Obama briefed on Boston investigation

President Obama was briefed Saturday on the nascent investigation into the motivations of the two brothers suspected of orchestrating the Boston Marathon bombings.

At a White House meeting of the president's National Security Council, the administration's top intelligence, law enforcement and counter-terrorism officials updated Obama on Friday night's capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger suspect, and the ongoing probe to discover what might have inspired the attacks. 

Among those briefing the president were National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, the White House said. 

Vice President Biden joined the 90-minute meeting by teleconference, the administration added.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, were ethnic Chechens who immigrated to the United States years ago. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was captured Friday night after a long manhunt, was reportedly made a naturalized citizen last September; Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed Friday morning in a shootout with police, reportedly had a green card.

The brothers' long stay in the U.S., combined with the seeming absence of red flags that might have foreshadowed a terrorist conspiracy, has left law enforcers in and out of the administration scratching their heads in search of why the suspects might have bombed Boston.

Obama on Friday night vowed to get to the bottom of that enigma.

"Why did young men who grew up and studied here, as part of our communities and our country, resort to such violence? How did they plan and carry out these attacks, and did they receive any help?" Obama said. 

"The families of those killed so senselessly deserve answers.” 

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Idaho Science Teacher Is Under Investigation For Teaching About Climate Change And Orgasms

A 10th grade science teacher in Idaho is being investigated by his school after parents complained that he included the word “vagina” in his lessons, taught the class about the female orgasm, and showed Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Some of the allegations are more serious, including that “he shared confidential student files with an individual other than their parents,” and “told inappropriate jokes in class,” but science teacher Tim McDaniel suspects that the complaints originated because of his discussions about issues considered controversial in the largely Mormon community where he teaches:

“I teach straight out of the textbook, I don’t include anything that the textbook doesn’t mention,” McDaniel said. “But I give every student the option not attend this class when I teach on the reproductive system if they don’t feel comfortable with the material.”

The science teacher said he has taught Dietrich’s science classes for the past 18 years without receiving a complaint from parents or students.

According to McDaniel, the commission is also investigating a complaint that accuses him of using school property to promote a political candidate. The complaint was because he showed the climate change film “An Inconvenient Truth,” also in his science class.

McDaniel said he includes the film to spark a discussion on climate change among the students. After watching the film, he asks students to write a response paper explaining their thoughts on climate change.

Idaho is a state that has no requirement for sex education and no mandated HIV education. It does have a requirement that students be allowed to opt out of sex ed classes, to which McDaniel says he adhered.

(HT: Raw Story )

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Bipartisan Pair Of Senators Calls For Investigation Into U.S. Taxpayer Losses From Coal Exports

by Jessica Goad

Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have called on Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to investigate if U.S. taxpayers are getting shortchanged by companies mining coal from public lands and exporting the resource to other countries.

That’s according to a report from Reuters today.

Senator Wyden is Chairman of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Senator Murkowski is the ranking member.

Wyden and Murkowski said they were concerned that coal companies are not paying high enough royalties on coal mined on public lands.  According to another Reuters article in December, companies are valuing coal at lower domestic prices rather than higher international prices so they “can dodge the larger royalty payout when mining federal land.”

If any violations of the law have occurred, companies should be required to cure any gap in royalty payments and, if misconduct has occurred, civil penalties should be levied,” reads Wyden and Murkowsi’s letter.

Approximately 43 percent of the coal produced in the U.S. comes from public lands managed by the government and owned by all Americans. Public lands are home to some of the richest coal deposits in the nation, mostly located in Wyoming and Montana’s Powder River Basin.

However, as the use of coal for electricity continues to decrease, coal companies have been eying fast-growing Asian markets as a potential destination for U.S. coal.  In 2011, U.S. coal exports were the highest they have been since 1991, and companies like Arch Coal have predicted that they could be even higher over the next few years.

Shorting royalties isn’t the only way that taxpayers may be losing out. Some have called out the government for carrying out policies on public lands that keep coal cheap, and therefore shortchange American taxpayers.

For example, a report published by financial analyst Tom Sanzillo in July found that the Interior Department has offered coal leases non-competitively in the Powder River Basin rather than putting them up for auction, thus costing taxpayers  as much as $29 billion over the last three decades.

Coal companies can also get leases on public lands extremely cheaply. The highest bid ever received on a federal coal lease in the Powder River Basin was $1.10 per short ton, despite the fact that the coal can be sold for approximately $10 per short ton.

In a separate piece on coal exports, Reuters noted that these government policies raise “questions about whether taxpayers are essentially helping Asian economies save on energy costs.”

Coal exports are another emerging environmental fight. Currently, five coal export terminals are proposed in Oregon and Washington — projects that have been strongly opposed by everyone from environmentalists to farmers and ranchers to local officials.

The Army Corps of Engineers, along with state and local agencies, recently started holding preliminary hearings on how to assess the construction of the terminals and determine whether or not there should be a cumulative analysis on the new infrastructure built across the West to accommodate the vastly increased amounts of coal.

Wyden and Murkowski aren’t the only lawmakers paying attention to the growing issues around coal exports.  Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), the ranking member on the House Committee on Natural Resources, asked the Government Accountability Office in April to review the government’s program and policies for overseeing coal mined on public lands.

Jessica is the Manager of Research and Outreach for the Public Lands Project at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

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