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<p /> <p>Bad products, horrible software and no cohesive vision have seemingly turned Research In Motion into a company without motion at this point. Throw in a huge delay before BlackBerry 10 smartphones start shipping, and it&#8217;s clear why people are losing, or have lost, faith in a company that played a tremendous role in making the smartphone industry what it is today. Thanks to one of our most trusted sources, BGR now has new information on what&#8217;s going on inside Research In Motion, and the picture it paints isn&#8217;t a pretty one.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>Our source has communicated to us in no uncertain terms that the PlayBook 2.0 OS developers have been testing is a crystal clear window into the current state of BlackBerry 10 on smartphones. No email, no BlackBerry Messenger &#8212; it&#8217;s almost identical. &#8220;Email and PIM [is better] on an 8700 than it is on BlackBerry 10,&#8221; our contact said while talking to us about RIM&#8217;s failure to make the company&#8217;s new OS work with the network infrastructure RIM is known for.</p> <p>We also have some more background on why RIM&#8217;s BlackBerry 10 smartphones are delayed, and it has nothing to do with a new LTE chipset that RIM is waiting on. In what is something of a serious allegation, our source told us that Mike Lazaridis was lying when he said the company&#8217;s new lineup was delayed for that reason. &#8221;RIM is simply pushing this out as long as they can for one reason, they don&#8217;t have a working product yet,&#8221; we were told.</p> <p><a href="" type="internal">See more tech stories on the FOX Business Technology homepage.</a></p> <p>At the end of our conversation, our source communicated something shocking for a high-level RIM employee to say. He told us that RIM is betting its business on a platform and ecosystem that isn&#8217;t even as good as iPhone OS 1.0 or Android 2.0. &#8220;There&#8217;s no room for a fourth ecosystem,&#8221; he stated, &#8220;and DingleBerry also works on BlackBerry 10.&#8221;</p> <p><a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/22/blackberry-10-is-a-failure-that-wont-be-able-to-compete-company-source-says/" type="external">This content was originally published on BGR.com Opens a New Window.</a></p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p><a href="http://www.bgr.com/" type="external">Opens a New Window.</a>More news from BGR:</p>

BlackBerry 10 a Failure That Won’t Be Able to Compete: Company Source

http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/12/21/blackberry-10-failure-that-wont-be-able-to-compete-company-source.html

2016-03-04

0right

BlackBerry 10 a Failure That Won’t Be Able to Compete: Company Source <p /> <p>Bad products, horrible software and no cohesive vision have seemingly turned Research In Motion into a company without motion at this point. Throw in a huge delay before BlackBerry 10 smartphones start shipping, and it&#8217;s clear why people are losing, or have lost, faith in a company that played a tremendous role in making the smartphone industry what it is today. Thanks to one of our most trusted sources, BGR now has new information on what&#8217;s going on inside Research In Motion, and the picture it paints isn&#8217;t a pretty one.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>Our source has communicated to us in no uncertain terms that the PlayBook 2.0 OS developers have been testing is a crystal clear window into the current state of BlackBerry 10 on smartphones. No email, no BlackBerry Messenger &#8212; it&#8217;s almost identical. &#8220;Email and PIM [is better] on an 8700 than it is on BlackBerry 10,&#8221; our contact said while talking to us about RIM&#8217;s failure to make the company&#8217;s new OS work with the network infrastructure RIM is known for.</p> <p>We also have some more background on why RIM&#8217;s BlackBerry 10 smartphones are delayed, and it has nothing to do with a new LTE chipset that RIM is waiting on. In what is something of a serious allegation, our source told us that Mike Lazaridis was lying when he said the company&#8217;s new lineup was delayed for that reason. &#8221;RIM is simply pushing this out as long as they can for one reason, they don&#8217;t have a working product yet,&#8221; we were told.</p> <p><a href="" type="internal">See more tech stories on the FOX Business Technology homepage.</a></p> <p>At the end of our conversation, our source communicated something shocking for a high-level RIM employee to say. He told us that RIM is betting its business on a platform and ecosystem that isn&#8217;t even as good as iPhone OS 1.0 or Android 2.0. &#8220;There&#8217;s no room for a fourth ecosystem,&#8221; he stated, &#8220;and DingleBerry also works on BlackBerry 10.&#8221;</p> <p><a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/22/blackberry-10-is-a-failure-that-wont-be-able-to-compete-company-source-says/" type="external">This content was originally published on BGR.com Opens a New Window.</a></p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p><a href="http://www.bgr.com/" type="external">Opens a New Window.</a>More news from BGR:</p>

<p>The Federal Reserve report on Americans&#8217; finances documents the terrible damage the Great Recession has inflicted on the nation, a toll that has been clear to its victims since the collapse began. The report&#8217;s dry language doesn&#8217;t begin to describe how bad things really are, and it stops short of blaming those who perpetuate the misery.</p> <p>In pursuing this story since 2007, I and other journalists have seen foreclosed homes and visited unemployment offices, free food distributions, community health centers and mental health counselors. Former donors were now coming to free health clinics and food banks to get help themselves, an experience that will be forever remembered by their families. Lost homes, jobs and hopes are the legacy of this period.</p> <p>The presidential campaign doesn&#8217;t reflect the urgency the situation demands. Republican Mitt Romney has nothing to offer except blaming President Barack Obama and joining with House Republicans in opposing presidential initiatives. Obama has some solutions, but doesn&#8217;t know how to sell them. The president had a chance last week when disappointing employment figures came out. Unfortunately at his news conference Friday, he reminded me of a bored university economics professor lecturing to an equally bored freshman class, not the nation&#8217;s leader who is in real danger of losing his office.</p> <p>The Federal Reserve survey reported on consumers&#8217; economic status from 2007, when the economy began to falter, to 2010, when the slow recovery began.</p> <p /> <p>A family in the economic middle, between rich and poor, saw its net worth &#8212; the difference between gross assets and liabilities &#8212; drop almost 40 percent between 2007 and 2010. That brought the figure, the report said, &#8220;close to levels not seen since the 1992 survey.&#8221;</p> <p>The recession hit everybody. &#8220;Net worth decreased for all education groups,&#8221; the report said. &#8220;Each of the four education groups experienced a very large decline &#8230; ranging from a drop of 53.7 percent for the no-high-school-diploma group to a drop of 32.7 percent for the high-school-educated group.&#8221; The declines were even lower for college graduates and those with some college. The net worth of people of color decreased more than that of whites.</p> <p>As Obama talked about the weak economy at the news conference, he said the private sector was &#8220;doing fine.&#8221; It was the public sector dragging things down. It was an unfortunate way to put it, but Obama actually had it right.</p> <p>Ben Polak, chairman of the economics department at Yale, and Peter Schott, a Yale School of Management professor, wrote in The New York Times Economix blog that &#8220;recovery in the private sector has not been particularly slow by recent historical standards. &#8230; But there is something historically different about this recession and its aftermath: In the past, local government employment has been almost recession-proof. This time it&#8217;s not. Going back as long as the data have been collected (1955), with the one exception of the 1981 recession, local government employment continued to grow almost every month regardless of what the economy threw at it. But since the latest recession began, local government employment has fallen by 3 percent, and is still falling.&#8221;</p> <p>Part of the problem is local governments&#8217; practice, during the good years, of agreeing to overly generous retirement and health benefits. But the federal government has also failed to help local governments with aid to prevent more employee layoffs and financing for their public works projects.</p> <p>Take, for example, a job-creating bill that has been stalled in the House by Republicans. The measure would finance transportation projects around the country. &#8220;Clearly, the indecision in passing a transportation reauthorization bill is having a terrible impact on the construction industry &#8212; 28,000 construction jobs lost last month,&#8221; said the author of the Senate-passed bill, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.</p> <p>Every day, I see what good such proposals do. Four blocks from my house in Los Angeles, workers are widening one of the nation&#8217;s most jammed roads, Interstate 405. About a mile away, other workers are building the Expo commuter rail line, part of an expanding network. Without much media emphasis on the job aspect, these projects are already putting people to work in a county where unemployment is 11 percent, down during the Obama administration from a 2010 high of 13.4 percent. Many miles away, workers have started on the Gold Line commuter rail extension through the San Gabriel Valley, which business interests there say will create 2,630 construction jobs and 4,270 more in businesses related to the project. After watching the misery of the recession, it&#8217;s heartening to see men and women working on the roads and rail lines.</p> <p>These are being financed by a local sales tax. Boxer wants to permit the federal government to loan money to local authorities to speed up work on such transportation projects. In Los Angeles County, proceeds from the sales tax would repay the loans.</p> <p>This is just one program. There are others, blocked by House Republicans and opposed by Romney. Although they are not mentioned in the Federal Reserve report, these recalcitrant legislators &#8212; whose only goal is to defeat Obama, even at the cost of average Americans&#8217; well-being &#8212; are the villains in this story.</p>

Who's Not Putting Americans Back to Work

https://truthdig.com/articles/whos-not-putting-americans-back-to-work/

2012-06-15

4left

Who's Not Putting Americans Back to Work <p>The Federal Reserve report on Americans&#8217; finances documents the terrible damage the Great Recession has inflicted on the nation, a toll that has been clear to its victims since the collapse began. The report&#8217;s dry language doesn&#8217;t begin to describe how bad things really are, and it stops short of blaming those who perpetuate the misery.</p> <p>In pursuing this story since 2007, I and other journalists have seen foreclosed homes and visited unemployment offices, free food distributions, community health centers and mental health counselors. Former donors were now coming to free health clinics and food banks to get help themselves, an experience that will be forever remembered by their families. Lost homes, jobs and hopes are the legacy of this period.</p> <p>The presidential campaign doesn&#8217;t reflect the urgency the situation demands. Republican Mitt Romney has nothing to offer except blaming President Barack Obama and joining with House Republicans in opposing presidential initiatives. Obama has some solutions, but doesn&#8217;t know how to sell them. The president had a chance last week when disappointing employment figures came out. Unfortunately at his news conference Friday, he reminded me of a bored university economics professor lecturing to an equally bored freshman class, not the nation&#8217;s leader who is in real danger of losing his office.</p> <p>The Federal Reserve survey reported on consumers&#8217; economic status from 2007, when the economy began to falter, to 2010, when the slow recovery began.</p> <p /> <p>A family in the economic middle, between rich and poor, saw its net worth &#8212; the difference between gross assets and liabilities &#8212; drop almost 40 percent between 2007 and 2010. That brought the figure, the report said, &#8220;close to levels not seen since the 1992 survey.&#8221;</p> <p>The recession hit everybody. &#8220;Net worth decreased for all education groups,&#8221; the report said. &#8220;Each of the four education groups experienced a very large decline &#8230; ranging from a drop of 53.7 percent for the no-high-school-diploma group to a drop of 32.7 percent for the high-school-educated group.&#8221; The declines were even lower for college graduates and those with some college. The net worth of people of color decreased more than that of whites.</p> <p>As Obama talked about the weak economy at the news conference, he said the private sector was &#8220;doing fine.&#8221; It was the public sector dragging things down. It was an unfortunate way to put it, but Obama actually had it right.</p> <p>Ben Polak, chairman of the economics department at Yale, and Peter Schott, a Yale School of Management professor, wrote in The New York Times Economix blog that &#8220;recovery in the private sector has not been particularly slow by recent historical standards. &#8230; But there is something historically different about this recession and its aftermath: In the past, local government employment has been almost recession-proof. This time it&#8217;s not. Going back as long as the data have been collected (1955), with the one exception of the 1981 recession, local government employment continued to grow almost every month regardless of what the economy threw at it. But since the latest recession began, local government employment has fallen by 3 percent, and is still falling.&#8221;</p> <p>Part of the problem is local governments&#8217; practice, during the good years, of agreeing to overly generous retirement and health benefits. But the federal government has also failed to help local governments with aid to prevent more employee layoffs and financing for their public works projects.</p> <p>Take, for example, a job-creating bill that has been stalled in the House by Republicans. The measure would finance transportation projects around the country. &#8220;Clearly, the indecision in passing a transportation reauthorization bill is having a terrible impact on the construction industry &#8212; 28,000 construction jobs lost last month,&#8221; said the author of the Senate-passed bill, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.</p> <p>Every day, I see what good such proposals do. Four blocks from my house in Los Angeles, workers are widening one of the nation&#8217;s most jammed roads, Interstate 405. About a mile away, other workers are building the Expo commuter rail line, part of an expanding network. Without much media emphasis on the job aspect, these projects are already putting people to work in a county where unemployment is 11 percent, down during the Obama administration from a 2010 high of 13.4 percent. Many miles away, workers have started on the Gold Line commuter rail extension through the San Gabriel Valley, which business interests there say will create 2,630 construction jobs and 4,270 more in businesses related to the project. After watching the misery of the recession, it&#8217;s heartening to see men and women working on the roads and rail lines.</p> <p>These are being financed by a local sales tax. Boxer wants to permit the federal government to loan money to local authorities to speed up work on such transportation projects. In Los Angeles County, proceeds from the sales tax would repay the loans.</p> <p>This is just one program. There are others, blocked by House Republicans and opposed by Romney. Although they are not mentioned in the Federal Reserve report, these recalcitrant legislators &#8212; whose only goal is to defeat Obama, even at the cost of average Americans&#8217; well-being &#8212; are the villains in this story.</p>

<p /> <p>The <a href="" type="internal">White House</a> has been touting its proposed &#8220;Framework for Business Tax Reform&#8221; as a way to cut the corporate tax rate and eliminate loopholes and subsidies and strengthen American manufacturing and spur innovation all. The administration also touts it will simplify and cut taxes for small businesses, and encourage domestic investment.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>What&#8217;s not to love?</p> <p>Plenty, perhaps.</p> <p>Whether you end up on the winning or losing side of this reform depends upon politics. In other words, are you one of the industries favored by this president? Alternative energy, for instance? There&#8217;s a tax incentive for that. Manufacturer? Your top tax rate will be lower than a service provider&#8217;s.</p> <p>I&#8217;m not na&#239;ve. I recognize that the tax code is full of incentives that encourage both individuals and businesses to act in ways deemed to be positive or socially enhancing. That&#8217;s why there&#8217;s a tax deduction for charitable donations.&amp;#160; I also acknowledge that our current tax code is overly complex, and that many aspects are outdated. I just don&#8217;t see how replacing old &#8220;preferences&#8221; with new ones is an improvement.</p> <p>And let&#8217;s be honest: Although the top corporate tax rate is currently 35%, many companies don&#8217;t pay anything close to that under the current system. <a href="http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/Documents/The-Presidents-Framework-for-Business-Tax-Reform-02-22-2012.pdf" type="external">According to the Treasury Department Opens a New Window.</a>, after taking deductions, writeoffs and other tax breaks into account, the &#8220;effective&#8221; tax rate a company pays varies widely, depending upon the business it&#8217;s in:</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis based upon 2007-2008 data</p> <p>In addition to lowering the maximum corporate tax rate to 28%, the administration would eliminate most of the tax breaks businesses currently receive. So many, in fact, that they more than makes up for the reduction in the tax rate.&amp;#160; &#8220;The president&#8217;s proposal is designed to be a net revenue raiser,&#8221; according to Mark Luscombe, principal federal tax analyst at CCH, a global provider of tax information and software.&amp;#160; &#8220;When you start eliminating a whole range of tax breaks, it adds up&#8230; Overall, there will be more paid.&#8221;</p> <p>And, while it seems unfair that utilities pay an effective federal tax rate of just 14%, what&#8217;s going to happen to your monthly utility bill if your electric company suddenly has to pay twice that amount?&amp;#160; The same goes for car insurance. Moreover, why should the top tax rate on corporations be 28% except for those involved in manufacturing? (I&#8217;m sure it has nothing to with the fact that many are staffed by union workers.)</p> <p>&#8220;On the international side,&#8221; says Luscombe, &#8220;Obama has backed away from a territorial say system and is moving toward a worldwide system. This would be a significant development.&#8221; Nonetheless, since most of our trading partners operate on a territorial system of taxation, this wouldn&#8217;t exactly put U.S. companies on an equal footing. In effect, the president&#8217;s &#8220;Framework&#8221; would require companies to pay tax on overseas profits in the year the money is earned as opposed to when it is actually brought back to this country.&amp;#160; However, since a company could offset this by any tax paid to the foreign country in which they&#8217;re located, there could be minimal impact.</p> <p>To stem the loss of jobs overseas, companies would no longer be allowed to deduct the cost of moving operations outside the U.S.&amp;#160; In addition, there would be a tax credit for companies that bring jobs back home.</p> <p>Interestingly, as CCH points out, the &#8220;Framework&#8221; proposal does not address the double taxation of dividends whereby profits are taxed at the corporate level and again when received by investors. The president&#8217;s budget proposal for 2013 would eliminate the current tax rate on qualified dividends- a maximum of 15%- but just for so-called &#8220;wealthy&#8221; taxpayers.&amp;#160; As the law stands now, starting Jan. 1, these investors will pay up to 39.6% tax on dividends and other types of investment income.&amp;#160; In Luscombe&#8217;s words, &#8220;A 28% corporate tax and a 39.6% [personal] tax in combination is not very attractive.&#8221;</p> <p>Consider the impact on the stock market.</p> <p>As for the hoopla about incentives to help small businesses, &#8220;There&#8217;s nothing new here,&#8221; says Luscomb. Basically, the administration&#8217;s proposal would increase the amount of equipment that could be written off to $1 million (it&#8217;s due to revert to $125,000 next year) and make this permanent.&amp;#160; It would also expand the use of the so-called &#8220;cash method&#8221; of accounting and give businesses with up to 50 employees (instead of a max of 25) a tax credit to help offset the cost of mandatory health insurance.</p> <p>There&#8217;s lots more to The President&#8217;s Framework for Business Tax Reform . The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes the entire package. If read it yourself, one thing you&#8217;ll notice is the amount of specifics that are missing. For instance, there&#8217;s no information on what the minimum tax on overseas profits would be. And, as Luscombe points out, &#8220;It&#8217;s probably not something you have to worry about right away.&#8221; If we end up with a different president next year, this is pretty much D.O.A. Still, it gives you insight into how the current administration views the business world.</p> <p>Ms. Buckner is a Retirement and Financial Planning Specialist and an instructor in Franklin Templeton Investments' global Academy. The views expressed in this article are only those of Ms. Buckner or the individual commentator identified therein, and are not necessarily the views of Franklin Templeton Investments, which has not reviewed, and is not responsible for, the content.&amp;#160;</p> <p>If you have a question for Gail Buckner and the Your $ Matters column, send them to: yourmoneymatters@gmail.com, along with your name and phone number.</p>

What’s Really Inside Obama's Framework for Business Tax Reform

http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/03/05/whats-really-inside-obamas-framework-for-business-tax-reform.html

2016-03-23

0right

What’s Really Inside Obama's Framework for Business Tax Reform <p /> <p>The <a href="" type="internal">White House</a> has been touting its proposed &#8220;Framework for Business Tax Reform&#8221; as a way to cut the corporate tax rate and eliminate loopholes and subsidies and strengthen American manufacturing and spur innovation all. The administration also touts it will simplify and cut taxes for small businesses, and encourage domestic investment.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>What&#8217;s not to love?</p> <p>Plenty, perhaps.</p> <p>Whether you end up on the winning or losing side of this reform depends upon politics. In other words, are you one of the industries favored by this president? Alternative energy, for instance? There&#8217;s a tax incentive for that. Manufacturer? Your top tax rate will be lower than a service provider&#8217;s.</p> <p>I&#8217;m not na&#239;ve. I recognize that the tax code is full of incentives that encourage both individuals and businesses to act in ways deemed to be positive or socially enhancing. That&#8217;s why there&#8217;s a tax deduction for charitable donations.&amp;#160; I also acknowledge that our current tax code is overly complex, and that many aspects are outdated. I just don&#8217;t see how replacing old &#8220;preferences&#8221; with new ones is an improvement.</p> <p>And let&#8217;s be honest: Although the top corporate tax rate is currently 35%, many companies don&#8217;t pay anything close to that under the current system. <a href="http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/Documents/The-Presidents-Framework-for-Business-Tax-Reform-02-22-2012.pdf" type="external">According to the Treasury Department Opens a New Window.</a>, after taking deductions, writeoffs and other tax breaks into account, the &#8220;effective&#8221; tax rate a company pays varies widely, depending upon the business it&#8217;s in:</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis based upon 2007-2008 data</p> <p>In addition to lowering the maximum corporate tax rate to 28%, the administration would eliminate most of the tax breaks businesses currently receive. So many, in fact, that they more than makes up for the reduction in the tax rate.&amp;#160; &#8220;The president&#8217;s proposal is designed to be a net revenue raiser,&#8221; according to Mark Luscombe, principal federal tax analyst at CCH, a global provider of tax information and software.&amp;#160; &#8220;When you start eliminating a whole range of tax breaks, it adds up&#8230; Overall, there will be more paid.&#8221;</p> <p>And, while it seems unfair that utilities pay an effective federal tax rate of just 14%, what&#8217;s going to happen to your monthly utility bill if your electric company suddenly has to pay twice that amount?&amp;#160; The same goes for car insurance. Moreover, why should the top tax rate on corporations be 28% except for those involved in manufacturing? (I&#8217;m sure it has nothing to with the fact that many are staffed by union workers.)</p> <p>&#8220;On the international side,&#8221; says Luscombe, &#8220;Obama has backed away from a territorial say system and is moving toward a worldwide system. This would be a significant development.&#8221; Nonetheless, since most of our trading partners operate on a territorial system of taxation, this wouldn&#8217;t exactly put U.S. companies on an equal footing. In effect, the president&#8217;s &#8220;Framework&#8221; would require companies to pay tax on overseas profits in the year the money is earned as opposed to when it is actually brought back to this country.&amp;#160; However, since a company could offset this by any tax paid to the foreign country in which they&#8217;re located, there could be minimal impact.</p> <p>To stem the loss of jobs overseas, companies would no longer be allowed to deduct the cost of moving operations outside the U.S.&amp;#160; In addition, there would be a tax credit for companies that bring jobs back home.</p> <p>Interestingly, as CCH points out, the &#8220;Framework&#8221; proposal does not address the double taxation of dividends whereby profits are taxed at the corporate level and again when received by investors. The president&#8217;s budget proposal for 2013 would eliminate the current tax rate on qualified dividends- a maximum of 15%- but just for so-called &#8220;wealthy&#8221; taxpayers.&amp;#160; As the law stands now, starting Jan. 1, these investors will pay up to 39.6% tax on dividends and other types of investment income.&amp;#160; In Luscombe&#8217;s words, &#8220;A 28% corporate tax and a 39.6% [personal] tax in combination is not very attractive.&#8221;</p> <p>Consider the impact on the stock market.</p> <p>As for the hoopla about incentives to help small businesses, &#8220;There&#8217;s nothing new here,&#8221; says Luscomb. Basically, the administration&#8217;s proposal would increase the amount of equipment that could be written off to $1 million (it&#8217;s due to revert to $125,000 next year) and make this permanent.&amp;#160; It would also expand the use of the so-called &#8220;cash method&#8221; of accounting and give businesses with up to 50 employees (instead of a max of 25) a tax credit to help offset the cost of mandatory health insurance.</p> <p>There&#8217;s lots more to The President&#8217;s Framework for Business Tax Reform . The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes the entire package. If read it yourself, one thing you&#8217;ll notice is the amount of specifics that are missing. For instance, there&#8217;s no information on what the minimum tax on overseas profits would be. And, as Luscombe points out, &#8220;It&#8217;s probably not something you have to worry about right away.&#8221; If we end up with a different president next year, this is pretty much D.O.A. Still, it gives you insight into how the current administration views the business world.</p> <p>Ms. Buckner is a Retirement and Financial Planning Specialist and an instructor in Franklin Templeton Investments' global Academy. The views expressed in this article are only those of Ms. Buckner or the individual commentator identified therein, and are not necessarily the views of Franklin Templeton Investments, which has not reviewed, and is not responsible for, the content.&amp;#160;</p> <p>If you have a question for Gail Buckner and the Your $ Matters column, send them to: yourmoneymatters@gmail.com, along with your name and phone number.</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>She opposes this name; the Native Americans who picked and retain it evidently do not.</p> <p>The Patent and Trademark Office acted on a 1946 law banning trademarks that &#8220;may disparage&#8221; persons. &#8220;May&#8221; gives the agency latitude to disregard evidence regarding how many people actually feel disparaged, or feel that others should feel disparaged.</p> <p>Blackhorse speaks of &#8220;the majority of Native American people who have spoken out on this.&#8221; This would seem implausible even if a 2004 poll had not found that 90 percent of Native Americans were not offended by the Redskins&#8217; name. A 2013 AP-GfK poll showed that 79 percent of Americans of all ethnicities opposed changing it and just 18 percent of &#8220;nonwhite football fans&#8221; favored changing it.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>The federal agency acted in the absence of general or Native American revulsion about &#8220;Redskins&#8221; and probably because of this absence. Are the Americans who are paying attention to this controversy comfortable with government saying, in effect, that, if people are not offended, they should be, so government must decide what uses of language should be punished?</p> <p>In today&#8217;s regulatory state, agencies often do pretty much as they please, exercising discretion unconstrained by law.</p> <p>George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley notes that in 2004 the Federal Election Commission held that the anti-George W. Bush movie &#8220;Fahrenheit 9/11&#8221; did not need to be regulated as an &#8220;electioneering communication&#8221; but in 2008 held that the hostile &#8220;Hillary: The Movie&#8221; was such a communication.</p> <p>In the regulatory state, the rule of law is the rule that law barely limits regulators&#8217; discretion.</p> <p>Although the death penalty clearly was not considered a &#8220;cruel and unusual&#8221; punishment when the Eighth Amendment proscription of such punishments was adopted, perhaps society&#8217;s &#8220;evolving standards of decency&#8221; have brought this punishment under the proscription. Standards of decency do evolve: No sports team launched today would select the name &#8220;Redskins.&#8221;</p> <p>Although Thomas Sowell is correct that &#8220;some people are in the business of being offended, just as Campbell is in the business of making soup,&#8221; the fact that some people are professionally indignant does not mean offense may be given promiscuously to others.</p> <p>The name &#8220;Redskins&#8221; is more problematic than, say, that of the Chicago Blackhawks or Cleveland Indians presumably because &#8220;Redskins&#8221; refers to skin pigmentation. People offended by this might be similarly distressed if they knew that &#8220;Oklahoma&#8221; is a compound of two Choctaw words meaning &#8220;red&#8221; and &#8220;people.&#8221;</p> <p>Blackhorse, however, has two larger objections.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>She says &#8220;someone&#8221; once told her that teams&#8217; mascots &#8220;are meant to be ridiculed,&#8221; &#8220;to be toyed with,&#8221; &#8220;to be pushed around and disrespected,&#8221; and &#8220;have stuff thrown at them.&#8221;</p> <p>She should supplement the opinion of that someone with information from persons more knowledgeable. But she considers &#8220;any team name that references Native Americans&#8221; an injurious &#8220;appropriation of our culture.&#8221;</p> <p>Has an &#8220;appropriation&#8221; been committed by the University of Utah and Florida State University, even though they have the approval of the respective tribes for their teams&#8217; nicknames, the Utes and the Seminoles?</p> <p>William Voegeli, a senior editor of the Claremont Review of Books, writes that the kerfuffle over an NFL team&#8217;s name involves serious matters. They include comity in a diverse nation, civil discourse, and &#8220;not only how we make decisions, but how we decide what needs to be decided, and who will do the deciding.&#8221;</p> <p>Time was, Voegeli writes, a tolerant society was one with &#8220;a mutual nonaggression pact&#8221;: If your beliefs and practices offend but do not otherwise affect me, I will not interfere with them if you will reciprocate regarding my beliefs and practices.</p> <p>Now, however, tolerance supposedly requires compulsory acknowledgment that certain people&#8217;s beliefs and practices deserve, Voegeli says, &#8220;to be honored, respected, affirmed and validated&#8221; lest they suffer irreparable injury to their sense of worth. And it requires compelling conformity for the good of the compelled.</p> <p>When two Oregon bakers chose, for religious reasons, not to provide a cake for a same-sex wedding, an Oregon government official explained why tolerance meant coercing the bakers: &#8220;The goal is to rehabilitate.&#8221;</p> <p>Tolerance required declaring the bakers&#8217; beliefs and practices intolerable. We are going to discover whether a society can be congenial while its government is being coercive regarding wedding cakes and teams&#8217; names.</p> <p>Email: <a href="mailto:georgewill@washpost.com" type="external">georgewill@washpost.com</a>; copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.</p> <p />

Redskins decision is official coercion

https://abqjournal.com/422302/redskins-decision-is-official-coercion.html

2least

Redskins decision is official coercion <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>She opposes this name; the Native Americans who picked and retain it evidently do not.</p> <p>The Patent and Trademark Office acted on a 1946 law banning trademarks that &#8220;may disparage&#8221; persons. &#8220;May&#8221; gives the agency latitude to disregard evidence regarding how many people actually feel disparaged, or feel that others should feel disparaged.</p> <p>Blackhorse speaks of &#8220;the majority of Native American people who have spoken out on this.&#8221; This would seem implausible even if a 2004 poll had not found that 90 percent of Native Americans were not offended by the Redskins&#8217; name. A 2013 AP-GfK poll showed that 79 percent of Americans of all ethnicities opposed changing it and just 18 percent of &#8220;nonwhite football fans&#8221; favored changing it.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>The federal agency acted in the absence of general or Native American revulsion about &#8220;Redskins&#8221; and probably because of this absence. Are the Americans who are paying attention to this controversy comfortable with government saying, in effect, that, if people are not offended, they should be, so government must decide what uses of language should be punished?</p> <p>In today&#8217;s regulatory state, agencies often do pretty much as they please, exercising discretion unconstrained by law.</p> <p>George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley notes that in 2004 the Federal Election Commission held that the anti-George W. Bush movie &#8220;Fahrenheit 9/11&#8221; did not need to be regulated as an &#8220;electioneering communication&#8221; but in 2008 held that the hostile &#8220;Hillary: The Movie&#8221; was such a communication.</p> <p>In the regulatory state, the rule of law is the rule that law barely limits regulators&#8217; discretion.</p> <p>Although the death penalty clearly was not considered a &#8220;cruel and unusual&#8221; punishment when the Eighth Amendment proscription of such punishments was adopted, perhaps society&#8217;s &#8220;evolving standards of decency&#8221; have brought this punishment under the proscription. Standards of decency do evolve: No sports team launched today would select the name &#8220;Redskins.&#8221;</p> <p>Although Thomas Sowell is correct that &#8220;some people are in the business of being offended, just as Campbell is in the business of making soup,&#8221; the fact that some people are professionally indignant does not mean offense may be given promiscuously to others.</p> <p>The name &#8220;Redskins&#8221; is more problematic than, say, that of the Chicago Blackhawks or Cleveland Indians presumably because &#8220;Redskins&#8221; refers to skin pigmentation. People offended by this might be similarly distressed if they knew that &#8220;Oklahoma&#8221; is a compound of two Choctaw words meaning &#8220;red&#8221; and &#8220;people.&#8221;</p> <p>Blackhorse, however, has two larger objections.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>She says &#8220;someone&#8221; once told her that teams&#8217; mascots &#8220;are meant to be ridiculed,&#8221; &#8220;to be toyed with,&#8221; &#8220;to be pushed around and disrespected,&#8221; and &#8220;have stuff thrown at them.&#8221;</p> <p>She should supplement the opinion of that someone with information from persons more knowledgeable. But she considers &#8220;any team name that references Native Americans&#8221; an injurious &#8220;appropriation of our culture.&#8221;</p> <p>Has an &#8220;appropriation&#8221; been committed by the University of Utah and Florida State University, even though they have the approval of the respective tribes for their teams&#8217; nicknames, the Utes and the Seminoles?</p> <p>William Voegeli, a senior editor of the Claremont Review of Books, writes that the kerfuffle over an NFL team&#8217;s name involves serious matters. They include comity in a diverse nation, civil discourse, and &#8220;not only how we make decisions, but how we decide what needs to be decided, and who will do the deciding.&#8221;</p> <p>Time was, Voegeli writes, a tolerant society was one with &#8220;a mutual nonaggression pact&#8221;: If your beliefs and practices offend but do not otherwise affect me, I will not interfere with them if you will reciprocate regarding my beliefs and practices.</p> <p>Now, however, tolerance supposedly requires compulsory acknowledgment that certain people&#8217;s beliefs and practices deserve, Voegeli says, &#8220;to be honored, respected, affirmed and validated&#8221; lest they suffer irreparable injury to their sense of worth. And it requires compelling conformity for the good of the compelled.</p> <p>When two Oregon bakers chose, for religious reasons, not to provide a cake for a same-sex wedding, an Oregon government official explained why tolerance meant coercing the bakers: &#8220;The goal is to rehabilitate.&#8221;</p> <p>Tolerance required declaring the bakers&#8217; beliefs and practices intolerable. We are going to discover whether a society can be congenial while its government is being coercive regarding wedding cakes and teams&#8217; names.</p> <p>Email: <a href="mailto:georgewill@washpost.com" type="external">georgewill@washpost.com</a>; copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.</p> <p />

<p>Congress' Bipartisan Budget Bill of 2015 contains a drastic change to a popular Social Securityfiling strategy with major financial consequences for couples.It eliminates the option to file and suspend with a restricted application as of April 30, 2016.To change your tax-filing strategy and continue to maximize your <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/jeff-yeager-reveals-5-questions-should-ask-social-security/" type="external">Social Security benefits Opens a New Window.</a>, you need to understand what the new restrictions mean for you.</p> <p>Social Security spousal benefits: the file-and-suspend strategyThe current filing strategy -- commonly referred to as file-and-suspend -- works like this for a married man and woman: One spouse can file for hisSocial Security benefit once he's reached the Social Security retirement age of 66. He can then immediately tell Social Security to suspend that benefit. This allows hisspouse to draw a spousal benefit, which is half of what the first spouse's benefit would have been.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>The non-filing spouse can file an application for restricted benefits -- a restricted application for <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/protect-spousal-benefits-bank-government-mistakes/" type="external">Social Security spousal benefits Opens a New Window.</a> -- based on the first spouse's suspended benefit. The suspended benefit will continue to draw delayed credits and grow until the person reaches age 70, at which time he could resume hisbenefit. Likewise, the spouse drawing the spousal benefit can let herown benefit grow until age 70 at which time that spouse could switch to herown benefit if it is larger than the Social Security spousal benefit, or continue to draw the spousal benefit.</p> <p>How file-and-suspend and restricted application work togetherInvestment advisor representative and president of <a href="http://mainstayfg.com/" type="external">Mainstay Financial Group Opens a New Window.</a>Annalee Leonard gave the example of the Social Security eligibility of a married couple with both spouses aged 66 and the husband as the higher-wage earner:</p> <p>"It'd be much better for him if he can wait till 70 to take his Social Security and let's suppose he's still working and putting into it -- even more reason to wait till 70,"Leonard said. If the husband were to file and immediately suspend his benefit, his wife could then go in and file for spousal benefit. If the husband's benefit at that stage is $2,000, the wife would get $1,000 per month as her spousal benefit.</p> <p>"Now that's good if her benefit would be only $800 a month, but let's suppose her benefit is higher and she wants to keep working. She can go file and suspend, she can collect on his, she can still be putting into hers, and at 70 they both switch to their own benefits and give themselves a raise -- you can't do that anymore."</p> <p>The following table is based on Leonard's example, using the assumption that the wife's own benefit is $1,000 per month and that each person lives to age 90. Putting off receiving Social Security checks until age 70 generally provides a 25% increase in Social Security benefits -- which would mean a delayed benefit of $2,500 per month for the husband and $1,250 for the wife in this example.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>Note the significant difference in total Social Security retirement benefits received if the couple uses the file-and-suspend with restricted application, or uses the file-and-suspend strategy only, or chooses to file and begin collecting benefits at the Social Security retirement age of 66:</p> <p>This strategy of using both the Social Securityfile-and-suspend rule and a restricted application can add $60,000 or more to a couple's Social Security earnings over the four years between their full retirement age and age 70. But now that the Bipartisan Budget Bill will be going into effect, many couples will lose out on this.</p> <p>Why the file-and-suspend rules have changedThe reason behind the change in the file-and-suspend rules is that this strategy is viewed as a loophole in the Social Security program. By disallowing the current filing strategy, Congress is focused on saving money and tightening any existing gray areas.</p> <p>"Social Security faces a deficit over the next 75 years. That's why they're making changes,"Leonard said."File-and-suspend was never supposed to be used the way it turned out being used.They never really meant it to be that you file, you stop, the spouse claims, then you claim again later. That was never the original intention."</p> <p>In order to understand how the changes will affect the way you and your spousefile for Social Security benefits, you need to know the details of the changes and how the updates will work. Here are the most important things you need to know about the updated rules and what you can do to enjoy the maximum Social Security benefitwhile staying within the law.</p> <p>1. Some people can still use the file-and-suspend strategyIf you have already filedand suspended with a restricted application, you're fine; there will be no changes to your status or benefits.Some workers will still be able to take advantage of the strategy, as it remains available to workers to either have already turned 66 or who will do so before May 1, 2016.Couples who will both have reached their full retirement age can stillfile and suspend with a restricted application for spousal benefits on or before April 29, 2016.</p> <p>2. Suspending benefits will work differentlyAfter April 29, 2016, if you suspend your benefits you are also suspending the ability of a spouse or anyone else to claim a benefit based on your work record. Additionally, the ability to file and suspend Social Security benefits and then reinstate them -- to later change your mind and receive retroactive benefits back to the date you suspended -- will be gone.</p> <p>The original intent of thefile-and-suspend strategywill remain. For example, if you retired and filed for your benefit, then later returned to work, you can suspend your benefit and later resume when desired.</p> <p>3. Limitations for people born in 1953 or earlierYou will still have the option to suspend your benefits with the limitations outlined in the prior section if you were born in 1953 or earlier. However, there are some limitations.</p> <p>For instance, if you've already suspended or will suspend your benefits before April 30, 2016, the suspension will allow your spouse to continue collectingSocial Securityspousal benefits. This will continue as your own benefit accrues, explainedfinancial advisorJim Blankenshipof <a href="http://financialducksinarow.com/" type="external">Financial Ducks in a Row Opens a New Window.</a>. "In addition, you will continue to have the option of changing your mind and receiving retroactive benefits to any point at or after your suspension date," he said.</p> <p>If your spouse has filed for benefits -- and is receiving those benefits -- you might still be able to file a restricted application and receive a spousal benefit based on his or herearnings. If they have filed and suspended you will not be eligible to receive a spousal benefit while his or her benefit is suspended after April 29, 2016.</p> <p>However, you will still have the option to file a restricted application for a spousal benefit once you reach your full retirement age if your spouse filed and suspended on or before April 29, 2016, or is drawing his or herown benefit at that time.</p> <p>4.Limitations for people born in 1954 or laterThe same rules apply for the suspension of benefits if you were born in 1954 or later. If you suspend your benefits, your spouse or any other family member will not be able to receive a benefit based upon your earnings.</p> <p>A change in the deemed filing rules effectively eliminates the restricted Social Security application for those born in 1954 or later. Deemed filing means that if you file for a spousal benefit under anyone's earning record, you are deemed to have filed for all benefits available to you -- including your own. This eliminates the ability to file a restricted application for a spousal benefit and no longer allows your own benefit to grow and accrue delayed credits until a later date.</p> <p>5. Impact on divorced couplesIn addition to <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/checking-accounts/6-reasons-joint-bank-account-good-marriage/" type="external">married couples Opens a New Window.</a>, these new rules will have an <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/5-ways-divorce-can-affect-credit-score/" type="external">impact on divorced couples Opens a New Window.</a>. If you were born in 1953 or earlier, and still have the ability to use a restricted application, you have an advantage.</p> <p>You will still be able to file a restricted application to receive a spousal benefit from your ex-spouse's earnings. However, if you file this restricted application after April 29, 2016, and your ex-spouse files and suspends, he or she will not be able to draw a benefit for his or herearnings.</p> <p>If you're a divorcee and were born in 1954 or later, the deemed filing rules will take effect. This essentially eliminates your ability to do a restricted application based upon your ex-spouse's earnings and allows your ex'sbenefit to grow until age 70.</p> <p>6. Impact on widows and widowersThere does not seem to be any impact on you <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/handle-finances-lose-spouse/" type="external">if you have been widowed Opens a New Window.</a>. You will still have the option to file a restricted application to receive a survivor's benefit, or your own benefit, while letting the other benefit grow via deferred credits. At age 70 or younger, you'll retain the option to convert to the other type of benefit if that is more advantageous.</p> <p>Currently, Supplemental Security Income also remains unaffected.</p> <p>7. When delaying your benefit still makes senseThe answer of when to delay benefits varies from case to case.This is especially true for the spouse with the higher earnings record and benefit record. If this applies to you, it will still make sense for you to <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/retirement/42-ways-save-retirement/" type="external">delay taking your benefit Opens a New Window.</a> as long as possible. The earnings difference between taking a benefit at 62 and waiting until your full retirement age is approximately 25%; and the difference in waiting longer from your full retirement age to age 70 is an increase of about 8% per year.</p> <p>Not only would this increase your spouse's benefit, but a survivor's benefit would increase as well.As for the spouse with the smaller benefit level -- especially if the difference is significant -- it might make sense for them to apply for Social Security before age 70. As with many things in the world of financial planning, it really depends on your specific circumstances.</p> <p>Smart alternative strategies for maximizing Social Security benefitsBeyond Social Security claiming strategies, couples who might have used this strategy will need to rethink their pre-retirement financial planning, especially for those within a few years of retirement. But here are a few things you should consider:</p> <p>Understanding the changes around the file-and-suspend and restricted application strategies can help you decide what traditional or alternative strategies are right for you, but professional help might be key to maximizing your benefits.If you'replanning for retirement, now more than ever you should consider seeking the advice of a qualified financial advisor to help you navigate Social Security and all aspects of your retirement financial plan.</p> <p><a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/author/ruths/" type="external">Ruth Sarreal Opens a New Window.</a> contributed to the reporting for this article.</p> <p>This article originally appeared at <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/retirement/7-things-couples-need-know-social-security-filing-changes/" type="external">GoBankingRates Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> <p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2016/03/28/changes-to-social-security-spousal-benefits-you-ne.aspx" type="external">Changes to Social Security Spousal Benefits You Need to Know Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p> <p>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>

Changes to Social Security Spousal Benefits You Need to Know

http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/28/changes-to-social-security-spousal-benefits-need-to-know.html

2016-03-28

0right

Changes to Social Security Spousal Benefits You Need to Know <p>Congress' Bipartisan Budget Bill of 2015 contains a drastic change to a popular Social Securityfiling strategy with major financial consequences for couples.It eliminates the option to file and suspend with a restricted application as of April 30, 2016.To change your tax-filing strategy and continue to maximize your <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/jeff-yeager-reveals-5-questions-should-ask-social-security/" type="external">Social Security benefits Opens a New Window.</a>, you need to understand what the new restrictions mean for you.</p> <p>Social Security spousal benefits: the file-and-suspend strategyThe current filing strategy -- commonly referred to as file-and-suspend -- works like this for a married man and woman: One spouse can file for hisSocial Security benefit once he's reached the Social Security retirement age of 66. He can then immediately tell Social Security to suspend that benefit. This allows hisspouse to draw a spousal benefit, which is half of what the first spouse's benefit would have been.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>The non-filing spouse can file an application for restricted benefits -- a restricted application for <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/protect-spousal-benefits-bank-government-mistakes/" type="external">Social Security spousal benefits Opens a New Window.</a> -- based on the first spouse's suspended benefit. The suspended benefit will continue to draw delayed credits and grow until the person reaches age 70, at which time he could resume hisbenefit. Likewise, the spouse drawing the spousal benefit can let herown benefit grow until age 70 at which time that spouse could switch to herown benefit if it is larger than the Social Security spousal benefit, or continue to draw the spousal benefit.</p> <p>How file-and-suspend and restricted application work togetherInvestment advisor representative and president of <a href="http://mainstayfg.com/" type="external">Mainstay Financial Group Opens a New Window.</a>Annalee Leonard gave the example of the Social Security eligibility of a married couple with both spouses aged 66 and the husband as the higher-wage earner:</p> <p>"It'd be much better for him if he can wait till 70 to take his Social Security and let's suppose he's still working and putting into it -- even more reason to wait till 70,"Leonard said. If the husband were to file and immediately suspend his benefit, his wife could then go in and file for spousal benefit. If the husband's benefit at that stage is $2,000, the wife would get $1,000 per month as her spousal benefit.</p> <p>"Now that's good if her benefit would be only $800 a month, but let's suppose her benefit is higher and she wants to keep working. She can go file and suspend, she can collect on his, she can still be putting into hers, and at 70 they both switch to their own benefits and give themselves a raise -- you can't do that anymore."</p> <p>The following table is based on Leonard's example, using the assumption that the wife's own benefit is $1,000 per month and that each person lives to age 90. Putting off receiving Social Security checks until age 70 generally provides a 25% increase in Social Security benefits -- which would mean a delayed benefit of $2,500 per month for the husband and $1,250 for the wife in this example.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>Note the significant difference in total Social Security retirement benefits received if the couple uses the file-and-suspend with restricted application, or uses the file-and-suspend strategy only, or chooses to file and begin collecting benefits at the Social Security retirement age of 66:</p> <p>This strategy of using both the Social Securityfile-and-suspend rule and a restricted application can add $60,000 or more to a couple's Social Security earnings over the four years between their full retirement age and age 70. But now that the Bipartisan Budget Bill will be going into effect, many couples will lose out on this.</p> <p>Why the file-and-suspend rules have changedThe reason behind the change in the file-and-suspend rules is that this strategy is viewed as a loophole in the Social Security program. By disallowing the current filing strategy, Congress is focused on saving money and tightening any existing gray areas.</p> <p>"Social Security faces a deficit over the next 75 years. That's why they're making changes,"Leonard said."File-and-suspend was never supposed to be used the way it turned out being used.They never really meant it to be that you file, you stop, the spouse claims, then you claim again later. That was never the original intention."</p> <p>In order to understand how the changes will affect the way you and your spousefile for Social Security benefits, you need to know the details of the changes and how the updates will work. Here are the most important things you need to know about the updated rules and what you can do to enjoy the maximum Social Security benefitwhile staying within the law.</p> <p>1. Some people can still use the file-and-suspend strategyIf you have already filedand suspended with a restricted application, you're fine; there will be no changes to your status or benefits.Some workers will still be able to take advantage of the strategy, as it remains available to workers to either have already turned 66 or who will do so before May 1, 2016.Couples who will both have reached their full retirement age can stillfile and suspend with a restricted application for spousal benefits on or before April 29, 2016.</p> <p>2. Suspending benefits will work differentlyAfter April 29, 2016, if you suspend your benefits you are also suspending the ability of a spouse or anyone else to claim a benefit based on your work record. Additionally, the ability to file and suspend Social Security benefits and then reinstate them -- to later change your mind and receive retroactive benefits back to the date you suspended -- will be gone.</p> <p>The original intent of thefile-and-suspend strategywill remain. For example, if you retired and filed for your benefit, then later returned to work, you can suspend your benefit and later resume when desired.</p> <p>3. Limitations for people born in 1953 or earlierYou will still have the option to suspend your benefits with the limitations outlined in the prior section if you were born in 1953 or earlier. However, there are some limitations.</p> <p>For instance, if you've already suspended or will suspend your benefits before April 30, 2016, the suspension will allow your spouse to continue collectingSocial Securityspousal benefits. This will continue as your own benefit accrues, explainedfinancial advisorJim Blankenshipof <a href="http://financialducksinarow.com/" type="external">Financial Ducks in a Row Opens a New Window.</a>. "In addition, you will continue to have the option of changing your mind and receiving retroactive benefits to any point at or after your suspension date," he said.</p> <p>If your spouse has filed for benefits -- and is receiving those benefits -- you might still be able to file a restricted application and receive a spousal benefit based on his or herearnings. If they have filed and suspended you will not be eligible to receive a spousal benefit while his or her benefit is suspended after April 29, 2016.</p> <p>However, you will still have the option to file a restricted application for a spousal benefit once you reach your full retirement age if your spouse filed and suspended on or before April 29, 2016, or is drawing his or herown benefit at that time.</p> <p>4.Limitations for people born in 1954 or laterThe same rules apply for the suspension of benefits if you were born in 1954 or later. If you suspend your benefits, your spouse or any other family member will not be able to receive a benefit based upon your earnings.</p> <p>A change in the deemed filing rules effectively eliminates the restricted Social Security application for those born in 1954 or later. Deemed filing means that if you file for a spousal benefit under anyone's earning record, you are deemed to have filed for all benefits available to you -- including your own. This eliminates the ability to file a restricted application for a spousal benefit and no longer allows your own benefit to grow and accrue delayed credits until a later date.</p> <p>5. Impact on divorced couplesIn addition to <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/checking-accounts/6-reasons-joint-bank-account-good-marriage/" type="external">married couples Opens a New Window.</a>, these new rules will have an <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/5-ways-divorce-can-affect-credit-score/" type="external">impact on divorced couples Opens a New Window.</a>. If you were born in 1953 or earlier, and still have the ability to use a restricted application, you have an advantage.</p> <p>You will still be able to file a restricted application to receive a spousal benefit from your ex-spouse's earnings. However, if you file this restricted application after April 29, 2016, and your ex-spouse files and suspends, he or she will not be able to draw a benefit for his or herearnings.</p> <p>If you're a divorcee and were born in 1954 or later, the deemed filing rules will take effect. This essentially eliminates your ability to do a restricted application based upon your ex-spouse's earnings and allows your ex'sbenefit to grow until age 70.</p> <p>6. Impact on widows and widowersThere does not seem to be any impact on you <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/handle-finances-lose-spouse/" type="external">if you have been widowed Opens a New Window.</a>. You will still have the option to file a restricted application to receive a survivor's benefit, or your own benefit, while letting the other benefit grow via deferred credits. At age 70 or younger, you'll retain the option to convert to the other type of benefit if that is more advantageous.</p> <p>Currently, Supplemental Security Income also remains unaffected.</p> <p>7. When delaying your benefit still makes senseThe answer of when to delay benefits varies from case to case.This is especially true for the spouse with the higher earnings record and benefit record. If this applies to you, it will still make sense for you to <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/retirement/42-ways-save-retirement/" type="external">delay taking your benefit Opens a New Window.</a> as long as possible. The earnings difference between taking a benefit at 62 and waiting until your full retirement age is approximately 25%; and the difference in waiting longer from your full retirement age to age 70 is an increase of about 8% per year.</p> <p>Not only would this increase your spouse's benefit, but a survivor's benefit would increase as well.As for the spouse with the smaller benefit level -- especially if the difference is significant -- it might make sense for them to apply for Social Security before age 70. As with many things in the world of financial planning, it really depends on your specific circumstances.</p> <p>Smart alternative strategies for maximizing Social Security benefitsBeyond Social Security claiming strategies, couples who might have used this strategy will need to rethink their pre-retirement financial planning, especially for those within a few years of retirement. But here are a few things you should consider:</p> <p>Understanding the changes around the file-and-suspend and restricted application strategies can help you decide what traditional or alternative strategies are right for you, but professional help might be key to maximizing your benefits.If you'replanning for retirement, now more than ever you should consider seeking the advice of a qualified financial advisor to help you navigate Social Security and all aspects of your retirement financial plan.</p> <p><a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/author/ruths/" type="external">Ruth Sarreal Opens a New Window.</a> contributed to the reporting for this article.</p> <p>This article originally appeared at <a href="http://www.gobankingrates.com/retirement/7-things-couples-need-know-social-security-filing-changes/" type="external">GoBankingRates Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> <p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2016/03/28/changes-to-social-security-spousal-benefits-you-ne.aspx" type="external">Changes to Social Security Spousal Benefits You Need to Know Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p> <p>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>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>The University of New Mexico has had a &#8220;free ride&#8221; for the past decade from paying any of the state&#8217;s $48 million tab to settle claims over substandard treatment of child cancer patients at UNM Hospital, according to a state official.</p> <p>But that reprieve is over, said state Risk Management Division director A.J. Forte.</p> <p>The division, which insures government entities in New Mexico, will no longer pay to defend a pending 13-year-old proposed class-action brought on behalf of more than 100 other pediatric cancer patients treated at the hospital between 1979 and 1996.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>UNM opted to become self-insured on the case after Forte&#8217;s agency said it would start assessing an annual insurance premium to pay for all future attorney costs and fees and any future awards or settlements in the case.</p> <p>Forte declined to say how much the new premiums would have cost UNM, but it could have run into the millions of dollars.</p> <p>&#8220;Obviously when I had that conversation with UNMH, they were not thrilled about it,&#8221; Forte said.</p> <p>UNM opted to become self-insured for pediatric oncology claims only. Risk management will continue to provide coverage for UNM&#8217;s other claims.</p> <p>Asked how the university planned to pay for any awards or settlements to come from the case, UNM spokesman Billy Sparks said, &#8220;We do have contingencies built into the budget. No one knows exactly what the future holds.&#8221;</p> <p>To date, state Risk Management has paid out $48 million to 118 families of children treated for leukemia or other blood cancers between 1998 and 2007.</p> <p>A state study in 2012 estimated that the current lawsuit, if it is successful, could cost another $120 million.</p> <p>Forte&#8217;s agency, during an assessment of all its insured entities, discovered UNM hadn&#8217;t experienced any annual premium increase that was tied to the costs of the pediatric oncology lawsuits.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>&#8220;They got a $48 million free ride essentially,&#8221; Forte said. &#8220;Every other agency or entity that participates in our pool had to subsidize UNMH (UNM Hospital), and that&#8217;s not fair.&#8221;</p> <p>He said the decision by state Risk Management officials to exempt UNM occurred back in early 2000 or so.</p> <p>&#8220;The public liability fund had close to $80 million in it (and) they said, &#8216;Well, let&#8217;s just let the fund take the hit instead of making UNMH pay for it,&#8217; which is totally inconsistent with what should have been done,&#8221; Forte said.</p> <p>The fund, which covers claims against government entities and employees, currently totals about $45 million and would need another $5 million to $10 million to be considered &#8220;actuarially sound,&#8221; Forte said.</p> <p>Overall, UNM paid more than $80 million in medical malpractice premiums from fiscal year 1998 to fiscal year 2014. Total state payouts on claims against the hospital during those years were more than $146 million.</p> <p>After getting &#8220;pushback&#8221; from UNM on the proposed premium cost, Forte said he offered to &#8220;carve out&#8221; the pediatric oncology case from the rest of the coverage the state provides UNM.</p> <p>&#8220;It was a difficult process,&#8221; Forte said. &#8220;I know there were grumblings that they were going to get my budget adjusted so I wouldn&#8217;t be able to charge the premium.&#8221;</p> <p>Sparks had no comment on that assertion.</p> <p>Ultimately, UNM regents authorized the agreement, Sparks said, adding that there was &#8220;no sweetheart deal&#8221; exempting UNM from prior premium increases.</p> <p>&#8220;To the best of our knowledge,&#8221; Sparks said, &#8220;the premiums we were charged into the public liability fund were adjusted based on the (pediatric oncology) claims.&#8221;</p> <p>Forte said he hopes UNM will put money in reserve for future lawsuit costs.</p> <p>&#8220;I believe that going forward, this case will cost a significant amount of money and time before it&#8217;s resolved. They don&#8217;t believe that to be the case. But this is something they&#8217;re going to have to deal with.&#8221;</p> <p /> <p />

‘Free ride’ over for UNM on child cancer suit

https://abqjournal.com/464196/free-ride-over-for-unm-on-child-cancer-suit.html

2014-09-17

2least

‘Free ride’ over for UNM on child cancer suit <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>The University of New Mexico has had a &#8220;free ride&#8221; for the past decade from paying any of the state&#8217;s $48 million tab to settle claims over substandard treatment of child cancer patients at UNM Hospital, according to a state official.</p> <p>But that reprieve is over, said state Risk Management Division director A.J. Forte.</p> <p>The division, which insures government entities in New Mexico, will no longer pay to defend a pending 13-year-old proposed class-action brought on behalf of more than 100 other pediatric cancer patients treated at the hospital between 1979 and 1996.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>UNM opted to become self-insured on the case after Forte&#8217;s agency said it would start assessing an annual insurance premium to pay for all future attorney costs and fees and any future awards or settlements in the case.</p> <p>Forte declined to say how much the new premiums would have cost UNM, but it could have run into the millions of dollars.</p> <p>&#8220;Obviously when I had that conversation with UNMH, they were not thrilled about it,&#8221; Forte said.</p> <p>UNM opted to become self-insured for pediatric oncology claims only. Risk management will continue to provide coverage for UNM&#8217;s other claims.</p> <p>Asked how the university planned to pay for any awards or settlements to come from the case, UNM spokesman Billy Sparks said, &#8220;We do have contingencies built into the budget. No one knows exactly what the future holds.&#8221;</p> <p>To date, state Risk Management has paid out $48 million to 118 families of children treated for leukemia or other blood cancers between 1998 and 2007.</p> <p>A state study in 2012 estimated that the current lawsuit, if it is successful, could cost another $120 million.</p> <p>Forte&#8217;s agency, during an assessment of all its insured entities, discovered UNM hadn&#8217;t experienced any annual premium increase that was tied to the costs of the pediatric oncology lawsuits.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>&#8220;They got a $48 million free ride essentially,&#8221; Forte said. &#8220;Every other agency or entity that participates in our pool had to subsidize UNMH (UNM Hospital), and that&#8217;s not fair.&#8221;</p> <p>He said the decision by state Risk Management officials to exempt UNM occurred back in early 2000 or so.</p> <p>&#8220;The public liability fund had close to $80 million in it (and) they said, &#8216;Well, let&#8217;s just let the fund take the hit instead of making UNMH pay for it,&#8217; which is totally inconsistent with what should have been done,&#8221; Forte said.</p> <p>The fund, which covers claims against government entities and employees, currently totals about $45 million and would need another $5 million to $10 million to be considered &#8220;actuarially sound,&#8221; Forte said.</p> <p>Overall, UNM paid more than $80 million in medical malpractice premiums from fiscal year 1998 to fiscal year 2014. Total state payouts on claims against the hospital during those years were more than $146 million.</p> <p>After getting &#8220;pushback&#8221; from UNM on the proposed premium cost, Forte said he offered to &#8220;carve out&#8221; the pediatric oncology case from the rest of the coverage the state provides UNM.</p> <p>&#8220;It was a difficult process,&#8221; Forte said. &#8220;I know there were grumblings that they were going to get my budget adjusted so I wouldn&#8217;t be able to charge the premium.&#8221;</p> <p>Sparks had no comment on that assertion.</p> <p>Ultimately, UNM regents authorized the agreement, Sparks said, adding that there was &#8220;no sweetheart deal&#8221; exempting UNM from prior premium increases.</p> <p>&#8220;To the best of our knowledge,&#8221; Sparks said, &#8220;the premiums we were charged into the public liability fund were adjusted based on the (pediatric oncology) claims.&#8221;</p> <p>Forte said he hopes UNM will put money in reserve for future lawsuit costs.</p> <p>&#8220;I believe that going forward, this case will cost a significant amount of money and time before it&#8217;s resolved. They don&#8217;t believe that to be the case. But this is something they&#8217;re going to have to deal with.&#8221;</p> <p /> <p />

<p>Indianapolis Star Former CNN political analyst and Medill dean Ken Bode writes: "[Tom] Brokaw always said he covered the news with greater depth and understanding by being in the field himself. I agree. It's far better that all the new anchors get seasoned by covering important stories in person. Brian Williams reported Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans and, as a result, NBC News has made a commitment to cover every aspect of Katrina recovery."</p>

Bode: New anchors should cover the big stories in person

https://poynter.org/news/bode-new-anchors-should-cover-big-stories-person

2006-02-03

2least

Bode: New anchors should cover the big stories in person <p>Indianapolis Star Former CNN political analyst and Medill dean Ken Bode writes: "[Tom] Brokaw always said he covered the news with greater depth and understanding by being in the field himself. I agree. It's far better that all the new anchors get seasoned by covering important stories in person. Brian Williams reported Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans and, as a result, NBC News has made a commitment to cover every aspect of Katrina recovery."</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>A growing number of them have stopped paying for cable and satellite TV service, and don&#8217;t even use an antenna to get free signals over the air. These people are watching shows and movies on the Internet, sometimes via cellphone connections. Last month, the Nielsen Co. started labeling people in this group &#8220;Zero TV&#8221; households, because they fall outside the traditional definition of a TV home. There are 5 million of these residences in the U.S., up from 2 million in 2007.</p> <p>Winning back the Zero TV crowd will be one of the many issues broadcasters discuss at their national meeting, called the NAB Show, taking place this week in Las Vegas.</p> <p>While show creators and networks make money from this group&#8217;s viewing habits through deals with online video providers and from advertising on their own websites and apps, broadcasters only get paid when they relay such programming in traditional ways. Unless broadcasters can adapt to modern platforms, their revenue from Zero TV viewers will be zero.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>&#8220;Getting broadcast programing on all the gizmos and gadgets &#8212; like tablets, the backseats of cars, and laptops &#8212; is hugely important,&#8221; says Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters.</p> <p>Although Wharton says more than 130 TV stations in the U.S. are broadcasting live TV signals to mobile devices, few people have the tools to receive them. Most cellphones require an add-on device known as a dongle, but these gadgets are just starting to be sold.</p> <p>Among this elusive group of consumers is Jeremy Carsen Young, a graphic designer, who is done with traditional TV. Young has a working antenna sitting unplugged on his back porch in Roanoke, Va., and he refuses to put it on the roof.</p> <p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;d use it enough to justify having a big eyesore on the house,&#8221; the 30-year-old says.</p> <p>Online video subscriptions from Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. &#8212; which cost less than $15 a month combined &#8212; have given him and his partner plenty to watch. They take in back episodes of AMC&#8217;s &#8220;The Walking Dead&#8221; and The CW&#8217;s &#8220;Supernatural,&#8221; and they don&#8217;t need more, he says.</p> <p>He doesn&#8217;t mind waiting as long as a year for the current season&#8217;s episodes to appear on streaming services, even if his friends accidently blurt out spoilers in the meantime. With regular television, he might have missed the latest developments, anyway.</p> <p>&#8220;By the time it gets to me to watch, I&#8217;ve kind of forgotten about that,&#8221; he says.</p> <p>For the first time, TV ratings giant Nielsen took a close look at this category of viewer in its quarterly video report released in March. It plans to measure their viewing of new TV shows starting this fall, with an eye toward incorporating the results in the formula used to calculate ad rates.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>&#8220;Our commitment is to being able to measure the content wherever it is,&#8221; says Dounia Turrill, Nielsen&#8217;s senior vice president of insights.</p> <p>The Zero TV segment is increasingly important, because the number of people signing up for traditional TV service has slowed to a standstill in the U.S.</p> <p>Last year, the cable, satellite and telecoms providers added just 46,000 video customers collectively, according to research firm SNL Kagan. That is tiny when compared to the 974,000 new households created last year. While it&#8217;s still 100.4 million homes, or 84.7 percent of all households, it&#8217;s down from the peak of 87.3 percent in early 2010.</p> <p>Nielsen&#8217;s study suggests that this new group may have left traditional TV for good. While three-quarters actually have a physical TV set, only 18 percent are interested in hooking it up through a traditional pay TV subscription.</p> <p>Zero TVers tend to be younger, single and without children. Nielsen&#8217;s senior vice president of insights, Dounia Turrill, says part of the new monitoring regime is meant to help determine whether they&#8217;ll change their behavior over time. &#8220;As these homes change life stage, what will happen to them?&#8221;</p> <p>Cynthia Phelps, a 43-year-old maker of mental health apps in San Antonio, Texas, says there&#8217;s nothing that will bring her back to traditional TV. She&#8217;s watched TV in the past, of course, but for most of the last 10 years she&#8217;s done without it.</p> <p>She finds a lot of programs online to watch on her laptop for free &#8212; like the TED talks educational series &#8212; and every few months she gets together with friends to watch older TV shows on DVD, usually &#8220;something totally geeky,&#8221; like NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Chuck.&#8221;</p> <p>The 24-hour news channels make her anxious or depressed, and buzz about the latest hot TV shows like &#8220;Mad Men&#8221; doesn&#8217;t make her feel like she&#8217;s missing out. She didn&#8217;t know who the Kardashian family was until she looked them up a few years ago.</p> <p>&#8220;I feel absolutely no social pressure to keep up with the Joneses in that respect,&#8221; she says.</p> <p>For Phelps, it&#8217;s less about saving money than choice. She says she&#8217;d rather spend her time productively and not get &#8220;sucked into&#8221; shows she&#8217;ll regret later.</p> <p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want someone else dictating the media I get every day,&#8221; she says. &#8220;I want to be in charge of it. When I have a TV, I&#8217;m less in control of that.&#8221;</p> <p>The TV industry has a host of buzz words to describe these non-traditionalist viewers. There are &#8220;cord-cutters,&#8221; who stop paying for TV completely, and make do with online video and sometimes an antenna. There are &#8220;cord-shavers,&#8221; who reduce the number of channels they subscribe to, or the number of rooms pay TV is in, to save money.</p> <p>Then there are the &#8220;cord-nevers,&#8221; young people who move out on their own and never set up a landline phone connection or a TV subscription. They usually make do with a broadband Internet connection, a computer, a cellphone and possibly a TV set that is not hooked up the traditional way.</p> <p>That&#8217;s the label given to the group by Richard Schneider, the president and founder of the online retailer Antennas Direct. The site is doing great business selling antennas capable of accepting free digital signals since the nation&#8217;s transition to digital over-the-air broadcasts in 2009, and is on pace to sell nearly 600,000 units this year, up from a few dozen when it started in 2003.</p> <p>While the &#8220;cord-nevers&#8221; are a target market for him, the category is also troubling. More people are raised with the power of the Internet in their pocket, and don&#8217;t know or care that you can pull TV signals from the air for free.</p> <p>&#8220;They&#8217;re more aware of Netflix than they&#8217;re aware over-the-air is even available,&#8221; Schneider says.</p> <p>That brings us to truck driver James Weitze. The 31-year-old satisfies his video fix with an iPhone. He often sleeps in his truck, and has no apartment. To be sure, he&#8217;s an extreme case who doesn&#8217;t fit into Nielsen&#8217;s definition of a household in the first place. But he&#8217;s watching Netflix enough to keep up with shows like &#8220;Weeds,&#8221; &#8221;30 Rock,&#8221; &#8221;Arrested Development,&#8221; &#8221;Breaking Bad,&#8221; &#8221;It&#8217;s Always Sunny in Philadelphia&#8221; and &#8220;Sons of Anarchy.&#8221;</p> <p>He&#8217;s not opposed to TV per se, and misses some ESPN sports programs like the &#8220;X Games.&#8221;</p> <p>But he&#8217;s so divorced from the traditional TV ecosystem it could be hard to go back. It&#8217;s become easier for him to navigate his smartphone than to figure out how to use a TV set-top box and the button-laden remote control.</p> <p>&#8220;I&#8217;m pretty tech savvy, but the TV industry with the cable and the television and the boxes, you don&#8217;t know how to use their equipment,&#8221; he says. &#8220;I try to go over to my grandma&#8217;s place and teach her how to do it. I can&#8217;t even figure it out myself.&#8221;</p>

Broadcasters fret about ‘Zero TV’ homes

https://abqjournal.com/187219/broadcasters-fret-about-zero-tv-homes.html

2013-04-10

2least

Broadcasters fret about ‘Zero TV’ homes <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>A growing number of them have stopped paying for cable and satellite TV service, and don&#8217;t even use an antenna to get free signals over the air. These people are watching shows and movies on the Internet, sometimes via cellphone connections. Last month, the Nielsen Co. started labeling people in this group &#8220;Zero TV&#8221; households, because they fall outside the traditional definition of a TV home. There are 5 million of these residences in the U.S., up from 2 million in 2007.</p> <p>Winning back the Zero TV crowd will be one of the many issues broadcasters discuss at their national meeting, called the NAB Show, taking place this week in Las Vegas.</p> <p>While show creators and networks make money from this group&#8217;s viewing habits through deals with online video providers and from advertising on their own websites and apps, broadcasters only get paid when they relay such programming in traditional ways. Unless broadcasters can adapt to modern platforms, their revenue from Zero TV viewers will be zero.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>&#8220;Getting broadcast programing on all the gizmos and gadgets &#8212; like tablets, the backseats of cars, and laptops &#8212; is hugely important,&#8221; says Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters.</p> <p>Although Wharton says more than 130 TV stations in the U.S. are broadcasting live TV signals to mobile devices, few people have the tools to receive them. Most cellphones require an add-on device known as a dongle, but these gadgets are just starting to be sold.</p> <p>Among this elusive group of consumers is Jeremy Carsen Young, a graphic designer, who is done with traditional TV. Young has a working antenna sitting unplugged on his back porch in Roanoke, Va., and he refuses to put it on the roof.</p> <p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;d use it enough to justify having a big eyesore on the house,&#8221; the 30-year-old says.</p> <p>Online video subscriptions from Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. &#8212; which cost less than $15 a month combined &#8212; have given him and his partner plenty to watch. They take in back episodes of AMC&#8217;s &#8220;The Walking Dead&#8221; and The CW&#8217;s &#8220;Supernatural,&#8221; and they don&#8217;t need more, he says.</p> <p>He doesn&#8217;t mind waiting as long as a year for the current season&#8217;s episodes to appear on streaming services, even if his friends accidently blurt out spoilers in the meantime. With regular television, he might have missed the latest developments, anyway.</p> <p>&#8220;By the time it gets to me to watch, I&#8217;ve kind of forgotten about that,&#8221; he says.</p> <p>For the first time, TV ratings giant Nielsen took a close look at this category of viewer in its quarterly video report released in March. It plans to measure their viewing of new TV shows starting this fall, with an eye toward incorporating the results in the formula used to calculate ad rates.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>&#8220;Our commitment is to being able to measure the content wherever it is,&#8221; says Dounia Turrill, Nielsen&#8217;s senior vice president of insights.</p> <p>The Zero TV segment is increasingly important, because the number of people signing up for traditional TV service has slowed to a standstill in the U.S.</p> <p>Last year, the cable, satellite and telecoms providers added just 46,000 video customers collectively, according to research firm SNL Kagan. That is tiny when compared to the 974,000 new households created last year. While it&#8217;s still 100.4 million homes, or 84.7 percent of all households, it&#8217;s down from the peak of 87.3 percent in early 2010.</p> <p>Nielsen&#8217;s study suggests that this new group may have left traditional TV for good. While three-quarters actually have a physical TV set, only 18 percent are interested in hooking it up through a traditional pay TV subscription.</p> <p>Zero TVers tend to be younger, single and without children. Nielsen&#8217;s senior vice president of insights, Dounia Turrill, says part of the new monitoring regime is meant to help determine whether they&#8217;ll change their behavior over time. &#8220;As these homes change life stage, what will happen to them?&#8221;</p> <p>Cynthia Phelps, a 43-year-old maker of mental health apps in San Antonio, Texas, says there&#8217;s nothing that will bring her back to traditional TV. She&#8217;s watched TV in the past, of course, but for most of the last 10 years she&#8217;s done without it.</p> <p>She finds a lot of programs online to watch on her laptop for free &#8212; like the TED talks educational series &#8212; and every few months she gets together with friends to watch older TV shows on DVD, usually &#8220;something totally geeky,&#8221; like NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Chuck.&#8221;</p> <p>The 24-hour news channels make her anxious or depressed, and buzz about the latest hot TV shows like &#8220;Mad Men&#8221; doesn&#8217;t make her feel like she&#8217;s missing out. She didn&#8217;t know who the Kardashian family was until she looked them up a few years ago.</p> <p>&#8220;I feel absolutely no social pressure to keep up with the Joneses in that respect,&#8221; she says.</p> <p>For Phelps, it&#8217;s less about saving money than choice. She says she&#8217;d rather spend her time productively and not get &#8220;sucked into&#8221; shows she&#8217;ll regret later.</p> <p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want someone else dictating the media I get every day,&#8221; she says. &#8220;I want to be in charge of it. When I have a TV, I&#8217;m less in control of that.&#8221;</p> <p>The TV industry has a host of buzz words to describe these non-traditionalist viewers. There are &#8220;cord-cutters,&#8221; who stop paying for TV completely, and make do with online video and sometimes an antenna. There are &#8220;cord-shavers,&#8221; who reduce the number of channels they subscribe to, or the number of rooms pay TV is in, to save money.</p> <p>Then there are the &#8220;cord-nevers,&#8221; young people who move out on their own and never set up a landline phone connection or a TV subscription. They usually make do with a broadband Internet connection, a computer, a cellphone and possibly a TV set that is not hooked up the traditional way.</p> <p>That&#8217;s the label given to the group by Richard Schneider, the president and founder of the online retailer Antennas Direct. The site is doing great business selling antennas capable of accepting free digital signals since the nation&#8217;s transition to digital over-the-air broadcasts in 2009, and is on pace to sell nearly 600,000 units this year, up from a few dozen when it started in 2003.</p> <p>While the &#8220;cord-nevers&#8221; are a target market for him, the category is also troubling. More people are raised with the power of the Internet in their pocket, and don&#8217;t know or care that you can pull TV signals from the air for free.</p> <p>&#8220;They&#8217;re more aware of Netflix than they&#8217;re aware over-the-air is even available,&#8221; Schneider says.</p> <p>That brings us to truck driver James Weitze. The 31-year-old satisfies his video fix with an iPhone. He often sleeps in his truck, and has no apartment. To be sure, he&#8217;s an extreme case who doesn&#8217;t fit into Nielsen&#8217;s definition of a household in the first place. But he&#8217;s watching Netflix enough to keep up with shows like &#8220;Weeds,&#8221; &#8221;30 Rock,&#8221; &#8221;Arrested Development,&#8221; &#8221;Breaking Bad,&#8221; &#8221;It&#8217;s Always Sunny in Philadelphia&#8221; and &#8220;Sons of Anarchy.&#8221;</p> <p>He&#8217;s not opposed to TV per se, and misses some ESPN sports programs like the &#8220;X Games.&#8221;</p> <p>But he&#8217;s so divorced from the traditional TV ecosystem it could be hard to go back. It&#8217;s become easier for him to navigate his smartphone than to figure out how to use a TV set-top box and the button-laden remote control.</p> <p>&#8220;I&#8217;m pretty tech savvy, but the TV industry with the cable and the television and the boxes, you don&#8217;t know how to use their equipment,&#8221; he says. &#8220;I try to go over to my grandma&#8217;s place and teach her how to do it. I can&#8217;t even figure it out myself.&#8221;</p>

<p>&#8220;Disappointment&#8221; was the word used by several African-American community leaders who&#8217;ve worked for independent politics, describing their reaction to President Obama&#8217;s endorsement of Mayor Rahm Emanuel &#8211; though they questioned how much influence it will have.</p> <p>Referring to African-American voters&#8217; support for Emanuel in 2011 based on his association with Obama, two cited the adage, &#8220;Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.&#8221;</p> <p>One suggested that, as a prominent local leader who has gone toe-to-toe with Emanuel, Karen Lewis&#8217; endorsement of Jesus &#8220;Chuy&#8221; Garcia could carry more weight with many voters.</p> <p>&#8220;I was very disappointed,&#8221; said Richard Barnett, the legendary West Side political organizer. &#8220;I think it was a disservice on the part of the president for the simple reason that we supported him too much &#8211; and Emanuel has done us too bad &#8211; for him to have gotten into this campaign.&#8221;</p> <p>The endorsement reflects the fact that &#8220;Rahm Emanuel is very scared, especially regarding his standing in the black community, and he thinks this will sway African-American voters,&#8221; said Bob Starks, a longtime activist and columnist for the Chicago Defender.</p> <p>&#8220;It will have some influence but not as much as [Emanuel would] like, because people are really very sour on a number of issues,&#8221; Starks said. &#8220;Emanuel closed 50 schools and that&#8217;s really a very big issue with this community. People are really angry about that &#8211; not only the fact of the closings but the arrogance with which he did it.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;It&#8217;s disappointing because it doesn&#8217;t reflect the sentiment of the community that has been so loyal to him,&#8221; said political consultant Delmarie Cobb, who said the president &#8220;snubbed his nose at the black community, which has always been there for him.&#8221;</p> <p>She took issue with the content of Obama&#8217;s radio commercial, which admits Emanuel &#8220;can be hard-headed&#8221; but insists his heart is in the right place.</p> <p>&#8220;It&#8217;s insulting to think the black community&#8217;s trouble with Rahm Emanuel is about his personality or his being hard-headed,&#8221; Cobb said. &#8220;Rahm started with an A in the black community and now he has an F,&#8221; Cobb said. &#8220;There is a reason for that, and it&#8217;s not because of his abrasive personality.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;African-American voters have been hurt by Rahm Emanuel&#8217;s decisions to close schools&amp;#160;and clinics, and an endorsement by the president isn&#8217;t going to wipe that away,&#8221; said Bronzeville leader Jay Travis, who chaired Lewis&#8217; exploratory committee last year. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think the people who have been hurt by his policies have such short memories.&#8221;</p> <p>Travis said that Lewis&#8217; endorsement of Garcia is a factor for many people she talks with. &#8220;When I&#8217;m out knocking on doors, people value Karen Lewis&#8217; perspective,&#8221; she said. &#8220;She&#8217;s viewed as a real leader in this city, someone who stood up to the worst policies of the mayor. &#8230; She&#8217;s been on the front line of the fight to keep our public institutions open and to stop the devastation of black and brown communities,&#8221; she said.</p> <p>She notes that Garcia&#8217;s connections to the black community go far beyond his historic role in the Harold Washington administration. &#8220;I met Chuy [when I was] an organizer attempting to get more resources for our neighborhood schools, when he was very much in the thick of the fight for a new high school in Little Village. He&#8217;s worked to end the school-to-prison pipeline and to find solutions to the foreclosure crisis,&#8221; she said.</p> <p>&#8220;As people know more about his work and his vision &#8211; when they know what he&#8217;s done and what he stands for &#8211; they are on board to support him,&#8221; Travis said.</p> <p>At a huge Garcia rally in Woodlawn last weekend, Karen Lewis herself made the same point. To a crowd of community and labor activists from around the city, she said, &#8220;We need each of you out there every day, talking to people, explaining that we need a change and that Chuy is that change.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;We need someone who understands what our lives are like on an everyday basis and who isn&#8217;t contemptuous of that,&#8221; Lewis said. &#8220;We need someone someone who has a vision.&#8221;</p> <p>The enthusiasm of the rally reached a peak as Garcia offered a populist stemwinder of a speech: &#8220;Taking Chicago back is another step for people across this country who are saying we cannot have our government hijacked from us by investment bankers and hedge fund managers,&#8221; he said.</p> <p>Many in the crowd were veterans of organizing against school closings and other service cuts and of campaigns to shift TIF spending away from corporate subsidies. And as one participant noted, a good number of those present had worked on Obama&#8217;s behalf long before he ran for president.</p>

Obama endorsement of Emanuel called a ‘disappointment’

http://chicagoreporter.com/obama-endorsement-of-emanuel-a-disappointment-to-political-insiders/

2015-01-28

3left-center

Obama endorsement of Emanuel called a ‘disappointment’ <p>&#8220;Disappointment&#8221; was the word used by several African-American community leaders who&#8217;ve worked for independent politics, describing their reaction to President Obama&#8217;s endorsement of Mayor Rahm Emanuel &#8211; though they questioned how much influence it will have.</p> <p>Referring to African-American voters&#8217; support for Emanuel in 2011 based on his association with Obama, two cited the adage, &#8220;Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.&#8221;</p> <p>One suggested that, as a prominent local leader who has gone toe-to-toe with Emanuel, Karen Lewis&#8217; endorsement of Jesus &#8220;Chuy&#8221; Garcia could carry more weight with many voters.</p> <p>&#8220;I was very disappointed,&#8221; said Richard Barnett, the legendary West Side political organizer. &#8220;I think it was a disservice on the part of the president for the simple reason that we supported him too much &#8211; and Emanuel has done us too bad &#8211; for him to have gotten into this campaign.&#8221;</p> <p>The endorsement reflects the fact that &#8220;Rahm Emanuel is very scared, especially regarding his standing in the black community, and he thinks this will sway African-American voters,&#8221; said Bob Starks, a longtime activist and columnist for the Chicago Defender.</p> <p>&#8220;It will have some influence but not as much as [Emanuel would] like, because people are really very sour on a number of issues,&#8221; Starks said. &#8220;Emanuel closed 50 schools and that&#8217;s really a very big issue with this community. People are really angry about that &#8211; not only the fact of the closings but the arrogance with which he did it.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;It&#8217;s disappointing because it doesn&#8217;t reflect the sentiment of the community that has been so loyal to him,&#8221; said political consultant Delmarie Cobb, who said the president &#8220;snubbed his nose at the black community, which has always been there for him.&#8221;</p> <p>She took issue with the content of Obama&#8217;s radio commercial, which admits Emanuel &#8220;can be hard-headed&#8221; but insists his heart is in the right place.</p> <p>&#8220;It&#8217;s insulting to think the black community&#8217;s trouble with Rahm Emanuel is about his personality or his being hard-headed,&#8221; Cobb said. &#8220;Rahm started with an A in the black community and now he has an F,&#8221; Cobb said. &#8220;There is a reason for that, and it&#8217;s not because of his abrasive personality.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;African-American voters have been hurt by Rahm Emanuel&#8217;s decisions to close schools&amp;#160;and clinics, and an endorsement by the president isn&#8217;t going to wipe that away,&#8221; said Bronzeville leader Jay Travis, who chaired Lewis&#8217; exploratory committee last year. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think the people who have been hurt by his policies have such short memories.&#8221;</p> <p>Travis said that Lewis&#8217; endorsement of Garcia is a factor for many people she talks with. &#8220;When I&#8217;m out knocking on doors, people value Karen Lewis&#8217; perspective,&#8221; she said. &#8220;She&#8217;s viewed as a real leader in this city, someone who stood up to the worst policies of the mayor. &#8230; She&#8217;s been on the front line of the fight to keep our public institutions open and to stop the devastation of black and brown communities,&#8221; she said.</p> <p>She notes that Garcia&#8217;s connections to the black community go far beyond his historic role in the Harold Washington administration. &#8220;I met Chuy [when I was] an organizer attempting to get more resources for our neighborhood schools, when he was very much in the thick of the fight for a new high school in Little Village. He&#8217;s worked to end the school-to-prison pipeline and to find solutions to the foreclosure crisis,&#8221; she said.</p> <p>&#8220;As people know more about his work and his vision &#8211; when they know what he&#8217;s done and what he stands for &#8211; they are on board to support him,&#8221; Travis said.</p> <p>At a huge Garcia rally in Woodlawn last weekend, Karen Lewis herself made the same point. To a crowd of community and labor activists from around the city, she said, &#8220;We need each of you out there every day, talking to people, explaining that we need a change and that Chuy is that change.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;We need someone who understands what our lives are like on an everyday basis and who isn&#8217;t contemptuous of that,&#8221; Lewis said. &#8220;We need someone someone who has a vision.&#8221;</p> <p>The enthusiasm of the rally reached a peak as Garcia offered a populist stemwinder of a speech: &#8220;Taking Chicago back is another step for people across this country who are saying we cannot have our government hijacked from us by investment bankers and hedge fund managers,&#8221; he said.</p> <p>Many in the crowd were veterans of organizing against school closings and other service cuts and of campaigns to shift TIF spending away from corporate subsidies. And as one participant noted, a good number of those present had worked on Obama&#8217;s behalf long before he ran for president.</p>

<p>A federal judge upheld the Obama administration's ban on lobbyists serving on government boards and advisory panels, ruling against six lobbyists who wanted to serve on such boards.</p> <p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/judge-backs-obama-ban-on-lobbyists/2012/09/26/175c6c44-0804-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_story.html" type="external">The Washington Post reported</a> that US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the lobbyists had failed to make their case that the policy violated their constitutional rights. <a href="https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2011cv1593-17" type="external">Berman said the lobbyists</a> had "no legal entitlement" to serve on advisory boards or committees, and said the policy did not deny them a "valuable government benefit."</p> <p>She said the lobbyists had failed to show what they lost by not serving on the government boards, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/26/us-usa-politics-lobbyists-idUSBRE88P18320120926" type="external">according to Reuters</a>.</p> <p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120926/esquireyahoo-poll-americans-expect-lies-campaign-ads" type="external">Esquire/Yahoo! poll: Americans expect both parties to lie in campaign ads</a></p> <p>Berman ruled that Obama was within his authority to bar them, despite the lobbyists arguing that the ban penalized them for "exercising their right to petition the government," Reuters reported.</p> <p>The Obama administration has taken a firm stance in reducing the power of lobbyists, pledging to keep federal lobbyists out of Obama's re-election campaign. In October 2011, the Obama campaign's press secretary Ben LaBolt said, "Reducing the influence of special interests over the policymaking process won't happen overnight--there are many institutional forces fighting tooth and nail to make sure that it does not," <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20127026-503544/do-obamas-big-donors-break-his-no-lobbyist-pledge/" type="external">according to CBS News</a>.</p> <p>Critics of the ban have questioned how effective it is, noting that the ban specifically applies to registered lobbyists. Reuters said those with jobs similar to lobbying can find legal loopholes to avoid registering.</p> <p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/elections/120926/obama-leads-ohio-and-florida-new-poll-shows" type="external">Obama leads in Ohio and Florida, new poll shows</a></p>

Federal judge upholds Obama's ban on lobbyists serving on boards

https://pri.org/stories/2012-09-26/federal-judge-upholds-obamas-ban-lobbyists-serving-boards

2012-09-26

3left-center

Federal judge upholds Obama's ban on lobbyists serving on boards <p>A federal judge upheld the Obama administration's ban on lobbyists serving on government boards and advisory panels, ruling against six lobbyists who wanted to serve on such boards.</p> <p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/judge-backs-obama-ban-on-lobbyists/2012/09/26/175c6c44-0804-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_story.html" type="external">The Washington Post reported</a> that US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the lobbyists had failed to make their case that the policy violated their constitutional rights. <a href="https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2011cv1593-17" type="external">Berman said the lobbyists</a> had "no legal entitlement" to serve on advisory boards or committees, and said the policy did not deny them a "valuable government benefit."</p> <p>She said the lobbyists had failed to show what they lost by not serving on the government boards, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/26/us-usa-politics-lobbyists-idUSBRE88P18320120926" type="external">according to Reuters</a>.</p> <p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120926/esquireyahoo-poll-americans-expect-lies-campaign-ads" type="external">Esquire/Yahoo! poll: Americans expect both parties to lie in campaign ads</a></p> <p>Berman ruled that Obama was within his authority to bar them, despite the lobbyists arguing that the ban penalized them for "exercising their right to petition the government," Reuters reported.</p> <p>The Obama administration has taken a firm stance in reducing the power of lobbyists, pledging to keep federal lobbyists out of Obama's re-election campaign. In October 2011, the Obama campaign's press secretary Ben LaBolt said, "Reducing the influence of special interests over the policymaking process won't happen overnight--there are many institutional forces fighting tooth and nail to make sure that it does not," <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20127026-503544/do-obamas-big-donors-break-his-no-lobbyist-pledge/" type="external">according to CBS News</a>.</p> <p>Critics of the ban have questioned how effective it is, noting that the ban specifically applies to registered lobbyists. Reuters said those with jobs similar to lobbying can find legal loopholes to avoid registering.</p> <p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/elections/120926/obama-leads-ohio-and-florida-new-poll-shows" type="external">Obama leads in Ohio and Florida, new poll shows</a></p>

<p>Former Fox News Channel star Bill O&#8217;Reilly says he&#8217;ll be making an appearance on CNN soon.</p> <p>O&#8217;Reilly indicated during a streaming videocast on BillOReilly.com Wednesday evening that he intends to visit the CNN weekend show hosted by Michael Smerconish after the publication of his next book, &#8220;Killing England.&#8221;</p> <p>It is slated to be released in September by Henry Holt.</p> <p>A CNN spokeswoman who represents &#8220;Smerconish&#8221; did not immediately respond to a query seeking comment. A spokesman for O&#8217;Reilly could not be reached for immediate comment.</p>

Bill O'Reilly to Make Appearance on CNN

https://newsline.com/bill-oreilly-to-make-appearance-on-cnn/

2017-08-10

1right-center

Bill O'Reilly to Make Appearance on CNN <p>Former Fox News Channel star Bill O&#8217;Reilly says he&#8217;ll be making an appearance on CNN soon.</p> <p>O&#8217;Reilly indicated during a streaming videocast on BillOReilly.com Wednesday evening that he intends to visit the CNN weekend show hosted by Michael Smerconish after the publication of his next book, &#8220;Killing England.&#8221;</p> <p>It is slated to be released in September by Henry Holt.</p> <p>A CNN spokeswoman who represents &#8220;Smerconish&#8221; did not immediately respond to a query seeking comment. A spokesman for O&#8217;Reilly could not be reached for immediate comment.</p>

<p>On Tuesday, Donald Trump surrogate and former presidential hopeful Dr. Ben Carson <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/19/politics/ben-carson-transgender/" type="external">said</a> that a man pretending to be a woman is the &#8220;height of absurdity.&#8221; Carson explained that a man cannot magically become a woman, much like a person cannot magically change their ethnicity.</p> <p>"For thousands of years, mankind has known what a man is and what a woman is," Carson told reporters at the RNC in Cleveland. "And now all of a sudden we don't know anymore. Now, is that the height of absurdity? Because today you feel like a woman, even though everything about you genetically says that you're a man or vice versa?</p> <p>"Wouldn't that be the same as if you woke up tomorrow morning after seeing a movie about Afghanistan or reading some books and said, 'You know what? I'm Afghanistan. I know I don't look that way. My ancestors came from Sweden, or something, I don't know. But I really am,&#8221; said the retired neurosurgeon, adding, &#8220;And if you say I'm not, (then) you're racist."</p> <p>Of course, Carson's remarks are correct. It is scientifically impossible for a man to become a woman, or a woman to become a man. Still, progressives will call him a bigot and, ironically, anti-science. Figure that one out.</p> <p>Dr. Carson has remarked on the transgender movement as a whole in the past, too. After President Obama issued his <a href="" type="internal">transgender bathroom edict</a> in May, which mandates all public schools to open bathrooms and locker-rooms to &#8220;gender identity&#8221; rather than biology at the threat of lawsuits and revoked funding, Carson smacked the government overreach and ridiculed the idea that so-called trans rights have anything to do with civil rights.</p> <p>"Anytime the secular progressives want to get people on their side, they go back to the civil rights movement, and they say this is a civil rights issue and it's not a civil rights issue," he said. "But we have to be willing to stand up, we have to be willing to call out people for this absolutely ridiculous stuff that they're trying to put over on us, that they're trying to put over on our children."</p> <p>As a Trump surrogate, Dr. Carson spoke to a large crowd at the RNC on Tuesday night. He was ridiculed by progressives (again) for <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/ben-carson-invokes-saul-alinsky-and-lucifer-in-bonkers-rnc-speech/" type="external">mentioning</a> that one of Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton's mentors, Saul Alinsky, dedicated his book to Lucifer. The book, indeed, is dedicated to Lucifer.</p>

Ben Carson: Pretending Men Can Be Women 'The Height Of Absurdity'

https://dailywire.com/news/7631/ben-carson-pretending-men-can-be-women-height-amanda-prestigiacomo

2016-07-20

0right

Ben Carson: Pretending Men Can Be Women 'The Height Of Absurdity' <p>On Tuesday, Donald Trump surrogate and former presidential hopeful Dr. Ben Carson <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/19/politics/ben-carson-transgender/" type="external">said</a> that a man pretending to be a woman is the &#8220;height of absurdity.&#8221; Carson explained that a man cannot magically become a woman, much like a person cannot magically change their ethnicity.</p> <p>"For thousands of years, mankind has known what a man is and what a woman is," Carson told reporters at the RNC in Cleveland. "And now all of a sudden we don't know anymore. Now, is that the height of absurdity? Because today you feel like a woman, even though everything about you genetically says that you're a man or vice versa?</p> <p>"Wouldn't that be the same as if you woke up tomorrow morning after seeing a movie about Afghanistan or reading some books and said, 'You know what? I'm Afghanistan. I know I don't look that way. My ancestors came from Sweden, or something, I don't know. But I really am,&#8221; said the retired neurosurgeon, adding, &#8220;And if you say I'm not, (then) you're racist."</p> <p>Of course, Carson's remarks are correct. It is scientifically impossible for a man to become a woman, or a woman to become a man. Still, progressives will call him a bigot and, ironically, anti-science. Figure that one out.</p> <p>Dr. Carson has remarked on the transgender movement as a whole in the past, too. After President Obama issued his <a href="" type="internal">transgender bathroom edict</a> in May, which mandates all public schools to open bathrooms and locker-rooms to &#8220;gender identity&#8221; rather than biology at the threat of lawsuits and revoked funding, Carson smacked the government overreach and ridiculed the idea that so-called trans rights have anything to do with civil rights.</p> <p>"Anytime the secular progressives want to get people on their side, they go back to the civil rights movement, and they say this is a civil rights issue and it's not a civil rights issue," he said. "But we have to be willing to stand up, we have to be willing to call out people for this absolutely ridiculous stuff that they're trying to put over on us, that they're trying to put over on our children."</p> <p>As a Trump surrogate, Dr. Carson spoke to a large crowd at the RNC on Tuesday night. He was ridiculed by progressives (again) for <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/ben-carson-invokes-saul-alinsky-and-lucifer-in-bonkers-rnc-speech/" type="external">mentioning</a> that one of Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton's mentors, Saul Alinsky, dedicated his book to Lucifer. The book, indeed, is dedicated to Lucifer.</p>

<p>The Latest on rules restricting methane emissions (all times EDT):</p> <p>8:10 p.m.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>A federal judge has ordered the Interior Department to reinstate an Obama-era regulation aimed at restricting harmful methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands.</p> <p>The order by a judge in San Francisco comes as Interior is moving to delay the rule until 2019, saying it is too burdensome to industry. Interior tried earlier to postpone part of the rule set to take effect next year.</p> <p>U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte says Interior failed to give a "reasoned explanation" for the changes and had not offered details why an earlier analysis by the Obama administration was faulty. She has ordered the entire rule reinstated immediately.</p> <p>The rule, finalized last November, forces energy companies to capture methane that's burnt off or "flared" at drilling sites on public lands.</p> <p>___</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>2:30 p.m.</p> <p>The Interior Department is moving to delay an Obama-era regulation aimed at restricting harmful methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands.</p> <p>The rule, finalized last November, forces energy companies to capture methane that's burnt off or "flared" at drilling sites on public lands during production because it pollutes the environment. An estimated $330 million a year in methane is wasted through leaks or intentional releases on federal lands, enough to power about 5 million homes a year.</p> <p>The Interior Department said in a notice to be published Thursday in the Federal Register that it wants to delay the rule until January 2019.</p> <p>Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a leading contributor to global warming.</p>

The Latest: Interior ordered to reinstate methane rule

http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/04/latest-interior-ordered-to-reinstate-methane-rule.html

2017-10-04

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The Latest: Interior ordered to reinstate methane rule <p>The Latest on rules restricting methane emissions (all times EDT):</p> <p>8:10 p.m.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>A federal judge has ordered the Interior Department to reinstate an Obama-era regulation aimed at restricting harmful methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands.</p> <p>The order by a judge in San Francisco comes as Interior is moving to delay the rule until 2019, saying it is too burdensome to industry. Interior tried earlier to postpone part of the rule set to take effect next year.</p> <p>U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte says Interior failed to give a "reasoned explanation" for the changes and had not offered details why an earlier analysis by the Obama administration was faulty. She has ordered the entire rule reinstated immediately.</p> <p>The rule, finalized last November, forces energy companies to capture methane that's burnt off or "flared" at drilling sites on public lands.</p> <p>___</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>2:30 p.m.</p> <p>The Interior Department is moving to delay an Obama-era regulation aimed at restricting harmful methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands.</p> <p>The rule, finalized last November, forces energy companies to capture methane that's burnt off or "flared" at drilling sites on public lands during production because it pollutes the environment. An estimated $330 million a year in methane is wasted through leaks or intentional releases on federal lands, enough to power about 5 million homes a year.</p> <p>The Interior Department said in a notice to be published Thursday in the Federal Register that it wants to delay the rule until January 2019.</p> <p>Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a leading contributor to global warming.</p>

<p /> <p>Starting a small business is a huge commitment. It can seem so intimidating that it&#8217;s often difficult to decide where to begin or even what kind of business to open. The first step is to explore your passions.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>If there is anything you throw your heart and soul into, that&#8217;s where your business might be, though you might want to think twice about having your favorite activities become a professional endeavor. If you know you want to become an entrepreneur, but you&#8217;re not sure what kind, here are a few of the best small businesses for beginners:</p> <p>Sell your stuff online. First-time business owners should consider the Internet to start a businesses because it has low overhead. Maintaining a website is significantly cheaper than renting&amp;#160;retail space, and the Internet is the fastest-growing marketplace.&amp;#160;You can sell almost anything, from&amp;#160;albums and jewelry to&amp;#160;vintage clothes. If you want to start even smaller than your own website,&amp;#160;you can open up&amp;#160;a store on wider platforms like <a href="http://www.ebay.com/" type="external">eBay Opens a New Window.</a>and <a href="http://amazon.com" type="external">Amazon.com Opens a New Window.</a>, or <a href="http://www.etsy.com" type="external">Etsy Opens a New Window.</a>, which&amp;#160;specializes in handmade and vintage goods.</p> <p>Start a clean-up crew. Luckily, cleaning up is a skill that will never require a business degree. You can start your own home-cleaning service, taking on as few or as many clients as you would like. Cleaning services are also relatively low-cost businesses to start, and the time commitment is generally flexible. There may already be a lot of&amp;#160;competition for cleaners in your neighborhood. If that&#8217;s the case, you could still squeeze yourself into the market by offering specialized services such as construction cleanup.</p> <p>Open a child care center. If you love kids, running a child care center may be the business for you. Parents usually form strong networks, which means your business could grow rapidly by word of mouth. While starting a child care center usually costs less than other enterprises, there are a number of hidden costs like insurance fees, licenses, and the price of child-proofing your home or rented space.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>Become a words wizard. You can start offering freelance copy writing, editing or proofreading services with very little costs involved. More specialized paths include medical transcription, translation or transcribing services. While most of this work does not require formal training, often times some form of certification can give you a leg up on the competition. If you are detail oriented, willing to research and love words, this could be the perfect fit.</p> <p>Act as a computer consultant. Tinkering with your home computer can turn into a lucrative career. For experts, there are a number of business paths available, including computer repair, software training and data entry. Since technology is everywhere, you have many potential clients. You can offer your services to home users, other small businesses or even larger organizations. A computer consulting business also means you can control your own hours.</p> <p>Take care of pets. Tending to pets&amp;#160;is arguably&amp;#160;the cutest small business you could start.&amp;#160;Pet-owners are willing to pay top dollar for their pets. You can provide a variety of pet-related services, such as dog training and walking, grooming or pet sitting. Experience with animals is usually a prerequisite for starting these businesses, especially when it comes to dog training and grooming. If you don&#8217;t know how to cut a dog&#8217;s nails, you probably don&#8217;t want to try.</p>

Best Small Businesses for Beginners

http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/11/28/best-small-businesses-for-beginners.html

2016-03-23

0right

Best Small Businesses for Beginners <p /> <p>Starting a small business is a huge commitment. It can seem so intimidating that it&#8217;s often difficult to decide where to begin or even what kind of business to open. The first step is to explore your passions.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>If there is anything you throw your heart and soul into, that&#8217;s where your business might be, though you might want to think twice about having your favorite activities become a professional endeavor. If you know you want to become an entrepreneur, but you&#8217;re not sure what kind, here are a few of the best small businesses for beginners:</p> <p>Sell your stuff online. First-time business owners should consider the Internet to start a businesses because it has low overhead. Maintaining a website is significantly cheaper than renting&amp;#160;retail space, and the Internet is the fastest-growing marketplace.&amp;#160;You can sell almost anything, from&amp;#160;albums and jewelry to&amp;#160;vintage clothes. If you want to start even smaller than your own website,&amp;#160;you can open up&amp;#160;a store on wider platforms like <a href="http://www.ebay.com/" type="external">eBay Opens a New Window.</a>and <a href="http://amazon.com" type="external">Amazon.com Opens a New Window.</a>, or <a href="http://www.etsy.com" type="external">Etsy Opens a New Window.</a>, which&amp;#160;specializes in handmade and vintage goods.</p> <p>Start a clean-up crew. Luckily, cleaning up is a skill that will never require a business degree. You can start your own home-cleaning service, taking on as few or as many clients as you would like. Cleaning services are also relatively low-cost businesses to start, and the time commitment is generally flexible. There may already be a lot of&amp;#160;competition for cleaners in your neighborhood. If that&#8217;s the case, you could still squeeze yourself into the market by offering specialized services such as construction cleanup.</p> <p>Open a child care center. If you love kids, running a child care center may be the business for you. Parents usually form strong networks, which means your business could grow rapidly by word of mouth. While starting a child care center usually costs less than other enterprises, there are a number of hidden costs like insurance fees, licenses, and the price of child-proofing your home or rented space.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>Become a words wizard. You can start offering freelance copy writing, editing or proofreading services with very little costs involved. More specialized paths include medical transcription, translation or transcribing services. While most of this work does not require formal training, often times some form of certification can give you a leg up on the competition. If you are detail oriented, willing to research and love words, this could be the perfect fit.</p> <p>Act as a computer consultant. Tinkering with your home computer can turn into a lucrative career. For experts, there are a number of business paths available, including computer repair, software training and data entry. Since technology is everywhere, you have many potential clients. You can offer your services to home users, other small businesses or even larger organizations. A computer consulting business also means you can control your own hours.</p> <p>Take care of pets. Tending to pets&amp;#160;is arguably&amp;#160;the cutest small business you could start.&amp;#160;Pet-owners are willing to pay top dollar for their pets. You can provide a variety of pet-related services, such as dog training and walking, grooming or pet sitting. Experience with animals is usually a prerequisite for starting these businesses, especially when it comes to dog training and grooming. If you don&#8217;t know how to cut a dog&#8217;s nails, you probably don&#8217;t want to try.</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p>DALLAS - Police have arrested a 13-year-old girl who is accused of posting a threat to shoot up her Dallas middle school on Instagram.</p> <p>Dallas Independent School District police say they believe the girl posted the photo of a man with a gun to attract more followers. Investigators say the photo caption warned that everybody at T.W. Browne Middle School was going to die and that eighth graders would be targeted at a specific time.</p> <p>The teen told police that she found the photo online.</p> <p>Police say the girl, whose name hasn't been released, faces a juvenile charge of making a terrorist threat. Conviction carries penalties of up to 10 years in prison.</p> <p>School officials were informed of the photo Monday night. Patrols were increased Tuesday.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>

13-year-old girl posts shooting threat against Dallas school

https://abqjournal.com/685155/13-year-old-girl-posts-shooting-threat-against-dallas-school.html

2least

13-year-old girl posts shooting threat against Dallas school <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p>DALLAS - Police have arrested a 13-year-old girl who is accused of posting a threat to shoot up her Dallas middle school on Instagram.</p> <p>Dallas Independent School District police say they believe the girl posted the photo of a man with a gun to attract more followers. Investigators say the photo caption warned that everybody at T.W. Browne Middle School was going to die and that eighth graders would be targeted at a specific time.</p> <p>The teen told police that she found the photo online.</p> <p>Police say the girl, whose name hasn't been released, faces a juvenile charge of making a terrorist threat. Conviction carries penalties of up to 10 years in prison.</p> <p>School officials were informed of the photo Monday night. Patrols were increased Tuesday.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>

<p /> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>Shares of Northern Dynasty Minerals (NYSEMKT: NAK) were on the move once more in Wednesday trading, closing the day up 16.7%.</p> <p>The question is: Why? It's been a full weeksince the last time we heard so much as a peep out of Northern Dynasty management, and all the headlines since have consisted of various law firms announcing lawsuits alleging the stock is "not commercially viable," that its "financial statements" are "false and misleading" -- or both.</p> <p>Even when it doesn't glitter, some investors still see a golden opportunity in Northern Dynasty Minerals. Image source: Getty Images.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>And the answer? That's hard to say. True, the last news we heard from Northern Dynasty was of the good variety, when on <a href="http://www.northerndynastyminerals.com/ndm/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=781836" type="external">March 8 Opens a New Window.</a>, the miner announced that it has retained the services of a "regulatory and permitting consultant" to help with preparing "necessary documentation" to get its Pebble Project gold mining operation moving forward again.</p> <p>This announcement, in conjunction with <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/23/why-northern-dynasty-minerals-stock-just-jumped-25.aspx?&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">last month's news Opens a New Window.</a> that the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space and Technology is urging the EPA "to rescind the federal agency's 2014 regulatory action under Section 404(c) of theClean Water Actto pre-emptively veto Alaska's Pebble Project," suggests there could be further positive news coming down the pike.</p> <p>So far, no such news has surfaced -- but that doesn't seem to be keeping investors from buying today.</p> <p>10 stocks we like better than Northern Dynasty MineralsWhen 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=http%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;amp;impression=d82b4db9-6b61-4e62-b2ab-4ec595b30954&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Northern Dynasty Minerals 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=http%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;amp;impression=d82b4db9-6b61-4e62-b2ab-4ec595b30954&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;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 February 6, 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;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>

Why Northern Dynasty Minerals Stock Just Jumped 17%

http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/15/why-northern-dynasty-minerals-stock-just-jumped-17.html

2017-03-17

0right

Why Northern Dynasty Minerals Stock Just Jumped 17% <p /> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>Shares of Northern Dynasty Minerals (NYSEMKT: NAK) were on the move once more in Wednesday trading, closing the day up 16.7%.</p> <p>The question is: Why? It's been a full weeksince the last time we heard so much as a peep out of Northern Dynasty management, and all the headlines since have consisted of various law firms announcing lawsuits alleging the stock is "not commercially viable," that its "financial statements" are "false and misleading" -- or both.</p> <p>Even when it doesn't glitter, some investors still see a golden opportunity in Northern Dynasty Minerals. Image source: Getty Images.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>And the answer? That's hard to say. True, the last news we heard from Northern Dynasty was of the good variety, when on <a href="http://www.northerndynastyminerals.com/ndm/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=781836" type="external">March 8 Opens a New Window.</a>, the miner announced that it has retained the services of a "regulatory and permitting consultant" to help with preparing "necessary documentation" to get its Pebble Project gold mining operation moving forward again.</p> <p>This announcement, in conjunction with <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/23/why-northern-dynasty-minerals-stock-just-jumped-25.aspx?&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">last month's news Opens a New Window.</a> that the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space and Technology is urging the EPA "to rescind the federal agency's 2014 regulatory action under Section 404(c) of theClean Water Actto pre-emptively veto Alaska's Pebble Project," suggests there could be further positive news coming down the pike.</p> <p>So far, no such news has surfaced -- but that doesn't seem to be keeping investors from buying today.</p> <p>10 stocks we like better than Northern Dynasty MineralsWhen 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=http%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;amp;impression=d82b4db9-6b61-4e62-b2ab-4ec595b30954&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Northern Dynasty Minerals 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=http%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;amp;impression=d82b4db9-6b61-4e62-b2ab-4ec595b30954&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;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 February 6, 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;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>

<p /> <p>Since Donald Trump became president, a number of CEOs have stepped into the spotlight to speak against (or in favor of) his policies. Having a political opinion can both help and hurt a brand. Those who agree with a company's opinion might shop there more, while people who feel the other way will vote with their wallets as well.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) and its CEO, Howard Schultz, has never been a brand to stay on the sidelines. That makes its not at all surprising that the global coffee giant has taken an aggressive stand against Trump's efforts to ban people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States, including refugees fleeing wars.</p> <p>In the immediate aftermath of the Trump administration's efforts, Schultz sent a <a href="https://news.starbucks.com/news/living-our-values-in-uncertain-times" type="external">letter Opens a New Window.</a> to his employees laying out what the company plans to do and saying he hears "the alarm you all are sounding that the civility and human rights we have all taken for granted for so long are under attack."</p> <p>The company's efforts include working to support the company's employees in or from affected countries. Most notably, Schultz took a direct shot at the president, pledging to hire 10,000 refugees at its stores around the world and in the United States over five years.</p> <p>Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz says his company plans to hire 10,000 refugees over five years. Image source: Starbucks.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>"We have a long history of hiring young people looking for opportunities and a pathway to a new life around the world," wrote Schultz. "This is why we are doubling down on this commitment by working with our equity market employees as well as joint venture and licensed market partners in a concerted effort to welcome and seek opportunities for those fleeing war, violence, persecution and discrimination."</p> <p>The CEO noted that there are more than 65 million "citizens of the world" recognized as refugees by the United Nations, and said that Starbucks plans to hire 10,000 of them over five years in the 75 countries where the chain does business. Schultz said those efforts will start in the U.S., where the company will focus on hiring "those individuals who have served with U.S. troops as interpreters and support personnel in the various countries where our military has asked for such support."</p> <p>This is not the first time the company has targeted a specific group to fill jobs. The chain has hired 8,000 veterans and military spouses -- nearing its stated goal of hiring 10,000 by 2018. It has also worked with Opportunity Youth to hire "10,000 young men and women who are not in school and not employed," according to the company's 2016 annual shareholder's letter.</p> <p>Starbucks closed 2016 with 25,734 stores and plans to add 2,100 more in 2017. Given the company's aggressive plans to expand in China as well as its stated goal of opening 1,000 Reserve stores, it's reasonable to expect it to open around 10,000 (or more) stores over the five-year period it has pledged to hire 10,0000 refugees.</p> <p>Even if that number comes in lower -- at, say, 8,000 new locations over five years -- that would give the company 33,734 locations across the world. As long as it hires one refugee for every third store, it should hit its target. It's also worth noting that Starbucks does not report how many employees it has (since some work for franchisees and not company-owned stores) but the number came in at 238,000, according to to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/companies/starbucks/" type="external">Forbes Opens a New Window.</a> as of May 2016. That would mean this move -- while politically significant -- represents only a little over 4% of its current global workforce.</p> <p>For Starbucks, it's not really about numbers, it's about drawing a line in the sand. The company has always been socially conscious -- efforts Schultz plans to continue to lead after handing over the CEO job to COO Kevin Johnson later this year -- and making this announcement shows that the chain has decided to double down on that stand even if it might cause it some short-term harm (or put it at odds with the American president).</p> <p>It's a bold political move that will win the company fans from people who oppose the president's actions while losing it some business from those who don't. It's hard to know if that will be a net positive or a net negative.</p> <p>The company has thrived despite sometimes finding itself at odds with right-leaning customers (like its various Christmas cup "scandals" over the years). It's likely that making this decision will ultimately help a lot of refugees and their families while tightening the chain's relationship with its core customers who respect its values. It's a political risk, but it's the type of move the chain has made throughout its history without suffering long-term ill effects.</p> <p>Find out why Starbucks is one of the 10 best stocks to buy now</p> <p>Motley Fool co-founders Tom and David Gardner have spent more than a decade beating the market. (In fact, the newsletter they run, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market!*)</p> <p>Tom and David just revealed their ten top stock picks for investors to buy right now. Starbucks <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0000450%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6313%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch&amp;amp;impression=ae38a1e8-523e-45a9-bec5-88d32fff2de6&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">is on the list Opens a New Window.</a> -- but there are nine others you may be overlooking.</p> <p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0000450%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6313%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch&amp;amp;impression=ae38a1e8-523e-45a9-bec5-88d32fff2de6&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here to get access to the full list! Opens a New Window.</a></p> <p>*Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017</p> <p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Dankline/info.aspx" type="external">Daniel Kline Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Starbucks. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>

What Could Hiring 10,000 Refugees Mean for Starbucks?

http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/31/what-could-hiring-10000-refugees-mean-for-starbucks.html

2017-01-31

0right

What Could Hiring 10,000 Refugees Mean for Starbucks? <p /> <p>Since Donald Trump became president, a number of CEOs have stepped into the spotlight to speak against (or in favor of) his policies. Having a political opinion can both help and hurt a brand. Those who agree with a company's opinion might shop there more, while people who feel the other way will vote with their wallets as well.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) and its CEO, Howard Schultz, has never been a brand to stay on the sidelines. That makes its not at all surprising that the global coffee giant has taken an aggressive stand against Trump's efforts to ban people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States, including refugees fleeing wars.</p> <p>In the immediate aftermath of the Trump administration's efforts, Schultz sent a <a href="https://news.starbucks.com/news/living-our-values-in-uncertain-times" type="external">letter Opens a New Window.</a> to his employees laying out what the company plans to do and saying he hears "the alarm you all are sounding that the civility and human rights we have all taken for granted for so long are under attack."</p> <p>The company's efforts include working to support the company's employees in or from affected countries. Most notably, Schultz took a direct shot at the president, pledging to hire 10,000 refugees at its stores around the world and in the United States over five years.</p> <p>Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz says his company plans to hire 10,000 refugees over five years. Image source: Starbucks.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>"We have a long history of hiring young people looking for opportunities and a pathway to a new life around the world," wrote Schultz. "This is why we are doubling down on this commitment by working with our equity market employees as well as joint venture and licensed market partners in a concerted effort to welcome and seek opportunities for those fleeing war, violence, persecution and discrimination."</p> <p>The CEO noted that there are more than 65 million "citizens of the world" recognized as refugees by the United Nations, and said that Starbucks plans to hire 10,000 of them over five years in the 75 countries where the chain does business. Schultz said those efforts will start in the U.S., where the company will focus on hiring "those individuals who have served with U.S. troops as interpreters and support personnel in the various countries where our military has asked for such support."</p> <p>This is not the first time the company has targeted a specific group to fill jobs. The chain has hired 8,000 veterans and military spouses -- nearing its stated goal of hiring 10,000 by 2018. It has also worked with Opportunity Youth to hire "10,000 young men and women who are not in school and not employed," according to the company's 2016 annual shareholder's letter.</p> <p>Starbucks closed 2016 with 25,734 stores and plans to add 2,100 more in 2017. Given the company's aggressive plans to expand in China as well as its stated goal of opening 1,000 Reserve stores, it's reasonable to expect it to open around 10,000 (or more) stores over the five-year period it has pledged to hire 10,0000 refugees.</p> <p>Even if that number comes in lower -- at, say, 8,000 new locations over five years -- that would give the company 33,734 locations across the world. As long as it hires one refugee for every third store, it should hit its target. It's also worth noting that Starbucks does not report how many employees it has (since some work for franchisees and not company-owned stores) but the number came in at 238,000, according to to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/companies/starbucks/" type="external">Forbes Opens a New Window.</a> as of May 2016. That would mean this move -- while politically significant -- represents only a little over 4% of its current global workforce.</p> <p>For Starbucks, it's not really about numbers, it's about drawing a line in the sand. The company has always been socially conscious -- efforts Schultz plans to continue to lead after handing over the CEO job to COO Kevin Johnson later this year -- and making this announcement shows that the chain has decided to double down on that stand even if it might cause it some short-term harm (or put it at odds with the American president).</p> <p>It's a bold political move that will win the company fans from people who oppose the president's actions while losing it some business from those who don't. It's hard to know if that will be a net positive or a net negative.</p> <p>The company has thrived despite sometimes finding itself at odds with right-leaning customers (like its various Christmas cup "scandals" over the years). It's likely that making this decision will ultimately help a lot of refugees and their families while tightening the chain's relationship with its core customers who respect its values. It's a political risk, but it's the type of move the chain has made throughout its history without suffering long-term ill effects.</p> <p>Find out why Starbucks is one of the 10 best stocks to buy now</p> <p>Motley Fool co-founders Tom and David Gardner have spent more than a decade beating the market. (In fact, the newsletter they run, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market!*)</p> <p>Tom and David just revealed their ten top stock picks for investors to buy right now. Starbucks <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0000450%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6313%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch&amp;amp;impression=ae38a1e8-523e-45a9-bec5-88d32fff2de6&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">is on the list Opens a New Window.</a> -- but there are nine others you may be overlooking.</p> <p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0000450%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6313%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch&amp;amp;impression=ae38a1e8-523e-45a9-bec5-88d32fff2de6&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here to get access to the full list! Opens a New Window.</a></p> <p>*Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017</p> <p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Dankline/info.aspx" type="external">Daniel Kline Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Starbucks. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>Albuquerque voters made history last week.</p> <p>Fewer people went to the polls than in any citywide election since 1974, when Albuquerque's modern form of government started, according to city records.</p> <p>The dismal turnout - just 8.2 percent of registered voters - has reignited debate over how to increase participation in New Mexico's municipal, school and similar nonpartisan elections.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>One idea is to consolidate the elections so voters aren't asked to head to the polls so often in between the larger, statewide elections every other year.</p> <p>By law, school elections cannot be held in conjunction with any other election - and attempts to change that have failed repeatedly.</p> <p>Mayor Richard Berry said a broader civic movement is needed, though consolidated elections would help.</p> <p>"The best way to solve this is for folks just to go vote," Berry, a Republican, said Friday. "People have fought and died for centuries to give us this right."</p> <p>State Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, said a multi-pronged approach is necessary. The Legislature should consider allowing people to register to vote on the day of the election, registering people automatically and reducing the frequency of elections, he said.</p> <p>Furthermore, Martinez said, candidates and elected leaders need to consider their own conduct.</p> <p>"We have to inspire and motivate people to get out and vote," he said. "The reality is, as political discourse sinks to the levels it has in the past with negative campaigning, I think it keeps people from coming out. That's on us as candidates and politicians."</p> <p>Not just here</p> <p>Timothy Krebs, a University of New Mexico professor who specializes in urban politics, said turnout in local elections is on the decline nationwide, matching the trend in Albuquerque.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>The lack of competitive races - only two City Council seats were contested, and neither was close - is one factor in the low turnout last week, he said.</p> <p>The mayor wasn't on the ballot. Under the city system, the mayor and five council seats go on the ballot in one election, and two years later, four council seats go before voters.</p> <p>There's some evidence that partisan elections boost turnout, though that's been less clear in recent studies, Krebs said. In any case, it wouldn't hurt participation, he said.</p> <p>In Albuquerque, the ballot doesn't include candidates' party affiliation.</p> <p>"Election timing, whether the ballot is partisan and having everyone run at the same time (councilors and mayor) might improve the situation," Krebs said, "and these things can be legislated, although it would be tremendously difficult."</p> <p>On the other hand, he said, "competition is affected by many factors, that, for the most part, can't be legislated - money, the emergence of strong candidates, voter and group involvement" and similar factors.</p> <p>The public financing system for campaigns, meanwhile, probably doesn't provide enough money for mayoral candidates who want to challenge an incumbent, he said.</p> <p>No easy fix</p> <p>Amy Bailey, attorney for the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office, which oversees elections, said consolidating school and city elections, even if allowed by law, isn't necessarily an easy fix. It would require legislation by local agencies, too, to coordinate on election dates, ballot styles and other matters, she said.</p> <p>"It wouldn't just be a state-level issue," she said. "It would cause issues on so many different levels."</p> <p>Modern advertising and marketing strategies might yield better results, she said.</p> <p>Bailey, a former city clerk, used to run city elections in Albuquerque.</p> <p>Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who runs the statewide elections held in Albuquerque, said the timing of school and city elections - neither of which is in November, the traditional election month - may depress turnout.</p> <p>Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, suggested that the school district, city, flood-control authority and irrigation district - all nonpartisan agencies - could put their questions to voters all at once.</p> <p>Just this year, for example, APS held an election in February, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District had one in June and Albuquerque had its election last week.</p> <p>The Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority, meanwhile, runs its elections to coincide with the general-election ballot in even-numbered years.</p> <p>But there's no good reason all four elections must be held separately, Toulouse Oliver said.</p> <p>"We built the nuclear bomb here in New Mexico," she said. "We should be able to figure out how to create a global voter registration database for that kind of election."</p> <p>Don Duran, president of the Albuquerque Board of Education, said he's open to ideas, including consolidation. He said he was speaking on his own behalf, not necessarily the board's.</p> <p>"Personally, I'm willing to try anything to boost participation," he said. Winning a low-turnout election is "hardly a ringing endorsement for any candidate."</p> <p /> <p />

Worst voter turnout for ABQ since 1974

https://abqjournal.com/658497/officials-want-to-increase-voter-turnout.html

2015-10-12

2least

Worst voter turnout for ABQ since 1974 <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>Albuquerque voters made history last week.</p> <p>Fewer people went to the polls than in any citywide election since 1974, when Albuquerque's modern form of government started, according to city records.</p> <p>The dismal turnout - just 8.2 percent of registered voters - has reignited debate over how to increase participation in New Mexico's municipal, school and similar nonpartisan elections.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>One idea is to consolidate the elections so voters aren't asked to head to the polls so often in between the larger, statewide elections every other year.</p> <p>By law, school elections cannot be held in conjunction with any other election - and attempts to change that have failed repeatedly.</p> <p>Mayor Richard Berry said a broader civic movement is needed, though consolidated elections would help.</p> <p>"The best way to solve this is for folks just to go vote," Berry, a Republican, said Friday. "People have fought and died for centuries to give us this right."</p> <p>State Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, said a multi-pronged approach is necessary. The Legislature should consider allowing people to register to vote on the day of the election, registering people automatically and reducing the frequency of elections, he said.</p> <p>Furthermore, Martinez said, candidates and elected leaders need to consider their own conduct.</p> <p>"We have to inspire and motivate people to get out and vote," he said. "The reality is, as political discourse sinks to the levels it has in the past with negative campaigning, I think it keeps people from coming out. That's on us as candidates and politicians."</p> <p>Not just here</p> <p>Timothy Krebs, a University of New Mexico professor who specializes in urban politics, said turnout in local elections is on the decline nationwide, matching the trend in Albuquerque.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>The lack of competitive races - only two City Council seats were contested, and neither was close - is one factor in the low turnout last week, he said.</p> <p>The mayor wasn't on the ballot. Under the city system, the mayor and five council seats go on the ballot in one election, and two years later, four council seats go before voters.</p> <p>There's some evidence that partisan elections boost turnout, though that's been less clear in recent studies, Krebs said. In any case, it wouldn't hurt participation, he said.</p> <p>In Albuquerque, the ballot doesn't include candidates' party affiliation.</p> <p>"Election timing, whether the ballot is partisan and having everyone run at the same time (councilors and mayor) might improve the situation," Krebs said, "and these things can be legislated, although it would be tremendously difficult."</p> <p>On the other hand, he said, "competition is affected by many factors, that, for the most part, can't be legislated - money, the emergence of strong candidates, voter and group involvement" and similar factors.</p> <p>The public financing system for campaigns, meanwhile, probably doesn't provide enough money for mayoral candidates who want to challenge an incumbent, he said.</p> <p>No easy fix</p> <p>Amy Bailey, attorney for the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office, which oversees elections, said consolidating school and city elections, even if allowed by law, isn't necessarily an easy fix. It would require legislation by local agencies, too, to coordinate on election dates, ballot styles and other matters, she said.</p> <p>"It wouldn't just be a state-level issue," she said. "It would cause issues on so many different levels."</p> <p>Modern advertising and marketing strategies might yield better results, she said.</p> <p>Bailey, a former city clerk, used to run city elections in Albuquerque.</p> <p>Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who runs the statewide elections held in Albuquerque, said the timing of school and city elections - neither of which is in November, the traditional election month - may depress turnout.</p> <p>Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, suggested that the school district, city, flood-control authority and irrigation district - all nonpartisan agencies - could put their questions to voters all at once.</p> <p>Just this year, for example, APS held an election in February, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District had one in June and Albuquerque had its election last week.</p> <p>The Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority, meanwhile, runs its elections to coincide with the general-election ballot in even-numbered years.</p> <p>But there's no good reason all four elections must be held separately, Toulouse Oliver said.</p> <p>"We built the nuclear bomb here in New Mexico," she said. "We should be able to figure out how to create a global voter registration database for that kind of election."</p> <p>Don Duran, president of the Albuquerque Board of Education, said he's open to ideas, including consolidation. He said he was speaking on his own behalf, not necessarily the board's.</p> <p>"Personally, I'm willing to try anything to boost participation," he said. Winning a low-turnout election is "hardly a ringing endorsement for any candidate."</p> <p /> <p />

<p>Nieman Foundation Twelve U.S. journalists have been selected for the 68th class of Nieman Fellows. They are: * Chris Cobler, editor, Greeley (Colo.) Tribune * Mary C. Curtis, executive features editor/columnist, Charlotte Observer * Dexter Filkins, Baghdad correspondent, New York Times * Cathy Grimes, education reporter, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin * David Heath, investigative reporter, Seattle Times * Margaret Kriz, energy and environment reporter, National Journal * Jacob Levenson, freelance reporter * Jon Palfreman, independent documentary film producer * Nancy San Martin, world reporter, Miami Herald * Charles Sennott, London bureau chief, Boston Globe* Jeb Sharp, reporter/correspondent, PRI's "The World" * Brent Walth, senior reporter, The Oregonian</p>

Nieman Foundation announces U.S. fellows for '05-'06

https://poynter.org/news/nieman-foundation-announces-us-fellows-05-06

2005-05-18

2least

Nieman Foundation announces U.S. fellows for '05-'06 <p>Nieman Foundation Twelve U.S. journalists have been selected for the 68th class of Nieman Fellows. They are: * Chris Cobler, editor, Greeley (Colo.) Tribune * Mary C. Curtis, executive features editor/columnist, Charlotte Observer * Dexter Filkins, Baghdad correspondent, New York Times * Cathy Grimes, education reporter, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin * David Heath, investigative reporter, Seattle Times * Margaret Kriz, energy and environment reporter, National Journal * Jacob Levenson, freelance reporter * Jon Palfreman, independent documentary film producer * Nancy San Martin, world reporter, Miami Herald * Charles Sennott, London bureau chief, Boston Globe* Jeb Sharp, reporter/correspondent, PRI's "The World" * Brent Walth, senior reporter, The Oregonian</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p>WASHINGTON &#8212; Republicans from energy-producing states are under pressure as the Senate weighs whether to overturn an Obama-era regulation to restrict harmful methane emissions escaping from oil and gas wells on public land.</p> <p>A coalition of groups with ties to the fossil-fuel industry and the conservative Koch Brothers have waged a public campaign to overturn the Interior Department rule but have so far fallen short.</p> <p>Senate Republican leaders say they are close to getting the 51 votes needed to overturn the rule under the Congressional Review Act. A vote is scheduled Wednesday even as key GOP senators remain publicly undecided.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Two Republican senators &#8212; South Carolina&#8217;s Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins of Maine &#8212; have said they will oppose the repeal effort, while Republican Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Dean Heller of Nevada have not declared how they will vote.</p> <p>Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said late Monday he will support the repeal effort after weeks of public silence, saying he got assurances from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke that he will take steps to reduce methane waste.</p> <p>Despite Portman&#8217;s announcement, some environmental groups are optimistic they can score an unlikely victory by preserving the Obama-era rule under a Republican-controlled Congress and White House.</p> <p>&#8220;This was a longshot,&#8221; said Mark Brownstein, vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund. &#8220;Is there any bigger or badder opponent than the oil and gas industry?&#8221;</p> <p>The methane issue &#8220;has captured the attention of local communities, and the reason is they are seeing the impact on their houses, their water and in some cases they are literally smelling it,&#8221; Brownstein said. &#8220;When you have local groups getting engaged and speaking out &#8230; it&#8217;s incredibly hard for any elected representative to ignore that.&#8221;</p> <p>President Barack Obama finalized a rule in November that seeks to reduce waste and harmful methane emissions as part of a strategy to address climate change.</p> <p>Energy companies frequently &#8220;flare&#8221; or burn off vast supplies of methane &#8212; the primary component of natural gas &#8212; at drilling sites because it earns less money than oil. An estimated $330 million a year in natural gas is wasted through leaks or intentional releases &#8212; enough to power about 5 million homes a year.</p> <p>Gas flaring is so prevalent in oil-rich North Dakota that night-time flaring activity on drilling sites is visible in NASA photos from space.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Robert Dillon, a spokesman for the American Council for Capital Formation, a business-aligned group that promotes lower regulations and taxes, said he is confident the methane rule will be overturned. The Republican-controlled House voted in February to reject the rule, and President Donald Trump is expected to sign the measure if it lands on his desk.</p> <p>While acknowledging that the Senate vote has taken longer than expected, &#8220;nearly all Republicans are now expected to support repeal of the methane rule,&#8221; Dillon said.</p> <p>Democrats and environmental groups hailed the Obama rule as a way to protect the public health and generate tens of millions of dollars in revenues for state, local and tribal governments.</p> <p>Republicans and industry groups call the rule another example of federal overreach under Obama and say it duplicates state rules in place throughout the West. Methane emissions fell by 13 percent from 2011 to 2014 even as production boomed, according to government data.</p> <p>&#8220;The oil and gas sector has been so successful in reducing methane emissions from venting and flaring, in part, because methane itself is a valuable resource that producers capture and sell,&#8221; a coalition of industry groups said in a letter to senators.</p> <p>The groups include the American Energy Alliance and Americans for Prosperity, part of a conservative network backed by billionaires Charles and David Koch.</p> <p>The Obama rule will decrease energy production on federal lands, leading to lower revenues from royalties and higher energy costs and lost jobs, the coalition said.</p> <p>Both sides of the debate have targeted Gardner, a first-term senator who heads the Republican Senate campaign committee. The federal rule is based on a Colorado regulation widely popular in the state. A recent poll showed 83 percent of Colorado residents support requiring energy companies to prevent leaks of methane gas.</p> <p>Don Schreiber, a New Mexico rancher whose family owns a farm in southern Colorado, said it would be &#8220;morally outrageous&#8221; for Gardner and other senators to overturn the methane rule, citing a huge methane plume that hovers over the Four Corners region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.</p> <p>The plume threatens tourism and the health of local residents, Schreiber and Gwen Lachelt, a commissioner in La Plata County, Colo., said at a Capitol news conference Tuesday.</p> <p>&#8220;My constituents deserve protection,&#8221; Lachelt said, calling the methane plume &#8220;a very grave&#8221; threat.</p> <p>Gardner declined to comment.</p> <p>Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said it would &#8220;be a huge step backwards to roll back&#8221; the methane rule. &#8220;We can keep our commitment to people or we can let polluters off the hook,&#8221; she said.</p> <p>___</p> <p>Reach Matthew Daly: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC</p>

Energy state Republicans under pressure on methane rule

https://abqjournal.com/1000694/gop-under-pressure-as-senate-weighs-vote-on-drilling-rule.html

2017-05-09

2least

Energy state Republicans under pressure on methane rule <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p>WASHINGTON &#8212; Republicans from energy-producing states are under pressure as the Senate weighs whether to overturn an Obama-era regulation to restrict harmful methane emissions escaping from oil and gas wells on public land.</p> <p>A coalition of groups with ties to the fossil-fuel industry and the conservative Koch Brothers have waged a public campaign to overturn the Interior Department rule but have so far fallen short.</p> <p>Senate Republican leaders say they are close to getting the 51 votes needed to overturn the rule under the Congressional Review Act. A vote is scheduled Wednesday even as key GOP senators remain publicly undecided.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Two Republican senators &#8212; South Carolina&#8217;s Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins of Maine &#8212; have said they will oppose the repeal effort, while Republican Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Dean Heller of Nevada have not declared how they will vote.</p> <p>Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said late Monday he will support the repeal effort after weeks of public silence, saying he got assurances from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke that he will take steps to reduce methane waste.</p> <p>Despite Portman&#8217;s announcement, some environmental groups are optimistic they can score an unlikely victory by preserving the Obama-era rule under a Republican-controlled Congress and White House.</p> <p>&#8220;This was a longshot,&#8221; said Mark Brownstein, vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund. &#8220;Is there any bigger or badder opponent than the oil and gas industry?&#8221;</p> <p>The methane issue &#8220;has captured the attention of local communities, and the reason is they are seeing the impact on their houses, their water and in some cases they are literally smelling it,&#8221; Brownstein said. &#8220;When you have local groups getting engaged and speaking out &#8230; it&#8217;s incredibly hard for any elected representative to ignore that.&#8221;</p> <p>President Barack Obama finalized a rule in November that seeks to reduce waste and harmful methane emissions as part of a strategy to address climate change.</p> <p>Energy companies frequently &#8220;flare&#8221; or burn off vast supplies of methane &#8212; the primary component of natural gas &#8212; at drilling sites because it earns less money than oil. An estimated $330 million a year in natural gas is wasted through leaks or intentional releases &#8212; enough to power about 5 million homes a year.</p> <p>Gas flaring is so prevalent in oil-rich North Dakota that night-time flaring activity on drilling sites is visible in NASA photos from space.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Robert Dillon, a spokesman for the American Council for Capital Formation, a business-aligned group that promotes lower regulations and taxes, said he is confident the methane rule will be overturned. The Republican-controlled House voted in February to reject the rule, and President Donald Trump is expected to sign the measure if it lands on his desk.</p> <p>While acknowledging that the Senate vote has taken longer than expected, &#8220;nearly all Republicans are now expected to support repeal of the methane rule,&#8221; Dillon said.</p> <p>Democrats and environmental groups hailed the Obama rule as a way to protect the public health and generate tens of millions of dollars in revenues for state, local and tribal governments.</p> <p>Republicans and industry groups call the rule another example of federal overreach under Obama and say it duplicates state rules in place throughout the West. Methane emissions fell by 13 percent from 2011 to 2014 even as production boomed, according to government data.</p> <p>&#8220;The oil and gas sector has been so successful in reducing methane emissions from venting and flaring, in part, because methane itself is a valuable resource that producers capture and sell,&#8221; a coalition of industry groups said in a letter to senators.</p> <p>The groups include the American Energy Alliance and Americans for Prosperity, part of a conservative network backed by billionaires Charles and David Koch.</p> <p>The Obama rule will decrease energy production on federal lands, leading to lower revenues from royalties and higher energy costs and lost jobs, the coalition said.</p> <p>Both sides of the debate have targeted Gardner, a first-term senator who heads the Republican Senate campaign committee. The federal rule is based on a Colorado regulation widely popular in the state. A recent poll showed 83 percent of Colorado residents support requiring energy companies to prevent leaks of methane gas.</p> <p>Don Schreiber, a New Mexico rancher whose family owns a farm in southern Colorado, said it would be &#8220;morally outrageous&#8221; for Gardner and other senators to overturn the methane rule, citing a huge methane plume that hovers over the Four Corners region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.</p> <p>The plume threatens tourism and the health of local residents, Schreiber and Gwen Lachelt, a commissioner in La Plata County, Colo., said at a Capitol news conference Tuesday.</p> <p>&#8220;My constituents deserve protection,&#8221; Lachelt said, calling the methane plume &#8220;a very grave&#8221; threat.</p> <p>Gardner declined to comment.</p> <p>Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said it would &#8220;be a huge step backwards to roll back&#8221; the methane rule. &#8220;We can keep our commitment to people or we can let polluters off the hook,&#8221; she said.</p> <p>___</p> <p>Reach Matthew Daly: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC</p>

<p>The White House press corps complained on Wednesday that they have been given very little information and access on the crisis in Egypt from the administration. In a letter from the White House Correspondents Association to Robert Gibbs they said that the administration hasn&#8217;t been very forthcoming recently on this issue:</p> <p>Prior to the president&#8217;s statement Tuesday night, the press corps had not received a substantive update from the White House all day on the situation in Egypt. In addition, the press corps did not have an on-camera briefing, or an off-camera gaggle, with you yesterday to ask the White House about its decision-making process during this major foreign policy crisis. Now for two straight days, the full press pool is being shut out of events that typically have been open and provided opportunities try to ask the president a question.</p> <p>The letter also took issue with the lack of access for Obama&#8217;s signing of the new START Treaty:</p> <p>On behalf of the White House Correspondents Association we are writing to protest in the strongest possible terms the White House&#8217;s decision to close the president&#8217;s Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and his signing of the START Treaty today to the full press pool.</p> <p>The START treaty was held up as one of the president&#8217;s most important foreign policy priorities for almost a year dating back to the trip to Prague last spring. We are concerned that now his signing of it is open to still photographers but closed to editorial, including print and wire reporters and television cameras.</p> <p>In response Gibbs told reporters on Wednesday that the situation was &#8220;fluid and dynamic&#8221; making updates difficult and promised to update them as best as he could but said some things need to be &#8220;done away from the TV cameras.&#8221;</p> <p>In other words Obama was planning to throw Mubarak under the bus and allow the destabilization of the region but didn&#8217;t want the press to know in advance.</p> <p>As for the START Treaty squabble, Gibbs said it was due to his fear that reporters would shout questions about Egypt to Obama disrupting the event.</p> <p>Even though I am not a fan of the press in general, I do think they understand that a treaty signing is more about pomp and circumstance rather than a press conference.&amp;#160; Furthermore, Gibbs wouldn&#8217;t have to fear reporters shouting questions if he had just given them information in advance.</p> <p>After being in office for two years one would think the administration would know how to handle a foreign policy crisis and the press.</p> <p>h/t <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/141745-white-house-reporters-complain-obama-is-shutting-them-out-on-egypt" type="external">The Hill</a></p> <p />

White House Shuts the Press Out on Egypt, START

http://aim.org/don-irvine-blog/white-house-shuts-the-press-out-on-egypt/

2011-02-03

0right

White House Shuts the Press Out on Egypt, START <p>The White House press corps complained on Wednesday that they have been given very little information and access on the crisis in Egypt from the administration. In a letter from the White House Correspondents Association to Robert Gibbs they said that the administration hasn&#8217;t been very forthcoming recently on this issue:</p> <p>Prior to the president&#8217;s statement Tuesday night, the press corps had not received a substantive update from the White House all day on the situation in Egypt. In addition, the press corps did not have an on-camera briefing, or an off-camera gaggle, with you yesterday to ask the White House about its decision-making process during this major foreign policy crisis. Now for two straight days, the full press pool is being shut out of events that typically have been open and provided opportunities try to ask the president a question.</p> <p>The letter also took issue with the lack of access for Obama&#8217;s signing of the new START Treaty:</p> <p>On behalf of the White House Correspondents Association we are writing to protest in the strongest possible terms the White House&#8217;s decision to close the president&#8217;s Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and his signing of the START Treaty today to the full press pool.</p> <p>The START treaty was held up as one of the president&#8217;s most important foreign policy priorities for almost a year dating back to the trip to Prague last spring. We are concerned that now his signing of it is open to still photographers but closed to editorial, including print and wire reporters and television cameras.</p> <p>In response Gibbs told reporters on Wednesday that the situation was &#8220;fluid and dynamic&#8221; making updates difficult and promised to update them as best as he could but said some things need to be &#8220;done away from the TV cameras.&#8221;</p> <p>In other words Obama was planning to throw Mubarak under the bus and allow the destabilization of the region but didn&#8217;t want the press to know in advance.</p> <p>As for the START Treaty squabble, Gibbs said it was due to his fear that reporters would shout questions about Egypt to Obama disrupting the event.</p> <p>Even though I am not a fan of the press in general, I do think they understand that a treaty signing is more about pomp and circumstance rather than a press conference.&amp;#160; Furthermore, Gibbs wouldn&#8217;t have to fear reporters shouting questions if he had just given them information in advance.</p> <p>After being in office for two years one would think the administration would know how to handle a foreign policy crisis and the press.</p> <p>h/t <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/141745-white-house-reporters-complain-obama-is-shutting-them-out-on-egypt" type="external">The Hill</a></p> <p />

<p>OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) &#8211; Burkina Faso&#8217;s foreign minister said on Monday it had recalled its ambassador to Libya over a report that black African migrants were being auctioned as slaves there.</p> <p>The decision by the West African nation followed the broadcast by CNN of footage of what it said was an auction of men offered to Libyan buyers as farmhands and sold for $400, a chilling echo of the trans-Saharan slave trade of centuries past.</p> <p>Foreign Minister Alpha Barry announced the decision by President Roch Marc Kabore in a news conference.</p> <p>&#8220;The president of Burkina Faso has decided to recall the ambassador to Tripoli, General Abraham Traore, for a consultation,&#8221; Barry said.</p> <p>He added that he had also &#8220;summoned the Libyan charge d&#8217;affairs in (Burkina Faso&#8217;s capital) Ouagadougou to express our indignation at these images that belong to other centuries, images of the slave trade&#8221;.</p> <p>African and European leaders are due to meet in Ivory Coast&#8217;s main city of Abidjan next week, where migration and Europe&#8217;s efforts to tackle it by co-opting Libya will be high on the agenda.</p> <p>The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra&#8217;ad al-Hussein said last month that a European and African deal to stem the flow of migrants coming through Libya to Europe had failed to tackle the severe abuses they face.</p> <p /> <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>

Burkina Faso recalls ambassador to Libya over &quot;slave markets&quot; report

https://newsline.com/burkina-faso-recalls-ambassador-to-libya-over-quotslave-marketsquot-report/

2017-11-20

1right-center

Burkina Faso recalls ambassador to Libya over &quot;slave markets&quot; report <p>OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) &#8211; Burkina Faso&#8217;s foreign minister said on Monday it had recalled its ambassador to Libya over a report that black African migrants were being auctioned as slaves there.</p> <p>The decision by the West African nation followed the broadcast by CNN of footage of what it said was an auction of men offered to Libyan buyers as farmhands and sold for $400, a chilling echo of the trans-Saharan slave trade of centuries past.</p> <p>Foreign Minister Alpha Barry announced the decision by President Roch Marc Kabore in a news conference.</p> <p>&#8220;The president of Burkina Faso has decided to recall the ambassador to Tripoli, General Abraham Traore, for a consultation,&#8221; Barry said.</p> <p>He added that he had also &#8220;summoned the Libyan charge d&#8217;affairs in (Burkina Faso&#8217;s capital) Ouagadougou to express our indignation at these images that belong to other centuries, images of the slave trade&#8221;.</p> <p>African and European leaders are due to meet in Ivory Coast&#8217;s main city of Abidjan next week, where migration and Europe&#8217;s efforts to tackle it by co-opting Libya will be high on the agenda.</p> <p>The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra&#8217;ad al-Hussein said last month that a European and African deal to stem the flow of migrants coming through Libya to Europe had failed to tackle the severe abuses they face.</p> <p /> <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>

<p /> <p>This popular crustacean is coming to McDonald's in the Northeast. Image source: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/beckendorf/" type="external">Jan Beckendorf, Opens a New Window.</a>Flickr.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>Think McDonald's and you most likely picture two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun, not pieces of North Atlantic lobster.</p> <p>In fact, the idea of ordering lobster at McDonald's sounds a bit like getting gas station sushi, or purchasing your champagne at 7-11. Despite the seeming incongruity, the fast-food chain brought back its lobster roll for the first time in a decade last summer and is returning it to its menu in 600 locations throughout New England and the Albany, New York, area starting June 20.</p> <p>At $8.99 the lobster roll instantly becomes the most expensive item on the chain's menu by a few dollars, but people were willing to pay for it last summer, according to chef Michael Haracz, manager of culinary innovation at McDonald's USA.</p> <p>"It's exciting to see a high demand for regional flavors at McDonald's," he said in a <a href="http://news.mcdonalds.com/press-releases/mcdonald-s-restaurants-on-the-east-coast-celebrate-the-much-anticipated-lobster--1264921" type="external">press release Opens a New Window.</a>. "Our Lobster Roll is made with quality ingredients, freshly prepared in our kitchens and exactly what our customers enjoy from McDonald's. This sandwich is the perfect blend of ingredients to give you a great-tasting summer sandwich from McDonald's."</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>Since McDonald's has actually addressed whether its hamburgers are made of <a href="http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/your_questions/our_food/what-kind-of-beef-do-you-use-in-your-burgers.html" type="external">beef Opens a New Window.</a> and its McNuggets are made of <a href="http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/your_questions/our_food/chicken-and-fish.html" type="external">chicken Opens a New Window.</a>, it's reasonable to ask what actually goes into the lobster roll. The company says the sandwich contains 100% North Atlantic lobster meat, which is tossed with mayonnaise in a stainless steel bowl, layered on leaf and shredded lettuce then served chilled on a home-style toasted roll.</p> <p>"The lobster we supply to McDonald's is a hand-picked, artisan quality product, caught by seasoned veterans of the industry," said Stephen Felsenthal of Mazzetta Company, LLC, one of McDonald's regional lobster suppliers. "This is the same quality lobster served at white tablecloth restaurants on the East Coast."</p> <p>Reviews of the McDonald's lobster roll have been mixed.</p> <p>"The limp bun holds a bizarrely large amount of lettuce, both shredded and whole-leaf, neither of which is anything more than filler," <a href="http://www.eater.com/forums/maine/2015/7/14/8955991/i-tried-the-mcdonalds-lobster-roll-because-you-shouldnt" type="external">Eater Opens a New Window.</a> food blogger Adam Callagan wrote when it was released last year. "There's plenty of mayo, liberally mashed in with globs of shredded lobster meat in some awful sort of seafood salad."</p> <p>Callagan finished his review noting, "If you didn't see what you were eating, I don't think you'd guess, and I doubt you'd continue."</p> <p>That opinion echoed what many reviewers said about the sandwich, but there were some positive reviews.</p> <p>"It was a pretty good lobster roll," wrote <a href="http://www.suziethefoodie.com/" type="external">Suzie the Foodie Opens a New Window.</a> last summer. "I have had better and I have had much worse when I lived on the East Coast."</p> <p>While McDonald's may be the most surprising chain to offer the high-end shellfish, D'Angelo Grilled Sandwiches also offers a <a href="http://www.dangelos.com/" type="external">lobster sandwic Opens a New Window.</a>h made with "100% real lobster" whilePanera has had one in the past (though it has not brought the seasonal item back this year).</p> <p>In 2015, the <a href="http://www.courant.com/features/food/hc-fast-food-lobster-taste-test-0710-20150709-story.html" type="external">Hartford Courant Opens a New Window.</a>reviewed all three and found Panera's the best, though it also noted that it's also the priciest. "Panera's seasonal lobster roll is the most gourmet of the quick-service options, but it comes at a price you're in for over $20 with tax and a drink," wroteThe Courant'sLeanne Griffin. "But that gets you a rather sizable sandwich, loaded with six ounces of sweet meat dressed lightly in a pleasant lemon-tarragon mayonnaise."</p> <p>Griffin was also charitable toward the McDonald's product calling it "a fine, quick summer treat if you can't get to the shore." That's not a rave review, but it's not a pan either.</p> <p>Seasonal and regional items have done well for McDonald's. In this case the chain not only gets a higher-priced item, which the company called a "hit" last summer in its press release, it also gets people talking. Lobster may be a more logical fit on the somewhat more upscale Panera menu, but people do appear to be buying it and it's certainly attention-getting.</p> <p>A McDonald's lobster roll may seem as silly as Kmart opening open store-within-a store Lexus dealerships, but somehow it works.</p> <p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/20/mcdonalds-brings-back-its-lobster-roll.aspx" type="external">McDonald's Brings Back Its Lobster Roll Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p> <p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Dankline/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Daniel Kline Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. He believes lobster should not be served with mayonnaise. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Panera Bread. 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>

McDonald's Brings Back Its Lobster Roll

http://foxbusiness.com/investing/2016/06/20/mcdonald-brings-back-its-lobster-roll.html

2016-06-20

0right

McDonald's Brings Back Its Lobster Roll <p /> <p>This popular crustacean is coming to McDonald's in the Northeast. Image source: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/beckendorf/" type="external">Jan Beckendorf, Opens a New Window.</a>Flickr.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>Think McDonald's and you most likely picture two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun, not pieces of North Atlantic lobster.</p> <p>In fact, the idea of ordering lobster at McDonald's sounds a bit like getting gas station sushi, or purchasing your champagne at 7-11. Despite the seeming incongruity, the fast-food chain brought back its lobster roll for the first time in a decade last summer and is returning it to its menu in 600 locations throughout New England and the Albany, New York, area starting June 20.</p> <p>At $8.99 the lobster roll instantly becomes the most expensive item on the chain's menu by a few dollars, but people were willing to pay for it last summer, according to chef Michael Haracz, manager of culinary innovation at McDonald's USA.</p> <p>"It's exciting to see a high demand for regional flavors at McDonald's," he said in a <a href="http://news.mcdonalds.com/press-releases/mcdonald-s-restaurants-on-the-east-coast-celebrate-the-much-anticipated-lobster--1264921" type="external">press release Opens a New Window.</a>. "Our Lobster Roll is made with quality ingredients, freshly prepared in our kitchens and exactly what our customers enjoy from McDonald's. This sandwich is the perfect blend of ingredients to give you a great-tasting summer sandwich from McDonald's."</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>Since McDonald's has actually addressed whether its hamburgers are made of <a href="http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/your_questions/our_food/what-kind-of-beef-do-you-use-in-your-burgers.html" type="external">beef Opens a New Window.</a> and its McNuggets are made of <a href="http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/your_questions/our_food/chicken-and-fish.html" type="external">chicken Opens a New Window.</a>, it's reasonable to ask what actually goes into the lobster roll. The company says the sandwich contains 100% North Atlantic lobster meat, which is tossed with mayonnaise in a stainless steel bowl, layered on leaf and shredded lettuce then served chilled on a home-style toasted roll.</p> <p>"The lobster we supply to McDonald's is a hand-picked, artisan quality product, caught by seasoned veterans of the industry," said Stephen Felsenthal of Mazzetta Company, LLC, one of McDonald's regional lobster suppliers. "This is the same quality lobster served at white tablecloth restaurants on the East Coast."</p> <p>Reviews of the McDonald's lobster roll have been mixed.</p> <p>"The limp bun holds a bizarrely large amount of lettuce, both shredded and whole-leaf, neither of which is anything more than filler," <a href="http://www.eater.com/forums/maine/2015/7/14/8955991/i-tried-the-mcdonalds-lobster-roll-because-you-shouldnt" type="external">Eater Opens a New Window.</a> food blogger Adam Callagan wrote when it was released last year. "There's plenty of mayo, liberally mashed in with globs of shredded lobster meat in some awful sort of seafood salad."</p> <p>Callagan finished his review noting, "If you didn't see what you were eating, I don't think you'd guess, and I doubt you'd continue."</p> <p>That opinion echoed what many reviewers said about the sandwich, but there were some positive reviews.</p> <p>"It was a pretty good lobster roll," wrote <a href="http://www.suziethefoodie.com/" type="external">Suzie the Foodie Opens a New Window.</a> last summer. "I have had better and I have had much worse when I lived on the East Coast."</p> <p>While McDonald's may be the most surprising chain to offer the high-end shellfish, D'Angelo Grilled Sandwiches also offers a <a href="http://www.dangelos.com/" type="external">lobster sandwic Opens a New Window.</a>h made with "100% real lobster" whilePanera has had one in the past (though it has not brought the seasonal item back this year).</p> <p>In 2015, the <a href="http://www.courant.com/features/food/hc-fast-food-lobster-taste-test-0710-20150709-story.html" type="external">Hartford Courant Opens a New Window.</a>reviewed all three and found Panera's the best, though it also noted that it's also the priciest. "Panera's seasonal lobster roll is the most gourmet of the quick-service options, but it comes at a price you're in for over $20 with tax and a drink," wroteThe Courant'sLeanne Griffin. "But that gets you a rather sizable sandwich, loaded with six ounces of sweet meat dressed lightly in a pleasant lemon-tarragon mayonnaise."</p> <p>Griffin was also charitable toward the McDonald's product calling it "a fine, quick summer treat if you can't get to the shore." That's not a rave review, but it's not a pan either.</p> <p>Seasonal and regional items have done well for McDonald's. In this case the chain not only gets a higher-priced item, which the company called a "hit" last summer in its press release, it also gets people talking. Lobster may be a more logical fit on the somewhat more upscale Panera menu, but people do appear to be buying it and it's certainly attention-getting.</p> <p>A McDonald's lobster roll may seem as silly as Kmart opening open store-within-a store Lexus dealerships, but somehow it works.</p> <p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/20/mcdonalds-brings-back-its-lobster-roll.aspx" type="external">McDonald's Brings Back Its Lobster Roll Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p> <p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Dankline/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Daniel Kline Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. He believes lobster should not be served with mayonnaise. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Panera Bread. 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>

<p>This week, Amber Rose <a href="" type="internal">released a Funny Or&amp;#160;Die video</a>&amp;#160;in which&amp;#160;the ex of Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa is shown on an early morning &#8220;walk of shame.&#8221; Meant to elicit some chuckles and draw attention to the &#8220;Slut Walk&#8221; that the ex-stripper/model will be hosting in LA on October 13, the video has also received an array of criticisms. On New York&#8217;s Power 105.1FM morning show, &#8220;The Breakfast Club,&#8221; the&amp;#160;hosts discussed the video and upcoming event exposing the widespread ignorance of the general American public&amp;#160;towards female sexuality and rape.</p> <p>Angela Yee, the shows only female participant, attempted to highlight the purpose of Rose&#8217;s efforts saying, &#8220;Amber Rose is doing this Slut Walk and the whole point of it is against slut shaming.&#8221; Within moments, her two male co-hosts piped up with these responses: &#8220;So basically they want to be able to be sluts and hoes but they don&#8217;t want anybody to call them that&#8221; and &#8220;Sounds like they want to promote being sluts and hoes.&#8221;</p> <p>The exasperation in Angela&#8217;s voice was impossible to miss as she continued to try to educate the pair&amp;#160;about&amp;#160;importance of the event, which mobilizes supporters against rape, sexual injustice, victim-blaming and gender inequality. Most of her very valid insights were met with ignorance by her male cohorts, Charlamagne The God and DJ Envy, who managed to overpower the message of female empowerment by reinforcing the same old stereotypical tropes which Slut Walk attempts to dispel.</p> <p>The entire interaction provides a glimpse into the world of gender politics, revealing the tactics/arguments often employed by men to derail conversations about female empowerment and sexual equality. So, I&#8217;ve taken the time to respond to the most ignorant (and common) arguments put forth by both the show&#8217;s male hosts, its callers and some of the&amp;#160;commenters who left opinions on Amber Rose&#8217;s Funny&amp;#160;or Die PSA, in an attempt to get this conversation back on track.</p> <p>1. &#8220;You can&#8217;t empower certain things like slut and hoe behavior.&#8221;</p> <p>DJ Envy. Like, serious? What, precisely, is this then?</p> <p>In any case, to further my point, let&#8217;s remove the derogatory labels from this sentence and restate it to demonstrate the problem with the logic: &#8220;You can&#8217;t empower certain things like sexual autonomy or sexual freedom.&#8221;&amp;#160;So we shouldn&#8217;t empower a woman&#8217;s freedom to express her sexuality? I beg to differ. It seems that DJ Envy does also, considering the fact that he has empowered many strippers who freely parade their sexuality by making it rain his hard-earned cash &#8212; $20,000 of it allegedly? &#8212; on the stage where they perform.</p> <p>2. &#8220;So basically they want to be able to be sluts and hoes but they don&#8217;t want anybody to call them that.&#8221;</p> <p>The definition of the word slut reads: &#8220;a woman who has many casual sexual partners&#8221; or &#8220;a sexually promiscuous woman.&#8221; Though there is nothing inherently wrong with having many casual sex partners &#8212; hence the reason why we applaud men for participating in such behavior &#8212; there is no equivalent slur hurled at men who are promiscuous, revealing the underlying problem with the term: the word &#8220;slut&#8221; is sexist. It degrades a woman simply because she chooses to freely express her sexuality. Thus a woman does not want to be called a &#8220;slut&#8221; in the degrading, derogatory manner in which it&#8217;s typically used to diminish her value based on her right to sexual autonomy and freedom. That same woman , however, still may feel that she has the right to freely engage in any sexual acts she chooses, because she is an adult and what she decides to do with her pussy is her problem.</p> <p>3. &amp;#160;&#8220;You can&#8217;t have an actual slut [Amber Rose] hold a Slut Walk.&#8221;</p> <p>A woman who has been branded and labeled because of her style&amp;#160;of dress or participation in the sex industry and who has somehow managed to find success, is actually the perfect person to host a Slut Walk, because said branding represents the inequality which Slut Walks protest against.</p> <p>This is not at all the first time that Charlamagne The God has shown such disrespect to women.</p> <p>Here&#8217;s a recap of a recent&amp;#160;conversation Charlamagne The God&amp;#160;had with rapper&amp;#160;Master P <a href="http://madamenoire.com/507437/master-p-checks-charlemagne-for-disrespecting-women/" type="external">about respecting women</a>:</p> <p>Charlemagne: I always wondered, how did you set up promotion for your projects? Because it was a time that No Limit was dropping project every week. It was a No Limit product in stores every week. Except for Mercedes, we never saw that. And I always wanted to see that because she had a fat ass pussy.</p> <p>Master P: See there bruh, hold up&#8230; Don&#8217;t talk about Mercedes like that.</p> <p>Charlemagne: Oh, my bad. I didn&#8217;t know. Is she family or something?</p> <p>Master P: She ain&#8217;t family; but still though, with all my people man, you know how I am. But we good, man. You know what I&#8217;m saying&#8230;you know how we get down.</p> <p>Charlemagne: But how were you setting it up, promotion wise?</p> <p>Master P: Naw, let&#8217;s go back to this dog. Let&#8217;s respect. Because I&#8217;m not going to talk about your sister, your mom or nothing. That&#8217;s the first thing. I know you do your radio thing and I respect that; but at the same time, Mercedes is a&#8230;she a female.</p> <p>Charlemagne: You right. My bad. But she did look good on that cover though.</p> <p>Master P: She did look good. That&#8217;s your opinion&#8230;</p> <p>Master P: But like I said man, it&#8217;s about respect, Charlemagne. You know me and you go back.</p> <p>Charlemagne: Absolutely.</p> <p>Master P: When we talk about women&#8211; I don&#8217;t care I ain&#8217;t gon&#8217; disrespect no hookers or nothing. Cuz I don&#8217;t do that, I&#8217;m a man. And I don&#8217;t want nobody to disrespect no people that I know. You know what I&#8217;m saying.</p> <p>Charlemagne: Absolutely.</p> <p>When Master P has more respect for women than most men in society do, you know there&#8217;s a problem. And even after being schooled by Master P on not disrespecting or mislabeling women or referring to them in a derogatory manner, Charlamagne The God &#8212; like many men &#8212; still continues to do so, further proving the need for the movement in the first place.</p> <p>4. &#8220;Sounds like they want to promote being sluts and hoes.&#8221;</p> <p>A simple Google search of the term &#8220;Slut Walk&#8221; can enlighten any individual to the goals of the nationwide events and its participants. Chief among them: protest against victim-blaming in rape and sexual assault cases; call for an end to rape culture and sexual injustice; and end derogatory labeling. The words &#8220;sluts&#8221; and &#8220;hoes&#8221; falls right into the latter category.</p> <p>5. &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t want my daughter to go to one of these things.&#8221;</p> <p>You would not want you daughter to be surrounded by strong women who are rallying to reclaim their autonomy, freedom and sexuality while calling for an end to rape and sexual inequality? I can think of many more dangerous places for daughters &#8212; like college campuses where <a href="http://www.oneinfourusa.org/statistics.php" type="external">one in four college women report surviving rape or attempted rape</a>, at home with a partner, where <a href="http://www.safehorizon.org/page/domestic-violence-statistics--facts-52.html" type="external">one&amp;#160;in four women experience domestic violence in her life time</a>,&amp;#160;or in the military where 25 percent of women have been sexually assaulted and up to 80 percent have been sexually harassed. But it&#8217;s cool if you think a bunch of women&amp;#160;coming together for the sake of their own rights is your daughter&#8217;s number one threat.</p> <p>6. &#8220;Amber Rose is the face of Slut Walk, which is wrong because she&#8217;s a slut.&#8221;</p> <p>Now, I done already explained that calling a woman a slut, while diminishing&amp;#160;a movement against calling women derogatory names makes no damn sense, so I won&#8217;t reiterate that point. Instead, here&#8217;s a brief history lesson about Slut Walk: The movement launched in Toronto, Canada, in 2011 after a police constable said, &#8220;I&#8217;ve been told I&#8217;m not supposed to say this &#8211; however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.&#8221; The Slut Walk movement is a rallying cry for women that has gained steam all around the world. Rallies have been seen all over Europe, Asia, Latin America and of course the United States.</p> <p>So, no, Amber Rose is not the &#8220;face of&#8221; Slut Walk. She is merely an advocate who is participating in a movement that has existed for a few years now.</p> <p>8. &#8220;I think [Slut Walk] is a bunch of bull crap. It&#8217;s a terrible example for kids.&#8221; A terrible reality for children is one where women and girls are sexualized, objectified, labeled derogatory terms, victim-blamed and face constant inequality and violence. That reality is perpetuated by men who face no consequences for their &#8220;loose&#8221; sexual morals or behavior but continuously attempt to chastise or degrade women for participating in the same exact thing.</p> <p>This MTV2 video featuring Charlamagne and a friend at a strip club provides a keen example:</p> <p>The video perfectly demonstrates society&#8217;s male/female double standard. Man goes to strip club and pays for &#8220;adult entertainment&#8221; and he is a positive role model. The women providing the entertainment are &#8220;sluts&#8221; and &#8220;hoes.&#8221; If this is not inequality, then what is?</p>

Frisky Rant: Male Reactions To Amber Rose’s Support Of Slut Walk Prove Why The Movement Is So Necessary

http://thefrisky.com/2015-09-17/frisky-rant-male-reactions-to-amber-roses-support-of-slut-walk-prove-why-the-movement-is-so-necessary/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Damber-rose

2018-10-03

4left

Frisky Rant: Male Reactions To Amber Rose’s Support Of Slut Walk Prove Why The Movement Is So Necessary <p>This week, Amber Rose <a href="" type="internal">released a Funny Or&amp;#160;Die video</a>&amp;#160;in which&amp;#160;the ex of Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa is shown on an early morning &#8220;walk of shame.&#8221; Meant to elicit some chuckles and draw attention to the &#8220;Slut Walk&#8221; that the ex-stripper/model will be hosting in LA on October 13, the video has also received an array of criticisms. On New York&#8217;s Power 105.1FM morning show, &#8220;The Breakfast Club,&#8221; the&amp;#160;hosts discussed the video and upcoming event exposing the widespread ignorance of the general American public&amp;#160;towards female sexuality and rape.</p> <p>Angela Yee, the shows only female participant, attempted to highlight the purpose of Rose&#8217;s efforts saying, &#8220;Amber Rose is doing this Slut Walk and the whole point of it is against slut shaming.&#8221; Within moments, her two male co-hosts piped up with these responses: &#8220;So basically they want to be able to be sluts and hoes but they don&#8217;t want anybody to call them that&#8221; and &#8220;Sounds like they want to promote being sluts and hoes.&#8221;</p> <p>The exasperation in Angela&#8217;s voice was impossible to miss as she continued to try to educate the pair&amp;#160;about&amp;#160;importance of the event, which mobilizes supporters against rape, sexual injustice, victim-blaming and gender inequality. Most of her very valid insights were met with ignorance by her male cohorts, Charlamagne The God and DJ Envy, who managed to overpower the message of female empowerment by reinforcing the same old stereotypical tropes which Slut Walk attempts to dispel.</p> <p>The entire interaction provides a glimpse into the world of gender politics, revealing the tactics/arguments often employed by men to derail conversations about female empowerment and sexual equality. So, I&#8217;ve taken the time to respond to the most ignorant (and common) arguments put forth by both the show&#8217;s male hosts, its callers and some of the&amp;#160;commenters who left opinions on Amber Rose&#8217;s Funny&amp;#160;or Die PSA, in an attempt to get this conversation back on track.</p> <p>1. &#8220;You can&#8217;t empower certain things like slut and hoe behavior.&#8221;</p> <p>DJ Envy. Like, serious? What, precisely, is this then?</p> <p>In any case, to further my point, let&#8217;s remove the derogatory labels from this sentence and restate it to demonstrate the problem with the logic: &#8220;You can&#8217;t empower certain things like sexual autonomy or sexual freedom.&#8221;&amp;#160;So we shouldn&#8217;t empower a woman&#8217;s freedom to express her sexuality? I beg to differ. It seems that DJ Envy does also, considering the fact that he has empowered many strippers who freely parade their sexuality by making it rain his hard-earned cash &#8212; $20,000 of it allegedly? &#8212; on the stage where they perform.</p> <p>2. &#8220;So basically they want to be able to be sluts and hoes but they don&#8217;t want anybody to call them that.&#8221;</p> <p>The definition of the word slut reads: &#8220;a woman who has many casual sexual partners&#8221; or &#8220;a sexually promiscuous woman.&#8221; Though there is nothing inherently wrong with having many casual sex partners &#8212; hence the reason why we applaud men for participating in such behavior &#8212; there is no equivalent slur hurled at men who are promiscuous, revealing the underlying problem with the term: the word &#8220;slut&#8221; is sexist. It degrades a woman simply because she chooses to freely express her sexuality. Thus a woman does not want to be called a &#8220;slut&#8221; in the degrading, derogatory manner in which it&#8217;s typically used to diminish her value based on her right to sexual autonomy and freedom. That same woman , however, still may feel that she has the right to freely engage in any sexual acts she chooses, because she is an adult and what she decides to do with her pussy is her problem.</p> <p>3. &amp;#160;&#8220;You can&#8217;t have an actual slut [Amber Rose] hold a Slut Walk.&#8221;</p> <p>A woman who has been branded and labeled because of her style&amp;#160;of dress or participation in the sex industry and who has somehow managed to find success, is actually the perfect person to host a Slut Walk, because said branding represents the inequality which Slut Walks protest against.</p> <p>This is not at all the first time that Charlamagne The God has shown such disrespect to women.</p> <p>Here&#8217;s a recap of a recent&amp;#160;conversation Charlamagne The God&amp;#160;had with rapper&amp;#160;Master P <a href="http://madamenoire.com/507437/master-p-checks-charlemagne-for-disrespecting-women/" type="external">about respecting women</a>:</p> <p>Charlemagne: I always wondered, how did you set up promotion for your projects? Because it was a time that No Limit was dropping project every week. It was a No Limit product in stores every week. Except for Mercedes, we never saw that. And I always wanted to see that because she had a fat ass pussy.</p> <p>Master P: See there bruh, hold up&#8230; Don&#8217;t talk about Mercedes like that.</p> <p>Charlemagne: Oh, my bad. I didn&#8217;t know. Is she family or something?</p> <p>Master P: She ain&#8217;t family; but still though, with all my people man, you know how I am. But we good, man. You know what I&#8217;m saying&#8230;you know how we get down.</p> <p>Charlemagne: But how were you setting it up, promotion wise?</p> <p>Master P: Naw, let&#8217;s go back to this dog. Let&#8217;s respect. Because I&#8217;m not going to talk about your sister, your mom or nothing. That&#8217;s the first thing. I know you do your radio thing and I respect that; but at the same time, Mercedes is a&#8230;she a female.</p> <p>Charlemagne: You right. My bad. But she did look good on that cover though.</p> <p>Master P: She did look good. That&#8217;s your opinion&#8230;</p> <p>Master P: But like I said man, it&#8217;s about respect, Charlemagne. You know me and you go back.</p> <p>Charlemagne: Absolutely.</p> <p>Master P: When we talk about women&#8211; I don&#8217;t care I ain&#8217;t gon&#8217; disrespect no hookers or nothing. Cuz I don&#8217;t do that, I&#8217;m a man. And I don&#8217;t want nobody to disrespect no people that I know. You know what I&#8217;m saying.</p> <p>Charlemagne: Absolutely.</p> <p>When Master P has more respect for women than most men in society do, you know there&#8217;s a problem. And even after being schooled by Master P on not disrespecting or mislabeling women or referring to them in a derogatory manner, Charlamagne The God &#8212; like many men &#8212; still continues to do so, further proving the need for the movement in the first place.</p> <p>4. &#8220;Sounds like they want to promote being sluts and hoes.&#8221;</p> <p>A simple Google search of the term &#8220;Slut Walk&#8221; can enlighten any individual to the goals of the nationwide events and its participants. Chief among them: protest against victim-blaming in rape and sexual assault cases; call for an end to rape culture and sexual injustice; and end derogatory labeling. The words &#8220;sluts&#8221; and &#8220;hoes&#8221; falls right into the latter category.</p> <p>5. &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t want my daughter to go to one of these things.&#8221;</p> <p>You would not want you daughter to be surrounded by strong women who are rallying to reclaim their autonomy, freedom and sexuality while calling for an end to rape and sexual inequality? I can think of many more dangerous places for daughters &#8212; like college campuses where <a href="http://www.oneinfourusa.org/statistics.php" type="external">one in four college women report surviving rape or attempted rape</a>, at home with a partner, where <a href="http://www.safehorizon.org/page/domestic-violence-statistics--facts-52.html" type="external">one&amp;#160;in four women experience domestic violence in her life time</a>,&amp;#160;or in the military where 25 percent of women have been sexually assaulted and up to 80 percent have been sexually harassed. But it&#8217;s cool if you think a bunch of women&amp;#160;coming together for the sake of their own rights is your daughter&#8217;s number one threat.</p> <p>6. &#8220;Amber Rose is the face of Slut Walk, which is wrong because she&#8217;s a slut.&#8221;</p> <p>Now, I done already explained that calling a woman a slut, while diminishing&amp;#160;a movement against calling women derogatory names makes no damn sense, so I won&#8217;t reiterate that point. Instead, here&#8217;s a brief history lesson about Slut Walk: The movement launched in Toronto, Canada, in 2011 after a police constable said, &#8220;I&#8217;ve been told I&#8217;m not supposed to say this &#8211; however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.&#8221; The Slut Walk movement is a rallying cry for women that has gained steam all around the world. Rallies have been seen all over Europe, Asia, Latin America and of course the United States.</p> <p>So, no, Amber Rose is not the &#8220;face of&#8221; Slut Walk. She is merely an advocate who is participating in a movement that has existed for a few years now.</p> <p>8. &#8220;I think [Slut Walk] is a bunch of bull crap. It&#8217;s a terrible example for kids.&#8221; A terrible reality for children is one where women and girls are sexualized, objectified, labeled derogatory terms, victim-blamed and face constant inequality and violence. That reality is perpetuated by men who face no consequences for their &#8220;loose&#8221; sexual morals or behavior but continuously attempt to chastise or degrade women for participating in the same exact thing.</p> <p>This MTV2 video featuring Charlamagne and a friend at a strip club provides a keen example:</p> <p>The video perfectly demonstrates society&#8217;s male/female double standard. Man goes to strip club and pays for &#8220;adult entertainment&#8221; and he is a positive role model. The women providing the entertainment are &#8220;sluts&#8221; and &#8220;hoes.&#8221; If this is not inequality, then what is?</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p>PHOENIX &#8212; Phoenix police say they don&#8217;t immediately know what killed a man who was found in a canal on the city&#8217;s west side.</p> <p>Sgt. Mercedes Fortune says the man had no obvious signs of trauma and that an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death.</p> <p>The man was found Wednesday evening in a canal in the area of 9900 W. McDowell Road.</p> <p>Fortune says the man was in critical condition when found in the canal and that he was pronounced dead at a hospital.</p> <p>His identity wasn&#8217;t released.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>

Phoenix Police: Man found in canal dies; death cause unknown

https://abqjournal.com/1008578/phoenix-police-man-found-in-canal-dies-death-cause-unknown.html

2least

Phoenix Police: Man found in canal dies; death cause unknown <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p>PHOENIX &#8212; Phoenix police say they don&#8217;t immediately know what killed a man who was found in a canal on the city&#8217;s west side.</p> <p>Sgt. Mercedes Fortune says the man had no obvious signs of trauma and that an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death.</p> <p>The man was found Wednesday evening in a canal in the area of 9900 W. McDowell Road.</p> <p>Fortune says the man was in critical condition when found in the canal and that he was pronounced dead at a hospital.</p> <p>His identity wasn&#8217;t released.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>

<p>A North Dakota farmer wanted to send the NFL a message on kneeling during the national anthem &#8212; so he grabbed his tractor and went to work.</p> <p>Gene Hanson, 77, owns an 850-acre farm in Edgeley, North Dakota, where he decided to use his tractor to write a massive message stretching the length of two-football fields: &#8220;We Stand For The National Anthem.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I go with Trump on this one,&#8221; Hanson <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/10/farmer-plows-message-for-nfl-stand-for-national-anthem.html" type="external">told</a> Fox News this week. &#8220;If you want to protest, that&#8217;s not the place to do it.&#8221;</p> <p>Hanson, using his &#8220;old&#8221; Massey tractor, wrote the message without using a GPS device to help guide him.</p> <p>&#8220;A lot of people died over our flag,&#8221; Hanson continued. &#8220;We&#8217;re able to voice our opinion because of it. If you&#8217;re going to show respect for anything, do it for the national anthem.&#8221;</p> <p>This is not Hanson&#8217;s first time writing messages on his land; in fact, he has a process in place to determine if his work is worthy of sharing with friends.</p> <p>&#8220;He flies his two-seater plane, and if his design passes the test, he snaps a pic with a Cannon camera and posts it on Facebook,&#8221; Fox News added. &#8220;He said he's only been unsuccessful twice.&#8221;</p> <p>Hanson, who is a devout Christian, plans to add onto his message when weather permits: &#8220;We kneel at the Cross.&#8221;</p> <p>Some of Hanson&#8217;s previous messages include: &#8220;Never Hillary,&#8221; &#8220;Drain the Swamp,&#8221; &#8220;Blue Lives Matter,&#8221; &#8220;GOP, get your act together,&#8221; and &#8220;Vote Trump.&#8221;</p> <p>WATCH:</p> <p>Follow Ryan Saavedra on <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra" type="external">Twitter</a></p>

Farmer Plows Patriotic Message For NFL: 'WE STAND FOR THE NATIONAL ANTHEM'

https://dailywire.com/news/22225/farmer-plows-patriotic-message-nfl-we-stand-ryan-saavedra

2017-10-12

0right

Farmer Plows Patriotic Message For NFL: 'WE STAND FOR THE NATIONAL ANTHEM' <p>A North Dakota farmer wanted to send the NFL a message on kneeling during the national anthem &#8212; so he grabbed his tractor and went to work.</p> <p>Gene Hanson, 77, owns an 850-acre farm in Edgeley, North Dakota, where he decided to use his tractor to write a massive message stretching the length of two-football fields: &#8220;We Stand For The National Anthem.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I go with Trump on this one,&#8221; Hanson <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/10/farmer-plows-message-for-nfl-stand-for-national-anthem.html" type="external">told</a> Fox News this week. &#8220;If you want to protest, that&#8217;s not the place to do it.&#8221;</p> <p>Hanson, using his &#8220;old&#8221; Massey tractor, wrote the message without using a GPS device to help guide him.</p> <p>&#8220;A lot of people died over our flag,&#8221; Hanson continued. &#8220;We&#8217;re able to voice our opinion because of it. If you&#8217;re going to show respect for anything, do it for the national anthem.&#8221;</p> <p>This is not Hanson&#8217;s first time writing messages on his land; in fact, he has a process in place to determine if his work is worthy of sharing with friends.</p> <p>&#8220;He flies his two-seater plane, and if his design passes the test, he snaps a pic with a Cannon camera and posts it on Facebook,&#8221; Fox News added. &#8220;He said he's only been unsuccessful twice.&#8221;</p> <p>Hanson, who is a devout Christian, plans to add onto his message when weather permits: &#8220;We kneel at the Cross.&#8221;</p> <p>Some of Hanson&#8217;s previous messages include: &#8220;Never Hillary,&#8221; &#8220;Drain the Swamp,&#8221; &#8220;Blue Lives Matter,&#8221; &#8220;GOP, get your act together,&#8221; and &#8220;Vote Trump.&#8221;</p> <p>WATCH:</p> <p>Follow Ryan Saavedra on <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra" type="external">Twitter</a></p>

<p>The low-flying jets that buzzed Damascus Tuesday morning - jolting many residents from their beds - were not a 'get-out-the-vote' effort.&amp;#160;</p> <p>The deafening warplanes flew menacingly close to the city, according to Syrian military officials, to deter rebels from fulfilling their pledge to fire mortar shells and rockets on election day as Syria's President Bashar al-Assad sought a third seven-year term.&amp;#160;</p> <p>The jets weren't entirely effective. Rebel rockets still landed in the city Tuesday. Perhaps that&#8217;s the price to pay for holding a presidential vote in the middle of a civil war. Critics called Tuesday's vote a farce. There were two other candidates besides Assad, but the sitting president is expected to claim an easy victory.</p> <p>A Syrian journalist who for security reasons is using only her first name, Rasha, says many residents of the capital were afraid to leave their homes in the morning because of rumors of attacks and car bombs. But she says around noon, voters started to venture out.</p> <p>She talked to one middle-aged man who said he'd voted for President Assad and he used an analogy to describe his rationale.&amp;#160;</p> <p>"He basically said you have a dog that keeps barking. And you have wolves that come around and want to eat the dog and want to eat you. Who do you root for - the dog that barks or the wolves that are gonna eat you? So the rebels are the wolves, and the dog is Assad and that that's who he's voting for," she said.&amp;#160;</p> <p>Rasha says many Syrians who were opposed to the government voted for fear of retribution.&amp;#160;</p> <p>"A lot of them feel that if they don't vote they will be flagged somehow, that the authorities will be able to know that they didn't vote because their name won't be in some computer in the sky and they'll be stopped at some checkpoints," she says.&amp;#160;</p> <p>Rasha notes that many Syrians worry that they - and especially their military-aged children - will be subject to harassment and arrest if they stay home from the polls. Refugees in places like Lebanon, she says, think they might be blacklisted and be unable to return home if they didn't vote.&amp;#160;</p> <p>But other Syrians are clearly voting out of passion for Assad - a passion, election workers say - that is evident at the polls in an unusual practice.&amp;#160;</p> <p>"They said some voters came with their own needle to prick their finger if they wanted to make a statement and vote for Assad with their blood," she says. "But I haven't met anyone who's done it and I don't think a lot of people are doing it."</p>

Why some Syrians see their vote as a choice between barking dogs and baying wolves

https://pri.org/stories/2014-06-03/why-some-syrians-see-their-vote-choice-between-barking-dogs-and-baying-wolves

2014-06-03

3left-center

Why some Syrians see their vote as a choice between barking dogs and baying wolves <p>The low-flying jets that buzzed Damascus Tuesday morning - jolting many residents from their beds - were not a 'get-out-the-vote' effort.&amp;#160;</p> <p>The deafening warplanes flew menacingly close to the city, according to Syrian military officials, to deter rebels from fulfilling their pledge to fire mortar shells and rockets on election day as Syria's President Bashar al-Assad sought a third seven-year term.&amp;#160;</p> <p>The jets weren't entirely effective. Rebel rockets still landed in the city Tuesday. Perhaps that&#8217;s the price to pay for holding a presidential vote in the middle of a civil war. Critics called Tuesday's vote a farce. There were two other candidates besides Assad, but the sitting president is expected to claim an easy victory.</p> <p>A Syrian journalist who for security reasons is using only her first name, Rasha, says many residents of the capital were afraid to leave their homes in the morning because of rumors of attacks and car bombs. But she says around noon, voters started to venture out.</p> <p>She talked to one middle-aged man who said he'd voted for President Assad and he used an analogy to describe his rationale.&amp;#160;</p> <p>"He basically said you have a dog that keeps barking. And you have wolves that come around and want to eat the dog and want to eat you. Who do you root for - the dog that barks or the wolves that are gonna eat you? So the rebels are the wolves, and the dog is Assad and that that's who he's voting for," she said.&amp;#160;</p> <p>Rasha says many Syrians who were opposed to the government voted for fear of retribution.&amp;#160;</p> <p>"A lot of them feel that if they don't vote they will be flagged somehow, that the authorities will be able to know that they didn't vote because their name won't be in some computer in the sky and they'll be stopped at some checkpoints," she says.&amp;#160;</p> <p>Rasha notes that many Syrians worry that they - and especially their military-aged children - will be subject to harassment and arrest if they stay home from the polls. Refugees in places like Lebanon, she says, think they might be blacklisted and be unable to return home if they didn't vote.&amp;#160;</p> <p>But other Syrians are clearly voting out of passion for Assad - a passion, election workers say - that is evident at the polls in an unusual practice.&amp;#160;</p> <p>"They said some voters came with their own needle to prick their finger if they wanted to make a statement and vote for Assad with their blood," she says. "But I haven't met anyone who's done it and I don't think a lot of people are doing it."</p>

<p>WASHINGTON &#8212; President Donald Trump has narrowed his choice to fill the Supreme Court vacancy to three judges and said he expects to make his decision in the coming days.</p> <p>A person familiar with the selection process said the three judges, all white men who sit on federal appeals courts, were on the list of 21 potential high court picks Trump announced during the presidential campaign.</p> <p>The leading contenders &#8212; who all have met with Trump &#8212; are William Pryor, Neil Gorsuch and Thomas Hardiman, the person said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to speak publicly about internal decisions.</p> <p>Pryor, 54, is an Alabama-based judge on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Gorsuch, 49, is on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hardiman, 51, is based in Pittsburgh for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. All three were nominated by President George W. Bush for their current posts.</p> <p>Trump has promised to seek someone in the mold of conservative icon Antonin Scalia, <a href="" type="internal">who died nearly a year ago</a> after serving on the Supreme Court for more than 29 years. Senate Republicans prevented President Barack Obama from filling the seat, a political gamble that paid off when Trump was elected.</p> <p>Trump was scheduled to meet later Tuesday with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Dianne Feinstein to discuss the court vacancy. McConnell wrote on Twitter, &#8220;I appreciate his soliciting our advice.&#8221; Trump said he plans to announce his choice next week.</p> <p>McConnell led the Senate in refusing to even to consider Obama&#8217;s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to take Scalia&#8217;s seat, announcing on the night that Scalia died that the vacancy should be filled not by Obama, but by the next president.</p> <p>Schumer, D-N.Y., said last week on CNN that the Democrats would inevitably push back against anyone Trump nominates for the Supreme Court.</p> <p>&#8220;It&#8217;s hard for me to imagine a nominee that Donald Trump would choose that would get Republican support, that we could support,&#8221; he said.</p> <p>Daniel Goldberg, legal director of the liberal Alliance for Justice, said his group almost certainly would oppose anyone from Trump&#8217;s list. &#8220;President Trump has made clear what kind of justice he intends to nominate. He said he intends to nominate a reactionary who doesn&#8217;t share the constitutional values of the American people and who will undermine fundamental constitutional protections,&#8221; Goldberg said.</p> <p>Conservatives said the contenders all share Scalia&#8217;s commitment to the text and meaning of the Constitution. &#8220;These are not stealth candidates. Their records are there for everyone to see and to understand. Their judicial philosophy is well within the mainstream of American legal thought,&#8221; said Leonard Leo, a conservative lawyer who has been advising Trump on the filling the vacancy.</p> <p>Of the three leading candidates, only Pryor faced significant opposition when nominated to the appeals court. Senate Democrats refused to allow a vote on his nomination, leading Bush initially to give Pryor a temporary recess appointment. In 2005, the Senate confirmed him 53-45, after senators reached an agreement to curtail delaying tactics for appellate judgeships.</p> <p>Gorsuch was approved by a voice vote in 2006. Schumer and Feinstein were among the 95 senators who voted for Hardiman&#8217;s confirmation in 2007. Hardiman is a colleague of Trump&#8217;s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry.</p> <p>Pryor has a reputation as staunch conservative with a taste for academic rigor. He once called the landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion the &#8220;worst abomination in the history of constitutional law.&#8221; As Alabama attorney general, he also angered some conservatives for urging a judicial discipline panel to remove Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore from office after he refused to obey a court order take down a Ten Commandments monument from the lobby of the state judicial building.</p> <p>Some conservatives also have recently criticized Pryor for his vote in 2011 in favor of a transgender woman who sued for sex discrimination.</p> <p>Gorsuch is the closest on Trump&#8217;s list to a Washington insider &#8212; the son of former EPA administrator Anne Gorsuch, educated in the Ivy League and at Oxford, law clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy and Bush-era Justice Department official.</p> <p>His opinions and outside writings, praised for their clear, colloquial style, include a call for courts to second-guess government regulations, defense of religious freedom and skepticism toward law enforcement. He has contended that courts give too much deference to government agencies&#8217; interpretations of statutes. He sided with groups that held religious objections to the Obama administration&#8217;s requirements that employers provide health insurance that includes contraception.</p> <p>Hardiman has sided with jails seeking to strip-search inmates arrested for even minor offenses and has supported gun rights, dissenting in a 2013 case that upheld a New Jersey law to strengthen requirements for carrying a handgun in public. Last year, he joined two 3rd Circuit colleagues in affirming the $1 billion settlement of NFL concussion claims, rejecting complaints that men with depression and mood disorders were left out of the deal. A Massachusetts native, he settled in Pittsburgh, where his wife comes from a family of prominent Democrats.</p> <p>Trump praised the candidates on his roster after signing several executive actions Tuesday in the Oval Office. &#8220;We have outstanding candidates,&#8221; the president said. &#8220;And we&#8217;ll pick a truly great Supreme Court justice.&#8221;</p> <p>He said he would be making a decision this week, and announcing it next week.</p>

Trump plans to announce Supreme Court pick next week

https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/trump-plans-to-announce-supreme-court-pick-next-week/

2017-01-24

1right-center

Trump plans to announce Supreme Court pick next week <p>WASHINGTON &#8212; President Donald Trump has narrowed his choice to fill the Supreme Court vacancy to three judges and said he expects to make his decision in the coming days.</p> <p>A person familiar with the selection process said the three judges, all white men who sit on federal appeals courts, were on the list of 21 potential high court picks Trump announced during the presidential campaign.</p> <p>The leading contenders &#8212; who all have met with Trump &#8212; are William Pryor, Neil Gorsuch and Thomas Hardiman, the person said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to speak publicly about internal decisions.</p> <p>Pryor, 54, is an Alabama-based judge on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Gorsuch, 49, is on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hardiman, 51, is based in Pittsburgh for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. All three were nominated by President George W. Bush for their current posts.</p> <p>Trump has promised to seek someone in the mold of conservative icon Antonin Scalia, <a href="" type="internal">who died nearly a year ago</a> after serving on the Supreme Court for more than 29 years. Senate Republicans prevented President Barack Obama from filling the seat, a political gamble that paid off when Trump was elected.</p> <p>Trump was scheduled to meet later Tuesday with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Dianne Feinstein to discuss the court vacancy. McConnell wrote on Twitter, &#8220;I appreciate his soliciting our advice.&#8221; Trump said he plans to announce his choice next week.</p> <p>McConnell led the Senate in refusing to even to consider Obama&#8217;s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to take Scalia&#8217;s seat, announcing on the night that Scalia died that the vacancy should be filled not by Obama, but by the next president.</p> <p>Schumer, D-N.Y., said last week on CNN that the Democrats would inevitably push back against anyone Trump nominates for the Supreme Court.</p> <p>&#8220;It&#8217;s hard for me to imagine a nominee that Donald Trump would choose that would get Republican support, that we could support,&#8221; he said.</p> <p>Daniel Goldberg, legal director of the liberal Alliance for Justice, said his group almost certainly would oppose anyone from Trump&#8217;s list. &#8220;President Trump has made clear what kind of justice he intends to nominate. He said he intends to nominate a reactionary who doesn&#8217;t share the constitutional values of the American people and who will undermine fundamental constitutional protections,&#8221; Goldberg said.</p> <p>Conservatives said the contenders all share Scalia&#8217;s commitment to the text and meaning of the Constitution. &#8220;These are not stealth candidates. Their records are there for everyone to see and to understand. Their judicial philosophy is well within the mainstream of American legal thought,&#8221; said Leonard Leo, a conservative lawyer who has been advising Trump on the filling the vacancy.</p> <p>Of the three leading candidates, only Pryor faced significant opposition when nominated to the appeals court. Senate Democrats refused to allow a vote on his nomination, leading Bush initially to give Pryor a temporary recess appointment. In 2005, the Senate confirmed him 53-45, after senators reached an agreement to curtail delaying tactics for appellate judgeships.</p> <p>Gorsuch was approved by a voice vote in 2006. Schumer and Feinstein were among the 95 senators who voted for Hardiman&#8217;s confirmation in 2007. Hardiman is a colleague of Trump&#8217;s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry.</p> <p>Pryor has a reputation as staunch conservative with a taste for academic rigor. He once called the landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion the &#8220;worst abomination in the history of constitutional law.&#8221; As Alabama attorney general, he also angered some conservatives for urging a judicial discipline panel to remove Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore from office after he refused to obey a court order take down a Ten Commandments monument from the lobby of the state judicial building.</p> <p>Some conservatives also have recently criticized Pryor for his vote in 2011 in favor of a transgender woman who sued for sex discrimination.</p> <p>Gorsuch is the closest on Trump&#8217;s list to a Washington insider &#8212; the son of former EPA administrator Anne Gorsuch, educated in the Ivy League and at Oxford, law clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy and Bush-era Justice Department official.</p> <p>His opinions and outside writings, praised for their clear, colloquial style, include a call for courts to second-guess government regulations, defense of religious freedom and skepticism toward law enforcement. He has contended that courts give too much deference to government agencies&#8217; interpretations of statutes. He sided with groups that held religious objections to the Obama administration&#8217;s requirements that employers provide health insurance that includes contraception.</p> <p>Hardiman has sided with jails seeking to strip-search inmates arrested for even minor offenses and has supported gun rights, dissenting in a 2013 case that upheld a New Jersey law to strengthen requirements for carrying a handgun in public. Last year, he joined two 3rd Circuit colleagues in affirming the $1 billion settlement of NFL concussion claims, rejecting complaints that men with depression and mood disorders were left out of the deal. A Massachusetts native, he settled in Pittsburgh, where his wife comes from a family of prominent Democrats.</p> <p>Trump praised the candidates on his roster after signing several executive actions Tuesday in the Oval Office. &#8220;We have outstanding candidates,&#8221; the president said. &#8220;And we&#8217;ll pick a truly great Supreme Court justice.&#8221;</p> <p>He said he would be making a decision this week, and announcing it next week.</p>

<p /> <p>Dear Tax Talk,&amp;#160;</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>My father had an individual retirement account worth about $20,000 that I just inherited at his death. I'm told that now I will have to pay taxes on this money. Is this true? I thought inheritance taxes don't kick in until around $600,000 or $700,000 is inherited.&amp;#160;</p> <p>- Doug</p> <p>Dear Doug,</p> <p>Yes, as the beneficiary of the IRA that was inherited from your father, you must include any taxable distributions you receive in your income.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>The reason you have to pay income tax on this account is because your father deferred paying taxes on the amounts he contributed to the IRA plus any growth in the account over the years it was invested. Plain and simple, the IRS wants the tax on that income at some point and now it comes from you as the beneficiary.</p> <p>The estate tax you refer to is a separate tax on the gross estate of a person who has died. For 2014, an individual can have up to $5.34 million in his or her gross estate before it is taxed. And yes, IRAs are includible in the gross estate, which leads many people to believe that IRAs are now taxed twice -- once at the beneficiary level and then at the estate level.</p> <p>However, if you go back to the premise that the income had been tax-deferred all this time, it does start to make some sense.</p> <p>Please accept my sympathies on the loss of your father and thanks for the great question.</p> <p>Ask the adviser</p> <p>To ask a question on Tax Talk, go to the " <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/brm/ask.asp" type="external">Ask the Experts Opens a New Window.</a>" page and select "Taxes" as the topic. Read more <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/advisers/tax-adviser.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">Tax Talk Opens a New Window.</a> columns.</p> <p>To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. Taxpayers should seek professional advice based on their particular circumstances.</p> <p>Bankrate's content, including the guidance of its advice-and-expert columns and this website, is intended only to assist you with financial decisions. The content is broad in scope and does not consider your personal financial situation. Bankrate recommends that you seek the advice of advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy. Please remember that your use of this website is governed by <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/coinfo/disclaimer.asp" type="external">Bankrate's Terms of Use Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> <p>Copyright 2014, Bankrate Inc.</p>

I Inherited $20K. Do I Have to Pay Taxes?

http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/08/05/inherited-only-20000-do-have-to-pay-taxes.html

2016-03-06

0right

I Inherited $20K. Do I Have to Pay Taxes? <p /> <p>Dear Tax Talk,&amp;#160;</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>My father had an individual retirement account worth about $20,000 that I just inherited at his death. I'm told that now I will have to pay taxes on this money. Is this true? I thought inheritance taxes don't kick in until around $600,000 or $700,000 is inherited.&amp;#160;</p> <p>- Doug</p> <p>Dear Doug,</p> <p>Yes, as the beneficiary of the IRA that was inherited from your father, you must include any taxable distributions you receive in your income.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>The reason you have to pay income tax on this account is because your father deferred paying taxes on the amounts he contributed to the IRA plus any growth in the account over the years it was invested. Plain and simple, the IRS wants the tax on that income at some point and now it comes from you as the beneficiary.</p> <p>The estate tax you refer to is a separate tax on the gross estate of a person who has died. For 2014, an individual can have up to $5.34 million in his or her gross estate before it is taxed. And yes, IRAs are includible in the gross estate, which leads many people to believe that IRAs are now taxed twice -- once at the beneficiary level and then at the estate level.</p> <p>However, if you go back to the premise that the income had been tax-deferred all this time, it does start to make some sense.</p> <p>Please accept my sympathies on the loss of your father and thanks for the great question.</p> <p>Ask the adviser</p> <p>To ask a question on Tax Talk, go to the " <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/brm/ask.asp" type="external">Ask the Experts Opens a New Window.</a>" page and select "Taxes" as the topic. Read more <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/advisers/tax-adviser.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">Tax Talk Opens a New Window.</a> columns.</p> <p>To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. Taxpayers should seek professional advice based on their particular circumstances.</p> <p>Bankrate's content, including the guidance of its advice-and-expert columns and this website, is intended only to assist you with financial decisions. The content is broad in scope and does not consider your personal financial situation. Bankrate recommends that you seek the advice of advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy. Please remember that your use of this website is governed by <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/coinfo/disclaimer.asp" type="external">Bankrate's Terms of Use Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> <p>Copyright 2014, Bankrate Inc.</p>

<p>&amp;lt;a href=http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Jindal-Education/c67979533d1847bc8e4ed2c63817f6bb/9/1&amp;gt;J. Scott Applewhite &amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;/AP</p> <p /> <p>Things are looking up for Bobby Jindal, according to Bobby Jindal.</p> <p>The Louisiana governor tweeted this afternoon about his campaign performance: &#8220;Momentum is building in Iowa.&#8221; The tweet was accompanied by a chart showing Jindal&#8217;s support among Iowa voters increasing exponentially.</p> <p>Momentum is building in Iowa. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IAPolitics?src=hash" type="external">#IAPolitics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IACaucus?src=hash" type="external">#IACaucus</a> <a href="https://t.co/qBAXANrb8s" type="external">https://t.co/qBAXANrb8s</a> <a href="http://t.co/DMDYZtbDOA" type="external">pic.twitter.com/DMDYZtbDOA</a></p> <p>&#8212; Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) <a href="https://twitter.com/BobbyJindal/status/651127617131646976" type="external">October 5, 2015</a></p> <p>The poll Jindal is proudly presenting is the latest NBC/Marist survey in Iowa, which shows him with a whopping 6 percent of the vote, tied with two candidates and behind four others. That looks impressive next to the 1 percent he got in a poll from the firm in July. But it&#8217;s less impressive if you consider the 4.7 percent margin of error, which could more than account for his rise from the September poll that had him at 4 percent. Likewise if you look at the polling average from <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/ia/iowa_republican_presidential_caucus-3194.html" type="external">Real Clear Politics</a>, which puts Jindal at 3.5 percent in Iowa (in ninth place). A Gravis poll concluded on September 27 listed Jindal at only 2 percent (tied for eighth place).</p> <p>But who cares? Just look at this chart!</p> <p />

Bobby Jindal Sums Up His Struggling Campaign in One Chart

https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/10/bobby-jindal-sums-his-disappointing-campaign-one-glorious-tweet/

2015-10-05

4left

Bobby Jindal Sums Up His Struggling Campaign in One Chart <p>&amp;lt;a href=http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Jindal-Education/c67979533d1847bc8e4ed2c63817f6bb/9/1&amp;gt;J. Scott Applewhite &amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;/AP</p> <p /> <p>Things are looking up for Bobby Jindal, according to Bobby Jindal.</p> <p>The Louisiana governor tweeted this afternoon about his campaign performance: &#8220;Momentum is building in Iowa.&#8221; The tweet was accompanied by a chart showing Jindal&#8217;s support among Iowa voters increasing exponentially.</p> <p>Momentum is building in Iowa. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IAPolitics?src=hash" type="external">#IAPolitics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IACaucus?src=hash" type="external">#IACaucus</a> <a href="https://t.co/qBAXANrb8s" type="external">https://t.co/qBAXANrb8s</a> <a href="http://t.co/DMDYZtbDOA" type="external">pic.twitter.com/DMDYZtbDOA</a></p> <p>&#8212; Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) <a href="https://twitter.com/BobbyJindal/status/651127617131646976" type="external">October 5, 2015</a></p> <p>The poll Jindal is proudly presenting is the latest NBC/Marist survey in Iowa, which shows him with a whopping 6 percent of the vote, tied with two candidates and behind four others. That looks impressive next to the 1 percent he got in a poll from the firm in July. But it&#8217;s less impressive if you consider the 4.7 percent margin of error, which could more than account for his rise from the September poll that had him at 4 percent. Likewise if you look at the polling average from <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/ia/iowa_republican_presidential_caucus-3194.html" type="external">Real Clear Politics</a>, which puts Jindal at 3.5 percent in Iowa (in ninth place). A Gravis poll concluded on September 27 listed Jindal at only 2 percent (tied for eighth place).</p> <p>But who cares? Just look at this chart!</p> <p />

<p>Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures</p> <p /> <p>The powerful drama <a href="" type="internal">12 Years a Slave</a> won Best Picture at the <a href="" type="internal">2014 Academy Awards</a>. During his acceptance speech, director <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2588606/" type="external">Steve McQueen</a> dedicated the award to <a href="http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/01/rights-group-21-million-now-in-forced-labor/" type="external">the tens of millions of people still in slavery today</a>:</p> <p>Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live. This is the most important legacy of Solomon Northup. I dedicate this award to all the people who have endured slavery, and the 21 million people who still suffer slavery today.</p> <p>Some estimates put the number at <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/10/17/this-map-shows-where-the-worlds-30-million-slaves-live-there-are-60000-in-the-u-s/" type="external">30 million</a>. McQueen is a patron of <a href="http://www.antislavery.org/english/press_and_news/news_and_press_releases_2009/steve_mcqueen_a_patron_of_antislavery.aspx" type="external">Anti-Slavery International</a> and met with US ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power to <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/12-years-a-slave-director-680381" type="external">discuss</a> the fight against modern-day slavery. McQueen also made the point of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/02/slavery-oscars-12-years-a-slave" type="external">21 million modern-day slaves</a> during an acceptance speech for best film at the BAFTAs.</p> <p>Here&#8217;s video (via <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2014/03/03/oscars-2014-best-picture-12-years-a-slave/" type="external">Time</a>) of McQueen&#8217;s Oscar speech and 12 Years a Slave&#8216;s big win:</p> <p />

Steve McQueen Dedicated His “12 Years a Slave” Best Pic Oscar to Victims of Modern-Day Slavery

https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/12-years-slave-best-picture-steve-mcqueen-speech-modern-day-slavery/

2014-03-03

4left

Steve McQueen Dedicated His “12 Years a Slave” Best Pic Oscar to Victims of Modern-Day Slavery <p>Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures</p> <p /> <p>The powerful drama <a href="" type="internal">12 Years a Slave</a> won Best Picture at the <a href="" type="internal">2014 Academy Awards</a>. During his acceptance speech, director <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2588606/" type="external">Steve McQueen</a> dedicated the award to <a href="http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/01/rights-group-21-million-now-in-forced-labor/" type="external">the tens of millions of people still in slavery today</a>:</p> <p>Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live. This is the most important legacy of Solomon Northup. I dedicate this award to all the people who have endured slavery, and the 21 million people who still suffer slavery today.</p> <p>Some estimates put the number at <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/10/17/this-map-shows-where-the-worlds-30-million-slaves-live-there-are-60000-in-the-u-s/" type="external">30 million</a>. McQueen is a patron of <a href="http://www.antislavery.org/english/press_and_news/news_and_press_releases_2009/steve_mcqueen_a_patron_of_antislavery.aspx" type="external">Anti-Slavery International</a> and met with US ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power to <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/12-years-a-slave-director-680381" type="external">discuss</a> the fight against modern-day slavery. McQueen also made the point of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/02/slavery-oscars-12-years-a-slave" type="external">21 million modern-day slaves</a> during an acceptance speech for best film at the BAFTAs.</p> <p>Here&#8217;s video (via <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2014/03/03/oscars-2014-best-picture-12-years-a-slave/" type="external">Time</a>) of McQueen&#8217;s Oscar speech and 12 Years a Slave&#8216;s big win:</p> <p />

<p>The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.</p> <p>Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton&#8217;s campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clinton&#8217;s chances.</p> <p>&#8220;It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia&#8217;s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,&#8221; said a senior U.S. official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to U.S. senators. &#8220;That&#8217;s the consensus view.&#8221;</p> <p>President Barack Obama&#8217;s administration has been debating for months how to respond to the alleged Russian intrusions, with White House officials concerned about escalating tensions with Moscow and being accused of trying to boost Clinton&#8217;s campaign.</p> <p>In September, during a secret briefing for congressional leaders, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) voiced doubts about the veracity of the intelligence, according to officials present.</p> <p>The Trump transition team dismissed the findings in a short statement issued Friday evening. &#8220;These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It&#8217;s now time to move on and &#8216;Make America Great Again,&#8217; &#8221; the statement read.</p> <p>Trump has consistently dismissed the intelligence community&#8217;s findings about Russian hacking.</p> <p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t believe they interfered&#8221; in the election, he told Time magazine this week. The hacking, he said, &#8220;could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.&#8221;</p> <p>The CIA shared its latest assessment with key senators in a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill last week, in which agency officials cited a growing body of intelligence from multiple sources. Agency briefers told the senators it was now &#8220;quite clear&#8221; that electing Trump was Russia&#8217;s goal, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.</p> <p>The CIA presentation to senators about Russia&#8217;s intentions fell short of a formal U.S. assessment produced by all 17 intelligence agencies. A senior U.S. official said there were minor disagreements among intelligence officials about the agency&#8217;s assessment, in part because some questions remain unanswered.</p> <p>For example, intelligence agencies do not have specific intelligence showing officials in the Kremlin &#8220;directing&#8221; the identified individuals to pass the Democratic emails to WikiLeaks, a second senior U.S. official said. Those actors, according to the official, were &#8220;one step&#8221; removed from the Russian government, rather than government employees. Moscow has in the past used middlemen to participate in sensitive intelligence operations so it has plausible deniability.</p> <p>Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has said in a television interview that the &#8220;Russian government is not the source.&#8221;</p> <p>The White House and CIA officials declined to comment.</p> <p>On Friday, the White House said President Obama had ordered a &#8220;full review&#8221; of Russian hacking during the election campaign, as pressure from Congress has grown for greater public understanding of exactly what Moscow did to influence the electoral process.</p> <p>&#8220;We may have crossed into a new threshold, and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what has happened and to impart some lessons learned,&#8221; Obama&#8217;s counterterrorism and homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.</p> <p>Obama wants the report before he leaves office Jan. 20, Monaco said.</p> <p>During her remarks, Monaco didn&#8217;t address the latest CIA assessment, which hasn&#8217;t been previously disclosed.</p> <p>Seven Democratic senators last week asked Obama to declassify details about the intrusions and why officials believe that the Kremlin was behind the operation. Officials said Friday that the senators specifically were asking the White House to release portions of the CIA&#8217;s presentation.</p> <p>This week, top Democratic lawmakers in the House also sent a letter to Obama, asking for briefings on Russian interference in the election.</p> <p>U.S. intelligence agencies have been cautious for months in characterizing Russia&#8217;s motivations, reflecting the United States&#8217; long-standing struggle to collect reliable intelligence on President Vladimir Putin and those closest to him.</p> <p>In previous assessments, the CIA and other intelligence agencies told the White House and congressional leaders that they believed Moscow&#8217;s aim was to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system. The assessments stopped short of saying the goal was to help elect Trump.</p> <p>On Oct. 7, the intelligence community officially accused Moscow of seeking to interfere in the election through the hacking of &#8220;political organizations.&#8221; Though the statement never specified which party, it was clear that officials were referring to cyber-intrusions into the computers of the DNC and other Democratic groups and individuals.</p> <p>Some key Republican lawmakers have continued to question the quality of evidence supporting Russian involvement.</p> <p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll be the first one to come out and point at Russia if there&#8217;s clear evidence, but there is no clear evidence &#8211; even now,&#8221; said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of the Trump transition team. &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of innuendo, lots of circumstantial evidence, that&#8217;s it.&#8221;</p> <p>Though Russia has long conducted cyberspying on U.S. agencies, companies and organizations, this presidential campaign marks the first time Moscow has attempted through cyber-means to interfere in, if not actively influence, the outcome of an election, the officials said.</p> <p>The reluctance of the Obama White House to respond to the alleged Russian intrusions before Election Day upset Democrats on the Hill as well as members of the Clinton campaign.</p> <p>Within the administration, top officials from different agencies sparred over whether and how to respond. White House officials were concerned that covert retaliatory measures might risk an escalation in which Russia, with sophisticated cyber-capabilities, might have less to lose than the United States, with its vast and vulnerable digital infrastructure.</p> <p>The White House&#8217;s reluctance to take that risk left Washington weighing more limited measures, including the &#8220;naming and shaming&#8221; approach of publicly blaming Moscow.</p> <p>By mid-September, White House officials had decided it was time to take that step, but they worried that doing so unilaterally and without bipartisan congressional backing just weeks before the election would make Obama vulnerable to charges that he was using intelligence for political purposes.</p> <p>Instead, officials devised a plan to seek bipartisan support from top lawmakers and set up a secret meeting with the Gang of 12 &#8211; a group that includes House and Senate leaders, as well as the chairmen and ranking members of both chambers&#8217; committees on intelligence and homeland security.</p> <p>Obama dispatched Monaco, FBI Director James Comey and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to make the pitch for a &#8220;show of solidarity and bipartisan unity&#8221; against Russian interference in the election, according to a senior administration official.</p> <p>Specifically, the White House wanted congressional leaders to sign off on a bipartisan statement urging state and local officials to take federal help in protecting their voting-registration and balloting machines from Russian cyber-intrusions.</p> <p>Though U.S. intelligence agencies were skeptical that hackers would be able to manipulate the election results in a systematic way, the White House feared that Russia would attempt to do so, sowing doubt about the fundamental mechanisms of democracy and potentially forcing a more dangerous confrontation between Washington and Moscow.</p> <p>In a secure room in the Capitol used for briefings involving classified information, administration officials broadly laid out the evidence U.S. spy agencies had collected, showing Russia&#8217;s role in cyber-intrusions in at least two states and in hacking the emails of the Democratic organizations and individuals.</p> <p>And they made a case for a united, bipartisan front in response to what one official described as &#8220;the threat posed by unprecedented meddling by a foreign power in our election process.&#8221;</p> <p>The Democratic leaders in the room unanimously agreed on the need to take the threat seriously. Republicans, however, were divided, with at least two GOP lawmakers reluctant to accede to the White House requests.</p> <p>According to several officials, McConnell raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.</p> <p>Some of the Republicans in the briefing also seemed opposed to the idea of going public with such explosive allegations in the final stages of an election, a move that they argued would only rattle public confidence and play into Moscow&#8217;s hands.</p> <p>McConnell&#8217;s office did not respond to a request for comment. After the election, Trump chose McConnell&#8217;s wife, Elaine Chao, as his nominee for transportation secretary.</p> <p>Some Clinton supporters saw the White House&#8217;s reluctance to act without bipartisan support as further evidence of an excessive caution in facing adversaries.</p> <p>&#8220;The lack of an administration response on the Russian hacking cannot be attributed to Congress,&#8221; said Rep. Adam Schiff (California), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who was at the September meeting. &#8220;The administration has all the tools it needs to respond. They have the ability to impose sanctions. They have the ability to take clandestine means. The administration has decided not to utilize them in a way that would deter the Russians, and I think that&#8217;s a problem.&#8221;</p> <p>The Washington Post&#8217;s Philip Rucker contributed to this report.</p>

CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win election

https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/cia-assessment-says-russia-was-trying-to-help-trump-win-election/

2016-12-09

1right-center

CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win election <p>The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.</p> <p>Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton&#8217;s campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clinton&#8217;s chances.</p> <p>&#8220;It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia&#8217;s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,&#8221; said a senior U.S. official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to U.S. senators. &#8220;That&#8217;s the consensus view.&#8221;</p> <p>President Barack Obama&#8217;s administration has been debating for months how to respond to the alleged Russian intrusions, with White House officials concerned about escalating tensions with Moscow and being accused of trying to boost Clinton&#8217;s campaign.</p> <p>In September, during a secret briefing for congressional leaders, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) voiced doubts about the veracity of the intelligence, according to officials present.</p> <p>The Trump transition team dismissed the findings in a short statement issued Friday evening. &#8220;These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It&#8217;s now time to move on and &#8216;Make America Great Again,&#8217; &#8221; the statement read.</p> <p>Trump has consistently dismissed the intelligence community&#8217;s findings about Russian hacking.</p> <p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t believe they interfered&#8221; in the election, he told Time magazine this week. The hacking, he said, &#8220;could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.&#8221;</p> <p>The CIA shared its latest assessment with key senators in a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill last week, in which agency officials cited a growing body of intelligence from multiple sources. Agency briefers told the senators it was now &#8220;quite clear&#8221; that electing Trump was Russia&#8217;s goal, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.</p> <p>The CIA presentation to senators about Russia&#8217;s intentions fell short of a formal U.S. assessment produced by all 17 intelligence agencies. A senior U.S. official said there were minor disagreements among intelligence officials about the agency&#8217;s assessment, in part because some questions remain unanswered.</p> <p>For example, intelligence agencies do not have specific intelligence showing officials in the Kremlin &#8220;directing&#8221; the identified individuals to pass the Democratic emails to WikiLeaks, a second senior U.S. official said. Those actors, according to the official, were &#8220;one step&#8221; removed from the Russian government, rather than government employees. Moscow has in the past used middlemen to participate in sensitive intelligence operations so it has plausible deniability.</p> <p>Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has said in a television interview that the &#8220;Russian government is not the source.&#8221;</p> <p>The White House and CIA officials declined to comment.</p> <p>On Friday, the White House said President Obama had ordered a &#8220;full review&#8221; of Russian hacking during the election campaign, as pressure from Congress has grown for greater public understanding of exactly what Moscow did to influence the electoral process.</p> <p>&#8220;We may have crossed into a new threshold, and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what has happened and to impart some lessons learned,&#8221; Obama&#8217;s counterterrorism and homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.</p> <p>Obama wants the report before he leaves office Jan. 20, Monaco said.</p> <p>During her remarks, Monaco didn&#8217;t address the latest CIA assessment, which hasn&#8217;t been previously disclosed.</p> <p>Seven Democratic senators last week asked Obama to declassify details about the intrusions and why officials believe that the Kremlin was behind the operation. Officials said Friday that the senators specifically were asking the White House to release portions of the CIA&#8217;s presentation.</p> <p>This week, top Democratic lawmakers in the House also sent a letter to Obama, asking for briefings on Russian interference in the election.</p> <p>U.S. intelligence agencies have been cautious for months in characterizing Russia&#8217;s motivations, reflecting the United States&#8217; long-standing struggle to collect reliable intelligence on President Vladimir Putin and those closest to him.</p> <p>In previous assessments, the CIA and other intelligence agencies told the White House and congressional leaders that they believed Moscow&#8217;s aim was to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system. The assessments stopped short of saying the goal was to help elect Trump.</p> <p>On Oct. 7, the intelligence community officially accused Moscow of seeking to interfere in the election through the hacking of &#8220;political organizations.&#8221; Though the statement never specified which party, it was clear that officials were referring to cyber-intrusions into the computers of the DNC and other Democratic groups and individuals.</p> <p>Some key Republican lawmakers have continued to question the quality of evidence supporting Russian involvement.</p> <p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll be the first one to come out and point at Russia if there&#8217;s clear evidence, but there is no clear evidence &#8211; even now,&#8221; said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of the Trump transition team. &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of innuendo, lots of circumstantial evidence, that&#8217;s it.&#8221;</p> <p>Though Russia has long conducted cyberspying on U.S. agencies, companies and organizations, this presidential campaign marks the first time Moscow has attempted through cyber-means to interfere in, if not actively influence, the outcome of an election, the officials said.</p> <p>The reluctance of the Obama White House to respond to the alleged Russian intrusions before Election Day upset Democrats on the Hill as well as members of the Clinton campaign.</p> <p>Within the administration, top officials from different agencies sparred over whether and how to respond. White House officials were concerned that covert retaliatory measures might risk an escalation in which Russia, with sophisticated cyber-capabilities, might have less to lose than the United States, with its vast and vulnerable digital infrastructure.</p> <p>The White House&#8217;s reluctance to take that risk left Washington weighing more limited measures, including the &#8220;naming and shaming&#8221; approach of publicly blaming Moscow.</p> <p>By mid-September, White House officials had decided it was time to take that step, but they worried that doing so unilaterally and without bipartisan congressional backing just weeks before the election would make Obama vulnerable to charges that he was using intelligence for political purposes.</p> <p>Instead, officials devised a plan to seek bipartisan support from top lawmakers and set up a secret meeting with the Gang of 12 &#8211; a group that includes House and Senate leaders, as well as the chairmen and ranking members of both chambers&#8217; committees on intelligence and homeland security.</p> <p>Obama dispatched Monaco, FBI Director James Comey and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to make the pitch for a &#8220;show of solidarity and bipartisan unity&#8221; against Russian interference in the election, according to a senior administration official.</p> <p>Specifically, the White House wanted congressional leaders to sign off on a bipartisan statement urging state and local officials to take federal help in protecting their voting-registration and balloting machines from Russian cyber-intrusions.</p> <p>Though U.S. intelligence agencies were skeptical that hackers would be able to manipulate the election results in a systematic way, the White House feared that Russia would attempt to do so, sowing doubt about the fundamental mechanisms of democracy and potentially forcing a more dangerous confrontation between Washington and Moscow.</p> <p>In a secure room in the Capitol used for briefings involving classified information, administration officials broadly laid out the evidence U.S. spy agencies had collected, showing Russia&#8217;s role in cyber-intrusions in at least two states and in hacking the emails of the Democratic organizations and individuals.</p> <p>And they made a case for a united, bipartisan front in response to what one official described as &#8220;the threat posed by unprecedented meddling by a foreign power in our election process.&#8221;</p> <p>The Democratic leaders in the room unanimously agreed on the need to take the threat seriously. Republicans, however, were divided, with at least two GOP lawmakers reluctant to accede to the White House requests.</p> <p>According to several officials, McConnell raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.</p> <p>Some of the Republicans in the briefing also seemed opposed to the idea of going public with such explosive allegations in the final stages of an election, a move that they argued would only rattle public confidence and play into Moscow&#8217;s hands.</p> <p>McConnell&#8217;s office did not respond to a request for comment. After the election, Trump chose McConnell&#8217;s wife, Elaine Chao, as his nominee for transportation secretary.</p> <p>Some Clinton supporters saw the White House&#8217;s reluctance to act without bipartisan support as further evidence of an excessive caution in facing adversaries.</p> <p>&#8220;The lack of an administration response on the Russian hacking cannot be attributed to Congress,&#8221; said Rep. Adam Schiff (California), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who was at the September meeting. &#8220;The administration has all the tools it needs to respond. They have the ability to impose sanctions. They have the ability to take clandestine means. The administration has decided not to utilize them in a way that would deter the Russians, and I think that&#8217;s a problem.&#8221;</p> <p>The Washington Post&#8217;s Philip Rucker contributed to this report.</p>

<p><a href="//videos/37/62304" type="external" /></p> <p>RUSH: Did you see last night, folks? Did you happen to see it? I can&#8217;t&#8230; When Obama finds out what happened last night, oh, man! And he may not. If he wasn&#8217;t watching the game, he may not have known. If the intel services don&#8217;t tell him what happened last night, he may never know, and that may end up being good. It could be bad out there, folks. It could really be bad. &#8230; Did you see where the safety for the Kansas City Chiefs intercepted Tom Brady last night? A pick six.</p> <p>A gentleman by the name of Husain Abdullah, not to be confused with the king of Saudi Arabia, whose name is King Abdullah bin Abdilaziz. This is Husain Abdullah of the Kansas City Chiefs, not the king of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah bin Abdilaziz. What happened was that Husain Abdullah intercepted Mr. Brady and returned the pick to the end zone for a touchdown for the Chiefs, and immediately Mr. Husain Abdullah slid through the end zone and then bowed with his helmeted head on the Arrowhead Stadium turf and prayed.</p> <p>Immediately, he was flagged. The Chiefs, his team, were penalized 15 yards for what is called unsportsmanlike conduct. Now, the NFL&#8217;s already in trouble, big-time trouble, with all of the domestic abuse and spousal abuse. Wait till Obama hears about this &#8212; IF he hears about this. The odds are, Obama is unlikely to hear about any of these things unless he was watching the game. We find out that Obama doesn&#8217;t even attend 60% of his daily intelligence briefings.</p> <p>Remember we were told by somebody, some White House spokesman, I forget the term, but we were told that Obama is, well, ingrained in intelligence. I mean, he is so in tune with intelligence, he doesn&#8217;t need the daily briefs. He knows what he&#8217;s gonna be told before they walk into the room. As such, he doesn&#8217;t have to waste his time. So the presidential daily brief is presented to him in writing. It is unknown whether he readies them, however.</p> <p>The thing that has everybody talking today is how Obama totally blamed his intel community for not telling him what was really up to ISIS, and yet people have gone back and found out that the intelligence community knew everything there was to know about ISIS and has been trying to tell Obama about it since 2012. It didn&#8217;t matter. He still threw Clapper and everybody else in his intelligence services under the bus, in the Sunday night 60 Minutes interview.</p> <p>Oh, that&#8217;s another thing. <a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/09/media-ignores-obamas-60-minutes-ratings-collapse-down-69-in-a-week/" type="external">Did you see the ratings for 60 Minutes on Sunday night</a>" Tank, folks. Toilet City. Nowhere. Some of the lowest ratings 60 Minutes had in a long time with the Obama interview. Do you know what the excuse is" &#8220;There was no football lead-in. CBS didn&#8217;t have a late game so there was no football lead-in.&#8221; Nobody&#8217;s saying that people tuned out offing 60 Minutes &#8217;cause Obama was on, but that&#8217;s what happened. I mean, it was well known.</p> <p>CBS promoed all over the place that Steve Kroft was gonna be slow pitching softball pitching questions to Obama. So if you&#8217;re an Obama fan, it&#8217;s an ideal time to watch. But they didn&#8217;t. The ratings were really. And nobody is talking&#8230; Well, some people are talking about the trade publications out here, like variety and Hollywood Reporter and Dateline and all, they&#8217;re all reporting 60 Minutes&#8217; horrible ratings performance Sunday night, but none of them (chuckling) are even mentioning that Obama was on.</p> <p>They&#8217;re all just chalking it up to the fact that it was&#8230; &#8220;Ah, it was just too bad. There wasn&#8217;t any NFL game on CBS to give them a great lead-in,&#8221; which means that 60 Minutes started on time, and it never does start on time in the football season. It always runs late because of the football game, but there wasn&#8217;t one. So, anyway, what do you think is more likely Obama will condemn: The NFL throwing a flag on a Muslim for pray..</p> <p>By the way, the NFL said the flag was a mistake; he should not have been penalized. There is no rule in the book that says you can&#8217;t pray or genuflect after a touchdown. They let Tebow do it. You know, Christians get down on one knee or give the sign of the cross and look to the heavens and thank God for the touchdown. But Husain Abdullah (again, not to be confused with Abdullah bin Abdilaziz of</p> <p>Saudi Arabia) actually got down on all fours and then lowered his head to the turf at Arrowhead Stadium.</p> <p>I must say, the turf looked good last night. I watched the first half. It looked really, really good. Hadn&#8217;t looked that good since George Toma was doing it. I like the chiefs in total fire engine red last night. How about the Patriots? You know, Tom Brady has not had the best season, but it&#8217;s over now. (laughing) The sports media is just all over him. &#8220;He&#8217;s gone, he&#8217;s finished, throw him away, bring in the substitute, let&#8217;s start the new Patriots era with the new quarterback.&#8221;</p> <p>It&#8217;s amazing how fast the media chews people up and spits them out.</p> <p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p> <p>RUSH: No, no, I don&#8217;t keep any grief for talking about football opening the program. This is a relevant societal, cultural issue that&#8217;s taking place here, and the NFL was quick&#8230; Oh. I should have added, the NFL was quick today to throw the referees last night overboard, should not have been a penalty on Mr. Husain Abdullah.</p> <p>It should not have happened, it was a huge gaffe, it was a big mistake.</p> <p>They made sure that the world heard about that.</p> <p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p> <p>RUSH: We start on the phones today in</p> <p>Michigan. China, Michigan. This is James. Welcome, sir. Great to have you here.</p> <p>CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush. Twenty-plus years of dittos.</p> <p>RUSH: Thank you very much. I sincerely appreciate that.</p> <p>CALLER: I have a silly question. Wasn&#8217;t George W. Bush criticized for only getting his daily briefings and not reading the news itself? And, two, how do the Washington Redskins get picked on but Kansas City Chiefs get a pass?</p> <p>RUSH: Well, let&#8217;s take the first question first. I&#8217;m not&#8230; You know, I have a vague memory of Bush and the presidential daily brief. There was news in the presidential daily brief about 9/11 or allusions to the possibility, not the specificity of it. I don&#8217;t remember specifically if Bush was tarred and feathered for not reading beyond the daily brief. I know he was laughed at when he admitted he didn&#8217;t read newspapers, the Washington Post, New York Times. He was chastised for that.</p> <p>But I don&#8217;t&#8230; I&#8217;m gonna have to search my memory banks, the deep, dark crevices of my memory banks to find out what it was that Bush was ripped for in the presidential daily brief. Now, when it comes to the Redskins and the Chiefs, give &#8217;em time. Give &#8217;em time. Once they get the Redskins name changed, it will be on to others. That will fuel them. Right now, if you had to compare the names Redskins to Chiefs, I don&#8217;t think you&#8217;d have a whole lot of people saying that the Chiefs is offensive.</p> <p>Not yet. It could happen down the road, because the Chiefs are the leaders. The Chiefs, they run the show. That&#8217;s power. Redskins is considered to be a derogatory term. But it&#8217;s not even about that. This whole Redskins thing is just another media-manufactured thing made to look like a groundswell of opinion supports it when it doesn&#8217;t. It&#8217;s classic.</p> <p>It&#8217;s part of the daily media soap opera, and the left is gonna keep pounding it until people get so fed up with it that they&#8217;re gonna say, &#8220;Just change it! We&#8217;re tired of hearing about it. We don&#8217;t care. Just change it! Stop!&#8221; And that&#8217;s generally how the left gets what they want. They intimidate, they bully, and they never go away until people just throw up their hands. It&#8217;s like the way we deal with serious crime. Moynihan said: Define deviancy down. You finally figure out you can&#8217;t stop certain kind of crimes so you stop calling them serious. You just accept it. You call it the new norm or what have you.</p>

Wait Till Obama Finds Out About What Happened in the Chiefs-Patriots Game

http://rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/09/30/wait_till_obama_finds_out_about_what_happened_in_the_chiefs_patriots_game

2014-09-30

0right

Wait Till Obama Finds Out About What Happened in the Chiefs-Patriots Game <p><a href="//videos/37/62304" type="external" /></p> <p>RUSH: Did you see last night, folks? Did you happen to see it? I can&#8217;t&#8230; When Obama finds out what happened last night, oh, man! And he may not. If he wasn&#8217;t watching the game, he may not have known. If the intel services don&#8217;t tell him what happened last night, he may never know, and that may end up being good. It could be bad out there, folks. It could really be bad. &#8230; Did you see where the safety for the Kansas City Chiefs intercepted Tom Brady last night? A pick six.</p> <p>A gentleman by the name of Husain Abdullah, not to be confused with the king of Saudi Arabia, whose name is King Abdullah bin Abdilaziz. This is Husain Abdullah of the Kansas City Chiefs, not the king of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah bin Abdilaziz. What happened was that Husain Abdullah intercepted Mr. Brady and returned the pick to the end zone for a touchdown for the Chiefs, and immediately Mr. Husain Abdullah slid through the end zone and then bowed with his helmeted head on the Arrowhead Stadium turf and prayed.</p> <p>Immediately, he was flagged. The Chiefs, his team, were penalized 15 yards for what is called unsportsmanlike conduct. Now, the NFL&#8217;s already in trouble, big-time trouble, with all of the domestic abuse and spousal abuse. Wait till Obama hears about this &#8212; IF he hears about this. The odds are, Obama is unlikely to hear about any of these things unless he was watching the game. We find out that Obama doesn&#8217;t even attend 60% of his daily intelligence briefings.</p> <p>Remember we were told by somebody, some White House spokesman, I forget the term, but we were told that Obama is, well, ingrained in intelligence. I mean, he is so in tune with intelligence, he doesn&#8217;t need the daily briefs. He knows what he&#8217;s gonna be told before they walk into the room. As such, he doesn&#8217;t have to waste his time. So the presidential daily brief is presented to him in writing. It is unknown whether he readies them, however.</p> <p>The thing that has everybody talking today is how Obama totally blamed his intel community for not telling him what was really up to ISIS, and yet people have gone back and found out that the intelligence community knew everything there was to know about ISIS and has been trying to tell Obama about it since 2012. It didn&#8217;t matter. He still threw Clapper and everybody else in his intelligence services under the bus, in the Sunday night 60 Minutes interview.</p> <p>Oh, that&#8217;s another thing. <a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/09/media-ignores-obamas-60-minutes-ratings-collapse-down-69-in-a-week/" type="external">Did you see the ratings for 60 Minutes on Sunday night</a>" Tank, folks. Toilet City. Nowhere. Some of the lowest ratings 60 Minutes had in a long time with the Obama interview. Do you know what the excuse is" &#8220;There was no football lead-in. CBS didn&#8217;t have a late game so there was no football lead-in.&#8221; Nobody&#8217;s saying that people tuned out offing 60 Minutes &#8217;cause Obama was on, but that&#8217;s what happened. I mean, it was well known.</p> <p>CBS promoed all over the place that Steve Kroft was gonna be slow pitching softball pitching questions to Obama. So if you&#8217;re an Obama fan, it&#8217;s an ideal time to watch. But they didn&#8217;t. The ratings were really. And nobody is talking&#8230; Well, some people are talking about the trade publications out here, like variety and Hollywood Reporter and Dateline and all, they&#8217;re all reporting 60 Minutes&#8217; horrible ratings performance Sunday night, but none of them (chuckling) are even mentioning that Obama was on.</p> <p>They&#8217;re all just chalking it up to the fact that it was&#8230; &#8220;Ah, it was just too bad. There wasn&#8217;t any NFL game on CBS to give them a great lead-in,&#8221; which means that 60 Minutes started on time, and it never does start on time in the football season. It always runs late because of the football game, but there wasn&#8217;t one. So, anyway, what do you think is more likely Obama will condemn: The NFL throwing a flag on a Muslim for pray..</p> <p>By the way, the NFL said the flag was a mistake; he should not have been penalized. There is no rule in the book that says you can&#8217;t pray or genuflect after a touchdown. They let Tebow do it. You know, Christians get down on one knee or give the sign of the cross and look to the heavens and thank God for the touchdown. But Husain Abdullah (again, not to be confused with Abdullah bin Abdilaziz of</p> <p>Saudi Arabia) actually got down on all fours and then lowered his head to the turf at Arrowhead Stadium.</p> <p>I must say, the turf looked good last night. I watched the first half. It looked really, really good. Hadn&#8217;t looked that good since George Toma was doing it. I like the chiefs in total fire engine red last night. How about the Patriots? You know, Tom Brady has not had the best season, but it&#8217;s over now. (laughing) The sports media is just all over him. &#8220;He&#8217;s gone, he&#8217;s finished, throw him away, bring in the substitute, let&#8217;s start the new Patriots era with the new quarterback.&#8221;</p> <p>It&#8217;s amazing how fast the media chews people up and spits them out.</p> <p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p> <p>RUSH: No, no, I don&#8217;t keep any grief for talking about football opening the program. This is a relevant societal, cultural issue that&#8217;s taking place here, and the NFL was quick&#8230; Oh. I should have added, the NFL was quick today to throw the referees last night overboard, should not have been a penalty on Mr. Husain Abdullah.</p> <p>It should not have happened, it was a huge gaffe, it was a big mistake.</p> <p>They made sure that the world heard about that.</p> <p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p> <p>RUSH: We start on the phones today in</p> <p>Michigan. China, Michigan. This is James. Welcome, sir. Great to have you here.</p> <p>CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush. Twenty-plus years of dittos.</p> <p>RUSH: Thank you very much. I sincerely appreciate that.</p> <p>CALLER: I have a silly question. Wasn&#8217;t George W. Bush criticized for only getting his daily briefings and not reading the news itself? And, two, how do the Washington Redskins get picked on but Kansas City Chiefs get a pass?</p> <p>RUSH: Well, let&#8217;s take the first question first. I&#8217;m not&#8230; You know, I have a vague memory of Bush and the presidential daily brief. There was news in the presidential daily brief about 9/11 or allusions to the possibility, not the specificity of it. I don&#8217;t remember specifically if Bush was tarred and feathered for not reading beyond the daily brief. I know he was laughed at when he admitted he didn&#8217;t read newspapers, the Washington Post, New York Times. He was chastised for that.</p> <p>But I don&#8217;t&#8230; I&#8217;m gonna have to search my memory banks, the deep, dark crevices of my memory banks to find out what it was that Bush was ripped for in the presidential daily brief. Now, when it comes to the Redskins and the Chiefs, give &#8217;em time. Give &#8217;em time. Once they get the Redskins name changed, it will be on to others. That will fuel them. Right now, if you had to compare the names Redskins to Chiefs, I don&#8217;t think you&#8217;d have a whole lot of people saying that the Chiefs is offensive.</p> <p>Not yet. It could happen down the road, because the Chiefs are the leaders. The Chiefs, they run the show. That&#8217;s power. Redskins is considered to be a derogatory term. But it&#8217;s not even about that. This whole Redskins thing is just another media-manufactured thing made to look like a groundswell of opinion supports it when it doesn&#8217;t. It&#8217;s classic.</p> <p>It&#8217;s part of the daily media soap opera, and the left is gonna keep pounding it until people get so fed up with it that they&#8217;re gonna say, &#8220;Just change it! We&#8217;re tired of hearing about it. We don&#8217;t care. Just change it! Stop!&#8221; And that&#8217;s generally how the left gets what they want. They intimidate, they bully, and they never go away until people just throw up their hands. It&#8217;s like the way we deal with serious crime. Moynihan said: Define deviancy down. You finally figure out you can&#8217;t stop certain kind of crimes so you stop calling them serious. You just accept it. You call it the new norm or what have you.</p>

<p>Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer wants 2016 candidates to address what he calls the "urgent" issue of income inequality, specifically laws that allow wealthy private equity managers and venture capitalists to be taxed at a lower rate.</p> <p>Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer wants 2016 candidates...</p> <p>Billionaire activist Tom Steyer has invested millions of dollars to argue that climate change is "the defining issue of our time" and that blocking construction of the Keystone XL pipeline is pivotal to the nation's environmental health and future.</p> <p>On Wednesday, Steyer will have a priceless opportunity to raise the pipeline issue with President Obama, who will be a guest in his San Francisco home for a Democratic Party campaign fundraiser.</p> <p>"We're committed to the idea that this be talked about and known," Steyer said in a telephone interview Tuesday. He has been working in Massachusetts this week on behalf of Rep. Edward Markey, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate who strongly opposes the Keystone pipeline.</p> <p>"But I don't think there's anything we can say that he hasn't heard," Steyer said of Obama. "He knows exactly what's right on this issue, and he knows what to do."</p> <p>Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, will host the president at a $5,000-a-head fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - one of two political fundraisers that Obama will headline Wednesday on his first trip to the Bay Area since the 2012 election.</p> <p>The other event Obama will attend is a $32,400-per-person dinner at the home of Ann and Gordon Getty in San Francisco, where protests led by environmental groups including Credo, the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth are expected to draw hundreds of opponents of the pipeline, which would run from Canada to the Gulf Coast.</p> <p>After spending the night in San Francisco, Obama will travel to Atherton on Thursday for two fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee. He is expected to be met outside the events by opponents of the pipeline, which would carry crude oil extracted from tar sands in Canada across the heartland of the United States.</p> <p>In an interview with The Chronicle, Steyer said he is "super optimistic that if we make clear" the pipeline's cost to the health of Americans and the U.S. economy, "people will agree with us and political action will follow."</p> <p>Steyer's moves in Massachusetts are part of a plan to take a more direct role in helping to elect politicians opposed to the pipeline while lobbying elected officials about the need to put climate change on the front burner.</p> <p>That's one reason, the hedge fund manager said, that he is hosting Obama for the Wednesday fundraiser in his home.</p> <p>"We want to support Nancy (Pelosi) as much as we can," he said of the House minority leader from San Francisco, who wants the Democrats to win 17 more seats in 2014 and take back the House of Representatives.</p> <p>Asked if he would directly raise the pipeline issue with Obama, Steyer said, "It's not every day that the president comes to San Francisco, and we're incredibly excited about that." He added that he expects that the president's staff knows his positions on climate change.</p> <p>In recent years, Steyer has taken on an increasingly larger role in environmental causes.</p> <p>He spent $37 million of his own funds to defeat a 2010 ballot measure that would have suspended California's landmark climate change law and to pass Proposition 39 in November, which closed a corporate tax loophole that could mean billions of dollars for energy efficiency projects at public schools.</p> <p>Steyer, who increasingly is mentioned as a possible future candidate for governor in California, has become a leading opponent to Keystone XL.</p> <p>Proponents say it would create thousands of much-needed jobs, while opponents like Steyer cite studies suggesting that just 35 permanent jobs would result at incalculable environmental costs, while shipping cheaper energy to China.</p> <p>A new Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday showed that two-thirds of Americans support construction of the pipeline, including a majority of Democrats. Despite an increase in those who believe in global warming, the poll showed a slight drop since 2012 of those who consider it a "serious" global issue.</p> <p>"There's no question that Americans realize that climate change is the problem," Steyer said. "But the way it's been explained has been remarkably ineffective."</p> <p>Last month, Steyer created and funded a super PAC to boost the candidacy of Markey, who is running in a special election to replace former U.S. Sen, John Kerry, who resigned to become secretary of state. Markey, who is strongly anti-Keystone, is pitted against Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch, who supports the pipeline.</p> <p>Earlier this week, Steyer was in Boston on the campaign and introduced an April Fool's joke video showing oil company executives lining up to back Lynch, the candidate with the "heart of oil."</p> <p>Becky Bond, who heads Credo - one of the groups protesting Obama's San Francisco dinner event - lauded Steyer as an environmentalist who has tremendous credibility with the grassroots because he "cares deeply about this issue and is putting all of his resources behind fighting it."</p> <p>"We know that money talks when it comes to politicians - and the president is no different," Bond said. "Where money talks, the oil industry lobbyists have tremendous access," she said. "We'll be outside - and we have to speak a lot louder to make sure our voices will be heard."</p> <p>Carla Marinucci is The San Francisco Chronicle's senior political writer. E-mail: <a href="" type="internal">cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com</a> Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/cmarinucci" type="external">@cmarinucci</a></p>

Tom Steyer, S.F. activist, to host Obama

http://sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Tom-Steyer-S-F-activist-to-host-Obama-4404908.php

2013-04-02

3left-center

Tom Steyer, S.F. activist, to host Obama <p>Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer wants 2016 candidates to address what he calls the "urgent" issue of income inequality, specifically laws that allow wealthy private equity managers and venture capitalists to be taxed at a lower rate.</p> <p>Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer wants 2016 candidates...</p> <p>Billionaire activist Tom Steyer has invested millions of dollars to argue that climate change is "the defining issue of our time" and that blocking construction of the Keystone XL pipeline is pivotal to the nation's environmental health and future.</p> <p>On Wednesday, Steyer will have a priceless opportunity to raise the pipeline issue with President Obama, who will be a guest in his San Francisco home for a Democratic Party campaign fundraiser.</p> <p>"We're committed to the idea that this be talked about and known," Steyer said in a telephone interview Tuesday. He has been working in Massachusetts this week on behalf of Rep. Edward Markey, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate who strongly opposes the Keystone pipeline.</p> <p>"But I don't think there's anything we can say that he hasn't heard," Steyer said of Obama. "He knows exactly what's right on this issue, and he knows what to do."</p> <p>Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, will host the president at a $5,000-a-head fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - one of two political fundraisers that Obama will headline Wednesday on his first trip to the Bay Area since the 2012 election.</p> <p>The other event Obama will attend is a $32,400-per-person dinner at the home of Ann and Gordon Getty in San Francisco, where protests led by environmental groups including Credo, the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth are expected to draw hundreds of opponents of the pipeline, which would run from Canada to the Gulf Coast.</p> <p>After spending the night in San Francisco, Obama will travel to Atherton on Thursday for two fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee. He is expected to be met outside the events by opponents of the pipeline, which would carry crude oil extracted from tar sands in Canada across the heartland of the United States.</p> <p>In an interview with The Chronicle, Steyer said he is "super optimistic that if we make clear" the pipeline's cost to the health of Americans and the U.S. economy, "people will agree with us and political action will follow."</p> <p>Steyer's moves in Massachusetts are part of a plan to take a more direct role in helping to elect politicians opposed to the pipeline while lobbying elected officials about the need to put climate change on the front burner.</p> <p>That's one reason, the hedge fund manager said, that he is hosting Obama for the Wednesday fundraiser in his home.</p> <p>"We want to support Nancy (Pelosi) as much as we can," he said of the House minority leader from San Francisco, who wants the Democrats to win 17 more seats in 2014 and take back the House of Representatives.</p> <p>Asked if he would directly raise the pipeline issue with Obama, Steyer said, "It's not every day that the president comes to San Francisco, and we're incredibly excited about that." He added that he expects that the president's staff knows his positions on climate change.</p> <p>In recent years, Steyer has taken on an increasingly larger role in environmental causes.</p> <p>He spent $37 million of his own funds to defeat a 2010 ballot measure that would have suspended California's landmark climate change law and to pass Proposition 39 in November, which closed a corporate tax loophole that could mean billions of dollars for energy efficiency projects at public schools.</p> <p>Steyer, who increasingly is mentioned as a possible future candidate for governor in California, has become a leading opponent to Keystone XL.</p> <p>Proponents say it would create thousands of much-needed jobs, while opponents like Steyer cite studies suggesting that just 35 permanent jobs would result at incalculable environmental costs, while shipping cheaper energy to China.</p> <p>A new Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday showed that two-thirds of Americans support construction of the pipeline, including a majority of Democrats. Despite an increase in those who believe in global warming, the poll showed a slight drop since 2012 of those who consider it a "serious" global issue.</p> <p>"There's no question that Americans realize that climate change is the problem," Steyer said. "But the way it's been explained has been remarkably ineffective."</p> <p>Last month, Steyer created and funded a super PAC to boost the candidacy of Markey, who is running in a special election to replace former U.S. Sen, John Kerry, who resigned to become secretary of state. Markey, who is strongly anti-Keystone, is pitted against Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch, who supports the pipeline.</p> <p>Earlier this week, Steyer was in Boston on the campaign and introduced an April Fool's joke video showing oil company executives lining up to back Lynch, the candidate with the "heart of oil."</p> <p>Becky Bond, who heads Credo - one of the groups protesting Obama's San Francisco dinner event - lauded Steyer as an environmentalist who has tremendous credibility with the grassroots because he "cares deeply about this issue and is putting all of his resources behind fighting it."</p> <p>"We know that money talks when it comes to politicians - and the president is no different," Bond said. "Where money talks, the oil industry lobbyists have tremendous access," she said. "We'll be outside - and we have to speak a lot louder to make sure our voices will be heard."</p> <p>Carla Marinucci is The San Francisco Chronicle's senior political writer. E-mail: <a href="" type="internal">cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com</a> Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/cmarinucci" type="external">@cmarinucci</a></p>

<p /> <p><a href="" type="internal">Hulu</a> LLC will begin streaming TV shows from Spanish-language broadcaster <a href="" type="internal">Univision Communications</a> Inc. later this year, the companies said Wednesday.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>The deal will give video site Hulu its first big cache of Spanish-language content from the company whose eponymous channel is the most watched Spanish-language TV outlet in the US.</p> <p>The new offering will include access to new and old telenovelas, variety shows and reality series from Univision's TV networks, which include sister channels Telefutura and cable channel Galavision.</p> <p>Only a "selection" of Univision's new programming will be available for free on Hulu the day after the shows air on Univision networks. Deeper access, including libraries of older shows, will be reserved for subscribers to Hulu Plus, which costs $7.99 per month, the companies said.</p> <p>Hulu is owned by <a href="" type="internal">Walt Disney</a> Co., <a href="" type="internal">News Corp</a>., <a href="" type="internal">Comcast</a> Corp. and Providence Equity Partners. News Corp. also owns NewsCore and The <a href="" type="internal">Wall Street Journal</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203388804576612813449866294.html" type="external">Read more&#8230; Opens a New Window.</a></p>

Hulu to Add Univision Spanish-Language Video

http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/10/05/hulu-to-add-univision-spanish-language-video.html

2016-03-04

0right

Hulu to Add Univision Spanish-Language Video <p /> <p><a href="" type="internal">Hulu</a> LLC will begin streaming TV shows from Spanish-language broadcaster <a href="" type="internal">Univision Communications</a> Inc. later this year, the companies said Wednesday.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>The deal will give video site Hulu its first big cache of Spanish-language content from the company whose eponymous channel is the most watched Spanish-language TV outlet in the US.</p> <p>The new offering will include access to new and old telenovelas, variety shows and reality series from Univision's TV networks, which include sister channels Telefutura and cable channel Galavision.</p> <p>Only a "selection" of Univision's new programming will be available for free on Hulu the day after the shows air on Univision networks. Deeper access, including libraries of older shows, will be reserved for subscribers to Hulu Plus, which costs $7.99 per month, the companies said.</p> <p>Hulu is owned by <a href="" type="internal">Walt Disney</a> Co., <a href="" type="internal">News Corp</a>., <a href="" type="internal">Comcast</a> Corp. and Providence Equity Partners. News Corp. also owns NewsCore and The <a href="" type="internal">Wall Street Journal</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203388804576612813449866294.html" type="external">Read more&#8230; Opens a New Window.</a></p>

<p>I guess this time it&#8217;s really going to happen, says an Israeli expert. &#8220;It,&#8221; meaning the separation fence between the U.S. and Mexico. He has been following the debate surrounding this fence with curiosity, and some amusement. So, he asks, &#8220;what should we call it? A fence or a wall?&#8221;</p> <p>The Washington Post had a long story last weekend about American and Mexican communities along the Texas border. These communities will be influenced by the new fence &#8211; if it is built &#8211; and by any force trying to interrupt the daily flow of people and goods from one side of the border to the other. It&#8217;s a story reminiscent of the one of Palestinian workers and commuters and farmers finding it difficult to adjust to the reality of an actual, not imaginary, border.</p> <p>Two weeks ago, I attended a panel discussion during which a New York Times editor explained why the paper chose &#8220;barrier&#8221; as the word to best describe the Israeli fence and wall along the West Bank. The word&#8217;s not perfect, but it&#8217;s somewhat more neutral. The anonymous Israeli expert is eagerly waiting to see what kind of barrier the Americans will be building. And he is more than ready to offer some advice (free of charge, but also of commitment). And he is not the first or only one to do so. American officials, and even more so, politicians, sought some advice from Israel on this matter in the past - and according to some knowledgeable people, are expected to do so even more in the near future. Former California Governor Pete Wilson cited the Israeli fence as a model for the U.S. in an article he wrote for the Investor&#8217;s Business Daily. So here is some of what our Israeli expert has to say about it:</p> <p>Money: It will probably cost more than you think. Why? Because that&#8217;s always the way it is with such projects. Americans, the Israeli says, tend to be very structured in their work, in a way that has many benefits but also some limitations. It means that they waste a lot of money on &#8220;process&#8221; and &#8220;management&#8221; and &#8220;studies&#8221; before they really act. They make no short-cuts, thus save no money. In the last issue of The National Journal, the Israeli fence is mentioned as the example to use when calculating the cost of such a fence (2000 mile fence = $6.4 billion dollars). The Israeli expert thinks the Americans will end up paying more.</p> <p>Efficiency: It can work, the expert says - and other Israeli know-hows agree. Don&#8217;t buy the argument of liberal opponents who say &#8220;no fence can stop people from coming.&#8221; If done in a proper way, the fence can work. It can achieve whatever goal the U.S. wants it to, &#8220;100 percent, 90 percent, 80 percent prevention. Just make the right commitment and you'll get results.&#8221;</p> <p>Tactics: Don&#8217;t just rely on sophisticated machinery and equipment. You need people on the ground using the equipment to pursue the invaders. They need to react fast, they need intelligence, and they need to be tireless. It will only take a couple of months before the flow of immigrants will become much weaker.</p> <p>Intelligence: Recruit people on the Mexican side to be your eyes and ears and to tell you what the smugglers are up to. Make sure you can communicate fast, and react even faster. Good intelligence can be the key factor for success.</p> <p>Routine: The smugglers will be inventive and will look for ways around you. If you stick to some regulated routine, you&#8217;ll end up wasting your time and your money. Surprise them where they don&#8217;t expect you, make them understand that no place is safe, no route out of reach. &#8220;Don&#8217;t police them, fight them.&#8221;</p> <p>Ruthlessness: Is it really important for the Americans? If it is, they should be prepared to show it. &#8220;Make the other side understand that this is no game &#8211; that life can be in danger,&#8221; says the expert. &#8220;I know this is the toughest advice of all, but short of doing it the Americans will end up pretending to stop illegal immigrants rather than really doing it. At the end of the day, it is very simple: America is more powerful than the smugglers &#8211; meaning, it can deter them from doing what they do.&#8221; But there&#8217;s one condition necessary to keep this preponderance of power working: &#8220;It should be as important for America to stop the illegal new comers as it is for them to come.&#8221;</p> <p>Danger: You mean they have to shoot the smugglers? &#8220;No, they have to stop them. But if they run away they have to chase them, and if they resist they need to use force. Eventually, they&#8217;ll end up doing things you don&#8217;t want people to watch on television. I&#8217;m not sure if they have the resolve and the stomach to do it. Maybe it&#8217;s not as important for them as they claim it is.&#8221;</p> <p>Conduct: Corruption can be a serious problem on the sealed border. As it gets tougher to enter the U.S, people will be ready to pay a high price for it, and the temptation to help those people in something one shouldn&#8217;t underestimate. Take it into account while devising the system.</p> <p>SHMUEL ROSNER writes for Ha&#8217;aretz.</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p>

Israeli Advice on Wall-Building

https://counterpunch.org/2006/05/24/israeli-advice-on-wall-building/

2006-05-24

4left

Israeli Advice on Wall-Building <p>I guess this time it&#8217;s really going to happen, says an Israeli expert. &#8220;It,&#8221; meaning the separation fence between the U.S. and Mexico. He has been following the debate surrounding this fence with curiosity, and some amusement. So, he asks, &#8220;what should we call it? A fence or a wall?&#8221;</p> <p>The Washington Post had a long story last weekend about American and Mexican communities along the Texas border. These communities will be influenced by the new fence &#8211; if it is built &#8211; and by any force trying to interrupt the daily flow of people and goods from one side of the border to the other. It&#8217;s a story reminiscent of the one of Palestinian workers and commuters and farmers finding it difficult to adjust to the reality of an actual, not imaginary, border.</p> <p>Two weeks ago, I attended a panel discussion during which a New York Times editor explained why the paper chose &#8220;barrier&#8221; as the word to best describe the Israeli fence and wall along the West Bank. The word&#8217;s not perfect, but it&#8217;s somewhat more neutral. The anonymous Israeli expert is eagerly waiting to see what kind of barrier the Americans will be building. And he is more than ready to offer some advice (free of charge, but also of commitment). And he is not the first or only one to do so. American officials, and even more so, politicians, sought some advice from Israel on this matter in the past - and according to some knowledgeable people, are expected to do so even more in the near future. Former California Governor Pete Wilson cited the Israeli fence as a model for the U.S. in an article he wrote for the Investor&#8217;s Business Daily. So here is some of what our Israeli expert has to say about it:</p> <p>Money: It will probably cost more than you think. Why? Because that&#8217;s always the way it is with such projects. Americans, the Israeli says, tend to be very structured in their work, in a way that has many benefits but also some limitations. It means that they waste a lot of money on &#8220;process&#8221; and &#8220;management&#8221; and &#8220;studies&#8221; before they really act. They make no short-cuts, thus save no money. In the last issue of The National Journal, the Israeli fence is mentioned as the example to use when calculating the cost of such a fence (2000 mile fence = $6.4 billion dollars). The Israeli expert thinks the Americans will end up paying more.</p> <p>Efficiency: It can work, the expert says - and other Israeli know-hows agree. Don&#8217;t buy the argument of liberal opponents who say &#8220;no fence can stop people from coming.&#8221; If done in a proper way, the fence can work. It can achieve whatever goal the U.S. wants it to, &#8220;100 percent, 90 percent, 80 percent prevention. Just make the right commitment and you'll get results.&#8221;</p> <p>Tactics: Don&#8217;t just rely on sophisticated machinery and equipment. You need people on the ground using the equipment to pursue the invaders. They need to react fast, they need intelligence, and they need to be tireless. It will only take a couple of months before the flow of immigrants will become much weaker.</p> <p>Intelligence: Recruit people on the Mexican side to be your eyes and ears and to tell you what the smugglers are up to. Make sure you can communicate fast, and react even faster. Good intelligence can be the key factor for success.</p> <p>Routine: The smugglers will be inventive and will look for ways around you. If you stick to some regulated routine, you&#8217;ll end up wasting your time and your money. Surprise them where they don&#8217;t expect you, make them understand that no place is safe, no route out of reach. &#8220;Don&#8217;t police them, fight them.&#8221;</p> <p>Ruthlessness: Is it really important for the Americans? If it is, they should be prepared to show it. &#8220;Make the other side understand that this is no game &#8211; that life can be in danger,&#8221; says the expert. &#8220;I know this is the toughest advice of all, but short of doing it the Americans will end up pretending to stop illegal immigrants rather than really doing it. At the end of the day, it is very simple: America is more powerful than the smugglers &#8211; meaning, it can deter them from doing what they do.&#8221; But there&#8217;s one condition necessary to keep this preponderance of power working: &#8220;It should be as important for America to stop the illegal new comers as it is for them to come.&#8221;</p> <p>Danger: You mean they have to shoot the smugglers? &#8220;No, they have to stop them. But if they run away they have to chase them, and if they resist they need to use force. Eventually, they&#8217;ll end up doing things you don&#8217;t want people to watch on television. I&#8217;m not sure if they have the resolve and the stomach to do it. Maybe it&#8217;s not as important for them as they claim it is.&#8221;</p> <p>Conduct: Corruption can be a serious problem on the sealed border. As it gets tougher to enter the U.S, people will be ready to pay a high price for it, and the temptation to help those people in something one shouldn&#8217;t underestimate. Take it into account while devising the system.</p> <p>SHMUEL ROSNER writes for Ha&#8217;aretz.</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p>

<p>The PTS (Partido de Trabajadores Socialistas) from Argentina expresses its solidarity with the four postal workers of the Paris Arrondissement 92 who were arrested on May 21st. They have been leading a strike against precarious employment and dismissals for more than 3 months. We send our solidarity to the strikers and the NPA, the political organisation of Ga??l Quirante, one of the detainees. We condemn the Hollande government???s persecution of the workers and its criminalization of social protest and we demand their immediate release.</p> <p>As part of an international campaign, deputies, legislators and leading members of the PTS and the FIT express their condemnation of these repressive measures.</p> <p>Nicol??s Del Ca??o (National deputy - PTS/FIT)</p> <p>Christian Castillo (Provincial deputy- PTS/FIT)</p>

France: solidarity with the four postal workers of the Paris Arrondissement 92

https://leftvoice.org/France-solidarity-with-the-four-postal-workers-of-the-Paris-Arrondissement-92

2014-05-21

4left

France: solidarity with the four postal workers of the Paris Arrondissement 92 <p>The PTS (Partido de Trabajadores Socialistas) from Argentina expresses its solidarity with the four postal workers of the Paris Arrondissement 92 who were arrested on May 21st. They have been leading a strike against precarious employment and dismissals for more than 3 months. We send our solidarity to the strikers and the NPA, the political organisation of Ga??l Quirante, one of the detainees. We condemn the Hollande government???s persecution of the workers and its criminalization of social protest and we demand their immediate release.</p> <p>As part of an international campaign, deputies, legislators and leading members of the PTS and the FIT express their condemnation of these repressive measures.</p> <p>Nicol??s Del Ca??o (National deputy - PTS/FIT)</p> <p>Christian Castillo (Provincial deputy- PTS/FIT)</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>There are 30 million people in the USA taking these drugs long term. It is an epidemic. How can we change this?</p> <p>A. You&#8217;re quite right that proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) medicines, such as esomeprazole (Nexium), omeprazole (Prilosec) and pantoprazole (Protonix), have been linked to a higher risk of hip fractures (Annals of Epidemiology, April 2014). This connection has been apparent since 2006 (JAMA, Dec. 27, 2006).</p> <p>Other complications of PPIs include significantly greater risks of developing pneumonia, Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection and magnesium, iron or vitamin B-12 malabsorption, as well as a blood disorder called thrombocytopenia that may lead to excessive bleeding (Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, July 2013). Both patients and prescribers should be aware of these hazards, so that the drugs are used only when necessary and for the shortest possible time.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>If you wonder how to manage heartburn without a PPI, you may be interested in the measures we discuss in our Guide to Digestive Disorders. Anyone who would like a copy, please send $3 in check or money order with a long (No. 10), stamped (70 cents), self-addressed envelope to: Graedons&#8217; People&#8217;s Pharmacy, No. G-3, P.O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027. It also can be downloaded for $2 from our website: <a href="http://www.peoplespharmacy.com" type="external">peoplespharmacy.com</a>.</p> <p>Q. Is there any treatment for Peyronie&#8217;s disease on the horizon? I am wondering about effectiveness and side effects of enzymes.</p> <p>A. Peyronie&#8217;s disease is a condition in which scar tissue has formed on the side of the penis. This leads it to bend during erection, a situation that may be painful and can make sexual relations difficult. Epidemiologists believe that Peyronie&#8217;s disease may affect from 3 to 9 percent of men, possibly even more (Research and Reports in Urology online, Jan. 14, 2013).</p> <p>Doctors have tried quite a range of oral therapies for Peyronie&#8217;s disease, from vitamin E and potassium para-aminobenzoate (Potaba) to colchicine and tamoxifen. Most of these did not help, although l-carnitine and pentoxifylline (Trental) reduced the curvature.</p> <p>In 2013, the Food and Drug Administration approved an injectable collagenase enzyme (Xiaflex) for treating Peyronie&#8217;s disease. This medicine reduces penile curvature. Side effects include bruising, swelling and pain at the injection site. Because Xiaflex can cause penile fracture, however, the FDA restricts prescribing to health care professionals who are experienced in its use.</p> <p>Q. Recently, my husband took tramadol after back surgery. He also was taking an SSRI anti-depressant.</p> <p>He suffered severe hallucinations and sleep-talking throughout the night. The emergency room doctor suspected serotonin toxicity from the combination of tramadol and the SSRI. It took almost a week for him to get back to normal without tramadol.</p> <p>A. Because tramadol is considered a pain medication, doctors sometimes don&#8217;t think of it as interacting with serotonin-based antidepressants, such as citalopram or fluoxetine, to cause serotonin syndrome (American Journal of Case Reports, Dec. 19, 2014). Several case reports of such interactions have been published.</p> <p>Symptoms of serotonin syndrome include agitation, confusion, high blood pressure, rapid heart rate, muscle twitching, shivering, headache and diarrhea. Severe cases can result in high fever, unconsciousness or even death.</p> <p>In their column, Joe and Teresa Graedon answer letters from readers. Write to them in care of this newspaper or email them via their website: <a href="http://www.peoplespharmacy.com" type="external">peoplespharmacy.com</a>. Their newest book is &#8220;Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them.&#8221;</p> <p /> <p />

Heartburn drugs can have bad side effects

https://abqjournal.com/547885/heartburn-drugs-can-have-bad-side-effects.html

2least

Heartburn drugs can have bad side effects <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>There are 30 million people in the USA taking these drugs long term. It is an epidemic. How can we change this?</p> <p>A. You&#8217;re quite right that proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) medicines, such as esomeprazole (Nexium), omeprazole (Prilosec) and pantoprazole (Protonix), have been linked to a higher risk of hip fractures (Annals of Epidemiology, April 2014). This connection has been apparent since 2006 (JAMA, Dec. 27, 2006).</p> <p>Other complications of PPIs include significantly greater risks of developing pneumonia, Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection and magnesium, iron or vitamin B-12 malabsorption, as well as a blood disorder called thrombocytopenia that may lead to excessive bleeding (Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, July 2013). Both patients and prescribers should be aware of these hazards, so that the drugs are used only when necessary and for the shortest possible time.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>If you wonder how to manage heartburn without a PPI, you may be interested in the measures we discuss in our Guide to Digestive Disorders. Anyone who would like a copy, please send $3 in check or money order with a long (No. 10), stamped (70 cents), self-addressed envelope to: Graedons&#8217; People&#8217;s Pharmacy, No. G-3, P.O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027. It also can be downloaded for $2 from our website: <a href="http://www.peoplespharmacy.com" type="external">peoplespharmacy.com</a>.</p> <p>Q. Is there any treatment for Peyronie&#8217;s disease on the horizon? I am wondering about effectiveness and side effects of enzymes.</p> <p>A. Peyronie&#8217;s disease is a condition in which scar tissue has formed on the side of the penis. This leads it to bend during erection, a situation that may be painful and can make sexual relations difficult. Epidemiologists believe that Peyronie&#8217;s disease may affect from 3 to 9 percent of men, possibly even more (Research and Reports in Urology online, Jan. 14, 2013).</p> <p>Doctors have tried quite a range of oral therapies for Peyronie&#8217;s disease, from vitamin E and potassium para-aminobenzoate (Potaba) to colchicine and tamoxifen. Most of these did not help, although l-carnitine and pentoxifylline (Trental) reduced the curvature.</p> <p>In 2013, the Food and Drug Administration approved an injectable collagenase enzyme (Xiaflex) for treating Peyronie&#8217;s disease. This medicine reduces penile curvature. Side effects include bruising, swelling and pain at the injection site. Because Xiaflex can cause penile fracture, however, the FDA restricts prescribing to health care professionals who are experienced in its use.</p> <p>Q. Recently, my husband took tramadol after back surgery. He also was taking an SSRI anti-depressant.</p> <p>He suffered severe hallucinations and sleep-talking throughout the night. The emergency room doctor suspected serotonin toxicity from the combination of tramadol and the SSRI. It took almost a week for him to get back to normal without tramadol.</p> <p>A. Because tramadol is considered a pain medication, doctors sometimes don&#8217;t think of it as interacting with serotonin-based antidepressants, such as citalopram or fluoxetine, to cause serotonin syndrome (American Journal of Case Reports, Dec. 19, 2014). Several case reports of such interactions have been published.</p> <p>Symptoms of serotonin syndrome include agitation, confusion, high blood pressure, rapid heart rate, muscle twitching, shivering, headache and diarrhea. Severe cases can result in high fever, unconsciousness or even death.</p> <p>In their column, Joe and Teresa Graedon answer letters from readers. Write to them in care of this newspaper or email them via their website: <a href="http://www.peoplespharmacy.com" type="external">peoplespharmacy.com</a>. Their newest book is &#8220;Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them.&#8221;</p> <p /> <p />

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p>WASHINGTON &#8212; Transgender recruits will be allowed to enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, the Pentagon said Monday, as President Donald Trump&#8217;s ordered ban suffered more legal setbacks.</p> <p>The new policy reflects the difficult hurdles the federal government would have to cross to enforce Trump&#8217;s demand earlier this year to bar transgender individuals from the military.</p> <p>Three federal courts have ruled against the ban, including one Monday in Washington state.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>In October, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly barred the Trump administration from proceeding with its plan to exclude transgender people from military service. Part of the effect of the ruling was that the military would be required to allow transgender people to enlist beginning Jan. 1.</p> <p>The government had asked Kollar-Kotelly to put the Jan. 1 date on hold while they appealed her full ruling but she declined Monday, reaffirming the Jan. 1 start date. The Department of Justice is now asking a federal appeals court to intervene and put the Jan. 1 requirement on hold.</p> <p>Potential transgender recruits will have to overcome a lengthy and strict set of physical, medical and mental conditions that could make it difficult for them to join the armed services.</p> <p>Maj. David Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, said the enlistment of transgender recruits will begin next month and proceed amid legal battles. The Defense Department also is doing a review, which is expected to carry into 2018.</p> <p>Eastburn told The Associated Press on Monday that the new guidelines mean the Pentagon can disqualify potential recruits with gender dysphoria, a history of medical treatments associated with gender transition and those who underwent reconstruction. But such recruits are allowed in if a medical provider certifies they&#8217;ve been clinically stable in their preferred sex for 18 months and are free of significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas.</p> <p>Transgender individuals receiving hormone therapy must be stable on their medication for 18 months.</p> <p>The requirements make it challenging for a transgender recruit to pass. But they mirror concerns President Barack Obama&#8217;s administration laid out when the Pentagon initially lifted its ban on transgender service last year.</p> <p>&#8220;Due to the complexity of this new medical standard, trained medical officers will perform a medical prescreen of transgender applicants for military service who otherwise meet all applicable applicant standards,&#8221; Eastburn said.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Aaron Belkin, director of the California-based Palm Center, an independent institute that has conducted research on sexual minorities in the military, said the 18-month timeline is fair.</p> <p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a good standard because the Pentagon is treating gender dysphoria according to the same standards that are applied to all medical conditions,&#8221; he said.</p> <p>However, Elaine Donnelly, president for the Center For Military readiness, said Trump &#8220;has every right to review, revise, or repeal his predecessor&#8217;s military transgender policies, which would detract from mission readiness and combat lethality.&#8221; Court judges, she said, are not qualified to run the military.</p> <p>The Pentagon move Monday signals the growing sense within the government that authorities are likely to lose the legal fight.</p> <p>&#8220;The controversy will not be about whether you allow transgender enlistees, it&#8217;s going to be on what terms,&#8221; said Brad Carson, who was deeply involved in the last administration&#8217;s decisions. &#8220;That&#8217;s really where the controversy will lie.&#8221;</p> <p>Carson worried, however, that the Defense Department could opt to comply with a deadline on allowing transgender recruits, but &#8220;under such onerous terms that practically there will be none.&#8221; Carson, who worked for Carter as the acting undersecretary of defense for personnel, said requiring 18 months of stability in the preferred sex is a reasonable time.</p> <p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t have any basis in science,&#8221; he said, noting that experts have suggested six months is enough. &#8220;But as a compromise among competing interests and perhaps to err on the side of caution, 18 months was what people came around to. And that&#8217;s a reasonable position and defensible.&#8221;</p> <p>Sarah McBride, spokeswoman for Human Rights Campaign, praised the court&#8217;s ruling, saying that it affirms &#8220;there is simply no legitimate reason to forbid willing and able transgender Americans from serving their country.&#8221;</p> <p>___</p> <p>Associated Press writer Jessica Gresko in Washington contributed to this report.</p>

Pentagon to allow transgender people to enlist in military

https://abqjournal.com/1105213/transgender-people-can-enlist-in-military-jan-1.html

2017-12-11

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Pentagon to allow transgender people to enlist in military <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p>WASHINGTON &#8212; Transgender recruits will be allowed to enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, the Pentagon said Monday, as President Donald Trump&#8217;s ordered ban suffered more legal setbacks.</p> <p>The new policy reflects the difficult hurdles the federal government would have to cross to enforce Trump&#8217;s demand earlier this year to bar transgender individuals from the military.</p> <p>Three federal courts have ruled against the ban, including one Monday in Washington state.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>In October, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly barred the Trump administration from proceeding with its plan to exclude transgender people from military service. Part of the effect of the ruling was that the military would be required to allow transgender people to enlist beginning Jan. 1.</p> <p>The government had asked Kollar-Kotelly to put the Jan. 1 date on hold while they appealed her full ruling but she declined Monday, reaffirming the Jan. 1 start date. The Department of Justice is now asking a federal appeals court to intervene and put the Jan. 1 requirement on hold.</p> <p>Potential transgender recruits will have to overcome a lengthy and strict set of physical, medical and mental conditions that could make it difficult for them to join the armed services.</p> <p>Maj. David Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, said the enlistment of transgender recruits will begin next month and proceed amid legal battles. The Defense Department also is doing a review, which is expected to carry into 2018.</p> <p>Eastburn told The Associated Press on Monday that the new guidelines mean the Pentagon can disqualify potential recruits with gender dysphoria, a history of medical treatments associated with gender transition and those who underwent reconstruction. But such recruits are allowed in if a medical provider certifies they&#8217;ve been clinically stable in their preferred sex for 18 months and are free of significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas.</p> <p>Transgender individuals receiving hormone therapy must be stable on their medication for 18 months.</p> <p>The requirements make it challenging for a transgender recruit to pass. But they mirror concerns President Barack Obama&#8217;s administration laid out when the Pentagon initially lifted its ban on transgender service last year.</p> <p>&#8220;Due to the complexity of this new medical standard, trained medical officers will perform a medical prescreen of transgender applicants for military service who otherwise meet all applicable applicant standards,&#8221; Eastburn said.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Aaron Belkin, director of the California-based Palm Center, an independent institute that has conducted research on sexual minorities in the military, said the 18-month timeline is fair.</p> <p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a good standard because the Pentagon is treating gender dysphoria according to the same standards that are applied to all medical conditions,&#8221; he said.</p> <p>However, Elaine Donnelly, president for the Center For Military readiness, said Trump &#8220;has every right to review, revise, or repeal his predecessor&#8217;s military transgender policies, which would detract from mission readiness and combat lethality.&#8221; Court judges, she said, are not qualified to run the military.</p> <p>The Pentagon move Monday signals the growing sense within the government that authorities are likely to lose the legal fight.</p> <p>&#8220;The controversy will not be about whether you allow transgender enlistees, it&#8217;s going to be on what terms,&#8221; said Brad Carson, who was deeply involved in the last administration&#8217;s decisions. &#8220;That&#8217;s really where the controversy will lie.&#8221;</p> <p>Carson worried, however, that the Defense Department could opt to comply with a deadline on allowing transgender recruits, but &#8220;under such onerous terms that practically there will be none.&#8221; Carson, who worked for Carter as the acting undersecretary of defense for personnel, said requiring 18 months of stability in the preferred sex is a reasonable time.</p> <p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t have any basis in science,&#8221; he said, noting that experts have suggested six months is enough. &#8220;But as a compromise among competing interests and perhaps to err on the side of caution, 18 months was what people came around to. And that&#8217;s a reasonable position and defensible.&#8221;</p> <p>Sarah McBride, spokeswoman for Human Rights Campaign, praised the court&#8217;s ruling, saying that it affirms &#8220;there is simply no legitimate reason to forbid willing and able transgender Americans from serving their country.&#8221;</p> <p>___</p> <p>Associated Press writer Jessica Gresko in Washington contributed to this report.</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>It&#8217;s a beautiful sight, those flags cascading over the green hills of the Vista Verde Memorial Park off Sara Road in Rio Rancho. But it&#8217;s a somber one, reflective, reminiscent of a day in which so much was lost, so many were lost.</p> <p>Nieves Garcia adds his own touch to sheets of paper bearing the images of white doves in August at Cibola High School. (Joline Gutierrez Krueger/Albuquerque Journal)</p> <p>Half of the flags &#8211; 2,998 of them &#8211; are small versions of Old Glory; the other half bear the image of a white peace dove and the handwritten name of one of the 2,998 souls who died Sept. 11, 2001, in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon or a rural Pennsylvania field when evil breached our shores.</p> <p>The flags were placed early Friday by a band of volunteers, some who have risen with the dawn for flag duty all six years the memorial has been held at Vista Verde.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>&#8220;The event has grown every year,&#8221; said Joan Stasi of Daniels Family Funeral Services, which organizes the memorial. &#8220;And every year, it seems to touch more and more people.&#8221;</p> <p>The flags are traditionally set out days before 9/11 to draw attention, and not just for the day of the memorial service &#8211; which involves everything from bagpipes to the release of live doves into the heavens.</p> <p>Flying the flags for one day seems not enough.</p> <p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a chance to say, stop, take a moment, take a look, and remember,&#8221; Stasi said. &#8220;So many motorists pull in and do that. They ask about this. We stand outside and pass out pins and explain why we do this, why we remember, who we remember. It&#8217;s putting action into the words, &#8216;We will not forget.&#8217; &#8221;</p> <p>And we will continue to teach.</p> <p>On Aug. 11, other volunteers, some of whom had not yet been born in 2001, gathered in the lobby of Cibola High School to write in the 2,998 names on the white dove flags.</p> <p>Many of the volunteers came from law enforcement agencies and fire departments and the Albuquerque Area Firefighters Random Acts, which, as the name implies, is a group of firefighters who even on their days off continue to give back to the communities they serve by doing good deeds for people in need. Other volunteers came from the Children&#8217;s Cancer Fund of New Mexico, including Nieves Garcia, who at age 5 is too young to remember 9/11. But as a kid battling leukemia, he knows a little something about the fragility of life.</p> <p>Nieves led the volunteers in the Pledge of Allegiance before they all sat down to work, his Mickey Mouse wizard hat from his Make a Wish trip to Disney World askew atop his head.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>To him went the job of applying glittery stars on the dove flags and chatting with the other children in the group.</p> <p>&#8220;He&#8217;s such a brave, funny little boy,&#8221; said Diana Trujeque, the fund&#8217;s executive director, who, along with husband George, founded the nonprofit in honor of their son, Erin, who died of cancer when he was 12.</p> <p>Trujeque said her group volunteers for the 9/11 effort not just because of the day itself but because her group partners with Daniels Family Funeral Services to provide services and care should a child die.</p> <p>This year&#8217;s memorial also honors the chaplains, whose job that day and every day is to provide comfort in times of loss. Special recognition will be paid to Sandoval County Fire Department Chaplain Kathy Thibodeaux, Albuquerque Fire Department Chaplain Patrick McKinney and Bernalillo County Fire Department Chaplains Matt Caward and Bill Henson.</p> <p>&#8220;They&#8217;re a blanket of comfort for our first responders and for the families in crisis,&#8221; Stasi said.</p> <p>Comfort was so necessary in those dark hours and days after that day. So was that sense of community, that coming together to grieve, to remember, to honor.</p> <p>They are still necessary 12 years later. These flags, created and posted in their annual place of honor in Rio Rancho by this community of volunteers, help provide that, action into words, never forgetting.</p> <p>UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, <a href="" type="internal">jkrueger@abqjournal.com</a> or follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jolinegkg" type="external">@jolinegkg</a>. Go to <a href="" type="internal">ABQjournal.com/letters/new</a> to submit a letter to the editor.</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p /> <p />

Rio Rancho remembers the victims of Sept. 11

https://abqjournal.com/259920/rio-rancho-remembers-the-victims-of-sept-11.html

2013-09-09

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Rio Rancho remembers the victims of Sept. 11 <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>It&#8217;s a beautiful sight, those flags cascading over the green hills of the Vista Verde Memorial Park off Sara Road in Rio Rancho. But it&#8217;s a somber one, reflective, reminiscent of a day in which so much was lost, so many were lost.</p> <p>Nieves Garcia adds his own touch to sheets of paper bearing the images of white doves in August at Cibola High School. (Joline Gutierrez Krueger/Albuquerque Journal)</p> <p>Half of the flags &#8211; 2,998 of them &#8211; are small versions of Old Glory; the other half bear the image of a white peace dove and the handwritten name of one of the 2,998 souls who died Sept. 11, 2001, in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon or a rural Pennsylvania field when evil breached our shores.</p> <p>The flags were placed early Friday by a band of volunteers, some who have risen with the dawn for flag duty all six years the memorial has been held at Vista Verde.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>&#8220;The event has grown every year,&#8221; said Joan Stasi of Daniels Family Funeral Services, which organizes the memorial. &#8220;And every year, it seems to touch more and more people.&#8221;</p> <p>The flags are traditionally set out days before 9/11 to draw attention, and not just for the day of the memorial service &#8211; which involves everything from bagpipes to the release of live doves into the heavens.</p> <p>Flying the flags for one day seems not enough.</p> <p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a chance to say, stop, take a moment, take a look, and remember,&#8221; Stasi said. &#8220;So many motorists pull in and do that. They ask about this. We stand outside and pass out pins and explain why we do this, why we remember, who we remember. It&#8217;s putting action into the words, &#8216;We will not forget.&#8217; &#8221;</p> <p>And we will continue to teach.</p> <p>On Aug. 11, other volunteers, some of whom had not yet been born in 2001, gathered in the lobby of Cibola High School to write in the 2,998 names on the white dove flags.</p> <p>Many of the volunteers came from law enforcement agencies and fire departments and the Albuquerque Area Firefighters Random Acts, which, as the name implies, is a group of firefighters who even on their days off continue to give back to the communities they serve by doing good deeds for people in need. Other volunteers came from the Children&#8217;s Cancer Fund of New Mexico, including Nieves Garcia, who at age 5 is too young to remember 9/11. But as a kid battling leukemia, he knows a little something about the fragility of life.</p> <p>Nieves led the volunteers in the Pledge of Allegiance before they all sat down to work, his Mickey Mouse wizard hat from his Make a Wish trip to Disney World askew atop his head.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>To him went the job of applying glittery stars on the dove flags and chatting with the other children in the group.</p> <p>&#8220;He&#8217;s such a brave, funny little boy,&#8221; said Diana Trujeque, the fund&#8217;s executive director, who, along with husband George, founded the nonprofit in honor of their son, Erin, who died of cancer when he was 12.</p> <p>Trujeque said her group volunteers for the 9/11 effort not just because of the day itself but because her group partners with Daniels Family Funeral Services to provide services and care should a child die.</p> <p>This year&#8217;s memorial also honors the chaplains, whose job that day and every day is to provide comfort in times of loss. Special recognition will be paid to Sandoval County Fire Department Chaplain Kathy Thibodeaux, Albuquerque Fire Department Chaplain Patrick McKinney and Bernalillo County Fire Department Chaplains Matt Caward and Bill Henson.</p> <p>&#8220;They&#8217;re a blanket of comfort for our first responders and for the families in crisis,&#8221; Stasi said.</p> <p>Comfort was so necessary in those dark hours and days after that day. So was that sense of community, that coming together to grieve, to remember, to honor.</p> <p>They are still necessary 12 years later. These flags, created and posted in their annual place of honor in Rio Rancho by this community of volunteers, help provide that, action into words, never forgetting.</p> <p>UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, <a href="" type="internal">jkrueger@abqjournal.com</a> or follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jolinegkg" type="external">@jolinegkg</a>. Go to <a href="" type="internal">ABQjournal.com/letters/new</a> to submit a letter to the editor.</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p /> <p />

<p>Name: HRE Performance Wheels, Inc Founded: 1978 Location: Vista, Calif. CEO: Chris Luhnow President: Alan Peltier Manufacturing: Vista, Calif. Employees: 40 HRE Perfomance Wheels manufactures built-to-order forged wheels for ultra-high end sports, luxury and race cars. Prices for a set of four wheels range from $5,000 to $10,000. The company sources raw forgings from Aluminum Precision Products in Orange County and all design, engineering, CNC machining and finishes are done in-house in Vista, CA. Company president Alan Peltier shares his story:</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p>

Making it in the U.S.A: HRE Performance Wheels

http://foxbusiness.com/slideshow/sbc/2011/04/27/hre-performance-wheels.html

2016-03-23

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Making it in the U.S.A: HRE Performance Wheels <p>Name: HRE Performance Wheels, Inc Founded: 1978 Location: Vista, Calif. CEO: Chris Luhnow President: Alan Peltier Manufacturing: Vista, Calif. Employees: 40 HRE Perfomance Wheels manufactures built-to-order forged wheels for ultra-high end sports, luxury and race cars. Prices for a set of four wheels range from $5,000 to $10,000. The company sources raw forgings from Aluminum Precision Products in Orange County and all design, engineering, CNC machining and finishes are done in-house in Vista, CA. Company president Alan Peltier shares his story:</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p>

<p>Roche Holding AB (ROG.EB) said Thursday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted its supplemental biologics licence application for Avastin in combination with chemotherapy, as well as Avastin alone.</p> <p>The FDA is expected to make a decision on approval by June 25, 2018.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>Avastin is a drug used for cancer treatment.</p> <p>The application is part of Roche's broader development program for Avastin in the treatment ovarian cancer, the company said, adding that the drug is currently approved for treating two different forms of advanced disease that recurred after platinum-based chemotherapy.</p> <p>"We are committed to working closely with the FDA to bring this potential new treatment option to women with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer as soon as possible," Chief Medical Officer Sandra Horning said.</p> <p>Write to Marc Bisbal Arias at marc.bisbalarias@dowjones.com</p> <p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>October 26, 2017 01:58 ET (05:58 GMT)</p>

FDA Accepts Roche's Avastin Applications

http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/26/fda-accepts-roches-avastin-applications.html

2017-10-26

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FDA Accepts Roche's Avastin Applications <p>Roche Holding AB (ROG.EB) said Thursday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted its supplemental biologics licence application for Avastin in combination with chemotherapy, as well as Avastin alone.</p> <p>The FDA is expected to make a decision on approval by June 25, 2018.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>Avastin is a drug used for cancer treatment.</p> <p>The application is part of Roche's broader development program for Avastin in the treatment ovarian cancer, the company said, adding that the drug is currently approved for treating two different forms of advanced disease that recurred after platinum-based chemotherapy.</p> <p>"We are committed to working closely with the FDA to bring this potential new treatment option to women with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer as soon as possible," Chief Medical Officer Sandra Horning said.</p> <p>Write to Marc Bisbal Arias at marc.bisbalarias@dowjones.com</p> <p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>October 26, 2017 01:58 ET (05:58 GMT)</p>

<p /> <p>February is the Martha Stearns Marshall Month of Preaching. This yearly emphasis, sponsored by Baptist Women in Ministry, invites churches to have a woman preach, both as a celebration of women&#8217;s God-given giftedness and as an opportunity to educate congregations about women in ministry. The event has grown since 2007, when 55 churches participated, to 2012 when 217 churches joined the observance. Participating Mid-Atlantic churches will be listed in the Herald for those who send us the name of the guest preacher and the date. Send this information to Barbara Francis at bfrancis@religiousherald.org.</p> <p /> <p>Derbyshire Baptist Church in Richmond turns 50 years old this year. It began with a handful of pioneers from Woodland Heights Baptist Church. A &#8220;chapel&#8221; pastor was called and its first prayer service was held in a home in April 1958. A tract of land was purchased and the vision became a reality when on Sunday, Feb. 10, 1963, Derbyshire Baptist Church was constituted as a church. In 1995 Derbyshire completed a $2.2 million addition to its educational classrooms. In 2011 it completed a $400,000 renovation of the original classroom area built in 1977. Derbyshire has sponsored two missions that have become churches: Cambridge Baptist Church (1981) and Gayton Baptist Church (1989). The Cambodian Mission (1975) continues to meet in Derbyshire. The congregation will celebrate its 50th anniversary Sunday, Feb. 10 beginning at 9 a.m. with a time of fellowship. Pastor Jeff Raymond will deliver the message at the 10:30 a.m. service with several former staff members participating. James Copeland, Derbyshire&#8217;s deceased pastor emeritus, will be honored in a significant way at the service. A homecoming celebration and meal on July 14 will conclude six months of special services and activities for its 50th anniversary.</p> <p /> <p>Middle District Baptist Association is accepting applications for an under-resourced family to purchase a ministry house in western, rural Powhatan County, Va. Similar to a Habitat for Humanity home, the ministry house will be built by church volunteers. The home is designated the ministry house because it was born out of ministry when volunteers from Middle District built a home for an elderly man whose house was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. The 1,400 square foot, three-bedroom home is also intended to be a ministry to the community by providing additional affordable housing as well as an opportunity for ministry through service by the people of Middle District Baptist Association. Construction will begin upon securing an approved family. Application forms and additional information are located at www.MDBA.org.</p> <p /> <p>Woodland Baptist Church, Arrington, Va., cancelled its regular services on Sunday, Jan. 6, and invited their members to participate in a Sunday of &#8220;putting their faith into practice.&#8221; Some church members offered breakfast, worship and children&#8217;s activities on-site at the Lovingston Ridge Apartments. Volunteers also made repairs and cleaned around the WELL Center, a preschool ministry of the church. Several members chose to visit shut-ins and sick in the community. Children had the opportunity to take an imaginary trip to El Salvador through the stories and pictures of local missionaries. &#8220;Hands and Feet&#8221; Sunday is intended to be a sign of Woodland&#8217;s commitment to be a relevant presence in their community.</p>

HeraldBeat: Tracking Baptists across the Mid-Atlantic

https://baptistnews.com/article/heraldbeattrackingbaptistsacrossthemid-atlantic-31/

3left-center

HeraldBeat: Tracking Baptists across the Mid-Atlantic <p /> <p>February is the Martha Stearns Marshall Month of Preaching. This yearly emphasis, sponsored by Baptist Women in Ministry, invites churches to have a woman preach, both as a celebration of women&#8217;s God-given giftedness and as an opportunity to educate congregations about women in ministry. The event has grown since 2007, when 55 churches participated, to 2012 when 217 churches joined the observance. Participating Mid-Atlantic churches will be listed in the Herald for those who send us the name of the guest preacher and the date. Send this information to Barbara Francis at bfrancis@religiousherald.org.</p> <p /> <p>Derbyshire Baptist Church in Richmond turns 50 years old this year. It began with a handful of pioneers from Woodland Heights Baptist Church. A &#8220;chapel&#8221; pastor was called and its first prayer service was held in a home in April 1958. A tract of land was purchased and the vision became a reality when on Sunday, Feb. 10, 1963, Derbyshire Baptist Church was constituted as a church. In 1995 Derbyshire completed a $2.2 million addition to its educational classrooms. In 2011 it completed a $400,000 renovation of the original classroom area built in 1977. Derbyshire has sponsored two missions that have become churches: Cambridge Baptist Church (1981) and Gayton Baptist Church (1989). The Cambodian Mission (1975) continues to meet in Derbyshire. The congregation will celebrate its 50th anniversary Sunday, Feb. 10 beginning at 9 a.m. with a time of fellowship. Pastor Jeff Raymond will deliver the message at the 10:30 a.m. service with several former staff members participating. James Copeland, Derbyshire&#8217;s deceased pastor emeritus, will be honored in a significant way at the service. A homecoming celebration and meal on July 14 will conclude six months of special services and activities for its 50th anniversary.</p> <p /> <p>Middle District Baptist Association is accepting applications for an under-resourced family to purchase a ministry house in western, rural Powhatan County, Va. Similar to a Habitat for Humanity home, the ministry house will be built by church volunteers. The home is designated the ministry house because it was born out of ministry when volunteers from Middle District built a home for an elderly man whose house was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. The 1,400 square foot, three-bedroom home is also intended to be a ministry to the community by providing additional affordable housing as well as an opportunity for ministry through service by the people of Middle District Baptist Association. Construction will begin upon securing an approved family. Application forms and additional information are located at www.MDBA.org.</p> <p /> <p>Woodland Baptist Church, Arrington, Va., cancelled its regular services on Sunday, Jan. 6, and invited their members to participate in a Sunday of &#8220;putting their faith into practice.&#8221; Some church members offered breakfast, worship and children&#8217;s activities on-site at the Lovingston Ridge Apartments. Volunteers also made repairs and cleaned around the WELL Center, a preschool ministry of the church. Several members chose to visit shut-ins and sick in the community. Children had the opportunity to take an imaginary trip to El Salvador through the stories and pictures of local missionaries. &#8220;Hands and Feet&#8221; Sunday is intended to be a sign of Woodland&#8217;s commitment to be a relevant presence in their community.</p>

<p>The White House has admitted Tehran is in compliance with the terms of the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement &#8211; which President Trump called the &#8220;worst deal ever&#8221; &#8211; but claimed Iran is still undermining the intent of the accord and poses a threat to the region.</p> <p>Read more</p> <p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/374730-iran-nuclear-program-restart/" type="external" /></p> <p>The decision to certify that Iran is adhering to the nuclear deal came on Monday evening after extensive discussions with President Donald Trump&#8217;s national security team and the State Department, US media reported.</p> <p>The certification of Iran&#8217;s compliance must be pitched to Congress every 90 days. This is the second time the Trump administration has acknowledged Iran&#8217;s compliance, and the president reportedly told his aides he does not intend to renew the certification indefinitely, according to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/us/politics/trump-iran-nuclear-deal-recertify.html" type="external">New York Times</a>.&amp;#160;</p> <p>&#8220;I think you all know that the president has made very clear that he thought this was a bad deal &#8211; a bad deal for the United States,&#8221; White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a press <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/07/17/press-briefing-press-secretary-sean-spicer-7172017-58" type="external">briefing</a>. He chose not to elaborate on the issue until the State Department&#8217;s full statement regarding the Iran deal.</p> <p>Spicer explained Trump recertified the deal &#8220;because he had the luxury of having an entire team here, both from State [Department], DOD, [National Security Council], to review it.&#8221;&amp;#160;</p> <p>However, even despite Monday&#8217;s certification, senior administration officials bashed the nuclear deal, signaling that its future remains in question.</p> <p>Although the 2015 agreement only covers Iran&#8217;s nuclear program, administration officials accused Tehran of being &#8220;unquestionably in default of the spirit&#8221; of the deal because of its interference in neighboring countries, its human rights record and other activities, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-usa-idUSKBN1A306P?feedType=RSS&amp;amp;feedName=topNews&amp;amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;amp;utm_medium=Social" type="external">Reuters</a> reported.&amp;#160;</p> <p>Read more</p> <p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/385511-iran-us-nuclear-deal-zarif/" type="external" /></p> <p>A senior administration official said the White House is willing to &#8220;address the totality of Iran&#8217;s malign behavior&#8221; and look at ways to more strictly enforce the nuclear deal.</p> <p>&#8220;We&#8217;re in a period where we&#8217;re going to be working with our allies to explore options for addressing the [agreement&#8217;s] flaws, which there are many,&#8221; the official said.</p> <p>During his presidential campaign, Trump has consistently criticized the landmark agreement, calling it &#8220;the worst deal ever,&#8221; but had produced conflicting statement on whether the US should pull out from it or keep it in place under certain conditions.&amp;#160;</p> <p>Trump also argued the deal brokered by former President Barack Obama was a dangerous concession to Tehran, but half a year into his tenure he has not suspended it, only dubbing Iran &#8220;the main sponsor of terrorism.&#8221;</p> <p>The White House last certified Iran&#8217;s compliance with the terms of the deal in April. The <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/385244-trump-iran-nuclear-deal-review/" type="external">announcement</a> came alongside a statement by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who accused Iran of funding terrorist groupings, violating human rights and nurturing plans for a ballistic missile program.&amp;#160;</p> <p>The nuclear deal was agreed in Vienna in July 2015 after long-lasting negotiations initiated by five major world powers, including China, France, Germany, Russia, the US and Britain. Under its provisions, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief worth billions of dollars.</p>

Trump says Iran sticking to nuclear deal terms, but undermining its spirit

https://newsline.com/trump-says-iran-sticking-to-nuclear-deal-terms-but-undermining-its-spirit/

2017-07-18

1right-center

Trump says Iran sticking to nuclear deal terms, but undermining its spirit <p>The White House has admitted Tehran is in compliance with the terms of the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement &#8211; which President Trump called the &#8220;worst deal ever&#8221; &#8211; but claimed Iran is still undermining the intent of the accord and poses a threat to the region.</p> <p>Read more</p> <p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/374730-iran-nuclear-program-restart/" type="external" /></p> <p>The decision to certify that Iran is adhering to the nuclear deal came on Monday evening after extensive discussions with President Donald Trump&#8217;s national security team and the State Department, US media reported.</p> <p>The certification of Iran&#8217;s compliance must be pitched to Congress every 90 days. This is the second time the Trump administration has acknowledged Iran&#8217;s compliance, and the president reportedly told his aides he does not intend to renew the certification indefinitely, according to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/us/politics/trump-iran-nuclear-deal-recertify.html" type="external">New York Times</a>.&amp;#160;</p> <p>&#8220;I think you all know that the president has made very clear that he thought this was a bad deal &#8211; a bad deal for the United States,&#8221; White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a press <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/07/17/press-briefing-press-secretary-sean-spicer-7172017-58" type="external">briefing</a>. He chose not to elaborate on the issue until the State Department&#8217;s full statement regarding the Iran deal.</p> <p>Spicer explained Trump recertified the deal &#8220;because he had the luxury of having an entire team here, both from State [Department], DOD, [National Security Council], to review it.&#8221;&amp;#160;</p> <p>However, even despite Monday&#8217;s certification, senior administration officials bashed the nuclear deal, signaling that its future remains in question.</p> <p>Although the 2015 agreement only covers Iran&#8217;s nuclear program, administration officials accused Tehran of being &#8220;unquestionably in default of the spirit&#8221; of the deal because of its interference in neighboring countries, its human rights record and other activities, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-usa-idUSKBN1A306P?feedType=RSS&amp;amp;feedName=topNews&amp;amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;amp;utm_medium=Social" type="external">Reuters</a> reported.&amp;#160;</p> <p>Read more</p> <p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/385511-iran-us-nuclear-deal-zarif/" type="external" /></p> <p>A senior administration official said the White House is willing to &#8220;address the totality of Iran&#8217;s malign behavior&#8221; and look at ways to more strictly enforce the nuclear deal.</p> <p>&#8220;We&#8217;re in a period where we&#8217;re going to be working with our allies to explore options for addressing the [agreement&#8217;s] flaws, which there are many,&#8221; the official said.</p> <p>During his presidential campaign, Trump has consistently criticized the landmark agreement, calling it &#8220;the worst deal ever,&#8221; but had produced conflicting statement on whether the US should pull out from it or keep it in place under certain conditions.&amp;#160;</p> <p>Trump also argued the deal brokered by former President Barack Obama was a dangerous concession to Tehran, but half a year into his tenure he has not suspended it, only dubbing Iran &#8220;the main sponsor of terrorism.&#8221;</p> <p>The White House last certified Iran&#8217;s compliance with the terms of the deal in April. The <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/385244-trump-iran-nuclear-deal-review/" type="external">announcement</a> came alongside a statement by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who accused Iran of funding terrorist groupings, violating human rights and nurturing plans for a ballistic missile program.&amp;#160;</p> <p>The nuclear deal was agreed in Vienna in July 2015 after long-lasting negotiations initiated by five major world powers, including China, France, Germany, Russia, the US and Britain. Under its provisions, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief worth billions of dollars.</p>

<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) &#8212; South Carolina coach Dawn Staley says whether All-American A'ja Wilson plays against No. 6 Tennessee on her sprained right ankle depends on the senior's pain tolerance.</p> <p>Wilson stepped on someone's foot late in a win over Auburn on Thursday night. She was helped off the court and missed practice Friday because she was receiving treatment.</p> <p>Staley says Wilson told her after the she would be ready to against the Lady Vols (15-1, 3-1) for the ninth-ranked Gamecocks (14-2, 3-1). Staley says the 6-foot-5 forward must be strong mentally to handle the pain from her ankle sprain if she wants to be effective against Tennessee.</p> <p>Wilson has missed four games due to injury out of 125 the past four seasons, two each during her sophomore and junior seasons.</p> <p>___</p> <p>For more AP college basketball coverage: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> <p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) &#8212; South Carolina coach Dawn Staley says whether All-American A'ja Wilson plays against No. 6 Tennessee on her sprained right ankle depends on the senior's pain tolerance.</p> <p>Wilson stepped on someone's foot late in a win over Auburn on Thursday night. She was helped off the court and missed practice Friday because she was receiving treatment.</p> <p>Staley says Wilson told her after the she would be ready to against the Lady Vols (15-1, 3-1) for the ninth-ranked Gamecocks (14-2, 3-1). Staley says the 6-foot-5 forward must be strong mentally to handle the pain from her ankle sprain if she wants to be effective against Tennessee.</p> <p>Wilson has missed four games due to injury out of 125 the past four seasons, two each during her sophomore and junior seasons.</p> <p>___</p> <p>For more AP college basketball coverage: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>

South Carolina F Wilson questionable for game vs Tennessee

https://apnews.com/amp/41b9b416082f4da4ad9ceacd4f717868

2018-01-12

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South Carolina F Wilson questionable for game vs Tennessee <p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) &#8212; South Carolina coach Dawn Staley says whether All-American A'ja Wilson plays against No. 6 Tennessee on her sprained right ankle depends on the senior's pain tolerance.</p> <p>Wilson stepped on someone's foot late in a win over Auburn on Thursday night. She was helped off the court and missed practice Friday because she was receiving treatment.</p> <p>Staley says Wilson told her after the she would be ready to against the Lady Vols (15-1, 3-1) for the ninth-ranked Gamecocks (14-2, 3-1). Staley says the 6-foot-5 forward must be strong mentally to handle the pain from her ankle sprain if she wants to be effective against Tennessee.</p> <p>Wilson has missed four games due to injury out of 125 the past four seasons, two each during her sophomore and junior seasons.</p> <p>___</p> <p>For more AP college basketball coverage: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> <p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) &#8212; South Carolina coach Dawn Staley says whether All-American A'ja Wilson plays against No. 6 Tennessee on her sprained right ankle depends on the senior's pain tolerance.</p> <p>Wilson stepped on someone's foot late in a win over Auburn on Thursday night. She was helped off the court and missed practice Friday because she was receiving treatment.</p> <p>Staley says Wilson told her after the she would be ready to against the Lady Vols (15-1, 3-1) for the ninth-ranked Gamecocks (14-2, 3-1). Staley says the 6-foot-5 forward must be strong mentally to handle the pain from her ankle sprain if she wants to be effective against Tennessee.</p> <p>Wilson has missed four games due to injury out of 125 the past four seasons, two each during her sophomore and junior seasons.</p> <p>___</p> <p>For more AP college basketball coverage: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>

<p>NEW YORK (AP) &#8212; Edwin Hawkins, the gospel star best known for the crossover hit &#8220;Oh Happy Day&#8221; and as a major force for contemporary inspirational music, died Monday at age 74.</p> <p>Hawkins died at his home in Pleasanton, California. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, publicist Bill Carpenter told The Associated Press.</p> <p>Along with Andrae Crouch, James Cleveland and a handful of others, Hawkins was credited as a founder of modern gospel music. Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke and numerous other singers had become mainstream stars by adapting gospel sounds to pop lyrics. Hawkins stood out for enjoying commercial success while still performing music that openly celebrated religious faith.</p> <p>An Oakland native and one of eight siblings, Hawkins was a composer, keyboardist, arranger and choir master. He had been performing with his family and in church groups since childhood and in his 20s helped form the Northern California State Youth Choir.</p> <p>Their first album, &#8220;Let Us Go into the House of the Lord,&#8221; came out in 1968 and was intended for local audiences. But radio stations in the San Francisco Bay Area began playing one of the album&#8217;s eight tracks, &#8220;Oh Happy Day,&#8221; an 18th century hymn arranged by Hawkins in call-and-response style.</p> <p>&#8220;Oh Happy Day,&#8221; featuring the vocals of Dorothy Combs Morrison, was released as a single credited to the Edwin Hawkins Singers and became a million-seller in 1969, showing there was a large market for gospel songs and for inspirational music during the turbulent era of the late 1960s.</p> <p>&#8220;I think our music was probably a blend and a crossover of everything that I was hearing during that time,&#8221; Hawkins told blackmusic.com in 2015. &#8220;We grew up hearing all kinds of music in our home. My mother, who was a devout Christian, loved the Lord and displayed that in her lifestyle.</p> <p>&#8220;My father was not a committed Christian at that time but was what you&#8217;d call a good man,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And, of course, we heard from him some R&amp;amp;B music but also a lot of country and western when we were younger kids.&#8221;</p> <p>In 1970, the Hawkins singers backed Melanie on her top 10 hit &#8220;Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)&#8221; and won a Grammy for best soul gospel performance for &#8220;Oh Happy Day.&#8221;</p> <p>Meanwhile, George Harrison would cite &#8220;Oh Happy Day&#8221; as inspiration for his hit &#8220;My Sweet Lord,&#8221; and Glen Campbell reached the adult contemporary charts with his own version of the Hawkins performance. Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis and numerous others also would record it.</p> <p>Hawkins went on to make dozens of records and won four Grammys in all, including for the songs &#8220;Every Man Wants to Be Free&#8221; and &#8220;Wonderful!&#8221; In 2007, he was voted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame. He also toured on occasion with younger brother Walter Hawkins, a Grammy winner who died in 2010.</p> <p>Edwin Hawkins is survived by his siblings Carol, Feddie, Daniel and Lynette.</p> <p>NEW YORK (AP) &#8212; Edwin Hawkins, the gospel star best known for the crossover hit &#8220;Oh Happy Day&#8221; and as a major force for contemporary inspirational music, died Monday at age 74.</p> <p>Hawkins died at his home in Pleasanton, California. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, publicist Bill Carpenter told The Associated Press.</p> <p>Along with Andrae Crouch, James Cleveland and a handful of others, Hawkins was credited as a founder of modern gospel music. Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke and numerous other singers had become mainstream stars by adapting gospel sounds to pop lyrics. Hawkins stood out for enjoying commercial success while still performing music that openly celebrated religious faith.</p> <p>An Oakland native and one of eight siblings, Hawkins was a composer, keyboardist, arranger and choir master. He had been performing with his family and in church groups since childhood and in his 20s helped form the Northern California State Youth Choir.</p> <p>Their first album, &#8220;Let Us Go into the House of the Lord,&#8221; came out in 1968 and was intended for local audiences. But radio stations in the San Francisco Bay Area began playing one of the album&#8217;s eight tracks, &#8220;Oh Happy Day,&#8221; an 18th century hymn arranged by Hawkins in call-and-response style.</p> <p>&#8220;Oh Happy Day,&#8221; featuring the vocals of Dorothy Combs Morrison, was released as a single credited to the Edwin Hawkins Singers and became a million-seller in 1969, showing there was a large market for gospel songs and for inspirational music during the turbulent era of the late 1960s.</p> <p>&#8220;I think our music was probably a blend and a crossover of everything that I was hearing during that time,&#8221; Hawkins told blackmusic.com in 2015. &#8220;We grew up hearing all kinds of music in our home. My mother, who was a devout Christian, loved the Lord and displayed that in her lifestyle.</p> <p>&#8220;My father was not a committed Christian at that time but was what you&#8217;d call a good man,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And, of course, we heard from him some R&amp;amp;B music but also a lot of country and western when we were younger kids.&#8221;</p> <p>In 1970, the Hawkins singers backed Melanie on her top 10 hit &#8220;Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)&#8221; and won a Grammy for best soul gospel performance for &#8220;Oh Happy Day.&#8221;</p> <p>Meanwhile, George Harrison would cite &#8220;Oh Happy Day&#8221; as inspiration for his hit &#8220;My Sweet Lord,&#8221; and Glen Campbell reached the adult contemporary charts with his own version of the Hawkins performance. Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis and numerous others also would record it.</p> <p>Hawkins went on to make dozens of records and won four Grammys in all, including for the songs &#8220;Every Man Wants to Be Free&#8221; and &#8220;Wonderful!&#8221; In 2007, he was voted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame. He also toured on occasion with younger brother Walter Hawkins, a Grammy winner who died in 2010.</p> <p>Edwin Hawkins is survived by his siblings Carol, Feddie, Daniel and Lynette.</p>

Gospel star Edwin Hawkins, known for ‘Oh Happy Day,’ dies

https://apnews.com/c21a210b3411497994d2f0bc4c9e72cb

2018-01-15

2least

Gospel star Edwin Hawkins, known for ‘Oh Happy Day,’ dies <p>NEW YORK (AP) &#8212; Edwin Hawkins, the gospel star best known for the crossover hit &#8220;Oh Happy Day&#8221; and as a major force for contemporary inspirational music, died Monday at age 74.</p> <p>Hawkins died at his home in Pleasanton, California. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, publicist Bill Carpenter told The Associated Press.</p> <p>Along with Andrae Crouch, James Cleveland and a handful of others, Hawkins was credited as a founder of modern gospel music. Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke and numerous other singers had become mainstream stars by adapting gospel sounds to pop lyrics. Hawkins stood out for enjoying commercial success while still performing music that openly celebrated religious faith.</p> <p>An Oakland native and one of eight siblings, Hawkins was a composer, keyboardist, arranger and choir master. He had been performing with his family and in church groups since childhood and in his 20s helped form the Northern California State Youth Choir.</p> <p>Their first album, &#8220;Let Us Go into the House of the Lord,&#8221; came out in 1968 and was intended for local audiences. But radio stations in the San Francisco Bay Area began playing one of the album&#8217;s eight tracks, &#8220;Oh Happy Day,&#8221; an 18th century hymn arranged by Hawkins in call-and-response style.</p> <p>&#8220;Oh Happy Day,&#8221; featuring the vocals of Dorothy Combs Morrison, was released as a single credited to the Edwin Hawkins Singers and became a million-seller in 1969, showing there was a large market for gospel songs and for inspirational music during the turbulent era of the late 1960s.</p> <p>&#8220;I think our music was probably a blend and a crossover of everything that I was hearing during that time,&#8221; Hawkins told blackmusic.com in 2015. &#8220;We grew up hearing all kinds of music in our home. My mother, who was a devout Christian, loved the Lord and displayed that in her lifestyle.</p> <p>&#8220;My father was not a committed Christian at that time but was what you&#8217;d call a good man,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And, of course, we heard from him some R&amp;amp;B music but also a lot of country and western when we were younger kids.&#8221;</p> <p>In 1970, the Hawkins singers backed Melanie on her top 10 hit &#8220;Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)&#8221; and won a Grammy for best soul gospel performance for &#8220;Oh Happy Day.&#8221;</p> <p>Meanwhile, George Harrison would cite &#8220;Oh Happy Day&#8221; as inspiration for his hit &#8220;My Sweet Lord,&#8221; and Glen Campbell reached the adult contemporary charts with his own version of the Hawkins performance. Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis and numerous others also would record it.</p> <p>Hawkins went on to make dozens of records and won four Grammys in all, including for the songs &#8220;Every Man Wants to Be Free&#8221; and &#8220;Wonderful!&#8221; In 2007, he was voted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame. He also toured on occasion with younger brother Walter Hawkins, a Grammy winner who died in 2010.</p> <p>Edwin Hawkins is survived by his siblings Carol, Feddie, Daniel and Lynette.</p> <p>NEW YORK (AP) &#8212; Edwin Hawkins, the gospel star best known for the crossover hit &#8220;Oh Happy Day&#8221; and as a major force for contemporary inspirational music, died Monday at age 74.</p> <p>Hawkins died at his home in Pleasanton, California. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, publicist Bill Carpenter told The Associated Press.</p> <p>Along with Andrae Crouch, James Cleveland and a handful of others, Hawkins was credited as a founder of modern gospel music. Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke and numerous other singers had become mainstream stars by adapting gospel sounds to pop lyrics. Hawkins stood out for enjoying commercial success while still performing music that openly celebrated religious faith.</p> <p>An Oakland native and one of eight siblings, Hawkins was a composer, keyboardist, arranger and choir master. He had been performing with his family and in church groups since childhood and in his 20s helped form the Northern California State Youth Choir.</p> <p>Their first album, &#8220;Let Us Go into the House of the Lord,&#8221; came out in 1968 and was intended for local audiences. But radio stations in the San Francisco Bay Area began playing one of the album&#8217;s eight tracks, &#8220;Oh Happy Day,&#8221; an 18th century hymn arranged by Hawkins in call-and-response style.</p> <p>&#8220;Oh Happy Day,&#8221; featuring the vocals of Dorothy Combs Morrison, was released as a single credited to the Edwin Hawkins Singers and became a million-seller in 1969, showing there was a large market for gospel songs and for inspirational music during the turbulent era of the late 1960s.</p> <p>&#8220;I think our music was probably a blend and a crossover of everything that I was hearing during that time,&#8221; Hawkins told blackmusic.com in 2015. &#8220;We grew up hearing all kinds of music in our home. My mother, who was a devout Christian, loved the Lord and displayed that in her lifestyle.</p> <p>&#8220;My father was not a committed Christian at that time but was what you&#8217;d call a good man,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And, of course, we heard from him some R&amp;amp;B music but also a lot of country and western when we were younger kids.&#8221;</p> <p>In 1970, the Hawkins singers backed Melanie on her top 10 hit &#8220;Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)&#8221; and won a Grammy for best soul gospel performance for &#8220;Oh Happy Day.&#8221;</p> <p>Meanwhile, George Harrison would cite &#8220;Oh Happy Day&#8221; as inspiration for his hit &#8220;My Sweet Lord,&#8221; and Glen Campbell reached the adult contemporary charts with his own version of the Hawkins performance. Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis and numerous others also would record it.</p> <p>Hawkins went on to make dozens of records and won four Grammys in all, including for the songs &#8220;Every Man Wants to Be Free&#8221; and &#8220;Wonderful!&#8221; In 2007, he was voted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame. He also toured on occasion with younger brother Walter Hawkins, a Grammy winner who died in 2010.</p> <p>Edwin Hawkins is survived by his siblings Carol, Feddie, Daniel and Lynette.</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>The raids were part of a fraud investigation into Ingolstadt-based Audi, launched by prosecutors in Munich several weeks ago.</p> <p>Volkswagen and Audi brand vehicles with diesel engines make up the bulk of the vehicles caught up in Volkswagen&#8217;s emissions cheating scandal.</p> <p>Munich prosecutors&#8217; spokesman Ken Heidenreich said the current investigation focuses on who was behind the use of the software in 80,000 Audis sold in the U.S. between 2009 and 2015 with 3.0-liter six-cylinder diesel engines.</p> <p>No specific individuals are named in the investigation, he said.</p> <p>&#8220;The execution of the search warrants is meant to clarify which persons were involved in the use of the relevant technology and, where applicable, were involved in providing inaccurate information to third parties,&#8221; Heidenreich said in a statement.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Audi spokesman Moritz Drechsel said that the raids were focused on the company headquarters in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt and at its plant in Neckarsulm in the neighboring state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.</p> <p>&#8220;Audi is fully cooperating with authorities as we have the highest interest in clarifying matters,&#8221; Drechsel said, adding that he could not comment further due to the ongoing investigation.</p> <p>Volkswagen has admitted it equipped diesel engines with software that detected when the vehicle was being tested and turned the emissions controls off during everyday driving. The result was cars that emitted some 40 times the U.S. limits of nitrogen oxides, a pollutant that can harm people&#8217;s health. Millions of cars worldwide had the deceptive software.</p> <p>On Friday, Volkswagen pleaded guilty in the U.S. to a scheme to get around American pollution rules. If a judge agrees to the Justice Department&#8217;s sentencing recommendation, the scandal will cost the company more than $20 billion in the U.S. alone.</p> <p>In addition to the Munich investigation of Audi, prosecutors in the city of Braunschweig are also investigating Volkswagen itself for possible criminal misconduct.</p>

Audi German headquarters searched in emissions probe

https://abqjournal.com/969337/audi-german-headquarters-searched-in-emissions-probe.html

2017-03-15

2least

Audi German headquarters searched in emissions probe <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>The raids were part of a fraud investigation into Ingolstadt-based Audi, launched by prosecutors in Munich several weeks ago.</p> <p>Volkswagen and Audi brand vehicles with diesel engines make up the bulk of the vehicles caught up in Volkswagen&#8217;s emissions cheating scandal.</p> <p>Munich prosecutors&#8217; spokesman Ken Heidenreich said the current investigation focuses on who was behind the use of the software in 80,000 Audis sold in the U.S. between 2009 and 2015 with 3.0-liter six-cylinder diesel engines.</p> <p>No specific individuals are named in the investigation, he said.</p> <p>&#8220;The execution of the search warrants is meant to clarify which persons were involved in the use of the relevant technology and, where applicable, were involved in providing inaccurate information to third parties,&#8221; Heidenreich said in a statement.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Audi spokesman Moritz Drechsel said that the raids were focused on the company headquarters in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt and at its plant in Neckarsulm in the neighboring state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.</p> <p>&#8220;Audi is fully cooperating with authorities as we have the highest interest in clarifying matters,&#8221; Drechsel said, adding that he could not comment further due to the ongoing investigation.</p> <p>Volkswagen has admitted it equipped diesel engines with software that detected when the vehicle was being tested and turned the emissions controls off during everyday driving. The result was cars that emitted some 40 times the U.S. limits of nitrogen oxides, a pollutant that can harm people&#8217;s health. Millions of cars worldwide had the deceptive software.</p> <p>On Friday, Volkswagen pleaded guilty in the U.S. to a scheme to get around American pollution rules. If a judge agrees to the Justice Department&#8217;s sentencing recommendation, the scandal will cost the company more than $20 billion in the U.S. alone.</p> <p>In addition to the Munich investigation of Audi, prosecutors in the city of Braunschweig are also investigating Volkswagen itself for possible criminal misconduct.</p>

<p>Former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney is being held in a detention center in Ramle, Israel, after venturing out to sea with about 20 other activists to provide aid to Gazans as part of the "Free Gaza Movement." The ship Spirit of Humanity was intercepted by the Israeli navy before the group could reach its destination. McKinney will be sent back to the U.S. soon, the American Embassy said.</p> <p>CNN:</p> <p>Former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney - who was aboard a ship the Israeli navy intercepted this week - is in a detention center and will be returned to the United States, the U.S. Embassy said.</p> <p>McKinney was among those on a ship that the Israeli Defense Forces said violated an Israeli blockade and crossed into Gazan waters on Tuesday.</p> <p /> <p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/07/02/mckinney.israel.gaza/" type="external">Read More</a></p>

Cynthia McKinney Detained in Israel

https://truthdig.com/articles/cynthia-mckinney-detained-in-israel/

2009-07-02

4left

Cynthia McKinney Detained in Israel <p>Former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney is being held in a detention center in Ramle, Israel, after venturing out to sea with about 20 other activists to provide aid to Gazans as part of the "Free Gaza Movement." The ship Spirit of Humanity was intercepted by the Israeli navy before the group could reach its destination. McKinney will be sent back to the U.S. soon, the American Embassy said.</p> <p>CNN:</p> <p>Former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney - who was aboard a ship the Israeli navy intercepted this week - is in a detention center and will be returned to the United States, the U.S. Embassy said.</p> <p>McKinney was among those on a ship that the Israeli Defense Forces said violated an Israeli blockade and crossed into Gazan waters on Tuesday.</p> <p /> <p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/07/02/mckinney.israel.gaza/" type="external">Read More</a></p>

<p>(Reuters) &#8211; Emerson Electric Co boosted its offer to buy Rockwell Automation Inc (NYSE:) to about $29 billion, after its previous bid of $27.6 billion was rebuffed last month.</p> <p>Emerson&#8217;s latest offer is for $225 per share, comprising $135 per share in cash and $90 per share in Emerson stock.</p> <p>Rockwell&#8217;s shares were up 10.2 percent at $208 in premarket trading, while Emerson&#8217;s were down about 1 percent at $59.14.</p> <p>Rockwell had rejected a $215 per share bid from Emerson in October, split in half between cash and shares. In November, Rockwell defended its strategy to operate as a standalone company.</p> <p>&#8220;The industrial logic for this combination is clear. A combination of Emerson and Rockwell would create a leader in the $200 billion global automation market,&#8221; Emerson said in a statement.</p> <p>Rockwell was not immediately available for comment.</p> <p>Emerson&#8217;s strength is in process automation, helping power plants and factories in sectors such as mining and cement operate more efficiently.</p> <p>Rockwell is a leader in so-called discrete automation, helping assemble component parts to manufacture items such as automobiles, household appliances and computer systems.</p> <p /> <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>

Emerson sweetens bid for Rockwell Automation to $29 billion

https://newsline.com/emerson-sweetens-bid-for-rockwell-automation-to-29-billion/

2017-11-16

1right-center

Emerson sweetens bid for Rockwell Automation to $29 billion <p>(Reuters) &#8211; Emerson Electric Co boosted its offer to buy Rockwell Automation Inc (NYSE:) to about $29 billion, after its previous bid of $27.6 billion was rebuffed last month.</p> <p>Emerson&#8217;s latest offer is for $225 per share, comprising $135 per share in cash and $90 per share in Emerson stock.</p> <p>Rockwell&#8217;s shares were up 10.2 percent at $208 in premarket trading, while Emerson&#8217;s were down about 1 percent at $59.14.</p> <p>Rockwell had rejected a $215 per share bid from Emerson in October, split in half between cash and shares. In November, Rockwell defended its strategy to operate as a standalone company.</p> <p>&#8220;The industrial logic for this combination is clear. A combination of Emerson and Rockwell would create a leader in the $200 billion global automation market,&#8221; Emerson said in a statement.</p> <p>Rockwell was not immediately available for comment.</p> <p>Emerson&#8217;s strength is in process automation, helping power plants and factories in sectors such as mining and cement operate more efficiently.</p> <p>Rockwell is a leader in so-called discrete automation, helping assemble component parts to manufacture items such as automobiles, household appliances and computer systems.</p> <p /> <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>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>A grand jury also charged Lawrence Capener with aggravated assault and three counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, the office said.</p> <p>According to a criminal complaint, Capener stabbed a choir leader at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church at the end of Sunday Mass on April 28.</p> <p>Capener vaulted over pews and lashed out at choir director Adam Alvarez, who had his back toward Capener, the complaint said. Church flutist Gerald Madrid saw Alvarez being attacked and attempted to &#8220;bear hug&#8221; Capener to try to stop him, the complaint said. Madrid was then stabbed five times in his back, authorities said.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Capener later told police that he was &#8220;99 percent sure Alvarez was a mason&#8221; and that he thought Alvarez was involved in a conspiracy.</p> <p>Masons are a fraternal group involved in charity and other community activities, but many of their rituals and symbols are secret.</p> <p>Another man was stabbed in the attack, police said. All three are expected to recover.</p> <p>The attack in the church sparked churchgoers into action as a number of members tackled Capener and held him until police arrived, authorities said.</p> <p>&#8220;They need to get here soon because we have other people coming around and starting to attack the offender,&#8221; a caller told a 911 operator, according to the audio recordings released this week.</p> <p>Police said Capener also admitted vandalizing a nearby Masonic lodge with spray paint.</p> <p>Prosecutors said Capener will appear at the Bernalillo County Courthouse for arraignment, but no date has been set.</p> <p>If convicted, Capener could face up to nine years in prison. He was being held on $250,000 bail.</p> <p>Court records do not list an attorney for Capener.</p>

Updated: Suspect in NM church stabbing attack indicted

https://abqjournal.com/199024/suspect-in-nm-church-stabbing-attack-indicted.html

2013-05-14

2least

Updated: Suspect in NM church stabbing attack indicted <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>A grand jury also charged Lawrence Capener with aggravated assault and three counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, the office said.</p> <p>According to a criminal complaint, Capener stabbed a choir leader at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church at the end of Sunday Mass on April 28.</p> <p>Capener vaulted over pews and lashed out at choir director Adam Alvarez, who had his back toward Capener, the complaint said. Church flutist Gerald Madrid saw Alvarez being attacked and attempted to &#8220;bear hug&#8221; Capener to try to stop him, the complaint said. Madrid was then stabbed five times in his back, authorities said.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Capener later told police that he was &#8220;99 percent sure Alvarez was a mason&#8221; and that he thought Alvarez was involved in a conspiracy.</p> <p>Masons are a fraternal group involved in charity and other community activities, but many of their rituals and symbols are secret.</p> <p>Another man was stabbed in the attack, police said. All three are expected to recover.</p> <p>The attack in the church sparked churchgoers into action as a number of members tackled Capener and held him until police arrived, authorities said.</p> <p>&#8220;They need to get here soon because we have other people coming around and starting to attack the offender,&#8221; a caller told a 911 operator, according to the audio recordings released this week.</p> <p>Police said Capener also admitted vandalizing a nearby Masonic lodge with spray paint.</p> <p>Prosecutors said Capener will appear at the Bernalillo County Courthouse for arraignment, but no date has been set.</p> <p>If convicted, Capener could face up to nine years in prison. He was being held on $250,000 bail.</p> <p>Court records do not list an attorney for Capener.</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p>NEW YORK &#8212; President-elect Donald Trump, who faced fierce opposition from some Silicon Valley leaders during the election campaign, strove to assure the titans of tech on Wednesday that his administration is &#8220;here to help you folks do well.&#8221;</p> <p>Trump, still savoring his election victory, convened a summit at Trump Tower for nearly a dozen tech leaders, whose industry largely supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Many in the industry are worried that Trump will stifle innovation, curb the hiring of computer-savvy immigrants and infringe on consumers&#8217; digital privacy.</p> <p>He immediately tried to allay those fears.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>&#8220;We want you to keep going with the incredible innovation. Anything we can do to help this go on, we will be there for you,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;You&#8217;ll call my people, you&#8217;ll call me. We have no formal chain of command around here.&#8221;</p> <p>The CEOs who filled the table in Trump&#8217;s 25th floor conference room included Apple&#8217;s Tim Cook, Alphabet&#8217;s Larry Page, Google&#8217;s Eric Schmidt, Microsoft&#8217;s Satya Nadella, Amazon&#8217;s Jeff Bezos, Tesla&#8217;s Elon Musk, IBM&#8217;s Ginni Rometty, Oracle&#8217;s Safra Catz and Cisco Systems&#8217; Chuck Robbins. Facebook&#8217;s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, attended instead of its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who is one of many tech executives who have expressed misgivings about Trump&#8217;s pledge to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally.</p> <p>The meeting remained amiable and the group, which agreed to meet quarterly, also had preliminary discussions about immigration and how to stay competitive with China, though no firm commitments were made, according to a person briefed on the meeting but not authorized to discuss it publicly.</p> <p>Trump was joined by several members of his senior staff and his three eldest children, who are expected to help run his business once he takes office, again blurring the line between the president-elect&#8217;s personal and professional lives.</p> <p>Reporters were allowed to witness only the first moments of the meeting and most of the attendees departed without comment. But Bezos, who is also owner of The Washington Post, which has been a frequent target of Trump complaints about campaign coverage, said he found the meeting to be &#8220;very productive&#8221; and said he &#8220;shared the view that the administration should make innovation one of its key pillars.&#8221;</p> <p>No industry was more open in its contempt for Trump during the campaign. In an open letter published in July, more than 140 technology executives, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists skewered him as a &#8220;disaster for innovation.&#8221;</p> <p>And Trump&#8217;s denigration of Mexicans, his pledge to deport millions of immigrants now living in the U.S. illegally and his crude remarks about women were widely viewed as racist, authoritarian and sexist by an industry that prides itself on its tolerance.</p> <p>Trump, in turn, sometimes lashed out at the industry and its leaders, and &#8212; despite his reassurances Wednesday &#8212; questions remain about how he&#8217;ll govern.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>He has lambasted Bezos for the Post&#8217;s campaign coverage and has suggested that Amazon could face antitrust scrutiny after his election. Trump also rebuked Cook for fighting a government order requiring Apple to unlock an encrypted iPhone used by a shooter in last year&#8217;s terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California.</p> <p>And Trump&#8217;s repeated negative comments about immigrants raised fears that he might dismantle programs that have enabled tech companies to hire tens of thousands of foreign workers with the skills to write computer programs, design web pages and build mobile apps.</p> <p>The industry is also worried that Trump might try to undermine &#8220;net neutrality,&#8221; a regulation requiring internet service providers to offer equal access to all online services. Trump&#8217;s harsh characterization of the media as dishonest and unfair has raised other fears that he might try to restrict free speech online.</p> <p>Some in Silicon Valley think the industry&#8217;s best move would be to keep its distance until Trump changes his tone. Former Google executive Chris Sacca, now a tech investor, argues that industry leaders should have steered clear of the meeting altogether.</p> <p>Sitting down with the president-elect &#8220;would only make sense after Trump has given public assurances he won&#8217;t encourage censorship, will stop exploiting fake news, will promote net neutrality, denounce hate crimes and embrace science,&#8221; Sacca said. &#8220;If and until then, tech figures who visit are being used to whitewash an authoritarian bully who threatens not just our industry but our entire democracy.&#8221;</p> <p>One major tech company not invited, despite Trump&#8217;s frequent use of its product, was Twitter. Sean Spicer, communications director for the Republican National Committee, disputed that they were singled out &#8212; Twitter has said it declined to make branded emojis on the campaign&#8217;s behalf &#8212; and explained its absence by simply saying &#8220;the conference table was only so big, OK?&#8221;</p> <p>Separately on Wednesday, Michigan&#8217;s Republican Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel was officially named Trump&#8217;s choice to become the new RNC chair next year. The niece of 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney would be the first woman to hold the committee&#8217;s top position in 40 years, and her promotion comes after Trump became the first Republican to carry Michigan in 28 years.</p> <p>Trump also officially announced his selection of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as his secretary of energy, leading a department Perry once suggested scrapping.</p> <p>While Trump remained in his Manhattan skyscraper Wednesday, he was hitting the road Thursday for the latest stop in his &#8220;thank you&#8221; tour, this time in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The tour, which is designed to salute supporters in states that helped him win the White House, will continue Friday in Orlando, Florida, before wrapping Saturday at a Mobile, Alabama, football stadium which was the site of the biggest rally of his campaign.</p> <p>___</p> <p>Liedtke reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed from Washington</p> <p>___</p> <p>Reach Lemire on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com///twitter.com/@liedtkesfc" type="external">http://twitter.com///twitter.com/@liedtkesfc</a></p>

Trump tells anxious tech leaders: ‘We’re here to help’

https://abqjournal.com/908670/with-tillerson-trump-keeps-betting-big-on-business-leaders.html

2016-12-14

2least

Trump tells anxious tech leaders: ‘We’re here to help’ <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p>NEW YORK &#8212; President-elect Donald Trump, who faced fierce opposition from some Silicon Valley leaders during the election campaign, strove to assure the titans of tech on Wednesday that his administration is &#8220;here to help you folks do well.&#8221;</p> <p>Trump, still savoring his election victory, convened a summit at Trump Tower for nearly a dozen tech leaders, whose industry largely supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Many in the industry are worried that Trump will stifle innovation, curb the hiring of computer-savvy immigrants and infringe on consumers&#8217; digital privacy.</p> <p>He immediately tried to allay those fears.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>&#8220;We want you to keep going with the incredible innovation. Anything we can do to help this go on, we will be there for you,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;You&#8217;ll call my people, you&#8217;ll call me. We have no formal chain of command around here.&#8221;</p> <p>The CEOs who filled the table in Trump&#8217;s 25th floor conference room included Apple&#8217;s Tim Cook, Alphabet&#8217;s Larry Page, Google&#8217;s Eric Schmidt, Microsoft&#8217;s Satya Nadella, Amazon&#8217;s Jeff Bezos, Tesla&#8217;s Elon Musk, IBM&#8217;s Ginni Rometty, Oracle&#8217;s Safra Catz and Cisco Systems&#8217; Chuck Robbins. Facebook&#8217;s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, attended instead of its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who is one of many tech executives who have expressed misgivings about Trump&#8217;s pledge to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally.</p> <p>The meeting remained amiable and the group, which agreed to meet quarterly, also had preliminary discussions about immigration and how to stay competitive with China, though no firm commitments were made, according to a person briefed on the meeting but not authorized to discuss it publicly.</p> <p>Trump was joined by several members of his senior staff and his three eldest children, who are expected to help run his business once he takes office, again blurring the line between the president-elect&#8217;s personal and professional lives.</p> <p>Reporters were allowed to witness only the first moments of the meeting and most of the attendees departed without comment. But Bezos, who is also owner of The Washington Post, which has been a frequent target of Trump complaints about campaign coverage, said he found the meeting to be &#8220;very productive&#8221; and said he &#8220;shared the view that the administration should make innovation one of its key pillars.&#8221;</p> <p>No industry was more open in its contempt for Trump during the campaign. In an open letter published in July, more than 140 technology executives, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists skewered him as a &#8220;disaster for innovation.&#8221;</p> <p>And Trump&#8217;s denigration of Mexicans, his pledge to deport millions of immigrants now living in the U.S. illegally and his crude remarks about women were widely viewed as racist, authoritarian and sexist by an industry that prides itself on its tolerance.</p> <p>Trump, in turn, sometimes lashed out at the industry and its leaders, and &#8212; despite his reassurances Wednesday &#8212; questions remain about how he&#8217;ll govern.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>He has lambasted Bezos for the Post&#8217;s campaign coverage and has suggested that Amazon could face antitrust scrutiny after his election. Trump also rebuked Cook for fighting a government order requiring Apple to unlock an encrypted iPhone used by a shooter in last year&#8217;s terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California.</p> <p>And Trump&#8217;s repeated negative comments about immigrants raised fears that he might dismantle programs that have enabled tech companies to hire tens of thousands of foreign workers with the skills to write computer programs, design web pages and build mobile apps.</p> <p>The industry is also worried that Trump might try to undermine &#8220;net neutrality,&#8221; a regulation requiring internet service providers to offer equal access to all online services. Trump&#8217;s harsh characterization of the media as dishonest and unfair has raised other fears that he might try to restrict free speech online.</p> <p>Some in Silicon Valley think the industry&#8217;s best move would be to keep its distance until Trump changes his tone. Former Google executive Chris Sacca, now a tech investor, argues that industry leaders should have steered clear of the meeting altogether.</p> <p>Sitting down with the president-elect &#8220;would only make sense after Trump has given public assurances he won&#8217;t encourage censorship, will stop exploiting fake news, will promote net neutrality, denounce hate crimes and embrace science,&#8221; Sacca said. &#8220;If and until then, tech figures who visit are being used to whitewash an authoritarian bully who threatens not just our industry but our entire democracy.&#8221;</p> <p>One major tech company not invited, despite Trump&#8217;s frequent use of its product, was Twitter. Sean Spicer, communications director for the Republican National Committee, disputed that they were singled out &#8212; Twitter has said it declined to make branded emojis on the campaign&#8217;s behalf &#8212; and explained its absence by simply saying &#8220;the conference table was only so big, OK?&#8221;</p> <p>Separately on Wednesday, Michigan&#8217;s Republican Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel was officially named Trump&#8217;s choice to become the new RNC chair next year. The niece of 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney would be the first woman to hold the committee&#8217;s top position in 40 years, and her promotion comes after Trump became the first Republican to carry Michigan in 28 years.</p> <p>Trump also officially announced his selection of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as his secretary of energy, leading a department Perry once suggested scrapping.</p> <p>While Trump remained in his Manhattan skyscraper Wednesday, he was hitting the road Thursday for the latest stop in his &#8220;thank you&#8221; tour, this time in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The tour, which is designed to salute supporters in states that helped him win the White House, will continue Friday in Orlando, Florida, before wrapping Saturday at a Mobile, Alabama, football stadium which was the site of the biggest rally of his campaign.</p> <p>___</p> <p>Liedtke reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed from Washington</p> <p>___</p> <p>Reach Lemire on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com///twitter.com/@liedtkesfc" type="external">http://twitter.com///twitter.com/@liedtkesfc</a></p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>The former CIA staffer and analyst for the private intelligence consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton spoke to journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Barton Gellman in Hong Kong, providing convincing evidence that the U.S. government, primarily the National Security Agency, is conducting massive, unconstitutional surveillance globally, and perhaps most controversially, on almost all, if not all, U.S. citizens.</p> <p>The chorus of establishment condemnation was swift and unrelenting.</p> <p>Jeffrey Toobin, legal pundit, quickly blogged that Snowden is &#8220;a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison.&#8221;</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>New York Times columnists chimed in, with Thomas Friedman writing, &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe that Edward Snowden, the leaker of all this secret material, is some heroic whistleblower.&#8221; His colleague David Brooks engaged in speculative psychoanalysis of Snowden, opining, &#8220;[t]hough obviously terrifically bright, he could not successfully work his way through the institution of high school. Then he failed to navigate his way through community college.&#8221;</p> <p>Snowden&#8217;s educational path has attracted significant attention. U.S. senators oh-so-gently questioned NSA Director Gen. Keith B. Alexander and others at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, including liberal Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, echoing Brooks&#8217; incredulity that someone with a GED could possibly hoodwink the entire U.S. intelligence apparatus.</p> <p>Alexander confessed, &#8220;In the IT arena, in the cyber arena, some of these people have skills to operate networks. That was his job for the most part; he had great skills in the area. The rest of it you&#8217;ve hit on the head. We do need to go back and look at the processes &#8211; where we went wrong.&#8221;</p> <p>Legendary whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg countered the criticism, writing, &#8220;In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden&#8217;s release of NSA material &#8211; and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago. Snowden&#8217;s whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an &#8216;executive coup&#8217; against the U.S. Constitution.&#8221;</p> <p>Snowden&#8217;s historic leak revealed what he calls an &#8220;architecture of oppression&#8221; &#8211; a series of top-secret surveillance programs that go far beyond what has been publicly known to date.</p> <p>The first was an order from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court requesting a division of the phone giant Verizon to hand over &#8220;all call detail records&#8221; for calls from the U.S. to locations abroad, or all calls within the U.S., including local calls. In other words, metadata for every phone call that Verizon Business Network Services processed was to be delivered to the NSA on a daily basis.</p> <p>Another document was a slide presentation revealing a program dubbed &#8220;PRISM,&#8221; which allegedly empowers NSA snoops access to all the private data stored by Internet giants like Microsoft, AOL, Skype, Google, Apple and Facebook, including email, video chats, photos, files transfers and more.</p> <p>Snowden released Presidential Policy Directive 20 &#8211; a top-secret memo from President Barack Obama directing U.S. intelligence agencies to draw up a list of targets for U.S. cyberattacks.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Finally came proof of the program called &#8220;Boundless Informant,&#8221; which creates a global &#8220;heat map&#8221; detailing the source countries of the 97 billion intercepted electronic records collected by the NSA in the month of March 2013. Among the top targets were Iran, Pakistan, Egypt and Jordan. The leaked map color-codes countries: red for &#8220;hot,&#8221; then yellow and green. Last March, the U.S. was yellow, providing the NSA with close to 2.9 billion intercepts.</p> <p>The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit immediately after the programs were revealed, arguing that the &#8220;practice is akin to snatching every American&#8217;s address book &#8211; with annotations detailing whom we spoke to, when we talked, for how long, and from where. It gives the government a comprehensive record of our associations and public movements, revealing a wealth of detail about our familial, political, professional, religious, and intimate associations.&#8221;</p> <p>Edward Snowden, at the time of this writing, is in hiding, presumably still in Hong Kong, where he told the South China Morning Post, &#8220;I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality.&#8221;</p> <p>In the videotaped interview he gave to Greenwald and Poitras, Snowden spoke of his reasons behind the leak: &#8220;Sitting at my desk, [I] certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge, to even the president. &#8230; This is something that&#8217;s not our place to decide. The public needs to decide whether these programs and policies are right or wrong.&#8221;</p> <p>Distributed by King Features Syndicate.</p> <p />

Leak reveals coup on Constitution

https://abqjournal.com/210799/leak-reveals-coup-on-constitution.html

2013-06-15

2least

Leak reveals coup on Constitution <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>The former CIA staffer and analyst for the private intelligence consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton spoke to journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Barton Gellman in Hong Kong, providing convincing evidence that the U.S. government, primarily the National Security Agency, is conducting massive, unconstitutional surveillance globally, and perhaps most controversially, on almost all, if not all, U.S. citizens.</p> <p>The chorus of establishment condemnation was swift and unrelenting.</p> <p>Jeffrey Toobin, legal pundit, quickly blogged that Snowden is &#8220;a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison.&#8221;</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>New York Times columnists chimed in, with Thomas Friedman writing, &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe that Edward Snowden, the leaker of all this secret material, is some heroic whistleblower.&#8221; His colleague David Brooks engaged in speculative psychoanalysis of Snowden, opining, &#8220;[t]hough obviously terrifically bright, he could not successfully work his way through the institution of high school. Then he failed to navigate his way through community college.&#8221;</p> <p>Snowden&#8217;s educational path has attracted significant attention. U.S. senators oh-so-gently questioned NSA Director Gen. Keith B. Alexander and others at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, including liberal Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, echoing Brooks&#8217; incredulity that someone with a GED could possibly hoodwink the entire U.S. intelligence apparatus.</p> <p>Alexander confessed, &#8220;In the IT arena, in the cyber arena, some of these people have skills to operate networks. That was his job for the most part; he had great skills in the area. The rest of it you&#8217;ve hit on the head. We do need to go back and look at the processes &#8211; where we went wrong.&#8221;</p> <p>Legendary whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg countered the criticism, writing, &#8220;In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden&#8217;s release of NSA material &#8211; and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago. Snowden&#8217;s whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an &#8216;executive coup&#8217; against the U.S. Constitution.&#8221;</p> <p>Snowden&#8217;s historic leak revealed what he calls an &#8220;architecture of oppression&#8221; &#8211; a series of top-secret surveillance programs that go far beyond what has been publicly known to date.</p> <p>The first was an order from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court requesting a division of the phone giant Verizon to hand over &#8220;all call detail records&#8221; for calls from the U.S. to locations abroad, or all calls within the U.S., including local calls. In other words, metadata for every phone call that Verizon Business Network Services processed was to be delivered to the NSA on a daily basis.</p> <p>Another document was a slide presentation revealing a program dubbed &#8220;PRISM,&#8221; which allegedly empowers NSA snoops access to all the private data stored by Internet giants like Microsoft, AOL, Skype, Google, Apple and Facebook, including email, video chats, photos, files transfers and more.</p> <p>Snowden released Presidential Policy Directive 20 &#8211; a top-secret memo from President Barack Obama directing U.S. intelligence agencies to draw up a list of targets for U.S. cyberattacks.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Finally came proof of the program called &#8220;Boundless Informant,&#8221; which creates a global &#8220;heat map&#8221; detailing the source countries of the 97 billion intercepted electronic records collected by the NSA in the month of March 2013. Among the top targets were Iran, Pakistan, Egypt and Jordan. The leaked map color-codes countries: red for &#8220;hot,&#8221; then yellow and green. Last March, the U.S. was yellow, providing the NSA with close to 2.9 billion intercepts.</p> <p>The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit immediately after the programs were revealed, arguing that the &#8220;practice is akin to snatching every American&#8217;s address book &#8211; with annotations detailing whom we spoke to, when we talked, for how long, and from where. It gives the government a comprehensive record of our associations and public movements, revealing a wealth of detail about our familial, political, professional, religious, and intimate associations.&#8221;</p> <p>Edward Snowden, at the time of this writing, is in hiding, presumably still in Hong Kong, where he told the South China Morning Post, &#8220;I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality.&#8221;</p> <p>In the videotaped interview he gave to Greenwald and Poitras, Snowden spoke of his reasons behind the leak: &#8220;Sitting at my desk, [I] certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge, to even the president. &#8230; This is something that&#8217;s not our place to decide. The public needs to decide whether these programs and policies are right or wrong.&#8221;</p> <p>Distributed by King Features Syndicate.</p> <p />

<p>Backstage at the Golden Globe Awards, Elisabeth Moss talks Time's Up movement, "Coco" director discuss Lee Unkrich talks about his film's success, while Sam Rockwell celebrates female empowerment. (Jan. 8)</p> <p>Backstage at the Golden Globe Awards, Elisabeth Moss talks Time's Up movement, "Coco" director discuss Lee Unkrich talks about his film's success, while Sam Rockwell celebrates female empowerment. (Jan. 8)</p>

Moss: Hollywood 'learning' women can make them money

https://apnews.com/amp/fde412a709594f5785978c60d9438ecd

2018-01-08

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Moss: Hollywood 'learning' women can make them money <p>Backstage at the Golden Globe Awards, Elisabeth Moss talks Time's Up movement, "Coco" director discuss Lee Unkrich talks about his film's success, while Sam Rockwell celebrates female empowerment. (Jan. 8)</p> <p>Backstage at the Golden Globe Awards, Elisabeth Moss talks Time's Up movement, "Coco" director discuss Lee Unkrich talks about his film's success, while Sam Rockwell celebrates female empowerment. (Jan. 8)</p>

<p>Fighters in the Free Syrian Army are optimistic they will shake their nation loose from Bashar al-Assad&#8217;s rule. But what will their cities, towns and villages look like when their struggle is over? Some are looking to the West for help rebuilding their country.</p> <p>In a scene playing out across the nation, Syrian troops withdrew from the previously occupied town of Atareb, home to 20,000 people less than 20 miles from Aleppo, the country&#8217;s largest city. The city was retaken by FSA troops during an attack launched from another city they had seized.</p> <p>The spread of the FSA&#8217;s control and ongoing waves of government defections suggest Assad&#8217;s days are indeed numbered, but not without the crippling of Syrian communities.</p> <p>&#8212; Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p> <p /> <p>The Guardian:</p> <p>Today, &#8220;freed&#8221; Atareb is a ravaged mess. Only a few residents have returned. Shells pulverised homes; the clinic was gutted by fire. The old souk was a deadly sniper&#8217;s alley during the fighting; now, it is a tangle of broken glass and destroyed shopfronts. The revolutionary flag flies from Atareb&#8217;s 2,000-year-old citadel, an ancient structure that will take years to rebuild.</p> <p>&#8230; Despite the upbeat mood in the rebel camp, there is plenty of fear. Abdullah, an educated, English-speaking civil engineer who declined to give his second name, predicted the war could drag on for months. &#8220;The FSA every day is increasing,&#8221; he observed. &#8220;It&#8217;s becoming stronger and stronger. But the price will be very big without help from the west.&#8221;</p> <p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/25/syria-crisis" type="external">Read more</a></p>

Scene From a 'Liberated' Syria

https://truthdig.com/articles/scene-from-a-liberated-syria/

2012-07-25

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Scene From a 'Liberated' Syria <p>Fighters in the Free Syrian Army are optimistic they will shake their nation loose from Bashar al-Assad&#8217;s rule. But what will their cities, towns and villages look like when their struggle is over? Some are looking to the West for help rebuilding their country.</p> <p>In a scene playing out across the nation, Syrian troops withdrew from the previously occupied town of Atareb, home to 20,000 people less than 20 miles from Aleppo, the country&#8217;s largest city. The city was retaken by FSA troops during an attack launched from another city they had seized.</p> <p>The spread of the FSA&#8217;s control and ongoing waves of government defections suggest Assad&#8217;s days are indeed numbered, but not without the crippling of Syrian communities.</p> <p>&#8212; Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p> <p /> <p>The Guardian:</p> <p>Today, &#8220;freed&#8221; Atareb is a ravaged mess. Only a few residents have returned. Shells pulverised homes; the clinic was gutted by fire. The old souk was a deadly sniper&#8217;s alley during the fighting; now, it is a tangle of broken glass and destroyed shopfronts. The revolutionary flag flies from Atareb&#8217;s 2,000-year-old citadel, an ancient structure that will take years to rebuild.</p> <p>&#8230; Despite the upbeat mood in the rebel camp, there is plenty of fear. Abdullah, an educated, English-speaking civil engineer who declined to give his second name, predicted the war could drag on for months. &#8220;The FSA every day is increasing,&#8221; he observed. &#8220;It&#8217;s becoming stronger and stronger. But the price will be very big without help from the west.&#8221;</p> <p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/25/syria-crisis" type="external">Read more</a></p>

<p /> <p>Britain fully backs the U.S. military strike against a Syrian airfield from which a deadly chemical weapons attack was launched, a government spokesman said on Friday.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>"The UK Government fully supports the US action, which we believe was an appropriate response to the barbaric chemical weapons attack launched by the Syrian regime, and is intended to deter further attacks," the spokesman said.</p> <p>In a sharp escalation of the U.S. military role in Syria, two U.S. warships fired dozens of cruise missiles from the eastern Mediterranean Sea at the airbase controlled by President Bashar al-Assad's forces in response to the poison gas attack in a rebel-held area on Tuesday.</p> <p>"Overnight, the US has taken military action against the Syrian regime, targeting the airfield in Shayrat which was used to launch the chemical weapons attack earlier this week," the British government spokesman said.</p> <p>The Tomahawk missiles were launched from the USS Porter and USS Ross around 8:40 p.m. EDT (0040 GMT on Friday), striking multiple targets - including the airstrip, aircraft and fuel stations - on the Shayrat Air Base, which the Pentagon says was used to store chemical weapons.</p> <p>(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Nick Macfie and Costas Pitas)</p>

Britain Fully Supports U.S. Strikes on Syria

http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/07/britain-fully-supports-u-s-strikes-on-syria.html

2017-04-07

0right

Britain Fully Supports U.S. Strikes on Syria <p /> <p>Britain fully backs the U.S. military strike against a Syrian airfield from which a deadly chemical weapons attack was launched, a government spokesman said on Friday.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>"The UK Government fully supports the US action, which we believe was an appropriate response to the barbaric chemical weapons attack launched by the Syrian regime, and is intended to deter further attacks," the spokesman said.</p> <p>In a sharp escalation of the U.S. military role in Syria, two U.S. warships fired dozens of cruise missiles from the eastern Mediterranean Sea at the airbase controlled by President Bashar al-Assad's forces in response to the poison gas attack in a rebel-held area on Tuesday.</p> <p>"Overnight, the US has taken military action against the Syrian regime, targeting the airfield in Shayrat which was used to launch the chemical weapons attack earlier this week," the British government spokesman said.</p> <p>The Tomahawk missiles were launched from the USS Porter and USS Ross around 8:40 p.m. EDT (0040 GMT on Friday), striking multiple targets - including the airstrip, aircraft and fuel stations - on the Shayrat Air Base, which the Pentagon says was used to store chemical weapons.</p> <p>(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Nick Macfie and Costas Pitas)</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>&#8212;</p> <p>&#8220;The ideas promoted by CVA, including moving the VA health system towards privatization, are not supported by a vast majority of veterans and would significantly disrupt their care.&#8221;&#8211; Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., news release, Nov. 16, 2016</p> <p>&#8212;</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>The two Democrats, who serve on the Senate and House committees on veterans affairs, are resurrecting the stale Democratic talking point that Concerned Veterans for America wants to &#8220;privatize&#8221; the Department of Veterans Affairs.</p> <p>Concerned Veterans for America, or CVA, is a veterans advocacy group in the Koch brothers&#8217; political network and has been one of the most vocal critics of VA since the 2014 wait-time scandal.</p> <p>The CVA is poised to become more influential under the new administration, as President-elect Donald Trump has tapped the group to help overhaul the veterans health-care system. The most controversial proposal by the group is an expansion of veterans&#8217; health-care options in the private marketplace &#8211; which critics, including traditional veterans advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers, say could lead to the dismantling of the current VA.</p> <p>But CVA has not proposed a wholesale transfer of VA&#8217;s services over to the private sector &#8211; which is what &#8220;privatization&#8221; usually describes. We took a deeper look at the group&#8217;s proposal.</p> <p>In 2014, in response to a nationwide controversy over manipulation of appointment wait-time data at VA medical facilities, Congress overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan $16.3 billion bill to overhaul VA. The new law funded a temporary expansion of veterans&#8217; health-care options in the private market, if veterans waited longer than 30 days for appointments or if they live far from a VA facility. The Senate agreed to the conference report on a 91-to-3 vote and the House on a 420-to-5 vote. Takano, the ranking Democrat on the House veterans affairs committee, and Tester, who next year will become the ranking Democrat on the equivalent Senate committee, voted for the legislation, which President Barack Obama signed into law.</p> <p>Lawmakers in both parties and VA officials acknowledge that there is a role for private care in veterans health care. But there is no consensus on just how much this option should be expanded.</p> <p>More than 30 percent of VA&#8217;s appointments are provided in the private market, VA Secretary Robert McDonald said in a Dec. 3, 2016, interview with Fortune magazine. He said he is &#8220;against wholesale privatization&#8221; but supports &#8220;taking advantage of the private sector to provide the additional capability we don&#8217;t have.&#8221; VA allows veterans to get non-VA health care in certain circumstances when VA is not available to provide the care.</p> <p>In a March 2016 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, VA Undersecretary of Health David Shulkin called on VA to adopt a more integrated system that incorporates more services offered by the private sector. He proposed a thorough vetting system for private providers that can expand VA network and for VA to explore new public-private partnerships.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>&#8220;In the nearly 2 years since unacceptable VA waiting times came to light, it&#8217;s become apparent that the VA alone cannot meet all the health care needs of U.S. veterans. The VA&#8217;s mission and scope are not comparable to those of other U.S. health systems,&#8221; Shulkin wrote.</p> <p>In 2015, a bipartisan task force commissioned by CVA proposed drastic changes, including converting the Veterans Health Administration into an independent, government-chartered, nonprofit corporation. This proposal expands private health-care options beyond the provision in the 2014 law and as described in Shulkin&#8217;s article. CVA has supported a draft bill by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., chair of the House Republican Conference, that contains some elements similar to the CVA&#8217;s proposal.</p> <p>The crux of the proposal is to split up the current Veterans Health Administration&#8217;s payer and provider responsibilities by creating two entities, one for health insurance (Veterans Health Insurance Program, or VHIP) and another for health delivery (Veterans Accountable Care Organization, or VACO).</p> <p>On the insurance side, VHIP would be a program office under the Veterans Health Administration. Veterans would continue to be eligible for free VA health insurance but also would receive premium support for private insurance. This new health-insurance office would provide direct subsidies for veterans&#8217; health care, whether they get it through private or public services.</p> <p>On the health delivery side, VACO would be a nonprofit government corporation independent of VA. This new organization would oversee VA&#8217;s health facilities and compete with the private market and contract with the VHA to provide care. The current VA would continue providing domiciliary care, research, training for health-care personnel, and contingency support for national emergencies and times of war.</p> <p>Tester&#8217;s staff defined &#8220;privatization&#8221; as &#8220;diverting resources to the private sector as the primary means of connecting veterans to care.&#8221;</p> <p>But there is no requirement in the CVA proposal to divert a certain amount of VA resources to private care or to require veterans to use private care. It does not require VA medical centers and clinics to shut down. It does, however, allow for a panel appointed by the president to review whether certain VA medical centers should be shut down because they are inefficient or unused, on the basis of the distribution of veteran populations. The money saved from closing these facilities would go toward health coverage for veterans.</p> <p>&#8220;We do not mandate that a certain amount of care needs to be provided in the private sector, or that the current VA medical system needs to be completely dismantled, or that a certain number of medical facilities need to be shut down,&#8221; said Dan Caldwell, the CVA&#8217;s vice president for political and legislative action.</p> <p>Under the CVA&#8217;s program, veterans getting private care will be expected to do some cost-sharing, especially for non-service-related care. Those who get care from VA hospitals or doctors are covered 100 percent. But even without the cost incentive, opening up the private options could lead to more veterans leaving the VA medical system.</p> <p>Still, it is unlikely that VA&#8217;s system would be completely crippled; VA provides crucial veteran services such as disability benefits, homelessness programs, medical research for service-related injuries and treatments for service-related mental-health services, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.</p> <p>&#8220;As you know, there is a limited amount of money that can be used to keep VA facilities operating and properly staffed. If those limited dollars are instead diverted to the private sector, which often trails the VA in both quality and timeliness of care, the system will collapse,&#8221; Tester spokeswoman Marnee Banks said in a statement. &#8220;Sen. Tester believes there is a place for supplementing VA care with private care, especially in rural America (as he noted in his speech), but relying primarily on the private market to provide care could lead to the agency&#8217;s dismantling.&#8221;</p> <p>Takano spokesman Josh Weisz acknowledged that the CVA&#8217;s plan &#8220;does not explicitly mandate privatization; such a move would be politically untenable.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;Instead, it drains the VA of the resources it needs and triggers an inevitable death spiral for the VHA, leaving private care as the primary option for veterans. This is why we are seeing veterans groups speak out against them. CVA&#8217;s effort to replace VA&#8217;s central role in veterans care with the private sector, thereby starving the VA of resources, is what Rep. Takano defines as privatization,&#8221; Weisz said.</p> <p>The CVA&#8217;s proposal would make significant changes to the current VA health-care system. It would give veterans the choice to receive subsidized private care and would create a nonprofit government corporation to oversee VA&#8217;s medical facilities. It would open up veteran health care to the private market, more than is currently available.</p> <p>But &#8220;privatization&#8221; usually refers to the wholesale transfer of government services to the private sector. Staffers for Tester and Takano described &#8220;privatization&#8221; more loosely, as getting the private sector to &#8220;replace VA&#8217;s central role in veterans care&#8221; or &#8220;diverting resources to the private sector as the primary means&#8221; of veterans health care. But this is quite misleading and twists the CVA&#8217;s proposal to meet their politically charged definition.</p> <p>Under the CVA&#8217;s proposal, it is the veteran&#8217;s choice whether to get medical care from VA or a private doctor. There&#8217;s no mandate for a certain percentage of VA&#8217;s services to be provided in the private market or for certain medical facilities to be shut down.</p> <p>vets-factcheck</p>

Democrats’ misleading claim that Concerned Veterans for America wants to ‘privatize’ VA

https://abqjournal.com/904003/democrats-misleading-claim-that-concerned-veterans-for-america-wants-to-privatize-va.html

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Democrats’ misleading claim that Concerned Veterans for America wants to ‘privatize’ VA <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>&#8212;</p> <p>&#8220;The ideas promoted by CVA, including moving the VA health system towards privatization, are not supported by a vast majority of veterans and would significantly disrupt their care.&#8221;&#8211; Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., news release, Nov. 16, 2016</p> <p>&#8212;</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>The two Democrats, who serve on the Senate and House committees on veterans affairs, are resurrecting the stale Democratic talking point that Concerned Veterans for America wants to &#8220;privatize&#8221; the Department of Veterans Affairs.</p> <p>Concerned Veterans for America, or CVA, is a veterans advocacy group in the Koch brothers&#8217; political network and has been one of the most vocal critics of VA since the 2014 wait-time scandal.</p> <p>The CVA is poised to become more influential under the new administration, as President-elect Donald Trump has tapped the group to help overhaul the veterans health-care system. The most controversial proposal by the group is an expansion of veterans&#8217; health-care options in the private marketplace &#8211; which critics, including traditional veterans advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers, say could lead to the dismantling of the current VA.</p> <p>But CVA has not proposed a wholesale transfer of VA&#8217;s services over to the private sector &#8211; which is what &#8220;privatization&#8221; usually describes. We took a deeper look at the group&#8217;s proposal.</p> <p>In 2014, in response to a nationwide controversy over manipulation of appointment wait-time data at VA medical facilities, Congress overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan $16.3 billion bill to overhaul VA. The new law funded a temporary expansion of veterans&#8217; health-care options in the private market, if veterans waited longer than 30 days for appointments or if they live far from a VA facility. The Senate agreed to the conference report on a 91-to-3 vote and the House on a 420-to-5 vote. Takano, the ranking Democrat on the House veterans affairs committee, and Tester, who next year will become the ranking Democrat on the equivalent Senate committee, voted for the legislation, which President Barack Obama signed into law.</p> <p>Lawmakers in both parties and VA officials acknowledge that there is a role for private care in veterans health care. But there is no consensus on just how much this option should be expanded.</p> <p>More than 30 percent of VA&#8217;s appointments are provided in the private market, VA Secretary Robert McDonald said in a Dec. 3, 2016, interview with Fortune magazine. He said he is &#8220;against wholesale privatization&#8221; but supports &#8220;taking advantage of the private sector to provide the additional capability we don&#8217;t have.&#8221; VA allows veterans to get non-VA health care in certain circumstances when VA is not available to provide the care.</p> <p>In a March 2016 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, VA Undersecretary of Health David Shulkin called on VA to adopt a more integrated system that incorporates more services offered by the private sector. He proposed a thorough vetting system for private providers that can expand VA network and for VA to explore new public-private partnerships.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>&#8220;In the nearly 2 years since unacceptable VA waiting times came to light, it&#8217;s become apparent that the VA alone cannot meet all the health care needs of U.S. veterans. The VA&#8217;s mission and scope are not comparable to those of other U.S. health systems,&#8221; Shulkin wrote.</p> <p>In 2015, a bipartisan task force commissioned by CVA proposed drastic changes, including converting the Veterans Health Administration into an independent, government-chartered, nonprofit corporation. This proposal expands private health-care options beyond the provision in the 2014 law and as described in Shulkin&#8217;s article. CVA has supported a draft bill by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., chair of the House Republican Conference, that contains some elements similar to the CVA&#8217;s proposal.</p> <p>The crux of the proposal is to split up the current Veterans Health Administration&#8217;s payer and provider responsibilities by creating two entities, one for health insurance (Veterans Health Insurance Program, or VHIP) and another for health delivery (Veterans Accountable Care Organization, or VACO).</p> <p>On the insurance side, VHIP would be a program office under the Veterans Health Administration. Veterans would continue to be eligible for free VA health insurance but also would receive premium support for private insurance. This new health-insurance office would provide direct subsidies for veterans&#8217; health care, whether they get it through private or public services.</p> <p>On the health delivery side, VACO would be a nonprofit government corporation independent of VA. This new organization would oversee VA&#8217;s health facilities and compete with the private market and contract with the VHA to provide care. The current VA would continue providing domiciliary care, research, training for health-care personnel, and contingency support for national emergencies and times of war.</p> <p>Tester&#8217;s staff defined &#8220;privatization&#8221; as &#8220;diverting resources to the private sector as the primary means of connecting veterans to care.&#8221;</p> <p>But there is no requirement in the CVA proposal to divert a certain amount of VA resources to private care or to require veterans to use private care. It does not require VA medical centers and clinics to shut down. It does, however, allow for a panel appointed by the president to review whether certain VA medical centers should be shut down because they are inefficient or unused, on the basis of the distribution of veteran populations. The money saved from closing these facilities would go toward health coverage for veterans.</p> <p>&#8220;We do not mandate that a certain amount of care needs to be provided in the private sector, or that the current VA medical system needs to be completely dismantled, or that a certain number of medical facilities need to be shut down,&#8221; said Dan Caldwell, the CVA&#8217;s vice president for political and legislative action.</p> <p>Under the CVA&#8217;s program, veterans getting private care will be expected to do some cost-sharing, especially for non-service-related care. Those who get care from VA hospitals or doctors are covered 100 percent. But even without the cost incentive, opening up the private options could lead to more veterans leaving the VA medical system.</p> <p>Still, it is unlikely that VA&#8217;s system would be completely crippled; VA provides crucial veteran services such as disability benefits, homelessness programs, medical research for service-related injuries and treatments for service-related mental-health services, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.</p> <p>&#8220;As you know, there is a limited amount of money that can be used to keep VA facilities operating and properly staffed. If those limited dollars are instead diverted to the private sector, which often trails the VA in both quality and timeliness of care, the system will collapse,&#8221; Tester spokeswoman Marnee Banks said in a statement. &#8220;Sen. Tester believes there is a place for supplementing VA care with private care, especially in rural America (as he noted in his speech), but relying primarily on the private market to provide care could lead to the agency&#8217;s dismantling.&#8221;</p> <p>Takano spokesman Josh Weisz acknowledged that the CVA&#8217;s plan &#8220;does not explicitly mandate privatization; such a move would be politically untenable.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;Instead, it drains the VA of the resources it needs and triggers an inevitable death spiral for the VHA, leaving private care as the primary option for veterans. This is why we are seeing veterans groups speak out against them. CVA&#8217;s effort to replace VA&#8217;s central role in veterans care with the private sector, thereby starving the VA of resources, is what Rep. Takano defines as privatization,&#8221; Weisz said.</p> <p>The CVA&#8217;s proposal would make significant changes to the current VA health-care system. It would give veterans the choice to receive subsidized private care and would create a nonprofit government corporation to oversee VA&#8217;s medical facilities. It would open up veteran health care to the private market, more than is currently available.</p> <p>But &#8220;privatization&#8221; usually refers to the wholesale transfer of government services to the private sector. Staffers for Tester and Takano described &#8220;privatization&#8221; more loosely, as getting the private sector to &#8220;replace VA&#8217;s central role in veterans care&#8221; or &#8220;diverting resources to the private sector as the primary means&#8221; of veterans health care. But this is quite misleading and twists the CVA&#8217;s proposal to meet their politically charged definition.</p> <p>Under the CVA&#8217;s proposal, it is the veteran&#8217;s choice whether to get medical care from VA or a private doctor. There&#8217;s no mandate for a certain percentage of VA&#8217;s services to be provided in the private market or for certain medical facilities to be shut down.</p> <p>vets-factcheck</p>

<p>Felipe Rodriguez says he thought he was hallucinating when an eagle snatched his sister's little white dog from her yard, flapped its massive wings and disappeared over the trees.</p> <p>Did he really just see that?</p> <p>He had. Zoey the 8-pound bichon frise was gone, taken by a hungry raptor Tuesday afternoon not 50 feet from his sister's house on the banks of the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania, Rodriguez said.</p> <p>"It seemed like something from the 'Wizard of Oz,'" he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I'm a city boy. This doesn't happen in my world."</p> <p>Even more astonishing: Zoey would live to bark the tale.</p> <p>More on that later. But first, let it be said that eagles are quite capable of taking a small dog or a cat.</p> <p>"It has been documented before, but not that often," said Laurie Goodrich, a biologist at nearby Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, a ridgetop preserve that annually records tens of thousands of migrating hawks, eagles and falcons.</p> <p>With food scarce and waterways freezing up, raptors are "looking a little more widely and taking advantage of whatever might be out there," she said.</p> <p>Rodriguez said he was by himself at his sister's home in Bowmanstown, about 80 miles (128 kilometers) north of Philadelphia, and Zoey was playing in the fenced yard when he heard a loud screech, hurried to the door and looked out.</p> <p>"The bird was holding onto the dog. There was flapping of wings and then it was gone," said Rodriguez, a 50-year-old healthcare executive visiting from Chicago.</p> <p>He drove around the neighborhood looking for the 7-year-old bichon, to no avail. Rodriguez assumed Zoey was gone for good.</p> <p>His sister and her family were devastated when they found out.</p> <p>"I did nothing but cry all day," Monica Newhard said.</p> <p>Newhard said it's not unusual to see eagles, given her home's proximity to the river. She also suspected they occasionally grabbed one of the rabbits that lived under her shed. But it didn't occur to Newhard that any of her four dogs would be in danger.</p> <p>Heartbroken, she and her husband scoured the woods for Zoey's body. Little did they know their bitty bichon would be found later that afternoon - a full four miles away.</p> <p>Zoey's rescuer was Christina Hartman, 51, who said she was driving on a snow-covered back road when she spotted a furry white lump ahead and pulled over to investigate.</p> <p>"I notice this little frozen dog, icicles hanging from all over. It could hardly move," Hartman said.</p> <p>She scooped up the whimpering pooch, wrapped her in a blanket and took her home, feeding the dog two bowls of chicken-and-rice soup. Gradually, the bichon warmed up and began to show some spunk. Hartman noticed several small wounds on the back of her neck, and the dog walked with a limp. She had no collar.</p> <p>"This dog belongs to a family, and I'm gonna find out who owns it," Hartman told herself.</p> <p>It didn't take long. She spotted Newhard's public Facebook post Wednesday morning - Newhard had uploaded a photo of Zoey - and made an excited call.</p> <p>"I said, 'It's a miracle! I have your dog!'"</p> <p>Zoey had bruises and a few missing patches of fur. It's not clear how far the eagle might have carried the dog, but Rodriguez said he can't believe Zoey survived.</p> <p>"She is not really herself, but she is getting lots of love," his sister, Newhard, texted the AP late Wednesday. "She doesn't want to go out. ... I really can't blame her."</p> <p>Felipe Rodriguez says he thought he was hallucinating when an eagle snatched his sister's little white dog from her yard, flapped its massive wings and disappeared over the trees.</p> <p>Did he really just see that?</p> <p>He had. Zoey the 8-pound bichon frise was gone, taken by a hungry raptor Tuesday afternoon not 50 feet from his sister's house on the banks of the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania, Rodriguez said.</p> <p>"It seemed like something from the 'Wizard of Oz,'" he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I'm a city boy. This doesn't happen in my world."</p> <p>Even more astonishing: Zoey would live to bark the tale.</p> <p>More on that later. But first, let it be said that eagles are quite capable of taking a small dog or a cat.</p> <p>"It has been documented before, but not that often," said Laurie Goodrich, a biologist at nearby Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, a ridgetop preserve that annually records tens of thousands of migrating hawks, eagles and falcons.</p> <p>With food scarce and waterways freezing up, raptors are "looking a little more widely and taking advantage of whatever might be out there," she said.</p> <p>Rodriguez said he was by himself at his sister's home in Bowmanstown, about 80 miles (128 kilometers) north of Philadelphia, and Zoey was playing in the fenced yard when he heard a loud screech, hurried to the door and looked out.</p> <p>"The bird was holding onto the dog. There was flapping of wings and then it was gone," said Rodriguez, a 50-year-old healthcare executive visiting from Chicago.</p> <p>He drove around the neighborhood looking for the 7-year-old bichon, to no avail. Rodriguez assumed Zoey was gone for good.</p> <p>His sister and her family were devastated when they found out.</p> <p>"I did nothing but cry all day," Monica Newhard said.</p> <p>Newhard said it's not unusual to see eagles, given her home's proximity to the river. She also suspected they occasionally grabbed one of the rabbits that lived under her shed. But it didn't occur to Newhard that any of her four dogs would be in danger.</p> <p>Heartbroken, she and her husband scoured the woods for Zoey's body. Little did they know their bitty bichon would be found later that afternoon - a full four miles away.</p> <p>Zoey's rescuer was Christina Hartman, 51, who said she was driving on a snow-covered back road when she spotted a furry white lump ahead and pulled over to investigate.</p> <p>"I notice this little frozen dog, icicles hanging from all over. It could hardly move," Hartman said.</p> <p>She scooped up the whimpering pooch, wrapped her in a blanket and took her home, feeding the dog two bowls of chicken-and-rice soup. Gradually, the bichon warmed up and began to show some spunk. Hartman noticed several small wounds on the back of her neck, and the dog walked with a limp. She had no collar.</p> <p>"This dog belongs to a family, and I'm gonna find out who owns it," Hartman told herself.</p> <p>It didn't take long. She spotted Newhard's public Facebook post Wednesday morning - Newhard had uploaded a photo of Zoey - and made an excited call.</p> <p>"I said, 'It's a miracle! I have your dog!'"</p> <p>Zoey had bruises and a few missing patches of fur. It's not clear how far the eagle might have carried the dog, but Rodriguez said he can't believe Zoey survived.</p> <p>"She is not really herself, but she is getting lots of love," his sister, Newhard, texted the AP late Wednesday. "She doesn't want to go out. ... I really can't blame her."</p>

Snatched by hungry eagle, little dog lives to bark the tale

https://apnews.com/amp/cc6c3dc0ab7c475bae8f728f536ba3aa

2018-01-04

2least

Snatched by hungry eagle, little dog lives to bark the tale <p>Felipe Rodriguez says he thought he was hallucinating when an eagle snatched his sister's little white dog from her yard, flapped its massive wings and disappeared over the trees.</p> <p>Did he really just see that?</p> <p>He had. Zoey the 8-pound bichon frise was gone, taken by a hungry raptor Tuesday afternoon not 50 feet from his sister's house on the banks of the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania, Rodriguez said.</p> <p>"It seemed like something from the 'Wizard of Oz,'" he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I'm a city boy. This doesn't happen in my world."</p> <p>Even more astonishing: Zoey would live to bark the tale.</p> <p>More on that later. But first, let it be said that eagles are quite capable of taking a small dog or a cat.</p> <p>"It has been documented before, but not that often," said Laurie Goodrich, a biologist at nearby Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, a ridgetop preserve that annually records tens of thousands of migrating hawks, eagles and falcons.</p> <p>With food scarce and waterways freezing up, raptors are "looking a little more widely and taking advantage of whatever might be out there," she said.</p> <p>Rodriguez said he was by himself at his sister's home in Bowmanstown, about 80 miles (128 kilometers) north of Philadelphia, and Zoey was playing in the fenced yard when he heard a loud screech, hurried to the door and looked out.</p> <p>"The bird was holding onto the dog. There was flapping of wings and then it was gone," said Rodriguez, a 50-year-old healthcare executive visiting from Chicago.</p> <p>He drove around the neighborhood looking for the 7-year-old bichon, to no avail. Rodriguez assumed Zoey was gone for good.</p> <p>His sister and her family were devastated when they found out.</p> <p>"I did nothing but cry all day," Monica Newhard said.</p> <p>Newhard said it's not unusual to see eagles, given her home's proximity to the river. She also suspected they occasionally grabbed one of the rabbits that lived under her shed. But it didn't occur to Newhard that any of her four dogs would be in danger.</p> <p>Heartbroken, she and her husband scoured the woods for Zoey's body. Little did they know their bitty bichon would be found later that afternoon - a full four miles away.</p> <p>Zoey's rescuer was Christina Hartman, 51, who said she was driving on a snow-covered back road when she spotted a furry white lump ahead and pulled over to investigate.</p> <p>"I notice this little frozen dog, icicles hanging from all over. It could hardly move," Hartman said.</p> <p>She scooped up the whimpering pooch, wrapped her in a blanket and took her home, feeding the dog two bowls of chicken-and-rice soup. Gradually, the bichon warmed up and began to show some spunk. Hartman noticed several small wounds on the back of her neck, and the dog walked with a limp. She had no collar.</p> <p>"This dog belongs to a family, and I'm gonna find out who owns it," Hartman told herself.</p> <p>It didn't take long. She spotted Newhard's public Facebook post Wednesday morning - Newhard had uploaded a photo of Zoey - and made an excited call.</p> <p>"I said, 'It's a miracle! I have your dog!'"</p> <p>Zoey had bruises and a few missing patches of fur. It's not clear how far the eagle might have carried the dog, but Rodriguez said he can't believe Zoey survived.</p> <p>"She is not really herself, but she is getting lots of love," his sister, Newhard, texted the AP late Wednesday. "She doesn't want to go out. ... I really can't blame her."</p> <p>Felipe Rodriguez says he thought he was hallucinating when an eagle snatched his sister's little white dog from her yard, flapped its massive wings and disappeared over the trees.</p> <p>Did he really just see that?</p> <p>He had. Zoey the 8-pound bichon frise was gone, taken by a hungry raptor Tuesday afternoon not 50 feet from his sister's house on the banks of the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania, Rodriguez said.</p> <p>"It seemed like something from the 'Wizard of Oz,'" he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I'm a city boy. This doesn't happen in my world."</p> <p>Even more astonishing: Zoey would live to bark the tale.</p> <p>More on that later. But first, let it be said that eagles are quite capable of taking a small dog or a cat.</p> <p>"It has been documented before, but not that often," said Laurie Goodrich, a biologist at nearby Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, a ridgetop preserve that annually records tens of thousands of migrating hawks, eagles and falcons.</p> <p>With food scarce and waterways freezing up, raptors are "looking a little more widely and taking advantage of whatever might be out there," she said.</p> <p>Rodriguez said he was by himself at his sister's home in Bowmanstown, about 80 miles (128 kilometers) north of Philadelphia, and Zoey was playing in the fenced yard when he heard a loud screech, hurried to the door and looked out.</p> <p>"The bird was holding onto the dog. There was flapping of wings and then it was gone," said Rodriguez, a 50-year-old healthcare executive visiting from Chicago.</p> <p>He drove around the neighborhood looking for the 7-year-old bichon, to no avail. Rodriguez assumed Zoey was gone for good.</p> <p>His sister and her family were devastated when they found out.</p> <p>"I did nothing but cry all day," Monica Newhard said.</p> <p>Newhard said it's not unusual to see eagles, given her home's proximity to the river. She also suspected they occasionally grabbed one of the rabbits that lived under her shed. But it didn't occur to Newhard that any of her four dogs would be in danger.</p> <p>Heartbroken, she and her husband scoured the woods for Zoey's body. Little did they know their bitty bichon would be found later that afternoon - a full four miles away.</p> <p>Zoey's rescuer was Christina Hartman, 51, who said she was driving on a snow-covered back road when she spotted a furry white lump ahead and pulled over to investigate.</p> <p>"I notice this little frozen dog, icicles hanging from all over. It could hardly move," Hartman said.</p> <p>She scooped up the whimpering pooch, wrapped her in a blanket and took her home, feeding the dog two bowls of chicken-and-rice soup. Gradually, the bichon warmed up and began to show some spunk. Hartman noticed several small wounds on the back of her neck, and the dog walked with a limp. She had no collar.</p> <p>"This dog belongs to a family, and I'm gonna find out who owns it," Hartman told herself.</p> <p>It didn't take long. She spotted Newhard's public Facebook post Wednesday morning - Newhard had uploaded a photo of Zoey - and made an excited call.</p> <p>"I said, 'It's a miracle! I have your dog!'"</p> <p>Zoey had bruises and a few missing patches of fur. It's not clear how far the eagle might have carried the dog, but Rodriguez said he can't believe Zoey survived.</p> <p>"She is not really herself, but she is getting lots of love," his sister, Newhard, texted the AP late Wednesday. "She doesn't want to go out. ... I really can't blame her."</p>

<p>(Screenshot via YouTube.)</p> <p>Valentina became the breakout star of &#8220;RuPaul&#8217;s Drag Race&#8221; season nine when she attempted to lip-sync for her life while wearing a mask.</p> <p>The judges were baffled and when RuPaul asked Valentina to remove the mask she responded, &#8220;I&#8217;d like to keep it on, please.&#8221; The line has gone down in &#8220;Drag Race&#8221; herstory as one of the show&#8217;s most iconic moments.</p> <p>Cosmetic company Lush appears to think so too. A shopper discovered that Lush&#8217;s new face mask, <a href="https://uk.lush.com/products/catastrophe-cosmetic" type="external">Catastrophe Cosmetic</a>, includes Valentina&#8217;s one-liner in the description.</p> <p /> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p /> <p><a href="" type="internal">Lush</a> <a href="" type="internal">RuPaul's Drag Race</a> <a href="" type="internal">Valentina</a></p>

Lush honors Valentina’s lip-sync moment with new face mask

http://washingtonblade.com/2017/07/26/lush-honors-valentinas-lip-sync-moment-new-face-mask/

3left-center

Lush honors Valentina’s lip-sync moment with new face mask <p>(Screenshot via YouTube.)</p> <p>Valentina became the breakout star of &#8220;RuPaul&#8217;s Drag Race&#8221; season nine when she attempted to lip-sync for her life while wearing a mask.</p> <p>The judges were baffled and when RuPaul asked Valentina to remove the mask she responded, &#8220;I&#8217;d like to keep it on, please.&#8221; The line has gone down in &#8220;Drag Race&#8221; herstory as one of the show&#8217;s most iconic moments.</p> <p>Cosmetic company Lush appears to think so too. A shopper discovered that Lush&#8217;s new face mask, <a href="https://uk.lush.com/products/catastrophe-cosmetic" type="external">Catastrophe Cosmetic</a>, includes Valentina&#8217;s one-liner in the description.</p> <p /> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p /> <p><a href="" type="internal">Lush</a> <a href="" type="internal">RuPaul's Drag Race</a> <a href="" type="internal">Valentina</a></p>

<p>Most Americans think the U.S. government should deport illegal immigrants living in the country who have been convicted of other crimes, but also say the government should develop plans to allow some to gain legal status or U.S. citizenship, according to a poll released Friday.</p> <p>Seventy-eight percent said the government should attempt to deport all illegal immigrants in the U.S. who have been convicted of other crimes while living here, according to the CNN/ORC <a href="https://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2017/images/03/17/rel4g.-.immigration.pdf" type="external">poll</a>.</p> <p>But 60 percent said the government's top priority when it comes to the issue should be developing a plan to allow illegal immigrants who do have jobs to become legal residents.</p> <p>Twenty-six percent said the top priority should be developing a plan to stop immigrants from entering the U.S. illegally, and 13 percent said the top priority should be deporting illegal immigrants.</p> <p>And 90 percent said they would support a bill allowing a path to U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants who have been in the country for a number of years, hold a job, speak English, and are willing to pay back taxes.</p> <p>Seven in 10 said the government should not try to deport all people currently living in the U.S. illegally, compared to 27 percent who said the government should try to do that.</p> <p>President Trump has put an emphasis on deporting illegal immigrants with criminal rap sheets, but has also expanded government agents' discretion in their deportation efforts.</p> <p>The poll of 1,025 U.S. adults was conducted from March 1-4 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.</p> <p>Copyright - 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2017/mar/17/americans-open-legal-status-citizenship-illegal-im/" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p>

Americans open to legal status, citizenship for illegal immigrants: Poll

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/17/americans-open-legal-status-citizenship-illegal-im/

2017-03-17

0right

Americans open to legal status, citizenship for illegal immigrants: Poll <p>Most Americans think the U.S. government should deport illegal immigrants living in the country who have been convicted of other crimes, but also say the government should develop plans to allow some to gain legal status or U.S. citizenship, according to a poll released Friday.</p> <p>Seventy-eight percent said the government should attempt to deport all illegal immigrants in the U.S. who have been convicted of other crimes while living here, according to the CNN/ORC <a href="https://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2017/images/03/17/rel4g.-.immigration.pdf" type="external">poll</a>.</p> <p>But 60 percent said the government's top priority when it comes to the issue should be developing a plan to allow illegal immigrants who do have jobs to become legal residents.</p> <p>Twenty-six percent said the top priority should be developing a plan to stop immigrants from entering the U.S. illegally, and 13 percent said the top priority should be deporting illegal immigrants.</p> <p>And 90 percent said they would support a bill allowing a path to U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants who have been in the country for a number of years, hold a job, speak English, and are willing to pay back taxes.</p> <p>Seven in 10 said the government should not try to deport all people currently living in the U.S. illegally, compared to 27 percent who said the government should try to do that.</p> <p>President Trump has put an emphasis on deporting illegal immigrants with criminal rap sheets, but has also expanded government agents' discretion in their deportation efforts.</p> <p>The poll of 1,025 U.S. adults was conducted from March 1-4 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.</p> <p>Copyright - 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2017/mar/17/americans-open-legal-status-citizenship-illegal-im/" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>Since the 1960s, when the first B61 nuclear bomb was built, there have been 11 versions of the weapon, five of which are still active in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.</p> <p>That includes the B61-11, a ground-penetrating weapon known as the "bunker buster," which will remain in the stockpile after the current modernization program to extend the B61's life is finished.</p> <p>Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the U.S. Air Force are working together on refurbishing the other four bomb models - the B61-3, -4, -7 and -10 - into a single modernized version called the B61-12.</p> <p>About 400 B61s are still in service today, nearly half of them deployed in Europe. Delivered by aircraft, it's the oldest bomb in the nuclear arsenal and the most versatile, because it's built to withstand supersonic speeds, can be carried long distances by a wide number of aircraft, and its warhead can be adjusted up or down to produce higher or lower blast power.</p> <p>The B61-12 will eventually be carried on the government's newly built F-35, a stealth joint strike craft the Air Force is developing. The bombs can currently be carried on F-16's and Tornado jet fighters, which will also be upgraded to accommodate the refurbished B61.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>The bomb's life extension program and aircraft upgrades are part of a government effort to overhaul much of the U.S. nuclear military complex. That includes modification of bombs built for submarine and ground launch, and refurbishment of the ships and ground platforms that support those weapons. It also includes upgrades at laboratory complexes where nuclear warheads are managed and nuclear material is developed, such as LANL buildings for plutonium research and uranium-processing facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee.</p> <p>All told, the system-wide overhaul is projected to cost more than $350 billion over the next 10 years, according to a 2012 study by the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.</p> <p /> <p />

NM labs working to refurbish B61 versions

https://abqjournal.com/402430/nm-labs-working-to-refurbish-b61-versions.html

2least

NM labs working to refurbish B61 versions <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>Since the 1960s, when the first B61 nuclear bomb was built, there have been 11 versions of the weapon, five of which are still active in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.</p> <p>That includes the B61-11, a ground-penetrating weapon known as the "bunker buster," which will remain in the stockpile after the current modernization program to extend the B61's life is finished.</p> <p>Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the U.S. Air Force are working together on refurbishing the other four bomb models - the B61-3, -4, -7 and -10 - into a single modernized version called the B61-12.</p> <p>About 400 B61s are still in service today, nearly half of them deployed in Europe. Delivered by aircraft, it's the oldest bomb in the nuclear arsenal and the most versatile, because it's built to withstand supersonic speeds, can be carried long distances by a wide number of aircraft, and its warhead can be adjusted up or down to produce higher or lower blast power.</p> <p>The B61-12 will eventually be carried on the government's newly built F-35, a stealth joint strike craft the Air Force is developing. The bombs can currently be carried on F-16's and Tornado jet fighters, which will also be upgraded to accommodate the refurbished B61.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>The bomb's life extension program and aircraft upgrades are part of a government effort to overhaul much of the U.S. nuclear military complex. That includes modification of bombs built for submarine and ground launch, and refurbishment of the ships and ground platforms that support those weapons. It also includes upgrades at laboratory complexes where nuclear warheads are managed and nuclear material is developed, such as LANL buildings for plutonium research and uranium-processing facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee.</p> <p>All told, the system-wide overhaul is projected to cost more than $350 billion over the next 10 years, according to a 2012 study by the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.</p> <p /> <p />

<p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These Maine lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p> <p>Gimme 5</p> <p>07-11-14-16-20</p> <p>(seven, eleven, fourteen, sixteen, twenty)</p> <p>Lotto America</p> <p>05-08-28-30-40, Star Ball: 4, ASB: 3</p> <p>(five, eight, twenty-eight, thirty, forty; Star Ball: four; ASB: three)</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $18.47 million</p> <p>Mega Millions</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p> <p>Megabucks Plus</p> <p>02-09-15-17-23, Megaball: 2</p> <p>(two, nine, fifteen, seventeen, twenty-three; Megaball: two)</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $4.77 million</p> <p>Pick 3 Day</p> <p>3-1-7</p> <p>(three, one, seven)</p> <p>Pick 3 Evening</p> <p>6-1-8</p> <p>(six, one, eight)</p> <p>Pick 4 Day</p> <p>2-7-8-0</p> <p>(two, seven, eight, zero)</p> <p>Pick 4 Evening</p> <p>0-6-3-5</p> <p>(zero, six, three, five)</p> <p>Powerball</p> <p>03-33-37-51-57, Powerball: 21, Power Play: 2</p> <p>(three, thirty-three, thirty-seven, fifty-one, fifty-seven; Powerball: twenty-one; Power Play: two)</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $62 million</p> <p>WPT</p> <p>KC-AH-2H-4H-6H</p> <p>(KC, AH, 2H, 4H, 6H)</p> <p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These Maine lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p> <p>Gimme 5</p> <p>07-11-14-16-20</p> <p>(seven, eleven, fourteen, sixteen, twenty)</p> <p>Lotto America</p> <p>05-08-28-30-40, Star Ball: 4, ASB: 3</p> <p>(five, eight, twenty-eight, thirty, forty; Star Ball: four; ASB: three)</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $18.47 million</p> <p>Mega Millions</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p> <p>Megabucks Plus</p> <p>02-09-15-17-23, Megaball: 2</p> <p>(two, nine, fifteen, seventeen, twenty-three; Megaball: two)</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $4.77 million</p> <p>Pick 3 Day</p> <p>3-1-7</p> <p>(three, one, seven)</p> <p>Pick 3 Evening</p> <p>6-1-8</p> <p>(six, one, eight)</p> <p>Pick 4 Day</p> <p>2-7-8-0</p> <p>(two, seven, eight, zero)</p> <p>Pick 4 Evening</p> <p>0-6-3-5</p> <p>(zero, six, three, five)</p> <p>Powerball</p> <p>03-33-37-51-57, Powerball: 21, Power Play: 2</p> <p>(three, thirty-three, thirty-seven, fifty-one, fifty-seven; Powerball: twenty-one; Power Play: two)</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $62 million</p> <p>WPT</p> <p>KC-AH-2H-4H-6H</p> <p>(KC, AH, 2H, 4H, 6H)</p>

ME Lottery

https://apnews.com/a51265a11e2547468a8ea5da6e3d4f3d

2018-01-18

2least

ME Lottery <p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These Maine lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p> <p>Gimme 5</p> <p>07-11-14-16-20</p> <p>(seven, eleven, fourteen, sixteen, twenty)</p> <p>Lotto America</p> <p>05-08-28-30-40, Star Ball: 4, ASB: 3</p> <p>(five, eight, twenty-eight, thirty, forty; Star Ball: four; ASB: three)</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $18.47 million</p> <p>Mega Millions</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p> <p>Megabucks Plus</p> <p>02-09-15-17-23, Megaball: 2</p> <p>(two, nine, fifteen, seventeen, twenty-three; Megaball: two)</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $4.77 million</p> <p>Pick 3 Day</p> <p>3-1-7</p> <p>(three, one, seven)</p> <p>Pick 3 Evening</p> <p>6-1-8</p> <p>(six, one, eight)</p> <p>Pick 4 Day</p> <p>2-7-8-0</p> <p>(two, seven, eight, zero)</p> <p>Pick 4 Evening</p> <p>0-6-3-5</p> <p>(zero, six, three, five)</p> <p>Powerball</p> <p>03-33-37-51-57, Powerball: 21, Power Play: 2</p> <p>(three, thirty-three, thirty-seven, fifty-one, fifty-seven; Powerball: twenty-one; Power Play: two)</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $62 million</p> <p>WPT</p> <p>KC-AH-2H-4H-6H</p> <p>(KC, AH, 2H, 4H, 6H)</p> <p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These Maine lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p> <p>Gimme 5</p> <p>07-11-14-16-20</p> <p>(seven, eleven, fourteen, sixteen, twenty)</p> <p>Lotto America</p> <p>05-08-28-30-40, Star Ball: 4, ASB: 3</p> <p>(five, eight, twenty-eight, thirty, forty; Star Ball: four; ASB: three)</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $18.47 million</p> <p>Mega Millions</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p> <p>Megabucks Plus</p> <p>02-09-15-17-23, Megaball: 2</p> <p>(two, nine, fifteen, seventeen, twenty-three; Megaball: two)</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $4.77 million</p> <p>Pick 3 Day</p> <p>3-1-7</p> <p>(three, one, seven)</p> <p>Pick 3 Evening</p> <p>6-1-8</p> <p>(six, one, eight)</p> <p>Pick 4 Day</p> <p>2-7-8-0</p> <p>(two, seven, eight, zero)</p> <p>Pick 4 Evening</p> <p>0-6-3-5</p> <p>(zero, six, three, five)</p> <p>Powerball</p> <p>03-33-37-51-57, Powerball: 21, Power Play: 2</p> <p>(three, thirty-three, thirty-seven, fifty-one, fifty-seven; Powerball: twenty-one; Power Play: two)</p> <p>Estimated jackpot: $62 million</p> <p>WPT</p> <p>KC-AH-2H-4H-6H</p> <p>(KC, AH, 2H, 4H, 6H)</p>

<p>Fair and balanced Fox News has reported extensively this month on the Senate Intelligence Committee. The two big stories are (1) that the Democrats on the Committee are politicizing its work (by calling for a broader investigation than the Republican leadership desires), and (2) that the Committee has received a blockbuster report from the Defense Department documenting ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. The latter story hails from the neocon rag, The Weekly Standard, which has promoted the Iraq War every step of the way and bewails the fact that Donald Rumsfeld is unwilling to deploy more troops to insure the U.S. gets the job done in the occupied nation. The Standard and Fox News are of course both owned by Rupert Murdoch, whose fair and balanced view of the world is well known.</p> <p>These stories draw attention to the fact that the Senate Intelligence Committee plays a key role in the ongoing discussion, within the ruling elite, of how to deal with the obvious quagmire that is Iraq. The American people have increasingly come to see the war as a mistake, or something not worth the human and financial costs; too few yet understand the war as a crime, predicated on lies and the conscious exploitation of 9-11 by unprincipled warmongers with an agenda. But that understanding may come, and neither the Standard nor Fox News wants it to happen. Presently, they see Democratic presidential candidates, for their own political purposes (let us not assume any higher, morally-grounded ones) driving home the fact that Iraq did not constitute an urgent threat to the U.S., and had nothing to do with 9-11. In response, Fox insists on the Bushites&#8217; view of reality, with increasingly ferocious determination as that view becomes discredited. Having erased even the traditional bourgeois journalistic distinction between &#8220;news&#8221; and &#8220;commentary,&#8221; Fox exists to bludgeon even timid anti-imperialist voices, whether they emanate from the right or left.</p> <p>The Rockefeller Memo</p> <p>Fox rages against Senator Jay Rockefeller, ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, and his staff for politicizing the Committee&#8217;s work. What, specifically, does this mean? It seems that Rockefeller has insisted that the Committee scrutinize not only the CIA&#8217;s collection of information, but that amassed (or generated) by the Office of Special Plans. The committee&#8217;s chair, Kansas Republican Pat Roberts, opposes this, insists that the committee&#8217;s work is &#8220;90 to 95&#8221; percent finished, and has already concluded that <a href="" type="internal">any intelligence failures are attributable to the CIA</a>. (This has become the conventional wisdom articulated in the corporate press. Newsweek&#8217;s cover story says it all: &#8220;How Dick Cheney Sold the War. The Inside Story: Why He Fell for Bad Intelligence&#8212;And Preached It to the President.&#8221; The V-P fell for bad intelligence. Now the question is: Does one blame the CIA, which actually resisted pressure to doctor and cherry-pick intelligence to justify the attack on Iraq, or the Office of Special Plans, which did not so much mislead Cheney as assist him in manufacturing a casus belli for a conflict he was eager to fight whatever the legitimately collected intelligence might say?</p> <p>Now, very few Americans have ever heard of the Office of Special Plans, and Fox no doubt wants to keep it that way. This was the office created last spring, after the CIA and DIA kept telling Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz that they just couldn&#8217;t come up with any links between 9-11 and Saddam Hussein. Created in Spring 2002 and peopled by former Congressional staffers (rather than intelligence operatives), it was charged with &#8220;thinking outside the box&#8221; and rethinking information rejected by intelligence professionals in order to make a case for war. Its business was what Greg Thielmann, former proliferation expert in the State Department&#8217;s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and now a principled critic of Bushite disinformation, called &#8220;faith-based intelligence.&#8221; It was headed by Straussian neocons William Luti and Abe Shulsky, who are on record as advocating the use of noble lies to create public opinion that serves the policy agendas of the warmongering Wise.</p> <p>It&#8217;s not clear whether the super-secret office, which reported to ultra-hawk, Likudist, neocon Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith, is still operative. But I think it quite likely that some version of it lingers in the bowels of the Defense Department, assigned new chores in accordance with the New American Century program that Feith helped author. Over here, you have a team assigned to produce a &#8220;finding&#8221; about Syrian weapons of mass destruction threatening the American homeland; over there, a former Congressional staffer asked to prove Syrian intimacy with bin Laden and al-Qaeda. At an adjoining desk, someone investigating Syria&#8217;s receipt of WMDs as gifts from Saddam Hussein; others handle state-run Syrian banks&#8217; financial services to Iraq and to international terrorism, Syrian government coordination of &#8220;foreign terrorists&#8217; infiltration&#8221; into Iraq through the unpoliceable 400-mile desert border. Over there, people on top of containing the damage caused by statements that emanate from different agencies and branches in government which for their own reasons aren&#8217;t on board the program, and keep denying the disinformation. And so on. That&#8217;s how the neocons operate.</p> <p>Senator Rockefeller is apparently uncomfortable with this sort of deviousness. Perhaps he feels some empathy with the CIA, whose personnel are in a bind. They understand the need for psy-ops and lies, and for people sometimes taking responsibility for things that they have in fact no relation to. Thus when the Niger uranium lie came to light, George J. Tenet, as CIA head, &#8220;fell on his sword&#8221; as the media repeatedly put it (although the Roman martial allusion wasn&#8217;t really apt) and assumed responsibility. But the lie didn&#8217;t originate with the CIA. It was straight out of Special Plans. Now Bush loyalist Senator Roberts, guiding the Intelligence Committee, wants again to pin any errors or exaggerations pertinent to the administration&#8217;s pre-war accusations about Iraqi WMDs on the conventional intelligence agencies, and Rockefeller&#8217;s saying: <a href="" type="internal">We need to check out Special Plans.</a> Rockefeller&#8217;s office sent a memo to Democrats noting Roberts&#8217; defensiveness, suggesting ways to counter it, noting that Roberts sought to confine attention to the venerable Agency. Fox&#8217;s Sean Hannity somehow got a copy and was on Rockefeller&#8217;s case immediately. The Feith Memo</p> <p>How political! accused patriotic Sean. How dare Rockefeller try to politicize the issue of the official rationale for war with Iraq? To investigate the possibility that what everyone with a brain now understands to have been, at minimum, &#8220;flawed&#8221; or &#8220;hyped&#8221; intelligence, might actually have been deliberate disinformation&#8212;-now, that&#8217;s an a politicizing type of inquiry. Shame on Rockefeller! Praise be, meanwhile, unto Office of Special Plans boss Douglas Feith, author of yet another &#8220;leaked&#8221; memo falling into the hands of Fox News anchors via the <a href="" type="internal">Weekly Standard</a>.</p> <p>This memo, sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee October 27, contains a &#8220;classified annex&#8221; that &#8220;proves&#8221; (to the Standard&#8217;s and Fox&#8217;s low standards) the putative Saddam-Osama link. Fox does not suggest that <a href="http://www.antiwar.com/comment/feith1.html" type="external">this memo</a> and its leakage politicize discussion of the war, or that there&#8217;s anything untoward about their own use of this &#8220;news.&#8221;</p> <p>The Weekly Standard tendentiously titles its screed &#8220;Case Closed,&#8221; as if to demand an end to the discussion. Alas for the neocons and their noble lies, a Washington Post piece by Walter Pincus November 18 cast doubt on the leaked memo&#8217;s blockbuster annex:</p> <p>W. Patrick Lang, former head of the Middle East section of the DIA, said yesterday that the Standard article &#8220;is a listing of a mass of unconfirmed reports, many of which themselves indicate that the two groups continued to try to establish some sort of relationship. If they had such a productive relationship, why did they have to keep trying?&#8221;</p> <p>Another former senior intelligence official said the memo is not an intelligence product but rather &#8220;data points . . . among the millions of holdings of the intelligence agencies, many of which are simply not thought likely to be true.&#8221;</p> <p>The Defense Department itself, interestingly enough, <a href="http://www.defenselink.mil/" type="external">issued a statement</a> declaring that the annex to Feith&#8217;s memo outlining &#8220;the relationship between Iraq and al Qaida&#8221; in fact &#8220;drew no conclusions.&#8221; The statement concludes: &#8220;Individuals who leak or purport to leak classified information are doing serious harm to national security; such activity is deplorable and may be illegal.&#8221;</p> <p>So Fox has both trashed an apparently honest effort to expose government deceit paving the way for a bloody imperialist war; and also promoted distorted &#8220;intelligence&#8221; information (in typical neocon fashion) to desperately justify that disaster. The crudity of its effort obliged the Defense Department itself to step in and clarify. All in a week&#8217;s time.</p> <p>GARY LEUPP is a professor of History at Tufts University and coordinator of the Asian Studies Program.</p> <p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:gleupp@tufts.edu" type="external">gleupp@tufts.edu</a></p> <p>&amp;#160;</p>

Politicizing War on Fox News

https://counterpunch.org/2003/11/29/politicizing-war-on-fox-news/

2003-11-29

4left

Politicizing War on Fox News <p>Fair and balanced Fox News has reported extensively this month on the Senate Intelligence Committee. The two big stories are (1) that the Democrats on the Committee are politicizing its work (by calling for a broader investigation than the Republican leadership desires), and (2) that the Committee has received a blockbuster report from the Defense Department documenting ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. The latter story hails from the neocon rag, The Weekly Standard, which has promoted the Iraq War every step of the way and bewails the fact that Donald Rumsfeld is unwilling to deploy more troops to insure the U.S. gets the job done in the occupied nation. The Standard and Fox News are of course both owned by Rupert Murdoch, whose fair and balanced view of the world is well known.</p> <p>These stories draw attention to the fact that the Senate Intelligence Committee plays a key role in the ongoing discussion, within the ruling elite, of how to deal with the obvious quagmire that is Iraq. The American people have increasingly come to see the war as a mistake, or something not worth the human and financial costs; too few yet understand the war as a crime, predicated on lies and the conscious exploitation of 9-11 by unprincipled warmongers with an agenda. But that understanding may come, and neither the Standard nor Fox News wants it to happen. Presently, they see Democratic presidential candidates, for their own political purposes (let us not assume any higher, morally-grounded ones) driving home the fact that Iraq did not constitute an urgent threat to the U.S., and had nothing to do with 9-11. In response, Fox insists on the Bushites&#8217; view of reality, with increasingly ferocious determination as that view becomes discredited. Having erased even the traditional bourgeois journalistic distinction between &#8220;news&#8221; and &#8220;commentary,&#8221; Fox exists to bludgeon even timid anti-imperialist voices, whether they emanate from the right or left.</p> <p>The Rockefeller Memo</p> <p>Fox rages against Senator Jay Rockefeller, ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, and his staff for politicizing the Committee&#8217;s work. What, specifically, does this mean? It seems that Rockefeller has insisted that the Committee scrutinize not only the CIA&#8217;s collection of information, but that amassed (or generated) by the Office of Special Plans. The committee&#8217;s chair, Kansas Republican Pat Roberts, opposes this, insists that the committee&#8217;s work is &#8220;90 to 95&#8221; percent finished, and has already concluded that <a href="" type="internal">any intelligence failures are attributable to the CIA</a>. (This has become the conventional wisdom articulated in the corporate press. Newsweek&#8217;s cover story says it all: &#8220;How Dick Cheney Sold the War. The Inside Story: Why He Fell for Bad Intelligence&#8212;And Preached It to the President.&#8221; The V-P fell for bad intelligence. Now the question is: Does one blame the CIA, which actually resisted pressure to doctor and cherry-pick intelligence to justify the attack on Iraq, or the Office of Special Plans, which did not so much mislead Cheney as assist him in manufacturing a casus belli for a conflict he was eager to fight whatever the legitimately collected intelligence might say?</p> <p>Now, very few Americans have ever heard of the Office of Special Plans, and Fox no doubt wants to keep it that way. This was the office created last spring, after the CIA and DIA kept telling Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz that they just couldn&#8217;t come up with any links between 9-11 and Saddam Hussein. Created in Spring 2002 and peopled by former Congressional staffers (rather than intelligence operatives), it was charged with &#8220;thinking outside the box&#8221; and rethinking information rejected by intelligence professionals in order to make a case for war. Its business was what Greg Thielmann, former proliferation expert in the State Department&#8217;s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and now a principled critic of Bushite disinformation, called &#8220;faith-based intelligence.&#8221; It was headed by Straussian neocons William Luti and Abe Shulsky, who are on record as advocating the use of noble lies to create public opinion that serves the policy agendas of the warmongering Wise.</p> <p>It&#8217;s not clear whether the super-secret office, which reported to ultra-hawk, Likudist, neocon Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith, is still operative. But I think it quite likely that some version of it lingers in the bowels of the Defense Department, assigned new chores in accordance with the New American Century program that Feith helped author. Over here, you have a team assigned to produce a &#8220;finding&#8221; about Syrian weapons of mass destruction threatening the American homeland; over there, a former Congressional staffer asked to prove Syrian intimacy with bin Laden and al-Qaeda. At an adjoining desk, someone investigating Syria&#8217;s receipt of WMDs as gifts from Saddam Hussein; others handle state-run Syrian banks&#8217; financial services to Iraq and to international terrorism, Syrian government coordination of &#8220;foreign terrorists&#8217; infiltration&#8221; into Iraq through the unpoliceable 400-mile desert border. Over there, people on top of containing the damage caused by statements that emanate from different agencies and branches in government which for their own reasons aren&#8217;t on board the program, and keep denying the disinformation. And so on. That&#8217;s how the neocons operate.</p> <p>Senator Rockefeller is apparently uncomfortable with this sort of deviousness. Perhaps he feels some empathy with the CIA, whose personnel are in a bind. They understand the need for psy-ops and lies, and for people sometimes taking responsibility for things that they have in fact no relation to. Thus when the Niger uranium lie came to light, George J. Tenet, as CIA head, &#8220;fell on his sword&#8221; as the media repeatedly put it (although the Roman martial allusion wasn&#8217;t really apt) and assumed responsibility. But the lie didn&#8217;t originate with the CIA. It was straight out of Special Plans. Now Bush loyalist Senator Roberts, guiding the Intelligence Committee, wants again to pin any errors or exaggerations pertinent to the administration&#8217;s pre-war accusations about Iraqi WMDs on the conventional intelligence agencies, and Rockefeller&#8217;s saying: <a href="" type="internal">We need to check out Special Plans.</a> Rockefeller&#8217;s office sent a memo to Democrats noting Roberts&#8217; defensiveness, suggesting ways to counter it, noting that Roberts sought to confine attention to the venerable Agency. Fox&#8217;s Sean Hannity somehow got a copy and was on Rockefeller&#8217;s case immediately. The Feith Memo</p> <p>How political! accused patriotic Sean. How dare Rockefeller try to politicize the issue of the official rationale for war with Iraq? To investigate the possibility that what everyone with a brain now understands to have been, at minimum, &#8220;flawed&#8221; or &#8220;hyped&#8221; intelligence, might actually have been deliberate disinformation&#8212;-now, that&#8217;s an a politicizing type of inquiry. Shame on Rockefeller! Praise be, meanwhile, unto Office of Special Plans boss Douglas Feith, author of yet another &#8220;leaked&#8221; memo falling into the hands of Fox News anchors via the <a href="" type="internal">Weekly Standard</a>.</p> <p>This memo, sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee October 27, contains a &#8220;classified annex&#8221; that &#8220;proves&#8221; (to the Standard&#8217;s and Fox&#8217;s low standards) the putative Saddam-Osama link. Fox does not suggest that <a href="http://www.antiwar.com/comment/feith1.html" type="external">this memo</a> and its leakage politicize discussion of the war, or that there&#8217;s anything untoward about their own use of this &#8220;news.&#8221;</p> <p>The Weekly Standard tendentiously titles its screed &#8220;Case Closed,&#8221; as if to demand an end to the discussion. Alas for the neocons and their noble lies, a Washington Post piece by Walter Pincus November 18 cast doubt on the leaked memo&#8217;s blockbuster annex:</p> <p>W. Patrick Lang, former head of the Middle East section of the DIA, said yesterday that the Standard article &#8220;is a listing of a mass of unconfirmed reports, many of which themselves indicate that the two groups continued to try to establish some sort of relationship. If they had such a productive relationship, why did they have to keep trying?&#8221;</p> <p>Another former senior intelligence official said the memo is not an intelligence product but rather &#8220;data points . . . among the millions of holdings of the intelligence agencies, many of which are simply not thought likely to be true.&#8221;</p> <p>The Defense Department itself, interestingly enough, <a href="http://www.defenselink.mil/" type="external">issued a statement</a> declaring that the annex to Feith&#8217;s memo outlining &#8220;the relationship between Iraq and al Qaida&#8221; in fact &#8220;drew no conclusions.&#8221; The statement concludes: &#8220;Individuals who leak or purport to leak classified information are doing serious harm to national security; such activity is deplorable and may be illegal.&#8221;</p> <p>So Fox has both trashed an apparently honest effort to expose government deceit paving the way for a bloody imperialist war; and also promoted distorted &#8220;intelligence&#8221; information (in typical neocon fashion) to desperately justify that disaster. The crudity of its effort obliged the Defense Department itself to step in and clarify. All in a week&#8217;s time.</p> <p>GARY LEUPP is a professor of History at Tufts University and coordinator of the Asian Studies Program.</p> <p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:gleupp@tufts.edu" type="external">gleupp@tufts.edu</a></p> <p>&amp;#160;</p>

<p>MAINZ, Germany &#8211; Traditional German folklore will greet President Barack Obama and his counterparts from Canada, France, Italy, Japan and the U.K. when they arrive at Munich&#8217;s airport to attend the G-7 summit this weekend.</p> <p>But don&#8217;t be fooled by the oom-pah band, dirndl dresses, men in Lederhosen and traditional mountain marksmen &#8212; the host nation&#8217;s program is decidedly international in its scope.</p> <p>As German chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin this week in typical understatement: &#8220;We have an ambitious agenda for the intensive talks.&#8221;</p> <p>Officials say that the two-day G-7 summit, which starts on Sunday, will focus on issues such as the fight against terrorism (in particular combating ISIS in Iraq and Syria), the nuclear pact being negotiated with Iran, the <a href="" type="internal">Russia-Ukraine conflict</a> and international trade agreements &#8212; such as <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/102718846" type="external">Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)</a> between Europe and the United States and <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/102714644" type="external">Asia-U.S. Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)</a>.</p> <p>&#8220;The question [of] how to contain, to press Russia, to have a more lenient approach in Ukraine is the most important topic,&#8221; Henning Riecke from the German Council of Foreign Relations in Berlin told NBC News.</p> <p>&#8220;Another issue is of course Iran, where [the U.S. and Germany] work side by side to bring about a compromise,&#8221; he added.</p> <p>The refugee crisis in the Mediterranean and the wars in Syria and Iraq will also be discussed.</p> <p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">Alpine Lockdown: 17,000 Cops Guard G-7 Summit</a></p> <p>So called sustainable development goals are also on the agenda, according to a recent editorial penned by Merkel, as is worldwide hunger.</p> <p>&#8220;I am convinced that the G-7 should now commit to eliminating hunger and absolute poverty by 2030,&#8221; she wrote.</p> <p>Protecting the world&#8217;s environment is also a major goal for the host nation, with Germany looking to limit the increase in average global temperature to two degrees with binding agreements to reduce emissions worldwide.</p> <p>Health-related issues are also central points for Germany, like a special focus on tropical diseases and the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.</p> <p>Merkel has also pledged to discuss how to increase work and professional possibilities for women, saying they should be given the chance of vocational training, especially in developing countries.</p> <p>Until last year, the G-7 included Russia and was thus called the G-8. But the June, 2014, summit was held without President Vladimir Putin to protest the country&#8217;s annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region. With little sign of the fighting in eastern Ukraine ending despite a ceasefire deal agreed in Minsk more than three months ago, the exclusion has continued for a second year.</p> <p>Not everyone agrees that Russia should be dealt with in this way, and German business groups are calling for Russia to return the leadership meetings.</p> <p>"A G-7 meeting with Russia could contribute to solving crises and stir Russia into constructive steps in the Ukraine conflict," Eckhard Cordes, chairman of Germany's Committee on Eastern Economic relations, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. It was always better to talk with each other than about each other, he said.</p> <p>The German Council of Foreign Relations&#8217; Riecke disagreed, saying that a return to G-8 would be difficult given the ongoing bloodshed in Ukraine.</p> <p>&#8220;The G-7 is a forum of strong economic countries, of heads of states who can actually change things in the world, who can forge international relations,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If they included Putin [they would talk] ... about the Russian behavior in Ukraine, about sanctions yes or no [which] would actually take away a lot of potential of the G-7.&#8221;</p> <p>The slew of spying scandals that has rocked German-U.S. relations is widely expected to be part of conversations between President Barack Obama and Merkel on the summit&#8217;s sidelines.</p> <p>Most recent reports allege that Germany&#8217;s foreign intelligence service, the BND, carried out extensive surveillance at the request of the U.S. National Security Agency, with targets allegedly including European companies and officials as far back as 2008.</p> <p>Merkel&#8217;s approval ratings fell sharply in the wake of the scandals.</p> <p>&#8220;The Germans have the experience of two dictatorships and oppressive regimes in their mind, and this is why they react so harshly,&#8221; said Riecke, an expert for transatlantic relations. &#8220;The problem is that Americans and Germans do not see the surveillance issue as their joint undertaking, that the German secret services, who have cooperated with the NSA &#8212; smartly so &#8212; are now seen as more or less comrades of the dark side of the force.&#8221;</p> <p>But with talks focusing on the &#8220;backbone of transatlantic relations&#8221; &#8212; the economic ties between the U.S. and Germany &#8212; Merkel and Obama hope to also improve relations.</p>

G-7 Summit: Leaders Face ‘Ambitious’ Agenda, German Folklore

http://nbcnews.com/news/world/g-7-meeting-leaders-face-packed-agenda-amid-german-scenery-n370496

2015-06-06

3left-center

G-7 Summit: Leaders Face ‘Ambitious’ Agenda, German Folklore <p>MAINZ, Germany &#8211; Traditional German folklore will greet President Barack Obama and his counterparts from Canada, France, Italy, Japan and the U.K. when they arrive at Munich&#8217;s airport to attend the G-7 summit this weekend.</p> <p>But don&#8217;t be fooled by the oom-pah band, dirndl dresses, men in Lederhosen and traditional mountain marksmen &#8212; the host nation&#8217;s program is decidedly international in its scope.</p> <p>As German chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin this week in typical understatement: &#8220;We have an ambitious agenda for the intensive talks.&#8221;</p> <p>Officials say that the two-day G-7 summit, which starts on Sunday, will focus on issues such as the fight against terrorism (in particular combating ISIS in Iraq and Syria), the nuclear pact being negotiated with Iran, the <a href="" type="internal">Russia-Ukraine conflict</a> and international trade agreements &#8212; such as <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/102718846" type="external">Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)</a> between Europe and the United States and <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/102714644" type="external">Asia-U.S. Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)</a>.</p> <p>&#8220;The question [of] how to contain, to press Russia, to have a more lenient approach in Ukraine is the most important topic,&#8221; Henning Riecke from the German Council of Foreign Relations in Berlin told NBC News.</p> <p>&#8220;Another issue is of course Iran, where [the U.S. and Germany] work side by side to bring about a compromise,&#8221; he added.</p> <p>The refugee crisis in the Mediterranean and the wars in Syria and Iraq will also be discussed.</p> <p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">Alpine Lockdown: 17,000 Cops Guard G-7 Summit</a></p> <p>So called sustainable development goals are also on the agenda, according to a recent editorial penned by Merkel, as is worldwide hunger.</p> <p>&#8220;I am convinced that the G-7 should now commit to eliminating hunger and absolute poverty by 2030,&#8221; she wrote.</p> <p>Protecting the world&#8217;s environment is also a major goal for the host nation, with Germany looking to limit the increase in average global temperature to two degrees with binding agreements to reduce emissions worldwide.</p> <p>Health-related issues are also central points for Germany, like a special focus on tropical diseases and the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.</p> <p>Merkel has also pledged to discuss how to increase work and professional possibilities for women, saying they should be given the chance of vocational training, especially in developing countries.</p> <p>Until last year, the G-7 included Russia and was thus called the G-8. But the June, 2014, summit was held without President Vladimir Putin to protest the country&#8217;s annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region. With little sign of the fighting in eastern Ukraine ending despite a ceasefire deal agreed in Minsk more than three months ago, the exclusion has continued for a second year.</p> <p>Not everyone agrees that Russia should be dealt with in this way, and German business groups are calling for Russia to return the leadership meetings.</p> <p>"A G-7 meeting with Russia could contribute to solving crises and stir Russia into constructive steps in the Ukraine conflict," Eckhard Cordes, chairman of Germany's Committee on Eastern Economic relations, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. It was always better to talk with each other than about each other, he said.</p> <p>The German Council of Foreign Relations&#8217; Riecke disagreed, saying that a return to G-8 would be difficult given the ongoing bloodshed in Ukraine.</p> <p>&#8220;The G-7 is a forum of strong economic countries, of heads of states who can actually change things in the world, who can forge international relations,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If they included Putin [they would talk] ... about the Russian behavior in Ukraine, about sanctions yes or no [which] would actually take away a lot of potential of the G-7.&#8221;</p> <p>The slew of spying scandals that has rocked German-U.S. relations is widely expected to be part of conversations between President Barack Obama and Merkel on the summit&#8217;s sidelines.</p> <p>Most recent reports allege that Germany&#8217;s foreign intelligence service, the BND, carried out extensive surveillance at the request of the U.S. National Security Agency, with targets allegedly including European companies and officials as far back as 2008.</p> <p>Merkel&#8217;s approval ratings fell sharply in the wake of the scandals.</p> <p>&#8220;The Germans have the experience of two dictatorships and oppressive regimes in their mind, and this is why they react so harshly,&#8221; said Riecke, an expert for transatlantic relations. &#8220;The problem is that Americans and Germans do not see the surveillance issue as their joint undertaking, that the German secret services, who have cooperated with the NSA &#8212; smartly so &#8212; are now seen as more or less comrades of the dark side of the force.&#8221;</p> <p>But with talks focusing on the &#8220;backbone of transatlantic relations&#8221; &#8212; the economic ties between the U.S. and Germany &#8212; Merkel and Obama hope to also improve relations.</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>Information that could shed light on whether the stops were appropriate in the first place also hasn't been made public, nearly two months after the initial release of nearly 150,000 "Field Interrogation, Observation, Frisk and/or Search" reports.</p> <p>More information is forthcoming, and the department stands by its initial assessment of the numbers, said police spokesman Lt. Michael McCarthy.</p> <p>"We're trying to make the best interpretation of the data that's available," he said.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Researchers from Columbia and Rutgers universities are working on a deeper study of the raw data that will factor things police haven't provided in the information so far made public, such as neighborhood crime statistics and a subject's prior arrests and gang affiliations, McCarthy added.</p> <p>Darnell Williams, CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, said he has concerns and will wait to see what else the department provides.</p> <p>"I want the stats and the rhetoric to match up," he says. "I believe police are open and listening to our concerns, but the stats haven't caught up to where their intentions are. And that's not a criticism. That's an observation."</p> <p>When Boston police posted the raw data on police-civilian encounters in January, it touted the release as a major victory for transparency and accountability - and as proof it was making progress on racial disparities in the stops.</p> <p>According to the department's initial analysis, blacks accounted for about 58.5 percent of all observations, searches and frisks that did not result in an arrest from 2011 to 2015, down from about 63 percent in the period covering 2007 to 2010, which had been the subject of a previous study commissioned by police.</p> <p>But when looked at year by year, the numbers show the rate at which blacks were subject of those police actions between 2011 and 2015 held fairly steady at nearly 60 percent annually, the AP's review found.</p> <p>Whites, by way of comparison, accounted for roughly 22 percent and Hispanics about 13 percent of police-civilian encounters during those years.</p> <p>And the racial disparity could be higher. Of the nearly 150,000 incidents, close to 7,000 don't contain any information about race.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>"The percentages speak for themselves," says Shea Cronin, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Boston University. "It's gone down a little and it seems to be moving in the right direction, but I wouldn't describe that as a major change in the demographics."</p> <p>Jack McDevitt, director of Northeastern University's Institute on Race and Justice, said further data analysis controlling for gang behavior and other factors is a critical piece of the puzzle because Boston police are using field interrogations, observations, frisks and searches largely to crack down on gang activity.</p> <p>"The goal would be to see whether that number of stops that aren't explained by gang activity has gone down," McDevitt said.</p> <p>The AP's review also found that, in a majority of cases, there is little to no detail provided about why police engaged with civilians in the first place, why a person was subsequently subjected to a search or frisk, and what the outcome of the encounters was.</p> <p>In over 32 percent of all incidents, for example, no reason appears to have been provided; in another 32 percent of incidents, officers simply marked down "investigative."</p> <p>Among the search and frisks incidents, 77 percent don't mention a basis for the police action. Over 14 percent cite probable cause, and other 8 percent cite reasonable suspicion.</p> <p>Information about the reasons and outcomes of the stops is crucial to understanding whether police are conducting searches appropriately and not violating civil rights, says Matthew Segal, legal director for the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which had sued the department to release the data.</p> <p>"Without that additional information, police cannot even measure whether its stop-and-frisk practices are achieving worthwhile goals," he said.</p> <p>The data doesn't show incidents that led to arrests or seizures of contraband because in those instances, officers file a separate arrest report instead, McCarthy said.</p> <p>On the reasons behind the police-civilian encounters, McCarthy said the department is redacting sensitive personal information in the reports and will provide further detail in due course.</p> <p>"It's going to be extremely time-consuming, as you can imagine," he said.</p> <p>___</p> <p>Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo. His work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/philip-marcelo" type="external">http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/philip-marcelo</a></p>

AP finds Boston police inflate progress on searches, frisks

https://abqjournal.com/736138/ap-finds-boston-police-inflate-progress-on-searches-frisks.html

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AP finds Boston police inflate progress on searches, frisks <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>Information that could shed light on whether the stops were appropriate in the first place also hasn't been made public, nearly two months after the initial release of nearly 150,000 "Field Interrogation, Observation, Frisk and/or Search" reports.</p> <p>More information is forthcoming, and the department stands by its initial assessment of the numbers, said police spokesman Lt. Michael McCarthy.</p> <p>"We're trying to make the best interpretation of the data that's available," he said.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Researchers from Columbia and Rutgers universities are working on a deeper study of the raw data that will factor things police haven't provided in the information so far made public, such as neighborhood crime statistics and a subject's prior arrests and gang affiliations, McCarthy added.</p> <p>Darnell Williams, CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, said he has concerns and will wait to see what else the department provides.</p> <p>"I want the stats and the rhetoric to match up," he says. "I believe police are open and listening to our concerns, but the stats haven't caught up to where their intentions are. And that's not a criticism. That's an observation."</p> <p>When Boston police posted the raw data on police-civilian encounters in January, it touted the release as a major victory for transparency and accountability - and as proof it was making progress on racial disparities in the stops.</p> <p>According to the department's initial analysis, blacks accounted for about 58.5 percent of all observations, searches and frisks that did not result in an arrest from 2011 to 2015, down from about 63 percent in the period covering 2007 to 2010, which had been the subject of a previous study commissioned by police.</p> <p>But when looked at year by year, the numbers show the rate at which blacks were subject of those police actions between 2011 and 2015 held fairly steady at nearly 60 percent annually, the AP's review found.</p> <p>Whites, by way of comparison, accounted for roughly 22 percent and Hispanics about 13 percent of police-civilian encounters during those years.</p> <p>And the racial disparity could be higher. Of the nearly 150,000 incidents, close to 7,000 don't contain any information about race.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>"The percentages speak for themselves," says Shea Cronin, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Boston University. "It's gone down a little and it seems to be moving in the right direction, but I wouldn't describe that as a major change in the demographics."</p> <p>Jack McDevitt, director of Northeastern University's Institute on Race and Justice, said further data analysis controlling for gang behavior and other factors is a critical piece of the puzzle because Boston police are using field interrogations, observations, frisks and searches largely to crack down on gang activity.</p> <p>"The goal would be to see whether that number of stops that aren't explained by gang activity has gone down," McDevitt said.</p> <p>The AP's review also found that, in a majority of cases, there is little to no detail provided about why police engaged with civilians in the first place, why a person was subsequently subjected to a search or frisk, and what the outcome of the encounters was.</p> <p>In over 32 percent of all incidents, for example, no reason appears to have been provided; in another 32 percent of incidents, officers simply marked down "investigative."</p> <p>Among the search and frisks incidents, 77 percent don't mention a basis for the police action. Over 14 percent cite probable cause, and other 8 percent cite reasonable suspicion.</p> <p>Information about the reasons and outcomes of the stops is crucial to understanding whether police are conducting searches appropriately and not violating civil rights, says Matthew Segal, legal director for the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which had sued the department to release the data.</p> <p>"Without that additional information, police cannot even measure whether its stop-and-frisk practices are achieving worthwhile goals," he said.</p> <p>The data doesn't show incidents that led to arrests or seizures of contraband because in those instances, officers file a separate arrest report instead, McCarthy said.</p> <p>On the reasons behind the police-civilian encounters, McCarthy said the department is redacting sensitive personal information in the reports and will provide further detail in due course.</p> <p>"It's going to be extremely time-consuming, as you can imagine," he said.</p> <p>___</p> <p>Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo. His work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/philip-marcelo" type="external">http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/philip-marcelo</a></p>

<p /> <p>It's unfortunate that the establishment endorsed Hillary Clinton and her Democratic supporters went to the extent of spending a whopping $1.2 billion in her second failed attempt race to the White House-breaking the record for the largest amount of money ever spent by a presidential candidate in the history of the American politics.</p> <p>President elect Donald Trump spent half of what Hillary Clinton spent, this is according to a New York Post. Mr. Trump only spent $600 million. The president-elect made remarks back in June in which he emphasized that no one needs more than $1 billion to become president of the U.S. as he added that he doesn't have to raise such huge amount to win the White House since he already had the wide coverage from the free press.</p> <p>Hillary Clinton's campaign was mistaken in thinking that it could buy votes from the American citizens by doubling Trump's expenditure in the intense presidential campaign. Her campaign spent $131.8 million in the final weeks only while by the end of November she had finished with about $839,000.</p> <p>The president-elect's team spent $94.5 million in the home stretch which took place from Oct.20 to Nov.28 and had $7.6 million as balance.</p> <p>This amounts presented include all spending by the campaigns, party committees, and PACs. Trump had promised that he would self-fund his campaign with $100 million. Trump had said that he would give his campaign the $100 million as part of his self-funding strategy. However, he did not do that. Mr. Trump the aggressive business man only gave $66 million based on reports from FEC documents.</p> <p /> <p /> <p>Compared to the previous presidents, Hillary Clinton spent more than President Barack Obama in both of his campaigns in 2008 and 2012. However, Trump spent less than Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election.</p>

Hillary Clinton Spent $1.2 billion, More Than Any Other Presidential Candidate In History

http://thegoldwater.com/news/722-Hillary-Clinton-Spent-1-2-billion-More-Than-Any-Other-Presidential-Candidate-In-History

2016-12-10

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Hillary Clinton Spent $1.2 billion, More Than Any Other Presidential Candidate In History <p /> <p>It's unfortunate that the establishment endorsed Hillary Clinton and her Democratic supporters went to the extent of spending a whopping $1.2 billion in her second failed attempt race to the White House-breaking the record for the largest amount of money ever spent by a presidential candidate in the history of the American politics.</p> <p>President elect Donald Trump spent half of what Hillary Clinton spent, this is according to a New York Post. Mr. Trump only spent $600 million. The president-elect made remarks back in June in which he emphasized that no one needs more than $1 billion to become president of the U.S. as he added that he doesn't have to raise such huge amount to win the White House since he already had the wide coverage from the free press.</p> <p>Hillary Clinton's campaign was mistaken in thinking that it could buy votes from the American citizens by doubling Trump's expenditure in the intense presidential campaign. Her campaign spent $131.8 million in the final weeks only while by the end of November she had finished with about $839,000.</p> <p>The president-elect's team spent $94.5 million in the home stretch which took place from Oct.20 to Nov.28 and had $7.6 million as balance.</p> <p>This amounts presented include all spending by the campaigns, party committees, and PACs. Trump had promised that he would self-fund his campaign with $100 million. Trump had said that he would give his campaign the $100 million as part of his self-funding strategy. However, he did not do that. Mr. Trump the aggressive business man only gave $66 million based on reports from FEC documents.</p> <p /> <p /> <p>Compared to the previous presidents, Hillary Clinton spent more than President Barack Obama in both of his campaigns in 2008 and 2012. However, Trump spent less than Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election.</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>They&#8217;ll have the perfect opportunity to make their appeal this week when Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a Pacific Rim summit as part of a visit to Ecuador, Peru and Chile.</p> <p>This is Xi&#8217;s third time in Latin America since taking office in 2013, and when he wraps up the tour he will have visited 10 countries in the region &#8212; the same number as President Barack Obama, who has been in office twice as long.</p> <p>Trump on the campaign trail pledged to break up trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, deport illegal migrants and build a wall to keep out millions from Mexico and Latin America, sending shockwaves across a region that for two centuries has looked northward for policy guidance.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Over the past decade China has displaced the U.S. as the main trading partner in country after country in Latin America as demand for the region&#8217;s soybeans, oil and iron ore fueled the fastest growth in decades. But more recently, as China&#8217;s demand for raw materials has been slowing, the region&#8217;s economies have taken a hit, dampening the once-torrid love affair with the world&#8217;s second-biggest economy.</p> <p>Margaret Myers, a China expert at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, said that most South American countries have awoken to the pitfalls of dependence on commodity exports and would prefer closer ties to the U.S., which buys the sort of manufacturing goods that generate more jobs.</p> <p>&#8220;But the question is whether the U.S. will reciprocate,&#8221; she says. &#8220;Nobody in the region is expecting much from Trump in terms of really productive policy. That leaves room for China to play a much more important role.&#8221;</p> <p>Some of China&#8217;s priorities and growing prowess in the region will be on display during Xi&#8217;s trip.</p> <p>In Ecuador, a dollarized-economy that is battling a deep recession, Xi inaugurated on Friday the country&#8217;s biggest hydroelectric dam, which was built by a Chinese firm and paid for with some of the nearly $8 billion lent to the country since 2007.</p> <p>From there he heads to Peru, to attend a summit of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group and a meeting with President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a former Wall Street investor who nonetheless chose China for his first foreign trip after taking office in July. The weeklong tour wraps up in Chile, which recently opened a branch of a state-run Chinese bank that will be South America&#8217;s first clearinghouse for transactions in the tightly-controlled yuan.</p> <p>Elsewhere, in Venezuela, the head of state-run China National Petroleum Corporation on Thursday signed a $2.2 billion accord to jointly boost oil production needed to lift the OPEC nation out of a crisis marked by severe food shortages and triple-digit inflation.</p> <p>&#8220;All of our thanks for all of the support given Venezuela in the difficult years, 2014, 2015 and especially 2016,&#8221; a visibly pleased President Nicolas Maduro said at the signing ceremony. &#8220;Our older sister China has not left Venezuela alone in these difficult times.&#8221;</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>While Trump&#8217;s victory has all but killed the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would&#8217;ve included Mexico, Peru and Chile, China continues to court the region with offers to strengthen existing free trade agreements with Costa Rica, Chile and Peru as well as negotiate new ones with Uruguay and Colombia. In the past decade, China&#8217;s two biggest development banks have pumped in $125 billion to Latin America &#8212; more than the Washington-based World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank combined.</p> <p>Xi, in a column for El Comercio newspaper, referred to the emerging ties with Peru as a &#8220;win-win&#8221; relationship encompassing areas as diverse as investment in infrastructure and energy to the shared heritage represented by the beloved &#8220;chifa&#8221; cuisine created by Chinese immigrants a century ago.</p> <p>To be sure, a U.S.-China trade war would have ripple effects across Chinese industry that would also depress demand for Latin America&#8217;s raw materials.</p> <p>But for now Chinese businessmen attending the APEC summit see nothing but potential.</p> <p>Tang Ning, founder and CEO of wealth manager and micro-lender CreditEase, said Brazil and other parts of Latin America are ripe for venture capital in the same way China was 20 years ago. Nonetheless, he cautions that Trump&#8217;s disruptive election is not a driver of its interest in Washington&#8217;s backyard.</p> <p>&#8220;We take a very long-term view,&#8221; said Tang in an interview. Politics &#8220;isn&#8217;t a major part of our conversation.&#8221;</p> <p>___</p> <p>Joshua Goodman is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjoshgoodman . His work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/joshua-goodman" type="external">http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/joshua-goodman</a> .</p>

As Trump talks wall, China builds bridges to Latin America

https://abqjournal.com/891851/as-trump-talks-wall-china-builds-bridges-to-latin-america.html

2016-11-17

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As Trump talks wall, China builds bridges to Latin America <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>They&#8217;ll have the perfect opportunity to make their appeal this week when Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a Pacific Rim summit as part of a visit to Ecuador, Peru and Chile.</p> <p>This is Xi&#8217;s third time in Latin America since taking office in 2013, and when he wraps up the tour he will have visited 10 countries in the region &#8212; the same number as President Barack Obama, who has been in office twice as long.</p> <p>Trump on the campaign trail pledged to break up trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, deport illegal migrants and build a wall to keep out millions from Mexico and Latin America, sending shockwaves across a region that for two centuries has looked northward for policy guidance.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Over the past decade China has displaced the U.S. as the main trading partner in country after country in Latin America as demand for the region&#8217;s soybeans, oil and iron ore fueled the fastest growth in decades. But more recently, as China&#8217;s demand for raw materials has been slowing, the region&#8217;s economies have taken a hit, dampening the once-torrid love affair with the world&#8217;s second-biggest economy.</p> <p>Margaret Myers, a China expert at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, said that most South American countries have awoken to the pitfalls of dependence on commodity exports and would prefer closer ties to the U.S., which buys the sort of manufacturing goods that generate more jobs.</p> <p>&#8220;But the question is whether the U.S. will reciprocate,&#8221; she says. &#8220;Nobody in the region is expecting much from Trump in terms of really productive policy. That leaves room for China to play a much more important role.&#8221;</p> <p>Some of China&#8217;s priorities and growing prowess in the region will be on display during Xi&#8217;s trip.</p> <p>In Ecuador, a dollarized-economy that is battling a deep recession, Xi inaugurated on Friday the country&#8217;s biggest hydroelectric dam, which was built by a Chinese firm and paid for with some of the nearly $8 billion lent to the country since 2007.</p> <p>From there he heads to Peru, to attend a summit of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group and a meeting with President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a former Wall Street investor who nonetheless chose China for his first foreign trip after taking office in July. The weeklong tour wraps up in Chile, which recently opened a branch of a state-run Chinese bank that will be South America&#8217;s first clearinghouse for transactions in the tightly-controlled yuan.</p> <p>Elsewhere, in Venezuela, the head of state-run China National Petroleum Corporation on Thursday signed a $2.2 billion accord to jointly boost oil production needed to lift the OPEC nation out of a crisis marked by severe food shortages and triple-digit inflation.</p> <p>&#8220;All of our thanks for all of the support given Venezuela in the difficult years, 2014, 2015 and especially 2016,&#8221; a visibly pleased President Nicolas Maduro said at the signing ceremony. &#8220;Our older sister China has not left Venezuela alone in these difficult times.&#8221;</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>While Trump&#8217;s victory has all but killed the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would&#8217;ve included Mexico, Peru and Chile, China continues to court the region with offers to strengthen existing free trade agreements with Costa Rica, Chile and Peru as well as negotiate new ones with Uruguay and Colombia. In the past decade, China&#8217;s two biggest development banks have pumped in $125 billion to Latin America &#8212; more than the Washington-based World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank combined.</p> <p>Xi, in a column for El Comercio newspaper, referred to the emerging ties with Peru as a &#8220;win-win&#8221; relationship encompassing areas as diverse as investment in infrastructure and energy to the shared heritage represented by the beloved &#8220;chifa&#8221; cuisine created by Chinese immigrants a century ago.</p> <p>To be sure, a U.S.-China trade war would have ripple effects across Chinese industry that would also depress demand for Latin America&#8217;s raw materials.</p> <p>But for now Chinese businessmen attending the APEC summit see nothing but potential.</p> <p>Tang Ning, founder and CEO of wealth manager and micro-lender CreditEase, said Brazil and other parts of Latin America are ripe for venture capital in the same way China was 20 years ago. Nonetheless, he cautions that Trump&#8217;s disruptive election is not a driver of its interest in Washington&#8217;s backyard.</p> <p>&#8220;We take a very long-term view,&#8221; said Tang in an interview. Politics &#8220;isn&#8217;t a major part of our conversation.&#8221;</p> <p>___</p> <p>Joshua Goodman is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjoshgoodman . His work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/joshua-goodman" type="external">http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/joshua-goodman</a> .</p>

<p>CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) &#8212; The West Virginia Outdoor Heritage Conservation Fund says it's accepting grant applications for land-protection projects with up to $1.2 million that may be awarded.</p> <p>According to the fund, projects can include wildlife habitats, working forests and farmlands, as well as hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation areas.</p> <p>The fund has an 11-member board of trustees from the state divisions of forestry and natural resources, land trusts, outdoor recreation and sportsmen's groups, and professionals in biology, ecology, forestry and public health.</p> <p>Grant application forms are available online at <a href="http://www.wvcommerce.org/resources/conservation/ohcf/default.aspx" type="external">www.wvcommerce.org/resources/conservation/ohcf/default.aspx</a></p> <p>CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) &#8212; The West Virginia Outdoor Heritage Conservation Fund says it's accepting grant applications for land-protection projects with up to $1.2 million that may be awarded.</p> <p>According to the fund, projects can include wildlife habitats, working forests and farmlands, as well as hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation areas.</p> <p>The fund has an 11-member board of trustees from the state divisions of forestry and natural resources, land trusts, outdoor recreation and sportsmen's groups, and professionals in biology, ecology, forestry and public health.</p> <p>Grant application forms are available online at <a href="http://www.wvcommerce.org/resources/conservation/ohcf/default.aspx" type="external">www.wvcommerce.org/resources/conservation/ohcf/default.aspx</a></p>

West Virginia grants available for land protection

https://apnews.com/amp/27f58664b7e74c6facb8f84aa3a2b152

2018-01-16

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West Virginia grants available for land protection <p>CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) &#8212; The West Virginia Outdoor Heritage Conservation Fund says it's accepting grant applications for land-protection projects with up to $1.2 million that may be awarded.</p> <p>According to the fund, projects can include wildlife habitats, working forests and farmlands, as well as hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation areas.</p> <p>The fund has an 11-member board of trustees from the state divisions of forestry and natural resources, land trusts, outdoor recreation and sportsmen's groups, and professionals in biology, ecology, forestry and public health.</p> <p>Grant application forms are available online at <a href="http://www.wvcommerce.org/resources/conservation/ohcf/default.aspx" type="external">www.wvcommerce.org/resources/conservation/ohcf/default.aspx</a></p> <p>CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) &#8212; The West Virginia Outdoor Heritage Conservation Fund says it's accepting grant applications for land-protection projects with up to $1.2 million that may be awarded.</p> <p>According to the fund, projects can include wildlife habitats, working forests and farmlands, as well as hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation areas.</p> <p>The fund has an 11-member board of trustees from the state divisions of forestry and natural resources, land trusts, outdoor recreation and sportsmen's groups, and professionals in biology, ecology, forestry and public health.</p> <p>Grant application forms are available online at <a href="http://www.wvcommerce.org/resources/conservation/ohcf/default.aspx" type="external">www.wvcommerce.org/resources/conservation/ohcf/default.aspx</a></p>

<p /> <p>UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) on Tuesday reported third-quarter profit of $1.97 billion.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>The Minnetonka, Minnesota-based company said it had net income of $2.03 per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $2.17 per share.</p> <p>The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.08 per share.</p> <p>The largest U.S. health insurer posted revenue of $46.29 billion in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $45.87 billion.</p> <p>UnitedHealth expects full-year earnings to be $8 per share.</p> <p>UnitedHealth shares have climbed 14 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard &amp;amp; Poor's 500 index has climbed 4 percent. The stock has climbed 12 percent in the last 12 months.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>_____</p> <p>This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on UNH at http://www.zacks.com/ap/UNH</p> <p>_____</p> <p>Keywords: UnitedHealth Group, Earnings Report, Priority Earnings</p>

UnitedHealth beats Street 3Q forecasts

http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/10/18/unitedhealth-beats-street-3q-forecasts.html

2016-10-18

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UnitedHealth beats Street 3Q forecasts <p /> <p>UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) on Tuesday reported third-quarter profit of $1.97 billion.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>The Minnetonka, Minnesota-based company said it had net income of $2.03 per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $2.17 per share.</p> <p>The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.08 per share.</p> <p>The largest U.S. health insurer posted revenue of $46.29 billion in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $45.87 billion.</p> <p>UnitedHealth expects full-year earnings to be $8 per share.</p> <p>UnitedHealth shares have climbed 14 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard &amp;amp; Poor's 500 index has climbed 4 percent. The stock has climbed 12 percent in the last 12 months.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>_____</p> <p>This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on UNH at http://www.zacks.com/ap/UNH</p> <p>_____</p> <p>Keywords: UnitedHealth Group, Earnings Report, Priority Earnings</p>

<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) &#8212; Widespread calls for spiritual awakening were voiced in resolutions and sermons at many Southern Baptist state convention meetings this fall.</p> <p>States also responded to recommendations from the Southern Baptist Convention&#8217;s Great Commission Resurgence task force. &amp;#160; Ohio and Mississippi Baptists affirmed plans in their states to focus on prayer for spiritual awakening during the month of January, while Nevada Baptists endorsed the priority as part of task force recommendations. Kentucky Baptists were called to prayer and dependence upon God for spiritual awakening, while Arkansas, New Mexico and Ohio Baptists pledged to penetrate the lostness of their states. Illinois Baptists renewed their focus on evangelism and missions.</p> <p>Several annual meetings were preceded by evangelistic outreach in the host region, including Tampa, Fla., where 689 professions of faith were reported, and an outreach effort in Albany, Ga., where food and Bibles were distributed and 27 people professed faith in Christ.</p> <p>Crossover Central Nebraska resulted in 38 professions of faith, and the Valley Reach campaign of the Baptist General Convention of Texas featured 48 projects and 82 congregations with 766 professions of faith reported. Crossover Corpus Christi, hosted by Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, reported 696 professions of faith at a single outreach event.</p> <p>Messengers at several state convention meetings endorsed proposals to apply the concepts of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force recommendations adopted by Southern Baptist Convention messengers in Orlando this past June. Florida, Kentucky, Nevada and Tennessee Baptists called for moving to a 50/50 distribution of Cooperative Program funds so resources for ministry could be increased worldwide.</p> <p>Similar studies will get underway in Alabama, California, Minnesota-Wisconsin, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee next year as these state conventions evaluate how to prioritize their own mission strategies. Alabama Baptists will rely on their executive board to study &#8220;how to focus resources and conduct Great Commission ministries through the coming decade.&#8221; California&#8217;s 12-member Focus 21 task force will study how best to focus efforts on fulfilling the Great Commission.</p> <p>Arizona, Minnesota-Wisconsin, South Carolina and New England Baptists approved the creation of task forces or committees for developing plans to respond to the SBC-endorsed Great Commission Resurgence Task Force recommendations, particularly in light of anticipated funding changes.</p> <p>Arizona Baptists also heard from a 10-member team that affirmed their current structure while proposing churches be &#8220;rewarded&#8221; for strategic planning. Oklahoma Baptists endorsed forming a 23-member Mission Advance Team to analyze the work of the convention and recommend strategic priorities. Tennessee Baptists approved a Vision 2021 strategic planning team to evaluate their effectiveness.</p> <p>Ohio and Northwest Baptists appealed for prayer for new leaders Kevin Ezell at the North American Mission Board and Frank Page at the SBC Executive Committee at a time of change, while Ohio and New England Baptists specifically referred to the need for prayer as changes are implemented as part of the Great Commission Resurgence.</p> <p>Colorado Baptists will have a chance to provide input in 2011 to a task force that has been examining the strategy and structure of their state convention during the past year. Utah-Idaho messengers affirmed that their churches are &#8220;on mission with the Great Commission.&#8221;</p> <p>Nevada Southern Baptists endorsed a proposal to merge their state convention and four associations into one entity, affirmed the value of churches starting churches and encouraged new pastor/church partnerships.</p> <p>Support for CP</p> <p>Expressions of support and encouragement of the Cooperative Program as a means of mission partnership and disciple-making were passed by Southern Baptists in New Mexico, the Northwest, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Southern Baptists Conservatives of Virginia and West Virginia, with Illinois Baptists resolving to strengthen cooperation. Illinois, Northwest, Oklahoma and South Carolina Baptists addressed the need for biblical stewardship.</p> <p>As Kentucky Baptists move toward an equal division of Cooperative Program receipts for in-state and global use, churches were asked to increase their CP allocations incrementally by 3 percent over the next 12 years. Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia encouraged churches to give at least 10 percent to CP and further challenged them to increase giving by a quarter-percent annually until 2020.</p> <p>Family issues</p> <p>Louisiana and Oklahoma Baptists expressed support for the institution of marriage, while Louisianans also encouraged family worship in a separate resolution. Northwest Baptists pledged prayer and ministry to orphans worldwide, while Southern Baptists of Texas Convention messengers encouraged pastors and church leaders to continue emphasizing God's concern for orphans and attention to ministries that provide financial resources to families desiring to adopt. Oklahoma Baptists also affirmed the ministry of foster care and adoption.</p> <p>New Mexico Baptists voiced support for legislation that would prohibit late-term abortions in the state, while West Virginia Baptists expressed concern that the newly crafted health care bill "will mandate federal funding of abortion." Southern Baptists of Texas Convention messengers encouraged elected officials to promote adult stem cell research and defund embryo-destructive research.</p> <p>Both Alabama and Louisiana Baptists expressed concern that proposed legislation for the Employment Nondiscrimination Act would add protections for sexual orientation to current anti-discrimination laws, impeding the free speech rights of pastors and ministers opposed to homosexuality. South Carolina Baptists encouraged believers to love and show compassion toward homosexuals, while advising Baptist leaders to deal honestly with the Word of God, teaching the subject of homosexuality in its intended context of sin.</p> <p>Diverse populations</p> <p>Southern Baptists of Texas Convention messengers acknowledged the &#8220;nearly 400 ethno-linguistic groups&#8221; in the state and commended efforts to reflect diversity through leadership.</p> <p>Oklahoma Baptists called for citizens and immigrants to obey the laws of the land and committed to taking the message and love of Christ to people of all races and nationalities.</p> <p>Health</p> <p>Citing statistics on obesity in the state, Alabama Baptists were urged to repent of overeating and become good stewards of their bodies by practicing moderation as they eat. Both Alabama and Louisiana Baptists encouraged non-smoking policy efforts.</p> <p>Moral issues</p> <p>In North Carolina, a motion passed to study the use of alcohol in relation to funding church plants, people in leadership and hiring of personnel. Alabama Baptists condemned all forms of gambling and urged increased enforcement of gambling laws while South Carolina and Southern Baptists of Texas Convention messengers opposed the spread of gambling. New Mexico Baptists prayed for an end to gambling in the state.</p> <p>Northwest and Oklahoma Baptists condemned human trafficking, seeking ways to address the issue at state and local levels, while Southern Baptists of Texas Convention messengers encouraged churches to support victim rescue and restoration ministries.</p> <p>Doctrinal issues</p> <p>West Virginia Baptists affirmed the Baptist Faith &amp;amp; Message statement as representing a common confession of beliefs, while North Carolina Baptists approved a motion asking their board of directors to adopt the BF&amp;amp;M as the convention's doctrinal statement. Louisiana Baptists expressed a commitment to the centrality of the Gospel.</p> <p>Citizenship</p> <p>New Mexico, Northwest, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Carolina Baptists appealed for prayer for elected leaders, with Arkansas Baptists encouraging expressions of Christian citizenship.</p> <p>Arkansas, Northwest, Ohio and Oklahoma Baptists expressed appreciation to men and women in the military deployed around the world, while Alabama and Louisiana Baptists opposed changing current law regarding homosexuals in the military.</p> <p>Other resolutions</p> <p>Florida Baptists supported a resolution expressing dissatisfaction with LifeWay Christian Stores for distributing the movie, The Blind Side, which was characterized as having &#8220;explicit profanity&#8221; and taking God&#8217;s name in vain. Louisiana Baptists promised to stand with persecuted Christians, while South Carolina Baptists expressed concern about the increase in theft of copper from church HVAC units and urged churches to become involved in prison ministry. Alabama and Louisiana Baptists joined in expressing sympathy regarding the loss of lives from the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.</p> <p>Other actions</p> <p>Several state conventions dealt with matters relating to affiliated schools, including the Baptist General Convention of Texas, where messengers rejected a motion to allow Houston Baptist University to elect non-Baptist trustees. Missouri Baptists changed the name of Hannibal La-Grange College to Hannibal-LaGrange University, rejecting the name of University of Hannibal as requested by the school's trustees. Georgia Baptists redistributed remaining funds for Mercer University among three other affiliated colleges and universities.</p> <p>Georgia Baptists voted to exclude Druid Hills Baptist Church in Atlanta because a woman is serving as co-pastor. Baptist General Convention of Texas messengers agreed to alter the format of future annual meetings, selecting a summer date every five years and offering multiple locations through simulcasting in 2017; they rejected a call to eliminate resolutions and move business discussion to a breakout session.</p> <p>Oklahoma Baptists celebrating the centennial of Oklahoma Baptist University&amp;#160; and South Carolina Baptists celebrated the centennial of Anderson University.</p> <p>California Baptists witnessed an appointment service of the International Mission Board, while Southern Baptists of Texas Convention messengers observed a commissioning service of North American Mission Board missionaries.</p>

State conventions call for revival, respond to GCR recommendations

https://baptistnews.com/article/stateconventionscallforrevivalrespondtogcrrecommendations/

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State conventions call for revival, respond to GCR recommendations <p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) &#8212; Widespread calls for spiritual awakening were voiced in resolutions and sermons at many Southern Baptist state convention meetings this fall.</p> <p>States also responded to recommendations from the Southern Baptist Convention&#8217;s Great Commission Resurgence task force. &amp;#160; Ohio and Mississippi Baptists affirmed plans in their states to focus on prayer for spiritual awakening during the month of January, while Nevada Baptists endorsed the priority as part of task force recommendations. Kentucky Baptists were called to prayer and dependence upon God for spiritual awakening, while Arkansas, New Mexico and Ohio Baptists pledged to penetrate the lostness of their states. Illinois Baptists renewed their focus on evangelism and missions.</p> <p>Several annual meetings were preceded by evangelistic outreach in the host region, including Tampa, Fla., where 689 professions of faith were reported, and an outreach effort in Albany, Ga., where food and Bibles were distributed and 27 people professed faith in Christ.</p> <p>Crossover Central Nebraska resulted in 38 professions of faith, and the Valley Reach campaign of the Baptist General Convention of Texas featured 48 projects and 82 congregations with 766 professions of faith reported. Crossover Corpus Christi, hosted by Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, reported 696 professions of faith at a single outreach event.</p> <p>Messengers at several state convention meetings endorsed proposals to apply the concepts of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force recommendations adopted by Southern Baptist Convention messengers in Orlando this past June. Florida, Kentucky, Nevada and Tennessee Baptists called for moving to a 50/50 distribution of Cooperative Program funds so resources for ministry could be increased worldwide.</p> <p>Similar studies will get underway in Alabama, California, Minnesota-Wisconsin, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee next year as these state conventions evaluate how to prioritize their own mission strategies. Alabama Baptists will rely on their executive board to study &#8220;how to focus resources and conduct Great Commission ministries through the coming decade.&#8221; California&#8217;s 12-member Focus 21 task force will study how best to focus efforts on fulfilling the Great Commission.</p> <p>Arizona, Minnesota-Wisconsin, South Carolina and New England Baptists approved the creation of task forces or committees for developing plans to respond to the SBC-endorsed Great Commission Resurgence Task Force recommendations, particularly in light of anticipated funding changes.</p> <p>Arizona Baptists also heard from a 10-member team that affirmed their current structure while proposing churches be &#8220;rewarded&#8221; for strategic planning. Oklahoma Baptists endorsed forming a 23-member Mission Advance Team to analyze the work of the convention and recommend strategic priorities. Tennessee Baptists approved a Vision 2021 strategic planning team to evaluate their effectiveness.</p> <p>Ohio and Northwest Baptists appealed for prayer for new leaders Kevin Ezell at the North American Mission Board and Frank Page at the SBC Executive Committee at a time of change, while Ohio and New England Baptists specifically referred to the need for prayer as changes are implemented as part of the Great Commission Resurgence.</p> <p>Colorado Baptists will have a chance to provide input in 2011 to a task force that has been examining the strategy and structure of their state convention during the past year. Utah-Idaho messengers affirmed that their churches are &#8220;on mission with the Great Commission.&#8221;</p> <p>Nevada Southern Baptists endorsed a proposal to merge their state convention and four associations into one entity, affirmed the value of churches starting churches and encouraged new pastor/church partnerships.</p> <p>Support for CP</p> <p>Expressions of support and encouragement of the Cooperative Program as a means of mission partnership and disciple-making were passed by Southern Baptists in New Mexico, the Northwest, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Southern Baptists Conservatives of Virginia and West Virginia, with Illinois Baptists resolving to strengthen cooperation. Illinois, Northwest, Oklahoma and South Carolina Baptists addressed the need for biblical stewardship.</p> <p>As Kentucky Baptists move toward an equal division of Cooperative Program receipts for in-state and global use, churches were asked to increase their CP allocations incrementally by 3 percent over the next 12 years. Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia encouraged churches to give at least 10 percent to CP and further challenged them to increase giving by a quarter-percent annually until 2020.</p> <p>Family issues</p> <p>Louisiana and Oklahoma Baptists expressed support for the institution of marriage, while Louisianans also encouraged family worship in a separate resolution. Northwest Baptists pledged prayer and ministry to orphans worldwide, while Southern Baptists of Texas Convention messengers encouraged pastors and church leaders to continue emphasizing God's concern for orphans and attention to ministries that provide financial resources to families desiring to adopt. Oklahoma Baptists also affirmed the ministry of foster care and adoption.</p> <p>New Mexico Baptists voiced support for legislation that would prohibit late-term abortions in the state, while West Virginia Baptists expressed concern that the newly crafted health care bill "will mandate federal funding of abortion." Southern Baptists of Texas Convention messengers encouraged elected officials to promote adult stem cell research and defund embryo-destructive research.</p> <p>Both Alabama and Louisiana Baptists expressed concern that proposed legislation for the Employment Nondiscrimination Act would add protections for sexual orientation to current anti-discrimination laws, impeding the free speech rights of pastors and ministers opposed to homosexuality. South Carolina Baptists encouraged believers to love and show compassion toward homosexuals, while advising Baptist leaders to deal honestly with the Word of God, teaching the subject of homosexuality in its intended context of sin.</p> <p>Diverse populations</p> <p>Southern Baptists of Texas Convention messengers acknowledged the &#8220;nearly 400 ethno-linguistic groups&#8221; in the state and commended efforts to reflect diversity through leadership.</p> <p>Oklahoma Baptists called for citizens and immigrants to obey the laws of the land and committed to taking the message and love of Christ to people of all races and nationalities.</p> <p>Health</p> <p>Citing statistics on obesity in the state, Alabama Baptists were urged to repent of overeating and become good stewards of their bodies by practicing moderation as they eat. Both Alabama and Louisiana Baptists encouraged non-smoking policy efforts.</p> <p>Moral issues</p> <p>In North Carolina, a motion passed to study the use of alcohol in relation to funding church plants, people in leadership and hiring of personnel. Alabama Baptists condemned all forms of gambling and urged increased enforcement of gambling laws while South Carolina and Southern Baptists of Texas Convention messengers opposed the spread of gambling. New Mexico Baptists prayed for an end to gambling in the state.</p> <p>Northwest and Oklahoma Baptists condemned human trafficking, seeking ways to address the issue at state and local levels, while Southern Baptists of Texas Convention messengers encouraged churches to support victim rescue and restoration ministries.</p> <p>Doctrinal issues</p> <p>West Virginia Baptists affirmed the Baptist Faith &amp;amp; Message statement as representing a common confession of beliefs, while North Carolina Baptists approved a motion asking their board of directors to adopt the BF&amp;amp;M as the convention's doctrinal statement. Louisiana Baptists expressed a commitment to the centrality of the Gospel.</p> <p>Citizenship</p> <p>New Mexico, Northwest, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Carolina Baptists appealed for prayer for elected leaders, with Arkansas Baptists encouraging expressions of Christian citizenship.</p> <p>Arkansas, Northwest, Ohio and Oklahoma Baptists expressed appreciation to men and women in the military deployed around the world, while Alabama and Louisiana Baptists opposed changing current law regarding homosexuals in the military.</p> <p>Other resolutions</p> <p>Florida Baptists supported a resolution expressing dissatisfaction with LifeWay Christian Stores for distributing the movie, The Blind Side, which was characterized as having &#8220;explicit profanity&#8221; and taking God&#8217;s name in vain. Louisiana Baptists promised to stand with persecuted Christians, while South Carolina Baptists expressed concern about the increase in theft of copper from church HVAC units and urged churches to become involved in prison ministry. Alabama and Louisiana Baptists joined in expressing sympathy regarding the loss of lives from the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.</p> <p>Other actions</p> <p>Several state conventions dealt with matters relating to affiliated schools, including the Baptist General Convention of Texas, where messengers rejected a motion to allow Houston Baptist University to elect non-Baptist trustees. Missouri Baptists changed the name of Hannibal La-Grange College to Hannibal-LaGrange University, rejecting the name of University of Hannibal as requested by the school's trustees. Georgia Baptists redistributed remaining funds for Mercer University among three other affiliated colleges and universities.</p> <p>Georgia Baptists voted to exclude Druid Hills Baptist Church in Atlanta because a woman is serving as co-pastor. Baptist General Convention of Texas messengers agreed to alter the format of future annual meetings, selecting a summer date every five years and offering multiple locations through simulcasting in 2017; they rejected a call to eliminate resolutions and move business discussion to a breakout session.</p> <p>Oklahoma Baptists celebrating the centennial of Oklahoma Baptist University&amp;#160; and South Carolina Baptists celebrated the centennial of Anderson University.</p> <p>California Baptists witnessed an appointment service of the International Mission Board, while Southern Baptists of Texas Convention messengers observed a commissioning service of North American Mission Board missionaries.</p>

<p>Censorship and suppression of one&#8217;s work are among the worst things that can happen to a writer, bureaucrat or cultural worker.</p> <p>Ted Downing, former Society for Applied Anthropology President (1985-87), experienced this and more. In 1995, Downing wrote an evaluation report describing the s evere social and environmental impacts likely to be suffered by Chile&#8217;s Pehuenche Indians from a proposed dam project underwritten by the World Bank. After his report was censored Downing demanded that the World Bank publicly disclose his findings. The Bank responded by threatening &#8220;a lawsuit garnering Downing&#8217;s assets, income and future salary if he disclosed the contents, findings and recommendations of his independent evaluation.&#8221; (Johnson and Garcia Downing). As a result of his whistleblowing, Downing was blacklisted from the World Bank after 13 years of consulting service.</p> <p>&#8220;Personally, I was blackballed for 10 years for filing, what turned out to be 3 human rights violations charges against the IFC (private sector arm of The World Bank),&#8221; said Downing in an interview. &#8220;The experience left me only the devil&#8217;s alternative, to get involved in politics.&#8221; Literally.</p> <p>Downing went on to serve two terms in the Arizona legislature from 2003-2006. He rejected corporate contributions and collected hundreds of $5 contributions to qualify for public campaign financing. Downing introduced bills to protect the integrity of the election system, co-authoring a bill requiring hand count audits of electronic voting machines. He increased financial support for university and community college students, protected animal rights, improved energy efficiency and more. Eighty-six of Ted&#8217;s co-sponsored bills became law, a spectacular achievment for a Democrat in a Republican controlled legislature.</p> <p>&#8220;Yes sir,&#8221; or &#8220;Yes, but,&#8221; or. . . .just &#8220;No!&#8221;</p> <p>Many Ph.D.s never find solid employment in the academic world in this age of university downsizing and so offer their wares as evaluators, consultants or &#8220;applied anthropologists&#8221; to non-profits or the corporate world. A good many aim to foster social change but are unprepared for how best to do it. This is especially true for my field, anthropology which at this point in time has more Ph.D.s working in applied fields than the university.</p> <p>Some years back Harvard anthropologist Kris Heggenhougen argued that the strength of anthropology in collaborating with other disciplines lies in saying, &#8220;yes, but. . .and to critically examine the decisive factors affecting peoples&#8217; health including power, dominance and exploitation.&#8221; (Heggenhougen 1993)</p> <p>Yes, but. . . . while that sounds good, more needs to be said.</p> <p>First of all, we spend much more time saying &#8220;yes, sir&#8221; than &#8220;yes, but&#8221; in paid employment. This is necessary if we wish to stay employed. The workplace is a not a democracy but a hierarchy in which academic freedom does not apply. As Downing evinces, there are penalties for speaking one&#8217;s mind. Workers have to gauge the cultural politics in any given context so as to not unnecessarily risk censure, reprimand or worse.</p> <p>Sometimes, like Downing, they must be prepared to simply say no sir and go with the consequences. Sometimes getting fired leads to new paths that can result in greater accomplishments. Much of it has to do with the right attitude.</p> <p>Dr. Downing has the right attitude. He retains that probing, cantankerous spirit today. &#8220;I have no idea what &#8216;yes, but&#8217; means having not read Heggenhougen,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The reference to &#8216;collaboration to other disciplines&#8217; makes no sense to me &#8211; as I work on problems and am Undisciplined. I don&#8217;t think anyone would consider me a &#8220;yes man &#8211; which has helped and cursed me . . . . .But, I insist, fighting within a bureaucracy is part of being a good applied anything.&#8221;</p> <p>In Downing&#8217;s anthropological journey, when &#8220;yes, but&#8221; didn&#8217;t work, he progressed, reluctantly, to &#8220;no, sir.&#8221; In fact this happens to many applied anthropologists but most do not have the resources, support or disciplinary guidance to assist them in their struggles. They might become whistleblowers but their careers suffer. And their stories are untold. We do not have a good accounting of how often this happens to anthropologists, but we need to learn more about this. In any case, resisting censorship is, as Downing says, &#8220;good applied&#8221; anthropology.</p> <p>Like a Skilled Surgeon</p> <p>&#8220;Good applied&#8221; anthropology harkens back to one of the masters of social science, Robert Lynd. In 1939, Lynd, author of the groun dbreaking Middletown studies (the first full bore ethnography of a U.S. city), wrote a book that is less well known, but just as important. Knowledge for What? The Place of Social Science in American Culture, is as relevant today as the moment he penned it.</p> <p>In it he wrote that &#8220;[T]he role of the social sciences to be troublesome, to disconcert the habitual arrangements by which we manage to live along, and to demonstrate the possibility of change in more adequate directions . . . like that of a skilled surgeon, [social scientists need to] get us into immediate trouble in order to prevent our present troubles from becoming even more dangerous. In a culture in which power is normally held by the few and used offensively and defensively to bolster their instant adv antage within the status quo, the role of such a constructive troublemaker is scarcely inviting.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;Troublemaker&#8221; is of course the pejorative term emanating from within t he dominant culture, targeting those who refuse to keep quiet in the face of injustice. &#8220;Yes but&#8221; is an ample part of their vocabulary. Anthropologist Barbara Johnston has wr itten about the work of being an anthropological troublemaker, especially in relation to doing environmental justice work. But she warns about associated risks. Environmental justice work &#8220;requires confronting, challenging and changing power structures.&#8221; When someone is involved in this work, says Johnston, &#8220;backlash is inevitable.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;When environmental justice work involves advocacy and action &#8211; confrontational politics &#8211; a number of professional bridges are burned. . . .&#8217;Cause-oriented&#8217; anthropology suggests people who make trouble. Troublemakers are celebrated in this discipline when t heir cause succeeds and justice prevails. But often &#8216;justice&#8217; is elusive, success is hard to gauge, and action results in unforeseen adverse consequences. (Johnston: 2001, 8).</p> <p>Because most anthropologists usually enter organizations as change agent s of some kind they need to be aware that they are especially at risk of being labeled a &#8220;troublemaker&#8221; at any time. If the label sticks it can lead not only to getting fired; it also can lead to a vicious form of bullying that can make one&#8217;s life unbearable.</p> <p>Beware of the Mobbers</p> <p>Anthropologist Noa Davenport knows this very well. In 1999 she coauthored a book with two other professionals called, &#8220;Mobbing, Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace, (1999). In the book&#8217;s forward Davenport and her colleagues noted, &#8220;This book came about because all three of us, in different organizations, experienced a workplace phenomenon that had profound effects on our well-being. Through humiliation, harassment, and unjustified accusations, we experienced emotional abuse that forced us out of the workplace.&#8221; Often the mobbing begins soon after the professional challenged a superior in some area. In other words, it&#8217;s often a &#8220;yes , but&#8221; interrogative. Today Davenport conducts workshops on mobbing and counsels people who have experienced such abuse. She turned her private suffering into a public issue and has advanced the culture.</p> <p>In my research, &#8220;mobbing&#8221; has a great deal of unconscious group behavior associated with it. To understand it one must research the realms of psychoanalysis and group dynamics (Bion 1961, Armstrong et al 2005, Grotstein 2007). Often the abuse had the tacit approval of upper management who themselves are often behind it.</p> <p>All terrains of employment in capitalist culture operate in a sea of conflict. For a critical applied anthropologist then, one is in dangerous waters from the first day on the job. As Kincheloe and McLaren underscore, critical ethnographers need to critically analyze how larger domains of power, including global and local capital, define one&#8217;s job and inhibit the possibilities of social science practice.</p> <p>In the applied field, anthropologists are always trying to discern the location of what I call &#8220;the line of unfreedom,&#8221; the place where speaking up may cause reaction. Here&#8217;s a story from a veteran medical anthropologist that illustrates the pressures to conform to the &#8220;yes sir.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve recently been eased off of a multi-million dollar grant that I co-wrote and am (supposed to be) the co-investigator on. My 5 year participation was cut off at year 1 by the Primary Investigator who was getting really nervous about w hat affiliating with me would do to his career. In a nutshell, I wrote a paper that he thought would offend his superiors and so didn&#8217;t want to have any links to me anymore. So he revised the budget and cut me out &#8211; without actually telling me until about 9 months into year 1 &#8211; and only finally because I directly inquired as to where my subcontract for years 2-5 had gotten to. Ultimately he&#8217;s the PI. He was the MD, I was the PhD. He was the insider at the &#8216;very large integrated healthcare system&#8217; where the research is sited, I am not. So yes, he has decision making power &#8211; yes he could do that. Of course, that doesn&#8217;t make it &#8216;right&#8217;, but that&#8217;s how it is. Ironically, the higher ups liked the paper, which was really quite non-threatening.&#8221;</p> <p>What would happen if this applied anthropologist made a work issue over this? He won&#8217;t. From experience he knows that it might not turn out well.</p> <p>On the Job Which are You First: Employee, Professional, or Citizen?</p> <p>Indeed, as I tell students in my &#8220;Doing Anthropology&#8221; course, there is an inevitable and permanent tension between three key aspects of &#8220;applied&#8221; work as: 1) an employee, 2) a professional and 3) a citizen. As an employee you sell your labor power to an employer. As a professional anthropologist you seek to abide by the goals, rules and20ethics of your discipline. As a citizen you are most interested in advancing democracy and public education. These subject positions conflict and overlap in numerous ways. But one can be sure that an employer is more interested in your value as an employee than a citizen.</p> <p>I teach the Ted Downing story as an instructive for students own applied work. Like Downing, applied anthropologists have to be prepared to travel the road from &#8220;yes, but,&#8221; to &#8220;no, sir&#8221; in order to better serve the public interest. Unions are a vital part of this work, as is a keen awareness of how workers are proletarianized. Harry Braverman&#8217;s &#8220;Labor and Monopoly Capital&#8221; is a core text.</p> <p>David Price continues to catalogue the perils of activist applied anthropologists, demonstrating how, in the 1930s through 1970s, they were subject to surveillance, marginalization and worse for their work. Anthropologist Mich ael Blim, in summarizing the Price book concludes, &#8220;Emerson&#8217;s adage that all it takes for evil to triumph is th at good people do nothing is here confirmed. Based on Price&#8217;s book, one might also add: &#8216;if you try to change your society, trust not your state, your university, or your profession.&#8217;&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I am not sure the issue is simply that anthropologists are &#8216;not sufficiently educated about how to protect themselves when challenging authority&#8217; &#8211; as that assumes that historically our anthropological teachers have the means and experience to educate their students,&#8221; said Barbara Johnston. Johnston said that anthropology faculty, in general, do not have the &#8220;seasoned understanding of power and backlash,&#8221; as it occurs in the non-academic world. This is so, she said, because they are still immersed in the &#8220;generic disciplinary reality of the ivory tower cocoon.&#8221; She argues that &#8220; political na&#239;vet&#233; is built into the dependency relationship between the discipline and the university structures that sustain the discipline.&#8221;</p> <p>It&#8217;s an uphill battle. As Henry Giroux discusses in his writings, universities are turning into military-academic-industrial complexes where hierarchy is more entrenched and emboldened. Academics need to model &#8220;good applied&#8221; anthropology in their own workplaces (the knowledge factories of higher education) to be more convincing to their students. So how do we better protect ourselves in a harsh work environment?</p> <p>Downing says, &#8220;Telling the truth is the most important thing &#8211; scientific credibility is critical. I document my reports with hundreds of references pointing directly to documents and footnotes. No embellishment &#8211; extra adverbs or adjectives &#8211; use the words of the documents. Facts, numbers, uncertainties, etc. Good science is your best defense as an activist. If your methodology is approved ahead of20time&#8230;and leads to an unexpected result &#8211; you are on good grounds. Good science gains respect, which becomes a shield&#8230;.but not impermeable. Keep close to the overall organizational objectives of your clien t or organization &#8211; in the case of the World Bank, poverty alleviation.&#8221;</p> <p>Downing, who is today a research professor of Social Development at the University of Arizona, said, &#8220;Whistleblowing is a last resort &#8211; since once it is done, your effectiveness as an internal change agent &#8211; moving the organization in the direction that it needs to go &#8211; is finished. I always feel a sense of personal failure when I had to take that last step. It was quite painful. There are other ways t o release information to the outside without blowing the whistle. For example, a freedom of information request or demand for an open meeting may crack opens an issue without the need for self-destruction.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I learned this during my two terms as a State lawmaker. And, above all, maintain a sense of humor on your self-importance. Aw ards are not given and statutes are not erected to whistleblowers!&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I have been booted out of several count ries and organizations,&#8221; said Downing. &#8220;And be assured, the minute a whistle is blown, any weakness in your scientific and professional abilities will be questioned. It is a last resort after you have tried your best to change the organization. I have 3 feet of internal correspondence on the Pangue case going on for over a year before I field my first human rights violation charges against the World Bank (IFC) &#8211; trying to set things right so the Pehuenche Indians would not be harmed.&#8221;</p> <p>Still, Barbara Johnston is not optimistic about academic culture&#8217;s abilities to prepare students for the perils of non-academic applied work. In an interview she said that the &#8220;ever-expanding continuum of engagement,&#8221; that is currently underway in anthropology will likely result in more censorship and backlash against applied anthropologists.</p> <p>Academic Culture Trivializes Activist Work</p> <p>Johnston points out that academic culture &#8220;trivializes the importance of this work,&#8221; while, at the same time, the engaged anthropologist struggles to find disciplinary support in dealing with backlash, which can range from papers that cannot be=2 0published (and thus cannot advance careers) to disinformation campaigns, character assaults, threats, even murder. She cites the execution of Colombian anthropologist in 1999 after studying displaced persons from a proposed energy development. He was shot by three masked gunmen at a faculty meeting. But the more common forms of retribution and retaliation come in the form of lost jobs, lost careers and lost health.</p> <p>&#8220;While anthropology is a powerful social persona (in Hollywood, public consciousness, legally mandated reviews, etc.) in terms of numbers, it is a very minor discipline. The AAA has only about 11,000 member s compared to the American Economic Association with 21,000, or the American Psychological Association with over 150,000. This means that when it comes to power (who gets the most research grants, who gets to serve as the dominant social science voice in the corridors of power, etc), anthropology is a very minor afterthought.&#8221;</p> <p>And yet there is much room for resistance, she adds.</p> <p>&#8220;We have an unusual power because as a social personality anthropology/ists have captured the public imagination. There is a cachet to the title, to the opinions emanating from An Anthropologist.&#8217; So backlash is not only a matter of an unprepared, unforeseen, poorly played hand, but also a matter of threat, and how be st to silence that threat. Anthropology is a very loud mosquito buzzing around the head at night. There is a lot of power there.&#8221;</p> <p>Indeed, as Rylko-Bauer and Singer (2006) argue, the historical successes of &#8220;pragmatic engagement&#8221; must be reclaimed for the 21st century. &#8220;For applied anthropologists, the commitment to action is a given; the challenge lies in continuing to find ways of acting more effectively and ethically while linking the specificity of local problem solving to larger sociopolitical contexts.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;Yes, but,&#8221; is only one way to act. It&#8217;s often not effective. In response to Heggenhougen&#8217;s challenge, we need to become better prepared to support colleagues who find themselves in circ umstances where, &#8220;no, but,&#8221; is where they must go.</p> <p>A version of this article was originally published in the <a href="" type="internal">Society for Applied Anthropology Newsletter</a>, Vol. 19:3, Tim Wallace, editor, August 2008</p> <p>BRIAN McKENNA lives in Michigan. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:mckenna193@aol.com" type="external">mckenna193@aol.com</a></p> <p>References</p> <p>Armstrong D., Lawrence W., Young R. 2005 Group Relations: An Introduction. London:Tavistock. Onlinebook: http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/paper99.html</p> <p>Bion, W. R. 1961 Experiences in Groups. London:Tavistock.</p> <p>Blim Michael 2007 Review of &#8220;Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI&#8217;s Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists,&#8221; Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture 6:3. See: http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_6.3/blim_printable.htm</p> <p>Davenport, NZ, Schwartz RD, Elliot GP . 2005 Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace. Collins, IA: Civil Society Publishin g.</p> <p>Downing, Theodore, 2008 See website for professional profile and writings at www.ted-downing.com</p> <p>Giroux, Henry 2007 The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex. Boulder:Paradigm</p> <p>Heggenhougen H. K. 1984 Will Primary Health Care be Allowed to Succeed? Social Science and Medicine 19 (3):217-224. 1993 PHC and Anthropology: Challenges and Opportuni ties. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 1993, 17:281-289.</p> <p>Johnston, Barbara 2004 &#8220;The Pehuenche: Human Rights, the Environment, and Hydrodevelopment on the Biobio River, Chile&#8221; by Barbara Rose Johnston and Carmen Garcia-Downing in Indigenous Peoples, Development and Environment edited by Harvey Feit and Mario Blaser (Zed Books). 2004:211-231.</p> <p>Grotstein, James S. 2007 A Beam of Intense Darkness, Wilfred Bion&#8217;s Legacy to Psychoanalysis. London:Karnac.</p> <p>Johnston, Barbara 2001 &#8220;Anthropology and Environmental Justice: Analysts, Advocates, Activists and Troublemakers&#8221; by Barbara Rose Johnston, in Anthropology and the Environment, Carole Crumley, ed. (Walnut Creek: Alta Mira) 2001:132-149.</p> <p>Kincheloe, Joe and Peter McLaren 1994=2 0 Rethinking Critical Theory and Qualitative Research. In Handbook of Qualitative Research. Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln, eds. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage</p> <p>McKenna, Brian 2008 &#8220;Melanoma Whitewash: Millions at Risk of Injury or Death because of Sunscreen Deceptions,&#8221; in &#8220;Killer Commodities: Public Health and the Corporate Production of Harm,&#8221; Merrill Singer and Hans Baer, eds., AltaMira Press</p> <p>Price, David 2004 Threatening Anthropology McCarthyism and the FBI&#8217;s Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.</p> <p>Rylko-Bauer, Barbara, Singer, Merrill and Willigen, john van 2006 Reclaiming Applied Anthropology: Its Past, Present, and Future. American Anthropologist; Mar 2006; 108, 1; Research Library</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p>

Ted Downing and Troublemaker Anthropology

https://counterpunch.org/2008/12/30/ted-downing-and-troublemaker-anthropology/

2008-12-30

4left

Ted Downing and Troublemaker Anthropology <p>Censorship and suppression of one&#8217;s work are among the worst things that can happen to a writer, bureaucrat or cultural worker.</p> <p>Ted Downing, former Society for Applied Anthropology President (1985-87), experienced this and more. In 1995, Downing wrote an evaluation report describing the s evere social and environmental impacts likely to be suffered by Chile&#8217;s Pehuenche Indians from a proposed dam project underwritten by the World Bank. After his report was censored Downing demanded that the World Bank publicly disclose his findings. The Bank responded by threatening &#8220;a lawsuit garnering Downing&#8217;s assets, income and future salary if he disclosed the contents, findings and recommendations of his independent evaluation.&#8221; (Johnson and Garcia Downing). As a result of his whistleblowing, Downing was blacklisted from the World Bank after 13 years of consulting service.</p> <p>&#8220;Personally, I was blackballed for 10 years for filing, what turned out to be 3 human rights violations charges against the IFC (private sector arm of The World Bank),&#8221; said Downing in an interview. &#8220;The experience left me only the devil&#8217;s alternative, to get involved in politics.&#8221; Literally.</p> <p>Downing went on to serve two terms in the Arizona legislature from 2003-2006. He rejected corporate contributions and collected hundreds of $5 contributions to qualify for public campaign financing. Downing introduced bills to protect the integrity of the election system, co-authoring a bill requiring hand count audits of electronic voting machines. He increased financial support for university and community college students, protected animal rights, improved energy efficiency and more. Eighty-six of Ted&#8217;s co-sponsored bills became law, a spectacular achievment for a Democrat in a Republican controlled legislature.</p> <p>&#8220;Yes sir,&#8221; or &#8220;Yes, but,&#8221; or. . . .just &#8220;No!&#8221;</p> <p>Many Ph.D.s never find solid employment in the academic world in this age of university downsizing and so offer their wares as evaluators, consultants or &#8220;applied anthropologists&#8221; to non-profits or the corporate world. A good many aim to foster social change but are unprepared for how best to do it. This is especially true for my field, anthropology which at this point in time has more Ph.D.s working in applied fields than the university.</p> <p>Some years back Harvard anthropologist Kris Heggenhougen argued that the strength of anthropology in collaborating with other disciplines lies in saying, &#8220;yes, but. . .and to critically examine the decisive factors affecting peoples&#8217; health including power, dominance and exploitation.&#8221; (Heggenhougen 1993)</p> <p>Yes, but. . . . while that sounds good, more needs to be said.</p> <p>First of all, we spend much more time saying &#8220;yes, sir&#8221; than &#8220;yes, but&#8221; in paid employment. This is necessary if we wish to stay employed. The workplace is a not a democracy but a hierarchy in which academic freedom does not apply. As Downing evinces, there are penalties for speaking one&#8217;s mind. Workers have to gauge the cultural politics in any given context so as to not unnecessarily risk censure, reprimand or worse.</p> <p>Sometimes, like Downing, they must be prepared to simply say no sir and go with the consequences. Sometimes getting fired leads to new paths that can result in greater accomplishments. Much of it has to do with the right attitude.</p> <p>Dr. Downing has the right attitude. He retains that probing, cantankerous spirit today. &#8220;I have no idea what &#8216;yes, but&#8217; means having not read Heggenhougen,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The reference to &#8216;collaboration to other disciplines&#8217; makes no sense to me &#8211; as I work on problems and am Undisciplined. I don&#8217;t think anyone would consider me a &#8220;yes man &#8211; which has helped and cursed me . . . . .But, I insist, fighting within a bureaucracy is part of being a good applied anything.&#8221;</p> <p>In Downing&#8217;s anthropological journey, when &#8220;yes, but&#8221; didn&#8217;t work, he progressed, reluctantly, to &#8220;no, sir.&#8221; In fact this happens to many applied anthropologists but most do not have the resources, support or disciplinary guidance to assist them in their struggles. They might become whistleblowers but their careers suffer. And their stories are untold. We do not have a good accounting of how often this happens to anthropologists, but we need to learn more about this. In any case, resisting censorship is, as Downing says, &#8220;good applied&#8221; anthropology.</p> <p>Like a Skilled Surgeon</p> <p>&#8220;Good applied&#8221; anthropology harkens back to one of the masters of social science, Robert Lynd. In 1939, Lynd, author of the groun dbreaking Middletown studies (the first full bore ethnography of a U.S. city), wrote a book that is less well known, but just as important. Knowledge for What? The Place of Social Science in American Culture, is as relevant today as the moment he penned it.</p> <p>In it he wrote that &#8220;[T]he role of the social sciences to be troublesome, to disconcert the habitual arrangements by which we manage to live along, and to demonstrate the possibility of change in more adequate directions . . . like that of a skilled surgeon, [social scientists need to] get us into immediate trouble in order to prevent our present troubles from becoming even more dangerous. In a culture in which power is normally held by the few and used offensively and defensively to bolster their instant adv antage within the status quo, the role of such a constructive troublemaker is scarcely inviting.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;Troublemaker&#8221; is of course the pejorative term emanating from within t he dominant culture, targeting those who refuse to keep quiet in the face of injustice. &#8220;Yes but&#8221; is an ample part of their vocabulary. Anthropologist Barbara Johnston has wr itten about the work of being an anthropological troublemaker, especially in relation to doing environmental justice work. But she warns about associated risks. Environmental justice work &#8220;requires confronting, challenging and changing power structures.&#8221; When someone is involved in this work, says Johnston, &#8220;backlash is inevitable.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;When environmental justice work involves advocacy and action &#8211; confrontational politics &#8211; a number of professional bridges are burned. . . .&#8217;Cause-oriented&#8217; anthropology suggests people who make trouble. Troublemakers are celebrated in this discipline when t heir cause succeeds and justice prevails. But often &#8216;justice&#8217; is elusive, success is hard to gauge, and action results in unforeseen adverse consequences. (Johnston: 2001, 8).</p> <p>Because most anthropologists usually enter organizations as change agent s of some kind they need to be aware that they are especially at risk of being labeled a &#8220;troublemaker&#8221; at any time. If the label sticks it can lead not only to getting fired; it also can lead to a vicious form of bullying that can make one&#8217;s life unbearable.</p> <p>Beware of the Mobbers</p> <p>Anthropologist Noa Davenport knows this very well. In 1999 she coauthored a book with two other professionals called, &#8220;Mobbing, Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace, (1999). In the book&#8217;s forward Davenport and her colleagues noted, &#8220;This book came about because all three of us, in different organizations, experienced a workplace phenomenon that had profound effects on our well-being. Through humiliation, harassment, and unjustified accusations, we experienced emotional abuse that forced us out of the workplace.&#8221; Often the mobbing begins soon after the professional challenged a superior in some area. In other words, it&#8217;s often a &#8220;yes , but&#8221; interrogative. Today Davenport conducts workshops on mobbing and counsels people who have experienced such abuse. She turned her private suffering into a public issue and has advanced the culture.</p> <p>In my research, &#8220;mobbing&#8221; has a great deal of unconscious group behavior associated with it. To understand it one must research the realms of psychoanalysis and group dynamics (Bion 1961, Armstrong et al 2005, Grotstein 2007). Often the abuse had the tacit approval of upper management who themselves are often behind it.</p> <p>All terrains of employment in capitalist culture operate in a sea of conflict. For a critical applied anthropologist then, one is in dangerous waters from the first day on the job. As Kincheloe and McLaren underscore, critical ethnographers need to critically analyze how larger domains of power, including global and local capital, define one&#8217;s job and inhibit the possibilities of social science practice.</p> <p>In the applied field, anthropologists are always trying to discern the location of what I call &#8220;the line of unfreedom,&#8221; the place where speaking up may cause reaction. Here&#8217;s a story from a veteran medical anthropologist that illustrates the pressures to conform to the &#8220;yes sir.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve recently been eased off of a multi-million dollar grant that I co-wrote and am (supposed to be) the co-investigator on. My 5 year participation was cut off at year 1 by the Primary Investigator who was getting really nervous about w hat affiliating with me would do to his career. In a nutshell, I wrote a paper that he thought would offend his superiors and so didn&#8217;t want to have any links to me anymore. So he revised the budget and cut me out &#8211; without actually telling me until about 9 months into year 1 &#8211; and only finally because I directly inquired as to where my subcontract for years 2-5 had gotten to. Ultimately he&#8217;s the PI. He was the MD, I was the PhD. He was the insider at the &#8216;very large integrated healthcare system&#8217; where the research is sited, I am not. So yes, he has decision making power &#8211; yes he could do that. Of course, that doesn&#8217;t make it &#8216;right&#8217;, but that&#8217;s how it is. Ironically, the higher ups liked the paper, which was really quite non-threatening.&#8221;</p> <p>What would happen if this applied anthropologist made a work issue over this? He won&#8217;t. From experience he knows that it might not turn out well.</p> <p>On the Job Which are You First: Employee, Professional, or Citizen?</p> <p>Indeed, as I tell students in my &#8220;Doing Anthropology&#8221; course, there is an inevitable and permanent tension between three key aspects of &#8220;applied&#8221; work as: 1) an employee, 2) a professional and 3) a citizen. As an employee you sell your labor power to an employer. As a professional anthropologist you seek to abide by the goals, rules and20ethics of your discipline. As a citizen you are most interested in advancing democracy and public education. These subject positions conflict and overlap in numerous ways. But one can be sure that an employer is more interested in your value as an employee than a citizen.</p> <p>I teach the Ted Downing story as an instructive for students own applied work. Like Downing, applied anthropologists have to be prepared to travel the road from &#8220;yes, but,&#8221; to &#8220;no, sir&#8221; in order to better serve the public interest. Unions are a vital part of this work, as is a keen awareness of how workers are proletarianized. Harry Braverman&#8217;s &#8220;Labor and Monopoly Capital&#8221; is a core text.</p> <p>David Price continues to catalogue the perils of activist applied anthropologists, demonstrating how, in the 1930s through 1970s, they were subject to surveillance, marginalization and worse for their work. Anthropologist Mich ael Blim, in summarizing the Price book concludes, &#8220;Emerson&#8217;s adage that all it takes for evil to triumph is th at good people do nothing is here confirmed. Based on Price&#8217;s book, one might also add: &#8216;if you try to change your society, trust not your state, your university, or your profession.&#8217;&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I am not sure the issue is simply that anthropologists are &#8216;not sufficiently educated about how to protect themselves when challenging authority&#8217; &#8211; as that assumes that historically our anthropological teachers have the means and experience to educate their students,&#8221; said Barbara Johnston. Johnston said that anthropology faculty, in general, do not have the &#8220;seasoned understanding of power and backlash,&#8221; as it occurs in the non-academic world. This is so, she said, because they are still immersed in the &#8220;generic disciplinary reality of the ivory tower cocoon.&#8221; She argues that &#8220; political na&#239;vet&#233; is built into the dependency relationship between the discipline and the university structures that sustain the discipline.&#8221;</p> <p>It&#8217;s an uphill battle. As Henry Giroux discusses in his writings, universities are turning into military-academic-industrial complexes where hierarchy is more entrenched and emboldened. Academics need to model &#8220;good applied&#8221; anthropology in their own workplaces (the knowledge factories of higher education) to be more convincing to their students. So how do we better protect ourselves in a harsh work environment?</p> <p>Downing says, &#8220;Telling the truth is the most important thing &#8211; scientific credibility is critical. I document my reports with hundreds of references pointing directly to documents and footnotes. No embellishment &#8211; extra adverbs or adjectives &#8211; use the words of the documents. Facts, numbers, uncertainties, etc. Good science is your best defense as an activist. If your methodology is approved ahead of20time&#8230;and leads to an unexpected result &#8211; you are on good grounds. Good science gains respect, which becomes a shield&#8230;.but not impermeable. Keep close to the overall organizational objectives of your clien t or organization &#8211; in the case of the World Bank, poverty alleviation.&#8221;</p> <p>Downing, who is today a research professor of Social Development at the University of Arizona, said, &#8220;Whistleblowing is a last resort &#8211; since once it is done, your effectiveness as an internal change agent &#8211; moving the organization in the direction that it needs to go &#8211; is finished. I always feel a sense of personal failure when I had to take that last step. It was quite painful. There are other ways t o release information to the outside without blowing the whistle. For example, a freedom of information request or demand for an open meeting may crack opens an issue without the need for self-destruction.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I learned this during my two terms as a State lawmaker. And, above all, maintain a sense of humor on your self-importance. Aw ards are not given and statutes are not erected to whistleblowers!&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I have been booted out of several count ries and organizations,&#8221; said Downing. &#8220;And be assured, the minute a whistle is blown, any weakness in your scientific and professional abilities will be questioned. It is a last resort after you have tried your best to change the organization. I have 3 feet of internal correspondence on the Pangue case going on for over a year before I field my first human rights violation charges against the World Bank (IFC) &#8211; trying to set things right so the Pehuenche Indians would not be harmed.&#8221;</p> <p>Still, Barbara Johnston is not optimistic about academic culture&#8217;s abilities to prepare students for the perils of non-academic applied work. In an interview she said that the &#8220;ever-expanding continuum of engagement,&#8221; that is currently underway in anthropology will likely result in more censorship and backlash against applied anthropologists.</p> <p>Academic Culture Trivializes Activist Work</p> <p>Johnston points out that academic culture &#8220;trivializes the importance of this work,&#8221; while, at the same time, the engaged anthropologist struggles to find disciplinary support in dealing with backlash, which can range from papers that cannot be=2 0published (and thus cannot advance careers) to disinformation campaigns, character assaults, threats, even murder. She cites the execution of Colombian anthropologist in 1999 after studying displaced persons from a proposed energy development. He was shot by three masked gunmen at a faculty meeting. But the more common forms of retribution and retaliation come in the form of lost jobs, lost careers and lost health.</p> <p>&#8220;While anthropology is a powerful social persona (in Hollywood, public consciousness, legally mandated reviews, etc.) in terms of numbers, it is a very minor discipline. The AAA has only about 11,000 member s compared to the American Economic Association with 21,000, or the American Psychological Association with over 150,000. This means that when it comes to power (who gets the most research grants, who gets to serve as the dominant social science voice in the corridors of power, etc), anthropology is a very minor afterthought.&#8221;</p> <p>And yet there is much room for resistance, she adds.</p> <p>&#8220;We have an unusual power because as a social personality anthropology/ists have captured the public imagination. There is a cachet to the title, to the opinions emanating from An Anthropologist.&#8217; So backlash is not only a matter of an unprepared, unforeseen, poorly played hand, but also a matter of threat, and how be st to silence that threat. Anthropology is a very loud mosquito buzzing around the head at night. There is a lot of power there.&#8221;</p> <p>Indeed, as Rylko-Bauer and Singer (2006) argue, the historical successes of &#8220;pragmatic engagement&#8221; must be reclaimed for the 21st century. &#8220;For applied anthropologists, the commitment to action is a given; the challenge lies in continuing to find ways of acting more effectively and ethically while linking the specificity of local problem solving to larger sociopolitical contexts.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;Yes, but,&#8221; is only one way to act. It&#8217;s often not effective. In response to Heggenhougen&#8217;s challenge, we need to become better prepared to support colleagues who find themselves in circ umstances where, &#8220;no, but,&#8221; is where they must go.</p> <p>A version of this article was originally published in the <a href="" type="internal">Society for Applied Anthropology Newsletter</a>, Vol. 19:3, Tim Wallace, editor, August 2008</p> <p>BRIAN McKENNA lives in Michigan. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:mckenna193@aol.com" type="external">mckenna193@aol.com</a></p> <p>References</p> <p>Armstrong D., Lawrence W., Young R. 2005 Group Relations: An Introduction. London:Tavistock. Onlinebook: http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/paper99.html</p> <p>Bion, W. R. 1961 Experiences in Groups. London:Tavistock.</p> <p>Blim Michael 2007 Review of &#8220;Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI&#8217;s Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists,&#8221; Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture 6:3. See: http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_6.3/blim_printable.htm</p> <p>Davenport, NZ, Schwartz RD, Elliot GP . 2005 Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace. Collins, IA: Civil Society Publishin g.</p> <p>Downing, Theodore, 2008 See website for professional profile and writings at www.ted-downing.com</p> <p>Giroux, Henry 2007 The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex. Boulder:Paradigm</p> <p>Heggenhougen H. K. 1984 Will Primary Health Care be Allowed to Succeed? Social Science and Medicine 19 (3):217-224. 1993 PHC and Anthropology: Challenges and Opportuni ties. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 1993, 17:281-289.</p> <p>Johnston, Barbara 2004 &#8220;The Pehuenche: Human Rights, the Environment, and Hydrodevelopment on the Biobio River, Chile&#8221; by Barbara Rose Johnston and Carmen Garcia-Downing in Indigenous Peoples, Development and Environment edited by Harvey Feit and Mario Blaser (Zed Books). 2004:211-231.</p> <p>Grotstein, James S. 2007 A Beam of Intense Darkness, Wilfred Bion&#8217;s Legacy to Psychoanalysis. London:Karnac.</p> <p>Johnston, Barbara 2001 &#8220;Anthropology and Environmental Justice: Analysts, Advocates, Activists and Troublemakers&#8221; by Barbara Rose Johnston, in Anthropology and the Environment, Carole Crumley, ed. (Walnut Creek: Alta Mira) 2001:132-149.</p> <p>Kincheloe, Joe and Peter McLaren 1994=2 0 Rethinking Critical Theory and Qualitative Research. In Handbook of Qualitative Research. Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln, eds. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage</p> <p>McKenna, Brian 2008 &#8220;Melanoma Whitewash: Millions at Risk of Injury or Death because of Sunscreen Deceptions,&#8221; in &#8220;Killer Commodities: Public Health and the Corporate Production of Harm,&#8221; Merrill Singer and Hans Baer, eds., AltaMira Press</p> <p>Price, David 2004 Threatening Anthropology McCarthyism and the FBI&#8217;s Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.</p> <p>Rylko-Bauer, Barbara, Singer, Merrill and Willigen, john van 2006 Reclaiming Applied Anthropology: Its Past, Present, and Future. American Anthropologist; Mar 2006; 108, 1; Research Library</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p><a href="" type="internal" />HOBBS&amp;#160; &#8212; The New Mexico branches of the NAACP are coming to Hobbs for the civil rights group&#8217;s statewide conference.</p> <p>The Hobbs News-Sun reports ( <a href="http://goo.gl/AMY9AX)" type="external">http://goo.gl/AMY9AX)</a> that the 63rd annual gathering Oct. 24 and 25 comes as civil rights leaders are calling for police reforms.</p> <p>The Department of Justice and the city of Albuquerque are finalizing a plan aimed at reforming that city&#8217;s police department following 41 police shootings since 2010. A federal report faulted Albuquerque police over its use of force.</p> <p>Organizers expect around 150 to attend the conference at Baymont Inn and Suites Hotel.</p> <p>Officials say there are 11 NAACP New Mexico branches in the state.</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>

NAACP New Mexico branches to meet in Hobbs

https://abqjournal.com/480153/naacp-new-mexico-branches-to-meet-in-hobbs.html

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NAACP New Mexico branches to meet in Hobbs <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p><a href="" type="internal" />HOBBS&amp;#160; &#8212; The New Mexico branches of the NAACP are coming to Hobbs for the civil rights group&#8217;s statewide conference.</p> <p>The Hobbs News-Sun reports ( <a href="http://goo.gl/AMY9AX)" type="external">http://goo.gl/AMY9AX)</a> that the 63rd annual gathering Oct. 24 and 25 comes as civil rights leaders are calling for police reforms.</p> <p>The Department of Justice and the city of Albuquerque are finalizing a plan aimed at reforming that city&#8217;s police department following 41 police shootings since 2010. A federal report faulted Albuquerque police over its use of force.</p> <p>Organizers expect around 150 to attend the conference at Baymont Inn and Suites Hotel.</p> <p>Officials say there are 11 NAACP New Mexico branches in the state.</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>

<p>Emel Mathlouthi's 2007 song My Word is Free&amp;#160;was taken up as an anthem by Tunisian protestors in 2012.</p> <p>Her lyrics included these lines: &#8220;We are free men who are not afraid. We are the secrets that never die. And we are the voice of those who resist.&#8221;</p> <p>What happened in Tunisia was arguably the first domino in the so-called Arab Spring.&amp;#160;By then, <a href="http://emelmathlouthi.com/" type="external">Mathlouthi</a> was living outside Tunisia, her home &#8212; she had been censored by the former Tunisian regime. But she was free in Europe, in France &#8212; in her adopted hometown: Paris.</p> <p>The massacre at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo shocked Mathlouthi, just as it shocked most everyone else.&amp;#160;&#8220;It was so unexpected that something that violent [could] happen in the heart of Paris. We&#8217;re all in danger: Religions, colors, human rights are in danger,&#8221; she says.</p> <p>Mathlouthi was in New York recently. And the attack on Charlie Hebdo was forcing her to re-assess what she&#8217;d taken for granted in Paris: freedom of expression.&amp;#160;&#8220;It&#8217;s about this big threat of terrorism that is standing on the whole world, no&amp;#160;matter what the reason is.&#8221;</p> <p>Art as provocation</p> <p>But she doesn&#8217;t plan to sing about this big threat, not explicitly. She doesn&#8217;t see her job as fighting back directly. There&#8217;ll be no &#8220;My Word is Free&#8221; directed at ISIS or the like. There&#8217;ll be no song to strike back at terrorism &#8212; no song like &#8220;Tyrant,&#8221;&amp;#160;in which she sang: &#8220;Kill me, and I will write songs. Wound me, and I will sing stories. Give me more suffering. It will warm up my winter.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think we should push or throw oil on the fire,&#8221; she says. &#8220;Art is very important, [but] not necessarily to be violent, because there are many ways of singing [and] there are many ways of being an artist. I don&#8217;t see it necessarily as a way of provoking just to provoke. I see art as a very revolutionary way to change mentalities.&#8221;</p> <p>Mathlouthi&#8217;s response to what happened at Charlie Hebdo is, more than anything else, compassionate &#8212; hopeful even, about what art might be capable of doing.&amp;#160;&#8220;Not everybody has access to creation,&#8221; she says. &#8220;I&#8217;m saying that because one of the terrorists used to be a rapper. And maybe he needed to be embraced by a community, an artistic community.&#8221;</p> <p>Maybe that&#8217;s true, although it feels like a big leap of faith to suggest that music might have changed the decisions those young men made. But Mathlouthi&#8217;s insistance&amp;#160;that the Charlie Hebdo attackers are &#8220;victims&#8221; too, who made the mistake of getting involved with &#8220;evil gurus.&#8221; &#8220;But imagine if they can keep the music and the art &#8212; and for sure they will choose another way than just becoming a foolish, stupid, crazy terrorist,&#8221; she argues.</p> <p>Cause for optimism</p> <p>Writing explicitly about Tunisia, about the immediate state of her own country,&amp;#160;Mathlouthi says her songs used to be more self-consciously melancholic. This is a difficult moment too, in Paris and Copenhagen and beyond, and the singer wonders aloud if she&#8217;s optimistic about the future.</p> <p>These are times of troubled waters, she says, quoting one of her heroes. Besides Simon and Garfunkel, Emel Mathlouthi reveres Joan Baez and Dylan&#8212;protest singers joined with her across decades. But Mathlouthi's no longer protesting what's wrong with the world. Instead, she wants to give oxygen to what's right.</p> <p>So: is she optimistic? If you wait a second, and let her decide, she&#8217;ll tell you that, ultimately, she is. After all, what good is the alternative?</p>

The singer of Tunisia's protest anthem says music and culture can turn around extremism

https://pri.org/stories/2015-02-17/singer-tunisias-protest-anthem-says-music-and-culture-can-turn-around-extremism

2015-02-17

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The singer of Tunisia's protest anthem says music and culture can turn around extremism <p>Emel Mathlouthi's 2007 song My Word is Free&amp;#160;was taken up as an anthem by Tunisian protestors in 2012.</p> <p>Her lyrics included these lines: &#8220;We are free men who are not afraid. We are the secrets that never die. And we are the voice of those who resist.&#8221;</p> <p>What happened in Tunisia was arguably the first domino in the so-called Arab Spring.&amp;#160;By then, <a href="http://emelmathlouthi.com/" type="external">Mathlouthi</a> was living outside Tunisia, her home &#8212; she had been censored by the former Tunisian regime. But she was free in Europe, in France &#8212; in her adopted hometown: Paris.</p> <p>The massacre at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo shocked Mathlouthi, just as it shocked most everyone else.&amp;#160;&#8220;It was so unexpected that something that violent [could] happen in the heart of Paris. We&#8217;re all in danger: Religions, colors, human rights are in danger,&#8221; she says.</p> <p>Mathlouthi was in New York recently. And the attack on Charlie Hebdo was forcing her to re-assess what she&#8217;d taken for granted in Paris: freedom of expression.&amp;#160;&#8220;It&#8217;s about this big threat of terrorism that is standing on the whole world, no&amp;#160;matter what the reason is.&#8221;</p> <p>Art as provocation</p> <p>But she doesn&#8217;t plan to sing about this big threat, not explicitly. She doesn&#8217;t see her job as fighting back directly. There&#8217;ll be no &#8220;My Word is Free&#8221; directed at ISIS or the like. There&#8217;ll be no song to strike back at terrorism &#8212; no song like &#8220;Tyrant,&#8221;&amp;#160;in which she sang: &#8220;Kill me, and I will write songs. Wound me, and I will sing stories. Give me more suffering. It will warm up my winter.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think we should push or throw oil on the fire,&#8221; she says. &#8220;Art is very important, [but] not necessarily to be violent, because there are many ways of singing [and] there are many ways of being an artist. I don&#8217;t see it necessarily as a way of provoking just to provoke. I see art as a very revolutionary way to change mentalities.&#8221;</p> <p>Mathlouthi&#8217;s response to what happened at Charlie Hebdo is, more than anything else, compassionate &#8212; hopeful even, about what art might be capable of doing.&amp;#160;&#8220;Not everybody has access to creation,&#8221; she says. &#8220;I&#8217;m saying that because one of the terrorists used to be a rapper. And maybe he needed to be embraced by a community, an artistic community.&#8221;</p> <p>Maybe that&#8217;s true, although it feels like a big leap of faith to suggest that music might have changed the decisions those young men made. But Mathlouthi&#8217;s insistance&amp;#160;that the Charlie Hebdo attackers are &#8220;victims&#8221; too, who made the mistake of getting involved with &#8220;evil gurus.&#8221; &#8220;But imagine if they can keep the music and the art &#8212; and for sure they will choose another way than just becoming a foolish, stupid, crazy terrorist,&#8221; she argues.</p> <p>Cause for optimism</p> <p>Writing explicitly about Tunisia, about the immediate state of her own country,&amp;#160;Mathlouthi says her songs used to be more self-consciously melancholic. This is a difficult moment too, in Paris and Copenhagen and beyond, and the singer wonders aloud if she&#8217;s optimistic about the future.</p> <p>These are times of troubled waters, she says, quoting one of her heroes. Besides Simon and Garfunkel, Emel Mathlouthi reveres Joan Baez and Dylan&#8212;protest singers joined with her across decades. But Mathlouthi's no longer protesting what's wrong with the world. Instead, she wants to give oxygen to what's right.</p> <p>So: is she optimistic? If you wait a second, and let her decide, she&#8217;ll tell you that, ultimately, she is. After all, what good is the alternative?</p>

<p>Pinterest co-founder Paul Sciarra said late Monday he is departing the red-hot startup website.</p> <p>Sciarra was listed in regulatory documents from 2010 as president and CEO of the company. However, co-founder Ben Silbermann has essentially taken on that role in recent months, though it's not clear if he officially holds the title, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/03/technology/startups/pinterest-cofounder-steps-down/index.htm" type="external">CNN reported</a>.</p> <p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business-tech/120306/pinterests-cofounder-were-still-trying-figure-out-copyright-laws" type="external">Pinterest co-founder: We're still figuring out copyright laws</a></p> <p>"After lots of reflection and plenty of discussion with Ben and others, I've decided that now is a good time for me to step down formally from day-to-day involvement," Sciarra <a href="http://blog.pinterest.com/post/20380014788/from-pinterest-co-founder-paul-sciarra" type="external">said in a blog post</a>.</p> <p>Silbermann did not immediately respond to CNN's requests for comment.</p> <p>Sciarra will be moving on to an entrepreneur-in-residence position at Andreessen Horowitz, a Pinterest investor, <a href="http://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/item/26543-pinterest-co-founder-paul/" type="external">the Silicon Republic reported</a>.</p> <p>Sciarra, along with Silbermann and designer Evan Sharp, founded Pinterest more than three years ago, but it only recently caught fire.</p> <p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/obama-joins-pinterest" type="external">Barack Obama joins Pinterest</a></p> <p>The site, an invite-only virtual pinboard, became one of the fastest-growing websites of all time in February although growth is gradually slowing, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/" type="external">according to Fortune magazine</a>.</p> <p>Based on the latest data, Comscore projects that Pinterest will grow its total unique users in March to just over 20 million, a roughly 12 percent month-over month increase, after posting a 50 percent increase in February, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-03-30/cnbc-pinterest-growth/53893824/1" type="external">USA Today reported</a>.</p>

Pinterest co-founder David Sciarra steps down

https://pri.org/stories/2012-04-03/pinterest-co-founder-david-sciarra-steps-down

2012-04-03

3left-center

Pinterest co-founder David Sciarra steps down <p>Pinterest co-founder Paul Sciarra said late Monday he is departing the red-hot startup website.</p> <p>Sciarra was listed in regulatory documents from 2010 as president and CEO of the company. However, co-founder Ben Silbermann has essentially taken on that role in recent months, though it's not clear if he officially holds the title, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/03/technology/startups/pinterest-cofounder-steps-down/index.htm" type="external">CNN reported</a>.</p> <p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business-tech/120306/pinterests-cofounder-were-still-trying-figure-out-copyright-laws" type="external">Pinterest co-founder: We're still figuring out copyright laws</a></p> <p>"After lots of reflection and plenty of discussion with Ben and others, I've decided that now is a good time for me to step down formally from day-to-day involvement," Sciarra <a href="http://blog.pinterest.com/post/20380014788/from-pinterest-co-founder-paul-sciarra" type="external">said in a blog post</a>.</p> <p>Silbermann did not immediately respond to CNN's requests for comment.</p> <p>Sciarra will be moving on to an entrepreneur-in-residence position at Andreessen Horowitz, a Pinterest investor, <a href="http://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/item/26543-pinterest-co-founder-paul/" type="external">the Silicon Republic reported</a>.</p> <p>Sciarra, along with Silbermann and designer Evan Sharp, founded Pinterest more than three years ago, but it only recently caught fire.</p> <p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/obama-joins-pinterest" type="external">Barack Obama joins Pinterest</a></p> <p>The site, an invite-only virtual pinboard, became one of the fastest-growing websites of all time in February although growth is gradually slowing, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/" type="external">according to Fortune magazine</a>.</p> <p>Based on the latest data, Comscore projects that Pinterest will grow its total unique users in March to just over 20 million, a roughly 12 percent month-over month increase, after posting a 50 percent increase in February, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-03-30/cnbc-pinterest-growth/53893824/1" type="external">USA Today reported</a>.</p>

<p>India placed the entire Tibetan exile community of New Delhi under house arrest Wednesday, after a Tibetan demonstrator set himself on fire outside the parliament building to protest the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao this week.</p> <p>The community will be restricted to their homes until March 31.</p> <p>The move is designed to prevent any further public protest until after the conclusion of this week's BRICS Summit and bilateral talks between Hu and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.</p> <p><a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/House-arrest-for-all-Tibetans-till-March-31/Article1-831803.aspx" type="external">According to the Hindustan Times</a>, the Delhi Police began mobilizing against Tibetan activists with the detention of prominent Tibetan activist and poet Tenzin Tsundue from a seminar being held at the Indian Habitat Center on Tuesday.</p> <p>After that, scores of activists were detained from several locations across Delhi, the paper said. The police have also sealed areas populated by Tibetans including Majnu ka Tila, Budh Vihar and Tibetan youth hostel in Rohini.</p>

ForeignAffairs: India places Tibetan community under house arrest for BRICS Summit

https://pri.org/stories/2012-03-28/foreignaffairs-india-places-tibetan-community-under-house-arrest-brics-summit

2012-03-28

3left-center

ForeignAffairs: India places Tibetan community under house arrest for BRICS Summit <p>India placed the entire Tibetan exile community of New Delhi under house arrest Wednesday, after a Tibetan demonstrator set himself on fire outside the parliament building to protest the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao this week.</p> <p>The community will be restricted to their homes until March 31.</p> <p>The move is designed to prevent any further public protest until after the conclusion of this week's BRICS Summit and bilateral talks between Hu and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.</p> <p><a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/House-arrest-for-all-Tibetans-till-March-31/Article1-831803.aspx" type="external">According to the Hindustan Times</a>, the Delhi Police began mobilizing against Tibetan activists with the detention of prominent Tibetan activist and poet Tenzin Tsundue from a seminar being held at the Indian Habitat Center on Tuesday.</p> <p>After that, scores of activists were detained from several locations across Delhi, the paper said. The police have also sealed areas populated by Tibetans including Majnu ka Tila, Budh Vihar and Tibetan youth hostel in Rohini.</p>

<p>On March 27, former Black Panther member and leader of the Communist Party USA Angela Davis <a href="http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=8998" type="external">spoke</a> at George Washington University at an event hosted by Students for Justice in "Palestine," the GW Black Student Union, and the GW Feminist Student Union to talk about social justice and the non-existent state of "Palestine."</p> <p>Davis, who was once on the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/women-on-fbis-most-wanted-list/3/" type="external">FBI's Most-Wanted List</a> for providing weapons to her fellow Black Panther terrorists who took hostages and committed a massacre in a Marin County courthouse, <a href="http://campus.zoa.org/myth/myth-israel-practices-ethnic-cleansing-against-arabs/" type="external">falsely accused</a> Israel of committing "ethnic cleansing" and called for its de facto destruction in an attempt to liberate "Palestine." She argued for Israel's destruction under the guises of social justice and "anti-colonialism."</p> <p>We say no to Israel&#8217;s ethnic cleansing strategies. In standing up against the racism of the state of Israel, we are passionately saying no to anti-Semitism as well. This is supposed to be the dismantling of the era of Israeli occupation of Palestine. It has been long and coming.</p> <p>According to Davis, it is not anti-Semitic to defend the same position of genocidal terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which have a long history of inciting Palestinians to kill any Jews who are occupying "Palestine." Not only is the "occupation" a <a href="" type="internal">fiction</a>, but it also rewrites archeological history that the Jewish people have lived in the land of Judea for over 3,500 years.</p> <p>In addition to defending the same position as Hamas, Davis claimed that Israel acquires its tear gas that it uses to disrupt Palestinian-Arab riots in Judea and Samaria from the same company that provided tear gas to the police at Ferguson, Missouri. This talking point is common amongst Black Lives Matter activists and Hamas apologists trying to appeal to emotions between the African-American community and the Palestinian-Arab community.</p> <p>Pastor Dumisani Washington of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI) has <a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/7-reasons-why-the-black-struggle-for-freedom-and-the-palestinian-crisis-are-absolutely-nothing-alike-by-a-black-man-whos-sick-and-tired-of-the-comparisons/" type="external">written</a> that the Palestinian National Movement cannot be compared to the struggles of black America. He said this in particular about terrorism:</p> <p>Other than Nat Turner and a few rebellious slaves whom history has forgotten, Black victims of oppression never possessed the means to offer armed resistance to our oppressors during slavery. After slavery (and due to the legal right to purchase guns), Black Americans were able to arm themselves, but had no access to rockets, rocket launchers, IEDs or other explosives.</p> <p>If Black Americans had been able to fight with weapons, you can be certain that blowing up our sons and daughters would not have been a strategic option. Ever. Under any circumstances.</p> <p>Unfortunately, Angela Davis cheapens the struggle of black America in comparing it to the struggle of terrorist organizations bent on the genocide of the Jewish people and the complete destruction of Jewish self-determination in the name of "social justice."</p> <p>Follow Elliott on <a href="https://twitter.com/ElliottRHams" type="external">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ElliottRHams/" type="external">Facebook</a>.</p>

IRONY: Anti-Semitic Former Terrorist Tells College Students Why Israel Is A Terrorist State

https://dailywire.com/news/15035/irony-anti-semitic-former-terrorist-tells-college-elliott-hamilton

2017-04-03

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IRONY: Anti-Semitic Former Terrorist Tells College Students Why Israel Is A Terrorist State <p>On March 27, former Black Panther member and leader of the Communist Party USA Angela Davis <a href="http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=8998" type="external">spoke</a> at George Washington University at an event hosted by Students for Justice in "Palestine," the GW Black Student Union, and the GW Feminist Student Union to talk about social justice and the non-existent state of "Palestine."</p> <p>Davis, who was once on the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/women-on-fbis-most-wanted-list/3/" type="external">FBI's Most-Wanted List</a> for providing weapons to her fellow Black Panther terrorists who took hostages and committed a massacre in a Marin County courthouse, <a href="http://campus.zoa.org/myth/myth-israel-practices-ethnic-cleansing-against-arabs/" type="external">falsely accused</a> Israel of committing "ethnic cleansing" and called for its de facto destruction in an attempt to liberate "Palestine." She argued for Israel's destruction under the guises of social justice and "anti-colonialism."</p> <p>We say no to Israel&#8217;s ethnic cleansing strategies. In standing up against the racism of the state of Israel, we are passionately saying no to anti-Semitism as well. This is supposed to be the dismantling of the era of Israeli occupation of Palestine. It has been long and coming.</p> <p>According to Davis, it is not anti-Semitic to defend the same position of genocidal terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which have a long history of inciting Palestinians to kill any Jews who are occupying "Palestine." Not only is the "occupation" a <a href="" type="internal">fiction</a>, but it also rewrites archeological history that the Jewish people have lived in the land of Judea for over 3,500 years.</p> <p>In addition to defending the same position as Hamas, Davis claimed that Israel acquires its tear gas that it uses to disrupt Palestinian-Arab riots in Judea and Samaria from the same company that provided tear gas to the police at Ferguson, Missouri. This talking point is common amongst Black Lives Matter activists and Hamas apologists trying to appeal to emotions between the African-American community and the Palestinian-Arab community.</p> <p>Pastor Dumisani Washington of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI) has <a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/7-reasons-why-the-black-struggle-for-freedom-and-the-palestinian-crisis-are-absolutely-nothing-alike-by-a-black-man-whos-sick-and-tired-of-the-comparisons/" type="external">written</a> that the Palestinian National Movement cannot be compared to the struggles of black America. He said this in particular about terrorism:</p> <p>Other than Nat Turner and a few rebellious slaves whom history has forgotten, Black victims of oppression never possessed the means to offer armed resistance to our oppressors during slavery. After slavery (and due to the legal right to purchase guns), Black Americans were able to arm themselves, but had no access to rockets, rocket launchers, IEDs or other explosives.</p> <p>If Black Americans had been able to fight with weapons, you can be certain that blowing up our sons and daughters would not have been a strategic option. Ever. Under any circumstances.</p> <p>Unfortunately, Angela Davis cheapens the struggle of black America in comparing it to the struggle of terrorist organizations bent on the genocide of the Jewish people and the complete destruction of Jewish self-determination in the name of "social justice."</p> <p>Follow Elliott on <a href="https://twitter.com/ElliottRHams" type="external">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ElliottRHams/" type="external">Facebook</a>.</p>

<p>DONETSK/ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine &#8212; Ukraine's rebels disavowed a new truce on Sunday hours after it took effect, saying it did not apply to the town where most fighting has taken place in recent weeks.</p> <p>Guns fell abruptly silent at midnight across much of eastern Ukraine in line with the ceasefire agreement, reached after a week of diplomacy led by France and Germany. But pro-Russian rebels announced they would not observe the truce at Debaltseve, where Ukrainian army forces were encircled.</p> <p>"Of course we can open fire (on Debaltseve). It is our territory," senior rebel commander Eduard Basurin told Reuters. "The territory is internal: ours. And internal is internal. But along the line of confrontation there is no shooting."</p> <p>The Organization for Security and Cooperation, responsible for monitoring the ceasefire, said rebels had denied its observers access to Debaltseve. It said firing continued in the town, one of a few exceptions to a truce that was otherwise largely being observed.</p> <p>Both sides blamed what firing there was on the enemy. But Debaltseve has been the focus of fighting for weeks, and it will be hard to speak of a truce if Ukrainian troops remain trapped there under fire, or the rebels press on with their advance.</p> <p>Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday's peace deal including the truce must be implemented "unconditionally." But he made no mention of whether Moscow believed the truce applied to Debaltseve, and declined to comment on Basurin's remarks.</p> <p>Reuters journalists heard volleys of artillery from the direction of Debaltseve in the morning after a night that had been mostly quiet.</p> <p>Town almost cut off&amp;#160;</p> <p>Ukrainian forces have for weeks been holding out in the town, which sits astride a railway junction in a pocket between the two main rebel strongholds.</p> <p>Rebels say they have completely encircled the town, but Ukraine says its forces have kept open a road to resupply it in the face of a Russian-backed onslaught.</p> <p>Kyiv military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Ukrainian forces had foiled an attempt to close the circle in the last 24 hours.</p> <p>Washington says regular Russian forces armed with tanks and missile launchers advanced on the town from all sides in the days before the truce.</p> <p>Reuters journalists operating on the rebel side have seen armored columns of troops without insignia arriving in the area in recent days.</p> <p>In the main rebel center, Donetsk, Reuters journalists said artillery had been exploding every few seconds in the hours before the ceasefire, but halted abruptly at midnight.</p> <p>A Reuters photographer in government-held territory also said constant bombardment had halted overnight, although he heard a volley of artillery around 7 a.m. from the direction of Debaltseve.</p> <p>A Ukrainian military spokesman said the ceasefire was being "generally observed." Its forces had been shelled 10 times since the truce took effect in "localized" incidents, and no soldiers had been killed.</p> <p>A Ukrainian staff officer stationed near Debaltseve said: "The general level (of attacks) has decreased, although there are violations."</p> <p>Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, wearing the uniform of the armed forces' supreme commander, announced the order to stop firing in a midnight televised address, but said there was still alarm over Debaltseve.</p> <p>"Last chance"</p> <p>"I very much hope that the last chance to begin the long and difficult peaceful process for a political settlement will not be wasted," he said, adding, however, that if Ukraine were slapped, it would not "turn the other cheek."</p> <p>The ceasefire, negotiated in all-night four-power talks on Thursday, foresees creation of a buffer zone and withdrawal of heavy weapons. More than 5,000 people have been killed in a conflict that has caused the worst crisis in Russia-West relations since the Cold War.</p> <p>Russian President Vladimir Putin denies Moscow is involved in fighting for territory that he calls "New Russia" but Washington and its allies have imposed economic sanctions over Russia's role in the conflict.</p> <p>US Secretary of State John Kerry urged implementation of the ceasefire in a telephone call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and expressed concern about efforts by Russia and the separatists to cut off Debaltseve.</p> <p>US President Barack Obama expressed "deep concern" about the violence around Debaltseve prior to the ceasefire in a telephone call with Poroshenko, the White House said. Obama also spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.</p> <p>It was Merkel who negotiated the truce along with President Francois Hollande of France at talks with Poroshenko and Putin. The Kremlin said the four leaders would continue to speak by phone.</p> <p>Maxim, a rebel fighter at a checkpoint on a road from Donetsk to government-held Dnipropetrovsk, said he did not expect the ceasefire to hold.</p> <p>"Truce? I doubt it. Maybe two to three days, and then they will start shooting again. This is all for show. The OSCE is driving around here, so of course they are being quiet."</p> <p>(Additional reporting by Alessandra Prentice, Serhiy Karazy and Pavel Polityuk, Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, Jeff Mason in Rancho Mirage, California, and Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Kevin Liffey)</p>

Ukraine rebels disavow ceasefire at encircled town

https://pri.org/stories/2015-02-15/ukraine-rebels-disavow-ceasefire-encircled-town

2015-02-15

3left-center

Ukraine rebels disavow ceasefire at encircled town <p>DONETSK/ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine &#8212; Ukraine's rebels disavowed a new truce on Sunday hours after it took effect, saying it did not apply to the town where most fighting has taken place in recent weeks.</p> <p>Guns fell abruptly silent at midnight across much of eastern Ukraine in line with the ceasefire agreement, reached after a week of diplomacy led by France and Germany. But pro-Russian rebels announced they would not observe the truce at Debaltseve, where Ukrainian army forces were encircled.</p> <p>"Of course we can open fire (on Debaltseve). It is our territory," senior rebel commander Eduard Basurin told Reuters. "The territory is internal: ours. And internal is internal. But along the line of confrontation there is no shooting."</p> <p>The Organization for Security and Cooperation, responsible for monitoring the ceasefire, said rebels had denied its observers access to Debaltseve. It said firing continued in the town, one of a few exceptions to a truce that was otherwise largely being observed.</p> <p>Both sides blamed what firing there was on the enemy. But Debaltseve has been the focus of fighting for weeks, and it will be hard to speak of a truce if Ukrainian troops remain trapped there under fire, or the rebels press on with their advance.</p> <p>Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday's peace deal including the truce must be implemented "unconditionally." But he made no mention of whether Moscow believed the truce applied to Debaltseve, and declined to comment on Basurin's remarks.</p> <p>Reuters journalists heard volleys of artillery from the direction of Debaltseve in the morning after a night that had been mostly quiet.</p> <p>Town almost cut off&amp;#160;</p> <p>Ukrainian forces have for weeks been holding out in the town, which sits astride a railway junction in a pocket between the two main rebel strongholds.</p> <p>Rebels say they have completely encircled the town, but Ukraine says its forces have kept open a road to resupply it in the face of a Russian-backed onslaught.</p> <p>Kyiv military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Ukrainian forces had foiled an attempt to close the circle in the last 24 hours.</p> <p>Washington says regular Russian forces armed with tanks and missile launchers advanced on the town from all sides in the days before the truce.</p> <p>Reuters journalists operating on the rebel side have seen armored columns of troops without insignia arriving in the area in recent days.</p> <p>In the main rebel center, Donetsk, Reuters journalists said artillery had been exploding every few seconds in the hours before the ceasefire, but halted abruptly at midnight.</p> <p>A Reuters photographer in government-held territory also said constant bombardment had halted overnight, although he heard a volley of artillery around 7 a.m. from the direction of Debaltseve.</p> <p>A Ukrainian military spokesman said the ceasefire was being "generally observed." Its forces had been shelled 10 times since the truce took effect in "localized" incidents, and no soldiers had been killed.</p> <p>A Ukrainian staff officer stationed near Debaltseve said: "The general level (of attacks) has decreased, although there are violations."</p> <p>Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, wearing the uniform of the armed forces' supreme commander, announced the order to stop firing in a midnight televised address, but said there was still alarm over Debaltseve.</p> <p>"Last chance"</p> <p>"I very much hope that the last chance to begin the long and difficult peaceful process for a political settlement will not be wasted," he said, adding, however, that if Ukraine were slapped, it would not "turn the other cheek."</p> <p>The ceasefire, negotiated in all-night four-power talks on Thursday, foresees creation of a buffer zone and withdrawal of heavy weapons. More than 5,000 people have been killed in a conflict that has caused the worst crisis in Russia-West relations since the Cold War.</p> <p>Russian President Vladimir Putin denies Moscow is involved in fighting for territory that he calls "New Russia" but Washington and its allies have imposed economic sanctions over Russia's role in the conflict.</p> <p>US Secretary of State John Kerry urged implementation of the ceasefire in a telephone call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and expressed concern about efforts by Russia and the separatists to cut off Debaltseve.</p> <p>US President Barack Obama expressed "deep concern" about the violence around Debaltseve prior to the ceasefire in a telephone call with Poroshenko, the White House said. Obama also spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.</p> <p>It was Merkel who negotiated the truce along with President Francois Hollande of France at talks with Poroshenko and Putin. The Kremlin said the four leaders would continue to speak by phone.</p> <p>Maxim, a rebel fighter at a checkpoint on a road from Donetsk to government-held Dnipropetrovsk, said he did not expect the ceasefire to hold.</p> <p>"Truce? I doubt it. Maybe two to three days, and then they will start shooting again. This is all for show. The OSCE is driving around here, so of course they are being quiet."</p> <p>(Additional reporting by Alessandra Prentice, Serhiy Karazy and Pavel Polityuk, Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, Jeff Mason in Rancho Mirage, California, and Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Kevin Liffey)</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>The Oprah Winfrey-annointed TV doc, Mehmet Oz, late last year began talking about the &#8220;miracle in a bottle&#8221; weight loss supplements of green coffee bean extract and raspberry ketone.</p> <p>In Albuquerque and around the country, health food stores and shops that sell vitamins and supplements immediately saw a marked increase in inquiries and sales of those two products as well as blended products that contain them, many store operators say. Depending on the manufacturer, quantity and strength, a 30-day supply of these supplements can cost from $15 to $55.</p> <p>&#8220;We carry them and they both have become more popular since being mentioned by Dr. Oz,&#8221; says Susan McLaughlin, director of corporate communications for New Jersey based Vitamin Shoppe.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>The retail chain, she says, makes no claims about the efficacy of the products, only that they are safe when used according to the label directions.</p> <p>Likewise, local GNC stores sell a number of raspberry ketone and green coffee bean extract supplements, including one that combines the two and a &#8220;triple strength&#8221; raspberry ketone product.</p> <p>&#8220;Dr. Oz is kind of a guru,&#8221; says a sales associate at the GNC store on San Mateo. &#8220;We weren&#8217;t selling much of them before, but he got people interested and they must like them because they keep coming back for more. I don&#8217;t think people would buy weight loss supplements if they weren&#8217;t dropping some weight.&#8221;</p> <p>Sales associates at Nutrishops say they don&#8217;t sell green coffee bean extract in any form, nor raspberry ketone products by themselves. The stores do, however, sell raspberry ketone as part of blended products. Among the biggest sellers, they say, is the Contour Elite Weight Loss System that consists of three products &#8211; Hypercor, Detoxin and Somnilean.</p> <p>So what&#8217;s the big deal about raspberry ketone and green coffee bean extract?</p> <p>Mark Holland, a doctor of bariatric medicine and operator of the Holland Clinic (hollandclinic.com), specializing in weight loss and management, explains that raspberry ketone is the chemical responsible for giving raspberries their distinctive fragrance and flavor. &#8220;A ketone is an organic chemical term describing a particular chemical structure.&#8221; Raspberry ketone has a chemical structure similar to capsaicin and synephrine, both of which accelerate the conversion of fat to energy. Capsaicin is the compound that gives chile peppers their heat, while synephrine is a stimulant.</p> <p>Despite that chemical similarity, says Holland, &#8220;I don&#8217;t think raspberry ketone works at all for weight loss, there&#8217;s just no good science to back it up.&#8221;</p> <p>Further, most of the studies done on raspberry ketone used rodents and in vitro cells. They were &#8220;poorly designed and conducted mostly by companies that stand to make a profit from selling it,&#8221; he says.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Green coffee bean extract, however, &#8220;is a different story and there&#8217;s some good science to indicate that it works.&#8221;</p> <p>Green coffee bean is simply the picked coffee bean that has neither been roasted nor fermented. Consequently the chlorogenic acid in it hasn&#8217;t been washed out, and that&#8217;s the important thing. &#8220;It&#8217;s that chemical that seems to cause weight loss as indicated in study after study,&#8221; Holland says.</p> <p>Chlorogenic acid works by slowing or inhibiting the release of glucose from the liver into the bloodstream, while causing the liver to more quickly metabolize fat stored in fat cells throughout the body. These two functions inhibit the absorption of fat and stop or slow weight gain.</p> <p>Essentially, says Holland, &#8220;chlorogenic acid alters the way we metabolize blood sugar, making the body think it&#8217;s full so we eat less.&#8221;</p> <p>Of course, this has to be put into perspective. In most studies, the weight loss averaged only about 5 pounds per person among those using a green coffee bean extract supplement, versus the control group that took a placebo.</p> <p>A 5-pound weight loss seems more noteworthy among people who need to lose a modest 15 pounds as opposed to morbidly obese people who need to lose 100 pounds. &#8220;When used in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise, a green coffee bean extract supplement can be helpful but not dramatic,&#8221; Holland says.</p> <p>Roger Ayers, vice president of Success Weightloss Systems in Albuquerque (swshcg.com) uses both raspberry ketone and green coffee bean extract in treating clients, but is careful to point out that neither is a &#8220;magic bullet.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;We utilize supplements to give people a little nudge, but by themselves they will not cause significant weight loss. You can not accomplish meaningful, sustainable weight loss without diet and lifestyle modifications,&#8221; he says.</p> <p>To do that, Success Weightloss Systems first does blood work on clients to check their thyroid function, measure blood sugar level and look for any vitamin deficiencies, says Ayers. Then clients re-learn &#8220;how to eat, sleep, drink and think about their approach to food, stress and lifestyles.&#8221;</p> <p>And no supplement can do that, he says. &#8212; This article appeared on page C01 of the Albuquerque Journal</p>

Breakthrough … or bust?

https://abqjournal.com/176953/breakthrough-8230-or-bust.html

2013-03-11

2least

Breakthrough … or bust? <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>The Oprah Winfrey-annointed TV doc, Mehmet Oz, late last year began talking about the &#8220;miracle in a bottle&#8221; weight loss supplements of green coffee bean extract and raspberry ketone.</p> <p>In Albuquerque and around the country, health food stores and shops that sell vitamins and supplements immediately saw a marked increase in inquiries and sales of those two products as well as blended products that contain them, many store operators say. Depending on the manufacturer, quantity and strength, a 30-day supply of these supplements can cost from $15 to $55.</p> <p>&#8220;We carry them and they both have become more popular since being mentioned by Dr. Oz,&#8221; says Susan McLaughlin, director of corporate communications for New Jersey based Vitamin Shoppe.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>The retail chain, she says, makes no claims about the efficacy of the products, only that they are safe when used according to the label directions.</p> <p>Likewise, local GNC stores sell a number of raspberry ketone and green coffee bean extract supplements, including one that combines the two and a &#8220;triple strength&#8221; raspberry ketone product.</p> <p>&#8220;Dr. Oz is kind of a guru,&#8221; says a sales associate at the GNC store on San Mateo. &#8220;We weren&#8217;t selling much of them before, but he got people interested and they must like them because they keep coming back for more. I don&#8217;t think people would buy weight loss supplements if they weren&#8217;t dropping some weight.&#8221;</p> <p>Sales associates at Nutrishops say they don&#8217;t sell green coffee bean extract in any form, nor raspberry ketone products by themselves. The stores do, however, sell raspberry ketone as part of blended products. Among the biggest sellers, they say, is the Contour Elite Weight Loss System that consists of three products &#8211; Hypercor, Detoxin and Somnilean.</p> <p>So what&#8217;s the big deal about raspberry ketone and green coffee bean extract?</p> <p>Mark Holland, a doctor of bariatric medicine and operator of the Holland Clinic (hollandclinic.com), specializing in weight loss and management, explains that raspberry ketone is the chemical responsible for giving raspberries their distinctive fragrance and flavor. &#8220;A ketone is an organic chemical term describing a particular chemical structure.&#8221; Raspberry ketone has a chemical structure similar to capsaicin and synephrine, both of which accelerate the conversion of fat to energy. Capsaicin is the compound that gives chile peppers their heat, while synephrine is a stimulant.</p> <p>Despite that chemical similarity, says Holland, &#8220;I don&#8217;t think raspberry ketone works at all for weight loss, there&#8217;s just no good science to back it up.&#8221;</p> <p>Further, most of the studies done on raspberry ketone used rodents and in vitro cells. They were &#8220;poorly designed and conducted mostly by companies that stand to make a profit from selling it,&#8221; he says.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Green coffee bean extract, however, &#8220;is a different story and there&#8217;s some good science to indicate that it works.&#8221;</p> <p>Green coffee bean is simply the picked coffee bean that has neither been roasted nor fermented. Consequently the chlorogenic acid in it hasn&#8217;t been washed out, and that&#8217;s the important thing. &#8220;It&#8217;s that chemical that seems to cause weight loss as indicated in study after study,&#8221; Holland says.</p> <p>Chlorogenic acid works by slowing or inhibiting the release of glucose from the liver into the bloodstream, while causing the liver to more quickly metabolize fat stored in fat cells throughout the body. These two functions inhibit the absorption of fat and stop or slow weight gain.</p> <p>Essentially, says Holland, &#8220;chlorogenic acid alters the way we metabolize blood sugar, making the body think it&#8217;s full so we eat less.&#8221;</p> <p>Of course, this has to be put into perspective. In most studies, the weight loss averaged only about 5 pounds per person among those using a green coffee bean extract supplement, versus the control group that took a placebo.</p> <p>A 5-pound weight loss seems more noteworthy among people who need to lose a modest 15 pounds as opposed to morbidly obese people who need to lose 100 pounds. &#8220;When used in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise, a green coffee bean extract supplement can be helpful but not dramatic,&#8221; Holland says.</p> <p>Roger Ayers, vice president of Success Weightloss Systems in Albuquerque (swshcg.com) uses both raspberry ketone and green coffee bean extract in treating clients, but is careful to point out that neither is a &#8220;magic bullet.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;We utilize supplements to give people a little nudge, but by themselves they will not cause significant weight loss. You can not accomplish meaningful, sustainable weight loss without diet and lifestyle modifications,&#8221; he says.</p> <p>To do that, Success Weightloss Systems first does blood work on clients to check their thyroid function, measure blood sugar level and look for any vitamin deficiencies, says Ayers. Then clients re-learn &#8220;how to eat, sleep, drink and think about their approach to food, stress and lifestyles.&#8221;</p> <p>And no supplement can do that, he says. &#8212; This article appeared on page C01 of the Albuquerque Journal</p>

<p>Eli Lilly &amp;amp; Co. said on Wednesday that as part of a settlement with generic companies over its Cialis patent, the exclusive patent is now expected to end on September 27, 2018 at the earliest, roughly a year-and-a-half earlier than the patent was going to expire. The settlement won't affect 2017 financial guidance or mid-term expectations through the rest of the decade, the company said. The dispute centered around a patent on the unit dose of the drug. Eli Lilly defended the disputed patent as "valid" but said that "this is a royalty-bearing license agreement that provides us with more certainty regarding our U.S. exclusivity," according to Michael Harrington, the company's senior vice president and general counsel. Cialis treats erectile dysfunction, but the drug -- tadalfil -- is also sold under the name Adcirca for pulmonary arterial hypertension. Adcirca's patent is still expected to expire on November 21, 2017 or, if the Food and Drug Administration grants the company pediatric exclusivity, on May 21, 2018, Eli Lilly said. Eli Lilly shares rose 1.8% to $83.80 in morning trade. Shares have dropped 2.9% over the last three months, compared with a 4.2% rise in the S&amp;amp;P 500 .</p> <p>Copyright &#169; 2017 MarketWatch, Inc.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p>

Eli Lilly Settlement Will Result In Cialis Patent Expiring As Early As 2018, Rather Than 2020

http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/12/eli-lilly-settlement-will-result-in-cialis-patent-expiring-as-early-as-2018.html

2017-07-12

0right

Eli Lilly Settlement Will Result In Cialis Patent Expiring As Early As 2018, Rather Than 2020 <p>Eli Lilly &amp;amp; Co. said on Wednesday that as part of a settlement with generic companies over its Cialis patent, the exclusive patent is now expected to end on September 27, 2018 at the earliest, roughly a year-and-a-half earlier than the patent was going to expire. The settlement won't affect 2017 financial guidance or mid-term expectations through the rest of the decade, the company said. The dispute centered around a patent on the unit dose of the drug. Eli Lilly defended the disputed patent as "valid" but said that "this is a royalty-bearing license agreement that provides us with more certainty regarding our U.S. exclusivity," according to Michael Harrington, the company's senior vice president and general counsel. Cialis treats erectile dysfunction, but the drug -- tadalfil -- is also sold under the name Adcirca for pulmonary arterial hypertension. Adcirca's patent is still expected to expire on November 21, 2017 or, if the Food and Drug Administration grants the company pediatric exclusivity, on May 21, 2018, Eli Lilly said. Eli Lilly shares rose 1.8% to $83.80 in morning trade. Shares have dropped 2.9% over the last three months, compared with a 4.2% rise in the S&amp;amp;P 500 .</p> <p>Copyright &#169; 2017 MarketWatch, Inc.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>The IOC said Friday that its executive board will meet in Lausanne to discuss the 2024 and 2028 bid processes, and reforming rules for 2026 Winter Games candidates.</p> <p>Awarding two Summer Games at the same time to the only two candidates left in the 2024 race is seen as IOC President Thomas Bach&#8217;s preferred option.</p> <p>IOC members are scheduled to choose the 2024 host on Sept. 13 in Lima, Peru.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>However, Bach asked the board&#8217;s four vice presidents in March to work together and advise on combining the 2024 hosting award with the 2028 rights.</p> <p>The vice presdients&#8217; report to the 13-member board &#8212; which includes two Americans &#8212; is key to the short-notice meeting. Any agreement could be ratified at July 9-12 meetings of the IOC board and full membership.</p> <p>Leaders of the LA and Paris campaigns will come to Lausanne then to make set-piece presentations of their hosting plan to the voting members.</p> <p>Even if the double award is agreed to, how to allocate each games to candidates who both want to go first in 2024 could still be left to decide.</p> <p>The IOC could give about 90 voters a free choice in the Peruvian capital, or a deal could be struck with the two cities.</p> <p>LA Mayor Eric Garcetti told reporters at an Olympic sports conference in Denmark last month that his city and Paris could start as &#8220;friends not competitors&#8221; if invited by the IOC for talks.</p> <p>Bach upended expectations in what shaped as a tight 2024 race when he said last December that the existing process produces &#8220;too many losers.&#8221;</p> <p>The IOC leader seemed unwilling to risk either LA or Paris declining a repeat bid for 2028 after losing the 2024 contest.</p> <p>Rewarding two world-class cities that are low-risk, low-cost options would also give the IOC stability for a decade ahead after a turbulent period in Olympic bidding.</p> <p>Potential bid cities in wealthy countries such the United States, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden have dropped out when local taxpayers objected or delivered defeats in a referendum. Other cities have been scared off by the spiraling costs and busted budgets reported by recent Olympic hosts.</p>

IOC to discuss LA-Paris double Olympic host picks on June 9

https://abqjournal.com/1005771/ioc-to-discuss-la-paris-double-olympic-host-picks-on-june-9.html

2017-05-19

2least

IOC to discuss LA-Paris double Olympic host picks on June 9 <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>The IOC said Friday that its executive board will meet in Lausanne to discuss the 2024 and 2028 bid processes, and reforming rules for 2026 Winter Games candidates.</p> <p>Awarding two Summer Games at the same time to the only two candidates left in the 2024 race is seen as IOC President Thomas Bach&#8217;s preferred option.</p> <p>IOC members are scheduled to choose the 2024 host on Sept. 13 in Lima, Peru.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>However, Bach asked the board&#8217;s four vice presidents in March to work together and advise on combining the 2024 hosting award with the 2028 rights.</p> <p>The vice presdients&#8217; report to the 13-member board &#8212; which includes two Americans &#8212; is key to the short-notice meeting. Any agreement could be ratified at July 9-12 meetings of the IOC board and full membership.</p> <p>Leaders of the LA and Paris campaigns will come to Lausanne then to make set-piece presentations of their hosting plan to the voting members.</p> <p>Even if the double award is agreed to, how to allocate each games to candidates who both want to go first in 2024 could still be left to decide.</p> <p>The IOC could give about 90 voters a free choice in the Peruvian capital, or a deal could be struck with the two cities.</p> <p>LA Mayor Eric Garcetti told reporters at an Olympic sports conference in Denmark last month that his city and Paris could start as &#8220;friends not competitors&#8221; if invited by the IOC for talks.</p> <p>Bach upended expectations in what shaped as a tight 2024 race when he said last December that the existing process produces &#8220;too many losers.&#8221;</p> <p>The IOC leader seemed unwilling to risk either LA or Paris declining a repeat bid for 2028 after losing the 2024 contest.</p> <p>Rewarding two world-class cities that are low-risk, low-cost options would also give the IOC stability for a decade ahead after a turbulent period in Olympic bidding.</p> <p>Potential bid cities in wealthy countries such the United States, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden have dropped out when local taxpayers objected or delivered defeats in a referendum. Other cities have been scared off by the spiraling costs and busted budgets reported by recent Olympic hosts.</p>

<p>Matt Lewis <a href="http://theweek.com/bullpen/column/239379/why-i-hate-twitter" type="external">laments</a> the exploding pettiness of Twitter. I'm happy to be cited as one of the good moments of his experience on the social network, but I must concur that this wonderful space often feels overwhelmingly crowded with hostility and vile trolls. (David has <a href="" type="internal">further thoughts</a> on this piece below.)</p> <p>At some point, it became clear to me that Twitter was becoming more of a hindrance than a help. For business reasons, I can't escape the prison (or, if you prefer, high school) that is Twitter, so I've had to become creative. I've created Twitter lists, where I can see only tweets from select people who inspire and inform. I also have a locked Twitter feed that is solely for my friends.</p> <p>The biggest change is that I'm no longer really a part of the Twitter "community," meaning that I rarely interact with people on Twitter who wish to engage me. There are drawbacks to this, surely, but the upside is that I preserve my sanity. My guess is this will also be a new trend. I might be ahead of the curve again, but I don't think I'm alone. My guess is that as Twitter becomes meaner and coarser, more and more people will begin checking out. Some may, for business reasons, remain on Twitter, but they will join me in changing how they use it.</p> <p>And that's a shame. The vision of Twitter - and remember, I was an evangelist for it - was the notion that we could share information and ideas in a civil manner.</p>

This is Why Twitter Can Be Terrible

https://thedailybeast.com/this-is-why-twitter-can-be-terrible

2018-10-04

4left

This is Why Twitter Can Be Terrible <p>Matt Lewis <a href="http://theweek.com/bullpen/column/239379/why-i-hate-twitter" type="external">laments</a> the exploding pettiness of Twitter. I'm happy to be cited as one of the good moments of his experience on the social network, but I must concur that this wonderful space often feels overwhelmingly crowded with hostility and vile trolls. (David has <a href="" type="internal">further thoughts</a> on this piece below.)</p> <p>At some point, it became clear to me that Twitter was becoming more of a hindrance than a help. For business reasons, I can't escape the prison (or, if you prefer, high school) that is Twitter, so I've had to become creative. I've created Twitter lists, where I can see only tweets from select people who inspire and inform. I also have a locked Twitter feed that is solely for my friends.</p> <p>The biggest change is that I'm no longer really a part of the Twitter "community," meaning that I rarely interact with people on Twitter who wish to engage me. There are drawbacks to this, surely, but the upside is that I preserve my sanity. My guess is this will also be a new trend. I might be ahead of the curve again, but I don't think I'm alone. My guess is that as Twitter becomes meaner and coarser, more and more people will begin checking out. Some may, for business reasons, remain on Twitter, but they will join me in changing how they use it.</p> <p>And that's a shame. The vision of Twitter - and remember, I was an evangelist for it - was the notion that we could share information and ideas in a civil manner.</p>

<p>NEW YORK (AP) &#8212; The producers of the hit Broadway musical, &#8220;A Bronx Tale,&#8221; plan to donate $4 for every ticket sold to performances from Jan. 16 through Jan. 21 to help families affected by a deadly apartment building fire in the Bronx.</p> <p>The donations will go to The Child Reach Foundation, co-founded by actor Chazz Palminteri and his wife. The nonprofit helps raise and distribute funds to benefit children&#8217;s health and welfare.</p> <p>In a statement Thursday, the actor and Bronx native who wrote the coming-of-age-story says he&#8217;s proud the production is lending a hand. Its producer, Tommy Mottola, also grew up in the Bronx.</p> <p>Thirteen people were killed in the Dec. 28 fire, which started on a stove and then raced through a door and up five floors.</p> <p>It was the city&#8217;s deadliest fire since 1990.</p> <p>NEW YORK (AP) &#8212; The producers of the hit Broadway musical, &#8220;A Bronx Tale,&#8221; plan to donate $4 for every ticket sold to performances from Jan. 16 through Jan. 21 to help families affected by a deadly apartment building fire in the Bronx.</p> <p>The donations will go to The Child Reach Foundation, co-founded by actor Chazz Palminteri and his wife. The nonprofit helps raise and distribute funds to benefit children&#8217;s health and welfare.</p> <p>In a statement Thursday, the actor and Bronx native who wrote the coming-of-age-story says he&#8217;s proud the production is lending a hand. Its producer, Tommy Mottola, also grew up in the Bronx.</p> <p>Thirteen people were killed in the Dec. 28 fire, which started on a stove and then raced through a door and up five floors.</p> <p>It was the city&#8217;s deadliest fire since 1990.</p>

Broadway’s ‘A Bronx Tale’ to help Bronx fire victims

https://apnews.com/c374f512cb9041fb9571f8625c7f1829

2018-01-11

2least

Broadway’s ‘A Bronx Tale’ to help Bronx fire victims <p>NEW YORK (AP) &#8212; The producers of the hit Broadway musical, &#8220;A Bronx Tale,&#8221; plan to donate $4 for every ticket sold to performances from Jan. 16 through Jan. 21 to help families affected by a deadly apartment building fire in the Bronx.</p> <p>The donations will go to The Child Reach Foundation, co-founded by actor Chazz Palminteri and his wife. The nonprofit helps raise and distribute funds to benefit children&#8217;s health and welfare.</p> <p>In a statement Thursday, the actor and Bronx native who wrote the coming-of-age-story says he&#8217;s proud the production is lending a hand. Its producer, Tommy Mottola, also grew up in the Bronx.</p> <p>Thirteen people were killed in the Dec. 28 fire, which started on a stove and then raced through a door and up five floors.</p> <p>It was the city&#8217;s deadliest fire since 1990.</p> <p>NEW YORK (AP) &#8212; The producers of the hit Broadway musical, &#8220;A Bronx Tale,&#8221; plan to donate $4 for every ticket sold to performances from Jan. 16 through Jan. 21 to help families affected by a deadly apartment building fire in the Bronx.</p> <p>The donations will go to The Child Reach Foundation, co-founded by actor Chazz Palminteri and his wife. The nonprofit helps raise and distribute funds to benefit children&#8217;s health and welfare.</p> <p>In a statement Thursday, the actor and Bronx native who wrote the coming-of-age-story says he&#8217;s proud the production is lending a hand. Its producer, Tommy Mottola, also grew up in the Bronx.</p> <p>Thirteen people were killed in the Dec. 28 fire, which started on a stove and then raced through a door and up five floors.</p> <p>It was the city&#8217;s deadliest fire since 1990.</p>

<p>Aug. 8 (UPI) &#8212; The Trump administration is considering a proposal to privatize the United States&#8217; interests in the war in <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/War_in_Afghanistan/" type="external">Afghanistan</a>, the founder of security firm Blackwater said Tuesday.</p> <p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Erik_Prince/" type="external">Erik Prince</a>, the former head of Blackwater, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/08/08/war-afghanistan-trump-white-house-weighs-bold-plan-privatize/548004001/" type="external">told USA Today</a> he proposed using 5,500 private contractors, many former special operations troops, to take on the role of advising Afghan forces. He said the plan also would include a 90-plane air force.</p> <p>Prince is now executive director and chairman of Frontier Services Group.</p> <p>Prince <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-privatize-afghanistan-war-contractors/" type="external">told CBS News</a> the plan would cut the annual cost of U.S. involvement in the war from $45 billion to less than $10 billion.</p> <p>There are 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in an operation to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces. The United States has been involved in the war for 16 years.</p> <p>&#8220;At what point do you say a conventional military approach in Afghanistan is not working,&#8221; Prince said. &#8220;Maybe we say that at 16 years.&#8221;</p> <p>He said his plan would institute a &#8220;unity of command&#8221; and the contractors would &#8220;attach&#8221; to the Afghan army.</p> <p>&#8220;The interagency process, you&#8217;ve had 17 different commanders in 15 years. That&#8217;s not even counting ambassadors or CIA station chiefs,&#8221; Prince said. &#8220;So you have to have one person that is clearly in charge of U.S. policy, spending, rules of engagement of the effort there.</p> <p>&#8220;The way the United Nations defines mercenaries, by being attached to the Afghan army, they would not be mercenaries,&#8221; he added. &#8220;So they would be contracted people, professionals, former special operations veterans that have experience in that theater to go do that work.&#8221;</p>

Blackwater founder proposes privatizing Afghanistan war

https://newsline.com/blackwater-founder-proposes-privatizing-afghanistan-war/

2017-08-08

1right-center

Blackwater founder proposes privatizing Afghanistan war <p>Aug. 8 (UPI) &#8212; The Trump administration is considering a proposal to privatize the United States&#8217; interests in the war in <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/War_in_Afghanistan/" type="external">Afghanistan</a>, the founder of security firm Blackwater said Tuesday.</p> <p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Erik_Prince/" type="external">Erik Prince</a>, the former head of Blackwater, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/08/08/war-afghanistan-trump-white-house-weighs-bold-plan-privatize/548004001/" type="external">told USA Today</a> he proposed using 5,500 private contractors, many former special operations troops, to take on the role of advising Afghan forces. He said the plan also would include a 90-plane air force.</p> <p>Prince is now executive director and chairman of Frontier Services Group.</p> <p>Prince <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-privatize-afghanistan-war-contractors/" type="external">told CBS News</a> the plan would cut the annual cost of U.S. involvement in the war from $45 billion to less than $10 billion.</p> <p>There are 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in an operation to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces. The United States has been involved in the war for 16 years.</p> <p>&#8220;At what point do you say a conventional military approach in Afghanistan is not working,&#8221; Prince said. &#8220;Maybe we say that at 16 years.&#8221;</p> <p>He said his plan would institute a &#8220;unity of command&#8221; and the contractors would &#8220;attach&#8221; to the Afghan army.</p> <p>&#8220;The interagency process, you&#8217;ve had 17 different commanders in 15 years. That&#8217;s not even counting ambassadors or CIA station chiefs,&#8221; Prince said. &#8220;So you have to have one person that is clearly in charge of U.S. policy, spending, rules of engagement of the effort there.</p> <p>&#8220;The way the United Nations defines mercenaries, by being attached to the Afghan army, they would not be mercenaries,&#8221; he added. &#8220;So they would be contracted people, professionals, former special operations veterans that have experience in that theater to go do that work.&#8221;</p>

<p>NBC News did not run the Harvey Weinstein story that one of its contributors was chasing because executives &#8220;didn&#8217;t feel that we had all the elements that we needed to air it,&#8221; NBC President Noah Oppenheim said during a company town hall Wednesday.</p> <p>Entertainment industry magazine <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-ronan-farrows-harvey-weinstein-bombshell-did-not-run-nbc-1047671?utm_source=twitter&amp;amp;utm_source=t.co&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" type="external">The Hollywood Reporter first surfaced</a> Oppenheim&#8217;s remarks.</p> <p>On Tuesday, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories" type="external">The New Yorker</a> published a bombshell report about Weinstein&#8217;s decades-long history of sexual harassment and assault, written by NBC contributor Ronan Farrow.</p> <p>The comments from the network president Wednesday follow criticism NBC has received for not publishing the report, which was originally slated to publish in February just before the Oscars, sources told <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-ronan-farrows-harvey-weinstein-bombshell-did-not-run-nbc-1047671?utm_source=twitter&amp;amp;utm_source=t.co&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" type="external">The Hollywood Reporter</a>. Farrow continued working on the piece into the summer, the sources said.</p> <p>Oppenheim confirmed that Farrow originally started working on the story for NBC.</p> <p>&#8220;We are proud of that. We launched him on that story, we encouraged him to report that story. We supported him and gave him resources to report that story over many, many months,&#8221; he said, according to Hollywood Reporter.</p> <p>Executives reached a point this past summer when they decided Farrow didn&#8217;t have all the pieces he needed in order for NBC to air it, he said. Farrow took it the The New Yorker at that point, Oppenheim said, and &#8220;greatly expanded the scope of his reporting.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;Suffice to say, the stunning story, the incredible story that we all read yesterday was not the story that we were looking at when we made our judgment several months ago,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But we couldn&#8217;t be prouder of him and I think all of you need to know about our feeling about the importance of the story is that we have been putting him on our air throughout the day yesterday and this morning, ever since.&#8221;</p> <p>He said NBC will continue to &#8220;keep digging&#8221; on the Weinstein story and others like it.</p> <p>&#8220;We are not always going to be the ones that get it to the finish line, but I think more often than not, we will be. And I think we should all be proud of being an organization that is at least in the hunt on these things. So, thank you,&#8221; he said.</p>

NBC News Head: Weinstein Story Didn’t Have ‘The Elements We Needed To Air It’

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nbc-president-weinstein-scoop-didnt-have-elements-needed-air-it

4left

NBC News Head: Weinstein Story Didn’t Have ‘The Elements We Needed To Air It’ <p>NBC News did not run the Harvey Weinstein story that one of its contributors was chasing because executives &#8220;didn&#8217;t feel that we had all the elements that we needed to air it,&#8221; NBC President Noah Oppenheim said during a company town hall Wednesday.</p> <p>Entertainment industry magazine <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-ronan-farrows-harvey-weinstein-bombshell-did-not-run-nbc-1047671?utm_source=twitter&amp;amp;utm_source=t.co&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" type="external">The Hollywood Reporter first surfaced</a> Oppenheim&#8217;s remarks.</p> <p>On Tuesday, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories" type="external">The New Yorker</a> published a bombshell report about Weinstein&#8217;s decades-long history of sexual harassment and assault, written by NBC contributor Ronan Farrow.</p> <p>The comments from the network president Wednesday follow criticism NBC has received for not publishing the report, which was originally slated to publish in February just before the Oscars, sources told <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-ronan-farrows-harvey-weinstein-bombshell-did-not-run-nbc-1047671?utm_source=twitter&amp;amp;utm_source=t.co&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" type="external">The Hollywood Reporter</a>. Farrow continued working on the piece into the summer, the sources said.</p> <p>Oppenheim confirmed that Farrow originally started working on the story for NBC.</p> <p>&#8220;We are proud of that. We launched him on that story, we encouraged him to report that story. We supported him and gave him resources to report that story over many, many months,&#8221; he said, according to Hollywood Reporter.</p> <p>Executives reached a point this past summer when they decided Farrow didn&#8217;t have all the pieces he needed in order for NBC to air it, he said. Farrow took it the The New Yorker at that point, Oppenheim said, and &#8220;greatly expanded the scope of his reporting.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;Suffice to say, the stunning story, the incredible story that we all read yesterday was not the story that we were looking at when we made our judgment several months ago,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But we couldn&#8217;t be prouder of him and I think all of you need to know about our feeling about the importance of the story is that we have been putting him on our air throughout the day yesterday and this morning, ever since.&#8221;</p> <p>He said NBC will continue to &#8220;keep digging&#8221; on the Weinstein story and others like it.</p> <p>&#8220;We are not always going to be the ones that get it to the finish line, but I think more often than not, we will be. And I think we should all be proud of being an organization that is at least in the hunt on these things. So, thank you,&#8221; he said.</p>

<p>Plenty of emerging markets have come under pressure since Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election on November 8. That includes China, which is not surprising because China is the largest emerging economy and Trump has not shied away from rhetoric that implies his administration will not take it easy on the world's second-largest economy when it comes to trade.</p> <p>So, it is not surprising that China exchange-traded funds listed in New York are scuffling. Over the past week, the largest U.S.-listed China ETF is lower by almost 5 percent. Perhaps unjustly, the KraneShares Trust (NASDAQ:KWEB) is also being punished, arguably to the point that the benchmark China internet ETF is now oversold.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>KWEB's struggles to end 2016 could position the ETF as an ideal rebound candidate for 2017. It appears some analysts concur, at least when it <a href="http://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/16/11/8684845/an-epic-stretch-for-the-china-internet-etf" type="external">comes to some of the ETF's marquee holdings Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> <p>In new research, Evercore ISI initiated coverage of Tencent Holdings Ltd. (OTC:TCEHY) with a Buy rating and Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) at Hold. Tencent, China's largest internet company, and Baidu, the country's largest internet search provider, are KWEB's largest and third-largest holdings, respectively, combining for over 20 percent of the ETF's weight, <a href="https://kraneshares.com/kweb/" type="external">according to KraneShares data Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>Evercore also reiterated a Buy rating on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), the Chinese e-commerce giant that is KWEB's second-largest holding.</p> <p>As China sees higher mobile penetration, it is clear that the pace of technology innovation is increasing across major industries, such as retail, media, advertising, payments, and more. Thus, as we think about the biggest beneficiaries of this technology-induced change, we see the big three: Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (BAT) in an unprecedented position to lead, according to an Evercore note posted in <a href="http://blogs.barrons.com/emergingmarketsdaily/2016/12/20/3-china-internet-plays-with-unprecedented-upside/?mod=BOLBlog" type="external">Barron's Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> <p>Fundamentals continue boding well for the long-term KWEB bull thesis. For example, China has 22 percent of the world's internet users, according to KraneShares data. That is more than double the amount found in the US and at the end of last year, China's e-commerce market was worth $590 billion, making the $324 billion U.S. e-commerce market seem paltry by comparison.</p> <p>Here's what Evercore ISI said in the note posted by Barron's on Tencent, 11.7 percent of KWEB's weight: Combined with its increasing success on payments, particularly mobile, we expect higher overall monetization for the platform and growing investor interest. Despite Chinas GDP-per-capita being $8,000, or ~14 percent of that in the United States, the China gaming market is 13 percent larger than in the US (at $26.6 billion vs. $23.5 billion in the United States). One major reason is that China gamers spend 8 hours per week gaming and a much higher portion of their disposable income.</p> <p>2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.</p>

China Internet ETF Is A 2017 Rebound Story

http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/22/china-internet-etf-is-2017-rebound-story-1572167475.html

2016-12-22

0right

China Internet ETF Is A 2017 Rebound Story <p>Plenty of emerging markets have come under pressure since Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election on November 8. That includes China, which is not surprising because China is the largest emerging economy and Trump has not shied away from rhetoric that implies his administration will not take it easy on the world's second-largest economy when it comes to trade.</p> <p>So, it is not surprising that China exchange-traded funds listed in New York are scuffling. Over the past week, the largest U.S.-listed China ETF is lower by almost 5 percent. Perhaps unjustly, the KraneShares Trust (NASDAQ:KWEB) is also being punished, arguably to the point that the benchmark China internet ETF is now oversold.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>KWEB's struggles to end 2016 could position the ETF as an ideal rebound candidate for 2017. It appears some analysts concur, at least when it <a href="http://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/16/11/8684845/an-epic-stretch-for-the-china-internet-etf" type="external">comes to some of the ETF's marquee holdings Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> <p>In new research, Evercore ISI initiated coverage of Tencent Holdings Ltd. (OTC:TCEHY) with a Buy rating and Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) at Hold. Tencent, China's largest internet company, and Baidu, the country's largest internet search provider, are KWEB's largest and third-largest holdings, respectively, combining for over 20 percent of the ETF's weight, <a href="https://kraneshares.com/kweb/" type="external">according to KraneShares data Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>Evercore also reiterated a Buy rating on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), the Chinese e-commerce giant that is KWEB's second-largest holding.</p> <p>As China sees higher mobile penetration, it is clear that the pace of technology innovation is increasing across major industries, such as retail, media, advertising, payments, and more. Thus, as we think about the biggest beneficiaries of this technology-induced change, we see the big three: Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (BAT) in an unprecedented position to lead, according to an Evercore note posted in <a href="http://blogs.barrons.com/emergingmarketsdaily/2016/12/20/3-china-internet-plays-with-unprecedented-upside/?mod=BOLBlog" type="external">Barron's Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> <p>Fundamentals continue boding well for the long-term KWEB bull thesis. For example, China has 22 percent of the world's internet users, according to KraneShares data. That is more than double the amount found in the US and at the end of last year, China's e-commerce market was worth $590 billion, making the $324 billion U.S. e-commerce market seem paltry by comparison.</p> <p>Here's what Evercore ISI said in the note posted by Barron's on Tencent, 11.7 percent of KWEB's weight: Combined with its increasing success on payments, particularly mobile, we expect higher overall monetization for the platform and growing investor interest. Despite Chinas GDP-per-capita being $8,000, or ~14 percent of that in the United States, the China gaming market is 13 percent larger than in the US (at $26.6 billion vs. $23.5 billion in the United States). One major reason is that China gamers spend 8 hours per week gaming and a much higher portion of their disposable income.</p> <p>2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.</p>

<p>Jameis Winston, quarterback for the NFL&#8217;s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, announced that he would likely sue CNN if they air a documentary scheduled to be shown on CNN on Sunday. The documentary is called The Hunting Ground and the film explores rape on America&#8217;s college campuses.</p> <p>In the documentary, Winston is&amp;#160;openly accused of raping a woman, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2015/11/21/jameis-winston-threatens-to-sue-cnn-over-rape-documentary/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-sports%3Ahomepage%2Fcard" type="external">The Washington Post</a>. In a letter written to CNN by Winston&#8217;s lawyer, the letter stated that they were &#8220;to formally caution CNN that the portions of the film The Hunting Ground pertaining to Mr. Winston are false and defamatory to Mr. Winston. We urge CNN to reconsider the reckless decision to proceed with the broadcast of this deeply flawed documentary in the face of the overwhelming evidence the film&#8217;s producers consciously and intentionally failed to adhere to any accepted journalistic standards.&#8221;</p> <p>While playing football for Florida State University, Winston was accused of rape in 2012 by a woman named Erica Kinsman. Kinsman said she was breaking her silence about the incident by appearing in the film and telling her story. Kinsman&#8217;s lawyer in a prepared statement told Winston and his lawyer that they had best become accustomed to rape accusations because those accusation were here to stay.</p> <p>Winston was taken by Tampa Bay with the first overall&amp;#160;pick in the 2105 NFL draft. In addition to the statement Winston&#8217;s lawyer released earlier on Saturday, he went on to say that CNN acted with a reckless disregard for the truth of the matter. Florida State University has also asked CNN not to air the film.&amp;#160;The university&amp;#160;accuses CNN of calling the film a documentary, of calling it journalism, when it really is just a commercial, an advocacy piece, designed only with the alleged victims in mind.</p> <p>In late 2013, one of the film&#8217;s producers, Amy Herdy, wrote an email to Kinsman&#8217;s lawyer saying that the film was not really interested in what Winston or any of the others&amp;#160;had to say anyway. The email by Herdy stated; &#8220;We do not operate the same way as journalists &#8211; this is a film project very much in the corner of advocacy for victims, so there would be no insensitive questions or the need to get the perpetrator&#8217;s side.&#8221;</p> <p />

SPORTS: Jameis Winston to Sue CNN if it Airs Documentary on College Rape

http://natmonitor.com/2015/11/21/sports-jameis-winston-to-sue-cnn-if-it-airs-documentary-on-college-rape/

2015-11-21

3left-center

SPORTS: Jameis Winston to Sue CNN if it Airs Documentary on College Rape <p>Jameis Winston, quarterback for the NFL&#8217;s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, announced that he would likely sue CNN if they air a documentary scheduled to be shown on CNN on Sunday. The documentary is called The Hunting Ground and the film explores rape on America&#8217;s college campuses.</p> <p>In the documentary, Winston is&amp;#160;openly accused of raping a woman, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2015/11/21/jameis-winston-threatens-to-sue-cnn-over-rape-documentary/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-sports%3Ahomepage%2Fcard" type="external">The Washington Post</a>. In a letter written to CNN by Winston&#8217;s lawyer, the letter stated that they were &#8220;to formally caution CNN that the portions of the film The Hunting Ground pertaining to Mr. Winston are false and defamatory to Mr. Winston. We urge CNN to reconsider the reckless decision to proceed with the broadcast of this deeply flawed documentary in the face of the overwhelming evidence the film&#8217;s producers consciously and intentionally failed to adhere to any accepted journalistic standards.&#8221;</p> <p>While playing football for Florida State University, Winston was accused of rape in 2012 by a woman named Erica Kinsman. Kinsman said she was breaking her silence about the incident by appearing in the film and telling her story. Kinsman&#8217;s lawyer in a prepared statement told Winston and his lawyer that they had best become accustomed to rape accusations because those accusation were here to stay.</p> <p>Winston was taken by Tampa Bay with the first overall&amp;#160;pick in the 2105 NFL draft. In addition to the statement Winston&#8217;s lawyer released earlier on Saturday, he went on to say that CNN acted with a reckless disregard for the truth of the matter. Florida State University has also asked CNN not to air the film.&amp;#160;The university&amp;#160;accuses CNN of calling the film a documentary, of calling it journalism, when it really is just a commercial, an advocacy piece, designed only with the alleged victims in mind.</p> <p>In late 2013, one of the film&#8217;s producers, Amy Herdy, wrote an email to Kinsman&#8217;s lawyer saying that the film was not really interested in what Winston or any of the others&amp;#160;had to say anyway. The email by Herdy stated; &#8220;We do not operate the same way as journalists &#8211; this is a film project very much in the corner of advocacy for victims, so there would be no insensitive questions or the need to get the perpetrator&#8217;s side.&#8221;</p> <p />

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Tuesday that TransUnion and Equifax must pay fines totaling $5.5 million and return about $17.6 million to wronged consumers. The agency also said the two companies lured consumers into payments of $16 or more per month for credit scores and related products such as credit monitoring.</p> <p>TransUnion, based in Chicago, and Atlanta-based Equifax Inc. are two of the three major credit-reporting agencies in the U.S., along with Experian. The credit scores they generate are used to determine whether consumers can qualify for a mortgage, a car loan, a cellphone plan and a range of other loans.</p> <p>The reporting agencies base the scores on a consumer&#8217;s history of paying off debt, how much debt they carry and other factors.</p> <p>The CFPB said the scores sold to consumers by TransUnion and Equifax were not typically used by lenders to make credit decisions.</p> <p>The alleged violations occurred between July 2011 and March 2014, according to the agency.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>TransUnion and Equifax agreed to clearly inform consumers about the nature of the scores they&#8217;re selling and to provide an easy way to cancel products and services.</p> <p>TransUnion said in a statement it continues to believe that its advertising has been clear and has complied with laws.</p> <p>&#8220;Our trial credit monitoring service has given consumers low-cost access to their credit report and credit score and allowed them to conveniently cancel monitoring services at any time online or by phone,&#8221; the company said. &#8220;However, we are committed to making improvements to our consumer experience, and over the past several months we have worked cooperatively with the CFPB to be the industry leader in designing the enhanced, voluntary marketing disclosures that go beyond the current legal and regulatory requirements to which we agreed as part of this settlement.&#8221;</p> <p>Equifax noted that the CFPB&#8217;s investigation continued for nearly three years, and said it made changes to address the agency&#8217;s concerns soon after the investigation began. &#8220;While Equifax does not believe it has violated any laws and has not admitted any liability, Equifax determined it was in its best interest to resolve the matter with the CFPB,&#8221; the company&#8217;s statement said.</p>

Agency orders TransUnion, Equifax to pay $23M for false ads

https://abqjournal.com/920136/agency-orders-transunion-equifax-to-pay-23m-for-false-ads.html

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Agency orders TransUnion, Equifax to pay $23M for false ads <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Tuesday that TransUnion and Equifax must pay fines totaling $5.5 million and return about $17.6 million to wronged consumers. The agency also said the two companies lured consumers into payments of $16 or more per month for credit scores and related products such as credit monitoring.</p> <p>TransUnion, based in Chicago, and Atlanta-based Equifax Inc. are two of the three major credit-reporting agencies in the U.S., along with Experian. The credit scores they generate are used to determine whether consumers can qualify for a mortgage, a car loan, a cellphone plan and a range of other loans.</p> <p>The reporting agencies base the scores on a consumer&#8217;s history of paying off debt, how much debt they carry and other factors.</p> <p>The CFPB said the scores sold to consumers by TransUnion and Equifax were not typically used by lenders to make credit decisions.</p> <p>The alleged violations occurred between July 2011 and March 2014, according to the agency.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>TransUnion and Equifax agreed to clearly inform consumers about the nature of the scores they&#8217;re selling and to provide an easy way to cancel products and services.</p> <p>TransUnion said in a statement it continues to believe that its advertising has been clear and has complied with laws.</p> <p>&#8220;Our trial credit monitoring service has given consumers low-cost access to their credit report and credit score and allowed them to conveniently cancel monitoring services at any time online or by phone,&#8221; the company said. &#8220;However, we are committed to making improvements to our consumer experience, and over the past several months we have worked cooperatively with the CFPB to be the industry leader in designing the enhanced, voluntary marketing disclosures that go beyond the current legal and regulatory requirements to which we agreed as part of this settlement.&#8221;</p> <p>Equifax noted that the CFPB&#8217;s investigation continued for nearly three years, and said it made changes to address the agency&#8217;s concerns soon after the investigation began. &#8220;While Equifax does not believe it has violated any laws and has not admitted any liability, Equifax determined it was in its best interest to resolve the matter with the CFPB,&#8221; the company&#8217;s statement said.</p>

<p /> <p /> <p>Long-time and ardent backers of Donald Trump believe that the Republicans who have withdrawn their support from their presidential nominee are making a big mistake.</p> <p /> <p>Those who have abandoned Trump following the recording controversy also fail to realize what is at stake in this election not just for the Republicans, but more so for the entire country.</p> <p /> <p>Rep. Lou Barletta is not one of those fair- weather allies as he remains strongly behind Trump. Barletta shared his thoughts to Washington Examiner prior to Trump's Monday rally, just after the Republican nominee's successful performance in the second presidential debate.</p> <p /> <p>" I think they are making a big mistake. To open the way or pave the way or make it easier for Hillary Clinton to become president because of something Donald Trump said 10 years ago and allow her to make Supreme Court picks that'll affect our country for 30 or 40 years, that affects my grandchildren. That's what I went to Washington for and yes, I do think they are making a big mistake.", said Rep. Barletta.</p> <p /> <p>Rep. Tom Marino meanwhile expressed his disappointment with just a " small handful" of their allies who turned their backs on Trump, and insisted he does not want to hear about the controversial recording anymore, which he disregards as insignificant.</p> <p /> <p>&amp;gt;" That was 11 years ago. You don't want me to get started on Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton", said Rep. Marino.</p> <p /> <p>And Rep. Marino predicts that those who are leaving Trump now will surely make a turn-around just as fast when Trump becomes the next president, and may even seek him and Rep. Barletta.</p> <p /> <p>&amp;gt;"I'm not going to tell them what to do or what not to do. After he's elected president, I think those guys will be coming around to say, 'Hey Tom, hey Lou, do you need anything?'",said Marino.</p> <p /> <p>As for Barletta, the challenges of the past days have only strengthened his resolve to support Trump even more.</p> <p /> <p>&amp;gt;" Not only am I not wavering, I'm fighting even harder. I'm supporting Donald Trump and I'm not going to back down from that support", said Barletta.</p>

`WRONG MOVE TO LEFT DONALD TRUMP IN HIS FIGHT TO BE IN THE OFFICE`

http://thegoldwater.com/news/168-WRONG-MOVE-TO-LEFT-DONALD-TRUMP-IN-HIS-FIGHT-TO-BE-IN-THE-OFFICE

2016-10-11

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`WRONG MOVE TO LEFT DONALD TRUMP IN HIS FIGHT TO BE IN THE OFFICE` <p /> <p /> <p>Long-time and ardent backers of Donald Trump believe that the Republicans who have withdrawn their support from their presidential nominee are making a big mistake.</p> <p /> <p>Those who have abandoned Trump following the recording controversy also fail to realize what is at stake in this election not just for the Republicans, but more so for the entire country.</p> <p /> <p>Rep. Lou Barletta is not one of those fair- weather allies as he remains strongly behind Trump. Barletta shared his thoughts to Washington Examiner prior to Trump's Monday rally, just after the Republican nominee's successful performance in the second presidential debate.</p> <p /> <p>" I think they are making a big mistake. To open the way or pave the way or make it easier for Hillary Clinton to become president because of something Donald Trump said 10 years ago and allow her to make Supreme Court picks that'll affect our country for 30 or 40 years, that affects my grandchildren. That's what I went to Washington for and yes, I do think they are making a big mistake.", said Rep. Barletta.</p> <p /> <p>Rep. Tom Marino meanwhile expressed his disappointment with just a " small handful" of their allies who turned their backs on Trump, and insisted he does not want to hear about the controversial recording anymore, which he disregards as insignificant.</p> <p /> <p>&amp;gt;" That was 11 years ago. You don't want me to get started on Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton", said Rep. Marino.</p> <p /> <p>And Rep. Marino predicts that those who are leaving Trump now will surely make a turn-around just as fast when Trump becomes the next president, and may even seek him and Rep. Barletta.</p> <p /> <p>&amp;gt;"I'm not going to tell them what to do or what not to do. After he's elected president, I think those guys will be coming around to say, 'Hey Tom, hey Lou, do you need anything?'",said Marino.</p> <p /> <p>As for Barletta, the challenges of the past days have only strengthened his resolve to support Trump even more.</p> <p /> <p>&amp;gt;" Not only am I not wavering, I'm fighting even harder. I'm supporting Donald Trump and I'm not going to back down from that support", said Barletta.</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>New Mexico is the nation&#8217;s second-deadliest state for bicyclists, for reasons ranging from the state&#8217;s high rates of substance abuse to a lack of designated bike lanes, officials said.</p> <p>The number of cyclist deaths per capita for New Mexico was second only to that of Florida in 2010-12, and 50 percent higher than the U.S. rate in that period, the New Mexico Department of Health said in a recent report.</p> <p>The report does not say how many deaths occurred during that period, but it does say 36 cyclists were killed in New Mexico from 2009 to 2013.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>In 2013, seven New Mexico cyclists were killed, 89 were hospitalized and 1,684 were treated for injuries at hospital emergency departments and released, according to the report.</p> <p /> <p>By the numbers Cyclists killed in NM from 2009 to 2013&amp;#160;&#8212; 36 NM cyclists killed in 2013 &#8212; 7 NM cyclists hospitalized in 2013 &#8212; 89 NM cyclists treated for injuries in 2013 &#8212; 1,684</p> <p>Cycling injuries are in line with the state&#8217;s high rate of injuries of all kinds, said Dr. Michael Landen, the state&#8217;s epidemiologist.</p> <p>&#8220;New Mexico is a more dangerous state for most injuries,&#8221; Landen said. &#8220;We have higher rates of motor vehicle deaths and crashes than the nation as a whole.&#8221;</p> <p>The state struggles with high rates of drug and alcohol abuse, which contributes to high rates of traffic accidents, Landen said. The report did not include data about substance abusers involved in cycling accidents.</p> <p>A report published last year by the Mid-Region Council of Governments found that crashes involving alcohol are more likely to result in fatalities, both for pedestrians and cyclists.</p> <p>Many New Mexico communities lack designated bike lanes and other street improvements that can improve biking safety, he said.</p> <p>&#8220;We need more of that infrastructure to protect cyclists,&#8221; Landen said. &#8220;That costs money. Some communities are doing it, but others haven&#8217;t gotten there yet.&#8221;</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Jennifer Buntz, president of the Duke City Wheelmen, a bicycling advocacy group, said better driver education and stricter enforcement of traffic laws are needed to improve bicycling safety.</p> <p>Buntz served on a committee formed by the Legislature in 2013 that recommended changes to the state driver&#8217;s license manual intended to improve drivers&#8217; understanding of bicycling and motorcycle traffic rules and to improve safety. The recommendations have not been included in the driver&#8217;s manual, she said.</p> <p>A bicyclist rides down Central Avenue near the University of New Mexico. A study last year identified the Central corridor as the city&#8217;s most dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)</p> <p>The recommendations called for at least 5 percent of driver&#8217;s license manual and test questions to cover pedestrian, bicycle and motorcycle awareness, as well as related traffic safety rules.</p> <p>Robert J. Archuleta, director of the traffic safety division of the state Department of Transportation, said the agency plans to issue a request for proposals for an overhaul of the noncommercial driver&#8217;s license manual and driver&#8217;s license test and has budgeted $500,000 for the project.</p> <p>But for now, plans to overhaul the driver&#8217;s license manual remain on hold while attorneys for the DOT and the state Motor Vehicles Department work out which agency will issue the RFP and lead the effort, he said.</p> <p>Archuleta said he hopes the driver&#8217;s manual overhaul will move forward this year.</p> <p>Communities can enhance cycling and traffic safety with improvements such as striping, signs and designated bike lanes, Archuleta said.</p> <p>&#8220;Those engineering changes can make a big difference in the number of deaths you have in a community,&#8221; he said.</p> <p>Albuquerque plans to begin construction this year on a multiuse trail connecting the Nob Hill and Uptown areas called for in Mayor Richard Berry&#8217;s &#8220;ABQ: The Plan&#8221; capital initiative. The goal is to connect the city&#8217;s existing trails and bike paths to complete a 50-mile loop around Albuquerque.</p> <p>Personal behavior and better education about traffic rules also could improve bicycle safety, Archuleta said. Drivers and cyclists all need to obey the same rules, signs, traffic signals and lane markings, he said.</p> <p>&#8220;Drivers need to understand that we need to share the road with bicyclists,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It needs to be a shared responsibility.&#8221;</p> <p>Bicyclists can improve their chances by using proper safety equipment, the Department of Health report said.</p> <p>&#8220;Bicyclists can prevent injuries and death by wearing a properly fitted helmet,&#8221; it said. State law requires children 17 and younger to wear helmets.</p> <p>The report also urges cyclists to put lights on their bicycles and wear reflective clothing.</p> <p /> <p />

New Mexico is 2nd-deadliest state for bicyclists

https://abqjournal.com/539773/nm-is-seconddeadliest-state-for-bicyclists.html

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New Mexico is 2nd-deadliest state for bicyclists <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>New Mexico is the nation&#8217;s second-deadliest state for bicyclists, for reasons ranging from the state&#8217;s high rates of substance abuse to a lack of designated bike lanes, officials said.</p> <p>The number of cyclist deaths per capita for New Mexico was second only to that of Florida in 2010-12, and 50 percent higher than the U.S. rate in that period, the New Mexico Department of Health said in a recent report.</p> <p>The report does not say how many deaths occurred during that period, but it does say 36 cyclists were killed in New Mexico from 2009 to 2013.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>In 2013, seven New Mexico cyclists were killed, 89 were hospitalized and 1,684 were treated for injuries at hospital emergency departments and released, according to the report.</p> <p /> <p>By the numbers Cyclists killed in NM from 2009 to 2013&amp;#160;&#8212; 36 NM cyclists killed in 2013 &#8212; 7 NM cyclists hospitalized in 2013 &#8212; 89 NM cyclists treated for injuries in 2013 &#8212; 1,684</p> <p>Cycling injuries are in line with the state&#8217;s high rate of injuries of all kinds, said Dr. Michael Landen, the state&#8217;s epidemiologist.</p> <p>&#8220;New Mexico is a more dangerous state for most injuries,&#8221; Landen said. &#8220;We have higher rates of motor vehicle deaths and crashes than the nation as a whole.&#8221;</p> <p>The state struggles with high rates of drug and alcohol abuse, which contributes to high rates of traffic accidents, Landen said. The report did not include data about substance abusers involved in cycling accidents.</p> <p>A report published last year by the Mid-Region Council of Governments found that crashes involving alcohol are more likely to result in fatalities, both for pedestrians and cyclists.</p> <p>Many New Mexico communities lack designated bike lanes and other street improvements that can improve biking safety, he said.</p> <p>&#8220;We need more of that infrastructure to protect cyclists,&#8221; Landen said. &#8220;That costs money. Some communities are doing it, but others haven&#8217;t gotten there yet.&#8221;</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Jennifer Buntz, president of the Duke City Wheelmen, a bicycling advocacy group, said better driver education and stricter enforcement of traffic laws are needed to improve bicycling safety.</p> <p>Buntz served on a committee formed by the Legislature in 2013 that recommended changes to the state driver&#8217;s license manual intended to improve drivers&#8217; understanding of bicycling and motorcycle traffic rules and to improve safety. The recommendations have not been included in the driver&#8217;s manual, she said.</p> <p>A bicyclist rides down Central Avenue near the University of New Mexico. A study last year identified the Central corridor as the city&#8217;s most dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)</p> <p>The recommendations called for at least 5 percent of driver&#8217;s license manual and test questions to cover pedestrian, bicycle and motorcycle awareness, as well as related traffic safety rules.</p> <p>Robert J. Archuleta, director of the traffic safety division of the state Department of Transportation, said the agency plans to issue a request for proposals for an overhaul of the noncommercial driver&#8217;s license manual and driver&#8217;s license test and has budgeted $500,000 for the project.</p> <p>But for now, plans to overhaul the driver&#8217;s license manual remain on hold while attorneys for the DOT and the state Motor Vehicles Department work out which agency will issue the RFP and lead the effort, he said.</p> <p>Archuleta said he hopes the driver&#8217;s manual overhaul will move forward this year.</p> <p>Communities can enhance cycling and traffic safety with improvements such as striping, signs and designated bike lanes, Archuleta said.</p> <p>&#8220;Those engineering changes can make a big difference in the number of deaths you have in a community,&#8221; he said.</p> <p>Albuquerque plans to begin construction this year on a multiuse trail connecting the Nob Hill and Uptown areas called for in Mayor Richard Berry&#8217;s &#8220;ABQ: The Plan&#8221; capital initiative. The goal is to connect the city&#8217;s existing trails and bike paths to complete a 50-mile loop around Albuquerque.</p> <p>Personal behavior and better education about traffic rules also could improve bicycle safety, Archuleta said. Drivers and cyclists all need to obey the same rules, signs, traffic signals and lane markings, he said.</p> <p>&#8220;Drivers need to understand that we need to share the road with bicyclists,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It needs to be a shared responsibility.&#8221;</p> <p>Bicyclists can improve their chances by using proper safety equipment, the Department of Health report said.</p> <p>&#8220;Bicyclists can prevent injuries and death by wearing a properly fitted helmet,&#8221; it said. State law requires children 17 and younger to wear helmets.</p> <p>The report also urges cyclists to put lights on their bicycles and wear reflective clothing.</p> <p /> <p />

<p>Mandy Nagy&amp;#160;(aka &#8220;Liberty Chick&#8221;) is&amp;#160;a leading&amp;#160;investigative writer and researcher, primarily covering&amp;#160;the institutional left, protest movements, hacking and cybercrime, and technology.</p> <p>For many years Mandy has been at the forefront of breaking stories about connections between and among&amp;#160; <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2010/11/02/Soros-Media-Empire--When-Elections-Fail--Turn-to-Public-Propaganda-Journalism" type="external">left-wing groups</a>,&amp;#160;working with Andrew Breitbart and others.</p> <p>In late March, I asked Mandy to help with some research projects related to the Illinois-02 special election, and then the #OpIsrael hacking and the Boston Marathon bombing.&amp;#160; It was something of a &#8220;soft opening,&#8221; but over time Mandy has taken on more and more responsibilities here, and now is a daily contributor.&amp;#160; So I think the &#8220;soft opening&#8221; deserves a formal Welcome so readers can learn more about her.</p> <p>Mandy&#8217;s background is more fully described at the &#8220; <a href="http://libertychick.com/about/" type="external">About</a>&#8221; page of her own blog, <a href="http://libertychick.com/" type="external">libertychick.com</a>, which she maintains primarily&amp;#160;to provide <a href="http://libertychick.com/research/" type="external">research resources</a> to activists.&amp;#160; Mandy also&amp;#160;writes a&amp;#160;daily &#8220; <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Columnists/Liberty-Chick" type="external">CyberBeat</a>&#8221; column of social media and tech stories for Breitbart News&#8217; &#8220;The Conversation.&#8221; You can and should&amp;#160;follow her on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/Liberty_Chick" type="external">@Liberty_Chick</a>.</p> <p>Back in <a href="" type="internal">early April</a>&amp;#160;I promised that we would be&amp;#160;bringing you research, analysis and activism you would not find elsewhere.&amp;#160; Having Mandy on board on a regular basis&amp;#160;is a big step forward in that regard.</p> <p>Mandy will be doing a &#8220;Research 101&#8221; series for readers to help empower you to become investigators and researchers.&amp;#160; (You may recall Matthew Knee&#8217;s &#8220; <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=legal+insurrectin+polling+101&amp;amp;rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&amp;amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;amp;oe=UTF-8&amp;amp;sourceid=ie7&amp;amp;rlz=1I7SKPT_en" type="external">Polling 101</a>&#8221; course, which readers enjoyed.)&amp;#160; Of course, in exchange for free tuition, you have to send your Tips to us!</p> <p>Mandy recently appeared on a panel at <a href="http://blogconclt.com/" type="external">BlogCon 2013</a> discussing &#8220;Stop Regurgitating content &#8211; finding the story that isn&#8217;t yet a story.&#8221;&amp;#160; The moderator was <a href="https://twitter.com/bradwjackson" type="external">Brad Jackson</a> and the other panelists were Lachlan Markay of The Washington Free Beacon,&amp;#160;Mark Lisheron of Watchdog.org,&amp;#160;Matthew Boyle of&amp;#160;Breitbart News, and Glenn Hall,&amp;#160;managing editor of TheBlaze.&amp;#160; We&#8217;ve pulled out Mandy&#8217;s segments for the video below, but you can watch the entire 45 minute-long program at the <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/32788913" type="external">BlogCon 2013 website</a>.</p> <p /> <p>You also can listen to Steve Bannon&#8217;s <a href="http://thevictorysessions.com/2012/08/26/mandy-nagy/" type="external">interview of Mandy</a>, who he called &#8220;one of the stars&#8221; of <a href="http://occupyunmasked.com/cast.aspx" type="external">Occupy Unmasked</a>&amp;#160;in which she and others were featured, and which was released several months after Andrew Breitbart&#8217;s death.</p> <p>Screening of Occupy Unmasked at RightOnline &#8217;12: L. to R.&#8211; Stephen K. Bannon, Lee Stranahan, Mandy Nagy, Brandon Darby and Anita Moncrief. (Image via Becca Lower via Duane Lester)</p> <p>(language warning)</p> <p />

Welcoming Mandy Nagy to Legal Insurrection

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/06/welcoming-mandy-nagy-to-legal-insurrection/

2013-06-19

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Welcoming Mandy Nagy to Legal Insurrection <p>Mandy Nagy&amp;#160;(aka &#8220;Liberty Chick&#8221;) is&amp;#160;a leading&amp;#160;investigative writer and researcher, primarily covering&amp;#160;the institutional left, protest movements, hacking and cybercrime, and technology.</p> <p>For many years Mandy has been at the forefront of breaking stories about connections between and among&amp;#160; <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2010/11/02/Soros-Media-Empire--When-Elections-Fail--Turn-to-Public-Propaganda-Journalism" type="external">left-wing groups</a>,&amp;#160;working with Andrew Breitbart and others.</p> <p>In late March, I asked Mandy to help with some research projects related to the Illinois-02 special election, and then the #OpIsrael hacking and the Boston Marathon bombing.&amp;#160; It was something of a &#8220;soft opening,&#8221; but over time Mandy has taken on more and more responsibilities here, and now is a daily contributor.&amp;#160; So I think the &#8220;soft opening&#8221; deserves a formal Welcome so readers can learn more about her.</p> <p>Mandy&#8217;s background is more fully described at the &#8220; <a href="http://libertychick.com/about/" type="external">About</a>&#8221; page of her own blog, <a href="http://libertychick.com/" type="external">libertychick.com</a>, which she maintains primarily&amp;#160;to provide <a href="http://libertychick.com/research/" type="external">research resources</a> to activists.&amp;#160; Mandy also&amp;#160;writes a&amp;#160;daily &#8220; <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Columnists/Liberty-Chick" type="external">CyberBeat</a>&#8221; column of social media and tech stories for Breitbart News&#8217; &#8220;The Conversation.&#8221; You can and should&amp;#160;follow her on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/Liberty_Chick" type="external">@Liberty_Chick</a>.</p> <p>Back in <a href="" type="internal">early April</a>&amp;#160;I promised that we would be&amp;#160;bringing you research, analysis and activism you would not find elsewhere.&amp;#160; Having Mandy on board on a regular basis&amp;#160;is a big step forward in that regard.</p> <p>Mandy will be doing a &#8220;Research 101&#8221; series for readers to help empower you to become investigators and researchers.&amp;#160; (You may recall Matthew Knee&#8217;s &#8220; <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=legal+insurrectin+polling+101&amp;amp;rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&amp;amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;amp;oe=UTF-8&amp;amp;sourceid=ie7&amp;amp;rlz=1I7SKPT_en" type="external">Polling 101</a>&#8221; course, which readers enjoyed.)&amp;#160; Of course, in exchange for free tuition, you have to send your Tips to us!</p> <p>Mandy recently appeared on a panel at <a href="http://blogconclt.com/" type="external">BlogCon 2013</a> discussing &#8220;Stop Regurgitating content &#8211; finding the story that isn&#8217;t yet a story.&#8221;&amp;#160; The moderator was <a href="https://twitter.com/bradwjackson" type="external">Brad Jackson</a> and the other panelists were Lachlan Markay of The Washington Free Beacon,&amp;#160;Mark Lisheron of Watchdog.org,&amp;#160;Matthew Boyle of&amp;#160;Breitbart News, and Glenn Hall,&amp;#160;managing editor of TheBlaze.&amp;#160; We&#8217;ve pulled out Mandy&#8217;s segments for the video below, but you can watch the entire 45 minute-long program at the <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/32788913" type="external">BlogCon 2013 website</a>.</p> <p /> <p>You also can listen to Steve Bannon&#8217;s <a href="http://thevictorysessions.com/2012/08/26/mandy-nagy/" type="external">interview of Mandy</a>, who he called &#8220;one of the stars&#8221; of <a href="http://occupyunmasked.com/cast.aspx" type="external">Occupy Unmasked</a>&amp;#160;in which she and others were featured, and which was released several months after Andrew Breitbart&#8217;s death.</p> <p>Screening of Occupy Unmasked at RightOnline &#8217;12: L. to R.&#8211; Stephen K. Bannon, Lee Stranahan, Mandy Nagy, Brandon Darby and Anita Moncrief. (Image via Becca Lower via Duane Lester)</p> <p>(language warning)</p> <p />

<p>NEW BALTIMORE&#8212;Broad Run Baptist Church, whose members since the Civil War have been almost exclusively white, installed African-American Larry White as pastor on June 24.</p> <p>Broad Run, the oldest continuously active Baptist church in Virginia, was organized on Dec. 3, 1762. Elder David Thomas and 11 like-minded men and women established Broad Run's first meeting house (Anglican rules, enforced by the state, forbade them from calling it a &#8220;church&#8221;) near the stream of Broad Run, about two miles from its present location. The day after its founding, 23 members were received by baptism through immersion in the stream.</p> <p>Despite many hardships, the congregation grew and started over half a dozen other churches. But difficult days came with the Civil War. The church building, nearly 100 years old, was burned by order of General Burnside of the Union Army because it was believed that the church was a refuge for Confederate spies. But nothing could dampen the spirits of the congregation and their desire to worship. For 10 years they held services in the oak grove behind the burned-out site and in member's homes when the weather was poor.</p> <p>Over the church's 275-year history, it has had many pastors. Just as Broad Run has had an interesting journey of faith and development, likewise has been the journey of faith of their new pastor.</p> <p>Four years ago, White was interested in the job at Broad Run. He was a pastor in New Orleans at the time, but thought his wife might be relocated due to her job and felt God's calling to minister in Northern Virginia. He never pursued the pulpit opening. And then, a natural disaster of biblical proportions hit New Orleans.</p> <p>White and his family lost everything. Not only was their home and church destroyed, but there was no employment to be found. Instead of evacuating to an area where others were going, they decided to start over by moving to Northern Virginia.</p> <p>The past 18 months of White's life have been nothing short of grueling. When he and his family first arrived, he could have given a long laundry list of needs, but he didn't. His first and only request was to have a new pair of dress shoes in order to be presentable at the pulpit when he preached because all he had left was an old pair of tennis shoes.</p> <p>After submitting r&#233;sum&#233;s to a number of search committees, guest speaking at Broad Run for several months, and preaching all over Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia, White was asked to settle in New Baltimore and come on staff as full-time pastor of Broad Run.</p> <p>&#8220;Broad Run was very interested in me and was the one church I felt the most comfortable with,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I knew the Lord was leading me there to accept my calling.&#8221;</p> <p>White was raised by his grandmother in New Orleans, where racial discrimination was common. His grandmother was one of the first African-American educators and she also had a very light complexion; therefore, she was able to buy a house in a neighborhood that was restricted to white people.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I grew up amongst white people. I had lots of Anglo friends and I never knew there was a difference between white and black, even in such a segregated area like New Orleans. My grandmother always raised me to believe in treating people as Dr. King said, &#8216;not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.' And that's exactly what I felt so strongly and powerfully from the people at Broad Run. They saw me as a man of God and who I was as a person. They developed their relationships with me based on that,&#8221; said White.</p> <p>&#8220;When I was asked to be pastor, it was just an extremely strange paradigm to have to contend with because it was an older all-Anglo congregation, and I felt so much love just going to the church and such genuine sincerity from all the people. I really felt like I belonged. They didn't treat my wife any different, they didn't treat my kids any different and being offered the ministry at Broad Run was a great privilege and honor. And then coming to know its history made me realize what a great responsibility it would be from God to be asked to be the pastor at such a historically prominent church.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;If there ever was a time in my life that there was no question about the will of God in my life as a pastor and as a helper to all people, it's now. I know this is exactly where I'm supposed to be,&#8221; said White.</p>

African American pastor blazes trail at Northern Virginia church

https://baptistnews.com/article/africanamericanpastorblazestrailatnorthernvirginiachurch/

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African American pastor blazes trail at Northern Virginia church <p>NEW BALTIMORE&#8212;Broad Run Baptist Church, whose members since the Civil War have been almost exclusively white, installed African-American Larry White as pastor on June 24.</p> <p>Broad Run, the oldest continuously active Baptist church in Virginia, was organized on Dec. 3, 1762. Elder David Thomas and 11 like-minded men and women established Broad Run's first meeting house (Anglican rules, enforced by the state, forbade them from calling it a &#8220;church&#8221;) near the stream of Broad Run, about two miles from its present location. The day after its founding, 23 members were received by baptism through immersion in the stream.</p> <p>Despite many hardships, the congregation grew and started over half a dozen other churches. But difficult days came with the Civil War. The church building, nearly 100 years old, was burned by order of General Burnside of the Union Army because it was believed that the church was a refuge for Confederate spies. But nothing could dampen the spirits of the congregation and their desire to worship. For 10 years they held services in the oak grove behind the burned-out site and in member's homes when the weather was poor.</p> <p>Over the church's 275-year history, it has had many pastors. Just as Broad Run has had an interesting journey of faith and development, likewise has been the journey of faith of their new pastor.</p> <p>Four years ago, White was interested in the job at Broad Run. He was a pastor in New Orleans at the time, but thought his wife might be relocated due to her job and felt God's calling to minister in Northern Virginia. He never pursued the pulpit opening. And then, a natural disaster of biblical proportions hit New Orleans.</p> <p>White and his family lost everything. Not only was their home and church destroyed, but there was no employment to be found. Instead of evacuating to an area where others were going, they decided to start over by moving to Northern Virginia.</p> <p>The past 18 months of White's life have been nothing short of grueling. When he and his family first arrived, he could have given a long laundry list of needs, but he didn't. His first and only request was to have a new pair of dress shoes in order to be presentable at the pulpit when he preached because all he had left was an old pair of tennis shoes.</p> <p>After submitting r&#233;sum&#233;s to a number of search committees, guest speaking at Broad Run for several months, and preaching all over Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia, White was asked to settle in New Baltimore and come on staff as full-time pastor of Broad Run.</p> <p>&#8220;Broad Run was very interested in me and was the one church I felt the most comfortable with,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I knew the Lord was leading me there to accept my calling.&#8221;</p> <p>White was raised by his grandmother in New Orleans, where racial discrimination was common. His grandmother was one of the first African-American educators and she also had a very light complexion; therefore, she was able to buy a house in a neighborhood that was restricted to white people.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;I grew up amongst white people. I had lots of Anglo friends and I never knew there was a difference between white and black, even in such a segregated area like New Orleans. My grandmother always raised me to believe in treating people as Dr. King said, &#8216;not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.' And that's exactly what I felt so strongly and powerfully from the people at Broad Run. They saw me as a man of God and who I was as a person. They developed their relationships with me based on that,&#8221; said White.</p> <p>&#8220;When I was asked to be pastor, it was just an extremely strange paradigm to have to contend with because it was an older all-Anglo congregation, and I felt so much love just going to the church and such genuine sincerity from all the people. I really felt like I belonged. They didn't treat my wife any different, they didn't treat my kids any different and being offered the ministry at Broad Run was a great privilege and honor. And then coming to know its history made me realize what a great responsibility it would be from God to be asked to be the pastor at such a historically prominent church.&#8221;</p> <p>&#8220;If there ever was a time in my life that there was no question about the will of God in my life as a pastor and as a helper to all people, it's now. I know this is exactly where I'm supposed to be,&#8221; said White.</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>A: You bring up a very interesting issue. Of course, every contract is unique, even if you&#8217;re involved in both of the deals. You&#8217;re working with unique people on the other end of each, which influences how smoothly things go. But most importantly, you&#8217;re on different sides when you buy and sell. I know that sounds simplistic, but the roles are extremely different and therefore affect you in unique ways.</p> <p>As the buyer, you initiate the negotiation. You bring the seller an offer (often much less than they wanted) and ask for the exact terms you&#8217;d like. Sometimes the seller says &#8220;yes,&#8221; but often they put forward a counter, negotiation ensues and a compromise is reached. Sometimes, you find a house you love so much you give the seller a lot of leverage in the negotiation, but otherwise the seller often needs the buyer more (unless it&#8217;s an aggressively competitive seller&#8217;s market) and is more willing to make compromises. In this situation, it&#8217;s obviously more advantageous to be the buyer and makes that side of the transaction more exciting. The seller&#8217;s side (as you&#8217;ve discovered) is full of compromise and work.</p> <p>After the offer is negotiated, the buyer gets inspections and sends a long list of repairs. As a buyer, it feels good to advocate for yourself. As the seller, the person who just got you to take less money for your house is now asking for a whole bunch of repairs. I&#8217;m sure you did this to the seller on the house you just bought. You didn&#8217;t think about how the seller was feeling. You were trying to make sure the house was in good working order and get the seller to fix as much as possible. You didn&#8217;t have any of the &#8220;issues&#8221; you had on the sale of your house because you were the buyer. Unless you bought the house &#8220;as is,&#8221; I can all but guarantee the seller of the house you purchased feels you did have &#8220;issues&#8221; and is as frustrated with you as you are with your buyer. It&#8217;s the nature of the process.</p> <p>So, the answer is, it&#8217;s just harder to sell a house than it is to buy one. You&#8217;re worn down from being on the market and then the pain really starts. The important thing is to remember your goals and the purpose of selling your house. Yes, this part is painful, but it&#8217;s less painful than starting over and going back on the market. And most importantly, this buyer (however frustrating they may be), is allowing you to move forward with the next stage of your life.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Talia Freedman is the owner of Talia Freedman and Co.</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p />

Selling a house is harder than buying

https://abqjournal.com/991689/selling-a-house-is-harder-than-buying.html

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Selling a house is harder than buying <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p /> <p>A: You bring up a very interesting issue. Of course, every contract is unique, even if you&#8217;re involved in both of the deals. You&#8217;re working with unique people on the other end of each, which influences how smoothly things go. But most importantly, you&#8217;re on different sides when you buy and sell. I know that sounds simplistic, but the roles are extremely different and therefore affect you in unique ways.</p> <p>As the buyer, you initiate the negotiation. You bring the seller an offer (often much less than they wanted) and ask for the exact terms you&#8217;d like. Sometimes the seller says &#8220;yes,&#8221; but often they put forward a counter, negotiation ensues and a compromise is reached. Sometimes, you find a house you love so much you give the seller a lot of leverage in the negotiation, but otherwise the seller often needs the buyer more (unless it&#8217;s an aggressively competitive seller&#8217;s market) and is more willing to make compromises. In this situation, it&#8217;s obviously more advantageous to be the buyer and makes that side of the transaction more exciting. The seller&#8217;s side (as you&#8217;ve discovered) is full of compromise and work.</p> <p>After the offer is negotiated, the buyer gets inspections and sends a long list of repairs. As a buyer, it feels good to advocate for yourself. As the seller, the person who just got you to take less money for your house is now asking for a whole bunch of repairs. I&#8217;m sure you did this to the seller on the house you just bought. You didn&#8217;t think about how the seller was feeling. You were trying to make sure the house was in good working order and get the seller to fix as much as possible. You didn&#8217;t have any of the &#8220;issues&#8221; you had on the sale of your house because you were the buyer. Unless you bought the house &#8220;as is,&#8221; I can all but guarantee the seller of the house you purchased feels you did have &#8220;issues&#8221; and is as frustrated with you as you are with your buyer. It&#8217;s the nature of the process.</p> <p>So, the answer is, it&#8217;s just harder to sell a house than it is to buy one. You&#8217;re worn down from being on the market and then the pain really starts. The important thing is to remember your goals and the purpose of selling your house. Yes, this part is painful, but it&#8217;s less painful than starting over and going back on the market. And most importantly, this buyer (however frustrating they may be), is allowing you to move forward with the next stage of your life.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> <p>Talia Freedman is the owner of Talia Freedman and Co.</p> <p>&amp;#160;</p> <p />

<p>Since October, a leaking underground natural gas storage facility near Los Angeles has released vast amounts of methane, its main ingredient, into the atmosphere, becoming one of the nation&#8217;s worst environmental accidents, as methane starts off 100 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Host Steve Curwood and Anthony Ingraffea, a civil and environmental engineer at Cornell University discuss the blowout, including. Professor Ingraffea's belief that this disaster may be a harbinger of what's ahead for these aging storage facilities. (published January 8, 2016)</p>

Massive Natural Gas Disaster Hits Los Angeles

https://pri.org/stories/2016-01-08/massive-natural-gas-disaster-hits-los-angeles

2016-01-08

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Massive Natural Gas Disaster Hits Los Angeles <p>Since October, a leaking underground natural gas storage facility near Los Angeles has released vast amounts of methane, its main ingredient, into the atmosphere, becoming one of the nation&#8217;s worst environmental accidents, as methane starts off 100 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Host Steve Curwood and Anthony Ingraffea, a civil and environmental engineer at Cornell University discuss the blowout, including. Professor Ingraffea's belief that this disaster may be a harbinger of what's ahead for these aging storage facilities. (published January 8, 2016)</p>

<p>Innately privileged white males at the University of Pennsylvania will be called on last &#8212; if at all &#8212; by their Woke " <a href="https://nursingclio.org/author/mckellogs/" type="external">queer disabled feminist</a>" teacher.</p> <p>UPenn teaching assistant and Ph.D. student Stephanie McKellop explained how she seeks "social justice" in her classroom, namely by calling on those at the top of the victimhood hierarchy first and working her way down to those evil white men.</p> <p>"I will always call on my Black women students first. Other [people of color] get second tier priority. And, if I have to, white men," she <a href="https://twitter.com/McKellogs" type="external">wrote</a> on Twitter.</p> <p>McKellop has since set her account to a private setting, but as <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/19/ivy-league-teaching-assistant-says-she-calls-on-black-women-first-white-men-last/" type="external">reported</a> by The Daily Caller, the TA explained that she learned to advance such supposed social justice from a past teacher she had:</p> <p>McKellop said that an &#8220;amazing&#8221; professor taught her that policy during her undergraduate career.</p> <p>&#8220;In normal life, who has the easiest time speaking, most opportunities? Flip it,&#8221; she said in another tweet.</p> <p>&#8220;The classroom is the place YOU get to control social setting,&#8221; the TA continued. &#8220;Prioritize and encourage voices who are talked over most often.&#8221;</p> <p>Predictably, this blatant exercise in race and sex-based discrimination is being defended by fellow progressives who reject individualism.</p> <p><a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/10/20/penn-grad-student-says-shes-under-attack-teaching-technique-encourage-all-talk-class" type="external">Insider Higher Ed</a>, for example, praised the technique dubbed "progressive tracking" as a way of "dealing with discrimination."</p> <p>"If I have a class of 40 students, since Hunter is predominantly young women, I may have four or five young men in class," said Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York professor Jessie Daniels. "There's still implicit bias, where we value men's voices more than women's voices, or men's voices are deeper and carry more in a class. So I'm always trying to overcome my own bias to pick on men in class more than the women. ... This is a way of dealing with discrimination that we as professors can introduce into the classroom. It's a good strategy, if you can do it."</p> <p>According to McKellop, Daniels' and their social justice colleagues' deliberate, systematized racial discrimination is "progress."</p> <p><a href="https://reason.com/blog/2017/10/21/this-upenn-teacher-justifies-her-refusal" type="external">H/T</a> Reason</p>

WOKE: This UPenn Teacher Won't Call On White Males

https://dailywire.com/news/22594/woke-upenn-teacher-wont-call-white-males-amanda-prestigiacomo

2017-10-23

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WOKE: This UPenn Teacher Won't Call On White Males <p>Innately privileged white males at the University of Pennsylvania will be called on last &#8212; if at all &#8212; by their Woke " <a href="https://nursingclio.org/author/mckellogs/" type="external">queer disabled feminist</a>" teacher.</p> <p>UPenn teaching assistant and Ph.D. student Stephanie McKellop explained how she seeks "social justice" in her classroom, namely by calling on those at the top of the victimhood hierarchy first and working her way down to those evil white men.</p> <p>"I will always call on my Black women students first. Other [people of color] get second tier priority. And, if I have to, white men," she <a href="https://twitter.com/McKellogs" type="external">wrote</a> on Twitter.</p> <p>McKellop has since set her account to a private setting, but as <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/19/ivy-league-teaching-assistant-says-she-calls-on-black-women-first-white-men-last/" type="external">reported</a> by The Daily Caller, the TA explained that she learned to advance such supposed social justice from a past teacher she had:</p> <p>McKellop said that an &#8220;amazing&#8221; professor taught her that policy during her undergraduate career.</p> <p>&#8220;In normal life, who has the easiest time speaking, most opportunities? Flip it,&#8221; she said in another tweet.</p> <p>&#8220;The classroom is the place YOU get to control social setting,&#8221; the TA continued. &#8220;Prioritize and encourage voices who are talked over most often.&#8221;</p> <p>Predictably, this blatant exercise in race and sex-based discrimination is being defended by fellow progressives who reject individualism.</p> <p><a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/10/20/penn-grad-student-says-shes-under-attack-teaching-technique-encourage-all-talk-class" type="external">Insider Higher Ed</a>, for example, praised the technique dubbed "progressive tracking" as a way of "dealing with discrimination."</p> <p>"If I have a class of 40 students, since Hunter is predominantly young women, I may have four or five young men in class," said Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York professor Jessie Daniels. "There's still implicit bias, where we value men's voices more than women's voices, or men's voices are deeper and carry more in a class. So I'm always trying to overcome my own bias to pick on men in class more than the women. ... This is a way of dealing with discrimination that we as professors can introduce into the classroom. It's a good strategy, if you can do it."</p> <p>According to McKellop, Daniels' and their social justice colleagues' deliberate, systematized racial discrimination is "progress."</p> <p><a href="https://reason.com/blog/2017/10/21/this-upenn-teacher-justifies-her-refusal" type="external">H/T</a> Reason</p>

<p>The New York Times apparently finds no need, any longer, to disguise their partisan agenda.</p> <p>Wednesday morning, The New York Times editorial board "took over" the paper's "opinion" Twitter account to lobby, nakedly, against the Republican tax reform bill, encouraging followers not just to express their disagreement with the bill, but to take action on The New York Times' behalf.</p> <p>The crusade began with a tweet asking followers to contact Sen. Susan Collins, a "moderate" Republican from Maine who is likely be a swing vote on the issue.</p> <p>Other tweets, targeting Sens. John McCain, Bob Corker, James Lankford, Jeff Flake and others, all with the same general message: The New York Times editorial board is actively lobbying these senators to oppose the White House-backed tax reform bill, and is urging, as if it were a non-profit or political action committee, detractors to man their battle stations.</p> <p>The Times editorial board is specifically focused on protecting the Obamacare individual mandate which forces people who might otherwise pass on the opportunity to buy health insurance to purchase coverage under penalty of law.</p> <p>The account is, of course, the property of The New York Times opinion staff, and while the editorial board is designed to take positions both for and against major bills, active lobbying is new territory for a supposedly "unbiased" media publication &#8212; one that is supposed to keep its editorial positions and its reporting separate, to preserve the appearance of impartiality.</p> <p>It's no secret that The New York Times has a left-leaning agenda &#8212; and they're finally admitting it.</p> <p>Ironically, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/opinion/taking-n-citizens-united.html" type="external">the editorial board has previously taken a stand against</a> private organizations voicing their political leanings. The same editorial board now taking to Twitter to push against tax reform and for the individual mandate to remain part of Obamacare, advocated, as recently as last year, against the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that gave corporations &#8212; like The New York Times &#8212; the ability to speak out in favor of a legislative agenda.</p>

The New York Times Is Now Openly Advocating Against The Republican Tax Reform Bill

https://dailywire.com/news/24118/new-york-times-now-openly-advocating-against-emily-zanotti

2017-11-29

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The New York Times Is Now Openly Advocating Against The Republican Tax Reform Bill <p>The New York Times apparently finds no need, any longer, to disguise their partisan agenda.</p> <p>Wednesday morning, The New York Times editorial board "took over" the paper's "opinion" Twitter account to lobby, nakedly, against the Republican tax reform bill, encouraging followers not just to express their disagreement with the bill, but to take action on The New York Times' behalf.</p> <p>The crusade began with a tweet asking followers to contact Sen. Susan Collins, a "moderate" Republican from Maine who is likely be a swing vote on the issue.</p> <p>Other tweets, targeting Sens. John McCain, Bob Corker, James Lankford, Jeff Flake and others, all with the same general message: The New York Times editorial board is actively lobbying these senators to oppose the White House-backed tax reform bill, and is urging, as if it were a non-profit or political action committee, detractors to man their battle stations.</p> <p>The Times editorial board is specifically focused on protecting the Obamacare individual mandate which forces people who might otherwise pass on the opportunity to buy health insurance to purchase coverage under penalty of law.</p> <p>The account is, of course, the property of The New York Times opinion staff, and while the editorial board is designed to take positions both for and against major bills, active lobbying is new territory for a supposedly "unbiased" media publication &#8212; one that is supposed to keep its editorial positions and its reporting separate, to preserve the appearance of impartiality.</p> <p>It's no secret that The New York Times has a left-leaning agenda &#8212; and they're finally admitting it.</p> <p>Ironically, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/opinion/taking-n-citizens-united.html" type="external">the editorial board has previously taken a stand against</a> private organizations voicing their political leanings. The same editorial board now taking to Twitter to push against tax reform and for the individual mandate to remain part of Obamacare, advocated, as recently as last year, against the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that gave corporations &#8212; like The New York Times &#8212; the ability to speak out in favor of a legislative agenda.</p>

<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. &#8212; In this morning&#8217;s Journal, we brought you an overview of state Standards-Based Assessment scores. The SBA is the standardized test students take each spring, which is a key component of A-F school grades.</p> <p>Overall, the state&#8217;s scores didn&#8217;t budge much, although high school students made strong gains. <a href="http://ped.state.nm.us/AssessmentAccountability/AcademicGrowth/NMSBA.html" type="external">Click here</a> to check out the full spreadsheet of scores, and to see how your student&#8217;s school did. You can even see proficiencies broken out by grade level.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>

Look up your school’s SBA results

https://abqjournal.com/215771/look-up-your-schools-sba-results.html

2013-06-29

2least

Look up your school’s SBA results <p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p> <p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. &#8212; In this morning&#8217;s Journal, we brought you an overview of state Standards-Based Assessment scores. The SBA is the standardized test students take each spring, which is a key component of A-F school grades.</p> <p>Overall, the state&#8217;s scores didn&#8217;t budge much, although high school students made strong gains. <a href="http://ped.state.nm.us/AssessmentAccountability/AcademicGrowth/NMSBA.html" type="external">Click here</a> to check out the full spreadsheet of scores, and to see how your student&#8217;s school did. You can even see proficiencies broken out by grade level.</p> <p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>

<p>Eight people were shot Monday night after a game that saw the Oklahoma City Thunder defeat the Los Angeles Lakers. The shooting occurred outside Cheaspeake Energy Arena in downtown Oklahoma City, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/eight-people-wounded-shooting-following-oklahoma-city-thunder-081311399.html" type="external">the Associated Press reported</a>.</p> <p>One victim was in critical condition, the other seven escaped with lesser injuries.</p> <p>More from GlobalPost:&amp;#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/world-at-play/aroldis-chapman-cincinnati-reds-arrested-speeding" type="external">Aroldis Chapman, pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, arrested for speeding and driving with a suspended license</a></p> <p>Fans were streaming out of the arena when shots rang out, and "people immediately fell to the ground," wrote <a href="http://www.newson6.com/story/18578625/eight-injured-in-shooting-in-bricktown-following-thunder-game" type="external">Oklahoma City News Channel 6</a>. Despite the scores of witnesses, no suspects have been arrested. "Police said Tuesday the shooting apparently started after a confrontation between a group of men and a group of women in the 200 block of E Reno Ave," wrote <a href="http://newsok.com/update-8-shot-in-confrontation-after-oklahoma-city-thunder-game-police-say/article/3677634#ixzz1vdKyTYn0" type="external">The Oklahoman</a>.</p> <p>A group of women approached a group of men, according to Dexter Nelson, captain of the Oklahoma City Police Department. "At least one guy pulled out a gun and started shooting," he said. "We don't know why it happened," he <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-shooting-oklahomabre84l0ks-20120522,0,5394706.story" type="external">told Reuters</a>.&amp;#160;</p> <p>"We heard at least five bangs," said Joe Fairbanks, a witness to the shooting who first thought he heard firecrackers. After walking closer and seeing victims on the ground, Fairbanks told the paper he "just happened to look down where I was standing and I saw I was standing in splattered blood."</p> <p />

Oklahoma basketball shooting leaves 8 injured, 1 critically (VIDEO)

https://pri.org/stories/2012-05-22/oklahoma-basketball-shooting-leaves-8-injured-1-critically-video

2012-05-22

3left-center

Oklahoma basketball shooting leaves 8 injured, 1 critically (VIDEO) <p>Eight people were shot Monday night after a game that saw the Oklahoma City Thunder defeat the Los Angeles Lakers. The shooting occurred outside Cheaspeake Energy Arena in downtown Oklahoma City, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/eight-people-wounded-shooting-following-oklahoma-city-thunder-081311399.html" type="external">the Associated Press reported</a>.</p> <p>One victim was in critical condition, the other seven escaped with lesser injuries.</p> <p>More from GlobalPost:&amp;#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/world-at-play/aroldis-chapman-cincinnati-reds-arrested-speeding" type="external">Aroldis Chapman, pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, arrested for speeding and driving with a suspended license</a></p> <p>Fans were streaming out of the arena when shots rang out, and "people immediately fell to the ground," wrote <a href="http://www.newson6.com/story/18578625/eight-injured-in-shooting-in-bricktown-following-thunder-game" type="external">Oklahoma City News Channel 6</a>. Despite the scores of witnesses, no suspects have been arrested. "Police said Tuesday the shooting apparently started after a confrontation between a group of men and a group of women in the 200 block of E Reno Ave," wrote <a href="http://newsok.com/update-8-shot-in-confrontation-after-oklahoma-city-thunder-game-police-say/article/3677634#ixzz1vdKyTYn0" type="external">The Oklahoman</a>.</p> <p>A group of women approached a group of men, according to Dexter Nelson, captain of the Oklahoma City Police Department. "At least one guy pulled out a gun and started shooting," he said. "We don't know why it happened," he <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-shooting-oklahomabre84l0ks-20120522,0,5394706.story" type="external">told Reuters</a>.&amp;#160;</p> <p>"We heard at least five bangs," said Joe Fairbanks, a witness to the shooting who first thought he heard firecrackers. After walking closer and seeing victims on the ground, Fairbanks told the paper he "just happened to look down where I was standing and I saw I was standing in splattered blood."</p> <p />

<p>Read about a <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060814/us_nm/life_charm_dc" type="external">day and night</a> in the life of a guy who paid $1,600 to learn how to interact with women.</p> <p>AP:</p> <p>Ben had a rough Friday night picking up women on the Hotel Gansevoort's balcony after being coldly rejected by two attractive blonds.</p> <p>The 23-year-old documentary filmmaker, who asked his last name not be used for fear of ridicule, suffers from an acute case of "premature ejectulation" - ejecting himself early from promising conversations with women for fear of rejection.</p> <p /> <p>Such was the diagnosis from the coaches of "Charm School Boot Camp," a three-day crash course on seducing women that Ben and five other men paid $1,600 apiece for in early August.</p> <p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060814/us_nm/life_charm_dc" type="external">Link</a></p>

'Charm School' Helps Men Perfect the Pickup

https://truthdig.com/articles/charm-school-helps-men-perfect-the-pickup/

2006-08-15

4left

'Charm School' Helps Men Perfect the Pickup <p>Read about a <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060814/us_nm/life_charm_dc" type="external">day and night</a> in the life of a guy who paid $1,600 to learn how to interact with women.</p> <p>AP:</p> <p>Ben had a rough Friday night picking up women on the Hotel Gansevoort's balcony after being coldly rejected by two attractive blonds.</p> <p>The 23-year-old documentary filmmaker, who asked his last name not be used for fear of ridicule, suffers from an acute case of "premature ejectulation" - ejecting himself early from promising conversations with women for fear of rejection.</p> <p /> <p>Such was the diagnosis from the coaches of "Charm School Boot Camp," a three-day crash course on seducing women that Ben and five other men paid $1,600 apiece for in early August.</p> <p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060814/us_nm/life_charm_dc" type="external">Link</a></p>

<p>It's well known that fast food restaurants have a high turn over rate and it's easy to imagine many people were discontent when they left their jobs.</p> <p /> <p>An act of revenge in such cases probably occurs more often than what's revealed to the public. Is stealing bags of frozen chicken nuggets an act of revenge, or an act of heroism?</p> <p><a href="http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/after-quitting-his-job-at-burger-king-this-man-stole-all-the-chicken-nuggets--Wko6qVClpg" type="external">John Alex Correa</a>, a student and a former employee of Burger King is the one who claims to have stolen all of the chicken nuggets after deciding to quit his job at the Burger King restaurant. He even went so far as to publish photographs online of the crime!</p> <p>The photographs show bags of frozen chicken nuggets inside a car with someone's hand on top of them. What was his motive for providing incriminating evidence?</p> <p>Twitter fans have been giving praise to John Alex Correa. Some consider him a hero in a battle against large fast food chains. Others were interested in the nuggets he had.</p> <p>Later, John Alex Correa admitted that the nugget theft was an experiment for social media. Was he just wanting to know how people would respond?</p> <p>There hasn't been any response from Burger King and no word of any police reports having been made because of food <a href="" type="internal">being stolen</a>.</p> <p>Watch:</p> <p /> <p>&amp;#160;</p>

Man Quits Job At Burger King, Steals All The Chicken Nuggets (VIDEO)

http://offthemainpage.com/2016/01/27/man-quits-job-at-burger-king-steals-all-the-chicken-nuggets-video/

2016-01-27

4left

Man Quits Job At Burger King, Steals All The Chicken Nuggets (VIDEO) <p>It's well known that fast food restaurants have a high turn over rate and it's easy to imagine many people were discontent when they left their jobs.</p> <p /> <p>An act of revenge in such cases probably occurs more often than what's revealed to the public. Is stealing bags of frozen chicken nuggets an act of revenge, or an act of heroism?</p> <p><a href="http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/after-quitting-his-job-at-burger-king-this-man-stole-all-the-chicken-nuggets--Wko6qVClpg" type="external">John Alex Correa</a>, a student and a former employee of Burger King is the one who claims to have stolen all of the chicken nuggets after deciding to quit his job at the Burger King restaurant. He even went so far as to publish photographs online of the crime!</p> <p>The photographs show bags of frozen chicken nuggets inside a car with someone's hand on top of them. What was his motive for providing incriminating evidence?</p> <p>Twitter fans have been giving praise to John Alex Correa. Some consider him a hero in a battle against large fast food chains. Others were interested in the nuggets he had.</p> <p>Later, John Alex Correa admitted that the nugget theft was an experiment for social media. Was he just wanting to know how people would respond?</p> <p>There hasn't been any response from Burger King and no word of any police reports having been made because of food <a href="" type="internal">being stolen</a>.</p> <p>Watch:</p> <p /> <p>&amp;#160;</p>

<p>America is supposed to be a democracy ruled by &#8220;We, the people.&#8221;</p> <p>Actually it&#8217;s rule by bureaucracy. The vast bureaus of federal, state and local governments run our lives, and there&#8217;s not much that can be done about it until the whole shebang <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-11/lawrence-kotlikoff-us-fiscal-gap-200-trillion-our-country-broke" type="external">goes bankrupt</a>.</p> <p>Presidents, governors and mayors can nudge things a little in one direction or another &#8212; almost always making the bureaucracies bigger and more thuggish, as with Obamacare &#8212; but that&#8217;s about it. Even Reagan couldn&#8217;t fulfill his 1980 campaign promise to eliminate the departments of Education and Energy.</p> <p>This is shown in the title of a Los Angeles Times article, &#8220; <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-adv-mary-nichols-20141228-story.html?track=rss#page=1" type="external">Mary Nichols has &#8216;rock star&#8217; influence as top air quality regulator</a>.&#8221;</p> <p>In yet another <a href="" type="internal">puff piece</a> of an advocate of much bigger government, the Times enthuses:</p> <p>A meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown and Chevron executives was ending when an oil company official turned to Mary Nichols, California&#8217;s top regulator for air pollution.</p> <p>There was only so much Chevron could do to meet the state&#8217;s rules, he told her. &#8220;I know we&#8217;ve told you before that we couldn&#8217;t do things that you wanted us to do, and then we&#8217;ve turned around and succeeded,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But this time we really mean it.&#8221;</p> <p>The October conversation, recalled by Nichols in a recent interview, echoed many others in her decades-long career as an environmental lawyer and regulator.</p> <p>Once it was car companies fighting her efforts to reduce the smog choking Los Angeles. Now it was the oil industry resisting gasoline restrictions intended to stem climate change.</p> <p>&#8220;They&#8217;re just being irritating,&#8221; she said.</p> <p>Note how, like a commissar, she dismisses those she&#8217;s supposed to be serving as &#8220;irritating.&#8221;</p> <p>And&amp;#160;the Times fails to note that&amp;#160;smog and &#8220;climate change&#8221; are two different things. To know smog was real you just had to breathe.</p> <p>But &#8220;climate change&#8221; is a euphemism used for &#8220;global warming&#8221; starting around 2007, when it was becoming clear &#8220;global warming&#8221; wasn&#8217;t happening and new a snooker phrase needed to be developed to keep the bureaucrats in power and the tax dollars flowing to them.</p> <p>Indeed, Nichols&#8217; authority over &#8220;climate change&#8221; &#8212; in the Times&#8217; parlance &#8212; actually comes from what still is called AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which is called that on <a href="http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32/ab32.htm" type="external">her very own website</a>.</p> <p>The bill was signed into law that year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who still <a href="http://schwarzenegger.usc.edu/policy-areas/energy-and-the-environment" type="external">touts it</a> as the signature achievement of his disastrous administration. He used to give a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CseeBFXAFNI" type="external">stock speech</a>&amp;#160;reviling his Austrian homeland for its hidebound government bureaucracy, and how he escaped to free America. But it was just such a sclerotic bureaucracy that he worsened in California when his AB 32 vastly increased the powers of Nichols and her California Air Resources Board.</p> <p>Meanwhile, we&#8217;ve now had <a href="http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/02/its-official-no-global-warming-for-18-years-1-month/" type="external">18 straight years</a>with no global warming.</p> <p>But Nichols&#8217; powers just keep getting greater. After all, she&#8217;s a rock star.</p>

Mary Nichols the ‘rock star’ bureaucrat

https://calwatchdog.com/2014/12/31/mary-nichols-the-rock-star-bureaucrat/

2018-12-20

3left-center

Mary Nichols the ‘rock star’ bureaucrat <p>America is supposed to be a democracy ruled by &#8220;We, the people.&#8221;</p> <p>Actually it&#8217;s rule by bureaucracy. The vast bureaus of federal, state and local governments run our lives, and there&#8217;s not much that can be done about it until the whole shebang <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-11/lawrence-kotlikoff-us-fiscal-gap-200-trillion-our-country-broke" type="external">goes bankrupt</a>.</p> <p>Presidents, governors and mayors can nudge things a little in one direction or another &#8212; almost always making the bureaucracies bigger and more thuggish, as with Obamacare &#8212; but that&#8217;s about it. Even Reagan couldn&#8217;t fulfill his 1980 campaign promise to eliminate the departments of Education and Energy.</p> <p>This is shown in the title of a Los Angeles Times article, &#8220; <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-adv-mary-nichols-20141228-story.html?track=rss#page=1" type="external">Mary Nichols has &#8216;rock star&#8217; influence as top air quality regulator</a>.&#8221;</p> <p>In yet another <a href="" type="internal">puff piece</a> of an advocate of much bigger government, the Times enthuses:</p> <p>A meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown and Chevron executives was ending when an oil company official turned to Mary Nichols, California&#8217;s top regulator for air pollution.</p> <p>There was only so much Chevron could do to meet the state&#8217;s rules, he told her. &#8220;I know we&#8217;ve told you before that we couldn&#8217;t do things that you wanted us to do, and then we&#8217;ve turned around and succeeded,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But this time we really mean it.&#8221;</p> <p>The October conversation, recalled by Nichols in a recent interview, echoed many others in her decades-long career as an environmental lawyer and regulator.</p> <p>Once it was car companies fighting her efforts to reduce the smog choking Los Angeles. Now it was the oil industry resisting gasoline restrictions intended to stem climate change.</p> <p>&#8220;They&#8217;re just being irritating,&#8221; she said.</p> <p>Note how, like a commissar, she dismisses those she&#8217;s supposed to be serving as &#8220;irritating.&#8221;</p> <p>And&amp;#160;the Times fails to note that&amp;#160;smog and &#8220;climate change&#8221; are two different things. To know smog was real you just had to breathe.</p> <p>But &#8220;climate change&#8221; is a euphemism used for &#8220;global warming&#8221; starting around 2007, when it was becoming clear &#8220;global warming&#8221; wasn&#8217;t happening and new a snooker phrase needed to be developed to keep the bureaucrats in power and the tax dollars flowing to them.</p> <p>Indeed, Nichols&#8217; authority over &#8220;climate change&#8221; &#8212; in the Times&#8217; parlance &#8212; actually comes from what still is called AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which is called that on <a href="http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32/ab32.htm" type="external">her very own website</a>.</p> <p>The bill was signed into law that year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who still <a href="http://schwarzenegger.usc.edu/policy-areas/energy-and-the-environment" type="external">touts it</a> as the signature achievement of his disastrous administration. He used to give a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CseeBFXAFNI" type="external">stock speech</a>&amp;#160;reviling his Austrian homeland for its hidebound government bureaucracy, and how he escaped to free America. But it was just such a sclerotic bureaucracy that he worsened in California when his AB 32 vastly increased the powers of Nichols and her California Air Resources Board.</p> <p>Meanwhile, we&#8217;ve now had <a href="http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/02/its-official-no-global-warming-for-18-years-1-month/" type="external">18 straight years</a>with no global warming.</p> <p>But Nichols&#8217; powers just keep getting greater. After all, she&#8217;s a rock star.</p>

<p /> <p>Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has emerged as the next champion of augmented reality (AR). Despite the company's penchant for secrecy, it's become increasingly clear that Apple has something in the pipeline given that CEO Tim Cook keeps talking about AR's transformative potential. This is that whole "ship leaking from the top" bit that Steve Jobs always referred to.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>Every few months, Cook weighs in on the debate, either when asked on an earnings conference call or during a media interview. While Cook has never been a product visionary type, even by his own admission, his rationale for why AR has more potential than virtual reality (VR) makes an awful lot of sense, given Apple's never-ending pursuit of technologies that have mainstream appeal.</p> <p>Tim Cook holding the billionth iPhone. Image source: Apple.</p> <p>The most recent interview is with <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/apple-tim-cook-boss-brexit-uk-theresa-may-number-10-interview-ustwo-a7574086.html" type="external">The Independent Opens a New Window.</a>, which was published earlier today. Among other topics, Cook discussed why AR is the way to go.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>Perhaps the most off-putting aspect of VR for the average consumer is the fact that users must don a headset to fully immerse themselves into a virtual world. Even before discussing the technical requirements or costs associated with a VR headset, it's fundamentally isolating. In contrast, AR sits on top of the real world as an overlay without the isolation.</p> <p>Cook continued that he sees the opportunity in AR as analogous to the smartphone, believing that it can be for "everyone." AR still isn't there quite yet, and needs to improve until its "good enough for the mainstream," according to the chief executive.</p> <p>Cook's comments are but the latest in the ongoing debate over AR's future. In 2016, Cook discussed AR three consecutive months in a row: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2016/08/13/tim-cook-the-interview-running-apple-is-sort-of-a-lonely-job/" type="external">The Washington Post Opens a New Window.</a> in August, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/exclusive-apple-ceo-tim-cook-prefers-augmented-reality/story?id=42064913" type="external">ABC News</a> in September, and <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/johnpaczkowski/apple-ceo-tim-cook-on-virtual-reality-theres-no-substitute-f?utm_term=.wbdja6BOy#.ysJl03dEy" type="external">BuzzFeed News Opens a New Window.</a> in October. It's obviously been on his mind quite a bit.</p> <p>At this point, the two most important questions are how Apple will implement it -- a separate AR headset or integrated into the iPhone camera system, or both -- and when Apple will officially release its AR offering. If Apple goes the route of first integrating AR into the iPhone, which would largely be software-based, it could reduce the likelihood of leaks. In contrast, if Apple wants to jump straight to an AR headset, its supply chain will inevitably leak as prototypes are manufactured and there will be more physical evidence of its aspirations.</p> <p>Hopefully sooner rather than later, Apple will unveil its next "big idea."</p> <p>10 stocks we like better than AppleWhen 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=http%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;amp;impression=15629928-75f3-4709-afb5-f0073a5a7a6f&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Apple 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=http%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;amp;impression=15629928-75f3-4709-afb5-f0073a5a7a6f&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;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 February 6, 2017</p> <p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewCow/info.aspx" type="external">Evan Niu, CFA Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>

Apple, Inc. CEO Tim Cook Talks Up Augmented Reality's Potential (Again)

http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/10/apple-inc-ceo-tim-cook-talks-up-augmented-reality-potential-again.html

2017-02-10

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Apple, Inc. CEO Tim Cook Talks Up Augmented Reality's Potential (Again) <p /> <p>Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has emerged as the next champion of augmented reality (AR). Despite the company's penchant for secrecy, it's become increasingly clear that Apple has something in the pipeline given that CEO Tim Cook keeps talking about AR's transformative potential. This is that whole "ship leaking from the top" bit that Steve Jobs always referred to.</p> <p>Continue Reading Below</p> <p>Every few months, Cook weighs in on the debate, either when asked on an earnings conference call or during a media interview. While Cook has never been a product visionary type, even by his own admission, his rationale for why AR has more potential than virtual reality (VR) makes an awful lot of sense, given Apple's never-ending pursuit of technologies that have mainstream appeal.</p> <p>Tim Cook holding the billionth iPhone. Image source: Apple.</p> <p>The most recent interview is with <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/apple-tim-cook-boss-brexit-uk-theresa-may-number-10-interview-ustwo-a7574086.html" type="external">The Independent Opens a New Window.</a>, which was published earlier today. Among other topics, Cook discussed why AR is the way to go.</p> <p>Advertisement</p> <p>Perhaps the most off-putting aspect of VR for the average consumer is the fact that users must don a headset to fully immerse themselves into a virtual world. Even before discussing the technical requirements or costs associated with a VR headset, it's fundamentally isolating. In contrast, AR sits on top of the real world as an overlay without the isolation.</p> <p>Cook continued that he sees the opportunity in AR as analogous to the smartphone, believing that it can be for "everyone." AR still isn't there quite yet, and needs to improve until its "good enough for the mainstream," according to the chief executive.</p> <p>Cook's comments are but the latest in the ongoing debate over AR's future. In 2016, Cook discussed AR three consecutive months in a row: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2016/08/13/tim-cook-the-interview-running-apple-is-sort-of-a-lonely-job/" type="external">The Washington Post Opens a New Window.</a> in August, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/exclusive-apple-ceo-tim-cook-prefers-augmented-reality/story?id=42064913" type="external">ABC News</a> in September, and <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/johnpaczkowski/apple-ceo-tim-cook-on-virtual-reality-theres-no-substitute-f?utm_term=.wbdja6BOy#.ysJl03dEy" type="external">BuzzFeed News Opens a New Window.</a> in October. It's obviously been on his mind quite a bit.</p> <p>At this point, the two most important questions are how Apple will implement it -- a separate AR headset or integrated into the iPhone camera system, or both -- and when Apple will officially release its AR offering. If Apple goes the route of first integrating AR into the iPhone, which would largely be software-based, it could reduce the likelihood of leaks. In contrast, if Apple wants to jump straight to an AR headset, its supply chain will inevitably leak as prototypes are manufactured and there will be more physical evidence of its aspirations.</p> <p>Hopefully sooner rather than later, Apple will unveil its next "big idea."</p> <p>10 stocks we like better than AppleWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. 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The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>