Tuesday, July 31, 2012

India power cut hits millions, among world's worst outages




NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Hundreds of millions of people across India were left without power on Tuesday in one of the world's worst blackouts, trapping miners, stranding train travelers and plunging hospitals into darkness when grids collapsed for the second time in two days.


Stretching from Assam, near China, to the Himalayas and the northwestern deserts of Rajasthan, the outage covered states where half of India's 1.2 billion people live and embarrassed the government, which has failed to build up enough power capacity to meet soaring demand.


"Even before we could figure out the reason for yesterday's failure, we had more grid failures today," said R. N. Nayak, chairman of the state-run Power Grid Corporation.


Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had vowed to fast-track stalled power and infrastructure projects as well as introduce free market reforms aimed at reviving India's flagging economy. But he has drawn fire for dragging his feet.


By nightfall, power was back up in the humid capital, New Delhi and much of the north, but a senior official said only a third was restored in the rural state of Uttar Pradesh, itself home to more people than Brazil.


The cuts in such a widespread area of the world's second most populous nation appeared to be one of the biggest in history, and hurt Indians' pride as the country seeks to emerge as a major force on the international stage.


"It's certainly shameful. Power is a very basic amenity and situations like these should not occur," said Unnayan Amitabh, 19, an intern with HSBC bank in New Delhi, before giving up on the underground train system and flagging down an auto-rickshaw to get home.


"They talk about big ticket reforms but can't get something as essential as power supply right."


Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde blamed the system collapse on some states drawing more than their share of electricity from the over-burdened grid, but Uttar Pradesh's top civil servant for energy said outdated transmission lines were at fault.


Asia's third-largest economy suffers a peak-hour power deficit of about 10 percent, dragging on economic growth.


Between a quarter and 40 percent of Indians are not connected to the national grid.


Two hundred miners were stranded in three deep coal shafts in the state of West Bengal when their electric elevators stopped working. Eastern Coalfields Limited official Niladri Roy said workers at the mines, one of which is 700 meters (3,000 feet) deep, were not in danger and were being taken out.


Train stations in Kolkata were swamped and traffic jammed the streets after government offices closed early in the dilapidated coastal city of 5 million people.


The power failed in some major city hospitals and office buildings had to fire up diesel generators.


By mid-evening, services had been restored on the New Delhi metro system.


"PUSHED INTO DARKNESS"


On Monday, India was forced to buy extra power from the tiny neighboring kingdom of Bhutan to help it recover from a blackout that hit more than 300 million people.


Indians took to social networking sites to ridicule the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, in part for promoting Shinde despite the power cuts.


Narendra Modi, an opposition leader and chief minister in Gujarat, a state that enjoys a surplus of power, was scornful.


"With poor economic management UPA has emptied the pockets of common man; kept stomachs hungry with inflation & today pushed them into darkness," he said on his Twitter account.


The country's southern and western grids were supplying power to help restore services, officials said.


The problem has been made worse by a weak monsoon in agricultural states such as wheat-belt Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in the Ganges plain, which has a larger population than Brazil.


With less rain to irrigate crops, more farmers resort to electric pumps to draw water from wells.


India's electricity distribution and transmission is mostly state run, with private companies operating in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Less than a quarter of generation is private nationwide.


More than half the country's electricity is generated by coal, with hydro power and nuclear also contributing.


Power shortages and a creaky road and rail network have weighed heavily on India's efforts to industrialize. Grappling with the slowest economic growth in nine years, the government recently scaled back a target to pump $1 trillion into infrastructure over the next five years.


Major industries have their own power plants or diesel generators and are shielded from outages. But the inconsistent supply hits investment and disrupts small businesses.


High consumption of heavily subsidized diesel by farmers and businesses has fuelled a gaping fiscal deficit that the government has vowed to tackle to restore confidence in the economy.


But the poor monsoon means a subsidy cut is politically difficult.


On Tuesday, the central bank cut its economic growth outlook for the fiscal year that ends in March to 6.5 percent, from the 7.3 percent assumption made in April, putting its outlook closer to that of many private economists.


"This is going to have a substantial adverse impact on the overall economic activity. Power failure for two consecutive days hits sentiment very badly," said N. Bhanumurthy, a senior economist at National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.


(Reporting by Delhi Bureau; Sujoy Dhar in Kolkata and Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Robert Birsel and Diana Abdallah)


(An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the number of people affected by Monday's power outage)




Source & Image : Yahoo

Phelps Wins Medal No. 19, Most of Any Olympian







LONDON – Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian of all time Tuesday night, anchoring the United States’ 800-meter freestyle relay team to a thunderous victory at the London Aquatics Centre.


The medal was the 15th gold, and the 19th over all, of Phelps’s unmatched Olympic career. That pushed him past the longtime holder of the mark, the former Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina.


Phelps and his teammates – Ryan Lochte, Conor Dwyer and Ricky Berens — beat France’s team by more than three seconds, burying the rest of the field. China won the bronze, but the race was never close, and that allowed Phelps to coast home.


He touched the wall, then spat a stream of water in the air. Resting on a lane rope, he shook hands with his teammates and members of the other relay teams who came over to offer their hands. Once he got out of the pool, he huddled with his teammates, thanking them for giving him the moment.


About a half-hour earlier, Phelps had tied Latynina’s record with his 18th medal, but he hardly seemed happy about it. He was touched out by Chad Le Clos of South Africa at the finish of the 200-meter butterfly final, denying him a third straight gold medal in the event.


Phelps had led comfortably in that race’s first 100 but was slowly reeled in by Le Clos after the final turn. Phelps appeared to have the race won but glided in as Le Clos took a last stroke. Le Clos’s winning time of 1 minute 52.96 seconds, was a fraction faster than Phelps’s 1:53.01.


Both swimmers turned to look at the scoreboard after the finish. Seeing they were separated by only five-hundredths of a second, Le Clos threw a roundhouse right hand across the water in celebration. Phelps threw the outer of his two swim caps back up his lane in anger.


Phelps emerged for the medals ceremony about 15 minutes later ahead of Le Clos and with a smile on his face, and he flashed another and waved to the crowd when he was announced as the silver medalist. But in his spare moments he stretched his legs and arms for the relay to come, seemingly eager to get back in the water and atone for his narrow defeat.


Ye Wins Another Gold


Another race, another record, another gold for Ye Shiwen.


Ye, the 16-year-old from China who broke a world record in winning the 400 individual medley Saturday, broke her own Olympic mark when she won the 200 I.M. Tuesday.


Ye finished in 2 minutes 7.57 seconds, nearly a second faster than the Olympic mark she had set in the semifinals. Alicia Coutts of Australia won the silver, and the American Caitlyn Leverenz the bronze (2:08.95).


Stephanie Rice, the defending Olympic champion from Australia, was fourth.


Schmitt Turns Tables on Muffat


Allison Schmitt set an Olympic record in winning the gold medal in the 200 freestyle at the London Olympics, thrashing a deep field that included the previous record-holder, the defending gold medalist, the fastest qualifier and her teammate Missy Franklin.


Schmitt won in a time of 1 minute 53.61 seconds. Camille Muffat of France, who had set an Olympic record in qualifying, took the silver in 1:55.58, and Bronte Barrett of Australia, the top qualifier, the bronze (1:55.81).


Muffat won the gold in the 400 freestyle Sunday, setting an Olympic record, and beating Schmitt into second. She and Schmitt were beaten by Barrett in the semifinals of the 200 free.


Missy Franklin was fourth, failing to add a third medal in her third final at these Games. Franklin raced in Lane 8 because she had qualified only eighth Monday night, about 20 minutes before she dived back in the pool and won the gold in the 100 backstroke.


Federica Pellegrini of Italy, who won the 200 gold in Beijing and the silver in Sydney in the event in 2004, was fifth. Pellegrini has had a forgettable Olympics; she also finished fifth in the 400 freestyle.



Source & Image : New York Times

U.S. Women Win Gymnastics Team Event







LONDON — Members of the United States women’s gymnastics team, clad in shiny, sparkly red uniforms, stood together and stared at the scoreboard at the end of the team competition, looking frozen as they waited for the news they knew would come.


They had just knocked out a series of such solid performances that they led the competition from start to end, widening the gap on their competition with each event. But they saved their celebration for the moment it was official.


When the United States popped up at the top of the leader board, they smothered one another in hugs as chants of U-S-A roared throughout the arena.


The team, which is the reigning world champion, won the first Olympic team gold medal for the United States women since the Magnificent Seven won it in 1996. And it did it in dominating fashion.


The United States beat Russia by the wide margin of 5.066 points, giving the Russians the silver medal. Romania won the bronze, with 7.182 points — which is a galaxy away from the Americans.


China finished fourth, failing to defend the Olympic gold medal it won at the 2008 Beijing Games.


The Russians and the Chinese, who at some point in the night were within striking distance of the gold medal, were heartbroken. They sobbed as the Americans celebrated.


For Jordyn Wieber, the reigning world champion in the all-around, the victory was sweet redemption after she failed to qualify for the all-around final. She was third among the Americans in all-around qualifying, and every team can send only its top two gymnasts.


But she did not let that disappointment break her, performing solidly as the United States took the lead after the first of four events, then kept it.


It started off strong on the vault.


The Americans landed three strong vaults, each the very difficult Amanar vault, which is one flip with two and a half twists. For some countries, it is an impossibility that even one gymnast can land it. The entire United States team in finals, though, landed it with ease.


Wieber started off the Americans’ effort with a vault that received a score of 15.933. Gabby Douglas was next, with 15.966 points.


Then came the exclamation point: McKayla Maroney, the world champion on vault, scored 16.233 points after getting so much air that she nearly hit the rafters. Afterward, she flashed a huge smile and danced off the floor.


The United States led the competition, with China in second and Russia in third. But the Chinese started to crumble with a string of errors on the balance beam and the floor exercise.


The Russians, however, held it together until their final event — the floor exercise. Anastasia Grishina totally balked on one of her tumbling passes, leaving it out then leaving the floor fighting back tears. Next, Kseniia Afanaseva, the reigning world champion on floor, landed her final tumbling pass on her knees and nearly her head.


Minutes later, nearly the entire Russian team was in tears as they sat against the arena wall and watched the Americans tumble.


Douglas went first for the United States, gracefully tumbling and dancing like a long, lean prima ballerina. Wieber went next, knocking out a powerful routine anchored by her draw-dropping tumbling.


When the team captain Aly Raisman walked onto the floor to perform last, the medal was all but in their hands. Raisman, who won the bronze medal in the event last year, is usually stone-faced when she competes. But on this night, she appeared to be fighting off a grin.


As her teammates cheered her on and “Hava Nagila” blasted through the arena’s speakers, Raisman landed pass after pass as the arena grew louder. When she was done, she walked off the floor toward her teammates, who were exchanging bearhugs with their coaches, and with one another.



Source & Image : New York Times

'Earliest' evidence of modern human culture found

Beads

The finds provide early evidence for the origin of modern human behaviour 44,000 years ago, over 20,000 years before other findings.

The artefacts are near identical to modern-day tools of the indigenous African San bush people.

The research was published yesterday in PNAS.

Although 75,000-year-old evidence for human innovation has previously been found in southern Africa, the meaning of these artefacts has been difficult to interpret.

"These were things that seem symbolic, but there's no direct link to those people. We don't know what they were thinking," explained co-author Dr Lucinda Backwell of the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

These new discoveries, however, resemble modern day tools used by San hunter-gatherers so clearly as to remove any doubt as to their purpose.

"You can hold [one of the] ancient artefacts in your left hand and a modern artefact in your right and they're exactly the same. It's incredible… the functions are very, very clear," Dr Backwell told the BBC.

Dr Backwell and her co-authors describe notched decorative bones, arrowheads, warthog tusks possibly used as spear heads and the first recorded use of beeswax - to attach arrowheads - in their research.

She explained how one of the most spectacular finds was originally thought to be a broken arrow, but only by looking at modern tools of the San people at Johannesburg's Museum Africa did they realise its true use.

"We had found this long stick that had lots of intentional notches on it… we opened up one drawer and found a whole row of these things with labels on saying 'poison applicator'," she said.

The organic material, including the poison which is extracted from castor beans, was spectacularly preserved due to the arid conditions within the cave.

Although the material had first been found by co-author Dr Peter Beaumont in the 1970s, the advent of "micro"-analytical technologies allowed the team to identify remnants of sap from yellowwood trees - to attach stones to weapons - and traces of poison on the applicator.

The appearance of the organic material, although a substantial finding, has led the researchers to ask more questions.

"There's an internal evolution of the San people making stone tools, but when it gets to the organics a whole bunch just arrives at 44,000. There's clearly a different rate of cultural change in the different materials they used. But we can't really explain that," Dr Backwell explained.



Source & Image : BBC

New TV channel run exclusively by fully veiled women










STORY HIGHLIGHTS



  • A new TV station is run by and features women wearing the niqab

  • The niqab is a black fabric that covers a woman's entire face except eyes

  • Some say the programming lets women's voices be heard; others say it's a U-turn for rights





(CNN) -- After graduating from the mass communication department of Cairo University, Heba Seraq-Eddin couldn't find a job. Potential employers turned her down, she says, because of her veil. Heba wears the niqab, the black fabric that covers her whole face, except for the eyes.

"I used to tell them I won't appear on camera, my niqab won't be visible," recalls Serag-Eddin, trained as a director and camera operator. But there were no job offers and she felt that the networks rejected the very concept of the niqab in the workplace.

Then she came across an ad for a new TV channel called Maria, run exclusively by niqab-clad women. She was hired right away.

Maria, the first channel of its kind anywhere, kicked off with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on July 20. Until it gets more funding and staff, it's a daily four-hour broadcast on its mother channel, Al-Omma, an independent channel seen in the Middle East.

In an apartment in the eastern Cairo district of Abasya, the female volunteers of Maria share two studios with Al-Omma's staff. Men occasionally help move the colored wooden panels on set and perform other technical chores. And Islam Abdallah, Al-Omma's executive director, steps in to offer advice on how to talk to the camera.



Critics say the programming is a \

Critics say the programming is a "U-turn" on any Arab Spring advances.


While new hires are being trained, the station is using the skills of other women who favor the hijab -- the veil that's more like a head scarf -- to help. But the objective is to depend solely on niqab-clad women. So far, they all work as volunteers.

"I felt that we finally have a place in society after being marginalized. As women wearing niqab, we had no rights, and no one to talk about us. Through Maria, we'll find people like us talking about us, with no discrimination," Seraq-Eddin says.

The niqab has sparked many debates about discrimination over the years. Public universities' ban of them during exams or in dormitories were the subject of numerous court battles and were condemned by advocacy groups. Women often complain of an unwelcoming job market with an unwritten discrimination.

Maria director Alaa Abdallah says that being part of the TV project showed her and other team members that they did, indeed, have the skills for the job.

"We are trying to create a better society after the earthquake of freedom that was January 25," Alaa Abdallah explains. She says Egypt's intellectuals should support her right to speak up and her right to give a marginalized segment of society a voice.

One of those intellectuals is not convinced. The network taps into the rhetoric of women's empowerment, says Adel Iskandar, media scholar at Georgetown University, but there is a "very strong case to be made that it's a gimmick."

Others are worried that the rise of political Islam in Egypt will radicalize the society. They argue that a TV network that features only women with covered faces is a "U-turn" on the path of the so-called Arab uprising.

Poll: Religion not biggest enemy for Arab women

Alaa Abdallah says she avidly supports freedom of expression, but wouldn't grant her critics the same leeway she demands. "I stand by freedom of expression as long as it isn't hostile to Islam," she says, arguing that "secular and liberal" channels are "destructive" in the way they are promoting ideas that would reshape society.

Abu Islam Abdallah, Alaa's father and the owner of Al-Omma, believes he's restoring the balance. By stressing the niqab, he believes he evens out what he describes as the "racism" against these women.

He describes as heretic the type of democratic system that allows women "to dress immodestly, work as dancers and even be members of Parliament." That's "pandemonium," he says.

Al-Omma -- which means the nation -- is full of "anti-Christianization" rhetoric. There is less of that on Maria, named for the woman thought to have been the prophet Mohammed's Coptic wife. Its female-oriented, cultural programming "within a religious framework," as Alaa Abdallah describes it, might even have greater potential than Al-Omma and its donation-based funding model.

Maria caters to a niche market untapped even by ultraconservative channels, according to Iskandar. But normalizing the appearance of women covered from head to toe in black could be a double-edged sword. "It takes away from their mystique, their exoticism," he argues.

Others believe Maria might end up isolating the niqab "community" and only underline the controversy over the full veil.

Either way, the biggest challenge, according to Iskandar, will be to overcome what may be visually dull presentation with creative content.

Related:

Opinion: Egypt's Islamists have much to prove on women's rights

Opinion: An Islamic state can still mean democracy

The key to liberating Egyptians? The economy


Source & Image : CNN World

Central banks take center stage

European Central Bank president Mario Draghi and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke will be in the spotlight this week.

European Central Bank president Mario Draghi and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke will be in the spotlight this week.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As central bankers in Europe and the United States gather this week, investors around the world are wondering what the monetary authorities will do to support the global economy.

First up is the Federal Reserve, which kicked off a two-day meeting Tuesday. The European Central Bank's governing council will hold its monthly policy discussion Thursday.

Fed officials are meeting as the U.S. economy appears to have taken a turn for the worse, with a slowdown in job growth taking a toll on consumer spending.

While few expect the Fed to act this week, the central bank could extend its plan to keep interest rates near zero beyond its current 2014 forecast.

The Fed could also raise the rate on bank reserves in an effort to keep inflation in check by enticing banks to store more of their excess funds at the Fed instead of lending it out.

But analysts say the Fed will probably delay a decision on more aggressive moves, such as a third round of asset purchases, or QE3.

"I don't expect any major change in policy," said Jeffrey Bergstrand, a former Fed economist who is now a finance professor at the University of Notre Dame. "The Fed is wary of doing anything unless it sees a more substantive downturn."

Depending on how the economy fares, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke could hint at further stimulus measures at the central bank's annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo., in late August. But experts say the Fed will probably not act until its September meeting, when it has had more time to assess the economy.

Once Bernanke wraps up, the ECB and its president, Mario Draghi, will be up.

"I think the more important meeting is by far the ECB," said Kathy Jones, a fixed-income analyst at Charles Schwab. "The Fed sending a signal would be nice, but the markets here are not rebelling the way they are in Europe."

Draghi raised the stakes last week when he said the bank is prepared to do "whatever it takes" to save the euro currency.

Draghi's comments sparked a rally in global stock markets and drove down borrowing costs for the governments of Spain and Italy, which had risen to record highs earlier in the week.

The ECB is widely expected to resume limited purchases of government bonds to ease the pressure on Spain and Italy. Some say the ECB could also offer European banks another round of ultra-low cost loans by launching a third Long-Term Refinancing Operation, or LTRO.

Others say Draghi and other European Union officials are working on a plan to use funds from the European Financial Stability Facility to buy bonds directly from governments in the primary market, while the ECB conducts secondary market operations.

There is also speculation that the European Stability Mechanism, a bailout fund that has yet to be fully established, could be given a banking license. In theory, this would allow the ESM to borrow money from the ECB, effectively giving it a source of unlimited funding to buy bonds.

Critics say providing additional liquidity would only reinforce the vicious cycle between banks and governments, in which banks are the main buyers of domestic sovereign debt even as they have become dependent on ECB financing.

Given the high expectations, there is a significant risk investors will be disappointed.

"The pattern we've seen in the past is that they tend to over promise and under deliver," said Jones.

-- CNNMoney's Annalyn Censky contributed 



Source & Image : CNN Money

Welcome to the world's nicest prison










STORY HIGHLIGHTS



  • Bastoy prison is on an island in southern Norway

  • There are no fences or armed guards; inmates hold the keys to locks

  • Inmates have access to beaches, horses and a sauna

  • Norway's unique justice system has been in the spotlight since a terror attack last summer





Bastoy, Norway (CNN) -- Jan Petter Vala, who is serving a prison sentence for murder, has hands the size of dinner plates and shoulders like those of an ox. In an alcoholic rage, he used his brutish strength to strangle his girlfriend to death a few years ago.

On a recent Thursday, however, at this summer-camp-like island prison in southern Norway, where convicts hold keys to their rooms and there are no armed guards or fences, Vala used those same enormous hands to help bring life into the world.

The 42-year-old murderer stood watch while an oversize cow gave birth to a wobbly, long-legged, brown-and-white calf. He cried as the baby was born, he said, and wiped slime off of the newborn's face so she could gulp her first breath.

Afterward, Vala called his own mother to share the good news.

"I told my family that I'm going to be a dad," he said, beaming with pride.

This is exactly the type of dramatic turnabout -- enraged killer to gentle-giant midwife -- that corrections officials in Norway hope to create with this controversial, one-of-a-kind prison, arguably the cushiest the world has to offer.

Founded in 1982, Bastoy Prison is located on a lush, 1-square-mile island of pine trees and rocky coasts, with views of the ocean that are postcard-worthy. It feels more like a resort than jail, and prisoners here enjoy freedoms that would be unthinkable elsewhere.

It's the holiday version of Alcatraz.

Overheard on CNN.com: What's prison for?

There's a beach where prisoners sunbathe in the summer, plenty of good fishing spots, a sauna and tennis courts. Horses roam gravel roads. Some of the 115 prisoners here -- all men and serving time for murder, rape and trafficking heroin, among other crimes -- stay in wooden cottages, painted cheery red. They come and go as they please. Others live in "The Big House," a white mansion on a hill that, on the inside, looks like a college dorm. A chicken lives in the basement, a guard said, and provides eggs for the inmates.

When you ask the cook what's for dinner, he offers up menu choices like "fish balls with white sauce, with shrimps" and "everything from chicken con carne to salmon."

Plenty of people would pay to vacation in a place like this.

On first read, all of that probably sounds infuriating. Shouldn't these men be punished? Why do they get access to all these comforts while others live in poverty?

But if the goal of prison is to change people, Bastoy seems to work.

"If we have created a holiday camp for criminals here, so what?" asked Arne Kvernvik Nilsen, the prison's governor and a former minister and psychologist. He added, "We should reduce the risk of reoffending, because if we don't, what's the point of punishment, except for leaning toward the primitive side of humanity?"

Take a quick look at the numbers: Only 20% of prisoners who come through Norway's prisons reoffend within two years of being released, according to a 2010 report commissioned by the governments of several Nordic countries.

At Bastoy, that figure is even lower, officials say: about 16%.

Compare that with the three-year re-offense rate for state prisons in the U.S.: 43%, according to a 2011 report from the Pew Center on the States, a nonpartisan research group. Older government reports put that number even higher, at more than five in 10.

Ryan King, a research director at Pew and an author of the group's recent report, said it's difficult to compare recidivism rates from state to state, much less from country to country. Instead of focusing on the numbers, he said, one should focus on what a country is or isn't doing to tackle re-offense rates.

Still, Bastoy remains controversial even in academia. Irvin Waller, president of the International Organization for Victim Assistance and a professor at the University of Ottawa, said in an e-mail that the relative niceness of a prison has no effect on whether people commit crimes when they're released. "The key is not that much what happens in prison but what happens when the men are released," he said.



Jan Petter Vala is serving part of a 10-year murder sentence on a posh island in southern Norway.

Jan Petter Vala is serving part of a 10-year murder sentence on a posh island in southern Norway.


But officials here maintain that their methods do make a difference, and they follow it up with post-release programs. The aim of Bastoy is not to punish or seek revenge, Nilsen said. The only punishment is to take away the prisoner's right to be a free member of society.

Even at a time when Anders Behring Breivik is on trial in Norway for killing 77 people in a terror attack last year -- and the remote possibility he could end up at Bastoy or a similar prison some day -- Nilsen and others stand up for this brand of justice.

Life at Bastoy

To understand Norway's pleasant-prison philosophy, first you have to get a sense of how life at a cushy, low-security prison like Bastoy actually plays out.

There are few rules here. Prisoners can have TVs in their rooms, provided they bring them from "outside" when they're sentenced. They wear whatever clothes they want: jeans, T-shirts. One man had a sweater with pink-and-gray horizontal stripes, but that's as close as it got to the jailbird look. Even guards aren't dressed in uniform, which makes conducting interviews tricky. It's impossible to tell an officer from a drug trafficker.

A common opening question: "So, do you live here?"

Everyone at Bastoy has a job, and prisoners must report to work from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays. Some people garden; others farm. Some chop down trees and slice them into firewood (It's hard not to think about the wood chipper scene in "Fargo" when you see inmates filleting tree trunks with an enormous circular saw). Others tend to a team of horses, which are used to cart wood and supplies from one part of the island to another. Everyone moves about freely during these tasks. Guards are sometimes present, sometimes not. No one wears shackles or electronic monitoring bracelets.

The idea is for prison to function like a small, self-sustaining village.

For their work, inmates are paid. They get a stipend of 59 Norwegian kroner per day, about $10. They can save that money or spend it on odds and ends in a local shop. Additionally, they get a monthly stipend of about $125 for their food. Kitchen workers -- that's another inmate job -- serve Bastoy residents dinner each day. For breakfast and lunch, inmates use their stipend to make purchases in the local shop and then cook for themselves at home. Many live in small houses that have full kitchens. Others have access to shared cooking space.

The goal, Nilsen said, is to create an environment where people can build self-esteem and reform their lives. "They look at themselves in the mirror, and they think, 'I am s***. I don't care. I am nothing,' " he said. This prison, he says, gives them a chance to see they have worth, "to discover, 'I'm not such a bad guy.' "

In locked-down prisons, inmates are treated "like animals or robots," he said, moving from one planned station to the next, with no choice in the matter. Here, inmates are forced to make choices -- to learn how to be better people.

Prisoners, of course, appreciate this approach.

Kjell Amundsen, a 70-year-old who said he is in jail for a white-collar financial crime, was terrified when he rode the 15-minute ferry from the mainland out to Bastoy.

On a recent afternoon, he was sweeping up in a plant nursery while John Lennon's "Imagine" played on the radio. "I think it's marvelous to be in a prison this way," he said.

He plans to keep up the task after his sentence ends. "I'm living in a flat (when I get out), but I am convinced I should have a little garden," he said.



Bastoy Prison functions like a small village. Everyone has a job, including chopping firewood.

Bastoy Prison functions like a small village. Everyone has a job, including chopping firewood.


Some prisoners get schooling in a yellow Bavarian-style building near the center of the island. On a recent afternoon, three young men were learning to use computer programs to create 3-D models of cars. All expressed interest in doing this sort of work after their prison terms end.

Tom Remi Berg, a 22-year-old who said he is in prison for the third time after getting into a bar fight and beating a man nearly to death, said he is finally learning his lesson at Bastoy.

He works in the kitchen and is seeking training to become a chef when he's released. He also plays in the prison blues band -- Guilty as Hell -- and lives with his bandmates.

"It's good to have a prison like this," he said. "You can learn to start a new page again."

If escaped, please call

The prisoners are required to check in several times a day so guards can make sure they're still on the island. Nothing but 1½ miles of seawater stops them from leaving; they'd only have to steal one of the prison's boats to cross it, several inmates said.

An escape would be relatively easy.

Prisoners have tried to escape in the past. One swam halfway across the channel and became stranded on a buoy and screamed for rescuers to help, prison officials said. Another made it across the channel by stealing a boat but was caught on the other side.

Many, however, don't want to leave. If they tried and failed, they would be forced to go to a higher-security prison and could have their sentences extended.

When inmates come to his island jail, Nilsen, the governor, gives them a little talk.

Among the wisdom he imparts is this: If you should escape and make it across the water to the free shore, find a phone and call so I know you're OK and "so we don't have to send the coast guard looking for you."

This kind of trust may seem shocking or naïve from the outside, but it's the entire basis for Bastoy's existence. Overnight, only three or four guards (the prison employs 71 administrative staff, including the guards) stay on the island with this group of people who have been convicted of serious crimes. If guards carried weapons (which they don't) it might encourage inmates to take up arms, too, he said.

Further complicating the security situation, some inmates, toward the end of their terms, are allowed to leave the island on a daily ferry to work or attend classes on the mainland.

They're expected to come back on their own free will.



Some prisoners live in dorm-like rooms; they aren\'t locked in, and guards are not armed.

Some prisoners live in dorm-like rooms; they aren't locked in, and guards are not armed.


Inmates are screened to make sure they're mentally stable and unlikely to plot an escape before they come to Bastoy. The vast majority -- 97%, according to Nilsen -- have served part of their sentences at higher-security jails in Norway. In the four years Nilsen has been heading up the prison, there have been no "serious" incidents of violence, he said.

By the time they get to Bastoy, inmates view the island as a relief.

'It's still prison'

There's a question inmates here get asked frequently: When your sentence is up, will you want to leave?

The answer, despite the nice conditions, is always an emphatic yes.

"It's still prison," said Luke, 23. He didn't want his full name used for fear future employers would see it. "In your mind, you are locked (up)."

The simple fact of being taken away from family members is enough to stop Benny, 40, from wanting to offend again. The refugee from Kosovo said he was convicted on drug charges after he was found with 13 pounds of heroin. He didn't want his full name used because he doesn't want to embarrass his family or jeopardize his chance of finding a job after he's released.

Before coming to Bastoy, he sat in a higher-security prison while one of his children was born.

"It doesn't matter how long the sentences get. The sentence doesn't matter," Benny said. "When you take freedom from people, that's what's scary."

There are only 3,600 people in prison in this country, compared with 2.3 million in the United States, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Relative to population, the U.S. has about 10 times as many inmates as Norway.

More than 89% of Norway's jail sentences are less than a year, officials said. In U.S. federal prisons, longer sentences are much more common, with fewer than 2% serving a year or less, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Some researchers support Norway's efforts to lighten sentences.

Think of prison like parenting and it starts to make sense, said Mark A.R. Kleiman, a professor of public policy at UCLA and author of "When Brute Force Fails."

"Every parent knows this. What if you tried to discipline your kid by saying, 'If you don't clean your room, there's a 10% chance I'll kick you out of the house and never see you again'?" he said, referencing the fact that many crimes in America go unpunished, but the justice system issues harsh sentences when offenders are caught. Grounding the child immediately, a softer sentence, would work better, even though the punishment is less severe, he said.

"We have a criminal justice system (in the United States) that, if it were a parent, we would say it's abusive and neglectful."

Kleiman said victims do have a right to see offenders punished. But in Norway, a country with one of the highest standards of living in the world, staying on a resort-like island with horses might feel like punishment to many people, he said.

Research also suggests that programs like Bastoy that train inmates for their transition back into the free world -- with education, counseling and such -- do help prisoners adjust.

"There is overwhelming evidence that rehabilitation works much better than deterrence as a means of reducing re-offending," said Gerhard Ploeg, a senior adviser at the Ministry of Justice, which oversees Norway's corrections system.

"It's all in the name of reintegration," he added. "You won't be suddenly one day standing on the street with a plastic bag of things you had when you came in."

Mass shooting challenges system



Inmates at Bastoy have plenty of time for activities, including going to the gym and the beach.

Inmates at Bastoy have plenty of time for activities, including going to the gym and the beach.


Norway's unusual prison policies have been pushed into the international spotlight after a bombing and shooting spree last year in which 77 people were killed, including children.

There's a chance -- although minimal -- that Anders Behring Breivik, who confessed to those crimes, could end up in Bastoy, one of Norway's "open prisons," Nilsen said.

Norwegians value respecting killer's human rights

It's more likely Breivik will be sent to one of Norway's many high-security "closed" prisons, which look much more like their U.S. counterparts.

He also could be set free some day. Norway has a maximum jail sentence of 21 years, which can be extended only when an inmate is deemed to be a real and imminent threat to society. The country expects nearly every prisoner to be returned to society, which influences its efforts to create jail environments that reduce re-offense rates.

Lawyer: Norwegian killer vows not to appeal guilty verdict if found sane

"The question we must ask is, 'What kind of person do I want as my neighbor?' " Ploeg said. "How do we want people to come out of prison? If your neighbor were to come out of prison, what would you want him to be like?"

Still, it's likely Breivik's sentence will be extended to the point that he will spend his life in a high-security prison, he said. Or he could go into life-long psychiatric care.

Breivik's case challenges a system that hopes to fix everyone.

The case has unearthed levels of anger that are uncharacteristic of Norway, which prides itself as a home for conflict mediation and human rights, a place that hosts the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and has one of the best standards of living in the world.

Last week, a man lit himself on fire outside the Oslo courthouse where Breivik's trial is taking place. His motives were unclear, police said.

"(Breivik) doesn't deserve to go to prison," said Camilla Bjerke, 27, who tends bar in Horten, the town on the other side of the water from Bastoy. "He deserves to be hanged outside the courthouse. ... He's just going to go into prison and watch TV and download movies."

Then there's this sentiment: If Breivik were ever released into the public, someone would kill him, several Norwegians said. Inmates at Bastoy echoed those sentiments, saying he would have to be quarantined or he wouldn't be safe on the island.

Others are trying to fight that anger.

Bjorn Ihler, a 20-year-old who narrowly escaped Breivik's shooting spree by diving into the ocean with two children while bullets flew at them, said, "it's very important that we don't let this terrorist change the way we are and the way things work."

"The prison system in Norway is based around the principle of getting criminals back into society, really, and away from their criminal life -- and to get them normal jobs and stuff like that," he said.

He doesn't know how he would feel if Breivik were to be released, but he would like the system to function as usual. "So prisons must be very much focused on getting people to a place where they are able to live normal, non-criminal lives. And that's the best way of preserving society from crime, I think."

Looking to the future

All of these efforts aim to help a person like Vala, the gentle giant who strangled his girlfriend, to get ready for release back into society at the end of his 10-year sentence.

After he helped a toddling calf come into the world, Vala said, he leaned on a rail next to the cow's pen and thought about his life and the murder that landed him here. The symbolism that he had used his hands to end one life and help begin another was not lost on him. "I stayed for six hours," he said. "It was very beautiful."

The night he killed his girlfriend, Vala says, he blacked out and then came to with his hands around her neck, after she was dead.

"We never fight," he said. "We never do. So I don't know what happened."

He felt helpless and out of control when he came to.

But now he's trying to pull it together. He decided to quit drinking for good. And when he's working with animals, he said, feels a new calm wash over him.

It's a change the prison guards have noted, too. Sigurd Vedvik said he met Vala while he was serving out the earlier part of his sentence in a high-security prison. Vedvik was screening him for entry into Bastoy. Vala barely could communicate. He seemed broken.

"When he first came here, he was very afraid of many people," said Vedvik, who sees himself as more of a teacher or social worker than a person who enforces security.

Now, Vala is making friends. Talking more. Taking responsibility for the cattle he's tasked with caring for. He strokes the cows' necks so gently, it seems as if he's worried they will shatter.

When Vala leaves Bastoy, he plans to go into the construction business and hopes to find some way to spend time on a farm.

"I'm trying to think to my future."

That's something he couldn't do after the murder.

And it took a posh prison -- one with cattle and horses -- to get him into that state of mind.


Source & Image : CNN World

It’s D-Day for the Post Office





Welcome to the week the United States Postal Service defaults on a major obligation. D-Day is Wednesday, Aug. 1, when the Postal Service is obligated, by statute, to make a $5.5 billion payment, money that is supposed to be put aside to “prefund” health benefits for future retirees. But, with less than $1 billion in the bank, the Postal Service announced on Monday that it would not be making the payment. It has a second payment, for $5.6 billion, due in September. Unless lightning strikes, it won’t be making that one either.


On the one hand, there is no doubt that part of the reason the post office is struggling is that its world has changed mightily. Everyone knows the story: the rise of e-mail, online bill paying, and so on, have cut deeply into Americans’ use of first class mail, which peaked in 2006. Last year, the Postal Service reported losses of more than $5 billion — even though Congress allowed it to defer its annual prefunding of retiree health benefits. With or without the prefunding, the post office was eventually headed toward a crisis.


On the other hand, that prefunding requirement is an absolute killer. It has cost the post office more than $20 billion since 2007 — a period during which its total losses amounted to $25.3 billion. Without that requirement, the post office would still likely be struggling, but it would have a lot more wiggle room — and a lot more cash. (Its pension obligations are also overfunded by around $11 billion.) Not since the debt crisis has there been such an avoidable fiscal mess.


It is a little startling when you first hear about the prefunding requirement. It seems to make no sense, and, as many have noted, it is something that is demanded of no other company or government agency. So why does it exist? It turns out to be one of those things that only Congress could cook up.


Since the 1970s, the Postal Service has been self-sufficient, generating money by selling stamps and offering services — and not dependent on the taxpayer. It is thus considered “off budget.” Yet part of its operations — including its health and retiree benefits — have continued to be part of the federal budget, and thus count against the federal deficit.


In 2002, it was discovered that the Postal Service was wildly overpaying its retirement obligations to the tune of $71 billion. Not surprisingly, it soon began advocating for ways to use some of that excess. One bill passed that did almost nothing to solve the problem. Later bills that would have fixed the problem, however, all ran into the same stumbling block: they would have ostensibly added to the deficit. And the Bush administration was adamant that it would veto any bill that wasn’t deficit-neutral.


Thus it was that a new fund was established in 2006 — for the prepayment of health benefits for future retirees, with the Postal Service agreeing to pay between $5.5 billion and $5.8 billion annually. The money simply goes into an escrow account, where it is invested in special issue Treasury securities. Thus does it somehow magically help with the deficit. Also, of course, no sooner did the bill become law than first class mail began to fall off the cliff. The prefunding requirement became a noose around the Postal Service’s neck.


Incapable of simply letting the Postal Service go free — imagine what that would do to the deficit! — Congress continues to micromanage it, offering various ways for it to cut costs and raise revenue. The Postal Service, for instance, wants to cut Saturday delivery to save money; a Senate bill passed in April defers that decision for two years. But at least the Senate bill offers some relief from the absurd prefunding of health benefits. It would also return some of the excess retirement funding.


The postal reform bill that has emerged from the Republican-led House of Representatives, however, does no such thing. Representative Darrell Issa, the chairman of the committee that oversees the Postal Service, talks fiercely about the need to lower labor costs, while describing the Senate bill as a “bailout.” What he is doing, of course, is using the fact that the Postal Service is going broke to impose a slash-and-burn approach — while ignoring the central reason the post office is running out of money: Congress itself. Meanwhile, the bill that emerged from Issa’s committee has never been brought to a vote on the House floor. Default notwithstanding, there won’t be a vote anytime soon. After all, the Congressional recess is right around the corner.


The post office insists that the default will not affect its ability to deliver the mail. Maybe not now. But several postal experts told me that at the rate things are going, it will be out of money sometime next year. Maybe then Congress will start taking seriously the crisis it created.



Source & Image : New York Times

Hotmail replaced by Outlook.com in Microsoft shake-up

Outlook.com screenshot

The revamped service will help sort messages as they arrive and allow users to make internet calls on Skype.

It said the move would help tackle the problem of "cluttered" inboxes.

The move may also be designed to win over users of Google's rival Gmail service.

Microsoft said that in many cases email had become a "chore" because its users accounts had become "overloaded" with material.

Its solution is to automatically sort messages into different areas to distinguish between emails from contacts, newsletters, package delivery notices, social network posts and other identifiers determined by the account holder.

In addition it is taking steps to link the Outlook account with other services the user might have subscribed to.

"We are giving you the first email service that is connected to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google, and soon, Skype, to bring relevant context and communications to your email," the firm's Chris Jones said on its blog.

"In the Outlook.com inbox, your personal email comes alive with photos of your friends, recent status updates and tweets that your friend has shared with you, the ability to chat and video call - all powered by an always up-to-date contact list that is connected to your social networks."

In what may be perceived as a dig at Google, Mr Jones added that the firm would not scan email content or attachments in order to sell the information to advertisers or others.

He also announced that web versions of the firms Office apps were built-in, potentially helping it counter competition from other web-based application suits such as Google Docs and Zoho Docs.

Outlook.com also links up with Microsoft's Skydrive cloud storage, allowing users to send photos and other documents via the service to avoid the risk of going over their attachment size limit.

This could pose a threat to the rival Google Drive service as well as Dropbox, Sugarsync and others.

Mr Jones said the firm had built a "brand new service from the ground up". But Matt Cain, an analyst at the tech consultants Gartner, played down the suggestion of a major leap forwards.

"Outlook.com represents reverse-consumerisation - taking a ubiquitous business tool and recrafting it for the consumer market," he told BBC.

"There really is no new technology here - the filtering tools have been around for some time as well as the social network integration.

"What is new is the cleaned up user interface, and the marketing spin, and the tight integration with office web apps and Skydrive, and the forthcoming integration with Skype."

Microsoft is offering the service in a "preview" mode for the time being and has not announced an official release date.



Source & Image : BBC

Iran nuclear crisis: Barack Obama imposes new sanctions

File picture of the Lavan oil refinery quay at Lavan island off the southern coast of Iran

The move is to stop Iran from setting up payment mechanisms for the purchase of oil to get round existing sanctions.

Mr Obama said the US remained committed to reaching a diplomatic solution on Iran, but that the onus was on Tehran to meet its international obligations.

The sanctions come amid ongoing concern over Iran's nuclear programme, which Tehran denies is to develop weapons.

Existing sanctions on Iran's oil industry had been expanded "by making sanctionable the purchase or acquisition of Iranian petrochemical products", Mr Obama said in a statement.

Measures would be taken against firms that have dealings with the National Iranian Oil Company, the Naftiran Intertrade Company or the Central Bank of Iran, or that help Iran buy US dollars or precious metals, he added.

The new sanctions also targeted China's Bank of Kunlun and Iraq's Elaf Islamic Bank as institutions that "knowingly enable financial transactions for designated Iranian banks".

The move was a commitment to hold Iran "accountable for its actions", Mr Obama said.

He said the sanctions made it clear that the US would expose any financial institution that assisted "the increasingly desperate Iranian regime" to access the international financial system.

"If the Iranian government continues its defiance, there should be no doubt that the United States and our partners will continue to impose increasing consequences," he added.

Mr Obama has been criticised by Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney for failing to act strongly enough to stop Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.



Source & Image : BBC

Online poker sites settle fraud charges for $731m

File picture showing a man playing poker on his computer connected to an internet gaming site from his home in Manassas, Virginia 2 October 2006

Under the deal, PokerStars will forfeit $547m to the US government, and must also reimburse $184m to non-US players of a rival firm, Full Tilt.

A settlement with a third firm, Absolute Poker, has not yet been approved.

The three were closed in 2011 and hit with civil money laundering charges.

Criminal charges were brought against executives and payment processors. All but one of 11 individuals charged pleaded guilty. Charges are pending against four other defendants who remain at large.

The US alleged that the three firms had fooled banks into processing gambling proceeds by masking the payments to appear as if they had come from non-existent online merchants.

The companies have not admitted wrongdoing as part of the civil settlement, announced by the US Department of Justice.

Under the agreement, Isle of Man-based PokerStars acquired the assets of Dublin-based Full Tilt.

Mark Scheinberg, PokerStars chairman, said the company was "delighted we have been able to put this matter behind us".

US Attorney Preet Bharara said the settlements "allow us to quickly get significant compensation into the victim players' hands".

The deal also allows the firms to operate in the US if regulations are changed to allow online poker.

Legalisation of online poker in the US is growing - Delaware in July became the second state to authorise licensed online poker within its borders, following Nevada.



Source & Image : BBC

Was Romney's trip 'a great success' or gaffe-filled disaster?







Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke in Warsaw during the final leg of his contentious overseas trip.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke in Warsaw during the final leg of his contentious overseas trip.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS



  • Romney's camp says trip successful, getting good reviews

  • But GOP candidate troubled by gaffes, controversy in Europe and Mideast

  • Tensions between campaign, press overheat during last stop in Poland





Warsaw (CNN) -- In the estimation of Mitt Romney and his top campaign aides, there were no gaffes, no mistakes, no ill-advised statements on the Republican candidate's overseas trip.

The poorly timed comments at the Olympics? No big deal. The remarks in Israel that inflamed the Palestinians? Overblown. The off-color words to the press by a Romney aide Tuesday? In the heat of the moment.

A trip that was supposed to show off the former governor's foreign policy expertise during an election year has been plagued with distractions as well as marked by substantive highlights.

Team Obama seeks to convert on Romney "fumbles"

Still, as the candidate wrapped up his last leg in Poland, a senior Romney adviser said the campaign will land back in the U.S. late Tuesday, supremely confident of the results on the ground.

"I think it was a great success," Romney adviser Stuart Stevens said after the GOP contender's foreign policy speech in Warsaw, the last leg of the campaign's three-country tour.

"The idea is that, can people get a good sense of who he is? Can people listen and see that this is a person speaking from the heart about Israel and about Poland? And he is," Stevens added.

In a speech at Poland's national library, Romney offered an emotional tribute to the former Soviet bloc country's journey from the Iron Curtain to the economic envy of Europe.

"I, and my fellow Americans, are inspired by the path of freedom tread by the people of Poland," Romney said.

But the homage to the last days of Lenin could also be seen a fitting end to the trip in more ways than one. In its final moments in Poland, the Romney campaign talked of its "great success" while being bombarded by criticism over moments that did not go so well.

Romney talks tough but differs little from Obama on Iran

For Romney, the trouble began in Britain, when he publicly questioned whether London was ready to host the Summer Olympic Games.

British Prime Minister David Cameron retorted that it was far more difficult to organize the Olympics in a world capital than in the "middle of nowhere," a not-so-subtle dig at Romney's Games in Salt Lake City. London tabloids dubbed Romney "Mitt the Twit."

But on the campaign's chartered flight from London to the next leg of the trip, Israel, Romney's policy advisers declined to comment on the candidate's comments.

Israel brought more controversy. In one of the great stage-crafting moments of his campaign, Romney delivered a stout defense of Israel's right to exist. He warned Iranian leaders that weaponizing the country's nuclear program would lead to war.

However, Romney also outraged Palestinians leaders with his talk of Jerusalem as the undisputed capital of Israel. He commented at a fundraiser in the same city that "culture" can partly explain the economic disparity between Israelis and Palestinians, inflaming the already raw feelings in the region.

Romney was in no mood to answer questions from his traveling press corps about his "from the heart" straight talk. He took only three questions from the journalists after his overseas trip.

After Romney paid tribute at the Polish Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, members of the traveling press attempted to ask about some of his perceived gaffes, only to be shouted down by the campaign's traveling press secretary.

"Kiss my ass. This is a holy site," Rick Gorka barked at one reporter. "Shove it," he said to another. Gorka later called two reporters and apologized.

After Romney's speech, Stevens noted, the candidate did sit down for a number of interview with U.S. television networks, including CNN.

"The reports that we get back are very positive," Stevens said of reviews the campaign's trip is receiving from supporters.

Before the campaign aide's verbal assault on the press, conservative bloggers were protesting that Romney's overseas trip was being judged unfairly in the media.

"By any reasonable standard, Romney's trip has been successful. Yet press coverage has been unrelentingly negative," Powerline blog writer John Hinderaker wrote.

Greta Van Susteren, an anchor on the Fox News Channel, Romney's go-to network for interviews, had a different assessment of the coverage.

"There has been no press access to Governor Romney since we landed in Poland. We (press) are in a holding pattern (I can't help but feel a bit like the press is a modified petting zoo since we are trapped in a bus while Polish citizens take pictures of us.)," Van Susteren wrote on her blog.

When Romney returns to the states, he will be greeted by a slew of new ads from his campaign and from super PACs supporting him, as well as a new iPhone and Android mobile app called "Mitt's VP," about his VP selection process.

Even while away, the campaign never stops.


Source & Image : CNN Politics

Is Antonio Villaraigosa poised to be America’s first Latino president?




Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa walks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 7, 2012. (J. Scott …


LOS ANGELES—When Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gavels the 2012 Democratic National Convention into session in Charlotte, N.C., this September, his role as prominent cheerleader for President Barack Obama will be clear.


It is less clear, for now, if Villaraigosa has designs on the ultimate convention role in 2016—taking center stage to accept his party's nomination on the final night.


Despite running the country's second largest city and coming from the fastest growing voting demographic in America, the mayor himself is quick to wave off talk of a presidential run.


"The answer is no," Villaraigosa replied when asked by Yahoo News if he wanted to be president one day. "I want to finish this job with a bang. I want to go out with my head up high. I want to say to this city, 'I put everything into this job,'" he added.


"The job I've said to people I would like is I would like to be governor of the state of California," he said. (Paging Jerry Brown.)


It's easy to dismiss Villaraigosa's likelihood of capturing the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, much less the presidency, due to his rocky (and public) personal life, lack of a developed national fundraising base and occasional conflicts with portions of his political base.


But recall that Bill Clinton made it to the Oval Office with the personal baggage of infidelity and Barack Obama became the first nonwhite candidate to achieve the highest office in the land—you can begin to see how Villaraigosa's interest in a 2016 run may yet develop.


Villaraigosa's term as mayor of Los Angeles is up July 1, 2013. He says he will spend his remaining time in office bolstering his accomplishments in crime reduction (a 40.6 percent drop in violent crime, 41 percent drop in homicides), the environment (doubled the Kyoto protocol required reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, bringing them down to 14 percent of 1990 levels in seven years), education (reduced schools defined as "failing" according to state scores from 33 percent to 10 percent), and transportation (more on that later). Charlotte provides an opportunity to start road testing his brand beyond Los Angeles' city limits.


"I think I'm going to take a time out. I'll probably associate with a think tank or a university. I want to write. I want to read. I'll probably speak around the country. I certainly get enough invitations," he said of his immediate post-mayoral plans.


Villaraigosa recently wrapped up a one-year tenure as the head of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, where he wrangled more than 200 mayors to support his successful push for "America Fast Forward," a federal loan program for transportation infrastructure projects that will allow cities to leverage federal dollars over an extended period of time. Obama signed the expanded program into law as part of the larger transportation bill earlier this month at the White House with Villaraigosa by his side.


Now the mayor's travel is mostly on behalf of the Obama campaign, for which he has done no fewer than 20 either official or campaign related events over the last year at various state party gatherings, fundraisers, constituency group conferences and official policy events. The potential benefits of circling the country to meet party activists and elected officials in key states including Florida, Nevada and New Mexico is lost on no one.


The president's re-election team believes Villaraigosa has been one of its most helpful surrogates on the trail this year in wooing Hispanic voters to come out in greater numbers and deliver an even greater margin of victory for the president among those voters.


He won't be the only Hispanic elected official in the Charlotte spotlight. The Obama convention team announced this morning that 37-year-old San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro will deliver the keynote speech on Tuesday, Sept. 4.


Nearly 22 million Hispanic Americans are expected to be eligible to vote in the presidential election this year. If the rapid population growth rate among Latinos continues apace, that number will be even greater in 2016.


Villaraigosa is no stranger to political ambition—and its attendant disappointments. He describes his first, unsuccessful attempt at capturing City Hall in 2001 as "audacious." Certainly, a presidential run would be no less so. Fast changing demographics may be his entree into the 2016 conversation, but he is well aware they cannot be the rationale for a candidacy.


"When I ran in 2001, everyone said, 'Antonio, you are going to be mayor one day, why run now?'" Advisers told him the Latino slice of the electorate would not be large enough to deliver him a victory until 2017.


"I said, 'What?' and I just went after everybody. The Latinos said I wasn't Latino enough and not running a Latino campaign," he said. He doesn't see the Latino vote as a monolithic bloc, but he's also never been the only Latino in a race. "Every race I've had, I've always had Latinos in the race. It's interesting."


As with most politicians from outside Washington, D.C., eager to play up centrist credentials, Villaraigosa tends to portray himself as a problem solver.


"I want to be part of a discussion about what I call the radical middle that says the way for us to forge ahead is to move ahead, and you can only do that by taking the best of both views and forge a consensus based on results and putting the nation first," he said.


One example is his stance on the deficit and debt reduction plan put forth by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission. Democratic Party leaders, including Obama, never fully embraced the commission's 2010 plan, for fear of alienating key constituents over entitlement reforms. Were Villaraigosa in Congress with a chance to vote on Simpson-Bowles, he would support it. "Absolutely," he said, without hesitation. (Paging Nancy Pelosi.)


He also casts a critical eye toward teachers unions.


"I think there are teachers unions around the country realizing they want to improve standards of the profession, improve the quality of their profession, and ultimately attract the best and the brightest to their profession. The vast majority of teachers are dedicated and committed, but I do believe some of our teachers unions, while not the biggest problem, are the most powerful defenders of a broken system." (Paging Randi Weingarten.)


To be sure, this former Southern California ACLU president who has fought against the death penalty and for same sex marriage equality since 1994 will have plenty of data points to share with potential liberal Democratic supporters in Iowa and New Hampshire should he choose to take the plunge.


And he saves his strongest criticism for the Republicans, specifically on immigration.


"For some time I've said this issue of comprehensive immigration reform is not just an issue about immigration or human rights or civil rights, it's about our economy. You take 11 million people from out of the dark and into the light, the think tanks have surmised that you are talking about trillions of dollars infusion into the economy," he said before launching the political attack.


"The far rightward tilt of the Republican Party has marginalized them with Latinos, with women, with African Americans in a way that if they don't change, if they don't move to the center, it will make them the Whig Party of the next millennium," Villaraigosa said.


The mayor has time to sort out his plans for future elected office, be it in Sacramento or Washington. But thinking about that future has already begun.


"I'm not sure the way I've taken on the left and the right is going to endear me in a primary, but I'll be 60 in January. I've been doing this for a while. I don't want to do this if we're not going to be bold and transformative. I just don't want to do it. I'm really comfortable in my skin right now," he said.




Source & Image : Yahoo