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From the headquarters of Reach More Now in Fort Worth, Texas, this is Ray Mossholder and this is the evening news for Friday, July 10, 2015
- Here are the five major news stories of this day and add an extra one to make you laugh.……..
1. From the Associated Press…..Greece appears to be melting in the euro frying pan……
ATHENS — Greece finally met a deadline that counted on Thursday and made a series of sweeping proposals that its creditors needed by midnight to set off a mad rush toward a weekend deal to stave off a financial collapse of the nation.
The package met longstanding demands by creditors to impose wide-ranging sales-tax hikes and cuts in state spending for pensions that the left-leaning Greek government had long resisted.
It raised hopes that Greece can get the rescue deal that will prevent a catastrophic exit from the euro after key creditors said they were open to discussing how to ease the country’s debt load, a long-time sticking point in their talks.
In the text of proposals sent by Athens late Thursday, the government conceded to demands it had previously refused to accept — mostly on moving various categories of goods and services to higher sales tax rates — in exchange for a new 53.5 billion-euro ($59 billion) bailout package.
The government said the proposals would be voted on by Greece’s parliament late Friday before an emergency summit Sunday of all 28 European Union leaders.
After months of foot-dragging despite impending chaos, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met a midnight deadline with more than an hour to spare. The spokesman for eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem tweeted that it was “important for institutions to consider these (proposals) in their assessment” of the Greek situation.
Finance officials from the European institutions and the International Monetary Fund were to fine-comb through the proposals on Friday before the 19 eurozone finance ministers assess them on Saturday.In ideal circumstances, a summit of the full European Union would be able to approve them on Sunday.
Earlier Thursday, Donald Tusk of Poland, who chairs the EU summits, indicated that European officials would make an effort to address Greece’s key request for debt relief.
“The realistic proposal from Greece will have to be matched by an equally realistic proposal on debt sustainability from the creditors. Only then will we have a win-win situation,” Tusk said.
Greece has long argued its debt is too high to be paid back and that the country requires some form of debt relief. The International Monetary Fund agrees with the premise, but key European states like Germany have resisted the idea.
On Thursday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the possibility of some kind of debt relief would be discussed over coming days, though he cautioned it may not provide much help.
“The room for maneuver through debt reprofiling or restructuring is very small,” he said.
Making Greece’s debt more sustainable would likely involve lowering the interest rates and extending the repayment dates on its bailout loans. Germany and many other European countries rule out an outright debt cut, arguing it would be illegal under European treaties.
Tsipras met with finance ministry officials and his cabinet throughout the day Thursday to finalize his country’s plan, a day after his government requested a new three-year aid program from Europe’s bailout fund and promised to immediately enact reforms, including to taxes and pensions, in return.
The last-minute maneuvers come as Greece’s financial system teeters on the brink of collapse. It has imposed restrictions on banking transactions since June 29, limiting cash withdrawals to 60 euros ($67) per day to stanch a bank run. Banks and the stock market have been shut for just as long.
The closures, which have been extended through Monday, have led to daily lines at ATM machines and have hammered businesses. Payments abroad have been banned without special permission.
“Can you see anybody in the shop? Nobody’s coming in, because everyone’s living off a drip,” said Magda Petridi, a fortune teller who runs a shop selling good luck charms, aromatic oils and trinkets. “Until a month ago business was going pretty well.”
Pensioners without bank cards have been particularly hard hit as they have struggled to access their accounts. Some branches have been opened so the elderly and unemployed without bank cards can withdraw a maximum weekly sum of 120 euros each. Hundreds lined up outside banks Thursday morning, many facing hours-long waits in the heat.
Meanwhile, many ATMs had a shortage of 20 euro notes, effectively reducing the daily withdrawal limit to 50 euros.
If Tsipras does not get a deal, Greece faces an almost inevitable collapse of the banking system, which would be the first step for the country to fall out of the euro.
“I believe he will have to get an agreement. We will pay dearly for it, but at least we’ll get an agreement,” said mechanic Pantelis Niarchos, walking down the street in central Athens.
After months of fruitless negotiations with Tsipras’ government, elected in January on promises to repeal bailout austerity, the skeptical eurozone creditor states had insisted they wanted to see a detailed, cost-accounted plan of reforms.
Greece’s financial institutions have been kept afloat so far by emergency liquidity assistance from the European Central Bank. But the ECB has not increased the amount in days, leaving the lenders in a stranglehold despite capital controls.
German ECB governing council member Jens Weidmann argued Greek banks should not get more emergency credit from the central bank unless a bailout deal is struck.
He said it was up to eurozone governments and Greek leaders themselves to rescue Greece.
The central bank “has no mandate to safeguard the solvency of banks and governments,” he said in a speech.
The ECB capped emergency credit to Greek banks amid doubt whether the country will win further rescue loans from other countries. The banks closed and limited ATM withdrawals because they had no other way to replace deposits.
Weidmann said he welcomed the fact that central bank credit “is no longer being used to finance capital flight caused by the Greek government.”
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2. From WND…… If you were a Federal employee since the year 2000, check your wallet and your bank account right now.
At least 21 million Social Security numbers were compromised in the second massive cyberbreach of federal records – reportedly executed by China – which exposed sensitive information of U.S. intelligence and military personnel.
The first major hack in June comprised a separate 4.2 million Social Security numbers.
The Office of Personnel Management, the agency the runs the twice hacked database, announced Thursday that the compromised Social Security numbers include not only those belonging to prospective, current and past employees, but also the numbers of family members and other third parties.
Of the 21.5 million records accessed, 19.7 million belonged to applicants seeking federal security clearances, according to OPM.
Another 1.8 million records belonged to applicants’ family members and other individuals.
The hackers also had access to 1.1 million sets of fingerprints in addition to sensitive background information, including:
- job history,
- addresses,
- drug and criminal histories,
- health and mental conditions,
- educational history,
- information about immediate family members (names, addresses, birthdates, Social Security numbers),
- information about personal and business acquaintances,
- financial history
- information from background investigations,
- usernames and passwords used to fill out investigation forms and other information.
Any person who underwent a federal background check after the year 2000 is “highly likely” to have had the personal information compromised by the massive hack, OPM said Thursday. However, individuals investigated before 2000 may still be affected by the breach.
While OPM has offered credit monitoring to the federal employees and security-clearance applicants, the government considers it to be applicants’ responsibility to alert third parties listed on the background check forms.
Those third parties will not be offered the identity-protection services.
According to OPM Director Katherine Archuleta’s testimony before Congress, the massive May 2014 hack was not discovered until May 2015. Archuleta was the political director for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
Andy Ozment, assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at the Department of Homeland Security, told Congress that a January security update stopped most of the data extraction.
In June, federal contractor CSID was tasked with informing and providing identity protection services to the 4.2 million employees impacted by the first hack. However, a company spokesman told the National Journal that CSID won’t be involved in the process for the larger data breach.
CSID has been criticized after federal employees who called with questions about identity protection services were forced to wait for hours for answers.
OPM claims there is no apparent indication that the hacked information has been “misused” or shared.
On Wednesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee asked FBI Director James Comey to provide a specific number of individuals impacted by the breach, but he refused to give one. But Comey confirmed the hack was “enormous” and included his own personal information.
Congressmen on both sides of the aisle have demanded the resignations of OPM Director Katherine Archuleta and OPM Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour since the hackings were discovered in June.
On Thursday, House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, repeated his call for the two “to resign or be removed” from their positions.
“Since at least 2007, OPM leadership has been on notice about the vulnerabilities to its network and cybersecurity policies and practices,” Chaffetz said. “Director Archuleta and Ms. Seymour consciously ignored the warnings and failed to correct these weaknesses. Their negligence has now put the personal and sensitive information of 21.5 million Americans into the hands of our adversaries. Such incompetence is inexcusable. Again, I call upon President Obama to remove Director Archuleta and Ms. Seymour immediately.”
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, demanded that Archuleta step down.
“The technological and security failures at the Office of Personnel Management predate this director’s term, but Director Archuleta’s slow and uneven response has not inspired confidence that she is the right person to manage OPM through this crisis,” Warner said in a Thursday night statement. “It is time for her to step down, and I strongly urge the administration to choose new management with proven abilities to address a crisis of this magnitude with an appropriate sense of urgency and accountability.”
Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va. – whose own information was compromised in the breach – echoed Warner’s call.
Comstock said Archuleta showed “complacency, apathy … and incompetence” after the hacking was discovered.
“It goes to the top,” she told the National Journal. “This is a failure of leadership on her part, and if the president does not have the leadership to do this, I think she should step aside.”
Reps. Ted Lieu and Jim Langevin, both Democrats, called for Archuleta’s removal.
Lieu and Rep. Steve Russell, R-Okla., are reportedly drafting legislation that would task another agency “that has a better grasp of cyberthreats” with handling the security-clearance database instead of OPM.
However, Archuleta, in a Thursday press call, claimed she and her staff should be commended for their efforts to improve cybersecurity since November 2013.
“It is because the efforts of OPM and its staff that we’ve been able to identify the breaches,” she said.
Archuleta said she and Seymour will not resign.
Also on Thursday, a White House spokesman re-confirmed support for Archuleta.
3. From CNN…… The United States Army announces a forced reduction of 40,000 troops.
Washington (CNN)The Army will cut 40,000 troops from its ranks by 2017 as part of a new round of reductions brought on by constraints in the federal budget, the Army’s director of force management said Thursday.
“Unfortunately under sequestration under sequestration and automatic budget cuts, today’s announcement may not be the last,” Brigadier General Randy George told reporters about the current fiscal environment that will reduce the Army’s ranks from its current state of 490,000 soldiers to 450,000.
If automatic budget cuts known as sequestration take place later this year, the Army says it would have to likely reduce its ranks by an additional 30,000 soldiers beyond the numbers announced Thursday, potentially crippling its ability to fight.
“The resulting force would be incapable of simultaneously meeting current deployment requirements, and responding to overseas contingency requirements of the combatant commands,” George said.
Reductions would affect nearly every installation in the force and will also include cutting approximately 17,000 civilian employees from the Army’s payroll. Many of the civilian cuts will come through the 25 percent cut across all of the Army headquarters, though the force does not expect to have greater specificity on those cuts for an additional sixty to ninety days.
And while the Army says some of the reductions will come through attrition and planned retirements, there will be many forced separations as part of the cuts.
“I have had to look captains, majors, soldiers in the eyes, good soldiers, and tell them that we are reducing,” George said. “Those are tough things to do.”
The largest single unit cuts will impact installations like Fort Benning in Georgia, Fort Hood in Texas and Joint Base Elmendorf in Alaska. Brigade Combat Team units at both Fort Benning and Joint Base Elmendorf which each currently number approximately 4,000 would be reduced to infantry battalion task forces numbering just over one thousand in each unit.
There will also be cuts to enabler forces like logistics, signal corps and military police units across the entire Army.
Some analysts who follow the Defense Department say such cuts make sense in a new era where the United States is no longer fighting two large land wars, but point to looming difficulties for the communities that host Army bases.
“It’s hard to justify the force size we had at the peak of Iraq and Afghanistan given the deployments and commitments that we have today,” said Todd Harrison with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “When you cut four or five thousand people from a particular base, that also means there’s going need to be fewer people working at the grocery stores, fewer teachers at the school, and so the economic impacts will expand out from the base.”
Following a “long, thoughtful, deliberate” process over the last 18 months, George said the reductions will take into account the current demands of the force around the world in order to maintain a force structure that can also take into account any unknown contingencies around the globe.
Confronted by budget cuts in an uncertain fiscal environment, the Obama administration has looked for ways to cut the size of the military, at one time pledging to scale the Army back to its lowest troop level since before World War II.
With a peak force of 570,000 troops following the 9/11 attacks, the resulting 450,000 troops will represent a drop of 120,000 troops since 2012 or 21 percent of the force.
4. From Fox News…..My name is Sue. How do you do?!
The list of things 15-year-olds are not legally allowed to do in Oregon is long: Drive, smoke, donate blood, get a tattoo — even go to a tanning bed.
But, under a first-in-the-nation policy quietly enacted in January that many parents are only now finding out about, 15-year-olds are now allowed to get a sex-change operation. Many residents are stunned to learn they can do it without parental notification — and the state will even pay for it through its Medicaid program, the Oregon Health Plan.
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“It is trespassing on the hearts, the minds, the bodies of our children,” said Lori Porter of Parents’ Rights in Education. “They’re our children. And for a decision, a life-altering decision like that to be done unbeknownst to a parent or guardian, it’s mindboggling.”
In a statement, Oregon Health Authority spokeswoman Susan Wickstrom explained it this way: “Age of medical consent varies by state. Oregon law — which applies to both Medicaid and non-Medicaid Oregonians — states that the age of medical consent is 15.”
While 15 is the medical age of consent in the state, the decision to cover sex-change operations specifically was made by the Health Evidence Review Commission (HERC).
Members are appointed by the governor and paid by the state of Oregon. With no public debate, HERC changed its policy to include cross-sex hormone therapy, puberty-suppressing drugs and gender-reassignment surgery as covered treatments for people with gender dysphoria, formally known as gender identity disorder.
HERC officials refused repeated requests by Fox News for an interview and even gave Fox News inaccurate information about the medical director’s work schedule.
Oregon Health Authority officials directed Fox News to their website. It shows transgender policy was discussed at four meetings in 2014. It was passed without any opposition or even discussion about teenagers’ new access to undergoing a sex change.
Gender dysphoria is classified by the American Psychiatric Association as a mental disorder in which a person identifies as the sex opposite of his or her birth. It is rare, affecting one out of every 20,000 males and one out of every 50,000 females.
According to a 2008 study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, “most children with gender dysphoria will not remain gender dysphoric after puberty.”
Dr. Paul McHugh, who led the Johns Hopkins Psychiatry Department and still practices, said Oregon’s policy amounts to child abuse. “We have a very radical and even mutilating treatment being offered to children without any evidence that the long-term outcome of this would be good,” McHugh said.
Dr. Jack Drescher, a member of the APA who worked on the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group, says treatment for gender dysphoria has received a lot more attention in recent years. He said this year New York changed its policy to cover cross-sex hormone drugs and sex-reassignment surgery for Medicaid recipients who are at least 18 years old. He thinks Oregon is offering the treatment too early.
“Children age 15 may not fully understand all the consequences of the procedures they are undergoing,” he said.
Jenn Burleton disagrees. She underwent a sex-reassignment surgery and started the Portland non-profit group TransActive. She said requiring parental consent would lead to more suffering and teen suicide attempts.
“Parents may not be supportive,” Burleton said. “They may not be in an environment where they feel the parent will affirm their identity, this may have been going on for years.”
The science is unsettled. A 2010 Murad study concluded “very low quality evidence suggests sex reassignment … improves gender dysphoria and overall quality of life.” The authors admitted the evidence was “sparse and inconclusive.”
Lisa Maloney, a parent and Scappoose, Ore., School Board member, is outraged.
“To know that taxpayers are now on the hook for that, that a child can do that without their parent’s knowledge or information or consent, parents have absolutely no say, that’s appalling,” Maloney said.
The Oregon Health Authority could not say how many Medicaid recipients have been treated for gender dysphoria since the new policy took effect in January. Oregon has 935,000 people enrolled in the Oregon Health Plan. HERC assumes between 14 and 112 of them may be gender dysphoric. It estimates the total cost of adding cross-sex hormone therapy, puberty-suppressing drugs and sex reassignment surgeries to the coverage will be no more than $150,000 per year.
But HERC also believes the state will save money due to fewer suicide attempts. It estimates there will be one less suicide attempt per year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the average cost per suicide attempt in the U.S. is $7,234.
But Dr. McHugh says a sex-change operation, especially for young people with gender dysphoria, is never appropriate.
“We can help them if we begin to explore with them and their families what they’re fearing about development, what they’re fearing about being a young boy, a young adolescent appropriate to themselves.”
5. From Time online…..The Confederate flag will be removed by tomorrow morning:
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signed a bill into law Thursday that will bring down the Confederate flag outside the Statehouse, a move that seemed unthinkable only a month ago in this Deep South state that was the first to secede from the Union.
The law requires the battle flag to be gone within 24 hours; her staff said it would be removed during a ceremony at 10 a.m. Friday and relegated to the state’s Confederate Relic Room.
“The Confederate flag is coming off the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse,” Haley said. “We will bring it down with dignity and we will make sure it is stored in its rightful place.”
The flag first flew over the Statehouse dome in 1961 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Civil War and was kept there as a symbol of official opposition to the civil rights movement. Mass protests decades later led to a compromise in 2000 with lawmakers who insisted that the flag symbolized Southern heritage and state’s rights.
They agreed then to move it to a 30-foot pole next to a Confederate monument out front. But even from that lower perch, the historic but divisive symbol remained clearly visible in the center of town, and flag supporters remained a powerful bloc in the state.
The massacre 22 days ago of nine people inside their historic black church in Charleston suddenly changed this dynamic, not only in South Carolina but around the nation.
Police said the shootings inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church were racially motivated, and by posing with the Confederate flag before the shootings, suspect Dylann Storm Roof, who has not yet entered a plea to nine counts of murder, re-ignited a debate over the flag’s history as a symbol of white superiority and racial oppression.
Haley moved first, calling on South Carolina lawmakers to vote the flag down, and very quickly thereafter, other Republican lawmakers who have long cultivated the votes of Confederate flag supporters were announcing that other Civil War symbols no longer deserve places of honor.
“These nine pens are going to the families of the Emanuel Nine,” Haley said after signing the bill into law. “Nine amazing individuals who have forever changed South Carolina history.”
South Carolina’s flag removal bill passed easily in the Senate, where state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, the pastor gunned down at the church, had served, but was stalled by debate in the House as dozens of amendments were proposed. Any changes to the Senate bill could have delayed the flag’s removal by weeks or months, perhaps blunting momentum that has grown since the massacre.
House members deliberated well into the night, amid anger, tears and shared memories of Civil War ancestors.
Supporters of the flag talked about grandparents passing down family treasures. Some lamented that the flag had been “hijacked” or “abducted” by racists.
Rep. Mike Pitts recalled playing with a Confederate ancestor’s cavalry sword while growing up. He said that for him, the flag is a reminder of how many dirt-poor Southern farmers fought Yankees, not because they hated blacks or sought to preserve white supremacy, but because their land was being invaded.
Black Democrats, frustrated at being asked to honor the Civil War soldiers who also fought to preserve slavery, offered their own family histories as a counterpoint. Rep. Joe Neal talked about tracing his ancestry back to four brothers who were brought to America in chains. A slave owner named Neal bought them, changed their last names and pulled them apart from their families.
“The whole world is asking, is South Carolina really going to change, or will it hold to an ugly tradition of prejudice and discrimination and hide behind heritage as an excuse for it?” Neal said.
Rep. Jenny Horne, a white Republican who said she is a descendent of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, scolded her party members for stalling.
“I cannot believe that we do not have the heart in this body to do something meaningful such as take a symbol of hate off these grounds on Friday. And if any of you vote to amend, you are ensuring that this flag will fly beyond Friday. And for the widow of Sen. Pinckney and his two young daughters, that would be adding insult to injury and I will not be a part of it!” Horne screamed into the microphone.
The bill ultimately passed 93-27 in the House — well above the two-thirds supermajority needed to make changes to the state’s “heritage” symbols. Some lawmakers hugged, cried and high-fived, while others snapped selfies and pumped their fists.
6. Pitching the Wu in Taiwan
Hsinchu, Taiwan: The renter of a house worth NT$30 mn (US$960,000) in Taiwan’s Hsinchu City changed his name by deed poll to match that of his landlord, and then sold the house to 7 unsuspecting victims, 5 of which were real estate agents.
The perp, Mr Wu, already shared the same surname as the home’s owner, Mr Wu. The bad Mr Wu just had to change his given name to match that of his landlord and the evil scheme was ready to proceed. The renter was able to get 7 potential buyers to pay a deposit to purchase the home, which was valued at nearly US $960,000, by offering the property for sale at a deep discount of just $500,000 American.
Sensing a once in a lifetime bargain, the crafty Mr Wu was able to fool 7 prospective buyers into paying a deposit – which included 5 real estate agents – and ended up with proceeds that in Taiwan was valued at $4 million or $128,000 American.
Despite his early success, the whole plan collapsed after the buyers got in touch with the real Mr Wu and asked when they could sign the documents. The game was up for the fake Mr Wu and the real Mr. Wu pitched the Wu. The latest news from EBC is that the phony Wu is now facing more than 4 years in prison for the scheme.
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So until tomorrow morning’s “After Midnight” newscast this is Ray Mossholder, praying for you my friend. Have a miraculous day!
After Midnight News: Top 5 stories 7/10/15