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Ohio mother celebrates birthday by overdosing on heroin behind the wheel with 3-year-old son in the backseat Associated Press / November 25, 2015 An Ohio man has saved the life of a mother who overdosed on heroin behind the wheel with the car engine running, while her 3-year-old son sat shivering and half-naked in the backseat. Edwin Gates was on his way to put brakes on a church member's car when he got stuck waiting for a car to pull into traffic near the local AutoZone. Gates waited and blew his horn before finally deciding to pass the car, but when he looked inside he saw a woman passed out. Rebecca Cooper, 27, was slumped in the driver's seat. It was her birthday. Gates said at first he thought she might have had a heart attack, and had his friend call 911 before checking her 'real low' pulse. Gates then switched off the car's ignition and put it into park. Cooper's engine was running and the car was in drive, her foot neither on the brake or gas pedal. The only thing stopping the vehicle from rolling into oncoming traffic was a pot hole that had caught the tire on the car's passenger side. Gates said he put the vehicle in park and switched the car's ignition off. That's when he saw the 3-year-old little boy, shivering without a shirt on in the backseat. He put a coat over the boy and waited for the paramedics. Cooper was revived with Narcan, which is used to reverse the effects of overdoses from heroin and certain types of pain killers. 'By the grace of God that van didn't roll out into traffic,' Gates told WCPO. 'She could've been dead and the kid could've been dead too.' Cooper has been charged with child endangerment and drug possession and was ordered to stay away from her son, who is now in her father's custody. The mother faced the same charges three years ago, but the child endangerment charges were dropped her. There have been 41 heroin-related traffic accidents in Cincinnati just this past year. .

Mack Trucks for many years purchased its wiring harnesses from Dill Products in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Dill Products evolved into Fargo Assembly of PA, still operating in Norristown to the present day. The B-model main cab wiring harness (part number 41MR439) used to be around $300.

To form an opinion on this, it’s important to hear both side of the story to gain a more rounded understanding. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turkey’s downing of Russian bomber a planned provocation RT / November 25, 2015 The downing of a Russian warplane in Syria by Turkey appears to be a pre-planned provocation, the Russian Foreign Minister said. Ankara failed to communicate with Russia over the incident, he added. “We have serious doubts that this act was unintentional. It looks very much like a preplanned provocation,” Lavrov said, citing Turkey’s failure to maintain proper communication with Russia, the abundance of footage of the incident and other evidence. Lavrov added that many Russian partners called the incident “an obvious ambush.” Earlier in the day, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu slammed Russia for "attacks on Turkmen" in Syria, which according to Ankara preceded the incident with the downed Su-24. The Russian FM said the region where the incident happened is not just home to Turkmen people. There are also hundreds of foreign fighters affiliated with known terrorist groups and elements of their infrastructure such as weapons depots and command points there, he said. “I asked [Turkish FM Çavuşoğlu] whether Turkey’s close attention to this region, including the calls to create a buffer zone there, was motivated by a desire to protect this infrastructure from destruction. I didn’t receive any reply to this question,” Lavrov said. He added the downing of the Russian warplane occurred shortly after a series of airstrikes on terrorist oil convoys and facilities by the Russian Air Force. Lavrov said the incident “sheds new light” on the issue. The Russian diplomat criticized NATO for failing to express condolences to Russia over the loss of its troops lives. “Very strange statements were voiced after a NATO meeting called by the Turks, which didn’t express any regret or condolences and in effect were aimed at covering up what the Turkish Air Force did yesterday,” Lavrov said. “A similar reaction came from the European Union.” Lavrov reiterated the statements of the Russian Defense Ministry, which denied Ankara’s allegations that the Russian warplane had violated Turkish airspace. He added that even if Turkey’s words were taken on face value, its actions contradict its own position expressed in 2012, after Syria took down a Turkish military plane. At the time, then-Prime Minister Erdogan told the Turkish parliament that a short incursion into another nation’s airspace cannot justify an attack on it. Lavrov said Turkey should have done more to communicate with Russia prior to and right after the incident. The Russian minister said there was a question of American involvement in the downing of the Russian plane. According to his sources, the US demands all members of the anti-IS coalition led by Washington, who use US-made military aircraft, coordinate all deployments with the US military. “I wonder if this demand of the Americans covers… Turkey. If it does, I wonder whether Turkey asked permission from the US to fly its US-made planes and take down – let’s say 'an unidentified' – plane over Syrian territory,” Lavrov said. Lavrov said the problems at the Turkish-Syrian border could be solved by simply closing it, as suggested by French President Francois Hollande during his meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington. “President Hollande suggested measures to close the Turkish-Syrian border to stop the flow of militants and finances to terrorists. It’s remarkable that President Obama didn’t react to it. I believe it’s a good suggestion and that during the visit tomorrow President Hollande will tell us details. We are prepared to consider these measures in earnest. Many people say that sealing the border would effectively eliminate the terrorist threat in Syria,” Lavrov said. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCv3mRQLk1U#t=123

Hillary Clinton pledges not to use term 'illegal immigrants' again The Guardian / November 24, 2015 Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Tuesday that her use of the term “illegal immigrants” was a “poor choice of words” and she pledged not to use it anymore, responding to criticism from immigration activists. The Democratic presidential frontrunner was asked about her use of the term to describe people who are in the US illegally during a question-and-answer session on Facebook held by Telemundo. The question came from Jose Antonio Vargas, a filmmaker and journalist whose organisation, Define American, has said the terminology is offensive and asked all presidential candidates to stop using it. “Yes, I will,” Clinton wrote during a stop in Boulder, Colorado. “That was a poor choice of words. As I’ve said throughout this campaign, the people at the heart of this issue are children, parents, families, DREAMers. They have names and hopes and dreams that deserve to be respected.” DREAMers take their name from the acronym for legislation that lays out a process toward citizenship for immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children and grew up in the United States. During a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire earlier this month, Clinton said she voted “numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in. And I do think you have to control your borders.” Clinton has called for expanding President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration and overhauling US immigration laws, providing a pathway to citizenship for those living in the US illegally. Her plans mark a sharp contrast with Republican White House hopefuls, who have vowed to roll back the president’s immigration orders. Many Republican candidates also routinely use the term “illegals” to refer to immigrants in the country illegally. Clinton, during a subsequent rally in Boulder, said the US was “fighting for human rights and dignity and freedom” against terrorism and said the US was justified in allowing refugees to enter the US after a “strong vetting process”. Republican presidential candidates have largely opposed allowing refugees from Syria into the country. Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has suggested he would support ways to track Muslims in the US. “I’ve heard all of this loose and inflammatory talk about refugees,” Clinton said. “And I don’t think that does us any good at all in waging and winning the fight against criminals and killers who misuse religion and promote a different set of values than the ones that we believe in.” Clinton met in Boulder early Tuesday with relatives of mass shooting victims, and she later vowed to fight gun violence with tougher gun control laws. Clinton met with Jane Dougherty, sister of Mary Sherlach, who was slain at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012; Tom Sullivan and Matthew Jenks, the father and brother-in-law, respectively, of Alex Sullivan, who was killed in the 2012 movie theater shootings in Aurora, Colorado; and Coni Sanders, daughter of Dave Sanders, killed in the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Colorado. “If 33,000 people were dying every year from something else, we’d surely do something about it,” Clinton said of US shooting deaths at a Denver rally.

Volvo scales back job cuts in Sweden after union deal The International Business Times / November 25, 2015 World number two truck maker Volvo said on Tuesday it had withdrawn redundancy [layoff] notices previously handed out to 335 employees after a union deal cutting working hours and wages. Volvo said in a statement the redundancy notices referred to employees at its Tuve plant, on the west coast of Sweden. The deal with the IF Metal union meant working hours would be cut by 10 percent in addition to the existing two stoppage days per month while gross wages would be reduced by as much as 4 percent. An agreed pay hike would also be postponed to March 31 next year while the company pledged not to cut any further jobs in the interim period, the company said.

Tatra Trucks Press Release / November 24, 2015 The Tatra Buggyra Race Team with the new race-prepped Tatra Phoenix and Martin Kolomý's already race-proven Tatra 815 Buggyra are preparing to head to the most challenging motor race, the Dakar Rally. Demanding stress tests form a part of the preparations for the climax of this season. The Tatra Phoenix will be crewed by Jaroslav Valtr (two-time champion of the Czech Republic’s Offroad Marathon), Josef Kalina (three-time winner of the Dakar Rally) and newcomer Jiří Stross. The Tatra 815 will be piloted by teammate Martin Kolomý. The Euro-6 emissions rated Tatra Phoenix symbolizes a new era in truck racing at the 2016 Dakar Rally. Tatra will celebrate its 30th anniversary at Dakar in 2016, having first entered the race in 1986. To commemorate this significant anniversary, Tatra Trucks is preparing a series of special events. A regular production Euro-6 Tatra Phoenix 6x6 fitted with an 11-liter 430 horsepower engine and Contsystem (http://www.contsystem.cz/en/) superstructure featuring a Multilift XR hook loader will set off for the Dakar Rally as a support vehicle. In preparation for the Dakar Rally, the trucks underwent rigorous testing at the "Slovak Sahara" in the training area of Senica in October and early November. Tatra Trucks CEO Petr Karásek and Engineering Director Radomír Smolka both took turns behind the wheel and put both trucks through their paces. "Some of the chassis design and technological features of the new Phoenix are based on Martin Kolomý's proven TATRA 815 race truck. However, the overall concept has undergone major evolutionary modifications. For Tatra Trucks, the new Phoenix race truck is also an opportunity to test various technical solutions for regular production trucks," says Radomír Smolka. Tatra Trucks, as a part of the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of Tatra’s first entry in the Dakar Rally, then called the Paris-Dakar rally, is planning a series of activities, including a limited edition book tracing the history of truckmaker's participations in the Dakar Rally. Tatra Phoenix race truck specifications Type Tatra model 158-8P0R21.43 4x4.1 Engine 12.5-liter Gyrtech, in-line 6-cylinder Transmission ZF 16-speed with hydraulic gear shifting Transfer case Tatra single-speed with 1.30 reduction Chassis "Tatra" concept with the central back-bone tube and swinging half-axles; front and rear axles with disc brakes; front and rear air bellows suspension with Reiger shock absorbers and front anti-roll bar Tires 14.00R20 paired with central tire inflation system Wheels Hutchinson aluminum Wheelbase 4,290mm .

Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) / November 24, 2015 Celadon Trucking (CCJ Top 250 No. 35) hopes a new data-driven driver scorecard and a guaranteed pay program will help improve driver performance and attract and retain quality drivers, said Matt Douglass, Celadon vice president of operations, during a presentation at last week’s CCJ Fall Symposium in Scottsdale, Arizona. The driver performance scorecard measures drivers based on three metrics: Service, which is not yet live, will measure on-time pickups and deliveries as long as they are within the driver’s control. Celadon uses geofences around shippers to know when a driver arrives, Douglass explained. “Our main goal is to drive utilization and allow drivers to earn additional money.” Compliance includes idling and fuel purchases. Idling is seasonally adjusted, and all trucks have auxiliary power units, Douglass said. Celadon uses Manhattan Fuel & Route software to measure fuel compliance. “If a driver fuels at another location, we first check to make sure there wasn’t a problem such as he was stuck in traffic,” he said. Out-of-route will be added next year using ALK in-cab navigation, he said. Availability measures load acceptance, whether drivers are available to run freight if they have the hours, and time lost. Load refusals are not an instant driver failure, Douglass said. That decision comes from dispatch after investigating the reason for the refusal. Drivers have one hour to accept a load through either a verbal, Celadon’s Fleetwire driver app or macro confirmation. “The expectation is that drivers should be available and ready to run,” taking into account necessities such as doing laundry, Douglass said. Drivers have complete visibility into the program, which includes a rebuttal process that allows them to give reasons for negative events that impact their scores. At the time of an event, the driver receives a message explaining the situation. He has one week to reply with why he feels the negative event is incorrect. An unbiased team reviews all rebuttals and either accepts or rejects them. The driver scorecard is key to Celadon’s new WageLock guaranteed weekly pay structure and bonus program. The program allows company drivers whose driver scorecard puts them in the top two tiers for the week to “lock in” up to $1,000 per week, regardless of how many miles they drive. The program boosts pay for drivers who may have issues that affect their miles, such as layovers, maintenance problems and running short loads during the week. “For tier 1 and tier 2 drivers who fall below a weekly payout threshold, this pulls them up to give consistency,” Douglass said. All company drivers who are paid by the mile are eligible to participate with some exclusions such as switching between divisions and number of vacation days taken in a given week. Drivers must also scan in their paperwork from the previous trips in that week. “The goal is to get them to get their paperwork in quickly,” Douglass said. A technology leader, Celadon Trucking was recognized with CCJ’s 2015 Innovator of the Year for developing technology to score customers and loads in its network and for creating a career path in its customer service department. The company sees its latest data-driven solutions as a way to make drivers, especially those just coming out of its new driver school, successful and to help it compete in an increasingly tight driver market, Douglass said. “We like to fully utilize technology,” he said. “We’re a technology company that happens to run trucks.”

The Washington Times / November 224, 2015 Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton bowed to pressure from Hispanic activists Tuesday and apologized for using the term “illegal immigrants” at a town hall earlier this month. Clinton said it had been a “poor choice of words.” (Why is the accurate phrase to describe these people's status in the United States a “poor choice of words”?) Clinton has been pressed to retract her use of a term that offends people who entered the U.S. illegally, according to Hispanic activists who are demanding expanded immigration rights and citizenship for the country’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. She was prodded into an apology during a Facebook question-and-answer session hosted by the Spanish-language TV network Telemundo. The question came from Jose Antonio Vargas, a filmmaker and journalist whose organization, Define America, has led the charge to remove the term “illegal immigrants” from presidential campaigns. Mr. Vargas asked Clinton if she would stop using the term. “Yes, I will,” Clinton responded while logged in to Facebook during a stop in Boulder, Colorado. “That was a poor choice of words. As I’ve said throughout this campaign, the people at the heart of this issue are children, parents, families, Dreamers. They have names, and hopes and dreams that deserve to be respected.” Dreamers refers to illegal immigrants who were brought into the country as children and grew up in the United States. Under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, these illegal immigrants are eligible for a renewable two-year work permit and exempt from deportation. Clinton used the phrase “illegal immigrants” for people who enter the U.S. illegally during a town hall meeting in New Hampshire. Defending her record on border security, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state said that she voted numerous times “to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in. And I do think you have to control your borders.” The support for the fence angers immigrant-rights advocates, but her use of the term “illegal immigrants” has landed her in more hot water. The Dream Action Coalition, a group advocating an end to deportations, said it sounded like Clinton was having an “identity crisis.” “Not only is Hillary’s casual use of the word ‘illegal’ offensive and dismissive, it shows us that she is out-of-touch with the community she claims to be advocating for by reducing them to a derogatory term,” said Hina Naveed, co-director of Dream Action Coalition. “There is no room to uplift a community when the conversation begins by taking away their identity.” Two founders of Dream Action Coalition, who are no longer with the group, have taken jobs with Clinton’s top competitor for the Democratic nomination, Senator Bernard Sanders. In her campaign for the White House, Clinton has promised to fulfill a wish list of activists who want an end to deportations and citizenship for illegal immigrations. She has proposed expanding President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, implement reforms to immigration laws and open a pathway to citizenship for most illegal immigrants. Clinton’s apology coincided with Sanders releasing his immigration agenda. He described it as a platform for creating a “humane” immigration system. He promised that within his first 100 days as president that he would expand Obama’s executive actions. The executive actions, however, have been halted by courts while the legitimacy of the actions are litigated. Sanders, a Vermont independent and avowed socialist, said that he would allow all undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. for at least five years to stay without threat of deportation. He said that would cover nearly 9 million illegal immigrants. Furthermore, he would pursue a complete overhaul of immigration laws and open a path to citizenship for current illegal immigrants. The gushing praise for Sanders’ plan underscored the tentative relationship Hispanic activists have with Clinton.

The purpose-designed A-10 Warthog ground-attack aircraft clearly has no equal, and yet it’s a symbol of strife inside the Pentagon. Reuters / November 24, 2015 U.S.-backed Syrian rebels launched an attack late last month on Islamic State militants near the town of Hawl in northern Syria. They regained control of roughly 100 square miles of territory, according to the U.S. Defense Department. “It was a fairly straightforward, conventional offensive operation,” Army Colonel Steve Warren told reporters via video conference from Baghdad, “where we estimated … several hundred enemy [fighters] were located in that vicinity.” Warren continued his description. “There was a substantial friendly force — well over 1,000 participated in the offensive part of this operation. And they were able to very deliberately execute the plan that they had made themselves.” Two types of U.S. warplanes, both optimized for precision attacks in close coordination with ground troops, were critical to the Syrian rebels’ success, Warren revealed. “We were able to bring both A-10s and a Spectre gunship to bear,” he said, “… It can only be described as devastating …. it killed nearly 80 enemy fighters and wounded many more.” Video shot by a correspondent from the Kurdish Hawar News Agency showed A-10s wheeling over the battlefield as rebel fighters advanced. The lumbering Spectre gunship, basically a cargo plane with side-firing guns, is one of the Air Force’s favorite aircraft. It’s the beneficiary of billions of dollars in new funding to buy new models and upgrade older ones. But the twin-jet A-10, an ungainly-looking, single-pilot plane with thick, straight wings and a massive, nose-mounted cannon, is out of favor with Air Force leaders — despite being vitally important to the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State. The flying branch’s top generals and civilian officials have fought for years to get rid of all 300 A-10s and divert their operators and budget to other initiatives. Meanwhile, a grass-roots effort led by current and former U.S. ground troops and bolstered by key lawmakers has protected the A-10, also known by its nickname “Warthog.” Why the Warthog fell out of favor, and how the plane endures despite the Air Force’s eagerness to retire it, reveals deep schisms within the U.S. military as it continues its war against Islamic extremists while also retooling to deter high-tech Russian forces. The A-10 is one plane that’s clearly helping Syrian fighters retake their homes from Islamic State. Yet it’s also a uniquely evocative symbol of strife inside the Pentagon. The A-10 is a product of the 1940s. During World War II, the German and Soviet air force both fielded warplanes specifically designed for attacking enemy ground forces in close proximity to friendly troops. The German Stuka and the Soviet Sturmovik airplanes were both highly maneuverable, heavily-armed, tough-built and easy to fly and maintain. They could take off from dirt airstrips near the frontlines, fight their way through enemy defenses and linger over the battlefield searching for targets, which they could attack with devastating barrages of gunfire and bombs. In the 1960s, the U.S. Air Force decided it needed an airplane that could perform a similar role. In the years between the Korean War in the early 1950s and the conflict in Vietnam, the flying branch had reconfigured itself for waging nuclear war in Europe. It traded in its low- and slow-flying ground-attack planes in favor of fast but lightly built jets, whose main job was essentially to lob a single atomic bomb at the Soviet Union — as the world ended around it. But the Vietnam War was fought with conventional weaponry. Nuclear bombers weren’t suited to the dirty work of blasting enemy ground forces during close gun battles. “Lacking a tested tactical doctrine to deal with such warfare, the Air Force had to hammer out one in combat,” Lieutenant Colonel Ralph A. Rowley wrote in a 1976 Air Force study. “The Air Force modified old aircraft and equipment to meet close air support needs,” Rowley explained. “Attrition took its toll of these aged planes, with the communists in Vietnam countering their tactics and shooting quite a few down. The answer seemed to lie in the development of an aircraft expressly for close air support.” In 1966, the Air Force began developing a new, purpose-built ground-attack plane. Pierre Sprey, then a young aerospace engineer working for the secretary of defense, helped shape the new plane’s design. For inspiration, he looked to the World War II Stuka and Sturmovik. “The ability of the Stuka and Sturmovik,” Sprey said, “operating out of dirt fields up near the troops, to fly five sorties or more per day under combat crisis conditions proved to be an enormous force multiplier.” The Air Force evaluated two prototypes and, in 1973, selected the A-10 from Fairchild Republic, a now-defunct airplane manufacturer. Today Northrop Grumman owns the A-10 design, which stands out among other warplane models for its thick construction, high-mounted engines (to protect them from ground fire) and huge, nose-mounted 30-millimeter cannon, which can spew one-pound, armor-piercing projectiles at a rate of roughly 60 per second. The A-10 is perhaps most interesting for what it is not. It’s subsonic, meaning it can’t exceed the speed of sound like so many other warplanes can. Unlike the Air Force’s other fighters, it’s not suited for a combat pilot’s most prestigious role, battling other planes in the air. It’s blunt, blocky and, by Air Force standards, ugly. In many ways, the Warthog is the antithesis of a modern jet fighter. Hence its lowly nickname compared to the F-15 “Eagle,” F-16 “Viper,” F-22 “Raptor” and F-35 “Lightning.” Fairchild built more than 700 Warthogs for the Air Force through 1984, for the low price of just $21 million each in today’s dollars. By contrast, a new F-35 stealth fighter costs more than $100 million each today. By 1984, the Vietnam War was long over, of course. Instead of flying into battle with Vietnamese insurgents, the A-10s deployed in Europe and South Korea and prepared to battle Soviet and North Korean tank armies in the event the Cold War turned hot. When the Soviet Union began to collapse in 1989, so did the Air Force’s support for the A-10. The flying branch proposed to retire the Warthogs and replace them with F-16s. Then in August 1990, Iraq invaded oil-rich Kuwait and the United States and its allies rushed forces to first defend neighboring Saudi Arabia, and later liberate Kuwait. When Operation Desert Storm against Iraq kicked off in January 1991, 144 Warthogs flew a third of all attack missions, accounting for half of all the Iraqi targets the Air Force destroyed. Warthogs even shot down two Iraqi helicopters with their 30-millimeter cannons. In light of the A-10’s success in Desert Storm, the Air Force quietly dropped plans to ground the planes — at least for the time being. For the A-10, Desert Storm represented the start of a quarter-century of almost uninterrupted combat. Warthogs took part in U.S.-led air campaigns in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, Kosovo in 1999, Afghanistan starting in 2002, Iraq beginning in 2003, Libya in 2011 and Syria starting with the Oct. 31 battle near Hawl. By all accounts, the pilots who fly the Warthogs and the soldiers and Marines on the ground that the A-10s support love the ungainly plane. Flying low, A-10 pilots can maintain constant visual contact with troops on the ground — an impossible feat for the crews of faster jets. The Warthog also carries enough ammunition to fire its gun for more than 20 seconds straight — five times longer than an F-35 stealth fighter can shoot. Doled out in quick bursts, 20 seconds-worth of ammo can keep an A-10 in the fight for hours. One intense air-ground battle in Afghanistan on July 24, 2013 illustrated the Warthog’s strengths. Sixty soldiers were on patrol along an Afghan highway when one of their vehicles overturned, forcing the troops to circle up and encamp for the night. “As the sun rose, the unit began to receive heavy fire from a nearby tree line,” Staff Sergeant Stephenie Wade, an Air Force journalist, reported in a story for the Armed Forces News Service. “The members were pinned behind their vehicles and three of the soldiers suffered injuries. The unit was under fire and the wounded members needed a casualty evacuation so they called for close-air support.” Two A-10s based at Bagram air base near Kabul raced to assist. When a low-level pass failed to frighten off the attackers, the Warthog pilots took careful aim — and opened fire. “Even with all our [top-of-the-line] tools today, we still rely on visual references,” the lead pilot told Wade. “Once we received general location of the enemy’s position, I rolled in as lead aircraft and fired two rockets to mark the area with smoke. Then my wingman rolled in to shoot the enemy with his 30-millimeter rounds.” “We train for this, but shooting danger-close is uncomfortable, because now the friendlies are at risk,” the second A-10 pilot said. “We came in for a low-angle strafe, 75 feet above the enemy’s position and used the 30-millimeter gun — 50 meters parallel to ground forces — ensuring our fire was accurate so we didn’t hurt the friendlies.” After two hours of unrelenting aerial bombardment, the insurgents finally withdrew, leaving behind 18 dead. All the Americans survived and made it back to base. After the pilots landed, they went to the hospital to visit one of wounded soldiers they had helped save. “He was laying there and next to him was a picture of his high-school girlfriend,” the lead pilot recalled. “We were glad knowing we helped get him home alive. He said, ‘Thank you for shooting those bad guys.'” But all the praise from ground troops didn’t seem to matter to Air Force leaders. With costs rising for the new F-35 and overall budgets flattening owing in part to the 2011 Budget Control Act, also known as “sequstration,” in late 2013 the flying branch proposed to begin retiring all 300 A-10s remaining in service. They plan to take the last off the flight line in 2019. This despite an continuing program to upgrade the Warthogs’ electronics and weaponry and replace their wings — theoretically extending their usefulness into the 2030s. The Air Force claimed that grounding the A-10s would save $4 billion over five years that it could then spend on new planes, including F-35s and new bombers and aerial-refueling tankers. Shuttering the Warthog squadrons would also free up hundreds of airmen for other, higher-priority jobs maintaining and flying other aircraft, the flying branch claimed. “The A-10 and the close-air support mission have always been seen as lower priorities that take money away from favored programs,” said Mandy Smithberger, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information, part of the Project On Government Oversight in Washington. [“For the Air Force, it’s not an emotional issue: it’s a sequestration-driven decision,” explained General Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff. “We don’t have enough money last year or this coming year to fund all of the things that we currently have in our force structure.” The Air Force said it would reassign F-15s and F-16s — and eventually F-35s — to support the ground troops. The flying branch justified the plan to get rid of the A-10 on technological grounds. “Ten years from now, we must be a more modern Air Force,” Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told the Washington Post. “We have to buy new [aircraft], and we have to keep advancing the ball on technology so that we stay ahead of our potential adversaries around the world.” The Government Accountability Office questioned the Air Force’s assertion that retiring the A-10s would save billions of dollars. “The Air Force has not fully assessed the cost savings associated with A-10 divestment or its alternatives,” the agency reported. “Our analysis found that the Air Force’s estimated savings are incomplete.” Indeed, the brute-simple Warthog costs just $17,000 per flight hour for fuel and maintenance. An F-16 costs $22,000 per hour. An F-35 costs almost double the Warthog — $32,000 per hour. And an F-15 costs even more, roughly $42,000 for every hour it’s in the air. The A-10 is cheap. And the best at what it does — even if it is old. The F-15 and F-16 lack the A-10’s powerful cannon, capacious ammunition storage, toughness and ability to loiter low over the battlefield. Fast and lightly built, the F-15 and F-16 are best suited for penetrating deep behind enemy lines to quickly drop bombs then escape. They’re also good at engaging enemy aircraft, something a Warthog pilot in his slow-flying plane should seek to avoid. To make sense of the Air Force’s vendetta against its own warplane, you have to understand the “dominant theory of warfare” inside the service. The Air Force, which is regarded as the most intellectual of the U.S. armed forces, tends to endorse seemingly logical conceptions of war. During World War II, the Air Force believed it could force Germany to surrender by bombing key nodes in its oil, transportation and manufacturing infrastructure. But the German economy proved resilient and, in fact, it took a massive Allied ground assault to defeat the Nazis. For much of the Cold War, the Air Force’s main job was to plan for, and be prepared to bring about, the end of the human race through nuclear holocaust — an undertaking that, fortunately, has so far proved entirely academic. By contrast, close air support is all about supporting ground forces as they — and not the Air Force — do the decisive work of defeating the enemy, one bloody and chaotic engagement at a time. Viewed this way, close air support is antithetical to the deepest Air Force traditions. “They don’t understand the nature of the mission,” said Lieutenant Colonel Robert Brown, a retired Warthog pilot. So it’s no wonder service leaders are so eager to dispose of their best warplane for the job. “Air Force divestment of the A-10 will create potential gaps in close air support,” the Government Accountability Office warned. Worried that the Air Force would take away their key means of solid air cover, soldiers, Marines and frontline Air Force air controllers got organized. They talked to their friends and family members, their government representatives and the media. A grass-roots community sprang up around the A-10 on social media. The Facebook page for the “Save the A-10″ group quickly got 33,000 likes. Its administrators urged fans to contact lawmakers on key congressional committees. Reprieve The public pressure worked. Congress barred the Air Force from retiring A-10s in 2015 and 2016. When the Air Force tried to circumvent the law and cancel $22 million in software upgrades necessary to keep the A-10s flying, a strongly-worded letter from Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), compelled service officials to continue the software work. Air Force leaders responded by fighting a rear-guard action against A-10 proponents. In January 2015, Major General James Post, the deputy chief of Air Combat Command, which oversees most of the Air Force’s A-10s, told airmen that talking to Congress about the Warthog was an act of “treason” as long as the flying branch was trying to retire the plane. Lawmakers were mortified. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), demanded an investigation. Three months later, the Air Force fired Post from his leadership position. At the same time, the Air Force tried to suppress an official documentary video about the A-10 that frontline pilots and controllers had shot in Afghanistan, and which showed Warthogs coming to the aid of troops under heavy enemy fire. Someone leaked the documentary to blogger Tony Carr, a retired 22-year-Air Force veteran, and it quickly racked up tens of thousands of views. “The service likely strangled this production” Carr wrote, “because the powerful message it conveys would have been inconvenient to narratives insisting the A-10 should be retired.” The Air Force’s efforts came to naught in any case. Congress refused to budge. And the harder the Air Force pushed against the A-10, the more attention the media lavished on the ugly plane — and the more public support for the Warthog swelled. In early November, the Air Force appeared to back down. General Herbert Carlisle, the head of Air Combat Command, told reporters that the service was considering moving the Warthog’s retirement date back two or three years. “Keeping around the airplane a bit longer is something that’s being considered based on things as they are today and what we see in the future,” Carlisle said. It’s not hard to see why the Air Force changed its mind. Besides facing intensive public and congressional opposition, the world is far different — some might say more dangerous — than it was in 2013. Since then, Russia has invaded Ukraine. Islamic State has advanced across Iraq and Syria. Even while it was plotting to decommission the Warthogs, the Air Force was sending the heavily-armed planes all over the world in response to new crises. In 2014, A-10s deployed to Kuwait to support U.S.-backed Iraqi troops battling Islamic State in northwestern Syria. Twice in 2015, A-10s toured Eastern Europe as part of the Pentagon’s European Reassurance Initiative — in essence, a U.S. military surge into Europe to bolster resident North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces. And in October, Warthogs deployed to Turkey to cover rebel forces fighting Islamic State in Syria — and proved crucial to the rebels’ victory near Hawl. Not only do Congress and the American public stand by the unglamorous, venerable attack plane — it’s as if the world, with all its messy, grinding ground wars, conspired to demand the A-10’s continued service. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that our potent A-10 Warhog should be under the U.S. Army’s Aviation Branch to support troops on the ground, just as U.S. Marine Corps’s air arm supports the Marine on the beachhead. However, President Truman’s Key West Agreement of 1948 stated that, in light of the Air Force’s creation, the Army would only be allowed to retain fixed-wing aircraft for reconnaissance and medical evacuation purposes. As we all look back now, clearly the policy does not reflect the needs of today, and should be immediately changed. That our government has not already done so displays a senseless lack of commitment to the lives of U.S. Army soldiers on the battlefield. The Air Force doesn’t want it.........the U.S. Army’s Aviation Branch needs it. No rocket scientists needed to see what should be done here.

It’s a tangled web that has put dark clouds on the horizon. Turkey has been consistent in pursuing its own agenda: to pretend to be fighting ISIS while actually fighting the Kurds. Though Turkey ostensibly joined the anti-ISIS campaign last July, its aircraft have dropped 80% of their bombs on the Kurds fighting ISIS in Northern Syria and North Western Iraq. Thus, Turkey has been pursuing its own agenda, pretending to be fighting ISIS while settling scores with one of the two parties that are actually capable of fighting ISIS on the ground (the other being the Syrian Army). Russia says that if one of its two aircraft indeed entered Turkish airspace, it wasn’t for more than 17 seconds. That Turkey already had fighters in the air, waiting for the chance to support the ethnically Turkish “Turkmen” in northern Syria, appears to be a set-up. And bringing NATO into the fracas is a blatant misuse of the organization. No doubt some in Turkey are upset over how Russia is stepping on the financial veins of ISIS, the sensitive subject of who profits from ISIS’s oil smuggling. Turkish Socialist party member Gursel Tekin says ISIS’s smuggled oil is exported to Turkey by BMZ, a shipping company controlled by Bilal Erdogan, the son of Turkey’s president (a violation of UN Security Council resolution 2170). If Syria’s Turkmen want to be in bed with Turkey, they should relocate to Turkey. Shooting a defenseless pilot descending by parachute is a cowardly act, and a violation of international law. Alwiya al-Ashar, the Turkey-supported Turkmen militia allegedly in possession of one of the downed pilots, has been fighting alongside other rebel groups, including the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, in Latakia province which runs to the sea along the Turkish border in the north-west. Alwiya al-Ashar is linked to a Turkish and CIA-backed logistics supply program that funnels small arms, ammunition, and cash for salaries to rebel groups across northern Syria. Meanwhile, the Kurds are no angels either. Amnesty International has accused Kurdish forces in northern Syria of razing Arab and Turkmen villages to the ground in Hasakah and Raqqa provinces, where fighters had retaken territory previously held by the ISIS. "They pulled us out of our homes and began burning the home … they brought the bulldozers .... They demolished home after home until the entire village was destroyed," said one villager. The Kurds threatened to call in US air strikes if villagers refused to leave. The Kurdish fighters have been backed in their fight against ISIS by the U.S., which arms them and provides air cover.

Putin: Downing of Russian jet over Syria "a stab in the back" by terrorist accomplices RT / November 24, 2015 Turkey backstabbed Russia by downing the Russian warplane and acted as accomplices of the terrorists, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. Earlier a Russian Su-24 bomber was shot down by Turkish fighter jets near the Turkish-Syrian border. Turkey claimed that the plane violated Turkish airspace and did not respond to warnings. Russia insists that the plane stayed in the Syrian airspace. One of the two pilots of the downed Russian warplane was killed by a rebel group as he was parachuting down on the ground after ejecting from the plane. The fate of the second pilot remains unknown. A Russian marine was also killed on Tuesday during an operation to rescue the two downed pilots. “This incident stands out against the usual fight against terrorism. Our troops are fighting heroically against terrorists, risking their lives. But the loss we suffered today came from a stab in the back delivered by accomplices of the terrorists,” Putin said. Putin said the plane was hit by a Turkish warplane as it was traveling at an altitude of 6000 meters about a kilometer from the Turkish border. It was hit by an air-to-air missile launched by a Turkish F-16 jet. The crash site is four kilometers from the border. The plane posed no threat to Turkish national security, he stressed. Putin said the plane was targeting terrorist targets in the Latakia province of Syria, many of whom came from Russia. Russia has for a long time been aware of oil going from Syria under the control of terrorists to Turkey, Putin said. The money finances terrorist groups. “IS has big money, hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, from selling oil. In addition they are protected by the military of an entire nation. One can understand why they are acting so boldly and blatantly. Why they kill people in such atrocious ways. Why they commit terrorist acts across the world, including in the heart of Europe,” said Putin. The downing of the Russian warplane happened despite Russia signing an agreement with the US to prevent such incidents in Syria, Putin stressed. Turkey claims to be part of the US-led coalition fighting against IS in Syria, he added. The incident will have grave consequences for Russia’s relations with Turkey, Putin warned. “We have always treated Turkey as not only a close neighbor, but also as a friendly nation,” he said. “I don’t know who has an interest in what happened today, but we certainly don’t.” "The fact that Turkey did NOT try to contact Russia in the wake of the incident and rushed to call a NATO meeting instead is worrisome," Putin said. "It appears that Turkey wants NATO to serve the interests of ISIS," he added.

Currently: - Thailand’s Thai Union Frozen Products owns Chicken of the Sea - South Korea’s Dongwon owns StarKist - UK private equity group Lion Capital owns Bumble Bee Foods Bumble Bee Foods, foreign-owned since 2010 Chicken of the Sea, foreign-owned since 1997 StarKist, foreign-owned since 2008 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nikkei / November 25, 2015 Thai Union is now willing to sell off its U.S. canned seafood brand Chicken of the Sea to please U.S. anti-trust regulators. The move is contingent upon getting U.S. anti-trust authorities to approve its acquisition of Lion Capital-owned Bumble Bee Seafoods. British-owned Bumble Bee is the second-largest canned seafood brand in the U.S., with a 25% market share. Chicken of the Sea is the No. 3 player in the U.S. market with a 17% share. The U.S. Department of Justice is to rule on whether Thai Union can acquire Bumble Bee on December 18, nearly a year after the deal was announced.

A former Senate Intelligence Committee chairman.........do you think he'd know something? http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/world/middleeast/florida-ex-senator-pursues-claims-of-saudi-ties-to-sept-11-attacks.html http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/bob-grahams-push-for-disclosure-on-saudoi-arabia-and-911-enters/2240999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- US embassy cables: Hillary Clinton says Saudi Arabia 'a critical source of terrorist funding' http://www.theguardian.com/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/242073 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/isis-wahhabism-saudi-arabia_b_5717157.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-yousaf-butt-/saudi-wahhabism-islam-terrorism_b_6501916.html

The wealthy GCC countries of the Arab League don’t want to take in their Muslim brothers in need, considering them to be undesirables. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ On September 2, Kuwaiti official Fahad al-Shalami explained why the Gulf Cooperation Council countries* refuse to accept refugees. * Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates “Kuwait and the other Gulf Cooperation Council countries are too valuable to accept any refugees. Our countries are only fit for [migrant] workers. It's too costly to relocate them [the refugees] here. Kuwait is too expensive for them anyway, as opposed to Lebanon and Turkey, which are cheap. They are better suited for the Syrian refugees. In the end, it is not right for us to accept a people that are different from us. We don't want people that suffer from internal stress and trauma in our country.” Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZbCK95Zu_0

Want to be a big Syria supporter and raise that country’s flag? Then go back to Syria. While you’re there, you can help fight for that country which apparently still holds your unwavering patriotism. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allentown's Syrian community asks why city rejected Syrian flag-raising permit Lehigh Valley Live / April 2, 2015 Members of Allentown's Syrian community filled city council chambers Wednesday wanting to know why their Syrian flag-raising permit has been denied for a second year. Aziz Wehbey, president of the American Amarian Syrian Charity Society in Catasauqua, said members of the city's Syrian community have been holding an annual flag raising ceremony since 1974 to honor Syria's independence from France. The flag raising is held April 17, and organizers asked the city to hold the ceremony in the plaza outside city hall at Fourth and Hamilton streets. The city has denied the permit the last two years, which Wehbey argues is discriminatory against the Syrian community, considering the city allows other similar ceremonies. The brief ceremony was instead held in Catasauqua last year, and Whitehall Township officials said this year they would welcome the ceremony, Wehbey said. City officials reportedly denied the permit last year after a stabbing occurred during a protest against the Syrian government, according to Wehbey. He said many local Syrians support President Bashar al-Assad. Wehbey and Tino Babayn, who said he contacted the mayor's office after the permit was denied this year, said the administration rejected the permit this year, citing a list maintained by the U.S. State Department. City Managing Director Fran Dougherty declined comment, deferring to a statement from city spokesman Mike Moore. "Syria has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. State Department," Moore said in the statement, adding flag-raising ceremonies have not been held in recent years at city hall. "The city of Allentown does not raise flags of countries that are on that list at city hall." The other countries on the list cited by city hall include Cuba, Iran and Sudan. Babayn noted Syria has been on the list since 1979 and that city mayors, including Mayor Ed Pawlowski, have attended previous Syrian flag-raising ceremonies. Nidal Yacoub, of Whitehall Township, said those in attendance Wednesday were not there to talk about politics. The Syrian flag represents Syria, which the local community has been celebrating for years before the current regime was in power, he said. Ernie Atiyeh said Wednesday was the first time he heard about the permit being denied and that he was appalled by a decision that segregates the Syrian community. "God rest his soul, I'm glad my father's not here to hear this," Atiyeh said. City council did not comment on the issue. City council President Ray O'Connell said after the meeting that he respected everyone's concerns, but doubted there was little city council could do about the permit. "The administration has made a decision and it's their decision to make," he said.

Scania Group Press Release / November 23, 2015 The reigning Young European Truck Driver, Denmark’s Lars Søndergård, has received his prize – a Scania R 580 V8 specified to his requirements with a special focus on road safety and fuel efficiency. In April, Lars Søndergård, from Tørring on Jutland in Denmark, was crowned Young European Truck Driver 2014/2015 and was awarded a truck of his choice at a value of 100,000 euros. He was quick to decide on a Scania V8. First-hand experience In October, Søndergård visited Scania’s production facilities in Södertälje, Sweden, to follow his prize, an R 580 V8, through production. At the production site he got to be the first person to start the engine. Finally, on 13 November, he picked up his V8 truck equipped to his own detailed specifications, including the YETD logotype painted on the cab. Road safety features When specifying his new truck, Søndergård paid special attention to safety features, such as a rear-view camera on the vehicle’s right-hand side. He also decided on an Ecolution by Scania contract to reduce its environmental impact and fuel consumption. The truck is the first V8 and the third vehicle in the fleet of Søndergård’s company, Aale Vognmandsforretning (Aale Transport Company). Trained service technician The truck was handed over at a ceremony at Scania’s dealership in Vejle, Denmark, attended by some 50 people, including family, friends, press and media. Søndergård is a trained service technician with 11 years of experience driving trucks.

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Pregnant mother gunned down by thieves Associated Press / November 23, 2015 Authorities charged two young men with murder on Monday in the fatal shooting of a pastor's pregnant wife during a home invasion in Indianapolis. Amanda Blackburn, 28, was found partially nude, with her underwear nearby and her shirt pulled up, lying in a pool of blood on her living room floor. She died the next day. Her husband, Pastor Davey Blackburn, told police he had left the home's front door unlocked when he departed about 6 a.m. that morning to go to the gym and work out and returned home about 8:20 a.m. to find his wounded wife. The couple's 15-month-old son, Weston, was at home upstairs in a crib but was not harmed in the attack. Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry identified the two men charged with murder as Larry Jo Taylor Jr., 18, and Jalen E. Watson, 21, both of Indianapolis, who face murder, burglary, theft and several other charges. Taylor shot Blackburn three times, including once in the back of the head. Watson also faces a murder charge because Blackburn was killed during a burglary in which prosecutors allege that he was involved. Authorities have not confirmed whether Blackburn, who was 13 weeks pregnant, had been sexually assaulted even though she was found partially nude. The two men entered the house that morning after they had robbed two other homes, including one in the same neighborhood. A third man involved in the burglaries remained outside in a Chrysler Sebring stolen from the first home burglarized that day. That man has [oddly] not yet been charged in the crimes, but Curry said he is being held on a parole violation in an unrelated case. After the pair entered the Blackburn home, Watson left Taylor behind and drove away to ATMs in the stolen Sebring to try to use Blackburn's debit card to withdraw money. Taylor told Watson and others that he had killed Blackburn, and shot her the first time after she charged at him. He said he shot her in the upper body "so he would not be scratched" as she approached. The first significant break in the case came when DNA on a pink sweater stolen from a home near the Blackburn residence was found to match Watson's genetic profile in a national DNA database called CODIS. That sweater was found in the Sebring, which authorities said was used to move items taken during the burglaries. Watson was released from prison August 6 after completing his second sentence for burglary within the past three years. Taylor also faces misdemeanor public nudity and public indecency charges stemming from an unrelated June incident where he allegedly exposed himself to a woman in a parking lot. .

U.S. issues global travel warning, sees 'increased terrorist threats' Reuters / November 23, 2015 The U.S. State Department issued a worldwide travel alert on Monday warning U.S. citizens of the risks of traveling because of what it described as "increased terrorist threats." "Current information suggests that (Islamic State), al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, and other terrorist groups continue to plan terrorist attacks in multiple regions," the department said in a warning posted on its website. http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings/worldwide-caution.html

Reuters / November 23, 2015 Big Business-controlled government is all politically-correct talk and no action U.S. politicians condemned Pfizer Inc's deal with Allergan Plc as a tax dodge on Monday, bringing another round of hand-wringing in Washington over the corporate tax code, though legislative action before 2017 is unlikely. Democrats heaped the most criticism on the New York-based drug maker, with Hillary Clinton accusing Pfizer of using legal loopholes to avoid its "fair share" of taxes in a deal that she said "will leave U.S. taxpayers holding the bag." The front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination said she will propose steps to prevent more inversions, but she did not provide details. "We cannot delay in cracking down on inversions that erode our tax base," said Clinton. Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has called for a corporate tax overhaul, called the deal "disgusting." Pfizer is doing the largest inversion deal of all time. In a $160-billion transaction, it plans to move its tax address from the United States to Ireland, if only on paper, by buying and merging into Allergan, a smaller, Dublin-based competitor. The combined company will be called Pfizer and will be run by Pfizer's CEO, with executive management staying in New York and extensive operations across the United States, but it will no longer be taxed as a U.S. company. More than 50 similar deals have been done over three decades by well-known companies such as Medtronic Plc, Fruit of the Loom and Ingersoll Rand Plc. Congressional researchers have estimated inversions, left unchecked, will cost the U.S. Treasury nearly $20 billion in the next 10 years. The White House declined to comment on Pfizer's deal, but a spokesman told reporters in a briefing that Congress should take action to prevent more such transactions. The U.S. Treasury Department last week unveiled new rules to clamp down on inversions, its second attempt to do so since a wave of deals peaked in September 2014. But, the latest rules amounted to tweaks of existing law and will not impede the Pfizer-Allergan transaction. Senator Bernie Sanders, Clinton's chief rival for the Democratic nomination, said the deal "would allow another major American corporation to hide its profits overseas." Perhaps anticipating the deal would draw fire, Pfizer CEO Ian Read sent a letter on Monday to senior senators. The letter said, "We will maintain our global operational headquarters in New York City. At the time we close the transaction, we will have over 40,000 employees across 25 states ... We will be gaining greater access to resources that will enable us to make significant investments in the U.S." TAPING OFFSHORE ABROAD Pfizer holds about $74 billion in profits offshore that, thanks to another loophole, it has not brought into the United States to avoid paying the taxes due under America's worldwide corporate tax system. As an Irish-domiciled company, it will have less costly access to those funds. Representative Tom Price, one of few congressional Republicans to comment on Monday, said more Treasury regulations will not solve the inversions problem. "The only real solution to curbing inversions is tax reform," he said. But Congress, divided over fiscal issues, is widely seen as unlikely to tackle a tax overhaul before the 2016 elections. “Pfizer built their business on the back of our research and development tax incentives, our federally supported medical research, our skilled workforce, and our infrastructure," said Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro. "We cannot continue to allow Pfizer and other corporations to pretend that they are American while reaping the benefits this country has to offer, yet claiming to be another nationality when the tax bill comes," she said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Related reading: US hands foreign companies tax advantage The Financial Times / September 25, 2014 Now the Obama administration is making it easier for foreign companies to takeover U.S. companies. The U.S. government has handed foreign companies an advantage over American rivals because they will not be caught by new rules governing access to offshore cash. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew went so far as to praise cross-border mergers done for business reasons for “encouraging foreign investment to flow into the United States”. Mr. Lew is thrilled that U.S. companies are being acquired by overseas aggressors, resulting in the ongoing demise of America’s once world-leading industrial base, so long as foreign investment flows into the U.S. The US has proposed new rules to discourage controversial mergers known as “inversions”, which American companies have used in part to gain tax-free access to earnings parked outside the U.S. The US Treasury, referring to measures that make it harder to access offshore cash, says their actions are specifically targeted to inverted companies. They will not apply to foreign companies that acquire a U.S. business and its cash pile. As a result of the measures, a US company’s offshore cash would become cheaper to access if it were acquired by a European rival than if the US company did an inversion. Obviously, it shouldn’t matter whether the new corporate structure comes in the form of a new foreign acquirer or an inverted transaction. The fact is, there is attempted avoidance of US tax on the offshore earnings either way. It’s no wonder the Treasury’s targeted steps have been praised by the Organization for International Investment, a trade group for foreign businesses in the US. US companies are asking: “If we invert, why should we be at a competitive disadvantage to a foreign multinational that acquires a US company and is not subject to these inversion rules?”

Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15 million from city and school BBC / November 23, 2015 A boy who was arrested for taking a homemade clock to class is seeking $15 million from his city and school. Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was held by police and suspended from his school in Texas because his teacher mistook the clock for a bomb. His lawyer said that the incident sparked threats against the teenager and left him deeply traumatized. The Muslim teenager and his family have since moved to Qatar, having accepted a full scholarship from the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. His lawyers are asking for $10 million from the city of Irving, Texas and $5 million from the Irving Independent School District, saying that Ahmed was "publically mistreated" and remains scarred. In addition to the compensation they want an apology, saying that in the aftermath of the arrest, he received threatening emails and feared for his safety, causing "severe psychological trauma". The lawyers will file a civil action suit if the school does not comply within 60 days, they said. "Irving Police officials immediately determined that the clock was harmless. The only reason for the overreaction was that the responsible adults involved irrationally assumed that Ahmed was dangerous because of his race, national origin and religion," the lawyers wrote in a letter to the City of Irving. Ahmed told reporters at the time it was "very sad" that his teacher thought his clock was a threat. His arrest was sharply criticized, and he received an outpouring of support including an invitation to the White House. He also met Google co-founder Sergey Brin and officials from Turkey, Sudan and Jordan. Officials defended their decision, saying they were only concerned with the safety of students. TIME Magazine named Ahmed among its "30 Most Influential Teens of 2015" list. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The people at the school thought it might be a bomb, perhaps because it looks exactly like a ......bomb.”

Some good info that can further enlighten the average American, who otherwise, is unaware, The White House feels the Muslim Brotherhood is a tolerable entity it can deal with, as opposed to the more violent. Good luck with that. Saudi Arabia is against any other Muslim entity that could unseat their control in the region.

Through decontenting, the North American market truck has been evolving into a value truck. Aside from the prerequisite EPA2010-required powertrain, they have become a much cheaper truck. The new cheaper-for-Paccar shared cab is one example.

Vlad, we feel the individual cylinder head design of our V-8 makes it far easier, faster and cheaper to service. And, the current V-8 shares many common parts with our in-line engine.

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