ObamaCare and America's Global Competitiveness

As part of my ongoing examination of the effects of American healthcare "reform" (aka ObamaCare) on the United States' global economic competitiveness comes this interesting news out of Raleigh, North Carolina:

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is testing a plan that would outsource some information technology work to India.

The state's largest health insurer is looking for ways to reduce costs as the recession has slowed membership growth and health reform looms. This week, Blue Cross started a "small pilot project" with Keane, a Boston-based information technology firm, to extract and analyze data from the insurer's massive electronic repository. Some of the work will likely be handled at a Keane facility in India, said Blue Cross spokesman Lew Borman.

"It does not affect any current jobs, but I can't speak to down the road," Borman said. "We're looking at a variety of ways to operate more efficiently and keep premiums affordable. It's about costs and cost savings for North Carolinians."...

Outsourcing or offshoring has been a trend in corporate America for years, but has come under fire from lawmakers and other critics as unemployment remains stubbornly high. When any company does it for the first time, there's the potential for a backlash from consumers and others, said Jim Johnson, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School....

[H]ealth reform is forcing many medical companies to find ways to cut costs, Johnson said. Reform will also bring a host of data-management challenges. Last year's federal stimulus bill included billions of dollars to entice physicians, hospitals and others to adopt electronic medical records, which can improve efficiency and reduce errors.

As some companies hire outside firms to handle that work, they have to look to global information technology providers with operations in cheaper countries. "The cost differential is just too wide," Johnson said....

What's most interesting about this news is that, unlike those billions in new tax costs that US companies were forced to incur (and report) after ObamaCare became law, the moves by BCBS are not in response to actual higher costs, but only the threat of such costs in the future.  Yet each demonstrates a clear pattern: ObamaCare is placing more artificial burdens on American companies and workers - already some of the most heavily burdened in the world.  These tax and regulatory burdens reduce America's global competitiveness and, where those costs outweigh the benefits of staying onshore (i.e., the "tipping point"), companies and/or jobs are forced offshore.

Of course, one of the biggest criticisms of the US healthcare "reform" legislation was that it would actually increase costs for health insurers and American businesses, so BCBS' response here is totally and utterly expected - it's what good businesses do to, you know, stay in business.  Nevertheless, you really must wonder how many other insurers and other companies are already researching and or/employing similar cost-saving measures in order to absorb ObamaCare's current or future burdens and remain operational. 

And it's all to the detriment of American companies, workers and the overall economy.

Back Online (Finally)

A recommendation: once you get married, never move again.  It's awful.  Just awful.

Short Hiatus

I'm moving over the next few days, so the blog will be silent until (probably) Saturday.  Sorry to ruin your Friday night plans.

-SL

BREAKING: Zack Stewart Granted New Trial For Dulin Murder:

Zackary Lee Stewart

It was a case every prosecutor dreads...a murder with multiple players with motive, means and opportunity. That was what Stone County Prosecutor Matt Selby dealt with for two years before he got the first-degree murder trial of Zackary Lee Stewart, 21, Hurley, before a Greene County jury.

Selby maintained that Stewart was responsible for the murder of 53 year-old David "Dave" Dulin, of Hurley, on November 29, 2006. About four months after Dulin's murder, Selby filed murder charges against Stewart and Leo Connelly. He said the pair went to Dulin's house to rob him.

A little after midnight Dulin called 9-1-1 and told the dispatcher that two men in their 20's and 30's had broken into his home and shot him in the head with his own .22 pistol.

As Dulin lay dying, he was conscious on the line with the dispatcher for about 5 minutes while first responders made their way to his rural home. He told the 9-1-1 operator that he did not know who shot him, but stated that the assailants were from Hurley and that one of the men said he was the "Eby girl's boyfriend."

The phone line stayed open for the 25 minutes it took authorities to get to Dulin's home on Tin Can Hollow, the dispatcher could hear the sirens approaching and the sound of the first deputy on the scenes footsteps in the house. Dulin had crawled across the living room to unlock the front door for those coming to help him. He had been shot four times and was found dead just inside the front door of his home.

Stone County Prosecutor Matt Selby

Stewart's trial was moved from Stone County to Greene County on a change of venue, which was automatically granted, when defense attorney's requested one because the county has less than 75,000 residents.

I was in the courtroom when the jury returned with their guilty verdict, it was emotional on both sides of the table. Bittersweet for Dulin's family members; shock and disbelief for Stewart's loved ones.

Stewart was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for Dulin's murder, but evidence uncovered during and after the trial has raised questions about Stewart's guilt.

On May 25th, The Missouri Supreme Court granted Stewart a new trial based on an evidentiary matter.

Stewart was an 18-year-old high school senior in Hurley at the time of Dulin's murder. When investigators contacted him, he told them that he had no knowledge of Dulin's murder, but he did volunteer non-public information (when the crime purportedly occurred and the caliber of weapon involved). He stated that if he was going to kill someone he would not use a .22 caliber weapon, "something he would have to shoot four or five times with to kill them."

Stewart was again questioned about Dulin's murder a few months later when he was jailed on an DWI charge.

A sheriff's detective told Stewart that a witness placed him, his sister Christy Pethoud, and Christy's boyfriend, Leo Connelly, in a light colored car on a road near Dulin's home the night of the murder. He was told the murder weapon had been recovered in Springfield and was asked if there might be a reason his DNA would be at the crime scene. Stewart maintained that he was not involved, that he did not know anything, and that he had never left his sister's home that night.

Stewart was then placed in an isolation cell while searches were conducted. He later requested to talk to a detective. Crying, scared, and upset, Stewart told the Detective Karl Wagner that he thought Leo Connelly was responsible for Dulin's murder.

Two jail house snitches, Coty Pollard and Victor Parker, who shared a cell with Stewart, contacted investigators and said that Stewart told them about Dulin's murder. Both men testified for the State at Stewart's trial.

They testified on the stand that Stewart said he went to Dulin's home the night of the murder with Christy Pethoud, Leo Connelly, his mother Paula Eby, Mark Myers, and Myers son, Robert to "take his dope."

According to the states witnesses, they arrived in two vehicles (Zack, Christy, and Leo were in a white Ford Escort; Paula, Mark, and Robert in a Jeep Cherokee,) and that Robert guarded Dulin while the others ransacked the house searching for drugs. They said Dulin pulled a gun and Stewart wrestled the gun away from him and shot him four times. Pollard and Parker told investigators that the group panicked, fled the scene, (Leo and Zackary left in the Escort; the others left in the Cherokee) burned the clothes they had been wearing in a barrel and threw them in the river. Leo was chosen to get rid of the gun.

Stewart's lawyer, Michelle Tobin, cross-examined Parker and Pollard about their influence over Stewart in jail. She asked if they had received favors from investigators or the prosecutor in exchange for their testimony in the case.

Tobin called just one witness–Stewart's sister Christy–who testified that no one left her house the night of Dulin's murder.

The high court says the problem in the trial is that family members of Dulin's told Selby during the trial that they had never seen Dulin with the bloody hat that was found at the crime scene that was introduced into evidence as belonging to him.

Selby says, "This case was a little bit like reality T.V. at this point in the trial. It is very strange to have a DNA issue come up in the middle of a trial."

He requested an alpha rush to the state crime lab to test the hat to get a DNA profile. On the the third day of Stewart's trial the jury was provided with bombshell preliminary DNA results--the DNA on the hat didn't belong to Stewart or Connelly. It belonged to three other people; Dulin, Stewart's brother-in-law Tim Seaman, and another unknown person.

During closing arguments, Selby argued that the preliminary DNA information from the bloody hat reflected a DNA "hit" to Seaman made by an investigative database. He stressed that it was not a DNA "match" confirmed by comparing it with Seaman's actual DNA. He also highlighted that Seaman was not identified at trial as a person who was with Stewart during Dulin's murder.

Detective Wagner stated that, after Stewart's trial, he received a tip that Seaman had disclosed to his brother that he had "taken someones life." Seaman did not indicate whose life he took, but his brother Randy stated that he had not taken Tim's statements seriously until he heard about the bloody hat found near Dulin's body.

The brother stated it was Seaman's hat or a hat identical to the one he had for a long period of time. The brother indicated that Seaman drove a light tan or white vehicle.

Robert Bales, Seaman's nephew, testified at a motion hearing that his uncle had confided to him the morning after Dulin's murder that he (Tim Seaman) and his friend, John Mills, were at Dulin's house when he was killed.

Detective Wagner testified that Randy Seaman told him that Tim was at Randy's house in November and they were drinking and Tim told Randy “that he had taken someones life, and asked him how you deal with that.”

In the high court's ruling the justices note, "Seman allegedly admitted to Robert Bales that he and John Mills witnessed the murder-causing Mills to vomit the next morning. That, combined with the DNA of an unknown person on dentures found, makes two at the murder scene, which is what Victim described in his 9-1-1 call. Detective Wagner testified that Tim also confessed to Randy Seaman that he had taken a life."

Sebly, who dismissed murder charges against Connelly for lack of evidence says, "In 20 years of practice I have never had a case reversed on appeal. My guess is we go back to Greene County for trial, and Stewart is returned to the Greene County jail."

Selby says that even though there is no physical evidence linking Stewart to the crime, he believes Stewart received a fair trial with an impartial jury and, will be convicted again when he is retried.

PC4D: Lee Fisher Blames Rob Portman (and US Trade Policies) for Ohio Job Losses, DMV Lines and Cancer

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Democrat Party and its Ohio Senate candidate Lee Fisher are going after his competition, Republican Rob Portman, for being a good United States Trade Representative and applying US law correctly:

Ohio Democrats who say that free trade has cost good-paying factory jobs are about to get personal, and their target is a clean-cut Cincinnati attorney named Rob Portman.

He's the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in the race to succeed George Voinovich, and he represents a rare opportunity for Democrats who blame factory closings on GOP trade practices. Portman, 54, has a record -- not just of votes from his days in Congress, but also of decisions made when he was trade ambassador in President George W. Bush's White House in 2005 and 2006.

There's no need for a faceless bogeyman or amorphous "they" in this year's Senate race when opponents say that "they" took our jobs.

"Congressman Portman supported Chinese government-backed steel companies over Ohio workers," says John Collins, spokesman for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Lee Fisher. Fisher is currently Ohio's lieutenant governor. "Simply put," Collins says, "if you want to see the jobs Congressman Portman created after spending 20 years in Washington, you'd have to go to China."

Yet a Plain Dealer examination of trade cases and practices, including key cases that Democrats have also pored over, shows the rap against Portman is as political as it is substantive. Still, Portman faces a challenge making his case, because the issue of trade and lost jobs is nuanced and emotional, especially in a state where everyone knows someone who's out of work.

The Plain Dealer goes on to do a very good job explaining how the Dems' specific claim - about Chinese pipe imports - against Portman is complete and utter garbage.  Basically, Fisher's team and other Democrats are utilizing a classic protectionist myth that all imports are unfairly traded (on behalf of dirty rotten cheaters and the horrible tycoons who love them, of course).  In this case, the protectionists conflate two separate Chinese pipe cases:

• A 2005 case on circular welded non-alloy steel pipe under Section 421 of US Trade Law, which has nothing to do with "unfair trade" or "predatory pricing" and requires Presidential consideration of the overall "national economic interest"; and
• A series of 2008-2009 cases on other types of pipe under the US Antidumping and Countervailing Duty (CVD) Laws, which (at least theoretically) do.  

(For background on Section 421 and how it differs from "unfair trade" cases, go here.)  Portman, of course, was only USTR in 2005 and 2006, so to claim, as the Dems do, that "Bush's refusal to stop China's predatory and protectionist trade practices, based on the advice of his trade representative, helped China at the expense of jobs here in the U.S." is total rubbish.  And when called on their bluff by the Plain Dealer, the Dems' response is unsurprisingly inane:  "Is it a different pipe? Yes, it's a different pipe....  But the market fundamentals are the same."

This response, of course, is jibberish.  USTR Portman allegedly advised the President that it was not in the national economic interest to impose special, never-before-used safeguards on fairly-traded imports of Chinese pipe that were found to cause "market disruption" in the United States.  Then, three years later and after Portman was long gone, the independent International Trade Commission and Department of Commerce (unrelated to Portman's USTR) determined that imports of different kinds of steel pipe were unfairly priced/subsidized and materially injuring the domestic pipe industry.  So Portman's decision re: Section 421 had nothing to do with enabling "predatory protectionists" or "unfair trade" and everything to do with making a legally-bound determination about the impact of unprecedented pipe protectionism on the overall economic interest of the United States.  Indeed, for Portman to have decided in favor of the domestic pipe producers (one of whom is French owned, natch) and their unions just because he was from Ohio would have shown him to be a disingenuous political panderer.

And speaking of biased political pandering, that brings us to another one of the Fisher team's panderiffic statements from the Plain Dealer article:

"Ohio voters will be troubled to learn that Congressman Portman spent 20 years in Washington supporting trade policies that shipped Ohio jobs overseas and allowed cheap Chinese goods to undermine our manufacturers.," Collins, Fisher's spokesman, says.

Ahh, yes, the protectionist myth about American manufacturing decline.  Let's see, Portman was USTR from 2005 and 2006, and as I've mentioned repeatedly, the US manufacturing sector actually thrived during those years (and in 2007):

[T]all tales about the demise of US manufacturing are probably the most prevalent, and misguided protectionist myth out there.  First, until the onset of the latest recession, the US manufacturing sector was setting all kinds of performance records.  As noted in my Cato Institute paper last year: "According to nearly every financial statistic that is relevant to evaluating the health of the manufacturing sector, it was unequivocally thriving until the onset of the recent US financial crisis and recession.  In 2006, US manufacturing achieved record highs for output, revenues, profits, investment returns, exports, and imports.... [I]n 2007 new records were set for output, revenues, value added, and exports in the manufacturing sector." (See paper for footnotes, but don't bother: it's all government data.)  During this same period ('06-'07), do you know what else was setting records?  Yep: imports.  Of course, the strong, positive relationship between imports and US manufacturing success makes total sense when you consider that almost 60% of all imports into the United States are capital goods and equipment - things that American manufacturers rely on to produce their globally competitive products (in record amounts).

Oh, and just so we're totally clear, the US manufacturing sector was, and remains, the world's largest: according to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, US factories are the world’s most productive, accounting for 25 percent of global manufacturing value-added.  By comparison, Chinese factories account for only 10.6 percent. (But don't just take my, or the UN's, word for it: the White House's 2009 "Manufacturing Framework" also made America's manufacturing dominance crystal clear.)

So when Rob Portman was USTR, US manufacturing was absolutely killing it, and we're doing pretty well today too.  Nice work, Ambassador!

But hey, maybe it's just Ohio's jobs that were destroyed by Portman's pernicious trade policies.  Well as the handy chart below makes clear, Ohio's unemployment rate was around 5.5% throughout Portman's tenure and only took a nosedive after Portman left his USTR post and the Great Recession took hold:



I've also shown you Texas' unemployment over the same period because I think it's quite amazing that Ohio and Texas had very similar unemployment rates until just before the recession began.  It was only in 2007 and beyond - particularly after the Fall 2008 crash - that Ohio's unemployment rate goes off the rails and Texas' rate remains relatively low.  What's also interesting about that period, of course, is that global trade dramatically contracted, as did the US trade deficit.  So Ohio's unemployment cratered at the very same time that the US trade deficit was dramatically shrinking, and yet the Ohio Democrats want to blame "free trade" and imports for their problems?

Umm, no.

But let's go back to Texas for a second.  As the employment data above make clear, Texas has absolutely dominated Ohio (and other rust belt states) during the recession.  And as the table below demonstrates, Texas was trading like crazy over the same period.

Texas crushes Ohio in exports and imports in 2008 and 2009, and it's not just a population advantage.  The per capita numbers are almost as stark.  Texas also is running a trade deficit in both 2008 and 2009, so it's not like a massive trade surplus is the reason for Texas' success.  Pretty interesting, huh?

Now, because I'm not a political hack, I'm not going to sit here and claim that it's only because of free trade that Texas has so thoroughly thrashed Ohio over the last 2-3 years.  There are lots of reasons, including tax, labor and trade policies, that have caused Texas' economy to weather the storm better than Ohio's (and that of pretty much every other state in the union).  But at the same time, the trade and employment data above should end, once and for all, the disingenuous political claims that Rob Portman's "free trade" advocacy somehow led to Ohio's demise.  It's just not true, and to allege as much is to shamefully mislead a scared Ohio citizenry that just doesn't know any better.

Elderly McDonald County Man Jailed For Threatening Judge:

Arthur "Tom" Crow

A Pineville, Missouri man is locked up in the McDonald County Jail along with his son for threatening to kill the judge handling his son's cattle theft case.



McDonald County Sheriff Robert Evenson says he got a call from the Springfield Metro Bar Association last Friday (05-21-10) about Arthur "Tom" Crow, 79. "Crow didn't like the way a judge was conducting his son's trial and allegedly told someone at the Bar Association that he was going to get a gun and go take care of him [Judge John LePage] himself."

McDonald County Sheriff Robert Evenson



The same day a jury found his son, Holder Crow, 44, Garfield, AR, guilty of cattle theft, theft of property and animal abuse. Last year a Highway Patrol press release stated that on September 8, 2009, a motorist called 9-1-1 and reported a cow had fallen through the bottom of a livestock trailer, it's legs dragging along U. S. 71 in McDonald County.

Holder Crow

The trailer and 11 head of cattle were stolen from a farm in southern McDonald County. Four of the animals had to be put down.



Holder, who is also facing drug charges in McDonald County, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 14th.



Sheriff Evenson says that one of the co-defendants in the case, Ricky K. Obenshain, 35, Hinesville, AR, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight years in prison.



Another co-defendant, Stephanie J. Weston, 36, Pea Ridge, AR, is scheduled to go to trial in June.

Lawrence County Sheriff Injured In Assault Near Miller:

Lawrence County Sheriff Brad De Lay says one of his deputies was assaulted in a knife attack Saturday night near Miller.

DeLay says the Deputy received minor injuries from an assault while investigating suspicious activity. Saturday evening around 11:00 p.m. the deputy was patrolling county roads south of Miller when he observed a subject in a hooded shirt walking down a county road.

As the deputy attempted to identify the subject, he bolted into a field. The deputy ordered the subject to stop but he continued to run. As the deputy approached an abandoned building he lost sight of the subject. As the deputy approached the building, a man grabbed the deputy from behind and a struggle ensued.

Another subject then attacked the deputy with a knife, slicing the him in the face and arm with the knife.

According to DeLay, the deputy was able to fire shots at the suspects. It is unknown if either of the suspects were wounded of the shots struck the suspects.

DeLay says he believes the deputy interrupted a meth cook manufacturing the drug because several materials used to make the illegal drug were located in the abandoned building. Those items were collected as evidence and are have been sent to the state crime lab.

The deputy, who received minor cuts, was treated and released at the scene.

Deputies from Lawrence County, Jasper County, Miller Police Department, Mt. Vernon Police Department, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol responded to the area for assistance after the deputy radioed for help. K-9 units and the Highway Patrol helicopter also assisted in an extensive search of the area but the suspects are still at large.

The Lawrence County Sheriff's Office is asking that anyone who might have seen two subjects walking in the area during the late hours of Saturday night or early morning hours of Sunday, or perhaps a vehicle parked along the road way south of Miller to contact the Sheriff's Office at 417-466-2131 or call 9-1-1 with that information.

UPDATED: Man Captured In Taney County Following Weekend Stabbings In Arkansas:

Joseph Culverhouse mug shot

A man from Cedar Creek, Missouri who fled to Taney County after a double stabbing in Omaha, AR, over the weekend has been charged with two counts of first degree battery allegedly stabbing two brothers.

Boone County Sheriff Danny Hickman says deputies were called to a residence on Shady Drive in Omaha about 1:41 a.m Saturday May 22nd. He says when they arrived they found Darin Lowder, 43, and his brother, Daniel Lowder, 50, had been stabbed multiple times.

Boone County, AR, Sheriff Danny Hickman

The Lowder’s told deputies the incident began when one of them confronted a woman and asked her why she was on their property. They said that's whey a man stabbed Daniel several times and a physical altercation between Darin and the male suspect resulted in the suspect cutting Darin slashing him several times in the face and chest.

Before the two victims were airlifted to St. John's Regional Health Center in Springfield they were able to provide investigators with a description and license plate of the vehicle the pair couple left in.

Shortly before 3:00 a.m. a Forsyth Police officer located a vehicle matching the description at a convenience store. Joseph Culverhouse and his wife Ronda, 44 were taken into custody and held at the Taney County Jail on an investigative hold.

Hickman says that interviews of both suspects revealed Ronda Culverhouse was not involved in the attacks of Darin and Daniel Lowder and was released without charges.

Joseph Culverhouse has been extradited back to Arkansas to face two counts of first-degree battery. His bond has been set at $250,000.

The Lowder's have been released from the hospital.

Obama Administration Wears Velvet Gloves in Beijing

It's kinda amazing that less than two months ago the punditocracy was openly kvetching about the strong possibility of a US-China trade war.  I wasn't buying it, but I must say that even I'm a little surprised at how quickly the tone from the Obama administration (and its Party faithful) has changed.  Take this story from today's FT on the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), which started today:

China has made progress in rebalancing its economy towards domestic consumption and away from exports even though its currency remains pegged to the dollar, Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, said as he prepared for the start of the annual US-China summit.

Adopting a conciliatory tone on Sunday ahead of two days of meetings in Beijing starting on Monday, Mr Geithner said China had relaxed some of the restrictions facing multinationals that have angered parts of the US business community in China....

The US has long been pressing China to rebalance its economy by adopting a stronger currency, especially since the renminbi was re­pegged to the US dollar in mid-2008. But Mr Geithner admitted that Chinese government policies were reducing its dependence on exports.

He said: “It looks as if there has been a durable shift towards domestic consumption in China. Domestic demand is growing more rapidly than [gross domestic product], and there’s been a big drop in the external surplus.”

China’s current account surplus dropped from 11 per cent of GDP in 2007 to 5.8 per cent last year as its aggressive stimulus plan drew in record imports of commodities.

The US administration is likely to soft pedal over the currency issue in public this week, for fear of provoking a backlash from its hosts in Beijing.

But officials acknowledge that if China has not shifted policy by the G20 summit in late June, political pressure will rise in the US for trade measures directed at China.

The US will also lobby China over a series of new rules that some foreign businesses in China say are making it harder for them to operate. Mr Geithner acknowledged, however, that China had changed so-called “indigenous innovation” rules introduced last year, which multinationals claimed would exclude them from public procurement contracts.

I'd like to think that this is a case of sanity finally prevailing over political nincompoopery, but I'm quite sure that the politics of China-bashing ain't dead for this year.  Instead, it's just taking a little nap so key administration officials can pleasantly meet in Beijing with their Chinese counterparts and so the Chinese can appreciate the RMB against the Dollar in advance of the June G-20 summit without appearing to do so because of intense foreign pressure (the Chinese have their own domestic political pressures, you know).  However, when (not if) the Chinese let their currency strengthen a little, it certainly won't be enough to satisfy the currency hawks in Congress who will gladly demagogue the issue all the way to the November midterms.  So it's all but certain that, contrary to what the FT article says above, the politics of US-China trade aren't going to get any better once the RMB appreciates by a measly old 5% (or less).  Nope, only an election can cure what ails the currency crazies.  So sanity should just enjoy its little moment in the sun right now, because it's going back in the closet very soon and probably won't be back 'till mid-November at the earliest.

Now let's just hope that, in the meantime, nobody does anything supremely stupid to make the whole US-China trade relationship actually go off the rails.

UPDATED: Barry County Teen Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter In Drunk Driving Crash:

Sierra Nicole Wood mug shot

A teenager from Barry County has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for an alleged drunken-driving car crash that killed her friend.

The Missouri Highway Patrol says Sierra Nicole Wood, 17, Wheaton, lost control of her 2002 Chevy, ran off the road and flipped the vehicle ejecting 17 year-old Jessica Nicole Pettengill of Fairview on Missouri 76 just west of Cassville about 4:30 a.m. Sunday.

Pettengill was pronounced dead at the scene by the county coroner about an hour later.



Jessica Nicole Pettengill (family photo)

Pettengill and another passenger in the vehicle, Ronald R. Torrey, 18, were not wearing seat belts according to a Highway Patrol crash report.

Wood was tested at the scene for DWI and taken into custody.

She's been charged with involuntary manslaughter/vehicular/intoxicated and was released from the Barry County jail after posting $15,000 bond.

The investigation into who supplied, or sold alcohol, to Wood is ongoing, according to a police spokesperson. There is no word on whether or not there are any charges pending against anyone else connected with the deadly crash as Barry County Prosecutor Johnnie Cox was out of the office Monday.

Funeral services for Jessica Pettengill will be held at 10:30 A.M. Wednesday, May 26, 2010, in the Wheaton School Gymnasium. Burial will be in Rocky Comfort Cemetery, Rocky Comfort, Missouri.

The family will receive friends from 5:00 until 7:00 P.M. Tuesday, at McQueen Funeral Home, Wheaton.

A memorial scholarship has been set up to honor Jessica.

(Somewhat) New Paper on China Currency Supports Sanity

Last month, the Heritage Foundation's Derek Scissors published a very nice web memo on China currency and the (false) conventional wisdom that an unpegged, stronger RMB would increase American jobs and reduce the US-China trade deficit.  I somehow missed that, so I'm posting it now because the whole thing is worth reading (and it has some handy-dandy charts).  Here's the gist:

The Department of the Treasury has delayed its decision on whether to label China a currency manipulator. Prominent Members of Congress attacked this delay, insisting they will seek trade action against the PRC. At the heart of congressional demands is the idea that a Chinese revaluation would mean millions of additional American jobs. This idea is almost surely wrong.

The almost is there only because advocates of revaluation are often vague about how large a change is supposed to manage this feat. Such vagueness should come as little surprise—when one examines American jobs and the value of the RMB, the thread between the two is very, very thin. No currency revaluation of any feasible size will create more than a few thousand American jobs.

The reason for the minimal impact is simple: The exchange rate with China is not genuinely important to the U.S. economy. There are other policies China has adopted, or not adopted, that are more important. There are policies the U.S. has adopted, or not adopted, that are more important. The U.S. should focus on these more important policies, such as Chinese subsidies and the U.S. budget deficit, not an exchange rate shift that will achieve almost nothing.

Scissors goes on to show how past RMB appreciation versus the dollar has done nothing to affect the US-China trade balance, and how that balance is a wholly stupid thing to obsess about - two arguments that are very, very popular on this blog.  So go ahead, check out the whole thing here.

Home Health Care Worker Charged With Assaulting Young Relative Of Man She Was Caring For:

Ute Horn

A home health care worker providing care to an elderly man in his Ozark County has been charged with felony child abuse for allegedly assaulting the man's granddaughter.

According to a news release from Chief Deputy Darrin Reed, Ute Horn, 43, Theodosia, grabbed the 3 year-old girl by the hair and yanked her into a corner of the man's home, causing pain and emotional distress to the child.

Horn is being held in the Ozark County Jail on $20, 000 bond. She is scheduled to be formally arraigned on Tuesday morning.

Thursday Quick Hits

I'm still tired from my birthday dinner last night, so you're only getting headlines tonight.  But as my mom would say, somehow I think you'll live:

• Cato's Dan Ikenson is on blog-fire today.  First, he's deflating the China-as-economic-model myth.  Then, he's all up in the President's grill about how our trade remedy laws undermine Obama's big National Export Initiative.  And he still had time to buy me lunch.  Very, very efficient, that guy.

• Germany's ridiculous new law restricting "naked" short-selling not only is economically illiterate, but also could violate global trade rules.  Unglaublich!

• Breaking down the conventional wisdom about the VAT and exports.  (Something to keep in mind next year when the President uses export-expansion as one of his reasons for cramming a VAT down our throats.)

• Everybody loves FTAs except America.  Further proof: Canada-Panama, EU-MERCOSUR, EU-Canada. Good for them.  Bad for us.

• KPMG Report: Mexico is the most tax-competitive country in the world.  The United States now ranks sixth (out of ten), down one spot since last year (grrreat).  And the highest-tax country in the world?  France.  Shocking, I know.

• Speaking of higher American taxes, here's a shock:  it is literally impossible to tax your way out of a fiscal hole.  There's a law and everything (plus one of the coolest charts I've seen in a while).  Oh, there's a good comment on this issue here by Cato's Dan Mitchell.

• China's back to being the #1 holder of US debt.  Cue ominous music and dumb politician statements about "America's banker." 

• The United States Supreme Court decides (kinda) that free speech and free trade don't mix.

• And finally tonight, economists and policymakers often like to sell free trade by explaining how well it works for the American states and how stupid interstate protectionism would be.  This smart move plays to people's inherent understanding and reason and is often successful in converting trade skeptics.  These guys, however, did NOT get that memo:
  
   

Manhunt Underway In Alabama For Man Wanted In Texas County For Allegedly Stealing Fallen Troopers Service Revolver:

David "Adam" Teague

FBI agents and authorities from Alabama think they have a fugitive from Kentucky, who is wanted for questioning in connection to a burglary case in Texas County, cornered in in a wooded area behind a Waffle House in Good Hope.

Texas County authorities contacted the Cullman County Sheriff's office yesterday about David "Adam" Teague, 25, who they believe is responsible for the theft of several weapons, including the service revolver of a Missouri Highway Patrol Trooper who was killed in the line of duty.

In addition to the service revolver, rifles, pistols, ammunition and electronics were stolen in the burglary of Jake Floyd's residence on May 6th.

Texas County Sheriff Carl Watson says, "We have one person in custody in connection to the Floyd burglary." Stanley Frillman has been charged with receiving stolen property and three counts of unlawful use of a weapon. "When we went to Frillman's house to arrest him, a man ran out the back door. We believe that man was David Adam Teague. We need to talk to Mr. Teague....we know he has some involvement in the burglary."

Stanley Frillman

"We need to talk to two other other people, a husband and wife (S. C. & T. C) who are major players in the investigation, about the Floyd burglary."

Trooper Donald "Kevin" Floyd was killed on September 22, 2005. Trooper Floyd was working speed enforcement in tandem with one of the Patrol's aircraft, and had stopped an eastbound vehicle for a traffic violation. Trooper Floyd had made contact with the driver of the vehicle and had turned to return to his Patrol vehicle when he was struck by a pickup truck traveling east on U.S. 60.

Missouri Highway Patrol Trooper Kevin Floyd

Teague is wanted on a warrant for wanton endangerment of a police officer in the first degree out of Kentucky.

Authorities believe Teague had been staying with an acquaintance in the Cullman County area recently. Authorities spotted Teague there early yesterday (05-19-10) driving a Chevy Trailblazer, with his girlfriend and two small children as passengers. When he realized he was being followed he bailed from the vehicle and ran into the woods on foot with his cell phone. Authorities believe he called someone and was picked up.

Teague abandoned vehicle (courtesy Cullman Times)

Teague's girlfriend was not wanted on any outstanding warrants.

Authorities received a phone call this morning (05-20-10) that Teague was outside the Waffle House in Good Hope. When the deputy pulled in to the parking lot, Teague fled on foot into the woods behind the business. Authorities believe they have Teague boxed in and have help from a police chopper to radio the mans movements to cops on the ground.

There are at least twelve different police agencies involved in the manhunt for Teague.

A nearby school was placed on lock down as a precaution during the manhunt.

Teague has several open case in Oregon County, in 2009 he was charged with unlawful use of a weapon, DWI, two counts of second-degree assault, armed criminal action and resisting or interfering with an arrest. He pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance and unlawful use of drug paraphernalia last year

In 2004 he pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance and entered an Alford plea to stealing a motor vehicle.

Live Grenade Found In Pulaski County Home:

The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office recovered a live hand grenade yesterday (05-19-10) in the 1400 block of Tulsa Road in rural Pulaski County.

Sheriff J. B. King says that when deputies arrived they were told that the resident of the home had recently died and when the estate of the person was being inventoried a live grenade was discovered in a storage box. King says it appeared to have been stored in that box for a very long time.

Deputies secured the grenade and turned it over to an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit of the United States Army at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, for destruction

Reyes Pleads Guilty To Laclede County Triple Murder:

Joshua Antonio Reyes

A Springfield man has pleaded guilty to killing his ex girlfriends parents and her boyfriend last October in Laclede County.

Prosecutors say Joshua Antonio Reyes, 23, was the ringleader in the triple murders of 51 year-old Jeff and 48 year-old Glenda Smith; and 25 year-old Zack Porter, Elkland on October 10, 2009.

Laclede County Prosecutor Anie Hemphill-Wright (courtesy Lebanon Daily Record)

Laclede County Prosecutor Angie Hemphill-Wright dropped three counts of armed criminal action and burglary charges against Reyes in exchange for his guilty plea. Reyes was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for his part in the murder spree.

Deputies were first called to Miranda Smiths apartment on Tower Road a little after midnight Saturday (10-10-09) for a reported shooting. When first responders arrived they found twenty five year-old Zachary Bryan Porter with a gunshot wound to the chest. Porter was transported to St. John's hospital in Lebanon where he was pronounced dead.

Zack Porter (family photo)


While cops were trying to gather information at that crime scene Smith told authorities that she was concerned for her father and step-mother who she could not reach by phone.

A nephew of fifty one year-old Jeffry Smith and forty eight year-old Glenda Smith found them covered in blood on their living room floor in nearby Phillpsburg.

Jeffry and Glenda Smith (facebook)

Sheriff Richard Wrinkle says investigators believe the elder Smiths were gunned to death first and that Reyes then went to his ex-girlfriends apartment and gunned down Porter, who was her current boyfriend.

According to court documents, two other people were to be killed that night but the men got lost trying to find their home.



Laclede County Sheriff Richard Wrinkle

When the alleged murderers got to Miranda Smith's apartment in Lebanon Jacky Wong told investigators that he and Benjamin Stidham stayed in his dads truck while Reyes and Steven Pyykola went to the apartment, "because he had business to take care of with Zachary Porter for sleeping with Miranda."

Friends of Porters say that Reyes had allegedly been stalking their friend and his ex-girlfriend for a few weeks. They say that they begged him not to move out of their apartment and in with Smith on October 5th because they were concerned for his safety.

Sheriff Richard Wrinkle says that jealousy sparked the deadly rampage "she took everything he loved away from him, so he was going to take everything she loved away from her."

As part of the plea agreement Reyes will NOT have to testify against any of the other three alleged co-conspirators.




Jacky Wong

Pyykola, Wong and Stidham have been charged with three counts of first-degree murder, burglary and armed criminal action for their alleged involvement in the Porter/Smith murders.

Pyykola is scheduled to stand trial in March of 2011 in Camden County; Jacky Wong's trial is scheduled for this July.




Steven Pyykola

Sixteen year-old Benjamin Stidham's, who was certified to stand trial as an adult, case is scheduled to be heard this November in Camden County where it was moved on a change of venue.


Benjamin Stidham

Miranda Smith had asked the court for orders of protection from Reyes on at least three separate occasions, the most recent being filed on September 17, 2009. However, eleven days later she asked the court to lift the order, which was granted.

Center for American Progress, France Blindly Push for Carbon Tariffs

The left-leaning Center for American Progress has issued a new paper calling for the implementation of a US-EU system of carbon tariffs.  The author, CAP's Jake Caldwell, summarizes his case as follows:

Carbon tariffs—which the United States and the European Union could decide to impose on greenhouse-gas-intensive products imported from countries refusing to take action on climate change—have the potential to play an important role in these [climate change] discussions moving forward. Carbon tariffs can be an effective policy tool to reduce global emissions and preventing carbon leakage, or the migration of carbon-intensive industries to countries with more lax regulations.

But we must proceed cautiously. Carbon tariffs may also present significant risks to the multilateral trading system and the Earth’s climate if they are designed and implemented poorly and do not fundamentally reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s why the United States and the European Union should work together to design and implement an open and transparent approach to carbon tariffs as part of an overall effort to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

Caldwell goes on to explain, as pleasantly as possible, how and why carbon tariffs should be a part of the United States' and EU's future climate policy plans.  As to the latter issue, Caldwell's two primary reasons for supporting carbon tariffs are (i) to stop "carbon leakage" (i.e., the movement of emissions-intensive production to poorly regulated countries); and (ii) to ensure the competitiveness of the domestic industries being strangledregulated by new climate change schemes.  Unfortunately, Caldwell's discussion includes not a shred of evidence that carbon tariffs would actually, you know, achieve those objectives.  (Seriously, there's not a single link or footnote to anything of the sort.)  On the other hand, Caldwell could have spent two minutes on this blog and found oodles of scholarly evidence (see, e.g., here, here, here and here) showing that they would not.

As for the "how," Caldwell provides a laundry list of ideas about what his ideal system should entail: (i) apply carbon tariffs in an open and transparent manner; (ii) exempt least developed countries from tariffs; (iii) consider countries’ greenhouse gas reduction efforts; (iv) establish a joint US-EU working group to identify the relationship between trade and climate change issues; (v) invoke a joint US-EU agreement to apply a “peace clause” for an initial period of 10 years; (vi) allow national leaders to make a final decision on carbon tariffs; and (vii) consider other policy options to address carbon leakage and competitiveness.

I won't get into all of these issues, but I find (i) and (iv) to be really, really interesting (and not in a good way).  On "transparency and openness," Caldwell doesn't really explain how that would work, but I (and many scholars and developing countries) am rather skeptical that such "transparency" is possible or even helpful for developing a "fair" system.  Indeed, I wonder if he's ever seen or read a 100+-page Department of Commerce decision memorandum in a US trade remedies investigation - one that imposes supposedly "remedial" tariffs of 100% or higher on "unfairly traded" Chinese imports, and requires a Rosetta Stone to even begin to understand (hence, why I'm employed).  And that's just the public memos.  There are always hundreds more pages of proprietary calculation documents.  So knowing how our existing remedial tariffs are calculated and imposed on "unfairly-traded" imports, does Caldwell really think that similarly "remedial" tariffs on "non-green" imports would be calculated and imposed any differently or better?  Oh, and let's also keep in mind who's lobbying for, and drafting, these carbon tariff "transparency" regulations.  (Hint: it ain't developing country governments, their exporters or US consumers.)

On point (iv) (i.e., the "joint US-EU working group to identify the relationship between trade and climate change issues"), I'm just flat confused.  According to Caldwell, his working group would "consider a range of issues including the use of carbon tariffs and... guide the WTO’s approach to these issues."  Well, considering how darn controversial carbon tariffs are for developing countries and that they could literally start a trade war, shouldn't an honest and sound environmental policy first consider and determine the "relationship between trade and climate change" before strongly advocating dangerous systems that include border measures based on that relationship?  And second, does Caldwell actually think that a US-EU working group, which excludes 151 other WTO Members, would be well-received and adopted at the WTO, which relies on consensus-driven decision making?  Or does he think that the WTO's seriously independent Appellate Body would gladly be "guided" by the very developed countries whose carbon tariff measures would no doubt be challenged (by India, China or other Members) before it?  (Quick answer: Not gonna happen, dude.)

And speaking of the WTO, it's a tad, ahem, unfortunate that Caldwell glosses over the very serious legal concerns raised by India and others that carbon tariffs don't comply with WTO rules.  His only legal justification is the now-notorious joint paper by the WTO and the UNEP which, as Caldwell rather coolly admits, only "suggests border adjustment measures may be consistent with WTO rules in certain circumstances." (Waffling emphasis mine.)  Of course, all those qualifiers are totally necessary because Cato's Sallie James and the Indian Government, among others, have both provided ample legal argument that most carbon tariff schemes would not be consistent with global trade rules.

Indeed, it's James' analysis which is most interesting here because one of her paper's main points was that WTO rules necessitate that "[a]ny trade-related measures (such as tariffs on goods from noncapped countries) need to be based strictly on the goal of protecting the environment, rather than an attempt to level the playing field for domestic competitors shackled by climate change regulations. Breaking the link between the trade measure and the goal of protecting the environment is a sure invitation to WTO dispute-settlement proceedings."  Yet, as noted above, one of Caldwell's two big reasons for carbon tariffs is the need to maintain the competitiveness of US and EU manufacturers.  In other words, Caldwell in one breath brushes off WTO concerns over carbon tariffs, yet his primary reasoning for their use is precisely what will trigger a big WTO dispute.

Umm, what!? 

So to recap, Caldwell (i) provides no empirical support for, and ignores the boatloads of evidence against, his main carbon tariffs justifications; (ii) proposes a "system" that is almost certainly impractical; and (iii) ignores carbon tariffs' legal problems under WTO rules.  But other than that........

But hey, all's not lost for Caldwell, as today's other carbon tariffs news shows that he's not alone out there in his support for the controversial measures.  Euractiv reports that the French government, fresh off the collapse of its own national efforts to impose carbon tariffs, is aggressively pushing for them at the EU.  Problem is that most every other European nation (minus Italy) and the EU's Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht (among others) oppose carbon tariffs because they'd raise prices for consumers and possibly start a trade war.

Funny how Caldwell, while mentioning France and Italy, also fails to mention that stubborn little fact, huh?

(Actually, no it's not.)