Roadside cameras helping stop cattle tick spread

The chairman of the Cattle Tick Advisory Committee says roadside cameras are proving effective in controlling cattle movements between Queensland and northern New South Wales.

Nick Keating says a two-day meeting being held at Wollongbar this week has studied compliance and eradication programs in the region.

Mr Keating says there were field trips to look at dip sites and the functioning of cameras set up to monitor traffic movements venta motos across the border.

He says the cameras are a significant weapon in stopping the spread of cattle tick fever.

“We saw yesterday how successful they are, because they’re now down pat, they’re catching people now nearly every week who are bolivia bringing in illegal animals or hay out of Qld, so they are working very well,” he said.

“We saw the program and we just want to go and look at them on the roads and just see where they’re placed and that they’re doing their job, that vehicles can’t get around and so forth.”

Clyburn Blasts Wright for ‘Knee-Capping’ Obama

By Jonathan Weisman
For a Democratic superdelegate who is officially still unaligned, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (S.C.) is sounding more and more like a Barack Obama fan.

In an interview today, Clyburn blasted the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s former pastor, but he suggested Wright’s recent re-emergence had not done lasting damage to the Illinois senator.

“I have a daughter the same age as Barack Obama,” said Clyburn, the most senior African American in Congress. “I’ve tried to provide shoulders for her to stand on. And I was absolutely saddened when it became clear to me Rev. Wright, rather than providing a shoulder for his parishioner to stand on, was engaged in some kind of knee-capping operation. That’s not the kind of anatomical analogy we ought to be involved in.”

Proposals to slash gas prices abound in White House race

WASHINGTON (AP) — Get rid of the federal gas tax — at least for the summer. Tax Big Oil to help the rest of us out. Get drilling in that Alaska refuge. Soaring gasoline prices are suddenly the nation’s No. 1 crisis, and all the presidential candidates are offering cures.

Never mind that economists and energy experts see little value in such measures, at least in the short run. Or that even some top congressional leaders are raising eyebrows. It’s election season, and presidential contenders and other politicians are jumping on the bandwagon.

The slew of proposals includes: a summertime suspension of federal gas taxes, backed by John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton; a windfall-profits tax on oil companies, supported by Clinton, Obama and many other Democrats; a cry for new refineries, nuclear power plants and drilling in the Alaska wilderness, sounded by President Bush and his GOP allies; calls by those in both parties to stop buying oil at $117 a barrel — only to pump it back into the ground for strategic reserves.

“I think we are in a political crazy time. Some of this stuff being proposed borders on the irresponsible,” said Frank Verrastro, director of the energy and national security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

A NC voter sizes up Obama, Clinton, and finally decides

As a clinical research consultant working in North Carolina’s Research Triangle, Meribeth Howlett knows how to get to the bottom of things.

Her latest project was deciding whether to vote for Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primary Tuesday. Now she’s made her choice and voted by absentee ballot.

The Associated Press has been keeping up with Howlett, 43, since late last year as part of an AP-Yahoo News series of polls going back to the same group of people to see how their thinking about the campaign evolves.

For those living in Indiana and North Carolina, both holding their primaries Tuesday, it’s decision time.

In the last few days, Howlett decided “I’ve heard enough from the pundits” and began reviewing campaign literature with the practiced eye of one who reads medical charts and oversees clinical trials.

How voters make their choices can be a mystery, even to themselves. AP asked some of the poll respondents from Indiana and North Carolina to describe how they are making their decision.

Polls: Clinton pulls even with Obama nationally

THE RACE: The presidential race for Democrats nationally

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THE NUMBERS – Pew Research Center

Barack Obama, 47 percent

Hillary Rodham Clinton, 45 percent

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OF INTEREST:

Obama had a 10-percentage point lead over Clinton in March. His image among Democrats is not as strong as it was, though he’s still viewed more favorably than his rival for several attributes, including being more inspiring, honest and down-to-earth. Clinton is also seen less positively now, yet she has improved her standing among working-class whites and white voters under age 50. An increased number of Democrats — about half — now think the lengthy Democratic race will hurt the party. Yet a Clinton race against Republican candidate John McCain and an Obama matchup with McCain are both viewed as being close. That represents little change in a Clinton-McCain race but a drop in the 12-point advantage Obama had over McCain in March.

UPDATE 1-Sun Capital says wins Furniture Brands seats

ATLANTA, May 1 (Reuters) – Private equity firm Sun Capital said on Thursday its three nominees were elected to the board of Furniture Brands International Inc (FBN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) by a substantial margin, based on an estimate by its proxy solicitor at the close of the polls.

“The election of Sun Capital’s nominees is a victory for all Furniture Brands shareholders,” Sun Capital Vice President Jason Bernzweig said in a statement. “Today’s results demonstrate shareholders’ desire for constructive change at Furniture Brands, and we are gratified by their support for our nominees.”

Furniture Brands, maker of Broyhill and Thomasville furniture, had urged a vote against the Sun Capital nominees.

Dan Stone, vice president of strategy and business development at Furniture Brands, declined to comment on the voting, and said final results would be released after the vote verification process was completed. The annual meeting was held on Thursday in St. Louis.

Lawyer says 58 women have filed discrimination claims against Bloomberg LP

NEW YORK: The number of women accusing the financial data and news service company founded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg of discrimination has risen from three to 58, with more likely to be added, a lawyer told a judge Thursday.

The disclosure widens the scope of a lawsuit against Bloomberg LP that became a distraction for the mayor during his second term.

Bloomberg is not a defendant in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit claiming discrimination against women who take maternity leave — and he bristled as he was asked about it. He said he had “absolutely no idea,” berated the reporter who asked the question and abruptly ended an unrelated news conference.

Bloomberg resigned as chief executive officer of Bloomberg LP to run for mayor in 2001. He retains a 68 percent stake in the company.

EEOC senior trial attorney Raechel Adams told a judge presiding over the case Thursday that the number of women joining the class-action lawsuit will rise as the EEOC continues to interview 478 women at the Bloomberg agency who have gone on maternity leave since 2002.