The Weekly News Digest Feb 25 KY

BEIJING (AP) -- Beijing hotlydenies accusations of official involve-ment in massive cyberattacks againstforeign targets, insinuating such activityis the work of rogues. But at least oneelement cited by Internet experts pointsto professional cyberspies: China'shackers take the weekend off.

Accusations of state-sanctionedhacking took center stage this pastweek following a detailed report by aU.S.-based Internet security firmMandiant. It added to growing suspi-cions that the Chinese military is not onlystealing national defense secrets andharassing dissidents but also pilferinginformation from foreign companies thatcould be worth millions or even billionsof dollars.

Experts sayChinese hackingattacks are character-ized not only by theirbrazenness, but by theirp e r s i s t e n c e .

"China conducts atleast an order of magni-tude more than the next country," said Martin Libicki, a specialiston cyber warfare at the Rand Corporation, based in SantaMonica, California. The fact that hackers take weekends off sug-gests they are paid, and that would belie "the notion that the hack-ers are private," he said.

Libicki and other cyber warfare experts have long noted aMonday-through-Friday pattern in the intensity of attacks believedto come from Chinese sources, though there has been little evi-dence released publicly directly linking the Chinese military to theattacks.

Mandiant went a step further in its report Tuesday saying thatit had traced hacking activities against 141 foreign entities in theU.S. Canada, Britain and elsewhere to a group of operatorsknown as the "Comment Crew" or "APT1," for "AdvancedPersistent Threat 1," which it traced back to the People'sLiberation Army Unit 61398. The unit is headquartered in a non-descript 12-story building inside a military compound in a crowd-ed suburb of China's financial hub of Shanghai.

Attackers stole information about pricing, contract negotia-tions, manufacturing, product testing and corporate acquisitions,the company said.

Hacker teams regularly began work, for the most part, at 8a.m. Beijing time. Usually they continued for a standard work day,but sometimes the hacking persisted until midnight. Occasionally,the attacks stopped for two-week periods, Mandiant said, thoughthe reason was not clear.

China denies any official involvement, calling such accusa-tions "groundless" and insisting that Beijing is itself a major victimof hacking attacks, the largest number of which originate in theU.S. While not denying hacking attacks originated in China,Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Thursday that it wasflat out wrong to accuse the Chinese government or military ofbeing behind them.

Mandiant and other experts believe Unit 61398 to be abranch of the PLA General Staff's Third Department responsiblefor collection and analysis of electronic signals such as e-mailsand phone calls. It and the Fourth Department, responsible forelectronic warfare, are believed to be the PLA units mainlyresponsible for infiltrating and manipulating computer networks.

China acknowledges pursuing these strategies as a key todelivering an initial blow to an opponent's communications andother infrastructure during wartime - but the techniques are oftenthe same as those used to steal information for commercial use.

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China has consistently denied state-sponsored hacking, but experts say theoffice hours that the cyberspies keep pointto a professional army rather than merehobbyists or so-called "hacktivists"inspired by patriotic passions.

Mandiant noticed that pattern whilemonitoring attacks on the New York Timeslast year blamed on another Chinesehacking group it labeled APT12. Hackeractivity began at around 8:00 a.m. Beijingtime and usually lasted through a standardworkday.

The Rand Corporation's Libicki saidhe wasn't aware of any comprehensivestudies, but that in such cases, most activ-ity between malware embedded in a com-

promised system andthe malware's controllerstakes place during busi-ness hours in Beijing'stime zone.

Richard Forno,director of the Universityof Maryland BaltimoreCounty's graduate

cybersecurity program, and David Clemente, a cybersecurityexpert with independent analysis center Chatham House inLondon, said that observation has been widely noted amongcybersecurity specialists.

"It would reflect the idea that this is becoming a more routineactivity and that they are quite methodical," Clemente said.

The PLA's Third Department is brimming with resources,according to studies commissioned by the U.S. government, with12 operation bureaus, three research institutes, and an estimated13,000 linguists, technicians and researchers on staff. It's furtherreinforced by technical teams from China's seven military regionsspread across the country, and by the military's vast academicresources, especially the PLA University of InformationEngineering and the Academy of Military Sciences.

The PLA is believed to have made cyber warfare a key pri-ority in its war-fighting capabilities more than a decade ago.Among the few public announcements of its development camein a May 25, 2011 news conference by Defense Ministryspokesman Geng Yansheng, in which he spoke of developingChina's "online" army.

"Currently, China's network protection is comparativelyweak," Geng told reporters, adding that enhancing informationtechnology and "strengthening network security protection areimportant components of military training for an army."

Unit 61398 is considered just one of many such units underthe Third Department responsible for hacking, according toexperts.

Greg Walton, a cyber-security researcher who has trackedChinese hacking campaigns, said he's observed the "CommentCrew" at work, but cites as equally active another ThirdDepartment unit operating out of the southwestern city ofChengdu. It is tasked with stealing secrets from Indian govern-ment security agencies and think tanks, together with the India-based Tibetan Government in Exile, Walton said.

Another hacking outfit believed by some to have PLA links,the "Elderwood Group," has targeted defense contractors, humanrights groups, non-governmental organizations, and serviceproviders, according to computer security company Symantec.

It's believed to have compromised Amnesty International'sHong Kong website in May 2012, although other attacks have

CHINESE HACKERS SEEN ASINCREASINGLYPROFESSIONAL

Accusations of state-sanctioned hacking took

center stage this past week following a detailed

report by a U.S.-based Internet security firm

Mandiant.

NO BIG COMPROMISES?BLAME PARTY POWER

That's exactly what happened in 1790, when the

Founding Fathers overlooked their parochial interests -

and defied their staunchest backers - by agreeing, for the

good of the fledgling unio. Page 2

RETURN OF SECTARIANTHREATS IN IRAQ RAISES

ALARM

The fliers began turning up at Sunni households

in the Iraqi capital's Jihad neighborhood last

week bearing a chilling message: Get out now

or face "great agony" soon. Page 3

KENTUCKY ACCIdENTSTATISTICS

Accident Statistics from Kentucky department

of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Page 4

KENTUCKY ACCIdENTREPORTS

This Weeks Accident Reports from Various

countys in Kentucky. Page 5

MEdITERRANEAN-STYLEdIETS FOUNd TO CUT

HEART RISKS

Pour on the olive oil, preferably over fish and vegeta-

bles: A Mediterranean diet suggests this style of eating

can cut the chance of suffering heart-related problems,

especially strokes. Page 6

WHY CAN'T WASHINGTONCOMPROMISE? THEY'RE

TOO HUMANTurns out politicians are people, too, only

worse. .Page 7

Sd COLLEGE TESTS FINGER-PRINT PURCHASING

TECHNOLOGY

Futurists have long proclaimed the coming of a

cashless society, where dollar bills and plastic

cards are replaced by fingerprint and retina

scanners.. Page 8

AdULTS GET 11 PERCENT OFCALORIES FROM FAST FOOd

WEEKLY NEWS DIGESTTHE

The building housing “Unit 61398” of the People’s Liberation Army is seen in theoutskirts of Shanghai. For state-backed cyberspies such as the Chinese mili-tary unit implicated by a U.S. security firm in a computer crime wave, hackingforeign companies can produce high-value secrets ranging from details on oilfields to advanced manufacturing technology. This week's report by MandiantInc. adds to mounting suspicion that Chinese military experts are helping stateindustry by stealing secrets from Western companies possibly worth hundredsof millions of dollars. The Chinese military has denied involvement in theattacks. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NOLICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

Continued on page 3That's down slightly from the 13 percent. Page 8

2 Legal Street News Monday February 25, 2013

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EXPLORE, ENJOY AND PROTECT THE PLANET








EXPLORE, ENJOY AND PROTECT THE PLANETh t t p : / / w w w . s i e r r a c l u b . o r g /

N O B I G C O M P R O M I S E S ?B L A M E P A R T Y P O W E R

WASHINGTON

(AP) -- These days, it

sounds like an improb-

able fairy tale: politi-

cians with deeply dif-

fering visions of

America setting aside

disagreements to reach

a grand compromise on

a critical issue.

That's exactly

what happened in

1790, when the

Founding Fathers over-

looked their parochial

interests - and defied

their staunchest back-

ers - by agreeing, for

the good of the fledg-

ling union, to put

America's capital in a

neutral place along the Potomac River.

Would the same outcome happen today? Fat chance.

In this polarized and partisan era, Washington careens

from one crisis to the next even as the country faces huge

problems that threaten its standing in the world. With

power divided on Capitol Hill, bipartisan solutions are nec-

essary. And yet, while both democrats and Republicans

talk a lot about compromise - a cross-the-aisle, solutions-

driven approach - few seem willing to give ground to fix

what ails the nation.

The latest example is the stalemate over deep budget

cuts set to take effect Friday, absent a bipartisan deal. The

cuts likely will inconvenience average Americans and may

slow the nation's fragile economic recovery. Both sides are

dug in on their ideological positions. President Barack

Obama and his democrats want more tax increases, while

Republicans demand more spending cuts.

This is the fifth fiscal standoff since this period of

divided government began in 2011, when Republicans took

over the House while democrats continued to control the

Senate. In the other cases, both sides reached mini-deals to

avert immediate crisis - only to ignore the larger issues.

Skyrocketing debt and persistent deficits. Rampant waste,

fraud and abuse. Budget-busting Social Security and

Medicare programs.

Why does Washington get so caught up this cycle of

panic - whether manufactured or real - only to ultimately

put a Band-Aid on the country's biggest gushers without

ever mending the underlying wounds?

Politicians have little incentive to take the risk of

working with the opposing party to reach solutions that will

fundamentally fix a problem. They operate in a system that

makes it hard to roll the dice because they're putting their

own jobs on the line. Robust Republican and democratic

parties - and their conservative and liberal activists, whose

voices drown out the

centrist Americans

seeking remedies -

usually rebuke them

rather than reward

t h e m .

"Rebels, risk tak-

ers and creative

thinkers are marginal-

ized early and are sel-

dom promoted up the

ladder of

local/state/national

politics," says david

A. drupa of the

Society for Risk

A n a l y s i s .

These days, he

says, politicians seem

to be allowing the

short-term benefit for themselves - winning re-election -

drive their decision-making, without getting far enough

along in their return-on-investment analysis to examine the

long-term benefit for the nation.

"They're trying to win the next battle, the next

matchup, the next race, at all our peril," drupa says.

Both parties promise to use their bank accounts to pro-

tect lawmakers who stick with their ideological positions,

and punish those who don't. deep-pocketed groups on the

far right and far left also go after those deemed unfaithful.

At the same time, party leaders have proven extraordi-

narily successful in drawing congressional boundaries in a

way that actually discourages House members from collab-

orating and all but ensures their re-elections if they don't.

Most districts are stocked with hard-core Republicans and

democrats who typically will vote for lawmakers only if

they demonstrate consistent party loyalty.

So the easy thing for lawmakers to do is just that. It's

much harder to meet in the middle.

Thus, when Washington's players do end up compro-

mising on the meaty matters, it's usually in a piecemeal

way that kicks the larger problems to future generations.

Those who dare to try to solve the big problems typically

find they lack the juice, lose re-election or get so fed up

with the gridlock that they retire.

All this is precisely what George Washington worried

would happen if the country devolved into factions.

"He thought political parties would tear up the union

and it wouldn't survive," says Willard Sterne Randall, a

biographer and historian who has written several books on

the Founding Fathers.

The first president's fear of factionalism was so great

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House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, repeats his call for PresidentObama to submit a budget proposal to Congress during a news conferenceat the Capitol in Washington, the day after President Barack Obama urgedCongress on to pass targeted short-term spending cuts and higher taxes asa way to put off sweeping, automatic cuts that would slice deeply into mili-tary and domestic programs starting March 1

R E T U R N O F S E C T A R I A N T H R E A T SI N I R A Q R A I S E S A L A R M

Street News Monday, February 25, 2013 3

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The fliers beganturning up at Sunni households in theIraqi capital's Jihad neighborhood lastweek bearing a chilling message: Getout now or face "great agony" soon.

The leaflets were signed by theMukhtar Army, a new Shiite militantgroup with ties to Iran's RevolutionaryGuard. "The zero hour has come. Soleave along with your families. ... Youare the enemy," the messageswarned.

Such overt threats all but disappearedas the darkest days of outright sectari-an fighting waned in 2008 and Iraqstepped back from the brink of civilwar. Their re-emergence now - nearlya decade after the U.S.-led invasion -is a worrying sign that rising sectariantensions are again gnawing away atIraqi society.

Iraqis increasingly fear that militants on both sidesof the country's sectarian divide are gearing up fora new round of violence that could undo the frag-ile gains Iraq has made in recent years.

Members of the country's Sunni minority havebeen staging mass rallies for two months, withsome calling for the toppling of a Shiite-led gov-ernment they feel discriminates against them andis too closely allied with neighboring Iran. Sunniextremists have been stepping up large-scaleattacks on predominantly Shiite targets, and con-cerns are growing that the brutal and increasinglysectarian fighting in Syria could spill across theborder.

Many Sunnis who received the Jihad neighbor-hood messages are taking the warnings at facevalue and considering making a move.

"Residents are panicking. All of us are obsessed

with these fliers," said Waleed Nadhim, a Sunnimobile phone shop owner who lives in the neigh-borhood. The 33-year-old father plans to leavethe area because he doesn't have faith in thepolice to keep his family safe. "In a lawless coun-try like Iraq, nobody can ignore threats like this."

Iraqi security forces have beefed up their pres-ence in and around Jihad. The middle-class com-munity, nestled along a road to the airport insouthwest Baghdad, was home to Sunni civil ser-vants and security officials under SaddamHussein's regime, though many Shiites now livethere too.

The Shiites, who are emboldened by a govern-ment and security forces dominated by their sect,have made their presence felt in Jihad in recentyears. A Sunni mosque bears graffiti hailing arevered Shiite saint. A billboard on a major roadshows firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadrflanked by a fighter gripping a machine gun.

Jihad was one of the earliest flashpoints inBaghdad's descent into sectarian bloodshed. InJuly 2006, the neighborhood witnessed a brazenmassacre that left as many as 41 residents deadand marked an escalation in Iraq's sectarianbloodletting. In that incident, Shiite militiamen setup checkpoints to stop morning commuters, sin-gled out Sunnis based on their names and sys-tematically executed them in front of their Shiiteneighbors.

Residents now fear the events in southwestBaghdad could be the spark for a new round of tit-for-tat killing. Two weeks ago, a Sunni and aShiite were each killed in separate attacks inSadiyah, next to Jihad, said a 30-year-old Sunnigovernment employee living in the area who gaveher name only as Umm Abdullah al-Taie, or moth-er of Abdullah.

"Nobody dares to go out after dark," she said."People have started to hear sectarian alarm bellsringing again."

The Mukhtar Army whose named appeared onthe threatening leaflets was formed by Wathiq al-Batat, a onetime senior official in the HezbollahBrigades. He announced the creation of the newmilitant group earlier this month.

Hezbollah in Iraq is believed to be funded andtrained by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard andwas among the Shiite militias that targeted U.S.military bases months before their December2011 withdrawal.

Al-Batat told Iraq's al-Sharqiya channel that he

formed the Mukhtar Army to confrontSunnis who might attempt to topple thegovernment in the same way thatSyrian rebels are trying to overthrowBashar Assad's Iranian-backed regimein neighboring Syria. He said the groupis advised by Iran's hard-line QudsForce, which oversees external opera-tions of the Iranian RevolutionaryGuard. He declined to say whether thegroup received any further supportfrom Tehran.

Little is known about Mukhtar Army'ssize or capabilities. Abdullah al-Rikabi,a spokesman for the group, boasted ithas 1 million members and describedal-Batat as loyal to Iran's supremeleader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki'sgovernment has issued an arrest war-rant against al-Batat, though he stillwalks free. In a speech Saturday, the

Shiite premier vowed to prosecute anyone whoseeks to incite sectarian strife.

The Mukhtar Army denies being behind thethreats, which some Shiites believe are a ruse totar their sect and inflame sectarian divisions.

"We have nothing to do with the fliers," said al-Rikabi, the group's spokesman. He accusedmembers of Saddam's now-outlawed Baath partyand al-Qaida of making the threats in an effort toignite civil war.

Even though they are busy hunting down thegroup's leader, Iraqi authorities have their doubtsabout the Shiite militia's involvement in theleaflets too.

Two senior security officials said intelligenceagents have obtained an al-Qaida hit list contain-ing detailed names and residential informationabout people - both Sunnis and Shiites - living inmixed areas. They believe the group plans to tar-get residents one by one, alternating by sect, inan effort to spread panic and suggest an atmos-phere of retaliatory killings.

They spoke on condition of anonymity becausethey were not authorized to disclose informationabout security operations.

Threatening fliers from both Sunni and Shiite mili-tias aimed at members of the opposite sect alsohave begun turning up in Baqouba, a former al-Qaida stronghold north of Baghdad that has a his-tory of sectarian violence, according to Diyalaprovincial council member Sadiq al-Hussein.

For those living in areas where the threats turnedup, their source matters less than what they por-tend.

Jafaar al-Fatlawi, a Shiite government employeewho lives in the Jihad neighborhood, said he hasstarted carrying a pistol with him just to answerthe door and takes his family to spend the nightwith relatives elsewhere in the city.

"Everybody in the neighborhood expects sectari-an fighting to erupt any minute," he said. "Oursecurity forces weren't able to stop the sectarianwar before and now they'll fail again."

H A C K E R S


man-made snow coats a ski run next to barren ground under a chairlift at Shawnee Peak skiarea in Bridgton, Maine. Scientists point to both scant recent snowfall in parts of the country andthis month's whopper of a Northeast blizzard as potential global warming signs. It may seem likea contradiction, but the explanation lies in atmospheric physics

gone after targets as diverse as the Council on Foreign Relationsand Capstone Turbine Corporation, which makes gas microtur-bines for power plants.

Civilian departments believed to be involved in hackinginclude those under the Ministry of Public Security, which com-mands the police, and the Ministry of State Security, one of theleading clandestine intelligence agencies. The MSS is especiallysuspected in attacks on foreign academics studying Chinesesocial issues and unrest in the western regions of Tibet andXinjiang.

Below them on the hacking hierarchy are private actors,including civilian universities and research institutes, state indus-tries in key sectors such as information technology and resources,and college students and other individuals acting alone or ingroups, according to analysts, University of Maryland's Fornosaid.

China's government isn't alone in being accused of cyberespionage, but observers say it has outpaced its rivals in usingmilitary assets to steal commercial secrets.

"Stealing secrets is stealing secrets regardless of the medi-um," Forno said. "The key difference is that you can't easily arrestsuch electronic thieves since they're most likely not even in thecountry, which differs from how the game was played during theCold War."

Continued froem page 1

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group.

Looked at individually, stroke was the only problemwhere type of diet made a big difference. Diet hadno effect on death rates overall.

The Spanish government's health research agencyinitiated and paid for the study, and foods weresupplied by olive oil and nut producers in Spainand the California Walnut Commission. Many of theauthors have extensive financial ties to food, wineand other industry groups but said the sponsorshad no role in designing the study or analyzing andreporting its results.

Rachel Johnson, a University of Vermont professorwho heads the American Heart Association's nutri-tion committee, said the study is very strongbecause of the lab tests to verify oil and nut con-sumption and because researchers tracked actualheart attacks, strokes and deaths - not justchanges in risk factors such as high cholesterol.

"At the end of the day, what we care about iswhether or not disease develops," she said. "It's animportant study."

Rena Wing, a weight-loss expert at BrownUniversity, noted that researchers provided the oiland nuts, and said "it's not clear if people could getthe same results from self-designed Mediterraneandiets" - or if Americans would stick to them morethan Europeans used to such foods.

A third independent expert also praised the studyas evidence diet can lower heart risks.

"The risk reduction is close to that achieved withstatins" - widely used cholesterol drugs, said Dr.Robert Eckel, a diet and heart disease expert atthe University of Colorado.

"But this study was not carried out or intended tocompare diet to statins or blood pressure medi-cines," he warned. "I don't think people shouldthink now they can quit taking their medicines."

6 Legal Street News Monday February 25, 2013________________________________________________________

If You Hve It

Give Some Back

http://www.network.directrelief.org

Healthcare Providers: If you are a healthcare provider locat-ed in the United States, contact us by

calling 1-877-30-DR-USA (1-877-303-7872).

Pour on the olive oil, preferably over fish and veg-etables: One of the longest and most scientifictests of a Mediterranean diet suggests this style ofeating can cut the chance of suffering heart-relatedproblems, especially strokes, in older people athigh risk of them.

The study lasted five years and involved about7,500 people in Spain. Those who ateMediterranean-style with lots of olive oil or nuts hada 30 percent lower risk of major cardiovascularproblems compared to others who were told to fol-low a low-fat diet. Mediterranean meant lots of fruit,fish, chicken, beans, tomato sauce, salads, andwine and little baked goods and pastries.

Mediterranean diets have long been touted asheart-healthy, but that's based on observationalstudies that can't prove the point. The newresearch is much stronger because people wereassigned diets to follow for a long time and careful-ly monitored. Doctors even did lab tests to verifythat the Mediterranean diet folks were consumingmore olive oil or nuts as recommended.

Most of these people were taking medicines forhigh cholesterol and blood pressure, andresearchers did not alter those proven treatments,said the study's leader, Dr. Ramon Estruch ofHospital Clinic in Barcelona.

But as a first step to prevent heart problems, "wethink diet is better than a drug" because it has fewif any side effects, Estruch said. "Diet works."

Results were published online Monday by the NewEngland Journal of Medicine and were to be dis-cussed at a nutrition conference in Loma Linda,Calif.

People in the study were not given rigid menus orcalorie goals because weight loss was not the aim.That could be why they found the "diets" easy tostick with - only about 7 percent dropped out withintwo years. There were twice as many dropouts inthe low-fat group than among those eatingMediterranean-style.

Researchers also provided the nuts and olive oil,so it didn't cost participants anything to use theserelatively pricey ingredients. The type of oil mayhave mattered - they used extra-virgin olive oil,which is richer than regular or light olive oil in thechemicals and nutrients that earlier studies havesuggested are beneficial.

The study involved people ages 55 to 80, just overhalf of them women. All were free of heart diseaseat the start but were at high risk for it because ofhealth problems - half had diabetes and most wereoverweight and had high cholesterol and bloodpressure.

They were assigned to one of three groups: Twofollowed a Mediterranean diet supplemented witheither extra-virgin olive oil (4 tablespoons a day) orwith walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds (a fistful aday). The third group was urged to eat a low-fatdiet heavy on bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, fruits,vegetables and fish and light on baked goods,nuts, oils and red meat.

Independent monitors stopped the study after near-ly five years when they saw fewer problems in thetwo groups on Mediterranean diets.

Doctors tracked a composite of heart attacks,strokes or heart-related deaths. There were 96 ofthese in the Mediterranean-olive oil group, 83 inthe Mediterranean-nut group and 109 in the low-fat

M E D I T E R R A N E A N - S T Y L E D I E T S

F O U N D T O C U T H E A R T R I S K S

a fishmonger prepares fish for a client in a market inBarcelona, Spain. Mediterranean diets have long beentouted as heart-healthy, but that's based on observationalstudies. Now, one of the longest and most scientific testssuggests this style of eating can cut the chance of suffer-ing heart-related problems, especially strokes, in olderpeople at high risk of them.

http://www.childrenincorporated.org/

that he decided on a second term as Alexander Hamilton

and Thomas Jefferson, whose political bases were busi-

nessmen and farmers, respectively, battled over competing

visions for the union.

Yet while they differed, they also compromised when

necessary - as they did during the "dinner Table Bargain"

that resulted in Washington becoming the nation's capital

instead of New York, Philadelphia or elsewhere.

"They weren't at each other's throats politically. They

could get together on a major issue," Randall says. "They

wanted the union to survive, so they compromised where

they had to for the good of it. That's the kind of tone there

was. They were pragmatic idealists, and in Congress now,

they are ideologues."

So how do we get back to those more reasonable

roots?

The democratic and Republican parties are strong,

and they probably won't face serious threats from third par-

ties in the near future. They certainly won't eliminate ger-

rymandering unless voters force it.

So maybe it's time for something radical, or at least

radically reasonable. Maybe this is the moment for a few of

the frustrated Americans in the middle - many of whom

reject the extremes, complain about stalemate and fear for

the nation's future - to take a risk.

What if they stepped forward as candidates with a

promise that they'll do only what they think will solve the

country's big problems, regardless of what it could mean

for their political careers? What if they rejected the strict

adherence to orthodoxy that party bosses demand? What if

they promised to only serve one term, choosing explicitly

to put the country's future over their own?

Continued from page 2

B B C :

W O R L D S E RV I C E

F R E Q U E N C I E S

JAMMED IN CHINA

LONDON (AP) -- The BBC says it has receivedreports that its world service English shortwaveradio frequencies are being jammed in China andcondemns what it called efforts to disrupt freeaccess to news and information.

The broadcaster said while it can't attribute thesource of the jamming definitively, "the extensiveand coordinated efforts are indicative of a well-resourced country such as China."

The jamming of broadcasts in China is being timedto cause "maximum disruption," the BBC's directorof global news, Peter Horrocks, said in a statementMonday.

In the past, BBC Persian transmissions in Iranhave been affected by jamming. Jamming frequen-cies was also a tactic used by communist nationsto block BBC broadcasts during the Cold War

_____________________________________________________Legal Street News Monday, February 25, 2013 7

W H Y C A N ' T WA S H I N G T O N C O M P R O M I S E ?

T H E Y ' R E T O O H U M A NBargainers tend to play "chicken" like two drivers speed-ing toward each other in hopes the other will swervefirst.

"It's often believed that you won't be able to extract thevery best concession from the other side unless you areon the brink of something that's very bad," saidMnookin, chairman of Harvard's Program on Negotiationand author of "Bargaining with the Devil."

Both the Republicans and Democrats have die-hardspushing to keep charging ahead.

"It's a hugely dangerous game to play," Mnookin warns,"because people aren't always rational in their behav-ior."

What happens if Democrats and Republicans collidehead-on this time? Some $85 billion in automatic federalbudget cuts over the next seven months, with more infollowing years.

Obama says that would weaken the military, disrupt pro-grams Americans rely on, eliminate jobs and weakenthe economy. Boehner calls it "an ugly and dangerousway" to reduce spending. These cuts were designed tobe so distasteful that politicians would agree on morerational budget-cutting to stop them.

But there's another way out. Lawmakers and Obamacould agree to block the cuts, before or after they kickin, and once again postpone making big fiscal decisionsthat might cost some of them re-election.

That's a problem with artificial deadlines: They're hardto enforce.

Economist Christopher Kingston, whose researchranges from 19th century dueling to modern game theo-ry, says what lawmakers need is a strong "commitmentdevice." He cites the story of William the Conquerorburning his ships after his invading army landed inEngland, ensuring his soldiers couldn't retreat.

A less reliable commitment device: A shopaholic cuttingup his credit cards. That works unless he gets new onesand start running up debt again.

"It's really hard to create a commitment device artificial-ly, particularly if you don't have an external power that'sgoing to enforce it," said Kingston, an associate profes-sor at Amherst College.

Congress and the president have no judge, no referee,no board of directors. Washington won't hear from thevoters again for two years, and even then the messagemay be unclear.

With human nature against them, how can politiciansescape gridlock?

A few tips from the pros:

-Shock them with kindness. "Try to do something unex-pectedly nice for the other side," advises Ain, and yoursurprised opponent may reciprocate.

-Avoid the "zero-sum" trap. Just because something isgood for one side doesn't mean it's bad for the other."There are all kinds of deals that the president and theCongress could make that would be better for the econ-omy and the nation as a whole and in that sense wouldbenefit them all," Mnookin says.

-Get a mediator. Maybe the special 2011 deficit commit-tee could have reached agreement with the help of atrusted outsider. It's worth a try, Ain says, because "thatworks in major litigation and all sorts of situations."

-Shame the bullies. If politicians denounced their fellowparty members who display contempt for the other side,Coloroso says, it would squelch the mocking tone.

America's citizens also are mostly silent bystandersright now, the author said.

"What are we going to do about it?" she asked. "Do wejust stand by and shrug our shoulders?"

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Turns out politicians are people,too, only worse.

Just ask pros who make their living in the trenches ofeveryday human drama such as divorce, family feuds orschoolyard scraps. They recognize in Washington's bit-ter budget standoff a hint of human nature as they knowit, but with the crazy pumped up to absurd levels.

"We're seeing middle school behavior here," saysBarbara Coloroso, who crusades against childhood bul-lying. Psychologist Piers Steel, an expert on procrasti-nation, says Congress has the worst case of it he'sseen. Divorce attorney Sanford Ain's assessment isblunter: "It's nuts!"

A sampling of conflict-savvy professionals and scholarsinterviewed by The Associated Press finds dismay thatthe nation is in political stalemate after two years ofshowdowns and near-misses for the economy. Not thatthese they have any easy solutions, either.

Some dream of locking up President Barack Obamaand House Speaker John Boehner. R-Ohio, togetheruntil the nation's tax and spending issues are settled.

"That's my fantasy: To go into a room and tell them whatto do, right or wrong, and make them do it," said MarvinMcIntyre, a prominent financial adviser in the District ofColumbia who writes political novels on the side.

With lawmakers and the president on the brink of yetanother compromise-or-else deadline Friday, the non-politicians shared their take on the all-too-human behav-ior in Washington.

Historian Altina Waller is reminded of the Hatfields andMcCoys. Of course, she would be: Waller's an authorityon the deadly 19th century feud.

Despite the myth, the Hatfield-McCoy conflict wasn't pri-marily about clan hatred, Waller said, and she doesn'tthink today's acrimony between Republicans andDemocrats is fully explained by partisanship or ideology.

The Appalachian feud grew out of economic anxiety asfarming declined and logging and coal moved in, shesaid. These days, Democrats and Republicans worryabout the economy and the loss of American jobs andinfluence to foreign competition, and blame each other.

"Like the Hatfields and McCoys," Waller said, "they arepersonalizing a problem brought about by larger eco-nomic forces."

Coloroso, author of "The Bully, the Bullied and theBystander," sees too many politicians acting like themean girl who taunts unpopular classmates in the cafe-teria.

"Bullying is about contempt for the other person,"Coloroso said. "Do you see how that fits with some ofthe people in Congress? Utter contempt, bullying, want-ing to bring somebody down. You cannot resolve amajor issue like a budget with name-calling, with disdainfor the person you're supposed to be working with."

Ain says the political fight illustrates something he'slearned in 40 years of striving to keep family law casesamicable: "If you have extreme views and won't com-promise, you can't get anything done. It's going to go towar."

Yet a sudden switch to civility will not guarantee thattough decisions get made.

Human brains are wired to put off the unpleasant, says"The Procrastination Equation" author Steel.

We postpone starting a diet, put off going to the gym,keep meaning to write those thank-you notes. Congressmembers are masters of this.

"They're pretty much the worst, hands down, of anygroup we ever investigated," said Steel, who hasresearched procrastination for more than a decade."They're worse than college students."

What finally gets people moving? A deadline. The papermust be written to pass the class. The house is tidiedbecause company's coming. The expense report is fin-ished because the boss demands it by 5 p.m.

So it makes sense to set deadlines for solving thenation's pressing fiscal problems. Only it isn't working.

Congress and the White House have lurched from thebrink of default or government shutdown or "fiscal cliff"to the next potentially disastrous deadline, this timeautomatic budget cuts known as the "sequester."They've only achieved temporary fixes without resolvingthe big disagreements over the deficit, taxes andMedicare and Social Security spending. Obama calls it"drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next."

Why aren't the deadlines working?

Pushing the limits isn't always procrastination; some-times it's strategy.

Negotiation expert Robert Mnookin points to labor dis-putes resolved just before the strike deadline and law-suits settled on the courthouse steps on the eve of trial.



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President Barack Obama pauses while talking about sequestra-tion in the Eisenhower Executive Office building on the WhiteHouse complex in Washington. Lawmakers and the president onthe brink of yet another compromise-or-else deadline


F A I L U R E O F

GLORY CLIMATE

S A T E L L I T E

U N K N O W NVANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) -- A groupof experts investigating the launch failure of a NASA cli-mate satellite has failed to come up with a reason.

The Glory satellite plummeted into the Pacific in 2011shortly after lifting off from the Vandenberg Air ForceBase along the California coast.

The panel's report released Wednesday found the rock-et's clamshell-shaped covering over the satellite neverfully opened. But the experts said they were unable todetermine why. The covering surrounds the satellite as itflies through the atmosphere.

The loss of the $424 million mission was an embarrass-ment for NASA, which similarly lost another climatesatellite in 2009.

The rocket was a Taurus XL from Orbital Sciences Corp.

NASA only released a summary of the accident report,citing U.S. security regulations and proprietary companyinformation.

RAPId CITY, S.d. (AP) -- Futurists have long

proclaimed the coming of a cashless society, where

dollar bills and plastic cards are replaced by finger-

print and retina scanners smart enough to distinguish

a living, breathing account holder from an identity

thief.

What they probably didn't see coming was that

one such technology would make its debut not in

Silicon Valley or MIT but at a small state college in

remote western South dakota, 25 miles from Mount

Rushmore.

Two shops on the School of Mines and

Technology campus are performing one of the

world's first experiments in Biocryptology - a mix of

biometrics (using physical traits for identification)

and cryptology (the study of encoding private infor-

mation). Students at the Rapid City school can buy a

bag of potato chips with a machine that non-intru-

sively detects their hemoglobin to make sure the

transaction is legitimate.

Researchers figure their technology would pro-

vide a critical safeguard against a morbid scenario

sometimes found in spy movies in which a thief

removes someone else's finger to fool the scanner.

8 Legal Street News Monday, February 25, 2013

S D C O L L E G E T E S T S F I N G E R P R I N T

P U R C H A S I N G T E C H N O L O G Y

A D U L T S G E T 1 1 P E R C E N T O F

C A L O R I E S F R O M F A S T F O O DATLANTA (AP) -- On an average day, U.S.adults get roughly 11 percent of their caloriesfrom fast food, a government study shows.

That's down slightly from the 13 percent report-ed the last time the government tried to pindown how much of the American diet is comingfrom fast food. Eating fast food too frequentlyhas been seen as a driver of America's obesityproblem.

For the research, about 11,000 adults wereasked extensive questions about what they ateand drank over the previous 24 hours to comeup with the results.

Among the findings:

- Young adults eat more fast food than their eld-ers; 15 percent of calories for ages 20 to 39 anddropping to 6 percent for those 60 and older.

- Blacks get more of their calories from fast-food, 15 percent compared to 11 percent forwhites and Hispanics.

- Young black adults got a whopping 21 percentfrom the likes of Wendy's, Taco Bell and KFC.

The figures are averages. Included in the calcu-lations are some people who almost never eatfast food, as well as others who eat a lot of it.

The survey covers the years 2007 through 2010and was released Thursday by the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention. The authorscouldn't explain why the proportion of caloriesfrom fast food dropped from the 13 percentfound in a survey for 2003 through 2006.

One nutrition professor cast doubts on the latestresults, saying 11 percent seemed implausiblylow. New York University's Marion Nestle said itwouldn't be surprising if some people under-reported their hamburgers, fries and milkshakessince eating too much fast food is increasinglyseen as something of a no-no.

"If I were a fast-food company, I'd say `See, wehave nothing to do with obesity! Americans aregetting 90 percent of their calories somewhereelse!'" she said.

The study didn't include the total number of fast-food calories, just the percentage. Previous gov-ernment research suggests that the averageU.S. adult each day consumes about 270 calo-ries of fast food - the equivalent of a smallMcDonald's hamburger and a few fries.

The new CDC study found that obese peopleget about 13 percent of daily calories from fastfood, compared with less than 10 percent forskinny and normal-weight people.

There was no difference seen by householdincome, except for young adults. The poorest -those with an annual household income of lessthan $30,000 - got 17 percent of their caloriesfrom fast food, while the figure was under 14percent for the most affluent 20- and 30-some-things with a household income of more than$50,000.

That's not surprising since there are dispropor-tionately higher numbers of fast-food restaurantsin low-income neighborhoods, Nestle said.

Fast food is accessible and "it's cheap," shesaid.

On a recent Friday, mechanical engineering

major Bernard Keeler handed a Red Bull to a cashier

in the Miner's Shack campus shop, typed his birthdate

into a pay pad and swiped his finger. Within seconds,

the machine had identified his print and checked that

blood was pulsing beneath it, allowing him to make

the buy. Afterward, Keeler proudly showed off the

receipt he was sent via email on his smartphone.

Fingerprint technology isn't new, nor is the gen-

eral concept of using biometrics as a way to pay for

goods. But it's the extra layer of protection - that

deeper check to ensure the finger has a pulse - that

researchers say sets this technology apart from

already-existing digital fingerprint scans, which are

used mostly for criminal background checks.

Al Maas, president of Nexus USA - a subsidiary

of Spanish-based Hanscan Indentity Management,

which patented the technology - acknowledged South

dakota might seem an unlikely locale to test it, but to

him, it was a perfect fit.

"I said, if it flies here in the conservative

Midwest, it's going to go anywhere," Maas said.

Maas grew up near Madison, S.d., and wanted

his home state to be the technology's guinea pig. He

convinced Hanscan owner Klaas Zwart that the

2,400-student Mines campus should be used as the

starter location.

The students all major in mechanical engineering

or hard sciences, which means they're naturally tech-

nologically inclined, said Joseph Wright, the school's

associate vice president for research-economic devel-

opment.

"South dakota is a place where people take risks.

We're very entrepreneurial," Wright said.

After Maas and Zwart introduced the idea to stu-

dents this winter, about 50 stepped forward to take

part in the pilot.

"I really wanted to be part of what's new and see

if I could help improve what they already have," said

Phillip Clemen, 19, a mechanical engineering stu-

dent.

Robert Siciliano, a security expert with McAfee,

Inc., minimized potential privacy concerns.

"We are hell bent on privacy issues here in the

U.S. We get all up in arms when someone talks about

scanning us or recording our information, but then

we'll throw up everything about us on Facebook and

give up all of our personal information for 10 percent

off at a shoe store for instant credit," he said.

Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the

American Civil Liberties Union, said fingerprint

technology on its own raises security issues, but he

called "liveness detection" a step in the right direc-

tion.

"Any security measure can be defeated; it's a

question of making it harder," he said.

The key to keeping biometric identification from

becoming Big Brother-like is to make it voluntary

and ensure that the information scanned is used

exactly as promised, Stanley said.

Brian Wiles, a Miles mechanical engineering

major, said it's exciting to be beta testing technology

that could soon be worldwide.

"There was some hesitation, but the fact that it's

the first in the world - that's the whole point of this

school," said Wiles, 22. "We're innovators."

Joseph Wright, associate vice president for research-economicdevelopment at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology,poses Feb. 15, 2013. Wright's college has installed two Nexuspay pads, which scan fingerprints and detects hemoglobin toallow people to buy from select shops on campus. About 50 stu-dents and four faculty members at the school are enrolled in thepilot program that uses Biocryptology -- or one's fingerprint andhemoglobin -- in place of cash or credit cards. Wright says theprogram has so far been successful and he hopes to spread itcampus-wide soon.



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