Groups urge deeper probe on Luzon-wide blackout

By Dennis Carcamo

MANILA, Philippines - Poll watchdog Kontra Daya on Thursday called on Malacañang to order an investigation into the massive power outage that struck Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

"Malacañang should determine the true cause of the outage so that these can be prevented. We are quite concerned with the attitude of the Department of Energy that seeks to downplay the impact of the outage by saying that these things happen frequently," said Kontra Daya convenor Fr. Joe Dizon.

Dizon also called on the Commission on Election to discuss its contingency measures aside from the battery packs attached to the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, which would be used during the May 13 national and local polls.

"It is not enough that PCOS machines have battery packs. What about the entire polling precinct? What about the transmission and canvassing of votes? There are too many variables which cannot be addressed by the PCOS battery pack," Dizon said.

Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said it was too early for the government to immediately rule out sabotage if it has not yet undertaken a thorough probe of the power outage.

"From the reports we have gathered, the reasons for the outage were events external to the power plants. Something happened outside the plants that we are not yet aware of. That this event can affect five plants, through some kind of domino effect, is truly a cause for concern," Reyes said.

"Malacañang should make public a full report within the week, just before the elections. It should refrain from downplaying or trivializing the incident, by saying that these happen all the time, or that these can easily be fixed. We call on the people to be ever vigilant especially in the next few days," he added.

Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said in an interview with ABS-CBN News that the massive power outage that hit Luzon was caused by a technical problem at the Calaca 2 power plant in Batangas.

Petilla said that the Calaca 2 power plant tripped first and then it "cascaded" down to five other plants.

He said that they are now investigating why the Calaca 2 power plant's auto shut off did not work.

He explained that the Calaca 2 power plant should have automatically shut down, which would have activated its back-up generator and could have prevented the massive power outage.

"Yesterday six [plants] shut down because the auto-shut off of a power plant, for some reason, did not work. That is what we are investigating," Petilla said.

The energy secretary had assured that "there is no reason to believe" that Wednesday's massive power outage was “sabotage."

"Rest assured this won't happen on election day," he said.

Remains of Pinoy tour guide brought down from Mayon

The remains of one of five people who died in the wake of Mayon Volcano's steam-driven eruption last Tuesday were brought down from the volcano early Thursday.

A report on "Unang Hirit" said the remains of Filipino tour guide Jerome Berin were brought by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Tactical Operations Group.

Berin died in Tuesday's incident along with two German men and a German woman, and a Germany-based Spanish national.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council also said a Thai climber previously reported as missing was rescued but with injuries.

Boonchai Jattupornpong, 35, suffered burns and a broken right arm when he was found at 3:07 p.m.,the NDRRMC said.

A report on dzBB radio said Jattupornpong was to be brought down from Mayon on Thursday, along with the remains of the five fatalities.

The NDRRMC said eight other injured were brought to the Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital. They were identified as:

- Kenneth Jesalva, Filipino tour guide, 21
- Bernard Hernandez, Filipino, 25
- Calixto Balunso, 30
- Nicanor Mabao
- Udomkiat Taweebhurut, Thai, 45
- Tanut Ruchipiyrak, Thai, 26
- Nithi Ruangpisit, Thai, 26
- Benjama Sansuk, Thai, 40

Unharmed were an Austrian woman, Filipino tour guide Jorge Cordovilla, and Filipinos Arvin Bellen, Ruel Llarena, 28; Marlon Bunao, 25; Alfredo Baio, 30; and Bonifacio Deeluis, 25.

The NDRRMC said the Austrian was off to Manila while Bellen, Llarena, Bunao, Baio and Deeluis were "found unharmed and went home safe." — LBG, GMA News

Alaska overcomes 16-pt deficit to snatch Game 3 By Calvin D. Cordova Cebu Daily News

Not a few fingers would have pointed at RJ Razul had the Alaska Aces lost this one.

Jazul missed a layup that could have given the Aces the win in regulation but the second stringer guard more than made up for the crucial miss by coming alive in the overtime period to lead Alaska to a wild, 89-82 win over the San Mig Coffee Mixers last night in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal round of the 38th PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the jam-packed Araneta Coliseum.

Behind Jazul, the Aces dominated the overtime period where it limited the Mixers to just two points to salvage the victory that gave them a crucial 2-1 series lead.

Alaska, which lost the series-opener, needs just one more win to advance to the finals for the first time in the post-Tim Cone era.

Blown out in Game 2, 67-86, San Mig seemed headed for a big bounce back victory when they led by as many as 16 points in the first half and took a fat, 45-32 lead into the final two quarters of play.

The Mixers still had their way early in the third until rookie Calvin Abueva willed the Aces back into the game.

The energetic rookie scored nine straight points in 15-4 run as Alaska started to chip away at the deficit and went into the fourth down by just five points, 54-59.

In the fourth, Alaska turned to Jvee Casio to run the show as the diminutive point guard uncorked 10 straight points in a big rally that saw the Aces forcing only the second deadlock of the game at 70-all with 6:48 left.

Alaska finally stole the lead when Cyrus Baguio completed a fastbreak layup but San Mig tied the contest anew at 75-all with 1:29 left.

Alaska surged ahead again on a basket by Sonny Thoss but Joe De Vance canned a booming triple to hand the lead back to San Mig, 78-77, 54.2 seconds remaining.

Alaska import Robert Dozier threw the ball over in the next play and fouled James Yap seconds later.

Normally a deadshot from the free throw line, Yap could only make one of his two free throws for a 79-77 lead with 21.3 seconds to go.

Already out of timeout, Alaska was forced to inbound the ball at the other end of the court. Casio dribbled the length of the court before flipping a pass to Thoss, who scored underneath while being fouled by Marc Pingris.

Thoss made the bonus free throw and Alaska seemed just 13.2 seconds away from icing the big comeback win after taking an 80-79 edge.

San Mig, however, got a huge break in the next play when Casio was called for a foul while trying to stand his ground over the shooting Bowles.

Time and time again, Bowles saved the Mixers with his late-game heroics but caved in this time as he missed his first free throw before making the next, tying the count at 80-apiece with 4.9 seconds left.

Alaska hurriedly inbounded the ball and Abueva quickly attacked the basket before dropping a pass to a wide-open Jazul, who missed the layup, much to the chagrin of the Alaska bench.

Jazul, however, didn’t let his team down in the overtime, opening the period with a three-point play before burying a triple as the Aces surged to an 86-80 lead.

PJ Simon converted a floater in the 3:31 mark but San Mig wouldn’t score from that point on.

Abueva took the Best Player of the Game honors with 24 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and one block with no turnover.

BOX SCORES

ALASKA (89)- Abueva 24, Baguio 13, Casio 12, Dozier 11, Thoss 11, Jazul 6, Belasco 5, Hontiveros 3, Espinas 2, Dela Cruz 2.

SAN MIG (82)- Bowles 19, Barroca 15, Pingris 15, Mallari 7, Devance 7, Yap 7, Simon 6, Najorda 2, Reavis 2, De Ocampo 2.

Corpse that looks like mysterious 'sea monster' discovered on Pukehina Beach, New Zealand

A mysterious corpse that resembles a prehistoric 'sea monster' washed ashore in New Zealand. Picture: YouTube Source:Supplied

STUNNED beachgoers in New Zealand stumbled over what looks like the carcass of a mysterious marine animal.

The bizarre-looking corpse washed ashore last week, fuelling speculation that it is the remains of a prehistoric sea monster washed up ashore from the deep, Sun Live reports. The 9-metre-long corpse has basic flippers and a gaping jaw with long, sharp teeth.

A video posted to YouTube showed the 9-metre long corpse on Pukehina Beach in the Bay of Plenty. Calling it a “strange marine creature”, the narrator added: “can anyone help us identify it?”.

The video sparked a flurry of speculation that the carcass was some prehistoric ‘sea monster’.

Discovery News said the latest “monster” carcass find in New Zealand was part of a long history of discoveries of mysterious sea creatures. The bizarre, rotting corpses are often mistakenly identified as sea monsters or dinosaurs, or even just mysterious “blobsters”.

In 1896, a 2-metre tall sea creature corpse washed ashore in St Augustine, Florida. Scientists eventually determined it was a new type of giant octopus.

In 2003, the bizarre 12-metre, 13-tonne “Chilean blob” shocked the world when it washed ashore on Los Muermos beach, BBC News reports. Puzzled marine biologists speculated the blob could be a type of giant squid, but DNA tests on the blubbery mass eventually determined it was the remains of a sperm whale.

Marine mammal expert Anton Van Heldon examined the latest ‘monster’ carcass in New Zealand and believes it is a killer whale, based on the fin structure. Killer whales, or orcas, are sometimes spotted in the Bay of Plenty.

Boston Plotters Said to Initially Target July 4 for Attack

By ERIC SCHMITT, MARK MAZZETTI, MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON — The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings told F.B.I. interrogators that he and his brother considered suicide attacks and striking on the Fourth of July as they plotted their deadly assault, according to two law enforcement officials.

F.B.I., via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

An evidence photograph showing fireworks recovered in a backpack at a 

landfill in NewBedford, Mass.

But the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, told investigators that he and his brother,Tamerlan, 26, who was killed in a shootout with the police, ultimately decided to use pressure-cooker bombs and other homemade explosive devices, the officials said.

The brothers finished building the bombs in Tamerlan’s apartment in Cambridge, Mass., faster than they had anticipated, and so decided to accelerate their attack to the Boston Marathon on April 15, Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts, according to the account that Dzhokhar provided to authorities. They picked the finish line of the marathon after driving around the Boston area looking for alternative sites, according to this account.

On Friday morning, federal agents, state troopers and local law-enforcement officers fanned out to search areas in the vicinity of Dartmouth, Mass., as part of their continuing investigation into the bombings, an F.B.I. spokesman, Jason J. Pack, said.

It was not immediately clear what they were searching for, but the officials said that there was no immediate threat to public safety. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, attended the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Two of his classmates from the college were charged this week with throwing out evidence that officials said could have linked Mr. Tsarnaev to the attacks.

In addition, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told authorities that he and his brother viewed the Internet sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American cleric who moved to Yemen and was killed in September 2011 by an American drone strike. There is no indication that the brothers communicated with Mr. Awlaki.

Mr. Tsarnaev made his admission on April 21 — two days after he was captured while hiding in a boat in a nearby backyard — to specially trained F.B.I. agents who had been waiting outside his hospital room for him to regain consciousness.

After he woke up, they questioned him, invoking what is known as the public safety exception to the Miranda Rule, a procedure authorized by a 1984 Supreme Court decision which in certain circumstances allows interrogation after an arrest without notifying a prisoner of the right to remain silent.

The new details of what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told authorities emerged as the F.B.I. moved forward on Thursday with trying to determine how the brothers were radicalized and the role that Tamerlan’s wife, Katherine Russell, may have played in the plot or in helping the brothers evade the authorities after the attacks.

As part of those efforts, the authorities have sought to determine whether fingerprints and DNA found on bomb fragments were from Ms. Russell. According to two other law enforcement officials, Ms. Russell’s fingerprints and DNA do not match those found on the fragments. All of the law enforcement officials were granted anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.

Federal authorities are skeptical of Ms. Russell’s insistence that she played no role in the attack or in helping the brothers elude the authorities after the F.B.I. released photographs of them. That skepticism has been stoked by Ms. Russell’s decision in recent days to stop cooperating with the authorities.

A funeral home retained by family members of Tamerlan Tsarnaev claimed his body from the Massachusetts state medical examiner’s office about 5:30 p.m. Thursday, a spokesman for the Boston Department of Public Safety, Terrel Harris, said. He offered no other details.

The details of what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told authorities fill out a growing portrait of what the grievously wounded young man has told investigators at his hospital bedside. During the interrogation, Mr. Tsarnaev, who sustained a gunshot wound to the neck, had trouble speaking and answered several questions by writing on a piece of paper and nodding.

Reporting was contributed by William K. Rashbaum and Serge F. Kovaleski from New York, and Emmarie Huetteman from Washington.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 2, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the last name of a contributing reporter. Serge F. Kovaleski contributed reporting, not Serge Schmemann. Also, a caption on a photograph with an earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of one of the suspects in the bombings. He is Tamerlan Tsarnaev, not Tsarneav.

Suicide Rates Rise Sharply in U.S.

By TARA PARKER-POPE

Suicide rates among middle-aged Americans have risen sharply in the past decade, prompting concern that a generation of baby boomers who have faced years of economic worry and easy access to prescription painkillers may be particularly vulnerable to self-inflicted harm.

More people now die of suicide than in car accidents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which published the findings in Friday’s issue of its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In 2010 there were 33,687 deaths from motor vehicle crashes and 38,364 suicides.

Suicide has typically been viewed as a problem of teenagers and the elderly, and the surge in suicide rates among middle-aged Americans is surprising.

From 1999 to 2010, the suicide rate among Americans ages 35 to 64 rose by nearly 30 percent, to 17.6 deaths per 100,000 people, up from 13.7. Although suicide rates are growing among both middle-aged men and women, far more men take their own lives. The suicide rate for middle-aged men was 27.3 deaths per 100,000, while for women it was 8.1 deaths per 100,000.

The most pronounced increases were seen among men in their 50s, a group in which suicide rates jumped by nearly 50 percent, to about 30 per 100,000. For women, the largest increase was seen in those ages 60 to 64, among whom rates increased by nearly 60 percent, to 7.0 per 100,000.

Suicide rates can be difficult to interpret because of variations in the way local officials report causes of death. But C.D.C. and academic researchers said they were confident that the data documented an actual increase in deaths by suicide and not a statistical anomaly. While reporting of suicides is not always consistent around the country, the current numbers are, if anything, too low.

“It’s vastly underreported,” said Julie Phillips, an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University who has published research on rising suicide rates. “We know we’re not counting all suicides.”

The reasons for suicide are often complex, and officials and researchers acknowledge that no one can explain with certainty what is behind the rise. But C.D.C. officials cited a number of possible explanations, including that as adolescents people in this generation also posted higher rates of suicide compared with other cohorts.

“It is the baby boomer group where we see the highest rates of suicide,” said the C.D.C.’s deputy director, Ileana Arias. “There may be something about that group, and how they think about life issues and their life choices that may make a difference.”

The rise in suicides may also stem from the economic downturn over the past decade. Historically, suicide rates rise during times of financial stress and economic setbacks. “The increase does coincide with a decrease in financial standing for a lot of families over the same time period,” Dr. Arias said.

Another factor may be the widespread availability of opioid drugs like OxyContin and oxycodone, which can be particularly deadly in large doses.

Although most suicides are still committed using firearms, officials said there was a marked increase in poisoning deaths, which include intentional overdoses of prescription drugs, and hangings. Poisoning deaths were up 24 percent over all during the 10-year period and hangings were up 81 percent.

Dr. Arias noted that the higher suicide rates might be due to a series of life and financial circumstances that are unique to the baby boomer generation. Men and women in that age group are often coping with the stress of caring for aging parents while still providing financial and emotional support to adult children.

“Their lives are configured a little differently than it has been in the past for that age group,” Dr. Arias said. “It may not be that they are more sensitive or that they have a predisposition to suicide, but that they may be dealing with more.”

Preliminary research at Rutgers suggests that the risk for suicide is unlikely to abate for future generations. Changes in marriage, social isolation and family roles mean many of the pressures faced by baby boomers will continue in the next generation, Dr. Phillips said.

“The boomers had great expectations for what their life might look like, but I think perhaps it hasn’t panned out that way,” she said. “All these conditions the boomers are facing, future cohorts are going to be facing many of these conditions as well.”

Nancy Berliner, a Boston historian, lost her 58-year-old husband to suicide nearly two years ago. She said that while the reasons for his suicide were complex, she would like to see more attention paid to prevention and support for family members who lose someone to suicide.

“One suicide can inspire other people, unfortunately, to view suicide as an option,” Ms. Berliner said. “It’s important that society becomes more comfortable with discussing it. Then the people left behind will not have this stigma.”

United States Calls on North Korea to Free American

By CHOE SANG-HUN and RICK GLADSTONE

SEOUL, South Korea — The United States said Thursday that North Korea should immediately release an American citizen who was sentenced this week to 15 years of hard labor, setting up a potential new source of confrontation between the two countries that could aggravate tensions that are still high over North Korea’s nuclear war threats.

Yonhap, via euters

Kenneth Bae

A State Department spokesman, Patrick Ventrell, said the Obama administration had “longstanding concerns about the lack of transparency and due process in the North Korean legal system.” Mr. Ventrell said that the administration wanted the convicted American, Kenneth Bae, who was sentenced on Tuesday on charges of committing hostile acts, to be granted “amnesty and immediate release.”

Mr. Ventrell’s statement signaled the administration was not prepared, at least not now, to seek Mr. Bae’s release through a high-profile mission to North Korea, as it has done twice in the past when Americans were held by North Korean authorities essentially as hostages to gain concessions from the United States.

Asked at a briefing if such a mission to free Mr. Bae were an option, Mr. Ventrell said, “I’m not aware one way or another.” While he acknowledged such previous missions, he said, the administration was urging North Korea “to grant him amnesty and to allow for his immediate release, full stop.”

Analysts of North Korea’s behavior said an American diplomatic mission to secure Mr. Bae’s release could easily be used by the country’s young leader, Kim Jong-un, as an example of Washington’s capitulation and an opportunity to burnish his profile as a tough anti-American strategist.

But by taking the tougher approach, the Obama administration is assuming the risk that one of its citizens will be incarcerated indefinitely.

The sentencing comes at a time of high tension between the North and the United States over the North’s nuclear program, and it was handed down the same day that joint American-South Korean military drills ended. With the end of the drills, some analysts have said, North Korea might tone down its bellicosity and shift its focus toward drawing Washington back to the negotiating table — using, among other things, the plight of Mr. Bae as bait.

“The timing of the sentencing makes us think that the North is again playing its old card,” said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea specialist at Dongguk University in Seoul. “But will the Americans play the same game? If Washington sends a former president whenever North Korea holds an American captive, they say it will run out of former presidents.”

Mr. Bae, 44, a Korean-American from Washington State who ran a tour business out of China, was arrested in the special economic zone of Rason in northeastern North Korea in November after leading a group of businessmen there from Yanji, China.

Like several other Americans detained in the North in recent years, Mr. Bae is a Christian, according to rights advocates. While North Korea’s Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice it cracks down on religious activities, according to human rights groups, and is wary of all Christians who visit.

The North said Saturday that it was indicting Mr. Bae on charges that he tried to overthrow the government, a crime that called for a punishment as severe as the death penalty. But on Tuesday, its Supreme Court convicted him of “hostile acts,” a charge less grave than the original, the North said.

Mr. Bae is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009, and his punishment was the most severe. The others eventually were deported or released. Two were released in 2009 when President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang and met with Kim Jong-il, the leader at the time. Another was released when former President Jimmy Carter visited Pyongyang.

Americans recently held prisoner in the North were kept in special facilities, away from domestic inmates, possibly out of fear that when released, they would testify about the condition of prison camps where the State Department says starvation and forced labor remain rampant.

Choe Sang-hun reported from Seoul, and Rick Gladstone from New York.

Proposal for Changes in Food Aid Sets Off Infighting in Congress

By RON NIXON

WASHINGTON — A proposal by the Obama administration to overhaul the international food aid program has set off a jurisdictional fight among members of several House and Senate committees, threatening to derail the most significant change to the program since it was created nearly 60 years ago.

The $1.4 billion annual program provides emergency food supplies to disaster-stricken regions across the globe. The United States provides over half of the world’s food aid.

The food aid money is currently part of the Agriculture Department’s budget, but President Obama’s proposal would transfer it to the foreign affairs budget, where it would be overseen by the Agency for International Development. The reorganization would also mean that Congressional oversight of the program would shift from the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees on agriculture to the appropriations subcommittees on foreign operations.

Administration officials say the current program is costly and inefficient, and does not get food quickly enough to the people who need it. By law, the food must be bought from American farmers and shipped on vessels flying American flags, which can sometimes take weeks, with food arriving after a crisis is over, administration officials and development experts say.

Also, because of rising shipping costs, the amount of food the United States sends abroad has fallen, to 1.8 million cubic tons annually from 5 million cubic tons, according to figures from the development agency.

Under the new proposal the agency, or charities working in partnership with it, would use money to buy some food locally, closer to the disaster areas. Fifty-five percent of the food would still be purchased from American farmers.

“This new reform would give us the flexible tools we need to get food to people who need it now, not weeks later,” said Rajiv Shah, the agency’s administrator. “We would still buy from U.S. farmers.”

He added, “But this way we can help feed two to four million more people without additional costs.”

But members of the House and Senate agriculture subcommittees are skeptical.

During hearings last week, Representative Robert B. Aderholt, Republican of Alabama, the chairman of the House agriculture subcommittee, said he was concerned that removing food aid from the agriculture budget would hurt American farmers.

Representative Sam Farr of California, the committee’s ranking Democrat, also questioned the transfer, raising concerns about the subcommittee losing oversight of the program.

“I’m not endorsing the transfer — the realignment — until there are assurances that the program will remain intact and not be raided by other foreign ops interest,” Mr. Farr said at the hearing.

Mr. Farr expressed doubts about the proposal’s chances of success. “I don’t think it will happen this year,” he said. “That’s the politics.”

There has been a similar response from members of the Senate agriculture subcommittee. Senator Mark Pryor, Democrat of Arkansas, the chairman of the subcommittee, along with Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, the ranking Republican, both said that they were opposed to transferring food aid dollars out of the agriculture budget.

In February, they joined 19 other senators in sending a letter to the president opposing the measure.

Representative Kay Granger, Republican of Texas, the chairwoman of the House foreign operations subcommittee, which oversees the foreign aid budget, has not said if she will support the Obama administration’s proposal.

But Nita M. Lowey of New York, the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, has endorsed the plan to move food aid, as have members of the House and Senate Foreign Affairs Committees.

Representative Ed Royce, Republican of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has criticized the administration’s overall budget proposal, but he supports the food aid change.

“The president’s budget proposal to reform the international food program — helping more at less cost — is a bright spot in the budget request,” Mr. Royce said.

Budget experts say Mr. Obama’s proposal will be a tough sell in Congress, where committee members can be parochial and rarely want to give up control of programs.

While it is common for committees to allow agencies to move money from one account to another, experts said it was rare for Congressional appropriators to move money and oversight of a program from one agency to another.

“This is a classic jurisdictional battle among committees,” said Edward A. Brigham, a consultant and former staff member at the White House Office of Management and Budget and at the House Budget Committee. “No one wants to give up their area of control.”

Mr. Brigham said lawmakers could vote to move the money through the appropriations process or just to authorize the change in the next farm bill, which falls under the jurisdiction of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees. Members of those committees have already voiced their opposition to the proposal.

“Food aid is in need of reform for all the hungry people in the world who depend on it,” said David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a Christian antihunger group that supports the Obama administration’s proposal. “But it’s going to be difficult to get anything through Congress, particularly because of the jurisdictional issues.”

Politics and Vetting Leave Key U.S. Posts Long Unfilled

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

WASHINGTON — John Kerry is practically home alone at the State Department, toiling without permanent assistant secretaries of state for the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Africa. At the Pentagon, a temporary personnel chief is managing furloughs for 800,000 civilian employees. There has not been a director of the Internal Revenue Service since last November, and it was only on Thursday that President Obama announced a nomination for commerce secretary after the job was open for nearly a year.

Jewel Samad/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

Secretary of State of John Kerry said he had a new appreciation 

of the delays caused by the Senate confirmation process.

As the White House races this week to plug holes in the cabinet, the lights remain off in essential offices across the administration. The vacancies, attributed to partisan politics and lengthy White House vetting, are slowing policy making in a capital already known for inaction, and embarrassing a president who has had more than five months since his re-election to fill many of the jobs.

“I don’t think it’s ever been this bad,” said Representative Frank R. Wolf, Republican of Virginia, who recently wrote a letter urging Mr. Obama to act swiftly to fill top vacancies.

One of the worst backlogs is at the State Department, where nearly a quarter of the most senior posts are not filled, including those in charge of embassy security and counterterrorism. The Treasury Department is searching for a new No. 2, the Department of Homeland Security is missing its top two cybersecurity officials and about 30 percent of the top jobs at the Commerce Department are still vacant, including that of chief economist.

At the Pentagon, which is helping to lead the administration’s pivot to a greater focus on Asia, the assistant secretary of defense for Asia is about to leave his job.

Mr. Kerry expressed frustration about the State Department vacancies in recent testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, saying he was “still waiting for the vetting to move” at the White House for people he recommended for jobs “way back in February.”

But in a statement to The New York Times, Mr. Kerry said, “I have a new appreciation for how much the confirmation process has become a political football in recent years and what that forces on the vetting process required to announce nominees.”

Although Mr. Kerry said that “the White House and the administration make the very best out of a tough situation,” who is to blame is a matter of intense debate.

The White House faults an increasingly partisan confirmation process in the Senate and what officials say are over-the-top demands for information about every corner of a nominee’s life. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew received 444 questions from senators before his confirmation, more than the seven previous Treasury nominees combined, according to data compiled by the White House. Gina McCarthy, Mr. Obama’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, got 1,000 questions from the Senate, White House officials said.

“Current Congressional Republicans have made no secret of the extraordinary lengths they will go to to obstruct the confirmation process,” said Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman. “That unprecedented evasiveness, often about matters decades old or unrelated to the post, slows down the process from beginning to end.”

But members of Congress and a number of agency officials say the bottleneck is at the White House, where nominees remain unannounced as the legal and personnel offices conduct time-consuming background checks aimed at discovering the slightest potential problem that could hold up a confirmation. People who have gone through the vetting in Mr. Obama’s White House describe a grueling process, lasting weeks or months, in which lawyers and political operatives search for anything that might hint at scandal.

Administration officials, members of Congress and scholars of the federal appointment process say it is difficult to determine — short of a six-month-long study — if Mr. Obama has filled fewer of the roughly 1,200 federal jobs that require Senate confirmation than George W. Bush or Bill Clinton had at this point in their second terms. But there is widespread agreement that an alarming number of important posts in the government’s most senior ranks are vacant or filled with acting deputies with little authority to make decisions.

Keeping Up, Not Getting Ahead

By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM

The American economy continues to add jobs in proportion to population growth. Nothing less, nothing more.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statisitcs

The share of American adults with jobs has barely changed since 2010, hovering between 58.2 percent and 58.7 percent. This employment-to-population ratio stood at 58.6 percent in April. That is about four percentage points lower than the employment rate before the recession, a difference of roughly 10 million jobs. In other words, the United States economy is not getting any closer to recreating the jobs lost during the recession.

This lack of progress has been obscured by the steady decline of the high-profile unemployment rate, which continued in April. But the unemployment rate is easily misunderstood. The government counts as unemployed only those who are actively looking for new jobs. As people have given up, the unemployment rate has declined – not because more people are working, but because more people have stopped looking for work.

The share of adults looking for work peaked at 6.4 percent of the population in 2010. It fell to 4.7 percent in April. But recall that over the same period, the share of adults with jobs did not change. What grew instead is the share of adults no longer counted as part of the labor force.

(The unemployment rate also uses a different denominator than the employment rate: Workers plus searchers, rather than the entire population. For the sake of consistency and clarity, the figures in the previous paragraph show “unemployment” as a share of the entire population.)

And the decline of labor force participation – the technical term for the share of adults working or searching – is primarily the result of a bad economy.

Baby boomers are aging into retirement. Even before the recession, the government projected in 2007 that participation would decline to 65.5 percent by 2016, from 66 percent. But the April rate of 63.3 percent means the labor force has lost roughly five million additional workers.

Furthermore, the projections were wrong. Participation has actually risen among people older than 55. The decline is entirely driven by younger dropouts.

The federal government counts 11.7 million Americans as unemployed. The real number, it follows, is more like 17 million.

There is always some unemployment. Millions of Americans are out of work at any given moment even in the best of times. But the economy is still roughly 10 million jobs short of returning to normal levels of unemployment and labor force participation. That’s a lot of missing jobs.

Some of those losses may be permanent. The number of Americans receiving disability benefits has increased by 1.8 million since the recession began, and people on disability rarely return to the work force, even if they would have preferred to keep working in the first place.

And as the economy improves, it is likely that labor force participation among older workers will finally begin to decline.

But the evidence suggests that the majority of the 10 million are just waiting for a decent chance.

Jobs Data Ease Fears of Sharp Slowdown in U.S. Economy

By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ

The United States economy created an estimated 165,000 jobs in April, averting fears of a sharp slowdown and pushing the unemployment rate to its lowest level since December 2008.

The latest jobs figures from the Department of Labor paint a brighter picture of the overall economy than other recent data, which had been weaker and prompted economists to warn of a spring swoon for the third year in row. Those worries had been heightened after the March jobs report, which initially showed the economy to have added just 88,000 jobs, much fewer than had been expected.

On Friday, however, the government sharply revised upward its estimates for job creation in February and March, concluding that the economy actually generated 332,000 jobs in February and 138,000 in March. The unemployment rate, which is based on a separate survey, fell by 0.1 percentage point to 7.5 percent, from 7.6 percent in March.

“It’s back to normal for this cycle,” said Steve Blitz, chief economist at ITG. “This number is back to the mainstream of what we’ve seen in this recovery.”

Still, Mr. Blitz noted, many of the new jobs were in lower-paying sectors like retail and food services. Stores hired 30,000 workers, while restaurants added 38,000 employees.

“You’re hiring people, but you’re not generating high-income jobs,” he said. “But work is work. It’s honorable.”

Another positive sign was that the size of the labor force increased, while the total number of unemployed Americans dropped by 83,000 to 11,659,000.

The stock market reacted strongly to the better-than-expected figures, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 index breaking through the 1,600-point level for the first time, rising almost 1 percent at the opening bell. The Dow Jones industrial average was up over 130 points, nearly 1 percent as well.

Economists have been warning that the economy — and job creation — will slow in the second-quarter, largely as a result of fiscal tightening in Washington. Payroll taxes increased in January, and across-the-board spending cuts mandated by Congress went into effect in March, and their impact is expected to be felt more broadly in the months ahead.

And while the private sector has clearly been on the upswing this year, the government continues to represent a drag on job creation, shedding 11,000 jobs during the month. Over all, April’s rate of job creation was still well below the 209,000 jobs added per month in the fourth quarter of 2012.

“In one line: Not bad, especially in the light of beaten-down expectations,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist with Pantheon Macroconomic Advisors. “This could have been much worse.”

The manufacturing sector, which is closely watched as a gauge of broader economic strength, was unchanged in April. Private sector job creation totaled 176,000.

With the unemployment rate still well above 6.5 percent, the Federal Reserve haspromised to keep buying billions of dollars of bonds in an effort to help bolster growth. The Fed’s stimulus efforts have helped buoy the markets, but the job picture has remained weak.

Economists also noted that the number of hours worked fell in April, another sign that the economy is having trouble generating enough additional income and jobs to help lift spending.

The government could be the wild card in the coming months. Automatic, across-the-board spending cuts officially went into effect in March, and if the mandated spending cuts continue, layoffs could increase. Apart from the job figures, the economy has been showing signs of weakness of late. Several indicators beginning in March have pointed to much slower growth, with everything from retail sales to manufacturing looking soft recently.

“What’s the biggest drag on the economy? The government,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist for Mesirow Financial in Chicago. “If the government simply did no harm, we could be at escape velocity.”

Manhattan condo solely under Loren's name

by Don Tagala, ABS-CBN News North America Bureau

NEW YORK, USA (UPDATED) - 77 Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York, is also known as "The Griffon".

Closing a unit here is like hitting the jackpot for realtors. It's an exclusive community in an elegant pre-war building.

Power of attorney document on Legarda's Manhattan condo.

It was built in 1924 by Margon and Glaser. The 217-unit apartment building has 15 floors.

Each floor has no more than 4 units per floor. It also has a rooftop landscaped with the views of the Empire State and Chrysler building.

Senator Loren Legarda's $700,000 1-bedroom condo unit is found on the 10th floor.

"Being a pre-war building, it has a good space. Like the one-bedroom, one-bath in this building is about 700 square feet...about 70 square meters,"  said Edwin Josue, an associate real estate broker of Halstead Properties.

Legarda admitted Thursay that she owns the condo unit and it has been declared on her statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth.

Deed document on Legarda's Manhattan condo

This is in contrary to the accusations made by Louis Biraogo - a self-proclaimed public interest advocate.

According to Legarda, what she has declared is only her part of the property because the unit is partly owned by 3 others.

However, a copy of the deed and power of attorney obtained by ABS-CBN from the New York City register shows that the condo unit is solely under Legarda's name.

A Park Avenue address is a luxury most people can't afford. Most condos in the area are worth at least $1 million.

Some of Legarda's famous neighbors at 77 Park Ave. include the Rockefellers, supermodel-turned-carnival-queen Bessie Badilla, and fashion mogul Josie Natori's folks.

Realtors say buying a condo at The Griffon is not quite easy.

"She bought it in 2006, that apartment is way over $700,000... $800,000 by this time,"  Josue said.

"This building actually does get all the financial documents from the perspective purchaser in the building, so they also screen also who are buying in the building so that at least they know that it will be a good neighbor to them," he added.

Some Filipino residents in the area say Legarda's son is currently staying at the condo.

Legarda blasts 'gutter politics'

Legarda, meanwhile, described the alleged smear campaign against her as "gutter politics."

She said a misinformation campaign against her is part of black propaganda meant to pull down her consistent top ranking in election surveys. 

“The certification I have in my hand, prepared by my lawyers, is clear: The Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN) I filed in June 30, 2007 includes the New York property subject of the black propaganda, described as ‘Other Investment’ in Annex A, in the amount of P 7,175,000 equal to one-fourth of the total investment in the acquisition of apartment amounting to P 28,700,000," she said in a press statement.

"Beginning December 31, 2007 up to December 31, 2010, the same property was also included on the SALN described as 'Equity in Real Property', also one-fourth of the total P 28,700,000. As of December 31, 2011 and December 31, 2012 the New York property was also included in my SALN described as 'Real Property-USA,'" she added.

"It's political season and I have survived to answer clearly all the black propaganda hurled against me. I challenge the source of all this to come clean. I ask other candidates to stick to what we as candidates can do to address the problems facing the country," Legarda said. - with a report from ANC 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5iPJZmctpWo#!