Lucasfilm Threatens And Threatens Non-Profit... >> << Daily Deal: Pebble Time Smartwatch Mike MasnickTue, Apr 12th 2016 10:40am competition, defense department, shoes, sneakers, tariffs, tpp, ustr Shoe Company New Balance Says US Gov't Basically Offered It A Bribe To Support TPPfrom the wow dept We've mostly focused on the impact of the TPP and trade deals on the internet (and also on national sovereignty), because that's the kind of stuff that interests us most around here. We've spent a lot less time looking at the more traditional free trade arguments, in part because that's not nearly as controversial, and in part because -- despite claims to the contrary -- there really aren't that many tariff-related barriers that make a big difference any more. It's generally good to reduce such tariffs, and in response you see the typical response from firms based on whether or not they benefit from those reduced tariffs. The "benefits" of free trade tend to be focused on the companies looking to expand into those markets where tariffs are being lowered or abandoned -- and not so much for companies competing against products from those same countries.
Frankly, I find arguments that the companies who freak out about trade deals because it will mean more competition against them a bit tiresome, because I tend to believe competition is a good thing for innovation. However, the Boston Globe has quite a story about one such company, the sneaker company New Balance, which was quite worried about how the TPP would increase competition from shoemakers in Vietnam. Again, I find those concerns to be overblown, but the next part of the story is where it gets interesting: New Balance is now claiming that it stopped publicly complaining about the TPP after the US government more or less promised it a big government contract, which never came through: After several years of resistance to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pact aimed at making it easier to conduct trade among the United States and 11 other countries, the Boston company had gone quiet last year. New Balance officials say one big reason is that they were told the Department of Defense would give them serious consideration for a contract to outfit recruits with athletic shoes.
But no order has been placed, and New Balance officials say the Pentagon is intentionally delaying any purchase. New Balance is reviving its fight against the trade deal... The US government, of course, is insisting the issue of a contract is entirely separate from the TPP, but New Balance said an explicit offer was made. The company notes that while most of the uniform worn by the military is American made, there has always been an exception for sneakers because so few were actually fully made in the US. New Balance apparently decided to change that in hopes of getting a government contract, and the administration more or less said that this would work if New Balance shut up about opposing the TPP: In 2014, the Pentagon relented. With competition among US manufacturers, officials said they were ready to consider domestically made shoes. LeBretton said a representative for the Obama administration then asked New Balance to accept a compromise version of the trade deal, partly in exchange for a pledge of help getting the Department the Defense to expedite the purchase of US-made shoes.
The Globe claims that the Defense Department says the reason that it didn't give New Balance a deal was because its shoes weren't durable or cheap enough, but even if that's true, the very idea that the government more or less tried to buy off the company's opposition to the TPP seems highly questionable. Of course, I wonder, should the TPP get ratified and should the Defense Department then agree that it will only buy American made sneakers... one wonders if Vietnamese sneaker makers would then have an ISDS corporate sovereignty case against the US government? After all, it would be harming "future profits" that the Vietnamese sneaker-makers would have been expecting, and a "buy American" rule could clearly be seen as a non-tariff trade barrier to foreign goods, no? Canada Says It Won't Attend Special 301 Hearing Because USTR Prefers Industry Allegations To Facts And Data FCC Boss Calls Net Neutrality A 'Mistake,' Repeats Debunked Claim It Stifled Broadband Investment
In Latest Twist To The Global Trade Deal Saga, EU Now Looking To Fill The Gap Left By US In Exiting TPP Missouri The Latest State To Let Telecom Monopolies Write Awful, Protectionist State Law Huntsville, Alabama Is Suddenly Awash In Broadband Competition, Showing Why Comcast Is So Afraid Of Municipal BroadbandThe Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site. Go to Amazon.in's Home PageLet friends in your social network know what you are reading aboutTwitterGoogle+LinkedInPinterestPosted!A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Log InSubscribed, but don't have a login?Activate your digital access.Antoine Perkins was on his way to his best friend's house when he was shot and killed Dec. 21.Tiffany Smith had talked to him just 10 minutes before and was putting on her shoes to meet him halfway on his walk to her home when the phone calls started coming. Some said they were sorry. Others said to come quick. No one could bring themselves to tell her what had happened.
Smith would later learn that Perkins, 36, died of a bullet to the back of his head. Police told them that he died before he even hit the ground on the first block of East 22nd St. Her worst fears were confirmed at the shooting scene when she saw his sneaker."I told his family, the sneaker that I see out there, that's his sneaker," she said. "I knew for sure that it was his sneaker. I knew it was him."The story is a familiar one in Wilmington, where 26 people were killed by bullets this past year; another 151 people were injured in gun violence. After Perkins death, one more man – 25-year-old Andre Winn – was shot and killed before 2015 came to a close.One fatality was a robbery gone bad. Another was a mother caught in the crossfire, struck by a bullet while protecting her children.Each shooting statistic has a name and a family left behind, many of whom are still looking for answers.Take the death of Antonio Cropper, a 27-year-old man who was gunned down this summer in Wilmington's West Center City neighborhood.
More than five months after his death, his mother, Margie Cropper-Frazier said there has been no news or leads in finding out who killed him.Many in Wilmington's violence-stricken neighborhoods are fearful to speak out, nervous that retaliation and bullets will find their way into their own homes and loved ones. The mantra "Bullets have no names" is often repeated."It's not as easy as people think it is," she said, noting that many think she's strong for continuing on after her son's death. Like many in Wilmington, Cropper-Frazier sees no other way.Wilmington police arrested individuals in connection with 11 homicides last year. For families lucky enough to see charges brought, there's the hope and pressure that justice will be reached, though no prison sentence can bring back a loved one.The city's police force is taking its own steps in stopping Wilmington's violence. Though Wilmington Police Chief Bobby Cummings has reiterated over and over again that police officers can not do it on their own, the department continues to deploy targeted foot patrols in heavy-crime areas, use "hot spot" technology to detect problem areas in the city and continue efforts to engage the community through federally sponsored community police training called Blue Courage and additional community police officers.
Cummings also said part of an officer’s primary shift this year will be to spend more time out of their vehicles walking around in neighborhoods. Currently, these duties are performed on overtime assignments, he said."We know that certain periods of time during the day when the activity picks up, there are officers which need to be a little bit more mobile because of what's happening," Cummings said. "But if we can drive down some of those complaints by being present, then again, that just helps us stay out longer on foot in those areas where crime is occurring."Last year January was the deadliest month for the city, with six people dying from gunfire in the first 31 days. All of them were men ages 26 and younger.State Attorney General Matt Denn later announced the indictments of two men in connection with two January killings, saying the killings were part of "Touch Money Gang" activity that gripped Wilmington with violence dating back to 2013. John Brisco, 18, and Kadir McCoy, 17, were both charged in the slayings of Devon Lindsay and William Rollins.Both remain in police custody at Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington and Sussex Correctional Institution near Georgetown, respectively.
Alexander Fitzgerald, another alleged member of the Touch Money Gang, was charged with the murder of Deshon Sellers in mid-February. Fitzgerald, 19, as well as Brisco and McCoy, were part of the largest indictment in recent memory by the state Department of Justice, with 13 people indicted on a combined 91 charges.Wilmington police also recently announced, in conjunction with Denn, the indictment of a man wanted in a 2010 cold case homicide. Erik McNeely, 35, of Newark, was charged with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder after police say he fired three shots in the 600 block of South Franklin St. in May 2010, killing Abel Flores.Ipek Medford, head of the state Department of Justice Homicide Unit and deputy attorney general, lauded the case as a prime example of community engagement and hard police work.“We need our community to help us piece together cases," Medford said. "This case is an example that we need witnesses to tell what happened and bring justice, and not just forensic evidence like TV shows might have the public believe."
The pain is lasting, too, for families hurt in the city's violence and for many, it makes living on the very streets where their loved ones died even harder. Nicole Brown, who lost her nephew on Wilmington's streets, now fights to get out of bed each morning, still wrought with the pain from his death."It seemed like it was the worst day of my life," Nicole Brown said. "It hasn't been a good day since then. I haven't had a day where I could wake up where I could be happy to wake up and go to work. Everything is a fight now to do everything I used to do. I just wish they would have left my nephew alone."Her nephew, Hassan Brown, was gunned down on Labor Day, amid picnics and family gatherings in West Center City's September heat. Police have not named a suspect in his case.Three days before Hassan Brown was shot, he purchased life insurance, his aunt said, likely because he knew someone in the streets was trying to get him."I never heard anybody did anything like that," she said.
"He told his mom, 'If anything does happen to me, I don't want my mom to have to work.' Three days later, he died."Shootings quieted down in early November after a chase through the city led police to recover four semi-automatic guns as well as a large amount of ammunition. The car's driver, Willie Brothers Jr., was charged with a shooting on Oct. 29 along Jensen Drive, as well as a slew of other charges.Police have said they believe more charges will follow, but are still awaiting results from the firearms examiner in Dover.The city saw no one injured in gunfire from Nov. 3 to Nov. 20.But quiet periods are short-lived in the city. Following Perkins' death, Smith said she has considered getting out of Wilmington, as she's tired of the killings and tired of seeing so many of her friends shot in the streets.Her friend Crystal Brown was shot and killed coming out of a convenience store in 2014. A stray bullet from a shootout between two men struck her, ending her life on a street where she grew up.