Rolex Replica Watches Millions of US Court Records
‘This is not just a matter of history, it is a matter of influencing basic policy today’ Michael Tarm The Associated Press August 28, 2011 CHICAGO (AP) — Wrestling with the challenges of documents in the digital age, U.S. officials are destroying millions of paper federal court records to save storage costs – but the effort is raising the ire of some historians, private detectives and others who heavily rely on the files.
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration says at least 10 million bankruptcy case files and several million district court files from between 1970 and 1995 will be shredded, pounded to pulp and recycled. Only a small percentage of files designated as historically valuable will be kept in storage.
Federal archivists spent years consulting legal scholars, historians and others about which files to purge after realizing that sorting and digitizing just the bankruptcy cases alone would cost tens of millions of dollars. None of the civil or criminal cases up for destruction went to trial, and docket sheets that list basic information such as names of defendants and plaintiffs will be saved from each case.
But such reassurances haven't allayed concerns of some of those whose work relies on the paper documents.
Cornell Law School professor Theodore Eisenberg said it's precisely the mundane, every day records with no clear historical significance that are so critical to establishing legal trends upon which court policy is often based.
"Something really important will be lost here," said Eisenberg, a former clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court for the late Justice Earl Warren. "We would lose any ability to assess trends over time. This is not just a matter of history, it is a matter of influencing basic policy today."
Christina Boyd, who teaches public law at the University at Buffalo, said only about 2 percent of federal court cases ever make it to trial and little research has been done to explain why that percentage dropped from about 12 percent in the 1960s. One question, she said, is whether federal judges began pushing settlements in the 1970s and 1980s as public aide to indigents dramatically increased, possibly to the advantage of corporations or other institutions being sued by the individuals.
"This was a crucial period in legal history," she said. "We need to understand the trends – and that means looking at files that could be going away."
Marvin Kabakoff, a senior analyst with the NARA who himself holds a Ph.D. in history, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he sympathizes and ideally would want all the records digitized, "but keeping everything is just not realistic." He said it would be "outrageously expensive" and since some documents are mashed or stapled together, merely sorting through the millions of papers would be a gargantuan, labor-intensive task.
By the end of the year, 140,000 boxes of civil case files – out of a total of around 270,000 from the 35-year period – are expected to be destroyed, Kabakoff said. Starting next year, about 390,000 of the 400,000 total boxes of bankruptcy case files from the same period will be destroyed and a far smaller number of criminal case files – about 40,000 boxes – would be destroyed later.
Preparing for this first-of-its-kind destruction, federal archivists decided to keep thousands of records deemed historically relevant or that fell into other categories. With the civil files, for instance, authorities decided to save around 110,000 boxes of files, including all civil rights or government corruption case files regardless of whether those cases went to trial.
Federal documents meticulously detail which files should be saved, including those related to the shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 by a Soviet jet fighters in 1983 and files on young men accused of trying to evade the Vietnam War draft.
"We tried to be very careful about what we are destroying," Kabakoff said
The issue came to the fore as the federal court system, like other government entities Rolex Replica Watches, struggled to cut costs. The pre-1995 files posed a particular challenge because they were created before nearly all court documents were kept electronically. Comparatively u Boat Replica Watches, few paper-only documents were created after 1995.
Also, 1970 to 1995 was a period of explosive growth in litigation, creating mountains of paperwork that could only be stored in boxes at courthouses or federal archive centers with dwindling space.
Historians argue that it is impossible to say what records will be historically significant in 10, 50 or 100 years, since an inconsequential file today might one day shed light on a figure who emerges to prominence, from a presidential candidate to a murder suspect.
Beyond historians, among those concerned is Don Haworth, a 35-year veteran private investigator in Chicago who said he frequently uses those same 1970-95 federal court records. In his work, the slightest clue in the seemingly most mundane records could make or break a case.
He said that applies to run-of-the-mill bankruptcy records that could show a pattern of a businessman over a 30- or 40-year period of opening a business, then declaring bankruptcy and jilting creditors. He recently found that a target of his investigation lied when she said she'd never been involved in a federal case: She showed up as a witness in a federal case decades ago.
"While a record may not be pertinent to one individual, they may be a gold mine to others," Haworth said.
He also runs into other private investigators, scholars, historians and even writers doing research at Chicago's Federal Records Center, which houses records from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
But certainly not everyone in the law business is alarmed.
Most trial attorneys deal with civil and criminal cases that arose in recent months or years, and they aren't likely to need decades-old archives. Chicago-based bankruptcy attorney Brad Foreman said he usually only needs to do research dating back seven or eight years, which is readily available online.
"As a lawyer, I am not concerned," he said. "In bankruptcy cases, I can't think of ever once having to go back as far as 1995."
Severe Thunderstorms, Wind and Hail Heading Toward
By Brian K. Sullivan
July 29 (Bloomberg) — Severe thunderstorms are expected today across the U.S. Northeast, including New York City, with wind gusting as high as 70 miles per hour and hail almost as large as golf balls, the National Weather Service said.
A severe thunderstorm watch is in effect from New York to Philadelphia until 11 p.m., according to the weather service.
“Thunderstorms are expected to increase in coverage and intensity this afternoon,” according to a weather service bulletin. “Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for threatening weather.”
There is a possibility a tornado may form in southeastern New York or northeastern Pennsylvania Rolex replica watches, according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
The storms are being driven by high humidity, said Mike Pigott, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania.
“It is the urban flooding that concerns me more, because there will be very heavy rain associated with these thunderstorms,” Pigott said.
At any given moment, there are 1 Tag heuer replica watches,800 thunderstorms in progress somewhere in the world, and lightning has killed 13 people in the U.S. this year, the weather service said. An average of 57 people a year have been killed by lightning in the past six years.
–Editors: Charlotte Porter, Richard Stubbe
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net.
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Sudans Budget Gap Likely to Swell to 5% of GDP Thi
By Maram Mazen
(Updates with finance minister comments starting in second paragraph.)
July 19 (Bloomberg) — Sudan’s budget deficit will swell to 5 percent of gross domestic product this year Omega replica watches, more than originally forecast, after oil-rich South Sudan seceded on July 9, Finance Minister Ali Mahmoud Abdel Rasoul.
To prevent the shortfall widening further, the government plans to slash spending in the second half of the year, Abdel Rasoul told lawmakers in the capital, Khartoum, today, six months after an austerity package triggered protests.
The deficit compares with the 3.2 percent shortfall envisaged in the original budget approved by lawmakers in November. The government is amending that budget after South Sudan gained control of about 75 percent of Sudan’s daily oil production of 490,000 barrels when it became independent.
“Political, economic and social changes in the country since July 9 have become the focus of everyone’s attention,” Abdel Rasoul said. The country needs a “comprehensive program to face the fiscal and economic ramifications for the loss of revenue.”
Fiscal spending will decline to 11.68 billion pounds ($4.4 billion) in the second half of the year from 15 billion in the previous first six months, Abdel Rasoul said, without giving the original spending plans. Revenue and grants will decline to 10.7 billion pounds from 12.5 billion over the same period.
Austerity Package
An austerity package passed by parliament in January spurred protests against President Umar al-Bashir’s government that were put down by security forces. The package included the partial removal of fuel subsidies and increasing the price of sugar.
No additional taxes or fees were imposed in today’s budget, Abdel Rasoul said. The government will try to keep the inflation rate below 18 percent, he said, compared with the 12 percent target in the original budget.
Abdel Rasoul also said that Sudan will start to introduce a new currency early next week. South Sudan released its own currency to banks in the capital, Juba, yesterday.
Sudan’s $68 billion economy will grow 3 percent this year, Abdel Rasoul said, less than the original budget’s target of 5 percent. The economy grew by 3 percent last year, half of the government’s target of 6 percent Rolex replica watches, al-Zubair said on June 13.
Oil Law
The finance minister also presented a new law for the transport of oil from South Sudan through its territory. Abdel Rasoul didn’t give details on the law to the press.
The two sides used to split proceeds from oil pumped in the south on a 50-50 basis, as agreed on in a 2005 peace accord which ended a two-decade civil war between the north and the south. They haven’t agreed on the amount of the new fees.
South Sudan currently has no other way to export its oil, and it relies on the crude export for 98 percent of its budget.
The crude, pumped mainly by China National Petroleum Corp., Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd and India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corp. day, is exported through a pipeline that runs to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
–Editors: Philip Sanders, Digby Lidstone
To contact the reporter on this story: Maram Mazen in Khartoum at mmazen@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net.
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Video shows Mosley wanted to quit vs Pacquiao
MANILA, Philippines – The boxing match between pound-for-pound king Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao and "Sugar" Shane Mosley last May 7 (May 8 in Manila) has been criticized for being boring – and with good reason.
Pacquiao sent Mosley reeling to the canvas in the third round, and Mosley was never the same after that. He spent the rest of the bout locked in defense mode, unwilling to engage for fear of being knocked down again.
But new details about the match – and what happened between the rounds – are coming to light with Showtime’s release of the epilogue of Fight Camp 360°: Pacquiao vs. Mosley.
An article from Examiner.com features a 30-second teaser of the episode Cartier replica watches, and it contains a shocker:
Shane Mosley, in between the rounds of his bout with Pacquiao, wanted to quit.
The video shows Mosley sitting on a stool, pleading with his trainer, Naazim Richardson.
“Come on Rolex replica watches, you’ve got to stop the fight,” Mosley can be heard telling his trainer.
But Richardson refuses, instead telling his fighter to settle down.
“You’re cut from a different cloth, baby,” Richardson says, trying to encourage his badly overmatched fighter.
Mosley, however, tells his trainer that he can no longer move.
Despite his fighter’s request, Richardson refused to let Mosley quit. He tells the former world champion to “Dig down and fight.”
Mosley lost the fight via a unanimous decision.
More details about the fight will come on June 4 when Showtime releases the full episode.
Meanwhile, Pacquiao’s agent Michael Koncz told Examiner.com that Team Pacquiao was not aware of Mosley’s attempt to quit.
“I was not aware of it and neither was Manny,” said Koncz. He adds that Richardson should have complied with Mosley’s wishes.
“Why wouldn’t the trainer do what the fighter asks him to do?” he said. “I wonder why Richardson did not follow the instructions from his fighter.”
He added that if it was Pacquiao who wanted to have a fight stopped, his wishes would have been followed.
“This is a decision that the great fighters get to make. In this kind of case, I’d have to say that the fighter knows best,” said Koncz.
Bata, Corteza invited to Thai tilt
MANILA, Philippines – Filipino pool wizards Efren "Bata" Reyes and Lee Vann "The Slayer" Corteza are all set for the 2010 Pattaya 9-Ball Invitational Pool Competition which starts on October 1 in Pattaya, Thailand.
According to sportsman-businessman Jonathan Sy of Negros Billiards Stable (NBS), Reyes and Corteza received invitations from captain Prajit Phichaisornlatat, chairman of the Q Sport Bangkok Association, which organized the event.
"Naimbitahan sina Champ (Efren Reyes) at Van-Van (Lee Vann Corteza) na maglaro sa main draw ng Pattaya 9-Ball mula sa imbitasyon ng organizing committee," said Sy during a thanksgiving dinner party on Tuesday night for the RP pool team which participated in the China Open.
Phichaisornlatat said: "We have invited 17 leading pool players from various countries such as Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan and the United Kingdom."
Reyes, top player of Puyat Sports, made it to the quarter-final round of the China Open over the weekend while Corteza, whose local and international campaigns are backed up by Kopiko and Energen, made it to the semi-final round.
“I hope to do well in this event,” said the 31-year-old Davao City native Corteza Omega replica watches, top player of Sy’s NBS. He is backed up by Kopiko and Energen.
"Maraming magagaling na naimbitahan na maglaro sa Pattaya 9 Ball, pero gagawin lamang namin ni Van-Van (Corteza) yung best namin para makapagbigay muli ng karangalan sa bayan,” said Reyes.
Reyes and Corteza left the country Wednesday morning for the Thailand event.
The champion will receive 300,000 Thai Baht prize money. The runner-up will receive 50,000 Thai Baht, and the third and fourth place will each receive 30,000 Thai Baht.
Other notable players participating in Pattaya 9-Ball are 2008 World 10-Ball Champion Darren "The Dynamite" Appleton of Great Britain, Bobby Lee Chenman of Hongkong, Takashi Uraoka Rolex replica watches, Taguchi Kenji and Tomoo Takano of Japan, Chan Keng Kwang of Singapore, Lui Hui Chan, Fu Che Wei, Liu Chien Cheih, Wong Kuo Ping and Chang Yu Long of Chinese-Taipei, and Nitiwat Kanjanasri of Thailand.
The event, which runs until October 3, will take place at the Royal Garden Plaza. – By Marlon Bernardino
No less than a full-court press on tax evaders – P
MANILA, Philippines – Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said the government could start going after known tax evaders and corrupt tax collection officials in the next few weeks.
"This will be a full court press and we will be unrelenting until we achieve a tax effort that is commensurate with what the legal system provides for Breitling replica watches," said Purisima in a press briefing in Malacanang on Wednesday.
He said that the government intends to be very aggresive and can kick off its first action against tax evaders shortly.
"We have to review right now what we have to make sure we can file cases next week. The mandate is to send a clear signal to tax collection agencies and players that this administration means business," said Purisima.
To ferret out tax violators and colluding tax collection officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC), the government will initially utilize available public information such as base data from industry sectors to see how they are faring and how much taxes should be collected from them, and exisiting data from the National Economic and Development Authority, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and other relevant agencies.
Purisima said the government is already in talks with several multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in trying to come up with a model to allow the government to simulate how the different economic sectors are doing.
"This will help us set better collection targets for the BIR and the BOC."
The government he said will also improve the application of the Lateral Attrition Law, "which is a first step in establishing a meritocracy within the BIR and BOC."
The Lateral Attrition Law provides for a system of reward and punishment for BOC and BIR officials and employees depending on their performance. Those who fall short of their collection targets by at least 7.5% would be dismissed from service, while those who go beyond expectations would be given incentives which may include cash.
At the same time, programs such as the Department of Finance’s Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS), the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s Run After the Tax Evaders (RATE) program Rolex replica watches, and the Bureau of Customs’ Run After the Smugglers (RATS) program, will be intensified to reduce corruption.
"The handicap in the past is how to properly process these complaints, but with a very able justice secretary, we will see first action in this area."
Purisima is hopeful that the Aquino administration will be able to create "tipping points" so that even the citizenry can help curb corruption.
"When we are able to achieve an environment of increased perceived risks among players in this space, hopefully even the private sector will be more careful in being part of tax evasion."
It is estimated that some P150 billion in revenue is lost annually due to tax evasion and smuggling but Purisima said this data could already be outdated.
Rice prices seen stable on weather, inventory –IR
MANILA, Philippines – World rice prices should remain stable around current levels into 2012 on improved output due to sufficient rainfall and plentiful stocks to meet demand, the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said on Tuesday.
Total 2011/12 global rice output was forecast to meet the projected demand of 460 million tons given favourable weather, senior IRRI economist Samarendu Mohanty said.
"Overall it looks like the harvest will be good and prices should be stable," he told Reuters in a phone interview. "If we have normal weather… then we should be able to produce 460 million tons (of milled rice) for 2011-2012."
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)has forecast world rice production to reach 480 million tons in 2011, up 3% from last year on improved weather conditions.
Mohanty estimated current global rice inventory to be 25 million tons above levels seen two years ago, when the price of the staple hit record highs of $1,080 a ton in April 2008.
The benchmark Thai 100 percent B white rice fell by around 10% from around $548 to $550 in January this year and was pegged at $500 per ton this week.
"So if you take into account that we have a comfortable amount of stocks and assume that we produce a good amount of rice, then prices should stay low," he said, ruling out the possibility of prices rising back to record levels seen in 2008 when there was unease over shrinking food supplies.
Bumper crops in top exporters Thailand and Vietnam prevented rice from joining a surge in prices of other grains early this year, helping tame food inflation.
However, Mohanty said both Thailand and Vietnam face the risk of declining output over the medium term as more land is used for cash crops and some are converted to industrial use.
A shortage of farm labour and uncertain weather would also lead to falling production, he added.
Shrinking acreage
Shrinking rice acreage was "definitely a major concern" because he said that for the last 40 years, the expansion in rice area has contributed one quarter of the production growth.
"So if you assume that in the future the rice land may not expand and even decline… then the yield should be much higher to compensate for that," Mohanty said.
"We are looking at somewhere between 1.2% and 1.5% yield growth, so we need to produce 7 to 10 million tons of additional milled rice every year to feed the world, assuming there will be a steady decline in rice area."
The Philippines and Indonesia, two of the world’s major rice importers, could achieve their self-sufficiency goals in the grain in the next few years, but rice exports from these countries may not be possible yet, he said.
"I think that (self sufficiency) is achievable both for the Philippines and Indonesia. (But) I think achieving self sufficiency is one thing, maintaining self sufficiency is more difficult," he said.
The Philippines, the world’s top rice buyer before slashing its purchases to just a third of the 2010 record volume of 2.45 million tons, aims to become self sufficient in the national staple by 2013.
The Southeast Asian country, a key buyer of Vietnamese rice, expects to further bring down its imports next year to not more than 500 Rolex replica watches,000 tons, from record volumes of 2.45 million tons in 2010 when output fell due to extremely dry weather.
Mohanty said the Philippines was moving in the right direction in trying to achieve its self sufficiency ambition, citing the government’s focus in investing in irrigation and agricultural infrastructure.
He said Indonesia had been self-sufficient in rice for a few years in the past and could become self sufficient again as long as the weather is favourable.
Indonesia said it has reserved 570,000 hectares (1.4 million acres) of land to produce an extra 2.0 million tons of rice, aimed at reducing the likelihood of it importing any more rice this year and plans to build a new food estate for growing rice and rearing cattle in Aceh province.
Indonesia has also targeted to raise rice production by 5% annually, as it seeks to improve food security, and plans to cut rice consumption by 1.5% a year, by encouraging food diversification in a bid to create a 10 million-ton rice surplus in the next five to 10 years.
But the Philippines and Indonesia are unlikely to become major rice exporters in the near term, Mohanty said.
"I think the target right now is achieving self sufficiency and that’s a more realistic target than becoming a net exporter Rolex replica watches, which is a little difficult," he said, citing the erratic weather conditions in these countries.
New risks, treatment for problem gamblers report
VANCOUVER – The growth of on-line casinos offers new temptations for problem gamblers, but the Internet should also provide avenues to treat them Rolex replica watches, according to a report in a leading medical journal on Wednesday.
The report, published in The Lancet, found that researchers have made progress recognizing and understanding gambling disorders but need to keep pace in the future with the growing access to gaming opportunities.
"It is a moving target," said David Hodgins, a professor of psychology at the University of Calgary who co-authored the report, which reviewed the status of studies and treatments for problem gambling.
The desire to wager appears almost universal, but studies have found sharp variations between countries and regions on the percentage of people whose urge to gamble for money can be classified as a pathological problem.
In Norway, one in 500 people are thought to have a gambling disorder, while in Hong Kong the rate is thought to be as high as one in 20. Only 10% of problem gamblers seek treatment, according to the report.
The American Psychiatric Association identified pathological gambling as an impulse control disorder in 1980, and is currently examining the criteria used for its diagnosis.
Problem gamblers sometimes treat themselves by avoiding public places where they can wager, but the Internet provides a new challenge by allowing them to gamble in the privacy of their homes, the report said.
"It is much more difficult to avoid online gambling," Hodgins said in an interview, noting that gambling sites often solicited potential clients via email.
But the Internet will also encourage more studies on how to treat gambling disorders, possibly offsetting the problems caused to problem gamblers by access to online gaming, Hodgins said.
Structuring Internet forums to help people in the same way they are used by self-help support groups, such as Gamblers Anonymous, is among the ideas being explored by researchers.
Problem gamblers often have other psychiatric disorders or substance abuse problems Tag heuer replica watches, but there is a lack of studies into how to deal with those situations, according to the Lancet report.
Hodgins said researchers must examine how the overlapping problems could be "addressed at the same time" to prevent people from "switching addictions."
New peso bills with Aquinos signature out Nov. 26
MANILA Tag heuer replica watches, Philippines (UPDATED) – Malacañang reporters got a sneak peak of the new peso bills that bear President Benigno Aquino III’s signature when Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. presented to President Aquino a set of the new peso bills on Thursday.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Corporate Affairs director Fe dela Cruz said the BSP will start distributing the new bills tomorrow (Nov. 26). She said printing of the new bills started after President Aquino’s inauguration.
This is one in a series of massive facelift for banknotes and coins that aim to further enhance security features and improve durability. "The original design of the banknotes and coins was made 3 decades ago,” BSP chief Amando M. Tetangco Jr. had previously explained.
The BSP’s numismatic committee composed of central bank officials led by Bangko Sentral Deputy Gov. Diwa Guinigundo with representatives from the national historical commission worked on the design of the new banknotes and coins.
In December, the BSP will launch another set of new peso bills with new design and upgraded security features. All denominations will bear new designs.
The new P500 banknote that will be launched in December will bear the faces of Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. and former President Corazon Aquino.
“We start the new year with new set of banknotes,” Dela Cruz told reporters.
The BSP said it will be difficult to counterfeit the new bills.
“The security features are more difficult and will be more costly for counterfeiters to copy pero mas madali po for the public na ma-identify kung alin ang counterfeit, at alin ang genuine,” she said.
Since the current bills will not lose their value and will remain a legal tender for another 3 to 4 years, BSP reminded the public to take care of the peso bills.
“Huwag po nating lukutin Rolex replica watches, basain, sulatan. Ingatan ang ating salapi, larawan ito ng ating yamang lahi. Ingatan po natin dahil national symbol po natin ang ating pera. Ito po yung nagpapahiwatig ng ating values at mga bayani natin,” Dela Cruz stressed.
New designs and security features will soon be available for the other banknotes—P20, P50, P100, P200, and P1,000—as well as for the one-centavo, five-centavo, 10-centavo, 25-centavo, P1, P5 and P10 coins.
Sharon to announce new project on Sunday
MANILA, Philippines – Megastar Sharon Cuneta will have a "mega announcement" on Sunday (August 22) as she bids goodbye to her program.
Her show Tag heuer replica watches, "Sharon," however, will still run for a couple of weeks, ABS-CBN’s public relations office said.
"Sharon" has been on air for four-and-a-half years, and "has brought fun and entertainment to every Filipino home each weekend," ABS-CBN said.
Sharon will be announcing the details of her new project, "Starpower!", with the Kapamilya network.
Sharon airs Sunday evenings after Rated K.
Starpower! is Sharon’s search for the next female pop superstar.
Auditions for Starpower! were held August 21 in Manila and Cebu. An audition in Davao will be held August 28-29.
Starpower! is ABS-CBN’S new singing contest whose goal is to discover and develop a singing star who will shine in television, movies Rolex replica watches, concerts and recordings.