text
stringlengths 0
127k
| title
stringlengths 0
777
| hyperpartisan
bool 2
classes | url
stringlengths 26
278
| published_at
stringlengths 0
10
| bias
int64 0
4
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
<p>The number of Maine homes and businesses without power following the area's strongest nor'easter in nearly two years is down to about 24,000.</p>
<p>More than 100,000 Maine homes and businesses were without electricity at the storm's peak. Residents were warned it could take days to restore service.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Central Maine Power reports almost 21,000 outages as of early Saturday. Emera Maine reports about 2,800.</p>
<p>The storm brought heavy snow, powerful winds and even thunder and lightning to northern New England. It left tens of thousands of people in the dark Friday and buried some towns under 2 feet of snow.</p> | About 24,000 Maine homes, businesses powerless after storm | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/31/about-24000-maine-homes-businesses-powerless-after-storm.html | 2017-01-01 | 0 |
<p />
<p>The House of Representatives approved a Senate-passed bill late Tuesday night to avert some of the effects of the fiscal cliff, including painful spending cuts and some tax hikes.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In a vote of 257-167, the House approved the bill with bipartisan support, after an earlier procedural test vote passed with a wide margin, signaling early support for the legislation. The bill passed a Senate vote earlier in the day with an 89-8 margin.</p>
<p>President Obama praised Congressional action in a speech at the White House shortly following the conclusion of the House vote.</p>
<p>“Thanks to the votes of Democrats and Republicans in Congress, I will sign a law that raises taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans while preventing a middle-class tax hike that could have sent the economy back into recession and obviously had a severe impact on families all across America,” he said.</p>
<p>House Speaker John Boehner voted in favor of the legislation, but in a statement following the vote, he warned of future fiscal worries for the nation.</p>
<p>“The federal government has a spending problem that has led to a $16 trillion national debt that threatens our country’s future,” he said in the statement. “Without meaningful reform of entitlements, real spending controls, and a fairer, cleaner tax code, our debt will continue to grow, and our economy will continue to stumble.”</p>
<p>The legislation impacts a broad range of fiscal policy specifically focusing on taxes and spending.</p>
<p>Tax Policy</p>
<p>The bill delays sequestration – a series of automatic spending cuts – for just two months. The move buys lawmakers more time, but doesn’t provide a long-term solution as was hoped for at the onset of negotiations.</p>
<p>The deal also includes a tax increase on America’s high earners – an issue that was hotly contested in budget talks. Single filers making more than $400,000 and joint filers making more than $450,000 will see the tax rate on the top portion of their incomes increase to 39.6%. The rates will remain the same on individuals and joint filers earning incomes below those thresholds. Additionally, the bill provides a permanent fix to the alternative minimum tax. Taxes on capital gains and dividends for high earners also increase from 15% to 20% (plus a 3.8% surcharge from the Affordable Care Act).</p>
<p>In addition to increased tax rates and delayed sequestration, the Senate bill also allows the expiration of the temporary payroll tax cut, which would now require every American to pay an additional 2% in payroll taxes. Also included is an extension of current policy regarding the estate tax, but adding a $5 million exemption indexed for inflation and a 40% top rate.</p>
<p>Spending Policy</p>
<p>Under the bill, sequestration is delayed for two months, paid for by a reduction in the discretionary spending cap for 2013 and 2014. Also included is a one year extension of extended unemployment insurance benefits, and a one-year extension of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 – also known as the farm bill. The latter will counteract antiquated legislation that economists have said could cause milk prices to surge to as much as $8 a gallon.</p>
<p>Debt Ceiling Fight Begins</p>
<p>The legislation failed to address the U.S. debt ceiling. Technically, the $16.4 trillion borrowing cap was hit late last year, but the Treasury Department is taking on "extraordinary measure" to create enough headroom to get through February. That means Congress will have a perilously small window to craft a deal, lest the U.S. be at risk of defaulting on its debt. The specter of a U.S. default last summer roiled financial markets and prompted Standard &amp; Poor's to strip the country of its pristine ‘AAA’ credit rating.</p>
<p>Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles weighed in on the fiscal fight, saying though the passed legislation is progress, the nation still has a long road ahead in 2013.</p>
<p>“Washington missed this magic moment to do something big to reduce the deficit, reform our tax code, and fix our entitlement programs. We have all known for over a year that this fiscal cliff was coming… Yet even after taking the Country to the brink of economic disaster, Washington still could not forge a common sense bipartisan consensus on a plan that stabilizes the debt.”</p>
<p>Market Reaction</p>
<p>Stocks in Asia and Australia rallied on the back of the passage of the fiscal cliff legislation in Congress. The Chinese Hang Seng soared nearly 2%, while Australia’s S&amp;P/ASX 200 tacked on some 1.2%. Commodities posted a strong performance as well, with benchmark U.S. oil and gasoline contracts rising by close to 1%. U.S. stock-index futures were closed for the New Year’s holiday.</p>
<p>Still, sentiment wasn’t upbeat across the board. Nomura analyst Lewis Alexander issued a note to clients warning that the hard part is yet to come for Congress. In particular, the investment bank cited the potentially more challenging debt ceiling debate.</p>
<p>“In many ways the agreement that has just been reached only addresses the politically popular parts of the fiscal challenges,” Alexander wrote. “We expect businesses and consumers to remain cautious until these issues are resolved and the financial market will remain vulnerable.”</p>
<p>Indeed, Nomura said earlier in the week the fiscal cliff saga is likely to hit first-quarter economic growth.</p>
<p>Todd Schoenberger, managing partner at LandColt Capital, echoed those concerns. He said Wall Street’s reaction may be bullish in the short run, but is likely to lose stream quickly.</p>
<p>“Considering there are so many headwinds facing the economy, including the debt ceiling negotiation in 60 days, the smart money knows the bullish sentiment will be short-lived,” he wrote in an e-mail.</p>
<p>Rich Edson and Chad Pergram contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.&#160;</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Fiscal Cliff Legislation Passes Congress After High-Stakes Battle | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2013/01/02/fiscal-cliff-legislation-passes-congress-after-high-stakes-battle.html | 2016-03-02 | 0 |
<p>An outspoken black sheriff has made the harrowing claim that Black Lives Matter activists will eventually join forces with the Islamic State terror group to bring down the United States.</p>
<p>“Before long, Black Lies [sic] Matter will join forces with ISIS to [bring] down our legal constituted republic. You heard it first here,” Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke <a href="https://twitter.com/SheriffClarke/status/659197285172166657" type="external">tweeted</a> to his 96,400 followers on Tuesday.</p>
<p>“I have been right on every call I have made about these subversives. I will be right again,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/SheriffClarke/status/659204644544126976" type="external">added</a>.</p>
<p>Sheriff Clarke has been an outspoken critic against the Black Lives Matter movement, making him a hero among conservatives and a frequent guest on Fox News. He most recently sparked criticism from the movement after he claimed during a Fox interview that “there is no police brutality in America” and that “there is no racism in the hearts of police officers.”</p>
<p>New York Daily News columnist and Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-milwaukee-sheriff-denies-police-brutality-racism-article-1.2413036?cid=bitly" type="external">penned</a> an op-ed calling the sheriff an “Uncle Tom” and a “sellout.”</p>
<p>“That crap doesn’t bother me,” Sheriff Clarke <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2015/10/27/black-sheriff-responds-to-uncle-tom-taunt-by-new-york-daily-news-columnist-and-black-lives-matter-activist/" type="external">told</a> The Daily Caller in response to the column. “It’s designed to get me off message.”</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2015/oct/28/david-clarke-black-milwaukee-sheriff-black-lives-m/" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke: Black Lives Matter ‘will join forces’ with Islamic State | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2015/oct/28/david-clarke-black-milwaukee-sheriff-black-lives-m/ | 2015-10-28 | 0 |
<p>In a fascinating scene from the documentary “ <a href="https://freedocumentaries.org/documentary/the-fog-of-war" type="external">The Fog of War</a>,” Robert McNamara, the American Secretary of Defense in the 1960s, discussed a 1992 meeting with Fidel Castro. During that meeting, McNamara discovered for the first time that during the Cuban Missile Crisis the Soviet Union had already delivered 162 nuclear warheads to Cuba. Shocked to the depths of his soul, McNamara stopped the meeting and asked Castro three questions:</p>
<p>(1) Did you know the nuclear warheads were there? (2) Would you have recommended to Khrushchev – in the face of a U.S. attack – that he use them? (3) If he had used them, what would have happened to Cuba?</p>
<p>The dictator answered immediately:</p>
<p>(1) I knew they were there. (2) I would not “have recommended to Khrushchev” – I did recommend to Khrushchev that they’d be used. (3) It [Cuba] would have been totally destroyed.</p>
<p>McNamara, still refusing to believe what he heard, thinking about the nuclear destruction, and with tears of despair, said: “That’s how close we were,” indicating a tiny space between his forefinger and thumb.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that McNamara had mistaken expectations with regard to Castro and his behavior. “Rationality alone will not save us,” declared the former Secretary of Defense. But this is a lame excuse that seeks to cover up his failure in understanding the opponent, his thinking and objectives.</p>
<p>The history of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians is also paved with tears of despair. In order to explain why, it is crucial to understand the fundamental beliefs which guide the Left’s expectations. There are four such convictions:</p>
<p>1. A comprehensive peace deal is good for both sides; 2. The differences can be bridged; 3. Prior negotiations came close to an agreement; 4. Everyone knows what the solution will be.</p>
<p>Peace between Israel and the Palestinians always seems “so close” – but remains elusive. And similar to McNamara, the fault is not with the other side; instead it is the Left’s mistaken understanding of the Palestinians. The tears of despair are the result of misguided expectations. In order to examine this, the following is a summary of the negotiations led by left-wing governments in Israel.</p>
<p>After it became clear in Israel that agreements such as Oslo, which are not permanent accords, do not achieve the intended results; there were a number of attempts to reach a “comprehensive peace agreement.”</p>
<p>Already in the 2000 Camp David summit, Ehud Barak surprised even his Israeli staff with a far-reaching proposal. When President Clinton heard it, his eyes lit up. “Now”, he announced, “we have something to work with.” Encouraged, Clinton went to convince Arafat, and, according to Dennis Ross, explained to him clearly why the stakes were high and this was the moment, and maybe historically the Palestinians never controlled their own destiny –but this was the moment. If this failed he (Arafat) couldn’t blame this on others.</p>
<p>All of the elements of a peace deal were present: a great “deal,” plenty of goodwill, a charismatic American president with convincing arguments and a strong desire to leave a legacy of peace, and a determined “courageous” left-wing Israeli prime minister. Euphoria swept over Camp David. History was about to be made.</p>
<p>But Arafat said: NO.</p>
<p>Shortly thereafter, Clinton tried to save something from Barak’s tenure, and suggested his generous “parameters.” Clinton thought progress had been made, and still had hope in his heart. He met Arafat again, utilizing all his wit and charm.</p>
<p>But Arafat again said: NO.</p>
<p>One may say, “Well, that was Arafat.” But the negotiations between Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) proved that we were (and are) dealing with a deeper issue.</p>
<p>In 2008, the most generous offer ever made was presented to the Palestinians. The concessions were excessive, crossing every Israeli red line: Olmert promised to withdraw all presence of the Israel Defense Forces from Judea and Samaria; he conceded sovereignty over east Jerusalem and the Old City – including the Western Wall! He offered 94% of the territory of Judea and Samaria, and the remaining 6% would be given to the Palestinians with land swaps in central Israeli areas, including a tunnel that would connect Gaza to the West Bank. Olmert implored Abu Mazen: “The Palestinians won’t get an offer like this even in another 50 years!”</p>
<p>Again, everything was ready. The teams were excited. Abbas himself admitted that such a generous offer was unprecedented. Only one thing was missing to finally end this cursed and unnecessary conflict, one with gaps that could supposedly be bridged and a solution known to all: that Abu Mazen would say: “Yes!”</p>
<p>But Abu Mazen said: NO.</p>
<p>Yet, Olmert’s failure didn’t discourage the progressive and most pro-Palestinian U.S. administration since the Carter era, led by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry. The staffs were reassembled for negotiation talks, and on July 30, 2013 Kerry announced – with a latent comic talent – that he planned to reach a historic agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians “within nine months!”</p>
<p>Once more, the stage was set. Kerry oversaw the negotiations and Obama led from behind. The American president even met Abu Mazen and implored him to seize the moment. This was a grace period for the Palestinians: The complete support of an American president who dreamt of a peace legacy in Middle East – even at the expense of Israel’s interests.</p>
<p>But even to this duo, Abu Mazen said: NO.</p>
<p>To better understand the Palestinian refusal, the Palestinians’ conduct during negotiations must also be examined. Here, too, there is a clear pattern that is documented by people on the Left. For example, Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami said to journalist Ari Shavit after the Camp David failure:</p>
<p>Ben-Ami: After a while Clinton became very angry and yelled horrifically. He said to Abu Ala…that the Palestinians have to present their own positive proposals….</p>
<p>Shavit: The Palestinians didn’t offer a counter-proposal?</p>
<p>Ben-Ami: No. That’s the heart of the matter. There is never a Palestinian counter offer. There never was one and there never will be. Therefore the Israeli side always finds itself in a dilemma: either I get up and go…or I make another concession, another squeeze. But at the end, even the most moderate person reaches the point where he says to himself: Wait a minute, the people on the other side have no end goal. Another squeeze and another squeeze, but it’s never enough for them. It never ends.</p>
<p>The story of the heartbroken dove Ben-Ami is in line with many descriptions of the Palestinian conduct, including from the American team. For example, this is how Dennis Ross described the back and forth between President Clinton and the Palestinian negotiating team at Camp David:</p>
<p>President Clinton said: “This is the beginning of the negotiations, so I need you to respond to it.” Abu Ala said: “I can’t respond to this.” Clinton: “At least point out what were the problems with the Israeli map. Don’t just reject it. Point out the problems.” And they wouldn’t even do that. Every suggestion he made, they simply said no.</p>
<p>In a similar way Ross described the meeting between the President and Arafat about the Clinton Parameters, which were meant to create a framework for future negotiations. Arafat, he says, immediately started to question everything that he’s asked to do. Every single item in the Clinton Parameters that required something of the Palestinians – he rejected.</p>
<p>This was not merely a problem with Arafat’s character or his unwillingness to reach an agreement. As Palestinian staff member Saeb Erekat has revealed, when their team received Ehud Barak’s far-reaching plan, Abu Mazen himself said to Arafat: “It’s a non-starter, and we cannot accept this, it’s a liquidation sale.”</p>
<p>There is an abundance of such testimonies. But the time has come to look at the big picture, from which three determinative facts arise with regard to the Palestinians’ conduct in everything related to negotiations.</p>
<p>1. The Palestinians never initiate negotiations. They are always forced upon them.</p>
<p>2. During the negotiations, the Palestinians never present their own peace plan.</p>
<p>3. The Palestinians end every negotiation, no matter how generous the offer, with a refusal.</p>
<p>These are monumental facts. Three Palestinian resounding NO’s that repeat themselves again and again.</p>
<p>When a thinking person discovers that reality repeatedly contradicts his convictions, he must ask himself whether he is holding on to a false set of beliefs. He has to check if there is an alternative theory that explains more facts and that would have predicted occurrences more accurately.</p>
<p>In this case, there is a simple and convincing explanation that covers all the relevant data: the Palestinians do not want to negotiate a permanent agreement.</p>
<p>Let us consider our two competing theories. The first theory states that the Palestinians desire peace, like the Israelis and Americans who negotiated with them, but for some mysterious reason they act as if they are not interested in it.</p>
<p>Consequently, the Left, which espouses this theory, is forced to start making excuses for the Palestinians behavior, instead of explaining it.</p>
<p>The problem is that it isn’t easy to explain five “historical opportunities” that were “missed” in just the last 17 years, especially in light of the complete lack of positive evidence for the claim that the Palestinians want a final-status agreement. The best this theory can offer is that the facts and testimonies are evidence of a Palestinian negotiation tactic – which means that the Palestinians are very poor tacticians, because the negotiations always fail.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the competing theory states that the talks always fail because the Palestinians are not interested in negotiating a permanent agreement. This claim successfully explains Palestinian behavior during the past two decades of negotiations, from signing agreements that were not final to the stubborn refusal to advance in the direction of a permanent and comprehensive peace agreement.</p>
<p>According to this theory it’s not a negotiation tactic that fails each time, but the exact opposite: it is a successful strategy of abstention from a permanent agreement.</p>
<p>If the new theory sounds strange, it in only because we have become accustomed not only to the idea that everyone always prefers a peace treaty, but also to the paradigm that is rooted on “missed historical opportunities.”</p>
<p>The truth is that when there is joint will to reach an agreement, there is no need for unique “historical opportunities.” But when there is no such will, there is only an illusion of “opportunities.” The bitter joke that “the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity” is completely illogical. Since the Palestinians don’t want the end that these “opportunities” present, for them these are not opportunities at all – more like historical traps. This is why they need to be avoided rather than taken advantage of.</p>
<p>Changing the paradigm has consequences. It turns out that the Left’s four principles of faith that we opened with are false: (1) the Palestinians don’t think a “comprehensive peace deal” is good for them; (2) from their perspective the gaps can’t be bridged; (3) no negotiation came close to a successful conclusion; and (4) they don’t accept the same end of conflict resolution that the Left believes “everyone knows.” These are myths based on nothing more than the Left’s internal discourse.</p>
<p>When the 2000 Camp David talks collapsed, President Clinton said in his publicized speech: “Prime Minister Barak made some very bold decisions, but in the end we were unable to bridge the gaps. I think they will be bridged, because I think the alternative is unthinkable.”</p>
<p>But not only was the alternative “thinkable” for the Palestinians, they chose it in a very real manner. And here we reach the danger in dogmatic thinking about the conflict.</p>
<p>The routine problem of the history of negotiation failures is that they lead to Palestinian escalation and violence. Now we can understand why. Since the Palestinians oppose negotiations, after every round of forced talks, the Palestinian leadership has to prove to their people that they did not concede anything. And so, after the pendulum has swung from the status-quo to the direction of “peace,” they have an urgent political need to compensate by diverting the pendulum in the direction of violence.</p>
<p>Such escalations are not only terrible not for the Israelis and the Palestinians. They are also bad for the brokering American president, because both the failure and Israel’s need to react to the new escalation tend to weaken his stand in the Middle East.</p>
<p>All of this is bad news for President Trump. He is certainly an expert in negotiations and closing deals, but a deal has a prerequisite of two sides thinking it can benefit them – a condition which doesn’t exist on the Palestinian side. Even the best mediator cannot bridge the gap of the refusal to bridge gaps.</p>
<p>It is more likely, therefore, that like all of his predecessors, the negotiation that Trump will force upon the Palestinians will end miserably. It is not a lack in mediation skills that will foil Trump’s efforts, but the mistaken conception that the Palestinians are interested in negotiating a peace agreement at all.</p>
<p>Therefore, were I able to advise him, I would ask President Trump to give up on the attempt to achieve “a deal.” This is in sync with what he said in his speech in Saudi Arabia: “We will make decisions based on real-world outcomes – not inflexible ideology. We will be guided by the lessons of experience, not the confines of rigid thinking.”</p>
<p>The Israeli-Palestinian negotiations history is the best example of inflexible ideology, contradicted to its core by the real-world outcomes and lessons of experience.</p>
<p>"Since the Palestinians oppose negotiations, after every round of forced talks, the Palestinian leadership has to prove to their people that they did not concede anything. And so, after the pendulum has swung from the status-quo to the direction of 'peace,' they have an urgent political need to compensate by diverting the pendulum in the direction of violence."</p>
<p>Dr. Ran Baratz</p>
<p>If the President is still unconvinced and wants proof ahead of failure, I would ask him to perform a simple test: before he commits to negotiations, he should ask the Palestinians for their peace plan – the Israelis’ he has long had. If he receives one, by all means, try another round of negotiations. But if the Palestinians send him – as Arafat used to say – “to drink Gaza’s sea water,” it’s a sign that nothing has changed and failure is looming on the horizon.</p>
<p>This doesn’t suggest that there is no path forward. With realistic expectations and an understanding of both sides, there are many things that can be done. But, as strange as this may sound to him, his biggest success would be to concede in advance the attempt to reach the “most difficult deal” – because it is a fake deal. The best thing to do is to let the misleading peace dogma finally rest in peace.</p>
<p>Dr. Ran Baratz served as Director of Communications for Prime Minister Netanyahu between 2016-2017.</p>
<p>With the permission of <a href="http://en.mida.org.il/2017/05/22/mr-president-fake-deal/" type="external">MIDA</a>.</p> | Note From Israel: President Trump, Don't Believe The Palestinians | true | https://dailywire.com/news/16744/note-israel-president-trump-dont-believe-daily-wire | 2017-05-22 | 0 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.istockphoto.com/photo/hand-of-prisoner-into-the-cell-gm468567284-61071354?st=74badf9"&gt;Manuel Faba Ortega&lt;/a&gt;/iStock</p>
<p />
<p>With the highest diagnosis rate of any state, Louisiana is a hotbed for new HIV cases, and the groups at greatest risk of infection are the same as those most likely to be imprisoned in the state’s sprawling corrections system: people who inject drugs, sex workers, the poor and racial minorities. But a new <a href="http://www.hrw.org/node/287947/" type="external">report</a> from Human Rights Watch found that for some HIV-positive Louisiana prisoners, medical care is delayed or non-existent, depending on the facility where they are housed.</p>
<p>Louisiana’s nine state-level prisons operate testing programs and transfer inmates to HIV case management resources when they are released. However, only a handful of the state’s 104 parish jails conduct regular testing, with some HIV-positive inmates experiencing treatment that is “delayed, interrupted, and in some cases denied altogether,” according to the report.</p>
<p>That’s significant because more than 40 percent of Louisiana’s incarcerated population is housed in parish jails—including 16,877 <a href="http://www.doc.la.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/1b-local-pop-trend.pdf" type="external">convicted offenders</a> and a whopping 12,602 <a href="http://www.doc.la.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/1i-CFACILTY-12-25-15.pdf" type="external">pre-trial detainees</a> at the end of last year. Officials in the Louisiana Department of Corrections told Human Rights Watch that all HIV-positive inmates are transferred from parish jails to states prisons. Yet, Human Rights Watch researchers found that jail inmates don’t get HIV care in state prisons unless the inmates already know their status and choose to disclose it, or until they develop symptoms.</p>
<p>What’s more, in some cases, when inmates did disclose their status, some still did not receive testing or medication unless a friend or family member could bring their pills into the jail. Although the East Baton Rouge Correctional Center has a large medical staff, it&#160;does not test new arrivals, the jail’s director of medical services Linda Otteson told researchers. “We cannot afford to treat them if they are positive,” Otteson said.&#160;</p>
<p>The result? Parish jail inmates can go weeks or months without treatment, potentially resulting in higher viral loads, increased resistance to medication, and a greater likelihood of infecting others, according to the report.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | The Surprising Gaps in HIV Care for Louisiana Prisoners | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/03/inmates-hiv-treatment-louisiana-jails-human-rights-watch/ | 2016-03-29 | 4 |
<p />
<p>I haven’t checked my Chinese calendar but if 2003 wasn’t the Year of the Rat, I don’t know what it was. We would normally heave a collective sigh of relief to have left it even a day or two behind us — if 2004 didn’t lie ahead. Still, if the year was bad for the rest of us, it wasn’t exactly dazzling for the Bush administration either and perhaps we should count a few modest post-New Year’s blessings for that at least.</p>
<p>2002 should certainly have been dubbed the Year of the New Rome, the year neocon pundits (and a few liberal commentators as well) proudly urged us to shoulder our new imperial burden and emulate the Romans, or at least the 19th century Brits, forever and a day. If so, then 2003 was the year in which our homegrown imperialists fell silent on the subject of empire, while our legions, setting out to remake the Middle East and then the world (cap that W), fell into the nearest nation-building ditch.</p>
<p>In the spring of 2003, after a series of global skirmishes with enemies of some significance — France, Germany, Russia, and that “other superpower,” the protesting peoples of the world — the Bush administration launched its long-desired, long prepared for war against an enemy of no consequence. “Mission accomplished.”</p>
<p>But when we sent our first proconsul out to rule the newest part of our Middle Eastern Imperium of Freedom, he came back quicker than you can say “Jay Garner.” The second team was off the bench in no time and Coach Bush (having fronted for a second-rate baseball team earlier in his remarkably empty career) promptly rushed them onto the field, led by the well-appointed, well-booted L. Paul Bremer. Having left a cushy “risk management” company stateside to risk manage what was tagged as the future capital of Middle Eastern oil, he arrived in Baghdad speaking, like George himself, in the imperative. (Have we ever, by the way, had a president who told so many people in so many places so publicly what they “must” do?). Bursting with energy, Bremer dismissed the Iraqi army and the Baathist bureaucracy only to find — no Lawrence of Arabia he — that he couldn’t even get a phone line to Sadr City, no less a government into Baghdad or an army of useful natives into the field.</p>
<p>The latest Baghdad joke, according to Herbert Docena, reporting from that city for the Asia Times on-line, is: How many American troops does it take to screw in a light bulb? “About 130,000 so far, but don’t hold your breath.” And sadly, that’s not really a joke. Feeling his oats, Bremer promptly announced the dismemberment of the last thing at hand — what was left of the devastated Iraqi economy. Every strip-mining plan ever imagined by some right-wing Washington think-tank was promptly hauled out and dumped on a prostrate and largely unemployed Iraqi populace. And so Iraq was “opened” for business — without a government and with a foreign army in place — the way you might slit open a still breathing animal.</p>
<p>As it turned out, however, there were other “risk managers” around ready to play quite a different, if no less chancy game — and they turned out to be brutally good at it. After all, eight months and a right turn past victory later, and Baghdad International Airport is still not open to commercial traffic, thanks to those pesky shoulder-fired missiles that seem to litter Iraq and the shoulders to hoist them on. So while, from London to Maine, corporate privatizers can hold conferences galore on the country’s new economy, about all that will get them into deepest, (and part of the time quite literally) darkest imperial Baghdad is a dangerous drive overland, some body armor, and private guards.</p>
<p>Recently, even our proconsul narrowly escaped a roadside ambush near the capital. (Hint: the new police force, the new military, and the new Iraqi intelligence service we seem to be reconstituting from retread Saddamites are obviously riddled with people feeding information to the armed opposition.) So L. Paul now finds himself ensconced behind concertina wire, inside Baghdad’s ecologically unfriendly Green Zone, backing down on various proposals and swatting off obdurate Shiite clerics calling for democratic elections, while wondering what hit him and where in the world he’ll ever find a “sovereign” government to which to turn over some shred of power next June. So it goes in our unexpected world.</p>
<p>The Empire strikes out</p>
<p>2002 was the year of the Nuclear Posture Review, the National Security Strategy, the Axis of Evil, and the Bush Doctrine. It was the year when, as the Greta Garbo of hyperpowers, we declared our desire to be alone at the top; practically shouted out our plans to dominate the planet militarily to the end of time; publicized our desire to conquer the heavens with previously forbidden weaponry straight out of Flash Gordon; swore our fealty to the nuclear option till the (mad) cows come home (as they just have); insisted in the name of national security on the rejection, ripping up, or even unsigning of every protective, multilateral treaty or measure devised by the human mind in recent decades to keep our proliferating, global warming world somewhere on this side of the law; and insisted that “regime change” was in order — and that we would carry it out everywhere but in the United States. 2003 then might be considered the year when the planet proved its bedrock, cranky, anti-imperial recalcitrance.</p>
<p>So, with a nod to the neocons, here, retooled from the 1960s, is my adage for the New Year and beyond (and I’m willing to loan it out to anyone in Washington who finds it useful): Beware of domino theories. They tend to rear up and bite you in the butt.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, if we didn’t defend any small piece of global turf against nationalist and communist insurgencies, our leaders swore that its loss would be but the first toppling domino — as with South Vietnam — starting a cascade that would sweep the nations of the world into the communist camp. It’s perhaps symbolic of our unipolar world that our new imperialists imagined a far more “proactive” set of dominoes — not ones they would have to defend from toppling, but ones they would shove over themselves. Their war in Iraq was to be just the first push in a domino cascade that would reorder the planet into a Pax Americana. Hostile Syrian and Iranian regimes, sideswiped by a collapsing Iraqi domino, would go down; so would the supposedly friendly Saudi one; the Palestinians, helpless and alone, would be the next to follow, making a peace of the defeated with neocon darling Ariel Sharon; even Kim Jong-il, the “dear leader” of North Korea, halfway across the planet would be crushed beneath a pile of American dominoes, and while we were at it, the French, Germans, and Russians would go down too, though peaceably, leaving the superpower contender of the future, China, in a thoroughly exposed and indefensible position.</p>
<p>Of course, none of this happened. It seems years ago, though it was only months back that Syria, Iran, and North Korea were in our gun sights (with Cuba, Libya, and the Sudan not far behind). Only last June, the United States was threatening to become the national equivalent of a serial killer. And yet, by year’s end, the road to Damascus was closed; the President was welcoming Libyan strongman Qaddafi (the Saddam Hussein of the Age of Reagan) back into the comity of nations; U.S. aid was being readied for and sanctions temporarily lifted on an Iran suffering unparalleled devastation from a natural catastrophe (and American officials were even muttering about a new era in relations); something approaching actual negotiations with North Korea was being carried out through the Chinese government; and administration officials along with Bremer were searching madly for “withdrawal” formulas in Iraq (even if they were meant to leave our troops, Halliburton, and Bechtel there for an eternity). Meanwhile, in Washington, the neocons, jobs at risk, were threatening war and crying foul (or is it fowl?) as their global war-fighting plans were sent back to the think-tanks — at least for now — and the multilateralists of Father Bush’s administration were slipping back into positions of authority.</p>
<p>In 2002, thanks largely to Osama bin Laden, the Bush administration was flying higher than a cruise missile. By year’s end 2003, the only hawk still openly talking the talk of empire was the Vice-President, who included the following quotation from Benjamin Franklin in his Christmas card: “And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?” In short, by the end of 2003, despite a brief Alka-Seltzer moment of relief with the capture of Saddam Hussein (but not, of course, Osama bin Laden), something was wobbling in the House of Bush.</p>
<p>In instant retrospect, 2003 already looks like a Gong Show year for the American Empire. Put another way, when early in the year the administration reached into its mighty imperial arsenal, all it pulled out was brute force applied brutally in a three-week shock-and-awe campaign against Saddam Hussein’s pathetic military (and then reapplied with counterproductive ineffectiveness ever since). No one can deny that empires work on a principle of brute force. It’s a necessity if you plan to conquer others and rule them against their wishes, but it can’t be the only arrow in your quiver. A little finesse is usually necessary, if you plan to stick around for a while. Some plums need to be offered, at least to some of the conquered and those from elsewhere who fight in your legions. There has to be some way to join the empire as a junior partner and benefit somehow. None of this was available in the Bush version of shouldering the imperial burden.</p>
<p>To the extent that we proved imperial in 2003, it was largely in the Pentagon’s long-term planning for weapons systems, large and small, slated to dominate the planet for the next half-century or more. Can there be any doubt that we already have the weaponry of forty Roman empires and twenty British ones with more to come? After all, we even have futuristic weapons on the drawing boards for 2050.</p>
<p>But here’s a lesson for the year (also retooled from the 1960s): You can’t rule this bedeviling planet with weapons systems based in the United States, or on offshore aircraft carriers, or even on military bases dotted across the globe, no less via a series of delivery vehicles from outer space. The resistance in Iraq has made this point staggeringly clear: We smote — and given our fundamentalist administration that word is surely on target — Saddam Hussein’s regime with our techno-best and from its ruins arose an armed opposition centered in but not limited to Sunni Iraq. 5,000 armed men, if you believe the Pentagon, up to 50,000 if you believe a recent CIA report; all Baathist “bitter-enders” and al Qaeda warriors from elsewhere, if you believe Don Rumsfeld or the President, up to 23 different mostly home-grown resistance groups if you believe various foreign journalists. But the most curious thing is that no one in Washington or among our military and civil administrators in Baghdad quite knows who the armed opposition actually is and they tend to identify themselves mainly through roadside bombs and suicide bombers.</p>
<p>This is either some kind of bleak miracle, or an illusionist’s trick. After all, it took years in Vietnam against a powerful southern insurgency backed by the militarily strong and determined North Vietnamese regime backed in turn by the Earth’s other superpower, the USSR, and for good measure by Mao’s China with which it shared a border, with copious supplies flowing in from abroad and sanctuary areas in bordering Cambodia and Laos, before a desperate American president even began considering calling up the reserves. In Iraq, against relatively lightly armed, no-name insurgent forces of a few thousand or tens of thousands, without a significant power behind them, without sanctuaries, or major supply channels (other than the copious arms already cached in the country), with largely homemade bombs and small numbers of fanatical individuals willing to turn themselves into suicide weapons, the mightiest military power on earth has already been stretched to the breaking point. Its leaders, scouring the planet for new recruits, are having trouble finding enough troops to garrison an easily conquered, weak, and devastated country.</p>
<p>The foreign legions they’ve managed to dig up — a few thousand Spaniards and Poles, hundreds of Bulgarians and Thais, handfuls of Mongolians, Hondurans, and the like — add up modestly indeed, when you consider who’s asking for a hand. And even our own version of the Gurkhas, the British who, thanks to Tony Blair, have shipped out sizeable numbers of troops to garrison the – at present – more peaceable Shiite southern regions of the country, turn out to be doing their much needed work for sixpence and a song. Their cut of the Iraqi pie looks beyond modest. Like a child with a roomful of toys, all the Bush administration knows how to say is: “Mine.”</p>
<p>A global Enron moment</p>
<p>In a sense, our new Rome already lies in ruins without even an enemy fit to name to oppose us. And the true face of our home-grown regime in Washington is ever more visible. The visages on display aren’t those of an emperor and his administrators, proconsuls and generals, but of so many dismantlers, strip-miners, and plunderers; less Augustus, more Jesse James (the real one, not the movie hero).</p>
<p>They may be building weapons for 2050, but they’re plundering in Iraq and at home as if January 1 2004 were the beginning of the end of time. Having ushered into office the Halliburton (vice-)presidency, we now have a fitting “empire” to go with it. While empires must to some extent spread the wealth around, our proto-imperialists turn out to have the greed level and satiation point of so many malign children. Other than “must” and “mine,” the words they — and their corporate companions — know best, it seems, are “now,” “all,” and “alone.” It’s a vocabulary that doesn’t contain a future in it, not the sort of vocabulary with which to rule the world.</p>
<p>No matter how many times we insist that all we carry in our baggage train is “freedom” and “democracy” for the oppressed nations of the Earth, those elsewhere can see perfectly well that our saddlebags are full of grappling hooks and meat cleavers. Bad as 2003 was for us, it may not be long before it’s looked upon as their global Enron Moment.</p>
<p>2003 was the year our emperor’s men decided to use up as much as they could as fast as they could, though, thanks to our underachieving media, this can hardly be grasped here. The sad thing is that they are dismantling us, and what matters most to us in our country including our liberties — and all under the deceptive name of “national security.” They have an unerring eye for the weak and vulnerable and, on spotting them, set upon them like so many highwaymen.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, as representatives of insecurity rather than security, they have let loose forces for which they feel no responsibility. We are a nation of adults, living largely in denial, led by overgrown, malign children excited by the thought of sending other people’s actual children, a whole well-led army of them, including the older “weekend warriors” of the reserves and the National Guard, off to do the impossible as well as the unjust. And this is happening in part because — I believe — they don’t imagine war as carnage, but are energized by an especially shallow idea of war’s “glory,” just as the President has been thoroughly energized by the ludicrous idea that his is a “war presidency.”</p>
<p>The term “chickenhawks,” often used by critics, hardly catches this. It’s true that Bush’s first moments after the September 11th attacks — now buried by media and memory — were ones of flight, and so, undoubtedly, of shame and humiliation (which helps account for at least some of the exaggerated macho posturing — “bring ’em on” — that followed). Instead of stepping forward to lead a shocked nation in crisis by heading for Washington, he was shunted from a children’s classroom in Florida westward to safety.</p>
<p>What “chickenhawks” doesn’t catch, however, is both the immature mock solemnity and the fun of war play for them, something they first absorbed in their childhoods on screen and carry with them still. War for them — as they avoided anything having to do with either the Vietnam War or opposition to it — remains, I believe, a matter of toy soldiers, cowboys-and-Indians games, and glorious John Wayne-style movies in which the Marines advance, while the ambushing enemy falls before them and the Marine hymn wells up as The End flashes on screen.</p>
<p>In a similar way, the neocon utopians who dreamed up our distinctly unpeaceful Pax Americana in deepest, darkest Washington and out of whole cloth seem to have imagined global military domination as something akin to the board game Risk. They too were, after a fashion, Risk managers, seeing themselves rolling the dice for little weapons icons (most of which they controlled), oil-well icons (which they wanted) and strategic-country icons (which they needed). They were consummate game players. It just so happens our planet isn’t a two-dimensional gameboard, but a confusing, bloody, resistant, complex place that exists in at least three dimensions, all unexpected.</p>
<p>I mean if you think I’m kidding — about children playing games — just remember that we have a President who, according to the Washington Post‘s Bob Woodward, keeps a “scorecard” in his desk drawer with the names/faces and personality sketches of al Qaeda adversaries (and assumedly Saddam) and then X’s them out as they’re brought in “dead or alive.” Think tic-tac-toe here.</p>
<p>The president and his men, in short, have been living in a fantasy world that makes The Lord of the Rings look like an exercise in reality. Even before the Iraq war, this was worrisome to the adults who had to deal with them. This is why there was so much opposition within the top ranks of the military before the war; this was why there was no Pentagon planning whatsoever for the post-war moment (hey, you’ve just won the Iraq card in your game, now you fortify and move on); this was why, for instance, General Anthony Zinni, Vietnam veteran and former CentCom commander, who endorsed young George in the 2000 race, went into opposition to the administration; this is why a seething “intelligence community” has been in near revolt after watching our fantasists rejigger “intelligence” to make their “turn” come out right; this is why our great “adventure” in the Middle East pitched over into the nearest ditch.</p>
<p>2004 should be a fierce holding action for them. The question is — as with Richard Nixon in 1972 — can they make it through to November before the seams start to tear. They might be able to. But here’s the thing: Sooner or later, the children will leave the stage and some set of adults will have to start picking up the pieces. If the 2004 election is theirs, however… well, sometimes there are just things, our planet included, too broken to fix.</p>
<p>Additional commentary from Tom Engelhardt can be read throughout the week at <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a>, a web-log of the Nation Institute.</p>
<p /> | Good Riddance | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2004/01/good-riddance/ | 2004-01-02 | 4 |
<p>Associated Press; Jerry Mennenga/ZUMA Wire</p>
<p />
<p>Good luck tracking down sermons from Mike Huckabee’s two decades as a Baptist preacher. The GOP presidential candidate, who once started a television station out of his church to broadcast his sermons, <a href="" type="internal">kept those tapes under wraps</a> during the 2008 presidential campaign.</p>
<p>Among the handful of sermons open to the public is a partial recording of a 1979 sermon in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, at the congregation Huckabee had tended as a pastor a decade earlier when he was a student at Ouachita Baptist University. The sermon, included in the school’s special collections, catches a young Huckabee confident in his beliefs and fluid in his rhetoric, riffing from one New Testament passage to the next in critiquing the most “pleasure-mad society that probably has ever been since Rome and Greece, in the days when there was just absolute chaos and debauchery on the streets”:</p>
<p>It’s a sad thing but it’s true in this country: 10,000 people a year are directly killed by alcohol in this country. Ten thousand. But we license liquor. There’s one person a year on average killed by a mad dog, just one. But you know what we do? We license liquor, and we shoot the mad dog. That’s an insane logic! But it’s what’s happening, it’s because we love pleasure more than anything else. A lot of times we look around our society we see this problem we see pornography and prostitution and child abuse and all the different things that we’re all so upset about. You know why they’re there? You know why they’re in the communities? You say “because the Devil”—they’re there because of us.</p>
<p>It was dark days indeed, he argued, when “an x-rated theater can open up down the street from a church.” Above all, Huckabee was upset with Monty Python’s 1979 movie, Life of Brian. Huckabee was hardly alone in condemning Life of Brian, which follows the story of a Jewish man, Brian, who is mistaken for the Messiah because he was born on the same day as Jesus. The film was banned in Ireland; picketed in New Jersey; <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9B0CE5D61339E732A25757C0A96F9C946890D6CF" type="external">denounced</a> by a coalition of Christian and Jewish leaders; and canceled in Columbia, South Carolina after a last-minute intervention from Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond. (On the other hand, the movie does have a score of 96 at <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/monty_pythons_life_of_brian/" type="external">Rotten Tomatoes</a>.) Per Huckabee:</p>
<p>There was a time in this country when a movie like The Life of Brian which, I just read—thank God the theaters in Little Rock decided not to show, but it’s showing all over the Fort Worth–Dallas area, which is a mockery, which is a blasphemy against the very name of Jesus Christ, and I can remember a day even as young as I am when that would not have happened in this country or in the city in the South.</p>
<p>But friend, it’s happening all over and no one’s blinking an eye, and we can talk about how the devil’s moved in and the devil’s moved in but what’s really happened is God’s people have moved out and made room for it. We’ve put up the for sale sign and we’ve announced a very cheap price for what our lives really are. We’ve sold our character, we’ve sold our convictions, we’ve compromised we’ve sold out and as a result we’ve moved out the devil’s moved in and he’s set up shop. And friend [he’s] praying on our own craving for pleasure.</p>
<p>No word on whether Huckabee will defund the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV2ViNJFZC8" type="external">Ministry of Silly Walks</a> if elected.</p>
<p /> | That Time Mike Huckabee Preached Against Booze, Sex, and Monty Python | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/mike-huckabee-monty-python-life-brian/ | 2015-05-08 | 4 |
<p>By <a href="" type="internal">Juan Cole</a> / <a href="https://www.juancole.com/2017/06/climate-disavowal-capitalism.html" type="external">Informed Comment</a></p>
<p>The last time capitalism faced a crisis this deep, it was 1929. All those people Joe McCarthy persecuted in the 1950s for having joined the Communist Party when they were young and angry had been angry because of the Great Depression. Specifically, they were angry at capitalists, especially bankers, whom they blamed for kicking millions out of their homes or off their land. Bank robbers even became celebrities. Semi-socialist policies like social security were implemented by Franklin D. Roosevelt in part out of fear of popular anger.</p>
<p>It’s not Donald Trump or alt-neo-Nazi Steve Bannon who is mainly responsible for taking the U.S. <a href="" type="internal">out of the Paris climate accord</a>.</p>
<p>It’s the Koch Brothers and the rest of Big Oil, and Big Gas, and Big Coal.</p>
<p />
<p>It’s “energy” corporations who have vast inventories of worthless fossil fuels that they want to unload on the marks quickly before everybody realizes they have the same usefulness for human beings as eating arsenic.</p>
<p>There are some well-run companies in the world that improve people’s lives. But if corporate America is willing to alternately cook and drown our grandchildren to make a quick buck today, then they are our enemies. They are monsters. Period.</p>
<p>The compact we had with the corporations had already been reneged on long ago. They were supposed to make and distribute goods efficiently and provide an ever better standard of living to American workers.</p>
<p>But the real value of the average wage of a worker hasn’t increased since 1970.</p>
<p>The cost of a college education for a middle class family has skyrocketed, making it harder for families to get ahead. Graduates go out into the world with $150k debt.</p>
<p>Inequality is spiking. The opportunity for young people to rise beyond their social class has declined dramatically in U.S. America is no longer the land of opportunity.</p>
<p>So the compact between the public and the corporations was already in trouble. Workers still have not recovered from the 2008 crash.</p>
<p>The glib and deeply dishonest attempt of Big Carbon to represent the repudiation of the Paris accords as a victory for American workers will quickly be seen through. Factory jobs in the U.S. have declined, but not because of environmental regulation. The big factor has been robotification. Coal jobs are not coming back.</p>
<p>The American public has shown itself incredibly patient as they watched a handful of corporations simply buy congressmen and senators and have them vote for the interests of the super-rich and against the interests of Americans.</p>
<p>But to have the corporations sell our children and grandchildren down the river for an extra few years of fossil fuel profits — surely that will not pass unnoticed. Maybe it will require a wake-up call. Likely sometime in the next few decades a really big glacier is going to plop into the ocean, immediately raising sea levels. It will be like the 2004 tsunami that killed nearly 300,000 people. But it will be worse because the water levels won’t go back down afterwards, leaving houses along the coast flooded.</p>
<p>I am afraid, then, of severe social conflict breaking out. People are going to be really angry. Rex Tillerson and Tom Pruitt will be long since retired or perhaps even no longer with us. But the corporate offices will be there, visible in the cities.</p>
<p>Right now, if I proposed that in order to combat climate change, the U.S. government needs to simply nationalize the country’s electrical grid and redo it with public funds, the snarky minions of the billionaires would just sneer at me. But after a potential glacier tsunami, my idea will look perfectly reasonable and people will wonder why they hadn’t already done that. (They have, in some countries).</p>
<p>Casino capitalism has had a good run, especially since 1980. Its days are now numbered for reasons its captains could never have foreseen. The weather report is the specter haunting them, not the communist manifesto.</p> | Is U.S. Climate Policy Killing Capitalism? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/is-u-s-climate-policy-killing-capitalism/ | 2017-06-03 | 4 |
<p>Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/DPA/ZUMAPress</p>
<p />
<p>On Tuesday evening, the federal government dealt a huge blow to McDonald’s, which has for over a year and a half been the target of worker protests and lawsuits over its low wages and questionable labor practices.</p>
<p>McDonald’s has long maintained that as a parent company, it cannot be held liable for the decisions individual franchises make about pay and working conditions. On Tuesday, the general counsel at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) <a href="http://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/nlrb-office-general-counsel-authorizes-complaints-against-mcdonalds" type="external">ruled</a> that this is nonsense, saying that the $5.6 billion company is indeed responsible for employment practices at its local franchises. That means that the company is no longer shielded from <a href="http://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/nlrb-office-general-counsel-authorizes-complaints-against-mcdonalds" type="external">dozes of charges</a> pending at regional NLRB offices around the country alleging illegal employment practices.</p>
<p>“McDonald’s can try to hide behind its franchisees, but today’s determination by the NLRB shows there’s no two ways about it,” Micah Wissinger, an attorney who brought a case on behalf of New York City McDonald’s workers said in a statement Tuesday. “The Golden Arches is an employer, plain and simple.”</p>
<p>The Fast-Food Workers Committee along with the Service Employees International Union has <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/11/a-federal-court-is-about-to-answer-the-question-who-do-you-actually-work-for/" type="external">filed numerous complaints</a> against the company with the NLRB since November 2012. Most recently, workers <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/03/13/3402141/mcdonalds-wage-theft-suits/" type="external">filed seven class action lawsuits</a> against McDonald’s corporate and its franchises in three states alleging wage theft. The NLRB <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/11/a-federal-court-is-about-to-answer-the-question-who-do-you-actually-work-for/" type="external">consolidated</a> all these complaints into the case it decided on Tuesday, which focused on whether McDonald’s corporate can be considered as a “joint employer” along with the owner of the franchise.</p>
<p>Since the fall of 2012, fast-food workers at McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC franchises around the country <a href="" type="internal">have been striking</a> to demand a $15 minimum wage and the right to form a union without retaliation. The strikes recently <a href="" type="internal">went global</a>. Organizers say Tuesday’s ruling will lend workers new momentum in their ongoing battle against the fast-food mega-chain.</p>
<p /> | Fast-Food Workers Just Took McDonald’s Down a Notch | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/mcdonalds-nlrb-ruling-worker-lawsuits/ | 2014-07-30 | 4 |
<p>ATLANTA (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the Georgia Lottery's "Jumbo Bucks Lotto" game were:</p>
<p>11-16-22-29-34-41</p>
<p>(eleven, sixteen, twenty-two, twenty-nine, thirty-four, forty-one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $5.9 million</p>
<p>ATLANTA (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the Georgia Lottery's "Jumbo Bucks Lotto" game were:</p>
<p>11-16-22-29-34-41</p>
<p>(eleven, sixteen, twenty-two, twenty-nine, thirty-four, forty-one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $5.9 million</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Jumbo Bucks Lotto' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/8cc032a2502646d1bd3b55cc53f60a8a | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
<p>Jan 24(Reuters) - Traders Holdings Co Ltd</p>
<p>* Says 2,000 units of its 12th series options were exercised to 2 million shares of its common stock during period from Jan. 12 to Jan. 24</p>
<p>Source text in Japanese: <a href="https://goo.gl/vFQ5gP" type="external">goo.gl/vFQ5gP</a></p>
<p>Further company coverage: (Beijing Headline News)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg apologized on Wednesday for mistakes his company made in how it handled data belonging to 50 million of its users, and promised tougher steps to restrict developers’ access to such information.</p>
<p>The world’s largest social media network is facing growing government scrutiny in Europe and the United States. This follows allegations by a whistleblower that British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed users’ information to build profiles on American voters that were later used to help elect U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016.</p>
<p>“This was a major breach of trust. I’m really sorry this happened. We have a basic responsibility to protect people’s data,” Zuckerberg told CNN, breaking a public silence since the scandal erupted at the weekend.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook the company "made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it." ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2DHAlUJ" type="external">bit.ly/2DHAlUJ</a>)</p>
<p>He said the social network planned to conduct an investigation of thousands of apps that have used Facebook’s platform, restrict developer access to data, and give members a tool that lets them disable access to their Facebook data more easily.</p>
<p>His plans did not represent a big reduction of advertisers’ ability to use Facebook data, which is the company’s lifeblood.</p>
<p>European governments expressed dissatisfaction with Facebook’s response and said the scandal showed the need for strong regulation.</p>
<p>“It shouldn’t be for a company to decide what is the appropriate balance between privacy and innovation and use of data. Those rules should be set by society as a whole and so by parliament,” British minister for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Matt Hancock, told BBC Radio. “The big tech companies need to abide by the law and we’re strengthening the law.”</p>
<p>Germany’s justice minister Katarina Barley demanded that Facebook executives explain to her whether the site’s 30 million German users had been affected.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg said he was open to additional government regulation and happy to testify before the U.S. Congress if he was the right person.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure we shouldn’t be regulated,” he told CNN. “I actually think the question is more what is the right regulation rather than yes or no, should it be regulated? ... People should know who is buying the ads that they see on Facebook.”</p>
<p>Zuckerberg said Facebook was committed to stopping interference in the U.S. midterm election in November and elections in India and Brazil.</p> Slideshow (6 Images) INVESTOR FEARS
<p>Facebook shares fell 1.5 percent in premarket trading on Thursday as the apology failed to quell Wall Street nerves.</p>
<p>The company has lost nearly $46 billion of its stock market value over the past three days on investors’ fears that any failure by big tech firms to protect personal data could deter advertisers and users and invite tougher regulation.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg told the New York Times in an interview published on Wednesday he had not seen a “meaningful number of people” deleting their accounts over the scandal.</p>
<p>Facebook representatives met U.S. congressional staff on Wednesday and planned to continue meetings on Capitol Hill on Thursday. Facebook was unable to answer many questions, two aides who attended the briefing said.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 169.39 FB.O Nasdaq +1.24 (+0.74%) FB.O
<p>Zuckerberg told the website Recode that fixes to protect users' data would cost "many millions of dollars." ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2IJbYJS" type="external">bit.ly/2IJbYJS</a>)</p>
<p>The whistleblower who launched the scandal, Christopher Wylie, formerly of Cambridge Analytica, said on Twitter he had accepted invitations to testify before U.S. and UK lawmakers.</p> ‘SCAPEGOAT’
<p>On Tuesday, the board of Cambridge Analytica suspended its Chief Executive Alexander Nix, who was caught in a secret recording boasting that his company played a decisive role in Trump’s victory.</p>
<p>Psychologist Aleksandr Kogan, who provided the data, dismissed on Wednesday Cambridge Analytica’s assertions that the information was “incredibly accurate”.</p>
<p>Kogan, who gathered the data by running a survey app on Facebook, also said he was being made a scapegoat by the social media firm and Cambridge Analytica. Both companies have blamed Kogan for alleged data misuse.</p>
<p>About 300,000 Facebook users responded to Kogan’s quiz, but that gave the researcher access to those people’s Facebook friends as well, who had not agreed to share information, producing details on 50 million users.</p>
<p>Facebook has said it subsequently made changes that prevent people from sharing data about friends and maintains that no breach occurred because the original users gave permission. Critics say that it essentially was a breach because data of unsuspecting friends was taken.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-russia/russian-uk-ambassador-says-we-had-no-links-to-cambridge-analytica-idUSKBN1GY1PY" type="external">Russian UK ambassador says: we had no links to Cambridge Analytica</a>
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-mozilla/mozilla-suspends-ads-on-facebook-on-data-privacy-concerns-idUSKBN1GY1KS" type="external">Mozilla suspends ads on Facebook on data privacy concerns</a>
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-warrants/cambridge-analytica-london-search-warrant-adjourned-until-friday-ico-idUSKBN1GY1DW" type="external">Cambridge Analytica London search warrant adjourned until Friday: ICO</a>
<p>Analysts say the incident may reduce user engagement with Facebook, lessening its clout with advertisers. Three Wall Street brokerages cut their price targets.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Ingram; Additional reporting by Dustin Volz and David Shepardson in Washington and Kate Holton in London; Writing by Susan Thomas; Editing by Bill Rigby, Lisa Shumaker, Paul Tait and David Stamp</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Russia did not have any links to Cambridge Analytica, Russia’s ambassador in London Alexander Yakovenko said on Thursday.</p> Russia's ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, holds a news conference in the Russian Embassy in London, Britain, March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
<p>Yakovenko was asked why he was once pictured beside Alexander Nix, the now suspended chief executive of Cambridge Analytica.</p>
<p>“One day I was invited to the Windsor (polo) club, and the main prize was the Russia vodka, Ivan the Terrible. And the organizers asked me ... why don’t you give the prize to all the members of the team,” he said.</p>
<p>“I gave the prize to maybe 10 people, 12 people, and that was the only time that I met this gentlemen,” Yakovenko said at a briefing in the embassy in London. “But the picture is good, I like it.”</p>
<p>“We didn’t have any contacts with Cambridge Analytica... We didn’t have any connections, we didn’t meet with anybody, and that was the only time, when I met this gentleman in the Windsor polo club.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - The threat of a global trade war and a steady message from the Federal Reserve on U.S. interest rates pushed the dollar to its lowest in over a month on Thursday, and took Europe’s main share markets into the red.</p> U.S. Dollar banknotes are seen in this photo illustration taken February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/Illustration
<p>It was the dollar's third decline in four sessions and helped Britain's pound <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=GBP&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">GBP=</a> to a six-week high after a Bank of England policy meeting laid the foundations for another UK rate increase in the coming months.</p>
<p>The Fed raised its key rate by 25 basis points to 1.75 percent on Wednesday and flagged at least two more increases were likely this year. But it stopped short of pointing to the three that some economists had been predicting.</p>
<p>China also nudged up its borrowing costs overnight, as Beijing braced for new tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump on Chinese imports worth as much as $60 billion.</p>
<p>Not all Fed bulls were discouraged, though. “Over the balance of the year we do think they will move to four hikes,” said JP Morgan Asset Management’s Seamus Mac Gorain, highlighting the impact of recent fiscal stimulus.</p>
<p>Trade tariffs were a risk but more open economies such as Mexico or the euro zone could be more at risk than the United States, he said.</p>
<p>Those jitters, plus weaker-than-expected German business confidence data, caused European shares to fall 1 percent to a two-week low.</p>
<p>U.S. stocks were also set to open lower, with S&amp;P 500 futures ESc1 down 0.7 percent in pre-market trades.</p>
<p>Shares in tech giant Facebook were set to fall for a third successive day after its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg apologized for a “major breach of trust” over how it had handled data belonging to 50 million users.</p>
<p>In the currency market, the British pound <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=GBP&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">GBP=</a> hit a high of $1.4216, its highest in more than a month.</p>
<p>The Bank of England kept rates steady on Thursday but two of its policymakers unexpectedly voted for an immediate rate rise, in a statement that will boost investors’ confidence that borrowing costs will rise in May.</p>
<p>Bond yields - which move inversely to price - fell broadly. Borrowing costs on 30-year German debt hit their lowest level of the year.</p> A man walks past an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai
<p>Two-year U.S. yields slipped to 2.305 percent US2YT=RR from 9 1/2-year high of 2.366 percent. The 10-year yield fell below 2.85 percent US10YT=RR, its biggest move in three weeks.</p>
<p>“The threat of protectionism is dampening the mood in the German economy,” said Clemens Fuest, the chief of the Munich-based Ifo institute, which published the business sentiment data.</p>
<p>(For a graphic on U.S. imports from China click <a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2FMsz1Q" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2FMsz1Q</a>)</p>
<a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.CSI300" type="external">China Securities Index Co Ltd</a> 4019.1453 .CSI300 China Securities Index Co Ltd -41.90 (-1.03%) .CSI300 .N225 TRADE WAR OR JUST WAR
<p>MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS ended almost flat, a 1 percent drop in Chinese and Hong Kong stocks <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.CSI300" type="external">.CSI300</a> offsetting gains elsewhere.</p>
<p>Japan's Nikkei <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.N225" type="external">.N225</a> rose 1.0 percent as investors went bargain hunting after a difficult run for the market.</p>
<p>China hopes it can hold talks with the United States to achieve a “win-win” solution on trade, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing.</p>
<p>But worries were swirling of a more traditional kind of war. A widely read Chinese state-run newspaper said on Thursday that the country should prepare for military action over Taiwan.</p>
<p>Beijing was infuriated after Donald Trump signed legislation last week that encourages the United States to send senior officials to Taiwan to meet Taiwanese counterparts and vice versa.</p>
<p>Concern about a trade war between the world’s two largest economies also put commodity markets on guard.</p>
<p>Oil prices gave up earlier gains to leave Brent crude futures LCOc1 at $68.98 per barrel and U.S. crude CLc1 at $64.76 a barrel.</p>
<p>Copper CMCU3 steadied at $6,791 per ton after reaching a three-month low on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Reporting by Marc Jones and Alasdair Pal, editing by Jon Boyle</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>PARIS (Reuters) - Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy told magistrates that accusations of illicit Libyan funding for his 2007 election campaign were a web of lies that had made his life “hell” and lost him a re-election bid in 2012, Le Figaro newspaper said.</p>
<p>The 63-year-old, who held power from 2007 to 2012, was told by investigators after two days of questioning in police custody on Wednesday he was formally suspected of passive corruption, an offense that carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail.</p>
<p>At issue is a murky affair of Libyan spies, arms dealers and allegations that late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi provided Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign with millions of euros shipped to Paris in suitcases - allegations Sarkozy has always denied.</p>
<p>The newspaper published a lengthy account of what it said was a verbatim declaration by Sarkozy.</p>
<p>“This calumny has made my life a living hell since March 11, 2011,” he states, according to the newspaper.</p>
<p>“I’ve paid a heavy price for this affair. Put it this way: I lost the presidential election of 2012 by 1.5 percentage points. The controversy initiated by Gaddafi and his henchmen cost me that 1.5 percent”.</p>
<p>Sarkozy, who came under fire for giving Gaddafi a red-carpet reception in Paris in late 2007, said his problems began in March 2011 after he hosted Libyan rebels and went on to become one of the main advocates of a NATO-led campaign that resulted in the dictator’s overthrow and killing by rebels in 2011.</p> FILE PHOTO: Nicolas Sarkozy, former head of the Les Republicains political party, attends a Les Republicains (LR) public meeting in Les Sables d'Olonne, France, October 1, 2016. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo
<p>He also denounced what he described as lies from one of his main accusers, a Franco-Lebanese businessman who has described himself among other things as a “middleman in the shadows” on liaison between Paris and Libyan secret service chiefs.</p> Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy leaves the judiciary police offices in Nanterre, near Paris, France, March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe ACCUSATIONS
<p>The accusations prompted the opening of a judicial inquiry in 2013 which snowballed this week when Sarkozy was called in for interrogation and, on Wednesday evening, formally placed under investigation as a suspect in the affair.</p>
<p>In France, being “placed under investigation” is a step that judicial investigators can take if they have serious grounds for suspecting an offense. It often but not always leads to trial.</p>
<p>Sarkozy, who was called “president bling bling” by many due to his flashy style, has been dogged for years by accusations of wrongdoing. He is challenging an order to stand trial on charges of illicit spending overruns during his failed 2012 campaign.</p>
<p>One of the many factors that played in 40-year-old Emmanuel Macron’s presidential election win in May 2017 was a promise of a clean break with traditional French politics, often marred by accusations of corruption.</p>
<p>Sarkozy’s immediate predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was tried and convicted in 2011 of misusing public funds to keep political friends in phantom jobs - making him the first French head of state to be convicted of a crime since Nazi collaborator Marshall Philippe Petain in 1945.</p>
<p>Reporting by Brian Love and Emmanuel Jarry; Editing by Geert De Clercq and Gareth Jones</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Traders Holdings announces exercise of options Zuckerberg apologizes for Facebook mistakes with user data, vows curbs Russian UK ambassador says: we had no links to Cambridge Analytica Dollar, shares buffeted by trade war worries Sarkozy denies wrongdoing, says Libya lies make his life 'hell': paper | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-traders-holdings-announces-exercis/brief-traders-holdings-announces-exercise-of-options-idUSL4N1PJ2NV | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>It now believes that the federal ban on the substance should be lifted and that the whole issue should be sent back to the states to handle. Not only did it issue a big Sunday editorial (the equivalent of a secular fatwa in my native Upper West Side of Manhattan), but it has since been flooding the zone on the issue with essays from members of the editorial board.</p>
<p>It is a significant milestone, but not altogether in the way the Times would like.</p>
<p>For starters, the Times is pulling a bit of a Ferris Bueller here. It is leaping out in front of a parade and acting as if it’s been leading it all along.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It’s worth noting that the Times is 18 years behind National Review magazine and my old boss, the late William F. Buckley, and at least 40 years behind Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, who wrote in Newsweek in 1972 that President Nixon’s war on drugs should be called off even before it started.</p>
<p>And the libertarian flagship magazine Reason has been waiting impatiently for the rest of us since it was founded in 1968. (The left-wing Nation magazine didn’t get around to an editorial backing legalization until last year.)</p>
<p>Many GOP politicians beat the Times to the punch by years, including former Govs. William Weld of Massachusetts and Gary Johnson of New Mexico.</p>
<p>Conservatives and libertarians should always celebrate when liberal institutions finally catch up with them.</p>
<p>Still, I am more ambivalent about the national legalization craze than many of my peers, even though I’ve supported federal decriminalization (of marijuana, not narcotics such as heroin or cocaine) for more than a decade.</p>
<p>I don’t think smoking pot – especially to excess – is a particularly laudable habit for adults, and it’s a very bad one for minors. There will be real social costs to legalization.</p>
<p>But there are also real social costs to prohibition. Responsible advocates on both sides have recognized this for a long time.</p>
<p>Whenever policymakers in Washington are faced with a complicated issue with good arguments on both sides, the inclination should be to do nothing. That is different than saying nothing should be done. The best way to square the circle is to send the question back to the states to simmer for a while – or forever.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>And on this, the New York Times’ tardy position, and emphasis, on empowering states is absolutely right.</p>
<p>“The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana,” proclaimed the opening salvo of a six-part editorial barrage. “There are no perfect answers to people’s legitimate concerns about marijuana use. But neither are there such answers about tobacco or alcohol, and we believe that on every level – health effects, the impact on society and law-and-order issues – the balance falls squarely on the side of national legalization. That will put decisions on whether to allow recreational or medicinal production and use where it belongs – at the state level.”</p>
<p>The Times’ stand is also hypocritical (and not because it still requires its employees to be tested for pot use). In one of the companion editorials, “Let States Decide on Marijuana,” written by David Firestone, the Times argues that “consuming marijuana is not a fundamental right that should be imposed on the states by the federal government, in the manner of abortion rights, health insurance, or the freedom to marry a partner of either sex.”</p>
<p>There’s a whole lot of question-begging there.</p>
<p>But let’s just stipulate for the sake of argument that all of these things are unquestionably “fundamental rights that should be imposed on the states by the federal government.” What about cigarettes? Or the use of highway funds to force a drinking age of 21 (and, for a time, a 55-mph speed limit)?</p>
<p>When then-Attorney General Edwin Meese complained about federal bullying on such things, the Times screeched in 1986 that such a “horse-and-buggy view of the national union” would make it hard for people to “ever to take him seriously.” Perhaps an apology is overdue?</p>
<p>I’m delighted the Times is capable of realizing the error of its ways; I just hope it doesn’t stop with pot.</p>
<p>Copyright, Tribune Media Services Inc.; e-mail to <a href="mailto:JonahsColumn@aol.com" type="external">JonahsColumn@aol.com</a>.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Times sees error of its ways on pot | false | https://abqjournal.com/441816/times-sees-error-of-its-ways-on-pot.html | 2 |
|
<p>On Friday, Donald Trump generated substantial controversy when he asserted that George W. Bush was president at the time of the 9/11 attacks.</p>
<p>“When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time,” Trump said. “ <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/videos/2015-10-16/donald-trump-on-yellen-clinton-sanders-and-taxes" type="external">He was president, O.K.?</a>”</p>
<p>Jeb Bush immediately pushed back, calling Trump’s comments “ <a href="https://twitter.com/JebBush/status/655098096649707520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">pathetic</a>” and insisting “my brother kept us safe.”</p>
<p>The media jumped on to the burgeoning controversy. According to The New York Times the idea that Bush was president on 9/11 and failed to stop the attack is a “break from the GOP.”</p>
<p />
<p>Was George W. Bush president on September 11, 2001? It’s time to settle this once and for all.</p>
<p>It’s true that, in the presidential election held on November 7, 2000, George W. Bush <a href="http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2000/prespop.htm" type="external">received fewer votes than Al Gore</a>.</p>
<p>But according to the Associated Press, this is a photo of George W. Bush being sworn in as president on January 20, 2001.</p>
<p>Contemporaneous reports suggest that America’s arcane election rules and a favorable Supreme Court ruling handed the election to Bush, even though he lacked popular support.</p>
<p>Calendars from that era indicate that January 20, the day Bush was sworn in as president, occurred some time before September 11.</p>
<p>That still doesn’t settle the question of whether Bush stopped being president sometime before September 11.</p>
<p>According to ABC News, George W. Bush spent <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121420&amp;page=1" type="external">the entire month of August 2001 on vacation</a> at his ranch in Texas, which is not typical behavior for someone who is president. Other reports, however, reveal Bush continue to receive the “Presidential Daily Brief” at the ranch, strongly suggesting he was still president.</p>
<p>This is the briefing he received on August 6, 2001:</p>
<p>Taking into account all the evidence, it seems more likely than not that George W. Bush was president on September 11, 2001.</p> | Was George W. Bush President On 9/11? An Investigation Into The Controversy Tearing The GOP Apart | true | http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/10/17/3713554/guide-to-whether-george-w-bush-was-president-on-911/ | 2015-10-18 | 4 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">&lt;img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-13815" src="http://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/SayedSanBernardino-1024x535.jpg" alt="SayedSanBernardino" width="669" height="350" srcset="https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/SayedSanBernardino-1024x535.jpg 1024w, https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/SayedSanBernardino-300x157.jpg 300w, https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/SayedSanBernardino-768x401.jpg 768w, https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/SayedSanBernardino.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 669px) 100vw, 669px" /&gt;</a></p>
<p>So, while <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/03/us/san-bernardino-shooting/index.html" type="external">the facts are still coming in</a> from the San Bernardino killings, a report from GWU claims that the biggest threat to the homeland is “ <a href="https://cchs.gwu.edu/sites/cchs.gwu.edu/files/downloads/ISIS%20in%20America%20-%20Full%20Report.pdf" type="external">self-radicalized, homegrown extremists in the United States</a>,” and ISIS supporters&#160;are <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/isis-users-tweet-america-burning-celebrate-shooting-article-1.2453460?cid=bitly" type="external">celebrating what happened</a>,</p>
<p />
<p>Wait for it…</p>
<p />
<p>There isn’t a corresponding news article yet, just a lot of conjecture and a whole bunch leftists heading for the hills now that the shooter is not a Baptist. So far, it’s just the tweets from an AM radio news report and a smattering of articles like this one on not leftists hack news outlet websites. But even Redditors are <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/comments/3v9cex/knx1070_reporting_a_neighbor_did_not_call/" type="external">calling this out</a>…</p>
<p>HOLY SHIT! There is nothing prejudiced about reporting a potential Islamist behaving suspiciously. The world is literally at war with Islamism. For fuck’s sake. See something, say something. Let the cops decide if it’s bullshit. And if they say it’s bullshit, and it turns out that it wasn’t bullshit – then that’s on them and not you.</p>
<p>That worked so well for the Irving ISD when they rightfully questioned and called the authorities for the suspicious behavior of <a href="" type="internal">Ahmed “Clock Boy” Mohamed</a>. Now they have to defend against a $15 million lawsuit for “seeing something and saying something.”</p>
<p>A neighbor didn’t want to be called a racist. So she did not report suspicious activity going on in her neighborhood, conducted by Muslims. She was more afraid of being branded a racist than she was of having her building blown to smithereens? She was more afraid of being called a racist, or having her name tweeted by the social justice jihadists on Twitter, that she kept this to herself? Can we all admit that’s kind of a big problem we might want to, like, address at some point? Or do more shootings like this need to happen before people admit that Islamist extremism is the problem here, not reporting suspicious activity?</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">&lt;img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1163" src="http://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/TeamAmerica1.gif" alt="TeamAmerica1" width="340" height="256" /&gt;</a></p>
<p>The liberals were all calling for more gun control while the bodies were still warm, and some of us decided to wait for the facts to come in. Now that the facts are in, those same liberals are silent. They embarrassed themselves. This new information about a Muslim shooter takes a giant crap on All White Men with GUNS are evil scum. Right, me just writing that makes me a racist, yes? You leftists are one trick ponies. Read&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Dear Liberals: Your Hypocrisy on Islam is Most Staggering of All…</a></p>
<p /> | Woman Didn’t Report Muslim San Bernardino Killer… Guess Why… | true | http://louderwithcrowder.com/did-pc-kill-14-people-in-san-bernardino/ | 2015-12-03 | 0 |
<p />
<p>The trial to decide who should pay for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been delayed by a week, to allow BP Plc to try to cut a deal with tens of thousands of businesses and individuals affected by the disaster.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Less than 24 hours before the case was set to start in a New Orleans federal court, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier pushed back the date to March 5 from Feb. 27.</p>
<p>The delay allows further talks between BP and the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee (PSC), which represents condominium owners, fishermen, hoteliers, restaurateurs and others who say their livelihoods were damaged by the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and subsequent oil spill.</p>
<p>Eleven people were killed, and 4.9 million barrels of oil spewed from the mile-deep Macondo oil well, in by far the worst offshore U.S. oil spill.</p>
<p>"BP and the PSC are working to reach agreement to fairly compensate people and businesses affected by the Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill," BP said in a statement.</p>
<p>The London-based oil company said there was no assurance that the talks would lead to a settlement.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Bloomberg news agency reported on Monday that BP and the plaintiffs were discussing a $14 billion settlement that was nearing completion. It cited three people familiar with the talks.</p>
<p>A settlement between BP and the businesses would remove a significant portion of the complex litigation, the trial of which was expected to take nearly a year. It could also be a key step toward reaching a global settlement with its drilling partners, and with federal and state governments.</p>
<p>Much work would remain. The U.S. government has sued BP and others for violating the Clean Water Act and other laws, which could result in fines totaling tens of billions of dollars. Gulf states are also seeking compensation for their losses. BP is also suing and being sued by its drilling partners.</p>
<p>"Before today, I had almost given up on the possibility of a global settlement before a trial began," said Edward Sherman, a professor at Tulane University Law School and specialist in complex litigation. "Now, with an extra week, it seems to improve the chances."</p>
<p>Barbier, meanwhile, has kept the highly complex case moving forward, and had not changed the trial date since it was first set more than a year ago.</p>
<p>"Judge Barbier would not have delayed (the) trial unless (a) settlement was within reach," said David Uhlmann, a University of Michigan law professor and former chief of the Justice Department's environmental crimes section, in an email.</p>
<p>In an order dated Sunday, Barbier said the delay made sense "for reasons of judicial efficiency and to allow the parties to make further progress in their settlement discussions". He did not specify which parties he was referring to.</p>
<p>REASONABLE SETTLEMENTS SOUGHT</p>
<p>Apart from BP, which owned 65% of the Macondo well, the main corporate defendants are Vernier, Switzerland-based Transocean Ltd, which owned the Deepwater Horizon rig, and Houston-based Halliburton Co, which provided cementing services for the well. They are also suing each other. Several other companies are also involved in the trial.</p>
<p>A BP spokeswoman declined to comment further on the talks. Transocean spokesman Lou Colasuonno said BP's talks with the PSC "doesn't change the facts of the case", and that Transocean remains prepared for trial.</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment. The offices of Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange and Louisiana Attorney General James "Buddy" Caldwell, which are coordinating the states' case, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Halliburton also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>BP has accepted responsibility for the disaster, and estimated its legal and cleanup costs for the spill will total $43 billion. Some analysts have said that figure could top $60 billion, especially if there were a finding that its activities at the project were "grossly negligent".</p>
<p>Earlier this month, BP said it had set aside $6.1 billion to cover claims by businesses. Lawyers for those plaintiffs said the amount was too low, and that BP should also award punitive damages, which the oil company says are not warranted.</p>
<p>Many industry analysts and experts say a quick settlement is in BP's best interest.</p>
<p>Chief Executive Robert Dudley has said BP is willing to settle for reasonable terms, and on Sunday told The Sunday Telegraph in an interview that he hoped to reach "some agreements" and perhaps avoid litigation.</p>
<p>Other companies in the case are Anadarko Petroleum Corp , which owned 25% of the well; Mitsui &amp; Co's MOEX USA unit, which owned 10% of the well; Cameron International Corp, which made a blowout preventer, and Schlumberger NV's M-I Swaco venture, which provided mud services. All have settled with BP. MOEX has settled with the government.</p>
<p>The case is In re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig "Deepwater Horizon" in the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20, 2010, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, No. 10-md-02179. (Reporting by Tom Bergin in London and Jonathan Stempel in New Orleans; Additional reporting by Chris Baltimore in Houston, Ransdell Pierson in New York and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Elizabeth Piper)</p> | BP Oil Spill Trial Delayed for Settlement Talks | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2012/02/26/bp-oil-spill-trial-delayed-for-settlement-talks.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
<p>The recession has hit the left wing magazine The Nation hard as it now faces a $1,000,000 deficit.</p>
<p>So in the best journalistic tradition, Chris Hayes the Washington editor has sent out a fundraising e-mail.</p>
<p>From the Politico</p>
<p>Dear Nation Friend:</p>
<p>I’ve never written a fundraising letter — and living in a city where everyone is always hitting up folks for donations, I’m more than happy to keep it that way. &#160;I’m a journalist. &#160;I write articles and books about politics, Washington, and the world around us. And I’m extraordinarily lucky — I get paid to do so by The Nation. My Capitolism column about the political economy of Washington runs every other week in The Nation, and I just launched a weekly audio-cast called The Breakdown that attempts to take complex inside-the-beltway issues and make them understandable and accessible. &#160;It’s the kind of work that I became a journalist to do.</p>
<p>But as you’ve undoubtedly heard, newspapers and magazines are having a rough time. Journalism is in trouble at the very moment when we can’t afford to take our eye off what’s happening in Washington and around the world. &#160; So I’ve been asked by our publishing team to ask you for help by <a href="https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1555/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=3571" type="external">becoming one of our Nation Associates</a>.</p>
<p>Although we run a tight ship, every year The Nation faces new, expensive obstacles like huge increases in postage and paper prices. &#160;And our advertising and subscription revenues just aren’t enough to sustain us. &#160;So we rely on our Nation Associates whose donations represent more than 20% of all of our revenues. &#160;Won’t you join them?</p>
<p>The truth is this magazine faces a hostile environment and a million dollar deficit. &#160;So we rely on our Nation Associates to help us close that gap. &#160;Their donations represent more than 20% of all of our revenues.</p>
<p>Here’s what your Nation Associates gift helps support:</p>
<p>$35 buys me dinner with a confidential source in New York</p>
<p>$75 pays for an interpreter for a reporter researching a story in Afghanistan</p>
<p>$150 covers an Amtrak ticket to Washington so a writer can testify before Congress</p>
<p>$300 buys a labor reporter’s ticket to Detroit for a piece on unemployment</p>
<p>$500 (expenses extra) rewards a brilliant article by a young journalist on Tehran dissidents</p>
<p>This year, The Nation is facing a $1,000,000 deficit. &#160;And for The Nation that’s a lot of money. &#160;Believe me, I know. &#160;I’ve been working in the magazine’s Washington office as Washington editor for the last three years and the pay isn’t great. But there are very few media outlets that allow their writers and reporters the freedom to go beyond the headlines and take on the powers that be — to ask inconvenient questions and pursue uncomfortable truths. &#160;And The Nation is one of them.</p>
<p>Take my word. &#160;I see the editors and publishing people in our New York office scarmbling. So I’m turning to you. I’ve never asked our readers for anything — except the time it takes to read what I write for the magazine and its website.</p>
<p>I’m not entirely comfortable writing to you as a fundraiser. &#160;But I also know The Nation depends on its Nation Associates to help close this gap. &#160;We’re one of the very few media outlets out there who have Nation Associates to lean on in times like these. &#160;Won’t you become one of them today?</p>
<p>Because people like you have supported the magazine, I’ve been able to do the work I enjoy for years. &#160;I appreciate that. &#160;Certainly, I’d rather be chasing kick-ass stories than worrying about magazine budget cuts and writing fundraising letters. &#160;Please help us deal with this daunting deficit by becoming a Nation Associate and I’ll go back to doing my day job.</p>
<p>And thank you!</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Chris Hayes</p>
<p>Washington Editor, The Nation</p>
<p>What I don’t see in the e-mail is any information on what the magazine has done to trim expenses to combat the revenue decline to show their supporters that they are trying to close the deficit.</p>
<p>It sounds a little like the politicians who run screaming at the media about revenue shortfalls but do very little to cut government bloat and then increase taxes to balance the budget.</p>
<p>Darn the capitalistic system where you actually have to be fiscally responsible if you want to succeed.</p>
<p>We have moved to a new platform for our posts and so comments are temporarily disabled.</p> | May Day! Lefty Mag ‘The Nation’ Drowning In Red Ink | true | http://aim.org/don-irvine-blog/may-day-lefty-mag-the-nation-drowning-in-red-ink-2/ | 2010-05-21 | 0 |
<p>Attorneys for The New York Times asked that Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against it be dismissed because the paper made “an honest mistake” when it claimed she incited a shooting in 2011 that severely wounded then-Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., and killed six other people.</p>
<p>“There was an honest mistake in posting the editorial,” lawyer David Schultz told Manhattan federal Judge Jed Rakoff according to The New York Post.</p>
<p>Palin sued the Times after it ran an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/opinion/steve-scalise-congress-shot-alexandria-virginia.html" type="external">editorial</a>&#160;on June 14 that said “the link to political incitement was clear” between Palin’s PAC ad and the shooter Jared Lee Loughner.</p>
<p>The Times ran a correction on June 16 admitting there was no such link.</p>
<p>An editorial on Thursday about the shooting of Representative Steve Scalise incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords. In fact, no such link was established. The editorial also incorrectly described a map distributed by a political action committee before that shooting. It depicted electoral districts, not individual Democratic lawmakers, beneath stylized cross hairs.</p>
<p>Palin’s attorney, Kenneth Turkel dismissed the Times’ defense, saying the paper “literally acknowledged” that there was no link in a different article that appeared on the same day.&#160;[emphasis plaintiff]</p>
<p>For example, on June 14, 2017, The Times published the article “Shooting Is Latest Eruption in a Grim Ritual of Rage and Blame” (attached as Exhibit 6), which recognized:</p>
<p>In 2011, the shooting of Mr. Giffords by a mentally ill assailant came during a convulsive political period, when a bitter debate over health care yielded a wave of threats against lawmakers. Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential candidate, drew sharp criticism for having posted a graphic online that showed cross hairs over the districts of several members of Congress; including Ms. Giffords –&#160;though no connection to the crime was established.</p>
<p>Even if Palin does not win her lawsuit — she must prove the Times acted with actual malice and reckless disregard for the truth — she at least&#160;got the Times to correct and admit a mistake, which the liberal media is generally loathe to do.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | New York Times Says Editorial Blaming Palin for Gabby Giffords Shooting Was ‘An Honest Mistake’ | true | http://aim.org/don-irvine-blog/new-york-times-says-editorial-blaming-palin-for-gabby-giffords-shooting-was-an-honest-mistake/ | 2017-07-10 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>“They had us billed as America’s clean-cut college kids, and quite frankly, I never even knew one of those,” Shane said recently. “I flunked out of Menlo College in my senior year. (But) in those days you had to play a label. Capitol Records called us ‘folk singers’ because we played banjos and guitars and ukuleles and bongos and stuff like that.”</p>
<p>Now, nearly half a century later, after influencing a young Bob Dylan and melding sweet vocal harmonies with calypso-flavored folk, the trio once again finds itself in a bit of an identity crisis.</p>
<p>Re-record old hits and release them to fans – how many versions of “Tom Dooley” do we really need after all? – and continue to play those songs live in concert? Or, try something different and new?</p>
<p>Luckily for Kingston Trio fans, the current trio, now comprised of Rick Dougherty, George Grove and Bill Zorn, opted for the latter.</p>
<p>“Bill, Rick and I have done several recordings as the Kingston Trio that include DVDs and CDs,” Grove said, “but those have primarily been inclusive of old material and very few new songs.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Now, the band has released “Born at the Right Time,” an album that, upon first listen, is reminiscent of the band’s signature sound. “Born at the Right Time” actually hit the racks a year ago this month, but the band is barely getting around to playing songs from it in the live setting.</p>
<p>The first challenge? Please fans who want to hear the hits.</p>
<p>“The primary purpose of coming to a Kingston Trio show is to hear those old comfort songs,” Grove said. “I want to let the fans know that we are not leaving any of those out.”</p>
<p>The other challenge then became where, exactly, in the set to play the new stuff, not to mention choosing the best songs from “Born at the Right Time” to present.</p>
<p>“The three of us have selected six songs that we wanted to play live,” Grove said. “I sing leads on two of them and we’ve got two Bill songs and two Rick songs that we intersperse within the show. We (still) play ‘Tom Dooley,’ ‘Scotch and Soda’ and all those others too.”</p> | Kingston Trio strum away identity crises | false | https://abqjournal.com/188509/kingston-trio-strum-away-identity-crises.html | 2013-04-14 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will speak at a summer symposium in Santa Fe by the Women’s International Study Center.</p>
<p>Ginsburg is to speak along with Albuquerque lawyer Roberta Cooper Ramo at the Aug. 15 opening of the symposium entitled, “Risk and Reinvention: How Women Are Changing the World.”</p>
<p>There will be panel discussions the next day about women in the arts, sciences, cultural preservation and business. The sessions will be at the Drury Plaza Hotel.</p>
<p>Organizers said there are scholarships available for college students and young people ages 18 to 29 to attend the symposium.</p>
<p>Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993. She is an opera fan and usually attends performances at the Santa Fe Opera each summer.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | US Supreme Court justice to speak in New Mexico | false | https://abqjournal.com/419687/us-supreme-court-justice-to-speak-in-new-mexico.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>– buckeye al</p>
<p>IS IT TRUE that there were two golf commentators hung themselves with their microphone cords at the Phoenix Open after Tiger’s Friday round of 82?</p>
<p>– R.D.H.</p>
<p>HARD TO FATHOM why Easton Bruere (Rio Rancho QB) with his many accomplishments (Undefeated State Champions, NM all-time passing leader), physical attributes (6’3″ and 200 lbs.) and football mentality (49 TD’s to just 6 pics this season) hasn’t received a D-1 offer. NM QB’s can make it (Jim Everett, <a href="http://Purdue-Rams...Lan" type="external">Purdue-Rams…Lan</a>dry Jones, Oklahoma-Steelers). Mark my <a href="http://words...shu" type="external">words…shu</a>nning Bruere is going to make him even mentally tougher and he is going to make many a team wish they would have offered him a ride.</p>
<p>– ttrujillo</p>
<p>THANKS TO Geoff Grammer and Ed Johnson, for your basketball articles. I find them informative and interesting. We are fortunate to have you guys here in NM.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>– RM</p>
<p>ENJOYED THE comment by “NM bred” re: coaches Tasker and <a href="http://Richardson....as" type="external">Richardson….as</a> a sports “play-by-play” broadcaster in Clovis, NM 1958-1964 and again for a couple of years in the very early 1970’s I fondly remember the great basketball rivalry between the “Wildcats” &amp; “Eagles.” I believe the sportsmanship was always at a high level and specifically remember the hometown Clovis fans welcoming, applauding the (early ’60’s) visiting “Eagles” team prior to tip-off. The fans were noteworthy particularly in welcoming the outstanding Hobbs <a href="http://Eagle...las" type="external">Eagle…las</a>t name: Clay, seems he truly enjoyed the game, always had a smile, and like all his team-mates truly competed.</p>
<p>– Ben (Abq, NM)</p>
<p />
<p /> | Sports Speak Up! | false | https://abqjournal.com/535057/sports-speak-up-272.html | 2 |
|
<p>A 24-second video posted online on New Year’s Eve of two young Italian women, who were kidnapped by Islamic militants in northern Syria last summer, is prompting alarm among Italian officials who have been negotiating for the pair’s release.</p>
<p>The idealistic aid volunteers Vanessa Marzullo and Greta Ramelli, both in their 20s, appear considerably thinner and paler and dressed in black chadors, leaving just their faces and hands uncovered, they beg in the brief video for the Italian government to get them home.</p>
<p>Uploaded to YouTube with the title “Al Nusra Front detains two Italian employees because of their government’s participation in the coalition against it,” the video appears to have been shot in mid-December. In the video Marzullo is seen holding up a piece of paper that has “17.12.14 Wednesday” scrawled across it while Ramelli reads a written statement appealing to the Italian government to get them home quickly.</p>
<p>“We supplicate our government and its mediators to bring us home before Christmas. We are in big danger and we could be killed. The government and mediators are responsible for our lives,” she says.</p>
<p>The Italian foreign ministry has declined to comment on the video. The foreign ministry would not confirm to The Daily Beast whether they believe the video is authentic or whether they believe the date is accurate. The Italian news agency ANSA cited an unnamed intelligence source saying “we are in a very delicate phase and we ask the maximum discretion at this time.”</p>
<p>But a Rome-based senior Italian diplomat told the Daily Beast that the timing of the video’s posting is perplexing officials, who had thought they were a hair’s breadth away from completing successful negotiations for the women’s release.</p>
<p>And there is rising concern among officials that the aid volunteers, who were snatched by gunmen in northern Syria’s Aleppo province in August, are at increasing risk of being drawn into complicated jihadist politics in the war-torn country and traded by their captors to the more powerful Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS—the militant group responsible for beheading American journalists James Foley and Steve Sotloff and three Western aid workers, including American Peter Kassig. Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper has claimed the women have been sold twice already during their captivity.</p>
<p>“There’s surprise at the captors’ decision to upload this video now,” said the diplomat, who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition he not be identified. “Obviously it is meant to put pressure on us but it may be more connected with the captors need to display their hostage trophies for reasons of internal jihadist politics and maneuvering.”</p>
<p>The diplomat wouldn’t comment on exactly who is holding 20-year-old Marzullo and 21-year-old Ramelli.</p>
<p>There have been reports in the Arab press that the women’s captors are an independent group of Islamic militants connected to Jabhat al-Nusra, the official al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, but not formally part of it. And the manner of the release of the video on New Year’s Eve and the lack of sophistication in its shooting would appear to give some credence to those claims. The video includes no al-Nusra logos and it has not appeared on websites associated with the al-Qaeda affiliate nor been promoted on Twitter accounts used by the militant group.</p>
<p>Hostages in northern Syria have been used almost as “currency” before, and several released European hostages have talked about being traded and passed between different militants during their captivity—although ISIS appears always to trade for Western hostages and never to exchange them with other militants.</p>
<p>Since the U.S.-led coalition launched airstrikes against ISIS and two waves of attacks against Jabhat al-Nusra, jihadist politics and deal-making have shifted and autonomous groups of Islamic militants have increasingly come under pressure to relinquish their independence. There have also been signs of efforts to bridge the schism between al-Nusra and the al-Qaeda breakaway ISIS, which was disavowed by al-Qaeda’s overall leader, <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2014/11/11/al-qaeda-s-killer-new-alliance-with-isis.html" type="external">Ayman al-Zawahiri</a>, last winter following disputes over strategy and amid personality clashes.</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>One of the fears of Italian officials now is that Marzullo and Ramelli could be traded or used as bargaining chips between jihadists.</p>
<p>Speaking to reporters in Rome, the Speaker of Italy’s House of Deputies, Laura Boldrini, characterized the New Year’s Eve video as an SOS from the pair. “The girls send a cry for help…the situation of these girls is distressing.”</p>
<p>Salvatore Marzullo, Vanessa’s father said in a taped statement: “We have seen these images, the first of Vanessa and Greta in months, they seem ok even in spite of their difficult situation…there aren’t many words to say now other than that we were glad to see them alive.”</p>
<p>Since the women’s abduction—they were seized on their second trip into Syria, along with an Italian journalist who managed to escape—their families have been careful when talking to the media. They have followed generally the instructions of the Italian foreign ministry to say little and have confined their comments to explaining why the young women felt they had to cofound the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/assmedicainSiria" type="external">Hooryaty Project</a> to deliver medical goods to Syria.</p>
<p>Family members <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2014/08/22/families-of-italian-aid-workers-held-by-isis-fear-for-their-lives-after-foley-s-death.html" type="external">have said</a> they pleaded with the women not to head to Syria.</p>
<p>When you hear your daughter say, ‘Mom, in that country they are killing children so I must go and help,’ what can you say?” Antonella Ramelli, Greta’s mother, wrote on her Facebook page. “Can you change your daughter who has these values and strong ideals about solidarity and human empathy? Should you?”</p>
<p>Speaking to a local radio station today Antonella Ramelli said the video gives her hope. She had feared the girls were dead. In the wake of the beheading of James Foley, the captives’ families lost hope that hostage negotiators at the Italian foreign ministry would secure the girls’ release, with Antonella Ramelli telling reporters that she was “doubly worried.”</p>
<p>There has been criticism in Italy of the women’s decision to plunge into freelance aid work in Syria with claims that neither was well prepared for the complexity and danger of what they would confront (both are students). Their kidnapping has had a major impact on Italian NGOs, with the country’s foreign ministry pressuring aid volunteers not to go to Syria.</p>
<p>Italy has paid to get hostages released in the past and the Italian hostage negotiators —there is a unit of them in the foreign ministry—have been successful in getting several Italians held captive by either al Nusra or ISIS freed. Italy’s president Giorgio Napolitano, who is approaching retirement, appears determined to get the two freed before he leaves office.</p> | Jihadis Release New Year’s Eve Video of Italian Female Hostages | true | https://thedailybeast.com/jihadis-release-new-years-eve-video-of-italian-female-hostages | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
<p>Republican and Democratic senators joined in announcing a plan Tuesday aimed at stabilizing America's health insurance markets in the wake of President Donald Trump's order to terminate "Obamacare" subsidies. The president, at first, spoke approvingly of the deal, but as conservatives rebelled, the White House insisted Trump actually opposed the plan as a bailout of insurance companies.</p>
<p>The agreement followed weeks of negotiations between Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington that sought to address health insurance markets that have been in limbo following GOP failures to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The talks took on added urgency when Trump announced last week that he would end monthly "cost sharing reduction" payments the government makes to help insurance companies reduce costs for lower-income people.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Without that money, premiums for some people buying individual health plans would spike, and some insurers would flee the markets, industry officials warn.</p>
<p>The Alexander-Murray deal would continue the insurer payments for two years, while establishing new flexibility for states under former President Barack Obama's law.</p>
<p>"This would allow the Senate to continue its debate about the long term of health care, but over the next two years I think Americans won't have to worry about the possibility of being able to buy insurance in counties where they live," Alexander said in announcing the deal after a closed-door lunch where he presented it to GOP senators.</p>
<p>"This agreement avoids chaos. I don't know a Republican or Democrat who benefits from chaos," he said.</p>
<p>Alexander said the president had encouraged his efforts in phone calls over the past two weeks. And at the White House, Trump responded positively, expressing optimism that Republicans would ultimately succeed in repealing Obamacare, but until then, "For a period of one year, two years, we will have a very good solution."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"It is a short-term solution so that we don't have this very dangerous little period, including a dangerous period for insurance companies, by the way," he said during a Rose Garden press conference.</p>
<p>Hours later, at an appearance in front of a conservative Washington think tank, Trump said he was pleased Democrats had "finally responded to my call for them to take responsibility for their Obamacare disaster" and were working "with Republicans to provide much-needed relief to the American people."</p>
<p>But, he added, "While I commend the bipartisan work done by Senators Alexander and Murray — and I do commend it — I continue to believe Congress must find a solution to the Obamacare mess instead of providing bailouts to insurance companies."</p>
<p>The White House later highlighted that passage to reporters, and a White House official said the line was intended to communicate that, while the president was supportive of Alexander's efforts to seek a bipartisan solution, he opposes the Alexander-Murray plan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.</p>
<p>Indeed, White House officials had said they would want more in exchange than the additional state flexibility offered in the Alexander-Murray agreement.</p>
<p>Just minutes before Alexander announced the deal, White House legislative director Marc Short emerged from a Senate GOP lunch saying that "a starting point" in exchange for restoring the cost-sharing payments "is eliminating the individual mandate and employer mandate" — the central pillars of Obamacare.</p>
<p>Initially as president, Trump continued making the payments though resisting, but he declared last week he would pull the plug. The payments, which cost around $7 billion this year, lower expenses like co-payments and deductibles for more than 6 million people. But discontinuing them would actually cost the government more money under Obamacare's complicated structure, because some people facing higher premiums would end up getting bigger tax subsidies to help pay for them.</p>
<p>The Alexander-Murray deal does include a host of provisions allowing states faster and easier access to waivers that would allow them to shape their own marketplace plans under Obamacare. It also would provide for a new low-cost catastrophic coverage insurance option for all consumers.</p>
<p>Reaction from the GOP was decidedly mixed. For many conservatives it's practically unthinkable to sign off on federal payments that would arguably prop up a law they've been vowing for seven years to destroy.</p>
<p>Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee in the House, quickly denounced the deal over Twitter: "The GOP should focus on repealing &amp; replacing Obamacare, not trying to save it. This bailout is unacceptable."</p>
<p>Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows, who's been at work on a proposal of his own, was slightly more positive, calling the Alexander-Murray bill "a good start" but saying much more work needed to be done.</p>
<p>GOP leaders in the House and Senate have also been cool to the Alexander-Murray negotiations, the more so since after their failures on Obamacare they are eager to turn their full attention to tax overhaul legislation.</p>
<p>Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was noncommittal, telling reporters, "We haven't had a chance to think about the way forward yet." Aides to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., did not provide a statement from him.</p>
<p>Alexander said he and allies including Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., would spend the next several days trying to build up support with the goal of formally introducing legislation later this week. If the legislation does pass, it would almost certainly be as part of a larger package including must-pass spending or disaster relief bills and that might not be until the end of the year.</p>
<p>Murray lauded the effort, saying, "When Republicans and Democrats take the time ... we can truly get things done" for the American people.</p>
<p>Even more than other aspects of the law, the cost-sharing payments have been in dispute ever since the Affordable Care Act became law. House Republicans sued in 2014 to block the payments, arguing they were illegal because Congress, which has power over government spending under the Constitution, had never specifically authorized them. The Obama administration tried unsuccessfully to get the GOP lawsuit dismissed, but the Republicans won favorable rulings from lower-court judges, putting the payments in legal jeopardy even before Trump won the White House.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press reporters Jill Colvin and Ken Thomas contributed to this report.</p> | A short-term health deal by senators _ but Trump a question | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/17/leading-senators-say-have-outline-health-insurance-deal.html | 2017-10-17 | 0 |
<p>Barack Obama has spent the last several years drilling home the statistically evidenceless idea that police across the country are systemically racist. Hours before a black anti-white racist massacred five police officers in Dallas, Obama said that police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota, about which he knew nothing, were “ <a href="" type="internal">not isolated incidents</a>. They’re symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system.” After the cops were shot, Obama went to their funeral memorial and lectured America about the evils of police officers: “We also know that centuries of racial discrimination, of slavery, and subjugation, and Jim Crow; they didn’t simply vanish with the law against segregation…we know that bias remains. We know it, whether you are black, or white, or Hispanic, or Asian, or native American, or of Middle Eastern descent, we have all seen this bigotry in our own lives at some point…. No institution is entirely immune, and that includes our police departments. We know this.”</p>
<p>Carrying that message forward, CNN’s Baraki Sellers <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-contributor-we-dont-have-a-vicious-cycle-of-black-men-shooting-at-police/" type="external">argued on Sunday</a> that, “We don’t have a vicious cycle of black men shooting at police. That [narrative] ratchets up the tension in this country where it doesn’t need to be, but two, it puts in danger more black men.”</p>
<p>Except that’s not true.</p>
<p>If there’s any systemic bias in America, it’s media-produced, politician-promoted anti-cop hatred in the black community. Here are three facts that prove it:</p>
<p>1. Cops Are Far More Likely To Be Shot By A Black Person Than To Shoot A Black Person. Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute makes the point that blacks are far less likely to be shot by police than would be suggested by the black crime rate. <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/time-to-end-the-demonizing-of-police-1468363042" type="external">Just as importantly</a>, “police officers face an 18.5 times greater chance of being killed by a black male than an unarmed black male has of being killed by a police officer.”</p>
<p>2. Often, Blacks Think Cops Are Criminals Without Evidence. After Officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown under disputed circumstances misreported by the media and blown up by racial agitators, <a href="http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/ben-shapiro-great-racial-disconnect-police" type="external">polls showed</a> that a 57 percent majority of blacks wanted to see Wilson found guilty of murder, compared with 56 percent of whites who said they needed more evidence. Of course, Wilson was innocent, and Brown was a strong-arm robber and attempted cop killer. Similarly, during the OJ Simpson case, 60 percent of blacks didn’t believe OJ was guilty. In the Freddie Gray case, 80 percent of blacks <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-mosby-pew-20150513-story.html" type="external">thought the officers</a> – several of whom were black – ought to be charged, compared with 60 percent of whites.</p>
<p>3. Blacks Are Far More Likely To Profile Cops Than The Other Way Around. While 59 percent of whites have either a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in cops, and only 14 percent have little or none, <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/175088/gallup-review-black-white-attitudes-toward-police.aspx" type="external">the numbers are awful among blacks</a>: just 37 percent of blacks have a great deal or quite a lot of trust in the police, and 25 percent have none at all. <a href="https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/black-white-blue-americans-attitudes-race-police/" type="external">As of 2014</a>, 74 percent of black people said that the police were too quick to use deadly force; just 28 percent of white people agreed. This is contrary to the facts: a new study from <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w22399.pdf" type="external">Harvard showed</a> that whites are significantly more likely to be shot by police.</p>
<p>The left claims that all anti-cop bias in the black community springs from historic mistreatment. But that’s simply not true: young black people did not live through Jim Crow. Instead, they’ve been encouraged by the media and their politicians to see police as the enemy – and that’s reflected in both action and viewpoint. This isn’t to deny that there are many young black people who feel as though they’ve been targeted by police. But it is to say that there is far more evidence of anti-cop bias than anti-black bias in police forces.</p> | 3 Facts That Show There’s More Anti-Cop Hatred From Blacks Than Racism From Cops | true | https://dailywire.com/news/7536/3-facts-show-theres-more-anti-cop-hatred-blacks-ben-shapiro | 2016-07-18 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The White House says 18 NCAA teams will attend a reception at the executive mansion.</p>
<p>“We did hear from the White House about attending (Friday’s) event, but we will not be able to attend,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said in a statement Thursday night. “As I’ve been saying since our practices for this season started, all of our focus is on the season ahead. The only invitation we are thinking about is to the 2018 NCAA Tournament.”</p>
<p>Staley said after her team won the NCAA title in April that it would go to the White House if invited because “it’s what it stands for. It’s what national champions do.” She told The Associated Press in late September that she hadn’t received an invite and “that spoke volumes.”</p>
<p>Trump sparred with professional athletes earlier this year when NBA star Stephen Curry said his championship-winning Golden State Warriors didn’t wish to meet with Trump. The feud erupted as Trump was lambasting NFL athletes for kneeling in protest during the national anthem.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>North Carolina’s men’s basketball team said earlier this year it could not agree on a date for a visit. Trump hosted the Clemson Tigers football team at the White House in June.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg contributed to this story.</p> | Trump to host NCAA champs, So Carolina women decline invite | false | https://abqjournal.com/1094309/trump-to-host-ncaa-champs-so-carolina-women-decline-invite.html | 2017-11-17 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Photo by DonkeyHotey | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p />
<p>By Groundhog Day, Donald Trump’s favorability ratings were in the low 40s, a historic low for a President in office for such a short period of time.&#160; His unfavorability ratings were correspondingly high.</p>
<p>The groundhog saw his shadow, but nobody knows how many more weeks – or months or years – of Trumpian rule that portends.&#160; The situation is unprecedented.</p>
<p>The one sure thing is that, unless he and his god awful minions manage to crush the spine and will of civil society, his popularity will continue to decline – as it dawns on the poor suckers who voted for him, the ones who thought that he would somehow make their lives better, that he was feeding them a line and will actually make their lives worse.</p>
<p>Before long, his and his administration’s malevolence and incompetence will start to weigh on Trump voters too, as it does on the majority of Americans who did not, and never would, vote for the Donald.&#160; They will realize that they have been deceiving themselves.</p>
<p>Their self-deception was unforgivable.&#160; It is understandable, however.</p>
<p>For nearly four decades, neoliberal politicians had been running the show in the United States and other developed countries – causing wages to stagnate, union membership to decline, manufacturing jobs to disappear, and the financial sector to become ever more malicious as it metastasizes throughout the economy.&#160; Under their aegis, the gap between the hyper-rich and everybody else has increased to unsustainable levels.</p>
<p>The Clintons, along with Barack Obama, did more than any Republican President could to advance this sorry state of affairs.&#160; They may not be true believers, but the “donor class” they serve insisted, and they obliged.&#160; They accomplished all they did because, as Democrats, they were able to bring along or neutralize the opposition.</p>
<p>Trump was fortunate to have a Clinton to run against.&#160; It was child’s play for him to convince his marks that a vote for him was a vote against her and all that she represented.</p>
<p>But the majority of Trump voters did not think that they were voting to turn the clock back a century or to put incompetent millionaires and billionaires in charge of high government offices.&#160; &#160;And only the truly deplorable among them thought that they were voting to advance anything like the white supremacist, quasi-fascist worldview of Steven Bannon, the Donald’s Svengali.&#160; &#160;</p>
<p>But that is precisely what Trump’s voters, along with everyone else, will get.&#160; Because there were enough of them in the right places, the Electoral College made the Donald the President of the United States – notwithstanding the expressed will of a substantial majority of the millions who cast ballots.</p>
<p>High unfavorability numbers normally indicate widespread opposition.&#160; In Trump’s case, they reflect that and more: the fear that, with the powers conferred upon him by his office, the man is a clear and present danger.</p>
<p>The problem is not just that the Trump White House will be spectacularly reactionary.&#160; It is worse than that – in ways that transcend the parameters of normal politics.</p>
<p>But reactionary it will surely be.</p>
<p>Over the course of many years, Trump, like other plutocrats feathering their own nests, gave huge sums of money to Republicans and Democrats alike.&#160; Because he operated mainly in New York State and New York City, and then in New Jersey and southern Florida, he seemed, to those following the money, that he was closer to Democrats than to Republicans.&#160; In fact, he was neither one nor the other; he went whichever way the wind was blowing.</p>
<p>When he decided to run for President, he found it expedient to run as a Republican. That made sense: by all accounts, “crooked Hillary” had the Democratic nomination for 2016 sewn up, and the Republican base was full up with sad sacks practically begging to be duped by a billionaire “populist” whom they knew from television shows and who seemed, like Hugh Heffner before him, to be living out a certain sybaritic-consumerist version of the American dream.</p>
<p>Hardly anyone thought of him as a reactionary; people thought of him as a joke.</p>
<p>That he is; and, by now, he is a Republican too.&#160; In retrospect, all the signs were there.</p>
<p>Trump needed the Republican Party in order both to win and to govern.&#160; His instincts on social issues were probably more like Clinton’s than like those of the dunces he defeated for the GOP nomination, but he had, and still has, no settled convictions or principles.&#160; It was in his interest to take on a Republican coloration, and that is what he did.</p>
<p>Even so, before Election Day, it was far from obvious that, if elected, he would install such a blatantly reactionary administration or advance hyper-reactionary ideas himself.&#160; He had, after all, run to Hillary’s left on several issues – on trade and infrastructure development, for example.&#160; On good days, he even had kind words to say about single-payer health insurance.</p>
<p>And, on foreign policy, he talked a good earful about rejecting interventionist ideologies, and about dealing with foreign countries on sounder – albeit unspecified – bases.</p>
<p>The contrast with Hillary seemed real enough; she, after all, is a liberal imperialist with neoconservative inclinations.&#160; Along with her fellow Democrats and their media flacks, she advocates “regime change” whenever the empire’s foreign policy establishment deems it in America’s interests.</p>
<p>There was, and is, ample reason to reject that.&#160; Aided and abetted by “liberal” media, and in alliance with John-McCain and Lindsey Graham and other irksome Republican warmongers, the Clintonized Democratic Party is now hell-bent on taking the wind out of Russia’s sales – if need be by precipitating wars that could easily turn nuclear.&#160; It is as if the entire political class somehow learned “to stop worrying and love the bomb.”</p>
<p>During the campaign, Trump took, or seemed to take, a rather different line.&#160; Even now, he is the one of the very few politicians in America at the national level who is at least skeptical of efforts to demonize Russia and to make Vladimir Putin out to be qualitatively more wicked than other world leaders.</p>
<p>Perhaps because they see it as a way to delegitimize his presidency or perhaps because they really believe what they say, liberal politicians and pundits these days are pushing the line that Trump is a Putin stooge.&#160; The jury is out on that, but at least he is not hard at work laying the foundations for World War III.</p>
<p>That Trump’s views on Muslims, women, and people of color are vile is, and always has been, beyond serious dispute.&#160; Prospectively, though, it did seem that a Trump presidency would come with at least a few redeeming features.</p>
<p>Insofar as appointments are policy, it is no longer possible to believe that.&#160; Trump’s apparent desire to come to terms with, rather than go to war with, Russia is the only redeeming feature left; and one can only wonder how long Trump will stick with that in the face of media scorn and pressure from (temporary) allies within the Republican fold.</p>
<p>Even if he does hold fast, however, it is still far from clear that the world is any safer with him in the White House than it would have been with Hillary.&#160; Trump could precipitate a nuclear Armageddon with a few ill-timed, poorly thought out tweets.&#160; He has it in him.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Now that the composition of the Trump administration is largely settled, it is certain that, for the next four years, reactionaries as bad as any that, say, Ted Cruz might have empowered, will be calling the shots.</p>
<p>It is also certain that there will be resistance from civil society.&#160; This will help mitigate the harm.</p>
<p>If we had a real Left in the political mainstream – one that would obstruct, obstruct, and obstruct yet more, in much the way that the Tea Party did after the 2010 Congressional elections, but more effectively and for a better purpose, it would help more still.</p>
<p>But, of course, we don’t have any Left at all; we have the Democratic Party, the party of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi — and the Clintons.</p>
<p>Since Trump assumed office, there have been hopeful signs that at least a few Democrats would become genuinely oppositional.&#160; There could be a lot more of this.&#160; But for the Democratic Party as such to stop being part of the problem, it would have to undergo a nearly total transformation.</p>
<p>There is little chance of that, no matter how much pressure the Democratic base is able to bring to bear.</p>
<p>This is why it would make sense to abandon the Democratic Party altogether, and to build a true opposition from the ground up.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, our institutions make doing this inordinately difficult. &#160;But because the Clintonized Democratic Party is almost certainly beyond redemption, it is eminently worth attempting.</p>
<p>In the meanwhile, there is the very urgent problem of keeping Republicans from setting the country back a hundred years.&#160; And there is the more urgent problem still of permanently retiring Donald Trump.</p>
<p>The problem isn’t just that he threatens social progress; it is that he threatens the basic structures of liberal democracy&#160; – not for the sake of any more democratic, more humane, or more ecologically sound alternative vision of ideal social and political arrangements, but in order to advance the pernicious goals of nativists, racists, and Islamophobes.</p>
<p>Above and beyond its “conservative” extremism, this is the problem the Trump presidency poses.</p>
<p>So far, Trump and Bannon et. al. have only been testing the waters – most conspicuously with their travel ban on Muslims from seven countries where the Trump Organization has no substantial business interests.</p>
<p>If they get away with that, it is not impossible that they will next concoct some functional equivalent of the 1933 Reichstag fire – to use as a pretext for scapegoating and then going after Muslims and other vulnerable populations, and, in due course, for weakening or even abolishing long established political rights and freedoms.&#160; The pieces are in place.</p>
<p>On the bright side, though, the pieces are also in place for forming a resistance movement on the model of the anti-fascist popular fronts of the 1930s – joining together everyone from “moderate” Republicans and Democrats to genuine liberals (or “social democrats”) of the Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren variety to bona fide leftists and leftwing populists.</p>
<p>As long as Trump can be kept from chilling dissent by having his police repress dissenters, he is a godsend for organizers.&#160;&#160; Even so, the good he does just by being awful is more than outweighed by the harm he will do, and the catastrophes he might unleash, as his time in office unfolds.</p>
<p>This is why getting rid of the Donald, the sooner the better, is and ought to be Task Number One.&#160; It can be done.&#160; There very likely is enough militant opposition within the political class, in both elite circles and within the general population, already.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>A majority of citizens have lost confidence in Trump; many more will be joining them soon.&#160; In this sense, his presidency is illegitimate and becoming more so&#160; — irrespective of the legitimacy or not of his victory in the 2016 election.</p>
<p>Parliamentary systems allow for votes of “no confidence” that can lead to new elections. &#160;The American system does not. &#160;The prescribed way to remove a President from office in the United States is impeachment, a time consuming process concocted by the authors of the Constitution for the sole purpose of removing persons from elective office for treason, bribery or other “high crimes and misdemeanors.”</p>
<p>Trump’s impeachment would not remove the administration he has installed; it would not make the government less reactionary; it would not lead to new elections.&#160; What it would lead to is a Mike Pence presidency.</p>
<p>So would his removal under Article Two, Section One of the Constitution, which, in addition to death and resignation lists “inability to discharge the powers and duties of the …office” as a ground for removal.&#160;&#160; This could be construed to mean gross incompetence.</p>
<p>That Trump is grossly incompetent, in the colloquial sense, is obvious; he provides incontrovertible proof of this with every tweet.&#160; But that he meets what the courts would deem a legal standard is doubtful.</p>
<p>Impeachment is therefore the way to go, especially inasmuch as he already has numerous impeachable offenses under his belt.&#160; He has been in violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause from the moment he took office.&#160; It has been all downhill from there.</p>
<p>The sad fact, though, is that a Mike Pence presidency is nothing to look forward to.</p>
<p>At the policy level, it might actually be worse.&#160; Pence is a thoroughgoing reactionary, and a theocrat to boot.&#160; Trump is neither; indeed, he isn’t much of anything – except insofar as he needs to be to advance his nefarious purposes.</p>
<p>For the time being, that means advancing positions pleasing to people like Pence and appointing people like Pence to cabinet positions and other high level offices.&#160; Trump is a phony reactionary; Pence is the real deal.&#160; Other things equal, this is worse.&#160;&#160; But other things are not equal – not by a long shot.</p>
<p>Pence stands at the far right end of the political spectrum, but he is not about to turn the country into a quasi-fascist dystopia, and he is not likely to start a nuclear war in a fit of pique; Trump could well do one or the other or both.</p>
<p>He is, in short, the lesser evil of the two — not so much in degree, as in kind.&#160; The world would be a better place if he were in the White House instead of Trump.</p>
<p>Lesser evil voting led to the Clinton-Trump election last year, which led, in turn, to the situation we now are in.&#160; But this is not about voting; arguments for or against lesser evil voting don’t apply.</p>
<p>When they do apply, it is always on a case-by-case basis.&#160; I would say that in cases involving presidential elections in the United States, the case against is almost always more compelling than the case for.</p>
<p>When this is so, the arguments boil down to three main points: that lesser evil voters tend not to consider all relevant factors in determining which candidate actually is the lesser evil; that they wrongly ignore or otherwise discount the long-term consequences of participation in a process that generates increasingly worse choices; and that when all the choices are morally or politically unacceptable, it hardly matters which candidate is worse.</p>
<p>My view was that, in the Clinton-Trump election last year, all three considerations weighed in against voting for either Clinton or Trump.</p>
<p>It is clearer now than it was two months ago that Trump was the greater evil – though in view of Clinton’s ideologically driven war mongering and Russophobia, even this remains debatable.&#160; But the plain fact that President Trump is worse than candidate Trump changes nothing.</p>
<p>Two months ago, it seemed that the only defensible stand to take was not to vote for President at all or, better by far, to vote for someone other than Clinton or Trump — like the Green Party’s candidate Jill Stein.&#160; It still does.</p>
<p>At the time, hardly anyone gave Pence a thought.&#160; This was only natural; he is so bland that it is easy to forget about him.&#160; Also, hardly anyone believed that Trump would win; therefore, why worry about who would replace him when he would be impeached.</p>
<p>However, in retrospect, it was shortsighted not to think that a vote for Trump might be a vote for Pence; and not to worry about that.&#160; We don’t have that luxury now. &#160;Now we must face up to the fact that a Pence presidency is a worrisome prospect indeed.</p>
<p>But the prospect of four more years of Trump is a lot worse.&#160; Pence is the lesser evil; and that fact, in this case, carries the day.</p>
<p>This is why efforts to force Republicans to join the large and growing majority of Americans who want to be rid of Trump as quickly as possible, ought to be encouraged and pursued vigorously and resolutely.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>For Trump to be impeached, the House would have to draw up articles of impeachment, and then a trial would have to take place in the Senate.&#160; For as long as Republicans think they can use Trump to get what they want, none of this will happen.</p>
<p>How long will that be?&#160; It depends on how the anti-Trump resistance movement goes.</p>
<p>The spirit of resistance is now loose in the land, but ultimately what will happen depends on Trump.&#160; The more vile, lawless, incompetent, and dangerous he is seen to be, the more resistance there will be.&#160; If and when a tipping point is reached, Republicans will turn against him and he will be toast.</p>
<p>When opposition to Nixon reached a tipping point, he had the good sense to resign.&#160; By then, however, Nixon was a broken man.</p>
<p>Trump is not broken, and because he is too egotistical to face reality, he is probably unbreakable.</p>
<p>It is not impossible, though, if he sees that his and his family’s bottom line is in peril, that he will decide to rethink the whole President thing, and beat a hasty retreat.</p>
<p>It was venality, as much as vainglory, that brought him into the race in the first place; the poor bastard only wanted to boost his brand.&#160; Too bad for him that his brand is already taking a hit.</p>
<p>Daughter Ivanka is, for now, the Trump most directly bearing the brunt.&#160; Under pressure from consumers, major department store chains, most famously Nordstrom, and other fashion retailers have decided to drop her merchandise.</p>
<p>The Donald has taken to tweeting about how “unfair” this is, calling Ivanka’s troubles to everyone’s attention.&#160; This should help the boycott movement enormously.</p>
<p>How long before Trump’s own hotels, golf clubs and resorts fall prey to even more intense opposition?</p>
<p>The way things are going, not long at all.&#160; By the time that Trump and his minions start rounding up “bad hombres” (women and children, mostly), putting them in concentration camps, and then deporting them, the name&#160; “Trump” will stink in the nostrils of all but the terminally deplorable; and the impulse to shun Trump products, and shame those who do not, will take on a life of its own.</p>
<p>In the midst of all this, it turns out that Melania is suing a British tabloid, The Daily Mail, for $150 million — not for publishing reports that she had worked as an escort, they’ve already settled on a claim for that, but for the effect that publicity has had on her ability to cash in on her First Lady status by selling a line of fragrances bearing her name.</p>
<p>Trump must have signed off on this; he is the man of the house, after all.&#160; He must be proud of his trophy bride — for being so inveterately mercenary, like a true Trump, born and bred.</p>
<p>Or is that really what this is about?&#160; I would like to think that, like the even more preposterous Nancy Reagan years ago, Melania will turn out to be a force for good in the midst of the otherwise villainous circle of people inside the President’s bubble.</p>
<p>And if only because her job, full time escort to the Donald, is so onerous – the only worse job that comes to mind is crash test dummy – I would also like to think that, on the sly, she is actually on the people’s side; that, the point of her lawsuit is to call attention to the power of shaming in the luxury market world.</p>
<p>Of course, the Donald might still stay the course, even if, thanks to a well-organized and highly motivated resistance, the Trump Organization starts losing serious money.&#160; He is that pig-headed.</p>
<p>But what it would take to get someone more in the normal range to quit on his own is also what it would take to get Republicans to draw up articles of impeachment, and then to convict in a Senate trial.</p>
<p>Either way, his disgrace and fall will be glorious to behold.</p>
<p>More important by far, though, is being done with him altogether, extirpating Trump and all things Trumpian from the body politic.</p>
<p>That will require working with Republicans, a distasteful, but necessary, course of action.&#160; Think of it as the end justifying the means.&#160; Republicans like Pence are hard to stomach, but this is no time to be fastidious; the stakes are too high.</p> | Extirpating Trumpism From the Body Politic | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/02/10/extirpating-trumpism-from-the-body-politic/ | 2017-02-10 | 4 |
<p>As austerity pushed by Britain’s Tory government whittles away jobs and benefits and increases poverty and despair, many Brits are asking where the resistance is. Journalist Laurie Penny knows: “There was resistance, and it was brutally and systematically put down.”</p>
<p>“The students, the street-organising anti-cuts campaigners, the Occupy movement,” she writes in The Guardian. “When people speak about the Occupy camps and anti-austerity protests of 2010-12, it is with a tone of regret, as if somehow those grassroots movements just fizzled out because those involved didn’t know what they were doing. On the contrary: they were cleared out, arrested and beaten back by police.”</p>
<p>“Even the most peaceful protests are put down as a warning to the rest of us,” she continues. In November, a 28-year-old teaching assistant named Bethan Tichborne appeared at a political event in Oxfordshire and told Prime Minister David Cameron that he had “blood on his hands.” She was referring to Cameron’s decision to deprive vital support from people with disabilities.</p>
<p>“Tichborne was grabbed, tackled to the ground and restrained during her arrest, as Cameron continued to speak,” Penny writes. ”&#160;‘The police officers on top of me either couldn’t or wouldn’t hear me,’ [Tichborne] wrote on her blog. ‘I was crying and bleeding, I couldn’t properly breathe.’ Two weeks ago she was convicted of causing harassment, alarm and distress and fined more than a a month’s wages. The message is clear: whether or not a protest is peaceful and legal is entirely up to the police and judiciary to decide, so if you want to play it safe, stay at home and sign a petition.”</p>
<p />
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p>
<p>Laurie Penny at The Guardian:</p>
<p>Sadly, many of the liberal-minded folk now wondering aloud where all the anger on the streets has gone were the same people who condemned the students and anti-cuts protesters for being just a bit too noisy, too rowdy, too “violent”. As soon as the frustrated kids of Britain and their allies started smashing up bus stops and lighting bonfires outside Tory HQ, that was too much: throw the selfish brats in prison, teach them to mind their manners. First they came for the students. Now they’ve come for the rest of us, who will speak out?</p>
<p>Any government trying to push through austerity against the will of a large proportion of the population is going to have to rely on force to deal with dissent. That’s exactly what this government, which had the support of just one in seven of the population even before it started tearing up the welfare state, has done. New movements to resist austerity must expect to meet the same wall of state violence as soon as they become effective, because that’s how the Tories operate. It’s how they’ve always operated. And shame on us, even in these cowardly times, if we don’t support those with the courage to take a stand.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/04/where-are-the-activists-austerity" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Where the Opposition Is Going | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/where-the-opposition-is-going/ | 2013-04-04 | 4 |
<p>Jan. 3, 2013</p>
<p>By Katy Grimes</p>
<p>As the gun control debate is rekindled in the United States following the recent <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/12/newtown-connecticut-school-shooting/59999/" type="external">Newtown, Connecticut</a> school killings, I am reminded of the atrocities which took place in Germany and occupied Europe during World War ll.</p>
<p>Gun control can be a dangerous precedent.</p>
<p>“Over a period of several weeks in October and November 1938, the Nazi government disarmed the German Jewish population,” historian Stephen Halbrook&#160; <a href="http://www.stephenhalbrook.com/registration_article/registration.html" type="external">wrote</a>. In his book,&#160;&#160; <a href="http://ethreemail.com/e3ds/mail_link.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.org%2Fpublications%2Farticle.asp%3Fid%3D2445&amp;i=9&amp;d=BD0D3B38-4DF5-4A12-8112-40D7CDC638B7&amp;e=davidbenariel@bex.net" type="external">“‘Arms in the Hands of Jews Are a Danger to Public Safety’: Nazism, Firearm Registration, and the Night of the Broken Glass,”</a>&#160;Halbrook explained that the Nazis imposed the death penalty on a Pole or Jew, “If he is in unlawful possession of firearms . . . or if he has credible information that a Pole or a Jew is in unlawful possession of such objects, and fails to notify the authorities forthwith.”</p>
<p>“In 1941, U.S. Attorney General Robert Jackson called on Congress to enact national registration of all firearms.&#160;Given events in Europe, Congress recoiled, and legislation was introduced to protect the Second Amendment, Halbrook continued. “Rep. Edwin Arthur Hall explained: ‘Before the advent of Hitler or Stalin, who took power from the German and Russian people, measures were thrust upon the free legislatures of those countries to deprive the people of the possession and use of firearms, so that they could not resist the encroachments of such diabolical and vitriolic state police organizations as the Gestapo, the Ogpu, and the Cheka.'”</p>
<p>Rep. John W. Patman added: “The people have a right to keep arms; therefore, if we should have some Executive who attempted to set himself up as dictator or king, the people can organize themselves together and, with the arms and ammunition they have, they can properly protect themselves. . .”</p>
<p>Perhaps one of the most amazing events during WWll was the&#160; <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/uprising1.html" type="external">Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943</a>. The&#160;heroism by the citizens in the Warsaw Ghetto is unsurpassed. Using only a few remaining handguns, Warsaw Jews “put a temporary stop to the deportations to extermination camps, frightened the Nazis out of the ghetto, stood off assaults for days on end, and escaped to the forests to continue the struggle. What if there had been two, three, many Warsaw Ghetto Uprisings?” Halbrook asked.</p>
<p>Despite the recent school, movie theater and shopping mall rampages, America actually is not high on the gun-related murder list maintained by the United Nations ( <a href="http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics/Homicide/Homicides_by_firearms.xls" type="external">Homicides by firearms</a>).</p>
<p>But countries with stronger gun control laws have higher murder rates, according to U.N. statistics. Russia, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico, for example, have very strict gun control laws, and much higher murder rates.</p>
<p>Yet <a href="http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/switzerland" type="external">gun ownership</a> has always been very strong in <a href="http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/switzerland" type="external">Switzerland</a>, ranked number three for gun ownership in the world. The Swiss have had historically lower murder rates than countries with strict gun control laws.</p>
<p>Gun ownership in Switzerland is part of the national identity, and particularly harkens back to WWll. The Swiss believe they were spared a German invasion because it was commonly known that all households were armed, and all of the men had been taught to shoot.</p>
<p>Israel, New Zealand, and Finland also have high rates of gun ownership and lower murder rates.</p>
<p>Swiss <a href="http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/switzerland" type="external">government figures</a> show only 0.5 gun homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010. By comparison, the U.S rate in the same year was about 5 firearm killings per 100,000 people, according to the 2011 U.N. report.</p>
<p>Americans do not need to look halfway around the world to see where gun control has failed. Chicago, which just announced a <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-12-28/news/chi-chicago-2012-homicide-toll-20121228_1_latest-homicide-500th-homicide-tragic-number" type="external">record high of 500 murders</a> in 2012, is one of America’s most violent cities. Gang violence terrorizes many neighborhoods, where brutality thrives as boys and young men slaughter each other, regardless of strict gun laws.</p>
<p>Most people understand the need to find answers after horrific tragedy. It may be easier for some to blame guns rather than the people who use them to kill. But it is a weak reason to criminalize gun ownership by law-abiding citizens, and a potentially dangerous precedent, deeply rooted in history.</p> | Dangerous gun control precedents | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2013/01/03/dangerous-precedents-for-gun-control/ | 2018-01-20 | 3 |
<p>Photo: Wikimedia Commons</p>
<p />
<p>This <a href="http://www.propublica.org/ion/stimulus/item/stimulus-for-cotton-candy-tango-and-a-fish-orchestra-wacky-or-actually-wort" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.propublica.org" type="external">ProPublica website</a>.</p>
<p>Breakfast at Fuddruckers: $19.24.</p>
<p>Snow cone and cotton candy machine: $146.89.</p>
<p>Six extra preview performances of “Little House on the Prairie – the Musical”: $50,000.</p>
<p>Benefit to the economy? According to the recipients of this <a href="" type="internal">stimulus money</a>: Priceless.</p>
<p>Last week, the federal government released the <a href="http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/home.aspx" type="external">first comprehensive tally</a> of the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus package. And while the White House has <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/10/30/act-action-new-report-shows-recovery-act-creating-jobs-throughout-nation-0" type="external">heralded marquee projects</a> like road construction and solar panel factories, the stimulus package is also made up of hundreds of smaller purchases like office supplies, gasoline and lab rats.</p>
<p>Some of the more unusual purchases are bristling stimulus critics.</p>
<p>“This was not what people had in mind when they were talking about job creation,” said Leslie Paige, spokeswoman for <a href="http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer" type="external">Citizens Against Government Waste</a>. “It was a gigantic pork barrel project from the first day out of the box, and it has proven itself to be every bit as swinish as we thought it would be.”</p>
<p>Waste, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.</p>
<p>Among the 150,000 stimulus expenditures released last week are dozens of iPods, toilets and trips to resort hotels. But, according to the reports, those seemingly questionable purchases are being used to enhance technology in the classroom, make bathrooms accessible to the disabled and train special education teachers.</p>
<p>“If you build a bridge to nowhere, that might be a bridge that you’re going to use that I’m not going to use,” said Ed Pound, spokesman for the government board charged with investigating waste and fraud in the stimulus package. “That’s not a call we’re going to make.”</p>
<p>The White House provided some insight on what types of projects don’t meet the administration’s standards when it <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Vice-President-Biden-Updates-President-Obama-on-Recovery-Act-Year-End-Progress" type="external">announced</a> last month that it had stopped and altered 170 proposals so far. On the list were projects to straighten headstones, freeze fish sperm and steam-clean bird droppings from buildings.</p>
<p>But when the stimulus oversight board released its report last week, other stimulus recipients had funded the exact same types of projects to reset headstones, freeze fish sperm and power-wash bird droppings from bridges.</p>
<p>The administration’s list last month of red-flagged projects included nine to renovate athletic facilities such as basketball and tennis courts. But last week’s report of projects going forward included at least six basketball courts and two tennis courts.</p>
<p>The White House said it shot down an Agriculture Department proposal to buy <a href="" type="internal">Taser stun guns</a> for sheriff’s deputies. But law enforcement agencies around the country have used stimulus money to buy hundreds of Tasers.</p>
<p>“The point of posting all Recovery Act spending online was to enable the press and public to find potential dubious expenditures and call them to our attention,” Liz Oxhorn, the White House stimulus spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. “We will look at these projects to see if they meet our standards and are consistent with sound use of Recovery Act funds.”</p>
<p>The administration hasn’t explained why the 170 projects it flagged were troublesome and provided vague details about who even proposed them. Oxhorn said Wednesday that publishing the list was an effort to open up the decision-making process – not to expose waste.</p>
<p>The Electric Fish Orchestra</p>
<p>The award for most unusual stimulus project could perhaps go to Malcolm MacIver, a neurobiology and engineering professor at Northwestern University.</p>
<p>MacIver received a $1.25 million grant to use electric fish from the Amazon to study how animals take in sensory information to move quickly in any direction. <a href="http://files.me.com/malcolm_maciver/h3y30w.mov" type="external">(See video.)</a> The research could help in the development of underwater robots to find the source of toxic leaks. Further in the future, it could lead to new, far more agile prosthetics.</p>
<p>For public outreach – a component of most <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/" type="external">National Science Foundation</a> grants – MacIver has proposed an interactive art exhibit. Sixteen species of electric fish will be arranged in sculpted fish tanks. The tanks will be connected to an amplifier that can convert the different frequencies that the fish emit into sound. Using a hacked controller from the Nintendo Wii video game system, visitors will be able to turn the amplifiers on and off, essentially conducting an orchestra.</p>
<p>The fish even have names that sound like rock bands: Black Ghost Knifefish, Glass Knifefish and Aba Aba.</p>
<p>MacIver said the innovative approach will be much more powerful and engaging than traditional outreach efforts, such as giving a lecture to a high school class.</p>
<p>“It’s a competitive necessity for our country to increase the level of science literacy,” he said. “To help crack the nut of disinterest in science, it helps to engage people with material which they can relate to and which they find interesting and fun.”</p>
<p>The Show Must Go On</p>
<p>Funding for the arts has always been a flashpoint in the debate over government spending. And the stimulus reports provide a sampling of the eclectic tastes of America’s arts community.</p>
<p>Thanks to the stimulus package, the Lincoln Center in New York City will be able to bring in jazz musician <a href="http://www.avantango.com/" type="external">Pablo Aslan</a> for a “tango salon.” According to the data released last week, the stimulus saved the jobs of three actors in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s performance of “ <a href="http://www.chicagoshakes.com/main.taf?p=2,39" type="external">Richard III</a>” and the designer of the <a href="http://www.montclairartmuseum.org/cezanne/" type="external">Cezanne exhibit at the Montclair Art Museum</a> in New Jersey.</p>
<p>Nearby at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J., the city-owned theater was able to add six preview performances of “ <a href="http://www.papermill.org/stage/shows.php?ID=93" type="external">Little House on the Prairie – the Musical</a>,” which starred an actress from the TV series, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Gilbert" type="external">Melissa Gilbert</a>. (She was TV’s Laura Ingalls). The stimulus money, along with a private donation, allowed the theater to pay for an additional week of the cast’s salaries and fine-tune the production based on the audience’s feedback.</p>
<p>Paper Mill’s executive director, Mark Jones, said the grant had an enormous economic effect. Many of the 4,000 to 5,000 people who saw the preview performances also went out to dinner, got their hair done and shopped, he said. The actors had extra spending money for rent and food.</p>
<p>“I think everybody’s taken a hit” in the recession, Jones told us. “Whether it’s a manufacturing job or an artist’s job or a teacher or a science researcher, they all add value to our cultural fabric.”</p>
<p>Cotton Candy for a Health Center</p>
<p>Last week’s stimulus reports are sometimes brimming with so much detail from construction firms that you could practically build the road yourself. Other times, they’re lacking even basic information.</p>
<p>For example, what does a $31 purchase at the Oriental Garden Chinese restaurant in Banks, Ore., have to do with providing a better education for children with disabilities?</p>
<p>“We kicked the year off with providing some in-service training,” said Shelley Mitchell, student services director for <a href="http://www.banks.k12.or.us/" type="external">Banks School District 13</a>, which received $107,000 for special education. “We bought some appetizers.”</p>
<p>The workshop for eight employees took place after school but before dinner and involved planning to help handicapped students transition into the adult world. The rural district about 25 miles outside Portland didn’t have enough space for the team meeting.</p>
<p>“It’s the only restaurant in town,” Mitchell said. “Well, we do have a Subway.”</p>
<p>Thousands of dollars in stimulus money has been spent on food. The breakfast at Fuddruckers was an expense for two officers of a Texas business attending a National Science Foundation meeting in Washington, D.C. Somebody else spent $5.74 at a Carl’s Jr.</p>
<p>Another purchase with scant detail comes from <a href="http://neochc.org/" type="external">Northeastern Oklahoma Community Health Centers</a>, which in June opened a new clinic in a low-income area where many workers don’t have insurance.</p>
<p>The item: “snow cone and cotton candy machine for open house picnic.”</p>
<p>According to Dr. Sharon Zang, the health centers’ chief executive, the machine was paid for with private donations. But it was listed in the stimulus report because the purchase was from the same bank account used for the stimulus grant.</p>
<p>The machine – along with hamburgers, hot dogs and balloons – was used to market the clinic and entertain children while their parents learned about the services available.</p>
<p>“We did tours through the clinic,” Zang said. “We told them about [our] sliding fee. We told them about Medicaid and Medicare. A lot of people don’t think they can get to a doctor because of their health insurance.”</p>
<p>Many of the people who attended the picnic have since come to the clinic for care, she said.</p>
<p>“The community has really supported this,” she said. “It’s really a wonderful story.”</p>
<p /> | Stimulus for Cotton Candy, Tango and a Fish Orchestra? Wacky, or Actually Worthy? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/11/stimulus-cotton-candy-tango-and-fish-orchestra-wacky-or-actually-worthy/ | 2009-11-05 | 4 |
<p>WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Wake Forest University and local police have released more information about the shooting death of a football player from a neighboring school last weekend.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.journalnow.com/news/crime/men-sought-for-questioning-in-wssu-student-s-homicide-new/article_e9ca4330-491e-5be3-a55f-2e216bebb7a2.html" type="external">Winston-Salem Journal</a> reported that Winston-Salem police Capt. Steven Tollie said Tuesday that 21-year-old Najee Ali Baker of Brooklyn, New York, was outside an events center at Wake Forest when he was shot early Saturday.</p>
<p>A party was being sponsored by Wake Forest’s chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.</p>
<p>Baker played at Winston-Salem State University and taken to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center where he died.</p>
<p>No arrests have been made. Police said a fight broke out at the party but did not say whether Baker was involved or was targeted in the shooting.</p>
<p>The two schools are about 9 miles (14 kilometers) apart.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Winston-Salem Journal, <a href="http://www.journalnow.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.journalnow.com" type="external">http://www.journalnow.com</a></p>
<p>WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Wake Forest University and local police have released more information about the shooting death of a football player from a neighboring school last weekend.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.journalnow.com/news/crime/men-sought-for-questioning-in-wssu-student-s-homicide-new/article_e9ca4330-491e-5be3-a55f-2e216bebb7a2.html" type="external">Winston-Salem Journal</a> reported that Winston-Salem police Capt. Steven Tollie said Tuesday that 21-year-old Najee Ali Baker of Brooklyn, New York, was outside an events center at Wake Forest when he was shot early Saturday.</p>
<p>A party was being sponsored by Wake Forest’s chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.</p>
<p>Baker played at Winston-Salem State University and taken to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center where he died.</p>
<p>No arrests have been made. Police said a fight broke out at the party but did not say whether Baker was involved or was targeted in the shooting.</p>
<p>The two schools are about 9 miles (14 kilometers) apart.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Winston-Salem Journal, <a href="http://www.journalnow.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.journalnow.com" type="external">http://www.journalnow.com</a></p> | Wake Forest releases more information on fatal shooting | false | https://apnews.com/d6a9cc38c9dc4216a17d9e9803827015 | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p />
<p>As one of the most powerful men on <a href="" type="internal">Wall Street</a>, surely <a href="" type="internal">Lloyd Blankfein</a> can’t be brought down by a single op-ed from a mid-level employee, right?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Not so fast. As Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) leaps into damage-control mode over the salacious diatribe written by a former vice president at the firm, some are wondering whether the incident could be the final nail in the controversial CEO’s coffin.</p>
<p>“If I was placing bets on it, I would bet that Blankfein is likely to be the D’Antoni of this spring,” said Saul Cohen, a retired Wall Street lawyer, alluding to the ouster of New York Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni earlier this week.</p>
<p>As the thinking goes, Goldman, the preeminent Wall Street investment bank, has now suffered one too many public-relations black eyes.</p>
<p>Add Muppetgate to the List</p>
<p>Since the financial crisis erupted in 2008, Goldman has been the subject of countless investigations, including a <a href="" type="internal">Securities and Exchange Commission</a> probe that resulted in the company paying a record $550 million.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>That settlement followed the “Fabulous Fab” emails that revealed a high-level Goldman broker knew he was selling his clients mortgage-related securities that were garbage.</p>
<p>Blankfein hurt his own case when he defended compensation practices by telling the Times of London in 2009 he’s just a banker “doing God’s work.” Rolling Stone helped crystallize the anti-Goldman sentiment in a 2010 essay that called the bank a “great vampire squid” that jams “its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”</p>
<p>The latest salvo was fired by <a href="" type="internal">Greg Smith</a>, who started Muppetgate by unleashing a takedown of Goldman in an op-ed that appeared in The <a href="" type="internal">New York Times</a> this week and garnered widespread attention.</p>
<p>Calling out the firm’s leadership, Smith said Goldman is “toxic and destructive” and said he can “no longer in good conscience…identify with what it stands for.” Smith said he saw at least five instances of managing directors referring to clients as “Muppets.”</p>
<p>“Out of context, it looks terrible, but in context it looks like the same kind of thing you’d hear at every major trading firm,” said Charles D. Ellis, author of The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs.</p>
<p>While Goldman has noted Smith had a mid-level position and others chalk the outburst up to “sour grapes,” it’s extremely rare in the history of Goldman to have a former employee criticize the company in such a public manner.</p>
<p>“I think it adds to Goldman’s tarnished reputation,” said Charles Geisst, a finance professor at Manhattan College.</p>
<p>Not a Popularity Contest</p>
<p>However, Geisst and others believe the story won’t do long-term damage to Goldman’s efforts to recruit and retain clients because it broke little new ground, and Smith admitted he has no evidence of impropriety.</p>
<p>“I accept the fact that most customers do not really like the firm. I accept all that and believe it’s true,” said Dick Bove, a veteran banking analyst at Rochdale Securities. “The question is then: What in hell does this firm have that gets customers to keep dealing with it?”</p>
<p>Bove pointed to two areas of “tremendous competitive advantage” that Goldman enjoys: superior trading technology that gives it the ability to offer clients better prices on a wide spectrum of assets than rivals, and intellectual capital that makes its investment-banking arm unmatched.</p>
<p>These advantages help explain why after years of bad press and a tarnished reputation, Goldman is still recognized as Wall Street’s No. 1 investment bank. According to Dealogic, the firm generated more investment-banking fees than any other last year.</p>
<p>“There have been other complaints about Goldman Sachs going back decades. But the clients don’t go away. The clients keep coming,” said Bove.</p>
<p>Goldman officials weren't available for comment.</p>
<p>Cohen, who served as general counsel at Lehman Brothers in the early 1980s, notes that the individuals and businesses that seek financial advice from Goldman don’t tend to be naïve investors.</p>
<p>Smith “is not talking about widows and orphans. He’s talking about institutional customers. A lot of them are at least as smart and have as much talent and have as good computers as the Goldman people do,” said Cohen.</p>
<p>Blankfein's Future</p>
<p>Bove adds, “Until the clients decide that all of this garbage in the press means something, there’s not going to be an impact on the bottom line.”</p>
<p>Blankfein, 57, became CEO in 2006 after Henry Paulson stepped down to lead the Treasury Department in the Bush administration. Given the tumultuous years during his tenure, the native New Yorker is no stranger to hearing calls for his termination.</p>
<p>While some directors may be tempted to give Blankfein the boot over the latest PR fiasco, doing so may only validate Smith’s criticisms, at least in the public’s eye.</p>
<p>“You just can’t give this guy and his argument credibility by firing Lloyd Blankfein. You’ve got to do the opposite,” said Bove. “I think [Smith] solidified Lloyd Blankfein in his position for another couple of years.”</p>
<p>Ellis seconded that opinion. “As a member of the board of directors I wouldn’t dream of touching it. I would be doing real harm to my firm,” he said.</p>
<p>Can Reputation Be Fixed?</p>
<p>None of this means that Goldman should just accept the reputational harm it has suffered over the past four years. While its competitive advantages and public perception may save Blankfein and prevent the firm from losing clients, it could still be hurt down the line.</p>
<p>“Do I think Goldman Sachs needs to change? Yes. Do they think so? Yes,” said Ellis, pointing to a series of recommended changes to Goldman’s business practices that were released last year.</p>
<p>The very decision by the Times to publish the Smith op-ed underscores the dreadful public perceptions of the firm (and perhaps the Times' agenda).</p>
<p>“I suspect it probably never would have been picked up if it had been any of the other major firms,” said Ellis.</p>
<p>Sources told FOX Business’s Charlie Gasparino that Goldman execs can’t understand how the Times could do this to Goldman because the two companies had an investment-banking relationship.</p>
<p>“I think that’s just a testament to Goldman’s current public relations more than anything else,” said Geisst. “If you see tomorrow in the news Goldman Sachs is taking over The New York Times via some South Korean paper, then we’ll know they were really (angry).”</p> | Will Goldman’s Blankfein Survive Muppetgate? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/03/16/will-goldmans-blankfein-survive-muppetgate.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>In today’s roundup, <a href="http://variety.com/t/marvel/" type="external">Marvel</a> launches a new animation franchise, the <a href="http://variety.com/t/new-york-television-festival/" type="external">New York Television Festival</a> moves to a summer date, and more.</p>
<p>LAUNCHES</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/avengers-infinity-war-trailer-watch-1202625072/" type="external">Marvel</a> has announced the launch of “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/marvel-rising/" type="external">Marvel Rising</a>,” a multi-platform animation franchise featuring the next generation of Marvel heroes. The program will launch next year with six digital shorts–each four minutes long– that spotlight Spider-Gwen with her new secret moniker, Ghost-Spider. A feature-length film, “Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors,” will premiere later in 2018 and follow new characters and old favorites as they join forces to defeat evil. Marvel has also released a video, viewable below, that introduces the characters and voice actors behind the new franchise.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/syfy/" type="external">Syfy</a> is launching Syfy Wire’s first Snapchat show, “Geekly.” Hosted by Andre Meadows and Whitney Moore, “Geekly” revolves around the biggest genre news and events each week. “Geekly” premieres its eight-week run today; new episodes, each running three to five minutes, will premiere on Thursdays at 6 a.m. EST on Snapchat’s Discover page. Previously released episodes will be available via Snapchat’s Search feature.</p>
<p>FESTIVALS</p>
<p>For its 14th anniversary, the <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/manic-new-york-is-dead-winners-new-york-television-festival-1202601807/" type="external">New York Television Festival</a>&#160;has moved the event, which is usually scheduled for late October, to the summer in order to align with the start of the TV buying season and maximize potential for officially-selected projects and creators. The festival’s next edition is set to take place the week of July 15. NYTVF has also announced the launch of flagship pilot and script initiatives for 2018. As it grows its core programs– the Independent Pilot Competition, NYTVF Scripts, and NYTVF Connect– NYTVF’s accredited industry participants will have exclusive early access to official selections from the pilot and script competitions following the upfronts.</p>
<p>PaleyFest LA has selected the first three series for its 35th anniversary event, which will take place at the Dolby Theatre from March 16-25, 2018. “Stranger Things,” “The Good Doctor,” and “Will and Grace” are the festival’s first selections. The full program schedule will be announced on January 9, 2018.</p>
<p>FIRST LOOKS</p>
<p>The official trailer for the Starz original limited series “Howards End” has been released; watch it below. Starz has also announced that the series will premiere in April 2018.&#160;“Howards End,” based on the novel by E.M&#160;Forster, marks the first TV adaptation from Oscar-winning screenwriter&#160;Kenneth Lonergan and stars Hayley Atwell, Philippa Coulthard, Matthew Macfadyen, and Tracey Ullman.&#160;</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>SPECIALS</p>
<p>Pat Boone Enterprises and Carpe Diem Group LLC have announced “The 70th Anniversary of Israel Concert and Television Special Presented by Pat Boone and Friends.” Boone is set to host the event, which will be taped live on May 13, 2018 at the historic Caesarea Maritima Amphitheater in Israel. The show will feature performances by Boone, celebrity friends, and esteemed musical performers including the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Famous faces and political leaders from around the world will speak at the event and partake in the celebration of Israel’s 70th anniversary.</p>
<p>ADVOCACY</p>
<p>“The Young and the Restless” has partnered with the Alzheimer’s Association&#160;on an ongoing storyline about the disease,&#160;which the character of Dina (Marla Adams) was diagnosed with in an episode earlier this year.&#160;In the episode airing Friday, Dec. 8,&#160;Dina’s daughter faces reality when she recognizes that her mother does not remember the time they spent together earlier in the day. After the episode, a “CBS Cares” PSA will run featuring Peter Bergman, who plays Dina’s son, urging viewers to refer to the Alzheimer’s Association website for useful information.</p> | TV News Roundup: Marvel Launches ‘Marvel Rising’ Animation Franchise | false | https://newsline.com/tv-news-roundup-marvel-launches-marvel-rising-animation-franchise/ | 2017-12-07 | 1 |
<p><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/license/156760866" type="external">selimaksan/Getty</a></p>
<p>From the earliest days of his campaign,&#160;Donald Trump has opposed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Obama-era financial reform law passed in response to the 2008 financial crisis.&#160;&#160;Trump has characterized it as&#160;a “ <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/politics/trump-dodd-frank-regulations.html" type="external">disaster</a>” that has created obstacles for the financial sector and hurt growth.&#160;In April, he repeated his promise to gut the existing law.</p>
<p>“We’re doing a major elimination of the horrendous Dodd-Frank regulations, keeping some, obviously, but getting rid of many,” <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/11/remarks-president-trump-strategic-and-policy-ceo-discussion" type="external">Trump said</a> in a&#160; <a href="http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCAKBN17D1ZD-OCABS?pageNumber=1&amp;virtualBrandChannel=0" type="external">meeting with top executives</a>&#160;during a “Strategic and Policy CEO Discussion,” which included the leaders of major companies like Walmart and Pepsi. He added, “For the the bankers in the room, they’ll be very happy.”</p>
<p>The Republican Congress shares Trump’s dislike of&#160;Dodd-Frank and this week, the House plans&#160;to vote on the Financial CHOICE Act, a Dodd-Frank overhaul bill that will, as promised, make banks and Wall Street “very happy” if it becomes law, while undoing numerous financial safeguards for regular Americans. (CHOICE is an acronym for “Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs.”)</p>
<p>The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jeb Hensarling&#160;(R-Texas), takes aim at some of Dodd-Frank’s main achievements: It guts rules intended to protect mortgage borrowers and military&#160; <a href="http://uspirg.org/reports/usp/protecting-those-who-serve" type="external">veterans</a>, and&#160;restrict predatory lenders. It also weakens the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability to oversee and enforce consumer protection laws against banks around the country—upending a mix of powers that have helped the CFPB recover nearly $12 billion for 29 million individuals since opening its doors in July 2011. The bill also weakens or outright cuts a number of bank regulations enacted through Dodd-Frank to keep risky investing behavior in check&#160;in order to avoid&#160;the economic devastation of another financial crisis or taxpayer-funded bailout.</p>
<p>During an April hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren gave a fiery speech criticizing the measure.&#160;“This is a 589-page insult to working families,” she said. “It would unleash the same behavior on Wall Street that led to the 2008 financial crisis.” Other Democrats have joined Warren in&#160;opposing the bill, as have some <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/investor-group-pension-funds-oppose-financial-choice-act-1495060509" type="external">institutional investors</a> and <a href="http://www.thedeal.com/pdf/sdoc/20170523/052317_olaLETTER.pdf?_ga=2.138576503.570782592.1496715402-289577006.1496115746" type="external">financial</a> <a href="http://www.thedeal.com/pdf/sdoc/20170523/052317_olaLETTER.pdf?_ga=2.138576503.570782592.1496715402-289577006.1496115746" type="external">&#160;experts</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>“With this bill, fraud becomes easier, consumer abuse becomes easier, reckless lending becomes easier, speculation becomes easier,” says Carter Dougherty, communications director of the left-leaning Americans for Financial Reform. “The chances of another financial crisis rise immeasurably with the passage of this legislation.”&#160;</p>
<p>Concerns that overhauling the financial reform bill could trigger another financial crisis have also been&#160;raised by former Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank, one of the chief architects of the original Dodd-Frank act. “Consumers who have dealings with banks and other financial institutions should be very worried about [Dodd-Frank] being abolished,” he said in a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/02/11/barney-frank-worries-weakening-dodd-frank-may-lead-another-crash/97759838/" type="external">February interview</a>. “If you don’t keep the rules we have in place to restrain irresponsible risk-taking, you’ll have, at some point, another crash.”</p>
<p>Rep. Hensarling, who chairs the House Financial&#160;Services Committee, <a href="https://financialservices.house.gov/news/email/show.aspx?ID=M3JPEPI6ZRDYXC2QNF5HCIU2AQ" type="external">has argued that</a>&#160;the CHOICE act will protect consumers and particularly smaller financial&#160;institutions—like community&#160;banks or credit unions—that are weighed down by the costs of complying with Dodd-Frank’s regulatory structure. (FDIC data on community banks contradicts Hensarling’s point:&#160; <a href="https://www.fdic.gov/bank/analytical/qbp/2016dec/qbpcb.html" type="external">In 2016</a>, community bank earnings grew by $507.9 million from the previous year, and they gave out small business loans at more than twice the rate of noncommunity&#160;banks.)</p>
<p>Here’s a glimpse&#160;of some of the main ways the Financial CHOICE Act could ease regulation of Wall Street and hurt consumers:</p>
<p>The bill guts the CFPB’s power to crack down on banks:&#160;The CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis by the Dodd-Frank act, which gave the agency authority to enforce consumer-protection regulations on banks and Wall Street. The current CHOICE act proposes a reduction in the agency’s authority to enforce these regulations on banks, instead dispersing that power among a mix of federal agencies. This splintered model for consumer protection is <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43087.pdf" type="external">similar to what existed</a> before the financial crisis, and proponents of the CFPB <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/lessons-learned-from-the-financial-crisis-the-need-for-the-cfpb/" type="external">have argued</a> that this decentralized&#160;approach helped contribute to the crisis.</p>
<p>Gives the White House control over consumer protection:&#160;The CHOICE act proposes ending the CFPB’s status as an independent agency whose director is appointed by the president and must be confirmed by the Senate. If the measure becomes law,&#160;the White House would have the&#160;power to fire the agency’s director without cause; today, the CFPB director can only be removed by the president over <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/19/news/economy/hensarling-gop-bill-regulators/index.html" type="external">a small list of</a> work-related offenses. Additionally, rules made by the agency would require White House review—a constraint&#160;that is not imposed on other banking agencies.</p>
<p>Decimates regulation of predatory lenders:&#160;The CHOICE Act would eliminate the CFPB’s power to regulate “small-dollar credit,” including&#160;“payday loans, vehicle title loans, or other similar loans” with extremely high interest rates that are&#160;used by more than 19 million mostly lower income&#160;US households to make ends meet when they’re lacking other options. Given the interest, these loans can lead to a cycle of ever-growing debt—the majority of borrowers end up having to take out a second loan to cover the first. The CFPB proposed rules in 2016 that would have&#160;curbed abuses by predatory lenders by requiring them to ensure a borrower will be able to make payments on time, and also make repeat lending to the same people more difficult.&#160;&#160;The CHOICE Act’s proposal to strip the CFPB of its power to regulate small-dollar credit is “a free pass for payday and title lenders to not be subject to efforts to rein in their abusive practices,” Diane Standaert, executive vice president of the Center for Responsible Lending, told the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-choice-act-payday-loans-20170530-story.html" type="external">Los Angeles Times</a>.</p>
<p>Reverses efforts to curb the practice of forced arbitration:&#160;Forced arbitration clauses have proliferated in recent years, appearing in consumer contracts for virtually every financial product—bank accounts, credit cards, and more. These clauses prohibit consumers from bringing traditional lawsuits against financial institutions, requiring them&#160;to participate in private, often expensive, proceedings outside of the regular court system. The CHOICE Act would remove the CFPB’s authority to restrict forced arbitration, subsequently preventing the agency from finalizing a rule limiting forced arbitration clauses that was&#160; <a href="https://www.bna.com/trump-presidency-creates-n57982082665/" type="external">expected to go into</a> effect in mid-2017.</p>
<p>Repeals the Volcker Rule:&#160;A key component of Dodd-Frank, the Volcker Rule prohibits big banks from participating in certain risky investment activities,&#160;in order to prevent them&#160;from jeopardizing their solvency by gambling with depositor funds. The bill would repeal that rule, which&#160;Wall Street has long complained reduces revenues. In a closed-door meeting last month, Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin—an alum of Goldman Sachs, one of the banks subject to the Volcker rule—directed five federal agencies to review the Volcker rule with an eye towards easing some of its requirements.&#160;</p>
<p>Repeals the fiduciary rule requiring retirement fund managers to work in their client’s best interests:&#160;The fiduciary rule enacted by Obama-era Department of Labor elevates asset managers handling retirement savings to “fiduciary” status. This means they are required to place their client’s interests above their own,&#160;disclose any potential conflicts of interests, and be transparent about all fees. After attempts to delay its implementation by the Trump administration, the fiduciary rule is set to go into effect on Friday. If it becomes law, this bill would repeal the rule, halting its implementation.&#160;</p>
<p>Eases stress tests on big banks:&#160;The Federal Reserve&#160;requires the largest US banks that are “Too Big to Fail”—meaning their solvency is critical to the broader economy’s health—to undergo an annual stress test measuring the bank’s ability to withstand financial shock. “It’s been a cornerstone of our effort to improve supervision,” Fed Chair Janet Yellen <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-feds-yellen-defends-stress-test-of-wall-street-2017-2" type="external">told lawmakers</a> in February. “It’s a key part of our regulatory process.” The Financial CHOICE Act proposes requiring banks to undergo these tests only every two years, and exempts them&#160;from the qualitative&#160;aspects of the tests, which check on&#160;internal bank processes—such as risk-monitoring,&#160;loss-modeling, and more—that help protect&#160;the bank in the case of&#160;an economic shock.</p>
<p>Repealing the government’s ability to restructure a failing&#160;financial institution: After the 2008 financial crisis, regulators explained they were unable to liquidate failing&#160;banks without throwing the economy into turmoil—hence the need for a taxpayer-funded bailout instead. In response to this, Dodd-Frank created the Orderly Liquidation Authority, which allows the FDIC to take over a failing financial&#160;institution and liquidate it using <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2017/06/05/a-primer-on-dodd-franks-orderly-liquidation-authority/" type="external">a mix of fees</a> collected in advance from banks as a preemptive credit line for this sort of crisis. The CHOICE Act would repeal the OLA and replace it with a bankruptcy process that is “a reckless gamble with the stability of the US financial system,” according to <a href="https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Scholars-Letter-on-OLA-final-for-Congress.pdf" type="external">a letter sent</a>&#160;last month to Congress by more than 100 bankruptcy scholars&#160;and professors from law schools around the country.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Raising debit and credit card fees:&#160;The Durbin Amendment enacted through Dodd-Frank allowed the Fed to set a limit on how much banks can charge consumers and retailers for using debit and credit&#160;cards. The amount ended up being <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/20101216a.htm" type="external">about 12 cents</a> per swipe. The Financial CHOICE Act proposes repealing the amendment and raising the cap on what banks can charge. Faced with pushback over this change&#160;from many retailers and some of his fellow Republicans,&#160; <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2017-05-25/hensarling-to-drop-durbin-amendment-repeal-as-part-of-dodd-frank-overhaul" type="external">Rep. Hensarling said</a>&#160;late last month that he will likely drop this portion of the bill in order to help ensure its passage</p> | House Republicans Are Trying to Pass the Most Dangerous Wall Street Deregulation Bill Ever | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/06/house-republicans-are-trying-to-pass-the-most-dangerous-wall-street-deregulation-bill-ever/ | 2017-06-07 | 4 |
<p>The conflict between liberal democratic capitalism and state socialism dominated political life for most of this century. Now the political arena is changing radically. The problem is whether we can develop political ideas to make sense of those changes and to guide political action. State socialism is finished as a credible political idea. But liberal democracy is almost moribund, too, something most celebrants of the collapse of communism have failed to notice. In fact the collapse of communism and the stagnation of liberalism are connected. Liberal democracy derived its most powerful legitimation from the threat of ideological dictatorships; whatever its limitations it allowed citizens to criticize and to change their government. Authoritarian regimes and the revival of religious fanaticism in the third world are too distant from us in the West to have the same effect. At the same time the Western public is more and more confused about what government can accomplish and whether voting makes any difference.</p>
<p>We cannot rest content with a stagnant liberalism and the absence of any strategy for reform. Liberal democracy is inadequate precisely because changing political circumstances are making its institutions less and less able to cope. Unless it is supplemented by other ideas, it will fail to adapt to a changing political world.</p>
<p /> | Associative Democracy | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/associative-democracy | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>LAS CRUCES — Gov. Bill Richardson is opening a new front in the fight against the transfer of 186 chimpanzees from an Alamogordo facility to a Texas biomedical research lab: an appeal to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.</p>
<p>While in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Richardson plans to urge Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack to order a halt to the chimp transfer on the grounds that it could harm the apes in violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act.</p>
<p>The chimps have lived free from testing at the Alamogordo Primate Facility on Holloman Air Force Base since 2001.</p>
<p>With the federal management contract scheduled to expire next year, the National Institutes of Health wants to move the chimps to the Southwest National Primate Research Center in San Antonio, Texas, where the apes would be used in hepatitis C research. Fourteen chimps have already been moved to the Texas lab, and most of the rest are to be moved next year.</p>
<p>In September, the Washington, D.C.-based group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, filed a petition with the Health and Human Services secretary asking that the chimps be declared “surplus” and eligible for retirement as research subjects.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Animal rights groups have said the Alamogordo chimps, some in their 40s and 50s, have suffered enough from research and do not make good test subjects for hepatitis C. Alamogordo would also lose 35 jobs due to the transfer.</p>
<p>Along with Richardson, other New Mexico officials, including U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, the state’s three congressmen and Attorney General Gary King, have asked the NIH Director Francis Collins to reconsider the transfer and retire the chimps.</p>
<p>In his 10-page formal request to Vilsack, Richardson says two recent studies have found “widespread cardiac problems, spanning age groups” within the Alamogordo chimp population. The petition adds: “… The widespread prevalence of illness among the Alamogordo chimpanzees makes it impossible for many of these animals to be transported safely, comfortably, and in a manner that protects their health and well-being.”</p>
<p>In the case of Flo, a 53-year-old chimp who has been “chemically immobilized at least 115 times” and whose heart is enlarged on the right side, one doctor concluded that, given her “current health status, it is unlikely that she will survive transport and acclimatization” to the Texas lab, the petition says.</p>
<p>The chimps, formerly used in biomedical research while the property of the Coulston Foundation, have been spared from testing over most of the last decade. In 2000, NIH took possession of the chimps as part of the settlement of a USDA case against Coulston involving violations of animal welfare laws.</p> | Richardson Opens New Front in Fight Against Transfer of Chimps | false | https://abqjournal.com/10295/richardson-opens-new-front-in-fight-against-transfer-of-chimps.html | 2 |
|
<p>BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts residents and visitors willing to brave the cold can ring in the new year with hikes at state parks.</p>
<p>The Department of Conservation and Recreation is providing family-friendly guided hikes at seven state parks for New Year's Day on Monday.</p>
<p>The annual "First Day Hikes" started in 1992 at Blue Hills Reservation and draws more than 1,000 participants every year.</p>
<p>Hikes are being offered at Carson Beach and Dorchester Heights, Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park, Walden Pond State Reservation, Breakheart Reservation, Blue Hills Reservation, Nantasket Beach Reservation and Great Falls Discovery Center.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mass.gov/orgs/department-of-conservation-recreation" type="external">hikes</a> will be led by Department of Conservation and Recreation park staff and range from 1 to 3 miles long.</p>
<p>BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts residents and visitors willing to brave the cold can ring in the new year with hikes at state parks.</p>
<p>The Department of Conservation and Recreation is providing family-friendly guided hikes at seven state parks for New Year's Day on Monday.</p>
<p>The annual "First Day Hikes" started in 1992 at Blue Hills Reservation and draws more than 1,000 participants every year.</p>
<p>Hikes are being offered at Carson Beach and Dorchester Heights, Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park, Walden Pond State Reservation, Breakheart Reservation, Blue Hills Reservation, Nantasket Beach Reservation and Great Falls Discovery Center.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mass.gov/orgs/department-of-conservation-recreation" type="external">hikes</a> will be led by Department of Conservation and Recreation park staff and range from 1 to 3 miles long.</p> | Ring in the new year with hikes at Massachusetts parks | false | https://apnews.com/amp/23dd62797b5a40acad9f8b797507d67c | 2017-12-31 | 2 |
<p>BLUEFIELD—Bluefield College's 42-year-old Harman Chapel is moving into the 21st century, thanks to a donor's desire to bring state-of-the-art multimedia presentation devices to the facility.</p>
<p>Thanks to a sizable contribution from BC alumna and trustee Susan McDougle Tussey and her husband, Ted, the college was able to purchase and install three multimedia projectors and screens inside the chapel, along with other devices capable of using a variety of media, including video and music, for presentations.</p>
<p>The new technology, according to BC officials, eliminates the challenges that existed in the facility to provide advanced programming based on state-of-the-art multimedia.</p>
<p>The chapel has served for more than four decades as home to the school's weekly student convocation programs, performing arts series, guest lectures, contemporary Christian concerts, Fine Arts Community School, Christian Emphasis Week and drama performances, among other events. The facility also has been home to the area's Community Concert Series, benefit concerts, secondary school programs, summer Christian youth camps, and conferences.</p>
<p>The college began a multi-phase half-million dollar renovation of the structure in 2003, the first for the facility since its construction in 1965.</p>
<p>Susan Tussey worked for nearly 30 years as a public school teacher in Henrico County before recently retiring. Ted Tussey is a minister of seniors, service and outreach at Cool Spring Baptist Church in Mechanicsville.</p> | Bluefield donor enhances chapel | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/bluefielddonorenhanceschapel/ | 3 |
|
<p>A week after the White House faced constant questioning in the wake of Osama bin Laden's killing, the pendulum has swung to an entirely different topic: pop culture.The rapper Common, who's real name is Lonnie Rashid Lynn, was invited to appear at an even celebrating poetry Wednesday night with President Obama and the first lady. But the problem has been Commons lyrical background, rapping about hurting women, killing cops and disparaging Obama's predecessor."Burn a Bush cos' for peace he no push no button," he said during an HBO Def Poetry appearance in 2007. Before that, back in 2000, he released a song called "A Song for Assata" that offered considerable support to activist Assata Shakur after a 1973 shootout that killed New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster.The New Jersey state police expressed outrage at the invitation extended through the East Wing. Sarah Palin and Fox News' Sean Hannity wondered over Twitter and on TV why a man of such language was invited to the people's house.The White House had been silent all week amid mounting critiques and cable news segments. But Press Secretary Jay Carney faced a line of questioning on Wednesday. "While the president doesn't support the kind of lyrics that have been raised here, we do think that some of these reports distort what Mr. Lynn stands for in order to stoke the controversy," he said, pointing out that a report from Fox News six months ago called Common a "rap legend" and referred to him as "very positive" and a "conscious rapper."He noted that putting a rapper on the White House stage could help bring poetry to people not usually exposed to it. And plus, he said, this isn't the first time Common has appeared with the president. Common hosted an Obama rally in Chicago last year, and attended the White House Christmas tree lighting ceremony in December.But did the White House underestimate how radioactive Common could be? The administration wouldn't comment on how closely staffers were vetting the event, but poet Jill Scott, who also will appear onstage with Common, told the American Urban Radio Network's April Ryan that the administration had taken control of the content. "I haven't gotten the word back of what's ok [to perform]."</p> | The Rap on the White House | true | https://thedailybeast.com/the-rap-on-the-white-house | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
<p>ATLANTA (AP) — Dennis Schroder was excited about the consecutive wins for the Atlanta Hawks.</p>
<p>He was more pleased that his team beat an opponent that has more talent, at least on paper.</p>
<p>"Everybody was just locked in for 48 minutes," Schroder said. "That's the key, and we played together."</p>
<p>Schroder scored 21 points, Ersan Ilyasova added 20 and the Hawks won consecutive games for the first time this season with a 113-99 victory Wednesday night over the mercurial Washington Wizards.</p>
<p>The Wizards were coming off their best win of the season, a high-energy 111-103 victory at Boston on Monday, but they have been unable to shake a reputation for playing down to the competition.</p>
<p>Marco Belinelli scored 19 points in 20 minutes for Atlanta, the NBA's worst team at 9-25.</p>
<p>Bradley Beal had 20 points for Washington (19-16), which was trying for its first three-game win streak since mid-November. Markieff Morris had 18 points and eight rebounds, and John Wall finished with 10 points and 11 assists.</p>
<p>Already saddled with home losses last month to Phoenix and Dallas, the Wizards were beaten twice this month at Brooklyn, the latest a 35-point setback last week. Losing to Atlanta dropped Washington to 9-10 against teams under. 500.</p>
<p>"I think as a team we think that certain teams we play are going to lay down against us, but they come out and compete every night," Wall said. "This is their job. This is what they're going to do."</p>
<p>The Wizards fell behind for the first time when Belinelli hit three free throws at the 4:54 mark of the third. The lead changed hands a couple of times before John Collins' tip-in at the period buzzer put the Hawks up for good at 78-76.</p>
<p>"A tip like that can do a lot," Collins said. "I wasn't expecting everybody to get as excited as they did, but I guess in the moment I was just playing. I'm happy I could be of assistance."</p>
<p>Washington coach Scott Brooks went with a three-guard lineup midway through the fourth with Wall, Beal and Jodie Meeks joined by Otto Porter Jr. at forward and Morris at center. It didn't work.</p>
<p>Down by nine, the Wizards pulled within four on Beal's 14-footer and Morris' dunk with 6:17 remaining, but they lost focus as Schroder hit a layup and immediately stole Wall's inbound pass to set up Ilyasova's two free throws. Ilyasova followed with a 3, Schroder hit two free throws and Miles Plumlee had a tip-in to make it 101-90.</p>
<p>The Hawks' biggest lead was 18 in the fourth.</p>
<p>"It doesn't matter if we're playing away or home," Meeks said. "We have to win games like this."</p>
<p>TIP-INS</p>
<p>Wizards: The worst part for Brooks was watching the Hawks outhustle his team. Despite a bigger, deeper lineup, Washington was outrebounded 53-40. "We couldn't get any stops, we were taking bad shots and then we gave them hope," he said. "Once that happened, we couldn't turn it off. They were making shots and playing at a higher speed than us. We've got to figure it out."... Washington missed a chance to have 10 road wins and 10 home wins before Jan. 1 for the first time since 1978-79.</p>
<p>Hawks: Were coming off a 112-107 victory over Dallas, the worst team in the West. ... C Dewayne Dedmon has been cleared to resume basketball activities after missing the last 14 games with a stress reaction in his left tibia. Coach Mike Budenholzer said a CT scan showed the bone is healing on schedule, though Dedmon might need another 10 to 14 days before he is ready to play.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Wizards: Host Houston on Friday and Chicago on Sunday.</p>
<p>Hawks: Visit Toronto on Friday and host Portland on Saturday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more AP NBA coverage: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball</a></p>
<p>ATLANTA (AP) — Dennis Schroder was excited about the consecutive wins for the Atlanta Hawks.</p>
<p>He was more pleased that his team beat an opponent that has more talent, at least on paper.</p>
<p>"Everybody was just locked in for 48 minutes," Schroder said. "That's the key, and we played together."</p>
<p>Schroder scored 21 points, Ersan Ilyasova added 20 and the Hawks won consecutive games for the first time this season with a 113-99 victory Wednesday night over the mercurial Washington Wizards.</p>
<p>The Wizards were coming off their best win of the season, a high-energy 111-103 victory at Boston on Monday, but they have been unable to shake a reputation for playing down to the competition.</p>
<p>Marco Belinelli scored 19 points in 20 minutes for Atlanta, the NBA's worst team at 9-25.</p>
<p>Bradley Beal had 20 points for Washington (19-16), which was trying for its first three-game win streak since mid-November. Markieff Morris had 18 points and eight rebounds, and John Wall finished with 10 points and 11 assists.</p>
<p>Already saddled with home losses last month to Phoenix and Dallas, the Wizards were beaten twice this month at Brooklyn, the latest a 35-point setback last week. Losing to Atlanta dropped Washington to 9-10 against teams under. 500.</p>
<p>"I think as a team we think that certain teams we play are going to lay down against us, but they come out and compete every night," Wall said. "This is their job. This is what they're going to do."</p>
<p>The Wizards fell behind for the first time when Belinelli hit three free throws at the 4:54 mark of the third. The lead changed hands a couple of times before John Collins' tip-in at the period buzzer put the Hawks up for good at 78-76.</p>
<p>"A tip like that can do a lot," Collins said. "I wasn't expecting everybody to get as excited as they did, but I guess in the moment I was just playing. I'm happy I could be of assistance."</p>
<p>Washington coach Scott Brooks went with a three-guard lineup midway through the fourth with Wall, Beal and Jodie Meeks joined by Otto Porter Jr. at forward and Morris at center. It didn't work.</p>
<p>Down by nine, the Wizards pulled within four on Beal's 14-footer and Morris' dunk with 6:17 remaining, but they lost focus as Schroder hit a layup and immediately stole Wall's inbound pass to set up Ilyasova's two free throws. Ilyasova followed with a 3, Schroder hit two free throws and Miles Plumlee had a tip-in to make it 101-90.</p>
<p>The Hawks' biggest lead was 18 in the fourth.</p>
<p>"It doesn't matter if we're playing away or home," Meeks said. "We have to win games like this."</p>
<p>TIP-INS</p>
<p>Wizards: The worst part for Brooks was watching the Hawks outhustle his team. Despite a bigger, deeper lineup, Washington was outrebounded 53-40. "We couldn't get any stops, we were taking bad shots and then we gave them hope," he said. "Once that happened, we couldn't turn it off. They were making shots and playing at a higher speed than us. We've got to figure it out."... Washington missed a chance to have 10 road wins and 10 home wins before Jan. 1 for the first time since 1978-79.</p>
<p>Hawks: Were coming off a 112-107 victory over Dallas, the worst team in the West. ... C Dewayne Dedmon has been cleared to resume basketball activities after missing the last 14 games with a stress reaction in his left tibia. Coach Mike Budenholzer said a CT scan showed the bone is healing on schedule, though Dedmon might need another 10 to 14 days before he is ready to play.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Wizards: Host Houston on Friday and Chicago on Sunday.</p>
<p>Hawks: Visit Toronto on Friday and host Portland on Saturday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more AP NBA coverage: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball</a></p> | Schroder, Ilyasova help Hawks get consecutive wins | false | https://apnews.com/amp/b17f3115a8ba422384735ec03e3ca402 | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>SANTA FE – A state board plans to investigate whether retired public school employees have been circumventing New Mexico’s return-to-work regulations by drawing both a salary and a pension at the same time.</p>
<p>Critics call the practice double dipping.</p>
<p>Hundreds of people who work at public schools throughout New Mexico could be affected, depending on how the state’s retirement rules are interpreted, one official said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The investigation involves retirees who work at schools, but as employees of a group called Cooperative Educational Services.</p>
<p>The central question is whether the employees really retired, or if they just continued working in the same jobs, but as CES employees to avoid a requirement that they sit out a year before returning to half- or full-time work</p>
<p>The New Mexico Educational Retirement Board is conducting the investigation.</p>
<p>“If they’re using a third-party entity, or doing something to get around those rules, that’s going to be against the law” or other state rules, said Roderick Ventura, general counsel for the Educational Retirement Board.</p>
<p>The cooperative, in turn, says its employees have taken care to follow the rules. The cooperative even asked ERB ahead of time if retired employees could work for the cooperative and then be re-assigned back to their original schools, said David Chavez, executive director of CES.</p>
<p>And the answer, he said, was that, yes, they could – because the cooperative isn’t part of the ERB system and isn’t covered by its return-to-work restrictions.</p>
<p>The cooperative doesn’t even ask its employees about their retirement status, Chavez said, so he’s not sure how many employees could be affected, but it could potentially reach the hundreds, depending on how ERB interprets the retirement rules.</p>
<p>Jan Goodwin, executive director of the Educational Retirement Board, said that, based on initial conversations with the cooperative, there might be only 15 to 20 people affected.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But “we’re going to do our own independent investigation of this to ascertain how many people are involved,” Goodwin said in an interview.</p>
<p>Ventura said the retirement board never told CES that it was OK for retirees to return to the exact same jobs right after retirement.</p>
<p>The employees could have to repay some of the benefits they’ve received if they violated the law or other state rules.</p>
<p>The cooperative provides staff members for hard-to-fill positions at districts, such as speech-language pathologists, social workers and occupational therapists.</p>
<p>School districts created the cooperative in 1979 to help make purchases. Districts can hire vendors quickly by making purchases through the cooperative, avoiding the need for each school to go through its own lengthy bidding process. The group is funded by a fee paid by the vendors hired through the cooperative.</p>
<p>Under ERB’s return-to-work program, participants receive both a salary and a pension, but must keep paying mandatory contributions into the pension fund.</p>
<p>They also have to meet certain requirements – either by sitting out for at least a year before returning to an ERB employer or by working only a small number of hours each week.</p>
<p>Employees in New Mexico’s main public pension system face more stringent prohibitions.</p>
<p>In 2010, then-Gov. Bill Richardson signed into law a measure that banned double dipping for state workers, after the practice had come under fire for stifling internal promotions and putting a strain on the state’s retirement fund.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Board to probe double dipping | false | https://abqjournal.com/1033807/investigation-planned-for-retired-school-employees-back-on-job-through-private-company.html | 2017-07-16 | 2 |
<p />
<p>On February 3, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that asks for a Labor Department review of the fiduciary rule, which will almost certainly delay its implementation beyond the currently-scheduled April 10, 2017 date. Here's what you need to know about the fiduciary rule, and why there is strong opposition to it within the financial industry.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In a financial context, a fiduciary is required to act in the best interest of the person or party whose assets they're managing. Many people mistakenly think that all financial industry professionals are bound to this standard, but that's not the case.</p>
<p>Image Source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>One of the biggest benefits to hiring a fiduciary to handle your investments and other assets is that a fiduciary must put his or her client's best interest ahead of their own profit. For example, investment professionals who are not bound to a fiduciary standard have been known to recommend investment products to their clients because they offer the highest commissions, and not because the products were actually in their clients' best interest.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>If your investment advisor is a Registered Investment Advisor, they have a fiduciary responsibility and are required to act in your best interest. However, many brokers, insurance professionals, and others in the financial industry do not. Registered Investment Advisors are bound to a fiduciary standard that was part of the Investment Advisors Act of 1940, which essentially says that an advisor must put the client's interests over their own. In addition to the example of not selling high-commission investment products, advisors cannot make trades in client accounts for the sole purpose of generating higher commissions, and cannot buy securities for their own accounts prior to buying them for a client.</p>
<p>In addition to these examples, fiduciaries must:</p>
<p>The fiduciary standard is much stricter than the "suitability standard" that applies to brokers, insurance agents, and other financial professionals. All the suitability standard requires is that as long as an investment objective meets a client's needs and objectives, it's appropriate to recommend to clients (essentially the last bullet point in the fiduciary list only).</p>
<p>In a nutshell, the fiduciary rule is designed to make all financial professionals who provide retirement planning advice or work with retirement plans accountable to the fiduciary standard, as opposed to the more relaxed suitability standard.</p>
<p>The point of the fiduciary rule is to ensure that retirement planners and other related professionals will be legally obligated to put their clients' best interest first -- not just to find investments that meets the clients' objectives. The rule would cover professionals who work with defined-contribution retirement plans like 401(k)s and 403(b)s, as well as defined-benefit plans (pensions) and IRAs.</p>
<p>The fiduciary rule was formally proposed by the Department of Labor in April 2016 and was passed shortly thereafter. The rule is currently scheduled to be phased in from April 10, 2017 through January 1, 2018.</p>
<p>The fiduciary rule sounds great for investors. It would protect millions of investors from paying unnecessarily high commissions on investment products, and from buying investment products and making decisions that aren't in their best interest. In fact, a 2015 report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates that conflicts of interests by brokers cost retirement investors up to $17 billion per year.</p>
<p>However, there is strong opposition from many people in the financial industry. For starters, many retirement planning professionals are obviously not big fans of the fiduciary rule. Many would rather be held to a suitability standard, as the fiduciary standard would cost them money, both in terms of commissions and the added cost of complying with the new regulations. In fact, it is estimated that the implementation of the fiduciary rule could cost the industry an estimated $2.4 billion per year.</p>
<p>One of the biggest arguments against the fiduciary rule is that it could unfairly impact smaller and independent retirement advisors, who might not have the ability to afford the costs of complying with the new regulations. The U.K. passed similar rules in 2011, and the number of financial advisors has since dropped by 22.5%. The fear is that a similar thing could happen here.</p>
<p>The $15,834 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $15,834 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-social-security?aid=8727&amp;source=irreditxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=ryr-ss-intro-report&amp;ftm_pit=3186&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | The Fiduciary Rule: Pros and Cons | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/03/fiduciary-rule-pros-and-cons.html | 2017-02-03 | 0 |
<p>SOASTA CEO Tom Lounibos on the growth of online shopping, retailer efforts to compete against Amazon and tips for shopping online safely.</p>
<p>As retailers prepare their online platforms for the busy holiday shopping season, there are also steps consumers can take to protect themselves from cyber fraud as they go online to shop.&#160; SOASTA CEO Tom Lounibos gives three tips for consumers to protect themselves from cyber fraud this holiday season.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>First, Lounibos suggested focusing on the websites of brands you are familiar with.</p>
<p>“Probably the biggest one is the brands you choose.&#160; I think if you’re choosing websites that you’re not familiar with, the brands have literally, since a couple years ago with the Target problems that they had, the brands have spent almost $8 billion in securing the data, the customers’ data.&#160; So go to brands that you know.&#160; That’s probably number one,” Lounibos told the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.</p>
<p>Second, Lounibos tells consumers to be leery of pop up ads.</p>
<p>“You have to be careful of things you click on because there are a lot of ads within websites.&#160; And so, sometimes it’s not the website you go to, but it’s the ads that are actually on their websites that might actually cause some problems, so you have to be a little bit diligent there.”</p>
<p>Lastly, Lounibos cautions consumers to be mindful of a website that is noticeably slow to load.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>“You’re cautious about slow websites as well.&#160; Performance sometimes relates to brands that are illegitimate, and so people have to be vigilant as they consume online these days.”</p>
<p>According to Lounibos, a slow performing website doesn’t always mean it’s a fake brand, but it does raise a red flag that your data may be potentially vulnerable.</p>
<p>“If you’re a slower website, you know, sometimes it’s a real brand,” Lounibos&#160; continued, “But, for the most part, performance is directly associated with brands that are not diligent with their service or their support side of the fence or the consumer data.”</p> | Tis the Season for Cyber Fraud, Here's How Consumers Can Protect Their Information | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/09/20/tis-season-for-cyber-fraud-heres-how-consumers-can-protect-their-information.html | 2016-09-20 | 0 |
<p>Today Officer Wenjian Liu will be buried. &#160;His partner, Rafael Ramos, was buried a week ago. &#160;Both were assassinated by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who posted online prior to the murders his anger over the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.</p>
<p>Officers attending the funeral have been ordered not to turn their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio, as happened at the Ramos funeral.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Live Video and Twitter Coverage below.</p>
<p />
<p>[Funeral Over – Video feeds removed]</p>
<p>(Father of NYPD Officer Wenjian Liu at Funeral)</p>
<p>(Wife of NYPD Officer Wenjian Liu at funeral)</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wenjianliu" type="external">#wenjianliu Tweets</a></p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NYPD" type="external">#NYPD Tweets</a></p>
<p>Selected Tweets below.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> | Funeral for #NYPD Officer Wenjian Liu | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/01/funeral-for-nypd-officer-wenjian-liu-live/?utm_source%3Dfacebook%26utm_medium%3DLI%26utm_campaign%3Dfuneral | 2015-01-04 | 0 |
<p>Sunday, BuzzFeed News Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources to discuss his organization's publishing of the leaked Trump dossier.</p>
<p>During the segment, host Brian Stelter repeatedly noted the irresponsibility of publishing such a document, as it not only contains numerous errors, but is completely unverified by intelligence agencies. Smith argued that Americans should be able to make up their own minds about the dossier, and that BuzzFeed made sure to mention the document's unverified status, as well as some of its errors.</p>
<p>An illuminating exchange occurred between Stelter and Smith beginning at the 4:49 mark:</p>
<p>SMITH: "We are, I think, well within the tradition of American journalism, which is every time you use the word 'alleged' on your air, every time you see the word 'alleged' in print or on the web, that is saying 'we are repeating a claim that we can't verify.' That is totally within the standard...</p>
<p>From our perspective, if you are going to say that, your obligation then, if you've got the indictment, even if your think there's lots there that's false, in fact, if you can particularly--if you can point to things that are false--if I can see it, if it's not going to scald my eyes out, I think it's a question to reasonably ask your audience. If I'm up here saying 'I have a secret document. I'm gonna summarize for it. I'm not sure I'm comfortable showing it to you because I'm not sure I can trust you with it. Do you feel that you should see it?'"</p>
<p>STELTER: "It's not about trusting the reader."</p>
<p>SMITH: "What do you mean it's not about trusting the reader?"</p>
<p>STELTER: "Let's put on the screen what you said to the audience at the time. You said 'Americans can make up their own minds about allegations about the president-elect that have circulated around the intelligence community.' But how can Americans, or anybody else, make up their own minds without providing reporting to them...How do you expect your readers to make up their own mind?"</p>
<p>SMITH: "...If you are going to report on a document, the presumption is that you share the document with your audience. Let them know what you know...I think we are trying to best inform our audience, to be true to our audience, to treat our audience with respect...I think the conflation of that with deliberate deception is really inappropriate. We put this out with a very clear summary of what it was, where it came from. We really stressed that there were false things in this document, [and] a lot of reason not to believe it."</p>
<p>STELTER: "You did, but why not publish a full, reported explanation to the reader about what you've learned so far, what's false in it? Why not help them understand what they were seeing in this memo?...Let's be honest, you rushed this out. CNN published, and you published a couple hours later, trying to get this on the internet as fast as possible."</p>
<p>SMITH: "I mean, it is both of our jobs to be as fast and as accurate as we can."</p>
<p>STELTER: "Accurate, and then fast."</p>
<p>There's legitimate debate regarding just how inappropriate it was for BuzzFeed to publish the Trump dossier. However, there's a level to this that has yet to be discussed.</p>
<p>Journalists are taught to follow a certain code of ethics with regard to salacious, unproven material; the average American is not. Digital journalists know that the age of "Americans as news consumers" is over. We are in an age in which, through social media, Americans act as co-publishers of the news.</p>
<p>When a particular type of story is uploaded, there is an expectation that it will be shared across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and all other social media platforms. In publishing the Trump dossier--even with several caveats regarding its unprovability and errors--BuzzFeed's news team has to have known that the allegations contained within the dossier would go viral.</p>
<p>Sure enough, they did. Within hours of BuzzFeed's publication, #GoldenShowers became a trending topic on Twitter. "Golden showers" refers to a semi-sexual act Donald Trump is alleged to have participated in, according to the dossier.</p>
<p>Ben Smith can proudly claim he wants his readers to be fully-informed, but he can't stick the landing. BuzzFeed is aggressively anti-Trump, and it doesn't stretch credulity to believe that the organization published the dossier because they knew the unverified claims would blow up online, further tarnishing the president-elect's image.</p>
<p>What BuzzFeed did was journalistic malpractice, not simply because they published the dossier, but because they should have known (and likely did) that the salacious claims would go viral in the age of social media "co-publishers."</p> | In the Age of Social Media, BuzzFeed's Publishing of the Trump Dossier is More Than Just 'Reckless' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/12428/age-social-media-buzzfeeds-publishing-trump-frank-camp | 2017-01-15 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The attack on a riverfront bike path in New York City was carried out with a pickup truck that home contractors or do-it-yourself handymen can get with no background check and little worry it will raise red flags among law enforcement.</p>
<p>Eight people were killed and 12 seriously injured in the Tuesday afternoon attack when, authorities say, Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old from Uzbekistan, barreled along the path for more than a dozen blocks.</p>
<p>Angela Hrdlicka, a former Secret Service agent who is now a private security consultant, said for the attackers, the rentals are a perfect recipe to carry out attacks: easy to get, cheap and with virtually no vetting.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“It’s easy to do and it’s very, very difficult to defend against,” she said.</p>
<p>Home Depot officials said in an email to The Associated Press that it does not screen renters. All of its stores require a valid driver’s license, insurance information and a credit card deposit. Other rental companies, including Hertz, Enterprise and U-Haul, mention similar guidelines on their websites. In most cases, the cost to rent a truck from Home Depot or U-Haul is much cheaper than a rental car.</p>
<p>Matthew Harrigan, a Home Depot spokesman, said there’s no thought at this time to change how the company vets people who rent their vehicles.</p>
<p>John Miller, deputy commissioner for New York City Police, said Wednesday that authorities are working to put together a timeline of Saipov’s whereabouts leading up to the attack.</p>
<p>New York City has a program called “Project Shield” in which law enforcement works with businesses to help identify potential threats. It wasn’t immediately known if the store where Saipov rented the vehicle had been one of visited by authorities. So far in this case, Miller said, “there was certainly nothing unusual enough to cause anybody to call.”</p>
<p>Vehicles have been used in scores of terror attacks around the world, including the July 2016 attack in Nice, France, when a large cargo truck drove into a crowd on a promenade. Eighty-six people were killed. In March, a Hyundai sedan rammed into a crowd on Westminster Bridge in London, killing five.</p>
<p>In the United States, terrorists used a Ryder van to detonate a bomb at the World Trade Center in 1993. And in 1995, a rented Ryder truck was used by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168.</p>
<p>“It doesn’t have to be a big vehicle,” Hrdlicka said. “You can mow down just as many people almost with a minivan and a crowd like that. If you started making them do background checks on rental vehicles they could just steal one or borrow their neighbors or use their own personal vehicle. That’s not going to fix the potential risk.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Anthony Schilling, an adjunct professor of homeland security at the University of New Hampshire who’s been involved in security since the 1970s, called it the nightmare scenario in a lone wolf attack. Vehicles are easy to rent and aren’t subject to deep background investigations. “Even if you have a record, you can still rent a vehicle.”</p>
<p>Bruce Alexander, a security and terrorism expert, said the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings proved decades ago how easy it is to use these vehicles for destructive purposes. Those attacks helped raise awareness about the easy ways one can “weaponize” commonly available tools. But there’s always a balancing act.</p>
<p>Companies want to ensure the customer’s experience is as easy and simple as possible, and that vetting of customers is time- and cost-effective.</p>
<p>“It is very difficult to come up with a workable cost-effective model that also fits within the constraints of civil liberties and is also practical from a business standpoint,” Alexander said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Lisa Marie Pane on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/lisamariepane" type="external">www.twitter.com/lisamariepane</a></p> | Renting a truck is easy, and tough for authorities to stop | false | https://abqjournal.com/1086507/renting-a-truck-is-easy-and-tough-for-authorities-to-stop.html | 2017-11-01 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>JAMESTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — A New York man has been cited for keeping a wild deer on the second floor of his home.</p>
<p>State Department of Environmental Conservation Officer Jerry Kinney says his office received a complaint that a neighbor was harboring a wild animal in his Jamestown house.</p>
<p>The resident told responding officers he believed it was legal to keep the whitetail deer fawn in his house for up to six weeks before he had to release it. Officers told him this was not true and issued the resident a ticket for illegal possession of protected wildlife.</p>
<p>Kinney says the deer was in good health and was released back into the wild.</p>
<p><a href="#0d4a13cf-a884-4ef6-b1ee-ff377c5638b1" type="external">© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</a> Learn more about our <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/privacy" type="external">Privacy Policy</a> and <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/terms" type="external">Terms of Use</a>.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Police: Man cited for keeping wild deer in New York house | false | https://abqjournal.com/1025418/police-man-cited-for-keeping-wild-deer-in-new-york-house.html | 2017-06-29 | 2 |
<p>Last week I was in London attending a Global Leadership Forum, sponsored by the Royal United Services Institute, the Princeton Project on National Security, Newsweek International, and Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP. The attendees–from both the United States and Europe–included academics, scholars, journalists, diplomatic advisers and others who inhabit the foreign policy world. The event was well-organized, the conversations wide-ranging, and there was a genuine effort to hear from a diversity of voices (hence my invitation). But there is no question that the dominant outlook of most of those in attendance was left-leaning, which itself made the trip illuminating.</p>
<p>I came away from the gathering (portions of which I missed) with several broad impressions. One was that multilateralism has become virtually an end in itself. What matters to many Europeans and liberal-leaning Americans is the process rather than the results. What almost never gets discussed is what happens when one's desire for multilateralism collides with achieving a worthy end (for example, trying to stop genocide in Darfur or prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb). The child-like faith in multilateralism as the solution to all that ails the world would be touchingly innocent if it weren't so terribly dangerous.</p>
<p>There were the predictable assertions made about how the United States, under George W. Bush, was “unilateralist” and that, in the words of one former Clinton Administration official, “multilateralism was a dirty word” in the Bush Administration. This charge is simplistic and demonstrably untrue–and one could cite as evidence everything from the lead up to the Iraq war (in which the United States went to the UN not once but twice, and gained unanimous approval of Resolution 1441); the war itself (which included support from the governments of Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, Norway, El Salvador and many other nations); the E3; the Quartet; the Six Party Talks; the Proliferation Security Initiative; a slew of free trade agreements; and more. In fact the Bush Administration was criticized by Democrats for being too multilateralist in their dealings with North Korea; it was said by John Kerry, among other liberals, that we should engage in bilateral talks with North Korea rather than rely on the Six Party Talks.</p>
<p>Another impression I had was that many (if not most) Europeans and American foreign policy experts are caught in a time warp, acting as if we are still in 2006. They simply want to wash their hands of Iraq. They hate the war, are seemingly impervious to the security and political progress we have seen in Iraq since last summer, and they want the next Administration to downplay Iraq as an issue, which they believe has “obsessed” the Bush presidency. What they don't seem to understand is that ending U.S. involvement in the war won't end the war. In fact, if Obama or Clinton follow up on their stated commitments, it is likely to trigger mass death and possibly genocide, revitalize al Qaeda, strengthen Iran, and further destabilize the region. The irony would be that the plans laid out by Democrats, if followed, would increase, not decrease, Iraq's dominance of American foreign policy. An Iraq that is cracking up and caught in a death spiral is not something that even a President Obama or Clinton could ignore.</p>
<p>The third impression I came away with is the widespread view in Europe, as well as among some Americans, that the U.S. has suffered a huge, almost incalculable, loss of “moral authority” (its worth recalling that we heard much the same thing during the Reagan years). The evidence cited is always the same: Guantanamo Bay, rendition and secret prisons, and waterboarding. They are invoked like an incantation. The effect of this is that you would think that the United States is among the leading violators of human rights in the world.</p>
<p>During one of the panel sessions I said it was fine to place on one side of the moral ledger waterboarding three leading al Qaeda figures, which I consider to be a morally complicated issue–but that it's also worth putting on the other side of the moral ledger the fact that we liberated more than 50 million people from two of the most odious and repressive regimes in modern history. Liberation was not the only impulse that drove the two wars, but it was one of them, and a noble one at that. I borrowed a line from Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic who, while a harsh critic of the execution of the Bush Administration, has written “I find it impossible to denounce a war that led to the removal of a genocidal dictator.” That is especially true now that we have the right strategy in place, that we're seeing progress on almost every front, and that we have a decent shot at a decent outcome in Iraq. The situation is still hugely challenging and success, if we achieve it, will be long in coming. But the collapse of will that I witnessed among some leading foreign policy voices on both sides of the Atlantic, while not surprising, was still discouraging. It is no wonder that world leaders who do not share that exhaustion are the objects of condemnation.</p> | The View from the Continent | false | https://eppc.org/publications/the-view-from-the-continent/ | 1 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — House intelligence chairman Devin Nunes went to the White House grounds to review intelligence reports and meet the secret source behind his claim that communications involving associates of President Donald Trump were caught up in “incidental” surveillance, the Republican congressman said Monday.</p>
<p>Nunes’ revelation prompted the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, as well as the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, to call on Nunes to recuse himself from the committee’s Russia probe.</p>
<p>Schiff said Nunes’ connections to the White House have raised insurmountable public doubts about whether the committee could credibly investigate the president’s campaign associates.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I believe the public cannot have the necessary confidence that matters involving the president’s campaign or transition team can be objectively investigated or overseen by the chairman,” Schiff said in a statement Monday.</p>
<p>Nunes confirmed Monday that he met with the source at the White House complex, but he denied coordinating with the president’s aides.</p>
<p>After reviewing the information last week, Nunes called a news conference to announce that U.S. spy agencies may have inadvertently captured Trump and his associates in routine targeting of foreigners’ communications. Trump quickly seized on the statements as at least partial vindication for his assertion that President Barack Obama tapped his phones at Trump Tower — though Nunes, Schiff and FBI Director James Comey have said there is no such evidence.</p>
<p>The Senate intelligence committee is also conducting an investigation into Russia’s interference in the election and possible ties with the Trump campaign. On Monday, it announced that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has agreed to be interviewed. The White House confirmed that Kushner, a senior Trump adviser, had volunteered to be interviewed about arranging meetings with the Russian ambassador and other officials.</p>
<p>Kushner is the fourth Trump associate to offer to be interviewed by the congressional committees looking into the murky Russia ties. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, Trump adviser Carter Page and Trump associate Roger Stone last week volunteered to speak as well.</p>
<p>“Mr. Kushner will certainly not be the last person the committee calls to give testimony, but we expect him to be able to provide answers to key questions that have arisen in our inquiry,” the chairman, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, and the top Democrat, Mark Warner of Virginia, said in a joint statement Monday in a sign of bipartisanship.</p>
<p>Trump himself suggested late Monday that the House panel should investigate Bill and Hillary Clinton’s dealings with Russia. “Trump Russia story is a hoax,” he tweeted.</p>
<p>Besides the two congressional committees, the FBI is also investigating connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The House investigation, meanwhile, has been plagued with partisan divisions under Nunes’ leadership.</p>
<p>The chairman did not tell the top Democrat on the committee about the meeting at the White House complex. It is highly unusual for a committee chairman and ranking member not to coordinate meetings related to an investigation.</p>
<p>Nunes argued he had to review classified, executive branch documents from a secure facility at the White House because the reports had not been provided to Congress and could not be transported to the secure facilities used by the House intelligence committee.</p>
<p>“Because of classification rules, the source could not simply put the documents in a backpack and walk them over to the House Intelligence committee space,” Nunes spokesman Jack Langer said. “The White House grounds was the best location to safeguard the proper chain of custody and classification of these documents, so the chairman could view them in a legal way.”</p>
<p>Nunes would not name the source of the information, nor would he disclose who invited him on the White House grounds for the meeting. In addition to the White House itself, the grounds include an adjacent building with offices for National Security Council and other executive branch employees.</p>
<p>Nunes described the source as an intelligence official, not a White House official. In an interview on CNN, he suggested the president’s aides were unaware of the meeting.</p>
<p>The disclosure renewed calls for an independent committee to investigate the Russia ties.</p>
<p>Indeed, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on House Speaker Paul Ryan to replace Nunes as chairman of the intelligence committee.</p>
<p>“He has not been operating like someone who is interested in getting to the unvarnished truth. His actions look like those of someone who is interested in protecting the president and his party,” Schumer said.</p>
<p>House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said, “Chairman Nunes’ discredited behavior has tarnished that office,” and said Ryan should insist that Nunes “at least recuse himself” from the Russia probe.</p>
<p>AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, said Monday the speaker has “full confidence that Chairman Nunes is conducting a thorough, fair and credible investigation.”</p>
<p>When Nunes disclosed the intelligence reports last week, he said what he reviewed had nothing to do with Russia, which could suggest that Trump associates were in touch with other foreign targets of U.S. intelligence surveillance in November, December or January.</p>
<p>“The chairman is extremely concerned by the possible improper unmasking of names of U.S. citizens, and he began looking into this issue even before President Trump tweeted his assertion that Trump Tower had been wiretapped,” Langer said.</p>
<p>It is unclear exactly what documents Nunes reviewed.</p>
<p>Nunes and Schiff have asked the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency for the names of officials who were cited in intelligence reports. The committee has said it is getting some of what it requested, but has not received everything.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Vivian Salama and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.</p> | Visit to WH grounds by intel chairman clouds investigation | false | https://abqjournal.com/976860/house-intel-chairman-met-source-on-white-house-grounds.html | 2017-03-27 | 2 |
<p>On April 22, the Association of University Teachers in the United Kingdom voted to boycott the University of Haifa in Israel. Supporters of the boycott referred to the university’s treatment of one of its staff, Dr. Ilan Pappe, in the controversy over an MA thesis which had been written by Teddy Katz about events in 1948 in the Palestinian coastal village of Tantura, a few miles south of Haifa.</p>
<p>The boycott decision has led to a media storm in both Israel and the United Kingdom. The debate is ongoing — opponents of the boycott have collected the twenty-five signatures needed to call a special emergency conference to discuss the boycott again; this meeting will be held on May 26.</p>
<p>I should declare, up front, that I have been tangentially involved in the Katz affair: I attended the court proceedings as a member of the public and I have recently finished translating Katz’s thesis into English. However, my interest in the events at Tantura in 1948 goes back much further.</p>
<p>In the summer of 1954, six years after the Israelis conquered the village of Tantura, I spent the summer in Kibbutz Nachsholim, which had been established on the ruins of the village less than one year after its conquest. I was then a counselor in the Youth Movement, Hanoar Ha’oved. In accordance with the custom of those days, by which older teenage members of the movement used to spend the summer months working voluntarily in a kibbutz, my group of grade 11 students had been sent to Nachsholim.</p>
<p>We were warmly welcomed and accommodated in the old Arab houses that dotted the shoreline of what used to be Tantura. Some of the kibbutz members, particularly bachelor males not much older than my youth movement kids, used to spend most of their evenings mingling with us. During one of these get-togethers, a girl from my group turned to one of the kibbutz members and asked about the houses in which we were living. “What are these houses?”, she asked. “Who used to live here and where are these people now?”</p>
<p>A short silence ensued and then one of the older kibbutz members changed the subject by saying: “Lets not talk about this. It is just too complicated”. A warning light was switched on at the back of my head: “Something bad has happened here”. However, I didn’t do anything to inquire further. I went on with my life and actually forgot the whole incident — but the realization that something untoward had happened there lingered on.</p>
<p>More than forty years later, when the Teddy Katz affair began to unfold, I was immediately reminded of the incident in Nachsholim/Tantura in the summer of 1954.</p>
<p>Teddy Katz, a member of Kibbutz Magal and a native of the city of Haifa, initially planned to do his Master’s thesis on the events in Haifa during the 1948 war. His supervisor, Kais Firro (and not Ilan Pappe as many seem to believe), discouraged him from choosing this topic, because of the relative abundance of such material. Instead, he suggested that Teddy should focus on some of the villages south of Haifa and their fate during the 1948 war.</p>
<p>As a result, in 1998, Katz submitted to the University of Haifa an MA thesis that focused on the fate of several Palestinian villages, in particular, Ein Razal, Um el Zeinat and Tantura. The thesis was approved and given a rating of 97%, the highest rating for a thesis that I have ever heard of. In 1999, Teddy Katz was awarded an MA (research) degree from Haifa University.</p>
<p>In collecting data for his thesis, Katz relied heavily on the use of oral testimony as one of his basic methodological approaches. He interviewed over one hundred Israeli and Palestinian individuals who were in these villages or were connected to these villages during the 1948 war.</p>
<p>From the evidence he collected, Katz concluded that, during the conquest of Tantura by the Israeli Jewish forces in late May 1948, a large number of individuals had been murdered, possibly up to 225. Katz estimated that about 20 had been killed during the battle for Tantura and that the rest, both civilians and captured fighters, were killed after the village had surrendered, at a time when they were not armed in any way. (Since many believe that Katz concluded in his thesis that a massacre took place in Tantura, it is important to note that, in fact, the word “massacre” did not appear in the thesis.)</p>
<p>In late January 2000, Teddy Katz was interviewed by Amir Gilat, a journalist from a mass-circulation Israeli newspaper, Ma’ariv, which subsequently published a long article summarizing the findings in Katz’s thesis. The claim that a massacre took place in Tantura appears for the first time in the Ma’ariv article.</p>
<p>A short while after the publication of the article in Ma’ariv, a group of veterans from the “Alexandroni” Brigade, the army unit that had attacked and captured Tantura, sued Katz for libel. The veterans were represented by Giora Erdinast, an attorney who is the son-in-law of one of the veterans and who is reputed to have acted on the veterans’ behalf in a pro bono capacity. Teddy Katz was represented by Avigdor Feldman, a well-known human rights lawyer in Israel.</p>
<p>The court proceedings began in December 2000. The allegations against Katz centered on the claim that the thesis contained misquotations and that there were discrepancies between some of the oral testimony recordings and what was described in the thesis. Between six and nine such discrepancies were discovered. For example, in one of these instances Katz quoted an Alexandroni veteran as having used the word “Nazis” whereas, in fact, he had used the word “Germans”. In another instance, Katz reported that a Palestinian witness “saw” an incident whereas, in fact, he had said that he “heard” the incident. (In fairness to Katz, it should be noted that some of the tapes were barely audible and, in some cases, the speakers used barely decipherable dialect terms from the regional variant of Palestinian Arabic. Considering this, most “discrepancies” seem, in fact, more like reasonable interpretations.)</p>
<p>It is important to note that, about two months prior to the onset of the court proceedings, Katz, who was under severe financial pressure emanating from the expenses of the case, had received a donation of $8000 from Palestinian sources. This amount was given to Katz by Faisal Husseini who was then the Palestinian Authority representative in Jerusalem. Katz needed, at that point, to immediately deposit NIS30,000 before the case could proceed and the need for additional funds had become particularly acute when a fundraiser evening in the progressive Tzavta Club in Tel Aviv failed to raise the amount required.</p>
<p>The fact that Katz received funds from the Palestinians became known only late in 2002, following the seizure of documents during the now infamous police raid and “conquest” of Orient House, the Palestinian Headquarters in East Jerusalem. (The raid was directed by Uzi Landau, the militant, right-wing Likud member who was, then, the Minister of Internal Security.) Ironically, this revelation came to light approximately one month prior to the submission of Katz’s revised thesis, a revision which, as we shall see, was caused by Haifa University’s decision to suspend his degree after the court case.</p>
<p>Now back to the case.</p>
<p>Katz himself was the first and only witness to testify in the trial. At the end of the second day of proceedings, something rather shocking happened: Katz agreed to an out-of-court settlement, signing an “apology” in which he admitted that what had happened in Tantura was not a “massacre” — this word was used in the apology and denying it seems to have been the entire point. The irony is that the real issue, whether civilians and unarmed ex-fighters were killed after the surrender, did not play a role. All that the veterans seem to have wanted was an apology for usage of the word “massacre”, a word which, it should be repeated, never appeared in Katz’s thesis.</p>
<p>The document was signed late at night (around 11:45 PM), at a meeting which involved one of Katz’s non-litigating lawyers, Amatzia Atlas, who also happens to be Katz’s cousin. Katz’s chief attorney, Avigdor Feldman, was not there and was not aware of this development.</p>
<p>According to Katz, he already had second thoughts about what he had done as he traveled away from the meeting in a taxi. These misgivings were conveyed to Atlas right there and then. Apparently, Atlas convinced Katz to “sleep on it” and see how he felt in the morning. Also, according to Katz, a Haifa University lawyer who was present during the signing of the agreement told Katz’s wife (who was also present): “Tell him to sign and just continue his studies for his doctorate”.</p>
<p>It is important to note that, according to Katz, in the period of approximately twelve hours from the signing of the agreement to the resumption of the court session, he spoke to only two other people — one close personal friend and Adam Keller, the spokesperson of Gush Shalom.</p>
<p>At the beginning of the court session next morning, the presiding judge, Drora Pilpel, announced that the case was closed, to the stunned silence of many of those present in the courtroom, who were not aware of the happenings of the night before. She explained that an out-of-court settlement had been signed and that it had been examined and approved by the court.</p>
<p>At that point, attorney Feldman rose and told the judge that Katz would like to make a statement. Permission was given and Katz explained to the court that he had signed the settlement in a moment of weakness which he now deeply regretted. Furthermore, he felt that he wouldn’t be able to live with this decision since it did not represent what he really felt about his work. He pleaded with the court to give him permission to retract his “apology” and continue to defend himself against the libel suit.</p>
<p>The attorney acting for the Alexandroni veterans asked the court to reject Katz’s request and, after several hours of deliberation, Judge Pilpel announced her decision not to allow Katz to back out of the settlement. She made it crystal clear that her decision related only to her conviction that a contract between parties must be respected. She emphasized that her decision did not relate in any way to the content, accuracy or veracity of the libel suit. Katz appealed to the Supreme Court who, in turn, upheld the decision of the judge of the lower court for exactly the same reasons.</p>
<p>As part of the signed settlement, Katz was obliged to publish an “apology” in the press. Katz now refused to do so, since it would not represent his true feelings about the case. The attorney acting for the veterans then published the “apology” himself and proceeded to seize Katz’s car as repayment for the publication cost. To avoid seizure of his car, Katz paid.</p>
<p>A lot has been written about the reasons that caused Katz to “collapse” and sign an “apology” which he obviously did not believe in. In this context, one must note that the pressure of the libel case was seriously deleterious to Katz’s health. He suffered a mild stroke and was altogether in poor mental and emotional health. Several members of his family, including his wife, his children and his cousin, the lawyer Amatzia Atlas, pressured him to settle, since they were actually worried for his life. Following the termination of the court case, I had the opportunity to discuss this issue with Katz’s wife and son. They both confirmed the fact that at that point all they had wanted was to reduce the pressure and protect Teddy’s health.</p>
<p>Following the court case, Haifa University appointed a committee of four to “re-inspect” Katz’s thesis. The deliberations which led to this appointment are not clear. The university has never explained by what procedural rules it was able to re-open consideration of the status of a thesis that had already been approved and awarded a rating of 97%.</p>
<p>The committee reported that it found some major errors. For example, it stated that the thesis “failed at the stage of presenting the raw material for the reader’s judgment, both in terms of its organization according to strict criteria of classification and criticism, and in terms of the apparent instances of disregard for the interviewees’ testimony.” There was a sharp debate, among the members of the committee, as to whether “Katz’s distortions” were politically motivated and deliberate.</p>
<p>It is worth repeating that, as far as I am aware, the university never explained the legal and procedural justification for this development in accordance with a pre-existing rule-book. This is particularly relevant since it is clear that Katz’s thesis was not “re-inspected” as a result of an internal academic complaint, or on the basis of academically-based information presented formally to the faculty by a qualified and authorized academic body, or as a result of a complaint from any person who launched such a complaint as a result of an academic scrutiny of the thesis. Instead, it appears that evaluation of the thesis was re-opened on the basis of some allegation that arose from an aborted legal case and that the action did not follow established and formal rules of academic procedure.</p>
<p>Because of this committee’s report, Katz’s degree was “suspended” (requests were actually made to libraries to remove the thesis from their shelves) and he was offered a chance to revise and resubmit his thesis. Katz accepted the “offer” and significantly revised his thesis both by significantly increasing the number of people interviewed as well as by imposing major changes in the style and structure of the thesis. In order to avoid the possibility of claims of discrepancies between oral testimony and its representation in the thesis, Katz included a large number of verbatim testimonies in the thesis. Naturally, that caused a major expansion of the thesis. (The resultant total length in Hebrew was just under 600 pages and over 800 pages in the English translation). It also made for a somewhat cumbersome and tedious document. Ironically, this very attempt to avoid criticism resulted in new criticisms about the quality of the text and the writing.</p>
<p>Late in 2002, Katz submitted his revised thesis to Haifa University.</p>
<p>In an unprecedented move, Haifa University appointed an anonymous examining committee of five. Despite the supposed anonymity of the committee, the identity of some or all members of the committee soon began to circulate in cyber-space — the source of the leak(s) is not known. The fact that the names of the committee members were freely circulating made it clear that the presumed “secrecy” of the deliberations was destroyed. At the same time, it became clear that some members of the committee were not in a position to claim objectivity and lack of bias.</p>
<p>The assessment of Katz’s revised thesis by the five members of the committee was highly divergent. Two members actually accorded it a very acceptable grade of 85% and 83%. Two others failed it decisively (awarding 40% or so). The fifth committee member gave it a grade of 74%. Haifa University now took another most unusual step — it averaged the marks awarded by the committee members. This dubious statistical procedure resulted in a mark in the mid-70s percentage range, a mark that was just 1% point below the acceptable level for an MA thesis at Haifa University.</p>
<p>On the basis of the results of this highly unusual and dubious process, Haifa University rejected Katz’s thesis and denied him the Research MA degree that should have been conferred on him had the thesis been deemed acceptable. Since Katz had completed all the course and assignment requirements, however, Haifa University had no choice but to award him (reluctantly, I suspect) a “non-research” MA degree.</p>
<p>Finally, it is of some interest that, among several others, two senior writers on the period of the 1948 war have subsequently concluded that Katz’s claim about the events in Tantura is not without merit. Tom Segev concluded his article on the issue by saying that, while Katz may not have been without fault as a historian, the events he reported probably happened. Benny Morris decided that a significant number of Tantura villagers had been killed after the surrender of the place and concluded that they were unarmed or disarmed when killed.</p>
<p>The judgment by Morris is particularly interesting, since he has a methodological objection to the admissibility of oral historical evidence. (When, earlier, he had been asked to come to Katz’s assistance, he refused because Katz had relied on oral testimony.) In an interview in the Jerusalem Report, Morris contended that, while he is not sure whether what happened in Tantura was actually a massacre, he was now convinced that atrocities, rapes and killings were committed by the troops in Tantura.</p>
<p>To my knowledge, despite the fact that several faculty members at Haifa University expressed to me their dismay about the treatment Katz received from their university, the only one to defend Katz publicly was Ilan Pappe.</p>
<p>ZALMAN AMIT grew up in Israel, migrated to Canada and now divides his time between the two countries. A professor emeritus at the Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology in Concordia University, Montreal, he asked to be added to the Campus Watch blacklist of academics.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Tantura, Teddy Katz and Haifa University | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/05/11/tantura-teddy-katz-and-haifa-university/ | 2005-05-11 | 4 |
<p>Shares of Zoe's Kitchen Inc.&#160;(NYSE: ZOES) have fallen 51.7% so far in 2017, according to data provided by&#160; <a href="https://marketintelligence.spglobal.com/" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>, as the fast-casual restaurant chain delivered a pair of disappointing quarterly earnings reports.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Before this year, Zoe's had been enduring an increasingly difficult restaurant-industry environment better than most of its competitors. But cracks in Zoe's armor began to show with its fourth-quarter 2016 report in February, when shares fell 14% after the company <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/25/decelerating-comps-and-higher-costs-dent-zoes-kitc.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=68913b32-64f0-11e7-adcf-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">detailed a troubling combination Opens a New Window.</a> of higher costs and decelerating growth in comparable-restaurant sales growth.</p>
<p>But things went from bad to worse in May, when shares <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/06/15/why-zoes-kitchen-inc-stock-plunged-229-in-may.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=68913b32-64f0-11e7-adcf-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">plunged another 22.9% Opens a New Window.</a> on Zoe's first-quarter 2017 report. To be fair, Zoe's results looked OK at first glance, especially considering revenue grew 12.6% to $90.6 million. But that growth was entirely driven by new locations, as comparable-restaurant sales fell 3.3% and broke a 28-quarter streak of positive comps.</p>
<p>That's not to say all hope is lost for the Mediterranean-themed chain. Its early efforts to drive both traffic and transaction sizes higher included the company's largest new menu rollout in eight years late last month, as well as back-of-the-house simplification initiatives to both improve Zoe's guest experience and increase throughput.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Time will tell whether Zoe's is taking the right steps to return comps to positive territory, and we can take solace knowing this is still a relatively small business in its early stages of nationwide expansion. It's also worth noting investors can pick up the stock now for significantly below Zoe's $15-per-share IPO price.</p>
<p>But for now, until Zoe's can stem its downward momentum and prove to investors its efforts are yielding fruit, the stock will almost certainly remain under pressure.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Zoe's KitchenWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=96a916c8-0e68-4d59-9a27-abd0b57b79e0&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=68913b32-64f0-11e7-adcf-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Zoe's Kitchen wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=96a916c8-0e68-4d59-9a27-abd0b57b79e0&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=68913b32-64f0-11e7-adcf-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of July 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSymington/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=68913b32-64f0-11e7-adcf-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Steve Symington Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Zoe's Kitchen. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=68913b32-64f0-11e7-adcf-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Zoe's Kitchen, Inc. Stock Has Plunged 51.7% So Far in 2017 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/09/why-zoes-kitchen-inc-stock-has-plunged-51-7-so-far-in-2017.html | 2017-07-09 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>HOUSTON — Authorities say a convicted burglar and gang member on the Texas 10 Most Wanted list has been arrested in Houston after more than a year on the run.</p>
<p>The Texas Department of Public Safety says 40-year-old David Lee Gonzales of Houston turned himself in on Tuesday. Records show Gonzales was wanted, since March 2016, for parole violation.</p>
<p>Officials say Gonzales in 2005 was arrested in Pasadena after a home was burglarized and a man was attacked. Gonzales was convicted of burglary of a habitation-committed aggravated assault and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was paroled in mid-2015.</p>
<p>His criminal history also includes robbery, drug possession and evading arrest.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dps.texas.gov/texas10mostwanted/" type="external">http://www.dps.texas.gov/texas10mostwanted/</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Felon on Texas 10 Most Wanted list arrested in Houston | false | https://abqjournal.com/1001502/felon-on-texas-10-most-wanted-list-arrested-in-houston.html | 2 |
|
<p>Shares of American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL) and United Continental (NYSE: UAL) roared higher on Wednesday morning after both legacy carriers released favorable investor updates. While the first quarter was somewhat disappointing for airline investors, it appears that most airlines will report strong results for the second quarter.</p>
<p>Yet while American Airlines and United Continental got to bask in glory on Wednesday, they both remain significantly less profitable than Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL). A rising tide is lifting all boats in the airline industry, but Delta is maintaining its relative advantage.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Back in April, American Airlines' management forecast that revenue per available seat mile (RASM) would increase 3%-5% year over year in the second quarter. By early May, the company felt comfortable raising that guidance. For the past two months, it has been projecting a 3.5%-5.5% RASM increase for Q2.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, American Airlines increased its unit revenue guidance once again. It now believes that RASM increased 5%-6% year over year last quarter. Management linked the better-than-expected unit revenue performance to strong demand trends in the domestic market and much of Latin America.</p>
<p>Thanks to the strong revenue outlook, American Airlines boosted its pre-tax margin guidance range for the second quarter to 13%-14%. For comparison, American originally forecast that its Q2 pre-tax margin would be 11%-13% and raised that guidance range to 12%-14% in May.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>United Continental's investor update also included good news. The company now expects to report a pre-tax margin of 12.5%-13.5% in Q2, whereas it had originally forecast that its pre-tax margin would be 10%-12%.</p>
<p>Unlike American Airlines, United Continental didn't outperform on the revenue side. As it had noted in early June, a supply-demand imbalance in China and Hong Kong is <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/06/09/why-united-continental-holdings-inc-stock-surged-1.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aea1d77e-6718-11e7-baa1-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">weighing on unit revenue Opens a New Window.</a> in the trans-Pacific market. Passenger revenue per available seat mile rose about 2% during the second quarter, right at the midpoint of United's original guidance. That said, cargo revenue and ancillary revenue did come in higher than expected last quarter.</p>
<p>By contrast, United's Q2 cost performance was surprisingly good. Non-fuel unit costs rose about 3%-3.5% year over year during the quarter, compared to the airline's original guidance for a 4%-5% increase. Much of the improvement was related to strong operational performance, although United Continental did note that some costs got pushed out to later in 2017.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, like other airlines, United benefited from falling fuel prices during the quarter. The company ultimately paid $1.63 per gallon in Q2, compared to its original estimate of $1.72-$1.77 per gallon.</p>
<p>Thus, American Airlines and United Continental both outperformed their initial profitability expectations for the second quarter. However, neither one will come close to matching Delta Air Lines' margin performance this quarter.</p>
<p>Delta will reveal its results on Thursday morning, and it is on track to report a <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/05/delta-air-lines-is-back-to-its-winning-ways.aspxhttps:/www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/05/delta-air-lines-is-back-to-its-winning-ways.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aea1d77e-6718-11e7-baa1-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">record 17%-18% pre-tax margin Opens a New Window.</a> for Q2. That would be roughly 4 percentage points ahead of both American and United, even though a series of severe storms that swept through Atlanta in early April reduced Delta's pre-tax profit by about $125 million last quarter.</p>
<p>This just highlights how American and United both have weak spots relative to Delta. American Airlines' non-fuel unit costs jumped 7% year over year last quarter. As a result, its Q2 adjusted pre-tax margin is set to decline from last year's 15.4% mark. Furthermore, its unit revenue growth could slow going forward, as year-over-year comparisons are about to get a lot tougher.</p>
<p>As for United, unit revenue growth remains subpar. Furthermore, during Q2, United probably didn't feel the full impact of consumer backlash related to its numerous customer service gaffes of the past few months.</p>
<p>Investors who have bet on comebacks at American Airlines and United Continental have made a boatload of money over the past year, even though profits are still shrinking at both companies. But Delta Air Lines is likely to deliver a better ride for long-term investors, due to its consistent margin advantage.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than United Continental HoldingsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=e2ff5f47-a3dc-4f4d-98cb-d7b614885488&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aea1d77e-6718-11e7-baa1-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and United Continental Holdings wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=e2ff5f47-a3dc-4f4d-98cb-d7b614885488&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aea1d77e-6718-11e7-baa1-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of July 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGemHunter/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aea1d77e-6718-11e7-baa1-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Adam Levine-Weinberg Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Delta Air Lines. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aea1d77e-6718-11e7-baa1-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | American Airlines and United Continental Provide Strong Investor Updates | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/12/american-airlines-and-united-continental-provide-strong-investor-updates.html | 2017-07-12 | 0 |
<p>This <a href="http://bostonreview.net/BR31.2/rosen.html" type="external">excellent article from the Boston Review</a> opens with a brutal killing and goes on to stitch together the disparate threads of the sectarian violence now wracking the country.</p>
<p>(See the bottom of this page for information on the author.)</p>
<p>The Boston Review:</p>
<p>The Americans came for Sabah one Friday night in September. His house in Radwaniya, on the western outskirts of Baghdad, stood in a dry, yellow field surrounded by brick walls. Three cars were parked in front the day I came to visit, two weeks after Americans had shot him. It was the month of Ramadan, and our mouths were as dry as his yard. The resistance was active in Radwaniya, and we drove through fields and dry canals to avoid any checkpoints that might reveal to locals that I was a foreigner. Journalists were targets now too.</p>
<p />
<p>The Americans had come maybe 20 times before to search for weapons in the house were Sabah lived with his brothers Walid and Hussein, their wives, and their six children. They knew where to look for the single Kalashnikov rifle the family was permitted to own. They had always been polite. “This day they didn’t act normal,” Hussein told me. “They were running from all sides of the house. They kicked open the doors. They didn’t wait for us.” With Iraqi National Guardsmen standing outside, the Americans hit the brothers with their rifle butts. Five soldiers were on each man. Sabah’s nose was broken; Walid lay on the floor with a rifle barrel in his mouth. The Shia translator told them to kill Walid, but they ripped the gun out of his mouth instead, tearing his cheek. The rest of the family was ordered out. The translator asked the brothers where “the others” were and cursed them, threatening to rape their sisters.</p>
<p>As the terrified family waited outside on the road, they heard three shots and what sounded to them like a scuffle inside. The Iraqi National Guardsmen tried to enter the house, but the translator cursed them, too, and shouted, “Who told you to come in?” Thirty minutes later Walid was dragged into the street. The translator emerged with a picture of Sabah and asked for Sabah’s wife. “Your husband was killed by the Americans, and he deserved to die,” he told her. He tore the picture before her face. Several soldiers came out of the house laughing.</p>
<p>Inside, the family found Sabah dead. Blood marked his shirt where three bullets had entered his chest; two came out his back and lodged in the wall behind him. American-made bullet casings were on the floor. The house had been ransacked. Sofas and beds were overturned and torn apart; tables, closets, vases with plastic flowers were broken. Sabah’s pictures had been torn up and his identification card confiscated. Elsewhere in the house one picture remained untouched — Sabah with his three brothers and their father, smiling in happier times. When Sabah was buried the next day his body was not washed — martyrs are buried as they died.</p>
<p><a href="http://bostonreview.net/BR31.2/rosen.html" type="external">Link</a></p>
<p>About the author:</p>
<p>Born in New York City in 1977, Nir Rosen is a freelance writer, photographer and filmmaker who has worked in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and other popular tourist destinations. He is a fellow at the New America Foundation. His book on Iraq, “In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq,” will be published by Simon and Schuster early in 2006.</p>
<p>Rosen speaks Arabic, and his articles have recently been published in the N.Y. Times Sunday Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, and Mother Jones.</p>
<p>He can be reached at nirrosen@yahoo.com.</p> | The Roots of the Iraqi Civil War | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/the-roots-of-the-iraqi-civil-war/ | 2006-03-25 | 4 |
<p>FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Two top officials of the <a href="http://www.bwanet.org/" type="external">Baptist World Alliance</a>&#160;will join about 300 other religious leaders from around the world in Assisi, Italy, Oct. 27 for a Day of Reflection, Dialogue and Prayer for Peace and Justice in the World, initiated by Pope Benedict XVI.</p>
<p>BWA general secretary Neville Callam and John Upton, president of the global organization, will participate in the day-long event, which will include a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Francis, the 13th-century priest whose prayer for peace has become a staple of many Christian traditions.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>“Pilgrims of Truth, Pilgrims of Peace,” the theme of the event, will draw representatives from most of the world’s Christian traditions, as well as delegations of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Zoroastrians, Taoists and indigenous religions.</p>
<p>The gathering commemorates the 25th anniversary of a similar event organized in the same city by Pope John Paul II. That 1986 meeting was seen as a significant step in the Roman Catholic Church’s interreligious relations, but some Catholics criticized the common prayers as syncrenistic.</p>
<p>As a result, Vatican Radio said this year there “will be no praying together in public but rather time for individual prayer and silent meditation.” The religious representatives will commit themselves to praying and working for global peace, reported the Catholic Church’s official broadcasting service.</p>
<p>Among the representatives will be Archbishop Rowan Williams, leader of the worldwide Anglican communion; Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, a leader among Orthodox Christians; and Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches.</p>
<p>This year a handful of non-believers will be included, apparently at Pope Benedict’s request.</p>
<p>“It was this pope’s desire to invite some people, non–believers or at least who do not belong to any particular confession or religion …,” Melchior Sanchez de Toca, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture, told Vatican Radio. “It may seem a contradiction, but you can find sometimes in non-believing people a spirituality which can help us to examine ourselves and grow in our spirituality.”</p>
<p>Pope Benedict recently returned from a visit to his native Germany, where his message to Protestants and other Christians was that all faiths have to work together to confront secularism, reported Religion News Service.</p>
<p>"The most urgent thing for ecumenicalism is, namely, that we can't allow the push of secularism to force us, almost without noticing, to lose sight of the major similarities that make us Christians, and which remain a gift and a challenge for us," the pope said Sept. 23&#160;in Berlin.</p>
<p>For its part,&#160;the Baptist World Alliance has since its inception engaged in conversations with other Christian groups, as part of an assignment to improve understanding and cooperation between Baptists and other faith communities. Two rounds of talks have been held with Catholics — one in the mid-1980s and a second continuing initiative that began in 2006.</p>
<p>Last summer, the BWA announced it would begin preparatory conversations with representatives of both Orthodox Christianity and Pentecostal churches, aiming for eventual formal theological dialogue with both.</p>
<p>At the same time, a BWA commission said Baptists must continue to engage Muslims around the world in hopes of promoting “peaceful living together,” adding that developing a process by which Christians and Muslims can address and resolve issues of conflict is essential.</p>
<p>The BWA, based in suburban Washington, is a fellowship of more than 41 million baptized church members in 221 national and regional member conventions and unions.&#160;Callam has been general secretary since 2007. Upton, who is executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, was elected to a five-year term as president in 2010.</p>
<p>Robert Dilday ( <a href="mailto:rdilday@religiousherald.org" type="external">rdilday@religiousherald.org</a>) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.</p> | BWA officials to join global religious leaders for day of prayer for peace | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/bwaofficialstojoinglobalreligiousleadersfordayofprayerforpeace/ | 3 |
|
<p />
<p>In a <a href="https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-completes-qualification-of-its-2nd-generation-10nm-process-technology" type="external">press release Opens a New Window.</a> dated April 19, Samsung (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF) announced that its second-generation 10-nanometer chip-manufacturing technology, known as 10-nanometer LPP -- which stands for "low power plus" -- "has been qualified and is ready for production."</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Samsung says this technology "allows up to 10% higher performance or 15% lower power consumption compared to the first-generation 10LPE," or "low-power early," technology, while offering "the same area scaling" as what 10-nanometer LPE provided.</p>
<p>Image source: Samsung.</p>
<p>The South Korean giant also said in the release that Samsung "has started installing production equipment at its newest S3-line in Hwaseong, Korea" and that this manufacturing line "is expected to be ready for production by the fourth quarter of this year."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>What strikes me as odd is how aggressive Samsung has been lately with its press release related to chip manufacturing technology.</p>
<p>For example, on March 15, Samsung put out a press release titled " <a href="http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/about-us/news/26364/samsung-electronics-on-track-for-10nm-finfet-process-technology-production-ramp-up" type="external">Samsung Electronics on Track for 10nm FinFET Process Technology Production Ramp-Up Opens a New Window.</a>." In this release, Samsung claimed that the manufacturing of its 10-nanometer LPE tech "is on track with steady high yield to meet customer needs on schedule."</p>
<p>Yet the obvious reality runs counter to this claim.Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), arguably Samsung's most important contract chip manufacturing customer, said on its April 19 earnings call that it can't meet the demand for its newly released Snapdragon 835 chips, manufactured using Samsung's 10-nanometer LPE technology, because of its "ability to ramp volumes at 10 nanometers."</p>
<p>Qualcomm doesn't expect the supply constraints to "begin to normalize" until its fiscal fourth quarter. We're currently in Qualcomm's third fiscal quarter.</p>
<p>Furthermore, in that very same press release, Samsung said it intends to go into mass production on its 10-nanometer LPP and LPU technologies by the end of 2017 and 2018, respectively.</p>
<p>It's interesting that Samsung would put out this press release discussing the qualification of its 10-nanometer LPP technology on the same day Qualcomm's earnings call indicated that it's having trouble meeting demand for its 10-nanometer products -- which, in turn, suggest that the <a href="http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20170302PD207.html?mod=3&amp;q=10NM+YIELD" type="external">reports Opens a New Window.</a> of poor 10-nanometer yields are true.</p>
<p>Given the timing Samsung offered with respect to the equipment installation of its S3 manufacturing line, as well as its claim in its March 15 press release that 10-nanometer LPP would be ready for production by the end of 2017, I expect that Samsung will issue a press release announcing the mass-production start-up of its first 10-nanometer LPP-based chips in the October/November time-frame.</p>
<p>Image source: Qualcomm.</p>
<p>So I'll put the following prediction out there: I believe that the next Samsung Galaxy Note will use the same Exynos and Snapdragon chips that currently power the Galaxy S8 and S8+.</p>
<p>I think the first 10-nanometer LPP chips will probably be a next-generation Exynos chip as well as a next-generation Snapdragon processor. Those chips will almost certainly be bound for the Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphone as well as -- if supply permits -- other flagship Android smartphones released in the spring.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than SamsungWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=af7d770e-9f8c-4372-b95b-68a13099e3ea&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Samsung wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=af7d770e-9f8c-4372-b95b-68a13099e3ea&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of April 3, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/aeassa/info.aspx" type="external">Ashraf Eassa Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Qualcomm. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Samsung Claims Its New 10-Nanometer LPP Tech Is Ready for Mass Production | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/21/samsung-claims-its-new-10-nanometer-lpp-tech-is-ready-for-mass-production.html | 2017-04-21 | 0 |
<p>By Lizbeth Diaz and Ana Isabel Martinez</p>
<p>MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Most schools in Mexico City remained closed on Monday after last week’s deadly earthquake, but children outside the capital were set to return to their classrooms, although aftershocks were still jolting the country.</p>
<p>Search operations in the Mexican capital were narrowed to a handful of buildings destroyed by the 7.1 magnitude earthquake last Tuesday that killed at least 320 people.</p>
<p>The quake rendered thousands of people homeless with many of them living in tents in the streets or emergency shelters, but there were signs that the 20 million people living the greater metropolitan area were gradually resuming their routines.</p>
<p>“Our neighborhood is in mourning,” said Deborah Levy, 44, from trendy Condesa district that was among the worst hit. “Some neighbors and friends got together (Sunday). We went to eat to cheer ourselves up, looking for a little normality.”</p>
<p>Some of the most affected neighborhoods, those built on top of a soft ancient lake bed, still had entire blocks cordoned off.</p>
<p>More than 44,000 schools in six states were due to reopen on Monday, but only 103 of them in Mexico City, which suffered most of the fatalities.</p>
<p>Officials said they did not want to impede relief efforts, so more than 4,000 public schools and nearly as many private schools in the capital will remain closed for now.</p>
<p>The National Autonomous University of Mexico, with 350,000 students at campuses in and around Mexico City, will resume classes on Monday.</p>
<p>Of 6,000 damaged buildings, some 1,500 have yet to be inspected, said Horacio Urbano, president of Centro Urbano, a&#160;think tank specializing in urban issues and real estate.</p>
<p>Ten percent of the damaged buildings were constructed after 1990, by which time strict building codes had been enacted in the wake of the 1985 earthquake that killed some 10,000 people.</p>
<p>Search operations, using advanced audio equipment to detect signs of life beneath tonnes of rubble, continued at a few buildings with help from teams from as far afield as Israel and Japan.</p>
<p>At a school in southern Mexico City where 19 children and six adults had been reported killed, officials recovered the body an adult woman on Sunday.</p>
<p>The search for survivors continued in a ruined office building in the Roma neighborhood and in a five-story apartment building in historic Tlalpan.</p>
<p>Authorities called off efforts in the upper-middle class Lindavista zone after pulling 10 bodies from the rubble over several days, and work at the Tlalpan building was briefly halted on Saturday by a magnitude 6.2 aftershock. [nL2N1M40AJ]</p>
<p>Another 5.7 aftershock struck on Sunday off the west coast, jolting southwestern Mexico, and seismologists predicted more tremors to come. [nL2N1M509H]</p>
<p>While aid and volunteer workers have flooded into the accessible districts of Mexico City, people in more remote neighborhoods and surrounding states have received less attention. [nL2N1M50BH]</p>
<p>Miguel Angel Luna, a 40-year old architect, joined a caravan of civilians that headed out late last week to help isolated communities scattered around the base of the Popocatepetl volcano in the state of Morelos.</p>
<p>Around 40 percent of the adobe homes he saw in poor villages had been completely destroyed and some 80 percent were heavily damaged, Luna said.</p>
<p>“We’re talking about very poor communities,” Luna said. “They don’t have tools, they don’t have materials, they don’t have money to rebuild.”</p>
<p>(For a graphic on Mexico earthquake, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2fFELlH)</p> | Outside quake stricken Mexico City, most kids going back to school | false | https://newsline.com/outside-quake-stricken-mexico-city-most-kids-going-back-to-school/ | 2017-09-25 | 1 |
<p />
<p>Now that I’ve noted the <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/10003_democratic_voice_against_bailout.html" type="external">progressive goals for the next bailout bill</a>, let me add that it’s unlikely a Democrats-only bill, loaded with those very same progressive goals, is likely to pass. And it’s because of conservative Dems. <a href="http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=09&amp;year=2008&amp;base_name=the_next_bailout_bill#109615" type="external">Ezra Klein</a> makes the case:</p>
<p>The defecting Democrats look to be Blue Dogs — which is to say, somewhat conservative, generally vulnerable, Democrats — and members of the Black and Hispanic caucuses. A more liberal bill might get the latter two. It will lose 90 Republican votes. It won’t get the Blue Dogs. And you’ll lose a few dozen more Democrats who needed the bipartisan cover. My hunch is leadership is relying on market chaos to turn a few votes and trying to figure out the mixture of cosmetic changes and superficial giveaways that will push them over the finish line.</p>
<p>Which is to say, despite the <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/10002_kevin_drum_bailout_wall_street_congress.html" type="external">intelligent commentary</a> that suggests a radically different approach to the bailout bill might be wise, there’s a relatively small chance we will get a radically different bill. We’re more likely to get a bill that the House leadership has tinkered with enough — throwing in a progressive goal here, adding an earmark/sweetner there — to get 15 more votes.</p>
<p /> | Why a Democrats-Only Bailout Bill Won’t Fly | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/why-democrats-only-bailout-bill-wont-fly/ | 2008-09-30 | 4 |
<p>Anthony Scaramucci / Getty Images</p>
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Andrew Kugle</a> July 31, 2017 2:54 pm</p>
<p>President Donald Trump has removed Anthony Scaramucci as the White House communications director after just 10 days&#160;on the job.</p>
<p>"Anthony Scaramucci will be leaving his role as White House communications director," press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. "Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give chief of staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best."</p>
<p>People close to the decision <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/us/politics/anthony-scaramucci-white-house.html?referer=" type="external">told</a> the New York Times on Monday that Scaramucci was removed from his senior White House role just days after assuming the post:</p>
<p>President Trump has decided to remove Anthony Scaramucci from his position as communications director, three people close to the decision said Monday, relieving him just days after Mr. Scaramucci unloaded a crude verbal tirade against other senior members of the president's senior staff.</p>
<p>The move to remove Scaramucci came at the request of John Kelly, who was sworn in as White House chief of staff on Monday morning. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, is expected to bring more stability to what political reporters and commentators have called a chaotic White House.</p>
<p>White House officials told multiple media outlets that Trump's decision to oust Scaramucci came at the request of Kelly, who had served as secretary of homeland security before assuming his new role.</p>
<p>"Kelly is already changing the culture here," one White House aide <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/31/trump-ousts-scaramucci-as-communications-director-241172" type="external">told</a> Politico.</p>
<p>Scaramucci made <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-lizza/anthony-scaramucci-called-me-to-unload-about-white-house-leakers-reince-priebus-and-steve-bannon" type="external">headlines</a> last week after he called reporter Ryan Lizza of the&#160;New Yorker&#160;and went on a profanity-laced tirade against fellow White House staffers, including chief strategist Steve Bannon and then-chief of staff Reince Priebus.</p>
<p>Scaramucci is the latest of several high-profile departures from top White House jobs. Sean Spicer resigned as press secretary on the morning that Scaramucci was hired and Priebus resigned the day after Scaramucci's controversial interview with the New Yorker was published.</p> | Trump Removes Scaramucci as White House Communications Director | true | http://freebeacon.com/politics/trump-removes-scaramucci-comms-director/ | 2017-07-31 | 0 |
<p>The White House has appointed Mr. John Dimitris Negroponte to be United States ambassador to Iraq. He will preside over the largest embassy in the world, and housed in the Republic Palace (misleadingly named Saddam’s Palace by the U.S. occupation). He will be protected by high concrete walls, barbed wires and more than 150,000 occupation force, including several thousands of foreign mercenaries armed to the teeth with the most violent tools. Mr. Negroponte is Greek-American diplomat. He is currently leading the diplomatic war against the people of Iraq as the U.S. envoy at the United Nations (UN) in New York. Negroponte is Jewish. A friend in Spain expressed his deep concern to me recently: ” to appoint a Jew as ambassador to the Arab country that has been devastated because of the will of a cabal of Jewish neocons headed by Wolfowitz ­ Bush is just an accessory -, is like trying to put off a fire using buckets of gasoline”.</p>
<p>Mr. Negroponte has served as U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985; a period during which the U.S. military aid to Honduras grew from $5 million to nearly $100 million, and more than $200 million in economic aid, making Honduras the largest aid recipient in the region. Honduras was the launching pad from which the Reagan administration runs its violent “war on terror” in Central American. The U.S-backed atrocities and terror were condemned by the International World Court in the Hague (1). Like most of his colleagues in the Bush administration, Mr. Negroponte is a “recycled reaganites”.</p>
<p>At the time Mr. Negroponte was in Honduras, Honduras was a military dictatorship. Kidnapping, rape, torture and executions of dissidents was rampant. The military top and middle ranks were U.S-trained at the School of the Americas (SOA), the Harvard version of the CIA, based in Fort Benning, Georgia. According to Human Rights Watch, graduates of the SOA are responsible for the worst human rights abuses and torture of dissidents in Latin America. Some of its 60,000 graduates are notorious Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia and Gustavo Álvarez Martínez, Honduras security police chief and later Honduran top military commander.</p>
<p>In Honduras the army intelligence unit, Battalion 3-16, which was involved in kidnappings, rape, torture and killing of suspected dissidents. In 1995 Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson of The Baltimore Sun unearthed massive and substantiated evidence from various sources pointing the finger at Mr. Negroponte knowledge of the crimes. The reporters also found that hundreds of Hondurans “were kidnapped, tortured and killed in the 1980s by a secret army unit trained and supported by the CIA”(2). Reliable evidence from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Honduras alleged that Negroponte oversaw the expansion of U.S training camp and military base on Honduran territory, where US-trained Contras terrorists, and where the military secretly detained, tortured and executed Honduran suspected dissidents.</p>
<p>During his years in Honduras, Negroponte acquired a reputation, justified, as an old-fashioned imperialist, and devoted to Realpolitik (3). Mr. Negroponte will bring to Iraq his version of “democracy” à la Latin America, where the people vote for one of two candidates every half decade, in which civilian leaders have to obey U.S-controlled militaries or face dismissal by military force. Mr. Negroponte will find the Iraqi soil fertile for his version of democracy and human rights. The U.S. administration turn blind eye to violations of human rights by their own troops and mercenaries. Nazi’s methods of torture, sexual abuses and murder of Iraqi prisoners by the racist soldiers of the occupying forces are in use immediately after the invasion and occupation of the Iraq.</p>
<p>The occupying powers also ignores the criminal activities of four militia thugs, which according to exile Iraqis have murdered many Iraqi academics and intellectuals. The Iraqi-born novelist and artist Haifa Zangana wrote in the Guardian of London: “the peshmergas of the two Kurdish parties; the Badr brigade of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq; Ahmed Chalabi’s troops; and the ex-Ba’athist Mukhabarats under Iyad Alawi’s national accord. These militias are run by members of the IGC and no one can touch them”(4). The occupying powers have not put an end to these violent crimes.</p>
<p>Recently, Mr. Negroponte talked about: “real dialogue between our military commanders, the new Iraqi government and, I think, the United States mission as well”. He said: “the American military is going to have the freedom to act in their self-defence, and they are going to be free to operate in Iraq as they best see fit”. Negroponte stint at the UN was to shield Israel crimes against the Palestinians, and to coerce smaller nations at the Security Council exercising the threat of U.S. power.</p>
<p>Negroponte diplomatic responsibilities were appalling. Democracy and human rights are not on Negroponte preferred menu. Negroponte will be serving the interests of U.S. tyranny and U.S. Corporations in Iraq. Negroponte will bring to Iraq the economic disasters inflicted on the people of Latin America by the U.S. and U.S-backed corporations. Negroponte is not suitable to serve in the current political environment of Iraq.</p>
<p>[1]. Noam Chomsky, Terror and Just Response, www.chomsky.info/articles/20020702.</p>
<p>[2]. Gary Cohn &amp; Ginger Thompson, Former envoy to Honduras says he did what he could, The Baltimore Sun, December 15, 1995.</p>
<p>[3]. Stephen Kinzer, Our Man in Honduras, The New York Review of Books, 48(14), September 2001.</p>
<p>[4]. Haifa Zangana, The Enemy within, The Guardian, 10 April 2004.</p>
<p>GHALI HASSAN is in the Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia. <a href="mailto:Hassan@exchange.curtin.edu.auHassan@exchange.curtin.edu.au" type="external">Hassan@exchange.curtin.edu.au</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Who is John Negroponte? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/06/04/who-is-john-negroponte/ | 2004-06-04 | 4 |
<p>The girlfriend of the man behind the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas has been placed on a federal government watch list, according to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/officials-las-vegas-gunmans-girlfriend-added-travel-watch/story?id=50405805&amp;cid=social_twitter_abcn" type="external">ABC News</a>.</p>
<p>ABC News on Wednesday reported that Marilou Danley has been designated as a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) “selectee.”</p>
<p>Federal law enforcement officials confirmed the designation to ABC News, which means authorities will be notified if Danley tries boarding any flight or crossing any border.</p>
<p>Two law enforcement sources said that the status will require Danley to undergo extra screening and notify authorities if she plans on exiting the U.S.</p>
<p>Some Twitter users on Wednesday speculated about Danley, who was dating Stephen Paddock before he opened fire on an outdoor concert earlier this month.</p>
<p>ABC News reported that the travel designation is called a Secondary Security Screening Selectee and will appear on Danley’s boarding pass.</p>
<p>The designation indicates that authorities want to know if Danley – a Filipino native who travels on an Australian passport – makes any effort to travel out of the region or America.</p>
<p>The status additionally gives TSA officers the authority to more aggressively probe Danley’s luggage.</p>
<p>Investigators at this stage believe that Danley neither played a part in nor had prior knowledge of Paddock’s decision to perpetrate a mass shooting.</p>
<p>Paddock earlier this month began shooting upon a country music event from his nearby hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.</p>
<p>The gunman killed at least 58 people and wounded at least 527 others before taking his own life.</p>
<p>The rampage sparked renewed national debate over gun control as it also became the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.</p> | The Las Vegas gunman’s girlfriend was added to a federal travel watch list | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/10/11/nation/marilou-danley-girlfriend-of-las-vegas-gunman-stephen-paddock-on-travel-watch-list | 2017-10-11 | 1 |
<p>On a sweltering afternoon, I sat kneeling by a low windowsill, chin cupped in my hand, staring out over the wide river plain behind our house. My mother had put me in a new dress, constellations of beads and silk threads embroidered all over the heavy fabric. From outside, I could hear rippling laughter as a group of boys played, running and kicking up clouds of dry dirt that blotted out my view of the serrated horizon.</p>
<p>There were ten of them at least, all dressed in loose clothes, kicking a soccer ball around between the low projections of rock. The ball zigzagged between their nimble feet and I panicked as I sat in the house, suddenly understanding my own fate as though reading my future in a book — embalmed for life in pretty clothes, doomed to either go to school or stay home. In that moment, my heart went to stone. There was no in-between for girls like me who wanted to run outside and play games and sports in the open air. Suddenly I was aware that, despite all of my liberal father’s efforts, his myths and big maps of the continents, and everything about the wider world he’d tried to teach me, I would never truly be free. In our culture girls remained indoors, quiet and veiled for life.</p>
<p>I didn’t think about what I did next. I simply got up, backed away from the sill into cool shadow, tearing off the dress, ripping at the seams, clawing at the arms. Then, in a quiet rampage through the house, I pulled every one of my dresses out of the closets and into the garden. One by one. They were so heavy, it took an entire hour. The cooking pit under the tree outside was shallow, just four bricks and a few sticks of wood set under a grill, but I knew where my mother kept the kerosene and matches. In a cabinet on a shelf in the kitchen. I moved fast, before I could change my mind, knowing full well that if I allowed myself to think too much, I would stop. Hauling down the full can of kerosene, I dragged it with both hands slowly across the floor without spilling so much as a drop, then out the back door, cutting a long track in the dirt leading straight to the pit. Staring at the stack, I hesitated for only a second: it was a shame to incinerate that beauty, and yet to ignore what I knew was to seal my own death sentence. I soaked the clothes in kerosene as clear as water and I struck a match. Standing back, I watched the flame fly at my command like a small shooting star…</p>
<p>My father stood there a long while, watching, though I hadn’t seen him, his gaze going from his wild, dancing child to the lifeless stack of dresses. I learned much later that on that hot afternoon, he’d seen another girl in me — the sister he’d failed to save so many years before. From an upstairs window, he’d glimpsed her figure hauling a pair of heavy galvanized buckets full of water across the family courtyard. Then she stopped suddenly and stood strangely still. He saw the first bucket drop, then the second. Spilled river water streamed over the hot stones as the buckets rolled past her feet, the hem of her dress dripping. He heard his sister gasp just once in pain and watched her body fall as though a bolt of lightning had struck her. By the time he got to her, she was on the ground, the clear sky reflected in the domes of her wide-open eyes. She was dead. His sister had been just like me — strong, androgynous, and hot-tempered. A tomboy simply could not survive in the cage our culture expected girls to live in.</p>
<p>By the time my father was a man he’d seen many girls die at their own hand to escape — cousins who poisoned themselves to avoid arranged marriages, others who simply stopped eating until they perished from hunger. Often girls doused themselves in kerosene before lighting a match. Once he’d watched a girl in the village go up like a human torch. When it was over, he’d seen what was left of her charred body.</p>
<p>“My sister was just like you, Maria — strong and different, born of the lion — and they would not let her be.” Then my father approached the burning pit and stepped up to me, laughing. He ran his fingers all through my massacred hair. “My new son&#160;must have a name befitting a great warrior and the battle just won without blood. We will call you Genghis Khan.” Then he leaned down and repeated the name into my left ear — and into my right, he recited the holy azan. And Maria was gone.</p>
<p>From the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Different-Kind-Daughter-Taliban-Plain/dp/1455591416/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1462386416&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=a+different+kind+of+daughter" type="external">A Different Kind of Daughter."</a>&#160;Copyright (c) 2016 by Maria Toorpakai. Reprinted by permission of Twelve/Hachette Book Group, New York, NY. All rights reserved.</p> | Afghan girl takes back her independence the only way she knows how | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-05-04/taliban-threatened-kill-me-playing-sports | 2016-05-04 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The rise of ride-hailing companies Uber and Didi Chuxing, and the development of semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles are bringing about a new technology and transportation market called shared mobility.</p>
<p>Of course, shared mobility has existed, in some sense, for quite a while in the form of public transportation systems and taxi services, but it's also starting to add new, more individual elements through car-as-a-service features (like ride-hailing services through Uber or car-sharing apps).</p>
<p>And it's this new shared mobility market that's piqued the interest of Apple and other tech companies, and could be a potentially lucrative market for Tesla , NXP Semiconductors , and many others.</p>
<p>So let's take a look at nine facts and predictions showing why shared mobility could be such a big deal for these companies:</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>A recent investor note by Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty estimated that the entire shared mobility market will be worth $2.6 trillion just 14 years from now. That may seem like a long way away, but consider that this means tech and automotive companies will have to develop strategies right now so that they can dominate the market later.</p>
<p>Huberty believes <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/01/apple-inc-increased-rd-spending-faster-than-the-to.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Apple could seriously benefit Opens a New Window.</a> by using its rumored vehicle as a car-as-a-service feature. Instead of selling the car outright, Apple would have a platform or system to rent out the vehicle on an ongoing basis.She believes Apple could ultimately take 16% of the shared mobility market -- bringing in $400 billion for the company -- by 2030.</p>
<p>China-based Didi Chuxing just took $600 million from China's largest state-owed insurance company, China Life Insurance, in a new round of investor funding. Didi already offers taxi hailing, private car hailing, bus tickets, and ridesharing services in 400 cities across China. The country is already the largest automotive market, and shared mobility is a key ingredient in reducing traffic in its heavily populated cities. And Apple thinks this market is booming too. The company handed $1 billion to Didi Chuxing <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/13/apple-too-big-to-grow.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">last month Opens a New Window.</a> to help expand its ride-hailing business.</p>
<p>Uber just won a $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, in part to expand further into China. The company has already ordered 100,000 autonomous vehicles from Mercedes-Benz (to be delivered at a later date). Uber could take a large portion of the shared mobility market if it can successfully pair its ride-hailing service with autonomous vehicles.</p>
<p>IHS Automotive expects 10% of all light vehicles sold to be fully autonomous by 2035and driverless car ubiquity to come sometime around 2050. With more cars on the road that can drive themselves, many consumers may be more inclined to simply rent cars as a service rather than buy them.</p>
<p>And that's good news for NXP Semiconductors, which recently released an <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/18/instant-analysis-nxp-semiconductors-nv-just-took-a.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">off-the-shelf autonomous system Opens a New Window.</a> that carmakers can use on existing vehicles. NXP's BlueBox comes with sensors, cameras, software, and computer hardware to help carmakers transition to driverless autos. NXP is already theNo. 1 automotive semiconductor manufacturer and is a leader in advanced driver assistance systems, and BlueBox could help automakers easily transition into shared mobility.</p>
<p>Before Uber made its deal to buy Mercedes autonomous vehicles, it offered to buy 500,000 of Tesla's cars in 2020, if they were fully autonomous. Tesla didn't take Uber up on the offer, but that doesn't mean the electric-car maker won't have similar opportunities down the road.</p>
<p>The company already has some of the most advanced semi-autonomous vehicles on the market, and plans on releasing a fully autonomous car in just a few years. If it continues on this path, Tesla could start selling some of its vehicles to shared mobility companies, or even offer a <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/04/tesla-hasnt-even-begun-to-tap-this-2-trillion-mark.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">shared mobility service of its own Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>BMW has already acknowledged that selling vehicles directly to consumers isn't the only way it wants to approach the transportation sector. In a PricewaterhouseCoopers report put out last year, the CEO of BMW'sDriveNow, which provides car-sharing services in Europe, said, "We used to be the provider of premium cars and now we're the provider of premium mobility services as well as premium cars." BMW, whose DriveNow and ReachNow programs allow people rent out its vehicles, is not the only auto company with such services. Ford has a similar program as well.</p>
<p>Car sharing, part of shared mobility, is on the rise, with 8% of the U.S. population having already used some form of it. Navigant Research estimates that global car sharing will hit 23.4 million users by 2024. And a report by McKinsey predicts thatone out of every 10 cars will be a shared vehicle by 2030, and one out of every three vehicles will be shared by 2050.</p>
<p>While automakers may see car sales slow a bit because of shared mobility, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll forfeit revenues. A McKinsey report estimates that car sales will continue to grow at about 2% per year, and shared mobility and data connectivity services could add $1.5 trillion in revenue to the automotive industry by 2030.Part of the reason sales will continue to grow is that shared vehicles will likely be used more often, wear down faster, and have to be replaced more frequently than current vehicles.</p>
<p>It's clear that tech companies and automakers alike have much to look forward to as shared mobility grows. The companies above are making big investments in the potentially lucrative market -- and investors could ultimately benefit.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/18/what-is-shared-mobility-9-things-you-should-know.aspx" type="external">What Is Shared Mobility? 9 Things You Should Know Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewsie/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Chris Neiger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple, Ford, NXP Semiconductors, and Tesla Motors. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool recommends BMW. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | What Is Shared Mobility? 9 Things You Should Know | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/18/what-is-shared-mobility-things-should-know.html | 2016-06-18 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Author of that locally sourced ditty as well as “Why Must I Be a Necrophiliac in Love” and the dance party favorite “Satan’s Bride,” on the surface seems an unlikely candidate for a Santa Fe Children’s Museum fundraiser.</p>
<p>But the singer-songwriter and father of two has corralled songwriting colleagues Jono Manson, Joe West and Steve Terrell for a benefit concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday at GiG Performance Space.</p>
<p>“I always loved the Children’s Museum,” Turner said in a telephone interview on his way to New Mexico Highlands University, where he teaches calculus and chaos theory. “I have two little kids who go there all the time.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>After teetering on the edge of collapse, the Children’s Museum staffers say that while they have raised enough money to remain open through the rest of 2012, they need an additional $300,000 to provide a cushion for 2013.</p>
<p>The institution was struggling to survive in the face of a recession-fueled plunge in grants and government sources. Located at 1050 Old Pecos Trail, the museum incorporated in 1985.</p>
<p>Turner takes his two girls Nico, 9, and Scarlet, 5, to the museum regularly. They usually spend from two to three hours playing.</p>
<p>“They love the face-painting,” he said. “They like the bubble exhibit. Nico loves making magnet sculptures. It’s like pulling teeth to get them to go (home). They get so immersed.”</p>
<p>Turner will play songs from his new CD “Gregg Turner Plays the Hits,” including “I Dreamed I Met Lou Reed” and “The Pharmacist From Walgreens.”</p>
<p>“It’s not punk/rock anymore,” he said. “There’s not enough people in Santa Fe with a sense of humor.”</p>
<p>The Taos duo The Art of Flying will also perform, he said, adding, “They play early Pink Floyd kinds of stuff.”</p>
<p>The musicians are asking for $10 at the door.</p>
<p>“The main emphasis will be to raise awareness that they need help,” Turner said. “If people bring their checkbooks, they could give an additional donation.”</p> | Benefit for Children’s Museum | false | https://abqjournal.com/150867/benefit-for-childrens-museum.html | 2012-12-04 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>LA Boxing franchisees Reece and Noelle Killebrew are gearing up to open their third metro-area location at 1650 Rio Rancho Blvd., near Kmart.</p>
<p>The concept encompasses workouts led by trained instructors, including boxing- or kickboxing-style training with large hanging punching bags, circuit training with ropes and other equipment, and self-defense.</p>
<p>Classes involve a variety of moves designed to build strength, flexibility and endurance, incorporating pushups, sit-ups and squats interspersed with rhythmic kicks and punches on a 150-pound bag.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Doing a typical one-hour session, with warmups and stretches, about 40 minutes of interval high/low intensity activity and a cool-down will burn 800 to 1,000 calories, Reece Killebrew said.</p>
<p>“It’s a great way to make cardio exercise fun, get in shape and lose weight,” he said.</p>
<p>The 7,500-square-foot gym also has a raised boxing ring where boxers can practice sparring, and a retail area where gym members can buy boxing gloves and clothing.</p>
<p>The couple opened their first Albuquerque location at Renaissance and Alexander in 2004 and added a West Side location in late 2010.</p>
<p>They now have several hundred members at each of the Albuquerque locations, ranging from 6 years old to more than 60.</p>
<p>Rio Rancho seemed like a natural choice, Reece Killebrew said.</p>
<p>“It’s an up-and-coming community,” he said.</p>
<p>The LA Boxing franchise system permits up to three locations in a metro area.</p>
<p>The Rio Rancho LA Boxing location is scheduled to open on Jan. 14. The Killebrews are planning to hold a grand-opening event on Feb. 2, during which classes will be taught by former World Extreme Cagefighting champion “Razor” Rob McCullough.</p> | LA Boxing franchise picks RR for 3rd site | false | https://abqjournal.com/158179/la-boxing-franchise-picks-rr-for-3rd-site.html | 2013-01-07 | 2 |
<p>“This is some bullshit man! This is some bullshit!”</p>
<p>A Facebook user named “Jun IceaaPolice” posted a video on Facebook that reached nearly two million hits with the caption:</p>
<p>brutality, Me and my men Goodbrotha Saykou just came from the pizza shop walking home got stop by the cops. They didn’t tell him why he got stop in the first place ,they ask for his ID, he gave it to them.. ya watch the rest of it and let me know if the stop or arrest was justify.”</p>
<p>Neither the Facebook user or the man in the video answered PINAC’s interview request, and so assessing the situation is limited to the video available – but the video speaks volumes.</p>
<p>As the video below shows, an NYPD officer attempted to handcuff a suspect after detaining him on the street in order to check the man’s identification. What the video does not show, and what the officer never states, is why the man on the street is being detained.</p>
<p>When the officer attempts to handcuff the man during the detainment, the man is confused by the officer’s attempt to handcuff him and police him in a police car, as the officer never stated why the man was being detained, and after the man produced his ID, the officer immediately escalated the detainment into an arrest.</p>
<p>Not understanding why he was being stopped and now arrested, the man attempted to walk away from the officer – so the officer started a street fight, punching the man in the head as he tried to walk away.</p>
<p>From the officer’s perspective, the use of force is justified for a “noncompliant” suspect – but as the man likely contemplates suing the police, the question will become – what crime was the man suspected of committing?</p>
<p>The man recording mentioned that the detained was “over a knife” so this incident may not be one of the countless illegal stop-and-frisks that the NYPD has become famous for – but that doesn’t mean officers had reasonable suspicion of a crime.</p>
<p>As the sheer volume of the nearly two dozen officers that descended on the scene attests, this may be a case of NYPD officers with too much time of their hands investigating a crime that doesn’t exist.</p>
<p>Police officers cost a city money. When a police force has the time to detain people without reasonable suspicion of a crime, that police force probably has too many police officers.</p>
<p>But when a police force has the time to send in around two dozen officers as backup in an officer-instigated street fight, that police force has&#160;way&#160;too many officers.</p> | “This is some bullshit man! This is some bullshit!” NYPD Cop Starts a Street Fight | false | https://studionewsnetwork.com/news/nypd-officer-initiates-street-fight-after-needlessly-trying-to-handcuff-man-over-a-dozen-officers-swarm/ | 2017-09-23 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Filmmaker R.J. Cutler’s first project was the 1993 documentary “The War Room,” which went behind the scenes of Bill Clinton’s campaign and showed how strategists like James Carville, Paul Begala, and George Stephanopolous crafted Clinton’s rise.</p>
<p>Cutler returns to the political arena as the producer of “American Candidate,” a political “reality show,” <a href="http://www.sho.com/site/americancandidate/home.do" type="external">which airs Sunday nights on Showtime starting Aug. 1</a>.</p>
<p>The show features ten candidates — six men and four women of various ages, backgrounds and political views, including Independents, Democrats, Republicans, Greens and Libertarians. (They include Bruce Friedrich of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), James Strock, a businessman and author, and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender activist Chrissy Gephardt, who happens to be Dick Gephardt’s daughter.) “Week by week,” reads a blurb for the show, “candidates will face-off against each other in a series of challenges designed to identify one individual who has the qualities to be President of the United States.” Political consultants advise the ten on such arts as message-shaping, polling, and ad creation. Each week a candidate gets voted off the show; the last man or woman standing at season’s end is the winner.</p>
<p>“There is a fundamental notion at the core of American identity,” Cutler explains, “that in this country any little boy or girl can grow up to be president.” He talked with MotherJones.com about how his show explores that notion, and how, he hopes, it will spark people’s interest in politics.</p>
<p>MotherJones.com: How did you come up with the idea for “American Candidate”?</p>
<p>R.J. Cutler: This is an idea that evolved over a number of years. It began in the wake of the 2000 presidential election. I was approached by Jay Roach and Tom Lassally, who are my executive producing partners on the project, and we were talking about doing something that would respond to the fact that in that all-too-critical election year, only 50 percent of eligible voters actually bothered to show up at the polls. And only 50 percent of eligible registrants had bothered to register, meaning that only one in four qualified U.S. citizens actually voted in the election. As we all know, this was an election where every vote counted, and it was an election that changed the world and changed American history. And yet, only 25 percent of the electorate showed up at the polls.</p>
<p>We started talking about why that might be and how we might do a show that would respond to that thematically, but also might simultaneously help to stimulate voter participation and engage people in the process. Eventually over time, this was the idea that evolved. One of the questions we asked was, are people not showing up because they’re not inspired by the options they have? Do they feel like it’s same-old-same-old? Do they think to themselves, “So what if I vote for one rich guy from Harvard or Yale whose daddy was president or a senator, or another rich guy from Harvard or Yale whose daddy was a senator or a president? What’s the difference?” Now we all know there’s an enormous difference — the world would be a different place if George Bush hadn’t been elected president. I’m not saying it necessarily would have been a better place or a worse place, what I’m saying is it would be a vastly different place. And for those who think it would have been a better place, the fact that three quarters of America didn’t bother to vote is a big deal.</p>
<p>MJ.com: Why the reality show format instead of another “War Room” type documentary?</p>
<p>RC: Two reasons. First, the sandbox I’m playing in these days is reality television. It’s what I’ve been working in for the last few years, and I’m always looking for a new form or way to express myself. Perhaps more importantly, I felt the reality genre really lent itself to an exploration of politics. Reality television has borrowed so much from the world of politics, whether it’s alliances or voting or the kind of strategizing that’s done. Anything like that came from politics well before it came from reality television. So it seemed like a very good match.</p>
<p>MJ.com: How did applicants apply to take part in the show, and how did you arrive at the final group?</p>
<p>RC: We opened up the application process to anybody who was a citizen of eligible voting age. Over 20,000 people downloaded applications. The application process required you to fill out a 45-page application and to do about a half-hour videotape. It was designed to be self-selecting, so that those who really wanted to do this and were really committed would actually apply, and about 1,500 people did. Our goal was to put together a group that was as diverse as possible. We defined diversity in terms of age, gender, sexual orientation, ideological background, geographic background, socio-economic background, and a number of other things. We tried to put together a group that would offer an alternative in terms of those diversity objectives to the traditional 50-something, Harvard- or Yale-educated, ultra-wealthy white male.</p>
<p>Ideologically, what makes them ideal is they represent a broad cross-section of political viewpoints. They range in age from 26-55. Forty percent of them are women. In a country where the voting population is over 50 percent women, to get close to 50 percent of women in your candidate pool is a great thing. Twenty percent are African-American; 20 percent are gay. So there are a number of reasons why this group works really well. And most importantly, the group works really well because they’re extraordinary people of vision, passion and talent, who really have what it takes to emerge as important leaders in this country. I don’t mean to pretend that any one of them is ready to waltz on in to the White House, but I am certain that every one of them will be able to return to their communities and use this show as a platform to launch their political careers.</p>
<p>MJ.com: What type of campaign activities do the candidates go through during the course of the show?</p>
<p>RC: The show, by and large, follows the structure of a real presidential campaign. So it begins in retail politics, it moves on through image and message management, and finally into wholesale politics where large-scale events address the entire nation. The candidates began in their hometowns, where they had to announce their candidacies. They then went up to New Hampshire, and then traveled around to other small towns during the retail part of the campaign. The challenges were oriented around pressing the flesh, dealing with the local press, making their announcement speeches, holding a rally, speaking at a press conference, speaking at a town hall meeting, getting out the vote and things like that. When we shifted to image and message management, the challenges included dealing with focus groups, making advertisements, managing their image and making choices about that — and making the difficult decisions related to whether or not they wanted to modify their message or their image in order to broaden their appeal. Some of them felt that was a compromise they were unwilling to make, while others felt it was one they were willing to make. At the end of the series, we get into larger events and the entire viewing public will have the opportunity to vote for the candidates.</p>
<p>MJ.com: And one candidate gets voted out each week?</p>
<p>RC: Basically, there is a challenge each week that requires the candidates to solicit votes from members of the public. In some places, that was a telephone vote. In some places, it was a paper ballot; in some it was a focus-group vote. But the challenge was always voter-based. The winner of the challenge in each episode becomes the front-runner and the two bottom vote-getters in each week’s episode face off against each other in an elimination debate. The debate is moderated by the show’s host, Montel Williams, but the decision as to who will stay on and who is off the ballot is made by the remaining candidates. So when there were 10 candidates, two of them faced off in the elimination debate, and the remaining eight decided who stayed and who left.</p>
<p>MJ.com: You’re using professional political consultants on the show. What role do they play?</p>
<p>RC: We were blessed in that a cavalcade of political stars agreed to support the project and participate in it. People from both sides of the aisle — Carter Eskew, Joe Trippi, Frank Luntz, Ed Rollins, Rich Bond, Bay Buchanan. A whole host of extremely experienced political consultants got on board. In each episode, one of them was featured. Part of the advantage of being the front-runner is you receive the support — the exclusive support, for a large part of the episode — of the political consultant.</p>
<p>MJ.com: Why did you time the show to coincide with the presidential election season?</p>
<p>RC: We anticipated that the show would serve to introduce these candidates to the American public during a time period where political awareness is at its height, and where an openness to campaigning and political issues is at its height. This is an ideal time to be doing a show like this because the public receptiveness to politically themed storytelling is at its quadrennial peak. So I feel this is the perfect time to achieve our goal, which is the introduction of ten extraordinary men and women to the American public.</p>
<p>MJ.com: The candidates people are a departure from the type of candidates we normally see. How has television influenced the kind of candidates who run for the presidency?</p>
<p>RC: That I honestly don’t know. I don’t know if it is the most significant contributor to the kind of candidate we have running, or if it’s the way money and politics works — certainly there’s a relationship between the way money in politics works and the cost of television advertising. I don’t know if it has to do with media scrutiny and some people just don’t want to bother anymore. It has, throughout American history, taken a very particular kind of person to even want to run for president. It has never been something that every person of excellence and talent and vision has wanted to do. There have always been enormous costs associated with it. The presidency made John Adams an old man long before there was television. As early as the nation’s first contested presidential election, with Adams and Jefferson running to succeed Washington, you had a brutal, ugly, vicious campaign that was divisive and as partisan as anything we’re experiencing today. So it’s hard to say necessarily that television or modern media is the cause of that.</p>
<p>MJ.com: What is it about campaign politics that makes for compelling television?</p>
<p>RC: It’s just great drama. The quest for power, the yearning for and fight over power. It’s a compelling drama in the hands of CNN reporting on Election Night 2000, and it’s compelling drama in the hands of William Shakespeare writing “Henry IV, Part 2.”</p>
<p>MJ.com: What do you hope “American Candidate” will accomplish?</p>
<p>RC: Most of all, we’re looking to tell compelling stories that are entertaining and engaging and dramatic and provocative. Certainly, we’re hoping that pulling the curtain back on the process a little bit and showing the way the sausage is made in presidential campaigns will help to educate the voting public and to engage them a little bit more in the process. And to help them understand more about what they’re looking at when they see the major party candidates actually engaging in their own presidential campaign.</p>
<p /> | American Candidate | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2004/08/american-candidate/ | 2004-08-01 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Of all the traditions football fans have come to expect on Super Bowl Sunday, perhaps none is more anticipated than the “Gatorade dunk” that awaits the head coach of the winning team as time expires.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>For Gatorade, the surprise sports-drink baths at the end of the Super Bowl have been a massive marketing coup.&#160;Since 1987, 20 of 30 Super Bowls have featured a Gatorade dunk by the victorious team near the end of regulation. Those 20 instances have generated more than $17 million in equivalent advertising value across television, radio and other mediums, according to calculations by Apex Marketing, an analytics firm.</p>
<p>“Gatorade has been provided with a unique proprietary eponym and a marketing windfall in everyday discussions,” Eric Smallwood, president of Apex Marketing Group, told FOX Business. “No matter what the cooler branding has on it, or what the actual liquid is in the cooler, it is widely known as the Gatorade dunk, reaping the sports drink more unpaid brand value across all levels of sports.”</p>
<p>The tradition began during the 1986 NFL season, when New York Giants linebacker Harry Carson started pouring coolers of Gatorade over the head of head coach Bill Parcells after victories. Even Gatorade officials were surprised – the sports drink brand didn’t have a direct hand in its invention.</p>
<p>The first-ever championship Gatorade dunk occurred in January 1987, when Carson doused Parcells after the Giants triumphed over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXI by a score of 39-20.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>“While I wasn’t with Gatorade at the time that the dunk began to pick up speed, I’ve heard from long-time employees that there was some debate about how to handle the astounding publicity windfall, whether to encourage it or just let it be on its own,”&#160;Brett O’Brien, senior vice president and general manager of the Gatorade brand, told FOX Business.&#160;“I am really happy we have all decided to celebrate it through the years, as it’s a great expression of pure joy in sports after such extremely hard work throughout a season.”</p>
<p>Through it started as a lucky break, the Gatorade bath has become a signature element of the Pepsi-owned brand’s dominance of the sports drink market. Gatorade controls anywhere from 70% to 80% market share, dominating competitors like Powerade and BodyArmour. The brand also sponsors many sports leagues and organizations, including the NFL, MLB and NBA.</p>
<p>“The brand is proud that the Gatorade dunk is a beloved football ritual, as much a part of the game’s iconography as players’ end-zone spikes and celebrations,” O’Brien said.</p> | At Super Bowl, the Gatorade Bath is Marketing Gold | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/02/05/at-super-bowl-gatorade-bath-is-marketing-gold.html | 2017-02-05 | 0 |
<p>Via Courier-Journal</p>
<p>A 17-year-old rape survivor in Kentucky <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120723/NEWS01/307230081/Contempt-motion-withdrawn-sexual-assault-victim-Savannah-Dietrich-who-tweeted-attackers-names%22" type="external">was facing jail time</a> after tweeting the names of her rapists, but after her story went viral yesterday the District Attorney decided not to pursue charges which would have carried a punishment of a maximum of 180 days in jail and a $500 fine.</p>
<p>After a plea deal was struck with her rapists, Savannah Dietrich disappointed and angered by the lenient punishment, <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120720/NEWS01/307200106/Sexual-assault-victim-s-tweets-about-attackers-prompt-contempt-case-against-Louisville-s-Savannah-Dietrich" type="external">tweeted</a>,</p>
<p>“There you go, lock me up,” before tweeting their names, “I’m not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell…They said I can’t talk about it or I’ll be locked up. &#160;So I’m waiting for them to read this and lock me up. &#160;F**k justice. &#160;Protect rapist is more important than getting justice for the victim in Louisville.”</p>
<p />
<p>In an interview with The Courier-Journal, Dietrich spoke out about her decision to breach the confidentiality agreement:</p>
<p>“So many of my rights have been taken away by these boys,” said Dietrich, who waived confidentiality in her case to speak to The Courier-Journal. Her parents also gave their written permission for her to speak with the newspaper.</p>
<p>“I’m at the point, that if I have to go to jail for my rights, I will do it,” she said. “If they really feel it’s necessary to throw me in jail for talking about what happened to me … as opposed to throwing these boys in jail for what they did to me, then I don’t understand justice.”</p>
<p>Dietrich’s rapists circulated pictures of the attack around their school shortly after it happened and she was horrified to the point where she was afraid to leave her house. &#160;It seems to me that this is a very tricky situation given her attackers were minors but&#160; <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/169009/how-out-rapist" type="external">why shouldn’t she be able to shame them after a guilty plea</a> in the same way they tried to shame her by taking and sharing pictures bragging about what they had done? &#160;Why should the rapists be given a level of respect that wasn’t afforded to the victim?</p>
<p>Part of the aftermath of surviving sexual assault is being forced to deal with your shame alone and mostly in private. &#160;It’s isolating because very few people seem to understand unless they’ve experienced the same thing, and it’s the swiftness with which you are expected to move on with quiet strength and dignity that can be extremely difficult at a time when you may feel you have just been robbed of both.</p>
<p>While the District Attorney may not want to “ruin” these young rapists lives, it’s certainly a little late to prevent life ruining. &#160;Tell that to&#160;Dietrich, who thankfully won’t be going to jail after publicity around her story put pressure on the District Attorney to do the right thing.</p> | Teen rape survivor tweets names of rapists, could have faced jail time | true | http://feministing.com/2012/07/24/teen-rape-survivor-tweets-names-of-rapists-and-could-have-faced-jail-time/ | 4 |
|
<p />
<p>Aside from being an entertaining football game, Super Bowl XLVII also offered a number of important lessons on leadership to viewers.&#160; In particular, the Super Bowl offered lessons on finding talent, making hard decisions and being able to prepare for the future.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"The <a href="http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3804-super-bowl-owners.html" type="external">Super Bowl Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;shows what million-dollar players and coaches are truly made of when the stakes matter most," said Stephen Miles, a leadership coach who is the founder and CEO of&#160; <a href="http://miles-group.com/" type="external">The Miles Group Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>In particular, Miles said that the Super Bowl taught leaders the following lessons.</p>
<p>Use&#160;a wide lens for spotting talent — Always look out for those with potential who may not be directly in front of you – these individuals might wind up being the high-performance &#160;"franchise quarterbacks" in your business for years to come.&#160;The 49ers' head coach Jim Harbaugh's decision to trade up nine spots in the draft pick for&#160; <a href="http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3878-super-bowl-marketable.html" type="external">Colin Kaepernick Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;and then replace starter&#160;Alex Smith&#160;with Kaepernick midseason (and keeping him on after Smith recovered) was seen as a gamble by many observers. The performance by the second&#160;round 36th&#160;pick ended up putting the 49ers in the Super Bowl and giving the Ravens a nail-biter until the end of the game.</p>
<p>Leverage the unexpected — The Blackout Bowl completely shifted the ground underneath the teams' feet. Great leaders can deal with the unexpected and turn it into a game-changer, which is exactly how the 49ers shifted the momentum. But the Ravens, in turn, were able to respond to the unexpectedly close game and deliver in the end. Business is about constantly regrouping and responding nimbly. Sometimes setbacks provide the impetus you need to leapfrog competitors and win.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Read the field — Having good antennae and being able to see one or two moves ahead allows you to be able to predict and anticipate versus react. When you are one step ahead, it gives to the advantage of "thinking" versus simply reacting – which can mean a better outcome. The Ravens' defense did this many times throughout the game, intercepting the ball and making tackles behind the line of scrimmage.</p>
<p>Absorb the stress for your team —&#160;High-pressure situations usually&#160;reveal&#160;character rather than build it. The best leaders absorb the stress and continue to think clearly and <a href="http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3609-experience-boosts-decision-making.html" type="external">make good decisions Opens a New Window.</a>, while poor leaders tend to amplify stress, becoming emotional and even irrational. Both quarterbacks at different times in the game had massive stressors placed on them, and they both rose to the occasion and continued to lead their respective teams effectively.</p>
<p>Don't spike the ball on your way out— Whether you are leaving a job for a new one or you had a great success at work, don't rub it in people's faces. Everyone likes a winner when they know&#160;how&#160;to win. Even when his brother went off the rails a bit to decry the official for a non-call toward the end of the game,&#160;Ravens head coach John Harbaugh&#160;handled his victory very well from start to finish, even acknowledging that the 49ers handled the delay better.</p>
<p>Follow <a href="http://mailto:DMielach@techmedianetwork.com" type="external">David Mielach Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;on Twitter @ <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/D_M89" type="external">D_M89 Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;or BusinessNewsDaily @ <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/BNDarticles" type="external">bndarticles</a>. We're also on&#160; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/LifesLittleMysteries" type="external">Facebook Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;&amp;&#160; <a href="https://plus.google.com/113390396142026041164" type="external">Google+ Opens a New Window.</a>. &#160;</p> | 5 Leadership Lessons from the Super Bowl | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/02/05/5-leadership-lessons-from-super-bowl.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>On March 27 the Albuquerque Journal published an article reporting that the California Legislature approved a plan to spend $1 billion on drought-relief efforts. Prior to the approval of the related bills, there was public discussion in the state about the various measures being proposed. It is clear from the legislation that benefits will be widespread in the state and that the details of the many projects are known to the public.</p>
<p>This contrasts starkly with the secrecy that characterizes the work of the ISC. The ISC has for 10 years or more been studying ways to use the Gila River water consistent with the terms of the 2004 Arizona Water Settlement Act. All it has come up with is the vague plan referred to in the article. The total cost is not clear, and the latest estimates possibly do not include such costs as the engineering, economic, legal and environmental studies that will be needed to get the project ready for bids or the cost increases between now and whenever the project might actually begin.</p>
<p>New Mexico also needs to take into account the damage to the last free-flowing river in New Mexico that will result from these intensive construction activities. And let's not forget that even after the expense of constructing the diversion infrastructure, New Mexicans would still have to pay Arizona for the actual water at a premium price. Moreover, we would be able to buy the water only when the river is near peak flow, which is not every year and not for extended periods. Silver City has said it doesn't even want or need the water.</p>
<p>What about the need and benefits? This, too, is unclear, and the limited information released by the ISC has been vague. A few years ago some data was shared with the Bureau of Reclamation, and we understand that the informal response was that the proposed diversion makes no sense from an economic standpoint. Let's insist that serious economists take a look at the costs and benefits of the project, and that the public be provided information needed to evaluate the proposal.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>At a minimum this would include coming up with cost-benefit ratios, financial rate-of-return analysis and sensitivity analysis of the basic data used in the calculations. The Bureau of Reclamation and other federal agencies have basic guidelines to determine the economic viability of public works projects, as no doubt do various New Mexico agencies that deal with public works.</p>
<p>Let's also assume that the project will be financed with public funds, in all likelihood bonds or other instruments issued by the state. Much of the payment of the eventual debt and financial charges would come from us - taxpayers from all over the state. We need to ask how else the state of New Mexico could spend $1 billion and how widespread might the benefits be from other forms of investment. Certainly there is potential to benefit people all over the state with big investments in education, health, public security, public works etc. There must be a better way to invest this kind of money than to direct it to a limited number of users in one area of the state.</p>
<p>"Any drop of water at any cost" is not the way to manage our natural or financial resources.</p>
<p /> | Gila project unwise use of money, natural resources | false | https://abqjournal.com/570707/gila-project-unwise-use-of-money-natural-resources.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ATLANTA — Mike MacIntyre of Colorado has won the Dodd Trophy as coach of the year.</p>
<p>He led the Buffaloes to their first winning season since 2005 and a division title. They had gone 2-25 in Pac-12 play over the previous three seasons, finishing at the bottom of the South Division each time.</p>
<p>The Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation announced Dodd as the winner Friday before a Peach Bowl news conference.</p>
<p>Colorado finished 10-4 despite closing losses in the Pac-12 championship game and the Alamo Bowl.</p>
<p>MacIntyre’s father, George , who died in January, won the award at Vanderbilt in 1982. MacInyre says the award is personal to him because of that.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: <a href="http://www.collegefootball.ap.org" type="external">www.collegefootball.ap.org</a> and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Colorado’s MacIntyre wins Dodd Trophy as coach of year | false | https://abqjournal.com/918301/colorados-macintyre-wins-dodd-trophy-as-coach-of-year.html | 2016-12-30 | 2 |
<p>On the evening of May 25 the U.S. House of Representatives considered an amendment offered by Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) calling for an exit strategy from Iraq. Amendment No. 26 simply stated:</p>
<p>“It is the sense of Congress that the president should-</p>
<p>(1) develop a plan as soon as practicable after the date of the enactment of this Act to provide for the withdrawal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq; and</p>
<p>(2) transmit to the congressional defense committees a report that contains the plan described in paragraph (1).”</p>
<p>The simple resolution was a moderate one. It set no specific time table for withdrawal ­ in an effort to make it easy for members of Congress to agree. After-all we always claim we intend to leave Iraq. This amendment was an opportunity to make leaving Iraq the policy of the United States. The amendment, part of the debate on the authorization for the Department of Defense was allotted 30 minutes on the floor of the House of Representatives ­ 15 minutes for each side.</p>
<p>In the end the amendment failed ­ by a vote of 300 to 128 with 5 not voting. Because Rep. Woolsey insisted on a roll call vote we now know who needs to convinced. There were some disappointing votes including the Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi as well as members generally seen as liberals including Rep. Cardin (D-MD), Rep. Stenny Hoyer (D-MD), Rep. Sanchez (D-CA) and Rep. Udall (D-CO). Five Republicans voted for the amendment, most notably Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) who is well known for insisting that the French Fries sold in the Capitol be re-named “Freedom Fries.”</p>
<p>Rep. Woolsey opened the debate noting that her amendment was in honor of the “brave men and women who are serving in Iraq” as “the best way to support them is to establish a plan to bring them home.” She went on to point out:</p>
<p>“. . . our continued presence in Iraq after the election has caused America to be seen by the Iraqi people as an occupying power, not as a liberating force. Our continued presence in Iraq works against efforts for democracy, provides a rallying point for angry insurgents, and ultimately makes the United States less safe.”</p>
<p>She also made it clear she does not want to abandon Iraq recognizing it is a country that has been devastated saying “We must assist Iraq, not through our military but through international humanitarian efforts to rebuild their war-torn economic and physical infrastructure.”</p>
<p>Leading the opposition to the amendment was Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA). He portrayed the amendment as sending a message to U.S. opponents:</p>
<p>“This amendment is a message-sender. It is a message-sender to people like Al Sadr who are considering even now continuing to foment rebellion against the elected government in Iraq. It is a message-sender to Zarqawi and his followers, who think that perhaps the United States doe not have the stomach to continue to oppose them. It is a message-sender to our troops, who might, in seeing if this amendment should pass, feel that the resolve of the American people is fading away.”</p>
<p>In an ironic use of Mohandas Gandhi, certainly no advocate of war, Rep.Geoff Davis (R-KY) argued that because Iraqis have shown they want democracy we should continue our occupation of Iraq, saying: “Mohandas Gandhi said, ‘The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within.’ The people have democracy in their hearts. They can feel it within their grasp. They can look up and see it shining near them. We just have to stand and give them a hand to reach it.” Rep. Davis made clear what the exit strategy of war supporters is:</p>
<p>“Let our foes understand one thing. Our exit strategy from Iraq is simply this: winning the war on terror. We must hold firm to the course and be resolved in our determination to with this fight.”</p>
<p>Perhaps the most important speech in favor of an exit strategy came from Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC). His district in North Carolina is one that is very supportive of the military. His opposition to the continuation of the war is of interest because he had been a supporter of the war, a point he highlighted in his opening: “This is about a policy, that I believed when I voted 2 years ago to commit the troops that I was making my decision on facts. Since that time I have been very disappointed in what I have learned about the justification for going into Iraq.” He explained:</p>
<p>“. . . all this amendment does is just say that it is time for the Congress to meet its responsibility. The responsibility of Congress is to make decisions whether we should send our men and women to war or not send them to war. What we are saying here tonight is we think it is time for the Congress to begin, to start the debate and discussion of what the exit strategy is of this government . . .”</p>
<p>Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) echoed Rep. Jones’s concern for Congress doing its “constitutional duty.” She pointed out that it “is a constitutional duty by this Congress to declare war. We failed in that duty a couple of years ago.” She argued, now, by debating withdrawal the Congress would be correcting that constitutional error.</p>
<p>A majority in Congress requires 218 votes. From this vote, it is evident that those advocating an end to the war ­ a view that now represents the majority of the people of the United States ­ are 90 votes away from success in the House of Representatives. With an election year coming in 2006, support for the war diminishing, the cost in human lives and the U.S. treasury escalating, a concerted effort by the anti-war movement to convince members of Congress should be the focus. Success is achievable.</p>
<p>As Rep. Marty Meehan (D-MA), noted:</p>
<p>“. . . when he was Governor of Texas, this is the advice that George W. Bush gave President Clinton about the war in Kosovo. Victory, he said, means exit strategy, and it is important for the President of the United States to explain to us what the exit strategy is.”</p>
<p>The case for an exit strategy in Iraq is even stronger than for Kosovo. The current strategy is failing. As Rep. Meehan said: “Without an exit strategy to win the peace and bring our troops home, our policy is going in circles.” Let us hope that President Bush listens to the advice of Governor Bush.</p>
<p>KEVIN ZEESE is Director of Democracy Rising. You can comment on this column by visiting his blogspot on <a href="http://www.DemocracyRising.US/" type="external">DemocracyRising.US</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | House Votes on Iraq Withdrawal Amendent: 300 for War; 128 for Getting Out "Soon" | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/05/27/house-votes-on-iraq-withdrawal-amendent-300-for-war-128-for-getting-out-quot-soon-quot/ | 2005-05-27 | 4 |
<p>* Austrian Power Grid operates 6,971-km network</p>
<p>* Remarks confirm strong interest in infrastructure</p>
<p>* Also scanning German market for opportunities (Adds comments from CEO, context)</p>
<p>BERLIN, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Verbund, Austria’s largest energy group, has no plans to sell its high-voltage power grid, although it is seeing plenty of buying interest in the regulated infrastructure asset, its chief executive said.</p>
<p>Power and gas networks are keenly sought after by pension funds and infrastructure investors, guaranteeing mid-single-digit investment returns in times of ultra-low interest rates.</p>
<p>“(A sale) only makes sense if I can achieve higher margins with the proceeds in a different market,” Wolfgang Anzengruber told Reuters, adding that Verbund could in theory sell up to 49 percent of Austrian Power Grid AG.</p>
<p>The grid operator says it runs a 6,971-kilometre network and generated 2016 sales of 620 million euros ($769.54 million).</p>
<p>Overseas companies have already bought into Austria’s networks. Germany’s Allianz and Italian gas grid company Snam purchased 49 percent of Gas Connect Austria from OMV for 601 million euros in 2016.</p>
<p>And other companies are expecting such businesses to perform well in future. Germany’s largest energy group E.ON said on Wednesday that it expects networks, the core of its business, to offset a loss of profit from nuclear.</p>
<p>Verbund, whose shares are trading at their highest levels since September 2011, last week raised its 2017 core profit guidance thanks to an improvement in water supply and better results in its power grid unit.</p>
<p>Anzengruber said water supply, which determines its hydroelectric power output, had also been good in the first few weeks of 2018, but added it was still too early to make predictions for the year as a whole. The group will publish its full-year results on March 14.</p>
<p>The CEO also highlighted the growing relevance of flexibility products needed in the European power grid system mainly because Austria’s neighbour Germany failed to build up networks in time to keep pace with the expansion of renewable energy.</p>
<p>They include measures to offset undersupply or excess load on the network as power cannot be stored in large volumes or over a long time. This is a challenge for a new era of volatile green power from variable wind and sunshine supplies.</p>
<p>Anzengruber said Verbund was scanning the market for “reasonable” opportunities in hydro and onshore wind in Germany, but was under no pressure to buy. ($1 = 0.8057 euros) (Reporting by Christoph Steitz, Vera Eckert and Tom Kaeckenhoff; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Alexander Smith)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Wednesday as strong Chinese factory activity boosted commodity markets and China’s own crude production fell, but fast-growing U.S. output tempered gains.</p> FILE PHOTO - A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo
<p>China beat forecasts with a 7.2 percent year-on-year rise in industrial output in the first two months of 2018, while data showed Chinese crude output fell 1.9 percent.</p>
<p>Brent crude LCOc1 rose 29 cents to $64.93 a barrel at 1156 GMT, climbing from an earlier low of $64.43, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 rose 46 cents to $61.17.</p>
<p>ING commodities strategist Oliver Nugent said the Chinese industrial output was “reinforcing that bullish narrative” across the commodities market, including oil.</p>
<p>China is the world’s largest importer of commodities.</p>
<p>Chinese oil production in January and February slipped to about 3.77 million barrels per day (bpd), while the amount of crude processed by its refineries rose 7.3 percent to 93.4 million bpd, suggesting strong import demand.</p>
<p>This offered modest support to the Brent price, which has fallen by about 1 percent so far this week on concerns that coordinated supply cuts by OPEC and its partners might not be enough to offset the relentless rise in U.S. crude production.</p>
<p>U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA is expected to top 11 million bpd later this year.</p>
<p>Rising U.S. output, as well as seasonally low demand, mean U.S. crude inventories rose by 1.2 million barrels in the week to March 9 to 428 million barrels, the American Petroleum Institute said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Seasonal demand patterns for crude and refined products mean the market may only be weeks away from a run of declines.</p>
<p>“We are now only two to four weeks away from when weekly oil inventory data will start to draw again which should be supportive for oil prices,” SEB commodities strategist Bjarne Schieldrop said.</p>
<p>Weekly U.S. crude production figures will be published by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) later on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Tom Hogue and Susan Fenton</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Prudential ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=PRU.L" type="external">PRU.L</a>) is to spin off its British and European business from its international operations, breaking up the 170-year-old insurer to refocus on faster-growing markets in the sector’s latest major shake-up.</p> FILE PHOTO: The logo of British life insurer Prudential is seen on their building, in London October 21, 2008. REUTERS/Stephen Hird /File Photo
<p>British insurers have been changing tack to cut their exposure to capital-intensive products following the introduction of rigorous European solvency rules, while also seeking ways to deal with growing fee pressure.</p>
<p>Prudential said it is splitting off savings and investment-focused M&amp;G Prudential, which will be based in London, leaving Prudential plc focused on life insurance and asset management in the rapidly expanding markets of Asia and Africa as well as the United States, which is less tightly regulated than Europe.</p>
<p>The demerger could herald further changes for the group, analysts said. Bernstein analysts pointed to the example of AXA’s AXAF.PO plans for an IPO in the United States, while RBC said the Asian and U.S. businesses could eventually be split, and that asset manager M&amp;G could separate from UK insurance.</p>
<p>Prudential shares were up 6 percent to 19.37 pounds at 1244 GMT on Wednesday, taking it to the top of the FTSE 100 index.</p>
<p>The international business will also remain headquartered and listed in London, led by chief executive Mike Wells.</p>
<p>“We’re looking to grow the piece that’s capital-light,” Wells said of M&amp;G Prudential, adding that it would be “competing domestically” for people and capital.</p>
<p>Prudential will also move the legal entity for its Hong Kong insurance subsidiaries to Asia from Britain, further reducing exposure to European capital rules.</p>
<p>Prudential’s move follows Standard Life’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SLA.L" type="external">SLA.L</a>) merger with Aberdeen Asset Management in 2017 which led to the sale of the bulk of its insurance business to Phoenix Group ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=PHNX.L" type="external">PHNX.L</a>).</p>
<p>And Anglo-South African financial services group Old Mutual ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=OML.L" type="external">OML.L</a>) is in the midst of a four-way split.</p> FILE PHOTO: The company logo of Prudential is seen at its headquarters in Hong Kong March 9, 2010. REUTERS/Bobby Yip /File Photo
<p>“Imitation is the greatest form of flattery,” Old Mutual chairman Patrick O’Sullivan said of the Prudential move.</p>
<p>(Graphic: Britain's largest insurer Prudential outperforms rivals - <a href="http://reut.rs/2Hyvl7j" type="external">reut.rs/2Hyvl7j</a>)</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=PRU.L" type="external">Prudential PLC</a> 1948.5 PRU.L London Stock Exchange +123.00 (+6.74%) PRU.L SLA.L PHNX.L OML.L PRUDENTIAL MOVE
<p>RBC analysts value the new M&amp;G Prudential business at 9.8 billion pounds ($13.7 billion) and Prudential said it expects both companies to feature on Britain’s FTSE 100 index.</p>
<p>Wells told a media call that the spin-off was not connected with Brexit and Prudential is not planning to sell any of the British business. One banker told Reuters a bid for M&amp;G Prudential was unlikely before the deal completes.</p>
<p>Ben Ritchie, senior investment manager at top-15 shareholder Aberdeen Standard Investments, told Reuters that M&amp;G Prudential was likely to have good cashflow and would be capable of paying a reasonably high and recurring dividend.</p>
<p>M&amp;G Prudential’s head John Foley will steer it through the demerger and investors will hold shares in both, although the timing of the spin-off has not yet been set.</p>
<p>Prudential, which also disclosed the sale of a 12 billion-pound UK annuities book to Rothesay Life, is not planning to sell more of the around 20 billion pounds in annuities it still has, Foley said.</p>
<p>The insurer posted a 6 percent rise in 2017 operating profit to 4.7 billion pounds, beating market expectations of 4.6 billion pounds.</p>
<p>Reporting by Ben Martin, additional reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain, editing by Sinead Cruise and Alexander Smith</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street’s major indexes fell on Tuesday as the dismissal of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the possibility of additional U.S. import tariffs against China dragged down stocks across sectors.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump fired Tillerson after a series of public rifts over issues including North Korea and Russia. Trump has appointed CIA Director Mike Pompeo, seen as loyal to the president, to replace Tillerson. To lead the CIA, the president has tapped Gina Haspel, the agency’s deputy director.</p>
<p>“Any time there’s change, investors get nervous,” said John Carey, portfolio manager at Amundi Pioneer Asset Management in Boston. “They have to go back to the drawing board to figure out what the implications might be.”</p>
<p>Still, Carey said, at least the nominees to lead the State Department and the CIA are familiar names.</p>
<p>“I don’t think either change will be troubling to the market as people reflect on the qualifications of the people stepping into the roles,” he said.</p>
<p>U.S. stocks added to losses after Politico reported that a package of tariffs targeting $30 billion a year in Chinese imports could be rolled out as soon as next week.</p>
<p>“This may be upsetting the apple cart,” said Bryan Novak, senior managing director at Astor Investment Management in Chicago. “When you look at tariffs, you don’t just look in a vacuum. You look at what follows on top of (them). It’s worth watching a bit more, to see the follow-through on our side and their side, but there could be some anxiety around it.”</p>
<p>The markets had opened higher after data showed U.S. consumer price growth slowed in February, an indication that an anticipated pickup in inflation probably will be only gradual.</p> Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., March 2, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> fell 171.58 points, or 0.68 percent, to 25,007.03, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> lost 17.71 points, or 0.64 percent, to 2,765.31 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> dropped 77.31 points, or 1.02 percent, to 7,511.01.</p>
<p>Tech .SPLRCT and financial .SPSY stocks were the biggest laggards among the S&amp;P 500’s 11 major sectors.</p>
<p>Shares of Microsoft Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>), Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) and Alphabet Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) fell between 1.5 percent and 2.4 percent.</p>
<a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">Dow Jones &amp; Company Inc</a> 24940.89 .DJI Dow Jones Indexes -66.14 (-0.26%) .DJI .SPX .IXIC MSFT.O FB.O
<p>“Technology rallied hard yesterday and last week, and there is profit-taking, but it’s just a short-term pressure,” said Ken Polcari, director of the NYSE floor division at O’Neil Securities in New York.</p>
<p>Financial stocks were weighed as U.S. Treasury yields fell in response to the CPI data and Tillerson’s exit.</p>
<p>Among individual stocks, General Electric Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GE.N" type="external">GE.N</a>) fell 4.4 percent after J.P. Morgan cut its price target on the stock to $11 from $14, saying the industrial conglomerate was not a “safety stock” in a volatile market.</p>
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.27-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.55-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 posted 43 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 180 new highs and 24 new lows.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.89 billion shares, compared to the 7.13 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur, James Dalgleish and Susan Thomas</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is increasingly looking to just float oil giant Saudi Aramco locally as plans for an initial public offering (IPO) on an international exchange such as London or New York hang in the balance, sources close to the process said.</p>
<p>The kingdom is counting on being awarded emerging market status by index complier MSCI in June to help Saudi Aramco attract Western funds, in addition to cornerstone investors from China, Japan and South Korea, the sources said.</p>
<p>“I would guess it is about evens that there will be no international IPO,” said a high-level source familiar with the preparations, saying they were proving to be a disappointment.</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia is planning to list up to 5 percent of Saudi Aramco in an initial public offering that could value it at up to $2 trillion and make it the world’s biggest oil company by market capitalization.</p>
<p>Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said last week that Aramco was too important to risk listing in the United States because of litigation concerns, such as existing lawsuits against rival oil companies for their role in climate change.</p>
<p>British officials have been told by Saudi counterparts London has a chance to secure the listing but only in 2019 at the earliest, according to the Financial Times, and sources told Reuters the kingdom was now focusing on a listing on the local exchange, or Tadawul.</p>
<p>“The only thing we know today is that Tadawul will be the key listing location as our national exchange,” Falih told CNN.</p>
<p>“We are waiting for the reforms to be in place and to join MSCI and Aramco listing in Tadawul will be catalytic for that capital market as we bring international capital to the kingdom,” he told the U.S. channel last week.</p> MSCI FLOWS
<p>The initial public offering is the centerpiece of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil and it would also boost the kingdom’s budget which has been hit by low oil prices.</p>
<p>Initially planned for 2018, preparations have been hit by rows over whether Aramco should list on major Western markets at all. An advisory council to the government asked the securities regulator this year to study the impact of a local listing amid concern a huge IPO could harm the market.</p>
<p>MSCI has proposed giving its existing Saudi Arabia stock index emerging market status rather than standalone status following a series of market reforms by the kingdom such as raising caps on foreign ownership of companies.</p>
<p>MSCI will give its decision in June and, if positive, the reclassification would be in two steps in May and August 2019.</p>
<p>According to an update of the MSCI proposal published in February, Saudi Arabia would have a market capitalization of $124 billion in MSCI’s Emerging Markets Index, giving it an index weight of 2.3 percent, on a par with Thailand.</p> FILE PHOTO: A Saudi Aramco employee sits in the area of its stand at the Middle East Petrotech 2016, an exhibition and conference for the refining and petrochemical industries, in Manama, Bahrain, September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo
<p>Based on the assumption that another $100 billion would be added through an Aramco initial public offering, the kingdom’s weighting would rise to about 4 percent, which would be bigger than Russia’s weighting of 3.4 percent, for example.</p>
<p>If MSCI grants Saudi Arabia emerging market status, it could be seen as a reason to push against an international listing, the sources close to the listing process said.</p>
<p>Passive investment funds that replicate MSCI indexes would need to put 4 percent of their funds allocated to emerging market indexes into Saudi shares to match the country weighting.</p>
<p>According to MSCI, $1.7 trillion of assets were benchmarked against MSCI emerging market indexes at the end of June last year, of which about a fifth was from passive investors.</p>
<p>That could mean $13.6 billion could come into Saudi stocks from passive investors and if active investors also increased their Saudi exposure to the weighting following an Aramco IPO the total inflows could be $68 billion.</p> FILE PHOTO: Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil &amp; Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo
<p>Data published in March by fund tracking firm EPFR Global Funds found evidence that investors have warmed to Saudi Arabia in recent weeks. Looking at single country equity funds, Saudi Arabia attracted record setting flows as investors looked for alternatives to Russia and Turkey, the data showed.</p> LIQUIDITY FEARS
<p>With the prospect of a listing in London and New York receding, sources familiar with the IPO told Reuters that Hong Kong was now emerging as an increasingly likely compromise because Riyadh wants to help Asian nations that are expected to become cornerstone investors.</p>
<p>While London is preferred over New York, the requirement by both for greater disclosure of sensitive information on Aramco than the Hong Kong exchange is viewed as a drawback by some Saudi officials and advisers, the sources said.</p>
<p>Saudi Aramco said on Monday it was still reviewing its options for the initial public offering.</p>
<p>A final decision will be made by Mohammed bin Salman, who oversees the kingdom’s economic and oil policies.</p>
<p>Sources have told Reuters it requires a bourse at least six month to prepare for a listing so a decision would need to be taken in April for the IPO to go ahead this year.</p>
<p>Tadawul’s chief said in October that his exchange hoped to be the only venue. But with a total capitalization of about $475 billion, it could struggle to absorb Aramco without the participation of foreign funds.</p>
<p>Sources close to the process, however, said even with emerging market status, Aramco would struggle to raise $100 billion locally. Bankers and analysts said an Aramco float risked drowning out other shares listed on Tadawul, given daily turnover now is about $1.6 billion.</p>
<p>“They can do a nominal 2 to 2.5 percent listing,” one of the sources said.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Karin Strohecker; editing by David Clarke</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | UPDATE 1-Verbund CEO has no plan to sell power grid despite interest Oil gains as Chinese factory data boosts commodities Prudential to split in new world order for British insurers Wall Street slides on Tillerson exit, tariff worries Saudi Aramco international listing looks increasingly difficult: sources | false | https://reuters.com/article/verbund-ceo/update-1-verbund-ceo-has-no-plan-to-sell-power-grid-despite-interest-idUSL8N1PK2UP | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p>The families of 14 men killed by British paratroopers in Derry in Northern Ireland on January 20 1972 – “Bloody Sunday” – have been paying close attention to a ruling of the High Court in London in the case of Khunder al-Sweady.</p>
<p>Mr. al-Sweady is one of six Iraqis who claim that soldiers of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment tortured and murdered a number of civilians in southern Iraq in May 2004. On October 6th last, three judges ruled on the men’s application for previous decisions to be set aside and a new, public inquiry ordered into the incident.</p>
<p>Upholding the application, Judges Scott Baker, Silber and Sweeney, none of them noted as a radical maverick, accused the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Royal Military Police and the Treasury Solicitors of deliberately withholding evidence and of dishonesty with regard to the evidence which they did present. Civil servants from the Treasury Solicitors were said by the judges to have lied persistently in telling the court that they knew of no undisclosed documents which might throw light on the case.</p>
<p>Under current plans for publication of the Bloody Sunday report, the Treasury Solicitors – in essence, the British Government’s solicitors – will be allowed to go through the text after it has been delivered to the Northern Ireland Office but before the public, including the Bloody Sunday families, are allowed to see it. According to Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward, the reason is so that they can recommend the removal of passages which they reckon might contravene the rights under Article Two of the European Human Rights Convention of anyone named in the Report</p>
<p>Woodward himself would then decide whether to accept or reject the recommended cuts.</p>
<p>Article Two deals with the right to life. Woodward’s concern, so he says, is that the lives of soldiers might be put at risk if they were identifiable from the Report.</p>
<p>The implication is that Saville, a senior British Law Lord, William Hoyt, former Chief Justice of New Brunswick, and John L. Toohey, a former member of the Federal Court of Australia and a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territories, may have failed to discharge their duties under Article Two in compiling the Report and that the Treasury Solicitors must be brought in to check on their work.</p>
<p>Saville and his colleagues dealt with a series of Article Two applications during the hearings. The applications came mainly from soldiers, politicians and others who claimed that their lives would be at risk if they were made to testify in Derry and from others who, on the same ground, claimed a right to anonymity. The notion that the three members of the Tribunal might not be up to speed on Article Two is fanciful. That this is being advanced as a reason for giving British officials an opportunity potentially to tamper with the Report before its publication may indicate that Woodward tried but failed to come up with an even remotely plausible excuse for planned political interference with a judicial report.</p>
<p>The Treasury Solicitors were the instructing solicitors for barristers representing British soldiers at&#160;Tribunal hearings.</p>
<p>The arrangements proposed by Woodward would also give the soldiers’ side a huge advantage when it comes to responding to the Report. It is expected that the document, to be published next March or April, will run to more than 4,000 pages. Allowing British officials to comb through the text for two or three weeks (Woodward’s estimate) before the families set eyes on it – the relatives are to be given access in a “secure environment” for 10 hours before publication – will mean that the soldiers’ supporters will be much better prepared than the families for the propaganda battle which will erupt once the findings are in the public domain. The British side will have had ample opportunity to tease out any sentence which can be quoted to suggest that the soldiers’ behaviour had been reasonable in the circumstances or that marchers on the anti-internment demonstration that the paratroopers fired into had somehow been the authors of their own misfortune.</p>
<p>The apprehension of the British authorities at the Report’s possible findings has been expressed over the past year in a barrage of abuse aimed at Saville from right-wing politicians and commentators. He has taken far too long to complete his task, they say. His Inquiry has cost far too much. And maybe so. But there are mitigating factors.</p>
<p>It will be 11 years in January since Tony Blair announced the establishment of the Inquiry. There were 434 days of hearings between March 2000 and November 2004. The judges have since spent five years writing up their findings. The final cost is likely to be around £200 million.</p>
<p>One reason for the length and cost of the exercise is that Bloody Sunday happened in broad daylight in a built-up area thronged with people gathered for a rally following a 10,000-strong civil rights march. Every death and wounding was witnessed by dozens of people huddled in the gutters or crouched behind lamp-posts or peering from the windows of houses and flats where they’d found shelter from the shooting. A total of 921 witnesses gave oral evidence, written statements from a further 1,555 were read. Sixteen million words were spoken. In all, around 40 million words, plus 109 videos and 13 volumes of photographs were considered. No military operation in British history – maybe history full stop – has ever been subjected to such detailed examination. It was the brazenness of the atrocity which made this possible. And then the Tribunal – to the amazement and concern of those who’d set it up, apparently – took its task seriously and grasped the possibility.</p>
<p>As well, the soldiers’ Article Two claims resulted in a series of delays as bevies of barristers betook themselves to the higher courts for arcane argument. Hearings were further delayed by applications from the soldiers’ representatives for the exclusion of items of evidence on the ground that disclosure would compromise national security.</p>
<p>All the time, the lawyers’ taximeters were whirring at a rate of up to 2,000 guineas (guineas!) a day.</p>
<p>In the al-Sweady case, applications were made by the MoD last May to have evidence which “related to the permissible limits of the techniques of tactical questioning of captured individuals by military interrogators” ruled out on grounds that exposure would damage national security. At that point, the court accepted the integrity of the Defence Minister who had signed the relevant Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificates.</p>
<p>But on October 6th, the High Court judges&#160;said that the MoD’s intention in making the applications had in fact been to thwart the court by concealing evidence: “The Secretary of State had relied on what transpired to be a partly false public interest immunity certificate…The court had been persuaded that the balance of public interest required that the material should not be disclosed. It was a matter of deep regret that the court…as a result had made a number of rulings which had subsequently been shown to have been wholly wrong. The court should not have been misled…</p>
<p>“Until such time as the Ministry had demonstrated that it had taken steps to ensure that false assertions were never again made in a [PII) certificate and schedule, it would, in the court’s view, be incumbent on the courts to approach the content of any such documents from the Ministry with very considerable caution.”</p>
<p>Far from resigning in face of this indictment, Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth has not felt compelled even to offer a comment. There have been no calls for his sacking from parliamentarians or in the editorial columns of any but fringe, radical journals.</p>
<p>The al-Sweady case demonstrates that there are few lengths to which the British ruling class won’t go to hide evidence of&#160;its army’s criminality. This is what they are at when they seek to pollute the atmosphere in which Saville’s conclusions are made public.</p>
<p>The complaints about the time Saville’s Tribunal has taken to report, against the background of the al-Sweady case and given the quarters the complaints are coming from, can fairly be regarded as arising from fear that Saville might, by exposing the truth, illuminate an appalling vista.</p>
<p>It shouldn’t need repeating, but it does, that Bloody Sunday differs from the other atrocities which litter the recent history of Northern Ireland in this crucial respect –&#160;that this wasn’t an outrage perpetrated by people purporting to represent one community against people from another community – much as that is the perspective in which Irish Nationalist and Ulster Unionist as well as British politicians either pretend or tend instinctively to see it.</p>
<p>When the State kills its citizens it is the interests of all that the truth be uncovered and those responsible held to account.</p>
<p>The armed group responsible for Bloody Sunday hasn’t called a ceasefire or decommissioned its weaponry but has moved on to other theatres of war, where, as in the case of Mr. al-Sweady, allegations of outrageous behaviour continue to be made.</p>
<p>Mr. al-Sweady, Hussein Fadel Abass, Atiyah Sayid Abdelreza, Hussein Jabbari Ali, Mahdi Jassim Abdullah and Ahmad Jabbar Ahmood claim that that, following a gun-battle on May 14th/15th known as “the Battle of Danny Boy”, around 20 Iraqis, including farmers caught in crossfire who had&#160;sought cover in adjacent fields, were taken at gunpoint by soldiers to the nearby Camp Abu Naji where they were hooded and had their hands tied, were kicked and jumped on until bones were smashed, in some cases had their eyes gouged out or their genitals pulped. A number were then shot or hanged. The six say they are the survivors. They say that a previous investigation by Royal Military Police fell short of the requirements of Articles Two, Three and Five of the European Convention. Hence the appeal for a new, public inquiry now upheld by the High Court</p>
<p>The determination of senior British politicians and commentators in predictable newspapers to damage Saville’s credibility in advance is similar in intent to the political and civil service misbehaviour in the al-Sweady case which the High Court has deemed disgraceful. The purpose in both instances is to conceal or obscure the truth.</p>
<p>Woodward, the chief political representative in Northern Ireland of the perpetrators of the Bloody Sunday massacre, should be told in no uncertain terms that the arrangements he proposes for publication of the Saville Report are indicative of bad faith, wholly outrageous and utterly unacceptable.</p>
<p>One of our problems is that Nationalist politicians here, including Sinn Fein, may be reluctant to alienate the British ruling class at a time when they and their Unionist partners/opponents want British endorsement of their position on how to solidify the wobbling power-sharing administration.&#160; The result is that some of the families may be left to fight the last battle for the truth about Bloody Sunday on their own.</p>
<p>(A summary of the al-Sweady judgement can be found at <a href="" type="internal">http://www.lawreports.co.uk/WLRD/2009/QBD/al-sweady.htm</a>)</p>
<p>EAMONN McCANN can be reached at <a href="mailto:Eamonderry@aol.com" type="external">Eamonderry@aol.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Massacre in Ireland, Massacre in Iraq | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/10/12/massacre-in-ireland-massacre-in-iraq/ | 2009-10-12 | 4 |
<p>If you need any further evidence that our corporate media is completely useless and feckless in the United States, look no further than this interview from this Saturday with MSNBC host Thomas Roberts and Florida GOP Congressman Francis Rooney.</p>
<p>They discussed this week's Comey hearings -- and Comey's assertion that water is wet our president is a known liar who could not be trusted to tell the public the truth about what happened during their one-on-one meetings.</p>
<p>Roberts asked Rooney about <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/ryan-defends-trump-3c48c4d36573" type="external">Paul Ryan's lame excuse</a> that Trump is just "new to government" and therefore didn't really understand that what he was doing.</p>
<p>Here's how Rooney responded:</p>
<p>ROBERTS: When it comes to James Comey referring to the president as a liar, do you think that that is accurate. Do you think that President Trump has ever lied to the American people?</p>
<p>ROONEY: I haven't seen evidence of a lie yet, and I'm really surprised that the FBI Director would use that kind of language, especially after some of the things that he's done.</p>
<p>Thomas Roberts just shrugged it off and moved right along to the next question. The only time he got even the least bit testy with Rooney during the interview or pushed back at him at all was when he attacked the media later in the same segment.</p>
<p>The Washington Post has been tracking just how much Trump lies, and they're up to 623 lies just in Trump's first 137 days.</p>
<p>I guess it's asking too much of Roberts to have pointed that out to the congressman. The guy deserved to have his pants erupt in flames right there on the set for trying to peddle such ridiculous nonsense.</p> | GOP Rep Says He Hasn't Seen Trump Lie. MSNBC Host: Crickets. | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2017/06/gop-rep-says-he-hasnt-seen-trump | 2017-06-10 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The 216,000 students in the Houston Independent School District, the largest in Texas and seventh-largest in the nation, were supposed to start classes this past Monday. Instead, many fled homes flooded by the storm.</p>
<p>Harvey roared ashore last week as a Category 4 hurricane and damaged school buildings in many coastal towns before unleashing unprecedented rainfall on much of a 200-mile (320-kilometer) swath of Texas stretching north to Houston.</p>
<p>More than 200 school districts and charter schools statewide canceled or delayed classes. It remains unclear when many could fully resume, since ongoing flooding has made it impossible for officials to get a complete assessment of the damage.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“We’ll still have districts next week that can’t open and we know that,” said Lauren Callahan, a Texas Education Agency spokeswoman.</p>
<p>Other major storms around the country have kept schools closed for extended periods.</p>
<p>After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, New York City’s public schools closed for a week, then opened to find heat and cafeteria facilities not working on some campuses and others continuing to be occupied by storm evacuees.</p>
<p>Following Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans in 2005, it was months before even a few public schools reopened. Of the city district’s roughly 125 schools, fewer than 20 escaped largely undamaged. So many people fled that district officials urged parents to enroll their children in schools close to where they were evacuated — including thousands transplanted to Houston — rather than trying to return.</p>
<p>New Orleans public schools had around 60,000 students before Katrina but only about 12,000 were enrolled by the end of the school year. The University of Tulane’s stately New Orleans campus also closed for months for the first time since the Civil War.</p>
<p>In Texas, the Gulf Coast beach town of Rockport took a direct hit when Harvey made landfall and buildings on its high school campus sustained damage. Football and volleyball players came out Tuesday to help with the cleanup of their school. In the town of Seadrift, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north, the K-8 school is closed indefinitely due to extensive damage. Other schools around the state won’t reopen until officials check more fully on their conditions.</p>
<p>Houston Superintendent Richard Carranza said 35 of his district’s almost 300 school buildings were flooded or lost power. Some are inaccessible because roads are still flooded.</p>
<p>“This city is in a lot of pain right now. We want to get back as soon possible,” Carranza said by phone. He said that, by Friday, he hopes to “make a decision on whether we are going to need to extend the delay of the school year.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“We just may not be ready in terms of facilities and, quite frankly, the city infrastructure may not be ready to put 216,000 students on the road going to school,” Carranza said.</p>
<p>Loretta Jones, and her sons, 12-year-old John and Thomas, age 8, rode in a military vehicle and then in the back of a U-Haul truck to evacuate to Houston’s convention center after floodwaters reached their home. The boys weren’t complaining about missing school, but their mother was more wary.</p>
<p>“It’s tough,” said Jones, 47. “They’re going to miss a week and who knows how much longer.”</p>
<p>Families that have been displaced to shelters in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and elsewhere in Texas can enroll their children in the local school districts, though few appear to be doing so yet. If school districts affected by Harvey miss significant class time, they can get state exemptions that keep students from having to repeat grades. Exceptions also can be made for districts that see sharp drops in enrollment due to evacuations, Callahan said.</p>
<p>“I think everybody’s goal is to get these kids back in school,” Callahan said. “Local schools are the rock of the community in a lot of ways.”</p>
<p>The early damage to Houston’s colleges, meanwhile, appeared to be less widespread. Rice University canceled classes, but its campus dorms and libraries remained open. The University of Houston’s football team decamped to Austin to hold normal practices — though the school decided late Tuesday to cancel its season-opening game at the University of Texas-San Antonio.</p>
<p>“When it’s time to do football for these three hours, we do football for three hours,” said coach Major Applewhite. “As soon as it’s over, we’re back on the phone, call mom, make sure everybody is OK.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press Writers Nomaan Merchant in Houston and Jim Vertuno, in Austin, contributed to this report.</p> | Texas schools shuttered by Harvey could stay that way awhile | false | https://abqjournal.com/1055603/texas-schools-shuttered-by-harvey-could-stay-that-way-awhile.html | 2017-08-30 | 2 |
<p>OSLO, Norway — Lene Victoria Jacobsen vividly remembers when swine-flu panic hit her northern town of Harstad in 2009.</p>
<p>“It felt as if a disaster were about to happen,” she says. “You got tears in your eyes thinking about it, this was something serious.”</p>
<p>She took her two young daughters to a local gym being used to provide mass inoculations against the H1N1 strain, where they received injections of the Pandemrix vaccine.</p>
<p>That’s when Jacobsen’s trouble started. Just six months old at the time, her youngest daughter Sofie developed narcolepsy, a chronic sleep disorder.</p>
<p>“She falls asleep everywhere, even on the toilet,” Jacobsen says.</p>
<p>People with the incurable neurological disease — caused by the brain's inability to regulate sleep cycles — experience excessive daytime sleepiness, hallucinations and other symptoms.</p>
<p>Now 5, Sofie’s not alone. Norway has seen more than 170 reported cases of children developing narcolepsy after receiving the Pandemrix vaccine.</p>
<p>The government has so far paid $13 million to 86 victims, including 60 children, because it hasn’t been able to rule out that their condition stems from the vaccine officials strongly urged them to take. That compensation is expected to rise.</p>
<p>Back in 2009, the Norwegian health authorities urged everyone, not just at-risk groups, to receive vaccinations after the World Health Organization designated swine flu a pandemic.</p>
<p>More than 2 million Norwegians, or 45 percent of the country's population, were given Pandemrix in an unprecedented drive. The vaccine is produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and was used to inoculate up to 30 million people in 47 other European countries.</p>
<p>After the first cases of what appeared to be vaccine-related narcolepsy were discovered in children in neighboring Sweden and Finland the following summer, the Norwegian health authorities started looking for similar cases and found them.&#160;</p>
<p>Although scientists haven't established a link between Pandemrix and narcolepsy beyond doubt, it’s been accepted by Norwegian officials in practice thanks to strong evidence from a spike in the normally rare disease after so many doses were given in so many countries, says Hanne Noekleby, director of infectious diseases at the Norwegian National Institute of Health.</p>
<p>"This was a very special situation," she says.</p>
<p>Hundreds of cases have also been registered in Britain, France and many other countries.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, GSK has refused to acknowledge a link between its vaccine and narcolepsy in children.</p>
<p>Responding to an emailed question, spokesman David Denby wrote, “While some people vaccinated with Pandemrix have been shown in several published studies to be more likely to develop narcolepsy than those who weren’t, further research is needed to confirm what role the vaccine may have played in the development of narcolepsy among those affected.”</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/140319/kyiv-ukraine-economy-russia-eu-imf" type="external">Kyiv needs money, fast</a></p>
<p>Back in Norway, many victims’ parents aren’t happy with the government’s reaction.</p>
<p>The current maximum payout for a child who was under the age of 16 at the time of the injury is the equivalent of $330,000 for a permanent disability.</p>
<p>"The government is at a fairly low level there, that's what a lot of parents are reacting to," says Christian Lundin, a lawyer in Oslo who represents 40 children who developed narcolepsy after receiving the vaccine.</p>
<p>"Their children were damaged after massive pressure to take a vaccine, and then the government isn’t very amenable when it comes to paying compensation for that."</p>
<p>Although there’s been no litigation so far, Lundin doesn’t rule out the possibility of a class action in the future.</p>
<p>Tove Jensen, whose son developed severe narcolepsy after receiving the vaccine, also wants compensation from GSK.</p>
<p>“The situation is terrible,” she says. “He’s 100 percent disabled. We don't know if it's going to get better, he's on so much medication. But we hope something will happen, that he will get his life back.”&#160;</p> | European children suffer narcolepsy after swine-flu vaccinations | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-03-25/european-children-suffer-narcolepsy-after-swine-flu-vaccinations | 2014-03-25 | 3 |
<p>The U.S. Justice Department and Anheuser-Busch InBev, embroiled in a court fight over whether AB InBev can expand its stake in Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo, asked a court on Wednesday for a short delay, according to a court filing.</p>
<p>The two sides requested a limited stay that would end on March 19.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>AB InBev, the world's largest brewer, plans to buy the 50 percent of Modelo it does not already own. But in a nod to antitrust concerns, it plans to sell its 50 percent share of Modelo's U.S. distributor, Crown Imports, to Constellation Brands, the world's largest wine company.</p>
<p>The Justice Department said that proposed outcome was inadequate and filed a lawsuit to stop the transaction.</p>
<p>In hopes of salvaging the deal, AB InBev said last week that it was willing to sell Modelo's Piedras Negras brewery in Mexico, near the U.S border, to Constellation and grant it perpetual rights for Corona and other Modelo brands in the United States, at a cost of $2.9 billion.</p>
<p>A delay in the court proceedings would give the Justice Department's Antitrust Division time to assess the AB InBev offer to see if it resolves the government's concerns, the filing said.</p>
<p>"The parties agree that a stay of litigation proceedings until March 19, 2013 would be beneficial to the parties," they said in the motion requesting the stay.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The three companies noted the request for a short delay in a joint statement and said they were in talks with the Justice Department. "There can be no assurance that the discussions will be successful," they said.</p> | InBev, Justice Dept. Ask for Short Delay in Court Fight | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/02/20/inbev-justice-dept-ask-for-short-delay-in-court-fight.html | 2016-01-25 | 0 |
<p>Story by Rhitu Chatterjee, PRI's The World. Listen to audio above for full report.</p>
<p>Sandro Galea, a public health professor at Columbia University, was one of the first scientists to study the psychological impact of 9/11 on New Yorkers. Early on, he made a surprising finding.</p>
<p>While most New Yorkers were understandably anxious in the days after the terrorist attacks, only a minority went on to develop debilitating psychological problems like post-traumatic stress disorder.</p>
<p>“Even among people who were in the towers and who were trying to escape or got injured, the risk of PTSD was still in the minority,” says Galea.</p>
<p>He says it was an “aha” moment for him.</p>
<p>“Human beings are incredibly adaptive and incredibly resilient,” he says. “Even in the face of a dramatic trauma, with horrendous circumstances, most people are still pulling through fine.”</p>
<p>By “pulling through fine,” Galea does not mean that people were not upset. Rather, they were able to function normally even if they had periods of great sadness.</p>
<p>Galea wanted to know: was this resilience unique to New Yorkers, or was it a more general human trait?</p>
<p>So he approached a colleague who had studied the psychological impacts of a devastating flood in Mexico. Torrential rains in 1999 killed more than 400 people and displaced over 200,000.</p>
<p>“Even in the flood sample, where the vast majority of participants are people who had lost homes or lost loved ones, it was still nearly half who qualified as being resilient,” says Galea.</p>
<p>Psychologists are just beginning to understand what makes some people resilient and others vulnerable.</p>
<p>Columbia University psychologist George Bonanno has spent years studying the factors that influence human resilience.</p>
<p>“There are some factors that are inherent in people – their personality and the way they cope – that does tend to make some people more resilient than others,” he says.</p>
<p>Genetics may influence resilience. Also, men tend to be more psychologically resilient than women, although it is not clear why.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theworld.org/2011/09/the-resilience-of-trauma-survivors/" type="external">Read the rest of this story</a> on The World website.</p>
<p>---------------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p>PRI's "The World" is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. "The World" is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.&#160; <a href="" type="internal">More about The World.</a></p> | Surprising finding on resilience of 9/11 survivors | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-09-12/surprising-finding-resilience-911-survivors | 2011-09-12 | 3 |
<p>Courtesy of Rep. Michele Bachmann/You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International</p>
<p>On Wednesday, we told you about the <a href="" type="internal">unlikely alliance</a> between&#160;Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, a possible GOP presidential candidate, and Bradlee Dean, a head-banging, tatooed, death * heavy metal drummer. (The relationship becomes a lot less confusing when you consider that Dean belives that gays are, by defintion, “criminals,” and should be prohibited from holding government jobs; that the average gay man will molest 117 people before “they’re found out”; and that he runs a ministry called You&#160;Can&#160;Run&#160;But You&#160;Cannot Hide, which travels to public schools to encourage students to find&#160;Christ).</p>
<p>Today Dean outdid himself. With the&#160;Minnesota legislature in the middle of a heated debate over a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in the state—the opponents of which, Dean has <a href="http://minnesotaindependent.com/81034/sen-gazelka-to-bradlee-dean-gay-marriage-ban-supporters-arent-bigots" type="external">pilloried</a> on his radio show—the House Republican&#160;Caucus invited the controversial hair-metal evangelist to deliver the opening prayer for Friday’s session.</p>
<p>How did it go? Well, the grand finale consisted of Dean alleging that the President of the United States is not a Christian. Via the <a href="http://www.sctimes.com/article/20110520/NEWS01/105200028/Annandale-minister-s-prayer-draws-fire-House-floor?odyssey=nav%7Chead" type="external">St.&#160;Cloud&#160;Times</a>:</p>
<p>I end with this. I know this is a non-denominational prayer in this Chamber and it’s not about the Baptists and it’s not about the Catholics alone or the Lutherans or the Wesleyans. Or the Presbyterians the evangelicals or any other denomination but rather the head of the denomination and his name is Jesus. As every President up until 2008 has acknowledged. And we pray it. In Jesus’ name.</p>
<p>That shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise:&#160;Dean recently explained on his radio show that there’s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjCOBOMwrRE&amp;feature=player_embedded#at=54" type="external">no real difference</a> between Obama and Osama bin&#160;Laden, and that the President’s policies—like those of his predecessors—are part of a plot to bring about the New World Order.</p>
<p>Dean’s remarks didn’t go over well: legislators had to summon the House chaplain to deliver a new prayer, and Democratic&#160;Rep.&#160;Terry Morrow immediately took to the floor to denounce the whole affair.&#160;From the <a href="http://minnesotaindependent.com/81762/gop-invites-preacher-who-advocates-jailing-gays-to-give-house-prayer" type="external">Minnesota Independent</a>:</p>
<p>“Today hope was crushed by the words of a single speaker,” he said. “Mr. Speaker, I do trust and hope that we understand the gravity and the severity of the prayer that has been given to the people within this chamber and out.”</p>
<p>“I’m shaking right now because I’m mad,” he concluded. “This cannot happen again.”</p>
<p>Wow. According to WCCO’s Patrick Kessler, Speaker Kurt Zellers, a Republican, has since publicly apologized, saying “I denounce him, his actions and his words.” (The caucus did not vet Dean’s remarks).</p>
<p>Update: The Independent has the video and a <a href="http://minnesotaindependent.com/81771/bradlee-dean-kurt-zellers-minnesota?utm_source=twitterfeed&amp;utm_medium=twitter" type="external">follow-up interview</a> with Zellers.&#160;Yes, Dean really wore a track suit:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>*Thanks to the readers who pointed out that Dean’s music is better classified as heavy metal, or even&#160;“rap-core.”&#160;We regret the error.</p> | Bachmann’s Anti-Gay Ally: Obama’s Not a Christian | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/bachmanns-head-banging-bff-address-minnesota-house-chaos-ensues/ | 2011-05-20 | 4 |
<p>Developing…</p>
<p>An American school teacher living and working in Benghazi was shot and killed while exercising on Thursday.</p>
<p>“He was doing his morning exercise when gunmen just shot him. I don’t know why. He was so sweet with everyone,” the director of the school Adel al Mansouri told Reuters.</p>
<p>“Fadyah al-Burghathi, spokeswoman for the Al-Galaa hospital, says the body of a man from Texas was brought to the hospital on Thursday with gunshot wounds,” according to the Associated Press.</p>
<p>“Medical and security sources told Reuters that the man was targeted by gunmen as he was exercising,” Fox News reported.</p>
<p>The American man was reportedly from Texas and taught chemistry at the international school in Benghazi and was shot while jogging near the U.S. Consulate.</p>
<p>No one has claimed responsibility for the shooting,</p>
<p>It’s been 15 months since the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Ty Woods and Glen Doherty.</p> | American teacher shot, killed in Benghazi | true | http://bizpacreview.com/2013/12/05/american-teacher-shot-killed-in-benghazi-88421 | 2013-12-05 | 0 |
<p>Ford is recalling more than 221,000 cars and vans to fix problems with door latches and seat belts.</p>
<p>The biggest recall covers nearly 205,000 Ford Taurus, Lincoln MKS and Police Interceptor models in North America from the 2010 to 2013 model years. Ford says a door latch spring can become unseated, allowing the door to unlatch in a side-impact crash. The company says it knows of no injuries from the problem. Dealers will inspect the latches and replace door handles if needed.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The second recall covers just over 16,000 Transit Connect small vans in the U.S. from the 2014 model year. Seat belt fasteners can loosen, causing the belts to malfunction. Ford says the problem hasn't caused any crashes or injuries.</p>
<p>Dealers will replace and tighten the seat belt fasteners.</p> | Ford recalling over 221,000 cars and small vans to fix door latch and seat belt problems | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/01/28/ford-recalling-over-221000-cars-and-small-vans-to-fix-door-latch-and-seat-belt.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>At 6 a.m. today, New Mexico State University’s Air Force and Army ROTC will commemorate 9/11 with a memorial run, followed by a memorial service and a flag ceremony on the NMSU campus in Las Cruces.</p>
<p>At 9:30 a.m., Albuquerque firefighters will climb 110 floors in full bunker gear to honor the 343 firefighters who died in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, re-enacting the event at the Bank of Albuquerque, 201 3rd St. NW.</p>
<p>At 10:45 a.m., Albuquerque will host its 9/11 annual memorial service at Civic Plaza, according to <a href="http://www.koat.com/news/several-new-mexico-events-honor-911/-/9154100/21880704/-/1045msn/-/index.html" type="external">KOAT-TV</a>. The Albuquerque Police Department and Albuquerque Fire Department will do a presentation of colors, sing the national anthem and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Several speakers will attend including Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry, city council president Dan Lews, interim APD Chief Allen Banks, AFD Fire Chief James Breen and more.</p>
<p>And from 10 a.m. to noon, the Santa Fe Fire Department will host a “9/11 Day of Remembrance Ceremony” followed by an open house at the city’s newly remodeled Fire Station No. 4.</p>
<p>And in Rio Rancho, a 9/11 Memorial Service will be held at Vista Verde Memorial Park, 4310 Sara Road SE, at 6 p.m. today.</p>
<p>Last Friday in Rio Rancho, employees from Daniels Family Funeral Services and community volunteers placed thousands of miniature flags at Vista Verde Memorial Park to represent the nearly 3,000 people who died during the attack on the World Trade Center’s twin towers, the <a href="" type="internal">Albuquerque Journal wrote</a> last week.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Each of the flags bears the name of someone who died on 9/11/01, hand-written by volunteers from the Children’s Cancer Fund of New Mexico, Albuquerque Area Firefighters Random Acts group and chaplains from local law enforcement and fire departments, Joan Stasi, Daniels’ memorial coordinator, told the Journal.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Sept. 11 victims’ loved ones will gather at ground zero in New York City to commemorate the attacks’ anniversary with the reading of names, moments of silence and serene music that have become tradition, The Associated Press reported.</p>
<p>At today’s ceremony on the 2-year-old memorial plaza, relatives will recite the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died when hijacked jets crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pa., as well as the 1993 trade center bombing victims’ names. Beforehand, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, musician Billy Joel, firefighters and others are expected to join in a tribute motorcycle ride from a Manhattan firehouse to ground zero, the AP reported.</p>
<p>Name-reading, wreath-laying and other tributes also will be underway at the Pentagon and at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville while the commemoration unfolds at ground zero, where the mayor who has helped orchestrate the observances from their start will be watching for his last time in office. And saying nothing.</p>
<p>Continuing a decision made last year, no politicians will speak, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the AP said.</p> | 9/11 anniversary tributes to be held around N.M., U.S. | false | https://abqjournal.com/261024/911-anniversary-tributes-to-be-held-around-n-m.html | 2013-09-11 | 2 |
<p />
<p>No one is happy all the time at work. After all, it’s called work for a reason.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>According to a recent <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10251946/Average-worker-suffers-desk-rage-twice-a-day.htm" type="external">Britain-based study, Opens a New Window.</a>more than half of Britons experience regular “desk rage.” What’s more, a <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/150383/majority-american-workers-not-engaged-jobs.aspx" type="external">recent Gallup poll Opens a New Window.</a> shows more than 70% of American employees are either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” from their jobs, so it’s not a far leap to assume we have some workplace indignation as well.</p>
<p>If you find yourself regularly frustrated or impatient at work, you could be suffering from office anger. On the surface, it might seem like normal day-to-day nonsense that can be brushed off,&#160; and that your colleagues&#160; don’t even notice your displeasure. But you’re wrong. Chances are they do notice, and if you don’t address and work to fix the situation, you could soon find yourself unemployed.</p>
<p>Here are seven possible reasons for your office anger and easy ways to address them to stay employed:</p>
<p>Reason #1: You’re over-worked and underpaid. It’s no secret that the economy is improving tentatively, forcing many companies to ask more from their employees without increasing wages. The demands often leave employees feeling powerless, unappreciated and unmotivated.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The solution: It’s time to stop feeling like a victim and start taking charge of your own work life. This does not mean you have to quit your job or become self-employed, however, it’s vital in today’s job market that employees take ownership of their careers and act as if they’re running their own business. The truth is, your career is your business.</p>
<p>Reason #2: You’re in the wrong job. You may have taken your current job to pay the bills or entered the industry right out of college and your interests have since change. Either way, not being interested or stimulated by your work can lead to frustration and anger.</p>
<p>The solution: Ask yourself what you’re really good at and what you feel that you’re meant to do and will make you happy. Considering these things and then assessing your skills set (both hard skills and soft skills) will allow you to decide if it’s time to make a change. When you’re in a job that just feels like it fits, you will see how much easier it is to realize true success.</p>
<p>Reason #3: You’re in a dead-end job. If it’s been years since you’ve had a raise or promotion, chances are you are at a dead end with the employer. When employees are not regularly challenged at work, complacency and boredom set in and this eventually leads to anger.</p>
<p>The solution: Start by having a conversation with your boss to explore other opportunities within the organizations. Ask for more responsibilities and challenges, and convey that you want to grow with the company. If this is not possible or if the conversation doesn’t go well, it might be time to start networking to find a new opportunity.</p>
<p>Reason #4: Your boss, colleagues or customers are annoying you. It’s not easy working with people you don’t like for eight hours a day, five days a week.</p>
<p>The solution: Avoid becoming involved or fueling workplace drama—it will get you nowhere fast. You can’t wait around for others to make peace, but you can make small inroads to improve your relationships. Remember, you’re there to do a job and to provide a service.</p>
<p>Reason #5: You’re not feeling well. Often when people work crazy hours, they neglect their physical health and don’t even realize they don’t feel well.</p>
<p>The solution: Find a quiet place where you can sit still for a few minutes per day and relax and get away from it all and re-focus. If anything doesn’t feel well, address the issue or contact your doctor immediately.</p>
<p>Reason #6: You have troubles in your personal life. If you’re arguing with your significant other, troubled by something going on with your kids or angry at a friend, it’s possible that you’re taking that baggage with you to work.</p>
<p>The solution: You’re only human and sometimes it’s hard to leave the laundry at home; however, you’re not being paid to deal with your personal troubles in the office. By doing so, you could be jeopardizing your career, so do the best you can to separate the two before you have professional troubles as well.</p>
<p>Reason #7: It’s been more than a year since you’ve taken a vacation. Need I say more?</p>
<p>The solution: You don’t have to travel overseas or even stay in a hotel to have a vacation. Haven’t you heard that staycations are in vogue? The problem with the idea of staycations is that people forget to use the time to vacate their lives, and instead spend the time working through their home to-do lists. If you’re going to stay home on your week off, make sure you actively plan activities away from your day-to-day routine that will re-energize and refresh you.</p>
<p>Wall Street veteran <a href="http://occupreneur.com/about" type="external">Lindsay Broder Opens a New Window.</a>(on twitter: @occupreneur) is a certified professional coach known as The Occupreneur™&#160;Coach. Based in New York, she specializes in&#160; <a href="http://occupreneur.com/services" type="external">Occupreneur Opens a New Window.</a>™career coaching, <a href="http://occupreneur.com" type="external">strategy &amp; consulting services Opens a New Window.</a> for highly successful professionals &amp; organizations who strive to improve one or more aspects of their businesses or careers.</p> | 7 Reasons Why You Might Be Suffering From Workplace Anger | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/08/21/7-reasons-why-might-be-suffering-from-workplace-anger.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>(Reuters) - Shares of <a href="" type="internal">American Airlines</a> parent AMR Corp fell more than 18 percent on Monday as analysts debated the prospects for a bankruptcy filing for the third- largest U.S. airline, which lags its industry peers.</p>
<p>Airline stocks were down broadly on concerns that a weak economy will drain travel demand and hit fares this autumn.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>But American, seen financially as the weakest major carrier, saw the worst share losses on a percentage basis. The stock was down 15.9 percent, or 47 cents, at $2.49 on the <a href="" type="internal">New York Stock Exchange</a>.</p>
<p>"When can they stop the bleeding of cash?" asked Basili Alukos, an equity analyst at <a href="" type="internal">Morningstar</a>. The carrier had a second-quarter net loss of $286 million, while rivals showed profits.</p>
<p>"If it appears we're coming into somewhat of a rough patch or slowdown, how is that going to fare for them?" Alukos said. "I don't think very well, because they were unable to generate a profit kind of in the best of times for the airlines last year."</p>
<p>Ray Neidl, a senior aerospace sector analyst with Maxim Group, said in a recent research note that: "Some believe that a prepackaged bankruptcy filing would be the best thing for AMR and the industry."</p>
<p>An AMR spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the bankruptcy talk.</p>
<p>American is the only major carrier that did not restructure in Chapter 11 during the recent industry downturn. As a result the airline has operating costs -- including labor -- that are higher than competitors.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, experts warn that an economic downturn could hit travel demand just as airlines are beginning to recover.</p>
<p>The International Air Transport Association on Monday said airline traffic slowed in August compared with July, with the total passenger market down 1.6 percent.</p>
<p>Shares of United Continental Holdings &lt; <a href="" type="internal">UAL</a>.N&gt; were down 9 percent at $17.64 on the New York Stock Exchange. <a href="" type="internal">Delta Air Lines</a>' shares fell 7 percent to $6.99 on the NYSE.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Kyle Peterson, editing by Maureen Bavdek)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | American Airlines shares tumble 18 percent on outlook | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/10/03/american-airlines-shares-tumble-18-percent-on-outlook.html | 2016-01-29 | 0 |
<p>As defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was driven from public life thanks to the catastrophe of Iraq, and for the moment at least lurks in obscurity. Wolfowitz, his deputy until 2005, contributed in almost equal measure to the debacle, yet managed to slide from the Pentagon into the presidency of a leading international institution with every chance to redeem himself. Blame for torture at Abu Ghraib and Guant·namo, bungling over troop levels, chaos in Iraq’s reconstruction, and the general meltdown in Pentagon management has all too often been laid at Rumsfeld’s door alone. However, Wolfowitz was an energetic enabler of these outrages and many other notorious initiatives.</p>
<p>To cite just one example: among the most infamous documentary testaments to Rumsfeld’s place in the hierarchy of torture is the First Special Interrogation Plan for use at Guant·namo that received his approval in December 2002. It cleared the way for prolonged sleep deprivation, 20-hour interrogations, and sexual and religious humiliation, along with other favoured techniques. But as the document signed by Rumsfeld notes, the plan had earlier been reviewed and approved by “the deputy”, ie Wolfowitz.</p>
<p>There are indications that Wolfowitz was even more hands on when it came to Abu Ghraib. At the May 2006 court martial of Sergeant Santos Cardona, who was one of the low-ranking personnel called to atone for the collective sins of the military establishment, testimony from one of the interrogators alleged that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were in direct contact with the prison and received “nightly briefings” on the intelligence being extracted under torture.</p>
<p>Just as Rumsfeld will forever be uniquely associated with the torture policy, the hapless former US viceroy in Iraq, Paul Bremer, is credited with the disastrous decision to disband the Iraqi army. Yet numerous sources in Baghdad and the Pentagon at the time were insistent the disbandment decree had been drafted with Wolfowitz’s assent, probably as a means of removing a potential pool of support for a rival to the neoconservatives’ favourite Iraqi, Ahmed Chalabi.</p>
<p>Earlier Wolfowitz had manoeuvred to have himself appointed as viceroy in Iraq. That effort failed. But a newly revealed inquiry by the Pentagon’s inspector general found that, in a foretaste of things to come, he did his best to secure a high-level position in the administration of the conquered country for Riza. Seemingly, he was in awe of her expertise on Iraqi matters. Participants in high level meetings to discuss intelligence on Iraq told me they were startled to hear the deputy secretary of defence invoke his girlfriend: “Shaha says …” Other Pentagon officials were less impressed by her knowledge of the country, not to mention the enormous salary she demanded for her services, and successfully blocked the appointment. Instead, a huge Pentagon contractor, Saic, was directed to hire Riza for a temporary Iraq mission.</p>
<p>Before we conclude that Wolfowitz was the original author of the policies that destroyed Iraq, we should note that his entire career, at least up through his Pentagon service, has been in the service and at the direction of others. His early work in Washington promoting the dubious merits of an anti-ballistic missile programme, for example, was sponsored by Paul Nitze, a powerful insider who devoted a lifetime of intrigue to boosting east-west tensions and US defence spending. Nitze served as godfather to the neoconservative movement in the 70s, correctly calculating that a fusion of the pro-Israel lobby with the military-industrial lobby would create an alliance of unstoppable power. Among the early and most potent recruits was an old friend of Wolfowitz’s, Richard Perle, known and feared in Washington as “the Prince of Darkness” for his ruthless bureaucratic skills and commanding position in the neoconservative forces.</p>
<p>The relationship flourished into Wolfowitz’s sojourn in the Pentagon. Officials who worked closely with him remarked to me on the amount of time Perle, then a close associate of Conrad Black, spent closeted with the deputy secretary. They remained in constant touch, as Wolfowitz’s phone logs attest. Other regular recipients of Wolfowitz calls included Lewis “Scooter” Libby, then chief of staff to Vice-President Cheney and now a convicted felon, and Robin Cleveland. Cleveland was in charge of national security programmes at the White House office of management and budget. From that powerful position, according to a former close colleague of Wolfowitz’s, she “was one of the most important people in the group that gave us the Iraq war”.</p>
<p>Late last year Perle and other leading neoconservatives lashed out publicly at Rumsfeld, deriding his mismanagement of the Iraqi enterprise they had worked so hard to set in train. “Interesting they are not going after the puppet,” the former colleague emailed me in reference to Wolfowitz’s absence from his old friends’ denunciations.</p>
<p>Given recent sordid revelations, his role in shredding the reputation of the World Bank and the morale of its employees may be harder to obscure.</p>
<p>ANDREW COCKBURN is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1416535748/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy.</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Wolfowitz’s War | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/04/26/wolfowitz-s-war/ | 2007-04-26 | 4 |
<p>(RNS) — A United Methodist Church report says church membership dipped to a new low last year, dropping to under 8 million in the United States for the first time in nearly 80 years.</p>
<p>The church's General Council on Finance and Administration estimated U.S. membership at 7.98 million members in 2005. The church's global membership is estimated at about 9.86 million.</p>
<p>Membership among the Methodists — like most mainline Protestant churches — has been dropping slowly but steadily since the formation of the denomination in 1968.</p>
<p>In addition to fewer members, church attendance dropped 1.63 percent from 2004 to 2005, to about 3.34 million each week, according to United Methodist News Service.</p>
<p>The trend of declining membership, however, is exclusive to the United States; regions of the church in Africa, Asia and Europe have increased membership more than 68 percent between 1995 and 2004.</p>
<p>At a convocation next year, bishops and other ministers plan “to focus on how we can make disciples of Jesus Christ and improve our efforts at strengthening local congregations,” said Bishop Scott Jones of Wichita, Kan.</p>
<p>That plan includes new congregations in the United States and outreach to Hispanics and immigrant groups.</p> | Methodist numbers drop below 8 million | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/methodistnumbersdropbelow8million/ | 3 |
|
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>As non sequiturs go, Dana Milbank’s selective outrage in his June 19 editorial, “Debasing the Presidency” may go down as one of the great howlers in journalism history.</p>
<p>Published in my paper on Friday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch gave it the title, <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/dana-milbank/dana-milbank-tucker-carlson-and-the-outhouse/article_70cf5267-f036-5671-85bb-5e20136f1b69.html" type="external">“Tucker Carlson and the Montana outhouse.”</a> In it, Milbank cries foul over the awful partisanship taking place in politics today and makes a silly, unconvincing attempt to link a scatological prank in Montana to Daily Caller editor and cable news personality Tucker Carlson. He writes:</p>
<p>“What does conservative pundit Tucker Carlson have to do with an outhouse in Montana?</p>
<p>“More than you might think…</p>
<p>“Outside the Montana GOP convention in Missoula stood an outhouse labeled ‘Barack Obama Presidential Library’ . . .”</p>
<p>And so on. Milbank continues with Mitt Romney’s refusal to condemn Donald Trump over another “birther” remark and how the Daily Caller’s Neil Munro interrupted President Obama at a recent news conference to ask why he was favoring “foreigners over American workers,” a clear swipe at Obama’s immigration directive.</p>
<p>Milbank’s objective in such a column seems to be to juxtapose an obvious prank, one unaffiliated with the Montana GOP, to Carlson’s reporter shouting at the president as if one event caused another. It is not only sloppy editorializing, but it is feigned outrage.</p>
<p>Disagreeable attitudes directed at an incumbent from the opposition party is nothing new and Milbank is either naive or disingenuous to insinuate that it is an innovation derived from today’s political culture. Perhaps he has never heard of Thomas Jefferson, whose scribe <a href="http://floppingaces.net/2008/01/19/a-history-of-political-mudslinging-and-character-assassination/" type="external">James Callender</a> likened the sitting president John Adams to a hermaphrodite. It’s no outhouse in Montana, but negative politics is slightly older than the Internet Age.</p>
<p>Milbank, although not alone in this matter, by hiding behind phrases like “affront to the office” is essentially arguing in favor of a special status to which the president is entitled by virtue of his office. Inside voices, please!</p>
<p>As a partisan, he may also be reacting negatively to the fact that some people in the other party might not like the Democratic president. Was Milbank similarly offended by <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2003-12-05/entertainment/eminem.lyrics_1_dead-presidents-eminem-dennis-dennehy?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ" type="external">songs</a> during the Bush administration celebrating the hypothetical death of Dubya?</p>
<p>This is only part of what’s wrong with modern American politics. Naturally, we should all welcome a more sedate and mature political environment. It’s just that Milbank’s complaint is one of convenience. What he says in this column is no different from what hordes of Republican stenographers at Fox News and on talk radio did for eight years under Bush. Hiding behind phrases like “presidential” and “dignity of the office” is a commonplace way for media types to justify why their favored candidate or officeholder should be beyond reproach.</p>
<p>Consider: Was there something “presidential” about the way Obama seemingly spiked the bin Laden football a year after the raid and in the middle of a campaign year? Was it “presidential” for George W. Bush to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKX6luiMINQ" type="external">joke</a> about the missing WMD’s at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner? Of course not, but that usually doesn’t matter to each side’s partisans. One man’s braggadocio is another man’s statesmanship.</p>
<p>Lacking a monarchy or literal aristocracy, Americans have imputed the presidency with an aura in its place. But a fallible human being, any president would succumb to the excesses that come with power. As the example of Jefferson proves, even the founding generation was liable to take discourse a little far off the edge.</p>
<p>But for a man like Milbank he may want to strip a little of the veneer from the presidency and consider whether the people in his place, the media, have substituted the dignity of the office for responsible journalism.</p> | Dana Milbank’s Selective Outrage Is About Partisan Bias, Not Presidential Dignity | false | https://ivn.us/2012/06/24/dana-milbanks-selective-outrage-is-about-partisan-bias-not-presidential-dignity/ | 2012-06-24 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Back in February, <a href="/news/featurex/2008/03/torture-playlist.html" type="external">we posted a “Torture Playlist”</a> featuring songs that the American military had used to, um, “enhance” interrogations, including tracks by Eminem, Drowning Pool, Metallica, and Rage Against the Machine. As Jesse Finfrock <a href="/riff_blog/archives/2008/12/11280_torture-playlist.html" type="external">covered here on Wednesday</a>, musicians have joined forces with a human rights organization to put a stop to the use of music as torture. Now, <a href="http://stereogum.com/archives/trent-reznor-upset-his-music-used-to-torture-priso_041132.html" type="external">Stereogum points out</a> that another artist has joined the voices of protest: Trent Reznor, whose music as Nine Inch Nails was used to torture Chicago military contractor Donald Vance. Yesterday, Reznor posted an outraged message <a href="http://www.nin.com/" type="external">at his official website</a> entitled “Regarding NIN music used at Guantanamo Bay for torture”:</p>
<p />
<p>It’s difficult for me to imagine anything more profoundly insulting, demeaning and enraging than discovering music you’ve put your heart and soul into creating has been used for purposes of torture. If there are any legal options that can be realistically taken they will be aggressively pursued, with any potential monetary gains donated to human rights charities. Thank GOD this country has appeared to side with reason and we can put the Bush administration’s reign of power, greed, lawlessness and madness behind us.</p>
<p>Wait, “monetary gains”? You mean there could be royalties? Hmm… can anybody find out if any <a href="http://www.partyben.com" type="external">mashups</a> made it into the torture rooms?</p>
<p /> | Torture Playlist: Trent Reznor Responds | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/12/torture-playlist-trent-reznor-responds/ | 2008-12-12 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>In a perfect world, everyone would still leave their doors unlocked. But the world is far from perfect - 423 firearms were stolen in Albuquerque auto burglaries in 2015 and 256 were taken in residential burglaries over a nine-month period last year.</p>
<p>Law enforcement officials acknowledge the chances of recovering any of them before they are used in a crime are slim to none. Considering the suspects in the fatal shootings of Rio Rancho police officer Gregg Benner and Albuquerque police officer Daniel Webster could not legally purchase, possess or sell a firearm, it's a safe bet the firearms they used were stolen.</p>
<p>And that should hammer home the reality that today's gun owners have an added responsibility not to leave their weapons vulnerable to theft.</p>
<p>From large safes that bolt to the floor to under-seat safes that require a fingerprint to open, the firearms industry has developed myriad products to keep a responsible owner's guns secure. Do they cost? Of course. Is it right or fair that a responsible gun owner shell out more money because of the criminal element in our society? A better question is what costs more - a gun safe that runs $35 to $900, or someone's life?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Truly responsible gun owners understand there's only one right answer to that question.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p>
<p /> | Editorial: NM gun owners have to lock, load responsibility | false | https://abqjournal.com/744122/nm-gun-owners-have-to-lock-load-responsibility.html | 2 |
|
<p>You know Fox News is all over this story: The Utah House of Representatives is fixin’ to vote on a measure that would make gold and silver coins a viable alternative to the boring — and inflation-prone — forms of currency currently in national circulation. Bonus: Utahns could even pay taxes with these shiny coins!</p>
<p>The bill’s author, it should be noted, is affiliated with the tea party. –KA</p>
<p>Fox News:</p>
<p>The legislation, which has 12 co-sponsors, would let Utahans pay their taxes with gold and also calls for a committee to study alternative currencies for the state. It would also exempt the sale of gold from the state capital gains tax.</p>
<p />
<p>The bill cleared a state legislative committee on Wednesday, the first of 11 similar bills in statehouses across the country to do so. If the bill clears the House, it would have to pass the Senate before the governor could sign it into law.</p>
<p>Attorney and Tea Party activist Larry Hilton, author of the original bill, said he doesn’t foresee any roadblocks.</p>
<p>“There’s enough uneasiness going on in the economy to trigger people to feel that, hey, having a little Plan B, kind of a backup system, is not a bad idea,” he told FoxNews.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/03/utah-considers-return-gold-silver-coins/" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Thar Be Gold in Them Hills | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/thar-be-gold-in-them-hills/ | 2011-03-04 | 4 |
<p>&amp;amp;lt;i&amp;amp;gt;This post originally ran on &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://robertreich.org/post/82134788482" title="Robert Reich’s Web page"&amp;amp;gt;Robert Reich’s Web page&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;.&amp;amp;lt;/i&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Momentum is building to raise the minimum wage. Several states have already taken action — Connecticut has boosted it to $10.10 by 2017, the Maryland legislature just approved a similar measure, Minnesota lawmakers just reached a deal to hike it to $9.50. A few cities have been more ambitious — Washington, D.C. and its surrounding counties raised it to $11.50, Seattle is considering $15.00&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Senate Democrats will soon introduce legislation raising it nationally to $10.10, from the current $7.25 an hour.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;All this is fine as far as it goes. But we need to be more ambitious. We should be raising the federal minimum to $15 an hour.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;div class="sidebar__ad-label"&amp;amp;gt;Advertisement&amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;broadstreet-zone zone-id="58577"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/broadstreet-zone&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Here are seven reasons why:&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;1. Had the minimum wage of 1968 simply stayed even with inflation, it would be &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.raisetheminimumwage.com/facts/entry/amount-with-inflation/"&amp;amp;gt;more than $10 an hour today&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;. But the typical worker is also &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://about%20twice%20as%20productive"&amp;amp;gt;about twice as productive&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; as then. Some of those productivity gains should go to workers at the bottom.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;2. $10.10 isn’t enough to lift all workers and their families out of poverty. Most low-wage workers aren’t young teenagers; they’re major breadwinners for their families, and many are &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/20140325minimumwageandwomenreportfinal.pdf"&amp;amp;gt;women&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;. And they and their families need a higher minimum.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;3. For this reason, a $10.10 minimum would also still require the rest of us to pay Medicaid, food-stamps, and other programs necessary to get poor families out of poverty — thereby indirectly subsidizing employers who refuse to pay more. Bloomberg View describes McDonalds and Walmart as “America’s biggest welfare queens” because their employees receive so much public assistance. (Some, like McDonalds, even &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-mcresources-hotline-tells-nancy-salgado-to-get-on-food-stamps-2013-10"&amp;amp;gt;advise their employees to use public programs&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; because their pay is so low.)&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;4. A $15/hour minimum won’t result in major job losses because it would put money in the pockets of millions of low-wage workers who will spend it — thereby &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/bp357-federal-minimum-wage-increase/"&amp;amp;gt;giving working families and the overall economy a boost, &amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;and creating jobs. (When I was Labor Secretary in 1996 and we raised the minimum wage, business predicted millions of job losses; in fact, we had more job gains over the next four years than in any comparable period in American history.)&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;5. A $15/hour minimum is unlikely to result in higher prices because most businesses directly affected by it are in intense competition for consumers, and will take the raise out of profits rather than raise their prices. But because the higher minimum will also attract more workers into the job market, employers will have more choice of whom to hire, and thereby have more reliable employees — &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://seattletimes.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/opinionnw/files/2014/04/Berkeley-minimum-wage-study.pdf"&amp;amp;gt;resulting in lower turnover costs&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; and higher productivity.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;6. Since Republicans will push Democrats to go even lower than $10.10, it’s doubly important to be clear about what’s right in the first place. Democrats should be going for a higher minimum rather than listening to Republican demands for a smaller one.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;7. At a time in our history when 95 percent of all economic gains are going to the top 1 percent, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour isn’t just smart economics and good politics. It’s also the morally right thing to do.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Call your senators and members of congress today to tell them $15 an hour is the least American workers deserve. You can reach them at 202-224-3121.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;</p> | Why the Minimum Wage Should Really Be Raised to $15 an Hour | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/why-the-minimum-wage-should-really-be-raised-to-15-an-hour/ | 2014-04-09 | 4 |
<p>Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaking during a campaign event Saturday at the Reno Sparks Convention Center in Nevada. ( <a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/DEM-2016-Sanders/4a2c30a5aca34c39a25f85e289e16e69/77/0" type="external">Evan Vucci / AP</a>)</p>
<p>Monday is a critical day in Bernie Sanders’ historic, insurgent campaign for president. It’s the last day Californians can register to vote in the state’s high-stakes presidential primary.</p>
<p>The Sanders campaign is counting on high voter turnout to win big in the Golden State and five other states in the <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/05/18/how-many-primaries-left/" type="external">final Super Tuesday round of primaries</a> June 7. So far, the news is encouraging for the Vermont senator: More than <a href="http://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-sees-flood-of-new-voters-spurred-by-7754295.php" type="external">850,000 new voters have registered</a> for the 2016 California elections.</p>
<p />
<p>According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “the newly registered voters are overwhelmingly young people, with 37 percent under 25 and 64 percent 35 or younger.”</p>
<p>That’s even better news for Sanders, whose message of social justice has won him the lion’s share of young voters this primary season. He is counting on high voter turnout to take a convincing victory in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/elections/2016/primaries/preview/california" type="external">delegate-rich California</a> to the Democratic convention in July—where he can argue that he is the candidate with momentum and a <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_sanders-5565.html" type="external">better chance than Hillary Clinton</a> to defeat Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 general election.</p>
<p>California gives Sanders a third reason for hope: “NPP” voters—those who register stating no party preference—can <a href="http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/political-parties/no-party-preference/" type="external">ask for the Democratic ballot</a> on election day.</p> | This Could Be Make-or-Break Monday for Bernie Sanders | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/this-could-be-make-or-break-monday-for-bernie-sanders/ | 2016-05-22 | 4 |
<p />
<p>This post originally ran on <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2014/08/islamic-tikrit-against.html" type="external">Juan Cole’s Web page</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alghad.com/articles/820466-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%82%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%B4%D9%84-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AA?s=ed44d10c03942d93c648dbb345691590%20" type="external">The Iraqi military made a push on Tikrit north of Baghdad on Tuesday, but had to call off their campaign</a> when they ran into minefields, booby-trapped buildings, sniping and artillery and mortar fire on the part of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which now <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2014/08/minorities-infidels-attacked.html%20" type="external">styles itself the “Islamic State” (IS).</a> It took the Sunni Muslim stronghold, birth place of Saddam Hussein, last July. The IS appears to have used its two months of dominance in the city to do extensive defensive works, with the mining proving an effective deterrent along with professional use of medium weaponry.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-james-foley-islamic-state-20140819-story.html%20" type="external">Meanwhile, a video briefly surfaced purporting to show the IS beheading an American journalist, James Foley,</a> a freelancer for GlobalPost who had been missing in Syria for two years. In the video the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-crisis-islamic-states-message-to-america--we-will-drown-you-all-in-blood-9677701.html%20" type="external">IS threatened to drown the United States in blood</a> if its aerial bombardment of IS positions continued.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://alhayat.com/Articles/4213203/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%B4-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%82%D9%8A-%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%82%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%AA%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AA-%D8%AB%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9%20" type="external">The Iraqi military advanced toward Tikrit from the west this time, rather than, as with last month, the south</a>. The claimed to have killed 23 IS fighters and to have taken some small suburbs of the city, but that they had to call off their campaign Tuesday afternoon is eloquent as to their failure. They included forces from the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Interior, and Shiite volunteer militias, all supported by the Iraqi Air Force. Unlike with the Kurds fighting to take back the Mosul Dam from IS in the north, there is no report of close air support from the US.</p>
<p>One of the Iraqi military’s goals was to relieve the village of Amirli, which is inhabited by Turkmen Shiites and had been under siege from IS in Tikrit. IS as a hyper-Sunni terrorist organization despises Shiite Muslims and has carried out mass executions against them.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, back in Baghdad, <a href="http://www.alquds.co.uk/?p=209166%20" type="external">controversy swirled over rumors that a political figure was willing pay $5 mn. for a cabinet seat</a>. As long as there is that level of corruption, it is hard for the government to ask its grunts for loyalty and willingness to sacrifice their lives for this state.</p>
<p><a href="http://youtu.be/-YHU4OPd88g%20" type="external">CCTV: “Iraqi military clashes with militants in Tikrit”</a></p>
<p>——</p>
<p /> | ISIS to U.S.: We’ll Drown You in Blood; Beheads U.S. Journalist, Holds Tikrit | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/isis-to-u-s-well-drown-you-in-blood-beheads-u-s-journalist-holds-tikrit/ | 2014-08-20 | 4 |
<p>DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Thousands of Bangladeshis poured onto the streets to applaud the execution of an Islamist party official on charges of crimes against humanity during the country's 1971 independence war, while security forces were on alert Sunday for a possible backlash from his supporters.</p>
<p>Mohammad Qamaruzzaman was hanged Saturday night in the central jail in the capital, Dhaka, a senior prison official, Forman Ali, told reporters. He was buried early Sunday under tight security, according to his brother, Kafil Uddin.</p>
<p>Prosecutors said that Qamaruzzaman, an assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, headed a militia group that collaborated with the Pakistani army in central Bangladesh in 1971 and was behind the killings of at least 120 unarmed farmers.</p>
<p>Bangladesh blames Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators for the deaths of 3 million people during the nine-month war of independence from Pakistan. An estimated 200,000 women were raped and about 10 million people fled to refugee camps in neighboring India.</p>
<p>Jamaat-e-Islami denounced the execution and called for a nationwide general strike Monday. At the same time, thousands of people applauded the execution on the streets of Dhaka and other cities, a sign of popular approval of the war crime trials launched by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. More rallies supporting the execution were planned for Sunday.</p>
<p>"We are happy that justice has been delivered finally," said Mohammad Al Masum, a student at Dhaka University, who joined a procession in Shabagh Square. "I did not see the war but I am sure the families that lost their dear ones will be happy today."</p>
<p>Hasina has vowed to continue the trials despite pressure from abroad and the opposition at home. Jamaat-e-Islami party, which garners about 2 percent to 3 percent of popular vote, has been weakened significantly as most of its senior leaders have already been convicted. Another assistant secretary, Abdul Quader Mollah, was executed in 2013 for similar crimes.</p>
<p>The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, earlier this week urged Bangladesh not to carry out the execution, saying that Qamaruzzman's trial did not meet international standards.</p>
<p>The United States was more guarded in its assessment of the trial, but still urged the government not to proceed with the execution.</p>
<p>"We have seen progress, but still believe that further improvements ... could ensure these proceedings meet domestic and international obligations," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement shortly before the execution.</p>
<p>The Bangladeshi government said the trial met the proper standards with the defendant receiving the opportunity to challenge the prosecution's case in open court and appeal the verdict all the way up to the Supreme Court. Qamaruzzaman, however, refused to seek presidential clemency.</p>
<p>The initial trials that followed Bangladesh's independence four decades ago were halted after the assassination of then-president and independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — Hasina's father — and most of his family members in a 1975 military coup. Hasina revived the process, making good on a pledge she made before 2008 elections.</p>
<p>DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Thousands of Bangladeshis poured onto the streets to applaud the execution of an Islamist party official on charges of crimes against humanity during the country's 1971 independence war, while security forces were on alert Sunday for a possible backlash from his supporters.</p>
<p>Mohammad Qamaruzzaman was hanged Saturday night in the central jail in the capital, Dhaka, a senior prison official, Forman Ali, told reporters. He was buried early Sunday under tight security, according to his brother, Kafil Uddin.</p>
<p>Prosecutors said that Qamaruzzaman, an assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, headed a militia group that collaborated with the Pakistani army in central Bangladesh in 1971 and was behind the killings of at least 120 unarmed farmers.</p>
<p>Bangladesh blames Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators for the deaths of 3 million people during the nine-month war of independence from Pakistan. An estimated 200,000 women were raped and about 10 million people fled to refugee camps in neighboring India.</p>
<p>Jamaat-e-Islami denounced the execution and called for a nationwide general strike Monday. At the same time, thousands of people applauded the execution on the streets of Dhaka and other cities, a sign of popular approval of the war crime trials launched by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. More rallies supporting the execution were planned for Sunday.</p>
<p>"We are happy that justice has been delivered finally," said Mohammad Al Masum, a student at Dhaka University, who joined a procession in Shabagh Square. "I did not see the war but I am sure the families that lost their dear ones will be happy today."</p>
<p>Hasina has vowed to continue the trials despite pressure from abroad and the opposition at home. Jamaat-e-Islami party, which garners about 2 percent to 3 percent of popular vote, has been weakened significantly as most of its senior leaders have already been convicted. Another assistant secretary, Abdul Quader Mollah, was executed in 2013 for similar crimes.</p>
<p>The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, earlier this week urged Bangladesh not to carry out the execution, saying that Qamaruzzman's trial did not meet international standards.</p>
<p>The United States was more guarded in its assessment of the trial, but still urged the government not to proceed with the execution.</p>
<p>"We have seen progress, but still believe that further improvements ... could ensure these proceedings meet domestic and international obligations," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement shortly before the execution.</p>
<p>The Bangladeshi government said the trial met the proper standards with the defendant receiving the opportunity to challenge the prosecution's case in open court and appeal the verdict all the way up to the Supreme Court. Qamaruzzaman, however, refused to seek presidential clemency.</p>
<p>The initial trials that followed Bangladesh's independence four decades ago were halted after the assassination of then-president and independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — Hasina's father — and most of his family members in a 1975 military coup. Hasina revived the process, making good on a pledge she made before 2008 elections.</p> | Bangladesh on alert after execution, applauded by many | false | https://apnews.com/amp/9a85895fd66547b281d509b547ee1786 | 2015-04-12 | 2 |
<p>UnitedHealth Group reported an increase in profit and increased its guidance for the year while it still felt the impacts from pulling out of Affordable Care Act markets.</p>
<p>The company reported adjusted net earnings of $2.6 billion, or $2.66 a share, compared with $2.1 billion this time last year. Revenue rose 8.7% to $50.3 billion, but consolidated revenue took a $1.6 billion-dollar hit because of the ACA tax deferral and as a result of the company pulling out of ACA markets.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The net margin expanded 6 basis points to 4.9%.</p>
<p>UnitedHealth said for the year it is predicting adjusted net earnings will "approach" $10 a share. Last quarter, it was predicting between $9.75 and $9.90 for the year.</p>
<p>Shares were flat in premarket trading. They are up 20.72% year to date.</p>
<p>Write to Allison Prang at allison.prang@wsj.com</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>October 17, 2017 07:25 ET (11:25 GMT)</p> | UnitedHealth Profit Rises Despite ACA-Related Costs | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/17/unitedhealth-profit-rises-despite-aca-related-costs.html | 2017-10-17 | 0 |
<p>Architects have long focused on ways to seal buildings up and make them more energy efficient, but new research demonstrates that good ventilation can be important for our cognitive abilities. Steve Curwood speaks with Harvard School of Public Health professor Joe Allen about the new study that documents the details and with John Mandyck of United Technologies about how the findings could influence the future of building design. (published October 30, 2015)</p> | Better Office Air Makes For Better Thinking | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-10-30/better-office-air-makes-better-thinking | 2015-10-30 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The fast-food chain announced that it’s exploring ways to offer more balanced choices and transparency. In a call with reporters, CEO Greg Creed said that could mean new products and reformulations of existing offerings.</p>
<p>Creed said the chain is testing a “range of products” this year, with national launches planned for 2014. He declined to provide more details on the test products but noted that the company would remain true to its brand.</p>
<p>“We’re not going to walk away from who Taco Bell is,” Creed said. But he noted that the chain has “a role to play in providing more balanced food choices.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>By 2020, Taco Bell says 20 percent of its combo meals will meet nutritional guidelines for calories and fat set out by the federal government. It did not immediately know what portion of meals currently meet those guidelines.</p>
<p>The announcement is likely to be met with skepticism in some corners, considering that Taco Bell is known for urging people to eat nachos as a “fourth meal” late at night. But it shows just how much pressure the broader industry is under to recast its greasy-food image as people increasingly seek out options they feel are healthier.</p>
<p>A report by the Hudson Institute earlier this year found that lower-calorie options were a key indicator of sales growth at restaurant chains between 2006 and 2011. While chains that expanded lower-calorie options saw customer traffic grow by 11 percent, the group found that restaurants that didn’t saw traffic drop by 15 percent.</p>
<p>Whether the new options fast-food chains are rolling out actually qualify as healthy is debatable, given the nebulous definitions of the term. But McDonald’s recently introduced chicken wraps, emphasizing their tomatoes, cucumbers and spring mix lettuce. Later this mont h , it’s also introducing a version of its Egg McMuffin made with egg whites and a whole wheat muffin.</p>
<p>In a push to raise the image of its food, Taco Bell last year also introduced a line of “Cantina” burrito bowls that are seen as being more in line with fast-growing rival Chipotle Mexican Grill. Taco Bell said its lower-calorie “fresco” options, which remove the cheese and sour cream, account for only about 2 percent of sales.</p>
<p>Coincidentally, New York Times writer Mark Bittman noted in a feature for the paper’s Sunday magazine this past week that the public’s relationship with fast food has evolved.</p>
<p>“We’ve gone from the whistle-blowing stage to the higher-expectations stage, and some of those expectations are being met,” Bittman wrote in the piece, which argued that the public was ready for a healthy fast-food chain.</p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean fast-food chains have stopped offering more indulgent creations. Earlier this year, for example, Taco Bell rolled o ut hand-held tortilla-wrapped “griller” snacks; one of the varieties comes filled with fried potatoes, a nacho cheese sauce, bacon and sour cream.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Taco Bell is a unit of Yum Brands Inc. of Louisville, Ky., which also owns KFC and Pizza Hut.</p> | Taco Bell goes on health kick | false | https://abqjournal.com/511277/taco-bell-goes-on-health-kick.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The Denver Post reports one of the boys was in critical condition after the Thanksgiving Day shooting outside Manual High School.</p>
<p>Police spokesman John White says the victims were in a car when two or three suspects approached on foot, fired into the car and fled.</p>
<p>White says the police gang unit will investigate but officers don’t know whether gang members were involved.</p>
<p>The victims’ names weren’t immediately released.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>White says the critically injured boy was shot multiple times. A second victim was shot in the arm and a third in the leg.</p>
<p>No classes were in session this week but it’s not clear if anyone was inside the school.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Denver Post, <a href="http://www.denverpost.com" type="external">http://www.denverpost.com</a></p> | Gunshots outside Denver school leave 3 wounded, 1 critically | false | https://abqjournal.com/1097204/gunshots-outside-denver-school-leave-3-wounded-1-critically.html | 2 |
|
<p>"Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough embarked on a rant Monday morning when asked whether House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) made a mistake inviting the Israeli prime minister to address Congress.</p>
<p />
<p>During his tirade, Scarborough railed against <a href="" type="internal">Democrats</a> <a href="" type="internal">snubbing</a> Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he called "a spokesperson for Jews worldwide," and accused President Barack Obama of "allowing the Iranians to roll over him" in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.</p>
<p>"You guys are good at what you do," co-host Mika Brzezinski said to Scarborough and another Republican at the table, Nicole Wallace, pointing out that Scarborough had called Boehner's move a mistake only days earlier.</p>
<p>That set Scarborough off.</p>
<p>"I wouldn't be quite so smug about mocking somebody as Jews are being gunned down in the streets of Paris and being attacked across Europe," Scarborough snarled.</p>
<p>After Brzezinski tried to steer Scarborough back to the question, he insulted her again.</p>
<p>"Go ahead, be smug about it. You don't understand what Jews are going through," he said. "You go ahead and be smug."</p>
<p>Turning to the camera, Scarborough then challenged "antisemitic" people to tweet at him.</p>
<p>"I know there are a lot of people out there that hate Jews," he said. "Tweet me. I know you hate Jews, I know you're antisemitic."</p>
<p>Finally, Scarborough laid out a challenge to the Democrats in Congress threatening not to attend Netanyahu's address, after Brzezinski suggested they boycott the speech.</p>
<p>"Let me say to Democrats out there, I would love you, politically as a Republican, to boycott this," he said. "Please. Boycott it. Please, stay away."</p>
<p>"Do Republicans, I mean, do their job for them and show that you're not on the side of Israel," Scarborough said. "And show that you're not on the side of Jews being attacked worldwide."</p>
<p>Three prominent House Democrats have <a href="" type="internal">promised</a> to skip Netanyahu's speech next month, as <a href="" type="internal">dozens more</a> threaten to bail as well.</p>
<p>Co-host Mika called Scarborough's rant "political spin" later in the show.</p>
<p>Watch the clip:</p>
<p /> | Scarborough Challenges Dems To 'Show You're Not On The Side Of Jews' (VIDEO) | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/joe-scarborough-democrats-jews | 4 |
|
<p><a href="" type="internal" />San Francisco’s hottest property may be Treasure Island, where plans for glitzy development are threatened by the Navy’s legacy of radioactive waste</p>
<p>OCT. 12, 2010</p>
<p>By ANTHONY PIGNATARO</p>
<p>SAN FRANCISCO — The jet fighters raced across the sky maybe 500 feet above me. They were F-18s painted blue and yellow – the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels aerobatics team. They raced across San Francisco Bay last Thursday, alone and in pairs, splitting and diving and rolling and occasionally forming into up into four-ship diamonds so tightly packed it looked like a person could step from plane to plane.</p>
<p>The jets were practicing for an air show so the Navy could show off what it considers the very best in personnel, training and equipment. Their presence over the old Treasure Island Naval Station that day was ironic, because I was visiting the island to see the Navy at its most decrepit and toxic.</p>
<p>Turns out that old Treasure Island Naval Station is some of the hottest property in San Francisco. Maybe the hottest, in fact, though not in the way reuse officials, politicians and land developers want to admit.</p>
<p>That’s because a disputed portion of Treasure Island – the Navy says just a few sites, others say possibly the entire island – is radioactive. What to do about the radiological contamination has become the great unmentionable in the quest to turn the old, rapidly decaying base into San Francisco’s “premier date-night locale,” as one aide to Mayor (and Lieutenant Governor candidate) Gavin Newsom recently put it.</p>
<p>The extent of the danger posed by what lay behind the fences and radiation hazard signs isn’t something the Navy likes to talk about. At public hearings of the Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) – a citizens panel that observes all base cleanup efforts, but takes no action – Navy officials and contractors go to great lengths to say all is well, that there are only a few radioactive sites on the island, and cleanup efforts are proceeding at pace, even though the Navy is well behind schedule.</p>
<p />
<p>THE ISLAND'S ENTRANCE</p>
<p />
<p>“The overall cleanup is going very well,” said Nathan Brennan, a member of the Treasure Island RAB. “The project was supposed to take one year, but we’re going into year three. They have to go deeper, and they keep finding a little more, a little more. But the Navy is hoping to finish soil cleanup in six to eight months.”</p>
<p>And yet after I made two phone calls to the Defense Department’s <a href="http://www.bracpmo.navy.mil/basepage.aspx?baseid=44&amp;state=California&amp;name=treasure_island" type="external">Base Closure and Realignment Commission</a> (which the Defense Department inexplicably condenses into the acronym BRAC) — the office that handles all base reuse issues — asking for the status of the radiological cleanup, all I received was a terse, dismissive statement by e-mail.</p>
<p>“The Navy has a Radiological investigation and cleanup Program at former Naval Station Treasure Island, conducted in coordination with the State of California and the U.S. EPA,” said Jim Sullivan, BRAC’s Environmental Coordinator for Treasure Island. “Copies of reports are available in the Information Repositories at the Navy Caretaker Site Office at Treasure Island, and at the San Francisco Main Public Library. The Navy provides information updates on the entire cleanup program at the bimonthly Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) meetings, held on the third Thursday of every second month at 7:00 pm on Treasure Island.”</p>
<p>Others, one of whom agreed to speak anonymously because the person is not authorized to talk to the press, said something very different.</p>
<p>“Radiological waste is a huge variable,” said one person closely tied to the clean-up efforts. “The groundwater is very high – remember, you can put very activated material in a foot of water and not see it. There’s just no way to know if the whole island is toxic.”</p>
<p>*&#160;&#160; *&#160;&#160; *</p>
<p>Visitors to the man-made, 403-acre island these days see nothing but charm and opportunity at the entrance. There, palm trees sway over a marina, snack bar and an old art deco administration building that doubled for Berlin Airport in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Banners proclaiming “Treasure Island: Your Recreation Destination” flutter in the breeze.</p>
<p>The city of San Francisco has big, $6 billion plans for TI. A 60-story high-rise. Swanky hotels. Eight thousand new housing units and condos – some for low-income residents, but many for the upper tax brackets. Gorgeous parks, too. At a ceremony in August, Mayor Newsom called it “arguably the most environmentally friendly infill development in American history.” (Newsom’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story).</p>
<p>For San Francisco, the future of Treasure Island looks a lot like its very distant past. The island didn’t exist before 1936. That’s when the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) began dumping 30 million cubic yards of fill into the waters just north of Yerba Buena Island. The island’s original purpose was to house the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, a kind of world’s fair. After the fair there was talk of paving it over entirely and turning it into San Francisco Airport, but that proved to be just talk. In 1941, the Navy took over the island as part of America’s massive war mobilization. They held it until 1997, when it closed as part of the Pentagon’s base closure efforts to save money.</p>
<p>During the five decades the Navy controlled the base, they used it for a variety of tasks – most notably, for the purposes of this story, as a training center for nuclear decontamination. That began in 1947, according to the Navy’s 250-page <a href="http://www.bracpmo.navy.mil/base_docs/treasure_island/documents/enviro_docs/FinalTI_HRAFeb2006.pdf" type="external">Treasure Island Naval Station Historical Radiological Assessment</a>, released in February 2006.</p>
<p>“Of more significance relative to TI, was the recognition of the need to prepare for the potential of atomic warfare,” states the Assessment. “Command History for the period 1 October 1946 to 10 December 1946 reported that a letter was received from the Bureau of Naval Personnel that directed setting up a course in Radiological Safety to furnish naval officers with the specialized training necessary to evaluate and combat atomic weapon damage. In January of 1947 the fourth floor of the Damage Control School, Building #7, was converted into a suitable location for the Radiological Safety School. The facility consisted of three lecture rooms, a laboratory suitable for demonstrating practical exercises, a meter repair and stowage room, and a room for storing a radioactive source needed for the practical exercises.”</p>
<p>This was a time of nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific, and the Navy needed to clean its target ships before it could study them. All wars, it seemed in these early days of the Cold War, were going to be atomic wars, and the Navy needed to know how to operate in such environments.</p>
<p>According to Nathan Brennan, a member of the Treasure Island RAB, part of the training involved the hiding of radioactive buttons around the training school, and then students armed with Geiger counters would try to find them. At first, things seemed to go well. But then in January 1950 (the Assessment does not give the exact date), someone spilled 40 milligrams of radium in a first-floor lab of Building 233.</p>
<p />
<p>BUILDING 233, AS IT LOOKS TODAY</p>
<p />
<p>“Since many of the occupants of Building 233 left the building before the extent of the spill was full identified, radioactive contamination was carried by personnel (on shoes, clothing etc) to personal automobiles and personal residences,” states the Assessment. “Numerous innovative decontamination techniques were utilized to control and contain and eventually remove the radium contamination… More than 200 barrels of radioactive waste were generated and were stored aboard the USS Independence at Hunters Point Shipyard. The drums were weighted with concrete and were sunk at sea at a depth of more than 100 fathoms.”</p>
<p>Cleanup of the building, which was done to the far less stringent standards of 1950, took about six months.</p>
<p>Of course, that was 60 years ago. “Any radionuclide that could have decayed through 10 half-lives since its time of use at NAVSTA TI is no longer considered a radionuclide of concern,” the Assessment helpfully notes. But then there’s the Assessment’s table of “Radionuclides of Concern,” which lists 14 isotopes, including Cesium-137, Thorium-232, Radium-226, Strontium-90 and the ever-popular Plutonium-239, that all made an appearance at one time or another on the Treasure Island base. These isotopes, some with half-lives in excess of a thousand years, are all still a big concern.</p>
<p>*&#160;&#160; *&#160;&#160; *</p>
<p>Redevelopment officials and contractors have a lot of work ahead of them. Throughout much of TI, buildings that look like they date to the Roosevelt Administration stand shuttered and crumbling. Asbestos signs are everywhere. On the island’s northwest corner, where streets named for fish intersect avenues named after letters of the alphabet, there are <a href="http://www.thevillagesattreasureisland.com/index-3.html" type="external">600 low-income homes</a>, packed with cars, people and – on the day I visited – at least three San Francisco police cruisers.</p>
<p>I drove around, just looking. I made a left, another left, then a right. I found myself near the water’s edge, headed down a dead-end street. I drove to the end, then pulled over to the side. A chain-link fence stretched across the road, just a few feet from one house. There was a small yellow sign with a very distinctive triangular symbol hanging on the fence. “CAUTION,” it warned. “RADIOLOGICALLY CONTROLLED AREA.”</p>
<p>This was what the Navy calls Site 12. Before the twisting streets and cramped houses went in the 1960s, this area held a lot of dump sites – and the sailors weren’t too discriminating about what they tossed here.</p>
<p>“They’ve found objects there,” Brennan told me. “When they found them, they’d go through the yards and dig.”</p>
<p>The fact that contractors have been finding radiological debris in Site 12 is not a good sign. The 2006 Historical Assessment had concluded that contamination in this area was an “unlikely” possibility, but did recommend that the Navy “Perform radiation monitoring during soil excavation of the known solid waste disposal areas.”</p>
<p>At the last RAB meeting, held Aug. 17 on the island, a woman stood up and asked BRAC Environmental Coordinator Sullivan if it was true that the Navy had agreed that if they did indeed get radioactive hits in Site 12, then they would screen all of the island’s other debris sites.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Sullivan said, according to the verbatim minutes of the meeting. “[I]f radiological material was found in Site 12, then the Navy would conduct additional evaluations of additional sites where debris had been identified.”</p>
<p>To the source close to the cleanup, this pointed to an ominous reality. “Everywhere they’ve looked for RAD, they’ve found RAD,” the source said.</p>
<p />
<p>TOXIC PILES (NOTE SCHOOL IN BACKGROUND)</p>
<p />
<p>One of the new sites the Navy is looking at is called Site 31. But before we get there, let’s look at some of the other agencies overseeing the TI cleanup. Two of them in particular, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), have been, well, skeptical of the work so far.</p>
<p>“To say that they’ve been skeptical is an understatement,” the source close to the cleanup told me.</p>
<p>CDPH Spokesman Ron Owens didn’t return a phone call asking for comment for this story. And the DTSC provided only a boilerplate e-mailed response to my inquiry about their view of the cleanup.</p>
<p>“DTSC is the lead state regulatory agency overseeing the cleanup of the Treasure Island Site,” read part of the response. “We continue to work with the Navy, their contractors, the community and other regulatory agencies… to ensure that the Site is adequately characterized and cleaned up. Additionally, DTSC and the other regulatory agencies oversee the work done by the Navy and it’s (sic) contractors to ensure that it is conducted in accordance with approved protocols in a manner that is adequately protective of public health and the environment.”</p>
<p>I thought of this thoroughly unhelpful answer to my question as I visited Site 31, which is near the center of the island. It’s a big field – next to an elementary school, of all things – and contains immense piles of dirt, some covered with black tarps, others not. “Hazardous Waste Exclusion Zone” read a large sign on the fence surrounding the field. There are, as yet, no radiation signs there.</p>
<p>CDPH and DTSC officials know there’s trouble here. They may not be willing to talk to me about it, but according to the minutes of the Sept. 1 BRAC Cleanup Team meeting – which was not open to the public – they’re the only ones really asking questions about radiological contamination.</p>
<p>“Ms. (Remedios) Sunga (of the DTSC) asked when the revised work plan addendum for Sites 31 and 33 would be ready,” states the minutes. “Mr. (Scott) Anderson (of the Navy) said the contract was just awarded and a schedule has not been finalized. Ms. Sunga asked if radiological work would be included at Sites 31 and 33. Mr. Anderson replied that radiological work would be included at Site 31 and dependent on what was found, Site 33 would be addressed accordingly.”</p>
<p />
<p>THE BLUE BINS OF SITE 6</p>
<p />
<p>And so on. Then the discussion moved to Site 6, which is a storage yard for large blue dumpsters that house radioactive debris before it’s shipped off island and out of state. There, radiation hazard signs hang all over the surrounding fence. So far, cleanup crews have filled 705 of these “bins” and shipped them to Clive, Utah, one of only two landfills in the country that dispose of low-level radioactive waste.</p>
<p>“Ms. Sunga asked if the Navy was using all of Site 6 to store radiologically impacted soil,” the minutes show. “Mr. (Anthony) Konzen (of the Navy) said it is not. Mr. (Guy) Taibi (of the CDPH) asked if there was scanning outside the fenced area. Mr. Konzen explained the radiological measures are within the RCA and, in addition, no other burn areas were indicated outside the fenced area.”</p>
<p>But the hottest topic (so to speak) at the Sept. 1 meeting was Building 233 – the old training school where Navy personnel spilled radium back in 1950. This, the most notorious structure in the old base, sits on Avenue M in the eastern corner of the island, which has a spectacular view of the new Bay Bridge construction. BRAC contractors said at the Sept. 1 cleanup team meeting that they’d begin demolishing this building – which is thoroughly contaminated – “by September 20 or 21.”</p>
<p>It’s still standing, with interior walls splattered with graffiti drawn by homeless guys who’d lived in the abandoned building in the years between Navy control and the current cleanup effort. The building’s fenced in and covered in radiation warning signs. Across the street is a little league baseball field.</p>
<p>The Sept. 1 meeting minutes show that Sunga of the DTSC was very concerned about the demolition of the building – especially considering that asbestos removal was also taking place there. “Ms. Sunga said CDPH is concerned about cross contamination in soil when the building is being demolished,” the minutes state. “She asked if the excavator will be crossing through the building footprint or will remain around the perimeter. Mr. (Pete) Bourgeois (of Shaw Environmental Inc., a Navy contractor) said the excavator would be crossing into the footprint but that all equipment working in a radiological controlled environment must be screened before it can leave the area.”</p>
<p>Sunga then asked if they would be removing any underground pipelines as well. Bourgeois said, according to the minutes, that “the Navy would remove only the building itself and anything from the ground down would not be removed until the final status survey plan is approved.”</p>
<p>A few minutes later Taibi of CDPH went back to the issue of what lies beneath Building 233. “Mr. Taibi reiterated the lack of detail in the work plan concerning how the building would be razed caused concern about the soil underneath the building,” state the minutes. Konzen of the Navy then referred Taibi to part of the “Accident Prevention Plan” that deals with the demolition procedure. The minutes show that Taibi “was able to locate the document,” and that the matter apparently ended there.</p>
<p>*&#160;&#160; *&#160;&#160; *</p>
<p>There was talk a few years ago of giving the island to the city for free, but like the old plans to build an airport there, it went nowhere. The city eventually agreed to pay $105 million for it – a bargain, in any case.</p>
<p>On Aug. 17, Newsom, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus met on Treasure Island to celebrate the signing of an “endorsement agreement” to transfer the island from the Defense Department to the city of San Francisco. But the ceremony – like everything mentioned publicly concerning Treasure Island – was just surface glitz. Indeed, Newsom admitted at the ceremony that the groundbreaking wouldn’t take place until “sometime next year.” At the BRAC Cleanup Team meeting on Sept. 1, Environmental Coordinator Sullivan said, “the actual transfer will depend on the City and the County of San Francisco’s completing the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) documentation and that other milestone items will also need to be achieved.”</p>
<p>That means the cleanup has to finish. Considering its importance to the grand plans trumpeted by Newsom et al, it’s strange that the media is largely ignoring the issue. Indeed, the San Francisco Chronicle ran two stories on Treasure Island in August, neither of which even mentioned radiological contamination. Ditto an <a href="http://cbs13.com/local/treasure.island.project.2.1954721.html" type="external">Oct. 9 story</a> that ran on CBS 13.</p>
<p>“It’s such a hot issue, so to speak,” the source close to the cleanup said. “The Navy would just rather not find it (radiological debris) there. At the end of the day they want to give them (CDPH and DTSC) a package that they’ll love, but it’s not working that way.”</p> | Treasure Island’s Toxic Problem | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2010/10/11/treasure-islands-toxic-problem/ | 2018-10-20 | 3 |