Copper theives strike again

This sounds like an easy scam, how easy is it to flip the wire, how much ya get per pound? per ton? That Jack Wyscarver guy sure has his work cut out for him.

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Copper thefts plague city
Culprits steal valuable utility wiring, leaving darkened streets
By Ralph Monta?o - Bee Staff Writer

Published 12:00 am PST Thursday, January 25, 2007
Story appeared in CITY section, Page H1

Friday morning brought more bad news for Jack Wyscarver, Sacramento's
supervisor of traffic signals and street lighting.

The street lights were out in another section of Natomas, and the
culprit wasn't bad weather or a broken conductor. It was wire thieves,
again.

"I just got a call that they hit Benefit Way and East Commerce Way,"
Wyscarver said. "On Thursday, it was Orchard Drive and Barandas Drive.
Just about every night we get a call."

For almost two months, the city has been plagued by thieves who tear up
the city's streetlights to get the copper wire. Neighborhoods are being
left in the dark, sometimes for days as repair are being made.

Linda Tucker, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of
Transportation, said repairs have cost the city $25,000, counting
employee time and materials.

The problem is one that has popped up all across the Sacramento area,
thanks largely to the rising prices being paid by recyclers for the
metals. The Bee reported in August 2006 that authorities in Yolo and El
Dorado counties were seeing an increase in thefts of aluminum and
copper. Aluminum irrigation pipes were being pulled out of the ground
and copper wire was being torn out of the walls at construction sites,
investigators told The Bee.

Last year, hundreds of thousands of people in Placerville lost
telephone service after thieves knocked down more than 1,000 feet of
AT&T cable seeking copper wiring. In Lodi, hundreds of copper vases
disappeared from graves in Cherokee Memorial Park. Almost 800 of the
vases turned up in scrap yards across San Joaquin County.

Officials with the scrap recycling industry said copper prices are at
an all-time high, up to $3 a pound because of several factors,
including increased demand and strikes at mines throughout the world.

City officials say they are contacting scrap metal recyclers to warn
them about accepting the stolen goods.

"If we can cut off where they are cashing it in, then hopefully they
will move on," Wyscarver said. A similar strategy appears to have been
successful in Stockton, Wyscarver added. "Their problem apparently
stopped the day before ours began."

The theory that the thieves are coming from Stockton has no real
evidence, according to Sacramento police spokesman Sgt. Matt Young. He
said investigators have yet to find a single eyewitness to 15 different
thefts.

"We are asking the public's help in being our eyes and ears," Young
said. Anyone seen working on utility wires not wearing a city worker
uniform or driving a city truck should raise suspicion.

The thieves are getting access to the wire by lifting the concrete
covers located on sidewalks. Wyscarver said once the thieves get to the
wire, they cut the connection and pull out hundreds of feet of
underground wire. The Orchard Way theft, for example, resulted in the
theft of about 2,000 feet of wire, Wyscarver said. A 10-foot section of
wire weighs about a pound, he estimated.

The thefts have left behind open utility covers and live wires that are
a danger to the public. Anyone finding a street light wiring box left
open is advised not to reach inside.

Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to call the
Sacramento Police Department at (916) 264-5471.
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Fed employees who owe back taxes

You would think the federal govt would be able to automatically garnish their wages to recover the shortfall. I wonder if they have considered doing this at all, seems it would be a simple solution. Link to the article for the spreadsheets mentioned, it breaks down each govt agency into different categories.

Federal Workers Owe Billions in Unpaid Taxes
Jan 17th - 10:26am

Mark Segraves, WTOP Radio

WASHINGTON - As the 2006 tax season approaches, the federal government is still trying to recover nearly $3 billion from its own employees who failed to file income tax returns for 2005.

More than 450,000 active and retired federal employees did not voluntarily comply with federal income tax requirements for the 2005 tax year, according to documents obtained by WTOP through the Freedom of Information Act. (See Excel spreadsheets in the Related Links below.)

The total balance owed is $2,799,950,165.

The documents show that every federal agency has employees who failed to comply with federal tax laws.

Seventy-one employees in the Executive Office of the President, which includes the White House, owe $664,527 in taxes for 2005. About 20 of those employees have entered into an IRS payment plan, bringing the EOP balance down to $455,881owed by 50 employees.

The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In fact, about one third of the delinquent employees, or 149,500, entered into a payment plan, but the total owed is still more than $2 billion.

At the IRS, employees can be fired for failure to pay federal income taxes. But an IRS spokesperson tells WTOP it's no easier to collect from federal employees than it is to collect from the general public.

In the past, IRS officials have been quick to compare the federal workers' rate of compliance with the general public's. But this year, the IRS is not able to track the compliance rate for the general public. The percentage of federal employees who still owe back taxes for the 2005 year is 3.3 percent of the workforce including retirees.

The federal agency with the highest number of delinquent taxpayers is the United States Postal Service, where 56,652 employees owe more than $320 million. So far, about 22,000 of those employees have agreed to a payment plan.

A spokesperson for the Postal Service says the agency hopes all of its employees follow the law, but will leave enforcement to the IRS.

The agency with the best compliance rate is the Department of Treasury, which includes the IRS. Fewer than 2 percent of Treasury employees failed to pay their taxes. About 3,000 Treasury employees owed $13,489,683 -- 1,437 of those feds also have made payment plans.

The IRS tracks the compliance rate of federal employees each year in an effort to increase compliance. Agency directors are made aware of their department's compliance rate and then memos are sent to staff encouraging them to file their taxes.

(Copyright 2007 by WTOP Radio. All Rights Reserved.)

Chinese shoot down satellite

Now we'll have to develop counter-anti-satellite capabilities to protect our imaging platforms. Like we didn't have enough going on right now without the Chinese going and raising the stakes. Thanks a lot, jerks.

Chinese Test Anti-Satellite Weapon
By Craig Covault/Aviation Week & Space Technology
01/17/2007 07:45:59 PM

U. S. intelligence agencies believe China performed a successful anti-satellite (asat) weapons test at more than 500 mi. altitude Jan. 11 destroying an aging Chinese weather satellite target with a kinetic kill vehicle launched on board a ballistic missile.

The Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, NASA and other government organizations have a full court press underway to obtain data on the alleged test, Aviation Week & Space Technology will report in its Jan. 22 issue.

If the test is verified it will signify a major new Chinese military capability.

Neither the Office of the U. S. Secretary of Defense nor Air Force Space Command would comment on the attack, which followed by several months the alleged illumination of a U. S. military spacecraft by a Chinese ground based laser.

China's growing military space capability is one major reason the Bush Administration last year formed the nation's first new National Space Policy in ten years, Aviation Week will report.

"The policy is designed to ensure that our space capabilities are protected in a time of increasing challenges and threats," says Robert G. Joseph, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the U. S. State Dept. " This is imperative because space capabilities are vital to our national security and to our economic well being," Joseph said in an address on the new space policy at the National Press Club in Washington D. C.

Details emerging from space sources indicate that the Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was attacked by an asat system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center.

The attack is believe to have occurred as the weather satellite flew at 530 mi. altitude 4 deg. west of Xichang located in Sichuan province. Xichang is a major Chinese space launch center.

Although intelligence agencies must complete confirmation of the test, the attack is believed to have occurred at about 5:28 p.m. EST Jan. 11. U. S. intelligence agencies had been expecting some sort of test that day, sources said.

U. S. Air Force Defense Support Program missile warning satellites in geosynchronous orbit would have detected the Xichang launch of the asat kill vehicle and U. S. Air Force Space Command monitored the FY-1C orbit both before and after the exercise.

The test, if it occurred as envisioned by intelligence source, could also have left considerable space debris in an orbit used by many different satellites.

USAF radar reports on the Chinese FY-1C spacecraft have been posted once or twice daily for years, but those reports jumped to about 4 times per day just before the alleged test.

The USAF radar reports then ceased Jan. 11, but then appeared for a day showing "signs of orbital distress". The reports were then halted again. The Air Force radars may well be busy cataloging many pieces of debris, sources said.

Although more of a "policy weapon" at this time, the test shows that the Chinese military can threaten the imaging reconnaissance satellites operated by the U. S., Japan, Russia, Israel and Europe.

The Republic of China also operates a small imaging spacecraft that can photograph objects as small as about 10 ft. in size, a capability good enough to count cruise missiles pointed at Taiwan from the Chinese mainland. The Taiwanese in the past have also leased capability on an Israeli reconnaissance satellite.

Tonight @ the Marx Cafe

I'll be at the Marx tonight, playing 2step and classic old school garage. Music starts at 10pm.

holla!

3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

Global warming, now also real in Europe.

WOW, global warming hits home. Here too on the east coast there's no snow to be found, all the slopes within 2 hours of here are closed. WTF!?

Snowboarders stage protest over lack of snow

Romanian snowboarders blocked traffic by staging a protest in front of the national weather institute to complain about the lack of snow.

The sit down protest in the capital Bucharest only ended when weathermen told them their complaint "would be passed on to a higher authority".

Romania's ski resorts, like much of the rest of Europe, have been hit by a chronic lack of snow and high temperatures - as much as 19 Celsius in some areas.

The appeal may have had some effect, as snow is predicted to fall some time later this week.

Pandas; can't seem to make it happen

Maybe they need some viagra, or perhaps livitra(sp?) cause you know it works for 36 hours, cause sometimes life gets in the way. this reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Homer bulks up to 400lbs so he can go on disibility and work from home. Not entierly certain why though.

Male panda said too fat to have sex

By SUTIN WANNABOVORN, Associated Press Writer 35 minutes ago

BANGKOK, Thailand - Chuang Chuang the Panda is just too heavy to have sex. Thai authorities have put him on a strict diet as part of a long-running campaign to get him to mate with female partner Lin Hui at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand.

"Chuang Chuang is gaining weight too fast and we found Lin Hui is no longer comfortable with having sex with him," said the zoo's chief veterinarian, Kanika Limtrakul, adding that Chuang Chuang weighed 331 pounds while Lin Hui is only 253 pounds.

As a result, zoo authorities are cutting out bamboo shoots in the daily meal for Chuang Chuang and giving the obese bear only bamboo leaves, Kanika said.

The diet plan is the latest in an unsuccessful and often strange campaign by zoo officials to get the two bears to mate.

They have held a mock wedding, announced plans to separate the two to spark a little romance and even talked of introducing panda porn — videos of other pandas mating — to get the pair in the mood.

Thailand rented Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui from China for $250,000 in October 2003 for 10 years. They are expected to generate millions of dollars in revenues from Thai and foreign tourists.

There are as few as 1,600 giant pandas in the mountain forests of central China, according to the zoo. An additional 120 are in Chinese breeding facilities and zoos, and about 20 live in zoos outside China.

Pandas are threatened by loss of habitat, poaching and a low reproduction rate. Females in the wild normally have a cub once every two to three years.

Marx Cafe tonight!

Awhhhhh yeah!

3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

10pm

you know.

Beautiful Alfa GTV on Ebay!

Oh man, this machine is gorgeous! I want it.

Peru, king of the world.

Wow, the peruvian stock market earned 182% during 2006, that's amazing.

The Sunday Times December 24, 2006

Peru races to top of world stock market league
Paul Durman

THE populous and fast-growing Bric economies — Brazil, Russia, India and China — produced the four best performances among major stock markets last year, according to an annual review by Thomson Financial.

The analysis by the financial-information firm underlines the growing importance of these emerging economic powerhouses to investors as well as to trading partners.

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China was the best-performing major market, the Shenzhen A-share index delivering total returns of 101.7% last year for a dollar investor. The Russian market rose by 65.8%, the Brazilian market by 40.9% and the Indian market by 36.6%.

All these figures are calculated to include dividends and were calculated in dollars — thus neutralising currency changes.

The much larger British and American stock markets also performed well last year, but trailed far behind the Bric markets. In dollar terms, the FTSE 100 delivered a total return of 26.3%, making it the 56th best- performing market among the 93 tracked by Thomson. The 14% gain in the S&P 500, the broader American index, ranked 84th.

Some smaller stock markets did even better than China. Peru was the best performer, producing a 182% gain on the back of its metals industry. Cyprus was next with returns of 157%.

The worst performers included several Middle East stock markets, hurt by the bursting of the oil bubble. Investors in Jordan were the worst hit, suffering losses of 34%. Kuwait, Lebanon, Turkey and Bangladesh also produced negative returns.

In the UK, the best-performing company in the FTSE All-Share was Manganese Bronze, the black-cab maker that gave investors a total return of 290%. There were also stellar performances from UK Coal (returns of 201%), software group Aveva (158%) and Nord Anglia Education (141%).

The worst performers are a group of companies that generated a great many column inches. Isoft, the software company that nearly went bust after failing to meet its commitment to the NHS IT programme, was the worst performer, showing a loss of 85.9%.

Party Gaming, the online gaming giant damaged by new American restrictions, ended the year down 76.9%. Acambis, the biotech company that recently lost its contract to make smallpox vaccine for the US government, and Skye Pharma, the subject of a shareholder revolt, also halved in value.

Among the larger companies, the mining groups Xstrata and Lonmin headed the list of FTSE 100 gainers, producing returns of 107.9% and 92.6% respectively. Then came Corus, the steel maker that is the subject of a takeover battle.

Carnival, the cruise operator, was by far the worst performer in the FTSE 100, costing its investors losses of 23.5%. Drugs giant Glaxo Smith Kline was next worst, down 6.3%.

Many of the winning companies reflected the strength of the utilities and construction and materials sectors. The laggards were technology, healthcare and automobiles.

This has also been a boom year for flotations on AIM, although many debutantes performed poorly for their investors. According to Thomson, the worst were Atelis, Microfuze International, Arthro Kinetics, Netservices and Chariot (UK), which all lost at least 70% of their value.

By contrast, Worthington Nicholls, Tasty, Lipoxen Technologies and iX Europe all at least doubled in value.

To put these returns on equities in context, Thomson looked at data from asset classes. Government bonds, as measured by the JP Morgan index, produced returns of 8%. Corporate bonds, a substantially riskier class of assets, did not fare much better, returning 9.7%. The returns on cash were 4.5%. Property was the star performer, the global real-estate market showing gains of 40%.

Iraq may be lost

Maybe we will see a return to conservative values now, meaning no more military adventurism for the foreseeable future.

White House Postponing Loss of Iraq, Biden Says

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 5, 2007; A06

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday that he believes top officials in the Bush administration have privately concluded they have lost Iraq and are simply trying to postpone disaster so the next president will "be the guy landing helicopters inside the Green Zone, taking people off the roof," in a chaotic withdrawal reminiscent of Vietnam.

"I have reached the tentative conclusion that a significant portion of this administration, maybe even including the vice president, believes Iraq is lost," Biden said. "They have no answer to deal with how badly they have screwed it up. I am not being facetious now. Therefore, the best thing to do is keep it from totally collapsing on your watch and hand it off to the next guy -- literally, not figuratively."

Biden gave the comments in an interview as he outlined an ambitious agenda for the committee, including holding four weeks of hearings focused on every aspect of U.S. policy in Iraq. The hearings will call top political, economic and intelligence experts; foreign diplomats; and former and current senior U.S. officials to examine the situation in Iraq and possible plans for dealing with it. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will probably testify next Thursday to defend the president's new plan, but at least eight other plans will be examined over several sessions of the committee.

Other witnesses invited for at least 10 days of hearings include former national security advisers and secretaries of state, including Brent Scowcroft, Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry A. Kissinger, Madeleine K. Albright and George P. Shultz.

Biden expressed opposition to the president's plan for a "surge" of additional U.S. troops and said he has grave doubts about whether the Iraqi government has the will or the capacity to help implement a new approach. He said he hopes to use the hearings to "illuminate the alternatives available to this president" and to provide a platform for influencing Americans, especially Republican lawmakers.

"There is nothing a United States Senate can do to stop a president from conducting his war," Biden said. "The only thing that is going to change the president's mind, if he continues on a course that is counterproductive, is having his party walk away from his position."

Biden said that Vice President Cheney and former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld "are really smart guys who made a very, very, very, very bad bet, and it blew up in their faces. Now, what do they do with it? I think they have concluded they can't fix it, so how do you keep it stitched together without it completely unraveling?"