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July 26, 2012 -- (San Diego’s East County) – ECM World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflecting all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:
WORLD
- Returning migrants boost Mexico’s middle class: net immigration to U.S. now zero (Washington Post)
- Pressure mounts to stop China’s forced abortions (USA Today)
- Syria says could use chemical arms against foreigners (Reuters)
- Tax havens: Super rich ‘hide’ 21 trillion (BBC)
- Murdoch resigns from his British papers’ boards (NY Times)
U.S.
- Poverty issue missing on presidential campaign trail (OpEd News)
- Offshore jobs play role in campaign and economy (KPBS)
- Romney walks political tightrope on foreign policy (CNN)
- What happens to current nursing home residents if House Budget Resolution becomes law? (Medicare Advocacy)
- White House threatens to veto GOP drilling bill (The Hill)
- Solar trade war hurts Chinese imports (Technology Review)
Read more for excerpts and links to full stories.
WORLD
Returning migrants boost Mexico’s middle class: net immigration to U.S. now zero (Washington Post)
July 23, 2012 -- For a generation, the men of this town have headed north to the land of the mighty dollar, breaking U.S. immigration laws to dig swimming pools in Memphis and grind meat in Chicago.
In the United States, they were illegal aliens. Back home, they are new entrepreneurs using the billions of dollars earned “on the other side” to create a Mexican middle class.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mexican-middle-class-booms-with-work-in-us/2012/07/23/gJQATo5R5W_story.html?hpid=z1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mexican-middle-class-booms-with-work-in-us/2012/07/23/gJQATo5R5W_story.html?hpid=z1
Pressure mounts to stop China’s forced abortions (USA Today)
July 24, 2012 -- As supervisor of family planning enforcement in Fujian province's Daji township, Wang Jinding says he knows the best way to kill the unborn babies of parents who want to keep them.
"The key point is to separate the pregnant woman from her family members," he said in an interview with USA TODAY.
That is exactly what Wang did in a case in April, enforcing the Communist Party's rules on family size. He had eight government workers kidnap a pregnant Pan Chunyan, 31, from her grocery store in Fujian city on the southern coast.
Syria says could use chemical arms against foreigners (Reuters)
July 23, 2012 -- Western states expressed alarm after Syria acknowledged for the first time that it has chemical and biological weapons and said it could use them if foreign countries intervene.
A week of unprecedented fighting inside the capital Damascus, including a bomb attack that killed four of President Bashar al-Assad's closest advisers, has transformed the 16-month uprising and dramatically escalated international pressure on Assad.http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/23/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE8610SH20120723
Tax havens: Super rich ‘hide’ 21 trillion (BBC)
July 22, 2012 -- A global super-rich elite had at least $21 trillion (£13tn) hidden in secret tax havens by the end of 2010, according to a major study.
The figure is equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined.
The Price of Offshore Revisited was written by James Henry, a former chief economist at the consultancy McKinsey, for the Tax Justice Network.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18944097
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18944097
Murdoch resigns from his British papers’ boards (NY Times)
July 21, 2012 -- After more than a year of scandal in his British newspaper empire, Rupert Murdoch has resigned his directorships in a string of companies that control titles that include The Sun tabloid, The Times and The Sunday Times, raising fresh speculation that he may be planning for an eventual sale of the newspapers that were a major steppingstone during the decades in which he built his global media empire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/world/europe/murdoch-resigns-from-british-newspaper-boards.html?_r=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/world/europe/murdoch-resigns-from-british-newspaper-boards.html?_r=1
U.S.
Poverty issue missing on presidential campaign trail (OpEd News)
July 23, 2012 -- Two reports issued the same day told of two appalling realities. One report on poverty was based on an AP survey. It found that the poor are getting poorer, and more numerous than at any time in the last half century. The other report from the Tax Justice Network found that the super-rich are getting richer, and they are squirreling their money away to the tune of tens of trillions in offshore tax havens that are far outside the reaches of the US and other nation's tax collectors. Wealthy Americans are amply represented among the off shore tax evaders. This money could bankroll business start ups, business expansion, fatten federal and state tax revenues, and create thousands of new jobs. This would do much to blunt the steady march upwards of those that slip into the poverty ranks. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Poverty-Issue-Missing-on-t-by-earl-ofari-hutchin-120723-997.html
Offshore jobs play role in campaign and economy (KPBS)
July 25, 2012 -- President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have been trading attacks over the issue of American jobs being moved overseas.
The president has pounded Romney for the investments made by his former firm Bain Capital in the 1990s. Not to be outdone, the Romney campaign has suggested most of the money from the president's stimulus program went to create jobs overseas.
Independent fact checkers have concluded the Romney charges are inaccurate and that Obama's claims about Romney are misleading. Harvard economist Mihir Desai says the emphasis the candidates are placing on the offshoring of jobs is out of proportion to its effect on the economy.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/jul/25/offshore-jobs-play-role-campaigns-and-economy/
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/jul/25/offshore-jobs-play-role-campaigns-and-economy/
Romney walks political tightrope on foreign policy (CNN)
July 25, 2012 -- Mitt Romney's political tightrope in his quest for the presidency has been especially evident on foreign policy, with the certain Republican nominee sounding conservative while also espousing more moderate approaches similar to his opponent, President Barack Obama.
Facing opinion polls that show more public support for Obama on foreign policy, Romney has constantly criticized what he calls the president's failure to lead on international issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran's nuclear ambitions and Syria.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/24/politics/pol-romney-foreign-policy/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/24/politics/pol-romney-foreign-policy/index.html
What happens to current nursing home residents if House Budget Resolution becomes law? (Medicare Advocacy)
July 26, 2012 -- Under the proposed budget resolution passed by Republicans in the House of Representatives, nearly a million nursing home residents could immediately lose coverage for nursing home care. Further, all of the standards that govern nursing home care today could disappear.
A study of the costs of nursing home care, released April 21, 2011 by John Hancock Financial, reports, "the national average annual cost of care in the U.S. is $85,775 for a private room in a nursing home; $75,555 for a semi-private room in a nursing home."[1]
White House threatens to veto GOP drilling bill (The Hill)
July 23, 2012 -- The White House on Monday waved the veto pen at a House GOP bill that would require vastly wider offshore oil-and-gas leasing.
“The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 6082, which would undermine the targeted, science-based, and regionally-tailored offshore development strategy that the American people and the States have helped develop over the last three years,” the White House said in a “formal statement of administration policy,” referring to the House plan by its bill number.
Solar trade war hurts Chinese imports (Technology Review)
July 20, 2012 -- China is opening an investigation of whether the U.S. has unfairly subsidized raw materials for solar panels destined for Chinese manufacturers, or whether U.S. companies have been selling these materials at unfair prices.
The move seems to be in retaliation to large tariffs recently imposed by the United States on solar panels imported from China, alleging unfair trade practices. Those tariffs seem to be having an effect on imports from China, which have fallen by 45 percent, according to the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing.
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