OAKLAND, Calif. — Hundreds of Wall Street protesters blocked gates at some of the West Coast’s busiest ports on Monday, causing the partial shutdown of several in a day of demonstrations they hope will cut into the profits of the corporations that run the docks.
The closures affected some of the terminals at the ports in Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore., and Longview, Wash., though it was not immediately clear how much the shutdowns would affect operations and what the economic loss would be.
The movement, which sprang up this fall against what it sees as corporate greed and economic inequality, is focusing on the ports as the “economic engines for the elite” in its most dramatic gesture since police raids cleared out most remaining Occupy tent camps last month.
Gov’t on pace to run budget deficit below $1T
WASHINGTON — The federal government is on pace to run a deficit below $1 trillion for the first time in four years, modest progress in the face of intense debate in Washington over spending.
The Treasury Department said Monday that the deficit was $137 billion in November. That brings the total for the first two months of the budget year to $236 billion — $55 billion less than the same two months last year.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the government will run a $973 billion deficit for the 2012 budget year, which began on Oct. 1. While that’s lower than last year’s $1.3 trillion imbalance, it would still be higher than any previous deficit before fiscal year 2009.
The government ran an all-time record deficit of $1.41 trillion in 2009, and a $1.29 trillion imbalance in 2010.
The CBO estimate does not include an extension of the Social Security tax cut and emergency unemployment benefits. Congress is likely to extend both before they expire at the end of the year. That could push the deficit back above $1 trillion if those programs aren’t offset. The two programs are estimated to cost around $200 billion.
Mont. aims to cut abuse of disabled hunter permits
HELENA, Mont. — Montana wildlife regulators suspect more and more people are faking disabilities to take advantage of privileges granted to disabled hunters, so they want to remove one of those perks in hopes of curbing abuse.
Permits to hunt from a vehicle, called PTHV permits, are given to Montana hunters with certain disabilities certified by a doctor, chiropractor, nurse or physician’s assistant. The permit allows a disabled person who can’t get around without assistance to hunt from a self-propelled or drawn vehicle.
In some prime hunting areas, those permit holders are allowed to drive along roadways normally gated and closed to all other vehicles. They are also allowed to shoot cow elk without buying an additional antlerless elk license, even in some areas where licenses aren’t available to the general public.
That kind of access has led to abuse of the permits by apparently healthy hunters, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials said.
War nearly over, Obama says Iraq won’t stand alone
WASHINGTON — Eager to put the long and divisive Iraq war to rest, President Barack Obama declared Monday “those days are over” with the last American troops heading home, but he pledged the U.S. would remain committed to the fledgling government they leave behind. He and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki saluted America’s war dead at Arlington National Cemetery.
The last American troops are to be out of Iraq by Dec. 31. Just 6,000 remain in Iraq, down from 170,000 at the war’s peak in 2007.
NATO announced Monday it will permanently shut down its military training mission in Iraq and withdraw all of its soldiers from the country by Dec. 31. Talks on extending the mission had stalled over NATO’s request for legal immunity for the foreign trainers — an issue that earlier torpedoed plans to keep a residual U.S. military presence in the country.
Canada pulls out of Kyoto Protocol
TORONTO — Canada’s environment minister said Monday his country is pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
Peter Kent said that Canada is invoking the legal right to withdraw and said Kyoto doesn’t represent the way forward for Canada or the world.
Canada, joined by Japan and Russia, said last year it will not accept new Kyoto commitments, but renouncing the accord is another setback to the treaty concluded with much fanfare in 1997. No nation has formally renounced the protocol until now.
The protocol, initially adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, is aimed at fighting global warming. Canada’s previous Liberal government signed the accord but Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government never embraced it.
Kent’s announcement comes a day after marathon climate talks wrapped up in the South African port city of Durban.
Negotiators from nearly 200 countries agreed on a deal that sets the world on a path to sign a new climate treaty by 2015 to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of next year.