Scottish Wildlife Trust says Lady, a 26-year-old osprey in Perthshire, has confounded fears she might never breed again A venerable osprey that has already set records for breeding success has delighted conservationists and bird lovers by laying her 59th egg, confounding fears she might never breed again. The Scottish Wildlife Trust said that Lady, a 26-year-old osprey nesting at the Lowes wildlife reserve in Perthshire, had laid her first egg of the breeding season after her latest mate returned to their nest. Reserve staff spotted Lady hunched protectively over the egg in her eyrie high up in a Scots pine at lunchtime. The trust has now put in place a round-the-clock guard to prevent egg thieves and vandals reaching her nest. Ospreys normally lay two to four eggs per season, so the reserve is hoping for at least one further egg to be laid, with the first chick expected within a week. The drama is being streamed live around the world, with a “nest cam” trained on the eyrie . Lady broke another record last month when she returned for her 21st season at the Lowes reserve from a 6,000-mile round trip to winter in Gambia. After surviving a difficult summer when she fell seriously ill from dehydration and starvation, the trust feared she was unlikely to return home. Most ospreys live to be eight or 10 in the wild, producing up to 20 eggs; Lady is now 26 and has bred 48 surviving chicks. That total means she is now one of Britain’s most important birds of prey, a matriarch playing a significant role in propping up the species’ numbers. Persecuted to extinction as a breeding bird in the UK in 1916, the osprey recolonised naturally in the 1950s but remains one of the UK’s rarest birds of prey. It is less common than the golden eagle, with an estimated 200 breeding pairs around Britain. Anna Cheshier, the trust’s Perthshire ranger, said: “If chicks successfully hatch from the eggs, this osprey will have produced 49 or even 50 chicks, an incredible contribution to the recovering osprey population breeding in Scotland. “We hope to raise enough money to track these chicks using satellite tags this year, to find out about their inherited migration path and learn useful information which could help protect ospreys during migration.” Birds Wildlife Endangered species Conservation Animals Scotland Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk
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Pair named locally as Sophie Taylor, 16, and Calum Murray, 18, and police say they are not looking for other suspects Detectives are investigating the deaths of two teenagers found with fatal shotgun wounds in a farmhouse in the Cairngorms. The pair – named locally as Sophie Taylor, 16, and Calum Murray, 18 – were discovered on Tuesday evening at Blairnamarrow cottage, just outside the town of Tomintoul on Speyside. Grampian police refused to discuss the background to the shootings, but said they were not looking for any other suspects. Detective Inspector Stewart Mackie said the scene inside the cottage was “particularly distressing”. He added: “We would like to reassure the local community that this is an isolated incident. Investigations into the circumstances surrounding the two deaths are at an early stage. However, it is important to stress that we are not looking for any third party at this point.” Mackie said a firearm had been found. “We’re trying to put a timeline together to establish what happened. I can’t divulge any details of the people involved in the house. It’s very much a sensitive situation for the families and the community.” Local sources said Taylor, a schoolgirl who worked part-time as a waitress at a local hotel, and Murray, a trainee gamekeeper who had recently moved to work on a nearby grouse moor, were in a relationship. Taylor was about to sit exams at Speyside high school in Aberlour. There were unconfirmed reports that Murray had been upset after being jilted by Taylor, and that the shooting took place in front of two witnesses, neither of whom were injured. Police closed off the nearby A939, between Tomintoul and Corgarff, and about 30 officers were searching the property and its surroundings. Fiona Murdoch, a local councillor, said: “It seems like a terrible tragedy. For two young people to have died is absolutely horrendous.” An employee at the Glen Avon hotel in Tomintoul, where Taylor worked, said: “She was very popular, a lovely girl. We will all miss her very much.” The cottage is close to the hideout used by Percy Toplis, the convicted army deserter, serial criminal and suspected murderer who fled from the police in Hampshire and hid out in Tomintoul in 1920, before again running off after shooting a local constable and farmer. Toplis claimed – wrongly, say historians – to be the “monocled mutineer” made famous in the Alan Bleasdale drama about the first world war. Scotland Crime Police Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk
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Press Complaints Commission not up to the job, says chairman of Commons culture, media and sport select committee The chairman of the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, John Whittingdale, has called for a public inquiry into phone hacking at the News of the World. Speaking to BBC Radio 4′s The Media Show , Whittingdale said there should be “some kind of commission or inquiry” into why a series of investigations by Scotland Yard failed to link any News International employees to phone hacking other than the News of the World’s former royal editor, Clive Goodman. Rupert Murdoch’s news group last week issued a public apology to eight victims of phone hacking, including the actor Sienna Miller and former culture secretary Tessa Jowell, and admitted for the first time that the practice was rife at the paper. News International has also written to nine other alleged victims of News of the World phone hacking saying it was prepared to pay compensation if they obtained evidence from Scotland Yard to support their claims. “There are some very big questions. What I find [most] worrying is the apparent unwillingness of the police, who had the evidence and chose to do nothing with it. That’s something that needs to be looked into,” Whittingdale said on Wednesday. “It also raises some quite serious questions for the security of government. It seems pretty extraordinary that newspapers are able to listen in to the private conversations of Downing Street, royal staff and others. “I’m wanting to know through the Home Office why those responsible for safeguarding security weren’t able to do anything about it.” Whittingdale said the culture select committee was also “concerned” about previous assurances given to it by News International executives and Scotland Yard that an investigation had been carried out and that there was no new information. “It wasn’t just News International who told us that, it was also the police,” he added. “In light of what’s now apparent that’s a most extraordinary statement.” The Conservative MP said there was “no reason” why a fresh inquiry into phone hacking at the News of the World could not be done by the newspaper industry itself, but added that the sector’s self-regulatory body, the Press Complaints Commission, was not up to the job. “I think the newspaper industry should be very worried,” Whittingdale added. “The PCC has not got a particularly strong reputation as a result of this. I don’t think they’ve covered themselves in glory.” Any fresh inquiry should be carried out by “someone who is independent, experienced and powerful who is not in thrall to the press”, he added. “It’s a case for the industry recognising that if it is to retain its credibility it needs a stronger, more independent PCC which has real sanctions. If the [newspaper industry] shrug their shoulders, I think cries for [a tougher system of regulation] will grow. “Newspapers would be very foolish to believe [the phone-hacking scandal] doesn’t have implications for the whole way the press operates in this country.” • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Fourth Time’s the Charm? Networks Take Yet Another Crack at Portraying Obama as Deficit Hawk
April 13, 2011 No Comment
Reporters are eagerly anticipating President Obama’s budget speech this afternoon, with NBC’s Chuck Todd assuring viewers of Wednesday’s Today show that now, finally, “the President’s going to add his voice to this, debate, essentially, over what to do about the ever-growing deficit and debt.” But over and over again over the past two years, the media have painted Obama as a leader committed to “slashing” the deficit, only to have the absurdity of such spin later revealed by the administration’s actual policies. Let’s start the trip down memory lane with coverage of President Obama’s first budget speech in February 2009 , which reporters claimed would include steps to aggressively reduce the deficit. ABC’s David Muir began the February 21, 2009 World News by pitching how the President was “ slashing the deficit by at least 50 percent by raising taxes on the wealthy, people making $250,000 and above, and cutting war spending by bringing troops home from Iraq.” The next night, ABC’s Yunji de Nies kept up the salesmanship: “President Obama hopes to get control by slashing the federal deficit in half over the next four years . He’ll do it by cutting spending in at least two keys areas: winding down the war in Iraq, which now costs the taxpayers an estimated $400 million a day, and federal health care spending by overhauling Medicare and Medicaid.” The next evening, February 23 — in spite of the massive stimulus plan just signed and ambitious campaign promises yet to fulfill — all three network newscasts touted how the President pledged at his “fiscal responsibility” summit to cut government spending and reduce the deficit by more than half: NBC’s Brian Williams heralded “the President’s plan to bring down the federal deficit during a time of record government spending.” CBS’s Chip Reid explained that “most of the savings would come from winding down the war in Iraq; ending the Bush tax cuts for people making over $250,000 a year; and cutting spending.” According to ABC’s Jake Tapper, “ deficit hawks applauded the President’s focus today , saying ignoring the problem could cause an even more severe crisis….The President said to the group he has no interest in making government bigger for the sake of making it bigger.” A year and more than a trillion dollars in new debt later, the media once again cast Obama as a deficit fighter. At the top of the January 26, 2010 CBS Early Show , co-host Maggie Rodriguez highlighted: “President Obama calls for a big spending freeze and focuses on plans to help the struggling middle class, but does he have the political support he needs?” Moments later, co-host Harry Smith similarly insisted that the President would “announce plans to cut the growing federal deficit and help the struggling middle class.”
Continue reading …"David Byrne Brilliantly and Gratuitously Humiliates Charlie Crist in Copyright Lawsuit"
April 13, 2011 No CommentPost and title stolen borrowed completely from John Cook at Gawker.com . American genius David Byrne recently settled his copyright complaint against former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who used a Talking Heads song without permission in his U.S. Senate campaign, by making Crist film this 90-second abject apology and post it to YouTube.
Continue reading …Wall Street tells Boehner don’t mess with ‘Debt Ceiling’ or Grave Consequences will follow
April 13, 2011 No CommentWall Street is listening to the ‘ debt ceiling chicken ‘ meme and not liking what the Tea Party and Republicans are saying about messing around with it. John Boehner does understand the ramifications of not raising the debt ceiling, but unlike pushing the government shutdown to the limit, doing the same to the debt ceiling will have a much more catastrophic impact. Republicans are growing increasingly concerned about the impact a bruising fight over raising the nation’s $14.29 trillion debt ceiling could have on U.S. financial markets. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has had conversations with top Wall Street executives, asking how close Congress could push to the debt limit deadline without sending interests rates soaring and causing stock prices to go lower, people familiar with the matter said. Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said Tuesday night that he was not aware of any such conversations. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned Congress that without new borrowing authority, the federal government could hit the statutory debt limit by May 16. — The Wall Street executives say even pushing close to the deadline — or talking about it — could have grave consequences in the marketplace. “They don’t seem to understand that you can’t put everything back in the box. Once that fear of default is in the markets, it doesn’t just go away. We’ll be paying the price for years in higher rates,” said one executive. Another said that “anyone interested in ‘testing’ the debt ceiling should understand the U.S. debt traded wider [with a higher yield] than Greek debt roughly five years ago. Then go ask CBO what happens to our deficits/public debt to GDP, if the 10-year [Treasury bond] goes from 3.5 percent to 5.5 percent to 7.5 percent.” The executive said such an increase would result in a downgrade of U.S. debt by ratings agencies and an end to the dollar as the standard global reserve currency. Jamie Dimon is a blowhard of epic proportions and one of the richest and biggest whiners coming out of Wall Street , but politicians do bow down to these folks and he issued a threat aimed at Boehner and his cohorts this time. “If anyone wants to push that button … I think they’re crazy,” Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, said recently at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Clearly Boehner is angling to find out how much time he has so he can get as much out of the White House as he can and clearly needs to deal with the Tea Party Caucus over raising the debt ceiling. Obama was just given a huge negotiating advantage no matter what comes out of the mouths of Republicans. The question is will he use it? We know that the Amy Kremer Tea Party fanatics won’t care how the debt ceiling affects the country, but maybe Dimon’s response will throw some anger Wall Streets way for a change from the Tea Party since they are free market addicts and pray to the alter of the tax cut. I wouldn’t count on it, but I can dream a little.
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Consumer group warns music and sports fans against buying tickets for sold out events on the secondary ticket market Music fans looking to book tickets for one of the European summer festivals and sporting events are being warned to take care in the secondary ticket market. The resale of tickets for sold out events is big business, and with the annual festival season almost underway there are fears that hundreds of UK consumers could, as in 2010, hand over their money but end up with no ticket. The UK European Consumer Centre (UKECC) said today that it received 288 complaints and enquiries from UK consumers during 2010 relating to EU traders under its “recreational and cultural services” category, which includes ticket problems – an increase of more than a third (34%) on the 2009 figure of 215. Hungary and the Netherlands were the countries which attracted the most complaints from Britons. The UKECC is co-funded by the European commission and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills , and provides advice for consumers buying goods and services. It also deals with cross-border complaints and grievances from European consumers based in other EU countries regarding UK festivals. It singled out the following as the main areas of complaint: • Tickets failing to be delivered. Most terms and conditions state that tickets will arrive just before the event, but if this doesn’t happen the seller may be long gone. • Cancellation of an event after the consumer has purchased a ticket. The original seller’s terms and conditions usually only allow for a refund of the ticket’s face value, but secondary ticket sellers may have a huge mark-up, so a consumer may only get back a fraction of what he or she paid. • Consumers turning up at a venue only to find their ticket is declined for being void. • Valid tickets are provided, but problems at the event on the day may lead to the consumer being refused admittance to some areas. Jed Mayatt, UKECC manager, said: “We want consumers to be cautious when buying tickets, particularly if an event is sold out. But the temptation of a website still offering tickets is too great for some people, even if it is at inflated prices.” An example highlighted by the UKECC was a UK consumer who bought a pair of tickets to a top-flight football game from an online ticketing company in Spain, for which she paid €381.92. The tickets were not sent to her home as promised, and although the trader promised these would be hand delivered before the game this failed to happen. She sought a refund, as well as damages for consequential losses, amounting to €627.23. After liaising with European Consumer Centre in Spain she was advised to go to the police as it was thought likely to be a scam. The UK ECC’s leaflet, Can you rely on your festival tickets? , outlines how consumers could be caught out, offers advice for purchasers, and addresses the question of legal protection. Music fans are also advised to contact the European Consumer Centre for Services for more information. Consumer affairs Scams Ticket prices Rebecca Smithers guardian.co.uk
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UK’s biggest art charity increases its grant to galleries by more than 50% and launches a new free admissions scheme The UK’s biggest art charity, the Art Fund , intends to increase the amount it makes available for galleries to buy works of art by more than 50% by 2014 – warning that at a time of government spending cuts, museum collections risk being “fatally undermined”. The charity also launched a new National Art Pass, which will give members of the charity free entry to over 200 museums and half-price admittance to temporary shows. The pass has been dubbed “the aesthete’s Oyster” by Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum – a museum’s equivalent of the card that regulars use on the London transport network. Annually, the Art Fund will hand out £7m, rather than the £4.5m it grants currently. According to the Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar: “In the past six months, as I have been talking to museum directors … about how we can help them, I’ve been struck by growing worries that as belts tighten, and national and local funding diminishes severely, that acquisitions of major works of art may not be possible and all past progress in creating world-class collections may be fatally undermined.” Museums and galleries, he said, could not continue as lively and vital institutions reflecting the society around them without renewing their collections. “We can’t just stop collecting,” he said. “It would be like a theatre not saying it wasn’t going to mount any more new productions or a library saying they weren’t going to buy any new books.” The Art Fund, formally the National Art Collections Fund, is the UK’s largest art charity. Founded in 1903, it exists to help museums and galleries buy works of art that would otherwise be lost from public view. It is largely funded by the £35 annual fee paid by its 80,000 members and has mounted many successful fundraising campaigns to save artworks for the nation, including, last year, the fundraising effort to buy the Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasures and Pieter Bruegel the Younger’s The Procession to Calvary . The uplift in available cash will partly come from a fundraising effort among the existing membership of the Art Fund, and partly from a recruitment drive motored by the introduction of the new National Art Pass. For £35 per year, members will be able to use the National Art Pass to get free access to 208 museums and galleries nationwide. The card will also allow half-price entry to charging exhibitions at national museums, including the Joan Miró exhibition that opens at Tate Modern on 14 April and the current Heracles to Alexander the Great exhibition at the Ashmolean, Oxford. Nicholas Serota, director of Tate, said that the difficulty museums and galleries had in renewing their collections was a long-term problem. “I am always struck when I visit Manchester, Leeds or Nottingham that until the 1960s regional museums were able to make acquisitions on a par with the national collections. Until the 1960s they were equal to Tate; but from then things began to slide when funding began to fall away.” He welcomed the Art Fund’s uplift in funding, saying: “It will I am sure make a big difference. I hope it will renew the culture of collecting across the country.” The National Art Pass, he said, was “simple, clear, I’m sure it’s going to be very effective – and it’s cheap.” Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, also welcomed the Art Fund’s announcement, saying: “Some people wondered whether philanthropy would continue in tough times. This demonstrates that it can.” Speaking about the importance of acquisitions, he said, “We have long-term plans to help people build endowments [in order to be able to buy works of art] but we recognise this won’t happen overnight. This will make a really big difference in the next four years.” He said that the Art Fund’s move showed that “philanthropy was not just about rich individuals; there is also a way in which we can harness a lot of small donations. And with the National Art Pass people will really feel that they are getting something back.” Arts funding Museums Art Arts policy Philanthropy Charities Charlotte Higgins guardian.co.uk
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Michael McIntyre and David Hasselhoff join Amanda Holden on judging panel – while show’s creator is just a phone call away ITV had its first glimpse of a future without Simon Cowell at the launch of the new series of Britain’s Got Talent, which will return on Saturday without the man who created it. Cowell, who is busy making a US version of his other ITV1 hit, The X Factor, will not appear on Britain’s Got Talent until its final week. Such are his US commitments that doubts remain whether he will appear on ITV1′s The X Factor at all , and it was a reflection of the broadcaster’s sensitivity, perhaps, that at the Britain’s Got Talent press launch on Wednesday there was a blanket ban on any question not relating to that show. But fans can rest assured that with or without Cowell the fifth series of the reality talent show has a familiar feel, with singers who can’t sing, dancers who can’t dance, and ordinary-looking folk who turn out to have extraordinary talent. Cowell’s fellow judge Piers Morgan does not feature in the new show – he is busy in the US as well making his CNN chatshow – so there are two new judges, comedian Michael McIntyre and former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff, joining Amanda Holden. The three revealed that Cowell had watched early footage of the new series and telephoned them each individually to give them his seal of approval. “Simon phones every day,” joked McIntyre. Hasselhoff said the new lineup of judges was “not better or worse, just different”. Also a judge on the US version, which airs on NBC as America’s Got Talent, Hasselhoff said the UK shows were more fun to make. “Each city and each town sort of had their own spirit. At a drop of the hat the audience just wants to sing. They are so into it and so positive, it’s actually more fun than it is in the States,” he added. Holden said: “He loves it, he does love it. He phoned us all and said he loves it. We were all drunk when we got the call. I was on my way back from dinner. I don’t really know what he said but he sounded pleased.” McIntyre added: “I was in Venice for my wife’s birthday [when he rang]. I have worked out I had drunk 917 Bellinis. “It adds to the show that he has such a presence. It’s his show – for me he makes the best shows on TV – I felt him there all the time. “It was a huge moment when he said he watched it and he absolutely loved it. I’m thrilled for that, and I’m thrilled that he’s coming back. I think it will be really good fun.” Britain’s Got Talent, which propelled west Lothian-born Susan Boyle to global superstardom , although she came second in the 2009 series to dance act Diversity, is one of ITV’s biggest shows, along with The X Factor, I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! and Coronation Street. Last year’s final, won by acrobatic troupe Spellbound, averaged 12.4 million viewers, according to overnight figures . It was well down on the 17.3 million who saw Boyle pipped to the post in 2009, but was nonetheless one of ITV’s highest-rating shows of the year. The broadcaster will hope it does similarly good business this time around. Elaine Bedell, ITV’s director of entertainment and comedy, said: “Britain’s amateur talent has come out in force this year. “We all feel this has been one of the best audition tours for Britain’s Got Talent that we’ve had, with slightly fewer dance groups, more singing and dance groups and of course some fantastic performing dogs.” She described McIntyre and Hasselhoff as “the most unlikely showbusiness double act”. “Simon as you know is with us for the live shows but did not do the audition tour,” she added. “If nothing else, Britain’s Got Talent has taught David something about the geography of the British Isles. He does now know where Glasgow is – and it’s not in Ireland.” • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Britain’s Got Talent Simon Cowell ITV ITV1 Michael McIntyre Television industry Television Entertainment John Plunkett guardian.co.uk
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MPs have recommended criminalising clients of sex workers, saying 80% of prostitutes are victims of slavery and trafficking France is to consider making it illegal to pay for sex, in a rethink of prostitution laws. A cross-party commission of French MPs have recommended criminalising all clients of sex workers, meaning anyone who buys sex from any kind of prostitute would face prison and a fine. If a law is introduced, France would join only a handful of European countries where clients of sex workers face prison. In 1999 Sweden became the first, followed by Norway and Iceland. The Socialist Danielle Bousquet and Guy Geoffroy of Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP said clients must understand that any visit to a prostitute encouraged slavery and trafficking – which 80% of the estimated 20,000 sex-workers in France were victims of. Roselyne Bachelot, the social affairs minister, favours criminalising clients. She told the commission inquiry: “There is no such thing as freely chosen and consenting prostitution. The sale of sexual acts means women’s bodies are made available for men, independently of the wishes of those women.” Proposals for a law could be drawn up this month but it would not be debated in parliament before 2012. In France prostitution is not illegal, but activities around it are. Brothels, once the subject of artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, were outlawed in 1946. Pimping is illegal, as is paying for sex from a minor. In 2003 a controversial law against soliciting was introduced by Sarkozy, then interior minister, making it illegal to stand in a public place known for prostitution dressed in revealing clothes. Sex-workers’ groups in France have long campaigned for legal status and rights. The French actor, Philippe Caubère, famous for playing Molière, is open about regularly paying sex-workers €200 for sex. He said the government was playing politics in the runup to next year’s presidential election. “First it was immigrants, now it’s prostitutes. This is plain populism and shows a disdain for individual liberties,” he said. He told Le Parisien the government was not doing enough under existing laws to help exploited and trafficked women. “As for the other women, leave them alone. They take care of men who mostly live in sexual misery and terrible solitude. They are remarkable women.” Mouvement du Nid, a French group campaigning to end prostitution, published a study in 2004 which found 41% of male clients of sex workers said they were married and 57% were fathers. The French justice minister, Michel Mercier, supports criminalising clients, but the interior minister, Claude Guéant, said it would be difficult to make buying sex a crime when prostitution itself was not illegal. France Europe Prostitution Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
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