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<p>ATLANTA (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening’s drawing of the Georgia Lottery’s “Fantasy 5” game were:</p>
<p>02-19-20-38-40</p>
<p>(two, nineteen, twenty, thirty-eight, forty)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $498,000</p>
<p>ATLANTA (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening’s drawing of the Georgia Lottery’s “Fantasy 5” game were:</p>
<p>02-19-20-38-40</p>
<p>(two, nineteen, twenty, thirty-eight, forty)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $498,000</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘Fantasy 5’ game | false | https://apnews.com/dfd90956a15544ec9b9547a523161d7d | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p>On this day in history: Elian Gonzales decision; First female U.S. governor inaugurated; Sonny Bono dies; Pete Rose admits to betting on baseball; Bruce Springsteen's first album debuts. (Jan. 5)</p>
<p>On this day in history: Elian Gonzales decision; First female U.S. governor inaugurated; Sonny Bono dies; Pete Rose admits to betting on baseball; Bruce Springsteen's first album debuts. (Jan. 5)</p> | Today in History for January 5th | false | https://apnews.com/985ed4dbea7742abae2e77a039519b80 | 2018-01-05 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>SB117 now has to go to the House floor if it is to have a chance of making it into law, but there are less than two days left in the session and many bills are in the same position</p>
<p>“We’ll see what happens. Everything is going to be heading down the same chute here now,” said New Mexico Hospital Association President and CEO Jeff Dye.</p>
<p>The bill would end the obligation of most counties to contribute to the Safety Net Care Pool at the end of 2018. The fund helps 29 primarily rural hospitals cover the cost of indigent care.</p>
<p>A 2014 law requires counties to contribute the equivalent of a 1/12th percent gross-receipts tax, totaling around $24 million, into the fund. Bernalillo and Sandoval counties do not have to contribute because they already have a property tax to support indigent care at University of New Mexico hospitals in their areas.</p>
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<p>Dye believes the hospitals still need the funding mechanism and that ending it would be premature.</p>
<p>However, New Mexico Association of Counties Executive Director Steve Kopelman has said the sunset date would allow time to evaluate how the increase in the number of people who have obtained insurance through a Medicaid expansion and the Affordable Healthcare Act will affect the need to cover uncompensated care.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | House committee passes hospital funding bill | false | https://abqjournal.com/557728/house-committee-passes-hospital-funding-bill.html | 2 |
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<p>Electronics supply chains that Apple Inc. has helped build across Asia are shuddering at the cutback in production of the latest iPhone. Apple is slashing its plans for making iPhone X handsets by half, to 20 million, in the current quarter, the WSJ's Yoko Kubota and Tripp Mickle report. Orders for components could be cut even more, by perhaps 60%, as reductions ripple across the broad eco-system of electronics manufacturing and distribution that Apple products have fostered. The latest reduction, the result of disappointing sales of the latest generation of the iPhone, is a new example of how companies in Apple's orbit can rise and fall as the company builds up new technology and then moves on or sees some features grow stale. Just last month, shares in Dialog Semiconductor, whose chips control power use in Apple products, fell by a quarter when it said its main client "has the resources and capability" to make its own power-management chips.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Harley-Davidson Inc. is scaling down its U.S. supply chain as sales of its iconic motorcycles sag inside the country and abroad. The company is closing its assembly plant in Kansas City, Mo., and consolidating that production into one of its three remaining U.S. factories, the WSJ's Andrew Tangel reports, a step back for the manufacturing sector that follows recent announcements of new factory investments. Harley's problems look bigger than broad changes in the American economy that have fueled other factory expansion, however: The company's revenue from motorcycle sales fell 6.8% last year, and sales of its signature Hog line declined for the third straight year as it loses market share to overseas competitors. Harley has been looking to get more global its production. The company said last year it would put a plant in Thailand, in part to get tax breaks for motorcycles it ships to other Southeast Asian countries. Harley will see lower taxes in the U.S., of course, but what it needs now are more sales.</p>
<p>The era of driverless cars and delivery vehicles is well underway as far as some architects and developers are concerned. Planners in cities in North America, Europe and Asia are drawing up designs for streets with curbside drop-off areas for e-commerce deliveries and passengers rather than parking spaces, the WSJ's Peter Grant writes, while architects are laying out office and residential buildings with space for stacking up packages and delivery lockers. The goal for many planners, says an executive at one architecture firm, is to "future-proof" everything from roads to parking garages against what they say is an upheaval in transportation of goods and people. Real-estate developers and architects are thinking about a driverless future today because many of the structures and streets they're designing will still be around decades from now. They want to include flexibility so they can later adapt to changing transportation and shipping patterns with limited cost.</p>
<p>TRANSPORTATION</p>
<p>The very meager production of Tesla Inc. Model 3 sedans has created an unusual , big-money market for the electric cars. A shortage of the vehicles is fueling a frenzy among curious competitors, the WSJ's Tim Higgins reports, with some automotive companies paying upward of $500,000 to get their hands on the car billed as Tesla's entry into mass-market sales. The Model 3 so far hasn't worked out that way, with supply chain problems and production bottlenecks leaving fewer than 2,000 of the cars rolling out over the past two quarters. That's made the sedan a kind of model for the impact of supply scarcity in a market, with competitors and analysts scrambling to get their hands on the car. For some, it's purely a business decision. Engineering firm Caresoft Global Inc. has bought three Model 3s for around three times the list price each. They're in it not for the ride but for the technical analysis that Caresoft believes it can sell to competitors.</p>
<p>QUOTABLE</p>
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<p>IN OTHER NEWS</p>
<p>President Donald Trump called for spending of "at least $1.5 trillion" on infrastructure but offered scant details on his State of the Union address on how to fund such a program. (WSJ)</p>
<p>U.S. consumer confidence rose in January. (WSJ)</p>
<p>A revival of the French economy helped the eurozone clock its strongest growth in a decade last year. (WSJ)</p>
<p>Mexico's economy expanded at its fastest pace in more than a year in the fourth quarter. (WSJ)</p>
<p>The U.S. homeownership rate rose in 2017 for the first time in 13 years. (WSJ)</p>
<p>Growth in U.S. home prices accelerated in November on tight supply. (WSJ)</p>
<p>Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co. are forming a company looking to reduce health-care costs for their U.S. employees. (WSJ)</p>
<p>Pfizer Inc. plans to invest $5 billion in manufacturing and other capital projects in the U.S. over the next five years. (WSJ)</p>
<p>McDonald's Corp. gained sales again by luring core customers to its cheapest meals and drinks. (WSJ)</p>
<p>Nikola Motor Co. chose the Phoenix area for a $1 billion manufacturing plant for its hydrogen-fueled heavy-duty trucks. (Reuters)</p>
<p>Sequoia Capital led a $21 million funding round for online freight marketplace Next Trucking. (VentureBeat)</p>
<p>U.S. steel imports rose 15.4% last year from the year before. (Northwest Indiana Times)</p>
<p>An investigation shows drug distributors sent 20.8 million prescription pain killers to a West Virginia town with 2,900 residents. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)</p>
<p>Uber Technologies Inc. reportedly looked at buying Chicago-based freight broker Load Delivered Logistics to bolster its Uber Freight service. (Recode)</p>
<p>Truckload carrier Werner Enterprises Inc.'s fourth-quarter operating profit soared 29% on a 9% gain in overall revenue. (Omaha World-Herald)</p>
<p>Covenant Transportation Group Inc. expects a measure of truck pricing to rise at a mid to high single-digit percentage rate this year. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)</p>
<p>CMA CGM Group is starting a incubator called Ze Box for digital shipping technology startups. (American Shipper)</p>
<p>India's Jawaharlal Nehru Port will open its fourth container terminal this week. (DNA India)</p>
<p>French logistics group Bolloré Logistics acquired majority control of Danish freight forwarder Global Solutions. (The Loadstar)</p>
<p>Private equity group Leonard Green &amp; Partners bought packaging machinery manufacturer ProMach. (Business Journals)</p>
<p>Parcel volume at U.K. delivery company Hermes expanded 12% year-over-year during the holiday peak season. (Motor Transport)</p>
<p>Colombian authorities seized 185 kilos of cocaine and arrested 10 suspected drug smugglers aboard a Hapag-Lloyd AG container ship. (Splash 14/7)</p>
<p>ABOUT US</p>
<p>Paul Page is deputy editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Follow him at @PaulPage, and follow the entire WSJ Logistics Report team: @brianjbaskin , @jensmithWSJ and @EEPhillips_WSJ. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on Twitter at @WSJLogistics.</p>
<p>Write to Paul Page at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>January 31, 2018 07:13 ET (12:13 GMT)</p> | Today's Top Supply Chain and Logistics News From WSJ | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/06/todays-top-supply-chain-and-logistics-news-from-wsj.html | 2018-01-31 | 0 |
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/21st-century-fox/" type="external">21st Century Fox</a> co-executive chairman <a href="http://variety.com/t/lachlan-murdoch/" type="external">Lachlan Murdoch</a> defended the current scale of the media conglomerate Wednesday at its annual shareholders meeting — indirectly addressing recent speculation triggered by reports of a possible sale.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of talk about the growing importance of scale in the media industry,” Murdoch said Wednesday in his prepared remarks. “Sub-scale players are finding it difficult to leverage their positions in new and emerging video platforms. Let me be very clear: We are not in that category. We have the required scale to continue to both execute on our aggressive growth strategy and deliver significant increased returns to shareholders.”</p>
<p>Murdoch pointed to the inclusion of Fox brands on new digital MVPDs as an indicator of the strength of its portfolio.</p>
<p>The shareholders meeting took place fewer than two weeks after reports emerged that <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/21st-century-fox-sky-news-1202609804/" type="external">21st Century Fox</a> had held discussions with the the Walt Disney Co. about a possible sale of the bulk of Fox’s entertainment assets. Although talks apparently ran aground, many analysts and observers <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/disney-fox-rumors-murdochs-1202608371/" type="external">interpreted them</a> as a signal that the Murdoch family, which has a controlling interest in 21st Century Fox, feels that the company does not have and cannot acquire the scale necessary to compete with the likes of Disney and a potentially combined AT&amp;T-Time Warner, as well as digital competitors such as Netflix, Apple, and Amazon.</p>
<p>Fox had pursued an acquisition of Time Warner in 2014 in an effort to acquire that scale, but fell short.</p>
<p>Murdoch also on Wednesday addressed Fox’s proposed takeover of U.K. broadcast company Sky, which has come under heavy scrutiny from British regulators, and which, he said, “We are confident will close by the middle of next year.”</p>
<p>Earlier this month, Fox <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/21st-century-fox-earnings-beat-expectations-revenues-miss-1202521215/" type="external">reported</a> better-than-expected profits in the fourth fiscal quarter, although the company’s revenues fell short of projections. Revenues at the company grew 2% to $6.75 billion for the three-month period ending in June.</p>
<p>In introductory remarks at Wednesday’s meeting, founder and co-executive chairman Rupert Murdoch said, “Universal connectivity and access to nearly every piece of content ever made is ushering in a period of remarkable opportunity” for the company.</p> | 21st Century Fox’s Lachlan Murdoch: ‘We Have the Required Scale’ | false | https://newsline.com/21st-century-foxs-lachlan-murdoch-we-have-the-required-scale/ | 2017-11-15 | 1 |
<p>A 2016 Democratic primary ballot for San Diego. ( <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/robbertholf/26827829370/" type="external">Rob Bertholf / C.C. 2.0</a>)</p>
<p>In the days following <a href="" type="internal">California’s primary</a>, reports began to surface that millions of ballots had yet to be counted. More than a week after the June 7 election, a reported <a href="http://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/statewide-elections/2016-primary/unprocessed-ballots-report.pdf" type="external">1.9 million ballots</a> remain uncounted, giving Bernie Sanders supporters reason to hope he can beat Hillary Clinton in the liberal Golden State.</p>
<p>Additionally, all California counties can receive ballots <a href="http://vote.sos.ca.gov/unprocessed-ballots-status/" type="external">until June 10</a> (three days after the primary). Looking at <a href="http://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/statewide-elections/2016-primary/unprocessed-ballots-report.pdf" type="external">the latest numbers</a>, many counties last reported on June 8 or 9—before the cutoff date to receive more ballots.</p>
<p />
<p>Take, for example, San Diego County. It last reported a total of 285,000 ballots on June 8, and the number hasn’t been officially updated since. In fact, of the 58 counties in California, 34 counties’ most recent numbers were reported before June 10. Who knows how many more ballots may arrive and add to the current 1.9 million uncounted ballots before the June 10 cutoff.</p>
<p>But why so many uncounted votes? <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/06/14/california-primary-vote-tightens-as-sanders-supporters-hope-for-a-miracle/" type="external">The Washington Post explains</a>:</p>
<p>Like the rest of the Pacific coast states, California has moved toward mail-in balloting and built a system that encourages turnout but takes weeks to fully count. On election night, when Hillary Clinton was declared the winner of the state’s primary, just 3.5 million ballots had been counted in the Democratic race and just 1.5 million had been counted in the basically uncontested GOP race. But according to Alex Padilla, California’s Democratic secretary of state, as many as 8.9 million ballots were cast. Millions of provisional ballots and absentee ballots, which could have been postmarked any time on Election Day, remained outstanding in a race decided by about 440,000 votes.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/8-6M-people-estimated-to-have-voted-in-CA-primary-7991593.php" type="external">SFGate.com adds</a> that the turnout (49 percent of California’s registered voters) is one of the state’s highest, although it remains lower than the “historic 57.7 percent turnout in 2008.”</p>
<p>The vote-counting—and the support for Sanders’ campaign—is continuing despite <a href="http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/4c9c850385c84b12ad5b85fda49743f9/after-weekend-wins-clinton-cusp-democratic-nomination" type="external">a controversial report</a> issued by The Associated Press the night before the California primary. At that time, the AP announced that Hillary Clinton had garnered enough superdelegate support to ensure she would be Democratic Party’s nominee. This breaking news outraged many, who accused the AP of potentially “suppressing voter turnout,” <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/36408-was-the-democratic-primary-just-manipulated-or-was-it-stolen" type="external">writes truth-out.org</a>. “Such media interference only fosters overall distrust and the conviction that powerful networks are aligned with Clinton and manipulating in her favor.”</p>
<p>Although a Sanders win in California would not push him into a delegate lead over Clinton, it would send a powerful message to the Clinton campaign; that is, that one of the most progressive, <a href="http://www.ppic.org/main/publication_quick.asp?i=1007" type="external">historically Democratic states</a> in the nation doesn’t favor her as nominee. Considering that Sanders is also <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/14/bernie-sanders-meet-senate-democrats-hillary-clinton/85826716/" type="external">hoping to influence</a> the party platform at the Democratic National Convention this summer, the momentum from a California win would bolster him.</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Emma Niles</a></p> | Nearly 2 Million California Ballots Remain Uncounted, and the Number Could Grow | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/nearly-2-million-california-ballots-remain-uncounted-and-the-number-could-grow/ | 2016-06-17 | 4 |
<p>GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) - Members of Harry Davidson's family were beginning to think that an investigation into the 2016 traffic accident that claimed his life had been scrubbed by the Mississippi Highway Patrol.</p>
<p>A spokesman for the Highway Patrol says possible action in the case has been delayed by the ongoing backlog at the Mississippi Crime Laboratory.</p>
<p>An auto mechanics instructor at Greenwood High School's Career and Technical Center, Davidson, 58, was riding his motorcycle at dusk on Aug. 25, 2016, on U.S. 82 near the Leflore-Carroll County line, when a van hit him from behind, throwing Davidson from the motorcycle and killing him.</p>
<p>The driver of the van, Darrell Allen, then of Dunedin, Florida, was taken to Greenwood Leflore Hospital and released with minor injuries, although his vehicle flipped after hitting Davidson and exiting the road, according to reports.</p>
<p>No citation was issued at the time of the crash. Highway Patrol spokesman Ronnie Shive said, however, that the Highway Patrol turned in an investigatory packet to the Carroll County District Attorney's Office in September, anticipating presentation of the case to a grand jury for consideration of indictment.</p>
<p>The case was not heard by an October grand jury, due to a delay in receiving the autopsy report on Davidson from the State Crime Lab.</p>
<p>"It is not uncommon for them to have such a delay," Shive said. "And we can't charge anyone until we get an indictment."</p>
<p>Shive said the Highway Patrol is attentive to these delays as penalties are imposed on it if an investigation is not completed within a certain time frame.</p>
<p>But in this case and many others across Mississippi, both the Highway Patrol and prosecutors point to the State Crime Lab, where backlogs have dogged the Medical Examiner's Office, leading frequently to waits of more than a year for autopsy reports.</p>
<p>A recent Mississippi Today report said that three medical examiners in Mississippi each perform 500 to 600 autopsies per year, more than double the number recommended by the National Association of Medical Examiners. Staff at the State Crime Lab is down to 85 from 120, due to state budget cuts.</p>
<p>One of Davidson's best friends, Lawrence Williams, a former Greenwood police officer, said he has been waiting to hear whether charges would be filed against Allen, who now resides in Jackson.</p>
<p>A witness to the crash, Williams said he and Davidson were headed back to Greenwood at dusk, and he had just pulled in front of Davidson when he saw the van come up in his rearview mirror and watched as it knocked Davidson off the road.</p>
<p>Williams had taken a photo of Davidson on his motorcycle just a minute or so before the crash, showing bright green lights all over the bike, making it visible even in the low light.</p>
<p>A diagram on the accident report shows Davidson's body lying between the motorcycle and the stopped van on the north shoulder of the four-lane highway's westbound lanes.</p>
<p>Until official autopsies are returned, cases such as this one remains in limbo, with family members often wondering if the case is closed or still open.</p>
<p>Harry Davidson's brother, Henry, is a chaplain at a Nashville, Tennessee, prison and works with the Metro Nashville Police Department.</p>
<p>"Law enforcement said they were going to wait for lab work to return from the state lab," he said. "We've been waiting around now for over a year to hear something."</p>
<p>Henry Davidson said he and his brother were part of a large family of 10 siblings and that their 80-year-old mother, among others in the family, has been bothered by the delays in the case, and by the lack of communication.</p>
<p>Shive said what happens next depends upon the district attorney's office receiving the critical documentation from the State Crime Lab.</p>
<p>"I can assure you we have done everything we could do with the case, and it's been turned over to the DA's office," Shive said.</p>
<p>GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) - Members of Harry Davidson's family were beginning to think that an investigation into the 2016 traffic accident that claimed his life had been scrubbed by the Mississippi Highway Patrol.</p>
<p>A spokesman for the Highway Patrol says possible action in the case has been delayed by the ongoing backlog at the Mississippi Crime Laboratory.</p>
<p>An auto mechanics instructor at Greenwood High School's Career and Technical Center, Davidson, 58, was riding his motorcycle at dusk on Aug. 25, 2016, on U.S. 82 near the Leflore-Carroll County line, when a van hit him from behind, throwing Davidson from the motorcycle and killing him.</p>
<p>The driver of the van, Darrell Allen, then of Dunedin, Florida, was taken to Greenwood Leflore Hospital and released with minor injuries, although his vehicle flipped after hitting Davidson and exiting the road, according to reports.</p>
<p>No citation was issued at the time of the crash. Highway Patrol spokesman Ronnie Shive said, however, that the Highway Patrol turned in an investigatory packet to the Carroll County District Attorney's Office in September, anticipating presentation of the case to a grand jury for consideration of indictment.</p>
<p>The case was not heard by an October grand jury, due to a delay in receiving the autopsy report on Davidson from the State Crime Lab.</p>
<p>"It is not uncommon for them to have such a delay," Shive said. "And we can't charge anyone until we get an indictment."</p>
<p>Shive said the Highway Patrol is attentive to these delays as penalties are imposed on it if an investigation is not completed within a certain time frame.</p>
<p>But in this case and many others across Mississippi, both the Highway Patrol and prosecutors point to the State Crime Lab, where backlogs have dogged the Medical Examiner's Office, leading frequently to waits of more than a year for autopsy reports.</p>
<p>A recent Mississippi Today report said that three medical examiners in Mississippi each perform 500 to 600 autopsies per year, more than double the number recommended by the National Association of Medical Examiners. Staff at the State Crime Lab is down to 85 from 120, due to state budget cuts.</p>
<p>One of Davidson's best friends, Lawrence Williams, a former Greenwood police officer, said he has been waiting to hear whether charges would be filed against Allen, who now resides in Jackson.</p>
<p>A witness to the crash, Williams said he and Davidson were headed back to Greenwood at dusk, and he had just pulled in front of Davidson when he saw the van come up in his rearview mirror and watched as it knocked Davidson off the road.</p>
<p>Williams had taken a photo of Davidson on his motorcycle just a minute or so before the crash, showing bright green lights all over the bike, making it visible even in the low light.</p>
<p>A diagram on the accident report shows Davidson's body lying between the motorcycle and the stopped van on the north shoulder of the four-lane highway's westbound lanes.</p>
<p>Until official autopsies are returned, cases such as this one remains in limbo, with family members often wondering if the case is closed or still open.</p>
<p>Harry Davidson's brother, Henry, is a chaplain at a Nashville, Tennessee, prison and works with the Metro Nashville Police Department.</p>
<p>"Law enforcement said they were going to wait for lab work to return from the state lab," he said. "We've been waiting around now for over a year to hear something."</p>
<p>Henry Davidson said he and his brother were part of a large family of 10 siblings and that their 80-year-old mother, among others in the family, has been bothered by the delays in the case, and by the lack of communication.</p>
<p>Shive said what happens next depends upon the district attorney's office receiving the critical documentation from the State Crime Lab.</p>
<p>"I can assure you we have done everything we could do with the case, and it's been turned over to the DA's office," Shive said.</p> | Crime Lab backlog has family in limbo | false | https://apnews.com/amp/6741f1b9f2d14abaafc7a9342d37e589 | 2018-01-07 | 2 |
<p>There aren't many sure things these days, but the need for fast broadband connections is one. Of course, this isn't limited to the borders of the U.S. According to McKinsey, the international expansion of digital streaming video from companies like&#160;Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX),&#160;and the increased adoption of enterprise cloud computing by multinational corporations will lead to an eightfold increase in cross-border online traffic by 2025.</p>
<p>You may be wondering what the technology is behind your ability to stream Netflix in Europe, or Skype with your friend in Hong Kong, all in the blink of an eye. Well, the recently completed undersea cable called Marea, laid by the trio of&#160;Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), and telecom company Telxius (a subsidiary of Spanish telecom Telefonica (NYSE: TEF)), illustrates the amazing tech behind today's fiber-optic connections. Here are some of Marea's impressive stats.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Marea was completed on September 21, connecting Virginia Beach to Bilbao, Spain -- a span of 4,000 miles. That connection is further south than most existing Atlantic subsea infrastructure, which connects in the northeast. The cable weighs 10.25 million pounds, and runs as low as 17,000 feet under the Atlantic ocean, dodging around coral reefs and undersea volcanoes along the way. It took two years to build out, which may seem long but is actually one-third the time of a typical subsea cable project.</p>
<p>The cable is only about 1.5 times the diameter of a garden hose but contains eight pairs of fiber-optic cables that can transmit data at 160 terabits per second -- not gigabits, but terabits. That Is 160 million times faster than the typical cable broadband connection and equivalent to streaming 71 million high-definition Netflix accounts at the same time.</p>
<p>While these stats are impressive in and of themselves, the story gets even better, as Marea has the built-in flexibility to improve its capabilities over time. That's because Marea was constructed according to an "open" design, which enables increases the cable's speed with advances in technology. As I have <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/09/26/3-things-ciena-does-right.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8caf5f7e-a70a-11e7-9bae-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">previously written Opens a New Window.</a>, communication technology companies are increasingly looking to make their products as open and&#160;flexible as possible. Customers are becoming increasingly wary of being locked into a particular vendor, and vendors seek access to as many users and markets as possible. That's a change from how things used to work, where tech companies -- because of the rarity of their expertise -- would seek to make closed, proprietary tools, that would become indispensable to the end customer.</p>
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<p>This change can be seen in Microsoft's strategy shift over the past few years. In the old days, Microsoft was a typical closed-off company, with its office applications and servers only operating on its Windows operating system. Fast forward to today under <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/08/07/microsofts-results-show-why-satya-nadella-was-a-sa.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8caf5f7e-a70a-11e7-9bae-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">new CEO Satya Nadella Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;Microsoft has opened itself up to writing software for the open-sourced Linux operating system as well as Apple's iOS. The move also falls in line with the philosophy behind Facebook's <a href="https://www.openstack.org/blog/2011/04/openstack-welcomes-facebook-open-compute-project/" type="external">Open Compute project Opens a New Window.</a>, initiated in 2011 with the goal of opening up once-secret and proprietary technology for the benefit of companies that used such hardware (such as Facebook).</p>
<p>Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but the cable will help augment Microsoft's Azure Cloud resilience and reliability. As this year's hurricane season reminded us, natural disasters have the capability to take out key infrastructure. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy actually shut down wireless and internet connections for days, as much of the existing subsea Atlantic infrastructure was concentrated in New York and New Jersey at that time. Thus, Microsoft is looking to differentiate itself from rival Amazon&#160;Web Services in terms of resilience and put -- even more -- distance between itself and the number-three-and-below cloud infrastructure players.</p>
<p>Facebook, for its part, gets the same dependability in connecting data centers to its 2 billion monthly active users, 88% of which are outside the U.S. and Canada. Both companies will now have access to owned cable, which will save them significant amounts in bandwidth rental costs that would otherwise go to telecoms.</p>
<p>Marea underscores the amazing technological progress and disruptive capabilities of modern, open-source tools. On the other hand, when these tools are used by huge companies such as Microsoft and Facebook, these companies become even more powerful and entrenched in the global economy. That's a big reason behind the amazing multi-year outperformance of these large-cap tech names during this bull market, and it doesn't seem as if they will be dislodged anytime soon.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than FacebookWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=d977d0b7-22ec-4bac-8c6e-03b0e470b563&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8caf5f7e-a70a-11e7-9bae-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Facebook wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=d977d0b7-22ec-4bac-8c6e-03b0e470b563&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8caf5f7e-a70a-11e7-9bae-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of October 9, 2017</p>
<p>Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Dubs82/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8caf5f7e-a70a-11e7-9bae-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Billy Duberstein Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Netflix. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=8caf5f7e-a70a-11e7-9bae-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Facebook's and Microsoft's New Undersea Cable Is How Fast? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/12/facebooks-and-microsofts-new-undersea-cable-is-how-fast.html | 2017-10-12 | 0 |
<p>If there’s anything Americans love more than expensive outdoor recreation equipment, bacon, and wars of choice, it’s innovation. Imported from the Silicon Valley/venture capital sphere, the concept has pervaded every arena of human enterprise in this country and many others besides, from poetry to politics, education to agriculture.</p>
<p>If you want a literary grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, know that “innovative projects are strongly encouraged”; if you want one for design, make sure to employ “innovative forms of art-making”; and don’t even think about getting funded for your stage drama unless your work is at the leading edge of “groundbreaking, innovative theater.” (A 2011 issue of the NEA’s magazine, NEA Arts, asks the burning question, “What is Innovation?”)</p>
<p>President Obama spoke of innovation eleven times in his 2011 State of the Union speech. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, a city overrun with innovators of all stripes and home to its own “Innovation Center,” the local schools are now subject to an “Innovation Agenda.” Twenty-nine TED Talks bear the “innovation” tag, and a Google search for “Malcolm Gladwell” and “innovation” produces 2.37&#160;million hits. A March&#160;8 New York Times story was headlined, without apparent irony, “An Innovation in Luxury Watches Celebrates Long-Lost Function.”</p>
<p>These examples would seem to suggest the emptiness of the term. The Innovation Agenda consists mainly in doing everything as it has always been done in new configurations and different buildings. TED Talks and Gladwellian theses are increasingly shorthand for intellectual vacuity. And nothing screams pointless rhetoric like a political call for innovation — especially from Obama, whose chief accomplishments, with Congress’s aid, have been cementing his predecessor’s antipathy to civil liberties and his predilection for unaccountable global war, while further institutionalizing our broken health care system by forcing everyone to buy in. (The latter might have been the best of many bad options, but it was certainly not innovative.)</p>
<p>Yet “innovation” is far from empty. It is a loaded word. It does a great deal of work, painting a vast landscape of meanings even as it obliterates or camouflages others. It has become an imperial force.</p>
<p>Part of the reason that innovation is so attractive is that it seems to work in business. It makes a lot of sense if you have a product to sell. If you’re entering a crowded market, you need to do something that others haven’t, or come up with a way to do what others have done more cheaply. If you want people to keep buying your products, you need to make them new every now and then.</p>
<p>Of course, this has its downsides. As the Foxconn suicides have made all too clear, the demand for product innovation is so intense that factories and workers can’t easily keep up, sometimes with terrifying results. And an exposé of an Amazon warehouse from the Allentown showed that the company’s highly innovative fulfillment operation comes at great cost to employees.</p>
<p>Despite these concerns, innovation has survived its extension to the world beyond product development — if such a world remains — where it maintains its panacea-like quality. Innovation provides hope of a solution where there otherwise may not be any. When President Obama calls for innovation — or its closely related cousin, “new ideas” — he is effectively masking the fact that he doesn’t have any. If he did, he would tell us.</p>
<p>Consider a tragic illustration from politics: the Avi Schaefer Peace Innovation Competition at Harvard University, which bestows $1,000 on a student who, in 500&#160;words, supplies “innovative and creative solutions to solve the conflict between the Israeli [sic] and Palestinians.”</p>
<p>Never mind that one example on the competition flyer is “innovative uses of social media networks,” as if anything could be more banal. Here as ever, innovation itself is the solution. Once we have innovated, intractable problems will disappear, and the struggle to overcome them will dissolve.</p>
<p>Innovation recognizes that we face challenges now and responds with faith in the future. Maybe this is all to the good. Maybe the best escapes from our current entanglements have not yet been found. But the notion of innovating our way out of contentious debates is fishy. Our seemingly insurmountable disagreements reflect what we think of as real ethical and ideological difference. The innovation ethos says that these differences are in fact insubstantial and that there is a solution we will all agree to if only we can think of it and engineer it into existence.</p>
<p>In other words, tomorrow’s solution is not merely better than those we can conceive of today, but it is outside the bounds of contestation. It has no normative content; it just works, and we’ll all recognize that.</p>
<p>Education — a field in which innovation is not just a buzzword, but sine qua non — provides a case in point. Innovation has brought us charter schools, performance pay for teachers, de-unionization, vouchers, Teach for America and similar programs that ensure a steady flow of inexperienced educators, cash incentives for student achievement, high-stakes testing, multilingual pedagogy, and increasingly standardized curricula focused on math, reading, and science at the expense of music, visual arts, home economics, and physical education.</p>
<p>Most of these innovations are intended to fix an achievement gap, as measured by standardized tests, between whites and people of color, poor and rich. Yet there seems to be little recognition of the fact that the achievement gap is not the disease, but rather the symptom. The diseases are systemic racism and poverty. Those are not going to be eliminated by innovations in education. By “tinkering toward utopia” through the schools, to borrow a phrase from education-reform historians David Tyack and Larry Cuban, we are ignoring the true challenge, a challenge that Americans prefer to believe does not exist.</p>
<p>So here innovation is presented as a solution-in-itself, with no normative content: we’re just trying to get those numbers to even out. Not surprisingly, the most heavily promoted education innovations are corporatist in nature, favoring market-style fixes that are also presented as non-ideological, as is the market system itself.</p>
<p>As in education, similarly in the arts. Here innovation colonizes other values and displaces the kinds of questions we have always asked about art, questions that some of us, especially those who think about and write criticism, might foolishly have thought were essential to art itself. Conflicts over what beauty is and what should be art’s purpose get muscled out. Where one might have seen art as a tool for political expression, community engagement, or deepening spiritual commitment, the zeal for innovation says art need only be a vessel for novelty. Whatever form that novelty takes, the work will be judged quantitatively, according to its distance from what came before.</p>
<p>Novelty may be a useful criterion when we judge the success and failure of a creative work. But it shouldn’t be the only criterion, or even emphasized. Just as it shouldn’t be the only or primary watchword in politics and education. Perhaps the solution to the conflict in Israel and Palestine is an old one: democracy for everyone who lives there. Perhaps the solution to the achievement gap is an old one: welfare and affordable childcare, to combat the pathologies bred by poverty in the five years before kindergarten.</p>
<p>But we don’t want to rehash those arguments, do we? We’d prefer to think that those ethical and ideological conflicts aren’t real after all, or are only as real as our imaginations are stunted.</p>
<p>Will our faith in innovation be rewarded? Will the fetish for new ideas that we see in TED Talks, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the World Economic Forum ideas lab, Obama’s speeches, and the endless stream of idea-of-the-moment journalism at last prove its worth? Maybe. Or maybe it will go on doing principally what it does now: offering the false hope that we will one day conquer exhaustion, frustration, boredom, ourselves.</p> | Against Innovation | true | http://jacobinmag.com/2012/09/against-innovation/ | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
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<p>A man in Pennsylvania was imprisoned for selling heroin in a room of a maternity ward of a hospital where people were visiting their newborn babies.</p>
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<p>25-year-old Cody Hulse was arrested on Friday for charges of heroin delivery and risking child welfare.</p>
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<p>The police went to the maternity room and discovered that heroin was being sold.Police said that Hals' girlfriend, baby's mother, did not know about drug trading.</p>
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<p>Do you think drug dealing is something to do with some crazy / poor people? Like homeless people, or drug addicts.</p>
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<p>In the middle class income house holds of the United States, the spread of heroin has been becoming a dangerously serious problem, especially for good, upper middle family. It says that all starts from Prescription medication.</p>
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<p>You may have headache. Menstrual pain. Low back pain. Shoulder pain. Muscle pain caused by sports.</p>
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<p>One day your child receives a couple of pills from his/her friend. "This is a prescription medicine, so no worry." That is the starting of everything. Starting of nightmare. Even if it is "prescription medicine" from hospitacl, you may know how hard hitting it is for teenagers. It gives you "Drunkenness". Kids love it.</p>
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<p>Median household income in Pennsylvania is $55,702 in 2015. 21/50. More than Texas, Florida, Arizona, Ohio and Michigan.</p>
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<p>Source:</p>
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<p><a href="http://local12.com/news/nation-world/police-newborns-dad-sold-heroin-in-hospital-maternity-ward-10-22-2017" type="external">local12.com/news/nation-world/police-newborns-dad-sold-heroin-in-hospital-maternity-ward-10-22-2017</a></p> | Pennsylvania Man Imprisoned for Selling Heroin in Maternity Ward | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/10169-Pennsylvania-Man-Imprisoned-for-Selling-Heroin-in-Maternity-Ward | 2017-10-23 | 0 |
<p>In 1957, a United States shocked by the Soviet launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite bounced into action to compete on the world stage. More than 50 years later, in May of 2011, the U.S. is facing a new challenge. The Chinese Communist Party has decided to launch a crash program to produce green energy, a field where it already has a commanding lead over the U.S. The difference between 1957 and 2011 is that American politics in the meantime have been captured by parasitic or corrupt industries such as high finance and big oil and gas. The Green Gap produced by China’s increasing lead in the technologies of the future is not even headlined in America’s corporate mass media, much less galvanizing a nation of gas guzzlers and coal junkies.</p>
<p>The disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant <a href="http://www.celsias.com/article/china-rethinks-nuclear-power-and-becomes-pacesette/%20" type="external">has caused</a> the Chinese Communist Party to reconsider its plans to vastly expand its own nuclear power industry. The government of President Hu Jintao is thinking instead of vastly expanding the green energy sector, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110506/sc_afp/chinaenergysolartarget" type="external">aiming to produce</a> 50 gigawatts from solar energy by 2020, up from a previous goal of 20 gigawatts. If the new goal can be met, it will be an impressive accomplishment in its own right. The six reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, among the largest such plants in the world, produced 4.7 gigawatts, so the Chinese solar plants would be the solar equivalent of more than four such complexes.</p>
<p>The real promise, however, is that if the Chinese government really does throw <a href="http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2011/05/09/china-renewable-energy-industry-report-may-9.html" type="external">a trillion and a half dollars</a> at solar and other renewables over the next decade and a half, the cost of producing energy in that way is likely to plummet. The Middle Kingdom already <a href="http://www.celsias.com/article/china-rethinks-nuclear-power-and-becomes-pacesette/" type="external">produces half</a> of the world’s solar panels. The bad news for the United States is that China could dominate the rapidly growing and crucial world market for green technology in coming decades, leaving literally in the dust a Rust Belt America wedded to dirty coal, oil and water-slurping shale extraction.</p>
<p>China’s production of green technology has been growing 77 percent a year, and solar panels, wind turbines and other green manufactures <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-tech-china.html%20" type="external">account for 1.4 percent</a> of its gross domestic product. Only tiny Denmark outdoes China on this score, deriving 3.1 percent of its GDP from renewable energy technology. But of course in absolute terms China’s production in this sector, at $64 billion annually, leads the world. The U.S. derives only 0.3 percent of its GDP from green tech and substantially trails China in absolute terms. Last year Beijing installed three times as much new wind turbine capacity as the United States. <a href="http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2011/05/09/china-renewable-energy-industry-report-may-9.html" type="external">It added 18.9 gigawatts</a> of new wind power-generating capacity in 2010, or about half of all the new wind installations in the world.</p>
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<p>Chinese officials, unlike many representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives, have no doubt that spewing carbon into the atmosphere is causing climate change of a sort that threatens the world’s and their own country’s future prosperity. China’s dirty coal-burning plants are a major source of this pollution, and it is they that the clean energy installations will replace.</p>
<p>The time is coming when the rest of the world will launch lawsuits at the World Trade Organization against the United States and its hydrocarbon corporations for <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=climate-change-impacts-staple-crop-yields" type="external">destroying their crops</a> and submerging their shorelines through its deadly carbon emissions. China may face much less global anger because, although it is now the world’s leading source of carbon emissions, it is moving much more quickly and responsibly to address this global challenge than is the U.S., currently the world’s No. 2 carbon dioxide producer.</p>
<p>The Eisenhower administration responded vigorously to the Soviet Union’s Sputnik program. Americans were shocked to discover that they were No. 2 in so important a scientific and technological field. In the 1950s, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans were still paying their taxes, and so the government had the wherewithal to found the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and to bump up research and development in a number of other agencies, as well as promote science education in the K-12 system.</p>
<p>The anxiety did not stop with concern that Americans were not very good at mathematics and science. Rather, Washington suddenly realized that the United States needed a cadre of academics and officials who knew the languages and cultures of the societies over which capitalism and communism were competing. Congress therefore passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), providing funds to universities for the study of world areas such as China, India and Eastern Europe. The language of the act later became Title VI in the Department of Education, which supports nearly 120 National Resource Centers at universities across America, studying everything from Afghanistan to Brazil.</p>
<p>In contrast to the strenuous efforts of 1958 to expand Americans’ horizons, the House of Representatives in 2011 is full of politicians who actively despise science and higher education, hate environmentalism, deny global climate change and are in the <a href="http://www.frumforum.com/gop-punts-on-a-real-energy-plan%20" type="external">back pocket of Big Oil</a>. They have delivered themselves of a budget that increases funding for the Department of War, implies long-term and deeper cuts in taxes for the super-wealthy, and <a href="http://www.marionstar.com/article/C4/20110327/OPINION05/103270473/Guest-commentary-dire-effects-cutting-aid-education?odyssey=nav%7Chead" type="external">devours the seed corn</a> of America’s K-12 and higher education programs. America has already fallen behind Macao and Latvia in <a href="http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0923110.html%20" type="external">math and science skills</a> and ranks only ninth globally in the percentage of its youths who are college graduates. (It used to be first.) Instead of increasing funding for Title VI and the area studies centers (the descendants of 1958’s NDEA), governmental agents of the proudly monolingual tea party in their wisdom <a href="http://today.duke.edu/2011/05/titlevi" type="external">have cut that program by half</a>.</p>
<p>The U.S. won the space race that was kicked off in earnest by Sputnik. Now, this Congress, full of climate change contrarians, hasn’t even gotten up off the couch or laced up its sneakers in reaction to China’s solar challenge. It would be as though the 1958 House not only ignored Sputnik, but also denied that the Earth is round or could be orbited. Since Congress has halved the federal money for Chinese studies centers, American young people won’t have the opportunity to study Mandarin in the same numbers, and won’t even be able to understand the scientific papers of Chinese scientists or get jobs in the mailrooms of the burgeoning Chinese solar corporations. The original Tea Party kicked off the independence of the United States from a hegemonic power. This one seems intent on delivering us into the hands of a new one.</p> | The New Sputnik | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/the-new-sputnik/ | 2011-05-11 | 4 |
<p>When it comes to Donald Trump, nothing really surprises me anymore.</p>
<p>For instance, an absolutely bizarre statement the White House put out that’s not only completely ridiculous, but it seems as if it’s something Trump wrote about himself.</p>
<p>Here’s&#160;what the&#160;very real and official&#160;White House statement <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/30/this-white-house-statement-on-trumps-positive-energy-reads-like-a-parody/" type="external">said</a>:</p>
<p>President Trump has a magnetic personality and exudes positive energy, which is infectious to those around him. He has an unparalleled ability to communicate with people, whether he is speaking to a room of three or an arena of 30,000. He has built great relationships throughout his life and treats everyone with respect. He is brilliant with a great sense of humor … and an amazing ability to make people feel special and aspire to be more than even they thought possible.</p>
<p>This was apparently Trump’s “official White House response” to reports that he&#160;berates, insults, and belittles members of his staff.</p>
<p>When I first read this statement&#160;I couldn’t help but think of last year’s “ <a href="" type="internal">doctor’s report</a>” Trump released where his “doctor” said he that had “extraordinary stamina” and would be the “healthiest person ever elected president.” A letter that many people, myself included, believe Trump wrote personally, or at least instructed his doctor how to write.</p>
<p>I’ve honestly never witnessed anyone as egotistical and insecure as Donald Trump. He’s so emotionally fragile that he constantly either needs to brag about himself or have people bragging about him. That’s why he’s such a big fan of Twitter. It’s the perfect social media platform for him to grab his phone with his tiny little hands, send out a tweet that’s the perfect length for the depths of his attention span, and get instant feedback and praise from his followers.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what’s&#160;sadder about this statement: That he’s such a fragile little snowflake his neurotic insecurity drives him to put out statements such as this, that he thinks people are stupid enough to not realize&#160;he likely&#160;wrote this in a pathetic attempt to brag about himself, or that there are millions of his supporters who&#160;are&#160;stupid enough to believe it’s true and wasn’t written by him.</p>
<p>Then there’s always the reality that the rest of the world’s leaders are obviously going to&#160;see this statement. Because nothing makes the United States look like a strong, stable, and well-run nation quite like the White House putting out what amounts to nothing more than an ego-stroking PR statement which looks like it was concocted by Trump himself.</p>
<p>This is just another example — in what seems like a non-stop growing list of them — proving&#160;what a national embarrassment Donald Trump is to this country.</p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Donald Trump Tries Attacking Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton, Fails Miserably</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Elizabeth Warren Blasts 'Thin-Skinned Bully' Donald Trump: He Won't Silence Me (Video)</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Republican's Comment on WH Domestic Abuse Scandal Stuns CNN's Chris Cuomo (Video)</a></p>
<p>255 Facebook comments</p> | This Could Be the Most Ridiculous Statement The White House Has Ever Released Under Any President | true | https://forwardprogressives.com/most-ridiculous-statement-white-house-ever-released/ | 2017-05-30 | 4 |
<p>CreativeCommons/&lt;a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/George_Bush_-_March_27%2C_2008_%282%29.jpg"&gt;White House&lt;/a&gt;</p>
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<p>It’s official. George W. Bush’s <a href="" type="internal">selective</a> and self-serving <a href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/08/george-w-bush-still-not-telling-the-truth-about-iraq/" type="external">book</a> is a best-seller. He sold 775,000 copies in the first week and the publisher has rushed to print an additional 350,000. The amount of debunking the book deserves could, well, fill a book. But there’s one trenchant portion of the book that reeks with hypocrisy. In discussing the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Bush notes, “That was a massive blow to our credibility—my credibility—that would shake the confidence of the American people.” He then adds: “No one was more shocked or angry than I was when we didn’t find the weapons. I had a sickening feeling every time I thought about it. I still do.”</p>
<p>A sickening feeling every time he thought about it? Really? Let’s rewind the video back to a moment that crystallized the Bush-Cheney era. It was March 24, 2004. Washington’s political and media elite had gathered at the Washington Hilton for the annual Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association Dinner, which is something of a cousin to the yearly White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. As thousands of DC’s swells enjoyed their surf-and-turf meal, Bush was the entertainment. The tradition is that at such affairs the president is the big speaker, and he has to be amusing, poking fun at himself and his political foes.</p>
<p>Bush was no fan of such gatherings, and he and his aides had decided he ought to narrate a humorous slide show, instead of doing a stand-up routine. Large video screens flashed pictures of him and his aides, which he augmented with funny quips. One showed him on the phone with a finger in his ear. He explained this shot by saying he spends “a lot of time on the phone listening to our European allies.” There were humorous bits about his mother and Dick Cheney.</p>
<p>Then Bush displayed a photo of himself looking for something out a window in the Oval Office. His <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/156077/mia-wmds-bush-its-joke" type="external">narration</a>: “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere.” The audience laughed. But the joke wasn’t done. After a few more slides, there was a shot of Bush looking under furniture in the Oval Office. “Nope,” he said. “No weapons over there.” More laughter. Then another picture of Bush searching in his office: “Maybe under here.” Laughter again.</p>
<p>Bush was actually joking about the missing weapons of mass destruction. He was making fun of the reason he had cited for sending Americans to war and to death, turning it into a running gag. His smile was wide and his eyes seemed bright, as the audience laughed. At the time I <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/156077/mia-wmds-bush-its-joke" type="external">wrote</a>,</p>
<p>Few [in the crowd] seemed to mind. His WMD gags did not prompt a how-can-you silence from the gathering. At the after-parties, I heard no complaints.I wondered what the spouse, child or parent of a soldier killed in Iraq would have felt if they had been watching C-SPAN and saw the commander-in-chief mocking the supposed justification for the war that claimed their loved ones. Bush told the nation that lives had to be sacrificed because Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction that could be used (by terrorists) against the United States. That was not true. (And as [WMD search team leader David] Kay pointed out, the evidence so far shows these weapons were not there in the first place, not that they were hidden, destroyed or spirited away.) But rather than acknowledge he misinformed the public, Bush jokes about the absence of such weapons.</p>
<p>In yet another act reminiscent of Soviet-style revisionism, Bush in his book does not mention this dinner and his performance there. If he indeed felt ill whenever he pondered the missing WMDs—as he insists in his memoirs—how could he turn this into a crass punchline? Asking that question provides the answer. He is fibbing in his book. Moreover, this small episode is proof of a larger truth: Bush’s chronicle is not a serious accounting of his years as the decider. As for the hundreds of thousands of readers who shelled out $35.00 for the book, expecting the former president to level with them, the joke is on them.</p>
<p /> | Bush’s Biggest WMD Lie? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/bush-decision-points-wmds-iraq/ | 2010-11-19 | 4 |
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<p>Bipartisan backers of the measures said the public is demanding more accountability and connection to local communities than is provided by the current system, under which the governor appoints all university regents who are then subject to confirmation by the Senate.</p>
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<p>“The fact of the matter is, in many cases our regents positions are treated as political plums,” going to big donors and friends, said Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, a sponsor of the two measures.</p>
<p>If both proposals were to pass the Legislature and win voter approval in a statewide election, lawmakers would set qualifications for regents, and a nominating committee would recommend candidates to the governor.</p>
<p>At the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University, the makeup of the boards would change, to a mix of appointees and regents elected by congressional district. At the other colleges and universities, the governor would continue appointing all the regents, from the nominating committee’s recommendations.</p>
<p>A spokesman for Republican Gov. Susana Martinez said she opposes the proposals, although – unlike other legislation – constitutional amendments don’t require her signature, so she wouldn’t be able to veto them.</p>
<p>Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview, another sponsor of the measures, said the changes would increase accountability.</p>
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<p>“Regents should answer to the public, not to a governor,” Woods said in a statement. “If they are not designing curriculum that actually prepares teachers to teach our children successfully, then they need to be thrown out at the next election.”</p>
<p>And he said schools need regents with business backgrounds who can direct curriculum into high-tech fields.</p>
<p>Rep. William Soules, D-Las Cruces, said the governor should have input – as she does in the judicial selection process, appointing judges from nominees recommended to her.</p>
<p>But having elected regents provides a balance that allows the governor input “without making it entirely political, or taking away all the control from the voter – because it really is their university,” he said.</p>
<p>The proposed changes follow an uproar last fall over the secrecy-cloaked departure of former NMSU President Barbara Couture, who was paid $453,000 on her way out the door.</p>
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<p>Steinborn said there is lingering concern about that in the community, and the public is “absolutely hungry” for transparency and accountability. While the constitutional changes wouldn’t directly address the transparency issue, a board more in tune with the community could change policies, he suggested.</p>
<p>House Joint Resolution 8 would simply require the Legislature to establish one or more regent nominating committees, with details left up to lawmakers.</p>
<p>House Joint Resolution 9 would increase the size of the board of regents at NMSU from five to seven; require lawmakers to establish qualifications for all regents; and reduce regent terms at UNM and NMSU from six years to four and set a two-term limit.</p>
<p>The seven-member boards at UNM and NMSU would consist of three regents chosen in nonpartisan elections from each congressional district; two regents appointed by the governor – based on the nominating committee’s recommendations – from the county where the main branch is located; one student regent appointed by the other regents on the recommendation of the student body; and one faculty regent selected by the governor on the faculty’s recommendation.</p>
<p>Colleges and universities already have student regents on their boards, selected by the governor from lists provided by the schools’ presidents.</p>
<p>The regents would still require confirmation by the state Senate, under the proposed constitutional changes. Votes Proposed for Some School Regents Bill Takes Some Control From Gov. See REGENT on PAGE A3</p>
<p>legislature 2013 — This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Votes Proposed for Some School Regents | false | https://abqjournal.com/164848/votes-proposed-for-some-school-regents.html | 2013-01-31 | 2 |
<p>The “#fake news” media is “distorting democracy,” President Donald Trump wrote in his latest Sunday morning tweetstorm, adding a defense of his son Donald Trump Jr. amid another tumultuous week of “slanted” and “fraudulent reporting.”</p>
<p>With all of its phony unnamed sources &amp; highly slanted &amp; even fraudulent reporting, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Fake?src=hash" type="external">#Fake</a> News is DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in our country!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/886544734788997125" type="external">July 16, 2017</a></p>
<p>That tweet came moments after starting his Twitter rant with defense of his son, contrasting it with coverage of his former campaign rival Hillary Clinton and her “illegally” receiving debate questions and deleting 33,000 emails amid a probe into her use of a private email server while serving as U.S. secretary of state.</p>
<p>HillaryClinton can illegally get the questions to the Debate &amp; delete 33,000 emails but my son Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/886534810575020032" type="external">July 16, 2017</a></p>
<p>In between those tweets, President Trump praised former campaign adviser <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/michael-caputo-russians-contacts/2017/07/14/id/801771/" type="external">Michael Caputo after he testified Friday</a> to “no contacts with Russians and I never heard of anyone in the Trump campaign talking with Russians” to a closed session of the House Intelligence Committee.</p>
<p>Thank you to former campaign adviser Michael Caputo for saying so powerfully that there was no Russian collusion in our winning campaign.</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/886541955311816705" type="external">July 16, 2017</a></p>
<p>Caputo was far less effusive of praise of President Trump’s campaign <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/michael-caputo-slams-campaign-denies/2017/07/14/id/801740/" type="external">before his testimony,</a> however, blasting it as a “s– show” and claiming it was far too disorganized to have the “wherewithal” to plot collusion with Russian agents.</p>
<p>“We were so busy just trying to keep up with the sun rising and setting on that campaign that I can’t imagine anyone had the time – nor the wherewithal – to go out there and even do something like this,” Caputo told CNN.</p>
<p>“Anybody who covered the Trump effort knew this was a pell-mell operation from the moment he woke up in the morning until the moment he went to bed.”</p> | Trump Tweets '#Fake News Is 'Distorting Democracy' | false | https://newsline.com/trump-tweets-fake-news-is-distorting-democracy/ | 2017-07-16 | 1 |
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<p>The father of the 19-year-old Pennsylvania woman who confessed to being a “Satanist” serial killer, has spoken out recently, stating that his daughter is a compulsive liar and probably did not carry out the string of murders she has confessed to. His daughter, Miranda Barbour, along&#160;with her newlywed husband is being charged with murdering a man she met through Craigslist.</p>
<p>Her father, Sonny Dean, said that if she is guilty, he would support his daughter’s execution if she is found guilty. He even went so far as to say that he would stand by at the execution and hold the hand of the victim’s widow if it turns out she committed the crimes she is accused of.</p>
<p>Even though he acknowledges his daughter is a compulsive liar, he says that he believes that she may have been involved in one other murder besides the November 11 fatal stabbing of Troy LaFerrara, 42, in Sunbury, Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>The victim met Barbour through a Craigstlist advertisement, where she offered companionship for money. She and her husband are accused of then stabbing the man, 20 times,&#160;then dumped his body in an alley.</p>
<p>Dean said he is not sure if she has committed the crimes though. While he acknowledges that it is possible, he said that “Miranda lives in a fantasy world,” and is heroin addict.</p>
<p>“Believe very little of what Miranda says,” Dean said from his Texas home. “She has a long history of extreme manipulation and dishonesty.”</p>
<p>He didn’t dispute her claims of being a satanist, nor her statement that she was involved in a murder with her satanic cult leader in Alaska.</p>
<p>“The reason I think that the Alaska incident is a possibility is that Miranda ran away from home at least two times that I remember, both for over a 48-hour period,” he explained. “Once was around the age of 13 and once was sometime the following year, when she was 14. I don’t know what took place during either of those 48-hour periods.”</p>
<p>Dean said he is praying for the family of the victim, and if the jury finds his daughter guilty, he “would stand side by side with you, take your hand, and silently pray that some good may come of this.”</p>
<p>(Article by M.B. David)</p> | Father of 19-Year-Old ‘Satanist’ Craigslist Killer Says Daughter Is A Compulsive Liar | true | http://politicalblindspot.com/father-of-19-year-old-satanist-craigslist-killer-says-daughter-is-a-compulsive-liar/ | 2014-02-20 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Women took to the streets in unexpectedly large numbers in major U.S. cities on Saturday in mass protests against U.S. President Donald Trump, in an early indication of the strong opposition the Republican may face in office.</p>
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<p>Hundreds of thousands of women - many wearing pink knit hats to evoke comments by Trump that were triggered outrage among many women - filled long stretches of downtown Washington around the White House and National Mall. Hundreds of thousands more women thronged New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston to rebuke Trump on his first full day in office.</p>
<p>Trump has angered many liberal Americans with comments seen as demeaning to women, Mexicans and Muslims, and worried some abroad with his inaugural vow on Friday to put "America First" in his decision-making.</p>
<p>The Women's March on Washington appeared to be larger than the crowds that turned a day earlier to witness Trump's inauguration on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. No official estimates of the crowd size were available, but the demonstrators appeared to easily exceed the 200,000 organizers had expected.</p>
<p>In Los Angeles the Sister March estimated it drew 750,000 demonstrators, and a planned march in Chicago grew so large that organizers did not attempt to parade through the streets but instead staged a rally. Police said more than 125,000 people attended.</p>
<p>The protests illustrated the depth of the division in the country, which is still reeling from the bitterly fought 2016 election campaign. Trump stunned the world by defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton, the first woman nominated for president by a major U.S. party.</p>
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<p>Pam Foyster, a resident of Ridgway, Colorado, said Saturday's atmosphere in Washington reminded her of the protests of the 1960s against the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>"I'm 58 years old and I can't believe we are having to do this again," Foyster said. She said that after the Vietnam War the push for women's rights and civil rights made her "believe anything was possible. But here we are again."</p>
<p>Although Republicans now control the White House and both houses of Congress, Trump faces entrenched opposition from segments of the public as he starts his term, in contrast to the honeymoon period that a new president typically experiences at the outset.</p>
<p>A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found Trump had the lowest favorability rating of any incoming U.S. president since the 1970s.</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of protesters filled streets of midtown Manhattan, while around the world thousands of women took to the streets of Sydney, London, Tokyo and other cities in Europe and Asia in "sister marches" against Trump.</p>
<p>Trump, in a Twitter post on Saturday, wrote, "I am honored to serve you, the great American People, as your 45th President of the United States!" He made no mention of the protests. Trump attended an interfaith service at Washington National Cathedral and then visited the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters.</p>
<p>SUBWAY OVERWHELMED</p>
<p>The Washington march stressed the city's Metro subway system, with riders reporting enormous crowds and some end-of-line stations temporarily turning people away when parking lots filled and platforms became overcrowded.</p>
<p>The Metro reported 275,000 rides as of 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) Saturday, 82,000 more than the 193,000 reported at the same time on Friday, the day of Trump's inauguration, and eight times normal Saturday volume.</p>
<p>No official crowd estimates were available from the National Park Service or Washington police.</p>
<p>Trump on Saturday angrily attacked media reports, including photos, that showed crowds at Friday's inaugural had been smaller than those seen in 2009 and 2013 when Barack Obama was inaugurated for his first and second terms as president. Overhead photos of the area showed significantly smaller crowds on Friday compared with Obama's first inauguration eight years ago.</p>
<p>"I made a speech, I looked out, the field was, it looked like a million, million and a half people," Trump said at his visit to the CIA. "They showed a field where there were practically nobody standing there."</p>
<p>Saturday's march was peaceful, a sharp contrast to the day before when black-clad anti-establishment activists, among the hundreds of demonstrators protesting against Trump, smashed windows, set vehicles on fire and fought with riot police, who responded with stun grenades.</p>
<p>Washington prosecutors on Saturday said about $100,000 in damage had been done on Friday and 230 adults and five minors had been arrested.</p>
<p>Many protesters on Saturday wore knitted pink cat-eared "pussy hats," in reference to Trump's claim in the 2005 video that was made public weeks before the election that he grabbed women by the genitals.</p>
<p>The Washington march featured speakers, celebrity appearances and a protest walk along the National Mall.</p>
<p>Crowds filled more than 10 city blocks of Independence Avenue, and people spilled onto side streets and the adjoining National Mall.</p>
<p>Among the well-known figures who attended were Madonna, who swore while discussing Trump before singing her 1989 hit "Express Yourself," singer Cher and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who waved to supporters as his walked his yellow Labrador, Ben.</p>
<p>WOMEN'S VOTES</p>
<p>Clinton won the popular vote in the Nov. 8 presidential election by around 2.9 million votes and had an advantage among women of more than 10 percentage points. Trump, however, easily won the state-by-state Electoral College vote that actually determines the winner.</p>
<p>Trump offered few if any olive branches to his opponents in his Friday inauguration speech in which he promised to put "America First."</p>
<p>"He has never seemed particularly concerned about people who oppose him, he almost fights against them instinctively," said Neil Levesque, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.</p>
<p>But the lawmakers whom Trump will rely on to achieve his policy goals, including building a wall on the Mexican border and replacing the 2010 healthcare reform law known as "Obamacare," may be more susceptible to the negative public opinion the march illustrates, Levesque said.</p>
<p>"Members of Congress are very sensitive to the public mood and many of them are down here this week to see him," Levesque said.</p>
<p>At the New York march, 42-year-old Megan Schulz, who works in communications, said she worried that Trump was changing the standards of public discourse.</p>
<p>"The scary thing about Donald Trump is that now all the Republicans are acquiescing to him and things are starting to become normalized," Schulz said. "We can't have our president talking about women the way he does."</p>
<p>(By Scott Malone and Ginger Gibso; Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert, Mike Stone, Jonathan Landay, Ian Simpson and Ginger Gibson in Washington, Alexander Besant and Jonathan Allen in New York and Timothy McLaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Alistair Bell and Leslie Adler)</p> | In Challenge to Trump, Women Protesters Swarm Streets Across U.S. | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/01/21/in-challenge-to-trump-women-protesters-swarm-streets-across-u-s.html | 2017-01-21 | 0 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — AP POLL ALERT: Kentucky out of men's AP Top 25 hoops for first time since March 2014; Nova No. 1 a 3rd straight week.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — AP POLL ALERT: Kentucky out of men's AP Top 25 hoops for first time since March 2014; Nova No. 1 a 3rd straight week.</p> | AP POLL ALERT: Kentucky out of men's AP Top 25 hoops for first time since March 2014; Nova No. 1 a 3rd straight week | false | https://apnews.com/amp/1ec175e12c3d4140ba04a8e77e2bdd23 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein apparently is trolling President Donald Trump on Twitter.</p>
<p>“Wish the moon wasn’t the only thing casting a shadow across the country,” Blankfein tweeted during Monday’s solar eclipse, without mentioning Trump by name. “We got through one, we’ll get through the other.”</p>
<p>Wish the moon wasn’t the only thing casting a shadow across the country. We got through one, we’ll get through the other. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SolarEclipse2017?src=hash" type="external">#SolarEclipse2017</a></p>
<p>— Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) <a href="https://twitter.com/lloydblankfein/status/899717191972638720" type="external">August 21, 2017</a></p>
<p>Blankfein’s tweet came as onlookers from Oregon to South Carolina whooped and cheered as the moon blotted out the sun, transforming a narrow band of the United States from day to night for two minutes at a time, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-solar-eclipse-usa-idUSKCN1B10D1" type="external">Reuters</a> reported.</p>
<p>Trump stepped out of the White House to see the eclipse, though he was spotted briefly looking up without protective glasses, which can cause eye damage, as an aide yelled “Don’t look!”</p>
<p>Blankfein’s tweet is the latest from the Goldman executive that appeared to jab at the president.</p>
<p>Of 13 tweets from his verified account so far, including Monday’s, Blankfein has appeared to troll the president in at least four tweets, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/21/goldmans-lloyd-blankfein-seems-to-be-making-a-habit-out-of-trolling-trump.html" type="external">CNBC reported.</a></p>
<p>Blankfein previously called out Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate-change accord and appeared to jab at the president over a themed “infrastructure week” that ended up focusing on former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony.</p>
<p>Blankfein also recently cited Abraham Lincoln’s famous remark that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” in a tweet referencing violence during a white supremacist march earlier this month in Charlottesville, Va.</p>
<p>Blankfein added to his tweet, “Isolate those who try to separate us. No equivalence w/ those who bring us together.”</p>
<p>Lincoln: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Isolate those who try to separate us. No equivalence w/ those who bring us together.</p>
<p>— Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) <a href="https://twitter.com/lloydblankfein/status/897089317457321984" type="external">August 14, 2017</a></p>
<p>Blankfein, who launched his Twitter account in June by criticizing one of Trump’s decisions, said he learned in the financial crisis to speak out when the bank or its employees may be threatened, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-19/blankfein-says-he-tweets-to-protect-goldman-sachs-s-standing" type="external">Bloomberg</a> reported.</p>
<p>In a recent&#160;interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Blankfein said there are limited reasons for him to weigh in publicly on current events. “Either it’s something in our wheelhouse of expertise,” such as warning U.S. policy makers against defaulting on the nation’s debt, the Goldman chief executive officer said. Or, it’s “when things really affect the ability of our people to be who they are and do their job.”</p>
<p>Blankfein unexpectedly appeared on Twitter in early June, joining U.S. corporate leaders in responding to Trump’s decision to ditch the Paris climate accord. The longtime banker labeled the move a “setback for the environment and for the U.S.’s leadership position in the world.” Trump has said leaving the accord would save money and jobs.</p>
<p>In recent years, Blankfein has occasionally issued statements or spoken publicly on a range of issues, such as supporting same-sex marriage, an issue that affects his employees. But since joining the micro-blogging website, he’s been more prolific, urging the U.S. to keep up with China on infrastructure spending and congratulating Jeff Immelt on his tenure atop General Electric Co.</p>
<p>Blankfein said he decided to become more vocal after the financial crisis, when he felt people misunderstood Goldman Sachs, “the value that we create, what we do in the communities, what we do for people who need capital.”</p>
<p>Blankfein’s former No. 2 Gary Cohn is chief economic adviser to President Donald Trump and was part of a “stay-in” camp that included Trump’s daughter Ivanka, Gary Cohn, and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-climatechange-goldman-sachs-idUSL1N1IY2CK" type="external">Reuters</a> reported.</p>
<p>(Newsmax wires services contributed to this report).</p> | CNBC: Goldman's Blankfein Apparently Trolling Trump on Twitter | false | https://newsline.com/cnbc-goldmans-blankfein-apparently-trolling-trump-on-twitter-2/ | 2017-08-22 | 1 |
<p>Gov. Brian Sandoval was poised to call state lawmakers into a special session Wednesday to consider an extraordinary package of tax breaks and incentives worth up to $1.3 billion to seal a deal with Tesla Motors Inc. to build a $5 billion factory in Nevada to make batteries for electric cars.</p>
<p>Sandoval told legislative leaders and others last week that the plant and its 6,500 workers would generate more than 20,000 construction and other related jobs and up to $100 billion for Nevada's economy over the next 20 years — a return on investment he estimated to be $80 for every $1 the state spends.</p>
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<p>Little public opposition has emerged among lawmakers since Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced alongside Sandoval on the Capitol steps Thursday that Nevada had beat out California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico for the factory expected to open east of Sparks in 2017.</p>
<p>Aides to the Republican governor said they expected the session to begin at noon Wednesday but he still had not issued the formal order late Tuesday afternoon to authorize the legislative work expected to take one to three days.</p>
<p>Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey, R-Reno, said his caucus had briefings scheduled with the governor's staff Tuesday night.</p>
<p>"We're getting ready for an all-nighter if necessary," Hickey said. "How long it is going to take is anybody's guess."</p>
<p>Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick of Las Vegas and other Democrats who control both legislative houses said one of their priorities would be to make sure the jobs go to Nevadans at prevailing wages. That shouldn't be a problem at the factory where Tesla says hourly pay will average $25 or more, but it could be a sticking point with some Republicans regarding the estimated 3,000 construction jobs projected to build the plant.</p>
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<p>Reno-Sparks area leaders took to local news shows on Tuesday to promote the deal.</p>
<p>"I can't see a downside to it," Washoe County Commission Chairwoman Marsha Berkbigler told KRNV-TV's "Nevada Newsmakers."</p>
<p>Still, the prospects of such a huge corporate giveaway drew criticism outside the mainstream, with one of the state's most liberal groups and one of its most conservative aligning in opposition to quick approval of the deal.</p>
<p>"Why isn't it that easy to raise taxes to fund education?" asked Bob Fulkerson, executive director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada who criticized the lack of transparency during the secret negotiations with Tesla.</p>
<p>The Nevada Policy Research Institute issued an extensive list of questions it said need to be answered before any deal is approved.</p>
<p>"Why is this happening so quickly?" the free-market think tank asked. "Why is the state creating a different set of rules for one company?"</p>
<p>Institute President Andy Matthews said the governor's "rosy projections'" came with no independent economic analysis.</p>
<p>"The governor, of course, will leave office no later than 2018, which means it will be taxpayers who are left holding the bag if all doesn't go as planned,'" Matthews said.</p>
<p>Assemblywoman Teresa Benitez-Thompson, D-Reno, chairwoman of the Government Affairs Committee, said she wants to make sure strings are attached to the tax benefits so Tesla has to give the money back if it fails to meet certain benchmarks.</p>
<p>Hickey said he's confident lawmakers will hold the company accountable.</p>
<p>"Tesla doesn't get any of these tax breaks until they have spent at least $3.5 billion in Nevada," he told KOH Radio in Reno.</p> | Nevada lawmakers gather in anticipation of special session to consider $1.3B package for Tesla | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/09/09/nevada-lawmakers-gather-in-anticipation-special-session-to-consider-13b-package.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
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<p>The Lobos, who will have two practice sessions almost every day for the next couple of weeks, reported from as close as a few miles from campus to as far away as Norway and Australia.</p>
<p>Seventh-year head coach&#160;Jeff Nelson&#160;said Wednesday morning’s session was spent getting as many touches on the ball as possible.</p>
<p>“It was exciting to see — it was good at times and it was frightening at times because we have six freshmen, but overall, there were a lot of really good things,” Nelson said. “We saw a lot of good things from each of our newcomers this morning and Devanne Sours, Juklia Warren, Danielle Ortiz, Lise Rugland, Maddie Mayfield and Cassie House of Rio Rancho had their first practices as a Lobo.</p>
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<p>“It was exhilarating,” House said of officially donning Cherry and Silver.</p>
<p>Warren, who knew she wanted to be a Lobo all through high school, echoed House.</p>
<p>“I can’t even believe I’m here already and I’m very excited to see where I can help this team,” Warren said.</p>
<p>Seven letter-winners, including six starters, from last year’s squad will help guide the incoming class. Two redshirts —&#160;Elsa Krieg&#160;(torn ACL) and&#160;Sara Stelzer&#160;(concussion) — are also healthy and ready to contribute. Redshirt freshman&#160;Ashley Kelsey&#160;will miss her second season due to another torn ACL suffered during spring training.</p>
<p>Senior Miquella Lovato&#160;felt the level of competitiveness go up a few notches with the blend of returners and newcomers. The three-year starter and 2012 Mountain West Designated Libero of the Year says the team will use the weeks leading up to the first match of the season to focus on getting familiar with each other.</p>
<p>“Every one of us was the best player on our high school team so now we need to focus on putting our talents together and learn how to play as a complete team,” Lovato said.</p>
<p>The Lobos return seven letter-winners from the 2012 squad that went 20-13 overall and finished 7-9 (seventh place) in the Mountain West. Five starters, plus the libero, are among the returners while the 2013 team is anchored by seniors Lovato, Lexi Ross and Lena Skipper.</p>
<p>UNM opens the season against University of Missouri-Kansas City at noon on Friday, Aug. 30, at the University of Arkansas Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.</p>
<p>The Lobos face the Razorbacks at 6 that evening and play Northwestern State on Saturday.</p>
<p>The Lobos’ home-opening weekend, Sept. 6-7, will draw UC Riverside, Towson and Idaho State for the Sheraton Airport Lobo Classic.</p>
<p>See them soon</p>
<p>The UNM volleyball team’s annual exhibition match with Lobo alumni will begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday in Johnson Center. Admission is free.The friendly contest between current and former volleyballers traditionally marks the start of the fall season for New Mexico. Fifteen alumnus participated in last year’s match, including five All-Americans: Pauline Manser, Maria Gurreri,&#160;Jeanne Fairchild,&#160;former Rio Rancho High School standout AshleyRhoades&#160;and&#160;Allison Buck. The Lobos past were outlasted by Lobos present, 3-2.</p>
<p>Former Cleveland High standout Cassie House is among the six-member freshman class for the Lobos this season.</p> | Coach Nelson likes what he sees from his six frosh | false | https://abqjournal.com/249690/coach-nelson-likes-what-he-sees-from-his-six-frosh.html | 2013-08-18 | 2 |
<p>WAUKON, Iowa (AP) — A fire has heavily damaged a restaurant in the eastern Iowa city of Waukon.</p>
<p>Waukon Fire Chief Dave Martin says firefighters quickly knocked down the flames Tuesday night inside Mulligan’s Grill Pub. But the heat generated melted items down the inside walls, and there was significant smoke damage. Firefighters remained on the scene until 10 a.m. Wednesday.</p>
<p>Martin says the building likely is a total loss. No injuries have been reported. The cause is being investigated.</p>
<p>Roberta Palmer owns a neighboring eatery, the Waukon Inn Restaurant, and she says she’s counting on Mulligan’s to make a comeback. She says Mulligan’s isn’t a full competitor, because her restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch, while Mulligan’s is open for lunch and supper. Palmer says the businesses sort of feed off each other.</p>
<p>Mulligan’s owner Dana Ruegnitz says he wants to find out what started the fire before making any plans to rebuild</p>
<p>WAUKON, Iowa (AP) — A fire has heavily damaged a restaurant in the eastern Iowa city of Waukon.</p>
<p>Waukon Fire Chief Dave Martin says firefighters quickly knocked down the flames Tuesday night inside Mulligan’s Grill Pub. But the heat generated melted items down the inside walls, and there was significant smoke damage. Firefighters remained on the scene until 10 a.m. Wednesday.</p>
<p>Martin says the building likely is a total loss. No injuries have been reported. The cause is being investigated.</p>
<p>Roberta Palmer owns a neighboring eatery, the Waukon Inn Restaurant, and she says she’s counting on Mulligan’s to make a comeback. She says Mulligan’s isn’t a full competitor, because her restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch, while Mulligan’s is open for lunch and supper. Palmer says the businesses sort of feed off each other.</p>
<p>Mulligan’s owner Dana Ruegnitz says he wants to find out what started the fire before making any plans to rebuild</p> | Fire heavily damages restaurant in eastern Iowa | false | https://apnews.com/f10a79f7385d436db4b55dd6de6b0b47 | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p>“Marvel’s The Punisher” actor <a href="http://variety.com/t/jon-bernthal/" type="external">Jon Bernthal</a> recounted his experience working with <a href="http://variety.com/t/kevin-spacey/" type="external">Kevin Spacey</a> on Sirius XM’s “Jim and Sam Show,” calling the actor, who is currently under scrutiny for alleged sexual misconduct, a “bully.”</p>
<p>Bernthal, who acted in “Baby Driver” alongside Spacey, explained that the “House of Cards” actor had fostered one the most “transformative experiences” in Bernthal’s career when he saw Spacey in a West End production of “The Iceman Cometh” several years ago. But after witnessing Spacey’s behavior on the “Baby Driver” set, Bernthal’s opinion changed.</p>
<p>“Going onto that set and working with him — I wasn’t there much and I wasn’t really in a situation to judge — but when I was there he really rubbed me the wrong way,” Bernthal said. “I thought he was a bit of a bully… I didn’t really care for the way he was behaving toward some of the other people on set.”</p>
<p>Though Bernthal stated that he never saw Spacey engage in the sort of misconduct he’s been accused of by several men, he said that the way Spacey talked to some of the crew made him uncomfortable.</p>
<p>“I think he was acting toward people in a way that — where I remember, at the time, thinking, man if that was a woman that he was talking to, I would have done something, I would have said something,” Bernthal said. “And I was really happy to sort of get out of there, for that reason.”</p>
<p>“I just remember losing a ton of respect for him,” he continued. “The kind of man he was when I saw him, working with him, made me lose all respect for him and I was enormously disappointed.”</p>
<p>Numerous allegations have come out against Spacey since actor Anthony Rapp accused him of improper behavior when Rapp was 14 years old. Spacey is the subject of a <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/scotland-yard-launches-investigation-kevin-spacey-1202606250/" type="external">police investigation</a> in the U.K. after further allegations came out regarding alleged sexual misconduct while he was director of the Old Vic theater. The actor was also <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/netflix-fires-kevin-spacey-from-house-of-cards-1202607002/" type="external">suspended</a> from “House of Cards,” and Netflix announced the sixth season of the show <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/netflix-spacey-house-of-cards-netflix-1202602359/" type="external">would be its last</a>. Sony <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/kevin-spacey-all-the-money-in-the-world-christopher-plummer-1202610614/" type="external">recast his role</a> in J. Paul Getty biopic “All the Money in the World,” with Christopher Plummer re-shooting Spacey’s scenes.</p>
<p>Listen to the interview below.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p> | Jon Bernthal Lost ‘All Respect’ for Kevin Spacey After Working With Him on ‘Baby Driver’ | false | https://newsline.com/jon-bernthal-lost-all-respect-for-kevin-spacey-after-working-with-him-on-baby-driver/ | 2017-11-09 | 1 |
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<p>MIAMI — Goran Dragic scored 27 points, Dion Waiters had 26 with a pair of big 3-pointers in the final minutes and the Miami Heat held on to beat Boston 104-98 on Wednesday night, snapping the Celtics’ 16-game winning streak.</p>
<p>Tyler Johnson scored 16 points for Miami, which had an 18-point lead cut to one in the final moments. The Heat shot 49 percent and outrebounded the Celtics 48-37.</p>
<p>Kyrie Irving scored 23 points for Boston. Jayson Tatum added 18, and Jaylen Brown and Marcus Morris each had 14.</p>
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<p>The Celtics got down by 18 in the first half, which has been a very comfortable place for Boston this season. Boston had overcome 18-point deficits against Oklahoma City and Charlotte, a 17-point hole against Golden State, a 16-pointer against Atlanta and rallied from 13 down to win in Dallas this week.</p>
<p>The Celtics almost did it again.</p>
<p>Down by 14 midway through the fourth, the unflappable Celtics went on a 13-0 run in just about three minutes — getting to 91-90 when Smart made one of two free throws with 3:14 remaining.</p>
<p>Waiters decided that was close enough. His 3-pointer from the left wing bounced off the rim, then the top of the backboard, before falling to end Miami’s scoreless drought. Waiters added another 3-pointer over Al Horford to make the lead seven, Hassan Whiteside had a big tip-in with 1:10 left and Miami would hang on from there.</p>
<p>THUNDER 108, WARRIORS 91</p>
<p>OKLAHOMA CITY — Russell Westbrook scored a season-high 34 points and added 10 rebounds and nine assists to help Oklahoma City roll past Golden State.</p>
<p>Oklahoma City beat the Warriors for the first time since Kevin Durant left the Thunder to join the Warriors after the 2015-16 season. Golden State won all four meetings last season.</p>
<p>Westbrook said it was just another game in the buildup, but he didn’t play like it. At one point in the third quarter, Westbrook and Durant went forehead to forehead and were called for double technicals.</p>
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<p>Westbrook’s new All-Star teammates came through. Carmelo Anthony had 22 points and Paul George 20.</p>
<p>The crowd booed Durant nearly every time he touched the ball. He finished with 21 points on 8-for-17 shooting. Stephen Curry scored 24 points for the Warriors.</p>
<p>CAVALIERS 119, NETS 109</p>
<p>CLEVELAND — LeBron James shook off a blow to the face and scored 23 points in the fourth quarter — including 18 straight for Cleveland — and the Cavaliers beat Brooklyn for their sixth straight victory.</p>
<p>James needed stitches in the third quarter to close a gash above his lip that drew blood. He punched back at the Nets in the fourth and finished with 33 points.</p>
<p>With the Cavs up 100-99, James began his one-man show with a pair of free throws. He dropped in a couple left-handed shots and then drained two 3-pointers — the last a step-back with 55 seconds left to give Cleveland a 118-107 lead.</p>
<p>James’ solo performance enabled the Cavs to avenge a 112-107 loss in Brooklyn last month.</p>
<p>Kevin Love and Dwyane Wade added 18 points apiece for Cleveland.</p>
<p>Rondae Hollis-Jefferson scored 20 points for the Nets.</p>
<p>BUCKS 113, SUNS 107, OT</p>
<p>PHOENIX — Khris Middleton scored 40 points and Eric Bledsoe added 30 in his return to Phoenix, leading short-handed Milwaukee.</p>
<p>Devin Booker led the Suns with 23 points and hit a long 3-pointer as time expired in the fourth quarter to force overtime. But they had four of their season-high 29 turnovers in overtime and shot 1 for 8 in the extra period.</p>
<p>Booker missed a chance to tie it seven seconds left in the extra session, and Middleton made four free throws to seal the Bucks’ ninth victory of the season.</p>
<p>Bledsoe was traded to Milwaukee on Nov. 9 in the deal that brought center Greg Monroe the Suns. Monroe had 22 points and 15 rebounds.</p>
<p>The Bucks played without Giannis Antetokounmpo and four other players.</p>
<p>ROCKETS 125, NUGGETS 95</p>
<p>HOUSTON — Trevor Ariza had a season-high 25 points in Houston’s victory over Denver.</p>
<p>Ariza was 7 of 10 from 3-point range. Chris Paul had 23 points and 12 assists, and James Harden added 21 points, nine assists and eight rebounds in limited action.</p>
<p>The Rockets have won nine of last 10 games, and beat Denver for the fifth straight time after sweeping the series 4-0 last season.</p>
<p>Will Barton led Denver with 20 points.</p>
<p>76ERS 101, TRAIL BLAZERS 81</p>
<p>PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid had 28 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks and fast-starting Philadelphia handled Portland with ease.</p>
<p>Coming off a 21-point victory over Utah on Monday night, the 76ers scored the game’s first 16 points and held a double-digit lead most of the way.</p>
<p>Portland missed its first 13 shots before Shabazz Napier came off the bench and hit a jumper with 5:01 left in the first quarter. The Blazers never got closer than eight. It was the Blazers’ lowest points total of the season, and the fewest that Philadelphia has allowed.</p>
<p>Damian Lillard had 30 points for Portland.</p>
<p>HORNETS 129, WIZARDS 124, OT</p>
<p>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dwight Howard had 26 points and 13 rebounds, including a key block at the end of regulation and a crucial offensive rebound in overtime, to help Charlotte beat Washington.</p>
<p>Kemba Walker and Jeremy Lamb each had 24 points for the Hornets, who overcame a nine-point fourth quarter deficit. The Hornets wrapped up a perfect three-game homestand.</p>
<p>John Wall had 31 points and 11 assists, and Bradley Beal added 22 points for the Wizards.</p>
<p>CLIPPERS 116, HAWKS 103</p>
<p>ATLANTA — Blake Griffin had 26 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, Wesley Johnson scored a season-high 24 points and Los Angeles beat Atlanta to snapped a nine-game skid.</p>
<p>The Clippers had dropped 11 of 12, but they overcame a monthlong struggle of closing out opponents, taking the lead for good on a pair of free throws by Lou Williams with 4:11 left in the third quarter.</p>
<p>Los Angeles had out a season-high 30 assists.</p>
<p>Marco Belinelli had 20 points of the Hawks.</p>
<p>PELICANS 107, SPURS 90</p>
<p>NEW ORLEANS — Anthony Davis had 29 points and 11 rebounds, Demarcus Cousins added 24 points and 15 rebounds, and New Orleans beat San Antonio.</p>
<p>Jrue Holiday scored 13 points and Darius Miller chipped in 13 on four 3-pointers for the Pelicans.</p>
<p>Pau Gasol had 17 points and LaMarcus Aldridge 16 in a largely frustrating night for San Antonio. The Spurs shot only 39.8 percent (35 of 88) and went 6 of 24 from 3-point range.</p>
<p>MAVERICKS 95, GRIZZLIES 94</p>
<p>MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Harrison Barnes banked in a 30-footer at the buzzer to lift Dallas past Memphis.</p>
<p>Officials reviewed the play to make sure the shot got off in time. Memphis suffered its sixth straight loss after squandering an 18-point lead in the first half.</p>
<p>Barnes led the Mavericks with 22 points, nine of them coming in the fourth quarter to help Dallas thwart a late Memphis comeback. Dennis Smith Jr. finished with 17 points, and J.J. Barea had 10 points and 11 assists. Tyreke Evans led Memphis with 18 points.</p>
<p>TIMBERWOLVES 124, MAGIC 118</p>
<p>MINNEAPOLIS — Jimmy Butler tied a season high with 26 points, Taj Gibson scored a season-high 24, and Minnesota held off Orlando.</p>
<p>Jeff Teague had 22 points and 11 assists, and Andrew Wiggins added 20 points as all five starters scored in double figures to help the Timberwolves end a two-game slide.</p>
<p>Karl-Anthony Towns had 18 points and 13 rebounds for his 14th double-double, which tied DeMarcus Cousins for the league lead. Aaron Gordon had 26 points and nine rebounds for the Magic.</p>
<p>KNICKS 108, RAPTORS 100</p>
<p>NEW YORK — Tim Hardaway Jr. scored a career-high 38 points, including 12 during a 28-0 run in the third quarter that sent New York past Toronto.</p>
<p>Kristaps Porzingis added 22 points and 12 rebounds for the Knicks, who outscored the Raptors 41-10 in the third. Kyle Lowry scored 25 points and DeMar DeRozan had 18 for the Raptors.</p>
<p>KINGS 113, LAKERS 102</p>
<p>SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Zach Randolph had 22 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, Willie Cauley-Stein added 26 points and the Sacramento beat Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Buddy Hield added 10 points for Sacramento, including a pair of 3-pointers during a 15-5 run to open the fourth quarter. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 14, Frank Mason added 11 and De’Aaron Fox had 13 in his first NBA matchup against Lonzo Ball.</p>
<p>The Kings trailed briefly in the first quarter but took the lead on Randolph’s up-and-under basket past Brook Lopez and slowly pulled away after that. Sacramento led by as many as 20 and dominated Los Angeles on the boards.</p>
<p>Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 20 points, Kyle Kuzma had 17 and Ball had 11 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds for the Lakers. Los Angeles was playing the second half of a back-to-back after rallying from 19 down to beat the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday.</p>
<p>JAZZ 110, BULLS 80</p>
<p>SALT LAKE CITY — Derrick Favors scored 23 points, reserve Rodney Hood added 19 and Utah beat Chicago.</p>
<p>Alec Burks chipped in 15 points for Utah, which snapped a three-game losing streak to Chicago extending back to the 2015-16 season.</p>
<p>Robin Lopez scored 15 points and Bobby Portis added 14 points and eight rebounds off the bench for the Bulls. Justin Holiday and Kris Dunn chipped in 12 points apiece. Chicago (3-13) dropped to 0-3 on its Western road trip.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more NBA coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball</p> | Miami beats Boston, ending Celtics’ winning streak at 16 | false | https://abqjournal.com/1096758/miami-beats-boston-ending-celtics-winning-streak-at-16.html | 2017-11-22 | 2 |
<p>Did Naomi Wolf get her facts straight in her Guardian <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy" type="external">report</a> about American mayors acting in cahoots with the Department of Homeland Security in their recent crackdowns on OWS encampments, or did she engage in a little journalistic extrapolation? Those aren’t the only two options here, but at least one noteworthy critique calls some of her claims into question — and it’s not coming from Fox News. –KA</p>
<p>AlterNet:</p>
<p>There has been a flurry of speculation surrounding various reports suggesting that a “coordinated,” nationwide crack-down on the Occupy Movement is underway. The problem with these stories lies in the fact that the word “coordinated” is too vague to offer any analytic value.</p>
<p>The difference between local officials talking to each other — or federal law enforcement agencies advising them on what they see as “best practices” for evicting local occupations — and some unseen hand directing, incentivizing or coercing municipalities to do so when they would not otherwise be so inclined is not a minor one. It’s not a matter of semantics or a distinction without difference. As I wrote recently, “if federal authorities were ordering cities to crack down on their local occupations in a concerted effort to wipe out a movement that has spread like wildfire across the country, that would indeed be a huge, and hugely troubling story. In the United States, policing protests is a local matter, and law enforcement agencies must remain accountable for their actions to local officials. Local government’s autonomy in this regard is an important principle.”</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/153222/naomi_wolf%E2%80%99s_%E2%80%98shocking_truth%E2%80%99_about_the_%E2%80%98occupy_crackdowns%E2%80%99_offers_anything_but_the_truth" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Wolf's OWS Report Sparks Debate | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/wolfs-ows-report-sparks-debate/ | 2011-11-29 | 4 |
<p>Books on economic affairs don't sell well in Britain. I should know. In 1982 I presented an eight-part television series for the BBC entitled Whatever Happened to Britain? There was a book of the show, and every evening that the program was broadcast (the series was repeated three times in three years) the BBC urged viewers to go out and buy the book. Nearly five million people watched the program. Only about twenty-six thousand bought the book. Yet in one year, without the benefit of free television advertising, Will Hutton's The State We're In has sold a hundred thousand copies, and at this writing (January 1996) it is at the top of the paperback best-seller lists.</p>
<p>Why has Hutton's book done so well? First, it's a brilliant book (far better than mine), a remarkable synthesis of insights into contemporary British economics and politics written with stylish verve and not a little passion. Second, the book has caught the mood of the times. Hutton has captured the atmosphere of social disinte- gration and economic decline that pervades Tory Britain. Third, with the Labour party sustaining opinion poll leads of thirty points or so, people are eager to know what a new Labour government might do, and Hutton's book has undoubt- edly had a significant impact on Labour thinking. Fourth, and this is cause for some optimism, the reception for Hutton's book suggests a growing constituency for real change in Britain. The sheer bravado of Hutton's sweeping analysis has captured the imagination and fueled the hopes of many members of that constituency.</p>
<p /> | Labour's Economics; The State We're In by Will Hutton, Jonathan Cape | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/labours-economics-the-state-were-in-by-will-hutton-jonathan-cape | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>LONDON (Reuters) – British tour operator Thomas Cook (L:) said on Thursday it had entered into a strategic alliance with Expedia (O:) to make the online travel company its preferred provider of hotels for certain holiday sales.</p>
<p>Thomas Cook said that while it remained focused on its own-brand hotels, Expedia would be the preferred partner for its “complementary city and domestic holiday business”, a wider range of hotels to give customers more choice.</p>
<p>Thomas Cook CEO Peter Fankhauser said the agreement would “transform Thomas Cook’s city breaks and hotel-only offer for customers while helping the business take an important step forward in delivering our strategy for profitable growth.”</p>
<p>“This will free us up to focus on holidays to our own-brand and selected partner hotels in sun &amp; beach locations where we know we can really make a difference to customers,” he said in a statement.</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> | Thomas Cook partners with Expedia for hotel sales | false | https://newsline.com/thomas-cook-partners-with-expedia-for-hotel-sales/ | 2017-09-14 | 1 |
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<p>PHOENIX - A group backing a voter initiative legalizing recreational use of marijuana and regulating it like alcohol has collected 50,000 of the 150,000 signatures it needs to get on Arizona's November 2016 ballot.</p>
<p>The Marijuana Policy Project announced what it called a significant milestone in its effort to legalize pot in the state Wednesday. It needs to gather the signatures by July 7, 2016 to qualify the initiative.</p>
<p>The initiative would allow people age 21 years and older to grow and consume small amounts of marijuana. It also would set up a regulatory system allowing licensed businesses to grow and sell marijuana and let local governments oversee or prohibit pot businesses.</p>
<p>Marijuana sales would be subject to Arizona sales tax plus a 15 percent tax to fund education.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 50K signatures gathered for initiative legalizing pot in AZ | false | https://abqjournal.com/623959/50k-signatures-gathered-for-initiative-legalizing-pot-in-az.html | 2 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal" />CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Cheyenne area officials are backing a $13 million loan and grant package to help Magpul Industries move its manufacturing operations to Wyoming.</p>
<p>Laramie County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to support the $5 million loan and $8 million grant from the county’s economic development corporation.</p>
<p>Magpul, one of the country’s largest producers of ammunition magazines, announced last week it was leaving Colorado and moving its manufacturing to Cheyenne and its headquarters to Texas because of the state’s new restrictions on magazines.</p>
<p>The Wyoming Tribune Eagle ( <a href="http://bit.ly/1eq5V6J" type="external">http://bit.ly/1eq5V6J</a> ) reports that the economic development corporation will also pay for $1.5 million in renovations at the building Magpul is leasing while it builds its new manufacturing facility.</p>
<p>The corporation’s business director says the county had to offer an incentive package to compete with other states.</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Information from: Wyoming Tribune Eagle, <a href="http://www.wyomingnews.com" type="external">http://www.wyomingnews.com</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Laramie County backs $13M Magpul incentive package | false | https://abqjournal.com/332992/laramie-county-backs-13m-magpul-incentive-package.html | 2 |
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<p>Over 35,000 walruses took to the beaches last Saturday, pictures taken near Point Lay on the Chucki Sea in Northern Alaska reveal. Unlike humans, walruses do not welcome this vacation. Rather, this migration is merely a response to the dwindling amounts of sea ice in the Arctic.</p>
<p>Ecologists have many concerns over the vast number of animals “hauling out” on these beaches. For one, conditions on land are not ideal for the walrus, which prefers to spend his/her day on sea ice diving for shellfish on the ocean floor. According to Tony Fischbach, wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, these walruses periodically forage into the ocean, but as nearby sources of food become depleted, journeying far out into the ocean may lead to walruses expending more energy than they gain. His group is beginning to radio track walrus activity in order to answer this question and to learn more about the adaptive behaviors of the walrus, <a href="" type="external">Think Progress</a> reports.</p>
<p>Condensed on beaches, walruses are more susceptible to the spread of disease, stampeding, and the exhaustion of the food supply. The ecological impact of this new phenomenon is unknown.</p>
<p>Similar to the migration of the polar bear, all signs indicate another manifestation of climate change and global warming. In waters across the Pacific, temperature increases of greater than 5 degrees Fahrenheit have been noticed, including a large “blob” in the Gulf of Alaska, a vast expanse within the Bering Sea, and a recent stretch of water off Southern California that emerged earlier this year, <a href="http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/news/features/food_chain/index.cfm" type="external">Northwest Fisheries Science Center</a> reports.</p>
<p>While the Federal Aviation Administration has requested that pilots avoid flying near these occupied beaches to avoid triggering a stampede, the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/walruses-crowd-shore-as-arctic-sea-ice-nears-minimum" type="external">World Wildlife Fund</a> points directly to global greenhouse gas emissions as culprits of this phenomenon.</p>
<p /> | 35,000 walruses forced ashore by melting Arctic sea ice | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/10/03/35000-walruses-forced-ashore-by-melting-arctic-sea-ice/ | 2014-10-03 | 3 |
<p>Jan 23 (Reuters) - Mogo Finance Technology Inc:</p>
<p>* MOGO ANNOUNCES FORMATION OF MOGO BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY AND ANNOUNCES PLANS TO BEGIN BITCOIN MINING WITH DMG BLOCKCHAIN SOLUTIONS</p>
<p>* MOGO FINANCE - ‍UNDER AGREEMENT WITH DMG, CO TO INITIALLY LEASE 1,000 BITCOIN MINING MACHINES, WHICH CO EXPECTS TO BE OPERATIONAL LATER THIS QUARTER Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - The head of Alphabet Inc’s autonomous driving unit, Waymo, said on Saturday that the company’s technology would have safely handled the situation confronting an Uber self-driving vehicle last week when it struck a pedestrian, killing her.</p> FILE PHOTO: John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo, speaks during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., January 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
<p>Waymo CEO John Krafcik told auto dealers at a gathering of the National Automobile Dealers Association in Las Vegas that the company was well on its way to its goal of decreasing motor vehicle fatalities.</p>
<p>“At Waymo, we have a lot of confidence that our technology would be able to handle a situation like that,” Krafcik said, referring to a scenario in which a pedestrian crosses the street at night.</p>
<p>The fatal collision on March 18 in Tempe, Arizona, has raised questions about the safety of autonomous technology in general, and of Uber’s system specifically, of which few details are known.</p> FILE PHOTO: A Waymo self-driving vehicle is parked outside the Alphabet company's offices where its been testing autonomous vehicles in Chandler, Arizona, U.S., March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Heather Somerville/File Photo
<p>An investigation by police and federal safety regulators is ongoing into the accident, in which an Uber test vehicle driving in autonomous mode hit a pedestrian at night as she was walking across a four-lane roadway with her bike.</p>
<p>Having worked on self-driving cars since 2009 and with 5 million miles (8 million km) driven on public roads under its belt, Waymo is generally considered to be ahead of rivals in the development of autonomous vehicle technology.</p>
<p>The company plans to roll out a service for passengers in coming months in the Phoenix area offering rides in a fully self-driving Waymo car with no driver, with plans to subsequently roll out the program more widely.</p>
<p>Companies developing self-driving technology, which also include General Motors Co, Toyota Motor Corp and a host of startups, are waiting to see whether fall-out from the accident leads to new restrictions on the relatively unregulated sector.</p>
<p>Writing By Alexandria Sage; Editing by Sandra Maler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SAN FRANCISCO/LONDON (Reuters) - Opinion polls published on Sunday in the United States and Germany indicated that a majority of the public were losing trust in Facebook over privacy, as the firm ran advertisements in British and U.S. newspapers apologizing to users.</p> FILE PHOTO: Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks on stage during the annual Facebook F8 developers conference in San Jose, California, U.S., April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam
<p>Fewer than half of Americans trust Facebook to obey U.S. privacy laws, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday, while a survey published by Bild am Sonntag, Germany’s largest-selling Sunday paper, found 60 percent of Germans fear that Facebook and other social networks are having a negative impact on democracy.</p>
<p>Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg apologized for “a breach of trust” in advertisements placed in papers including the Observer in Britain and the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.</p>
<p>“We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can’t, we don’t deserve it,” said the advertisement, which appeared in plain text on a white background with a tiny Facebook logo.</p>
<p>The world’s largest social media network is coming under growing government scrutiny in Europe and the United States, and is trying to repair its reputation among users, advertisers, lawmakers and investors.</p>
<p>This follows allegations that the British consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly gained access to users’ information to build profiles of American voters that were later used to help elect U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016.</p>
<p>U.S. Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press” on Sunday that Facebook had not been “fully forthcoming” over how Cambridge Analytica had used Facebook data.</p>
<p>Warner repeated calls for Zuckerberg to testify in person before U.S. lawmakers, saying Facebook and other internet companies had been reluctant to confront “the dark underbelly of social media” and how it can be manipulated.</p> “BREACH OF TRUST”
<p>Zuckerberg acknowledged that an app built by a university researcher had “leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014”.</p> A figurine is seen in front of the Facebook logo in this illustration taken March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
<p>“This was a breach of trust, and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time,” Zuckerberg said, reiterating an apology first made last week in U.S. television interviews.</p>
<p>Facebook shares tumbled 14 percent last week, while the hashtag #DeleteFacebook gained traction online.</p>
<p>The Reuters/Ipsos online poll found that 41 percent of Americans trust Facebook to obey laws that protect their personal information, compared with 66 percent who said they trust Amazon.com Inc, 62 percent who trust Alphabet Inc’s Google, 60 percent for Microsoft Corp.</p>
<p>The poll was conducted from Wednesday through Friday and had 2,237 responses. ( <a href="https://reut.rs/2G9hvrv" type="external">reut.rs/2G9hvrv</a>)</p>
<p>The German poll published by Bild was conducted by Kantar EMNID, a unit of global advertising holding company WPP, using representative polling methods, the firm said. Overall, only 33 percent found social media had a positive effect on democracy, against 60 percent who believed the opposite.</p>
<p>It is too early to say if distrust will cause people to step back from Facebook, eMarketer analyst Debra Williamson said in an interview. Customers of banks or other industries do not necessarily quit after losing faith, she said.</p>
<p>“It’s psychologically harder to let go of a platform like Facebook that’s become pretty well ingrained into people’s lives,” she said.</p>
<p>Data supplied to Reuters by the Israeli firm SimilarWeb, which measures global online audiences, indicated that Facebook usage in major markets and worldwide remained steady over the past week.</p>
<p>“Desktop, mobile and app usage has remained steady and well within the expected range,” said Gitit Greenberg, SimilarWeb’s director of market insights. “It is important to separate frustration from actual tangible impacts to Facebook usage.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by William James in London, Dustin Volz in Washington D.C. and Chris Kahn in New Editing by Kevin Liffey</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MUMBAI (Reuters) - Allegations that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official mobile applicati <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com" type="external">here</a>.narendramodiapp&amp;hl=en was sending personal user data to a third party without their consent caused a furor on social media in India and drew criticism from the leader of the main opposition party on Sunday.</p> FILE PHOTO: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks with the media inside the parliament premises on the first day of the budget session, in New Delhi, India, January 29, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File photo
<p>Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party denied <a href="https://twitter.com/BJP4India/status/977811651989680128" type="external">here</a> the allegations and said the data was being used only for analytics to offer all users the "most contextual content".</p>
<p>A security researcher, who has previously highlighted some vulnerabilities in India's national identity card project and who tweets under the pseudonym Elliot Alderson, posted <a href="https://twitter.com/fs0c131y/status/977267255309463554" type="external">here</a> a series of tweets on Saturday stating the app was sending personal user data to a third-party domain that was traced to an American company.</p>
<p>The tweets, which come at a time of heightened sensitivity around the alleged misuse of personal data amid the unfolding Facebook-Cambridge Analytica controversy <a href="" type="internal">here</a>, triggered a stir in India on social media.</p>
<p>"Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies," wrote <a href="https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/977778259810226177" type="external">here</a> opposition Congress Party Chief Rahul Gandhi in a Twitter message on Sunday.</p>
<p>The BJP quickly responded on Twitter, saying Gandhi was trying to divert attention. The BJP has accused the Congress of engaging Cambridge Analytica in India, a charge the opposition party has denied.</p>
<p>Alderson, who initially pointed out that the Narendra Modi app was sharing data with a third party without the consent of users, earlier on Sunday posted a new tweet saying the app had "quietly" updated <a href="https://twitter.com/fs0c131y/status/977847395743617024" type="external">here</a> its privacy policy after his previous tweets.</p>
<p>Reuters could not independently verify Alderson’s claim.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Modi has not commented on the issue.</p>
<p>BJP said the app - which has seen about 5 million downloads on the Google Android Play Store - allows users access even in a guest mode that does not require them to grant any permissions.</p>
<p>“The permissions required are all ... cause-specific,” the BJP tweeted.</p>
<p>Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Euan Rocha and David Evans</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Fewer than half of Americans trust Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) to obey U.S. privacy laws, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday, illustrating the challenge facing the social media network after a scandal over its handling of personal information.</p>
<p>The poll, taken Wednesday through Friday, also found that fewer Americans trust Facebook than other tech companies that gather user data, such as Apple Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" type="external">AAPL.O</a>), Alphabet Inc’s Google ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>), Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), Microsoft Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>) and Yahoo.</p>
<p>Some 41 percent of Americans trust Facebook to obey laws that protect their personal information, compared with 66 percent who said they trust Amazon, 62 percent who trust Google, 60 percent for Microsoft and 47 percent for Yahoo.</p>
<p>The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 2,237 people and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2 percentage points. (Graphic: <a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/2pA8DoG" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2pA8DoG</a>)</p>
<p>Facebook, the world's largest social media firm, has been offering apologies as it tries to repair its reputation among users, advertisers, lawmakers and investors for mistakes that let 50 million users' data get into the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. (Graphic: Poll data - <a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/2pFHBfN" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2pFHBfN</a>)</p>
<p>Facebook shares tumbled 14 percent last week, while the hashtag #DeleteFacebook gained traction online and the company’s chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, faced demands that he appear before U.S. lawmakers to testify in a hearing.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg and Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, said last week that shoring up trust was their priority. “We know this is an issue of trust. We know this is a critical moment for our company,” Sandberg told CNBC on Thursday.</p>
<p>It is too early to say if distrust will cause people to step back from Facebook, eMarketer analyst Debra Williamson said. Customers of banks or other industries do not necessarily quit after losing faith, she said.</p>
<p>“It’s psychologically harder to let go of a platform like Facebook that’s become pretty well ingrained into people’s lives,” she said.</p>
<p>One reason that Facebook and other internet companies collect personal information from users is to deliver advertisements for products and services to people who are most likely to want them.</p> FILE PHOTO: A 3D-printed Facebook Like symbol is displayed inverted in front of a U.S. flag in this illustration taken, March 18, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
<p>Facebook, with more than 2 billion monthly active users, made almost all its $40.6 billion in revenue last year from advertising.</p>
<p>The poll found that many people take a dim view of those “targeted” advertisements.</p>
<p>Some 63 percent said they would like to see “less targeted advertising” in the future, while 9 percent said they wanted more. When asked to compare them with traditional forms of advertising, 41 percent said targeted ads are “worse” while 21 percent said they are “better.”</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 159.39 FB.O Nasdaq -5.50 (-3.34%) FB.O AAPL.O GOOGL.O AMZN.O MSFT.O
<p>“I think they make a lot of assumptions that are not true,” poll respondent Maria Curran, 56, who lives near Manchester, New Hampshire, said in a follow-up interview.</p>
<p>“It’s like if I show an interest in healthy eating, all of a sudden all of the ads are about weight control and exercise and how to lose weight. I just get inundated,” she said.</p>
<p>Curran said she knows online retailer Amazon.com also collects her information for targeted marketing, but that it is less annoying because it is a shopping site, not a place for personal conversations.</p>
<p>Another poll respondent, Kamaal Greene, 26, said he likes targeted ads better than traditional ones because they provide a service, steering him to products he wants.</p>
<p>“A while ago I was looking for a special kind of glove for my job,” said Greene, a firefighter from Detroit.</p>
<p>“I put it in my Amazon cart and forgot about it. Then, later, the ad popped up on ... Facebook, and I was like ‘oh shoot.’ It reminded me and I clicked on it and bought it.”</p>
<p>A plurality of adults said they would like the government to take a bigger role in overseeing the industry’s handling of user information. According to the poll, 46 percent of adults said they want more government regulation, while 17 percent said they want less. Another 20 percent said they wanted no change, and the remaining 18 percent said they did not know.</p>
<p>Reporting by Chris Kahn in New York and David Ingram in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Mogo Announces Formation Of Mogo Blockchain Technology And Plans To Begin Bitcoin Mining With DMG Blockchain Solutions Waymo CEO says its tech would have handled Uber self-driving incident safely Polls show Facebook losing trust as firm uses ads to apologize Furor erupts around Indian PM Modi's app over alleged data sharing Americans less likely to trust Facebook than rivals on personal data: Reuters/Ipsos poll | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-mogo-announces-formation-of-mogo-b/brief-mogo-announces-formation-of-mogo-blockchain-technology-and-plans-to-begin-bitcoin-mining-with-dmg-blockchain-solutions-idUSFWN1PI0OG | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ These Kansas lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</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>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>2-4-6</p>
<p>(two, four, six)</p>
<p>Daily Pick 3</p>
<p>3-3-6</p>
<p>(three, three, six)</p>
<p>Super Kansas Cash</p>
<p>07-16-19-26-29, Cash Ball: 17</p>
<p>(seven, sixteen, nineteen, twenty-six, twenty-nine; Cash Ball: seventeen)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $120,000</p>
<p>2 By 2</p>
<p>Red Balls: 1-03, White Balls: 15-23</p>
<p>(Red Balls: one, three; White Balls: fifteen, twenty-three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $22,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</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>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) _ These Kansas lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</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>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>2-4-6</p>
<p>(two, four, six)</p>
<p>Daily Pick 3</p>
<p>3-3-6</p>
<p>(three, three, six)</p>
<p>Super Kansas Cash</p>
<p>07-16-19-26-29, Cash Ball: 17</p>
<p>(seven, sixteen, nineteen, twenty-six, twenty-nine; Cash Ball: seventeen)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $120,000</p>
<p>2 By 2</p>
<p>Red Balls: 1-03, White Balls: 15-23</p>
<p>(Red Balls: one, three; White Balls: fifteen, twenty-three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $22,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</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> | KS Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/8601beb2399e47009d52a847e6af9411 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>DETROIT (AP) - Electric car maker Tesla Inc. has again fallen short of production goals for its new Model 3 sedan.</p>
<p>The Palo Alto, California-based company made 2,425 Model 3s in the fourth quarter. That's only a fraction of the 20,000 per month that CEO Elon Musk promised last summer when the car first went into production.</p>
<p>The company exceeded its overall sales targets, delivering 101,312 Model S sedans and Model X SUVs in 2017, up 33 percent over 2016.</p>
<p>But all eyes are on the Model 3, which is Tesla's first lower-cost, high-volume car and is crucial to its goal of becoming a profitable, mainstream automaker. Tesla at one point had more than 500,000 potential buyers on the waiting list for the Model 3. In a statement Wednesday, the company thanked those buyers "who continue to stick by us while patiently waiting for their cars."</p>
<p>Tesla says it made significant progress in reducing unspecified production bottlenecks toward the end of the fourth quarter. It now expects to be making 10,000 Model 3s per month at the end of the first quarter and 20,000 Model 3s per month at the end of the second quarter. But the company said it's focusing on quality and plant efficiency, not just meeting volume targets.</p>
<p>Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst for the car buying site Autotrader.com, said Tesla would have been better served by not announcing such lofty production targets initially.</p>
<p>"The Model 3 must be right in terms of quality. Ramping up production levels with a flawed product is foolish," she said.</p>
<p>Tesla shares fell 2 percent to $310.50 in after-hours trading.</p>
<p>DETROIT (AP) - Electric car maker Tesla Inc. has again fallen short of production goals for its new Model 3 sedan.</p>
<p>The Palo Alto, California-based company made 2,425 Model 3s in the fourth quarter. That's only a fraction of the 20,000 per month that CEO Elon Musk promised last summer when the car first went into production.</p>
<p>The company exceeded its overall sales targets, delivering 101,312 Model S sedans and Model X SUVs in 2017, up 33 percent over 2016.</p>
<p>But all eyes are on the Model 3, which is Tesla's first lower-cost, high-volume car and is crucial to its goal of becoming a profitable, mainstream automaker. Tesla at one point had more than 500,000 potential buyers on the waiting list for the Model 3. In a statement Wednesday, the company thanked those buyers "who continue to stick by us while patiently waiting for their cars."</p>
<p>Tesla says it made significant progress in reducing unspecified production bottlenecks toward the end of the fourth quarter. It now expects to be making 10,000 Model 3s per month at the end of the first quarter and 20,000 Model 3s per month at the end of the second quarter. But the company said it's focusing on quality and plant efficiency, not just meeting volume targets.</p>
<p>Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst for the car buying site Autotrader.com, said Tesla would have been better served by not announcing such lofty production targets initially.</p>
<p>"The Model 3 must be right in terms of quality. Ramping up production levels with a flawed product is foolish," she said.</p>
<p>Tesla shares fell 2 percent to $310.50 in after-hours trading.</p> | Tesla falls short on Model 3, but overall sales rise in 2017 | false | https://apnews.com/406baf655262427188222cca2b25697c | 2018-01-03 | 2 |
<p>Today,&#160;multiple complaints against <a href="" type="internal">Chick-fil-A</a> were filed with The Illinois Department of Human Rights by <a href="http://www.jointcra.org" type="external">The Civil Rights Agenda</a> (TCRA) on behalf of unnamed claimants. The&#160;complaints, according to a press release, quoted below, and official documents released to The New Civil Rights Movement, “allege that Chick-fil-A’s ‘intolerant corporate culture’ violates Illinois law, specifically Section 5-102(B) of the Human Rights Act, which prohibits a ‘public accommodation’ from making protected classes ‘unwelcome, objectionable or unacceptable’.”</p>
<p>Chick-Fil-A President and COO <a href="" type="internal">Dan Cathy</a> has repeatedly made disparaging remarks about same-sex marriage.&#160;Chick-Fil-A CEO <a href="" type="internal">S. Truett Cathy</a> is quoted in a 2007 Forbes profile stating he would probably fire someone who has been sinning.</p>
<p>READ:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Five Reasons Chick-Fil-A Isn’t What You Think</a></p>
<p>In response to calls from ordained Baptist Minister Mike Huckabee, yesterday was deemed&#160;“ <a href="" type="internal">Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day</a>.”</p>
<p>The allegations come from a man who is Christian, unmarried, and in a relationship with a&#160;male partner. Together they are raising a daughter in a “non-traditional” family unit, documents from&#160;The Civil Rights Agenda&#160;state.</p>
<p>“I do not believe that it is possible for me to eat at Chick-fil-A without being discriminated against simply because I am an unmarried homosexual in a ‘non-traditional’ family unit,” the claimant&#160;states, adding, “as a result of Chick-fil-A’s corporate policies which have been both directly and indirectly published by the company’s executive officers, I am being denied a public accommodation free from discrimination against me.”</p>
<p>The claimant, who quotes Chick-Fil-A President Dan Cathy’s widely-puiblicized anti-gay comments,&#160;adds:</p>
<p>“Although I would like to be treated equally and with dignity and respect at Chick-fil-A restaurants, the company’s widely published corporate philosophy, culture and policies make clear to me that as an unmarried homosexual in a “non-traditional” family unit, I am inferior to married heterosexuals and therefore, unwelcome, objectionable and unacceptable to Chick-fil-A.”</p>
<p>The complaint notes that Chick-Fil-A&#160;licensees&#160;“have contractually agreed to follow, comply with and refrain from rejecting the statements of corporate policy and ‘values’ as stated by Chick-fil-A’s COO, Dan Cathy,” and “have contractually agreed to be part of the Chick-fil-A ‘brand’ and ‘values’ as determined and dictated by the Chick-fil-A licensor.”</p>
<p>The complaint further notes that “each of the local owners have entered into contracts with Chick-fil-A which require them to adhere to and refrain from contradicting Chick-fil-A’s “values” and corporate policies and philosophy, including, but not limited to the statements of policy and philosophy…”</p>
<p>“In our current high speed media and social media environment, Chick-fil-A has announced and caused to be published, to hundreds of millions of people, that LGBT people are unacceptable and objectionable,” said Jacob Meister, Governing Board President of The Civil Rights Agenda and the attorney who filed the complaint, a press release, continued below, states. “They have made it clear the lives of LGBT individuals are unacceptable to them and that same-gender families are unwelcome at Chick-fil-A.”</p>
<p>“Given the extent of media coverage this issue has received, the current complainants have requested that their name be withheld from the media,” stated Anthony Martinez, Executive Director of The Civil Rights Agenda. “The complainants are a same-gender family with a daughter. Chick-fil-A used to be one of their favorite places to eat until Mr. Cathy’s latest statements were reported so widely. Now, they feel completely unwelcome in the establishment.”</p>
<p>The Civil Rights Agenda began working with Alderman Joe Moreno and Chick-fil-A in February.&#160; Aware of Chick-fil-A’s reputation of homophobia and discrimination, Alderman Joe Moreno contacted The Civil Rights Agenda to examine their corporate anti-discrimination policies. TCRA made recommendations in order to bring Chick-fil-A’s corporate policies in-line with the Illinois Human Rights Act. The suggestions included: an LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination policy, diversity and cultural competency training, parity in employee benefits that included benefits for couples in civil unions and domestic partnerships, appropriate and respectful advertising in the LGBT community and transgender inclusive health benefits.</p>
<p>“When we began working with Chick-fil-A I thought this would be a quiet matter; working with them to adopt anti-discrimination policy and diversity training,” said Meister, “I had no idea the depth and conviction of their bigotry.”</p>
<p>Since it is against Illinois law to discriminate against a protected class and the company had a history of discrimination against minorities, Alderman Moreno made clear his conviction of protecting Chicago residents. “It’s my responsibility, as a community representative, to have responsible businesses [in my Ward], and part of that responsibility is to not have [a business with] discriminatory policies” Moreno told Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball” yesterday.&#160; “I’m not going to back off.”</p>
<p>The dialogue between TCRA and Chick-fil-A stalled once the news of Dan Cathy’s comments broke. “I spoke to a Senior Vice President the week before Dan Cathy’s comments hit the press. Since then, we have not been able to get a hold of anyone at Chick-fil-A,” stated Meister.</p>
<p>The Civil Rights Agenda is quick to point out that this is not a First Amendment Issue.&#160; “This has nothing to do with freedom of speech or religious liberty as some might suggest,” insists Martinez. “This is about Chick-fil-A having a policy, a corporate culture, which promotes discrimination. The COO in his personal capacity can say or think whatever he wants, it may be hateful, but it is his right.&#160; But when he speaks on behalf of the company, and the company starts implementing policy that reflects that hatred it is against the law in Illinois.”</p>
<p>The Civil Rights Agenda will be working with other national organizations that are looking into the legal ramifications of Chick-fil-A giving millions of dollars to recognized “hate groups,” as well as information that Chick-fil-A has practiced segregation prior to the implementation of The Civil Rights Act.</p>
<p>“I have an old picture on my desk that was taken in the South before the Civil Rights Act,” said Lowell Jaffe, Political and Policy Director for TCRA, “it’s a restaurant with a sign that says ‘Coloreds Served, take out only.’&#160; That picture is there to remind me that separate is not equal; that access isn’t the only component in civil rights.”</p>
<p>The Civil Rights Agenda (which is not affiliated with&#160;The New Civil Rights Movement) is&#160;Illinois’ largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights advocacy organization, and is working with cooperating attorneys on this filing.</p>
<p>Tagged as: <a href="" type="internal">3rd millennium</a>, <a href="" type="internal">business</a>, <a href="" type="internal">chick fil</a>, <a href="" type="internal">chick fil a</a>, <a href="" type="internal">chick fil a restaurant</a>, <a href="" type="internal">complaint filed</a>, <a href="" type="internal">corporate culture</a>, <a href="" type="internal">dan cathy</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Discrimination</a>, <a href="" type="internal">employment non-discrimination act</a>, <a href="" type="internal">fil</a>, <a href="" type="internal">human rights</a>, <a href="" type="internal">human rights act</a>, <a href="" type="internal">illinois department of human rights</a>, <a href="" type="internal">illinois human rights act</a>, <a href="" type="internal">illinois law</a>, <a href="" type="internal">new civil rights movement</a>, <a href="" type="internal">s. truett cathy</a>, <a href="" type="internal">social issues</a>, <a href="" type="internal">the chick</a>, <a href="" type="internal">the civil rights agenda</a>, <a href="" type="internal">united states</a></p>
<p>Friends:</p>
<p>We invite you to <a href="http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001whLQo73KzGhEjdskYG07rHNy_XoDDkSBBO4INZHx6oD9kfp2yeeQAJeMQUu9oTviZa0VEl5k0rNiLifxlZsOFScMz8rVGmIaN-FFOO3GTKc%3D" type="external">sign up for our new mailing list</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TheNewCivilRightsMovement&amp;amp;loc=en_US" type="external">subscribe to The New Civil Rights Movement via email</a> or <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/thenewcivilrightsmovement" type="external">RSS</a>.</p>
<p>Also, please&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Civil-Rights-Movement/358168880614" type="external">like us on Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/gaycivilrights" type="external">follow us on Twitter</a>!</p> | BREAKING: Chick-Fil-A Gets Multiple Human Rights Act Complaints Filed Against Them | true | http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/breaking-chick-fil-a-gets-multiple-human-rights-act-complaints-filed-against-them/discrimination/2012/08/02/45487 | 2012-08-02 | 4 |
<p>By Gary Cook</p>
<p>Thai Le Nugyen is my first really good friend who is Vietnamese, and she is my first really good friend who is Catholic in her faith. I had an uncle who married a young Pennsylvania Dutch woman. That she was a devout Catholic was an eye-opening experience for my thoroughly Baptist family. My uncle had not embraced any faith prior to this marriage. Subsequent to the marriage he embraced the faith of his wife and this good man over a period of time became a true man of faith. My deep-water Baptist father said out of the blue one day, there was not a doubt in his mind that my Uncle Glen and my Aunt Lois were true followers of Christ.</p>
<p>I was very fortunate to have parents who were thoughtful as well as faithful. Still, if I am really honest, lurking in the shadows of my mind there was likely a lingering question: is it possible that a Catholic could teach me something about matters of faith? Thai Le forever answered that question for me.</p>
<p>Thai Le cuts my hair and makes my wife, Linda, look even more beautiful than she normally is. We have visited Thai Le at least once a month for the past seven years, and she has become our dear friend. At some point we began to occasionally talk about religion and faith during our visits. I had told Thai Le that I was a Baptist minister, and she was genuinely interested in what that looked like.</p>
<p>A couple of years into our friendship I was called as the “permanent, part-time” pastor of Gaston Oaks Baptist Church in Dallas. Our church is an older congregation with an average age of 83 and it is filled every Sunday with young families, children and teens. They are spread across our building in four other congregations. These other congregations are comprised of Africans, Bhutanese, Hispanics and Karens. They each have their own worship space and their own pastor. I meet with the pastors once a month and several times a year we have a combined worship service of all five congregations. Early in the experience I realized I needed some tutoring on how to work more effectively with these wonderful people, the majority of whom are refugees.</p>
<p>Thai Le, at the age of 12, and her family were refugees when they arrived in Dallas. They faced all the challenges that refugees face in learning a new language and adjusting to a different culture. Now, some 40 years later, Thai Le and her husband are both college educated, have become quite successful in their businesses and they have raised four very bright and accomplished children.</p>
<p>So Thai Le became my teacher about all things refugee. About a year ago I began to mention the possibility of Thai Le coming to our church and telling her story to a combined service of all five congregations. At first she was very hesitant, but over the next two or three months she began to consider it more positively and finally she agreed.</p>
<p>The day she came our worship center was full. Children and teens packed the front pews and listened with rapt attention to Thai Le, who is a naturally effective speaker, tell her amazing story. It was one of the best moments I have ever experienced as a pastor.</p>
<p>Recently, Thai Le told us a very touching story about the night her father died. She said, “Our entire family was there except for one grandson who had to fly in from college. Daddy was desperately trying to hold on until his grandson arrived. He had been telling us at various times, ‘Ttake care of your mother and stay true to our Catholic faith.’</p>
<p>“At one point Daddy was talking and we asked him if he was seeing God. He said, ‘Not yet but I see Mother Mary and she is beautiful and she is wearing a blue cape and with the stars on it.’ Later when his grandson arrived, we told Daddy he was there and Daddy motioned that he wanted to sit up in bed. He then said one word, ‘Champagne.’ We knew immediately what he meant. In our family champagne always meant a celebration like at Christmas or Easter. So we got a bottle of champagne and poured a few drops on a cotton ball and placed it on his tongue. Then he lay back down and died.”</p>
<p>I immediately thought of and told Thai Le a Cook family story about the night my grandfather died in 1928. All of the family was gathered around. He told each of his nine children the same thing, “Stay true to the Lord and help your mother to do so.” Two of my aunts said, “After our time with Daddy we went outside and sat in our car to wait.” My Aunt Bernice said, “When I saw Jesus I knew my Daddy had died.”</p>
<p>Thai Le had just finished cutting my hair and I turned in the chair to face her. There were big smiles on our faces and there were tears spilling over the smiles as we realized how similar the story of a Vietnamese Catholic girl was to a Baptist boy from the southern United States. Just for a moment this teetotaling Baptist preacher wished he had a small bottle of champagne, like those on airliners, and a piece of bread in his pocket. I doubt if my Catholic friend nor my slightly-more-conservative-than-me wife would have joined me, but I think it would have been right for that moment.</p> | A sacred moment in a hair salon | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/a-sacred-moment-in-a-hair-salon/ | 3 |
|
<p>LIMBAUGH: I mentioned, last night -- I was doing show prep last night -- usual routine. And I ran across this -- I don't actually know what it's called -- the latest papal offering, statement from Pope Francis. Now, up until this -- I'm not Catholic. Up until this, I have to tell you, I was admiring the man. I thought he was going a little overboard on the "common man" touch, and I thought there might have been a little bit of PR involved there. But nevertheless, I was willing to cut him some slack. I mean, if he wants to portray himself as still from the streets of where he came from and is not anything special, not aristocratic, if he wants to eschew the physical trappings of the Vatican -- OK, cool, fine.</p>
<p>But this that I came across last night -- I mean, it totally befuddled me. If it weren't for capitalism, I don't know where the Catholic Church would be. Now, as I mentioned before, I'm not Catholic. I admire it profoundly, and I've been tempted a number of times to delve deeper into it. But the pope here has now gone beyond Catholicism here, and this is pure political. Now, I want to share with you some of <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/26/us-pope-document-idUSBRE9AP0EQ20131126" type="external">this stuff</a>.</p>
<p>"Pope Francis attacked unfettered capitalism as 'a new tyranny.' He beseeched global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality, in a document on Tuesday setting out a platform for his papacy and calling for a renewal of the Catholic Church. In it, Pope Francis went further than previous comments criticizing the global economic system, attacking the 'idolatry of money.' "</p>
<p>I've gotta be very caref-- I have been numerous times to the Vatican. It wouldn't exist without tons of money. But, regardless, what this is -- somebody has either written this for him or gotten to him. This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope. There's no such -- "unfettered capitalism"? That doesn't exist anywhere.</p>
<p>Previously:</p>
<p><a href="/video/2013/03/14/limbaugh-progressives-eventually-want-the-pope/193059" type="external">Limbaugh: Progressives Eventually Want The Pope To "Renounce Christ"</a></p>
<p><a href="/blog/2013/11/15/pat-buchanan-wishes-pope-francis-would-judge-ga/196916" type="external">Pat Buchanan Wishes Pope Francis Would "Judge" Gay People More</a></p> | Rush Lashes Out At The Pope Over Critique Of Inequality | true | http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/11/27/rush-lashes-out-at-the-pope-over-critique-of-in/197083 | 2013-11-27 | 4 |
<p>Malian rebels opened fire on protesters Tuesday, shooting at least one dead and injuring at least a dozen more.</p>
<p>Demonstrators in the town of Gao were protesting against the killing of local government official Idrissa Oumarou, who died on Monday,&#160; <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gJZ7BhdW1X7T-QJV6svvVjZmUrfA?docId=CNG.230fb41fb750512c22ca1a4a23183378.6f1" type="external">according to Agence France-Presse</a>. There has been tension&#160;in the northern town recently over the three-month-old occupation by Tuareg and Islamist rebels.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/chatter/mali-new-center-al-qaeda" type="external">West Africa mobilizes against Al Qaeda in Mali</a></p>
<p>"We are marching to protest the death of our municipal councilor," said teacher Oumar Diankante, who accused the Tuareg rebels' National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) of shooting at protesters, reported AFP.&#160;"I have seen one person dead already, others say there are several dead."</p>
<p>Aguissa Ag Badara, a local guide who was among the protesters, also accused the MNLA of opening fire on the demonstration, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/26/world/africa/mali-unrest/index.html?hpt=hp_t2" type="external">according to CNN</a>.</p>
<p>"I saw three people being shot. Others say there were several injured and many had to be taken to the hospital," Ag Badara told CNN.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/protesters-clash-with-rebel-rulers-in-norther-mali-town/1252832.html" type="external">Voice of America also reported</a> that Gao residents spoke last week of their resentment toward MNLA and Islamist groups that seized control of northern Mali in April. Several people said they could not forgive the group's looting and destruction of buildings in the town.</p> | Mali rebels kill 1 at protest | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-06-27/mali-rebels-kill-1-protest | 2012-06-27 | 3 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — First of all, Happy Fourth of July! I hope you’re enjoying something grilled and being thankful for your freedoms. I am working a breaking news shift, so please stay out of trouble! I’d hate to have to write about you starting a fire in your neighborhood, readers.</p>
<p>Anyway, this gives me time to post a quick item about that most American of traditions: unhealthy snack food. Last week I read <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rulesforengagement/2013/06/rules_for_school_vending_machines_snacks_unveiled.html" type="external">this story in Education Week</a>, and wondered how it would effect New Mexico. The story is about new federal standards for snack foods sold in schools, requiring that they be more healthy and less junky. (Read: less American? I kid!)</p>
<p>So I asked Mary Swift, director of food and nutrition services at Albuquerque Public Schools, whether local students should expect to see big changes in their schools. The short answer is no. New Mexico already adopted its own healthy snack standards, back in 2005 or so, which took care of a lot of the requirements in the new federal rule. The state already stopped selling whole milk and non-diet soda in vending machines, for example.</p>
<p>Swift said there may be some small changes because of the new rule, but nothing major. Also, the new rule doesn’t take effect until fall of 2014, so districts and the state still have time to figure out what changes will be needed.</p>
<p>In the meantime, enjoy your burgers and potato chips, and stay safe.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Don’t expect school snack changes | false | https://abqjournal.com/217713/dont-expect-school-snack-changes.html | 2 |
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<p>Sept. 8 (UPI) — Forecasters warned that <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hurricane_Katia/" type="external">Hurricane Katia</a> could produce up to 15 inches of rain and storm surges of up to seven feet of the Mexican coast by Saturday.</p>
<p>The Category 1 hurricane, with maximum sustained wind speeds strengthening to 90 mph, was about 170 miles east-southeast of Tampico, Mexico, and 155 miles north-northeast of Veracruz, Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said in <a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT3+shtml/080837.shtml" type="external">its 4 a.m.advisory</a> on Friday. It is moving westerly at 3 mph.</p>
<p>“Maximum sustained winds are near 85 mph with higher gusts. Additional strengthening is forecast during the next day or so and Katia could be near major hurricane strength at landfall,” the advisory added.</p>
<p>The government of Mexico issued a hurricane warning for the coast of Mexico from Cabo Rojo to Laguna Verde and a tropical storm warning for Cabo Rojo north to Rio Panuco and south of Laguna Verde to Puerto Veracruz.</p>
<p>Katia is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 10 to 15 inches over northern Veracruz, eastern Hidalgo, and Puebla states. Total rain accumulations of 2 to 5 inches over southern Tamaulipas, eastern San Luis Potosi, western Hidalgo, eastern Queretaro, and southern Veracruz are expected through Saturday evening.</p>
<p>Isolated maximum amounts of 25 inches are possible in northern Veracruz, eastern Hidalgo, Puebla, and San Luis Potosi states. When it makes its expected landfall, Katia is expected top produce storm surges which could raise water levels by five to seven feet above normal tide levels. Large and destructive waves are expected on Mexico’s coast, the advisory said.</p>
<p>Katia is the 11th named storm this Atlantic hurricane season and follows both <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hurricane-Irma/" type="external">Hurricane Irma</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/09/07/Jose-expected-to-become-major-hurricane-by-Friday/9571504625837/?ilink=1" type="external">Hurricane Jose</a> — both are off to the east in the Atlantic Ocean.</p> | Hurricane Katia expected to produce severe rain, storm surges in Mexico | false | https://newsline.com/hurricane-katia-expected-to-produce-severe-rain-storm-surges-in-mexico/ | 2017-09-08 | 1 |
<p>New Haven Register | Yale Daily News MEGO factor? That's "my eyes glaze over," explained New York Times science writer Andrew Revkin. He told a Yale audience: "Science is a slow, grinding process, but news is something sudden. The tyranny of 'the peg' -- something to hang a story on -- is the first impediment. It's rare for science to have that 'eureka!' thing." (Read the Yale Daily News' <a href="http://yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=23700" type="external">account</a> of Revkin's talk.)</p> | NYT's Revkin: I often have to deal with "the MEGO factor" | false | https://poynter.org/news/nyts-revkin-i-often-have-deal-mego-factor | 2003-10-22 | 2 |
<p>By Marv Knox</p>
<p>Let’s face it: a white person doesn’t know what being black feels like, and a man can’t completely understand a woman. But during this long, hard summer, I’ve tried.</p>
<p>First came the George Zimmerman trial. A Hispanic man stood on Florida’s “stand your ground” law and was acquitted in the murder of an African-American teenager, Trayvon Martin.</p>
<p>Shockwaves rolled, particularly in African-American communities. Predicted riots did not occur, thank God, but you’d have to be tone deaf not to recognize the grief, pain and anger that emanated when people wondered whether Trayvon would have been treated with such leniency if that bullet had taken the other life.</p>
<p>President Obama offered a clear picture of at least one African-American man’s thinking when he talked to reporters about the killing and trial.</p>
<p>“Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” he said. He <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/19/full-remarks-obama-speaks-on-race/comment-page-2/" type="external">continued</a>:</p>
<p>There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.</p>
<p>And there are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator.</p>
<p>There are very few African-Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.</p>
<p>And you know, I don’t want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida. And it’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear.</p>
<p>Some people said Obama inserted racism into the situation, as if race weren’t already the central issue. No, he spoke as educator-in-chief. He helped all who would listen glimpse what it’s like to be an African-American male in this country. Still.</p>
<p>In November 2008, when voters elected Obama president, Democrats and Republicans alike marveled at the march of history. We lived in a country that elected an African-American as its leader.</p>
<p>For a moment, I wanted to believe we had arrived at a post-racial America. I didn’t believe it, of course. I have African-American friends, and I know some of their stories. Besides, I can read surveys and statistics and basic everyday reports from the newspaper. So, I knew our nation had not achieved racial equality.</p>
<p>Naively, however, I hoped the election of an African-American president – whatever his political party – marked a giant step forward.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, America has disabused that notion. The patina of racism appears thicker, even in the politest situations. And out-and-out racism crops up more frequently and ferociously than it did immediately before.</p>
<p>So, the only real surprise of the Martin-Zimmerman tragedy is that some Americans seem surprised to learn other Americans experience racism.</p>
<p>More recently, news outlets have reported 24/7 on disgraced New York City politician and sexting afficionado Anthony Weiner. His wife, Huma Abedin, is fascinating. She’s a smart, well-educated, accomplished woman. And – as of this writing, at least – she’s standing by her man.</p>
<p>People wonder why she hasn’t dumped him. She said she loves him and has forgiven him. They have lives together. They have children.</p>
<p>Some surmise she’s staying because they’re a political couple. After all, her boss, Hillary Clinton, stood with her husband through scandals.</p>
<p>Others speculate on their co-dependent relationship. Some predict her career chances would improve if she leaves. They criticize her, on behalf of victimized women everywhere, for staying with a creep.</p>
<p>All guesses and conjectures are ludicrous. Nobody knows the inside of a marriage. Nobody can dissect love and describe the pathology of loyalty.</p>
<p>What do these disparate events have in common? Not much, perhaps, but one thing: The tendency to assume we know what it’s like to be another and to judge another based on what we presume.</p>
<p>We assume our worldview built upon personal experience, training and culture is normative. Then we judge others by what we feel and believe, failing to account for the limits of our understanding.</p>
<p>Many white Americans downplay racism because we fail to see our communities and nation from the perspectives of people of color. We don’t know what we don’t know, but we judge others as if we did.</p>
<p>Similarly, many Americans treat the failure, pain and shame of others as sport, as foils for comedy, as entertainment. Decency compels us to grieve with those who grieve and desire privacy for those who are humiliated.</p>
<p>We can’t see clearly into the lives of others. We can’t know what it’s like to be them. But we can empathize. We can try to identify with them.</p>
<p>Christians, of all people, ought to work at this. We look to a divine Role Model. Jesus – fully God – took on human form in part to identify with our humanity.</p>
<p>We must identify with the humanity of others. And while Jesus’ identification resulted in the possibility of full redemption, at least we can take steps toward reconciliation.</p> | Judgment and empathy | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/judgment-and-empathy/ | 3 |
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<p />
<p>Arlen Asher</p>
<p>But both stations had frequent jazz shows, and played greats like Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington, and Asher “stumbled” upon his love for the musical genre – a love that would continue for more than seven decades.</p>
<p>He was given an old, metal clarinet by his mother as a pre-teen and later learned other woodwind instruments like saxophone and flute. Before settling in Albuquerque in 1958, he played jazz through college and in the U.S. Army Band after being drafted for the Korean War. Today, at 88, the retired music teacher doesn’t plan to stop any time soon.</p>
<p>“I want to continue playing as long as I’m able to stand up,” Asher told the Journal.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Asher is one of six honorees for the Platinum Music Awards’ first award show tonight at the Lensic Performing Arts Center. The awards, which honor diverse New Mexican “music legends” that were nominated and selected earlier this year, are an expansion of the New Mexico Music Commission’s former Platinum Achievement Awards.</p>
<p>Fernando Cellicion</p>
<p>Alberto Nelson “Al Hurricane” Sanchez</p>
<p>This year’s five musician honorees also include the genre-mixing Alberto Nelson “Al Hurricane” Sanchez, country duo Bill and Bonnie Hearne, Albuquerque Youth Symphony’s Dale Kempter and Native American musician Fernando Cellicion.</p>
<p>Previously, the annual award was given to only one person and there was no ceremony. David Schwartz, director of the Platinum Music Awards and head of the New Mexico Music Commission Foundation, said he wanted to create something bigger to show that the state’s musical talent is just as great as its other fine arts.</p>
<p>Bill and Bonnie Hearne</p>
<p>“New Mexico is a state of the arts,” said Schwartz. “But it’s usually visual art that gets all of the attention. We want to add emphasis to musical arts and people who are truly incredible artists.”</p>
<p>After living and playing in Albuquerque for a couple of years, Asher said he was tempted to move to Los Angeles to pursue music. One reason he changed his mind, he said, was that he was able to perform with some of the country’s greatest jazz players without leaving New Mexico. “I threw away any chance to hit the so-called ‘big time’ – and it is so-called – because the musicians here are as good as any place,” he said.</p>
<p>Dale Kempter</p>
<p>The ceremony is modeled after the Kennedy Center Honors and honorees will not be asked to speak or perform. Instead, the show will include tribute performances of music and dance. The show will donate proceeds to two organizations: the New Mexico Music Commission to provide music education for students; and Solace, a local resource organization for sexual abuse victims.</p>
<p>In addition to the awards for the five musicians, the ceremony will distribute the first Lee Berk Award, named after a former president of the Berklee College of Music and current trustee of the New Mexico School of the Arts. This award honors a non-musician who has still had a great influence on the state’s musical landscape.</p>
<p>Catherine Oppenheimer</p>
<p>This year’s recipient, Catherine Oppenheimer, moved to Santa Fe from New York City in the 1990s and cofounded New Mexico’s National Dance Institute. More than a decade later, the former New York City Ballet dancer also helped found the School for the Arts.</p>
<p>Oppenheimer was surprised by her nomination, but said her work with the two organizations is a “group effort” that she could not have done alone. “The award really extends out to people in the field who are working day in and day out with kids,” she said. “It was nice to be recognized.”</p>
<p>This year’s Platinum Award recipients were chosen from about 30 potential artists, said Schwartz. Acts scheduled to perform include former Creed producer John Kurzweg, Joe West and the Santa Fe Revue, the NDI Dancers and Public Enemy bassist Brian Hardgroove, joined by the Impulse Groove Foundation.</p>
<p /> | ‘A State of the Arts’: Platinum Music Awards honor 6 NM ‘legends’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/1036037/platinum-music-awards-to-debut-at-lensic-or-a-state-of-the-arts-with-deck-platinum-music-awards-honor-6-nm-legends.html | 2017-07-21 | 2 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Feb. 15, 2013</p>
<p>By John Seiler</p>
<p>Gov. Jerry Brown’s cheery announcements of the state’s budget health are guiding budget spending priorities. As he said in his <a href="http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=17906" type="external">State of the State address</a>,&#160;“The message this year is clear: California has once again confounded our critics. We have wrought in just two years a solid and enduring budget. And, by God, we will persevere and keep it that way for years to come.”</p>
<p>He praised the Legislature for cutting spending and continued,&#160;“Then, the citizens of California, using their inherent political power under the Constitution, finished the task. They embraced the new taxes of Proposition 30 by a healthy margin of 55 percent to 44 percent.”</p>
<p>But what if the modest economic recovery in California and the rest of the United States turns sour? What if the tax increases themselves hurt the economy? Not just <a href="http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_30,_Sales_and_Income_Tax_Increase_(2012)" type="external">Proposition 30</a> and <a href="http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_39,_Income_Tax_Increase_for_Multistate_Businesses_(2012)" type="external">Proposition 39</a>&#160;(taxing out-of-state businesses), but the Obamacare, payroll tax and other federal tax increases?</p>
<p>We won’t have good numbers on these things for another month or so. But until then, there are warning signs that the second part of a “double-dip” recession may be flying overhead like that <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/meteor-explodes-over-russia-1-100-injured-175838744.html" type="external">meteor that just hit Russia</a>.</p>
<p>Internal emails from Wal-Mart executives described February sales as “a total disaster.” <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-15/wal-mart-executives-sweat-slow-february-start-in-e-mails.html" type="external">Reported Bloomberg</a>:</p>
<p>“Wal-Mart Stores Inc.&#160;had the worst sales start to a month in seven years as payroll-tax increases hit shoppers already battling a slow economy, according to internal e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News.</p>
<p>“Wal-Mart and discounters such as&#160; <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/FDO:US" type="external">Family Dollar Stores Inc</a>. are bracing for a rise in the payroll tax to take a bigger bite from the paychecks of shoppers already dealing with elevated unemployment. The world’s largest retailer’s struggles come after executives expected a strong start to February because of the Super Bowl, milder weather and paycheck cycles, according to the minutes of a Feb. 1 officers meeting Bloomberg obtained.”</p>
<p>So, as we have repeatedly warned on CalWatchDog.com, the higher taxes are taking a toll not just on the rich, but on everybody. Lower sales will mean lower sales taxes collected by the California government.</p>
<p>According to new estimates, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-europe-recession-economy-20130214,0,4677256.story" type="external">Europe’s economy shrank</a>by 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2013/02/14/japans-economy-shrinks-04-pct-in-4q-2012" type="external">And U.S. News &amp; World Report</a>&#160;wrote, “Japan’s economy shrank in the last three months of 2012, its third straight quarter of contraction…&#160;The 0.4 percent contraction in annualized terms in October-December was worse than expected.”</p>
<p>Those two reports come after the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/surprise-u-s-economy-contracts-fourth-quarter-due-big-drop-defense-spending-article-1.1251257" type="external">U.S. Commerce Department</a> calculated that the U.S. economy shrank by 0.1 percent in the same period.</p>
<p>Manufacturing, the mainstay of an industrial economy, is stagnant. <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6d92a048-7775-11e2-b95a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2L0WOcvBj" type="external">Reported the Financial Times</a>:</p>
<p>“US industrial production shrank in January after the biggest back-to-back gain in three decades, while factory activity in the New York region unexpectedly expanded in February, in a mixed picture of the country’s manufacturing sector.</p>
<p>“ <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/current/" type="external">Output at factories, mines and utilities fell 0.1 per cent</a>&#160;last month after a 0.4 per cent gain in December, figures from the Federal Reserve showed on Friday. While economists had expected a 0.3 per cent rise in January, revised data for November and December showed the biggest two-month gain since 1984.”</p>
<p>One seeming bright spot is that China’s economy <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/100389479/China_Snaps_Seven_Quarters_of_Economic_Slowdown" type="external">grew 7.9 percent</a>in the fourth quarter of 2012. But that still was below the tepid pace of 10.4 percent in 2010 and 9.3 percent in 2011. And China’s growth rate for 2012 was its slowest since 1999, during the Asian financial crisis.</p>
<p>For California governments at all levels the message is: Be more frugal then ever. The rosy scenario celebrated by Brown fades away once the rose-tinted glasses are removed.</p>
<p>If the double-dip recession hits, then the budget cutting has not ended, but is going to be deeper than ever. And businesses will flee even faster California’s high-tax climate for the refuge of low-tax states.</p> | Bad economic news could confound state budget projections | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2013/02/15/bad-economic-news-could-confound-state-budget-projections/ | 2018-02-20 | 3 |
<p>Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s latest bank bailout plan is another Rube Goldberg contraption intended to funnel taxpayer dollars to bankrupt banks, without being overly visible about the process. The main mechanism is a government guarantee that would allow investors to buy junk with a 12 to 1 leverage ratio, where they only risk the downside on their own investment, not the borrowed money.</p>
<p>Ostensibly, this is supposed to reveal the “true” price for junk assets, as investors compete at auctions to buy assets under the new rules. However, this story doesn’t pass the laugh test. We will learn what price investors are willing to pay for these junk assets when they are given a large subsidy from the government to buy them. In reality, this plan is a way to use taxpayer dollars to get investors to pay far more than these assets are worth in order to give more money to bankrupt banks.</p>
<p>The results will be mixed. Some of the assets undoubtedly have some value. There are no doubt shrewd investors who have identified certain assets that they would have been willing to buy from the banks, but they put off the purchase waiting for a deal like this. Now these investors will have the opportunity to buy these assets with large subsidies from the government, allowing them to make substantial profits. It’s not clear if President Obama will want to invite this new group of hedge fund billionaires, who got rich off this government program, for photo ops in the White House Rose Garden.</p>
<p>A second outcome is that many investors will see the subsidy and decide to dive in, recognizing that most of any potential loss will be born by the government. This route might prove especially attractive for one of the zombie banks, who would effectively have nothing to lose anyhow, since they are already bankrupt. In these cases, the government can expect to see substantial losses, since the investors would bid more than the assets are worth, and the government would be stuck with the eventual loss.</p>
<p>A third result of this path is that the subsidized class of assets would rise in value relative to assets that do not benefit from the government subsidy. This could cause banks that are relatively healthy, and therefore not taking part in this program, to suffer. With investors opting to buy assets that come with government subsidies, the demand for mortgages or mortgage-backed securities that don’t have these subsidies might suffer.</p>
<p>A fourth likely outcome is that even with the subsidies, much of the toxic waste would stay on the banks’ books. There is a large gap between the price that investors have been willing to pay for these junk assets, which has been around 30 cents on the dollar, and the price that banks list on their books, which has been 60 cents on the dollar. If the government subsidies raise the price that investors are willing to pay by 50 percent (a very large increase), then the banks would still have to write down these assets by another 15 cents on the dollar in order to make the sale.</p>
<p>It is likely that the gap between the asking price and the offer will not be closed for a large portion of these assets, even with the government subsidy. As a result, the banks are likely to still have several hundred billion of bad assets on their books even after this plan has been put in place. The Obama administration will then be forced to go to Congress with yet another bailout proposal.</p>
<p>It is also worth noting that this is a situation that invites all manner of fraud since there are very large government subsidies that could be appropriated through clever schemes. The Obama administration assured the public that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) will be closely monitoring the program, but the FDIC does not have the staff or the expertise to effectively track a program of this size. The situation is complicated further by the fact that many of the big actors are likely to be hedge funds and private equity funds, who are almost completely unregulated in the current environment.</p>
<p>It is hard to understand this plan as anything other than a last ditch effort to save the Wall Street banks. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama seems prepared to risk his presidency on their behalf.</p>
<p>DEAN BAKER is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is the author of <a href="" type="internal">Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy.</a></p>
<p>This article originally appeared in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/" type="external">The Guardian</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Billions More for Failed Banks | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/03/25/billions-more-for-failed-banks/ | 2009-03-25 | 4 |
<p>The streets of the capital are broad and the buildings monumental. Inside the grand state offices, a power struggle rages among the political elite, and the side that seems to have the upper hand is insulated, single-minded, and shamelessly belligerent. This clique supports a military-first policy that doesn’t shrink from the first use of nuclear weapons, a stance that strikes fear into allies and adversaries alike. Nor are these fears soothed by the actions or rhetoric of the leader, a former playboy who owes his position to an irregular political process and the legacy of a more statesmanlike father.</p>
<p>Choose your capital: Pyongyang or Washington?</p>
<p>In the fun house of mirrors in which contemporary global politics is enacted, a strange resemblance has developed between George W. Bush and Kim Jong Il and between their respective war parties. That North Korea is one of the poorest and most desperate countries in the world and the U.S. is the undisputed economic and military leader makes this folie a deux all the more poignant and ridiculous. The weaker side has exited the Non-Proliferation Treaty and is rushing to develop a nuclear deterrent; the stronger side is after nothing less than regime change. This summer Washington is confronting Pyongyang with a policy of naval interdiction and a tightening chokehold of economic isolation. North Korea is perilously close to treating these encroachments on its sovereignty as tantamount to war. Neither side trusts the other; both refuse to blink.</p>
<p>Such a convergence of opposites is not unheard of in international relations. During the cold war, for instance, the U.S. and the Soviet Union both indulged in a terrifying symmetry of nuclear deterrence, third world interventions, and mistaken budget priorities. But even during the darkest days, Reagan and Gorbachev displayed a personal rapport. In contrast, George W. Bush has called Kim Jong Il a “pygmy” and a “spoiled child” and has confessed to journalist Bob Woodward that he wants to topple the regime in Pyongyang regardless of the consequences. North Korea has repeatedly warned of turning Washington (or Seoul or Tokyo) into a “sea of fire.” The extraordinary gap in military and economic capabilities, like a difference in electric potential, has already produced sparks that may yet lead to a conflagration.</p>
<p>In East Asia, the cold war is not over, and the conflict between Pyongyang and Washington, with its dance of dependency and reciprocity, threatens to spiral out of control in ways that Afghanistan and Iraq (so far) have not. War on the Korean Peninsula would be catastrophic enough. But by encouraging Japan toward a military renaissance and pressuring South Korea to back a policy of isolating North Korea, the Bush administration is pushing all of East Asia to the brink.</p>
<p>Policy Shift</p>
<p>In the fall of 2000, when the presidency of George W. Bush was just a glint in the eye of Florida’s secretary of state, the U.S. and North Korea nearly ended their 50-year war. Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang in October and found Kim Jong Il “very decisive and practical and serious.” Bill Clinton was slated to meet the North Korean leader to conclude a grand deal that would have traded economic incentives and security assurances for an end to North Korea’s missile programs. This deal would have built on the 1994 Agreed Framework, also negotiated by the Clinton administration, which froze the country’s nuclear program in exchange for two light-water reactors, shipments of heavy fuel oil, and steps toward diplomatic normalization.</p>
<p>Clinton didn’t go to Pyongyang, and the grand deal didn’t materialize. Instead, the Bush administration took over with a determination to upend what it considered Clinton’s policy of “appeasement.” It was aided in this quest by a piece of intelligence inherited from its predecessor, namely that North Korea had taken out a nuclear insurance policy. Although its plutonium processing facility remained frozen, North Korea was exploring a second route to the bomb through uranium enrichment. The Bush team thus had the perfect weapon to attack U.S.-North Korean reconciliation: the perfidy of the North Koreans themselves.</p>
<p>But the U.S. had also backtracked on promises. It never fully lifted economic sanctions against North Korea and didn’t take other steps toward the normalization of diplomatic relations suggested by the Agreed Framework. The Clinton administration persuaded Congress to accept the construction of two light-water reactors in North Korea by arguing, quietly, that the regime in Pyongyang would not likely be around in 2003 when the reactors were supposed to go online. Instead, the regime is still around, and the reactors are only one-third complete.</p>
<p>Although North Korea pursued its enriched uranium program in the latter days of the Clinton administration, analysts Joel Wit and James Laney suggest that the program accelerated only when the Bush administration cranked up its hostile rhetoric–suspending diplomatic contact, criticizing Kim Dae Jung’s engagement policy, and ultimately including Pyongyang in its infamous “axis of evil.” Whatever doubts remained in Pyongyang about U.S. intentions were dispelled by the war in Iraq, which led North Korean leaders to draw three conclusions. A nonaggression agreement with the U.S. was pointless. No inspections regime would ever be good enough for Washington. And only a nuclear weapon would deter a U.S. intervention.</p>
<p>North Korean Threat?</p>
<p>This spring North Korea declared that it had acquired this ultimate deterrent. Beyond the declaration, however, the evidence is scant. Even if North Korea had enough fissionable uranium or plutonium, the material would need to be weaponized, which requires miniaturization technology that North Korean scientists do not likely possess. A CIA report recently leaked to The New York Times suggests that North Korea has an advanced nuclear testing site in Yongdok, but there is still no evidence that Pyongyang has yet developed any warheads to test. As for delivering such a weapon, North Korea has tested only one rocket with the potential to reach parts of Alaska–the Taepodong in 1998–and the launch fell far short in terms of both distance and accuracy. Nor does North Korea likely have the heat shield technology that would prevent its warheads from burning up on reentry from the atmosphere.</p>
<p>Pyongyang believes that it needs a nuclear weapon–or the much cheaper illusion of one–because its conventional forces are a mess. Though superior to the South Korean Army on the eve of the Korean War, North Korean forces have fallen on hard times. The South Korean Army spends $163,000 per soldier for food, clothes, and armaments. North Korea spends less than one-tenth that amount. North Korea’s entire government budget is several billion dollars smaller than South Korea’s military budget alone. Underfunded and no longer aided by cheap Soviet imports, North Korean military technology is out-of-date. In a naval battle in 1999, South Korean forces easily outgunned the North Koreans. A South Korean officer told the Korea Herald, “You could see many North Korean sailors exposed on the deck, because they had to handle the guns manually, while our sailors were inside watching radar screens and computer monitors.” Without fuel or spare parts, North Korean pilots are limited to thirteen hours of training missions a year. After five years of food shortages, soldiers are malnourished, and many have been rebuilding crumbling civilian infrastructure rather than training in military exercises.</p>
<p>Even so, Pyongyang is not entirely a paper tiger. Its stocks of short-range missiles and long-range artillery could do a great deal of damage, particularly to South Korea. To beef up this retaliatory capability, Pyongyang continues to finance its military sector, thus diverting precious funds away from stabilizing its economy. The worst of the famine that plagued the country after 1995 is over, but the North Korean economy remains fragile. And the Bush administration wants to cripple North Korea’s economy further still.</p>
<p>Economic Noose</p>
<p>It’s never been easy to get from Japan to North Korea. Most visitors have to fly to Beijing before boarding a biweekly North Korean jetliner to Pyongyang. By sea, however, several cargo ships and a weekly ferry have until recently carried people and goods between the two countries. Most of this trade has been overseen by Chosen Soren, an association of Koreans affiliated with Pyongyang but living in Japan.</p>
<p>In early June, nearly 2,000 Japanese government inspectors descended on the docks of Niigata, a port on the western coast of Japan, in preparation to search the incoming North Korean ferry for safety violations, infectious diseases, and immigration irregularities. Pyongyang responded by canceling the ferry run. Urged on by Washington, the Japanese authorities also detained two North Korean cargo ships as part of an effort to shut down trade relations between Chosen Soren and Pyongyang.</p>
<p>As summer approached, Washington and Tokyo shifted into high gear to turn the economic screws on North Korea. The military option remains on the Pentagon’s table, but Washington is also testing the possibility of toppling the regime in Pyongyang by spending it into the ground.</p>
<p>This economic strategy has several components. The Bush administration has cut back on food aid, arguing that monitoring should be improved and no doubt hoping that fewer high-calorie biscuits will incite children, pregnant and nursing mothers, and the elderly to rebel against the regime. There has also been an attempt to cut off the drug trafficking and arms exports that North Korea has increasingly relied on, in part because Pyongyang’s attempt to expand legitimate enterprises has been thwarted by the U.S. and its allies. Toward that end, in June Washington developed the “Madrid initiative” by convening another coalition of the willing to explore how to bend international law to the U.S. objective of boarding every suspicious vessel heading into and out of North Korea.</p>
<p>And the otherwise-multilateralism-averse Bush administration is rejecting North Korea’s demand for bilateral negotiations in favor of including more countries in the discussion. This strategy serves to underscore North Korea’s isolation. But the hard-liners in the administration–John Bolton in the State Department, Paul Wolfowitz in the Pentagon–are also not interested in the give-and-take of negotiations. This “just say no” faction has repeatedly rebuffed various North Korean offers, not bothering to pursue the negotiable items beneath the bluff and bluster in an effort to achieve a diplomatic solution to the escalating crisis.</p>
<p>Military Shell Game</p>
<p>In the fall and winter of 2002, hundreds of thousands of South Koreans poured into the streets to protest the acquittal of two U.S. soldiers whose vehicle struck and killed a pair of young Korean girls. Many of the protestors also wanted a reduction of the 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea, nearly half of whom are positioned as a tripwire near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) across from North Korea.</p>
<p>Imagine Korea’s surprise when the U.S. military responded this June by announcing the withdrawal of the Second Infantry Division from the DMZ to positions south of Seoul. The protestors should have been delighted. They weren’t.</p>
<p>Although the transformation of U.S. forces in South Korea to a more mobile rapid reaction force has been underway for several years, the withdrawal of the troops from the DMZ has been widely interpreted as pulling U.S. soldiers out of harm’s way to prepare for a military strike on North Korea. The Pentagon has long been concerned with the “tyranny of proximity” that hampers its maneuverability on the Korean Peninsula.</p>
<p>New South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun pleaded with Washington to put off this relocation until the current nuclear crisis is resolved. He was ignored. Instead, the Bush administration threw money at the problem, offering $11 billion to upgrade U.S. forces in South Korea over the next four years.</p>
<p>This latest offer is part of a joint U.S. and South Korean effort to beef up the latter’s military capabilities. Seoul has set out to acquire at least three Aegis-class destroyers and to upgrade its air force with cutting edge U.S. reconnaissance planes and F-15 fighters. At South Korea’s urging, the U.S. reversed a 1979 agreement and extended the range of South Korean tactical missiles to 300 km, which brought them within striking distance of all of North Korea. For 2003, the Seoul government will spend $14.5 billion on the military, a 6.4% increase over 2002 and the highest defense budget in its history.</p>
<p>South Korea is not the only country in the region to use the current crisis as a rationale for military muscle flexing. In February 2003, for the first time since World War II, a top Japanese official threatened another country with attack. Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba argued that Japan had the right to prevent a North Korean ballistic missile attack. What Ishiba failed to explain was how Japan was going to accomplish this preemptive strike. Still governed by a peace Constitution that restricts its military to a defensive posture, Japan has no offensive missiles of its own. And without an in-air refueling capacity, Japanese bombers can only make one-way trips.</p>
<p>All of that is changing. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and with support from Washington, Japan is shrugging off the constraints of its peace Constitution. It is aggressively pursuing missile defense, has launched its first military satellites, has promised to provide backup to any U.S. military action in the region, and is set to acquire an in-air refueling capacity to make its threats of preemptive strikes a great deal more credible. Some Japanese and U.S. politicians have even called on Tokyo to develop its own nuclear deterrent.</p>
<p>Disturbing Parallels</p>
<p>By bolstering allied forces in South Korea and encouraging Japan to flex some newfound offensive muscles, the U.S. is following through on its own military-first policy. The parallel with Pyongyang is disturbing. Until recently, North Korea pursued a strategy of kangsong taeguk, seeking strong economic and military power. Building up the military was important, but so too were the critical economic reforms that the government had been slowly unveiling in preparation for the big bang of lifting wage and price controls in summer 2002. In March 2003, however, Pyongyang shifted to a military-first policy in response to the current crisis.</p>
<p>The hard-liners in both capitals have developed a reckless codependency. The North Korean threat serves as a useful rationale for missile defense and the expansion of U.S. military influence in East Asia. And obstinate leaders in Pyongyang, who blame U.S. policies for the problems that assail the country, now have ample ammunition for their argument that negotiations with Washington are a waste of time.</p>
<p>It is difficult to know what kind of opposition to this inflexible position exists in Pyongyang. In Washington, though, bipartisan support for a diplomatic solution is growing. Conservative Republican Rep. Curt Weldon visited Pyongyang in June and came back with a ten-point proposal that would start with a one-year nonaggression pact signed by Washington and Pyongyang. Within the administration, it is rumored that the relatively moderate Colin Powell and his allies in the State Department continue to push for the more traditional carrot-and-stick policies of the Clinton era. Scholars and activists are also mounting pressure from the outside.</p>
<p>A bipartisan consensus has formed around a revised “grand bargain” between the U.S. and North Korea that would freeze the latter’s nuclear and missile programs in exchange for political and economic incentives. According to this new consensus, promoted for instance by Selig Harrison and the Task Force on U.S. Korea Policy, North Korea would freeze both its plutonium reprocessing and uranium enrichment facilities in exchange for guaranteed supplies of energy (such as natural gas from Russia), and it would freeze its missile testing program in exchange for U.S. or European launches of North Korean satellites. In addition, the U.S. would finally lift all remaining sanctions against North Korea, support North Korea’s applications to international financial institutions, and provide economic support for the rehabilitation of North Korea’s energy and extraction industries. The U.S. would also eventually “lower its military profile” on the peninsula in exchange for comparable confidence building moves by North Korea.</p>
<p>Considered in isolation, many of the elements of this grand bargain are certainly within reach. In October 2002, North Korea offered to shut down its nuclear program in exchange for a nonaggression pact, and it has indicated on numerous occasions that its missile program is negotiable. In 2000, North Korea made an opening bid to end its missile program in return for $3 billion over three years, no doubt a negotiable figure. It also wouldn’t take much to remove North Korea from the State Department’s terrorism list and to lift the remaining economic sanctions. North Korea has hinted that it would compromise on the single remaining obstacle–several Japanese Red Army hijackers holed up in North Korea for the last 30 years.</p>
<p>Before the current crisis broke, such a grand bargain with North Korea seemed conceivable. Other countries–South Korea, Taiwan, South Africa, Kazakhstan–have been persuaded to stop nuclear programs through diplomatic means, and the right combination of incentives no doubt could have been found for North Korea. Now, however, an Agreed Framework Plus that could provide such a magical mix of carrots seems almost chimerical owing to the twin obsessions of the principals–Washington’s push for regime change and Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear deterrence. We are entering a crushing new era of geopolitics. In the absence of well-enforced international laws and treaties, countries will fall back on their own mechanisms for preventing outside intervention. In geopolitics, as in geometry, parallel tracks do not meet. Until the U.S. and North Korea undo their fearful symmetry by getting serious at the negotiating table, East Asia will remain on the precipice.</p>
<p>For more see:</p>
<p>Alliance of Scholars Concerned About Korea <a href="http://www.asck.org/" type="external">http://www.asck.org/</a></p>
<p>American Friends Service Committee, Asia Desk <a href="http://www.afsc.org/asia/default.htm" type="external">http://www.afsc.org/asia/default.htm</a></p>
<p>Friends Committee on National Legislation <a href="http://www.fcnl.org/issues/int/nkoreaindx.htm" type="external">http://www.fcnl.org/issues/int/nkoreaindx.htm</a></p>
<p>Nautilus Institute <a href="http://www.nautilus.org/napsnet/" type="external">http://www.nautilus.org/napsnet/</a></p>
<p>Task Force on U.S. Korea Policy/Center for International Policy <a href="http://www.ciponline.org/" type="external">http://www.ciponline.org/</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Washington and Pyongyang | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/07/11/washington-and-pyongyang/ | 2003-07-11 | 4 |
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<p>Most financial markets were closed in Asia on Monday for lunar new year holidays, but shares fell in Japan and Australia on uncertainty over the potential impact of President Donald Trump's travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries and other immigration actions.</p>
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<p>KEEPING SCORE: Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.5 percent to 19,368.85. The S&amp;P ASX 200 in Australia dropped 0.9 percent to 5,661.50 and India's Sensex was nearly flat at 27,894.10. Shares rose in Thailand and Indonesia. Many other Asian markets were closed.</p>
<p>TRUMP TRAVEL BAN: The executive order signed by Trump on Friday placed a 90-day ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen. It imposed a 120-day suspension of the U.S. refugee program and blocked Syrians from entry indefinitely. The move triggered protests and confusion at U.S. airports and raised uncertainty for airlines and high-tech industries that employ many foreign-born workers, analysts said.</p>
<p>ANALYST VIEWPOINT: "World leaders were quick to condemn President Trump's executive order to ban U.S. travel from seven Muslim countries. The global reaction has been one of universal condemnation," Stephen Innes, a senior trader at OANDA, wrote in a commentary. "The increase in civil unrest alone should be a concern for investors, and with a lack of clarity on the economic policy front, markets will be cantankerous early in the week as they're completely uncertain of what's next from President Trump on the geopolitical landscape."</p>
<p>JAPAN DATA: Monthly data for December released Monday showed retail sales fell 1.7 percent from a month earlier. Core inflation excluding volatile food items fell 0.2 percent, showing deflation still is weighing on the economy, discouraging the wage increases needed to spur more consumption and investment, and raising doubts over how much momentum the economy may have gathered late in the year, just as the Bank of Japan holds its first policy meeting of 2017.No major changes are expected from the meeting, which wraps up Tuesday.</p>
<p>WALL STREET: Wall Street capped a week of milestones Friday with a day of listless trading that left U.S. stock indexes mostly lower. The Dow was nearly flat at 20,093.78. The Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index edged 0.1 percent lower to 2,294.69 and the Nasdaq composite eked out a 0.1 percent gain to 5,660.78, setting another all-time high. The market drifted between small gains and losses through much of the day as investors weighed company earnings and new data on the U.S. economy showing annual growth of just 1.9 percent in the last three months of 2016, a slowdown from 3.5 percent in the previous quarter. For 2016, the economy grew 1.6 percent, the worst showing since 2011 and down from 2.6 percent in 2015.</p>
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<p>ENERGY: U.S. crude oil lost 23 cents to $52.94 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell 61 cents on Friday to $53.78. Brent crude, which is used to price international oils, fell 29 cents to $55.41 a barrel. It lost 79 cents to $55.70 a barrel on Friday.</p>
<p>CURRENCIES: The dollar slipped to 114.56 yen from 115.08 on Friday. The euro rose to $1.0722 from $1.0699.</p> | Shares in Asia mixed on uncertainty over US immigration flap | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/30/shares-in-asia-mixed-on-uncertainty-over-us-immigration-flap.html | 2017-01-30 | 0 |
<p>Monday is World Happiness Day, but it wasn't quite as happy as usual for America, which fell to the rank of 14 in the latest <a href="http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2017/" type="external">World Happiness Report</a>.</p>
<p>The report, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/20/travel/worlds-happiest-countries-united-nations-2017/" type="external">published</a> by the United Nations's Sustainable Development Solutions Network, determined that America fell one spot below its ranking the year prior. The happiest country was Norway; Denmark, which had been the winner for the previous three years, was second. Other countries ahead of the U.S. included Canada, Iceland, Australia, Sweden and the Netherlands.</p>
<p>What caused America to fall a spot from the year before? How is the greatest country on the face of the Earth behind the Nordic countries in terms of happiness? How exactly does one measure happiness anyhow? Here are five things you need to know about America's standing in the World Happiness Report.</p>
<p>1. The report <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/sdsn-whr2017/HR17-Ch7_lr.pdf" type="external">claims</a> that America's decline in happiness has nothing to do with economic growth. The study measures happiness through six variables: "log income per capita (lgdp), healthy life expectancy (hle), social support (ssup), freedom to make life choices (freedom), generosity of donations (donation), and perceived corruption of government and business (corruption)." The lgdp and hle happiness factors actually increased in the U.S. from 2006-2007 to 2015-2016.</p>
<p>"This America social crisis is widely noted, but it has not translated into public policy," the report's author Jeffrey D. Sachs states. "Almost all of the policy discourse in Washington DC centers on naïve attempts to raise the economic growth rate, as if a higher growth rate would somehow heal the deepening divisions and angst in American society."</p>
<p>2. America is facing a "social crisis." The U.S. "showed less social support, less sense of personal freedom, lower donations, and more perceived corruption of government and business," writes Sachs.</p>
<p>The report also notes that there are higher mortality rates among "middle-aged white, non-Hispanic men and women" stemming from "drug and alcohol poisoning, suicide, and chronic liver disease and cirrhosis."</p>
<p>In other words, the unhappiness that's plaguing America appears to be due to a divided country that no longer has any faith in their government, along with rising addiction problems among some demographics.</p>
<p>3. The reasons the authors state as the cause of this "social crisis" are clearly from a left-wing perspective. Here are the factors that Sachs lists as sources of the "social crisis":</p>
<p>The report even condemns the GOP's penchant for tax cuts as "voodoo economics" that would "only exacerbate America’s social inequalities and feed the distrust that is already tearing society apart." Citizens United has supposedly allowed such policies to remain intact.</p>
<p>4. The solutions the report states are even more leftist. Here are the solutions the report recommends:</p>
<p>Between the report's diagnosis and their proposed remedies, it's clear that the report was written from a leftist slant. That is not to discredit the report's findings entirely, but the report's perceived problems and solutions for America clearly suggest it was written from a viewpoint in which reality was blinded by partisanship.</p>
<p>5. Here are the actual problems America faces and some solutions to its decline in overall "happiness." America has been divided due to a rise in identity politics in both parties. The American people no longer trust their government, especially after <a href="" type="internal">a litany of scandals</a> under the Obama administration that was conveniently not mentioned in the report. The report also doesn't mention <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/12/incredible_obama_administration_adds_97000_pages_of_regulations_in_2016.html" type="external">the surge in regulations</a> under the Obama administration without the consent of the governed. The rise in immigration without assimilation is also a key problem, as that results in <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/aaronbandler/2015/08/13/report-record-421-million-immigrants-in-the-us-n2038398" type="external">self-segregation</a>.</p>
<p>In other words, the reason people are unhappy is due to an increasingly powerful federal government that further encroaches upon the lives of the American people. The solution is to return to a limited federal government that stays within its constitutional confines and promoting a unifying message of freedom and justice for all.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter" type="external">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a></p> | America Dropped To 14th In The 'World Happiness Report.' 5 Things You Need To Know. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/14602/america-dropped-14th-world-happiness-report-here-aaron-bandler | 2017-03-21 | 0 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Home construction hit a more than five-year monthly high in the Albuquerque metro in May, according to new report from <a href="http://www.datatraq.com/" type="external">DataTraq</a>.</p>
<p>Building permits were issued for 193 new homes during the month, the most during a single month since 196 were issued in August 2008, just before home building went into the tank. The 193 permits represented a 20 percent increase from 161 issued in May 2013.</p>
<p>It’s premature to say whether there’s a rally underway, since permits were down year over year in January, March and April, but it’s a noteworthy benchmark. A third of the permits were issued in Rio Rancho, while most of the rest were issued in the city of Albuquerque.</p>
<p>For perspective, during the home-building boom of 2005, an average of 734 permits were issued each month.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | ABQ metro home building hits a modest high | false | https://abqjournal.com/421843/abq-metro-home-building-hits-a-modest-high.html | 2 |
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<p>Welcome to On Sale at FOX Business, where we look at cool stuff and insane bargains.</p>
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<p>Attention Wal-Mart (WMT) shoppers: the rollbacks just keep on coming. Now through December 12th, anyone who purchases a Wii console in stores for $199 gets a $50 gift card.</p>
<p>And that's not all. Prices on the top 25 video-game titles are also getting slashed up to 25% through December 24th. Among the favorites: Rock Band: Beatles for Wii, Madden 2010 for Xbox360 and PS3, and WWE 2010 for <a href="" type="internal">Xbox</a> 360. <a href="http://www.walmart.com" type="external">For a full list visit Wal-Mart's Web site Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Shop for bargains and at the same time enter for a chance to win a new car.</p>
<p>Overstock.com (OSTK) just announced its partnership with <a href="" type="internal">MasterCard</a> for the 'Hybrid Holiday' Sweepstakes. The discount Web site will give away four 2010 <a href="" type="internal">Toyota</a> Prius Hybrid cars every week during the month of December. <a href="http://www.overstock.com/hybridholiday" type="external">Find the Overstock contest entry form here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>Anyone who places an order through the Web site is automatically entered in the drawing. Overstock.com will pick the winners at random on December 8, 15, 22 and 29.</p>
<p>The first company to bring absinthe back to the U.S. is hoping to help you celebrate the holidays. Viridian Spirits is offering its Lucid gift set for $59.99, which includes a 750ml bottle of absinthe, plus customary Lucid glasses - no measuring required - and a slotted spoon for louching. If you're not sure what "louching" means, and want to find out more, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lucid-Absinthe-Superieure/65560462153?ref=mf" type="external">check out Lucid on Facebook Opens a New Window.</a> or <a href="http://twitter.com/lucidabsinthe" type="external">follow them on Twitter Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>If absinthe isn't your beverage of choice, Kindred Spirits of North America is bringing Sweden's Xante to this side of the Atlantic. The company first introduced the pear infused cognac liqueur in Miami and New York last spring, but now it's available throughout the U.S. Find out where you can buy at bottle at <a href="http://drinkxante.com/" type="external">drinkxante.com Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Coming soon to Target's (TGT) designer collection: Rodarte.</p>
<p>Shoppers will be able to find lace, tulle, sequins and silk transformed with the brand's edgy style at unbeatable prices. Pieces priced between $9.99 and $79.99 will make great stocking stuffers. The full line is due in stores December 20, but shoppers in New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC can get a sneak peek. Target's To-Go shopping events in these three cities let shoppers choose the gifts they want to buy, order by number, and take them away -- wrapped and ready to go.</p>
<p>New York City's To-Go event is on December 11 at Gansevoort and Washington Streets, at the High Line Entrance, starting at 10 a.m. San Francisco's Mint Plaza, on 5th St between Market and Mission Streets, hosts To-Go on December 12, and on December 13, those in Washington DC can visit To-Go at M Street NW and Wisconsin Avenue NW in Georgetown. Those shopping in To-Go cities also get a chance to win a $500 Target GiftCard. <a href="http://www.target.com/togo" type="external">For more information visit Target's Web site Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Know of a killer deal or insane bargain? <a href="http://mailto:[email protected]" type="external">E-mail the goods to [email protected]</a>, or follow us on <a href="" type="internal">Twitter</a> at OnSale_FOXBiz, and share the wealth.</p> | Holiday Spirits Unleashed; Target Offers To-Go Service | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2009/12/10/holiday-spirits-unleashed-target-offers-service.html | 2016-03-18 | 0 |
<p>If, as I have, you've been noting with interest how people have been riffing on the <a href="http://www.google.com/apis/maps/" type="external">Google Maps API</a> to come up with some cool visual information applications, you might be interested in <a href="http://www.smugmug.com" type="external">SmugMug</a>'s latest offering. In my mind, the new service offered by this 3-year-old company is sort of a mix of a photo-sharing service like <a href="http://www.flickr.com" type="external">Flickr</a> and <a href="http://maps.google.com" type="external">Google Maps</a>. (Go to <a href="http://maps.smugmug.com" type="external">this page</a> and you'll understand the concept.) The privately held San Francisco Bay Area company uses Google Maps on top of its online photo-sharing site, combining photography and geography. Users can enter an address for any photo submitted to the site; click a spot on a map to link the photo to a location; or use a GPS (Global Positioning System) device (including GPS-equipped digital cameras and photo phones) to digitally tag photos. This has some interesting applications -- the most obvious being mapping your personal vacation photos to a map of the world. It also might be interesting for journalists. A travel writer might but this concept to good use, for example. ( <a href="http://maps.smugmug.com/?feedType=geoAlbum&amp;Data=735569&amp;zoom=14" type="external">Here's an example</a> of someone using SmugMug to document his biking trip around the world.) Perhaps there's a tie-in for citizen journalism; imagine using a service like this to encourage people to, say, submit photos and descriptions of their gardens, all linked to locations on a satellite map of your city. Obviously, it's possible for a media organization to tap into Google Maps and pull off something like this internally. But subscription services like this one ($30-$50 a year) might be a more economical choice.</p> | More Fun With Photos and Maps | false | https://poynter.org/news/more-fun-photos-and-maps | 2005-08-24 | 2 |
<p>Detroit, St. Louis, Flint, Oakland, and Camden may be the most dangerous cities in the United States when it comes to street crime.</p>
<p>But Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston and Newark are the corporate crime capitals of the United States.</p>
<p>That’s according to an analysis released today by the CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER, a print weekly legal newsletter based in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>“Every year, the FBI releases its Crime in the United States report,” said Russell Mokhiber, editor of CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER. “This report is misnamed. It is actually a report on street crime in the United States. It ignores corporate crime. So, while the Crime in the United States report documents rape, robbery, murder, robbery and assault ­ it ignores health care fraud, bribery, environmental crimes, and other major corporate crime prosecutions.”</p>
<p>Congressional Quarterly created a stir last week when it crunched the 2006 street crime statistics from the FBI’ s Crime in the United States report and put out a ranking of America’s most dangerous cities.</p>
<p>“We believe that America deserves to know not only where most of the street crime is ­ but also where most of the corporate crime is being prosecuted,” Mokhiber said.</p>
<p>The FBI keeps no centralized corporate crime database.</p>
<p>CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER conducted a survey of announced 2006 prosecutions, settlements and sentences of corporate defendants by federal prosecutors in major metropolitan areas of the United States and came up with its top six corporate crime capitals of the United States.</p>
<p>“These are the cities where most of the corporate crimes are being prosecuted,” Mokhiber said. “New York is an obvious hub ­ that’s where Wall Street is and that’s where the money is. Washington is also an obvious contender ­ corporations rip off the government and government prosecutors act to recover the defrauded funds.”</p>
<p>“Federal prosecutors in Boston have developed perhaps the premiere health care fraud prosecution team in the country ­ outside of Washington,” Mokhiber said. “The U.S. Attorneys’ offices in Los Angeles and Philadelphia have both developed white collar and corporate crime expertise.”</p>
<p>The survey looked at number of announced cases brought against corporate entities in 2006 by federal prosecutors in each city.</p>
<p>“Washington took the top prize as the corporate crime capital of the world ­ because that’s where the money is,” Mokhiber said. “And that’s where the Justice Department headquarters is.”</p>
<p>Washington came in first with 93 corporate cases, followed by New York with 18 (counting cases from both the Southern District and Eastern District of New York), Los Angeles with 14, Philadelphia with 12, and Boston and Newark tied at 9.</p>
<p>CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER is located in Washington, DC. They can be reached through their <a href="http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/" type="external">website</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | America’s Corporate Crime Capitals | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/11/30/america-s-corporate-crime-capitals/ | 2007-11-30 | 4 |
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<p>Rich Ross, chairman of Walt Disney Co's movie studio, stepped down after a two-year stint that included the release of "John Carter," one of the biggest flops in recent Hollywood history.</p>
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<p>Ross, named to the job in October 2009, was never able to duplicate the success he enjoyed as president of the Disney Channel, where he was credited with creating monster franchises that included "High School Musical" and "Hannah Montana."</p>
<p>"I no longer believe that the Chairman role is the right professional fit for me," Ross told his staff in an email.</p>
<p>Disney will not immediately name a new head for its studio, a source familiar with the matter said.</p>
<p>As the company's studio chief, Ross approved production of "John Carter," an expensive science-fiction epic whose development had started years earlier. The film's costs eventually ballooned to more than $250 million.</p>
<p>Disney said in March it expected the film to lose about $200 million, and to saddle its studio with $80 million to $120 million in operating losses.</p>
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<p>Ross joined Disney Channel in 1996 as a programming and production executive and was promoted to president of the cable channel in 2004. As studio head, he replaced long-time chairman Dick Cook, who was forced out by Disney CEO Bob Iger.</p>
<p>Two weeks before his departure, Ross hosted a lavish Hollywood premiere for "The Avengers," a big-budget special effects film featuring action stars from Disney's Marvel subsidiary. The film is expected to be one of the summer's biggest hits. (Reporting By Ronald Grover; Editing by Peter Lauria and Lisa Von Ahn)</p> | Disney Film Studio Chief Ross Steps Down: Report | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/04/20/disney-film-studio-chief-ross-steps-down-report.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
<p>Since its completion in 1952, the flat, rectangular, modernist masterpiece on the East River, that is, the United Nations Headquarters has been the site of much geopolitical intrigue as well as a backdrop for films like North by Northwest.</p>
<p>It even makes an appearance in the video game, Grand Theft Auto IV.&#160; But now for the first time, you or I or anyone can build the UN one LEGO brick by LEGO brick. Why would LEGO want to recreate the UN? For that I turned to LEGO expert John Baichtal, author of the book, The Cult of Lego.&#160; For the record he owns around 20,000 LEGO bricks. And although the UN model boxed set says it's for 12 and up LEGO's emphasis says John is on the up.</p>
<p>"They create very large and sophisticated models for the benefit of these parents who grew up in the 1970's with LEGO of their own and they bought some for their kids realize they still like it," said Baichtal.</p>
<p>The LEGO brick that you know was invented by a Danish carpenter and his son in the 1950s. The term LEGO is a abbreviation for the Danish phrase "lei godt" or "play well."&#160; Since the 1950's LEGO has taken a life outside the box you could say. There have been life-size LEGO houses, LEGO cars, there's even an unsanctioned LEGO Breaking Bad model set --- meth making materials not included.&#160; And several years ago, the little bricks caught the fancy of Adam Reed Tucker who spoke with me elbow deep in LEGO bricks in his studio.</p>
<p>"I'm re-creating Cinderella's castle for a Disney traveling exhibit that starts next week at the Museum of Science and Industry," said Tucker.</p>
<p>He's one of little more than a dozen certified LEGO artists. That means he gets paid to play with LEGO bricks.&#160; He got into the LEGO building business after 9/11.&#160; He found himself out of work as an architect and still extremely affected by the destruction of the twin towers.</p>
<p>"At the time it was reported that the Empire State Building and the Sears Tower were not being visited as much because of that fear," explained Tucker. "I wanted to do my little part to ensure that the people that I could come across that 'Hey don't be afraid of going into that observatory. Don't be afraid of being a tenant in these buildings.'"</p>
<p>Tucker thought that a good way to assuage fears and memorialize the Twin Towers would be to build them out of a kids toys.&#160; It had been years since Tucker had even held a LEGO brick in his hand.</p>
<p>"So I literally went to a Toys R' Us one afternoon and filled up like 8 shoopping carts of LEGO sets," said Tucker.</p>
<p>He built an 8-foot replica of the Twin Towers out of 26, 000 bricks.&#160; The model is still traveling around the country.&#160; It caught the attention of LEGO and they comissioned an entire line of architectural wonders from around the world from the Brandenburg Gate in German to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai to the Sydney Opera House.&#160; Tucker has designed at least 14 building in the series --- though not the UN model.&#160; People have become obsessed with collecting and building these models. The reason why according to Tucker is the same as the reason people continue to love LEGO</p>
<p>"Just looking at a pile of parts and realizing that anything is possible."</p>
<p>Seems like that kind of optimism might be a good model for what happens inside the United Nations Headquarters as well.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Building peace and security one LEGO brick at a time | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-10-11/building-peace-and-security-one-lego-brick-time | 2013-10-11 | 3 |
<p>Cosmetics maker L'Oreal USA is building thousands of solar panels at manufacturing facilities in Kentucky and Arkansas, a move the company says will help cut carbon emissions and create two of the biggest solar-powered projects in each state.</p>
<p>The subsidiary of the L'Oreal Group said Tuesday it plans to install 5,000 solar panels at its Florence, Kentucky, plant and another 4,000 at its North Little Rock, Arkansas, plant, with both projects expected to be operational by the middle of next year. The company said the Kentucky project will be the largest commercial solar array in that state and the North Little Rock project will be Arkansas' third largest commercial array.</p>
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<p>The projects are being developed by Little Rock-based Scenic Hill Solar.</p> | L'Oreal building solar projects at Arkansas, Kentucky plants | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/20/loreal-building-solar-projects-at-arkansas-kentucky-plants.html | 2016-09-20 | 0 |
<p>We all hit the send or publish key too quickly some times.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/11/global-recession-leaders-must-act" type="external">Here</a> is a link to the article I referred to by Ha-Joon Chang in today's Guardian.&#160;</p>
<p>The key points:</p>
<p>"The budget deficit of the zone is only about 6% of its GDP, as against the 10-11% of the US and Britain. And with the partial exception of Greece, whatever fiscal crises there exist are due to a recession-driven fall in tax revenue and bank bailouts, rather than overspending. Before the crisis, countries like Spain and Ireland used to run budget surpluses equivalent to between 2-3% of GDP, and budget deficits in Italy and Portugal were, at 1.5%-4% of GDP, entirely manageable."</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>"Even with three decades of growth and 1.3 billion people, China's economy is still just over 8.5% of the world's (as of 2009), so whatever it does pales in significance compared to what goes on in the rich world. Moreover, it faces the challenges of deflating its huge property bubble without creating a financial crisis and managing its intensifying social conflicts - it experiences thousands of riots and strikes every year."</p>
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<p>Read the whole thing ... and as I said in the last blogpost: link to it and, if you know Thomas Friedman's personal e-mail, send it to him.</p> | Important article | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-10-12/important-article | 2011-10-12 | 3 |
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<p>The new year is upon us, and after all that shopping you likely did during the holidays, you may be looking forward to giving your credit card a rest. But January is an excellent month to bag deals like winter apparel or early Valentine's Day gifts. So before you resign yourself to steering clear of stores all together this month, check out our list of the best and worst things to buy in January.</p>
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<p>Resolve to Buy Discounted Fitness Equipment</p>
<p>A popular New Year's resolution is to get in shape, and fittingly, January is an excellent time to get a deal on fitness gear and equipment. In fact, in years past, there have been almost double the number of deals in January. (We otherwise didn't see another spike in deals until late spring.) Look for stationary bikes, treadmills, elliptical trainers, complete home gyms, and training accessories and DVDs that are marked 30% to 70% off. January is also a great time to start grabbing discounted equipment for winter sports.</p>
<p><a href="http://dealnews.com/features/guide-to-holiday-gift-guides/" type="external">It's the DealNews Guide to OTHER Holiday Gift Guides! Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Spring for Winter Apparel</p>
<p>In general, a lot of the best things to buy during After Christmas sales remain good buys throughout the month of January, including winter clothing deals. While the weather has been quite cold this year in many parts of the country, and that can sometimes create greater demand for seasonal wares (which may in turn affect sales), we typically see discounts of 50% to 80% off on coats and winter accessories at stores like Eddie Bauer, REI, Macy's, and JCPenney.</p>
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<p>A Month for Home Furniture</p>
<p>Several manufacturers will release new, 2014 furniture collections in February, forcing retailers to clear their old inventory in January. The result is solid home furniture deals from the likes of Pottery Barn and Home Depot, to name a few. And while May is undeniably the best time to purchase a new mattress, for the past two years US-Mattress has discounted up to 70% off select mattresses in early January, which is something to keep in mind if you want to start the year off with a new bed.</p>
<p>Next-Gen Consoles Will Still Be Hot... and Full Price</p>
<p>It's been difficult to get one's hands on an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 without committing to some marked up bundle "deal," and part of that is in fact influenced by the holiday season. But even with lessened demand after Christmas, the now in-stock consoles will easier to get, but not any cheaper. At best, we might see slight price cuts of 10% starting around April, according to deals we saw when the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 debuted years ago.</p>
<p>Visit Nearly 400 National Parks, Free of Charge</p>
<p>January 20 is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and in celebration, all 398 national parks will feature free admission. While a large number of our parks are already free of charge, notable parks that are waiving their fees include several of the most-visited in the country, such as Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and Olympic National Park. You'll save roughly $12 per person if you're arriving by foot or bike, or about $20 to $25 per vehicle. The National Parks Service doesn't offer another fee-free day until late April. Keep an Eye Out for Early Tax Software Deals</p>
<p>This month, we will start seeing sales that take up to 40% off tax filing software, and while discounts might get stronger in the following months, last year the discounts didn't get much deeper. So if you don't want to put off starting your taxes, January is a good month to buy. Keep an eye out specifically for deals that discount state filing; many services offer free filing for federal tax returns, but state returns typically require an additional fee. Get an Early Start on Valentine's Day Gifts</p>
<p>While most of us we remain in a daze of post-Christmas clear-outs, you should take this opportunity to jump on female-friendly gifts that can translate into thoughtful items for the apple of your eye come Valentine's Day. Typically, deals on jewelry and fragrances aren't so hot right before Valentine's Day. In fact, we've found that some jewelry prices actually go up slightly in February. Instead of waiting, think ahead and try shopping the numerous department store sales we've seen since Christmas. Steep Savings on Christmas Goods</p>
<p>Who cares if it has a Santa Claus on the tin? Heavily discounted goodies abound this month from brands like Starbucks and Cheryl's Godiva, too, offers discounts of up to 40% off. We say, start 2014 off with something sweet, even if it temporarily interferes with your New Year's resolution to get in shape. Beyond these sugary goods, decorations also see strong sales, with discounts of up to 75% off at stores like Lowe's and Home Depot. This is an especially good time to save a $100 or more on a new Christmas tree. The Beginning of Electronics Clearance Sales</p>
<p>Pay attention to the gadgets that debut at the Consumer Electronics Show this month; pay even closer attention to those that improve upon a 2013 item. Such previous-generation (a-hem, 2013) devices will then start to see new price cuts. This includes electronics like cameras, audio equipment, and Android tablets. Just remember that the announcement of a new model will inspire initial discounts (from both stores and the manufacturer), but the sales will get even better once the new model is actually available to buy. This timing can vary from device to device, so be aware of release dates.</p>
<p>Wait Until Next Month for Discounts on Brand-Name 2013 TVs</p>
<p>Just as electronics in general are rebooted at CES, so too are TVs. For retailers, this means consolidating their inventory of 2013 devices to make room for the new models. However, we might not start seeing these TV deals until the end of the month and into February. Last year, 55" 3D HDTV prices dipped an extra 6% during the month of February (versus their best price on Black Friday 2012). Also during February, name-brand 60" 1080p LCDs dropped to their second all-time low, beating their best December price by a more impressive 16%.</p>
<p>So if you're in the market for a new TV, January is the month to keep your ear to the ground, but February is the month to act. For 60" TVs, $679 is the all-time lowest price; 55" 3D HDTVs have averaged $700 for the past four months. Any deals you can find at or below these marks will ensure you're getting the best price possible.</p>
<p>Touchscreen Laptops Hit Rock Bottom</p>
<p>Prices on touchscreen laptops have been falling rapidly lately; in fact, we've already seen 12" Ivy Bridge-based models plummet to just $200 in December. We expect to find similar discounts in January as well, which is good news since these systems were selling for at least $100 more as recently as September.</p>
<p>But touch-enabled laptops aren't the only systems breaking records. Contrary to our predictions, it was Haswell-based laptops (and not Ivy Bridge systems) that saw the deepest price cuts in November. Those sales leaked into December with deals hitting a record low of $500. These deals, too, will bleed into January with 15" Core i7-based notebooks leading the charge at the aforementioned price. Alternatively, you can opt for a Core i5-based Haswell system, which has averaged $408 for the past two months.</p>
<p>If you're after quad-core power on a budget, AMD has been holding strong with deals averaging $252 for the past two months. By comparison, similarly-equipped Intel quad-core notebooks have averaged $535 in the previous two months, making AMD the smarter purchase for quad-core systems.</p>
<p>Ready to put this information to use? Set up an email alert now to keep abreast of any and all of these best buys in January. Also be sure to check out our gift guide, with all the latest deals that would make excellent presents this holiday season.</p>
<p>Read More from DealNews.com:</p> | Best and Worst Things to Buy in January | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/01/09/best-and-worst-things-to-buy-in-january.html | 2016-06-14 | 0 |
<p>This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (October 12, 2017).</p>
<p>Investors' thirst for income is enabling governments and companies in some of the world's poorest countries to sell debt at lower and lower interest rates.</p>
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<p>And the global bond boom has even reached Tajikistan.</p>
<p>The central Asian country last month raised $500 million in its first-ever international bond sale, paying just 7.125% in annual interest on the debt after the U.S.-dollar offering drew a swarm of American and European buyers. Bankers had earlier offered the 10-year bonds from the former Soviet satellite with an 8% yield.</p>
<p>Greece, which was on the brink of default a few years ago, issued new bonds this past summer, and the National Bank of Greece launched a bond sale Tuesday, marking the first visit of a Greek bank to the credit markets since the country's sovereign-debt crisis.</p>
<p>And June saw the bond-market debut of the Maldives, a tiny nation in the Indian Ocean that raised $200 million in a sale of five-year bonds with a 7% coupon.</p>
<p>Speculative-grade bond issuance in the developing world has hit a record $221 billion this year, according to data from J.P. Morgan Chase &amp; Co. and Dealogic, up 60% from the full-year total in 2016.</p>
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<p>Buyers reason that the debt pays a healthy yield and carries few immediate risks. The global economy appears robust and emerging-market defaults are low. Bankers say they expect emerging markets to sell tens of billions of dollars in additional junk bonds by year-end.</p>
<p>The euphoria is worrying some investors, who warn that frenzied buying of risky assets sometimes presages market turning points. The average yield on speculative-grade corporate bonds in emerging markets dropped to 5.53% late last week, the lowest on record, according to J.P. Morgan. Two years ago, that yield was more than 9%.</p>
<p>"While I am not shouting the end is near, it is normally pretty far down the line that emerging markets start to see this type of euphoria," said Wilbur Matthews, principal at Vaquero Global Investments LP, a firm that specializes in emerging markets. He said he has been selling some riskier debt to buy higher-rated bonds and securities that mature sooner.</p>
<p>Tajikistan's bonds were rated B- by S&amp;P, six notches below investment grade. The ratings firm estimated the country's per capita gross domestic product at $900, putting it among the lowest of the sovereign nations it rates, but said it sees Tajikistan's growth prospects improving gradually.</p>
<p>"Investors are very bullish on bonds from emerging markets and very keen to diversify into new names," said Peter Charles, a Citibank managing director who handled the Tajikistan bond sale. The country plans to use some of the proceeds to finance a power-plant project.</p>
<p>Some passed on the opportunity. Samy Muaddi, who manages a portfolio of emerging-market bonds at T. Rowe Price Group, said he didn't buy the Tajikistan debt because he lacked information about the country's repayment history and financial strength. "We are seeing a lot of aggressively priced deals, as many new entrants are coming to the market with less-established track records," he added. T. Rowe has about $16 billion in emerging-market debt.</p>
<p>Companies that previously struggled to raise money in the credit markets had no trouble doing so recently. Geo Energy Resources, an Indonesian coal-mining group, canceled a $300 million bond sale in July when investors were demanding a yield of close to 9%. In late September, the company returned to the markets and sold the bonds with an 8.3% yield.</p>
<p>And even issuers with a history of defaults have been able to find buyers for their debt. Argentina in June sold 100-year bonds, even though the South American nation has defaulted multiple times over the past few decades.</p>
<p>"We're at a part of the credit cycle globally that's really benign. Risk taking is really high," said Jay Wintrob, CEO of Oaktree Capital Management, during a recent visit to Hong Kong. Los Angeles-based Oaktree has $99 billion under management in corporate debt and other investments.</p>
<p>Prices of emerging-market junk bonds have gained sharply this year, pushing their "spreads," or the additional yield that investors demand over interest-rate benchmarks, to multiyear lows. That spread over U.S. Treasurys was just 3.48 percentage points at the end of last week, the tightest level in 10 years, according to J.P. Morgan. A year ago, the spread was 5.3 percentage points.</p>
<p>Buyers of such bonds have been collecting hefty returns. A J.P. Morgan index that tracks high-yield corporate bonds in the emerging markets has risen 9.2% this year through September, significantly outperforming U.S. junk bonds, which have returned 6.7% over the same period.</p>
<p>There are fundamental reasons why global investors are rushing into riskier emerging-market debt. Many companies are growing, their balance sheets are improving and default rates are at multiyear lows, said Fraser Lundie, a portfolio manager and co-head of credit at Hermes Investment Management in London, which has about $39 billion under management. Calmer energy and commodity markets also have reduced volatility in Asian companies' earnings.</p>
<p>Money continues to flow in. The Institute of International Finance said in a recent report that emerging-market bond funds are set to attract a net inflow of $242 billion in 2017, up from $102 billion last year.</p>
<p>But buyers of bonds issued by low-rated companies and countries in the emerging world could be exposed to multiple risks should markets turn, investors say.</p>
<p>In previous times of market stress and economic weakness, junk bonds and emerging-market debt were among the asset classes that suffered sharp price declines as investors dumped riskier holdings for safer ones. The recent tightening in spreads raises questions about whether investors are getting adequately paid for the risk they are taking on. A faster-than-expected interest-rate increase by the Federal Reserve could also hurt bonds broadly, because bond prices fall when rates and yields rise.</p>
<p>Polina Kurdyavko, co-head of emerging-market debt at BlueBay Asset Management, a fixed-income firm with $57 billion of assets under management, said she isn't worried yet. Junk-bond issuance, which makes up less than half of overall emerging-market debt supply, has so far been increasing proportionally to the broader sector.</p>
<p>"I'll start worrying when high yield dominates new bond issuance in emerging markets," she said.</p>
<p>--Steven Russolillo contributed to this article.</p>
<p>Write to Carolyn Cui at [email protected] and Manju Dalal at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 12, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)</p> | Bond Boom Spreads to Poorest Countries -- WSJ | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/12/bond-boom-spreads-to-poorest-countries-wsj.html | 2017-10-12 | 0 |
<p>Mardin Amin, an Iraqi arrested at O’Hare airport now faces serious felony charges of disorderly conduct. He could get three years in prison. A female security guard claims Amin uttered the word “bomb” when she was examining a small black squeezable object she’d taken from his bag.</p>
<p>For his part, Amin, on his way to Turkey with his mother and his children, claims he was whispering to his mother that it was a “pump” ­ in fact a penis pump.</p>
<p>The judge believed the security guard and now Amin faces the felony charges.</p>
<p>CounterPuncher and Arabic-speaker David Price clarifies the affair.</p>
<p>“As an anthropologist and Arabic speaker,” Price tells CounterPunch,” let me call attention to a vital aspect of this story. Simply put, Arabic has no ‘Ps’ and all native Arabic speakers voice their bilabials as ‘Bs’, thus it is pretty obvious that any native Arabic speaker with an accent would say the word ‘pump’ as the word ‘bumb’ –which the poorly-trained and overly paranoid airport security worker mis-heard as ‘bomb.’</p>
<p>“As has happened here, with newspapers such as the Chicago Sun Times, news pieces with the words ‘penis pump’ will generate guffaws from sea to shinning sea, but by not stating what the obvious context of this misunderstanding is, the Sun Times is adding to a dangerous climate of American anti-Arab sentiment.”</p>
<p>Professor Price urges the chortling scriveners and newsreaders of Chicago’s entyertrainment industry to do what they can to reduce climate of hysteria by shedding some public light on what actually happened in this case.</p>
<p>After Wednesday’s hearing, Amin said airport security officials never gave him an opportunity to explain the misunderstanding. And he said he would never utter the word “bomb” while going through securi “Come on — what do you think?” said Amin, who lives in Skokie and works for a janitorial service.</p>
<p>Amin does not consider the pump unusual.</p>
<p>“It’s normal,” he said. “Half of America they use it.”</p>
<p>David Price teaches anthropology at St. Martin’s College in Lacey, Washington. He is author of <a href="" type="internal">Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI’s Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists</a> (Duke, 2004). His next book, Weaponizing Anthropology: American Anthropologists in the Second World War will be published by Duke University Press. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Penis Pump or Bomb? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/08/24/penis-pump-or-bomb/ | 2006-08-24 | 4 |
<p>Alex Rodriguez’s New York Yankees missed Major League Baseball’s postseason for the second time in the past eighteen seasons, but that doesn’t mean his October has been uneventful. Rodriguez is the last man standing after baseball’s most recent salvo in their war on performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), and he and his legal team have spent the past month preparing for what figures to be a long and drawn out appeal of an unprecedented 211-game suspension for his involvement with a Miami clinic.</p>
<p>Over a dozen other players were suspended along with Rodriguez. Unlike Rodriguez, they all accepted their suspensions — in most cases fifty games, MLB’s typical suspension for first-time steroid offenders. Perhaps the evidence was strong. Perhaps they didn’t want to be blackballed by the owners. Rodriguez was the only one of the group without a future contract to think about — he will be forty-two years old when his current ten-year, $275 million contract expires in 2017. The next oldest player suspended was thirty-three-year-old Nelson Cruz — a free agent following the season.</p>
<p>Baseball’s key witness in the case is Anthony Bosch, the owner of the clinic from which the players allegedly obtained performance enhancing drugs. Bosch refused to cooperate with MLB’s investigation for months until MLB filed suit against him for “tortious interference.” Thus compelled, he cooperated. ESPN legal analyst Lester Munson wrote, “We know only that MLB promised to protect him from any legal actions that might result from his cooperation and that MLB assured Bosch it would provide personal security.” Munson also suggested MLB may have offered to help Bosch with his problems with the IRS and other lawsuits, although this has not been confirmed.</p>
<p>Throughout its steroids investigation, Major League Baseball has operated with tunnel vision. Players have been the sole target — not the suppliers of performance enhancing drugs, not the coaches who oversee these players, not the owners who profit from their performances. This has proven over the past decade or so to be an ineffective strategy for halting steroid use. So why do the powers that be in baseball insist on punishing the players, and no other party?</p>
<p>It’s a question that can be asked of the anti-drug movement at any point in its history. The World Anti-Doping Association, established in 1999 by the International Olympic Committee to “coordinate the fight against banned performance-enhancing drugs in sport,” has almost entirely&#160; <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/ioc-establishes-world-antidoping-agency-741711.html" type="external">deployed their resources against players</a>, not drug manufacturers or distributors. From a UK report following the agency’s establishment:</p>
<p>The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will establish a single list of banned substances, coordinate unannounced out-of-competition drug testing, develop common standards for sample collection and testing procedures, push for harmonized rules and sanctions, and promote research into new tests.</p>
<p>Additionally, baseball (and sport in general) punishes no other infraction — particularly those involving violence on the field of play — with anywhere near the same zeal. The fifty-game first offense steroid suspension is by a wide margin the strictest suspension Major League Baseball hands down. Padres outfielder Carlos Quentin was suspended eight games for charging the mound after taking a pitch off his (heavily padded) elbow and breaking Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke’s shoulder in the process. Giants relief pitcher George Kontos was suspended three games for intentionally throwing at an opponent. Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson has been suspended multiple times for what MLB deemed the intentional actions of his pitchers in throwing at opposing hitters — both one-game suspensions.</p>
<p>Why are these infractions, incidents that would often otherwise be considered assault&#160; — as when National Hockey League player&#160; <a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Seven-years-later-how-Bertuzzi-s-assault-change?urn=nhl-331447" type="external">Todd Bertuzzi was charged and plead guilty to assault</a>&#160;in Vancouver&#160;over a hit in 2004 — given relative slaps on the wrist? Why does an organization ostensibly designed to eliminate doping in sports only approach the problem from one direction — the players, the workers of sport?</p>
<p>Twenty-five years ago, conservative commentator George Will answered this question for us in his syndicated column:</p>
<p>[Commissioner Bart] Giamatti noted that most disciplinary cases involve impulsive violence, which is less morally grave than cheating. Such acts of violence, although intolerable, spring from the nature of physical contests between aggressive competitors. Such violence is a reprehensible extension of the physical exertion that is integral to the contest. Rules try to contain, not expunge, violent effort.</p>
<p>But cheating derives not from excessive, impulsive zeal in the heat of competition. Rather it is a cold, covert attempt to alter conditions of competition. As Giamatti puts it, cheating has no organic origin in the act of playing and cheating devalues any contest designed to declare a winner among participants playing under identical rules and conditions. Toward cheating the proper policy is zero tolerance.</p>
<p>The idea of zero tolerance has driven steroid policy ever since. The league realized the initial ten game suspension wasn’t enough to deter players and bumped it up to fifty games in a hope the disincentive would be strong enough to deter most potential offenders. The&#160; <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/aug/02/biogenesis-peds-scandal-explained" type="external">Biogenesis scandal</a>&#160;has indicated to many in the game that a fifty-game suspension — something that would result in a loss of nearly one-third of a player’s wages aside from the missed time — is too weak. Some, including players, called for a full-season ban on the first offense, while some went as far to say even first-time offenders should be banned for life.</p>
<p>“To me, personally, I think you should be out of the game if you get caught,” Mike Trout, Angels center fielder, All-Star, and arguably the best player in the game <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/12/mike-trout-ped-users-out-of-game_n_3744358.html" type="external">said</a> in the wake of Rodriguez’s suspension. “It takes away from the guys that are working hard every day and doing it all natural.”</p>
<p>“Natural” — this word cuts to the heart of the issue for many incensed by steroid use. In Will’s view, a player crosses the line “when he seeks advantage from radical intrusions into his body.” He explicates: “In short, sport is valued not only because it builds character but because it puts on display, and crowns with glory.&#160;.&#160;. attributes we associated with good character. Good character, not good chemistry.”</p>
<p>Will doesn’t lay out the next step, but it falls logically. If sport is a contest of character — specifically the universally-recognized character Will believes in — then the result of the game is an indicator of character. Win and you possess it. Lose and you don’t. This is the real crime of the steroid cheat: they make themselves into winners when in actuality, they were losers.</p>
<p>Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, another avid sports fan, is more explicit about the purpose of sport. As Corey Robin notes in&#160;The Reactionary Mind, “Games hold a special valence for Scalia: they are the space where inequality rules.” In 2001, golfer Casey Martin challenged a PGA rule that didn’t allow him to use a golf cart despite a birth defect ( <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klippel_Trenaunay_Weber_syndrome" type="external">Klippel Trenaunay Weber syndrome</a>) that made walking the necessary distances to play 18 holes difficult. Martin challenged the rule under the Americans with Disabilities Act and won an injunction, which the court upheld.</p>
<p>This didn’t play well with Scalia’s idea of sports — inequality rules in golf and sports as a whole, and if Martin’s specific inequality meant he couldn’t walk the course, it was merely proof he lacked the character required to succeed at golf. Specifically, from his dissent: “No wild-eyed dreamer has ever suggested that the managing bodies of the competitive sports that test precisely these qualities should try to take account of the uneven distribution of God-given gifts when writing and enforcing the rules of competition.”&#160;And, cutting deeper:</p>
<p>The very nature of competitive sport is the measurement, by uniform rules, of unevenly distributed excellence. This unequal distribution is precisely what determines the winners and losers and artificially to “even out” that distribution, by giving one or another player exemption from a rule that emphasizes his particular weakness, is to destroy the game.</p>
<p>Scalia’s argument is framed around a disability issue, but he still returns to the idea of the natural, or as he prefers, “God-given.” Not only is the purpose of sport to declare who is naturally superior, but if this purpose is removed — or even blurred — sport is not just damaged, but “destroyed.” Applying this philosophy to steroids hardly requires a jump. Steroids make it impossible to tell what is natural ability and what is artificial, and therefore sport’s determination of winners and losers becomes invalid.</p>
<p>Thus the problem is not the proliferation of steroids into the world of sports, but the athlete’s willing decision to augment his ability, to deceive the moral arbiter that is sport.</p>
<p>As for the baseball owners, baseball executives, and politicians who advocate for these punishments, the crime is framed as one of deception. “The sport is about to become a fraud,”&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33702-2004Dec3.html" type="external">Sen. John McCain told commissioner Bud Selig and MLB Players Association director Donald Fehr</a>&#160;in 2004.</p>
<p>But a look at the players who are actually suspended reveals&#160;this&#160;as a fraud. Four of the fourteen players suspended in the Biogenesis fallout were minor leaguers. Of the 105 players suspended under MLB’s joint drug agreement since it was enacted in 2005, sixty-two have been minor league players. A majority have been from outside the United States — primarily Latin American countries, where failing to succeed in baseball often means a return to a life of poverty.</p>
<p>Even for an American born player, the difference between languishing in the minors and playing in the majors can be the difference between making $20,000 a year (or less, in lower levels of the minor leagues) and making millions. When the options are a sub-living wage versus complete financial security, who wouldn’t reach for the needle?</p>
<p>Steroids are a real problem.&#160; <a href="https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/killing-point/" type="external">Cyclists, like Johannes Draaijer, have died</a>&#160;as a direct result of the thickening effects resulting from blood doping. Anabolic steroids&#160; <a href="http://blogs.thescore.com/fanatico/2013/08/08/the-ped-scare-how-reinforcing-a-remnant-of-cold-war-hysteria-keeps-sports-leagues-profitable/" type="external">ravaged athletes on mandatory regimens in the Soviet Union</a>. In American professional sports, these drugs often come from shady doctors — or, in the case of Anthony Bosch, people who have no medical expertise whatsoever — in uncontrolled environments.</p>
<p>The task of finding a solution to the real problems — the health risks athletes face, particularly the less gifted ones, in their quest to reach the infinitely narrow space where they earn financial security, all while filling the owners’ coffers — doesn’t beg for punishment. It begs for a process and a solution in which an athlete’s humanity lies at the forefront. It requires study of performance enhancing drugs, efforts to make them safer, and efforts to eliminate those that are dangerous from circulation — not deeper and deeper punishments that fail to attack the core problem.</p>
<p>Will concludes: “A society’s recreation is charged with moral significance. Sport would be debased, and with it a society that takes sport seriously, if sport did not strictly forbid things that blur the distinction between the triumph of character and the triumph of pharmacology.”</p>
<p>In the worlds of Will, Scalia, and the rest of sport’s conservative base, the realities of class dynamics are a distant afterthought. For them, athletes are simply avatars competing for the judgment of moral authorities. When this purpose of sport is disrupted, it is the athletes who must be punished, never the coaches, executives and owners who actually hold power within the game.</p>
<p>Will is right, though — our recreation does have moral significance, and the steroid cloud can and does debase sport. It will continue to debase sport as long as governing bodies like the MLB are fighting a war not against performance enhancing drugs, but against athletes who subvert their attempts at moral judgment.</p> | The Reactionary Sports Drug War | true | http://jacobinmag.com/2013/11/the-reactionary-sports-drug-war/ | 2018-10-05 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — A device that heats tobacco without burning it reduces some of the harmful chemicals in traditional cigarettes, but government scientists say it’s unclear if that translates into lower rates of disease for smokers who switch.</p>
<p>U.S. regulators published a mixed review Monday of the closely watched cigarette alternative from Philip Morris International. The company hopes to market the electronic device as the first “reduced-risk” tobacco product ever sanctioned by the U.S. government.</p>
<p>Philip Morris’ penlike device, called iQOS (EYE-kose), is already sold in more than 30 countries, including Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. But Philip Morris and its U.S. partner, Altria, need the permission of the Food and Drug Administration to sell it in the U.S.</p>
<p>iQOS heats strips of Marlboro-branded tobacco but stops short of burning them, producing a tobacco vapor that includes nicotine. This is different from e-cigarettes, which don’t use tobacco at all but instead vaporize liquid usually containing nicotine. Nicotine is what makes cigarettes addictive.</p>
<p>Philip Morris believes its product is closer to the taste and experience of traditional cigarettes, making it more attractive to smokers and reducing their contact with tar and other toxic byproducts of burning cigarettes.</p>
<p>Company scientists will present their studies and marketing plan to a panel of FDA advisers this week. The panel’s recommendation, expected Thursday, is non-binding: the FDA will make the ultimate decision on the device later this year.</p>
<p>A greenlight from FDA would mark a major milestone in efforts by both the industry and government to provide less harmful tobacco products to smokers who can’t or won’t quit cigarettes. Despite decades of tax hikes, smoking bans and campaigns, about 15 percent of U.S. adults smoke.</p>
<p>The FDA review paints a mixed picture of the potential benefits of the iQOS “heat-not-burn” approach.</p>
<p>Levels of certain harmful chemicals were between 55 and 99 percent lower in the vapor produced by iQOS than in cigarette smoke. But animal and laboratory studies submitted by the company also suggested the chemicals could still be toxic and contribute to precancerous growths. A company study in mice could help clarify the cancer risk, but the FDA said the results would not be available until later this year.</p>
<p>Under a 2009 law, the FDA gained authority to regulate a number of aspects of the tobacco industry. The same law allows the agency to scientifically review and permit sales of new products shown to be less dangerous than what’s currently available. But the FDA has not yet allowed any company to advertise a “reduced-risk” tobacco product.</p>
<p>To meet FDA requirements, a company must show that the product will improve the health of individual users and the overall population. Additionally, the product should not appeal to non-smokers or interfere with smokers looking to quit.</p>
<p>The FDA review said some non-smokers, including young people, would likely experiment with iQOS. Reviewers also questioned if smokers would completely switch to iQOS from cigarettes. In company studies, less than 20 percent of U.S. users switched completely to iQOS over six weeks.</p>
<p>Philip Morris and other global tobacco companies are diversifying their products beyond traditional cigarettes, making investments in e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and chewable tobacco pouches, among other alternatives. While cigarettes remain enormously profitable the global market continues to contract amid worldwide campaigns to discourage smoking.</p>
<p>The FDA itself has signaled its intention to begin pushing U.S. consumers away from traditional cigarettes toward alternative products. As part of the effort, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wants to drastically cut nicotine levels in traditional cigarettes to help smokers quit.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — A device that heats tobacco without burning it reduces some of the harmful chemicals in traditional cigarettes, but government scientists say it’s unclear if that translates into lower rates of disease for smokers who switch.</p>
<p>U.S. regulators published a mixed review Monday of the closely watched cigarette alternative from Philip Morris International. The company hopes to market the electronic device as the first “reduced-risk” tobacco product ever sanctioned by the U.S. government.</p>
<p>Philip Morris’ penlike device, called iQOS (EYE-kose), is already sold in more than 30 countries, including Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. But Philip Morris and its U.S. partner, Altria, need the permission of the Food and Drug Administration to sell it in the U.S.</p>
<p>iQOS heats strips of Marlboro-branded tobacco but stops short of burning them, producing a tobacco vapor that includes nicotine. This is different from e-cigarettes, which don’t use tobacco at all but instead vaporize liquid usually containing nicotine. Nicotine is what makes cigarettes addictive.</p>
<p>Philip Morris believes its product is closer to the taste and experience of traditional cigarettes, making it more attractive to smokers and reducing their contact with tar and other toxic byproducts of burning cigarettes.</p>
<p>Company scientists will present their studies and marketing plan to a panel of FDA advisers this week. The panel’s recommendation, expected Thursday, is non-binding: the FDA will make the ultimate decision on the device later this year.</p>
<p>A greenlight from FDA would mark a major milestone in efforts by both the industry and government to provide less harmful tobacco products to smokers who can’t or won’t quit cigarettes. Despite decades of tax hikes, smoking bans and campaigns, about 15 percent of U.S. adults smoke.</p>
<p>The FDA review paints a mixed picture of the potential benefits of the iQOS “heat-not-burn” approach.</p>
<p>Levels of certain harmful chemicals were between 55 and 99 percent lower in the vapor produced by iQOS than in cigarette smoke. But animal and laboratory studies submitted by the company also suggested the chemicals could still be toxic and contribute to precancerous growths. A company study in mice could help clarify the cancer risk, but the FDA said the results would not be available until later this year.</p>
<p>Under a 2009 law, the FDA gained authority to regulate a number of aspects of the tobacco industry. The same law allows the agency to scientifically review and permit sales of new products shown to be less dangerous than what’s currently available. But the FDA has not yet allowed any company to advertise a “reduced-risk” tobacco product.</p>
<p>To meet FDA requirements, a company must show that the product will improve the health of individual users and the overall population. Additionally, the product should not appeal to non-smokers or interfere with smokers looking to quit.</p>
<p>The FDA review said some non-smokers, including young people, would likely experiment with iQOS. Reviewers also questioned if smokers would completely switch to iQOS from cigarettes. In company studies, less than 20 percent of U.S. users switched completely to iQOS over six weeks.</p>
<p>Philip Morris and other global tobacco companies are diversifying their products beyond traditional cigarettes, making investments in e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and chewable tobacco pouches, among other alternatives. While cigarettes remain enormously profitable the global market continues to contract amid worldwide campaigns to discourage smoking.</p>
<p>The FDA itself has signaled its intention to begin pushing U.S. consumers away from traditional cigarettes toward alternative products. As part of the effort, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wants to drastically cut nicotine levels in traditional cigarettes to help smokers quit.</p> | Heat-not-burn cigarette alternative faces US scrutiny | false | https://apnews.com/308e225f32a34577b24ed7a421db9539 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Here’s a little rundown of various developments of the last week, not a single one of which adds up to good news for the Bush administration as it launches itself into eight months of mortal combat with not-quite Democratic presidential nominee Senator John Kerry.</p>
<p>As a start, the two great props for the Iraqi war, the two explanations that convinced so many terrorized Americans to back a “preventive” war — those mushroom clouds sprouting over American cities and the al Qaeda-Saddam link that would somehow get them there — simply are no more, though the administration remains trapped in its own explanations and incapable of letting go.</p>
<p>Weapons of mass destruction: David Kay, former administration hawk and head of the Iraq Survey Team, the man who was to bring home the irradiated bacon, continues to confound the Bush people by insisting not just that he and they were wrong, but that they, like him, should admit the error of their ways. Julian Borger of the British Guardian recently interviewed him ( <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1160916,00.html" type="external">The inspector’s final report</a>):</p>
<p />
<p>“‘Let me begin by saying, we were almost all wrong, and I certainly include myself here,’ he told the open-mouthed senators. It was a mea culpa — he had been convinced since his days as a UN inspector that Saddam Hussein was concealing a potentially devastating arsenal — but it was much more than that. In simply stating that there were no stockpiles, Kay declared that the would-be emperors on both sides of the Atlantic had no clothes…</p>
<p>“Coming from a hawk and advocate of the Iraq invasion, that is a depressing conclusion for an administration at the start of an unpredictable election year. Worse still, Kay is now calling on the White House to come clean about its mistakes and defend the war instead as a liberation of an oppressed people… [H]e thinks the president has to go further to regain public trust. ‘It’s about confronting and coming clean with the American people, not just slipping a phrase into the state of the union speech. He should say: ‘We were mistaken and I am determined to find out why’.”</p>
<p>Worse yet, the guy just won’t shut up.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, as <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-03-02-un-wmd_x.htm" type="external">Bill Nichols of USA Today reported</a>, the UN inspection teams, whose efforts were once denounced by Donald Rumsfeld as a “sham,” were set to report that Iraq probably had had no WMD stocks since 1994. Even though the UN was cut out of the postwar weapons hunt, as Nichols comments, “U.N. reports submitted to the Security Council before the war by Hans Blix, former chief U.N. arms inspector, and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency, have been largely validated by U.S. weapons teams.”</p>
<p>And then — more bad news for Tony Blair (and not so wonderful for our President either) — former head of the UN inspection teams, Hans Blix (remember him?), just gave an interview to <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=498039" type="external">the British Independent</a> in which he declared that, in his opinion, the Iraq war was “illegal.” His new book on his prewar experiences, Disarming Iraq, will be released here only days from now and the week after next he’s going to be at the University of California, Berkeley, undoubtedly repeating the same charges in an on-stage “conversation” with Christian Amanpour of CNN (who has made <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/aricle4713.htm" type="external">some strong statements of her own</a> about our “embedded” media, self-censorship, and the war):</p>
<p />
<p>“The former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has declared that the war in Iraq was illegal, dealing another devastating blow to Tony Blair… He said it would have required a second United Nations resolution explicitly authorising the use of force for the invasion of Iraq last March to have been legal… He repeated accusations the US and British governments were ‘hyped’ intelligence and lacking critical thinking. ‘They used exclamation marks instead of question marks.'”</p>
<p>Excerpts from the book have already been published by the Guardian in which, <a href="http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&amp;storyID=4511149" type="external">according to Reuters</a>, Blix suggests:</p>
<p />
<p>“George Bush and Tony Blair, perhaps fired by a religious conviction they were battling evil, have been seduced by unproven intelligence reports of Iraq’s illegal weapons, former chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix says… Blix wrote that Western [i.e. American and British] intelligence claims shared with his inspectors about, for example, mobile laboratories to make biological agents had proved embarrassing and added: ‘I am not aware of any other intelligence “shared” with us that has been substantiated by credible evidence.’</p>
<p>“‘Perhaps Blair and Bush, both religious men, felt strengthened in their political determination by the feeling they were fighting evil, not only (arms) proliferation,’ he wrote.”</p>
<p>Ah, for the return of the repressed, despised, bugged, ignored, rejected, spied upon, vilified, and scorned. In their moment of glory, our cocky leaders believed they had buried Blix and his ilk deeper than any weapons of mass destruction and that they would never rise again. How wrong they’ve proved to be.</p>
<p>Al-Qaeda links: Another of the administration’s major justifications for war — the supposed operational linkage between Osama and Saddam, between, that is, 9/11 and an invasion of Iraq — was hit at the water line by a torpedo and sunk last week, thanks to a report from the Knight Ridder team of Warren P. Strobel, Jonathan S. Landay and John Walcott. (Strobel and Landay in particular have quietly done among the best and most reliable reporting — real digging — on the Bush administration throughout this dismal period.) In a piece far too modestly headlined ( <a href="http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8089829.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp" type="external">Doubts cast on efforts to link Saddam, al-Qaida</a>) given its stinging first line, they write:</p>
<p />
<p>“The Bush administration’s claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had ties to al-Qaida — one of the administration’s central arguments for a pre-emptive war — appears to have been based on even less solid intelligence than the administration’s claims that Iraq had hidden stocks of chemical and biological weapons.”</p>
<p>Ka-boom!</p>
<p>And they go on to point out that this had been well documented and had circulated within the intelligence community and assumedly passed on to key officials in the administration long before the war was ever launched:</p>
<p />
<p>“Senior U.S. officials now say there never was any evidence that Saddam’s secular police state and Osama bin Laden’s Islamic terrorism network were in league. At most, there were occasional meetings. Moreover, the U.S. intelligence community never concluded that those meetings produced an operational relationship, American officials said. That verdict was in a secret report by the CIA’s Directorate of Intelligence that was updated in January 2003, on the eve of the war.</p>
<p>“‘We could find no provable connection between Saddam and al-Qaida,’ a senior U.S. official acknowledged. He and others spoke on condition of anonymity because the information involved is classified and could prove embarrassing to the White House.”</p>
<p>A perfect storm of scandals</p>
<p>Oh, and let’s not forget that old Niger uranium claim — Iraq’s supposed yellowbrick road to war — based on the most ineptly doctored documents to surface in memory. It’s a case being quietly investigated in the Senate and by the FBI. As Josh Marshall comments in a piece in The Hill:</p>
<p />
<p>“Next up is the much-less-discussed investigation into those forged documents that purported to prove that Iraq was purchasing large quantities of uranium from the African nation of Niger. The Senate investigation is focusing on what happened to those documents after they got into U.S. government hands. But there’s also an ongoing FBI investigation into just who forged them and how this fraudulent evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program was peddled into American hands.”</p>
<p>I’ve included his whole piece below. He offers a partial listing — who can remember all of them — of the various investigations of the administration that may, in the coming months, add up to what he terms “a perfect storm of scandals.” He also offers a close accounting of exactly how conveniently the fraudulent Niger documents turned up just as the CIA and the White House were duking it out over whether this claim should be made at all.</p>
<p>He doesn’t bother, though, to mention the ongoing tussle between the 9/11 commission and the White House about Presidential testimony and other matters, though the commission’s report, now due in July, may prove embarrassing to the administration. This week, White House spokesman Scott McClellan responded in this way to criticism of the use of 9/11 footage in the first wave of Bush presidential ads. “It is vital to our future,” he said in justification of the images, “that we learn what September 11th taught us.” To which <a href="http://www.warincontext.org/2004_02_29_archive.html#107845295971769400" type="external">Paul Woodward of the War in Context website</a> comments:</p>
<p />
<p>“If Scott McClellan thinks that it’s vital we learn what 9-11 taught us, can he explain why President Bush has offered only one hour of his time to be questioned by the 9-11 commission?”</p>
<p>Marshall mentions, of course, the ongoing Plame-outing investigation, but only late this week did we learn that, according to Tom Brune of Newsday ( <a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usleak0305,0,3272655,print.story?coll=ny-top-span-headlines" type="external">Air Force One phone records subpoenaed</a>):</p>
<p />
<p>“The federal grand jury probing the leak of a covert CIA officer’s identity has subpoenaed records of Air Force One telephone calls in the week before the officer’s name was published in a column in July, according to documents obtained by Newsday.</p>
<p>“Also sought in the wide-ranging document requests contained in three grand jury subpoenas to the Executive Office of President George W. Bush are records created in July by the White House Iraq Group, a little-known internal task force established in August 2002 to create a strategy to publicize the threat posed by Saddam Hussein… The White House declined Thursday to release a list of those on the trip.”</p>
<p>And here’s an odd little note to ponder, buried deep in Brune’s piece:</p>
<p />
<p>“That subpoena also sought a complete transcript of a July 12 press ‘gaggle,’ or informal briefing, by then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer while at the National Hospital in Abuja, Nigeria. That transcript is missing from the White House Web site containing transcripts of other press briefings. In a transcript the White House released at the time to Federal News Service, Fleischer discusses Wilson and his CIA report.”</p>
<p>I say, send in what’s left of the Iraq Survey Team. They might find it.</p>
<p>Encino Man</p>
<p>Dick Cheney came out of his cave last week and submitted to the equivalent — for him — of having his hair checked for lice: He let himself be interviewed by various cable channels. <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/03/20040302-8.html" type="external">Lester Holt of MSNBC</a> was among the generally soft-ball interviewers. But Cheney didn’t seem to notice how easy the going should have been. Undoubtedly blinking hard in the blinding light of day, and, perhaps confused about what year it was or what was actually happening up here on what passes for planet Earth, he promptly offered the following gem:</p>
<p />
<p>“If the Democratic policies had been pursued over the last two or three years, the kind of tax increases that both Kerry and Edwards have talked about, we would not have had the kind of job growth we’ve had.”</p>
<p>Uh, Dick… sorry to drop a load of bad news on you but…</p>
<p>…and how the Kerry people loved it. The Senator is already stumping up a storm on that quote alone, though the whole interview was little short of priceless. Given that on the day it took place more than 170 shiites were blown to bits in Karbala and Baghdad, and asked by Holt, who had evidently wandered into the Vietnam era, a period when the vice president was distinctly missing-in-action, to locate “the light at the end of this tunnel” for him, Cheney located it in the “desperation” of the bombers as we “get closer and closer to standing up a new government in Iraq” (which, by the way, promptly tottered on Friday).</p>
<p>Holt then followed up with:</p>
<p />
<p>“[T]he U.N. weapons inspectors are issuing a report that essentially backs what David Kay said, there were no significant stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction prior to the war. You, of course, were a big advocate to call Saddam Hussein to task, to end the games. So are you disappointed that nothing has been found, frustrated, even embarrassed?”</p>
<p>And the vice president, with a certain note of desperation offered the following strange response:</p>
<p />
<p>“No. I think you have to look precisely at what we are finding and will find. The search is going to go on. There’s still a lot of work to be done before we’ll have looked every place we need to look, we’ve checked out all the ammunition dumps and looked at all the documents and interviewed all the people. That work will probably continue for another year or two, and it’s not complete yet… But I think on balance, overall, there’s no question we did the right thing in Iraq; that Saddam Hussein had hosted terrorists before, that he had produced and used weapons of mass destruction before. And what the President and I said, as well as many others, prior to the war, and tracked very closely with what we were being given by the intelligence community, and that was their best estimate of what he had.”</p>
<p>Don’t even try to parse that last sentence.</p>
<p>The luck of the draw</p>
<p>9/11, a horror of horrors, was also the single stroke of luck the Bush administration needed to mobilize a nation behind its plans for war and the domination of this planet. The attacks on the Pentagon, but especially the World Trade Center towers, left behind a terrified country, with visions of apocalyptic horror dancing like dust motes in its collective brain. Otherwise, why would the spot of the attacks in New York almost immediately and by consensus come to be referred to as “ground zero,” a term that until then had defined the spot immediately under an atomic explosion?</p>
<p>When the President, his vice president, and his national security adviser began to talk about those future mushroom clouds going off over American cities, their reference point was certainly to memories of that “ground zero” experience, even if it had been carried using unbelievably low-tech weapons and two captured but everyday fuel-carrying machines.</p>
<p>Clark Dougan, my editor at the University of Massachusetts Press, a Vietnam expert, and a man of the heartland — Cleveland, to be exact — has the following to say about the election to come:</p>
<p>After pointing out the economic pain his home state of Ohio is feeling — more than a quarter of a million jobs lost under the Bush administration — he suggests that, since 9/11, the Democrats have needed all the luck going their way to have a shot at anything. Now, he feels, the Bush administration and the Republicans suddenly find themselves in a similar position: Specifically, they need the luck of the draw in three areas, only one of which shows any promise at all. The first area is the economy, where the latest job figures indicate that only a paltry 21,000 new jobs were created last month. Since January, an estimated 392,000 people have dropped out of the job market — simply stopped looking — and so weren’t counted in the official figures at all, so what we really experienced was an unofficial but sizeable rise in unemployment. This is called in our press a “stall” in job creation, but you do the math.</p>
<p>The second area where there need some lucky breaks is Iraq. There, this administration desperately needs the violence to abate, and the situation to come under some sort of control; in essence, to fade from sight in the coming months; and, third, they need significant successes in the “war on terrorism,” which basically means the capture of Osama bin Laden. Not only that but, Dougan believes, they need to luck out in two out of these three of these to win what will be a close and desperately fought election.</p>
<p>It’s clear that two years late, the Bush administration has suddenly decided that Osama truly is their man. They need him badly enough to mount the sort of massive drive, missing these many months, to capture or kill him and they’ve been willing to pressure the Pakistani government into a no less massive occupation of its own tribal lands along the Afghan border (where Osama is now believed to be lodged) with unknown consequences. As Scott Baldauf of the Christian Science Monitor writes ( <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0304/p01s02-wosc.html" type="external">New thrust in hunt for Bin Laden</a>):</p>
<p />
<p>“Out in the wilds of Waziristan, the Pakistani Army has moved in force, bringing in thousands of troops to seal off roads in an area that may be Osama bin Laden’s last stand. By all accounts, the massive operation has the makings of a protracted siege carried out among fiercely independent mountain villages along the Afghan border. Saturday, Pakistani troops fired on a minibus full of civilians at a checkpoint near Wana, killing 14. Pakistan’s government offered compensation to victims’ families Monday.</p>
<p>“But as difficult as this operation is on a military level, observers here say the political implications of the spring offensive against Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas may be even greater and more far-reaching. By putting Pakistani troops into the once-autonomous region of ethnic Pashtun tribes – an area never conquered by the British, the Persians, or even Genghis Khan’s Mongol hordes – Pakistan risks a wider Pashtun rebellion that the Pakistani Army could find difficult to control.”</p>
<p>Pepe Escobar of Asia Times Online reports on rumors in the region ( <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FC05Ak02.html" type="external">Get Osama — but where and when?</a>):</p>
<p />
<p>“The Peshawar sources confirm numerous local reports that bin Laden and his close entourage have come practically face-to-face with US patrols on several occasions in the past few weeks in Paktika — so they had to find a safer refuge [across the Afghan border in Pakistan].</p>
<p>“But it could be a case of out of the frying pan into the fire. US Commando 121, headed by General William Boykin, with input from the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is preparing to pounce…</p>
<p>“The ISI-concocted endgame would be to capture bin Laden inside Pakistani territory, and then move him to Afghanistan – where the big news would be announced by Commando 121, or by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, or by both… Independent sources in Peshawar tell Asia Times Online that the whole arrangement may be part of a secret deal discussed face-to-face last week between US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President General Pervez Musharraf. The Pakistanis do the hard work to capture bin Laden in the volatile, tribal Pakistani side — helping Commando 121 and other Special Forces. But the big news will come from Afghanistan.”</p>
<p>“Big news” in hand, of course, the real end-game wouldn’t take place in Pakistan or Afghanistan but in the U.S. in the midst of an election season. Given the economy and the situation in Iraq (on which more in another dispatch though you might consider checking out the Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank and Robin Wright, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24349-2004Mar2?language=printer" type="external">For Bush, an Election-Year Powder Keg</a>), Osama is the most likely candidate for an election year boost, though all you conspiracy theorists who think that the Evil One is already in custody, and being held somewhere for a summer surprise or a fall shock should take a deep breath.</p>
<p>In the interim, the question is: Will the culture wars redux and <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/03/03/in_money_race_bush_carries_big_advantage?mode=PF" type="external">money beyond measure</a> do the trick for the Busheviks, Osama or no?</p>
<p>The money advantage Bush has at this point is clear enough, given a campaign treasury stuffed to the brim, and he began bringing it to bear this week, launching two ads featuring the ruins of the World Trade Center and a third featuring Laura telling us that her hubby has ”the strength, the focus, the characteristics” for tough times. Millions of dollars worth of these ads hit various cable and sports channels heading like a JDAM missile for, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040304/5976860s.htm" type="external">as Judy Keen, Jim Drinkard and Mark Memmott of USA Today point out</a>, TV sites where “affluent male Republicans are more likely to get their political news.” And no sooner were the first ads out there among the faithful then unexpected flack from the less than faithful began.</p>
<p>“Monica Gabrielle, a member of the Family Steering Committee working with the federal commission that is investigating the attacks, called the Bush ads’ use of the Trade Center ruins ”a total affront to the murder of my husband and 3,000 other victims.”’ It was a typical statement. Other 9/11 family members, firemen from the recovery site, and various Democrats immediately pitched in. Think about it. Even six months ago, a series of Bush ads like this would certainly have passed by without a peep of opposition or criticism.</p>
<p>I’m struck as well that our self-proclaimed “war president” started his campaign by using his wife and the 9/11 catastrophe as shields in his first on-air venture. Not exactly a profile in courage, I would say. Some anti-Bush group should simply produce a map of the war president’s plane route in the 12 hours after the attacks when he headed westward, not northward, from Florida. That would say it all.</p>
<p>Oh, and by the way, here’s a little quiz for you: what wasn’t mentioned by the war president in any of his three ads? Answer: the war in Iraq.</p>
<p>I have two other suggestions to throw out to the world — one for Senator Kerry (not that he’s listening to me) and another for any set of demonstrators around. I don’t know why the senator, as a veteran, hasn’t for the last months been attending funerals of the war dead. As Nancy Lessin, co-founder of the organization Military Families Speak Out, and Gordon Clark write at the Alternet.org website ( <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18030" type="external">Stop Hiding the Toll of War</a>):</p>
<p />
<p>“The military planes carrying human remains fly into Dover Air Force Base in Delaware under cover of darkness. Unlike Vietnam, when Americans could see the consequences of war, the media are now banned from Dover Air Force Base by military order, reinforced for the Iraq war by an edict from Mr. Bush. One does not need to be a historian to know that the image of dead Americans, returning day after day in body bags, helped turn America against the war in Vietnam. This administration has gone to great lengths to prevent a repeat by keeping images of lifeless and broken bodies away from the cameras and the consciousness of the American people. Mr. Bush has not yet attended a single funeral for anyone killed in Iraq — not a single one. Spain and Italy held state funerals for their countrymen who died in Iraq, but the Bush Administration’s policy for our own war dead is to hide them.”</p>
<p>Kerry should change this. His own Vietnam-era experience would allow him to genuinely empathize with the families of the dead. They should be valued and supported — and the point should be made. Our President has been making politics of his war and its costs ever since it began. In the Oval Office, in semi-uniform in speeches surrounded by troops, strutting in flight suit on that aircraft-carrier flight deck, and in the rites for the dead that he will not attend. Somebody should attend. Why not the senator from Massachusetts?</p>
<p>In addition, I think someone should start building a makeshift Iraq Wall as close to the White House as it’s legally possible to get. American casualties are down at the moment — perhaps because our troops have largely been withdrawn to the outskirts of Baghdad and some other towns and are hunkering down for the duration. But Iraqi casualties have risen in the same period. An Iraq wall should have both, I think.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/" type="external">At his website</a>, Josh Marshall characterizes the Bush ads this way:</p>
<p />
<p>“If you look at the TV ads the president just unveiled today, you quickly see a main –probably the main — theme of his reelection campaign: it’s not my fault.</p>
<p>“Yes, there are all sort of bad things going on. The economy’s been rough. The deficit is deepening. Job growth is barely registering. There’s all sorts of chaos on the international stage. But it’s not my fault. When I got here there was a recession already, which I didn’t have anything to do with. That was Clinton’s fault. And the same with all the corporate scandals. And then Osama bin Laden got involved and that wasn’t my fault either. And that Iraq thing didn’t completely work out. But that’s the CIA’s fault. So if there’s anything that’s bad now it’s not because of anything I did. It’s because of 9/11. And if it’s not because of 9/11 then it was already broken when I got here. So don’t blame me.</p>
<p>“Now, I think that does pretty much sum up what the president and the White House are telling the public. But it’s important to draw back and recognize that up until this point that argument has largely worked. Now, however, I think people are beginning to question the argument… Thus the new ads, the message of which might fairly be summed up as ‘It’s midnight in America. But if the Democrats were in, the sun might never come up!'”</p>
<p>Because Bush’s dark promise may not prove a winning approach for the next four years, the President also clearly hopes to distract by conjuring up his own cultural midnight of horror, launching, as Sidney Blumenthal vividly describes it in a recent column in the British Guardian ( <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1161399,00.html" type="external">Bush goes to war with modernity</a>):</p>
<p />
<p>“The launch of his Kulturkampf has been a blitzkrieg. Bush proposed a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. He dismissed two scientists who dissented on his bioethics board, which he has used to ban forms of stem cell research, replacing them with adherents of the religious right. Bush made a recess appointment of William Pryor of Alabama as a federal judge, blocked in the Senate for his extremism. Pryor had said that ‘abortion is murder’ and supported the building of an altar of the 10 commandments in a courthouse. Then the attorney general, John Ashcroft, subpoenaed the medical records of women who have had abortions at planned parenthood clinics.</p>
<p>“Bush followed by supporting the unborn victims of violence bill, creating a new federal crime of foetal homicide that passed the Republican-dominated House of Representatives on February 26. At Bush’s order, the Senate is being transformed into a battlefield of the culture war.”</p>
<p>This approach has certainly worked for the Republicans at various moments in the past. But in this case I don’t think it’s likely to trump the economy and Iraq — and its essential red-meat conservatism may alienate small but crucial numbers of swing voters in key states. The basics are the basics, after all, and this is the President who “won” the last election by a backwards hair largely by promising to be a uniter, not a divider. I suspect that, as in touch as it is with the world of down-and-dirty campaigning, as willing as it is to do anything to win it all, this administration is increasingly out of touch with the daily realities of the country as, most Americans felt, was George’s father in the wake of the first Gulf War.</p>
<p>Chris Nelson’s insider newsletter the Nelson Report notes that polling figures continue their snail-like trend downward for the President and worry continues to build among Republican stalwarts:</p>
<p />
<p>“Let us stipulate that between now and Labor Day, polls are simply indicators of trends, and signify nothing certain for Nov. 2. Having said that, the latest polls continue to show a downward trend in public confidence in President Bush’s handling of the economy, with 66% of a Pew Research Center poll saying Bush ‘could be doing more to improve economic conditions…’</p>
<p>“These and other polls put into context the growing tendency of pro-Administration opinion leaders to excoriate the White House generally, and Bush personally, for what Bob Novak’s nationally syndicated column today [March 4] called a ‘Republican Malaise.’ Novak even goes so far as to warn that Capitol Hill Republicans worry that White House ineptitude could threaten continued GOP domination of the House and Senate…at least by the 2006 elections.”</p>
<p>Senator Robert Byrd, never less than eloquent these last two years, recently offered <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0301-11.htm" type="external">this little summary</a> of the President’s relationship to the world the rest of us inhabit:</p>
<p />
<p>“Only a President who never had to apply for unemployment benefits would oppose extending them when so many workers are without a job. Only a President who never needed overtime pay would advocate taking it away from those workers who rely on it to make ends meet. Only a President who never needed federal aid to attend college would advocate cutting it back for those students who cannot attend college without it.</p>
<p>“When this Administration leaves office, its legacy will be an enormous debt burden that will weigh heavily on the middle-class. In the process, it will have severely weakened their safety net, and have left little means for fixing it.</p>
<p>“But it won’t matter to this president at that point. He’ll move back to Texas knowing that his pension and health care benefits are secure, and that corporate CEOs and Texas oil men are wealthier and more comfortable than ever before. He’ll never have to rely on the safety net that his Administration has worked so hard to dismantle.”</p>
<p>So you have a jobless economic “recovery” now beyond the power of this administration to do much but pray over; an Iraqi situation that continues to spin out of control; an Osama hunt which may or may not succeed; the weight of those scandals slowly piling up like a series of rear-enders on a crowded rush-hour highway, and then you have the unknown. What, for instance, of the unexpected occupation that is developing in forlorn Haiti?</p>
<p>Despite the administration’s long-term plans to topple Aristide, this moment clearly caught them off-guard and was none too welcome, though they followed their normal undemocratic and imperial instincts once it began to unfold. On our role in Aristide’s fall, as on our role in the attempted toppling of Venezuela’s Chavez, given our history in the region, it seems only logical to consider us guilty until proven innocent, though our media takes exactly the opposite approach. Perhaps the sanest observation I’ve seen on the subject came from <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1160598,00.html" type="external">Gary Younge of the Guardian</a> who wrote:</p>
<p />
<p>“While it is unlikely that Mr Aristide was led to the airport in handcuffs, it is equally disingenuous to suggest that his departure was in any way voluntary. In either case it is significant that he resigned to the US rather than to the chief supreme court justice, his constitutional successor.”</p>
<p>You offer your “resignation” to those taking power — and it’s obvious who was attempting to take power in Haiti. The two most interesting documents on Haitian events I’ve seen I include below — a Los Angeles Times piece on the “Keystone Kops coup” by economist Jeffrey Sachs, who has been extremely clear-eyed on events on the island and in Washington (read <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0301-10.htm" type="external">The Fire This Time in Haiti Was U.S.-Fueled</a>, written before Aristide’s overthrow, in tandem with this one); and some testimony by Congressman Charles Rangel, no radical, offered before a House subcommittee and reprinted in the Nelson Report. But with more recent history in mind, don’t expect the Bush administration to be prepared for an effective occupation of that tortured, impoverished, violent land. In fact, expect the worst, which is again not exactly the best thing for the Bush administration at this very moment.</p>
<p>Additional dispatches from Tom Engelhardt can be read throughout the week at <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a>, a web lob of The Nation Institute.</p>
<p /> | Beltway Traffic Jam | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2004/03/beltway-traffic-jam/ | 2004-03-08 | 4 |
<p>I’m hoping President Obama realizes that some of the folks who’ve been currying favor with him are not, as they claim, bringing “solutions” to the health care reform table. Most Americans — especially those who voted for him — want nothing to do with the kind of “reforms” they are peddling.</p>
<p>If you watched the president’s televised Q&amp;A on ABC last Wednesday night, you probably noticed that one of the people in the audience was Ron Williams, the chairman and CEO of Aetna, Inc., the nation’s third largest health insurer, and currently one of the most profitable. But there are a few things that you should know about Williams.</p>
<p>Back in the ’90s, Aetna set out on an acquisition binge in its quest to become the biggest health insurer in the country. It got there by the end of the decade after spending billion of dollars for several competitors. By 1999 it had 21 million health plan members, the most any insurer had ever had at the time.</p>
<p>But, as often happens after buying sprees, Aetna soon came down with a bad case of buyers’ remorse. As it turned out, some of the customers it had paid top price for were not as profitable as Wall Street analysts and the big institutional investors who owned most of Aetna’s stock expected. When they took a closer look at what Aetna had bought, investors started deserting the company in droves. As a result, the company found its stock price in a free fall.</p>
<p>As the Wall Street Journal reported on August 13, 2004, Aetna’s pretax profits as a percentage of revenues began falling dramatically after peaking at about 12 percent in 1998. By 2001 the company was a basket case as far as Wall Street was concerned. It had to do something, and fast.</p>
<p>Probably the most important thing it did to turn itself around was recruit Williams from rival WellPoint, the ambitious for-profit company that was gobbling up Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans from coast to coast.</p>
<p>As the Journal reported, Williams promptly ordered a $20 million revamp of Aetna’s data systems. Health care analyst Joshua Raskin told the Journal that the new system that emerged from that investment, which Aetna dubbed the Executive Management Information System (EMIS for short), was “the single largest driver of the Aetna turnaround.” Why? Because it helped Aetna “identify and dump unprofitable corporate accounts.” How did it do the dumping? By jacking up premiums to unaffordable levels.</p>
<p>By the time the dumping — or purging, as it is frequently called in the industry — was done, Aetna had shed eight million of its 21 million members. It shrank so much that by the time it emerged from the Ron Williams-led turnaround, it had fewer members than when the company started out on its multi-billion dollar buying binge.</p>
<p>While Aetna was shedding those eight million men, women and children, by the way, it also reportedly shed 15,000 of its employees. Wall Street likes it when insurers dump employees, too, because the workers who don’t get the ax have to assume the responsibilities of their laid-off colleagues. That theoretically boosts productivity, which Wall Street likes. And reducing the payroll leaves more money for profits.</p>
<p>The health insurance industry and its allies are working hard right now to convince you that the creation of a public insurance option would put a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor. As the 2004 Wall Street Journal article makes it clear, however, EMIS was at its heart a system that put corporate bureaucrats between people and their doctors. Here’s what it saId:</p>
<p>Mr. Williams says EMIS helps him ferret out creeping costs so Aetna can react quickly. Sitting in his first-floor office in Hartford overlooking the Aetna parking lot, he taps on his keyboard to see whether some of the health insurer’s members are visiting emergency rooms too much for nonemergency reasons, such as for the flu or a sprained ankle.</p>
<p>Did that send a chill up your spine like it did mine? And know this, if Aetna’s CEO can keep an eye on your trips to the doctor, so can the CEOs of all the other big insurers.</p>
<p>The insurance industry claims that this time it really and truly supports legislation to reduce the number of people without insurance, that they’ve changed so much since 1994 — when they said the same thing but did everything they could behind the scenes to kill reform — that you can and should believe them now.</p>
<p>The next time you hear someone from the industry talking about how much they are committed to reform, remember that just a few years ago, the CEO of one of the biggest health insurers was the mastermind behind a business strategy that cost thousands of workers their jobs and millions of other people their insurance coverage. That’s the real “solution” the industry is bringing to the table — and the kind of reform Wall Street can really get behind.</p>
<p>Ron Williams has been richly rewarded by Aetna’s board of directors for leading the company back to a level of profitability suitable to Wall Street. They tapped him to succeed Jack Rowe as CEO when Rowe retired in 2006. And they rewarded him with compensation totaling nearly $65 million over the past two years.</p>
<p>(Rowe, by the way, was paid $22.2 million in 2005, his last full year as CEO. He played a big role in hawking the high-deductible plans that Aetna and the other big insurers are now trying to push us all into. He claimed that Americans enrolled in managed care plans have been too sheltered from the real costs of health care and that we need to have more “skin in the game,” by which he meant that we should have to pay a lot more out of our own pockets when we go to the doctor and pick up our prescriptions, even if we have health insurance. The median family income in the United States is just $50,000, which means that most of us already have a lot more skin in the game than Dr. Rowe and Ron Williams will ever need to.)</p>
<p>The insurance industry’s two biggest lobbying groups — America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association of America — warned members of Congress in a joint letter a few days ago that the creation of a public insurance option would unravel the country’s employer-based system.</p>
<p>As they say where I come from, that dog won’t hunt.</p>
<p>It is the insurance company executives — in their never-ending quest to meet Wall Street’s profit expectations — who are doing the unraveling by purging employers whose workers have the audacity to file claims when they get sick or injured.</p>
<p>A final point about Ron Williams: Not only are he and his fellow CEOs trying to kill the idea of a public health insurance option — a central part of candidate Obama’s health care proposal — but he is the leading advocate of an idea Obama rejected and which differentiated his proposal from Hillary Clinton’s — the imposition on all of us of an “individual mandate.” Many insurance executives were wary of such a mandate because they don’t like the government mandating anything, especially those pesky state mandates that force them to include certain benefits in the policies they sell. Advocates of an individual mandate eventually brought the skeptics, including many of AHIP’s board members, around to their way thinking by persuading them that insurers could make billions more in profits if every American had to buy an insurance policy from them. Now you know the real reason behind AHIP’s shift from neutrality on the issue to full-fledged support. It’s all about the money.</p>
<p>WENDELL POTTER is the Senior Fellow on Health Care for the <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/" type="external">Center for Media and Democracy</a> in Madison, Wisconsin.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Obama’s False Friends of Health Care Reform | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/07/02/obama-s-false-friends-of-health-care-reform/ | 2009-07-02 | 4 |
<p>The holidays are over. No, not just the seasonal celebrations of Hanukkah, Christmas, and the new year, but the vacation from serious thinking about foreign policy that Americans have enjoyed for the better part of two years. Ever since the Revolution of 1989 and the New Russian Revolution of August 1991 put an end to the Fifty-Five Years’ War against totalitarianism, public opinion (encouraged by weary, shortsighted, and/or cowardly political leadership) has assumed that the only issues of consequence in world affairs are economic: thus, amidst rapid and in some cases cataclysmic change throughout the world last year, the key 1993 foreign-policy battle in American public opinion and in the Congress was over the North American Free Trade Agreement.</p>
<p>But the world of high politics has not gone away, and events have conspired to make Carvilleism—”It’s the economy, stupid”—an inappropriate, indeed dangerously myopic, approach to thinking about America’s responsibilities in world affairs. If everything breaks the wrong way in 1994 (and it does not require an especially lurid mind to imagine that many things will), a disastrous war in Korea will be winding down, a year from now; the Middle East will be in turmoil from Algiers to Tehran; and Russia will be ruled by a neo-fascist lunatic with imperial ambitions that make the czars look modest by comparison. None of these disasters has to happen; but lack of American leadership in world affairs over the past two years—perhaps better, a lack of American seriousness about world affairs—has helped make their possibility a sobering reality</p>
<p>The post-Cold War period should have taught us at least three things, and rather quickly. First, the world remains a very dangerous place. There are still grave security threats to American interests in the world; and these threats, rather than being ameliorated, may in fact have been exacerbated by the new flexibility in the international system caused by the breakdown of Cold War bi-polarity. North Korea’s well-advanced nuclear program, and the dangers of nuclear weapons proliferating to outlaw regimes like those in Iraq, Iran, and Libya, exemplify the hard fact of life that weapons of mass destruction and ballistic-missile technology have rendered the notion of “Fortress America” a sad (and perilous) joke.</p>
<p>Second, genuine pluralism and civility-amidst-diversity remain exceptions in human affairs at the end of the twentieth century. Internationally, the collapse of bi-polarity has given ancient ethnic, religious, and cultural conflicts new sway in world politics, and these conflicts cannot easily be resolved by appeals to reason. The carnage in southeastern Europe, and the immense difficulties that have been encountered in implementing the Israel-PLO deal, have made this dramatically clear.</p>
<p>Third, and by way of a summary lesson, there is nothing inevitable about the advent of a “new world order” characterized by the rapid triumph of liberal democracy and the free economy. Events in central and Eastern Europe have shown that the political, economic, and cultural institutions of a free society will develop at different rates in differing political-cultural circumstances. What has been possible in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Hungary over the past two years may take a lot longer to achieve in Russia, in Ukraine, and in other parts of the old Warsaw Pact. Moreover, the turn toward democracy and the market throughout central and Eastern Europe could be delayed or even halted, if no security framework is established that makes the continent safe for peace, freedom, and prosperity.</p>
<p>George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and holds EPPC’s William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.</p> | For Peace in Europe | false | https://eppc.org/publications/for-peace-in-europe/ | 1 |
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<p>Conservative author and speaker Ben Shapiro has been banned from making an appearance at California State University Los Angeles by the school’s president.</p>
<p>Shapiro would apparently present too great a threat to the safe spaces of CSULA’s sensitive snowflake students.</p>
<p>Christine Rousselle reported at <a href="http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christinerousselle/2016/02/23/conservative-writer-ben-shapiro-banned-from-csula-n2123430" type="external">Townhall</a>:</p>
<p>Conservative Writer Ben Shapiro Banned from CSULA</p>
<p>Early Tuesday morning, conservative writer Ben Shapiro revealed on Twitter that his planned speech on February 25 at California State University-Los Angeles had been canceled by the university’s president.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Shapiro was due to speak on the topic of “When Diversity Becomes a Problem,” which CSULA President William Covino decided should be canceled in favor of an event that was more inclusive to all viewpoints. His appearance at CSULA is part of the Young America’s Foundation’s Fred R. Allen lecture series.</p>
<p>In an email to the Young America’s Foundation chapter at CSULA, university president William Covino wrote, “After careful consideration, I have decided that it will be best for our campus community if we reschedule Ben Shapiro’s appearance for a later date, so that we can arrange for him to appear as part of a group of speakers with differing viewpoints on diversity. Such an event will better represent our university’s dedication to the free exchange of ideas and the value of considering multiple viewpoints.”</p>
<p>Shapiro discussed this and the anti-free speech climate on campuses with FOX Business today:</p>
<p />
<p>Shapiro now joins the ranks of Milo Yiannopoulos, Christina Hoff Sommers and other speakers who are routinely protested and or shut down when they attempt to speak on college campuses.</p>
<p>The simple truth behind this issue is summed up perfectly by Shapiro in this short tweet:</p>
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<p>Featured image via <a href="https://youtu.be/TiF8xymLHZo" type="external">YouTube</a>.</p> | California State University LA Bans Ben Shapiro | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2016/02/california-state-university-la-bans-ben-shapiro/ | 2016-02-24 | 0 |
<p>SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame coach Mike Brey likes how his team has responded to injuries for Bonzie Colson and Matt Farrell.</p>
<p>It's easy to see why.</p>
<p>The Fighting Irish won 51-49 at Syracuse on Saturday to stay perfect in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They have won five in a row and six of seven heading into Wednesday night's game against Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>"We had a lot of doubters and people were counting us out. But we have a bunch of talent here," sophomore guard T.J. Gibbs said. "This team is great. I love these guys."</p>
<p>The 6-foot-6 Colson, a preseason All-America selection, had surgery Thursday for a broken left foot. Farrell, a senior point guard who is averaging 15.9 points, sprained his left ankle during Wednesday night's 88-58 victory against North Carolina State.</p>
<p>With Colson and Farrell out for Notre Dame (13-3, 3-0), Gibbs and Rex Pflueger have stepped up.</p>
<p>"Our two guards have been men running this thing," Brey said.</p>
<p>The 6-foot-3 Gibbs had 22 points, seven rebounds and five assists in the victory over the Wolfpack. He scored 18 points against the Orange, helping the Irish escape the Carrier Dome with the win despite shooting 30.4 percent (17 for 56) from the field.</p>
<p>He was named ACC player of the week Monday.</p>
<p>"I don't think I deserve it so much as the guys who have stepped up next to me," said Gibbs, a high school All-American at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, New Jersey. "It means a lot, but it means a lot to this whole team."</p>
<p>Gibbs missed a potential winning layup in the final seconds against Syracuse, but Pflueger was there to put it in.</p>
<p>"I knew T.J. was going to try and avoid the block, so I got in the right position in order to get the rebound," Pflueger said. "It comes down to hustling and looking for the ball."</p>
<p>The 6-6 Pflueger finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.</p>
<p>"As soon as Rex got his hands on it, I said we've won," Brey said.</p>
<p>Pflueger also had 16 points, four rebounds and four assists against North Carolina State, helping Brey become Notre Dame's all-time leader in men's basketball victories with 394.</p>
<p>"This is a great opportunity for all of our players to step up, so I'm not surprised," Pflueger said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame coach Mike Brey likes how his team has responded to injuries for Bonzie Colson and Matt Farrell.</p>
<p>It's easy to see why.</p>
<p>The Fighting Irish won 51-49 at Syracuse on Saturday to stay perfect in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They have won five in a row and six of seven heading into Wednesday night's game against Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>"We had a lot of doubters and people were counting us out. But we have a bunch of talent here," sophomore guard T.J. Gibbs said. "This team is great. I love these guys."</p>
<p>The 6-foot-6 Colson, a preseason All-America selection, had surgery Thursday for a broken left foot. Farrell, a senior point guard who is averaging 15.9 points, sprained his left ankle during Wednesday night's 88-58 victory against North Carolina State.</p>
<p>With Colson and Farrell out for Notre Dame (13-3, 3-0), Gibbs and Rex Pflueger have stepped up.</p>
<p>"Our two guards have been men running this thing," Brey said.</p>
<p>The 6-foot-3 Gibbs had 22 points, seven rebounds and five assists in the victory over the Wolfpack. He scored 18 points against the Orange, helping the Irish escape the Carrier Dome with the win despite shooting 30.4 percent (17 for 56) from the field.</p>
<p>He was named ACC player of the week Monday.</p>
<p>"I don't think I deserve it so much as the guys who have stepped up next to me," said Gibbs, a high school All-American at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, New Jersey. "It means a lot, but it means a lot to this whole team."</p>
<p>Gibbs missed a potential winning layup in the final seconds against Syracuse, but Pflueger was there to put it in.</p>
<p>"I knew T.J. was going to try and avoid the block, so I got in the right position in order to get the rebound," Pflueger said. "It comes down to hustling and looking for the ball."</p>
<p>The 6-6 Pflueger finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.</p>
<p>"As soon as Rex got his hands on it, I said we've won," Brey said.</p>
<p>Pflueger also had 16 points, four rebounds and four assists against North Carolina State, helping Brey become Notre Dame's all-time leader in men's basketball victories with 394.</p>
<p>"This is a great opportunity for all of our players to step up, so I'm not surprised," Pflueger said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | Brey pleased with Notre Dame's response to injuries | false | https://apnews.com/amp/e80dcc533b87482f88407b5785025fdc | 2018-01-09 | 2 |
<p>One of my favorite quotes is from C.T. Studd. He says,</p>
<p>Some prefer to live within the sounds of chapel bells, I prefer to set up a rescue shop within a yard of hell</p>
<p>or as is the case here, in a place of many discomforts. I realized this week something about myself. There is so much need here and what I have realized about myself is that I am a person who tries to meet need, maybe to a fault. Here, I cannot meet all the need, I will wear myself out and the need will continue. So I have had to slow down and not feel guilty about that. I really wish I could do more. But I am only one man. I trust God to do it all through me. What keeps you going is watching how much the Iraqi people want freedom. Most of the insurgents are imported just to fight the Americans, but few of them are actual Iraqis. But there is one Iraqi who is truly inspiring, and I want to share his story.</p>
<p>Last week, you may have seen on the news that a woman was killed right after her wedding to a man in Baghdad. Well, that groom survived the attack and is in our hospital. The people who tried to assassinate him and his wedding party are also in our hospital. The groom is in a separate ward of course. But his commitment is so inspiring. He is an Iraqi police officer. He has already lost his older sister and younger brother to the terrorist attacks and another of his brothers has lost his hand. Now his wife, who he had just said “I do” with has been killed. He is unwavering. He wants to go back out and do his job as a policeman so that his country, Iraq, can be free. He doesn’t want the Americans to just give him freedom he and so many like him are willing to put their own lives on the line for the right to be free. Continue to pray for them as they will be signing a constitution this month. How exciting!!! I hope you can get a picture of what life is like here. But to do that you would really have to be here.</p>
<p>Somebody sent me an email describing the protectors in our society (police, firemen, military) as sheep dogs. The people being protected, who choose not to participate in that protection directly as the sheep, and of course the wolf (the enemy the sheep dogs protect the sheep from). It is too long to include here, but was a very comprehensive look at how important it is for there to be someone who will go to very harsh places to sit in the towers at all hours no matter what the weather in order to ensure the sheep have a safe place to lay their heads in comfort. If you saw the movie The Patriot you might remember the preacher going off to war saying that sometimes the Shepherd has to protect the sheep… This is my assignment. While we chaplains do not carry firearms and would never actually engage in offensive warfare, what we do here is spiritually combative. Just tonight, I sent a convoy out the gate into harms way, praying for them before they went out. It was great, as I was walking away, one of the KBR drivers said, “We need to roll with these guys more, they bring their own chaplain.” I laughed. But that prayer that I just prayed has an awesome effect in the hearts and minds of those who stay for the prayer time, and it has an overwhelming effect in the spiritual realm. I pray for the usual things protection, safety, God’s presence and assurance, comfort and peace. But I also always include a prayer against the insurgent spirit in this country. That God would surround us with a canopy of protection from heavenly emissaries we cannot see. That they would go before clearing a path and thwart all plans of the enemy. It is spiritual warfare that I fight on behalf of these going outside the wire. And it is the same for those here.</p>
<p>It amazes me how few people have even been injured by the constant mortar attacks on our base. To wake up to the sound of an alarm and explosions, rolling out of bed, onto your floor to put on your body armor at 3 a.m. and praying, “God cover us, protect us now. Help those who will respond, and those who may be injured. Prepare us for what is ahead.” Yet in every attack maybe one or two will ever get injured. It is nothing short of miraculous! Even those who would never step into a chapel service have said it, “God was with us, it’s a miracle.” I sat with one young man whose trailer was hit by a round as he was sleeping. He was in tears, and shaking. We sat and talked and he was so thankful that God had saved him. He knew exactly how close he had come. Yet, not a scratch on him. His neighbor had shrapnel go right through the bed he was asleep on. Holes in his mattress and sheets, yet not a mark on him. Why am I saying all this. Because we serve a God who answers our prayers and who goes before us in battle. If what we were doing was wrong, God would not grant us His presence like he does.</p>
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<p>If you are just getting this email or in the next few hours are reading this, then please send up a prayer for a convoy I sent out tonight. Right now they are on Tampa (a main road that runs just outside our gate north and south). Pray for their safety and to stay alert in the darkness of night. Also, both of my missions got cancelled this week. Please pray that my missions off base will have airlift support.</p>
<p>OK, well I better get to bed. One month to go!!! Hope all is well with you all, see you soon.</p> | Forever Changed #14: Praying as they are sent in harms way | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/forever-changed-14-praying-as-they-are-sent-in-harms-way/ | 3 |
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<p>Residents from nearly 40 states have filed petitions to secede from the United States on the White House’s “We The People” site since President Obama’s re-election. But one state that won’t be leaving the Union anytime soon is Texas, at least not if Governor Rick Perry has his way.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the Republican governor’s office responded to a petition to have the Lone Star State withdraw from the U.S., saying Perry opposes such efforts. “Gov. [Rick] Perry believes in the greatness of our Union and nothing should be done to change it,” his press secretary said in a statement. “But he also shares the frustrations many Americans have with our federal government.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/peacefully-grant-state-texas-withdraw-united-states-america-and-create-its-own-new-government/BmdWCP8B" type="external">petition for Texas</a> to secede had garnered about 80,000 signatures as of early Tuesday afternoon, far more than the 25,000 needed to get an official White House response.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a <a href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/peacefully-grant-city-austin-texas-withdraw-state-texas-remain-part-united-states/TDD212hQ" type="external">new petition</a> has been created on the “We The People” website to allow Austin, the state’s capital, to secede from Texas but remain a part of the U.S. The petition also asks to annex Dublin, Lockhart and Shiner, Texas.</p>
<p />
<p>Petitions are on the site for the following states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.</p>
<p>And for those people unhappy with the recent secessions efforts, there are also petitions asking the White House to <a href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/strip-citizenship-everyone-who-signed-petition-secede-and-exile-them/ZbMjcwPf" type="external">strip citizenship</a> and <a href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/deport-everyone-signed-petition-withdraw-their-state-united-states-america/dmQl1bXL" type="external">deport</a> those who signed a petition asking that their state withdraw from the U.S.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/13/rick-perry-doesnt-support-secession-petition-on-white-house-website/comment-page-4/" type="external">CNN</a>, the “We the People” section:</p>
<p>was designed to allow citizens to voice their concerns and desires for the federal government, and stipulates that if a petition gets enough support, “White House staff will review it, ensure it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response.”</p>
<p>…The fine print notes the White House “may decline to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or similar matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or agencies, federal courts, or state and local government in its response to a petition.”</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Tracy Bloom</a>.</p> | Perry Says 'No' to Secession as More States Petition White House | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/perry-says-no-to-secession-as-more-states-petition-white-house/ | 2012-11-14 | 4 |
<p>An Obama for America voter registration drive at North Carolina Central University in 2012 &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/94975828@N00/6774969756/in/photolist-bjFuto-aJbnyZ-dmaQmj-dntomG-dcKgaN-cT3GRS-drgiGX-cCnRbG-e35qno-deAe9f-deAfPt-deAfN2-cXm3s7-dck55S-dck4dZ-dck4hB-bfpJAB-bsMMYX-bmRiE7-dAdQTZ-cVUhqW-bm2TW8-atEvwD-ccUzX9-aQsNiz-dnR82n-9Vpuy2-cSeGMA-aiV2kn-cT3GRL-bTSvun-daL1sB-csfAFm-d7Bwcm-9TGnXY-9TDxWg-9TGnZd-9TGnW9-df4Bnt"&gt;Christopher Diltz for Obama for America&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
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<p>UPDATE, Tuesday, August 13: On August 12, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/12/us-usa-voting-northcarolina-idUSBRE97B0UI20130812" type="external">signed the controversial voting ID bill into law</a>. The measure—which former Secretary of State <a href="http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/08/12/hillary-clinton-speech-american-bar-association/" type="external">Hillary Clinton described</a> as “a greatest hits of voter suppression”–was immediately challenged by the ACLU in US district court.</p>
<p>For decades, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 required cities, counties and states with histories of discriminatory voting laws to seek federal permission—preclearance, in legal parlance—before changing their election rules. When the Supreme Court invalidated part of the VRA last month, that all changed. The high court’s decision made it easier for <a href="http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/sec_5/covered.php" type="external">jurisdictions</a> with troubled pasts to enact restrictive voting laws. Now North Carolina is set to do just that.</p>
<p>North Carolina’s GOP-led legislature has taken many controversial steps in recent weeks— <a href="" type="internal">sneaking anti-abortion measures into a motorcycle safety law</a> and <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/21/north-carolina-unemployment/2571889/" type="external">cutting unemployment benefits for 70,000 North Carolinians</a>, to name two. But <a href="http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/HB-589-7-22-2013.pdf" type="external">new revisions</a> (pdf) to a photo ID voting bill, which passed the House in April and is up for a Senate vote today, might take the cake. The revised bill prohibits same-day registration, ends pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds, eliminates one week of early voting, prevents counties from extending voting hours due to long lines (often caused by cuts in early voting) or other extraordinary circumstances, scratches college ID cards and other forms of identification from the very short list of acceptable state-issued photo IDs, and outlaws certain types of voter registration drives.</p>
<p>It’s quite possibly the most restrictive voter ID bill in recent years, says Denise Leiberman, senior attorney for Advancement Project, a nonprofit civil rights organization.</p>
<p>“The list of acceptable identification has been whittled away to such a small list, and that’s really what makes it so repressive,” she says. “The list is so small that many, many people in North Carolina aren’t going to have an acceptable ID.”</p>
<p>The bill’s new provisions make it so that, with very few exceptions, a voter needs a valid in-state DMV-issued driver’s license or non-driver’s ID card, a US Military ID card, a veteran’s ID card or a US passport. According to <a href="http://www.democracy-nc.org/downloads/SBOEDataNoIDApril2013PR.pdf" type="external">an April 2013 analysis</a> (pdf) of state Board of Elections data by Democracy North Carolina, 34 percent of the state’s registered black voters, the overwhelming majority of whom vote Democrat, do not have state-issued photo ID. The same study found that 55 percent of North Carolina Democrats don’t have state-issued photo ID. Only 21 percent of Republicans have the same problem.</p>
<p>But ask the bill’s Republican proponents, and they’ll say that this isn’t a partisan ploy to suppress voter turnout. It’s all about fraud.</p>
<p>“People need to have confidence in the fact that everyone only votes once, and that their vote matters, and establish integrity in the electoral process,” Sen. Bob Rucho (R-Mecklenburg) <a href="http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/nc-bill-would-place-new-restrictions-voting/nYz6y/" type="external">told the Associated Press</a>. “I would hope we can pass this bill and re-establish a level of integrity and confidence in the electoral system.</p>
<p>The problem with the GOP’s argument is that this voter fraud crisis is largely a figment of the right’s imagination—or a convenient exaggeration. A Democratic analysis of the last six state elections found just two instances of in-person voter fraud.</p>
<p>Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act used to provide a check on certain jurisdictions—including 40 in North Carolina—that wanted to change election rules. If they wanted to get voting changes approved by the feds, state legislators presiding over Section 5 districts had to structure new laws so they wouldn’t hinder the voting rights of any specific group. If the state legislators passed discriminatory laws, the Justice Department would strike them down and the legislators would have to go back to the drawing board.</p>
<p>With the VRA gutted, it’s open season, Leiberman says: “Unfortunately, I think that states around the country are looking at North Carolina right now—particularly those former Section 5 states—to see just how brazen they can be.”</p>
<p /> | Why North Carolina’s Voter ID Bill Might be the Nation’s Worst | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/north-carolina-voter-id-bill-section-5-voting-rights-act/ | 2013-07-24 | 4 |
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<p>NEW YORK (AP) — The R-rated spy comedy "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" displaced the horror sensation "It" as the No. 1 film in North America, while the second "Lego Movie" spinoff of the year didn't assemble the expected audience.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The 20th Century Fox release opened with a weekend-leading $39 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday. But "It" still continues to pull in record crowds. With $30 million over the weekend, "It" is now the highest-grossing horror film of all time, not accounting for inflation, with $266.3 million thus far. (1973's "The Exorcist" grossed $232.9 million domestically, or more than $1 billion in 2017 dollars.)</p>
<p>Twentieth Century Fox's "Kingsman" sequel sought to expand on the 2015 original's $36.2 million opening, and its $414 million worldwide take. Matthew Vaughn's sequel returned stars Taron Egerton and Colin Firth, while adding Channing Tatum, Halle Berry and others. Made more for audiences than critics, reviews for the gleefully distasteful spy romp were poor, at 51 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.</p>
<p>Fox could celebrate an uptick the second time around, albeit a small one. "The Golden Circle" also debuted with $61 million overseas, giving it a $100 million global weekend. Vaughn is planning a third "Kingsman" film.</p>
<p>"We're seven percent bigger than the last one, which opened on a holiday weekend," said Chris Aronson, distribution chief for Fox. "We grew the franchise. We're very happy."</p>
<p>The Stephen King adaptation "It," from Warner Bros. and New Line, may have slightly eaten into the ticket sales for "Kingsman." Few believed "It" would still be such a draw in its third week of release; horror films usually drop severely after release. But the film has already established itself as the biggest hit ever in the month of September — a welcome relief to Hollywood after a dismal August.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The "Lego Movie" spinoff "The Lego Ninjago Movie," was further off expectations, debuting with $21.2 million. Phil Lord and Chris Miller's "The Lego Movie" — the 2014 hit that made $469 million worldwide — kicked off a bustling franchise. "Ninjago," though, is the second spinoff of the calendar year, following February's "The Lego Batman Movie."</p>
<p>That release opened with $35 million and grossed $312 million in total — marks that "Ninjago" appears will fall well short of. It may be two "Lego" movies in a year were too many.</p>
<p>"I was hoping we'd do more. I'm disappointed this weekend didn't come in a little higher," said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. distribution head. "We know that each one of these 'Lego' movies are different properties. This one played young."</p>
<p>In its second week of release, Darren Aronofsky's already infamous psychological thriller "mother!" failed to turn the tide. The film, made for $30 million, last week became one of the few movies to receive an "F'' CinemaScore on release. The horror parable, starring Jennifer Lawrence, slid to sixth place with $3.3 million, bringing its two-week haul to $13.4 million. Paramount has proudly defended the film as intentionally divisive, daring filmmaking, the kind seldom produced by major studios.</p>
<p>The week also saw the first wave of fall awards contenders in specialty release. The Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs drama "Battle of the Sexes," with Emma Stone and Steve Carell; the Boston Marathon bombing survivor tale "Stronger," with Jake Gyllenhaal; and the Queen Victoria drama "Victoria &amp; Abdul," starring Judi Dench, all debuted in limited release.</p>
<p>Lionsgate's "Stronger" grossed $1.7 million on 574 screens. Focus Features' "Victoria &amp; Abdul" scored a per-theater average of $37,933 on four screens, along with a two-week international total of $12.4 million. And Fox Searchlight's "Battle of the Sexes" earned $525,000 on 21 screens.</p>
<p>Theaters are suddenly flush again. Though the year is still 4.6 percent behind the pace of 2016, the month of September is up 20 percent, according to comScore.</p>
<p>"The fact that we're sitting here in September on the verge of what looks like a record-breaking month, powered by the unprecedented success of 'It,' tells you how quickly box-office fortunes can rise and fall in this marketplace," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore.</p>
<p>Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers also are included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.</p>
<p>1. "Kingsman: The Golden Circle," $39 million ($61 million international).</p>
<p>2. "It," $30 million ($38.3 million international).</p>
<p>3. "The Lego Ninjago Movie," $21.2 million ($10.5 million international).</p>
<p>4. "American Assassin," $6.3 million ($2.7 million international).</p>
<p>5. "Home Again," $3.3 million.</p>
<p>6. "mother!" $3.3 million ($4.6 million international).</p>
<p>7. "Friend Request," $2.4 million.</p>
<p>8. "The Hitman's Bodyguard," $1.9 million ($15.4 million international).</p>
<p>9. "Stronger," $1.7 million.</p>
<p>10. "Wind River," $1.3 million.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to comScore</p>
<p>1. "Kingsman: The Golden Circle," $61 million.</p>
<p>2. "It," $38.3 million.</p>
<p>3. "War for the Planet of the Apes," $19.3 million.</p>
<p>4. "The Hitman's Bodyguard," $15.4 million.</p>
<p>5. "The Lego Ninjago Movie," $10.5 million.</p>
<p>6. "The Invisible Guest," $6.5 million.</p>
<p>7. "American Made," $6 million.</p>
<p>8. "Spider-Man: Homecoming," $6 million.</p>
<p>9. "I Can Speak," $4.8 million.</p>
<p>10. "mother!" $4.6 million.</p> | 'Kingsman: The Golden Circle' dethrones 'It' with $39M debut | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/24/kingsman-golden-circle-dethrones-it-with-39m-debut.html | 2017-09-24 | 0 |
<p>The horrifying scene of carnage in a Coptic church in Alexandria, ending not only the passing year but also the lives of innocent people, was not just shocking to everyone in Egypt and the region, but also terrifying to some who began to postulate that this might very well usher in the end of the presence of Christians in the country, if not in the Arab world at large. The panic and dismay visited on most people have understandably led some to rush to offer dramatic scenarios for the immediate future. It strikes me as more opportune, however, especially, in these times to offer an analysis of what is unfolding that is informed not only by the past and current situation of Egypt, but also by the regional context in which this violent act was committed. Fanning the flames of panic and sectarianism will only lead to more such violence without improving the security situation nor would it bring about the sought after civic peace.</p>
<p>I should start perhaps historically with the advent of the modern age, which brought about European intervention in the Ottoman Empire, often under the guise of protecting the non-Muslim communities, which acted as a precursor to the later and full-scale European colonisation of the Ottoman Arab provinces. As is well known, this intervention has augured badly for the Christian communities, many of whom ended up being displaced from the very capital of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul, while many others in the Syrian and Iraqi provinces began to immigrate to the Americas by the end of the nineteenth century through the present. This and subsequent colonial manipulation of sectarian identities by British and French colonialism brought about a number of episodes of communal violence against Arab Christians (and aided by later Zionist intervention, against Arab Jews) virtually unknown in scale and nature prior to the arrival of the European “protectors,” whether the French in Damascus (in 1840 with the French-instigated blood libel against Syrian Jews, and in 1860 with the massacre of Syrian Christians), or the British in Baghdad (in 1933 with the massacre of Iraqi Assyrians, and in 1941 the massacre of Iraqi Jews).</p>
<p>The sectarian nightmare that Lebanon has constituted since the mid-nineteenth century, and the role of the French and the Vatican in it, is in a class of its own. Egyptian Christians have been spared such massacres in the modern period, though not the effects of French (beginning with Napoleon) and later British manipulation of existing sectarianism in the country. Surely, the extant institutional discrimination against Egyptian Christians by the different organs of the state cannot be laid fully at the doorstep of colonialism, but the Sadat’s regime intensification of sectarian hatred and his opportunistic manipulation of Islam in the service of imperial policies along with his support of some Islamist groups against the threat of Soviet and other varieties of communism and Arab nationalism, facilitated the attacks on Egyptian Christians in the 1970s.</p>
<p>The policies of Sadat institutionalised a new trend in Egyptian popular culture that continues to dominate today in many corners of civil society, among Christians and Muslims alike. While sectarianism predates Sadat’s rule, his anti-Arab attitudes and his campaign to de-Arabise Egypt by removing it from the Arab fold in the late 1970s and beyond contributed to this new sectarian trend. As most Egyptians saw their identity as grounded in the region, when Sadat insisted on de-Arabising them while allying himself with Israel and the United States, the majority of Muslim Egyptians opted for Islam as the new extra-Egyptian framework for their identity. This spurred many Christian Egyptians to revert to a more parochial and local identity of Copticness, rooted exclusively within Egypt. Arabness, as a non-racial non-essentialist identity, which defines Arabs as those whose native language is Arabic, included and welcomed Egyptian Christians under its banner, even though it was not always the major political current among most Egyptian Christian intellectuals. However, the new Sadat-generated momentum of de-Arabisation and the rise of Islamism, augmented in the early 1980s by the US (and Saudi) sponsorship of pan-Islamic efforts to fight its war in Afghanistan (in which many Islamist Egyptians volunteered to participate), led to the strengthening of sectarian Christian and Muslim identities that relegated Egyptian Christians to an unfortunate localism that removed them from any regional identitarian project.</p>
<p>This has intensified the sense of isolation felt by many Egyptian Christians, especially in light of the sectarian anti-Christian societal discourse regnant in the post-Sadat era across the country, including but not limited to educational institutions, ranging from primary schools all the way to universities, in curricula, and among teachers and students alike. We must note though that anti-Christian institutionalised discrimination is often exaggerated by expatriate and some US-based chauvinist fanatics as “oppression” and played down by the state and its operatives as “non-existent” Assisted by actual incidents of communal violence, especially in the south of the country, the hyperbole on both sides is hardly mitigated. Yet, American and Papal pretensions to be defenders of local religious minorities, aided in the last three decades by an army of US-funded NGOs, have contributed more to this situation of sectarianism rather than –safeguarded? Christian Egyptians.</p>
<p>This Egyptian situation exists today in the context of horrifying sectarian violence made possible by the American invasion and occupation of Iraq which brought in its wake Al-Qaeda to the country (it does seem ironic that where the Americans go in the Arab world and outside it, they bring al-Qaeda along with them, not least in Yemen where their ongoing intervention has created a civil war in the country). While most of those killed in the American-instigated sectarian violence in Iraq have been Shiite and Sunni Muslims (notwithstanding the attacks on the tiny Palestinian community of Baghdad), Europe and America’s media characteristically feature with much fanfare the equally horrifying violence against Iraqi Christians, as if the latter are somehow specifically and solely targeted among Iraq’s sects and ethnic groups for such violence. Nonetheless, it is important to assert that it was the arrival of the Americans in Iraq that has pretty much reduced the size of Iraq’s Christians to infinitesimal levels.</p>
<p>How is one to read the carnage of Alexandria in this context and what would be needed to contain its effects? Those few who believe that foreign intervention in Egypt might protect the Copts are wittingly or unwittingly using the incident to bring about a wider role for US imperialism in the country — as if what the US has brought about in Egypt in the last three decades (in terms of massive enrichment of the rich and impoverishment of the poor, de-education, destruction of Egyptian agriculture, gargantuan corruption and theft of public funds, economic dependence, and diminishment of Egypt’s regional political and military role, not to mention the US hand in the ongoing sectarianism) has not been sufficient, and as if the Americans have ever intervened anywhere in the world to help the oppressed or the discriminated against, unless one considers dethroned dictators or a business class, whose powers to pillage were curtailed by a nationalist government, “oppressed groups.” Had the US been a protector, those in our part of the world who are oppressed (and this includes millions of people of all shades and colors) would not only have been saved by US intervention, but their very suffering would not continue to be underwritten by US policies, as is most often the case. So much then for the US as a protector of the lives of Arab, including Egyptian, Christians.</p>
<p>It strikes me that calls for state reform and putting an end to discriminatory policies are essential, but so are calls for reform in the religious institutions that claim to speak for Muslim and Christian Egyptians, and for the kind of sectarian discourse they churn out. This is not to suggest that the demographic differences between a majority of Muslim Egyptians and a minority of Christian Egyptians should be elided nor that the state’s identifying “its” religion as the same as that of the majority of its population is irrelevant (something Sadat, under American aegis, did much to institutionalise and consecrate) when analysing the power of these religious institutions, but rather that at the level of sectarian discourse they can be seen often as mirroring one another. To say that the Egyptian state has had a hand in sectarian manipulation is to state the obvious, but this discourse now has an independent momentum and will have to be deconstructed by the anti-sectarian civil society forces in the country, not only in the political sphere, but also and especially in the cultural and social spheres (it is rather unsurprising that the sphere of wealth is the only sphere where no discrimination against rich Christian Egyptians can be said to exist).</p>
<p>And this should be done not by strategies of manifesting a special “admiration” for the Christians as a separate sect (as a secular Marxist Palestinian intellectual of Muslim background recently averred to me at a private gathering) and exaggerating the sectarian identity of “their” contribution to Egyptian and Arab history (a cause dear to Arab neoliberals and their Western sponsors). Rather we must understand how Europe and the United States, in claiming to “sponsor” and “protect” the local Christian communities and make it de rigueur to “admire” them and identify “their” contributions to the modern Arab world in sectarian terms, will bring about the very same exclusion of these communities in the countries where they live and belong as those hateful fanatics, who target them for violence and who claim them to be foreign to the body politic, want to do. Zionism sought to create an exclusive Jewish state and empty the world of Jews who would all flock to the Jewish colonial settlement to live in a racist intolerant state. Similarly, these international forces are intent on transforming Arab and Muslim countries into Israeli-style exclusive enclaves of “intoleran” Muslims whom the (“Judeo-Christian”) world must not tolerateon account of their own alleged intolerance.</p>
<p>In this vein, I should mention that one week before the terrorist attack in Alexandria, the Egyptian authorities uncovered a major Israeli spy ring in the country. Given the history of Mossad bombings of Egyptian post offices, cinemas, cultural centers, and train stations in the 1950s, and Mossad bombing operations across the Arab world that have never ceased to the present (the Mossad has always had a flair for car bombings), it would be important to investigate possible or even potential links between the Mossad operatives and the church bombers.</p>
<p>The irony remains, however, that it is the intolerant Americans, Europeans, and the Israelis and their extremist intolerant, though at times unwitting, local allies, namely the violent minority of sectarians among Islamists, who stand to benefit most from the Alexandria tragedy. Unless intellectuals in Egypt and the Arab world, Muslim and Christian, religious and secular, resist joining this international alliance of the intolerant, they may very well help them achieve their goals.</p>
<p>JOSEPH MASSAD is associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University in New York.</p>
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<p /> | Sectarianism and Its Discontents | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/01/11/sectarianism-and-its-discontents/ | 2011-01-11 | 4 |
<p>After her two-parcel, multi-residence Hollywood Hills compound failed to sell off-market with a combined asking price rumored to be around <a href="http://variety.com/2017/dirt/real-estalker/katy-perry-hollywood-hills-1202491487/" type="external">$15 million</a>, international pop-music superstar <a href="http://variety.com/tag/katy-perry/" type="external">Katy Perry</a> officially listed the larger of the two properties at $9,450,000. The 32-year-old pop star, who the bean counters at Forbes estimated earned around <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/katy-perry/" type="external">$33 million</a> between June 2016 and June 2017 — a vast amount of money by any standard but a fraction of the estimated <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2016/06/02/katy-perrys-net-worth-125-million-in-2016/#194c427933c5" type="external">$135 million</a> she reportedly hauled in over the same period in 2014 and 2015, purchased the 2.33-acre spread near the top of the popular, dog-friendly and hiker-thronged Runyon Canyon in April 2013 for $8.2 million. The seller was oil heiress and philanthropist Aileen Getty who’d bought the property in early 2004 for $3.535 million from Wal-Mart heiress Sybil Robson Orr. The gated property encompasses a security guard-house, a main house described in marketing materials as “inspired by Paul Williams architecture with undertones of Mediterranean influence,” a semi-detached two-story guesthouse with limousine length garage and a cavernous, light-filled fitness building.</p>
<p>Tax records show the main residence has three bedrooms and three bathrooms in 3,884-square-feet and listing photographs show it done up in a colorful, casually glam and eclectically boho-chic hodge-podge fashion that freely and courageously mixes Moroccan inlaid carved wood tables with Chanel logo emblazoned throw pillows, a crocheted afghan, and an eight-seat dining room table crafted from a bulbous burled wood tree stump base and a slim white marble top on top of which sits a whimsical trio of red and white stuffed mushrooms. The main living spaces, which have polished Parquet de Versailles hardwood floors, include in a cozily sunny, window-lined sun porch and a comfortably spacious, bi-level combination living/dining room with high ceilings, a monumental stone fireplace and numerous French doors that open to the gardens. It’s a few steps down from the living/dining room to the expensively and comprehensively outfitted kitchen that features muscular wood beams on the ceiling and an eye-popping geometric floor tile.</p>
<p>The sprawling, celeb-style master suite takes up the entire second floor and includes a sitting room dominated by a massive carved stone fireplace — it’s practically tall enough to stand in, and a circular bedroom with delicate pale blue walls set off against vermillion velvet curtains. The Roman-style bathroom features a vaulted and sky light lined ceiling with exposed wood beams, a fireplace set between full-length linen and toiletry storage cabinets and a soaking tub for two set smack in the center of the room on a graphic, flower-like pattern floor tile similar to that in the kitchen.</p>
<p>The house opens to a tree-shielded and palm shaded, plaza-sized terrace of Italian quarried stone that incorporates a loggia with fireplace and cushioned built-in banquette seating, an outdoor pizza oven, and a swimming pool and a cabana with half bathroom. The grounds also include tiled fountains, meandering pathways planted with citrus trees and an amphitheatre for private concerts and performances.</p>
<p>Perry additionally owns the house next door, a not-quite 3,000-square-foot modern-organic contemporary with five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a swimming pool on a separately gated .88-acre parcel with canyon-framed city views. Perry purchased the property for $3 million at the exact same time she bought the larger house next door. The seller of the smaller property was also Aileen Getty who bought it in early 2011 for $2.95 million from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg who’d acquired it two years earlier for $2.888 million from now divorced screenwriter Naomi Foner and director Stephen Gyllenhaal, parents of actors Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal.</p>
<p>The 13-time Grammy nominated “ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGk5fR-t5AU" type="external">Swish Swish</a>” singer, who just this month embarked on a year-long, <a href="https://www.katyperry.com/tour/" type="external">world-wide concert tour</a> to support her fifth studio album “Witness,” decamped her semi-public hillside perch atop Nichols Canyon&#160;— the property shares a long, fenced-lined border with the Runyon Canon hiking trail&#160;— to a much more secluded estate tucked down a quarter-mile-long gated driveway and surrounded by protected open space in a remarkably star-studded enclave in the upper Coldwater Canyon area of Beverly Hills that she bought in May of this year for <a href="http://variety.com/2017/dirt/real-estalker/katy-perry-beverly-hills-house-1202031000/" type="external">$17.995 million</a> from Cody Liebel, lavish living heir to a Canadian construction fortune. A proverbial cat can not be swung in the high wattage neighborhood without hitting a showbiz superstar and some of the other homeowner’s in the ‘hood include <a href="http://variety.com/2016/dirt/real-estalker/adele-house-don-mischer-beverly-hills-1201793234/" type="external">Adele</a>, <a href="http://variety.com/2014/dirt/real-estalker/jennifer-lawrence-snags-celebrity-pedigreed-pad-in-beverly-hills-1201337732/" type="external">Jennifer Lawrence</a>, <a href="http://variety.com/2010/dirt/news/your-mama-hears-77-1201230506/" type="external">Cameron Diaz</a>, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, <a href="http://variety.com/2014/dirt/real-estalker/ashton-and-mila-buy-crib-to-bring-up-baby-1201237946/" type="external">Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis</a> and Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, after a contentious two-year legal battle, Perry was cleared to proceed with the $14.5 million purchase of the former Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary Convent, an eight-acre, multi-structure compound in L.A.s Los Feliz with a total of 25 bedrooms and 29 bathrooms. The purchase is reportedly awaiting Vatican approval.</p>
<p>Listing photos: <a href="http://www.carswellandpartners.com/" type="external">Teles/Douglas Elliman Real Estate</a></p> | Katy Perry Lists One of Her Two Hollywood Hills Homes Atop L.A.’s Runyon Canyon (EXCLUSIVE) | false | https://newsline.com/katy-perry-lists-one-of-her-two-hollywood-hills-homes-atop-l-a-s-runyon-canyon-exclusive/ | 2017-09-29 | 1 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>When I was a journalist working in China back in the early 1990s, I was furious when two administrations in the U.S.–both the first Bush Administration and the Clinton Administration–condoned executions of American death row prisoners from foreign countries who had been arrested and tried without their home countries’ embassies being notified. The current Bush Administration has taken the same cavalier approach to international law also, which clearly requires that an embassy be notified when one of its nationals is arrested in a country, and further, that that embassy be permitted to have access to the detained individual and to provide a lawyer.</p>
<p>I was furious because America’s willful and repeated violation of this basic international agreement was a direct threat to my personal health and safety. I was going out into the Chinese countryside as a journalist–often without the benefit or a journalist’s visa, which can take weeks to obtain and which often is denied–and was at risk of being arrested by Chinese security forces. In fact, I was brought in and interrogated by the Public Security Bureau during one such journalistic venture to a relatively remote area of Anhui Province, and I can report that the experience was harrowing.</p>
<p>How could I hope to have the protection and help of my embassy in China if my own country was thumbing its nose at international law?</p>
<p>Now we see the same thing happening during the war on Iraq, where the implications are even more serious as–predictably–.American soldiers begin to be captured by Iraqi forces.</p>
<p>The Bush administration is loudly decrying their use by Iraq as propaganda on Arab television, where they have been shown being questioned about what they were doing in Iraq. It’s good domestic PR. After all, their treatment, while so far thankfully not brutal, is in violation of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of POWs. But nobody outside the U.S. is going to take the American protests seriously.</p>
<p>The sad truth is that the U.S. is in no position to make a complaint, for America too has been in gross violation of that convention. Iraqi soldiers taken prisoner during this war have been marched before American television cameras, they have been blindfolded and terrorized by U.S. soldiers taking them into custody, and their faces have been displayed on American television–all clear violations of international law.</p>
<p>But the U.S. is doing even worse with regard to other POWs it has captured in Afghanistan. Along with most international legal scholars, I would argue that anyone fighting U.S. forces in that country were soldiers in a war, and that once captured, they should have been held in accordance with the Geneva Convention. They have not been so treated, however.</p>
<p>Certain of those captured have been either turned over to other countries’ security forces–for example those of Egypt or Pakistan–where they reportedly have been subjected to torture, or they have been held at a U.S. base in Afghanistan, and also subjected to conditions that can only be described as torture, or in some cases–well over 600–they have been transported, bound and hooded, to a concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they are caged in individual pens and held in a legal limbo–not prisoners and not prisoners of war.</p>
<p>Arguably the non-Afghan members of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan might be termed “unlawful combatants” by the U.S., and denied POW status, though this is making a rather fine distinction. Al Qaeda fighters, while they might have originally been in Afghanistan as terrorist trainees, seem to have been acting as a legitimate ally of the government of Afghanistan at the time of their capture, fighting alongside government forces. But even granting that distinction, the U.S. also has taken captured Afghan Taliban fighters, who clearly were the official army of the government of Afghanistan, off to Guantanamo, denying them too, any POW status.</p>
<p>The whole world sees this treatment of captured Afghan fighters as the most outrageous violation of international law and the Geneva Convention, yet the U.S., even knowing it was about to become involved in a war in the Middle East, went ahead with this outlaw behavior.</p>
<p>All it has done in the process is open the door to similar abuse of captured Americans. After all, if the U.S. is seen as fighting an illegal war of aggression, might not Iraq decide that any soldiers it catches are not POWs at all, but rather “unlawful combatants”?</p>
<p>One has to wonder at the hubris of Bush Administration policy-makers, who seem to think that they can trample over any international rules and agreements they want, without suffering any consequences.</p>
<p>The same might be said of the charge that Fedayeen irregulars are violating international law by dressing up in civilian clothes and attacking American and British troops in Iraq by deceit. While this guerrilla war tactic is clearly a violation of the international rules of war, which are designed to minimize civilian casualties, we know that U.S. special forces, such as the Delta Force troops, have also been dressing as local civilians in the Afghanistan conflict (they were shown doing this in the American media), and it strains belief to think that they are not doing the same thing now in Iraq.</p>
<p>The Bush Administration is counting on the jingoistic American media to ignore its own blatant violations of international law in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, while it loudly condemns Iraq’s violations as evidence of the evil of the enemy. So far their hopes have been largely rewarded domestically. But the rest of the world is seeing this two-faced policy on POWs for what it is.</p>
<p>So we have the pathetic picture of President Bush, with a straight face, condemning first Iraq for violating the Geneva Convention on POW treatment and then Russia for “violating U.N. sanctions” against Iraq! This from a Commander-in-Chief who has condoned and continues to condone the most egregious violations of prisoner of war rules, and who has violated the most basic part of the U.N. charter by initiating an unprovoked war of aggression against a member state without the sanction of the Security Council.</p>
<p>An old adage about war has long been: the winner makes the rules. But an older adage should be on the mind of both this chickenhawk administration and the minds of the soldiers who are being asked to put their lives on the line for its ill-conceived aggressive policies: as you sow, so shall your reap.</p>
<p>DAVID LINDORFF is the author of Killing Time, an investigation into the death penalty case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. <a href="http://www.nwuphilly.org/dave.html" type="external">Find out more about Lindorff on his website.</a></p>
<p>Today’s Features</p>
<p>Gary Leupp <a href="" type="internal">What Democracy Looks Like: the Streets of Cairo</a></p>
<p>Bill and Kathleen Christison <a href="" type="internal">An Interview with Hanan Ashrawi</a></p>
<p>Bruce Jackson <a href="" type="internal">Why Protest? Why Write?</a></p>
<p>Uri Avnery <a href="" type="internal">Bitter Rice: Thoughts and Warnings on the War</a></p>
<p>Jason Leopold <a href="" type="internal">Blood Indicator: Casualties and the Stock Market</a></p>
<p>Jeffrey St. Clair <a href="" type="internal">Life During Wartime</a></p>
<p>Gilad Atzmon <a href="" type="internal">Strategic Blunders by American Generals</a></p>
<p>Ralph Nader <a href="" type="internal">A Pre-emptive War on a Defenseless Country</a></p>
<p>Website of the War <a href="http://www.iraqbodycount.net/" type="external">Iraq Body Count</a></p>
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<p>On Monday, the Trump administration leaked via <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/03/trump-dreamers-immigration-daca-immigrants-242301" type="external">Politico</a> the news that President Trump had decided to end President Obama’s executive amnesty — the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Trump White House won’t immediately end DACA, however; instead, they’ll delay their enforcement for six months, supposedly pressuring Congress to act in the meantime.</p>
<p>This is a seriously problematic strategy. If you are an advocate of DACA, you obviously think that the president shouldn’t be dumping it — and you think that Congress is unlikely to act to restore DACA, particularly if President Trump insists on funding for his border wall in exchange for signing a DACA restoration. If you’re an opponent of DACA, Trump’s six-month delay isn’t going to provide any serious measure of comfort — it’s obviously designed to force Congress to restore DACA, which means that Trump’s heart isn’t behind renewing enforcement of immigration law against so-called DREAMers.</p>
<p>What’s more, the six-month delay won’t achieve what Trump wants. Presumably, Trump’s math goes something like this: his threats will force Congress to the table, and Democrats and Republicans, fearful of allowing DACA to expire, will give him what he wants on his wall. But during those six months, a few things are likely to happen.</p>
<p>1. Trump’s Base Will Fight Back. First, Trump’s own base will sound off on trading DACA for the wall — immigration restrictionists like Ann Coulter aren’t likely to sign off on a trade that should be completely unnecessary given Republican domination of Congress. They’ll suggest that Trump made two promises, not just one, and trading one promise for the other isn’t proper lawmaking.</p>
<p>2. Congressional Democrats Will Stonewall. Congressional Democrats aren’t going to make any deal with Trump: they’re perfectly happy for DREAMers to suffer so long as it means they can make hay politically. They’ll simply sit on the sidelines and say that Trump holding deportation of “children” out as a threat simply to get an expensive, useless wall shows just how nasty he is.</p>
<p>3. Congressional Republicans Will Fall Apart. If Trump thinks he’s going to be able to get Congressional Republicans to act on his wall by trading DACA for it, he’s likely to be sorely mistaken. There will be Republicans who take the same purist position as Ann Coulter; there will be others, like Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who are likely to take the same position as Congressional Democrats.</p>
<p>So, what’s the likeliest outcome? Here are the possibilities:</p>
<p>1. Nothing. Let’s say we hit the six-month mark and Congress hasn’t passed anything. Trump could easily just do nothing, and quietly refuse to deport people while still not granting extensions to their paperwork.</p>
<p>2. Republican Congress Passes His Deal. This is the most optimistic vision: Trump gets Republicans to make the trade he’s looking for. This is also the unlikeliest vision. If this happens, Trump wins. But even if it passes, Democrats will be energized for 2018, while Republicans are lukewarm — remember, a huge percentage of Republicans aren’t fans of DACA, whether it’s passed by Congress or through executive action.</p>
<p>3. Trump Sticks To His Deadline. If Congress passes nothing, Trump could attempt to ratchet up the pressure by actively beginning deportations. That would force Congress into action — perhaps. But that’s the riskiest move for Trump personally, since mass deportations don’t make for great headlines.</p>
<p>So, what should Trump have done here? He could have taken the political hit while shielding his own Republican majority. There were two ways to do this: first, he could have immediately dumped DACA, taking the political focus off Congress and allowing them to play good cop. Alternatively, he could have coordinated with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to push legislation first, making the DACA issue obsolete — he could have held the threat of action over their heads, but allowed them to push a compromise bill first, then thrown his weight behind it. That would allow Congressional Republicans to paint Trump as the moving force behind the bill to the base.</p>
<p>This strategy protects Trump to a certain extent, but leaves Congress to take the hit. Trump looks good to his base by quasi-dumping DACA, but leaves Congress an out to do nothing with his six-month delay. Meanwhile, Congress is sent a ticking time bomb scheduled to detonate during a midterm election year.</p> | 6 Things You Need To Know About Trump's Decision To End Obama's Executive Amnesty ... Six Months From Now | true | https://dailywire.com/news/20597/6-things-you-need-know-about-trumps-decision-end-ben-shapiro | 2017-09-04 | 0 |
<p>Back in December, President-Elect Donald Trump visited the Carrier plant in Indiana. He had just used government-sponsored crony capitalism to convince Carrier to maintain a few hundred jobs in the state, and he was there to mark his dubious achievement. He explained, “Corporate America is going to have to understand that we have to take care of our workers also.” His vice president, Mike Pence, then piped up, “The free market has been sorting it out and America’s been losing. Every time, every time.”</p>
<p>Bernie Sanders didn’t win the battle, but he clearly won the war.</p>
<p>He never could have won the war without President Trump. Trump’s embrace of government cramdowns and giveaways has now corrupted supposed conservative thoughtleaders down to the bone. Take, for example, Tucker Carlson, who is blowing out the ratings in primetime at Fox News, and who will now be taking over Bill O’Reilly’s coveted timeslot. On Tuesday evening, he hosted billionaire Mark Cuban. Cuban made the capitalist case that free flow of labor is necessary in order to strengthen the economy and generate better goods and services at competitive prices – Economics 101.</p>
<p>Here’s Carlson’s counter, defending President Trump’s economically illiterate strategy of tariffs, subsidies, and bans on employment for immigrants: “There are many in betweens … Would you apply market forces to your family, to your marriage? Capitalism is not a religion, it’s an effective way of generating wealth … I like capitalism, but when it hurts Americans, I’m willing to make adjustments. Wouldn’t you be?”</p>
<p>This is fully idiotic. Marriage is a voluntary commitment between two people, without government compulsion. What in the world does that have to do with government intrusions into the free market?</p>
<p>It is a mistake to think of capitalism as a mere system that is effective at distributing wealth. Capitalism means economic liberty. Freedom is a principle worth fighting for, and economic liberty is worth fighting for. It is not up to Tucker Carlson or Donald Trump or anybody else to tell you what to do with your money, or to reshift the economy on behalf of helping particular sets of Americans. This is called redistributionism. It is soft socialism.</p>
<p>And yet Breitbart News, too, is pushing this nonsense. In a piece hilariously titled, “The Libertarian Case For Donald Trump’s ‘Buy American’ Order,” John Carney writes:</p>
<p>[T]oday’s critics of trade orthodoxy are so far removed from those of the past that perhaps we shouldn’t call them “protectionists” at all. Let’s call them what they are, economic nationalists….It is altogether possible that one may prefer lower living standards in favor of a more humane distribution of wealth or a government procurement policy that recycles dollars taxed and borrowed back into the domestic economy.</p>
<p>The first part of this is patently untrue. The latter part is straight from Karl Marx’s handbook. There can be no more “humane distribution of wealth” under a libertarian system of government than the free market, since all other distributions require government force. There is no freedom-based case for the government taxing and spending your cash on its priorities, or barring you from engaging in free trade with other people in other countries or hiring people from other countries to do a job. That is a violation of your freedom.</p>
<p>But we don’t care about freedom anymore in economics. We only care about Economic Nationalism (through the same methods embraced by the Left)! We only care about Making America Great Again (through destroying basic American notions of liberty)! We only care about whether freedom “hurts Americans” (and if it does, get rid of the freedom)!</p>
<p>We are all socialists now. And we’ll laugh along with Tucker Carlson as economic freedom diminishes under the guise of insincere flag-waving.</p> | WE ARE ALL SOCIALISTS NOW: Tucker Carlson, Breitbart News Embrace Big Government Trumpian Redistributionism | true | https://dailywire.com/news/15572/we-are-all-socialists-now-tucker-carlson-breitbart-ben-shapiro | 2017-04-20 | 0 |
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<p>The new price of $399 begins June 9.</p>
<p>Microsoft says it is also allowing entertainment apps like Netflix to be used on both the Xbox One and the older Xbox 360 console without having to pay for an Xbox Live Gold membership, which costs $60 a year.</p>
<p>The membership will continue to be required for multiplayer game mode, but it will also provide discounts on games and free games.</p>
<p>Phil Spencer, who was named head of Xbox in March, said unbundling Kinect was important to reaching more fans.</p>
<p>"Value is important," he said in an interview. "Making sure you have an opening price point that can reach as many people as possible is critical."</p>
<p>Kinect is an accessory that detects motion and allows users to control the console using their voice.</p>
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<p>Microsoft said last month that sales of Xbox One had slowed to 1.2 million in the quarter through March, compared to the 3.9 million it sold in the holiday quarter. The total of 5.1 million was behind Sony's 7 million in sales of the PS4. Both launched in November.</p>
<p>Spencer added that it no longer made sense to reserve apps such as Netflix and YouTube to paying subscribers since such apps are widely available on DVD players and other Internet-connected devices.</p>
<p>""</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>Xbox Wire: <a href="http://bit.ly/1ligHyd" type="external">http://bit.ly/1ligHyd</a></p> | Microsoft unbundles Kinect from Xbox One | false | https://abqjournal.com/399184/microsoft-unbundles-kinect-from-xbox-one.html | 2 |
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<p>Blingcheese.com</p>
<p />
<p>We all know how the Internet has changed the porn business. The video clips available for free to any pimply faced teen with a modem make Deep Throat look positively PG-rated. But might the Internet also change the anti-porn biz? Once the exclusive province of evangelical prudes like Phyllis Schlafly and furious feminists like Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin, the evils of pornography are becoming more of a mainstream political issue—if only because most of us, at some point, have stumbled upon a site like <a href="http://www.naked.com/" type="external">www.naked.com</a> while innocently searching for a fruit juice company.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, a group of anti-porn activists and scholars arrived on Capitol Hill to brief members of Congress and their staffs and to call for <a href="http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs002/1102652988615/archive/1103469104962.html" type="external">beefed-up federal enforcement</a> of obscenity laws. They weren’t there to fret about the pornographers of old: the loveable chauvinist Hugh Hefner and his scantily clad bunnies, or even the not-so-loveable-but-occasionally-principled First Amendment crusader, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt. No, they had come to alert Congress to websites like GagFactor.com, whose teasers alone are way more graphic than anything Hefner ever published, and whose content doesn’t portend a spirited First Amendment defense.</p>
<p>“The days of women wearing a coy smile and not much else are long gone,” Gail Dines explained to the congressional crowd. A women’s studies professor at Boston’s Wheelock College and author of the upcoming book Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked our Sexuality, Dines has perused Gag Factor, and she described some of its content to the crowd—including a video of a woman with her head in a vice during oral sex. “Porn is an industrial product,” said Dines, who has studied the industry for 20-plus years. “I cannot believe how brutal it has become so quickly.” Gag Factor and their ilk, she added, are now the main source of sex education for boys.</p>
<p>Government prosecutors, the speakers said, haven’t kept pace with the industry’s rapid expansion. (In 1988, for instance, the adult entertainment industry released 1,300 porn videos. In 2005, it released <a href="http://www.socialcostsofpornography.org/" type="external">more than 10 times</a> as many.) Indeed, Patrick Trueman, a chief obscenity prosecutor at the Department of Justice under the first President Bush, stopped short of bashing Attorney General Eric Holder for going soft on porn. But he came mighty close, suggesting that the multibillion-dollar porn industry is a low priority for the Obama administration, even though the government typically prevails when it aims to shut down porn providers. Prosecuting the biggest fish, rather than the occasional small-fry consumer, Trueman suggested, would make a huge dent in the volume of online smut.</p>
<p>Christian-right groups have been complaining about porn forever, of course, and Trueman, a lawyer with the anti-gay Alliance Defense Fund, falls within that camp. But technology has made the right’s argument far more compelling, as the Internet has brought pornography to a far bigger and more vulnerable audience than ever before. The adult entertainment industry has fought to protect its burgeoning business by invoking the Constitution and arguing that its work is an expression of free speech. Its lobbying group, in fact, is called the <a href="http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/" type="external">Free Speech Coalition</a>. And it’s true that the courts have found soft-core porn like Playboy, and the bookstores selling such wares, to be constitutionally protected. (For adults, that is. Legally, soft-core porn is labeled as harmful to minors.)</p>
<p>Courts have also struck down as unconstitutional previous attempts by Congress to curb Internet smut with restrictions like age-verification screens and bans on teaser photos. In one&#160; <a href="http://news.cnet.com/Supreme-Court-keeps-Net-porn-law-on-ice/2100-1028_3-5251475.html?tag=mncol;txt" type="external">case</a>, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy suggested that parents need only put filters on their computers if they wanted to protect their kids—apparently unaware of data showing that many parents are also downloading porn.</p>
<p>But according to Trueman, much of the explicit material found on the Internet these days isn’t protected speech but obscenity, which is prosecutable. That means there’s likely no First Amendment protection for Gag Factor and other sites that trade in close-ups of graphic acts, lewd genital displays, sexual violence, and all the gross stuff—bestiality, incest, excretory functions—that meets the legal definition of obscenity.</p>
<p>Making the point with blurry PowerPoint skin shots was Donna Rice Hughes, an “Internet safety expert” better known as the woman photographed sitting in Gary Hart’s lap as the then-presidential candidate sailed his boat, the Monkey Business, en route to the Bahamas. Hughes has since reinvented herself as an anti-porn activist. “For 15 years, children have been spoon-fed a steady diet of pornography,” she noted.</p>
<p>Hughes wasn’t just pushing the standard hysteria. Studies, she explained, have found that more than 40 percent of kids age 10 to 17 have checked out porn online, and many are checking out child porn, too. More compelling were her slides, used to illustrate just how easy it is to find porn simply by accident: Searching a generic term like “watersports” can turn up a host of sites featuring pictures and videos of women getting peed on. Then there’s the Boys.com/Boyz.com mix-up, which sends kids looking for a primer on teen fashion (the former) to a site offering an unfiltered view of graphic anal sex (the latter). According to Hughes, research suggests that the age of first exposure to this sort of visual is 11.</p>
<p>Hughes suggested that the porn industry is intentionally designing websites to lure in young users, too, in much the same way that the tobacco industry has: with cartoons. Consider “DisneyPornLand,” a site where kids can see Disney characters having sex, and freebies—graphic teaser clips available to anyone, regardless of age.</p>
<p>She then played a short clip of interviews she has done with teenagers talking about the effect of porn on their lives and relationships. Hughes chats with “Justin, 16,” who freely admits to having a porn addiction problem. She asks whether the girls he eventually did have sex with were anything like the ones he saw in the videos. “No, ma’am. The girls in real life are nothing like in pornography,” Justin replies. “I’ve never had a girl want to do the same stuff those women did.” The bemused look on his face is worth a thousand words.</p>
<p>Several academic types spoke about how pornography affects the brain, comparing it to drug addiction and positing that one reason Internet porn has gotten so hardcore so fast is that heavy viewers get desensitized. Mary Anne Layden, codirector of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathy program at the University of Pennsylvania, described several patients whose lives were ruined by porn addictions—wherein what started off as a more benign nude-women surfing habit led them down the rabbit hole to becoming obsessed with kiddie porn, which led to jail sentences. And of course, there was the usual stuff about how porn hurts women and marriages.</p>
<p>But by far the most compelling argument came from Shelley Lubben, who during the 1990s performed under the name “Roxy” in such screen gems as The Cumm Brothers 3 and Beaver Hunt. She eventually left the business, found the Lord—Lubben showed up at the event with Bible in hand—and founded the Pink Cross Foundation, a nonprofit that offers support to adult industry workers.</p>
<p>Lubben described how her porn career left her with incurable herpes, papilloma virus, and ultimately cervical cancer. She is anemic, she added, due to hemorrhaging from reproductive injuries sustained during filming. “The last thing I want to do, people, is talk about porn,” she said, dabbing her eyes with tissues. “I have been hit, spit on, penetrated in every orifice imaginable.”</p>
<p>She also worked for a while as a prostitute: “At least with prostitution, you get a dinner sometimes.” Her story had the kid sitting next to me weeping. Beyond pimps and porn producers, Lubben spoke of an epidemic of suicides and other violent deaths of film stars, and talked forcefully about the doctors who collaborate with the industry to keep the performers “wasted” most of the time on prescription drugs. “This isn’t happening underground,” she said. “This is happening in America.”</p>
<p /> | Have the Feds Gone Soft on Porn? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/06/federal-porn-regulation-shelley-lubben/ | 2010-06-16 | 4 |
<p>Tencent's (NASDAQOTH: TCEHY) WeChat is&#160;the most popular messaging app in China. Its monthly active users (MAUs) rose 20% annually to 963 million last quarter, and its growing ecosystem allows users to make payments, hail rides, order food, and access other services without ever leaving the app.</p>
<p>Weibo (NASDAQ: WB), a microblogging platform which is often called the "Twitter of China", reaches a smaller audience but has plenty of momentum. Its MAUs rose&#160;28% to 361 million last quarter, and its expanding ecosystem now includes video streams, Reddit-like forums, and mobile payment capabilities from&#160;Alibaba (NYSE: BABA).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Many analysts see WeChat as the 800-pound gorilla and Weibo as the scrappy underdog. However, a recent Accenture report found that Weibo is actually more popular than WeChat among China's "Gen Z" users, the&#160;digitally native generation which was born after 1995.</p>
<p>Older generations all favored WeChat over Weibo. Does this study indicate that Weibo's moat against WeChat is actually wider than it initially appears?</p>
<p>Tencent is often called the "Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) of China" because it's the country's top social media company. In addition to WeChat, it owns the older PC messaging app QQ, which has 850 million MAUs, and the social network Qzone, which reaches another 606 million MAUs.</p>
<p>Weibo's microblogging site resembles Twitter, but it also includes elements of YouTube and Instagram, and mimics Snap's (NYSE: SNAP) Snapchat with its vanishing posts. Therefore, it isn't surprising that the <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/08/24/facebooks-teen-problem-is-finally-showing-up.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=3c294fd2-92e8-11e7-a57b-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">same age split Opens a New Window.</a> between Facebook and&#160;"younger" apps like Instagram and Snapchat is also playing out in China.</p>
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<p>WeChat's ubiquitous usage and its heavy presence in the enterprise world make it a standard communications tool, but it's also one&#160;that allows parents to easily keep tabs of their kids. As a result, younger users are migrating toward alternative platforms, like Weibo and even Tencent's older QQ app. Earlier this year, a survey by Meitu found that 33% of&#160;"post-00" (those born after 2000) users saw WeChat as an "app for adults".</p>
<p>There were 250 million members of Gen Z at the end of 2016, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics. That demographic is also a major target for e-commerce players, since Accenture's survey found that 70% of that group was willing to buy goods on social media platforms. Just 60% of the post-80s generation and 58% of the post-90s generation were willing to do the same.</p>
<p>That sounds like great news for Weibo and Alibaba, which is the company's <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/06/19/why-sina-is-reducing-its-stake-in-weibo.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=3c294fd2-92e8-11e7-a57b-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">second largest stakeholder Opens a New Window.</a> after online media giant SINA. Alibaba, which integrates its Taobao and Tmall features into Weibo, needs Weibo to widen its moat against Tencent, which is partnered with&#160;Alibaba's rival JD.com.</p>
<p>However, many Gen Z users likely use both WeChat and Weibo, just as many younger users in the U.S. simultaneously use Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. It's doubtful that Weibo can convince all its users to stop using WeChat, and vice versa -- so companies will likely continue promoting their products on both platforms.</p>
<p>Moreover, younger users generally have less purchasing power than older users. That's why Facebook continues to generate double-digit revenue and&#160;earnings growth, while Snap has <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/08/17/how-risky-is-snapchat-maker-snap-inc.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=3c294fd2-92e8-11e7-a57b-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">no clear path Opens a New Window.</a> toward profitability. Accenture's survey also notes that younger users are more prone to impulse purchases, with a higher return rate than older users -- which could make them a less desirable demographic.</p>
<p>Accenture's Gen Z survey shows that Weibo has staying power, but it doesn't mean that Tencent is struggling. However, Tencent investors should note that unlike Facebook, which uses Instagram as a way to retain younger users, the company doesn't have a comparable youth-oriented platform.</p>
<p>QQ and Qzone are both shedding users, with MAUs respectively slumping 5% and 7% annually last quarter. That's probably why Tencent previously invested in&#160;Snapchat, and invested in the popular photo and&#160;video streaming app Kuaishou earlier this year.</p>
<p>But for now, investors shouldn't fret over Tencent's future. Analysts expect WeChat and its growing portfolio of video games to respectively boost its&#160;revenue and earnings by 53% and 52% this year -- making it one of the top growth plays on the <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/06/17/forget-fang-buy-bat-baidu-alibaba-and-tencent.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=3c294fd2-92e8-11e7-a57b-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Chinese tech industry Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Tencent HoldingsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=99c1f6ba-b155-434e-afd9-3ab28f5ab783&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=3c294fd2-92e8-11e7-a57b-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Tencent Holdings wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=99c1f6ba-b155-434e-afd9-3ab28f5ab783&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=3c294fd2-92e8-11e7-a57b-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of September 5, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSunLion/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=3c294fd2-92e8-11e7-a57b-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Leo Sun Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Tencent and Sina. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook and Twitter. The Motley Fool recommends Accenture, JD.com, Sina, and Weibo. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=3c294fd2-92e8-11e7-a57b-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Weibo is Beating Tencent in this Key Market | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/09/weibo-is-beating-tencent-in-this-key-market.html | 2017-09-09 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Now he’s a quote from a supporter that may not help Mitt Romney that much:</p>
<p>It’s kind of hard for Romney to come across being a regular Joe. But put him in a room full of 400 business guys that are all successful, that relate to him, he comes off beautifully.</p>
<p>So said Daniel Staton, chair of the FriendFinder Networks, who attended a ritzy Romney fundraiser in Boca Raton. From <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-03/private-equity-partners-rally-around-romney-as-the-antidote-to-dodd-frank.html" type="external">Bloomberg</a>:</p>
<p>One evening in late September, Mitt Romney supporters gathered at the $3 million <a href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/boca-raton/" type="external">Boca Raton</a>, Florida, home of Marc Leder, the Sun Capital Partners Inc. co- founder behind the takeovers of retailers Friendly Ice Cream Corp., Limited stores and ShopKo Stores Inc.</p>
<p>Waiters served brie-stuffed French toast and short-rib tartlets as guests including Daniel Staton, chairman of social- networking company <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=FFN:US" type="external">FriendFinder Networks Inc. (FFN)</a>, lingered about the 10,657 square-foot (990 square-meter), 6-bedroom waterfront <a href="http://maps.co.palm-beach.fl.us/papagis/papagis.aspx?qtype=parcels&amp;pcn=00424705010000200" type="external">home</a>. Then they gathered inside for a half-hour speech by Romney, whose years of buying and selling companies for Bain Capital LLC left him with a worth of as much as $250 million and a natural rapport with the crowd.</p>
<p>It was after being impressed by that 30-minute-long speech that Staton made his comment about Romney. He may as well have said, “Romney really feels our pain.”</p>
<p /> | Romney Backer: He Does “Beautifully” Around Rich People | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/romney-beautifully-rich-people-staton/ | 2012-02-03 | 4 |
<p>'Just as the Tea Party moved politics to the right, we can now be the Tea Party of the left.'</p>
<p>This last weekend was not the first People’s Climate March. That happened in New York City in September 2014, and was meant to coincide with a U.N. General Assembly meeting and to ramp up pressure ahead of international climate talks in Paris the following winter. Drawing an estimated 400,000 people, that first march was the largest-ever demonstration on the issue.</p>
<p>Its follow-up arrived at a different time, politically. Donald Trump is president, and protests with tens of thousands of people are becoming more and more common—and not just in cities like Washington, D.C.&#160;and New York.</p>
<p>Similar marches and demonstrations were a regular feature of the Obama years. Complimented by year-round organizing, they seemed to work. The Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines were temporarily defeated. The Paris Agreement was negotiated and the Clean Power Plan showed at least a recognition on Obama’s part that climate change is a force to be reckoned with.</p>
<p>All of these victories could now be scaled back and more. Mustafa Ali left the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shortly after Trump announced his intention to cut the environmental justice program Ali had helped develop. A more than 20-year veteran of the agency, he now works with the Hip Hop Caucus.</p>
<p>“More folks are going to get sick, and—unfortunately—more folks are going to die,” he said of proposed cuts to the programs. “It’s really that simple.”</p>
<p>A theme among many of the people marching&#160;Saturday was an energy around what would happen in the months to come in their own backyards.</p>
<p>In the age of Trump, it’s a pragmatic position. So long as Republicans control Congress and the Oval Office, the likelihood of passing either comprehensive climate legislation or shaking a pro-climate executive order out of Trump seems unlikely. Hope for curbing emissions is increasingly falling on states and energy around stopping fossil fuel infrastructure is focused along those projects’ proposed routes.</p>
<p>As the day started to heat up (Saturday was tied as the hottest April 29th in D.C. history), Rae Ann Red Owl spoke about the next phase of the fight against the Keystone XL pipeline. A member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, she gets her water from the Missouri River via the Mni Wiconi Project Act, which established a water pipeline that serves her home in arid Kyle, South Dakota, and several others.</p>
<p>“‘Mni Wiconi,’ that means water is life. And that’s why we’re here,” she says. “If you look at Trump’s executive orders, the power that they have over our day-to-day lives is ridiculous. The jobs that they say they’re going to bring put our livelihoods at risk and put our earth at risk.”</p>
<p>Red Owl isn’t alone in her work against pipelines. Cherri Foytlin, director of Bold Louisiana, spoke Saturday with two of her children about the Bayou Bridge pipeline slated to cross through their community. The pipeline constitutes the tail end of the Dakota Access pipeline in the Gulf Coast, and could threaten some 700 waterways—“if we were to let it,” as Foytlin said. She and others in southern Louisiana are looking to start up an encampment to get in its way.</p>
<p>“I believe that it is damn selfish to put the effects of climate change onto our grandchildren,” she told the crowd.</p>
<p>The resistance to Trump’s fossil fuel dreams is taking the fights to the courts as well. One of Trump’s sharpest critics at the national level has been Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who showed up to support the march Saturday. Alongside New York Attorney General Eric Scheiderman, she has gone toe-to-toe with House Republicans in their probes over whether ExxonMobil misled the public about the existence of climate change. The somewhat ironically named House Science, Space and Technology Committee—chaired by outspoken climate change denier Lamar Smith, a Republican from Texas—subpoenaed the attorney general offices and several green groups, requests they all chose to ignore. Healey was also among a group of state attorney generals suing Trump over his proposed Muslim travel ban.</p>
<p>“We’ve sued the administration already. We’ll be suing them again,” Healey said.</p>
<p>She also referenced the 10-year anniversary of Massachusetts v. EPA. In that case, Massachusetts and several other states took the EPA to the Supreme Court over its negligence in regulating certain kinds of emissions. The decision is among the most important Supreme Court cases in history with regard to climate, having established that the EPA has the authority to regulate carbon as part of its duty to protect clean air and water. Unsurprisingly, its repeal is being looked at by those on the right as a target.</p>
<p>The morning after the march, around 150 people—most, but not all young—gathered in a community center near Logan Circle in D.C. to learn how to run for elected office. “First we march,” one slogan for the training put it, “and then we run.” Participants split off into rooms discussing strategies for local, state and federal bids. At the end of the training, several sponsoring organizations offered ongoing support to those wanting to run for office.</p>
<p>“Just as the Tea Party moved politics to the right, we can now be the Tea Party of the left,” Dominic Frongillo, co-founder of Elected Officials to Protect New York, told the crowd in a morning session. “We can be the revolution on the left that moves&#160;politics to a progressive direction, and start on the local level. It’s not going to take us 45 years.”</p>
<p>Kate Aronoff is a writing fellow at In These Times covering the politics of climate change, the White House transition and the resistance to Trump’s agenda. Follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/katearonoff" type="external">@katearonoff</a></p> | The Global People’s Climate Marches Were Massive. Here’s What Organizers Have Planned Next. | true | http://inthesetimes.com/article/20101/the-global-peoples-climate-marches-were-massive | 2017-05-02 | 4 |
<p>In all of the discussion about gender and politics in the Middle East, the&#160;voices of women living in the region are often missing. The Middle East's first&#160;all-female photography&#160;collective,&#160; <a href="http://www.rawiya.net/index.php#mi=1&amp;pt=0&amp;pi=2&amp;s=0&amp;p=0&amp;a=0&amp;at=0" type="external">Rawiya</a>, aims to change that.</p>
<p>An exhibit of their work&#160;co-curated&#160;by&#160; <a href="http://www.nae.org.uk/" type="external">the New Arts Exchange, Nottingham</a>&#160;and Saleem Arif Quadry&#160;is&#160; <a href="http://www.nae.org.uk/exhibition/realism-in-rawiya-touring/54" type="external">currently touring</a>&#160;the UK.&#160;</p>
<p>Rawiya, which means "she who tells a story," formed in 2011.&#160;The exhibit " <a href="http://www.impressions-gallery.com/exhibitions/exhibition.php?id=71" type="external">Realism in Rawiya: Photographing Stories from the Middle East</a>" debuted at the New Arts Exchange in 2013. It features six female photographers — Myriam Abdelaziz, Tamara Abdul Hadi, Laura Boushnak, Tanya Habjouqa, Dalia Khamissy and Newsha Tavakolian. Despite the fact that women rarely have&#160;a public role in the politics of the region, the Rawiya collective's&#160;work takes an unflinching look at&#160;gender and identity.</p>
<p>Each photographer has a distinct style and approach to her subject matter, from photojournalism to surreal staged shots.&#160;And behind many of the&#160;photos a sense of danger lurks, intimated by shadow, color&#160;and, of course, subject matter.</p>
<p />
<p>"Untitled," from the I Read I Write series, 2009 - 2012 © Laura Boushnak</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Courtesy of the New Art Exchange (NAE), Nottingham/curated by NAE and Saleem Arif Quadry</p>
<p />
<p>"Untitled," from the Survivor series, 2007 - 2012 © Laura Boushnak</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Courtesy of the New Art Exchange (NAE), Nottingham/curated by NAE and Saleem Arif Quadry</p>
<p />
<p>"Untitled," from the Listen series, 2011 © Newsha Tavakolian</p>
<p>Courtesy of the New Art Exchange (NAE), Nottingham/curated by NAE and Saleem Arif Quadry</p>
<p />
<p>"Untitled," from the Mothers of Martyrs series, 2006 © Newsha Tavakolian</p>
<p>Courtesy of the New Art Exchange (NAE), Nottingham/curated by NAE and Saleem Arif Quadry</p>
<p />
<p>"Untitled," from the Fragile Monsters Series, 2009 © Tanya Habjouqa</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Courtesy of the New Art Exchange (NAE), Nottingham/curated by NAE and Saleem Arif Quadry</p>
<p />
<p>"Untitled," from the Missing series, 2010 - ongoing © Dalia Khamissy</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Courtesy of the New Art Exchange (NAE), Nottingham/curated by NAE and Saleem Arif Quadry</p>
<p />
<p>"Untitled," from the series Picture an Arab Man, 2009 — ongoing © Tamara Abdul Hadi</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Courtesy of the New Art Exchange (NAE), Nottingham/curated by NAE and Saleem Arif Quadry</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.studio360.org/story/sideshow-middle-eastern-female-photographers/" type="external">story</a> comes from <a href="" type="internal">Sideshow</a>, a blog and podcast from PRI's <a href="" type="internal">SoundWorks</a> network.</p> | All-female photography collective aims to give voice to Middle Eastern women | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-04-30/all-female-photography-collective-aims-give-voice-middle-eastern-women | 2015-04-30 | 3 |
<p>Abington Heights 59, Honesdale 33</p>
<p>Allderdice 73, Mars 62</p>
<p>Archbishop Carroll 70, St. Joseph's Prep 59</p>
<p>Athens 62, Cowanesque Valley 58, OT</p>
<p>Bangor 57, Saucon Valley 30</p>
<p>Bedford 70, Penn Cambria 67</p>
<p>Bellwood-Antis 65, Williamsburg 58</p>
<p>Berlin-Brothersvalley 90, Salisbury-Elk Lick 26</p>
<p>Bethlehem Catholic 76, East Stroudsburg North 53</p>
<p>Big Spring 68, Susquenita 27</p>
<p>Bishop Carroll 58, Bishop McCort 50</p>
<p>Bishop Guilfoyle 74, Greater Johnstown 67</p>
<p>Blacklick 67, Ferndale 60</p>
<p>Blue Mountain 53, North Schuylkill 51</p>
<p>Bodine 61, Swenson 41</p>
<p>Broadfording Christian Academy, Md. 55, Shalom Christian 37</p>
<p>Cameron County 51, Oswayo 44</p>
<p>Camp Hill 56, West Perry 48, OT</p>
<p>Central Cambria 79, Somerset 51</p>
<p>Central Martinsburg 61, Hollidaysburg 58</p>
<p>Chestnut Ridge 86, McConnellsburg 54</p>
<p>Christopher Dock 44, Plumstead Christian 41</p>
<p>Church Farm School 52, Delco Christian 32</p>
<p>Clearfield 69, Dubois 60, OT</p>
<p>Commodore Perry 47, Cranberry 43</p>
<p>Conemaugh Township 72, Portage Area 43</p>
<p>Conestoga Christian 58, Covenant Christian Academy 24</p>
<p>Conrad Weiser 62, Cocalico 51</p>
<p>Coudersport 98, Port Allegany 42</p>
<p>Crestwood 58, Wyoming Area 43</p>
<p>Curwensville 60, Moshannon Valley 53</p>
<p>Danville 62, Southern Columbia 51</p>
<p>Dobbins 51, Freire Charter 41</p>
<p>East Allegheny 62, Burrell 49</p>
<p>Elk County Catholic 71, Kane Area 26</p>
<p>Ephrata 51, Lebanon 47</p>
<p>Faith Christian Academy 69, Morrisville 22</p>
<p>Fleetwood 72, Hamburg 29</p>
<p>Forest Hills 57, Westmont Hilltop 44</p>
<p>Frazier 60, Carmichaels 57</p>
<p>Gateway, N.J. 49, Freedom 41</p>
<p>Geibel Catholic 76, Mapletown 39</p>
<p>Halifax 47, Selinsgrove 42</p>
<p>Harbor Creek 55, Corry 44</p>
<p>Harmony 52, Northern Cambria 41</p>
<p>Hempfield 51, Conestoga Valley 31</p>
<p>Highlands 72, Kiski Area 36</p>
<p>Holy Ghost Prep 40, Valley Forge Military 28</p>
<p>Homer-Center 59, United 54</p>
<p>Hughesville 45, Lewisburg 43</p>
<p>Huntingdon 80, Altoona 64</p>
<p>Jim Thorpe 46, Lehighton 42</p>
<p>Juniata Valley 73, Claysburg-Kimmel 47</p>
<p>Lampeter-Strasburg 73, Donegal 44</p>
<p>Lancaster Catholic 61, Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt 49</p>
<p>Lancaster Mennonite 51, York Catholic 39</p>
<p>Laurel Highlands 67, Ringgold 40</p>
<p>Lourdes Regional 62, Mahanoy Area 45</p>
<p>Loyalsock 58, Shamokin 52</p>
<p>Manheim Central 55, Solanco 45</p>
<p>Marian Catholic 81, Schuylkill Haven 50</p>
<p>MaST Charter 65, Calvary Baptist 31</p>
<p>Mastbaum 76, Roxborough 62</p>
<p>Masterman 71, Maritime Academy 59</p>
<p>Middletown 81, Milton Hershey 55</p>
<p>Mifflinburg 64, Mount Carmel 43</p>
<p>Millville 36, Meadowbrook Christian 27</p>
<p>Moniteau 51, Venango 41</p>
<p>Montoursville 57, Bloomsburg 37</p>
<p>Mountain Ridge, Md. 77, HOPE for Hyndman 45</p>
<p>Muncy 66, Midd-West 49</p>
<p>Nanticoke Area 69, MMI Prep 48</p>
<p>Neumann 55, Sullivan County 51</p>
<p>Neumann-Goretti 55, LaSalle 47</p>
<p>Norristown 54, Great Valley 35</p>
<p>Northern Lebanon 55, Annville-Cleona 42</p>
<p>Northumberland Christian 61, Benton 31</p>
<p>Otto-Eldred 51, Galeton 39</p>
<p>Palumbo 65, Parkway Center City 44</p>
<p>Panther Valley 67, Pottsville Nativity 57</p>
<p>Parkland 50, Emmaus 49</p>
<p>Paul Robeson 66, Sayre 49</p>
<p>Pennridge 67, Souderton 60</p>
<p>Pequea Valley 80, Lebanon Catholic 61</p>
<p>Philadelphia Academy Charter 54, Philadelphia CAPA 25</p>
<p>Philadelphia George Washington 78, High School of the Future 75</p>
<p>Pocono Mountain West 65, East Stroudsburg South 61</p>
<p>Pottsgrove 79, Pope John Paul II 68</p>
<p>Pottsville 50, Pine Grove 28</p>
<p>Punxsutawney 59, Marion Center 45</p>
<p>Richland 71, Cambria Heights 25</p>
<p>Salem Christian 61, Quakertown Christian 22</p>
<p>Sayre Area 56, Williamson 53</p>
<p>Shade 84, Turkeyfoot Valley 64</p>
<p>Shanksville-Stoneycreek 75, Meyersdale 42</p>
<p>Shikellamy 55, Central Columbia 48</p>
<p>SLA Beeber 84, Elverson 35</p>
<p>Smethport 64, Northern Potter 42</p>
<p>South Park 87, Waynesburg Central 86</p>
<p>South Williamsport 76, Montgomery 31</p>
<p>Southern Fulton 62, Hancock, Md. 37</p>
<p>Southern Huntingdon 74, Forbes Road 60</p>
<p>Spring Grove 63, South Western 51</p>
<p>St. Joseph 56, Trinity Christian 55</p>
<p>St. Joseph's Catholic 57, Philipsburg-Osceola 36</p>
<p>State College 78, Harrisburg 52</p>
<p>Strawberry Mansion 95, Eastern University 91</p>
<p>Susquehannock 69, Littlestown 65</p>
<p>Tamaqua 59, Minersville 41</p>
<p>Troy 68, Canton 34</p>
<p>Tunkhannock 62, Lake-Lehman 31</p>
<p>Twin Valley 52, Schuylkill Valley 35</p>
<p>Tyrone 70, Central Mountain 69</p>
<p>Upper Perkiomen 76, Pottstown 71</p>
<p>Washington 57, Charleroi 37</p>
<p>Weatherly 57, Tri-Valley 43</p>
<p>Williams Valley 55, Shenandoah Valley 42</p>
<p>Windber 61, North Star 55</p>
<p>Abington Heights 59, Honesdale 33</p>
<p>Allderdice 73, Mars 62</p>
<p>Archbishop Carroll 70, St. Joseph's Prep 59</p>
<p>Athens 62, Cowanesque Valley 58, OT</p>
<p>Bangor 57, Saucon Valley 30</p>
<p>Bedford 70, Penn Cambria 67</p>
<p>Bellwood-Antis 65, Williamsburg 58</p>
<p>Berlin-Brothersvalley 90, Salisbury-Elk Lick 26</p>
<p>Bethlehem Catholic 76, East Stroudsburg North 53</p>
<p>Big Spring 68, Susquenita 27</p>
<p>Bishop Carroll 58, Bishop McCort 50</p>
<p>Bishop Guilfoyle 74, Greater Johnstown 67</p>
<p>Blacklick 67, Ferndale 60</p>
<p>Blue Mountain 53, North Schuylkill 51</p>
<p>Bodine 61, Swenson 41</p>
<p>Broadfording Christian Academy, Md. 55, Shalom Christian 37</p>
<p>Cameron County 51, Oswayo 44</p>
<p>Camp Hill 56, West Perry 48, OT</p>
<p>Central Cambria 79, Somerset 51</p>
<p>Central Martinsburg 61, Hollidaysburg 58</p>
<p>Chestnut Ridge 86, McConnellsburg 54</p>
<p>Christopher Dock 44, Plumstead Christian 41</p>
<p>Church Farm School 52, Delco Christian 32</p>
<p>Clearfield 69, Dubois 60, OT</p>
<p>Commodore Perry 47, Cranberry 43</p>
<p>Conemaugh Township 72, Portage Area 43</p>
<p>Conestoga Christian 58, Covenant Christian Academy 24</p>
<p>Conrad Weiser 62, Cocalico 51</p>
<p>Coudersport 98, Port Allegany 42</p>
<p>Crestwood 58, Wyoming Area 43</p>
<p>Curwensville 60, Moshannon Valley 53</p>
<p>Danville 62, Southern Columbia 51</p>
<p>Dobbins 51, Freire Charter 41</p>
<p>East Allegheny 62, Burrell 49</p>
<p>Elk County Catholic 71, Kane Area 26</p>
<p>Ephrata 51, Lebanon 47</p>
<p>Faith Christian Academy 69, Morrisville 22</p>
<p>Fleetwood 72, Hamburg 29</p>
<p>Forest Hills 57, Westmont Hilltop 44</p>
<p>Frazier 60, Carmichaels 57</p>
<p>Gateway, N.J. 49, Freedom 41</p>
<p>Geibel Catholic 76, Mapletown 39</p>
<p>Halifax 47, Selinsgrove 42</p>
<p>Harbor Creek 55, Corry 44</p>
<p>Harmony 52, Northern Cambria 41</p>
<p>Hempfield 51, Conestoga Valley 31</p>
<p>Highlands 72, Kiski Area 36</p>
<p>Holy Ghost Prep 40, Valley Forge Military 28</p>
<p>Homer-Center 59, United 54</p>
<p>Hughesville 45, Lewisburg 43</p>
<p>Huntingdon 80, Altoona 64</p>
<p>Jim Thorpe 46, Lehighton 42</p>
<p>Juniata Valley 73, Claysburg-Kimmel 47</p>
<p>Lampeter-Strasburg 73, Donegal 44</p>
<p>Lancaster Catholic 61, Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt 49</p>
<p>Lancaster Mennonite 51, York Catholic 39</p>
<p>Laurel Highlands 67, Ringgold 40</p>
<p>Lourdes Regional 62, Mahanoy Area 45</p>
<p>Loyalsock 58, Shamokin 52</p>
<p>Manheim Central 55, Solanco 45</p>
<p>Marian Catholic 81, Schuylkill Haven 50</p>
<p>MaST Charter 65, Calvary Baptist 31</p>
<p>Mastbaum 76, Roxborough 62</p>
<p>Masterman 71, Maritime Academy 59</p>
<p>Middletown 81, Milton Hershey 55</p>
<p>Mifflinburg 64, Mount Carmel 43</p>
<p>Millville 36, Meadowbrook Christian 27</p>
<p>Moniteau 51, Venango 41</p>
<p>Montoursville 57, Bloomsburg 37</p>
<p>Mountain Ridge, Md. 77, HOPE for Hyndman 45</p>
<p>Muncy 66, Midd-West 49</p>
<p>Nanticoke Area 69, MMI Prep 48</p>
<p>Neumann 55, Sullivan County 51</p>
<p>Neumann-Goretti 55, LaSalle 47</p>
<p>Norristown 54, Great Valley 35</p>
<p>Northern Lebanon 55, Annville-Cleona 42</p>
<p>Northumberland Christian 61, Benton 31</p>
<p>Otto-Eldred 51, Galeton 39</p>
<p>Palumbo 65, Parkway Center City 44</p>
<p>Panther Valley 67, Pottsville Nativity 57</p>
<p>Parkland 50, Emmaus 49</p>
<p>Paul Robeson 66, Sayre 49</p>
<p>Pennridge 67, Souderton 60</p>
<p>Pequea Valley 80, Lebanon Catholic 61</p>
<p>Philadelphia Academy Charter 54, Philadelphia CAPA 25</p>
<p>Philadelphia George Washington 78, High School of the Future 75</p>
<p>Pocono Mountain West 65, East Stroudsburg South 61</p>
<p>Pottsgrove 79, Pope John Paul II 68</p>
<p>Pottsville 50, Pine Grove 28</p>
<p>Punxsutawney 59, Marion Center 45</p>
<p>Richland 71, Cambria Heights 25</p>
<p>Salem Christian 61, Quakertown Christian 22</p>
<p>Sayre Area 56, Williamson 53</p>
<p>Shade 84, Turkeyfoot Valley 64</p>
<p>Shanksville-Stoneycreek 75, Meyersdale 42</p>
<p>Shikellamy 55, Central Columbia 48</p>
<p>SLA Beeber 84, Elverson 35</p>
<p>Smethport 64, Northern Potter 42</p>
<p>South Park 87, Waynesburg Central 86</p>
<p>South Williamsport 76, Montgomery 31</p>
<p>Southern Fulton 62, Hancock, Md. 37</p>
<p>Southern Huntingdon 74, Forbes Road 60</p>
<p>Spring Grove 63, South Western 51</p>
<p>St. Joseph 56, Trinity Christian 55</p>
<p>St. Joseph's Catholic 57, Philipsburg-Osceola 36</p>
<p>State College 78, Harrisburg 52</p>
<p>Strawberry Mansion 95, Eastern University 91</p>
<p>Susquehannock 69, Littlestown 65</p>
<p>Tamaqua 59, Minersville 41</p>
<p>Troy 68, Canton 34</p>
<p>Tunkhannock 62, Lake-Lehman 31</p>
<p>Twin Valley 52, Schuylkill Valley 35</p>
<p>Tyrone 70, Central Mountain 69</p>
<p>Upper Perkiomen 76, Pottstown 71</p>
<p>Washington 57, Charleroi 37</p>
<p>Weatherly 57, Tri-Valley 43</p>
<p>Williams Valley 55, Shenandoah Valley 42</p>
<p>Windber 61, North Star 55</p> | Monday's Scores | false | https://apnews.com/amp/197bff75493e4e9f9571d5da2b4d2039 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&amp;search_source=search_form&amp;version=llv1&amp;anyorall=all&amp;safesearch=1&amp;searchterm=north+carolina&amp;search_group=#id=94353541&amp;src=1zrjYSXZ-4GDwvnjlOCzkQ-1-6"&gt;LesPalenik&lt;/a&gt;/Shutterstock</p>
<p />
<p>The news might have flown under the national radar, what with all the <a href="" type="internal">motorcycle safety laws that actually deal with abortion</a> and <a href="" type="internal">horrible voter ID bill</a> action that’s been happening in the North Carolina this summer, but the state’s environmental laws were another casualty of this legislative session.</p>
<p>First, the legislature passed a law tossing out all the members of the state’s Environmental Management Commission and nearly all of the members of the Coastal Resources Commission (which was better than the original law, which would have <a href="" type="internal">fired a bunch of other people as well</a>). And before wrapping up last week, the legislature also approved a one-year moratorium on localities passing their own environmental rules. That bill is now sitting on Republican Gov. Pat McCrory’s desk awaiting approval.</p>
<p>The Charlotte Observer has a <a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/07/30/4202194/legislature-targets-environmental.html" type="external">wrap up</a> of all the environmental malfeasance that went down in this legislative session. Among other things, one bill that’s still awaiting McCrory’s signature “prohibits local governments, for a year, from passing environmental rules that state or federal governments also address.” That could be a big problem, the Observer reports:</p>
<p>But Robin Smith, a former assistant N.C. secretary of the environment who writes an environmental law blog, said restricting local rules could backfire. State rules often require that local ordinances be adopted, she said, and local conditions sometimes demand local rules.</p>
<p>“It is difficult to predict how big a problem the moratorium would be given the very different circumstances in cities and counties across the state, but it seems an unnecessary gamble,” she wrote last week.</p>
<p>Dan Crawford, director of governmental relations for the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, tells Mother Jones that they’re now lobbying hard to get McCrory to veto the bill. “Federal guidelines are meant to be a floor, not a ceiling,” he said.</p>
<p>Crawford said this was the worst he’s seen in 15 years of lobbying on environmental issues. “I can’t think of a time where it’s been any worse,” he said. “We were in the bull’s eye.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | North Carolina Legislators Also Did a Lot of Environmental Damage This Year | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/north-carolina-legislature-environmental-laws/ | 2013-07-31 | 4 |
<p>The progressive Democrats in Congress have had just about enough of all this bipartisanship, especially if it means scrapping a public health care plan. Rahm Emanuel recanted his hint of compromise to a room full of hopping-mad House liberals Tuesday night.</p>
<p>Roll Call:</p>
<p>White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel reassured House Democrats on Tuesday night that President Barack Obama strongly backs a government-run health insurance plan, seeking to quell a firestorm among liberals upset at Emanuel’s comments in the Wall Street Journal that suggested such a plan could be delayed.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rollcall.com/news/36564-1.html" type="external">Read more</a></p>
<p />
<p>Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made it clear losing a public option was a deal-breaker for 10 to 15 Senate Democrats.</p>
<p>Roll Call:</p>
<p>Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday strongly urged Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to drop a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill.</p>
<p>[…] According to Democratic sources, Reid told Baucus that taxing health benefits and failing to include a strong government-run insurance option of some sort in his bill would cost 10 to 15 Democratic votes; Reid told Baucus that several in the Conference had serious concerns and that it wasn’t worth securing the support of Grassley and at best a few additional Republicans.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rollcall.com/issues/55_3/news/36562-1.html" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Progressives Flex Health Care Muscle | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/progressives-flex-health-care-muscle/ | 2009-07-08 | 4 |
<p>It's been approximately six months since Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) resigned in disgrace from her position as Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).</p>
<p>With a bevy of endorsements from the likes of Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim elected to the House of Representatives, is considered the front-runner to replace Wasserman-Schultz at the DNC.</p>
<p>Ellison, however, has a problematic background--to borrow progressive parlance.</p>
<p>While Ellison attended the University of Minnesota, he was an outspoken defender of Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam leader, and vocal anti-Semite. According to <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/02/keith-ellison-democratic-national-committee-chair" type="external">Mother Jones</a>:</p>
<p>Ellison, who had taken to calling himself 'Keith Hakim,' published a series of op-eds in the student paper, the Minnesota Daily, defending the Nation of Islam leader. The center also invited Kwame Ture, the black-power activist formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, to give a speech, during which he called Zionism a form of white supremacy. Ellison, then a member of the Black Law Student Association, introduced him.</p>
<p>Despite Ellison claiming he was never a member of the Nation of Islam, and that he began to realize the error of following Farrakhan in 1995, Mother Jones reports that "[Ellison's] break from Farrakhan was not quite as clean as he portrayed it."</p>
<p>Under the byline Keith X Ellison, months after the march that he described as an epiphany, he penned an op-ed in the Twin Cities black weekly Insight News, pushing back against charges of anti-Semitism directed at Farrakhan. In 1997, nearly two years later, he endorsed a statement again defending Farrakhan.</p>
<p>When Ellison ran (unsuccessfully) for state representative in 1998, Insight News described him as affiliated with the Nation of Islam. Two organizers who worked with him at the time told me they believed Ellison had been a member of the Nation. At community meetings, he was even known to show up in a bow tie, accompanied by dark-suited members of the Fruit of Islam, the Nation's security wing.</p>
<p>It wasn't until 2006 that Ellison fully denounced Farrakhan, and the Nation of Islam leader's anti-Semitism.</p>
<p>However, at a 2010 fundraiser, Ellison gave a <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/5713/full-audio-of-keith-ellison-remarks-at-esam" type="external">speech</a> filled with anti-Israel sentiment, and anti-Semitic undertones:</p>
<p>"The United States foreign policy in the Middle East is governed by what is good or bad through a country of 7 million people...A region of 350 million all turns on a country of 7 million. Does that make sense? Is that logic? Right? When the Americans who trace their roots back to those 350 million get involved, everything changes. Can I say that again?"</p>
<p>The Anti-Defamation League issued a <a href="http://www.jta.org/2016/12/01/news-opinion/politics/in-6-year-old-speech-ellison-says-u-s-policy-is-governed-by-israeli-interests" type="external">statement</a> regarding Ellison's speech that reads in part:</p>
<p>"...whether intentional or not, his words raise the specter of age-old stereotypes about Jewish control of our government, a poisonous myth that may persist in parts of the world where intolerance thrives, but that has no place in open societies like the U.S."</p>
<p>Now that he's running for DNC Chair, his past is coming back to bite him. In a peculiar twist of events, Ellison just received an endorsement from white supremacist, David Duke:</p>
<p>Duke's somewhat facetious endorsement underscores something troubling. David Duke sees Keith Ellison as someone who understands his worldview. The tweet most likely refers to Ellison's alleged anti-Semitism.</p>
<p>Perhaps more interesting is the lack of response to Duke's tweet from Ellison, or other high-profile Democrats. When Duke endorsed Donald Trump, and Trump refused to immediately condemn the endorsement on CNN, he was rightly excoriated. The calls to denounce Duke were fervent.</p>
<p>Ellison himself tweeted about David Duke's affinity for Donald Trump last July:</p>
<p>Where are the calls for Keith Ellison to denounce David Duke's endorsement? Why isn't Duke's endorsement trending on social media, or being featured on CNN? Why hasn't Ellison denounced Duke on Twitter?</p>
<p>Multiple calls to Ellison's DNC campaign office went unanswered.</p> | Guess Who Just Endorsed Keith Ellison for DNC Chair? The Media Will Never Tell You. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/13436/guess-who-just-endorsed-keith-ellison-dnc-chair-frank-camp | 2017-02-13 | 0 |
<p>On Monday, 70 year-old liberal nutbag Cher spoke at an exclusive Hollywood fundraiser for Hillary Clinton held at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. Cher continued her insane all-caps tweeting but this time cut out the middle-man and just used a live mic.</p>
<p>The event, "She's With Us," included other left-leaning stars like John Legend, Ricky Martin, and Stevie Wonder but it was Cher that won the award for most outrageous loon of the night.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7393717/cher-hillary-clinton-shes-with-us-concert" type="external">Billboard</a>, the Oscar-winning actress told the crowd, "When I see Trump talking, I just want to blow my brains out, well maybe not my brains but I'm just like 'What are you talking about, Jesus!' I know that Hillary fights for equality for all people and we are no good unless all of us are equal."</p>
<p>Cher went on to gush over her love for Clinton and how they met:</p>
<p>As you might have heard, last month I turned 100 years old ... Ok, I turned 70 but it's the same s***. I've been alive through 11 presidents and when I was young, I didn't even know if was possible for a women to be president of the United States. I want to tell you that when Clinton ran for Senate, they asked me if I wanted to spend some time with her at a tea party gathering where she would talk to women. I was so interested in what she had to say, she was so different.</p>
<p>After about the third conversation with these groups of women I told her, "you're so nice and funny and so great, why are you not like this all the time? I love you, you can hang with me."</p>
<p>Cher added, "I've known her for a long time now and I have to say that no matter which way the political winds have blown at any moment, her moral compass has always pointed towards grace, justice for genders, and justice for sexual orientation, which is big for me. All of those things are important to me."</p>
<p>Click below for Cher's tweet of two lovebirds at the event. (Warning: will induce vomiting)...</p>
<p>WILL REMEMBER THIS 4EVER‼️Hill came off stage,We hugged, Hill “My Oscar Winner”‼️ Me “MY PRESIDENT”‼️ WE HIGH 10′D‼️ <a href="https://t.co/MIqEdaoQJ7" type="external">pic.twitter.com/MIqEdaoQJ7</a></p>
<p>And now that Hillary has won the California primary, Cher is back to her all-caps life of crazy that comes from living in a liberal bubble fueled by a lifetime of fame and a 300+ million dollar fortune...</p>
<p>Watching Hill &amp; Tears are in my eyesI’m So proud of this Moment‼️Im SO Proud Of Her…. SAY WHAT YOU WILL… THE CHICK’S A WARRIOR</p>
<p>Understand Ppl r Sad,Angry Disappointed,ConfusedIm Under No Illusion That Hill Is Perfect,But She’s Smart &amp;I Trust She’ll Grow,&amp; Listen W/</p>
<p>Exit thought from past-Cher to current-Cher...</p>
<p /> | Cher: Trump Makes Me Want To ‘Blow My Brains Out’ | true | https://dailywire.com/news/6429/cher-trump-makes-me-want-blow-my-brains-out-chase-stephens | 2016-06-08 | 0 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />California’s minimum wage workers will receive a 62.5 percent raise over three years if <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/15-16/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sb_3_bill_20150311_amended_sen_v98.htm" type="external">Senate Bill 3</a> is approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. The <a href="http://sir.senate.ca.gov/" type="external">Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee</a> recently passed the bill on a 4-1 party line vote.</p>
<p>It was only a year and a half ago that <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/asm/ab_0001-0050/ab_10_bill_20130925_chaptered.htm" type="external">Assembly Bill 10</a> was signed into law. It raised California’s minimum wage from $8 an hour to $9 in July 2014 with another increase to $10 scheduled to take effect in January 2016.</p>
<p>SB3 would supersede that bill, increasing the minimum wage from the current $9 to $11 in January 2016 with another $2 bump to $13 in July 2017. Thereafter the minimum wage would increase with inflation.</p>
<p>The bill’s author, <a href="http://sd11.senate.ca.gov/" type="external">Sen. Mark Leno</a>, D-San Francisco, and its supporters spent more than an hour telling the committee that the wage hike is needed to lift California’s minimum wage workers out of poverty. They assured that doing so would not hurt businesses and would benefit California’s economy and the state budget.</p>
<p />
<p>State Sen. Mark Leno</p>
<p />
<p>“Wages are growing at the very slowest rate relative to corporate profits in the history of our country,” said Leno. “The median wage has been stagnant over the last 30 years. Sixty-five percent of workers are working paycheck to paycheck. Millions of Californians impacted by our minimum wage are living in poverty, and will continue to live in poverty even when we get to our incremental success under AB10 to $10 an hour next year.</p>
<p>“And they all by definition qualify for public assistance. That means that the taxpayer is subsidizing the private employer’s responsibility for his or her workers’ basic human needs: housing, food and medical care.”</p>
<p>A $13 minimum wage equates to about $26,000 per year, he said, which is above the federal poverty level of $24,250 for a family of four.</p>
<p>Leno argued that businesses will benefit from increased consumer spending. “When workers have more dollars in their pockets to spend on their daily needs, there’s an increase in demand for goods and services,” he said. “That’s when employers have to hire more employees to meet that demand. And that’s what economists call a virtuous upwards cycle.</p>
<p>“Currently, though, we’re in a stagnation, if not a vicious cycle downward, where we’ve put such constraints on the middle class that it’s shrinking and shrinking, putting more people into poverty.”</p>
<p>Higher wages will also benefit businesses by reducing turnover, attracting higher-skilled workers and increasing employee satisfaction, which leads to better customer service, said Leno.</p>
<p>California’s experience with raising the minimum wage last July has shown that it doesn’t hurt employment, he said. The state’s unemployment rate, which was 7.4 percent in July 2014 when the minimum wage increased $1, dropped to 6.5 percent in March.</p>
<p>“I’m not stating that there’s causation here,” said Leno. “But there is minimally correlation and proof positive this is not a job killer bill. These numbers become even more impressive when considering them on a national scale. California jobs added in January accounted for 28 percent, almost a third of all jobs created in the United States of America were created here in California – though we represent only 12 percent of the population and we just increased our minimum wage.”</p>
<p>The bill’s coauthor, <a href="http://sd20.senate.ca.gov/" type="external">Sen. Connie Leyva</a>, D-Chino, who said she has spent the last 20 years in the labor movement, said the minimum wage hike is needed to reduce income inequality.</p>
<p>“Right now the income gap is enormous,” she said. “It’s the biggest it’s ever been. CEO pay is at an all-time high while workers are falling further and further behind. And while we certainly respect our CEOs and we love to see companies do well and be successful, sometimes they forget that the people who show up and do the work day in and day out are the ones that are making them successful and are the ones that are making them the profits that they have.”</p>
<p>Teenagers no longer make up most of the minimum wage workforce, she said. Today 88 percent are 20 years or older and 55 percent are women. And most are part-time, averaging 28 hours a week.</p>
<p>“You don’t even have enough money for your rent, let alone eat, pay your utilities and drive your car to work,” said Leyva. “We really can’t have it both ways. We can’t keep people working in poverty and then be unhappy that they are using the social safety net. So either we make sure people can earn a living and support themselves and their families, or we’re going to continue to put more money into the social safety net.”</p>
<p>UC Berkeley economics professor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Reich" type="external">Michael Reich</a>&#160;told the committee that more than a third of all California workers will get a pay raise under SB3, but businesses will be able to absorb the increased labor costs.</p>
<p>“We find that the most affected industries are going to be restaurants, hotel and retail,” he said. “And that businesses will mainly adjust to these increases by reducing turnover costs. Workers won’t quit as often, they’ll stay longer, they’ll be more productive. This will save employees recruitment and retention costs, which would themselves absorb the savings of about 15 percent of the increased payroll.</p>
<p>“The rest of the cost that businesses face will be primarily absorbed, we think, through price increases, small price increases, about half of 1 percent overall, based on our Los Angeles study.”</p>
<p>Although higher prices tend to result in decreased spending, that will be offset by the increased dollars in workers’ wallets. The net effect, based on preliminary calculations, is that California’s gross domestic product would increase by about one-tenth of 1 percent, said Reich.</p>
<p>Similarly, although the state budget will take a $2 billion hit over two years due to paying higher wages for social service workers, that will be more than offset by reduced state Medi-Cal payments, he said. The health care costs for those workers would instead be borne by the federal government’s Medicaid coverage through the Affordable Care Act. And the federal costs will be offset by reduced food stamp payments.</p>
<p>“So when you add up the increased cost of the salaries, the lower expenses for Medi-Cal and increase in income and sales tax revenue … then the state budget would realize net gains of about $2.1 billion in 2016 and 17 under SB3,” said Reich. “When I mentioned this at a private meeting with Gov. Brown he said, yeah, he’d like a free billion dollars too.</p>
<p>“So in summary, the minimum wage will help people whose standard of living has been declining and can’t meet expenses on their own. It will have modest effects on businesses, which I think will be absorbed mainly through turnover reductions and through increased prices. It will have a very small effect on the California economy, certainly not a negative effect. It won’t harm the economy. And it will have very large positive effects on the state’s budget.”</p>
<p>But the lone Republican on the committee, <a href="http://district28.cssrc.us/" type="external">Sen. Jeff Stone</a>, R-Temecula, does not believe it. He cited the <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/publication/44995" type="external">Congressional Budget Office’s estimate</a> that raising the federal minimum wage by nearly $3 would cost 500,000 jobs. Despite that, Stone supports raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 because it would be applied equally throughout the country.</p>
<p />
<p>State Sen. Jeff Stone</p>
<p />
<p>But California’s $13 minimum wage would “further make us more business unfriendly,” he said. “We rank at the bottom of the list. According to <a href="http://chiefexecutive.net/best-worst-states-for-business-2014#ranking" type="external">Chief Executive’s annual report of CEOs</a>, California is dead last. This certainly is not going to create an asset for business.</p>
<p>“I appreciate the data that you’ve given about the increase in employment numbers. But one thing those numbers don’t reflect is that there have been thousands of people that have already left the state. There are businesses in droves that have already left the state, have gone to Texas, South Carolina, Nevada, Arizona. They’re gone. There are people that are stuck here in the state of California because they may not be able to afford to leave the state and are jumping at any opportunity to have a job.”</p>
<p>Stone said that the best way to lift people out of poverty is to provide them with the education to get better jobs. “I believe that by increasing the minimum wage – and this is where we’ll just agree to disagree – is that we’re going to be hurting those that we most prolifically want to help,” he said.</p>
<p>He warned that raising the minimum wage could be the straw that breaks the back of California businesses on top of expenses such as sick leave, taxes, worker’s compensation, Obamacare and unemployment insurance.</p>
<p>“If you combine all of this and now you have this higher minimum wage, I personally believe that we are pushing the state to a threshold of a catastrophe,” Stone said. “We have governors from other states now that have already grabbed the low-hanging fruit. Those are the large businesses that are leaving; businesses like Toyota, businesses like Sherwin Williams Paints. They are taking thousands of jobs with them. And now they are coming in and going after the small business man and taking the small businesses out of state.</p>
<p>“And with FedEx and UPS, people can ship with Amazon.com, you don’t have to have a brick-and-mortar facility to have these jobs in the state any more. And we cannot rely on the beautiful climate and the beautiful mountains and our beautiful oceans to keep people here. People have to eat, people want to have opportunities.</p>
<p>“And there is going to come a time – and I don’t want to see it happen – that we are just going to basically price ourselves out of business in the state of California and become nothing more than a welfare state. I believe we can do better.”</p>
<p>Stone was backed by several business representatives, including Jon Ross, representing the <a href="http://www.calrest.org/" type="external">California Restaurant Association</a>. He said that no study has analyzed the business impact of a nearly 63 percent minimum wage hike over three years.</p>
<p>“There is no model out there of actual experience that will tell you what the impacts will be,” said Ross. “And to us, that’s a heck of an experiment. Trying to impose that kind of a cost impact on a restaurant model where two-thirds of your costs are labor costs, to see those go up by 63 percent over that short period of time is daunting.</p>
<p>“The assumption is that this will be borne by price increases. But our operators, especially the small ones who are local, know that they can’t raise prices at that rate that fast. Small increases over time is the way prior minimum wage increases have been dealt with. But those have been increases in the 25, 50 cent range, and the biggest one ever in 2010 going up $2 over an 18-month period.</p>
<p>“So what is being suggested here is fundamentally different than anything that has been tried in this state before or tried anywhere else. And our guys are very, very daunted by the challenge that this would pose.”</p>
<p>Ross said that the reason teenagers are no longer predominant in minimum wage jobs is that they have been priced out of entry level employment. Six of the top 10 areas in the country with the highest rates of teen underemployment are in California, he said.</p>
<p>The concern about minimum wage workers living in poverty may be overstated, he said, when considering those who are receiving tips, which can raise their pay on average to $20-$25 an hour.</p>
<p>“One of the things that’s sort of crude about the minimum wage as applied in the typical restaurant environment is that it doesn’t take account of those disparities in the house [between tipped and non-tipped employees],” he said.</p>
<p>SB3 is scheduled to be considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee on April 20.</p> | State senate committee approves minimum wage hike | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2015/04/21/state-senate-committee-approves-minimum-wage-hike/ | 2018-04-20 | 3 |
<p />
<p>What: Shares of On Deck Capital are plunging, falling by more than 34% as of 11:30 a.m. ET.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>So what: The online loan marketplace posted an earnings loss of $0.13 per share in the first quarter, missing analyst expectations that it would lose only $0.07 per share.</p>
<p>Revenue came in about 11% lighter than analysts were anticipating. Shares of LendingClub seem to be taking a sympathy fall, declining about 11% on the day.</p>
<p>The company shocked investors with a shift in its plans. On the post-earnings conference call, the company announced that it would push only 15% to 25% of its term loan originations into its marketplace compared to previous guidance that 35% to 45% of loan originations would be sold in its marketplace.</p>
<p>On Deck also reduced origination growth expectations to 30% to 35% for the full year 2016 vs. previous guidance of 45% to 50% origination growth.</p>
<p>Now what:On Deck Capital generally pitched lighter origination volumes as a result of prudence, suggesting that it was seeking higher-quality borrowers. For what it's worth, its provisions reflect this reality, as the company set aside 5.8% of originations for losses compared to 7.2% in the same quarter last year. But the market doesn't seem all that happy with pared-down growth expectations, even if it means that On Deck is lending to better borrowers.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/03/why-shares-of-on-deck-capital-are-plunging-today.aspx" type="external">Why Shares of On Deck Capital Are Plunging Today Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
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<p><a href="//videos/37/60629" type="external" /></p>
<p>RUSH: The Scott Walker story, you know, I finally got to the bottom of this and I’m going to spend much more time on this later on. There’s a headline in the Washington Post. This is really — again, I’m out of adjectives. Well, it’s worse than a smear. It is a smear, but I’m out of adjectives to describe what’s going on.</p>
<p>“Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Suspected of Coordinating with Outside Groups.” He has been found not guilty of it! The case is over. Two judges have thrown the case out twice. There was never anything to the allegations. Nothing. Everything about the original subpoenas were thrown out. They were illegal. They were in violation of constitutional rights and the people who receive the subpoenas. I’ll explain all this in detail in a minute. I didn’t mean to get into this now, but it fits.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-suspected-of-coordinating-with-outside-groups/2014/06/19/1c176676-f7ea-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html" type="external" />The point is, there is no case. There was no illegal outside coordinating on behalf of Scott Walker. He has been found not guilty twice. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-suspected-of-coordinating-with-outside-groups/2014/06/19/1c176676-f7ea-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html" type="external">The Washington Post headline</a> today: “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Suspected of Coordinating with Outside Groups.” The readers of the Washington Post think that the investigation is just getting started and that Walker is going to be found guilty. It’s worse than a smear. It’s journalistic malpractice and it’s not just the Washington Post. There is no story here. It’s over.</p>
<p>Walker once again has been found not guilty. There never was anything to these allegations in the first place. This is just an out and out lie. This is the depths to which the left has sunk and is sinking. Even with that, when you learn this and are able to tell people and spell out exactly how the left is lying, smearing, or making things up, destroying conservatives — literally on the warpath to destroy — even when you can tell people, it doesn’t provide any satisfaction. I don’t get any satisfaction in illustrating for you how the Washington Post is lying. For the people that read it, it isn’t going to matter.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/20/us/scott-walker-wisconsin-governor.html?hp&amp;_r=2" type="external" />The people that read it are going to think Walker is still guilty and the investigation is just beginning. The left is out to get him and they’re gonna get him. And even if they don’t, what’s going to happen is that the low-information crowd on the left is going to come away from all of this thinking Scott Walker is the closest thing to a Mafioso running Wisconsin. That is the point they’re trying to make. He has been exonerated by judges in Wisconsin. The case was so flimsy, not even the lib judges wanted to join it. And yet it’s in the Washington Post.</p>
<p>“Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Suspected of Coordinating –” The story was sent to me by somebody who didn’t know what the truth was. This person read the story for what it is and said, “Man, this is slim. There’s nothing really here, but it shows their desperation.” So this is how it works. If you don’t know the truth about this, you’re gonna think that there might be something there. It’s slim, it’s little, or he’s guilty as hell depending on your inclination.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: Okay, I will give you the details of the Scott Walker case immediately coming up after the next break. But here are the bullet points. Liberal prosecutors went after Scott Walker for being tied illegally to outside conservative groups in one of his recall fights. Judges in Wisconsin threw out the prosecutor’s subpoenas. The judge kicked them out of court for their bogus case. The case was never legitimate. The case is over. The prosecutors tried twice. It has been thrown out two different times.</p>
<p>There is nothing there. The story is how a bunch of partisan Democrat prosecutors tried to smear — not just smear. They tried to criminalize Scott Walker and their attempt was thrown out of court. And yet the Washington Post: “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Suspected of Coordinating with Outside Groups.” Front page allegation. The AP and Politico both had similar stories yesterday, even though everybody knows there is no story and there is no case. The Democrats lost it.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: Here is everything you need to know about the Scott Walker case within the confines of the case. I want to preface this by pointing out that he is target number one, and he’s earned it. He has turned a blue state — I don’t know if he’s turned it yet, but it’s not blue anymore. Wisconsin, folks, this is not quite, but this is pretty close to something like this happening in California or parts of California.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />This is momentous what Scott Walker has done and he has done it with Reagan conservatism. He has revived the state, beat back the unions, beat back the Democrats on four different occasions in court and at the ballot box. He has produced a budget surplus. He has created tax rebates and refunds. The Democrats cannot let this stand. If the Republicans ever woke up, got some confidence, they would look at Scott Walker in Wisconsin and realize they have a blueprint on how to react and deal with everything Obama has done nationally.</p>
<p>It really is profound. It’s great and it is magnificent. It’s wonderful. It’s stunning. That’s why they’re trying everything they can to impugn, to criminalize, to destroy Scott Walker. He stands as the antidote. He stands an example of what can be, that this country can be what it once was and it’s obvious that the Democrat Party has no desire for this country to ever be prosperous when that prosperity and abundance is created by average men and women in this country. The Democrat Party, it is now clear, cannot abide prosperity and abundance that results from the hard work of the American people.</p>
<p>The Democrat Party is now insisting and mandating that the appearance of prosperity be associated with only one thing. Their president and their party and their policies. The truth of the matter is, their president and their party and their policies are on the way to fundamentally transforming this country into being something it was never intended to be, something it never has been and in practical terms will destroy it. It will destroy the engine that creates opportunity for prosperity for millions and millions of Americans. That’s what they can’t abide.</p>
<p>If a bunch of low-information Americans figure out that their route to abundance and prosperity lies within themselves, then the Democrat Party is cooked. So the Democrat Party needs as many people as possible thinking that they’re victims of this unfair country and that they don’t have a chance for prosperity or happiness or abundance ever. Those days were not real. Those days were a fad. Those days were foe, if you will. They were artificial. The real America is what we’re on the way to being now, where there is hardship and victimization and discrimination and misery everywhere that only the government can address.</p>
<p>Their intention is for as many Americans as possible to think and believe that their lives are hopeless if left to themselves. The only way anybody will ever accomplish anything is through government. After all, that’s where the Democrats derive their power. Scott Walker, Ronaldus Magnus, any number of Conservatives, the 80’s demonstrate the falsity of the Democrat book. And so Scott Walker has to be taken out.</p>
<p>I want to start this by once again sharing the opening lead of the Washington Post story. No comment on this anymore. I’m going to go straight from this to the truth. Headline: “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Suspected of Coordinating with Outside Groups –Wisconsin prosecutors have alleged that Gov. Scott Walker was part of a wide-ranging ‘criminal scheme’ to coordinate the activities of conservative groups that spent millions to help him and other Republicans fend off recall efforts, according to documents released Thursday. Walker has not been charged, and his legal jeopardy was unclear. The documents stem from a multi-county investigation blocked last month by a federal judge, a decision currently on appeal.” Except it isn’t. So the headline, “Suspected of Coordinating” the story, criminal schemes, Scott Walker part of it, but he hasn’t been charged.</p>
<p>Now, I turn to Gabriel Malor at <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2014/06/20/a-basic-primer-on-the-scott-walker-case-for-ignorant-reporters/" type="external">The Federalist</a>. “A Basic Primer On The Scott Walker Case For Ignorant Reporters — This is a true story: in 2012, Democratic district attorneys in Wisconsin launched a secret probe known as a John Doe investigation with the goal of proving that conservative groups illegally coordinated activities during Gov. Scott WalkerÂ’s recall election. They issued more than 100 subpoenas, demanded the private information of conservatives and conservative groups, and actually conducted secret raids. And under state law, individuals who were targeted or witness to the investigation were forbidden from making knowledge of it public.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thelimbaughletter.com/thelimbaughletter/march_2014" type="external" />So the targets and the witnesses had to shut up when all this fraud was going on. “Fortunately,” and it really is fortunately, given Wisconsin, “judges saw right through this partisan abuse of power. Early this year, a state judge, ruling in a secret proceeding, quashed the subpoenas and all but ended the investigation. According to the judge, ‘the subpoenas do not show probable cause that the moving parties committed any violations of the campaign finance laws.'”</p>
<p>The subpoenas had nothing!</p>
<p>“This started the unraveling of the John Doe investigation that had many conservatives fearing they would be targeted for subpoenas and raids next. In February, a conservative activist and group filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the partisan district attorneys who had pursued the John Doe probe. In short order, a federal district court judge held that the plaintiffs ‘are likely to succeed on their claim that the defendants‘ investigation violates their rights under the First Amendment, such that the investigation was commenced and conducted — without a reasonable expectation of obtaining a valid conviction.'” The judge said this case never had a prayer. The Republican groups, conservative groups, are likely to succeed.</p>
<p>“In other words, at this early stage of the civil rights litigation, it looks to the judge as if the Democratic district attorneys abused their power and chilled conservativesÂ’ free speech rights. Accordingly, the federal judge ordered that the John Doe probe must cease, all the seized property be returned, and all copies of materials be destroyed. After a short trip to a federal appeals court, the federal judge reissued his order,” because the Democrat prosecutors lost on appeal.</p>
<p>“Most recently, that appeals court has ordered some of the previously secret probe documents disclosed to the public, including an unsuccessful defense that the John Doe investigators made to one of their secret subpoenas. In their attempt to get a subpoena, which was rejected by a judge for lacking probable cause, the partisan investigators claimed that Walker was involved in the so-called conservative conspiracy.</p>
<p>“And that is where the litigation stands as of today. Having launched a secret probe that has now been shut down by both the state and federal courts, the Democratic district attorneys find themselves the subject of an ongoing civil rights lawsuit for infringing the First Amendment rights of conservatives. But that is not how the media have reported the case.”</p>
<p>The media: “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Suspected of Coordinating with Outside Groups.” The Washington Post knows that’s BS. The truth is that there’s now a countersuit against the Democrat DA’s. Civil Rights lawsuit for infringing First Amendment rights of their targets. That’s the real case that’s underway now.</p>
<p>“Upon the unsealing of some of the probe documents by the federal appeals court, the media worked itself into a frenzy claiming that Walker was part of a criminal conspiracy. The media claim was based entirely on the subpoena document that was denied by the state judge as failing utterly to demonstrate probable cause to believe a crime occurred. In short: the judge, looking at all the evidence, found no reason to believe that a crime had occurred. That has not stopped the media from falsely implying otherwise.</p>
<p>“This is largely accomplished by playing with verb tense. For example, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel kicked off this infuriating libel with a piece that claimed, ‘John Doe prosecutors allege Scott Walker at center of “criminal scheme.”‘ The more accurate word, of course, would have been ‘alleged,’ past-tense with the addition of the words ‘in denied subpoena request’ or perhaps ‘in failed partisan investigation’ or even ‘in politically-motivated secret investigation rejected by the state and federal courts.'”</p>
<p>Instead, all the headlines are what I shared with you from the Washington Post: “Walker Suspected of Coordinating with Outside Groups.” Not alleged. There’s no news anymore, folks. There is just the Democrat Party and its agenda being advanced by people we’re told are journalists. And here <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/20/us/scott-walker-wisconsin-governor.html?hp&amp;_r=1" type="external">Mr. Malor quotes the New York Times</a>: “The New York Times, trumpeting the story on todayÂ’s front page, also uses the present tense to give the wrong impression. The piece begins ‘Prosecutors in Wisconsin assert that Gov. Scott Walker was part of an elaborate effort to illegally coordinate fund-raising and spending.’ Again, the true story is that this took place last year and was ended by the courts.”</p>
<p>It’s an old story and it’s gone and the Democrats got kicked. “YouÂ’d have to read all the way down to the tenth paragraph to learn that the subpoenas werenÂ’t granted because there was no probable cause to believe that a crime had occurred. Oddly, the Times piece muses on the electoral consequences for Walker in the third paragraph.”</p>
<p>Will this story that we’re lying to you about harm him in his reelection campaign or his future electoral opportunities?</p>
<p>“The media obsession with Walker is no coincidence. Liberals are still stinging from their failure to recall him in 2012 after he successfully curtailed union abuses. And they sense that he could be a formidable contender for the White House in 2016. That the John Doe probe simultaneously harms him, suggests widespread wrongdoing by conservatives, and raises the campaign finance bugaboo makes this story the almost-perfect storm. The inconvenient fact that the investigation was cooked up for partisan purposes, has now ceased, and has impelled a federal civil rights lawsuit will go unmentioned in the papers.”</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: Now let me illustrate beyond the New York Times with a Drive-By Media montage on the Scott Walker story. We have Devin Dwyer of ABC, Kate Bolduan of CNN, John King of CNN, Gwen Ifill of PBS, Peter Slen of C-SPAN, and Charlie Rose on CBS, all talking about allegations of illegal campaign fund-raising against Scott Walker.</p>
<p>DWYER: A potential Republican presidential candidate is accused of taking part in an illegal fund-raising scheme!</p>
<p>BOLDUAN: (b-roll noise) Prosecutors in Wisconsin say Governor Scott Walker took part in a criminal scheme!</p>
<p>KING: …directly accusing Governor Scott Walker of being part of a criminal scheme!</p>
<p>IFILL: Prosecutors have accused Republican Governor Scott Walker of illegal fund-raising.</p>
<p>SLEN: Prosecutors have alleged that Governor Scott Walker was part of a wide ranging “criminal scheme.”</p>
<p>ROSE: Prosecutors accuse him of playing a central role in illegal fundraising.</p>
<p>RUSH: Every one of them is doddering fool, and that’s cutting them some slack. The alternative is they’re all lying and they’re doing it anyway. In this case, I’m goes to choose to believe that they’re just happily, willfully ignorant and believe as gospel anything they read in the New York Times, because that’s pretty much verbatim what they all said: “Accused of taking part in illegal fundraising.”</p>
<p>Yeah, he was, and it was a false accusation. It was a bogus accusation that was thrown out in two courts. The subpoenas never even got passed the judge and out of the court. They were considered worthless. I mean, this is… It’s clear what’s going on here. You see, it doesn’t matter that the Democrat prosecutors’ case was nothing, and it doesn’t matter that the Democrat prosecutors’ case was thrown out.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter that the Democrat prosecutors lost.</p>
<p>All that matters is they tried to get Scott Walker, which permits their willing accomplices in the media to report that Walker was targeted because he might have been involved in illegal campaign schemes. That’s how something that has been proven false twice ends up in the Drive-By Media as an ongoing story that “could end up with Walker being found guilty,” even though that is not even possible.</p>
<p>So, you see, it doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>It’s all image PR and buzz. The reality? A distant destination that is of no concern.</p>
<p>All that matters is they tried to get Walker and the media says, “Ah-ha! Walker might be guilty,” blah blah blah blah. See how this works?</p> | The Disgusting Scott Walker Smear | true | http://rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/06/20/the_disgusting_scott_walker_smear | 2014-06-20 | 0 |
<p>Investors are maintaining their affinity for Treasury inflation-protected securities, or TIPS, betting that inflation will continue inching higher. Investors will typically look at TIPS ahead of an inflationary period since buying TIPS after inflation has gone up means that the security has already priced in the inflation and investors would likely be overpaying for the… <a href="http://www.etftrends.com/2017/01/bond-etf-investors-still-like-tips/" type="external">Click to read more at ETFtrends.com. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Bond ETF Investors Still Like TIPS | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/20/bond-etf-investors-still-like-tips.html | 2017-01-20 | 0 |
<p>You might be surprised to hear that Queen of Daytime television and reigning media mogul Oprah Winfrey is selling her stuff. Today, it was verified that Oprah Winfrey is selling the “furniture, artwork, household items and clothing that once filled her Chicago home,” as <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/04/24/oprah-winfrey-household-items-chicago-auction/26311201/" type="external">USA Today</a> puts it.</p>
<p>Guess it’s time for a little Spring Cleaning for the Daytime diva, who has her own OWN network on television and magazine to boot. With more than 500 items with items listed as high as $120,000, Oprah is gearing up to have her things sold on the auction block this Saturday.</p>
<p>Designer shoes, a hand-painted porcelain soup tureen, you name it, Oprah’s got it. And who wouldn’t want a piece of the most famous talk show hosts’ beloved household items? On top of the fact that her items are going for sale, proceeds will benefit the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation.</p>
<p>The auction comes after the announcement that Winfrey will be closing her Harpo Studios in Chicago, the location of her famed The Oprah Winfrey Show. She is currently in transition, changing production locations to her cable network to a studio in California.</p>
<p>At the bottom end of the estimate, the number $800,000 has come about as a projected value of all the items in total. Colleen Gleason, director of estates and appraisals, involved in the sale, has said that “there’s no upper limit on the bidding.” A fair chunk of dough for the media mogul to contribute to her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation.</p>
<p>The auction is sure to be an exciting event and it will be also exciting to see whom the Foundation benefits as a side reaction to the cause.</p>
<p>With the bidding farewell to Harpo Studios, Oprah Winfrey parcels out her belongings to the public who has grown to love her so very much.</p>
<p /> | Oprah Winfrey selling her possessions | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/04/24/oprah-winfrey-selling-her-possessions/ | 2015-04-24 | 3 |
<p>The movie “The Day After Tomorrow” is the single most moronic film I’ve seen since “Bill and Coo,” an epic I was dragged to as a child, circa 1950. Bill and Coo were talking parakeets, The Day After Tomorrow is talking cretins.</p>
<p>The subject is global warming, kind of, which results in an overnight quick freeze of the northern hemisphere. As New York City is hit by serial tsunamis which overnight turn millions of people to multi-cultural ice cubes (all of it reported by the Fox Network whose logo appears constantly on screen in all kinds of contexts because Rupert Murdoch owns the Fox Network AND the movie) a cast of imbeciles sets out to save us from ourselves. But it’s too late. The lands of the white man are now subject to such severe weather they are rendered uninhabitable. Not that there are many whiteys left to inhabit them. If the sudden freezes don’t get them, the high tides and the tornadoes will. (It occurred to me that The Day After Tomorrow will undoubtedly be very popular in the Arab countries.)</p>
<p>The sole opportunity for something interesting to happen in the movie occurs near the end when our president freezes to death trying to get out of popsicle-ized DC and his successor, made up to resemble Dick Cheney, orders Americans to haul ass south for the border. Now if Anderson Valley Advertiser or CounterPunch readers had made the film, our fellow citizens, upon reaching San Ysidro, would have been turned back by the Mexican Army. “Tough tamales, gringos. You bastards think you’re going to get into the warm weather after what you’ve done to us all these years?” But in this thing, the Mexicans are happy as hell to take on a two hundred and fifty million of US as President Cheney advises Americans to hit the road for Mexico and points south for “what we used to call the Third World.”</p>
<p>Nice bit of straight-up racism in that one, but it’s read off without so much as a hint of irony. What we used to call the Third World! The gringos have arrived so you folks just got promoted to the First World! If you’re thinking of paying your way into seen “The Day After Tomorrow,” you might want to think again.</p>
<p>Here’s the story line: Dennis Quaid and a Scotsman are the only two scientists in the world who understand why LA is suddenly besieged by serial tornadoes. Nobody will listen to the only two guys who know the deep freeze is next. Quaid’s son and the kid’s love interest, both of whom are beyond vapid, are first stranded by tidal waves sweeping clean over the Big Apple and, when the high tides freeze over in 15 minutes, sonny boy and sweet thing hole up in the New York Public Library with exactly one black street person, the street guy’s dog, and a bunch of generically presentable white people. (More racism, but who’s counting at this point?) When the kid gets real cold, sweetie pie saves him from hypothermia via — you guessed it! — a prolonged round of rubbsies, solemnly explaining that as a high school honor student she’d learned in her advanced placement physiology class that a freezing man can quickly be thawed out if a 19-year-old girl with large breasts and bee stung lips dry humps him in front of a roaring fire.</p>
<p>Everyone outside the library had frozen to death early on, and not for lack of nymphets either. It was real cold, colder than it had ever been anywhere on earth, even way the hell up north at Santa’s workshop. The people who’d frozen to death outside had been too damn dumb to retreat to the top floor of the library when the water rose above their arm pits, so Darwin got ’em.</p>
<p>When the big waves froze and every living thing died except a pack of wolves, Quaid’s kid and a couple of his underwear ad buddies fight them off, naturally, while botox lips and the nice white people inside the library feed their life-saving fire in the library’s huge, decorative fire place with rare books. The black street guy and his dog, incidentally, never get close to the fire; they stand watch at the door, reporting on the latest catastrophe outside, like when an ocean liner becomes part of an iceberg on the front steps. A skinny, effete guy with big glasses — guess who he is — gives a speech about how he’ll freeze to death before he tosses the Gutenberg Bible into the fire. Who else besides skinny, effete guys with glasses read books or care what happens to them? Fat beatniks, that’s who, but no complications, no ironies were allowed into this filmic extravaganza.</p>
<p>No sirree. Anyhoo, because the librarian is a librarian, he’s responsible for Western Civ’s key artifacts, and he draws the line at the Gutenberg. (Actually, THIS movie is a lot more representative of Western Civ’s net accomplishment than the printing press, but there’s probably some dissent on the question, the issue being relative value in a value-free epoch.) Quaid sets out on foot in sub-Arctic conditions to check on his son. Dad says he wants to forgive the lad for flunking a high school math test. Most parents, of course, would settle for their kids not flunking drug and drunk driving tests, but we’re talking scholars here, and scholars and other securely upper-middle-class people are not only very nice people, so are their kids.</p>
<p>“I’ve walked farther than this in the snow,” Quaid says, setting out from the DC ‘burbs for a snow shoes and family values hike to Manhattan. Mrs. Quaid is a doctor, occasionally assisted by an Asian woman with timely references to Native American prophecies. My fellow movie goers I am here to tell you that no major ethnic group goes unrepresented! Mrs. Quaid, MD, looks very, very concerned and very, very compassionate. I could tell because her eyes got bigger and wetter the colder it got and the longer she was left behind in a frigid hospital ward with an eight-year-old leukemia patient while everyone else got into their LL Beans and highballed it for Ensenada and Sao Paolo. Mrs. Q. and the bald kid are presented for no other reason than to demonstrate that the Quaids are nice people, and Mrs. Q is double nice. The emphasis throughout was The Tragic Effect On Nice White People Caught Up In A Cataclysmic Event. I felt like laughing out loud a whole lot of times, especially when LA was wiped out, but I was in a mall theater in Springfield, Oregon, surrounded by solemn viewers who seemed to think they were watching a documentary. Audible laughter while the end of the world was under consideration might have been severely misunderstood.</p>
<p>The only good thing about the movie was an on-screen blurb at the end that said our fatso-watso ways of living were killing the planet, a statement of the obvious to everyone in the world except George Bush. But I was so upset by “The Day After Tomorrow,” as apocalyptic a viewing experience as I’ve ever had, that I walked briskly from the theater, pushed my way through the double-wide fatso-watsos thronging the mall, and strode directly to a shop specializing in negative food value items where I ordered myself a double-bubble mayonnaised banana split.</p>
<p>BRUCE ANDERSON is the publisher of the <a href="http://www.theava.com/" type="external">Anderson Valley Advertiser</a>, America’s best weekly newspaper.</p> | The Day After Tomorrow: Don’t Go There | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/06/19/the-day-after-tomorrow-don-t-go-there/ | 2004-06-19 | 4 |
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<p>U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is increasing the heat on the federal government to consider recalling e-cigarette batteries and devices that explode and catch fire, injuring users.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The New York Democrat calls e-cigarettes "ticking time bombs." He says the volatile e-cigs continue to cause injuries including severe burns.</p>
<p>Faulty lithium-ion batteries are seen as the likely culprits.</p>
<p>Schumer wants the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to figure out why so many devices from China and elsewhere are exploding. He says recent injuries are proof federal action is urgently needed.</p>
<p>Schumer on Sunday cited a recent Associated Press story saying the FDA identified about 66 explosions in 2015 and early 2016. The AP story said the numbers kept by the FDA may be an undercount.</p>
<p>The industry maintains e-cigarettes are safe when used properly.</p>
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<p>The FDA says it's reviewing e-cigarettes.</p> | Senator: Exploding e-cigarette recalls need to be considered | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/18/senator-exploding-e-cigarette-recalls-need-to-be-considered.html | 2016-12-18 | 0 |
<p>If you've read the latest headlines, you know millennials get a mixed financial rap. Some reports say they're throwing their money away on avocado toast and dining out, while others claim they're killing the earnings of restaurant chains by cooking at home more.</p>
<p>Whatever you believe about their financial habits, some millennials at least are sitting on six-figure retirement accounts. In a Fidelity Investments analysis of 59,000 millennials — those born between 1981 and 1997 — who have participated in their company's 401(k) plan for 10 years, the average balance was $109,400 at the end of June 2017.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>This isn't thanks to rich parents. These savers can't all work in investment banking. And odds are that at least some have student loan balances. Rather, the common thread — and secret to a fat 401(k) — is consistency.</p>
<p>REGULAR CONTRIBUTIONS ADD UP</p>
<p>If you steadily save a reasonable portion of your income over a long period of time, you're going to end up with a pile of money.</p>
<p>"Saving slowly and methodically while keeping expenses low will generally get you where you need to go," says Timothy J. LaPean, a certified financial planner in Minneapolis. "You don't need to shoot for the sky. All you need is a long series of incremental wins."</p>
<p>The millennials in Fidelity's analysis aren't super savers. Less than a third have a total savings rate — which includes their contributions, plus company matching dollars — of 15 percent of their income or more.</p>
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<p>Financial planners commonly use that 15 percent figure as a retirement savings goal. That means more than two-thirds of these millennials aren't saving "enough" by most standards — or even close to it. The average contribution rate for the group, not including an employer match, is 7.5 percent.</p>
<p>MAKE IT AUTOMATIC</p>
<p>Millennial thousandaires have also been helped along by one of the 401(k)'s best features: automatic salary deferrals, in which contributions are pulled directly from their paychecks.</p>
<p>"Human beings on the whole are not built to be good at saving, and the best approach is one where you never really see the money in the first place," LaPean says, noting that many employers let you mimic that automation by dividing your check among two or more accounts, including an individual retirement account.</p>
<p>That's a good option if you don't have a 401(k) or you're already contributing enough to earn your plan's employer match. As for where to send that money, you can contribute up to $5,500 each year to a Roth or traditional IRA. If you freelance or have a side gig, a SEP IRA is specifically for self-employed workers and may allow you to save more than that. You can contribute to a SEP IRA even if you're also a W-2 employee, says Sarah Hodge, a certified financial planner in Boston.</p>
<p>TAKE SOME HELP FROM THE MARKET</p>
<p>The millennials in Fidelity's analysis saw nearly a 32 percent compound annual growth rate, the average amount the account grew each year, over the 10-year period reviewed. Fidelity says about 60 percent of that was thanks to their own actions — those consistent contributions — and the rest due to market returns.</p>
<p>Those returns come from regularly investing in the market, whether through a 401(k) or other means, and then staying invested despite periods of volatility. But research has shown millennials tend to be wary of the stock market. According to a Legg Mason survey from earlier this year, 85 percent of millennials say they're "somewhat or very conservative" when investing.</p>
<p>If you're not sure how to invest or how much risk you can tolerate, consider using an automated investment manager or putting your retirement savings into a target-date fund. Both will allocate your money according to your age and expected retirement date. Some companies also provide employees with retirement planning guidance.</p>
<p>OVERSPENDING LEADS TO UNDERSAVING</p>
<p>"The first step toward saving enough for retirement is to look at your recurring expenses," LaPean says. "Can they be lower? Are you spending on anything that is both nonessential and unlikely to improve your long-term joy?"</p>
<p>One month of too-high expenses might not make or break you; a pattern of overspending very well could. High expenses, LaPean notes, make it harder to save and drive up the amount of money you need to save, because you'll likely want to maintain that standard of living in retirement. Keeping costs down means you'll need less money for retirement and your budget will have some breathing room to meet your goals.</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>This article originally appeared on the personal finance website NerdWallet. Arielle O'Shea is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: [email protected]. Twitter: @arioshea.</p>
<p>RELATED LINKS</p>
<p>NerdWallet: How to invest money</p>
<p>https://nerd.me/how-to-invest</p>
<p>SEP IRA contribution limits:</p>
<p>https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/retirement-plans-faqs-regarding-seps-contributions</p> | How millennials got a 6-figure start on retirement saving | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/12/how-millennials-got-6-figure-start-on-retirement-saving.html | 2017-09-12 | 0 |
<p>U.S. retail sales barely rose in November as households cut back on purchases of motor vehicles, suggesting some loss of momentum in economic growth in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>Other data on Wednesday pointed to steadily rising inflation pressures, with producer prices notching their largest increase in five months in November. The moderation in retail sales came after two straight months of strong gains. With incomes rising and household wealth at record highs, the cool-off in retail sales is likely to be temporary.</p>
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<p>Against the backdrop of a tightening labor market and perking inflation, the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates later on Wednesday. The U.S. central bank hiked its overnight benchmark interest rate last December for the first time in nearly a decade.</p>
<p>"There is still strong support for consumer spending, namely steady job growth and wages heading higher. Santa will still be coming to town this year." said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.</p>
<p>Retail sales edged up 0.1 percent last month after rising 0.6 percent in October, the Commerce Department said. Sales were up 3.8 percent from a year ago. Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales also nudged up 0.1 percent last month after gaining 0.6 percent in October.</p>
<p>These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic</p>
<p>product. Economists had forecast overall retail sales increasing 0.3 percent and core sales also gaining 0.3 percent last month.</p>
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<p>In a separate report, the Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand increased 0.4 percent last month, the largest gain since June, after being unchanged in October.</p>
<p>In the 12 months through October, the PPI rose 1.3 percent, the biggest gain since November 2014. The PPI rose 0.8 percent in the 12 months through October.</p>
<p>A 0.5 percent increase in the cost of services accounted for more than 80 percent of the rise in the final demand PPI last month. The increase, which followed a 0.3 percent decline in October, was the largest since January.</p>
<p>With producer prices pushing higher, overall inflation is expected to steadily move toward the Fed's 2 percent target.</p>
<p>The dollar fell to a session low against the yen on the retail sales data, while prices for longer-dated U.S. government bonds rose. U.S. stock index futures fell slightly.</p>
<p>The softer-than-expected retail sales numbers last month suggest a slowdown in consumer spending in the fourth quarter, which could see economists trim their GDP forecasts for the period. Still, consumers should continue to support the economy in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>The Atlanta Fed is forecasting GDP rising at a 2.6 percent annualized rate in the fourth quarter. The economy grew at a 3.2 percent pace in the third quarter.</p>
<p>Last month, auto sales fell 0.5 percent, the largest decline since March, after increasing 0.5 percent in October. Sales at building material stores rose 0.3 percent.</p>
<p>Receipts at clothing stores were flat, suggesting a weak start to the holiday shopping season. Department stores like Macy's and Kohl's are facing intense competition from online retailers such as Amazon , which have snatched a large chunk of the market share.</p>
<p>Sales at online retailers gained 0.1 percent last month after surging 1.4 percent in October. Receipts at restaurants and bars increased 0.8 percent, while sales at sporting goods and hobby stores fell 1.0 percent. Receipts at service stations gained 0.3 percent after jumping 2.5 percent in October.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)</p> | U.S. retail sales slow in November; producer prices increase | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/12/14/us-retail-sales-slow-in-november-producer-prices-increase.html | 2016-12-14 | 0 |
<p>Children’s resource celebrates Baptists’ 400th. Children in Baptist churches will enjoy participating in Baptists’ 400th anniversary celebration through the new issue of Heritage Seekers, a full-color magazine containing stories, games and activities. The issue tells the stories of John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, who founded a Baptist church in 1609, as well as the stories of English Baptists. The comic pages feature Helwys in Amsterdam. The issue was written by Christopher Catherwood and Paulette Moore Catherwood, a Baptist couple of British and American heritage. Heritage Seekers is intended for children, ages 8-12, and their parents, grandparents and Sunday school teachers. The Center for Baptist Heritage &amp; Studies has published 12 issues of the magazine. A single copy of the 400th anniversary issue can be ordered for $5, plus $2 shipping and handling. Contact the Heritage Center for cost reductions on multiple orders. The entire collection of 12 issues along with a doll of the magazine’s mascot can be ordered at the reduced cost of $49, plus $6 shipping and handling. The collection arrives boxed and ready for a children’s resource library or church library. Send orders to Center for Baptist Heritage &amp; Studies, P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA&#160; 23173.&#160; For further information contact the Heritage Center at (804) 289-8434.</p>
<p />
<p>Oldest Bluefield alum dies. Christine Reynolds Stone of Altavista, who at 100 had been the oldest living graduate of Bluefield College, died last December. Stone entered Bluefield from Renan, Va., in 1926 when Oscar Sams was president, professors taught aviation, girls couldn’t live on campus, and the Fighting Deacons were the school’s football team. After graduating from Bluefield, she attended the University of Virginia and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which prepared her for a 28-year career in public schools in central Virginia. “I loved to encourage young people,” she said last summer when speaking at Bluefield. “I was led to teach.” She also was active in the churches that her late husband of 69 years, Samuel R. Stone Jr., pastored. Stone, who outlived all 12 of her siblings, is survived by a son, a daughter, six grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.</p>
<p>Democrats stake claim on Robertson’s campus. A Democratic student group has formed at Regent University, the school founded by conservative televangelist Pat Robertson, who sought the Republican nomination for a White House bid in 1988. “Here, it is definitely a startling idea,” said Kalila Hines, a government major and one of the founding members of Regent Democrats. Regent, where Robertson is president and chancellor, has long had a student Republican group. The university approved Regent Democrats as an official student organization in late January, and the group now counts about 30 members.</p> | VIRGINIA BRIEFS | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/virginiabriefs-17/ | 3 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The efficient market hypothesis states that share prices reflect all relevant information, and that it is impossible to beat the market or achieve above-average returns on a sustainable basis. There are many critics of this theory, such as behavioral economists, who believe in inherent market inefficiencies.</p>
<p>The efficient market hypothesis was developed from a Ph.D. dissertation by economist Eugene Fama in the 1960s, and essentially says that at any given time, stock prices reflect all available information and trade at exactly their fair value at all times. Therefore, it is impossible to consistently choose stocks that will beat the returns of the overall stock market. Basically, the hypothesis implies that the pursuit of market-beating performance is more about chance than it is about researching and selecting the right stocks.</p>
<p>There are three levels, or degrees, of the efficient market hypothesis: weak, semi-strong, and strong.</p>
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<p>The weak form assumes that current stock prices reflect all available information, and that past price performance has no relationship with the future. In other words, this form of the hypothesis says that using technical analysis to achieve exceptional returns is impossible.</p>
<p>The semi-strong form says that stock prices have factored in all available public information. Because of this, it's impossible to use fundamental analysis to choose stocks that will beat the market's returns.</p>
<p>Finally, the strong form of the efficient market hypothesis says that all information -- public as well as private -- is incorporated into current stock prices. This form of the efficient market hypothesis essentially assumes a perfect market, and isn't plausible when there are insider trading restrictions.</p>
<p>Perhaps the biggest piece of evidence to refute the efficient market hypothesis is the existence of market bubbles and crashes. For example, if the assumptions of the hypothesis were correct, the housing bubble and stock market crash of 2008 wouldn't have happened. The same can be said about the tech bubble of the late 1990s, when many tech companies were trading for sky-high valuations before crashing.</p>
<p>Also, there are some investors who have consistently beaten the market. As a famous example, Warren Buffett has been highly critical of the efficient market hypothesis. Using his value investing approach and trying to identify a margin of safety in stocks, Buffett has achieved returns that have been far superior to those of the market -- and he's done it steadily over a 50-year period of time.</p>
<p>Behavioral economists are also major critics of the efficient market hypothesis. In a nutshell, the study of behavioral finance is based on the assumption that investors are susceptible to certain biases, such as the belief that past performance is indicative of the future. These biases can lead to mispricings in stocks, according to proponents.</p>
<p>This article is part of The Motley Fool's Knowledge Center, which was created based on the collected wisdom of a fantastic community of investors. We'd love to hear your questions, thoughts, and opinions on the Knowledge Center in general or this page in particular. Your input will help us help the world invest, better! Email us at <a href="http://mailto:[email protected]?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">[email protected]</a>. Thanks -- and Fool on!</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/what-is-the-efficient-market-hypothesis.aspx" type="external">What is the Efficient Market Hypothesis?</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</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</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</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</a>.</p> | What is the Efficient Market Hypothesis? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/21/what-is-efficient-market-hypothesis.html | 2016-06-21 | 0 |
<p>BURGOS, Spain — Until recently, Spaniards associated this chilly capital of the northern Castille region mainly with its magnificent Gothic cathedral and morcilla, or pork blood sausage.</p>
<p>Ask anyone about it today, however, and you’re more likely to hear about a working-class neighborhood that made international headlines in January.</p>
<p>That’s when Gamonal was rocked by massive, sometimes violent demonstrations against an $11 million municipal development project to convert its main drag into a boulevard with a bicycle lane and underground parking.</p>
<p>Two months on, locals say the protest movement provided strong evidence that five years into Spain’s economic crisis, society is fragmenting.</p>
<p>With unemployment rates still reaching 26 percent — and up to 40 percent among young Spaniards — and a growing income gap between wealthy elites and a middle class sliding toward poverty even as the economy slowly improves, very little was needed to set tempers flaring.</p>
<p>Flanked by tall brick buildings, four-lane Calle Vitoria lacks parking spaces because many residents don’t own cars. According to an informal free parking strategy, drivers park on the side of the street in two rows. Cars in the outside row blocking the inner one are left unlocked and with their hand brakes off so other drivers can move them to get out.</p>
<p>Most residents like the system well enough — and certainly better than the city’s plans. Parking in the proposed new garage would have been affordable only for those able to pay more than $27,000 for a 40-year lease — a significant sum for most Spaniards, especially Gamonal residents.</p>
<p>Most believe the money would be better spent on social services.</p>
<p>Adding insult to injury, a controversial tender awarded the project's master plan to a businessman connected to the ruling conservative Popular Party who had been convicted for corruption.</p>
<p>The public’s response was to take to the streets.</p>
<p>“We spent two years saying 'No to the boulevard’ in every way,” says protest organizer Manolo Alonso. “They didn’t budge an inch. So what happened was kind of like saying: ‘Hey, listen to us for once, OK?’”</p>
<p>White-bearded Alonso’s biography is typical for Gamonal. He arrived as a child from a poor nearby village, made his living carrying out hard manual labor and recently lost his job.</p>
<p>Once a small traditional village on the outskirts of Burgos, Gamonal saw a population boom in the mid-20th century, when people from the countryside flocked to the growing industrial hub.</p>
<p>Decades of harsh factory conditions transformed many of the typically conservative Catholic migrants into class-conscious workers.</p>
<p>Although the poor neighborhood grew to house around a third of the city's 180,000 residents, it remained largely peripheral. Most visitors to the cozy, tourist-friendly downtown never heard of it — until January, when Gamonal became a Spanish household name after young protesters smashed bank windows and set dumpsters on fire.</p>
<p>Dozens of arrests fuelled the demonstrations, which prompted a wave of national solidarity and more protests in Madrid, Barcelona and other cities organized with the help of the Twitter tag #GamonalEffect.</p>
<p>The pressure led Burgos’ mayor to suspend the construction project.</p>
<p>Residents say their protests forced the conservative-led government to listen to the people.</p>
<p>“The boulevard was the straw that broke the camel's back,” says Mila Calvo, an outspoken housewife who heads Las Eras de Gamonal neighbors' association. “Yes, there was violence, but personally I’m more stirred by the sight of some of my neighbors scrounging for food in the trash than by a burning dumpster.”</p>
<p>“We just want to be respected and taken into account,” says Ana Moreno, president of the Francisco de Vitoria neighbors' association. “You can’t spend all that money in an area where civic and cultural centers need investment.”</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/russia/140318/crimea-separatist-movement-ukraine-russia" type="external">Crimea’s separatist movement goes back two decades</a></p>
<p>Nevertheless, officials appear unmoved.</p>
<p>“Its unexplainable,” Burgos deputy mayor, Angel Ibanez, says of the protests. “We don’t think we lost, we think the neighborhood did.”</p>
<p>He blames local left-wingers for fanning the flames. “The project was probably more an excuse than a problem,” he says.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the plans for Calle Vitoria remain shelved for now amid lingering signs of the protests.</p>
<p>“Politicians and bankers, same cr*p,” says a graffito spray-painted on tin sheets still protecting the windows of a well-known bank.</p>
<p>Nearby, an activists’ tent advertises a line that seems to summarize the disaffection shaping the public debate here: “You’re forcing us to hate more and more.”</p> | Spanish disaffection mounts despite improving economy | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-03-24/spanish-disaffection-mounts-despite-improving-economy | 2014-03-24 | 3 |
<p>It’s been an interesting few days in Phoenix, Arizona. A huge dust storm — known as a “haboob” — blanketed the area on Saturday, blowing thick sand on wind gusts between 25 to 40 miles per hour. And Monday was the wettest day in the city’s recorded history, breaking a <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/wettest-day-record-phoenix-flash-floods-cause-havoc-n198201" type="external">75-year-old record</a> for rainfall.</p>
<p>It was only 9:30 a.m. on Monday when the rainfall record was broken, with Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport reporting 3.29 inches of rain since midnight, according to Phoenix’s local <a href="http://www.kpho.com/story/26462862/monsoon-poised-to-deliver-moisture-tied-to-baja-hurricane" type="external">CBS affiliate</a>. That surpassed the previous daily record of 2.91 inches, the most rain since Phoenix began record-keeping in 1895. As of publication, more than <a href="http://alert.fcd.maricopa.gov/alert/Google/v3/gmap.html" type="external">4 inches of rain</a> had fallen so far in Phoenix.</p>
<p>The rare heavy rainfall led to flooding that inundated freeways and stranded drivers on the side of the road. As <a href="http://www.weather.com/news/southwest-flooding-update-20140908" type="external">The Weather Channel</a> notes, the desert terrain surrounding Phoenix is already incapable of absorbing a lot of water — a situation that gets even worse when heavy rainfall hits the concrete-laden city, which also can’t absorb water.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>The storm, brought on by tropical moisture from the former Hurricane Norbert, brought more rain than Phoenix typically sees in an entire monsoon season, the National Weather Service excitedly <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSPhoenix" type="external">tweeted</a> on Monday. The American Southwest’s <a href="http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/twc/monsoon/monsoon_NA.php" type="external">monsoon season</a> generally lasts from July until mid-September.</p>
<p>Monsoon seasons not only bring rains, though — they also bring dust storms, or “haboobs.” Phoenix sees several haboobs every year, driven by strong winds from a moving thunderstorm that blow up dry desert sand.</p>
<p>“The best way to explain a haboob is to say it is a tsunami of sand, in the sense that there is no stopping it or outrunning it,” Fernanda Santos of the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/30/us/swirls-of-dust-and-drama-punctuating-life-in-the-southwest.html" type="external">wrote in August</a>. “It is a supreme spectacle.”</p>
<p />
<p>For the last 40 years in the American Southwest, dust storms like Saturday’s in Phoenix have been steadily on the rise, according to a University of Colorado <a href="http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2013/06/10/amount-dust-blown-across-west-increasing-says-cu-boulder-study" type="external">study</a> published last year and funded by the National Science Foundation. The increases in dust, according to the study, can be attributed to a combination of factors — more storms with high winds, more drought, land use changes, and even more construction projects.</p>
<p>At least <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/108/10/3854.abstract?sid=deda2fff-86be-49bc-8b8d-3222f74c8115" type="external">one peer-reviewed paper</a> has suggested that as temperatures rise in the Southwest due to climate change, more dust could be created. Alyson Kenward described it well for <a href="http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/climate-change-and-the-phoenix-dust-cloud-whats-the-connection" type="external">Climate Central</a>: “Hotter average temperatures mean the region could become even drier than it is already, making it harder for perennial grasses and plants to thrive. Without these grasses to keep the soil intact, it’s a lot easier for wind to pick the dust up off the ground.”</p>
<p>As for extreme precipitation and flooding events, scientists <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch10s10-3-6-1.html" type="external">more readily agree</a> that those can be made worse by climate change.</p>
<p>The way this happens is relatively simple: As carbon dioxide is emitted from burning fossil fuels and destroying tropical forests, it traps heat in the atmosphere. As the trapped heat raises the planet’s average temperature, the heat evaporates water from the ocean and soil, putting moisture into the air.</p>
<p>As global temperatures rise, the atmosphere then holds more moisture — about <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/climate-change-heavy-rain-flooding-0540.html" type="external">4 percent more per degree of temperature increase</a>. Therefore there is more water vapor available to fall as rain, snow, or hail when storms occur.</p> | Phoenix Hit With Massive Dust Storm, Followed By Wettest Day Ever Recorded | true | http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/08/3564434/phoenix-wacky-weather/ | 2014-09-08 | 4 |
<p>Protesters pass at the Capitol at the Women's March on Washington in January. Organizers have used Trump protests to recruit members for new groups such as Sister District. &lt;a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/resistfromday1/32550362725/in/photolist-RAn7Nr-Q9UVib-RfKfAn-QCTKW9-GbXzjM-GbXz5i-GbXzBv-GhNLED-FSGn91-GhNMnv-G9DCms-GhNLAv-Fnx84H-G9DBq9-Fnx6Hr-GbXyVk-RpvXzR-QSqvBd-GfvSSL-RsWgfo-RKvP1s-RkP4iU-RZ3TY7-RkP4Fs-RkP4p5-RrqPJc-QrVFFs-Qd7Lwv-RrQBfX-Rd5oZY-QSqtiA-Qd7KWx-QSquH9-QCTKZW-QajseJ-QSqv3C-RrqW3K-RtUWwD-Rg9fv6-RrQD2c-Qajpv7-Rg9hAD-RMjsTs-RrQFZX-Qd7K1e-RrQEqp-Rg9gSz-QajtWb-Qajt5m-Rrr6f2"&gt;ResistFromDay1&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p />
<p>Last fall, Rita Bosworth, a public defender in San Francisco, had an epiphany. “I was thinking about how we were choosing between two Democrats for this open Senate seat,” she said. Because California’s open primary system leaves the possibility that two members of the same party will advance to the general election, state Attorney General Kamala Harris faced off against Rep. Loretta Sanchez in the race to succeed retiring Democrat Barbara Boxer. They combined to spend nearly $20 million on the contest, which Harris won, and “all of it was being directed toward a race where it was liberal vs. more liberal,” Bosworth says. “It just struck me that this was silly.” There had to be a better use of progressive manpower.</p>
<p>So in late November, Bosworth launched <a href="https://www.sisterdistrict.com/" type="external">Sister District</a>, a website that helps activists in safe blue areas support candidates in red states and swing districts who could use the help. Sister District, which boasts about 5,000 members and has been recruiting at anti-Donald Trump protests and on social media, is in the process of filing for tax-exempt status as a 527, allowing it to raise money and donate directly to candidates for state office. It recently joined forces with another organization with a similar agenda, Flippable, on a race they hope will demonstrate the power of the suddenly energized grassroots left: a special election for a Delaware state Senate seat that will determine the balance of power in the state Capitol.</p>
<p>The two groups have already raised more than $87,000 for the Democratic candidate, Stephanie Hansen—a remarkable sum for a state Senate special election in a small market. Sister District members have held five fundraisers, and they have another one planned later this month at a bar in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood.</p>
<p>In the age of Trump, coastal progressives such as Bosworth have increasingly come to believe that Democrats are fighting not just nativism, but also geography. In an op-ed for the New York Times three weeks before the election, reporter Alec MacGillis neatly summed up the Democrats’ struggles. “Democrats,” he wrote, “just don’t want to live where they’d need to live to turn more of the map blue.” The headline for the story offered a prescription: “If you really want Democrats to win in Iowa, move there.” The geographic clustering of liberals in major metropolitan areas and isolated college towns poses a logistical hurdle. How do you convert excess activist energy in one place into organizing power someplace else?</p>
<p>In addition to Sister District and Flippable—a group focused on state-level races that <a href="https://www.flippable.org/our-plan/" type="external">promises</a> to tell Democrats “which races are most important, who’s running, and how you can support them”—other groups have taken similar approaches to the ever-reddening political map. Resurgent Left, a political action committee led by San Francisco lawyer Kipp Mueller, promises to “use advanced analytics to find Democratic candidates with the best chances to flip their state legislatures blue anywhere in the U.S.” Code Blue, created by a Los Angeles-based executive producer of the Food Network series Cake Masters, has already raised money and made phone calls for state delegate candidates in Virginia, Minnesota, and Connecticut. Adopt-a-State, founded by a Maryland IT professional, invites members to host “adoption parties” to raise money for red-state Democratic parties. (In Brooklyn, supporters are <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1739020569745816/" type="external">donating</a> to the North Carolina Democrats with proceeds from a monthly Park Slope happy hour.)</p>
<p>These fledgling outfits are more collaborative than competitive. They link to each other’s websites on their home pages, share resources, and talk regularly to coordinate their activities. “There are kind of these subtle variations between the groups,” Bosworth says. “For now, we’re all happy and moving along.” Flippable co-founder Catherine Vaughan, who worked for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in Ohio, calls her like-minded colleagues “the Rebuilds” and keeps in contact with fellow organizers through a Slack group. “I’m in conversations with everyone—it takes up most of my day,” she says. “Among the Rebuilds there’s a really strong sense of ‘We’re all in this together.’ There’s a lot of collaboration.”</p>
<p>Sister District and co. are focused on down-ballot races, both because modest resources in these contests can make a big difference and because state legislatures control decennial redistricting—one of the factors that make the Democrats’ regionalism more pronounced. In Virginia, for instance, Republicans control 66 of 100 seats in the House of Delegates even though they have not won a statewide race since 2009. But there’s also a project for adopting congressional districts: SwingLeft, a site launched by&#160;Ethan Todras-Whitehill, a freelance writer and GMAT tutor in Amherst, Massachusetts.</p>
<p>Prior to this year, Todras-Whitehill’s political experience consisted of a few phone calls on behalf of John Kerry in 2004 and a brief stint running get-out-the-vote operations for Barack Obama in 2008 in Warren County, Ohio—one of the white Midwestern communities that swung hardest to Trump in November. A political junkie by habit, he had expected after the election to spend more time working on his fiction. Instead, he found himself at a coffee shop on November 9, playing around with a CNN.com map of every House district in the country.</p>
<p>Western Massachusetts is safe Democratic territory, so Todras-Whitehill searched for the closest district that wasn’t. He settled on New York’s 19th Congressional District, a Hudson Valley seat where Democrat Zephyr Teachout lost by 6 points to Republican John Faso. “I went on Facebook and said I’m gonna focus on 2018 in NY-19,” he says. “And I started thinking, why did I have to do all this work? In this day and age, why isn’t there a tool that will do this for me?”</p>
<p>With two friends from Silicon Valley, he launched SwingLeft one day before Trump’s inauguration and has collected more than 250,000 sign-ups. All you have to do is enter your zip code—then it matches you with the closest competitive district. Users receive regular updates on what’s happening in the district and eventually get further instructions from a volunteer district leader. Although the founders have little political experience themselves, they have been talking to Democratic campaign professionals about how to proceed. (Todras-Whitehill recently finished reading Rules for Revolutionaries, the organizing handbook written by Bernie Sanders campaign veterans Becky Bond and Zack Exley.)</p>
<p>Some districts, such as Virginia’s 10th (currently represented by Republican Barbara Comstock), already have tens of thousands of sign-ups, and that Northern Virginia chapter already held its first in-person meet-up last month. But the group’s goal is for every swing district to have tens of thousands of progressives who live in noncompetitive districts helping out.</p>
<p>Todras-Whitehill is aware that the perception that a candidate is being propped up by money and manpower from outside the district can be a damaging one—he calls it the “Hollywood effect.” But SwingLeft isn’t matching regions arbitrarily. The point of finding volunteers in neighboring districts is that they’ll already be starting on a shared foundation. Someone who lives in a safe-blue suburban Denver district still has a lot in common with someone who lives in a 50-50 district next door. The goal is for “people to know their swing district better than they know their own representative.”</p>
<p>The need to reconcile the Democratic Party’s uneven distribution of resources has not been lost on the candidates vying for leadership roles in the national party. In addition to full-time organizing hubs in the Rust Belt states Clinton lost, “we should have satellite hubs in Alabama that connect with Philadelphia donors and Baltimore donors,” says Elizabeth Jaff, a candidate for Democratic National Committee vice chair who is also the head of business development and campaigns at the digital fundraising platform <a href="https://www.crowdpac.com/" type="external">Crowdpac</a>. “We should do sister districts, where California picks up different states that they’re funding.”</p>
<p>Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), <a href="" type="internal">a front-runner</a> in the race for DNC chair and a former community organizer, has made cross-pollination part of his campaign message. “What if we took a nice, solid district where there’s a lot of Democrats, and we went out to a red state, and we said, ‘We’re gonna partner you guys together’?” he told an audience of Detroit Democrats in December. “So that we are taking the benefits of what the blue state knows and put it with the red state and we’re sharing. And they’re doing phone banks, helping do some door knocks, help do some fundraising. It would help people understand each other a little better.”</p>
<p>As the institutions of the Democratic Party slowly jolt into motion, the Rebuilds will have to adapt as well. Attrition is inevitable. But for now, with the DNC in a holding pattern as it awaits its leader, the influx of new groups into the same space is chaos by design. “Who knows if Code Blue’s gonna be around in six months,” says its founder, MJ Loheed. “I hope it is, but it’s good to have redundancies. I think it’s a breeding ground for innovation.” Vaughan recalled the message David Plouffe, Obama’s former campaign manager, delivered on a post-election conference call with a small army of Democratic organizers and campaign professionals. Plouffe’s message, as paraphrased by Vaughan: “Let a thousand flowers bloom.”</p>
<p /> | The Secret Slack Group Plotting to Turn Your State Government Blue | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/02/swing-left-sister-district-flippable-delaware/ | 2017-02-13 | 4 |
<p>MADRID (AP) - A passenger on a delayed Ryanair flight from London who apparently got fed up waiting to get off a plane after it landed in the southern Spanish city of Malaga surprised fellow passengers by using the emergency exit to jump onto a wing.</p>
<p>The incident on New Year's Day took place 30 minutes after the flight from Stansted Airport landed.</p>
<p>The man, who has not been named but is said to be a non-Spanish citizen, was coaxed back onto the plane while police were called.</p>
<p>Fellow passenger Fernando del Valle Villalobos, who videoed the incident, said he heard the man say he got fed up waiting.</p>
<p>"I was astonished," del Valle, 25, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.</p>
<p>He said the passengers were standing in the aisle waiting to get off the plane when the man "very calmly asked permission to get past, opened the emergency exit, looked out, saw the wing, went back for his back-pack."</p>
<p>Later, he said the captain came out and asked the man why he had done it and del Valle heard him say clearly that he was sick of waiting inside. The passengers, except the man in question, were kept a further 15 minutes on the plane before being let off.</p>
<p>Police said Wednesday that they have opened a complaint against the man for breaching security.</p>
<p>Ryanair said the incident was now in the hands of Spanish authorities.</p>
<p>MADRID (AP) - A passenger on a delayed Ryanair flight from London who apparently got fed up waiting to get off a plane after it landed in the southern Spanish city of Malaga surprised fellow passengers by using the emergency exit to jump onto a wing.</p>
<p>The incident on New Year's Day took place 30 minutes after the flight from Stansted Airport landed.</p>
<p>The man, who has not been named but is said to be a non-Spanish citizen, was coaxed back onto the plane while police were called.</p>
<p>Fellow passenger Fernando del Valle Villalobos, who videoed the incident, said he heard the man say he got fed up waiting.</p>
<p>"I was astonished," del Valle, 25, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.</p>
<p>He said the passengers were standing in the aisle waiting to get off the plane when the man "very calmly asked permission to get past, opened the emergency exit, looked out, saw the wing, went back for his back-pack."</p>
<p>Later, he said the captain came out and asked the man why he had done it and del Valle heard him say clearly that he was sick of waiting inside. The passengers, except the man in question, were kept a further 15 minutes on the plane before being let off.</p>
<p>Police said Wednesday that they have opened a complaint against the man for breaching security.</p>
<p>Ryanair said the incident was now in the hands of Spanish authorities.</p> | Fed-up passenger sought fast track on Ryanair wing | false | https://apnews.com/99758efca518489da9b3f492c014df04 | 2018-01-03 | 2 |
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