U.S. tested 2 Afghan scenarios in war game The exercise, led by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, examined the likely outcome of inserting 44,000 more troops into the country to conduct a full-scale counterinsurgency effort aimed at building a stable Afghan government that can control most of the country. It also examined adding 10,000 to 15,000 more soldiers and Marines as part of an approach that the military has dubbed "counterterrorism plus." Both options were drawn from a detailed analysis prepared by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the senior commander in Afghanistan, and were forwarded to President Obama in recent weeks by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. The Pentagon war game did not formally endorse either course; rather, it tried to gauge how Taliban fighters, the Afghan and Pakistani governments and NATO allies might react to either of the scenarios. Mullen, a key player in the game, has discussed its conclusions with senior White House officials involved in the discussions over the new strategy.
A congressman, a lobbying firm and a swift path to earmarks It takes a while for most start-up companies to gain the confidence of a U.S. congressman and the promise of federal funds. But last year, a small Illinois company accomplished its goal in 16 days with the help of Rep. Peter J. Visclosky, a little-known Indiana Democrat who sits on the House committee that funds the Pentagon.
Congress' health care bills leave millions uninsured The number of people who remain uninsured will depend on how House and Senate leaders reconcile separate versions of health care legislation to arrive at a final bill. The factors include the size of government subsidies to help low-income families pay for insurance and the scope of penalties that would be charged for those who don't buy a plan. he non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates 17 million Americans would remain uninsured under the Senate Finance Committee's 10-year, $829 billion health care bill. Health experts such as Rowland say that number would include families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to pay for insurance. Others who could remain uninsured under the Finance Committee bill include people who choose to pay a proposed $750-a-year fine rather than buy coverage and those who are eligible for Medicaid but don't enroll.
Health bill may cut employer mandate Businesses would not be required to provide health insurance under legislation being readied for Senate debate, but large firms would owe significant penalties if any worker needed government subsidies to buy coverage on their own, according to Democratic officials familiar with talks on the bill. For firms with more than 50 employees, the fee could be as high as $750 multiplied by the total size of the work force if only a few workers needed federal aid, these officials said. That is a more stringent penalty than in a bill that recently cleared the Senate Finance Committee, which said companies should face penalties on a per-employee basis.
Defense firms in probe received $30M in stimulus money The Department of Defense has awarded nearly $30 million in stimulus contracts to six companies while they were under federal criminal investigation on suspicion of fraud.The companies claimed to be small, minority-owned businesses, giving them preference in bidding for government contracts, Air Force documents allege. But government investigators found they were part of a larger minority-owned firm and not eligible for small-business contracts
The PDQ Presidency Election night 2008 went late in Chicago. Many campaign staffers who had spent two years helping Barack Obama get elected celebrated in Grant Park until the wee hours. But if senior aides were under the impression they might get the following day off, they were mistaken. Obama's transition director, John Podesta, scheduled a senior staff meeting for the next morning, Wednesday, Nov. 5, at 10:30 a.m. Podesta, Bill Clinton's former chief of staff, figured it would take a half hour, 45 minutes tops, to bat around some scheduling options and maybe even tell a few war stories from the campaign. But the soon-to-be commander in chief had other plans. To him, Wednesday was another workday—or, more precisely, the first day of his presidency.
Constructing Communities Through Cohousing An import from Denmark, the cohousing concept arrived in the U.S. approximately 30 years ago. In cohousing each family has its own separate dwelling areas, but residents are generally committed to a common set of values and share common areas with the goal of creating a tight-knit community. Cohousing communities can be legally established using condominium provisions or by using a more traditional homeowners association framework. There are currently more than 100 cohousing communities in the U.S. and the number keeps growing.
Poll: Voters want tough land-use law More than two-thirds of Houstonians are ready for tighter land-use restrictions in the wake of several high-profile conflicts between developers and neighborhoods in recent years, according to a Houston Chronicle poll. Out of 601 people surveyed between Oct. 12 and 15, 71 percent said they strongly or somewhat agree that “Houston should enact tougher land use restrictions.” The results come from a range of questions about voter satisfaction with the direction the city is headed, their views on the tenure of outgoing Mayor Bill White and which issues they find most important as they consider his replacement.
Clusters of plug-in cars will tax local power grids There have been a number of studies measuring whether the national
power grid can fuel large numbers of electric vehicles. But the biggest
concern regarding the impact of plug-ins is at the local level, where
adding just a few vehicles could strain a local circuit, said Peter
Darbee, the CEO of California utility Pacific Gas & Electric,
during a talk at the Business of Plugging conference here Tuesday. Darbee predicts that demand for plug-in vehicles will be very
high, as turned out to be the case with cell phones. Based on early
data, it's clear that purchasers of plug-in electric vehicles live near
each other. Berkeley, California, for example, represents 18 percent of
all customers in PG&E's territory while Fresno is only 2 percent.
NTSB: Pilots distracted by laptops, scheduling The pilots of the Northwest jet that overshot Minneapolis by 150
miles were distracted by a bathroom break, talking to a flight
attendant and using their laptops to discuss work schedules, the National Transportation Safety Board says. The pilots of Flight 188 told investigators they were not tired and
did not fall asleep. They were out of radio contact for more than an
hour Wednesday before being alerted by a flight attendant. They then
turned the plane around and landed safely.
Iceland says goodbye to the Big Mac Iceland's three McDonald's restaurants — all in the capital Reykjavik — will close next weekend, as the franchise owner gives in to falling profits caused by the collapse in the Icelandic krona.
U.S. aiding Pakistani military offensive
U.S.
drones are providing intelligence and surveillance video in support of
Pakistan's offensive in South Waziristan, the first time Islamabad has
accepted such help for major military operations. Providing such information fills gaps in the Islamabad government's
spying arsenal, officials said, and helps show how the Obama
administration intends to intensify pressure on insurgents in Pakistan
as the administration overhauls the U.S. military strategy in
neighboring Afghanistan. The cooperation also reflects a significant shift for Pakistan, which
had previously resisted U.S. offers to deploy Predators in support of
its military operations.
GeoCities' time has expired, Yahoo closing the site today
Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine "The Perimeter system is very, very nice," he says. "We remove unique responsibility from high politicians and the military." He looks around again.Yarynich is talking about Russia's doomsday machine. That's right, an actual doomsday device—a real, functioning version of the ultimate weapon, always presumed to exist only as a fantasy of apocalypse-obsessed science fiction writers and paranoid über-hawks. The thing that historian Lewis Mumford called "the central symbol of this scientifically organized nightmare of mass extermination." Turns out Yarynich, a 30-year veteran of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces and Soviet General Staff, helped build one.
Digital Unknowns Surround Afghanistan Fight “We need to understand what’s going on in this fight,” says Maj. Gen. David Scott, Air Force director of operational capability requirements . “I’m not sure we’re there yet. The pirate [as an example of the irregular warrior] uses very inexpensive [tactical] capabilities [like RPGs and satellite phones] that have caused the U.S. strategic problems. That’s what we’ve got to start looking at in irregular warfare – how to get into the [foe’s] decision cycle.” That then brings up the question of what the U.S. and its allies have in their non-kinetic, digital and cyber arsenals. Several advanced weapon projects have surfaced -- some as research projects while others are in development or well on their way to production.
New Technology Threatens South Korea Pyongyang has retrained its special forces based on lessons learned from the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, says Gen. Walter Sharp, the head of United Nations Command and U.S. Forces, Korea. Operating south of the demilitarized zone, these units have been designed to create chaos early in a conflict. Such troops would be unsupportable in the long term, but U.S. intelligence officials tell Aviation Week that the intention would be for a sharp strike—much of it focused on South Korean capital Seoul’s population center—followed by an immediate offer of peace negotiations before allied retaliation is in full swing.
Sweden Turning Stray Rabbits Into Biofuel Thousands of rabbits, some of them pets abandoned by their owners, are being shot, deep-frozen and burned in a heating plant in Sweden, a professional hunter who works for the city of Stockholm said on Tuesday. The center of the Swedish capital is being plagued by thousands of rabbits, some of them wild and some of them stray pets, and 3,000 have been culled this year, down from 6,000 in 2008
The Egyptian government is contemplating a redevelopment plan in downtown Cairo which would transform the area into a pedestrian-only area. This plan has been commissioned by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, and envisions the construction of "multi-story underground garages" to eliminate traffic and pave the way for the creation of an area of open-air restaurants and shops.
