Doc Ford's backs 10K Race 4 FISH

F.I.S.H. of Sanibel announces that Doc Ford's Rum Bar & Grille once again has chosen to be a silver sponsor for the 5th annual 10K Race 4 FISH.

The race, on Saturday, Oct. 19, is the fifth year Doc Ford's has been a sponsor.

"We are delighted to have Doc Ford's join us as a sponsor again this year. Their show of support over the past five years has been very important to us," said FISH VP John Pryor and co-chairman of the race committee. "They have been a dedicated supporter to FISH over the years, and we thank them for choosing to sponsor our major fundraising event again this year."

Article Photos

From left, back row, are Pete Bender, Chef Kris Zook, Nancy Bender, Mark Marinello, Raynauld Bentley, Liz Harris, Jean Crenshaw, Kim McGonnell, FISH president John Morse and Ed Ridlehoover; front row from left, Doc Ford?s owner Marty Harrity, John Pryor and Jerry Edleman.

More than 50 island businesses and organizations sponsored the event last year, with more than 120 people volunteering their time to help make it successful.

The race starts at 7:30 a.m. at the Sanibel Community House, follows a marked 10K circuit around the island and returning to the Sanibel Community House for the finish line.

Source: http://www.captivasanibel.com/page/content.detail/id/521673.html

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Military sex assault reports up, changes ordered

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., questions top officials of the Air Force, Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, about how they are dealing with the controversy over sexual assaults and how the military justice system handles it, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., questions top officials of the Air Force, Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, about how they are dealing with the controversy over sexual assaults and how the military justice system handles it, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Senate Armed Services Committee hears from top officials of the Air Force, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, right, and Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, left, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. Besides funding for next year's Pentagon budget, the Air Force is dealing with controversy over sexual assaults and how the military justice system handles it. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Senate Armed Services Committee hears from top officials of the Air Force, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, right, and Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, left, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. Besides funding for next year's Pentagon budget, the Air Force is dealing with controversy over sexual assaults and how the military justice system handles it. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Senate Armed Services Committee hears from top officials of the Air Force, Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, left, and and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. Besides funding for next year's Pentagon budget, the Air Force is dealing with controversy over sexual assaults and how the military justice system handles it. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Sexual assaults in the military are a growing epidemic across the services and thousands of victims are still unwilling to come forward despite a slew of new oversight and assistance programs, according to a new Pentagon report.

Troubling new numbers estimate that up to 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year, according to survey results released against a backdrops of scandals including an ongoing investigation into more than 30 Air Force instructors for assaults on trainees at a Texas base

The report was released Tuesday and comes just days after the Air Force's head of sexual assault prevention was arrested on charges of groping a woman in a Northern Virginia parking lot. And it follows a heated debate over whether commanders should be stripped of the authority to overturn military jury verdicts, such as one officer did in a recent sexual assault conviction.

In a sharp rebuke Tuesday, President Barack Obama said he has no tolerance for the problem and that he had talked to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel about it. He said any military member found guilty of sexual assault should be held accountable, prosecuted and fired.

"I don't want just more speeches or awareness programs or training, or ultimately folks look the other way," the president said. "We're going to have to not just step up our game, we have to exponentially step up our game to go after this hard."

Hagel later gave a grim assessment, saying the military "may be nearing a stage where the frequency of this crime and the perception that there is tolerance of it could very well undermine our ability to effectively carry out the mission and to recruit and retain the good people we need."

The documents show that the number of sexual assaults actually reported by members of the military rose 6 percent to 3,374 in 2012. But a survey of personnel who were not required to reveal their identities showed the number of service members actually assaulted could be as many as 26,000, but they never reported the incidents, officials said Tuesday.

That number is an increase over the 19,000 estimated assaults in 2011.

The statistics highlight the dismal results that military leaders have achieved in their drive to change the culture within the ranks, even as the services redoubled efforts to launch new programs to assist the victims, encourage reporting and increase commanders' vigilance.

Hagel ordered a series of steps and reviews to increase officers' accountability for what happens under their commands, and to inspect workstations for objectionable materials, according to memos and documents obtained by the AP.

Hagel also told military leaders to develop a method to assess commanders and hold them accountable on their ability to create a climate "of dignity and respect." He has given commanders until July 1 to visually inspect workspaces to make sure they are free of degrading materials, and military leaders have until Nov. 1 to recommend ways to assess officers and hold them accountable for their command climates.

"Sexual assault is a crime that is incompatible with military service and has no place in this department," Hagel said in a new response plan the department will release Tuesday. "It is an affront to the American values we defend, and it is a stain on our honor. DoD needs to be a national leader in combating sexual assault and we will establish an environment of dignity and respect, where sexual assault is not tolerated, condoned, or ignored."

While the latest cases involve Air Force members, the problem extends across all the military services.

Across Capitol Hill, lawmakers demanded the Pentagon take more aggressive steps to address the growing problem and they announced renewed efforts to pass legislation to battle the problem.

"When our best and our brightest put on a uniform and join the United States Armed Forces, they do so with the understanding that they will sacrifice much in the name of defending our country and its people. However, it's unconscionable to think that entertaining unwanted sexual contact from within the ranks is now part of that equation," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. "Not only are we subjecting our men and women to this disgusting epidemic, but we're also failing to provide the victims with any meaningful support system once they have fallen victim to these attacks."

This week's sexual battery arrest of Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, who headed the Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit, provided a rallying point for lawmakers, who held it up Tuesday as an example of the Pentagon's failure to make progress despite the increased effort.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., told Air Force officials at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday that "while under our legal system everyone is innocent until proven guilty, this arrest speaks volumes about the status and effectiveness of (the Defense) department's efforts to address the plague of sexual assaults in the military."

Members of Congress are putting together legislation to essentially strip military officers of the authority to overturn convictions for serious offenses such as sexual assault. The measure stem from congressional outrage over an Air Force officer's decision to reverse a jury verdict in a sexual assault case.

Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and others are drawing up legislation that likely will be included in the annual defense policy bill that will essentially strip military officers of the authority to overturn convictions for serious offenses such as sexual assault.

Separately, Murray and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., introduced legislation on Tuesday to provide victims with a special military lawyer who would assist them throughout the process, prohibit sexual contact between instructors and trainees during and within 30 days of completion of basic training or its equivalent and ensure that sexual assault response coordinators are available to help members of the National Guard and reserve.

Turner said the increase in assaults and the failure of so many victims to come forward shows that "much more needs to be done both legislatively and structurally, to root out this problem."

According to Pentagon documents, the key conclusion of the report is that "sexual assault is a persistent problem in the military and remains vastly underreported."

The report says that of the 1.4 million active duty personnel, 6.1 percent of active duty women ? or 12,100 ? say they experienced unwanted sexual contact in 2012, a sharp increase over the 8,600 who said that in 2010. For men, the number increased from 10,700 to 13,900. A majority of the offenders were military members or Defense Department civilians or contractors, the report said.

Within the specific services, the Army showed a 16 percent decrease in the number of reported sexual assault cases, from 1,695 in 2011 to 1,423 in 2012.

The Navy said it saw a 32 percent increase, jumping from 550 in 2011 to 726 in 2012. The report said the Marines had more than a 30 percent increase in reported sexual assaults, from 333 in 2011 to 435 in 2012. And the Air Force had a 33 percent increase in reports, from 594 in 2011 to 790 in 2012.

Military and defense officials said to a degree they view an increase in reporting as a somewhat positive move since it indicates that victims are becoming more willing to come forward and have faith in the military justice system.

Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force's chief of staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he and Air Force Secretary Michael Donley were "appalled" by the charges against Krusinski.

"As we have both said over and over and over again, sexual assault prevention and response efforts are critically important to us," Welsh said. "It is unacceptable that this occurs anywhere, at any time, in our Air Force."

Welsh said that while the Krusinski case is being adjudicated by the Arlington County, Va., prosecutor, the Air Force has requested jurisdiction. He said Krusinski will be arraigned Thursday on one count of sexual battery and that an Arlington County prosecutor will decide the jurisdiction question.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., one of the most vocal critics of the military's efforts to stop sexual assaults, pressed Welsh on what qualifications Krusinski had for the job and whether Welsh reviewed his personnel file since his arrest to see if there were any red flags.

Welsh said he found nothing irregular in Krusinski's file.

___

Associated Press writer Richard Lardner contributed to this report.

___

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Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-07-Sexual%20Assault-Military/id-06d13105b041416ead7820ebec911e1a

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How Slot Machines Use Psychology and Design to Keep You Coming Back

Anyone who has ever walked into a casino has felt the lure of the slot machine. The bright lights, inviting little stools, and the promise of hitting the elusive jackpot are ever-present. It's hard to avoid, no matter what logic tells you about the terrible odds. This Cool Hunting video shows just how involved the development of those enticing machines can be.

It used to be that you'd pull a lever, watch some numbers and pictures spin, and wait for quarters to pop out when you get lucky. But slot machines of the 21st century are of a whole different breed. Bally Technologies' Director of Game Development, Brett Jackson explains to Cool Hunting how much thought goes into studying what players react to when they sit down, and how they can be manipulated.

At first it seems quite devious?the level of complexity that goes into keeping customers glued to their chair as they shed dollar bills with only a slight chance of winning big. But this type of practice is inherent to most market ventures. Selling is often about appealing to people's emotions and desires, whether they are at a slot machine, buying an Apple product, or deciding what soda to drink. [Cool Hunting]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/how-slot-machines-use-psychology-and-design-to-keep-you-496527700

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Transparency and Accountability Don't Hurt Security?They're Crucial to It (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/304401791?client_source=feed&format=rss

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PFT: Moon says CFL no place for Tebow

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The ongoing debate about how a gay NFL player would be treated in the locker room has largely focused on the idea that times are changing, and that acceptance of a gay player would be a modern development. But it?s often overlooked that the ultimate example of the old-school football coach was also perfectly fine with having gay players on his team.

Multiple players who played for Vince Lombardi, the legendary former Packers and Redskins coach, say that he knew some of his players were gay, and that not only did he not have a problem with it, but he went out of his way to make sure no one else on his team would make it a problem.

In 1969, Lombardi?s Redskins included a running back named Ray McDonald, who in 1968 had been arrested for having sex with another man in public. In the Lombardi biography When Pride Still Mattered, author David Maraniss writes that Lombardi told his assistants he wanted them to work with McDonald to help him make the team, ?And if I hear one of you people make reference to his manhood, you?ll be out of here before your ass hits the ground.?

Lombardi?s daughter Susan told Ian O?Connor of ESPNNewYork.com that her father would have been thrilled to have a player like Jason Collins, the NBA center who publicly revealed this week that he is gay.

?My father was way ahead of his time,? Susan Lombardi said. ?He was discriminated against as a dark-skinned Italian American when he was younger, when he felt he was passed up for coaching jobs that he deserved. He felt the pain of discrimination, and so he raised his family to accept everybody, no matter what color they were or whatever their sexual orientation was. I think it?s great what Jason Collins did, because it?s going to open a lot of doors for people. Without a doubt my father would?ve embraced him, and would?ve been very proud of him for coming out.?

Dave Kopay, the first former NFL player to come out, also played on those 1969 Redskins, and he says that while he never told Lombardi, he believes Lombardi knew not only that Kopay was gay, but that Kopay and another Redskins player, Jerry Smith, were in a romantic relationship.

?Lombardi protected and loved Jerry,? Kopay told O?Connor.

Lombardi?s brother Harold was gay, and when Harold died in July of 2011 he was survived by his partner of 41 years ? meaning their relationship began just before Vince died in September of 1970. As noted by Doug Farrar of Yahoo! Sports, Vince knew Harold was gay and didn?t just believe in ?tolerance? but believed strongly that discrimination against gay people was wrong, just as he was angered when he saw mistreatment of his black players, or discrimination against his fellow Italian-Americans.

If a coach who was considered old-fashioned even by the standards of the 1960s accepted gay players in his locker room, the idea that gay players couldn?t be accepted in an NFL locker room in 2013 is both silly and sad.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/02/warren-moon-says-the-cfl-is-no-place-for-tebow/related/

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U.S. seeks North Korean amnesty for American jailed for 15 years

By Ju-min Park and Paul Eckert

SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea sentenced an American citizen to 15 years of hard labor on Thursday for crimes against the state, prompting a U.S. call for his amnesty in hopes of avoiding him becoming a bargaining chip between the two countries.

Kenneth Bae, 44, was born in South Korea but is a naturalized citizen and attended the University of Oregon. His sentencing comes after two months of saber-rattling that saw North Korea threaten the United States and South Korea with nuclear war.

Pyongyang has previously tried to use American prisoners as bargaining chips in talks with Washington. A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Washington was not currently looking for an envoy to try to secure Bae's release as it sometimes has done.

The official said the United States has sought in recent years to break out of its pattern of lurching from one crisis to another with the North, only to resolve them with transactional deals with Pyongyang.

"We urge the DPRK (North Korea) to grant Mr. Bae amnesty and immediate release," said State Department deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell.

Bruce Klingner, a retired CIA North Korea analyst, dismissed the idea that Bae's release would trigger the renewal of long-stalled diplomacy.

"Previous arrests of U.S. citizens didn't lead to changes in North Korean policy, resumption of bilateral dialogue or breakthroughs in U.S.-North Korean relations," said Klingner, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington.

A North Korean defector said Bae will likely serve his sentence in a special facility for foreigners, not in one of the repressive state's forced labor camps. More than 200,000 people are incarcerated in these camps, beaten and starved, sometimes to death, according to human rights groups.

Bae is believed to be a devout Christian, according to human rights activists in South Korea, who say he may have been arrested for taking pictures of starving children.

He was part of a group of five tourists who visited the northeastern North Korean city of Rajin in November and has been held since then. According to U.S. media, Bae most recently lived in the Seattle area.

AVOIDING ENTANGLEMENT

Former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson, who has made numerous trips to North Korea that included efforts to free detained Americans, said Bae's case should not become entangled in the current U.S.-North Korea impasse.

"Now that the sentencing and the North Korean legal process has been completed, it is important that negotiations begin to secure Kenneth Bae's release on humanitarian grounds or a general amnesty," said Richardson, who visited North Korea in January with Google Inc CEO Eric Schmidt.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said any negotiations with North Korea are "dependent upon the North Koreans demonstrating a willingness to live up to their international obligations."

North Korea is the subject of U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for an end to its nuclear and missile tests, as well as punitive U.N. sanctions.

"But thus far, as you know, they have flouted their obligations, engaged in provocative actions and rhetoric," he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Some media reports have identified Bae as the leader of the tour group. NK News, a specialist North Korea news website, said he was the owner of a company called Nation Tours that specialized in tours of northeastern North Korea.

The reports could not be verified and North Korean state news agency KCNA did not list any specific charge other than crimes against the state, and used a Korean rendering of Bae's name, Pae Jun-ho, when it reported the Supreme Court ruling.

"North Korea has shown their intention to use him as a negotiating card as they have done in the past," said Cheong Seong-chang, senior fellow at the Sejong Institute, a think-tank in Seoul.

Bae's sentence was heftier than the 12 years handed down to two U.S. journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, in 2009. It took a visit to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton to secure their release.

PERSONAL TRIBUTE?

North Korea appears to use the release of high-profile American prisoners to extract a form of personal tribute, rather than for economic or diplomatic gain, often portraying visiting dignitaries as paying homage.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who has traveled to North Korea before to try to free a detained American, has no plans to do so for Bae, Carter's spokeswoman said.

"President Carter has not had an invitation to visit North Korea and has no plans to visit," Carter's press secretary, Deanna Congileo, said in an email.

According to North Korean law, the punishment for hostile acts against the state is between five and 10 years hard labor.

"I think his sentencing was hefty. North Korea seemed to consider his acts more severe," said Jang Myung-bong, honorary professor at Kookmin University in Seoul and a North Korea law expert.

North Korea is one of the most isolated states on earth. Its official policy of "Juche," or self-reliance, is a fusion of Marxism, extreme nationalism and self sufficiency centered on the cult of the ruling Kim family.

Bae likely will not be incarcerated in one of the North's notorious slave labor camps, such as the one where defector Kwon Hyo-jin was locked up. There, Kwon said, prisoners were worked to death and often survived only by eating rats and snakes.

"If an American served jail together with North Korean inmates, which won't happen, he could tell them about capitalism or economic developments. That would be the biggest mistake for North Korea," said Kwon, a North Korean sentenced to one of its camps for seven years until 2007. He defected to South Korea in 2009.

"(Bae) would be sent to a correctional facility that only houses foreigners and was set up as a model for international human rights groups."

It was not known if Bae had been taken immediately to jail.

Ling, the journalist, told U.S. television that she was placed in a 5-by-6 foot (1.5-by-1.8 meter) cell when captured and then kept in a regular room afterwards.

Bae was given counsel by the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which has declined to comment on the case, as the United States does not have diplomatic relations with the North.

(Additional reporting by Christine Kim in Seoul and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Editing by Xavier Briand)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-sentences-american-15-years-hard-labor-134445844.html

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'Red line': Chemical weapons in Syria

By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Syrian government forces have used chemical weapons - probably nerve gas - in their fight against rebels trying to force out President Bashar al-Assad, the Israeli military's top intelligence analyst said on Tuesday.

Brigadier-General Itai Brun made the comments at a Tel Aviv security conference a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on a visit to Israel that U.S. intelligence agencies were still assessing whether such weapons had been employed.

U.S. President Barack Obama has called the use of chemical weapons a "red line" for the United States that would trigger unspecified U.S. action.

"To the best of our understanding, there was use of lethal chemical weapons. Which chemical weapons? Probably sarin," Brun said in the most definitive Israeli statement on the issue to date.

Photos of victims showing foam coming out of their mouths and contracted pupils were signs deadly gas had been used, he said.

Forces loyal to Assad were behind the attacks on "armed (rebels) on a number of occasions in the past few months, including the most reported incident on March 19", Brun said.

The Syrian government and rebels last month accused each other of launching a chemical attack near the northern city of Aleppo.

On Monday, Hagel said the use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces would be a "game changer" and the United States and Israel "have options for all contingencies".

Hagel met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Tuesday, a day after flying in an Israeli military helicopter over the occupied Golan Heights on the edge of the fighting in Syria that has entered its third year.

"This is a difficult and dangerous time, this is a time when friends and allies must remain close, closer than ever," Hagel, in remarks to reporters before his talks with Netanyahu, said about the United States and Israel.

IMPASSE

Discussions between Syria and the United Nations on a U.N. investigation of possible use of chemical weapons have been at an impasse due to the Syrian government's refusal to let the inspectors visit anywhere but Aleppo, diplomats and U.N. officials said last week.

U.N. diplomats said Britain and France had provided Ban's office with what they believed to be strong evidence that chemical weapons also had been used in the city of Homs.

Israel, which has advanced intelligence capabilities that it shares with its Western allies, has voiced concerned that parts of Syria's chemical arsenal would end up in the hands of jihadi fighters or the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, with which it waged a 2006 war.

Israel leaders have cautioned they will not allow that to happen. In an attack it has not formally confirmed, Israeli planes bombed an arms convoy in Syria in February, destroying anti-aircraft weapons destined for Hezbollah.

Brun, who was speaking at the annual security conference of The Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said Israel's military was studying a number of future scenarios facing Syria.

"More likely, as time goes by, are the scenarios of chaos and anarchy, or that of (Syria) breaking up into cantons. These pose major challenges for Israel. The chance of a different central government still exists, but it is growing less likely with time," Brun said.

(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller and David Alexander; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Alison Williams)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-general-says-syria-government-forces-used-chemical-074330220.html

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