Domestic Manufacturing Improves - www.theguardian.com

US manufacturing expands at fastest rate since July 2011

Institute of Supply Management poll better than forecast, although concerns remain over Fed's quantitative easing plans

• Dominic Rushe in New York

Transportation was one of the industries that reported growth in August. Photo: Andy Clark/ Reuters

US manufacturing expanded in August at the fastest pace since June 2011, according to a closely watched poll of the sector.

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded for the third consecutive month, according to the Institute of Supply Management (ISM). The ISM poll of purchasing managers rose to 55.7% from 55.4% in July – readings above 50% indicate growth in the manufacturing sector.

The poll was better than forecast and comes before the latest monthly job figures are released by the Labor Department on Friday. Of the 18 manufacturing industries measured by the ISM, 15 reported growth – including textile mills, food and beverage, computer and electronic products and transportation equipment. Only one industry, miscellaneous manufacturing, reported contraction in August.

However, respondents to the survey remained cautious, one calling improvements "slight" in a remark quoted by ISM. "Tight government spending still affecting business," reported one transportation equipment executive. "Military slowdown affecting business," said a computer and electronics executive.

The ISM report comes amid concerns about the Federal Reserve's plans to pull back on quantitative easing, its $85bn-a-month bond-buying programme aimed at encouraging investment.

"Following any economic report these days, all roads lead to the effect, or lack thereof, on Fed asset purchases. So in that regard, today's report does nothing to dissuade the Fed from pulling back on purchases. As for the broader economic impact, today's report is entirely consistent with the moderate expansion we've been experiencing," Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at broker BTIG, wrote in a note to investors.

The next big test of the strength of the US economy comes on Friday, with the release of the latest non-farm payroll report. US employers slowed the pace of hiring in July, adding 162,000 new jobs – down from 188,000 in June. But the unemployment rate continued to fall, reaching 7.4%, its lowest level in more than four years.

Dreamchaser - CNN.com

'Never, ever give up': Diana Nyad completes historic Cuba-to-Florida swim

By Matt Sloane and Jason Hanna, CNN

updated 4:59 PM EDT, Mon September 2, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: "You are never too old to chase your dreams," Nyad says after 53-hour swim
• She becomes first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without shark cage
• This was Nyad's fifth and final attempt to make 103-mile swim

Key West, Florida (CNN) -- If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try, try, try again.

That's the message from 64-year-old endurance swimmer Diana Nyad, who achieved her lifelong goal of conquering the Straits of Florida.

On Monday, she became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a protective cage, willing her way to a Key West beach just before 2 p.m. ET, nearly 53 hours after jumping into the ocean in Havana for her fifth try in 35 years.

Nyad pumped her fist as she walked onto the beach toward an awaiting medic before being guided to an ambulance.

"I got three messages," an exhausted and happy Nyad told reporters.

"One is we should never ever give up. Two is you never are too old to chase your dreams. Three is it looks like a solitary sport, but it's a team," she said.

Dozens of onlookers -- some in kayaks and boats, many others wading in the water or standing on shore -- gathered to cheer her on as she finished the more-than-100-mile swim.

It was a long-awaited triumph for Nyad, who was making her fifth attempt since 1978 and her fourth since turning 60.

The first four tries were marked by gut-wrenching setbacks; if the rough, strength-sapping seas didn't force her to quit, an hours-long asthma attack or paralyzing and excruciating jellyfish stings did.

But for this swim, besides donning a suit meant to protect her against her jellyfish nemesis, she wore a special mask to prevent jellyfish stings to her tongue, a key factor in her failed attempt last year.

She and her support team didn't encounter many jellyfish this time. But she had plenty of other challenges, and with roughly 2.5 miles left to go, she paused in the water to thank her crew.

"This is a lifelong dream of mine, and I'm very, very glad to be with you," she said late Monday morning, treading water as she spoke to her team on the five boats gathered around her, according to the team's website.

"You pulled through; you are pros and have a great heart. So let's get going so we can have a whopping party," she said, according to the website.

Nyad's age was one of the intriguing aspects of her latest attempts. Nyad, who was 29 when she first tried, said last week that she wanted to show that "you can dream at any age."

"This time, I am 64. So, the years of my life are shorter to the end," she said at a news conference in Havana on Friday. "So this time I am, all the way across ... going to think about all those life lessons that came up during the swim."

Fatigue almost seemed poised to derail her again early Monday.

About 7:30 a.m. ET, she was slurring her speech because of a swollen tongue and lips, her support team reported on its website.

As the team called her around dawn for her first feeding since midnight, she took longer than normal to reach the support boat, the report said.

Divers swam ahead of her, collecting jellyfish and moving them out of Nyad's path.

Swimmer's challenge: Cross 103 miles of shark-infested water

When instructed Monday morning to follow the path that's been cleared for her, she flashed her sense of humor, replying, "I've never been able to follow it in my life," according to the website.

Nyad's home stretch followed an overnight in which she became so cold, the team didn't stop her for feeding until first light "in the hopes that swimming would keep her warm," the website said.

Every stroke she swam put her deeper into record territory. On Sunday night, she broke Penny Palfrey's record for the farthest anyone has managed on the trek without a shark cage.

In 1997, Australian Susie Maroney completed the swim from within a shark cage. She was 22 at the time.

Nyad set out from Havana at 8:59 a.m. Saturday with a crew of 35, including divers to watch for sharks.

In her first attempt to cross the Straits of Florida in 1978, rough seas left her battered, delirious and less than halfway toward her goal.

She tried again twice in 2011, but her efforts ended after an 11-hour asthma attack and jellyfish stings.

Last year, she abandoned an attempt about halfway through after severe jellyfish stings and a lightning storm put her in danger.

Nyad was a swimming sensation before these attempts. In the 1970s, she won multiple swimming marathons and was one of the first women to swim around the island of Manhattan.

Nyad said she was 8 years old when she first dreamed about swimming across the Straits of Florida. At the time, she was in Cuba on a trip from her home in Florida in the 1950s, before Fidel Castro led a Communist takeover in Cuba and the country's relations with the United States soured.

The Los Angeles woman had said this was going to be her final attempt.

14-year-old swims solo across Lake Ontario

CNN's Patrick Oppmann from Havana, Cuba, and John Zarrella and David Simpson contributed to this report.

BalancedPolitics.org - U.S. Role as World's Policeman

BalancedPolitics.org - U.S. Role as World's Policeman (Pros & Cons, Arguments For and Against, Advantages & Disadvantages)

Written by: Joe Messerli 

Should the U.S. use its military and financial power to act as the world's policeman?

In a Nutshell

Yes	No

Unstable regions can be havens for terrorists. Nations cannot grow and develop with constant threat of warlords and terrorists trying to gain power. Humanitarian aid often cannot reach its intended recipients. Genocide and atrocities can be avoided or lessened. Citizens and governments are hesitant to invest in unstable countries, and they may be reluctant to donate hard-earned money to charities for which the money may not reach its intended targets. Militant ideologies could expand without us, threatening the lives and resources of democraticcountries. Living with oppression and a constant state of terror throughout an entire population is worse than the risk of a few deaths. It could eventually lead to a united, stable world. We can protect U.S. interests (trading partners, military allies, countries with needed resources, etc.). No other country in the world has the power to play this role.

It could increase an already growing anti-American sentiment around the world. We could make many wrong decisions (e.g. when we armed & financed Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden). U.S. soldiers would be put in harm's way and could lose their lives in the process. Civilians would be killed on many of the missions. Much of a country could be destroyed in a liberation attempt, as modern weapons can be very destructive. The financial cost of being a world policeman is extremely high, and the world economy would be brought to its knees if the U.S. economy continues its spending path to bankruptcy. People from other countries have different cultures & values; thus, we must respect the rights of those citizens to determine their own government. Acting as a world policeman is not an enumerated power given to the federal government by the Constitution.

The Future of Mass Transit - CNBC (http://www.cnbc.com)

Musk unveils plans for $10 billion Hyperloop transportation system

   

Published: Monday, 12 Aug 2013 | 5:23 PM ET

By: Alan Boyle, Science Editor NBC News

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Air cushioning: That's the high-concept technology behind the high-speed transit concept that billionaire Elon Musk calls the Hyperloop.

Musk — who already plays leading roles in the SpaceX rocket venture, the Tesla electric car company and the SolarCity solar-energy company — unveiled what he has called the "alpha" version of the Hyperloop plan in a blog post on Monday. It runs to 57 pages as a PDF file.

The plan is aimed at cutting the travel time between San Francisco and Los Angeles to a half-hour, at a price that's less than an airline ticket between those two cities. Musk said the Hyperloop arrangement could be implemented between any pair of cities situated up to, say, 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) apart. For longer distances, air travel would probably be more efficient, he said.

Musk said he came up with the plan out of frustration with the shortcomings of California's $68 billion high-speed rail project, which is just getting started.

(Read more: Sci-fi Hyperloop-type technology under development at ET3)

How the Hyperloop would work

The Hyperloop would send travelers through a low-pressure tubes in specialized pods that zoom at high subsonic speeds, reaching more than 700 mph (1,100 kilometers per hour). That compares with typical speeds of 110 to 300 mph for high-speed rail travel.

Musk's plan would rev up the pods from their stations using magnetic linear accelerators — but once they're in the main travel tubes, they'd be given periodic boosts by external linear electric motors. The pods would also have electric compressor fans mounted on their noses that would transfer high-pressure air from the front to the rear. The journey would be nearly frictionless, thanks to a cushion of air between the cars and the tube's inner surface.

The whole system would be powered by solar panels installed onto the tubes. "By placing solar panels on top of the tube, the Hyperloop can generate far in excess of the energy needed to operate," Musk wrote.

The tubes would be elevated on pylons, and generally follow Interstate 5 between San Fran and L.A. Musk says that would cut down on the cost of land acquisition and rights of way. He said the whole system would cost several billion dollars to build. "Even several billion is a low number when compared with several tens of billion proposed for the track of the California rail project," he wrote.

More from NBC News:

What is the Hyperloop? Billionaire Elon Musk is finally tellingus

Elon Musk pondering Jetsons-like people mover

High-speed rail efforts gain momentum across the country

This combination of technologies is what led Musk to describe the Hyperloop last month as a "cross between a Concorde, a rail gun and an air hockey table." The hints that he dropped along the way sparked a flurry of speculation, about schemes ranging from "Jetsons"-like people-movers to underground vacuum tunnels.

One of the closest guesses came from a self-described "tinker" named John Gardi, who laid out a plan for a turbine-driven pneumatic system. "This story has been a classic case of the media not having a clue," Gardi said in a Twitter update just before Musk's big reveal. "I had to come out of semi-retirement to write a GOOD article."

Who'll build the Hyperloop?

Musk says he won't be able to build the Hyperloop himself, due to his duties at SpaceX and Tesla. For now, he's leaving it to others to build upon his initial open-source concept. But if no one picks up the idea and runs with it over the next few years, he might return to the task.

It's possible that the Hyperloop could be held back by technical as well as political and economic issues. Transportation policy experts say that high-speed transit in the United States has been stymied not so much by technological challenges as by the challenges of acquiring rights of way and getting enough money to build the required infrastructure.

Nevertheless, high-speed transit projects are beginning to gain traction. California, for example, is continuing with its next-generation rail system, and other states are proceeding with their own high-speed rail initiatives.

—By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Source: Elon Musk

A conceptual rendering shows the Hyperloop passenger pod inside a low-pressure transit tube.

Source: Elon Musk

Hyperloop passenger transport capsule conceptual design sketch.

US Attorney General Holder to call for scaled-back mandatory minimum sentences - CNN (CNN.com)

By Dan Merica and Evan Perez, CNN

updated 10:35 AM EDT, Mon August 12, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Attorney general to announce action for "certain low-level, nonviolent drug offenders"
• Offenders must not have ties "to large-scale organizations, gangs, or cartels"
• Holder hopes the rising cost of incarceration in the United States will begin to shrink
• Effort has diverse support, including GOP Sen. Rand Paul, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy

Attorney General Eric Holder will address mandatory minimum sentences and increasing state and federal budget costs.

Washington (CNN) -- Attorney General Eric Holder will announce Monday that the Justice Department will no longer pursue mandatory minimum sentences for "certain low-level, nonviolent drug offenders."

In a speech at the annual meeting of the American Bar Association's House of Delegates in San Francisco, he will make the case that the United States "cannot simply prosecute or incarcerate our way to becoming a safer nation."

Holder it set to announce that "drug offenders who have no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs, or cartels will no longer be charged with offenses that impose draconian mandatory minimum sentences."

They now "will be charged with offenses for which the accompanying sentences are better suited to their individual conduct, rather than excessive prison terms more appropriate for violent criminals or drug kingpins."

Lessening the use of mandatory minimums -- sentences that require a mandatory, "one-size-fits-all" punishment for those convicted of federal and state crimes -- could mark the end of the tough-on-crime era, which began with strict anti-drug laws in the 1970s and accelerated with mandatory minimum prison sentences and so-called three-strikes laws.

Holder is set to label these types of sentences as "draconian," "counterproductive" and "excessive."

Opinion: Shame of mandatory minimums shows in Marissa Alexander case

The attorney general's speech will also hit upon the reality that the federal and many state budgets are experiencing -- increasing costs.

Legislation to lessen the use of mandatory minimums, Holder will say, "will ultimately save our country billions of dollars."

"Although incarceration has a role to play in our justice system, widespread incarceration at the federal, state, and local levels is both ineffective and unsustainable. It imposes a significant economic burden -- totaling $80 billion in 2010 alone -- and it comes with human and moral costs that are impossible to calculate," Holder will say, according to prereleased excerpts of his remarks.

In 2009, incarceration cost federal, state and local budgets $83 billion.

The administration hopes the move will also address racial disparities in the U.S. prison population, of which ethnic minorities are a majority.

Holder going after Texas voting law

President Barack Obama nodded to some of the issues in remarks he made after the Trayvon Martin verdict last month, giving voice to African-American concerns that "there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws -- everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws."

Although Obama administration officials say the changes they are pursuing will not require congressional approval, some unlikely pairs of lawmakers have come together to push criminal justice changes.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky have worked together to allow judges to depart from mandatory minimum sentences when circumstances merit. Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah have undertaken similar efforts.

Holder blasts 'stand your ground'

In his speech, Holder will highlight the work of each lawmaker.

In recent years, there has been a rise in support among conservatives for reforms to the criminal justice system. While more flexible approaches to crimes have long held support among liberal Democrats, fear of being tarred as weak on crime by Republican opponents has long caused moderate Democrats, particularly those running for president, to avoid the issue.

In addition to changes to mandatory minimums, Holder will call for expanding the use of "compassionate release" of people in jail who "pose no threat to the public."

"In late April, the Bureau of Prisons expanded the criteria which will be considered for inmates seeking compassionate release for medical reasons," Holder will say. "Today, I can announce additional expansions to our policy -- including revised criteria for elderly inmates who did not commit violent crimes and have served significant portions of their sentences."

Holder not afraid to take on race debate

CNN's Carol Cratty contributed to this report.

NYPD's Stop and Frisk Policy ruled unconstitutional - CNN (Cnn.com)

New York's stop-and-frisk policy unconstitutional, judge rules

By CNN Staff

updated 11:04 AM EDT, Mon August 12, 2013

Opponents of the New York Police Department's "stop-and-frisk" policy protest in January, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Judge Shira A. Scheindlin says an outside monitor will be appointed to oversee changes
• The ruling stems from a class-action lawsuit claiming minority men are stopped without reason
• Police officers testified quotes forced them to make unnecessary stops

(CNN) -- The New York Police Department's controversial stop-and-frisk policy violates constitutional rights and must be altered, a federal judge ruled Monday.

Judge Shira A. Scheindlin's ruling stems from a class-action lawsuitclaiming that the city's police officers routinely stopped minority men, particularly blacks and Latinos, without legal reasons.

Scheindlin said that an outside monitor will be appointed to oversee changes to the policy.

The police department had said that the policy -- in which police stop, question and frisk people they considered suspicious -- is used to deter crime. The practice is widely criticized.

The lead plaintiff in the case is David Floyd, a medical student who was stopped twice, once in the middle of the afternoon when he was in front of his home in the Bronx, according to the suit, which was filed in 2008.

The trial, which ended in May, featured nine weeks of testimony, including from men who say police stopped them for no reason and from police officers who say quotas forced them to make unnecessary stops.

Closing arguments gave conflicting accounts of stop-and-frisk incidents. While attorneys for the city argued that one man was stopped because he appeared to be smoking marijuana, the plaintiffs' attorneys argued that he was simply talking on a cell phone.

Another man was reportedly stopped because he fit the description of a wanted man in a high-crime area with a recent string of burglaries, but the plaintiffs' attorneys argued that he was more than a mile from where the burglaries occurred and that the last burglary in that area occurred more than 25 days earlier.

According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, the police department logged its 5 millionth stop-and-frisk under Mayor Michael Bloomberg in March.