New Turkey constitution 'to curb military influence'

AFP - Turkey's new constitution will reduce the political influence of the once-powerful military in order to steer the EU-hopeful country more on the path of democracy, a parliamentary source said Friday.

The army, considered the self-appointed guardian of Turkish secularism, has intervened in politics since 1960 and has staged four coups. Since coming to power in 2002, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has taken steps to curb the power of the military.

"There is an agreement among the four parties who write the new charter. I think there will be no divergence on this subject because the objective is to achieve a civilian and more democratic constitution," the source said.

The four political parties represented in the 550-seat parliament have agreed to subordinate the army's top leadership, or General Staff, to the defence ministry in the new charter.

Under the existing constitution, drafted by the junta after the 1980 military takeover, the General Staff is directly tied to the prime ministry but is autonomous in exercising its legal powers and cannot be challenged by the defence ministry.

Hundreds of suspects, including army officers, are being tried over their alleged roles in plots to topple Erdogan's Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has undermined the army's prestige.

Despite their agreement to limit the army's influence, political parties have barely made progress on several other issues such as the definition of citizenship and rights granted to Turkey's Kurdish minority.

In case there is no agreement by April, Erdogan has warned that his ruling party, which has a strong majority in the parliament, will write a new text and put it to public vote.

Source: http://www.france24.com/en/20130222-new-turkey-constitution-curb-military-influence

leah messer

The Oddest Pairings of Senators By State

States can be fickle. Some years, a state's voters might go for a Republican for Senate. And in the next election, they may turn around and elect a Democrat. It can make for some truly disparate voting records among a state's Senators. But these "Odd Couple" pairings are volatile, and have a good chance of changing on any given year.

National Journal's?most recent rankings include three such pairs, some faced with dramatic breakups in the current Congress and ?the coming year.

1) Sens. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., topped the charts as the oddest bedfellows this year. Johnson was the fifth-most-conservative member of the Senate this year, while his Democratic counterpart Kohl was the 67th most conservative. But this couple is no more, as Kohl retired at the end of 2012. Wisconsin is still likely to rank among odd couples next year, as Kohl has been replaced by a liberal Democrat, Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

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2)?Sens. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and John Thune, R-S.D., rank second overall among divergent same-state Senate pairings. But rumors are swirling that Johnson may not seek another term and could retire in 2014. This could open the door to former Republican Gov. Mike Rounds to take the spot and end South Dakota's time on the Odd Couples list.

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3)?Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin's upcoming retirement in 2014 will end a true Odd-Couple power couple. Harkin took office in 1985 and has been a true liberal lion during his time in the upper chamber, while sitting beside Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who always ranks among its most conservative members (and has one of the best Twitter feeds around). Whether the seat stays in Democratic hands or goes Republican is very much up in the air.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oddest-pairings-senators-state-070008699--politics.html

david bowie

Despite Lingering Drought, USDA Predicts A Flood Of Grain

John Honeywell uses a grain drill to plant winter wheat near Orlando, Okla., on Sept. 12, 2012.

Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo

John Honeywell uses a grain drill to plant winter wheat near Orlando, Okla., on Sept. 12, 2012.

Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo

Economists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, gazing into their crystal ball, see American farmers planting and harvesting huge amounts of corn, soybeans, and wheat this year. They're predicting a record harvest of corn: 14 billion bushels, up nearly 40 percent over last year's drought-crippled level.

With supply up, prices will fall. The USDA thinks that the price of the average bushel of corn could fall by a third. And soybean production and price are expected to follow a similar track.

Of course, these predictions assume good weather. USDA Chief Economist Joseph Glauber admits that he predicted the same thing last year at this time, but a drought in the Midwest turned anticipated glut into scarcity. Grain prices went up, putting a major squeeze on farmers who raise pigs, chickens, and cattle.

This week, the weather appeared to be cooperating. As Glauber and his colleagues laid out their forecast in a Washington-area hotel, a storm was dumping more than a foot of snow on some of the places that needs it most, including Nebraska, Kansas, and South Dakota.

One storm won't bring things completely back to normal, though. Soil scientist Randall Miles, from the University of Missouri, says it will take at least two years of good rains to replenish moisture in the soil of many hard-hit areas, and crop yields this year still may suffer.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/02/22/172694212/despite-lingering-drought-usda-predicts-a-flood-of-grain?ft=1&f=1007

David Petraeus

Judy, Lenzi honored at Women in Business Conference ? Tri-Cities ...

Mike McWhorter, of Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce board (left) and (at right) Paula Linnen, the 2012 ATHENA Leadership award winner, presented Khris Judy of Randolph Construction Services with the 2013 ATHENA Leadership Award at the 2013 Women in Business Conference in January.

Khris Judy knows first-hand the struggles of being a woman in male-dominated industry.

Judy, president of Randolph Construction Services, and her sister bought out their father?s business and took it from a sheet metal business doing $3 million annual to a full service construction company that had $71 million in sales last year.

Despite her vast knowledge and experience in the industry, being a female project manager in the construction industry was always an uphill battle, Judy told a crowd of more than 230 women at the 2013 Tri-Cities Women in Business Conference. The one-day conference was held in January at TRAC Center in Pasco.

Judy said when she was in high school, her name was Khristie. That changed when she got into the construction industry.

?I hid behind a name,? Judy said, explaining that she would do everything in writing and always sign her name as ?Khris.? ?And it worked.?

It worked on paper, but, in person, she still faced blatant cases of discrimination and disrespect from male counterparts.

As a project manager on one job, Judy and one of her construction managers were at a site inspecting a problem that two engineers were disagreeing about. When the engineers, both male, came to a conclusion about how to fix the problem, they started talking to her male employee about it. He told them they would have to talk to ?his boss,? and motioned to Judy. They looked at her and continued to tell him about the possible solution.

?You learn to set pride aside,? Judy said. ?And sometimes, as women, we have to go about things a little differently. But that?s okay.?

As long as the job gets done correctly in the end, Judy said.

And her insistence on that goal is what has helped build Randolph?s reputation and business through the years. It?s also helped her gain the trust of her peers, she added.

Judy was just one of a lineup of inspirational and informative speakers at the conference, which was presented by the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The event included presentation of the ATHENA Leadership and the ATHENA Young Professional awards during the Network Tri-Cities Luncheon, which attracted 450 attendees. The keynote speaker for the event was Sharell Klaus, founder and CEO of Dry Soda.

Judy was presented with the ATHENA Leadership award at the luncheon and Jennifer Lenzi, of CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, was honored with the ATHENA Young Professional award.

?These awards reflect the countless contributions and what the women in our community give to improve the quality of life for others,? said Lori Mattson, president and CEO of the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce. ?Khris and Jennifer are both outstanding role models for others to emulate.?

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by Mary Hopkin
Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Tri-Cities News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.tricitiesbusinessnews.com/2013/02/judy-lenzi-honored-at-women-in-business-conference/

tiger woods masters 2012

Vegas shooting 'like something out of a movie'

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Police say a deadly car-to-car shooting and fiery crash at a major Las Vegas Strip intersection started with an argument in the valet area of the Aria resort.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie made the disclosure Thursday about the early morning incident that left three people dead and at least six injured. Police withheld the names citing the ongoing investigation.

Police are seeking a black Range Rover Sport that fled the scene at Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road.

The intersection is home to famous casinos including Bellagio, Caesars Palace and Bally's.

Authorities say at least one person in the Range Rover shot at a Maserati that then ran a red light and crashed into a taxi.

The taxi burst into flames, and the driver and passenger died. The driver of the Maserati also died, and his passenger was shot.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-hotel-altercation-sparked-vegas-shooting-182403826.html

la dodgers

Appsecute Offers Social Stream For DevOps To Manage Apps On Cloud Services

Appsecute launched last year with a platform that gave customers a single view across any platform as a service (PaaS). Today the company is showing a change in focus with an activity stream style service for developer and operations (DevOps) professionals to see across the multiple services that are used for application management.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/aqE7dkmP1J8/

daniel tosh

7 killed in mosque attack in Kenya's east

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) ? A Kenyan official says gunmen have opened fire at a mosque in Kenya's east, killing seven people.

Maalim Mohammed, the county commissioner of Kenya's Garissa county, said Thursday that about eight gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles shot at a mosque in the village of Malele near the Kenyan-Somali border.

Mohamed says the motive of the attack is not clear. The region has been a hotspot of attacks blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants from Somalia. Somalia's al-Shabab militants have vowed to carry out attacks on Kenyan soil in retaliation for Kenya's military push into Somalia in late 2011.

Thursday's attack comes less than two weeks before Kenya holds nationwide elections. There are fears al-Shabab-affiliated militants may try to disrupt the election with attacks.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-21-AF-Kenya-Violence/id-ae2f33ba2ae342488a804e6569c81e35

camille grammer