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How an $84,000 drug got its price: ‘Let’s hold our position … whatever the headlines’ The Washington Post / December 1, 2015 Gilead Sciences executives were acutely aware in 2013 that their plan to charge an exorbitantly high price for a powerful new hepatitis C drug would spark public outrage, but they pursued the profit-driven strategy anyway, according to a Senate Finance Committee investigation report released Tuesday. "Let's not fold to advocacy pressure in 2014," Kevin Young, Gilead's executive vice president for commercial operations, wrote in an internal email. ‘‘Let’s hold our position whatever competitors do or whatever the headlines." Gilead gained federal approval for its drug Sovaldi in late 2013 and ultimately settled on the price of $84,000 for a 12-week course of treatment. To the company, that price seemed to deliver the right balance: value to shareholders while also not so high that insurers would "hinder patient access to uncomfortable levels," according to internal documents. But they also got more than they bargained for: an outpouring of outrage from the public, a backlash from government and private payers, and political scrutiny. The 18-month Senate committee investigation reviewed more than 20,000 pages of company documents. “The documents show it was always Gilead’s plan to max out revenue, and that accessibility and affordability were pretty much an afterthought," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who co-led the investigation with Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), in a news conference. In a statement released Tuesday, Gilead disagreed with the conclusions of the report, saying that the price was "in line with previous standards of care.” The company noted that it has programs in place to help uninsured patients and those who need financial assistance access the treatments. More than 600,000 patients around the world have been treated with Gilead’s hepatitis C drugs since 2013, according to the company. Here are four key takeaways from the investigation: 1. It could have been priced at $115,000 for a course of treatment. Gilead considered a range of prices for Sovaldi and weighed the value to its shareholders against the "reputational risks," meaning the potential outrage from patients, physicians and payers. The potential prices ranged from $50,000 to $115,000. Executives believed a $50,000 price would build good will and ensure easy access to the drug because it would be covered by most plans. But it would cause "significant foregone revenue," and activists would still critique the price, even at this relatively low level. At $115,000, executives were concerned about "external considerations" and predicted: "High levels of advocacy group criticism and negative PR/competitive messaging could be expected at $115K and it would be increasingly difficult to manage at these levels." 2. Gilead priced Sovaldi partly based on the expectation it would set a benchmark for the next drugs in the pipeline. A company presentation noted that Gilead has "considerable pricing potential" for Sovaldi, but that future pricing for next-generation drug launches would be limited by competition -- what it referred to as a second wave of treatments. "Wave 1 will set a price benchmark against which Wave 2 will ultimately be evaluated," the presentation stated. "By elevating the price for the new standard of care set by Sovaldi, Gilead intended to raise the price floor for all future hepatitis C treatments, including its follow-on drugs and those of its competitors," the report states. Its next hepatitis C drug, Harvoni, was priced at $94,500. 3. Patients were warehoused to limit access to Sovaldi. Facing pent-up demand for a hepatitis C treatment, insurers quickly began to implement restrictions -- essentially, warehousing patients by putting sick people aside until they were even more sick. Medicaid programs in 27 states limited which patients could get access to Sovaldi. Private insurers did, too. In a letter, the Oregon Health Authority reported that while more than 10,000 Medicaid patients were deemed good candidates for Sovaldi and its competitors in fall 2014, the estimated cost of treating half of them would more than double the entire $600 million spent on all drugs in the previous year. Instead, because treating more advanced patients would be more cost effective, the state implemented a plan to treat at the rate of 500 patients a year for the first six years. Kentucky's Medicaid program noted that the state's heroin epidemic exacerbated its hepatitis C problem -- people who had injected drugs were being tested for the disease, raising the tricky question of when to start treatment. "Given the current cost of the newer treatment options and to remain fiscally responsible we will be forced to make difficult decisions regarding who does and does not get access to treatment medications upon diagnosis," Samantha McKinley, pharmacy director of the Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services, wrote in a letter to Grassley and Wyden. 4. Cost-per-cure, not cost of development. The report suggests that the factors Gilead used to set its price were not based on the research and development needed to bring the drug to market, or on the $11.2 billion it paid for Pharmasset, the company that developed Sovaldi. Instead, Gilead executives looked at what previous treatments had cost and the effect of future waves of competition on the revenue it could bring in. "Company officials surmised that its drug had a ‘value premium' because of increased efficacy and tolerability, shorter treatment duration, and its potential to ultimately be part of an all-oral regimen," the report states. In its statement Tuesday, the company said, “We stand behind the pricing of our therapies because of the benefit they bring to patients and the significant value they represent to payers, providers, and our entire healthcare system by reducing the long-term costs associated with managing chronic [hepatitis C virus].” With another Senate committee now probing price increases at four other pharmaceutical companies, the final conclusion of the report may be one we see repeated. "This might be an example that received the most attention in some time, but it won't be the last," Grassley said in a statement.

Amish children kidnapped, drugged and raped Associated Press / May 8, 2015 Nicole Vaisey admitted in May that she and her boyfriend Stephen Howells sexually exploited two Amish girls, aged 6 and 11, as well as four other children, who were drugged and recorded during sex acts. Vaisey, 26, and Howells, 39, were caught in August 2014 after they used a puppy to lure the two young Amish girls away from their family's roadside farm stand, where they were selling vegetables. They then kept them captive for the next 24 hours, handcuffing them so they couldn't run away from Howell's home in upstate New York. Howells sexually assaulted the children as Vaisey watched and filmed them. The couple were arrested after the girls were released the next day and left on the side of the road. When questioned, Vaisey told police she and Howells had been out on a 'shopping trip' for slaves when they kidnapped the sisters that summer night. Howells also admitted the offences against the girls and pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually exploiting four other children, ranging in ages from five to 11. Between December 2012 and August 2013, the father-of-three sedated his victims with drugs and then sexually abused them while filming the abuse. Howells used his position as a registered nurse at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg to obtain sedatives and pain-killers that he used to drug his six victims "thereby aiding in the commission of the sexual exploitation offenses," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Fletcher. FBI agents took hair samples from each of the six victims and performed toxicology tests on them, Fletcher said. The tests showed the girls had been given drugs such as Ambien, Oxycontin, Nordaz, Restoril and Xanax, Fletcher said. Howells claimed he conspired with Vaisey to abduct the children and make child pornography, alleging that they sometimes switched roles while doing so. Prosecutors last week asked for a 580-year sentence for Howells and a 300-year sentence for Vaisey. The pair will be sentenced on December 17 in federal court in Syracuse. .

That East Providence isn’t hiring this fellow because a donut shop employee inappropriately wrote “Black Lives Matter” on his cup of coffee, is ridiculous. The employee indeed should have been fired. Giving in to [recognizing] a biased and violent group like “Black Lives Matter” sets a dangerous precedent. Had it been me, I’d be upset as well. That employee is absolutely welcome to their opinion, but I don’t want them to force it upon me. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rhode Island traffic officer's holiday dance ends after race protests Reuters / December 1, 2015 A former Rhode Island traffic officer's 30-year tradition of dancing while directing holiday shopping season traffic came to an end on Tuesday when East Providence officials decided against hiring him, after he orchestrated protests against civil rights activists. The East Providence city council on Tuesday canceled a planned evening vote on whether to employ Tony Lepore, who for three decades entertained drivers in downtown Providence but became the subject of controversy after he organized October protests outside a Dunkin' Donuts where an employee wrote 'Black Lives Matter' on a coffee cup before handing it to an officer. Lepore called for the employee to be fired. A week earlier, he had been turned down for the job by the Providence police department. That city's police commissioner, Steven Pare, said Lepore gave an inaccurate impression that his position on the incident represented that of the city's police. "With the controversy, it was decided this would not be beneficial to anyone," said Timothy Conley, one of East Providence's five council members, on Tuesday. The Black Lives Matter movement, which has revived a heated debate on race and justice in the United States, grew out of protests that followed the police killings of black men in cities including Ferguson, Missouri, New York and Baltimore over the past year and a half. East Providence officials began to back away from a plan to take Lepore on after a group of protesters supporting Black Lives Matter rallied outside the city's Christmas tree lighting ceremony Sunday night. "He's no longer about dancing," said Onna Moniz-John, one of the protest organizers. "He's become too associated with negativity and controversy. He's almost a poster child." Lepore posted a message on his Facebook page indicating he believed the seasonal tradition may have come to an end. "You all know the issues that I have been involved in the last few weeks," he wrote. "Whatever happens during the holidays, I want to thank you for your support, friendship & the fun."

Absolutely is, that and the competing brands.

I buy (what in the U.S.. would be) prescription drugs over-the-counter in overseas countries for 20% to 50% of the U.S. price. I haven't bought medicine in the US for years. When I'm sick and know exactly what I need, the U.S. policy of having to pay to see a doctor so as to get that prescription called in is absurd.

Iraqi Militias: We will fight U.S. Reuters / December 1, 2015 U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter revealed on Tuesday that a permanent new Iraq-based U.S. "specialized expeditionary targeting force" will target ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria, operating independently of local troops in Iraq and Syria for the first time. The ratcheting up of Washington's campaign against ISIS was quickly rejected by Iraq's government. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the deployment of such a force was not acceptable without Iraq's approval, raising questions over how closely Washington coordinated the plan with Baghdad. Powerful Shi'ite Muslim armed groups pledged to fight any new deployment of U.S. forces to the country. Carter said the deployment of the new special operations troops was being carried out in coordination with Iraq's government and would aid Iraqi government security forces and Kurdish peshmerga forces. "These special operators will over time be able to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence and capture ISIS leaders," Carter told the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. “It puts everybody on notice in Syria,” Carter said. “You don’t know at night who is going to be coming in the window.” "This force will also be in a position to conduct unilateral operations into Syria." Kurdish fighters say US forces in Iraq have secretly been blurring this line for months by taking an increasingly active role on the frontline, but the creeping ground mission once expressly ruled out by Barack Obama now seems to be spreading to Syria. The force is separate from a previously announced deployment of [allegedly] up to 50 U.S. special operations troops in Syria to coordinate on the ground with U.S.-backed rebels. "The Iraqi government stresses that any military operation or the deployment of any foreign forces - special or not - in any place in Iraq cannot happen without its approval and coordination and full respect of Iraqi sovereignty," Abadi said in a statement. Carter offered few details, and declined to say how many U.S. troops would be deployed. Jafaar Hussaini, a spokesman for Kata'ib Hezbollah, one of the main Shi'ite militant groups, said that any such U.S. force would become a "primary target for our group." "We fought them [the U.S.] before and we are ready to resume fighting," he said. Carter said Turkey should become more active in the air war against ISIS, secure its border and go after the militant group's facilitators who "intrude" into the country. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- US pushes Turkey to seal border with Syria The Financial Times / December 1, 2015 The US publicly called on Turkey to do more to close its border with Syria, which has been a major conduit for the Isis to bring fighters and arms into the country. As the US announced it would send more special operations forces into Iraq and Syria to take on Isis, Obama said on Tuesday he has had “repeated conversations” with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging him block off the border to Isis. The signs of friction between the US and Turkey come as the US-led coalition is trying to launch a military operation to expel Isis from the last 98km strip of the Syria-Turkish border that it still controls. The US and Turkey have been discussing the operation for months and US-trained forces have begun fighting Isis in part of the area, however the military plans have been partly hampered by continued disagreements between Washington and Ankara. US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says “Turkey must do more to control its often porous border”. A senior US official said that the discussions with Turkey about the border zone had been a “hard slog”. The Turks have been pushing for a broader plan that would turn the area into a safe zone for refugees and rebel soldiers once Isis has been expelled. Carter said that the US was against the idea of a safe zone because of the difficulty of retaining control. He added that the Turks “have not offered a force of the size that would do that [secure the zone]”. The comments about Turkey’s role in the anti-Isis campaign came as Carter said a “specialized expeditionary targeting force” would be deployed to help Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting Isis and which could also be used in Syria as well. Carter also urged Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to do more to help the fight against ISIS, saying that in recent months they had been more focused on Yemen. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said Sunday it would send ground troops to Syria. Anwar Gargash, UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, said the UAE was pushing for a political deal, but would also back international efforts to set up a regionally led coalition to intervene on the ground to fight terrorism. Gargash said foreign interference such as a US-led ground intervention was no longer “feasible”, but the Saudi-led coalition — which includes the UAE — that is fighting Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen was “an alternative model for us as nations”.

Automotive News / December 1, 2015 Nearly a quarter of the 8,500 “new or secured” jobs that Ford Motor Co. promised the UAW in its newly ratified contract will be at the Louisville, Ky., plant that’s preparing to build aluminum-bodied Super Duty pickups. Ford today plans to announce a $1.3 billion investment in its Kentucky Truck Plant to support the redesigned Super Duty. It said the retooling and expansion, including a new body shop, will create 2,000 jobs at the plant, which currently employs about 4,400 workers. Most of the 2,000 jobs will be new hires, though some may be filled by employees moving from other plants, according to a source briefed on the plan. The jobs help Ford fulfill its commitments under the new UAW contract, but the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement, said much of the investment is tied to the previous contract signed in 2011. That deal promised a $621 million investment in Kentucky Truck, while the new contract earmarks an additional $600 million for the plant. “Adding new jobs and more investment at Kentucky Truck Plant not only secures a solid foundation for our UAW members, but also strengthens the communities in which they live, work and play,” UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles said in a statement released by Ford. Ford says the 2017 Super Duty, scheduled to go on sale late next year, will be up to 350 pounds lighter than the current version but have longer cabs and improved towing and payload capacity. Sources have told Automotive News that production will start in May. The changeover will be much faster and less disruptive than it was for the F-150, which involved several months of down time at two plants to convert their body shops and make other upgrades. Ford spent nearly $2 billion to upgrade its Kansas City Assembly and Dearborn Truck plants, along with related parts and stamping plants. By building a completely new body shop at Kentucky Truck, production of the current Super Duty can continue until the company commences production of the new version. That means Ford won’t have to manage inventories of the Super Duty as carefully. “It will be a normal launch,” CEO Mark Fields said on Ford’s third-quarter earnings call Oct. 27. “We’ll handle it during the shutdown periods, during the vacations, and we’ll be up and running.” The investment is expected to help prepare the plant for building aluminum-bodied Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators as soon as 2017. Ford has not confirmed reports in Automotive News and elsewhere that the next generation of its full-size SUVs, which are built alongside the Super Duty F-250, F-350, F-450 and F-550 pickups and chassis cabs, will have aluminum bodies. The UAW said Ford committed to keep building the Expedition and Navigator at Kentucky Truck with the help of a “major investment.” In addition, Ford told the UAW it would invest $700 million in the nearby Louisville Assembly Plant, which will soon start building the refreshed Escape crossover. At Kentucky Truck, filings that Ford made in September with Louisville economic development officials show a 288,715-square-foot expansion to the existing 6 million square feet, according to Louisville Business First. “This tremendous investment and commitment to new job creation reconfirms the strength of a more than century-long relationship between Kentucky and Ford Motor Co.,” Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said in Ford’s statement today. The Super Duty accounts for roughly one third of total F-series sales, which were up 1.5 percent to 629, 951 vehicles this year through October.

The Wall Street Journal / November 30. 2015 Norway and other state-run health systems drive hard bargains, and are willing to say no to costly therapy Norway, an oil producer with one of the world’s richest economies, is an expensive place to live. A Big Mac costs $5.65. A gallon of gasoline costs $6. But one thing is far cheaper than in the U.S.: prescription drugs. A vial of the cancer drug Rituxan cost Norway’s taxpayer-funded health system $1,527 in the third quarter of 2015, while the U.S. Medicare program paid $3,678. An injection of the asthma drug Xolair cost Norway $463, which was 46% less than Medicare paid for it. Drug prices in the U.S. are shrouded in mystery, obscured by confidential rebates, multiple middlemen and the strict guarding of trade secrets. But for certain drugs—those paid for by Medicare Part B—prices are public. By stacking these against pricing in three foreign health systems, as discovered in nonpublic and public data, The Wall Street Journal was able to pinpoint international drug-cost differences and what lies behind them. What it found, in the case of Norway, was that U.S. prices were higher for 93% of 40 top branded drugs available in both countries in the third quarter. Similar patterns appeared when U.S. prices were compared with those in England and Canada’s Ontario province. Throughout the developed world, branded prescription drugs are generally cheaper than in the U.S. The upshot is Americans fund much of the global drug industry’s earnings, and its efforts to find new medicines. “The U.S. is responsible for the majority of profits for most large pharmaceutical companies,” said Richard Evans, a health-care analyst at SSR LLC and a former pricing official at drug maker Roche Holding AG . The reasons the U.S. pays more are rooted in philosophical and practical differences in the way its health system provides benefits, in the drug industry’s political clout and in many Americans’ deep aversion to the notion of rationing. The state-run health systems in Norway and many other developed countries drive hard bargains with drug companies: setting price caps, demanding proof of new drugs’ value in comparison to existing ones and sometimes refusing to cover medicines they doubt are worth the cost. The government systems also are the only large drug buyers in most of these countries, giving them substantial negotiating power. The U.S. market, by contrast, is highly fragmented, with bill payers ranging from employers to insurance companies to federal and state governments. Medicare, the largest single U.S. payer for prescription drugs, is by law unable to negotiate pricing. For Medicare Part B, companies report the average price at which they sell medicines to doctors’ offices or to distributors that sell to doctors. By law, Medicare adds 6% to these prices before reimbursing the doctors. Beneficiaries are responsible for 20% of the cost. The arrangement means Medicare is essentially forfeiting its buying power, leaving bargaining to doctors’ offices that have little negotiating heft, said Sean Sullivan, dean of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Washington. Asked to comment on the higher prices Medicare pays compared with foreign countries, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said: “The payment rate for Medicare Part B drugs is specified in statute.” In the U.S., few payers, public or private, cite cost as a reason to deny drug coverage, partly owing to a traditional emphasis in the U.S. on doctor and patient autonomy. “They don’t want to impinge on individual choices,” said Neeraj Sood, a health policy and economics expert at the University of Southern California. Medicare Part B, for example, typically covers drugs and services deemed “reasonable and necessary.” “If it’s a [Food and Drug Administration]-approved drug and prescribed by a duly licensed physician, Medicare will cover it,” said Gail Wilensky, who ran Medicare and Medicaid in the 1990s. U.S. drug prices—showing regular increases, sometimes steep—are increasingly a focus of congressional probes and vocal criticism by insurers, doctors, politicians and consumers, who bear part of the cost. Renee Andrews, an Oxford, Mich., resident whose son has juvenile arthritis and other conditions, said she can’t believe how low medication costs are for families overseas who post messages in her online support group. “Their out-of-pocket costs are considerably less than what we’re paying,” she said. Research spending The pharmaceutical industry says controls such as those seen in Europe discourage investment in research and deny patients access to some drugs. “The U.S. has a competitive biopharmaceutical marketplace that works to control costs while encouraging the development of new treatments and cures,” said Lori Reilly, an executive at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade association. If U.S. pricing fell to European levels, the industry would almost certainly cut its R&D spending, said Mr. Evans, the health-care analyst. “Does the U.S. subsidize global research? Absolutely, yes,” he said. The higher U.S. prices also help drug makers afford hefty marketing budgets that in the U.S. include consumer advertising—something Europe doesn’t allow. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the S&P 1500 earn an average net profit margin of 16%, compared with an average of about 7% for all companies in the index, according to S&P Capital IQ. For its analysis, the Journal started with Medicare Part B’s top drugs by payments to medical practices in 2013, the latest such data available. These are mostly drugs administered in a doctor’s office. Costs of drugs sold by U.S. pharmacies are harder to compare because of discounts and rebates. After excluding drugs that faced generic competition in 2015 and those for which prices elsewhere weren’t available, the Journal compared 2015 third-quarter prices paid in the various jurisdictions. The analysis didn’t examine Medicare’s coverage of pharmacy-dispensed drugs, known as Part D, which is run by insurance companies that don’t reveal their pricing. Some drugs, such as for HIV and hepatitis, cost less in certain overseas markets because companies cut prices for poor countries. Norway is a wealthy nation, with gross domestic product per capita of $97,000 last year, versus $55,000 in the U.S., according to the World Bank. In Norway the state pays for most prescription drugs, though patients pay for some used for short periods. The government controls costs in part by setting maximum prices. To do that, it reviews prices in nine neighboring countries and takes the average of the three lowest. Cost-effectiveness This system automatically holds prices low because the countries consulted also have government-controlled prices. The Norwegian Medicines Agency, or NMA, then reviews patient data to decide whether a new drug is cost-effective. Its maker must request a reimbursement price at or under the maximum Norway has set and submit a detailed comparison of the drug’s cost and benefits versus existing treatments. Companies have teams of number crunchers to produce these comparisons, which can also prove useful in pitching products in the U.S. Norway recommends that companies describe a drug’s cost per quality-adjusted life year, or QALY, a gauge used by many government health systems. Medicare is barred from using this gauge as a threshold to determining coverage. Companies know Norway will sometimes deny coverage, and this threat is often “enough to get them to offer a discount,” said Kristin Svanqvist, head of reimbursement at the NMA. If rejected, they can offer a lower price. When Amgen Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC sought coverage of the osteoporosis injection Prolia for certain women, the NMA concluded it wasn’t cost-effective compared with an existing infusion called Aclasta. Aclasta is a different type of drug, a bisphosphonate. These have an advantage in binding to the bone, the NMA said in a 2011 report on Prolia, and protect against fractures for a longer time after treatment stops. After Norway’s rejection, Amgen and Glaxo lowered Prolia’s price, according to Ms. Svanqvist. The NMA then ruled the health system would provide it for women 75 or older, for whom it appeared to work somewhat better, she said. A syringe of Prolia cost Norway $260 in the third quarter. By the Journal analysis, that was 71% less than the $893 paid by Medicare, which doesn’t set an age test. Amgen said, “We partner with local payers in Europe to help ensure that all appropriate patients who could benefit will have access to an important new therapy.” Glaxo referred questions to Amgen, to whom it sold Prolia’s Norwegian marketing rights in 2014. If a manufacturer won’t budge on price, Norway might refuse to cover a drug altogether. It did that with a brand of insulin called Tresiba. Producer Novo Nordisk A/S said Tresiba reduced nighttime dips in blood sugar better than other insulins and therefore was a good value. Ms. Svanqvist of the NMA called the documentation of this “quite lousy.” “We think the reduction is actually quite low,” she said, and not “worth paying 70% more for.” A spokesman for Novo Nordisk said it believes the drug provides better outcomes and is therefore cost-effective. He also said Norway didn’t ask the company to cut the price. The way things often work, said Ms. Svanqvist, is that when drug companies are told a product isn’t cost-effective, they can provide more proof, and “if they don’t have better documentation they can only do something about the price. Very often they do something about the price.” Denying patients access to drugs can be contentious. When Norway last year declined to cover Roche’s injected breast-cancer drug Perjeta because of its cost, “patients and physicians were on television and demonstrating a lot,” Ms. Svanqvist said. Roche agreed to a discount provided the NMA kept the terms confidential, which it grudgingly agreed to do, according to Ms. Svanqvist. The agreement means Perjeta costs Norway less than the drug’s maximum allowed price in the country, which was $3,579 for a vial in the third quarter. Medicare paid $4,222. Roche said Perjeta has shown strong efficacy, and the firm and Norway reached an agreement to make it available. While U.S. payers sound dire warnings of unsustainable drug pricing, the tone in Oslo is much calmer. “We have a system that has been working quite well,” said Helga Festoy, an economist at the NMA. Norway’s cost-effectiveness reviews sometimes cite the work of England’s health-care cost watchdog, known as one of Europe’s toughest. England’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, or NICE, conducts extensive analyses and recommends that the taxpayer-funded health system not cover drugs providing low value. Sometimes after one is rejected, its maker offers a discount. England also controls prices by capping the level of National Health Service spending on drugs each year and requiring the pharmaceutical industry to reimburse the NHS for any spending over those limits. Of 40 branded drugs covered by Medicare Part B and also available in England in the third quarter, 98% were more expensive in the U.S., according to the Journal’s analysis of data from Medicare and the NHS’s Business Services Authority. For instance, two syringes of Cimzia, an anti-inflammatory for rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases, cost England’s health-care system $1,117—less than half the $2,357 Medicare paid, the Journal found. An NHS spokeswoman said prices it publishes are “indicative,” and vary in some situations. Cimzia is sold by Belgian company UCB SA. It didn’t respond to requests for comment. Canada doesn’t have a single large pharmaceutical payer, but drug prices are substantially lower nonetheless, held in check by regulation. A federal agency called the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board sets a maximum price for new drugs, based on factors including their therapeutic benefits and the prices in seven other countries—the U.S. and six European ones. Once a drug’s maximum price is set, the maker can’t raise it faster than the national inflation rate or above the highest price in the seven other countries. A separate body, the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, recommends whether provincial and other government health programs should cover new drugs for the elderly or for low-income residents. Government agencies in Canada don’t cover most drug costs for most other people. One such program is run by Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Of 30 drugs that both it and Medicare Part B covered in the third quarter, 93% were more expensive in the U.S., according to the Journal’s analysis. Countries with national health systems tend to feel “we are all in this together” and “we can’t afford everything for everybody at any price,” said Steven Pearson, a physician who founded the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, a Boston nonprofit that evaluates the cost-effectiveness of health care. “In America it’s more, ‘Well, I’ve paid my insurance premium and I don’t want anyone to tell me no. I don’t want anyone to get in the way of me and my doctor.’ ” .

CNN / November 30, 2015 An e-mail chain at the center of Republican criticism of Hillary Clinton's handling of the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was released by the State Department on Monday. Clinton e-mailed her daughter Chelsea -- who was using the pseudonym "Diane Reynolds" – saying that the attack was launched by "an Al Queda-like group." She also expresses her grief at the loss of two American diplomats, U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and Sean Smith, an information management officer. Two other Americans, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, died later that night after they came to the aid of diplomats at the compound. "Very hard day and I fear more of the same tomorrow," Clinton wrote. Rep. Jim Jordan, a member of the Select Committee on Benghazi, first brought the exchange to light last month during Clinton's marathon 11-hour testimony on the attacks. "You tell the American people one thing," said Jordan, "you tell your family an entirely different story." On the same night Clinton e-mailed her daughter, she also released a public statement condemning the attack, which noted, "Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet." In the days and weeks that followed, the administration struggled to explain the attacks, and came under a firestorm of criticism for drawing a connection between the attack and an anti-Islam video released in the United States. In last month's hearing, Jordan alleged that Clinton deliberately misled the American people by implying the attack erupted out of protests related to the video. "You can live with a protest about a video," said Jordan. "That won't hurt you. But a terrorist attack will, so you can't be square with the American people. You tell your family it's a terrorist attack, but not the American people." Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Clinton "admitted she had sent e-mails to her family saying, 'Hey, this attack at Benghazi was caused by al Qaeda-like elements.'" "She spent over a week telling the families of those victims and the American people that it was because of a video," he said. "And yet the mainstream media is going around saying it was the greatest week in Hillary Clinton's campaign. It was the week she got exposed as a liar."

U.S. offers reward for guns stolen from Massachusetts Army center Reuters / November 30, 2015 The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Monday it was offering a $15,000 reward for tips leading to the recovery of six handguns stolen from a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Massachusetts earlier this month. Sixteen weapons, including six M-4 rifles and 10 9 mm Sig Sauer pistols, were stolen from the facility in Worcester, about 45 miles (72 km) west of Boston, on Nov. 14. Ten of the weapons, including all the rifles, were recovered in New York early last week, following the arrest of a suspect in the theft. "We're asking anyone with information about the location of these weapons to come forward, and anyone who may have access to these weapons to turn them in to either the FBI or their local police department," said Harold Shaw, the FBI's special agent in charge in Boston. The suspect, 34-year-old James Morales was arrested on Nov. 19 and charged with stealing the guns after breaking into the facility through a kitchen window, federal prosecutors said, citing surveillance video and an electronic monitoring bracelet Morales had been ordered to wear by a court. Morales had gone to the facility earlier that week to pick up copies of his military discharge papers.

Kansas father murders 7-year-old son, feeds body to pigs Associated Press / November 29, 2015 Police say a man beat his seven-year-old son to death and fed his remains to pigs. Michael A. Jones, 44, of Piper, Kansas has been arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a firearm, aggravated battery and child abuse after cops responded to a domestic violence call on Wednesday. Jones had shot at his 29-year-old wife, Heather Jones. As the investigation progressed, authorities got a tip to check the property for the remains of Jones' seven-year-old son, who had been missing for several months. The next day, authorities found human remains near a barn on Jones’ property where he lived with his wife and eight children ranging in ages from one to 11. Police have upgraded the charges against Jones to 'torturing or cruelly beating' his missing son. Heather Jones is the boy’s stepmother. The other eight children reportedly lived in deplorable conditions and were allegedly home schooled. Michael Williams, the brother of Jones' wife, said his sister and the children endured years of abuse at the hands of Jones. 'There are bullet holes in the walls of that house. So I'm sure you can understand what terror may have been going through that household daily.' A former babysitter said “Heather Jones didn’t like any of Jones’ kids. She always treated the 7-year-old differently and was mean to him. He would stand in the corner for hours at a time. He would tell me he’s hungry… and I’d sneak him food.” Jones, the owner of a bail bonding business, is being held at the Wyandotte County Jail on a bond of $10million. Video - http://us.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/11/29/kansas-city-man-accused-of-feeding-sons-to-pigs-pkg.kctv .

Prime Mover Magazine / December 1, 2015 With demand for its rental and leasing services accelerating, Penske Truck Rental has announced that it will open a new facility in Adelaide in the second quarter of 2016. “We’ve had great feedback from customers in our three current markets. Our expansion to Adelaide in 2016 comes in direct response to the growth in our customer base, and demand for our products and services,” said Brendan Porter, Rental Manager, Penske Truck Rental. With a focus on customer service excellence and making business easy for its customers, Penske Truck Rental works one-on-one with operators, big or small, to find tailored solutions to their unique rental or leasing requirements. The Adelaide site is the fourth Penske Truck Rental branch to open since it entered the market in August 2014. “We’re excited to take the Penske Truck Rental brand to Adelaide in 2016 and co-locate with Penske Power Systems,” said Adrian Beach, General Manager, Penske Truck Rental. “It’s part of our commitment to grow our business footprint through key locations in Australia while also helping our customers to build their businesses as well.” The fourth Penske Truck Rental outlet will be located at 103-107 West Avenue, in the outer northern suburb of Edinburgh, Adelaide, and will add to the current list of locations in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane Additional photograph - http://blog.gopenske.com/wp-content/uploads/Penske-Australia-Star-Brisbane.jpg .

Forbes / November 10, 2015 DEA maps reveal the depth of Mexican cartel operations in the United States. Why did government allow it to happen in the first place? Why hasn’t government “grabbed the bull by the horns” and eradicated this? Fugitive Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has been labeled the greatest criminal drug threat to the U.S. Now for the first time, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has revealed the extent of that threat: Guzmán’s multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise, the Sinaloa Cartel, dominates the lucrative illegal drug market in nearly the entire United States, including Alaska and Hawaii (http://www.dea.gov/docs/dir06515.pdf). “The Sinaloa Cartel maintains the most significant presence in the U.S. They are the dominant TCO [Transnational Criminal Organization] along the West Coast, through the Midwest, and into the Northeast,” the DEA said in its most recent unclassified report “Unites States: Areas of Influence of Major Mexican Transnational Criminal Organization,” released by their Strategic Intelligence Section in July. As head of the Sinaloa Cartel, an international criminal organization with billions of dollars in revenues, El Chapo has long been considered the #1 supplier of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines into the United States. The report confirms this with a set of colored maps that help visualized how massive Guzmán’s influence is in each specific area of the U.S. “‘El Chapo’ Guzmán is the world’s #1 drug criminal,” DEA spokesperson Rusty Payne told me. “El Chapo has facilitated a lot of American deaths through the violence of people that work for him.” In July, Guzmán escaped from a Mexican high-security prison through a hole in his shower connected to a clandestine tunnel. The 17 months Guzmán was in jail (he was arrested early 2014) had no impact in diminishing his presence on the U.S. illegal drug market. Guzmán’s hiding place remains unknown, despite a massive international manhunt and millions of dollars in rewards for information leading to his arrest. Press reports have placed him anywhere from the mountains of his native Sinaloa to the border of Argentina and Chile. Guzmán’s jail break was not only an embarrassment for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who promised he would not escape, but a display of the massive power the world’s most notorious kingpin wields inside Mexico. His escape showed that authorities were incapable of keeping him behind bars. While rival Mexican criminal organizations, such as the Gulf, Juárez and Zetas cartels, limit their areas of influence to the Southwest of the United States, nearly the entire U.S. is under the influence of the Sinaloa cartel, according to the DEA. As of May 2015, the DEA identified eight Mexican cartels operating inside the U.S.: the Sinaloa Cartel, Gulf Cartel, Juárez Cartel, Knights Templar, the Beltran-Leyva Organization, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Los Zetas and Las Moicas. “No other group is currently positioned to challenge them,” the DEA said in its report. It calls the Mexican cartels the single largest drug threat to America. The DEA also confirmed the leading role played by the Sinaloa Cartel in the heroin market. Increased demand for, and use of, heroin is being driven by both increasing availability of heroin in the U.S. market and by some prescription drug abusers switching to heroin, DEA says. As a result heroin is being used by a larger number of people, and is causing an increasing number of overdose deaths than previous years, the report warns. As conveyed in the second map, the Mexican criminal groups are now the most prominent wholesale-level heroin traffickers in Chicago, New Jersey and Philadelphia, with the Sinaloa cartel dominating the market. According to the DEA in 2013, 8,257 Americans died from heroin-related overdoses; that was nearly triple the number in 2010. The map shows that the highest rates of overdose deaths in 2013 took place in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York. The Sinaloa Cartel has been linked to the heroin epidemic in the East Coast and Midwest. In 2013, the DEA estimated that more than 50% of the heroin sold in the U.S. came from Mexico. The only anomalies appear to be in New Mexico and Texas, where both the Juarez and Gulf cartels dominate the drug market. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 517,000 people used heroin in 2012, a 150% increase from 2007. Related reading - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/41155-the-us-is-bordering-a-war-zone/?hl=cartel .

Paccar Press Release / November 30, 2015 Leyland Trucks in the United Kingdom has produced its 400,000th commercial vehicle, since the opening of the current assembly facility in 1980. The milestone vehicle, a DAF XF 460 FTP tractor unit, was handed over to customer Carr’s Flour of Silloth in Cumbria, located in the North-West of the country. Carr’s Flour is a renowned supplier of wheat sourced on national and international markets and delivered to a wide variety of customers from home and independent bakers to major food retailers. The company operates state-of-the-art milling installations, which process some 300,000 tons of wheat per year. For regional and national distribution Carr’s Flour relies on a fleet of 30 trucks, mainly DAF CF and XF models. “I’m very proud indeed to be a DAF operator,” said Steven Mattinson, transport manager at Carr’s Flour. “My company has a long history of acquiring British-built trucks, and it’s fantastic to see Leyland Trucks thriving today. A DAF truck is built to the very highest quality standards. It is built to last, while offering highest efficiency through high fuel efficiency and low operating cost.” The facility of Leyland Trucks was commissioned in 1980 and is one of Britain’s leading manufacturing sites. It is the center of production of the popular DAF LF distribution truck and also manufactures right-hand-drive DAF CF and XF models for the UK home market and for export markets around the globe. “Production of the 400,000th vehicle is a notable milestone for the company”, said Leyland Trucks managing director, Bryan Sitko. “It is first and foremost a recognition for the almost 1,000 employees, who supply our customers with trucks of the highest quality.” .

Transport Topics / November 30, 2015 FedEx Corp and Dutch counterpart TNT Express have won U.S. antitrust permission to merge, according to a listing of approved deals the Federal Trade Commission issued Nov. 24. The European Union has yet to sign off on the proposed transaction, although the companies have said they received assurances that EU antitrust regulators would allow it to go forward. In early November, the companies announced that the FedEx tender offer had been extended until Jan. 8 to allow more time for completion of regulatory reviews in countries such as China and Brazil. The companies announced in April that FedEx would buy TNT for $4.9 billion in order to better compete in Europe. The deal should catapult FedEx to second place in Europe behind Deutsche Post's DHL.

Russia arms Su-34s with air-to-air missiles in Syria for 1st time Russian Su-34 bombers, additionally equipped with air-to-air missiles, have set out on their first mission in Syria. The decision results from the downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber by Turkish F-16s on November 24. “Today, Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers have made their first sortie equipped not only with high explosive aviation bombs and hollow charge bombs, but also with short- and medium-range air-to-air missiles," said Igor Klimov, spokesman for the Russian Air Force. "The planes are equipped with missiles for defensive purposes," he added. The missiles have target-seeking devices and are “capable of hitting air targets within a 60km radius,” he said.

Isis: The munitions trail The Financial Times / November 30, 2015 As a known arms dealer for rebels fighting Isis in his east Syrian home town, Abu Ali was sure his days were numbered when, a year ago, two jihadi commanders stepped out of their pickup truck and walked towards him. He was baffled when they handed him a printed paper. “It read, ‘This person is permitted to buy and sell all types of weaponry inside the Islamic State,’” recalls Abu Ali. “It was even stamped ‘Mosul Centre’.” Rather than being detained or expelled as they had feared when the jihadi group swept through eastern Syria last year, many black-market traders such as Abu Ali were courted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis). They were absorbed into a complex system of supply and demand that keeps the world’s richest jihadi group stocked with munitions across a self-proclaimed “caliphate” spanning half of Syria and a third of Iraq. “They buy like mad. They buy every day: morning, afternoon and night,” says Abu Ali, who, like others who have operated inside Isis territories, asked not to be identified by his real name. Isis seized hundreds of millions dollars worth of weapons when it captured Iraq’s second city, Mosul, in the summer of 2014. Since then, in every battle that it has won, it has acquired more material. Its arsenal includes US-made Abrams tanks, M16 rifles, MK-19 40mm grenade launchers (seized from the Iraqi army) and Russian M-46 130mm field guns (taken from Syrian forces). But dealers say despite this, there is one thing Isis still needs: ammunition. Most in demand are rounds for Kalashnikov assault rifles, medium-calibre machine guns and 14.5mm and 12.5mm anti-aircraft guns. Isis also buys rocket-propelled grenades and sniper bullets, but in smaller quantities. It is difficult to calculate the exact sums involved in Isis’s multimillion dollar munitions trade. Earlier this year, skirmishes along the front lines near the eastern city of Deir Ezzor — just one of many Isis battlefields — required at least $1m-worth of munitions each month, according to interviews with fighters and dealers. A week-long December offensive on the nearby airport alone required another $1m, they said. Isis’s need for ammunition reflects its battle tactics: the group relies heavily on truck bombs, suicide vests and improvised explosives during both advances and retreats. But the fast-paced fighting in between — mostly with Kalashnikovs and truck-mounted machine guns — can consume tens of thousands of bullets in a single day. Fighters say that ammunition trucks resupply various front lines every day. To secure this supply, Isis runs a complex logistics operation, which fighters say is so critical that it is directly overseen by the higher military council that is part of the group’s top leadership. This is similar to the way it controls the trade in oil, the group’s main source of revenue. The best sources of ammunition are Isis’s enemies. Pro-government militia in Iraq sell some supplies to black marketeers, who then sell on to Isis dealers. Most of all, Isis fighters rely on their rivals in Syria’s three-way war between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and the rebels fighting to topple both him and Isis. This is where Syrian arms dealers play a critical role. Abu Ali fled when asked to join their ranks but Abu Omar, a veteran black marketeer in his sixties, plunged into the trade. “We could buy from the regime, the Iraqis, the rebels — if we could buy from the Israelis, they wouldn’t care, as long as they got the weapons,” says Abu Omar. Speaking to the Financial Times while knocking back whiskies at a bar in Turkey, he recounts his year as a gunrunner for Isis. He abandoned the trade in August, he says, after deciding Isis was “oppressive”. Isis commanders provide stamped IDs for traders who have been officially approved by two members of Isis’s security branches. The group then imposes an exclusivity clause: the gun-runners can move freely and ply their trade — as long as Isis is the only customer. The jihadis’ opponents are intrigued by the group’s ability to move huge supplies of munitions quickly during fighting. In northern Iraq, Kurdish peshmerga fighters recovered detailed documents of weapons and ammunition shipments outlining orders that had been made for the battles that had just ended. “Within 24 hours, the ammunition was sent to them by car,” says one security official in Iraq, who asked not to be named. Fighters and dealers credit the speed to the jihadis’ communications systems. A roving “committee” appointed by the top military council in Iraq speaks constantly with weapons “centres” in each province, they say, which in turn take requests from military emirs. Exchanges between emirs and the “centres” can sometimes be heard on walkie-talkie frequencies by their enemies. From the Iraqi-Syrian border, Kurdish peshmerga fighters huddle around a device tuned to a crackling Isis frequency, as fighters shout for “kebab”, “chicken tikka” and “salad”. “Kebab is probably a heavy machine gun,” says Abu Ahmad, a rebel commander from eastern Syria who fought under Isis until he fled to Turkey this summer. “The salad would be Kalashnikov ammunition. You’ve got explosive bullets, penetrating bullets — a mix, just like salad,” he laughs. Abu Omar says he contacted the centres using WhatsApp, the mobile texting service. Every few days the roving committee issues price lists that the centres use for the bullets and grenades that are most in demand. The centre to which Abu Omar reported would text him any price updates. Dealers say their commission ranged from 10 to 20 per cent. Prices are rising as US-backed coalition fighters drive the group farther from the Turkish border, limiting potential smuggling routes, Abu Ahmad told the FT. Isis has issued more licences to boost competition and lower prices, one dealer complained, leading arms traders to jostle for the same deals. Most munitions come from Syria, now a source of weapons for the wider region. Gulf backers send their favourite rebel groups truckloads of munitions over the Turkish border. Corrupt fighters divert some to local dealers; the border provinces of Idlib and Aleppo have now become the biggest black market in the country, say locals. Ideology hardly matters after five years of war, Abu Ahmad says. “Some (dealers) even hate Isis. But that doesn’t matter when it comes to making a profit.” Dealers use a network of drivers and smugglers to hide munitions in trucks delivering civilian goods such as vegetables and materials for construction. “You have trucks moving in and out like crazy. They are always using things that aren’t suspect,” says Abu Ahmad. “Fuel trucks are used a lot, because they come back to Isis territory empty.” Munitions from Moscow and Tehran that are meant for Mr Assad are another top source of weaponry bought on the black market, often in areas such as southern Suwaida. “They like Russian products,” says Abu Omar. “The Iranian stuff they will buy — but only cheaply.” In an area with few economic opportunities left, stopping the trade becomes all the more challenging. Every time an arms trader flees, many more are desperate for a chance to make money. “Today, it’s all about money. Nobody cares who you are . . . They just care about the dollar,” said Abu Omar. ISIS Bombs The bombs that have made Isis infamous in battle are also the most difficult part of the group’s supply chain to disrupt. Experts at the UK-based Conflict Armament Research group (CAR), which has been working with the Kurdistan Region Security Council in Iraq to track Isis munitions, say Isis buys and uses almost anything to make bombs. “We’ve seen everything from mobile phones and Motorola walkie-talkies to garage door openers and circuit boards of laptops,” says James Bevan, director of CAR, which is tracking Isis ammunitions and explosives on abandoned battlegrounds with the support of the Kurdistan Region Security Council in Iraq. Many of the goods that the group is buying — such as electronics that are made into bomb triggers — are so innocuous they are near-impossible to control. Other materials, such as aluminium oxide and fertiliser, which CAR has found to be chemicals that Isis often seeks beyond its borders, have legitimate commercial uses in mining or agriculture, making them difficult to to crack down on. These materials come from all over the world, says one Iraqi official: “Just put your finger on a map, and they’ve got something from there.” There are a number of conduits used to get these materials to Isis. The biggest by far is Turkey. CAR discovered that some Turkish companies buying demolition and mining materials, for example, are selling to clients who then secretly pass them on to the jihadi group. The range of materials that Isis accesses through its frontmen gives a sense of how difficult it is to stop the flow. The FT has discovered the case of a businessman in the southern Turkish town of Akcakale who disappeared four months ago after it was discovered he was purchasing plumbing pipes and fertiliser that his employees say were sent on to Isis. CAR has also documented cases of chemicals and agricultural products such fertiliser coming into Isis hands after passing through Lebanon and Iraq. The group uses these materials to make large quantities of bombs. CAR researchers entered an abandoned bomb facility in Iraq with Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces and found enough explosives to fill half a 20-foot shipping container. Abu Ahmed, a rebel commander who fought with Isis for a year, says the group even has facilities to make armour for the vehicles that it makes into car bombs. “They want to be sure the suicide bomber driving the car reaches his target without being shot,” he says. “Whereas I’ve almost never seen them armour the vehicles they actually use to drive around.” .

U.S. tightens visa waiver program in wake of Paris attacks Reuters / November 30, 2015 The White House announced changes to the U.S. visa waiver program on Monday so that security officials can more closely screen travelers from 38 countries allowed to enter the United States without obtaining visas before they travel. Andorra Australia Austria Belgium Brunei Chile Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Japan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Monaco Netherlands New Zealand Norway Portugal San Marino Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan United Kingdom Under the new measures, which were prompted by the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris by Islamic State militants, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would immediately start to collect more information from travelers about past visits to countries such as Syria and Iraq, the White House said. The changes will "enhance our ability to thwart terrorist attempts to travel on lost or stolen passports," says White House spokesman Josh Earnest. The DHS would also look at pilot programs for collecting biometric information such as fingerprints from visa waiver travelers, the White House said. The DHS would also ask Congress for additional powers, including the authority to increase fines for air carriers that fail to verify passport data, and the ability to require all travelers to use passports with embedded security chips, the White House said. The White House also wants to expand the use of a "preclearance program" in foreign airports to allow U.S. border officials to collect and screen biometric information before visa waiver travelers can board airplanes to the United States. Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House Majority Leader, said on Monday that lawmakers were interested in requiring all countries in the waiver program to issue “e-passports” with chips and biometrics. One change would be to make sure that passengers were screened against a database of lost and stolen passports. After the Paris attacks, the House passed a bill that would bar refugees from Syria and Iraq from entering the United States until security officials certify that they are not threats. The bill would cripple Obama's plan to accept 10,000 refugees in the next year and he has vowed to veto it. But the White House has decided to [ignore the congressional bill barring refugees and] give regular updates to state governors about refugees who resettle in their states, Earnest said. U.S. officials have quietly acknowledged that they are far more worried about the possibility that would-be attackers from the Islamic State or other militant groups could enter the United States as travelers from visa waiver countries rather than as Syrian refugees. The U.S. government [allegedly] takes 18 to 24 months to screen would-be Syrian refugees before they are allowed to board flights to the United States. In contrast, an estimated 20 million people fly to the United States each year from visa waiver countries such as France and Britain. Officials have acknowledged that a European traveling to Syria to train with a group like Islamic State might be able to later enter the United States without significant scrutiny, if they are not already known to U.S. intelligence or partners such as Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 or France's DGSI.

Newborn buried alive under rubble, abandoned Associated Press / November 29, 2015 The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Saturday found a newborn baby buried alive near the Los Angeles River in Compton, California. Police responded to calls on Friday around 4 p.m. after passersby heard the cries of a child along the bike path that runs at the edge of the LA River. As searched, deputies heard a baby’s muffled cry and located a newborn baby girl buried alive under pieces of asphalt and rubble inside a crevice located along a bike path. Deputies removed the rubble and pulled the baby out. The baby girl, believed to be 24 to 36 hours old when found, was wrapped in a blanket and cold to the touch. Deputy Adam Collette says that when he removed asphalt and rubble covering the child and held her, he could see the relief in her face. The girl was triaged at the scene and taken to the hospital for observation. Doctors say the baby might have died within hours had she not been discovered. The mother, Porche Laronda Washington, 33, was arrested Thursday and is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood. Washington faces charges of attempted murder and child endangerment.

New York woman murders newborn Associated Press / November 30, 2015 A young woman gave birth in a convenience store where she worked, killed the baby and dumped his body in a garbage bin outside, authorities said Monday. Tara Tomlin, 20, of Livingston, was charged with second-degree murder on Saturday, a day after state police say her newborn son's body was found in a plastic bag in a trash bin outside an Xtra Mart in her Hudson Valley hometown. Troopers said they found the body early Friday during a search that was prompted by a 911 call from someone saying he suspected there was a baby outside the store. An autopsy determined the baby died from asphyxiation, police said. Tomlin was being held without bail Monday in the Columbia County Jail.

Clinton vows hundreds of billions for infrastructure, jobs Associated Press / November 29, 2015 Hillary Clinton unveiled the first piece of a new jobs agenda on Sunday, promising hundreds of billions of dollars in fresh federal spending in an effort to compete with the liberal economic policies of her primary challengers. Her initial proposal, a $275 billion infrastructure plan, falls short of the $1 trillion pledged by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to rebuild the nation's crumbling bridges, ports, highways and airports. But it marks an effort by Clinton to fulfill her party's desire to use national programs to boost the middle class without alienating independent voters more concerned with increasing the federal deficit. Already Clinton has proposed an array of new federal programs, including a $350 billion college affordability plan. Other new policies, like universal pre-K, combating substance abuse and expanding family leave, could add hundreds of billions in spending. Clinton aides say her economic initiatives will be the most expensive of her campaign and plan to roll out proposals for new investments in manufacturing and research in the coming weeks. On Sunday, Clinton added a pledge to give all American households access to high-speed Internet by 2020. So far, she's offered few specifics about how she'd fund her plans. Her campaign said that her infrastructure proposal would be paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes but didn't detail which breaks would be targeted. At the same time, Clinton has pledged to roll out hundreds of billions of dollars in middle-class tax cuts, saying she'd increase taxes on the wealthy to fund the new breaks. She's vowed not to raise taxes on families earning less than $250,000 a year, using that pledge to draw a contrast with Sanders. Clinton says Sanders would require middle-class Americans to pay higher taxes to fund his single-payer health care plan, a charge his campaign disputes. "I'm the only Democrat in this race pledged to raise your income, not your taxes," Clinton said. But Sanders argues that Americans want the federal government to do more to help working Americans, who've spent years struggling through a sluggish economic recovery. His policies include a $750 billion debt-free college plan and $5.5 billion youth jobs program. He's not detailed the cost of his single-payer health care plan, but his campaign says it would save taxpayers money in the long run because it would eliminate wasteful health spending. "Let me also say that if these were normal times, many people in our country could be supportive of establishment politics, establishment economics and establishment foreign policy," he told New Hampshire Democrats. "But these are not normal times." Clinton's infrastructure proposal allocates $250 billion in direct investment by the federal government over the next five years. An additional $25 billion would fund a national infrastructure bank, an idea unveiled by President Barack Obama in his first term that has been blocked repeatedly by congressional Republicans. The bank would support $225 billion in loans intended to spur private investment in struggling projects, adding a total of $500 billion in new infrastructure funds into the economy, Clinton’s campaign estimates.

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Associated Press / November 29, 2015 Somewhere in America, a tractor-trailer loaded with hidden surveillance equipment is parked at a truck stop or warehouse while authorities wait for thieves to steal it. No one is sure when, or even if, crooks will take it. But such "sting trailers" have been successful in busting up crime rings and recovering pilfered merchandise. "It's like fishing," said D.Z. Patterson, an investigator for Travelers insurance. "You've got your worm in the water, but there are hundreds of other worms out there. They have to pick yours." Cargo theft has become a huge problem that the FBI says causes $15 billion to $30 billion in losses each year in the U.S. Law enforcement and the insurance industry are fighting back by tempting thieves with "sting trailers" laden with cameras and GPS tracking devices, hidden within both the trailers and the inventory they contain. The prevention efforts aren't new, but the reason for them is particularly acute during the holiday shopping season, when such thefts tend to increase as crooks look to score from retailers loading up on merchandise, according to FreightWatch International, a security company based in Austin, Texas. Over time, the sting trailers have given authorities a glimpse into how this breed of thief operates and helped truck owners improve security. Thieves prefer nondescript trailers that would be hard to identify after being stolen, so it's best if a brand name or distinctive markings are emblazoned on the sides. Hidden cameras have recorded which locks are problematic for crooks, leading anti-fraud specialists to recommend truck owners install the highest-tech locks. And, officials have learned, it's better to hide GPS tracking systems as best you can, because the criminals know what they look like and how to disable them. New York-based Travelers Cos., which has a large office in Hartford, believes it is the only insurance company using a sting trailer, though a handful of others are used by law enforcement agencies and retail and trucking companies. Its trailer was developed in 2008 at the company's Windsor, Connecticut, lab and is equipped with $100,000 worth of surveillance gear. Law enforcement agencies nationwide have used it hundreds of times, resulting in dozens of arrests. "The primary purpose is to assist law enforcement in targeting organized cargo rings," said Scott Cornell, a theft investigator for Travelers. "Every time the sting trailer breaks up a ring ... every trucking company or anyone in supply chain that moves cargo in that area benefits. It has clearly reduced thefts in areas where there have been arrests." But the effect is never permanent, he said. "If you take out a ring, you may see reduced thefts for six, eight, 10 months, but another group is going to move in," he said. Some criminals have countered efforts with technology that can jam a tracking device's signal, said Steve Covey, a commercial fraud investigator with the National Insurance Crime Bureau. The nonprofit group, based in Des Plaines, Illinois, works with law enforcement agencies and insurance companies to prevent theft. "They figure out what they have to defeat, so they do their homework and try something new, and maybe that will work for a while," Covey said. "And maybe the companies will come up with something to fix that problem. It keeps mushrooming." Getting even bolder, thieves have been using identity theft and bogus documents to pose as drivers for real companies to pick up trailers of goods at warehouses, according to Covey and Scott Cornell, a Travelers theft investigator. There were 152 cargo thefts nationwide in July, August and September, a 24 percent drop from the same months last year, FreightWatch reported this month. But the average value per cargo theft, nearly $200,000, increased 7 percent from April, May and June. New Mexico state police and the National Insurance Crime Bureau in January used Travelers' trailer to try to catch thieves looting trucks along Interstate 40 in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. The trailer, loaded with Bose speakers equipped with tracking devices as an extra precaution, sat there for days before thieves came calling. They took some of the cargo and put it in their own truck just east of Albuquerque. Authorities later learned the suspects would start in California with an empty truck and load it up with goods stolen from trucks all along I-40. Police tracked the stolen speakers to a rental storage center in Lyon Township, Michigan, where a state trooper found two suspects, a tractor-trailer and two rental units filled with stolen electronics and other goods. At the nearby home of one of the suspects, authorities found more than $1 million worth of merchandise and other items they believe were bought with proceeds from thefts, including a $500,000 Ferrari. In 2013, the Travelers trailer was taken by members of a Miami-based group that was stealing cargo in eastern Pennsylvania and taking it to sell in New Jersey, Cornell said. Two people were arrested after driving the trailer into New Jersey.

Fleet Owner / November 27, 2015 A new rule to protect drivers from being compelled to violate federal safety regulations is set to publish Monday in the Federal Register. Known as the “driver coercion” rule, it provides the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) with the authority to go after not only carriers, but also shippers, receivers, and transportation intermediaries. “This Rule enables us to take enforcement action against anyone in the transportation chain who knowingly and recklessly jeopardizes the safety of the driver and of the motoring public,” said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. The final rule, to take effect 60 days following its publication, addresses three key areas: procedures for commercial truck and bus drivers to report incidents of coercion to the FMCSA, steps the agency could take when responding to such allegations, and penalties that may be imposed on entities found to have coerced drivers. “Any time a motor carrier, shipper, receiver, freight-forwarder, or broker demands that a schedule be met, one that the driver says would be impossible without violating hours-of-service restrictions or other safety regulations, that is coercion,” said FMCSA Acting Administrator Scott Darling. “No commercial driver should ever feel compelled to bypass important federal safety regulations and potentially endanger the lives of all travelers on the road.” In formulating this Rule, the agency heard from commercial drivers who reported being pressured to violate safety regulations with “implicit or explicit threats” of job termination, denial of subsequent trips or loads, reduced pay, forfeiture of favorable work hours or transportation jobs, or other direct retaliations, the agency says. Some of the FMCSA regulations drivers reported being coerced into violating included: hours-of-service limitations designed to prevent fatigued driving, commercial driver’s license (CDL) requirements, drug and alcohol testing, the transportation of hazardous materials, and commercial regulations applicable to, among others, interstate household goods movers and passenger carriers. And while Congress in MAP-21 called on FMCSA to address the matter, particularly with regard to time lost at the shipping dock, many in the industry have felt driver coercion is a complex problem best solved in the marketplace. “With the looming shortage of drivers, the market economy will dictate that those shippers that tie up drivers and tractors aren’t going to be well served by the trucking industry,” Transplace CEO Tom Sanderson told Fleet Owner recently. “Trucking companies today, more so than ever, will not put up with any kind of abuse or coercion by a shipper or broker of their drivers.” The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn. (OOIDA), however, in its formal comments on the rule applauded FMCSA “for taking the important step of recognizing the direct impact of economic conditions in the trucking industry” on highway safety. “The marketplace demands for just-in-time shipping and greater transportation efficiency have meant ever increasing pressure to perform on one party, the driver,” OOIDA said. “This is the first time this agency has attempted to address the causes of violations of the motor carrier safety rules, rather than merely interdicting violations after they have occurred. This is a completely untapped area for substantial improvements in motor carrier safety.” More information on what constitutes coercion and how to submit a complaint is available on the FMCSA website.

Terry Dotson, now there's an icon from the days of Mack Trucks, Inc.