Gas prices, such as in this gas station in Chicago, have been on a steady increase over the past ten days.

Around the country, people continue suffering at the pump as gas prices rise for the
tenth straight day. The nationwide average for a tank of gas was $3.54 a gallon just
last month; however, today’s prices stand at $3.842. Prices are quickly approaching
July 2008’s all-time high of $4.114.

Prices for oil itself have gone up 5% over the past month due to scares involving
Iran and possible complications in the near future. According to CNN, “Gasoline
averages more than $4 a gallon in seven states: Alaska, California, Connecticut,
Hawaii, Illinois, New York and Washington.” The lowest gas prices come from
Wyoming, but $3.43 a gallon isn’t low either.

Gas prices are up 17% this year and with the skyrocketing stock market, the prices
per gallon will most likely continue to go up.

The majority of denials for information has been done by the Central Intelligence Agency

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was made as a way for citizens to gain access to government files which they would never otherwise see. However, a new report by the Associated Press claims that the Obama administration cannot keep pace with the overwhelming demand for government documents.

The legality of the act claims that any citizen or foreigner can request to see copies of federal records so long as disclosure of said document won’t hurt national security, violate personal privacy or expose confidential decision making in certain areas.

More than 576,000 requests were filed by the government in 2011, a 5 percent increase from the year before. The report also states that government agencies responded to requests much faster than last year, with the average response being one month on “simple” requests and 3 months on more complex ones. One third of all requests were rejected due to the agency not being able to find a record, a person refused to pay for copies or the request was not allowed under the FOIA law. The White House itself claimed that it released part or entire records for 93 percent of requests.

According to the Associated Press, the government is becoming more transparent and, as White House spokesperson Eric Shultz said they are “making a strong effort to keep up with that demand by devoting more resources to it.”

The tumultuous year for U.S. operations abroad, with Osama bin Laden, trouble in Libya and the constant battle against the Taliban, makes it impressive that such an effort has been placed in sharing information with the public. Nonetheless, 4,244 times, the United States government denied a file due to national security reasons, with the majority of those denials coming from the CIA and Director of National Intelligence.

Original Source

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g39RKdGUH559I67_ntyAg956K7YA?docId=8a9fc9cef5974d7784baca41ac8ff450

An American woman detained in Iran arrived back to the U.S. after more than a year.

Sarah Shourd touched down in Washington D.C. early this morning from Dubai, according to Shourd’s media spokeswoman, Samantha Topping.

Shourd then made her way to New York and held a press conference this afternoon. Shourd thanked the Iranian government and religious leaders for her release from Iran’s notorious Evin Prison.

“It is my deepest hope that the world will not let this humanitarian gesture … go unrecognized,” she said, reading from a prepared statement.

She also called on the government to release two fellow detained Americans, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, both of whom are still locked up in Evin.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told ABC’s “This Week” that his powers to release prisoners are limited, and that Fattal and Bauer would have to make their case in Iranian courts.

Shourd, Bauer and Fattal were arrested in in 2009 after they supposedly crossed an unmarked Iran-Iraq border while hiking in Kurdistan. The three were accused of espionage, and Shourd was held in solitary confinement.

Earlier this year Roxana Saberi, another woman accused of espionage by the Iranian government, was also released after almost a year. She wrote a book, called Between Two Worlds, documenting the conditions and circumstances surrounded her imprisonment.

Saberi told CNN that Shourd’s days in solitary confinement could have felt like her own; endless, fearful, uncertain and consumed with an anger toward God and those who held her in captivity.

Now that U.S. troops have transferred security responsibilities in Iraq over to local forces, Americans can assess the damage from a less involved perspective.

A BBC World News America/Harris Poll asked Americans if they believe that Iraq is better off now than before the U.S. invasion, and whether the U.S. is safer because of the war.

Sixty-two per cent of men said Iraq is now safer, while 51 per cent of women believe the same. Interestingly, 49 per cent of those polled say the war was worth fighting for. The Iraq war. Worth it. Pretty astonishing.

Only 39 per cent say the war made America safer though, 10 per cent less than the number of those who think it was worth it.

So if we are to draw anything from this poll, it is that the majority of those polled don’t think the war was worth it and don’t think it made the country safer. The numbers are close on whether it was worth it, so the the people polled are obviously divided.

A lot of this division likely has to do with confusion. If you ask people what the war was for, what it was about, why we fought it, you’d likely get different answers from different people. In past wars, like Vietnam, the answer was definitive (even if those asked thought the war was ill-advised), and people likely had variations of the same answer.

The Iraq war, is more abstract, there is no definition to it. To keep America safe, yes, to control the spread of Islamic extremists, yes. But how? Iraq did not attack the U.S. and the war of haste there, after the dust settled post-9/11, has further alienated the U.S. from the very people it needed to have on its side in order to protect itself.

Dropping bombs on civilian neighbourhoods and shooting down civilians from helicopters will not make the U.S. safer. And according to the majority of those polled, it hasn’t.

Israel has forbidden travelers from bringing iPads into the country, saying the device’s wireless technology could interfere with or overpower other products already in operation there.

The Ministry of Communications declared the ban earlier this week. “The iPad’s Wi-Fi wireless technology was built to the U.S. standard, which allows stronger signals than those allowed in Europe and Israel,” The Wall Street Journal reports.

That means the iPad’s wireless signal strength violates Israeli law, which makes operating the device in country illegal. Ministry spokesman Yechiel Shavi says once the device is built to comply with European standards, the ban will be reversed.

But technology analyst Richard Doherty is skeptical. He says the Wi-Fi chip used in the iPad is an industry standard. “If they’re paranoid about the iPad then they should be paranoid about BlackBerrys and the iPhone.”

He went on to tell the The Wall Street Journal that because of the iPad’s small antenna and aluminum casing, the signal is actually weaker than devices of similar size.

Techies in Israel feel slighted. Especially after hearing rumors that the iPad was banned because the Israeli military feared the “strong” signal would interfere with their technology.

Apple only recently established a presence in Israel. Their first official store opened in Tel Aviv in January 2009.

Thousand of troops are being deployed to different parts of Chile, a country recently ravaged by a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake, to try to prevent looting and criminal acts, Al Jazeera reports.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has doubled the number of troops patrolling the hardest hit areas to almost 14,000. Her government has been accused of mishandling disaster relief efforts, especially because some of the troops are guarding stores full of supplies so desperately needed by the people.

Government officials say until supplies can be distributed fairly, no one is allowed to have any. This in an effort to prevent a survival-of-the-fittest scenario, similar to the one that emerged in Haiti weeks ago.

Hundreds of tons of food, water and aid are being flown in to Chile from abroad, but teams are struggling to distribute the materials evenly.

Looting

Residents of Concepcion, a town about 300 miles from the capital city of Santiago, have been the most vocal in their anger over relief efforts. Recently, some members of the town set a store on fire after armed guards prevented them from entering and taking supplies.

Food, water and aid is being distributed, for the first time since the deadly quake, today in Concepcion. Up to now, residents have had to rely on looting, which is becoming harder and harder as guards patrol the area, or on stockpiles of  food they may have had before the quake hit.

According to Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo, people in Chile are telling workers that the aid being supplied is not nearly enough. Government officials say they’ve now purchased all the food in Concepcion’s supermarkets and will begin to distribute it evenly shortly.

US aid

Secretary of State Hiliary Clinton arrived in Chile on Tuesday with the news that the US will send water purification systems and mobile hospitals very soon.

Clinton met with the country’s president, and plans to meet with the Chile’s president-elect, Sebastian Pinera, soon.

Death toll

Thus far, 795 people have been found dead. Relief teams are now making their ways to the more isolated but equally hard-hit neighborhoods, where they expect to find many, many more dead.

Haiti. Just mentioning the country’s name makes people stop, listen, and hope that what they hear is, for a change, good news. But there isn’t much in Haiti. People are dying preventable deaths. Children are dying from broken bones. There is a lack of food, water and shelter for the Haitians.

The relief effort in Haiti is sweeping, but it isn’t organized. The clogged airport and the shattered roads make it tough for aid organizations to get to where they need to be. Infrastructure isn’t being built quickly enough because there isn’t enough tools.

There is no system to account for all the food, water and medical supplies that come into Haiti. Everything isn’t being fairly distributed.

But it all will come together. This is, after all, a natural disaster that has affected three million. There’s no quick fix.

If you’re frustrated that your donated money is being stalled, don’t worry. Haiti’s future is bleak and hopeful all at once. And our money can help make it better.

Remember to donate what you can tonight to Hope For Haiti Now or Canada for Haiti.

A few weeks ago it seemed like Afghanistan’s main candidates for president, the incumbent Hamid Karzai and his former foreign minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, were locked in a dead heat, running side by side toward that coveted post; to govern a country rocked by economic troubles and war.

But now, just two days before the election, Karzai has emerged as the unquestioned front-runner and will seemingly sprint back into his governing chair, a seat in which he will remain for another five years.

On Monday 10,000 supporters rallied at Ghazi stadium in Kabul, wearing blue caps, waving blue flags, holding signs depicting the Abdullah’s smiling visage. But despite the doctor’s prominence and reputation, despite his reformist ideals and want for change, he will lose.

As much as his campaign’s support parallels that of Iran’s Mir Hossein Mousavi, unlike Mousavi, this candidate has no chance of winning (neither did Mousavi, if you think about it).

Karzai will be back.

Polling day violence

What the people must worry about now, besides being ruled by Karzai for another five years, is what will happen on August 20^th. Violence at the polling stations is almost a certainty, especially now that the Taliban has vowed to disrupt the voting process.

“The election is propaganda from America and its allies,” said the Taliban in a statement, according to Al Jazeera.

On Tuesday, Kabul was hit by a blast that killed seven. It is highly likely that Thursday will see much of the same type of blasts scattered across the highly vulnerable country.

Voter turnout is already expected to be low, according to a local Afghan man interviewed by Al Jazeera. He told the interviewer that he was afraid to go out and vote because of what the Taliban had promised. He knows what they are capable of, he said.

We all know.

Peaceful election

Unfortunately, even from the beginning, these elections looked bleak. None of the candidates offer any real solutions to any of the country’s most dire issues. Also, the Afghanistan itself is not stable enough to hold a proper democratic election for two reasons: because the country is so often bombed by the Taliban that setting up secure, safe polling stations is not a reality, and because the parties involved have a history of engaging in bribery and intimidation tactics to gain desirable results.

According to several news outlets, entire villages have been threatened with violence if their population refuses to vote for a certain candidate.

Of course, internationally we are all hoping for at least one peaceful, democratic election to be completed in the Mid-East in the near future.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the one we should look to to satisfy that want.

He likes to be called Cesar. He’s a prominent member of the leftist ultra-violent Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, otherwise known as FARC, the number one manufacturer of cocaine in the world. A former “comandante” of the 1^st Front of FARC, Gerardo Aguilar Ramirez has been extradited to the United States on “cocaine importation conspiracy charges” the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reports.

Ramirez was arrested on July 2, 2008 during a high-profile hostage rescue mission. At the time of his capture Ramirez was holding 15 hostages including anti-corruption activist and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who had been held captive for more than six years. Three Americans were also being held by FARC.

While in command of the hostages Ramirez tried to barter their release for the liberation of FARC terrorists held in the U.S. and Columbia, as well as other political and safety demands. None were accepted, and eventually, thanks to Operation Jaque, Ramirez was arrested and the hostages freed.

His extradition to Washington comes after an indictment filed by the United States against 50 of the highest-ranking FARC members. The file, released by the DEA, accuses Ramirez of leading the 1^st Front of FARC and as such, being responsible for all criminal acts it carried out.

The acts include manufacturing and distributing thousands of tons of cocaine with the knowledge that they would enter the U.S. drug market, as well as plotting with other FARC members to kidnap and kill U.S. citizens to discourage the United States from fumigating and disturbing FARC’s cocaine plants and distribution efforts.

Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin reiterated the United States’ commitment to fighting narco-terrorism. “We are committed, together with Colombian authorities and United States law enforcement agencies, to attacking FARC’s criminal leadership. The extradition of Aguilar Ramirez, alleged to be a high-level FARC commander, is another milestone in this office’s fight against narco-terrorism worldwide” he said, the DEA reports.

Ramirez, 50, is also charged with four counts of hostage taking for the kidnapping of Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes, Keith Stensell and Tom Janis after their plane crashed in FARC-occupied jungle territory in early 2003.

Janis was executed while the rest were held captive with Betancourt and 11 others until their release in the summer of 2008.

Ramirez will be tried in Washington D.C. federal court scheduled to begin on Jan. 5, 2010. The DEA reports that Special Assistant Attorneys from the Southern District of New York will be prosecuting the case in D.C.

The State Department is also offering $75 million in rewards for any information that leads to the capture of high-ranking FARC members.

Chinese-American journalist Laura Ling and Korean-American journalist Euna Lee have been found guilty of “hostile acts” and illegal entry into North Korea, the BBC reports. They have been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for committing what North Korea calls a “grave crime.”

The women were arrested in March after apparently crossing the China-North Korea border. Some believe the two, who were working on a refugee story for California-based Current TV (led by Al Gore), were arrested on China’s side of the border.

“We are deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities, and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release” said a statement from the U.S. State Department.

Many believe North Korea, during this period of increased global tensions as a result of their nuclear and missile testing, are using the two women as “bargaining chips” with the United States.

What bothers me the most about this, and I’m sure the families of Euna Lee and Laura Ling, too, is the certainty that these two women didn’t and probably weren’t even able to commit a grave crime, hostile act or espionage.

They were journalists armed with nothing but cameras and the resolve to file a story for Current TV.

The sentence is more about North Korea being angry with the world because the world is angry with them. They will no doubt use the women as bargaining tokens because they know the U.S., rightfully so, would never allow two of their citizens to be prosecuted and subjected to more than a decade of “reform through labor” in a foreign, unstable nation for no solid reason.

North Korea hasn’t even specified what the supposed “grave crime” and “hostile act” is.

Why? Because the women most likely didn’t do anything grave or hostile.

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is considering sending an envoy to negotiate Lee and Ling’s release over what she calls a “baseless” detention, the BBC reports.

CNN reports senior administration officials are weighing their options, currently thinking about sending former Vice President Al Gore, who leads the independent media company for which Ling and Lee work, or New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who served as ambassador to the UN during the Clinton administration, to negotiate release.

“What we would try to seek would be some kind of political pardon, some kind of a respite from the legal proceedings” said Richardson, the Taipei Times reports.

North Korea is expected to allow a visit from one of the men, according to CNN.

Humanitarian aid

What can we really offer them that won’t end up hurting us?

Humanitarian aid is perhaps a good option; North Korea is a poor nation. But they’ve routinely put the strength and welfare of their public image above that of their people, something that may again happen. Hopefully not, since they need the aid bad and have repeatedly demanded it when in situations where they have “bargaining chips.”

They closed their nuclear facilities during the six-party talks in exchange for humanitarian aid.

North Korea is‚  a strong but rusty machine, they never waver, though sometimes weakness emerges from beneath their guise of absolute strength. That weakness is their lack of money.

This isn’t just the U.S.’s problem either, it’s the world’s. It’s really North Korea that has committed the “hostile act” and “grave crime” by thinking this is OK.

We all wish for the safe return of‚  Euna Lee and Laura Ling. I can’t imagine a situation where the U.S. would allow North Korea to keep them.

You can do your part by signing the petition to Free Euna Lee and Laura Ling, or follow @liberatelaura on Twitter for all developments.

North Korea has fired more missiles just hours after the UN unanimously condemned yesterday’s underground nuclear test and the testing of three short-range missiles, the BBC reports.

The two short-range missiles, one ground-to-air and one ground-to-ship, were fired off east coast bases, south of Kilju, where yesterday’s nuclear test took place.

International diplomats are currently drafting a series of sanctions to be placed on North Korea, a country whose public is already quite poor.

North Korea again cited continued “hostile policy” from the U.S. as the reason for testing their nuclear arsenal.

“Our army and people are fully ready for battle… against any reckless US attempt for a pre-emptive attack,” said a piece by KCNA, the government’s official news outlet.

North Korea has also stated that South Korea’s recent decision to join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a U.S. led initiative of more than 90 nations to intercept ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction, constitutes an act and declaration of war, another possible cause for the missile test.

Late Monday, President Obama spoke with leaders in both Japan and South Korea to assure them the U.S. is committed to protecting north-east Asia and Asia-Pacific from any threats by North Korea.

CBC reports UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is urging North Korea to engage in talks with its Pacific neighbors and the U.S. if it wishes to remain part of the international community.

“The only viable option at this time for North Korea to remain as a responsible member of the international community is to return to the dialogue table,” Ban told reporters at a Helsinki news conference.

Stick with Blast for developments.

It’s been creeping behind Americans for many months, like a slow moving hurricane blowing winds of bankruptcy and foreclosure. ‚ On a day when the Dow Jones lost almost eight per cent, the‚ National‚ Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) officially announced that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, according to the New York Times. ‚ 

Many investors have long said the country was in a recession, despite last week’s monumental gains. ‚ The NBER had been‚ reluctant‚ to officially‚ announce‚ the recession in hopes of an economic turnaround.

However on Monday, the losses were staggering. ‚ Large financial firms led the downturn; Wall Street watched as Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley dropped almost 20 per cent.

The NBER did not have a length estimation for this‚ particular‚ recession, however did declare that a typical recession can last anywhere from six to 18 months, reports the Associated Press.

“Recession fears have now become a reality, and the questions that remain are just how bad and for how long this recession will linger over us,” said‚ Michael Fowlkes, analyst at Investor’s Observer, according to AP. ‚ ”So far in 2008, employers have slashed 1.2 million jobs, and the bad news is expected to continue when we get employment data for November this Friday.”

Analysts‚ at the NBER‚ agree that even with a substantial stimulus package, unemployment in the U.S. will likely reach an astonishing nine per cent by 2010. ‚ That’s almost a five per cent increase from the 2007 estimated unemployment rate of 4.4 per cent.

Federal Reserve Chairman‚ Ben Bernake told press that the economy‚ ”will probably remain weak for a time.” ‚ He also said that the Fed could possibly begin buying up Treasury securities in an effort to spur growth, a highly unusual move.

The last time the U.S. was in a recession was March through November 2001. ‚ If this recession lasts longer than five more months, it would be the longest since the Great Depression of the late 20′s and 30′s.

“It is clearly not going to end in a few months”‚ said NBER‚ committee‚ member Jeffrey Frankel, confirming that Americans could face even harder times ahead.