Latest Update: 2014

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

10 Cities with Booming Job Growth

Some 288,000 new jobs were added last month, but the labor markets in some U.S. cities have recovered from the recession better than others because of factors specific to their local economies.

Ten cities in particular have captured a larger share of the total jobs added in the U.S., according to a new study by CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists.

SLIDESHOW: 10 Cities With Booming Job Growth

The study looked at what should have been the total job growth in the 50 most populous metro areas between 2010 and 2013, based on the total job growth in the country. Then it looked at the actual job growth in each of these cities. By calculating the difference between these two measurements, it found what it calls the competitive effect – which indicates how much each city has exceeded, matched or fallen behind national job growth trends due to specific dynamics in local industries.

For example, based on 4 percent employment growth in the U.S. from 2010 to 2013, Houston would have been expected to add 142,378 jobs – but it actually added 250,607 jobs. The addition of 108,229 jobs was due to regional growth trends that helped the city to outpace the national growth average.

Other cities that had a strong competitive effect in their local job growth between 2010 and 2013 include Austin, Riverdale (CA), and surprisingly, Detroit.

“The metros producing the strongest competitive effect are often heavily dominated by specialized technical industries with well-established local supply chains,” said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder in a press release.

“The overall job growth in these markets is not primarily a product of national economic trends, but rather distinct factors in the local economy such as energy resources in Houston, technology hubs in Silicon Valley and Austin, or the motion picture industry in Los Angeles.”

Meanwhile, cities that trail national job growth trends include New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.

One Thing Americans Should Know About Iraq

What do Americans know about Iraq? The answer, I think, begins -- and pretty much ends -- with the conviction that Iraq is a country riven by sectarian hatred, which defines every aspect of daily life.

Sectarianism is clearly stoking the current violence, yet, to ignore that not too long ago, Iraq was a secular country with a solid middle class, or that the unrest we're seeing now includes elements of a popular uprising against an unpopular government, or that oil is central to any conflict there, or that class differences, political affiliations, geography and gender are also sources of tension -- is willful and convenient myopia.

Someone I know likes to (probably mis)quote the late folksinger U. Utah Phillips that the most radical act in America is a long memory. But memory doesn't have to be very long to recall the U.S.'s role in all of this. Yes, religious and ethnic tension were there long before the we arrived with our tanks of liberation; we didn't create today's divisions, but we sure did exacerbate them.

My grandmother was fond of saying, "You could live if they'd let you." The United States has not let Iraqis live in peace or security or dignity since it bombed Baghdad in 1991, then imposed economic sanctions, and then sustained a military occupation, leaving behind a shattered infrastructure, a corrupt and despotic central government, and now a refugee crisis of an unmanageable scope.

It would be hard to come up with a better blueprint for a house divided than the
de-Baathification policies and sectarian-ethnic quotas instituted after the invasion by America's proconsul Paul Bremer and crew following the invasion. (In case you're wondering what Bremer's doing these days, like his former boss, he has taken up painting.)

And it has continued. In a recent statement urging the U.S. government not to resort to another doomed military response, Iraq Veterans Against the War -- people who know whereof they speak -- wrote, "[Iraq's] economic infrastructure was destroyed and new work to repair it has been awarded to US corporations and contractors, instead of to Iraqis. Iraqi labor unions face frequent retaliation, and an entire generation of children has been born with severe birth defects in places like Hawija."

The sectarianism blowing up in our face now is the inevitable result. It's a version of what's known as blowback in political circles, the law of unintended consequences in others. As Chalmers Johnson pointed out, it's a characteristic of blowback that the causes are buried or erased from memory, so that when the effects surface, we're startled, as if our actions had nothing to do with it. But the consequences of our actions in Iraq were plain as porridge to anyone who cared to look.

Okay, so it's 10 years later and Iraq is splintering, probably regardless of what the U.S. does. Does it matter who screwed the pooch? Yes, for a number of reasons, and the sweetness of saying, "I told you so," is the least of them.

As I watch my government's response -- 300 advisers, 200 troops, 250 more with Apache helicopters, $5 billion to fight "emerging threats" -- all I can picture is a ragtag band (of soldiers? politicians?) pipping a sprightly tune on a fife as they march backwards, still caked with mud from their last foray into that swamp. Americans are tired of war, public opinion polls tell us, but for anyone involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom, no matter what they thought of it, the sense of futility right now must be overwhelming. (I was taking to a veteran of the Iraq occupation and, with my usual understatement, said, "You must be 20 times more frustrated than I am." "Well, maybe not 20," she replied.) So there's the possibility that acknowledging our misdeeds will keep us from doing the same, dumb things again -- at least not right away.

As an immediate and practical matter, identifying the origins of the problem could lead to better solutions than sending advisers, drones, and military support to "moderate" opposition forces in Syria. (Now there's an interesting job description.) We could begin, for instance, by supporting the civil society organizations in Iraq that have been working to counter sectarian agendas. They exist (more on that in another post), and those who champion secularism and human rights are particularly vulnerable now. We could make reparations to rebuild the country and help heal the health and environmental depredation created by the years of war and bad government. We could even stand by our purported belief in self-determination by letting the Iraqis figure out how to govern themselves.

I confess to getting confused at times about who are supposed to be the good or bad guys in all this. Worse, I worry that whomever is controlling the U.S. response isn't all that clear either. For Outspoken, my last book, I interviewed Rick Nuccio, a diplomat who was persecuted for disclosing secret information about government misconduct in Guatemala. With a mix of irony and sympathy, he noted that when political allegiances shifted, as they often did, and once-valued sources became persona non grata, undercover agents found it difficult to adjust. Of the CIA, he said, "I don't mean to portray them as dumb, but I do mean to portray them as arrogant."

Which is another reason why acknowledging our responsibility matters: When you combine arrogance with the power to impose your will on others, you get corruption. One final quotation, this one from the Israeli novelist, David Goodman, writing about his country: "I could not understand how an entire nation like mine, an enlightened nation by all accounts, is able to train itself to live as a conqueror without making its own life wretched."

So I lied. The one thing Americans need to know is not about Iraq, but about ourselves.

Nigerian Women Abducted By Islamist Militants Escape Over Weekend

Maiduguri, Nigeria is the birthplace of Islamist militant group Boko Haram. While it has had recent success in keeping insurgents outside the city, locals say that beyond the security cordon, Boko's menace remains. WSJ's Patrick McGroarty reports.

ABUJA, Nigeria—At least 63 Nigerian women and girls abducted by Islamist militants last month escaped over the weekend, local vigilante leaders said, offering a rare bit of good news for a region reeling from a spate of kidnappings and attacks.

Militants had abducted the women from near the town in Nigeria's lawless northeast where 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped in April. That larger kidnapping in Chibok sparked global outrage at both the brutality of the Islamic militant sect known as Boko Haram and the Nigerian government's ineffectual response to the insurgency.

The captives who have escaped so far have done so on their own, without help from the military.

The women and girls fled on Sunday after their captors didn't return from an attack on a military and police barracks, said Abb Aji Khali, a local leader of the armed groups that have fought Boko Haram.

A member of the #BringBackOurGirls Abuja campaign group raises her fist during a sit-in protest, a day ahead of the 80th day of the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls, at the Unity fountain in Abuja Wednesday. Reuters

Fifty militants and six military personnel died in that battle on Friday in the village of Damboa, said Nigerian military spokesman Chris Olukolade.

The captives who escaped on Sunday were abducted in late June and are believed to range in age from school girls to mid-20s.

Their capture was separate from the April kidnapping of 276 school girls, aged 12-15, from their boarding school in the neighboring village of Chibok. Although some of those girls have also managed to escape, more than 200 of them are believed to remain captives of Boko Haram.

President Goodluck Jonathan has said he has launched an unprecedented effort to find the girls, enlisting intelligence assistance from the U.S., U.K. and China. But there has been little visible headway toward a rescue or negotiated release.

More on Nigeria

Islamist Militants Abducted About 90 Villagers (6/24/14)
Boko Haram Kidnaps More Girls in Nigeria(6/9/14)
Nigerian Militant Makes a Name for Himself Through Terror (5/13/14)
Nigerian President Vows 'End' to Boko Haram Militants (5/8/14)
Parents Tormented by Stumbling Search for Girls (5/8/14)

"He has help from all over the world. Why have we not seen some action?" said Pogu Alahamndu, a Chibok native whose stepsister was taken with her classmates in April. "Some of these girls might be pregnant. They might be dead. Only God knows."

Nigeria's government and soldiers "are doing all they can to ensure the girls are rescued alive," said Mr. Olukolade, the military spokesman.

"We are exploring all possible options and we seek support from anybody and everybody willing to help," he said.

But Mohammed Zakariya, an official at the governor's office in Borno, the state that surrounds Chibok and that has been the center of Boko Haram's insurgency, said he saw no sign the military and their foreign partners were making headway against the group.

"We need help. So far we have not seen it," despite the assurances from Nigeria and its foreign partners, Mr. Zakariya said. "They have not found these girls. They have not stopped this thing, Boko Haram."

On June 25, a car bomb was detonated outside an upscale shopping center in the capital Abuja, killing 21 people. A truck bomb detonated on Tuesday in Maiduguri, the biggest city in the northeast, killed at least 17 people. Local officials suspect Boko Haram, which aims to establish a strict Islamic state, was responsible for the bombs.

At a news conference on Wednesday, a group that helped draw attention to the kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls decried "the frightening silence from our government on the rescue operation."

"What we have seen, however, is the escalation of persistent attacks on Nigerians with more mass killings, more abductions and mass destruction of property in Chibok, surrounding villages and the rest of the country," said Maryam Uwais, a leader of the group.

Suspected Boko Haram Islamists kill 7 in northeast Nigeria

Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Suspected Boko Haram Islamists disguised in army uniforms killed seven people in an attack near the northeastern border with Cameroon, residents said Monday.

The gunmen, five of whom were also killed, razed a police station and a military camp during the late Sunday attack in the restive region, which has been among the hardest hit areas during Boko Haram's five-year uprising.

"The gunmen split into three groups and launched simultaneous attacks on the military camp, the police station and other buildings in the village," said Abor Grema, a resident of the targeted Krenuwa village in Marte district.

Marte was one of the areas in Borno state where Boko Haram chased out the government last year, forcing President Goodluck Jonathan to declare a state of emergency in the region while launching a military offensive to crush the uprising.

Six residents were shot dead during Sunday's raid, while a member of a local vigilante force which has formed to help the military was also killed, said Grema.

His account was supported by other witnesses including Musa Bulama, who said the gunmen torched homes, a police station, a military camp, homes and shops.

"Five of (the Islamists) were killed and five others were captured," during fierce gun battles that followed the raid, according to Bulama.

A vigilante was "dragged from his home and slaughtered... on the streets" by extremists who returned to Krenuwa later in the night to seek revenge against locals who had fought with the military.

Six soldiers died in various troops' encounters with militants at the weekend in the region, the military said on Monday in an official statement.

"A total of six soldiers were lost in the various encounters with terrorists during the weekend while those wounded are receiving treatment," said the statement.

Escalating violence along the border and Boko Haram attacks within Cameroon have led to calls for a more coordinated regional effort against the insurgents.

Nigeria has long said that Boko Haram fighters flee across Cameroon's porous borders to evade capture after carrying out attacks.

The latest unrest in the region came after the escape of 63 women and girls kidnapped by the Islamists in June in Damboa, reportedly while their captors were battling the security forces.

The military claimed that it killed 53 Islamist rebels during the Friday clashes.

The 219 girls seized by Boko Haram from a secondary school in April are still missing.

Nigeria: Soldiers repel attack on military base

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — At least 50 alleged insurgents were killed during clashes with Nigerian soldiers as security forces repelled an attack on a military base in the northeastern state of Borno, the Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

Six soldiers, including the commanding officer, died in the assault on Friday on the base and a nearby police station in the town of Damboa, a statement from Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade said.

The daring move appeared to be a reprisal attack after a punishing air raid 24 hours earlier caused Boko Haram Islamic extremists to suffer heavy casualties, according to an officer who requested anonymity because he is not allowed to give information to reporters.

Modu Gwasha, member of a civilian defense group that fought alongside the soldiers, alleged that Boko Haram extremists burned several military vehicles during the assault, including two tanks. He added that he saw the corpses of at least 10 soldiers and five police officers.

Security forces have recently come under fire from some Nigerians who accuse the government of doing nothing to curb the increase in violence. Previous attacks on military bases in the northeast have sent soldiers fleeing for safety.

Boko Haram attracted international condemnation for its April abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls, and the Nigerian military and government have been criticized for their failure to rescue the girls taken from Chibok town.

The Kibaku Area Development Association, a local residents' association, on Friday called for the United Nations to protect the people of Chibok and the wider region, where it says 19 villages have fallen under siege since the April 15 mass abduction, with over 229 people killed during that period.

"Security and defense is mainly provided by the local vigilante (who are ill-equipped) and the police while the soldiers in Chibok sit by and watch villagers being helplessly massacred in their homes, farms and in places of worship," the association said in a statement.

In 90 percent of cases, there had been advance warning of attacks, the group added, and yet the military has taken no action.

More than 2,000 people have died so far this year in the 5-year-old Islamic uprising, compared to an estimated 3,600 in the four previous years.

Latest Update 63 abducted females escape extremists in Nigeria

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — More than 60 Nigerian girls and women abducted two weeks ago by Islamic extremists have managed to escape, officials said Monday, though more than 200 girls kidnapped in April still remain missing.

Nigerian security forces and federal officials have denied reports of a mass abduction June 22 from three villages in the northeastern state of Borno. But Chibok government chairman Pogu Bitrus said Monday he had verified that about 60 women and girls escaped last week by sending a representative to meet with some of the escapees and their families at a hospital in Lassa.

Civil patrol leader Abbas Gava in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, said he was told 63 women and girls escaped Friday while their captors were engaged in a major attack on a military barracks and police headquarters in the town of Damboa.

The Associated Press had originally quoted witnesses and a local official saying that 90 people including about 30 boys had been kidnapped from the three villages on June 22. But Bitrus said those who escaped said no males were abducted with them.

Boko Haram extremists have been waging an insurgency for five years in northern Nigeria, demanding the establishment of an Islamic state. More than 2,000 people have died so far this year in the Islamic uprising, compared to an estimated 3,600 total deaths in the previous four years.

The group drew international condemnation for the April 15 abductions of more than 200 schoolgirls from a school in Chibok in the northern state of Borno. First reports put the number at more than 300, but a presidential committee said last month that there were 395 students at the school — 119 who escaped during the siege of the school and 57 who escaped in the first couple of days of their abduction, leaving 219 unaccounted for.

Boko Haram is demanding the release of detained fighters in exchange for the Chibok girls but Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan reportedly has refused to consider a prisoner swap.

On Monday, government spokesman Mike Omeri told reporters the government still does not know anything about the latest mass abduction and escapes. He also said investigators were progressing in the April Chibok kidnappings case.

"We are moving closer to finding them, at least we have identified a number of leads," he told reporters.

That statement could not immediately be reconciled with one made weeks ago by Nigeria's top-ranking soldier, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, who said the government knew where the girls are being held but feared that any military campaign to rescue them could endanger their lives.

Bitrus said attacks have increased around Chibok and that Boko Haram has taken over some villages and is threatening to capture others. A local group, the Kibaku Area Development Association, says 19 villages have been attacked since the April 15 abductions, with more than 229 people killed and about 100 seriously wounded.

The vast majority of the cases have had advance warning of the attacks — as happened in the Chibok kidnappings — yet the military had taken no action, the association said.

"Security and defense is mainly provided by the local vigilante and the police while the soldiers in Chibok sit by and watch villagers being helplessly massacred in their homes, farms and in places of worship," the association said, demanding help from the United Nations.

Nigeria's military has reported some successes in recent days. Soldiers killed at least 50 insurgents and lost five troops and their commander when they repulsed an attack by hundreds of Boko Haram fighters on a military base in Damboa, the Defense Ministry said Sunday.

It is impossible to verify reports from an area were Boko Haram is carrying out near-daily attacks.

Argentine keeper Caballero joins Man City

Manchester (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Argentinian goalkeeper Willy Caballero has signed for Manchester City from Malaga on a three-year contract, the Premier League champions confirmed on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old has moved for an undisclosed fee in a switch that sees him team up again with City manger Manuel Pellegrini.

Cabellero played under Pellegrini when the Chilean was in charge of Malaga from 2010-2013.

Caballero began his career with Boca Juniors in his homeland before signing for Spanish club Elche in 2004.

He headed for Malaga in 2011 and was named La Liga keeper of the season for 2012-13, Pellegrini's last with the Spanish club.

City had been looking for a new goalkeeper to provide back-up for first-choice stopper Joe Hart following Costel Pantilimon's release at the end of last season.

Dutch royal couple divided over World Cup semifinal?

For complete World Cup 2014 coverage visit Yahoo Sports and follow @YahooSoccer

While international soccer in many ways unites the world, it can also be very divisive. National and club loyalties can create temporary (or sometimes lasting) rifts between friends, family, and apparently even members of royalty. Wednesday’s World Cup semifinal between Argentina and theNetherlands looks to be no exception, particularly for the Dutch royal family.

The potential for disharmony in the House of Orange looms large between Netherlands King Willem-Alexander and his wife, Queen Maxima, who was born in, wait for it . . . Argentina.

So far, Maxima, who was raised in Buenos Aires but is a naturalized Dutchwoman, has been publicly very supportive of the Netherlands World Cup team. Earlier in the tournament she flew to Porto Alegre with her husband to watch the Oranje’s group stage clash with Australia. After the hard fought Dutch victory, the King and Queen visited the team in the changing rooms to offer congratulations to the players and coach Louis van Gaal.

Police: Officer who killed family had raped wife

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah police officer who killed his wife, their two children, his mother-in-law and then himself received text messages from his wife just hours earlier threatening to leave him and take their kids and confronting him for raping her, new documents show.

A Spanish Fork Police report shows Joshua Boren and his wife exchanged heated texts the night and morning before the January killings.

In them, Kelly Boren confronted her husband about raping her and told him their marriage was over, The Deseret News reported (http://bit.ly/1oC8lWG ). The couple already had been separated for some time.

Joshua Boren's therapist told authorities that Boren drugged his wife and videotaped himself sexually assaulting her on more than one occasion.

Kelly Boren learned of the assaults when she discovered the tapes in 2013, said Spanish Fork Police Lt. Matt Johnson. She told a few friends, but she did not report the assaults to police because she didn't want to ruin her husband's law enforcement career, the report says.

The night before she was killed, Kelly Boren brought up the alleged sexual assault again, texting the word "rape" to her husband four times, the documents show. "I hate my life because (of) you," she texted. "You killed a part of me."

She wrote in another text: "I don't want to live in fear and hate and anger."

The next morning, Kelly Boren told her husband she would take the kids, prompting Joshua Boren to reply by text: "Don't involve the kids, they are innocent."

The police report says Joshua Boren was sexually abused as a child, struggled with drug addiction as a young man and pornography addiction throughout his life, and had a deep-rooted hatred for his mother.

After his father committed suicide when he was 5, Joshua Boren's mother began using drugs and seeing several men, the report states. One of those men allegedly abused Joshua Boren, and he blamed his mother for not protecting him, his sister told police.

The therapist told police Boren was like a "3-year-old boy stuck in a big man's body."

"Josh was a very troubled individual that felt like he was about to lose his wife and children," police wrote in the report.

Joshua Boren had worked for the Lindon Police Department for only three months when the murder-suicide occurred. Before that, he was a Utah County sheriff's deputy for seven years, Johnson said.

He used the service weapon he was given for his duties as a Lindon police officer when he killed his family members and himself, authorities said. Toxicology reports from the autopsy show he had no drugs or alcohol in his system.

Police said the state medical examiner confirmed what investigators believed: Joshua Boren shot his wife, 32-year-old Kelly Boren; his 55-year-old mother-in-law, Marie King; and his two children, 7-year-old Joshua "Jaden" and 5-year-old Haley, before killing himself.

The shooting happened at the family's home in Spanish Fork, a city of about 37,000 located 50 miles south of Salt Lake City. The events stunned the community, as well as friends and family, said Johnson, who added investigators didn't find anybody who suspected Joshua Boren was capable of such an act.

Though Joshua Boren wasn't living at the house, friends and family said he still came every morning to get the kids ready for school and preschool, Johnson said. He also picked them up every afternoon.

"He was praised as being an excellent father," Johnson said.

Latest Update newsChina thinks it can defeat America in battle

The bad news first. The People's Republic of China now believes it can successfully prevent the United States from intervening in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan or some other military assault by Beijing.

Now the good news. China is wrong — and for one major reason. It apparently disregards the decisive power of America's nuclear-powered submarines.

Moreover, for economic and demographic reasons Beijing has a narrow historical window in which to use its military to alter the world's power structure. If China doesn't make a major military move in the next couple decades, it probably never will.

The U.S. Navy's submarines — the unsung main defenders of the current world order — must hold the line against China for another 20 years. After that, America can declare a sort of quiet victory in the increasingly chilly Cold War with China.

How China wins

The bad news came from Lee Fuell, from the U.S. Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center, during Fuell's testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commissionin Washington, D.C. on Jan. 30.

For years, Chinese military planning assumed that any attack by the People's Liberation Army on Taiwan or a disputed island would have to begin with a Pearl Harbor-style preemptive missile strike by China against U.S. forces in Japan and Guam. The PLA was so afraid of overwhelming American intervention that it genuinely believed it could not win unless the Americans were removed from the battlefield before the main campaign even began.

A preemptive strike was, needless to say, a highly risky proposition. If it worked, the PLA just might secure enough space and time to defeat defending troops, seize territory, and position itself for a favorable post-war settlement.

But if China failed to disable American forces with a surprise attack, Beijing could find itself fighting a full-scale war on at least two fronts: against the country it was invading plus the full might of U.S. Pacific Command, fully mobilized and probably strongly backed by the rest of the world.

That was then. But after two decades of sustained military modernization, the Chinese military has fundamentally changed its strategy in just the last year or so. According to Fuell, recent writings by PLA officers indicate "a growing confidence within the PLA that they can more-readily withstand U.S. involvement."

The preemptive strike is off the table — and with it, the risk of a full-scale American counterattack. Instead, Beijing believes it can attack Taiwan or another neighbor while also bloodlessly deterring U.S. intervention. It would do so by deploying such overwhelmingly strong military forces — ballistic missiles, aircraft carriers, jet fighters, and the like — that Washington dare not get involved.

The knock-on effects of deterring America could be world-changing. "Backing away from our commitments to protect Taiwan, Japan, or the Philippines would be tantamount to ceding East Asia to China's domination," Roger Cliff, a fellow at the Atlantic Council, said at the same U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission hearing on Jan. 30.

Worse, the world's liberal economic order — and indeed, the whole notion of democracy — could suffer irreparable harm. "The United States has both a moral and a material interest in a world in which democratic nations can survive and thrive," Cliff asserted.

Fortunately for that liberal order, America possesses by far the world's most powerful submarine force — one poised to quickly sink any Chinese invasion fleet. In announcing its readiness to hold off the U.S. military, the PLA seems to have ignored Washington's huge undersea advantage.

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Tuesday, 8 July 2014

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