Free Republic

Pentagon's satellite-saving plan could backfire 16:37 15 August 2006 NewScientist.com news service Jeff Hecht Protecting hundreds of low-Earth-orbit satellites from destruction seems a laudable idea, and the US Pentagon wants to do just that. But the scheme could backfire, by shutting down civilian and military communications and impairing Global Positioning System signals. The Pentagon is concerned that a high-altitude nuclear explosion or an intense solar storm could fill near-Earth space with charged particles, crippling the operation of many satellites. It has proposed a plan called “radiation belt remediation” to clean it up. The idea is to orbit satellites that would...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - State lawmakers are saving lots of money for a rainy day because of improving economies and conservative economic forecasts, a report released Tuesday says. State governments saved about $1 out of every $10 in their budgets in the most recent fiscal year, according to a survey released at the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures. The $57 billion total saved by legislatures around the country marks a 25 percent jump from the previous budget year and is one of the highest levels in decades. The study credits conservative forecasting for the year-end balances, which...

FORT HUACHUCA — America’s history has been defined and shaped by what happened in the Old West. Part of that record was due to the achievement of black soldiers who help protect settlements in places such as Southern Arizona, Tom Stoney said Wednesday during the monthly luncheon hosted by the Greater Sierra Vista Area Chamber of Commerce’s Military Affairs Committee. And part of the story of the Buffalo Soldiers legacy needs to be saved, Stoney said to nearly 90 people. That can be done by ensuring the World War II black officers club on the post remains, he told nearly...

BAGHDAD, May 19, 2006 – Traumatic injuries are a tragic fact of life in war. But thanks to the efforts of military medical personnel here, wounded servicemembers have the best chance of surviving their injuries than in any previous conflict. Army Capt. Virginia Griffin monitors instruments used to treat a patient in the intensive care unit at Ibn Sina Hospital, where the 10th Combat Support Hospital is based, in Baghdad's International Zone. Photo by Jim Garamone   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "It's like the TV show 'Survivor,'" said Army Dr. (Lt. Col.) Mark Smith. "The characters change...

4/27/2006 - SATHER AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- One might think explosive ordnance disposal troops are adrenalin junkies. But they are meticulous about their work and don’t take unnecessary risks. However, because they deal with explosives placed by the enemy, the risk is real. “We all know the consequences,” said Tech. Sgt. William Sistler, a 447th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron EOD team chief. “But we don’t think about it.” Since January, the EOD Airmen here responded more than 340 times in an area of responsibility covering 500 square miles. Even though they face the chance of injury or death every...

Outsourcing saves less than claimed Thu Apr 13, 4:32 AM ET Outsourcing of information technology and business services delivers average cost savings of 15 percent, a survey found on Thursday, disproving market claims that outsourcing can reduce costs by over 60 percent. After professional fees, severance pay and governance costs, savings range between 10 percent and 39 percent, with the average level at 15 percent when contracts are first let, according to outsourcing advisory firm TPI. "This research proves that the promise of massive operational savings is unrealistic when you take into account the costs of procurement and ongoing contract...

Startling facts from the recent Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances indicate that the typical American family has about $3,800 in the bank, no retirement account, no mutual funds and no stocks or bonds. Financial planners suggest families do the following to avoid financial ... http://www.financialfitnessohio.com/Main.aspx?MenuItem=580 http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2006/financesurvey.pdf

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (Feb. 24, 2006) -- According to J.T. Coleman from the Army Safety Center at Fort Rucker, Ala., vehicle accidents, involving both tactical and non-tactical vehicles, are the leading cause of non-combat fatalities in Iraq as of May 18, 2004. Most result from excessive speed and not wearing seat belts, he said in an interview with Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service. Most accidents occurred during convoys in forward areas, with speed a factor in more than half of the accidents, and failure to use seat belts contributing to the severity of...

1/27/2006 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- It was Capt. Tracy Shamburger’s first flight with a new crew from the 379th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. The Air Force Reservist, who teaches nursing at the University of South Alabama, had served as a medical crew director before and she clearly knew the ropes. Her five-person medical team met shortly after 8 a.m. at the crew management cell, then moved on to an intelligence and mission briefing. Their mission was simple -- save lives by safely moving patients to appropriate medical facilities. Nine patients were logged into the aeromedical evacuation system for pick-up...

Americans saving less than nothing Spending could outstrip income in 2005, which hasn't happened since the Depression Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer When the Commerce Department recently tallied up consumer finances for November, it found that Americans shelled out more money than they took in. It was the seventh such month of red ink during 2005. Kevin Lansing, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco, tracks the personal savings rate -- the Commerce Department's measure of how much consumers have left after spending is subtracted from income. In November the savings rate was a negative 0.2 percent....

One of the smartest ways to scale back the crushing burden of San Diego's municipal pension plan is to contract out more city services. Outsourcing would shift the workers who provide such services to the private sector, removing them from the enormously expensive municipal retirement system, which currently threatens to bankrupt San Diego. Potentially, several thousand workers among a total work force of nearly 11,000 could be removed from the city's payroll, causing a dramatic reduction in pension costs. Mayor Jerry Sanders' financial recovery plan includes outsourcing as a key component. He should pursue this strategy aggressively, not only to...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Dec. 9, 2005) -- After more than 11 months of flying in combat to rescue wounded warriors from the battlefields of Iraq, the Soldiers of 571st Medical Company are ready to head home. The UH-60 Black Hawk air ambulance squadron, based out of Fort Carson, Colo., transferred authority for medical evacuations in western Iraq to the 82nd Medical Company during a ceremony, Dec. 7, at Al Asad, Iraq, which is primarily a Marine Corps installation. The Soldiers of the 571st leave knowing they successfully evacuated 2,938 casualties and logged 5,349 combat flight hours. The Mission “There is...

Most citizens would probably agree that the military services put considerable effort into being good neighbors and friends of the environment. To these ends, they have established and maintained expensive and manpower intensive programs to comply with laws and regulations designed to protect the environment. When the military commits to a program, it does so with its characteristic enthusiasm, which usually goes beyond an effort to just barely comply. Sometimes the cost and effort put into compliance can negatively impact other priorities more closely related to mission, such as training and readiness. At some point, it is incumbent upon senior...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending rose 0.2 percent in October, as expected, driving the personal saving rate into negative territory for the fifth straight month, a government report showed on Thursday. Personal income also rose in October, by 0.4 percent - slightly less than the 0.5 percent increase forecast by Wall Street, the Commerce Department said. That followed an outsized 1.7 percent rise in income in September, which was driven by insurance payments in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The department's inflation measure - closely watched by policy-makers at the Federal Reserve - rose just 0.1 percent...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Saving the endangered delta smelt, a tiny fish considered a key indicator of the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a report to be released Thursday. The price tag includes projects that also could aid other troubled species and the overall ecology of the delta, which provides drinking water to more than 70 percent of Californians. This summer, scientists said the delta smelt population had fallen to its lowest level since scientific measurements began in 1959. Three other bellwether fish populations also are at record or near-record...

American workers have been getting the short end of the stick since 1943. That's when the United States Congress, in response to the costs of World War II, passed the Current Tax Payment Act. The act requires employers to withhold taxes from their employees' paychecks, overturning the previous system in which workers were paid first and settled their tab with the government later. The Current Tax Payment Act is why so many people look at their paychecks and wonder where all their money has gone. My poor dad -- who also happened to be my real dad -- often said...

One of the great cliches of life, often thought and said by us all, is this: "How I wish I knew then what I know now. What a far better life I would have." How true this is. The problem is that you cannot go back in time to fix your life. But you have an even more valuable opportunity. You can employ what you know right now, this very instant, to take better care of the you who is going to be old and gray and then older and grayer. You cannot imagine how important this is in the...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2005 – Better training, more advanced equipment and aeromedical evacuation procedures that are constantly being improved are helping save thousands of lives of troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, Air Force medical officers told the American Forces Press Service during a Pentagon interview. Air Force Lt. Col. Warren Dorlac, chief of critical care and trauma surgery at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, described the extensive network of patient care that's helping reduce battlefield deaths and speed up patients' recovery. Casualties are getting medical treatment faster and closer to the point of injury than ever before, Dorlac...

You've heard Aesop's fable -- the one about the ant and the grasshopper. It goes something like this: The ant spends his time industriously storing food supplies for use in the future while the grasshopper lounges around on a leaf, poking fun at the ant. The grasshopper's motto is "live for today," while the ant's creed is "be ready for tomorrow." Then, when winter comes and food becomes scarce, the grasshopper searches for his ant-friend and begs for scraps. Fortunately, the grasshopper doesn't have access to credit cards, or he'd just go deep into debt feeding his family and paying...

Defense of adulterer Michael Schiavo's thirteenth public attempt to murder his invalid wife (with the aid and abetment of the Florida courts) only manifests that America’s conscience is in a Persistent Vegetative State. Depriving a cat of food and water for a week would see Schiavo in an orange jumpsuit by nightfall---with the torches and pitchforks of PAWS, PETA and Greenpeace at his jugular. Merely human, Terri has no such rescuer; tortured to death in Florida as the 300 million of us sit and watch. Not one man can be found in America. Had she, like Charles Manson, been imprisoned...