Senators want more info on U.S. counter-terrorism policies

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Policies that allow lethal targeting of U.S. citizens at issue during confirmation hearings

sdfg

A Justice Department white paper outlines legal rationale for use of deadly force against U.S. citizens.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Colorado Democrat Mark Udall, said this week they want more information on U.S. policies that permit the government to kill American citizens during counter-terrorism operations.

Udall joined Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) in asking President Obama for details of the secret legal opinions that enable the president to target Americans if, for example, they are working as operatives for Al Qa’ida.

In their Feb. 4 letter, the senators likened the situation to the Civil War, when President Lincoln had authority to order Union troops to fire on Confederate forces. They acknowledged that, if Americans choose to take up arms against their own country, that there is a justification for targeting them with deadly force. (more…)

Filed under: world news | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Udall plans to quiz CIA nominee on ‘torture report’

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
Sen. Mark Udall.

Sen. Mark Udall.

Senators want John Brennan to reform CIA interrogation practices

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — It may be business as usual for incoming CIA chief John Brennan, who was was unprepared this week to discuss a recent classified U.S. Senate report on the agency’s detention and interrogation program, but that stance doesn’t sit well with at least a handful of senators, who plan to grill Brennan about the report at his confirmation hearing next week.

Among them is Mark Udall, Colorado’s senior Democratic senator, who has often expressed concerns and questions over whether U.S. Intelligence agencies are violating civil rights and U.S. laws in some of their programs.

“I was deeply disappointed today during my meeting with John Brennan. A few weeks ago, I had asked that he be prepared to discuss at today’s meeting the findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee‘s comprehensive study on the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation program,” Udall said in a statement. “Not only was he not prepared to discuss the important findings, but he hadn’t reviewed the report at all,” Udall said. (more…)

Filed under: world news | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Climate: Australian heatwave sets numerous records

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Global warming kicks into high gear Down Under

sdfgsdf

Australian heatwave breaks records.

By Bob Berwyn

FRISCO — The New Year is barely a week old, but extreme weather continues, this time in the Southern hemisphere, where parts of Australia reached unprecedented high temperatures, in some cases ranging upward of 120 degrees Fahrenheit. For the sake of comparison, Death Valley reported a reading of 136 degrees way back in July, 1913.

Temperatures during the recent Australian heatwave were so warm that the country’s meteorology bureau added a new color to its temperature-scale map — bright purple, designating readings of warmer than 50 degrees Celsius (129 Fahrenheit). Read the latest update from the bureau here. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, global warming, world news | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

2013 or 1984?

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Bob Berwyn
lk

Is the government listening to your phone calls?

Warrantless wiretapping authorized for 5 more years

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — The federal government will be able to listen in to your phone calls and snoop around you emails without a warrant for at least five more years, after Congress passed — and President Obama signed — the FISA Amendments Act, which authorizes the government to violate of basic constitutional rights in the name of national security.

The biggest concern for civil liberty advocates is the warrantless wiretapping program that dates back to the Bush administration’s war on terror. The program has helped the government gather intelligence, but critics like U.S. Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo.) say the law doesn’t do a good job of balancing national security and civil liberties.

In a release, Udall said he opposed the extension partly because Congress failed to address the loophole. In past years, Udall has said it’s not even clear how many Americans have been targeted under the program, and called for more transparency and oversight of the program. (more…)

Filed under: federal government, world news | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Study confirms prehistoric cheese-making

Posted on December 27, 2012 by Bob Berwyn
asdfadsf sdfg

Chunks of Swiss cheese. Photo via Wikipedia and the Creative Commons.

Researchers analyze fatty acids extracted from pottery found in northern Europe

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Along with being a choice gourmet item for foodies, cheese has been a staple in many cultures around the world for centuries, as a transportable and digestible dairy product.

New research shows that cheese-making probably pre-dates previous estimates by quite a while. After analyzing fatty acids extracted from unglazed ceramic pottery, scientists say prehistoric people in northern Europe were making cheese as long as 7,000 years ago.

“Before this study, it was not clear that cattle were used for their milk in Northern Europe around 7,000 years ago,” said Mélanie Salque, a PhD student from the University of Bristol and one of the authors of the paper. “However, the presence of the sieves in the ceramic assemblage of the sites was thought to be a proof that milk and even cheese was produced at these sites<” Salque said. “Of course, these sieves could have been used for straining all sorts of things, such as curds from whey, meat from stock or honeycombs from honey. We decided to test the cheese-making hypothesis by analysing the lipids trapped into the ceramic fabric of the sieves,” she said. (more…)

Filed under: world news | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Colorado’s congressional delegation eyes gun control

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Sen. Mark Udall: “We simply must do everything we can to ensure these military-grade weapons are never in the hands of those who would turn them against their community.”

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — As political momentum for addressing gun violence grows, U.S. Sen. Mark Udall came out in favor of a ban on military grade weapons as part of a comprehensive approach to tackling the problem.

Congressman Ed Perlmutter, representing Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, has already announced that he will introduce a bill that would ban assault weapons.

“It’s time to do more. It is Congress’ responsibility to lead, and it’s time for me to take action,” Perlmutter said in a statement. “This is about crime control and doing what we can to deter and prevent the kinds of tragedies we’ve experienced all too often in the last few years. (more…)

Filed under: Colorado, world news | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Winter Solstice 2012: The world definitely is not ending

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Winter starts

dfg

The 2011 winter solstice sunset in Frisco, Colorado.

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — With all the hoopla of Christmas, it’s easy to forget that the winter solstice was marked by deeply spiritual ceremonies long before the emergence of Christian traditions. But if you take a moment today to contemplate the sun hanging at it’s lowest and most southerly point in the sky, it’s a little easier to understand why ancient people took the trouble to erect massive stone monuments to observe the day.

Try and see the world from the perspective of a Stone Age hunter in a time when the universe was infinitesimally more mysterious than it is today. Now, we understand orbital cycles. Notwithstanding the end-of-the-world hype, we can be fairly certain that the days will soon start getting longer again. We can keep warm in our homes, and fend off the dark with electric lights.

But there must have been a time when the long, dark nights at the start of winter were frightening, with no real assurance that spring would arrive once more. Gradually, through observation, even the ancient ones figured it out, and the fact that the cycle of shortening days was at an end became reason for celebration. (more…)

Filed under: world news | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Does climate affect volcanic activity?

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Bob Berwyn
asdf

Mt. St. Helens erupts in 1980. Photo courtesy USGS.

New research suggests melting ice sheets could trigger more vulcanism

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Melting ice sheets may trigger an increase in global volcanic activity, according to researchers with the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research (based in Kiel, Germany), and Harvard, who matched historic geological records of vulcanism with warm climate periods.

“In times of global warming, glaciers on the continents are melting relatively quickly. At the same time the sea level rises. The weight on the continents decreases, while the weight on the oceanic tectonic plates increases. Thus, the stress changes within in the earth to open more routes for ascending magma,” said GEOMAR’s Dr Mario Jegen. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, global warming, world news | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Native American land buy-back program to consolidate splintered parcels, benefiting economic development

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Bob Berwyn
fgh

The Interior Department will help Tribal Nations consolidate splintered parcels of land. Bob Berwyn photo.

Voluntary program aimed at boosting community land use for Tribal Nations

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Thousands of smaller parcels of land owned by individual Native Americans could be consolidated for beneficial use by tribes under a new $1.9 billion buy-back program announced by the Department of Interior this week.

The buy-back program for tribal nations will purchase fractional interests in American Indian trust lands from willing sellers. Fractionation of Indian lands stems primarily from the General Allotment Act of 1887, when  tribal lands were allotted to individual tribal members, often in 80 or 160-acre parcels. The lands have been handed down to heirs over successive generations, causing the number of shared interests in one parcel to grow exponentially. Currently, more than 92,000 tracts of land held in trust for American Indians contain 2.9 million fractional interests.

When tracts have so many co-owners, it is often difficult and impractical to obtain the required approvals to lease or otherwise use the lands. As a result, highly-fractionated tracts lie idle, unable to be used for any economical or beneficial purpose or for direct use by tribal communities for their members. (more…)

Filed under: West, world news | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Skywatch: Geminid meteor shower set to put on a show

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Bob Berwyn
sdfg

An Orionid meteor streaks across the Colorado sky during one of the most recent meteor showers. Photo courtesy Daniel McVey, Click on the image to see more of McVey’s astrophotography.

Shooting stars to peak Dec. 13; moonless night could yield up to 60 meteors per hour

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — One of the year’s best meteor showers peaks this week under what could be ideal viewing conditions, with no moonlight to mar observations of the bright shooting stars. The only question for viewers in the Colorado high country is whether skies will clear enough to offer a nighttime view of the Geminids, so named because they appear to originate from the Gemini constellation.

The meteor shower peaks on the nights of Dec. 13 and 14. the best viewing is between midnight and dawn, with up to 50 to 80 meteors per hour possible — that’s more than one per minute during peak activity, the winter equivalent of the August Perseids. Odds are good, even if you only head outside for a few minutes on one of these chilly winter nights, that you’ll catch a glimpse of a shooting star (if the skies are clear).

Experts from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center will be available to answer meteor questions on a late night web chat, and there will also be a Ustream the same night featuring views of the shooting stars. The Ustream and the web chat will be at this NASA website. (more…)

Filed under: Colorado, world news | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 5,570 other followers