On the eve of the Davos summit, the APF reports this mystery:
The Swiss police commander overseeing security for the World Economic Forum in Davos was found dead Tuesday, police said, adding that it appeared to be a suicide. The announcement came as political and business leaders began arriving in the Swiss mountain resort for the start Wednesday of the annual blue-chip meeting. "Dr. Markus Reinhardt, commander of the Graubuenden cantonal police... was found dead in his hotel room in the morning," Swiss police said in a statement. "All indications point to a suicide." Reinhardt, 61, has headed the canton's police force since 1984. The force paid tribute to Reinhardt as a "treasured, important personality". Local authorities said another senior police officer had taken over his duties for the forum, the Swiss news agency ATS reported. World Economic Forum (WEF) organisers stressed that Reinhardt was not a member of its staff but said the forum had long worked with him in preparing for the annual Davos mega-conference. "The World Economic Forum has with great sadness and regret learned of the tragic death" of the police chief, said a WEF statement. "During the many years during which we co-operated with him over security for our Annual Meeting at Davos, we appreciated his professionalism and his kindness. "The (Swiss) Security Forces continue to have our full confidence and trust in their work," it added.
Of course, I am invited to
re-tweet this news item, which seems much perferred to a sloppily cited cut-and-paste and is sometimes blocked by some unknown process. I do not agree that sharing should be restricted to such conduits. Jinkies--this does sound like a case. When thinking of the Swiss and security, I can only fathom up them guarding the Pope, which seems to be working well for all involved.
Bad Karma, our fair city, made a unenviable appearance on the national news as part of Siemens' announcement to cut some 2000 production jobs in Germany. About 850 of those will come from our local plant and sent to a facility in the Czech Republic. Siemens is not the only comparable, industrial, technical employer here but it will have a huge impact. American Woman, stay away from me--just let me be. I have fortuneately not heard of this happening much yet--only when redundant government positions are eliminated (through atrition) when the country unites or when US military bases are mothballed. A colleague, however, predicted we would be seeing this kind of job flight in response to the bad economy about a year after it began in the States. My former village, Wicked-Awesome-Heim, was also in the following traffic report--a truck had jack-knifed in the driven snow on the stretch of road running parallel to the village walls. Fortuneately, no one was hurt. 
