World/Nation Briefs 6.29.2012
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
WASHINGTON (AP) — By a single vote, President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul survived a painstaking Supreme Court review that consumed thousands of pages in legal filings and an extraordinary six hours-plus of oral argument time back in March.
In the end, the court upheld the law, with a minor change, and dashed Republican hopes of bringing down what conservatives deride as ‘‘Obamacare’’ on constitutional grounds. The outcome surprised many who thought tough questions from the conservative justices during the arguments foreshadowed the demise of the far-reaching legislation.
The decision leaves a trail of winners and losers, from Main Street, USA, to the very steps of the Supreme Court. For some, it’s a mixed bag. Here’s a look:
WINNERS
———
EU leaders find surprise success at summit, to use bailout fund to prop up struggling banks
BRUSSELS (AP) — After 18 disappointing summits, Europe’s leaders appeared Friday to have finally come up with a set of measures that show they are serious about solving their crippling debt crisis.
Meeting for the 19th time since the debt crisis exploded in late 2009, leaders of the 17 countries that use the euro currency agreed to let funds intended to bail out indebted governments funnel money directly to struggling banks as well. The move is intended to stop banks from piling debt onto already stressed governments.
The leaders also agreed to ease austerity requirements for countries that take bailouts — a victory for Spain and Italy, both of which they have done much already to clean up their economies, though they insist they don’t want bailouts. The move is also a sign that Germany may be easing in its insistence on brutal austerity measures in exchange for loans.
Leaders of the full 27-member European Union, which includes non-euro countries such as Britain and Poland, also agreed to a long-term plan for a tighter budgetary and political union.
The scale of the moves were unexpected and provided investors a reason for optimism, even as analysts cast doubt on the plans’ feasibility and noted that other fundamental problems with the common currency remain.
———
Residents cope with devastation of deadly Colo. blaze, most destructive in state history
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — After waiting for two days, Rebekah and Byron Largent learned from lists distributed by authorities that their home was among the hundreds that burned to the ground in the most destructive wildfire ever to rage across Colorado.
It was especially hurtful as their house was destroyed on their daughter Emma’s first birthday.
‘‘Our minds just started sifting through all the memories of that house that we lost that can’t be replaced,’’ Rebekah Largent said Thursday night. She remembered her wedding dress, a grandmother’s china, the rocking chair where the couple would sit with Emma.
‘‘Our little girl, our 1-year-old daughter, that’s the house that she’s lived in the longest. It’s just really hard to have lost a lot of the memories connected to that, you know? They just burned,’’ she said.
Officials said the Waldo Canyon fire that forced tens of thousands to flee this city 60 miles south of Denver destroyed an estimated 346 homes and left at least one person dead.
———
Instead of ’do-nothing,’ Congress is about to ’do-something’ on highways, student loans
WASHINGTON (AP) — After being derided as a ‘‘do-nothing’’ Congress, the House and Senate were poised to vote on a massive legislative package that overhauls highway and transit programs, salvages an estimated 3 million jobs and spares millions of students from higher interest rates on college loans.
Congressional leaders were pushing for quick action Friday on the package, which also would financially shore up the federal flood insurance program. Two deadlines are looming: Federal highway and transit aid programs and the government’s authority to levy federal fuel taxes expire on Saturday, and interest rates on new student loans are set to double on Sunday. Lawmakers also were anxious to begin a weeklong recess.
The burst of legislating comes just four months before the November elections, giving lawmakers achievements to show off to voters who have increasingly held Congress in low esteem.
‘‘It’s a jobs bill,’’ said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who led Senate negotiations on the transportation portion of the package. She estimated the bill would save about 1.8 million jobs by keeping aid for highway and transit construction flowing to states and create another 1 million jobs by using federal loan guarantees to leverage private sector investment in infrastructure projects.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., didn’t wait for final passage of the measure to claim credit for a share of those jobs. A statement issued Thursday by his office touted the $400 million in transportation aid Montana would receive and the 13,500 highway jobs in his state the money would support.
———
Senator calls for stricter guidelines requiring corporations to inform investors of cybercrime
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hackers broke into computers at hotel giant Wyndham Worldwide Corp. three times in two years and stole credit card information belonging to hundreds of thousands of customers. Wyndham didn’t report the break-in in corporate filings even though the Securities and Exchange Commission wants companies to inform investors of cybercrimes.
Amid whispers of sensational online break-ins resulting in millions of dollars in losses, it remains remarkably difficult to identify corporate victims of cybercrimes. Companies are afraid that going public would damage their reputations, sink stock prices or spark lawsuits.
The chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is adding a provision to cybersecurity legislation that would strengthen the reporting requirement. The SEC’s guidance issued in October is not mandatory. It was intended to update for the digital age a requirement that companies report ‘‘material risks’’ that investors want to know.
Rockefeller’s measure would direct the SEC’s five commissioners to make clear when companies must disclose cyber breaches and spell out steps they are taking to protect their computer networks from electronic intrusions.
The SEC recently challenged Internet retailer Amazon’s decision to omit from its 2011 annual report references to the online theft of customer data held by Zappos, an online shoe company owned by Amazon. Amazon eventually agreed to modify the statement slightly, according to correspondence between the company and the SEC. But the company still argued that the Zappos attack was not covered by the commission’s cybersecurity guidance because it had no material impact on Amazon’s business.
———
Spoiler or voice of reason? Russia plays major role in Syria crisis negotiations
Russia takes center stage Saturday when the U.S. and other major powers gather in Geneva to try to map out a strategy to end the bloodshed in Syria, where activists say 14,000 people have died since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March last year.
The Americans have the diplomatic clout to arrange such a conference, bringing together the five veto-wielding U.N. Security Council members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. — as well as Turkey and representatives of the Arab League, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar.
But only the Russians have the influence with Assad to give this latest diplomatic initiative any chance of success.
WHY IS RUSSIA SO IMPORTANT?
———
Q&A: How new US and European sanctions may affect oil market.
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. and Europe want to deprive Iran of the oil income it needs to run its government and, most importantly, fund what they believe is an effort to build a nuclear weapon. Their efforts are entering a new phase this week.
The U.S. as of Thursday will penalize banks that do oil deals with Iran, while European nations will embargo imports of Iranian oil starting Sunday.
These measures were announced in December and January, but lawmakers gave countries and the oil markets until this week to adjust.
Iran initially responded by threatening to block key oil routes. Oil soared over $100 per barrel as traders imagined an oil market straining to meet growing demand from China while only getting a trickle of oil from the world’s third largest exporter.
Those fears have evaporated.
———
Motorists drive tanks, crush cars, at Minnesota park for wannabe Rambos
KASOTA, Minn. (AP) — For anyone who ever has been stuck in traffic, it’s a tempting fantasy: If only you were driving a tank and could roll over everything in your path.
Some drivers are now flocking to an out-of-the-way spot in southern Minnesota to turn that vision into metal-crunching reality.
A business named Drive-a-Tank offers drivers the chance to pilot surplus military tanks and other armored vehicles around an old limestone quarry and smash junk cars like an action movie hero.
The ride is loud, grinding, hot and dirty — ideal for satisfying one’s inner Rambo.
‘‘It was awesome. I mean, controlling that machine, it’s incredible,’’ said Jacob Ostling, 19, of New Canaan, Conn., among the customers who took a turn under the turret on a recent Saturday and flattened a car in an explosion of glass.
———
Coney Island’s Cyclone roller coaster marks 85 years of thrills, chills and inspections
NEW YORK (AP) — The ride begins with two train cars, filled with as many as 24 passengers, cautiously trekking up a hill of wooden tracks. The rattle of the ascent slowly grows louder. As the cars reach the coaster’s 85-foot peak, there’s a short pause — followed by a swift 60-mph plunge to the bottom that has made stomachs churn and eyes water since Calvin Coolidge was in the White House.
Such a timeworn ride requires a great deal of attention to ensure the safety of its passengers, say workers responsible for the Cyclone, the 85-year-old New York City landmark and international amusement icon that will be feted Saturday with a birthday party including 25-cent rides — the same price they were on its debut on June 26, 1927.
‘‘It takes a lot of work to run a very old roller coaster,’’ said Valerio Ferrari, president of Central Amusement International, which operates the coaster.
Each morning beginning at 7, maintenance workers hike the coaster’s tracks along the walk boards in search of damaged wood and loose bolts. The cars, which are originals from 1927, are dismantled every winter before they undergo nondestructive testing and are reassembled.
The Cyclone may not be the oldest or tallest coaster in the nation. But it became a worldwide symbol of America’s emerging leisure class in the early 20th century.
———
Top Cats: Hornets pick Kentucky’s Davis with No. 1 pick in NBA draft; Kidd-Gilchrist is No. 2
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Anthony Davis hugged his college teammate, hugged his coach, and climbed on stage as the No. 1 pick.
Turns out, that was just the start of Kentucky’s party at the NBA draft.
The Wildcats became the first school to have the top two picks and tied a record with six players taken overall Thursday night.
After the New Orleans Hornets made the long-expected selection of Davis, Charlotte followed by taking fellow freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
Saying he was nervous even though his selection was no surprise, Davis shared an embrace with Kidd-Gilchrist, seated at a nearby table.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — By a single vote, President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul survived a painstaking Supreme Court review that consumed thousands of pages in legal filings and an extraordinary six hours-plus of oral argument time back in March.
In the end, the court upheld the law, with a minor change, and dashed Republican hopes of bringing down what conservatives deride as ‘‘Obamacare’’ on constitutional grounds. The outcome surprised many who thought tough questions from the conservative justices during the arguments foreshadowed the demise of the far-reaching legislation.
The decision leaves a trail of winners and losers, from Main Street, USA, to the very steps of the Supreme Court. For some, it’s a mixed bag. Here’s a look:
WINNERS
———
EU leaders find surprise success at summit, to use bailout fund to prop up struggling banks
BRUSSELS (AP) — After 18 disappointing summits, Europe’s leaders appeared Friday to have finally come up with a set of measures that show they are serious about solving their crippling debt crisis.
Meeting for the 19th time since the debt crisis exploded in late 2009, leaders of the 17 countries that use the euro currency agreed to let funds intended to bail out indebted governments funnel money directly to struggling banks as well. The move is intended to stop banks from piling debt onto already stressed governments.
The leaders also agreed to ease austerity requirements for countries that take bailouts — a victory for Spain and Italy, both of which they have done much already to clean up their economies, though they insist they don’t want bailouts. The move is also a sign that Germany may be easing in its insistence on brutal austerity measures in exchange for loans.
Leaders of the full 27-member European Union, which includes non-euro countries such as Britain and Poland, also agreed to a long-term plan for a tighter budgetary and political union.
The scale of the moves were unexpected and provided investors a reason for optimism, even as analysts cast doubt on the plans’ feasibility and noted that other fundamental problems with the common currency remain.
———
Residents cope with devastation of deadly Colo. blaze, most destructive in state history
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — After waiting for two days, Rebekah and Byron Largent learned from lists distributed by authorities that their home was among the hundreds that burned to the ground in the most destructive wildfire ever to rage across Colorado.
It was especially hurtful as their house was destroyed on their daughter Emma’s first birthday.
‘‘Our minds just started sifting through all the memories of that house that we lost that can’t be replaced,’’ Rebekah Largent said Thursday night. She remembered her wedding dress, a grandmother’s china, the rocking chair where the couple would sit with Emma.
‘‘Our little girl, our 1-year-old daughter, that’s the house that she’s lived in the longest. It’s just really hard to have lost a lot of the memories connected to that, you know? They just burned,’’ she said.
Officials said the Waldo Canyon fire that forced tens of thousands to flee this city 60 miles south of Denver destroyed an estimated 346 homes and left at least one person dead.
———
Instead of ’do-nothing,’ Congress is about to ’do-something’ on highways, student loans
WASHINGTON (AP) — After being derided as a ‘‘do-nothing’’ Congress, the House and Senate were poised to vote on a massive legislative package that overhauls highway and transit programs, salvages an estimated 3 million jobs and spares millions of students from higher interest rates on college loans.
Congressional leaders were pushing for quick action Friday on the package, which also would financially shore up the federal flood insurance program. Two deadlines are looming: Federal highway and transit aid programs and the government’s authority to levy federal fuel taxes expire on Saturday, and interest rates on new student loans are set to double on Sunday. Lawmakers also were anxious to begin a weeklong recess.
The burst of legislating comes just four months before the November elections, giving lawmakers achievements to show off to voters who have increasingly held Congress in low esteem.
‘‘It’s a jobs bill,’’ said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who led Senate negotiations on the transportation portion of the package. She estimated the bill would save about 1.8 million jobs by keeping aid for highway and transit construction flowing to states and create another 1 million jobs by using federal loan guarantees to leverage private sector investment in infrastructure projects.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., didn’t wait for final passage of the measure to claim credit for a share of those jobs. A statement issued Thursday by his office touted the $400 million in transportation aid Montana would receive and the 13,500 highway jobs in his state the money would support.
———
Senator calls for stricter guidelines requiring corporations to inform investors of cybercrime
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hackers broke into computers at hotel giant Wyndham Worldwide Corp. three times in two years and stole credit card information belonging to hundreds of thousands of customers. Wyndham didn’t report the break-in in corporate filings even though the Securities and Exchange Commission wants companies to inform investors of cybercrimes.
Amid whispers of sensational online break-ins resulting in millions of dollars in losses, it remains remarkably difficult to identify corporate victims of cybercrimes. Companies are afraid that going public would damage their reputations, sink stock prices or spark lawsuits.
The chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is adding a provision to cybersecurity legislation that would strengthen the reporting requirement. The SEC’s guidance issued in October is not mandatory. It was intended to update for the digital age a requirement that companies report ‘‘material risks’’ that investors want to know.
Rockefeller’s measure would direct the SEC’s five commissioners to make clear when companies must disclose cyber breaches and spell out steps they are taking to protect their computer networks from electronic intrusions.
The SEC recently challenged Internet retailer Amazon’s decision to omit from its 2011 annual report references to the online theft of customer data held by Zappos, an online shoe company owned by Amazon. Amazon eventually agreed to modify the statement slightly, according to correspondence between the company and the SEC. But the company still argued that the Zappos attack was not covered by the commission’s cybersecurity guidance because it had no material impact on Amazon’s business.
———
Spoiler or voice of reason? Russia plays major role in Syria crisis negotiations
Russia takes center stage Saturday when the U.S. and other major powers gather in Geneva to try to map out a strategy to end the bloodshed in Syria, where activists say 14,000 people have died since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March last year.
The Americans have the diplomatic clout to arrange such a conference, bringing together the five veto-wielding U.N. Security Council members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. — as well as Turkey and representatives of the Arab League, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar.
But only the Russians have the influence with Assad to give this latest diplomatic initiative any chance of success.
WHY IS RUSSIA SO IMPORTANT?
———
Q&A: How new US and European sanctions may affect oil market.
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. and Europe want to deprive Iran of the oil income it needs to run its government and, most importantly, fund what they believe is an effort to build a nuclear weapon. Their efforts are entering a new phase this week.
The U.S. as of Thursday will penalize banks that do oil deals with Iran, while European nations will embargo imports of Iranian oil starting Sunday.
These measures were announced in December and January, but lawmakers gave countries and the oil markets until this week to adjust.
Iran initially responded by threatening to block key oil routes. Oil soared over $100 per barrel as traders imagined an oil market straining to meet growing demand from China while only getting a trickle of oil from the world’s third largest exporter.
Those fears have evaporated.
———
Motorists drive tanks, crush cars, at Minnesota park for wannabe Rambos
KASOTA, Minn. (AP) — For anyone who ever has been stuck in traffic, it’s a tempting fantasy: If only you were driving a tank and could roll over everything in your path.
Some drivers are now flocking to an out-of-the-way spot in southern Minnesota to turn that vision into metal-crunching reality.
A business named Drive-a-Tank offers drivers the chance to pilot surplus military tanks and other armored vehicles around an old limestone quarry and smash junk cars like an action movie hero.
The ride is loud, grinding, hot and dirty — ideal for satisfying one’s inner Rambo.
‘‘It was awesome. I mean, controlling that machine, it’s incredible,’’ said Jacob Ostling, 19, of New Canaan, Conn., among the customers who took a turn under the turret on a recent Saturday and flattened a car in an explosion of glass.
———
Coney Island’s Cyclone roller coaster marks 85 years of thrills, chills and inspections
NEW YORK (AP) — The ride begins with two train cars, filled with as many as 24 passengers, cautiously trekking up a hill of wooden tracks. The rattle of the ascent slowly grows louder. As the cars reach the coaster’s 85-foot peak, there’s a short pause — followed by a swift 60-mph plunge to the bottom that has made stomachs churn and eyes water since Calvin Coolidge was in the White House.
Such a timeworn ride requires a great deal of attention to ensure the safety of its passengers, say workers responsible for the Cyclone, the 85-year-old New York City landmark and international amusement icon that will be feted Saturday with a birthday party including 25-cent rides — the same price they were on its debut on June 26, 1927.
‘‘It takes a lot of work to run a very old roller coaster,’’ said Valerio Ferrari, president of Central Amusement International, which operates the coaster.
Each morning beginning at 7, maintenance workers hike the coaster’s tracks along the walk boards in search of damaged wood and loose bolts. The cars, which are originals from 1927, are dismantled every winter before they undergo nondestructive testing and are reassembled.
The Cyclone may not be the oldest or tallest coaster in the nation. But it became a worldwide symbol of America’s emerging leisure class in the early 20th century.
———
Top Cats: Hornets pick Kentucky’s Davis with No. 1 pick in NBA draft; Kidd-Gilchrist is No. 2
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Anthony Davis hugged his college teammate, hugged his coach, and climbed on stage as the No. 1 pick.
Turns out, that was just the start of Kentucky’s party at the NBA draft.
The Wildcats became the first school to have the top two picks and tied a record with six players taken overall Thursday night.
After the New Orleans Hornets made the long-expected selection of Davis, Charlotte followed by taking fellow freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
Saying he was nervous even though his selection was no surprise, Davis shared an embrace with Kidd-Gilchrist, seated at a nearby table.
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