Court martial eyed for Lebanese-American marine
A hearing officer has recommended a court martial for a Lebanese-born Marine accused of deserting his unit a decade...
Friday, 12 September 2014
End to Beirut power cuts near: EDL official
BEIRUT: After many weeks of intensive rationing, Beirut’s electricity supply might return to normal in two days, after the company found another way to get the tools to carry out the required repairs.
“The repairs might be completed during the next two days, which would bring the electricity situation in Beirut back to normal,” Electricite du Liban’s Chariman Kamal Hayek told Al-Liwaa newspaper.
The news was confirmed by the contract workers’ spokesman Ahmad Shoeib, who told The Daily Star that he had received a call from a lawmaker informing him of Hayek’s decision.
Al-Liwaa quoted Hayek saying that “spare parts were bought from the market, and not brought from the company’s warehouses that are closed by the contract workers.”
The harsh electricity cuts in the capital, which have increased from three to more than 12 hours per day, were the result of a technical malfunction in a 66,000-volt cable near the UNESCO building, according to EDL.
The malfunction happened in middle of the ongoing strike by EDL contract workers, who have blocked the entrance to the company's offices for 35 days running.
EDL’s administration has said that the spare parts needed to fix the malfunction were in the company’s warehouses at the headquarters near Mar Mikhael.
However, contract workers have said that they would allow EDL employees access to the warehouse anytime, if they need to pull out tools for emergency repairs.
The company’s administration rejected the offer of limited access to the headquarters, saying it would not enter under the authority of the contract workers, which it considered insulting to the executives.
As the “company’s dignity” dilemma drags on, the numerous complaints and cries left EDL with no choice but to find a solution.
The contract workers had argued that the whole matter was a fabrication by EDL to throw the blame on them for the rationing, claiming that the repair tools exist in other EDL warehouses.
“The transportation workers did not come to get the spare parts, some of which are stored in other locations like the Sad al-Boushrieh plant that has no [striking] contract workers,” they said in a statement Friday morning.
The workers said they had allowed some violations of the strike to repair many malfunctions in Beirut and other areas of Lebanon, stressing on the need for a “constructive dialogue” with the administration.
Contract workers have been on strike since the end of July, demanding to become full-time employees at EDL.
Currently working at private service-providing companies, whose contracts with EDL will end by 2016, the workers are demanding a guarantee of full-time employment with benefits.
The strike emerged after the company decided to only hire 897 out of the nearly 2,000 workers, while the rest would stay at the private companies until the contracts end.
However, the workers have continuously demanded to be immediately employed at EDL, in fear to return to the old days of day labor, when they used to work for low wages with no social security or benefits.
Expanding ISIS Fight Scrambles GOP Plan To Extend Budget And Get Out
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, leaves after a news conference Thursday on Capitol Hill in Washington. Boehner responded positively to the proposals from President Barack Obama about confronting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption
itoggle caption J. Scott Applewhite/AP
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, leaves after a news conference Thursday on Capitol Hill in Washington. Boehner responded positively to the proposals from President Barack Obama about confronting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
House Republicans were hoping for September to be a blissfully uneventful month, with election season just around the corner. But President Obama dashed those hopes this week, when he asked Congress for authorization to train and arm Syrian rebels against the Islamic State.
The request has already derailed progress on the one bill Congress has to pass before leaving for recess next week — a measure to keep the government open past Sept. 30. And now the party that controls the House, which needs to act first on Obama's request, is realizing it's deeply divided over the issue.
After getting blamed for last October's government shutdown, most Republicans had high hopes that this time around, passing a spending bill would be a drama-free event. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., the head of the House Appropriations Committee, had just finished polishing the legislation when he got an unexpected phone call Tuesday.
"Just as I was getting ready to drop the bill, last night at 5 o'clock, in the hopper in there, my phone rings and it's the president," said Rogers.
President Obama needed a favor — would Rogers tuck a provision into the spending bill to authorize the training and arming of Syrian rebels?
"I said, 'you're a little bit late,' " Rogers recalled.
The president's request potentially complicates a quiet little spending bill that was supposed to get a vote in the House yesterday. Now, in the one week members have left before recess, here are the questions they'll need to answer: Should they go along with the president's request, or push for a more aggressive strategy than the one he outlined to fight the Islamic State? And should authorization to arm the Syrian rebels really be buried inside this so-called "continuing resolution," or CR, which is the way Congress funds the government these days?
"The question comes up, do you really want to pass the CR based on how you feel about the war? That's just bad ... I mean, that's the sort of thing that we Republicans despise," said John Fleming of Louisiana.
Fleming said this is a vote of conscience, so why dilute a lawmaker's position on the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, by throwing the item into a spending bill?
Other Republicans say that doesn't matter — they say they won't support the president's request no matter what legislative form it takes. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said the aid inevitably would go to the wrong rebels in Syria.
"He wants to continue the same failed strategy, but he wants to make it even worse by giving even more money to the so-called vetted moderates who aren't moderate at all," said Bachmann.
But many Republicans say the majority of their party wants to stand behind the president on this one.
"You know, you can't have 535 commanders in chief," said Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. "It may not be the perfect plan, it may not be everything you want, but you either have to vote against doing anything, or you have to support the commander in chief in this case — and partisanship's got to go out the window when it comes to defending our country."
Of course, even for those who do support Obama's plan to train and arm Syrian rebels, some questions remain.
"Well, how long does the training mission last? Who are those that we will be training? And how effective will they be?" asked Republican Jack Kingston of Georgia. "As you know, we spent a lot of time and a lot of money training Afghanis and Iraqis in the last five to ten years, and it's had mixed results at best."
For some House Republicans, training and arming Syrian rebels is only the first step. To truly destroy ISIS, rather than simply degrade it, Republican Matt Salmon of Arizona said they should spend the next week deciding on a response much broader than what the president has requested.
"I think we need to have a declaration of war, and if we're going to defeat this enemy, it needs to be all-in. I don't think that this strategy is enough. I think it's too thin," said Salmon.
That might mean sustained bombing attacks, more troops and a longer campaign. But some say they'd like to figure those details out later this year, after they finish campaigning campaigning for re-election.
Thursday, 11 September 2014
Boehner: House GOP 'Ready To Work With The President'
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Capitol Hill on Thursday. Boehner says Congress stands ready to work with the president on the threat from Islamic State militants. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption
itoggle caption J. Scott Applewhite/AP
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Capitol Hill on Thursday. Boehner says Congress stands ready to work with the president on the threat from Islamic State militants.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
House Speaker John Boehner, commenting on President Obama's strategy to defeat Islamic State militants, says Congress has received a request for authorization to train Syrian rebels and "we ought to give the president what he's asking for."
In a cautious show of support for the White House strategy, Boehner, speaking with reporters, said the president's televised speech Wednesday night, "made a compelling case for action," to destroy the threat from the extremist group.
"We are doing our due diligence with all our members" on the issue, he said, adding that "we stand ready to work with the president."
The speaker said no decision had been made on the form of a legislative vehicle to approve the authorization for training the Free Syrian Army, as Obama has proposed.
Asked by a reporter whether there was concern about funneling U.S. supplied arms to the FSA, Boehner said that "based on all the information that I've looked at, the Free Syrian Army has been vetted very well by our intelligence."
But he also expressed some of the skepticism he shared with fellow House Republicans over the White House plan.
"A lot of our members think that a lot more needs to be laid out than last night," he said.
Pressed by a reporter, Boehner said: "I am not sure that we're doing all that we can to defeat this threat.
"An F-16 is not a strategy and airstrikes alone will not accomplish the mission," he said, adding that although he understood that the president doesn't want U.S. forces on the ground in Iraq or Syria, "somebody's boots have to be on the ground."
Missouri Lawmakers Override Vetoes On Abortion, Guns
Missouri's Republican-led Legislature overruled vetoes by Gov. Jay Nixon to push through measures expanding gun rights and mandating a 72-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions.
The state House voted to defeat the veto by a 177-44 margin late Wednesday. A Democratic filibuster was then prevented in the state Senate by a 23-7 vote.
The state's waiting period for abortion will be among the strictest in the U.S. — South Dakota and Utah also have 72-hour waiting periods, though South Dakota excludes weekends and state holidays.
The Associated Press quoted differing viewpoints on the waiting period from female representatives in the state House.
"You get a couple more days to think about this pregnancy, think about where it's going, you may change your mind," says Republican Kathie Conway of St. Charles.
But Democratic Rep. Judy Morgan of Kansas City said the move is "designed to demean and shame a woman in an effort to change her mind."
In a session that lasted into the early morning hours Thursday, lawmakers also overturned a veto on legislation to allow teachers to carry guns in school and residents to obtain open-carry permits.
The veto was defeated by a two-thirds majority. State law already allows school employees with "concealed carry" permits to have their weapons on campus. This new legislation will enforce training guidelines through the state's Department of Public Safety for any teacher or employee wishing to carry a concealed gun or pepper spray. After the training, the teacher or employee will be designated as an official "school protection officer."
The Washington Post reported the measure also lowers the age from 21 to 19 for those seeking a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
Both pieces of legislation, on abortion and gun rights, are due to go into effect in about a month.
Alcoa lands $1 billion-plus contract with Boeing
NEW YORK -- Alcoa Inc. said Thursday that it won a multi-year contract worth more than $1 billion to supply aluminum products to aircraft maker Boeing Co.
Alcoa said it was the largest contract ever between the companies. The companies also agreed to work together to develop new alloys for aerospace materials.
The deal makes Alcoa the only supplier for wing skins on Boeing metallic planes, and Alcoa will also supply aluminum plate used in wing ribs and other structural parts of planes.
Alcoa has been downplaying its longtime business of mining and smelting aluminum to focus more on providing aluminum products for use in aerospace, automobiles, construction and other industries. Earlier this year, the announced that it would pay $2.85 billion to acquire Firth Rixson, a maker of jet engine components. Alcoa has operations in Pittsburgh with a corporate office in New York.
In morning trading, shares of Alcoa fell 14 cents to $17.06 and Boeing shares lost 92 cents to $127.30.
Man pleads not guilty in tainted steroid case
BOSTON -- A pharmacist who worked for a Massachusetts company blamed for a nationwide meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people pleaded not guilty to a mail fraud charge Thursday as his lawyer said he is concerned he could be made a scapegoat.
Glenn Adam Chin, 46, of Canton, entered his plea during a brief arraignment in federal court in Boston.
Prosecutors say Chin oversaw the sterile clean rooms at the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, which custom-mixed medications in bulk and where tainted steroids blamed for the 2012 outbreak were made.
Chin, a supervisory pharmacist, is accused of participating in a scheme to fraudulently cause one lot to be labeled as injectable, meaning it was sterile and fit for human use. The drug was shipped to Michigan Pain Specialists in Brighton, Michigan, and injected into patients. As a result, 217 patients contracted fungal meningitis, and 15 died.
Chin is the first person to be charged criminally in the case, but prosecutors have said the prosecution is part of a larger criminal investigation of Chin and others.
"I think he and others will be scapegoated," said Stephen Weymouth, an attorney appointed Thursday to represent Chin. "Someone has to be made to pay. I'm just not sure Mr. Chin is that person."
Prosecutors allege that Chin did not properly sterilize or test equipment and concealed unsafe practices.
About 750 people in 20 states who were injected with the tainted steroids for pain developed meningitis — an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord — or other infections. Of those, 64 died. Michigan, Tennessee and Indiana were hit the hardest.
Chin is free pending trial but is under home confinement.
The compounding center gave up its license and filed for bankruptcy protection after it was deluged with hundreds of lawsuits. Last year, attorneys for its creditors announced a preliminary settlement with a victim compensation fund worth more than $100 million.
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