TAKING CONTROL TO THE NEXT LEVEL

GMO giant hires retired cops to hunt down farmers

Published: 29 November, 2012, 22:50

Reuters / Tim Shaffer

GMO giants DuPont have contracted dozens of retired law enforcement officers to begin patrolling farms in the US next year to spot any potential intellectual property theft.
DuPont Co, the second-largest seed country in the world, is hoping to find farmers that have purchased contracts to use their genetically modified soybean seeds but have breached the terms of agreement by illegally using the product for repeat harvests. Should farmers replant GMO seeds licensed by DuPont, they could be sued for invalidating their contracts.
“Farmers are never going to get cheap access to these genetically engineered varieties,” Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, tells Bloomberg. “The biotech industry has trumped the legitimate economic interests of the farmer again by raising the ante on intellectual property.”
DuPont competitors Monsanto have been known to relentlessly sue small-time farmers who have been caught abusing their own patented GMO products, but the latest maneuver is being considered by some a form of intimidation. DuPont has cut a deal with Saskatchewan-based Agro Protection International, a company that contracts mostly retired police officers to patrol potential violations of IP law.
“Everyone always goes to the idea that we are trying to intimidate people and nothing could be further from the truth,” Agro President Dennis Birtles tells Bloomberg. “We are trying to create deterrence.”
According to that report, Agro already has around 45 employees patrolling farms in Canada, and a DuPont senior manager has confirmed to the media that around three dozen will start searching for IP violations in the United States starting next year.
Reached for comment by Bloomberg, Randy Schlatter from DuPont’s intellectual property program office said the contract with Agro will help their customers in the end, because honoring contracts will allow the GMO giants to continue to develop new products. Currently they have more than 225 soybean seed patents.
“Our challenge is to get customers to understand the fact that strong intellectual property protection is a benefit that ends up at the customer level,” Schlatter says. “If we can’t make a profit, we can’t invest and we can’t bring out new products.”

MOTOR CITY BREAK DOWN

Detroit to go bankrupt in less than a month

Published: 22 November, 2012, 00:54

Transport worker carries a "Detroit Needs Jobs" sign as he joins a demonstration in Detroit, Michigan January 8, 2012. (Reuters / Rebecca Cook)

The city of Detroit, facing a serious cash crisis, is set to go bankrupt by the end of this year and would put city workers on furlough unless it strikes a deal with the city council that would bring in $30 million before Dec. 14.
Detroit has been in financial turmoil for years, losing a quarter of its population in the past decade and facing a shrinking auto industry that has reduced tax revenues. The Detroit City Council gave the mayor the option to hire a financial advisor and in return receive $30 million by the end of the year.
But the Council on Tuesday voted 8-1 to delay the decision on the deal, which would pay the Miller Canfield Law Firm $300,000 to advise Mayor Dave Bing. The deal would have released $10 million in bond money on Tuesday and another $20 million in December.
The Council decided not to authorize the contract due to suspicions that Miller Canfield has conflicts of interests, since the firm handles other city business. The Council was also concerned that the firm’s contract may not be legal, since it was not prepared or approved of by the city’s chief on-staff lawyer. Council members were also upset that Bing only presented them with one law firm, denying them options to choose from.
"The Council’s rejection of the Miller Canfield contract means the city will not receive the first $10 million scheduled for release today,” Bing said in a statement. “As a result, it will be more difficult for the city to maintain its liquidity until the receipt of property tax revenues beginning in January. Today’s vote is one more example of how City Council has stalled our efforts to bring financial stability to the city of Detroit."
Some blame the mayor for the denied funds, claiming that his limited options gave the Council no choice but to reject the proposal.
“Why is Mayor Bing putting gthe city’s finances at risk by marrying himself to one law firm?” City Council President Charles Pugh told reporters.
If a deal cannot be struck within the upcoming weeks, then those who will suffer most are Detroit’s government employees. Bing plans to put city workers on furlough on Jan. 1 to save cash if fails to receive the much-needed money from the law contract. With a $30 million cash shortfall, the city would temporarily lay off thousands of workers to avoid bankruptcy. The only city workers who would be able to keep working are police officers, firefighters, EMS workers, or employees of departments that raise revenue for the city.
The City Council also rejected a proposed contract to overhaul the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, proposing to cut 81 percent of its workforce in an attempt to save cash.
“If we don’t stop this, there will be nothing left of the city of Detroit,” Michael Mulholland, secretary treasurer of the American Federation of State, Council and Municipal Employees Local 207, told the Detroit Free Press. With a city that has already lost much of its population due to declining jobs, cutting the workforce with furloughs and layoffs is only worsening the crisis.
At the current rate, Detroit is set to hit a weekly cash flow of $4.1 million in mid-December and drop to negative $4.8 million at the end of the year.

A WAKE-UP CALL

ULock your doors and load your guns: San Bernardino warned of uncontrollable crime as police squad shrinks

Published: 30 November, 2012, 22:11

Reuters / Shannon Stapleton

A San Bernardino city attorney told residents this week to gather arms and prepare to defend themselves since the bankrupt town can no longer afford the law enforcement it needs.
During a city council meeting Wednesday, City Attorney Jim Penman urged residents of the bankrupt Californian city to “lock their doors and load their guns” to protect themselves.
City officials prepared a budget plan earlier this month that would attempt to tackle the $45.8 million deficit partially by cutting benefits for city workers like firefighters and police officers, as well as eliminating 80 cops from the force altogether.
“Let’s be honest, we don’t have enough police officers. We have too many criminals living in this city. We have had 45 murders this year… that’s far too high for a city of this size,” Penman said.
The cuts will leave the city with just over 200 sworn officers – a small number in a city of 213,012 that is plagued with crime. The city’s police department has also cut down on the number of people answering its emergency phone lines: problematic in a city that was ranked America’s sixteenth most dangerous in 2004. San Bernardino has also seen a 50 percent increase in murders this year compared to 2011, and this week’s council meeting was actually called in response to the brutal murder of a 76-year-old woman in a neighborhood that is usually quiet.
During the meeting, Police Chief Robert Handy also emphasized the need to reduce the city’s drug problems and theft. But in a region where prisons are already overcrowded and the streets are overwhelmed with gang violence, San Bernardino faces heavy obstacles.
“We are trying to refocus and pay a little more attention to those (types of crimes) because honestly, those are the ones we get complaints on,” Handy said, reports the local Sun newspaper. “We may not come out immediately, but many of those transients have been arrested more than 50 times. There’s no room for them in jail.”
With an inadequate police force, no room in prison, and no money to gather resources, Penman believes city residents must fend for themselves.
“People have asked me what should we do? Go home, lock your doors, and load your gun,” he told the crowd of nearly 150 people at the city council meeting.
San Bernardino filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 1 after acquiring more than $1 billion in debt. The city was the third in California to go bankrupt in just over a month.
In the mid-2000’s, San Bernardino took out $190 million in bonds and loans to finance city construction, but budget problems arose after the 2007 housing crisis. Before it declared bankruptcy, 75 percent of San Bernardino’s budget had gone to public safety agencies to tackle crime.
Penman has come under scrutiny for encouraging residents to stock up on firearms, but City Councilwoman Wendy McCommack further explained the statement to CBS News.
“We need to take our streets back, we need to take our neighborhoods back and we need to protect our homes, and that’s what I think Jim was trying to say,” she said.

REVIEW: ETON FR160

FINALLY A RADIO THAT WORKS      

For quite a while I have been searching for a weather radio that you could hand crank, or had solar, or both.  I had tried a few of them and really liked the features, HOWEVER, although they all seem to have a USB outlet to charge your Iphone, I have yet to find one that actually did.  Until now.  The other day, my wife and I gathered all our solar and hand cranked generators and did some tests.  Several of the solar panels built specifically for charging your phone did nothing at all.  When I got to this guy (we have 2 of them), within 2 cranks of the handle, my Iphone 5 came to life.  We were tickled.  Here was the cheapest unit we had and it did what it said it would.  So here is what we found:  First off, these little gems are small at about 5.5" long, 1.5" wide and 2.25" tall it is easily packable.  You could argue that at about 10 oz it is heavy to carry.  I prefer the term ROBUST.  These things are as solid as they come.  I can live with that, and do, I have one in my bugout bag I carry for work, (for the record, that bug out bag is supposed to get me 221 miles of walking, so YES, weight is an issue with me).

 

For a little package this item is full of features, AM/FM radio, Weather Band (7 channels), 3 LED Flashlight, Folding Handcrank, USB connector, Ear Phone Jack, telescoping antenna, and an attached lanyard.  The pictures reflect a red unit, ours are both black.  I opted to put some dots of reflective tape on it so I don't lose it at night. 

 

There is a rechargeable battery that can be charged using the solar panel or the hand crank.  When I got the first unit and tried the light, it was dead.  I cranked it a few times and the light came on and stayed on.  So the crank charging system on this unit is efficient.  I hate cranking these things for 30 minutes and finding that it gives you .235 seconds of light, let alone radio time.  When cranking, the first think I noticed was how smooth and solid it was.  Compared to other units, this is by far the most 'trustworthy' in quality.  The built in light is not overly bright, but it will let you walk around in the dark and find lost items.  All in all, it will do the trick if you have no other light.  Just don't expect to see rabid weiner dawgs approaching from great distances. 

 

Growing up in the 60s and 70s, and having to live with resistor type portable radios, I was pleasantly surprised when I could lock onto a station and it actually stayed, without drifting.  Ok I may be old, but it was frustrating enough that I never bought another one for 30 years.  The Weatherband Station feature was my greatest reason to purchase this radio and I am not disapointed.  Locks on, stays on, and no static.  Being half deaf, I love the fact that I don't have to have the volume turned to full and still have to put it to my ear.  It is loud.  Even though it has an earplug jack, I won't be needing it unless I am listening to the weather, while hiking through hostile territory.  Won't Happen. 

 

The key feature (for me) was to be able to charge my Iphone 5.  This was the last unit we had tried in our arsonal of solar chargers (we have 5 others that didn't work at all).  When I put the cord into the Eton, and Iphone, I gave it a few cranks and was totally surprised to see the phone light up.  HOWEVER,  there is a catch to this.   The Iphone has an internal defense mechanism to prevent damage due to low voltage.  If you crank the Eton slowly, you will see a yellow triangled warning come up on the Iphone.  Don't be discouraged.  It is doing its job.  I found that if you start cranking quickly, there is enough voltage to allow the Iphone to charge.  It took a few minutes (just over 3) to get the phone to charge one percent.  At first I calculated it would be about 300 minutes of cranking to get this phone fully charged.  But then, that is from dead battery to fully charged.  I can live with that, since I only need to crank it for a little while to make an emergency call for help, or, order a pizza in the wilderness (ok thats a joke).  

 

For about 30 dollars, this is a great value. Solid.  Good volume.  And, it does charge a phone.  Of course, you will have to supply your own USB cable for the Iphone, as the cables are sold separately.