social Security's Advisers Get It Wrong
Yes, once Mary and Linda are in spitting distance of being able to collect benefits on their ex or their deceased husbands, which is very late in the day, they can find out from Social Security what these benefits will be. And if they are really knowledgeable about the system, they can roughly infer what their husbands must have made and then run through the potentially thousands of combinations of benefit collection dates to figure out which one is optimal. But this is not something I recommend anyone try on their own.
As for learning whether your ex is collecting benefits, don't expect Social Security to notify you. First off, the Social Security Administration doesn't know who is or was married to whom. You need to establish you are or were married by providing a copy of your marriage certificate or your final divorce decree. But to collect divorcée spousal benefits, you need to have been married at least 10 years, have an ex who is at least age 62 and have been divorced for two or more years or have an ex who has filed for his or her retirement benefit. Because of those requirements, knowing whether your ex has filed matters a great deal if you were divorced less than two years ago. But the only way to know if your ex has filed is to ask him or her.
The AARP, which has close to 40 million members, should lobby Congress to make the Social Security Administration provide access to former spouses' earnings records because it's the private information of the surviving and ex spouses as much as it is of their former spouses.
Kathy C. -- McKinleyville, Calif.: Is it possible to benefit from a previous spouse's Social Security if I married and divorced again?
Larry Kotlikoff: Provided you're not now married yet again and that you were married to both former spouses for 10 or more years, you can take the larger of the two spousal benefits (provided you are eligible for both). To collect a spousal benefit as a divorced spouse, your ex-husband needs to be over 62 and either he has to have filed for a spousal benefit or you need to have been divorced for at least two years.
Given those conditions, some divorcées may need to take a spousal benefit from their lower-earning ex first and then switch to taking a spousal benefit from their higher-earning ex. Make sure you let Social Security know about both former spouses.
Also, be aware that if one or both of your 10-years-or-more-in-the-saddle exes dies, you can collect survivor benefits based on the deceased ex's earnings record. The survivor benefit of the lower-earning spouse might well exceed the spousal benefit from the higher-earning spouse. So you might, under the right circumstances, go from taking a spousal benefit on the lower-earning spouse to taking a spousal benefit on the higher-earning spouse or even from taking a survivor benefit on the lower-earning spouse to taking a survivor benefit on the higher-earning spouse.
Keep on top of the Social Security Administration to determine from whom you should be collecting benefits and when because they won't necessarily keep track.
Anne J. -- Oakland, Calif.: My husband of 25 years started drawing his reduced Social Security benefits 10 years ago at the age of 62. Is there a spousal benefit for which I am eligible? I am 65, and we are thinking about my filing for spousal benefits at 66 and deferring my own Social Security until 70. Since he is on reduced benefits for taking it early, would my spousal benefit be based on his current benefit amount or what he would have received if he had waited until 65?
Larry Kotlikoff: If you wait until 66 to file, you'll be, as you correctly understand, able to apply just for your own spousal benefit while letting your own retirement benefit grow by 32 percent through age 70. In this case, your spousal benefit will equal your full spousal benefit, which is half of your husband's full retirement benefit -- not half of what he's currently collecting. What he's currently collecting is a reduced retirement benefit since he started his own benefit at 62. So your spousal benefit will be more than half of the retirement benefit he's now getting.
David -- Calabasas, Calif.: My question is about a wife who receives a Social Security disability benefit. The husband, who's turning 65 in December, has applied for his Social Security benefits, but the Social Security Administration says that the wife's disability benefit will terminate once the husband receives his retirement benefit. This doesn't seem right, but I cannot locate anything on this situation. Help, please.
Larry Kotlikoff: It doesn't seem right for a good reason. It's not. The wife's eligibility for a disability benefit doesn't depend on the husband's taking his Social Security retirement benefit. Her eligibility for receiving an excess spousal benefit, in addition to her disability benefit, is conditional on the husband filing for his retirement benefit.
Perhaps the Social Security staffer was referencing what happens to the wife's disability benefit when she, not her husband, reaches full retirement age. At this point, unless the wife withdraws her retirement benefit, her disability benefit automatically converts to her retirement benefit.
The wife, in the situation you describe, can choose to not take her excess spousal benefit and withdraw her retirement benefit when she reaches full retirement age, then apply, at full retirement age, just for spousal benefits, and wait until age 70 to restart her retirement benefit, at which point it will be 32 percent higher (and adjusted for inflation).
Sydne -- Pottstown, Pa.: My husband will be 62 next February. I am 60 and have been the higher wage earner for many years. He is a farmer and I'm a nurse. With what I've been reading, it sounds like, if necessary, it would be best for my husband to apply for his retirement benefits early, and then check when I turn 66 to see if the spousal benefits would be greater than his reduced retirement benefits. Does that sound right? (I provide health benefits through my employer.)
Larry Kotlikoff: My mom was born in Pottstown! But back to business. No, this doesn't sound right. What may be the best option is for you to take your retirement benefit at age 64, thus permitting your husband to apply, at his full retirement age, just for his spousal benefit based on your earnings history. When he reaches age 70, he can then apply for his own retirement benefit. When you reach age 66 (your full retirement age), you would suspend your retirement benefit and start it up at age 70.
Robert C. -- Palm City, Fla.: My wife passed away 18 years ago and had worked 15 to 20 years. Can I collect survivor benefits? I am 63 and plan on working until 66. Her earnings were quite high during her career, so how does that affect my benefits?
Larry Kotlikoff: Survivor benefits are available starting at age 60. Let me ignore for the moment the fact that you're still working and assume that your age-70 retirement benefit exceeds your survivor benefit. If you start taking your survivor benefit immediately, it will be permanently reduced because you'll be taking it before reaching full retirement age. Still, this is likely to be the best move if you were the higher earner. At 70, you should collect your own retirement benefit when it will start at its largest possible value. Social Security will pay you the larger of either your own retirement benefit or your survivor benefit, so at 70, your survivor benefit will disappear.
Now let's add the fact that you are working. If you are earning enough to lose all your survivor benefits to the earnings test, which wipes out a portion of benefits for those still making a certain amount of money, you might as well wait until you reach January 1 of the year you'll turn 66 to take your survivor benefit. The earnings test will apply in that year until the month you reach your 66th birthday. After you reach your 66th birthday, the earnings test ends.
On the other hand, if you have been a low earner, it may be best to take your own retirement benefit for the few months between January 1 of the year you reach 66 and your 66th birthday. Then, upon reaching full retirement age, you should start taking your survivor benefit, which I'm now assuming will exceed not just your full retirement benefit, but also your age-70 retirement benefit -- the retirement benefit you'd collect if you first file at age 70 for a retirement benefit.
This entry is cross-posted on the Rundown -- NewsHour's blog of news and insight.
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Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Teacher Chris Christie yelled at unloads to Salon
Chris Christie managed to inject some news in his largely suspense-free re-election race when he got into a heated confrontation with teacher Melissa Tomlinson, who challenged him on education at a weekend event.
A member of the country’s largest union, the National Education Association, and of the fledgling Badass Teacher Association, Tomlinson teaches at New Jersey’s Buena Regional middle school.
In an Election Day interview, she told Salon “the crowd cheered when he shouted at me,” and “I left shaking.” What follows is a condensed and edited transcript of our conversation on Chris Christie, teachers’ unions, and education reform.
You asked Chris Christie why he calls schools “failure factories.” He says he told you, “It’s never enough for you people.” You say he said, “I’m tired of you people.” Were you surprised by his reaction?
Yes, I was very surprised. Honestly…I was expecting to be totally ignored. The fact that he even acknowledged the question, I think kind of says something about how he feels about what’s actually going on. That maybe he realizes that something is wrong that he doesn’t want to be exposed.
What did you think of his answer to your question about “failure factories”?
“Because they are” – that was the first thing he said to me…In fact, New Jersey schools are not failing right now. We’re above the average for the rest of the country…And then he responded with some of his budgetary numbers about how he has set aside almost $9 billion towards education. When he was first elected, there were education cuts of over $1.3 billion in the state. And due to a lot of the state mandates and inflation and things that are needed for the classrooms, our district is still really, really feeling that original cut.
Why did you go and confront the Governor in the first place?
The Badass Teachers actually is what prompted me to do it. I have been seeing a lot of teachers really saying that they cant take this anymore. They want the public to be aware of what is going on in the country in public education.
So as I see other people stepping up and voicing their opinions, somebody gave me the idea. They had gone and confronted Christie with the same question the day before. So I wanted to keep some uniformity in what we were trying to get an answer for, and I decided to go in that town and ask the same question.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
A Dynasty to Duck
By MAUREEN DOWD
Dick Cheney and Mike Enzi are in a tiff over whether they’re fishing buddies or not.
Enzi, the conservative senator from Wyoming who’s trying to fend off a
carpetbagger challenge from Liz Cheney, is lucky he wasn’t hunting
buddies with the trigger-happy former vice president.
Then he might not be in the race at all.
One of the best things about the 2008 race was ushering out the
incalculably destructive Dick Cheney. Except now, in 2013, he’s once
more ominously omnipresent. Even blessed with the gift of a stranger’s
heart, and looking so much healthier, he’s still the same nasty bully.
He’s trying to bully Enzi in an attempt to help his daughter — who has
never held elected office — muscle her way into the Senate by knocking
off the popular three-term incumbent Republican.
Showing that bullying runs in the family, Lynne Cheney told old friend
and former Republican Wyoming senator Alan Simpson to “shut up” in an
exchange tied to the contentious campaign, in which Simpson is
supporting Enzi.
This is one dynasty we want to duck.
Dick Cheney is hawking a book he has written with his cardiologist, Dr.
Jonathan Reiner, about his heart transplant at the age of 71. Calling it
“a spiritual experience,” he told ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos: “I
wake up every morning literally with a smile on my face, grateful for
another day I never thought I’d see.”
Yet even in this blissed-out state, he still can’t emulate the
respectful restraint of his former partner, George W. Bush. He grabs
every opportunity to snarl at President Obama, who is still mopping up
from the Bush-Cheney misrule, as does his mini-me.
“Obstructing President Obama’s policies and his agenda isn’t actually obstruction; it’s patriotism,” Liz said.
Dick Cheney’s chutzpah extends to charging the Obama administration with
“incompetence” in the Middle East and saying that the president has
done “enormous damage” to America’s standing around the world.
When Bill O’Reilly asked Cheney on Fox News what “we get out of” the
Iraq war, given that “we spent $1 trillion on this with a lot of pain
and suffering on the American military,” Cheney repeated his delusion
about Saddam’s W.M.D. — the imaginary ones — falling into the hands of
terrorists:
“We eliminated Iraq as a potential source of that.”
And, of course, he disdains Obamacare, telling Rush Limbaugh that it’s
“devastating” — begrudging less well-off and well-connected Americans
the lifesaving and costly health care he got on us when he was in the
White House.
In his “60 Minutes” interview with Dick Cheney, Sanjay Gupta made it
clear that Cheney had gotten special treatment to ascend to the vice
presidency, given that he’d already had three heart attacks, the first
one at 37. As Dr. Gupta noted, the Bush campaign was concerned enough to
check with the famed Texas heart surgeon Denton Cooley, who talked to
Dr. Reiner and then informed the Bush team — with no examination — that
Cheney was in “good health with normal cardiac function.”
“The normal cardiac function wasn’t true,” Dr. Gupta said to Cheney.
“I’m not responsible for that,” replied the man who never takes
responsibility for any of his dark deeds. “I don’t know what took place
between the doctors.”
Four months after being cleared, Cheney suffered his fourth heart attack
during the 2000 recount and had to get a stent put in to open a clogged
artery.
If the doctors had not signed off on Cheney’s heart as “normal,” then
Cheney would never have been vice president, and Donald Rumsfeld never
would have been defense secretary, and Paul Wolfowitz never would have
been his deputy, etc., etc. And W. wouldn’t have been pushed and
diverted into Iraq.
In this alternative scenario, “It’s Not a Wonderful Life,” where Cheney
is not peddling his paranoia, how many Americans would not have lost
their lives and limbs?
Dr. Gupta also asked the question that even Cheney’s Republican pals
have puzzled over: Could his heart disease, limiting blood flow to the
brain, have affected his judgment on the Iraq invasion and torture?
Asked if he had ever worried about that, Cheney said “No.”
Speaking to Stephanopoulos, Cheney belittled his daughter’s opponent,
saying he had never been his fishing buddy and noting that Liz garnered
25 percent of her funds from Wyoming while Enzi only got 13 percent of
his from the state. In sparsely populated Wyoming, it’s not easy to
raise money.
And Liz has gotten a lot of help from daddy’s rich friends.
While other Republican elders, from Jeb Bush to John McCain, chided Tea
Party lawmakers for vaingloriously and recklessly closing the
government, and National Review warned of “perpetual intra-Republican
denunciation,” Dick Cheney gave the shutdown a shout-out. He knows Liz’s
best shot is being seen as part of the “new generation” of Tea Partiers
rather than a habitual beneficiary of old-fashioned nepotism.
“It’s a normal, healthy reaction, and the fact that the party is having
to adjust to it is positive,” he said on the “Today” show about the Tea
Party.
You know you’re in trouble when Dick Cheney thinks you’re a force for good.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Bill Maher's Rant On The Minimum Wage
October 25, 2013 - Bill Maher ended his show Friday night going after
Republican opposition to the minimum wage, calling them out for opposing
something that would make people less dependent on government handouts.
He targeted McDonalds in particular, saying "until Ronald McDonald
starts paying his employees a living wage, he has to wipe that fucking
smile off his face."
On the charge minimum wages cut into profits, Maher mockingly explained, "Paying workers is one of those unfortunate expenses of running a business, like taxes or making a product."
He asked, "When did the American dream become a pathway to indentured servitude?" and made the argument that the GOP can have a "smaller government with less handouts" or a low minimum wage, but they can't have both.
And Maher doesn't even eat fast food anyway. He said, "If I want to talk into the face of some red-nosed clown, I'll debate John Bohener."
On the charge minimum wages cut into profits, Maher mockingly explained, "Paying workers is one of those unfortunate expenses of running a business, like taxes or making a product."
He asked, "When did the American dream become a pathway to indentured servitude?" and made the argument that the GOP can have a "smaller government with less handouts" or a low minimum wage, but they can't have both.
And Maher doesn't even eat fast food anyway. He said, "If I want to talk into the face of some red-nosed clown, I'll debate John Bohener."
Friday, October 25, 2013
The Surprising Passions of 11 Brilliant People
You
already knew everyone on this list was brilliant and accomplished in
his or her chosen field. What you might not have known is that they were
also truly devoted to their less publicized passions.
1) Teddy Roosevelt was a man with a lot of hobbies, including obvious ones like hunting, trust busting, and carrying metaphorical sticks. But he was also a passionate boxer and had a brown belt in judo. He once turned heads at a state luncheon by playfully chucking a Swiss diplomat with a judo toss.
2) Napoleon had no rival when it came to battlefield brilliance, so it’s a little surprising that he wasn’t great at his favorite hobby: chess. Although the general supposedly carried a board with him on his military campaigns, he never had much time to practice and was generally regarded as a middling player.
3) Emily Dickinson made more than just amazing poetry – she was also a celebrated baker! Despite being famously shy, Dickinson was sure enough of her bread to enter it in a local competition, in which she won second prize. Of course, since she was Emily Dickinson, poetry was always at play, even in the kitchen – many of her drafts are written on the backs of recipes or ingredient wrappers.
4) Amelia Earhart was passionate about a hobby that’s not usually associated with daredevils: stamp collecting. Earhart frequently carried pieces of mail on her landmark flights. As these pieces became highly collectible, Earhart got in on the fun, acquiring examples of mail she’d flown and showing them at stamp-collecting conventions.
5) Mozart fell ill with smallpox when he was 11 years old, an illness that required several weeks of rest for recovery. The young composer used the down time of his convalescence to pick up a new hobby: card tricks. A local chaplain visited the sick boy and taught him a slew of card tricks that the composer later used to delight his friends.
6) Thomas Edison had a surprisingly impractical passion: concrete. The great inventor so adored concrete that he created a system of molds that would enable builders to simply pour a whole, complete house from concrete. He even had patents for concrete furniture to fill his concrete houses! As you might have noticed, the idea never took off.
7) Thomas Jefferson is so celebrated as a statesman, writer, architect, librarian, and oenophile that it’s easy to miss the fact that he was a celebrated violinist. Jefferson took lessons for most of his life, starting as a young boy, and although accounts of his skill level differ, Jefferson was able to use his musical abilities to woo his wife.
8) Marie Curie stayed pretty busy in the lab – being one of history’s greatest chemists and physicists takes some time – but she also spent a lot of time on her bike. Throughout her life, Curie’s favorite way to unwind was hopping on her bike for long trips that let her explore the outdoors.
9) Abraham Lincoln would have been a surprisingly huge fan of Internet memes. Mary Todd Lincoln was once asked if her husband had any hobbies. Her simple reply: “Cats.”
10) Edith Wharton is remembered for award-winning novels like The Age of Innocence, but her first published book was actually a guide to interior decorating. Throughout her life, the author was a passionate and accomplished interior decorator and garden designer. Wharton even designed her own country home and gardens, “The Mount,” in Lenox, Mass.
11) John Quincy Adams was among our quirkier presidents – he enjoyed skinny dipping in the Potomac and kept a pet alligator in the White House. But he was also an avid collector of ancient coins.
Source
1) Teddy Roosevelt was a man with a lot of hobbies, including obvious ones like hunting, trust busting, and carrying metaphorical sticks. But he was also a passionate boxer and had a brown belt in judo. He once turned heads at a state luncheon by playfully chucking a Swiss diplomat with a judo toss.
2) Napoleon had no rival when it came to battlefield brilliance, so it’s a little surprising that he wasn’t great at his favorite hobby: chess. Although the general supposedly carried a board with him on his military campaigns, he never had much time to practice and was generally regarded as a middling player.
3) Emily Dickinson made more than just amazing poetry – she was also a celebrated baker! Despite being famously shy, Dickinson was sure enough of her bread to enter it in a local competition, in which she won second prize. Of course, since she was Emily Dickinson, poetry was always at play, even in the kitchen – many of her drafts are written on the backs of recipes or ingredient wrappers.
4) Amelia Earhart was passionate about a hobby that’s not usually associated with daredevils: stamp collecting. Earhart frequently carried pieces of mail on her landmark flights. As these pieces became highly collectible, Earhart got in on the fun, acquiring examples of mail she’d flown and showing them at stamp-collecting conventions.
5) Mozart fell ill with smallpox when he was 11 years old, an illness that required several weeks of rest for recovery. The young composer used the down time of his convalescence to pick up a new hobby: card tricks. A local chaplain visited the sick boy and taught him a slew of card tricks that the composer later used to delight his friends.
6) Thomas Edison had a surprisingly impractical passion: concrete. The great inventor so adored concrete that he created a system of molds that would enable builders to simply pour a whole, complete house from concrete. He even had patents for concrete furniture to fill his concrete houses! As you might have noticed, the idea never took off.
7) Thomas Jefferson is so celebrated as a statesman, writer, architect, librarian, and oenophile that it’s easy to miss the fact that he was a celebrated violinist. Jefferson took lessons for most of his life, starting as a young boy, and although accounts of his skill level differ, Jefferson was able to use his musical abilities to woo his wife.
8) Marie Curie stayed pretty busy in the lab – being one of history’s greatest chemists and physicists takes some time – but she also spent a lot of time on her bike. Throughout her life, Curie’s favorite way to unwind was hopping on her bike for long trips that let her explore the outdoors.
9) Abraham Lincoln would have been a surprisingly huge fan of Internet memes. Mary Todd Lincoln was once asked if her husband had any hobbies. Her simple reply: “Cats.”
10) Edith Wharton is remembered for award-winning novels like The Age of Innocence, but her first published book was actually a guide to interior decorating. Throughout her life, the author was a passionate and accomplished interior decorator and garden designer. Wharton even designed her own country home and gardens, “The Mount,” in Lenox, Mass.
11) John Quincy Adams was among our quirkier presidents – he enjoyed skinny dipping in the Potomac and kept a pet alligator in the White House. But he was also an avid collector of ancient coins.
Source
600 Dogs Dead, Thousands Sickened in Connection to Chinese Jerky Treats
If you have a dog or cat that became ill after eating jerky pet
treats, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would like to hear from
you or your veterinarian.
The agency has repeatedly issued alerts to consumers about reports it has received concerning jerky pet treat-related illnesses involving 3,600 dogs and 10 cats in the U.S. since 2007. Approximately 580 of those pets have died.
To date, FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has conducted more than 1,200 tests, visited jerky pet treat manufacturers in China and collaborated with colleagues in academia, industry, state labs and foreign governments. Yet the exact cause of the illnesses remains elusive.
To gather even more information, FDA is reaching out to licensed veterinarians and pet owners across the country. "This is one of the most elusive and mysterious outbreaks we've encountered," says CVM Director Bernadette Dunham, DVM, Ph.D. "Our beloved four-legged companions deserve our best effort, and we are giving it."
In a letter addressing U.S. licensed veterinarians, FDA lists what information is needed for labs testing treats and investigating illness and death associated with the treats. In some cases, veterinarians will be asked to provide blood, urine and tissue samples from their patients for further analysis. FDA will request written permission from pet owners and will cover the costs, including shipping, of any tests it requests.
Meanwhile, a consumer fact sheet will accompany the letter to veterinarians so they can alert consumers to the problem and remind them that treats are not essential to a balanced diet. The fact sheet also explains to consumers how they can help FDA's investigation by reporting potential jerky pet treat-related illnesses online or by calling the FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinator for their state.
Severe cases have involved kidney failure, gastrointestinal bleeding, and a rare kidney disorder.
About 60 percent of cases involved gastrointestinal illness, and about 30 percent involved kidney and urinary systems.
The remaining cases reported various symptoms, such as collapse, convulsions or skin issues.
Most of the jerky treats implicated have been made in China. Manufacturers of pet foods are not required by U.S. law to state the country of origin for each ingredient in their products.
A number of jerky pet treat products were removed from the market in January 2013 after a New York State lab reported finding evidence of up to six drugs in certain jerky pet treats made in China.
While the levels of these drugs were very low and it's unlikely that they caused the illnesses, FDA noted a decrease in reports of jerky-suspected illnesses after the products were removed from the market. FDA believes that the number of reports may have declined simply because fewer jerky treats were available.
Meanwhile, the agency urges pet owners to be cautious about providing jerky treats. If you do provide them and your pet becomes sick, stop the treats immediately, consider seeing your veterinarian, and save any remaining treats and the packaging for possible testing.
In addition to continuing to test jerky pet treat samples within FDA labs, the agency is working with the Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (Vet-LIRN), an FDA-coordinated network of government and veterinary diagnostic laboratories across the U.S. and Canada. (A summary of the tests is available on Vet-LIRN's webpage.)
Inspections of the facilities in China that manufacture jerky products associated with some of the highest numbers of pet illness reports did not identify the cause of illness. However, they did identify additional paths of investigation, such as the supply chain of some ingredients in the treats. Although FDA inspectors have found no evidence identifying the cause of the spate of illnesses, they did find that one firm used falsified receiving documents for glycerin, a jerky ingredient. Chinese authorities informed FDA that they had seized products at the firm and suspended its exports.
To identify the root cause of this problem, FDA is meeting regularly with regulators in China to share findings. The agency also plans to host Chinese scientists at its veterinary research facility to increase scientific cooperation.
FDA has also reached out to U.S. pet food firms seeking further collaboration on scientific issues and data sharing, and has contracted with diagnostic labs.
"Our fervent hope as animal lovers," says Dunham, "is that we will soon find the cause of—and put a stop to—these illnesses."
This article appears on FDA's Consumer Updates page, which features the latest on all FDA-regulated products.
Oct. 22, 2013
The agency has repeatedly issued alerts to consumers about reports it has received concerning jerky pet treat-related illnesses involving 3,600 dogs and 10 cats in the U.S. since 2007. Approximately 580 of those pets have died.
To date, FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has conducted more than 1,200 tests, visited jerky pet treat manufacturers in China and collaborated with colleagues in academia, industry, state labs and foreign governments. Yet the exact cause of the illnesses remains elusive.
To gather even more information, FDA is reaching out to licensed veterinarians and pet owners across the country. "This is one of the most elusive and mysterious outbreaks we've encountered," says CVM Director Bernadette Dunham, DVM, Ph.D. "Our beloved four-legged companions deserve our best effort, and we are giving it."
In a letter addressing U.S. licensed veterinarians, FDA lists what information is needed for labs testing treats and investigating illness and death associated with the treats. In some cases, veterinarians will be asked to provide blood, urine and tissue samples from their patients for further analysis. FDA will request written permission from pet owners and will cover the costs, including shipping, of any tests it requests.
Meanwhile, a consumer fact sheet will accompany the letter to veterinarians so they can alert consumers to the problem and remind them that treats are not essential to a balanced diet. The fact sheet also explains to consumers how they can help FDA's investigation by reporting potential jerky pet treat-related illnesses online or by calling the FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinator for their state.
What to Look Out For
Within hours of eating treats sold as jerky tenders or strips made of chicken, duck, sweet potatoes and/or dried fruit, some pets have exhibited decreased appetite, decreased activity, vomiting, diarrhea (sometimes with blood or mucus), increased water consumption, and/or increased urination.Severe cases have involved kidney failure, gastrointestinal bleeding, and a rare kidney disorder.
About 60 percent of cases involved gastrointestinal illness, and about 30 percent involved kidney and urinary systems.
The remaining cases reported various symptoms, such as collapse, convulsions or skin issues.
Most of the jerky treats implicated have been made in China. Manufacturers of pet foods are not required by U.S. law to state the country of origin for each ingredient in their products.
A number of jerky pet treat products were removed from the market in January 2013 after a New York State lab reported finding evidence of up to six drugs in certain jerky pet treats made in China.
While the levels of these drugs were very low and it's unlikely that they caused the illnesses, FDA noted a decrease in reports of jerky-suspected illnesses after the products were removed from the market. FDA believes that the number of reports may have declined simply because fewer jerky treats were available.
Meanwhile, the agency urges pet owners to be cautious about providing jerky treats. If you do provide them and your pet becomes sick, stop the treats immediately, consider seeing your veterinarian, and save any remaining treats and the packaging for possible testing.
What FDA Is Doing
More than 1,200 jerky pet treat samples have been tested since 2011 for a variety of chemical and microbiological contaminants, from antibiotics to metals, pesticides and Salmonella. DNA testing has also been conducted, along with tests for nutritional composition.In addition to continuing to test jerky pet treat samples within FDA labs, the agency is working with the Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (Vet-LIRN), an FDA-coordinated network of government and veterinary diagnostic laboratories across the U.S. and Canada. (A summary of the tests is available on Vet-LIRN's webpage.)
Inspections of the facilities in China that manufacture jerky products associated with some of the highest numbers of pet illness reports did not identify the cause of illness. However, they did identify additional paths of investigation, such as the supply chain of some ingredients in the treats. Although FDA inspectors have found no evidence identifying the cause of the spate of illnesses, they did find that one firm used falsified receiving documents for glycerin, a jerky ingredient. Chinese authorities informed FDA that they had seized products at the firm and suspended its exports.
To identify the root cause of this problem, FDA is meeting regularly with regulators in China to share findings. The agency also plans to host Chinese scientists at its veterinary research facility to increase scientific cooperation.
FDA has also reached out to U.S. pet food firms seeking further collaboration on scientific issues and data sharing, and has contracted with diagnostic labs.
"Our fervent hope as animal lovers," says Dunham, "is that we will soon find the cause of—and put a stop to—these illnesses."
This article appears on FDA's Consumer Updates page, which features the latest on all FDA-regulated products.
Oct. 22, 2013
Related Consumer Updates
To The Bunkers!
By Juanita Jean
There are several things that scare the crap outta me before I’ve even had my first cup of coffee in the morning, and of those things, this is #1.
This headline. This one right here. In the morning newspaper.
On the truthfulness side, it most certainly would have to be God calling him because nobody else sure the hell is.
While most of you were ignoring him, I have been keeping an eye on Tom ever
since he got indicted, mainly because he lives down the road from me and until
they prove that sleazy is not contagious, I am keeping my distance.
Once he left Congress, Tom tried one scheme after another to make money. Most of them would make a monthly posting on his website before the scheme flopped and crashed, until he finally got down to just begging money off a damn street corner. Click the little one to see the big one.
The guy has quit everything he ever tried – the exterminating business, congress, Dancing With the Stars, the book writing circuit … he’s a whiner and wimp and that’s the damn truth.
In case you were wondering, Tom DeLay hasn’t found Jesus. It’s just his sideshow. He says Jesus tells him to do things and then he doesn’t have to accept responsibility when he falls on his face.
Also, it sounds a whole lot better than “my Momma said I have to ….”
So now he’s leading a revolution. Thank you, Pancho Villa.
And here’s the part that makes me giggle like a little girl.
Plus, Tom was in Burleson,
Texas, making this speech.
I go to Burleson every now and then because I like being the youngest person in town. Burleson is 95.62 white and the median income for a family is $50,432. Yeah, for sure, those people need to be supporting the Tea Party.
Tom has a plan to gain control of the government by having the Tea Party win the House because “the House controls the purse strings.” He also warned them to protect Ted Cruz.
So the bottom line is that Tom DeLay has a new gig – he wants to make money by selling God and the Constitution. Break a leg, Tom.
Oh, and Tom compares his years of being indicted and convicted to being like Moses in the wilderness. He better watch that Messiah Complex because I think Ted Cruz has the third coast distribution rights on it.
Tom, while you were away, our cow died. So we won’t be needing your bull anymore.
There are several things that scare the crap outta me before I’ve even had my first cup of coffee in the morning, and of those things, this is #1.
This headline. This one right here. In the morning newspaper.
On the truthfulness side, it most certainly would have to be God calling him because nobody else sure the hell is.
Once he left Congress, Tom tried one scheme after another to make money. Most of them would make a monthly posting on his website before the scheme flopped and crashed, until he finally got down to just begging money off a damn street corner. Click the little one to see the big one.
The guy has quit everything he ever tried – the exterminating business, congress, Dancing With the Stars, the book writing circuit … he’s a whiner and wimp and that’s the damn truth.
In case you were wondering, Tom DeLay hasn’t found Jesus. It’s just his sideshow. He says Jesus tells him to do things and then he doesn’t have to accept responsibility when he falls on his face.
Also, it sounds a whole lot better than “my Momma said I have to ….”
So now he’s leading a revolution. Thank you, Pancho Villa.
Former Texas congressman Tom DeLay called on members of the Texas Patriot Tea Party on Tuesday night to join him in a revolution for the Constitution, to “shut down” every part of federal government that is not specifically based on the Constitution.
“It’s time for a constitutional renewal, a constitutional revival,” DeLay said in Burleson, adding that this revival is inherently linked to a “spiritual awakening” he sees happening across the country. He said conservatives have allowed “the left to intimidate us, cut off our heads, put us in prison.”Holy crap, Dude, that was you. You led the conservatives. You’re late to the Tea Party game. You invented the politics of personal destruction and now you’re leading a revolution against it? Don’t you get dizzy sometime?
And here’s the part that makes me giggle like a little girl.
“It’s time for a revolution,” DeLay said. “I am not advocating for revolution in the streets. But if that’s what it takes … ”Oh Tom, oh Honey, you’re 5′ 4″, chubby, 67 years old, balding, and have had a face lift or two. Just think how fabulous you’re gonna look taking it to the streets.
I go to Burleson every now and then because I like being the youngest person in town. Burleson is 95.62 white and the median income for a family is $50,432. Yeah, for sure, those people need to be supporting the Tea Party.
Tom has a plan to gain control of the government by having the Tea Party win the House because “the House controls the purse strings.” He also warned them to protect Ted Cruz.
“You will lose Ted Cruz. They will destroy him if you don’t support him,” DeLay warned.No, no, no, Darlin’, we’re sitting on our hands because Ted Cruz is doing a perfectly competent job of destroying himself.
So the bottom line is that Tom DeLay has a new gig – he wants to make money by selling God and the Constitution. Break a leg, Tom.
Oh, and Tom compares his years of being indicted and convicted to being like Moses in the wilderness. He better watch that Messiah Complex because I think Ted Cruz has the third coast distribution rights on it.
Tom, while you were away, our cow died. So we won’t be needing your bull anymore.
Watch the impressive first trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The first glimpse of Marvel's upcoming blockbuster offers a surprising, political twist on the superhero genre
By
By
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is set after the events of both the first Captain America and The Avengers,
as the hero adjusts to life in the modern day after spending over 50
years frozen in the Arctic before being thawed out. "I joined
S.H.I.E.L.D. to protect people," says Captain America (Chris Evans) in
the film's trailer. "To build a better world sometimes means tearing the
old one down. And that makes enemies," replies Robert Redford's
Alexander Pierce, making his debut in the Marvel universe.
Anyone who's sorry to see Captain America going solo again
after his time with The Avengers will also spot a few welcome familiar
faces, including Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and the Black Widow
(Scarlett Johansson), who has nearly as large a role as Captain America
himself in the trailer.
If the presence of Robert Redford wasn't enough of a tip-off, the trailer makes it clear that Captain America: The Winter Soldier
will take a more staunchly political angle than most of the other
Marvel franchises. As a man who grew up in the 1930's and 1940's, Captain
America is having a difficult time adjusting to a world where the U.S.
government is asking its agents to eliminate potential threats before
they happen.
A big-budget superhero movie with the political
implications of Showtime's Homeland? If Marvel can actually pull it off, Captain America: The Winter Soldier could well turn out to be the best, brainiest superhero blockbuster it has ever released.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Rose and Time Returns to Ouya
Rose and Time, created by indie developer Sophie Houlden.
Rose and Time has returned to the Ouya store after its creator accepted the changes made to the controversial Free the Games fund.
In September indie developer Sophie Houlden pulled her time-travel stealth game from the Ouya marketplace over Ouya boss Julie Uhrman's lack of action.
Under its $1 million Free the Games Fund, Ouya promised to match contributions to successful Kickstarter games built for the micro-console. At the time the conditions were that the game must have raised at least $50,000, and in return for Ouya's contribution, a six-month exclusivity was agreed.
The first two titles Ouya confirmed to receive a contribution were American Football game Grid Iron Thunder, which asked for $75,000 and ended up with $171,009, and Elementary, My Dear Holmes!, which asked for $50,000. Both games were scrutinized for alleged suspicious backing, and Elementary, My Dear Holmes! saw its Kickstarter suspended after some claimed it was a "scam".
Following the outcry, Ouya announced changes to the Free the Games Fund rules and admitted the program contained "too many loopholes".
Satisfied with the changes, Houlden has now re-launched Rose and Time on Ouya, saying her problems with the company "don't exist any more".
"At the time a lot of developers besides myself were upset at how the Free the Games fund was going and said so," she wrote in a new blog post.
"Then, within a week of chatting with developers (including myself) about how the fund could be improved and what the best outcome for all concerned would be, the Free the Games fund was changed, none of the scam games received a single cent of the fund, the company admitted its mistakes, and was asking for yet more feedback to further improve things.
"Listening to developers, responding quickly, showing humility, and of course showing passion. All the reasons I pulled the game for, were non-existent after just that week. I didn't put the game back on immediately - I'm pretty suspicious so I wanted to keep an eye on things for a while longer - 'If this keeps up for a while I'll put it back for sure' I thought.
"Well, I've seen Ouya listening to developers, I've seen the humility multiple times, I've even chatted to Julie a couple of times in email and on Skype so I am confident at this point that I can no longer justify keeping the game off the console."
Houlden concluded: "Will the company screw up again? Probably. Will they do something that pisses me off? Almost certainly! But I believe when it happens the company will be receptive to criticism and will not be afraid to say 'my bad' if they realize they took a wrong step."
Eurogamer's Jeffrey Matulef interviewed Uhrman last month to discuss Ouya's problems and the future of the micro-console.
McDonald's advises hungry, sick employees to get welfare benefits
McDonald’s “help?” It’s just so outrageous
Look, by now, everyone knows that McDonald’s doesn’t pay their employees enough to make ends meet. See what happens when Nancy, a Chicagoland McDonald’s employee, calls the McResources “help” line.And spread the word about the hidden costs of the fast food industry after you have.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Chicken, ham, beef recalled over Listeria concerns
By David EarlThe government is concerned some food products may contain the deadly Listeria bacteria. The recall affects 22,800 pounds of food distributed by Reser’s Fine Food, based in Topeka, Kan.
The food was sold under the following brand names: Cobble Street Market, Cross Valley Farms, Reser’s Fine Foods, Stonemill Kitchen, Chef Solutions and Millers. All of the food has ‘use by’ dates ranging from Oct. 23 to Nov. 26.
-- Find specific UPC numbers for the recalled products
Symptoms of Listeria include fever, chills and vomiting. The bacteria is responsible for the deadliest food-borne illness outbreak in American history. In 2011, a Listeria in cantaloupe killed dozens and sickened hundreds more.
Jon Stewart Takes Aim At Health Care Fiasco
All that stands in the way of Democratic electoral success is a mildly competent implementation of the health care policy they battled so hard to keep.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Philly Cop Stops Black Man, Tells Him ‘All You Do Is Weaken the Fucking Country’
By Mychal Denzel Smith
This video was recorded on September 27 and uploaded to YouTube a few days later. It has recently made the rounds on social media and caught the attention of major news outlets. In it, two Philadelphia police officers stop, detain briefly and question two young black men who are walking down the street. The reason given for the stop is that one of the young men said “Hi” to a drug dealer.
You should watch the video in its entirety:
There are a number of choice quotes to be pulled from this video, my favorite among them the retort from the young man being stopped and who managed to film the incident, “You not protecting me by stopping me when I’m trying to go to work,” but it’s this exchange that has come to define the encounter:
“But this is one individual,” Lt. John Stanford told the Philadelphia Daily News, “Don’t let this individual put it in your mind that this is how officers act. The vast majority of officers give the residents of this city 110 percent.”
The problem is, as badly as Philadelphia police may want to isolate Nace and his poor behavior, this isn’t the result of mistakenly hiring one racist cop. This is a racist policy supported by a racist society doing exactly what it was designed to do.
Had Nace used softer language, had he asked politely and said
“please” and “thank you,” he still would have stopped, searched and
collected information on an innocent person for having done nothing more
than speaking to someone he passed on the street. Because that’s the
policy.
Philadelphia’s use of stop-and-frisk doubled in 2009, two years after the election of Mayor Michael Nutter (in case anyone were led to believe it’s only white mayors and police commissioners responsible for implementing this tactic, both Nutter and Commissioner Charles Ramsey are black), and in a similar fashion to what has recently happened in New York City, it was challenged in court and the city agreed to make adjustments to the policy.
However, it still exists, and still disproportionately targets black and Hispanic men. And one can’t divorce this from the fact that school budgets, affecting mostly black students, have been slashed, while hundreds of millions are being poured into a new prison facility, or the youth curfew that was implemented a few years ago.
Through colorblind language, there exists a concerted effort to criminalize the presence of black and brown youth in public and shuttle them off to bigger, shinier prisons.
They can discipline Nace, even remove him from the force (and they should), but his actions are only a symptom of the larger disease. The more we focus our energy on the Naces of the world, the further we get from a cure.
Mychal Denzel Smith has previously argued that institutional racism persists in the criminal justice system with or without stop-and-frisk programs.
This video was recorded on September 27 and uploaded to YouTube a few days later. It has recently made the rounds on social media and caught the attention of major news outlets. In it, two Philadelphia police officers stop, detain briefly and question two young black men who are walking down the street. The reason given for the stop is that one of the young men said “Hi” to a drug dealer.
You should watch the video in its entirety:
There are a number of choice quotes to be pulled from this video, my favorite among them the retort from the young man being stopped and who managed to film the incident, “You not protecting me by stopping me when I’m trying to go to work,” but it’s this exchange that has come to define the encounter:
Officer: “We don’t want you here [in Philadelphia], anyway. All you do is weaken the fucking country.”The officer responsible for this racist line of questioning, Philip Nace, was recently placed in the Differential Police Response Unit, a disciplinary unit, for what a police spokesman called “idiotic behavior” after another video surfaced of him knocking down a basketball hoop and, while driving away in a police van, telling the group that was playing “have a good day.” He is being investigated by Internal Affairs.
Young man: “How do I weaken the country? By working?”
Officer: “No, freeloading,”
Young man: “Freeloading on what? I work.”
Officer: “Do you? Where?”
Young man: “[redacted] Country Club.”
Officer: “Doing what?”
Young man: “I’m a server”
Officer: “A server? Serving weed?”
“But this is one individual,” Lt. John Stanford told the Philadelphia Daily News, “Don’t let this individual put it in your mind that this is how officers act. The vast majority of officers give the residents of this city 110 percent.”
The problem is, as badly as Philadelphia police may want to isolate Nace and his poor behavior, this isn’t the result of mistakenly hiring one racist cop. This is a racist policy supported by a racist society doing exactly what it was designed to do.
Philadelphia’s use of stop-and-frisk doubled in 2009, two years after the election of Mayor Michael Nutter (in case anyone were led to believe it’s only white mayors and police commissioners responsible for implementing this tactic, both Nutter and Commissioner Charles Ramsey are black), and in a similar fashion to what has recently happened in New York City, it was challenged in court and the city agreed to make adjustments to the policy.
However, it still exists, and still disproportionately targets black and Hispanic men. And one can’t divorce this from the fact that school budgets, affecting mostly black students, have been slashed, while hundreds of millions are being poured into a new prison facility, or the youth curfew that was implemented a few years ago.
Through colorblind language, there exists a concerted effort to criminalize the presence of black and brown youth in public and shuttle them off to bigger, shinier prisons.
They can discipline Nace, even remove him from the force (and they should), but his actions are only a symptom of the larger disease. The more we focus our energy on the Naces of the world, the further we get from a cure.
Mychal Denzel Smith has previously argued that institutional racism persists in the criminal justice system with or without stop-and-frisk programs.
Single mom: Son born out of wedlock snubbed by Marvin Winans' church
By Andrea Isom, Fox 2 News
DETROIT (WJBK) - Charity
Grace lives on the east side of the city with her 2-year-old son,
Joshua. The two recently started to attend Perfecting Church under the leadership of Pastor Marvin Winans.
Fox 2 News Headlines
Sunday, a special blessing is planned at the church on East Nevada Street. They are having a dedication service for children two years old and under. Grace was looking forward to having her only child receive this blessing.
"I want to instill values and morals in my son based upon the word of God," said Grace.
She called the church on Tuesday to make arrangements. "I told them I was not married and that's where everything just broke loose."
Grace says she spoke with a woman who told her Pastor Winans' policy is that he is not to bless children of unwed mothers in front of his congregation.
"I've never felt so degraded and disrespected in my life," said Grace.
Rev. W.J. Rideout III of All God's People Church speaks out about injustice outside the church and all over the world. So, we asked if he thought this was an injustice inside the church.
"Every pastor has set up the pattern of his church, the way he feels or deems fit. But as it relates to the scripture, I feel like it's wrong," said Rideout. "I feel like we're judging, but we're not judging with righteous judgement."
We asked to speak with Pastor Winans about the allegations. He declined an interview.
"What they could do for me is let my son get dedicated, during a week day with one of the elders of my choice," said Grace.
"I'm not speaking against the pastor, but sometimes we make poor decisions," said Rideout.
"I absolutely would not set foot back in the church right now because I feel like they look down upon me and my kind, meaning single moms and unwed mothers. The church should be the last place you should go to be judged and denied," said Grace.
Fox 2 News Headlines
Sunday, a special blessing is planned at the church on East Nevada Street. They are having a dedication service for children two years old and under. Grace was looking forward to having her only child receive this blessing.
"I want to instill values and morals in my son based upon the word of God," said Grace.
She called the church on Tuesday to make arrangements. "I told them I was not married and that's where everything just broke loose."
Grace says she spoke with a woman who told her Pastor Winans' policy is that he is not to bless children of unwed mothers in front of his congregation.
"I've never felt so degraded and disrespected in my life," said Grace.
Rev. W.J. Rideout III of All God's People Church speaks out about injustice outside the church and all over the world. So, we asked if he thought this was an injustice inside the church.
"Every pastor has set up the pattern of his church, the way he feels or deems fit. But as it relates to the scripture, I feel like it's wrong," said Rideout. "I feel like we're judging, but we're not judging with righteous judgement."
We asked to speak with Pastor Winans about the allegations. He declined an interview.
"What they could do for me is let my son get dedicated, during a week day with one of the elders of my choice," said Grace.
"I'm not speaking against the pastor, but sometimes we make poor decisions," said Rideout.
"I absolutely would not set foot back in the church right now because I feel like they look down upon me and my kind, meaning single moms and unwed mothers. The church should be the last place you should go to be judged and denied," said Grace.
Cat on a Hot Stove
By
MAUREEN DOWD
There’s nothing wrong with a president breaking a sweat somewhere beyond the basketball court.
WASHINGTON — PRESIDENT OBAMA won big.
So why did the moment feel so small?
At his victory scold in the State Dining Room on Thursday, the president
who yearned to be transformational stood beneath an oil portrait of
Abraham Lincoln and demanded . . . a farm bill. He also couldn’t resist
taking a holier-than-thou tone toward his tail-between-their-legs Tea
Party foes.
He assumed his favorite role of the shining knight hectoring
the benighted: Sir Lecturealot.
“All of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists and the bloggers and
the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit
from conflict,” he sermonized. (We have met the enemy and they are . . .
bloggers?)
Certainly, the House Republicans who held their breath until the country
turned blue acted like foolhardy children on what John McCain called “a
fool’s errand.”
The country agreed. So it probably wasn’t necessary for papa to preach,
overacting the role of weary parent watching the irresponsible kids make
their mistakes.
Sir Lecturealot, who hates selling and explaining and negotiating and
cajoling and knocking noggins, always manages to convey tedium at the
idea that he actually has to persuade people to come along with him,
given the fact that he feels he’s doing what’s right.
Obama says he will now work for an immigration bill and a budget deal
with deficit cuts. But as Peter Nicholas and Carol E. Lee pointed out in
The Wall Street Journal, the president did not mention his more
ambitious goals: hiking the minimum wage, widening access to preschool
education, and shoring up bridges and roads.
“Those efforts require bipartisan consensus that may be even more
elusive amid the ill will carried over from the budget fight,” they
wrote.
Senator McCain, who excoriated the Tea Party zanies and voted with the
president, indicated to The Journal that the president had poisoned the
well. “A lot of us are resentful that he didn’t negotiate as hard as we
think he could have or should have,” he said. He told CNN that if Obama
does not “engage” with his adversaries, “obviously you’re not going to
be a successful president.”
Democrats, too, chided the president for being the diffident debutante.
“This is a town where it’s not enough to feel you have the right
answers,” Leon Panetta, the former congressman, Clinton chief of staff,
C.I.A. director and defense chief, pointedly told Washington reporters.
“You’ve got to roll up your sleeves, and you’ve got to really engage in
the process.”
Senator Dianne Feinstein also urged presidential leadership, noting that
Obama “stepped back” partly because he felt “burned” by all the
scabrous budget fights. But as Mark Twain said, “We should be careful to
get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it and stop there
lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will
never sit down on a hot stove lid again and that is well but also she
will never sit down on a cold one anymore.”
And if Obama is anything, he’s a cold cat on a hot stove.
Washington is surpassingly nutty right now, but the founding fathers did
build a system designed for factional warfare. When sweet
reasonableness doesn’t work, Obama’s default position is didactic
disdain. He under-uses the fear and charm cards. When he first saw the
White House movie theater, he was surprised there were so many seats
beyond what the first family would need. Bill Clinton, on the other
hand, probably would have built a balcony and auctioned off seats, if he
could have.
As Valerie Jarrett told David Remnick in “The Bridge,” Obama’s “uncanny”
abilities need to be properly engaged, or he disengages. “He’s been
bored to death his whole life,” she said. “He’s just too talented to do
what ordinary people do.”
Matt Viser wrote in The Boston Globe that, while Obama soared talking
about getting past blue-and-red slicing and dicing, the blue states are
getting bluer and the red states redder. In his stateside travel
schedule, political meetings, staffing and legislative accomplishments,
Obama has cleaved to the blue side more than he has tried to reach out
to the red side, Viser wrote.
After Sir Lecturealot admonished both parties on their divisiveness in
his 2010 State of the Union address, Viser said, the president did not
have his first one-on-one with John Boehner for another year and a half,
and has only met individually with Mitch McConnell twice.
When the president says “we’ve all got a lot of work to do,” he means
Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Obamacare should really be called
Pelosicare, as the historian Niall Ferguson noted. And an unyielding
Reid made sure Obama didn’t cave as in the past, which had emboldened
Republicans to challenge the president this time. Obama is the
anti-Lyndon Johnson.
He thinks he can come down from above, de haut en bas, and play
the great reconciler, but you can’t reconcile in absentia. You have to
be there. You’ve got to be all over these people.
The paradox of Obama is that he believes in his own magical powers, but then he doesn’t turn up to use them.
There’s nothing wrong with a president breaking a sweat somewhere beyond the basketball court.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Problems Persist With Emergency Alert System
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the can-it-be-aliens-next-time-please dept.
from the can-it-be-aliens-next-time-please dept.
chicksdaddy writes
"More than six months after hacked Emergency Alert System (EAS) hardware allowed a phony warning about a zombie uprising to air in several U.S. states, a security consulting company is warning that serious issues persist in software from Monroe Electronics,
whose equipment was compromised in the earlier attack.
In a blog post,
Mike Davis of the firm IOActive said patches issued by Monroe
Electronics, the Lyndonville, New York firm that is a leading supplier
of EAS hardware, do not adequately address problems raised earlier this
year, including the use of 'bad and predictable' log-in credentials.
Further inspection by Davis turned up other problems that were either missed in the initial code review or introduced by the patch.
They include the use of “predictable and hard-coded keys and
passwords,” as well as web-based backups that were publicly accessible
and that contained valid user credentials.
Monroe’s R-189 CAP-EAS
product was the target of a hack in February during which EAS equipment
operated by broadcasters in Montana, Michigan and other states was
compromised and used to issue an alert claiming that the 'dead are
rising from their graves,' and advising residents not to attempt to
apprehend them.
CAP refers to the Common Alerting Protocol, a successor
to EAS. A recent search using the Shodan search engine by University of
Florida graduate student Shawn Merdinger found more than 200 Monroe
devices still accessible from the public Internet. 66% of those were
running vulnerable versions of the Monroe firmware."
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I haven't heard such enthusiastic, downright raucous applause since Texas Gov. "Oops" Perry suggested in 2009 that his state just might withdraw from the union. Unfortunately for him, the applauders were not Texans, but the people of the other 49 states.
This year, though, Idaho is the recipient of hip-hip-hoorays from across the country. Why? Because it has been selected as the site of an extraordinary new town to be named "III Citadel." This will be a walled, heavily-fortified, one-square-mile settlement of some 7,000 armed & angry, ideologically-pure, anti-government extremists drawn from cities, towns and gopher holes all across America. Lucky you, Idaho!
Founder and apocalyptic visionary Christian Allen Kerodin, says the Roman numeral III in the name of his Citadel scheme represents what he calls the "3 percenters" – the percentage of Americans who are superpatriot survivalists capable of withstanding the coming economic doomsday and social upheaval. He says that, once established, he and his fellow Citadellians will take it upon themselves to restore America to Americans:
"The Southwest will be purged of Latinos," he explains, and "Enclaves of Muslims such as in Detroit will be culled… by fed-up Americans looking for some payback." In Kerodin's barricaded utopia, everyone older than 13 "must possess an AR-15 assault rifle, five magazines, and 1,000 rounds of ammunition." In an odd comparison, he declares that his last bastion of liberty will be like Disneyland – "a walled, gated private property." Yeah – only Goofyer.
Of course, the III in the Citadel's name could also refer to Kerodin's three felony convictions.
Nonetheless, he's doing America a favor if he can actually bring 7,000 like-minded zealots into his compound. Once they're inside, we can sneak up and lock the gates from the outside.
"7,000 Gun-Loving "Patriots" Living in an Walled Citadel Built Around an Arms Factory in Idaho - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?" www.alternet.org , August 15, 2013.