Colorado to California: Hands off our water supply - VIDEO: Concern over decision to keep river water

Colorado is moving to keep tighter control over its own water supply, rankling drought-stricken western states like California.

In the process, Colorado is learning a valuable lesson in interstate diplomacy.

James Eklund, director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, initially gave some tough remarks in explaining his state’s intentions in an interview with The Associated Press. “If anybody thought we were going to roll over and say, ‘OK, California, you’re in a really bad drought, you get to use the water that we were going to use,’ they’re mistaken,” he said.

Some of Eklund’s fellow water authorities were taken aback. Eklund is in charge of the state’s water policy and planning and as senior deputy legal counsel to Gov. John Hickenlooper, his word carries a lot of weight.

“There was a lot of surprise with that remark,” said Bill Hasencamp, Colorado River Program manager at the Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles, which serves 19 million people.

Eklund later tried to downplay his comments. “Unfortunately my comment, the quote that was attributed to me, suggested that we were flexing our muscle,” he said. “And that’s just not the case.”

But Colorado is still moving forward on its new water plan.

To understand what’s at stake here, a brief overview of the critical nature of the Colorado River and those who depend on it is in order:

The river provides water to 40 million people in the states of Arizona, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California and Colorado. These seven states also make up one of the driest regions in the nation, dependent on a water flow that is miniscule in comparison to rivers in other parts of the United States.

Making matters worse, recent droughts throughout the region have reduced the Colorado’s already limited flow and left massive reservoirs like Lake Mead, which sits in Nevada and just over the Arizona border, at record lows.

Every state gets a predetermined share of the resource, a quantity divided up in 1922 under a federal compact. And while the 1922 Colorado River Compact governs the system, scientists now know the 93-year-old agreement was reached at a time when the region was going through an unusually wet period. States get their allowance regardless of whether they need more or less.

“There’s a long-term deficit beyond just a short-term drought that we have to come to grips with,” Hasencamp said. “There’s just not enough water in the Colorado River to meet the demands that were designed in the 1922 Compact.”

Unlike California, Colorado has had more than it needs. In years past, Colorado has allowed Southern California to dip into its surplus, to help stretch its supply. That is about to change.

Under Eklund, Colorado is drawing up a water plan for the state. The draft, which has been presented to Hickenlooper, calls for Colorado to save for the future. It would keep its legal share of the 1922 Compact allotment, rather than spread the wealth.

“States depend on water that originates here,” Eklund said. “And as a result, everybody watches us. If we twitch on water, everybody notices.”

Douglas Kenney, a western water expert at the University of Colorado Law School, said it’s never been a secret upstream states like Colorado are going to consume more water. “I mean, that’s predictable,” he said. “And states like California have certainly known this is coming. What can they do? Well, they can look to the other sources of supply, they can conserve water, they can look for creative deals … it’s not something that sneaks up on anyone.”

In fact, Southern California has been making plans. According to Hasencamp, it’s invested more than $1 billion over the last decade to reduce its dependence on the Colorado.

Kenney said the issue is bigger than the region itself. “Once you broaden a little further it is a problem with national economic implications, and of course that translates to the global economies.”

More than 16 million people in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Southern California, Utah and Wyoming are employed as a result of working directly or indirectly with this water.Researchers at Arizona State University estimate the total economic impact of the Colorado River is $1.4 trillion.

“The seven states have to work together,” Hasencamp said.

Eklund said he was not trying to send a tough message to other states. “The state of Colorado is working … to make sure that we have collaborative approaches to the situation on the Colorado River, which is in the midst of the worst 15 years of drought that we’ve ever measured.”

In his State of the State address, Hickenlooper pointed out, “Even when our snow pack is substantial and the state has what looks like a water surplus, a drought always looms. Water in Colorado is always in finite supply.”

Hickenlooper went on to say the new water plan “goes a long way to ensure we strategically allocate this precious resource to maximize our entire state’s ability to grow and flourish.”

Hasencamp said downstream states are making hard choices and doing what they can to lessen demand on the scarce resource. “We know that we can’t have one state fight against another,” Hasencamp said. “We all have to work together.”

Alicia Acuna joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in 1997 and currently serves as a general assignment reporter based in the network’s Denver bureau.

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Colorado to California: Hands off our water supply - VIDEO: Concern over decision to keep river water

Big win in series decider hands Jamaica victory over England

BY SANJAY MYERS Observer staff reporter myerss@jamaicaobserver.com

Thursday, January 15, 2015    

JAMAICA’S coach Minneth Reynolds was brimming with joy after her team sizzled in the fourth quarter to decimate visitors England at the National Indoor Sports Centre (NISC) in the deciding third game of the Supreme Ventures Sunshine series on Tuesday.

The hosts’ 57-47 victory — after the game was tied at 37 at the end of the third quarter — gave them a 2-1 series win over England, rated one place above the world number four-ranked Jamaicans.

The commanding result inside the noise-filled Indoor Centre was set up by goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler-Reid, who came off the bench to lead the Sunshine Girls with 28 goals from 34 attempts.

Romelda Aiken, who started in the shooting position, was 15 from 19, while goal attack Shanice Beckford went 14 from 20.

The England Roses top goal shooter, Jo Harten, remained unfazed even throughout the final-quarter carnage, to hit 35 goals from 38 shots, while goal attack Pamela Cookey was 10 from 15.

“England pressured us, but we maintained our composure and yes, we were able to pull away in the fourth quarter,” Reynolds told reporters after the final buzzer.

“It might seem like it was the fourth quarter alone, but the girls really played well throughout.”

Reynolds said the policy of rotating ANZ Championship professional players Aiken and Fowler-Reid paid off handsomely.

“We have two world-class shooters and at no time have I doubted any of them… of not being capable to do the job. We don’t want to burn out any one of them. We planned to use them both in the game and it worked for us,” said the beaming Jamaica head coach.

Anna Mayes, the coach of England, said the fourth period of the game was the difference-maker in an otherwise closely contested affair.

“My team turned over the ball a lot in that final quarter. I think we were really competitive throughout the game, but credit to Jamaica because they nailed it in that last quarter just in terms of their ability to win possession, and they converted. We were just a little bit wasteful and playing against Jamaica, that [the loss] is what happens,” Mayes said.

The teams entered the clash tied 1-1 after sharing the first two games. In the series opener on Saturday, both countries were below their best, but Jamaica appeared that much sharper to comfortably win 56-47. The following day, England shook off the defeat to stun the Jamaicans 55-47 in a game called off a little over a minute early due to a power outage.

But Tuesday’s encounter was remarkably tight most of the way.

Jamaica were gutsy and used the looping balls over the top to find either Fowler-Reid or the even more towering Aiken.

England, arguably the better side throughout the first three quarters, displayed vibrant movements across the court while zipping passes past the Jamaicans through to the outstanding Harten.

Jamaica held a narrow 14-12 goal-lead at the end of the first quarter, but the scores were locked at 24 at the half-time break. At 37-37, there was also nothing to separate them entering the fourth.

But the Sunshine Girls, buoyed by the energy of the rocking, almost jam-packed venue, dug deep and put in an electric effort to crush the Roses.

Jamaica’s young wing defence Vangelee Williams and the seasoned Sasher-Gaye Henry exhibited defensive tenacity to help tip the match in the home team’s favour.

Williams chimed in with two crucial steals, and Henry, on as a substitute, hustled the English women with some robust play in the closing stages.

The series leaves a lot to ponder for England and plenty of joy for local supporters and Netball Jamaica. However, the big picture remains the Netball World Cup, which will be held in Australia in August.

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Big win in series decider hands Jamaica victory over England

US sees opportunity as ISIS swarms Kobani - Airstrike kills 8 in ISIS-held Syria town - Marines fear Saddam’s WMD bunker in hands of ISIS

Military and White House officials said Friday that the fierce fighting in the Syrian border town of Kobani has created an opportunity to take out large numbers of Islamic State fighters pouring into the battle. 

Though the fighting has raised concerns that the vital town could still fall to the Islamic State, Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of U.S. Central Command, claimed Friday that there’s an upside for the U.S. and its allies. 

“The enemy has made a decision to make Kobani his main effort,” Austin said, claiming “manpower” is streaming into the area. 

“Now, my goal is to defeat and ultimately destroy ISIL. And if [the enemy] continues to present us with major targets … then clearly, we’ll service those targets, and we’ve done so very, very effectively here of late,” Austin said. 

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest echoed the point, saying the Islamic State is amassing fighters and resources in Kobani. 

“That has created a rather target-rich environment around Kobani for American and coalition air strikes that when they see clusters of fighters or they see depots of material or supplies that are critical to the success of those fighters, it’s easier to take them out,” Earnest said. 

While touting the opportunity to take out a large number of targets in Kobani, military officials nevertheless cautioned against expecting quick progress in the overall campaign against ISIS, or ISIL. 

“The campaign to destroy ISIL will take time, and there will be occasional setbacks along the way,” Austin told a Pentagon news conference, “particularly in these early stages of the campaign as we coach and mentor a force [in Iraq] that is actively working to regenerate capability after years of neglect and poor leadership.” 

And he acknowledged “it’s highly possible that Kobani may fall.” 

While hammering the jihadists daily from the air, the U.S. military is talking of a years-long effort — one that will require more than aerial bombardment, will show results only gradually and may eventually call for a more aggressive use of U.S. military advisers in Iraq. 

Austin said he believes the Iraqi government will successfully enlist the support of Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province to turn the tide in that important region, where the militants have made recent gains. 

And he said he sees no imminent threat to the international airport west of Baghdad, where U.S. Apache helicopters are monitoring Islamic State efforts to make inroads on the capital. 

As an example of fresh progress, Austin said Iraqi soldiers on Friday attacked north from Baghdad to Beiji, home to Iraq’s largest oil refinery. 

Yet the militants are making gains in some parts, like the Sunni-dominated Anbar province, even as they stall or retrench in other areas. Baghdad is not believed to be in imminent danger of falling but it is “certainly in their sights,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said. 

The Pentagon is preparing to set up a more formally organized command structure, known in military parlance as a joint task force, to lead and coordinate the campaign from a forward headquarters, perhaps in Kuwait. On Wednesday it formally named the campaign “Operation Inherent Resolve.” 

As of Thursday the U.S. had launched nearly 300 airstrikes in Iraq and nearly 200 in Syria, and allies had tallied fewer than 100, according to Central Command. Those figures don’t capture the full scope of the effort because many airstrikes launch multiple bombs on multiple targets. Central Command said that as of Wednesday, U.S. and partner-nation air forces had dropped nearly 1,400 munitions. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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US sees opportunity as ISIS swarms Kobani - Airstrike kills 8 in ISIS-held Syria town - Marines fear Saddam’s WMD bunker in hands of ISIS

Holding Brand Jamaica and JADCO"s hands

SINCE 2010, the University of the West Indies, Mona, has been hosting a series of anti-doping workshops that seek to educate the public, athletes and their support staff about anti-doping matters.

The university has invited international stakeholders such as Dr Susan Backhouse, principal author of a WADA 200-page manuscript on predicators and precipitating factors in doping, Dr Jeffrey Benz, former general counsel of the USA Olympic Committee; and the founding president of WADA, the controversial Richard Pound.The workshops have not got the traction the university had expected, but the university stands resolute in the support of Jamaica’s anti-doping programme and is calling on Jamaica to join hands in helping JADCO in its mandate to foster a doping-free environment in Jamaica that promotes the ethics and spirit of sport and deters the use of banned doping substances in sport through education, testing, advocacy and programmed coordination.Too many of our young athletes are being caught in the world of doping espionage. The weight of a nation is on Usain Bolt’s shoulders because he has remained above the fray. He and all the Jamaican athletes at this time need our undivided support. We recently heard that all 41 athletes present in the training camp in Moscow were tested simultaneously (under the same condition and temperature). As a seasoned researcher, this to me implies a nation tested for comparative analysis with standard data probably already well established by IAAF and/or WADA for the biological passport.Legally, nothing is wrong with scooping down on our athletes because of the plethora of adverse analytical findings Jamaica had between May and July of this year. If WADA at anytime suspects any doping violation, the body is within its right to target test. This does not mean that JADCO is not doing a reasonable good job. Notice, I did not say perfect, there is room for improvement, but let us examine JADCO’s performance in contextSample submissionsThe statistics presented on testing for 2012 can be viewed on the WADA website. The Caribbean Regional Anti-doping Organization (RADO) which consists of 14 countries including Trinidad and Tobago, Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, Dominica, St Vincent, and St Kitts and Nevis has submitted 49 samples to WADA- accredited lab/s in 2012. The sample submissions from anti-doping agencies or commissions in some countries in 2012 are as follow: Nigeria, 35; Belarus, 245; Bermuda, 58; Barbados,13; Guatemala, 39; Costa Rica, 4; Brazil, 128, and Jamaica, 106. JADCO should not be compared with UK or United States Anti-doping agencies which in 2012 submitted 5,971 and 4,051 samples, respectively.These countries have far more resources and athletes per capita. By sports in the year 2012, football (28,008) was the most tested closely followed by athletics (27,836) and cycling (20,624). JADCO is indeed trending as it should, spending most of the testing dollars on track and field in 2012. Jamaica has traditionally done well in track and field, so athletes from this sport should be the ones most frequently sampled.As Jamaicans, we need to stop talking and move brusquely forward in protecting our track and field legacy. The World Anti-doping Code is under review, this is the third review since enactment in 1999. There will be a super meeting in November of 2013 in South Africa where the whole matter of supplements will be examined by the IOC, the IAAF, WADA and national and regional anti-doping commissions. It has been proposed that if an athlete can prove that a supplement was contaminated with an unlabelled, banned ingredient, then the athlete may be warned or given a reduced sentence of a year or less if the banned ingredient is found in his/her system. If the athlete cannot prove that the supplement was contaminated, then the new sanction for first time offender beginning 2015 will be four years. This in effect will shorten the careers of many athletes who are caught using supplements.SupplementsSupplements out of competition unless specified (see the WADA code) are not illegal and are sometimes necessary to help athletes heal and recover effectively. It is when the out of competition-in competition period gets blurred that the athlete gets into trouble. The FDA has just sent out an emergency warning on July 26, 2013 about Purity First B-50, marketed as a vitamin B dietary supplement. Preliminary FDA laboratory analysis indicated that the product contains two potentially harmful anabolic steroids-methasterone, a controlled substance, and dimethazine. These ingredients are not listed on the label and should not be in a dietary supplement.“Products marketed as a vitamin but which contain undisclosed steroids pose a real danger to consumers and are illegal,” said Howard Sklamberg, director of the Office of Compliance in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. In this regard, an appeal is being made to the Diaspora, and the private sector to help the university establish the Caribbean Toxicology Lab, CARITOX by the fall of 2014. This toxicology lab will be able to test all supplements and prescribed drugs that are mis-labelled. The CARITOX lab is a pre-emptive strike before the new WADA rules come into effect at the end of 2014.$60 million needed for labThe university has already spent $120 million and needs $60 million to get the lab fully functional. The university wants to make it clear that it is not proposing the testing of any biological samples for banned substances. JADCO must be allowed to continue its mandate of collecting and sending biological samples to WADA-accredited labs for testing. The university will be able to test contaminated supplements which the athletes might ingest and, if found contaminated, the athletes and their respective sporting bodies can then hold the manufacturers responsible based on sound scientific evidence that will be allowed by WADA.Contrary to what many might think WADA is not evil and have something in place in the revised code to be implemented in 2015 in regard to contaminated supplements and protection of the athletes. The onus is now on the athlete to prove contamination by the manufacturer, thus relaxing the strict liability clause to an extent.The university is ready to hold the athletes and JADCO’s hands, but needs to have the toxicology lab up to test these contaminated products that might inadvertently get in the system of the Jamaican athlete. Diaspora can you raise $60 million for this lab?Editor’s note: Rachael Irving, PhD is a Senior Research Fellow & WADA Researcher at theDepartment of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, Mona.

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Holding Brand Jamaica and JADCO"s hands

Miss Universe Jamaica franchise changes hands

Entertainment

Sunday, August 11, 2013

FASHION house Uzuri International is now the new franchise holders of the Miss Universe Jamaica pageant.No stranger to the competition, the couture designers were the producers of the 2003 staging.“We are ecstatic that the Miss Universe Organization has shown the confidence in our ability to effectively represent their brand in Jamaica, and that they share our vision for the direction of Miss Universe Jamaica,” read a statement from Karl Williams, national director for Miss Universe Jamaica and artistic director of the fashion house.Uzuri International has assumed their lien on the franchise from Greece-born hotelier Dimitris Kosvogiannis, who has held it since 2011. Kosvogiannis announced his intention to relinquish the franchise two days before the competition’s final, which was scheduled for Emancipation Park in Kingston on Sunday, March 14.“We are fully aware that past organisers had many challenges, so we know that this will not be a walk in the park. In this regard, we want to form new and non-traditional alliances in the pageant industry, alliances to bring beauty factions together, where Jamaica benefits, as this should not be about any one individual, or company,” the release continued.Kosvogiannis succeeded Invyte Promotions as franchise holders. Prior to that, Kingsley Cooper of the Pulse model agency ran the contest for two decades.Holders of one of the most popular beauty contests, the Miss Universe Organization was founded in 1952. It is owned by American businessman Donald Trump.Jamaica has never won the a Miss Universe title, however, the country has consistently featured prominently. Yendi Phillipps was first runner-up in 2010; while Sandra Foster (1989), Kimberly Mais (1991), Nicole Haughton (1999), and Christine Straw (2004), were all top 10 finishers.

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Miss Universe Jamaica franchise changes hands

The Partnership for Jamaica requires all hands on deck

ON July 31, at King’s House, the Prime Minister (on behalf of her government) and representatives of the private sector (Chris Zacca), trade unions (Lloyd Goodleigh) and civil society (Kemesha Kelley) signed the Partnership for Jamaica.

Although the prime minister should be congratulated for finally achieving Jamaica’s first social partnership agreement, as the agreement acknowledges up front, the signing is merely the first step on a long road to deal with “the urgent national and economic crisis the country faces”. The theme, as expressed by the extremely able chair of the event, Harvard-educated Professor Alvin Wint, corresponds to the governor general’s “I Believe” campaign and its byline – “there is nothing wrong with Jamaica that cannot be fixed by what is right with Jamaica.”The agreement acknowledges that the levels of trust across the Jamaican society are extremely low. The critical issue of “trust amongst partners” is governed by the Partnership Code of Conduct, which was signed in late-2011 as one of the last acts of former Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who was the sole member of the Opposition attending the signing of the agreement. To deal with this mistrust, the code outlines the guiding principles to be followed as “Respect, Engagement, Sensitivity, Reliability, Equity, Openness, Courage, Patience, Understanding and Humility”, with the key mechanism being one of “open communication” between the partners to resolve issues. The National Partnership Council, which has been meeting for over two years (supported by a Council Secreteriat) will be supported by a standing working committee to coordinate its agenda, led by Ambassador Burchell Whiteman as Partnership for Jamaica coordinator. Whiteman is a particularly astute choice for the position, combining past Ministerial experience with huge credibility and trust as one of a dying breed of true Jamaican gentlemen.In addressing “specific commitments”, the agreement correctly starts with Jamaica’s growth challenge (the economy has declined in 18 of the last 40 years), and the consequent erosion of social capital and increasing inequality. The priority challenges include fiscal consolidation (with social protection and inclusion), rule of law adherence (and timely justice outcomes), ease of doing business and employment creation, and energy diversification and conservation. A useful acronym to simply sum up the agenda might be DEBT plus crime (with the former standing for debt, energy, bureaucracy reduction and tax reform), very similar in fact to the economic agenda agreed with the IMF, but with the addition of a number of wider social issues.The timing of this agreement is extremely important, as it is not an exaggeration to say that Jamaica now faces its deepest crisis since the 1970s, hence the agreements call for the need for “all hands on deck”. The international financial markets, the rating agencies, and, indeed, the local “smart money” are acutely aware that the current IMF agreement is extremely ambitious, and requires, as one of them put it recently “for everything to go well” to succeed. Currently, the exchange rate of the Jamaican dollar and net foreign exchange reserves (which have again fallen below US $ 1 billion), are being used as key short-term indicators of the health of the economy. Business and consumer confidence is extremely low, and the investment plans of investors have not yet recovered from the collapse in confidence that occurred between the last quarter of last year, and the first quarter of this year, when the IMF agreement seemed delayed.Anecdotal evidence suggests that economic activity ground to a halt in July, as the full impact of the highly deflationary tax measures announced in the budget as part of the IMF deal were combined with apparent severe restrictions on government spending. Perhaps more importantly, everybody is now realising that the IMF agreement is no panacea for Jamaica’s deep-seated problems, and that we are in for a long haul to achieve a better economy, as we have finally come to the end of what seemed in the past to be our seemingly never ending ability to “kick the can further down the road”.The social partnership agreement could be extremely valuable in helping to restore confidence, both internally and externally. By creating a true “joined up” problem- solving mechanism that simultaneously achieves consensus amongst all partners, the government could lay to rest the enormous existing concerns about the speed and political feasibility of the very ambitious reform agenda it has agreed on with the IMF, and allow Jamaica to finally get ahead of its current ongoing crisis.In his speech at the signing, PSOJ President Chris Zacca noted five concrete examples of public/private partnership implemented this year. These include the cooperation of the Jamaica Bankers’ Association and Jamaica Securities Dealers’ Association to help complete the National Debt Exchange, the Economic Programme Oversight Committee, the linkages committee based at the Ministry of Tourism (facilitating partnership between the Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association and the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association in buying Jamaican products), and the very close cooperation between the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce with the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce to promote the logistics hub. Finally, he quoted Financial Secretary Devon Rowe as describing the Incentives Working Group (the committee working on a new Omnibus Incentives Policy), as “a model for the world to follow on tax reform”. All of the above examples have involved the combined brainpower of the public and private sectors working closely as a team under time pressure to achieve critical national goals. A similar approach in other key areas supported by the collective will of a true Partnership for Jamaica would pay even bigger dividends.Signatories to the Partnership for Jamaica Agreement (front row), President of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions Lloyd Goodleigh (left); Youth Advocate, Jamaica Youth Advocacy Group, Kemesha Kelly (second left), representing civil society groups; Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller; and President of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, Christopher Zacca (right), display copies of the agreement during the signing ceremony at King’s House in Kingston. They were joined by a host of other industry leaders and dignitaries. (PHOTO: BRYAN CUMMINGS)

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The Partnership for Jamaica requires all hands on deck