“The problem is balancing, on the one hand, the need for tactical intelligence to defend the United States with, on the other hand, the temptation to engage needlessly with U.S. military forces.”
Boston University Social Science Professor Tom Whalen discusses the potential impact of Arizona's immigration law on this year's midterm elections for both Republicans and Democrats.
The entry, authored by Cleveland, details the explosion and fire, casualties and rescue efforts, magnitude, geographic spread, attempts to stop the leak, clean-up efforts, paying for the clean-up, ecological concerns, investigations, government response, and economic impact.
In a unanimous vote, the Supreme Courtdenied the National Football League its goal of broad protection from antitrust suits. The high court ruled on a case involving a license for making souvenir caps and sent to back to a lower court to further consideration allegations by a smaller company that challenged the league's 10-year exclusive deal with Reebok. Law Professor Keith Hylton, an authority on antitrust law, says it is understandable that the court would be reluctant to expand the "single entity" concept to include the NFL. Meantime, Sports Journalism Professor Frank Shorr says this could be the "watershed moment."
Keith Hylton:
"‘Single entity’ status implies exemption from Section 1 of the Sherman Act, and the Court is reluctant to create broad exemptions to Section 1 when the effects may not be entirely clear."
"It will be interesting to see if the court now expands it's view of the National Football League's long-standing policies. Today it's hats. Tomorrow, who knows -- uniforms, helmets, wrist bands -- anything that they can make a profit on and not have to share. We could be looking back on this decision in the not-to-distant future and saying, that was the watershed moment."
Capitol Hill negotiators from the House and Senate committees dealing with financial regulatory reform are getting down to the details of working out differences between the bills passed in respective chambers, with Democrats holding the majority votes in both. Former Federal Reserve Bank examiner Mark Williams, who teaches finance in the School of Management and is author of "Uncontrolled Risk" about the fall of Lehman Brothers, says the Fed simply isn't equipped to take on any new oversight role over banks -- as the Senate bill dictates.
"At the Fed, bank examiners continue to be underpaid, lack advanced training in the ways of Wall Street, and are saddled with risk-measurement systems that lag the Street."
Despite concerns that Google could extend its Internet marketing dominance into the emerging field of wireless devices, federal regulators approved the company's $750 million purchase of its mobile advertising rival AdMob. Law Professor Keith Hylton, an authority on antitrust law, said it looks like the right decision given rapid changes in the market such as rival Apple buying the third largest mobile ad network, Quattro Wireless. Besides, he said, Google doesn't seemed worried about antitrust threats from the Obama administration.
“[Google] appears to have the administration working diligently on its side on the net neutrality issue, and that is probably worth a lot more than these relatively minor antitrust issues.”
The most extensive overhaul of financial regulations since the 1930s has cleared its big hurdle in the U.S. Senate and how can head to President Obama for a signature after a conference committee works out remaining differences between the House and Senate versions. But former Federal Reserve Bank examiner Mark Williams, who teaches finance in the School of Management and is author of "Uncontrolled Risk" about the fall of Lehman Brothers, cautions that only four of the world's 30 global financial giants that could take down the world's economy are covered under this reform bill -- yet the problems are globally systemic.
“The U.S. is now in the position to lead again but will need to encourage other nations to follow. Until global uniformity is reached, high systemic risk will remain."
Retired Navy Admiral Dennis Blair resigned as national intelligence director after only 16 months on the job -- pushed out by President Obama who will name a successor. Political science Professor Joseph Wippl, director of the BU Center for International Relations and a 30-year CIA operations officer, said it's an impossible job because it doesn't have budgetary or personnel authority over all 16 intelligence agencies.
"Expect another U.S. military man to become DNI. The military is always good for hopeless causes in civilian leadership.”
South Korea's president says his country will take "resolute countermeasures" against neighboring North Korea for what an international investigation has found to be overwhelming evidence that a South Korean warship was sunk two months ago by a torpedo made in North Korea fired by a North Korean submarine. International relations Professor William Keylor, author of "A World of Nations: The International Order Since 1945," says now is the time for the international community to make sure nothing rash happens next.
“Let's hope cooler heads prevail in Seoul before we hear the cry ‘Remember the Cheonan!’ and witness the outbreak of another Korean War sixty years after the last one.”
The New York Times reports that Gen. David Patraeus, the top American commander in the Middle East, has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity across the region in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats. International Relations Professor Joseph Wippl, director of the BU Center for International Relations and a 30-year CIA operations officer, says the U.S. Armed Forces and the CIA have always had different areas of responsibility and he presumes Defense Secretary Gates knows the boundaries.
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