By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Ending a 21-month selection process, the city of Pittsburgh today announced it has picked Maryland-based Avrio Group to deploy a network of public safety surveillance cameras, starting along riverfronts and extending into high-crime areas.
The initial funding includes $3.45 million in camera funding is federal money that includes $2.59 million from the Department of Homeland Security, intended to improve port safety, and $862,000 in local money. An additional $625,000 in state funds will allow the system to be extended into crime-plagued neighborhoods.
At an afternoon news conference on the North Side, police Chief Nate Harper said the cameras will be a deterrent to crime.
"With the technology these cameras will have, it will greatly assist us with stopping homicides on the street, as well as stopping other crimes," he said.
The system will include 32 cameras installed on bridges, 48 that can recognize license plate numbers, and several dozen that will be deployed through the city's six police zones. It also includes a computer system to receive data from those cameras and about 120 others owned by private companies throughout the Downtown area.
The first six to 12 cameras will in installed in the Mexican War Streets area in the next few months, Mayor Lyuke Ravenstahl said. The first one probably will be at the corner of Brighton Road and Jacksonia Street.
Avrio leads one of nine groups of vendors that competed for the city's business. Avrio has won a string of high-profile camera installation jobs lately, including the task of putting up surveillance systems in St. Paul, Minn., for the Republican National Convention, and Denver for the Democratic National Convention. It also got the jobs of posting camera networks in Buffalo, N.Y., and Glendale, Colo.
City Council passed a camera privacy policy last year. It gives the chief of police the role of choosing where to put cameras, giving priority to neighborhoods with "a distinct pattern of crime" where there is a "potential to deter" that activity, and "significant support" of the community.
Footage can only be preserved for 10 days unless it is needed to investigate a crime or document city liability. Cameras are not allowed to target or follow a person unless there is probable cause that they have committed or are committing a crime.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
NIreland riots after police arrest 3 over killings
LURGAN, Northern Ireland – Irish nationalist gangs hurled gasoline bombs at police Saturday after three alleged IRA dissidents were arrested on suspicion of killing two British soldiers in an attack designed to trigger wider violence in Northern Ireland.
Police operating in armored cars and flame-retardant suits said none of their officers was injured during the rising mob violence in the Irish Catholic end of Lurgan, a religiously divided town southwest of Belfast. Rioters also blocked the main Belfast-to-Dublin railway line that runs alongside the hardline Kilwilkie neighborhood of the town.
Later, police said they arrested a 37-year-old man and 30-year-old woman, and seized a gun and ammunition in the neighboring town of Craigavon, where Irish Republican Army dissidents shot to death a policeman Monday.
Police would not say whether those arrests and the arms find were connected to the March 7 shooting of the soldiers or the subsequent killing of the policeman. Police said the couple were being questioned about unspecified "serious terrorist crime."
The unrest came in direct response to Saturday's arrest of Colin Duffy, 41, the best-known Irish republican in Lurgan. Police arrested two other suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents aged 32 and 21 in the overwhelmingly Catholic village of Bellaghy — all on suspicion of shooting to death two soldiers last weekend.
Police arrested two teenage rioters and advised motorists to stay away from the Catholic north side of Lurgan to avoid having their cars seized and burned as road barricades. An Associated Press reporter driving through the area at dusk Saturday night had to make a rapid escape to avoid youths — some wearing masks or with scarf-covered faces — hurling rocks and bricks in an apparent attempt to stop his vehicle.
Police long considered Duffy the IRA godfather of Lurgan and twice charged him with murders in the town in the run-up to the IRA's 1997 cease-fire — which breakaway factions are now trying to destroy.
Duffy was convicted of killing a former soldier in Lurgan in 1993, but was freed on appeal three years later after the key witness against him was identified as a member of an outlawed Protestant gang.
He was back behind bars within a year after police identified him as the gunman who committed the IRA's last two killings before its cease-fire: two Protestant policemen shot point-blank through the backs of their heads while on foot patrol in Lurgan in June 1997.
The prosecutors' case against Duffy collapsed after their key witness suffered a nervous breakdown and withdrew her testimony. Two years later, Protestant extremists assassinated Duffy's lawyer, Rosemary Nelson, with an under-car booby trap bomb in a case still being investigated today because of allegations that police were involved.
Saturday's arrest of Duffy appeared likely to pose a political challenge for Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party that is the leading Irish nationalist voice in Northern Ireland's power-sharing administration — and is trying to convince Protestants of its newfound support for British law and order.
The leading Sinn Fein member of the coalition, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, earlier this week denounced IRA dissidents as "traitors" and pledged to support the police's hunt for the gunmen. But previously, Sinn Fein has defended Duffy as an innocent man and a victim of British conspiracies.
Sinn Fein declined to comment on the arrests. McGuinness was traveling Saturday in the United States and could not be reached for comment.
Saturday's arrests came a week after the Real IRA splinter group fired more than 60 bullets at several unarmed, off-duty soldiers outside an army base as they collected pizzas, the first of two deadly gun attacks against British security forces.
Two soldiers, aged 21 and 23, died and four other people were seriously wounded, including both pizza delivery men — whom the Real IRA described as legitimate targets because they were "collaborating" with the enemy. Police said the attack involved two masked men armed with assault rifles and a getaway driver.
The IRA dissidents next struck Monday when Constable Stephen Carroll, 48, was shot fatally through the back of the head as he sat in his police car in Craigavon, the town beside Lurgan. A different splinter group, the Continuity IRA, admitted responsibility for that killing.
Three people — a 17-year-old boy and two men — have been arrested since Tuesday on suspicion of involvement in killing the policeman. All remained in custody Saturday.
The dissidents insist they have no intention of stopping attacks on British security forces and the civilians who work with them. The IRA pursued the same policy during its own 1970-97 attempt to force Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom. Most IRA members agreed to renounce violence and disarm in 2005.
Police operating in armored cars and flame-retardant suits said none of their officers was injured during the rising mob violence in the Irish Catholic end of Lurgan, a religiously divided town southwest of Belfast. Rioters also blocked the main Belfast-to-Dublin railway line that runs alongside the hardline Kilwilkie neighborhood of the town.
Later, police said they arrested a 37-year-old man and 30-year-old woman, and seized a gun and ammunition in the neighboring town of Craigavon, where Irish Republican Army dissidents shot to death a policeman Monday.
Police would not say whether those arrests and the arms find were connected to the March 7 shooting of the soldiers or the subsequent killing of the policeman. Police said the couple were being questioned about unspecified "serious terrorist crime."
The unrest came in direct response to Saturday's arrest of Colin Duffy, 41, the best-known Irish republican in Lurgan. Police arrested two other suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents aged 32 and 21 in the overwhelmingly Catholic village of Bellaghy — all on suspicion of shooting to death two soldiers last weekend.
Police arrested two teenage rioters and advised motorists to stay away from the Catholic north side of Lurgan to avoid having their cars seized and burned as road barricades. An Associated Press reporter driving through the area at dusk Saturday night had to make a rapid escape to avoid youths — some wearing masks or with scarf-covered faces — hurling rocks and bricks in an apparent attempt to stop his vehicle.
Police long considered Duffy the IRA godfather of Lurgan and twice charged him with murders in the town in the run-up to the IRA's 1997 cease-fire — which breakaway factions are now trying to destroy.
Duffy was convicted of killing a former soldier in Lurgan in 1993, but was freed on appeal three years later after the key witness against him was identified as a member of an outlawed Protestant gang.
He was back behind bars within a year after police identified him as the gunman who committed the IRA's last two killings before its cease-fire: two Protestant policemen shot point-blank through the backs of their heads while on foot patrol in Lurgan in June 1997.
The prosecutors' case against Duffy collapsed after their key witness suffered a nervous breakdown and withdrew her testimony. Two years later, Protestant extremists assassinated Duffy's lawyer, Rosemary Nelson, with an under-car booby trap bomb in a case still being investigated today because of allegations that police were involved.
Saturday's arrest of Duffy appeared likely to pose a political challenge for Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party that is the leading Irish nationalist voice in Northern Ireland's power-sharing administration — and is trying to convince Protestants of its newfound support for British law and order.
The leading Sinn Fein member of the coalition, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, earlier this week denounced IRA dissidents as "traitors" and pledged to support the police's hunt for the gunmen. But previously, Sinn Fein has defended Duffy as an innocent man and a victim of British conspiracies.
Sinn Fein declined to comment on the arrests. McGuinness was traveling Saturday in the United States and could not be reached for comment.
Saturday's arrests came a week after the Real IRA splinter group fired more than 60 bullets at several unarmed, off-duty soldiers outside an army base as they collected pizzas, the first of two deadly gun attacks against British security forces.
Two soldiers, aged 21 and 23, died and four other people were seriously wounded, including both pizza delivery men — whom the Real IRA described as legitimate targets because they were "collaborating" with the enemy. Police said the attack involved two masked men armed with assault rifles and a getaway driver.
The IRA dissidents next struck Monday when Constable Stephen Carroll, 48, was shot fatally through the back of the head as he sat in his police car in Craigavon, the town beside Lurgan. A different splinter group, the Continuity IRA, admitted responsibility for that killing.
Three people — a 17-year-old boy and two men — have been arrested since Tuesday on suspicion of involvement in killing the policeman. All remained in custody Saturday.
The dissidents insist they have no intention of stopping attacks on British security forces and the civilians who work with them. The IRA pursued the same policy during its own 1970-97 attempt to force Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom. Most IRA members agreed to renounce violence and disarm in 2005.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Baxter: Product contained live bird flu virus
Baxter flu vaccines contaminated with H5N1 - otherwise known as the human form of avian flu, one of the most deadly biological weapons on earth with a 60% kill rate - were received by labs in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovenia.
The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses.
And an official of the World Health Organization’s European operation said the body is closely monitoring the investigation into the events that took place at Baxter International’s research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria.
“At this juncture we are confident in saying that public health and occupational risk is minimal at present,” medical officer Roberta Andraghetti said from Copenhagen, Denmark.
“But what remains unanswered are the circumstances surrounding the incident in the Baxter facility in Orth-Donau.”
The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany.
The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.
Public health authorities concerned about what has been described as a “serious error” on Baxter’s part have assumed the death of the ferrets meant the H5N1 virus in the product was live. But the company, Baxter International Inc., has been parsimonious about the amount of information it has released about the event.
On Friday, the company’s director of global bioscience communications confirmed what scientists have suspected.
“It was live,” Christopher Bona said in an email.
The contaminated product, which Baxter calls “experimental virus material,” was made at the Orth-Donau research facility. Baxter makes its flu vaccine — including a human H5N1 vaccine for which a licence is expected shortly — at a facility in the Czech Republic.
People familiar with biosecurity rules are dismayed by evidence that human H3N2 and avian H5N1 viruses somehow co-mingled in the Orth-Donau facility. That is a dangerous practice that should not be allowed to happen, a number of experts insisted.
Accidental release of a mixture of live H5N1 and H3N2 viruses could have resulted in dire consequences.
While H5N1 doesn’t easily infect people, H3N2 viruses do. If someone exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus able to transmit easily to and among people.
That mixing process, called reassortment, is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created.
There is no suggestion that happened because of this accident, however.
“We have no evidence of any reassortment, that any reassortment may have occurred,” said Andraghetti.
“And we have no evidence of any increased transmissibility of the viruses that were involved in the experiment with the ferrets in the Czech Republic.”
Baxter hasn’t shed much light — at least not publicly — on how the accident happened. Earlier this week Bona called the mistake the result of a combination of “just the process itself, (and) technical and human error in this procedure.”
He said he couldn’t reveal more information because it would give away proprietary information about Baxter’s production process.
Andraghetti said Friday the four investigating governments are co-operating closely with the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Control in Stockholm, Sweden.
“We are in very close contact with Austrian authorities to understand what the circumstances of the incident in their laboratory were,” she said.
“And the reason for us wishing to know what has happened is to prevent similar events in the future and to share lessons that can be learned from this event with others to prevent similar events. ... This is very important.”
The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses.
And an official of the World Health Organization’s European operation said the body is closely monitoring the investigation into the events that took place at Baxter International’s research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria.
“At this juncture we are confident in saying that public health and occupational risk is minimal at present,” medical officer Roberta Andraghetti said from Copenhagen, Denmark.
“But what remains unanswered are the circumstances surrounding the incident in the Baxter facility in Orth-Donau.”
The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany.
The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.
Public health authorities concerned about what has been described as a “serious error” on Baxter’s part have assumed the death of the ferrets meant the H5N1 virus in the product was live. But the company, Baxter International Inc., has been parsimonious about the amount of information it has released about the event.
On Friday, the company’s director of global bioscience communications confirmed what scientists have suspected.
“It was live,” Christopher Bona said in an email.
The contaminated product, which Baxter calls “experimental virus material,” was made at the Orth-Donau research facility. Baxter makes its flu vaccine — including a human H5N1 vaccine for which a licence is expected shortly — at a facility in the Czech Republic.
People familiar with biosecurity rules are dismayed by evidence that human H3N2 and avian H5N1 viruses somehow co-mingled in the Orth-Donau facility. That is a dangerous practice that should not be allowed to happen, a number of experts insisted.
Accidental release of a mixture of live H5N1 and H3N2 viruses could have resulted in dire consequences.
While H5N1 doesn’t easily infect people, H3N2 viruses do. If someone exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus able to transmit easily to and among people.
That mixing process, called reassortment, is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created.
There is no suggestion that happened because of this accident, however.
“We have no evidence of any reassortment, that any reassortment may have occurred,” said Andraghetti.
“And we have no evidence of any increased transmissibility of the viruses that were involved in the experiment with the ferrets in the Czech Republic.”
Baxter hasn’t shed much light — at least not publicly — on how the accident happened. Earlier this week Bona called the mistake the result of a combination of “just the process itself, (and) technical and human error in this procedure.”
He said he couldn’t reveal more information because it would give away proprietary information about Baxter’s production process.
Andraghetti said Friday the four investigating governments are co-operating closely with the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Control in Stockholm, Sweden.
“We are in very close contact with Austrian authorities to understand what the circumstances of the incident in their laboratory were,” she said.
“And the reason for us wishing to know what has happened is to prevent similar events in the future and to share lessons that can be learned from this event with others to prevent similar events. ... This is very important.”
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The IRA's history of splits
The 2005 peace accord between Sin Fein, The Unionist Party, and Tony Blair was rushed based on the 7/7 bombings.
BBC News
The attacks against the military and police in Northern Ireland are part of a pattern in Irish history in which dissident groups split away from mainstream Republican organisations to maintain their dream of a united Ireland.
The question always arises as to whether these groups themselves then take over as the main flag-bearers.
The Provisional IRA did so in 1969 when it broke away from what became known as the Official IRA. There were ideological differences, but the main motivation was that the Provisionals felt that not enough had been done to protect Catholic communities in Northern Ireland.
Although "provisional", they proved remarkably permanent.
The two groups claiming the latest attacks - the Real IRA for the killing of the two soldiers and the Continuity IRA for the policeman - are themselves breakaways from the Provisional IRA, whom they accuse of abandoning the aim of an all-Ireland republic by ending its armed campaign in 2005 and joining the new power-sharing Northern Ireland government.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
ZWIRE EXCLUSIVE: SHAMROCK SHAKE
The ever elusive Shamrock Shake is alive and well.
After a strenuous search throughout the tri-state area, ZWIRE investigative reporters converged to Bedminster New Jersey on Sunday, and have discovered the delicious mint milkshake has not lost it's magical touch. The Shamrock Shake, once a very popular refreshment found at most McDonald's during the 1970's & 80's, is now more difficult to find as lets say - a Leprechaun.
New York City and North Jersey residents will have to make the journey an hour south, if they wish to indulge in the Irish treat leading up to St. Patrick's Day.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Schwarzenegger’s Nazi Fetish Surfaces in Germany
Arnold Schwarzenegger loves his Totenkopf Nazi death’s head belt buckle. The California gov was spotted wearing it at the CeBIT 2009 IT conference in Hanover, Germany, according to Spiegel Online. CeBIT 2009 is billing Schwarzenegger as one of California’s "technology leaders" at the conference.
A Spiegel photographer snapped the photo below of Schwarzenegger wearing his beloved belt buckle. “An accessory as symbol of the difficult times?” ponders Spiegel in the photo’s caption.
In 2007, Arnie appeared on the cover of Time Magazine with New York Mayor Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He proudly displayed the now infamous Nazi buckle in the photo and Bloomberg didn’t seem to care, even though he is a Jew of Russian and Polish descent. No shortage of Jews from Russia and Poland fell victim to the Nazis. Arnie’s father, Gustav, was an Austrian police chief and member of the Nazi Party and SA.
Tamiflu side effect concerns grow after Japan deaths
TOKYO (Reuters) - Concerns that the influenza drug Tamiflu -- seen as effective against a possible pandemic triggered by bird flu -- may induce fatal side effects are growing in Japan after two people who took it fell to their deaths last month.
The deaths, the latest cases of abnormal behavior by those who took Tamiflu, prompted the Health Ministry to issue a warning last week that influenza patients could show psychiatric problems, although it has denied the drug was responsible for them.
But the move was too little too late, said a group whose members say they are victims of Tamiflu side effects, which came to light in Japan in 2005 after 12 children died and 32 experienced abnormal behavior after taking the drug.
"Had they issued a warning earlier, then the number of deaths could have been halved," said Haruhiko Nokiba, whose 17-year-old son walked onto an expressway shortly after taking Tamiflu and was hit and killed by a truck in 2004.
The incident was seen as a suicide, but Nokiba, who heads the victims and families group, said his son had no reason to kill himself and circumstances showed that it was a result of abnormal behavior.
"He ran out into the snow barefoot in his pajamas, climbed over a 3-meter fence to cross train tracks and then ran into a truck," Nokiba told Reuters in an interview this week.
According to the Health Ministry, 54 people have died so far after taking Tamiflu, and in February, a 14-year-old girl and a boy fell to their deaths from their apartment homes in separate incidents after taking the drug. Neither had left a suicide note.
The deaths, the latest cases of abnormal behavior by those who took Tamiflu, prompted the Health Ministry to issue a warning last week that influenza patients could show psychiatric problems, although it has denied the drug was responsible for them.
But the move was too little too late, said a group whose members say they are victims of Tamiflu side effects, which came to light in Japan in 2005 after 12 children died and 32 experienced abnormal behavior after taking the drug.
"Had they issued a warning earlier, then the number of deaths could have been halved," said Haruhiko Nokiba, whose 17-year-old son walked onto an expressway shortly after taking Tamiflu and was hit and killed by a truck in 2004.
The incident was seen as a suicide, but Nokiba, who heads the victims and families group, said his son had no reason to kill himself and circumstances showed that it was a result of abnormal behavior.
"He ran out into the snow barefoot in his pajamas, climbed over a 3-meter fence to cross train tracks and then ran into a truck," Nokiba told Reuters in an interview this week.
According to the Health Ministry, 54 people have died so far after taking Tamiflu, and in February, a 14-year-old girl and a boy fell to their deaths from their apartment homes in separate incidents after taking the drug. Neither had left a suicide note.
Flu vaccine near 100% ineffective
USA TODAY
Evidence that flu viruses are becoming more resistant to the drug Tamiflu has sown deep concern among doctors who are worried that their best flu treatment is losing its punch.
The spread of resistance also has potentially weakened a pillar of the stockpiles of drugs that will be used to combat global flu outbreaks, doctors say.
The first in-depth analysis of Tamiflu resistance during last year's flu season found that about 12% of people with one of the three strains that caused the most illness, influenza A/H1N1, were infected with resistant viruses. One in five of last year's patients caught the strain, doctors reported Monday.
This year, Tamiflu resistance in that class of viruses has reached almost 100%, turning the tables on a drug designed to defeat resistance. "They're the most common viruses circulating this year," says flu expert William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University. "There are calls coming in from all over the country to infectious-disease doctors and public health specialists asking them how to proceed."
Evidence that flu viruses are becoming more resistant to the drug Tamiflu has sown deep concern among doctors who are worried that their best flu treatment is losing its punch.
The spread of resistance also has potentially weakened a pillar of the stockpiles of drugs that will be used to combat global flu outbreaks, doctors say.
The first in-depth analysis of Tamiflu resistance during last year's flu season found that about 12% of people with one of the three strains that caused the most illness, influenza A/H1N1, were infected with resistant viruses. One in five of last year's patients caught the strain, doctors reported Monday.
This year, Tamiflu resistance in that class of viruses has reached almost 100%, turning the tables on a drug designed to defeat resistance. "They're the most common viruses circulating this year," says flu expert William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University. "There are calls coming in from all over the country to infectious-disease doctors and public health specialists asking them how to proceed."
FEMA Camps are coming to a town near you!
Continuing his assigned role as corporate media siren of the apocalypse, Glenn Beck interrupted a discussion on Russia and Iran last night on Fox & Friends to mention a heretofore no-no for national television — FEMA camps. At two minutes into the video below, Beck declares he attempted to “debunk these FEMAS camps” because he is “tired of hearing about them,” but was unable to do so. “We now for several days have done research on them… I can’t debunk them.” Beck follows this with a declaration that the United States may be headed for totalitarianism.
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