Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, February 09, 2015
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time. Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - respect is due.
This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Fire Fire by Steam Powered Giraffe
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Top News |
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Maryland Senate side-steps governor's veto on bill that grants voting rights to felons
By Doug G. Ware
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. . .
The bill to extend felons' voting rights was first introduced in last year's general assembly. Democratic lawmakers reinstated it this year and passed it, but that plan hit a snag when Hogan broke out his sixth veto to freeze the bill in its tracks.
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Presently, convicted felons in Maryland must complete the terms of their parole and probation before they are allowed to register to vote. The bill removes that stipulation and will allow tens of thousands of newly-released felons to participate in the voting process.
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"Only a tiny, radical minority supports this idea. But they did it anyway," Hogan wrote on his Facebook page after the vote Tuesday. "They don't seem to care what most Marylanders want. Why did they do it anyway? Because they can."
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Voting rights for convicted felons vary by state. Some don't ever allow felons to cast ballots while others let inmates vote even while incarcerated. Whether a felon can vote in a presidential election is determined entirely by which state he or she resides in.
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Red Cross Donations Plummet and Deficit Spikes
By Justin Elliott
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Former AT&T executive Gail McGovern, who was hired as CEO in 2008 with a brief to stabilize the charity’s finances, has spent the last eight years making deep cuts in the Red Cross’ workforce and trying to bring in more donations with an increased focus on branding.
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The Red Cross’ fundraising can swing wildly, spiking when there’s a major disaster and dropping in years with no big televised catastrophe. But there have been no signature disasters in either of the past two years, raising the question of why donations dropped so much.
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The group’s revenue in 2015 was also hurt by a decline in contributions from the United Way and other federated sources, which fell from $104 million to $77 million. A United Way spokesperson told us it has cut contributions to the Red Cross in recent years because it has shifted to a “community impact funding model.”
While the Red Cross’ audited financial statements show a $159 million deficit for last fiscal year, McGovern last month cited an “operating deficit” of just $36 million for the year. The charity previously said that it created a concept of “operating” surpluses or deficits that “reflect Red Cross performance in managing our day-to-day revenues and expenses.” But it’s impossible to tell where that figure comes from because the group has declined to show its calculations.
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Homeownership a 'dream deferred' for millennial generation
By (ScienceDaily)
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Despite the Great Recession and the subsequent housing crash, more than 85 percent of the millennial generation -- that is, those born between 1980-2000 -- still believe that owning a home makes more financial sense than renting. But according to a new paper co-written by a University of Illinois expert in household and individual financial behaviors, millennials still face significant hurdles in their quest for homeownership.
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"Student loans are the biggest problem for this generation, potentially disqualifying millennials for mortgage loans due to low credit scores and high debt ratios," Xu said. "It is estimated that millennial student-loan debtors have to spend about half of their monthly income to make debt payments, but if they wish to finance a home while they are paying the student loan debt, the high debt-to-income ratio effectively disqualifies them for almost all mortgage loans. Even among those millennials who are doing well financially, just a general aversion to debt is also discouraging them from taking out a mortgage."
. . .
"Prior research indicates that homeownership carries numerous benefits," she said. "The children of homeowners typically perform better in school than those of renters, for example, and homeownership reduces the risk of divorce among couples. So there are a lot of benefits. It's definitely a policy target that should be promoted, which is why policymakers should worry."
. . .
"If we think about what happened during the credit expansion, many people who were not really ready for homeownership were lured into homeownership, and that's certainly not what we want to see again," Xu said. "Ultimately, I do see some upside in millennials delaying homeownership. The more stringent credit conditions will select the more financially prepared millennials for homeownership. As a result, millennials' homeownership will be more sustainable, and their financial stability and wealth accumulation may be enhanced. If that's the case, then maybe a little delay in buying their first home isn't too bad if they're a more responsible homeowner."
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International |
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Impoverished Gaza turns to crowd-funding to meet needs
By (Al Jazeera)
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Once criticised by some in Gaza as a way of "begging" for money, crowd-funding is now being used more and more by young people.
. . . Sara suffers from bilateral macular toxoplasmosis, and that her sight gradually fades the more she uses her eyes. Najjar published her sister's story using social media, and asked people to support her.
She garnered supporters from all over the world and raised more than $3,100. "My overseas friends were really supportive and helpful. After I wrote about the campaign in my blog, a British friend reached me and told me she's going to make an event there. She sold some cupcakes for donation at her church," Najjar said.
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"Our main mission, in addition to launching real successful businesses from within Gaza, is to change the world's perception of Gaza," Montauk added. "When I first arrived in Gaza, I was shocked by how it reminded me of Silicon Valley. It's a place full of vibrant people interested in technology and working on business, and so one of the things that GSG tries to do in order to make sure that the right kinds of resources and business opportunities are coming to Gaza is share with the world what Gaza is really like."
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"There are students who wished to study abroad and got scholarships, but these scholarships were not enough to cover their travel and living expenses … so they started building campaigns online on websites such as Indiegogo and Zomal [an Arabic language crowdfunding site], and we've seen this becoming more like a phenomenon recently," said Abu.
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USA |
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Residents fight for economic and environmental justice in one Illinois town
By Raven Rakia
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On Friday, the United States Commission on Civil Rights held an environmental justice hearing in Washington, D.C. that focused specifically on coal ash and coal power plants and their prevalence in low-income communities and/or communities of color. The hearing included speakers from towns dealing with the effects of coal ash ponds in Alabama, Illinois, and South Carolina, as well as scientists and environmental justice lawyers and activists.
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Another notable event occurred last week — one that could serve as a step to amend the wrongs done to Waukegan. The Black Youth Project (BYP), an organization founded just a few miles south in Chicago, issued an economic justice manifesto titled the Agenda to Build Black Futures. The document provides examples of the platforms that people should push for in their local communities to achieve better living and working conditions.
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Among other things, BYP calls for reparations, a living wage, access to health care, and a workers’ bill of rights . . .
In the Agenda’s opening letter, BYP National Director Charlene Carruthers states: “We live in a country that tells us not all of us deserve to breathe, eat well, or have access to water.” Aside from that line, Black Youth Project’s economic justice agenda barely mentions the environment, let alone climate change. Yet if the agenda were to be implemented, it would have a tremendous positive effect on our environmental resources. Economic justice would empower communities to fight back against oil and gas companies destroying their neighborhoods. They would be able to get the proper care and attention for their health issues caused by toxic pollutants. Labor unions that truly stand for their workers could advocate for healthy jobs and fight against corporations that destroy their workers’ health.
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
. . .
The band's fictional backstory explains why they pantomime as robots. According to that narrative, the "musical automatons" were invented by a rich San Diego inventor named Colonel Peter A. Walter in 1896 and kept in the Walter family over the years. Called the 8th 1/2 Wonder of the World, the robots were a technological marvel that ran off steam powered engines and the mysterious Blue Matter, discovered and harnessed by Walter. They were originally developed as war robots, intended to guide Walter's first robot, a giant mechanical giraffe named Delilah, in a battle across the African Savannah against a robotic elephant that was built by his rival, Thadeus Becile. Once the battles were over, the robots were decommissioned and re-tooled into musical robots for purposes of entertainment. . .
In addition to the band's origin, some individual cast members have origins that pertain to their characters. The Spine was re-cast in silver and began wearing a fedora in the 1940s. former band-robot The Jon was said to have left the band to travel the world, and Hatchworth was brought up from the Walter's basement, forgotten due to a defective power core, repaired and placed as The Jon's replacement. . .
Rabbit's transition from male to female was explained in the backstory that the robot was originally intended to have been female, but due to time constraints (further explained in the backstory on the band's website), was left unfinished and appeared to be male. Nearly a century later, Rabbit began to malfunction badly, and in the process of repair, the robot's long-lost blueprints were located. Once the mistake was discovered, Peter Walter VI (the robots' current caretaker) completed Rabbit's build according to her original blueprints, and the malfunctions ceased (for the most part).
Back to what's happening:
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Environmental |
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Thousands lost from retirement savings in fossil fuel investments – report
By Michael Slezak
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Many Australians are losing thousands of dollars a year from their retirement savings because their super funds continue to invest in fossil fuel companies, according to a new report. . . .
Market Forces analyst Daniel Gocher pointed to research showing the majority of people would prefer a super fund that didn’t invest in fossil fuels. He said super funds were ignoring their members’ concerns and, at best, “creating boutique options for a few of their members instead of taking systemic action”.
“As a result, millions of people who care about protecting our land, water, environment and climate from the fossil fuel industry are financing these problems,” Gocher said.
“To make matters worse, these sectors have performed poorly in recent years – consistent with the concerns raised by the finance industry itself – meaning many have lost money by being forced to invest in companies that contradict their values.”
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Science and Health |
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Science Funders Struggle to Deal with Sexual Harassers
By Alexandra Witze
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The US government does not classify sexual infractions as research misconduct. Instead, as recent high-profile cases illustrate, the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) must navigate a relatively new legal landscape when confronted with sexual harassment by grant recipients. What is clear, specialists in research ethics say, is that agencies, institutions and researchers all need to improve their response to such behaviour.
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In general, funding awards are made to institutions, not the person who is the principal investigator (PI) for the work. Even if a PI has been found to violate institutional policies, his or her grant money will continue to flow to support graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and other collaborators on an affected project.
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It was actually a case of sexual assault that prompted the modern US definition of research misconduct, says Nicholas Steneck, a specialist in research integrity at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 1989, the NSF received complaints about the actions of a senior researcher while taking undergraduates to a research site in another country. The agency’s inspector-general ultimately found the researcher to have committed “16 incidents of sexual misfeasance with female graduate and undergraduate students at the research site; on the way to the site; and in his home, car, and office”. Many could be classified as sexual assaults.
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US agencies might learn a thing or two from funders in other countries, Steneck adds. Both Canada and Australia (see ‘Codes of conduct’) require federally funded scientists to meet a minimum ethical standard that specifically describes institutional roles.
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Technology |
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In promoting Cybersecurity National Action Plan, White House conspicuously fails to mention encryption
By Xeni Jardin
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The White House released an announcement today on President Obama's Cybersecurity National Action Plan. In thousands of not actually bad at all words about cybersecurity, they managed not to say the word "encryption" once. Crypto. Not even once.
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CNAP encompasses a number of measures, which vary by degrees in financial backing and plausibility. Even if all of the proposal’s planks come to pass—it is, after all, a proposal, not a law—it’s less an encouraging glimpse of our ironclad future than it is a reminder of just how insecure our government’s information highways and byways are today. Still, at least the administration is addressing the basics.
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Cultural |
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14 Reasons Why "Formation" Is the Official Hype Track of Black Women in Academia
By DNLee
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Truly, Formation by Beyoncé is the hype track of Black Women everywhere, but Academia is such a special place that I feel it has an especially stark meaning to those of us roaming the hallowed halls of higher education. Let me break it down for you. Lyrics in italics.
. . .
Y'all haters corny with that illuminati mess
1. Often when black women in academia speak out against the intersectional injustices we endure, unsupportive colleagues and wobbly allies are quick to tell us we are whining or making things up. Gaslighting is the oldest deflection tactic in the book.
. . .
I go hard, I go hard
Get what's mine, take what's mine
11. We aren’t angry, we’re focused. We assert ourselves because we have to. Academia has demonstrated time and time and time and time again that administrations aren’t willing to defend their Black female faculty when the attacks roll in.
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I found myself jumping and screaming in appreciation of her articulating all.of.the.things I have long felt most of my life and in the spaces we call the Ivory Tower specifically. Much like the quietly stifling atmosphere of the Confederate South, Academia (and science specifically) & its system of currency, rewards, and passive-aggressive secret networks of promotions and opportunity has felt like a place where I am expected to "keep my place." To be seen and not heard. Stay in the background -- waay back -- and out of the spotlight. For years, I have been given guff by other academics for my brazenness, haughtiness, loudness – in short my Black, Country, Womanness. . .
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Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already.