I am still working on the format of this blog/vlog. Finding the time to do it is difficult especially while I am visiting family in CA. I am finding somethings a little easier/quicker. I am also finding that I enjoy this more than even I initially hoped. So here we are with really my 2nd attempt. I am still leaning towards a combination Blog/Vlog with this written portion being posted on
kurtclement.com
#1 The Department of Defense with Secretary Leon Panetta. Secretray Panetta was at NATO headquarters and while there announced that 4 Aegis ships will be stationed in Southern Spain. He made the announcement along side the president of Spain Zapatero. I didn’t see the announcement anywhere else. I spent too much time researching this because I found it so interesting. The ships are primarily anti-missile ships. The Russian reaction was very negative. The Russians had hoped to eventually work out a deal with the US in regards to missile defense and felt that this move, along with previous moves of placing missile defense systems in other parts of Europe, like Poland, were not helpful. The Spanish people were completely taken by surprise. The president’s trip to NATO was a complete surprise and many questioned whether he could broker such a deal on his own. Some Spaniards question having over 1,000 troops in Spain, which will support the ships, is really in Spain’s best interest. Some believed that joining NATO would mean fewer US troops in Spain. I am generally not in favor of expanding US military reach. I would much rather see Spain spend its own money at the same time I think more cooperative relationships will strengthen US interest.
#2 The Department of Energy with Secretary Steven Chu announced along with a several other agencies that long haul electrical transmission lines would be built in seven separate projects. Now the governments role was to facilitate the private industries work. There were no loan guarantees with these projects. The key point was that the Obama administration was trying to show it could help companies get the permits and approvals to accelerate the process of building the long haul transmission lines. I have believed that the electrical grid was not getting enough attention. There is enough wind in some remote areas of the United States to supply the entire country with electrical power, but the storage and transportation of that electricity was a problem that had not been adequately addressed. I always thought this was a perfect role for a strong Federal government as long haul transmission lines cross state’s borders. I investigated one of the projects, Sun Zia. Now this project which will build lines from New Mexico to Arizona and possibly CA has been under work since 2008. They are still projecting that it will not be operational until 2014. Another interesting aspect is that although this project is not about generating electricity the Sun Zia project is specifically designed to transport Wind generated electricity from the remote mountains of New Mexico to larger populations. So it really is a renewable energy project. I am not a huge fan of wind generated electricity. It will be interesting to see if this project pans out. Some of the hurdles that the project has had to overcome is that the lines cross Department of Defense test areas and the Department of Defense does not like to have to watch out of things like transmission lines when it is training. That is just one of the many hurdles that need to be overcome.
#3 The FDA under Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebilius announced an overall plan to spur Biomedical inovation. One the proposals is a fellowship program where new and mid career scientist could work at the FDA to get experience working in the industry and working with the FDA. Part of the concern of the FDA is that during these high unemployment times there should not be open positions in biomedical.
#4 The Homeland Security Department under Secretary Janet Napalitano released its first ever National Preparedness Goal. The Goal is:
A secure and resilient Nation with the capabilities required across the whole community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk
There is a lot in this announcement including a 20 page PDF which I read in its entirety and the presidential directives that created demanded this work. Instead of going off on a tangent I will just list the parts of the work that go into meeting this goal
Preventing, avoiding, or stopping a threatened or an actual act of terrorism.
Protecting our citizens, residents, visitors, and assets against the greatest threats and hazards
in a manner that allows our interests, aspirations, and way of life to thrive.
Mitigating the loss of life and property by lessening the impact of future disasters.
Responding quickly to save lives, protect property and the environment, and meet basic
human needs in the aftermath of a catastrophic incident.
Recovering through a focus on the timely restoration, strengthening, and revitalization of
infrastructure, housing, and a sustainable economy, as well as the health, social, cultural,
historic, and environmental fabric of communities affected by a catastrophic incident.
I read references to an assessment risk document which would list the priorities and likelihood of some of these risks, but I could not find the actual document. I believe that it exists but they may not want to release it because it may state things like terrorism is not very likely and climate change is a bigger risk and that is political fodder for haters.
#5 Housing and Urban Development department under Sean Donovan announced more legal actions against those who are discriminating against families. I don’t know if it is just coincidence or not, but once again someone advertised on craigslist that they wanted to rent to someone who did not have kids. This weeks action was against a management company not an individual, so it was a little different. It is interesting that there were several of these actions recently, all to do with discriminating against families with kids. I have mixed feelings about this, but if the law says you can’t do that, then it should be enforced.
#6 The Interior Department under Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the grey wolf was coming off the endangered species list. This meant that the program to restore the gray wolf to a viable group was successful. The job of monitoring and managing the wolf population was now in the hands of the states that have those populations. This is significant good news.
#7 The US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak made a statement that congress should pass the 3 trade agreements that are in their hands. Those agreements are with Korea, Columbia, and Panama. This is pretty significant for agriculture as we are the best producer of agriculture products in the World. It will create billions of dollars in new trade. However I know why the trade agreements are being held up. The democrats want to include Trade Adjustment Assistance meaning that if a worker loses their job as it moves to the new country they would get assistance. Republicans want nothing to do with that. The trade agreements are supported by most industries as they hope to sell more to the countries although it is assumed that the other countries exports will grow more than the US exports. This is what we have seen in other free trade agreements.
#8 The State Department under Secretary Hilary Clinton held their daily press briefings which I find completely fascinating. Some of the reporters ask questions that the press secretary has to answer honestly that she hadn’t heard that or that for the feelings of another country they would have to ask them. Then this exchange occurred:
QUESTION: On Pakistan, please. I’m looking for State Department reaction on the Pakistan Government recommendation of treason charges against the doctor who is suspected of assisting the United States in targeting Usama bin Ladin.
MS. NULAND: I’m not going to have any comment on that issue.
QUESTION: Have there been conversations between the United States and Pakistan about the detention of the doctor?
MS. NULAND: I think I’m not going to have any comment on this set of issues at all.
QUESTION: Is there – is it – in a – like if we just widen it out, isn’t there a negative signal being possibly sent here that a person assisting the United States will not be supported or stood by?
MS. NULAND: Well, now you’re getting me into intelligence issues, which I’m certainly not going to talk about.
QUESTION: But aren’t you concerned about someone who should have been felicitated by – for helping nab one of the most – world’s deadliest terrorist, murderous people? He’s being now – been imprisoned and been charged with treason.
MS. NULAND: Again, I’m not going to have any comment on this issue at all.
QUESTION: But can you just say that – have there been any discussions in the past between the United States and Pakistan officials over the fate of this physician?
MS. NULAND: I’m not, from this podium, going to get into this set of issues at all.
Please.
It was obvious a difficult subject for the State department and rather than mislead the reporters she stuck with the department line that she was going to have no comment on the issue. This is an extreme contrast from other exchanges and that is what made it stick out so much. I don’t know what is going on with Pakistani relationships, but there is trouble there.
#9 Transportation Department secretary Ray La Hood announced that Nevada was the 9th state to outlaw banning hand held cellular devices. In some aspects I can be a libertarian. I am not fond of seatbelt and helmet laws even though they have been very successful and have saved lives. In AZ where it is still legal to text and drive I have seen a lot of drivers texting while driving. Usually they are driving a lot slower and meander in their lane. If I were a cop I would pull them over for driving dangerously regardless of the reason. Since AZ does not have a helmet law I do not know if we will ever see a texting law. It is gaining a lot of momentum.
#10 The Treasury department Secretary Timothy Geitner testified before the House Banking committee. I went to CSPAN archived video and was able to watch the whole exchange. The secretaries remarks that were posted on the the departments website was pretty much read by the secretary. It outlined somethings that the Secretary thought the committee should do and what changes were upcoming. The chairman of the committee really wanted to make a big deal out of the President’s remarks saying that the President didn’t think the Banks should be able to make a profit and that the solution to a lot of the problems was that there was too much regulation. The minority leader said that it is nice to be against regulations in general but he has yet to hear of a single specific regulation that they were against. The chairman asked the Secretary to give one example where the department needed more regulation and the secretary said that they needed a head of the Consumer Protection Agency to start enforcing and writing the regulations that were already passed into law. It was an interesting exchange.
#11 The department of Education under secretary Arni Duncan had some announcements that were pretty unimportant to the general public, but which lead me to look at somethings I didn’t know existed. The announcement that I started following was about the Gainful Employment Stats that were starting to be required. Now this is about student loans. Evidently educational institutions that accept student loans have to report how well the students are doing in their programs. How long it takes them to graduate, what percentage graduate, what amount do the students typically spend on graduating, and what employment occurs because of their program. It is a brand new reporting requirement that is very interesting and should be watched. While I was reading about these new student loan requirements I found other data that was interesting for example the single largest beneficiary of student loans is the University of Phoenix which got almost $4B from the student loan program and it makes up 80% of their revenue. Compare this to BYU which has about 10% of its students getting student loans. Other interesting data that I never knew existed.
#12 The Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder won a judgment against Wells Fargo. This was interesting because the judge ruled that Wells Fargo purchase some debt in order to realize losses and therefore decrease its tax burden. The judge ruled that there was no business purpose for the transaction other than to avoid paying taxes and that is not allowed. The tax avoided was $80M. So Wells Fargo purchased some assets for $3M and saved $80M in taxes. That is a pretty good deal, however it did not fly and Wells Fargo lost.
That is all I had time for this week. I will try and include Commerce, Labor, and Veteran affairs next week.