news20090804JT1

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
Those off lay judge hook feel relieved
Preparing for trial duty exacted emotional toll
By MARIKO KATO
Staff writer

Relief was the overriding emotion of the candidates who weren't picked in a final lottery draw Monday to participate in the first criminal trial under the new lay judge system.

"I was glad because I had been nervous and worried, as I don't have any legal knowledge and I wasn't sure if I could make a proper decision regarding someone else's crime," a 31-year-old computer firm employee from Nerima Ward said at a news conference after being told by the court he was free to go home.

The six who were chosen sat alongside the three professional judges in the murder trial of Katsuyoshi Fujii. The trial is to run through Thursday.

The five dismissed candidates who agreed to speak to reporters admitted they had been nervous and not keen to sit on the bench. But some said their release was anticlimactic because they had been prepared to be picked.

"Although I was relieved because it is a heavy responsibility, I had been preparing myself emotionally, so it was a bit disappointing," said a 36-year-old housewife from Katsushika Ward.

Her husband had taken the day off and they had found a care center for their mentally disabled son in case she was chosen and needed to be away from home for three more days, she said.

Lay judge candidates will be given \8,000 per day during the selection process and \10,000 on days they attend trials. Half a day of service will draw half of those amounts.

A 48-year-old computer firm employee from Edogawa Ward said he had trouble sleeping the night before.

"I read through the documents that the courts had sent, and I was so restless I couldn't sleep until 3 a.m.," he said, adding he had also watched DVDs related to court cases in the runup to Monday.

Both he and the other company employee were given special leave from work for the day, which would have been extended had they been chosen.

The dismissed candidates agreed that the selection process went smoothly and they were treated courteously, being supplied with magazines and tea during breaks with relaxing music playing in the background.

But all the candidates and the professionals seemed nervous and no one made small talk, they said.

"Those who were chosen in the lottery were taken through the next process in a matter-of-fact manner, but among them some slightly hung their heads low," said 65-year-old Masayoshi Habu of Nakano Ward, who runs an estate agent business and had given a summer vacation notice to his clients this week.

Although the candidates said they felt mainly relief at not being picked, they agreed the experience made them more aware of court matters.

"It made me think that I or my family could be involved in such a case at any time, and I feel that I should build up my knowledge in the future," said the man from Edogawa Ward.

"When I was summoned, I thought about being involved in a murder trial and about the feelings of the victim and the family of the accused. And I was grateful that I was leading a peaceful, happy life," the Katsushika Ward housewife said.

Some suggested that instead of the current system, in which candidates are summoned and selected at random, those who are interested in becoming lay judges should be chosen first.

But most said they regarded the experience as positive.

"The odds are really low and I was interested in court cases, so I was glad" to be summoned, said a company employee in his 20s.

"I did feel resistant at being halfway forced to come, but I told myself that I had a responsibility as a citizen," said Masayoshi Habu from Nakano Ward.

"I had felt distant from court cases, but I felt closer once I received the summons," he said. "I hope to be more interested in such matters in the future."

Meanwhile, 2,382 people lined up for the courtroom's 58 seats by lot, with Satoru Kawamura, 26, who plans to take the bar exam, saying, "I want to observe how criminal trials change with the participation of citizen judges."

Shizue Takahashi, who lost her husband in the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, was also in line. "I hope to witness how the deliberations go from the viewpoint of the victims' side," she said.

The leadup to lay judge trials
• 1928-1943 — Juries are used on a limited basis.

• May 3, 1947 — The postwar Constitution takes effect.

• July 27, 1999 — The government convenes a panel on judicial reform.

• June 12, 2001 — The panel proposes that "saiban-in" (lay judges) join professional judges in trying serious criminal cases.

• May 21, 2004 — A law to introduce the lay judge system is enacted.

• May 22, 2007 — The law is revised to clear lay judges from extremely long assignments when a defendant faces multiple charges.

• Jan. 11, 2008 — The Cabinet endorses an ordinance setting out grounds for exemption from lay judge service.

• April 1, 2009 — Lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition camps who oppose the lay judge system demand a review of the system.

• May 21 — The law on lay judges comes into effect.

• Aug. 3 — The first trial under the lay judge system starts.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
Language in court to be simple

(Kyodo News) The deputy chief prosecutor of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office, Tsuneta Tanigawa, issued a statement Monday before the first lay judge trial started, vowing to ensure that citizen judges will be able to follow prosecutors' arguments.

"We, the prosecutors, will demonstrate our arguments in an understandable way for citizen judges," the statement said. "We hope we can obtain a fair judgment by establishing our claims in a quick and adequate manner."

"I have a sense of self-renewal with this trial, which marks a historic turning point," said Tetsuo Machida, the lead prosecutor for the first case.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for the 72-year-old defendant called on citizen judges to deliberate the case "in a calm manner."

"We have done what we can do" to make the arguments of the defense understandable to the lay judges, Shunji Date said before the trial began.

Date said he got up early in the morning to repeatedly practice presenting his opening statement for Katsuyoshi Fujii, who is charged with stabbing Mun Chun Ja to death in May after a quarrel.

Date indicated he was concerned that he might have difficulty using ordinary language in court so the citizen judges could follow him, saying, "I have been deeply accustomed to (using technical terms) for decades."

Asked if he felt pressure about appearing in Japan's first lay judge trial, he said, "Yes, I do."


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
Court recognizes 10 as ill from A-bombings

KUMAMOTO (Kyodo) The Kumamoto District Court on Monday recognized 10 of 13 plaintiffs as suffering from radiation-related illnesses due to the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, dealing the 19th straight loss for the government in a series of lawsuits filed across Japan.

The remaining three plaintiffs have already been certified as suffering from atomic bomb-related diseases under the government's new criteria in place since April 2008 for receiving \137,000 monthly in special medical allowances.

The court dismissed the plaintiffs' demand for compensation but gave another boost to the hopes of aging and ailing A-bomb survivors for an early settlement since a similar ruling in May by the Tokyo High Court prompted the government to come up with an answer before the Aug. 6 and 9 anniversaries of the bombings.

During the trial, the government denied that the diseases plaguing the plaintiffs were caused by their exposure to radiation from the atomic bombs.

According to lawyers for the plaintiffs, four of the 13 in the suit have since died, and the remaining nine are aged between 71 and 89.

They developed cancer and other diseases after being exposed to radiation — 12 of them on the days Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, and one at a later date by returning to Nagasaki.

Similar lawsuits have been filed with 17 district courts across Japan and are still pending in the Supreme Court, five high courts and 11 district courts, according to Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations.

The government has decided not to appeal the two rulings preceding Monday's that were given in May by the Osaka and Tokyo high courts.

news20090804JT2

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
First lay judge trial kicks off in Tokyo
Defendant, 72, pleads guilty; Thursday ruling is scheduled
By SETSUKO KAMIYA
Staff writer

The first trial involving lay judges kicked off Monday in the Tokyo District Court with Katsuyoshi Fujii, 72, pleading guilty to murdering his neighbor, Mun Chun Ja, 66, in May.

Before introduction of the lay judge system, which entails six citizens sitting with three professional judges to try serious criminal trials, Japan was the only Group of Eight nation whose public did not participate in criminal trials, according to the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. Japan had a jury system between 1928 and 1943, but only on a limited basis.

Many people remain reluctant to participate in the new system, in which they will have to reach verdicts and hand down sentences, including the death penalty, opinion polls show.

Fujii's trial is scheduled to last three days, followed by closed-door deliberations by the lay and professional judges, who are to decide the verdict based on evidence, and the possible sentence.

The verdict must be decided by a conditional majority vote where at least one professional judge must be included in the majority decision. The ruling is expected Thursday.

At about 1:20 p.m., the three professional judges first entered the courtroom and took their seats, followed by Fujii, who was escorted by guards to his seat next to his lawyers. The presiding judge, Yasuhiro Akiba, ordered them to remove his handcuffs and the rope around his waist.

Once Fujii was seated, two of the professional judges went out again to invite the six lay judges in. Five women and one man entered and took their seats on each side of the professional judges, who wore their traditional gowns. Three alternate lay judges, all men, followed the six lay judges in and sat behind them.

Previously, defendants entered the courtroom after all the judges took their seats. The change in the process was a compromise made by the Justice Ministry after the Japan Federation of Bar Associations argued that seeing defendants in handcuffs could have a negative influence on the lay judges. Defendants also used to sit in front of the lawyers.

According to the indictment, Fujii on May 1 stabbed Mun with a survival knife several times, causing her to die from loss of blood.

Mun was of Korean descent who also went by the name Haruko Bun and whose Japanese name was Chie Kojima.

In their opening statement, the prosecutors used a PowerPoint presentation to argue that Fujii, who had been on bad terms with Mun for a long time, took a knife out of his tool box during a verbal altercation to scare her.

They said Fujii has a criminal record, had a strong intent to kill Mun and chased her around with a knife, shouting he was going to kill her.

The defense, also using PowerPoint, said that although they will not deny that Fujii was the culprit, they will argue that he did not mean to murder her, did not chase her or shout that he was going to kill her.

They added that his previous criminal record had nothing to do with this incident.

Both parties tried to use plain language by elaborating on certain legal jargon. The lay judges appeared to listen intently as they used documents distributed by both parties to follow along with the presentations.

The prosecutors and defense are both expected to introduce four witnesses, including Mun's son.

Earlier in the day, the court selected the lay judges — a process closed to the public to protect their privacy.

According to the court, 47 prospective lay judges showed up at the courthouse in Chiyoda Ward as of 9:10 a.m. out of 49 who were summoned.

The law sets a maximum \100,000 fine for people who fail to show up to be a lay judge candidate on the designated date "without due reasons."

The candidates were given an orientation session. After a DVD presentation explaining what they were expected to do as lay judges, the candidates were briefed on the case by a court official and were asked to respond to a questionnaire asking whether they knew the defendant, the victim or their families, or if any serious hardship prevented them from serving through Thursday.

Afterward, presiding Judge Akiba greeted the candidates. In the presence of the two other judges and the prosecution and defense, Akiba directed a few questions to the group. Three people were asked to be interviewed privately.

After the interview, the judges, prosecutors and lawyers discussed whether any of the candidates should be dismissed due to questions of impartiality. The prosecution and defense are each entitled to excuse up to four people without giving reasons. It was not disclosed Monday how many were actually dismissed.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
Furuhashi, legendary swimmer, dead at 80

(Kyodo News) Legendary swimmer and former Japanese Olympic Committee President Hironoshin Furuhashi has died in Rome, where the swimming world championships are being held, a senior Japan Swimming Federation official said Sunday. He was 80.

Furuhashi, nicknamed the "Flying fish of Fujiyama," was discovered dead lying in his hotel room bed Sunday morning. The cause of death was not immediately known.

"After getting the mournful news, I really was completely in shock. I am very upset," said current JOC President Tsunekazu Takeda. "He was a JOC adviser who acted as a looking glass for us and he was the pride of the sports world. He was working tirelessly till the end in our bid to bring the (2016) Olympics to Tokyo."

A national hero who held a number of key posts in the sports world and was honorary president of the Japan Swimming Federation, Furuhashi set world records in the men's 400-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle events at the national championships in 1948.

He set the marks at the same time of the 1948 London Olympics, which Japan was not invited to participate in for its role in World War II.

His world marks eclipsed the winning times at the Olympics by a wide margin, but Furuhashi had to wait until the next year to become a national sensation when he set world records at the U.S. national swimming championships in L.A.

Furuhashi made his first Olympic appearance as the captain of the Japanese delegation at the 1952 Helsinki Games but finished a disappointing eighth place in the 400 freestyle, largely because he had contracted dysentery while attending a training tour to South America in 1950.

The U.S. media nicknamed him the "Flying Fish of Fujiyama." He is believed to have rewritten world records 33 times in his career. In 1990, Furuhashi became JOC president and made a name for himself as one of the most influential sports figures during his five terms at the head of the organization until retiring in 1999.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
Woman slain; grandchild wounded

(Kyodo News) A 78-year-old woman died and her 21-year-old granddaughter was in critical condition after being stabbed in their central Tokyo home Monday morning, allegedly by a man who was the granddaughter's customer at an ear-cleaning salon, police said.

The suspect, Koji Hayashi, a 41-year-old company employee from Chiba, was arrested at the scene by Metropolitan Police Department officers who received an emergency call at around 9 a.m. reporting "a fight using knives."

Yoshie Suzuki died shortly after the officers arrived at the home in Nishishimbashi, Minato Ward, near JR Shinbashi Station. Her granddaughter, Miho Ejiri, was not conscious, the officers said.

Hayashi allegedly told investigators there had been "various troubles" between Ejiri and him, and he went to her home to murder her.

Ejiri made an emergency call at around 11 p.m. July 19, saying one of her customers was lurking near her home that day, the investigators said, but it was unconfirmed whether the call was about Hayashi.

news20090804JT3

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
Rainy season over in Kinki, Tokai

NAGOYA (Kyodo) The rainy season appears to have ended in the Kinki region surrounding Osaka and the Tokai region centering on Nagoya, the latest end since 1951, the Meteorological Agency said Monday.

The previous record for the Kinki region was Aug. 1, 2003, and for the Tokai region was Aug. 2, 1954, according to the agency.

In 1993, the end of the rainy season could not be determined due to record low temperatures.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
Opponents see faults in new system

(Kyodo News) Lawyers and activists called Monday for abolishing the lay judge system, saying they doubt its constitutionality, as the system's first trial got under way at the Tokyo District Court.

"Forcing citizens to take over the state's task violates the freedom of thought and action," said lawyer Koichi Takeuchi, who organized a demonstration in Tokyo, adding that the system, which gives citizen judges only a few days to reach verdicts in trials involving serious crimes, will lead to sloppy decisions.

Some 300 people from across Japan marched around the court shouting "Stop the lay judge system" as they blew whistles and beat drums.

"Lay judge trials only force unwilling people to experience trials, and their conclusions will still be the same as those made by professional judges," lawyer Shunkichi Takayama said at the gathering.

Journalist Takao Saito said trials could become "public lynchings by citizens under the name of justice."


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
BeeTV shows coming to cell phone near you
By KAZUAKI NAGATA
Staff writer

BeeTV, a broadcast service for cell phones, is grabbing the spotlight in the mobile phone industry with aggressive promotions and original content featuring popular TV stars.

More than 550,000 people have signed up between May, when NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Avex Group Holdings launched the service, and July 21.

Industry analysts say BeeTV has the potential to become a power in the field.

"There are several things I am paying attention to," said Kenshi Tazaki, vice president of IT advisory firm Gartner Japan Ltd.

He said BeeTV could be used as a new marketing tool for advertisers because customers can choose the programs they want whenever they want and select them from the available lineups. Service providers and advertisers meanwhile can key in to viewers' preferences.

The future success of the service providers will be based on whether they can gain an understanding of users and offer content that caters to them, he added.

BeeTV's eagerness to expand the service can be seen in its aggressive promotion, having widely placed advertisements on places like trains and on regular TV.

It is also trying to appeal to users with content, all of which is original and features numerous TV celebrities.

The actors appearing in BeeTV dramas are by no means inferior to those who star in dramas broadcast by major TV stations.

Avex has focused on offering fare with popular TV figures, including actors Hiroki Narimiya, Mokomichi Hayami and Manami Konishi, for maximum viewer impact, particularly at the outset.

BeeTV is available on DoCoMo's i-mode, an exclusive mobile Web service for DoCoMo's some 50 million cell phone users.

Users can watch more than 20 original programs on eight channels, including dramas, music, comedies and "anime" (animation), for a monthly fee of \315.

Because people are still hesitant about watching lengthy videos on their cell phones, each program is about five to 10 minutes long, an Avex spokesman said.

Atsuro Sato, technology and communications analyst at Gartner, said that unlike Apple's iPhone, BeeTV is not a hardware service, so providing attractive content is natural.

Because BeeTV produces original content, it aims to widen its range with DVD, book and movie spinoffs, according to Avex.

What makes BeeTV unique is its business model. While other popular video Web sites, including YouTube, Nico Nico Douga and Gyao, are mostly free to watch and their income comes from advertisements, BeeTV relies on the \315 monthly user fee and currently does not have any ads.

Avex plans to attract about 3.5 million users by March 2013, and if the company succeeds it estimates it will reap some \3.5 billion in pretax profit in that fiscal year.

Tazaki said getting even a small monthly fee matters.

"If users watch content even though they have to pay, it means they have a desire to watch," he said, adding this is quite important in marketing.

BeeTV has an advantage as an advertising tool, he said, because content based on the demand of paying viewers can be more effective than conventional TV.

"Advertisers now doubt of it is worth paying to run ads on TV, since the effect is unknown," Sato said. Because of the fixed price and faster connection speed, the Internet service is becoming more rooted and attracting advertisers.

Analysts see marketing potential, but as far as ads are concerned BeeTV plans for now to rely on the monthly user fees, the Avex spokesman said.

Some BeeTV content is produced by content creators of major broadcasters, including Fuji TV.

To create attractive cell phone content, service providers must collaborate with existing broadcasters, Sato said, adding both sides will probably walk hand in hand.

The Avex spokesman said the company has no plan to compete with the existing broadcasting services.

The company hopes to succeed on its own and increase users and expand its business by creating quality original content, he said.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
Election 2009
DPJ to support BOJ autonomy
By KEIKO UJIKANE and KYOKO SHIMODOI

(Bloomberg) Members of the Democratic Party of Japan said they will support the Bank of Japan's independence if they win the election and govern for the first time.

"We should respect the central bank's independence on monetary policy," Tsutomu Okubo, a director of the Upper House Financial Committee, said last month. Masaharu Nakagawa, the DPJ shadow finance minister, said last week the party wouldn't exert pressure on the BOJ keep rates low.

BOJ policymakers have come under pressure from Liberal Democratic Party politicians when raising borrowing costs: former BOJ Gov. Masaru Hayami was told his job may be on the line before ending the bank's zero-interest-rate policy in August 2000.

"A politician shouldn't say the BOJ needs to raise or lower interest rates," said Okubo, 48, adding he sees no need for the central bank to take additional policy steps since it has lowered the key overnight lending rate to 0.1 percent and bought corporate debt. He indicated it may be too early to unwind those policy measures set in place to spur growth.

"The timing of the exit should be considered carefully because the global economy hasn't recovered yet," said Okubo, who is a former banker at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo. "There's a possibility that the global economy will experience a double-dip recession. We can't underestimate the possibility."

"In the beginning, the DPJ will probably be more respectful of the BOJ's independence," said Masaaki Kanno, chief economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo and a former BOJ official. "But it's questionable whether that honeymoon period will continue if the party has trouble governing and is held accountable."

The BOJ gained independence from the government in 1998. That didn't stop LDP lawmaker Hideyuki Aizawa from suggesting Hayami would be dismissed when the BOJ raised rates in 2000. The LDP's Hidenao Nakagawa said in November 2005 that the government might revise the law that guarantees the BOJ's autonomy if the bank undid its quantitative easing policy too quickly. The threats didn't affect policy decisions.

The DPJ last year blocked the appointment of Toshiro Muto, a former top bureaucrat at the Finance Ministry, as BOJ governor and prevented others from joining the board, saying their backgrounds as government officials compromised the central bank's independence.

Okubo said officials shouldn't hold governor or deputy governor posts at the BOJ.

Okubo also said enhancing trust in the dollar and Treasuries is beneficial for Japan and the country shouldn't change its reserve allocations for the time being.

In the long term, Japan should seek an efficient way to boost returns by, for instance, shifting some of the foreign reserves to government-owned agencies such as the Development Bank of Japan by using currency swaps, Okubo said.

He also said International Monetary Fund bonds may be attractive to boost returns on foreign reserves if the securities offer higher yields than those on U.S. Treasuries.

Okubo, the DPJ's shadow vice minister for banking regulation, also said he agrees with Nakagawa's call for asking the U.S. to sell debt denominated in yen, or samurai bonds, as a way to diversify reserves and promote the globalization of the Japanese currency. Okubo recommended asking the U.S. to issue 30-year samurai bonds.

news20090804JT4

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
Ozawa to run on Iwate home turf

(Kyodo News) The Democratic Party of Japan said Monday former President Ichiro Ozawa will run on his home turf in Iwate Prefecture in the Aug. 30 election, formally abandoning a plan to pit him against a major ruling coalition candidate.

Before Ozawa, 67, resigned in May from the DPJ's top post amid a fundraising scandal, the party had considered fielding him against a key member of New Komeito, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's junior partner, possibly its chief, Akihiro Ota, in his Tokyo district.

But Ozawa, who has since served as deputy DPJ president in charge of election strategy, will run in the Iwate No. 4 district, from which he has been elected since 1969, including the period before the district was whittled down under 1994 electoral reform.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
FYI
CAMPAIGNS
Strict rules in play to keep campaigning above board
By MASAMI ITO
Staff writer

Since Prime Minister Taro Aso dissolved the Lower House last month and announced Aug. 18 would be the official start of campaigning for the Aug. 30 general election, hundreds of undeclared candidates have been making the rounds to attract voters.

But both before Aug. 18 and afterward, they will be subject to a raft of detailed campaign regulations. And all it takes is one slip, whether by a candidate or an aide, to jeopardize what could otherwise be a successful campaign.

Are candidates bound by legal campaign limits?

Yes. The official start of Lower House campaigns must be at least 12 days before election day. Determined by the Cabinet, this period is almost always 12 days long. Candidates cannot engage in formal campaigning before the kickoff date. (Upper House elections and gubernatorial races allow for 17 days of campaigning.)

In 1977, the Supreme Court defined election campaign activities as the necessary and effective actions needed for a candidate to be elected. During the official campaign period, people can declare their candidacy, specify which election is being campaigned for and solicit votes.

They face many restrictions as well.

What activities are restricted during the campaign period?

The Public Offices Election Law prohibits candidates from canvassing door to door. This supposedly prevents vote-buying or bribery.

But according to "Jiyu Ni Dekiru Senkyo Katsudo" ("Unrestricted Election Activities"), published by Kamogawa Co., "individual meetings" are not illegal. The book states that various cases would not fall under "door-to-door canvassing" if a home visit is ostensibly for noncampaign purposes. A candidate may also ask for votes from people encountered on the street, or in a store or other public venue.

What can candidates do as far as campaigning?

Soapbox speeches with loudspeakers are permitted between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. if the candidate displays a special flag distributed by the Election Administration Commission.

Even without microphones, candidates can still give speeches. They are often found outside train stations or other areas with high pedestrian traffic. Candidates engage in "tsuji-dachi" (standing on street corners), picking strategic locations to hail passersby early in the morning or early evening during peak commute times.

A candidate may ply the streets of an electoral district between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in clearly identified campaign cars blaring speeches and loaded with waving supporters.

Naturally, politicians also turn out at local events like festivals where they can press the flesh to build name recognition.

What about the time before the official campaign kickoff?

By law, candidates are prohibited from engaging in campaigning except for the designated time before the election, but they have the right to freedom of political activities. The Public Offices Election Law separates election campaigning from political activities, saying the goal of the former is to get elected while the latter is a promotion of a general political objective or policy .

Most political activities before campaigning starts are unrestricted.

Posters to announce lectures or speeches bearing the potential candidate's image can be put up as long as they don't identify the person as a candidate for a specific election.

But these posters must be taken down six months before the end of the legislator's term, which currently for the Lower House is Sept. 10, so those bearing individual photos should have been removed by now.

Then why are there still posters around with the faces of candidates?

The six-months rule applies to individuals but not to political parties. So if the candidate is expected to run on a party ticket, that person can still have posters up advertising a party-sponsored gathering.

These posters, however, must bear at least two faces — usually one is a future candidate of the district along with a popular figure in the party, such as its leader.

A close look will reveal that the future candidates are identified as "speakers" and information such as the dates of lectures will be included.

Once campaigning starts, candidates can put up individual posters on the official public notice boards.

Can candidates update their Web sites once the official campaign kicks off?

No. The law prohibits candidates in Lower House single-seat districts from distributing any sort of "writing and illustrations" aside from two types of fliers with a maximum of 70,000 leaflets, and 35,000 postcards. Updating a Web site or blog is banned.

Hiroshi Miura, who runs Ask Co., a political PR consultancy in Tokyo, slammed this system as "out of date" and a "mistake." Since 1998, the Democratic Party of Japan has submitted a revision of the Public Offices Election Law four times to the Diet to allow Internet campaigning. The party also included a clause in its 2009 policy platform to ban this restriction.

Although there have been some inside the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc who have voiced deep concern over the possibility of anonymous slandering of candidates via the Internet, it is Miura's guess that in two or three years online campaigning will be legal.

Permitting campaigning over the Net "would enable candidates without money to be able to run a fair campaign," Miura said. The Internet "would cut costs for the candidates."

On average, how much does it cost to wage a campaign?

Election strategist Miura said the cost ranges from anywhere between several million to tens of millions of yen. A lot of the money is used for the campaign office and its staff. The amount depends on how far in advance the candidate opens the office, its location and the number of people staffing it.

But Miura stressed that compared with other countries, political campaigns in Japan are not that expensive, and many candidates are being "creative" in cutting costs, like renting space in a convenience store that has gone out of business.

What do "uguisu-jo" do?

The term, a combination of "uguisu" (bush warbler) and "jo" (young woman), denotes official female members of a candidate's campaign. Their job is to ride along in the campaign car with the candidate and drum up voter support.

While most campaign supporters work for free because the law strictly forbids bribery, the office staff, uguisu-jo and sign-language interpreters are permitted to receive daily wages. The office staff get up to \10,000 while specialists like the uguisu-jo and interpreters get up to \15,000.

If monetary payment is banned, what about food and drinks?

Candidates are not allowed in principle to even provide food or drinks for most of their staff or anybody else. They are allowed to buy boxed lunches for up to \1,000 per person or up to \3,000 per day for 15 members of the campaign staff. Tea and snacks are exempt.

"Election campaign basics should not entail hiring people," political consultant Miura said. "People should come together to support the candidate as volunteers to make sure the person gets elected."

Are all of these restrictions really necessary?

Political campaigning in Japan is definitely different from the U.S., where there are very few restrictions. Miura pointed out that in the United States and Europe, the basic rule is freedom, with some restrictions, whereas in Japan regulations come first.

He added it is difficult to say which is better because Japan's rules are meant to ensure a fair campaign for all candidates.

"The fundamental idea of the Japanese government is equal opportunity," Miura said. Japan lays strict regulations on campaigning because "it is believed to be unfair if (the campaign) depends on how well-funded the candidate is."

news20090804JT5

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[LIFE IN JAPAN]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
JUST BE CAUSE
Unlike humans, swine flu is indiscriminate
By DEBITO ARUDOU

The biggest news a few months ago, now affecting every prefecture in Japan, has blipped off our radar screens. For the time being.

I'm talking about the H1N1 swine flu virus that originated in Mexico, took wing across oceans and continents, and eventually settled down here despite our government's panicky measures.

Time to learn some lessons. We need to prevent a public panic from once again causing discrimination against the ill.

H1N1 was first reported last March in Mexico, with an apparently high mortality rate. It was also newsworthy because for the first time we were charting a new virus from patient zero in real time.

But ideas spread faster than viruses. Once the former reached our fine land, Prime Minister Taro Aso, afraid of being seen as a "do-nothing" in the face of looming elections, turned uncharacteristically proactive — as in, taking measures against the outside world.

This is a government, remember, which institutes laws expressly targeting foreigners in the name of, quote, "effective prevention of infectious diseases and terrorism." So, predictably, we prescribed hypochondriac policies against them.

Almost immediately our shores were scrubbed. Airports instituted (fortunately, pervasive and noninvasive) heat scanners to track cowls of fever. Ground staff donned violet spacesuits that, though not hermetic, were plenty intimidating. Whole countries were suddenly scarlet-lettered into no-go zones just because of a domestic case or two.

Conditions soon deteriorated. The first people diagnosed with H1NI in Japan were incoming foreign tourists. They were quarantined in hotels (not hospitals) with nothing but instant curry rice for company. Arriving international flights were grounded for hours while everyone was screened. The government forced international conferences to cancel because they might attract foreigners. Mainichi and Kyodo reported hospitals turning away feverish Japanese who happened to have foreign friends.

Just when it looked like we were going to go all SARS-scare again (when Japanese hotels in 2003 were refusing all foreigners just because one Taiwanese tourist caught that new variety of pneumonia), Golden Week intervened. Japanese returning from vacation imported contagion. It was no longer a "foreign" virus.

In a sense, good: That pre-empted pseudo-scientists from espousing the ever-resurfacing canards of Japan's tribal invulnerability. (During SARS, these dunderheads were even theorizing, for example, that Japanese speakers spread less disease because they don't spit when talking.)

But that didn't immunize the public against discrimination. Taking advantage of the anonymity offered by the phone and Internet, Japanese patients received bullying messages and phone calls warning them not to spread their pox, as if these Typhoid Marys had become brain-dead zombies ready to bite Japanese society into dystopia.

The media propagated it further. Drafting the assistance of over-cooperative airlines, news broadcasts reported the seating arrangements of infected people. Then panelists wondered if anyone within a two-meter radius (the reputed range of the virus) of these individuals could rejoin our healthy society.

They even filmed airport quarantine rooms, where sweaty-handed bureaucrats tape-measured a two-meter distance between chairs down to the centimeter. Like Aso, everyone was so afraid of being seen to do nothing that they did too much.

Finally, Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe called for reason: Calm down, everyone. It's just the flu! Not much different than what we get every season.

Good, but this too is symptomatic: It's usually not until Japanese become the target of discrimination that government agencies try to soothe the hotheads.

Let's learn our lessons already. This will not be the last pandemic we experience in our lifetimes. The media is predicting a second round of H1N1 within a year. Even if that doesn't happen, we will undoubtedly track future bugs in real time as they spread and sicken. That's what bugs do — that's how they survive. And it seems whipping up public fear is how media networks survive.

But if humankind itself is to survive, with any degree of integrity and protection for the people in weakened circumstances, we must learn not to succumb to what perpetually plagues the human condition: ignorance and panic. If people don't keep a sense of perspective, they could wreak more damage than the flu did.

So let's keep our radar screens on how these cycles of discrimination recur.

Beware the poxy mouths of irresponsible media, spreading misleading data from panic-addled pundits and profiting pharmaceutical companies (you think surgical masks actually filter out microscopic viruses?). Also, question the government's readiness to treat Japan as a hermetically sealable island, walling it off from foreigners.

These are unhealthy trends that authorities rarely reflect upon or forsake. They even officially encourage the wagging tongues and clacking keyboards of anonymous ignorant, petulant bullies. The government might keep the germ out, but they won't stop infectious ideas breeding and hurting people anyway.

So the lessons to be learned: Let cool heads prevail over feverish rumor; let sensible precautions and accurate information prevail over quick-fix elixirs and snake-oil social science; and for heaven's sake, stop blaming the victim for being sick!

Above all, let everyone realize that infections, unlike people, are indiscriminate.


[LIFE IN JAPAN]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
VIEWS FROM THE STREET
What's your definition of happiness?
By Louisa Chan

Bubbles Jamola, 23
Engineer (Filipino)
It's about being content with what you already have, but at the same time being optimistic and pursuing your dreams. It's also important to be with the people you love.

Gary Baley, 63
English teacher (U.S.)
Being in love. I've been married to a beautiful Japanese woman for eight years and we have a lovely daughter. If love can't make you happy, what can?

Jos Nakamura, 33
Small business owner
It's the ability to overcome problems. It's important to be courageous and not fear change. To have a happy life we need to recognize and accept problems, then move on.

MacKenzie Mathis, 28
Filmmaker (American)
Happiness is an undefinable kind of thing. It's everywhere. You just have to recognize it. Anything can make you happy if it happens at the right time. It's all relative.

Ryutaro Kawabata, 18
Student (Japanese)
Happiness for me is very simple. It's about communicating with people from all over the world. I'm very inquisitive. I like learning about customs and cultures.

Byron Baron, 25
Student (Maltese)
There are many challenges in life, but once we can overcome them we can find true happiness. Sometimes we need someone we trust to help us.

news20090804JT6

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[LIFE IN JAPAN]
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
WHO'S WHO
Spontaneous Japanese TV keeps Dave Spector on his toes
By EDAN CORKILL
By Staff writer

Michael Jackson's death meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For Japanese television celebrity Dave Spector, it meant being woken on the morning of June 26 at 6 a.m. and spending most of the next two weeks either studying or commenting on the performer for the benefit of Japanese television audiences.

"The extent of the interest has surprised me," the 55-year-old Chicago-native said late last month. "But, you know, there are so many angles to the story, so many unanswered questions."

And, as has become the norm whenever major news breaks in the English-speaking world, Spector has been busy appearing on dozens of programs, helping the Japanese viewers make sense of it all.

Dave Spector originally came to Japan as a producer with the American television program "Ripley's Believe It or Not," back in 1983.

By then he had already developed a love of reading "manga" comics, consequently, acquired Japanese language skills and married a Japanese, Kyoko, whom he had met in the U.S.

Having also been a child actor, Spector did not hesitate to step in front of the camera when invited by some of the Japanese producers he worked with.

"At first I played the role of the goofball 'gaijin' (foreigner)," Spector said, recalling making an ass of himself on programs such as live-to-air daytime variety show "Waratte Iitomo" ("It's OK to Laugh"). "Then I was asked to be on more serious programs and now I kind of have the best of both worlds, being the gaijin talent, but also being a serious commentator."

Having been paid to opine for over two decades, Spector has any number of insights to share, particularly on his favorite topics: the Japanese television and entertainment industries.

"You know, when I tell people in the States that I work on television in Japan, the first thing they say is, 'Oh, and what program do you do?' " he said. "It's never in the plural, because they don't understand that celebrities in Japan don't just appear on one show. You do a whole lot of different ones each week."

That distinction stems, he says, from a fundamental difference in the approach to television here. "In Japan there are so many live programs. You know, you have five channels going head to head with live programming in the morning, daytime and then on some nighttime slots, too.

"Compared to the U.S., where most of it is shot in big studios months in advance, the television here is so much more spontaneous." And hence the 6 a.m. wakeup call when Michael Jackson died and, later that day, a two-hour memorial program scrambled to air by Fuji Television, in which Spector also appeared.

Spector often finds himself comparing and, invariably, defending Japanese television in comparisons with its American and foreign equivalents. For many non-Japanese viewers, TV here seems to be dominated by trivial and superficial chat shows. And Spector, the most visible foreign face bobbing around on that apparent sea of inanity, tends to be viewed with bewilderment, cynicism or even jealousy.

Spector takes umbrage with the original premise. Asked whether sweeping condemnations of Japanese TV are really off the mark, he quickly replied: "That's a completely false assumption. Granted on the surface it can look very silly and juvenile, but there is some excellent programming that can put U.S. television to shame.

"There are some very intelligent quiz shows that don't even exist in America," he continued. "I mean, NHK has a program devoted to art! Fascinating!"

Spector does agree with the detractors on one genre, though: television dramas.

Speaking in English, he launched into the kind of critical flourish for which he has become famous for delivering, on air, in flawless Japanese.

"The dramas are awful. I was the first person in line to say that. The acting is bad. They have low production values, no sense of script. They've never excelled at that. They're just bad," he said.

He explained that the main problem was the system by which prominent nonactor celebrities are given lead roles. The directors and writers, he added, don't understand why U.S. dramas such as "24" are so successful.

"You look at Glenn Close in 'Damages' or James Gandolfini in 'The Sopranos.' Japanese drama directors can see that, 'Oh, this is like a movie.' But they don't understand the acting difference, or the idiosyncrasies of the script, or the subtleness of the humor," he said.

He jumped into another hyperbolic riff: "I would suggest they just stop making dramas for two years, have a moratorium and force directors and writers to sit in hotel rooms or something. They should like tape them up and force them to watch foreign dramas for a year or something. That's the only way to get them to understand."

Much of Spector's on-air commentary relates to foreign news. And while he doesn't resort to duct tape and rope, he endeavors nonetheless to expand Japanese viewers' understanding of issues that might otherwise get only limited coverage.

"People say, 'Oh, these days almost any news is available in Japanese language — on the Internet or in wire services,' " he said. "Yes, it is, but it is only the kernel of the news."

Explaining that much Japanese coverage of foreign stories consists simply of translations from English-language newspapers, he said, "If you read both, you can see where they cut off the translation. There are all these other paragraphs, all this detail, that they just don't go into in Japanese."

That's where Spector steps in.

Before each appearance on a Japanese TV show, such as Fuji's "Tokudane!" where he has a regular Wednesday spot, he arms himself not just with copious background information, but with clippings or video grabs that he himself has negotiated with foreign media outlets for the right to use.

He is then able to show and describe some new aspect to a story, such as the details of the raid on Michael Jackson's doctor's office, which had occurred the day before he spoke to The Japan Times.

"You know, if you look back at the last few decades, the most successful commentators on Japanese TV are the ones who were able to read and digest information in English," he explained, emphasizing that his own success is due in part to his ability to digest large amounts of information in English and then turn it into Japanese commentary.

The other key is to know exactly how and to what extent he should unleash his frequently barbed criticisms. "So many types of people watch TV that if you make any kind of blanket statement then someone is going to get hurt," he said.

"Like, even with these so-called "seshu" (hereditary Diet members) who everyone criticizes. They are often better than their fathers, because their fathers are just country bumpkins! But the sons might have been to Temple University or lived overseas.

"Some of them are very sharp — sharper than their fathers. So even there you can't just make a blanket statement."

Now that the Michael Jackson stories are subsiding a little, Spector is increasingly asked to comment on Japanese politics.

"They know I'll say something different — and I'm not Japanese, so I'm not going to suddenly launch my own political career — so I'm a safe choice," he said with a laugh.

And what does he say about the upcoming election?

"It's the old-fashioned way they do elections here and you can say what you will," he started. "But this is the first time the opposition actually has a chance to win.

"So it's the first time the Japanese are actually going to choose their government. The first time ever. So, you can criticize it, sure. But it is such an important election."

Spector clearly relishes the chance to talk about domestic issues — as opposed to always playing the role of window on the world.

"It's like I'm part of the establishment now," he said. "I've been doing this for so long that some people have sort of grew up with me. It's like I'm part of the furniture."

news20090804LAT

[Today's Newspaper] from [Los Angeles Times]

[TOP NEWS]
Bill Clinton visits North Korea in bid to free journalists
The former president's surprise mission is aimed at negotiating the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who have been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry.
By John M. Glionna and Paul Richter
August 4, 2009

Reporting from Washington and Seoul -- Former President Clinton arrived in North Korea today in a dramatic bid to negotiate the release of two American TV journalists sentenced to 12 years in prison for illegally entering the secretive nation earlier this year.

Clinton, the husband of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, is the highest-profile U.S. official to visit North Korea in nearly a decade. His surprise visit comes as Washington presses other nations to curb ties with the country, which recently resumed its nuclear program and tested ballistic missiles in defiance of United Nations resolutions.

In Washington, a person familiar with the mission said the negotiations leading to Clinton's trip "lasted for months."

He said that although North Korea's nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, was among those who received Clinton at the airport, the former president's goals were strictly humanitarian, and he had no intention to delve into the disputed disarmament issues.

Among the officials deeply involved in the negotiations was Sen. John F. Kerry, (D-MA), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee of San Francisco-based Current TV were taken into custody in March near the border with China while reporting on refugees fleeing North Korea. They were sentenced to hard labor for illegal entry and "hostile acts."

Lisa Ling, the sister of reporter Laura Ling, said Monday that the family could not comment on the report.

"Everything is just so delicate," she said. "We're going to wait it out a while longer. We're on pins and needles."

White House and State Department officials declined to comment on the mission, as did a spokeswoman for former Vice President Al Gore, a co-founder of Current TV. But another U.S. official, who declined to be identified, confirmed the mission. He said the Clintons were approached by the journalists' families when it became clear the North Koreans would permit a visit.

U.S. officials and North Korea watchers have predicted for some time that Pyongyang could be open to a visit from a high-ranking dignitary to discuss the women's imprisonment.

With its love of pomp and circumstance, North Korea in the past has used celebrity visits for propaganda, trying to show that the outside world validates its system of government.

Scott Snyder of the nonprofit Asia Foundation said Clinton's standing as a world statesman carried weight with Pyongyang.

"The North Koreans have a lot of nostalgia for the end of the Clinton administration," he said.

"The question is going to be how could he go to Pyongyang without some assurance that they would be released," Snyder said.

"For someone at his level to go without a prior assurance of some kind would be to risk a huge loss of face."

The mission is especially delicate because U.S.-North Korean relations have fallen to a low point in recent months as the North has conducted a nuclear test, test-fired a series of missiles and broken off long-running disarmament talks.

U.S. officials have been debating whether to send an envoy. The mission poses the risk that the North will try to link the release to concessions on the nuclear issue, an effort the U.S. will want to resist, officials say.

Clinton's mission represents his first role for the Obama administration and another chapter in the two Clintons' long-intertwined public lives. Although Bill Clinton has not yet traveled with his wife in her official capacity as top U.S. diplomat, aides have not ruled out that the former president, who is involved in a number of international causes, would take part in some activity related to American diplomacy.

The visit comes at a time when the 67-year-old leader Kim Jong Il is reported to be gravely ill, having had a stroke last summer and, according to South Korean media reports, possibly suffering from pancreatic cancer.

Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS, a Honolulu-based think tank, said Clinton's visit will give the United States a rare opportunity to assess not only Kim's health, but who is actually making the decisions in North Korea.

"For me, this is a stroke of genius on the part of the Obama administration," said Cossa. "Kim Jong Il will have to meet with a former U.S. president. Given his ego and desire for attention, this is a photo opportunity he doesn't want to miss. If he doesn't meet with Clinton, we'll know he is on life support."

Neither the White House nor the State Department has said whether a meeting with the North Korean leader is planned.

An irony in the choice of Clinton is that Hillary Clinton and North Korean officials have recently engaged in a round of unusual name calling. She compared the regime to schoolchildren clamoring for attention, while the North Koreans described her as a "funny lady" and a pensioner.

But Hillary Clinton has been deeply involved in the case of the two journalists and has been trying to separate it from the larger U.S.-North Korean security dispute. At a recent town hall meeting at the State Department, Clinton sought to make progress by conveying the women's regret for what they had done and asking for amnesty.

"The two journalists and their families have expressed great remorse for this incident, and I think everyone is very sorry that it happened," she said during a question-and- answer session with State Department employees.


"What we hope for now is that these two young women would be granted amnesty through the North Korean system and be allowed to return home to their families as soon as possible."

Yet even as she has been pushing for the women's release, Clinton and the administration have been taking a very tough line on North Korea's behavior. Officials have insisted that they are not going to offer the North more incentives to return to the group disarmament talks.

Instead, they say North Korea must follow through on commitments to dismantle existing nuclear facilities and take steps toward eventual disarmament.

U.S. officials have been leading an effort to crack down on the North through tightened scrutiny of its ships and planes for arms that have been banned under a U.N. Security Council resolution. It is also trying to organize an international effort to cut the North off from the financing it has used to support its weapons trade.

Pyongyang's state media organ, the Korean Central News Agency, announced in a terse release that Bill Clinton had arrived in Pyongyang, the capital.

He and an undisclosed entourage "were greeted by Yang Hyong Sop, vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Kim Kye Gwan, vice minister of foreign affairs," the release said.

A little girl presented a bouquet to Clinton, it added.

Jang Cheol-hyeon, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Strategy and a former official at North Korea's Unification Front Department, said Clinton's visit was the best chance the U.S. has to win the reporters' release.

"He can surely bring the two journalists back home," he said.

Lee Woo-young, a professor at the University of North Korean studies in Seoul, said Clinton's sudden visit suggested some behind-the-scenes negotiations had been taking place.

"It seems that this visit met some part of what North Korea has wanted," he said. "They wanted U.S. officials on the high-ranking level to come. This will have a positive effect in improving U.S.-North Korea relations."

Beyond the immediate issue of the journalists, Clinton's visit is an enormous publicity coup for Pyongyang, which has been seeking U.S. recognition for decades.

Clinton is the most important visitor since his secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 2000. It was thought at the time the meeting might pave the way for regular diplomatic relations and possibly a visit by Clinton, as a sitting president, but relations fell into a deep chill after George W. Bush entered the White House.

Former President Carter met with North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung, shortly before his death in 1994 and struck a handshake deal on nuclear dismantlement.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, at the time a congressman, was used as a high-profile delegate in 1996 to secure the release of a U.S. citizen who swam across the Yalu River into North Korea.

But most high-ranking visitors to Pyongyang in recent years have been Chinese officials, though those visits have recently been curtailed because of U.N. sanctions imposed after North Korea's May 25 nuclear test.

news20090804NYT

[Today's Newspaper] from [The New York Times]

[Business]
Spurring Sales, Car Rebate Plan Is Left Up in Air
By MATTHEW L. WALD and NICK BUNKLEY
Published: August 3, 2009

WASHINGTON — The fate of the “cash for clunkers” program remained uncertain on Monday even as sales figures from automakers demonstrated that people had flocked to dealers to trade in old gas guzzlers.

The White House urged the Senate to add $2 billion to the program, as the House voted to do last Friday before leaving for its August recess. Still, dealers around the country stopped promising the rebates to car shoppers on Monday, because of uncertainty about how much of the $1 billion initially allocated had been used up, or when or whether more money would be available. The Senate begins its recess this Friday.

The short-term tonic of the first billion dollars was evident, though, in sales figures that automakers reported Monday. New-vehicle sales rose last month to the highest level in nearly a year, and in the final week of July, cars and trucks were rolling off dealers’ lots at almost the same rate they had before the recession began.

Dealers estimated that they sold a quarter-million cars with the rebate money.

And the Transportation Department reported that the average gas mileage of the vehicles being bought was significantly higher than required to qualify for a rebate of $3,500 to $4,500. Of 120,000 rebate applications processed so far, the department said the average gas mileage of cars being bought was 28.3 miles per gallon, for S.U.V.’s, 21.9 miles per gallon, and for trucks, 16.3 miles per gallon.
“The statistics are much better than anybody dreamed they would be,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California. The actual mileage gain so far, she said, was not due to the details of the law but “the good judgment of the American people.”

Senator Feinstein, along with Senator Susan M. Collins, Republican of Maine, was the author of an early version of a “cash for clunkers” bill that would have required bigger improvements in mileage. Their decision to express support for extending the current version of the program, at a news conference late Monday afternoon, was an important signal to other senators concerned about whether the program was doing enough for the environment.

Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, an early backer of the Feinstein-Collins approach, also voiced support for an extension. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he said. “It’s working in every way. It’s working as stimulus, it’s working to help families, it’s working to improve mileage.”

The White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said at his daily briefing that President Obama would lobby for the extension of the program on Tuesday when the 60 Democratic senators came to the White House for lunch.

“It’s good for dealers and auto manufacturers,” Mr. Gibbs said. “It’s good for our energy security and our environment.”

But the prospects for renewal were still uncertain.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, said of the statements by the three senators, “This is encouraging news, but in the Senate, where any one senator can stall things, we still need to reach agreement with the Republicans so we can get this through the chamber.”

The program squeaked through the Senate the first time it came up, passing 60-36, the minimum needed under Senate rules. In contrast, the House voted 298 to 119 to provide the initial $1 billion for the program. On Friday the vote to add $2 billion more was 316 to 109.

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said Monday on the Senate floor that the Obama administration had botched the execution of the program by miscalculating how popular it would be. This was a reason to be more deliberate in acting on a health care overhaul, he said.

Mr. McConnell did not, however, speak out against adding $2 billion to the clunker program, though his spokesman, Don Stewart, said some Republicans had “real objections to it,” because it was borrowing the $2 billion from one loan program — at the Energy Department — and funneling it to another.

The program, formally known as the Car Allowance Rebate System, was meant to last until Nov. 1 or as long as the money lasted. But the program basically ran out of money within the first week as dealers submitted applications to the Transportation Department for a quarter-million cars they had sold in July.

Auto dealers have been uncertain about how to handle new applications for the program since Thursday night, when the administration sent mixed signals about the future of the program.

In Houston on Monday, one dealer, George DeMontrond, said, “We are not going to do anymore until we get further information.”

Noting the two potential levels of rebates, he said, “at $3,500 to $4,500 a car, that is the difference between making a little money and losing a lot. We’re not prepared to take that risk until we fully understand what’s going to happen next.”

In Detroit, the automakers acknowledged sales were certain to drop off again when the trade-in program ended — whether immediately or later this year — and they conceded that there was a long way to go before the industry could climb out of its disastrous slump.

At the Ford Motor Company, sales rose 2.3 percent in July, the company’s first year-over-year sales increase in nearly two years and the first for any of the six largest automakers since last August. Ford’s compact sedan, the Focus, was the top-selling vehicle bought by those who turned in a clunker to be scrapped, the government said.

“We’re seeing people that we haven’t seen in years and years and years, coming back to where they bought the car 10 years ago,” said Patrick Dazzo, the general manager of Joe Rizza Ford Lincoln Mercury in North Riverside, Ill. “I had every person in my dealership working nonstop. It was great. Very encouraging.”

Three other automakers — Hyundai, Kia and Subaru — also reported increases. Detroit’s other car companies, Chrysler and General Motors, still sold fewer vehicles than they did a year ago, but the declines of 9 percent and 19 percent, respectively, were much smaller than in recent months.

No automaker revealed how many of its sales were to people who traded in a clunker, except Hyundai, which said the program accounted for 22 percent of sales. Ford and others said they did not know which sales were part of the program but could tell that it was a significant factor based on the types of vehicles sold, the fact that sales suddenly jumped after July 24 and anecdotal reports from dealers.

Even so, sales are down 32 percent compared with the first seven months of 2008.

news20090804WP

[Today's Newspaper] fom [The Washington Post]

[Nation]
Strategy On Flu Under Revision
U.S. Officials to Put Less Emphasis on School Closings
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 4, 2009

The Obama administration is finalizing guidelines that would scale back when the federal government recommends closing schools in response to the swine flu pandemic, several people involved in the deliberations said Monday.

More targeted guidance would mark a change in the government's approach from this spring, when health officials suggested that schools shut down at the first sign of the H1N1 virus. They later relaxed that advice.

This fall, federal authorities would recommend closures only under "extenuating circumstances," such as if a campus has many children with underlying medical conditions, a senior U.S. health official involved in the talks said. The official added that discussions are continuing and that no decision has been made.

Schools also might be advised to close if many students or staff members are already sick or otherwise absent, officials said.

"The framework is to try to keep schools open to the extent possible," the senior health official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the White House has not completed its review of the issue.

School closings this past spring raised questions about whether closings slow the spread of H1N1 and are worth the educational and economic cost. The federal government's decision could have a far-reaching effect on tens of millions of Americans, the economy and other countries wrestling with similar choices.

President Obama's top scientific advisers, Cabinet members and national security aides are racing to update the government's flu strategy before the school year begins this month, when infections are expected to surge -- particularly among young people.

Decisions on school closings will be made locally because the flu's severity varies geographically and because local and state governments have authority over school and public health matters, officials said. Federal guidance could change if the virus becomes more virulent or lethal, officials said.

John O. Brennan, the deputy national security adviser who chaired two Cabinet-level meetings in the White House last week to coordinate H1N1 planning, said the internal debate is intended to "think through all the angles" and avoid "knee-jerk" decisions. He said it is too soon to predict the outcome.

"There will be circumstances where it makes sense to close schools, but what we are trying to do is refine" those instances, he said.

U.S. authorities will release within days other "community-mitigation" measures, intended to help keep businesses operating, help hospitals avoid being overwhelmed and guide local authorities in deciding whether to cancel public events, officials said.

Experts say such decisions are timely because of the quickly approaching fall flu season.

The H1N1 virus does not appear to be more lethal than seasonal flu, but it might be two or three times as infectious and is expected to hit young, healthy people and schools especially hard.

On average, about 36,000 Americans a year die of seasonal flu, and more than 200,000 are hospitalized, most of them elderly or already ill. By contrast, most H1N1 cases involve people younger than 18, and children are more infectious than adults, the British medical journal Lancet reported last month.

Advocates of school closings say it is among the best options to slow a pandemic -- and thus reduce deaths and the strain on hospitals.

Following a pandemic plan that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published in early 2007, Obama on April 29 urged U.S. schools with confirmed or suspected flu cases to strongly consider closing for as much as two weeks. The advice came amid a spiraling H1N1 outbreak in Mexico.

More than 700 schools nationwide dismissed nearly a half-million students within days.

But the CDC stepped back May 4, noting that the disease did not appear as lethal as feared and recommending that sick students and staff members stay home for seven days. U.S. officials agreed to revisit the issue by fall.

Education officials said they felt bound to respect what federal officials were telling them, but they decried the effect of the closures, particularly the lost instruction time.

Federal officials proposed school closings after studying the outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and avian flu in Asia earlier this decade, examining the 1918 and 1957 flu pandemics and using new computer models.

But opponents of school closings said that the research relied on unrealistic assumptions and overlooked real-world factors.

Schools would have to stay shut for the duration of a pandemic for closings to work, they say, which could have serious economic consequences. Parents staying home to tend their children would cause widespread financial losses.

Critics of school closings also note the tension between the main objectives of the government's flu response: to minimize illness and death and to limit social disruption.

The Lancet study reported that school closings could help slow the pandemic, but a 12-week closure in the United States or United Kingdom could cost 1 percent to 6 percent of gross domestic product.
Brennan said U.S. authorities are acting now with a "better understanding" of the virus, based on cases here and in the Southern Hemisphere, where flu season is in full swing. Earlier plans were premised on containing a deadlier outbreak that spread from Asia, not a milder form that began, and is already widespread, in North America, officials said.

Neil M. Ferguson, a leading CDC modeler, said the public might be the final decider. He said that people won't accept mass disruption unless the flu is severe and that then they may demand it.

The trouble with waiting is that school closings, to be effective, should be applied before an outbreak peaks, not when it is at its worst.

"Clearly there's some level of flu where it's worth closing the schools and some level of flu where it's not," Marc Lipsitch, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, who sits on an external board that is advising the CDC. "The problem here is it's not obvious to everyone which situation we're in."

If health officials see a change in the pandemic, the government will need to alter course again, he said. "It won't necessarily be smooth, but it will have to happen."

news20090804GCU1

[Environment] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Mining]
Obama's green credentials tested by battle against mountaintop mining
James Hansen and Darryl Hannah among those opposing open-cast coal extraction that destroys mountains and forests
Suzanne Goldenberg in West Virginia
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 August 2009 13.27 BST
Article history

It is still technically possible to see the original white paint of Larry Gibson's pick-up truck beneath the myriad of stickers declaring his love of West Virginia's mountains and his opposition to coal mining.

But it would be a mistake to see the truck as mere conveyance. This is a mobile command centre in Gibson's one-man 25-year war against King Coal and the highly destructive mining method known as mountaintop removal.

Windscreen-mounted video camera in working order? Check. CB Radio on to listen for miners arriving for their shifts? Check. Luminous green t-shirt and cap for maximum visibility? Check. And Gibson, who is about five feet tall and in his 60s is usually armed, like many people in this part of West Virginia.

"The mountains in West Virginia are the oldest in the world and now they are gone in the blink of an eye," he said. "I am the man who is holding the fort down here. I am the man holding them back."

Mountaintop removal begins with the clear-cutting of entire forests and then the shearing off up to 1,000 vertical feet of mountain peak. This exposes thin seams of coal that cannot easily be reached by underground tunnels.

Some 500 mountaintops across West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky have already been replaced by dry flat plateau, and 1,200 mountain streams have been buried beneath dumped rock and dirt. By 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 2,200 square miles of Appalachian forest will disappear.

At some sites, the mining companies try to rebuild the silhouette of the old mountain, or replant. But mostly they leave the mountain missing its crest. In any event, nothing ever grows on the land again, locals say.

Kayford Mountain, or what Gibson calls his home place, is one of the frontline positions in an epic confrontation between the coal industry and a broad coalition of local activists, environmental organisations, national figures and Hollywood celebrities.

The struggle against mountaintop removal is also proving an uncomfortable test of Barack Obama's green credentials.

The US administration has frustrated environmentalists who had relied on the president to ban a practice that devastates landscapes and uproots hundreds of local communities.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the environmental lawyer and son of the assassinated presidential candidate, recently accused Obama of presiding over an "Appalachian apocalypse".

James Hansen, the Nasa scientist who coined the term global warming and who has become a passionate supporter of Gibson, demanded activists hold the president to account. "We can not continue to give President Obama a pass on this much longer," Hansen said.

Now Obama could be upstaged by the Senate which has taken up a bill to ban mountaintop removal by prohibiting mining companies from dumping debris in streams. The bill has support from Republicans as well as Democrats.

The bill is too late for Gibson's beloved Kayford Mountain. A short stroll from his campsite brings visitors to a view that looks like something out of a science fiction film. Giant trucks crawl over the earth on a vast yellow plateau below; at 5.10pm there is a loud blast.

"It looks to me like descriptions of places that got bombed in Hiroshima ," said Lora Webb, who lives in the nearly abandoned town of Twilight, which is surrounded by mountaintop mining. "It looks like what I would imagine if I was going to imagine what hell would look like: dry, dusty, no air or water."

Webb is about to leave Twilight herself, exhausted by blasts so forceful they have blown her out of her bed and on to the floor, shattered her glassware collection , and left a thick coating of dust on her ceiling fan.

Emerging scientific scientific evidence now suggests even more extensive damage from mountaintop removal than previously understood, with widespread and potentially permanent damage to water systems. Former mine areas are more vulnerable to erosion than unspoiled mountainside, and are at increased risk of flash floods and mud slides.

"There is irrefutable scientific evidence that the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal are substantial and they are permanent," Margaret Palmer, a professor at the University of Maryland's centre for environmental science, told a recent Senate hearing .

"You can't reverse it, at least not in any time span we can recognise as humans."

Meanwhile, the EPA has detected high levels of the heavy metal selenium, which can cause reproductive problems in humans, downstream from mine fill sites. Government biologists also detected deformities among local fish.

"It just destroys the health of the people who live here," said Joan Linville, who lives in the town of Van and whose home was nearly buried by a mud slide from a mined mountaintop. "One little tiny coal seam and they keep tearing up the country for miles. It's the most destructive thing I have ever seen in the 70 years I have been alive and I have been in every state."

Gibson's war against coal began in the late 80s, soon after an injury forced him into early retirement from a job at General Motors in Ohio. Around the same time, mining companies began buying up locals' small plots, and began to dynamite the peaks surrounding Kayford.

Gibson refused to sell out, and based himself on the mountain in a two-room cabin without running water or mains electricity. He persuaded his extended clan to come too.

His determination made him a hero to environmentalists. Over time, the patch of mountain has become a pilgrimage to environmental and other activists, even school groups, with Gibson's wife handling the scheduling requests. Next month he is due in court with the actress Daryl Hannah to face charges over a protest action.

But Gibson also has powerful opponents. Almost half of America's electricity comes from coal, and mining companies say mountaintop removal is cheaper and more efficient than tunnelling underground.

In Washington, industry lobbyists claim that locals welcome mountaintop removal — for its development potential.

"I can take you to places in eastern Kentucky where community services were hampered because of a lack of flat space — to build factories, to build hospitals, even to build schools," said Joe Lucas of Americans for Clean Coal Electricity. "In many places, mountain-top mining, if done responsibly, allows for land to be developed for community space."

Coal mining no longer fuels West Virginia, accounting for just 7% of the economy: there are more jobs at Wal-Mart than on the coal face. But while the number of mining jobs has shrunk from a high of 150,000 to just 12,000 over the decades, the scarcity of other employment still leaves plenty of locals threatened by Gibson's crusade.

Gibson — himself the son and grandson of miners — had his fourth of July protest picnic broken up by burly men with tattooed and shaven heads, and shots were fired at his cottage in June. "They just pulled out a gun and went pop pop pop," he said.

Like other opponents of mountaintop removal, Gibson had been counting on Obama, with his election promises of a clean energy economy, to shift the power balance away from coal.

But those hopes evaporated in May when the EPA signed 42 permits for mountaintop removal while turning down only six — a higher ratio even than during the latter part of the George Bush presidency. Some 170 more permits are pending, according to the Sierra Club.

In June, the White House announced it would strengthen oversight of mining operations, but it refused to endorse a ban on the dumping of debris into mountain streams.

That stand has infuriated Obama's natural allies. Gibson sees it as pure betrayal. "I think Obama's going to fall into line like the last president we had," he said. "He has developed into a coccoon that is going to end up not being a butterfly but a corporate president."

news20090804GCU2

[Environment] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Vestas]
Vestas wins order to repossess plant
Judge backs wind turbine firm as Isle of Wight protests spread to second factory in row over green jobs
Rachel Williams in Newport and Matthew Weaver
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 August 2009 13.55 BST
Article history

The owners of a wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight won a repossession order today in their attempt to end an occupation of the plant by workers protesting at planned job losses.

A judge at Newport county court granted the order after environmental activists staged a protest at a second wind turbine factory on the island as part of a campaign to save hundreds of jobs in the green energy sector.

A barrister for the original group of 11 protesting workers told the court the order had not been properly served, but the judge, Graham White, granted it.

A notice of eviction will now be sent informing the workers of when bailiffs will arrive. Typically a few days notice is given.

Peter Kruse, a spokesman for Vestas, suggested the eviction would not take place today. "We are in no hurry," he said. "We are as patient as we have been all the way. We will remain patient optimists hoping for a peaceful solution in the interests of all the parties, particularly including the people inside."

After the court hearing, a group of about 200 supporters marched to the plant on the St Cross industrial estate where they were greeted with cheers from the occupying workers on the balcony. Gathered outside the building they chanted: "We fight on."

One of the workers inside spoke to the assembled crowd, calling for national days of action on Saturday and Wednesday when other workers in the country should down tools or hold a rally to support them.

"We want the protest to continue," he said. "But we want it to remain peaceful. This place has a future and we shall not give up on that."

Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT union, who was in court for today's hearing, said the union would continue with its campaign to save the jobs. "The court has made its decision, but we will continue with our campaign and the right to work on green energy jobs," he said.

Crow attacked both Vestas and the government, saying ministers had been "despicable" in failing even to meet the workers or the union to discuss the possibility of other work going to the factory.

The campaigners at the second protest occupied the roof of the Vestas Wind Systems factory in Cowes, vowing to stay there until the sacked Newport group were reinstated.

Three activists could be seen on the roof of the Cowes building, which faces the waterfront. A fourth protester appeared to be abseiling from the roof to attach a banner that read: "Vestas Workers – Solidarity in Occupation. Save Green Jobs." He waved to ferry passengers in the harbour, who whistled back from the boat.

Speaking before the verdict, the Newport workers said their morale had been boosted by the sit-in at Cowes. Ian Terry, one of the 11, said: "It is good to know that others are willing to stand up and fight for green jobs."

The Cowes factory was occupied at 4am by a Climate Camp group and a member of the RMT union. The protest was timed to coincide with Cowes week, the annual sailing regatta. The activists issued a statement saying tens of thousands of people were visiting the island for an event celebrating the natural power of wind.

"At the same time," they said, "workers at Vestas are struggling to keep Britain's only wind turbine blade manufacturer open. Factories in Cowes, Newport and Southampton are being closed with the loss of over 600 jobs, as well as many more in support industries."

The group criticised Vestas for leaving employees "high and dry" and accused the company of paying "peanuts" in redundancy settlements and leaving workers with little hope of finding other jobs on the island.

One of the group said: "We are staying here until everyone is reinstated and the closure decision is reversed."

Yesterday, climate change activists were arrested after gluing themselves together outside the headquarters of the Department of Energy and Climate Change in London in support of the sit-in workers. The protesters, who held up banners saying "Take back the wind power", blockaded the main entrance to the building for several hours before they were detained.

The Trades Union Congress general secretary, Brendan Barber, urged Vestas to rethink its closure decision. He said: "Ed Miliband [the climate change secretary] has proved himself to be a champion of the green agenda and the drive to create new jobs. Now we are asking him to go the extra mile for the 600 workers and the production facility – the only one of its size in Britain – which is vital to building our low-carbon future. Everything must be done to look for positive alternatives."

news20090804GCU3

[Environment] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Deforestation]
Shoe brands get tough on leather suppliers to save Amazon rainforest
Crackdown against 'environmental criminals' follows Greenpeace report
Damian Carrington and Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
guardian.co.uk, Monday 3 August 2009 20.56 BST
Article history

Some of the world's top footwear brands, including Clarks, Adidas, Nike and Timberland, have demanded an immediate moratorium on destruction of the Amazon rainforest from their leather suppliers in Brazil.

The move is the first major development since the Guardian revealed a three-year undercover investigation by Greenpeace in June. The investigation said leading Brazilian suppliers of leather and beef for products sold in Britain had obtained cattle from farms involved in illegal deforestation.

"The decision is good news," said Carlos Minc, Brazil's environment minister. "With government pressure on one side and with the pressure of the consumer on the other, we have started to close in on [environmental] criminals."

"It's great progress in a very short space of time," said Greenpeace's James Turner. "What this does now is really put pressure on the UK food companies. The shoe companies have realised there is a problem and taken action, now it's up to the supermarkets to follow that lead."

Clearing tropical forests for agriculture is estimated to produce 17% of the world's carbon emissions – more than the global transport system. Cattle farming is now the biggest threat to the remaining Amazon rainforest, a fifth of which has been lost since 1970. "I'd say that 65-75% of deforestation is linked to the growth of ranching," Minc said. "We are closing in on this, but it is still the sector that is most opposed to change and responsible for the most deforestation in the Amazon."

Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, who is in the Amazon on an unrelated diplomatic trip, said: "We can only get an agreement on climate change if it involves Brazil and it involves forestry. There is no solution to the question of climate change without forestry. The Amazon forest is such a beautiful place when it is untouched and then you see these scars on the landscape from the deforestation, bigger and bigger scars."

In addition to the moratorium on leather from newly deforested areas, the footwear makers have also demanded that suppliers bring in a stringent traceability system within a year, which will "credibly" guarantee the source of all leather.

Last night, one large supplier agreed to ensure that the farms it takes cattle from are not responsible for deforestation. Bertin, one of Brazil's - and the world's - major suppliers of leather and beef also agreed to meet Greenpeace this month to negotiate how to prevent cattle ranching from driving deforestation.

The Greenpeace investigation compiled field work, government records, company documents and trade data from Brazil, China, Europe, Vietnam and the US to piece together the global movement of leather and meat from Brazilian cattle.

The organisation said cattle from hundreds of legal and illegal farms across the Amazon were mixed and processed on their way to export sites, making it currently impossible to trace the origins of products. "In effect, criminal or 'dirty' supplies of cattle are 'laundered' through the supply chain," said the report. Greenpeace has asked companies to refuse to buy from such suppliers and for consumers to press supermarkets and high street brands to clean up the supply chains.

It said that some Brazilian processing companies exported products linked to Amazon destruction to dozens of blue-chip companies across the world, and named three major processors, Bertin, JBS and Marfrig, which together control a third of Brazilian beef exports.

"We all agree [preventing deforestation] is possible," Leonardo Swirski, head of Bertin's leather division, told the Guardian last night. But he warned against measures that would harm the livelihoods of the 20 million people in the Amazon region.

"If all [consumers] are not buying any products from the Amazon, they will surely create other sorts of problems." He believes other supply companies will also take action: "We have an advantage if they don't. I believe everyone will follow."

JBS and Marfrig reiterated commitments to not sourcing cattle from illegally deforested land, and all three have agreed with the federal prosecutor to reject these cattle. Marcus O'Sullivan, a director in JBS's London office, said: "We are very committed to the protection of the Amazon biome. We work closely with Ibama [the Brazilian ministry of defence's enforcement agency] and don't purchase cattle from the blacklisted farms."

Under the moratorium, the footwear companies will refuse to buy leather sourced from farms on both legally and illegally deforested land. It will be extended if the demand for credible traceability is not in place within a year.

Clarks, which is a major customer of Bertin, said in a statement: "Clarks will require suppliers of Brazilian leather to certify, in writing, that they are not supplying leather from recently deforested areas in the Amazon biome."

Timberland said: "We are grateful for the work of NGOs such as Greenpeace in exposing problems deep within the Brazilian leather supply chain."

Adidas said: "We believe that joining together with our industry partners in this effort ensures an ongoing and sustainable method to stop deforestation in the Amazon biome region."

news20090804SAC1

[Environment] from [scientificamerican.com]

[Environment]
August 3, 2009
Offshore Fish Farms Swimming in Controversy
Solution? Or pollution?
By Allison Winter

With a deadline looming for approval of a federal plan that would open the Gulf of Mexico to deepwater fish farming, House lawmakers and conservationists are plotting strategies to block such offshore ventures until Congress creates a system to regulate them.

Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor (Miss.) introduced legislation last Friday that would prevent the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and regional fishery management councils from permitting offshore aquaculture under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Management Act. The measure would invalidate existing permits and put future proposals for offshore fish farming on hold until Congress passes new legislation to oversee deepwater aquaculture.

The legislation has a powerful ally in Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), whose panel oversees fisheries issues. Rahall was one of three original co-sponsors of the bill. Environmental groups Ocean Conservancy and Food and Water Watch have also endorsed it.

The debate over whether to allow fish to be raised in deepwater nets and cages has heated up since a fishery management council approved what would be the first large permitting system earlier this year. The council used its authority under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Management Act to make the decision in late January.

The gulf fisheries council developed its plan after lawmakers failed to advance a national permit system that the Bush administration pushed over the past three years. Rahall and other lawmakers rejected the Bush administration's proposal for not including enough safeguards for the environment and native fish.

Advocates for fish farming say aquaculture would take pressure off wild stocks, enhance recreational fishing opportunities and create new jobs in the United States, where about 80 percent of consumed seafood is imported -- about half of it raised through aquaculture. The gulf council has predicted that the plan would permit between five and 20 offshore operations in the next 10 years, producing up to 64 million pounds of seafood.

But before going forward, the gulf proposal must be approved by the Commerce Department. The public comment deadline for the decision ends today, and the department is expected to make a decision in the coming weeks.

NOAA has representatives on each fishing council, and most council actions receive approval from the agency.

But marine advocates have been hoping that NOAA might take a different course for the offshore fish farms. Conservationists maintain that such farms could harm the environment, put native fish at risk and pollute oceans with fish waste and excess food. The plan has been criticized by more than 100 environmental and fishing organizations.

If any offshore aquaculture program is to go forward, marine advocates and Capitol Hill Democrats have said it should be a nationwide permitting system with well-defined environmental safeguards -- which they think the gulf plan is lacking.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has said the Obama administration would like to create a national permitting system for offshore fish farms in an effort to create jobs and help feed a nation that currently imports most of its seafood. But Locke and NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco have indicated that if the administration went forward with a national plan, it would include environmental standards.

In a 2007 article in the journal Science, Lubchenco endorsed a report from a blue-ribbon panel that recommended a strict regulatory system to govern offshore operations. And at her confirmation hearing last winter, the marine scientist-cum-government administrator said that scientists and policymakers have not yet identified the "right conditions under which aquaculture is sustainable."

But Lubchenco has not indicated what she intends to do about the gulf council's plan.

"I think the issues are who should be making the rules, who should be in charge, and we haven't yet worked through those issues in this administration," Lubchenco said in an interview last month.

Frustration with Obama admin

Marine advocates, who expected the Obama administration to be more friendly to their cause, have been frustrated that Lubchenco and the National Marine Fisheries Service have not taken a more active position on offshore aquaculture.

"It is very disturbing that the NMFS has not come out with a policy on offshore aquaculture," said Marianne Cufone, director of the fisheries program for Food and Water Watch. "We were anticipating to hear a different take on things."

Last week, Cufone and other activists, clad in tall chef's hats, marched around the Commerce Department building in downtown Washington, protesting the proposed Gulf of Mexico plan. The group threw out organic lollipops and chanted through a bullhorn: "Need more solutions, not more pollution! What do we want? Sustainable seafood! When do we want it? Now!"

Some Commerce employees looked down out of their windows to see what the commotion was about. Many NOAA employees are based at a different office building in Silver Spring, Md.

But given the uncertainty on NOAA's action on the gulf plan, Taylor's bill would pre-empt the agency. It would separate aquaculture from existing fishing regulations, forcing a national permitting plan if any offshore aquaculture were to move forward.

"As common sense indicates and Representative Taylor's bill makes abundantly clear, aquaculture is simply not fishing," said George Leonard, director of Ocean Conservancy's aquaculture program. "If passed, [the bill] will stop the dangerous piecemeal approach currently under way."

news20090804SAC2

[Environment] from [scientificamerican.com]

[Environment]
August 3, 2009
Are Contaminants Silencing Our Genes?
Some chemicals may leave people vulnerable to diseases like cancer and diabetes, not by mutating genes but by turning them off or on at the wrong time
By Bette Hileman and Environmental Health News

Each of us starts life with a particular set of genes, 20,000 to 25,000 of them. Now scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence that pollutants and chemicals might be altering those genes—not by mutating them, but by sending subtle signals that silence them or switch them on at the wrong times.

Last week, several dozen researchers and experts convened by the National Academies tackled this complicated topic, called epigenetics, at a two-day workshop in Washington, D.C. They discussed new findings that suggest chemicals in our environment and in our food can alter genes, leaving people vulnerable to a variety of diseases and disorders, including diabetes, asthma, cancer and obesity. They also considered whether regulatory agencies and industry should start testing the thousands of chemicals in use today for these effects.

“There is little doubt these epigenetic effects are important. The next question is how we test for effects," said William H. Farland, professor of environmental and radiological health sciences at Colorado State University. "We don’t need to abandon current approaches to chemical testing. When testing chemicals in animals, we may just need to add some new endpoints."

Exposure to gene-altering substances, particularly in the womb and shortly after birth, “can lead to increased susceptibility to disease,” said Linda S. Birnbaum, who was named director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and of the National Toxicology Program in December. “The susceptibility persists long after the exposure is gone, even decades later. Glands, organs, and systems can be permanently altered.”

“There is a huge potential impact from these exposures, partly because the changes may be inherited across generations. You may be affected by what your mother and grandmother were exposed to during pregnancy,” Birnbaum said.

What a pregnant mother eats and the chemicals she is exposed to can affect her offspring without causing mutations in the DNA, the experts said. Instead, such exposures can disrupt the way that genes behave, according to both animal and human studies. These changes, in turn, can be passed on to the next generations.

Some environmental chemicals enable methyl groups (carbon atoms with three hydrogen atoms attached) to attack genes, which turns them off or mutes them, at a time when they should be turned on. When genes are turned off, they can’t direct the manufacture of proteins that are essential for proper cell function. Chemicals also can uncoil parts of the chromosome, causing genes to be expressed, or turned on, at inappropriate times.

An example is asthmatic children. Wan-Yee Tang, a researcher at the University of Cincinnati, found that children in New York City exposed in the womb to high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), common air pollutants from traffic, were much more likely to have asthma than those who were not exposed. By studying cord blood, she found that a particular gene (ACSL3) was methylated in the asthmatic children and unmethylated in the unexposed children, and concluded that the abnormal methylation patterns probably caused the asthma.

The finding could in part explain why worldwide asthma rates have skyrocketed in much of the world, reaching epidemic proportions among children. In the boroughs of New York City with the worst air pollution, about 25 percent of children are asthmatic.

Epigenetic changes also have been observed in children conceived with assisted reproductive technologies, said Richard Meehan of the Medical Research Council in Scotland.

One of the disorders that occurs at a higher rate in these children is Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, which is characterized by abdominal wall defects and a higher risk of certain childhood cancers. The culture medium where fertilized eggs are grown for several days before implantation probably causes the syndrome, he said. It appears that all the different media used for the eggs might be problematic because they contain chemicals that stimulate the addition of methyl groups to the cells.

The scientists at the workshop said it’s important to understand epigenetics not only to figure out which chemicals might endanger public health, but to find new ways to prevent or treat diseases.

Scientists are just now beginning to figure out normal methylation patterns in the genome so they can learn what is abnormal, said Karl T. Kelsey, professor of community heath and pathology at Brown University in Rhode Island. As a result of this new understanding, epigenetic therapies have been developed for some types of cancers, and some have been successful in clinical trials, he said. Unlike traditional cancer drugs, which kill cells, the new drugs simply change how the cells act.

Research with rats shows that gene-altering chemicals can change animals’ brains—in some cases, in a beneficial way.

Moshe Szyf, a pharmacology and therapeutics professor at McGill University Medical School in Montreal, found that rats that received healthy doses of maternal licking as pups grew up to be calmer than pups who had inattentive mothers. The maternal grooming brought about a chemical change in the part of the pup’s brain that produces stress hormones, he said.

The rats reared by attentive mothers had different levels of corticoid gene expression and lower levels of stress hormones than those reared by inattentive mothers. Szyf found he could cure the stressed rats by injecting a chemical called TSA into their brains, which reversed the inappropriate methylation caused by inattentive mothering.

This understanding of epigenetics may lead to new medications for treating human problems. By using approaches similar to those used in the rat study, Szyf is hoping to find drugs that will help alleviate human psychiatric conditions.

Szyf also studied the preserved brains of suicide victims and of people who died suddenly from causes other than suicide. He found that certain genes in the suicide victims were methylated, or turned off. In contrast, those same genes were not methylated in the victims who died by other means. Abnormal methylation patterns could cause depression in some people, he said.

Some compounds, such as nickel, chromium and arsenic, are well-known carcinogens—not because they are toxic to cells but because of their epigenetic effect, said Max Costa, a New York University professor of environmental medicine and pharmacology. They increase DNA methylation, which results in gene silencing and cell transformation and leads to cancer, he explained.

Researchers at the meeting spent a great deal of time discussing whether and how to test chemicals for their ability to cause epigenetic changes.

Most researchers there agreed that compounds need to be tested for epigenetic effects. But practical testing of the 80,000 or so chemicals in commerce would require rapid screens that would prioritize the compounds into high, medium, and low-risk groups. Those at high risk for epigenetic effects could then be subjected to more definitive and expensive tests.

John M. Greally, associate professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, pointed out that no single test is ideal for detecting epigenetic effects.

“All of the assays have drawbacks,” he said. For example, one assay requires immediate sample processing so it cannot be used on stored samples.

Nevertheless, many researchers said that testing chemicals for epigenetic changes can begin soon.

“The fact that we don’t know a great deal about this area doesn’t mean it’s daunting,” said George Daston, research fellow at Procter & Gamble. “We just need to build on what we have. Microassays already show how chemical exposures change the gene expression in certain parts of the genome. The fact that we don’t know a lot doesn’t mean we can’t start testing quickly.”

Birnbaum, who formerly was head of experimental toxicology at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said regulators and industry don’t have to start from square one.

“We’re already marching down this road,” said Birnbaum. “The National Toxicology Program is already talking about including some epigenetic studies in the program.”

The most important public health issue that arises from epigenetics, Birnbaum told Environmental Health News, is that the current environment may not be the crucial factor to consider when examining what causes diseases.

“Asking heart attack victims what they ate this year or last may be far less important than what they were exposed to in the womb and shortly after birth,” she said.

news20090804NC1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 4 August 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/460671a
News
Greek scientists fight research shake-up
Protests greet plans to dismantle multidisciplinary institutions.
Alison Abbott

Instead of enjoying a tranquil summer break, Greek researchers are fighting a major reorganization that will carve up two of the country's largest research centres.

Filippos Tsalidis, head of the development ministry's office for research and technology, took the scientific community by surprise by announcing the changes, intended to promote efficiency, in the business newspaper Naftemporiki on 3 June.

He plans to reshape research institutes overseen by his ministry, turning some into single-discipline centres and uniting smaller institutes in the south and north of the country into two regional centres.

Two major multidisciplinary research centres in Athens — the National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos and the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF) — will be partly dismantled. In 2001 and 2005, panels of international experts commissioned by the Greek government judged research at these centres to be poor, although improving in parts.

Greek scientists, angry at not being consulted about the restructuring, say it will cost more than it saves, is at odds with current multidisciplinary scientific trends, and will not solve the problem of underperforming research units. The plans have sparked public demonstrations, petitions and newspaper campaigns.

The opposition socialist party has pledged to reverse the reorganization if, as opinion polls predict, it wins power in the next election in 2010.

Under Tsalidis's plan, biology and organic chemistry institutes would transfer to a new facility that would be built at the elite Alexander Fleming Biomedical Research Centre outside Athens. Demokritos would absorb the NHRF's physics and remaining chemistry institutes, leaving the NHRF focused entirely on the humanities.

"It would be better to close institutes with poor evaluations rather than move them at great cost to a top-performing institute like the Fleming and dilute its efforts," says George Thireos, head of systems biology at the new Bioacademy research centre in Athens, which is run by the Academy of Athens and is not affected by the reorganization.

In 2006, Greece spent just 0.57% of its gross domestic product on research, one of the lowest percentages in the European Union, and there have been no competitive grants awarded for more than five years. "Changes to reduce duplication and promote collaboration are definitely needed here, but not in this way," says Effie Tsilibari, head of the Demokritos Institute of Biology, which faces relocation. "The proposal was rash, and it has left people paralysed."

But George Kollias, director of the Fleming Centre, says the bombshell should be seen as an opportunity to stop talking and finally take action. "We should act even on this plan, using it to open a real discussion on how things that need to be changed can be changed," he says.

Senior Bioacademy scientists issued a statement on 30 July saying that although changes are needed, plans should be formulated through thoughtful discussions aimed at obtaining maximum consensus — and, above all, there must be greater financial investment. "Any plan that emerges without serious commitment of state funds will be doomed to failure," they warn.


[naturenews]
Published online 4 August 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/460676a
News
Grant scores leave applicants in limbo
Top-rated research must wait until September for NIH funding decision.
Meredith Wadman

Applicants for the coveted Challenge Grants issued by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act learned the peer-review scores for their proposals late last month. Yet they received little in the way of certainty over whether those scores will translate into money come September, when the NIH will announce which grants it plans to fund.

Competition for the US$1-million, two-year awards is fierce — the agency in Bethesda, Maryland, received more than 21,000 applications, and the NIH director's office will fund only about 1% of these.

"I don't think I've ever been ambivalent about a second percentile score" that would normally be assured funding, says Joe Hogan, a biostatistician at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, who hopes to use a Challenge Grant to study behavioural interventions for reducing alcohol abuse.

{“I don’t think I’ve ever been ambivalent about a second percentile score.”}

With ordinary grants, applicants can usually tell if their grant is fundable as soon they receive their percentile score because they already know the designated 'payline', or percentage of fundable applications. The NIH has designated an initial $200 million of $10.4 billion in economic stimulus funds for the grants, but with so many variables at play in allocating the stimulus money, predicting whether a given score will land funding is almost impossible — meaning that those with percentile scores in the mid-single digits are left hanging.

For example, Paul Janssen, a cardiac physiologist at Ohio State University in Columbus, scored a sixth percentile on his 'infrastructure' application, which, if funded, would build a system for obtaining and testing live tissue from healthy and failing human hearts. "I am cautiously optimistic," he says, only because the institute sponsoring the grant — the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute — is planning to go beyond the allocation from the director's office and fund 200 Challenge Grants in its topic areas. Some of the 27 institutes within the NIH are less enthusiastic about funding extra Challenge Grants and have chosen to use stimulus funds in other ways — for example, to boost existing investigator-initiated grants, or to sponsor standard grants that had fallen just short of the payline before the stimulus windfall arrived.

Meanwhile, the burden on the thousands of grant reviewers has, according to some, turned out to be bearable. Gary Johnson, chairman of the pharmacology department at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, told the NIH that he could review up to five Challenge Grant applications. "And they only gave me a couple," he says. "I don't know anyone who was overwhelmed by reviewing, because there was an overwhelming agreement of investigators to participate in the process."