President Barack Obama walks to the pitcher’s mound before throwing a baseball during an unannounced stop to surprise members of the Northwest little league baseball teams at Friendship park in Washington, Monday, May 19, 2014.Image: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press President Obama will visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on Thursday to discuss the connection between tourism and jobs. Obama is the first sitting president to visit the Hall of Fame, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. “The fact that a sitting president has not visited here in our first 74-plus years, it was surprising to get the call, but exciting to realize that the chief executive would be delivering a speech on tourism from a place that thrives on it,” Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson said Tuesday. Each year, the baseball museum attracts about 300,000 visitors to upstate New York. In 2012, Obama launched a national travel and tourism strategy, aiming to attract 100 million international tourists each year by 2021. The White House says they are on track to meet that goal; international tourists increased from 55 million in 2009 to 70 million in 2013. That increase comes hand in hand with an economic boost — those 70 million tourists spent $180.7 billion, according to the White House. “When most people think of travel and tourism, they think of national parks,” said Jeff Zients, the director of the National Economic Council Jeff Zients. “They don’t think about jobs and growth, but that’s what tourism represents.” The White House has released a report, Increasing Tourism to Spur Economic Growth, that details the administration’s efforts to increase tourism, and highlights the economic benefits of doing so: Increasing Tourism to Spur Economic Growth “Tourism is America’s most important, and largest, services export: growth in international visitors has created roughly 175,000 American jobs over the past five years,” according to the White House. “Each overseas visitor spends on average $4,500 per visit, at American hotels, shops, restaurants, and other domestic businesses.” Obama will sign a presidential memorandum Thursday to expedite entry times for international travelers, beginning with the 15 largest airports in the U.S. The White House pointed to gains at the Dallas Fort Worth and Chicago O’Hare airports where streamlined processes have reduced wait times. The White House also boasted significant improvements in processing visas for international travelers. “The State Department issued 9.2 million visas in 2013, up 42% since 2010,” according to the White House. “Waiting periods for visas in important markets like Brazil and China have dropped from as high as several months to less than five days on average.” In addition to working on improving the travel experience in the U.S., the administration is working with BrandUSA to encourage travelers from abroad. The president is scheduled to tour the Hall of Fame at 3:25 pm Thursday, and to speak at 3:55 p.m. EST. Check the White House website for the live stream. Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/05/22/obama-baseball-hall-of-fame/
The firing squad execution chamber at the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah, taken on June 18, 2010.Image: Trent Nelson/Associated Press A botched execution in the state of Oklahoma on Tuesday has drawn criticism from the White House, infuriated the ACLU and — practically overnight — reignited the death penalty debate in America. Clayton Lockett, convicted of raping and murdering a 19-year-old girl, was due to be executed at the state penitentiary in McAlester, Okla., Tuesday night when things went shockingly awry. It began when Lockett was given a powerful anesthetic at 6:23 p.m. CDT, the New York Times reported, and was pronounced unconscious moments later. After a few minutes, Lockett reportedly tried to sit up in his chair, trembled, shook his foot, said “man, something’s wrong” and gasped, before officials closed the curtains to the execution chamber. Prison officials later said Lockett died of a heart attack about 40 minutes after a doctor administered the initial drug, and stated the botched execution was a result of a “vein failure” that had “burst.” A second execution scheduled for later Tuesday was postponed pending an investigation. Speaking from the White House on Wednesday, Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “We have a fundamental standard in this country that even when the death penalty is justified, it must be carried out humanely.” “I think everyone would recognize that this case fell short of that standard.” Gov. Mary Fallin (R.-Okla.) has promised to investigate the state’s lethal injection protocol. The brutal mishap has again put a spotlight on the morality of the death penalty and has called into question the cocktail of secret drugs administered to Lockett. Below, Mashable answers some basic questions about the death penalty and how the process of lethal injection is carried out. Which countries have the death penalty? The United States is one of 58 nations that still practices capital punishment, along with Ethiopia, Afghanistan and North Korea. Japan and India are the only other major democratic nations that carry out this form of punishment. Of the 198 countries recognized by the Death Penalty Information Center, 98 forbid capital punishment. Seven of those countries allow it only in the case of “exceptional crimes,” such as one committed under military law. Thirty-five others allow it for “ordinary” crimes such as murder, but have not carried out an execution in at least 10 years and “are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions,” according to the center’s website. In the map below, click “legend” in the top left corner to see what the colors designate. How many states in the U.S. have the death penalty? Capital punishment is still legal in 32 states. Maryland was the latest to outlaw the death penalty in 2013, though the ruling was not retroactive; the five inmates on death row there are still due to be executed. The same is true for Connecticut and New Mexico, which outlawed the death penalty in 2012 and 2009, respectively. Connecticut’s 11 death row prisoners and New Mexico’s […]
Image: Amazon Amazon drones aren’t taking off anytime soon — at least not until the Federal Aviation Administration says otherwise. On Monday, in a document inviting public comment on drone policy, the FAA clarified that delivering packages using a drone isn’t legal. The agency didn’t mention Amazon in the document specifically. But the FAA seemed to suggest that Amazon — like every other business — falls under its regulations which, they say, already prohibits the commercial use of drones. Amazon, though, was unmoved. This “has no effect on our plans,” said Paul Misener, Vice President of Global Public Policy for Amazon. “This is about hobbyists and model aircrafts, not Amazon.” In its “Notice of Interpretation with Request for Comment,” the FAA included a list of activities that are not permitted under current regulations, including “delivering packages to people for a fee,” as first noted by Ars Technica. In a footnote, the FAA clarified that even if the shipping is free or offered as part of a “purchase or other offer,” it still would be considered a commercial use of drones and thus not allowed. Brendan Schulman, a lawyer who specializes in drones, said the FAA is trying to reassert its authority by reiterating that these kinds of uses are not permitted. The legal status of drones in the U.S. is complicated. According to the FAA, only amateurs and people with a special FAA permission — a so-called Certificate of Authority — are legally permitted to fly drones, though that has been disputed. This spring, a federal Appeals Court judge ruled that FAA drone regulation isn’t valid since the agency didn’t ask for public comment when initially drafting the drone rules, which is a federal requirement. The FAA is appealing the ruling and, in the meantime, insists that no commercial use of drones is allowed. The agency is supposed to publish new rules on drones by 2015, and developers are in a race to be ready with products for what is believed will be a multi-billion dollar market. In the meantime, it has allowed some universities, research organizations and law-enforcement agencies to use drones in a limited way. On June 10, the FAA announced that BP had permission to fly drones, the first time a company was granted permission to fly a drone over American land. BONUS: Drones vs. Government: Who Owns America’s Skies? Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/06/24/faa-amazon-drones-2/
Pakistani villagers wade through water to find safe shelters in Pindi Bhatian, 105 kilometers (65 miles) northeast of Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, Sept. 8, 2014.Image: K.M. Chaudary/Associated Press Extreme rainfall associated with the seasonal South Asian Monsoon caused rivers to overflow their banks over the weekend in northwest India and parts of Pakistan, killing more than 320 people and displacing tens of thousands from the Himalayan region of Kashmir and eastern Pakistan. The floods have not been as deadly as 2010 floods in a similar area. But the rainfall amounts were comparable, according to scientists. The 2010 floods, which killed about 2,000 and displaced nearly 20 million, were focused on the Indus River. The current flooding is in that river’s tributaries, including the Chenab and Jhelum Rivers. They have become so swollen that their expansion is visible from satellites orbiting the Earth. Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, received a staggering 12 inches of rain in 24 hours on Friday — up to four times higher than the city typically sees during the entire month of September, according to meteorologist Brendan Miller of CNN. Before/after from #PakistanFloods where Chenab & Jhelum Rivers have swelled to over 10km wide. Will flow into Indus pic.twitter.com/ZSGVhHaRaA — Brandon Miller (@BrandonCNN) September 8, 2014 The conflict-ridden region of Kashmir was hardest hit, as several days of downpours wiped out homes and transportation links. Qadirabad, Pakistan records 2nd highest river discharge y’day- over 900k cusecs. Records back to 1947 #PakistanFloods pic.twitter.com/5urPrYhhNt — Brandon Miller (@BrandonCNN) September 8, 2014 The flooding in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir is said to be the worst in at least 60 years, with communication lines cut along with electricity and strategic bridge crossings. In both Pakistan and India, soldiers were aiding civilian rescue operations Monday. Meanwhile in Pakistan, the Chenab and Indus rivers were still rising, which was expected to lead to more flooding. Post by ADGPI – Indian Army. The Kashmir region in the northern Himalayas is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both. Two of the three wars the countries have fought since their independence from Britain in 1947 have been over control of Kashmir. 7-day rainfall amounts estimated by NASA’s TRMM satellite, with the area of flooding circled. On Sunday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a letter to his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, offering India’s help in relief efforts to the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir. Sharif issued a statement of his own, saying Pakistan is “ready to help in whatever way possible” in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Modi called the flooding a “national disaster;” he promised the state an additional 10 billion rupees (nearly $170 million) for aid and compensation for those affected. In India’s portion of Kashmir, more than 5,200 people have been rescued, said O.P. Singh, director of India’s National Disaster Response Force. Blankets, medicine and food were being supplied to people stranded on rooftops, he said, as most parts of Srinagar, the region’s main city, were submerged. A map shows the Kashmir Valley. Image: Wikimedia/Opus88888 […]
