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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Need recipes for red chile roux, flame-roasted green chile, green chile goddess dressing or cactus green chile salad?</p>
<p>Check out the new cookbook, “Red or Green Chile Bible: Love at First Bite,” by Harmon Houghton. He promises to guide cookbook-users “through the wonders, magic and mystique of the chile cuisine” and to teach them to make chile “from aromatic sweetness to a tongue-blistering experience and every degree of addictive heat in between to make you feel you are alive.”</p>
<p>It’s a 391-page recipe guide published by Santa Fe publishing company, Clear Light Publishing. Besides recipes for meats, marinades, sauces, spices, salsas, chips and appetizers, the book also includes breakfast recipes like atole porridge and migas soufflé.</p>
<p>Houghton also wrote “Green Chile Bible: Award Winning New Mexico Recipes” and “Red Chile Bible: Southwest Classic &amp; Gourmet Recipes.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Cookbook celebrates everything chile | false | https://abqjournal.com/491116/cookbook-celebrates-everything-chile.html | 2 |
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<p>Billionaire agent provocateur George Soros has been exposed for being behind the Women's March on Washington on Saturday. The march was orchestrated by Soros in an effort to attack and undermine President Trump as uncovered by a NYT writer.</p>
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<p>The NYT reports that the Guardian has touted the Women's March on Washington as a spontaneous action for women's rights. Vox, another liberal media outlet spoke of the huge, spontaneous groundswell behind the march. Organizers on it website are promoting their work as a grassroots effort with independent organizers. The march's manifesto says magnificently, The Rise of the Woman=The Rise of the Nation.</p>
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<p>The crooked idea can only be embraced by a liberal feminist. However, Americans are tired of being fooled. The organizers of the march haven't put into their manifesto: the march really isn't a women's march, it's a march for women who aren't anti-Trump.</p>
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<p>Many women who have all their full faculties in place would never buy into the liberal identity-politics that is the core underpinnings of the march, so far, making white women feel unwelcome, hijacking the agenda by nixing women who oppose abortion.</p>
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<p>Its evident that the march was not non-partisan, this is based on statements issued by some of the organizers of the march. They include Nick Fish who is the national program director of the American Atheists who clearly pointed out that the march was not a partisan event. The pastor of Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ, Dennis Wiley also stated that the march was not a partisan march. The event organizers are just a bunch of liars who are puppets of George Soros, there's a link between George Soros and the Women's March.</p>
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<p>Numerous ties have been revealed between Soros and at least 56 of the march's partners who include key partners Planned Parenthood, that opposes Trump's environmental policies. The partisan <a href="http://MoveOn.org" type="external">MoveOn.org</a> is one of the organizations that has ties with Soros, the National Action Network also has strong ties with Soros. The American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are all partners with Soros.</p>
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<p>The cold hard truth is that Soros is a an ideological philanthropist whose interest aligns with many of these groups, add the fact that he's a political donor and you end up having at least 33 of the 100 women of color who initially protested the Trump election in street protests had worked at organizations that receive Soros funding in part for black-brown activism.</p> | George Soros Exposed: He Funded Women's March On Washington To 'Attack Trump' | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/1133-George-Soros-Exposed-He-Funded-Women-s-March-On-Washington-To-Attack-Trump | 2017-01-23 | 0 |
<p>MEPHISTO, the demon who bought the soul of Faust in Goethe’s monumental drama, describes himself as “a part of that force which always wants the bad and always creates the good.”</p>
<p>Yossi Beilin, who resigned this week as chairman of the Meretz party, is Mephisto’s opposite: he always wants the good and all too often creates the bad.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>THE “SETTLEMENT BLOCS” provide a glaring example. It was Beilin who invented this term a dozen years ago. It was included in the unofficial understanding that became known as the “Beilin-Abu-Mazen agreement”.</p>
<p>The intention was good. Beilin believed that if most settlers were concentrated in several limited areas near the Green Line, the settlers as a whole would agree to a withdrawal from the rest of the West Bank.</p>
<p>The actual result was disastrous. The government and the settlers jumped at the opportunity. The permit of the “Zionist peace movement” was displayed like a Kosher certificate on the wall of a butcher shop selling pork chops. The settlement blocs were enlarged at a frantic pace and became veritable towns, like Ma’aleh Adumim, the Etzion Bloc and Modi’in Illit.</p>
<p>For dozens of years, the United States had insisted that all the settlements violate international law. But the approval granted to the “settlement blocs” enabled President George W. Bush to change this stance and approve Israeli “population centers” in the occupied territories. Haim Ramon, who in the past had been Beilin’s partner in the group of “eight doves” within the Labor Party, went even further: he initiated the “Separation Wall”, which in practice annexes the “settlement blocs” to Israel.</p>
<p>But Beilin’s brilliant idea did not in the least diminish the opposition of the settlers to a withdrawal from the rest of the West Bank. On the contrary: they continue to prevent by force the dismantling of the settlement outposts, even a single tiny one. Nothing good came out of this idea. The result was totally bad.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>ONE CAN GO ON enumerating Beilin’s brilliant ideas. As in the song of the former master comedian (and current orthodox rabbi) Uri Zohar: “The Jewish head is inventing patents for us.” In Israel’s political and diplomatic arena, there is no head more fertile than Beilin’s.</p>
<p>I don’t know what exact role Beilin played in the invention of the patents displayed at the 2000 Camp David conference. For example: the idea that Israel should demand sovereignty over the Temple Mount, but only below the surface. It did not appease the Israeli Right, but it terrified the Palestinians, who feared that Israel was intending to undermine the Islamic holy shrines until they collapsed, thus making it possible to replace them with the Third Jewish Temple. The next step was Ariel Sharon’s “visit” to this sensitive site, which triggered the outbreak of the second intifada.</p>
<p>After the 2006 elections, Beilin had another brilliant idea: to invite Avigdor Liberman to a well publicized friendly breakfast. The intention was no doubt good (even if I can’t fathom what it was) but the result was calamitous: it gave Liberman a “leftist” Kosher certificate which enabled Ehud Olmert to include him in his government.</p>
<p>After that, Meretz announced that it would not, under any circumstances, sit in a government that included Liberman. But one cannot return Rosemary’s baby to the womb of its mother. Liberman stays in the government, Meretz remains outside. Now Olmert explains to the Americans that he cannot dismantle even one settlement outpost, nor negotiate about the “core issues” of the conflict, because Liberman would then bring the government coalition crashing down.</p>
<p>Indeed, Beilin is very generous in dispensing Kosher certificates to extreme rightists. On the eve of one of the annual mass meetings of the “Zionist Left” in commemoration of Yitzhak Rabin, he announced that he was prepared to appear together with the leader of the most extreme Right, General Effi Eytam. Fortunately for him, nothing came of this.</p>
<p>There must be some connection between these ideas and his stand at critical junctures. For example: his support for Ariel Sharon’s Separation Plan, without making it conditional on reaching an agreement with the Palestinians. The result: the Gaza Strip turned into the “biggest prison on earth”.</p>
<p>Worse: the determined support of Beilin for the Second Lebanon War during its first and most critical stage. In the course of the war, he proposed attacking Syria, too. Only in the fourth week, after a dozen stormy anti-war demonstrations, did Beilin start to voice any criticism and have Meretz organize a demonstration of its own.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>IN THE other pan of the scales lie two of Beilin’s major positive contributions: to the Oslo Declaration of Principles and the Geneva initiative.</p>
<p>His input to Oslo was certainly significant. But he did not prevent two black holes in the agreement: the omission of the crucial words “Palestinian state” and the absence of an unequivocal ban on the continuation of settlement activity.</p>
<p>These two faults have buried the agreement. The negotiations for a permanent peace agreement, which were to be concluded in 1999, did not even start. The settlements were being enlarged rapidly while everybody was talking about peace.</p>
<p>The Geneva Initiative, on the other side, was entirely a creation of Beilin. It could have crowned his career. Its inauguration became an international event. The Great of the Earth gave it their blessing. It seemed that it would give a decisive push to the peace process.</p>
<p>This did not happen. Ariel Sharon brushed it from the table with the back of his hand: he announced the Separation Plan and diverted national and international attention away from Geneva.</p>
<p>That need not have been the end of the initiative. There could have been a sustained campaign in Israel and throughout the world, preaching it from every pulpit, putting it on the agenda again and again. But then Beilin made the greatest mistake of his life: he ran for the chairmanship of Meretz – and won.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>THE ERROR was clear from the first moment: there is a basic contradiction between being a party chairman and being the Prophet of Geneva, a person totally identified with the initiative and its main advocate at home and abroad.</p>
<p>When the Initiator of Geneva became the leader of Meretz, he crippled the initiative by turning it into the platform of one small party. And, on the other hand, he turned Meretz into a one-issue party entirely devoted to the promotion of the initiative. Both the initiative and the party lost.</p>
<p>A smart person like Beilin should have understood that. But I suspect that he has two souls struggling for mastery: the soul of an ideas-man and the soul of a party operative. He is not satisfied with being only one.</p>
<p>The mistake carried a high price. This week, Beilin was compelled to announce his resignation from the Meretz chairmanship.</p>
<p>There is something mysterious in the character of this party: it devours its leaders, one after another. First its founding mother, Shulamit Aloni, was practically kicked out. The man who did this, Yossi Sarid, was compelled to resign in his turn, when the party shrank from 12 to 6 Knesset seats, turning from a medium into a small party. After the last elections, under Beilin, it was down to 5.</p>
<p>Under his leadership, the Meretz faction was a strange bird: neither a real opposition party nor a member of the coalition. Beilin grew up in the establishment, and even when he is formally in opposition he thinks and acts like a member of the establishment. Not only did Meretz, under his leadership, support Sharon’s Separation Plan and Olmert’s Lebanon war, but even since then Beilin has been openly flirting with the Prime Minister. Just when the great majority in the country has reached the conclusion that Olmert is unfit for his job, Beilin gives him a Kosher certificate.</p>
<p>He says that he believes that Olmert sincerely wants peace. He quotes with approval the sayings of the New Olmert: “My father was wrong and Ben-Gurion was right” (Olmert’s father was an Irgun stalwart), and also “Israel is lost” if it does not implement the Two-State solution. Nice-sounding sentences – only Olmert moves in the very opposite direction, avoiding serious peace negotiations and waging war in Gaza. Now the Meretz people seem to have had enough.</p>
<p>When a party kicks its leader out, it is always a sad event. But this is not the first time it has happened to Beilin, and that invites some serious questions.</p>
<p>He grew up from early youth in the Labor Party and was one of the promising foster-children of Shimon Peres. As Deputy Foreign Minister he had the opportunity to give full scope to his untiring creativity. But then Ehud Barak came to power, with his uncanny ability to put the wrong person in the wrong position. Beilin was appointed Minister of Justice, a job that paralyzed his special talents.</p>
<p>On the eve of the next elections, the Labor Party banished Beilin to a hopeless place on its election list. In fury and frustration, he left the party, slammed the door behind him and joined Meretz. Now he has been practically pushed out of there.</p>
<p>Unlike Shulamit Aloni and Yossi Sarid, Beilin has no intention of “going home”. His fertile brain is already hatching new plans. In recent interviews he prophesies a fundamental change in the political landscape and the creation of a new political force including members from Kadima, Labor and Meretz. Presumably he imagines that this party would be headed by Olmert, and that Beilin would play a central role. It would be fighting against Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak.</p>
<p>An interesting idea, but its chances are close to nil.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>BEILIN’S PROBLEMS go beyond his personal story. They symbolize the tragedy of the camp which calls itself the “Zionist Left”. Probably the appellation itself already contains the problem.</p>
<p>This camp was born a hundred years ago, and it seems that it never once engaged in real self-criticism. In his last interview, Beilin uses all the terminology of the Zionist establishment. Like everybody else he calls the Palestinian fighters in the Gaza strip “terrorists”. In his scale of values, “it is important that a boy attains the rank of an outstanding soldier”. And, of course, “If Israel ceases to be a Jewish state, I will have no more interest in it.”</p>
<p>With such views, the Zionist peace camp cannot become a political fighting force, engage in a real opposition struggle, bring about change in the country. And that is more than just one of Yossi Beilin’s personal problems.</p>
<p>URI AVNERY is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He is o a contributor to CounterPunch’s book <a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Books.html" type="external">The Politics of Anti-Semitism</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The Beilin Syndrome | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/12/31/the-beilin-syndrome/ | 2007-12-31 | 4 |
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<p>HULL: One of 50 mayors to sign letter on outlay bill</p>
<p>Hull was one of 50 mayors signing a letter encouraging the state House and Senate to "come together with the governor and craft a capital outlay bill that is acceptable to both chambers and the executive." Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry, Bernalillo Mayor Jack Torres and Corrales Mayor Scott Kominiak also signed the letter.</p>
<p>Lawmakers failed to pass a capital outlay bill in this year's two-month legislative session. Had it passed, the $264 million capital outlay bill would have helped pay for a number of state projects, including purchasing rights-of-way for the proposed extension of Paseo del Volcan and other local projects.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The mayors' letter, addressed to Gov. Susana Martinez and signed Thursday, states that if a compromise bill were drafted by the governor and the Legislature, a special session would be necessary to have it approved.</p>
<p>The letter notes that the outlay bill "will put thousands of people to work and will serve to improve public safety, infrastructure, schools and quality of life for our citizens."</p>
<p>"A capital outlay bill not only funds important projects that benefit New Mexicans, but is also essential to stimulate the economy," Hull said in a news release.</p>
<p>Sen. John Sapien, D-Corrales, echoed Hull's comments Friday morning during a legislative wrap-up breakfast sponsored by NAIOP, the Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Sandoval Economic Alliance.</p>
<p>"We need to come back to get a capital outlay bill passed; it impacts everyone in this room," he said. "There's some compromise that needs to be worked out, there's some discussion about whether we borrow to fund a road, but those are conversations we need to make and come together, and get that done."</p>
<p>Friday's meeting was attended by about 150 people, including state representatives, business representatives, and members of NAIOP, RRRCC and SEA.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Reps. Jane Powdrell-Culbert and Jason Harper, and Sens. Craig Brandt, John Ryan and Sapien answered questions about the session from SEA President and CEO Jami Grindatto, and Debbi Moore, president and CEO of RRRCC.</p>
<p>Powdrell-Culbert, Sapien and Ryan encouraged stronger communication efforts between business leaders and lawmakers before the legislative session begins.</p>
<p>"By the time we get to the session, we have heard every issue that we could and we've made some decisions," Powdrell-Culbert said. "We do not get enough input from the business community, as well as from constituents around the state."</p>
<p>Ryan said special events do not need to be scheduled for conversations between legislators and business leaders to take place.</p>
<p>"We need to hear from you in any way, whether it's a coffee or a committee or a big event like this, we want to know what drives you and try to figure out the issues that you care most about," he said.</p>
<p>A number of bills that would have helped businesses, including two workers compensation bills, were held up too long before seeing a vote, Brandt said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>"That's some of the games that get played up there sometimes and, if you want that to change, we need leadership. That's a problem," he said.</p>
<p>Harper said he was looking forward to next year's session, saying his gross receipts tax reset bill would help small-business owners throughout the state.</p>
<p>The bill, introduced in this past session as House Bill 491, proposes to remove all 370 GRT business exemptions, while decreasing the state's GRT to about 2 percent.</p>
<p>Harper said although smart tax policy legislation isn't a "silver bullet," it could help solve a number of issues, including state education.</p>
<p>"I do believe that, if we had a good tax structure here that was simple and fair, that pushes businesses to grow and pushes business to go here, that would have implications far wider than this business community," he said. "If parents could stay at home in the evenings instead of working a second job, and help their kids with their homework, that would be a huge help toward our children's education."</p>
<p /> | Hull joins call for a special session | false | https://abqjournal.com/571582/hull-joins-call-for-a-special-session.html | 2 |
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<p>(Screenshot via YouTube.)</p>
<p>“Modern Family” will come to an end after season 10, according to co-creators&#160;Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd.</p>
<p>Levitan and Lloyd told the <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/modern-family-200th-episode-steve-levitan-christopher-lloyd-interview-1069638" type="external">Hollywood Reporter</a>they&#160;“can’t imagine” the show continuing past next season.</p>
<p>“Our plan is to end it at 10,” Levitan says. “If we can leave with most of our audience wanting more, I think that’s the right way to do it.”</p>
<p>As for how the&#160;Dunphy and Pritchett family stories will conclude Lloyd, whose previous work includes “Fraiser,” says they’ve already started thinking about endings to the show.</p>
<p>“We went through these questions on ‘Frasier,’ when we brought that around after 11 seasons and sort of said, ‘Well, the Shakespearean route on that is a birth, a death or a wedding,’ and we managed to effectively do all three in the final episode. So it may be some conversation that starts there, but we haven’t figured out the episode we’re doing three weeks from now. It’s just a little over a year and a half from now. We’ve got time to think about that,” Lloyd says.</p>
<p>“Modern Family” has been a smash hit since its 2009 debut. It’s raked in 22 Primetime Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe Award. The show recently aired its 200th episode.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Christopher Lloyd</a> <a href="" type="internal">Modern Family</a> <a href="" type="internal">Steven Levitan</a></p> | ‘Modern Family’ to end after next season | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2018/01/15/modern-family-to-end-after-season-10/ | 3 |
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<p>The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals announced that, starting this month, it will allow live video streaming of all its en banc proceedings – those at which a full panel of judges is present. It has allowed live coverage only in selected cases in the past. Since 1996, federal appeals courts have been allowed to choose for themselves whether to broadcast proceedings, but very few have done so.</p>
<p>In taking this action, the 9th Circuit joins very good company. Every state Supreme Court allows cameras. And in November, Britain – whose legal establishment is so conservative some judges and attorneys wear powdered wigs – lifted its 88-year-old ban on cameras in its Court of Appeal. Its highest court began televising cases in 2009.</p>
<p>The U.S. Supreme Court is now one of the last major institutions of Western civilization that has not entered the 21st century technologically. I join with those in a growing movement calling on the justices to change that.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>When Justice David H. Souter uttered his now-infamous declaration in 1996 that cameras would roll into the Supreme Court over his dead body, the Internet was relatively new, and Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and the iPhone were as real as Capt. Kirk’s communicator. Today, there are few facets of daily life that are not available instantly online, including many criminal trials, which you can watch on your mobile device at 30,000 feet.</p>
<p>What this has done is create an expectation by the public that if something is truly important, it can be witnessed firsthand. Nearly every institution of democratic government has responded. Online access – and particularly video – is routine, whether for local town hall meetings or presidential announcements.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court’s oral arguments stand as the lone exception. The court views itself as truly exceptional, fundamentally unique from all other institutions in a way that cameras would somehow spoil.</p>
<p>The problem with this view is that, after three decades of other courts using cameras, we don’t have to speculate about the effects. In Ohio, we have been broadcasting our cases live on television and the Internet for almost 10 years. The evidence shows that cameras in the courtrooms are a positive experience.</p>
<p>Last month, I spoke at the National Press Club with others from across the political spectrum who would normally find few things to agree on, yet we all agreed that the U.S. Supreme Court should open its proceedings to cameras. We considered the arguments against cameras and found them all wanting.</p>
<p>Some Supreme Court justices have worried that cameras would lead to grandstanding as advocates try to show off for viewers. In my experience, this simply doesn’t happen. Attorneys know the only audience they need to convince sits right in front of them, and justices would not allow them to forget that fact.</p>
<p>The justices of the Supreme Court often claim that they do not want to be public figures. But members of the public have as much right to see them in action as they do their mayors or members of Congress. And privacy concerns do not appear to prevent justices of all ideological stripes from turning to public appearances when promoting one of their books.</p>
<p>Preserving the majesty of the high court is the core of the argument against cameras, but the idea that the court as an institution requires insulation is wrong. One member of the panel at the National Press Club meeting, Kenneth Starr, president of Baylor University and former U.S. solicitor general, joked that, “with all due respect,” the Supreme Court justices “are not the Oracle of Delphi telling us what the gods mean.”</p>
<p>In recent polls, public confidence in the Supreme Court is near an all-time low. This decline will continue until the Supreme Court operates less like an ancient Greek soothsayer and more like the coequal branch of modern government that it is.</p>
<p /> | Supreme Court needs to let cameras in the courtroom | false | https://abqjournal.com/326387/supreme-court-needs-to-let-cameras-in-the-courtroom.html | 2 |
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<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/bowey.jpg" type="external" />HAILEY Idaho (Reuters) - The hometown of U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl has canceled a rally planned for later this month celebrating his release from five years of Taliban captivity, a municipal official told Reuters on Wednesday, amid allegations that he was a deserter. Heather Dawson, the city administrator [?]</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/04/us-usa-afghanistan-bergdahl-hometown-idUSKBN0EF26O20140604?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=domesticNews" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.reuters.com</a></p>
<p /> | Bergdahl's hometown cancels planned celebration | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/idaho-hometown-of-newly-freed-soldier-cancels-planned-celebration-2/ | 0 |
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<p>WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Navajo Nation officials say they have a plan for improving a problem-plagued veterans housing program.</p>
<p>Tribal President Russell Begaye’s office says the Navajo Nation Veterans Administration submitted a corrective action plan in response to critical audit findings.</p>
<p>The findings included poor accountability for building materials, selection of ineligible veterans for homes, poor construction management and uninhabitable homes.</p>
<p>Begaye’s office says the veterans housing program is revising its policies and procedures to implement the corrective action plan.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Navajo officials: Plan in place to fix vets housing program | false | https://abqjournal.com/955076/navajo-officials-plan-in-place-to-fix-vets-housing-program.html | 2 |
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<p>He lived in south London and worked as a Web developer at Morgan Stanley, making 70,000 pounds (about $89,000) a year.</p>
<p>He was active on Grindr, the popular gay dating app.</p>
<p>And he was a huge fan of the American crime drama, “Breaking Bad,” according to the Guardian. How big of a fan? So much so, prosecutors said, that Brizzi copied techniques used by the show’s main character, Walter White, to dissolve body parts in a bathtub full of acid – one of the signature moments of the TV series.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Those body parts Brizzi attempted to dissolve were of Gordon Semple, a 59-year-old police constable whom Brizzi, an Italian national, met on Grindr in April, the Guardian reported.</p>
<p>Brizzi was found guilty last month of murdering Semple, a three-decade veteran of London’s Metropolitan Police Service. On Monday, a judge sentenced Brizzi to life in prison with a minimum of 24 years served, the Guardian reported.</p>
<p>The 50-year-old also faces a concurrent seven-year sentence for obstructing a coroner.</p>
<p>“Regret you express now for Mr. Semple’s death has to be seen against what you did over a number of days to his body,” Judge Nicholas Hilliard told him, according to the Guardian.</p>
<p>Semple had recently completed 30 years with the Metropolitan Police Service, where he worked with the antisocial-behavior team, his brother told the Sunday Post.</p>
<p>“We couldn’t walk past any big pub or club without them stopping him and shaking hands,” Ronnie Semple said. “He was well known and well respected.”</p>
<p>Brizzi is the second British man in recent months to kill someone he met on Grindr. Last month, Stephen Port – who denied all charges against him – was found guilty of murdering four men after luring them to his London flat, according to Sky News. Port drugged his victims with fatal doses of GHB and raped them after they had fallen unconscious, according to the BBC.</p>
<p>What Brizzi’s crime lacked in the number of victims he made up for in sheer horror. What exactly the convicted killer did to Semple’s body and how he did it is not entirely clear, but the judge noted that the case included “terrible features.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>According to the Guardian, Semple went to Brizzi’s flat after the pair made contact on Grindr. Semple was supposed to be working when he messaged Brizzi that he was “free now for [a] hot, dirty, sleazy session,” the paper reported.</p>
<p>Grindr did not respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>The company’s safety tips urge users to be cautious, noting that people should be careful about revealing personal information to strangers and should remember to let a trusted person know where they’re going if they plan to meet someone.</p>
<p>“If you start out lying, you will eventually get caught,” the company says. “Don’t bait and switch – it’s the surest way for things to end badly. Grindr is not the venue for you to explore your fantasies of being a different person. That’s not fair to the Grindr community, which thrives on honest representations.”</p>
<p>In the United States, the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission have issued warnings about romance scams perpetrated through such apps and dating sites.</p>
<p>“Millions of Americans visit online dating websites every year hoping to find a companion or even a soul mate,” the FBI said just before Valentine’s Day, adding that “the FBI wants to warn you that criminals use these sites, too, looking to turn the lonely and vulnerable into fast money through a variety of scams.”</p>
<p>Brizzi claimed Semple was accidentally killed during a “sex game gone wrong,” one that involved the constable being accidentally strangled by a dog leash, according to the BBC.</p>
<p>But a jury decided that Semple’s death was no accident.</p>
<p>Prosecutors maintained that the accidental strangling would have taken much longer than Brizzi’s story suggested it did, the BBC reported.</p>
<p>Adding to suspicion surrounding the death, prosecutors said, was that the two men had been hoping to bring more people to their sex party – but that when a third man showed up, Brizzi sent him on his way.</p>
<p>“I was right in the middle of strangling Gordon and I said to him, ‘Look, this is not the right time now, people are falling ill and it’s a mess,'” Brizzi said, according to the Independent.</p>
<p>In reality, investigators said, Semple had been killed.</p>
<p>Days later, as Semple’s partner at work desperately called his phone and reported him missing, Brizzi was trying to dispose of his victim. He was captured on camera buying tools that he would use to get rid of the body – heavy-duty scissors, knives, plastic buckets, cleaning products and a perforated metal sheet, according to the Guardian.</p>
<p>Those tools were used in horrific fashion to remove the flesh from Semple’s body, the paper reported. Some parts of the body reportedly were found in the bathtub, others in the buckets Brizzi had purchased.</p>
<p>In addition to trying to dissolve the body using acid, Brizzi dismembered other parts. Investigators also found teeth marks on a rib discovered in Brizzi’s kitchen, though he denied attempting to eat his victim’s body, according to the Independent.</p>
<p>There were also “pools of human fat in the oven,” the paper reported. And investigators found blood on the oven handle and Semple’s DNA on chopsticks and a cooking pot, the Guardian reported.</p>
<p>A human foot was later found in a nearby neighborhood, but many of Semple’s remains were never found. What remained of the body was eventually discovered by police after neighbors reported a putrid smell emanating from Brizzi’s apartment.</p>
<p>More than 400 people attended Semple’s funeral, the Sunday Post reported, and his fellow officers served as his pallbearers.</p>
<p>“Gordon was obviously involved in things we knew nothing about but to us, he will always be the Gordon we knew,” Ronnie Semple said of his brother. “We were very proud of him.”</p>
<p>Of his brother’s killer, he added: “I hope he rots in jail; the guy is a monster.”</p>
<p>British media labeled Brizzi a “Satanist” and said his life began to unravel after he developed a severe addiction to crystal meth that cost him his career at Morgan Stanley.</p>
<p>During his trial, jurors were shown footage of Brizzi being interviewed by detectives after his arrest in April. Asked about his drug use over the previous 24 hours, he admitted that while disposing of Gordon Semple’s body, he thought he was “getting away with it,” the Guardian reported.</p>
<p>“Yes, I took crystal meth yesterday when I was thinking I should get rid of the corpse. . . . Four days have passed by and nobody had seen or said anything. I thought I was getting away with it. I had nearly finished but I took a shot, I was going to finish the job today,” the Guardian quoted him as saying.</p>
<p>Investigators found a copy of the satanic bible downloaded on Brizzi’s computer, as well as notes he’d written to the devil. He confessed to police that he killed Semple, noting that “Satan told me to,” the Independent reported.</p>
<p>The Independent reported that Brizzi cried and said “I’m sorry” throughout his trial. Yet, he told jurors that his victim died in a “state of erotic bliss.”</p>
<p>london-bathtub</p> | ‘Breaking Bad’ fan tried to get rid of a body like Walter White – using a bathtub full of acid | false | https://abqjournal.com/907732/breaking-bad-fan-tried-to-get-rid-of-a-body-like-walter-white-using-a-bathtub-full-of-acid.html | 2 |
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<p>During a press conference Tuesday President Trump once again commented on the violence in Charlottesville. Naturally, his remarks were instantly mischaracterized to portray Trump as condoning the very neo-Nazis and white supremacists he condemned in a brief speech Monday.</p>
<p>In no time, the political media set began virtue signalling based on inaccurate summations of what Trump said. Heaven forbid media actually listen to or watch the words on which they comment.</p>
<p />
<p>This rush to blame without proper knowledge has become a common occurance thanks to summaries like this one. Apparently, taking two minutes to watch the included video is too arduous a task:</p>
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<p>“You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people—on both sides—you had people in that group—excuse me. Excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue, and the re-naming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.”</p>
<p>Amazingly, everyone rushing to denounce Trump for his remarks they didn’t read or hear missed the whole part where Trump said, “the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists…should be condemned totally.”</p>
<p>“You’re changing history. You’re changing culture, and you had people—and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, OK? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.”</p>
<p>Full remarks <a href="https://news.grabien.com/making-transcript-trump-press-conference-charlottesville" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>It always helps to read what you’re complaining about in entirety. Something about credibility and integrity and those things few are interested in these days.</p>
<p>Follow Kemberlee on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/KemberleeKaye" type="external">@kemberleekaye</a></p> | No, Trump Did Not Call neo-Nazis and White Nationalists “Very Fine People” | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/08/no-trump-did-not-call-nazis-and-white-nationalists-very-fine-people/ | 2017-08-15 | 0 |
<p>The California Public Utilities Commission has had an extremely rough two years. Its former longtime director, Michael Peevey, is facing <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-watchdog-peevey-20151230-story.html" type="external">criminal changes</a> for his actions in arranging for ratepayers to pay 70 percent of the $4.7 billion cost of shuttering the San Onofre nuclear power plant, minimizing the cost for majority owner Southern California Edison and minority owner San Diego Gas &amp; Electric. The failure of PUC regulatory efforts is being decried in federal court documents relating to the 2010 natural gas pipeline that killed eight people in San Bruno and led to a <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_29400928/witness-pg-e-san-bruno-explosion-trial-also" type="external">March 9 trial</a>&#160;over related criminal charges against Pacific Gas &amp; Electric. Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, has proposed legislation to <a href="http://asmdc.org/members/a43/news-room/press-releases/assemblyman-mike-gatto-announces-legislation-to-restructure-the-public-utilities-commission" type="external">force radical changes</a> on what he calls the “scandal-ridden” agency.</p>
<p>Now there’s one more story that places the PUC in very unflattering light. KQED has <a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/02/17/electrocution-deaths-spark-new-questions-legislation-at-cpuc" type="external">details</a>:</p>
<p>In 2011, Steven and Sharon Vego, along with their 21-year-old&#160;son, Jonathan Cole, were killed after a power line went down in their backyard in San Bernardino. …</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[The Vegos] left behind two kids — one of whom watched from inside the family house as her father, then mother and brother, all died in January 2011.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Within a few months, the&#160;surviving children filed a&#160;lawsuit&#160;and asked the CPUC for its investigation report. The CPUC voted in May 2011 to allow the release of that report. It was issued Dec. 17, 2012, and found that the incident was not only Southern California Edison’s fault, but that it could have been prevented if the utility had responded to previous issues on the same electricity circuit.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>But public records released by the CPUC show the agency&#160;didn’t give the report to the Vego family until March 19, 2014 — more than two years after the family settled its lawsuit with Southern California Edison. And the CPUC waited until five days after it had entered into a settlement agreement in which Southern California Edison&#160;admitted that it violated state regulations, that there had been similar incidents previously and agreed to a $16.5 million fine.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/299496795/Calif-Senate-Record-Request-on-Triple-Electrocution-Records" type="external">Feb. 16 letter</a> to CPUC President Michael Picker, Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, decried how the “commission&#160;—&#160;which was the only public entity to perform an investigation&#160;—&#160;effectively took the&#160;side of the utility against the grieving family in a civil matter.”</p>
<p>“You know everyone seems to characterize the relationship between the PUC and the utilities as cozy. Well, I think some of this, what we are finding out, shows not just a coziness but a collusion, and that’s the part that I think is most troubling. Collusion gets into what I look at as corruption, what I look at as something that could be dishonest,” Hill told KQED.</p>
<p>The former San Mateo mayor says this is not the only recent example of Edison dealing unfairly with victims of its defective maintenance. He cited the case of Brandon Orozco, an apprentice working for an Edison contractor who was <a href="http://www.latimes.com/tn-hbi-me-0430-orozco-lawsuit-20150429-story.html" type="external">shocked to death</a> at an underground Edison facility in Huntington Harbour in 2013.</p>
<p>Hill said the Public Utilities Commission, especially given that it had formally concluded Edison was responsible for Orozco’s death, should have taken on the utility when it <a href="http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M155/K978/155978831.PDF" type="external">refused to release</a>its internal investigation into the accident. The utility cited attorney-client privilege — even though state law “clearly states that the commission, and each commissioner, and anyone employed by the commission, can at any time inspect the account, book or documents of any public utility,” Hill told KQED.</p> | Utilities Commission sides with Edison over family killed by downed power line | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2016/02/19/utilities-commission-sides-edison-family-killed-downed-power-line/ | 2018-02-20 | 3 |
<p>TEHRAN (Reuters) - An increase in crude output by Saudi Arabia will not change market conditions as demand is for lighter oil than it provides, Iran's <a href="" type="internal">OPEC</a> governor was on Saturday quoted as saying, reiterating Tehran's stance that there is no need to boost production.</p>
<p>At a meeting in Vienna this week, OPEC failed to agree on an increase in production, which consuming countries wanted and which leading exporter Saudi Arabia pushed for, because other producers, including Iran, said they feared prices could tumble.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia will raise output to 10 million barrels per day in July from 8.8 million bpd in May, Saudi newspaper al-Hayat reported on Friday, as Riyadh proceeds outside official OPEC policy.</p>
<p>Mohammad Ali Khatibi told the Iran newspaper that the three countries that supported an output increase -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates -- had done so under U.S. pressure.</p>
<p>"There is currently absolutely no shortage in the market, and consequently there is no need to raise production," he said. "Raising supply in the absence of demand would amount to an interference in the market flow."</p>
<p>"These three countries can only raise the production of heavy and sour oils, while the market will only absorb increased production if it is of light category as there is no demand for heavy oil in the market.</p>
<p>"The absorption of heavy oil as feedstock by refining establishments would require a change in the refining mode and investment which is costly and time consuming and something which they won't do. They (the market) are awaiting the return of Libya's crude of (the) light category," Khatibi said.</p>
<p>Iran, which holds the rotating presidency of OPEC, has suggested holding an emergency meeting before the group is due to meet again in Vienna in December.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Hashem Kalantari; writing by Robin Pomeroy; editing by Patrick Graham)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Iran says Saudi crude increase will not change market | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/06/11/iran-says-saudi-crude-increase-will-not-change-market.html | 2016-01-29 | 0 |
<p>White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said President Obama will promote Hillary Clinton at a D.C. fundraiser. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)</p>
<p>On the day President Obama is set to attend a high-dollar D.C. fundraiser for LGBT donors, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Obama will make the case for “a legacy that can be built on” under a Clinton administration.</p>
<p>Under questioning from the Washington Blade on Tuesday, Earnest described the fundraiser as “a rather small event,” which is why he said it isn’t open to the press, and said Obama will discuss with those in attendance the importance of the upcoming election.</p>
<p>“The president will spend his time in discussion with those who are attending the event in talking about something you’ve heard the president talk about a lot before, which is the stakes in this election, how important it is for Democrats to stand up for our values and fight in support of a candidate that’s seeking to advance them,” Earnest said.</p>
<p>Recalling Obama has already “spoken a lot publicly” about his support for Hillary Clinton, Earnest said he expects the president to “reiterate that pitch once again.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">As the Blade reported last week,</a> the fundraiser — where the cheapest&#160;ticket is&#160;$33,400 — is titled “LGBT Allies and Discussion” and is set to take place at the D.C. home of lesbian couple&#160;Karen Dixon and Nan Schaffer, major&#160;supporters of LGBT rights and the Democratic Party.</p>
<p>One issue that could emerge is the <a href="" type="internal">possibility of appointing an openly LGBT Cabinet member</a> in the next administration, which is an achievement that has yet to occur even during the Obama era despite its record number of at least 300 LGBT appointees.</p>
<p>Asked what Obama would say in response to that issue, or any kind of achievements in LGBT rights sought by those in attendance, Earnest touted the general diversity of appointees in the administration, saying Obama “is quite proud of appointing senior officials in his administration that reflect the diversity of the country.”</p>
<p>“Whether you evaluate that diversity based on race, or religion, or sexual orientation, the president’s record surpasses that of his predecessors, and he’s quite proud of that legacy,” Earnest said.</p>
<p>Earnest added Obama believes “that’s a legacy that can be built on,” but deferred&#160;to Clinton for “the kinds of appointments that she would choose to make if she were elected president.”</p>
<p>Clinton has&#160;expressed a commitment to advancing and protecting LGBT rights over the course of her campaign, but hasn’t explicitly said whether she’d be open to appointing an openly LGBT Cabinet member.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">election 2016</a> <a href="" type="internal">Josh Earnest</a> <a href="" type="internal">White House</a></p> | White House: Obama to make case for Clinton at D.C. LGBT event | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/09/27/white-house-obama-to-make-case-for-clinton-at-d-c-lgbt-event/ | 3 |
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<p>By Marton Dunai</p>
<p>BUDAPEST (Reuters) – About a thousand Hungarians protested on Friday against a crackdown on the main opposition party Jobbik which has been threatened by a record political campaign fine that the party leader describes as a “death sentence” for democracy.</p>
<p>Despite the gloomy rhetoric and Jobbik saying it was fighting for survival, support for the demonstration was well down on other similar rallies over the past year.</p>
<p>Hungarians will vote for a new parliament in April and Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s conservative, anti-migrant Fidesz party is far ahead in the polls, with Jobbik its nearest rival.</p>
<p>Jobbik, once on the far right, has turned toward the center in a bid to attract more support and is now campaigning nationwide against Orban, depicting him as the leader of a criminal gang.</p>
<p>Orban, rejecting the charges, says his financial standing is “an open book”.</p>
<p>Last week the state audit office (ASZ) ruled Jobbik had bought political posters far below market prices, breaching rules on political funding, then it slapped a 663 million forint ($2.5 million) penalty on the party.</p>
<p>The protesters, waving Jobbik flags and posters deriding the ruling elite, gathered outside the headquarters of Orban’s Fidesz party.</p>
<p>“What we see unfolding is not an audit office investigation. It is not an official penalty. This is a death sentence with Jobbik’s name on it. But in reality, it is a death sentence for Hungarian democracy,” Jobbiik leader Gabor Vona told the crowd.</p>
<p>A government spokesman could not comment immediately on his remarks.</p>
<p>ASZ chairman Laszlo Domokos is a former Fidesz lawmaker, whom Jobbik and other critics accuse of making decisions in favor of Orban. The audit office denies that.</p>
<p>On Friday, ASZ again called on Jobbik to submit information that would challenge its findings, saying it acted fully within its rights throughout the probe. The ruling Fidesz party and the government have denied any involvement in the ASZ probe.</p>
<p>“This case has nothing to do with the election campaign,” Orban aide Janos Lazar said on Thursday.</p>
<p>For over a year Fidesz has targeted Jobbik, whose move to the center could upend the longstanding status quo of a dominant Fidesz with weaker opponents to its left and its right, said analyst Zoltan Novak at the Centre for Fair Political Analysis.</p>
<p>Gyorgy Illes, a 67-year-old pensioner attending the rally, said he used to be a Socialist supporter but got disillusioned as the party struggled to overcome its internal divisions.</p>
<p>“This ASZ probe is a clear sign that Orban is way past any remedy. It is a ruthless attack on everything we hold dear. Democracy, the rule of law, equality, you name it,” he said.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Supporters of Hungarian Jobbik opposition party protest over crackdown | false | https://newsline.com/supporters-of-hungarian-jobbik-opposition-party-protest-over-crackdown/ | 2017-12-15 | 1 |
<p>On Sunday, Politico published an <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/the-happy-go-lucky-jewish-group-that-connects-trump-and-putin-215007" type="external">article</a> casting Chabad (a Jewish organization dedicated to increasing religious observance among global Jewry) as an interlocutor of political power connecting President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.</p>
<p />
<p>Against a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/29/politics/russia-investigation-cast-of-characters/" type="external">backdrop</a> in which 2016's presidential election is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/russian-election-hacking" type="external">suggested</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/russian-election-hacking" type="external">to have been compromised</a> by "interference" from the Russian government at the direction of Putin (with possible " <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/did-trump-attack-assad-end-russian-collusion-story-580754" type="external">collusion</a>" from Trump and his political teams), Politico portrays Chabad as another brick of intrigue in its <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/obama-russia-hacking-trump-214976" type="external">narrative wall</a>.</p>
<p>“Some of the shortest routes between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin run straight through [Chabad],” alleges Politico.</p>
<p>As an example of the “piling up” of “links between Trump and Chabad,” Politico points to Trump’s hosting of a wedding at Mar-a-Lago between the daughter and son of two separate Chabad-connected Jewish Soviet emigres.</p>
<p>Politico alleges the existence of an “affinity” between “Chabad enthusiasts” and Trump, describing Chabad’s Jewish membership as “Trump’s kind of Jews.” No mention is made by Politico of long-term political support across observant Jewish denominations - and religious Jews and Christians, more broadly - for Republican and broader conservative values.</p>
<p>Chabad’s relationship with the Russian government is framed as a function of the organization’s political ambition, rather than a function of political necessity given the nature of Russia’s politics. No consideration is offered by Politico of political realities in Russia that would compel Chabad to develop and maintain relationships with Putin in order to best serve its mission.</p>
<p>A Chabad source told The Daily Wire that Rabbi Berel Lazar (a Chabadnik who operates as Russia’s chief rabbi) likely cultivated a relationship with Putin for the purpose of better positioning Chabad towards spreading Judaism to Russia’s Jews.</p>
<p>Politico also hypes tensions between Chabad in Ukraine and Russia, noting the different views expressed by the two Chabad branches over Russia’s annexation of Crimea. No consideration was offered by Politico regarding political pressures on Chabad in Russia to express support for Russia’s policy towards Ukraine.</p>
<p>The Daily Wire was also advised by a Chabad source of Russia's expulsion of some Chabad emissaries, something not noted by Politico. In March, Ari Edelkopf was <a href="http://www.jta.org/2017/03/29/news-opinion/world/u-s-chabad-rabbi-loses-appeal-against-deportation-from-russia" type="external">deemed a threat to national security</a> by a Russian court and ordered to leave the country. <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-orders-siberian-chabad-rabbi-out-of-country/" type="external">In 2014</a>, another Chabad emissary was similarly kicked out of Russia.</p>
<p>Several Twitter users derided Politico's narrative:</p>
<p>Politico presents itself as a politically objective and non-partisan news media outlet.</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Politico: Chabad Is Nexus Of Putin-Trump Conspiracy | true | https://dailywire.com/news/15254/politico-chabad-nexus-putin-trump-conspiracy-robert-kraychik | 2017-04-09 | 0 |
<p>President Trump said Thursday he has been “very consistent” regarding his position on a border wall with Mexico. The comments follow reports that Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly told Democrats that Trump’s position on the wall are evolving. (Jan. 18)</p>
<p>President Trump said Thursday he has been “very consistent” regarding his position on a border wall with Mexico. The comments follow reports that Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly told Democrats that Trump’s position on the wall are evolving. (Jan. 18)</p> | Trump: ‘I Have Been Very Consistent’ on the Wall | false | https://apnews.com/f00d9cabee464e609884625be7861045 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Call me old-fashioned, but there’s something a little unsettling about this Associated Press <a href="http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=4336754&amp;nav=9qrx" type="external">story</a> that appeared on a Palm Springs, Calif., television station’s Web site (hat tip: lucianne.com).</p>
<p>It’s a monthlong exercise and the first time the U.S. Marines and soldiers from Japan’s "Self-Defense" forces have conducted joint war games, according to the AP story.</p>
<p>It was, after all, on the beaches of Camp Pendleton (and Santa Catalina Island) that John Wayne almost single-handedly defeated the forces of His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, in the 1949 movie "The Sands of Iwo Jima."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>And it doesn’t seem that long ago — as recounted in the lumbering 1979 comedy "1941," one of Steven Spielberg’s few box-office flops — that Californians were in a post-Pearl Harbor dither about a possible invasion by the Japanese.</p>
<p>Spielberg had great fun at the expense of panic-stricken Californians, but given the jitters at the time — and the fact that a Japanese submarine had actually shelled refineries off the coast of Santa Barbara — maybe the movie just wasn’t that funny.</p>
<p>But the people who might not be laughing now and who might really be unsettled by the joint exercises are the Chinese.</p>
<p>According to the AP story, defense experts in Japan say the point of these exercises is to warn China that the Japanese are not to be trifled with.</p> | 11:05am — Japanese Troops in Calif. | false | https://abqjournal.com/22103/1105am-japanese-troops-in-calif.html | 2 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>In the wake of a&#160;big legislative setback,&#160;Gov. Jerry Brown’s wish to use regulations to cut fuel emissions is swiftly coming true.</p>
<p>This month, Democratic lawmakers&#160;couldn’t muster enough votes to slash gasoline use by half&#160;within 15 years. Now, the state Air Resources Board has taken action widely seen as compensatory. “The action, coming two weeks after a stinging defeat for Gov. Jerry Brown’s planned 50 percent cut in petroleum use by 2030, signaled his administration’s determination to press forward with an aggressive environmental agenda through the regulatory process rather than by legislation,” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/26/us/california-board-backs-new-limits-on-carbon-from-gas-and-diesel.html?_r=0" type="external">noted</a> the New York Times.</p>
<p>In&#160;a unanimous, 9-0 vote, the board chose to reactivate&#160;California’s&#160;standards on low-carbon fuel, created years ago but recently held in legal limbo. The regime&#160;constituted&#160;“the first regulation of its kind in the U.S. when it was established in a 2007 executive order by then-Gov.&#160;Arnold Schwarzenegger,” as the Wall Street Journal <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/california-restores-rule-to-cut-carbon-in-fuel-by-10-1443219215?cb=logged0.6007420741952956" type="external">reported</a>. “It had been frozen since 2013, as the state made revisions to the law following a court challenge.”</p>
<p>“The California regulation further tightens the state’s emissions regulations, already the most stringent in the U.S. It requires fuel makers to reduce emissions by developing cleaner fuels or adopting greater use of biofuels. It also requires fuel producers to take into account all emissions for delivering gasoline, diesel or biofuels to California customers.”</p>
<p>Tweaks to the rules made in the wake of the court challenge included “streamlining the application process for alternative fuel producers seeking a carbon intensity score,” <a href="http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/12653/carb-re-adopts-stateundefineds-low-carbon-fuel-standard" type="external">according</a> to Ethanol Producer Magazine.</p>
<p>The interventions quickly drew howls from the oil and gas industry, which views the rules’ requirements as unattainable.&#160;Tiffany Roberts, director for fuels and climate policy at the&#160;Western States Petroleum Association, <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2015/09/24/another-battle-looms-between-oil-industry-and.html" type="external">told</a> the Sacramento Business Journal they weren’t feasible, suggesting that “even if oil businesses are able to incorporate those pollution-cutting methods, they still cannot meet the program’s aggressive standards.” Defenders of the plan, meanwhile, focused on its perceived benefits. “It will drive new technologies, not only in transportation fuel but in hybrid cars, electric cars and other means of transportation,” Pacific Ethanol spokesman&#160;Paul Koehler&#160; <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2015/09/25/air-board-approves-rule-to-raise-gas-prices-open.html" type="external">told</a> the Business Journal.</p>
<p>Industry interests haven’t fueled the only criticism of Brown’s regulatory approach, however. Earlier this month, the administration heard out the complaints of a gaggle of state lawmakers — including Democrats — frustrated by the activism and assertiveness of the Air Resources Board.&#160;Their debate with Brown&#160;“turns on questions of how the state can meet its environmental goals with the right balance between the executive branch, which prizes the ability to act independently, and state lawmakers, who want their own stamp on government programs,” <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-air-board-20150906-story.html" type="external">according</a> to the Los Angeles Times.</p>
<p>That disagreement came to a head amid the collapse of the Senate’s planned 50 percent cut in statewide&#160;petroleum use. “If the board made decisions adversely impacting constituents, many of whom have already been struggling economically, the consequences could be dire,” uneasy Democrats feared, as CalWatchdog previously&#160; <a href="" type="internal">noted</a>. “What’s more, angry voters&#160;would&#160;have little way to respond but&#160;at the ballot box.”</p>
<p>While state Senate pro Tem&#160;Kevin de Leon portrayed the cut’s failure as the consequence of a massive industry campaign, Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Glendale, instead focused on the Air Resources Board’s&#160;“tremendous arrogance,” the Times reported, “noting that he’s never taken campaign money from the oil industry but remains skeptical about the measure.”</p>
<p>But&#160;the board’s recent successes&#160;at advancing its agenda suggested its influence was set to grow. Tipped by concerned scientists, it launched the investigation into the Volkswagen Group of America that revealed the auto company’s secret years-long&#160;use of “a defeat device to circumvent CARB and […] EPA emission test procedures,” as emissions compliance chief Annette Hebert <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2015/09/23/volkswagen-scandal-linked-to-investigation-by.html" type="external">revealed</a>.</p> | CA regulators crack down on fuel carbon | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2015/10/01/ca-regulators-crack-fuel-carbon/ | 2018-10-20 | 3 |
<p>Sept. 13 (UPI) — White House press secretary Sarah Sanders is scheduled to give an on-camera press briefing Wednesday.</p>
<p>She is set to answer questions from reporters at 2:30 p.m. EDT.</p>
<p>The meeting closely follows a <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/09/13/Watch-live-Trump-holds-bipartisan-meeting-on-tax-reform/7531505317527/?utm_source=fp&amp;utm_campaign=ts_pi&amp;utm_medium=1" type="external">scheduled bipartisan gathering</a> between President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Donald_Trump/" type="external">Donald Trump</a> and more than a dozen lawmakers Wednesday afternoon.</p>
<p>Earlier the day, Trump was set to meet with the Domestic Policy Council before a one-on-one meeting with Sen. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tim-Scott/" type="external">Tim Scott</a>, R-S.C., to discuss the president’s response to the Charlottesville violence last month.</p> | Watch live: Sarah Sanders gives daily White House news briefing | false | https://newsline.com/watch-live-sarah-sanders-gives-daily-white-house-news-briefing/ | 2017-09-13 | 1 |
<p>National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and President Donald Trump had a rough patch of butting heads due to their disparate communication styles, <a href="https://www.axios.com/trump-101-how-to-speak-his-language-2462975363.html" type="external">Axios reported.</a></p>
<p>McMaster, former military, was all about thorough, precise briefings to the president, who instead likes his updates short, visual and spontaneous, Axios reported.</p>
<p>But those briefings have improved lately —&#160;but still awkward —&#160;as McMaster has altered his rigid style by making shorter points in a less-formal style, Axios reported.</p>
<p>Adding to the pair’s difficulties might have been Trump’s decision to bring in Rex Tillerson to the president’s <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/michael-mcfaul-mcmaster-trump-putin/2017/07/07/id/800488/" type="external">meeting with Vladimir Putin</a> at the G-20 over McMaster, a move that could be seen as weakening the NSA.</p>
<p>McMaster’s deputy, Dina Powell, is very good at communicating with Trump, leaning on a more conversational style with many references to Trump and his past statements and beliefs about a topic, Axios reported.</p> | McMaster, Trump Often Didn't Click Due to Conflicting Communication Styles | false | https://newsline.com/mcmaster-trump-often-didnt-click-due-to-conflicting-communication-styles/ | 2017-07-21 | 1 |
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<p>According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New Mexico has the 6th highest older adult fall-related death rate in the United States; 1.6 times higher than the national average.</p>
<p>Many people are not aware that older adult falls are a severe problem, even life threatening. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 1 out of 3 people who are 65 years and older fall each year. Of those who fall, 20 to 30 percent suffer a moderate to severe injury such as a hip fracture.</p>
<p>In New Mexico, falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths, hospitalizations, and emergency room visits among older adults.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Preventing older adult falls is important to me. Falls are a personal issue for my family. My mother, at age 84, lived alone, walked her dog every day, and was willing and ready to go places with her children and grandchildren. She had always been an incredibly strong and sharp woman. Then, she fell.</p>
<p>The X-rays showed a fracture in her spine. After the fall, she became afraid of falling and developed severe pain. She stopped going places and couldn’t take her beloved dog for walks. Her quality of life and health started to decline dramatically.</p>
<p>We lost her in less than 7 months.</p>
<p>Like me, most people have a personal story about how a fall caused significant decline in the health of a neighbor, friend or family member.</p>
<p>Often the public perception is that nothing can be done to prevent these falls and that this is what we should expect as we get older. This is far from the truth. Falls are not a normal part of aging and many can be prevented with effective intervention.</p>
<p>Some evidence based fall prevention programs such as Tai Chi Moving for Better Balance have been shown to decrease the incidence of falls by up to 55 percent.</p>
<p>You can make yourself and your home safer by avoiding improper footwear, removing things that could cause you to trip and installing grab bars and other equipment in the bathroom.</p>
<p>However, avoiding falls involves more than just watching where you step. Many risk factors are within ourselves, such as muscle weakness, joint stiffness, balance difficulties, medication side effects, poor eyesight and blood pressure problems. These risk factors can be modified. Strength and balance can be improved at any point in life.</p>
<p>Falls cost money. In 2010, total fall-related medical costs for New Mexicans 65 years and older exceeded $80 million. This amount does not include family caregiver costs and any loss of income due to time off to take care of a loved one injured in a fall. Often grandparents and other older family members help care for grandchildren so a fall-related injury can be devastating to the whole family.</p>
<p>Older adult falls are a public health crisis. As the population ages, the problem will only get worse without effective intervention. In the 2014 Legislative session, I introduced House Bill 99, to establish a statewide fall risk awareness and prevention program. It passed the House 61-1, the Senate 42-0, and was signed by the governor.</p>
<p>This program starts small and will include an awareness campaign about modifiable fall risk factors as well as increase availability of fall prevention classes. More resources are needed to truly address this large problem.</p>
<p>However, you can take action now. If you or a loved one has a concern about falling, talk to your health care provider about how to reduce the chances of falling. Make sure you have an eye exam and medication review every year. Try to increase your physical activity and remove trip hazards around your home. Preventing falls will help you stay independent.</p>
<p /> | Fall-related death rate a serious problem for older adults in NM | false | https://abqjournal.com/463397/fallrelated-death-rate-a-serious-problem-for-older-adults-in-nm.html | 2 |
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<p>By Balazs Koranyi</p>
<p>FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Cash still dominates consumer payments in the euro zone, even as many Western economies are rapidly moving towards electronic payments, a survey published by the European Central Bank showed on Friday.</p>
<p>The figures indicate that the euro zone is one of the slowest among big Western economies in giving up cash, trailing countries like the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada.</p>
<p>Almost 79 percent of point-of-sale transactions were done in cash last year with the rate in Germany, the bloc’s biggest economy, at 80 percent, underscoring German unease over the ECB’s decision to phase out 500 euro notes, a move widely perceived as a first step in moving away from cash.</p>
<p>Having lived through devastating world wars and hyperinflation, economically conservative Germans rely heavily on cash and even in their banking prefer simple saving products, particularly cash deposits.</p>
<p>By contrast, cash is only used for about 15 percent of similar sales in Sweden with cash in circulation having declined for years, data from the Riksbank showed.</p>
<p>The Dutch and the Estonians used cash the least in the euro zone last year, with less than half of transactions in cash.</p>
<p>Cash is so vital in the euro zone that the average consumer carries 65 euros in their wallet with Germans holding over 100 at any one time.</p>
<p>But highlighting a potential game changer, the ECB said that contactless payments could rapidly increase the number of electronic transactions. In such sales, consumer tap their cards or phones against a terminal, completing small scale purchases instantly, often without the need to enter a PIN.</p>
<p>“The survey results suggest that the speed with which such payments have been embraced in some countries may mean that once payment cards and POS terminals are enabled with contactless technology on a wider scale, the share of contactless payments could increase significantly,” the paper said.</p>
<p>Still, contactless payments accounted for just 1 percent of sales, suggesting that any change is likely to be protracted.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Euro zone consumers still addicted to cash when they buy | false | https://newsline.com/euro-zone-consumers-still-addicted-to-cash-when-they-buy/ | 2017-11-24 | 1 |
<p>(Screenshot via YouTube.)</p>
<p>Tom Daley invited the world to his wedding celebration with Dustin Lance Black in a special video uploaded to his YouTube channel.</p>
<p>Daley, 23, married Black, 43, on May 6 at Bovey Castle in Devon. The video shows the couple getting ready for their nuptials and describing why they fell in love with each other.</p>
<p>“When Tom and I met four years ago, I knew instantly I was in trouble. I knew I’d met my match, I knew I’d met someone who would inspire me, who I could admire but also somebody who could naturally be my best friend,” Black says of the Olympic diver.&#160;“It didn’t hurt that he was also incredibly cute and charismatic and didn’t let me get away with a thing.”</p>
<p>“Within the first few minutes of conversation with Lance, everything changed for me. I fell in love,” Daley describes Black.&#160;“Every single part of him. The way he thinks, the way he acts and everything that he does just makes me fall in love with him every single day, more and more.”</p>
<p>Watch below.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Dustin Lance Black</a> <a href="" type="internal">Tom Daley</a></p> | Tom Daley shares wedding day video with Dustin Lance Black | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2017/08/14/tom-daley-shares-wedding-day-video-dustin-lance-black/ | 3 |
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<p>Incoming White House communications director Anthony <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/anthony-scaramucci-attacks-bannon-priebus/2017/07/27/id/804253/" type="external">Scaramucci’s blue-streaked tirade</a> against Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon was triggered by a false assumption, New Yorker writer Ray Lizza said.</p>
<p>Talking on <a href="http://www.cnn.com/shows/situation-room" type="external">CNN’s “The Situation Room,”</a> about his explosive <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-lizza/anthony-scaramucci-called-me-to-unload-about-white-house-leakers-reince-priebus-and-steve-bannon" type="external">story posted in the New Yorker</a>, Lizza refuted Scaramucci’s belief Priebus was the one who <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/trump-white-house-hannity-scaramucci/2017/07/27/id/804117/" type="external">leaked information about Scaramucci’s dinner</a> with Fox News’ Sean Hannity and President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Scaramucci’s profanity-laced rant followed his condemnation of Priebus for leaking the dinner appointment.</p>
<p>“Reince Priebus did not leak that information,” Lizza told Wolf Blitzer.</p>
<p>And of the public feud between Trump’s top aides, Lizza added: “I don’t see how a White House can function with this kind of civil war. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen.”</p> | Lizza: Scaramucci Tirade Triggered by False Assumption | false | https://newsline.com/lizza-scaramucci-tirade-triggered-by-false-assumption/ | 2017-07-27 | 1 |
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<p>The Gladiators are 4-4 in their 12-game season, half a game behind the idle Amarillo Venom (4-3) for the third and final playoff berth in the Southern Division. First-place Texas is 7-1.</p>
<p>Friday's loss comes six days after Texas defeated Duke City 68-63 at Tingley Coliseum.</p>
<p>Gladiators quarterback Taylor Genuser, who took over for injured starter Bryan Randall last week and threw five TD passes, had three more scoring throws Friday, but also five interceptions.</p>
<p />
<p>Duke City also was foiled by penalties - 14 for 105 yards.</p>
<p>Sedrick Johnson, who had three TD receptions last week for the Gladiators, had two Friday. Dello Davis had the other receiving TD, in addition to a 50-yard score on a kickoff.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Leading the way defensively for Duke City was Ray Berry with seven tackles.</p>
<p>The Gladiators return to action May 7 with a road game against the Mesquite Marshals (1-6). On March 26, Duke City beat Mesquite 70-24 at Tingley Coliseum.</p>
<p>Duke City's next home game is May 28 against Amarillo.</p>
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<p /> | Indoor football: Gladiators tumble on road against Revolution | false | https://abqjournal.com/766161/gladiators-tumble-on-road-against-revolution-4921.html | 2 |
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<p>“ <a href="http://variety.com/t/mad-men/" type="external">Mad Men</a>” creator Matthew Weiner is denying the sexual harassment allegations made against him by writer Kater Gordon who worked for him on the AMC series.</p>
<p>While appearing at Chevalier’s Books in Los Angeles, Calif. on Friday to promote his new book “Heather: The Totality,” Weiner sat down with fellow television writer and producer <a href="http://variety.com/t/jenji-kohan/" type="external">Jenji Kohan</a>.&#160;Kohan started the Q&amp;A by addressing the elephant in the room.</p>
<p>“So, we’re here to talk about the book. This is a time that should be your victory lap,” Kohan began.&#160;“Just to get it out of the way, would you like to speak in regards to an accusation?”</p>
<p>In front of the packed audience, which included members of his family and store co-owner Darryl Holter, who called Weiner a “terrific guest” and noted his routine frequenting of the store, Weiner replied that “the allegation is not true.”</p>
<p>However, Weiner further expanded on the topic of sexual harassment by saying that he considered it a “very important topic” and “a topic that has been an obsession” in his work and life.</p>
<p>“For like 92 hours of the show, we wanted people to be having this conversation. It’s great that we’re having it. It’s a very serious issue. It’s great that we’re having this conversation,” Weiner said.</p>
<p>A couple of people in the crowd clapped, but when Kohan followed up by asking why “she,” referring to Gordon, would allege something against him, he stammered for a second before replying, “I don’t want to speak to someone else’s character, but I will say this: I have hired dozens of women over the years and dozens of people. I am a demanding boss. Especially in the early years, it was very hard to do it. I had a lot of stress and – you know this – it’s very lonely. When I think back on it, if I had to do it differently, letting people go and being mad about having to rewrite everything – I was just angry a lot of the time.”</p>
<p>Weiner added that he wanted the show to be great, but if he had to do things over again, he would do them differently.</p>
<p>“The person I am now would definitely do it in a different way,” he said of the way Gordon was let go from the show, adding that he did want to thank those he’s worked with over the years for their support. “They know how important this is to me and they know the kind of person that I am.”</p>
<p>Earlier in the day <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/matthew-weiner-sexual-harassment-marti-noxon-kater-gordon-1202617591/" type="external">Marti Noxon publicly shared her support and belief of Gordon’s claims against Weiner</a>. Despite Weiner appearing at Chevalier’s Friday, many other stops on his book tour earlier in the week, including ones in Seattle and Washington D.C., <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/matthew-weiner-book-tour-1202617226/" type="external">were canceled</a>.</p>
<p>Weiner is currently working on a new drama series for Amazon entitled “The Romanoffs.”</p> | Matthew Weiner Denies Sexual Harassment Allegations But Says on ‘Mad Men’ He was ‘Angry a Lot of the Time’ | false | https://newsline.com/matthew-weiner-denies-sexual-harassment-allegations-but-says-on-mad-men-he-was-angry-a-lot-of-the-time/ | 2017-11-18 | 1 |
<p>Published time: 8 Dec, 2017 01:40</p>
<p>Japan’s intense work culture may be put to the test by a new drone, circling over the heads of over-industrious employees and blasting out loud music in an attempt to make them go home.</p>
<p>On Thursday, the companies Taisei, NTT East and Blue Innovation unveiled their new T-Frend drone, which hovers around the heads of workers clocking in overtime. It plays Auld Lang Syne, an 18th century Scottish ballad better known in Japan for telling shop customers it’s closing time.</p>
<p>“You can’t really work when you think ‘it’s coming over any time now’ and hear Auld Lang Syne along with the buzz,” Taisei director Norihiro Kato&#160; <a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/go-home-drone-seeks-to-stop-overtime-binge-in-japan-by-hovering-over-employees-and" type="external">told</a> AFP.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/business/405864-japan-firm-fined-overtime/" type="external" /></p>
<p>T-Frend can take a pre-programmed flight across the office autonomously, using its sensors to navigate around walls and other obstacles while staying at a certain height to avoid papers flying up from its propellers. As well as an end-of-work alarm, T-Rend also functions as a security drone, filming surveillance footage and storing the data on an SD card. The drone’s developers are also <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/korea-china-and-japan-look-for-new-drone-markets_us_5950de1be4b0c85b96c65aeb" type="external">considering</a> outfitting it with facial recognition technology to help spot burglars and other intruders after-hours.</p>
<p>T-Frend is expected to be launched in April, with a target price of around 500,000 yen (around $4,400) a month.</p>
<p>Japan’s intense overwork culture dates back to the postwar period when Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida asked corporations to give their employees lifelong job security in exchange for loyalty and dedication. While this has considerably boosted the Japanese economy, it has also created a stressful and even deadly environment where workers push themselves hard to prove themselves to their bosses.</p>
<p>The practice sometimes ends in heart failure, strokes or suicide. These cases are known as ‘ <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-karoshi-japanese-word-for-death-by-overwork-2017-10" type="external">karoshi</a>,’(death by overwork). In October, 31-year-old journalist Miwa Sado’s death in 2013 was ruled as ‘karoshi’ after it turned out she had logged 159 hours of overtime in one month at the NHK news agency.</p> | Japanese firms to deploy singing drones to combat overwork culture | false | https://newsline.com/japanese-firms-to-deploy-singing-drones-to-combat-overwork-culture/ | 2017-12-07 | 1 |
<p>GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Daniel Fowler had 16 points and eight rebounds to help Furman roll over Samford 78-67 in Southern Conference play on Saturday.</p>
<p>Matt Rafferty added 15 points while dishing out a season-high seven assists with two steals. Andrew Brown also contributed 15 points and John Davis III chipped in 11 with six rebounds.</p>
<p>Furman (14-6, 5-2) was up 38-32 at the break. The Paladins pushed that to 58-46 following a Rafferty 3 midway through the second half. Samford closed to 73-65 with 1:10 left before Alex Hunter and Davis made four free throws for a 77-67 lead with 43 seconds remaining.</p>
<p>Furman made two more from the field and had one more from distance than the Bulldogs. The Paladins were 17 of 20 from the free-throw line with Samford making 11 of 12.</p>
<p>Furman made 14 second-chance points compared to two for Samford. The Paladins won the rebound battle 34-23.</p>
<p>Justin Coleman led Samford (7-13, 3-4) with 20 points and eight assists.</p>
<p>GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Daniel Fowler had 16 points and eight rebounds to help Furman roll over Samford 78-67 in Southern Conference play on Saturday.</p>
<p>Matt Rafferty added 15 points while dishing out a season-high seven assists with two steals. Andrew Brown also contributed 15 points and John Davis III chipped in 11 with six rebounds.</p>
<p>Furman (14-6, 5-2) was up 38-32 at the break. The Paladins pushed that to 58-46 following a Rafferty 3 midway through the second half. Samford closed to 73-65 with 1:10 left before Alex Hunter and Davis made four free throws for a 77-67 lead with 43 seconds remaining.</p>
<p>Furman made two more from the field and had one more from distance than the Bulldogs. The Paladins were 17 of 20 from the free-throw line with Samford making 11 of 12.</p>
<p>Furman made 14 second-chance points compared to two for Samford. The Paladins won the rebound battle 34-23.</p>
<p>Justin Coleman led Samford (7-13, 3-4) with 20 points and eight assists.</p> | Fowler has 16 points as Furman rolls over Samford 78-67 | false | https://apnews.com/e79d502317134f258cfe075b7d4c5041 | 2018-01-20 | 2 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A man hiking near Sandia Crest on Saturday found a set of keys belonging to missing 24-year-old Brittany Johnson and left them on top of her car in the parking lot, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office.</p>
<p>Lt. Pete Golden said the hiker told an employee at the Sandia Crest House Cafe and Gift Shop that he had found the keys.</p>
<p>Deputies want to talk to that man to ask where he found the keys, Golden said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Johnson has been missing since Saturday, and deputies have been searching for her on the hiking trails near Sandia Crest after finding her red Toyota Corolla in the parking lot Wednesday.</p>
<p>When deputies found the car, Johnson's keys were on top of it and her purse, backpack and yoga mat were inside.</p>
<p>Golden held a news conference Thursday morning asking for anyone who may have seen Johnson or her car near the Crest to call the Sheriff's Office.</p>
<p>Johnson was last seen leaving the Albuquerque Baths spa and heading toward Interstate 25 around 11:20 a.m. Deputies believe she drove north on the interstate.</p>
<p>Deputies tracked Johnson's cellphone calls and found she had placed a call from near I-25 and Budaghers on Saturday around 2:30 p.m. It is the last time anyone heard from her, Golden said. He said deputies don't know why she was in that area.</p>
<p>"She made a phone call, and then it appears her phone shut off and did not generate any other locations or activity," Golden said.</p>
<p>Deputies spoke with the person Johnson called and said the call was not suspicious or related to her disappearance, Golden said.</p>
<p>Rescuers began searching the trails near Sandia Crest on Wednesday morning after deputies checking the area because of overnight snowfall found Johnson's car in the lot.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>State Police sent out seven teams made up of 28 searchers with dogs, and a police helicopter helped with the search.</p>
<p>There was no sign of Johnson on Wednesday, authorities said.</p>
<p>The search resumed Thursday morning with the help of a few of Johnson's friends and other volunteers who hiked the nearby trails along with search and rescue crews. Albuquerque Police Department Open Space officers and BCSO bike patrol officers helped the New Mexico State Police search and rescue crews Thursday, Golden said.</p>
<p>Golden said the crews were searching the area south of the Crest parking lot first but planned to search the northern areas later Thursday.</p>
<p>"We have a significant presence here to try and locate Brittany," he said.</p>
<p>Golden said deputies are looking at surveillance footage from security cameras at the Crest but haven't found any footage that shows Johnson or her car.</p>
<p>Monique Abate, an acquaintance of Johnson's, was preparing to hike a nearby trail Thursday morning to help with the search.</p>
<p>"We came up to see what we can do," she said. "It's really nerve-racking."</p>
<p>Johnson's mother, Lisa Bean, said Wednesday that it wouldn't be unusual for Johnson to be in the mountains because she likes to hike.</p>
<p>"She's very loving and generous, and she just always wanted people to be happy," Bean said.</p>
<p>Golden asked anyone who may know the hiker who found Johnson's keys, or anyone who may have seen Johnson or her car over the weekend, to contact the Sheriff's Office at 505-886-1065 or 505-798-7000.</p>
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<p /> | Hiker found missing woman's keys and placed them on her car, deputies say | false | https://abqjournal.com/584665/missing-woman-made-call-from-i-25-saturday-deputies-say.html | 2015-05-14 | 2 |
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A proposal to increase funding for early childhood education in New Mexico by distributing more money from a multibillion dollar state sovereign wealth fund has cleared its first legislative hurdle.</p>
<p>A panel of House lawmakers on Monday recommended approval of the constitutional amendment by a 7-6 vote with only Democrats in support.</p>
<p>The initiative would increase annual distributions from the Land Grant Permanent Fund to roughly 6 percent of assets, from the current 5 percent rate.</p>
<p>Supporters of the measure say preschool programs desperately need more money now to expand sufficiently. The administration of GOP Gov. Susana Martinez is seeking more general fund spending for public schools and early childhood education and opposes greater investment withdrawals.</p>
<p>Approval by the Legislature would set up statewide vote in November on the issue.</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A proposal to increase funding for early childhood education in New Mexico by distributing more money from a multibillion dollar state sovereign wealth fund has cleared its first legislative hurdle.</p>
<p>A panel of House lawmakers on Monday recommended approval of the constitutional amendment by a 7-6 vote with only Democrats in support.</p>
<p>The initiative would increase annual distributions from the Land Grant Permanent Fund to roughly 6 percent of assets, from the current 5 percent rate.</p>
<p>Supporters of the measure say preschool programs desperately need more money now to expand sufficiently. The administration of GOP Gov. Susana Martinez is seeking more general fund spending for public schools and early childhood education and opposes greater investment withdrawals.</p>
<p>Approval by the Legislature would set up statewide vote in November on the issue.</p> | New Mexico weighs whether to save or spend now on education | false | https://apnews.com/16b79babdd9f4a76a07e67ddd87dfe8a | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>Elementary school students in several school districts in Southern California may have taken home flutes and recorders <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2017/10/01/semen-contaminated-flutes-might-have-been-given-to-children-california-school-officials-warn/?utm_term=.b38b51204402" type="external">contaminated with human semen</a>.</p>
<p>A male teacher who was part of a program called Flutes Across the World is under investigation. On Sunday, Saugus Union Superintendent Joan Lucid emailed parents, “The performer distributes a flutelike musical instrument made of PVC pipe or bamboo to students during a music lesson, and the allegation is that he contaminated some of these instruments with semen. These allegations are deeply concerning, and I realize they raise many questions.”</p>
<p>The Los Angeles Unified School District reported at least 13 school districts in Southern California may have been affected. The LAUSD <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-flutes-contaminated-california-students-20170930-story.html" type="external">said</a> it was part of an investigation of alleged "inappropriate sexual conduct involving a musical performer."</p>
<p>On Saturday, the Fullerton School District emailed parents, <a href="http://www.fullertonsd.org/apps/news/article/760396" type="external">stating</a> that a presenter from Flutes Across the World had visited two elementary schools in the district over the past academic year, working with fourth- through sixth-grade students. The Fullerton School District added, “We were informed that this individual has worked in a number of school districts throughout California and we have no evidence to suggest any of our students are connected with the investigation.”</p>
<p>Chantel Uchida, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Philharmonic Society, <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/2017/09/30/school-officials-allege-flutes-used-in-childrens-music-program-may-have-been-contaminated-with-semen/" type="external">told the Orange County Register</a> that the Orange County Philharmonic Society had sponsored the Flutes Across the World program for three years. She added, “We’re so shocked and disgusted. We will be stepping back from this. There are no plans to continue it in the future.”</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-flutes-contaminated-california-students-20170930-story.html" type="external">Associated Press</a> reported John Zeretzke, the founder of Flutes Across the World, had no comment on Saturday. Founded in 2009, Flutes Across the World supervised hundreds of workshops with thousands of children in the United States and across the world.</p> | SICKENING: CA Elementary Students Given Flutes That Allegedly Had Semen In Them | true | https://dailywire.com/news/21775/sickening-ca-elementary-students-given-flutes-hank-berrien | 2017-10-02 | 0 |
<p>By David Gushee</p>
<p>Follow David: @dpgushee</p>
<p>The (Protestant) Bible has 66 books, 1,189 chapters and 31,273 verses, spoken, written and edited over more than a millennium, in three different languages, in multiple social settings, by dozens of authors, with the last composition completed over 1,900 years ago.</p>
<p>Despite these obvious evidences of human authorship, Christians in most confessions —&#160;I am one of them —&#160;also have historically claimed that this Bible is divinely inspired, truthful and trustworthy, carrying unique authority for guiding Christian belief and practice.</p>
<p>Protestants, more than other Christians, have tended to claim that the Bible is the primary or even the sole authority for determining truth in Christian theology and ethics. Some conservative Protestants have heightened their claims about the truth of Scripture with language such as infallibility and inerrancy. The more heightened and more exclusive are the claims about scriptural truth and authority, the more intense are the debates about how the Bible is to be interpreted. Claims about (my/our interpretation of) what “the Bible teaches” are viewed as settling all controverted issues.</p>
<p>Protestant traditionalists who stake their knowledge claims on biblical inspiration and authority —&#160;as opposed to Catholic traditionalists who more often stake such claims on natural law or the authority of divinely inspired Church teaching, of which the Bible was the first stage —&#160;generally express strong certainty that the Bible clearly teaches that there can be no morally legitimate same-sex (sexual-romantic) relationships. Some express incredulity that any alternative view is even under discussion. This is viewed as the ultimate open-and-shut case based on the “plain sense” of Scripture.</p>
<p>Skeptics, on the other hand, ask how exactly it is that Christians “know” that a particular portion of the (Protestant) Bible’s 66 books, 1,189 chapters and 31,273 verses should be selected and assembled for authoritative citation when it is time to argue about this or any other contemporary issue. They further ask how Christians “know” which way to interpret the verses they do select from the vast canon of Scripture.</p>
<p>I will ask us in upcoming weeks to consider how Christians connect the biblical dots within the vast canon of Scripture when it comes to this issue or any issue, and how we know who is doing it right. Who determines authoritatively whether we are connecting the biblical dots correctly?</p>
<p>Some skeptics consider this dot-connecting to be an essentially random, arbitrary, normless, process, or one more determined by personal preference or power relations than anything else. (Some of those skeptics, by the way, are our own children, weary of our arguments.)</p>
<p>Sometimes such skepticism is well-informed by knowledge of a long history of often bitter and sometimes deadly Christian argumentation about a wide range of theological and moral issues. In this history:</p>
<p>a) Christians have come to fundamentally different conclusions about myriad issues;</p>
<p>b) Christians have cited Scripture on all sides of such issues;</p>
<p>c) Majority Christian opinion on various issues has sometimes shifted profoundly;</p>
<p>d) Christians have often felt so passionate about Truth as they see it that they have sought to exclude or destroy their enemies, and have done so when sufficiently empowered.</p>
<p>Candidates for most bitterly contested theological and moral issues in 2,000 years of Christian history, issues about which determined Christians have quoted Scripture against each other, are plentiful. A random list of issues I’ve studied or witnessed that might make such a list would include:</p>
<p>•Whether Catholics (or Protestants, or Baptists, or …) should be persecuted/prosecuted</p>
<p>•&#160;Calvinism v. Arminianism as more accurate in describing the divine and human roles in salvation</p>
<p>•&#160;Whether charismatic/Pentecostal practices are mandatory, permissible or of the Devil</p>
<p>•&#160;God’s plan for (men’s and) women’s roles in church, home and society</p>
<p>•&#160;Whether torture of U.S. prisoners in the “war on terror” might be morally legitimate</p>
<p>•&#160;The morality of the sale and use of alcohol</p>
<p>•&#160;The nature of proper Christian Sabbath observance</p>
<p>•&#160;The morality of (name your) war</p>
<p>•&#160;Whether slavery, colonization or abolition is mandated, permitted or banned by Scripture</p>
<p>•&#160;The morality of continued U.S. racial segregation vs. racial integration in the 1950s and 1960s</p>
<p>•&#160;God’s preferred economic system between capitalism, socialism and a third way</p>
<p>•&#160;Whether to cooperate with Nazism or stand in resistance and at what points in 1930s Germany</p>
<p>•&#160;What to think and do about “the Jews” theologically and politically</p>
<p>•&#160;What to think about modern Israel</p>
<p>•&#160;What eschatological scheme to embrace</p>
<p>•&#160;The morality of apartheid in South Africa</p>
<p>•&#160;The morality of child labor and other practices of unregulated industrial capitalism</p>
<p>•&#160;Whether divorce might be permissible and for what reasons</p>
<p>•&#160;The morality of eating (factory-farmed) meat</p>
<p>•&#160;[Your issue here]</p>
<p>With each one of these issues, it is easy to find relevant contemporaneous literature labeling the various sides as “the biblical position” and the opposing side as unbiblical.</p>
<p>The most interesting interlocutors in any contemporary Christian moral or theological debate are those aware that these oft-bloody historic interpretive battlegrounds fill the Christian landscape. These wise souls are therefore aware that the text/s of Scripture, on the one hand, and the interpretive process, on the other, are not the same thing. They recognize that Christians fiercely committed to Christ, Scripture and truth frequently do differ. They acknowledge that anyone’s reading of a text or an issue at any given moment may turn out to be quite wrong. They understand therefore that humility and charity are called for when engaging in theological and moral argument.</p>
<p>The least interesting interlocutors are those who seem to have learned nothing from our own conflicted history, and who therefore repeat that history over and over again in their certainty that their reading of a text is God’s Own Truth.</p>
<p>All of these fights over biblical texts and their interpretation, of course, lead many to a deep skepticism as to whether the canon of Scripture should be viewed as having such profound authority. Some of these skeptics are fellow Christians, often (ex-)Protestants scarred by too many battles over the Bible. Catholics and Orthodox, of course, have attempted to resolve their religious authority issues in different ways. You might have noticed that it’s no easier for them. Because humans see through a glass darkly, there is no way for us to avoid struggles over competing truth claims and how they are authoritatively grounded.</p>
<p>Questions about why ancient sacred texts still carry so much authority in contemporary religious communities, or whether there is any rhyme or reason to how believers connect the biblical dots, or whether anyone can coherently claim to offer “the biblical perspective” on any issue, are exceedingly important. There are some who consider such questions so intrinsically devastating that all Christian efforts to propose a moral norm and ground it in biblical citations are essentially invalid — or that no one’s perspective is any more defensible than anyone else’s perspective. How often I have quoted a Bible passage in an online article about something and immediately been met by derisive citations of Leviticus. Whimsical humor about the folly of attempting to read the Bible as if it might be taken as authoritative is common today.</p>
<p>In this series of columns I am not really writing for such skeptics. I am instead writing for fellow believers who, like me, have despite it all retained strong belief in the inspiration and authority of the Bible for the Christian life.</p>
<p>I am writing for Christians who believe that there are indeed better and worse, more or less defensible, ways of selecting, interpreting and applying sacred scriptures to address specific issues.</p>
<p>I am writing for those who believe that anyone attempting to propose moral norms for contemporary Christians needs to do their biblical homework, show that work (like in algebra class) and test it in community.</p>
<p>I also am writing for those who are aware that while theological and moral inquiry rely on excellent biblical exegesis and interpretation, broader processes of analysis and discernment, in loving Christian community, integrating head and heart, are required to understand not just what a text once meant but what it means for the believing church today.</p>
<p>I write for those who think that honest, fair-minded individual and collective inquiry is indispensable in Christian life, and that this is in fact how truth is sought among us, with the aid of the Holy Spirit.</p>
<p>Next week, in this spirit, I will begin digging into the texts most relevant to the LGBT issue.</p>
<p>Previous columns:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">If this is where you get off the bus: The LGBT issue, part 6</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Six options for the churches: The LGBT issue, part 5</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Gay Christians exist: The LGBT issue, part 4</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Change we can all support: The LGBT issue, part 3</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">What exactly is the issue? The LGBT issue, part 2</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Starting a conversation: The LGBT Issue, part 1</a></p> | Biblical inspiration, human interpretation: The LGBT issue, part 7 | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/biblical-inspiration-human-interpretation-the-lgbt-issue-part-7/ | 3 |
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<p>Khaled Malakeh, 6, stands amid the rubble of his family home in Gaza City on Nov. 25, 2014. The house was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike July 9, killing his father, mother and two siblings. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)</p>
<p>RAFAH, Gaza Strip – The youngest to die was a 4-day-old girl, the oldest a 92-year-old man.</p>
<p>They were among at least 844 Palestinians killed as a result of airstrikes on Gaza homes during Israel’s summer war with the Islamic militant group, Hamas.</p>
<p>Under the rules of war, homes are protected civilian sites unless used for military purposes. Israel says it attacked only legitimate targets, alleging militants used the houses to hide weapons, fighters and command centers. Palestinians say Israel’s warplanes often struck without regard for civilians.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Associated Press examined 247 airstrikes, interviewing witnesses, visiting attack sites and compiling a detailed casualty count.</p>
<p>The review found that 508 of the dead – just over 60 percent – were children, women and older men, all presumed to be civilians. Hamas says it did not use women as fighters in the war, and an Israel-based research group, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, which tracks militants among the war dead, said it has no evidence women participated in combat.</p>
<p>On Nov. 28, 2014, Shayma Zoroub, 17, points at her family home, which was badly damaged in an Israeli airstrike. The attack killed 15 relatives in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)</p>
<p>In addition:</p>
<p>– Children younger than 16 made up one-third of the total: 280 killed, including 19 babies and 108 preschoolers between the ages of 1 and 5.</p>
<p>– In 83 strikes, three or more members of one family died.</p>
<p>– Among those killed were 96 confirmed or suspected militants – just over 11 percent of the total – though the actual number could be higher since armed groups have not released detailed casualty lists.</p>
<p>– The remaining 240 dead were males between the ages of 16 and 59 whose names did not appear in AP searches of militant websites or on street posters honoring fighters.</p>
<p>The review was the most painstaking attempt to date to try to determine who was killed in strikes on homes; Israel’s army and Gaza militants have refused to release information about targets and casualties. The count tracked all known airstrikes on homes, though not all strikes had witnesses and damage inspected by the AP wasn’t always conclusive.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The number of civilian deaths has been a key issue in the highly charged battle over the dominant narrative of the 50-day war.</p>
<p>Fighting erupted in July, after a month of escalating tensions triggered by Hamas’ abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank, and an Israeli arrest sweep of Hamas supporters that led to renewed Gaza rocket fire on Israel.</p>
<p>Israel says it tried to avoid harming civilians, even as Hamas embedded weapons and fighters in residential areas.</p>
<p>“Our position is very clear. Israel did not commit war crimes,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.</p>
<p>Palestinians say Israel attacked with disproportionate force and callous disregard for civilians.</p>
<p>If most of those killed are civilians, “you cannot call them collateral damage,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian spokeswoman.</p>
<p>Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the war, a move that could pave the way for possible prosecution of both Israel and Hamas.</p>
<p>International law experts note that a high civilian death toll alone does not constitute conclusive evidence of war crimes. But it “raises a red flag and suggests that further investigation is warranted,” said Alex Whiting, a former top official at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands.</p>
<p>Israel would not say how many of its 5,000 air attacks were directed at homes. However, it insists it only aimed at legitimate military targets.</p>
<p>Asked for comment on the AP’s findings, an Israeli army spokesman, Lt. Peter Lerner, said that “one cannot draw broad conclusions” by examining only a small percentage of Israel’s airstrikes.</p>
<p>Reuven Erlich, a former senior Israeli intelligence officer, questioned the reliability of Gaza witnesses and said only military experts could determine what happened in each strike.</p>
<p>According to preliminary U.N. figures, at least 1,483 Palestinian civilians were killed in the war – 66 percent of the overall death toll of 2,205.</p>
<p>Gaza militants fired about 4,300 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel, according to the Israeli military. The barrages drove tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes to seek cover. Five civilians were killed, among them a 4-year-old boy, along with 67 soldiers.</p>
<p>Advocacy groups and U.N. investigators have said that Hamas’ battle tactics over the years, including indiscriminate rocket fire at Israel, amount to war crimes.</p>
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<p /> | Dead in bombed homes 60% civilian | false | https://abqjournal.com/541505/dead-in-bombed-homes-60-civilian.html | 2 |
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<p>Editor's note: this article is part of our <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/111020/china-economy-wenzhou-private-lending-credit" type="external">"Cracks in the Wall" series</a> about the challenges facing China's economy.</p>
<p>BOSTON - China's economic miracle is showing signs of faltering. Growth has slowed to 9.1 percent - still a ferocious pace for any normal country, but a relative slump for China. Meanwhile, the government has begun putting the brakes on lending, in an effort to tame inflation and avoid a serious bubble.</p>
<p>But now there's evidence of real economic pain in China. In cities like <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/111020/china-economy-wenzhou-private-lending-credit" type="external">Wenzhou, entrepreneurs have found themselves mired in debt</a> - so hopelessly that some have gone into hiding or committed suicide.</p>
<p>To put the matter in perspective, we interviewed Dr. Victor Shih. An expert in Chinese politics and economy, Shih has been following the debt situation closely, and was among the first to warn of potential trouble ahead. An associate professor of political science at Northwestern University, Shih holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard. (The interview has been condensed and edited by GlobalPost.)</p>
<p>GlobalPost: When we spoke over the summer, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/110707/china%E2%80%99s-mountain-debt-explained" type="external">you warned</a> that the public debt level in China -- including local and central governments, as well as state owned companies - held potentially staggering amounts of debt: between 80 and 150 percent of gross domestic product. At the low end, that's similar to France, which currently has a perfect credit score but is under pressure from ratings agencies. At the high end, it's nearly as bad as Greece. Do you still stand by that assessment, and how have things changed over the past quarter?</p>
<p>Yes, the low end - 80 percent - would be government debt alone. If you include debt that state-owned companies hold that the government is potentially liable for, the number would approach 150 percent of gross domestic product.</p>
<p>There's been a slight improvement lately, in that the rate of increase in lending has slowed down a bit. Local governments are now having trouble borrowing from the banks. On the other hand, they are able to roll over existing debt. So non-performing loans in China remain low, because the central government has instructed banks to allow local governments - and I suspect a lot of state-owned enterprises - to roll over a lot of the existing debt.</p>
<p>Meaning that they get new loans to cover their old loans.</p>
<p>Shih: that's right.</p>
<p>We're hearing that business owners in Wenzhou are committing suicide or going into hiding because they cannot pay their creditors. Many have borrowed from relatives and friends, or used their homes as collateral, so they're in big trouble both financially and socially. One woman who allegedly borrowed $45 million has now vanished. The situation has gotten so bad that Premier Wen Jiaboa recently paid a visit.</p>
<p>Are these debt problems happening elsewhere, and is it the beginning of a bigger problem - like a bursting Chinese credit bubble?</p>
<p>It is a serious problem, but I don't think for the moment that it is a systemic problem. First, informal lending - by private individuals or unregulated credit companies to private companies or individuals - is still relatively small compared to China's entire financial system. And of course, there are different estimates as to how large this informal lending is. It ranges from 5 trillion renminbi to 10 trillion renminbi ($786 billion to $1.52 trillion).</p>
<p>We have to remember that there is as much as 70 trillion renminbi ($11 trillion) in China's banks. Moreover, this kind of lending tends to be relatively local, so while a cross-regional contagion is not impossible, the scale is not likely to be very large.</p>
<p>Is there a point at which rolling over loans will no longer be possible, or is that not a risk, because China - as a centrally-planned economy - can simply print money?</p>
<p>That poses a problem to the economy. Of course when you print money - which not only China but the rest of the world is doing these days as a way to deal with financial difficulties - you can bail out financial institutions. However, China constantly enlarges its monetary base, and that causes persistent inflationary pressure.</p>
<p>So instead of having a steep crash in the financial system, residents and taxpayers in China have to pay for these financial difficulties through an inflation tax in the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>Which will essentially erode their wealth through inflation.</p>
<p>Exactly.</p>
<p>Many of loans - on the order of $1 trillion, you've estimated - have been made informally, essentially by loan sharks or by the "shadow banking" industry. Why is this so prevalent in China?</p>
<p>It's prevalent because the banking system basically rations credit, channeling the vast majority of it to state-owned enterprises. That said, there's still a large and quite vibrant private sector in China. They're forced to seek financing some other way.</p>
<p>Now fortunately, the state owned enterprises have strong incentives to re-loan some of the money they receive to private businesses. In normal times, like last year, a state-owned enterprise could borrow from the banks at about 5 percent, and lend it to underground banks at 10 to 15 percent. So state-owned enterprises can get an upside of 5 to 10 percent a year on money they borrow.</p>
<p>In the U.S. when debtors can't pay, they go to debtors court, declare bankruptcy, and they can got on with life. How are things different in China? Why are people jumping out of buildings?</p>
<p>People jump out of buildings when they've borrowed so much more than their assets, and they have borrowed from some very unsavory people. Or they've borrowed from mainly their immediate friends and family, and they have too much shame to go on living.</p>
<p>But usually, they don't jump out of buildings. They go through the courts, as they do in the U.S. - of course, the courts are more corrupt, but the legal procedure is not that different from in the U.S.</p>
<p>Are there places other than Wenzhou where debt has become a problem?</p>
<p>A sizable informal debt bubble appears to be bursting right now in Ordos, Inner Mongolia. They've built a vast amount of housing there, even though the population is actually quite small. There were coal mines there that made a lot of local people rich. They didn't know where to invest the money, so they first invested it in real estate, then in underground bank loans, and there have been a wave of defaults of these underground bank loans, which are causing problems.</p>
<p>Will this affect the US economy and the rest of the world?</p>
<p>The slow down in local government borrowing has led to a slow down in Chinese imports of construction materials. That mainly effects Australia, Brazil and other countries that export raw materials to China.</p>
<p>On the contrary, the U.S. has really benefited from food inflation in China. Farmers have been driven off their land, when it is converted into real estate. Chinese dependence on imported food, especially from North and South America, has increased quite substantially in recent years. I don't see that trend reversing any time soon. So farmers in the U.S. have really benefited from Chinese growth and from rapid and artificially-driven pace of urbanization.</p>
<p>This week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy appealed to his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, for financing to support the euro zone's bailout. Does China have the money to do this? There are, after all, a lot of poor people in China, and development has a long way to go. And what are the risks of such financing for Europe and China?</p>
<p>China has the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, and so strictly speaking they have the money to invest in whatever sort of bailout scheme Europe comes up with. At the same time, I think Chinese leaders are very careful not to publicly claim credit for saving Europe. That's because, although in the short-term there could be some pay-off, there are still risks and we don't know what really is going to happen to Europe down the road. If this bailout has to be followed by subsequent bailouts, then it's not going to look very good for the Chinese decision makers. So I think they'll go about it in a careful way, and it will largely go unseen by the public.</p>
<p>In an op-ed in today's New York Times, Arvind Subramian of the Peterson Institute argues for a shift in voting status for loans that the International Monetary Fund makes to countries in trouble. He contends that China should gain the kind of veto power that the U.S. has, but that Europe should lose its veto given that it is now a debtor rather than a creditor. Do you agree, and what would this mean for the global order?</p>
<p>If China does indeed contribute a substantial amount of money to the IMF, it should probably get a higher voting share.</p>
<p>Sure, that would impact the way the IMF goes about its business, because China - just like the U.S. and Europe - has its own strategic priorities. The U.S. and to some extent Europe have used the IMF to further their own strategic goals, so if China were to gain influence in the IMF it would probably use it to further its own strategic goals.</p>
<p>Follow China debt expert Victor Shih on Twitter: @vshih2</p>
<p>Follow author David Case on Twitter:&#160; <a href="http://twitter.com/DavidCaseReport" type="external">Follow @DavidCaseReport</a></p> | Is China's bubble bursting? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-10-31/chinas-bubble-bursting | 2011-10-31 | 3 |
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<p>Many Americans are going to be “thankful” this year while shopping for Thanksgiving Day dinner supplies as some food prices have fallen to the lowest in five years, according to new data from the American Farm Bureau Federation.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The average cost of this year’s feast for 10 people is $49.12, a 75-cent decrease from last year’s average of $49.87.</p>
<p>The day’s biggest ticket item—the turkey— saw the biggest price plunge. According to AFBF, a 16-pound turkey averaged a total of $22.38 this year, which is a 36-cent decrease compared to 2016. Even Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Whole Foods announced Wednesday that it’s slashing prices on some of its “holiday staples,” including select organic and non-antibiotic turkeys.</p>
<p>Dr. John Newton, AFBF director of market intelligence, said cheaper turkeys this year is due to large inventories in cold storage, which is up almost double digits from last year.</p>
<p>“For the second consecutive year, the overall cost of Thanksgiving dinner has declined,” Newton said. “The cost of the dinner is the lowest since 2013 and second-lowest since 2011. Even as America’s family farmers and ranchers continue to face economic challenges.”</p>
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<p>In addition to turkey, other food items such as milk, bread rolls, pie shells, sweet potatoes and green peas also saw significant decreases.</p>
<p>“Milk production has increased, resulting in continued low retail prices,” Newton added. “In addition, grocers often use milk as a loss leader to entice consumers to shop at their stores.”</p>
<p>However, there were some holiday classics that saw an increase this year, including whipping cream, cubed bread stuffing, pumpkin pie mix, cranberries and veggie trays.</p>
<p>“Whole whipping cream is up about 4% in price, due to increased consumer demand for full-fat dairy products,” Newton said.</p> | Thanksgiving dinner costs fall to the lowest in five years, here’s why | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/16/this-years-thanksgiving-dinner-is-going-to-be-cheapest-in-five-years.html | 2017-11-16 | 0 |
<p>I had a hard time writing a KPFA-Berkeley Radio News report last Saturday. I was trying to report on the racist, Christian fundamentalism of NPR commentator Scott Simon and Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, both of whom argue that God and the Devil are manifest in Syria, as they were in Rwanda in 1994. Dallaire even adds that “the white man” – his words – has a moral obligation to intervene on God’s behalf.</p>
<p>So far so good, so to speak. I clipped some audio from Simon’s op-ed on <a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-saturday/" type="external">NPR’s Saturday Weekend Edition</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Dallaire’s on KPFK-Los Angeles</a> in 2014, the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan massacres known as the Rwanda Genocide. (Just in case you’re wondering why Canadian warmonger Romeo Dallaire was sympathetically interviewed on a Pacifica Radio station, that’s another story.)</p>
<p>I imagined that I could play the audio clips with brief introductions, and let both men hang themselves with their own racist, fundamentalist rhetoric, but I quickly realized that was not going to work. Even when invoking God and the Devil, Scott Simon and Romeo Dallaire sound like reasonable men, descendants of the Enlightenment, not fiery fundamentalist preachers, so long as you don’t stop to think about what they’re actually saying.</p>
<p>General Dallaire is, after all, the former UN Peacekeeping Force Commander in Rwanda, 1993 – 1994, who went on to become Canadian Senator Dallaire, co-founder of the “Will to Intervene Project,” co-author of <a href="" type="internal">Mobilizing the Will to Intervene: Leadership to Prevent Mass Atrocities</a>, and recipient of a long list of honorary doctorates and fellowships from eminent universities in Canada and the United States.</p>
<p>Scott Simon has been both host and essayist on NPR Weekend Edition for so many decades that NPR listeners, even very occasional listeners like myself, all recognize his voice; it’s almost like ambient sound. Simon won a George Foster Peabody Award for his radio essays in 1989, and NPR has aired his mundane musings, pretentious platitudes, and insipid homilies ever since. They’re as routine as Saturday morning coffee and chores performed to the NPR drone. So why would anyone question anything&#160; Simon says? He takes on subjects like baseball, football, Grammy nominations, Wisconsin weather, and why he’d like to spend winters in Florida, as well as weightier matters of politics and public affairs.</p>
<p>Religious fundamentalism from NPR’s Scott Simon? ‘Fraid so. This week, after the first direct, acknowledged U.S. attack on Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, Simon voiced his observation that the Devil is in Syria, manifest in the Syrian government, and locked in combat with God, manifest in the US and its Western (white, Christian) allies. He even quoted General Romeo Dallaire:</p>
<p>I watched some of the wrenching, sickening images from the chemical weapons attack in the Idlib province of Syria this week that killed scores of people, many of them children, with our daughters . . .</p>
<p>(A YouTube video was good enough for Donald Trump, so why not for Scott Simon?)</p>
<p>I have always avoided using the word “evil” when covering terrible events, even those in Bosnia and Kosovo that would later be labeled war crimes. I was of a generation educated to believe that “evil” was a cartoonish moral concept, a word we used only when we didn’t know what madness or imagined infraction might drive human beings to commit murder, even on a mass scale.</p>
<p>(Knowing that he is about to advance a literal interpretation of the Bible, Simon notes his credentials as a man of reason who will nevertheless make a morally imperative exception. He is, after all, a University of Chicago graduate.)</p>
<p>I still avoid saying “evil” as a reporter. But as a parent, I’ve grown to feel it may be important to tell children about evil, as we struggle to explain cruel and incomprehensible behavior they may see not just in history — in whatever they will learn about the Holocaust, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur — but in our own times.</p>
<p>(Simon cites the liberal interventionist canon&#160;—&#160;the Holocaust, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur&#160;—&#160;as unquestionable examples of metaphysical, ahistorical, apolitical evil to teach his children well. Never mind that there are substantial bodies of evidence supporting narratives counter to those that the Washington establishment repeat over and over to justify U.S. wars of aggression. Why teach your children to reason about that? It won’t look good on the resume, especially if you’re hoping they follow your footsteps to NPR.)</p>
<p>I’ve interviewed Romeo Dallaire, the former Canadian general who commanded U.N. peacekeeping forces in Rwanda in 1993 and 1994. General Dallaire discovered Hutu soldiers were getting ready to massacre Tutsi civilians. But he was prevented by U.N. leadership from using his troops to try to stop the murders before they could take place. More than 800,000 Tutsi Rwandans were then slaughtered over three months.</p>
<p>(Never mind that there were only 500,000 Tutsis in Rwanda at the time of the massacres, or that the Ibuka survivors’ group claims 300,000 survived. Or that a substantial body of evidence countering the official narrative emerged, for one, at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, despite the fact that the U.S. took tacit control of that tribunal so as to set the official narrative in stone.)</p>
<p>Romeo Dallaire said that what happened made him believe in evil, and even a force he called the devil.</p>
<p>“I’ve negotiated with him,” he told us, “shaken his hand. Yes. There is no doubt in my mind … and the expression of evil to me is through the devil and the devil at work and possessing human beings and turning them into machines of destruction.&#160; And one of the evenings in my office, I was looking out the window and my senses felt that something was there with me that shifted me. I think that evil and good are playing themselves out and God is monitoring and looking at how we respond to it.”</p>
<p>(A fundamentalist preacher’s delivery would no doubt be more fiery than Scott Simon’s or Romeo Dallaire’s, but Simon quotes Dallaire on God and the Devil in his concluding words.)</p>
<p>Dallaire shoulders the white man’s burden</p>
<p>Since Simon had devoted so much of his radio essay to quoting Dallaire on God and the Devil, I planned to play just a few vintage Dallaire clips on the white man’s burden in my own radio news:</p>
<p>I said, “The era of the white man coming back to Africa to reestablish security and so on is over. I said the Sub-Saharan Black African is simply not going to attract the engagement of the developed world, the North, unless there is a self-interest in there and a country like Rwanda doesn’t have that.”</p>
<p>(In keeping with his mission to “mobilize the will to intervene,” Dallaire chides “the white man” for engaging only as a matter of self-interest rather than humanitarian concern (as in the West’s glorious past of conquest, slavery, resource rape, and humanitarian concern). This lays the way for moral triumphalism when white Christian soldiers finally take up “the cross of freedom,” as in Trump’s direct attack on Syria’s dark skinned Devil.</p>
<p>Also, Rwanda is is not without resources of interest to the white man. It shares its western border with the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, whose resources it has plundered and sold to Western corporations and commodities traders for the past 20 years. Rwanda’s invasions of DRC also destroyed Congo’s national mining company to make way for Western mining interests.)</p>
<p>As I was saying,”The white man is not coming back,” the clouds had started to form, ‘cause it was the rainy season [in Rwanda], so in the rainy season, it’s lovely, sunny and then the next thing you know “boom”: downpour. And as I’m saying this, the sky got black and this incredible thunder clap just happened.”</p>
<p>(God was no doubt so enraged that he was commanding the white, Christian West to re-shoulder “ <a href="http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5478" type="external">The White Man’s Burden</a>” canonized by Rudyard Kipling.)</p>
<p>Kipling’s poem was&#160; first published in the February 1899 issue of McClure’s Magazine&#160;—&#160;at the outset of&#160; the U.S. war on the Filippino people, after the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty with Spain that placed Puerto Rico, Guam, Cuba, and the Philippines under U.S. control:</p>
<p>The White Man’s Burden</p>
<p>Take up the White Man’s burden— Send forth the best ye breed— Go send your sons to exile To serve your captives’ need To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child Take up the White Man’s burden In patience to abide</p>
<p>. . .&#160;</p>
<p>Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.&#160; White supremacy is tenacious as a rabid dog.</p>
<p>As for that KPFA Radio News report, it was never produced. I played the audio clips of Scott Simon and Romeo Dallaire for a few friends, and they all said, “No no no. Don’t play that. You’ll just be giving them more air time. I can imagine family or friends hearing that on the air and thinking that they’re making some good points.”</p>
<p>Indeed. Scott Simon is so effectively packaged and presented by NPR, General Dallaire by the liberal interventionists, that their effusions sound perfectly reasonable to the trusting ear. The words need to be separated from their elaborate packaging and presentation to make their racist, fundamentalist meanings undeniably clear.</p> | God and the Devil in Syria and Rwanda | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/04/13/god-and-the-devil-in-syria-and-rwanda/ | 2017-04-13 | 4 |
<p>DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Fantasy 5" game were:</p>
<p>02-18-19-20-32</p>
<p>(two, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, thirty-two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $282,000</p>
<p>DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Fantasy 5" game were:</p>
<p>02-18-19-20-32</p>
<p>(two, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, thirty-two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $282,000</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Fantasy 5' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/043f999a93c847f8b534ae3dedc8e093 | 2017-12-31 | 2 |
<p>Painting by Jorge A. Guzman | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>Miguel Flores arrived in the United States in 1999 and has had Temporary Protected Status (TPS) since 2001. Since then he has been working to support his mother and father, 68 and 71, who live in El Salvador. But things have changed now, and his parents could lose the stability they have enjoyed for so many years.</p>
<p>On Monday, Salvadorans protected by TPS in the United States were hit with a low, hard blow. The administration of Donald Trump canceled the program, a move that impacts more than 200,000 Salvadorans who have lived in the country for more than 15 years.</p>
<p>“We knew this was coming, but it’s not fair,” Omar Henríquez, coordinator of the National TPS Alliance and a Salvadoran TPS beneficiary, told the Americas Program. “What this government is doing is using psychological and emotional tactics to attack the migrant community. This is an anti-immigrant political decision on the part of this administration.”</p>
<p>In an official communication confirming the measure, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that El Salvador has overcome the negative conditions related to the natural disasters, that were the reasons for granting TPS status.</p>
<p>The DHS statement reads in part: “The original conditions caused by the 2001 earthquakes no longer exist. Thus, under the applicable statute, the current TPS designation must be terminated.”</p>
<p>It also states:&#160; “To allow for an orderly transition, the effective date of the termination of TPS&#160; for El Salvador will be delayed 18 months to provide time for individuals with TPS to arrange for their departure or to seek an alternative lawful immigration status in the United States, if eligible.”</p>
<p>The decision to cancel the program has&#160; caused commotion not only in the&#160;&#160; Salvadoran migrant community. In less than a year, the Trump administration has canceled the TPS for citizens of four of the 10 countries that the United States had granted the TPS benefit since 2001.</p>
<p>“Once again, the United States has turned its back on a promise of refuge made to those suffering violence and persecution in their home countries,” said Óscar Chacón of the Americas Alliance. “In the last six months, the Trump administration has canceled the protection that has saved lives, pushing more than 250,000 individuals back to the unstable conditions of their countries. The reality of these shameful actions must be ever-present in the conscience of all U.S. citizens.”</p>
<p>Some senators and other politicians have expressed their opposition to the move, calling it another example of the anti-immigrant and racist policies that defined Trump’s electoral campaign and continue to be his policies in office.</p>
<p>“First the Trump administration canceled the Temporary Protection Status for 2,500 Nicaraguans, then for some 60,000 Haitians. Now President Trump has checked off another item on his anti-immigrant agenda by canceling the TPS for 200,000 Salvadorans,” wrote Senator Elizabeth Warren in her Twitter account.</p>
<p>The cancelation affects not only direct TPS beneficiaries, but also the more than 100,000 children and adoles</p>
<p>cents born in the United States who are the sons and daughters of immigrants. Breaking up these families will have a serious impact on both parents and children, as well on the immigrant community and communities as a whole in both countries.</p>
<p>U.S. residents originally from El Salvador now have until September of 2019 either to find a way to change their legal status, or to sell their possessions and make the necessary arrangements for returning to El Salvador.</p>
<p>Massive Deportations</p>
<p>The immigrant community’s worst fear now is that with the cancelation, the Trump administration will start conducting roundups and massive deportations aimed at those who today find themselves in a legal limbo because of the TPS cancellation.</p>
<p>“The deportation orders that were deactivated when the TPS went into effect can be re-activated with this cancellation,” said Luis Paoli, an attorney. “And in the case of those beneficiaries who have had any kind of conflict with the law, there can also be deportation proceedings.”</p>
<p>Miguel is worried that without the protection, he could lose everything and have to go back into the shadows. Many like him would lose their legal stability, social security, health care, driver’s license, work permit, and of course the opportunity to work in a company that provides dignified employment.</p>
<p>“What worries me the most is losing all the benefits that I have, and to no longer be able to work at the same company,” Miguel said.</p>
<p>Not all migrants run the risk of being deported immediately. That’s why the civil organizations that help those who are currently protected by TPS recommend they seek legal assistance, from attorneys who specialize in immigration law so they can become better informed and learn if there are options for changing their status.</p>
<p>“There won’t be massive deportations immediately,” said Yanira Arias of the Americas Alliance. “The United States doesn’t have the capacity to conduct raids and process deportations on a massive scale. What can happen is that&#160; a person found in a place where there are processes under way can be detained. That’s why what’s most important now is to get informed and find out if in your particular case there are options for regularizing your status.¨</p>
<p>Due to the violent situation in El Salvador, the majority of migrants don’t even consider returning to that country as a viable option. Many of them don’t want to take their teen-age children to a place where they could be exposed to gangs and crime and few have prospects of employment to support their families.</p>
<p>“I would like to go to El Salvador to visit my parents, but these days returning to my country is not an option,” Miguel said. “Nobody can guarantee our security in our country. There are places that are pockets of violence and extortion, and I don’t want to go through that.”</p>
<p>Struggle for Permanent Residency &#160;</p>
<p>“This decision pushes us to continue the struggle that we started months ago,” said Cecilia Martínez of the National Alliance. “We won’t rest until we achieve our goal of permanent residency. In the last few months we have given the tepesianos (‘TPSers’) a face, and we’re going to keep on fighting.”</p>
<p>TPS beneficiaries and the civil organizations that support them have been lobbying U.S. legislators, and as of now have the support of 33 members of Congress and many local politicians from areas where large groups of of migrants live.</p>
<p>“We already have the precedent of the 300,000 Salvadorans who obtained&#160; their residency through the Nacara law, which is why we’re going to continue lobbying senators and local politicians,” said Omar Hernández of the National TPS Alliance. “In New York State we have the support of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who has asked Governor Cuomo to come out in favor of the tepesianos.”</p>
<p>The Nacara law, passed in 1997, provided a legal status option for citizens of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Cuba after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Although this law can be an option for some tepesianos today, not all of the immigrant community is informed about it.</p>
<p>Furthermore, there are immigrants protected by the TPS who do not meet&#160; the requirements that U.S. law has established for obtaining a status change after their protection is rescinded. Miguel is one of those.</p>
<p>For a TPS beneficiary to start the residency process, he or she must be married to an American citizen or to a permanentt resident. Miguel&#160; is single. They can also&#160; change their status if their U.S.-born children apply for residency for their parents. But the majority of the children of tepesianos are still adolescents. Miguel has no children.</p>
<p>Wall for Immigrants</p>
<p>The TPS cancellation is not the only recent move that affect primarily Latin American immigrants. In September of last year, just&#160; weeks before the cancellation of&#160; TPS for Nicaraguans and Haitians, the Trump administration also canceled DACA, the program that has benefited thousands of young people who came into the United States as minors during the Obama administration.</p>
<p>As he did with TPS, Trump put an end to DACA, but he left it in the hands of Congress to come up with the legal means to allow these Dreamers&#160; (DACA beneficiaries) to stay in the United States. That is also happening with TPS.</p>
<p>Four days before the TPS cancellation announcement, Trump met with Senate Republican leaders. White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders confirmed that the president also met with representatives of the Democratic Party. Although there are few details about what was discussed at the meeting, Trump made it clear that any negotiations between Republicans and Democrats about the future of the Dreamers, and about any other legal options for immigrants, must also include funds to build the long-promised border wall. It has been speculated that this negotiation would also include the future of the TPS beneficiaries.</p>
<p>“We’re going to have a wall, remember that,” Trump said. “We need a wall to keep out drug traffickers, violent criminals and the criminal cartels. Any legislation on DACA must secure the border with a wall. We have to stop illegal immigration.”</p>
<p>Since his election victory in November of 2017, Trump has held fast to his campaign promises that reflect the anti-immigrant views expressed in his campaign. His cancellation of DACA has left thousands of young students, parents and employees in legal limbo. His previous and latest cancellations of TPS have put more than 350,000 immigrants from Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Haiti in danger. Even the visa lottery for citizens of those countries has been ended.</p>
<p>Translated by Kelly Garrett.</p> | Trump’s Attack on Salvadoran Migrants | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/01/12/trumps-attack-on-salvadoran-migrants/ | 2018-01-12 | 4 |
<p>KYIV, Ukraine — He’s sick. He’s dead. He’s caught in a political crisis. But no, wait,&#160;he just had a child. Didn’t he?</p>
<p>As the shaky ceasefire in eastern Ukraine has slipped out of the news cycle, speculation over the fate and whereabouts of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin — not seen in public since last week — has taken its place.</p>
<p>Since rarely a day goes by that the TV-friendly autocrat isn’t featured prominently on the evening news, his absence from the airwaves has sparked a maelstrom of rumors.</p>
<p>Suspicions first surfaced when a Kazakh official claimed to Reuters on Wednesday that a planned visit by Putin to Kazakhstan was postponed because the Russian president was sick. Then came the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/12/vladimir-putin-sick-kremlin-cancels-meetings-uses-old-photos" type="external">cancellation of several other meetings Putin</a> was reportedly set to attend.&#160;</p>
<p>It didn’t help that some <a href="http://top.rbc.ru/politics/11/03/2015/550069bb9a7947fd834cec7e" type="external">Russian media simultaneously reported that recent meetings Putin</a> was said to be attending —&#160;such as with regional governors and a group of mothers in honor of International Women’s Day on March 8 — either did not take place, or occurred earlier than the Kremlin’s press service let on.&#160;</p>
<p>In no time, hashtags like #WhereIsPutin and #ПутинУмер (“Putin died”) were trending on Twitter, where most of Russia’s chattering classes take their political discussion.</p>
<p>That’s why Putin’s spokesman has been busier than ever batting down rumors of illness, insisting <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/12/us-russia-crisis-putin-health-idUSKBN0M816620150312" type="external">all is just dandy</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>On Friday, the Kremlin finally released pictures of Putin meeting with Russia’s top judge, said to have been photographed the same day. State television ran footage of the event, but many remained skeptical it was new..</p>
<p>And as if to hammer home the point, the Kremlin also announced that Putin would travel to St. Petersburg on Monday to meet with the president of Kyrgyzstan.</p>
<p>But then, confusingly, state television network Rossiya 24 reported that the meeting had already taken place. (The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/rolling_news/2015/03/150310_rn_russia24_vgtrk_putin_mistake" type="external">head of the channel later told BBC’s Russian</a> service the report, which aired twice in the afternoon, was a mistake.)&#160;</p>
<p>Whatever the case, in some circles Putin’s atypical absence has set off another intense round of Kremlinology — the time-tested practice by which Western observers have struggled to decipher the opaque world of Russian politics using any hints they can get.</p>
<p>Some analysts believe Putin may be preoccupied with a power struggle taking place behind the scenes.</p>
<p>That theory became popular even before the rumors of Putin’s failing health. It was fueled by the recent murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/russia/150309/some-russian-officials-say-islamists-killed-boris-nemtsov" type="external">allegedly by a Chechen ex-cop</a> praised by his country’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov as a “true patriot.”&#160;</p>
<p>Kremlin-watchers saw the assassination as a sign of a possible fallout between Kadyrov,&#160;a staunch Putin ally, and the Federal Security Service (FSB), a key Putin power base responsible for the suspect’s arrest.</p>
<p>“Even if Putin the man is in top form,” wrote Brian Whitmore, a senior editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, “ <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/the-sick-man-of-moscow-putin-kadyrov-nemtsov/26898042.html" type="external">the ‘collective Putin,’</a> Russia's informal ruling circle, is showing signs of deep distress.”</p>
<p>It’s also possible that <a href="http://www.dw.de/paternity-leave-for-putin-swiss-papers-baby-rumor-causes-stir/a-18314837" type="external">Putin has simply been in Switzerland visiting his long-suspected lover</a> —&#160;a 31-year-old rhythmic gymnast whom Swiss media reported had given birth to the president’s child.&#160;</p>
<p>As ever, though, Putin’s trusty spokesman quickly dispelled that theory as nonsense.</p>
<p>“Information about the birth of Vladimir Putin’s child does not correspond with reality,” Dmitry <a href="http://www.forbes.ru/news/282659-peskov-oproverg-slukhi-o-rozhdenii-rebenka-u-putina" type="external">Peskov told the Russian edition of Forbes</a>.</p>
<p>For good measure, Reuters also reached Peskov on Friday to make sure his boss was in tip-top shape. But by then, the joke had clearly gotten old.</p>
<p>“Yes,” he said. “We've already said this a hundred times. This isn't funny anymore.”</p> | Start the rumor mill: Vladimir Putin is missing! | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-03-13/start-rumor-mill-vladimir-putin-missing | 2015-03-13 | 3 |
<p>JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African retired archbishop Desmond Tutu has undergone a "small investigative procedure" in a hospital to assess an infection, a foundation said Saturday.</p>
<p>The Nobel Peace Prize laureate will remain in the hospital in Cape Town for several more days, according to the foundation, which is named after Tutu and his wife Leah.</p>
<p>Tutu, 83, has been treated for prostate cancer for many years. The foundation quoted Tutu's daughter, Mpho, as saying the cancer is under control but the infection is the result of past treatment for the disease.</p>
<p>Desmond Tutu "underwent a small investigative procedure last night to determine the status of an infection he has battled to shake off for several weeks," the foundation said in a statement. It cited Mpho Tutu as saying doctors are satisfied with the progress of her father's antibiotic treatment.</p>
<p>Tutu was admitted to the hospital on July 28 after a weeklong stay there earlier in the month.</p>
<p>He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for campaigning against apartheid.</p>
<p>JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African retired archbishop Desmond Tutu has undergone a "small investigative procedure" in a hospital to assess an infection, a foundation said Saturday.</p>
<p>The Nobel Peace Prize laureate will remain in the hospital in Cape Town for several more days, according to the foundation, which is named after Tutu and his wife Leah.</p>
<p>Tutu, 83, has been treated for prostate cancer for many years. The foundation quoted Tutu's daughter, Mpho, as saying the cancer is under control but the infection is the result of past treatment for the disease.</p>
<p>Desmond Tutu "underwent a small investigative procedure last night to determine the status of an infection he has battled to shake off for several weeks," the foundation said in a statement. It cited Mpho Tutu as saying doctors are satisfied with the progress of her father's antibiotic treatment.</p>
<p>Tutu was admitted to the hospital on July 28 after a weeklong stay there earlier in the month.</p>
<p>He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for campaigning against apartheid.</p> | Doctors in South Africa assess infection of Desmond Tutu | false | https://apnews.com/amp/22455fe787cd488785c0aac8bd8cd80a | 2015-08-01 | 2 |
<p>Jan 22 (Reuters) - EXEOTECH INVEST AB (PUBL):</p> * AGREED PRICE AMOUNTS TO SEK 3.25 MILLION​
<p>* BUYER OF SAMEFFEKT IS FREITAG WIKMAN HOLDING AB​ Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: (Gdynia Newsroom)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - About 200 people demonstrated in Sacramento on Saturday to protest the fatal police shooting of Stephon Clark, in the latest of nearly two weeks of rallies since the unarmed black man was gunned down in his grandmother’s yard.</p>
<p>Another vigil with about 150 people was held on Saturday night, and a protester was hit by a Sacramento sheriff’s vehicle, according to a video posted on the internet and the Sacramento Bee newspaper.</p>
<p>The newspaper said the protester was taken to a hospital by the fire department and later released with bruises.</p>
<p>The sheriff’s office said in a statement early on Sunday that protesters were yelling and kicking the patrol car. “The collision occurred while the patrol vehicle was traveling at slow speeds,” it said.</p>
<p>The statement also said that the patrol car was damaged with dents and a shattered rear window from the protesters. The California Highway Patrol and the sheriff’s office are investigating the incident.</p>
<p>Saturday’s demonstration brought together a multi-racial crowd, many holding signs such as “Stop Police Rage” and “Power to the People”. It was led by retired National Basketball Association player Matt Barnes, who grew up in the area and had two stints with the Sacramento Kings franchise.</p>
<p>The death of Clark, a 22-year-old father of two, was the latest in a string of killings of black men by police that have triggered street protests and fueled a renewed national debate about bias in the U.S. criminal justice system.</p>
<p>“We’re here today to raise awareness, to come together peacefully and to have some accountability for the officers, not only in Sacramento but across the country, who have been doing this,” Barnes told the Sacramento Bee.</p>
<p>Some of Clark’s relatives attended the gathering in a city plaza. It followed a more heated protest overnight, during which demonstrators yelled expletives at police clad in riot gear.</p>
<p>Clark was shot on the night of March 18 by police responding to a report that someone was breaking windows. Police said the officers feared he had a gun, but that he was later found to have been holding a cellphone.</p> Salena Manni (L), fiancee of Stephon Clark, holds their son Cairo and an unidentified man holds son Aiden (2nd R) while Basim Elkarra speaks and Rev Shane Harris listens at a rally in Sacramento, California, U.S., March 31, 2018. REUTERS/Bob Strong NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES
<p>Police have said he was moving toward officers in a menacing way. The shooting was captured on a body cam video released by police.</p>
<p>On Friday, an attorney for Clark’s family released a private autopsy showing most of the eight bullets that hit Clark struck him in the back, contradicting the police version of events.</p>
<p>Clark was shot six times in the back, once in the side and once in the leg, said the attorney, Benjamin Crump.</p>
<p>“This independent autopsy affirms that Stephon was not a threat to police and was slain in another senseless police killing under increasingly questionable circumstances,” Crump said.</p> Slideshow (14 Images)
<p>The Sacramento Police Department said it would have no further comment until after the release of the findings of an official autopsy by the county coroner, and a review by state and local prosecutors.</p>
<p>In several days of sporadic protests, protesters have blocked traffic and twice delayed fans from reaching games played by the Kings at the Golden 1 Center.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Rich McKay in Atlanta and Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing Sandra Maler and Alison Williams</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s defense minister rejected on Sunday calls for an inquiry into the killing of 15 Palestinians by the military during a Palestinian demonstration that turned violent on Friday at the Gaza-Israel border.</p> Relatives of Palestinian Hamdan Abu Amshah, who was killed along Israel border with Gaza, mourn during his funeral in Beit Hanoun town, in the northern Gaza Strip March 31, 2018. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem
<p>Hamas, the dominant Palestinian group in Gaza, said five of the dead were members of its armed wing. Israel said eight of the 15 belonged to Hamas, designated a terrorist group by Israel and the West, and two others came from other militant factions.</p>
<p>U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an independent investigation into Friday’s bloodshed.</p>
<p>His appeal was echoed by Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Amnesty International, and by Tamar Zandberg, leader of Israel’s left-wing opposition Meretz party.</p> FILE PHOTO: Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman arrives ahead of the Yisrael Beitenu faction weekly meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, in Jerusalem, March 12, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
<p>“Israeli soldiers did what was necessary. I think all our soldiers deserve a medal,” the defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, told Army Radio. “As for a commission of inquiry - there won’t be one.”</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered on Friday along the fenced 65-km (40-mile) frontier, where tents had been erected for a planned six-week protest pressing for a right of return for refugees and their descendents to what is now Israel.</p>
<p>But hundreds ignored calls from organizers and the Israeli military to stay away from the frontier.</p>
<p>The military said some of those who were shot had fired at soldiers, rolled burning tyres and hurled rocks and fire bombs toward the border.</p>
<p>“The use of live ammunition should, in particular, be part of an independent and transparent investigation,” Mogherini said in a statement on Saturday. “While Israel has the right to protect its borders, the use of force must be proportionate at all times.”</p>
<p>The protest is scheduled to culminate on May 15, when Palestinians mark the “Nakba” or “Catastrophe” when hundreds of thousands fled or were driven out of their homes in 1948, when the state of Israel was created.</p> Slideshow (8 Images)
<p>Israel has long ruled out any right of return, fearing it would lose its Jewish majority.</p>
<p>On Saturday, Israeli troops using live ammunition and rubber bullets shot and wounded about 70 Palestinians among demonstrators at the border, Palestinian officials said. Witnesses said stones were thrown at the soldiers.</p>
<p>Israel says Hamas is using the protests to deflect frustration among Gaza’s two million inhabitants over deepening economic hardship.</p>
<p>Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but, citing security concerns, still tightly controls its land and sea borders. Egypt also keeps its Gaza frontier largely shut.</p>
<p>Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Maayan Lubell and Mark Potter</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Mexico’s presidential front-runner launches his campaign near the U.S. border on Sunday, amid tension over U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to put a wall between the two countries.</p> FILE PHOTO: Leftist front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) addresses the audience during a conference organised by the Mexican Construction Industry Association in Guadalajara, Mexico March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Romero
<p>As the July 1 election approaches, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and three other candidates will face off over issues including corruption, drug violence and trade.</p>
<p>Here are some facts on the presidential contenders:</p> ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR
<p>Two-time runner-up Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, is running on an anti-corruption platform with his National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party and he has a double-digit lead in opinion polls.</p>
<p>He could usher in a Mexican government less accommodating toward the United States, where Trump has stoked trade tensions with Mexico and aggressively moved to curb immigration. Trump’s pledge to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border was a main theme of his 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.</p>
<p>Variously described as a leftist, a populist and a nationalist, Lopez Obrador, 64, has aimed for a moderate tone in this campaign. His slogan is “peace and love,” and he says he is not looking for revenge against the current government.</p>
<p>But the former Mexico City mayor has also promised to review recently awarded oil contracts and threatened to cancel the capital’s new airport, spooking investors.</p> Ricardo Anaya, presidential candidate for the National Action Party (PAN), leading a left-right coalition, gives a speech to supporters during his campaign rally in Mexico City, Mexico March 31, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Romero
<p>When he narrowly lost his first presidential bid in 2006, he contested the result and organized a sit-in that closed one of the main thoroughfares in Mexico City for weeks, causing chaos. Lopez Obrador says he has changed since then.</p> RICARDO ANAYA
<p>The youngest of the four presidential candidates, Anaya sprung to prominence when he took over the presidency of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) in 2015.</p>
<p>Born in the small, central state of Queretaro, the 39-year-old career politician helped the party take more than 10 of the country’s governorships for the first time in its history.</p>
<p>His main proposals include a universal minimum income and an international commission to investigate the current government over corruption allegations.</p>
<p>Anaya has been criticized for his frequent trips to Atlanta, where his wife and three children have lived, and over a real estate deal the ruling party said was money laundering.</p>
<p>Anaya denied the allegations.</p>
<p>He joined the PAN as a law student and held several senior positions in the Queretaro state government between 2002 and 2009 before becoming president of the federal lower house in 2013.</p> JOSE ANTONIO MEADE
<p>At the end of 2017, in an attempt to clean up its image and as Lopez Obrador took off in opinion polls, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) chose a non-member as its candidate for the first time.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>Meade, 49, has served in five different ministerial jobs, including minister of foreign affairs, social development, energy and finance, under PRI and PAN governments.</p>
<p>His critics blame him for a hike in gasoline prices in 2017 that led to protests across Mexico and spiked inflation, and tie him to corruption accusations at departments he ran. He denies any wrongdoing.</p> MARGARITA ZAVALA
<p>Zavala is the only independent candidate on the ballot after a scandal over falsified signatures knocked out two of her opponents.</p>
<p>The former first lady left the PAN in 2017, in a split with fellow candidate Ricardo Anaya. Mexico City-born Zavala would be Mexico’s first-ever female president.</p>
<p>In the 1990s, Zavala was a lawmaker in the Mexico City assembly and the chief lawyer for the PAN’s executive committee. She was later a federal congresswoman.</p>
<p>She faces criticism for her husband Felipe Calderon’s policy of putting soldiers on the streets when he was president, during a war on drug gangs that saw tens of thousands killed.</p>
<p>If elected, Zavala says she would withdraw the troops.</p>
<p>Reporting by Mexico City Newsroom; editing by Jonathan Oatis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico’s presidential front-runner launches his campaign close to the U.S. border on Sunday amid tension over U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to put up a wall between the countries.</p> FILE PHOTO: Leftist front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) addresses the audience during a conference organised by the Mexican Construction Industry Association in Guadalajara, Mexico March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Romero
<p>If leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wins the July 1 election, he is expected to be less accommodating toward Trump than the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has been lagging in polls because of anger over its failure to contain violence and graft.</p>
<p>His three-month campaign starts in Ciudad Juarez, a tribute to the city’s namesake Benito Juarez, the 19th century Mexican president from indigenous roots whose exiled government resisted a French colonialist intervention from the unruly border city.</p>
<p>Lopez Obrador recently criticized President Enrique Pena Nieto for “governing with recipes sent from abroad,” but he has lately softened his opposition to the government’s policy of allowing foreign investment in the oil industry.</p>
<p>The ruling party candidate trailing in third place, former finance minister Jose Antonio Meade, launches his own campaign on Sunday at the other end of the country in the southeastern town of Merida.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-mexico-election-candidates-factbox/factbox-mexicos-presidential-candidates-at-the-start-of-campaigning-idUSKCN1H80XL" type="external">Factbox: Mexico's presidential candidates at the start of campaigning</a>
<p>Second-place Ricardo Anaya began campaigning on Friday.</p>
<p>Silver-haired leftist Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, first ran for president in 2006. He would seek a meeting with Trump “as soon as possible” a senior advisor said, while indicating foreign policy would hew less closely to U.S. regional priorities if he wins.</p>
<p>Trump’s tough trade policies, insults against Mexican migrants and demands for the border wall have angered ordinary Mexicans who see their country as a natural ally of the United States.</p>
<p>Lopez Obrador has made clear U.S.-Mexican relations will remain strong if he wins, while promising to throw Trump a “curve ball” and defend Mexican pride. His unconventional, and at times inconsistent, policy stances have sometimes led to comparisons with the U.S. president.</p>
<p>He supports the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and the United States, but has called for talks started by Trump to renegotiate the deal to be suspended until after the election.</p>
<p>In a possible sign of the moderation Lopez Obrador is keen to project, Ciudad Juarez also harbored another of his heroes — Francisco I. Madero, a wealthy, U.S.-educated, moderate leader of the Mexican revolution who tried to unite conservatives and radicals.</p>
<p>However, the 64-year-old continues to play to his leftist base, attacking the current government over a $13 billion airport project he says is tainted by corruption.</p>
<p>He has promised to “consult the people” on reforms and plans to turn the presidential residence into a cultural center, sell the presidential plane and cut his salary in half.</p>
<p>The candidate’s foreign policy advisor, Hector Vasconcelos, has said U.S. relations should be aimed at bolstering economic cooperation and that the current ties over-emphasize police and military relations.</p>
<p>Vasconcelos also said Mexico would not follow the United States in sanctioning socialist Venezuela, and would refrain from foreign interference to focus on critical problems at home such as violence.</p>
<p>As well as its storied history, in modern times Ciudad Juarez, opposite El Paso in Texas, has been the scene of the murders of hundreds of women, many of them low-salaried workers in export factories.</p>
<p>That horror, mirrored in towns across Mexico during a decade of extreme drug violence, is another reason Lopez Obrador chose the city to start campaigning, an advisor said.</p>
<p>“It is a symbol of the need to heal Mexican pain,” said senior campaign member Tatiana Clouthier.</p>
<p>Angel Perez, 29, a Mexican national who lives in El Paso, said he would attend Sunday’s campaign launch with his wife and two daughters, hopeful that Lopez Obrador will deliver on promises for change.</p>
<p>“I think he has what it takes to put Trump in his place,” he said.</p>
<p>Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Sandra Maler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-ExeoTech Invest Unit Sells Sameffekt Autopsy prompts more protests over killing of black man in California No Gaza inquiry, Israeli defense minister says Factbox: Mexico's presidential candidates at the start of campaigning Channeling national pride, Mexican front-runner to campaign by U.S. border | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-exeotech-invest-unit-sells-sameffe/brief-exeotech-invest-unit-sells-sameffekt-idUSFWN1PH07A | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
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<p>Dot No. 1: The Financial Times reported Monday on the latest indication that Donald Trump might launch a cable TV station if he loses the presidential election.</p>
<p>Dot No. 2: Also Monday, the Huffington Post published an article under the headline, “Is Shep Smith the future of Fox News?”</p>
<p>Here is the connection: Trump TV would be much more viable in a future in which the straight-shooting Shepard Smith really is the face of Fox News.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Certain opinion programs on Fox News have fled the confines of reality in defense of the Republican nominee – but that will be a short-term trend if polls hold true and Trump falls short on Nov. 8. A postelection evaluation of the network’s long-term direction seems likely, given that Fox News hasn’t really had a moment to catch its breath since the stunning ouster of longtime chairman Roger Ailes in the middle of the major-party conventions.</p>
<p>The new direction could be toward the political center, according to HuffPo’s profile of Smith:</p>
<p>“Since the forced departure of Roger Ailes – who has now gone on to advise the spawn of Fox News, the Trump campaign – Rupert Murdoch’s two sons, James and Lachlan, have taken a bigger role inside the network. If they get their way, some of the knuckle-dragging, opinion-heavy approach to politics may be less welcome at headquarters, clearing the way for journalists like Smith, Chris Wallace, Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly. The brothers are reportedly working hard to woo Kelly, hoping she’ll stay at Fox past the election and help shape the network’s post-Ailes identity.</p>
<p>“In a more grounded Fox, Shep would take on a much greater role. In his most recent meeting with Murdoch, he asked where Murdoch felt the center of gravity was going to move post-Ailes, whether toward news or toward the opinion side. ‘He said, “I’m a newsman. I want to be the best news organization in America,” ‘ Shep recalled.”</p>
<p>A “more grounded Fox” would open a gap in the media market – a gap Trump TV could fill. Imagine a split in which Fox News becomes more newsy, with center-right pundits who represent traditional Republican perspectives, while Trump TV becomes the new home for the kind of populist-nationalist rhetoric he espoused during the campaign.</p>
<p>Trump certainly has the personnel to make it happen. As the Huffington Post noted, Ailes is now an adviser. The Trump campaign’s chief executive is Steve Bannon, the chairman of Breitbart News. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner – who is involved in preliminary TV talks, according to the Financial Times – is the owner and publisher of the New York Observer.</p>
<p>That’s a lot of combined media savvy. And a lot of money.</p>
<p>Just think of the (hypothetical) lineup this group could put on the air:</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>6-9 a.m.: Billy Bush runs the point on a morning show with Scottie Nell Hughes and Milo Yiannopoulos</p>
<p>9-11 a.m.: John Nolte and Joel Pollak read the latest headlines from Breitbart</p>
<p>11 a.m.: Ben Carson discusses foreign policy</p>
<p>Noon: Carl Higbie and Pete Hegseth lament the deterioration of the U.S. military under Hillary Clinton</p>
<p>1 p.m.: Chris Christie gets stuck with a lousy midday time slot, after thinking he would land a prime-time show</p>
<p>2 p.m.: Jerry Falwell Jr. and Mark Burns lead a program about Christianity under attack in Clinton’s America</p>
<p>3 p.m.: Kellyanne Conway shoots down negative Trump headlines that might appear elsewhere in the rest of the media</p>
<p>4 p.m.: Jeffrey Lord relives the greatness of Ronald Reagan</p>
<p>5 p.m.: Trump TV’s answer to “The Five” features Newt Gingrich, Katrina Pierson, Kayleigh McEnany, John Phillips and Adriana Cohen</p>
<p>6 p.m.: Omarosa Manigault reports on Trump’s latest business successes</p>
<p>7 p.m.: Rudy Giuliani anchors a legal-themed program focused on the many ways the Clinton administration is breaking the law</p>
<p>8 p.m.: Rush Limbaugh rails against liberals’ obsession with “consent”</p>
<p>9 p.m.: Ann Coulter delivers her nightly update on the scourge of illegal immigration</p>
<p>10 p.m.: Alex Jones explains how the government is turning men gay through estrogen-lined juice boxes</p>
<p>11 p.m.-6 a.m.: Infomercials for Trump golf courses, hotels, steaks, ties and other tremendous products</p>
<p>This is assuming Trump TV fails to pry Sean Hannity away from Fox News, and is unable to convince Matt Drudge to go on camera. In a perfect world, those guys get shows, too.</p>
<p>trump-tv</p> | Trump TV could be Fox News on steroids | false | https://abqjournal.com/869038/trump-tv-could-be-fox-news-on-steroids.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told The Associated Press that current prices are not sustainable for oil-producing countries.</p>
<p>Al-Abadi’s comments could be critical because Iraq — along with Iran — has been reluctant to go along with cuts, creating an obstacle for an OPEC deal, according to published reports.</p>
<p>Al-Abadi said he understands that OPEC members will agree to reduce production by between 900,000 and 1.2 million barrels per day — that would be a cut of between 2.7 percent and 3.6 percent from October levels. He said it would be enough to push prices up.</p>
<p>“Yes, we will take our share and we agreed to this,” he told the AP.</p>
<p>Kenneth Medlock, director of an energy-studies center at Rice University, said if Iraq pledges to cut its own production it could influence other reluctant countries and help push OPEC to an agreement. The size of the cuts suggested by al-Abadi would be big enough to push up prices, he said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A successful production-cut might re-establish the cartel as oil’s swing producer — able to balance global supply with demand and influence prices — “because they will then have the most flexible capability of dealing with near-term price instability, Medlock said, particularly if global inventories tighten quickly.”</p>
<p>Benchmark international oil rose $1, or 2 percent, on Monday to close at $48.24 a barrel. Al-Abadi said for every dollar oil prices rise, Iraq gains about $1 billion.</p>
<p>In late 2014, as crude prices tumbled from more than $100 a barrel, OPEC countries decided not to intervene — they expected falling prices to drive high-cost producers in the U.S. out of business.</p>
<p>But a worldwide glut of oil has persisted and OPEC has been pumping at record levels. Now the cartel is trying to regain some of its historical ability to affect prices.</p> | Iraq prime minister says his country will cut oil production | false | https://abqjournal.com/897707/iraq-prime-minister-says-his-country-will-cut-oil-production.html | 2016-11-29 | 2 |
<p>Dec. 10 (UPI) — Season 2 of Marvel’s <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jessica-Jones/" type="external">Jessica Jones</a> is scheduled to premiere on Netflix March 8.</p>
<p>Krysten Ritter will continue playing the titular private investigator in the upcoming 13 episodes of the New York-set series.</p>
<p>“Jessica Jones is beginning to put her life back together after murdering her tormentor, Kilgrave. Now known throughout the city as a super-powered killer, a new case makes her reluctantly confront who she really is while digging deeper into her past to explore the reasons why,” said a press release announcing the show’s return date and the release of a new trailer.</p>
<p>The drama co-stars Rachael Taylor,&#160;Carrie-Anne Moss and&#160;Eka Darville. Melissa Rosenberg&#160;serves as show-runner.</p> | Season 2 of 'Jessica Jones' to debut March 8 on Netflix | false | https://newsline.com/season-2-of-jessica-jones-to-debut-march-8-on-netflix/ | 2017-12-10 | 1 |
<p>Published time: 4 Aug, 2017 20:31</p>
<p>More than just prices dropped in a Kazakhstan travel company advertisement, which saw a group of air stewards strip down to just their hats. The video for Chocotravel drew mixed reactions online, with some accusing it of sexism.</p>
<p>“I’m sick of this sh*t,” one commenter said on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nurken.rzaliyev?hc_ref=ARTaieGoeacdPiezAGKB-38GEgQN1Ei4RwjGc8dto2IQPGyOR3zxZwgX-A0K6U53Qfw&amp;fref=nf" type="external">Facebook</a>, expressing her distaste for women selling their bodies in advertising. “Disgusting” and “cheap” were also used by others to describe the video.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Nurken Rzaliyev from Chocotravel’s parent company Chocofamily asked on Facebook if the ad was “too much?”</p>
<p>Not everyone was against the ad, though, with some praising its visuals.</p>
<p>Chocotravel director Nikolay Mazentsev said on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nikolay.mazentsev?ref=ts&amp;fref=ts" type="external">Facebook</a> the video was not intended to offend anyone.</p>
<p>“The video is bold and shocking, but we did not want to hurt anyone’s feelings, and regret it if it happened,” he wrote. “The advertisement shows exactly as much as you can see on any beach or in the pool. You do not attack girls in short skirts and people in swimsuits?”</p>
<p>Mazentsev pointed out that a day after the video’s publication males also got the same treatment in a similar ad.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Critics pointed out that the males were depicted as pilots, whereas only females could be air stewards.</p> | Naked flight attendants in Kazakh travel company ad stirs online debate (VIDEOS) | false | https://newsline.com/naked-flight-attendants-in-kazakh-travel-company-ad-stirs-online-debate-videos/ | 2017-08-04 | 1 |
<p>DALLAS (AP) — Delta Air Lines will soon require owners of service and support animals to provide more information before their animal can fly in the passenger cabin, including an assurance that it's trained to behave itself.</p>
<p>The airline says complaints about animals biting or urinating or defecating on planes have nearly doubled since 2016.</p>
<p>Starting March 1, Delta will require owners to show proof of their animal's health or vaccinations at least 48 hours before a flight.</p>
<p>Owners of psychiatric service animals and of those used for emotional support will need to sign a statement vouching that their animal can behave. But owners will be on the honor system — they won't have to show, for example, that their dog graduated from obedience school.</p>
<p>The new requirements don't apply to pets, for which owners pay an extra fee. Delta, American and United all charge $125 each way for small pets in the cabin. Pets that don't fit under a seat must fly in the cargo hold, also for a price.</p>
<p>Delta's policy change arrives with the number of animals in the cabin increasing.</p>
<p>A rift has grown between disabled people who rely on trained service animals, usually dogs, and passengers with support or comfort animals, with many in the first group suspecting that those in the latter are just trying to avoid paying $125.</p>
<p>However, owners of comfort animals, including veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, often say that they wouldn't be able to travel without their companion.</p>
<p>John Laughter, the airline's senior vice president of safety and security, said there are insufficient rules in place to screen animals for health and behavior issues.</p>
<p>Last June, a 70-pound dog flying as a support animal bit another passenger several times in the face on a Delta plane in Atlanta. The victim was hospitalized.</p>
<p>Delta is seeking a balance "that supports those customers with a legitimate need for these animals" while maintaining safety, Laughter said.</p>
<p>Sara Nelson, president of the largest flight attendants' union, praised Delta's decision. She said passengers abuse the system to bring untrained animals on board, and if it isn't stopped it could lead to a crackdown that will hurt veterans and the disabled "who legitimately need to travel with these animals."</p>
<p>Eric Goldmann, a sales representative in Atlanta for a health care company, posts pictures on Twitter of support animals that he thinks should have stayed home. He says owners are abusing the system and creating safety hazards.</p>
<p>"These dogs are everywhere, they're out in the aisles," he said. "Planes have to be evacuated in 90 seconds in an emergency. If animals get in the way, people will panic."</p>
<p>Although exact figures aren't available, airline employees say dogs and cats are the most common animals on planes, but there have been sightings of pigs, snakes and turkeys too.</p>
<p>Delta's new rules are aimed at two categories: service animals, which receive specific training to help blind or disabled passengers; and so-called emotional-support animals, which require no training at all. Both fly for free and are not required to be caged during the flight.</p>
<p>The emotional-support group has been growing rapidly, and it is the target of most of the new Delta procedures. Delta, the second-biggest U.S. airline by revenue, said it transports about 700 service and support animals every day, nearly 250,000 per year. More than two-thirds are emotional-support animals. That does not include animals for which owners pay a fee to keep in a carrier under their seat during flights.</p>
<p>The boom in animal travel has prompted airports to add places where pets can relieve themselves.</p>
<p>Federal regulators have interpreted a 1986 access-to-travel law to allow support animals in airplane cabins and in apartment buildings that do not allow pets. That has created a cottage industry of online companies that help people establish their pet as an emotional support animal.</p>
<p>Airlines must allow support animals in the cabin, although they can require owners to present a letter from a doctor or other medical provider who can vouch that the human traveler is helped by having the animal there. Delta will now ask to see those letters 48 hours in advance.</p>
<p>The Transportation Department, aided by an advisory committee of airline and passenger advocates, has been considering tightening the definitions of service and comfort animals but missed its own deadline last year.</p>
<p>The airlines also complain that they have no way to verify that doctors who sign off on comfort animals are qualified to decide if someone needs the emotional support. Last year an undercover reporter for a Los Angeles TV station found a chiropractor willing to sign a letter allowing the woman's dog to fly for free if she paid his $250 fee.</p>
<p>American Airlines and United Airlines said they were reviewing their animal policies. Both reported seeing a significant increase in the number of emotional-support animals since 2016.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>David Koenig can be reached at http://twitter.com/airlinewriter</p>
<p>DALLAS (AP) — Delta Air Lines will soon require owners of service and support animals to provide more information before their animal can fly in the passenger cabin, including an assurance that it's trained to behave itself.</p>
<p>The airline says complaints about animals biting or urinating or defecating on planes have nearly doubled since 2016.</p>
<p>Starting March 1, Delta will require owners to show proof of their animal's health or vaccinations at least 48 hours before a flight.</p>
<p>Owners of psychiatric service animals and of those used for emotional support will need to sign a statement vouching that their animal can behave. But owners will be on the honor system — they won't have to show, for example, that their dog graduated from obedience school.</p>
<p>The new requirements don't apply to pets, for which owners pay an extra fee. Delta, American and United all charge $125 each way for small pets in the cabin. Pets that don't fit under a seat must fly in the cargo hold, also for a price.</p>
<p>Delta's policy change arrives with the number of animals in the cabin increasing.</p>
<p>A rift has grown between disabled people who rely on trained service animals, usually dogs, and passengers with support or comfort animals, with many in the first group suspecting that those in the latter are just trying to avoid paying $125.</p>
<p>However, owners of comfort animals, including veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, often say that they wouldn't be able to travel without their companion.</p>
<p>John Laughter, the airline's senior vice president of safety and security, said there are insufficient rules in place to screen animals for health and behavior issues.</p>
<p>Last June, a 70-pound dog flying as a support animal bit another passenger several times in the face on a Delta plane in Atlanta. The victim was hospitalized.</p>
<p>Delta is seeking a balance "that supports those customers with a legitimate need for these animals" while maintaining safety, Laughter said.</p>
<p>Sara Nelson, president of the largest flight attendants' union, praised Delta's decision. She said passengers abuse the system to bring untrained animals on board, and if it isn't stopped it could lead to a crackdown that will hurt veterans and the disabled "who legitimately need to travel with these animals."</p>
<p>Eric Goldmann, a sales representative in Atlanta for a health care company, posts pictures on Twitter of support animals that he thinks should have stayed home. He says owners are abusing the system and creating safety hazards.</p>
<p>"These dogs are everywhere, they're out in the aisles," he said. "Planes have to be evacuated in 90 seconds in an emergency. If animals get in the way, people will panic."</p>
<p>Although exact figures aren't available, airline employees say dogs and cats are the most common animals on planes, but there have been sightings of pigs, snakes and turkeys too.</p>
<p>Delta's new rules are aimed at two categories: service animals, which receive specific training to help blind or disabled passengers; and so-called emotional-support animals, which require no training at all. Both fly for free and are not required to be caged during the flight.</p>
<p>The emotional-support group has been growing rapidly, and it is the target of most of the new Delta procedures. Delta, the second-biggest U.S. airline by revenue, said it transports about 700 service and support animals every day, nearly 250,000 per year. More than two-thirds are emotional-support animals. That does not include animals for which owners pay a fee to keep in a carrier under their seat during flights.</p>
<p>The boom in animal travel has prompted airports to add places where pets can relieve themselves.</p>
<p>Federal regulators have interpreted a 1986 access-to-travel law to allow support animals in airplane cabins and in apartment buildings that do not allow pets. That has created a cottage industry of online companies that help people establish their pet as an emotional support animal.</p>
<p>Airlines must allow support animals in the cabin, although they can require owners to present a letter from a doctor or other medical provider who can vouch that the human traveler is helped by having the animal there. Delta will now ask to see those letters 48 hours in advance.</p>
<p>The Transportation Department, aided by an advisory committee of airline and passenger advocates, has been considering tightening the definitions of service and comfort animals but missed its own deadline last year.</p>
<p>The airlines also complain that they have no way to verify that doctors who sign off on comfort animals are qualified to decide if someone needs the emotional support. Last year an undercover reporter for a Los Angeles TV station found a chiropractor willing to sign a letter allowing the woman's dog to fly for free if she paid his $250 fee.</p>
<p>American Airlines and United Airlines said they were reviewing their animal policies. Both reported seeing a significant increase in the number of emotional-support animals since 2016.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>David Koenig can be reached at http://twitter.com/airlinewriter</p> | Good dog, bad dog ... Delta wants to know before you board | false | https://apnews.com/amp/428d94da1d844db58bbfbe3f83f83406 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>Investing.com – The Australian and New Zealand dollars moved lower against their U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, after the Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates unchanged and as growing expectations for an upcoming U.S. rate hike continued to support demand for the greenback.</p>
<p>was down 0.27% at 0.7671.</p>
<p>In a widely expected move, the RBA left interest rates unchanged at at the conclusion of its monthly policy meeting.</p>
<p>Commenting on the decision, RBA Governor Philip Lowe said “the Bank’s forecasts for growth in the Australian economy are largely unchanged.”</p>
<p>declined 0.32% to trade at 0.6924.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the greenback remained supported after mostly positive U.S. data released late last week added to expectations for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve.</p>
<p>However, uncertainty over whether U.S. Republicans will be able to pass a highly-anticipated tax reform plan have been limiting the U.S. dollar’s gains.</p>
<p>The , which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.18% at 94.80 by 02:10 a.m. ET (06:10 GMT).</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> | Forex – Aussie, Kiwi Move Lower; RBA Holds Rates | false | https://newsline.com/forex-aussie-kiwi-move-lower-rba-holds-rates/ | 2017-11-07 | 1 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Like Roy Moore before him, President Donald Trump has denied he knows or ever met women who have accused him of unwanted sexual advances. That denial is no more plausible than what people heard from the defeated Alabama Senate candidate.</p>
<p>Trump's tweet on the subject is at odds with the record — photos included — and was just one in a series of questionable statements he made over the past week on a variety of subjects.</p>
<p>A look at a sampling:</p>
<p>TRUMP: "Despite thousands of hours wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the Democrats have been unable to show any collusion with Russia - so now they are moving on to the false accusations and fabricated stories of women who I don't know and/or have never met. FAKE NEWS!" — Tuesday.</p>
<p>THE FACTS: There's no question he met and knew accusers, whatever the truth of the allegations. Two were contestants on "The Apprentice," the show he hosted. Another woman was a People magazine journalist who interviewed him. Another was a would-be business partner with whom he posed for a photo. Another was a Miss Finland who appeared on David Letterman's former late-night TV show with him and has a photo of the two of them. Also: a porn actress and director who shows up in a photo with him, and a former Fox News host who had lunch with him.</p>
<p>Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, trying to clarify, said Trump was referring only to the three women who discussed their accounts Monday at a news conference and on TV, but that was not what Trump's tweet said.</p>
<p>Of those three, one was a Miss USA contestant when Trump was running the pageant and another worked at Trump Tower. Neither circumstance, by itself, proves that Trump met them. But no one has refuted their accounts or the account of the third woman, who said Trump groped her when they were seat-mates on a flight in the 1980s. More than a dozen women have alleged inappropriate behavior by Trump. He has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct.</p>
<p>In his Alabama Senate campaign, Moore likewise denied knowing his accusers in the face of firm evidence he knew at least some.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>TRUMP: "There is absolutely no collusion. That has been proven. ... So now even the Democrats admit there's no collusion. There is no collusion — that's it."</p>
<p>THE FACTS: Nothing has been proved. It's true that collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russians has not been established, as far as is publicly known. It's not true that collusion has been ruled out, by Democrats or others. The most they've said is that they have not seen firm evidence of it so far. It can't be ruled out because Russia's interference in the election and the Trump team's contacts with Russians are still under criminal investigation by the special counsel and the subject of continuing congressional inquiries. "That's it" is premature.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>TRUMP: "Instead of adding costs, as so many others have done, and other countries, frankly, are doing in many cases, and it's hurting them, for the first time in decades, we achieved regulatory savings." — White House event Thursday on cutting regulations.</p>
<p>THE FACTS: There's incomplete accounting behind that claim. Trump and his administration are adding up savings from the regulations that have been withdrawn through September and omitting the economic benefit that those rules provided.</p>
<p>All federal rules are supposed to have some economic benefit. Rules that are meant to clean up streams have a cost to industry, the government or both but also an anticipated benefit to local businesses from increased tourism, for example. The government has yardsticks to measure such gains. For one, it attaches a value to a human life. The Transportation Department, for example, set that value at $9.6 million in 2016.</p>
<p>So a rule that protects health, the environment or public safety and is projected to save lives as a result can be credited with an economic gain of $9.6 million or so per person saved. It's an imprecise measure but one baked into cost-benefit calculations that are used in federal rule-making. Other economic benefits are looked at, too, such as whether a regulation will save consumers money or reduce how much sick leave employees need to take.</p>
<p>The administration contends that it has completed 67 deregulatory actions and three regulatory actions through the end of September that will result in a cost savings of $570 million a year. But that figure does not include the offsetting of benefits that will now be missed because those rules are gone. The White House Office of Management and Budget confirmed that foregone benefits from retracted or modified rules are not part of that calculation.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>TRUMP: "You remember how bad we were doing when I first took over. There was a big difference. And we were going down. This country was going economically down." — deregulation event Thursday.</p>
<p>THE FACTS: Not really. It's true that growth cooled in 2016, but other measures showed improvement or held steady in President Barack Obama's final year. For example, hourly wages perked up in 2016, increasing 2.9 percent in December 2016 from a year earlier. Wage growth has since slipped to a 2.5 percent annual pace.</p>
<p>According to the Census Bureau, median household income rose at a healthy clip in 2016 for the second year in a row, finally matching its 1999 peak. The economy expanded just 1.5 percent in 2016, down from 2.9 percent in 2015. Consumers and businesses are more optimistic after Trump's election, and that is probably accelerating growth this year. But the economy was not collapsing or heading to recession in 2016.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>TRUMP: "We're lifting restrictions on American energy, and we've ended the war on coal. We have clean coal, beautiful, clean coal, another source of energy." — deregulation event Thursday.</p>
<p>THE FACTS: If that implies a dramatic turnaround, it's misleading. Coal production and jobs have staged a slight comeback under Trump but are still far below levels of just a few years ago.</p>
<p>Trump has lifted some regulations on coal mines implemented by Obama. But the industry is still struggling to compete with natural gas, which has become much cheaper because fracking techniques have greatly increased U.S. gas production. Coal production is on track this year to top last year's output, according to the Energy Information Administration. But based on current trends, it will probably still be below 2015's level and as much as 20 percent below 2011's output.</p>
<p>Coal mining companies have added 1,200 jobs since Trump's inauguration, but there are still 7,600 fewer such jobs than just two years ago.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Joan Lowy, Christopher S. Rugaber and Josh Boak contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Find AP Fact Checks at <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/APFactCheck</a></p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Like Roy Moore before him, President Donald Trump has denied he knows or ever met women who have accused him of unwanted sexual advances. That denial is no more plausible than what people heard from the defeated Alabama Senate candidate.</p>
<p>Trump's tweet on the subject is at odds with the record — photos included — and was just one in a series of questionable statements he made over the past week on a variety of subjects.</p>
<p>A look at a sampling:</p>
<p>TRUMP: "Despite thousands of hours wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the Democrats have been unable to show any collusion with Russia - so now they are moving on to the false accusations and fabricated stories of women who I don't know and/or have never met. FAKE NEWS!" — Tuesday.</p>
<p>THE FACTS: There's no question he met and knew accusers, whatever the truth of the allegations. Two were contestants on "The Apprentice," the show he hosted. Another woman was a People magazine journalist who interviewed him. Another was a would-be business partner with whom he posed for a photo. Another was a Miss Finland who appeared on David Letterman's former late-night TV show with him and has a photo of the two of them. Also: a porn actress and director who shows up in a photo with him, and a former Fox News host who had lunch with him.</p>
<p>Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, trying to clarify, said Trump was referring only to the three women who discussed their accounts Monday at a news conference and on TV, but that was not what Trump's tweet said.</p>
<p>Of those three, one was a Miss USA contestant when Trump was running the pageant and another worked at Trump Tower. Neither circumstance, by itself, proves that Trump met them. But no one has refuted their accounts or the account of the third woman, who said Trump groped her when they were seat-mates on a flight in the 1980s. More than a dozen women have alleged inappropriate behavior by Trump. He has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct.</p>
<p>In his Alabama Senate campaign, Moore likewise denied knowing his accusers in the face of firm evidence he knew at least some.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>TRUMP: "There is absolutely no collusion. That has been proven. ... So now even the Democrats admit there's no collusion. There is no collusion — that's it."</p>
<p>THE FACTS: Nothing has been proved. It's true that collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russians has not been established, as far as is publicly known. It's not true that collusion has been ruled out, by Democrats or others. The most they've said is that they have not seen firm evidence of it so far. It can't be ruled out because Russia's interference in the election and the Trump team's contacts with Russians are still under criminal investigation by the special counsel and the subject of continuing congressional inquiries. "That's it" is premature.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>TRUMP: "Instead of adding costs, as so many others have done, and other countries, frankly, are doing in many cases, and it's hurting them, for the first time in decades, we achieved regulatory savings." — White House event Thursday on cutting regulations.</p>
<p>THE FACTS: There's incomplete accounting behind that claim. Trump and his administration are adding up savings from the regulations that have been withdrawn through September and omitting the economic benefit that those rules provided.</p>
<p>All federal rules are supposed to have some economic benefit. Rules that are meant to clean up streams have a cost to industry, the government or both but also an anticipated benefit to local businesses from increased tourism, for example. The government has yardsticks to measure such gains. For one, it attaches a value to a human life. The Transportation Department, for example, set that value at $9.6 million in 2016.</p>
<p>So a rule that protects health, the environment or public safety and is projected to save lives as a result can be credited with an economic gain of $9.6 million or so per person saved. It's an imprecise measure but one baked into cost-benefit calculations that are used in federal rule-making. Other economic benefits are looked at, too, such as whether a regulation will save consumers money or reduce how much sick leave employees need to take.</p>
<p>The administration contends that it has completed 67 deregulatory actions and three regulatory actions through the end of September that will result in a cost savings of $570 million a year. But that figure does not include the offsetting of benefits that will now be missed because those rules are gone. The White House Office of Management and Budget confirmed that foregone benefits from retracted or modified rules are not part of that calculation.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>TRUMP: "You remember how bad we were doing when I first took over. There was a big difference. And we were going down. This country was going economically down." — deregulation event Thursday.</p>
<p>THE FACTS: Not really. It's true that growth cooled in 2016, but other measures showed improvement or held steady in President Barack Obama's final year. For example, hourly wages perked up in 2016, increasing 2.9 percent in December 2016 from a year earlier. Wage growth has since slipped to a 2.5 percent annual pace.</p>
<p>According to the Census Bureau, median household income rose at a healthy clip in 2016 for the second year in a row, finally matching its 1999 peak. The economy expanded just 1.5 percent in 2016, down from 2.9 percent in 2015. Consumers and businesses are more optimistic after Trump's election, and that is probably accelerating growth this year. But the economy was not collapsing or heading to recession in 2016.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>TRUMP: "We're lifting restrictions on American energy, and we've ended the war on coal. We have clean coal, beautiful, clean coal, another source of energy." — deregulation event Thursday.</p>
<p>THE FACTS: If that implies a dramatic turnaround, it's misleading. Coal production and jobs have staged a slight comeback under Trump but are still far below levels of just a few years ago.</p>
<p>Trump has lifted some regulations on coal mines implemented by Obama. But the industry is still struggling to compete with natural gas, which has become much cheaper because fracking techniques have greatly increased U.S. gas production. Coal production is on track this year to top last year's output, according to the Energy Information Administration. But based on current trends, it will probably still be below 2015's level and as much as 20 percent below 2011's output.</p>
<p>Coal mining companies have added 1,200 jobs since Trump's inauguration, but there are still 7,600 fewer such jobs than just two years ago.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Joan Lowy, Christopher S. Rugaber and Josh Boak contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Find AP Fact Checks at <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/APFactCheck</a></p> | AP FACT CHECK: Trump denies knowing women he met | false | https://apnews.com/amp/673131ac154a4fdc9e9ed856c98fbf3f | 2017-12-16 | 2 |
<p>PANAMA CITY, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The Iranian tanker that sank after a collision in the East China Sea, causing the worst oil ship disaster in years, had its paperwork in order, according an initial review by maritime authorities in Panama, whose flag it was sailing under.</p>
<p>The large tanker Sanchi (IMO:9356608) sank on Sunday after crashing into the freighter CF Crystal (IMO:9497050) and drifting ablaze for days. The ship’s crew of 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis are believed to have been killed.</p>
<p>Fernando Solorzano, head of Panama’s Merchant Marine, told Reuters there was no initial sign that the stricken ship was in breach of any security protocols. He added, though, that investigations could take months or even years to conclude.</p>
<p>“It had all the valid technical certificates on board and the financial guarantees required under international agreements,” Solorzano said in an interview late on Thursday.</p>
<p>An international team of experts from China, Iran, Hong Kong and the crew’s home countries would be analyzing the voyage data recorder, a device that monitors the vessel’s progress, to determine the cause of the collision, he added.</p>
<p>Although the Sanchi was Iranian, it was registered under a Panamanian flag, a practice that has become commonplace due to the strategic importance of the Central American nation’s canal. The Panamanian registry has over 8,000 vessels on its books.</p>
<p>Solorzano said all vessels sailing under the flag had to comply with strict requirements. He conceded the event could adversely affect the image of the registry because it is known for having a low rate of incidents. (Writing by Enrique Andres Pretel; Editing by Dave Graham and Andrew Hay)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Fourteen states filed suit on Thursday accusing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of failing to issue regulations for curbing emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse pollutant, from existing oil and gas operations as required under the Clean Air Act.</p> FILE PHOTO: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks during an interview with Reuters journalists in Washington, U.S., January 9, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
<p>The legal challenge, led by New York state, came nine months after a federal appeals court sided with environmental activists who sued to block the EPA from freezing enforcement of its own rules to control methane leaks from new or modified fossil fuel facilities.</p>
<p>In both instances, EPA chief Scott Pruitt has been accused of putting the interests of oil and gas companies ahead of the agency’s obligation to protect air quality, including the control of heat-trapping pollutants that scientists blame for global climate change.</p>
<p>Pruitt, who was a leading EPA critic as attorney general of the oil-producing state of Oklahoma before beginning his tenure as head of the EPA, has said he does not believe greenhouse gas emissions are the principal driver of climate change.</p>
<p>As EPA administrator, Pruitt has moved to carry out U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to roll back or reconsider a slew of environmental protections deemed burdensome by the industry, including climate change regulations.</p>
<p>In March 2017 Trump signed an order to undo climate rules. And the EPA that month halted efforts to collect data from fossil fuel operations to prepare performance standards that states would have to follow in devising methane-control measures for existing wells, pipelines, storage tanks, pumping stations and other facilities.</p>
<p>It was EPA’s “unreasonable delay” in developing those standards that Thursday’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, cited as a Clean Air Act violation.</p> FILE PHOTO: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman speaks during a news conference to discuss the civil rights lawsuit filed against The Weinstein Companies and Harvey Weinstein in New York, U.S., February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
<p>“The EPA has a clear legal duty to control methane pollution from oil and gas operations,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said. “Its continued refusal to do so is not only illegal, but threatens our public health and environment.”</p>
<p>The lawsuit prepared by his office was joined by California, and 12 other states including Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Vermont and Iowa, as well as the District of Columbia and the city of Chicago.</p>
<p>Pruitt was named as the sole defendant in the complaint, which seeks a court order compelling the EPA to devise and issue the emissions standards in question.</p>
<p>An EPA spokeswoman said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.</p>
<p>Methane, the main component of commercially distributed natural gas, is also a byproduct of oil extraction. Pound for pound, it traps significantly more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas, though its effects are shorter-lived.</p>
<p>The oil and gas industry accounts for nearly third of all U.S. methane emissions, according to an EPA report cited in the lawsuit. The overwhelming bulk of those emissions, equivalent to 328 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, come from facilities in existence prior to 2012, the complaint said.</p>
<p>The lawsuit cited an Environmental Defense Fund study that found the industry could cut methane emissions 40 percent below projected 2018 levels at an average annual cost of less than a penny per thousand cubic feet of natural gas produced. The study said that reduction could save the U.S. economy more than $100 million a year.</p>
<p>Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Toni Reinhold</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Yulia Skripal on Thursday made her first public comments since being poisoned in Britain last month with her father, a Russian former double-agent, saying she was getting stronger by the day but shedding no new light on the incident.</p>
<p>Yulia and Sergei Skripal, 66, were found slumped unconscious on a public bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4. Britain said they were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent, the first known use of such a toxin on European soil since World War Two.</p>
<p>London has blamed Russia for the attempted murder while Moscow denies any involvement. The incident has had major diplomatic ramifications, with mass expulsions of Russian and Western diplomats.</p>
<p>“We have told our British colleagues that ‘you’re playing with fire and you’ll be sorry’,” Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that Moscow had requested.</p>
<p>“We didn’t do it, we’re not guilty,” Nebenzia said.</p>
<p>British U.N. Ambassador Karen Pierce told the Security Council that Britain’s actions “stand up to any scrutiny” and pledged to keep the 15-member body updated on the inquiry.</p>
<p>“We have nothing to hide ... but I do fear that Russia might have something to fear,” Pierce said.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-britain-russia-skripal-nerveagent/agent-used-in-salisbury-made-at-russias-shikhany-military-research-base-times-idUSKCN1HC2WE" type="external">Agent used in Salisbury made at Russia's Shikhany military research base: Times</a>
<p>Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelley Currie told the council: “We have stated previously and do so again today our firm belief that Russia is responsible for this chemical weapons attack on U.K. soil”.</p>
<p>The attack left the Skripals in critical condition and doctors had initially feared that even if they did survive, they might have suffered permanent brain damage.</p>
<p>But while her father remains stable in intensive care, Yulia’s health has improved rapidly. On Thursday she issued a statement through British police to thank hospital staff and people who came to her help when “when my father and I were incapacitated”.</p>
<p>Her recovery means she can help British counter-terrorism police with their investigation although she did not give any details about what had happened in her brief remarks.</p>
<p>Britain’s Foreign Office said she had been offered assistance by Russia’s embassy but had so far declined.</p>
<p>“I woke up over a week ago now and am glad to say my strength is growing daily. I am grateful for the interest in me and for the many messages of goodwill that I have received,” said Yulia, 33.</p>
<p>“I am sure you appreciate that the entire episode is somewhat disorientating, and I hope that you’ll respect my privacy and that of my family during the period of my convalescence.”</p>
<p>Hours before the statement issued by British police, Russian state TV and Interfax reported that Yulia had phoned her cousin Viktoria Skripal in Russia, saying she and her father were both recovering and that she expected to leave hospital soon.</p>
<p>“Everything is fine, everything is fixable, everyone is getting better, everyone is alive,” they quoted her as saying in the call.</p>
<p>Asked about her father’s health, Yulia was cited as saying: “Everything is fine, he is resting right now, sleeping ... nobody has any problems that can’t be put right.”</p>
<p>Russian state TV said it could not vouch for the authenticity of the quotes. Viktoria Skripal has said she plans to travel to England if she can get a visa.</p> DIPLOMATIC LOW
<p>Police believe the nerve agent was left on the front door of the home in Salisbury where Skripal, a military intelligence colonel who betrayed dozens of Russian agents to Britain’s MI6 spy service, lived after he was freed in a spy swap.</p>
<p>The attack has driven Moscow’s relations with the West to a new post-Cold War low, with Britain and its allies, including the United States, expelling about 130 diplomats and the Kremlin responding in kind.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, Russia lost its call for a joint inquiry to be held into the poisoning at a meeting of global watchdog the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.</p>
<p>Moscow’s ambassador to London Alexander Yakovenko said on Thursday Russia had never made Novichok, the Soviet-era nerve agent which British experts say was the toxin used.</p>
<p>He said the Kremlin would accept the results of OPCW tests but only if there was transparency and they were confirmed by experts from outside Europe and NATO.</p>
<p>While scientists at the Porton Down biological and chemical weapons laboratory near Salisbury have concluded the toxin was Novichok, its chief executive said on Tuesday they had not yet determined whether it was made in Russia.</p>
<p>That prompted even some allies to say London needs to provide more evidence of Russian culpability.</p> Police officers stand outside a pub near to where former Russian inteligence officer Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious after they had been exposed to an unknown substance, in Salisbury, Britain, March 7, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville
<p>Britain says there is no plausible explanation other than that Russia was behind the attack and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has accused Russia of running a disinformation campaign.</p>
<p>A number of Russians have died in mysterious circumstances in Britain in recent years including dissident Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned with a rare radioactive isotope in 2006. A British inquiry concluded his murder had probably been ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.</p>
<p>“We have a lot of suspicions about Britain,” said Russian UK ambassador Yakovenko. “If you take the last 10 years, so many Russian citizens died here in the UK, under very strange circumstances ... My question is why is it happening here?”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon and William James in London, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Paul Carrel in Berlin; Editing by Catherine Evans and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - A Russian military research base was identified as the source of the nerve agent used in Salisbury, England, at a British intelligence briefing for the country’s allies, the Times of London reported on Thursday.</p> A police officer stands guard outside of the home of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, in Salisbury, Britain, March 8, 2018. Picture taken March 8, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
<p>The gathering was used to persuade world leaders that Moscow was behind the poisoning and said that the Novichok chemical was produced at the Shikhany facility in southwest Russia, the Times said. The briefing included suggestions that Shikhany had been used during the past decade to test whether the nerve agent could be utilized for assassinations abroad, the newspaper said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Shalini Nagarajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRASILIA (Reuters) - A Brazilian judge on Thursday ordered former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to turn himself in to police within 24 hours to serve a 12-year sentence for a bribery conviction, likely ending the presidential frontrunner’s hopes of returning to power.</p>
<p>An appeals court in January upheld Lula’s conviction for taking bribes from an engineering firm in return for help landing contracts with state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA.</p>
<p>Earlier on Thursday, Brazil’s Supreme Court rejected Lula’s plea to remain free until he exhausts all his appeals, in a corruption case he calls a political witch hunt.</p>
<p>The ruling likely ends his political career and any chances he has of running for president, despite opinion polls showing he would easily win a first-round vote in an election scheduled for October.</p> Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrives at his home in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil April 4, 2018 REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
<p>Brazilian financial markets rallied on Thursday after the Supreme Court decision, which plunged the left into disarray and increased the chances a centrist will win the election, according to analysts and political foes.</p>
<p>A defiant Workers Party, founded by Lula, said its supporters would take to the streets to defend his right to run. A candidate is forbidden by law from running for elected office for eight years if convicted of a crime.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>“Lula continues to be our candidate, because he is innocent, and because he is the leading candidate to become the next president of Brazil,” said Workers Party leader, Senator Gleisi Hoffmann.</p>
<p>Lula served two four-year terms as president from 2003 to January 2011 and left office with an approval rating higher than 80 percent.</p>
<p>His endorsement was enough to get his hand-picked successor Dilma Rousseff elected twice. Rousseff was impeached and removed from office amid corruption scandals and economic crisis in mid-2016.</p>
<p>Reporting by Anthony Boadle; additional reporting by Eduardo Simoes and Brad Brooks in Sao Paulo; editing by Brad Haynes and Rosalba O'Brien</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Panama says sunken Iranian tanker had papers in order EPA sued by 14 states over delay in methane emission standards Recovering daughter of ex-spy poisoned in UK makes first comment after attack Agent used in Salisbury made at Russia's Shikhany military research base: Times Brazil judge orders ex-president Lula jailed by Friday | false | https://reuters.com/article/china-shipping-accident-panama/panama-says-sunken-iranian-tanker-had-papers-in-order-idUSL1N1PE1CP | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>The Iraqi political leadership is moving to the right and those identified as unacceptable are paying the harshest price. As U.S. occupation forces attempt to vacate Iraq’s bloody battlefield, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is positioning himself as a stalwart nationalist for the upcoming elections scheduled for January 2010. His efforts are most evident in his use of one of the oldest con-games in the authoritarian leader’s playbook, condoning vicious right-wing attacks on the weakest, most powerless in society.</p>
<p>Faced with a recent escalation in sectarian violence and mounting political disaffection within his strained coalition, al-Maliki and his supporters have sought to push through restrictive policies that appease the most reactionary elements within his faltering coalition.</p>
<p>The Iraqi government is attempting to impose restrictions on Internet service providers and, like the Chinese government, ban sites it claims incite violence or offer pornography. Similarly, efforts to promote women’s rights have come to a near halt as represented most graphically by Nawal al-Samarraie, Iraq’s minister for women’s affairs, decision to resign.</p>
<p>The al-Maliki government’s condoning of the recent up-tick in honor killings of “adulterous” females and “gay” males reveals a far more dangerous, bloody side of the right-wing drift of the Iraqi government.</p>
<p>Saddam Hussein’s regime was brutally oppressive to its perceived enemies, yet surprisingly tolerant when it came to women’s rights (even involving adultery) and to gay people. Hussein oversaw a secular dictatorship, not an Islamist fundamentalist regime.</p>
<p>During the initial phase of the U.S. occupation, Bush promoted a right-wing ideology of “democratic” nation building that required the Iraqi puppet regime to at least give lip service to broadly shared Western “human rights” values. As the U.S. seeks to depart the Iraqi stage, human rights, especially sexual freedoms, are one of the first casualties of Iraq’s new national building efforts.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>An increase in “honor” killings currently haunts the Iraqi political landscape but is receiving little U.S. media attention. Such killings are rooted in ancient patriarchal culture and represent the most severe expression of a rebellion against modernity, the secularism of the global market. They bespeak Iraq’s mounting social crisis.</p>
<p>In Iraq, and other parts of the developing (and religiously fundamentalist) world, an allegation of a wife’s “adultery” or a man’s “homosexuality” can lead to government-sanctioned violent moral justice, including killings. A family or clan believing its reputation defamed by the allegedly unacceptable conduct of one of its members can lead to the killing of the loved-one in order to restore its honor.</p>
<p>Based on a rationality drawn from another historical value system, the “crime” committed is not a civil or legal offense, but rather a moral or tradition transgression: the woman or man who is punished (along with anyone who tries to defend her/him) is considered the guilty party because s/he has defamed the family or clan’s honor. In less tradition-bound societies in the West and other parts of the world, the perpetrator of such an “honor” killing will likely be punished. In Iraq, and other fundamentalist-religious countries, the dishonored party is seen as the victim and exonerated from criminal prosecution.</p>
<p>A recently report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), “They Want Us Exterminated: Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq,” analyzes the rise in the killings of alleged gay men since January 2009. If estimates that 90 men have been murdered during this period; however, Ali Hili, a spokesperson for Iraqi LGBT, a UK-based gay rights group, argues that “we have information on over 700 killings including honour killings.” [HRW, August 2009]</p>
<p>Amnesty International recounts, in “Trapped by Violence: Women in Iraq,” the story of 17-year-old Rand ‘Abd al-Qader who was killed in Basra in March 2008. Her father murdered her apparently with the assistance of two of her brothers because she had developed a friendship with a British soldier based in the city. Making this killing more perverse, Rand ‘Abd al-Qader’s mother, Leila Hussein, denounced her husband’s crime, left him and was murdered in May 2008. [AI, March 2009]</p>
<p>Hundreds of ostensibly gay men have been targeted and killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion and occupation. These killings spiked following the U.S. invasion, but declined along with other social violence in the wake of the 2008 “Anbar Awakening” and the subsequent U.S. military “surge.” However, as HRW and others have reported, a new round of gay killings is underway in Iraq. It says that the killings are centered in Baghdad, but have spread to Kirkuk, Najaf and Basra.</p>
<p>Clerics warn that under the occupation, a growing trend of what they consider the “feminization” of Iraqi men is occurring and harsh responses are needed to redress this trend. Many attacks are attributed to a resurgent Mehdi Army, Moqtada al-Sadr’s private Shia militia; it has also been accused of burning down a coffee house in Sadr City that was reputed to be frequented by gay men. More worrisome, the attacks have occurred with the complicity of the Iraqi police; ironically, while homosexuality is condemned as immoral, it is not a crime among consenting adults.</p>
<p>The HRW report is most disturbing recounting the horrendous rage inflicted on the men killed for apparently being gay. Vigilantes often break into homes and forcibly remove the alleged gay men and even seize men on the street. Those seized are subject to vicious interrogations before being murdered, their often mutilated bodies abandoned in garbage dumps.</p>
<p>The report recounts doctors’ testimonials noting that some of the men had their anuses glued and force-fed laxatives to induce excruciating deaths. Others have had their bodies disfigured with terms like “pervert,” “son of a bitch” or “puppy,” a slur to dehumanize the alleged gay man, inscribed on their chests.</p>
<p>It should be noted that U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, acknowledged the HRW report and voiced concern over attacks against members of the Iraqi LGBT community.</p>
<p>According to the Amnesty report, there has been a marked increase in violence against women perceived to have shamed their families. Such charges can be brought against any woman caught speaking to a man in public who is not her husband or a relative. These women are often considered to be prostitutes and violently punished, often killed; women working as prostitutes are often singled out for violent attacks.</p>
<p>Since the U.S. invasion, the Iraqi government has failed to enact legislation to suppress “honor” violence against women and girls. In fact, current laws condone, even facilitate, such violence. The country’s penal code permits perpetrators of “honor” killings to plead mitigating moral factors and get off with a six months sentence.</p>
<p>The Observer reports that Basra witnessed a 70 percent increase in women victims of “honor” killings during 2008, rising to 81 from 47 women in ’07. It reports that “only five people have been convicted.” It reports that women were being burned in acid attacks walking through the city’s market after speaking to a male friend. A local lawyer insists that the police were protecting perpetrators and that a woman could be killed by a hired hit-man for $100 (£65). [The Observer, November 30, 2008]</p>
<p>Turning to Kurdistan, Patrick Cockburn, writing in the Independent in May 2008, noted that in 2007 at least 350 women (double the number for 2006) were targeted for “honor” attacks. Surprising, many of these women and girls were targeted after “evidence” of an “illicit act” were captured on cell phone pictures. More disturbing, some 600 women and girls in Kurdistan committed suicide by burning, drowning or shooting themselves.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>In anticipation of Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, the neo-con concept of the “clash of civilizations” was promoted as a critical component to the ideological rationale for the imperialist misadventure. Today, the “clash” concept has disappeared from public discourse.</p>
<p>The notion of a clash was originally promulgated by Bernard Lewis and gained wider acceptance through the writings of Samuel Huntington and Francis Fukuyama. At its core, the neo-cons argued that in a post-Cold War world, new forces emerged to shape global conflicts.</p>
<p>For Huntington et. al., the battle between nation states has been superseded by the battle between cultures or what the neo-cons call civilizations. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, economic competition, class warfare, anti-colonial battles and spheres-of-influence struggles determined global conflict. However, in the post-Cold War millennium, proponents of the “clash” theory argue that a people’s culture, their values, beliefs and religion, has become the determining cause of conflict.</p>
<p>Sexuality, and the attendant issue of “honor” killings, provides a unique window into the alleged clash of civilizations. It is that sphere of human existence in which the twin dimensions of being human are forged. In sex, the truely human (i.e., consciousness) and the truely animal (i.e., physicality) are unified into a singluar experience. This unity is lived out as both species reproduction and erotic pleasure.</p>
<p>Sexuality is also one aspect of socio-personal life that is very much sharpened by “civilization,” by cultural values and religious beliefs as well as by the marketplace and battles between geopolitical empires. Peoples, nations and civilizations have struggled for millennia over the meaning of sexuality, whether for men, women or young people and whether defined as hetrosexual or homosexual.</p>
<p>Explicit and aggressive sexuality is a powerful force dividing the West from, for example, the Arab and Islamic world. It is one of the most threatening dimensions of Western capitalism’s cultural system that is pushing ever-deeper into the intimate, private lives of people throughout the world.</p>
<p>For many, the experience of globalization resonates less in the plunder of a nation’s natural resources or the exploitation of its collective labor power than in the flood of erotic sensibilities challenging established power relations. This apparent assault often provokes the greatest resistance.</p>
<p>Historically, changing sexual relations, whether in the West or Middle East, have upended traditional patriarchial family and social relations. Nothing has proved more socially destablizing then the changing status of women, whether working for a wage outside the home, securing the vote, being freed from restrictive clothing or controlling their reproductive lives. Similiarly, erotic attractions between people of the same sex threaten traditional notions of partriarchy, especially masculity.</p>
<p>As evident from the experience of the West over the last half-century, how can the conventional masculine role be maintained if female identity is remade, along with structrural changes in the marketplace requiring a two-income family. How this process will play out in the Islamic Middle East remains an open question. Unlike the numerous reports and studies of sex practice in the West, little scholarly research about the Middle East is devoted to the study of sex. The Arab and Muslim worlds await its Kinsey.</p>
<p>Life in Iraq, like much of the developing world, is being upended by capitalist globalization. In all likelyhood, this transition would have taken a very different form had the U.S. not invaded Iraq. While severe political violence could have been expected, social or religious violence may well have been contained. However, the “honor” killings of women and (alleged) gay men is but one consequence of the social destabaliztion wrought by the U.S. invasion. The current rise in such violence might well indicate the deeper crisis that awaits Iraq as America’s occupying forces seek to exit the failed military battlefield.</p>
<p>DAVID ROSEN is the author of “ <a href="" type="internal">Sex Scandals America: Politics &amp; the Ritual of Public Shaming</a>” (Key, 2009); he can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The Silent Slaughter | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/08/28/the-silent-slaughter/ | 2009-08-28 | 4 |
<p>In a <a href="http://ncronline.org/news/people/exclusive-interview-archbishop-charles-chaput" type="external">recent interview</a>, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia-typically reviled by progressives and “social justice Catholics” for being an “archconservative”-said this: “If we don't love the poor, and do all we can to improve their lot, we're going to go to Hell.” Stern stuff, that, and good for all of us to hear. The obligation to exercise a preferential option for the poor is non-negotiable.</p>
<p>As St. James reminds us: “If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,' but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?”</p>
<p>Yesterday, in his address on the occasion of World Food Day, Pope Benedict XVI <a href="http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1104072.htm" type="external">had this to say</a>:</p>
<p>Freedom from the yoke of hunger is the first concrete manifestation of that right to life which, although solemnly proclaimed, often remains far from being effectively implemented.</p>
<p>To which <a href="http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/b16-seamless-garment" type="external">Michael Sean Winters</a>, over at the National Catholic Reporter, responded with what he seems to imagine a real zinger:</p>
<p>I guess no one told the Pontiff that such sentiments risk reviving talk of the “seamless garment” approach to life issues once favored by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.</p>
<p>Me thinks I hear some gnashing of teeth from the right wing bleachers.</p>
<p>Curious. Who exactly does Mr. Winters think is going to chip a tooth over the pope's affirmation that the right life implies the right not to starve? Does anyone deny that? If so, who?</p>
<p>Mr. Winters brought up the question of consistency and who agrees with which of the pope's statements, so let's indulge his little game. Here's what the pope (then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) <a href="http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=27852" type="external">wrote to the US bishops</a>&#160;in 2004:</p>
<p>Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia….There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.</p>
<p>Can Mr. Winters reconcile this statement about a priority with respect to moral issues with the pope's statement above on hunger? I hope so.</p>
<p>I know Catholics who believe all kinds of crazy things: right-winged and left. I even know Catholics whose beliefs are most accurately described as “protestant.” But I have never met a Catholic who would actually dispute Pope Benedict's point about hunger.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I wonder if Mr. Winters can name any Catholics who routinely and publicly dissent from the Church's teaching on the sanctity of life by actually supporting the evil of, say, abortion. If he can't think of any, I have some suggestions. And most of them aren't exactly “right-wing.”</p>
<p>So for all the “seamless garment” folks out there, my question is this: why do all Catholics agree that the right to life includes a right not to starve, but only some Catholics believe the right to life includes a right not to be dismembered in the womb? Whatever one thinks the late Cardinal Bernardin meant by “a consistent ethic of life,” that's not it.</p>
<p>Today, it is scandalously commonplace for prominent Catholics to deny the Church's clear and constant teaching on abortion and abortion “rights.” Most of these, though not all, find a home in the Democratic Party. This is a sad reality for the Church, the Democratic Party, and the country as a whole, to say nothing of the victims of abortion. So if he's concerned with consistency, something tells me it's not the “right wing bleachers” Mr. Winters needs to be worried about. Maybe if he stops jousting with straw men for a moment, he'll see that.</p>
<p>Stephen P. White is a fellow in the Catholic Studies Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and coordinator of the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society. The views expressed here are his own.</p> | Is that "Seamless"? Or "Unseemly"? | false | https://eppc.org/publications/is-that-seamless-or-unseemly/ | 1 |
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<p>Fact: There is no refuge from the onslaught of corporate media propaganda.</p>
<p>It’s not just the bold-faced fabrications that make up the headlines…it’s also the lies of omission one can discern in the sports section. As Exhibit A, I offer a short article by veteran sports scribe Bill Gallo in the August 6, 2004 New York Daily News…an item characterized by Gallo as a “rare” positive story about boxing.</p>
<p>Former welterweight champ Kid Gavilan died about 18 months ago. Famed for his “bolo punch,” Gavilan was both a crowd favorite and a talented pugilist. Born Gerardo Gonzalez on January 6, 1926 in Havana, Cuba, The Keed went 107-30-6 (28 kayos) and is one of the few boxers ever not to be knocked down or out in their professional careers.</p>
<p>“After his fighting days were over,” Gallo informs us, “the Cuban star returned to his homeland expecting to live comfortably the rest of his life.”</p>
<p>Like many with delusions of retirement grandeur, Gavilan discovered his future would not play out as planned. The Cuban government, says Gallo, ” confiscated his 39-acre ranch, his home in Camaguey, other real estate, and his ’49 Lincoln and ’50 Cadillac.” Gallo calls these Gavilan’s “years of misery” but explains that the fighter “escaped Castro’s rule and returned to the U.S.”</p>
<p>No evidence is offered to verify this tale It’s not difficult to believe that much of it may be accurate…but it is interesting to note how simple it is to spin such a yarn. The system of indoctrination we live under essentially guarantees that the vast majority of Daily News readers will be receptive to negative stories about Fidel Castro and Cuba. For most, no evidence is required.</p>
<p>However, as stated earlier, what remains unexamined is what best illustrates how a sports story can help keep the rabble in line. Gallo goes on to detail the rest of Gavilan’s life. “His health started to go,” we’re told and “Gavvy practically lived in poverty.” When he died “there was not enough money to bury him.” The once-successful fighter ended up in an unmarked “pauper’s grave” in Miami.</p>
<p>Here’s where Gallo’s story gets “positive.”</p>
<p>In order to have the boxer’s body exhumed and buried in a “proper” grave, funds were recently raised (including a large check from Mike Tyson). Kid Gavilan, ignored during the last years of his life, would have his headstone.</p>
<p>Cue the inspiration music swelling to a mighty crescendo over a self-congratulatory ceremony in the Miami sun.</p>
<p>Bill Gallo, of course, made no comment about the fact that Gavilan lived no better in the U.S. than he did in Cuba. Castro was a man to “escape” from, we learned. America, on the other hand, is inhabited by men like Tyson who give to charities. But what about the time in between? We get no help from Gallo or the Daily News in explaining why Kid Gavilan died penniless.</p>
<p>Sports fans will read this item, get a warm and fuzzy feeling, and tell their friends that Tyson really does have a good side…never questioning Castro’s evilness or America’s status as the land of opportunity.</p>
<p>Corporate propaganda: the winner and still champion.</p>
<p>MICKEY Z. is the author of two brand new books: “ <a href="" type="internal">The Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda</a>” (Common Courage Press) and “A Gigantic Mistake: Articles and Essays for Your Intellectual Self-Defense” (Library Empyreal/Wildside Press). For more information, please visit: <a href="http://mickeyz.net/" type="external">http://mickeyz.net</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Propaganda Scores a TKO | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/08/07/propaganda-scores-a-tko/ | 2004-08-07 | 4 |
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<p>Shane Allen Schindler, 30 (Source: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)</p>
<p>The killings took place at night near a dusty, desolate Las Vegas corridor.</p>
<p>On Jan. 3, a homeless man curled up in a blanket to protect himself from the 44-degree temperature, was struck several times in the head as he slept near an intersection not far from the roar of the Spaghetti Bowl, a name locals use to describe a freeway interchange on the city’s north end.</p>
<p>The autopsy showed he was bludgeoned with a blunt object, perhaps a hammer.</p>
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<p>A month later, a tragedy unfolded at the same intersection — this time on the opposite corner.</p>
<p>On Feb. 3, another homeless man, also nestled under a blanket to stave off the winter cold, was beaten to death as he slept in an open area near bushes.</p>
<p>Again, it appeared the weapon was a hammer.</p>
<p>The similarities between the cases prompted police to set a trap: a mannequin, wrapped in blankets like a sleeping homeless man with his head covered, was placed where the first man was killed.</p>
<p>The scene that quickly ensued — and captured on police surveillance video — led to the arrest of 30-year-old Shane Schindler, who on Tuesday was charged with attempted murder.</p>
<p>At around 3 a.m. on Feb. 22, Schindler, wearing a dark hoodie, walked to the intersection carrying a Little Caesars plastic bag, according to a police report. He spotted the mannequin covered heavily in blankets. He then hovered in the area for several minutes, and appeared to be looking around for any vehicle or pedestrian traffic.</p>
<p>Police say the video captured the following: Schindler approached the mannequin, pulled his hood up over his head to conceal his face and slowly pulled out of the bag a 4-pound engineer’s hammer. Using both hands, he raised the hammer and swung it down on the mannequin’s head several times.</p>
<p>Police, who were monitoring the surveillance footage, quickly flooded the scene and arrested Schindler.</p>
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<p>Schindler’s bail is currently set at $50,000 and prosecutors have not charged him in the slayings of the two homeless men. At a previous hearing, shortly after his arrest, prosecutors charged him with carrying a concealed weapon.</p>
<p>(Police have not released the surveillance video footage and only publicized Schindler’s arrest last week after local media inquired.)</p>
<p>The police report described his interview with detectives: “Schindler admitted to ‘kicking the mannequin’ but didn’t remember hitting it with a hammer. After further questioning, Schindler admitted to striking the mannequin, but he said he ‘knew it was a mannequin’ before he struck it.”</p>
<p>Nationwide, violent attacks targeting homeless people — most often when they sleep — have concerned homeless advocates.</p>
<p>In 2014, three teens in Albuquerque, N.M., were charged with first-degree murder after bludgeoning two homeless men to death with bricks and wooden sticks. In 2015, a homeless man was stabbed to death as he slept in a downtown Denver alley. And last year, police in San Diego arrested Jon D. Guerrero on suspicion of carrying out attacks over a two-week period that left three homeless men dead.</p>
<p>Since 1999, the National Coalition for the Homeless has tracked attacks on those living on the streets. According to a report released last year, the group estimates that nearly 1,700 homeless people have been victimized — including beatings, robberies, murders — since 1999 by people who are not homeless.</p>
<p>Megan Hustings, director for the National Coalition for the Homeless, said negative feelings toward the homeless population have persisted for decades.</p>
<p>“We have found that negative attitudes towards the homeless community manifest in regular discrimination and even violence, committed for no other reason than that a homeless person is seen as less than human,” she said. “It is our civic duty, more importantly our human responsibility, to provide safety … to these individuals.”</p>
<p>Moreover, Shelly Nortz, deputy director for policy at the Coalition for the Homeless, a group separate from Hustings’, said about the Las Vegas case, it’s “good to see police aggressively pursuing a suspect.”</p>
<p>“But a municipal right to shelter is also needed to help homeless people avoid street violence until they can regain their footing and move into homes of their own,” she said.</p>
<p>Last year, Clark County’s Social Services Department, which covers Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada’s most populous cities, found nearly 6,200 homeless people staying in shelters or on the streets during the two-day count and estimated more than 30,000 people experience homelessness in the southern part of the state throughout the year.</p>
<p>Among them, this year, were Daniel Aldape, 46, and David Dunn, 60.</p>
<p>Aldape was the man killed Jan. 3 near the intersection of Ogden Avenue and City Parkway. Dunn’s death came a month later in the same location as he slept near some landscaping bushes.</p> | After 2 sleeping homeless men were killed, Las Vegas police set out a mannequin as bait | false | https://abqjournal.com/964085/after-2-sleeping-homeless-men-were-killed-las-vegas-police-set-out-a-mannequin-as-bait.html | 2017-03-07 | 2 |
<p>Two more House Republicans have called on Jeff Sessions to resign as Attorney General. &#160;The ostensible reason is what the GOP calls a &#160; <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/04/politics/mark-meadows-jim-jordan-attorney-general-jeff-sessions-resign-op-ed/index.html" type="external">lack of control over the Justice Department.</a></p>
<p>“Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the Russia investigation, but it would appear he has no control at all of the premier law enforcement agency in the world,” they wrote. “It is time for Sessions to start managing in a spirit of transparency to bring all of this improper behavior to light and stop further violations.”</p>
<p>“…if Sessions can’t address this issue immediately, then we have one final question needing an answer: When is it time for a new attorney general? Sadly, it seems the answer is now.”</p>
<p>But let’s get real about what’s going on here. &#160;Sessions’ recusal has created a roadblock for Donald Trump. &#160;That’s because Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein, the man who hired Mueller, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/13/dojs-rod-rosenstein-says-he-does-not-see-a-reason-to-fire-mueller.html" type="external">sees no reason to fire him.</a> &#160;If Sessions goes, Trump could appoint a new and possibly more obedient A.G. who could fire Rosenstein and Robert Mueller. &#160;That’s a scary thought. &#160;The Attorney General of the United States is not the President’s personal lawyer. &#160;Adding to this circus: while the Republicans want Sessions to go, the Democrats are now <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/cons-call-on-sessions-to-resign-dems-rally-to-his-defense.html" type="external">rallying for him&#160;to stay!</a>&#160; The Democrats need Sessions to keep Mueller on the job.</p>
<p>Earlier this week, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/us/politics/trump-sessions-russia-mcgahn.html?_r=0" type="external">The New York Times</a> reported that Trump had given specific instructions to the White House counsel, Donald McGahn, to make sure Sessions didn’t recuse himself from the Russia&#160;investigation, which is exactly what the Attorney General eventually did. &#160;Today at Camp David, Trump said he didn’t do anything improper amid the allegations about Sessions and still supports him.</p> | Is Sessions Gone Too? | false | https://newsandguts.com/is-sessions-gone-too/ | 2018-01-06 | 3 |
<p>Mark Rosekind is a nationally known expert in human fatigue. He may soon inherit a government agency that's been criticized for being asleep at the wheel.</p>
<p>President Obama on Wednesday nominated Rosekind, a National Transportation Safety Board member and a former NASA scientist with a Ph.D from Yale, to be the U.S. government's top auto safety regulator, pending Senate confirmation.</p>
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<p>Rosekind has several years of safety experience, and helped to investigate seven major transportation accidents. Now he'll step into the leadership of The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a neglected but critically important agency that is widely considered to be understaffed and underfunded. And, due to two prominent recent safety crises, it's considered too slow to move and too cozy with the car companies it regulates.</p>
<p>The agency has been without a permanent administrator for nearly a year, and during that time, has been vilified by lawmakers for its tardy reaction to a deadly ignition switch problem at General Motors dating back a decade and problems with air bags made by Takata Corp. that the agency also knew about for years.</p>
<p>It's also become clear that the agency's staff lacks expertise in complex car systems such as ignitions and air bags. Lawmakers are now worried the regulators haven't kept pace as the auto industry moves toward an even more sophisticated technology: the self-driving car.</p>
<p>"That's a real concern, whether they have the folks with the technical skills to understand what was being presented to them in a way that would prevent traffic deaths and accidents," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.</p>
<p>One thing is certain: Rosekind, 59, will have to move quickly. With only two years remaining for the Obama administration, there's no time to waste in fixing a litany of problems. Here are some of the challenges:</p>
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<p>TOO SLOW: The agency failed to take action despite mounting clues of defects with the GM ignition switches and Takata air bags. With GM, it missed consumer complaints about engine stalling and failed to link air bag failures to the faulty switches. At least 33 people died. Takata's air bags, sold to at least 10 automakers, can explode with too much force, hurling metal shrapnel into passengers. Even though deaths and injuries were reported as early as 2008, NHTSA let automakers do a series of small recalls. It didn't open a full investigation until last June and only recently became aggressive in seeking nationwide recalls.</p>
<p>TOO SMALL, NO MONEY: The agency's Office of Defects Investigation has only 50 investigators and the same $10 million budget it had a decade ago. GM itself has more investigators: 60. Bills have been introduced to double the $134 million the agency spends per year on safety research, testing and enforcement. "It seems to be very plain and very obvious that the Office of Defects Investigation is woefully understaffed," says Allan Kam, a former NHTSA enforcement attorney. The lack of resources, he says, forces the agency to perform triage. The agency also has a problem attracting and keeping engineers, who can make 40 percent more money working for an automaker, says David Kelly, NHTSA's chief of staff and acting administrator under President George W. Bush.</p>
<p>TOO COZY: Early in 2005, engineers, lawyers and safety officials at GM prepared for a meeting with NHTSA. On the agenda: Improve communication before the agency opens an investigation. The chummy itinerary was among multiple documents released by lawmakers that showed a cozy relationship with GM. Lawmakers say the agency is too reliant on automakers for expertise on complex equipment. The relationship "has created a failure to ask tough questions and has needlessly put lives at risk," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.</p>
<p>MINIMAL TRAINING: House investigators found that because of a small training budget, the lead investigator on the GM case hadn't been to a paid training course in six to eight years.</p>
<p>NO TEETH: If automakers find evidence of a safety defect, they must report it to NHTSA within five working days of the discovery. But NHTSA can only fine them $35 million if they don't, a fraction of what a major automaker earns. The Obama administration wants a max of $300 million.</p>
<p>NHTSA officials, including Deputy Administrator David Friedman, who has acted as agency chief since December, say the agency has been hamstrung at times by lack of cooperation from the automakers. Since the GM crisis erupted earlier this year, there are signs that the agency has changed, mainly that more than 50 million vehicles have been recalled this year, a record.</p>
<p>"The goal here is to improve safety, get defective vehicles off the road," Kelly says.</p> | Obama nominee for auto safety chief will have to rescue understaffed, underfunded agency | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/11/19/obama-nominee-for-auto-safety-chief-will-have-to-rescue-understaffed.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>On Friday morning, as I traveled north on Interstate 5, I passed two tractor-trailers heading south toward the 32nd Street Naval Station in downtown San Diego. Each vehicle carried about 10 unmarked bombs; each bomb was approximately 15 feet long. Two military helicopters hovered low above each tractor-trailer, providing overhead escort.</p>
<p>I wondered where these bombs were headed. They must have been in a big hurry because they usually ship their bombs more covertly.</p>
<p>Israel had just put out an S.O.S. to the United States government to rush over several more bombs. “The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration,” according to the New York Times. Although always well-equipped with sophisticated US-made weapons, Israel was evidently running out of munitions to drop on the Lebanese people.</p>
<p>Washington loses no opportunity to scold Iran and Syria for providing weapons to Hezbollah.</p>
<p>Yet during the Bush administration, from 2001 to 2005, Israel received $10.5 billion in Foreign Military Financing – the Pentagon’s biggest military aid program – and $6.3 billion in US arms deliveries. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign military assistance.</p>
<p>It is a violation of the US Arms Export Control Act to provide weapons to foreign countries that are not used for defensive purposes or to maintain internal security. During the last major Israeli incursion into Lebanon, in 1981, the Reagan administration cut off US military aid and arms deliveries for 10 weeks while it investigated whether Israel was using weapons for “defensive purposes.”</p>
<p>Last week, both houses of Congress, mindful of the importance of retaining Jewish votes and campaign contributions, passed resolutions stating that Israel is acting in self-defense. The vote in the Senate was unanimous; the House vote was 410 to 8.</p>
<p>Walking in lockstep with Bush, neither resolution calls for a ceasefire. The Senate resolution praises Israel for its “restraint” and the House resolution “welcomes Israel’s continued efforts to prevent civilian casualties.”</p>
<p>US-provided Israeli bombs have killed nearly 400 Lebanese, the overwhelming majority innocent civilians. The bombing has displaced half a million people and caused an estimated $1 billion in damage.</p>
<p>After Israeli orders that people in southern Lebanon evacuate their homes, several vehicles filled with evacuating Lebanese civilians were bombed by the Israeli military.</p>
<p>An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a white minibus carrying 19 people fleeing Tairi. Three people were killed and several wounded.</p>
<p>A green Mercedes with a family fleeing Mansuri was struck by an Israeli missile. Three lay dead, others severely injured. Eight-year-old Mahmoud Srour’s face was burned beyond recognition.</p>
<p>As Zein al-Abdin Zabit evacuated with his wife and four sons, his white Nissan was hit by an Israeli missile. “It’s nothing more than revenge, revenge on civilians,” Zabit said as he lay in bed with broken ribs.</p>
<p>Human Rights Watch confirmed yesterday that Israel is using artillery-delivered cluster munitions in populated areas of Lebanon. “Cluster munitions are unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable weapons when used around civilians,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “They should never be used in populated areas.”</p>
<p>The use of cluster munitions in populated areas in Iraq caused more civilian casualties than any other factor in the US-led coalition’s major military operations in March and April 2003, killing and wounding more than 1,000 Iraqi civilians, HRW reported.</p>
<p>HRW photographed US-produced/US-supplied cluster bombs among the arsenal of Israel Defense Forces artillery teams stationed on the Israeli-Lebanese border during a July 23 research visit.</p>
<p>Independent journalist Dahr Jamail reported that the Lebanese Ministry of Interior has confirmed the Israelis have used the incendiary white phosphorous gas. This is a chemical weapon, much like napalm, that can burn right down to the bone. The US military used white phosphorous in Fallujah, Iraq.</p>
<p>Article 35 of Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions prohibits the use of weapons “of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering.” Cluster bombs and white phosphorous fall into this category.</p>
<p>Bilal Masri, assistant director of the Beirut Government University Hospital, told Jamail, “The Israelis are using new kinds of bombs, and these bombs can penetrate bomb shelters,” Masri added. “They are bombing the refugees in the bomb shelters!”</p>
<p>Masri also said that 55 percent of the casualties are children under 15 years of age.</p>
<p>It is a violation of the laws of war to target civilians. “A fundamental rule of international humanitarian law is the obligation to distinguish between civilians and civilian property on one hand and military targets on the other,” Nada Doumani, Middle East spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross told Aljazeera.net. “Under no circumstances, can civilians and public and private property be deliberately attacked. All parties in the conflict have to abide by these rules.”</p>
<p>Doumani quoted ICRC Director of Operations Pierre Krahenbuhl, who said: “The high number of civilian casualties and the extent of damage to essential public infrastructure raise serious questions regarding respect for the principle of proportionality in the conduct of hostilities.”</p>
<p>Nearly every report from the corporate media seeks to find symmetry in this war. When an outlet covers the massive devastation in Lebanon and increasing numbers of Lebanese civilians killed by Israeli bombs, it is careful to juxtapose reports of Hezbollah rockets fired into Israel.</p>
<p>Jan Egeland, the United Nations emergency relief chief, however, called the “disproportionate response” by Israel to Hezbollah’s actions “a violation of international humanitarian law.” Egeland, who characterized the devastated areas of Lebanon as “horrific,” said Israel is denying access to relief operations.</p>
<p>At least 384 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 20 soldiers and 11 Hezbollah fighters. Israel’s death toll is at least 40, with 17 people killed by Hezbollah rockets and 23 soldiers killed in the fighting.</p>
<p>On Monday, a high-ranking Israeli Air Force officer told reporters that Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz had ordered the military to destroy 10 buildings in Beirut in retaliation for every Katyusha rocket strike on Haifa by Hezbollah.</p>
<p>Last week, several Jewish organizations and Christian Zionists lobbied the White House to support Israel.</p>
<p>Bush complied, giving Israel at least another week to continue slaughtering the Lebanese people.</p>
<p>While Bush stood by and watched the humanitarian catastrophe Israel is wreaking in Lebanon, Condoleezza Rice traveled there and met with Fuad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister.</p>
<p>Rice’s visit was an “important show of support for the Lebanese public and the Siniora government,” a US official said Monday. The official told reporters traveling with Rice, “The fact we are going to go right into Beirut after all that has happened is a pretty dramatic signal to Lebanon and their government.”</p>
<p>It would be much more dramatic for Bush-Rice to call a halt to the carnage. When Helen Thomas asked White House spokesman Tony Snow why the President opposed a ceasefire, he rudely thanked her for her “Hezbollah view.”</p>
<p>Bush could stop Israel in its tracks with a snap of his fingers. But why would he? Israel is doing Bush’s bidding – redrawing the map of the Middle East to facilitate US domination. &#160;Bush began that task with Iraq; Israel is following suit with Palestine and Lebanon.</p>
<p>Indeed, Bush is hoping Israel’s next stop will be Iran or Syria. A July 21 list of talking points from the White House Office of the Press Secretary referred to a Los Angeles Times op-ed by Max Boot titled, “It’s Time to Let The Israelis Take Off the Gloves.”</p>
<p>The White House release contained this quote from Boot’s piece: “Our best response is exactly what Bush has done so far – reject premature calls for a cease-fire and let Israel finish the job.”</p>
<p>That quote was preceded by this language: “Iran may be too far away for much Israeli retaliation beyond a single strike on its nuclear weapons complex. (Now wouldn’t be a bad time.) But Syria is weak and next door. To secure its borders, Israel needs to hit the Assad regime. Hard. If it does, it will be doing Washington’s dirty work.”</p>
<p>We turn a blind eye at our peril.</p>
<p>MARJORIE COHN, professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, is president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild, and the US representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Willful Blindness | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/07/25/willful-blindness/ | 2006-07-25 | 4 |
<p>Ivylise Simones</p>
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<p>Until the election, we’re bringing you “The Trump Files,” a daily dose of telling episodes, strange but true stories, or curious scenes from the life of GOP nominee Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Donald Trump frequently boasts of his hotels and golf resorts, and it’s true that they have won awards. The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences has given Trump at least 19 Diamond awards, which it calls “the most prestigious emblem of achievement and true quality in the world today,” for his various properties, according&#160;to journalist David Cay Johnston in his book The Making of Donald Trump. It also gave his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland, a prize as “the best golf course worldwide.”</p>
<p>All of which sounds impressive. Except that the board of the Academy consisted mostly of Trump’s employees, friends, and family members.</p>
<p>“A majority of the trustees bestowing these awards on Trump and his properties were Trump’s employees, friends, or retainers,” Johnston writes. Two of his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, served on the board of trustees, according to the <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4b437959f2344e7898f4acbeb205f769/trump-businesses-honored-ny-company-closely-tied-trump" type="external">Associated Press</a>. Trump’s former butler of 17 years, the subject of a <a href="" type="internal">Mother Jones story</a> earlier this year for calling on Facebook for President Barack Obama to be “hung for treason,” was also a trustee. Trump himself served on the board and was listed as the Academy’s “ambassador extraordinaire.”</p>
<p>The president of the Academy, Joseph Cinque (a.k.a. Joey No Socks), is a convicted <a href="http://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/06/28/Art-of-thievery-puts-man-behind-bars/6327615009600/" type="external">felon</a> with alleged ties to organized crime.</p>
<p>In May, Trump denied having any connection to the organization in an interview with <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/how-a-convicted-felon-nicknamed-joey-no-socks-153029052.html" type="external">Yahoo News</a>, saying, “I mean, I receive awards from different places sometimes, but I’m not involved in it. How am I involved in it?”</p>
<p>Read the rest of <a href="" type="internal">“The Trump Files”</a>:</p>
<p /> | The Trump Files: Guess Who Gave Donald His Big Awards | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/trump-files-hospitality-awards/ | 2016-11-01 | 4 |
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<p>Eric Layer, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., said this week the congressman is working closely with ranchers in New Mexico and the U.S. Forest Service in Washington, D.C., and expects to make an important announcement in the near future, perhaps a week or two.</p>
<p>“We’re working on it from every possible angle,” Layer said.</p>
<p>Also this week, a rancher whose cattle were ordered removed from their Manzano Mountains grazing land by the Forest Service this past summer, met with the federal agency’s range management specialist who reinspected the grazing site.</p>
<p>The dispute can be attributed to a single source: the drought. However, a more nuanced consideration would include how its impact on federal grazing land is interpreted.</p>
<p>In June, Mountainair District Ranger Karen Lessard ordered 21 ranches to remove livestock from grazing land allotments in the Manzano Mountains, because of “severe drought conditions that for a third straight year continue to limit livestock forage and plant recovery.” The eviction notice took effect on July 30 and was to last at least a year “following the return of average or above average annual precipitation that produces seed in grasses and (other plants).”</p>
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<p>The New Mexico Cattle Growers and individual ranchers called the action arbitrary, unnecessary and economically punitive. Last month, they began circulating a resolution objecting to the “arbitrary non-scientific blanket removal order” to various governmental agencies, including the Torrance County Commission, which adopted it unanimously. The Lincoln County Commission has also approved the resolution, as has the East Torrance, Edgewood and Upper Hondo soil and water conservation districts. It is now under consideration by the board of the Claunch-Pinto Soil and Water Conservation District in Mountainair.</p>
<p>Lincoln County Commissioner Mark Doth agreed that the Forest Service’s “arbitrary and capricious action should be reviewed, using science and fact.” The blanket removal of all cattle from the grazing land significantly escalates the threat of a grass fire, he said.</p>
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<p /> | Congressman working on grazing dispute agreement | false | https://abqjournal.com/270115/congressman-working-on-grazing-dispute-agreement.html | 2013-09-27 | 2 |
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<p>The pope is the leader of one Christian church, but it’s one with 1.2 billion members around the globe and 66 million in the United States.</p>
<p>And that, along with the fact the church is one of the world’s largest charities and health providers in the Third World, helps explain the extent of the news coverage as Roman Catholic cardinals selected the replacement for retiring Pope Benedict XVI.</p>
<p>The actions and words of popes, especially with today’s ease of travel and instant communication, often have far-reaching consequences that affect many outside the Catholic world. Even American presidents make it a point to get a photograph with the pope.</p>
<p>The cardinals this time went with someone said to be more spiritual than organizational and in doing so selected the first pope to be born in the Americas: Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina.</p>
<p>Bergoglio in turn became the first pope to take the name Francis, in honor of the saint known for his humility and empathy for the poor.</p>
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<p>News stories about popes often involve outreach efforts, such as a visit to a mosque or the renouncement of historical injustices like the libel that Jews bore guilt for the crucifixion of Christ. And, indeed, both Jewish and Muslim leaders already have expressed hope for positive relations with the new spiritual leader.</p>
<p>But Francis has a big job ahead dealing with his own church’s problems, including sex scandals that have demoralized Catholics and the recent financial difficulties experienced by the Holy See, the governing body of the church at the Vatican.</p>
<p>Because of Catholicism’s focus on tradition, those expecting major cultural changes in the church during any pope’s tenure — especially regarding life and sexuality issues — are likely to be disappointed.</p>
<p>Still, if Pope Francis follows in the footsteps of his namesake, he can make the world a better place.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p> | Editorial: Pope’s choice of name offers hope to Catholics | false | https://abqjournal.com/178451/popes-choice-of-name-offers-hope-to-catholics.html | 2013-03-15 | 2 |
<p>Voting rights activists expressed <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/11/white-house-to-launch-a-commission-to-study-voter-fraud-and-suppression/?utm_term=.99d6692d9f02" type="external">immediate concern</a> this week after President Trump signed an executive order to establish a “ <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/05/11/presidential-executive-order-establishment-presidential-advisory" type="external">Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity</a>.” Most alarming was the inclusion of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who will serve as the committee’s vice chair. Kobach has <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/kris-kobach-trump-voting-rights/" type="external">a history</a> of pushing for intense voter identification legislation, and voting rights advocates worry his inclusion <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/kris-kobach-king-voter-suppression-will-lead-trumps-sham-voter-fraud-commission-be" type="external">will accelerate</a> voter suppression.</p>
<p>In a new interview on <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/5/12/donald_trump_orders_election_integrity_commission" type="external">Democracy Now!</a>, journalist Ari Berman discusses the commission and its potential effects with Amy Goodman. Berman, who recently wrote <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/trumps-commission-on-election-integrity-will-lead-to-massive-voter-suppression/" type="external">a piece for The Nation</a> analyzing the commission, tells Goodman that the newly created group is actually “a voter suppression commission.”</p>
<p>Noting that the commission stems from Trump’s continued claims of a “rigged” election, Berman says that Trump’s creation of the commission is “absolutely chilling.”</p>
<p>“Voter fraud is something that plays to Trump’s base,” Berman says. “This is something that Trump always dusts off when there’s some sort of controversy.”</p>
<p />
<p>Watch Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview below:</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Emma Niles</a></p> | Voting Rights Activists Alarmed by Trump's 'Commission on Election Integrity' (Video) | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/voting-rights-activists-alarmed-by-trumps-commission-on-election-integrity-video/ | 2017-05-14 | 4 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Two common traits that I encounter when dealing with conservatives are hypocrisy and general misinformation about the world around them. &#160;Watch Fox News for a few hours and you’ll see why many of them are this way. &#160;When almost all of the information these people get comes from a blatant propaganda machine for one of the nation’s largest political parties, it’s not surprising that the “facts” they believe often don’t coincide with reality.</p>
<p>After all, it’s indisputable that the more education someone has, the less likely they are to be a Republican. &#160;That stat alone speaks volumes.</p>
<p><a href="https://news.yahoo.com/poor-kentucky-no-stomach-obama-153854246.html" type="external">An article I ran across on Yahoo! News</a> was perfect example of what’s wrong with conservative voters and what I constantly encounter when I deal with these people. &#160;The article featured&#160;Jim Feltner, an impoverished Kentucky resident who lives off disability checks and $105 a month in food stamps.</p>
<p>Now you would think being that one of President Obama’s main focuses in combating income inequality that Feltner would be a fan of the president. &#160;But he’s not.</p>
<p>“I will vote for anybody against Obama. &#160;I don’t care who runs against him, I’ll vote for him. I don’t care if it’s a Democrat, a Republican, an Indian, a Pakistani, even a Frenchman!” said Feltner.</p>
<p>He blames Obama’s stance against coal as one of the primary reasons for his opposition. &#160;You see, a large part of Kentucky’s economy is based on coal.</p>
<p>“Here’s what he said about the coal business: ‘go ahead, build your coal-fired energy plants, we will shut them down,'” Feltner alleged. &#160;“Is that something for a president to say? &#160;He’s got a problem with the poor people.”</p>
<p>I’m not quite sure how President Obama being concerned about the health of our planet means he has a problem with poor people. &#160;While I sympathize with people who’ve lost their jobs because we’re trying to move away from coal and more towards greener methods of energy, I just can’t endorse this belief that we should continue to destroy the only planet we have simply because some jobs might be lost. &#160;Because if you really want to see a real “job killer,” let’s see how life is like on this planet when it’s not suitable for humans to live on it any longer.</p>
<p>Another resident of Kentucky, Eric Miller, also spoke out against President Obama.</p>
<p>Miller said, “I guess Democrats just worry about money in their pocket, what they and their friends are doing. &#160;They’re not worried about us small people. &#160;The Republicans, they are the ones that know – raised up like we have, you know. &#160;Know what it’s like, what we need, what shouldn’t be taken away. &#160;If there weren’t government programs, it would be a ghost town,” Miller said.</p>
<p>See, this is the real problem with conservatives – they don’t have a damn clue. &#160;Here’s an individual, surviving because of the benefits he gets from the government, seemingly unaware that the party he says represents people like him is&#160;constantly doing everything they can to cut those benefits. &#160;Meanwhile Democrats, the ones he says don’t care about the small people, are the ones who are constantly fighting to fund programs that help people like him.</p>
<p>But then there’s the real reason behind why so many individuals similar to these two men often vote Republican. &#160;As&#160;Mike Bryant, chairman of the Breathitt County chapter of the Republican party said, it’s “the three biggies” – abortion, guns and gay marriage – that drive many people towards the Republican party.</p>
<p>And those issues are honestly the main reasons why the Republican party has any kind of power at all. &#160;They’ve made social issues the core of their party. &#160;I’ve met so many people who rely on help from the government, who would benefit from so many policies Democrats support, yet they vote Republican because of abortion, guns and gay marriage.</p>
<p>Basically these people seem to think it’s perfectly acceptable to live in poverty, calling a broken down shack a home, as long as their politicians love guns, oppose abortions and hate gays.</p>
<p>And that’s why tens of millions of conservative Americans continue to vote against their own interests.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">People Who Elected a Reality TV Star Want Athletes to Stop Discussing Politics</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Obama Meets With Pope, Fox News Fans Freak Out With Hate</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">On the Fourth of July, A Look at Some of the Freedoms Southern States and Conservatives Have Opposed</a></p>
<p>0 Facebook comments</p> | A Perfect Example of Conservative Hypocrisy and Ignorance Found in Kentucky | true | http://forwardprogressives.com/perfect-example-conservative-hypocrisy-ignorance-found-kentucky/ | 2014-05-14 | 4 |
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<p>Image source: McDonald's.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Many seasoned income investors probably have some sort of history with McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) and The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO), or have at least considered investing in them. Not only have these two companies consistently paid out dividends for decades, but their dividend payouts have also both steadily increased. Put simply, McDonald's and Coca-Cola are great stocks for investors looking for income.</p>
<p>But which of these two iconic dividend stocks is a better buy -- particularly after both stocks have sold off more than 10% in the past six months?</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/MCD" type="external">MCD</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a></p>
<p>To compare these two stocks, let's look at them three different angles.</p>
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<p>One of the most approachable ways to quickly compare dividend stocks is with the dividend yield metric, which is defined by a company's annual dividend payouts as a percentage of the stock price.</p>
<p>Both McDonald's and Coca-Cola have solid dividend yields. Coca-Cola comes out on top with a dividend yield of 3.3%, compared with 3.1% at McDonald's. This difference, however, is too small to make Coca-Cola the obvious buy for investors looking for income.</p>
<p>Beyond a meaningful dividend yield, dividend investors obviously also want to know that a given investment's dividend has as good chance of sticking around for years. This is where payout ratio, or the percentage of a company's earnings currently being paid out in dividends, comes in. The lower this ratio, the more breathing room a company's dividend has, and greater the chance the dividend can be sustained even if earnings contract.</p>
<p>McDonald's, with its payout ratio of 67%, beats out Coca-Cola's payout ratio of 78% by 11 percentage points.</p>
<p>With Coca-Cola coming out ahead on dividend yield and McDonald's winning on dividend sustainability, will valuation be the tiebreaker?</p>
<p>Investors buying either McDonald's or Coca-Cola today will have to pay a higher premium for Coca-Cola's earnings. Coca-Cola trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 24. That compares with a price-to-earnings ratio of about 22 for McDonald's.</p>
<p>Image source: The Motley Fool.</p>
<p>Similarly, Coca-Cola trades at a higher price-to-free cash flow ratio. Coca-Cola investors buying the stock today have to pay $27 for every dollar of annualized free cash flow, or cash left over after operational and capital expenditures, the company earns. McDonald's investors buying today pay just $21 for every dollar of free cash flow.</p>
<p>Coca-Cola's comparatively steeper valuation is particularly surprising in light of how analyst expectations for the beverage company's EPS over the next five years compares with expectations for analysts' forecasts for McDonald's EPS. On average, the average analyst estimate is for Coca-Cola's EPS to increase by about 2.1% per annum over the next five years. During the same period, the consensus analyst estimate for McDonald's is for 9.3% annualized growth.</p>
<p>Overall -- and particularly after a closer look at the two stock's valuations -- McDonald's looks like the better buy today. While investors buying McDonald's today will get a lower initial dividend yield than they would if they bought McDonald's, a lower payout ratio combined with a cheaper valuation make the fast-food king look like a slightly more compelling investment.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2667&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDanielSparks/info.aspx" type="external">Daniel Sparks</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Coca-Cola. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" 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?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | Better Buy: McDonald's Corp. vs. Coca-Cola | true | http://foxbusiness.com/investing/2016/02/18/better-buy-mcdonald-corp-vs-coca-cola.html | 2016-10-06 | 0 |
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<p>Henry Red Cloud's recent trip to the Dakota Access pipeline protest camp near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation filled him with conviction, compelling the South Dakota Democratic candidate to dance, sing — and campaign.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The 56-year-old Oglala Sioux green energy entrepreneur hopes the vigor focused on defeating the $3.8 billion, four-state Dakota Access pipeline will help win his longshot bid for election to the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, which regulates oil pipelines.</p>
<p>Red Cloud, a direct descendent of famous Lakota warrior and leader Red Cloud, is applying a new approach among tribal members working to stop oil development: become a regulator instead of having to ask for their help. He is one of at least two Native Americans nationwide running for such a post.</p>
<p>"A whole lot of people are going to start voting here in the state of South Dakota," Red Cloud, who lives near Oglala, told The Associated Press. "I'm also bringing the awareness out on what the PUC regulates, and it's all about currently what's happening in Standing Rock camp."</p>
<p>Since April, there's been a tribal protest at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers in southern North Dakota, and it has grown considerably. Owned by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile project would carry nearly a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota's oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois,</p>
<p>The Republican-controlled Public Utilities Commission, which approved the Dakota Access pipeline project last year, is leading South Dakota in a "downward spiral" rather than toward its huge potential for leadership in renewable energy, said Red Cloud, who is running as a Democrat. He is running on a green energy platform for a six-year term against Chris Nelson, a Republican former secretary of state who has served on the three-member commission since 2011.</p>
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<p>Nelson, 52, has been campaigning on keeping electricity rates low and expanding broadband internet access in rural areas. He said he has a record of making decisions absent a political agenda or personal whims.</p>
<p>"What I think of an oil pipeline is absolutely irrelevant in the job that I do as a Public Utilities commissioner," Nelson said, adding that he has to make judgments on each case based on the facts presented and the law that applies.</p>
<p>It will be hard for Red Cloud to get elected in the strongly Republican state. The first-time candidate recently told a group of about 20 aging Democrats in Fort Pierre that he's looking for strong turnout by Native American voters.</p>
<p>Dallas Goldtooth, an organizer with the Minnesota-based Indigenous Environmental Network, said Red Cloud's bid is exciting because pipeline opponents have spent so much time and energy struggling from the outside against the commission in the permitting process.</p>
<p>It was the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, and the efforts to thwart them before state regulators, that helped illuminate for many people the power the Public Utilities Commission holds, he said.</p>
<p>"It's nice to see Native folks get the motivation to run for office like this, but it's the content of his character and the qualities that he brings that really send it over the top as far as my support for him," Goldtooth said.</p>
<p>Red Cloud owns a solar air heating system company and co-manages the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center, which offers green jobs training. He plans to return this month to deliver a mobile solar power plant to the North Dakota protest camp hundreds of miles from the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.</p>
<p>Standing Rock Sioux Tribe member Marlo Hunte-Beaubrun said the protest south of her home in Bismarck, North Dakota, has propelled her Public Service Commission campaign "into insanity."</p>
<p>Hunte-Beaubrun, a Democrat, opposes the Dakota Access project, but she's taken a pragmatic position on pipelines in general, recognizing the role oil production plays in North Dakota's economy.</p>
<p>Still, Hunte-Beaubrun wants to make sure that tribes in North Dakota are represented on the commission, so she's challenging Republican Julie Fedorchak. So far, voters have seemed receptive about her work, said Fedorchak, who was appointed in 2012 and elected in 2014.</p>
<p>"It is 2016, and there is no reason why we shouldn't have a room of speckled people instead of a solid sheet of paper," Hunte-Beaubrun said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow James Nord on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Jvnord</p> | Native American candidates hope for pipeline protest boost | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/17/native-american-candidates-hope-for-pipeline-protest-boost.html | 2016-09-17 | 0 |
<p>It’s a good time for computer modelers, the kind who believe that with enough information, or “data analytics” (as they prefer), an artificial reality can be constructed to match the real thing and change people’s behavior in a predictable fashion. If this idea seems obscure, think about <a href="" type="internal">recent “Russia-gate” headlines</a> announcing that Vladimir Putin targeted specific Facebook users—albeit a mere $100,000 worth—during the 2016 election with ingeniously crafted ads that affected their votes.</p>
<p>To get so much bang for the buck on such a minuscule budget, Putin and his team would have had to have an accurate model of the United States electorate, to know whom to target and with what message. Thus, for example, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/technology/facebook-russia-ads-.html" type="external">Russian manipulators</a> reportedly targeted dog lovers, presumably on the assumption that pooch-fanciers have an innate affinity for Donald Trump and/or dislike of Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>One might think that the rather more expensive fiasco of the 2016 Clinton campaign would leave Democrats disenchanted with political models. Famously, campaign manager Robby Mook placed a near-religious faith in Ada, a computer programming language that modeled the electorate 400,000 times a day, apparently assuring the techno-crazed Mook that he knew exactly how changing events were affecting voters. Such was his belief in “analytics” that he didn’t bother to take polls in the closing weeks of the race, with fatal results.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the Democratic establishment professes to believe that where Mook failed, Putin succeeded. If this were so, then Putin should set up shop as a campaign consultant in this country in time for the next election. Surely one of those Democratic hopefuls currently traversing the country raising millions would pay well for his U.S. voter model, which he must be holding as a valuable asset. As Molly Schweickert, an executive with Cambridge Analytica (“We find your voters and drive them to action”), recently <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/3/16410950/facebook-cambridge-analytica-russia-ad-targeting-restrictions" type="external">told The Verge</a>, an online tech trade publication, “What’s proprietary is the research and model” used to formulate and target such ads.</p>
<p />
<p>Prior to Putin’s unmasking as the master manipulator, Schweickert’s firm occupied a central place in the Clintonian pantheon of evil, after the Mercer family of eccentric billionaires (part-owners of Cambridge Analytica) bankrolled the deployment of its mysterious data skills to the alleged benefit of Donald Trump. But this picture of omniscience, which Cambridge Analytica also promotes, presents a problem.</p>
<p>As Marina Bart <a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/03/cambridge-analytica-bingo.html" type="external">writes in Naked Capitalism</a>: “There is evidence that [Cambridge Analytica’s] program cannot even do the simplest first step towards understanding human beings by processing their Facebook data.” Citing the old rule of “garbage in, garbage out,” she explains that Facebook itself, possessor of infinitely more data than Analytica, can’t even get its own advertising and traffic metrics right. Ada, Mook’s object of worship, was, it turns out, filled with garbage in, because accurate reports on Clinton’s dimming prospects from human observers out in the real world were not included in the mountains of inaccurate or irrelevant data fed to its churning electrons.</p>
<p>One fundamental issue with models is that they do not cope well with change, such as the kind that happens in an election race, or, for that matter, a war. During the Vietnam War, for example, a group of eminent physicists sold Defense Secretary Robert McNamara on the idea that an “electronic fence” consisting of thousand of sensors scattered across the Ho Chi Minh trail and relaying sounds, smells and other data denoting the passage of enemy supply columns could, when processed by the largest computer then in existence, yield an infallible model of the enemy’s whereabouts. It took the Vietnamese a week to figure out that if they introduced simple, unanticipated changes—such as hanging buckets of urine on trees far off the trail to fool the smell-sensors—the billion-dollar fence would be rendered ineffective.</p>
<p>The other, and perhaps more serious problem with models, is that their creators and custodians come to believe in them, sometimes to an obsessive degree. Mook’s devotion to Ada serves as an obvious case. Commenting on this phenomenon, former Pentagon analyst Chuck Spinney suggested to me that “the laborious act of devoting so much mental and emotional energy to the construction of a model tends to displace the modeler from the world being modeled—i.e., his interactions with the model (the intense desire to make it work, shaping its mathematical logic, programming, debugging, etc.) take on more importance than the matchup of the model to reality. In effect, the model becomes the ‘reality’ to the modeler’s mind and model/reality mismatches become ‘anomalies,’ which are psychologically easy to dismiss as outliers.” Spinney repeatedly encountered this “self-delusion” in the Pentagon among military officials and weapons contractors during his 30-year career.</p>
<p>Their belief in the delusion was, for the most part, sincere, thereby increasing the model’s psychological power.</p>
<p>Among the earliest computer models conceived in the Pentagon and related offices are those for blowing up the world by means of thermonuclear war. Many minds, some of them brilliant, not to mention decades of computer time, have been devoted to charting the course of nuclear conflict, complete with intricate calculations of first strikes, second strikes, limited strikes, and so forth. Yet almost all of this constitutes what Spinney’s former Pentagon colleague Pierre Sprey dubbed “data-free analysis.” There are precisely two data points for the real-world effects of nuclear weapons: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And as it so happens, they gave rather different results (the Nagasaki bomb killed far fewer people than its creators anticipated). The nuclear war models that dictate war plans (and weapons budgets) calculate target effects based on the theoretically projected explosive “yield” of various weapons, but I am reliably informed that actual bomb tests regularly produce totally unanticipated yields. Similarly, models assume a theoretical pinpoint accuracy for intercontinental ballistic missiles that has not been replicated in the limited number of actual tests of such missiles (real-world missile tests are expensive, after all, and they tend to generate unwelcome results).</p>
<p>In short, the models are worthless, and no one really has the faintest idea of what would happen in a nuclear war, a point those whipping up New Cold War hysteria with Russia-gate might bear in mind. Hopefully, Vladimir Putin—if he’s not too busy manipulating the New Jersey governor’s race or negotiating terms to handle Biden 2020—understands that, too.</p> | Vladimir Putin: Computer Genius? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/voter-models-worthless-except-russia-gate/ | 2017-10-07 | 4 |
<p>Photo: Wikimedia Commons</p>
<p />
<p>1482 Portuguese explorers arrive at mouth of Congo River, <a href="http://www.mgfa-potsdam.de/html/einsatzunterstuetzung/downloads/1_wwkongoenglisch.pdf" type="external">find well-developed African kingdom</a> (pdf) of Kongo.</p>
<p>1520s Sugarcane plantations in Brazil ignite vast demand for African slaves. Over next 350 years more than 12 million people will be <a href="http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/assessment/estimates.faces" type="external">taken from African coast</a> near the mouth of the Congo River.</p>
<p>1526 In letter to Portuguese King João III, Kongo King Afonso I writes, “ <a href="http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&amp;list=h-afrteach&amp;month=9911&amp;week=c&amp;msg=qBR39UCtdx%2BIzckJSURdPg&amp;user=&amp;pw=" type="external">Our country is being completely depopulated</a>” by slave trade.</p>
<p>Mid-1800s Reports from David Livingstone and other explorers whet European appetite for ivory.</p>
<p>1885 Belgian King Leopold II wins recognition of Congo as his personal colony.</p>
<p>1887 Scottish veterinarian John Dunlop creates inflatable tire, launching worldwide rubber boom.</p>
<p>1893-1913 Peak of Congo rubber trade. Leopold’s private army occupies villages, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/scramble_for_africa_article_01.shtml" type="external">holds women hostage</a> to force men into the rain forest to gather wild rubber. Famine, disease, displacement ensue; uprisings bloodily suppressed. Congo’s population drops from 20 million to 10 million in 40 years.</p>
<p>1895 First reported find of Congo gold, in Ituri.</p>
<p>1907 Diamonds discovered in Kasai province. Today Congo produces 17 percent of world’s uncut diamonds.</p>
<p>1911 British soap tycoon William Lever visits to <a href="http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,787466,00.html" type="external">inspect his new holdings</a> of palm groves.</p>
<p>1931 Railway completed from Katanga through Angola to Atlantic, parallel to old slave-trade route, for faster export of Congo copper. Profits mainly go to Belgium.</p>
<p>1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs built with Congolese uranium.</p>
<p>1960 After months of violent protests, Belgium grants Congo independence. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrcX3XUm7eA&amp;feature=related" type="external">Patrice Lumumba becomes prime minister</a>, advocates African ownership of African resources.</p>
<p>1961 Lumumba killed, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/06/world/world-briefing-europe-belgium-apology-for-lumumba-killing.html?pagewanted=1" type="external">with Belgian help</a>, after CIA assassination attempt fails.</p>
<p>1965 Joseph Mobutu, a 35-year-old army officer, seizes power in CIA-approved coup, ruthlessly crushes all opposition.</p>
<p>1966 Mobutu nationalizes mining, goes on to embezzle billions from trade in copper, cobalt, diamond, and coffee industries.</p>
<p>1971 Mobutu changes nation’s name to Zaire and his own to Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga—”The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake.”</p>
<p>1974 Muhammad Ali <a href="http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/15499/Muhammad-Ali.html" type="external">regains heavyweight crown</a> by defeating George Foreman in “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa.</p>
<p>1977 Commodore begins selling personal computers; demand accelerates for minerals used in electronics, including gold, coltan (colombite-tantalite), and cassiterite (tin ore), all of which Congo produces in abundance.</p>
<p>1997 Mobutu overthrown, <a href="http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/35/080.html" type="external">dies in exile</a> following year. Country renamed Democratic Republic of Congo.</p>
<p>1998 Rwanda and Uganda invade, try to overthrow Mobutu successor Laurent Kabila. Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola, Chad, Sudan also get involved, supporting Kabila and seizing mining concessions. Armed rebel groups proliferate, also capture mine sites.</p>
<p>1999 About 100 Congolese miners die when gold mine run by Ugandan military caves in.</p>
<p>1999 Six countries involved in war <a href="http://www.globalpolicy.org/security-council/index-of-countries-on-the-security-council-agenda/democratic-republic-of-congo.html" type="external">sign peace accord</a> in Zambia; UN peacekeepers deployed. Fighting for control of mining sites continues. Hundreds of thousands of civilians forced to flee.</p>
<p>2000 Coltan, in demand for cell phone manufacturing, sells at $380 a pound. Demand for tungsten, used to make phones vibrate (and lightbulbs glow), also surges.</p>
<p>2000 Kabila grants timber rights on 15 percent of Congo’s land area to joint venture that includes high Zimbabwean officials and army officers.</p>
<p>2001 Kabila <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/20/world/witnesses-describe-kabila-assassination-scene-but-motive-is-still-murky.html?pagewanted=1" type="external">assassinated, succeeded</a> by his son Joseph.</p>
<p>2002 Second peace accord signed in South African luxury resort Sun City. Rebel warlords continue to fight.</p>
<p>2002 UN panel of experts estimates Rwanda has removed $320 million worth of minerals from eastern Congo during war.</p>
<p>2003 Amnesty International also targets Rwanda, saying that plunder of Congo’s coltan and other minerals was a “ <a href="http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR620102003?open&amp;of=ENG-398" type="external">carefully managed military operation</a>.”</p>
<p>2006 UN <a href="http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/publications/yir/2006/congo.htm" type="external">helps arrange first free</a> elections since 1960. Joseph Kabila wins presidency, incorporates former rebel warlords into army and administration as price of shaky peace.</p>
<p>2007 Congo hit with Ebola outbreak.</p>
<p>2007 China signs long-term deal investing $9 billion in Congo in exchange for minerals worth some $50 billion, mainly copper and cobalt.</p>
<p /> | Steal This Country | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/democratic-republic-congo-timeline/ | 2018-03-01 | 4 |
<p>Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, is a former San Diego school board president and a longtime San Diego State professor. In an April 24 <a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/apr/25/tackling-teacher-tenure-after-vergara-ruling/" type="external">op-ed</a>, she called for tenure reform — breaking with Democrats in the Legislature who have long worked closely with the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers, and agreeing with the arguments made by plaintiffs in the landmark <a href="http://studentsmatter.org/our-case/vergara-v-california-case-summary/" type="external">Vergara v. California case of 2014</a>.</p>
<p>Last week, however, at a legislative hearing on tenure reform, Weber was far more aggressive on the issue. The Sacramento Bee’s <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article19903074.html" type="external">coverage</a>&#160;inexplicably left out the juiciest parts or the hearing — or even that the hearing had any juicy parts. Not <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/news/youre-gonna-rape-me-demands-a-democrat-whose-teacher-tenure-law-got-killed-5533131" type="external">LA Weekly</a>.</p>
<p>Shirley Weber grew up in Pueblo del Rio, a poor South Los Angeles housing project known as “the Pueblos.” She made her way out and went on to college, earned a Ph.D. at UCLA and was elected president of the San Diego Unified School Board before winning election to the California Assembly in 2012.&#160;</p>
<p>Weber introduced a seemingly moderate bill on Wednesday to accomplish three things: She wanted to add a new category called “needs improvement” to California forms that evaluate teachers and provide only two choices, “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory.” Her reform would signal that the teacher needs training in order to be more effective in class.</p>
<p>Second, her bill would require that funds be spent to train the teachers who are in need of improvement.</p>
<p>Third, and most controversially, Weber’s bill would require that teacher evaluations be based at least in part on their students’ academic growth — not necessarily by using student test scores, but not banning their use, either.&#160; …</p>
<p>Sacramento is a pretty congenial place — there’s a lot of back-slapping and fist-bumping and laughing that goes on in the hallways and aisles. But when Weber’s Democratic colleagues signaled that they would not let her bill out of the education committee — effectively burying it, preventing it from getting to the Assembly floor — Weber lit into them.</p>
<p>“When I see what’s going on, I’m offended, as a senior member of this committee, who has probably more educational background and experience than all ya’ll put together on top of each other,” Weber lashed out.</p>
<p>‘You gonna rape me, rape my bill?’</p>
<p>The fireworks <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/news/youre-gonna-rape-me-demands-a-democrat-whose-teacher-tenure-law-got-killed-5533131" type="external">continued</a>&#160;later in a different forum.</p>
<p>Weber was even more candid when speaking to L.A. Weekly the next day.</p>
<p>“Obviously, it was orchestrated by the teachers union to not let the bill out,” she said. “It was purely political.”</p>
<p>Interestingly, the Assembly Education committee chair, Patrick O’Donnell, wants to take Weber’s idea of a “needs improvement” evaluation for teachers and incorporate it into his own teacher-evaluation bill. But Weber objects to that, too.</p>
<p>“You’re gonna rape me, rape my bill and take it as your own?” she said, incredulously. “After the work we’ve done, without my name on it? I’m not having that. You may do it, but you will not do it without my permission.”</p>
<p>About a decade ago, I spoke on background with a prominent California Latino politician who’s kept moving up in the years since. He told me that the CTA and CFT make it clear to Democratic candidates that there is a low ceiling to their careers if they’re not fully supportive of the teachers unions’ agenda. This was confirmed by the silence of Karen Bass and John Perez when the Los Angeles Democrats were speaker of the Assembly and minority parents sought big changes in L.A. Unified.</p>
<p>But the Vergara case, the continued prominence of former state Sen. Gloria Romero as a critic of teacher unions and now Weber’s emergence as a sharp union foe will keep the spotlight on how minority students are treated and on how reforms to help minority students are treated in Sacramento.</p>
<p>A second battlefront in Weber vs. CTA?</p>
<p>Weber has also expressed concerns that the Local Control Funding Formula reform adopted in 2013 has&#160; <a href="" type="internal">not been implemented well</a>, as CalWatchdog reported in March.</p>
<p>It was supposed to ensure more money went directly to help struggling students. But in January, the Legislative Analyst’s Office <a href="http://www.lao.ca.gov/reports/2015/edu/LCAP/2014-15-LCAP-012015.pdf" type="external">reported</a>&#160;that none of the 50 California school districts had adequate safeguards on how the money was used, including the 11 largest districts.</p>
<p>This could end up being a second front in Weber’s battle with the teachers unions. In several districts, there’s evidence the LCFF dollars have been diverted to use for teacher pay raises.</p> | Dem lawmaker breaks with party over teacher tenure | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2015/05/06/dem-lawmaker-breaks-party-teacher-tenure/ | 2018-05-20 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Dear Credit Card Adviser,&#160;</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>My stepdaughter owes $5,000 on her credit card. My wife has access to her online credit card account and she's an authorized user. Can I use my savings account information to pay it off online? Or will my bank and/or her credit card company decline the transaction since not even our last names are the same?&#160;</p>
<p>- Robbie</p>
<p>Dear Robbie,</p>
<p>Paying off the bill using a savings account could be tricky, but not for the reasons you cite.</p>
<p>While federal law doesn't directly prohibit using a savings account to pay a bill online, <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/savings/linked-savings-accounts-bank-perks.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">Regulation D Opens a New Window.</a> "limits your ability to make more than six transfers" per month from a savings account, explains Leonard Chanin, a partner at law firm Morrison and Foerster LLP, which represents banks and other financial services companies.</p>
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<p>The law is in place to essentially protect bank reserves. Customers who go over the limit may have their transactions declined or face an excess activity fee. And if you make more than six transfers per month on a regular basis, the account could wind up being closed or converted to a checking account.</p>
<p>In other words, your good deed, as envisioned, could carry repercussions.</p>
<p>You could theoretically pay off the debt using your savings account and micromanage your monthly transfers. However, "there might not be the option to make a third-party payment from a savings account," says Nessa Feddis, senior vice president of consumer protection and payments at the American Bankers Association. Instead, you could use a checking account to make a payment.</p>
<p>As for the names not matching, typically, when you go to add an account to make a payment, "there's no field for names," Feddis says. Instead, all the financial institution asks for is an account number and a routing number, so the difference isn't likely to create a problem.</p>
<p>Remember there are still checks and balances in place "to ensure that you actually have authorization to use that account," Feddis adds, so you could potentially run into a speed bump or two.</p>
<p>For instance, many financial firms conduct a few test withdrawals once a customer attempts to link a checking account to their credit card. The customer is then prompted to enter the amount of these debits -- therefore verifying ownership of or access to the account -- before it's officially added as a payment option.</p>
<p>Since your wife is an authorized user on the account, you may be able to jump through this and any other hoops without too much of a hassle. However, "if it's just a one-time thing, it may not be worth it" to link accounts electronically, Feddis says.</p>
<p>Instead, you could just write your stepdaughter a check for the debt. If you're worried this check won't go toward paying off the bill, you could deposit the money into whatever account your wife uses to pay the credit card and have her pay the bill, says John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at CreditSesame.com.</p>
<p>Or keep it even simpler.</p>
<p>"You can make a payment on someone else's account using the old-fashioned paper statement process," Ulzheimer says. "Write a check for the amount due and stick it in a payment remittance envelope."</p>
<p>One last thing, and this is just from a personal finance perspective. I'm not sure how old your stepdaughter is, but by paying off her debts, you are not teaching her to be financially responsible for her actions. Plus, you could also be jeopardizing your own financial well-being down the road. Here's to hoping this is just a one-time thing to get her on her feet again.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Get more news, money-saving tips and expert advice by signing up for a free <a href="http://app.bankrate.com/prefcenter/signup.cfm?t=newsletter" type="external">Bankrate newsletter Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>Copyright 2014, Bankrate Inc.</p> | Pay Off Step Daughter's $5K Credit Card Bill? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/06/11/pay-off-stepdaughter-5k-credit-card-bill.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>Kaine interrupted Pence 70 times during the debate. Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2016.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Interruptor Hunhinged | true | http://comicallyincorrect.com/2016/10/05/the-interruptor/ | 2016-10-05 | 0 |
<p>Patrick Semansky/AP</p>
<p />
<p>After Baltimore police and a crowd of teens clashed near the Mondawmin Mall in northwest Baltimore on Monday afternoon, news reports described the violence as a riot triggered by kids who had been itching for a fight all day. But in interviews with Mother Jones and other media outlets, teachers and parents maintain that police actions inflamed a tense-but-stable situation.</p>
<p />
<p>The funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died in police custody this month, had ended hours earlier at a nearby church. <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-freddie-gray-violence-chronology-20150427-story.html#page=1" type="external">According to the</a> <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-freddie-gray-violence-chronology-20150427-story.html#page=1" type="external">Baltimore Sun</a>, a call to “purge”—a reference to the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2184339/" type="external">2013 dystopian film</a> in which all crime is made legal for one night—circulated on social media among school-aged Baltimoreans that morning. The rumored plan—which was not traced to any specific person or group—was to assemble at the Mondawmin Mall at 3 p.m. and proceed down Pennsylvania Avenue toward downtown Baltimore. The Baltimore Police Department, which was aware of the “purge” call, prepared for the worst. Shortly before noon, the department issued a statement saying it had “received credible information that members of various gangs…have entered into a partnership to ‘take-out’ law enforcement officers.”</p>
<p>When school let out that afternoon, police were in the area equipped with full riot gear. According to eyewitnesses in the Mondawmin neighborhood, the police were stopping buses and forcing riders, including many students who were trying to get home, to disembark. Cops shut down the local subway stop. They also blockaded roads near the Mondawmin Mall and Frederick Douglass High School, which is across the street from the mall, and essentially corralled young people in the area. That is, they did not allow the after-school crowd to disperse.</p>
<p>Meghann Harris, a teacher at a nearby school, described on Facebook what happened:</p>
<p>Police were forcing buses to stop and unload all their passengers. Then, [Frederick Douglass High School] students, in huge herds, were trying to leave on various buses but couldn’t catch any because they were all shut down. No kids were yet around except about 20, who looked like they were waiting for police to do something. The cops, on the other hand, were in full riot gear, marching toward any small social clique of students…It looked as if there were hundreds of cops.</p>
<p>The kids were “standing around in groups of 3-4,” Harris said in a Facebook message to Mother Jones. “They weren’t doing anything. No rock throwing, nothing…The cops started marching toward groups of kids who were just milling about.”</p>
<p>A teacher at Douglass High School, who asked not to be identified, tells a similar story: “When school was winding down, many students were leaving early with their parents or of their own accord.” Those who didn’t depart early, she says, were stranded. Many of the students still at school at that point, she notes, wanted to get out of the area and avoid any Purge-like violence. Some were requesting rides home from teachers. But by now, it was difficult to leave the neighborhood. “I rode with another teacher home,” this teacher recalls, “and we had to route our travel around the police in riot gear blocking the road…The majority of my students thought what was going to happen was stupid or were frightened at the idea. Very few seemed to want to participate in ‘the purge.'”</p>
<p>A parent who picked up his children from a nearby elementary school, says via Twitter, “The kids stood across from the police and looked like they were asking them ‘why can’t we get on the buses’ but the police were just gazing…Majority of those kids aren’t from around that neighborhood. They NEED those buses and trains in order to get home.” He continued: “If they would’ve let them children go home, yesterday wouldn’t have even turned out like that.”</p>
<p>Meg Gibson, another Baltimore teacher, <a href="http://gawker.com/those-kids-were-set-up-1700716306" type="external">described a similar scene to Gawker</a>: “The riot police were already at the bus stop on the other side of the mall, turning buses that transport the students away, not allowing students to board. They were waiting for the kids…Those kids were set up, they were treated like criminals before the first brick was thrown.” With police unloading busses, and with the nearby metro station shut down, there were few ways for students to clear out.</p>
<p>Several eyewitnesses in the area that afternoon say that police seemed to arrive at Mondawmin anticipating mobs and violence—prior to any looting. At 3:01 p.m., the Baltimore Police Department posted on its Facebook page: “There is a group of juveniles in the area of Mondawmin Mall. Expect traffic delays in the area.” But many of the kids, according to eyewitnesses, were stuck there because of police actions.</p>
<p>The Baltimore Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>Around 3:30, the police reported that juveniles had begun to throw bottles and bricks. Fifteen minutes later, the police department noted that one of its officers had been injured. After that the violence escalated, and rioters started looting the Mondawmin Mall, and Baltimore was in for a long night of trouble and violence. But as the event is reviewed and investigated, an important question warrants attention: What might have happened had the police not prevented students from leaving the area? Did the department’s own actions increase the chances of conflict?</p>
<p>As Meghann Harris put it, “if I were a Douglas student that just got trapped in the middle of a minefield BY cops without any way to get home and completely in harm’s way, I’d be ready to pop off, too.”</p>
<p>On social media, eyewitnesses chronicled the dramatic police presence before the rioting began:</p>
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<p><a href="https://instagram.com/p/1_XPqniEm3/" type="external">#LIVE #SATELLITE #MondawminMall …”Cops in Body Armor for H.S. STUDENT”</a></p>
<p>A photo posted by Antonio Butcher (@magava_da_9) on Apr 27, 2015 at 12:26pm PDT</p>
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<p><a href="https://instagram.com/p/1_VffTmZQR/" type="external">#praying4Baltimore #mondawminmall</a></p>
<p>A video posted by BE-Z Clothing Comp (@mrbez4ever) on Apr 27, 2015 at 12:10pm PDT</p>
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>On Twitter, Baltimore residents vented their frustration with the situation.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Eyewitnesses: The Baltimore Riots Didn’t Start the Way You Think | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/how-baltimore-riots-began-mondawmin-purge/ | 2015-04-28 | 4 |
<p>Jan 18 (Reuters) - First Internet Bancorp:</p> * Q4 EARNINGS PER SHARE $0.41
<p>* Q4 EARNINGS PER SHARE VIEW $0.62 — THOMSON REUTERS I/B/E/S</p>
<p>* - NET INTEREST INCOME FOR Q4 WAS $15.4 MILLION COMPARED TO $10.9 MILLION FOR Q4 2016 Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to arrest an International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor if she conducts activities in his country, arguing it was no longer an ICC member so the court had no right to do any investigating.</p> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures as he delivers a speech during the 121st founding anniversary of the Philippine Army (PA) at Taguig city, Metro Manila, Philippines March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco
<p>Hitting out at what he said was an international effort to paint him as a “ruthless and heartless violator of human rights”, Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC’s Rome Statute a month ago and promised to continue his crackdown on drugs, in which thousands have been killed.</p>
<p>ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in February announced the start of a preliminary examination into a complaint by a Philippine lawyer which accuses Duterte and top officials of crimes against humanity, and of killing criminals as a policy.</p>
<p>Duterte has cited numerous reasons why he believes the ICC has no jurisdiction over him, and on Friday suggested that any doubts about that should have been dispelled by his withdrawal.</p>
<p>“What is your authority now? If we are not members of the treaty, why are you ... in this country?,” told reporters, in comments aimed at Bensouda.</p>
<p>“You cannot exercise any proceedings here without basis. That is illegal and I will arrest you.”</p>
<p>It is not clear whether Bensouda or the ICC has carried out any activities in the Philippines related to the complaint against Duterte.</p>
<p>The office of the prosecutor in The Hague and the Philippine foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>Police have since July 2016 killed more than 4,000 people they say are drug dealers who resisted arrest. Activists say many of those were executions, which police deny.</p>
<p>Duterte has told security forces not to cooperate with any foreign investigators and last month said he would convince other ICC members to withdraw.</p>
<p>Duterte had earlier vowed to face the ICC and critics say pulling out is futile, because the ICC has jurisdiction to investigate alleged crimes committed in the period from when the Philippines joined in 2011 to when its withdrawal takes effect in March 2019.</p>
<p>Under the Rome Statute, the ICC can step in and exercise jurisdiction if states are unable or unwilling to investigate suspected crimes.</p>
<p>But the mercurial former mayor and his legal aides argue that technically, the Philippines never actually joined the ICC, because it was not announced in the country’s official gazette.</p>
<p>“If there is no publication, it is as if there is no law at all,” Duterte said on Friday.</p>
<p>Reporting by Martin Petty and Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Robert Birsel</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and his national security aides on Thursday discussed U.S. options on Syria, where he has threatened missile strikes in response to a suspected poison gas attack, as a Russian envoy voiced fears of wider conflict between Washington and Moscow.</p>
<p>Worries about a confrontation between Russia, Syria’s big ally, and the West have been running high since Trump said on Wednesday that missiles “will be coming” in response to the attack in the Syrian town of Douma on April 7, and lambasted Moscow for standing by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.</p>
<p>Trump tempered those remarks on Thursday and even as he consulted allies such and Britain and France, who could join in any U.S.-led strikes on Syria, there were signs of efforts to prevent the crisis from spiraling out of control.</p>
<p>“Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!” Trump wrote on Twitter, raising the prospect that an attack might not be as imminent as he seemed to suggest the day before.</p>
<p>Trump met his national security team on the situation in Syria later in the day and “no final decision has been made,” the White House said in a statement.</p>
<p>“We are continuing to assess intelligence and are engaged in conversations with our partners and allies,” it said.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-allies-factbox/factbox-assads-foreign-backers-in-syrias-war-idUSKBN1HJ2DE" type="external">Factbox: Assad's foreign backers in Syria's war</a>
<p>That did not necessarily signal, however, that Trump was cooling to the idea of military action, especially given the high stakes in Syria. U.S. officials noted that Washington was still assessing intelligence and coordinating allies.</p>
<p>For graphic on overview of chemical warfare click: <a href="" type="internal">here</a></p>
<p>Trump spoke to British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday and the two leaders talked about the “need for a joint response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons,” the White House said.</p>
<p>May’s office said they agreed on the need to deter Assad’s government from further such attacks.</p>
<p>Trump was also due to speak with French President Emmanuel Macron, who said France had proof the Syrian government carried out the attack near Damascus, which aid groups have said killed dozens of people, and will decide whether to strike back when all the necessary information has been gathered.</p>
<p>“We have proof that last week ... chemical weapons were used, at least with chlorine, and that they were used by the regime of Bashar al-Assad,” Macron said, without offering details of any evidence.</p>
<p>Two U.S. officials familiar with an investigation of samples from Douma and the symptoms of victims said initial indications that a mix of weaponized chlorine gas and sarin were used in the attack appeared to be correct. But U.S. intelligence agencies have not completed their assessment or reached a final conclusion, the officials said.</p>
<p>Russia, Syria and its other main backer, Iran, have said reports of the Douma attack were fabricated by rebels and rescue workers and have accused the United States of seeking to use it as a pretext to attack the Syrian government.</p>
<p>Russia said it deployed military police in Douma on Thursday after the town was taken over by government forces.</p>
<p>“They are the guarantors of law and order in the town,” RIA news agency quoted Russia’s defense ministry as saying.</p>
<p>There were signs of a global effort to head off a direct confrontation between Russia and the West. The Kremlin said a crisis communications link with the United States, created to avoid an accidental clash over Syria, was in use.</p> FEARS OF WAR
<p>Vassily Nebenzia, Moscow’s ambassador to the United Nations, said he “cannot exclude” war between the United States and Russia and urged Washington and its allies to refrain from military action against Syria.</p>
<p>“The immediate priority is to avert the danger of war,” he told reporters. “We hope there will be no point of no return,” the envoy said.</p>
<p>A team of experts from the global chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, was traveling to Syria and will start its investigations on Saturday, the Netherlands-based agency said.</p>
<p>It was not clear whether Trump and U.S. allies would wait for the results of the investigation before deciding on a strike.</p> U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with governors and members of Congress at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 12, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
<p>U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress he believed there was a chemical attack in Syria, but added a short while later that the United States had not made any decision to launch military action. He also suggested he was examining ways to prevent any strikes from triggering a broader conflict.</p>
<p>“I don’t want to talk about a specific attack that is not yet in the offing ... This would be pre-decisional,” Mattis told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.</p>
<p>Moscow is estimated to have dozens of aircraft at its Hmeymim air base in Syria including fighters and bombers, as well as 10 to 15 warships and support vessels in the Mediterranean.</p>
<p>The Syrian government and Russian forces in Syria possess truck-mounted surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapons systems.</p>
<p>Nervous world stock markets showed signs of recovery after Trump’s signal that military strikes might not be imminent.</p>
<p>Britain’s May won backing from her senior ministers to take unspecified action with the United States and France to deter further use of chemical weapons by Syria.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>May had recalled the ministers from their Easter holiday for the meeting to discuss Britain’s response to what she has cast as a barbaric attack that cannot go unchallenged.</p>
<p>Russian ships had left the Tartus naval base in Syria, Interfax news agency quoted a Russian lawmaker as saying. Vladimir Shamanov, who chairs the defense committee of the lower house, said the vessels had departed the base for their own safety, which was “normal practice” when there were threats of attack.</p>
<p>Any U.S. strike would probably involve the Navy, given the risk to aircraft from Russian and Syrian air defenses. A U.S. guided-missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, is in the Mediterranean. Last year, the United States carried out strikes from two Navy destroyers against a Syrian air base after another deadly toxic gas attack on a rebel-controlled area.</p>
<p>Reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Additional reporting by Angus McDowall in Beirut, William James, Guy Faulconbridge and David Milliken in London, Andrew Osborn, Maria Kiselyova and Jack Stubbs in Moscow, John Irish in Paris, Graham Fahy in Dublin and John Walcott, Phil Stewart, Matt Spetalnick and Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by Alistair Bell and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Will Dunham and Peter Cooney</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Oklahoma’s largest teachers union on Thursday called off a nearly two-week walkout that shut public schools statewide, saying it had secured historic gains in education funding after school budgets were devastated by a decade of cuts.</p>
<p>The move came after the Republican-dominated legislature passed its first major tax hikes in a quarter century that raised about $450 million in revenue for education. Republican leaders said they had no plans to go as high as the $600 million being sought by educators.</p>
<p>“We absolutely have a victory for teachers,” Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, told a news conference.</p>
<p>“Our members are saying they want to go back to the classroom,” said Priest, whose union has about 40,000 members.</p>
<p>Some major districts have said they will resume classes on Monday.</p>
<p>The strike was part of a wave of actions by teachers in states that have some of the lowest per-student spending in the country. A West Virginia strike ended last month with a pay raise for teachers, and educators in Arizona protested before classes on Wednesday, without skipping work, to seek enhanced education funding.</p>
<p>The Oklahoma walkout began on April 2 and affected about 500,000 of the state’s 700,000 public school students.</p> Protester march during a strike by Oklahoma educators demanding more school funding near the Oklahoma state Capitol in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., April 9, 2018. Picture taken on April 9, 2018. REUTERS/Heide Brandes
<p>Opinion surveys showed it had garnered wide support among Oklahoma voters, many of whom had seen firsthand how students at struggling schools had to share outdated and tattered textbooks and sometimes go to a four-day school week to help save districts money.</p>
<p>Oklahoma teachers, who were seeking a $10,000 annual wage hike over three years, will see an average annual pay raise of about $6,100 from the increased funding, lawmakers said.</p>
<p>In May 2017, their annual mean wage was $41,880, among the lowest in the country, compared with neighboring states such as Texas at $57,830 and Kansas at $50,470, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p> A protester holds up a sign during a strike by Oklahoma educators demanding more school funding near the Oklahoma state Capitol in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., April 9, 2018. Picture taken on April 9, 2018. REUTERS/Heide Brandes
<p>School districts for the most part supported the teacher walk-out. But they began to run out of wiggle room to make up for lost time when the labor action threatened to extend the school year, piling pressure on teachers to return.</p>
<p>Low wages have created an exodus of educators, causing a teacher shortage in Oklahoma. As a result, school districts had to cut curricula and deploy nearly 2,000 emergency-certified instructors as a stop-gap measure.</p>
<p>Reporting by Heide Brandes in Oklahoma City and Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton in Tulsa; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Sandra Maler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump denied allegations of lewd behavior made in an intelligence dossier and asked whether the FBI would consider proving it was a lie, former FBI Director James Comey wrote in an upcoming memoir, according to the Washington Post.</p> FILE PHOTO: Former FBI Director James Comey testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on "Russian Federation Efforts to Interfere in the 2016 U.S. Elections" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 8, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160; Comey, fired by Trump in May 2017, wrote in “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership” that Trump raised the dossier with him at least four times during meetings, the Post said. The dossier was compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele about Trump’s ties to Russia, and included an allegation that involved prostitutes.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160; The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters. Comey’s publicist also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to comment.</p>
<p>The newspaper said it obtained a copy of the 304-page book, scheduled to be released on Tuesday, and that Comey detailed in it his private interactions with Trump.</p> After defiant exit, Trump reconsiders TPP
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160; Comey’s firing led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to investigate allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between Russians and the Trump campaign.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160; Russia has denied interfering in the election. Trump has said there was no collusion.</p>
<p>Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-First Internet Bancorp Q4 Earnings Per Share $0.41 'I will arrest you': Duterte warns ICC lawyer to steer clear of Philippines Trump weighs Syria options, Russia envoy says he 'cannot exclude' war Oklahoma teachers end nearly two-week walkout that shut schools Comey says in book Trump denied allegations of lewd behavior: Washington Post | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-first-internet-bancorp-q4-earnings/brief-first-internet-bancorp-q4-earnings-per-share-041-idUSASB0C1IC | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
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<p>For Tex-Mex restaurant chain Chuy's Holdings (NASDAQ: CHUY), the fourth quarter of 2016 marked one ugly milestone: the first quarter of negative comparable sales growth in more than six years.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Last quarter proved that Chuy's was not immune to the woes plaguing the restaurant industry at large. Investors have remained cool on the company since then, with the stock still down significantly from its 52-week high.</p>
<p>If you're wondering whether Chuy's can get its groove back, here are a few items to watch for when Chuy's reports first quarter earnings on May 4.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/CHUY" type="external">CHUY Opens a New Window.</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a></p>
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<p>Before Chuy's suffered last quarter's 1.1% comparable-restaurant-sales decline, it had achieved 25 straight quarters of comps growth -- looking pretty resilient as many of its competitors succumbed to the "restaurant recession." But the nationwide trend that's seeing fewer people dine out finally put that streak to an end, as Chuy's saw its customer traffic fall by 2.4% during the quarter.</p>
<p>If the rest of the industry is any indication, Chuy's could be in for another tough quarter. According to Black Box Intelligence, restaurants on average saw a 1.6% decline in comparable-store sales in the first quarter, with traffic falling an average of 3.6%.While Chuy's has generally been outperforming these averages, the last thing investors want to see is another quarter of negative comps.</p>
<p>The company's initial 2017 guidance is for full-year comps growth of 1% to 2%,which seems underwhelming given that Chuy's was averaging comps growth of between 2.2% and 3.3% from 2012 through 2015. That said, given the challenging conditions, at least Chuy's is still guiding for a positive number. Management has also stated that comps are expected to be fairly flat for the first quarter and then improve sequentially as the year-ago comparisons will get progressively easier.</p>
<p>What to watch for: Eking out even the smallest positive comps growth number would go a long way toward reassuring investors that Chuy's Tex-Mex concept is still resonating with diners.</p>
<p>Image source: Chuy's Holdings.</p>
<p>With comps growth missing for the moment, Chuy's revenue growth is being driven entirely by the opening of new restaurants. Thankfully for investors, the company is continuing to expand at an aggressive pace. Chuy's grew its number of locations from 39 in 2012 to 80 at the end of 2016.</p>
<p>In 2017, the company has plans to open 12 to 14 new stores, which would reflect 15% to 17.5% growth in its store base, providing for healthy top-line expansion. While some of those stores will be in existing markets, it's the openings in three new metro areas -- Chicago, Miami, and Denver -- that are most essential to its growth plans. Greater Chicago will be Chuy's largest market yet, with management stating that it believes the opportunity exists there for at least 12 stores. While the Chuy's map of locations won't quite be coast-to-coast, by the end of 2017, Chuy's should be one step closer to becoming a national brand.</p>
<p>What to watch for: Investors will want to see that the store openings in Chuy's new megamarkets are on schedule, and that the company remains on track to meet its full-year guidance of 12 to 14 new stores.</p>
<p>Chuy's generally boasts restaurant-level operating margin as big as its portions, averaging 19.3% for 2016. However, toward the end of last year, that number tumbled a bit, with fourth-quarter margin coming in at just 16.7%,mostly because of higher labor costs. While that's still above its blended target for new and mature stores of 15% to 16.5%,it was a sizable drop and something to keep an eye on going forward -- especially given that occupancy costs are expected to increase in 2017 because of higher rents associated with larger, more expensive markets such as Chicago and Miami.</p>
<p>What to watch for: Whether increasing labor costs and the push into pricier markets continues to compress margin. Combined with falling traffic and weak comps, lower margin could have a big impact on the bottom line.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/CHUY/pe_ratio" type="external">CHUY PE Ratio (TTM)</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a></p>
<p>On a trailing-12-month basis, Chuy's stock trades today at a price-to-earnings ratio of almost 29. On a forward basis, its P/E of around 26 is a little more reasonable.Whether you find that expensive depends greatly on your point of view. Is Chuy's poised to recover in short order and resume its steady growth trajectory? Or will the company continue to struggle to get comps moving in the right direction again?</p>
<p>I think shares look pretty reasonable today, given the significant expansion Chuy's has planned, the company's rock-solid balance sheet, and its ability to fund future store growth with its own cash flows.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Chuy's 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-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=b898b4c4-2e85-4816-ba4a-a23e3be29cb1&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now and Chuy's 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-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=b898b4c4-2e85-4816-ba4a-a23e3be29cb1&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of April 3, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/CMFGouldberg/info.aspx" type="external">Andy Gould Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Chuy's Holdings. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/CMFGouldberg/info.aspx" type="external">Andy Gould</a> has the following options: short October 2017 $30 puts on Chuy's Holdings. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Chuy's Holdings. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | What to Watch When Chuy's Holdings Reports Earnings | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/14/what-to-watch-when-chuy-holdings-reports-earnings.html | 2017-04-26 | 0 |
<p>By J. Barrett Owen</p>
<p>Churches this Sunday will give out a rose and clap for the oldest mother in the sanctuary. They will sing songs about family and pay no attention to the females who haven’t birthed a baby. They will preach children’s sermons that center on obedience and adult sermons that challenge everyone to call home. This Sunday, Christians across America will be challenged to honor their father and mother.</p>
<p>Is it fair, though, to ask those whose parents abandoned or abused them to honor their father and mother? What about females who accept a call from God to go to seminary despite their parents saying they are forbidden? What about the men who discover they are gay and are disbarred from the family tree? What about the young lady who never met her dad? Or the crack baby born into a hostile environment? What about the girl whose parents give too little too late?</p>
<p>Are these people required by God to “honor” their parents? It appears society’s answer is, “No!”</p>
<p>In a recent edition of the Christian Century magazine one of the articles created a new Top Ten Commandments for the 21st Century. You may not be shocked to hear that “Honor your father and mother” — didn’t make the list.</p>
<p>This commandment may seem to be a bit outdated — but it doesn’t have to be.</p>
<p>Take the verb “honor.” In Hebrew it means “to be heavy.” In a sense God is telling Israel to “give weight to parents” or “to think much of them.” This verb doesn’t render a command to be submissive nor does it advocate obedience as much as it suggests appropriating the seriousness of the parental role.</p>
<p>From a contextual standpoint, this verse has more to do with not alienating the elderly than it does about obedience.</p>
<p>For an Israelite community trying to get on its feet, agriculture and labor became necessities. To honor your father and mother just may be saying, “When your parents are too old to work on the farm, don’t abandon them.”</p>
<p>This is important for Israel because her longevity depends on remembering unrepeatable events. This leads to another reason why God gives this command — it keeps the family’s story alive.</p>
<p>To not honor your parents is to break the lineage, to stop the story and to inevitably shut down the passing of history. The weight of Israel’s escape from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the tent bearing God’s presence and all the other shared memories stop when this commandment is broken.</p>
<p>Honoring your father and mother may mean caring for them in old age, but it also means honoring their story.</p>
<p>It’s hard, though, telling the stories of the parents you can’t remember or the parents that hate you. We have moms and dads who emotionally ruin us, reject our love and discard our accomplishments. And these events shadow our entire lives.</p>
<p>But Frederick Buechner reminds us in Wishful Thinking:</p>
<p>“Honor them anyway for the pain that made them what they are and the hurt that kept them from who they wanted to be. Honor them anyway, for even at their worst, they were doing the best they knew at the time. Honor them for the roles they were appointed to play, because even when they played them abominably or didn’t even play them at all, the roles themselves are holy. Honor them because, however unthinkingly or irresponsibly, they gave you your life.“</p>
<p>I’m grateful to have parents that, despite only a handful of memories, deserve to be honored. They are good people. But I lived the majority of my childhood dishonoring them — probably because I’m the younger of two highly successful brothers. I spent the majority of middle school and high school years parading around gymnasiums and ballparks watching my brothers play ball. I tried not to show it but I longed for and was in desperate need of my parents’ blessing.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until my sophomore year in college, when I was preaching at a summer camp. I remember my parents came to hear me preach. After the worship service mom and dad looked at me and for the first time in my life I heard them say, “We are proud of you!” All the pain, all the resentment, all the emotional energy was finally released. I was finally somebody’s son.</p>
<p>They had told me before that they were proud of me, but this was the first time I believed it. It wasn’t because I achieved something or earned a grade or received an award. I was just finally becoming me. I was at a place where I was comfortable enough to accept their blessing as well as their shortcomings and honor them for it.</p>
<p>Honoring mom and dad may mean caring for them in old age as well as telling their story, but becoming who God made you to be is the best way you can honor your parental figures this Mother’s Day.</p> | Must you honor a parent who has hurt you? | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/must-you-honor-a-parent-who-has-hurt-you/ | 3 |
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<p>NEW YORK — The Latest on the U.S. Open, the year’s last Grand Slam tennis tournament (all times local):</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:45 a.m.</p>
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<p>Madison Keys took eight of the last nine games and came back to beat Elena Vesnina 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, reaching the U.S. Open’s fourth round for the third consecutive year.</p>
<p>The match ended at 1:45 a.m. on Sunday, the second-latest finish for women at Flushing Meadows. The record of 1:48 a.m. was set in a match won by Keys against Alison Riske in the first round a year ago.</p>
<p>The 15th-seeded Keys, an American, and the 17th-seeded Vesnina, a Russian, did not even start their third-round match until nearly midnight because of a lengthy day session that ran into the evening.</p>
<p>From 4-all in the second set, Keys didn’t lose another game until she was ahead 5-0 in the third.</p>
<p>Keys gives the United States five women in the fourth round, joining No. 9 Venus Williams, No. 20 CoCo Vandeweghe, Sloane Stephens and Jennifer Brady.</p>
<p>Keys will play No. 4 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine next.</p>
<p>Vesnina still has never been past the third round at the U.S. Open in 12 appearances in singles, although she did win the 2014 women’s doubles title.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>1:17 a.m.</p>
<p>Madison Keys and Elena Vesnina are working late into the night at the U.S. Open and heading to a third set.</p>
<p>The 15th-seeded Keys, an American, and the 17th-seeded Vesnina, a Russian, did not even start their third-round match until nearly midnight because of a day session that ran into the evening.</p>
<p>Vesnina took the opening set 6-2. Keys took the second 6-4, closing it after 1:15 a.m. on Sunday. The latest finish for women in the tournament is 1:48 a.m. — in a match won by Keys in 2016.</p>
<p>Keys is trying to get to the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the third consecutive year.</p>
<p>Vesnina has never been past the third round at the U.S. Open in 11 previous appearances in singles, although she did win the 2014 women’s doubles title.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Roger Federer did not spend any extra time on court in the third round at the U.S. Open and easily eliminated 31st-seeded Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-3, 7-5.</p>
<p>After opening a Grand Slam tournament with back-to-back five-setters for the first time in his career, Federer raced through the first two sets in 59 minutes and ended things after 1 hour, 46 minutes.</p>
<p>Federer improved to 13-0 against Lopez and 33-1 in night matches at Flushing Meadows.</p>
<p>In the fourth round, Federer faces 33rd-seeded Philip Kohlschreiber. Federer is 11-0 against the German.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>8:45 p.m.</p>
<p>No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal rallied after dropping the first set again, moving into the fourth round with a 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 victory over Leonardo Mayer with the roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium closed because of rain.</p>
<p>Just as in his win over Taro Daniel on Thursday, Nadal started slowly before finding the range on his punishing shots and dominated the next three sets.</p>
<p>The two-time U.S. Open champion advanced to the round of 16 for the ninth time and will play unseeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine.</p>
<p>Mayer fell to 1-25 against Top 10 opponents.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Gael Monfils retired from his third-round match at the U.S. Open, leaving the men’s bracket with none of last year’s semifinalists at Flushing Meadows.</p>
<p>The 18th-seeded Frenchman stopped playing in the second set while trailing No. 9 seed David Goffin 7-5, 5-1.</p>
<p>Monfils had been dealing with a right knee injury since Wimbledon but when asked why he quit Saturday, initially responded: “The body. Whole body.”</p>
<p>Asked for specifics, he mentioned both knees, his arm and his back.</p>
<p>“It was pretty rough,” Monfils said.</p>
<p>He was the only one of the 2016 men’s semifinalists who entered the tournament this year. Champion Stan Wawrinka, runner-up Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori all withdrew before the U.S. Open began because of injuries.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:15 p.m.</p>
<p>American Shelby Rogers’ marathon run at the U.S. Open has ended in the third round.</p>
<p>Rogers, two days after winning the longest women’s singles match in U.S. Open history, lost to No. 4-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-4, 7-5. On match point, Svitolina hit a thunderous forehand that hit the net cord and dribbled over for a winner.</p>
<p>Svitolina, one of three players left in the women’s draw with a chance to leave Flushing Meadows at No. 1, next faces the winner of the Saturday night match between Keys and Vesnina.</p>
<p>Thursday, Rogers outlasted No. 25-seeded Daria Gavrilova 7-6 (6), 4-6, 7-6 (5) in 3 hours, 33 minutes.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:05 p.m.</p>
<p>American CoCo Vandeweghe is moving on to the round of 16 at the U.S. Open.</p>
<p>No. 20-seeded Vandeweghe, who reached the semis of the Australian and quarters of Wimbledon this year, outlasted 10th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska 7-5, 4-6, 5-3 in just under 3 hours.</p>
<p>Vandeweghe faces Czech Lucie Safarova in the fourth round.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Jennifer Brady reached the fourth round in her U.S. Open debut, beating Monica Niculescu 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (3).</p>
<p>The 22-year-old American had never played a main-draw match at any Grand Slam tournament until January at the Australian Open, where she also made it to the fourth round.</p>
<p>Brady, who is from Pennsylvania, is ranked 91st. She will face No. 1 Karolina Pliskova for a quarterfinal berth.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:10 p.m.</p>
<p>Former U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro is into the fourth round again.</p>
<p>The No. 24 seed beat 11th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 in a little more than 2 hours.</p>
<p>The Argentine won the 2009 U.S. Open when he beat Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and Roger Federer for the title. He also reached the quarterfinals here in 2008, 2012 and 2016.</p>
<p>He next faces No. 6 seed Dominic Thiem.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:05 p.m.</p>
<p>French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko is out in the third round of the U.S. Open.</p>
<p>Ostapenko, the 12th-seeded Latvian who also made a quarterfinals run at Wimbledon this year, fell to 38th-ranked Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 6-2. Match point was an epic 29-shot rally that ended when Ostapenko netted a routine backhand.</p>
<p>Kasatkina, who has never before been past the third round of a major tournament, next faces Estonian Kaia Kanepi.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>2:55 p.m.</p>
<p>Naomi Osaka’s surprising run at the U.S. Open has ended in the third round.</p>
<p>Osaka, the 19-year-old from Japan who stunned defending champion Angelique Kerber in the first round, lost to Estonian qualifier Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.</p>
<p>Kanepi, who made a quarterfinals run at Flushing Meadows in 2010, next faces the winner of the match between French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and Daria Kasatkina.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:43 p.m.</p>
<p>Top women’s seed Karolina Pliskova advanced to the round of 16, coming back from a match point down to beat No. 27-seeded Zhang Shuai of China 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.</p>
<p>Pliskova faced match point at 5-4 in in the second set, but Zhang committed a backhand error and the tall Czech went on to win the game and the second set.</p>
<p>Pliskova, a finalist at Flushing Meadows a year ago, received a trainer massage on her right forearm before returning for the last set. She gutted out that set, coming to the net to swat a cross-court backhand to close out the match.</p>
<p>Pliskova is one of three women still left in the draw — Spaniard Garbine Muguruza and Ukrainian Elina Svitolina are the others — with a chance to end the tournament No. 1. She next faces the winner of the match between American Jennifer Brady and Monica Niculescu.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:07 p.m.</p>
<p>Alexandr Dolgopolov is into the fourth round of the U.S. Open for the first time in six years.</p>
<p>The Ukrainian routed Viktor Troicki 6-1, 6-0, 6-4 in a match that lasted just 1 hour, 22 minutes.</p>
<p>Dolgopolov was involved in a match recently in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, that’s under scrutiny because of unusual betting patterns.</p>
<p>Dolgopolov last reached the fourth round in 2011, when he lost to No. 1 Novak Djokovic. His best result in a Grand Slam tournament is the quarterfinals of the Australian Open earlier that year.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:53 p.m.</p>
<p>Top women’s seed Karolina Pliskova survived a match point and evened her third-round match against 27th-seeded Zhang Shuai of China at a set apiece.</p>
<p>Pliskova was down 6-3 and 5-4 and facing match point when Zhang committed a backhand error. Pliskova went on to win the next two points and the next two games to close out the second set 7-5.</p>
<p>Pliskova received attention from the trainer on her right forearm before beginning play in the third set.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:57 a.m.</p>
<p>Top women’s seed Karolina Pliskova is already down a set in the third round of the U.S. Open.</p>
<p>The Czech dropped the first set 6-3 to 27th-seeded Zhang Shuai of China in the first match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium.</p>
<p>Pliskova was the runner-up last year and needs to get back to the final to remain atop the WTA ranking. She would have to win the title if No. 3 seed Garbine Muguruza gets to the semifinals and loses.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:45 a.m.</p>
<p>The No. 1 seed on the women’s side is off to a slow start as play begins at the U.S. Open.</p>
<p>Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic trails No. 27 Zhang Shuai of China 5-2 in the first match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium.</p>
<p>The runner-up last year, Pliskova needs to get back to the final to remain atop the WTA rankings, and would have to win the title if No. 3 seed Garbine Muguruza gets to the semifinals and loses. Pliskova would have no chance to be No. 1 after the tournament if Muguruza reaches the final.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:03 a.m.</p>
<p>While upsets have scrambled one half of the U.S. Open men’s bracket, everything is mostly as expected on the other side.</p>
<p>Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will try to keep it that way Saturday.</p>
<p>The two favorites are back in action with third-round matches in Arthur Ashe Stadium.</p>
<p>Women’s No. 1 seed Karolina Pliskova and No. 4 Elina Svitolina also try to advance to the fourth round and keep alive their hopes of owning the No. 1 ranking after the year’s final major tournament.</p>
<p>Federer faces No. 31 Feliciano Lopez in a night match. The five-time U.S. Open champion has won all 12 meetings but hasn’t played his top tennis yet in this tournament. He’s played consecutive five-setters to open a major tournament for the first time.</p>
<p>Top-ranked Nadal plays Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP tennis coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-Tennis</p> | Keys beats Vesnina in late finish at US Open | false | https://abqjournal.com/1057635/the-latest-no-1-pliskova-survives-match-point-to-advance.html | 2017-09-02 | 2 |
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<p>New Mexico State has decided to suspend guard K.C. Ross-Miller for actions that touched off a wild brawl between players and fans following a game between the Aggies and Utah Valley on Thursday night in Orem, Utah. A league spokesman said the Western Athletic Conference is also looking into the incident. New Mexico State's Ross-Miller hurled the ball at Utah Valley's Holton Hunsaker seconds after the Wolverines? 66-61 victory over the Aggies on Thursday night in Orem, Utah. The ball hit Hunsaker - the son of Utah Valley coach Dick Hunsaker - in the leg. Some of the fans who rushed the court got caught up in the melee. New Mexico State guard DK Eldridge was in the middle of the scrum before he was dragged away by Aggies coaches as order was restored. In a <a href="http://www.nmstatesports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1900&amp;ATCLID=209421075" type="external">statement released</a> Friday by the Aggies, coach Marvin Menzies said he suspended Ross-Miller indefinitely pending review by the school and the conference. "No matter what provoked K.C. what he did was inexcusable and hence the suspension. It is an honor and a privilege to wear an Aggie uniform and a responsibility comes with that privilege," Menzies said. WAC Commissioner Jeff Hurd is expected to speak later Friday with Menzies about the incident. "I don't like to use military terms, but that was combative," Dick Hunsaker told the Utah Valley student newspaper. Utah Valley officials did not immediately respond to The Associated Press for comment on Friday. The game between the WAC co-leaders at the UCCU center was attended by a season-high 4,954 fans. The team had averaged 1,716 fans per game coming into Thursday night's showdown. "I would like to commend my staff for their immediate reaction to engage our players and remove them from the floor. We are currently reviewing several sources of video to accurately assess the situation," Menzies said in a statement Friday. "Obviously this was a very unfortunate incident and I'm hopeful that we can learn from it moving forward." Utah Valley's Ben Aird scored 21 points and Keawe Enos hit three free throws with 4 seconds left in regulation to force overtime and made four more in the last 11 seconds of the extra session. He finished with 11 points for the Wolverines (17-10, 11-3), and Zach Nelson added 10. Daniel Mullings led the Aggies (21-9, 10-4) with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Sim Bhullar had 10 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks. Eldridge's 3-pointer put New Mexico State up 56-55 with 3:26 left in overtime, but Utah Valley scored seven straight, four from Aird, who had six in overtime. Mullings later told Menzies he was hit in the postgame melee, and a Utah Valley student claimed that he was hit in the head by an Aggies player. The victory put Utah Valley atop the WAC standings going into Saturday's home game against Texas Pan-American. New Mexico State visits Bakersfield on Saturday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Aggie Ross-Miller suspended after brawl | false | https://abqjournal.com/360813/aggie-ross-miller-suspended-after-brawl.html | 2 |
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<p>Emboldened by an electoral victory secured with three million fewer votes than his competitor, President Trump chose Saudi Arabia as the venue to lecture Iran for its lack of democracy. Then, speaking to an adoring audience, some of whom had taken part in a failed CIA-run military venture intended to bring down Fidel Castro’s government in 1961, he cited ‘the freedom of the Cuban people’ as his reason for re-imposing sanctions against Cuba’s population.</p>
<p>France’s current electoral cycle may not have seemed as bizarre as these dubious celebrations of democracy, but it was close. The two main parties chose their candidates in widely debated primaries only to have them knocked out in the first round by Emmanuel Macron, who pieced together some empty phrases, pretty images and solid media support. The electorate having chosen Marine Le Pen, a far-right candidate loathed by two-thirds of the French people as Macron’s only opponent in the second round, his victory was assured. At this point, all the new president needed to ‘enable him to govern’ was a parliamentary majority — most of them unknowns from the upper echelons of society (no one working-class, 46 business leaders), who owe everything to him. Through a miracle of the voting system, Macron’s neoliberal politics were backed by just 44.02% of voters in the first round of the presidential election&#160;( <a href="" type="internal">1</a>) but in the French parliament they will be supported by nearly 90% of deputies&#160;( <a href="" type="internal">2</a>).</p>
<p>Never in the history of French universal suffrage has so small a percentage of the electorate voted in a legislative election (over 57% abstained, compared to 16% in 1978). This pitiful US-style turnout concluded an almost non-existent national campaign punctuated by often incidental ‘scandals’, low-grade Watergates that the media covered interminably as if to compensate for having given Macron a leg-up. When politics is reduced to comparative lists of politicians’ minor sins, is it surprising there are so many fresh faces among elected parliamentarians? They may be a useful way to buff up the system’s less-than-brilliant appearance, but are unlikely to challenge strategic economic decisions&#160;( <a href="" type="internal">3</a>), which have been ceded to the executive and the European Commission.</p>
<p>The story of a candidate who got knocked unconscious while campaigning filled the media for three days, competing with a criminal case from over 30 years ago that had resurfaced. At the same time, EU politics, the Greek debt crisis, the French state of emergency, and France’s military engagement in Africa and the Middle East were scarcely mentioned. What Pierre Bourdieu called ‘a politics of depoliticisation and demobilisation’ has thus scored a notable victory, but the battle has only just begun.</p>
<p>Notes.</p>
<p>( <a href="" type="internal">1</a>) The total of votes cast for Macron and François Fillon. The other candidates had all condemned neoliberalism.</p>
<p>( <a href="" type="internal">2</a>) Some Socialists also intend to be ‘constructive’ in this regard.</p>
<p>( <a href="" type="internal">3</a>) See Razmig Keucheyan and Pierre Rimbert, ‘ <a href="" type="internal">Le carnaval de l’investigation’</a>, Le Monde diplomatique, May 2013.</p> | The Politics of No Politics | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/07/04/the-politics-of-no-politics/ | 2017-07-04 | 4 |
<p>FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Pledging to put Kentucky’s “financial house in order,” Republican Gov. Matt Bevin proposed spending cuts of more than 6 percent across most of state government that include targeting administrative salaries in some of the state’s largest school districts while shielding per pupil spending in the classroom.</p>
<p>Bevin announced the cuts in a speech Tuesday evening before a joint session of the General Assembly. The cuts were long expected, given that lawmakers failed to make changes to the state’s public pension system that Bevin said would have reduced the need for cuts. Bevin’s plan would spend $3.3 billion dollars into the state’s public retirement system, or nearly 15 percent of all state spending.</p>
<p>“The reality is we don’t have enough money to meet the obligations this state has,” Bevin said</p>
<p>Bevin said his plan would not cut classroom spending. Instead, he said, the cuts would come to places like transportation, saying it is “not going to be funded to the same degree by the state as they have historically.”</p>
<p>He said districts could make up for those cuts by reducing “administrative overhead.” He mentioned the Jefferson County Public Schools, one of the largest school districts in the country, noting the district has 600 administrators who make more than $100,000 a year.</p>
<p>“That’s where the cuts are going to come from,” Bevin said. “We need to clean that up in a big way.”</p>
<p>For smaller districts without a large administration, Bevin said districts will have to rely on their reserves. He noted Kentucky’s public school districts collectively have nearly $1 billion in cash in reserves.</p>
<p>“I’m going to ask these school districts to tap these reserves. This is exactly what it was intended for, for times like these that try men’s souls,” Bevin said, recalling a quote by philosopher Thomas Paine.</p>
<p>House Democratic Leader Rocky Adkins said he has not seen the governor’s budget proposal but said it was important to have “quality administrators that help run our school system.” He said he was concerned about how Bevin’s cuts would affect rural school districts.</p>
<p>“I worry about those school districts that don’t have any reserves,” he said.</p>
<p>Republican House and Senate leaders said they agree with Bevin’s proposals in general but want to examine them more closely.</p>
<p>“I do think it keeps with his commitment to keeping dollars in the classroom, and I think it’s important to do that,” acting House Speaker David Osborne said.</p>
<p>Bevin was not specific about the cuts, saying several times people will find out about them later. He boasted he eliminated funding for 70 programs, but did not name them. Much of the spending plan’s details won’t be known until the full plan is filed in the House. State lawmakers must approve of the two-year spending plan before it becomes law.</p>
<p>Instead, Bevin used his speech to focus on what he does want to pay for. He vowed to spend an additional $34 million to fight the opioid epidemic, with a focus on helping pregnant women addicted to drugs. He pledged to spend $24 million to hire more social workers and give raises to the ones already employed. And he promised to spend an extra $10.8 million for supporting adoption and foster care children.</p>
<p>Bevin’s budget cuts appear lighter than many initially feared. Late last year, Bevin asked state agencies to prepare for spending cuts of as much as 17.4 percent. The state’s prosecutors revolted, telling lawmakers that cuts like that would force the criminal justice system to shut down. But Bevin’s spending plan calls for funding for 75 new prosecutors and 51 public defenders across the state.</p>
<p>“It is a realistic budget. It is one that is not wishful thinking. It is one we must pass, and it will set us on course to set our house in order,” Bevin said.</p>
<p>The legislature is off to a slow start in 2018, partly because of a sexual harassment scandal that prompted former GOP House Speaker Jeff Hoover to resign his leadership position and three other Republican lawmakers to lose their titles as committee chairmen. Bevin did not mention the scandal directly, but noted lawmakers “find ourselves divided on issues of morality” and urged people across the state to consider running for the legislature.</p>
<p>FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Pledging to put Kentucky’s “financial house in order,” Republican Gov. Matt Bevin proposed spending cuts of more than 6 percent across most of state government that include targeting administrative salaries in some of the state’s largest school districts while shielding per pupil spending in the classroom.</p>
<p>Bevin announced the cuts in a speech Tuesday evening before a joint session of the General Assembly. The cuts were long expected, given that lawmakers failed to make changes to the state’s public pension system that Bevin said would have reduced the need for cuts. Bevin’s plan would spend $3.3 billion dollars into the state’s public retirement system, or nearly 15 percent of all state spending.</p>
<p>“The reality is we don’t have enough money to meet the obligations this state has,” Bevin said</p>
<p>Bevin said his plan would not cut classroom spending. Instead, he said, the cuts would come to places like transportation, saying it is “not going to be funded to the same degree by the state as they have historically.”</p>
<p>He said districts could make up for those cuts by reducing “administrative overhead.” He mentioned the Jefferson County Public Schools, one of the largest school districts in the country, noting the district has 600 administrators who make more than $100,000 a year.</p>
<p>“That’s where the cuts are going to come from,” Bevin said. “We need to clean that up in a big way.”</p>
<p>For smaller districts without a large administration, Bevin said districts will have to rely on their reserves. He noted Kentucky’s public school districts collectively have nearly $1 billion in cash in reserves.</p>
<p>“I’m going to ask these school districts to tap these reserves. This is exactly what it was intended for, for times like these that try men’s souls,” Bevin said, recalling a quote by philosopher Thomas Paine.</p>
<p>House Democratic Leader Rocky Adkins said he has not seen the governor’s budget proposal but said it was important to have “quality administrators that help run our school system.” He said he was concerned about how Bevin’s cuts would affect rural school districts.</p>
<p>“I worry about those school districts that don’t have any reserves,” he said.</p>
<p>Republican House and Senate leaders said they agree with Bevin’s proposals in general but want to examine them more closely.</p>
<p>“I do think it keeps with his commitment to keeping dollars in the classroom, and I think it’s important to do that,” acting House Speaker David Osborne said.</p>
<p>Bevin was not specific about the cuts, saying several times people will find out about them later. He boasted he eliminated funding for 70 programs, but did not name them. Much of the spending plan’s details won’t be known until the full plan is filed in the House. State lawmakers must approve of the two-year spending plan before it becomes law.</p>
<p>Instead, Bevin used his speech to focus on what he does want to pay for. He vowed to spend an additional $34 million to fight the opioid epidemic, with a focus on helping pregnant women addicted to drugs. He pledged to spend $24 million to hire more social workers and give raises to the ones already employed. And he promised to spend an extra $10.8 million for supporting adoption and foster care children.</p>
<p>Bevin’s budget cuts appear lighter than many initially feared. Late last year, Bevin asked state agencies to prepare for spending cuts of as much as 17.4 percent. The state’s prosecutors revolted, telling lawmakers that cuts like that would force the criminal justice system to shut down. But Bevin’s spending plan calls for funding for 75 new prosecutors and 51 public defenders across the state.</p>
<p>“It is a realistic budget. It is one that is not wishful thinking. It is one we must pass, and it will set us on course to set our house in order,” Bevin said.</p>
<p>The legislature is off to a slow start in 2018, partly because of a sexual harassment scandal that prompted former GOP House Speaker Jeff Hoover to resign his leadership position and three other Republican lawmakers to lose their titles as committee chairmen. Bevin did not mention the scandal directly, but noted lawmakers “find ourselves divided on issues of morality” and urged people across the state to consider running for the legislature.</p> | Kentucky governor proposes spending cuts of 6.25 percent | false | https://apnews.com/408724d0d6ed461f82140d1fb76d12f2 | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
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<p>The barn is now a storage facility for a local artist and a winemaker, and Niman is now synonymous with humanely raised meat. Over the years, his customers have included restaurants from Chez Panisse to Chipotle. Though it has been a decade since he had any involvement with Niman Ranch – the company that bears his name is now owned by chicken giant Perdue – Niman, 72 with two young sons, is preparing for his next, and perhaps his last, act.</p>
<p>Niman has sold BN Ranch, his boutique cattle and heritage turkey operation, to the meal-kit pioneer Blue Apron. As part of the February deal, he will join the company to build a pasture-centric supply chain for all the beef, pork, turkey and chicken that Blue Apron ships in its 8 million meals each month.</p>
<p>The deal provides financial security for his family, Niman says. But it’s also a chance to complete his life’s mission: restoring a more sensible way of raising animals. “I haven’t finished this yet,” he said. “I’m in a position now to have influence, and through the association with Blue Apron we can do it at scale and have a serious impact.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Niman’s 206-acre property does not look like the kind that could scale up, at least not in the way that most ranches do, by creating vast feedlots to fatten thousands of steer on grain. Emerald hills unfurl to the Pacific Ocean, and there’s a whiff of eucalyptus and salt on the breeze. On a sunny day in January, the pasture was thick with a mix of rye, clover and alfilaria, which were tufty, almost bouncy underfoot. The area, just 17 miles from San Francisco as the crow flies, is idyllic to more than cattle: Susie Tompkins Buell, the philanthropist and founder of clothing company Esprit, has a home here, as do director Joel Coen and his wife, Frances McDormand.</p>
<p>Bolinas wasn’t always this way. In 1969, when Niman arrived, the town was a haven for hippies and dropouts. The son of a Minnesota grocer, Niman had come to teach school, his way of supporting President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. The first pigs he raised were to feed himself and his first wife, Amy, and to barter with the few neighbors who grew vegetables. (For many Bolinas residents, the primary crop was marijuana.) Bolinas was, and remains, according to Niman, perfect for folks who find Berkeley a little too right wing.</p>
<p>By the mid-1970s, raising hogs had somewhat surprisingly become a small business. Niman and his partner, Orville Schell (better known as a China expert and writer for the New Yorker,) got their big break when Mendocino chef Margaret Fox started to buy their meat and list the name of the ranch on the menu. It wasn’t long before they were selling to others, including Chez Panisse in Berkeley and Zuni Cafe in San Francisco. “It was unusual back then for a restaurant to say where their meat was from. It was a commodity world,” Niman said. “It wasn’t something we asked for. It just happened.”</p>
<p>Soon restaurants were clamoring to put Niman Ranch on their menus, and it wasn’t just white-tablecloth eateries. Steve Ells, founder and chief executive at Chipotle, came to Niman in search of pork that would boost sales of the chain’s carnitas. Niman took him on a tour of Iowa farms, patiently explaining how different protocols produced better-tasting meat. After switching to Niman’s pork, Ells was forced to raise the price of carnitas – a no-no in the world of fast food, but sales climbed nevertheless.</p>
<p>“Bill was instrumental in helping to establish the principles by which we purchase our food,” Ells said. “One million customers a day benefit from his really important vision to make this food available.”</p>
<p>But there was a problem. Niman Ranch was losing money: nearly $3 million annually, according to Jeffrey Swain, then CEO of Natural Food Holdings, which took a controlling stake in 2006 and purchased the brand three years later. At the time, Niman told the San Francisco Chronicle that he had consciously deferred profitability to expand the brand; today he blames much of the losses on an executive who embezzled funds. Either way, the decisions that the new owners made – shipping cattle to commercial feedlots, for example – were unacceptable to Niman. “The people who bought us were conventional meat guys,” Niman said. “They offered me money to play Colonel Sanders for Niman Ranch. I wasn’t interested in that, so I left.”</p>
<p>The rift was heartbreaking. In 2008, Niman announced he would raise goats, and hoped to popularize the lean and sustainable meat. (He later abandoned that idea for cattle, his first love, and turkeys.) But he spent much of the next several years focusing on his new, growing family. His second wife, Nicolette, an environmental lawyer (and vegetarian), had their first son in 2009 and a second in 2013. Living in Bolinas, they were spoiled with “year-round, wholesome choices,” Niman said, but having children reinvigorated his desire to fix meat.</p>
<p>The opportunity came when he met Matt Wadiak, Blue Apron’s co-founder and chief operating officer. Wadiak had known of Niman for decades; he remembers seeing him arrive at Oliveto, a renowned Oakland restaurant where he was cooking, with a pig slung over his shoulder. Blue Apron began buying meat from BN Ranch, and Wadiak peppered Niman with questions about how he could create a system that did more than just tick the right boxes but reflected what consumers think of as “sustainable.” Soon, the two were taking trips together to U.S. farms and as far afield as New Zealand and Australia. Last year, Wadiak says, the pair spent about 100 days together on the road.</p>
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<p>Under Niman’s direction, Blue Apron will raise only grass-fed, grass-finished cattle. To provide the marbling that Americans expect, he will mandate British breeds, such as Black Angus and Hereford. The company will also require that animals are raised only in areas, such as Northern California and New Zealand, where grass thrives year-round. (If you were to raise cattle in, say, Vermont, the cattle must be fed forage and grain in the winter when there is no grass to eat.)</p>
<p>“Hyperlocal isn’t always a good thing,” said Wadiak. “We wouldn’t try to grow lemons in New York state. So why is it we’re not thinking about growing beef with the same thoughtfulness that we are growing lemons?”</p>
<p>Not everyone agrees. Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters has long supported Niman, though the two did famously fall out in the early aughts when she decided that she would serve only grass-fed beef and Niman’s was, at that time, finished on grain. Waters doesn’t like the idea of eating beef from halfway round the world, no matter how well it’s raised. “I’d rather go without beef” when it’s not in season, she said. “This country that wants beef every day is destroying the planet. So we need to make those decisions. And I think they are easy and delicious to make.”</p>
<p>Most Americans, though, are not ready to give up beef for most of the year. Niman is confident that with the right partners, scale is possible without ugly environmental trade-offs. “Only the right thing is good enough for Matt,” he says of Wadiak. “That’s what drives me.”</p>
<p>As compelling to Niman is that, in partnership with Blue Apron, he has the potential to bring down prices, making his kind of meat affordable. Where restaurants and retailers tend to want certain parts – pricey pork loins or rib-eye steaks – Blue Apron can buy the entire animal and write menus to use every piece: pesto meatballs one week for all that ground beef, and steak au poivre the next.</p>
<p>Buying the whole animal substantially lowers the cost of meat. But so do the enormous quantities that Blue Apron buys. This year, the company will purchase tens of thousands of grass-fed cattle, enough to fill big trucks for transport and gain access to large slaughterhouses. “The genius here is we are raising animals like a small farmer but gaining access to the most efficient processing and distribution,” Niman said.</p>
<p>“I have miles to go before I sleep on this one,” he added. “But we’ll get there.”</p> | A pioneer of humanely raised meat is betting the farm on Blue Apron | false | https://abqjournal.com/976963/a-pioneer-of-humanely-raised-meat-is-betting-the-farm-on-blue-apron.html | 2017-03-27 | 2 |
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<p>SANTA FE — Gov. Susana Martinez has named medical care, insurance and business officials to the governing board of New Mexico’s state-run health insurance exchange.</p>
<p>Martinez on Thursday announced six appointees to the exchange’s board of directors. They join six members named by legislators.</p>
<p>The state superintendent of insurance will be on the 13-member board but will vote only to break ties.</p>
<p>Martinez appointed Santa Fe physician J.R. Damron; Las Cruces businesswoman Terriane Everhart; Presbyterian Healthcare Services lawyer Gabriel Parra; Lovelace Health Plan CEO Ben Slocum; and University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center Professor Dr. J. Deane Waldman; and Human Services Secretary Sidonie Squier, who by law must be on the board.</p>
<p>The governor named Parra this month to a panel that will select the insurance superintendent, who will run a newly independent insurance regulation office.</p>
<p>Board members appointed by legislators are: New Mexico Health Connections CEO Martin Hickey; Nor-Lea General Hospital CEO David Shaw; Roosevelt General Hospital CEO Larry Leaming; Easter Seals El Mirador CEO Patsy Romero; Futures for Children CEO Teresa Gomez; and Jason Sandel, vice chairman of the New Mexico Medical Insurance Pool.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 6 named to health insurance exchange | false | https://abqjournal.com/192787/6-named-to-health-insurance-exchange.html | 2 |
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<p>SEDONA, Ariz. - Yavapai County authorities say a woman apparently has fallen to her death while hiking on Bell Rock near Sedona.</p>
<p>County sheriff's officials say the body was removed from the hiking area Tuesday and taken to the medical examiner's office for an autopsy.</p>
<p>They say the name of the 28-year-old woman is being withheld until her family can be notified.</p>
<p>Sheriff's officials say they received a 911 call about 3:30 p.m. Monday from the woman, who was stuck on the south side of Bell Rock, about five miles south of Sedona.</p>
<p>She told authorities that she was trying to climb down the mountain and was stuck about one-third of the way down.</p>
<p>A helicopter rescue team rappelled to her last known position and spotted her body about 125 feet farther down.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Woman dies in fall while hiking near Sedona | false | https://abqjournal.com/695314/woman-apparently-dies-after-fall-while-hiking-in-sedona.html | 2 |
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<p>CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - South Africa took a 142-run lead in the first test but a swashbuckling individual performance by Hardik Pandya on Saturday and another injury to Dale Steyn left India still with some hope in the series opener after two days.</p>
<p>South Africa progressed to 65-2 in its second innings in the late afternoon at Newlands to leave India behind. South Africa first posted 286 and then bowled the tourists out for 209 in their first innings.</p>
<p>That first innings was a failure for top-ranked India's celebrated batting lineup on its first attempt to transfer rampant recent home form into some success on the quicker, bouncier South African wickets.</p>
<p>Only Pandya, the 24-year-old allrounder playing just his fourth test, enforced his will on a four-pronged South African quick bowling attack, striking 93 off 95 balls and dragging India from 92-7 to past 200.</p>
<p>"If he hadn't scored those runs, I think we would have been in trouble," said India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara. "His performance today was outstanding."</p>
<p>That imposing South African fast bowling attack included Steyn for the first time in more than a year and he, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada were relishing the helpful conditions for seamers in Cape Town.</p>
<p>But Pandya made the day his, even if the match is currently leaning to South Africa, when he followed up his innings-saving efforts with the bat by removing both South African openers with his seam bowling before stumps were called.</p>
<p>Pujara said India, with the pitch easing, felt a target of 350 was "chase-able."</p>
<p>Whatever target India faces, it was given a major boost when Steyn was ruled out of bowling for the rest of the test with tissue damage on his left foot - a "freakish" injury, South Africa's team manager said, after he landed awkwardly in a foothole while bowling.</p>
<p>Steyn left the field just before tea and was sent to a hospital for scans, which confirmed a gloomy prognosis for the 34-year-old speedster who has been plagued by injuries over the last three years. He was out for more than a year before this test with a serious right-shoulder problem, and struggled with other shoulder and groin injuries in the two years before that.</p>
<p>His absence for the rest of the game removes a major advantage for South Africa, the closest challenger to India at the top of the test rankings and which banked on a four-man pace attack to neutralize India's batters.</p>
<p>"We have to find a way to win this test," said South Africa's Rabada.</p>
<p>Before Steyn's left foot took center stage, Pandya arrived at the batting crease second ball after lunch with India at 76-5, and saw his team slip to 92-7. He hit 14 fours and a six in his counterattack, and led a stand of 99 for the eighth wicket with tailender Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who contributed a crucial 25 from 86 balls.</p>
<p>In comparison, India's top six batsmen - under scrutiny to perform in unfamiliar conditions and justify India's No. 1 test ranking - contributed just 71 to the Indian total. Although India was all out for 209 for a 77-run first-innings deficit, it would have been a deficit approaching 200 without Pandya. Before Pandya's adventurous innings, India had struggled against South Africa's unrelenting pacemen. Philander and Rabada finished with three wickets each. Steyn took 2-51 and looked promising in his comeback game before his injury curse appeared again. Morkel had 2-57.</p>
<p>Facing a Proteas pace attack with the potential to be the best in the world, Pandya responded with a free-hitting innings. He rode his luck against both pace and Keshav Maharaj's spin, was dropped in the gully off Steyn when he was on 15 and survived a missed stumping chance off Maharaj when on 71.</p>
<p>He was good enough and brave enough to make those second chances count.</p>
<p>CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - South Africa took a 142-run lead in the first test but a swashbuckling individual performance by Hardik Pandya on Saturday and another injury to Dale Steyn left India still with some hope in the series opener after two days.</p>
<p>South Africa progressed to 65-2 in its second innings in the late afternoon at Newlands to leave India behind. South Africa first posted 286 and then bowled the tourists out for 209 in their first innings.</p>
<p>That first innings was a failure for top-ranked India's celebrated batting lineup on its first attempt to transfer rampant recent home form into some success on the quicker, bouncier South African wickets.</p>
<p>Only Pandya, the 24-year-old allrounder playing just his fourth test, enforced his will on a four-pronged South African quick bowling attack, striking 93 off 95 balls and dragging India from 92-7 to past 200.</p>
<p>"If he hadn't scored those runs, I think we would have been in trouble," said India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara. "His performance today was outstanding."</p>
<p>That imposing South African fast bowling attack included Steyn for the first time in more than a year and he, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada were relishing the helpful conditions for seamers in Cape Town.</p>
<p>But Pandya made the day his, even if the match is currently leaning to South Africa, when he followed up his innings-saving efforts with the bat by removing both South African openers with his seam bowling before stumps were called.</p>
<p>Pujara said India, with the pitch easing, felt a target of 350 was "chase-able."</p>
<p>Whatever target India faces, it was given a major boost when Steyn was ruled out of bowling for the rest of the test with tissue damage on his left foot - a "freakish" injury, South Africa's team manager said, after he landed awkwardly in a foothole while bowling.</p>
<p>Steyn left the field just before tea and was sent to a hospital for scans, which confirmed a gloomy prognosis for the 34-year-old speedster who has been plagued by injuries over the last three years. He was out for more than a year before this test with a serious right-shoulder problem, and struggled with other shoulder and groin injuries in the two years before that.</p>
<p>His absence for the rest of the game removes a major advantage for South Africa, the closest challenger to India at the top of the test rankings and which banked on a four-man pace attack to neutralize India's batters.</p>
<p>"We have to find a way to win this test," said South Africa's Rabada.</p>
<p>Before Steyn's left foot took center stage, Pandya arrived at the batting crease second ball after lunch with India at 76-5, and saw his team slip to 92-7. He hit 14 fours and a six in his counterattack, and led a stand of 99 for the eighth wicket with tailender Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who contributed a crucial 25 from 86 balls.</p>
<p>In comparison, India's top six batsmen - under scrutiny to perform in unfamiliar conditions and justify India's No. 1 test ranking - contributed just 71 to the Indian total. Although India was all out for 209 for a 77-run first-innings deficit, it would have been a deficit approaching 200 without Pandya. Before Pandya's adventurous innings, India had struggled against South Africa's unrelenting pacemen. Philander and Rabada finished with three wickets each. Steyn took 2-51 and looked promising in his comeback game before his injury curse appeared again. Morkel had 2-57.</p>
<p>Facing a Proteas pace attack with the potential to be the best in the world, Pandya responded with a free-hitting innings. He rode his luck against both pace and Keshav Maharaj's spin, was dropped in the gully off Steyn when he was on 15 and survived a missed stumping chance off Maharaj when on 71.</p>
<p>He was good enough and brave enough to make those second chances count.</p> | South Africa leads India by 142 despite Pandya's efforts | false | https://apnews.com/amp/dbb5379e8c244f4dab22d1d1a5f2d9ab | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
<p />
<p>CSX Corporation (NASDAQ: CSX) has faced a confluence of challenges in recent years, with low commodity prices and the secular decline in coal proving particularly detrimental to the railroad's prospects. 2016, however, turned out to be a surprisingly strong year, with CSX stock soaring 39% as commodity prices bottomed out.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Any recovery in end markets, however, is yet to reflect on CSX's bottom line as its latest numbers proved. CSX also continues to struggle with high operating expenses and remains one of the least efficient railroads in the industry. These factors could've cooled down CSX's stock had things not taken a dramatic twist earlier this year. CSX now faces a major potential management shakeout after Canadian Pacific Railway's (NYSE: CP) CEO Hunter Harrison abruptly stepped down and joined activist investor Paul Hilal to gain seats on CSX's board.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Things have progressed rapidly since, with Harrison now being considered for the role of CSX's CEO. CSX, however, just announced that the two parties have differences over the proposals set forth and that it will call a special shareholders' meeting in the coming weeks to decide the next course of action.</p>
<p>Given the backdrop, it remains to be seen how things will pan out and whether Harrison's entry into CSX will help unlock shareholder value. An activist investor may not always align his interests with those of the company and its shareholders in the long run. Any fallout could send CSX stock crashing much like the way it has rallied. With that in mind, what are the chances of CSX's stock rallying higher this year after its stupendous run in 2016?</p>
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<p>Coal remains an important market for CSX, but management's efforts to shift focus to the more consumer-oriented markets has helped the company navigate the downturn. For example, CSX's total revenue declined 6% in 2016 as strong automotive markets helped offset 20% decline in revenue from coal. However, CSX's net income came in 13% lower at $1.7 billion as one-time charges added to costs.</p>
<p>CSX's operating ratio which measures operating expenses to net sales -- continues to be the biggest dampener. Unlike peers, CSX hasn't been able to exploit low fuel and labor costs to its best advantage in the past year. When you stack CSX against other railroad operators like Union Pacific(NYSE: UNP), Canadian Pacific, and Canadian National Railway(NYSE: CNI), you realize how it lags in terms of operating ratio. Norfolk Southern(NYSE: NSC), too, improved its operating ratio by 370 basis pointsin 2016 versus CSX's 30-basis-point improvement.</p>
<p>Data source: Companies' financials.</p>
<p>Being at the higher end of the industry cost curve is certainly a disadvantage in a competitive industry like railroads. With fuel prices rising, it could get tougher for CSX to boost its operating ratio going forward. It's disappointing that management didn't give out any guidance for 2017. Worse yet, its "long-term" goal of mid-60s operating ratio isn't too encouraging either when you realize that most of CSX's peers already operate at that level.</p>
<p>That said, CSX's prospects for 2017 aren't all gloomy.</p>
<p>Some of CSX's key markets, such as industrials and agriculture, appear to be returning to growth. If you see this chart carefully, coal's decline is decelerating, too, which is a positive sign for CSX.</p>
<p>Fourth quarter-to-date reflects Sept. 24-Oct. 28, 2016 data. Image source: CSX's presentation at Baird's Industrial Conference.</p>
<p>CSX is betting on an improved coal market and stronger freight environment to push its intermodal volumes this year. At the same time, management hopes to cuts costs further and save $150 million in 2017. Overall, CSX expects to earn more this year than $0.81 per share that it earned in 2016, backed by percentage growth in the low to mid-teens during the first quarter.</p>
<p>If CSX can grow its profits, its free cash flows could improve considerably in 2017 on lower capital spending. Given the industry conditions, CSX plans to spend about $2.2 billion this year, down roughly $500 million from 2016, as it shifts focus from expanding its fleet to revamping its infrastructure. That could also mean a dividend hike coming investors' way. CSX didn't increase its dividend last year.</p>
<p>All said, higher potential earnings already appears priced in CSX's stock given that its trailing P/E, price-to-book value, and price to cash flow are all above its five-year and industry averages. If there's anything that could lift CSX higher going forward, it's Harrison's control over the company. Given his incredible record of turning around both Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railway, it wouldn't be wrong to expect him to steer CSX to the next growth level. It's a wait-and-see situation for now, though you could consider any drop in CSX stock an opportunity now that Harrison has his eyes on the railroad.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than CSXWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=b4738138-37a5-4b5d-ab6f-edd5f2e3c804&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and CSX wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=b4738138-37a5-4b5d-ab6f-edd5f2e3c804&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Nehams/info.aspx" type="external">Neha Chamaria Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Canadian National Railway. The Motley Fool recommends CSX. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Is CSX Corporation Stock Gearing Up for Another Huge Year After a Fantastic 2016? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/16/is-csx-corporation-stock-gearing-up-for-another-huge-year-after-fantastic-2016.html | 2017-02-16 | 0 |
<p>Shares of some top insurance companies are down at 1 p.m.:</p>
<p>ACE L fell $2.39 or 2.1 percent, to $109.98.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Aflac Inc. fell $.59 or .9 percent, to $63.89.</p>
<p>American International Group fell $.68 or 1.2 percent, to $57.48.</p>
<p>MBIA fell $.19 or 1.9 percent, to $9.58.</p>
<p>MGIC Investments Corp. fell $.21 or 2.1 percent, to $9.90.</p>
<p>MetLife fell $.50 or 1.0 percent, to $50.50.</p>
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<p>XL Group PLC fell $.52 or 1.4 percent, to $37.29.</p> | Insurance companies shares down at 1 p.m. | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/10/15/insurance-companies-shares-down-at-1-pm.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Nov. 15 (UPI) — A former Argentinian soccer official took his own life the same day he was accused of taking bribes on the second day of the FIFA, the governing body of soccer, corruption trial.</p>
<p>Jorge Delhon was accused during testimony <a href="https://www.upi.com/Corruption-trial-begins-in-NYC-for-three-ex-FIFA-officials/1471510666275/" type="external">into the FIFA corruption trial</a> on Tuesday of accepting $500,000 a year from 2011 to 2014 to secure broadcasting rights to international soccer games</p>
<p>Delhon <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/argentine-football-executive-jorge-delhon-accused-bribery-fifa-corruption-trial-new-york-a8056486.html" type="external">was found dead</a> on rail tracks in Buenos Aires after colliding with a train later that day.</p>
<p>The 52-year-old lawyer <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41998552" type="external">worked for Football For All</a>, a government program which held broadcasting rights for soccer games in Argentina.</p>
<p>His name was mentioned during the FIFA trial in New York centering on Jose Maria Marin, the former head of Brazil’s Football Confederation, Juan Ángel Napout, former Fifa vice-president and Manuel Braga, who led Peru’s soccer federation.</p>
<p>One of the key witnesses in the case, Argentine sports marketing executive Alejandro Burzaco, was the one to name Delhon.</p>
<p>Burzaco has already pleaded guilty to handing out millions of dollars in bribes.</p>
<p>A colleague of Delhon, Pablo Paladino, was also implicated, as well as Julio Grondona, the long-time president of the Argentine Football Association.</p>
<p>The former officials have been accused of taking bribes in exchange for lucrative broadcasting and hosting rights for major soccer tournaments.</p> | Argentinian ex-football official kills himself after being accused of FIFA corruption | false | https://newsline.com/argentinian-ex-football-official-kills-himself-after-being-accused-of-fifa-corruption/ | 2017-11-15 | 1 |
<p>Shares of Ocular Therapeutix tumbled in after-hours trading Monday after the company said its eye pain and inflammation treatment OTX-DP didn't meet one of its goals in a late-stage clinical trial.</p>
<p>OTX-DP is a hydrogel plug that is inserted into a patient's tear duct, where it can gradually release small amounts of the steroid dexamethasone into the eye. The plug is designed to liquefy after four weeks. The company is testing OTX-DP as a treatment for ocular inflammation and pain after surgery. Ocular Therapeutics said patients who received the implant after cataract surgery in its clinical trial experienced less pain than patients who received a sham implant. However there wasn't a significant difference in inflammation.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The company said it will meet with regulators to discuss results from the study and its next steps.</p>
<p>Ocular Therapeutix Inc. ran two late-stage trials of OTX-DP. It announced results from the other study in March and said the product met both of the major goals of the trial.</p>
<p>Shares of Ocular dropped $10.95, or 29 percent, to $27.35 in late trading. The Bedford, Massachusetts-based company went public in July with an initial public offering that priced at $13 per share. The stock had nearly tripled in value since then.</p> | Ocular Therapeutix shares plunge as drug candidate OTX-DP gets mixed results in clinical trial | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/04/06/ocular-therapeutix-shares-plunge-as-drug-candidate-otx-dp-gets-mixed-results-in.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Retirees should generally buy solid, predictable dividend stocks that they won't lose much sleep over. Many stocks initially look like good retirement plays, but quickly fall apart upon closer inspection. Let's examine three such stocks retirees should avoid -- Barnes &amp; Noble (NYSE: BKS), Vector Group (NYSE: VGR), and Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Barnes &amp; Noble might initially look like a solid pick for retirees. The bookseller survived the industry decline, which crushed its rival Borders, and pays a hefty forward dividend yield of 5.6%. It also streamlined its business over the past three years by shuttering stores and spinning off its weaker Nook andeducation units. To offset waning book sales, it diversified it business with toys, collectibles, gifts, andeven a concept restaurant store.</p>
<p>Yet Barnes &amp; Noble's revenue still declined annually for 10 straight quarters. In addition, the company posted net losses during the last two, and its earnings-based payout ratio stands at a whopping 300%. However, the company spent only 49% of its free cash flow on dividends over the past 12 months, indicating that it probably won't slash its payout any time soon.</p>
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<p>Analysts expect the bookseller's revenue tofall 6% this year, but earnings are expected to improve 51% on better cost controls and aggressive buybacks. That bottom-line growth is encouraging, but it doesn't justify the stock's lofty trailing P/E of 62 -- which is much higher than industry average P/E of 44. With interest rates set to rise this year, income stocks like Barnes &amp; Noble -- which have high valuations and wobbly business models -- could be among the first to crumble.</p>
<p>Vector Group initially looks like an ideal retirement stock. The hybrid tobacco and real estate company pays a forward cash dividend of 7.1%, and has paid a 5% annual stock dividend (additional shares based on an investor's total position) since 1999.</p>
<p>But here's the catch -- Vector spent 263% of its earnings and 153% of its free cash flow on dividends over the past 12 months. Those ratios <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/12/17/can-vector-group-ltds-dividend-even-survive.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">look utterly unsustainable Opens a New Window.</a>, but Vector can keep paying those dividends because it partly funds its payments with debt. That strategy works in a low-interest-rate environment, but it won't work as well with higher interest rates. Furthermore, Vector's annual stock dividends have significantly increased the company's outstanding share count, diluting the value of existing shares.</p>
<p>Data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a>.</p>
<p>That's why Vector currently trades at 39 times earnings, which is much higher than the cigarette-industry average of 21. The single analyst who covers Vector expects itssales to rise 1% this year, and its earnings to rise 35% on higher demand for its Liggett cigarette brands and the strength of its real estate portfolio. That outlook sounds decent, but Vector's long-term plan for income generation looks unsustainable.</p>
<p>Retirees might like visiting Las Vegas Sands' casinos, but the company generates most of its revenue from Macau, the only city in China with legalized gambling. Sands enjoyed tremendous growth in Macau after the financial crisis, but the sluggish Chinese economy and a government crackdown on corrupt politicians and businessmen with lavish spending habits caused its revenue growth to slow to a trickle.</p>
<p>After eight straight quarters of year-over-year sales declines, Sands finally posted 3% top-line growth last quarter on improvements in Macau and the opening of its Parisian Macao casino. Analysts now expect Sands' revenue and earnings to rise 9% and13% respectively next year, compared with top- and bottom-line declines this year.</p>
<p>That outlook sounds decent, but Sands still trades at 27 times earnings, significantly higher than the industry average of 9 for resorts and casinos. Its forward dividend yield of 5.2% looks tempting, but that payout gobbled up 137% of its earnings and 126% of its free cash flow over the past 12 months -- indicating that a dividend cut could be in the cards. Furthermore, Sands sits in a volatile and cyclical sector that could be abruptly gutted by a recession or regulatory interference -- so it won't offer retirees much peace of mind.</p>
<p>Before buying a dividend stock, retirees should see if its valuations are too high, if its payout ratios are sustainable, and if the company's business model is wobbly. Barnes &amp; Noble, Vector Group, and Las Vegas Sands fail those tests, so retirees shouldn't be fooled by their tempting dividend yields.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Barnes and Noble When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=23c252d7-206d-406e-b8be-f775cec53d15&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Barnes and Noble wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=23c252d7-206d-406e-b8be-f775cec53d15&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSunLion/info.aspx" type="external">Leo Sun Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 3 Terrible Dividend Stocks for Retirees | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/16/3-terrible-dividend-stocks-for-retirees.html | 2017-01-16 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Here’s a charming <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/12/opinion/12wed4.html?ex=1286769600&amp;en=3b7ad1e62b8f6bc4&amp;ei=5090&amp;partner=rssuserland&amp;emc=rss" type="external">story</a> on the sexual slavery rampant in prisons, courtesy of the New York Times editorial page:</p>
<p>When Congress issued the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, that should have put corrections officials on notice. The measure requires the Justice Department to study the endemic problem of sexual assault behind bars and develop a strategy for coping with it. But prison officials have continued to play down this problem. The costs of denial are on vivid display this month in a federal courtroom in Texas, where a former inmate has told jurors how corrections officers ignored his written pleas for help, and even laughed at him, while he was repeatedly raped and sold into sexual slavery by prisoners who viewed him as “property.”</p>
<p>The lawsuit was brought by Roderick Johnson, a former Navy seaman who is openly gay and who landed in prison for violating the conditions of his probation. He was quickly pounced upon and told that he would have to submit to sex or be killed. Mr. Johnson filed several written pleas to prison officials, asking them to put him in a secure section of the prison. He says prison officers mocked him, accusing him of wanting to be raped.</p>
<p>According to court documents, vulnerable inmates were told to either fight it out with rapists or find boyfriends who would protect them in return for sex. Mr. Johnson says gang members were free to rape him, sometimes by paying a few dollars to the prisoner who in effect “owned” him. Speaking of prison officials, a witness said, “They seen what was happening but they pretended they didn’t.”</p>
<p>Hilarious! Luckily prisons aren’t an incubator for HIV or hepatitis or anything of that sort; all just fun and games in here. It would be naïve, of course, to pretend that any of this is new; for a sense of the sheer prevalence of prison rape, the testimonies in <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/prison/" type="external">this</a> 2001 Human Rights Watch report pretty much cover the basics. And we’ve known for ages that the sort of naked authoritarianism and power handed, for instance, to prison guards will always bring out the sadistic side of people. But the sexual character of all of this never fails to shock. In light of all the naked human pyramids and menstrual blood and genital squeezing and “fuck a PUC” routines to which detainees in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere have found themselves subject, stories about guards sexually abusing prisoners have a sick resonance. I don’t know what’s wrong with this country, but I suspect Rush Limbaugh of all people put his finger on it when he <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200405070002" type="external">said</a>: “I think the reaction to the stupid torture is an example of the feminization of this country.” Yes, well, then we need more of that, don’t we?</p> | Sexual Slavery | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2005/10/sexual-slavery/ | 2005-10-13 | 4 |
<p>American Fork 61, Lone Peak 53</p>
<p>American Prep WV 45, Draper APA 40</p>
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<p>Enterprise 48, North Sevier 42</p>
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<p>Milford 70, Tintic 30</p>
<p>Monument Valley 47, Monticello 38</p>
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<p>West 48, Highland 46</p> | Tuesday’s Scores | false | https://apnews.com/3327de079a634db0b985aab814e775a3 | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>Siemens CEO Peter Loescher, whose departure was announced after he issued profit warnings that wrecked the share price of one of Germany's largest industrial conglomerates, may drag the man who hired him down with him, a newspaper reported on Monday.</p>
<p>In what is quickly shaping up to be one of the most dramatic corporate battles in Germany in years, German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung cited company sources as saying Loescher was willing to resign only if supervisory board chairman Gerhard Cromme also leaves.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A spokesman for Siemens denied Loescher wants Cromme to go down with him. Loescher did not comment on the report.</p>
<p>Cromme, who hired the smooth-talking Austrian Loescher six years ago, lost his job as chairman at steelmaker ThyssenKrupp earlier this year.</p>
<p>Siemens said in a tersely worded statement on Saturday that Loescher would be leaving the company four years before his contract expires. Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters the majority of the 20-member supervisory board favored fiancé chief Joe Kaeser as a replacement for Loescher, who has failed to deliver on his promises of growth and profitability.</p>
<p>The turmoil at the helm of Siemens, Germany's No. 2 company by market value and a bastion of its manufacturing sector, erupted after the company issued its second profit warning this year, sending its shares plunging 8 percent.</p>
<p>Shares in Siemens rose as much as 2.3 percent in early trade on Monday but were flat at 1200 GMT. The share price is still up 24 percent on a year ago.</p>
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<p>Some investors believe Siemens veteran Kaeser, if named, could turn the company around.</p>
<p>"Kaeser's experience and detailed knowledge of the company make him suitable to succeed Loescher, and we appreciate the breadth of his qualification and experiences," Commerzbank analyst Ingo-Martin Schachel said.</p>
<p>Others said they expected that Kaeser would quickly tighten the reins on costs at Siemens - whose products range from gas turbines to fast trains and ultrasound machines - and sell more non-core businesses such as those that make rail technology or healthcare software.</p>
<p>Loescher and Kaeser have repeatedly said they worked well together, though Kaeser has been taking the lead at investor conferences, laying out details of Siemens' business while his CEO relied more heavily on broad comments.</p>
<p>When asked in 2012 about rumors of friction at the top, Kaeser said they complemented each other like "light and dark".</p>
<p>FAILED STRATEGY</p>
<p>Loescher has in the past promised the company would grow faster than rivals such as ABB , General Electric and Philips .</p>
<p>But bungled acquisitions, charges for project delays and a focus on top-line growth have caused Siemens to fall behind. Loescher announced a plan last year to cut 6 billion euros ($8 billion) in costs over two years and lift core operating profit margin to at least 12 percent from 9.5 percent by 2014.</p>
<p>Last week Siemens rattled shareholders by abruptly abandoning its margin target in a brief statement that left investors clamoring in vain for more information. Two days later, Siemens said its supervisory board would decide at a meeting on Wednesday on CEO Loescher's early departure.</p>
<p>Ingo Speich, a fund manager at Union Investment, criticized Siemens for announcing that Loescher would be leaving before the supervisory board had even taken its vote.</p>
<p>"Infighting just unnecessarily worsens the problems at Siemens. This is not good corporate governance," he said.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Siemens is expected to report a 23 percent drop in quarterly core profit.</p>
<p>The company's failure to keep up with rivals has caused investors to favor companies that were faster to slash their cost base and focus on profitable business rather than on increasing revenue.</p>
<p>Siemens trades at 11.6 times estimated 12-month forward earnings, at a discount to ABB and General Electric, which trade at multiples of 13.8 and 14.1, according to StarMine data.</p>
<p>($1 = 0.7539 euros)</p> | Siemens CEO Seeks To Take Down Chairman | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/07/29/siemens-ceo-seeks-to-take-down-chairman.html | 2016-01-25 | 0 |
<p>Rebecca Smith is the Deputy Director for the National Employment Law Project. She joined NELP in 2000, after nearly 20 years advocating for migrant farm workers in Washington State. At NELP, she has worked with state advocates to modernize state unemployment insurance programs, promoting reforms to fill the gaps in the program denying benefits to women and families. Rebecca has also worked to apply international human rights laws to help protect immigrant workers in the United States, and with immigrant worker organizing groups to enforce U.S. labor laws. She has testified before Congress and several state legislatures and published on these issues. In 2003, she received the United Farm Workers of America's Aztec Eagle Award, in addition to the Golden Door Award from Northwest Immigrants' Rights Project in 1999 and special recognition by the Foreign Minister of Mexico for her work on behalf of undocumented workers before the Interamerican Court of Human Rights.</p>
<p>Tenesha Green is a 28 years old crew member at Wendy's in Richmond, Virginia. She's been working at Wendy's for over a year, and makes $7.25 an hour. Tenesha has decided to speak out against wage theft because she's had to work off the clock and pay out of pocket for register shortages while working at Wendy's. She's hoping that by telling her story other workers will be inspired to come forward.</p>
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<p /> JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
<p />
<p />McDonald's workers recently filed a class-action lawsuit in three states: Michigan, New York, and California. They're accusing McDonald's of wage theft. And on March&#160;18, fast food workers protested in 30 cities across the country to raise awareness about the problem of wage theft by employers. The nationwide action comes on the heels of a settlement between New York attorney general and an owner of seven McDonald's franchises. The owner will have to pay $500,000 to 1,600 current and former employees after making illegal deductions from their paychecks.
<p />
<p />Now joining us to discuss all of this is our guest Rebecca Smith. She's the deputy director for the National Employment Law Project.
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<p />And we also have joining us Tenesha Green. She's 28 years old, and she works at Wendy's in Richmond, Virginia. She's currently working at Wendy's, making $7.25 an hour, and she says that she's had to work off the clock and pay out of pocket for register shortages while working at Wendy's.
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<p />Thank you both for joining us.
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<p />REBECCA SMITH, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT LAW PROJECT: Thanks very much for having us.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: So, Rebecca, I'm going to start off with you, because when I first heard the term wage theft, I thought to myself, what is that exactly? So please explain. What is wage theft?
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<p />SMITH: Well, wage theft, that term describes a pretty wide variety of ways in which employers steel money from workers. So some employers may just refuse flat out to give a worker their paycheck at the end of the day. Some might refuse to pay overtime pay, time and a half, that you are entitled to receive under federal law when you work more than 40 hours. Some will pay with bounced checks. And others will do some of the things that you've been talking about already: require workers to come in early or stay late and not pay them for those hours, not give them meal breaks or rest breaks, take things out of their pay that are unlawful under federal and sometimes state law.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Sure. You say that you've had firsthand experience with wage theft. Can you just give us a specific example of when you experienced wage theft?
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<p />TENESHA GREEN, CREW MEMBER, WENDY'S: Okay, a time where I've experienced wage theft, what I would say is having additional time taken off of my break. There are times when coworkers may come in off of their break, maybe one or two minutes late, and the managers, whoever would be on shift, would become frustrated that you come in two, three minutes behind the scheduled break, and they'll take an additional 15 minutes off of what you've already taken off while you're working. So you've been working maybe 15, 20 minutes, and you're not getting paid for it. There are times when they'll tell us employees that if your drawer comes up short, that it would be coming out of your paycheck. When it comes to working for fast food restaurants, my store in particular, you do have to pay for your own uniform. The only thing that you do not have to pay for is one Wendy's shirt, an apron, and a hat. So you have to purchase your own slip-resistant shoes, as well as the pants, and any additional equipment that you feel that you may need to perform the job that's necessary--you have to pay for it out of your own check.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Rebecca, you're hearing what Tenesha is saying about how she's had to pay out of pocket for her shoes and that idea that you have to pay out of pocket for register shortages and things like that. What do you say to that? Doesn't it at some level mean that it breaks down to your word against your employers? How do you even prove things like that?
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<p />SMITH: Well, usually you can prove things like rest breaks and meal breaks not being given, or people having to come back from them early, just by the volume of workers who will agree that that is in fact what has been happening. You can prove it as well by keeping records of what happens every day, whether you get a break, how long that break is. And with respect to things like uniforms, usually employers will admit that they're requiring workers to pay for their own uniforms. That's a violation of federal law if it is indeed a uniform and if it takes you below what is a terribly, terribly low federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Tenesha, I want to get your perspective on why you decided to come forward and talk about a living wage, 'cause I can imagine there are fast food workers out there who could be watching this and saying that, yes, I'm experiencing the very same things, but I'm afraid to speak out 'cause I'm afraid of retribution. What would you say to those fast food workers?
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<p />GREEN: The one thing that I would say to those fast food workers is that you have to start somewhere, and if you cannot really expect a better treatment or a better pay as someone--is not courageous enough to stand up and take charge of the situation. When you know you're right and you know what you're capable of, you know what you are worth, you expect to be held up to that standard. So I would say to other fast food workers, ultimately: do not be afraid; if you want better, you have to step out there and try harder to get better.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: So, Rebecca, I want to get your thoughts on the prevalence of wage theft, because in 2012, U.S. Labor investigators collected more than $280&#160;million in back wages last year. That's nearly $100&#160;million more than investigators recovered in 2008 when the recession hit. So give us a sense of how prevalent wage theft is. And what recourse do employees have who believe they are victims of wage theft?
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<p />SMITH: In part, the U.S. Department of Labor recovered more back wages in the last couple of years because they have been able to increase their staff. It's still woefully inadequate. And one expert says that an employer has a risk of being investigated by USDOL that is 0.001&#160;percent. So there's almost no reason for employers not to commit wage theft.
<p />
<p />And it's hugely, hugely prevalent. There are dozens of surveys and studies in every industry you can name that find wage theft really, really common among low-wage workers. My office collaborated on a study of 4,000 workers across the country a few years ago, and we found that about a quarter of workers had not been paid minimum wage in the week of the survey. Three-quarters of them had not been paid overtime pay even though they had worked overtime hours. And something that Tenesha has alluded to: 43&#160;percent, if they complained, suffered retaliation.
<p />
<p />And people aren't just losing pennies out of their wages. Our study found that low-wage workers were losing 15&#160;percent of their wages, $2,600 and some cents, every year because of wage theft.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: I want to pivot to the class action lawsuits that were filed in Michigan, California, as well as New York, and they are basically specifically targeting McDonald's. I want to get your perspective, Rebecca, because from my understanding the class-action lawsuit is holding McDonald's corporation responsible along with the franchises themselves. So is this a new legal precedent that we're seeing?
<p />
<p />SMITH: There have been some cases where workers have filed lawsuits against franchisors as well as the people who purchased the brand, the franchisees. But this is perhaps the first very large scale attempt to hold McDonald's liable. And the legal theory really has to do with how much McDonald's controls the work and the wages and working conditions. What is its relationship to the workers on the ground?
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<p />It's really interesting. The kinds of allegations that are coming out are that McDonald's has this very intensive computer software that calculates how many people the franchise has to hire and what their schedules are and how long it's taking them to fill a customer order, that tracks their labor costs, that in some ways McDonald's as well acts as a labor broker for all of its stores, so that if you apply for a job at McDonald's, you apply through McDonald's, even though you're ultimately going to be working for a franchisee.
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<p />So, you know, we all know that the brands control pretty much everything in a store. That's the way that McDonald's and others sell their hamburgers: you know that it's going to be exactly the same everywhere you go. So they control every detail of how and what and wheres and when in terms of how the franchisees operate. And now the question is how much they control also what the workers do on the job.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Alright. Tenesha, I'm going to let you have the final word as a worker. What would you say to those on Capitol Hill right now who are mulling over the Harkin-Miller bill that would raise the minimum wage to $10.10? First of all, do you think it would go far enough for you? And--basically, do you think it would go far enough?
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<p />GREEN: I hope that it would go far enough, so we can raise the minimum wage all over, because there's people all over that are suffering. They may have bills and family that they have to take care of. And while the corporations and the big businesses are making the money, the workers are really doing all the work for them to make the money. They're not living. They don't have means to live a comfortable life. Nowhere near it. So I would just--I would say that I hope that it would pass through so things can become better all over.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Alright. Rebecca Smith and Tenesha Green, thank you both for joining us.
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<p />GREEN: Thank you.
<p />
<p />SMITH: Thanks very much.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Industries Across the U.S. Are Stealing Wages From Their Lowest Paid Workers | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D11627 | 2014-03-19 | 4 |
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<p>Shares were broadly higher in Asia on Thursday after a rally on Wall Street that took the Dow Jones industrial average to its first close above 26,000. Traders are awaiting the release of Chinese GDP figures later Thursday.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 0.7 percent to 24,050.53 as the yen weakened against the U.S. dollar. Australia’s S&amp;P/ASX 200 added 0.1 percent to 6,024.40 and South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.4 percent to 2,524.62. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.2 percent to 32,049.94, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.3 percent to 3,453.28. Shares in Taiwan and Southeast Asia were higher.</p>
<p>CHINA FACTOR: The region is watching for the release of fourth quarter GDP and other data from China later in the day. Analysts have forecast a slight slowdown for the last quarter.</p>
<p>WALL STREET: Technology, financial and health care related shares helped push the Dow, Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index and the Nasdaq composite to record higher, wiping out the market’s modest losses from a day earlier. The Dow surged 1.3 percent to 26,115.65. The S&amp;P 500 index climbed 0.9 percent to 2,802.56 and the Nasdaq added 1 percent to 7,298.28. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks picked up 0.9 percent, to 1,586.66.</p>
<p>THE QUOTE: “Risk appetite returned to the U.S. on Wednesday, feeding into gains for equity indices … expected to transpire to Asia. A packed data day nevertheless lies ahead with much of the attention set on the release of China’s Q4 GDP later in the day,” Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG in Singapore, said in a commentary.</p>
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<p>ENERGY: Benchmark crude rose 26 cents to $64.23 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It added 24 cents to $63.97 per barrel on Wednesday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 21 cents to $69.59 a barrel.</p>
<p>CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 111.48 yen from 110.77 yen late Wednesday in Asia. The euro fell to $1.2175 from $1.2207.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama</p>
<p>Her work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/yuri%20kageyama</p> | Asian shares advance after Wall Street rally; eyes on China | false | https://abqjournal.com/1120402/technology-companies-lead-us-stocks-higher-in-early-trading.html | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
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<p>The first snow survey results are in for the 2010 – 2011 season. Measurements taken by the state Department of Water Resources show the <a href="http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2010/122810snow.pdf" type="external">snowpack</a> on California’s Sierra mountain range is standing at 198 percent the average for the date. That is up from 85 percent of the average the snowpack’s water content showed this time last year.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; “This boosts our hopes that we will have an adequate water supply for our cities and farms as we continue to shake off effects of the 2007-2009 drought,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />Close to 25 million Californians depend on the Sierra snowpack for their water needs. It also supplies nearly one million acres of farmland with irrigation. Before Tuesday’s readings, DWR estimated that it would be able to deliver only 50 percent of requested State Water Project (SWP) water in 2011. It’s too early to tell how much water will be allocated. That, the DWR says, will depend on the weather between now and the spring.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The Colorado River, a key source of water for Southern California, has also seen improved snowfall this season. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation snow sensors in the Colorado River Basin show 150 percent of the average precipitation so far. After several years of below-average precipitation, the reservoirs along the river have a chance to recover from their dismal levels.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>In related farm news, California’s substantial Kiwifruit harvest has come to an end and met increased demand. According to the California Kiwifruit Commission, farmers sold almost 9 million trays full of kiwifruit, about 2 million more than last year. The California Farm Bureau says demand for California fruit has increased because weather in other Northern Hemisphere countries hurt kiwifruit production there, while the state’s crop was spared any significant frost or rain damage.</p> | California’s New Year’s resolution: less drought, more kiwis please | false | https://ivn.us/2011/01/01/californias-new-years-resolution-less-drought-more-kiwis-please/ | 2011-01-01 | 2 |
<p>Defense Secretary Ash Carter&#160;(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)</p>
<p>Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Thursday has lifted “effective immediately” the ban on&#160;openly transgender people from serving in the U.S. armed forces.</p>
<p>Carter announced the change at a news briefing at the Pentagon in addition to a year-long implementation plan that includes providing transgender service members with all transition-related care, including gender reassignment surgery, developing a commander’s handbook and adding transgender status to the military’s non-discrimination policy.</p>
<p>The change comes&#160;after Carter initiated in July 2015&#160;a review of the medical regulation barring transgender military service — instituted before 1983 — with the goal of changing the policy. Although “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal in 2010 enabled openly gay people to serve in armed forces, openly trans people remained&#160;excluded as a result of the regulation.</p>
<p>“As a result of this year-long study, I’m announcing today that we are ending the ban on&#160;transgender Americans in the United States military,” Carter said. “Effective immediately, transgender&#160;Americans may serve openly, and they can no longer be discharged or otherwise separated from&#160;the military just for being transgender.”</p>
<p />
<p>Transgender activists who had called upon the Pentagon to lift its ban on&#160;openly transgender people from serving in the U.S. military hailed the change as historic.</p>
<p>Aaron Belkin, director of the San Francisco-based Palm Center, said the U.S. military has&#160;“taken a sweeping step to advance readiness.”</p>
<p>“In ending discrimination that had no basis in medical science or military necessity, Secretary Carter is enhancing readiness as well as core values of honesty and integrity, an enormous accomplishment with a durable impact on all service members,” Belkin said.</p>
<p>Sue Fulton, president of the LGBT military group SPARTA, said the first day of openly transgender service&#160;fulfills a&#160;promise from Carter “that every American who is qualified to serve will be allowed to serve.”</p>
<p>“The thousands of transgender soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen – and their commanders – have one less burden on their shoulders today,” Fulton said. “We are grateful to the military and civilian leaders in the Department of Defense who worked so hard to get this right.”</p>
<p>Present during the news conference as an attendee was Amanda Carter, deputy assistant defense secretary&#160;for operational energy and the first openly transgender woman political appointee of any presidential administration.</p>
<p>Carter said he’s implementing the change to make certain the military has access to talented Americans, to protect transgender people&#160;currently in the armed forces&#160;and to act on principle.</p>
<p>“Americans who want&#160;to serve and can meet our standards should be afforded the opportunity to compete to do so,” Carter said. “After all, our all-volunteer force is built upon having the most qualified Americans. And the&#160;profession of arms is based on honor and trust.”</p>
<p>Based on the study conducted by the RAND Corp., Carter is the best estimate for the number of transgender people in the U.S. military is&#160;about 2,500 people out of&#160;1.3 million active-duty service members and about 1,500 out of&#160;825,000 members of the Reserve. Carter acknowledged&#160;other estimates that&#160;around 7,000 transgender people are on active duty&#160;and 4,000 are in the Reserve.</p>
<p>White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said before the decision was announced the policy change&#160;was made by Pentagon leaders and he&#160;would comment on the process, but not the result.</p>
<p>“What I can say about this is that what Secretary Carter announced today was the result of a review that was conducted at the Department of Defense,” Earnest said. “In announcing that review, Secretary Carter indicated his belief that every American who is appropriately qualified to do so should be able to serve their country in the military, and that by having that kind of approach, our country is safer and our military is stronger. The president agrees with that general approach.”</p>
<p>As a result of the immediate effect of the announcement, transgender service members currently on duty are&#160;now able to serve openly without any fear of discharge because of their gender identity.</p>
<p>The next stage of implementation is set for completion on October 1, when the Defense Department will distribute a yet-to-be created training handbook for military commanders with transgender subordinates.</p>
<p>Also at this time, the services will be required to offer transition-related care to transgender service members in accordance with their gender identity and they may change their gender markers in DEERS, a database of&#160;troops&#160;and their dependents who are entitled to receive benefits. Prior to October 1, requests for medical care from transgender service members will be handled on a case-by-case basis.</p>
<p>Beginning on&#160;July 1, 2017 services will begin allowing transgender service members to join the armed forces&#160;provided they same accession standards. Additionally, being transgender cannot be a basis to bar someone from admission to a military service academy, participation in the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps or any accession program.</p>
<p>The planned policy for allowing transgender people into the armed forces at that time, Carter said, will require them&#160;to have completed any medical treatment that their doctor has determined is necessary in connection with their gender transition and to have “been stable in their identified gender for 18 months” before they can enlist.</p>
<p>Carter said he’s directed a review of this standard no later than 24 months from now to “ensure it reflects what more we learn over the next two years as this is implemented as well as the most up to date medical knowledge.”</p>
<p>The Pentagon’s timeline for implementing openly transgender service.</p>
<p>Under questioning from the Washington Blade during the news conference, Carter indicated all transition-related care, including gender reassignment surgery, would be covered by the military’s health care plan&#160;following the change.</p>
<p>“The medical standards don’t change,” Carter said. “Transgender service members, like all other service members, will get all the medical care their doctors deem necessary. They’re have to do that subject to — if it’s not an urgent medical care — subject to their commanders because if they need to be deployed, they need to be deployed. It’s normal that if you have a procedure which is not urgent that you have to defer that if you’re being deployed, so we’re not going to have any different medical policy for transgender service members.”</p>
<p>In response to a question from another reporter on whether gender reassignment surgery would be&#160;covered&#160;if a doctor deemed that procedure medically necessary, Carter replied, “That’s correct.”</p>
<p>Also&#160;in response to a question from the Blade, Carter affirmed the Pentagon would add transgender status to the Military Equal Opportunity policy, the non-discrimination rule governing the armed forces. Senior defense officials later said gender identity would be added to the policy effectively immediately at the same time Carter lifted the transgender ban.</p>
<p>Because the changes are&#160;regulatory, the next administration could reverse them if it were hostile to transgender military service. In fact, some of the planned steps for implementation won’t be final until six months after the new president is in office. Senior defense officials declined to speculate on what impact&#160;a future&#160;administration could have on&#160;reversing the changes.</p>
<p>The announcement comes the day after the <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/0b4f2a1fc59a4347bb8e9b9d83786565/apnewsbreak-military-seeks-more-time-transgender-policy" type="external">Associated Press</a> reported the military service chiefs expressed deep concerns to Carter about implementing openly transgender service and sought more time to address details and questions they thought were unresolved.</p>
<p>During the news conference, Carter said the military service&#160;chiefs had specific recommendations about the timeline, and he adjusted&#160;the implementation plan to incorporate those recommendations. Although Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford wasn’t present at the news conference, Carter said he and the military service chiefs support the final implementation timeline&#160;for transgender service.</p>
<p>Carter said he’s “100 percent confident” military leaders and the armed forces as a whole will be able to implement openly transgender service in a matter that preserves military&#160;readiness and values.</p>
<p>“I’m also confident that we have reason to be proud today of what this will mean for our&#160;military – because it’s the right thing to do, and it’s another step in ensuring that we continue to&#160;recruit and retain the most qualified people – and good people are the key to the best military in&#160;the world,” Carter concluded. “Our military, and the nation it defends, will be stronger.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Aaron Belkin</a> <a href="" type="internal">Ashton Carter</a> <a href="" type="internal">Sue Fulton</a> <a href="" type="internal">trans military ban</a></p> | Pentagon lifts trans military ban ‘effective immediately’ | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/06/30/pentagon-lift-trans-military-ban-today/ | 3 |
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<p>The results of France’s first-round elections are in, and few are surprised: Marine Le Pen and <a href="" type="internal">Emmanuel Macron</a> will face off in the second round. But <a href="" type="internal">Jean-Luc Mélenchon</a>’s historic result opens up a new chapter in the French left’s history.</p>
<p>We won’t be able to offer closer analyses until we have the local voting data, so the reflections below remain at a very general level, based on the estimates provided by the polling companies and the partial results provided by the Interior Ministry as of midnight on April 23.</p>
<p>1. In the days leading up to the election, the Left had been largely written off, while the Right was buzzing, convinced that it could still pull off a triumph. The results were more complex than they expected. If we add up the votes of Arthaud, Hamon, Mélenchon, and Poutou we get 27.3 percent for the Left against 48.6 percent for the Right. But if we consider that part of Macron’s votes came from the Left, we instead find a balance of around 42 percent to 58 percent.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>2. With a vote of around 22 percent, Marine Le Pen improved on her score in the last presidential election by 4 points and beat her father’s 2007 score by 10 percent. The <a href="" type="internal">National Front</a> (FN) is continuing to take over a greater part of the political space, but its result seems disappointing when compared to the polls at the start of the campaign, which placed Le Pen at around 27 percent. Indeed, against past contests, we might consider yesterday’s results even less fruitful: the FN won 25.2 percent in the departmental races and 27.3 percent in the regional elections. Le Pen was counting on turning this election into a fight with the Socialist Party government, but she had to compete with a radicalized right-wing opposition and socialist opponents who had moved more sharply to the left than she had expected.</p>
<p>3. The most significant score belongs to the Left and marks a historic upheaval. As the surveys predicted, the Socialist Party (PS) candidate <a href="" type="internal">Benoît Hamon</a> could not escape from the pincers trapping him between the push to the center by the Hollande-Valls duo, which Macron intensified, and the desire for a rupture carried forth by Mélenchon and his supporters. The 2012 Hollande electorate split: half opted for Macron (out of conviction or as a lesser evil compared to the Right), a quarter for Mélenchon, and barely a fifth went for Hamon.</p>
<p>The primary for the “belle alliance populaire”&#160;— in effect, the Socialist Party and small allies — was supposed to save the PS by giving it the blessing of the entire left. In the last analysis, it only precipitated the party’s decline. The PS has almost been reduced to Gaston Defferre’s disastrous 5 percent score in 1969. That defeat forced the Socialists to completely reorganize under Mitterrand with the 1971 <a href="http://www.france-politique.fr/congres-ps.htm" type="external">Épinay Congress</a>. Almost fifty years later, everything is starting over again. As we expected, the PS of Épinay is dead, finished off by a disastrous term in government.</p>
<p>4. Speaking of historical comparisons, we might note that Mélenchon’s score is not so far off from what the Communist (PCF) Jacques Duclos got in 1969 (21.4 percent). At that time, the radical left — la gauche de la gauche — set the tone. Mitterrand’s PS put an end to a long phase inaugurated by the anti-Nazi resistance. Now, Jean-Luc Mélenchon may have helped put things straight again.</p>
<p>In 2007, the Left of the Left missed the opportunity for a relaunch presaged by the dynamic 2005 campaign against the planned <a href="http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Elections/Les-resultats/Referendums/elecresult__referendum_2005/(path)/referendum_2005/000/000.html" type="external">European Constitutional Treaty</a>. The energy we saw 2005 rose up again this year, and the remarkable result has made a real impression.</p>
<p>5. Mélenchon has gained 8 percent relative to last time, and he alone did better than the whole radical left has done since 1981. He owes this to his commitment and his capacity to articulate the universality of his discourse — a classic of the French left — with the singularity of his words and his energy. Ultimately, how he states his political principles doesn’t matter all that much. He is sensitive to the notion of left populism and wary of referring to the Left as a movement, a notion that recent history has discredited in the eyes of many. But in practice he has given the Left back its dynamism, its energy, and the open expression of its values.</p>
<p>Recognizing this does not invalidate any critique of his rhetoric or his proposals. But it is impossible not to recognize that he made these values and this energy speak to sections of the population who no longer believed in them and to young people who had never heard them. This table, using IFOP data, shows the France Insoumise leader’s spectacular progress among the youngest and the lowest income brackets.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>6. Deeper analyses should seek to understand the success of this unprecedented campaign, one that goes beyond what we saw in 2002. Here we will note just one aspect: like Macron, Mélenchon benefited from a campaign fought outside the traditional party framework. In an election in which strong turnout did not imply satisfaction with the status quo — quite the contrary — this dimension is an important one. The surveys IFOP cited thus suggest that three-quarters of those who declare themselves “without party preference” split equally between Mélenchon, Macron, and Le Pen.</p>
<p>7. In two weeks — alas, but without hesitation — we must again act to block the expansion of the National Front. Its growth has slowed, but it continues relentlessly. It would have been better if we could stop it by voting for Mélenchon again, but there is no reason for rancor: the score achieved this Sunday is remarkable. It tells us, quite simply, that it is not true that the Left is dead. It also tells us that the Left is only truly dynamic when it is indeed on the Left, and Mélenchon’s dynamism proved as much with its own lightning advance.</p>
<p>But if the Left is indeed still here, though the forms it takes are no longer at the height of their power — or, at least, not the forms that the twentieth-century left bequeathed to it, dominated by the tête-à-tête of the PCF and PS.&#160;Once this impressive election cycle is over, it will be time to get on with the French left’s now inevitable refoundation.</p> | The Left Is Alive | true | https://jacobinmag.com/2017/04/french-election-macron-le-pen-fn-melenchon/ | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
<p>The apocalypse is coming and — if you believe in that sort of thing — Russia will be ground zero.</p>
<p>That's the only reasonable explanation for a recent spate of freakish events in the country.</p>
<p>From bears flipping out and gigantic holes appearing in the ground to hailstorms and blizzards in the middle of summer, Russia has seen its fair share of weirdness of late.&#160;And it's starting to concern us.&#160;</p>
<p>Here’s a recap:</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>In recent months, a series of bear attacks across Russia killed at least three people and wounded several others. Three people died in a single incident in June on the island of Sakhalin, off Russia's Pacific coast. The video posted above shows footage purportedly filmed by one of the victims as the bear charged the group of construction workers. Haunting.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/kenya/140813/kenyas-desert-lake-turkana-drying-up" type="external">The world's biggest desert lake is drying up (VIDEO)</a>&#160;</p>
<p>A separate incident almost pushed the death toll to four, but <a href="http://nypost.com/2014/08/05/justin-bieber-saves-man-from-bear-attack/" type="external">Justin Bieber</a> saved the day. A bear was in the middle of mauling a fisherman somewhere in the country’s north when the man's cellphone rang and Bieber’s "Baby" song started playing. The bear had an understandable, and very human, reaction to Bieber's music — he fled.</p>
<p>Vladimir Krever, director of the biodiversity program at WWF Russia, told the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/01/bear-attacks-people-dead-siberia-russi-extreme-weather" type="external">Guardian</a> that the series of bear attacks could be the result of extreme weather conditions, which can upset bears' biorhythms and food supply.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>★★★ New video! Giant <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Hole?src=hash" type="external">#Hole</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Yamal?src=hash" type="external">#Yamal</a> [3min] <a href="http://t.co/eCA57UPyZB" type="external">http://t.co/eCA57UPyZB</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Siberia?src=hash" type="external">#Siberia</a> ▲²3</p>
<p>— scheinwelt23 (@scheinwelt23) <a href="https://twitter.com/scheinwelt23/statuses/490823206270676992" type="external">July 20, 2014</a></p>
<p>At least <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/russia/140801/scientists-say-methane-explosion-caused-enormous-crater-yamal-siberia" type="external">three gigantic holes</a> have appeared in Siberia, and scientists are convinced they are the result of an explosion of subterranean methane gas triggered by rising air temperatures — a.k.a global warming.</p>
<p>The methane is normally trapped in the permafrost, but unusually hot summers in 2012 and 2013 may have caused the icy ground to thaw and collapse, releasing the gas. The government, with the help of scientists, is carrying out an in-depth investigation into the cause of the mysterious craters, which some have attributed to meteorites and aliens.</p>
<p>More holes are expected to appear as temperatures continue to rise. And so, we wait.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Swimmers and sunbathers were enjoying a relaxing day at the beach near the Siberian city of <a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/surprise-hailstorm-turns-deadly-with-2-killed-in-midwest-russia-video/503573.html" type="external">Novosibirsk</a> last month when they were battered by a freak hailstorm that also claimed the lives of two girls. The&#160;video posted above shows swimmers running out of the water and huddling under umbrellas as hailstones the size of golf balls rained down on them.</p>
<p>At around the same time, <a href="http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_07_13/Snow-falls-in-South-Urals-in-mid-summer-1564/" type="external">Zlatoust</a>, a town in the Ural Mountains on the western fringe of Siberia, was blanketed with snow after heavy rain turned into a blizzard. Snowfalls were also reported in other parts of the region. You could be excused for thinking otherwise, but you should know that snow in this part of Russia in the middle of summer is not normal. In fact, it's never happened before.</p>
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<p>Ok, so this one happened more than a year ago, but it’s still worth mentioning that a 65-foot-wide <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/131016/russia-pulls-huge-chelyabinsk-meteor-chunk-lake-0" type="external">meteor</a>&#160;exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013. The asteroid was 30 times as powerful as the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, and it made shockwaves powerful enough to knock people off their feet, blow out windows, and damage buildings beneath its path as it blazed across central Russia. Hundreds of people were injured by the fireball, which caused skin and retinal burns.&#160;</p>
<p>So, if the end of the world starts in Russia, don't say you weren't warned.&#160;</p> | 4 signs that Russia will be ground zero for the coming apocalypse | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-08-13/4-signs-russia-will-be-ground-zero-coming-apocalypse | 2014-08-13 | 3 |
<p />
<p />
<p>John Kerry met with Vladimir Putin in Geneva for another round of Syrian talks. Putin took note that John Kerry debarked from his plane carrying his own briefcase. Putin said he was “frustrated and upset” to see that. Maybe things in America are not so good that a senior official had to carry his own luggage. Putin speculated Kerry might have something in the briefcase that he could not trust anyone else to handle. Perhaps money to haggle on key matters for the talks. Kerry replied Putin will later get to see what is in the briefcase and he will be pleasantly surprised. Hmmmm. I’d like to know what’s in his briefcase that will pleasantly surprise Putin.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/emotional-baggage-vladimir-putin-ribs-john-kerry-over-carrying-his-n545226?cid=par-time_20160325" type="external">Emotional Baggage: Vladimir Putin Ribs John Kerry Over Carrying His Own Luggage</a></p>
<p>“On the one hand, it’s quite a democratic way of conduct, but on the other hand, I thought probably the situation in the United States is not that good and there is no one to assist the Secretary of State in carrying his luggage,” Putin said.</p>
<p>The American economy is “okay,” he quipped, before adding that there was “probably” something in that “briefcase of yours you couldn’t trust anyone else with. Probably you brought some money with you to haggle on key matters.”</p>
<p>Kerry took Putin’s humor in stride, replying: “When we have a private moment, I’ll show you what’s in my briefcase. And I think you’ll be surprised — pleasantly.”</p>
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<p /> | true | http://tammybruce.com/2016/03/whats-in-your-briefcase-putin-pokes-fun-at-kerry.html | 0 |
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<p>There are times, when I hear about a story and am just flabbergasted at the sheer idiocracy of it all. &#160;A story that after hearing it, cannot be unheard and my view for the future is irrevocably dimmed because of it.</p>
<p>Such a story is playing out on the campus of Emory University.</p>
<p>By now you have heard of millenials on campuses needed “safe spaces” so they do not have to deal with opinions or facts that disagree with them. &#160;They are offered counseling to better soothe their bed wetting desire when faced with anything that does not fit into their sound vacuum lives of liberal bliss.</p>
<p>Well, the bed wetting, panties in a twist, suck your thumb and cry for mommy bar has been raised at Emory thanks to a word and a number.</p>
<p>Yep, you read that right. &#160;Not swastikas or burning crosses or hanging effigies. &#160;Simply Trump 2016 written in chalk a few places on campus. &#160;I would say the reaction from the student body is as if a jihadist just came to campus, bombs a blastin, but these ignorant coddled toddlers would probably be welcoming to the Islamic Jihadist Terrorist so they wouldn’t be viewed as “insensitive” to the plight of the middle east or some other PC garbage.</p>
<p>Before we go on, let me share with you all the hubub is about so you can see for yourself how “terrifying” the Trump message was</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Written on the sidewalk. &#160;Those three underscore marks ARE rather intimidating</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Trump on stairs…so the children at Emory cannot better themselves because they can no longer rise due to their petrification of using the staircase now.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>And on a hand rail too?!?!? &#160;THE HORROR…THE HORROR. &#160;To force the children to place their hand near such an abominable chalk word. &#160;Have the administrators at Emory have no decency?</p>
<p>So yeah. &#160;That’s what we’re talking about here people. &#160;A couple of chalked out Trumps.</p>
<p>The reaction was so pathetic it would be laughable if it weren’t so sad.</p>
<p>One student even said she ‘feared for her life’ as she thought a ‘KKK rally’ was going on, while others were scared a mass shooting was going to take place and wouldn’t walk alone.</p>
<p>The President of Emory, Jim Wagner, wrote Tuesday that the students viewed the scrawling as intimidation, and they voiced ‘genuine concern and pain’ as a result.</p>
<p>Genuine concern and pain?!?! &#160;Are you friggin kidding me? &#160;Grow the hell up. &#160;Try working in a steel mill, or a coal mine, or serve a post in the military and then tell me about concern and pain.</p>
<p>But no, these infantile children at Emory are being provided counseling in order to deal with the stress and trauma of seeing Trump’s name written in chalk.</p>
<p>On top of that, the hyprocrisy wheel that Liberals like to turn comes into play.</p>
<p>In a campus wide email, Wagner&#160;proposed ‘immediate refinements to certain policies and procedural deficiencies’ that he hoped would improve diversity.</p>
<p>No…Mr. Wagner, you are not looking for diversity, nor are your puerile students. &#160;What you are looking to do is figure out how to SILENCE all opinions that disagree with you, to ostracize those that voice those opinions and to punish, expel, or “re-educate” those people.</p>
<p>The First Amendment apparently doesn’t apply to your liberal student body. &#160;Though that is not surprising as liberals hold that people can think and say whatever they want, so long as they agree with liberal ideology.</p>
<p>It’s a modern day witch hunt in which those that do not toe the liberal line and are not lock step in the mental disorder that is liberalism face punishment or the full unmitigated venom and wrath of liberals radicals. &#160;Liberals are the most hateful and vindictive people in this country and they hide it by playing the victim until they have a target and then they come together to bully them into submission or extermination.</p>
<p>It’s the liberal way and the Emory Daycare system is an incubator for the next generation of close minded, hateful and bigoted liberals.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.</p> | Emory University Has Gone From Higher Education To Glorified Day Care Center | true | http://bulletsfirst.net/2016/03/24/emory-university-has-gone-from-higher-education-to-glorified-day-care-center/ | 0 |
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<p>Generally speaking, cash is a poor investment choice. Not only do cash and equivalent investments generate small (if any) returns, but thanks to inflation, a stockpile of cash actually loses purchasing power over time.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>However, there are a few exceptions.</p>
<p>First, everyone should have an <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/29/how-much-should-i-have-in-savings-for-emergencies.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7e775b92-aa1a-11e7-ac9c-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">emergency fund Opens a New Window.</a> that is in readily accessible, cash-equivalent assets. Experts say that you should aim to save at least six months' worth of expenses in cash, in case of a job loss or major unexpected expense.</p>
<p>Next, if you're already retired and rely on your investment portfolio for income, it's not a bad idea to keep a few months' worth of income in cash.</p>
<p>Finally, and this especially applies today, it's fine to keep some cash on the sidelines if you're having trouble finding attractive investment opportunities. To be clear, I'm not telling you to try timing the market, which is always a bad idea, or to permanently keep a certain amount of cash. But&#160;when the market starts to look expensive (like it does now), it can be difficult to find attractively priced stocks, so instead of forcing yourself to buy stocks or funds that look expensive, you'll have some cash available for when you do find a compelling opportunity. In fact, this is exactly why Warren Buffett has allowed Berkshire Hathaway's&#160; <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/08/13/warren-buffetts-100-billion-problem.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7e775b92-aa1a-11e7-ac9c-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">cash hoard Opens a New Window.</a> to build up to nearly $100 billion.</p>
<p>Offer from The Motley Fool: The 10 best stocks to buy nowMotley Fool co-founders Tom and David Gardner have spent more than a decade beating the market. In fact, the newsletter they run, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the S&amp;P 500!*</p>
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<p>Tom and David just revealed their ten top stock picks for investors to buy right now.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fool.com/mms/mark/sa-bbn-usat?aid=8867&amp;source=isausttxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=sa-bbn-evergreen&amp;ftm_pit=6830&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7e775b92-aa1a-11e7-ac9c-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here to get access to the full list! Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of Sept. 5, 2017.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFMathGuy/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7e775b92-aa1a-11e7-ac9c-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Matthew Frankel Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of BRK-B. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends BRK-B. 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=7e775b92-aa1a-11e7-ac9c-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Ask a Fool: How Much of My Assets Should Be in Cash? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/07/ask-fool-how-much-my-assets-should-be-in-cash.html | 2017-10-07 | 0 |
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<p>COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Police say a 30-year-old bicyclist who was hit by an unmarked Colorado Springs police car has died.</p>
<p>Police said Monday that Nicholas Watson, of Colorado Springs, died last Friday from injuries he sustained on Sept. 24.</p>
<p>The accident occurred about 7:30 p.m. at an intersection with traffic lights.</p>
<p>Police said the police car was traveling just under the posted 45 mph (72 kph) speed limit and was not responding to an emergency call.</p>
<p>The accident remains under investigation.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Colorado bike rider hit by police car dies | false | https://abqjournal.com/1072141/colorado-bike-rider-hit-by-police-car-dies.html | 2 |
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<p>German writer Thomas Mann came to Davos in 1912 to visit his wife who was suffering from lung complications. At that time, Davos was known for its sanatoriums. His visit became the basis of his classic novel, <a href="" type="internal">The Magic Mountain</a>. Davos later became a famous ski area and home to the annual meeting of those “committed to improving the state of the world,” the World Economic Forum (WEF).</p>
<p>More than 100 years after Thomas Mann visited his wife, President Donald Trump is traveling to Davos as the major attraction of the 48th meeting of the WEF. While Trump is certainly not coming to Davos to visit his wife, or any person in whatever sanatoriums are left in the chic Alpine resort, one can easily question what the President of the United States and several members of his cabinet are doing in a tiny village in eastern Switzerland while wars rage in Syria and Yemen, major legislation on immigration remains in question, the inquiry into Russian collusion with his campaign and his potential obstruction of justice continues, the nuclear treaty with Iran needs clarification, revelations in Fire and Fury have questioned his capacity to govern and his vulgar comments about Haitian and African immigrants have shocked the world.</p>
<p>Watch out Switzerland: Here comes The Donald, “shithouse” and all, headlining WEF founder Klaus Schwab’s 48th party. While Trump is the President of the United States, with all the prestige and power that office embraces, there is an enormous disconnect between the personality of Donald Trump and the participants at Davos.</p>
<p>The WEF is not a New York City real estate convention or a Las Vegas get together of rich gamblers. Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF and omnipresent at Davos is not Celine Dion playing to a packed house in her Vegas theatre. Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and annual eminent grise of the WEF is not famed middle-class realtor Sam Lefrak from Queens. Selling the U.S. at the WEF is not negotiating a Trump Tower in Macau with Chinese casino king Stanley Ho.</p>
<p>Quite simply: What the hell is Donald Trump doing at Davos?</p>
<p>The obvious answer would be that he is purposefully getting away from the aforementioned problems. Nothing better than a short foreign visit to take attention away from thorny domestic politics. Even away from home, Trump is more welcome in an isolated Swiss village that he would be in downtown London clashing with its mayor. Although there will certainly be protests in Davos and throughout Switzerland – they already started on January 13 in Bern – Trump is obviously safer among the world’s political and financial elite than he would be in Port-au-Prince.</p>
<p>And he can always trumpet the visit as part of his program of promoting America First. Nothing better than hobnobbing with the world’s makers and shakers in the interest of his country. After all, he promised more jobs for the American workers, and what could be better for the average American than selling his agenda to the captains of finance and industry. The self-declared ultimate deal maker will be meeting with the world’s financial, economic and political leaders. For someone who prides himself as synonymous with the art of the deal, what could be more tempting than to perform on the world’s biggest media stage in front of the highest rollers?</p>
<p>On the other hand, Donald Trump is also supposed to represent the average Joe. While Barack Obama never went to Davos because of its elitist, capitalist reputation, and Bill Clinton was heavily criticized for schmoozing with Davos Men, Trump’s base is the anathema of those attending the WEF. “Joe Six-Pack,” as the average American is affectionately called, abhors the world of canapés and white wine. Trump won the presidency because he vilified Hillary Clinton as a spoiled, rich girl from Wellesley College and Yale Law School. Trump, although rich by inheritance, rode the wagon of the great American self-made man that the average middle and lower class person associated with. His vulgarity was the perfect antidote to the Obama/Clinton erudition.</p>
<p>The smug globalists at Davos are exactly the types Trump and his former strategist Steve Bannon campaigned against in 2016. The rejection of Hillary Clinton by the voters had as much to do with her educational and cultural sophistication as with her politics.</p>
<p>Trump may have been successful in one arena with one set of rules, but the shift from New York realtor to global political leader has shown his limitations. Now that he is on the world stage, those limitations are becoming more and more obvious. It’s bad enough when he tweets or speaks within the U.S; on the world stage, he has become the reincarnation of the ugly American, able to play in The Apprentice, but poorly cast as the actual Commander-in-Chief.</p>
<p>Mann’s novel is complex and nuanced. The least we can anticipate about Trump’s sojourn to the Magic Mountain is that it will be neither complex nor nuanced. Watch out Davos: Here comes The Donald.</p> | Donald Trump Heads to the Magic Mountain | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/01/26/donald-trump-heads-to-the-magic-mountain/ | 2018-01-26 | 4 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) - Small business owners have entered 2018 with many questions about how big their tax bills will be, but they're also optimistic about profiting from a strong economy. And aside from financial matters, owners with employees must stay mindful about one of the troubling issues of 2017, sexual harassment.</p>
<p>Here are five things small business owners need to know about or do in 2018:</p>
<p>TAXES</p>
<p>The new tax law changes rates for many small business owners, whether they are sole proprietorships, partnerships or corporations. But the benefits aren't across the board: Some owners will lose out on savings because they'll end 2018 with income above thresholds set out in the law, or they work in fields like accounting, law or consulting.</p>
<p>Many business owners aren't sure yet how the law will affect them. Although accountants and other tax professionals may have given owners some general ideas about the impact, the IRS must still write regulations that will spell out what taxpayers can do under the law and how they must comply.</p>
<p>Some things are known. The Section 179 deduction that small businesses can use to get an immediate break on purchases of equipment ranging from computers to vehicles to manufacturing equipment doubles this year to $1 million.</p>
<p>And separate from the tax bill, the IRS has set the standard mileage rate for business use for a car at 54.5 cents per mile, up 1 cent from 2017. The rate is one of two methods for accounting for how much an owner spent on using a car for business; the second is to deduct the actual expenses for the car. Under the actual expense method an owner must calculate the percentage of miles the car is driven for business, and apply that percentage to expenses like lease payments, fuel, maintenance, repairs, insurance and depreciation.</p>
<p>THE ECONOMY</p>
<p>If the economy maintains the robust expansion it showed in 2017, owners' profits and their optimism should grow as well. But that may not translate into more jobs.</p>
<p>In multiple surveys last year, owners indicated they're generally sticking to their conservative hiring patterns. Job creation plans ticked higher in a fourth-quarter survey by researchers at Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management and Dun &amp; Bradstreet Corp., with 42 percent of small business owners saying they'd add one to two staffers in the next six months, up from 38 percent in the third quarter.</p>
<p>Owners have said a significant revenue increase might persuade them to hire. For many, that could depend on whether consumer spending remains strong. The government's figures on retail sales and consumer spending show Americans were feeling fine about spending as 2017 ended, a sign that business will be good in the new year. Retail sales rose 0.8 percent in November after a 0.5 percent gain in October, according to the Commerce Department. Overall consumer spending rose 0.6 percent in November after rising 0.2 percent in October.</p>
<p>Many small businesses are dependent on consumers, among them restaurants, retailers and service providers like hair salons. Consumers may feel like spending if the stock market extends its big 2017 advance; the Dow Jones industrial average rose 25 percent, giving many people with 401(k)s and other accounts a stronger sense of financial well-being.</p>
<p>Unpredictable events like blizzards and hurricanes can hurt spending, and slow the economy. But if consumers regain their confidence quickly, small businesses are likely to shrug off any dips.</p>
<p>HEALTH CARE</p>
<p>Most companies' health care plans are set for 2018, but there will be some changes when it comes time to choose policies that begin later this year or in 2019.</p>
<p>Owners who want to sign up for group insurance through the government's Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, now must do so through a health insurance agent or broker or directly through an insurance company. They're no longer able to sign up through the government website, www.healthcare.gov. However, they can visit the site to get information.</p>
<p>The new tax law has ended the requirement that individuals buy health insurance starting in 2019. Some very small business owners had stopped offering health plans when the Affordable Care Act was enacted because their staffers were able to get coverage through health insurance exchanges. While businesses with fewer than 50 employees aren't required to offer insurance, some may find their staffers are interested in group coverage.</p>
<p>SEXUAL HARASSMENT</p>
<p>Human resources experts usually advise business owners to update their employee handbooks early in the year. It's a task that's more of a priority at many companies this year following a series of reports of workplace sexual harassment.</p>
<p>"Every employer should have a policy in their handbook that makes clear that sexual harassment is not welcome and that defines sexual harassment," says Jay Starkman, CEO of Engage PEO, an HR provider based in Hollywood, Florida.</p>
<p>Owners can find templates for sexual harassment policies online. Whether they're creating a policy for the first time or already have one, they should have it reviewed by an HR professional or an attorney with expertise in sexual harassment or employment law.</p>
<p>Companies may also want to consider training sessions to educate staffers and managers about harassment - what it is, how to recognize it, how to report it to owners or senior executives.</p>
<p>Owners who don't have employee handbooks should think about creating them. Besides harassment policies, they should contain the company's policies on discrimination, discipline, vacations, performance reviews, ethics and use of company computers, among many other issues. They should also include information on benefits. Owners can find templates online.</p>
<p>MINIMUM WAGE RISES</p>
<p>Eighteen states have higher minimum wages as of Dec. 31, 2017, or Jan. 1.</p>
<p>Laws were passed boosting the wage floor in 10 of those states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington state.</p>
<p>Eight states see increases because their minimums are tied to the inflation rate. They are Alaska, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio and South Dakota.</p>
<p>Small businesses such as restaurants or food service companies are most likely to now be paying their workers more under the higher minimums. Three-fifths of all workers paid at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour are in the leisure and hospitality industries. Almost all of those are restaurants or food service businesses, according to the Department of Labor.</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Follow Joyce Rosenberg at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/JoyceMRosenberg" type="external">www.twitter.com/JoyceMRosenberg</a> . Her work can be found here: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/joyce%20rosenberg</a></p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) - Small business owners have entered 2018 with many questions about how big their tax bills will be, but they're also optimistic about profiting from a strong economy. And aside from financial matters, owners with employees must stay mindful about one of the troubling issues of 2017, sexual harassment.</p>
<p>Here are five things small business owners need to know about or do in 2018:</p>
<p>TAXES</p>
<p>The new tax law changes rates for many small business owners, whether they are sole proprietorships, partnerships or corporations. But the benefits aren't across the board: Some owners will lose out on savings because they'll end 2018 with income above thresholds set out in the law, or they work in fields like accounting, law or consulting.</p>
<p>Many business owners aren't sure yet how the law will affect them. Although accountants and other tax professionals may have given owners some general ideas about the impact, the IRS must still write regulations that will spell out what taxpayers can do under the law and how they must comply.</p>
<p>Some things are known. The Section 179 deduction that small businesses can use to get an immediate break on purchases of equipment ranging from computers to vehicles to manufacturing equipment doubles this year to $1 million.</p>
<p>And separate from the tax bill, the IRS has set the standard mileage rate for business use for a car at 54.5 cents per mile, up 1 cent from 2017. The rate is one of two methods for accounting for how much an owner spent on using a car for business; the second is to deduct the actual expenses for the car. Under the actual expense method an owner must calculate the percentage of miles the car is driven for business, and apply that percentage to expenses like lease payments, fuel, maintenance, repairs, insurance and depreciation.</p>
<p>THE ECONOMY</p>
<p>If the economy maintains the robust expansion it showed in 2017, owners' profits and their optimism should grow as well. But that may not translate into more jobs.</p>
<p>In multiple surveys last year, owners indicated they're generally sticking to their conservative hiring patterns. Job creation plans ticked higher in a fourth-quarter survey by researchers at Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management and Dun &amp; Bradstreet Corp., with 42 percent of small business owners saying they'd add one to two staffers in the next six months, up from 38 percent in the third quarter.</p>
<p>Owners have said a significant revenue increase might persuade them to hire. For many, that could depend on whether consumer spending remains strong. The government's figures on retail sales and consumer spending show Americans were feeling fine about spending as 2017 ended, a sign that business will be good in the new year. Retail sales rose 0.8 percent in November after a 0.5 percent gain in October, according to the Commerce Department. Overall consumer spending rose 0.6 percent in November after rising 0.2 percent in October.</p>
<p>Many small businesses are dependent on consumers, among them restaurants, retailers and service providers like hair salons. Consumers may feel like spending if the stock market extends its big 2017 advance; the Dow Jones industrial average rose 25 percent, giving many people with 401(k)s and other accounts a stronger sense of financial well-being.</p>
<p>Unpredictable events like blizzards and hurricanes can hurt spending, and slow the economy. But if consumers regain their confidence quickly, small businesses are likely to shrug off any dips.</p>
<p>HEALTH CARE</p>
<p>Most companies' health care plans are set for 2018, but there will be some changes when it comes time to choose policies that begin later this year or in 2019.</p>
<p>Owners who want to sign up for group insurance through the government's Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, now must do so through a health insurance agent or broker or directly through an insurance company. They're no longer able to sign up through the government website, www.healthcare.gov. However, they can visit the site to get information.</p>
<p>The new tax law has ended the requirement that individuals buy health insurance starting in 2019. Some very small business owners had stopped offering health plans when the Affordable Care Act was enacted because their staffers were able to get coverage through health insurance exchanges. While businesses with fewer than 50 employees aren't required to offer insurance, some may find their staffers are interested in group coverage.</p>
<p>SEXUAL HARASSMENT</p>
<p>Human resources experts usually advise business owners to update their employee handbooks early in the year. It's a task that's more of a priority at many companies this year following a series of reports of workplace sexual harassment.</p>
<p>"Every employer should have a policy in their handbook that makes clear that sexual harassment is not welcome and that defines sexual harassment," says Jay Starkman, CEO of Engage PEO, an HR provider based in Hollywood, Florida.</p>
<p>Owners can find templates for sexual harassment policies online. Whether they're creating a policy for the first time or already have one, they should have it reviewed by an HR professional or an attorney with expertise in sexual harassment or employment law.</p>
<p>Companies may also want to consider training sessions to educate staffers and managers about harassment - what it is, how to recognize it, how to report it to owners or senior executives.</p>
<p>Owners who don't have employee handbooks should think about creating them. Besides harassment policies, they should contain the company's policies on discrimination, discipline, vacations, performance reviews, ethics and use of company computers, among many other issues. They should also include information on benefits. Owners can find templates online.</p>
<p>MINIMUM WAGE RISES</p>
<p>Eighteen states have higher minimum wages as of Dec. 31, 2017, or Jan. 1.</p>
<p>Laws were passed boosting the wage floor in 10 of those states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington state.</p>
<p>Eight states see increases because their minimums are tied to the inflation rate. They are Alaska, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio and South Dakota.</p>
<p>Small businesses such as restaurants or food service companies are most likely to now be paying their workers more under the higher minimums. Three-fifths of all workers paid at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour are in the leisure and hospitality industries. Almost all of those are restaurants or food service businesses, according to the Department of Labor.</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Follow Joyce Rosenberg at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/JoyceMRosenberg" type="external">www.twitter.com/JoyceMRosenberg</a> . Her work can be found here: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/joyce%20rosenberg</a></p> | 5 things small business owners should know or do in 2018 | false | https://apnews.com/amp/fe494dbffb78433eac17996af9c328a6 | 2018-01-03 | 2 |
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