Judge in Trayvon Martin case weighs police calls

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) ? Several times in six months, neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman called police to report suspicious characters in the gated townhouse community where he lived. Each time, he pointed out that the suspects were black males.

On Tuesday, the judge at Zimmerman's murder trial in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin listened to the five calls and weighed whether to let the jury hear them, too.

Prosecutors want to use them to bolster their argument that Zimmerman was increasingly frustrated with repeated burglaries and had reached his breaking point the night he shot Martin.

The recordings show Zimmerman's "ill will," prosecutor Richard Mantei told Judge Debra Nelson.

"It shows the context in which the defendant sought out his encounter with Trayvon Martin," Mantei said.

Defense attorney Mark O'Mara argued that the calls were irrelevant and that nothing matters but the seven or eight minutes before Zimmerman fired the deadly shot into Martin's chest.

The prosecution is "going to ask the jury to make a leap from a good, responsible, citizen behavior to seething behavior," O'Mara said.

Prosecutors played the calls with the jurors out of the courtroom at the beginning of a day in which the state presented graphic photos of Martin's body, a police officer described trying to revive Martin as bubbling sounds came from his chest, and a police manager described how she helped Zimmerman set up the neighborhood watch.

In the calls, Zimmerman identifies himself as a neighborhood watch volunteer and recounts that his neighborhood has had a rash of recent break-ins. In one call, he asks that officers respond quickly since the suspects "typically get away quickly."

In another, he describes suspicious black men hanging around a garage and mentions his neighborhood had a recent garage break-in.

Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder for gunning down Martin as the young man walked from a convenience store. Zimmerman followed him in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.

Zimmerman has claimed self-defense, saying he opened fire after the teenager jumped him and began slamming his head against the concrete sidewalk.

Zimmerman, whose father is white and whose mother is Hispanic, has denied the confrontation with the black teenager had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and its supporters have charged.

On Tuesday, Day 2 of testimony, prosecutors called to the stand a Sanford police sergeant who was the second officer to arrive on the scene. Sgt. Tony Raimondo testified that he tried to seal a bullet wound in Martin's chest with a plastic bag and attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Bubbling sounds indicated air was escaping the teen's chest, Raimondo said. Martin was pronounced dead a short time later.

During Raimondo's testimony, prosecutors showed jurors a photo of a dead Martin face-down in the grass, another of Martin's body face up with his eyes slightly open, and a third of the bullet wound. Martin's father, Tracy Martin, walked out of the courtroom during the testimony.

Wendy Dorival, former coordinator of the Sanford Police Department's neighborhood watch program, testified how she had worked with Zimmerman to set up a watch in his neighborhood.

When asked by prosecutor John Guy if neighborhood watch participants should follow or engage with suspicious people, she said no.

"They are the eyes and ears of law enforcement," Dorival said. "They're not supposed to take matters into their own hands."

Similarly, Donald O'Brien, president of Zimmerman's homeowners association, said it was his understanding that neighborhood watch members are supposed to "stay at a safe distance" and "let the police handle it."

But Dorival said she was impressed with Zimmerman's professionalism and dedication to his community.

"He seemed like he really wanted to make changes in his community, to make it better," she said.

___

Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KHightower

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-trayvon-martin-case-weighs-police-calls-193729208.html

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Michael Jackson's 15 Most Memorable Moments

With the four-year anniversary of the singer's death on June 25, take a look back at the highs and lows of his life and career.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/michael-jackson-most-memorable-moments/1-b-213732?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Amichael-jackson-most-memorable-moments-213732

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Paul Giamatti Joins Cast of Downton Abbey

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/paul-giamatti-joins-cast-of-downton-abbey/

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Channing Tatum: Why We Released Our Daughter?s First Photo

"We didn't want to go through a tabloid, we just wanted to let it out so paparazzi would ... stop trying to hound us," Tatum explains.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/jfuFjoes_wk/

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Ween: Where'd the Cheese Go?

Earlier today I found myself searching for my keys and?lo and behold?a certain song popped into my head. And what a wonderful tune it is. Both versions.

Ween's no stranger to weirdness for it's own sake, but in this case, there's a little story behind it. In short: Ween was commissioned to make music for a Pizza Hut ad, and submitted the first version (and some other, unrelated songs) for the first run. When all were rejected, Ween opted for a second?and righteously more explicit?version.

Pizza Hut-approved or not, both versions are fantastic classics, and the go-to tune for humming whenever your cheese or one-syllable-thing-that-rhymes-with-cheese goes missing. Enjoy, and may your cheese never go missing. [Spotify, Amazon, iTunes]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/ween-whered-the-cheese-go-543936107

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Don't bemoan Washington's bogland

With Congress in gridlock on issues like guns, immigration, and energy, Americans turn to states, cities, and private groups for action. This spirit of community and problem-solving will inevitably find its expression somewhere.

By the Monitor's Editorial Board / June 23, 2013

Bruce Dubberly, left, Avery Smith and Lindsay Davis, right, work a field in Athens, Ga., to grow produce for a farmer's market at the Athens Community Council on Aging offices on Mondays.

Richard Hamm/The Banner-Herald/AP Photo

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With Washington in gridlock on issues from gun regulation to immigration reform, one think tank, the Governing Institute, took note this month that Americans are turning to local and state governments ? as well as each other ? to find common ground in solving problems.

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?The sweeping national interventions of the New Deal and the comprehensive federal social legislation of the 1960s have been replaced by a more decentralized approach to governance,? the institute found.

States and cities can more easily pass laws than Congress because of a practical focus and stronger identity as a community. The trend is not confined to governance. As the local-food movement has grown, for example, scholars note that people are 10 times more likely to talk to each other at a farmer?s market than a supermarket. Volunteering has surged. And with car-dependent suburbs growing old, urban life has a new cache, creating new types of bonding that the late scholar Iris Young called the ?being together of strangers.?

Over a century ago, the French observer Alexis de Tocqueville was astounded at the ability of Americans to solve problems by forming new associations: ?If it is a question of bringing to light a truth or developing a sentiment with the support of a great example, they associate,? he wrote. Thomas Jefferson referred to volunteer groups as ?little republics.?

Today, trust in state and local government remains high ? above 50 percent ? compared with only 28 percent of Americans who have faith in the federal government, according to the Pew Research Center. As long as states or local laws stay within the US Constitution or federal laws, they can often better reflect the wishes of a larger proportion of voters than many divisive laws passed by Congress.

One good example: States have banded together to create the Common Core State Standards for K-12 education, aiming to replace the much-disliked federal program No Child Left Behind.

Many cities, such as Austin, Texas, and Boston are ?taking on the big issues that Washington won?t, or can?t, solve,? according to a new book, ?The Metropolitan Revolution,? by Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley of the Brookings Institution. A revival of cities has helped them to become sources of innovation, or places where people of diverse backgrounds can more easily share ideas and break down social barriers.

Americans do not lack for a national identity ? just go to a park or parade this Fourth of July. But their problem-solving nature has led them away from seeing Washington as a fixer of all things. Many states and local governments will, of course, fumble the effort or be extremist. If they do, even they may be bypassed.

A search for community bonds and a sense of place will remain stronger than the forms in which those sentiments are expressed. The old affinities of village life find new outlets. Wal-Mart now carries local produce. The Obama White House has a community vegetable garden. And when a Midwest community is devastated by a tornado, people rediscover what binds them and rebuild in fresh and different ways.

?As soon as several of the inhabitants of the United States have conceived a sentiment or an idea that they want to produce in the world, they seek each other out; and when they have found each other, they unite,? wrote de Tocqueville.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill would do well to recall these deep traditions. Like any Americans, they too can recapture that wellspring of community.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/2A6FJPwzf6Q/Don-t-bemoan-Washington-s-bogland

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Snowden says US targets included China cell phones

HONG KONG (AP) ? A former National Security Agency contractor says that U.S. hacking targets in China included the nation's mobile-phone companies and two universities hosting extensive Internet traffic hubs in the latest allegations as Washington pushes Hong Kong to extradite the ex-contractor.

The latest charges from Edward Snowden came in a series of reports published over the weekend by the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's leading English-language daily. The newspaper, which appears to have access to Snowden, said Saturday he is still in Hong Kong and not in police custody.

On Saturday, the Obama administration warned Hong Kong against dragging out the extradition of Snowden, reflecting concerns over a possible long legal battle before he ever appears in a U.S. courtroom to answer espionage charges for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs.

A formal extradition request would also pit Beijing against Washington at a time China is trying to deflect U.S. accusations that it carries out extensive surveillance on American government and commercial operations.

The U.S. has contacted authorities in Hong Kong to seek Snowden's extradition, the National Security Council said Saturday in a statement. The NSC advises the president on national security.

Snowden told the South China Morning Post that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." It added that Snowden said he had documents to support the hacking allegations, but the report did not identify the documents. It said he spoke to the paper in a June 12 interview.

With a population of more than 1.3 billion, China has massive cell-phone companies. China Mobile is the world's largest mobile network carrier, with 735 million subscribers, followed by China Unicom with 258 million users and China Telecom with 172 million users.

Snowden said Tsinghua University in Beijing and Chinese University in Hong Kong, home of some of the country's major Internet traffic hubs, were targets of extensive hacking by U.S. spies this year. He said the NSA was focusing on so-called "network backbones" in China, through which enormous amounts of Internet data passes.

Snowden is believed to be hiding in an unknown location in Hong Kong, where he has been holed up since admitting to providing information to the news media about highly classified NSA surveillance programs. He has not been seen publicly since he checked out of a Hong Kong hotel on June 10.

The newspaper reports came after a one-page criminal complaint against Snowden was unsealed Friday in federal court, revealing he had been charged with espionage and theft.

The Obama administration on Saturday warned Hong Kong against slow-walking his extradition, with White House national security adviser Tom Donilon saying in an interview with CBS News: "Hong Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this case."

Some Hong Kong lawmakers have called on Beijing to intervene and instruct the Hong Kong government on how to handle the situation before his case goes through the courts, but Beijing has yet to comment. The Hong Kong government has also not commented.

But China's state-run media have used the case to poke back at Washington after the U.S. had spent the past several months pressuring China on its international spying operations..

A commentary published Sunday by Xinhua News Agency said Snowden's disclosures of U.S. spying activities in China have "put Washington in a really awkward situation."

"Washington should come clean about its record first. It owes ... an explanation to China and other countries it has allegedly spied on," it said. "It has to share with the world the range, extent and intent of its clandestine hacking programs."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-says-us-targets-included-china-cell-phones-073119007.html

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Snowden charged with espionage, theft in NSA case

The front cover of a local magazine shows Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, in Hong Kong Saturday, June 22, 2013. Hong Kong was silent Saturday on whether the former National Security Agency contractor should be extradited to the United States now that he has been charged with espionage, but some legislators said the decision should be up to the Chinese government. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

The front cover of a local magazine shows Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, in Hong Kong Saturday, June 22, 2013. Hong Kong was silent Saturday on whether the former National Security Agency contractor should be extradited to the United States now that he has been charged with espionage, but some legislators said the decision should be up to the Chinese government. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

This photo provided by The Guardian Newspaper in London shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, in Hong Kong, Sunday, June 9, 2013. The man who told the world about the U.S. government?s gigantic data grab also talked a lot about himself. Mostly through his own words, a picture of Edward Snowden is emerging: fresh-faced computer whiz, high school and Army dropout, independent thinker, trustee of official secrets. And leaker on the lam. (AP Photo/The Guardian) MANDATORY CREDIT

A security guard stands in front of the Police headquarters in Hong Kong Saturday, June 22, 2013. Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, believed to be holed up in Hong Kong, has admitted providing information to the news media about two highly classified NSA surveillance programs. It is not known if the U.S. government has made a formal extradition request to Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong government had no immediate reaction to the charges against Snowden. Police Commissioner Andy Tsang, when was asked about the development, told reporters only that the case would be dealt with according to the law. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

David Medine, chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, is seen in front of the White House in Washington, Friday, June 21, 2013. President Barack Obama held his first meeting Friday with the board in the White House Situation Room. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Edward Snowden, the former government contractor who says he revealed that the National Security Agency collects Americans' phone records and Internet data from U.S. communication companies, now faces charges of espionage and theft of government property.

Snowden is believed to be in Hong Kong, which could complicate efforts to bring him to a U.S. federal court to answer charges that he engaged in unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information.

In addition to those charges, both brought under the Espionage Act, the government charged Snowden with theft of government property. Each crime carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The one-page criminal complaint against Snowden was unsealed Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Va., part of the Eastern District of Virginia where his former employer, government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, is headquartered, in McLean.

The complaint is dated June 14, five days after Snowden's name first surfaced as the person who had leaked to the news media that the NSA, in two highly classified surveillance programs, gathered telephone and Internet records to ferret out terror plots.

It was unclear Friday whether the U.S. had yet to begin an effort to extradite Snowden from Hong Kong. He could contest extradition on grounds of political persecution. In general, the extradition agreement between the U.S. and Hong Kong excepts political offenses from the obligation to turn over a person.

Hong Kong had no immediate reaction to word of the charges against Snowden.

The Espionage Act arguably is a political offense. The Obama administration has now used the act in seven criminal cases in an unprecedented effort to stem leaks. In one of them, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning acknowledged he sent more than 700,000 battlefield reports, diplomatic cables and other materials to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. His military trial is underway.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, welcomed the charges against Snowden.

"I've always thought this was a treasonous act," he said in a statement. "I hope Hong Kong's government will take him into custody and extradite him to the U.S."

But the Government Accountability Project, a whistle-blower advocacy group, said Snowden should be shielded from prosecution by whistle-blower protection laws.

"He disclosed information about a secret program that he reasonably believed to be illegal, and his actions alone brought about the long-overdue national debate about the proper balance between privacy and civil liberties, on the one hand, and national security on the other," the group said in a statement.

Michael di Pretoro, a retired 30-year veteran with the FBI who served from 1990 to 1994 as the legal liaison officer at the American consulate in Hong Kong, said "relations between U.S. and Hong Kong law enforcement personnel are historically quite good."

"In my time, I felt the degree of cooperation was outstanding to the extent that I almost felt I was in an FBI field office," di Pretoro said.

The U.S. and Hong Kong have a standing agreement on the surrender of fugitives. However, Snowden's appeal rights could drag out any extradition proceeding.

The success or failure of any extradition proceeding depends on what the suspect is charged with under U.S. law and how it corresponds to Hong Kong law under the treaty. In order for Hong Kong officials to honor the extradition request, they have to have some applicable statute under their law that corresponds with a violation of U.S. law.

Hong Kong lawmakers said Saturday that the Chinese government should make the final decision on whether Snowden should be extradited to the United States.

Outspoken legislator Leung Kwok-hung said Beijing should instruct Hong Kong to protect Snowden from extradition before his case gets dragged through the court system.

Leung urged the people of Hong Kong to "take to the streets to protect Snowden."

In Iceland, a business executive said Friday that a private plane was on standby to transport Snowden from Hong Kong to Iceland, although Iceland's government says it has not received an asylum request from Snowden.

Business executive Olafur Vignir Sigurvinsson said he has been in contact with someone representing Snowden and has not spoken to the American himself. Private donations are being collected to pay for the flight, he said.

"There are a number of people that are interested in freedom of speech and recognize the importance of knowing who is spying on us," Sigurvinsson said. "We are people that care about privacy."

Disclosure of the criminal complaint came as President Barack Obama held his first meeting with a privacy and civil liberties board and as his intelligence chief sought ways to help Americans understand more about sweeping government surveillance efforts exposed by Snowden.

The five members of the little-known Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board met with Obama for an hour in the White House Situation Room, questioning the president on the two NSA programs that have stoked controversy.

One program collects billions of U.S. phone records. The second gathers audio, video, email, photographic and Internet search usage of foreign nationals overseas, and probably some Americans in the process, who use major Internet service providers, such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Yahoo.

___

Associated Press writer Jenna Gottlieb in Reykjavik, Iceland, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-22-NSA%20Surveillance/id-d74d1dd9d2fb46f28d39c7a67953d097

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Is Maddox Jolie-Pitt The New Jaden Smith?

(source) by Lauren Mandel At the New York City premiere of "World War Z," Brad Pitt revealed that his son, Maddox Jolie-Pitt, will make his feature film debut alongside his dad in the new zombie horror film opening this weekend. In his cameo role, Maddox plays a very short-lived Zombie! "He gets shot in the [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/06/21/is-maddox-jolie-pitt-the-new-jaden-smith/

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Lea Lane: Another Southern Lady's Take on Paula Deen

The Paula Deen situation has resulted in commenters in blogs, posts, and tweets clashing into two camps: those who want her folksy presence off the air quicker than you can say "another stick of butter," and loyalists who are indignant that the Food Network fired her, and who insist that a lady of a certain age who grew up in the pre-civil-rights South should be given some slack even though she admits to using the N-word and to professing an interest in black, slave-like servers at weddings.

As in so many cases nowadays, the social media reaction is a story in itself. And a harsh and unforgiving look, once again, at our deeply divided culture.

Apologists insist that despite the toxic revelations (and her other secondary problems including an admitted tolerance of porn), they really truly know that Paula is a warm person who had it tough for many years and really did apologize sincerely, and who deserves repentance.

"First-amendment rights" are mentioned, reflecting once again the lack of understanding of what those rights are. Yes Deen admirers, blue-eyed Paula can say what she wants in her syrupy southern accent. But y'all, a company does not have to keep her employed if they don't like bigotry seeping into their brand like caramelized sugar on a pecan donut.

And Paula Deen, a woman who did not inform viewers of her diabetes while she prepared and extolled fatty, carbohydrate-laden foods -- and then came clean in order to take money for promoting diabetes medication -- has already been tainted by many as a greedy hypocrite who can't cook her way past a lard can. For many years, Deen and her sons and brother and husband have made a bundle by adding caloric recipes into the country's consciousness, to the detriment of many viewers.

Look, some may be piling on, as they probably resent that this friendly woman of dubious intellect and over-the-top cooking skills has conned her way into fame and fortune. But those who defend her racial slurs because "everyone does it" are dead wrong.

I am about her age. I grew up in the deep-south of "colored" water fountains and back-of-the-bus racism. And I and members of my family and my friends did not use racial slurs. Never. Many of us drank from those "colored" fountains and sat in the back of the bus in defiance, and worked for civil rights. I lived in Atlanta during the time of hatchet-wielding Governor Lestor Maddox, and restaurants that featured shuffling black waiters who poured sweet tea for some southern ladies.

But I worked to desegregate neighborhoods. And so did my friends.

To assume that Paula Deen's age and her southern roots are excuses for her bigoted choice of words and racist attitude is missing the point. She is an adult who has seen the results of discrimination played out for many years. And because she has been lucky in life, it would be nice to think that she could grow and learn and turn her back on even the slightest whiff of bigotry.

I applaud the Food Network for their swift action. And I hope that Paula Deen now spends some of her time and fortune helping those less fortunate. That would be a sweeter legacy than any of her recipes.

?

Follow Lea Lane on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lealane

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lea-lane/another-southern-ladys-ta_b_3483974.html

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Gillmor Gang Live 06.21.13. (TCTV)

Gillmor Gang Live - Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. Recording live today at 1pm Pacific.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/w3K26l8OD8I/

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Businesses urged to join air tax fight | Buying Business Travel

Anti-APD lobby group A Fair Tax on Flying is urging businesses to sign a petition against the high levels of aviation tax in the UK.

The group, which includes tourism and business travel members, has launched an online petition aimed at showing the government how much damage APD is doing to the UK?s business sector.

The petition states: ?As APD continues to increase each year, our competitive position gets worse, not better. In the current economic climate, the government should be making it easier for companies like ours to travel overseas to win new business.?

The petition, which can be seen at afairtaxonflying.org/business, is open to both UK and international businesses. Businesses can also add their names to letters to their local MP and chancellor George Osborne which will be sent by alliance later this summer.

GTMC chief executive Paul Wait said: ?As the voice of the business traveller, the GTMC is wholly supportive of A Fair Tax on Flying.

?Our members are all too aware of how much of a burden APD is to those companies travelling to ?do the deals? that stimulate jobs and growth in the UK.? It is vital that the perspective of business is heard in Westminster and that government charts a course that removes self-imposed barriers to trade.?

Rates of APD went up again in April and there is another rise due to come into effect from April 2014.

?

Source: http://buyingbusinesstravel.com/news/2020987-businesses-urged-join-air-tax-fight

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EPA won't finalize Wyo. fracking-pollution study

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has dropped plans to have outside experts review its theory that hydraulic fracturing may have played a role in groundwater pollution in Wyoming, and the agency no longer plans to write a final report on its research that led to the controversial finding a year and a half ago.

Instead, the EPA announced Thursday that state officials will lead further investigation into pollution in the Pavillion area in central Wyoming, including ways to make sure people there have clean drinking water.

"We think this is the most pragmatic, quickest way to help the residents of Pavillion. We're going to work hand in hand with the state to make sure this investigation moves forward," said EPA spokesman Tom Reynolds in Washington, D.C.

Industry officials who have been doubtful about the EPA's findings since they were announced praised the change as confirmation of their view that the science wasn't sound.

"EPA has to do a better job, because another fatally flawed water study could have a big impact on how the nation develops its massive energy resources," Erik Milito, from the Washington, D.C.-based American Petroleum Institute, said in a news release.

EPA officials insisted they're not backing away from their draft report on Pavillion. They said they reserve the right to resume the study and an assessment by independent experts, known as a peer review, at any point.

Even so, EPA efforts to find potential pathways for pollutants from deeper areas where gas is extracted to shallower areas tapped by domestic water wells have been inconclusive.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, boosts the productivity of oil and gas wells by pumping pressurized water mixed with sand and chemicals into well holes to crack open fissures in the ground.

Richard Garrett, energy and legislative advocate with the Wyoming Outdoor Council in Lander, said he believes Thursday's announcement shows the EPA is finding it more difficult than originally expected to come to grips with the full environmental effect of fracking. He noted that the EPA is pushing back other work aimed at gauging the how energy production may pollute groundwater.

"It's not surprising to me that they're kind of taking a secondary role in rural Pavillion," Garrett said. "It looks to me like it might be a resource issue. That goes to the federal budget I suppose, and EPA administration."

Environmentalists have voiced concern about fracking causing groundwater pollution for years, but the practice has significantly boosted oil and gas production in regions such as the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and the Marcellus Shale underlying Eastern states.

The EPA's December 2011 report on Pavillion marked the first time the agency publicly linked fracking and groundwater contamination, causing a stir on both sides of the issue.

The federal agency began seeking nominations last year for experts to serve as peer reviewers for its draft report, and it has extended public comment periods on the report three times since it came out. Each extension delayed the peer-review plans.

The new research led by Wyoming officials would be funded at least in part by a $1.5 million grant from Encana Corp.'s U.S. oil and gas subsidiary, which owns the Pavillion gas field. The state will issue a final report in late 2014, Gov. Matt Mead's office said in a news release.

Mead said Wyoming will focus on making sure the few dozen affected residents of the rural, farming and ranching country a few miles outside Pavillion, population 230, have a clean source of drinking water. The state has been providing water cisterns to 20 people in the area.

"It is in everyone's best interest ? particularly the citizens who live outside of Pavillion ? that Wyoming and the EPA reach an unbiased, scientifically supportable conclusion," Mead said in a news release. "I commend EPA and Encana for working with me to chart a positive course for the investigation."

The Northern Arapaho Tribe on the Wind River Indian Reservation surrounding the Pavillion area has been seeking to maintain a role in the Pavillion research since taking part in new sampling last year. A tribal official said, however, that the EPA hasn't worked closely with the tribe lately.

"They have a legal duty to consult with the tribe and that didn't happen as part of their dialogue with the governor," Ronald Oldman, co-chairman of the tribe's business council, said in a statement.

Local residents have complained for more than seven years that their water began to reek of chemicals since fracking occurred in their neighborhood. The Encana funding will pay to examine 14 domestic water wells in the Pavillion field for water quality and palatability concerns.

The EPA based its finding that fracking could explain groundwater pollution in the Pavillion area on wells specially drilled to sample the groundwater. The samples were not from domestic water wells.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/epa-wont-finalize-wyo-fracking-085001964.html

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Jeb Bush champions immigration reform, Canada at conservative conference

Jeb Bush speaks Friday at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, D.C. (Mary F. Calvert/Reut??

Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida, stood out on Friday at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference on the issue of immigration?and not just because he's fluent in Spanish and married a woman born in Mexico.

Unlike the speaker who preceded him?tea party conservative Michele Bachmann?Bush offered full support for immigration reform. He was greeted with tepid and sometimes absent applause from the mostly evangelical Republican audience gathered for the annual event at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Washington, D.C.

"The one way we can build the demographic pyramid is to fix a broken immigration system to allow more people to come to learn English, to play by our rules, to embrace our values and to pursue their dreams in our country with a vengeance to create more opportunities for all of us," Bush said. "This is a conservative idea. And if we do this, we will rebuild our country in a way that will allow us to grow. If we don?t do it ? we will be in decline."

Bush?a recurring potential candidate for president?said immigrants create more businesses than do individuals born in the U.S., and are "more fertile and they love families," and so can replenish the country's population with young people. At one point he argued that the U.S. ought to look to Canada as a model for immigration.

"Canada is the place that we might want to look to," Bush said, referring to a country often attacked by conservatives as an example of a socialist state. "They have more economic immigrants, and they have seen sustained economic growth because of it."

Bush drew the wildest applause for his unrelated comments on the value of education.

Bush's speech was in sharp contrast to Bachmann's remarks. The congresswoman stridently argued against the bipartisan immigration effort currently working its way through Congress and warned of what she described as a dangerous fast-tracking of the bill, noting the July 4 target date for the Senate and August target date for the president's signature.

"That's a breathtaking speed to get a bill of this magnitude through the United States Congress. Why is it of such great magnitude? Because we are looking at the legalization of over 30 million illegal aliens," Bachmann said.

The bill, yet to be hashed out by the full Senate, includes a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million unauthorized immigrations living in the U.S.

Bachmann also argued that the system to check for legalization status would be destroyed under the bill and that black and Hispanic Americans would suffer the most if the bill passed because of increased job competition.

"This is not an anti-immigrant speech," she said.

Republican former Rep. Allen West, who spoke after Bush and Bachmann, also railed against the immigration reform bill, saying it would further "exacerbate problems" in the beleaguered black society of America.

Another speaker advocated for immigration reform as well: the evangelical Rev. Sam Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. He warned the audience not to "drink the Kool-Aid" about the current immigration bill and pressed for more conservative outreach to Hispanics.

In an interview with Yahoo News after his speech, Rodriguez offered support for Bush, saying "Jeb Bush gets it." And he used Bachmann as an example of the wrong path forward on immigration for the Republican Party.

"If her argument wins this day, she will be responsible along with [former Colorado Rep.] Tom Tancredo, [Wisconsin Rep.] James Sensenbrenner?those names will go down in history as the reason why Hispanics voted Democrat, not the other way around for the next 57 years," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said Bachmann's speech on Friday did serve to highlight conservative concerns including what Rodriguez believes is a "great mischaracterization" of facts related to the legislation, including that the border will be more porous.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/jeb-bush-champions-immigration-reform-canada-conservative-conference-145326767.html

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