PHOENIX (AP) -- MarcoAntonio Durazo had beenawaiting deportation from anArizona detention center for sixmonths when an officer cameto get him from his cell.

"Obama doesn't have anymoney," the officer said.

"We found it very funny,"Durazo said, but it wasn't ajoke.

Soon, he was free alongwith hundreds of other illegalimmigrants who were releasedby the Obama administrationbecause of budget pressures. Officials have also scaledback border agent hours, drug patrols and staffing at bor-der crossings - all during the peak illegal border-crossingseason.

While prompted by the nation's money woes, thechanges also come amid the nation's shifting immigrationpolicy after years of mass arrests and deportations and bil-lions spent on border security.

The long-term impact of that change has yet to beseen. The Border Patrol said January and February num-bers showed a nearly 10 percent increase in apprehen-sions along the Mexico border for the first two months ofthe year, compared with 2012.

There could be several factors for the rise, includingimmigrants motivated by an improving U.S. economy orthose anticipating congressional action that could create apath to citizenship. The cuts come as lawmakers arestruggling to work out a comprehensive immigrationreform package whose success may ultimately be tied toquestions of border security.

On Wednesday, Sen. John McCain led a bipartisangroup of senators on a tour of the border, and they saidthey were close to a deal but continued to tie it to keepingimmigration in check. They promised more details next

Circulated Weekly In Florida Volume 002 Issue 14 Established 2012 April 1, 2013

BUDGET CUTS BORDER SECURITY,

I M M I G R A N T D E T E N T I O Nweek, but McCain said that there's"no doubt" in his mind that the bor-der is less secure because of thebudget cuts.

The release of more than2,200 immigrants like Durazo drewheadlines this month as the gov-ernment prepared for looming cutsthat began in March. In February,the government let go of hundredsof immigrants from detention cen-ters in states including Arizona,California, Florida, Georgia andTexas. The administration plannedto let roughly 3,000 more go inMarch, according to an internalgovernment budget documentreviewed by the AP and later

released by the House Judiciary Committee.

The moves were an attempt by Immigration andCustoms Enforcement to get its detainee population inline with what it could afford. The released immigrants stillface deportation but will not be held while awaiting theircourt dates.

Some in Congress said ICE should have explainedbeforehand that there wasn't enough money to keepeveryone in detention.

The immigrants and their lawyers say they werereleased with little notice or instruction beyond being toldto check in periodically.

In many cases, the immigrants were dropped off inthe middle of the night at bus stations or airports in metro-politan centers without money to finish their journey home.In Florida, some were released from a facility borderingrural swamp land outside Miami.

Critics argue the plan allowed the release of thou-sands of criminals without regard to public safety, but offi-cials say almost all the detainees were characterized aslow risk. ICE Director John Morton told a congressional

WEEKLY NEWS DIGESTTH

E

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)Director John Morton speaks during a news confer-ence at ICE headquarters in Washington. InFebruary, 2013 the government let go of hundreds ofimmigrants from detention centers in states includ-ing Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia and Texasas the government prepared for looming cuts thatbegan in March

NKOREA CALLS NUKESCOUNTRY'S 'LIFE' ATB I G M E E T I N GSEOUL, South Korea(AP) -- A top NorthKorean decision-mak-ing body issued apointed warningSunday, saying thatnuclear weapons are"the nation's life" andwill not be traded even for "billions of dollars."

The comments came in a statement released afterNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided overthe plenary meeting of the central committee of theruling Workers' Party. The meeting, which set a"new strategic line" calling for building both astronger economy and nuclear arsenal, comesamid a series of near-daily threats from Pyongyangin recent weeks, including a vow to launch nuclearstrikes on the United States and a warningSaturday that the Korean Peninsula was in a "state

FREE

BANGKOK (AP) -- The multibillion-dollar trade in illegalwildlife - clandestine trafficking that has driven iconiccreatures like the tiger to near-extinction - is also threat-ening the survival of great apes, a new U.N. report says.

Endangered chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas andbonobos are disappearing from the wild in frighteningnumbers, as private owners pay top dollar for exotic pets,while disreputable zoos, amusement parks and travelingcircuses clamor for smuggled primates to entertain audi-ences.

More than 22,000 great apes are estimated to have beentraded illegally over a seven-year period ending in 2011.That's about 3,000 a year; more than half are chim-panzees, the U.N. report said.

"These great apes make up an important part of our nat-ural heritage. But as with all things of value, great apesare used by man for commercial profit and the illegal traf-ficking of the species constitutes a serious threat to theirexistence," Henri Djombo, a government minister fromthe Republic of Congo, was quoted as saying.

The U.N. report paints a dire picture of the fight to protectvulnerable and dwindling flora and fauna from organizedcriminal networks that often have the upper hand.

Apes are hunted in their own habitats, which are concen-trated in central and western Africa, by sophisticatedsmugglers who transport them on private cargo planesusing small airstrips in the African bush. Their destinationis usually the Middle East and Asia.

In countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates andLebanon, great apes are purchased to display as showpieces in private gardens and menageries.

In Asia, the animals are typically destined for public zoosand amusement parks. China is a main destination for

IN A CHICAGO SUBURB,

A N I N D O O R F A R M

G O E S ' M E G A '

S T U D Y: H E A LT H L AW T O R A I S E

C L A I M S C O S T 3 2 P E R C E N TWASHINGTON (AP) -- Anew study finds thatinsurance companies willhave to pay out an aver-age of 32 percent morefor medical claims onindividual health policiesunder President BarackObama's health careoverhaul.

What does that mean for you?It could increase premiums for at least some Americans.If you are uninsured, or you buy your policy directly from aninsurance company, you should pay attention.But if you have an employer plan, like most workers and theirfamilies, odds are you don't have much to worry about.

The estimates from the Society of Actuaries could turn into apolitical headache for the Obama administration at a time whenmuch of the country remains skeptical of the Affordable CareAct.The administration is questioning the study, saying it doesn'tgive a full picture - and costs will go down.

Actuaries are financial risk professionals who conduct long-range cost estimates for pension plans, insurance companiesand government programs.

The study says claims costs will go up largely because sickerpeople will join the insurance pool. That's because the law for-

bids insurers from turning down those with pre-existing medicalproblems, effective Jan. 1. Everyone gets sick sooner or later,but sicker people also use more health care services.

"Claims cost is the most important driver of health care premi-ums," said Kristi Bohn, an actuary who worked on the study.Spending on sicker people and other high-cost groups will over-whelm an influx of younger, healthier people into the program,said the report.

The Obama administration challenged the design of the study,saying it focused only on one piece of the puzzle and ignoredcost relief strategies in the law, such as tax credits to help peo-ple afford premiums and special payments to insurers whoattract an outsize share of the sick.

The study also doesn't take into account the potential price-cut-ting effect of competition in new state insurance markets thatwill go live Oct. 1, administration officials said.

At a White House briefing Tuesday, Health and Human ServicesSecretary Kathleen Sebelius said some of what passes forhealth insurance today is so skimpy it can't be compared to thecomprehensive coverage available under the law. "Some ofthese folks have very high catastrophic plans that don't pay foranything unless you get hit by a bus," she said. "They're reallymortgage protection, not health insurance."

Sebelius said the picture on premiums won't start coming into

Continued on page 6Continued on page 8

Continued on page 3

Jolanta Hardej, CEO ofFarmedHere LLC, exam-ines a young basil crop atthe indoor vertical farm inBedford Park, Ill., onWednesday, March 13,2013. The farm, in an oldwarehouse, has cropsthat include basil, arugulaand microgreens, sold atgrocery stores in Chicagoand its suburbs. Hardej

says FarmedHere will expand growing space to a massive150,000 square feet by the end of next year. It is currently hasabout 20 percent of that growing space now.

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP)-- In a show of force followingweeks of North Korean bluster,the U.S. on Thursday took theunprecedented step of announc-ing that two of its nuclear-capa-ble B-2 bombers dropped muni-tions on a South Korean islandas part of joint military drills.

The announcement is likelyto further enrage Pyongyang,which has already issued a floodof ominous statements to high-light displeasure over the drillsand U.N. sanctions over itsnuclear test last month. Butthere were signs Thursday that itis willing to go only so far.

A North Korean industrial plant operated with SouthKorean know-how was running normally, despite theNorth's shutdown a day earlier of communication linesordinarily used to move workers and goods across the bor-der. At least for the moment, Pyongyang was choosing thefactory's infusion of hard currency over yet another provo-cation.

U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement that the B-2stealth bombers flew from a U.S. air base in Missouri anddropped munitions on a South Korean island range beforereturning home. It was unclear whether America's stealthbombers were used in past annual drills with South Korea,but this is the first time the military has announced theiruse.

The statement follows an earlier U.S. announcementthat nuclear-capable B-52 bombers participated in the jointmilitary drills.

The announcement will likely draw a strong responsefrom Pyongyang. North Korea sees the military drills aspart of a U.S. plot to invade and becomes particularly upsetabout U.S. nuclear activities in the region. Washington andSeoul say the drills are routine and defensive.

North Korea has already threatened nuclear strikes onWashington and Seoul in recent weeks. It said Wednesdaythere was no need for communication in a situation "wherea war may break out at any moment." Earlier this month, itannounced that it considers void the armistice that endedthe Korean War in 1953.

But Pyongyang would have gone beyond words, pos-sibly damaging its own weak finances, if it had blockedSouth Koreans from getting in and out of the Kaesongindustrial plant, which produced $470 million worth ofgoods last year.

South Korean managers at the plant reported no signsof trouble Thursday.

Analysts see a full-blown North Korean attack asextremely unlikely, though there are fears of a more local-ized conflict, such as a naval skirmish in disputed YellowSea waters. Such naval clashes have happened three timessince 1999.

The Kaesong plant, just across the heavily fortifiedDemilitarized Zone that separates the Koreas, normallyrelies on a military hotline for the governments to coordi-nate the movement of goods and South Korean workers.

Without the hotline, the governments, which lack

diplomatic relations, used mid-dlemen. North Korea verballyapproved the crossing Thursdayof hundreds of South Koreans bytelling South Koreans at a man-agement office at the Kaesongfactory. Those South Koreansthen called officials in SouthKorea.

Both governments prohibitdirect contact with citizens onthe other side, but Kaesong hasseparate telephone lines thatallow South Korean managersthere to communicate with peo-ple in South Korea.

Factory managers at Kaesong reached by TheAssociated Press by telephone at the factory said the over-all mood there is normal.

"Tension rises almost every year when it's time for theU.S.-South Korean drills to take place, but as soon as thosedrills end, things quickly return to normal," Sung Hyun-sang said in Seoul, a day after returning from Kaesong. Heis president of Mansun Corporation, an apparel manufac-turer that employs 1,400 North Korean workers and regu-larly stations 12 South Koreans at Kaesong.

"I think and hope that this time won't be different,"Sung said.

Technically, the divided Korean Peninsula remains ina state of war. North Korea last shut down communicationsat Kaesong four years ago, and that time some workerswere temporarily stranded.

North Korea could be trying to stoke worries that thehotline shutdown could mean that a military provocationcould come any time without notice.

South Korea urged the North to quickly restore thehotline, and the U.S. State Department said the shutdownwas unconstructive.

North Korea's latest threats are seen as efforts to pro-voke the new government in Seoul, led by President ParkGeun-hye, to change its policies toward Pyongyang. NorthKorea's moves at home to order troops into "combat readi-ness" also are seen as ways to build domestic unity asyoung leader Kim Jong Un, who took power after hisfather's death in December 2011, strengthens his militarycredentials.

The Kaesong complex is the last major symbol ofinter-Korean cooperation. Other rapprochement projectscreated during a previous era of detente stopped as tensionrose in recent years.

At the border Thursday, a trio of uniformed SouthKorean soldiers stood at one side of a gate as white trucksrumbled through, carrying large pipes and containers toKaesong. At Dorasan station, a South Korean bordercheckpoint, a green signboard hung above the trucks withthe words "Kaesong" and "Pyongyang" written in Englishand Korean.

The stalled hotline, which consists of two telephonelines, two fax lines and two lines that can be used for bothtelephone and fax, was virtually the last remaining directlink between the rival Koreas.

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U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth bomber, left, flies over nearOsan U.S. Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul,South Korea, Thursday, March 28, 2013. A day aftershutting down a key military hotline, Pyongyanginstead used indirect communications with Seoul toallow South Koreans to cross the heavily armed bor-der and work at a factory complex that is the lastmajor symbol of inter-Korean cooperation

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Continued on page 7

S T A T E S A N S W E R H E L P W A N T E DA D T O B E D R O N E T E S T S I T E

The Weekly News Digest, April 1,2013 3

panel that 10 of the 2,228 people were the highest level ofoffender.

"In reducing detention levels, we took careful steps toensure that national security and public safety were notcompromised," he told a congressional hearing.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration, in the midst oftrying to get immigration overhauled, switched from dailydeclarations that the border was secure to warning of theincreasingly dire consequences of cutting $754 millionfrom Customs and Border Protection's $12 billion budget.

In the first week of the cuts, some agents in SouthTexas reported a spike in arrests of immigrants who saidsmugglers told them they would be briefly detained andthen released. The agents' union quickly spread word of a"tidal wave" of immigrants taking advantage of the situa-tion.

Several immigrants interviewed at a migrant shelter inReynosa, Mexico, across the border from McAllen, Texas,said they had not heard anything suggesting now was aparticularly good time to cross. Instead, several said theywere returning home because the drug cartel that con-trolled river crossings made it too expensive and danger-ous.

"Here, they say you can't cross the river right nowbecause there are a lot of kidnappings. They're killing a lotof people," said Josue Manuel Vazquez, who added thathe escaped kidnappers who held him for five days as theytried to extort $4,500 from his daughter, a legal U.S. resi-dent.

Some contend the budget cuts are relatively smallwhen put in the broader context of the huge build-up ofborder security over the past decade.

According to the Government Accountability Office,the Department of Homeland Security assigned about28,100 people in 2004 to patrol land borders and inspecttravelers at all ports of entry at a cost of about $5.9 billion.

the site of numerous Navy training exercises.

Their in-state competitor envisions test flights out ofthe high desert skies about 150 miles north of LosAngeles and touts its remoteness and access to mil-itary and civilian facilities currently doing droneresearch.

"You kind of want to be in the middle of nowhere.You don't want to risk being close to a populatedarea," said Eileen Shibley, who leads the effort forthe Indian Wells Valley Airport District.

Other states have taken a different tact, putting on aunited front or partnering with a neighboring state topool resources.

Ohio - the home state of Apollo 11 astronaut NeilArmstrong, Mercury astronaut John Glenn and theWright brothers - teamed with Indiana to increaseboth states' odds. Like California, there is buddingdrone activity in Ohio, most notably the Air Force's

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The Global Hawk, is unveiled at Edwards Air ForceBase, Calif. The Federal Aviation Administration is look-ing for six sites to test drones before they are integratedinto the civilian airspace. Fifty teams from 39 states haveapplied for the chance to boost their economies.

sensor research at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Joseph Zeis of the Dayton Development Coalitiondoesn't see this as a competition.

"When the test site selection is over, we're all collab-orating on a single goal" to safely merge drones intothe national airspace, said Zeis, who's spearheadingthe Ohio-Indiana venture.

The FAA is expected to choose the six drone testsites by year's end.

The specter of thousands of unmanned eyesswarming the sky in the coming years has unnervedprivacy advocates, who fear ordinary Americanswould be overzealously monitored by law enforce-ment, considered one of the top users of the tech-nology in the future. As part of the selectionprocess, test site hopefuls must publish a privacypolicy and follow existing privacy laws.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle SystemsInternational does not have a favorite. But the voicefor the domestic drone industry acknowledged thatstates hosting test sites would benefit economically.

In a report published earlier this month, the groupsaid states with an already solid aerospace industryare predicted to gain drone business. But other fac-tors, including location of test sites, will also drivejob creation.

That's why California needs to act fast, said stateassemblyman Jeff Gorell, who has been pushing fora test site in his district.

"This is a great opportunity for California," he said."We might be able to recapture some of the goldenera of aerospace."

By the end of 2011, those figures were 41,400 employeesat a cost of $11.8 billion.

"The scale of (automatic budget cuts) is minusculecompared to the vast build-up," said Geoff Boyce,spokesman for No More Deaths, an immigration advoca-cy group in Tucson, Ariz.

The effects of the cuts are being seen in border citiesand among agents. Customs and Border Protectionreduced overtime for its officers at ports of entry. In SanDiego and other crossing points, that translated to fewerlanes open at land crossings and longer waits for peopleand trucks carrying produce and other goods fromMexico.

Those waits are only expected to worsen in comingweeks as the agency begins furloughs amid a hiringfreeze. In a letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, HomelandSecurity Secretary Janet Napolitano warned that peakwait times at the busiest border crossings could reach fivehours or more.

Border Patrol agents received notices advising themthey would face up to 14 days of furloughs during the nextsix months and would no longer be eligible for overtimethat for years has added an average of two hours to everyagent's shift.

The agency is also suspending assignments knownas "details" that sent agents from slower parts of the bor-der to busier areas for months at a time. Agents on detailare often put up in hotels and receive a per diem.

The cuts have also forced the government to pullback on flight and ship patrols in the drug war in CentralAmerica.

Durazo learned about the budget issues while watch-ing the news at his sister's home in the Phoenix area afterhis release. He crossed into the U.S. from his nativeMexico in 1969 when he was 19, and he said he doesn'tknow what will happen next with his immigration case. Hehas, however, decided to embrace his good fortune.

"We gave many thanks to God, because we prayed

B O R D E R SContinued from page 1

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- It's the land where ChuckYeager broke the sound barrier, where the spaceshuttle fleet rolled off the assembly line and wherethe first private manned rocketship climbed tospace.

Capitalizing on Southern California's aerospace for-tunes, two rival groups want to add another laurel:drone test range.

They face crowded competition. In search of an eco-nomic boost, more than half the country is lookingtoward the sky - expected to be buzzing in the nearfuture with pilotless aircraft.

Before that can become reality, the Federal AviationAdministration last month put out a call to test flydrones at half a dozen to-be-determined sites beforethey can share the same space as commercial jet-liners, small aircraft and helicopters.

Fifty teams from 37 states answered, vying to winbragging rights as a hub for unmanned aerial vehi-cles.

The military has long flown drones overseas to sup-port troops, spy on enemies and fire missiles.There's a recent clamor to fly them domestically totrack the health of crops, fight wildfires in remoteterrain, conduct search and rescue after a disasterand perform other chores considered too "dirty, dullor dangerous" for pilots. The expanding use fordrones comes amid concerns of a "Big Brother"society.

The untapped civilian market - estimated to be worthbillions - has created a face-off, with states perfect-ing their pitch - ample restricted airspace, industryconnections, academic partners - not unlike whatyou might read in a tourism brochure.

"It's the chance to get in on the ground floor of whatmay be the next big business," said Peter Singer, arobotics expert at the Brookings Institution think tankin Washington. "The states competing hope it mightmake them the robotics equivalent of Detroit forautomobiles in the 20th century or Silicon Valley forcomputers."

Winners will play key roles in helping the govern-ment seamlessly transition drones, which are con-trolled remotely by joystick, into the civilian airspacewithout crashing into other planes or injuringbystanders.

Supporters of a Southern California test site point toan existing drone presence. General AtomicsAeronautical Systems Inc., based in the San Diegosuburbs, makes the Predator that has circled overIraq and Afghanistan. Just outside of downtown LosAngeles, AeroVironment introduced the world's firsthummingbird spy plane and is developing other tinydrones inspired by biology.

"From start to finish, you can do your UAV workhere," said John Rose of the American Institute ofAeronautics and Astronautics, which co-sponsored athree-day drone conference this week in the LosAngeles area focused on civilian uses.

There are two competing California bids from airportagencies in Ventura County northwest of LosAngeles and Kern County in the Mojave Desert.

"If we are successful, it would be an economic stim-ulus for the region moving forward," said Bill Burattoof the Ventura County Economic DevelopmentAssociation, which is working with county airport offi-cials on a plan to have drones fly from Point Mugu,

If You Are A Charity OrganizationAnd Would Like To Place An Ad In

4 The Weekly News Digest, April 1, 2013 ___________________________________________________________

F L O R I D A A C C I D E N T S T A T I S T I C SData From the Official Website of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. www.flhsmv.gov

______________________________________The Weekly News Digest, April 1, 2013 5

F L O R I D A A C C I D E N T S T A T I S T I C S

Disputes over the identities of those killed have been ahallmark of the 12-year war.

In Pakistan, an AP investigation last year found that dronestrikes were killing fewer civilians than many in that coun-try were led to believe, and that many of the dead werecombatants.

In Afghanistan, the U.N. has reported that five dronestrikes in 2012 resulted in civilian casualties, with 16 civil-ians killed and three wounded. It reported just one incidentin which civilians were killed the previous year.

At the other end of the province from Meya Saheeb andKhalis Family Village lies the village of Budyali. To getthere, one must drive along a long, two-lane highwayoften booby-trapped by militants, before turning turning offonto a narrow, dusty track and finally cross a rock-strewnriverbed.

A Budyali resident, Hayat Gul, says the sound of "beng-hai" is commonplace in the village. He says he waswounded nearly two years ago in a Taliban firefight withAfghan security forces at a nearby school that led to anairstrike.

Tucked in the shadow of a hulking mountain crisscrossedwith dozens of footpaths, the school now is in ruins.

The early morning strike on the school took place on July17, 2011, hours after the Taliban attacked the districtheadquarters and the Afghan National Army appealed totheir coalition partners for help.

Gul said he and a second guard, 63-year-old GhulamAhad, were asleep in the small cement guard house atone end of the school. They awoke to the sound of gunfireas more than a dozen Taliban militants scaled the schoolwalls around midnight, chased by Afghan soldiers.

A bullet struck Gul in the shoulder. Frightened and unsureof what to do, Ahad stepped outside the guard house andwas killed. Bullet holes still riddle the badly damagedbuilding.

Village elders and the school's principal, Sayed Habib,said coalition forces responded to the army's request forhelp with drones, fighter jets and rockets.

The air assault, which residents say began about 3 a.m.and likely included drone strikes, flattened everythingacross a vast compound that includes the school. Habibsaid 13 insurgents were killed.

ISAF confirmed that airstrikes killed insurgents in theBudyali area on that day but would not say what type ofairstrikes or provide any other details.

Habib and a local malik or elder, Shah Mohammed Khan,said that in the days leading up to the airstrikes the soundof drones could be heard overhead.

"Everyone knows the sound of the unpiloted planes. Evenour children know," Habib said.

The elders were critical of the U.S. attack. They said theywould have preferred that the Afghan soldiers try to nego-tiate with the Taliban to leave the school and surrender.

Habib and the village elders recalled the attack while sit-ting in the middle of the devastated school, where debriswas still scattered across a vast yard. They pointed towarda blackboard, pockmarked with gaping holes.

"Shamefully they destroyed our school, our books, ourlibrary," said Malik Gul Nawaz, an elder with a gray beardand a pot belly.

Habib said that in an attempt to rebuild the school, a con-tractor constructed a boundary wall before another Talibanattack. He fled with nearly $400,000 in foreign funds.

The roughly 1,300 students now take classes at amakeshift school made up of tents provided by UNICEF.Gul, who was taken to a U.S. military hospital at BagramAir Base after the attack and treated for the bullet woundto his left shoulder, is now a watchman at the new school.

He held a small photograph of his dead colleague, Ahad,in his trembling left hand.

"We want to end

6 The Weekly News Digest, April 1, 2013________________________________________________________

KHALIS FAMILY VILLAGE, Afghanistan (AP) -- Barelyable to walk even with a cane, Ghulam Rasool says hepadlocked his front door, handed over the keys and histhree cows to a neighbor and fled his mountain home inthe middle of the night to escape relentless airstrikes fromU.S. drones targeting militants in this remote corner ofAfghanistan.

Rasool and other Afghan villagers have their own namefor Predator drones. They call them benghai, which in thePashto language means the "buzzing of flies." When theyexplain the noise, they scrunch their faces and try to makea sound that resembles an army of flies.

"They are evil things that fly so high you don't see thembut all the time you hear them," said Rasool, whose bodyis stooped and shrunken with age and his voice barelylouder than a whisper. "Night and day we hear this soundand then the bombardment starts."

The U.S. military is increasingly relying on drone strikesinside Afghanistan, where the number of weapons firedfrom unmanned aerial aircraft soared from 294 in 2011 to506 last year. With international combat forces set to with-draw by the end of next year, such attacks are now usedmore for targeted killings and less for supporting groundtroops.

It's unclear whether Predator drone strikes will continueafter 2014 in Afghanistan, where the government hascomplained bitterly about civilian casualties. The strikessometimes accidentally kill civilians while forcing others toabandon their hometowns in fear, feeding widespreadanti-American sentiment.

A F G H A N V I L L A G E R S F L E E

T H E I R H O M E S , B L A M E U S D R O N E S

focus until insurers submit their bids. Those results may not bepublicly known until late summer.

Another striking finding of the report was a wide disparity in costimpact among the states.

While some states will see medical claims costs per persondecline, the report concluded that the overwhelming majority willsee double-digit increases in their individual health insurancemarkets, where people purchase coverage directly from insur-ers.

The differences are big. By 2017, the estimated increase wouldbe 62 percent for California, about 80 percent for Ohio, morethan 20 percent for Florida and 67 percent for Maryland. Muchof the reason for the higher claims costs is that sicker peopleare expected to join the pool, the report said.

Part of the reason for the wide disparities is that states have dif-ferent populations and insurance rules. In the relatively smallnumber of states where insurers were already restricted fromcharging higher rates to older, sicker people, the cost impact isless.

The report did not make similar estimates for employer plansthat most workers and families rely on. That's because the pri-mary impact of Obama's law is on people who don't have cover-age through their jobs.

A prominent national expert, recently retired Medicare chiefactuary Rick Foster, said the report does "a credible job" of esti-mating potential enrollment and costs under the law, "withouttrying to tilt the answers in any particular direction."

"Having said that," Foster added, "actuaries tend to be financial-ly conservative, so the various assumptions might be moreinclined to consider what might go wrong than to anticipate thateverything will work beautifully." Actuaries use statistics andeconomic theory to make long-range cost projections for insur-ance and pension programs sponsored by businesses and gov-ernment. The society is headquartered near Chicago.

Bohn, the actuary who worked on the study, acknowledged it didnot attempt to estimate the effect of subsidies, insurer competi-tion and other factors that could offset cost increases. She saidthe goal was to look at the underlying cost of medical care.

"We don't see ourselves as a political organization," Bohnadded. "We are trying to figure out what the situation at handis."

On the plus side, the report found the law will cover more than32 million currently uninsured Americans when fully phased in.And some states - including New York and Massachusetts - willsee double-digit declines in costs for claims in the individualmarket.

Uncertainty over costs has been a major issue since the lawpassed three years ago, and remains so just months before abig push to cover the uninsured gets rolling Oct. 1. Middle-classhouseholds will be able to purchase subsidized private insur-ance in new marketplaces, while low-income people will besteered to Medicaid and other safety net programs. States arefree to accept or reject a Medicaid expansion also offered underthe law

C L A I M S C O S TContinued from page 1

Afghan men sit among the debris of their destroyed school in thevillage of Budyali, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. Taliban mili-tants attacked the nearby district headquarters in July 2011, thentook refuge in the school. The Afghan National Army requestedhelp from coalition forces, who responded with drones, fighter jetsand rockets, leaving the school destroyed, according to villageelders

The Associated Press - in a rare on-the-ground look unac-companied by military or security - visited two Afghan vil-lages in Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistanto talk to residents who reported that they had been affect-ed by drone strikes.

In one village, Afghans disputed NATO's contention thatfive men killed in a particular drone strike were militants.In the other, a school that was leveled in a nighttimeairstrike targeting Taliban fighters hiding inside has yet tobe rebuilt.

"These foreigners started the problem," Rasool said ofinternational troops. "They have their own country. Theyshould leave."

From the U.S. perspective, the overall drone program hasbeen a success.

While the Pentagon operates the drones in Afghanistan,the CIA for nearly a decade has used drones to target mil-itants, including Afghans, in Pakistan's border regions. CIAdrones have killed al-Qaida No. 2 Abu Yahya al-Libi andother leading extremists.

Still, criticism of the use of drones for targeted killingsaround the world has been mounting in recent months.The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Counter Terrorism andHuman Rights has launched an investigation into theireffect on civilians.

Rasool said his decision to leave his home in Hisarak dis-trict came nearly a month ago after a particularly blisteringair assault killed five people in the neighboring village ofMeya Saheeb.

The U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force, orISAF, confirmed an airstrike on Feb. 24 at Meya Saheeb,but as a matter of policy would neither confirm nor denythat drones were used.

Rasool said that he, his son, half a dozen grandchildren,and two other families crammed into the back of a cartpulled by a tractor. They drove throughout the day untilthey found a house in Khalis Family Village, named afteranti-communist rebel leader Maulvi Yunus Khalis, who hadclose ties to al-Qaida.

The village is not far from the Tora Bora mountain rangewhere in 2001 the U.S.-led coalition mounted its largestoperation of the war to flush out al-Qaida and Taliban war-riors.

"Nobody ever comes here. It's a little dangerous some-times because of the Taliban," said Zarullah Khan, aneighbor of Rasool's.

But the historic significance of his newfound refuge waslost on Rasool.

"Who's Khalis? We stopped when we found a house forrent," he said, grumbling at the monthly $200 bill sharedamong the three families packed into the high-walled com-pound where he spoke with the AP.

Standing nearby, Rasool's 12-year-old grandson, AhmedShah, recalled the attack in Meya Saheeb. The earthshook for what seemed like hours and the next morninghis friends told him there were bodies in the nearby vil-lage. A little afraid, but more curious, he walked the shortdistance to Meya Saheed.

"I wanted to see the dead bodies," he said. And he did -three bodies, all middle-aged men.

ISAF reported five militants were killed, but Rasoolclaimed they were businessmen. One of the dead had acarpet shop in the village, he said.

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_____________________________________________________The Weekly News Digest, April 1, 2013 7

U S D A E X P A N D I N G P R O G R A M

T O F I G H T R U R A L P O V E R T YCOLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- U.S. officials areexpanding a program intended to reduce povertyand improve life in rural areas through betteraccess to federal funding.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was expect-ed in South Carolina on Tuesday to announce theexpansion of the so-called StrikeForce initiative,which already operates in 10 states. The programwill now also be available in the Carolinas, theDakotas, Alabama and Virginia.

The goal of StrikeForce is to help farmers, foodproducers and other businesses get access tomoney for projects such as new wells, green-houses, community gardens, kitchen space, andsummer meals for low-income school children.The money is often hard to access due to compli-cated grant applications, requirements for match-ing funds, and limited staffing.

"You just don't have the technical wherewithal,technical assistance, in your city officials, councilmembers, part-time mayors, even your cityadministrators, to know what the federal pro-grams are," Vilsack, a former Iowa governor whois also an ex-mayor of a small town in Iowa, toldThe Associated Press this week. "Oftentimesthese programs have matching requirements. Forsmall communities operating by themselves, thatis very difficult."

The USDA uses U.S. Census data to find areaswith poverty rates higher than 20 percent. Theagency then works with local officials and com-munity-based organizations to publicize the pro-gram and reach out to potential applicants.Included in the secretary's expected stopsTuesday is Bamberg County, home to SouthCarolina's fourth-highest unemployment, at 15.3percent.

The money has already helped Larry Harris, whohas operated a small farm in South Carolina'sSumter County for about 15 years. Harris says heused to farm row crops such as soybeans and

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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack speaks at Maine MedicalCenter, in this March, 14, 2013 file photo taken in Portland,Maine. Vilsack was expected in South Carolina on Tuesday toannounce the expansion of the so-called StrikeForce initiative, aprogram intended to reduce poverty and improve life in ruralareas, which already operates in 10 states. The program will nowalso be available in the Carolinas, the Dakotas, Alabama andVirginia.

of war."

Pyongyang is angry over annual U.S.-SouthKorean military drills and a new round of U.N.sanctions that followed its Feb. 12 nuclear test, thecountry's third. Analysts see a full-scale NorthKorean attack as unlikely and say the threats aremore likely efforts to provoke softer policies towardPyongyang from a new government in Seoul, towin diplomatic talks with Washington that could getthe North more aid, and to solidify the young NorthKorean leader's image and military credentials athome.

North Korea made reference to those outside viewsin the statement it released through the officialKorean Central News Agency following the plenarymeeting.

North Korea's nuclear weapons are a "treasure" notto be traded for "billions of dollars," the statementsaid. They "are neither a political bargaining chipnor a thing for economic dealings to be presentedto the place of dialogue or be put on the table ofnegotiations aimed at forcing (Pyongyang) to dis-arm itself," it said.

North Korea's "nuclear armed forces represent thenation's life, which can never be abandoned aslong as the imperialists and nuclear threats exist onearth," the statement said.

North Korea has called the U.S. nuclear arsenal athreat to its existence since the 1950-53 KoreanWar, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty,leaving the peninsula still technically at war.Pyongyang justifies its own nuclear pursuit in largepart on that perceived U.S. threat.

While analysts call North Korea's threats largelybrinkmanship, there is some fear that a localizedskirmish might escalate. Seoul has vowed torespond harshly should North Korea provoke itsmilitary. Naval skirmishes in disputed Yellow Seawaters off the Korean coast have led to bloody bat-tles several times over the years. Attacks blamedon Pyongyang in 2010 killed 50 South Koreans.

The plenary statement also called for strengtheningthe moribund economy, which Kim has put anemphasis on in his public statements since takingpower after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, inlate 2011. The United Nations says two-thirds of

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North Korea in recent weeks cut other phone and faxhotlines with South Korea's Red Cross and with theAmerican-led U.N. Command at the border. Three othertelephone hotlines used only to exchange informationabout air traffic were still operating normally Thursday,according to South Korea's Air Traffic Center.

In 2010, ties between the rivals reached one of theirlowest points in decades after North Korea's artillery bom-bardment of a South Korean island and a South Koreanwarship sinking blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack.A total of 50 South Koreans died.

There is still danger of a confrontation or clash. KimJong Un may be more willing to take risks than his father,the late Kim Jong Il, said Yoo Ho-yeol, a North Koreaexpert at Korea University in South Korea.

Although North Korea has vowed nuclear strikes onthe U.S., analysts outside the country have seen no proofthat North Korean scientists have yet mastered the tech-nology needed to build a nuclear warhead small enough tomount on a missile.

President Park so far has outlined a policy that looksto re-engage North Korea, stressing the need for greatertrust while saying Pyongyang will "pay the price" for anyprovocation. Last week she approved a shipment of anti-tuberculosis medicine to the North.

Since 2004, the Kaesong factories have operated withSouth Korean money and know-how, with North Koreanfactory workers managed by South Koreans.

Inter-Korean trade, which includes a small amount ofhumanitarian aid sent to the North and components andraw materials sent to Kaesong complex to build finishedproducts, amounted to nearly $2 billion in 2012, accordingto South Korea's Unification Ministry.

Continued from page 2

S O U T H K O R E Athe country's 24 million people face regular foodshortages.

The statement called for diversified foreign tradeand investment, and a focus on agriculture, lightindustry and a "self-reliant nuclear power industry,"including a light water reactor. There was also acall for "the development of space science andtechnology," including more satellite launches.North Korea put a satellite into orbit on a long-range rocket in December. The United Nationscalled the launch a cover for a banned test of bal-listic missile technology and increased sanctionson the North.

The central committee is a top decision-makingbody of the North's ruling Workers' Party. The com-mittee is tasked with organizing and guiding theparty's major projects, and its plenary meeting isusually convened once a year, according to Seoul'sUnification Ministry. South Korean media said thelast plenary session was held in 2010 and that thiswas the first time Kim Jong Un had presided overthe meeting.

The White House says the United States is takingNorth Korea's threats seriously, but has also notedPyongyang's history of "bellicose rhetoric."

On Thursday, U.S. military officials revealed thattwo B-2 stealth bombers dropped dummy muni-tions on an uninhabited South Korean island aspart of annual defense drills that Pyongyang seesas rehearsals for invasion. Hours later, Kim orderedhis generals to put rockets on standby and threat-

corn but, several years ago, learned of a USDA-funded program that could help him build a well toirrigate more profitable specialty vegetable crops.Harris is bound by a contract with USDA to usethe well for irrigation for three years. After that, hecan use the well as he sees fit.

Other small farmers from neighboring countieshave come to see his setup and get ideas fortheir own projects, Harris said.

"On an acre of land, through these programs youcould make more growing vegetables than youcould doing row crops," he said.

In addition to increasing profits for farmers, spe-cialty vegetable gardens of the type Harris oper-ates could help reduce obesity rates in poorcounties by increasing residents' access to better-quality healthy foods, Vilsack said.

In Sumter County, 74 percent of adults are con-sidered overweight or obese, compared to SouthCarolina's overall rate of 67.4 percent.

"The key to nutrition is access to foods that arehealthy and nutritionally dense," Vilsack said. Iffarmers grow more of their own fruits and vegeta-bles, he said, "people don't have to rely on a con-venience store that has a very limited set of offer-ings."

WASHINGTON (AP) -- We know a lot about how

babies learn to talk, and youngsters learn to read.

Now scientists are unraveling the earliest building

blocks of math - and what children know about

numbers as they begin first grade seems to play a

big role in how well they do everyday calculations

later on.

The findings have specialists considering steps that

parents might take to spur math abilities, just like

they do to try to raise a good reader.

This isn't only about trying to improve the nation's

math scores and attract kids to become engineers.

It's far more basic.

Consider: How rapidly can you calculate a tip? Do

the fractions to double a recipe? Know how many

quarters and dimes the cashier should hand back

as your change?

About 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. lacks the math com-

petence expected of a middle-schooler, meaning

they have trouble with those ordinary tasks and

aren't qualified for many of today's jobs.

"It's not just, can you do well in school? It's how

well can you do in your life," says Dr. Kathy Mann

Koepke of the National Institutes of Health, which is

funding much of this research into math cognition.

"We are in the midst of math all the time."

A new study shows trouble can start early.

University of Missouri researchers tested 180 sev-

enth-graders. Those who lagged behind their peers

in a test of core math skills needed to function as

adults were the same kids who'd had the least num-

ber sense or fluency way back when they started

first grade.

"The gap they started with, they don't close it," says

Dr. David Geary, a cognitive psychologist who leads

the study that is tracking children from kindergarten

to high school in the Columbia, Mo., school system.

"They're not catching up" to the kids who started

ahead.

If first grade sounds pretty young to be predicting

math ability, well, no one expects tots to be scrib-

bling sums. But this number sense, or what Geary

more precisely terms "number system knowledge,"

turns out to be a fundamental skill that students

continually build on, much more than the simple

ability to count.

What's involved? Understanding that numbers rep-

resent different quantities - that three dots is the

same as the numeral "3" or the word "three."

Grasping magnitude - that 23 is bigger than 17.

Getting the concept that numbers can be broken

into parts - that 5 is the same as 2 and 3, or 4 and

1. Showing on a number line that the difference

between 10 and 12 is the same as the difference

between 20 and 22.

Factors such as IQ and attention span didn't explain

why some first-graders did better than others. Now

Geary is studying if something that youngsters learn

in preschool offers an advantage.

8 The Weekly News Digest, April 1, 2013 ___________________________________________________________

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R O L E I N L A T E R M A T H S K I L L S

There's other evidence that math matters early in

life. Numerous studies with young babies and a

variety of animals show that a related ability - to

estimate numbers without counting - is intuitive, sort

of hard-wired in the brain, says Mann Koepke, of

NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human

Development. That's the ability that lets you choose

the shortest grocery check-out line at a glance, or

that guides a bird to the bush with the most berries.

Number system knowledge is more sophisticated,

and the Missouri study shows children who start

elementary school without those concepts "seem to

struggle enormously," says Mann Koepke, who

wasn't part of that research.

While schools tend to focus on math problems

around third grade, and math learning disabilities

often are diagnosed by fifth grade, the new findings

suggest "the need to intervene is much earlier than

we ever used to think," she adds.

Exactly how to intervene still is being studied, sure

to be a topic when NIH brings experts together this

spring to assess what's known about math cogni-

tion.

But Geary sees a strong parallel with reading.

Scientists have long known that preschoolers who

know the names of letters and can better distin-

guish what sounds those letters make go on to read

more easily. So parents today are advised to read

to their children from birth, and many youngsters'

books use rhyming to focus on sounds.

Likewise for math, "kids need to know number

words" early on, he says.

NIH's Mann Koepke agrees, and offers some tips:

-Don't teach your toddler to count solely by reciting

numbers. Attach numbers to a noun - "Here are five

crayons: One crayon, two crayons..." or say "I need

to buy two yogurts" as you pick them from the store

shelf - so they'll absorb the quantity concept.

-Talk about distance: How many steps to your ball?

The swing is farther away; it takes more steps.

-Describe shapes: The ellipse is round like a circle

but flatter.

-As they grow, show children how math is part of

daily life, as you make change, or measure ingredi-

ents, or decide how soon to leave for a destination

10 miles away,

"We should be talking to our children about magni-

tude, numbers, distance, shapes as soon as they're

born," she contends. "More than likely, this is a pos-

itive influence on their brain function."

CHICAGO FARMS

This image provided by the University of Missouri shows an illus-tration part of a University of Missouri study that examined first-graders’ "number system knowledge." That’s how well theyunderstand such things as that numbers represent quantities.Youngsters who didn’t have a good grasp of these concepts wenton have lower scores on a key math skills test years later whenthey were in seventh grade. We know a lot about how babieslearn to talk, and youngsters learn to read. Now scientists areunraveling the earliest building blocks of math _ and what chil-dren know about numbers as they begin first grade seems to playa big role in how well they do everyday calculations later on.

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gorillas and chimpanzees. Thailand and Cambodia haverecorded cases of orangutans being used for entertain-ment in "clumsy boxing matches," the report said.Lax enforcement and corruption make it easy to smugglethe animals through African cities like Nairobi, Kenya, andKhartoum, Sudan, which are trafficking hubs. Bangkok,the Thai capital, is a major hub for the orangutan trade.

Conditions are usually brutal. In February 2005, customsofficials at the Nairobi airport seized a large crate that hadarrived from Egypt. The crate held six chimpanzees andfour monkeys, stuffed into tiny compartments. The cratehad been refused at the airport in Cairo, a well-knowntrafficking hub for shipment to the Middle East, andreturned to Kenya. One chimp died of hunger and thirst.

The proliferation of logging and mining camps throughoutAfrica has also increased the demand for primate meat.Adults and juveniles are killed for consumption, and theirorphans are captured to sell into the live trade. Villagersalso pluck primates out of rural areas to sell in the cities.

Humans also have been encroaching upon and destroy-ing the primates' natural habitats, destroying their foresthomes to build infrastructure and for other purposes. Thatforces the animals to move into greater proximity andconflict with people.

Sometimes animals are even the victims of war.

Arrests are rare largely because authorities in Africa,where most great apes originate, do not have the policingresources to cope with the criminal poaching networks.Corruption is rampant and those in authority sometimesare among those dealing in the illegal trade. Between2005 and 2011, only 27 arrests were made in Africa andAsia.

The Convention on International Trade in EndangeredSpecies of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) regulates thetrade of animals and plants to ensure their survival. Underthe agreement, trade in great apes caught in the wild isillegal. But traffickers often get around that by falselydeclaring animals as bred in captivity.

The orangutan is the only great ape found in Asia. Onespecies, the Sumatran orangutan, is critically endan-gered, with its population having dropped by 80 percentover the last 75 years. Their numbers are in great perildue to the pace of land clearance and forest destructionfor industrial or agricultural use.

The report estimates that nearly all of the orangutan's nat-ural habitat will be disturbed or destroyed by the year2030.

"There are no wild spaces left for them," said DouglasCress, a co-author of the report and head of a U.N. spon-sored program that works for the survival of great apes."There'll be nothing left at this rate. It's down to the bone.If it disappears, they go, too."

Continued on page 1

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Several footprints believed tobe from critically endangered Sumatran rhino have beenfound on Indonesia's Borneo island, raising hopes for theexistence of an animal long thought to be extinct in thatarea, a conservation group said Thursday.

The fresh tracks were discovered in February while aWWF team was monitoring orangutans in West Kutaiforested district of East Kalimantan province, according toa statement.

A follow-up survey carried out by the team, along with gov-ernment forestry officials and scientists from MulawarmanUniversity, discovered more footprints, horn scratches atmud holes, trees used as rubbing posts and bite marks onplants. But the number of potential animals remainsunclear.

The rhino has been thought to be extinct on Indonesia'spart of Borneo since the 1990s. Fewer than 200 animalsstill live in the wild in Indonesia and Malaysia, threatenedby loss of habitat and poaching.

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