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<p>SAN DIEGO — Hector Sanchez spent nine years in the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/San-Francisco-Giants/" type="external">San Francisco Giants</a>‘ system, including parts of five seasons with the parent club as the catching backup to perennial All-Star <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Buster_Posey/" type="external">Buster Posey</a>.</p>
<p>“I owe the Giants a lot,” the 27-year-old said Sunday.</p>
<p>Well, he has a strange way of showing it.</p>
<p>Sanchez rocketed a three-run homer off <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jeff_Samardzija/" type="external">Jeff Samardzija</a> in the bottom of the first inning Sunday to propel the Padres to a 7-1 victory over the Giants in the rubber match of a three-game series at Petco Park.</p>
<p>The 421-foot rocket to right on a one-ball changeup came 12 1/2 hours after Sanchez broke up a 3-3 tie with a two-run, walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth inning. That blast landed on the third balcony of the Western Metal Supply Co. building.</p>
<p>“It’s kind of fun,” Sanchez said of his back-to-back decisive blasts. “I like the opportunity. I’m just trying to do my best.”</p>
<p>His best comes out against his former team. Since he departed the Bay Area, Sanchez is 8-for-16 against the Giants with four homers and 11 RBIs. Three of his five homers this season have come against San Francisco — the first of which tied a game the Padres eventually won, and the last two qualifying as game-winners.</p>
<p>Sanchez, who started the past two games because Austin Hedges was woozy after taking a foul tip off the mask Friday night, is 4-for-11 with three homers and eight RBIs against the Giants this season. Against anyone else, he is 5-for-35 with two homers and five RBIs.</p>
<p>When asked what he liked about Sanchez’s at-bats the last two games against the Giants, Padres manager <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Andy_Green/" type="external">Andy Green</a> replied: “Home runs.”</p>
<p>Sanchez was far from the Padres’ only standout Sunday as they ran their record to 14-5 against San Francisco after losing the first nine meetings with the Giants to start the 2016 season.</p>
<p>Cory Spangenberg also hit a three-run homer in the third inning off Samardzija (4-11). The Giants right-hander was ahead 0-and-2 in the count after Spangenberg fouled off the previous pitch on a safety squeeze. Spangenberg then drove a fastball 410 feet, easily clearing the fence in straightaway center.</p>
<p>“This has got to stop,” Giants manager <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Bruce-Bochy/" type="external">Bruce Bochy</a> said of opposing teams’ success on 0-and-2 pitches. “I don’t know if I need to pitch out every time on 0-and-2 or what. This is happening too many times.</p>
<p>“They’re trying to get one run in and get away with getting a three-run homer after that failed. It seems like the more we make it an issue, the more mistakes we make. We’ve talked about it. We’ve done fines. I’m sure it is a pitch he’d like to have back.”</p>
<p>Samardzija said of his 0-and-2 mistake, “I watched Spangenberg chase a bunch of balls up in the series, so I was going for the strikeout there just because you know, one out, you can try to go for the double play. But I thought if I can get the strikeout there … that’s a frustrating pitch. … Get it up another six inches and it’s an out.”</p>
<p>Samardzija finished strong. After Spangenberg’s homer, he retired 10 of the last 11 Padres he faced, but the score was already 7-1. He wound up charged with seven runs on nine hits and no walks in six innings. Samardzija struck out eight.</p>
<p>Padres starter <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Trevor_Cahill/" type="external">Trevor Cahill</a> (4-3) held the Giants to one run on eight hits and a walk over 6 2/3 innings. He also fanned eight.</p>
<p>“My stuff stayed the same throughout the game,” Cahill said. “My last pitch was as good as my first pitch. Getting the four-run lead in the first was huge. And they were aggressive, I didn’t have many deep counts.”</p>
<p>The Padres scored four in the first against Samardzija, who entered the game with a 2.04 career ERA at Petco Park.</p>
<p>With one out, Samardzija hit Carlos Asuaje with a pitch. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Wil-Myers/" type="external">Wil Myers</a> followed with a single, ending a 2-for-14 slump. Sanchez then drove the second pitch he saw from Samardzija into the right field seats. After Samardzija struck out Jabari Blash, Spangenberg tripled to right-center and scored on <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Erick_Aybar/" type="external">Erick Aybar</a>‘s single into the right field corner.</p>
<p>The Giants pulled to within 4-1 when Posey and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Brandon-Crawford/" type="external">Brandon Crawford</a> opened the top of the second with back-to-back doubles. However, Cahill avoided further damage in the inning by striking out <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Nick_Hundley/" type="external">Nick Hundley</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Joe-Panik/" type="external">Joe Panik</a> before retiring Samardzija on a comebacker.</p>
<p>Myers and Sanchez opened the Padres’ third with back-to-back singles. After Samardzija again struck out Blash, Spangenberg connected on his sixth homer of the season to make it 7-1.</p>
<p>NOTES: Giants 1B <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Brandon-Belt/" type="external">Brandon Belt</a> was a late scratch from the lineup due to a sprained left wrist. Belt injured the wrist Saturday night on a checked swing. He is listed as day-to-day. Buster Posey moved to first base Sunday, and Nick Hundley caught. … Padres C Austin Hedges missed a second consecutive game after taking a foul tip on the face of his mask Friday night. Padres manager Andy Green said team doctors described the injury as “sub-concussive” and said he expects Hedges to be back in the lineup Monday as San Diego opens a three-game series in Colorado. … The Giants return home to face the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Cleveland-Indians/" type="external">Cleveland Indians</a> on Monday.</p> | San Diego Padres' Hector Sanchez punishes San Francisco Giants again | false | https://newsline.com/san-diego-padres039-hector-sanchez-punishes-san-francisco-giants-again/ | 2017-07-16 | 1 |
<p>The cast of ‘Finding Prince Charming,’ the controversial new LOGO series. (Photo courtesy LOGO)</p>
<p>The latest report from GLAAD revealed that of the 881 regular characters that appeared on broadcast primetime programming in 2015, only 4 percent (35) were identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual. And an additional 35 or so LGBT characters were recurring.</p>
<p>The numbers are a bit more promising on cable and streaming services, and the success of these programs has led to better representation in the months ahead as the 2016-17 TV season gets underway.</p>
<p>Of course, we’ll have to wait until 2017 to see returning faves such as Cosima from “Orphan Black” and Lena and Stef from “The Fosters,” but the next few months offer plenty of new and returning characters coming to the boob tube (or computer screen).</p>
<p>The CW has never been shy about having LGBT characters as part of its main casts and that trend continues in 2016. Friday nights will feature the second season of “Crazy Ex Girlfriend” starting Oct. 21, which has a sweet love story developing between “White” Josh and Darryl. “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” features the out superhero White Canary played by Caity Lotz every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Fellow superhero show, “Supergirl” will be introducing lesbian Maggie Sawyer when the show moves to the CW Monday nights beginning Oct. 10.</p>
<p>The popular AMC series, “The Walking Dead” returns to Sunday nights Oct. 23, and the show continues to have several gay characters among its living. Although there’s a chance that the popular Aaron (Ross Marquand) will meet his maker at the hands of Nagen and his bat Lucille in the series opener, characters such as Eric and Tara continue to be part of the zombie fight.</p>
<p>“Empire,” the Fox Wednesday night megahit, returns on Sept. 21, and continues to feature gay characters in major plotlines, including Jamal, played by out actor Jussie Smollett.</p>
<p>On the comedy front, ABC’s “The Real O’Neals” returns on Tuesday nights at 9:30 p.m., beginning Oct. 11. Although there were rumors of the show having its series order trimmed from 22 to 12 episodes following some controversial remarks by out star Noah Galvin, the sitcom will have a complete season and further follow the adventures of a family learning to live with their gay son.</p>
<p>Another sitcom back for its second year that provides plenty of laughs is “Superstore,” starring America Ferrera. One of the store’s employees, Mateo (played by Nico Santos), is gay. The show returns Thursdays at 8 p.m., on Sept. 22.</p>
<p>“Shameless” premieres on Showtime on Oct. 12 with the Gallagher clan again dealing with just about every problem under the sun. When last we tuned in, bi-polar Ian was getting serious with his HIV-positive boyfriend, Caleb, and this season promises to deal with their relationship a great deal.</p>
<p>On Thursday nights, “Finding Prince Charming” airs on Logo, and has already created quite the buzz. Hosted by Lance Bass, the show is a “Bachelor”-esque show for gay men, with 13 suitors competing for the heart of Robert Sepúlveda Jr.</p>
<p>Speaking of dating shows, former “Flavor of Love” standout Tiffany Pollard is shopping “The Ex,” a gay dating show where each week, two exes will vie for the attention of three contestants in the hopes of finding new love after heartache. The show is expected to have a cable network attached soon and starting to air this fall.</p>
<p>Married comedians&#160;Cameron Esposito&#160;and&#160;Rhea Butcher are best known for their podcast, “Put Your Hands Together,” and in August saw their new TV show, “Take My Wife” start a 12-week run on Seeso. The show follows the newlywed lesbian couple co-hosting a standup showcase.</p>
<p>MTV recently started airing “Mary + Jane” on Mondays at 10 p.m. The show follows two pot-trepreneurs (Jordan and Paige) on the East-side of Los Angeles, with Jordan (played by Jessica Rothe) described as “sexually fluid and fiercely independent and empowered.”</p>
<p>The cast of ‘Mary+Jane,’ a new MTV series about ‘pot-trepreneurs.’ (Photo courtesy MTV)</p>
<p>The second season of reality show, “I Am Jazz,” aired this summer and will continue showing reruns on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on TLC. The show follows the life of transgender teen Jazz Jennings and her family through an 11-part series.</p>
<p>Amazon’s Emmy darling “Transparent” returns for a third season on Dec. 4, further following the adventures of Mort, a transgender played by Jeffrey Tambor.</p>
<p>Beginning Oct. 16, “Queer Ghost Hunters,” a docu-show about LGBT ghost hunters debuts online on YouTube, following the adventures of real people discovering stories of the queer past in places as diverse as the Ohio State Reformatory.</p>
<p>“Feral,” a TV show that follows a group of gay 20-somethings who learn about love, loss and friendship while living in the vibrant, artistic queer community of Memphis, will premiere on Dekkoo.com on Oct. 6.</p>
<p>‘Feral’ follows young gay lives in Memphis. (Photo courtesy Dekkoo)</p>
<p>After a four-year hiatus, “VH1 Divas” makes a triumphant return on Dec. 5, although the performers are still being kept under wraps.</p>
<p>One of the most anticipated specials of the year is a TV remake of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (starring Laverne Cox as Frank-N-Furter and Adam Lambert as Eddie), which will air on Fox on Oct. 20.</p>
<p>Another musical sure to excite is NBC’s live broadcast of “Hairspray,” with Harvey Fierstein recreating his Broadway role as Edna. Jennifer Hudson, Kristin Chenoweth and Martin Short also star.</p>
<p>Of course, many shows do have gay supporting characters that sometimes get storylines such as Clark from ABC’s “Dr. Ken,” airing Fridays at 8:30 p.m., beginning Sept. 23; or “Younger’s” Maggie (played by the brilliant Debbi Mazar, and airing on TV Land at 10 p.m., Wednesdays, beginning Sept. 28).</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Adam Lambert</a> <a href="" type="internal">Crazy Ex Girlfriend</a> <a href="" type="internal">DC's Legends of Tomorrow</a> <a href="" type="internal">Debbi Mazar</a> <a href="" type="internal">Dr. Ken</a> <a href="" type="internal">Empire</a> <a href="" type="internal">Finding Prince Charming</a> <a href="" type="internal">Hairspray</a> <a href="" type="internal">Harvey Fierstein</a> <a href="" type="internal">I Am Jazz</a> <a href="" type="internal">Jazz Jennings</a> <a href="" type="internal">Jeffrey Tambor</a> <a href="" type="internal">Jennifer Hudson</a> <a href="" type="internal">Jessica Rothe</a> <a href="" type="internal">Kristin Chenoweth</a> <a href="" type="internal">Laverne Cox</a> <a href="" type="internal">Logo</a> <a href="" type="internal">Martin Short</a> <a href="" type="internal">Mary + Jane</a> <a href="" type="internal">Nico Santos</a> <a href="" type="internal">Noah Galvin</a> <a href="" type="internal">Orphan Black</a> <a href="" type="internal">Queer Ghost Hunters</a> <a href="" type="internal">Ross Marquand</a> <a href="" type="internal">Shameless</a> <a href="" type="internal">Supergirl</a> <a href="" type="internal">Superstore</a> <a href="" type="internal">Take My Wife</a> <a href="" type="internal">The Ex</a> <a href="" type="internal">The Fosters</a> <a href="" type="internal">The Real O'Neals</a> <a href="" type="internal">The Rocky Horror Picture Show</a> <a href="" type="internal">The Walking Dead</a> <a href="" type="internal">TLC</a> <a href="" type="internal">Transparent</a> <a href="" type="internal">Younger's</a></p> | FALL ARTS 2016: TV | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/09/16/fall-arts-tv/ | 3 |
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<p>Twitter is suing the Trump White House as a result of&#160;the administration demanding the company reveal the identity of an anti-Trump account administrator.</p>
<p>In legal documents obtained by Reuters, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-lawsuit-idUSKBN1782PH?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A%20Trending%20Content&amp;utm_content=58e69f6f04d3011ab839648a&amp;utm_medium=trueAnthem&amp;utm_source=twitter" type="external">the social media platform confirmed</a> it received an administrative summons, demanding the company release any and all records pertaining to the account in question. The lawsuit is being brought forth by federal immigration employees as stated in the document and was filed in federal court in San Francisco, where Twitter’s corporate headquarters is located.</p>
<p>“The rights of free speech afforded Twitter’s users and Twitter itself under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution include a right to disseminate such anonymous or pseudonymous political speech,” Twitter said in the lawsuit.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ALT_uscis" type="external">Tweets by ALT_uscis</a></p>
<p>The account, <a href="http://twitter.com/ALT_uscis" type="external">@ALT_uscis</a>, is allegedly ran under the guise of a dissenting member of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The account follows the trend of allegedly rogue employees of various federal agencies the Trump administration is opposed to, including, but not limited to the <a href="https://twitter.com/AltNatParkSer" type="external">National Parks Service</a> (NPS), the <a href="https://twitter.com/altUSEPA" type="external">Environmental Protection Agency</a> (EPA), the <a href="https://twitter.com/Alt_NASA" type="external">National Aeronautics and Space Administration</a> (NASA), and the <a href="https://twitter.com/altNOAA" type="external">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a> (NOAA). Administrators of these and other accounts claim they are tweeting anonymously to avoid being fired by Trump’s appointees.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Steven E. Johnson is a Mississippi-based author who covers racial justice and political issues for the Resistance Report. You can contact him at stevejlive at gmail dot com.</p> | Trump’s attempt to scare Twitter into revealing Resistance accounts just backfired | true | http://resistancereport.com/resistance/twitter-sues-trump/ | 2017-04-06 | 4 |
<p>Still think the state is here to protect you? You might want to think again…</p>
<p>In the&#160;video below, a court marshal first sexually assaults a women, who begs to be assigned instead to a female officer. The plea is ignored by the judge sitting right there.</p>
<p>Instead, after the victim complains about the assault to the judge, for her troubles she is then arrested by court officers because she refuses to recant her sexual assault complaint.</p>
<p>Multiple employees and managers at the county family court are under investigation for covering up an assault by a court marshal.&#160;After a six-month internal investigation, court marshal Ron Fox was finally fired for the incident seen below. How many other untold instances of similar abuse are not captured on film and thus go unpunished?</p>
<p /> | Court Marshal SEXUALLY ASSAULTS Woman – In Front Of Judge – Then ARRESTS Her | true | http://politicalblindspot.com/court-marshal-sexually-assaults-woman-in-front-of-judge-then-arrests-her/?fb_source%3Dpubv1 | 2013-07-28 | 4 |
<p>Published time: 29 Sep, 2017 15:09Edited time: 29 Sep, 2017 15:21</p>
<p>The US State Department is expected to announce that it is pulling the majority of its staff out of its embassy in Havana, while warning Americans against travel to Cuba due to ‘health attacks’ on diplomats, according to officials.</p>
<p>The embassy in Havana will lose roughly 60 percent of its US staff and will stop processing visas indefinitely, American officials told AP on Friday.</p>
<p>“US embassy personnel are most at risk but . . . the American public traveling in Cuba might also be at risk as well,” a senior State Department official told reporters Friday morning.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/403730-us-embassy-closure-cuba/" type="external" /></p>
<p>The move comes after at least 21 diplomats and their families have experienced health problems over the past year, some as traumatic as brain injury and hearing loss. Investigators have been unable to determine who or what is behind the attack.</p>
<p>The announcement, first reported by CBS News, comes just three days after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Bruno Eduardo Rodriguez Parrilla, Cuba’s foreign minister, in Washington. The meeting failed to persuade Tillerson that the Cubans could guarantee the safety of the remaining American employees in Havana, promoting him to decide to recall most of the embassy’s staff, a senior official said.</p>
<p>The State Department will also issue a travel warning to American tourists against visiting Cuba. However, while some attacks have occurred in Cuban hotels, no tourists have so far been stricken.</p>
<p>Cuban officials have denied any involvement in the incidents.</p>
<p>“The Cuban government has never perpetrated nor will it ever perpetrate attacks of any kind against diplomats,” said the Cuban Foreign Ministry in a statement earlier this week.</p>
<p>“The Cuban government has never permitted nor will it ever permit the use of its territory by third parties for this purpose. There is no evidence so far of the cause or the origin of the health disorders reported by the US diplomats.”</p>
<p>The US will stop issuing visas in Cuba indefinitely and is halting official travel due to the attacks. Cubans seeking visas to enter the US may be able to apply through embassies in nearby countries, unnamed officials told media.</p>
<p>Officials told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/us/politics/us-embassy-cuba-attacks.html?emc=edit_na_20170929&amp;nl=breaking-news&amp;nlid=59791487&amp;ref=cta&amp;mtrref=undefined&amp;gwh=AB338C86094825909E5041EAF37DC595&amp;gwt=pay" type="external">New York Times</a> the FBI had visited the homes of diplomats in Cuba but had not been able to detect anything. Security footage of the homes showed nothing suspicious. Officials suspected some kind of futuristic “sonic attack.” &#160;Some of the diplomats reported hearing loud noises or feeling vibrations when the incidents occurred but others heard and experienced nothing. The FBI has been unable to duplicate the symptoms in a lab.</p>
<p>The decision is a setback for the historic reconciliation between the US and Cuba fostered during the Obama administration, when diplomatic ties were restored, embassies re-opened and travel and commerce restrictions were rescinded.</p>
<p>The Trump administration has reversed some changes, but pointedly has not blamed Cuba for perpetuating the attacks.</p> | US urges no travel to Cuba, cuts embassy staff by more than half | false | https://newsline.com/us-urges-no-travel-to-cuba-cuts-embassy-staff-by-more-than-half/ | 2017-09-29 | 1 |
<p>Josh Duggar, <a href="" type="internal">paragon of family values and general scummo</a>, is being sued by adult film actress Danica Dillon, who claims that Duggar “assaulted her to the point of causing her physical and emotional injuries” after propositioning her for consensual sex at a strip club in Philadelphia. Dillon, neé Ashley Stamm-Northrup, is a married mother of two asking for $500,000 in damages, alleging that the incident has <a href="" type="internal">caused her to suffer emotional and physical trauma</a>.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.people.com/article/porn-star-sues-josh-duggar-assault-battery-alleged-sexual-encounter" type="external">People</a>:</p>
<p>Dillon says she was a featured performer at The Gold Club in Philadelphia, where Duggar allegedly paid her about $600 for lap dances. After, she claims he invited her to his hotel room, where they agreed to have sex. Then, he allegedly “manhandled” her to the point that she “felt as if she were being raped.” She says he paid her $1,500 “for her company.”</p>
<p>Duggar is currently undergoing faith-based rehab in Rockford, Illinois, after it was revealed during the Ashley Madison hack that he’d been cheating on his wife Anna and <a href="" type="internal">was addicted to porn</a>. Naturally, the Duggar family has no comment at this time.</p>
<p>[ <a href="http://www.people.com/article/porn-star-sues-josh-duggar-assault-battery-alleged-sexual-encounter" type="external">People</a>]</p> | Josh Duggar Is Being Sued By A Porn Star For Alleged Assault And Battery | true | http://thefrisky.com/2015-11-18/josh-duggar-is-being-sued-by-a-porn-star-for-alleged-assault-and-battery/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Dduggars | 2018-10-05 | 4 |
<p />
<p>The Supreme Court bars cameras from televising its oral arguments, with the only window into the minds of justices being lame audio recordings paired with awkward illustrations. No one wants to watch that.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tug71xZL7yc&amp;feature=youtu.be" type="external">John Oliver</a> has a brilliant alternative: Dogs. Cats. Real adorable animals with fake moving paws.</p>
<p>“The visual makes it irresistible. Why? Because a cat’s paws are doing things you wouldn’t expect them to do. And if it works for shitty piano music it can work for the Supreme Court.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p /> | John Oliver Shows the Supreme Court How to Make Their Boring Recordings Way More Adorable | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/john-oliver-supreme-court-animals/ | 2014-10-20 | 4 |
<p>(Photo via Tom of Finland Foundation.)</p>
<p>Finland is celebrating the legalization of same-sex marriage in the country, which goes into effect on March 1, with a Tom of Finland emoji.</p>
<p>“We’ve kept our tongue-in-cheek approach,” Director for Public Diplomacy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Petra Theman said in a press release. “However, the emojis still clearly convey what Finland feels is important: biodiversity and natural coexistence—coexistence with the challenges of our environment and also harmonious coexistence with each other.”</p>
<p>Finland is the only country to release national emojis with 56 emojis currently in its collection.</p>
<p>Gay artist Touko Laakson, creator of the famed hypersexualized queer images, will also get the spotlight in a Finish <a href="" type="internal">biopic</a>&#160;released this month.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Petra Theman</a> <a href="" type="internal">Tom of Finland</a> <a href="" type="internal">Tom of Finland emoji</a> <a href="" type="internal">Tom of Finland Foundation</a> <a href="" type="internal">Touko Laaksonen</a></p> | Tom of Finland gets own emoji | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2017/02/09/tom-finland-gets-emoji/ | 3 |
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<p>The storm is coming.&#160; Out the door the winds rage.&#160; The weather service predicts two feet around my house in the mountains, and I’ve been stockpiling wood all day, and food, and batteries, preparing for the place to go dark.&#160; My two daughters are with me, the night is galvanized, and it keeps them awake.</p>
<p>“And the storm,” says the little one, nearly five, “it comes with bears and the giants in the sky and we’ll dance.”</p>
<p>This is why kids should write weather reports.</p>
<p>To which I answer, “It has bears as big as the sky, tall as the trees, and then we’ll go sledding.”</p>
<p>Five year olds are poets at heart.&#160; They live in enchantment.</p>
<p>I head out with snowshoes after she’s asleep, floating on the cresting white waves blown by the relentless wind.&#160; I’m like Charlie Brown with tongue out tasting the purpose of each flake.&#160;&#160; The house is being consumed.&#160; The full moon rages behind the clouds.&#160; The crappy flashlight made in China goes out due to the cold, and I’m wandering around the woods in the moon-white dark.&#160;&#160; Though there is light enough to see, I am a little afraid.</p>
<p>I break out my back-up lamp, illuminate the woods. The snow is a rich heavy precious substance. &#160;I find a scooped-out trampled snow-bed from a week ago where deer slept. It disappears under the storm.&#160; &#160;All traces of animal or man are going.</p>
<p>I look back in the light and my steps in the snow are wiped clean.&#160; &#160;The blizzard turns us humans in circles trying to find home, till we sit perplexed, frozen.</p>
<p>It’s the reminder that my life in such a storm, in such a forest, is not worth much – worth much less than, say, the deer hunkering in the tempest, who provide food for the hungry coyotes that keep the deer in check, which frees the understory from too much browsing from the overpopulous ungulates.</p>
<p>You could kill me, all my children, my relations, the people I know, dozens of people, and it probably wouldn’t make a difference in the ecological balance in this particular stretch of woods.</p>
<p>Further into the forest at the top of a ridge there is an old oak, wide-trunked, deity-like, that I’ve visited for the last decade in every season. &#160;&#160;When I reach it, all is silence, as the snow seems to pause, and my sweat is as heavy as a blanket after the long hike. &#160;There is a cadence of branches laden with snow giving up their load.&#160; A ripe wall of drift collapses.&#160; The bending hardwoods, heavy and creaking, shatter their snow arms at the least suggestion of the wind.</p>
<p>There is no wind, not a sound, not a snowflake.&#160; It seems I’m in the storm eye, an immense center of calm.&#160; Beyond my seat the ridge drops off into a chasm where the storm roils, apart, so that I’m watching it from a perch of peace.&#160;&#160;&#160; I think of Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan”, the caverns measureless to man, the ceaseless turmoil seething, the caves of ice.</p>
<p>I read somewhere that Coleridge wrote Kubla Khan in a dream-state that was broken by a banging at his door – I think it was a postman, probably bringing a bill – and that afterward, when he returned to his writing table, he found he could not complete the poem.&#160;&#160; He called it, in his title, a “Fragment.”&#160; &#160;The hikes we take in the woods are fragments of a view into the real world, which is the enchanted world.</p>
<p>What’s my ecological purpose here in the Catskills…except that I might die and rot my body into the woods, and give back the nutrients I’ve taken from mother earth.&#160; That’s my enchantment.</p>
<p>A soil biologist tells me that the only way to truly complete the nutrient cycle in the age of modern man, whose crops are fed by industrial nitrogen and whose waste never makes it back to the land, is to plant our dead bodies in a green ring outside the cities.&#160; Thereby to replenish the soil.&#160;&#160; Add our feces too, and you have the sustainable organic garden: ringed with the dead and a lot of shit.</p>
<p>I sit for a long while thinking about human shit-and-corpse agronomy.&#160; I like the idea not because it’s a rational use of resources.&#160; I like it because I want my energy to return to the land. &#160;I think of my children returning thus, which I hope they will, and I am at once horrified at the idea of their death, and accepting.&#160; I know it will come.&#160;&#160; The snow falls without cease.&#160; My path home is gone.&#160;&#160; My two daughters sleep.&#160; In the morning I’ll make them breakfast, and we’ll go sledding.</p> | Buddhism in the Storm | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/03/27/buddhism-in-the-storm/ | 2017-03-27 | 4 |
<p>The campaign bus of Hillary Clinton is being investigated for illegally dumping human waste. Yup, you read that correctly. On Tuesday, police in Lawrenceville, Georgia, received multiple reports of Hillary's "Forward Together" tour bus dumping human waste into a storm drain.</p>
<p>A local businessman took photos of the illegal activity, prompting police to launch a full investigation. The photos showed off-colored liquid oozing out of the bus. The bus was stationed at Grayson highway. Hillary Clinton was not at the scene as the bus was in-between campaign stops.</p>
<p>. <a href="https://twitter.com/CityofLville" type="external">@CityofLville</a> cops investigating claims that <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Hillary?src=hash" type="external">#Hillary</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ForwardTogether?src=hash" type="external">#ForwardTogether</a> bus dumped human waste into storm drain. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/cbs46" type="external">@cbs46</a> for updates. <a href="https://t.co/xyBnfaMy7n" type="external">pic.twitter.com/xyBnfaMy7n</a></p>
<p>When police arrived at the scene, they were greeted with a foul odor and remnants of used toilet paper scattered across the ground. What the campaign dumped at the scene was so disgusting that a HAZMAT team was called to come in to clean up the mess.</p>
<p>In addition to the local police, the Gwinnett County Stormwater Management and the State Environment Protection Department are participating in the investigation.</p>
<p>Local CBS affiliate CBS46 asked the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the party organization working in tandem with the campaign to get Hillary elected, prompting an apology by the DNC.</p>
<p>"This was an honest mistake and we apologize to the Lawrenceville community for any harm we may have caused," <a href="http://www.cbs46.com/story/33418363/witness-clinton-forward-together-tour-bus-dumps-human-waste-into-storm-drain" type="external">read</a> the apology. "We were unaware of any possible violations and have already taken corrective action with the charter bus company to prevent this from happening again. Furthermore, the DNC will work with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, as well as local and state officials to determine the best course of corrective action."</p> | Hillary Campaign Bus Investigated for Illegally Dumping Human Waste. How Fitting. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/10049/hillary-campaign-bus-investigated-illegally-michael-qazvini | 2016-10-18 | 0 |
<p>American forces <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060610/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=AmmowODjDV1CVqZ7u2LyhZdvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--" type="external">carried out almost 40 raids</a> in the wake of the airstrike death of the terrorist leader. But as Truthdig contributor <a href="" type="internal">Nir Rosen writes</a>, the absence of Zarqawi is likely to lead to greater sectarian bloodshed in Iraq. (Also: Zarqawi survived the attack and <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060610/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_al_zarqawi_66" type="external">tried to escape</a>.)</p>
<p>AP:</p>
<p>Flush with intelligence, the U.S. military moved quickly Friday to take advantage of the power vacuum left by the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, carrying out nearly 40 raids in an effort to stop his terror network from regrouping.</p>
<p>A U.S. military search of the destroyed safehouse where the al-Qaida in Iraq leader was killed Wednesday yielded documents and information storage devices that are being assessed for potential use against his followers, a military officer said.</p>
<p />
<p>An M-16 rifle, grenades and AK-47 rifles also were found, according to the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because results from the search have not been announced. The U.S.-made M-16 was fitted with special optics.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060610/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=AmmowODjDV1CVqZ7u2LyhZdvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--" type="external">Link</a></p> | U.S. Raids Follow Zarqawi's Death | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/u-s-raids-follow-zarqawis-death/ | 2006-06-10 | 4 |
<p />
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Pope Francis I</a>, just one month before Christmas, issued an extensive policy statement that decimates today’s capitalism and the economic system known as “trickle down economics,” — which many believe was followed by Ronald Reagan — calling them a “new tyranny.” Francis also decries greed and the pursuit of wealth at all costs.</p>
<p>Pope Francis, who is said to have penned the extensive 224-page work himself, writes that “some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world.”</p>
<p>“This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system,” the Pope writes. “Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.”</p>
<p>“ <a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.html" type="external">Evangelii Gaudium</a>,” the Pope’s official policy, run more than 47,000 words, and offers positions including, “No to an economy of exclusion,” “No to the new idolatry of money,” “No to a financial system which rules rather than serves,” and “No to the inequality which spawns violence.”</p>
<p>A deeper reading into the text reveals even stronger statements. For example,&#160;Pope Francis mentions the poor more than 80 times.</p>
<p>“I encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of one of the sages of antiquity: ‘Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs.’”</p>
<p>Francis calls for “an ethical approach which favours human beings,” and insists “that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor.”</p>
<p>He&#160;finds the “current financial crisis…originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person!”</p>
<p>And the Pope blasted conspicuous consumption.</p>
<p>“Today’s economic mechanisms promote inordinate consumption, yet it is evident that unbridled consumerism combined with inequality proves doubly damaging to the social fabric. Inequality eventually engenders a violence which recourse to arms cannot and never will be able to resolve. This serves only to offer false hopes to those clamouring for heightened security, even though nowadays we know that weapons and violence, rather than providing solutions, create new and more serious conflicts. Some simply content themselves with blaming the poor and the poorer countries themselves for their troubles; indulging in unwarranted generalizations, they claim that the solution is an “education” that would tranquilize them, making them tame and harmless. All this becomes even more exasperating for the marginalized in the light of the widespread and deeply rooted corruption found in many countries – in their governments, businesses and institutions – whatever the political ideology of their leaders.”</p>
<p>Pope Francis’ words would put a chill in those religious institutions and especially mega-churches that preach the God wants people to be wealthy.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Image by Agência Brasil via <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pope_Francis_at_Vargihna.jpg" type="external">Wikimedia</a></p>
<p>Hat tip: <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/26/pope-francis-rips-capitalism-and-trickle-down-economics-to-shreds-in-new-policy-statement/" type="external">The Raw Story</a></p>
<p>Tagged as: <a href="" type="internal">economics</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Evangelii Gaudium</a>, <a href="" type="internal">greed</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Pope Francis I</a>, <a href="" type="internal">vatican</a></p>
<p>Friends:</p>
<p>We invite you to <a href="http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001whLQo73KzGhEjdskYG07rHNy_XoDDkSBBO4INZHx6oD9kfp2yeeQAJeMQUu9oTviZa0VEl5k0rNiLifxlZsOFScMz8rVGmIaN-FFOO3GTKc%3D" type="external">sign up for our new mailing list</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TheNewCivilRightsMovement&amp;amp;loc=en_US" type="external">subscribe to The New Civil Rights Movement via email</a> or <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/thenewcivilrightsmovement" type="external">RSS</a>.</p>
<p>Also, please&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Civil-Rights-Movement/358168880614" type="external">like us on Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/gaycivilrights" type="external">follow us on Twitter</a>!</p> | Pope Francis Issues Major Policy Slamming ‘Trickle-Down’ Capitalism As ‘Tyranny’ | true | http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/pope-francis-issues-major-policy-slamming-trickle-down-capitalism-as-tyranny/politics/2013/11/26/79337 | 2013-11-26 | 4 |
<p>Mitt Romney's senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom compared his candidate's campaign to an Etch a Sketch toy in a CNN interview Wednesday morning, <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/03/the-what-he-meant-to-say-was-primary-118211.html" type="external">Politico reported</a>.</p>
<p>When asked by comedian John Fugelsang if he was concerned that the primaries had forced Romney to move to the right in ways that might hurt him in the general election, Fehrnstrom responded, "Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch a Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again," <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/video-of-the-day-romneys-etch-a-sketch-primary-campaign/254860/" type="external">the Atlantic reported</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>"This is obviously not a helpful thing to say if your candidate is known for his political malleability," wrote Politico's Alexander Burns. "But it's also only one inept simile away from comments that a whole host of Republicans and Romney supporters have made before, suggesting that the political landscape will reset around before the fall campaign."</p>
<p>Romney's rivals on both sides of the political aisle seized upon the misstep immediately.</p>
<p>"He will say what he needs to say to win the election before him, and if he has to say something different because it's a different election and a different group of voters, he will say that, too," GOP candidate Rick Santorum said at a campaign event in in Harvey, Louisiana, <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/21/video-romney-adviser-on-fall-campaign-everything-changes-its-almost-like-an-etch-a-sketch/" type="external">CNN reported</a>.</p>
<p>Newt Gingrich brought an Etch a Sketch to a Louisiana rally, and Rick Santorum's aides <a href="http://yfrog.com/odl78wmj" type="external">tweeted a picture of him</a> holding the toy with the caption " <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/RickSantorum" type="external">@RickSantorum</a>studying up on <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/MittRomney" type="external">@MittRomney</a> policy positions," Huffington Post reported. &#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120321/illinois-goes-romney" type="external">&#160;Illinois goes convincingly for Romney</a></p>
<p>The Democratic National Committee (DNC) also put together an add mocking Fehrnstrom's Etch a Sketch comment, which features an unconvincingly Etch-a-Sketched video of Romney vowing to veto the DREAM Act and get rid of Planned Parenthood, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/21/mitt-romney-etch-a-sketch-dnc-ad_n_1370649.html?ref=elections-2012" type="external">Huffington Post reported</a>.</p>
<p>"Mitt Romney is trying to scrub his extreme record," the ad reads, "but there are some things you can't shake off."</p>
<p>Romney, who comfortably won the Illinois primary on Tuesday, has made some similar missteps himself over the course of his campaign. Right before the New Hampshire primary back in January, the GOP candidate said that he "like[s] being able to fire people" when referring to health care providers. He also said, in an attempt to show his commitment to the middle class, that he's "not concerned about the very poor" in an interview on CNN in February.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120321/too-much-religious-talk-politics-pew-poll" type="external">Too much religious talk in politics, more Americans say: Pew poll</a></p>
<p />
<p />
<p>[ <a href="http://storify.com/globalpost/romney-advisor-s-etch-a-sketch-comment-goes-viral" type="external">View the story "Romney advisor's Etch a Sketch comment goes viral" on Storify</a>]</p> | Romney's senior adviser compares his campaign to an Etch a Sketch (VIDEO) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-03-22/romneys-senior-adviser-compares-his-campaign-etch-sketch-video | 2012-03-22 | 3 |
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<p>Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen has repeatedly warned Congress that cuts to his budget would hurt the agency’s service levels as well as its ability to protect taxpayers from fraud. Earlier this year he told a Congressional panel that the $1.2 billion cut in his budget since 2015 will also cut tax revenues.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>“We estimate the agency will lose through attrition about 1,800 key enforcement personnel during fiscal year of 2015 that we will not be able to replace. We anticipate the outcome will be fewer audits and fewer resources focused on collection. We estimate that as a result of enforcement cuts the government will lose at least $2 billion in revenue,” the commissioner told Congress in March. &#160;He repeated some of his remarks in a speech to the <a href="http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Commissioner-Koskinen-Speech-before-the-National-Press-Club" type="external">National Press Club Opens a New Window.</a>in March.</p>
<p>However, the loss of revenue has been only a fraction of what Koskinen estimated, according to a report from the <a href="http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/" type="external">Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Opens a New Window.</a> That report states that from fiscal 2010 to 2014 collections from the tax agency’s 400 field offices has fallen by $100 million, while automated collections have fallen another $100 million. That’s a $200 million loss in revenue, a fraction of what Koskinen predicted and interestingly those losses were much less than the reduction in head count in those departments which totaled 25% and 28% respectively.</p>
<p>Federal tax revenues overall, meanwhile, continue to set new records. According to a recent Treasury report, federal tax revenues are on pace to total $2.1 trillion this year. The balance of tax revenues comes from the 98% of Americans who willingly pay their taxes without enforcement measures against them.</p>
<p>Nina Olsen, of The Taxpayer Advocate Service, has said that the effort to lift collections would be even higher if the IRS focused its efforts on assisting taxpayers who want to pay rather than focusing on scofflaws.</p> | IRS Raking It In Despite Budget Cuts | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2015/06/18/irs-raking-it-in-despite-budget-cuts.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>President Donald Trump’s new executive order on foreign nationals entering the U.S. says “more than 300″ refugees in the United States “are currently the subjects of counterterrorism investigations.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions repeated that figure in his remarks on the new order.&#160;But it is a statistic without any context.</p>
<p>The White House and Department of Justice have declined to provide the total number of “counterterrorism investigations” underway or how it defines the term “counterterrorism investigation.” That’s important context, because FBI guidelines&#160;allow “three levels of investigation to address a potential threat to national security,” beginning with “assessments” — which do not require “any particular factual predication,” as explained in a <a href="https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2014/s1404.pdf" type="external">2014 inspectors general report</a>.</p>
<p>“In recent years, the F.B.I. has averaged 10,000 assessments annually, and 7,000 to 10,000 preliminary or full investigations involving international terrorism,” the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/us/fbi-terror-ahmad-khan-rahami.html?_r=0" type="external">reported</a> last year.</p>
<p>On the same day that Trump signed the executive order, Reuters <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-refugees-idUSKBN16D1WS" type="external">reported</a>, “The FBI is investigating 300 people who were admitted into the United States as refugees as part of 1,000 counterterrorism investigations involving Islamic State or individuals inspired by the militant group, congressional sources told Reuters on Monday, citing senior administration officials.”&#160;But a federal law enforcement official told us that report is not accurate and advised us to “avoid the 300 out of 1,000 construct.”</p>
<p>The law enforcement official, who asked to remain anonymous, said in FBI parlance “investigations,” as used in the executive order, means “full investigations.” The official would not say how many full investigations involving terrorism are underway, but referred us to the Times&#160;article that said the FBI averages&#160;“7,000 to 10,000 preliminary or full investigations” a year.</p>
<p>If so, then that would mean that refugees are not 30 percent of “counterterrorism investigations” — as reported by Reuters and repeated by <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/06/300-refugees-subjects-fbi-terror-investigations-u-s-officials-say.html" type="external">some</a> <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/6/jeff-sessions-more-than-300-refugees-involved-in-a/" type="external">news</a> <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/379795-fbi-refugees-counter-terrorism/" type="external">outlets</a>&#160;— but rather somewhere between 3 percent and 4.3 percent. But we don’t know for sure, because the administration won’t say.</p>
<p>What we do know is that few terrorism investigations result in prosecutions. We also know that no refugees were involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and no refugees have been responsible for any terrorism-related deaths in the U.S. since 9/11, <a href="" type="internal">as we have written before</a>.</p>
<p>We began asking the Trump administration for information about “counterterrorism investigations” involving refugees on March 6, when the president signed <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/06/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states" type="external">a new executive order</a>&#160;on “foreign terrorist entry.” The new order revokes and replaces an earlier version —&#160; <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/02/01/2017-02281/protecting-the-nation-from-foreign-terrorist-entry-into-the-united-states" type="external">executive order 13769</a> — that was <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/appeals-court-deliver-ruling-trump-executive-order/story?id=45386342" type="external">blocked</a> by the federal courts.</p>
<p>The new order&#160;imposes a 90-day travel ban on the citizens of six predominately Muslim countries (Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen) who do not have valid visas, and suspends the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days. The order said the delay is needed to improve screening and vetting procedures.</p>
<p>Refugees undergo the “highest degree” of screening of any traveler to the U.S., according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. That screening process takes 18 months to two years and&#160;includes fingerprinting and checking records against databases maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center, the Pentagon, the FBI and Interpol, <a href="" type="internal">as we have previously written</a>.</p>
<p>The order justifies the revised restrictions on entry into the U.S. by declaring that foreign-born nationals, including refugees, “have proved to be threats to our national security.”</p>
<p>As we also have <a href="" type="internal">reported</a>, the U.S. has accepted <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/prm/ra/" type="external">more than 3 million</a>&#160;refugees since 1975, but few of them attempted terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. A 2016 report by the libertarian Cato Institute called “ <a href="https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa798_2.pdf" type="external">Terrorism and Immigration</a>”&#160;identified 154 foreign-born people, including 20 refugees, who were convicted of carrying out or attempting to carry out a terrorist attack in the U.S.&#160;over a 40-year period, from 1975 to 2015.</p>
<p>Three refugees were responsible for three terrorism-related deaths — all in the 1970s, according to the Cato report.</p>
<p>Separately, Kathleen Newland of the Migration Policy Institute came to a <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/us-record-shows-refugees-are-not-threat" type="external">similar conclusion</a> in 2015, when she looked at the number of terrorism-related prosecutions involving refugees since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. “No one in the U.S. has been killed in a terrorist incident by a resettled refugee” since 9/11, Newland told us in an email for this story.</p>
<p>Unlike the first executive order, the new order included new language about current “counterterrorism investigations” involving refugees.</p>
<p>Executive Order, March 6:&#160; The Attorney General has reported to me that more than 300 persons who entered the United States as refugees are currently the subjects of counterterrorism investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.</p>
<p>Sessions, the attorney general, made a similar statement in <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-delivers-remarks-revised-executive-order-protecting-nation" type="external">remarks</a>&#160;on the day the new executive order was signed.</p>
<p>Sessions, March 6:&#160;We also know that people seeking to support or commit terrorist attacks here will try to enter through our refugee program. In fact, today more than 300 people who came here as refugees are under FBI investigation for potential terrorism-related activities.</p>
<p>We repeatedly sent emails to the White House, the Justice Department and the FBI, seeking information on the current investigations. Specifically, we asked if the “more than 300″ refugees are under full investigation, preliminary investigation, or are they at the assessment level. The White House referred us to the Justice Department, which told us it would provide “no additional information.”</p>
<p>Context is important. Knowing that there are “more than 300” refugees under investigation without any other information reminds us of the late comedian <a href="http://www.salon.com/2008/06/23/carlin_3/" type="external">George Carlin’s gag</a> about sportscasters who referred to games in progress as “partial scores.” Carlin would joke, “Here’s a partial score: Notre Dame 6.”</p>
<p>After the 9/11 attacks that killed <a href="https://www.911memorial.org/about-memorial" type="external">nearly 3,000 people</a>, the FBI adopted guidelines that greatly expanded its investigative powers.</p>
<p>In December 2008, then-Attorney General Mike Mukasey changed the FBI’s <a href="https://vault.fbi.gov/FBI%20Domestic%20Investigations%20and%20Operations%20Guide%20%28DIOG%29/fbi-domestic-investigations-and-operations-guide-diog-2008-version/FBI%20Domestic%20Investigations%20and%20Operations%20Guide%20%28DIOG%29%20Part%201%20of%205/at_download/file" type="external">Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide</a> that gave “the FBI more leeway to engage in proactive investigative work” without the level of evidence required by preliminary or full investigations, according to an April 2013 report, <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/R41780.pdf" type="external">“The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Terrorism Investigations</a>,” by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.</p>
<p>CRS, April 24, 2013:&#160;The most prominent changes in the Mukasey Guidelines and the DIOG concern “assessments.” Agents and analysts may now use assessments outside of the more traditional preliminary and full investigations, which require some level of factual predication. Preliminary investigations can be opened with “any ‘allegation or information’ indicative of possible criminal activity or threats to the national security.” Opening a full investigation requires an “‘articulable factual basis’ of possible criminal or national threat activity.” On the other hand, opening an assessment does not require particular factual predication.</p>
<p>The investigative methods used during the assessment stage “are generally those of relatively low intrusiveness, such as obtaining publicly available information, checking government records, and requesting information from members of the public,” <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/docs/guidelines.pdf" type="external">according to the FBI</a>. CRS says that includes “public surveillance and the use of confidential informants to penetrate conspiracies.”</p>
<p>As a result of the so-called Mukasey guidelines, the number of people under FBI surveillance sharply increased. CRS said that&#160;the FBI in a three-month period from December 2008 to March 2009 initiated 11,667 assessments, although only 427 of them advanced to preliminary or full investigations. “Officials noted that about one-third of the assessments resulted from vague tips,” CRS said.</p>
<p>Over a two-year period, from&#160;March 25, 2009, to March 31, 2011, the&#160;FBI “opened 42,888 assessments of people or groups to see whether they were terrorists or spies,” according to government data <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/us/24fbi.html" type="external">obtained by the New York Times</a> under a FOIA request.</p>
<p>“Information gathered by agents during those assessments had led to 1,986 preliminary or full investigations,” the Times wrote in that Aug. 23, 2011, story.</p>
<p>We don’t know if the “counterterrorism investigations” cited in the executive order are assessments,&#160;preliminary or full investigations.&#160;As we said earlier, the federal law enforcement official we contacted for this story told us they refer to full investigations and&#160;referred us to last year’s New York Times article that said the FBI in recent years has averaged “7,000 to 10,000 preliminary or full investigations” a year. That Times story also said, “Most investigations never end in prosecution.”</p>
<p>“It’s silly for them to cite investigations, most of which will never lead to convictions or even charges being filed, to support a public policy like this,” Alex Nowrasteh, author of the Cato report on terrorism and immigration, told us an email.</p>
<p>David Bier, an immigration policy analyst at Cato, <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/supposed-fbi-investigations-refugees-shouldnt-scare-you" type="external">wrote in a March 8</a> blog that the U.S. averaged 27 terrorism convictions per year in the five years from 2010 to 2014, which was based on a database of terrorism and terrorism-related convictions compiled by the DOJ’s National Security Division. Citing the New York Times article from last year for the number of FBI preliminary and full investigations, Bier estimated that about 0.3 percent of all terrorism investigations result in convictions.</p>
<p>“Taking the middle of the 7,000 to 10,000 range for the number of new FBI investigations (8,500) would mean that only about 0.3 percent of all terrorism investigations end in terrorism convictions,” Bier wrote.</p>
<p>Of course, there are incidents of refugees who have attempted terrorist attacks in the U.S., just as there have been incidents involving &#160;U.S. citizens, “green-card” holders and visa holders. Trump’s executive order mentions two terrorism cases involving refugees — including the conviction of <a href="https://www.justice.gov/nsd/pr/convicted-bomb-plotter-sentenced-30-years" type="external">Mohamed Osman Mohamud</a>, “a native of Somalia who had been brought to the United States as a child refugee.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">As we have written before</a>, Mohamud was charged in an undercover sting operation with attempting to set off a fake bomb supplied by undercover FBI agents&#160;at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland. He was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/nsd/pr/convicted-bomb-plotter-sentenced-30-years" type="external">sentenced</a>&#160;in October 2014 to 30 years in prison.</p>
<p>Mohamud was <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/12/suspect_in_portland_bomb_plot.html" type="external">only 5 years old</a> when he entered the U.S., so it is not clear if anyone that young would have been denied entry under more “extreme vetting,” as Trump has advocated.</p>
<p>The executive order also referenced the convictions of&#160;Iraqi refugees Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi. The U.S. was unaware when Alwan entered the country in 2009 that he was involved in planting and detonating IEDs against U.S. troops in Iraq. After learning of Alwan’s criminal past, the FBI set up a sting operation that led to the arrest of Alwan and Hammadi on multiple terrorism charges related to a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/jmd/legacy/2013/12/14/nsd-justification.pdf" type="external">conspiracy to kill Americans overseas</a>. They were sentenced in January 2013, <a href="" type="internal">as we have written before</a>.</p>
<p>The case involving the two Iraqi refugees — which Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s counselor, mistakenly referred to as the “ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/06/kellyanne-conways-bowling-green-massacre-wasnt-a-slip-of-the-tongue-shes-said-it-before/?utm_term=.cdc01b9b84dc" type="external">Bowling Green massacre</a>” — did not result in any deaths. But it did lead to a tightening of the vetting process at the time.</p>
<p>It is understandable that the Trump administration has sought to justify the need for its new executive order. After all, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals <a href="" type="internal">blocked</a> the first order in part because the administration failed to “present evidence to explain the need for the Executive Order.”&#160;For this reason, perhaps, the new order cited ongoing “counterterrorism investigations” of more than 300 refugees. But the administration renders that number meaningless by failing to provide any other information.</p> | Refugees and Terrorism Investigations | false | https://factcheck.org/2017/03/refugees-and-terrorism-investigations/ | 2017-03-10 | 2 |
<p>Longtime Donald Trump associate and self-described dirty trickster Roger Stone said that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election and charged that Democratic leaders unfairly accused him of collusion in a <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/359899170/Stone-Opening-Statement?irgwc=1&amp;content=27795&amp;campaign=VigLink&amp;ad_group=1726779&amp;keyword=ft500noi&amp;source=impactradius&amp;medium=affiliate#" type="external">statement</a> released hours before his Tuesday testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.</p>
<p>The 47-page document is pure Stone: a combative, bomb-throwing screed that insists the “mantra-like repetition” that Russia carried out an influence campaign to swing the election to Trump “does not make it so.”</p>
<p>He writes that it&#160;is instead, like the allegations against him, a combination of “conjecture, supposition, projection, allegation, and coincidence, none of it proven by evidence of fact.”</p>
<p>Stone adamantly denies the&#160;main charges against him: that he had advance knowledge that Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails would be hacked and that WikiLeaks would release thousands of hacked emails from Podesta;&#160;and that he obtained damaging information from a&#160;hacker believed to be a creation of Russian intelligence in a Twitter exchange.</p>
<p>He asks for apologies from Clinton, House Intelligence Committee vice chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and other top Democrats for repeatedly&#160;tying him to the Russia investigation&#160;in public appearances, amending his statement with news clippings documenting their comments.</p>
<p>A besuited Stone arrived on Capitol Hill just after 9 a.m. Tuesday, accompanied by his two attorneys, and proceeded directly into chamber where he was slated to meet with the committee. For once he had little to say, telling reporters gathered outside only that he planned “to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.”</p>
<p>Read Stone’s full statement below:</p> | READ: Roger Stone Releases Statement Ahead Of House Intel Panel Testimony | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/roger-stone-opening-statement-house-intelligence-committee | 4 |
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<p />
<p>On Monday,&#160;the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling that struck down Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw’s “business method” patent for hedging energy prices against the weather. Some observers had hoped that the court would issue a broad ruling rejecting many “business method” patents—such as Amazon.com’s “one-click” purchasing—entirely. (Critics of business method patents argue that you shouldn’t be able to get patent protection for something as supposedly “obvious” and vague as one-click ordering.) Instead, the court ruled narrowly, rejecting Bilski and Warsaw’s patent but holding open the possibility that other, similar patents might be granted in the future—even if they, like Bilski and Warsaw’s patent, didn’t meet the generally accepted test of involving a “machine or transformation.” Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, explains:</p>
<p>[I]n a series of cases that extend back over a century, the Court has stated that “[t]ransformation and reduction of an article to a different state or thing is the clue to the patentability of a process claim that does not include particular machines.” Application of this test, the so-called “machine-or-transformation test,” has thus repeatedly helped the Court to determine what is “a patentable ‘process.'”&#160;</p>
<p>[…]</p>
<p>[But] while the machine-or-transformation test has always been a “useful and important clue,” it has never been the “sole test” for determining patentability…. The machine-or-transformation test is thus an important example of how a court can determine patentability…, but the Federal Circuit erred in this case by treating it as the exclusive test.</p>
<p>The Bilski/Warsaw patent failed because it involved an “abstract idea,” not necessarily because it failed the “machine or transformation” test. That leaves the door open for the Patent Office to continue granting recognition to things like Amazon’s one-click. The full decision is <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-964.pdf" type="external">here</a>&#160;(PDF).</p>
<p /> | The Bilski Business Method Patent Decision | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/06/bilski-business-method-patent-decision/ | 2010-06-28 | 4 |
<p>Q: Are violent crimes more or less common in areas where handgun ownership is higher? A: Some studies have found that murder rates (not crime rates in general) are higher where guns are more prevalent. But social scientists have not found a direct causal relationship between the two factors.</p>
<p>FULL ANSWER</p>
<p>This question is one raised by both those who advocate fewer restrictions on gun ownership and those who call for stricter controls. The former group hopes to prove that more guns do not equal more crime (or even could lead to less crime due to guns being used for protection or self-defense). The latter group hopes to prove that lower rates of gun ownership mean less crime occurs. But major studies on the topic have not found a cause-and-effect relationship between the two factors, though they have found statistical relationships.</p>
<p>David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center and the Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center, notes that most types of crime don’t necessarily involve guns – car theft or muggings or rape, for instance. But other crimes, such as murder, often do. Studies that have looked at gun ownership and murder rates, he says, have shown "yes, there’s a strong relationship." Such studies, Hemenway says, have controlled for certain variables, comparing urban areas to other urban areas or households in violent areas to other households in violent areas. With those types of studies, "the evidence is very compelling." There’s more gun murder in areas with more guns, and more murder overall, he says.</p>
<p>That’s not to say that taking the guns away from such areas would necessarily lead to a reduction in the murder rate. Such studies have shown a statistically significant relationship between guns and murder but not a causal one.</p>
<p>One of Hemenway’s studies, published in 2004 and coauthored by Lisa M. Hepburn, reviewed commonly cited research from peer-reviewed journals. It found that studies of the United States or U.S. cities, states and regions "generally find a statistically significant gun prevalence-homicide association." The report said that the evidence from such "U.S. cross-sectional studies is quite consistent … where there are higher levels of gun prevalence, homicide rates are substantially higher, primarily due to higher firearm homicide rates." Hemenway’s report also found that international studies "typically show that in high-income countries with more firearms, both men and women are at higher risk for homicide, particularly firearm homicide." So where there are guns, there is likely a higher rate of murders committed with guns in particular. However, the report noted, "None of the studies can prove causation. They merely examine the statistical association between gun availability and homicide."</p>
<p>In fact, major studies on this issue have not shown cause-and-effect – that the presence of guns causes more murders to occur (or crime in general) – which is certainly a more difficult hypothesis to test. The National Research Council of the National Academies in 2004 released a lengthy <a href="http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10881#toc" type="external">study</a> of the available research on this issue, with the aim of finding whether a causal relationship existed. It didn’t find one, and it said that the available research itself was lacking. "In summary, the committee concludes that existing research studies and data include a wealth of descriptive information on homicide, suicide, and firearms, but, because of the limitations of existing data and methods, do not credibly demonstrate a causal relationship between the ownership of firearms and the causes or prevention of criminal violence or suicide," said the report, which was conducted by the NRC’s Committee to Improve Research Information and Data on Firearms, and Committee on Law and Justice. There were close to 40 members of the committees, including experts in criminology, sociology, economics, psychology, public health and public policy, and statistics.</p>
<p>Proving Cause and Effect</p>
<p>The National Academies report noted that drawing a causal inference is "always complicated and, in the behavioral and social sciences, fraught with uncertainty."</p>
<p>Charles F. Wellford, chair of the committees that authored the report and a professor of criminology at the University of Maryland, says it’s the causal relationship that people are interested in when the question of guns and crime is broached. "While scientists can make the distinction between association and causation, in the real world the interest is in the latter," Wellford tells FactCheck.org, noting that this is his opinion, not the panel’s. "Work that knowingly reports findings that do not meet a causal test knowing they will be used as if they do can only produce confusion especially in such contentious issues."</p>
<p>The report said that "case-control studies" (the urban-area-to-urban-area type of comparisons) "show that violence is positively associated with firearms ownership." What the National Academies calls "ecological studies" (those comparing large areas, such as countries) "provide contradictory evidence on violence and firearms." But neither have shown a causal relationship. Both studies fail to address the multiple factors involved in the decision to buy a gun – owning a gun is not a random decision, said the report. And data on gun ownership may be insufficient (such numbers are based on surveys). It also faulted ecological studies that look at large geographic areas, saying, "there is no way of knowing whether the homicides or suicides occurred in the same areas in which the firearms are owned."</p>
<p>In comparing the United States to industrialized democracies, the Academies says data show the U.S. has the highest rate of homicide and firearm-related homicide. But this also raises a chicken-and-egg question. "A high level of violence may be a cause of a high level of firearms availability instead of the other way around."</p>
<p>– Lori Robertson</p>
<p>Hepburn, Lisa M. and David Hemenway. "Firearm availability and homicide: A review of the literature." Aggression and Violent Behavior. Vol. 9, 2004: 417-440.</p>
<p>National Research Council of the National Academies, Committee on Law and Justice. " <a href="http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10881&amp;page=R1" type="external">Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review</a>." The National Academies Press: Washington, D.C., 2004.&#160;</p> | Violent Crimes and Handgun Ownership | false | https://factcheck.org/2008/03/violent-crimes-and-handgun-ownership/ | 2008-03-06 | 2 |
<p>Wang Fengfeng/Xinhua Read on for the Mother Jones news team’s instant analysis of Thursday night’s GOP presidential debate in Sioux City, Iowa.</p>
<p>Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (bottom right) and the elephant in the room. Photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.gingrichproductions.com/index.php?option=com_expose&amp;album=50&amp;photo=13&amp;playslideshow=yes" type="external">Gingrich Productions</a>.</p>
<p>—By <a href="/authors/andy-kroll" type="external">Andy Kroll</a></p>
<p>In Thursday night’s Fox News debate, GOP presidential front-runner Newt Gingrich unloaded a whopper when confronted—again—about his controversial consulting gig with government housing corporation Freddie Mac in the late 1990s and 2000s.</p>
<p>At the debate, Gingrich dismissed his work for Freddie Mac. “I was a private citizen engaged in a business like any other business,” he said. Details on his work with Freddie, however, suggest otherwise. Freddie, which <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,418241,00.html" type="external">was taken over</a> by the federal government in 2008, paid Gingrich between $1.6 million and $1.8 million for consulting work. And although Gingrich has said he was paid to be a “historian” for Freddie, officials with the housing giant <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-16/gingrich-said-to-be-paid-at-least-1-6-million-by-freddie-mac.html" type="external">told Bloomberg News</a> that Gingrich was hired, in part, to “to build bridges to Capitol Hill Republicans and develop an argument on behalf of the company’s public-private structure that would resonate with conservatives seeking to dismantle it.” So although Gingrich may not have technically lobbied for Freddie, he was hired to open doors in Congress for the company—and he received quite the paycheck for doing so.</p>
<p>Not only did Gingrich consult for Freddie, he also stood fast by its quasi-governmental status, which is anathema to many conservatives in Washington and beyond. Ex-Freddie employees told Bloomberg they didn’t remember Gingrich ever voicing opposition to the company’s business model or strategy. In September 2008, as both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae teetered on the brink of collapse (they were eventually taken over by the federal government), Gingrich <a href="http://youtu.be/-YiYWnA1_y8" type="external">said</a> he had no plans to question Freddie’s business model. “I was perfectly happy to not push the issue as long as they weren’t failing,” he explained at the time. That’s a claim that could come back to haunt Newt. Here’s video of it:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mittromney/6207889543/in/photostream" type="external">Mitt Romney</a>/Flickr</p>
<p>—By <a href="/authors/asawin-suebsaeng" type="external">Asawin Suebsaeng</a></p>
<p>During the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/richard-adams-blog/2011/dec/16/republican-debate-iowa-fox-news" type="external">Fox News Republican presidential debate in Sioux City, Iowa</a>, on Thursday night, Mitt Romney was asked about the American spy drone that <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/iran-drone-video/" type="external">crashed in Iran</a> nearly two weeks ago. The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DXPBEXMzeM" type="external">on-and-off</a> 2012 GOP front-runner was also asked if the Obama administration’s response to the captured drone demonstrated weakness.</p>
<p>“Absolutely,” Romney said. He asserted that the drone incident was just one of many examples of the president handling foreign policy matters with timidity, and that Obama’s lack of “strength” was “inviting war.” With regards to the White House “ <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2011-12-12/middleeast/world_meast_iran-us-drone_1_spy-drones-rq-170-reconnaissance?_s=PM:MIDDLEEAST" type="external">asking</a>” the Iranian regime to return the downed aircraft, Romney blasted the Obama administration for doing “nothing” and endorsing a “foreign policy based on [saying] ‘pretty please.'”</p>
<p>The former Massachusetts governor had <a href="http://thehill.com/video/campaign/199311-romney-obama-weak-and-timid-in-not-destroying-downed-drone" type="external">told Fox News</a> earlier this week that, by not retrieving the US drone, President Obama was acting “extraordinarily weak and timid in a critical moment” and argued that he should have ordered American forces to “destroy it or go get it.” This criticism fits perfectly with the narrative he’s been attempting to spin that Barack Obama pursues a policy of “ <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/12/07/romney_obama_has_pursued_a_foreign_policy_of_appeasement.html" type="external">appeasing</a>” our foreign enemies.</p>
<p>Of course, Obama’s decision not to invade or bomb Iran in order to destroy the remains of a drone had absolutely nothing to do with being timid or weak; the decision was based on the recommendation of his entire national security team, plus the advice of top military and intelligence officials. <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204770404577082822643123332.html" type="external">According to the Wall Street Journal</a>, officials weighed the options of “conducting a covert mission inside Iran to retrieve or destroy [the] stealth drone…but ultimately concluded such a secret operation wasn’t worth the risk of provoking a more explosive clash with Tehran”:</p>
<p>The officials considered various options for retrieving the wreckage of the RQ-170 drone.</p>
<p>Under one plan, a team would be sent to retrieve the aircraft. U.S. officials considered both sending in a team of American commandos based in Afghanistan as well as using allied agents inside Iran to hunt down the downed aircraft.</p>
<p>Another option would have had a team sneak in to blow up the remaining pieces of the drone. A third option would have been to destroy the wreckage with an airstrike.</p>
<p>However, the officials worried that any option for retrieving or destroying the drone would have risked discovery by Iran.</p>
<p>“No one warmed up to the option of recovering it or destroying it because of the potential it could become a larger incident,” the U.S. official said. If an assault team entered the country to recover or destroy the drone, the official said, the U.S. “could be accused of an act of war” by the Iranian government.</p>
<p>In other words, the president made a foreign policy move based on prudence, not liberal wimpishness.</p>
<p>Furthermore, it might be worth asking Romney which of these two options he thinks would have a greater chance of “inviting war”: a) not listening to <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/12/cheney-rips-obama-over-iran-drone-capture/1" type="external">foreign policy hawks</a> every once in a while, or b) ordering something that could actually be construed as a violent act of war.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Pete Souza/Wikimedia Commons</p>
<p>—By <a href="/authors/tim-murphy" type="external">Tim Murphy</a></p>
<p>Newt Gingrich has a reputation, earned or not, as a man of ideas. And at Thursday’s GOP presidential debate in&#160;Iowa, he suggested a big one: borrow a page from Thomas Jefferson and abolish federal courts whose judges have handed down decisions he disagrees with. (He’s previously called for the Ninth&#160;Circuit Court of Appeals to be purged.) If nothing else, he’d call liberal judges before Congress to testify.</p>
<p>As Gingrich put it, “The courts have become grotesquely dictatorial, far too powerful, and I think frankly arrogant in their misreading of the American people,” the former House speaker said. “I would, just like Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, and FDR, I would be prepared to take on the Judiciary if it did not restrict itself in what it was doing.”</p>
<p>Video, via <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/12/15/390711/gingrich-compares-four-presidents/" type="external">Think Progress</a>:</p>
<p>Although Jefferson’s clashes with the courts aren’t as well known,&#160;Jackson and FDR’s power-grabs have been largely condemned by historians. Gingrich, however, dismissed concerns that dismissing entire courts would <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/01/13/138677/gingrich-ninth-circuit/" type="external">unconstitutionally</a> tip the scales on the balance of power: “I would suggest to you, actually, as a historian I may understand this better than lawyers.” (Never mind that Gingrich, who specializes in counterfactual historical novels, is not a historian.)</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rick_Santorum_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg" type="external">Gage Skidmore</a>/Wikimedia</p>
<p>—By <a href="/authors/sid-mahanta" type="external">Siddhartha Mahanta</a></p>
<p>With Ron Paul committing to a characteristically doveish position on a maybe-nuclear-armed Iran, Rick Santorum took the opportunity to bare his teeth, leveling several outrageous claims—albeit ones that will play well to the hawks in attendance—at Thursday night’s debate.</p>
<p>Iran “is a country ruled by the equivalent of Al Qaeda,” Santorum claimed, adding that the Iranian government is a radical theocracy with a commitment to martyrdom. If Iran doesn’t open up its nuclear facilities and close them down, “we will close them down for you,” he promised.</p>
<p>First things first: Al Qaeda is a radical Sunni movement. Iran is a Shiite-majority country; as you may have heard, these two sects don’t exactly get along all the time. And Al Qaeda’s financing has historically come from Sunni-majority countries, most notably Saudi Arabia. In July, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-accuses-iran-of-aiding-al-qaeda/2011/07/28/gIQARUPxfI_story.html" type="external">the Treasury Department did accuse Iran</a> of facilitating large cash transfers from Middle East donors to Al Qaeda leaders. But any more substantial ties have yet to surface. So what Santorum meant, exactly, when he said Iran is run by Al Qaeda’s “equivalent” is unclear.</p>
<p>If you needed any clearer indication of just how much Al Qaeda is not the equivalent of Iran, review the much-diminished terrorist organization’s stern rebuke to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his continued insistence on <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/al-qaeda-iran-ahmadinejad-stop-spreading-911-conspiracy/story?id=14620643#.TurB6uz1GuJ" type="external">feeding the 9/11-trutherism hype</a>:</p>
<p>In the latest issue of the al Qaeda English-language magazine “Inspire”, an author appears to take offense to the “ridiculous” theory repeatedly spread by Ahmadinejad that the 9/11 terror attacks were actually carried out by the U.S. government in order to provide a pretext to invade the Middle East.</p>
<p>“The Iranian government has professed on the tongue of its president Ahmadinejad that it does not believe that al Qaeda was behind 9/11 but rather, the U.S. government,” an article reads. “So we may ask the question: why would Iran ascribe to such a ridiculous belief that stands in the face of all logic and evidence?”…Iran continues to spread the conspiracy theory, al Qaeda says, because doing otherwise would expose their “lip-service jihad” against the U.S.</p>
<p>Al Qaeda clearly wants to keep the memory of its atrocities alive.&#160;You’d think if the group was an Iranian proxy, Ahmadinejad wouldn’t be running around spreading lies about its most important terrorist strike.</p>
<p>Given the opportunity to speak immediately after Ron Paul—a committed noninterventionist—Santorum saw an opening to highlight his hawkishness. In doing so, he conflated two distinctly different, more or less unrelated threats. But for a hawkish audience like Iowa Republican caucus-goers, how much difference will it make? &#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickperry/5520016936/in/set-72157626249664480/" type="external">Gov. Rick Perry</a>/Flickr</p>
<p>—By <a href="/authors/tim-murphy" type="external">Tim Murphy</a></p>
<p>Desperate to strike a nerve with anti-Washington Iowa voters at Thursday night’s debate, Texas Gov. Rick&#160;Perry floated an idea he talks about every now and then on the campaign trail:&#160;Make Congress part time. Perry proposed slashing for pay for elected officials and their staffs and cutting the amount of time they spend in Washington in half. As a model, he proposed that of the Texas Legislature, which meets for just 140 days total, every two years.</p>
<p>It’s a novel idea.&#160;It’s also a recipe for disaster. For one thing, as TPM‘s <a href="http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/rick-perrys-plan-turn-congress-into-texas.php" type="external">Benjy Sarlin reported</a> in November, Texas’ part-time Legislature hasn’t done much to make government run smoother. It just puts more power in the hands of Rick Perry:</p>
<p>“It’s just really hard for the legislature get things done when your government is run by a hundred boards and commissions appointed by a governor who has next to no voice in the legislature,” Bob Stein, a professor of political science at Rice University, told TPM. “They give the governor a lot of power. Even with Republicans with large majorities, the chairman of finance couldn’t move anything without the governor’s blessing.”</p>
<p>Given the GOP’s crusade against President Obama’s “czars,” advocating that the executive branch have more discretion to fill key slots is an odd position for Perry to take (in&#160;Texas, he’s also come under fire for stacking those aforementioned boards with top donors). It also offers a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist—namely that members of Congress (and their staffs) are overpaid and lazy. Generally speaking, they work insanely long hours doing very difficult work, handling a set of responsibilities that have significantly expanded even as the size of Congress has hardly budged. In other words, the problem isn’t the pay; it’s the personnel.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>—By <a href="/authors/tim-murphy" type="external">Tim Murphy</a></p>
<p>Questioned by Fox News’ Bret Baier on his conservative credentials at Thursday’s GOP debate in Iowa, Newt Gingrich made a curious claim:&#160;As speaker of the House, he said, he’d balanced the federal budget four times. It’s a claim he’s made before—in a video on his campaign website, and on the stump. But as <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/may/11/newt-gingrich/newt-gingrich-inaccurate-budget-debt-claims-video-/" type="external">PolitiFact notes</a>, it’s false:&#160;Although Congress did pass balanced budgets for four straight years beginning in the late 1990s, the latter two came after Gingrich had resigned from the House and he’d played no part in crafting them.</p>
<p>Per PolitiFact:</p>
<p>The federal budget runs on a fiscal year calendar that begins October 1 and ends September 30. During fiscal years 1996 and 1997—the first two that Gingrich helped shape as speaker—there were deficits, of $107 billion in 1996 and about $22 billion in 1997.</p>
<p>By fiscal year 1998, the federal budget did reach a surplus of $69 billion. And in fiscal year 1999—which Gingrich can claim some responsibility for, even though he was out as speaker for most of the fiscal year—it was in surplus as well, to the tune of $126 billion.</p>
<p>But that’s only two balanced budgets he can claim credit for. The federal government did run four consecutive surpluses, but for the last two of those—fiscal years 2000 and 2001—Gingrich was no longer serving in the House.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | GOP Debate: Threats, Delusions, and Bad Ideas | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/fox-news-iowa-debate-roundup/ | 2011-12-16 | 4 |
<p>Photo by flickr user ...Ashish.. used under a Creative Commons license.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="/media/2007/03/mira-nair" type="external">Hindi cinema</a>, long dismissed by the West as melodrama with a soundtrack, is the largest film industry (by volume and global popularity) in the world. Those so inclined can laugh, cry, and swoon their way through three hours of lush scenery, arch comedy, and catchy music in theaters across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the former <a href="/riff/2007/08/mia-track-review-correction-hooray-bollywood" type="external">Soviet Bloc</a>, not to mention Canada, the UK, and the borough of <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/eagle-theater-jackson-heights" type="external">Queens</a>.</p>
<p>So why have so few Americans ever seen a Bollywood movie? If you’re daunted by the prospect of sorting through 900 films per annum, consider this your beginner’s guide to Bollywood.</p>
<p>Below, a 5-video cheat sheet of what to see first.</p>
<p>1) Chak De! India (2007): Chak De is Punjabi for “go for it,” and this 2007 movie about the Indian National women’s hockey team certainly has that spirit.</p>
<p>Synopsis: Once-great men’s field hockey coach Gabbir Khan ( <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/176325" type="external">Shah Rukh Khan</a>) is determined to turn a rag-tag group of girls from all over India into a World Cup winning team. But language, class and communities divide them, and besides, who cares about a women’s league? As feminist a film as you’re likely to find, and a lot of fun.</p>
<p>Bonus: Nothing beats girls beating boys, except possibly the movie’s title song. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeWRNMkgtxo" type="external">Chak De!</a> was, for awhile, literally the catchiest tune in the world.</p>
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<p>2) Dil Se (1998): Who says musicals can’t be serious?</p>
<p>Synopsis: In this picture (scored by the epicly talented A.R. Rahman more than a decade before he won an Oscar and showed up in that video with the Pussycat Dolls), Shah Rukh Khan plays a reporter for All-India Radio sent to investigate attitudes about India’s independence in a troubled region of the country. There, he meets Meghna (Manisha Koirala), a strange but beautiful enigma. And, it turns out, a terrorist. Priti Zinta also plays Khan’s fiance.</p>
<p>Bonus: The score. The song Chaiya Chaiya (below) is one of the most memorable (and stolen) of the decade. And yes, they’re really dancing on a moving train.</p>
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<p>3) Sholay (1975): They call this a Curry Western. Take one part John Wayne, two parts bromance, stir in the subaltern heros of the 1970s and the star power of <a href="http://bigb.bigadda.com/" type="external">Amitabh Bachchan</a>, and you have Sholay, the most watched Bollywood movie of all time.</p>
<p>Synopsis: Jay (Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra) are a couple of small-time crooks whose cunning and moral uprightness win them a special place in the heart of Thakur Baldev Singh, a local lawman who wants revenge against a gangster so mean, his name is still synonomys with evil.</p>
<p>Bonus: It’s a tie, between Bollywood’s most evil villian, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq6Xr71NpuY" type="external">Gabar Singh</a>, and the loveable buddiness of Jay and Veeru, who were bromancing thirty years before it was an MTV show.</p>
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<p>4)Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995): If you can’t pronounce Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (To the Brave Goes the Bride), save yourself the trouble and ask for DDLJ. They’ll know what you mean.</p>
<p>Synopsis: Set half in the UK and half in Punjab, the romantic comedy tells the story of Raj (Shah Rukh Khan), a nogoodnik with a heart of gold who falls head over heels for Simran (Kajul) on a school trip across the Continent. When her father finds out he packs her off to Punjab to get hitched, but Raj can’t let go. What ensues has been played and replayed, danced and sung at every South Asian wedding since 1995.</p>
<p>Bonus: Khan and Kajul are the Richard Gere and Julia Roberts of India, and DDLJ is their Pretty Woman.</p>
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<p>5) Deewar (1975): This is my favorite film, a throwback to a time when Hindi movies were political.</p>
<p>Synopsis: Deewar, which translates to “The Wall,” is the story of two brothers whose father, a union organizer, is forced to capitulate to the bosses after his family is kidnapped and held ransom against his signature. Disgraced, daddy jumps town leaving mom and the kids to fend for themselves on the mean streets of Bombay.&#160; Older brother Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) goes to work so that younger brother Ravi (Shashi Kapoor) can go to school. Flash forward and Ravi has distinguished himself as a cop and Vijay a feared gangster.</p>
<p>Bonus: Bollywood’s best line—”Mere pas Maa hai” As the movie winds towards its terrible climax, Vijay demands to know what Ravi has gained from his upright life as a police officer. “Look, look what I have, and look what you have. I have buildings, property, a bank balance, bungalows. And you, what do you have?”&#160;To which Ravi replies “I have Mother.”&#160;</p>
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<p>Also Worth Watching:</p>
<p>Taare Zamine Par (2007) Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) Bombay (1995) Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008) Veer-Zara (2004) Sree 420 (1954) Mission Kashmir (2000) Bobby (1973)</p>
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<p>Not enough? Let us hear your recommendations.</p>
<p /> | Video: Bollywood for Beginners | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/06/video-bollywood-beginners/ | 2009-06-11 | 4 |
<p>2004 blew. It is the duty of all writers on current events to turn out a piece ushering out the old year, so here’s my duty discharged. With a slight variation in spelling, ‘duty discharged’ would also describe the preceding year.</p>
<p>Was it the worst year ever? Not at all. 1918 was a far worse year. World War One was barely winding down when an influenza epidemic came along and showed us how to really kill people in large numbers. The historical record is rife with awful years. I recall 1974 was crapola, too. But not for me. I was a wee bairn in short pants, playing with Action Man in the jungles of Tavistock, Devon, a sheepy place in the south of England. Wars, coups, famines, disasters, Nixon’s resignation, and a dead cow.</p>
<p>My school chum Eric and myself were strolling through the leafless forest of ash trees one Devon weekend, perhaps collecting ashen faggots for Christmastide, I don’t recall. But we discovered a dead cow. It was so swollen it looked like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade balloon. Sputnik legs and a vast greasy belly full of gas. We examined the thing closely, then fled when it started to emit hissing noises abaft.</p>
<p>We did what any true leaders would do: we found a younger kid to do the dirty work. Not right away, though. It took us the school week to find just the right mug for the job. He was six years old, overawed that the local JD and the American boy were interested in his assistance. So come Saturday, the three of us trooped off into the woods. At last we spied it, away down a hill. It looked like a gigantic haggis.</p>
<p>The average cow is a miracle of cooperation between billons of grass-digesting bacteria and the cow itself. The cow operates as a form of gigantic brewery, and the bacteria sort of yeast it up in there until mutual benefit is achieved in the form of nutritious grass soup. When the cow perishes, especially of disease as this one must have done, nobody tells the bacteria. They’re like Italian postal workers, living in their own world. The cow had become an almost perfect sphere except for its legs and head, which badgers had turned into a Francis Bacon painting. But for some reason, they had left the abdomen alone. It was an immense, translucent greenish thing, ticking and humming with vast inner forces. So we handed the kid a pointed stick and bade him approach the cow.</p>
<p>We were thirty yards away. The boy advanced on it, once turning to ask us with trembling voice if it was really dead. Oh yes. Reassured, or ashamed of his own cowardice, the boy went right up to the cow, squared his shoulders, and poked it. Nothing happened but a ‘pung’ noise. The cow wobbled slightly. “Poke it again, hard!” We cried, starting to back away. The boy gave the cow a couple more jabs and there was a noise as of wind in the rigging of a four-master brigandine. He was feeling pretty bold by now, this kid. He drew back his arm and thrust his faggot of ash at the cow like Errol Flynn. We ran for our lives.</p>
<p>Over my shoulder I saw the stick go in. One moment the cow was there, and the next moment there was no cow, only a boy with his arm out in front of him and a gigantic brown cloud expanding Nagasaki-like before him, and a nanosecond later the boy was gone from view in the thunderclap of rotten meat and cow bowels and body liquor and methane gas. Lordy, how we ran, as the chunks of flesh pattered down through the branches above us and whacked slimy into the fallen leaves at our feet. We ran and ran and the stench carried us up the hill. We ran, and the last we saw of that boy he was stumbling after us, blinded, shrieking for help, covered from head to toe in a hideous stew of viscera and decay. We didn’t stop. Hell no.</p>
<p>That boy, ladies and gentlemen, is us. The cow is 2004, and the boys that convinced us to jab the cow with a stick are laughing themselves silly in Washington, DC. Or we are the cow and the boy is Washington, and the boy is 2004, or possibly I am the walrus. The point is, 2004 blew like a dead cow.</p>
<p>If we want to make it through 2005, we’d better put down the stick.</p>
<p>BEN TRIPP can be reached at <a href="mailto:credel@earthlink.net" type="external">credel@earthlink.net</a>.</p>
<p>His book, ‘Square In The Nuts’, has been held up at the printers by thugs but will be released as soon as hostage negotiations conclude.</p>
<p>See also <a href="http://www.cafeshops.com/tarantulabros" type="external">www.cafeshops.com/tarantulabros</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Requiem for 2004 | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/01/01/requiem-for-2004/ | 2005-01-01 | 4 |
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<p>David Corn joined guest host Michael Eric Dyson on <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/vp/48430679?__utma=5875948.842157447.1343804459.1343804459.1343804459.1&amp;__utmb=5875948.2.10.1343804459&amp;__utmc=5875948&amp;__utmx=-&amp;__utmz=5875948.1343804459.1.1.utmcsr=google%7Cutmccn=%28organic%29%7Cutmcmd=organic%7Cutmctr=%28not%20provided%29&amp;__utmv=5875948.%7C8=Earned%20By=cable%7Cmsnbc%20tv%7Cthe%20ed%20show%7Cedshow=1%5E12=Landing%20Content=Original=1%5E13=Landing%20Hostname=ed.msnbc.com=1%5E30=Visit%20Type%20to%20Content=Earned%20to%20Original=1&amp;__utmk=149230130#48430679" type="external">MSNBC’s the Ed Show</a> to discuss Mitt Romney’s <a href="" type="internal">disastrous</a> <a href="" type="internal">foreign</a> <a href="" type="internal">tour</a>—what Corn is calling Romney’s “ <a href="" type="internal">moonwalking tour</a>” since he’s had to spend so much time walking back gaffes and misunderstandings.</p>
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<p>David Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, <a href="" type="internal">click here</a>. He’s also on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/davidcorndc" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p /> | Corn on MSNBC: Yet Another Gaffe on Romney’s Foreign Tour | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/corn-msnbc-yet-another-gaffe-romneys-foreign-tour/ | 2012-08-01 | 4 |
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<p>What if the Obama administration treated the auto industry like Wall Street?</p>
<p>There’d be no talk of potential bankruptcy, no firing of executives, no demands to shed failing subsidiaries, no demands for honest accounting, no insistence that creditors share some of the companies’ pain. And we certainly wouldn’t hear about re-writing contracts, heretofore described as sacrosanct.</p>
<p>Instead, we’d be hearing about a scheme to get private sector players “now sitting on the sidelines” to invest in absorbing the auto industry’s excess capacity.</p>
<p>We’d see the Treasury Department announcing a Public-Private Investment Plan to tap hedge funds’ pools of capital and expertise to create demand for autos that GM and Chrysler could manufacture but are presently unable to sell at a satisfactory price. These excess cars would be called “legacy assets” (the euphemism for failing mortgage-related securities, more widely called “toxic”).</p>
<p>If the plan really paralleled Treasury Secretary’s Timothy Geithner’s proposal for dealing with Wall Street’s toxic assets, it would “incentivize” the hedge funds to buy up hundreds of thousands or millions of cars, and hold them for later sale, when the overall economy improves. The idea would be that the private investors may be willing to pay a price below the list price, but above the price at which GM and Chrysler could actually sell their excess cars right now — a price high enough to help GM and Chrysler.</p>
<p>What would be the incentive for the private investors to take this gamble? The government would offer to contribute $13 for every dollar contributed by the hedge funds. Thus, an investor could spend $1 billion to buy cars — bought well below sticker price — while paying only $71 million out of pocket.</p>
<p>With that kind of deal, it’s possible the private investors would pay enough to help GM and Chrysler. In doing so, they would be taking on enormous risk — they would be betting that they someday could sell the cars for more than $1 billion — but if they couldn’t … well, taxpayers would bear all of the losses except for the $71 million.</p>
<p>Does this sound crazy?</p>
<p>It is.</p>
<p>The Treasury plan for the banks’ toxic assets is impossibly complex, but its core feature is a massive, disguised taxpayer subsidy to Wall Street (Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University roughly estimates the giveaway component as $276 billion, based on realistic assumptions about the risks embedded in buying the assets).</p>
<p>The Geithner plan for the banks contrasts starkly with the very tough and hard-headed approach taken by the Obama administration to the automakers.</p>
<p>The administration’s response to the automakers is deeply flawed. It should be faulted for continuing to demand still-more givebacks from unionized workers; for focusing too much on short-to-medium term results and not enough on investments in fuel efficiency and transformative technologies; and for threatening the use of bankruptcy, a move which would undermine efforts to direct the companies to major investments in R&amp;D and sustainable technologies. These are very major problems.</p>
<p>But the overall approach is right in asserting: If the taxpayers are going to provide tens of billions in supports, then they have the right to make demands on the beneficiaries. They should demand the firing of CEOs who drove firms into insolvency. They should demand specific plans for transformation. They should demand creditors accept some of the cost of insolvency.</p>
<p>Why the tough love for Detroit and kid gloves for Wall Street? You can make up whatever story you like about the systemic importance of the financial sector as compared to auto manufacturing, but it is utterly uncompelling — especially as we move out of the phase of acute crisis and into chronic economic downturn.</p>
<p>There’s just no escaping that Wall Street has bought its gentle treatment through a long-term investment in Washington, the effect of which goes far beyond any specific policy. At the Treasury Department, they understand the point of view of Wall Street — there is a unity of culture between top officials at Treasury and Wall Street, not least because the decision makers at Treasury so often come from Wall Street. Treasury Department officials can’t imagine themselves in the shoes of auto executives, let alone auto workers.</p>
<p>The administration’s plan for the auto industry is deeply flawed, but at least it has the right attitude. Quick consideration of what it would like if the government treated Detroit like Wall Street shows how ridiculous the idea is.</p>
<p>What everyone should be asking is, What would it look like if the government treated Wall Street like Detroit? And, why isn’t that happening?</p>
<p>ROBERT WEISSMAN is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based <a href="http://www.multinationalmonitor.org" type="external">Multinational Monitor</a> and director of <a href="http://www.essentialaction.org" type="external">Essential Action</a>.</p> | What If Obama Had Treated Detroit Like Wall Street? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/04/02/what-if-obama-had-treated-detroit-like-wall-street/ | 2009-04-02 | 4 |
<p>Despite the BBC <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2013/06/04/coronation-celebrations-underway-in-sunny-london.html" type="external">patriotically insisting that Prince Philip looked spry</a> at yesterday's coronation commemoration ceremony, the Royalist thought that the patriarch of the House of Windsor, who turns 92 on Monday, undoubtedly looked unwell.</p>
<p>There was clear concern etched on the faces of the Queen and other members of the family as well.</p>
<p>And the specualtion that Philip's health may be failing faster then the palace is letting on intensified after it was revealed he passed on yesterday's evening celebrations, and had missed several engagements in the days before the service.</p>
<p>And today Peter Philips, his grandson (via Princess Anne) stirred yet more speculation when he was asked in an interview on breakfast TV in the UK if Prince Philip was feeling 'under the weather' and replied: "Yes, but you also have got to remember his age, both of their ages, you know... what they do at their age - they do a lot more than most other pensioners of their equivalent age so... if occasionally there is the odd engagement cancelled, it shouldn't come as such a surprise, given the workload that they do have."</p>
<p>It shouldn't come as a surprise, of course, but the fact that it is Peter who delivered the news does.</p> | Growing Concerns For Prince Philip As Grandson Says He May Miss More Events | true | https://thedailybeast.com/growing-concerns-for-prince-philip-as-grandson-says-he-may-miss-more-events | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
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<p>IMAGE SOURCE: MATTEL.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Stocks with large dividend payments can be great for investors seeking additional sources of income. These investments are even more appealing when the juicy yields spring from well-known companies. International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and Mattel (NASDAQ: MAT) are two such names with high yields. But are these yields that investors can bank on?</p>
<p>Let's compare IBM and Mattel on a handful of dividend-related measures to see which one is the better dividend stock pick.</p>
<p>Current yieldDividend investors are always drawn in by a nice yield. Mattel is the clear winner in this category. IBM has a yield of around 3.5%, compared with a yield of 4.9% for the toymaker.</p>
<p>Mattel's gaudy yield, however, is a result of a recent poor earnings report. For the first quarter, sales for the maker of Barbie were down 6% compared with the same quarter last year, and the company reported a loss of $73 million.Mattel has been dealing with declining sales of Barbie for years now, and the news from the earnings report caused the stock price to drop sharply, making the yield even larger.</p>
<p>IBM is facing its own troubles in the form of business segments that are no longer growing.Management is trying to shift to higher-growth business segments such as cloud computing, but the transition is slow and the stock price is down 9% over the past year.This drop, as with Mattel, has added to IBM's yield.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Payout ratioCan the companies continue to pay their dividends? To answer this question we look at the payout ratio, which is simply a measure of how much of a company's earnings it pays out as dividends. If the company is using most or all of its earnings to pay dividends, then it might not be sustainable, since businesses need to retain a part of earnings for continued growth.</p>
<p>Mattel is the big loser by this measure, paying out about 140% of its earnings in dividends.That's worrisome, because the company reported a loss of $0.21 per share in its first-quarter earnings report.If this trend continues, the toymaker will likely cut its dividend.</p>
<p>IBM, on the other hand, has a payout ratio of 37%,which should be sustainable. Although Big Blue reported both revenue and earnings declines in its most recent earnings report,the company still has plenty of room to continue paying its dividend.</p>
<p>Recent dividend increasesNot surprisingly, Mattel recently declared a quarterly dividend that's unchanged from last year, at $0.38 per share.This isn't welcome news for dividend investors who want to see growth in their dividend payments, but it makes sense given the company's recent earnings troubles.</p>
<p>IBM, on the other hand, raised its quarterly dividend to $1.30 last October.This increase was an 18% lift over the company's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10 per share. <a href="http://file:///E:/The%20Main%20Jump%20Drive/The%20Motley%20Fool/Articles/Better%20Dividend%20Buy%20IBM%20vs%20Mattel/Better%20Dividend%20Buy%20IBM%20v%20Mattel.docx#_edn12" type="external">Shockwave Flash file Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Long-term dividend growthIf we pull back and take a look at the broader picture for dividend growth, we find huge differences between IBM and Mattel. IBM has boosted its payout annually for the past 20 years,and over the past decade, it has grown its dividend by 373%. Mattel's dividend, on the other hand, has remained flat for the past two years at $0.38 per share and has grown by 134% over the past decade.</p>
<p>IBM's increases have averaged a fairly steady 15% over the past five years, while Mattel's have bounced from 0% to 35%.Also, Mattel had a two-year period of flat growth at the end of the past decade. Clearly, IBM is the winner when it comes to long-term dividend growth.</p>
<p>Ultimately, although Mattel is paying a dividend yield close to 5%, it hasn't always been able to raise its payout, and the current level may not be sustainable. IBM, on the other hand, has a fairly juicy yield of around 3.5% and plenty of room to cover its dividend payments even as it figures out where growth might come from. In the dividend battle, Big Blue comes out on top.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/27/better-dividend-buy-international-business-machine.aspx" type="external">Better Dividend Buy: International Business Machines Corp. vs. Mattel, Inc. Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/brownap02/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Adam Brownlee Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of International Business Machines. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 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> | Better Dividend Buy: International Business Machines Corp. vs. Mattel, Inc. | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/27/better-dividend-buy-international-business-machines-corp-vs-mattel-inc.html | 2016-04-27 | 0 |
<p>CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Seeking stability amid an uncertain future, the Carolina Panthers signed coach Ron Rivera to a two-year contract extension on Saturday.</p>
<p>A person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press the extension is worth $15.5 million over two seasons. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team didn't release financial details of the contract.</p>
<p>Rivera has one year remaining on his existing contract, so the new deal keeps him with the Panthers through the 2020 season.</p>
<p>Rivera is 64-47-1 in seven seasons with the Panthers. He has guided Carolina to a Super Bowl appearance, three NFC South titles and four playoff appearances. He has twice been named The Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year.</p>
<p>The Panthers (11-5) visit the New Orleans Saints (11-5) on Sunday in an NFC wild-card game.</p>
<p>"I'm very excited about it because I really like where we are as a football team," Rivera said in a statement. "We've done some really good things and we have an opportunity to do more. Things are in place and we can continue this success. We've had consistency of winning and we've gone to the playoffs four out of five years."</p>
<p>Rivera has been a rock for an organization in the midst of change. Panthers president Danny Morrison resigned last year and general manager Dave Gettleman was fired on the eve of training camp by team owner Jerry Richardson.</p>
<p>Then Richardson came under investigation by the NFL for alleged sexual and racial misconduct in the workplace and announced he is selling the team after the season is over following an inflammatory report by Sports Illustrated. It's unclear if the new owners will keep the team in Charlotte.</p>
<p>On the field, the Panthers have been fairly consistent outside of a disappointing 6-10 season a year ago.</p>
<p>Rivera oversaw an NFC-record 18-game regular-season winning streak that spanned the 2014 and 2015 seasons and led to Carolina's Super Bowl appearance in 2015, which they lost 24-10 to the Denver Broncos. Carolina's .576 winning percentage during Rivera's tenure is seventh best in the NFL during that time.</p>
<p>Rivera was brought to Carolina for his defensive expertise, and the Panthers put together four consecutive top-10 finishes in yards allowed from 2012-15, joining Seattle as the only teams to do so. Carolina is ranked seventh in defense this season.</p>
<p>Its defense finished third in the NFL with 50 sacks during the regular season, and it is the only team in the NFL to not allow an individual 100-yard rusher in any game this season. The Panthers set a franchise record by going 20 consecutive games without allowing a 100-yard individual rusher, the longest active streak in the league.</p>
<p>Carolina's offense has finished in the top 10 in the NFL in yards rushing per game in six of the past seven seasons, including a fourth-place mark this season at 131.4 yards per game.</p>
<p>"This is a tremendous place with tremendous support from ownership and the people that work in the organization," Rivera said. "And I really appreciate the support we've gotten from our fans in the Carolinas. That's a big reason why I want to continue my association with this organization."</p>
<p>The Panthers have developed plenty of stars under Rivera.</p>
<p>Carolina has produced 28 Pro Bowl and 18 All-Pro selections, including four-time All-Pro linebacker Luke Kuechly and 2015 NFL MVP Cam Newton.</p>
<p>Rivera played nine seasons with the Chicago Bears and was a member of the 1985 Super Bowl XX winning team.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more NFL coverage: <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external">http://www.pro32.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL</a></p>
<p>CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Seeking stability amid an uncertain future, the Carolina Panthers signed coach Ron Rivera to a two-year contract extension on Saturday.</p>
<p>A person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press the extension is worth $15.5 million over two seasons. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team didn't release financial details of the contract.</p>
<p>Rivera has one year remaining on his existing contract, so the new deal keeps him with the Panthers through the 2020 season.</p>
<p>Rivera is 64-47-1 in seven seasons with the Panthers. He has guided Carolina to a Super Bowl appearance, three NFC South titles and four playoff appearances. He has twice been named The Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year.</p>
<p>The Panthers (11-5) visit the New Orleans Saints (11-5) on Sunday in an NFC wild-card game.</p>
<p>"I'm very excited about it because I really like where we are as a football team," Rivera said in a statement. "We've done some really good things and we have an opportunity to do more. Things are in place and we can continue this success. We've had consistency of winning and we've gone to the playoffs four out of five years."</p>
<p>Rivera has been a rock for an organization in the midst of change. Panthers president Danny Morrison resigned last year and general manager Dave Gettleman was fired on the eve of training camp by team owner Jerry Richardson.</p>
<p>Then Richardson came under investigation by the NFL for alleged sexual and racial misconduct in the workplace and announced he is selling the team after the season is over following an inflammatory report by Sports Illustrated. It's unclear if the new owners will keep the team in Charlotte.</p>
<p>On the field, the Panthers have been fairly consistent outside of a disappointing 6-10 season a year ago.</p>
<p>Rivera oversaw an NFC-record 18-game regular-season winning streak that spanned the 2014 and 2015 seasons and led to Carolina's Super Bowl appearance in 2015, which they lost 24-10 to the Denver Broncos. Carolina's .576 winning percentage during Rivera's tenure is seventh best in the NFL during that time.</p>
<p>Rivera was brought to Carolina for his defensive expertise, and the Panthers put together four consecutive top-10 finishes in yards allowed from 2012-15, joining Seattle as the only teams to do so. Carolina is ranked seventh in defense this season.</p>
<p>Its defense finished third in the NFL with 50 sacks during the regular season, and it is the only team in the NFL to not allow an individual 100-yard rusher in any game this season. The Panthers set a franchise record by going 20 consecutive games without allowing a 100-yard individual rusher, the longest active streak in the league.</p>
<p>Carolina's offense has finished in the top 10 in the NFL in yards rushing per game in six of the past seven seasons, including a fourth-place mark this season at 131.4 yards per game.</p>
<p>"This is a tremendous place with tremendous support from ownership and the people that work in the organization," Rivera said. "And I really appreciate the support we've gotten from our fans in the Carolinas. That's a big reason why I want to continue my association with this organization."</p>
<p>The Panthers have developed plenty of stars under Rivera.</p>
<p>Carolina has produced 28 Pro Bowl and 18 All-Pro selections, including four-time All-Pro linebacker Luke Kuechly and 2015 NFL MVP Cam Newton.</p>
<p>Rivera played nine seasons with the Chicago Bears and was a member of the 1985 Super Bowl XX winning team.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more NFL coverage: <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external">http://www.pro32.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL</a></p> | Panthers seek stability, give Rivera contract extension | false | https://apnews.com/5d5dd808c5af4575a6724c6020b12e6a | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
<p>A Los Angeles police review panel comprised mostly of cops has refused to fire any of the officers involved in the 2007 May Day brutality in MacArthur Park. The city shelled out $13 million in settlements because of the melee, but the worst punishment handed down was a 20-day suspension for one cop.</p>
<p>The Los Angeles Times:</p>
<p>None of the Los Angeles police officers accused of using excessive force on demonstrators and journalists at a 2007 May Day gathering at MacArthur Park will be fired, officials said Tuesday.</p>
<p>Police Chief William J. Bratton had sought to punish 11 officers and called for the termination of four others by sending them to disciplinary panels for their involvement in the melee, which has cost the city $13 million in legal settlements.</p>
<p />
<p>On Tuesday, Bratton said that the internal disciplinary boards had concluded their work and that the maximum penalty imposed was a 20-day suspension for one officer.</p>
<p>“Ultimately it is up to the board, and that has been the way it has been for generations,” Bratton said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd-melee1-2009jul01,0,5375116.story" type="external">Read more</a></p> | No Firings in LAPD's May Day Brutality | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/no-firings-in-lapds-may-day-brutality/ | 2009-07-01 | 4 |
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<p>AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas lawmaker wants the state’s top law enforcement agency to look into Baylor’s sexual assault scandal and whether school officials worked to cover up crimes.</p>
<p>Rep. Roland Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat, called on the Texas Rangers on Monday to probe the nation’s largest Baptist school.</p>
<p>Baylor fired football coach Art Briles and pushed out former President Ken Starr in 2016 after an internal report found the Waco school mishandled sexual or physical assault allegations for years.</p>
<p>Baylor officials have acknowledged that at least 17 women reported being raped by 19 football players since 2011. Lawsuits against the school put the number of alleged sexual assaults at more than 50 over a four-year period.</p>
<p>Baylor officials say federal civil rights investigators will be on campus this week.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Lawmaker asks Texas Rangers to investigate Baylor scandal | false | https://abqjournal.com/958370/lawmaker-asks-texas-rangers-to-investigate-baylor-scandal.html | 2 |
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<p>Donald Trump sets off on Friday to create the&#160;fantasy&#160;of an&#160; <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-speech-radical-islam-peaceful-muslim-saudi-arabia-international-trip-a7739441.html" type="external">Arab Nato</a>. There will be dictators aplenty to greet him in Riyadh, corrupt autocrats and thugs and torturers and head choppers. There will be at least one zombie president – the comatose, undead Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria who neither speaks nor, apparently, hears any more – and, of&#160;course, one totally insane president,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Donald Trump</a>. The aim, however, is simple: to prepare the Sunni Muslims of the Middle East for war against the Shia Muslims. With help from Israel, of course.</p>
<p>Even for those used to the insanity of Arab leadership – not to mention those Westerners who have still to grasp that the US&#160;President&#160;is himself completely off his rocker – the Arab-Muslim (Sunni) summit in&#160; <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-saudi-arabia-arms-deal-sale-arab-nato-gulf-states-a7741836.html" type="external">Saudi Arabia</a>&#160;is almost beyond comprehension. From Pakistan and Jordan and Turkey and Egypt and Morocco and 42 other minareted capitals, they are to come so that the effete and ambitious Saudis can lead their Islamic crusade against “terrorism” and Shiism. The fact that most of the Middle East’s “terrorism” – Isis and al-Qaeda, aka the Nusrah Front – have their fountainhead in the very nation to which Trump is travelling, must and will be ignored. Never before in Middle Eastern history has such a “kumidia alakhta” – quite literally “comedy of errors” in Arabic – been staged.</p>
<p>On top of all this, they have to listen to Trump’s ravings on peace and Islamic “extremism”, surely the most preposterous speech to be uttered by a US president since he is going to have to pretend that Iran is extremist – when it is Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi Isis clones who are destroying Islam’s reputation throughout the world. All this while he is fostering war.</p>
<p>For Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (henceforth MbS) wants to lead his Sunni tribes – plus Iraq if possible, which is why Shia Prime Minister Abadi has been invited from Baghdad – against the serpent of “terrorist” Shia Iran, the dark (Shia) “terrorist” Alawite regime of Bashar al-Assad, the “terrorist” Shia Lebanese Hezbollah and the aggressive “terrorist” Shia Houthis of Yemen. As for the Gulf states’ own Shia minorities and other recalcitrants, well, off with their heads.</p>
<p>After all, that’s what the Saudis did to the prominent Saudi Shia leader Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr last year: they cut his head from his body, Isis-style, in a classic bit of Wahhabi decapitation, along with 47 other “terrorists”. And any powerful Shias in neighbouring Gulf countries will be cut down, too – which is what happened to Bahrain’s Shia majority when the Saudi army moved in to occupy the island in 2011 at the “request” of its Sunni ruler.</p>
<p>And you can see why America’s disgraceful President, a man who truly falls into the regional pantheon of raving loonies – he surely ranks among the Gaddafis and Ahmadinejads of the Middle East – goes along with this. The fact that Isis – Trump’s mortal enemy and the strategic adversary of his defence chiefs – is a creature of the same Salafist cult as Saudi Arabia, is neither here nor there. The Sunni Saudis and the Gulf kings and princes possess immense wealth, the only religion that Trump really respects, and they want to destroy Shia Iran and Syria and the Hezbollah and the Houthis – which is a simple “anti-terrorist” story for the Americans – and this means that Trump can give MbS and his chums $100bn (£77bn) of US missiles, planes, ships and ammo for the war-to-come. America will be happy. And Israel will be happy.</p>
<p>I guess Crown Prince Jared Kushner thinks he can handle this end of the Arab-Nato alliance, though the Israelis themselves will be perfectly happy to watch the Sunnis and Shia fight each other, just as they did during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war when the US supported Sunni Saddam – albeit that his army was mostly Shia – and the Israelis furnished US missiles to the Shia Iranians. Already, the Israelis have distinguished themselves by bombing the Syrian army, the Hezbollah and the Iranians in the Syrian war – while leaving Isis untouched and giving medical assistance to al-Qaeda (Nusrah) on Golan.</p>
<p>Much has been made (rightly) of MbS’s threat to ensure that the battle is “in Iran and not in Saudi Arabia”. But, typically, few bothered to listen to Iran’s ferocious reply to the Saudi threat. It came promptly from the Iranian defence minister, Hossein Dehghan. “We warn them [the Saudis] against doing anything ignorant,” he said, “but if they do something ignorant, we will leave nowhere untouched apart from Mecca and Medina.” In other words, it’s time to start building air raid shelters in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dhahran, Aramco headquarters and all those other locations dear to American hearts.</p>
<p>Indeed, it’s difficult not to recall an almost identical Sunni hubris – almost four decades ago – to that of MbS today. The latter boasts of his country’s wealth and his intention to diversify, enrich and broaden its economic base. In 1980, Saddam was determined to do the same. He used Iraq’s oil wealth to cover the country in super-highways, modern technology, state-of-the-art healthcare and hospitals and modern communications. Then he kicked off his “lightning war” with Iran. It impoverished his oil-rich nation, humiliated him in the eyes of his fellow Arabs – who had to cough up the cash for his disastrous eight-year adventure – led to Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait, sanctions and the ultimate Anglo-US invasion of 2003 and, for Saddam, the hangman’s noose.</p>
<p>Yet this leaves out the Syrian dimension. Sharmine Narwani, a former senior associate of St Antony’s College – and an antidote for all those sickened by the mountebank think-tank “experts” of Washington – pointed out this week that US support for Kurdish forces fighting under the dishonest label of “Syrian Democratic Forces” are, by advancing on Raqqa, helping to cut Syria off from Iraq. And that Kurdish forces are now reported as “retaking” Christian or Muslim Arab towns in the Nineveh province of Iraq,&#160;which were never Kurdish in the first place. Kurds now regard Qamishleh, and Hassakeh province in Syria as part of “Kurdistan”, although they represent a minority in many of these areas. Thus US support for these Kurdish groups – to the fury of Sultan Erdogan and the few Turkish generals still loyal to him – is helping to both divide Syria and divide Iraq.</p>
<p>This cannot and will not last. Not just because the Kurds are born to be betrayed – and will be betrayed by the Americans even if the present maniac-in-charge is impeached, just as they were betrayed to Saddam in the days of Kissinger – but because Turkey’s importance (with or without its own demented leader) will always outweigh Kurdish claims to statehood. Both are Sunnis, and therefore “safe” allies until one of them – inevitably the Kurds – must be abandoned.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, you can forget justice, civil rights, sickness and death. Cholera has quite a grip on Yemen now, courtesy of the criminal bombing attacks of the Saudis – ably assisted by their American allies long before Trump took over – and scarcely any of the Muslim leaders whom Trump meets in Riyadh do not have torturers at work back home to ensure that some of their citizens wish they had never been born. It will be a relief for the fruitcake president to leave Israel for the Vatican, albeit given only a brief visitation to – and short shrift by – a real peacemaker.</p>
<p>That only leaves one nation out of the loop of this glorious charivari: Russia. But be sure Vladimir Putin comprehends all too well what is going on in Riyadh. He will watch the Arab Nato fall apart. His foreign minister Lavrov understands Syria and Iran better than the feckless Tillerson. And his security officers are deep inside Syria. Besides, if he needs any more intelligence information, he has only to ask Trump.</p> | The Real Aim of Trump’s Trip to Saudi Arabia | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/05/19/the-real-aim-of-trumps-trip-to-saudi-arabia/ | 2017-05-19 | 4 |
<p>As Europe continues to let supposed refugees pour in from Syria, a new discovery about the evil mastermind of the horrible terrorist attacks in Paris, France, will have many Europeans reeling and rethinking their policies.</p>
<p />
<p>Here’s the breaking <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/17/europe/paris-ringleader-came-though-greek-island/" type="external">news from CNN:</a></p>
<p>French authorities are now convinced that&#160;Paris attack&#160;ringleader&#160;Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian-Moroccan ISIS operative, returned to France to launch the Paris attacks by way of the Greek island of Leros, a source close to the investigation told CNN.</p>
<p>Authorities had previously disclosed that two of the stadium attackers, who have yet to be identified, transited on October 3 through the island, where they used fake Syrian passports to be processed as asylum-seekers.</p>
<p>The source did not say when Abaaoud traveled through Leros, nor whether he exploited the refugee processing system.</p>
<p>Given that Abaaoud had been one of Europe’s most wanted men since January for his suspected role in coordinating a terrorist plot thwarted that month in Verviers, Belgium, it would have been difficult for him to return to Europe legally without being arrested.</p>
<p>Abaaoud had been in touch with the Verviers plotters in January by phone from Greece, a senior Belgian counterterrorism official told CNN previously.</p>
<p>ISIS said he returned to Syria after evading an international dragnet in the days that followed a raid on a terrorist safe house in Verviers.</p>
<p>The French newspaper&#160;Le Parisien&#160;was the first to report that French investigators had reason to suspect Abaaoud had passed through Leros.</p>
<p>Of course, when conservatives raised this very possibility after the attacks, we were roundly criticized as racists and xenophobes by liberals who are much more willing to demonize their fellow citizens than they are willing to see the reality in front of their eyes.</p>
<p />
<p>This is terribly important for us now that we’re trying to figure out our Syrian refugee policy, and Obama is already bringing them in with plans to bring tens of thousands more.</p>
<p />
<p>Is this a chance we’re willing to take after we’ve already suffered an attack from a Muslim immigrant that killed 14 Americans?</p>
<p />
<p>The Republicans don’t think so:</p>
<p>But is it enough?</p>
<p>Should our government defend our safety more or try to resettle Syrian refugees? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!!</p>
<p /> | What We JUST Discovered About The Paris Terror Mastermind CONFIRMS Our GREATEST FEAR… | true | http://thepoliticalinsider.com/what-officials-have-learned-about-paris-terror-mastermind-confirms-europes-greatest-fear/ | 2015-12-17 | 0 |
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<p>A former convicted felon who brought a firearm to a Roswell high school graduation last year has been sentenced to federal prison.</p>
<p>The U.S. Attorney's Office for New Mexico says 32-year-old Brandon Warford received a sentence of three years and one month Tuesday in federal court in Las Cruces.</p>
<p>Warford will also have to serve two years of supervised release for being a felon in possession of a firearm.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say school district officials notified Roswell police that Warford had a gun at the ceremony.</p>
<p>Warford was previously convicted of burglary in 2002 and being a felon in possession of a firearm in 2008.</p>
<p>He was charged in May 2014 of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. He pleaded guilty last January.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Former felon sentenced for having gun to Roswell graduation | false | https://abqjournal.com/599876/former-felon-sentenced-for-having-gun-to-roswell-graduation.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>In the grander scheme of things, it probably isn’t the soundest of decisions to boost defense spending up to even more obscene levels, as the president <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1584869" type="external">proposed</a> in his 2007 budget yesterday. But then, who knows, maybe the economy needs it. Last week, the Economic Policy Institute put out one of those “ironic in an Alanis Morissette sort of way” <a href="http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_econindicators_jobspict_20060203" type="external">reports</a> estimating that between FY2001 and FY2005, defense spending created 1.5 million additional private sector jobs in the United States. Some might call it pork. Some might call it socialism. Either way, it’s hardly anything new in this country.</p>
<p>Disney, which seems to be grabbing all the headlines these days, is one of my favorite socialist success stories over the past fifty years. Walt Disney, as the tale goes, revolutionized the animation business by creating a Ford-style production line in the 1930s, with animators confined to mundane, repetitive tasks in order to churn out all those cartoons so quickly. In the 1940s, the animators went on strike over their dismal working conditions, and Disney—who had little in common with his father, a passionate socialist—fought back: hiring scabs, using private guards to attack the picketers, bringing in a mobster to negotiate a deal, and eventually, long after he had lost the union battle, became embittered and served as an informer for the FBI against uncouth Communists in Hollywood during the McCarthy era.</p>
<p>Quite the free marketeer, that one. Or at least he was until his company started flailing in the 1940s and Disney had to rely on the government dole, mostly in the form of defense contracts, to keep his business afloat—at one point, federal funds paid for nearly 90 percent of his studio’s work. The company made propaganda and training films for the Department of War, and later worked with postwar administrations to provide further government agitprop promoting American technology, space travel, and nuclear technology. (“That included the 1958 classic, <a href="http://www.conelrad.com/atomicsecrets/secrets.php?secrets=01" type="external">“Our Friend the Atom,”</a> teaching kids in the classroom to “duck… and cover” in the event of a nuclear attack.)</p>
<p>At any rate, Disney’s story is hardly unique—all sorts of modern corporations got where they were because of military socialism, especially the automobile and oil industries. As EPI showed, the American economy is addicted to it: since 2001 a little under half of the 3.4 million new jobs created have been paid for by the Pentagon (and another 1.3 million have been created by non-defense discretionary spending; more socialism!). It’s not a huge surprise that the Pentagon’s latest <a href="http://www.defenselink.mil/qdr/" type="external">Quadrennial Defense Review</a> called for virtually no major cuts in spending, or that members of Congress routinely ignores calls to close bases or kill weapons programs. Where else will the jobs come from?</p>
<p>In economics, the usual Keynesian line is that pretty much any sort of government spending can help pump-prime the economy. But that doesn’t distinguish between different types of spending. After World War II, a variety of American policymakers worried about sinking into another depression, and believed that only wartime socialism—and not Roosevelt’s domestic programs—had saved the American economy previously. “One of the first things we must realize is that in the 1930s we never did find the answer to full employment,” <a href="http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/defenseorigins.html" type="external">said</a> New Dealer Chester Bowles. “Only the defense program in 1940 put our people to work, and only the war and the cold war that followed have kept them at work.”</p>
<p>Since 1950, when in the Korean War caused the federal tax burden <a href="http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/17feb20051700/www.gpoaccess.gov/eop/2005/B79.xls" type="external">to leap</a> from 14.4 percent (and falling) up to 19 percent in just under two years—and then remain at that level for most of the Cold War—policymakers seem to be thinking like Bowles, regardless of whether he was right or not. (Certainly some economists deny that the defense program “put our people to work:” for a right-wing view that the domestic economy in the 1940s wasn’t quite as prosperous as the history books remember, see Robert Higgs’ <a href="http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=138" type="external">“Wartime Prosperity? A Reassessment of the U.S. Economy in the 1940s.”</a>)</p>
<p>One contrary view came from the late Seymour Melman, an economist and ardent pacifist, who wrote in 1974 in his book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671222619/102-7057184-1308933?v=glance&amp;n=283155" type="external">The Permanent War Economy</a>, that military spending had a negative effect on the economy in the long run, by diverting research and development away from more productive and wholesome purposes other than war. Certainly military spending has led to some marvelous innovations—the internet, whose precursor was built by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, is one—but compared to what? Military research dollars surely aren’t the only way we can invent fancy computers.</p>
<p>And the other question is whether even more jobs could be created if some of those Pentagon dollars were shifted to direct spending on housing and infrastructure. That seems quite likely, and this was Melman’s view—as for instance, he argued in a 2003 Counterpunch <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/melman03152003.html" type="external">essay</a>. If we’re going to have a socialist system here in America—and already we have a Federal Reserve Chairman who perhaps exercises as much control over the U.S. economy as GOSPLAN ever did in the Soviet Union—we may as well do it right. The other upside is that not building all those fancy weapons will give us even less excuse to use them. And then there’s the fact that, regardless of the benefits of military socialism, we can’t keep paying for all this empire with piles of debt forever…</p>
<p /> | Wartime Socialism | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/02/wartime-socialism/ | 2006-02-07 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>The retail real-estate market, which appears to be the strongest of the commercial property types, slipped a little with its vacancy rate rising from a six-year low of 7.7 percent in the second quarter to 8 percent in the third quarter. The retail vacancy rate was a much-higher 8.6 percent in the third quarter of 2012.</p>
<p>Construction continued in September on the new Presbyterian Healthcare corporate headquarters near Balloon Fiesta Park. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>The biggest contributors to the month-over-month increase were the closings of the Kmart store at 9500 Montgomery NE, near Eubank, and the John Brooks Supermart at 5555 Zuni SE, near San Mateo, said Ken Schaefer, director of brokerage services at Colliers’ Albuquerque office.</p>
<p>While the metro’s retail sector largely has bounced back, certain categories of retailers are well off their pre-recession levels in terms of number of establishments.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In a September report on the statewide retail sector, the state Department of Workforce Solutions identifies the struggling categories as furniture and home-furnishing stores, building-material and garden-supply stores, clothing stores, sporting-goods stores and books/music stores.</p>
<p>Some categories – food and beverage, for example, and health and personal care – made it through the tough times with barely a blip.</p>
<p>From a real-estate perspective, the recent trend among successful local retailers is to move up to better locations, Schaefer said.</p>
<p><a href="https://d3el53au0d7w62.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Bout_commercial-vacancy_3rd-qtr-copy.jpg" type="external" />Office market</p>
<p>The office market’s vacancy rate dropped to 19.6 percent in the third quarter from 20-year highs of 20.2 percent in the preceding second quarter and 21.2 percent in the first quarter, according to Colliers. The vacancy rate was 18.9 percent in the third quarter of 2012.</p>
<p>Coming on the heels of a 1 percentage-point drop in the office vacancy rate from the first quarter to the second quarter, the 0.6 percentage-point drop in the third quarter is “among the largest drops in more than four years,” said Marguerite Haverly, an office broker at Colliers.</p>
<p>“Tenants are absorbing larger blocks of space than we’ve seen in a long time, locking in longer-term leases,” she said.</p>
<p>The local office market particularly was hard hit by the recession-induced shrinkage of the metro’s workforce, which is still roughly 29,000 jobs short of its record high of nearly 400,000 jobs in the spring of 2008, according to state labor data. Since it takes people to fill up office space, the market is particularly sensitive to hiring.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Of the big office deals announced recently, only one – Molina Healthcare of New Mexico’s expansion into 47,528 square feet at Journal Center – actually has taken place and thus helped to lower the third-quarter office vacancy rate.</p>
<p>Still in the works are Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico’s expansion into 84,724 square feet at The 25 Way, a business park at the Jefferson and Interstate 25 interchange, and Canon U.S.A.’s opening of a call center in 33,682 square feet at 4041 Jefferson Plaza NE. The Blue Cross and Canon deals will affect the office vacancy rate in future quarters.</p>
<p>Looming as a negative in the office market is Presbyterian Healthcare Services’ plan to vacate 323,541 square feet of leased space in the Albuquerque Office Complex, a business park in the airport area, by mid-2014.</p>
<p>That much leased space going empty will trigger a jump of 2.29 percentage points in the office vacancy rate, Schaefer reported. That big of a jump likely will wipe out improvements in the overall office market since the first quarter.</p>
<p>Presbyterian is relocating to a 326,000-square-foot, corporate-owned headquarters at 9521 San Mateo NE, near Balloon Fiesta Park. Its leased space near the airport is already being marketed for replacement tenants by a team of brokers at Colliers.</p>
<p>Industrial space</p>
<p>Sign Art employees remove the John Brooks Supermarket sign after the store located at Zuni and San Mateo SE abruptly closed Sept. 9. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>The industrial vacancy rate dropped to 9.9 percent in the third quarter from 10.1 percent in the preceding second quarter and 10.1 percent in the third quarter of 2012, according to Colliers.</p>
<p>“We’re looking better than we have,” said Jim Smith, industrial broker at real-estate services firm CBRE. “There are some incremental improvements.”</p>
<p>Noting the metro has seen five consecutive months of overall job growth through August, Smith cited state data that show employment sectors that utilize industrial space – manufacturing, wholesale trade and transportation, warehousing and utilities – have continued to experience job losses.</p>
<p>Only the construction sector, which once generated substantial warehouse use in the metro, is seeing job growth.</p>
<p>A noteworthy move in the industrial market during the third quarter was Stolar Research Corp., formerly of Raton, occupying a 23,500-square-foot flex building at 7701 Innovation Way NE in Rio Rancho. A supplier of radio geophysics detection and imaging equipment, Stolar employs about 25.</p>
<p>In one of the biggest moves of the year in the industrial market, Worland, Wyo.-based Admiral Beverage recently relocated its Albuquerque operation to a new corporate-owned 219,000-square-foot distribution center on 41.5 acres at Rio Bravo and Prince SE in the South Valley.</p>
<p>Admiral Beverage’s previously occupied 92,635-square-foot warehouse at 701 Comanche NE, west of the American Home warehouse, has not yet been counted as vacant on a technicality. Admiral is still paying on a lease for the property that doesn’t expire until year end, said John Henderson III of NAI Maestas &amp; Ward.</p>
<p>Henderson said the Comanche warehouse, which has 10,000 square feet of office and about 8,900 square feet of refrigerated space, is a prime distribution property because it is actively rail served and sits on 8.7 acres near the interstate. He said he is marketing the property for a single user.</p>
<p>The new Admiral and Stolar buildings are contributing to a miniconstruction boom in the metro’s industrial market, according to CBRE’s third-quarter Industrial MarketView report. All of the new projects are being built by the owners.</p>
<p>“Total new construction completed this year will likely be 430,000 square feet, which is the most square footage completed since 2008,” the report says.</p>
<p /> | Commercial real estate’s recovery fitful | false | https://abqjournal.com/285439/commercial-real-estates-recovery-fitful.html | 2013-10-20 | 2 |
<p>Residents of Kiev are jittery, just days after Ukraine's protests reached their peek and President Viktor Yanukovych fled&#160;the capital.</p>
<p>So says Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov, who lives not far from Kiev’s Independence Square.</p>
<p>"People are much more peaceful now, but the mood is very somber. Nobody is happy, and nobody is full of joy with the victory because nobody is sure this is the victory which will end the problems," Kurkov says. &#160;</p>
<p>Ukraine's interim President Olexander Turchynov has admitted he's worried about separatism. That's not too surprising, given opposition to his role in Ukraine's Russian-speaking regions. Adding to those worries, one of Mr Yanukovych's former aides, Andriy Kliuyev, has reportedly been shot and wounded.</p>
<p>One of the pivotal moments in the demonstrations happened at&#160;Kiev's Michailovsky Monastery. It was a refuge for protestors when riot police chased demonstrators up a Kiev hill on November 29.&#160;</p>
<p>"The monk ... opened the gates of the monastery and let everyone in, then closed it, and then went up to the belfry and started ringing the bells. And the people from Kiev, from around the area, started coming. &#160;And from this moment this church became a symbol also of the uprising,&#160; And it's still helping a lot people from Maidan. They're walking in with their helmets, with long wooden clubs, and they leave their clubs or the weapons outside the monastery gate and outside the entrance to the main church, and it's still going on," he says.</p>
<p>But he says the scene outside other Kiev buildings today is troubling.</p>
<p>"Today when I was taking my kids to the schooI, I was passing by the headquarters of security service, which is a huge building — Stalin's color gray and Stalin's architecture. And in front of the main gate there were five or six masked protestors also with clubs and in bullet-proof vests. The head of [the Secret Service of Ukraine] along with nine of his deputies fled. But the people are still working there. Nobody knows actually what is happening. At the moment, there is a new head, but no information except that of course the secret service was also involved in different operations against the protestors," Kurkov says.</p>
<p>But some parts of Kiev, he says, have found a sort of calm.</p>
<p>"Finally we have police on the streets, sometimes accompanied by the representatives of the self-defense groups from the protestors. There is some kind of strange order now — some of the barricades are removed.&#160; But ... people are staying there probably until the 25th of May — the day of presidential elections, maybe even longer because normally we never have a president in one round of elections."</p>
<p>But Kurkov says the relative peace in Kiev masks turmoil elsewhere in Ukraine.</p>
<p>"I'm wary because in the Crimea, the situation is very tense. In the east of the country there are still fights between pro-European protestors and those who are not really pro-Russian, but anti-European, anti-western," he says.&#160;</p>
<p>Efforts to form a unity government for Ukraine have been postponed, at least until Thursday.</p> | How a monastery became a symbol of Ukraine's uprising | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-02-25/how-monastery-became-symbol-ukraines-uprising | 2014-02-25 | 3 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Immigration reform was once again used during the recent presidential election as a platform by the bipartisan system to either woo the Latino vote or to persuade the anti-immigrant electorate. The GOP’s xenophobic message of border protection as a national security threat flies in the face of actual&#160; <a href="https://www.wola.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/WOLA-Not-a-National-Security-Crisis-October-2016-2.pdf" type="external">evidence</a>, while the Democrats “fix our broken immigration system” mantra has separated thousands of families and <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/31/u-s-immigrant-deportations-declined-in-2014-but-remain-near-record-high/" type="external">deported</a> over 2.4 million people. However one might choose to approach the issue, something is certain: the nativism (on both sides) encapsulating the immigration debate has failed to mention the conditions fomented by United States foreign policy as&#160;a key promoter of Latin American migration.</p>
<p>Addressing the implications of failed foreign policy towards Latin America needs to become part of the immigration debate. Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras comprise between <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/analysis-unauthorized-immigrants-united-states-country-and-region-birth" type="external">71</a> to&#160; <a href="http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/ois_ill_pe_2012_2.pdf" type="external">80 percent</a>&#160;of unauthorized migrants in the U.S. South-to-north migration is the result of widespread poverty, crime, hunger, unemployment and ill-distributed wealth, resulting from&#160; <a href="http://www.nnirr.org/~nnirrorg/drupal/sites/default/files/excluded_and_exploited_-_english.pdf" type="external">economic policies</a>&#160;advanced by obsolete financial institutions. Enclave economies established in Central America through U.S. foreign policy are part of&#160;the root cause of the Central American exodus.</p>
<p>For decades, Latin America has endured military coups, economic warfare and neoliberal austerity measures designed and implemented to serve transnational interests. The socio-political paradigm shift occurring in Latin America should not be met with a Cold War Era attitude. The unethical use of developing nations as battlegrounds for proxy wars will continue to fuel south-to north migration. An honest reassessment of U.S. foreign policy must occur in order to reform the immigration system. Genuine diplomacy based on mutual recognition, respect and sustainable development is vital to immigration reform.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>After the Great Depression, Mexico’s protectionist policies and industrialization through ISI (Import Substitution Industrialization) boosted production, increasing economic growth to an average of&#160; <a href="http://www.iadb.org/regions/re2/santafin.pdf" type="external">6.1 percent</a>&#160;per year during a period known as the “Mexican Miracle.” By the 1970s, Mexico had achieved agricultural self-sufficiency. But the miracle did not last. Inward industrialization failed to nurture a workforce capable of competing with foreign industries, and reckless government spending and social unrest proved to have adverse effects. Mexico’s economy inevitably declined and further industrialization and development had to be financed by the U.S.</p>
<p>During the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. government provided financial and military aid to Latin American nations willing to undertake neoliberal economic reforms. Mexico’s projected oil revenues made it a perfect candidate for foreign aid, but this assistance proved inadequate since it was not in sync with regional needs. Unilateral economic hegemony was established. U.S. agribusinesses scattered heavy-industry factories throughout the land.</p>
<p>Mexico’s “Lost Decade” proved fatal: prolonged financial chaos marked by the overvalued currency and followed by devaluation was an inevitable welcome to the “Tequila Crisis.” Trade liberalization and privatization led to NAFTA in 1994—subsidized&#160; <a href="http://cepr.net/documents/nafta-20-years-2014-02.pdf" type="external">U.S. agricultural products</a>&#160;entered en masse, leaving three million farmers jobless. Recession exacerbated by debt, armed rebellion, corrupt banking practices and a weak fixed exchange rate resulted in a widening economic gap.&#160; <a href="http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34733.pdf" type="external">Poor people were hurt most</a>.</p>
<p>Sixty percent&#160;of the&#160; <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTMEXICO/Resources/A_Study_of_Rural_Poverty_in_Mexico.pdf" type="external">extremely poor</a>&#160;living in rural Mexico depends on agriculture: corn is grown on 50 % of the arable land. Influx of lower-priced NAFTA corn undermined Mexican agriculture and workforce. The wide gap in U.S./Mexican incomes and the 2,000-mile Southwest border shared by the&#160;two countries make immigration an inevitable reality.</p>
<p>In 1993, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, said that&#160;NAFTA&#160;would allow Mexico to <a href="https://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more.php?id=2025" type="external">“export goods and not people.”</a> &#160;Currently,&#160; <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/03/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/" type="external">52%</a>&#160;of unauthorized migrants in the U.S.&#160;come from Mexico, where&#160;about <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.NAHC?locations=MX" type="external">53%</a> of&#160;the population lives&#160;at&#160;the national poverty line.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Ravaged by the second largest civil war in Central America, with&#160; <a href="http://datos.bancomundial.org/indicador/SI.POV.NAHC?locations=SV" type="external">31%</a> of the population living in poverty and&#160;high <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/05/why-el-salvador-became-the-hemispheres-murder-capital/" type="external">homicide rates</a>, El Salvador is the second largest source of unauthorized migrants to the U.S. from Latin America.</p>
<p>In 1932, the government’s massacre dubbed “ <a href="http://www.umich.edu/~ac213/student_projects06/student_projects/usica/el_salvador.htm" type="external">La Matanza</a>” began a pattern of systematic massacres, displacements, civilian disappearances and a 50-year military rule supported by the U.S. government, through&#160;its assistance of the paramilitary force known as&#160;ORDEN, which were trained by the <a href="http://www.lib.luc.edu/specialcollections/exhibits/show/ellacuria-tapes/us-involvement" type="external">U.S Green Berets</a>. &#160;By 1980, the FMLN (The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) was established to counterattack the violent regime. In response, the U.S.-backed death squad,&#160; <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6aae70.html" type="external">Atlacatl Battalion</a>&#160;was also established. On January 1981, the FMLN launched its “General Offensive” strategy against the military junta, igniting the 12-year Salvadoran civil war.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.usip.org/publications/truth-commission-el-salvador" type="external">Eighty-five percent</a>&#160;of the human rights violations committed during this period were attributed to State agents and approximately 5% of the violence was attributed to the FMLN. Continuous violence and poverty arising since the civil war have been defining factors in increased migration to the U.S., which historically has had a failed <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/time-for-a-us-apology-to-el-salvador/" type="external">foreign policy</a> in El Salvador.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>During <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=h17R_A0n-1MC&amp;pg=PA18&amp;lpg=PA18&amp;dq=backward+country,+into+a+modern+capitalist+state+arbenz&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=Igf8AokPcQ&amp;sig=VJyoJBEEJZPdat3O6AyJ4YPjXyY&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiq9NK4sa3QAhVM_4MKHfpaCY8Q6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&amp;q=backward%20country%2C%20into%20a%20modern%20capitalist%20state%20arbenz&amp;f=false" type="external">his inaugural speech</a> in 1951, Guatemala’s democratically-elected President, Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, asserted that he would convert his nation from a “a backward country with a predominantly feudal economy into a modern capitalist state.” &#160;His promise was somehow fulfilled: Guatemala became a true banana republic. Concentration of wealth in the hands of few, racial exclusionism and structural injustice birthed a 36-year civil war: the longest in Latin America, and the most atrocious genocide against the <a href="http://www.cja.org/article.php?list=type&amp;type=294" type="external">Mayan peoples</a>.&#160;Guatemala is the third leading source of unauthorized immigrants to the U.S.</p>
<p>Guatemala is one of the&#160; <a href="https://www.wfp.org/countries/guatemala" type="external">most unequal countries&#160;</a>in the world:&#160;59.29% of the mostly indigenous population lives in poverty, and resides mostly in rural areas.</p>
<p>During the 1920s, the Guatemalan government conceded 100 kilometers of uncultivated land to the United Fruit Company. In 1936 the company and the government signed a 99-year concession, leading to the company’s second plantation and&#160;establishment of a monopoly.</p>
<p>Between 1944 and 1954, continuous exploitative labor practices by United Fruit led to the implementation of a new labor code, which the company declared as “communistic” as it did not serve its best interest, therefore it threatened to leave. Agrarian Reform Law Decree 900 enabled the government to expropriate about 209,842 acres of uncultivated lands owned by the company to redistribute to landless peasants. United Fruit was compensated with governmental bonds worth $627,572 based on the company’s declared tax value of the land. In the U.S., the company embarked on a public relations against Árbenz Guzmán, which led to the U.S-backed coup known as Operation PBSUCCESS, making way for ethnic conflict between Mayans and wealthy Ladinos. Poverty and inequality led to civil war and genocide, with lasting effects. Today, those same persistent conditions have led to the Guatemalan exodus.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>The original banana republic historically plagued by military rule but blessed with fertile soil, Honduras was the perfect recipe for agrarian capitalism.&#160;Home to the oldest unbelievably-acquired <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=YRaefhEJoewC&amp;pg=PA64&amp;lpg=PA64&amp;dq=Honduras+foreign+debt+1908&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=ssEwVXlZRq&amp;sig=2Du1zOGjNuMJz7BCUg2Gm_DkIQA&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=rykKVN-fHszisASr24DIDw&amp;ved=0CE8Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&amp;q=Honduras%20foreign%20debt%201908&amp;f=false" type="external">foreign debt</a> and also United Fruit, the country’s resources have been foreign-controlled since post-colonial dependency, promoting the unethical use of leverage by foreign capital and forming the current socio-economic mechanism in which <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/country/honduras" type="external">64.5 percent</a> of Hondurans experience poverty.</p>
<p>Poor U.S. foreign policy in Honduras has fomented adverse conditions, leading to structural problems such as money-based politics, violence, no development, poverty and <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/31/exclusive_interview_with_manuel_zelaya_on" type="external">political instability</a>. Such problems have always and will always be part of the immigration issue not only in Honduras, but all over Latin America.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Therefore, it is time to stop considering mass deportations as a viable solution since it would cost <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/reports/2010/03/19/7470/the-costs-of-mass-deportation/" type="external">billions of dollars</a>, time and separation of families.&#160; Likewise, it is time to stop promoting the militarization of the border, since it is creating more <a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/08/28/343748572/former-border-protection-insider-alleges-corruption-distortion-in-agency" type="external">violence</a>. Migration intent is fueled by the consequences of devastating pasts and the desire for better futures.</p>
<p>Comprehensive immigration reform starts with responsible foreign policy. Interventionism is not the answer. Instead, we must push for genuine diplomacy based on mutual recognition, respect and sustainable development. That is vital to fixing the this country’s immigration system.</p>
<p>Reform U.S. foreign policy. Now, more than ever.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Dariana Arias graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in Political Science and Philosophy. She is currently chronicling unfolding events in Venezuela, her homeland.</p>
<p>Immigration reform is thus held out as a form of Latinx bait, the only worm on the Democratic party’s fishing rod.</p>
<p>August 5, 2016</p>
<p>The immigration debate in the U.S. has become stale, and we’re contributing to it. We celebrate and fight together as immigrants, but there has always been another side to our story.</p>
<p>February 18, 2017</p>
<p>As a scholar on U.S. immigration law and policy, I’d like to correct and contextualize the numbers.</p>
<p>February 5, 2018</p> | The Importance of Foreign Policy in Immigration Reform (OPINION) | true | http://latinorebels.com/2016/11/16/the-importance-of-foreign-policy-in-immigration-reform-opinion/ | 2016-11-16 | 4 |
<p>REDONDO BEACH, Calif. (AP) - A gunman knocked on the front door of a Southern California home early Thursday and after a brief conversation opened fire through a window, wounding the 75-year-old retired sheriff's deputy who lives there, authorities said.</p>
<p>Police searched for the suspect and interviewed neighbors but did not immediately identify a possible motive for the 12:30 a.m. shooting in Redondo Beach.</p>
<p>The victim was shot in the abdomen and wrist and was expected to recover after surgery, said police Lt. Shawn Freeman.</p>
<p>The suspect asked for someone by name and when the resident expressed confusion, the man started shooting through the window, Freeman said.</p>
<p>Witnesses reported seeing the gunman running from the scene, he said.</p>
<p>The victim was not immediately identified. He retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in 1978, said agency spokeswoman Nicole Nishida.</p>
<p>Redondo Beach is a coastal city of about 66,000 residents about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of downtown Los Angeles.</p>
<p>REDONDO BEACH, Calif. (AP) - A gunman knocked on the front door of a Southern California home early Thursday and after a brief conversation opened fire through a window, wounding the 75-year-old retired sheriff's deputy who lives there, authorities said.</p>
<p>Police searched for the suspect and interviewed neighbors but did not immediately identify a possible motive for the 12:30 a.m. shooting in Redondo Beach.</p>
<p>The victim was shot in the abdomen and wrist and was expected to recover after surgery, said police Lt. Shawn Freeman.</p>
<p>The suspect asked for someone by name and when the resident expressed confusion, the man started shooting through the window, Freeman said.</p>
<p>Witnesses reported seeing the gunman running from the scene, he said.</p>
<p>The victim was not immediately identified. He retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in 1978, said agency spokeswoman Nicole Nishida.</p>
<p>Redondo Beach is a coastal city of about 66,000 residents about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of downtown Los Angeles.</p> | Gunman shoots retired Southern California deputy at his home | false | https://apnews.com/amp/e778b2b06e034fbc8d499fa7d3f5afbd | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>Becky Hammon, the newest member of the Spurs' coaching staff &lt;a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rwoan/7426912258/in/photolist-cjh6PE-cjhSgm-cjhcdu-afZ1Ex-afZ7K2-ag35HE-ag2MD3-ag37JS-afZ888-ag2VvS-afZazn-afZb8i-ag2TbC-5pHuzY-33MWcQ-5pHvDq-cE829N"&gt;Ronald Woan&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p />
<p>The San Antonio Spurs confirmed today what was already clear: The NBA is, by far, the most progressive Big Four sports league when it comes to&#160;gender equity. The team announced <a href="http://www.nba.com/spurs/spurs-name-becky-hammon-assistant-coach" type="external">the hiring of Becky Hammon</a>, a six-time All-Star with the WNBA’s San Antonio Stars, as an assistant coach. When the season tips off this fall, she’ll be the first woman on the coaching bench in NBA history.</p>
<p>Women <a href="http://deadspin.com/spurs-hire-becky-hammon-as-nbas-first-female-assistant-1616409902" type="external">have held other (and less formal) jobs</a> on NBA staffs before, but Hammon, 37, will become the first full-time female coach. It makes sense that the Spurs are at the forefront, given the recently crowned NBA champs’ history of innovative, progressive leadership. (They <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2014/06/17/san-antonio-spurs-show-globalization-is-a-winning-strategy/" type="external">lead the league in international players</a>, for example.) And it further boosts a newsworthy summer for women in the NBA: In addition to Hammon’s hiring, the basketball players’ union <a href="https://twitter.com/TheNBPA/statuses/494005228593614850" type="external">named lawyer Michele Roberts</a> as its executive director.</p>
<p>Notably, the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) named the NBA the leading sports league for gender diversity in its <a href="http://www.tidesport.org/The%202014%20Racial%20and%20Gender%20Report%20Card-%20NBA.pdf" type="external">annual report</a>, adding that while women aren’t as represented as they could be, the league still handily beat MLB and the NFL. Forty percent of the NBA’s league office is staffed by women, helping it earn a B+ grade from TIDES. (The MLB and NFL got C+ and C grades, respectively.)</p>
<p>So why is basketball so far ahead of the other leagues? Slate‘s <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/08/first_woman_to_lead_the_nba_players_association_how_the_nba_became_a_champion.html" type="external">Amanda Hess suggests</a> that it could be because, unlike football and baseball, women actually play basketball—and they’re good at it. From the NCAA to the WNBA (which the <a href="http://www.wnba.com/about_us/wnba_history_timeline_2012_04_30.html" type="external">NBA created in 1996</a>) to the Olympics, we’re used to seeing women like Hammon excel on the court. On the other hand, female engagement in the NFL stops at the sidelines, where <a href="" type="internal">cheerleaders are routinely degraded</a> by team organizations.</p>
<p>Hess also argues that part of the NBA’s commitment to&#160;gender equity stems from the view of former commissioner David Stern, who was instrumental in shaping the league into the powerhouse it is today. <a href="http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/dish/201203/nba-shows-president-obama-love" type="external">Stern is a noted liberal</a>, for one, but also a shrewd businessman; he figured that making women essential to the league would boost the its bottom line. To an extent, it did: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/09/business/media/09adco.html?_r=0" type="external">Stern argued</a> that the WNBA initiatives helped to expand the NBA’s female audience, even though it still lags behind the NFL’s.</p>
<p>Today’s decision from the Spurs, however, seems to disregard any business calculus. The best candidate for the job was hired, and she’s a woman.</p>
<p /> | This Woman Just Shattered One of Pro Sports’ Most Enduring Glass Ceilings | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/becky-hammon-spurs-nba-female-assistant-coach/ | 2014-08-05 | 4 |
<p>NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A New Jersey woman who skated in the Olympics for Israel before winning the right to skate for the U.S. is awaiting a court decision to see how much it will cost her.</p>
<p>The Israeli skating federation wants a New Jersey state appeals court to grant it more than $500,000 in attorneys' fees from Andrea Davidovich. The federation claims Davidovich's lawsuit in New Jersey was frivolous because she could have pursued a remedy through figure skating's international governing body.</p>
<p>That body, the International Skating Union, ultimately granted Davidovich's request in the fall of 2016.</p>
<p>The New Jersey court is due to rule on the fees dispute on Monday.</p>
<p>Brian Spector, an attorney representing the Israeli federation, said Friday his clients "feel as if the plaintiff, her father and her counsel clearly knew that pursuing the claim in state court before they exhausted their remedies before the ISU was wrong. They should have to pay the price for that."</p>
<p>Stuart Slotnick, an attorney representing Davidovich, said he is "optimistic that the court will rule in our favor, as other courts have."</p>
<p>Davidovich, who has dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, and partner Evgeni Krasnopolski finished 15th in the pairs competition in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Afterward, Davidovich sought to be released from her obligation to the Israeli ice skating federation.</p>
<p>The Israeli federation opposed her release, arguing it would encourage other skaters in whom it had invested substantial resources to take similar action.</p>
<p>That spawned a court battle in New Jersey. Last June, an appellate court reversed an earlier ruling that would have ordered the Israeli federation to release Davidovich. In its decision, the appeals court referenced the National Football League's suspension of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in 2016, which was upheld by a federal appeals court after a lower court nullified it.</p>
<p>"Judges generally should and do refrain from interfering with the internal matters of sports associations unless exceptional circumstances justify that interference," the New Jersey panel wrote.</p>
<p>NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A New Jersey woman who skated in the Olympics for Israel before winning the right to skate for the U.S. is awaiting a court decision to see how much it will cost her.</p>
<p>The Israeli skating federation wants a New Jersey state appeals court to grant it more than $500,000 in attorneys' fees from Andrea Davidovich. The federation claims Davidovich's lawsuit in New Jersey was frivolous because she could have pursued a remedy through figure skating's international governing body.</p>
<p>That body, the International Skating Union, ultimately granted Davidovich's request in the fall of 2016.</p>
<p>The New Jersey court is due to rule on the fees dispute on Monday.</p>
<p>Brian Spector, an attorney representing the Israeli federation, said Friday his clients "feel as if the plaintiff, her father and her counsel clearly knew that pursuing the claim in state court before they exhausted their remedies before the ISU was wrong. They should have to pay the price for that."</p>
<p>Stuart Slotnick, an attorney representing Davidovich, said he is "optimistic that the court will rule in our favor, as other courts have."</p>
<p>Davidovich, who has dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, and partner Evgeni Krasnopolski finished 15th in the pairs competition in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Afterward, Davidovich sought to be released from her obligation to the Israeli ice skating federation.</p>
<p>The Israeli federation opposed her release, arguing it would encourage other skaters in whom it had invested substantial resources to take similar action.</p>
<p>That spawned a court battle in New Jersey. Last June, an appellate court reversed an earlier ruling that would have ordered the Israeli federation to release Davidovich. In its decision, the appeals court referenced the National Football League's suspension of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in 2016, which was upheld by a federal appeals court after a lower court nullified it.</p>
<p>"Judges generally should and do refrain from interfering with the internal matters of sports associations unless exceptional circumstances justify that interference," the New Jersey panel wrote.</p> | Court ruling due on $500K in Israeli-US figure skating flap | false | https://apnews.com/94881aff6ad94c0a9c533906b99be1d1 | 2018-01-05 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
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<p>Garcia also will be required to register as a sex offender after his prison sentence, the release said.</p>
<p>Garcia was indicted in July 2012 on three counts of receiving and possessing child pornography between Dec. 12, 2011 and Jan. 17, 2012 when he was a sergeant assigned to the 16th Special Operations Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base, and he pleaded guilty to one count of the indictment last November, federal prosecutors said.</p>
<p>9:30am 11/20/12 — Former USAF Sgt. Pleads to Child Porn</p>
<p>By ABQnews Staff</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Christopher Garcia, 34, of Clovis, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on Friday to one count of receiving a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, federal prosecutors said in a news release.</p>
<p>Garcia was originally charged in July 2012 in a six count indictment alleging that he received and possessed child pornography between Dec. 12, 2011, and Jan. 17, 2012, in Curry County, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. At the time, Garcia was a sergeant with the U.S. Air Force assigned to the 16th Special Operations Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base.</p>
<p>According to a plea agreement with prosecutors, Garcia acknowledged downloading and viewing child pornography for about two years and that a forensic examination of his computers and computer-related media showed thousands of images and videos consistent with child porn, the release said.</p>
<p>Garcia has been in federal custody since his arrest on July 26, 2012, and will remain there until his sentencing at a date still to be set, when he is facing from 5 to 20 years behind bars and a lifetime of supervised release, federal prosecutors said.</p> | UPDATED: Ex-USAF sgt. gets 80 months | false | https://abqjournal.com/182362/updated-ex-air-force-sgt-gets-80-months.html | 2013-03-26 | 2 |
<p>It used to be that vintners tried to shorten the seasons to harvest before destructive September rains lower sugar content and make grapes rot. Now vintners are struggling to delay the harvest, and rising global temperatures and drier summers are causing grapes to mature too quickly. If grapes don't get cooler nights, you lose certain qualities of wine. Wine makers say if temperatures keep rising, we could end up in a world where wines taste more or less the same. To safeguard these qualities, vintners from around the world held an emergency conference in Barcelona two weeks ago. As vintners seek new ways to protect their grapes, they also need to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions.</p> | Global warming worries winemakers | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-02-29/global-warming-worries-winemakers | 2008-02-29 | 3 |
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<p>U.S. import prices fell in March as weak petroleum costs offset a spike in food prices, according to a government report on Thursday that pointed to benign inflation pressures.</p>
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<p>Import prices slipped 0.5 percent last month, the Labor Department said. February's data was revised to show a 0.6% rise instead of the previously reported 1.1% increase.</p>
<p>Economists polled by Reuters had expected prices to fall 0.5% last month. In the 12 months to February, import prices dropped 2.7%.</p>
<p>Stripping out petroleum, import prices dipped 0.1%, reflecting a strengthening in the inflation adjusted trade-weighted dollar index during the month.</p>
<p>The tame inflation environment should allow the Federal Reserve to stay on its ultra-easy monetary policy course as it tries to nurse the economy back to health.</p>
<p>Minutes of the March 19-20 meeting released on Wednesday showed the U.S. central bank was moving closer to ending its monthly $85 billion purchases of mortgage and Treasury bonds that are intended to keep rates low and spur faster job growth.</p>
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<p>Last month, imported petroleum prices fell 1.9% after rising 3.0% in February. Imported food prices jumped 1.3% after rising 1.2% the prior month.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, imported capital goods prices fell 0.1% after being flat in February.</p>
<p>The Labor Department report also showed export prices fell 0.4% last month. Export prices had increased 0.7% in February.</p>
<p>Export prices were last month weighed down by declines in prices for industrial supplies and materials. Prices for nonagricultural industrial supplies and materials also fell as did prices for consumer goods excluding automobiles.</p> | Import, Export Prices Fall in March | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2013/04/11/import-export-prices-fall-in-march.html | 2016-03-02 | 0 |
<p>Sidney Harman died last night of complications from acute myeloid leukemia at the young age of almost 93. He first learned of his illness one month ago and remained vigorously engaged as Executive Chairman of Newsweek, and Chairman of the Academy for Polymathic Study at the University of Southern California. He died in Washington, D.C., a city he loved and supported in so many ways, surrounded by his wife and children. Funeral arrangements will be private. Celebrations of Sidney's extraordinary life will be held both in Washington and Los Angeles, at dates still to be determined.</p>
<p>Plus: <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2011/04/13/sidney-harman-an-extraordinary-life-by-jonathan-alter.html" type="external">Jonathan Alter on Sidney Harman's extraordinary life</a>. <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2011/04/13/sidney-harman-an-extraordinary-life-by-jonathan-alter.html" type="external" /></p> | Sidney Harman, 1918-2011: Statement from the Family | true | https://thedailybeast.com/sidney-harman-1918-2011-statement-from-the-family | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
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<p>Perhaps the ever-growing number of MPs, guards, and interrogators implicated in detainee abuses are all simply sick, demented people. But that’s too easy. After speaking with Erik Saar, a former military translator at Guantanamo, last week, it’s become clearer to me how situations like these have become so widespread: Those in command are fostering an environment where abuses can occur. Saar writes in his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594200661/qid=1116623930/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-2780897-3978552" type="external">Inside the Wire</a>, that generals and Congressional staff often came to Guantanamo to observe interrogations. As reported by the press, those in command hence arranged for “choreographed” interrogations with cooperative detainees to make it seem like all was well. But, Saar told Mother Jones, the real surprise was that the visitors knew they were being duped and didn’t seem to mind:</p>
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<p>They knew we were interrogating people in the middle of the night. They knew there were people that were subject to sleep deprivation. They knew that certain stress positions were allowed. I don’t know why, if they were really curious as to what was going on, they didn’t ask to see an interrogation where these techniques were taking place. These were leaders. They could have easily said, “I want to go to an interrogation at midnight tonight, and I don’t want the interrogator to know that it’s being observed by a General or a member of Congressional staff.</p>
<p>The Army criminal investigation report that the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/international/asia/20abuse.html" type="external">discussed today</a> noted, that at Bagram, “Some of the mistreatment was quite obvious. Senior officials frequently toured the detention center, and several of them acknowledged seeing prisoners chained up for punishment to deprive them of sleep.” Those in charge were either aware of the abuses or had to make a concerted effort to avoid becoming aware of them.</p>
<p>And the leadership, in many cases, appears to have been shoddy at best. While Saar worked in Guantanamo, Gen. Geoffrey Miller was in command. Saar told Mother Jones that Miller was widely disrespected because he was an infantry officer who had little or no intelligence experience and, yet, was running an intelligence-gathering mission. Similarly, the Times points out that the company responsible for some of the abuses in Bagram, was composed of counterintelligence specialists, none of whom had a background in interrogation. Meanwhile, one of the Reservists told Army investigators, “There was the Geneva Conventions for enemy prisoners of war, but nothing for the terrorists.” And according to senior intelligence officers in the report, detainees “were to be considered terrorists until proved otherwise.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the prisons lent itself to abuse. Interrogators, guards, or military police were cheered on for “not taking any” from detainees. (“Specialist Jeremy M. Callaway overheard another guard boasting about having beaten a detainee who had spit on him.”) Action to the contrary was frowned upon: According to Sgt. James Leahy, a Reservist who worked at Bagram, “We sometimes developed a rapport with detainees, and Sergeant Loring (the officer in charge of interrogators at the time of the deaths of Dilawar and Habibullah) would sit us down and remind us that these were evil people and talk about 9/11 and they weren’t our friends and could not be trusted.”</p>
<p>Similarly, the language barrier created a further wedge between soldier and detainee:</p>
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<p>The communication between Habibullah and his jailers appears to have been almost exclusively physical. Despite repeated requests, the MPs were assigned no interpreters of their own….When the detainees were beaten or kicked for ‘noncompliance,’ one of the interpreters, Ali M. Baryalai said, it was often ‘because they didn’t have any idea what the MP is saying.’</p>
<p>Likewise:</p>
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<p>When one of the First Platoon MPs, Specialist Corey E. Jones, was sent to Mr. Dilawar’s cell to give him some water, he said the prisoner spit in his face and started kicking him. Specialist Jones responded… with a couple of knee strikes to the led of the shackled man. ‘He screamed out ‘Allah! Allah! Allah!’ and my first reaction was that he was crying out to his god,’ Specialist Jones said to investigators. ‘Everybody heard him cry out and thought it was funny.’ Other Third Platoon MPs later came by the detention center and stopped at the isolation cells to see for themselves…It became a kind of running joke, and people kept showing up to give this detainee a common peroneal strike just to hear him scream out ‘Allah,’ he said. ‘It went on over a 24-hour period, and I would think that it was over 100 strikes.’ As Mr. Dilawar grew desperate, he began crying out more loudly to be released. But even the interpreters had trouble understanding his Pashto dialect; the annoyed guards heard only noise. ‘He had constantly been screaming, ‘Release me; I don’t want to be here,’ and things like that,’ said the one linguist who could decipher his distress.</p>
<p>Saar told Mother Jones that guards at Guantanamo were at times openly hostile to the translators: “The guards viewed any attempt to treat a detainee with any sort of civility as being sympathetic to the detainees.” But just as Saar has broken the silence, so too have many others. Starting with <a href="http://www.beliefnet.com/story/157/story_15721_1.html" type="external">Joseph Darby</a>, who revealed the Abu Ghraib photos, soldiers have been coming forward, refusing to accept that these actions can be done in their name, or in the name of the country they choose to put their life on the line for. Indeed, the Army criminal investigation report that the Times obtained was “from a person involved in the investigation who was critical of methods used at Bagram and the military’s response to the deaths.”</p>
<p>How many more “bad apples” are we going to find before we start to look at the tree from which they’re falling? An independent investigation is more than the “right” and “moral” thing to do. At this point, it’s the one thing that might allow the Army, and the administration, to maintain a shred of accountability. Better to hear the truth from the top than from a slew of angry, low-ranking soldiers who feel betrayed. As a former Bagram interrogator charged with assaulting Dilawar, Sgt. Selena Salcedo, told the Times, “The whole situation is unfair. It’s all going to come out when everything is said and done.” It’s just a matter of who it’s going to come from.</p>
<p /> | “Terrorists until proven otherwise” | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2005/05/terrorists-until-proven-otherwise/ | 2005-05-20 | 4 |
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<p>Image Source: ConocoPhillips.</p>
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<p>The price of oil has always been volatile, however, after years of triple digit prices a lot of oil companies forgot about this fact. As such, too many were banking on prices remaining high, which had them ill prepared for the ensuing downturn when prices almost completely collapsed. After being shaken to their core, oil companies like ConocoPhillips are working hard to ensure that they don't repeat the mistakes of the past by putting a lot of faith in a higher oil price. Instead, one of ConocoPhillips' primary goals is to position the company to defend against lower oil prices for the next couple of years.</p>
<p>On ConocoPhillips' first quarter conference call CEO Ryan Lance took some time to detail how the company is preparing for future. He started off by saying that,</p>
<p>Source: ConocoPhillips Investor Presentation.</p>
<p>Lance wanted to make it clear to investors that the company is spreading its focus across multiple time horizons so that it isn't caught off guard. It now has a clear short-term focus to protect itself from weaker oil prices, while also positioning itself for the eventual recovery. In doing so the company believes that it will be able to manage through whatever the market sends its way over the short-term, without impairing its ability to create value when conditions improve.</p>
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<p>In the short-term the company is really guarding against being too optimistic that the recent rebound in oil prices is sustainable. In fact, Lance would go on to say that in the short-term, "for us, it is all about defending against low prices in 2016 and 2017." As such, the company has taken a number of steps to ensure that it can weather weak oil prices for another two years. Lance detailed the steps the company has taken by noting that,</p>
<p>Image source: Anadarko Petroleum Corporation.</p>
<p>While the company didn't necessarily need the money, it took advantage of its strong credit rating to raise billions in cheap debt to bolster its liquidity. That's largely because access to credit has become a real concern in the sector, which is forcing companies to get out ahead of their needs just to be safe. That was something Anadarko Petroleum felt compelled to do as well, with the company raising $3 billion in debt last quarter because it had bonds that needed to be refinanced over the next two years. In issuing the new debt Anadarko Petroleum CEO Al Walker said that the company had "removed perceived uncertainty" by issuing those bonds to refinance the company's near-term maturities. Clearly, both ConocoPhillips and Anadarko Petroleum want to remove any perceived uncertainty so that the market doesn't overreact if prices do reverse course.</p>
<p>Aside from bolstering its financial position, ConocoPhillips has also been working hard to get its cash outlays down. It has cut drilling and operating costs substantially, which when combined with its dividend and capex cuts have significantly reduced the company's break-even point. In fact, Lance said that, "if we were in a steady-state world of sustained $45 per barrel oil prices, we believe we could cover the capital required to maintain flat production and pay our dividend with cash from operations." That's down from $60 a barrel a few months ago, showing that the company really has come a long way and is now sustainable at a much lower oil price.</p>
<p>ConocoPhillips doesn't want to make the same mistake it made in the past by banking on elevated oil prices to support its operations. Instead, it's defending its business against lower oil prices by making key moves to bolster its balance sheet and bring down its break-even point. This should enable the company to stay afloat if oil were to reverse course and head lower over the next two years.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/05/26/1-mistake-conocophillips-doesnt-want-to-repeat.aspx" type="external">1 Mistake ConocoPhillips Doesnt Want to Repeat Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFmd19/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Matt DiLallo Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of ConocoPhillips. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 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> | 1 Mistake ConocoPhillips Doesnt Want to Repeat | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/26/1-mistake-conocophillips-doesnt-want-to-repeat.html | 2016-05-26 | 0 |
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<p>Here’s what you need to know.</p>
<p>New Mexico’s Renewable Energy Act creates a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that requires each utility to produce 10 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2010, at least 15 percent renewables by 2015 and at least 20 percent by 2020. Without this law, utilities would likely keep doing what they’ve always done: Burn dirty fossil fuels whose cost to health and climate are devastating.</p>
<p>The Public Regulation Commission (PRC) not only enforces the renewables law, it also writes the rules that make the goals work.</p>
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<p>For example, the Commission sets a Reasonable Cost Threshold (RCT), which is a very complicated calculation of how much renewables might cost (or save) the utility and the ratepayer (you). The cost threshold is at the heart of the issue because it’s what the utilities can use to get out of meeting the renewable goals and it’s where you have an opportunity to take action.</p>
<p>Right now, according to the cost threshold, renewables cannot cost you (or the utility) more than 3 percent of what you already pay. The “Renewable Energy Rider” on your PNM bill shows how much renewables are costing you (it’s worth remembering that the rest of your bill is what fossil fuels cost you). For most, renewables cost a couple of dollars more a month, costs that are minimal compared to the health impacts from mining and burning coal.</p>
<p>This week, the PRC is accepting public comments on a proposal that will gut development of solar energy in New Mexico.</p>
<p>The PRC proposes eliminating the Diversity Rule, which requires each utility to get 30 percent of its renewables from wind, 20 percent from solar, 5 percent from “other” sources like geothermal, and 1.5 percent from distributed generation like rooftop solar.</p>
<p>Without these requirements, the utilities will just buy wind energy because it costs the least. But this would be devastating for rooftop solar development in New Mexico, as well as economic development that creates jobs, like the new geothermal installation in Lordsburg.</p>
<p>Also solar is getting cheaper and cheaper, and it operates when we most need energy: in the summer when it’s hot.</p>
<p>Normally the utilities use natural gas generation to ramp up and down when demand for energy is “peaking.” Because solar is available at “peaking” times, it can offset the need for fossil fuel peaking generation and will save on investments in these plants.</p>
<p>This value is calculated through “Capacity Credits,” which the PRC also wants to remove from the threshold. By removing these credits the PRC makes solar appear more expensive than it really is.</p>
<p>During this comment period, which ends on Friday, we are asking the PRC to reject these proposed changes and keep the rule they passed in December after two years of analysis. The terms of this issue and the new proposal are complicated, but the consequences of the new rule are as simple and stark as the effects on health and the climate from burning fossil fuels.</p>
<p>If we don’t do something now, future generations may be too busy putting out fires to ask: What happened and why?</p> | Have your say on energy diversity | false | https://abqjournal.com/224952/have-your-say-on-energy-diversity.html | 2 |
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<p>Trix is back to its old tricks: The colorful cereal will once again be made with artificial dyes and flavors, nearly two years after they were banished from the cereal.</p>
<p>Food maker General Mills said Thursday that Classic Trix will return to supermarket shelves in October. But it will also continue to sell the version without artificial colors and flavors.</p>
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<p>"We heard from many Trix fans that they missed the bright vibrant colors and the nostalgic taste of the classic Trix cereal," said spokesman Mike Siemienas, explaining the move, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.</p>
<p>In early 2016, General Mills switched to using natural sources for color, such as turmeric, strawberries and radishes. Its hope was that the change would appeal to parents who are increasingly concerned about what ingredients are in their food. But the cereal lost its famous neon colors, and the blue and green pieces had to go because the company couldn't find natural replacements.</p>
<p>General Mills Inc. said it is also working on bringing back another fan favorite: Trix made in shapes of fruits, which it stopped selling a decade ago to return to round pieces.</p>
<p>The Minneapolis-based company said about 90 percent of its cereals, including Cheerios, Cocoa Puffs and Golden Grahams, are still made with no artificial flavors or colors.</p> | Original Trix, made with artificial colors, is coming back | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/21/general-mills-to-bring-back-old-trix-with-artificial-colors.html | 2017-09-21 | 0 |
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<p>SACRAMENTO – Even Republicans admit the state GOP is something of a rudderless ship these days. The party doesn’t control any constitutional offices. Democrats have supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature. Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley, is the target of a <a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/894/882/887/co-sponsor-the-crp-resolution-demanding-chad-mayes-to-resign-leadership/" type="external">grassroots effort</a> to force him from his leadership post after he backed a Democratic bill to expand the cap-and-trade system for 10 years.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the national Republican Party has become anathema to ethnically diverse California, especially after President <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/us/politics/trump-charlottesville-white-nationalists.html" type="external">Donald Trump doubled down</a> on his initial comments about Saturday’s white-supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia. On Tuesday, the president assured the media that there were some “very fine people on both sides” at the protests. Yes, the California party’s predicament is dismal, especially from a recruitment standpoint.</p>
<p>Yet Tuesday night, one prominent GOP official detailed a positive direction for the party. San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer says he <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-san-diego-mayor-kevin-faulconer-says-he-1498861030-htmlstory.html" type="external">isn’t running for governo</a>r, but gave a major speech to the <a href="https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2017-08-15/kevin-faulconer-new-california-republicans" type="external">Commonwealth Club</a> in San Francisco regarding the future of the California Republican Party. He wasn’t there “to offer suggestions about what we ought to do,” he said. “I’m here to tell Republicans what we’ve already done in San Diego.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/sd-me-faulconer-gop-20170815-story.html" type="external">He described it as a call to action</a> – an opportunity to rebuild the party centered on the theme of “fixing California.” Faulconer detailed five themes on which the party should unite as a way to win over new generations of voters. The first of them involves freedom. “Not only is individual liberty part of California’s heritage, it’s a classic conservative principle – one that Republicans have watered down to our own detriment,” he said. “People have stopped seeing the GOP as the party of freedom. They see it as the party of ‘no.’”</p>
<p>He even singled out a freedom theme that could be controversial in a socially conservative party: freedom of sexual orientation. But he contrasted his vision with that of the Democratic Party, “which has organized itself around the proposition that an individual’s most defining qualities are gender, sexuality and race.” He calls that a party based on differences, whereas he envisions a “New Republican Party” built around a set of common ideas.</p>
<p>“One of our biggest failures is that Republicans do not communicate our shared values to underrepresented communities,” Faulconer said. He pointed to his successful San Diego mayoral race: “Facing a Hispanic candidate in a city where just 25 percent of voters are registered Republican, I won more than 57 percent of the total vote – and close to 40 percent of the Latino vote. … Why? Because I campaigned in communities Republicans wrote off as lost – and Democrats took for granted.”</p>
<p>His second theme involved immigration. Faulconer said that Republicans are doing a poor job inviting new Americans to join the party of freedom and limited government. In fact, he said he wouldn’t even need to give such a speech if the GOP weren’t failing at that message. He called for welcoming immigrants, while acknowledging that the party can’t ignore the issue of illegal immigration. “We must push for efficient ports of entry and get smarter about border security,” the mayor said, while emphasizing the importance of treating nearby Mexico as “neighbors and economic partners.”</p>
<p>Faulconer’s third theme involved the environment, about engaging responsibly on conservation and climate-change issues with “plans that don’t plunder the middle class.” He again used his city as an example. “San Diego is now on a path to slash greenhouse gases in half and shift to 100 percent renewable energy – without a tax increase,” he said.</p>
<p>His fourth theme is for California leaders to focus on California issues, rather than “chasing the latest soundbite out of Washington, D.C.” He chided Sacramento Democrats, who he says “are suffering from what I like to call ‘outrage FOMO’ – a Fear Of Missing Out on the latest controversy that will allow them to score political points on social media and TV.” By contrast, Faulconer said the “New Republicans” need to focus on “the fundamentals of government service.”</p>
<p>That includes infrastructure. “The fact that 50 percent of California’s roadways are in poor condition is an absolute failure,” he said. “We have the nation’s second highest gas tax but some of the worst roads, with no guarantees that the taxes we pay at the pump will actually go toward fixing the problem.” But, for his fifth and final point, he focused on the overall need for “reform.” This theme involved the role of the state’s powerful unions in resisting reform.</p>
<p>“Too often Sacramento politicians are unwilling to say ‘no’ to entrenched special interests – at our expense,” he said. “California ranks in the bottom 20 percent of K-12 schools nationwide. Yet Democrats continue to side with unions against meaningful changes to improve student achievement.” He noted that “California falls dead-last in housing affordability in the continental United States” but “Democrats are blocking revisions to housing rules that were designed to protect the environment but that labor has hijacked for its own gain.”</p>
<p>He noted that California was “rated the worst state for business” because “lawmakers keep layering regulation on top of regulation until budding entrepreneurs are crushed, and only the biggest businesses survive.” He also pointed to the state’s massive pension debt and, again, used San Diego as an example, given that city’s successful voter-approved pension reform.</p>
<p>These reform themes echo talking points Republican leaders have traditionally made. And he was predictably pointed in his critique of Democrats, noting that their policies have resulted in “economic inequality; troubled schools; sky-high housing costs; failing infrastructure; and crippling pension debt.” Those problems have festered, he added, while Sacramento “pursues the kind of political fantasies that grip a party when it gains complete and total control.” But his approach signified a break from typical Republican efforts.</p>
<p>To break that one-party control, <a href="https://www.sandiego.gov/mayor" type="external">Mayor Faulconer’s</a> blueprint focuses heavily on repackaging the party’s long-held ideas and reaching out to communities that the party hasn’t successfully appealed to in the past. He envisions a day “when San Francisco’s Republican mayor is standing before you, she isn’t talking about how California Republicans are endangered, but rather how we are ushering in a government that is uniting our people and looking out for the middle class.” It’s a bold challenge for a party that seems to be collapsing, but his ideas received a warm reception.</p>
<p>Steven Greenhut is Western region director for the R Street Institute. Write to him at sgreenhut@rstreet.org.</p> | San Diego mayor offers suggestions for future of state GOP | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2017/08/16/san-diego-mayor-offers-suggestions-future-state-gop/ | 2018-08-20 | 3 |
<p>Liam puts his hand into the jar of frosted cereal, grabs some chunks, and can’t get his hand out through the narrow opening.</p>
<p>“My hand somehow enlarged,” says Liam, who is ten in human years but younger in monkey years.&#160; “Maybe I just do these things unconsciously when you’re writing, to give you something to write about.”&#160; A sly little side-slash with his eyes to where my fingers hover over the keyboard.</p>
<p>Why do we write?</p>
<p>Besides the money and fame, there are certain inducements.&#160; The chance to put a typo-free document into an error-riddled cyberspace is high on the list.&#160; Then there’s the commitment to letting posterity know what Liam was really like.</p>
<p>No wait, revenge isn’t a legitimate reason.&#160; The fact is that I usually begin with a picture of future generations pawing through the N’Am wreckage several decades from now and asking each other if there was anyone in the early part of the twenty-first century who wasn’t insane in the membrane.&#160; That usually keeps me from writing about my first and second choices.&#160; Then I get cracking.</p>
<p>I write an article, send it to the local paper (this nation’s counterpart to the New York Times) with the note, “you’re too stupid to print this.”&#160; Then I send it to CounterPunch.&#160; The local paper I keep for the humanure pile.</p>
<p>Just what are we up to?</p>
<p>Are we merely stenographers of empire, duly noting and chiding, clucking and pecking at the trouser hems of those who have real power?&#160; Notice me!&#160; Notice me!&#160; And (to each other): well clucked, guv’nor, good one, that.</p>
<p>Wait a minute, say the writers at CP with national-level cultural capital, just who are you calling “we,” white man?</p>
<p>Alright, scratch that, said the chicken in fowl language that cannot be reprinted here.</p>
<p>A few minutes pass and Liam’s on his third bowl of chicken soup and now he wants an egg, which appears to solve an old philosophical problem about which came first.&#160; “Drop the egg in the soup,” says Eva-Lynn, to problematize things.&#160; The house is filled with the reassuring death stench of the free-range bird intensifying the pungency of the den, quickening the imagination of the cat, the dog, and me in conflicting ways.</p>
<p>Yesterday Sebastian, whose vital stats include fourteen (age) and twelve (shoe size), got his toes pinned under a car whose driver managed the tricky feat of getting the vehicle up onto the foot of our firstborn platypus and putting it into park in one deft motion, pinning the gangly gosling to the ground of being.&#160; Bathos/pathos: meanwhile this week our neighborhood is treated to a fresh round of stabbings and shootings, putting the American back in our N’Am hood.&#160; If this keeps up it’ll be time to break out the old numchucks, which have been oxidizing in retirement.</p>
<p>Eva-Lynn is going off to the university to teach a class on performative utterances, those words that enact what they describe.&#160; “I christen this ship the HMS Titanic.” “I do.” “You’re fired.” All the statements that work well with the word “hereby.”&#160; If onomatopoeia had a judge’s gavel, that’d be performative utterances.&#160; In performative utterances, the word is the power, as with Aslan the deft lion chanting creatures into existence, or some version of Yahweh in which the old semitic storm god says “rabbit” and out comes not a word but a fuzzy little animal.</p>
<p>“I’m outta here,” says Eva-Lynn, and the front door clicks, punctuating the silence of her departure like a “hereby.”</p>
<p>Let us posit here a category of anti-performatives, words that negate power.&#160; “I hear you,” you say to a friend, for example, but you cannot hear your friend because your head is a drum and it is filled with the reverberation of your own vocalization.</p>
<p>Anti-performatives.&#160; “I am sleeping.” “I do not exist.”</p>
<p>Lies might be a subcategory of anti-performative.&#160; The empire is rife with them.&#160; “I do not torture,” says the torturer torturing.</p>
<p>Anti-performatives.&#160; Let’s see. “412 horsepower,” says the advertisement for the Mustang, and it is a lie of form, for it implies efficiency, or power, at the least.&#160; It’s not just that a Ford Mustang couldn’t, and isn’t (couldn’t ford a river and isn’t a horse, respectively).&#160; It’s that 412 underperforms as a statement, right where it appears most to have performed well.&#160; Five hundred years after people called Americans figured out how to move a man efficiently over the countryside with one horse or less, a claim to be unable to perform the same trick with less than 412 of them is an admission not of power but of powerlessness and inefficiency.&#160; In its larger context, called capitalism, the statement is an anti-performative.&#160; It is the gesture of futility of a dying people, a sob from a tribe eating next spring’s seed corn, because there is no use anymore.</p>
<p>Far from being a nexus of innovation and risk-taking, capitalism is atrophy and decay.&#160; It only ever appeared to work because of the power of oil, a liquid dense with life and death and the power that is unbound in fire.&#160; Any fool can make a spark and claim that the power of oil is his own entrepreneurial cleverness or “efficiency.”&#160; Fancy business schools at elite universities sit atop such gushers and it gives them a few generations of loft from which they can display themselves and their superiority more fully.&#160; The funny thing is that the era of capital is itself a stratum of a few inches charred and crushed and registered in a future geological archive.&#160; Its only real power can be prophesied as a quantity of a particular viscosity and compression, available in a distant worldtime as a renewed fire.&#160; As Bender the robot puts it, “we’re boned.”</p>
<p>Capitalism is a man with a flamethrower walking down the street admiring his reflection in the glass and thinking people are looking at him because he has a nice suit.</p>
<p>Brothers and sisters in the movement, let us despair, but not too much.&#160; Sad days, these, and we appear to have no power, while the empire seems infinite, eternal, and unchanging in its being, wisdom, power, holiness, justness, goodness and truth, to use the words of some catechism or other sitting there on my brain pan.</p>
<p>The fact is that as we write nowtopia, as we write “to the moment” (as the epistolary novelists of the 18th century used to say) we make the world.&#160; The sun shines, the child lives, the chicken walks while she lives and is thanked when she does not.</p>
<p>The anti-performers with their anti-performative babble have only the power of the thrash, of the conflagration, the morning-after flicker of the spectacle.&#160; Capitalism is the vestigial fire ritual of a people who have exhausted their myths.&#160; They have horsepower, with no knowledge of horses, power, or the world you might want to see from the back of such a beast.&#160; They are dangerous, of course.&#160; But the downfall of capital is written in every microfissure and every outright crack and pothole in every street of the world, in every place where the scab of tar fractures to produce a line of that which is not tar, a writing against tar nation, touching tar nation, but consisting precisely in that which is not tar.</p>
<p>We write Nothing, an invisible writing visible in every concourse on the planet.&#160; We are the fissure kings.</p>
<p>We are psychogeographers, not stenographers.&#160; We are makers and performers.&#160; We are making the world anew.&#160; As we write, we sing the world into being.</p>
<p>“Liam,” I say, and he turns to me with a smile.</p>
<p>DAVID Ker THOMSON lives in a part of N’Am where the local brigand chieftain is apparently named Rob Ford.&#160; Thomson’s “ <a href="http://theava.com/archives/author/david-ker-thomson" type="external">John Ross</a>, The Inspiration Lives On,” on the Mexico City journalist, is in this week’s Anderson Valley Advertiser.&#160; Come for the picture, stay for the words.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; <a href="mailto:dave.thomson@utoronto.ca" type="external">dave.thomson@utoronto.ca</a></p>
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<p /> | Why Do We Write? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/01/28/why-do-we-write/ | 2011-01-28 | 4 |
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<p>A past entrant into the record books</p>
<p>LAS CRUCES — Hundreds of people watched anxiously as Roberto’s restaurant volunteers and families began the process of making the world’s largest flat enchilada, during the 34th annual Whole Enchilada Fiesta at the Meercheidt Recreation Center complex, 1600 East Hadley Ave., Sunday.</p>
<p>The enchilada, which measures about 10 1/2 feet in diameter, is a long-time tradition and the fiesta’s main attraction. Making such a large enchilada takes about an hour and a half and requires a lot of hands — about 48 people — as well as supplies.</p>
<p>“It takes 250 pounds of masa (dough made from corn flour) to make one tortilla and we make three of them,” said Roberto V. Estrada, owner of Roberto’s restaurant. “We use 175 pounds of cheese and we use 75 gallons of red chile, and then we use about 60 pounds of onions.”</p>
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<p>The enchilada also requires 175 pounds of pure vegetable oil and takes about an hour and a half to make, Estrada said.</p>
<p>“It’s a lot of work,” he said.</p>
<p>Mike Estrada, who has been involved in making the enchilada for the past 30 years, said the Whole Enchilada held the Guinnes World Record for largest enchilada from 2000 through 2010, until a city in Mexico claimed that record with a 230-foot rolled enchilada. But Mike Estrada and many others still consider the Whole Enchilada to be the world’s largest flat enchilada.</p>
<p>“They don’t make it like we do,” Mike Estrada said.</p>
<p>After the enchilada is made, visitors get to try a portion of oversized entrée and have the opportunity to participate in an enchilada-eating contest for a chance to win a $1,000 cash prize,</p>
<p>Mike Estrada said he recommnends people come out and try the Whole Enchilada, so they can taste Roberto’s flavor.</p>
<p>“It’s really good,” Mike Estrada said. “Really spicy.”</p>
<p>And it’s not only locals who look forward to trying the famously large enchilada.</p>
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<p>Michael Jendro, a visitor to the festival, said he traveled all the way from Illinois to see the enchilada get made and try a bite of it.</p>
<p>“I read about (the event) in a book I have about different things around the country and this was one of them,” Jendro said.</p>
<p>“I just wanted to see how they made it,” he said.</p>
<p>Jendro said he was enjoying watching the process.</p>
<p>“I think it’s cool — a lot of fun,” he said.</p>
<p>Jo-Ann Valdez, another enchilda spectator and a former Las Cruces resident, said she came to the event from Colorado Springs, Colo.</p>
<p>“We lived here for four years and we just love coming back over here, because it’s such a great event,” Valdez said. “This is one of the things we really like to do is come to the Whole Enchilada.”</p>
<p>While Valdez has been to the fiesta in the past, she said this was her first time to see the enchilada-making process.</p>
<p>“The last time we came, they had already made it, so we didn’t get to see it,” she said. “But now it’s great to see how it’s made.”</p>
<p>“It’s awesome the way they do it — so many hands involved, the security, the way they’re doing it — it’s all safe,” Valdez said. “They do a really good job.”</p>
<p>Valdez said she plans to try a piece when the enchilada is ready.</p>
<p>“I think it’s delicious,” she said. “The last time we were here, we had a little piece of it, but we came at the tail-end of it, so hopefully this time we’ll get one that’s a little bit tastier and fresher.”</p>
<p>Brooke Tou, a Las Cruces resident, said this was also her first time to see the enchilada get made.</p>
<p>“We’ve never made it to this part of the festival before, so we thought we’d come check it out,” she said. “We’re definitely curious about this whole process.”</p>
<p>Tou said she also plans on checking out the other fiesta happenings with her children throughout the day.</p>
<p>“We’re going to spend a few hours here,” she said. “Check out all the booths and the vendors and food and have some lunch,” she said.</p>
<p>Sunday was the last day of TWEF, wrapping up with a variety of music performances including Flak Blak, Rockabilly Strangers, Remember Then a Class Act and headliner Shelly Lares from San Antonio.</p>
<p>Alexia Severson can be reached at aseverson@lcsun-news.com</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>©2014 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.)</p>
<p>Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at <a href="http://www.lcsun-news.com" type="external">www.lcsun-news.com</a></p>
<p>Distributed by MCT Information Services</p>
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<p>Topics: t000035090,t000049303,t000035070</p> | Whole Enchilada Fiesta concludes with world’s largest flat enchilada | false | https://abqjournal.com/470134/whole-enchilada-fiesta-concludes-with-worlds-largest-flat-enchilada.html | 2 |
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<p>July 29 (UPI) — Shehbaz Sharif will likely assume the role of Pakistan’s prime minister after his brother <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Nawaz_Sharif/" type="external">Nawaz Sharif</a> resigned from the office on Friday.</p>
<p>The ruling Pakistan Muslim League party agreed that Punjab Chief Minister <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/pakistan-pml-n-to-choose-nawaz-sharif-s-successor-today/story-XmBXi6PVe1m5IZNtB04QaN.html" type="external">Shehbaz Sharif will succeed his brother</a> and petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will serve as the interim prime minister until Sharif is formally elected to office.</p>
<p>The decision was made during an informal meeting headed by Nawaz Sharif, just hours after the country’s <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/07/28/Pakistan-PM-Sharif-resigns-after-court-disqualifies-him-from-office/2631501238677/" type="external">Supreme Court disqualified him</a> from the office following a 15-month corruption investigation.</p>
<p>Nawaz Sharif moved out of the prime minister’s house and all of the members of his cabinet had their protocols removed.</p>
<p>During the meeting to determine its political and legal options after Sharif’s removal, the Pakistan Muslim League party considered several candidates, including Sharif’s wife, before settling on his brother as the replacement.</p>
<p>Abbasi said the party was unified in Shehbaz Sharif’s selection, despite continuing to contest the former prime minister’s removal.</p>
<p>“There is no conflict in the party. We may have given in, but history will not accept this decision [to disqualify Nawaz Sharif]. The nation has not accepted this decision,” he said.</p>
<p>The party can independently vote Shehbaz Sharif into the office of prime minister, due to its significant majority in parliament and he will also likely look to be elected to the country’s National Assembly.</p>
<p>Shebaz Sharif will also be required to vacate his seat on the Punjab Assembly as chief minister.</p> | Shehbaz Sharif to succeed brother as Pakistan prime minister | false | https://newsline.com/shehbaz-sharif-to-succeed-brother-as-pakistan-prime-minister/ | 2017-07-29 | 1 |
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<p>While California’s high-speed rail project has been described as a shuttle that will take the Golden State toward economic prosperity, the ride is already rocky for some local business owners.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Fresno Economic Development Corporation estimates that the $1-billion project will add $3.5 billion to the local economy in the state. And the California High-Speed Rail Authority has committed to using small businesses for 30% of the construction work, with 3% specially designated for businesses owned by disabled veterans.</p>
<p>But that isn’t cheering up some business owners with establishments located along the train’s eventual route.</p>
<p>“We have to relocate, and we’re not real, real happy about it,” says Sharon Carrasco, the co-owner of White Bear Transportation. Her trucking company has been in the same location in Fresno since 1991, and she and her husband Bill bought the property in 1996.</p>
<p>The authority is preparing to break ground this month on the first leg of the project, which will connect Merced to Fresno. It is expected to be completed by late 2017, according to Diana Gomez, the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s director for the Central Valley region. The entire rail system has an estimated end date in 2029.</p>
<p>While Carrasco has been working closely with Lee Ann Eager, the president of the Fresno Economic Development Corporation, she says it’s been difficult to find a new property in the Fresno area.</p>
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<p>“Lee Ann has been a big help with everything we’ve had to do … there are not a lot of places for what we do, with offices, a warehouse and docking,” says Carrasco.</p>
<p>Moving Businesses Off the Tracks</p>
<p>Eager says her staff at the Fresno EDC is working to make sure that small businesses like Carrasco’s are taken care of before ground is broken on the project. There are close to 300 businesses that need to be relocated, and Eager says her team is helping to scout new locations and manage the moving process.</p>
<p>The EDC is also focusing on getting small businesses involved in the construction.</p>
<p>“We’re getting local businesses to work on this project -- getting them ready with state certifications,” says Eager.</p>
<p>Al Smith, the president of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce, sympathizes with the business owners who need to relocate, but calls the high-speed rail system a “game changer for the Central Valley.”</p>
<p>“The downside is people are inconvenienced … but in the long run, it’s a positive move for Fresno and the Central Valley,” says Smith.</p>
<p>About 20,000 construction jobs will be created during the project, according to Gomez. &#160;And with more than 100 engineers moving to the area, as well, she says the city will benefit from new residents’ spending and tax dollars.</p>
<p>While some businesses have already accepted buyout offers based on government appraisals, Eager says businesses who want to conduct their own appraisals are eligible for $5,000 credits to do so.</p>
<p>Carrasco says the city’s appraisal of her property fell significantly below what she expected.</p>
<p>“We really didn’t feel it was fair, so we did our own appraisal. Now we’re kind of working on ours versus theirs – it’s back in their ball court now,” says Carrasco, who says the city’s appraisal was $50,000 below the independent analysis.</p>
<p>Originally, Carrasco’s company was supposed to move by October, but she received an extension through January while the White Bear team looks for a new location. Carrasco and her husband were intending to retire soon and pass on the business to their son, daughter and grandson, as well as her husband’s brother, who all work at the company. She says the rail project has put the brakes on their plan.</p>
<p>“We’re pushing 70 … we were going to roll it over to them and let them continue,” says Carrasco. “Now it’s turned us into a tailspin. I don’t want us to go into debt and don’t want to load the debt onto our son and Bill’s brother. We’re pretty stressed about the whole thing.”</p>
<p>In addition to struggling to find a suitable new location, Carrasco says the last five years hit the freight business hard, affecting the company’s credit. That said, she and her husband are trying to keep their hopes up.</p>
<p>“We’ve been married 48 years and we’ve gone through a lot. We’ll get through it – this is just another thing to get through,” says Carrasco. “I pray everything works out OK for us.”</p> | Calif. Business Owner Struggles to Get Out of Way for High-Speed Rail | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/09/13/calif-business-owner-struggles-to-get-out-way-for-high-speed-rail.html | 2016-03-22 | 0 |
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<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — A water main break has left much of the town of Taos without water, forcing some businesses to close and several schools to send students home early.</p>
<p>According to information posted on the town’s website, the a 10-inch water transmission line running through the downtown area broke due to the collapse of a storm sewer sometime Thursday.</p>
<p>Water was expected to be restored by Friday morning, but that did not happen.</p>
<p>An update to the website stated a leak at McDonald’s has been fixed temporarily. The town was advising businesses to consider closing until water is restored.</p>
<p>Showers and rest rooms at the Taos Youth and Family Center&#160; were being made available to residents or visitors staying at hotels impacted by the water outage.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Much of Taos without water | false | https://abqjournal.com/465069/part-of-taos-without-water.html | 2 |
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<p>By Henry Giroux / <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/41617-neo-nazis-in-charlottesville-and-the-rise-of-illiberal-democracy" type="external">Truthout</a></p>
<p>The recent “Unite the Right” march by a couple of hundred white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists across the University of Virginia campus offered a glimpse of the growing danger of authoritarian movements both in the United States and across the globe, reeking of the 1930s. The image of hundreds of fascist bullies chanting anti-Semitic, racist and white nationalist slogans, such as “Heil Trump,” and later attacking peaceful anti-racist counter-demonstrators makes clear that the radical right-wing groups that have been on the margins of American society are now more comfortable in public with their nihilistic and dangerous politics.</p>
<p>They appear especially emboldened to come out of the shadows because elements of their neo-fascist ideology have found a comfortable if not supportive place at the highest levels of the Trump administration, especially in the presence of Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions and Stephen Miller, who espouse elements of the nefarious racist ideology that was on full display in Charlottesville. As is well known, Trump has embraced the presence and backing of white nationalists and white supremacists while refusing to denounce their Nazi slogans and violence in strong political and ethical terms, suggesting his own complicity with such movements.</p>
<p>It should surprise no one that David Duke, a former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, told reporters on Saturday that the Unite the Right followers were “going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump … to take our country back.” Nor should it surprise anyone that Trump initially refused to condemn the fascist groups behind the horrifying, shocking images and violence that took place in Charlottesville.</p>
<p />
<p>Trump’s silence made elements of the far right quite happy. For instance, the Daily Stormer, a white supremacist website,&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/13/opinion/trump-charlottesville-hate-stormer.html?ref=opinion&amp;_r=0" type="external">issued the following statement</a>: “Refused to answer a question about White Nationalists supporting him. No condemnation at all. When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him.”</p>
<p>It appears that the presence of Nazi and Confederate flags, along with the horrible history of millions lost to the Holocaust and slavery, lynchings, church bombings, and the assassination of Black leaders, such as Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr., did little to move Trump to a serious understanding or repudiation of the poisonous historical forces that surfaced in Charlottesville. As New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb observes, this was a telling moment.&#160; <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-battle-of-charlottesville" type="external">He writes</a>:</p>
<p>When [Trump] did speak about the crisis, he denounced bigotry and violence “on many sides,” in a statement that was bizarrely punctuated by references to efforts to reform trade relationships and better conditions for veterans. We have seen a great number of false equivalencies in the past two years, and the most recent Presidential election was defined by them. Yet it remains striking to hear Trump imply that Nazis and the interracial group of demonstrators who gathered to oppose them were, in essence, equally wrong.</p>
<p>While Trump&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/politics/trump-charlottesville-protest.html" type="external">finally gave way to overwhelming pressure on Monday</a>&#160;and delivered a speech in which he asserted that “racism is evil” and described the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists as “repugnant,” by Tuesday&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/us/politics/trump-press-conference-charlottesville.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=a-lede-package-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news" type="external">he had already reverted to his initial assertion</a>&#160;of “blame on both sides,” equating neo-Nazis with anti-racist counter-protesters (whom he labelled as the “alt-left”) and speaking of&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/us/politics/trump-charlottesville-white-nationalists.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=a-lede-package-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news" type="external">“very fine people”</a>&#160;among the crowd of right-wing extremists who chanted racist and anti-Semitic slogans on Friday night.</p>
<p>The authoritarian drama unfolding across the United States has many registers and includes state violence against immigrants, right-wing populist violence against mosques and synagogues, and attacks on Muslims, Black people and others who do not fit into the vile script of white nationalism. The violence in Charlottesville is but one register of a larger mirror of domestic terrorism and home-grown fascism that is growing in the United States.</p>
<p>Such demonstrations represent a historical moment that capture some of the elements of a past that led to some of the worse crimes in human history. At the risk of falling prey to historical amnesia, the crucial lesson to be learned is that the ideology, values and institutions of a liberal democracy are once again under assault by those who no longer believe in equality, justice and democracy. As the historian&#160; <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2017/5/30/on_tyranny_yale_historian_timothy_snyder" type="external">Timothy Snyder has observed</a>, it is crucial to remember that the success of authoritarian regimes in Germany and other places succeeded, in part, because they were not stopped in the early stages of their development.</p>
<p>The growing call for illiberal democracies (code for authoritarian regimes) first begins with the popularization and normalization of hate and bigotry, which we have witnessed under the Trump regime, and then morphs into right-wing groups developing their own militias, organs of violence and paramilitary forces.</p>
<p>Charlottesville provides a glimpse of authoritarianism on the rise and speaks to the dark clouds that appear to be ushering in a new and dangerous historical moment. While it is problematic to assume that a US-style totalitarianism will soon become the norm in the United States, it is not unrealistic to recognize that the possibility for a return to authoritarianism is no longer the stuff of fantasy or paranoia, especially since its core elements of hatred, exclusion, racism and white supremacy have been incorporated into both the highest levels of state power and the mainstream right-wing media. The horrors of the past are real, and the fears they produce about the present are the necessary work of both historical memory and the power of civic courage and moral responsibility.</p>
<p>Liberal Democracy Is Losing Its Grip</p>
<p>In&#160;Selections from the Prison Notebooks,&#160;Antonio Gramsci, the great Italian Marxist philosopher, observed that one measure of a time of crisis is “that the great masses … become detached from their traditional ideologies and no longer believe what they used to believe previously. The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum, a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”</p>
<p>While Gramsci was characterizing a different historical period, his words are as relevant today as they were when written in the 1930s. All over the globe, liberal democracy is losing its grip on the public imagination and in the midst of this loss a toxic form of illiberal democracy is taking its place. As institutions that once provided public visions and proactive spaces are stripped of their authority and decay under the scourge of casino capitalism, the foundation is being set for the rise of new modes of authoritarianism. What they all share is both a hatred for democracy and a willingness to feed off the anger and rage of those who have suffered under punishing austerity measures imposed by global capitalism. At a time in which the growing problems of inequality, terrorism, war, state violence, immigration, precarity, mass poverty and the elimination of the welfare state have accelerated, stable democracies have been shattered.</p>
<p>In the midst of a massive global attack on the welfare state and social provisions fueled by neoliberal policies, the social contract central to liberal democracies has been shredded and with it any viable notion of solidarity, economic justice and the common good. Progress has been turned into its opposite and registers more inequality, suffering and violence. The older language of collective rights has given way to the discourse of individual rights, and the vocabulary of collaboration and compassion has been uprooted by a discourse of radical individualism and a harsh, survival-of-the fittest ethos. “Freedom” has morphed into a synonym for unbridled self-interest and a rationale for abdicating any sense of moral and political responsibility. Under global neoliberalism, the future is viewed as more of a curse than a blessing and has lost its value as what&#160; <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1509522352,subjectCd-SO20.html" type="external">Zygmunt Bauman calls</a>&#160;“the safest and most promising location for investing [one’s] hopes.” In contrast, as Bauman observes in his contribution to&#160;The Great Regression, the future has now become a repository for projecting our most dreaded anxieties. He writes that such fears and apprehensions are now driven by a number of elements that have come to characterize neoliberal societies:</p>
<p>… the growing scarcity of jobs, of falling incomes reducing our and our children’s life chances, of the yet greater frailty of our social positions and the temporality of our life achievements, of the increasingly widening gap between the tools, resources and skills at our disposal and the momentousness of the challenges facing us. Above all, we feel our control over our own lives slipping from our hands, reducing us to the status of pawns moved to and fro in a chess game played by unknown players indifferent to our needs, if not downright hostile and cruel, and all too ready to sacrifice us in pursuit of their own objectives. Not so long ago associated with more comfort and less inconvenience, what the thought of the future tends nowadays to bring to mind most often is the gruesome menace of being identified or classified as inept and unfit for the task, denied value and dignity, and for that reason marginalized, excluded and outcast.</p>
<p>The dream of the democracy has turned into a nightmare as more and more people are considered expendable and subject to the whims of a market that reduces them to the status of merely surviving rather than getting ahead. The failure of neoliberalism’s promise of social mobility, equal opportunity, employment and privatized dream worlds gave way to regressive taxation, off shoring, deindustrialization, the slashing of social provisions, the dismantling of public services and the rise of right-wing populism. Desperation, isolation and a sense of abandonment coupled with the collapse of democratic institutions and public spheres have produced a new collective fatalism all over the globe.</p>
<p>Growing Support for Authoritarianism</p>
<p>The increasing failure of global neoliberalism has produced the conditions in which more and more people are inclined to express support for authoritarian alternatives that reproduce the power of right-wing populist nationalists and favor the interest of white majorities who advocate a return of barricades and borders rather than eliminating the systemic conditions of economic, cultural and social domination. Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, spoke for many when he proclaimed that societies founded on liberal principles will not be able to compete successfully in a global market and that there is no reason for democracies to be liberal in order to be successful. According to Orbán, the state is not defined by democratic values, but by its economic and cultural interests, interests that fall on the side of a growing number of far-right regimes.&#160; <a href="http://budapestbeacon.com/public-policy/full-text-of-viktor-orbans-speech-at-baile-tusnad-tusnadfurdo-of-26-july-2014/10592" type="external">He writes</a>:</p>
<p>The new state that we are building is an illiberal state, a non-liberal state. It does not deny foundational values of liberalism, as freedom, etc. But it does not make this ideology a central element of state organization, but applies a specific, national, particular approach in its stead. … We are searching for (and we are doing our best to find, ways of parting with Western European dogmas, making ourselves independent from them) the form of organizing a community, that is capable of making us competitive in this great world-race.</p>
<p>This worldwide rejection of liberal democracy is fuelled by a landscape of massive instability, inequality, fear and insecurity driven by a counterrevolutionary&#160;global capitalism&#160;of permanent change that,&#160; <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1509522352,subjectCd-SO20.html" type="external">in the words of Pankaj Mishra</a>, can neither&#160;“fulfil its own promise of general prosperity [or conceal] its contempt for the democratic principle of equality.” In the place of failed states and broken economies, there has been a retreat into promises offered by the rise of the security state, racial cleansing, economic nationalism, xenophobia and a call for the suppression of dissent and a growing emphasis on law and order. Heinrich Geiselberger has&#160; <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1509522352,subjectCd-SO20.html" type="external">called this</a>&#160;“the great regression,” an apt metaphor for the growing collapse of public discourse, values and democratic institutions and public spheres. As is well documented, the toxic effects of neoliberalism cannot be separated from diverse counterrevolutionary and right-wing populist forces that have contributed to the resurgence of authoritarianism across the globe.</p>
<p>The political crises and earthquakes shaking the foundations of liberal democracy reveal more than the pent-up collective energies of despair, rage and insecurity. They also speak to the growing mechanisms of exclusion and ideologies of racist contempt that have returned with a vengeance all over Europe and in the United States. Dressed up in the discourse of a ruthless hyper-capitalism, the crises haunting liberal democracies across the globe have provided fodder for right-wing demagogues to promote nationalistic policies. In so doing, they denounce democratic values in the name of a popular will that both resents what the political establishment has done to them and is comfortable with political leaders who are xenophobic, authoritarian and patriarchal. Accompanying the rise of authoritarian states in Russia, India, Turkey, Hungary, Egypt, the Philippines and the United States, among others, there is also the growing presence of right-wing political formations in France, Greece, Italy and a number of other countries.</p>
<p>Rising Bigotry and Nationalism</p>
<p>Politics has become more personal, wrapping itself in the narrow embrace of cultural nationalism and racial, religious and ethnic bigotry. Historic calls for democratization that marked the post-war period have given rise, in part, to a collective anxiety and apprehension fuelled by a despair and anger deeply tied to a form of casino capitalism that camouflaged its underlying modes of oppression and politics of disposability in the seductive yet failed discourses of freedom and justice, both of which were defined in strictly economic and market terms. Stoked by fear and a resentment toward those considered a threat to white nationalist ideologies, the retreat from the imposed death-dealing effects of neoliberalism parading as democracy gave rise to the awkward return of the repressive ideologies of ethno-nationalism, the stifling of dissent and exaltation of state violence as a mode of governance.</p>
<p>For instance, under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey there has been a return to the traditions and grandeur of an Ottoman past. In India, the right-wing ideologue, Narendra Modi, has resurrected the ideology of Hindu nationalism. In a similar vein, President Trump has fuelled a culture of fear, racism and demonization as part of his efforts to resuscitate a culture of white Christian nationalism has reproduced in the first part of his presidency his own brand of political illiberalism. As&#160; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/07/trump-out-in-year-usa-problems-just-beginning-paul-mason?CMP=fb_gu" type="external">Paul Mason points out</a>:</p>
<p>If we analyse Trump through his actions, rather than his garbled words, it is political illiberalism that has won out during the first seven months of his presidency. When a judge blocked his Muslim immigration ban, he attacked the judiciary’s constitutional role. When the press revealed malfeasance, he labelled them “enemies of the American people”. When James Comey refused Trump’s appeals for “loyalty,” he was sacked.</p>
<p>White resentment and white nationalism have come to symbolize Trump’s politics, beginning with his egregious and false claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and taking shape in his appointment of white nationalists, such as Jeff Sessions and Steve Bannon, to the highest levels of government—an issue I have discussed in detail in my forthcoming book&#160;American Nightmare: The Challenge of American Authoritarianism&#160;(City Lights Press, 2018). Such measures have bolstered his credibility with white militias, neo-Nazis and other white nationalist groups. Carol Anderson&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/05/opinion/sunday/white-resentment-affirmative-action.html?_r=0" type="external">correctly states</a>&#160;that “The guiding principle in Mr. Trump’s government is to turn the politics of white resentment into the policies of white rage—that calculated mechanism of executive orders, laws and agency directives that undermines and punishes minority achievement and aspiration.”</p>
<p>Arjun Appadurai argues that what Trump and similar authoritarian leaders have in common is a hatred of democracy because it stands in the way of their monomaniacal efforts to seize political power. In his contribution to&#160;The Great Regression&#160;anthology, he writes:</p>
<p>The leaders hate democracy because it is an obstacle to their monomaniacal pursuit of power. The followers are victims of democracy fatigue who see electoral politics as the best way to exit democracy itself. This hatred and this exhaustion find their natural common ground in the space of cultural sovereignty, enacted in scripts of racial victory for resentful majorities, national ethnic purity and global resurgence through the promises of soft power. This common cultural ground inevitably hides the deep contradictions between the neoliberal economic policies and well-documented crony capitalism of most of these authoritarian leaders and the genuine economic suffering and anxiety of the bulk of their mass followings. It is also the terrain of a new politics of exclusion, whose targets are either migrants or internal ethnic minorities or both.</p>
<p>It is against this wider historical and social context marked by a mounting embrace of illiberal democracy that the authoritarian populism of Donald Trump and other demagogues can be both interrogated and challenged, especially when the political interests that bear part responsibility for producing what&#160; <a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/how-democracy-ends" type="external">Mike Lofgren has described</a>&#160;as a “neoliberal economics turned punitive and illiberal” now claim to be the only force capable of resisting Trump’s authoritarianism. It is also against this worldwide embrace of illiberal democracy that a debate must begin over rethinking politics outside of the discourse of capitalism.</p>
<p>Failures of the Politics of Resentment</p>
<p>Trump’s appearance on the political landscape is part of a much broader politics of resentment, one that denies the theoretical and political tools to assess the conditions for free-floating anger and despair in the first place. Put differently, the political crisis signalled by the US morphing into a form of authoritarianism has not been matched by a crisis of ideas. That is, the issue of how everyday problems and hardships are connected to wider economic and political structures is left unanswered for most Americans. Instead, the politics of resentment has become part of a threefold failed project of politics. First, the politics of resentment has been appropriated by Republican extremists to serve as part of a politics of authoritarianism. Second, resentment politics has produced highly restricted forms of resistance on the part of many liberals whose focus is on Trump the man rather than on the economic conditions and ideological movements that produced him. Third, the expressions of resentment and the authoritarian politics they produced have become a new form of entertainment through which the corporate-controlled media generates an endless stream of what might be called tabloid politics in which the political realm dissolves into a lurid pornography of aesthetics. As one expression of such a politics, news cycles fill up their time slots and papers by devoting endless amounts of commentary to Trump’s tweets, all the while legitimating the notion that the pathology of authoritarian governance is primarily about the spectacle of performance. What the corporate media miss is that Trump’s tweets are meant to produce a politics of fatigue and theatrics that serve as code for his right-wing followers in an expanding counterrevolution that embraces the values of a Second Gilded Age.</p>
<p>The growing tide of demagoguery in the United States and across the globe must begin with the changing nature of neoliberal ideology and its transformation from a free-market utopia to a normalized dystopian reality. At stake here is the need for a post-neoliberal narrative in which democratic ideals can no longer be defended under conditions of neoliberal globalization. The rise of illiberal democracy is based on the premise that democracy should not be defended because it cannot be realized under neoliberal regimes. The bold new authoritarian strategy emerging out of this cold recognition is not to dispense with neoliberalism but with democracy itself.</p>
<p>No longer able to hide the massive misery, inequality and hardship that the “free market” has produced across the globe, the new authoritarians no longer praise the laws of an unfettered market fundamentalism. Instead, they rely on a politics of distraction, such as an appeal to cultural nationalism and the longing for the re-establishment of a mythic past. Trump has appropriated this politics of distraction, giving it a unique configuration, one that reinforces the domination of neoliberal elites while making invisible the underlying structures of predatory economic and political power that have consolidated further still under his administration. Of course, this is not meant to confuse elements of his popular racist, fascistic and white nationalist base. Rather, it is meant to distract those politicians, pundits and anti-public intellectuals who have no interest in fighting for progressive change and who prefer the theater associated with Trump’s tweets rather than engaging in a serious debate about the bankruptcy of the neoliberal system. This diversion has been successful in delaying the debate&#160;about how the crisis of democracy is largely connected to the crisis of neoliberal capitalism, militarism and the emergence of an authoritarianism in support of an illiberal democracy.</p>
<p>While demagogues across Europe and other parts of the globe maintain control through the outright suppression of dissent and the dismantling of civil liberties [Turkey, China, Russia and Egypt], Trump has taken a different route. Trump’s policies benefit not only the financial master class but also the established neoliberal politicians and intellectuals who still champion globalization, assuming the role of his most serious opposition while posturing as the vanguard of resistance against his accelerating authoritarianism. Trump inverts the rules of ideology by denying its very premises, thus introducing a form of depoliticization and manufactured ignorance that eliminates the affective and educational foundations for a liberal democracy.</p>
<p>Trump’s endless lies, impetuous outbursts and regressive policies—such as stepping up deportations of undocumented immigrants, rolling back affirmative action and banning transgender troops from serving in the military—are largely&#160; <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/trumps-base-of-support-has-almost-entirely-collapsed/" type="external">engineered to satisfy his shrinking base of support</a>. But there is more at work here than simply creating subterfuge for political ends or for justifying such deceitfulness as part of a militaristic and reactionary strategy of making politics an extension of the art of war. The latter has become an industry and it has a long history in US politics. Trump’s mendacity should be viewed as part of a staged politics of distraction that provides cover for the brutal neoliberal policies that he both ruthlessly supports and egregiously symbolizes. After all, it was largely the debris of neoliberal policies that brought Trump to power, a wreckage he relentlessly exploited.</p>
<p>Certainly, it is obvious that Trump is a racist, xenophobe and egregious sexist. But most of all, he is emblematic of a ruthless corporate, self-serving, greedy elite who will do anything to consolidate their class and financial power. His theatrical antics and spectacularized politics represent crude entertainment for his base and rising profit margins for the mainstream media; they also signal the need to divert attention away from the ideological, economic, political and structural forces that have laid the groundwork for the appeal of illiberal democracy and the rising tide of authoritarianism in the United States. The latter is especially true for those Trump supporters who are more independent politically, who are not driven by white supremacist imperatives and who are sympathetic to the call of anti-establishment politicians.</p>
<p>What Trump, or at least Steve Bannon, is well aware of is that the struggle over power is not only about the struggle over language and beliefs, but also about the destruction of those intellectual and institutional elements that enable the capacity for informed judgment and the ability to hold onto any belief with a sense of commitment and integrity. Hence, his ongoing attempts to destroy critical media, public education and those democratic public spheres that provide the protective spaces of education in the broadest sense of the term.&#160;What is disturbing about this endorsement of mass illiteracy and political ignorance is that it is not just about accusing the critical media of producing fake news, it is also about creating support among his 35 million followers for supporting unconstitutional legislation designed to silence the so-called liberal press for inaccurate reporting. For instance,&#160; <a href="https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/08/daily-chart-0" type="external">The Economist reported</a>&#160;that “When YouGov asked whether courts should be allowed to ‘shut down news media outlets for publishing or broadcasting stories that are biased and inaccurate’, 45% of Republicans were in favour, compared with 20% who opposed the measure. More than half thought it acceptable to fine an offending news outlet (and 40% thought it would not violate the First Amendment to do so).”</p>
<p>Trump’s authoritarianism is as much about the crisis of democracy as it is about the crisis of casino capitalism, clearly exemplified by the emergence of right- and left-wing populist movements that are angry and bitter over what the conservative and liberal elites and their political and economic systems have done to them. No longer able to employ the mythical elements of neoliberalism in light of the growing attack of progressive activists on the financial ruling classes and a mounting criticism of what many believe is a failed state—an attack that cuts across ideological boundaries—the Republican disciples of neoliberalism have dispensed with ideology and now rely on a raw politics bent on voter suppression, gerrymandering, mass incarceration, defunding of public goods and other tactics to eliminate any vestige of a liberal democracy.</p>
<p>Trump’s diversions make it difficult for the public to uphold or even define the standards that sustain the rule of law, democratic governance and the value of educational institutions committed to&#160;individual freedom, civil liberties, justice and human rights. Trump’s lies do more than distract and pollute the space of a shared potential reality—they empty language of any substantive meaning and in doing so serve to erase the power and value of historical consciousness and the critical formative cultures that produce both informed agents and individual and collective acts of resistance. Trump’s presidency stands for the abandonment of ideology or what I will call a pedagogical politics of persuasion in which ideas become weapons and educational tools to shape consciousness, desires and identities. This is not to deny that Trump is afraid of ideas or the willingness to embrace them when it serves his political ends as much as to suggest that his deepest concern is with preventing people from developing the capacity to think critically in the first place and to act on informed critiques of power. This in part explains his obsession with a notion of loyalty that has little to do with a commitment to justice or the common good as much as it is a cover for unquestioned obedience to him.</p>
<p>Rites of ‘Purification’ in the Wake of Neoliberal Corporate Sovereignty</p>
<p>What we are witnessing in the rise of illiberal democracies across the globe is a rite of political, racial and social purification that appeals to an imagined lost dominance on the part of individual nation states in the wake of neoliberalism’s corporate sovereignty. What is left out of this narrative by Trump and other authoritarian leaders is that modern states no longer control their economies, which are now in the hands of a global financial elite and authoritarian populists. Power is now financial, mobile and global, managed by a free-floating elite at liberty to pursue its own interests and targets. Fiscal and monetary policies are no longer in the hands of the nation states, residing in the hands of international financial institutions, such as the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, which exist beyond national accountability. As Zygmunt Bauman and Leonidas Donskis&#160;have argued in their book “Moral Blindness,” the nation state remains the repository of a politics “squeezed and robbed of all or nearly all of its power, muscles and teeth,” reduced to serving the dictates of global capital and expanding its role as a punishing state. As the protective functions of the state are targeted, the foundations of existential security and solidarity are eroded, giving rise to a Hobbesian world where no room exists for care and compassion, only callousness and indifference, cruelty and suffering.</p>
<p>Arjun Appadurai, in his discussion of “democracy fatigue,” captures the hollowing out of the nation state, describing the return to cultural purification and ethno-nationalism as a means to stifle dissent and to avoid addressing the underlying causes responsible for economic sovereignty being replaced by ethno-nationalism and cultural sovereignty. He writes:</p>
<p>This, then, is what the leaders of the new authoritarian populisms have in common: the recognition that none of them can truly control their national economies, which are hostages to foreign investors, global agreements, transnational finance, mobile labour and capital in general. All of them promise national cultural purification as a route to global political power. All of them are friendly to neoliberal capitalism, with their own versions of how to make it work for India, Turkey, the United States or Russia. All of them seek to translate soft power into hard power. And none of them has any reserva­tions about repressing minorities and dissidents, stifling free speech or using the law to throttle their opponents. … Thus populist authoritarian leaders and demagogues are to be found everywhere across the old continent, and they too operate with the same mix of neoliberalism, cultural chauvin­ism, anti-immigrant anger and majoritarian rage.</p>
<p>In Trump’s world, there is no need to rely heavily on ideology because there are no standards, no firm ground on which matters of persuasion and belief root themselves. Instead, ideas, reason, evidence and truth collapse in a sea of misrepresentations, engineered stupidity and diversions, all of which are designed,&#160; <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1978/10/26/hannah-arendt-from-an-interview/" type="external">as Hannah Arendt once argued</a>, to prepare the ground for a form of totalitarianism rooted in contempt for critical thought, if not the very act of thinking. The foundation for authoritarianism, she wrote, lies in a kind of mass thoughtlessness in which a citizenry “is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also its capacity to think and to judge.” Manufactured ignorance and the slide into authoritarianism has become a staple of American life, but it cannot be reduced to the scourge of economic structures.</p>
<p>Cultural politics and the educational force of the corporate-controlled cultural apparatuses such as the mainstream media are a potent force for ignorance and depoliticization in the United States. The blight of celebrity culture, an engineered culture of fear that activates a hatred of others, the destruction of public education and the corporatization of higher education, the rise of the surveillance state and the war on terrorism all contribute to a collective paranoia that produces social isolation, a heightened sense of rootlessness, the privatization of everything and the conflation of citizenship with a dreary ethos of consumerism.</p>
<p>Under neoliberalism, too many people are trapped in their own private orbits, unable to address the systemic conditions that destroy the ties that connect them to others while reproducing the conditions in which the body is uprooted from any sense of community and the existential need for belonging. As George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Zygmunt Bauman and other prominent intellectuals have predicted, such isolation kills the imagination and finds symbolic compensation in the ideological appeals of authoritarian leaders who promise communities organized around hate, violence and exclusion. All of this amounts to a swindle of fulfillment and a rejection of liberal democracy.</p>
<p>Trump has dispensed with the fiction of democracy because he believes that in the interest of power both people and the planet are disposable, excess to be plundered and discarded. As part of an effort to normalize this pathology, he systematically employs a politics of diversion to prevent the public from addressing the underlying neoliberal forces and conditions that sold democracy to the bankers, hedge fund managers and other surrogates of finance.&#160;Under Trump, democracy is not being thinned out, it is being replaced by a regime that is hostile to its existence while fighting to maintain the economic conditions that have allowed the United States to slide into authoritarianism.</p> | Trump's Neo-Nazis and the Rise of Illiberal Democracy | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/trumps-neo-nazis-rise-illiberal-democracy/ | 2017-08-18 | 4 |
<p />
<p>La Solitude du Liban: <a href="http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/07/22/d607221301116.htm" type="external">Excerpts from Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora’s emotional speech</a> behind closed doors at the international conference at Rome yesterday: “what future other than one of fear, frustration, financial ruin and fanaticism can stem from the rubble? … Is the value of human life less in Lebanon than that of citizens elsewhere? Are we children of a lesser God? Is an Israeli teardrop worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood? … Can the international community continue to stand by while such callous retribution by the state of Israel is inflicted upon us? … Is this what is called legitimate self-defence?” Siniora also said that Israel had a right of self-defence after the Hezbollah militia captured two of its soldiers earlier in July, launching the offensive.</p>
<p /> | Update: War in the Middle East | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/07/update-war-middle-east/ | 2006-07-27 | 4 |
<p>Donald Trump’s campaign manager just “accidentally” said that he supports US Speaker of the House Paul Ryan for President.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/paul-manafort-endorses-paul-ryan-mistake-226657" type="external">Politico</a> reports:</p>
<p>‘”Look. I support the speaker and I know after next week, I’m supporting him as a candidate for president, too,” Manafort said on “CBS This Morning,” before quickly correcting himself amid laughter.’</p>
<p>Co-hosts Norah O’Donnell and Charlie Rose both jokingly remarked that “there is talk about” Trump dropping out of the presidential race and being replaced with, perhaps, Paul Ryan.</p>
<p>Paul Manafort’s epic misspeak comes as the Republican presidential candidate draws serious heat for his refusal to officially endorse Ryan in his bid to be reelected to Congress.</p>
<p>Trump also refused to endorse Arizona’s US Senator John McCain, in moves that have brought Republican leadership to seriously question the future of their party with such an indecent man at the top.</p>
<p>With Trump showing little to no effort to actually rein in the warring factions of his party, his obscene lack of the temperament required to serve as president of the United States is made clear yet again.</p>
<p>Not only is Trump disregarding his party, but he is also disregarding what could be the only real avenue to him becoming president of the United States. Without, at the very least, a unified political party behind him, Trump’s already long shot candidacy falls even further behind.</p>
<p>If Trump can’t grasp basic domestic political maneuvering, what could make anyone think he can grasp the intricacies of global politics that&#160;confront the president of the United States on a daily basis?</p>
<p>He cannot bring the volatility of his many successful and unsuccessful business ventures into the office of President of the United States and expect anything good to come of it. Although, thinking about causes outside of himself doesn’t seem to be high on Trump’s agenda.</p>
<p>Curiously, Manafort has been under intense scrutiny himself lately. <a href="http://bipartisan-report.com/2016/08/03/just-in-trump-staffer-defects-from-flailing-campaign-exposes-damning-inside-information/" type="external">Reports</a> have suggested that he has effectively given up on the Trump campaign. In addition, the New York Times recently <a href="http://bipartisan-report.com/2016/08/01/breaking-ny-times-exposes-trump-campaign-manager-for-being-on-russian-payroll-details/" type="external">revealed</a> that Manafort has long been on the payroll of pro-Putin Ukrainian politicians — and that he even helped orchestrate elements of the unrest that exploded in Ukraine as Russia invaded the Crimean peninsula.</p>
<p>What all of this reveals is what long term models and most polls have pointed to all along. The Donald Trump campaign cannot stand up to the scrutiny required of a serious run for the presidency. Trump continues to look at a resounding loss come November.</p>
<p>Watch the video featuring Manafort’s misspeak below, via Politico.</p>
<p />
<p>Featured Image via Bloomberg/ <a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/license/576871238" type="external">Getty Images</a>.</p> | JUST IN: Donald Trump’s Campaign Manager Endorses Paul Ryan For President, ‘No Longer Challenging.. | true | http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/08/04/just-in-donald-trumps-campaign-manager-endorses-paul-ryan-for-president-no-longer-challenging/ | 2016-08-04 | 4 |
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shortly after the Los Angeles Kings showed off the Stanley Cup at a raucous downtown celebration last June, they had another parade through the quieter streets of the laid-back beach towns where nearly every member of the organization lives.</p>
<p>During their unprecedented success over the last three years with a long-struggling franchise, these Kings haven’t forgotten the source of their good fortune. To live where they live, to play how they play — the Kings all seem to realize they’re profoundly lucky to be part of this hockey powerhouse, and they don’t want the thrill to end.</p>
<p>“We all know it’s a pretty unique set of circumstances here,” captain Dustin Brown said. “We all came together, and we’ve been able to accomplish some great things together. A lot of athletes don’t get that chance in their whole careers.”</p>
<p>After two Stanley Cup titles and an NHL-record 64 playoff games in three seasons, the Kings still seem hungry for more. Almost the entire core from last season’s championship team is back and determined to keep the Cup on the West Coast.</p>
<p>Just ask goal-scoring left wing Marian Gaborik, who joined the Kings in a trade late last season and immediately found a hockey soul mate in playmaking center Anze Kopitar. After leading the Kings with 14 playoff goals and winning his first Cup, Gaborik couldn’t wait to re-sign with Los Angeles, passing on free agency for less than his probable market value.</p>
<p>“I’ve made enough money in my whole career, so it wasn’t about money,” Gaborik scoffed. “To get a taste of that Cup, I think that gives you motivation to repeat and to be hungry again. That is the motivation — to go back there and to do it with this team and to play in this environment, to play in this state. It’s an awesome mix. I didn’t want to leave.”</p>
<p>The Kings are striving for some lofty accomplishments this year. The NHL hasn’t even had a repeat champion since Detroit in 1997 and 1998, and Los Angeles could become the first team to win three titles in four seasons in a quarter-century.</p>
<p>Los Angeles might not dominate the regular season, but no opponent is more feared in the postseason. The Kings have won 10 playoff rounds in the last three years, and they’re ready to challenge Chicago for postseason supremacy again.</p>
<p>Here are some things to watch when the Kings raise their banners and begin their title defense Oct. 8 against San Jose:</p>
<p>CONTINUITY: The Kings are remarkably intact, losing only 37-year-old defenseman Willie Mitchell in free agency. Every regular on all four forward lines returned, along with seven of their top eight defensemen. Such continuity is stunning these days, but general manager Dean Lombardi believed the champions should be rewarded with a chance to repeat.</p>
<p>QUICK BURST: Coach Darryl Sutter’s Kings were the NHL’s best defensive team during the last regular season, yielding just 2.05 goals per game. Jonathan Quick missed a big chunk of the year with an injury and didn’t match his vaunted 2012 playoff numbers, but he remains one of the best big-game goalies in recent hockey history, and his surgically repaired wrist should be ready. Backup Martin Jones also returns after an impressive rookie year.</p>
<p>DEWEY’S DOMINANCE: Defenseman Drew Doughty ascended to the top tier of hockey stars in 2013-14 while winning an Olympic gold medal with Canada and a second Stanley Cup title in Los Angeles. He was arguably the best player on both of those title-winning teams, providing relentless aggression and puck-moving play. Doughty always rises to a big occasion, but this could be the year when he puts together 82 regular-season games of brilliance.</p>
<p>THAT 70′S LINE: Jeff Carter also has a gold medal and a Cup ring after last season, and the big center is back along with youngsters Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson. They teamed up during the playoffs in a bruising trio dubbed “That 70′s Line” in honor of their jersey numbers, and the group might end up playing together consistently this year.</p>
<p>JAZZ HANDS: Defenseman Alec Martinez is an L.A. hockey folk hero after scoring the overtime, series-winning goals against Chicago and the New York Rangers. He also absorbed plenty of good-natured offseason ribbing about his ecstatic, “jazz hands” celebration of his Cup-winning goal. The Kings are expecting another year of growth from Martinez, who could be an unrestricted free agent in the summer.</p>
<p>KEEPING RICHIE: Lombardi decided not to buy out the lavish contract of center Mike Richards, whose scoring has plummeted in the past few years. The Kings value Richards’ responsible two-way play and leadership, even though it’s not exactly worth the $5.75 million annual cap hit over the next six seasons. Los Angeles is hoping Richards rediscovers his scoring touch.</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shortly after the Los Angeles Kings showed off the Stanley Cup at a raucous downtown celebration last June, they had another parade through the quieter streets of the laid-back beach towns where nearly every member of the organization lives.</p>
<p>During their unprecedented success over the last three years with a long-struggling franchise, these Kings haven’t forgotten the source of their good fortune. To live where they live, to play how they play — the Kings all seem to realize they’re profoundly lucky to be part of this hockey powerhouse, and they don’t want the thrill to end.</p>
<p>“We all know it’s a pretty unique set of circumstances here,” captain Dustin Brown said. “We all came together, and we’ve been able to accomplish some great things together. A lot of athletes don’t get that chance in their whole careers.”</p>
<p>After two Stanley Cup titles and an NHL-record 64 playoff games in three seasons, the Kings still seem hungry for more. Almost the entire core from last season’s championship team is back and determined to keep the Cup on the West Coast.</p>
<p>Just ask goal-scoring left wing Marian Gaborik, who joined the Kings in a trade late last season and immediately found a hockey soul mate in playmaking center Anze Kopitar. After leading the Kings with 14 playoff goals and winning his first Cup, Gaborik couldn’t wait to re-sign with Los Angeles, passing on free agency for less than his probable market value.</p>
<p>“I’ve made enough money in my whole career, so it wasn’t about money,” Gaborik scoffed. “To get a taste of that Cup, I think that gives you motivation to repeat and to be hungry again. That is the motivation — to go back there and to do it with this team and to play in this environment, to play in this state. It’s an awesome mix. I didn’t want to leave.”</p>
<p>The Kings are striving for some lofty accomplishments this year. The NHL hasn’t even had a repeat champion since Detroit in 1997 and 1998, and Los Angeles could become the first team to win three titles in four seasons in a quarter-century.</p>
<p>Los Angeles might not dominate the regular season, but no opponent is more feared in the postseason. The Kings have won 10 playoff rounds in the last three years, and they’re ready to challenge Chicago for postseason supremacy again.</p>
<p>Here are some things to watch when the Kings raise their banners and begin their title defense Oct. 8 against San Jose:</p>
<p>CONTINUITY: The Kings are remarkably intact, losing only 37-year-old defenseman Willie Mitchell in free agency. Every regular on all four forward lines returned, along with seven of their top eight defensemen. Such continuity is stunning these days, but general manager Dean Lombardi believed the champions should be rewarded with a chance to repeat.</p>
<p>QUICK BURST: Coach Darryl Sutter’s Kings were the NHL’s best defensive team during the last regular season, yielding just 2.05 goals per game. Jonathan Quick missed a big chunk of the year with an injury and didn’t match his vaunted 2012 playoff numbers, but he remains one of the best big-game goalies in recent hockey history, and his surgically repaired wrist should be ready. Backup Martin Jones also returns after an impressive rookie year.</p>
<p>DEWEY’S DOMINANCE: Defenseman Drew Doughty ascended to the top tier of hockey stars in 2013-14 while winning an Olympic gold medal with Canada and a second Stanley Cup title in Los Angeles. He was arguably the best player on both of those title-winning teams, providing relentless aggression and puck-moving play. Doughty always rises to a big occasion, but this could be the year when he puts together 82 regular-season games of brilliance.</p>
<p>THAT 70′S LINE: Jeff Carter also has a gold medal and a Cup ring after last season, and the big center is back along with youngsters Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson. They teamed up during the playoffs in a bruising trio dubbed “That 70′s Line” in honor of their jersey numbers, and the group might end up playing together consistently this year.</p>
<p>JAZZ HANDS: Defenseman Alec Martinez is an L.A. hockey folk hero after scoring the overtime, series-winning goals against Chicago and the New York Rangers. He also absorbed plenty of good-natured offseason ribbing about his ecstatic, “jazz hands” celebration of his Cup-winning goal. The Kings are expecting another year of growth from Martinez, who could be an unrestricted free agent in the summer.</p>
<p>KEEPING RICHIE: Lombardi decided not to buy out the lavish contract of center Mike Richards, whose scoring has plummeted in the past few years. The Kings value Richards’ responsible two-way play and leadership, even though it’s not exactly worth the $5.75 million annual cap hit over the next six seasons. Los Angeles is hoping Richards rediscovers his scoring touch.</p> | Kings grateful to stay intact for another Cup run | false | https://apnews.com/114c0046fb114805a35c3698818e565e | 2014-10-02 | 2 |
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<p>An Albuquerque judge postponed a hearing Monday for a former client of Ayudando Guardians after two Journal reporters tried to attend his guardianship hearing at the client’s invitation.</p>
<p>In a related development, the former Ayudando client, Peter Grotte-Higley, said he moved on Friday to a new senior living facility near the University of New Mexico that he called “1,000 percent better” than his former residence in a Northeast Heights boardinghouse where, Grotte-Higley said, he had been dismayed by his living conditions.</p>
<p>Peter Grotte-Higley</p>
<p>“It’s a different life,” Grotte-Higley, 81, said of his new home. “I had a full-course meal for breakfast. And the people there are nice, too.”</p>
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<p>District Judge Denise Barela-Shepherd had scheduled a guardianship hearing for Grotte-Higley on Monday after the indictment in July of his court-appointed guardian and conservator, Ayudando Guardians. The July 19 federal indictment alleges the firm’s two principals and their relatives used client funds, including client monthly benefit payments, to support a lavish personal lifestyle.</p>
<p>The hearing Monday was scheduled to appoint a new corporate guardianship company for Grotte-Higley – Decades LLC – to replace Ayudando Guardians. Ayudando offices were closed by the U.S. Marshals Service in late August because of the federal indictment.</p>
<p>Grotte-Higley, a Holocaust survivor, was profiled in a Journal story published Aug. 9 in which he lamented what he described as poor living conditions and a sudden lack of spending money from Ayudando. He said he felt like a prisoner after he was barred from leaving the house with two Journal reporters to go to Ayudando offices in Albuquerque to find out about his guardianship case.</p>
<p>Minutes before Monday’s hearing, one of the reporters who wrote the initial story asked Grotte-Higley in a courthouse hallway if he was willing to allow reporters to attend the hearing.</p>
<p>“Definitely,” he responded. “Why not?” The reporters then followed him into Barela-Shepherd’s courtroom at 2nd Judicial District courthouse in downtown Albuquerque.</p>
<p>But before the hearing began, Barela-Shepherd asked the two Journal reporters to identify themselves.</p>
<p>She then adjourned the proceedings, saying she wanted to research the issue further.</p>
<p>“I can’t unsequester this proceeding, because I don’t have enough information,” the judge said. ” I’m not opposed to unsequestering it, but by statute I don’t know that I can.”</p>
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<p>Barela-Shepherd asked Decades and Grotte-Higley’s court-appointed guardian ad litem, Ellen Leitzer, to submit briefs setting out their positions and announced her intention to reschedule the hearing. A new hearing date wasn’t immediately scheduled, but she added, “I want this matter resolved immediately.”</p>
<p>Guardianship hearings in New Mexico typically are closed to the public.</p>
<p>But New Mexico law says that the appointment of a guardian for an incapacitated person “shall be determined by the court at a closed hearing unless the alleged incapacitated person requests otherwise.”</p>
<p>State law covering substitution or replacement of a guardian says that generally “the court shall follow the same procedures to safeguard the rights of the incapacitated person as those that apply to a petition for appointment of a guardian.”</p>
<p>Grotte-Higley, a Jewish native of what is now the Czech Republic, hid from Nazi occupiers as a boy during World War II and later escaped with his mother from captivity in a camp run by the Soviet Union. After the war, he found refuge in Great Britain, where he pursued a career in advertising.</p>
<p>He moved to the United States after his retirement and eventually settled in Albuquerque and married. His late wife of 17 years died in July 2015.</p>
<p>A court docket sheet, the only public record available, shows that Barela-Shepherd appointed Ayudando as Grotte-Higley’s guardian and conservator in February 2016. The judge made the decision after receiving reports, including from a physician, that Grotte-Higley was in need of a guardian to handle decisions about his daily living and a conservator to handle his finances.</p>
<p>At some point last year, Grotte-Higley was placed in a four-man boardinghouse in Northeast Albuquerque where he shared a room with another man.</p>
<p>It’s still unclear whether Grotte-Higley was among the clients who lost money in the alleged embezzlement scheme at Ayudando.</p>
<p>Nancy Oriola, CEO of the Decades Group, a provider of elder care management services is Grotte-Higley’s temporary guardian pending a permanent appointment. She confirmed that Grotte-Higley moved on Friday to The Albuquerque Grand Senior Living, 1501 Tijeras NE. The firm worked hard to find suitable housing for Grotte-Higley, she said.</p>
<p>Grotte-Higley on Monday cheered his new life at The Albuquerque Grand Senior Living as a major improvement over his former housing.</p>
<p>“It’s nice,” he said. “I have my own room.”</p>
<p>He is still waiting for word on the status of certain cherished belongings he says are missing, as well as his pension and other funds Ayudando was managing.</p>
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<p /> | Guardian hearing delayed after reporters try to attend | false | https://abqjournal.com/1072313/reporters-presence-prompts-judge-to-postpone-hearing.html | 2017-10-02 | 2 |
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<p>Commissioner James Dominguez cast the dissenting vote.</p>
<p>The agreement, presented by county financial adviser Rob Burpo, will provide the county with a $7,635,000 tax-exempt loan with a fixed interest rate of 4 percent.</p>
<p>The magistrate building would encompass about 22,000 square feet. It will be adjacent to the Sandoval County Judicial Complex, connected by a hallway. There will be 80 new parking spaces.</p>
<p>The new building will be owned and paid for by the state for 14 years of an 18-year lease with the county, at which point the county will outright own the building. At that time, the county and state will negotiate how the next four years would be paid for.</p>
<p>County Manager Phil Rios said that, unlike the county's proposed bond issue in 2014 to fund an expanded district court - which voters defeated - the cost of the magistrate court is not an obligation to the county or county residents, but an obligation to the state, and a public referendum is not needed.</p>
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<p>Sidney Hill, county public information officer, said the county will secure the loan and the state will pay for use of the magistrate court building, which will be used to pay the loan.</p>
<p>County Treasurer Laura Montoya addressed the commission prior to the vote for the loan agreement, saying she was not in favor of the agreement, nor was she involved in the loan-agreement process. Montoya questioned the county's decision to work with Peoples Bank for the loan, as opposed to a county bank. Montoya said she spoke to three county banks that said they were never approached about the loan.</p>
<p>Burpo said the county reached out to a number of county banks before deciding to work with Peoples Bank.</p>
<p>In other business:</p>
<p /> | County commission approves $7.6M deal to build new magistrate court | false | https://abqjournal.com/707146/county-commission-approves-76m-deal-to-build-new-magistrate-court.html | 2 |
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<p>President Barack Obama’s reelection strategist David Axelrod said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Oct. 30 that “all economists agree” that the White House jobs bill “would create millions of jobs.” That goes beyond the usual White House exaggeration, and is simply not true.</p>
<p>Axelrod, Oct. 30: Obviously the American Jobs Act, all economists agree would have a marked effect on economic growth and would create millions of jobs. We just have to get the Congress to act on it.</p>
<p>Axelrod’s claim is particularly cheeky. President Obama himself has been much more cautious — claiming that “independent economists” say his jobs bill “would create nearly 2 million jobs.” But <a href="" type="internal">even that was an exaggeration</a>, as we reported Oct. 18.</p>
<p>The fact is there is wide disagreement among economists about the likely effect of the legislation that the president has been urging House and Senate Republicans to pass. Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics <a href="http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/An-Analysis-of-the-Obama-Jobs-Plan.pdf" type="external">estimated</a> the bill would add 1.9 million jobs. And Joel Prakken of Macroeconomics Advisers <a href="http://macroadvisers.blogspot.com/2011/09/american-jobs-act-significant-boost-to.html" type="external">estimated</a> 1.3 million additional jobs next year, dropping to 800,000 in 2013. And those are high estimates compared with those of 28 economists who estimated how many jobs would be created by the bill in a <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-28/obama-jobs-plan-prevents-2012-recession-in-survey-of-economists.html" type="external">survey</a> taken by Bloomberg News. Of those, 28 economists estimated how many jobs would be created by the bill. The median estimate was 275,000 jobs in 2012 and 13,000 jobs in 2013, for a total of 288,000 jobs.</p>
<p>— Brooks Jackson</p> | Axelrod Ups the Ante | false | https://factcheck.org/2011/10/axelrod-ups-the-ante/ | 2011-10-31 | 2 |
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<p>On Sunday, NBC News was forced to post a correction after falsely claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin&#160;“does not deny having compromising information” on President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2017/06/04/fake-news-nbc-correction-after-claiming-putin-had-compromising-info-trump/" type="external">Breitbart</a>:</p>
<p>To promote the debut of Kelly’s “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly” program, NBC News tweeted, “EXCLUSIVE: Putin does not deny having compromising information on President Trump in interview with @megynkelly.”</p>
<p>CNBC, NBC’s sister station, did not send out fake news, linking to the same story after tweeting, “Russia’s Putin denies having compromising information on Trump.”</p>
<p>Reuters also reported on the interview and tweeted, “Putin denies having compromising information on Trump.”</p>
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<p>Here’s the relevant part of the <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/putin-interview-did-russia-interfere-election-collect-info-trump-n768126?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma" type="external">NBC</a> article:</p>
<p>Asked whether “you have something damaging on our president?” Putin — who once worked as a KGB recruiter — replied: “Well, this is just another load of nonsense. Where would we get this information from?”</p>
<p>“Why, did we have some special relationship with him?” Putin asked. “We didn’t have any relationship at all. There was a time when he used to come to Moscow. But you know, I never met with him. We have a lot of Americans who visit us.”</p>
<p>The well-known spin master then attempted to turn the tables.</p>
<p>“Right now, I think we have representatives from a hundred American companies that have come to Russia,” Putin said. “Do you think we’re gathering compromising information on all of them right now or something? Have you all lost your senses over there?”</p>
<p>Breitbart added:</p>
<p>On Saturday evening, the network again displayed its blatant anti-Trump bias when NBC Nightly News’ twitter account, for some reason, decided to mock Trump’s suggestion that terrorists were behind the London Bridge attacks by sending out this tweet: “Pres. Trump has used Twitter to share news report on London incident. We aren’t relaying president’s retweet, as the info is unconfirmed.”</p>
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<p>This, despite the fact that&#160;attackers reportedly yelled “this is for Allah” as they ran over and indiscriminately stabbed innocent victims. &#160;ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday.</p>
<p>You can see video of the entire interview with Putin <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.</p>
<p>Related:</p>
<p>If you haven’t checked out and liked our&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ConservativeFiringLine?fref=ts" type="external">Facebook</a>&#160;page, please go&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ConservativeFiringLine?fref=ts" type="external">here</a>&#160;and do so.</p>
<p>And if you’re as concerned about Facebook censorship as we are, go&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Banned-Facebook-Enables-Militant-Islamic/dp/1944212221/" type="external">here</a>&#160;and order this new book:</p> | Fake news NBC posts correction after falsely claiming Putin ‘does not deny’ having compromising info on Trump | true | http://conservativefiringline.com/fake-news-nbc-posts-correction-falsely-claiming-putin-not-deny-compromising-info-trump/ | 2017-06-05 | 0 |
<p>Yesterday, for all of you <a href="http://www.kappit.com/img/pics/201510_1817_ceggd_sm.jpg" type="external">just waking up from a coma</a>, was Back to the Future day, October 21, 2015, the point in time that Doc and Marty travel to in the legendary film. We now know when they arrived here, their coordinates put them squarely on Jimmy Kimmel Live's talk show stage. Lucky for us they were in the middle of a taping and we have the full record of the event in the video above. It is really good to see them together again.</p>
<p>Actor Michael J. Fox who plays Marty, has been battling Parkinson's disease since 1991 and went on to create a <a href="https://www.michaeljfox.org/foundation/michael-story.html?navid=michaels-story" type="external">foundation</a> <a href="https://www.michaeljfox.org/foundation/michael-story.html?navid=michaels-story" type="external">to help find a cure</a>. There's a documentary coming out telling the story of the movie and the foundation and they just released the trailer...</p>
<p>For more on the sweet couple that turned their DeLorean into a time-machine for charity by pausing a VHS tape of the movie and going to the junk yard, click below...</p>
<p>On your way out, Honest Trailers takes a crack at putting the <a href="https://i.imgur.com/FhMwxRa.png" type="external">Don Rickles</a> spin on the Trilogy...</p>
<p>"The movie defines the taste of buttered popcorn." -Steven Spielberg</p>
<p>Yes, it does.</p> | Doc Brown & Marty McFly Back From 1985 Live On Kimmel!!! | true | https://dailywire.com/news/624/doc-brown-marty-mcfly-back-1985-live-kimmel-chase-stephens | 2015-10-22 | 0 |
<p>The secret email accounts complicate an agency’s legal responsibilities to find and turn over emails in response to congressional or internal investigations, civil lawsuits or public records requests because employees assigned to compile such responses would necessarily need to know about the accounts to search them. Secret accounts also drive perceptions that government officials are trying to hide actions or decisions.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whitehouse/agencies-slow-to-provide-email-addresses-of-senior-obama-appointees-leaving-most-a-mystery/2013/06/04/e61e9b94-cce7-11e2-8573-3baeea6a2647_story.html?hpid=z2" type="external">Continue to the original source »</a></p>
<p /> | HUSH: Government Officials Using Secret Email Accounts | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/hush-government-officials-using-secret-email-accounts/ | 0 |
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<p>Brian describes how the media and politicians are trying to hide and ignore a new study that shows a pause in global warming.&#160;</p>
<p>This study has some of the biggest names in the global warming industry signing on to it so why are we not hearing about it.Brian also launches the website and petition <a href="http://www.climatepause.com" type="external">climatepause.com</a></p>
<p /> | The global warming study they don't want you to know about | true | http://therebel.media/the_global_warming_study_they_don_t_want_you_to_know_about | 2016-02-29 | 0 |
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<p>• DEAR SANTA, it was a bummer about not getting to see Mr Koch referee the UNM/UTEP game. It’s okay though, The Lobos gave themselves and their fans a much better gift, a win. I hope the lump of coal kept the Miners warm on the bus trip home. Now Lobos, eat, sleep,and repeat. It ain’t over ’til it’s over! – MAL, Albuquerque • SUNDAY MORNING, I’m armed with my coffee and doughnuts and ready to watch the Packers vs. the Bills. Turn on the TV and what do we get? Cleveland vs. Cincinnati. Who made that brilliant decision???? – da Don, ABQ The stations/networks occasionally make last-minute switches. Contact them for more information. – Randy, Journal • THURSDAY NIGHT football: Tennessee vs. Jacksonville. Puh-lease. Zzzzzzz. – MHD Unfortunately, no switching out of this one. – Randy • WHILE IT IS good to know Manly from Cibola was recruited and has committed to UNM, it’s sad to know that Easton Bruere or Cantwell, or any other local kids have not been. … The best players in the metro should be heavily recruited by UNM every year. … Who knows, Bruere could be the next Urlacher … and it’s pretty likely more local talent on the team would mean more ticket sales! – Lobo Alum ’98 • IS IT ME or does anyone else find it odd to see the obituaries in Sunday’s Journal at the bottom of page 2 in the Sports section? And they were a continuation of the obits from section B! Who does the layout at the Journal? With all of the sports in Sunday’s paper surely you could’ve found a better place for obituaries. – Dave W, Taylor Ranch • YES, LANE KIFFIN did an admirable job as offensive coordinator at Alabama this season. Huzzah! He’s also the guy Al Davis said brought disgrace to the Raiders. Disgrace? The Raiders? How is that even possible? – Larry the VOL</p>
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<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Sports Speak Up! | false | https://abqjournal.com/513548/sports-speak-up-257.html | 2 |
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<p>Delanda est Cathargo (in English “Carthage must be destroyed”) are words that come down to us from ancient history. They were spoken by the famed Roman soldier, statesman and orator <a href="http://www.roman-empire.net/republic/cato-e.html" type="external">Cato the Elder</a>, and have never been more relevant than now, today.</p>
<p>The Rome of our time is Washington, Russia is Carthage, and today’s Cato the Elder is US Senator John McCain, whose quest for conflict with Russia is unbounded. Indeed, for Mr McCain the <a href="" type="internal">belief</a> that Russia must be destroyed has been elevated to the status of a self evident and received truth.</p>
<p>Origins of the ‘dodgy dossier’</p>
<p>It was McCain who <a href="" type="internal">passed</a> the ‘dodgy dossier’ on Trump to the FBI, after receiving it from former UK ambassador to Russia, Sir Andrew Wood. Contained within the dossier is information purporting to reveal how Trump has been compromised by Russian intelligence over various sexual encounters with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room. Compounding the scandal, adding to the lurid nature of it, are reports of the existence of a second Russian dossier on the president-elect.</p>
<p>The dossier’s originator has been revealed as former British MI6 intelligence officer Christopher Steele, who now runs a private intelligence company and has, according to reports, gone into hiding in the UK, supposedly fearing assassination by Russian agents.</p>
<p>The fact that Mr Steele hasn’t set foot in Russia for a number of years and reportedly, on behalf of Trump’s enemies within the Republican Party establishment, paid for the information contained in the 35-page dossier, recently released with the caveat that its contents cannot be verified, should have been more than enough to have it instantly dismissed as, well, fake news?</p>
<p>In his most recent&#160; <a href="" type="internal">article</a>&#160;on the dossier for the UK’s Independent&#160;website,&#160;Patrick Cockburn writes, “I read the text of the dossier on <a href="" type="internal">Donald Trump’s alleged dirty dealings</a> with a scepticism that soon turned into complete disbelief,”&#160;prior to observing how, “In its determination to damage Trump, the US press corps has been happy to suspend disbelief in this dubious document.”</p>
<p>Convenient timing of the dossier’s appearance</p>
<p>More significant than the fact this dossier was not immediately dismissed is the timing of its emergence and subsequent publication by the US news site, Buzz Feed. It comes on the very cusp of president-elect Donald Trump’s official inauguration as the 45th President of the United States on January 20th, and the very point at which his cabinet appointees were being grilled over their views of Russia, the threat Russia allegedly poses to the US and the West, during their official Senate confirmation hearings.</p>
<p>A political coup against Trump is underway&#160;</p>
<p>By now most people are aware, or at least should be, of Washington long and ignoble history when it comes to fomenting, planning, supporting, and funding political and military coups around the world – in Central and Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and elsewhere the CIA and other US agencies have brought down countless leaders and governments that have refused to toe the line when it comes to serving US interests.</p>
<p>In unprecedented fashion, what we have in this instance are those same deep state actors, working in conjunction with the US liberal establishment, currently engaged in a coup designed to destroy the Trump presidency – if not before it begins then certainly soon after, with the prospect of impeachment proceedings against him already being <a href="http://prospect.org/article/impeaching-trump" type="external">mooted</a> in Washington circles.</p>
<p>During his recent <a href="" type="internal">press conference</a>, Trump felt minded to declaim against Washington’s bloated intelligence community, accusing it of releasing the dossier to the media, an allegation US intelligence chiefs have denied. The result is an unprecedented open war between the country’s next president and his soon-to-be intelligence services that has pitched the country into a political crisis that grows deeper by the day.</p>
<p>Russia’s demonization</p>
<p>On the question of why the US deep state and Washington’s liberal establishment is so intent on maintaining Russia in the role of deadly enemy, the answer is very simple – money.</p>
<p>Huge and powerful economic and ideological interests are tied up in the new cold war of the past few years. We’re talking the country’s previously mentioned gargantuan defense and intelligence budgets, continuing US support and financing of NATO, along with reason for the continued existence and funding of the vast network of political think tanks in Washington and throughout the West, all of which are committed to sustaining a status quo of US hegemony and unipolarity.</p>
<p>Russia’s emergence as a strategic counterweight to the West in recent years has and continues to challenge this hitherto uncontested hegemony emanating from Washington, providing lucrative opportunities for organizations, groups, and individuals with a vested interest in the resulting new cold war. For those of a sceptical persuasion in this regard, I refer you to the chilling warning issued by former US President Dwight D Eisenhower prior to leaving office in 1960 to make way for his replacement, John F Kennedy.</p>
<p>Don’t fuck with the military industrial complex</p>
<p>In his televised <a href="" type="internal">farewell address</a> to the American people in 1961, Eisenhower said, “we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.”</p>
<p>He continued, “This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.”</p>
<p>Finally, Eisenhower warned the American people how “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”</p>
<p>Though neoconservatives may no longer be in the driving seat in Washington, neoconservative ideas undoubtedly are. And prime among them is the idea that not only must Russia be destroyed but also anyone who would dare stand in the way of this narrative, up to and including President-elect Donald J Trump.</p> | Russia Must be Destroyed: John McCain and the Case of the Dodgy Dossier | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/01/13/russia-must-be-destroyed-john-mccain-and-the-case-of-the-dodgy-dossier/ | 2017-01-13 | 4 |
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<p>Small-business lending will likely improve this year, but the degree of growth depends on the overall economic recovery, top U.S. bank regulators said on Thursday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Obama administration and federal regulators have both struggled to find ways to get banks to lend more to small businesses, which is viewed as key to getting the stubbornly high unemployment to begin dropping.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Federal Reserve</a> Chairman <a href="" type="internal">Ben Bernanke</a> and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman <a href="" type="internal">Sheila Bair</a> said on Thursday they expect the situation to improve in 2011, but added there is a limit to how much the government can do.</p>
<p>"The more we can do to get the economy going again, the more we're going to help small businesses and banks' lending to small businesses," Bair said at a forum on small-business lending hosted by the FDIC.</p>
<p>There are already signs hiring is picking up, including at small businesses, but unemployment remain high. In December, the unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent from 9.8 percent.</p>
<p>The <a href="" type="internal">ADP</a> National Employment Report released earlier this month showed businesses added 297,000 jobs in December and the smallest companies -- with fewer than 50 workers -- accounted for more than a third of this increase. Economists view the report somewhat skeptically, however, because it has a spotty track record.</p>
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<p>Bernanke believes the economy will grow 3 percent to 4 percent this year, which will not be enough to put much of a dent in jobless numbers.</p>
<p>As part of efforts to get the economy going, regulators face the dilemma of pushing banks to lend more, while also urging them to be careful about the amount of risk on their books following the financial crisis of 2007-2009.</p>
<p>Banks and lawmakers complain the right balance is not being struck. They contend lending is being restricted because regulators are sending a mixed message, with agency heads in Washington saying they want more lending while examiners in the field crack the whip on loans they view as not meeting a high enough standard.</p>
<p>"Instead of focusing on patterns and practices that suggest poor underwriting or lax risk management, some examiners are micro-managing the daily activities at our community banks," House Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus said at the forum.</p>
<p>Bernanke and Bair have instructed their examiners to be more flexible with lenders, particularly in cases where the bank knows the small business and the business has a good track record of repaying its loans.</p>
<p>They also pushed back on this complaint, arguing banks sometimes use the regulators as an excuse when they do not want to make a loan.</p>
<p>Bernanke said banks need to do more work and consider a variety of factors when determining who should get a loan.</p>
<p>He argued banks are relying too much on the collateral a borrower brings to the table. Many small businesses use their homes or commercial properties for this purpose and with real estate values low they are having a harder time getting a loan.</p>
<p>"Collateral is essentially a way to make a loan without doing much work," Bernanke added.</p> | Small Business Lending to Improve This Year | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/01/14/small-business-lending-improve-year.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
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<p>Usually, the term “human rights abuses” conjures up images of far-off places: despair coming from Aleppo or fire hoses being turned on the water protectors at Standing Rock.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this letter concerns human rights violations much closer to home. In April of 2014, after an in-depth investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the Albuquerque Police Department “engages in a pattern or practice of use of excessive force” against its own citizens.</p>
<p>When the city entered into a settlement agreement with DOJ, independent monitor James Ginger, a man with decades of police practices experience, was assigned to monitor implementation of reforms required by the settlement.</p>
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<p>After more than two years of monitoring APD, Ginger recently stated that APD suffers from a “culture of low accountability” and “systemic deficiencies” in its review of use of force incidents.</p>
<p>These are serious statements worthy of serious consideration on Human Rights Day.</p>
<p>However, rather than serious consideration, the city has attacked the independent monitor simply for doing his job. By undermining the independent monitor, the city seems more concerned with public perception rather than with addressing the substance of his observations.</p>
<p>Sadly, we see our city picking pointless fights with Ginger and impeding the reform of practices that violate human rights.</p>
<p>Moreover, we recently learned of very serious allegations of evidence tampering from the former records custodian for APD. In an affidavit filed in late October, the former custodian alleges that APD officials have altered, or even deleted, footage showing controversial incidents with police including at least two shootings of civilians. Initially, City Attorney Jessica Hernandez told City Council that her staff and APD were investigating these allegations.</p>
<p>From a human rights perspective, this is not a neutral process for such an investigation. Indeed, the Citizen Police Oversight Agency, one of the few bright spots in the monitor’s reports, has called for the FBI to investigate these allegations.</p>
<p>Since the agency was created by the settlement agreement to investigate issues of excessive force by APD officers and relies on evidence shared by APD, its members are understandably worried.</p>
<p>If the allegations in this affidavit are true, their independent investigations of future excessive force concerns may be compromised.</p>
<p>But the deeper issue concerns city leadership throughout this crisis. It is a concern that, despite a settlement agreement requirement, Chief Gorden Eden does not attend most monthly status meetings with the court. He has refused to attend community policing council meetings despite multiple written invitations and has ignored his legal requirement to respond to Citizen Police Oversight Agency findings and disciplinary recommendations.</p>
<p>In this moment of crisis, it is critical that Eden be highly engaged and assert his leadership in future public proceedings surrounding the settlement agreement.</p>
<p>Still, at the end of today — Human Rights Day — responsibility rests with the mayor. His legacy will be forever tied to the effort of reforming APD — whether that effort succeeds or fails. We need the mayor’s leadership now more than ever.</p>
<p>As chief executive of this city, we need him to hold APD accountable and to engage, meaningfully, in reform efforts himself. If he does that, he will lead the way toward restoring community trust in APD and ensuring human rights for all who call Albuquerque home.</p>
<p /> | Restore trust in APD | false | https://abqjournal.com/907281/restore-trust-in-apd.html | 2 |
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<p>Thirty-nine shrink-wrapped pills sat in front of Brooke Levitt, a nurse at a respected hospital in San Francisco. It was an antibiotic called Septra. And the prescription said to administer all 39 of the pills to a 16-year-old boy, Pablo Garcia, who had been admitted for a colonoscopy.&#160;</p>
<p>The dose seemed like a lot to Levitt, who had been working at the hospital for 10 months. She thought of checking with the head nurse, but decided not to. That nurse was busy.&#160;</p>
<p>Levitt scanned the barcode on the first pill, which told her the intended dose was indeed 39 pills. She wondered if maybe Garcia was on some kind of research program.&#160;</p>
<p>So she unwrapped each pill, put them in a cup, and gave them to Garcia. He swallowed each of the pills, which filled half a cup. Hours later, he suffered a grand mal seizure and stopped breathing.</p>
<p>He had overdosed on the pills.&#160;</p>
<p>Dr. Robert Wachter is a professor and interim chair of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He spoke with Levitt about what happened.&#160;</p>
<p>“When I asked her what she was thinking when she gave this kid the 39 pills, she said, ‘Well, I thought what a good kid he is to take all of these pills,’" Wachter says. “And then she stopped for a second and started crying. Because obviously in retrospect, she knows this is crazy.”&#160;</p>
<p><a href="https://backchannel.com/how-technology-led-a-hospital-to-give-a-patient-38-times-his-dosage-ded7b3688558#.q0cmzqd0n" type="external">Garcia survived the overdose</a>, but Wachter says the episode is a glaring example of how new technology can fail us in our hospitals. It inspired him to write a book,&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Digital-Doctor-Medicines-Computer/dp/0071849467" type="external">The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine's Computer Age</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, digital interfaces, pop-up alerts, and automated handling of prescriptions are supposed to make our hospitals safer. But they all contributed to Garcia’s overdose.&#160;</p>
<p>“People defer to the technology because we’ve gotten so used to it being righter than we are,” Wachter says. “That’s a real danger.”</p>
<p>Technology isn’t just reshaping how hospitals operate. It’s redefining how patients relate to their doctors.&#160;</p>
<p>“If you go in and see your doctor, there’s a pretty good chance these days the doctor will ask you a question and as soon as you start speaking the doctor’s head will be down in his or her laptop,” Wachter says.</p>
<p>And, he adds that technology isn’t just getting between doctors and their patients. It’s also following doctors home. &#160;“Many of our doctors spend the day doing what they used to do and then go home for two or three or four hours of digital work. Nobody really anticipated that.”&#160;</p>
<p>But Wachter doesn't&#160;want to rip the computers out of hospitals and burn them in a giant fire. His book is more cautionary tale than call for revolution.&#160;</p>
<p>So how do we navigate this brave new medical world?&#160;</p>
<p>Wachter says it might be wise to avoid hospitals that have just implemented a new computer system. It usually takes months and even years to work out the kinks.&#160;</p>
<p>But he adds that he wouldn’t go to a hospital that wasn’t technologically up-to-date. He expects electronic medical records, barcodes, and “smart” pumps.&#160;</p>
<p>“I do think — on net — it makes care better and safer. And it’s easy to get romantic about the old days. I mean, the old days were pretty bad,” Wachter says.</p>
<p>This <a href="http://blogs.wgbh.org/innovation-hub/2016/4/7/wachter-medicine/" type="external">story</a> first aired as an interview on PRI's <a href="http://blogs.wgbh.org/innovation-hub/" type="external">Innovation Hub</a>.</p> | When technology goes wrong in your doctor's office, it can have serious consequences | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-04-15/when-technology-goes-wrong-your-doctors-office-it-can-have-serious-consequences | 2016-04-15 | 3 |
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<p>FOX Business: The Power to Prosper</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The markets gave up modest gains and fell into the red as traders weighed downbeat economic developments, with optimism Europe will be able to contain its widening debt crisis.</p>
<p>Today's Markets</p>
<p>As of 9:55 a.m. ET, the <a href="" type="internal">Dow Jones</a> Industrial Average fell 13.8 points, or 0.1%, to 11,389, the S&amp;P 500 dipped 1.3 points, or 0.11%, to 1,203 and the <a href="" type="internal">Nasdaq</a> Composite slid 2.7 points, or 0.11%, to 2,610.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Wall Street</a> is off to a rocky start this week, with the Dow sinking more than 100 points on Monday, and breaking a five-day winning streak. &#160;The focus once again has become Europe's deepening sovereign debt crisis. &#160;In particular, fears that Greece wouldn't receive a roughly $10 billion tranche of aid due next month, which would likely cause the embattled country to default, sent the blue chips tumbling 250 points at the lows of the session.</p>
<p>However, those concerns eased toward the end of the session and into Monday evening after Greek officials said they made significant progress toward reaching an agreement with European inspectors on making bigger cuts to its budget deficit.</p>
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<p>Standard &amp; Poor's slashed Italy's sovereign debt rating by one notch to "A," in a move that came earlier than expected. &#160;The ratings company cited a weakening political and economic environment in its decision to make the move. &#160;Additionally, S&amp;P kept its outlook at negative, meaning another downgrade could be on the horizon for Europe's third-largest economy.</p>
<p>Despite European markets largely shrugging off the move, economists that focus on Europe have said this is yet another setback for the currency bloc, which has been in the throes of a debt crisis for months.</p>
<p>"Contagion risks (or the risk the crisis could spread to other countries) remain elevated, and the market's [skepticism] extends beyond Italy and now questions the survival of the euro area itself," economists at Barclays Capital wrote in a research note.</p>
<p>Focus on Economics&#160;</p>
<p>Data on the housing market was mixed on Tuesday. &#160;Housing starts tumbled 5% -- the biggest decline since April -- to an annualized unit rate of 571,000 last month, much weaker than the 590,000 economists forecast. &#160;Meanwhile, permits to build new homes climbed 3.2% to an annualized unit rate of 620,000, topping calls for 590,00. &#160;Indeed, the number of new permits, a slightly more forward-looking number, was the highest since December.</p>
<p>Home building has been slow to recover from the economic downturn as mortgage conditions have remained tight, and the supply of homes on the market has remained high.&#160;Home builders such as Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL) and KB Home (NYSE:KBH) may be particularly affected by these data.</p>
<p>Also on the economic front, the International Monetary Fund slashed its expectations for global, and U.S. growth on Tuesday. &#160;The IMF's new forecast for 2011 economic expansion is 1.5%, one percentage point lower than its previous estimate. &#160;The next year, the organization now expects the U.S. economy to expand at 1.8%, also below its initial forecast.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve starts its two-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday. &#160;The central bank is widely expected to commence another round of economic stimulus in light of stalling economic expansion in the U.S. and abroad.</p>
<p>"Although not a done deal, we see a high probability that the Federal Open Market Committee ... will announce further easing steps at the conclusion of this week’s meeting," economists at <a href="" type="internal">Goldman Sachs</a> wrote in a research note.</p>
<p>Economists are expecting <a href="" type="internal">the Fed</a> to embark on a program that has been widely dubbed as "Operation Twist," wherein the central bank would sell short-term Treasury bonds and buy longer term ones, effectively lengthening the maturity of its balance sheet .</p>
<p>The Fed's final decision is expected at roughly 2:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday.</p>
<p>In currencies, the euro gained 0.19% against the U.S. dollar, while the greenback fell 0.13% against a basket of world currencies.</p>
<p>Energy futures were mixed. &#160;Light, sweet crude climbed 16 cents, or 0.19%, to $85.86 a barrel. &#160;Wholesale RBOB gasoline slipped less than a penny to $2.69 a gallon.</p>
<p>Gold jumped $16.20, or 0.91%, to $1,795 a troy ounce. &#160;The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was up to 1.985% from 1.949%.</p>
<p>Foreign Markets</p>
<p>The English FTSE 100 rose 0.62% to 5,293 and the German DAX jumped 1.3% to 5,487.</p>
<p>In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 slumped 1.6% to 8,721 and the Chinese Hang Seng ticked higher by 0.51% to 19,015.</p> | Stocks Give Up Early Gains, Head Modestly Lower | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/09/20/wall-street-bounces-back-amid-stimulus-euro-hopes.html | 2016-03-07 | 0 |
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<p>Chrysler has withdrawn its bid for a $3.5 billion Department of Energy loan that was supposed to help fund the research and development of more fuel-efficient technology for cars.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The company, which called the loan “restrictive,” chose instead to fund its own operations without federal help.</p>
<p>The company reiterated its commitment to bringing more competitive, fuel-efficient vehicles to market and said its decision to scrap the Advanced Technology Vehicles manufacturing loan would not impact its ability to achieve previously announced business targets.</p>
<p>“The DOE’s proposed terms were very restrictive and compliance would have negatively affected our operational flexibility,” Chrysler spokeswoman Shawn Morgan told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.</p>
<p>The company has been fighting for the loan since Sergio Marchionne agreed to take control of the troubled company during its 2009 bankruptcy and merger with Fiat SpA.</p>
<p>The move is another setback on the Obama Administration’s program that helps automakers build more fuel-efficient vehicles.</p>
<p>General Motors (NYSE:GM) last year withdrew a request for $14.4 billion in low-cost funding from the energy department after deciding it didn’t need the money. Ford (NYSE:F), however, accepted a $5.9 billion DOE award.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Citing Restrictions, Chrysler Passes on $3.5B DOE Loan | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/02/16/citing-restrictions-chrysler-passes-on-35b-doe-loan.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
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<p>But as the tribe moves forward with controversial plans to use the reservation to build a casino that could draw truckers and drivers ready for a break halfway between Los Angeles and Dallas, it has reignited old turf wars with the state and with other tribes concerned about competition for gamblers.</p>
<p>The tribe recently won a first hurdle in its quest to build the casino with a ruling from the Bureau of Indian Affairs that the 30 acres the tribe has been trying to develop into a gambling operation for years is indeed eligible.</p>
<p>But the roadside reservation is big enough for only a casino and possibly a hotel, raising questions about the tribe’s sincerity in seeking the reservation status as part of its quest to return to its New Mexico homelands.</p>
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<p>Fort Sill Apache Tribal Chairman Jeff Haozous says it’s a bit of chicken-and-egg question. The tribe, currently based in southwest Oklahoma, needs the casino to get income to buy more land to help its members return, he said.</p>
<p>“The goal is to repatriate the tribe,” Haozous said. “Obviously, that would require more than 30 acres. But that would also require more economic resources. With more resources, we can buy more land and develop more businesses.”</p>
<p>The Fort Sill Apache Tribe has roughly 685 members.</p>
<p>Gov. Susana Martinez opposes the casino, saying the tribe agreed it would not attempt to build a casino in Akela Flats, when the land was put into trust about 10 years ago.</p>
<p>The head of the BIA office in Albuquerque last month sent a letter seeking comment on the proposed casino from the governor and local elected officials in southern New Mexico, as well as the Mescalero Apache tribe and the Isleta Pueblo, which operate the two Indian casinos closest to Akela Flats.</p>
<p>Frank Lujan, governor of the Isleta Pueblo south of Albuquerque, said he is unsure whether his or other New Mexico tribes will support the Fort Sill Apache proposal.</p>
<p>“Everybody has a different take on it,” he said. “In a sense, yes, in a sense, no. It’s kind of like one of these things where we want all Native Americans to succeed. At the same time, we are in competition.”</p>
<p>Lujan said the casino is far enough south of Albuquerque, about 200 miles, that it’s not as big a concern for his tribe as it likely is for the Mescalero Apache, who run the Inn of the Mountain Gods hotel and casino in Ruidoso. That casino is the only tribal casino in southern New Mexico and draws heavily on Texas gamblers.</p>
<p>Mescalero Apache officials did not return calls from The Associated Press, though the tribe has in the past opposed a separate attempt by the Jemez Pueblo to build an off-reservation casino in Anthony, N.M., which is close to El Paso.</p>
<p>Gaming officials say it’s possible for the BIA to grant the reservation permission to operate a casino without Martinez’s approval. Likewise, the state could go to court to fight the BIA if it does. That means the dispute, which first erupted when the tribe unsuccessfully tried to put gambling in its roadside trailer in the late ’90s, could drag on for years. — This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | New Reservation Stirs Concerns | false | https://abqjournal.com/111920/new-reservation-stirs-concerns.html | 2012-06-09 | 2 |
<p>AP</p>
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Washington Free Beacon Staff</a>April 17, 2013 10:25 am</p>
<p>A Virginia man was sentenced last week to seven years in federal prison for stealing a truck containing President Obama's Teleprompter.</p>
<p>Eric Brown, of Richmond, Va., stole a Ford truck 2011 containing White House audio equipment, including President Obama's Teleprompter. He agreed to a longer sentence in exchange to avoid prosecution for other similar crimes, <a href="http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/obama-teleprompter-theft-sentencing-202640431.html#ixzz2QjLaMU78" type="external">according to NBC Chicago</a>:</p>
<p>Young outlined Brown's "nightmarishly long" criminal record — three dozen convictions for crimes including burglary, drug possession, identity fraud and grand theft auto stretching back more than three decades. Most recently, Brown operated "a pretty serious one-man car theft ring," Gibney said.</p>
<p>In response to a question from Gibney, Brown said he targeted Ford F-350s and Ford F-450s because they were easy to steal. One of those trucks happened to be a 2005 Ford owned by the Defense Information Systems Agency and assigned to the White House, which was stolen from a Henrico County hotel parking lot on Oct. 16, 2011, a few days ahead of Obama's visit to a suburban Richmond fire station to promote his jobs plan.</p>
<p>The truck had no White House markings on the exterior, but inside it was loaded with speakers, microphones, a teleprompter, a laptop computer, podiums and other items used in presidential appearances. The van was empty when it was recovered on the other side of town the next day, and some of the items were later recovered at Maryland pawn shops.</p>
<p>Via <a href="http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/04/17/man-sentenced-to-7-years-for-stealing-obamas-teleprompter/#ixzz2QjHDVDWn" type="external">TIME</a>.</p> | Man Gets 7 Years in Prison for Stealing Obama’s Teleprompter | true | http://freebeacon.com/man-gets-7-years-in-prison-for-stealing-obamas-teleprompter/ | 2013-04-17 | 0 |
<p>Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) opened the Democratic debate Sunday night in Flint, Michigan, by declaring that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder needed to step down or be recalled over the water crisis.</p>
<p>It was the first time Clinton had called for Snyder to resign. Sanders had previously called for Snyder’s resignation.</p>
<p />
<p>“I agree the governor should resign or be recalled and we should support the efforts of citizens attempting to achieve that,” Clinton said. “But that is not enough. We have to focus on what must be done to help the people of Flint. I support 100 percent the efforts by your senators and members of Congress to get the money from.”</p>
<p>Sanders argued that the federal government should have taken a bigger role in cleaning up the area’s drinking water. When asked if he would fire the head of the EPA, Sanders responded that he would fire “anyone who knew what was happening and did not act appropriately.”</p>
<p>“President Sanders would make the point that how does it happen in the wealthiest country in the history of the world?” Sanders said. “How did we have so much money available to go to war in Iraq and spend trillions of dollars, but somehow not have enough money not just for Flint, the secretary is right. There are communities all over the country. Not just infrastructure, but education. Detroit’s public school system is collapsing.”</p> | Clinton, Sanders Call on Michigan Governor to Resign Over Flint Crisis | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/clinton-calls-for-gov-snyder-to-be-recalled | 4 |
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<p>SEOUL (Reuters) – Credit ratings agency Standard &amp; Poor’s said on Thursday that it sees no major short-term issues that could lead to rating actions for South Korea, with a war unlikely on the Korean peninsula despite rising geopolitical tensions.</p>
<p>“We don’t believe a war is likely to break out,” credit analyst Kim Eng Tan said, responding to a question at a Seoul press conference on the impact of North Korean risks on the economy.</p>
<p>Even with the heightened tensions, the ratings agency did not see any short-term issues that could alter its current AA ratings, its third highest grade as a sovereign rating, Tan said.</p>
<p>The risk of an armed conflict in Korea was low even in the event of more North Korean provocations, he added.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | S&P sees no major short-term issues leading to rating action for South Korea | false | https://newsline.com/sampp-sees-no-major-short-term-issues-leading-to-rating-action-for-south-korea/ | 2017-09-13 | 1 |
<p>&gt; <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/healthscience/ci_2700986" type="external">What you might see on a TV documentary about Salt Lake Trib (SLT)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.nypost.com/business/43375.htm" type="external">Ex-New York critic Wolff says mag is "very correct," "humorless" (NYP)</a></p>
<p>&gt; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/business/media/02barrons.html" type="external">Redesigned Barron's looks something like a Web page (NYT)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/arts/01gussow.html?" type="external">Longtime NYT critic and cultural reporter Gussow is dead at 71 (NYT)</a></p> | Additional items for May 2, 2005 | false | https://poynter.org/news/additional-items-may-2-2005 | 2005-05-02 | 2 |
<p>LaKicia Brown walks with a confident stride, but her eyes are laced with worry. A veteran educator with a decade’s experience before she opened the Loren Children’s Learning Center in the South Shore neighborhood in 2006, Brown thought she knew all the issues that should concern her.</p>
<p>But she didn’t realize until recently that James Lilly lived next door to her facility. Or that Alan Campbell and Roderick Wesley lived on the next block on South Merrill Avenue.</p>
<p>All three men are convicted child sex offenders–”and they are violating a state law by living less than 500 feet away from Brown’s facility. Yet, the men are listed as “compliant” on the state’s sex offender registry.</p>
<p>“It’s definitely a concern because we are dealing with children,” Brown said. “You never really know what’s going to happen so we take the necessary precautions to make sure [sexual abuse] doesn’t happen here.”</p>
<p>These measures include putting locks on the building’s front and back doors, installing video cameras in the facility and having the children play in an enclosed back yard.</p>
<p>Many other facilities may need to take similar precautions.</p>
<p>In Chicago, 797 child sex offenders and predators are violating the state’s residency rule by living within 500 feet of a school, playground or licensed child care facility, The Chicago Reporter found. And they are doing so with impunity, as the state’s law enforcement agencies have done little to crack down on these violators.</p>
<p>The Reporter’s analysis shows that these violations occurred in communities across the city but happened most often in poor and black neighborhoods.</p>
<p>The Reporter interviewed nearly a dozen local and state elected officials, but few seemed aware of the high number of violations. This could be in part because online sex offender registries maintained by the Illinois State Police and the City of Chicago are effective in flagging only a small number of violations.</p>
<p>A vast majority of violations are likely to be overlooked since the registries, while allowing their users to search sex offenders by proximity to schools and parks, do not take into account the locations of more than 3,300 licensed child care facilities in the city.</p>
<p>The state police’s registry even labels 693 offenders who are violating the residency rule in Chicago as “compliant.” More than 40 percent of these offenders, in fact, live within 500 feet of two or more facilities.</p>
<p>And law enforcement agencies can produce little evidence that they have been vigilant in enforcing the residency rule in the city.</p>
<p>The Chicago Police Department declined to respond to the Reporter’s repeated requests for comment on the issue. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said it does not tally how many violations it has been alerted to by local police departments. The office also said it filed two charges against residency violators in 2008, four in 2009 and just one in 2010.</p>
<p>This lack of enforcement dismayed state Sen. Iris Martinez, whose district had 34 offenders violating the residency rule.</p>
<p>“We have laws in place because we are trying to protect our children,” Martinez said. “Once again, we say to law enforcement, –˜They’ve got to put their money and their resources to what is most important.’</p>
<p>“It is not acceptable that we take this attitude. It could mean that the life of a child could be saved,” she said.</p>
<p>Polly Poskin, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a Springfield, Ill.-based advocacy group, acknowledged the scarcity of resources available but warned that the consequences of abuse demand vigilance on the issue. “Living in an era of diminished resources can lead to complacency about accountability,” she said. “Once sexual abuse occurs, what a tremendous drain that is on people’s ability to function the way they would like and what a loss that is to the community and the society at large.”</p>
<p>Alderman Anthony Beale, whose 9th Ward had 37 residency rule violators, the city’s sixth-highest total, echoed the concern and called for action, legislative or otherwise, to be taken.</p>
<p>“The safety of children is always first and foremost as it relates to public safety,” he said. “If this is some kind of undercurrent under the radar, we need to address it aggressively.”</p>
<p>Illinois law states that child sex offenders may not knowingly live within 500 feet of a school, playground or “child care institution, child care center, part-day child care facility, or a facility providing programs or services exclusively directed toward persons under 18 years of age.”</p>
<p>When sex offenders are released from prison, the Illinois Department of Corrections is initially responsible for making sure that their new residence meets the state’s residency rule, said Cara Smith, the department’s chief of staff.</p>
<p>In Chicago, sex offenders must register within three days of their release with the police department, and, depending on their offense, re-register every three or 12 months.</p>
<p>The Chicago Police Department declined repeated requests for information about whether it checks the residency rule as part of offenders’ registration.</p>
<p>Offenders who fulfill their registration responsibilities are listed as “compliant” by the state police on its sex offender registry, said Isaiah Vega, a department spokesman.</p>
<p>But being identified as compliant means nothing for the residency rule.</p>
<p>In Chicago, 44 percent of 1,573 child sex offenders who are identified as compliant lived within 500 feet of a school, playground or licensed child care facility. So did 335, or 44 percent, of the city’s 755 sexual “predators,” a group of offenders who have been convicted of more serious crimes than child sex offenders.</p>
<p>These violations happened most often and at higher percentages in communities with median incomes below the citywide median, the Reporter analysis found. The same trend occurred in predominantly black neighborhoods.</p>
<p>In the West Side’s Austin neighborhood, for example, 66 of 84–”or 79 percent–”of child sex offenders identified as compliant are violating the residency rule–”the highest number in the city. The Auburn Gresham neighborhood has 38 of 45–”or 84 percent–”of its offenders in the same circumstances. Both communities had median incomes below the city’s, and both areas are predominantly black.</p>
<p>By contrast, Forest Glen, a predominantly white neighborhood on the Far Northwest Side that had a median income significantly higher than the city’s, had just two offenders, neither of whom violated the residency rule.</p>
<p>In all, 64 percent of all residency rule violations occurred in predominantly black neighborhoods, compared with 12 percent in Latino communities and 4 percent in white neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Of the city’s 77 community areas, 35 percent were predominantly black, according to a Reporter analysis of census data. Majority-Latino communities made up 16 percent, while 19 percent of the neighborhoods were predominantly white.</p>
<p>This range in compliance levels is caused in large part by the fact that more sex offenders live in black communities, and more licensed child care facilities are also located in those neighborhoods. Black communities had 57 percent of all licensed child care facilities in Chicago, compared with just 11 percent in Latino neighborhoods and 6 percent in white areas.</p>
<p>But Maria Whelan, president of Illinois Action for Children, a Chicago-based children’s advocacy group, said the number of violations may actually be higher.</p>
<p>The Illinois Department of Human Services found that 35 percent of Chicago children less than 4 years old were in child care provided informally by friends, family and neighbors–”in facilities that were not licensed with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.</p>
<p>Whelan said the 1996 passage of welfare reform and many single mothers’ unpredictable work schedules have created a market for child care providers in the community who can meet the needs of people with constantly changing work hours.</p>
<p>The number of people whose occupation was indicated as “day care” in the census rose 14 percent in Chicago from 17,790 in 2005 to 20,240 in 2009–”at twice the growth rate of all jobs in the city, according to a Reporter analysis of census data.</p>
<p>The vast majority of residency rule violators–”767, or 94 percent–”live near child care facilities. Just 15 of the violators were near schools, while another 31 live near playgrounds.</p>
<p>Yet, online sex offender registries fail to pay close attention to locations of child care facilities. The city’s registry can be searched for sex offenders’ locations by ward, school, park or address but not by child care facility.</p>
<p>The state police’s registry shows the locations of each sex offender, along with icons for each park and school in the state, but there are no similar icons for child care facilities.</p>
<p>Alderman Beale said that absence should end. “If you’ve got parks and schools, you should have child care [facilities] also,” he said.</p>
<p>Vega of the state police said the placement of any icons identifying schools and parks goes beyond the law’s mandates. Concerned people can enter the address of the child care facility and identify the number of offenders living within a 500-foot radius, he said.</p>
<p>Ann Spillane, chief of staff at the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, said child care facilities should be included on the site as part of giving the public as much information as possible.</p>
<p>Besides the lack of information about child care facilities and playgrounds, the state police’s registry can be misleading. On the site, the word “compliant” simply means that the offenders have complied with state law by registering at prescribed intervals. The offenders’ compliance status has nothing to do with whether they are complying with the residency rule, which is monitored by local police, Vega said.</p>
<p>As a result, the offenders could literally be living in the same building as a child care facility and still be listed as compliant. The Reporter discovered one such instance in Chicago.</p>
<p>But such information is apparently not shared regularly among relevant agencies.</p>
<p>Spillane said that’s been an ongoing problem. “We should be using the computer technology that’s available to us and allowing people to see through mapping where child care facilities are and where ex-offenders live,” she said. “We have struggled for years to have all relevant agencies talk to each other and exchange data on a regular basis so that the public can go and be armed.”</p>
<p>The lack of child care facility data on online registries is a case in point.</p>
<p>DCFS maintains a list of licensed child care facilities in the state on the Sunshine Illinois site. Kendall Marlowe, a DCFS spokesman, said his department “regularly responds” to requests from law enforcement agencies for lists of child care facilities but does not share it with the state police or the City of Chicago on an ongoing basis.</p>
<p>Such problems reveal an inadequate system, Martinez said. She added that no law enforcement agency is taking sufficient responsibility to change this untenable situation. She said she plans to “see what we have in current law, looking to see if it’s a matter of amending or enforcement.”</p>
<p>Opinions differ widely about the effectiveness of residency restrictions in keeping children safe.</p>
<p>Ed Yohnka, communications and public policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, maintained that the law has the opposite of its intended effect. By giving offenders so few places in which to live, he said, the legislation makes them less likely to register and essentially drives them underground.</p>
<p>Jill Levenson, an associate professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., has written a number of studies that have shown that residency restrictions have no connection to reduced rates of child sexual abuse. “There doesn’t seem to be any real statistical correlation between proximity to a school or child care facility and an offender’s likelihood of reoffending,” Levenson said.</p>
<p>But state Sen. Jacqueline Collins rejected the notion that offenders living so close to a child care facility did not present a risk to children, noting that the majority of child abductors strike close to their own neighborhoods. More often than not, she said, those neighbors are black.</p>
<p>Registries can give parents a false sense of security, said Margie Slagle, an attorney who specializes in the child sexual abuse issue at the Ohio Justice and Policy Center. This can deter parents from learning about the issue, she said. She endorsed an approach in which offenders are assessed by psychologists for their risk of reoffending, rather than subjected to a uniform residency restriction.</p>
<p>Levenson said Illinois’ residency rule is lenient, with many other states and municipalities using distances of 2,000 or even 2,500 feet.</p>
<p>The Reporter found that offenders were prohibited from living in 34 percent of the city’s total area. This analysis did not distinguish between residential and commercial areas of the city.</p>
<p>Alderman Beale pushed for higher levels of compliance with the existing law. “If I have to round up my state lawmakers, I’ll do it,” Beale said.</p>
<p>Alderman Leslie Hairston, whose 5th Ward includes much of the South Shore neighborhood, where the Loren Child Care Center is located, called for regular briefings from the police to the aldermen about the registry so that they can help keep their constituents informed.</p>
<p>Back at the Center, Brown calls firmly to Tristan, a preschooler, to sit on a chair before turning to smile tenderly at a boy who thanks her for sharpening his pencil. While saying that she does not endorse forcing offenders from the community, she also does not support compromising on the existing statute. “Kids are the first priority,” she said. “Adults are here to protect them.”</p>
<p>Contributing: Angela Caputo, Kimbriell Kelly and Alden Loury. Allison Griner, Louis McGill and A. Jay Wagner helped research this article.</p> | An offender among us | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/offender-among-us/ | 2011-03-01 | 3 |
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<p>The Vikings made the announcement early Wednesday morning, about a day and a half after initially deciding that Peterson could play with the team while the legal process played out. Peterson is charged with a felony for using a wooden switch to spank his 4-year-old son and now could miss the rest of the season while the case proceeds through the court system.</p>
<p>The Vikings came under heavy criticism for their initial stance. Several sponsors responded by either suspending their deals with the Vikings or severing ties with Peterson, prompting Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf to revisit the situation on Tuesday.</p>
<p>“While we were trying to make a balanced decision yesterday, after further reflection we have concluded that this resolution is best for the Vikings and for Adrian,” the Wilfs said in a statement. “We want to be clear: we have a strong stance regarding the protection and welfare of children, and we want to be sure we get this right. At the same time we want to express our support for Adrian and acknowledge his seven-plus years of outstanding commitment to this organization and this community.”</p>
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<p>Peterson was indicted last week in Montgomery County, Texas, after admitting to authorities that he struck his son with a tree branch. Peterson said he was disciplining his son the same way his own father disciplined him while growing up in Palestine, Texas, and didn’t intend to hurt him.</p>
<p>The Vikings deactivated him for the 30-7 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday while they gathered more information. But on Monday they announced that Peterson was being reinstated and expected to play this weekend at New Orleans.</p>
<p>The about face came after the Radisson hotel chains suspended its sponsorship with the Vikings, Papa John’s considered doing the same, and Anheuser-Busch said it was “disappointed and increasingly concerned” with the negative attention brought to the league by Ray Rice’s assault on his wife and Peterson’s arrest.</p>
<p>Castrol Motor Oil, Special Olympics Minnesota and Mylan Inc. all severed ties with Peterson, and Twin Cities Nike stores pulled Peterson’s jerseys from its shelves.</p>
<p>“This is the best possible outcome given the circumstances,” Peterson’s agent, Ben Dogra, told The Associated Press of the Vikings’ decision. “Adrian understands the gravity of the situation and this enables him to take care of his personal situation. We fully support Adrian and he looks forward to watching his teammates and coaches being successful during his absence.”</p>
<p>Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, who spearheaded an effort to secure $477 million in public money to help build the team a new stadium, and Sen. Al Franken were among the many who called for the Vikings to reconsider their position.</p>
<p>Peterson’s first court appearance isn’t until Oct. 8, and with the Vikings specifying that he must stay away “until the legal proceedings are resolved,” it appears there is a possibility that he won’t play again this year.</p>
<p>The Vikings said they had deliberations with the NFL over the previous two days and informed the league they were revisiting the situation. Executives were at the team’s Winter Park headquarters late into the night on Tuesday, discussing how to respond to the avalanche of criticism.</p>
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<p>“After giving the situation additional thought, we have decided this is the appropriate course of action for the organization and for Adrian,” the Wilfs said in their statement. “We are always focused on trying to make the right decision as an organization.</p>
<p>“We embrace our role — and the responsibilities that go with it — as a leader in the community, as a business partner and as an organization that can build bridges with our fans and positively impact this great region. We appreciate and value the input we have received from our fans, our partners and the community.”</p>
<p>What this means for Peterson’s future with the team remains to be seen. The 29-year-old has been the face of the franchise practically since he was drafted in 2007, one of the most popular and marketable stars in the NFL whose All Day Foundation charity is devoted to helping children.</p>
<p>But the foundation’s website was shuttered on Tuesday, at one point posting a message that it “will re-engage after Adrian, his family, and staff have reflected on how the current situation impacts the direction for Adrian’s philanthropy.”</p>
<p>Peterson has rushed for 10,190 yards and 86 touchdowns in his NFL career. He won the MVP award in 2012 after rushing for 2,097 yards in his return from a torn ACL.</p>
<p>“We will support Adrian during this legal and personal process, but we firmly believe and realize this is the right decision,” the Wilfs said. “We hope that all of our fans can respect the process that we have gone through to reach this final decision.”</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>AP NFL websites: <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external">www.pro32.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP--NFL" type="external">www.twitter.com/AP–NFL</a></p> | Vikings reverse course again, bar Peterson from all team activities | false | https://abqjournal.com/463608/vikings-reverse-course-again-bar-peterson-from-all-team-activities.html | 2 |
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<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) _ These California lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>Daily 3 Evening</p>
<p>0-6-3</p>
<p>(zero, six, three)</p>
<p>Daily 3 Midday</p>
<p>9-1-2</p>
<p>(nine, one, two)</p>
<p>Daily 4</p>
<p>6-9-0-9</p>
<p>(six, nine, zero, nine)</p>
<p>Daily Derby</p>
<p>1st:11 Money Bags-2nd:5 California Classic-3rd:10 Solid Gold, Race Time: 1:48.24</p>
<p>(1st: 11 Money Bags, 2nd: 5 California Classic, 3rd: 10 Solid Gold; Race Time: one: 48.24)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $141,000</p>
<p>Fantasy 5</p>
<p>08-17-20-21-39</p>
<p>(eight, seventeen, twenty, twenty-one, thirty-nine)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $173,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $76 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>05-09-11-33-64, Powerball: 21, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(five, nine, eleven, thirty-three, sixty-four; Powerball: twenty-one; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $92 million</p>
<p>SuperLotto Plus</p>
<p>10-25-29-41-43, Mega Ball: 20</p>
<p>(ten, twenty-five, twenty-nine, forty-one, forty-three; Mega Ball: twenty)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $17 million</p>
<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) _ These California lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>Daily 3 Evening</p>
<p>0-6-3</p>
<p>(zero, six, three)</p>
<p>Daily 3 Midday</p>
<p>9-1-2</p>
<p>(nine, one, two)</p>
<p>Daily 4</p>
<p>6-9-0-9</p>
<p>(six, nine, zero, nine)</p>
<p>Daily Derby</p>
<p>1st:11 Money Bags-2nd:5 California Classic-3rd:10 Solid Gold, Race Time: 1:48.24</p>
<p>(1st: 11 Money Bags, 2nd: 5 California Classic, 3rd: 10 Solid Gold; Race Time: one: 48.24)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $141,000</p>
<p>Fantasy 5</p>
<p>08-17-20-21-39</p>
<p>(eight, seventeen, twenty, twenty-one, thirty-nine)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $173,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $76 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>05-09-11-33-64, Powerball: 21, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(five, nine, eleven, thirty-three, sixty-four; Powerball: twenty-one; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $92 million</p>
<p>SuperLotto Plus</p>
<p>10-25-29-41-43, Mega Ball: 20</p>
<p>(ten, twenty-five, twenty-nine, forty-one, forty-three; Mega Ball: twenty)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $17 million</p> | CA Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/amp/47df543fcddb45c6a710885f19071ada | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Lawmakers will act this year on bills not simply repealing President Barack Obama's health care law but replacing it as well, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The remarks by Ryan, R-Wis., suggested a faster schedule than some had expected on reshaping the nation's health care system. While Republicans have said they plan to vote this year on dismantling Obama's law, Ryan went a step further, saying they also would write legislation to replace it in 2017.</p>
<p>It won't be easy.</p>
<p>Despite unifying for years behind the notion of dismantling Obama's 2010 law, Republicans have yet to rally behind a plan for replacing it, stymied by divisions over how to do it and pay for the changes.</p>
<p>"Our legislating on Obamacare, our repealing and replacing and transitioning, the legislating will occur this year," Ryan told reporters, using a nickname for the law.</p>
<p>Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said by "legislating," Ryan meant lawmakers will write legislation and vote on it.</p>
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<p>With Donald Trump set to become president on Jan. 20, Republicans running Congress now face the political imperative to deliver on their oft-repeated promises to erase and replace the health law.</p>
<p>Democrats, who helped Obama enact the law without any GOP votes, are planning to defend the overhaul, but they're outnumbered in the House and Senate.</p>
<p>The law created marketplaces where consumers can buy coverage and provided subsidies to help people afford premiums, expanded Medicaid for lower-earning people and set requirements for the types of care that insurers must cover. Overall, it's provided coverage for 20 million additional people.</p>
<p>Republicans want to abolish the law's penalties for individuals who don't buy policies and for some larger businesses that don't cover employees. They want to ease federal coverage requirements and have proposed providing tax credits to help people afford coverage.</p>
<p>Since the new Congress convened this week, Republicans have taken initial, procedural steps toward voiding the law.</p>
<p>Lawmakers hope to finish a budget next week that would prevent Democrats from using a filibuster to block a future bill repealing the health law. That same budget would give congressional committees until late February to write legislation annulling much of the overhaul.</p>
<p>Republicans are discussing delaying the date when repeal would take effect, for perhaps several years. That is designed to allow time to craft replacement legislation and to phase in changes so people don't abruptly lose coverage.</p> | Ryan: Lawmakers will act this year on replacing health law | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/05/ryan-lawmakers-will-act-this-year-on-replacing-health-law.html | 2017-01-05 | 0 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Tony Bennett canceled his London show on Tuesday with Lady Gaga due to a flu virus.</p>
<p>The 88-year-old singer apologized to his U.K. fans on social media. A statement from his publicist said ticket holders should “retain their tickets to this event pending more information.”</p>
<p>Concert promoter Live Nation confirmed the canceled performance at the Royal Albert Hall. The duo also performed Monday in London.</p>
<p>Gaga and Bennett won a Grammy this year for their collaborative album, “Cheek to Cheek.”</p>
<p>The duo’s website says their next show is scheduled for Saturday in Paradise Island, Bahamas. They will perform four shows at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall later this month.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cheek2cheek.com/" type="external">http://www.cheek2cheek.com/</a></p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Tony Bennett canceled his London show on Tuesday with Lady Gaga due to a flu virus.</p>
<p>The 88-year-old singer apologized to his U.K. fans on social media. A statement from his publicist said ticket holders should “retain their tickets to this event pending more information.”</p>
<p>Concert promoter Live Nation confirmed the canceled performance at the Royal Albert Hall. The duo also performed Monday in London.</p>
<p>Gaga and Bennett won a Grammy this year for their collaborative album, “Cheek to Cheek.”</p>
<p>The duo’s website says their next show is scheduled for Saturday in Paradise Island, Bahamas. They will perform four shows at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall later this month.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cheek2cheek.com/" type="external">http://www.cheek2cheek.com/</a></p> | Tony Bennett has flu virus, cancels London concert with Gaga | false | https://apnews.com/1a939bf2d32b4654bf8f801df92f5f04 | 2015-06-09 | 2 |
<p>After winning a fight over zoning that had threatened their operations, administrators of a Lakeview youth center say they’re happy to be getting back to serving the needs of underserved lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual youths in the community.</p>
<p>The Broadway Youth Center has been serving LBGT youths in Boystown since it set up shop in the lower level of the Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ in June. The center, which is operated by the Lakeview-based Howard Brown Health Center, offers a variety of services, including a drop-in center where youths between the ages of 12 and 24 can come to get basic needs like food, clothing, counseling and housing assistance, and engage in community building. The center also offers minimal medical care, such as HIV testing and counseling, while attempting to link youths into regular primary health care centers at Howard Brown.</p>
<p>The center has been serving hundreds of youth, some coming repeatedly to get services while others coming only once and moving on. In August alone, it received 238 medical visits and 1023 nonmedical visits.</p>
<p>“Lakeview has been traditionally a welcoming, safe environment for the LGBTQ community to live, socialize and meet one another. We, as an outreach of our health services, wanted to do something for them,” says Michelle Wetzel, Howard Brown’s general counsel. “It’s important this exists because LGBTQ youth are even more vulnerable than their heterosexual counterparts in terms of violence and unstable housing. We feel that because these youths are in Lakeview, it’s important that we’re in Lakeview to address their needs.”</p>
<p>But, in the summer, a zoning controversy arose when the South East Lake View Neighbors, a community group, notified 44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney that the center had been operating without a special-use zoning permit. Tunney alerted Howard Brown of its need to apply for a permit, and it filed its application on Nov. 8.</p>
<p>The community group opposed the permit because its members believed it was inappropriate to provide medical services in a church, says Mike Demetriou, the group’s president. “Regardless of whether it’s primary or secondary, medical use is absolutely prohibited in that location,” he says.</p>
<p>The group also tried to reach a “good neighbor agreement” with Howard Brown administrators. Citing an issue like loitering, it wanted a mechanism in place to make sure it wouldn’t escalate “from minor issues to major issues,” Demetriou says.</p>
<p>“We don’t want someone operating a facility that has patrons who are going to need monitoring and supervision without adequate monitoring and supervision,” he adds.</p>
<p>But the negotiations eventually broke down over the extent of the required monitoring and its recordkeeping, Wetzel says.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals announced that it had sided with Howard Brown and approved a zoning permit for the youth center to continue its operation.</p>
<p>The zoning board “determined we were not running a clinic, and that a community center was an appropriate description and approved our permit on that basis,” Wetzel says.</p> | Despite community opposition, the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals grants a permit to a Lakeview center for LGBT youth | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/despite-community-opposition-chicago-zoning-board-appeals-grants-permit-lakeview-center-lgbt-youth/ | 2014-01-23 | 3 |
<p>In an apparent attempt to quiet the latest firestorm engulfing the Trump administration, two surrogates were deployed to television last night to defend President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey. There were two outstanding questions about the Trump firing: first, why would Trump fire Comey at all, given that Comey’s main misconduct, according to members of Trump’s administration who wrote letters supporting the firing, took place last year? Second, why would Trump fire Comey now, as opposed to months ago, when he was entering office?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s surrogates decided to kiss up to the boss rather than doing him a favor by offering plausible explanations.</p>
<p>First, there was Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She explained to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that Comey’s firing wouldn’t affect the Trump-Russia investigation “in any capacity whatsoever, you’ve still got the same people that would be carrying out that, whether it’s through the Department of Justice, that process continues both — I believe — in the House and Senate committees. I don’t see any change or disruption there. I think the bigger point on that is, ‘My gosh, Tucker, when are they gonna let that go?’ It’s been going on for nearly a year. Frankly, it’s kind of getting absurd. There’s nothing there… it’s time to move on.”</p>
<p />
<p>The night you fire the FBI director overseeing the Trump-Russia investigation is not the time to say that the investigation ought to die — especially not when half the population thinks you fired the FBI director in order to kill that investigation. So much for a plausible explanation on why Comey was fired.</p>
<p>Then missing-in-action surrogate Kellyanne Conway made her grand reappearance to answer questions on Trump’s timing. Appearing on CNN, Conway explained, “You want to question the timing of when he hires, when he fires. It’s inappropriate. He’ll do it when he wants to.”</p>
<p />
<p>This is asinine.</p>
<p>Of course it’s appropriate to question the timing of hirings and firings. Did Richard Nixon fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox rightly or wrongly? The question hinges on timing. How about President Obama’s conduct surrounding Benghazi? The entire question hinges on timing. How can a surrogate claim that timing is beyond question when it comes to presidential action?</p>
<p>None of this does Trump any favors.</p>
<p>But kissing up to the boss in Trumpland means brazening it out: speaking aggressively about Trump’s power and will, blaming the media for even asking questions. Trump likes that sort of thing, which is why Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be taking over for Sean Spicer at the podium of the White House press room for the next couple of days.</p>
<p>Here’s the bottom line: the White House has handled this entire episode with incredible levels of incompetence. Either they’re so incompetent that they’re playing an innocent firing as though there’s a cover-up in progress, or they’re so incompetent that they’re playing a cover-up as though there’s a cover-up in process.</p> | JEEZ: Trump White House Reaches New Levels Of Communications Incompetence In Comey Firing | true | https://dailywire.com/news/16270/jeez-trump-white-house-reaches-new-levels-ben-shapiro | 2017-05-10 | 0 |
<p>PERTH AMBOY, N.J. (AP) - Authorities say a chimney issue caused a carbon monoxide buildup in a New Jersey apartment building that led to the death of a 13-year-old girl and sickened dozens of other residents.</p>
<p>Perth Amboy officials say the problems reported Thursday in a 12-unit building were due to a collapsed clay liner that obstructed the gas exhaust.</p>
<p>The owner of the building has said the carbon monoxide and smoke detectors were functional in December. But county and local officials say the detectors weren't working "at the time of the incident."</p>
<p>The name of the teen who died hasn't been released. A 14-year-old girl, a man in his 40s and a 21-year-old woman, all related to the teen, remain hospitalized in critical condition.</p>
<p>Roughly 35 other residents were treated for carbon monoxide.</p>
<p>PERTH AMBOY, N.J. (AP) - Authorities say a chimney issue caused a carbon monoxide buildup in a New Jersey apartment building that led to the death of a 13-year-old girl and sickened dozens of other residents.</p>
<p>Perth Amboy officials say the problems reported Thursday in a 12-unit building were due to a collapsed clay liner that obstructed the gas exhaust.</p>
<p>The owner of the building has said the carbon monoxide and smoke detectors were functional in December. But county and local officials say the detectors weren't working "at the time of the incident."</p>
<p>The name of the teen who died hasn't been released. A 14-year-old girl, a man in his 40s and a 21-year-old woman, all related to the teen, remain hospitalized in critical condition.</p>
<p>Roughly 35 other residents were treated for carbon monoxide.</p> | Blocked chimney blamed for fatal carbon monoxide buildup | false | https://apnews.com/amp/7dc78d335d0c4238848b6960119c625a | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>As it has been throughout much of its history, today’s Latin America is a continent of change. Unlike much of its history, the forces that seem to have the upper hand right now are those that have been historically shut out. The poor, the indigenous, and the majority of the workers. The popularity of the Chavez government in Venezuela and Morales presidency in Bolivia, combined with the existence of left-leaning governments in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador and Brazil has altered the traditional relationship between these countries and the United States. Naturally, much of Washington is not happy with this turn of events. Meanwhile, anti-capitalist and indigenous rights activists joined by leftists and progressives discuss their meaning. Can a government be anti-capitalist? How leftist are these governments banding together in their opposition to the northern behemoth called the United states?</p>
<p>Writer and student of Latin American politics Nicholas Kozloff has written a book examining these and other questions regarding the leftward drift in Latin America. His first book, titled Hugo Chavez: Oil, Politics, and The Challenge To The U.S. examined the rise of Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian revolution. Kozloff’s reading of the phenomenon is skeptical but hopeful. It is also told from a left viewpoint that mistrusts the monolithic model of Cuba almost as much as it distrusts US imperialism. The new book, <a href="" type="internal">Revolution: South America and the Rise of the New Left</a> continues in a similar vein.</p>
<p>Comparing and contrasting the various leftleaning governments in Latin America, Kozloff’s book is both an update and a critical guide to the various possibilities Latin America might face in the future. His on-the-ground approach brings him into contact with activists for social justice and government officials. Never too academic, the text is very readable and accessible. One page provides the reader with the insights of the author; another page gives the reader a glimpse into the thoughts of a veteran of some social movement; and another gives the opinion of an academic observer of Latin American history and monetary policy. There are at least two things going on here; the first is a look at the various nations changing the political face of Latin America and the second is a study of those nations’ attempts to create a united front in order to confront the US wolf always ready to blow their house in.</p>
<p>There is no glossing over of the problems the people of the countries looked at here face. The balance between indigenous desires for autonomy and the population’s fascination with those things US culture beams into residents’ living rooms via satellite television is but one. Others involve internal debates and conflicts over the representation of different demographic elements in each society. On a continent-wide scale, many differences exist between the cultures, economies, and desires of the different peoples the governments studied here must represent. Add to that the enmity of Washington and its allies in the South and the only thing certain is that the future of the popular movements represented by the governments examined in Kozloff’s book are anything but certain.</p>
<p>Yet, there is hope that the historical relationship between the governments of Latin America and their people may be forever changed thanks to the current crop of populist governments in power throughout the continent. This possibility rests on a number of circumstances both external and internal. Kozloff examines them all, from the potential downside of the growing identification of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela with the persona of Hugo Chavez to the continued subversion of change by Washington, its so-called free trade pacts and the aggressive actions of its clients in the Colombia government and the opposition parties of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador.</p>
<p>Revolution: South America and the Rise of the New Left is an erudite examination of the recent history of the changes occurring throughout Latin America. While certainly sympathetic to these changes, the text maintains a critically supportive tone and outlook. The narrative is at once as intimate as the stories of officials who rose from the illegal slums and as analytical as the examination of the economic and political arguments for and against for Latin American integration. Those in North America who dismiss the significance of the populist revolution taking place to the south-either because it’s not “left” enough or because they genuinely believe that nothing that happens in Latin America could really matter-would do well to read this book.</p>
<p>RON JACOBS is author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859841678/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground</a>, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs’ essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch’s collection on music, art and sex, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Serpents in the Garden</a>. His first novel, <a href="" type="internal">Short Order Frame Up,</a> is published by Mainstay Press. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:rjacobs3625@charter.net" type="external">rjacobs3625@charter.net</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The New New Left in Latin America | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/04/12/the-new-new-left-in-latin-america/ | 2008-04-12 | 4 |
<p>Washington Post:</p>
<p>The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments.</p>
<p>Officials say the amendments would alter a U.S. law passed in the mid-1990s that criminalized violations of the Geneva Conventions, a set of international treaties governing military conduct in wartime. The conventions generally bar the cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment of wartime prisoners without spelling out what all those terms mean.</p>
<p>The draft U.S. amendments to the War Crimes Act would narrow the scope of potential criminal prosecutions to 10 specific categories of illegal acts against detainees during a war, including torture, murder, rape and hostage-taking.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/08/AR2006080801276.html?referrer=emailarticle" type="external">Link</a></p> | Bush Tries to Neuter Detainee Abuse Law | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/bush-tries-to-neuter-detainee-abuse-law/ | 2006-08-10 | 4 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump declared Thursday he never made and doesn’t have recordings of his private conversations with ousted former FBI Director James Comey, ending a month-long guessing game that he started with a cryptic tweet and that ensnared his administration in yet more controversy.</p>
<p>“With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information,” Trump said in his latest tweets, he has “no idea” whether there are “tapes” or recordings of the two men’s conversations. But he proclaimed he “did not make, and do not have, any such recordings.”</p>
<p>That left open the possibility that recordings were made without his knowledge or by someone else. But he largely appeared to close the saga that began in May, just days after he fired Comey, then the head of an investigation into Trump associates’ ties to Russian officials. Trump has disputed Comey’s version of a January dinner during which the director said the president had asked for a pledge of loyalty.</p>
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<p>Trump responded at that time, via Twitter, that Comey “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”</p>
<p>That apparently angry missive triggered a series of consequences each weightier than the last. Comey has suggested that the tweet prompted him to ask an associate to leak damaging information to the media. The resulting news reports built pressure on a top Justice Department official to appoint an independent prosecutor to oversee the Russia investigation. That special counsel is now reportedly investigating Trump’s own actions in a probe that could dog his presidency for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>Trump’s declaration now that there are no recordings appear to settle a key dynamic in that investigation: It’s now the president’s word against Comey’s notes.</p>
<p>Without recordings, Comey’s version of his conversations with Trump — which he documented at the time, shared with close associates and testified about to Congress — will likely play a key role as prosecutors consider whether Trump inappropriately pressured the lawman to drop the investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Investigators will also weigh the credibility of Comey against a president who has shown a wobbly commitment to accuracy.</p>
<p>Thursday’s revelation came a day ahead of a deadline to turn over any tapes to the House intelligence committee. The timing drew attention away from the release of the Senate’s health care bill, which the White House hopes can provide Trump a much-needed legislative victory to boost his sagging poll numbers.</p>
<p>Trump’s tweets, old and new, left many perplexed about whether there was motive or strategy behind the whole affair. The president appeared to enjoy ginning up mystery and spinning Washington reporters about the possibility there was a trove of surreptitiously recorded Oval Office conversations.</p>
<p>“I think he was in his way instinctively trying to rattle Comey,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a longtime Trump confidant, said before the Thursday tweets. “He’s not a professional politician. He doesn’t come back and think about Nixon and Watergate. His instinct is: ‘I’ll out-bluff you.'”</p>
<p>Trump’s earlier suggestion about tapes evoked the secret White House recordings that led to Richard Nixon’s downfall in the Watergate scandal. Under a post-Watergate law, the Presidential Records Act, recordings made by presidents belong to the people and can eventually be made public. Destroying them would be a crime.</p>
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<p>But the episode tired Trump’s defenders and aides, who for weeks have been dodging questions about the recordings. Advisers who speak to Trump regularly have said he had not mentioned the existence of tapes during their conversations. More than a half-dozen aides said they were unaware of any recording devices. All demanded anonymity to speak about private discussions with the president.</p>
<p>White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday she didn’t think Trump regretted the initial tweet. As for his possible motivation, she would only say it was perhaps about “raising the question of doubt in general.” She also could not explain Trump’s new reference to possible surveillance.</p>
<p>Mark Warner of Virginia, top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said, “This administration never ceases to amaze me.” He said the tweeting is an example of Trump’s “willingness to just kind of make things up.”</p>
<p>“It’s remarkable the president was so flippant to make his original tweet and then frankly stonewall the media and the country for weeks,” Warner said. “I don’t know how this serves the country’s interests.”</p>
<p>This is not the first time that Trump, the former star of reality TV and tabloids, has manufactured a melodrama that begins with bluster but often ends with a whimper.</p>
<p>Trump flirted with presidential runs in 1988 and 2000 before abandoning them. He offered to help rebuild the World Trade Center in 2004 but never followed through. And his embrace of birtherism, which questioned whether Obama was born in the United States and was eligible to become president, fueled his own political rise. He never produced any evidence.</p>
<p>“I think the president has played the media like a fiddle for two and a half years,” said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.</p>
<p>The pattern has continued since Trump’s election.</p>
<p>On New Year’s Eve, he claimed he knew “things that other people don’t know” about foreign hacking of last year’s election, and that the information would be revealed “on Tuesday or Wednesday.” Those days came and went without an answer. In March, he tweeted the incendiary claim that he was wiretapped by his predecessor, a charge he’s never supported.</p>
<p>“He follows the paradigm that no news is bad news,” said Sam Nunberg, a former campaign aide. “He knows how to play to America’s insatiable appetite not just for news but for drama and interest. He brought that to Washington.”</p>
<p>He’s also brought trouble to his White House.</p>
<p>At a Senate committee hearing this month, Comey suggested that the president’s reference to possible recordings inspired him to disclose to the media through an intermediary a memo he had written of their Oval Office conversation. In that meeting, according to the memo, Trump told Comey he hoped he would let the Flynn investigation go. Comey said he understood that to be a request to drop the probe.</p>
<p>One week after the memo was disclosed, the Justice Department appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to take over the investigation into contacts between Russia and the Trump political campaign.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Ken Thomas and Deb Riechmann contributed reporting.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Lemire on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/@JonLemire" type="external">http://twitter.com/@JonLemire</a></p> | No tapes after all: Trump says he didn’t record Comey talks | false | https://abqjournal.com/1021979/trump-says-he-didnt-tape-his-conversations-with-comey.html | 2017-06-22 | 2 |
<p>The federal budget deficit widened in fiscal year 2017 to the sixth highest deficit on record as government spending growth outpaced growth in tax collections for the second year in a row, the Treasury Department said Thursday.</p>
<p>The budget shortfall rose to $666 billion in the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, up $80 billion, or 14%, from fiscal year 2016. That tracks with an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, which had predicted a $668 billion deficit for the last fiscal year.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Federal tax receipts reached a record high in fiscal year 2017, at $3.3 billion, thanks to slightly faster growth, according to a senior Treasury official. But government outlays also hit a record high last year at nearly $4 billion, 3% higher than they were in the previous fiscal year, thanks to increased spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as higher interest payments on the public debt.</p>
<p>As a percentage of gross domestic product, the deficit totaled 3.5%, up from 3.2% in fiscal year 2016.</p>
<p>(More to come.)</p>
<p>Write to Kate Davidson at kate.davidson@wsj.com</p>
<p>WASHINGTON -- The federal budget deficit widened in fiscal year 2017 to the sixth highest deficit on record as government spending growth outpaced growth in tax collections for the second year in a row, the Treasury Department said Thursday.</p>
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<p>The budget shortfall rose to $666 billion in the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, up $80 billion, or 14%, from fiscal year 2016. That tracks with an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, which had predicted a $668 billion deficit for the last fiscal year.</p>
<p>Federal tax receipts reached a record high in fiscal year 2017, at $3.3 trillion, thanks to slightly faster growth, according to a senior Treasury official. But government outlays also hit a record high last year at nearly $4 trillion, 3% higher than they were in the previous fiscal year, thanks to increased spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as higher interest payments on the public debt.</p>
<p>As a percentage of gross domestic product, the deficit totaled 3.5%, up from 3.2% in fiscal year 2016.</p>
<p>"Today's budget results underscore the importance of achieving robust and sustained economic growth," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement accompanying the report. "Through a combination of tax reform and regulatory relief, this country can return to higher levels of GDP growth, helping to erase our fiscal deficit."</p>
<p>Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director, said the figures "should serve as a smoke alarm for Washington" and a reminder to "get our fiscal hour in order."</p>
<p>But deficit hawks, including some in Congress, have warned that a GOP plan to rewrite the tax code could make the country's fiscal situation worse if it adds to the deficit. The Senate approved a budget resolution Thursday that would allow Congress to pass a tax cut that lowers federal revenues by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years.</p>
<p>Declining government revenues and long-term costs associated with an aging population, including higher Social Security and Medicare spending, are expected to continue pushing up deficits over the coming decades.</p>
<p>Treasury said Friday the government ran an $8 billion surplus in September, much smaller than the $33 billion surplus in September 2016. Receipts fell 2% while outlays grew 5% last month compared with the same period a year earlier.</p>
<p>Write to Kate Davidson at kate.davidson@wsj.com</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 20, 2017 15:09 ET (19:09 GMT)</p> | U.S. Ran $666 Billion Deficit In Fiscal 2017, Sixth Highest on Record, Treasury Says--2nd Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/20/u-s-ran-666-billion-deficit-in-fiscal-2017-sixth-highest-on-record-treasury-says.html | 2017-10-20 | 0 |
<p>Demand for exchange-traded funds that would provide exposure to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin is strong, but regulators will likely wait until the underlying market matures more before approving such products, a panel of securities industry experts said on Friday.</p>
<p>The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected the first U.S. ETF tracking bitcoin in March after a three-year review process, but a month later the regulator said it would revisit the ruling.</p>
<p>“I didn’t see an outright, ‘bitcoin, we hate it, we won’t do it,'” said Kathleen Moriarty, a partner at law firm Arnold &amp; Porter Kaye Scholer who helped develop the first U.S. ETF.</p>
<p>“It was more, ‘it’s bitcoin, it’s still a little funky, let’s wait,'” she said at an ETF event in Washington DC hosted by the SEC and New York University.</p>
<p>Virtual currencies can be used to move money around the world quickly and with relative anonymity, without the need for a central authority, such as a bank or government.</p>
<p>But they also present risks to investors given their limited adoption, a number of massive cybersecurity breaches affecting cryptocurrency owners and exchanges, and the lack of consistent treatment of the assets by governments.</p>
<p>For instance, China on Monday banned initial coin offerings (ICOs), where digital currencies are sold publicly and then often traded on secondary exchanges, and the price of bitcoin plunged more than 10 percent as a result.</p>
<p>That sort of price volatility is at the heart of the problem of creating cryptocurrency-tracking ETFs, said Ananth Madhavan, head of global ETF research at Blackrock.</p>
<p>The SEC in July deemed tokens issued through ICOs, which have help startup companies raise more than $1 billion this year, can be considered securities, making them subject to disclosure laws and regulatory scrutiny to protect investors.</p>
<p>The SEC also said this week it has a number of active investigations into firms that have claimed to be in the digital currency business.</p>
<p>Despite such hurdles, interest in creating cryptocurrency-based ETFs is strong, said Laura Morrison, Global Head of Exchange Traded Products at CBOE Holdings Inc’s Bats exchange, the would-be listing venue for the bitcoin ETF under review by the SEC.</p>
<p>She said she gets three to five calls a week from prospective issuers wanting to explore cryptocurrency-based ETFs.</p>
<p>“The progress seems slow, there is no doubt about it, but the importance of proper regulation will help to pave this road,” she said.</p> | Experts: Bitcoin ETF Idea Still a Little Funky | false | https://newsline.com/experts-bitcoin-etf-idea-still-a-little-funky/ | 2017-09-13 | 1 |
<p>On Tuesday, Rev. <a href="https://nhclc.org/about-us/rev-samuel-rodriguez" type="external">Samuel Rodriguez</a>, Christian author and president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, blasted Christians who support abortion giant Planned Parenthood while speaking on The Church Boys podcast. Rodriguez explained that it was unjustifiable for any follower of Jesus to support a candidate — Republican or Democrat — who backs Planned Parenthood, advising such Christians to “repent” for their actions.</p>
<p>The reverend expressed his passion for the pro-life mission, saying it was his “number one advocacy platform.” I am “extremely pro-life,” he said.</p>
<p>“I want to speak to every single African American, Latino, and Ango Christ follower who believes in biblical orthodoxy — how can we justify supporting anything — be it Republican or Democrat — that in any way, form or shape defends Planned Parenthood?” asked Rodriguez. “How can we justify supporting any political candidate that defends Planned Parenthood?”</p>
<p>Rodriguez continued to lay in to Christians who support abortion, calling such action “morally reprehensible” and a “contradiction to our commitment to Christ and scripture.” Such Christians, he proclaimed, “need to repent,” concluding that elections have real consequences.</p>
<p>“Any Christian who would support a candidate who defends Planned Parenthood really needs to seek scripture,” said the preacher. “You need to repent, because there’s culpability in what takes place in this nation as it pertains to the abortion industry if you dare support a candidate who supports Planned Parenthood.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Be-Light-Shining-Beauty-Darkened/dp/1601428162/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1463415828&amp;sr=1-1&amp;refinements=p_27%3ASamuel+Rodriguez" type="external">Be Light</a> author slammed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for his recent remark that abortion should have no restrictions at all. Rodriguez called this “scary” and “mind-boggling."</p>
<p>“I get scared when people say there should be no limits — you’re kidding me,” Rodriguez said. “You’re about to kill a human being who’s about to come out of the womb. I can’t justify it. It makes absolutely no sense.”</p>
<p>The idea that a baby can be justifiably killed in the womb at seven or eight months, he continued, is “anti-God,” “anti-human” and dilutes the value of human life. The preacher invoked historical dictatorial control and corresponding mass murders.</p>
<p>The Blaze <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/19/you-need-to-repent-famed-pastor-holds-little-back-in-addressing-politicians-who-support-planned-parenthood/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=story&amp;utm_campaign=ShareButtons" type="external">reports</a> that Rodriguez previously weighed in on the rise of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, linking the last seven and half years of Obama and what he called “Christian populism” to Trump's rise.</p>
<p>“'The consequence of the earthquake is Donald Trump,' he said, noting that societal reverberations have resulted from frustration over big government, impediments to religious liberty and political correctness ‘on steroids.’ ‘It’s an interesting thing, because it’s Christian populism,’” notes The Blaze.</p>
<p>“How can we justify supporting any political candidate that defends Planned Parenthood?”</p>
<p>-Rev. Samuel Rodriguez</p>
<p>He added, “In a matter of 7 and a half years, America has been redefined culturally, morally — in so many ways even economically [with] this thing called Obamacare.”</p>
<p>Rodriguez also said that President Obama has immensely changed from the candidate he first campaigned as. The preacher said he was once on Obama’s “abortion-reduction task force.”</p>
<p>Listen to the interview with Rodriguez on The Church Boys podcast below:</p> | Pastor BLASTS Christians Who Support Planned Parenthood | true | https://dailywire.com/news/5863/pastor-blasts-christians-who-support-planned-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2016-05-19 | 0 |
<p>___</p>
<p>Zuckerberg says company working with Mueller probe</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Apologetic Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told senators Tuesday it had been "clearly a mistake" to believe the Trump-linked data-mining company Cambridge Analytica had discarded data that it had harvested from social media users in an attempt to sway 2016 elections. He also said Facebook is "working with" special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Is Facebook really changing? Or just trimming its data haul?</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — The debate over Facebook user data may miss a more fundamental question: Is the company really changing its relationship with users, or just tinkering with its insatiable appetite for data? Facebook's latest round of privacy changes don't address the core of its business model, which relies on users to share information that can be used to sell ads. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify to Congress starting Tuesday.</p>
<p>___</p>
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<p>China president's conciliatory trade gesture raises optimism</p>
<p>BEIJING (AP) — Investors and China watchers welcomed President Xi Jinping's promise to open his country's market wider to foreign competition, hoping it will defuse a trade dispute with Washington that has unsettled financial markets and could jeopardize a global economic expansion.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>McConnell says he's open to paring back US spending bill</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate's top Republican says he's open to a proposal from the White House to pare back a hard-fought spending package that has come under assault from party conservatives. But at the same time, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell said the idea of cutting billions of dollars of just-approved spending may not have enough support to pass the Senate. The idea is being floated by the Trump White House with support from top Republicans like House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Under Trump, a voice for the American consumer goes silent</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — In the 135 days since the Trump administration took control of the nation's consumer watchdog agency, it has not recorded a single enforcement action against banks, credit card companies, or any finance companies whatsoever. That's likely no fluke: Mick Mulvaney, appointed acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in November, promised to shrink the bureau's mandate and take a softer approach to enforcement.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Facebook sends privacy alerts to affected users</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook has begun alerting some users that their data was swept up in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. A notification that appeared on Facebook for some users Tuesday told them that "one of your friends" used Facebook to log into a now-banned personality quiz app called "This Is Your Digital Life." Facebook has said as many as 87 million users were affected.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Trump slump? International arrivals data may be wrong</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — That "Trump slump" in travel may not be as bad it seems. The U.S. Department of Commerce says government statistics showing a drop in international arrivals may have undercounted some foreigners. Publication of the data has been suspended pending revision. Travel experts applauded the effort to get it right. Tourism Economics President Adam Sacks says his data shows international arrivals to the U.S. increased 2 percent in 2017, but that's still "underperforming" compared with other markets.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>EPA to clean up toxic Texas site damaged by Hurricane Harvey</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal environmental regulators have reached a long-awaited agreement with the owners of a polluted toxic waste site in Texas that was damaged during Hurricane Harvey. The Environmental Protection Agency says it reached a deal with International Paper Co. and McGinnes Industrial Maintenance Corp. to remove dioxin-contaminated materials from the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund site in the Houston area. The companies say they look forward to working with EPA to protect the community.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Fed proposes streamlining annual stress tests for banks</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is proposing to streamline the annual stress tests that it conducts to see if the nation's largest financial firms can survive a severe recession. Randal Quarles, selected by President Donald Trump to be the Fed's vice chairman for financial supervision, says the change is being put forward in an effort to ensure that the Fed's regulatory measures are as "simple and transparent" as possible.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Stock indexes rally as China's president eases trade fears</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks jump after Chinese President Xi Jinping makes conciliatory remarks on trade, easing the market's fears about U.S.-China trade tensions. China's leader proposed reducing tariffs on autos, which sent automakers higher. Energy and technology companies also made outsize gains. Facebook surged as CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the Senate.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>The Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index surged 43.71 points, or 1.7 percent, to 2,656.87. The Dow gained 428.90 points, or 1.8 percent, to 24,408. Shortly before noon it rose as much as 532 points. The Nasdaq composite added 143.96 points, or 2.1 percent, to 7,094.30. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks advanced 28.97 points, or 1.9 percent, to 1,543.43.</p>
<p>Benchmark U.S. crude rose 3.3 percent to $65.51 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 3.5 percent to $71.04 a barrel in London. Wholesale gasoline rose 2.9 percent to $2.04 a gallon. Heating oil added 3.4 percent to $2.06 a gallon. Natural gas lost 1.4 percent to $2.66 per 1,000 cubic feet.</p> | Business Highlights | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/22/business-highlights.html | 2018-04-10 | 0 |
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<p>“When those Californians answered the call to duty” to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, “they earned more from us than bureaucratic bungling and false promises,” Ryan said. He urged the Pentagon to suspend collection efforts until “Congress has time … to protect service members from lifelong liability for DOD’s mistakes.”</p>
<p>Ryan’s comments came as the White House said President Barack Obama has warned the Defense Department not to “nickel and dime” service members who were victims of fraud by overzealous recruiters.</p>
<p>White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday he did not believe Obama would support a blanket waiver of repayments, but said California National Guard members should not be held responsible for “unethical conduct or fraud perpetrated by someone else.”</p>
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<p>Defense Secretary Ash Carter, meanwhile, promised to resolve a festering conflict that has lingered for a decade.</p>
<p>The Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend that the Pentagon has demanded that some soldiers repay their enlistment bonuses after audits revealed overpayments by the California National Guard. Recruiters under pressure to fill ranks and hit enlistment goals at the height of the two wars improperly offered bonuses of $15,000 or more to soldiers who re-enlisted, the newspaper reported.</p>
<p>If soldiers refuse to pay the bonus back, they could face interest charges, wage garnishments and tax liens.</p>
<p>The Pentagon said late Tuesday that it instructed at most 6,500 California Guard soldiers to repay the enlistment bonuses. That number is lower than a widely reported figure that nearly 10,000 soldiers have been told to repay part or all of their bonuses.</p>
<p>Defense Department spokesman Maj. Jamie Davis said an audit more than five years in the making concluded last month that 1,100 soldiers improperly received bonuses for which they were ineligible. Another 5,400 soldiers had erroneous paperwork that could have made them ineligible.</p>
<p>The California Guard said Tuesday it has collected about $22 million from fewer than 2,000 soldiers who improperly received bonuses and student loan aid.</p>
<p>Asked about the matter at a news conference Tuesday in Paris, Carter said the issue is complex and is being handled by the deputy secretary of defense, Robert Work.</p>
<p>“The first thing I want to say is that anybody who volunteers to serve in the armed forces of the United States deserves our gratitude and respect — period,” Carter said. Officials are going to look into the repayment problem “and resolve it,” Carter added, but offered no details.</p>
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<p>A defense authorization bill passed by the House would establish a statute of limitations on the military’s ability to recover future overpayments and scrutinize existing cases of service member debt. House and Senate negotiators are trying to finalize the defense bill and pass it during the post-election, lame-duck session.</p>
<p>Ryan, R-Wis., called the bill an important step to establish a common standard for correcting accounting errors in the military.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, House and Senate oversight committees said they investigating the California Guard’s attempt to reclaim the re-enlistment bonuses.</p>
<p>The House Oversight Committee and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs asked the Guard to turn over documents and audits related to the decade-old payments.</p>
<p>The National Guard has said the bonuses were wrongly paid but its effort to reclaim them from thousands of soldiers and veterans in California and across the country has caused public outcry, including widespread criticism from members of Congress.</p>
<p>House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz of Utah and three other Republicans said in a letter that officials who mismanaged the bonus programs must be “held accountable.” The lawmakers said Guard officials must turn over relevant documents by Nov. 7.</p>
<p>Senate Government Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said it was “simply unacceptable that the finest among us should be forced to pay — literally — for the mismanagement and errors perpetrated by the National Guard leadership.”</p>
<p>“Our soldiers deserve better and it’s up to the Department of Defense and Congress to fix this,” said Deborah Hoffman, a spokeswoman for California Gov. Jerry Brown.</p>
<p>Other states may have been affected, but “California is where the majority of this occurred,” said National Guard Bureau spokeswoman Laura Ochoa.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor in Paris, Alison Noon in Sacramento, California, and Kevin Freking in Los Angeles contributed to this story.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Matthew Daly: <a href="http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC" type="external">http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC</a></p> | Ryan urges Pentagon to suspend collection of Guard bonuses | false | https://abqjournal.com/874987/ryan-urges-pentagon-to-suspend-collection-of-guard-bonuses.html | 2016-10-25 | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Cibola National Forest’s Mountainair Ranger District has lifted its fire restrictions.</p>
<p>“The Mountainair Ranger District has had enough precipitation to reduce the likelihood of large wildfires,” Forest Supervisor Elaine Kohrman said.</p>
<p>There are no fire restrictions in any of the six ranger districts in Cibola National Forest.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Mountainair Ranger District fire restrictions lifted | false | https://abqjournal.com/428909/mountainair-ranger-district-fire-restrictions-lifted.html | 2 |
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<p>On Tuesday the Senate released a long-awaited, scathing report condemning CIA torture methods during the George W. Bush administration. The report outlines horrible abuses including <a href="" type="internal">“rectal feeding” and “ice-water baths,”</a> but only the geniuses over at Fox News could see what it was truly about: Obamacare.</p>
<p>The hosts of Fox News’ Outnumbered were convinced the report was made public in order to distract from <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/09/politics/gruber-hearing/" type="external">Jonathan Gruber’s</a> testimony on Obamacare this morning. <a href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/12/09/fox-hosts-torture-report-was-released-to-distra/201811" type="external">Jesse Watters</a>, who says he would have rather remained in the dark, because after all people do “nasty things in the dark” all the time, said he found the timing of the report’s release “ironic,” which it is not.</p>
<p>Watters then went on to compare the torture report to Rolling Stone’s botched sexual assault reporting at the <a href="" type="internal">University of Virginia</a>, because why the hell not?</p>
<p>“They didn’t even interview any of the CIA interrogators who do the report,” Watters explained. “It’s kind of like how Rolling Stone does their stories—they only get one side. And to say this is about transparency at the CIA, the Democrats didn’t care about transparency when they were destroying hard drives at the IRS.”</p>
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<p><a href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/12/09/fox-hosts-torture-report-was-released-to-distra/201811" type="external">(h/t Media Matters)</a></p> | This Is the Predictably Awful Way Fox News Reacted to the CIA Torture Report | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/12/fox-news-cia-torture/ | 2014-12-09 | 4 |
<p>Archaeologists recently unearthed <a href="http://www.capitalotc.com/colossal-stone-structure-in-israel-near-sea-of-galilee-dates-back-to-biblical-period/22515/" type="external">enormous, crescent-shaped stone structures</a> near the Sea of Galilee in Northern Israel that could predate the Biblical era by several centuries.</p>
<p>The stone structures are almost 500 feet long and measure 66 feet wide. They’re almost 25 feet tall, making them significantly large monuments that would have dominated the Stone Age landscape.</p>
<p>Pottery dated at the site is from 3050 to 2650 B.C., meaning that the structure could be older than Stonehenge, Newgrange, or the pyramids of Egypt.</p>
<p>Experts have debated the structure’s purpose; some believe it could be the remains of a city wall, while others are firm that the structure denoted specific land ownership. The structure would have clearly indicated who owned the land due to its enormous size.</p>
<p>The structure is crescent-shaped, indicating a relationship with the Mesopotamian moon god named Sin. It’s on the outskirts of the ancient town of Bet Yerah, meaning “house of the moon” in the Hebrew language.</p>
<p>Other ancient stone structures have been found near this site. A structure referred to as Rujum el-Hiri, east of the Sea of Galilee towards the Golan Heights, is thought to be almost a thousand years older than the structure recently found by scientists. Rujum el-Hiri contains four circles centered around an ancient cairn. Next to structures like those found at Gobekli Tepe, it is helping to rewrite the history of ancient cultures in the Mediterranean area.</p>
<p>An enormous stone cairn was recently discovered in the Sea of Galilee. Its date is unknown, but it is thought to be associated with the town of Bet Yerah. Underwater archaeologists made the discovery, as sea levels have shifted dramatically over the past six thousand years.</p>
<p>Archaeological discoveries in Israel are frequently a touchy subject, as the land has been fought over for millennia. Current land disputes are still ongoing in the West Bank as Israeli settlements compete with Palestinian towns for land ownership.</p>
<p /> | Pre-Biblical stone structures discovered in Northern Israel | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/09/18/pre-biblical-stone-structures-discovered-in-northern-israel/ | 2014-09-18 | 3 |
<p>Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump opened his Wednesday rally in Anaheim, California by bringing a group of ardent women supporters on stage, with one of them exclaiming: “Thank you, God, for sending us Donald J. Trump!”</p>
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<p>Trump said he met with a group of a “couple hundred women” supporters who already had an event underway before the rally.</p>
<p>“They’re women that love Trump!” he said. “I’m telling you, women do like me, I’m telling you.”</p>
<p>The billionaire then decided to bring some of those women on stage.</p>
<p>One woman, clad in a bright red suit, took the mic to say, “God bless America! Thank you, God, for sending us Donald J. Trump to be our next President of the United States of America!”</p>
<p>“He’s a job creator, he’s a father, he’s an American patriot,” she continued.</p>
<p>Watch the line, captured by TPM:</p>
<p /> | Trump Supporter Opens CA Rally By Thanking God For Donald Trump (VIDEO) | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/doanld-trump-anaheim-california-rally | 4 |
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<p>The Albuquerque-based filmmaker has worked with Unser and the Cody Unser First Step Foundation in bringing awareness about living with paralysis.</p>
<p>Through their first film, “Cody: The First Step,” which aired in 2008, Schueler was able to tell Unser’s story to a national audience, including how the then-college senior adapted to living with a disability.</p>
<p>Now the filmmaker is back with “Healing Waters,” which takes a look at how Unser’s program helps disabled veterans through scuba diving – or Adaptive Scuba Diving Medical Pilot Study.</p>
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<p>“It’s been an adventure to be involved with the project,” Schueler says. “What’s amazing is that we’ve been able to open some minds to this subject.”</p>
<p>With the film now in post-production, Schueler says the project got a $25,000 donation from Newman’s Own Foundation, which was created by the late actor and philanthropist Paul Newman.</p>
<p>“It was a dream of our founder, Cody Unser, to share the results of the first conventional SCUBA-Medical Pilot Study,” says Shelly Unser, president of Unser’s foundation. “Filmed and documented, the weeklong study on the neurological and psychological effects of scuba on paralysis will become Cody’s next documentary.”</p>
<p>The donation from Newman’s Own Foundation will go towards the post-production process.</p>
<p>Schueler says unlike making a feature film, a documentary requires that the script be written after the filming process.</p>
<p>Film crews work with disabled military veterans learning to scuba dive in the Cayman Islands. The footage is part of the documentary, “Healing Waters,” which is focused on a program that helps disabled veterans through scuba diving.</p>
<p>“We should have the script done in a couple weeks,” he explains. “Then we will edit down the nearly 40 hours of footage that we have.”</p>
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<p>During the project, Schueler and crew flew to the Cayman Islands to shoot footage of the military personnel competing in the pilot program.</p>
<p>Schueler, who also is a scuba diver, says what he witnessed was amazing.</p>
<p>“These troops adapted to the water very well,” he says. “Of course, they were taught the basics of scuba diving. But it was a great opportunity to showcase the amazing effect of scuba diving on these veterans with paralysis. The images are both beautiful and riveting.”</p>
<p>The medical research team – lead by Dr. Adam Kaplin, psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University Medical School and Dr. Daniel Becker, neurologist at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore – discover amazing results from the experience, results that could forever change the way paralysis is treated and the way those in wheelchairs live their lives.</p>
<p>“We saw dramatic changes in a matter of days in a number of people with spinal cord injury who went scuba diving,” Becker says. “This is just a pilot study, but to see such a restoration of neurological function and significant improvement in PTSD symptoms over such a short period of time was unprecedented.”</p>
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<p>Kaplin says what they found in the study strongly suggests there is some scuba-facilitated restoration of neurological and psychological function of paraplegics.</p>
<p>“It’s very promising and pro-active,” he says.</p>
<p>Schueler’s Albuquerque-based company, Christopher’s Productions, will be doing all of the post-production work.</p>
<p>While the $25,000 donation will help, Schueler says it only covers a portion of what is needed for post production.</p>
<p>Albuquerque filmmaker Chris Schueler is currently in post-production for “Healing Waters.”</p>
<p>“We will continue to look for more funding,” he says. “But this is the kind of project that you will work to get done no matter the price. If we don’t raise the money, I think we will be digging into our own finances to get it done. It’s just become a labor of love and an important thing to me.”</p>
<p>In addition to the documentaries, Schueler has created more than 100 TV programs in the past 20 years and has won 21 Emmy Awards.</p>
<p>He has focused on educational and social issues with his films and has worked with the United Nations and PBS on projects.</p>
<p>In addition to being CEO of Christopher Productions, Schueler is the executive director of SafeTeen New Mexico, a nonprofit organization that helps youth make healthy decisions through live school assemblies. It distributes a wide variety of videos and curricula covering teen health issues. SafeTeen, <a href="http://www.safeteen.net" type="external">www.safeteen.net</a>, was recently named one of the six best community outreach projects in the nation at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>SEND ME YOUR TIPS: If you know of a movie filming in the state, or are curious about one, email <a href="" type="internal">film@ABQjournal.com</a>. Follow me on Twitter @agomezART.</p> | Director’s labor of love gets help from Newman’s Own | false | https://abqjournal.com/158012/directors-labor-of-love-gets-help-from-newmans-own.html | 2013-01-06 | 2 |
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<p>Our state has seen some hard times – no one knows this better than New Mexico families.</p>
<p>A little more than four years ago, New Mexico faced a record-level budget deficit. State government had grown accustomed to wasting taxpayer dollars on things like luxury jets. Thousands of New Mexicans were out of a job, the result of one of the worst national recessions in history, coupled with massive federal budget cuts. And our leaders continued to turn a blind eye to a failed education system.</p>
<p>Today, while we still have our challenges, New Mexico’s future looks much brighter, and I believe that our best days are ahead.</p>
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<p>I believe in a New Mexico that offers the best schools, good-paying jobs and a state government that lives within its means while funding our top priorities – like education and health care for those most in need. During the last three-and-a-half years, we have begun to see real improvement. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but we must continue to build on our reforms.</p>
<p>To get there, we need a state government that is fiscally responsible. This was far from the case four years ago. In fact, while most families were tightening their belts, my predecessor took state government on a spending spree and grew it by 50 percent in eight years. On the day I was sworn into office, I inherited a deficit of $450 million.</p>
<p>Some politicians – including some in my own party – thought they had the right solution. “Why go through all the trouble? Just raise taxes,” they told me. “Sure, you promised you wouldn’t. But voters won’t remember what you said during the campaign.”</p>
<p>That’s the difference between a politician and a leader. Leaders stick to their word; politicians say whatever it takes to get elected. And I was not about to go back on my word. So we chose a different route. We zeroed in on waste and abuse. We sold the state’s luxury jet, capped salaries of cabinet secretaries and decreased the number of political appointees.</p>
<p>We eliminated that deficit, in a bipartisan way and we did it without raising taxes. We’ve had three straight years of budget surpluses and we’ve doubled the size of our state’s savings account. Now, we’re ranked seventh in the nation in budget health.</p>
<p>We’ve come a long way.</p>
<p>But putting our financial house in order – without burdening small businesses – was only our first step in getting New Mexico on a new course. New Mexico faces challenges unlike any other state; we are the single most reliant state in the country on federal dollars – the result of politicians putting all of our eggs in one basket for far too long. Because of this reality, not only did we get hit with the national recession, but with federal budget cuts, too.</p>
<p>New Mexico can no longer rely on Washington politicians, and be held hostage by the dysfunction in our nation’s capital. We must create an economy as diverse as our state, driven by private-sector growth and small businesses.</p>
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<p>And that’s exactly what we’re doing today. By cutting taxes and helping small businesses grow, we are laying the foundation for strong private-sector growth. We’ve done things like pass the bipartisan jobs package. We’ve cut taxes 24 times. And we’re focused on helping small businesses grow. For example, we created the Office of Business Advocacy to cut through government red tape and have saved or created 2,000 jobs through this program alone.</p>
<p>Already, we’ve begun to see the fruits of our labor. Ernst and Young now says New Mexico has the lowest tax burden in the West for manufacturing. Export growth went from 38th in the nation to first just two years ago, and exports to Mexico are at an all-time high. We’ve also created 32,000 private-sector jobs since January 2011.</p>
<p>I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished, but we must continue our efforts to grow our businesses and attract companies to our state.</p>
<p>The key to our future is a great education system. I want to make sure that every struggling student gets the help they deserve. That’s why we told Washington, D.C., that we didn’t like its “one-size-fits-all” approach, and received a waiver that allows us to do things differently, putting more control back into the hands of teachers and local school districts and providing parents with more information about how their schools are performing.</p>
<p>Not only are we spending more money on education than ever before, but we’re putting those dollars where they matter most: in the classroom for things like reading coaches, textbooks and tutors to help our struggling students. Our graduation rate is improving faster than any other state and our Hispanic students lead the nation on Advanced Placement tests.</p>
<p>Still, I believe we can do better. We can start by ending the practice of passing kids from one grade to the next when they can’t read.</p>
<p>In a little less than four years, we have shown what is possible when we work together for New Mexico. I’ll be the first to tell you that it hasn’t always been easy and we still have much to do. But we must continue building on our reforms and not turn back to the failed policies of the past.</p>
<p>If my opponent is elected, we will take a giant step backward. When times get tough, he’ll raise taxes – he’s done it before and says he doesn’t regret it, which means he’d do it again. And under his education plan, Washington politicians will gain control of our schools again and bureaucrats, not teachers, will make decisions about what happens in New Mexico classrooms.</p>
<p>Now is not the time to turn back. It has been my honor and privilege to serve as New Mexico’s governor for the past four years, and I believe that by working together, tomorrow will be better than today.</p>
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<p /> | Four years of progress for NM | false | https://abqjournal.com/474414/four-years-of-progress-for-nm.html | 2 |
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<p><a href="https://www.apnews.com/de1b6e80a0cf4d84bca38835e9bb3310" type="external">First came the Tomahawks Opens a New Window.</a> -- 59 of them, launched at a military airfield in Syria. Then came the bombing of <a href="https://sofrep.com/79349/isis-death-toll-moab-strike-afghanistan-rises-94-according-local-reports/" type="external">an ISIS cave fortress in Afghanistan Opens a New Window.</a>. With every passing week, it seems, Americans get another introduction to the weapons that make up the arsenal of democracy. (Next week, it could be <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/politics/aircraft-carrier-vinson-location-korea-indonesia/" type="external">aircraft carriers in Korea... Opens a New Window.</a>)</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Of course, this week the talk is all about the Air Force's GBU-43/B "MOAB."Officially designated the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, MOAB has been more popularly christened the "Mother of All Bombs" -- which works just as well for the acronym.</p>
<p>MOAB on the move. Image source: U.S. Air Force.</p>
<p>At 30 feet long and 40 inches in diameter, MOAB is the largest nonnuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal. It weighs 21,715 pounds -- 18,739 pounds of which is warhead -- more than 10 full tons. It's so big that conventional bomber aircraft can't even carry it.</p>
<p>Instead, MOAB must be loaded into the hold of a C-130 transport, then pushed out the back door for delivery. Exploding in the air above its target, MOAB unleashes a blast equivalent to 11 tonsof TNT going off at once, incinerating everything within one mile of ground zero.</p>
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<p>But here's perhaps the most surprising thing about MOAB, for investors: No one company seems to make it.</p>
<p>Designed by the Pentagon's Air Force Research Lab, MOAB is put together at the government-owned-and-operated McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma. You might think the Pentagon would have contracted a professional munitions maker such as General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) to put MOAB together. Instead, the Air Force built MOAB itself. Why?</p>
<p>It could be that the Air Force never asked; it could be that defense contractors simply weren't interested. You see, as big as an individual MOAB may be, the MOAB program itself was vanishingly small. Only 15 MOABs were ever produced, and two of those were used for testing. The MOAB dropped in Afghanistan was the third -- which leaves just a dozen MOABs in the Pentagon's arsenal (as far as we know).</p>
<p>In any case, to date, it seems that not a single contract to build additional MOABs has been awarded to any private defense contractor, <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Search/GBU-43/" type="external">ever Opens a New Window.</a>. So, while MOAB may be dominating headlines right now, it's not a program likely to help any defense stock's bottom line.</p>
<p>If headlines can't be relied upon to reveal promising investments, what is a better way to invest? Personally, I use common sense.</p>
<p>Let's start with the Constitution. The U.S. Navy is the only branch of the military specifically authorized by the Constitution (Article I, Sec. 8) to be maintained as a standing force. It's also, I think, the one branch of the military most likely to receive steady funding in all international environments -- both in times of war and in times of peace.</p>
<p>Why? Simply because of its mission. America needs a full-strength Navy in both war-and peacetime to ensure freedom of navigation, to protect commerce from pirates ( <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2009/10/08/stupid-pirate-tricks.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">yes, pirates still do exist Opens a New Window.</a>), and to "show the flag" to prevent conflicts between other nations from happening. These missions ensure a steady flow of funding to the Navy to build new ships and keep the fleet operational and in good repair. They also, I feel, insulate the Navy somewhat from defense spending cuts in times of international tranquility.</p>
<p>To my mind, this makes the three biggest naval contractors -- General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls (NYSE: HII), and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) -- three of the most reliable defense contractors to invest in. General Dynamics builds submarines and destroyers for the Navy. Huntington Ingalls' specialty is aircraft carriers and amphibious assault vessels -- although it builds submarines and destroyers as well. Lockheed Martin builds aircraft, of course, including the Navy's new F-35C stealth fighter jet and the Marine Corps' F-35B. But Lockheed also has contracts to build Littoral Combat Ships for the Navy.</p>
<p>Speaking of shipbuilding contracts, in contrast to other weapons systems that can be built in a day, or several days, it takes several years to build a complete warship from the keel up. Your average Virginia-class nuclear submarine, for example, can take General Dynamics or Huntington Ingalls two yearsto complete. The nuclear-powered supercarriers that Huntington builds take even longer -- about five years each.</p>
<p>These long timelines mean that when a naval defense contractor wins a contract, investors can map out future revenues, and estimate future profits, several years into the future -- which lends a bit of certainty to an investment. It's one thing I like about investing in the naval contractors.</p>
<p>What don't I like? Honestly, I find the stocks of the shipbuilders, <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/22/the-no-1-reason-you-should-not-buy-military-stocks.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">like most defense contractors these days Opens a New Window.</a>, unattractively valued at present. While not the most egregiously priced stocks in the defense industry, General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls, and Lockheed Martin currently sell for valuations far above the "one times sales" valuation that I use as my rule of thumb for fair value in a defense stock.</p>
<p>However, this is only a temporary obstacle to investing in the defense industry, where valuations tend to move in cycles. (For an illustration of what the industry looks like when defense is out of favor, check out the articles I was writing <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/03/19/6-stocks-that-never-surrender.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">seven years ago Opens a New Window.</a> -- when defense stocks were consistently underperforming the S&amp;P 500.) Although they're expensive today, there will come a day when defense stocks are undervalued again.</p>
<p>And now you know which stocks to invest in once that day arrives.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than General DynamicsWhen 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=4c97ed49-96db-434f-a6ef-29d75b3df86d&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 General Dynamics 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=4c97ed49-96db-434f-a6ef-29d75b3df86d&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/TMFDitty/info.aspx" type="external">Rich Smith Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. 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;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Forget the "Mother of All Bombs": 3 Defense Stocks to Own No Matter What Happens Abroad | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/23/forget-mother-all-bombs-3-defense-stocks-to-own-no-matter-what-happens-abroad.html | 2017-04-23 | 0 |
<p>Forterra's (NASDAQ: FRTA) stock surged on Wednesday morning, bubbling up more than 36% by 11:15 a.m. EST. Driving the rebound was the market's reaction to the company's third-quarter results.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>On the surface, Forterra's results didn't look all that great compared to last year's or to analysts' expectations. The company recorded $444.3 million in sales during the quarter, which was only $3 million higher than the year-ago period and $6.9 million below the consensus estimate. The company posted a net loss of $11.5 million, or $0.18 per share. That was well below the $8.4 million, or $0.19 per share, it earned in the year-ago period, and missed expectations by $0.22 per share.</p>
<p>During the quarter, Forterra faced several headwinds that impacted its financial results. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, for example, cut $3.7 million&#160;from the bottom line. The company also closed the sale of its U.S. concrete and steel pressure-pipe business during the quarter. That divestiture reduced sales by $8.9 million, and the company recorded a $31.6 million loss on that transaction, which is what pulled it into the red.</p>
<p>Despite those headwinds, Forterra noted that its underlying earnings as measured by adjusted <a href="https://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/ebitda.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=ff167e4c-c49e-11e7-b4f4-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">EBITDA Opens a New Window.</a> came in at $60.9 million, which was above the midpoint of its guidance range. Driving that result was a combination of higher selling prices and lower costs.</p>
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<p>In commenting on what lies ahead, CEO Jeff Bradley stated in the third-quarter press release that he expects continued improvement in the company's earnings due to its "ongoing initiatives, a solid backlog, and favorable market conditions." That optimism could continue driving the stock higher as that earnings improvement materializes, especially since shares are still down more than 67% this year even after today's pop. That said, given its <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/08/10/heres-why-forterra-incs-stock-is-crashing-today.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=ff167e4c-c49e-11e7-b4f4-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">wild Opens a New Window.</a> <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/05/15/why-forterra-inc-stock-slumped-24-today.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=ff167e4c-c49e-11e7-b4f4-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">ride Opens a New Window.</a> this year, investors need to have an iron stomach before diving into this water stock.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Forterra, Inc. Common StockWhen 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=38fed7e7-d120-4bf5-8b0b-cd5a298d9b14&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=ff167e4c-c49e-11e7-b4f4-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Forterra, Inc. Common Stock 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=38fed7e7-d120-4bf5-8b0b-cd5a298d9b14&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=ff167e4c-c49e-11e7-b4f4-0050569d32b9&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 November 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFmd19/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=ff167e4c-c49e-11e7-b4f4-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Matthew DiLallo Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 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;referring_guid=ff167e4c-c49e-11e7-b4f4-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | This Is Why Forterra Inc's Stock Is Spiking Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/08/this-is-why-forterra-incs-stock-is-spiking-today.html | 2017-11-08 | 0 |
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<p>It was extremely obvious that many of my classmates were more interested in their own training plans than in their athletes. Deep down, I was as well, but I had already assembled a small group of athletes that were waiting for me to fill in their Training Peak calendars each week and I felt as if I was on a mission to bring home the “goods.”</p>
<p>After two days of conferences, I realized there were no secret training plans. What USAT had assembled were coaches, each having their own specialties and individual approaches on how to coach an athlete. They discussed periodization, they stressed technique and they led long discussions on ethics in sport. I wanted to know what to prescribe and how much of it.</p>
<p>It’s 2014 and the leaves are changing and the cold evenings are giving way to beautiful sunny days, the comfortable ones that don’t over stress your body with brutal heat. I have been a full-time coach for almost four years now and I am packing for the last race of this season. The bags are out, the running shoes and clothes are organized, airline tickets and rental car is confirmed.</p>
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<p>This is probably the most relaxed I have ever been before a large race, the Xterra World Championships on Maui. The reason for this new relaxed approach – I am not racing. I am the coach this week.</p>
<p>This season I have coached two athletes to the World Championships. Lauren Thompson participated in the Ironman 70.3 Worlds. This week it is 17-year-old Tiziana DeHorney of Albuquerque, who will be testing herself against the world’s best at the Xterra World Champions on Maui this Sunday. Xterra is the off-road brother to Triathlon. The course is a 1.5K rough water beach start swim, 32K mountain bike ride and a 10K trail run.</p>
<p>What did I learn during those first conferences that will help me get Tiziana on the podium this weekend? I learned to listen, because each athlete is different and requires a specialized plan. Those first clinics gave me the knowledge of how to locate information and then the formulation of the plan rested on my shoulders. Actually, my listening skills were honed as a bartender in Newport Beach, Calif., and my patience is continuously developing as a dad to two young almost teenage daughters.</p>
<p>Coaching Tizi is more about keeping her on task. She is a freshman at UNM and is learning how to juggle a full course load, a full training load, two part-time jobs and a social life. Many of our conversations revolve around making lists and checking them multiple times. As you can tell, the actual training is secondary to helping her dial in the logistics of her life. Once she is training, everything is good. The same thing applies to racing. Once she lines up at the starting line, she has no problems. How can a coach learn these skills? Just keep on listening.</p>
<p>During Tizi’s last mountain bike race, in Flagstaff, she didn’t even finish the race. There were two flat tires and, did I mention, she didn’t study the bike course map. You guessed it, she got lost on the course.</p>
<p>So, what is this coach’s job this week? Thursday Buy groceries Become the airport taxi Assemble mountain bike Review the bike course w/athlete on the laptop</p>
<p>Friday Sort through all the race gear to make sure we don’t need any last-minute items Drive the crew to the race site Packet pickup Meet with the Xterra Wetsuit company to pickup Tizi’s new speed suit for the swim Preview (swim) the swim course with Tizi Review the 32K bike course map Send her out onto the course to check turns and tire selection Walk the run course with Tizi Drop her off at the condo so I can get some dive time with my wife</p>
<p>Saturday Review the course and decide which part of the race we want to go revisit Rack the bike in Transition #1 Return Tizi to the condo with and go enjoy the day while she rests Pre-race dinner, she really performs well on a rare steak and potato Early to bed</p>
<p>Sunday 4 a.m. wake-up call for a big breakfast Out the door to the race venue Check tire and fork pressures according to the moisture of the road surfaces Make sure she has all the nutrition on the bike she will need for the race Walk her down to the water, review the entrances and exits for the transitions, check sighting options and get her in the water to warm-up. Like I said earlier, once the gun goes off her body just switches into “Race Mode.”</p>
<p>I am sure I forgot something on my list, but the cameras are packed.</p>
<p>It should be an exciting weekend to be a coach.</p> | Coaching is a learning experience | false | https://abqjournal.com/511294/coaching-is-a-learning-experience.html | 2 |