Weekly Update Volume 3 Issue 6 Apr. 25 - May 2, 1996 FOOD SHORTAGE? Evidence of drought damage to the winter crop in the U.S. Plains from Kansas to Texas had triggered a blistering rally this month - wheat prices had risen from about $5 per bushel early in January to around S7.30 last week. Corn prices last week pushed through the $5 per bushel level for the first time ever, also on fears of planting delays and concerns about dry weather hurting spring-planted crops like corn and soybeans. Analysts were cautious about predicting a good recovery for the drought-damaged winter wheat crop in the high plains states. "The problem with the rain in Kansas is what rain they are getting may be just too little too late." the U.S. Agriculture department's chief meteorologist Albert Peterlin said. "This is just not going to be a good crop." he said. Action to combat the slump in cattle prices, now at their lowest level in a decade, was welcomed by members of Congress and the cattle industry. Aside from low slaughter prices, producers face high grain prices because of tight supplies. "We're doing our best to keep markets from falling further," Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said, adding that the administration's steps could avert a damaging sell-off of cattle herds. Food prices were forecast to rise modestly this year -- 2.5 percent -- but the surge in grain prices has brought fears of a possible spurt in grocery store prices. Reuters April 29 and May 1, 1996 THE V-CHIP On February 8, 1996 president Clinton signed into law a huge, far-reaching telecommunications bill. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (S 652) revamps the 1934 Communications Acts by tearing down the barriers between cable broadcast and telephone companies, making it possible for the next level of the communications "superhighway" to be established. Unfortunately, when Clinton used a digital pen to electronically sign the bill into law, he not only laid the groundwork for the monopolizing of the communications industry, he also paved the way for government to intrude even more into our personal lives. The law requires that all television sets larger than 13 inches include "a feature designed to enable viewers to block display of all programs with a common rating." This blocking device, commonly referred to as the "V chip," (the 'V' is for violence) would work in a similar fashion to that of other coding services, such as close-captioning, that are now required on most new televisions. But who decides what the ratings will be? Under pressure from politicians, the television industry has promised to begin rating shows by the end of the year. Enforcement of the new ratings system will be by an industry-wide panel that will monitor the shows to see if government guidelines are followed. Another part of the "communications Decency Act" criminalizes any "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent" material send via modem through an electronic network of any kind. Who decides what is obscene or lascivious? One interesting note: companies in the on-line services industry were initially rabid opponents of the Telecom Bill. After lawyers rewrote huge portions of the "decency" amendment leaving on-line service providers immune to criminal penalty, Prodigy and the rest became lap dogs, totally in favor of this new law. Putting a computer chip in your TV to control obscenity is like putting a Band-Aid on a wound that will soon need a tourniquet. Moreover, since this is a government-mandated computer chip, it paves the way for similar and not-so-similar computer chips (such as the digital snooping Clipper chip) to be placed in your computer, telephone, or cable box. American Survival June l996 THE STATE OF "NEW COLUMBIA" Since 1982, there has been a new flag flying over the District of Columbia. It's quite different from the American flag but is treated with equal dignity there. The design, three red stars and two red stripes on a white field, also appears on District of Columbia license plates and police officers' armband insignias. The flag is hoisted daily on a separate flagpole to the same height as the U.S. flag in the District. There are unconfirmed reports of this flag flying over certain United States military bases. In 1982, Washington D.C. established itself as the STATE OF NEW COLUMBIA, complete with a brand-new constitution that bears little resemblance to the constitution for the United States of America. NEW COLUMBIA is one of three superstates (London and the Vatican are the others.) The constitution for the STATE OF NEW COLUMBIA was reportedly ratified by approximately 116,000 "electors" in Washington D.C., not by any vote put to the U.S. citizens at large. Saying that the residents of the District ratified this new constitution means that they were the same people who proposed and agreed to its terms. Whether any of the 116,000 supposed electors actually proposed any of the NEW COLUMBIA constitution is highly questionable. Media coverage of the event was essentially blacked out, but research is under way to discover what actually happened. Both contract law and doctrine of the "law of the flag" dictate that the Constitution for the STATE NEW COLUMBIA may very well apply to you right now as your municipal law. Black's law dictionary still defines the law of the flag as "In maritime law, the law of that nation or country whose flag is flown by a particular vessel. A shipowner who sends his flag into a foreign port gives notice by his flag to all who enter into contracts with the master that he intends the law of the flag to regulate such contracts, and they must either submit to its operation or not contract with him." The next time you are in court, consider why a federal flag is displayed. Then consider whether your appearance there constitutes a contract with the court, THE UNITED STATES INC. and a federal State of the UNITED STATES INC. to adjudicate your case under the law of that flag. Jeffrey Craig PERCEPTIONS May/June 1995 U.S. PATENT FILES GIVE AWAY The Clinton administration is preparing to "give" communist China the entire contents of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office files - 160 years of invaluable patent information on everything from electric potato washers to intercontinental ballistic missiles - all in user-friendly digitized computer format, including almost 6 trillion bits of information, schematic drawings, chemical formulas, everything. Bruce Lehman, chief of the Patent Office, wants to give China the files ostensibly to make it "easier" for the Chinese to conduct patent searches, thereby helping them to avoid transgressing U.S. property rights. Of course, nothing presently stands in the way of China or a Chinese firm hiring Washington patent attorneys to conduct such searches which is what American companies and inventors have to do. This patent giveaway is dangerous, a threat both to U.S. national security and cur economy. China already *deliberately* stomps all over American property rights, knocking off counterfeits of everything from compact discs to videotapes to computer software to pharmaceuticals and Beijing refuses to shut down the illegal operations. Wait! It gets worse! Mr. Lehamn also wants Congress's permission to share with China proprietary information on unapproved patents just 18 months after they are filed. Patent office officials admit they cannot guarantee that such sharing would not encourage China to rush to the market competing technologies. Nor can they ensure that china would not simply steal the patents and make cheap counterfeits. But, they say, Washington would work with Beijing to make certain this doesn't happen. Hoo-hah! Inside Washington's FDA Week (A watchdog newsletter) PENSION EMBEZZLED A woman has pleaded guilty to embezzling $846,000 from the pension fund she managed for Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and his former law partner, the U.S. Attorney's office said Friday. Kathleen Groetzinger, 55, who had worked for Specter and U.S. District judge Marvin Katz for nearly four decades, entered her plea Thursday before a federal judge in Camden N.J. She embezzled $846,OOO, but including lost interest and earnings, the victim's estimated loss is closer to $1.2 million. Left in the fund is $525 cash and a mortgage with $100,000 in equity. Reuters April 26, 1996 MILITIAS TO BE TOPIC OF MOVIE Screenwriter Joe Eszterhaus [SP?] (Basic Instinct, Showgirls) will get $2 million to write a script for Paramount about U.S. militia groups. U.S.A. Today April 26, l996 MILITARY HEALTHCARE UNDERFUNDED Top medical officers are shining a spotlight on what had been a secret in President Clinton's l997 defense budget: He underfunds service health care by $477 million. Absorbing the shortfall can only be done by reducing the number of space-available beneficiaries by approximately 132,000, a paper by Stephen C. Joseph, assistant secretary of defense for heath affairs says. "The office of Management and Budget and the Defense department budget office are destroying the military health care system," said Chuck Partridge of the National Association for the Uniformed Services. Their goal, he charged is to force older retirees from the system and younger retirees into a single choice: managed care. Military Update Tom Philpott