04.20.13
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Yahoo News: Boston bombing suspect’s arrest presents intelligence opportunity, legal challenges

BOSTON – Keeping bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev alive and able to answer questions would be a badly-needed intelligence coup for terror investigators, a former U.S. District Attorney told Yahoo News on Saturday.

“The fear of law enforcement has always been the small, insular cells that are kind of under the radar,” said Richard Roper, a federal prosecutor for 21 years. “Either the lone wolf or the small cells … they’re difficult to obtain intelligence on. I hope they get some good stuff out of him.”

On Saturday, Dzhokhar was reportedly clinging to life and under heavy guard at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He apparently suffered gunshot wounds to the neck and leg during separate gun battles with authorities on Friday.

Tsarnaev, 19, and his brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, are believed to have planted the two backpack bombs near the finish line of Monday’s Boston Marathon. The twin explosions killed three people and injured 180 others……..

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“There’s a need to immediately question the guy whether you Mirandize him or not to save lives,” Roper said. “The question is how far do you go before it turns into a custodial interrogation?”

Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina went a step further, suggesting Dzhokhar be treated as an enemy combatant like a soldier captured in war. The move drew the ire of longtime McCain aide and speechwriter Mark Salter.

“My friend, Lindsey Graham, is wrong on this,” Salter posted on his Facebook page. “However unforgivable his crimes, he’s a US citizen, arrested on US soil, with, at this time, no known associations with foreign terrorist organizations at war with the U.S. To declare him an “enemy combatant,” and deny him his rights is un-American.”

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What do you all think, does the constitution only apply to some citizens or all?

Click below for the full article.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/boston-bombing-suspect-arrest-presents-intelligence-opportunity-legal-183858408.html

04.19.13
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ABC NEWS: Talk Begins of April 22 Online ‘Blackout’ in CISPA Protest

ht cispa law nt 130419 wblog Talk Begins of April 22 Online Blackout in CISPA Protest

No sooner had the House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act  (CISPA), on Thursday, than word began spreading of an online protest. Some are suggesting the protest take the form of a “blackout” – going offline for 24 hours, displaying censorship bars over content or  posting statements of opposition to Internet censorship — similar to last year’s opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

Supporters on Twitter have begun tweeting the hashtag #CISPABlackout to promote the proposed April 22 “blackout.”

Though proponents see the bill as a strong measure to fight cyber threats and better protect citizens, organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, The Internet Defense League and the Electronic Frontier Foundation oppose CISPA because of the jurisdiction it would provide for the federal government to procure personal information shared with private-sector entities such as Google or Facebook.

The original draft of CISPA first passed the House in 2012, but died in the Senate and was publicly opposed by the White House. “The administration strongly opposes [CISPA], in its current form,” Obama’s Office of Management and Budget said in a statement last year.

The office of the president hasn’t changed its tune for CISPA 2013 either, recently issuing a statement: “The administration still seeks additional improvements, and if the bill, as currently crafted, were presented to the president, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill.”

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Click below for the full article.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/04/talk-begins-of-april-22-online-blackout-in-cispa-protest/

04.19.13
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The Motley Fool: Obamacare and Sequestration Crush UnitedHealth

In this video, health-care analyst David Williamson discusses how Obamacare and sequestration are weighing on shares of insurer UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH) . David breaks the managed care company’s quarter into Clint Eastwood-inspired good, bad, and ugly segments, helping investors in UnitedHealth, and related stocks, to find out everything they need to know from this bellwether’s earnings, and what to expect going forward.

When President Obama was re-elected, shares of UnitedHealth and other health insurers fell immediately. Is Obamacare a death knell for health insurers, or is the market missing out on some of the opportunities the law presents? In this brand new premium report on UnitedHealth, The Motley Fool takes a long term view, honing in on prospects for UnitedHealth in a post-Obamacare world. So don’t miss out — simply click here now to claim your copy today.


Click below for the full article.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/04/19/obamacare-and-sequestration-crush-unitedhealth.aspx

04.19.13
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The Week: The insanity of blaming Islam

We are still speculating about virtually everything right now, but I feel as though I need to explain why I find the quick and easy conversation about Muslims being radicalized in America to be so illogical and laced with bigotry.

Of course, there is a global violent jihadist movement, loosely organized, that wants to recruit young men to influence policies at home and abroad and perhaps usher in the global caliphate. That ideology motivates some Muslims to kill innocent people.

But you’re allowed to be a radical Muslim in America. You’re allowed to believe that the Qu’ran proscribes the most elegant set of laws. You’re allowed to believe that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. And you can say, in America, pretty much anything you want. Not everything, and after 9/11, a little less, but you can still make very unpopular arguments.

So just for the sake of argument, let’s assume that the only factor that motivated these two brothers from Chechnya to set off bombs and kill police officers is their decision to accept some form of radical Islamic teachings as their foundational belief system. (I highly doubt this is the case, but let’s just throw it out there.)

We ask: “We have to look at the whole issue of radicalization. What prompts someone raised as an American to cause such carnage?”

That’s what Peter King, the Republican chair of the Homeland Security committee, asked. So he goes right to the religion; somehow, he slides very quickly past the possibility that something about America is radicalizing people of all sorts.

He commits the sin of essentialism.

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Click below for the full article.

http://theweek.com/article/index/243051/the-insanity-of-blaming-islam

 

04.19.13
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CNN: Uncle calls Boston Marathon bombers ‘losers,’ urges nephew to surrender

When asked what provoked the bombing suspects, the uncle stated: “Being losers, hatred to those who were able to settle themselves — these are the only reasons I can imagine.

“Anything else, anything else to do with religion, with Islam, is a fraud, is a fake,” Tsarni said.

“Somebody radicalized them, but it’s not my brother who just moved back to Russia, who spent his life bringing bread to their table, fixing cars. He didn’t have time or chance or anything, options. He’s been working,” Tsarni said.

Tsarni says he teaches his own children to love the United States because it gives a chance to everyone “to be treated as a human being.”

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Click below for the full article.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/19/us/marathon-suspects-uncle/index.html

 

04.19.13
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The Motley Fool: Warren Buffett Shows His Faith in Housing

When Warren Buffett declared that housing was on the rebound last summer, he immediately put his money where his mouth is. His company, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A )   (NYSE: BRK-B )  partnered with Brookfield Asset Management  (NYSE: BAM)  to create HomeServices of America last fall, which has been busily scooping up real estate brokerages — and recently revealed its new logo as the rebranded Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.

Gobbling up brokerages left and right The new entity is gearing up to be a national, full-service real estate company and has incorporated its formerly separate Prudential Real Estate and Real Living brands under the new umbrella. The complete unveiling of the new company will continue throughout this year.

Meanwhile, BHHS has been acquiring other real estate companies to extend its reach, adding to purchases it had made early last year of Prudential realty brokerages in Oregon and Georgia. So far this year, it has purchased a large brokerage in California, Guarantee Real Estate, based in Fresno, as well as Prudential Gaslight Realtors near Kansas City, Missouri, in January. The Guarantee acquisition added 400 agents to its base of 53,000, and the purchase of Prudential Georgia Realty in March added another 1,000 salespersons to the company’s roster.

Other housing bets Despite admitting being “dead wrong” about a quick turnaround in housing, Buffett knows that the sector won’t stay in the dumps forever. Berkshire’s portfolio holds other housing investments, such as Benjamin Moore paints, Shaw Carpet, and Acme Brick. Clayton Homes, a manufactured home company owned by Berkshire, saw production jump 13.5% last year over the previous year’s output.

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Click below for the full article.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/04/19/warren-buffett-shows-his-faith-in-housing.aspx

04.19.13
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CNN: One Bombing Suspect Dead; Other on the run

One suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings is dead. The other — his brother — was on the run Friday, pursued by an army of law enforcement officials whose manhunt virtually shut down the city.

A man identified by several sources as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died after an overnight shootout with police. He’s the man described Thursday by the FBI as black-capped Suspect No. 1 in the attacks Monday that killed three.

His brother, Dzhokar Tsarnaev, apparently escaped — leading police to throw a huge dragnet around the region. In photos released by the FBI of the bombing suspects, the younger brother is seen wearing a white cap. The agency called him Suspect No. 2.

Developments moved quickly:

— Police, often with guns drawn, continued to chase leads in pursuit of the surviving suspect. In Watertown, reporters were cordoned off and told to stay back.

— A Maryland man who said he was the suspects’ uncle told reporters the two men had brought shame on their family and all ethnic Chechens with the attacks, which he called an atrocity. “If you’re alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness,” Ruslan Tsarni urged his nephew.

— A former teacher at the high school Dzhokar Tsarnaev attended, who lives near Tsarnaev’s residence now, described the younger brother as “a wonderful kid” who seemed incapable of such violence.

— Wednesday, two days after the bombings, Dzhokar Tsarnaev apparently tweeted, “I’m a stress free kind of guy.” Early Tuesday, he tweeted, “There are people that know the truth but stay silent & there are people that speak the truth but we don’t hear them cuz they’re the minority.”

— Tamerlan Tsarnaev was wearing explosives and a triggering device when he died, a source briefed on the investigation told CNN’s Deborah Feyerick.

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Click below for the full article.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/19/us/boston-area-violence/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

04.18.13
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AP Poll: Trust in government, Obama approval slip

President Barack Obama’s re-election glow is gone. Congress’ reputation remains dismal. And only about one in five Americans say they trust the government to do what’s right most of the time, an Associated Press-GfK poll finds.

Most adults disapprove of Obama’s handling of the federal deficit, a festering national problem. But they also dislike key proposals to reduce deficit spending, including a slower growth in Social Security benefits and changes to Medicare.

Rounding out the portrait of a nation in a funk, the share of people saying the United States is heading in the wrong direction is at its highest since last August: 56 percent.

The government in Washington is “dealing with a lot of stuff that are non-issues,” said Jeremy Hammond, 33, of Queensbury, N.Y.

Hammond, a Web programmer and political independent, said Congress should focus on “the incredible debt and lack of spending control.” He said it’s absurd for Congress to force the Postal Service to continue Saturday mail delivery when the agency says “we can’t afford it.”

Hammond reflects the lukewarm feelings toward Obama found in the poll. Asked his opinion of the president, Hammond paused and said: “I don’t know. I voted for him in 2008, not in 2012.” When it comes to presidents, he said, “it’s one set of lawyers or the other.”

Click below for the full article.

http://news.yahoo.com/poll-trust-government-obama-approval-slip-164950163–politics.html

04.18.13
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Business Insider: Here’s What We Know About The Sad State Of Wall Street Now That Earnings Are All In

In the last week or so every Wall Street bank has reported its earnings, so now  it’s time for the takeaways.

As usual the headlines of the week didn’t tell the whole story.

A quick glance looks like this: JP  Morgan beat estimates with a 33%  jump in profits, Morgan  Stanley‘s profits dipped but the bank still  beat expectations, Goldman  Sachs is taking champagne  showers, Bank  of America is eeking  out some kind of improvement, and Citi  is finally coming into its own after shedding a load of toxic assets.

Now for the news you can read between the lines.

Sales and trading is on life support, especially if you trade fixed income,  currencies or commodities. The traders at Goldman Sachs did better than everyone  else, but as CNBC’s  John Carney pointed out, they were still down 7% for the quarter.

Bank of America’s S&T revenue fell 20% (run by Tom Montag, who still gets  paid more than BofA CEO Brian  Moynihan) and Morgan Stanley got killed, with its revenue falling 42%.

On the other hand, Wealth Management, once one of the most boring sectors on  The Street, is carrying banks. This is especially true at Morgan Stanley (where  the unit is up 48% from this time last year) and Bank of America, where  assets under management grew $67.7  billion year-over-year to $745.3 billion.

Another business where Wall Street is making some cash is in debt  underwriting. Thanks to our current low yield environment, companies that were  unable to issue bonds before can do so now. The demand to buy these bonds is  there from clients searching for yield any way they can get it. Wall Street is here to help.

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Click below for the full article.

http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-banks-q1-2013-earnings-2013-4