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<p>WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A man who worked at a Home Depot in Florida is accused of stealing $15,000 worth of drill kits.</p>
<p>According to an arrest report, 27-year-old Charles Singleton is accused of pawning over 45 drill kits from the store in December and January.</p>
<p>The Palm Beach Post <a href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime--law/home-depot-worker-near-west-palm-accused-stealing-15k-drills/6hRGzX8yKTbmOJhAQA943O/" type="external">reports</a> deputies say Singleton would empty large boxes from the shelves, put the drills inside, and exit the store pretending he was helping customers load their vehicles. Once he made it outside to the parking lot, Singleton is accused of putting the boxes inside his car and heading to a local pawn shop.</p>
<p>Deputies say Singleton made over $4,500 from his six pawn shop visits.</p>
<p>Singleton was taken to a jail on several charges including grand theft. It's unclear if he has a lawyer.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, <a href="http://www.pbpost.com" type="external">http://www.pbpost.com</a></p>
<p>WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A man who worked at a Home Depot in Florida is accused of stealing $15,000 worth of drill kits.</p>
<p>According to an arrest report, 27-year-old Charles Singleton is accused of pawning over 45 drill kits from the store in December and January.</p>
<p>The Palm Beach Post <a href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime--law/home-depot-worker-near-west-palm-accused-stealing-15k-drills/6hRGzX8yKTbmOJhAQA943O/" type="external">reports</a> deputies say Singleton would empty large boxes from the shelves, put the drills inside, and exit the store pretending he was helping customers load their vehicles. Once he made it outside to the parking lot, Singleton is accused of putting the boxes inside his car and heading to a local pawn shop.</p>
<p>Deputies say Singleton made over $4,500 from his six pawn shop visits.</p>
<p>Singleton was taken to a jail on several charges including grand theft. It's unclear if he has a lawyer.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, <a href="http://www.pbpost.com" type="external">http://www.pbpost.com</a></p> | Home Depot worker accused of stealing $15K in drills kits | false | https://apnews.com/amp/4f72fecdb30a4329ad2fee7f4ab3ada0 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>This video features eight claims that we fact-checked at the third and final presidential debate in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>&lt;iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gVS-1jbc6xs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</p>
<p>In all, we wrote about more than 20 debate claims in “ <a href="" type="internal">FactChecking the Final Presidential Debate</a>.” We feature all those and more in our <a href="" type="internal">annotated transcript</a> of the debate.</p>
<p>We would like to thank the <a href="http://archive.org/" type="external">Internet Archive</a>, which provided the video feed that we used in the production of this video, and the Stanton Foundation, which provided the funding for our enhanced election coverage, which among other things included the production of <a href="" type="internal">debate</a> <a href="" type="internal">videos</a> and the launch of our new <a href="" type="internal">annotated transcripts website</a>.</p> | Video: The Final Debate | false | https://factcheck.org/2016/10/video-the-final-debate/ | 2016-10-20 | 2 |
<p />
<p>In an incredible act of courage and bravery, a squad of NYPD’s finest allegedly tasered a pregnant, and half handcuffed, teen. The kerfuffle ensued after the warrantless police officers insisted on entering the teens home and refused to leave. Watch the video below and let us know what you think of the situation. Join the conversation on our Facebook page!</p>
<p />
<p /> | Pregnant Teen Tasered While NYPD Trespass in Her Home [VIDEO] | false | https://libertyviral.com/pregnant-teen-tasered-nypd-trespasses-home/ | 2017-02-16 | 1 |
<p>TOP STORIES</p>
<p>Value Meals Drive McDonald's Sales - 2nd Update</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>McDonald's Corp. gained sales again by luring core customers to its cheapest meals and drinks.</p>
<p>The burger giant attributed U.S. sales growth in the fourth quarter to a "McPick 2" meal deal and low-price beverages, as well as to higher-priced Buttermilk Crispy Tenders. The chain introduced a new nationwide value menu this month with items priced at $1, $2 and $3, hoping consumers drawn in for cheap sodas and burgers will also order more expensive items.</p>
<p>STORIES OF INTEREST</p>
<p>Food Union Hails USDA Move on Chicken Plants -- Market Talk</p>
<p>12:06 ET -- United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents meat plant employees, claims victory after the U.S. Department of Agriculture rejected a U.S. chicken industry petition to eliminate poultry processing line speed caps in meat plants. The organization and other consumer groups opposed the request, saying it could make food less safe and pose risks to meat plant workers, who already deal with higher rates of injury than other industries. The union says it remains "concerned" that the USDA plans to let some chicken plants apply to run processing lines at speeds up to 175 birds a minute, with most currently capped at 140. ([email protected]; @jacobbunge)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>USDA Pumps Brakes on Faster Chicken Processing -- Market Talk</p>
<p>12:01 ET -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture denies a request by the National Chicken Council to lift all limits on how fast poultry plants can process birds--but the agency says it does plan to let some plants speed up. USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service says the chicken industry group's Sept. 1 petition to eliminate speed limits in chicken plants didn't demonstrate that inspectors could effectively check each carcass for safety at speeds beyond 175 birds a minute--nearly three chickens a second. But FSIS said that the agency plans to lay out criteria for poultry plants, most of which are limited to processing 140 chickens each minute, to run at speeds up to 175, as long as they demonstrate how they will assess food safety and meet other criteria. ([email protected]; @jacobbunge)</p>
<p>Wheat Futures Pop on Plains Drought</p>
<p>A drought in the Great Plains sparked a rally in wheat prices on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Agriculture said that the condition of the hard red winter wheat crop, primarily grown in southern Plains states like Kansas, dropped sharply as farmers in the region struggle through dry conditions.</p>
<p>FUTURES MARKETS</p>
<p>Live Cattle Futures Ease</p>
<p>Cattle futures were mixed on Tuesday, easing off multimonth highs.</p>
<p>The futures market started the week by hitting a two-month high, after cash prices for physical cattle rose more than expected. But analysts say futures bumped up against selling pressure after falling from those highs, with chart signals suggesting to traders that prices were headed lower.</p>
<p>CASH MARKETS</p>
<p>Zumbrota, Minn Hog Steady At $44.00 - Jan 30</p>
<p>Barrow and gilt prices at the Zumbrota, Minn., livestock market today are steady at $44.00 a hundredweight. Sow prices are steady. Sows weighing 400-450 pounds are at $43.00, 450-500 pounds are $43.00 and those over 500 pounds are $45.00-$47.00.</p>
<p>The day's total run is estimated at 180 head.</p>
<p>Prices are provided by the Central Livestock Association.</p>
<p>Estimated U.S. Pork Packer Margin Index - Jan 30</p>
<p>This report reflects U.S. pork packer processing margins. The margin indices</p>
<p>are calculated using current cash hog or carcass values and wholesale pork</p>
<p>cutout values and may not reflect actual margins at the plants. These</p>
<p>estimates reflect the general health of the industry and are not meant to</p>
<p>be indicative of any particular company or plant.</p>
<p>Source: USDA, based on Wall Street Journal calculations</p>
<p>All figures are on a per-head basis.</p>
<p>Date Standard Margin Estimated margin</p>
<p>Operating Index at vertically -</p>
<p>integrated operations</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Jan 30 +$20.58 +$ 45.01</p>
<p>Jan 29 +$20.88 +$ 45.57</p>
<p>Jan 26 +$22.51 +$ 45.96</p>
<p>* Based on Iowa State University's latest estimated cost of production.</p>
<p>A positive number indicates a processing margin above the cost of</p>
<p>production of the animals.</p>
<p>Beef-O-Meter</p>
<p>This report compares the USDA's latest beef carcass composite</p>
<p>values as a percentage of their respective year-ago prices.</p>
<p>Beef</p>
<p>For Today Choice 108.5</p>
<p>(Percent of Year-Ago) Select 108.2</p>
<p>USDA Boxed Beef, Pork Reports</p>
<p>Wholesale choice-grade beef prices Tuesday rose 58 cents per hundred pounds, to $209.69, according to the USDA. Select-grade prices rose 24 cents per hundred pounds, to $204.37. The total load count was 109. Wholesale pork prices fell 26 cents, to $81.34 a hundred pounds, based on Omaha, Neb., price quotes.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>January 30, 2018 17:31 ET (22:31 GMT)</p> | Livestock Highlights: Top Stories of the Day | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/27/livestock-highlights-top-stories-day.html | 2018-01-30 | 0 |
<p>Melons and Mendelssohn by ROBERT A. DAVIES Melons and Mendelssohn mellow days of autumn the end of harvest andante season.</p>
<p>And yet our country teeters, weapons plentiful as the fallen leaves or hanging soldiers.</p>
<p>Winter rains bring floods unyielding soil dying cities and dying souls.</p>
<p>We are extended like Khazars our backs to cold desperates, peoples we despoiled just waiting to pounce.</p>
<p>I dream of another country of un-fearful young to wars un-driven by our wars untouched</p>
<p>a generous country under a harvest moon serene melon a hefty moon.</p>
<p>(Previously published at poetrymagazine.com) Robert A. Davies lives in the booster village of Portland, OR.&#160; He was co-editor for Mr. Cogito magazine for more than 20 years and has published widely in the little magazines on and offline.&#160; He is author of Tracks In Oregon, Timber and Sometimes Subversive.&#160; He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>A Political Story by FRANK FORD</p>
<p>Government places me with Crystal family, murky</p>
<p>yet patriotic. And walking distance to the prison</p>
<p>where I go monthly to see my parents.</p>
<p>Both incarcerated for attempting to overthrow, etc.</p>
<p>Mother with explosives, my father, vague tactics.</p>
<p>In less hysterical times he’s sent home with a scolding.</p>
<p>After each visit, daughter Jeanette asks me five questions, recording my answers in a marbled composition book.</p>
<p>Since the answers are glaringly obvious, she stops</p>
<p>after a few months.</p>
<p>In Dickens, an attraction develops, but she has no sex,</p>
<p>and shares the family trait of periodically exploding</p>
<p>for no reason.</p>
<p>After both parents die in prison, I get sent to a recently-discovered uncle in Montana. He proves pure gold!–open, loving, fond of fart jokes. “Emotionally, I never got out of the six grade,” he announces in his rusty pickup</p>
<p>as we bang over dirt roads on the way to fishing holes.</p>
<p>Yeah, it’s all too Norman Rockwell.</p>
<p>Saves my life.</p>
<p>He passes when I enter Missoula as an Art Education Major, a flight of flannel-shirted angels carrying him to St Peter, who detains him until he hears every single fart joke.</p>
<p>Well, my fancy. I’ve others.</p>
<p>Strange to say, I now teach in the high school not far</p>
<p>from the prison. Jeanette warms up enough to marry the hardware store owner, who, noting a curt way with</p>
<p>customers, sets her up with an International Maids</p>
<p>Franchise, where immigrant women clean houses.</p>
<p>Ostensibly in an old-world, scrubbing way.</p>
<p>I got the best job in the world, teaching art to willing youngsters. And, blessedly, out of the political loop</p>
<p>run by a cabal of English and Shop teachers,</p>
<p>being too “flighty.”</p>
<p>Live-in girlfriend considers me normal. We’re both,</p>
<p>of course, crazy.</p>
<p>Frank Ford watches yachts glide by in Florida–no recession evident.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Two Ostriches by JON TAYLOR</p>
<p>Both right and left</p>
<p>Have their heads buried in the sand</p>
<p>Not in the same hole of course</p>
<p>Each has its own</p>
<p>The right</p>
<p>Keeps its head buried</p>
<p>In the “Magic of the marketplace</p>
<p>Will make us all rich” hole</p>
<p>The left</p>
<p>Has its head stuck</p>
<p>In the “Identity politics</p>
<p>Multicultural golden age” hole</p>
<p>While the same bombing</p>
<p>Starving, invading, enslaving</p>
<p>Imprisoning, torturing, assassinating beast</p>
<p>Bears down on both of them</p>
<p>Jon Taylor lives in Nashville, TN. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Editorial Note: (Please Read Closely Before Submitting)</p>
<p>To submit to Poets’ Basement, send an e-mail to CounterPunch’s poetry editor, Marc Beaudin at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> with your name, the titles being submitted, and your website url or e-mail address (if you’d like this to appear with your work).&#160; Also indicate whether or not your poems have been previously published and where.&#160; For translations, include poem in original language and documentation of granted reprint/translation rights.&#160; Attach up to 5 poems and a short bio, written in 3rd person, as a single Word Document (.doc or .rtf attachments only; no .docx).&#160; Expect a response within one month (occasionally longer during periods of heavy submissions).</p>
<p>Poems accepted for online publication will be considered for possible inclusion of an upcoming print anthology.</p>
<p>For more details, tips and suggestions, visit <a href="http://crowvoicejournal.blogspot.com/" type="external">CrowVoiceJournal.blogspot.com</a> and check the links on the top right. Thanks!</p> | Poet’s Basement | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/10/28/poets-basement-10/ | 2011-10-28 | 4 |
<p>[A] drug which takes away grief and passion and brings a forgetfulness of all ills.</p>
<p>— Homer, The Iliad</p>
<p>Two events took place in June that suggested a primer on how medical marijuana laws are working in Colorado might be appropriate.&#160; The first was an appellate court decision that the state Supreme Court declined to review. The holding was that if an employer has a zero-tolerance drug policy and an employee who uses medical marijuana tests positive and is discharged, the employee is not entitled to unemployment benefits even though the use of medical marijuana is not proscribed by state law.</p>
<p>The second event of note was a newspaper announcement that the Sunday night CBS news program “60 Minutes” had interviewed Stan Garnett, Boulder, Colorado’s District Attorney, with respect to medical marijuana dispensaries operating in Colorado.&#160; Since the interview will not be broadcast until fall, an update might help those who wonder what is happening in the world of &#160;medical marijuana in Colorado. &#160;Although only applicable to Colorado, readers elsewhere can see how the Obama administration has lived up to promises made during the 2008 campaign.</p>
<p>During the 2008 campaign Mr. Obama <a href="http://www.mpp.org/assets/pdfs/library/HolderObamaStatements.pdf" type="external">said</a>, with respect to medical marijuana laws, that if elected: &#160;“What I’m not going to be doing is using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue simply because I want folks to be investigating violent crimes and potential terrorism.”&#160; In February 2009 Attorney General Eric Holder said what the president said during the campaign “is now American policy” and in a subsequent press conference <a href="http://www.mpp.org/assets/pdfs/library/HolderObamaStatements.pdf" type="external">said</a> the policy is to “go after those people who violate both federal and state law. . . .”&#160; The administration did not rely on those statements to let people know what official policy was. David Ogden, then the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, put it in writing so everyone would understand.</p>
<p>October 19, 2009, &#160;Mr. Ogden, sent a memorandum to the U.S. attorneys in states that authorized the sale and use of medical marijuana.&#160; Its stated purpose was to provide “clarification and guidance to federal prosecutors.”&#160; Mr. Ogden began by saying: &#160;“Congress has determined that marijuana is a dangerous drug, and the illegal distribution and sale of marijuana is a serious crime. . . .” However, he went on to say that “selected U.S. attorneys” to whom he sent his memorandum should “not focus federal resources in your states on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.”&#160; Mr. Ogden and Colorado’s U.S. Attorney, John Walsh, would have been well served had Mr. Ogden stopped there since it was clear what he meant.&#160; He didn’t.&#160;&#160; After explaining &#160;the meaning of &#160;“clear and unambiguous” as used in his memorandum&#160; he went on to say that “no State can authorize violations of federal law” which is, of course, exactly what medical marijuana legislation does. &#160;If a U.S. attorney decides to prosecute someone, Mr. Ogden continued, &#160;it is not necessary to prove that a state law was violated. The memorandum, he said, does not “’legalize’ marijuana or provide a legal defense to a violation of federal law. . . . Nor does clear and unambiguous compliance with state law . . . &#160;&#160;provide a legal defense to a violation of the Controlled Substances Act.”&#160; He repeats that in the penultimate paragraph of his memorandum saying the memorandum is not intended to preclude investigation&#160; “in particular circumstances where investigation or prosecution otherwise serves important federal interests.”&#160; The foregoing, as all but the dullest reader can immediately see, is a crystal clear roadmap for U.S. Attorneys who wonder whom to prosecute.&#160; And that brings the curious to Colorado and to the even curiouser John Walsh.</p>
<p>Colorado citizens amended their state constitution in 2000 to permit the medical use of marijuana effective June 1, 2001. &#160;In 2010 a law was enacted that regulates medical marijuana dispensaries.&#160; John Walsh, apparently confused by the Ogden memo, has concluded that he can prosecute those who are in “clear and unambiguous compliance” with Colorado law as stated in the Ogden memorandum. In January, March and May, he sent waves of letters to dispensaries within 1000 feet of &#160;schools telling them they must close and describing in great detail the draconian penalties that may be imposed if they do not.&#160; Mr. Walsh was not concerned about whether local governments were content to have dispensaries closer than 1000 feet to schools as Colorado law permits .</p>
<p>Mr. Garnett wrote Mr. Walsh in March expressing his opinion that the U.S. Attorney’s office could, instead of going after dispensaries, &#160;better use its efforts dealing with “terrorism, serious economic crime,&#160; organized crime and serious drug dealing. . . .” In response, Mr. Walsh said in effect, that his views about how far dispensaries should be from schools overrode local governments’ views. He did not say how his actions comported with Mr. Ogden’s memorandum.</p>
<p>What the Colorado court ruled does not run afoul of what Mr. Obama promised during the 2008 campaign.&#160; What Mr. Walsh has done, does. That is more than a pity.&#160; It is a travesty.</p>
<p>Last week I said that Pope Benedict had made Cardinal Bernard Law the Archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome.&#160; The appointment was made by Pope John Paul II.</p>
<p>Christopher Brauchli&#160;can be emailed at&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>. For political commentary see his web page at&#160; <a href="http://humanraceandothersports.com/" type="external">http://humanraceandothersports.com</a></p> | Colorado’s War on Medical Marijuana | true | https://counterpunch.org/2012/06/15/colorados-war-on-medical-marijuana/ | 2012-06-15 | 4 |
<p>Michelle Obama received <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/01/27/michelle-obama-forgoes-a-headscarf-and-sparks-a-backlash-in-saudi-arabia/" type="external">widespread criticism</a> from Saudis online for her “immodest” choice to not wear a headscarf as required for women in the Islamic country.</p>
<p>Though foreign women are given exceptions for donning headscarfs, Michelle’s decision to forego the covering offended hundreds of Saudis who took to Twitter to express their disapproval of the first lady going "unveiled." Some specifically noted that Michelle chose to wear a headscarf on her trip to Indonesia and interpreted the choice as a slight to their nation.</p>
<p>واشناراه وادويشاه <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%B4%D9%8A%D9%84_%D8%A3%D9%88%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%A7_%D8%B3%D9%81%D9%88%D8%B1?src=hash" type="external">#ميشيل_أوباما_سفور</a> في بلد التوحيد وفي أندونيسيا بحجابها الله أكبر والعزةلله <a href="https://twitter.com/mshanarm" type="external">@mshanarm</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/s_a_aldweesh" type="external">@s_a_aldweesh</a> <a href="http://t.co/KvGTO2hgG9" type="external">pic.twitter.com/KvGTO2hgG9</a></p>
<p>The Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/01/27/michelle-obama-forgoes-a-headscarf-and-sparks-a-backlash-in-saudi-arabia/" type="external">reports</a>&#160;that over 1,500 tweets with the hashtag #ميشيل_أوباما_سفور&#160;(roughly "#MichelleObamaUnveiled" or "#MichelleObamaImmodest")&#160;were sent Tuesday alone. While much of the online reaction was reportedly harsh, some of the response was a little easier on her.&#160; <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/121510/World/Region/Saudis-on-Twitter-criticise-Michelle-Obama-for-vis.aspx" type="external">Ahram Online</a>&#160;reports that some Saudi Twitter users said Michelle&#160;shouldn't be criticized too harshly because it was an impromptu trip.&#160;</p>
<p>Several news outlets also <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/michelle-obama/11373787/Michelle-Obama-causes-outrage-in-Saudi-Arabia-by-not-wearing-headscarf.html" type="external">noted</a> the manner in which the first lady was treated by Saudi officials, some refusing to shake her hand and barely acknowledging her, while she stood with a look of apparent irritation. &#160;</p>
<p />
<p>The Telegraph&#160; <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/michelle-obama/11373787/Michelle-Obama-causes-outrage-in-Saudi-Arabia-by-not-wearing-headscarf.html" type="external">highlights</a>&#160;the “jarring contrast” between the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia and Obama’s speech just hours before in India on the importance of promoting women’s rights:</p>
<p>Hours before arriving in Riyadh, Obama spoke at length about the importance of women's rights during an address in India, setting up a jarring contrast with his warm embrace of Saudi Arabia, a country where there are strict limits on women's freedom.</p> | Michelle Obama Blasted By Saudis Online For Not Wearing Headscarf | true | http://truthrevolt.org/news/michelle-obama-blasted-online-saudis-not-wearing-headscarf | 2018-10-07 | 0 |
<p>Shares of Cavium (NASDAQ:CAVM) were down Wednesday morning after the chipmaker lowered its revenue outlook late on Tuesday and faced a series of downgrades.</p>
<p>The company said it expects fourth-quarter revenue to be in the range of $56 million to $57 million, which is below average analyst estimates in a Thomson Reuters poll of $61.1 million.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The San Jose, Calif.-based company cited weaker-than-expected revenues across both the enterprise and service provider as well as the broadband and consumer market segments, further exasperated by a larger-than-expected impact of a hub transition at one of its major customers.</p>
<p>Cavium believes it under-shipped to customers in the fourth quarter. It sees gross margin during the period down about one percentage point from its previous guidance on lower sales volume.</p>
<p>The narrowed forecast caused several brokerage firms to lower their forecast on Cavium, with <a href="" type="internal">Piper Jaffray</a> cutting the company’s price target to $16 from $23 and slapping it with an underweight rating.</p>
<p>Needham cut Cavium's price target to $33 from $38, Wedbush reduced it to $24 from $27 and Stifel lowered its price target to $33 from $35.</p>
<p>While Cavium was down more than 7% premarket on Wednesday, it has since retracted some of those losses and was recently off just 1%.</p> | Cavium Shares Off on Lowered Sales View | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/12/28/cavium-shares-off-on-lowered-sales-view.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (AP) — A day before a panel of judges could decide his political survival, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva railed against his adversaries Tuesday night and proclaimed to tens of thousands of supporters that he would stay in Brazilian politics to the end of his life.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, three judges in the southern city of Porto Alegre are to decide whether last year’s corruption and money laundering conviction should stand against the embattled left-leaning politician who is leading in the polls for the October presidential election. A ruling against da Silva could bar him from running.</p>
<p>The former union leader who governed Brazil in 2003-2010 flew to Porto Alegre just to address the gathering of supporters.</p>
<p>“Only one thing will take me out of the streets of this country, and that will be the day that I die,” da Silva told the crowd. “Until then I will be fighting for a fairer society. Whatever is the result of this trial, I will keep fighting for the dignity of the people of this country.”</p>
<p>After the rally, da Silva returned to his hometown of Sao Bernardo do Campo, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.</p>
<p>Elsewhere in Brazil, including major cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, activists both in favor and against da Silva took to the streets, though in moderate numbers. Bigger crowds were expected for Wednesday, with the court hearing being televised on cable TV.</p>
<p>Da Silva did not talk about prosecutors’ accusation that he was the secret owner of a beachfront apartment in the city of Guaruja, in Sao Paulo state, in exchange for favors to construction company OAS. His defense says he never owned the apartment, had a key to it or slept there.</p>
<p>Earlier Tuesday his lawyers asked the court not to arrest da Silva until his case is heard by higher courts. Judge Sergio Moro convicted the former president and sentenced him to 9½ years in prison, but the chairman of the Porto Alegre court already said da Silva will not go to jail Wednesday regardless of the result of the hearing.</p>
<p>The most aggressive speech at the rally was delivered by Joao Pedro Stedile, leader of Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement.</p>
<p>“We will not allow them to arrest Lula whatever is the result,” Stedile said, using the name Brazilians commonly call da Silva. “Do not worry with what will happen tomorrow. It is them (the judges) that will be on trial. Our activists and the left-wing parties will not allow Lula to be arrested. Lula, keep cool: Before they arrest you they will have to arrest all of us.”</p>
<p>Politicians of other left-leaning parties also took the stage to defend da Silva and said he should be allowed to run for president.</p>
<p>The final day to register candidates in Brazil’s electoral court is Aug. 15, and a legal battle is expected if da Silva should be barred from the race.</p>
<p>Earlier in an interview with The Associated Press at her home in Porto Alegre, former President Dilma Rousseff said she believes support for the candidacy of her mentor will grow regardless of how the judges rule.</p>
<p>“This is not a mere trial. It is part of the process that started with my illegal impeachment in 2016. Our adversaries could use Congress to show me out. But they couldn’t use it on Lula because he was not holding office. So they are using the judiciary,” Rousseff said. “What they didn’t expect was to see that the more people know about the case, the more Lula’s approval grows and his rejection rate falls.”</p>
<p>Speaking to journalists at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Brazilian President Michel Temer said da Silva’s case shows that “institutions are functioning” in Brazil. The conservative Temer’s popularity is in the single digits and many analysts believe da Silva’s popularity picked up due to corruption allegations against the current president.</p>
<p>PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (AP) — A day before a panel of judges could decide his political survival, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva railed against his adversaries Tuesday night and proclaimed to tens of thousands of supporters that he would stay in Brazilian politics to the end of his life.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, three judges in the southern city of Porto Alegre are to decide whether last year’s corruption and money laundering conviction should stand against the embattled left-leaning politician who is leading in the polls for the October presidential election. A ruling against da Silva could bar him from running.</p>
<p>The former union leader who governed Brazil in 2003-2010 flew to Porto Alegre just to address the gathering of supporters.</p>
<p>“Only one thing will take me out of the streets of this country, and that will be the day that I die,” da Silva told the crowd. “Until then I will be fighting for a fairer society. Whatever is the result of this trial, I will keep fighting for the dignity of the people of this country.”</p>
<p>After the rally, da Silva returned to his hometown of Sao Bernardo do Campo, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.</p>
<p>Elsewhere in Brazil, including major cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, activists both in favor and against da Silva took to the streets, though in moderate numbers. Bigger crowds were expected for Wednesday, with the court hearing being televised on cable TV.</p>
<p>Da Silva did not talk about prosecutors’ accusation that he was the secret owner of a beachfront apartment in the city of Guaruja, in Sao Paulo state, in exchange for favors to construction company OAS. His defense says he never owned the apartment, had a key to it or slept there.</p>
<p>Earlier Tuesday his lawyers asked the court not to arrest da Silva until his case is heard by higher courts. Judge Sergio Moro convicted the former president and sentenced him to 9½ years in prison, but the chairman of the Porto Alegre court already said da Silva will not go to jail Wednesday regardless of the result of the hearing.</p>
<p>The most aggressive speech at the rally was delivered by Joao Pedro Stedile, leader of Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement.</p>
<p>“We will not allow them to arrest Lula whatever is the result,” Stedile said, using the name Brazilians commonly call da Silva. “Do not worry with what will happen tomorrow. It is them (the judges) that will be on trial. Our activists and the left-wing parties will not allow Lula to be arrested. Lula, keep cool: Before they arrest you they will have to arrest all of us.”</p>
<p>Politicians of other left-leaning parties also took the stage to defend da Silva and said he should be allowed to run for president.</p>
<p>The final day to register candidates in Brazil’s electoral court is Aug. 15, and a legal battle is expected if da Silva should be barred from the race.</p>
<p>Earlier in an interview with The Associated Press at her home in Porto Alegre, former President Dilma Rousseff said she believes support for the candidacy of her mentor will grow regardless of how the judges rule.</p>
<p>“This is not a mere trial. It is part of the process that started with my illegal impeachment in 2016. Our adversaries could use Congress to show me out. But they couldn’t use it on Lula because he was not holding office. So they are using the judiciary,” Rousseff said. “What they didn’t expect was to see that the more people know about the case, the more Lula’s approval grows and his rejection rate falls.”</p>
<p>Speaking to journalists at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Brazilian President Michel Temer said da Silva’s case shows that “institutions are functioning” in Brazil. The conservative Temer’s popularity is in the single digits and many analysts believe da Silva’s popularity picked up due to corruption allegations against the current president.</p> | Brazil’s Da Silva pledges to stay in politics until he dies | false | https://apnews.com/6aa31f084769412292faaf9fcf930a97 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>The darkness drops again but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?</p>
<p>William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming,” 1919</p>
<p>When a middle ground vanishes, when being “on the same page” as your fellow citizens is as bygone as family dinners, and when neutral voices can either not be found or when found unchallenged, reportage must emerge from one side or the other. If a Liberal found something worthwhile in Neoliberal reportage, and vice versa, some compromising space, some middle ground, what President Obama initially dreamed of, would emerge. It hasn’t; no détente relationship seems to have occurred.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, there is some mutuality because an economic order unchallenged by either side persists, even though it is producing a Monopoly game-like ending: all the money and property on one side of the table. There is, it seems, a game going on, one in which one party pushes privatization and profit and the other all forms of justice extended to an expanding host of peripheral, marginalized Others. But the bond of an underlying mutuality lies in this: &#160;a Liberal dividend recipient is grateful to the same economic system to which a Neoliberal dividend recipient is grateful. Neither wants to mess with the goose that lays their golden eggs.</p>
<p>Our Liberal and Neoliberal politics has then been just a game played to hide the fact that both sides are really on the same team. Call it the “Return on Investment” team, le ROI. The Neoliberal side is in need of Liberal sops to the Losers in order to maintain the high moral ground the US has always granted to itself. The Liberal side is in need of Neoliberal threats to everything from the environment to Family Planning. Its bone of contention must never be what Bernie said it was: a wealth divide resulting from the axiomatic movement of an unbridled capitalism. Without being fed by Neoliberal threats to “our” social fabric, the Democratic Party as it has constituted itself would have no game plan of distraction from severe, revolutionary levels of economic inequities. Such distractions benefit both Liberals and Neoliberals.</p>
<p>In this presidential election, however, the absence of Hillary, the Democratic “Chosen One,” from the table of gross economic inequity set to accommodate the already wealthy, including the Clintons, was noted by the supporters of Donald Trump. Looming assaults on the Paris Climate Accord, Roe v. Wade, “Obamacare,” the Iran nuclear deal, entitlement “reform,” and much else did not pivot the Trump supporters away from what was clearly the case in their lives: they were economically frozen in place while gentrifiers, usurers, robots, and evictors were having at them.</p>
<p>What we see as a rule of this game is that issues dealing with racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, choice in everything from gender to abortion, discrimination against marginal and minority group, and gun control do not impact the compounding of dividends. The Bathroom Choice Debate and LGBTQ rights, which were the Liberal Cause Célèbre of the presidential moment, proved not to be rallying flags for all those who were wondering why the political and economic order of things had forgotten them. “Our social fabric” was viewed as the social fabric of about 20% of the population who have the economic and hence political power to claim the word “our” as theirs.</p>
<p>Hillary’s banner waved the day before the election roused all to fight for “Children and the Family!” There was a swaddling political correctness behind these words. Among cultural conservatives, this meant “children who were birthed and not aborted” and “a family consisting of a man and a woman.” They were, therefore, not innocent or neutral words but fighting words, words inciting conflict. That conflict, however, was inconsequential compared to what a defective economic system had done to turn all pretenses of egalitarianism into plutocracy. It was a Swiftian “Big Endian”/”Little Endian” mock fight, a deflection from sense and significance to what was small in terms of a much bigger picture, one in which the feudal was rapidly replacing every advance the working and middle classes had made in the past.</p>
<p>A Neoliberal desire for a very inactive Federal government is hampered by Article I of the Constitution and Amendment XVI giving Congress the power to levy and collect taxes. Thus, ownership of all three branches of the Federal government is necessary to ensure that nothing is done to obstruct “free” enterprise. Taxes directed to privatized enterprises, once public, such as prisons, education, and warfare, detour tax money from non-profit “welfare” directions to shareholders and hedge fund members. Health care for those over 65 has not yet been privatized but remains an enticing profit frontier. Social Security transferred to private for-profit “wealth management” will undoubtedly increase poverty among the elderly. However, as the elderly will remain “free to choose” in their poverty, and “free to choose” is a commanding and ever expanding illusion in the American mass psyche, old, poor and “free to choose” seems to be a future.</p>
<p>Liberals want a Federal government active in all sorts of issues not directly tied to the operations of plutocracy. Unlike Neoliberals, they do not face the problem of the Constitutional existence of a Federal government. Liberals lean on the 14th Amendment’s upholding of equality as a constitutional value and keep their constituents busy with social issues that have a human face and high emotional content. This is opposed to the convoluted and arcane practices of a financial sector and chance-ridden dispensations of market principles. Rather than announce the end of this dark rule economics, Bill Clinton in his 1996 State of the Union Address declared that era of Big Government was over. &#160;The way Washington works must be changed was the campaigning Barack Obama’s message in 2008, although the way Wall Street works had just led to the biggest economic collapse since 1929. It is clearly not simply Neoliberals who wish to pivot attention from the Devil’s brew of market manipulation to Big Government’s supposed over-regulation and give-aways to “Moochers.”</p>
<p>We have a two party system in which both sides agree that the market’s ways are always better than the government’s, though the market ways are stochastic while our checks and balances of three government branches attempt to offset the play of chance and thus limit irrational and unjust and inequitable consequences. The power of the Federal government to tame the economic system is a power not played or played timidly, fearfully, apologetically. The conditions welcoming a strong man demagogue, one who would assert personal force to either start the engines of change or demolish all opposition to change, have emerged in this 2016 presidential election. Rather than a strong, effective government wisely grounded we have wound up with a billionaire narcissist grounded in Reality TV, bankruptcy and tax law, and self-branding.</p>
<p>We know by the results of this presidential election that complicity in preserving an inequitable economic order eventually faces in an election the power of a discarded population. America’s choice of a demagogue is a celebrity demagogue who is severely “Know Nothing,” both assets in a culture manufactured more by pop culture than thought. He emerged from a low ground that was unseen and unexpected. High ground reportage, however, followed the Democratic Party’s championing the rights of immigrants, women, families, children, the old, the sick, the challenged, the environment, minorities, the LGBTQ community and so on. And that reportage, along with such issues, was given the old heave ho because none of that was a sop any longer to the cheated and discarded. Trump’s victory signaled “Game over,” a signal clearly picked up by those whose politics was free, as they themselves were, of economic concerns.</p>
<p>Because the chosen demagogue/pitchman/huckster is a billionaire, or, as a trickster, really a “thousandaire,” the feeling is that he will be immune to the lobbying of the fat cat capitalists. He will, indeed, plunge a sword into the heart of their globalized trade deals, bring manufacturing jobs back even though the fat cats suffer a loss, and use his own knowledge of backroom deal making to expunge backroom deal making. President-elect tweets are already reminding us that Liberal reportage on all this is not to be trusted nor is the fat cat supportive reportage to be trusted. The demagogue’s voice alone, in day or night 140 character tweets, relays the Word, the true Word.</p>
<p>So, we have factions continuing to give us a good fight even though it is a staged World Wide Wrestling sort of fight, and a new faction of the cheated and discarded who have put their man in the White House. But we also have a faction that is unaware or culturally shaped to be blind to all three of these factions.</p>
<p>I think the mentality is well portrayed by Annie Murphy in a TV show Schitz Creek, whose character Alexis Rose, chooses everything and everyone in the world to exist as her fluttering attentiveness requires. She’s “whatever” about what lies outside her own self-interest, but gifted in slipping past the inevitable confrontations with a world outside her own whims. She is representative of a rising generation pop culture as well as psychologists are fascinated with. What is magnetically attracting is what profilers, marketers, branders, and identity explorers are anxious to discover. On the other side, the “Whatever” faction side, there is not much in the mock battles between Liberals and Neoliberals that is attracting. Other stuff is their huckleberry.</p>
<p>What we can glean is that anyone or any position that is “whatever” or dismissive about any authority that conflict with a self-designing reality maker is attracting. Libertarians are then viewed as abolishers of everything that gets in the way of personal determinations. Bernie Sanders’ socialism is attracting here because the word itself signifies an overthrow of everything “same old same old.” Old is no longer simply out of date and surpassed but “analog” which is, as everyone knows, laughably extinct. Or should be. &#160;Ironically, Sanders, the old man, becomes a rebel among this new faction because he bears the banner of rebellion. This is not the kind of rebellion Marlon Brando in The Wild One refers to when asked, “What are you rebelling against?” “Whatya got?” is his answer. You can be there but Brando doesn’t want to be. The “Whatever” faction is against anything actually being there that is outside themselves and therefore a potential difficulty, a potential “negative” spoiling their view. Hillary is not a rebel of any kind but rather the personification of old, over and adios, a vestigial presence intruding my personal space. Her use of “we” is always first person plural when the “Whatevers” translate “we” into “me.” There is no “we” in this faction, perhaps a reason why a “Me” of huge proportions, Trump, captured more of the Millennials, 18-35, than the pollsters had predicted. His Change &amp; Upheaval message was attracting and his delivery medium — Twitter — compelling.</p>
<p>Liberals are now engaged in a battle between social justice and economic justice as their future Cri de Coeur while Neoliberals are poised to either go along with Trump or take him down, either by squashing his business empire or by indictments and possible impeachment. The “Whatever” faction, like the Palestinians whose birthrate will eventually win the day in Israel, may wind up alone in their post-racism, post-partisanship, post-truth, post-capitalism, post-YOU&#160; post-outside, “offline” world.&#160; Or, they could wind up as any one of the myriad “Resistance” forces in dystopic films combating a tyranny that even the most solipsistic cannot ignore. If plutocracy continues, a small fraction could wind up in the Dividend Class, continuing the game of rival ideologies, if Trump does not succeed in turning the whole game toward his own profit.</p>
<p>At the launch of 2017, we defend ourselves from belief in any dominating factions by pointing to factions within factions, an unreachable and untamable diversity, a resistant infinity of personal realities. The notion of a single, oppressive reality, of a monologue that overshadows all tweets, seems not yet in our cultural imaginary. But it may be slouching toward us nonetheless.</p> | Our Political Factions: January 2017 | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/01/06/our-political-factions-january-2017/ | 2017-01-06 | 4 |
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<p>Tyler was arrested by Shiprock Criminal Investigations officers from the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety and was turned over to the FBI, the release said. He is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque today.</p>
<p>Navajo police officers responded to a report of a disturbance at an apartment complex around 9:30 p.m. Friday, and an altercation ensued between Tyler and a police officer, who was stabbed in the foot.</p>
<p>Tyler was shot, but his injuries were not considered life-threatening, according to the FBI release.</p>
<p>The officer has not been named.</p>
<p>******************************************************************************************************************************************************</p>
<p>5:47pm 8/17/13 — Navajo Nation police officer involved in Shiprock shooting</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>By Patrick Lohmann/Journal Staff Writer</p>
<p>A Navajo Nation police officer is under investigation after shooting a man Friday night in Shiprock.</p>
<p>The officer suffered stab wounds to his foot after responding to a “disturbance” at an apartment complex at around 9:30 p.m., a Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman said.</p>
<p>A fight ensued, and the officer, whose identity was not released, shot the man. The man is expected to survive.</p>
<p>Now, the FBI, State Police and the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety are investigating the officer-involved shooting. No further information will be released until the investigation is complete.</p> | UPDATED: Shiprock man arrested in officer-related shooting | false | https://abqjournal.com/251038/updated-shiprock-man-arrested-in-officer-related-shooting.html | 2013-08-21 | 2 |
<p>At a cemetery north of Yangon, a crowd roars with grief, as the watch the arrival of the bodies of 13 boys. They died in their sleep last week, when a fire broke out in their Islamic boarding school in the city.</p>
<p>Muslims, who make up a minority in Myanmar (also known as Burma), have been living in fear, following three days of anti-Muslim mob violence in the heartlands that killed dozens of people. Authorities imposed martial law and sent troops to restore calm. But now the fire in the Yangon boys' school has Muslims in the country's largest city worried that the violence may be arriving on their doorstep.</p>
<p>Kyaw Win and his wife watched the bodies of their two sons, ages 13 and 15, being washed and prepared for burial.</p>
<p>"I feel very sad today," says Kyaw Win, as his wife weeps beside him. "I used to feel sad when my sons suffered small injuries. Now their whole bodies are burned, and they're dead. There are no words to express my sadness now."</p>
<p>One of the mourners at the funeral yells out that Buddhist fundamentalists used chemical weapons to kill the boys, and he says they're the victims of religiously motivated attacks that started outside Yangon.</p>
<p>Authorities say a preliminary investigation indicates an electrical failure sparked the fire. But many people here don't believe it.</p>
<p>"There were all sorts of rumors circulating, because people want to know what happened in the building, and they're very scared," says Kyaw Soe, a Muslim religious leader in Yangon.</p>
<p>"They're angry about the deaths of those 13 children."</p>
<p>A day after the school fire, police arrested two young men who they say had flammable materials outside of a nearby mosque. Township authorities have instituted curfews and sent out neighborhood patrols.</p>
<p>Meantime, stickers with the number "969"³ have started to appear on taxis and businesses in Yangon, identifying them as Buddhist. The numbers stand for the different attributes of the Buddha, and are thought to ward off evil. They're inspired by a radical Mandalay monk called U Wirathu, who was imprisoned for spreading hate messages against Muslims in 2003; he was released last year when the government freed political prisoners.</p>
<p>Now, neighbors in who lived together in Yangon's ethnically and religiously diverse communities are living on edge.</p>
<p>Htuu Lou Rae, a young Burmese man who started a group to foster religious harmony called Coexist, says there are many roots to the tension and violence, but religious hatred isn't the main factor. He says it's more a response to years of military rule.</p>
<p>"It is a reaction to all these oppression and discrimination by the junta for over 40 years," he says. "People react and take it out on people who are easy to discriminate."</p>
<p>Coexist has started its own sticker campaign, handing out stickers with the message, "We are Myanmar citizens who do not discriminate by either race or religion."</p>
<p>Today, they are handing them out near the burned school. The building's charred window frames have already been repainted at the request of authorities. Ye Naung Thein, a religious leader at a nearby mosque, was among the first to arrive at the scene after the fire was extinguished. He says he initially believed it was a deliberate attack, but not now.</p>
<p>When the police gave a press conference, he says, he found out that the school kept gasoline on site to run the generator during power outages, and that teachers had used pillows stuffed with old clothing to try to put out the fire. So he no longer thinks it was arson.</p>
<p>But, he says, if police don't do a thorough investigation to answer everyone's questions, there could be violence.</p>
<p>Last month, President Thein Sein warned in a televised speech that he would not hesitate to use force against "religious extremists" who instigate violence. That has some people worried that the religious tension and violence could stall the country's recent transition from oppressive military rule to democracy.</p> | Yangon Muslims Watch Nervously as Violence Spreads in Myanmar | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-04-11/yangon-muslims-watch-nervously-violence-spreads-myanmar | 2013-04-11 | 3 |
<p>The New York Times has published&#160; <a href="" type="internal">an op-ed piece</a>by historian David Parsons about the coffeehouses started near US bases during the War in Vietnam. Parsons had interviewed me and I&#160;must have been the source of the details he got wrong. (He got the big picture right.) His piece is indented below, with my comments. —Fred Gardner</p>
<p>In the summer of 1967, Fred Gardner arrived in San Francisco with the Vietnam War weighing heavily on his mind. Gardner was 25 years old, a Harvard graduate and a freelance journalist for a number of major publications. He was attracted to Northern California’s mix of counterculture and radical politics, and hoped to become more actively involved in the movement to end the war. He was particularly interested in the revolutionary potential of American servicemen and couldn’t understand why antiwar activists and organizers weren’t paying more attention to such a powerful group of potential allies.</p>
<p>I arrived in the Bay Area because my wife had a fellowship to Stanford and I thought —like a jackass— that her getting a master’s in math was as important as my fabulous job on the editorial board of Scientific American. My friends and family were Back East and I was not especially attracted to Northern California (until I saw the redwoods in Cazadero)… &#160;I knew damn well what was keeping the peace movement from seeing GIs as potential allies: The Class Thing.</p>
<p>Ever since completing a two-year stint in the Army Reserves in 1965,</p>
<p>The National Guard/USAR stint was six years. I enlisted in ’63 and was honorably discharged in ’69, having made PFC. The circumstances of my enlistment are described in <a href="http://www.beyondthc.com/autumn-1963/" type="external">here.</a></p>
<p>Gardner had been closely watching the increasing instances of military insubordination, resistance and outright refusal that were accompanying the war’s escalation. From the case of the Fort Hood Three — G.I.s arrested in 1966 for publicly declaring their opposition to the war and refusal to deploy — to the case of Howard Levy, an Army dermatologist who refused his assignment to provide medical training for Special Forces troops headed to Vietnam, it was clear that the Army was fast becoming the central site of an unprecedented uprising.</p>
<p>The February 1966 issue of Ramparts, &#160;in which Master Sergeant&#160; <a href="http://www.beyondthc.com/my-don-duncan-and-ours/" type="external">Don Duncan</a>, the most decorated enlisted man in the Army, declared <a href="http://www.beyondthc.com/don-duncan-in-ramparts/" type="external">“I Quit!”</a>&#160;made a big impact on me and everybody else who saw Duncan on the cover of the magazine, in uniform and determined.</p>
<p>I interviewed Captain Sanford Wolfson, who had been a surgeon at Bien Hoa, and was court-martialed after telling General William C. Westmoreland —during an inspection— that the hospital was ill-equipped to cope with so many civilian casualties. Wolfson recalled, “Westmoreland was shocked that anybody would confront him with the truth about the medical situation. It was the kind of inspection where everybody’s at attention and says, ‘Yes sir, everything’s fine, sir.’ As he was leaving the ward, the hospital commender tried to deny what I had told him. Westmoreland said, ‘Don’t you worry, Colonel, I can tell a psychotic just by looking at him.” The charge against Wolfson had been refusal to obey a direct order —to shave his goatee.</p>
<p>The court-marital of Dr. Howard Levy was reported on by Andrew Kopkind in the New York Review of Books. Levy said the Green Berets’ ulterior purpose in learning &#160;the healing arts was to gather intelligence. He was sentenced to three years in Leavenworth.&#160;Donna Mickleson and I chose to open the UFO in Columbia, SC —the town frequented by soldiers from Fort Jackson— because there were some GIs stationed there who had attended Levy’s court-martial and we figured they’d find us.</p>
<p>The Reserve unit I was assigned to was headquartered at Fort Jackson. There was a big photo of Senator Strom Thurmond as you entered the armory, and there was a red-headed officer named Harry Dent who briefed the troops on current events. Historians credit Dent with developing the Republican Party’s “Southern Strategy.” I was assigned to permanent KP, which I considered good duty: meaningful work, companionship, access to food, no boredom.</p>
<p>By 1967, the “G.I. movement” was capturing national headlines.</p>
<p>It was February ’68 when the media took notice of anti-war sentiment in the ranks. Jack Newfield and Paul Cowan of the Village Voice covered the “pray-in for peace” conducted by 21 GIs in uniform at a Fort Jackson chapel. Then Ben Franklin of the NY Times broke the story where the decision-making elites would read it.</p>
<p>And it wasn’t just the war that was aggravating American servicemen. The military’s pervasive racial discrimination — unequal opportunities for promotion, unfair housing practices, persistent harassment and abuse — fueled increasing outrage among black G.I.s as the war progressed. Influenced by the civil rights and black liberation movements, black soldiers participated in widespread and diverse acts of resistance throughout the Vietnam era. Racial tensions were particularly high in the Army, where a vast majority of draftees were being sent, and where evasion, desertion and insubordination rates among black G.I.s exploded in the war’s later years. An antiwar movement in the military was beginning to take shape, with black soldiers often its vanguard.</p>
<p>As Gardner sat in the radical coffeehouses of San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood that summer,&#160;he thought about the explosive power of servicemen turning against the war and wondered how that power could be supported and nurtured by the civilian antiwar movement.</p>
<p>I was living in Noe Valley, trying to save a doomed marriage. &#160;On those rare occasions when I had a cup of coffee at the Cafe Trieste, I was probably reading Herb Caen or the Sporting Green.</p>
<p>Most of all, he wanted to find a way to reach out to disaffected young G.I.s, to show them that there was a whole community of antiwar activists and organizers who were on their side. He finally settled on an idea: opening a network of youth-culture-oriented coffeehouses, just like the ones in North Beach, in towns outside military bases around the country.</p>
<p>The model that I thought could be re-created in Army towns was a political cabaret on Broadway called The Committee. The director, Alan Myerson, provided a most useful piece of advice before I left town: put a rheostat near the cash register so the handling the register can also control the stage lights.</p>
<p>In January 1968 he did just that, traveling with a fellow activist, Donna Mickleson, to Columbia, S.C., home of Fort Jackson, one of the Army’s largest training bases and the crown jewel of the state’s many military installations.</p>
<p>Donna and I hit Columbia in September, ’67.&#160;On our first day in town we went to a real estate agent to rent a&#160;house. &#160;I said I was setting up a new business in&#160;town, my wife and kids would soon be joining us. Donna said she was my sister-in-law and we wanted a big place. The realtor said she had two houses that met our&#160;needs, one on York, one on Waccamah. &#160;They both sounded good. We went to&#160;check out the place on York first, and it was perfect —four bedrooms, not&#160;too far from Main St., and bordering on some piney woods (the grounds of an&#160;insane asylum). When we got back to the office we told the realtor we liked&#160;it. She said, “That’s good, because the house on Waccamah, well, Mrs.&#160;Westmoreland is a little reluctant to rent it out to a family with young&#160;children. It’s the house where the general grew up, and she thinks it’s&#160;going to be a national shrine someday, after he becomes president.”</p>
<p>Donna and I were all “Mm-hmm, how interesting.”</p>
<p>“Would you like to go see it?”</p>
<p>We looked at each other and one of us said, “Thanks anyway.” We signed the&#160;lease for the house on York.</p>
<p>The UFO coffeehouse, decorated with rock ’n’ roll posters donated from the San Francisco promoter Bill Graham, quickly became a popular hangout for G.I.s — and a target of significant hostility from military officials, city authorities and outraged local citizens (“It’s a sore spot in our craw,” a Columbia official said.) The coffeehouse was located just off base, out of the military’s reach but close enough for soldiers to visit during their free time — places where active-duty servicemen, veterans and civilian activists could meet to plan demonstrations, publish underground newspapers and work to build the nascent peace movement within the military.</p>
<p>By the summer of 1968, major antiwar organizations took notice of the controversy the UFO was stirring up in Columbia and initiated a “Summer of Support” to organize funds for more coffeehouse projects around the country. In ensuing years, more than 25 “G.I. coffeehouses” opened up near military bases in the United States and at a number of bases overseas.</p>
<p>Over the course of six years, the coffeehouse network would play a central role in some of the G.I. movement’s most significant actions. At the Oleo Strut coffeehouse in Killeen, Tex., local staff and G.I.s mobilized to support the Fort Hood 43 — a large group of black soldiers who were arrested at a meeting to discuss their refusal to deploy for riot control duty at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. A black veteran present at the meeting described its mood: “A lot of black G.I.s knew what the thing was going to be about and they weren’t going to go and fight their own people.” Army authorities were caught off guard by the publicity the coffeehouse brought to the case, and began to examine their strategies for dealing with political expression among the ranks.</p>
<p>When eight black G.I.s, each of them leaders of the group G.I.s United Against the War in Vietnam, were arrested in 1969 for holding an illegal demonstration at Fort Jackson, the UFO coffeehouse served as a local operations center, drumming up funds for lawyers and promoting the “Fort Jackson Eight” story to the national media. After G.I. and civilian activists created intense public pressure, officials quietly dropped all charges, signaling a shift in how the military would respond to soldiers expressing dissent.</p>
<p>Not all of the GIs United group were black. One of the white guys, Bruce Patterson, worked for many years in Mendocino County and wrote for the &#160;Anderson Valley Advertiser. I always appreciated his stuff and am sorry our paths never crossed. Maybe next year in Pendleton… One of the Fort Hood Three, David Samas, became a high-end upholsterer in Fort Bragg and I’m glad we brought the red couch to him.</p>
<p>During its brief lifetime, the G.I. coffeehouse network was subjected to attacks from all sides — investigated by the F.B.I. and congressional committees, infiltrated by law enforcement, harassed by military authorities and, in a number of startling cases, terrorized by local vigilantes. In 1970, at the Fort Dix coffeehouse project in Wrightstown, N.J., G.I.s and civilians were celebrating Valentine’s Day when a live grenade flew in through an open door; it exploded, seriously injuring two Fort Dix soldiers and a civilian. Another popular coffeehouse, the Covered Wagon in Mountain Home, Idaho (near a major Air Force base), was a frequent target of harassment by outraged locals, who finally burned it to the ground.</p>
<p>Though their numbers dwindled as the war drew to a close in the mid-1970s, G.I. coffeehouses left an indelible mark on the Vietnam era. While popular mythology often places the antiwar movement at odds with American troops, the history of G.I. coffeehouses, and the G.I. movement of which they were a part, paints a very different picture. Over the course of the war, thousands of military service members from every branch — active-duty G.I.s, veterans, nurses and even officers — expressed their opposition to American policy in Vietnam. They joined forces with civilian antiwar organizations that, particularly after 1968, focused significant energy and resources on developing social and political bonds with American service members. Hoping to build the resistance that was already taking shape in the Army, activists at G.I. coffeehouses worked directly with service members on hundreds of political projects and demonstrations, despite relentless government surveillance, infiltration and harassment.</p>
<p>The unprecedented eruption of resistance and activism by American troops is critical to understanding the history of the Vietnam War. The G.I. movement and related phenomenon created a significant crisis for the American military, which feared exactly the kind of alliance between civilians and soldiers that Fred Gardner had in mind when he opened the first G.I. coffeehouse in 1968. Despite the extraordinary political and cultural impact that dissenting soldiers made throughout the Vietnam era, their voices have been nearly erased from history, replaced by a stereotypical image of loyal, patriotic soldiers antagonized and spat upon by ungrateful antiwar activists. In the decades since the war’s end, countless Hollywood movies, books, political speeches and celebrated documentaries have repeated this image, obscuring the war’s deep unpopularity among the ranks and the countless ways that American troops expressed their opposition.</p>
<p>This historical erasure serves a distinct purpose, casting dissent — from wearing an antiwar T-shirt to kneeling during the national anthem — as inherently disrespectful, even abusive, to American soldiers. A fuller reckoning with the era’s history would begin by acknowledging the countless G.I.s and civilians who stood together against the war. G.I. coffeehouses are a vital window onto this history, showing us places where men and women came together to share their common revulsion at the war in Vietnam, and to begin organizing a collective effort to make it stop.</p>
<p>David L. Parsons is the author of “ <a href="" type="internal">Dangerous Grounds: Antiwar Coffeehouses and Military Dissent in the Vietnam Era.</a>” He teaches at Emerson College in Los Angeles and hosts the history podcast “ <a href="http://nostalgiatrap.libsyn.com/" type="external">The Nostalgia Trap</a>.”</p>
<p>Parsons’ piece has elicited 54 comments, none bellicose, many moving and insightful. For example—</p>
<p>From William Shelton, &#160;Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil:</p>
<p>I am a lifetime member of VVAW, having initially joined in the fall of 1971, while I was a cadet at the AF Academy. I cannot fault Mr. Parsons for not mentioning our organization. When we talk about the anti-war movement and the military, there are many and varied aspects to that movement. It was far from monolithic. It was much more like a band of outraged individiuals scattered here there and everywhere doing what we could. Resistance took many forms. VVAW was an organization of veterans reaching out to other veterans and active duty military. (As an aside, the first time I walked into a VVAW office, in Denver, I was in uniform. I was looking for a place to change into civilian clothes. I have seldom been made to feel as welcome anywhere else as I was then and there. I joined VVAW on the spot and have never looked back.)</p>
<p>The coffee shops were largely created by civilian activists, with veteran involvement, to be sure, to offer a spot to chill and seek out like-minded people. VVAW was certainly supportive of the coffee shops, but it was not our main focus. It took many people and many approaches on many fronts for that war to come to an end. I am proud to have been a small part of it and I am glad that this story is being told, lest we forget.</p>
<p>From Dan Styer, Wakeman, OH:</p>
<p>I remember picking up a GI hitchhiker, home on leave from Vietnam but scheduled to return, while I was driving to an antiwar demonstration in Pennsylvania. We asked whether he felt betrayed by the antiwar movement. He said “I think that the peace protesters are the only people in America who care about us.”</p>
<p>From David Sorenson, Montgomery, AL:</p>
<p>Many years ago, when I was on the faculty of Denison University, the students invited General William Westmoreland, the former U.S. commander in Vietnam, to give a talk. He essentially blamed the U.S. failure on the influence of coffeehouses on American troops, and we laughed at him, as his argument seemed to deny the failure of American policy in Vietnam. Perhaps we should not have laughed…</p>
<p>So General Westmoreland thought the coffeehouses turned the tide… And all these years I thought it was the Vietnamese!</p> | GI Coffeehouses Recalled: a Compliment From General Westmoreland | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/01/16/gi-coffeehouses-recalled-a-compliment-from-general-westmoreland/ | 2018-01-16 | 4 |
<p>Editor’s note: Veteran journalist and Truthdig columnist <a href="" type="internal">Chris Hedges</a>, on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., gave the following speech calling for impeachment.</p>
<p>George Bush has shredded, violated or absented America from its obligations under international law. He has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, backed out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, tried to kill the International Criminal Court, walked out on negotiations on chemical and biological weapons and defied the Geneva Convention and human rights law in the treatment of detainees. Most egregiously, he launched an illegal war in Iraq based on fabricated evidence we now know had been discredited even before it was made public.</p>
<p>This president is guilty, in short, of what in legal circles is known as the “crime of aggression.” And if we as citizens do not hold him accountable for these crimes, if we do not begin the process of impeachment, we will be complicit in the codification of a new world order, one that will have terrifying consequences. For a world without treaties, statutes and laws is a world where any nation, from a rogue nuclear state to a great imperial power, will be able to invoke its domestic laws to annul its obligations to others. This new order will undo five decades of international cooperation — largely put in place by the United States — and thrust us into a Hobbesian nightmare.</p>
<p>We must not allow international laws and treaties — ones that set minimum standards of behavior and provide a framework for competing social, political, economic and religious groups and interests to resolve differences — to be discarded. The exercise of power without law is tyranny. And the consequences of George Bush’s violation of the law, his creation of legal black holes that can swallow us along with those outside our gates, run in a direct line from the White House to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.</p>
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<p>George Bush — we now know from the leaked Downing Street memo — fabricated a legal pretext for war. He decided to charge Saddam Hussein with the material breach of the resolution passed in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War. He had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was in breach of this resolution. And so he and his advisers manufactured reports of weapons of mass destruction and disseminated them to a frightened and manipulated press and public. In short, he lied to us and to the rest of the world. There are tens of thousands, perhaps a few hundred thousand people, who have been killed and maimed in Iraq because of a war that has no legal justification, a war waged in violation of international law. The grief visited on American and Iraqi families demands that we as citizens begin the process to restore the rule of law. The murderous rampages in Iraq demand this. The torture done in our name demands this. The empowerment of states that will act on our lawless example if we do not impeach George Bush and return to a world of standards demands this. Simple human decency demands this.</p>
<p>A rule-based world matters. The creation of these international bodies and rules, as well as the use of our influence over the last half-century to see they were followed, have allowed us to stand pre-eminent as a nation — one that respects and defends the rule of law. If we demolish the fragile and delicate international order, if we permit George Bush to create a world where diplomacy, broad cooperation and the law are worthless, if we allow these international legal systems to unravel, we will see our moral and political authority plummet. We will erode the possibility of cooperation between nation-states, including our closest allies, and see visited upon us the evils we visit on others.</p>
<p /> | No One Should Be Above the Law | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/no-one-should-be-above-the-law/ | 2007-04-26 | 4 |
<p>The latest Rasmussen poll has found that <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/august_2016/most_want_to_see_clinton_trump_tax_returns_medical_records" type="external">59% of the nation believe</a> presidential candidates should release medical records of their most recent visit to the doctor. Being that medical records are private documents, what do you think?</p>
<p>Republicans are again asking questions about Hillary Clinton’s health, while Democrats continue to insist that Donald Trump release his tax returns. Most voters still believe major White House hopefuls should make public recent tax returns, but now most also think they should release their medical records, too.</p>
<p>A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 67% of Likely U.S. Voters think all presidential candidates should release at least their most recent tax returns to the public, although that’s down slightly from 73% who felt that way <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2016/do_voters_want_to_see_candidate_tax_returns" type="external">a year ago</a>. Just 23% disagree. (To see survey question wording, <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/questions/pt_survey_questions/august_2016/questions_candidate_documentation_august_9_10_2016" type="external">click here</a>.)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/july_2012/46_say_romney_should_release_more_tax_returns_46_disagree" type="external">In July 2012 during the last presidential race</a>,&#160;only six percent (6%) thought the release of the most recent year’s tax return was enough. Twenty-nine percent (29%) felt returns from the most recent two years were necessary, while 60% wanted to see more than that.</p>
<p>But 59% of voters also now believe all major presidential candidates should release at least their most recent medical records to the public. That’s up dramatically from 38% <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/may_2014/38_say_presidential_candidates_should_disclose_medical_records" type="external">in May 2014 when questions about Clinton’s health were first being raised</a>. Thirty percent (30%) don’t think candidates should have to release their recent medical records, while 11% are undecided.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Democrats (62%) believe even more strongly than Republicans (58%) and voters not affiliated with either major party (57%) that presidential candidates should release their recent medial records. Most Republicans (59%) favor release of the most recent tax returns, but they’re less supportive than Democrats (77%) and unaffiliateds (63%) are.</p>
<p>The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on August 9-10, 2016 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by <a href="http://www.pulseopinionresearch.com/" type="external">Pulse Opinion Research, LLC</a>. See <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/about_us/methodology" type="external">methodology</a>.</p>
<p /> | DEAR AMERICA: 59% Think Hillary Needs to Release Her MEDICAL RECORDS–Are You One of Them? | true | http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/dear-america-59-think-hillary-needs-to-release-her-medical-records-are-you-one-of-them/ | 0 |
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<p>Interesting observation from MSNBC’s First Read:</p>
<p>McCain really doesn’t have a money problem. In fact, as Rick Davis bragged last week, money isn’t going to be the issue many thought it would be just two months ago. Why is this? It appears many Republican donors are buying into the argument that the ONLY shot Republicans have of winning anything is the presidency. And this is hurting Republicans running for the House and Senate where Democrats are dominating on the financial front. Yesterday, the DSCC released a list of 11 races being held in GOP-held seats, and the Democrats were nearly on par or ahead in every race, according to the most recent fundraising report. Question: Are we seeing the reverse ’96 effect taking place inside the GOP? In 1996, the word went out that Dole was a lost cause, and all of the GOP’s resources went to saving House and Senate candidates in order to preserve their control of Congress.</p>
<p>Obama raised $52 million in June, while the DNC raised $22.4 million. Together, they reportedly have $92 million cash on hand. McCain raised $22 million in June, with the RNC adding $25.7 million. Together, they have $95 million on hand.</p>
<p>So yeah, McCain is hanging tough in the money race. We’ll see if that continues into the general election period after the conventions.</p>
<p /> | Republican Donors Starving Downticket Candidates to Feed McCain | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/07/republican-donors-starving-downticket-candidates-feed-mccain/ | 2008-07-17 | 4 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The U.S. Forest Service is allowing ranchers to return cattle to grazing leases on one of 17 allotments in New Mexico.</p>
<p>The agency has also agreed to partner with the New Mexico Range Improvement Task force to review data to make a decision on the remaining allotments.</p>
<p>The decision drew praise from two members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, Reps. Steve Pearce and Michelle Lujan Grisham.</p>
<p>Pearce, a Republican, said it took a bipartisan effort for the agency to reconsider its initial decision to keep ranchers from grazing. Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said ranching is a vital aspect of the state’s economy and culture.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, ranchers were ordered to remove livestock from the allotments due to drought. Ranchers complained the action was arbitrary and would lead to economic hardship.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Grazing leases OK on one allotment | false | https://abqjournal.com/298694/grazing-leases-ok-on-one-allotment.html | 2013-11-11 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Brocade Communications.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Brocade Communications (NASDAQ: BRCD) rose 16.4% in November, according to data provided by <a href="https://www.capitaliq.com/CIQDotNet/Login.aspx" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>. The company announced on Nov. 2 that it had agreed to be acquired by Broadcom Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO), which prompted the surge in the stock price.</p>
<p>Broadcom agreed to pay $12.75 in cash for each share of Brocade, valuing the company at $5.5 billion, plus $0.4 billion of net debt. That price represents a 47% premium on top of Brocade's closing price on Oct. 28, and roughly the same level at which the stock peaked in early 2015.</p>
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<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/BRCD" type="external">BRCD</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Despite an opportunity for vertical integration, Broadcom plans to divest Brocade's IP Networking business following the close of the transaction. This business includes wireless and campus networking, data center switching and routing, and software networking solutions. Broadcom sells chips that power networking hardware, so the company may be looking to avoid competing directly with any of its customers.</p>
<p>Broadcom CEO Hock Tan laid out the case for acquiring Brocade:</p>
<p>Brocade is a leader in Fibre Channel storage area network switching, a business explicitly singled out by Broadcom in the press release announcing the deal.</p>
<p>Broadcom and Brocade expect the deal to close during the second half of Broadcom's fiscal year 2017. Upon closing, Broadcom expects the acquisition to be accretive to its non-GAAP free cash flow and earnings per share. The company expects Brocade's Fibre Channel storage area network business to contribute roughly $900 million of pro forma non- <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/importance-of-accounting-principles-for-wiki.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">GAAP Opens a New Window.</a> <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/ebitda.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">EBITDA Opens a New Window.</a> in fiscal 2018.</p>
<p>Broadcom was formed via the merger of Avago and the old Broadcom, and the company isn't slowing down when it comes to acquisitions. Broadcom is already one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world, with nearly $11 billion of revenue over the past 12 months, and the Brocade acquisition will add to that total.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Brocade Communications Systems 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=fbd9226d-09c8-47c8-a6bc-768ea9e27900&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 Brocade Communications Systems 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=fbd9226d-09c8-47c8-a6bc-768ea9e27900&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 Nov. 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBargainBin/info.aspx" type="external">Timothy Green Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom. 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 Opens a New Window.</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 Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Shares of Brocade Communications Gained 16% in November | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/06/why-shares-brocade-communications-gained-16-in-november.html | 2016-12-06 | 0 |
<p>Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will cut costs and sell assets to boost capital, it said on Wednesday after failing its Bank of England stress test, with the central bank warning of a "challenging" outlook for Britain's financial system.</p>
<p>State-backed RBS rushed out a statement after the test results to say it would take a range of actions to make up the capital shortfall identified, amounting to about 2 billion pounds ($2.49 billion).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares in RBS, which was bailed out by UK taxpayers eight years ago, fell 4.6 percent to 188 pence before reducing losses to 2.9 percent at 1139 GMT.</p>
<p>The unexpected result underlines the litany of problems with which RBS is grappling, including a mounting legal bill for misconduct before the 2008 financial crisis and difficulties selling off assets such as its Williams &amp; Glyn banking business.</p>
<p>The Bank of England (BoE) approved RBS's new capital plan on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>"Its challenge is that it still has legacy issues ... There's misconduct costs, there's impaired assets, they're still working through the so-called non-core assets, on which they have made progress," BoE Governor Mark Carney told reporters on Wednesday.</p>
<p>"They are not talking about raising capital. The magnitude of their plan is much bigger than the size of the shortfall in the stress test."</p>
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<p>RBS, which is expected to settle soon with U.S. authorities over alleged mis-selling of mortgage backed securities in the run-up to the financial crisis, said the measures approved by the BoE should mean that it does not have to tap markets to cover the capital shortfall.</p>
<p>The bank is unlikely to have to sell any major assets and will instead raise the additional capital by reducing exposures in sectors including commercial property, oil and gas, a source at RBS said.</p>
<p>JOB CUTS, BRANCH CLOSURES?</p>
<p>Asset sales would avoid the embarrassment of a rights issue, that would force the government to put in even more taxpayer money, given that it owns the majority of the shares.</p>
<p>RBS is expected to unveil a new cost-cutting plan at its full-year results in early 2017, which the source at the bank said is likely to include job cuts and branch closures, and analysts said the stress-test result would further delay RBS's ability to pay dividends.</p>
<p>"It is going to be very difficult. They have been doing this for a while," said Julian Chillingworth, Chief Investment Officer at Rathbone Brothers, an RBS shareholder.</p>
<p>Chillingworth remains confident in RBS Chief Executive Ross McEwan, describing him as "on the case". Chillingworth said that the biggest worry would be if McEwan were to quit "because this is as much a political job as it is a banking job".</p>
<p>Barclays also fell short by some measures in its stress test but will not have to submit a new capital-raising plan because it has already announced steps to strengthen its defenses, including the planned sale of its African business, the BoE Financial Policy Committee (FPC) said.</p>
<p>Standard Chartered missed the test's minimum Tier 1 capital target but also escapes the need for new capital-raising because of steps already taken to cut costs and sell assets.</p>
<p>The performance of the seven lenders tested was worse than many market participants had expected.</p>
<p>"This is the highest average fall in CET1 (a measure of capital) and leverage ratios we���ve seen in the history of a UK concurrent stress test," said Steven Hall, banking partner at KPMG.</p>
<p>TOUGHEST TEST</p>
<p>This year's health check, the third by the Bank of England since the 2007-09 financial crisis forced taxpayers to bail out lenders such as RBS, was the toughest yet. Test scenarios combined shocks to both global and domestic economies, as well as the impact of potential misconduct fines.</p>
<p>Britain's banking system underwent a severe real-life test in June, when markets and sterling plummeted in response to Britain's vote to leave the European Union, and the Bank of England said on Wednesday that Britain's financial system faces elevated Brexit risks and market volatility after the U.S. election.</p>
<p>HSBC , Lloyds Banking Group , Nationwide and Santander UK did not reveal any capital inadequacies in the test, the central bank said, adding that the level of capital in the UK banking system was satisfactory overall at 13.5 percent of risk-weighted assets.</p>
<p>The Bank of England also gave more detail on a second stress test that will be introduced next year alongside its annual check, saying that it will cover a seven-year period -- compared with five in the basic test -- and look at "severe headwinds" challenging profitability.</p>
<p>Banks could be required to change business models to make them more sustainable in the face of prolonged low interest rates and uncertainty over Britain's future relations with the EU after it leaves the bloc.</p>
<p>The Bank of England is now developing a system-wide test to assess the dynamics of broader markets under stress and will conduct an in-depth assessment of risks from derivatives trades.</p>
<p>The FPC also published on Wednesday an assessment of insurers' investment activities, concluding that changes are needed to the EU's Solvency II insurance rules.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Lawrence White, Andrew MacAskill and Simon Jessop; Editing by Rachel Armstrong and David Goodman)</p> | British lender RBS to bolster capital after failing stress test | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/30/british-lender-rbs-to-bolster-capital-after-failing-stress-test.html | 2016-11-30 | 0 |
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<p>The Democrat Party is set to pick the most radical chairman ever if they vote for Rep. Keith Ellison to head the Democrat National Committee when they convene this weekend, and <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/320553-ellison-holds-edge-in-dnc-race" type="external">reports claim</a> that he has the edge.</p>
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<p>As the left <a href="" type="internal">has leveled baseless claims</a> that President Donald Trump is somehow anti-Semitic, the DNC is set to make their leader a man with a well known anti-Semitic and racist past.</p>
<p>The Daily Caller <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2016/11/17/democrats-must-scrutinize-keith-ellisons-anti-semitic-past-and-ties-to-radical-islam/" type="external">reported</a>:</p>
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<p>The man poised to head the Democratic Party was a spokesman for the Nation of Islam well into his 30’s who publicly spewed anti-Semitism and later in life as a Congressional candidate knowingly accepted $50,000 in campaign contributions given and raised by Islamic radicals who openly supported Islamic terrorism and were leaders of front groups for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>And once in office as a Congressman, Keith Ellison more than hinted that 9/11 was an inside job carried out to create pretext for war against Muslims – a trope often pushed by anti-Semites who claim Israeli or “Mossad” complicity – by comparing 9/11 to the Reichstag Fire, the infamous 1933 arson of the German Parliament building, which the Nazis pinned on Communists and thus used to gain majority control of the government and establish Nazi Germany.</p>
<p>To be clear, Ellison has never genuinely repudiated his past anti-Semitism or his close association with the terror-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) or its co-founder, Nihad Awad, who has publicly supported Islamic terrorism.</p>
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<p>Ellison’s backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders along with his own far-left ideology, while problematic for the Democrat Party, are the least of their problems.</p>
<p>After they were trounced in 2016 because of how out of touch and off the rails the party has gotten, Democrats are set to potentially vote in a man to lead the party that is not only going to push them further to the left, but worse has a shockingly disturbing past that should disqualify him from the position.</p>
<p>Since it hasn’t, the Democrats have made it clear where they stand on these issues — and it shows that, as usual, the left projects their own sins onto their opponents, which is truly deplorable.</p>
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<p>What do you think? Scroll down to comment below.</p> | Democrat Party Set To Pick Most Radical Chairman Ever | true | http://thefederalistpapers.org/us/democrat-party-set-to-pick-most-radical-chairman-ever | 0 |
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<p>Sean Spicer said President Trump would sign no anti-LGBT religious freedom order “right now.” (Screen capture via C-Span)</p>
<p>White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer denied Thursday President Trump would sign a “religious freedom” order enabling sweeping anti-LGBT discrimination — at least for the time being — by asserting a directive along those lines won’t be signed “right now.”</p>
<p>Spicer made the remarks under questioning from CBS News’ Major Garrett on a draft executive order circulating among federal advocacy groups that would green light discrimination on the basis of the religious objections to same-sex marriage, premarital sex, abortion and transgender status.</p>
<p>“There is right now no executive orders that are official or able to read out,” Spicer said. “We maintain that. There’s nothing new on that front. There are a lot of ideas that are being floated out. I mentioned this the last couple days, but that doesn’t mean — part of it as the president does all the time, he asks for input, he asks for ideas, and on a variety of subjects, there are staffing procedures where people have a thought, or an idea, and it goes through the process, but until the president makes up his mind and gives feedback and decides that that’s final, there’s nothing to announce.”</p>
<p>The draft order — first reported by The Nation and obtained by the Washington Blade — became public around the time Trump spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast amid speculation the president would sign the order and unveil it to the audience, which typically consists of social conservatives who may welcome policy on “religious freedom” enabling anti-LGBT discrimination.</p>
<p>Spicer downplayed the possibility Trump would sign the executive order after responding to another question from the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Jennifer Wishon, who referenced Trump’s speech at the breakfast and asked about ways the president could ease the perceived tension between religious freedom and government mandates.</p>
<p>Acknowledging “a line” between the two areas, Spicer said “we have freedom of religion in this country,” which allows people to “practice their religion, express their religion and express areas of their faith without reprisal.”</p>
<p>“And I think that pendulum sometimes swings the other way in the name of political correctness, and I think the president and the vice president both understand that one of the things that makes this country, our democracy so great is our ability to express our religion, to believe a faith, to express it, to live by it,” Spicer said.</p>
<p>Spicer added “the important part” of religious freedom is allowing a “small business owner or employee who wants to have a degree of expression of faith at the company.”</p>
<p>“Too often those voices gets pushed out in the name of political correctness,” Spicer said. “So he’s going to continue to make sure that we not only speak up for it, but find ways in which we can keep that line a little less blurred and make sure that the pendulum doesn’t swing against people.”</p>
<p>Spicer added, “We shouldn’t impose a religion on anybody. We’re free to express a religion or not have one. That’s obviously …&#160;an equally valid way of living your life, but at the same time, I think people who want to express their faith shouldn’t be ostracized because they want to live that.”</p>
<p>Amid LGBT rights advances, the issue of “religious freedom” has risen to the fore as states have considered measures that would institute religious carve-outs for individuals and businesses seeking to engage in discrimination. On the same day as the Thursday news briefing, the Republican-controlled Virginia House of Delegates approved a measure that critics say would give taxpayer-funded agencies and service providers a license to discriminate against LGBT people in the name of “religious freedom.”</p>
<p>Asked by CBS News about whether&#160;the pendulum has swung too far against religious freedom, Spicer pointed to lawsuits filed by Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor against the contraception mandate in Obamacare.</p>
<p>“I think there’s several businesses, several institutions, Catholic institutions and others that have been mandated or apparently attempted to mandate certain things that they may or may not do, or how they have to treat their employees,” Spicer said. “Those are instances where clearly the pendulum swinging a different way, where you are not carving out institutions or the ability for privately held businesses to conduct themselves to their faith or their moral compass. So there’s clearly a lot of evidence in the last couple years of the government coming in with regulations and policies that have frankly denied people the ability to live according to their faith.”</p>
<p>Asked to clarify whether those kinds of mandates amount to discrimination, Spicer said, “I think it’s a pendulum, and where the president is he wants to make sure you don’t penalize someone for wanting to express their faith and to the extent that we can keep that line a little less blurred and allow people who don’t believe in a faith or have an opposing faith, making sure that they are equally comfortable in the workplace.”</p>
<p>“But we shouldn’t penalize people or make them abide by certain policies or regulations, which are in direct contradiction to their faith,” Spicer concluded.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">religious freedom</a> <a href="" type="internal">Sean Spicer</a> <a href="" type="internal">White House</a></p> | White House: No anti-LGBT order ‘right now’ on ‘religious freedom’ | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2017/02/02/white-house-no-anti-lgbt-order-right-now-on-religious-freedom/ | 3 |
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<p>Apple will have to pay up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) plus interest in back taxes to Ireland after the European Union found Tuesday that the U.S. technology giant received illegal tax benefits over 11 years.</p>
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<p>The ruling is the biggest salvo in the EU executive Commission's battle to have multinationals pay their fair share in the region. The EU alleges that many big companies struck deals with EU countries to pay unusually low tax in exchange for basing their EU operations there.</p>
<p>EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that a three-year investigation found Ireland granted such lavish tax breaks to Apple that the multinational's effective corporate tax rate on its European profits dropped from 1 percent in 2003 to a mere 0.005 percent in 2014.</p>
<p>That last tax rate meant that for each million euros in profits, Apple paid just 50 euros in taxes, Vestager told a news conference.</p>
<p>"Member states cannot give tax benefits to selected companies_this is illegal under EU state aid rules," Vestager said.</p>
<p>"Ireland must now recover the unpaid taxes in Ireland from Apple for the years 2003 to 2014 of up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion), plus interest," the Commission said in a statement.</p>
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<p>Apple said in a statement that it had followed the law and paid every cent of the taxes it owed. It said it would challenge the EU action in the European courts, and predicted it would be vindicated.</p>
<p>The Irish government denied granting favorable fiscal treatment to the maker of the iPhone and other consumer electronics products, computer software and online services. "Ireland's position remains that the full amount of tax was paid in this case and no state aid was provided," the Irish statement said. "Ireland does not do deals with taxpayers."</p>
<p>Apple accused the EU executive body of engaging in efforts "to rewrite Apple's history in Europe, ignore Ireland's tax laws and upend the international tax system in the process."</p>
<p>"The Commission's case is not about how much Apple pays in taxes, it's about which government collects the money," the company said in a statement. "It will have a profound and harmful effect on investment and job creation in Europe. Apple follows the law and pays all of the taxes we owe wherever we operate. We will appeal and we are confident the decision will be overturned."</p>
<p>The Irish finance minister, Michael Noonan, said he would seek approval from the Irish Cabinet to legally challenge the EU Commission's ruling.</p>
<p>"It is important that we send a strong message that Ireland remains an attractive and stable location of choice for long-term substantive investment," Noonan said. "Apple has been in Ireland since the 1980s and employs thousands of people in Cork."</p>
<p>A statement from the U.S. government was expected later Tuesday.</p>
<p>In a white paper made public last week, the U.S. Treasury Department accused the European Union of using a different set of criteria to judge cases involving American companies, calling the potential penalties "deeply troubling."</p> | EU says Apple must pay up to 13B euros in back taxes | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/08/30/eu-says-apple-must-pay-up-to-13b-euros-in-back-taxes.html | 2016-08-30 | 0 |
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<p>SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Johnny Cueto remains in the Dominican Republic helping his ailing father a week after pitchers and catchers reported to spring training, and the San Francisco Giants spoke with him on Monday and reported the right-hander is doing well and expects to join the team by this weekend.</p>
<p>Giants manager Bruce Bochy said a decision will be made soon if Cueto remains on the World Baseball Classic roster for his country. Cueto is continuing his throwing at the team’s academy in Boca Chica and Bochy said the pitcher is working to secure all the paperwork for his father to come to the United States.</p>
<p>“The WBC is starting to cause a slight concern,” Bochy said. “He’ll be smart enough to know if he’s ready or not.”</p>
<p>Cueto, who signed a $130 million, six-year contract before last season, went 18-5 with a 2.79 ERA and five complete games in 32 starts last year.</p>
<p>Bochy said the 31-year-old Cueto ideally would be built up to the range of 50-60 pitches ahead of the WBC. The Dominican squad is set to open against Canada in Pool C on March 9 in Miami.</p>
<p>Cueto showed a year ago in his first spring training with the Giants how meticulous a routine he keeps to prepare for a season and even between starts.</p>
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<p>“You know Johnny: He’s smart. He has a great way of getting ready, he paces himself,” Bochy said. “You saw last year. … Johnny knows what it takes to get ready.”</p>
<p>Bochy has received video of Cueto’s throwing sessions back home and didn’t want to speculate on his status for the WBC until speaking directly with Cueto.</p>
<p>If Cueto doesn’t feel quite ready by March 9, there’s also the option that he could join the Dominican Republic team for a later round of the tournament.</p>
<p>“We’re fine. This spring has started early, so he’ll have plenty of time to get ready,” Bochy said. “Now, the question will be, will he be ready for the WBC? That’s the question we have to answer now, and that’s why we’re going to call him, we’re going to try to get ahold of him to see exactly where we’re at. He’ll be honest with us. We’re going to talk about a lot of things, see exactly where he’s at, where he’s at mentally, too, how his father’s doing. He’s got a lot going on right now.”</p>
<p>Athletic trainer Dave Groeschner will be away from the Giants to work as athletic trainer for the Netherlands team managed by San Francisco hitting coach Hensley Meulens.</p> | Giants’ Cueto still in Dominican Republic with ailing father | false | https://abqjournal.com/953823/giants-cueto-still-in-dominican-republic-with-ailing-father.html | 2017-02-20 | 2 |
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<p>Chicago Public Schools teachers rallied outside the city's Board of Education offices in the Loop on Tuesday. &#160; (Kari Lydersen)</p>
<p>The section of Ashland Avenue running through the Pilsen neighborhood on Chicago’s near southwest side is always noisy. A strip of restaurants, bakeries, hardware stores and other small businesses in the heart of the Mexican immigrant neighborhood is sandwiched between heavily industrial areas and two major highways, so traffic is heavy and loud.</p>
<p>But on September 11, the noise level on Ashland Avenue just east of the Cooper Academy bilingual elementary school became a true cacophony. Horns blared nonstop: from city buses, postal vans, FedEx and UPS trucks, sleek sedans and beat-up pickups loaded with construction equipment or recyclable junk. On the median and the sidewalks—in front of two beauty salons, a locksmith and taquerias—people clad in red T-shirts cheered, yelled, beat drums and strummed guitars.</p>
<p>This was day two of the <a href="" type="internal">Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) strike</a>, and teachers, parents and community members were out in force. They marched in front of the school, decorated with tile mosaics of Latino resistance fighters from the Aztec days to the Mexican Revolution to modern-day labor leaders like Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. They chanted in English and Spanish and carried homemade bilingual picket signs.</p>
<p>In the rancorous lead-up to the strike, both the union and the city administration have tried to paint the other party as insensitive to the needs of children and families and claim that the public is on their side. The turnout at Cooper—like those at other schools around the city Monday and Tuesday—suggests heavy local support for striking teachers. Many parents joined the picket line, often with children in tow in strollers or cavorting on bikes.</p>
<p>Cooper is one of the about 140 schools where the Board of Education is spending up to $25 million to provide a safe space and food for students, though under labor law nothing classified as teaching can occur. Seemingly few parents wanted to cross the picket line to bring their kids to the alternative programming being held at the school. Students from at least six different schools were eligible for the programming at Cooper, but a union organizer said fewer than 20 students went through the school’s doors on Monday and Tuesday combined. Citywide, results were similar.</p>
<p>“Parents are getting the message that it’s not a good idea to bring their students here without us,” said a teacher helping to lead the picket.&#160;</p>
<p>Parents and Teachers</p>
<p>Colleen Herman, the Cooper school librarian and a Chicago Public Schools (CPS) parent, noted that while the city administration has tried to divide teachers and parents, many CPS teachers are in fact also parents themselves.</p>
<p>“We’re required to live within the city limits, and most of us don’t have the money to send our kids to Catholic schools,” she said, noting that her daughter’s class at a public school on the north side has 33 kids in it. Herman and some of her neighbors have organized a “strike school” with a different parent each day organizing activities for the group. While teachers almost unanimously say they are sorry students are missing class, some point out that the strike also provides a first-hand civics lesson.</p>
<p>Herman explained to her young daughter that two sides are trying to come to an agreement in the best interest of students. She said her daughter burst into tears worried that the teachers were feuding with the principal.</p>
<p>Herman said she thinks there’s much public misunderstanding of some of the key issues being negotiated, including the question of what happens to teachers laid off at closed “failing” schools.</p>
<p>The union has insisted those teachers get first recall rights. As of Tuesday, the city administration was reportedly only offering an interview with another principal but no job security guarantees. Herman noted that schools in low-income and immigrant neighborhoods are disproportionately more likely to be deemed “failing” despite the best efforts of teachers and students.</p>
<p>“They make it sound like these are teachers being laid off because they are bad teachers,” she said. “If there is merit pay, why wouldn’t I go to a different school” where students are more likely to score well, she noted. [The administration has backed off plans for merit pay, but merit-based evaluations are still on the table.]</p>
<p>After picketing until 10:30 a.m.—which included a moment of silence for the anniversary of the September 11 attacks—many teachers and supporters from Cooper headed downtown for the second consecutive mass rally outside the Board of Education headquarters. Teachers in red t-shirts streamed toward the board building from all directions, and when union president Karen Lewis appeared on the street a few blocks from the board office, she was surrounded by giddy protesters snapping photos with their cell phones and jostling to hug and congratulate her.</p>
<p>Addressing thousands of teachers and other protesters soon after, she said, “These are their policies, not ours. When these policies failed, who did they blame?” “Us!” the crowd thundered.</p>
<p>Education and Mental Health</p>
<p>Before the afternoon’s rally members of the <a href="" type="internal">Mental Health Movement</a>, a grassroots initiative protesting the closing of six public mental health clinics, joined with CTU social workers and teachers outside the mayor’s office in City Hall. They demanded that rather than cutting staff at unionized schools, the administration should hire more counselors and other mental health professionals. According to two school social workers who spoke at the rally, there are only 370 counselors for 400,000 students and most counselors move between multiple schools in the course of a day.</p>
<p>“Social work services take place in old bathrooms, in hallways, in dingy closets,” said David Temkin, a CPS social worker for 14 years. “How would Mayor Emanuel feel if the only therapy he had was held in one of these locations? How would he feel if it was his child?”</p>
<p>He noted that New Trier High School in the wealthy northern suburbs, where Emanuel went to school, employed 15 counselors and social workers for about 3,000 students—a one to 200 ratio compared to CPS’s ratio of about one to 1,000.</p>
<p>Mental Health Movement activist Jesus Campuzano described how school social workers were key to his education and even survival.</p>
<p>“I’m a former CPS special ed student,” he said. “I know the importance of having a social worker by your side. If I didn’t have my social worker, I wouldn’t be here right now. There were times I felt depressed, down, sometimes I even felt like killing myself. If Rahm Emanuel really cared, he would open more mental health clinics in our communities and hire more social workers in the schools. I live in a ‘bad area,’ I don’t deny it. But that’s not going to stop me. The Mental Health Movement supports the social workers and their strike.”</p>
<p>Union Support</p>
<p>Later Tuesday afternoon, outside the Board of Education, other labor leaders including SEIU Local 1 President Tom Balanoff, Chicago Federation of Labor President Jorge Ramirez, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields, AFSCME 31 President Henry Bayer and Western Region-UE Director Carl Rosen pledged their support for striking teachers. Balanoff said SEIU Local 1 gave the two-days notice required for their members—janitors in the public schools, working for private contractors—to refuse to go to work.</p>
<p>The teachers' battle is being seen by Chicagoans and people around the country as a battle not only about teacher evaluation, job security and pay but also a referendum on the future of public education and the role of non-union charter schools and for-profit companies.</p>
<p>“They’re looking at it from the business aspect versus the educational aspect, but education is not a business,” says Sabrina Coulter, a CTU member and school nurse for the past three and a half years, who noted that school nurses usually cover up to six different schools.</p>
<p>Herman says she’s been frustrated with statements from the mayor’s office and media reports that she thinks make it look like Emanuel wants to distance himself from the teachers and the strike.</p>
<p>“It’s like he doesn’t want to dirty his hands with it, he keeps saying ‘they should work it out,’” she says. &#160;</p>
<p>But at the downtown rally there was no doubt people blame the mayor and schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard. “This strike was approved by Rahm Emanuel,” read one sign.</p>
<p>“What Rahm wants: test-taking factories, outsource public education to private charters, close 100 schools,” read another.</p>
<p>Another read simply: “The Revolution will not be Standardized.”</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Standardized’: Day Two of the CTU Strike | true | https://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/13841/the_revolution_will_not_be_standardized_day_two_of_the_ctu_strike/ | 2012-09-12 | 4 |
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<p>Everything may be bigger in Texas, but the state also does well by the little guy. A new study from personal-finance website NerdWallet.com finds four of the five best cities for small businesses are located in the Lone Star State, with Austin topping the list.</p>
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<p>Looking specifically at the 20 largest cities in the United States, NerdWallet.com examined data from the Milken Institute and Thumbtack to figure out which cities make it easiest for businesses to launch, grow and thrive. In particular, NerdWallet.com’s Dana Lime says the study focused on taxes at the state and local level, as well as the licensing environment.</p>
<p>Lime says she also took into consideration each city’s growth rate, based on five-year statistics on job creation, salary increases and the expansion of technology firms.</p>
<p>Ray Keating, the director of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, agrees on the importance of the factors examined by NerdWallet.com.</p>
<p>He says it’s no surprise that Texas cities rank highly, given the state’s tax structure; there is no individual income tax or corporate income tax in the state.</p>
<p>Lime says Texas cities are also great for SMBs due to a more relaxed regulatory environment. “It’s the degree to which it’s easy for businesses to get up and running. It’s a huge roadblock potentially if they can’t get approvals [for licenses],” says Lime.</p>
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<p>Interestingly, three of the country’s largest cities didn’t make the cut when it came to finding the best cities for SMBs. New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles all fell toward the bottom of the list.</p>
<p>For businesses earning $100,000, Lime says New York City is the worst city from a tax standpoint, and the Big Apple ranks 12th in terms of licensing.</p>
<p>San Francisco and Los Angeles also placed at the bottom due to high taxes and stringent licensing requirements. Additionally, Lime says that California’s environmental regulations put a high burden on small businesses.</p>
<p>Here’s the full list of the top ten cities for small businesses, according to NerdWallet.com:</p> | Study Ranks Best (and Worst) Cities for Small Business | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/08/28/study-ranks-best-and-worst-cities-for-small-business.html | 2016-03-21 | 0 |
<p>For some time now, below the surface of my conscious mind, I've been lamenting the plight of us black men who attended Yale in the 1960s. Too many of us seem to be dying way before our time. My concern has been germinating for some 15 years, and my buddy Charles S. Finch - physician, fellow member of the class of '70 and author of books on ancient Egypt - shared my feelings and added a sane professional legitimacy to them. Could it be that we, the civil rights incarnation of W.E.B. Du Bois' Talented Tenth, were being taken down before our time, like outnumbered soldiers on a battlefield?</p>
<p>Last year the answer came to us with undeniable certainty: Yes. Barely a month after the 40th-anniversary celebration of our 1970 graduation, there came word that our close friend Clyde E. Murphy - the Platter Playin' Poppa of Yale's radio station, WYBC, in the late '60s - died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism in Chicago, where he had been a hard-charging civil-rights attorney.</p>
<p>Then, in the succeeding months, we lost frat brother Ron Norwood, a lawyer, to cancer, and then Jeff Palmer, also to cancer, like successive awakening slaps to our stunned faces.</p>
<p>Toward the end of last year, I did some calculating. By my count, there were 32 African Americans in the original class of 1970, almost exactly 3 percent of the total class. But nine of us had died, more than 10 percent of the total, which meant we were dying at more than three times the rate of our white alumni.</p>
<p>This defies - makes a mockery of, really - the expectations that our parents held for us 40 years ago. Back in our college days, eager to associate with other blacks confronting similar challenges, I pledged Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at Yale. There were eight of us on the pledge line that season, our sophomore year, and we called ourselves the Omnipotent Octet. With three of us now deceased, we survivors know that omnipotence is a construction of the mind.</p>
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<p>A black man living in a high-crime American city can expect to live 21 fewer years than a woman of Asian descent in the United States. The man's life expectancy, in fact, is closer to that of people living in West Africa than it is to the average white American.</p>
<p>But wait a minute. What about black male graduates of Yale and Harvard? Shouldn't they be expected to live as long as the most privileged of American males? Psychiatrists and health researchers have found, unfortunately, that highly educated African Americans are not shielded from the disparities leading to higher mortality rates.</p>
<p>In fact, there is evidence that black men high up the socioeconomic ladder face special pressures that can result in "myriad chronic medical conditions, including hypertension and cardiovascular disease," according to a June 2004 study published in Psychology and Health.</p>
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<p>Among the authors of the study was psychiatrist Christopher L. Edwards of Duke University, who is among a coterie of black health scholars studying the effects of a phenomenon called John Henryism, so named after a 19th-century black folk hero.</p>
<p>According to legend, John Henry was one of the "steel drivers" who hammered down spikes used in the railroad expansion that made America big and rich. With the coming of the steam-powered drill, the livelihoods of steel drivers like Henry were threatened. Henry, full of bluster, challenged the owner of the railroad to a contest pitting Henry against the new drill. Henry won the contest, but he died from the mental and physical strain.</p>
<p>In a conversation on an electronic mailing list, Finch told us last year:</p>
<p>What is it, the effects of the stressors of unrelenting 'micro-racism'? In [the late 1980s], a gifted black physician named Daniel Savage - well-known because he was the only black investigator in the famous Framingham Study on hypertension - detailed the physiologic effects of constant low-level stress, especially that brought on by micro-racism (his term), on black men. Six months later he committed suicide.</p>
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<p>A Jan. 24, 1990, Washington Post article reported Savage was 45 at the time of his death. The article said he "jumped from a second-floor window of his Bethesda home" and that the death was officially ruled a suicide.</p>
<p>I know that this concern about early deaths of black Yalies goes back at least to 1996. That was when I was attending a special graduation ceremony convened by black graduates of Vassar, including my goddaughter. The speaker was a black minister named Frank M. Reid III, who - to my shock - proceeded to talk about black Yale graduates who had died before the age of 40, among them Glenn deChabert, who was in my class of '70 and was the first president of the Black Student Alliance at Yale.</p>
<p>I was stunned. I had been thinking about this but had absolutely no idea that I'd be hearing a speaker at Vassar say the same thing. It turned out that Rev. Reid was a Yale alum himself, from the class of '74, and he was also a half-brother of Kurt Schmoke, former mayor of Baltimore, now dean of Howard Law School and a member of the Yale Class of '71.</p>
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<p>A couple of weeks ago, having just published a Yale Alumni Magazine article headlined "Before Their Time," I reached out to Rev. Reid and asked him to recall for me his 1996 talk to the Vassar grads.</p>
<p>"My personal concern in that message was to say how young, intelligent Black males who had great futures before them were making life choices that led to all too early and tragic deaths - from disease, violence and even suicide," Reid wrote in an email to me. "My purpose was to encourage the students to be politically vigilant and engaged, and to be equally vigilant with their physical, spiritual, emotional and mental health."</p>
<p>Ironically, I am more optimistic now than ever about myself and my brothers, trusting that from our losses we become stronger and wiser. But we are continually tested. Two weeks ago, I received a cruel and jolting reminder about the plight of the black male - whether from the streets of Brooklyn or from Yale's neo-Gothic campus. I opened an email containing a note from the master (administrator) of Yale's Pierson (residential) College, Harvey Goldblatt, who is also a professor of medieval Slavic literature. "My dearest Piersonites from the Class of 2002," Goldblatt wrote in late May. "Unfortunately, I have some tragic news to report. I have been informed - that your classmate Robert Peace was shot and killed in a robbery late last week in Newark."</p>
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<p>Peace was a biochemistry major who, after his graduation from Yale in 2002, traveled the hemisphere and also taught biology at his alma mater, St. Benedict's Prep, in Newark, N.J.</p>
<p>Police sources told the Newark Star-Ledger that Peace was growing marijuana in a house he was renting. The paper quoted law-enforcement sources as saying the 30-year-old Peace, so ironically named, was "using his knowledge of biochemistry to bring in $1,000 a day selling marijuana grown in the basement of the Smith Street home where he was killed."</p>
<p>Over the past couple of weeks, I've spoken to black members of '02 (Oh-Deuce, they call themselves), who are crushed at the loss of their brother, described by each as one of the sweetest guys they'd ever known. Among the members of that class of Oh-Deuce is Akua Murphy, film producer and daughter of my dear departed friend and Alpha brother Clyde.</p>
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<p>How do we make peace with a reality this harsh? Clearly we have to acknowledge that hope and faith are not enough. Those virtues must be accompanied by an active love that is conscientious and determined, that commits itself to self-knowledge and personal growth - and to changing the world for the better, as my friend Clyde did when he stayed up nights researching cases representing black men and women charging race discrimination in the workplace.</p>
<p>That is a first step, and the true key is given to us when we understand that the journey is about stepping through life with feeling and attention, much as we did on our Alpha pledging line more than four decades ago, as we vowed to help one another and to reach out and care also for those others whom we loved.</p>
<p>Ron Howell, Yale class of '70, teaches journalism at Brooklyn College.</p> | Yale Grad: My Classmates Are Dying | true | https://theroot.com/yale-grad-my-classmates-are-dying-1790864379 | 2011-06-14 | 4 |
<p>&#160; &#160; United States Navy SEAL in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2002. ( <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/" type="external">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>)</p>
<p>An investigation published Thursday by The New York Times brings to light horrifying abuse by a Navy SEAL team in Afghanistan, and the report includes allegations of a cover-up that goes far up the military chain of command.</p>
<p>The exposé, which involves two years of reporting in Afghanistan and the United States by three Times journalists, details how SEALs deployed in a military outpost outside of Kalach, Afghanistan, subjected Afghan prisoners to violent attacks: dropping heavy stones on their chests, standing on their heads, pouring water on their faces, kicking them, and beating them with car antennas and rifle butts. The abuse, described <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/17/world/asia/navy-seal-team-2-afghanistan-beating-death.html?_r=0" type="external">here,</a> was so severe that one of the prisoners died within a day.</p>
<p>Four American soldiers working with the SEALs reported the incident, which took place May 31, 2012, the day a bomb exploded at a checkpoint manned by an Afghan Local Police unit that the SEALs were training. In a subsequent Navy criminal investigation, two support personnel reported witnessing abuse by the SEALs, as did a local police officer. In addition, an Afghan man detained with the prisoner who died gave the Times a harrowing account of mistreatment by American troops and Afghan militiamen.</p>
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<p>“It just comes down to what’s wrong and what’s right,” David Walker, a former Army medic who was one of the witnesses to events in Kalach, said in a recent interview. “You can’t squint hard enough to make this gray.”</p>
<p>However, the SEAL command cleared the SEAL team members of wrongdoing “in a closed disciplinary process that is typically used only for minor infractions, disregarding a Navy lawyer’s recommendation that the troops face assault charges and choosing not to seek a court-martial,” according to the Times. “Two of the SEALs and their lieutenant have since been promoted, even though their commander in Afghanistan recommended that they be forced out of the elite SEAL teams.”</p>
<p>“It’s mind-boggling that despite clear evidence of misconduct compiled by a naval criminal investigation, the SEAL command cleared the three commandos involved and their commanding officer of all charges,” the Times stated Friday <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/18/opinion/what-went-wrong-with-navy-seals.html" type="external">in an editorial.</a> “Abuse of detainees is a very serious offense in any war, and it is especially stupid when a primary goal is to win over the civilian population and bolster it in the struggle against the Taliban.”</p>
<p>With the United States’ engagement in Afghanistan stretching into its 15th year, the events at Kalach form part of a broader, systemic picture of prisoner abuse within U.S. military prisons there. In 2005, The New York Times obtained a 2,000-page U.S. Army report concerning the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/world/asia/in-us-report-brutal-details-of-2-afghan-inmates-deaths.html" type="external">killing</a> of two unarmed civilian Afghan prisoners by U.S. armed forces at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility in 2002. The detainees were chained to the ceiling and beaten to death. Military coroners ruled that the prisoners’ deaths were homicides. Autopsies revealed severe trauma to both men’s legs. “I’ve seen similar injuries in an individual run over by a bus,” one of the coroners said.</p>
<p>Noting a parallel with the abuse and torture of prisoners in Iraq, a 2005 New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/23/opinion/patterns-of-abuse.html" type="external">editorial</a> declared that “what happened at Abu Ghraib was no aberration, but part of a widespread pattern. It showed the tragic impact of the initial decision by [President George W.] Bush and his top advisers that they were not going to follow the Geneva Conventions, or indeed American law, for prisoners taken in antiterrorist operations. … The investigative file on [the 2002 incident in] Bagram, obtained by The Times, showed that the mistreatment of prisoners was routine: shackling them to the ceilings of their cells, depriving them of sleep, kicking and hitting them, sexually humiliating them and threatening them with guard dogs — the very same behavior later repeated in Iraq.”</p>
<p>The reporters who wrote Thursday’s article in the Times are Nicholas Kulish, Christopher Drew and Matthew Rosenberg.</p>
<p>With atrocities on the part of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq revealed again and again, and no one in real authority punished, it should come as no surprise that so many men and women have become radicalized, turning to violent hate groups such as Islamic State. As Kulish told “Democracy Now!”: “I think it’s important to note that the point of this mission was to win over the local population. The reason they were in such a small outpost is that they were supposed to be close to the people, getting to know the people, building up a local police force that could defend them from the Taliban.”</p>
<p>But, Kulish continued, “after this incident and the series of incidents that preceded it, many people fled for the Taliban-controlled area. We very recently learned, just in the past couple of weeks, that after this incident took place — or just recently — that the Taliban are in control of the area and, with the help of the villagers, bulldozed the outpost that the Americans had retreated from.”</p>
<p>The abuses in Kalach, just as in Abu Ghraib and Bagram, would have remained hidden from public knowledge were it not for those who risked their safety or defied military protocol to report them and were it not for the journalists who worked so hard to bring this information to the public. For uncovering criminal actions on the part of the Navy SEALs command team, the soldiers who reported the abuse and the New York Times journalists who painstakingly investigated the case are our Truthdiggers of the Week.</p>
<p>Watch the “Democracy Now!” interview with Times reporter Nicholas Kulish <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gqUhU_PCPw" type="external">here</a>.</p> | Truthdiggers of the Week: Those Who Uncovered Navy SEAL Abuse of Prisoners in Afghanistan | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/truthdiggers-of-the-week-those-who-uncovered-navy-seal-abuse-of-prisoners-in-afghanistan-2/ | 2015-12-21 | 4 |
<p>Bright lights in the night sky sparked <a href="http://www.openminds.tv/ufo-videos-show-ufo-saudi-arabia/25762" type="external">UFO alerts</a> in Saudi Arabia, but the display turned out to be a well-known space phenomenon: the fiery re-entry of some Chinese space junk.</p>
<p>Multiple <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HadoMvoXt8" type="external">videos</a> of Thursday night's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjnbmBuiwP4" type="external">lights</a> were posted on YouTube. One sighting was reported by a witness who was near the Prophet's Mosque in the western Saudi city of Medina, according to reports from the Saudi newspaper Al Sada and the <a href="http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/video-ufo-sighted-over-saudi-thursday-night-2014-01-17-1.535068" type="external">Emirates24/7 website</a>.</p>
<p>"I was passing just near the mosque when I saw the object ... I captured a film of it, but I could not trace it as it split into two or three parts," Al Sada quoted Fahd Al Harbi as saying.</p>
<p>"This was a satellite re-entry that was predicted," NBC News space analyst James Oberg said in an email. "The object was a rocket body from the Chinese communications satellite Chinasat 9, launched in 2008. It is amazing how bright the fragments can be, and when they fly horizontally and 'in formation,' they often fool people - especially pilots - into imagining they are lighted windows in aircraft, spacecraft, or even UFOs."</p>
<p>We've seen lots of similar reports relating to space junk - including a <a href="" type="internal">SpaceX rocket flaming out over the Indian Ocean</a> last September as well as rocket re-entries observed over <a href="" type="internal">China</a> and the <a href="" type="internal">Middle East</a> in 2012. The best-known incident was the <a href="" type="internal">"space spiral"</a> spotted over Norway in 2009. <a href="http://satobs.org/seesat/Jan-2014/0039.html" type="external">This posting on the SeeSat-L discussion forum</a> provides some great historical perspective.</p> | UFO Over Arabia? It’s Just the Flash From Chinese Space Junk | false | http://nbcnews.com/science/space/ufo-over-arabia-its-just-flash-chinese-space-junk-n12266 | 2014-01-18 | 3 |
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<p>NEW YORK — Talk-show host Tavis Smiley isn’t just upset with PBS for firing him on sexual misconduct charges. He’s upset about his depiction in the media.</p>
<p>Smiley believes that if he hadn’t talked publicly about romantic relationships with subordinates at his company, the behavior that led to his downfall, the public would make little distinction between him and those who have been accused of sexual assault or rape.</p>
<p>Conflation of different forms of misbehavior — the idea itself is controversial — is one of the issues facing media organizations covering the fast-moving story of sexual misconduct that went into overdrive with investigations into Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s behavior.</p>
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<p>“The media is painting with too broad a brush,” Smiley said. “We have lost all sense of nuance and proportionality in how we cover these stories.”</p>
<p>Actor Matt Damon was torched for broaching the topic recently. He told ABC News that all accused men shouldn’t be lumped together because there’s a spectrum of behavior. There’s a difference between a pat on the rear and child molestation, he said.</p>
<p>“Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated, right?” he said.</p>
<p>Actress Minnie Driver called Damon tone-deaf. Actress Alyssa Milano, who began a cultural movement by urging other women who have been harassed to proclaim #MeToo on social media, tweeted in reply that victims are hurt by all forms of misconduct. All are evidence of misogyny.</p>
<p>Still, as the rush of stories about misbehavior slows down — if it slows down — the point Damon raises will loom larger. Debate over the consequences of Sen. Al Franken’s groping continues despite his resignation. The New York Times noted the difficulties in deciding whether to fire reporter Glenn Thrush following documentation of his unwanted drunken advances on women. Thrush was suspended and stripped of his White House beat.</p>
<p>The New York Daily News groups many of its stories about misconduct allegations under the tag “Perv Nation.” The newspaper makes clear that not all allegations are the same, said Daily News executive Rebecca Baker, also president of the Society of Professional Journalists.</p>
<p>However, she said, “I don’t think the media can tell people what to think or stop people from conflating things.”</p>
<p>Society is in the midst of a debate over changing norms of behavior that’s very intense and not very organized, said Nicholas Lemann, former dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Distinctions can fall by the wayside with the temperature so high, he said.</p>
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<p>“It’s a good way for society to change its values,” Lemann said. “It’s a bad way to protect individual rights.”</p>
<p>In Smiley’s case, PBS agreed that his history of dating subordinates was the central issue in his firing. But a PBS statement also spoke mysteriously of “other conduct,” giving no other details in order to protect the privacy of people who complained about him.</p>
<p>An unwillingness, or inability, to specify behavior that results in discipline can contribute to conflation. In firing reporter Ryan Lizza, the New Yorker magazine cited “improper sexual behavior.” Lizza said his bosses mischaracterized “a respectful relationship with a woman I dated.” Her lawyer disputed this, saying the relationship wasn’t respectful, but wouldn’t say why.</p>
<p>A television news producer recently dismissed because of his behavior is concerned that he will be lumped in with bad-behaving media men like Matt Lauer or Charlie Rose, and had his lawyer issue a statement saying his client was never “accused of any physical contact, language of a sexual nature or any sort of lewd conduct.”</p>
<p>But how he’s judged is ultimately out of his control, since neither employer nor employee will publicly say what the person actually did that cost him his job.</p>
<p>Early stories on misconduct cases — think the Times and New Yorker on Weinstein, The Washington Post on Rose and Roy Moore — were meticulously reported and have proven airtight. The challenge for news organizations is maintaining that rigor with more women coming forward to tell their stories and the pressure for scoops ratchets up.</p>
<p>“If you don’t have one of these things really nailed down, it’s a very bad thing for you,” Lemann said. “Whoever gets one of these things wrong, it’s going to be very embarrassing.”</p>
<p>The story has already led to some unorthodox decisions. Vox.com assigned a woman who alleged harassment by Thrush, who said the incident still made her angry, to report and write on accusations by her and others. Having someone with a clear personal stake report such a sensitive story would make many news organizations squeamish, although no substantive questions have been raised about her work.</p>
<p>Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt wrote in The Washington Post about rough justice being dispensed by the media, “much of it deserved.” Even the worst offenders deserve due process, he said. It isn’t easy or quick — but other victims are watching, wondering whether it is safe to speak out.</p>
<p>“Rarely does media have such a complicated job with stakes as high as these,” he wrote.</p> | Media face challenges in rush to sexual misconduct reckoning | false | https://abqjournal.com/1111145/media-face-challenges-in-rush-to-misconduct-reckoning.html | 2017-12-26 | 2 |
<p>The government agency charged with enforcing the United States' ban on travel to Cuba has notified the Alliance of Baptists that it will be fined $34,000 for allegedly engaging in tourist activities while in Cuba for religious purposes — a charge the Alliance denies.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a group of Christian aid workers met July 31 with State Department officials to protest a new government recommendation that would further restrict the ways American religious groups can work with their Cuban counterparts.</p>
<p>Both events are taking place against the backdrop of uncertainty about Cuba's leadership, as longtime dictator Fidel Castro ceded leadership to his brother, Raul, July 31 while he recuperates from surgery. Neither man — Fidel Castro is nearly 80, and Raul Castro is 75 — has made any sort of public appearance since.</p>
<p>Critics said the Bush administration's actions are demonstrating political discrimination against groups like the Alliance, which formally has opposed Bush's Cuba policy.</p>
<p>Stan Hastey, executive director of the Washington-based Alliance of Baptists, notified members of the organization's board July 25 he had received the fine notice from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. The notice, dated July 5, informed Hastey the organization would receive the fine for violating the terms of its license for religious travel to Cuba.</p>
<p>The Alliance, a fellowship of 117 churches and a budget of $374,000, has a longstanding missions partnership with the Fraternity of Baptist Churches in Cuba, which pairs local Alliance congregations with Cuban churches.</p>
<p>Due to the U.S. economic and travel embargo on the island nation's communist regime, religious groups must use renewable travel permits for religious activity to enable U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba. The permits are granted through OFAC.</p>
<p>More than a year ago, OFAC officials informed the Alliance of Baptists that its license had been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations that a group from an Alliance church in Alabama had misused the license to visit Cuban tourist sites. Hastey said OFAC did not inform him any further about the investigation's progress. In the meantime, the original license expired.</p>
<p>The July 5 fine notice was the next official communication from OFAC to the Alliance. It informed Hastey the group would be fined not only for the alleged violations by the team from the Baptist Church of the Covenant in Birmingham but also for alleged violations by four other Alliance churches that traveled to Cuba under the license between 2003 and 2005. Those congregations are the First Baptist churches of Washington, D.C.; Savannah, Ga.; and Greenville, S.C.; and Glendale Baptist Church in Nashville.</p>
<p>The Alliance provided the Treasury with copies of group travel itineraries “that did not reflect a program of full-time religious activities,” according to the OFAC letter Hastey received. Government regulations require that such groups traveling in Cuba spend the entirety of their trips engaged in religious, rather than tourist, activities.</p>
<p>When first notified of the license suspension and investigation, Hastey said many of the itinerary items Treasury officials apparently interpreted as tourist activities were actually religious work. For example, the team from Alabama stayed in Varadero, a beach town near Havana, one night. However, Hastey said, that was because a Presbyterian guest house is located in Varadero and is convenient to a nearby Baptist church the team had visited.</p>
<p>Hastey told Associated Baptist Press the way in which Treasury officials have handled the investigation makes him question if the Alliance is getting a fair shake.</p>
<p>“It appears that, within OFAC, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing,” he said. “There was one procedure to suspend our license — one procedure that was never completed properly. And subsequent to that, by over more than a year, with a paper trail, the threat of a fine with an expansion of the violation. I think all of those are due-process issues.”</p>
<p>Treasury Department spokesperson Molly Millerwise said the department does not comment “on individual penalties.” She said she was unaware of any other religious groups that had incurred such fines under the restrictions.</p>
<p>Treasury's fine for the Alliance came shortly after administration officials issued a report calling for further restrictions on religious groups in Cuba with which Americans could work. On July 10, the Commission on Assistance to a Free Cuba made several recommendations for U.S. officials to follow in enforcing the Cuba embargo in ways that, according to the commission, would smooth the transition from Castro's regime to a more democratic one.</p>
<p>They included a specific recommendation that U.S. groups no longer be allowed to provide humanitarian aid through the Cuban Council of Churches, which the commission considered to be controlled by Castro's regime.</p>
<p>That led to a protest from several Christian groups associated with the National Council of Churches, including their humanitarian arm, Church World Service. CWS leaders met July 31 with Treasury and State Department officials on Cuba. However, according to a news release from the group, that meeting “did little to assuage [CWS'] concerns … over new restrictions on its established channel of aid distribution to Cuba.”</p>
<p>Both the administration's recommendations and the Alliance's fine come at a time of new restrictions on the way U.S. religious groups relate to Cuba. A new OFAC interpretation of its own rules has made it much more difficult for any denominational entity or religious organization other than a local church to renew its Cuba travel license — groups such as the American Baptist Churches and the Disciples of Christ had license applications denied in recent months.</p>
<p>Several U.S. Christian leaders involved in Cuba say that's because President Bush's administration is maintaining a hard line on the Cuban embargo to please Cuban-American Republicans in South Florida, who loathe Castro and his regime.</p>
<p>“They're trying to manage and control religious travel to Cuba in ways that they view as promoting the administration's political polices, and we think that that is an intrusion into religious affairs and a violation of religious freedom,” said Martin Shupack, Church World Service's associate director for public policy.</p>
<p>But Eric Watnik, a State Department Cuba spokesman, said Aug. 7 that State officials were simply stating the obvious about their position on such Cuban groups. “[T]he Cuban Council of Churches is controlled by the Cuban government — it is the Cuban government. And the point to the embargo is to deny funding to the Cuban government,” he said.</p>
<p>Hastey said Alliance leaders have until early September to respond to the fine notice. It outlined a procedure by which the group may officially appeal the ruling or negotiate for a settlement. He said the group was exploring “all options” as of July 7 but had not yet reached a decision.</p> | Alliance of Baptists fined $34,000 for activities in Cuba | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/allianceofbaptistsfined34000foractivitiesincuba/ | 3 |
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<p>Rio Rancho Governing Body members are set to consider the first reading of an ordinance to that effect at their meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall. The ordinance would have to pass two readings to become active.</p>
<p>The program would cost $300,000 a year but would likely pay for itself after the first year, according to the city.</p>
<p>Under the proposed ordinance, a vehicle driven by a drunk driver with at least one previous DWI conviction or by someone whose driver’s license had been suspended or revoked due to a previous DWI conviction would be declared a public nuisance. Any enforcement officer with jurisdiction within the City of Rio Rancho would be able to seize the vehicle of someone meeting that criteria.</p>
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<p>The vehicle owner would pay towing and storage costs.</p>
<p>The ordinance would allow owners to call for an administrative hearing to determine if the police had probable cause to seize the vehicle. If the hearing officer determined there was no probable cause, the owner would get the vehicle back and the city would waive storage fees to that point.</p>
<p>If the vehicle was forfeited, Rio Rancho Police Department would either sell it at public auction and use proceeds to pay for the vehicle seizure program or DWI enforcement and education, or keep the vehicle for service within the community.</p>
<p>The ordinance would allow someone with only one previous DWI conviction to have the police put a “boot” on the car for a specified period of time rather than forfeiting the car altogether. That option would carry a fee.</p>
<p>Also, if the driver wasn’t the vehicle owner and the owner had evidence that he or she had no knowledge of the driver’s actions or convictions, the city would have to disprove the owner’s claim of innocence or return the vehicle. The holder of a registered lien on the vehicle would have similar rights.</p>
<p>According to city information, the New Mexico Supreme Court has upheld such seizure laws in other jurisdictions.</p>
<p>In 1993, the Rio Rancho Municipal Court instituted a program in which it temporarily seized vehicles after DWI convictions and the Governing Body considered an ordinance that would allow police to permanently seize vehicles of people driving on a license revoked due to a DWI conviction.</p>
<p>However, a few months later, city councilors postponed final approval of the ordinance indefinitely, effectively killing it, after the American Civil Liberties Union said the law would punish the innocent family members of offenders by depriving them of the vehicle.</p>
<p>Wednesday’s agenda also includes votes on:</p>
<p /> | Vehicle seizure goes to vote | false | https://abqjournal.com/531090/vehicle-seizure-goes-to-vote.html | 2 |
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<p>Commenting on the results of Election Day 2006, Republican Party pollster Bill McInturff told the Wall Street Journal that Republicans faced “the most difficult environment since Watergate,” referring to the scandal that forced then-President Richard Nixon to resign from office in 1974.</p>
<p>This is encouraging news for everyone who has spent the last week celebrating the Republican Party’s “thumping'” by the angry electorate-to quote the visibly disoriented president, fumbling for words, in a White House press conference the day after.</p>
<p>Within 24 hours after the polls closed, we were treated to the sight of Donald Rumsfeld-no longer sneering, but instead choking back tears-during his brief Oval Office “resignation” ceremony, before Bush’s handlers permanently shuffled him out of sight.</p>
<p>The seemingly unstoppable Bush regime unraveled with stunning rapidity when faced with a massive voter rebellion last Tuesday. The widely accepted notion of the apathetic (and, presumably, politically contented) American majority also took a thumping last Tuesday. The angry electorate</p>
<p>According to the New York Times’ exit polls, six in ten voters said their vote was based on national, not local, issues. The same percentage disapproved of the war in Iraq and said the war had not increased the security of the United States. Six in ten voters also disapproved of the way Congress was handling its job. Six in ten voters who described themselves as “independents” voted Democrat, while two-thirds said they were dissatisfied or angry with Republican leaders.</p>
<p>There was also a class component to the Democrats’ victories. About half of all voters said they had just enough money to continue at their present standard of living (otherwise known as living a paycheck or two away from poverty), while one-fifth said they were falling behind financially.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal reported that exit polls showed that of the 31 percent of voters who said they are “getting ahead financially,” 63 percent voted Republican; among the 51 percent who reported they are “maintaining their living standard,” 39 percent voted Republican; and among the 17 percent who said they are “falling behind financially,” only 21 percent voted Republican.</p>
<p>Indeed, 66 percent of those who hadn’t completed high school voted Democrat.</p>
<p>Race also played a key role in voting patterns, although a higher percentage of whites also voted Democrat. The percentage of white voters going for Democrats was 48 percent in 2006, compared with 41 percent in 2004. African-Americans continued their long-standing loyalty to the Democrats, by an 88 percent margin (identical to 2004). Asian voters voted by a margin of 67 percent for Democrats in 2006, compared to 56 percent in 2004.</p>
<p>But Latino voters showed the greatest increase in Democratic voting: 73 percent in 2006, compared with 53 percent in 2004. Only 27 percent of Latinos supported Republicans, in contrast to the more than 40 percent of Latinos who voted for Bush in 2004.</p>
<p>The 2006 election also drew the highest percentage of young voters (under age 30) in a mid-term election in 20 years-up by more than 4 percent since 2002. According to exit polls, 61 percent voted Democratic in House elections, playing a key role in close races that pushed Democrats over the top. Enter stage left: the other corporate party</p>
<p>The Democrats must also appreciate that their victories in the November 7 elections were due in large part to a shift in corporate loyalties. The Republican Party has traditionally been the preferred party of America’s corporate class, openly parading the virtues of laissez faire capitalism. But the Democratic Party remains the corporate party-in-waiting, ready to cloak the same class loyalties with compromises aimed at curbing mass discontent when it threatens the class status quo.</p>
<p>The Bush administration served the corporate class well, providing tax cuts for the wealthiest percentile in the midst of a major war. But the electorate apparently caught on to this increasingly transparent hoax.</p>
<p>Corporate dollars began a significant shift to the Democratic side in the weeks before the 2006 election, signaling a ruling-class consensus on the need to shift from “Plan A” to “Plan B”. It cannot be a coincidence that Rep. Mark Foley’s sexual indiscretions became media fodder just six weeks before the election-since they were well known, apparently, years ago. While it is a pleasure to watch the mainstream media attacking Bush ruthlessly now, their corporate sponsors have approved and encouraged the media’s about-face.</p>
<p>Given the limits of the two-party system, the Republicans’ loss was the Democrats’ gain. But the message was unmistakable. As the Chicago Tribune noted on November 8,</p>
<p>“Americans finally got to vote on the war. They want change. They got to vote on one-party rule. They rejected it. They got a chance to vote local. They voted national. Indeed, the Democrats essentially beat something with nothing. They offered no clear agenda, no Contract with America, not even a memorable bumper sticker. This was an election driven by feelings of rejection far more than embrace.”</p>
<p>The Democrats are rejoicing in their successful “centrist” strategy in this election-deliberately running Democratic social conservatives opposed to abortion and gay marriage against Republican social conservatives also opposed to abortion and gay marriage in several key races. These included abortion opponent Bob Casey Jr., who beat Republican abortion opponent Rick Santorum for his Pennsylvania Senate seat; the also victorious Indiana sheriff Brad Ellsworth, who won a House seat while opposing abortion rights and same-sex marriage; and Christian Heath Shuler, an evangelical who won a House seat in North Carolina last Tuesday. And they will seek to continue this “centrist” strategy into the 2008 presidential election.</p>
<p>But the election results were definitive on only one issue: discontent with the Republican Party. The red-state vs. blue state formula adopted after Kerry’s defeat in 2004 was extinguished by voting results, in which Republicans who just months ago were on top in opinion polls were voted out in many “red states.” Rising expectations: the Democrats’ dilemma</p>
<p>But the Democratic victories have led to a rise in mass expectations for an end to the Iraq war, a raise in the minimum wage, and an end to political corruption.</p>
<p>The Democrats, of course, have no plans to shake things up. This election was widely touted as a referendum on the war. But so far, Democrats have provided only a vaguely worded “phased withdrawal” of U.S. troops from Iraq at an unspecified future date.</p>
<p>In a post-election interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, likely 2008 presidential contender Barack Obama backpedaled on his earlier pledge to begin withdrawing troops by the end of this year:</p>
<p>“I think now it’s too late to try to start something before the end of the year. What I would do is sit down with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the military that’s actually on the ground and figure out, how do we fit together a military strategy that can start that phased redeployment, but ensure not total collapse in Iraq, and also make sure that we engage the Iraqi government [We need] to make sure that they [the Iraqis] know we’re serious about not being there permanently.”</p>
<p>Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, in line to become chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was more explicit. “We have to tell the Iraqis that the open-ended commitment is over and that we’re going to begin to have a phased withdrawal in four to six months,” he threatened-as if Iraqis invited the U.S. to invade and occupy their country in 2003 and are now taking advantage of Americans’ waning goodwill.</p>
<p>So far, Democrats have gone no further than deferring to the recommendations of the (Republican) James Baker-led Iraq Study Group-which is rumored to embrace a strategy for significantly lowering down U.S. troops at an unspecified date.</p>
<p>Overall, the watchword of the victorious Democrats remains “bipartisanship.” Despite the venom of their own campaign ads, they seek compromise with the Republican Party.</p>
<p>This is not surprising, since a U.S. defeat in Iraq would be on par with the humiliation U.S. imperialism suffered after its defeat in Vietnam. And both Democrats and Republicans are, after all, pro-war, imperialist parties.</p>
<p>The electorate has spoken. But it is worth noting that the Watergate scandal, while ending Nixon’s presidency, did not lead to a seismic shift leftward in the political climate. On the contrary, U.S. politics moved decisively rightward in the following years, as the mass social movements of the 1960s and early 1970s pinned their hopes on the Democratic Party to spearhead social change. As it turned out, the Democrats responded to corporate pressures to tack rightward, leading eventually to our present predicament.</p>
<p>We should not repeat the mistakes of that past generation of leftists. The Democrats, like the Republicans, must respond to mass voter discontent. But their shared goal is a return to politics-as-usual.</p>
<p>The Democrats will not deliver an end to the Iraq war without substantial pressure from below. And that requires large-scale, grass-roots struggle. This should be a wakeup call to everyone who wants an end to the Iraq war, a raise in the minimum wage, a step forward for immigrants’ rights-and an end to politics-as-usual in Washington. The door for social change is opening, but we must take action to achieve it.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Democrats, Born to Compromise | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/11/14/democrats-born-to-compromise/ | 2006-11-14 | 4 |
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<p>Canadian Brass has made more than 132 releases in its 40-plus years in music.</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Five players. One hundred thirty-two releases. More than 7,000 live appearances.</p>
<p>These are some of the stats that Canadian Brass has achieved over the course of four decades.</p>
<p>And the machine keeps rolling.</p>
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<p>“The tour has been going terrific,” says Bernhard Scully. “We’re at Central Washington University doing some master classes. It’s been a great tour so far.”</p>
<p />
<p>Scully is one of the members of Canadian Brass. Rounding out the group is Caleb Hudson, Achilles Liarmakopoulos, Christopher Coletti and Chuck Daellenbach. This year marks Scully’s return to the group after a short hiatus.</p>
<p>The group’s repertoire features brass standards as well as a wide-ranging library of original arrangements. These include the works of Renaissance and Baroque masters, classical works, marches, holiday favorites, ragtime, Dixieland, Latin, jazz, big band, Broadway and Christian music as well as popular songs and standards.</p>
<p>Scully says that it’s great to be back on tour and taking a break from teaching horn at the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana.</p>
<p>He says coming back into the group is challenging in many ways.</p>
<p>“The group is like a speeding train,” he says. “If you’re getting on it, it will slow down for a slight second and then take off again. It’s taken me a little bit to get my bearings back when playing.”</p>
<p>Another aspect to deal with is the group’s new dynamic.</p>
<p>Since Scully’s hiatus, new members have joined the band.</p>
<p>“It is a different vibe,” he says. “It’s great because the project is exciting again. There are new pieces we’re playing and just doing new things with music.”</p>
<p>Scully says the band members have respect for each other, and carry themselves with professionalism.</p>
<p>“There are a lot of younger guys now in the group and it’s definitely changed,” he says. “I can’t say it’s better, but I can sense the change in the dynamic.”</p>
<p /> | Big sound: Expect originals and brass standards from Canadian Brass | false | https://abqjournal.com/543796/albuquerque-brass-quintet.html | 2 |
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<p>FILE - In this June 18, 2014 file photo, High School graduates stand and sing during graduation ceremonies in Santa Ana Bowl. The nation's high school graduation rate has ticked up slightly to 82 percent, a new high. The Education Department said Tuesday that the rate for the 2013-14 school year - up from 81 percent the previous year - was the highest since it started using a new, uniform measure in 2010. Still, the numbers show nearly 1 in 5 students leaving high school without a diploma. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Mark Felix, File)</p>
<p>WASHINGTON - The nation's high school graduation rate has ticked up slightly to 82 percent, a new high.</p>
<p>The Education Department said Tuesday that the rate for the 2013-14 school year - up from 81 percent the previous year - was the highest since it started using a new, uniform measure in 2010. Still, the numbers show nearly 1 in 5 students leaving high school without a diploma.</p>
<p>Education Secretary Arne Duncan said too many students still aren't graduating, but he praised the newly released numbers as encouraging.</p>
<p>"America's students have achieved another record milestone by improving graduation rates for a fourth year," Duncan said in a statement. "We can take pride as a nation in knowing that we're seeing promising gains, including for students of color."</p>
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<p>The data showed that black and Hispanic students made some progress in closing the achievement gap with their white counterparts. About 72 percent of black students and 76 percent of Hispanic students earned diplomas in 2013-2014. For white students, the rate was 87 percent.</p>
<p>English language learners and students with disabilities had the lowest graduation rates, at 62 percent and 63 percent, respectively.</p>
<p>Across the country, Iowa had the highest graduation rate, at 90 percent. The District of Columbia had the lowest, a 61 percent graduation rate.</p> | US high school grad rate ticks up to 82 percent | false | https://abqjournal.com/691585/us-high-school-grad-rate-ticks-up-to-82-percent.html | 2 |
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<p>Michael Scheuer in a photo from his own website.</p>
<p>On <a href="http://non-intervention.com/1146/the-desperate-u-s-uk-relationship-barack-obama-david-cameron-and-the-nsagchq-issue/" type="external">December 23</a>,&#160; former CIA official and Fox regular Michael Scheuer wrote a column on his Non-Intervention.com website endorsing the assassinations of President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron. On <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/01/03/foxs-benghazi-expert-endorsed-assassinating-oba/197411" type="external">January 2</a>, Scheuer showed up on Lou Dobbs’ Fox Business Network program where he said Hillary Clinton “has blood on her arms up to her elbows for not being willing to protect the people who are representing us in Libya” and had therefore&#160; “killed those Americans” who died in Benghazi. Dobbs failed to ask Scheuer about his assassination endorsement.</p>
<p>It’s hard to imagine that Scheuer’s assassination column would not be running on a continuous news loop in Murdoch media and elsewhere, had his remarks targeted a conservative or perceived Murdoch ally. But Scheuer’s comments would have gone unnoticed but for a <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/03/michael-scheuer-s-meltdown.html" type="external">January 3 Daily Beast column</a> by David Frum, who wrote:</p>
<p>Scheuer’s career reached its terminal nadir last week, when he published a column endorsing an assassination of President Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron.&#160;In the modern media environment, it’s pretty hard to go too far. Advocacy of murder, however, does cross one of the last remaining lines.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, advocating and fantasizing about the murder of perceived enemies of the Fox worldview is a line that has been crossed all too commonly in Murdoch-owned media outlets, as we wrote about in “Fox News: The No. 1 Name in Murder Fantasies” (FAIR Blog, <a href="" type="internal">11/10/10</a>).&#160; Scheuer had previously gone too far on Fox when he called on Al-Qaeda to attack America: “The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States,” he told Fox’s Glenn Beck (FAIR Blog, <a href="" type="internal">7/2/09</a>).</p>
<p>In the column endorsing the assassinations, Scheuer set up his case by dismissing the idea of peacefully changing the government:</p>
<p>That Eric Holder and Barack Obama have not been impeached…suggests that the impeachment provisions of the Constitution are a dead letter; that they apply only to individuals named Nixon; or that they do not apply to black Americans supported by such towering giants of fatuousness as Oprah, Chris Matthews, Fareed Zakaria, Piers Morgan and Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and their band of American-killing Viragos.</p>
<p>Scheuer wrote that&#160; Obama as well as Cameron “will protect the growing power and durability of our Islamist enemies, while undermining the constitutional structure, the rule of law and the civil liberties which, since England’s Glorious Revolution (1688-89), Anglo-Americans have built and defended against the despotic drift of their rulers with argument, protest, and–if at last needed–violence.”</p>
<p>To underline that last ominous point, Scheuer quoted at length from Algernon Sidney, “the great 17th century English republican…a man who was revered on both sides of the Atlantic.” Among Sidney’s points Scheuer called to Obama and Cameron’s attention:</p>
<p>In his column about Scheuer’s murderous call, Frum asserts,&#160;“I don’t expect we will be hearing much more in future from the former CBS News analyst, bestselling author and CIA officer.”</p>
<p>Frum may be overestimating US media–particularly Fox News.</p> | Fox Regular Calls for Assassinating Obama | true | http://fair.org/blog/2014/01/07/fox-regular-calls-for-assassinating-obama/ | 2014-01-07 | 4 |
<p>The Latest on the failure of a nuclear power project in South Carolina (all times local):</p>
<p>4:35 p.m.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A shareholder is suing a South Carolina utility, asking 12 executives return $21 million in bonuses connected to the canceled construction of two nuclear reactors.</p>
<p>John Crangle of the ethics watchdog group Common Cause called the bonuses appalling and disturbing, given the bad decisions made by the executives of SCANA, the parent company of South Carolina Electric &amp; Gas.</p>
<p>SCE&amp;G and state-owned Santee Cooper decided to end construction on the two reactors at the V.C. Summer plant after jointly spending nearly $10 billion on construction and charging customers more than $2 billion in interest fees since 2009.</p>
<p>Crangle's suit points out SCANA stock has fallen 20 percent this year. The stock fell 7 percent on Wednesday alone after state regulators were asked to stop the utilities form charging ratepayers for the unbuilt reactors.</p>
<p>___</p>
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<p>2:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Both owners of a failed nuclear project in South Carolina are selling their nearly $2.2 billion, five-year settlement over the debacle so that they can collect 92 percent of the cash immediately.</p>
<p>The governing boards for South Carolina Electric &amp; Gas and state-owned Santee Cooper agreed Wednesday to monetize their settlement with Toshiba, the parent company of Westinghouse, the bankrupt lead contractor of the now-defunct project.</p>
<p>The partners signed the settlement with Toshiba in July, days before bailing on the two partly-built reactors at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station.</p>
<p>Santee Cooper CEO Lonnie Carter calls Citibank's high bid of 91.5 percent "a bird in the hand" considering the Japanese company's "terribly weak" below investment-grade credit.</p>
<p>Citibank's payout does not include Toshiba's first payment of $150 million to the utilities, due this weekend. The sale is expected to go through Wednesday. They jointly give up the potential of an additional $171 million over five years, as well as any claims against Westinghouse in bankruptcy court.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11 a.m.</p>
<p>South Carolina's state-owned utility is selling its portion of a $2 billion, five-year settlement over a failure nuclear power project to essentially collect 92 percent immediately.</p>
<p>The board of Santee Cooper on Wednesday unanimously approved monetizing the settlement with the parent company of Westinghouse, the bankrupt lead contractor of the now-defunct project.</p>
<p>Santee Cooper and South Carolina Electric &amp; Gas signed the settlement with Toshiba days before the partners bailed on the partly built reactors at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station.</p>
<p>Santee Cooper CEO Lonnie Carter calls Citibank's high bid of 91.5 percent "a bird in the hand" considering the Japanese company's "terribly weak" below investment-grade credit.</p>
<p>Citibank's payout does not include Toshiba's first payment of $150 million to the utilities, due this weekend. Santee Cooper executives say SCANA, SCE&amp;G's parent company, is expected to accept the offer too, allowing for the transaction to be completed Wednesday. A SCANA spokeswoman did not immediately respond.</p>
<p>The sale means Santee Cooper will collect about $900 million now instead of the potential of $980 million over five years.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:30 a.m.</p>
<p>Gov. Henry McMaster says he remains hopeful buyers can revive an abandoned nuclear power project in South Carolina, while multiple lawsuits and investigations probe whether spending should have ended years ago.</p>
<p>McMaster told The Associated Press he met Tuesday with Energy Secretary Rick Perry regarding a loan program for nuclear construction. He calls that key for finding a buyer willing to complete one or both of the partly built reactors.</p>
<p>South Carolina Electric &amp; Gas and state-owned Santee Cooper decided July 31 to bail on the two reactors after jointly spending nearly $10 billion on construction and charging customers more than $2 billion in interest fees since 2009.</p>
<p>Utility executives say they've seen no credible buyout offer.</p>
<p>But McMaster says he's negotiating with a "number of companies and several individuals."</p> | The Latest: Utility shareholder wants $21M in bonuses back | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/27/latest-utility-sells-settlement-for-nuclear-project.html | 2017-09-27 | 0 |
<p>A <a href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/nov/03/faulconer-vaults-into-lead-in-new-poll/" type="external">new poll released Sunday</a> has both good news and bad news for San Diego mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher, the 21st-century <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/07/movies/the-long-run-of-sammy-glick.html?pagewanted=all&amp;src=pm" type="external">Sammy Glick</a>&#160;who went from union-scorning Republican to above-it-all noble independent to union-embracing Democrat from March 2012 to May 2013.</p>
<p>The bad news for Fletcher: He is no longer ahead.</p>
<p>“Councilman Kevin Faulconer has surged past Qualcomm executive Nathan Fletcher in the special election to replace Bob Filner as the city’s next mayor, opening up a double-digit lead, according to a new U-T San Diego/10News poll.</p>
<p>“Faulconer now leads with 41 percent compared to Fletcher’s 28 percent. City Councilman David Alvarez is stuck at 17 percent, while former City Attorney Mike Aguirre is a distant fourth with seven percent.”</p>
<p>The good news for Fletcher: Alvarez, a Democrat with labor support and an appealing story, in theory should be a strong candidate. But he isn’t catching fire. Since there will be a runoff unless one candidate gets 50 percent plus one of the vote on Nov. 19, this is good news for Fletcher. If he makes the runoff in the election to replace disgraced Bob Filner, he’s the favorite, given Democrats’ <a href="http://www.thomhartmann.com/users/carol-changus/blog/2012/06/city-san-diego-has-been-democratic-majority-2003-county-has-had-dem" type="external">voter-registration advantage</a> in San Diego.</p>
<p>“Alvarez, who is in his first term on the council, lost a little ground from the last poll, despite having the endorsement of the county Democratic Party and massive spending on his behalf by the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council. He registered 20 percent support last month and 17 percent in a poll in September. …</p>
<p>“Alvarez also is struggling to attract Latinos, according to the poll, which found that 34 percent of those respondents were backing Faulconer compared to 27 percent for both Alvarez and Fletcher. That’s down from 32 percent for Alvarez from the Oct. 13 poll.”</p>
<p>Among the San Diego smart set, the consensus has long been that Fletcher was likely to end up mayor. But maybe, just maybe, voters care more about serial political shape-shifting than political insiders — especially when it is accompanied by <a href="" type="internal">bizarre gaffes</a>&#160;by the shape-shifter about his own family.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Good news, bad news for chameleon San Diego politician Nathan Fletcher | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2013/11/04/good-news-bad-news-for-chameleon-san-diego-politician/ | 2018-11-20 | 3 |
<p>Here’s a statistic to think about after stuffing yourself with turkey and pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving. More than half of the world’s 671 million obese people live in just 10 countries.</p>
<p>And — surprise, surprise! — the highest proportion, 13 percent, are in the United States.</p>
<p>“Obesity is an issue affecting people of all ages and incomes, everywhere,” <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/news-release/nearly-one-third-world%E2%80%99s-population-obese-or-overweight-new-data-show" type="external">said Christopher Murray</a>, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which led the study of 188 countries published in <a href="http://download.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140673614604608.pdf?id=caaK1rD7aKYfXcQg21XNu" type="external">The Lancet</a>.</p>
<p>“In the last three decades, not one country has achieved success in reducing obesity rates and we expect obesity to rise steadily as incomes rise in low- and middle-income countries in particular, unless urgent steps are taken to address this public health crisis.”</p>
<p>Obesity is measured by a person’s body mass index, which is a weight-to-height ratio. A person with a BMI of 25 to 29 is considered to be overweight, while someone with a reading of 30 or more is obese. According to the <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/" type="external">World Health Organization</a>, more women than men are tipping the scales at obesity levels.</p>
<p>Fridge-loads of studies have been published about the global obesity epidemic and, owing to its huge health, social and economic impact, that trend is likely to continue.&#160;</p>
<p>It is&#160; <a href="http://download.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140673614604608.pdf?id=caaK1rD7aKYfXcQg21XNu" type="external">estimated</a>&#160;that the number of overweight and obese people has more than doubled over the past 30 years, from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion people in 2013, the equivalent of nearly 30 percent of the world’s population.</p>
<p>In fact, there are now almost two-and-a-half times as many overweight and obese people on the planet as there are&#160; <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Economic_Studies/How_the_world_could_better_fight_obesity" type="external">undernourished</a>. And&#160; <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/" type="external">more people</a>&#160;die from eating too much than from not eating enough. Yikes.&#160;</p>
<p>The&#160; <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/" type="external">reason</a>&#160;we are so fat — and getting fatter — is pretty simple:&#160; We are consuming more calories than we are burning off. This wasn’t such a problem for our ancestors, who were more physically active and survived on a diet that was based on less calorie and fat-dense food. But in the modern age we have computers, Netflix, potato chips and sugary sodas.&#160;</p>
<p>While most people probably think about obesity as a health problem, it also has pretty serious economic consequences.</p>
<p>Obesity costs the global economy about $2 trillion a year, or 2.8 percent of global GDP, almost the same as smoking or armed conflict, McKinsey Global Institute, the research arm of management consultancy McKinsey &amp; Company, said in a <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Economic_Studies/How_the_world_could_better_fight_obesity" type="external">report.</a></p>
<p>So that's $2 trillion a year that could be spent on something else, like helping the hungry, if we all stopped gobbling so much. That's food for thought as you ask for a second serving of dessert. &#160;</p>
<p>This is a&#160; <a href="http://download.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140673614604608.pdf?id=caaK1rD7aKYfXcQg21XNu" type="external">list</a> of the top 10 countries with the most obese people.&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>1. US; 78 million or 33.3 percent of the adult population</p>
<p>Spencer Platt/Getty Images</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>2. China; 46 million or 4.4 percent of the adult population</p>
<p>AFP</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>3. India; 30 million or 3.8 percent of the adult population</p>
<p>Raveendran/AFP</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>4. Russia; 28 million or 24.1 percent of the adult population</p>
<p>AFP</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>5. Brazil; 22 million or 16.2 percent of the adult population</p>
<p>AFP</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>6. Mexico; 20 million or 26.9 percent of the adult population</p>
<p>AFP</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>7. Egypt; 18 million or 35.9 percent of the adult population</p>
<p>Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images</p>
<p>&#160; &#160;</p>
<p>8. Germany; 16 million or 24.3 percent of the adult population</p>
<p>Sean Gallup/Getty Images</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>9. Pakistan; 14 million or 13.6 percent of the adult population</p>
<p>AFP</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>10. Indonesia; 11 million or 6.8 percent of the adult population&#160;</p>
<p>AFP</p> | More people die from eating too much than from not eating enough | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-11-28/more-people-die-eating-too-much-not-eating-enough | 2014-11-28 | 3 |
<p>A (non) + Himsa (violence) = Ahimsa</p>
<p>Gandhi lived Ahimsa as a daily practice, waging peace to stop war and violence. His lifelong “experiments” with truth proved that truth force is more powerful than brute force.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Ahimsa reveals forms of peace that extend far beyond mere absence of war. For Gandhi, peace means walking with truth and justice, patience and compassion, courage and loving-kindness. Ahimsa actively promotes universal well-being and encourages the flourishing of all life, not just humans. It is the art of living in the present and opening our imaginations to a good life for all.</p>
<p>Gandhi offers four sustaining pillars for Ahimsa.</p>
<p>This is Gandhi’s central pillar: the practice of economic, political, and moral justice. All creatures are included in a quest for universal well-being; all take their just share of the abundance of our Mother Earth.</p>
<p>Sarvodaya means the end of injustice and hunger. There is enough for every being’s needs and not enough for even a single person’s greed. Sarvodaya societies and communities ensure that all enjoy the dignity of sharing their skills and talents.</p>
<p>Sarvodaya serves to remind us, moment by moment, of our entire Earth family—interdependent, made of each other, inextricably interconnected.</p>
<p>Gandhi’s idea of self-rule celebrates the freedoms born of the self-discipline necessary for Sarvodaya.</p>
<p>Swaraj demands maximum power for self-organization and self-rule by people within their families, neighborhoods, villages, and bioregions, and minimal intervention by national governments. We assume full responsibility for our own behavior and for our decisions, made with others, on how to organize our communities.</p>
<p>Swaraj celebrates personal freedom from poverty and all forms of domination. No one rules others, and no state imposes its laws without the free consent of the governed. Rather than human rights, Swaraj sees human duties: to Mother Earth and to our neighbors, both near and distant.</p>
<p>At the heart of Swadeshi is honoring and celebrating local economy, with people enjoying a right livelihood from the gifts of the natural resources of their own bioregions. The bread labor of each place, drawing on the genius of local knowledge and skills, generates a surplus to share with others. Swadeshi is people-centered economics—the soul of “small is beautiful.”</p>
<p>Satyagraha radically transforms political or economic systems through nonviolent resistance. It does not seek to inflict upon the violent a taste of their own medicine but instead transforms foe into friend and intolerance into hospitality. Satyagraha encourages us to cultivate the same compassion for strangers that we have for kin.</p>
<p>Satyagrahis refuse to comply with unjust laws and voluntarily accept the resulting suffering. They call for patient, continual, small actions performed by common men and women looking for a more decent life. They produce profound, radical transformation without the cataclysmic revolutions that frequently impose their own violent power structures.</p>
<p>Satyagrahis seek to live oneness in thought, speech, and actions: They walk the talk. Actively resisting oppression, Satyagrahis recognize that there are wrongs to die for, yet not a single one to kill for.</p> | Peaceful Revolution? Gandhi’s Four Paths to Get There | true | http://yesmagazine.org/issues/love-and-the-apocalypse/peaceful-revolution-gandhi-s-four-paths-to-get-there | 4 |
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<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Stephen Gutowski</a> October 10, 2017 8:11 pm</p>
<p>On Tuesday's episode of MSNBC's "Deadline White House," host Nicolle Wallace said the Second Amendment was intended to help fight against "foreign militias," not to create an "armed population" while interviewing gun-control activists.</p>
<p>Wallace used New York Times columnist Bret Stephens recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/opinion/guns-second-amendment-nra.html" type="external">op-ed</a> calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment as a jumping-off point while interviewing John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, and actress Julianne Moore. "A conservative wrote a piece last week that got a lot of attention about maybe opening up the conversation about the Second Amendment," Wallace said. "His name is Bret Stephens, and he&#160;said the intellectually honest way to have this debate is to say that this isn't what was intended, that we're an armed population. This was a right to bear arms against foreign militias."</p>
<p>Stephens, however, does not claim in his column that the Second Amendment was not intended to mean America should be an armed population or that it doesn't protect a right to arms. Stephens instead recognizes the right and argues that the protection of it should be repealed. "I wonder what Madison would have to say about that today, when more than twice as many Americans perished last year at the hands of their fellows as died in battle during the entire Revolutionary War," Stephens wrote. "My guess: Take the guns—or at least the presumptive right to them—away."</p>
<p>Additionally, though the Second Amendment says "a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State," it does not mention "foreign militias." Instead, it specifically reads "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."</p>
<p>Feinblatt responded to Wallace's question by saying he believed the Supreme Court should reconsider its 2008 ruling in Heller vs D.C., which confirmed the Second Amendment's protection of individual gun ownership, and pointed out that the Court stated certain regulations of gun rights remains constitutional.</p>
<p>"Look, there's no doubt that I think the Second Amendment decision ought to be looked at but we also ought to look at the decision itself," he said. "The NRA tries to characterize it as an absolute right but Rehnquist went out of his way in writing that decision that says it's actually the Second Amendment is subject to reasonable regulation."</p>
<p>Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the opinion for the Court in that case, not William Rehnquist. William Rehnquist's tenure at the Supreme Court ended three years earlier when he passed away on September 3, 2005.</p> | Nicolle Wallace: Second Amendment Intended to Fight ‘Foreign Militias,’ Not Create ‘Armed Population’ | true | http://freebeacon.com/issues/msnbcs-nicolle-wallace-second-amendment-intended-fight-foreign-militias-not-create-armed-population/ | 2017-10-10 | 0 |
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<p />
<p>Police were paying $200 apiece for semiautomatic or assault weapons, $150 for handguns and $100 for long guns — in the form of Visa gift cards — but ran out after distributing $12,500 worth of gift cards and collecting 123 weapons.</p>
<p>“I can’t say ‘surprised’; I’d say ‘pleased,’ ” said Santa Fe Police Chief Raymond Rael when asked his reaction to Saturday’s turnout. Rael said that about 25 or 30 people were still in line when police ran out of gift cards donated by Wells Fargo Bank.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>While they continued to accept guns from those willing to waive amnesty under the program, or who were not interested in receiving payment, police invited others to return for the other buybacks scheduled Feb. 9 and March 9.</p>
<p>Rael said $25,000 in city funding paid for the program.</p>
<p>“We’ll probably be asking the city council for additional money, and we’ll look for other corporate sponsors to help us out,” he said.</p>
<p>By 3 p.m., when the event was scheduled to end, police had collected a total of 194 weapons. Included were 53 semiautomatic handguns, 47 revolvers, 57 rifles, 31 shotguns and six assault weapons.</p>
<p>The guns were received with no questions asked. As people entered, an armorer checked the guns to make sure they were unloaded and in working condition. The make, model and serial numbers were recorded and people were awarded a gift card.</p>
<p>Rael said the serial numbers were then checked to make sure the weapons hadn’t been reported stolen or used in a crime. Any stolen guns would be returned to their rightful owner and the proper law enforcement authority would be notified, he said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Antique guns were to be offered to museums, the police chief said. The rest will be destroyed.</p>
<p>“Any weapon you can take off the street reduces the chances of someone committing suicide, a child getting their hands on one or it being stolen,” Rael said. “There are a lot of guns out there, and any we can get off the streets is one less problem and may help to avert a tragedy.”</p>
<p>Sean Christen waits in line to turn in two black powder guns during the first in a series of Santa Fe gun buyback events Saturday.</p>
<p>Last month’s Newtown, Conn., school shootings, which resulted in the deaths of 20 children and six adults, triggered the buyback offer in Santa Fe, Mayor David Coss said.</p>
<p>“I really believe in the wake of Newtown it’s important to act and move the discussion forward,” said Coss, who tomorrow, on the one-month anniversary of the Newtown shootings, joins mayors across the country in press conferences to call on President Obama and Congress to take immediate steps to end gun violence.</p>
<p>Coss, who owns two guns he uses for hunting, will also travel to Washington, D.C., later this week to join other members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns to lobby Congress to support changing gun laws.</p>
<p>“We need to move strongly and dramatically to change how the U.S. relates to guns,” Coss said. “The NRA has too tight of a lock and a lot of us have said, ‘You know, we can’t be silent anymore.’ ”</p>
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<p>Coss said the mayors’ group will push for reforms that include requirements that every person who buys a gun pass a criminal background check. Removing high-capacity weapons and magazines from the streets and making gun trafficking a federal crime are also among the reforms sought by the group.</p>
<p>Coss said a tragedy like Newtown could easily happen in Santa Fe, adding that he’s seen too many promising young people die due to gun violence.</p>
<p>“Just this week, we had a merchant downtown fire off five rounds, and we’ve had three murders in Santa Fe County in the past couple of weeks,” he said. “So I appreciate seeing Santa Feans coming out on such a cold morning to do this. I’m sorry we waited so long.”</p>
<p>Not everyone who showed up Saturday morning was from Santa Fe.</p>
<p>Jeff Ortiz drove up from Albuquerque.</p>
<p>“I have some extra guns laying around the house that were just collecting dust,” said Ortiz, who left six guns at home. “I thought I’d come up here and get $100 for this one. It’s probably not even worth that much.”</p>
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<p>An NRA member, Ortiz said he supported stricter gun laws.</p>
<p>“I think gun control is a good thing. It keeps them out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them,” he said.</p>
<p>Santa Fe Police inspect weapons brought in during the city’s gun buyback event Saturday. (EDDIE MOORE/JOURNAL)</p>
<p>Debbie Thompson is a lifetime member of the NRA, who came to the buyback with her two daughters to get rid of a .380 caliber pistol she hasn’t used in years.</p>
<p>“I’m just doing this because it’s been locked up in the closet for two years, and it makes no sense keeping it around,” she said.</p>
<p>Thompson said she wasn’t in favor of stricter gun laws.</p>
<p>“When my 17-year-old daughter can go out on the street and buy a gun that’s bigger and better than the one I have, I don’t think it’s right to tell me I can’t own a gun,” she said. “My gun has never shot anything I haven’t aimed it at. I’m getting rid of this one, and it’ll make room for a new one.”</p>
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<p>Kyle Smith of Santa Fe said he was there to dispose of two shotguns he hasn’t used in years. He said he was turning them in to make sure they didn’t get into the wrong hands.</p>
<p>“I think there should be a lot less guns, especially handguns,” he said. “All they are meant to do is kill people, so anything we get off the streets makes us safer. A lot of guns end up hurting people they aren’t meant to hurt. They aren’t as safe as people think.”</p>
<p>Santa Fe’s Greg Walsh showed up unarmed. His purpose for being there was to educate people about responsible gun ownership.</p>
<p>“I’m making sure people are aware of their rights, what the fair market value is and, most importantly, responsible ownership.” said Walsh, who said he wasn’t attending as a representative of any gun advocacy group.</p>
<p>He was passing out fliers that addressed such topics as responsible storage and handling of firearms and people’s rights as gun owners.</p>
<p>While not protesting the event, Walsh said he was against the city buybacks.</p>
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<p>“I think it’s poor public policy and that they are exploiting the nation’s grief for political advantage,” he said. “I think it’s exploiting taxpayers and trivializes the Bill of Rights.”</p>
<p>Three like-minded people were standing on the sidewalk near the driveway holding sings that read, “Protect the 2nd Amendment” and “100% Legal.” They were trying to get people to sell guns to them, offering $50 more than the police.</p>
<p>They declined to identify themselves, saying only they were from Albuquerque and purchasing guns for their private collection.</p>
<p>“We’re just buying back guns to keep them from being melted down,” one man said. “What we’re seeing here with the buyback is a waste of taxpayer money.”</p>
<p>By 10 a.m., the three had purchased 18 weapons, mostly long guns.</p> | Weapons Returned | false | https://abqjournal.com/159869/weapons-returned.html | 2013-01-13 | 2 |
<p>By Alex Kirby, Climate News Network</p>
<p />
<p>&#160; &#160; Many glaciers in the European Alps could lose about 50 percent of their present surface area. (TonnyB via Wikimedia Commons)</p>
<p>This Creative Commons-licensed piece first appeared at <a href="http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/global-glacier-melt-reaches-record-levels/" type="external">Climate News Network</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>LONDON — The world’s glaciers are melting fast — probably faster than at any time in recorded history, according to new research.</p>
<p>Measurements show several hundred glaciers are losing between half and one metre of thickness every year — at least twice the average loss for the 20th century — and remote monitoring shows this rate of melting is far more widespread.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://wgms.ch/" type="external">World Glacier Monitoring Service</a> (WGMS), based at the <a href="http://www.mediadesk.uzh.ch/articles/2015/gletscher-verlieren-mehr-eis-als-je-zuvor_en.html" type="external">University of Zurich</a>, Switzerland, has compiled worldwide data on glacier changes for more than 120 years.</p>
<p>Drawing on reports from its observers in more than 30 countries, it has published in the <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/igsoc/jog/pre-prints/content-ings_jog_15j017;jsessionid=27eoacigrpoaq.alexandra" type="external">Journal of Glaciology</a> a comprehensive analysis of global glacier changes.</p>
<p>The study compares observations of the first decade of this century with all available earlier data from field, airborne and satellite observations, and with reconstructions from pictorial and written sources.</p>
<p>Dr Michael Zemp, director of WGMS and lead author of the study, says the current annual loss of 0.5-1 metre of ice thickness observed on “a few hundred glaciers” through direct measurement is two to three times more than the average for the last century.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CROP-SimonOberli_rhone2014.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p>“However, these results are qualitatively confirmed from field and satellite-based observations for tens of thousands of glaciers around the world,” he adds.</p>
<p>The WGMS compiles the results of worldwide glacier observations in annual calls-for-data. The current database contains more than 5,000 measurements of glacier volume and mass changes since 1850, and more than 42,000 front variations from observations and reconstructions stretching back to the 16th century.</p>
<p>Glaciers provide <a href="https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/glaciers/questions/people.html" type="external">drinking water for millions of people</a>, as well as irrigating crops and providing hydropower. When they melt, they also make a <a href="http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2012/12/how-much-do-melting-ice-sheets-contribute-to-sea-level-rise" type="external">measurable contribution to sea level rise</a>.</p>
<p>The researchers say the <a href="http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/alaskas-glaciers-melt-faster-as-climate-change-speeds-up/" type="external">current rate of glacier melt</a> is without precedent at the global scale — at least for the time period observed, and probably also for recorded history, as reconstructions from written and illustrated documents attest.</p>
<p>The study also shows that the long-term retreat of glacier tongues is a global phenomenon. Intermittent re-advance periods at regional and decadal scales are normally restricted to a smaller sample of glaciers and have not come close to achieving the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/sep/29/little-ice-age" type="external">Little Ice Age</a> maximum positions reached between the 16th and 19th centuries.</p>
<p>Glacier tongues in Norway, for example, have retreated by some kilometres from their maximum extents in the 19th century. The intermittent re-advances of the 1990s were restricted to glaciers in coastal areas, and to a few hundred metres.</p>
<p>The study shows that the intense ice loss of the last two decades has resulted in what it calls “a strong imbalance of glaciers in many regions of the world”. And Dr Zemp warns: “These glaciers will suffer further ice loss, even if climate remains stable.”</p>
<p>He told Climate News Network: “Due to the strong ice loss over the past few decades, many glaciers are too big under current climatic conditions. They simply have not had enough time to react to the climatic changes of the past.</p>
<p>“So they will have to retreat further until they are in balance with climatic conditions again. In the European Alps, many glaciers would lose about 50% of their present surface area without further climate change.”</p> | Speed of Glacier Retreat Worldwide Reaches Record Levels | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/speed-of-glacier-retreat-worldwide-reaches-record-levels/ | 2015-08-05 | 4 |
<p>In its effort to rescue the housing market, the Obama administration has created a Frankensystem which neither allows the market to clear nor solves the intractable social problems of lost equity and foreclosure. Obama needs to step back and take a look at the mess he’s made by following the advice of financial industry reps and bank lobbyists. Housing is in a shambles. The market is presently stitched together with buyer-assistance programs, loan modifications programs, new homebuyer subsidies, foreclosure abatement programs, principal reduction programs, historic low interest rates, “easy-term” financing, and government-backed loans. It’s a dog’s breakfast of inducements, giveaways and bandaids all designed with one purpose in mind; to keep the banks from taking a bigger hit on their garbage mortgages. To get an idea of how desperate the situation really is; take a look at this article in the Wall Street Journal:</p>
<p>“The U.S. government’s massive share of the nation’s mortgage market grew even larger during the first quarter. Government-related entities backed 96.5 per cent of all home loans during the first quarter, up from 90 per cent in 2009, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. The increase was driven by a jump in the share of loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-owned housing-finance giants….</p>
<p>“The collapse of the mortgage market in 2007 steered more business to the Federal Housing Administration, which insures loans, and Fannie and Freddie, which were taken over by the government in 2008 as rising losses wiped out thin capital reserves. Congress also increased the limits on the size of loans that Fannie, Freddie and the FHA can guarantee, raising the ceiling to as high as $729,750 in high-cost housing markets such as New York and California. (“U.S. Role in Mortgage Market Grows Even Larger” Nick Timiraos, Wall Street Journal)</p>
<p>There is no housing market in the U.S. apart from the government.&#160; The Potemkin banking system is still on the rocks, so Fannie and Freddie have been forced to pick up the slack.&#160; But if the government is going to put up all the financing, then it should have a bigger say-so on the way things are run. The emphasis should be on helping people, not on more handouts for the banks.</p>
<p>The first order of business should be the launching of a National Bank that would help support the privately-owned banking system. This would ensure the availability of credit for prospective homeowners and small businesses without putting more pressure on Fannie and Freddie. The National Bank would operate as a public utility run by government employees. That would help to control salaries, eliminate the problem of bloated executive compensation and incentives, and reduce the incidents of fraud.</p>
<p>Naturally, the banks will oppose the move tooth and nail, so it’s up to Obama to guide the legislation through the congress. This is matter of national security. The banks now pose a threat to the material well-being of everyone in the country. They’re a menace. While a National Bank won’t undo the massive damage that’s already been done; it will put the economy on the road to recovery by creating a reliable source of credit for any future expansion without inflating another asset bubble.</p>
<p>As the WSJ’s report reveals, the banks don’t have the capital to function as banks. So, what good are they? They’re merely wards of the state. Obama should bypass this sclerotic system of corruption-plagued institutions altogether and do what needs to be done while the economy is still weak. That way, the new National Bank will be up-and-running by the time economic activity begins to pick up again.</p>
<p>Shadow Inventory — There’s a 9-year backlog of distressed homes</p>
<p>Here’s another stunner from the Wall Street Journal. The&#160; article is titled&#160; “Number of the Week: 103 Months to Clear Housing Inventory” by Mark Whitehouse. Here’s an excerpt:</p>
<p>“How much should we worry about a new leg down in the housing market? If the number of foreclosed homes piling up at banks is any indication, there’s ample reason for concern. As of March, banks had an inventory of about 1.1 million foreclosed homes, up 20 per cent from a year earlier….</p>
<p>“Another 4.8 million mortgage holders were at least 60 days behind on their payments or in the foreclosure process, meaning their homes were well on their way to the inventory pile. That “shadow inventory” was up 30 per cent from a year earlier. Based on the rate at which banks have been selling those foreclosed homes over the past few months, all that inventory, real and shadow, would take 103 months to unload. That’s nearly nine years. Of course, banks could pick up the pace of sales, but the added supply of distressed homes would weigh heavily on prices — and thus boost their losses.”&#160; (“Number of the Week: 103 Months to Clear Housing Inventory” Mark Whitehouse, Wall Street Journal)</p>
<p>Got that? There’s a 9-year backlog of distressed homes.&#160; The banks are deliberately fudging the numbers to hide how bad things really are. The number of homes in late-stage foreclosure is not 1.1 million, but nearly 6 million— 5X more than the banks are admitting.&#160; Housing will be in the doldrums for a decade or more. It’s shameful that people can’t get basic information like this to help them make their investment decisions. The banks couldn’t pull off this type of information warfare without the help of government officials pulling strings from inside. Bernanke and Geithner must be involved.</p>
<p>So, what’s the objective?</p>
<p>The banks are trying to keep prices artificially high to avoid writing-down millions of mortgages that would force them into bankruptcy. It’s called “extend and pretend” and it’s poisonous for the broader economy because it distorts prices and keeps a broken banking system in place that can’t perform its social purpose.</p>
<p>WSJ housing editor James R. Hagerty verifies Whitehouse’s claims and fills in some of the blanks.&#160; Here’s a clip from his article:</p>
<p>“To get a sense of how many more households will lose their homes to foreclosures or related actions, Barclays tallies what it calls a shadow inventory, consisting of homeowners 90 days or more overdue on mortgage payments or already in the foreclosure process. At the end of February, 4.6 million households were in that category.</p>
<p>Barclays expects 1.6 million “distressed sales” of homes—mainly foreclosures or sales of homes for less than the mortgage balance due—both this year and in 2011, then a slight decline to 1.5 million in 2012. Last year, Barclays estimates, such sales totaled 1.5 million. About 30 per cent of all home sales this year and next will be foreclosure-related, forecasts Robert Tayon, a mortgage analyst at Barclays, who says that would be only about 6 per cent in a normal housing market.” (“Foreclosure Estimate Falls”, James R. Hagerty, Wall Street Journal.)</p>
<p>Why would Barclays think that only 1.6 million “distressed” homes would be sold in 2010, when they openly admit that there’s 4.6 million homes already in the foreclosure pipeline? What does Barclays know that the public is not supposed to know?</p>
<p>Clearly, the banks have worked out a deal with Geithner and Bernanke to sell distressed inventory in dribs and drabs rather than all at once. That keeps prices high and makes their losses more manageable. But isn’t that collusion or, at the very least, price fixing? The government definitely HAS a role to play in helping people keep their homes or providing assistance when they lose them, but they have no right to scam the public by stealthily manipulating the market to save underwater financial institutions.</p>
<p>The problem is not housing. The problem is the banks. The banks do not have sufficient capital to fund the mortgage market, nor do they provide the bulk of the financing for auto loans, student loans, small business loans or credit card debt which is gathered into pools and chopped up into tranches for securities that are sold to investors. (Securitization generates wholesale funding for the credit markets.) Not only are the banks unable to fulfill their primary social purpose–which is extending credit–they’re also increasingly dependent on revenue from high-risk speculation. A recent article in the Financial Times exposed the fraud behind the 12-month surge in equities pointing out that retail investors have largely stayed on the sidelines. Here’s an excerpt:</p>
<p>“…surveys show that the usual investors in major rallies – pension funds, hedge funds and retail investors – have not been net buyers of equities…the most likely explanation for this anomaly in the biggest stock market rally since the 1930s is that major investment banks are the anxious buyers.</p>
<p>“Their buying would appear to be for one of two reasons. Firstly because they think the authorities will prevail in their (so far unsuccessful) efforts to inflate their way out of debt liquidation; or secondly because they are too big to fail and so can afford to take a huge gamble that enough buying will convince others to rush in and buy their inventory of risk assets at even higher prices.” (“Equity Rally Not Driven by the Usual Investors”, Financial Times.)</p>
<p>Many people already suspected that the soaring stock market had more to do with “easy money” and bubblenomics, than they did with “green shoots”. Still, the FT article does help to underline the fact that the bank’s business model is broken and badly in need of repair. But, what is to be done? The banks already own just about everyone on Capital Hill, and their lobbyists are now writing large sections of the reform legislation. So how can they be stopped?</p>
<p>The root of the problem is political, and that’s the best place to start. The banks’ lethal grip on government has to be broken.</p>
<p>MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He can be reached at [email protected]</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p /> | A Lost Decade Ahead for Housing | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/05/10/a-lost-decade-ahead-for-housing/ | 2010-05-10 | 4 |
<p>Facebook is taking another step to try to make itself more socially beneficial, saying it will boost news sources that its users rate as trustworthy in surveys.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/01/trusted-sources/" type="external">blog post</a> and a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104445245963251" type="external">Facebook post</a> from CEO Mark Zuckerberg Friday, the company said it is surveying users about their familiarity with and trust in news sources. That data will influence what others see in their news feeds.</p>
<p>It’s the second major tweak to Facebook’s algorithm announced this month. The social-media giant, a major source of news for users, has struggled to deal with an uproar over fake news and Russian-linked posts, meant to influence the 2016 U.S. elections, on its platform. The company has slowly acknowledged its role in that foreign interference.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104380170714571" type="external">Zuckerberg has said</a> his goal for this year is to <a href="" type="internal">fix Facebook</a> , whether by protecting against foreign interference and abuse or by making users feel better about how they spend time on Facebook.</p>
<p>Facebook announced last week that it would <a href="" type="internal">try to have users see fewer posts</a> from publishers, businesses and celebrities, and more from friends and family. Zuckerberg said Friday because of that, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104445245963251" type="external">news posts will make up 4 percent of the news feed</a> , down from 5 percent today.</p>
<p>Facebook says it will start prioritizing news sources deemed trustworthy in the U.S. and then internationally. It says it has surveyed a “diverse and representative sample” of U.S. users and next week it will begin testing prioritizing the news sources deemed trustworthy. Publishers with lower scores may see a drop in their distribution across Facebook.</p>
<p>“There’s too much sensationalism, misinformation and polarization in the world today. Social media enables people to spread information faster than ever before, and if we don’t specifically tackle these problems, then we end up amplifying them. That’s why it’s important that News Feed promotes high quality news that helps build a sense of common ground,” Zuckerberg wrote.</p>
<p>Of course, there are worries that survey-takers will try to game the system, or that they just won’t be able to differentiate between high-quality and low-quality news sources — an issue made evident by the spread of many fake-news items in the past few years.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg says that some news organizations “are only broadly trusted by their readers or watchers, and others are broadly trusted across society even by those who don’t follow them directly.” But this is complicated.</p>
<p>In the U.S., there has been a growing <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2017/05/10/democrats-republicans-now-split-on-support-for-watchdog-role/" type="external">partisan split in perceptions of the media</a> . Roughly a third of Democrats in early 2017 said they trusted information from national news organizations a lot; only 11 percent of Republicans did, according to Pew Research Center; that gap had grown from early 2016.</p>
<p>Facebook’s move is a positive one, but that it’s not clear how effective this system will be in identifying trustworthy news sources, David Chavern, CEO of the news media trade group News Media Alliance, said in a statement Friday.</p>
<p>Facebook is taking another step to try to make itself more socially beneficial, saying it will boost news sources that its users rate as trustworthy in surveys.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/01/trusted-sources/" type="external">blog post</a> and a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104445245963251" type="external">Facebook post</a> from CEO Mark Zuckerberg Friday, the company said it is surveying users about their familiarity with and trust in news sources. That data will influence what others see in their news feeds.</p>
<p>It’s the second major tweak to Facebook’s algorithm announced this month. The social-media giant, a major source of news for users, has struggled to deal with an uproar over fake news and Russian-linked posts, meant to influence the 2016 U.S. elections, on its platform. The company has slowly acknowledged its role in that foreign interference.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104380170714571" type="external">Zuckerberg has said</a> his goal for this year is to <a href="" type="internal">fix Facebook</a> , whether by protecting against foreign interference and abuse or by making users feel better about how they spend time on Facebook.</p>
<p>Facebook announced last week that it would <a href="" type="internal">try to have users see fewer posts</a> from publishers, businesses and celebrities, and more from friends and family. Zuckerberg said Friday because of that, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104445245963251" type="external">news posts will make up 4 percent of the news feed</a> , down from 5 percent today.</p>
<p>Facebook says it will start prioritizing news sources deemed trustworthy in the U.S. and then internationally. It says it has surveyed a “diverse and representative sample” of U.S. users and next week it will begin testing prioritizing the news sources deemed trustworthy. Publishers with lower scores may see a drop in their distribution across Facebook.</p>
<p>“There’s too much sensationalism, misinformation and polarization in the world today. Social media enables people to spread information faster than ever before, and if we don’t specifically tackle these problems, then we end up amplifying them. That’s why it’s important that News Feed promotes high quality news that helps build a sense of common ground,” Zuckerberg wrote.</p>
<p>Of course, there are worries that survey-takers will try to game the system, or that they just won’t be able to differentiate between high-quality and low-quality news sources — an issue made evident by the spread of many fake-news items in the past few years.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg says that some news organizations “are only broadly trusted by their readers or watchers, and others are broadly trusted across society even by those who don’t follow them directly.” But this is complicated.</p>
<p>In the U.S., there has been a growing <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2017/05/10/democrats-republicans-now-split-on-support-for-watchdog-role/" type="external">partisan split in perceptions of the media</a> . Roughly a third of Democrats in early 2017 said they trusted information from national news organizations a lot; only 11 percent of Republicans did, according to Pew Research Center; that gap had grown from early 2016.</p>
<p>Facebook’s move is a positive one, but that it’s not clear how effective this system will be in identifying trustworthy news sources, David Chavern, CEO of the news media trade group News Media Alliance, said in a statement Friday.</p> | Facebook to emphasize ‘trustworthy’ news via user surveys | false | https://apnews.com/ee256ff59ac447308192d4c400e9a731 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>D <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458259/" type="external">irty Jobs</a> is a television show in which host Mike Rowe visits and profiles people across the United States who do dangerous and overlooked work. Roadkill removers. Sewer inspectors. Those&#160;who dive into filthy water to scavenge for golf balls.</p>
<p>But it’s not just for kicks, Rowe insists. After&#160;several seasons, the host has become inspired enough to take his economic message beyond cable.</p>
<p>Through the mikeroweWORKS foundation, allying&#160;with companies like Caterpillar, he provides scholarships for people interested in training for skilled trades — not just to promote his brand, but to advise the poorly paid and unemployed. Corporate sponsorship notwithstanding, it appears to come from the heart. Rowe admires workers who don’t just get paid well but derive genuine happiness from creating something, fixing something, or doing the work others think is beneath them.</p>
<p>In interviews and in his brand <a href="http://profoundlydisconnected.com/" type="external">Profoundly Disconnected</a>, Rowe asserts that Americans have been taught that the proper path to a good job and a good life is through education, with the punishment for doing otherwise a future of grueling, unrewarding physical labor. Welders, electricians, and other blue-collar workers have been so stigmatized that people otherwise inclined to join these professions are instead aimlessly looking at classifieds or stringing together unfulfilling office jobs while paying off mountains of student debt.</p>
<p>There’s certainly a kernel of truth here: For those without degrees or job training, the American economy provides few options other than low-paying service sector jobs or soul-crushing clerical work with middling benefits. The twin scourges of deunionization and slack labor markets have left many workers with little pay or workplace power.</p>
<p>But Rowe isn’t concerned with the actions of business leaders, or government officials, or broader economic forces. To him the problem is the American worker herself, who is either indolent or unwilling to take the gross, dirty, hazardous jobs that are available. It is not policy that needs reforming, but people. Rather than shifts in global capitalism and the decay of the welfare state, the lack of well-paying jobs stems from the devaluation of hard, physical labor.</p>
<p>Rowe’s ire also extends to the regulatory state, especially the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The government has hindered job growth, he says, by forcing employers to put safety before production. Instead, he believes in a “safety third” <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0RrhkMk2zY" type="external">system</a> that lionizes the virtue of hard, often dangerous, work.</p>
<p>Perhaps Rowe would like to explain his “safety third” idea to the family of Adam Weise, one of the eleven incinerated on the BP Deep Water Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico; or the relatives of Steven Harrah, one of the twenty-nine miners killed at the <a href="http://www.ubbminersmemorial.com/the-miners" type="external">Upper Big Branch Mine explosion</a> in West Virginia; or Joseph Graffagnino, one of two New York City firefighters who fatally asphyxiated in the infamous Deutsch Bank building fire across from the World Trade Center. Each joined a long list of workers treated as disposable, the victims of lethal accidents in worksites where safety was an afterthought. If Rowe cared more about them, he’d support the unionization that improves workplace safety — both through standard-raising contracts and the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-232X.1991.tb00773.x/abstract" type="external">enforcement</a> of OSHA regulations.</p>
<p>Nor is Rowe incensed by the policies that actively keep new workers out of blue-collar jobs and reduce the pay of existing workers. His show could have easily interviewed life-long electrical workers on strike at Verizon, who saw their benefits slashed even though their company boasted whopping profits, or publicized how machinists had to do the same at Boeing, whose revenues are underwritten by tax breaks, defense contracts, and the <a href="http://www.exim.gov/" type="external">Export-Import Bank</a>.</p>
<p>Did he go in outrage to Tennessee, where dedicated former workers <a href="http://www.vqronline.org/reporting-articles/2014/06/losing-sparta" type="external">are</a> struggling to make ends meet after profitable companies like Philips moved production to Mexico? Civil rights activists lobbied and litigated for years to end the rigged testing at the New York City Fire Department that not only reserved these coveted-but-dangerous jobs for whites, but for the children&#160;of incumbents. Rowe is either ignorant or unwilling to acknowledge this. He doesn’t&#160;decry the attacks on public sector unions, either, despite the fact that their membership includes the sanitation workers he often lauds.</p>
<p>“It would seem irresponsible to encourage your child to take up some of those jobs if it’s not clear that there’s a future there,” as economist&#160; <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/about/staff/boushey-heather/bio/" type="external">Heather Boushey</a>&#160;says. “You’ve spent decades decimating this industry so it’s not surprising people aren’t that excited about it.”</p>
<p>In the short-term, the alternative is obvious: we have to redirect funds toward building infrastructure, such as new public housing, alternative energy, high-speed rail, all things that benefit ordinary people and create jobs for the unemployed, as well as rebuilds the public sector which over the decades lifted blue-collar workers into material comfort.</p>
<p>But instead of this simple solution, Rowe idealizes&#160;freelancer, a kind of samurai without a master, compelled by nothing but his own desire to work. He&#160;glosses over the reality of contractors, who often lack health and retirement benefits. And yet, Rowe isn’t calling for more autonomy, but for the working class to stop thinking of themselves as humans and start thinking of themselves as commodities. He encourages craftsmen to travel to where the work is — for example, in the new drilling fields of <a href="http://www.glennbeck.com/2014/05/02/become-indispensable-mike-rowe-delivers-some-of-the-best-career-advice-that-everyone-needs-to-read/" type="external">North Dakota</a> — as if everyone is able to simply pack up and move at a moment’s notice. The message here is that we must sacrifice our health, our families, and our agency in order to make a living.</p>
<p>In one particularly venomous Facebook exchange, Rowe took to task a detractor who complained about corporate welfare, characterizing the complaint as blame-shifting and wimpy. Reminiscent of the “I am the 53&#160;percent” <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/post/conservatives-launch-we-are-the-53-percent-to-criticize-99-percenters/2011/10/10/gIQA70omaL_blog.html" type="external">media campaign</a>, it’s a convenient&#160;attack on&#160;anyone who wants to make demands on either the state or corporations.</p>
<p>It also allows Rowe to have it both ways. He can be a champion of the working class, forgotten and besmirched, and still exculpate the guilty parties: capitalists and their political allies. He can praise those&#160;who take grimy work, while lambasting the supposedly lazy ones who won’t. But at its core, the cultural critique Rowe offers only provides cover for the continued exploitation of workers.</p> | Mike Rowe’s Dirty Job | true | https://jacobinmag.com/2014/09/mike-rowes-dirty-job/ | 2018-10-07 | 4 |
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<p>Oral-B's Bluetooth enabled toothbrush gives you the weather, news and more while you brush via an accompanying mobile app. It also monitors how well you're brushing.</p>
<p>Controlling your environment goes a long way toward controlling, and improving, your health. And the market is exploding with new offerings designed to help you do just that.</p>
<p>"Consumers are demanding more," said Jon Hall, senior brand manager for Whirlpool. "They want more flexibility. They want to be able to see more. They want personalization."</p>
<p>Take the refrigerator, he said. It's basically a box. But newly redesigned interiors allow consumers to glance inside produce bins without opening a drawer, and some drawers are also adjustable, so customers can fit in all their fresh farmers market produce without bruising the broccoli.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Cedric Hutchings, chief executive of Withings, an industry leader in the field of smart health devices, said consumer offerings are quickly expanding beyond wearables such as fitness trackers. "We think home is a place where more and more consumers will be empowered to measure and optimize a healthy environment."</p>
<p>Here is a sampling of the gadgets, gizmos, devices, apps and appliances you'll be seeing sooner rather than later:</p>
<p>Oral-B Bluetooth toothbrush</p>
<p>Get the weather, news and more while you brush away and monitor an accompanying mobile app. The app helps you log how much brushing time you put in, follows along as you work your way around the mouth (so you don't miss any spots) and sends up a red flag when you're using too much pressure. Available in March at major retailers for about $219.</p>
<p>Spring Moves</p>
<p>You know how some songs just have the right beat for your run or hike? This app helps you find more of those in-sync tunes to make your workout fly by. The app helps you find your perfect steps-per-minute beat and keeps delivering the music that will keep you in the groove. The app is free to download on iTunes and prices vary depending on music services purchased.</p>
<p>Withings blood pressure monitor</p>
<p>Home blood pressure monitors are already available, but they can be clunky. This version underscores how designers are trying to simplify, simplify, simplify. It straps onto the arm and launches a smartphone app. Punch the start button, and you'll get a blood pressure and heart rate reading on your phone. The app plots trends, sends reminder alerts and can also relay info to a doctor. Retails for $129.95 at <a href="http://withings.zendesk.com/hc/en-us" type="external">Withings.com</a>.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Withings Aura</p>
<p>A sensor pad slips under your mattress and helps you keep track of data including how long you spent in different stages of sleep, the quality of your sleep and your heart rate throughout. Why does any of this matter? Analyzing the data could help you discover patterns. (Do you toss and turn when you eat or exercise too close to bedtime?) Correcting that could lead to more restful nights. The Aura also includes light and sound patterns designed to trigger the release of melatonin, and "gently bring you to your light sleep phase, the best moment to wake you up." Retails for $299.95 at <a href="http://withings.zendesk.com/hc/en-us" type="external">Withings.com</a>.</p>
<p>Withings Smart Body Analyzer looks like a regular scale but also measures your resting heart rate (a fitness indicator) and air quality in the room.</p>
<p>Withings Smart Body Analyzer</p>
<p>Looks like a regular scale, right? But it measures your resting heart rate (a fitness indicator) and air quality in addition to weight and body composition. "By monitoring and managing indoor air quality, people can live and sleep in a healthier environment," the company says. Retails for $149.95 at <a href="http://withings.zendesk.com/hc/en-us" type="external">Withings.com</a>.</p>
<p>SleepIQ Kids</p>
<p>Beds are about to get a lot smarter, and this is just one example. Sensors that connect to a smartphone app encourage healthy sleep habits and can alert parents if a wee one gets out of bed in the middle of the night. The app also includes a bedtime routine checklist, and children can earn stars for getting lots of shut-eye. (No doubt this last one is a selling point for sleep-deprived parents.)</p>
<p>But arguably the cutest selling point is this: The app includes a handy "scan" for monsters, so children can rest easy when they get the all-clear sign. The bed is expected to hit the market later this year for around $1,000. More details at <a href="http://www.sleepnumber.com/sleepiqkids" type="external">sleepnumber.com/sleepiqkids</a>.</p>
<p>Roomy Whirlpool fridge</p>
<p>If there's one thing consumers demand from their refrigerators, it's more space, said Hall. Whirlpool's new Double Drawer French Door fridge, expected to be available this spring, will include two soft-close drawers. Features include temperature control, ideal conditions for preserving produce and a setting for thawing frozen meat. There's also under-shelf lighting that helps you better see what might be wilting in the back. Price not available.</p>
<p>Neo smart container</p>
<p>We all know we're supposed to cook more at home and keep a food journal if we want to watch our weight. This Bluetooth-enabled smart jar aims to help by tracking the food inside and logging it in your smartphone, so you never end up at the market wondering how much quinoa you have at home or how much you need to log in your food journal. Available later this year. Price not available. <a href="http://www.skelabs.com" type="external">skelabs.com</a>.</p>
<p>The Babolat Play tennis racket has sensors that relay many details, including shot power, ball impact locations, number of strikes and more.</p>
<p>Babolat Play tennis racket</p>
<p>Sensors relay all kinds of details, including shot power, ball impact locations and number of strikes. You can also see how you stack up against friends and top players including Rafael Nadal. Expect to see more devices like this, a sort of middle ground between video games and real life. (And if it's more fun to play, you'll play more.) Expected in stores soon, $349. <a href="http://www.Babolat.us" type="external">Babolat.us</a>.</p>
<p>Genesis Touch</p>
<p>Honeywell bills this monitor as a simple way to connect a remotely located patient and a care provider, but it also gives you a glimpse of the types of devices that aging adults could use to foster independent living even if they are not tech savvy. Use it with a tablet for video visits and educational classes, all aimed at improving patient compliance and healthful behaviors. Available as prescribed by a health care provider.</p>
<p>Genesis DM</p>
<p>Large screen. Large, clear prompts. This remote patient monitor provides an easy way for patients to check in with health-care providers, according to Honeywell. It reminds patients of appointments and when to take medication and can help manage a number of conditions, including diabetes and hypertension. Available as prescribed by a health care provider.</p>
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<p /> | Getting healthy goes high-tech | false | https://abqjournal.com/551512/getting-healthy-goes-hightech.html | 2 |
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<p>When you think of greenhouse gases, it's easy to imagine idling cars, oil tankers or Dickens-style smokestacks. But you really should be including cows in that lineup.</p>
<p>Because of their complex digestive systems, burping cows are a huge source of methane, which is 25 times more harmful to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide,&#160;according to the <a href="http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/ch4.html" type="external">US Environmental Protection Agency</a>.</p>
<p>According to a report from the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State University, cows release between 132 and 264 gallons of gas a day, which adds up when you consider that the University of Missouri estimates that there are about 89.8 millions cattle and calves in the US alone.</p>
<p>In fact, the EPA estimates that about a quarter of the country’s total methane emissions come from cows and other gassy animals.&#160;</p>
<p>A number of different companies have stepped up to try and curb methane emissions. There are “cow backpacks,” comically large bags that contain&#160;gases emitted through a cow’s mouth or intestinal tract through a tube in the cow’s skin.</p>
<p />
<p>Scientists have proposed "cow backpacks", which collect a cow's burps through a tube in the animals' skin.</p>
<p>Marcos Brindicci/Reuters</p>
<p>Farmers can put their cattle on certain diets that can reduce the production of methane. They can engage in selective husbandry. Some scientists have even proposed genetic engineering. But one Dutch company is going back to the source.</p>
<p>The life and materials science giant DSM is behind the “Clean Cow” project, which has created a powder that supposedly reduces methane emissions by more than 30 percent when added to cow feed. So what’s the catch?</p>
<p>Well, maybe nothing.&#160; <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/07/29/1504124112.abstract" type="external">A new study</a> published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says the supplement has no negative effects, and in fact helps increase body weight.</p>
<p>The study was partially supported by DSM.</p>
<p>Some researchers are still recommending caution, especially because the long-term effects of the supplement are unclear.</p>
<p>“It would be important to extend the study to beyond the 12 weeks of the study, say over a full season or even through multiple seasons to fully assess impact on animals first of all as well as on products quantity and quality,” Francesco Tubiello, an expert with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/07/31/scientists-say-this-clean-cow-technology-could-help-fight-climate-change/" type="external">told the Washington Post</a> in an email.</p>
<p>The company hopes to push out the supplement into the market by 2018. So until then, expect cows to be as gassy as ever.</p> | Gassy cows: a problem you never knew you had | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-08-03/gassy-cows-problem-you-never-knew-you-had | 2015-08-03 | 3 |
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<p>A city notice sign describes a plan for razing and replacing part of the structures at Guadalupe and San Francisco streets that houses The Good Stuff store and other businesses. (Eddie Moore/Journal)</p>
<p>SANTA FE – The city’s Historic Districts Review Board has postponed action on a developer’s request to demolish part of the San Francisco Plaza complex in downtown Santa Fe.</p>
<p>Board members said that, before they can agree to razing buildings to make way for new development, they want planners to create a design that invokes the “essential streetscape.”</p>
<p>That includes incorporating features such as buildings close to the property line, preserving the plaza and avoiding, with any new development, the appearance of a single large complex instead of multiple structures, as currently exists. Board members were more mixed on the idea of adding two-story buildings.</p>
<p>The property belongs to a company owned by local developer Jeff Branch. Architect Wayne Lloyd represented the project at a recent meeting.</p>
<p>San Francisco Plaza is currently made up of four structures at the corner of San Francisco and Guadalupe streets. Developers want to demolish 325 San Francisco, which houses businesses including Ellie’s Yoberri Park, 329 San Francisco, where Thai Cafe is located, and 109 North Guadalupe, which houses The Spanish Table.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Plans call for keeping 321-323 San Francisco, home to Il Vicino and next to the Eldorado Hotel.</p>
<p>The H-Board did agree to retain non-contributing status for 109 Guadalupe and 329 San Francisco. Upgrading the historic designation of the buildings would likely have made it more difficult for developers to demolish and rebuild. The building at 325 San Francisco is also non-contributing. The structure at 321-323 San Francisco is listed as significant.</p>
<p>After the meeting, Lloyd expressed some unease with the idea of preserving features of non-contributing building. Nevertheless, Lloyd said he would comply with the board’s directions. It wasn’t immediately clear when the H-Board will review the case again.</p>
<p>A public hearing drew a handful of speakers, about evenly divided in favor of and against the project. Advocates included the owner of Thai Cafe.</p>
<p /> | Santa Fe review board puts off demolition ruling | false | https://abqjournal.com/316511/sf-review-board-puts-off-demolition-ruling.html | 2 |
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<p>Perhaps looking to avoid the NFL's public relations crisis, the NBA told their players this weekend they must stand for the national anthem in line with the organization's rules.</p>
<p>In a memo sent out to the entire association on Friday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver reminded teams of the rules requiring them to stand for the national anthem and that he expects those rules followed. Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum also suggested teams use their opening games “to demonstrate your commitment to the NBA’s core values of equality, diversity, inclusion and serve as a unifying force in the community.”</p>
<p>Neither Tatum nor Silver want players to withhold their political opinions, they just don't want them expressing them during The Star-Spangled Banner, sung before most, if not all, NBA games.</p>
<p>“The league office will determine how to deal with any possible instance in which a player, coach or trainer does not stand for the anthem. (Teams do not have the discretion to waive this rule),” the memo says.</p>
<p>The memo follows an NBA Board of Governors discussion this week on how to handle the national anthem controversy in light of the NFL's troubles. The football league has hemorrhaged fans and seen a dramatic ratings decline as players, coaches and team administrators embrace social justice.</p>
<p>The NBA suggests that players who want to work for social justice form community organizations or work with local non-profits. “The players have embraced their roles in those efforts and we are proud of the work they do in our communities,” Tatum wrote.</p>
<p>The NBA will also host forums for players, coaches, and other leadership so that they can discuss pressing political issues.</p> | NBA: Players MUST Stand For National Anthem | true | https://dailywire.com/news/21831/nba-players-must-stand-national-anthem-paul-bois | 2017-10-02 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Source: Tidal.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Apple and Samsung are fierce competitors in the device market, with the latter's high-end Galaxy tablets and smartphones competing against Apple's iDevices. More recently, however, the growth rate of these devices has slowed, putting pressure on both companies. As a result, many investors are now wondering where future growth is going to come from.</p>
<p>Last quarter, Apple pointed toward services as a growth driver. Apple released a supplemental showing it increased installed-base-related purchases 24% on a year-on-year basis and that the company has over 1 billion installed devices. One of the newer services helping to drive year-on-year gains is Apple Music, the subscription-based streaming music product Apple offers for $9.99 per month for individual subscriptions.</p>
<p>Unlike Apple, Samsung has been mostly unable to profit from its user base after the initial sale, because its phones are powered by Alphabet's Android OS. It is Alphabet that profits through purchases from its Google Play app store and search revenue post-purchase. However, Samsung may be attempting to compete with both Apple and Alphabet by buying existing streaming-music company Tidal.</p>
<p>Jay-Z and Samsung have historySince its splashy launch nearly a year ago, Tidal's effects on the streaming-music industry have mostly been muted. Even with ownership chock-full of popular musicians, including Beyonce, Madonna, Alicia Keys, Jack White, and the most-visible owner, Jay-Z, the service has not been able to grow subscribers in a meaningful way. Right now the service boasts 1 million paying subscribers, which puts it far behind <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/18/apple-music-is-11-million-subscribers-strong-and-h.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Apple's 11 million subscribers or Spotify's 20 million.</a></p>
<p>Image source: Spotify.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p><a href="http://nypost.com/2016/02/25/samsung-restarting-tidal-acquisition-talks/" type="external">The New York Post</a> reports that Samsung is rekindling talks to acquire the streaming-music service. The company has an existing relationship with Jay-Z, paying the artist $5 million for an exclusive release of his last CD. It appears the streaming music service needs a deeper-pocketed backer to continue. Recent reports are the service recently lost two more executives amid continued turnover in its C-suite. Even worse, the Post is reporting the service has had trouble paying its royalty bills to artists on time.</p>
<p>Either Samsung is not tremendously discouraged by these reports, or the company feels this is the easiest way to compete with Apple's successful new service.</p>
<p>Samsung may have to compete with Alphabet more than Apple</p>
<p>Source: Apple.</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, Samsung may have to compete against Alphabet to buy the service. The Post reports that Google, a division of Alphabet, is also interested in buying Tidal to bolster its digital offerings. More recently, the former mutually beneficial relationship these two companies portrayed has started to resemble merely a symbiotic one with Google working on its own high-end Nexus devices and Samsung developing its own operating system, Tizen, to control both hardware, software, and ecosystem like Apple.</p>
<p>Additionally, Samsung has taken multiple steps toward bringing exclusive software and features to the phone (Samsung Pay and TouchWiz, among others) in an attempt to differentiate and compete with Android's operating system. Samsung already has a device-specific music service as well: Milk Music is only available for newer Samsung models. This service operates on a freemium model with a $3.99 fee for an ad-free, unlimited-song skipping version. In this respect, Milk Music is similar to Pandora's business model.</p>
<p>This is probably not a game-changer in streaming musicIf Samsung buys out Tidal, will this be a game-changer in the streaming-music industry? Probably not. Tidal's value statement appears to be two-fold: the first was the service appeared more artist-friendly than Spotify and other streaming services, as indicated by its owners. The second was the service's customer-experience focus by exclusive releases and higher-quality audio.</p>
<p>It doesn't appear the market is motivated by these changes and Samsung's buyout would negate both propositions. Artists who no longer own the company would have much less incentive to exclusively release or prerelease records on Tidal as Rihanna and Kanye West did. Additionally, the ability for artists to have a hand shaping the future of the streaming-music industry would be lost if the company is sold. Samsung would receive 1 million subscribers, but how likely are they to stay once Tidal becomes simply another streaming-based service?</p>
<p>In the end, the subscription-based streaming music industry is dominated by Apple and Spotify. Look for that to continue going forward, regardless of whether Samsung buys Tidal.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/07/is-this-apple-musics-next-big-competitor.aspx" type="external">Is This Apple Music's Next Big Competitor?</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p>Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFJCar/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Jamal Carnette</a> owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Apple, and Pandora Media. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | Is This Apple Music's Next Big Competitor? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/07/is-this-apple-music-next-big-competitor.html | 2016-03-28 | 0 |
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<p>Gulchekhra Bobokulova from Uzbekistan appears in a courtroom in Moscow on Wednesday. The 38-year-old nanny is accused of killing a 4-year-old girl and then waving the child's severed head outside a Moscow subway station. (Vladimir Kondrashov/APTN)</p>
<p>MOSCOW - A nanny accused of decapitating a 4-year-old girl and brandishing her head outside a Moscow subway station said during an apparent interrogation captured on video that the killing was an act of revenge against President Vladimir Putin for Russian airstrikes in Syria.</p>
<p>Asked about the video, which was released Thursday, Putin's spokesman said it was difficult to judge the testimony of a woman he called "clearly deranged."</p>
<p>Gulchekhra Bobokulova, 38, was detained in Moscow on Monday after the child in her care was killed. Video footage posted online Thursday appeared to show police interrogating her. It was not clear where the video originated, and The Associated Press could not verify its authenticity or the circumstances in which it was taken. She appeared to be wearing the same clothes she wore during a court appearance on Wednesday.</p>
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<p>In the video, she says the killing of the child was done in revenge. Asked who it was revenge against, she says "the one who has spilled the blood." Asked who that was, she replies: "Who spilled it? Putin has been dropping bombs."</p>
<p>Russia has been carrying out airstrikes in Syria for five months to support Syrian President Bashar Assad's offensive against rebels. Russian officials have flatly denied numerous reports by international aid groups that accuse it of killing not only Islamic State fighters but also Syrian civilians.</p>
<p>The Investigative Committee, Russia's top investigative agency, would not confirm or deny the authenticity of the video, but spokesman Vladimir Markin warned that Bobokulova's words should be treated with caution.</p>
<p>"The motive for a crime committed by a person who was diagnosed with schizophrenia often does not coincide with the explanations that they give later," he said, adding that investigators will look into all possible theories.</p>
<p>Russian officials seem to be sending mixed messages about the suspect, focusing on her mental record but also suggesting that she probably did not act alone. Prosecutors told the court Wednesday that individuals who may have "incited" Bobokulova to kill the child may still be at large.</p>
<p>Russian media have reported that Bobokulova, originally from the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, was first diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2003. She has not yet undergone a psychiatric examination in Russia.</p>
<p>Markin rejected reports that Russian investigators found phone numbers of Islamic extremists in Bobokulova's contacts.</p>
<p>In the video, she tells investigators she reads the Quran and prays day and night but that they can go kill her three children in Uzbekistan, who don't read the Quran.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Peskov, Putin's spokesman, said it would be wrong to draw conclusions from the video.</p>
<p>"It appears obvious to me - although I may be wrong, I'm not an expert or judge - that we are evidently talking about a woman who is clearly deranged," he said.</p>
<p>Russian state television has not covered the murder. As social media users scramble to get information about the grisly, Russian opposition figures have accused the Kremlin of gagging the press in order to prevent a legitimate discussion about migrant workers in Russia.</p>
<p>Nationalist politicians have for years campaigned to impose visas on citizens of Central Asian nations who make up the most of Russia's migrant worker population, citing crime rates and the scarcity of jobs for Russians. Government officials have acknowledged the problem of undocumented migrants but have said imposing visas on Central Asians would cost Russia its influence in this strategic region.</p>
<p>"She entered Russia without work permit," opposition politician Vladimir Milov tweeted on Thursday. "This would not have happened with the visa regime in place. The child would be alive."</p>
<p>Opposition leader Alexei Navalny said in a blog post Thursday that the Muslim community should be more proactive in fighting Islamic extremism.</p>
<p>"The spreading of such a half-deranged religious extremism is clearly a problem of the Muslim religious community," he said. "If a person goes mad because of personal or medical issues and has decided to turn to religion, it is the task of the community (not the government or entire society) to make sure she meets the people who could help her deal with this crisis in the head."</p> | Online video suggests Syria motive in Moscow child murder | false | https://abqjournal.com/734099/video-suggests-syria-motive-in-moscow-child-decapitation.html | 2016-03-03 | 2 |
<p>Think your commute's bad? Try navigating through a herd of stampeding ducks.</p>
<p>It happened to one guy and his friend in a Thai village west of Bangkok, where 100,000 ducks on the loose <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/100-000-ducks-flood-thailand-road-172448594.html" type="external">took over a rural roadway one morning.</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/100-000-ducks-flood-thailand-road-172448594.html" type="external">Jack Sarathat</a> <a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/415621/ducks-in-mass-revolt-in-nakhon-pathom" type="external">told the Bangkok Post</a> he couldn't do much but stop and watch while driving through Nakhon Pathom on his way to work.</p>
<p />
<p>(YouTube)</p>
<p>He looks like he has the same questions many of us do.</p>
<p>Why are there so many ducks? Where are they going? And why are they in such a hurry?!?!</p>
<p>"I'm not sure why these ducks are in revolt," Saranthat says to a passenger in the video posted to YouTube and elsewhere, as translated by the Bangkok Post. "You can see the great mass of ducks swarming on the road. They have now occupied the area entirely."</p>
<p>Impressively, the birds appear to move in sync and even stop all together at one point. Like there's a traffic light or something.</p>
<p />
<p>(YouTube)</p>
<p>Watch and enjoy:</p>
<p />
<p /> | Watch 100,000 ducks stampede through this village in Thailand | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-06-19/watch-100000-ducks-stampede-through-village-thailand | 2014-06-19 | 3 |
<p>In a fresh sign of pressure on U.S. automakers, Ford Motor Co on Monday said it will shut down production of its best-selling F-150 pickup truck for a week at a Kansas City assembly plant, and temporarily idle three other plants over the next several weeks.</p>
<p>The F-150 is the best-selling vehicle model in North America, and a key profit-maker for Ford. However, sales of the overall F-series pickup model line fell nearly 3 per cent in September. Ford dealers had a heavy 95 days' supply of the pickups on their lots at the end of September, according to data compiled by Automotive News.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>F-150 production at the Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan will continue without interruption, Ford said.</p>
<p>"During our second quarter financial call, we said we expected the overall retail industry to decline in the second half of the year from the same period last year. We also said to expect to see some production adjustments in the second half - this is one of them. We continue matching production to meet demand," said Kelli Felker, Ford spokeswoman.</p>
<p>Ford is also suspending production of two sport utility vehicles, the Ford Escape and the Lincoln MKC, at its Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky for two of the next three weeks. The compact Escape, one of Ford's most popular models, is under increasing pressure from Japanese rivals.</p>
<p>Ford said it also is shutting two plants in Mexico. One is a plant in Hermosillo that makes the Ford Fusion and the Lincoln MKZ sedans, and the other is in Cuautitlan that makes the Ford Fiesta small car.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Joseph White)</p> | Ford to suspend output at four plants, including for F-150 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/10/17/ford-to-suspend-output-at-four-plants-including-for-f-150.html | 2016-10-17 | 0 |
<p>Activist attorney Lynne Stewart, who was court-appointed to defend the blind Sheik Abdel Rahman in charges arising out of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is charged with aiding and abetting her client’s “acts of terrorism” by speaking to the press about her client’s politicial position. She is being criminally prosecuted for doing what lawyers do–advocating and speaking for her client. In the world according to John Ashcroft, the lawyer becomes synonymous with the client. This is an unheard of spin on the attorney-client relationship, one that defies hundreds of years of history of professional obligation and duty. Ashcroft has made lawyers–as well as their clients–targets in his war on civil liberties. He would vilify lawyers who uphold the highest tradition of their profession.</p>
<p>Now Michael Tigar, an activist himself, who has spent his lifetime representing controversial clients and causes (and as the target of an FBI false smear tactic, former Supreme Court Justice Brennan withdrew his offer to the young Tigar to clerk for him), is representing Lynne Stewart. No case could be more fitting for him than this one. And in this terrorist trial, the government has an attorney who won’t be timid in calling the judge and the prosecutors on their illegal conduct.</p>
<p>In a letter Tigar wrote to Judge Koeltl on May 21, Tigar lambasts the prosecutor’s suggestions that it, and it alone, will decide what evidence Tigar and his client get to see. Though the prosecutor refers to the documents as “classified,” no proof, let alone rationale, of their classified status has been disclosed. Morever, the prosecutors say that as to the documents they will let Tigar and his team see, they, the prosecuors and/or their agents, will “monitor” Tigar and his staff to see what they do with the information. Of course, they may also be monitoring his meetings with his client. Ashcroft wrote that into law a couple of years ago.</p>
<p>The judge signed an order agreeing to the government’s proposal, before Tigar had an opportunity to comment on the plan. Tigar warns the judge that the court’s control of the evidence is a violation of the separation of powers between the Executive (that would be DOJ and Ashcroft) and the Judiciary (Judge Koeltl) branches of government, and a violation of defendant’s due process rights.</p>
<p>Incredibly, Tigar’s letter to the judge is dated the same day the story broke about the government’s secreting of evidence from alleged drug kingpin Ochoa and his attorney (see the article on this page). As I noted, Ochoa’s attorney, Roy Black, suggested that the government might be trying to hide its own misconduct in extorting money from drug lords to aid the efforts of the right-wing paramilitary in Colombia.</p>
<p>In the Stewart case, Tigar pulls no punches in calling it as he sees it: “The secrecy in this case,” he says, “apparently relates to political acitivty in Egypt. Given the United States official support for the Mubarak regime, it is certainly possible that the government is using secrety as a shield for preferring that regime’s state-sponsored terrorism to non-governmental criminality directed at regime change.”</p>
<p>Tigar goes on to warn the judge that the message to lawyers and clerks who are involved in the case, that they must be subject to “background checks” if they wish to read case documents, sends the same message that the FBI, by its own words, tried to send him as a young man–that they would teach the young Tigar a “bitter lesson” in return for his dissident views.</p>
<p>Tigar indeed learned a lesson–and learned it well. He learned not to sit stll for government threats and to fight back at injustice. Tigar will confront the government and Judge Koeltl in arguments on important motions in federal court in New York City on June 13. The trial is set for January 2004.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Click here for more about the Lynne Stewart case.</a></p>
<p>ELAINE CASSEL practices law in Virginia and the District of Columbia, teaches law and psychology, and writes <a href="" type="internal">Civil Liberties Watch</a> under the auspices of The City Pages. She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Tigar to Ashcroft | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/05/23/tigar-to-ashcroft/ | 2003-05-23 | 4 |
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<p>In the third year of a seven-year project with National Geographic called “Out of Eden,” Salopek is walking across continents tracing the journey of the human species out of Africa and chronicling the stories he finds (slowly) along the way.</p>
<p>He started in Ethiopia in 2013. He is now ambling around the Caucasus, waiting for the weather to cool to avoid passing through the Turkmenistan desert during the scorching summer. His destination? The tip of South America in 2020.</p>
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<p>Salopek has lived in New Mexico off and on since the 1980s, he says. Although he told me he “never owned a home anywhere,” Columbus still claims him as a resident on the village webpage. Another connection: Former Gov. Bill Richardson helped secure Salopek’s release in 2006 after Sudan held him on spying charges for entering the country without a visa.</p>
<p>Reading his dispatches recently, I became fascinated by the pace of his life. What is life like traveling every day on two feet, rather than four wheels?</p>
<p>Salopek, a two-time Pulitzer prize winner, offered this explanation in a January missive: “Walking, you learn each new landscape the way you might explore the face of a lover – up close, by grazing your fingertips over the features, without distraction, with a sort of doomed attentiveness, acutely aware that each mile sliding by is gone forever, knowing it won’t hold.”</p>
<p>(Full disclosure: I didn’t own a car for a decade before moving to New Mexico, thanks to the walkability of Mexico City and New York, and great public transit. I miss what it’s like to move through the day meeting everyone at eye level, instead of looking at isolated profiles through car windows.)</p>
<p>I wrote Salopek last month to ask about his journey, and he wrote back. Here’s an excerpt of our exchange:</p>
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<p>Q: How has the pace of your walking life changed you, personally? Do you expect you may live your “regular” life differently after this seven-years-walking experience?</p>
<p>A: I don’t think it’s changed me too much because I did a lot of walking before. When you cover Africa for more than a decade, as I did, you walk a lot. Outside that continent’s cities, many people get around on foot still because infrastructure is lacking. So to understand and cover their stories in a truer, more meaningful way, you must get out and use your own body as they do. As for being alienated from a regular life, I’m not sure what you mean. I’d say that I am, in fact, living a pretty regular life now. At least it feels so to me.</p>
<p>Q: Does the passing of time feel different in any way to you on the road, or is it all relative? (Different cultures conceive of time differently, and I wonder if by slowing down the pace so dramatically, you still conceive of time as an American generally does – that time can be “wasted,” the importance of being “on time,” etc.)</p>
<p>A: I grew up in semi-rural Mexico, so my sense of time has never been terribly accelerated. In some senses, I grew up in the 19th century – kerosene lamps, horse plows, hand-dug wells, early death by curable disease. American journalism taught me that minutes do count. But foreign correspondence also taught me that there is almost nothing that cannot be resolved by waiting. This is a commodity that is as scarce as Astatine in the hurly burly global north: waiting. I’ve always found its absence – its negative value – in U.S. culture somewhat inhuman. “If one is patient … if you are careful, I think there is probably nothing that cannot be retrieved.” The writer Barry Lopez was onto this idea a long time ago.</p>
<p>Q: What do you miss about New Mexico? Any favorite walks in New Mexico you recommend?</p>
<p>A: What does one miss in a friend? It’s almost impossible to pinpoint. There are qualities. But it’s an amalgam. Places can be that way. I do connect more with the south, doubtless because of Mexico, but also because the south isn’t self-conscious the way the north is about its beauty. The north is too conventionally beautiful and unfortunately it knows it. It’s too precious, too easy. It’s for lazy aesthetes. I’ll take a walk down in the bootheel over Taos any day of the week.</p>
<p>UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Lauren Villagran in Las Cruces at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>. Go to <a href="" type="internal">www.abqjournal.com/letters/new</a> to submit a letter to the editor.</p>
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<p /> | NM son on an epic walk talks of time, pace of life | false | https://abqjournal.com/565664/nm-son-on-an-epic-walk-talks-of-time-pace-of-life.html | 2 |
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<p>Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Screenshot via CSPAN)</p>
<p>Amid ongoing media reports about the White House plan to bar transgender people from the U.S. military, President Trump’s top spokesperson had no answers Thursday on the status of the proposal.</p>
<p>During her regular news conference, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dodged in response to a question about how close the administration is to finalizing the policy and the discretion the Defense Department will have in implementing it.</p>
<p>“When we have an announcement on that, I’ll let you know, and we’ll be sure to answer those questions at that time,” Sanders said.</p>
<p>The Los Angeles Blade reported late Wednesday the guidance would be made final and sent to the Pentagon by the end of this week. At that time, the Defense Department will have six months to implement the plan.</p>
<p>As reported by the Wall Street Journal, a draft version of the guidance would give the Pentagon authority to kick out transgender service members based on their “deployability;” bar transgender people entirely from enlisting into the armed forces; and withhold U.S. military payment for transition-related health care, including hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery.</p>
<p>Sanders also had no comment in response to a question on Trump’s “religious freedom” executive order. Newsmax’s John Gizzi asked whether Trump was aware of complaints from the Becket Fund the Johnson amendment, which bars churches from making political endorsements, and Obamacare’s contraception clause were still being enforced despite the directive’s instructions.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure if he’s aware of the complaints or any specific places where that’s being ignored,” Sanders replied. “So I’d have to look into that, probably talk to our friends at HHS specific to the contraception thing, and get back to you.”</p>
<p>In May, Trump signed a “religious freedom” order that was feared to undercut LGBT rights, but ultimately was basically silent on LGBT issues. However, critics pointed to a provision in the directive enabling U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to issue “religious freedom” guidance, which they claim will be a precursor to administration enabling anti-LGBT discrimination.</p>
<p>Ian Thompson, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union, said Sanders’ non-answers during her regular news conference were telling.</p>
<p>“Actions speak far louder than words or, in this case, non-answers from the White House,” Thompson said. “In less than a year, the Trump administration has amassed a staggering anti-LGBT record. I don’t expect that will change for the better. As the administration continues to move forward with its discriminatory agenda, the ACLU won’t hesitate to challenge it, both in the courtroom and in the streets.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">executive order</a> <a href="" type="internal">religious freedom</a> <a href="" type="internal">Sarah Huckabee Sanders</a> <a href="" type="internal">transgender military ban</a> <a href="" type="internal">White House</a></p> | No answers from White House on trans ban, ‘religious freedom’ EO | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2017/08/24/no-answers-white-house-trans-ban-religious-freedom-eo/ | 3 |
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<p>Toronto, Wednesday, 1:20 p.m:&#160; “Did you feel it?”&#160; The woman in the teal skirt tells me she definitely felt it.&#160; We huddle together in the wind vortexing between the TTC and the new barely inhabited Quantum Towers.&#160;&#160; She evidently wishes to keep wearing the skirt while the boisterous wind proposes assorted alternatives.</p>
<p>“I felt it alright,” she says, “everywhere.”</p>
<p>“Word on the street has it coming from Ottawa,” I say.&#160; “You know how these things go.”</p>
<p>“I do,” she says, “I do.”</p>
<p>A mild temblor’s the quickest way to build a flash community without having to mention a nation-state or a football.&#160; I walk south from Yonge and Eg, asking folks if they felt it.&#160; Everyone’s nodding.</p>
<p>“Twelfth floor, fourteenth floor,” everyone is saying together, “higher, lower.” Calculating the significance of the danger they’ve been through.&#160; A guy says the sixteenth floor of Heart and Stroke was buckin’ like a bronco.&#160; It’s not Haiti, but it’s not nothing, either.</p>
<p>Chicks on bikes with long phallic saddles looming out of their skirts zip past with the AC on full.&#160; The quake was mild enough that people on wheels were unlikely to feel it.</p>
<p>It’s not till I get to St. Clair that three women emerge from an upscale yoga studio clinging to their egos like pelts and refuse to answer my question.&#160;&#160; Essential Canadian rudeness is thus restored within an hour of the tremor.&#160; Things return to normal.</p>
<p>The notion of an Ottawa not loosing concentric circles of destruction upon the world will have to wait till another time to be tested as a thought experiment.&#160; Destruction from Ottawa is too real this week to brook a disclaimer.&#160; The G-men and -woemen have been stirring, like the Balrog or an oil slick, some filth loosed by tampering with things that ought not to have been tampered with.&#160; Scum floats.</p>
<p>At seewalk, our smallcap, leaderless nowtopian community living in the cracks of Leaderville in the days of the Occupation, we are wise crackers living in wise cracks.</p>
<p>Ottawa (including its lackey undergovernments) is preparing this weekend to demonstrate its gratitude to the people who support it by dipping into its stash of tasers, firehoses, earbusters, and other experimental ‘try this at home’ hardware—the largest arsenal of friendly fire ever amassed in this highly militarized nation.&#160; I’d just like to take a moment to thank all my high school friends in Massachusetts who went to work for Raytheon and made so much of the technical side of this possible.</p>
<p>Canadians who are used to doing unto others while hiding behind the coat tails of the Americans can presumably enjoy a full round of Iraqi-for-a-day right here in Capital City along the south coast of Canada just three hundred miles from the now micro-fractured capitol buildings of the Ottawa River.&#160; Squadrons of bike cops too fearful to be found alone in the graffiti alleys I frequent have been moving in tight phalanxes all week through the streets that have the most gilded and vulnerable bank buildings.&#160; With their fine legs and cottony-soft lederhosen, the coppers suggest nothing so much as Hitler Youth taking a bit of a healthy constitutional in the Bavarian alps.</p>
<p>“Cowards,” I yell till my voice goes hoarse, “you’re just trying to intimidate us.”&#160; As I yell, I look all around like I don’t know where the voice is coming from.&#160; Knots of us pedestrians are scanning the area for my voice as it echoes south in the canyon of buildings below College along Yonge.&#160; The bike cops blow whistles and point in contradictory directions.&#160; As we used to say in the land called America, I may be dumb but I’m not stupid.&#160; I have a sort of high girly voice for such a big man, so that helps.&#160; For legal reasons, you understand that I have not now, nor have I ever, been party to an illegal activity, and that all apparent claims to the contrary are fanciful or poetic and are for artistic purposes only.&#160; The space between this paragraph and the next, between all paragraphs, will tell you everything you need to know.</p>
<p>Word on the street is that they’re spending thirty-five pastelbacks&#160; (now worth the same as American greenbacks) for every child, woman, and man in the nation-state to protect the leaders from the people.&#160; Security personnel have been making sweeps of everything.&#160; My bike was caught in a sweep on King near Yonge—every lock snapped, every bike taken, even the racks themselves pulled up like dandelions.&#160; My man Seth found my ratty, sentimental set of wheels in the closet of a bank building, but most people will never see their bikes again.&#160; Seth told me they’d used a power grinder to get through my four-pound lock.&#160; I’ve taped together the bits with electrical tape, and it’s good to go.</p>
<p>The militarization of the downtown core is past paranoid into the full-blown ‘I love the smell of napalm in the morning’ delusional state that is likely to precipitate the very violence it is pretending to thwart, unless everyone is numbed into dreamy compliance first.&#160; Citizens have quickly accustomed themselves to the loss of freedoms they had taken for granted just last week.&#160; Cops grab cameras from anyone they feel like and erase pictures on the spot.&#160; If anyone even pretends to take a picture of the millions of dollars of fences designed to keep the leaders safe from the angry citizens who keep them in dogchow, they are surrounded by a gaggle of uniforms.</p>
<p>With Special Ops Griffons hovering overhead, and cops of every nationality loitering, it is not even clear with which nation-station you’d lodge a complaint if you were afraid your rights were being violated.&#160; Best to bend over and enjoy your democracy.&#160; Those Griffons are from the Huey family of choppers, which will be reassuring to somebody.&#160; Remember them in Vietnam?&#160; Pretty efficient way to cut down on overpopulation.&#160; Family planning.&#160; Bringing battle-tested slice’n’dicers, even if you don’t actually use them on the population, does excellent duty in upping the Richter.&#160; Ops’n’cops.</p>
<p>The funniest thing I’ve seen out here, if it isn’t me, is two GRC cops I followed for a bit.&#160; They were laughing and fondling their gunbelts and bantering in the Joual French in which I myself love to quack from my months in areas north of Quebec City.&#160; They had every right to laugh.&#160; Imagine French cops wandering around right here on Front Street with a license to blow away any squarehead anglais motherfuckers they feel like!&#160; Go ahead, I double- dare you to say ‘God save the Queen’ to those guys.</p>
<p>Every pig in the world who ever wished he were an Oscar Meyer Weiner or an Armoured Hot Dog is on Front Street today in a Kevlar blanket thinking, why get mad when I can get even?</p>
<p>Just for fun and because I’ve never actually been tasered, I ask the guard blocking the entrance to the freedom cage (do I even need quotation marks for such things anymore?) if jugglers are allowed in.&#160; Maybe he’s been dipping into the Tim Hortons or something because he says jovially, “depends.&#160; What can you do?”&#160; I ride past doing three, extra wobbly for effect, and curl around to see what he thinks while I’m reaching back for a fourth ball.&#160; He makes some gesture I figure is acquiescence and off I go.</p>
<p>Freedom cages work both ways, I guess, so I get to yell stuff without the cops being able to get to me, since the squadrons are on the outside now.&#160; Union Station is to my left, and there’s a sort of golden kilometer here of fancy buildings that are in the cage and some just outside the cage (what’s the algorithm on that?).</p>
<p>“What are these people ascared of?” I call to all the Mr. Puffies in their little panama dictator uniforms.&#160; My Boston accent gets stronger at times like these.&#160; “Did those guys in those banks do something real bad that they’re ascared of people?”</p>
<p>Losers, I say, chuckling to myself.&#160; I turn back and there’s a phalanx of riotously plumaged five-oh’s incoming at 12 o’clock.&#160; The group’s yay long and six abreast.&#160; “Oh-oh,” I say, cutting off my chuckle.&#160;&#160; They bear down on little me in full OK Tiananman Corral showdown mode.&#160; In the whole long freedom cage it’s just me and the Sparta re-creators.&#160; There’re barking noises coming out of the pack somewhere.&#160; At the last second I chicken off to the left and they stomp past on maneuvers that don’t include me.&#160; Geez.</p>
<p>I swing along behind F-Troop doing four.&#160; Four on two’s hard for me and I can’t really watch the road.&#160; A lady Spartan fixes a beady on me and I suddenly figure it’s Miller time.&#160; On the west end of the corral Sheriff of Nottingham says, “how the hell’d you get in here?” and another one barks “put your hands on the handlebar” like it’s not a suggestion.&#160; I palm the balls and place my pointing fingers straight down on the edge of the bar, which is droopy from earlier crashes.&#160; A molecule of my flesh brushes the bar at each finger and fulfills the terms of the law.&#160; Like there’s any law but those three—oh-oh.</p>
<p>Three Hitler Youths pick up their bikes but I’m around the corner already, my own bike behind a dumpster, and I’m hiding in the skirts of a lady at a restaurant petting her dog while she giggles.&#160; At least I think it’s her dog.&#160; Someday I’ll rewrite my life in skirts, in triangles, in petticoat junctions, in swishes of swatch.&#160; Maybe I’m really a Canadian, hiding behind someone’s coat tails.</p>
<p>Smells like victory.&#160; Can’t tell whose, yet.</p>
<p>Don’t touch that dial.&#160; We’ll bring you the latest in a special report on Monday, if all goes well.</p>
<p>David Ker Thomson filed from Toronto.&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
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<p /> | Shock and Awe From Ottawa | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/06/25/shock-and-awe-from-ottawa/ | 2010-06-25 | 4 |
<p>By Kaori Kaneko</p>
<p>TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s economy likely posted its equal second-best stretch of uninterrupted post-war growth, a government index for August showed on Friday, a nod to strong global demand and premier Shinzo Abe’s aggressive stimulus measures.</p>
<p>The latest reading comes as Abe heads to a general election later this month and puts his “Abenomics” policies in the spotlight. However, despite the strong headline number, analysts say the benefits of growth have failed to reach broader sectors of the economy with generally anemic wages leaving households behind.</p>
<p>The index of coincident economic indicators rose a preliminary 1.9 points to 117.6 in August from the previous month, the level seen in March 2014, the Cabinet Office said. This would mark 57 straight months of growth, matching the second-best stretch of expansion since World War Two, seen between 1965 to 1970.</p>
<p>“I don’t feel the economy has been growing and I’m not in a mood to spend on luxury things. I need to save money for my child’s education and for when I retire as I don’t think I will get enough pension to make ends meet,” said Satoko Sakuma, 57 years old, a part-time worker in the elderly care industry.</p>
<p>The coincident index is used to measure the state of the economy and is among indicators the government uses when deciding whether the economy is expanding or in recession. It includes a range of readings such as factory output, employment and retail sales.</p>
<p>Under the government’s definition, the economy has been in an expansion since December 2012, when Abe came into office. The economy posted its best stretch of consecutive monthly growth of 73 months from February 2002 to February 2008.</p>
<p>Japan’s economy expanded at an annualized 2.5 percent in the second quarter as consumer and company spending picked up, with steady growth likely to be sustained in coming quarters.</p>
<p>But while there has been some economic momentum, it remains historically modest: the economy grew an average 1.2 percent during the current expansion, much slower than 11.4 percent average growth during the 1965 to 1970 expansion, SMBC Nikko Securities said.</p>
<p>Other data on Friday showed Japanese workers’ wages rose in August from a year earlier in a sign of a gradual pick-up in household income.</p>
<p>And a Bank of Japan survey showed households’ mood improved in September from three months ago, though fewer of them expected prices to rise a year from now.</p>
<p>The jobless rate, which was at 4.3 percent when Abe took office, fell to 2.8 percent in August. Corporate earnings rose 75 percent during the period, as the yen fell more than 30 percent and the doubled in value.</p>
<p>“Companies have enjoyed record profits but wages aren’t growing much,” said Hidenobu Tokuda, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute.</p>
<p>“Most of the increase in corporate profits came from factors like falling oil costs and a weak yen, and the recovery in sales wasn’t as strong as past economic expansions. This is making companies cautious of raising wages.”</p>
<p>Some economists say companies may keep hoarding cash as they see little growth prospects in Japan’s rapidly aging society.</p>
<p>“It’s hard to predict the future so companies tend to save cash. They can’t raise prices as they may lose customers,” said Yoshiki Shinke, chief economist at Dai-ichi Research Institute.</p>
<p>“It would be better if the economy sees growth stabilize above its potential.”</p> | Japan's economy likely posted second best stretch of post-war growth: index | false | https://newsline.com/japan039s-economy-likely-posted-second-best-stretch-of-post-war-growth-index/ | 2017-10-06 | 1 |
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<p>These are the basics: The console will be $300, about $50 pricier than expected, and comes with two motion-sensitive controllers and a detachable 6.2-inch touch screen. It will go on sale March 3 and has a battery life that ranges from 2.5 hours to 6.5 hours depending on the game.</p>
<p>The Switch operates on WiFi. Nintendo didn’t announce cellular connectivity – so no promises of multiplayer on the subway yet. If online, users can play together in the same room, or in online multiplayer matches – but online services will not be free. Nintendo will provide a free trial of its online services until the fall of 2017.</p>
<p>Also, there was no mention of multimedia services, such as Netflix or Hulu, coming to the Switch, so this may really be a gaming-focused tablet. We shall see.</p>
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<p>Those are the basics. But I’ve also compiled a list of things that I found most intriguing about the Switch right off the bat.</p>
<p>– It steals the best features from past consoles. Nintendo has a reputation for picking over its own bones, but it has smartly stolen from itself in this case. Ahead of the announcement, there was a lot of speculation over whether the new console would have motion gaming like Nintendo’s Wii. It does, as well as a souped-up version of haptic feedback (a.k.a., the buzzing in a controller or “rumble pack”), which gives you a sense of speed, distance and force as you move your hands. Nintendo has also retained the touch screen from its failed Wii U, which was one of that console’s best features.</p>
<p>– It wants you to play in big groups. The whole idea of the Switch is that it’s portable, and there’s definitely a push from Nintendo to take it with you to parties for after-dinner (or after-drinks) play, as you might a board game or a deck of cards. When the Wii came out, playing with it became a common activity for family and friends hanging out together. Nintendo seems to want to capture that same energy of same-room multiplayer – something I think the gaming world has been slowly losing with an increased focus on online multiplayer.</p>
<p>Players can join up to eight Switch consoles together on a local network, meaning that Nintendo is definitely encouraging big groups to play together. There are some caveats: extra controllers are a whopping $80 per pair or $50 individually, which is quite steep. And maybe you can’t do gaming picnics in the park since the Switch requires WiFi connection.</p>
<p>The group-gaming aspect seems to solidify that Nintendo’s competitors in this space are not only Sony and Microsoft but also Apple and Google, which have been trying to make group gaming with smartphones a thing through their television accessories. That leaves Nintendo sort of straddling two worlds. If it follows through on the Switch’s promise and applies its gaming chops, it could win both markets.</p>
<p>If.</p>
<p>– But Nintendo doesn’t want you look at it all the time. There was a lot of talk during the presentation about being able to look into the eyes of your opponents, rather than solely at the screen. The two games that Nintendo highlighted while introducing the controllers are both multiplayer games that are meant to be played in a room with another opponent, facing that opponent. The “1,2, Switch” title, which was made just for this console, has you playing Ping-Pong and facing off in gun battles, for instance.</p>
<p>That could sound like a small thing, but it’s essentially the opposite of what we’re seeing happen in almost every other type of gaming. Virtual reality almost always isolates you from anyone else in the room with you. Ditto for games that don’t allow a split-screen, local multiplayer experience. But Nintendo’s trying to put the social back in gaming – and not just through tweets and posts.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>– It seems to be aimed at adults, not kids: Games just aren’t a kids’ thing anymore – at least not solely. The average gamer in the U.S. is 35 years old and has been playing for 13 years. Judging from Nintendo’s promotional images and even the types of games on offer, this is not really a kiddie console – they’re going after young professionals.</p>
<p>Of course, it is very early in the Switch’s life as a product; we may see tons of kids games announced later as Nintendo offers media the chance to play with it. But in the presentation, there was a definite focus on games that appeal to older players. “Skyrim” was one of the big rumored launch titles – now confirmed – and it’s rated “M” for Mature.</p>
<p>That’s not to suggest Nintendo could be abandoning its family-friendly image – there were far too many cartoon characters on show for that – but it is a subtle shift in messaging that could help it shake the image of being a company that’s not appealing to “hardcore” gamers.</p>
<p>– Nintendo is making an effort to show it’s learned from its mistakes. In addition to the slightly older messaging, Nintendo also spent a good chunk of its presentation talking about third-party developers and partnerships – that’s a shift from past generations and an apparently sincere attempt to answer criticism that Nintendo relies too heavily on its own games and characters for its appeal.</p>
<p>Nintendo said it’s working with third-party developers on 80 games. And those names don’t only include the usual, largely Japanese, firms such as Square Enix.</p>
<p>Electronic Arts made an appearance on the presentation stage saying a Switch version of “FIFA,” its most popular game, is on its way. “Skyrim” is made by Bethesda Softworks. Both companies in the past often developed games first for the PlayStation, Xbox and PC markets rather than Nintendo. That sort of attitude from big publishers essentially pushed gamers to look at the Wii U as a second console rather than primary one. If Nintendo can keep up its partnerships and follow through, that would be good for its players and the company.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p />
<p /> | Five telling things we learned about the Nintendo Switch | false | https://abqjournal.com/927155/five-telling-things-we-learned-about-the-nintendo-switch.html | 2 |
|
<p>In their most recent TV ads Clinton and Obama attempt to convince Pennsylvania voters that the other is financed by lobbyists and special interests. Both ads miss the mark.</p>
<p>Clinton and Obama each have raised far more money than previous candidates for president from either party, with little (in Clinton’s case) or none (in Obama’s case) coming from PACs and active federal lobbyists. For either to accuse the other of being financed by special-interest money is, to put the matter kindly, misleading.</p>
<p>As the Pennsylvania primary (finally) draws near, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have released a barrage of new attack ads. In the most recent (so far) installment, Clinton accused Obama of talking a good game about getting tough on lobbyists despite having accepted almost $2 million from lobbyists and political action committees (PACs). Obama fired right back, charging that Clinton has taken more money from lobbyists and PACs than any other candidate and accusing Clinton of running "eleventh hour smears" that are "paid for with lobbyist money." We find both ads to be distortions.</p>
<p>&lt;iframe height="390" width="480" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://video.factcheck.org/play/hIUWgev8KwI"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</p>
<p>[TET ]</p>
<p>Hillary for President TV Ad: "Talk and Action"</p>
<p>Narrator: The difference between talk and action?</p>
<p>Obama: I don’t take money from oil companies or Washington lobbyists.</p>
<p>Narrator: But in the last 10 years, Barack Obama has taken almost $2 million from lobbyists, corporations and PACs.</p>
<p>Narrator: The head of his New Hampshire campaign is a drug company lobbyist. In Indiana, an energy lobbyist. A casino lobbyist in Nevada. And Obama’s attacking Hillary?</p>
<p>Narrator: She’ll get rid of billions in corporate tax breaks and use that money to create jobs and rebuild the middle class. That’s leadership you can count on.</p>
<p>Clinton: I’m Hillary Clinton and I approve this message. [/TET]</p>
<p>Moving the Goalposts&#160;</p>
<p>Obama has made his pledge not to accept money from lobbyists or PACs one of the centerpieces of his presidential campaign, and it’s one that he has insisted on since the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/14/AR2007041401491.html" type="external">early days</a> of his run. But Clinton’s ad notes that Obama hasn’t always held to such a pledge, saying, "In the last 10 years, Barack Obama has taken almost $2 million from lobbyists, corporations and PACs." First off, the true figure is $1.74 million, according to the Clinton campaign’s own citations. Rounding that up to "almost $2 million" is a stretch. More to the point, the number counts mostly money that Obama raised for his U.S.&#160; Senate and Illinois state Senate races, long before he made his presidential pledge. The Clinton campaign figures stretch back to Obama’s 1996 state Senate race, which actually is 12 years ago, not 10 as the ad claims.</p>
<p>And if sauce for the gander is also sauce for the goose, Clinton’s record is open to even stronger criticism. Clinton, who didn’t begin fundraising until <a href="http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C00346544" type="external">1999</a>, has accepted <a href="http://opensecrets.org/politicians/allindus.asp?CID=N00000019" type="external">$1.4 million</a> from lobbyists and <a href="http://opensecrets.org/politicians/allsummary.asp?CID=N00000019" type="external">$4.2 million</a> from PACs, more than triple the amount taken in by Obama.</p>
<p>Obama did in fact raise <a href="http://opensecrets.org/races/summary.asp?ID=ILS2&amp;Cycle=2004" type="external">$1.2 million</a> from PACs for his 2004 U.S. Senate race.&#160; Obama did not pledge to refuse money from lobbyists or PACs during his previous campaigns. In addition, the <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/08/09/pacs_and_lobbyists_aided_obamas_rise/" type="external">Boston Globe</a> reports that Obama raised about $296,000 from corporations, labor unions, lobbyists and PACs during his 1996, 1998 and 2002 Illinois state Senate races. (We’ve <a href="" type="internal">pointed out</a> before that it is illegal for federal candidates to accept funds from corporations. Illinois, however, does allow candidates for state office to accept money from labor unions and corporations.)</p>
<p>During his presidential run, Obama has raised <a href="http://opensecrets.org/pres08/select.asp?cycle=2008" type="external">$115,163</a>from "lobbyists," as of March 20, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The Obama campaign states that this is all from former lobbyists, not those currently active. That distinction is important for Obama. As we’ve <a href="" type="internal">written</a> before, Obama is doing a bit of a tightrope act here. He does not accept funds from registered federal lobbyists, but he does accept money from spouses of lobbyists, non-lobbying partners who work for lobbying firms or for law firms that do lobbying, ex-lobbyists, and state lobbyists.</p>
<p>Clinton is within her rights to point to Obama’s past acceptance of money from lobbyists and special interests. But viewers shouldn’t take that as evidence that he has broken his promise. We’ve seen no evidence that Obama is not adhering to the letter of his pledge.</p>
<p>The Clinton ad also accuses Obama of having lobbyists associated with his state campaigns. The head of Obama’s New Hampshire campaign, it says, is a drug company lobbyist. It goes on: "In Indiana, an energy lobbyist. A casino lobbyist in Nevada." Could it really be that Obama won’t take money from lobbyists, but is happy to put them to work on his campaign?</p>
<p>Not exactly. None of these men is a <a href="http://sopr.senate.gov/cgi-win/m_opr_viewer.exe?DoFn=1" type="external">federal lobbyist</a>. All are exclusively state-level lobbyists working far from Washington. Obama’s New Hampshire co-chair, Jim Demers, was the subject of a few <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/primarysource/2008/01/lobbyistobama_n.html" type="external">headlines</a> back in January when Clinton first pointed out his line of business. Demers does indeed head up <a href="http://thedemersgroup.com/index.html" type="external">The Demers Group</a>, a New Hampshire-based lobbying firm. In Nevada, Obama’s steering committee included Billy Vassiliadis, the CEO of <a href="http://www.rrpartners.com/" type="external">R&amp;R Partners</a>, which does lobbying work on behalf of casinos. And in Indiana, Obama campaign adviser Kipper Tew has lobbying clients that include an energy company.</p>
<p>Demers does all of his lobbying with the New Hampshire Legislature. Vassiliadis’ lobbying stays in Vegas – or Reno, anyway. And Tew lobbies the Indiana legislature, but he doesn’t lobby at the federal level. And when we spoke with Tew, he told us that he is a volunteer member of Obama’s "senior advisory council" but doesn’t run the Indiana campaign, as one might conclude from the vague wording of the Clinton ad. We asked the Obama campaign to confirm the status of Demers, Vassiliadis and Tew, but we received no response.</p>
<p>It’s not our job to judge whether it’s appropriate or not for a presidential candidate to use state lobbyists to chair or advise his or her campaign in the states. But what Obama promised was not to take money from "Washington lobbyists," and it’s misleading for Clinton to imply otherwise.</p>
<p>Obama pushed back with a misleading ad of his own accusing Clinton of launching "the most misleading and negative ad of the campaign." It says Obama takes "not one dime" from Washington lobbyists and says newspapers called Clinton’s attacks "the old politics."</p>
<p>&lt;iframe height="390" width="480" src="https://video.factcheck.org/play/hIUWgev8QQI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</p>
<p>[TET ]</p>
<p>Obama for President TV Ad: "Old Politics"</p>
<p>Obama: I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.</p>
<p>Narrator: Newspapers call Hillary Clinton’s negative attacks “the old politics.” And now, in the final hours, she’s launched the most misleading and negative ad of the campaign.</p>
<p>Narrator: Barack Obama doesn’t take money from special interest PACs or Washington lobbyists. Not one dime.</p>
<p>Narrator: But federal records show Clinton’s raised millions from PACs and lobbyists. More than any candidate in either party.</p>
<p>Narrator: Eleventh hour smears, paid for by lobbyist money. Isn’t that exactly what we need to change? [/TET]</p>
<p>It is true that <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08107/873625-35.stm" type="external">one newspaper</a> did call Clinton’s attacks "the old politics." But it’s also true that Obama has taken $115,163 from former federal lobbyists, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That’s a lot of dimes.</p>
<p>More misleading, though, is Obama’s charge that Clinton’s ads are being paid for with lobbyist money. While it is true, as we’ve <a href="" type="internal">said before</a>, that Clinton has collected more money from PACs and lobbyists than any other candidate, the numbers aren’t really all that big in relation to her overall fundraising.&#160; Clinton’s donations from both individual lobbyists (past and present) and from PACs account for just 1.1 percent of all the funds she has raised. That makes Obama’s claim that lobbyists are funding Clinton’s attacks about 98.9 percent false.</p>
<p>We agree that there’s some "eleventh-hour" smearing going on. But the mud is flying in both directions.</p>
<p>– by Joe Miller and Emi Kolawole</p>
<p />
<p>Helman, Scott. " <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/08/09/pacs_and_lobbyists_aided_obamas_rise/" type="external">PACs and Lobbyists Aided Obama’s Rise.</a>" 9 August 2007. The Boston Globe. 21 April 2008.</p>
<p>Mosk, Matthew and John Solomon. " <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/14/AR2007041401491.html" type="external">Obama Taps Two Worlds To Fill 2008 War Chest.</a>" 15 April 2007. The Washington Post. 21 April 2008.</p>
<p>Oliphant, James. " <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-lobbying_bdfeb10,0,7215849.story" type="external">Obama Anti-Lobbyist Stand Isn’t Without Blurry Edges.</a>" 10 February 2008. The Chicago Tribune. 21 April 2008.</p>
<p>Opensecrets.org. " <a href="http://opensecrets.org/pres08/select.asp?cycle=2008" type="external">2008 Presidential Race: Contributions from Selected Industries</a>." Center for Responsive Politics, 20 March 2008, accessed 21 April 2008.</p>
<p>Pindell, James. " <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/primarysource/2008/01/lobbyistobama_n.html" type="external">Lobbyist/Obama NH Chair Enters National Conversation.</a>" 6 January 2008. The Boston Globe. 21 April 2008.</p>
<p>R&amp;R Partners. <a href="http://www.rrpartners.com/" type="external">R&amp;R Partners: People.</a> 21 March 2008. 21 April 2008.</p>
<p>Solomon, John. " <a href="http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/01/07/sc_obama_backer_is_also_a_lobb_1.html" type="external">No Ban on Lobbyists as Advisers for Obama.</a>" 7 January 2008. The Washington Post. 21 April 2008.</p>
<p>The Demers Group. <a href="http://thedemersgroup.com/index.html" type="external">The Demers Group Homepage.</a> 24 December 2002. 21 April 2008.</p>
<p>" <a href="http://sopr.senate.gov/cgi-win/m_opr_viewer.exe?DoFn=0" type="external">U.S. Lobby Registration &amp; Reporting Disclosure Page.</a>" 21 April 2008. United States Senate. 21 April 2008.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | PAC-ing Heat | false | https://factcheck.org/2008/04/pac-ing-heat/ | 2008-04-21 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Hillary Clinton&#160;must know some kind of secret about Donald Trump winning the election. That's the ONLY possible explanation for what she did in New York today.</p>
<p />
<p>The two-minute spectacle was expected to take place 30 minutes after the polls closed and was&#160;intended to mark Hillary Clinton winning the election (even though the polls will not be counted yet at that point).</p>
<p>The firework display was supposed to be kept a secret before a New York Times reporter spilled the beans on her plans. Of course, you can bet the public reaction was NOT too positive when they found out that Hillary was planning her victory party MONTHS in advance.</p>
<p>But now there will be no fireworks in New York on election night and the implications are pretty obvious: Donald Trump is gonna have a Brexit style win and Hillary knows it!</p>
<p>Now it's up to us to share this out to every single Trump supporter we know and show them that we actually ARE winning this thing!!</p>
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<p>BEIJING (AP) — Global stocks mostly rose on Tuesday as investors looked past a breakdown in Greece's debt talks and hoped a deal would eventually be reached to keep the country from falling out of the euro.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: By early afternoon in Europe, France's CAC-40 was up 0.2 percent at 4,759.62 though Germany's DAX edged down 0.1 percent to 10,912.03. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.3 percent to 6,873.97. Wall Street looked set for a flat open after a three-day holiday weekend. Dow and S&amp;P 500 futures were unchanged. On Friday, the S&amp;P closed at a record high.</p>
<p>GREEK JITTERS: Greece's European creditors told it to ask for an extension to its existing bailout program before further talks on its financing can take place. After five years of punishing austerity, Greece wants to scrap its existing program in favor of a new one with easier terms. If no agreement is reached by the end of the month, financial markets think Greece might have little option but to default and stop using the euro currency. Most analysts expect a deal will be reached in time despite the tough talk. The Athens stock index was flat.</p>
<p>THE QUOTE: "It remains our central view that an eleventh hour compromise between Greece and its creditors is still likely," said Jane Foley, analyst at Rabobank International.</p>
<p>ASIA'S DAY: The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.8 percent to 3,246.91 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.2 percent at 24,784.88. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 shed 0.1 percent to 17,987.09 while Sydney and Singapore fell. Seoul's Kospi added 0.2 percent to 1,961.45 and Manila also rose. Indian markets were closed for a holiday.</p>
<p>ENERGY: U.S. benchmark crude was up 35 cents to $53.13 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In the previous session, the contract gained $1.57 to close at $52.78.</p>
<p>CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 118.79 yen from 118.27 yen on Monday. The euro rose to $1.1423 from $1.1335.</p>
<p>BEIJING (AP) — Global stocks mostly rose on Tuesday as investors looked past a breakdown in Greece's debt talks and hoped a deal would eventually be reached to keep the country from falling out of the euro.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: By early afternoon in Europe, France's CAC-40 was up 0.2 percent at 4,759.62 though Germany's DAX edged down 0.1 percent to 10,912.03. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.3 percent to 6,873.97. Wall Street looked set for a flat open after a three-day holiday weekend. Dow and S&amp;P 500 futures were unchanged. On Friday, the S&amp;P closed at a record high.</p>
<p>GREEK JITTERS: Greece's European creditors told it to ask for an extension to its existing bailout program before further talks on its financing can take place. After five years of punishing austerity, Greece wants to scrap its existing program in favor of a new one with easier terms. If no agreement is reached by the end of the month, financial markets think Greece might have little option but to default and stop using the euro currency. Most analysts expect a deal will be reached in time despite the tough talk. The Athens stock index was flat.</p>
<p>THE QUOTE: "It remains our central view that an eleventh hour compromise between Greece and its creditors is still likely," said Jane Foley, analyst at Rabobank International.</p>
<p>ASIA'S DAY: The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.8 percent to 3,246.91 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.2 percent at 24,784.88. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 shed 0.1 percent to 17,987.09 while Sydney and Singapore fell. Seoul's Kospi added 0.2 percent to 1,961.45 and Manila also rose. Indian markets were closed for a holiday.</p>
<p>ENERGY: U.S. benchmark crude was up 35 cents to $53.13 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In the previous session, the contract gained $1.57 to close at $52.78.</p>
<p>CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 118.79 yen from 118.27 yen on Monday. The euro rose to $1.1423 from $1.1335.</p> | Markets brush aside concerns over Greece debt standoff | false | https://apnews.com/amp/77ace5c34fb54effaad321b7108e03e8 | 2015-02-17 | 2 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The new book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1931498644/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Guantanamo: What The World Should Know</a> is an interview between author/editor Ellen Ray, and Michael Ratner, an eloquent human rights attorney and president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Mr Ratner and his colleagues at the CCR have the distinction of being the first Americans to mount a legal challenge of the Kafkaesque detention and interrogation facilities the Bush Administration uses at the US military base in Guantanamo, Cuba, to incarcerate suspects in the war on terror.</p>
<p>This is a tight, well-organized book. The discussion proceeds in logical order, and right away we learn that Ratner is eminently qualified to speak about the subject of human rights abuses. He has years of experience dealing with the issues of torture and indefinite detention, although his focus is usually in Third World dictatorships. His involvement with human rights issues in America, stemming from the hysteria following 9/11, began when the CCR decided to represent Muslim and Arab citizens whom Attorney General John Ashcroft had rounded up and detained without due process.</p>
<p>Having represented HIV-positive Haitian refugees detained at Guantanamo in the 1990s, Ratner also knows the history of what may rightfully be described as America’s Devil’s Island. Knowing the history helps to put the situation in context. As Ratner explains, even when he was representing the Haitians, the US government insisted that no court had jurisdiction over Guantanamo. “The United States wanted Guantanamo to be a law-free zone,” he says. Evidently, this has always been the case. But Guantanamo’s special legal status, forged in the ambiguous language of the 1903 Platt Amendment to the Cuban Constitution, is especially well crafted to serve the US government’s duplicitous motives in the murky war on terror. Guantanamo is a place where the US government is totally unaccountable, although the US military is in total control. Suspected members of al Qaeda, captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan, may have some legal recourse in those countries. But once they land in Guantanamo, they disappear down a legal black hole; which is why some people facetiously refer to it as “an off-shore concentration camp.”</p>
<p>Ratner’s personal experience and historical knowledge gave him cause for alarm when, in January 2002, the rampaging Bush Administration began packing the “dog-run-like cages” at Guantanamo’s infamous Camp X-Ray with alleged “enemy combatants.” He saw the pictures of tough-looking bearded men, and read news reports quoting Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld saying that only the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers were being held at Guantanamo. But none of the detainees were allowed to have lawyers, and it wasn’t known, at the time, that among those being incarcerated were boys as young as eleven, and at least one old man in his nineties.</p>
<p>Having no one to represent, Ratner at first objected solely on principle. The Center for Constitutional Rights believes that even a suspected member of al Qaeda should not be detained without due process of law. Ratner and the CCR believe that everybody has the right of habeas corpus and legal representation ­ as well as the universally recognized right not to be tortured. They also know that where human rights are denied, human rights abuses are being committed. Right away they suspected that Rumsfeld was lying, so Ratner and the Center assembled a team and waited for the opportunity to act. That happened almost immediately, when they were approached by a lawyer in Australia and asked to help defend David Hicks, an Australian citizen detained at Guantanamo. From that point onward, Ratner would get a firsthand look of the sadistic practices and horrendous conditions that define Guantanamo, and which are recounted in detail in the book.</p>
<p>Inside Guantanamo</p>
<p>Enemy combatants sent to Guantanamo were initially quartered at Camp X-Ray, a desolate place surrounded by razor wire and gun turrets. The cells where human beings are caged are covered on three sides with steel mess wire, and are exposed to the blazing Caribbean sun and hard rains. All-American boys and girls assigned as guards pass the cages twice every minute, not because the prisoners have any chance of escaping, but simply to torment them. To soften them up for interrogation.</p>
<p>Take note, readers: people require privacy in order to maintain their self-respect. Take away their privacy, while abusing their minds and bodies, and eventually you destroy their sense of personal identity. And then they become putty in your hands.</p>
<p>The purpose of Camp X-Ray, like all of Guantanamo’s detention facilities, is the slow, calculated murder of the spirit. It’s a place where people are subjected to unbearable, humiliating and degrading forms of abuse every minute of every day. They sleep on concrete floors, and are denied clothing, medical attention and food. Unless, of course, they cooperate. As Major General Geoffrey Miller, the camp commandant, once boasted, many detainees have cooperated during the climatic hours they spend in Guantanamo’s interrogation booths, which Ratner describes as “trailers, really.”</p>
<p>Guantanamo is also a laboratory, where new methods of destroying the human spirit are constantly being tried. Thus, sometime in the middle of 2002, a number of prisoners were transferred from Camp X-Ray to Camp Delta, which is different in so far as it separates detainees according to their status. Those who cooperate are segregated from those who do not, and those who are deemed to be troublemakers get special attention in their own private quarters.</p>
<p>Guantanamo is further divided into Camp Echo is a separate facility for those facing trial by military commission. (Camp Echo is aptly name. It was built by Halliburton’s subsidiary, Kellogg Brown Root, which in an earlier lifetime built the detention facilities which replaced in the infamous Tiger Cages on Con Son Island, 90 miles off the Coast of South Vietnam). Camps Romeo and Tango consist of isolation cells, where naked Muslim men are, in scenes reminiscent of Abu Ghraib, gawked at by female American guards, as yet another form of spiritual assassination.</p>
<p>The purpose of continual softening up detainees for interrogation, and then interrogating them, is twofold. The first purpose is to coerce confessions that result in convictions. The second is to obtain information for use in the war on terror.</p>
<p>Convictions are preordained, but so far there is no verifiable evidence that any useful intelligence has ever been produced. However, in return for signing a false confession, or bearing false witness against another Muslim, or for turning into a double agent, the ultimate reward is a Big Mac.</p>
<p>Imagine a world where, after two years of privation and the most sophisticated physical and psychological torture techniques ever devised by cummings’ man-unkind, the ultimate reward is a Big Mac. You have to wonder, what kind of sick mind is capable of creating such a hellhole? The sick mind belongs, of course, to George W. Bush, war criminal extraordinaire.</p>
<p>L’etat, c’est moi</p>
<p>What Ellen Ray does through her well-chosen questions, and what Michael Ratner explains clearly, in layman’s terms, is why Bush and his accomplices in war crimes have established Guantanamo as a symbol of their omnipotence, and how their lawless and supremely arrogant actions have undermined America’s democratic institutions at home, and moral authority abroad. They tell us how and why we evolved from the rule of law to rule by executive fiat, and how this process made Guantanamo possible.</p>
<p>The authors include in the book’s Appendixes the full text of several documents that are critically important for understanding why and how Guantanamo occurred. The most important is Military Order No. 1. This is not a widely disseminated document, for very good reasons. Signed by Bush on 13 November 2001, it confirms that he used 9/11 as a pretext to proclaim a national emergency, which in turn enabled him to confer upon himself extraordinary war powers, without the consent of Congress or the Judiciary. Through Military Order No. 1, and other powers vested in him as commander-in-chief, Bush, in effect, has staged a military coup d’etat. He has taken America back to a time prior to the Constitution, when the military ruled the country.</p>
<p>Through Military Order No. 1, Bush has given himself the authority 1) to identify terrorists and “those who support them” and 2) to detain “individuals subject to this order” in horrid places like Guantanamo. People subject to this order need only have harbored people who threaten to harm our “citizens, national security, foreign policy, or economy.” This applies to anyone Bush has a personal grudge against, like Saddam Hussein. Bush has only to write a note telling his deputies to get someone in order to condemn that someone to a life of endless persecution and/or death.</p>
<p>Military Order No. 1 also allows Bush to form “tribunals” or “commissions” to try alleged terrorists under military, not civilian law, despite the fact that terrorism is “not a violation of military law or the laws of war,” as Ratner explains. The military tribunals have “exclusive jurisdiction,” and individuals subject to Military Order No. 1 are denied due process not only in the US, but also in any foreign court or international tribunal.</p>
<p>Apart from any document or law, and in violation of treaties and the supreme law of the land, Bush has exempted himself and his deputies from any existing international laws of war, such as the Geneva Conventions. The reason for this is simple: Bush has been advised, for good reason, to protect himself and his henchmen from being tried as war criminals. Which they are.</p>
<p>“People Will Say Anything”</p>
<p>This is disturbing stuff that does not bode well for the future of America. But, as the dialogue between Ray and Ratner reveals, it just gets worse and worse.</p>
<p>Bush and his corporate puppet-masters have seized upon the penultimate point of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, the survival of the fittest, and given it an evangelical, Masonic twist. By bestowing upon himself the powers of a military dictator, Bush has broadened into infinity the moat of secrecy between the fortress of government and the citizen rabble. Not only are the denizens of Guantanamo held in isolation from the world, many for crimes they did not commit, but we, the citizens of America, no longer have the right to examine what is being done to them in our name.</p>
<p>Not even the Red Cross can examine the interrogation centers.</p>
<p>As an attorney for several detainees, Ratner, however, has heard first hand accounts of what goes on inside Guantanamo, and what he describes “is like Dante’s ninth circle of hell.”</p>
<p>Sleep derivation is a favorite form of “stress and duress,” the designated euphemism for torture at Guantanamo. Old-fashioned beatings are routine. Shackling people to the floor of an interrogation room for hours and making them lie in their excrement is an easy and effective way of telling someone, “You’re not worth shit.” (It also has the side of effect of making their tormentors hate them even more.)</p>
<p>Making people kneel for hours has the dual effect of causing Muslims pain when it’s time to pray. Then again, as we know from reading the newspapers and watching TV, defaming Islam is de rigueur in America nowadays.</p>
<p>Making detainees stand for hours in the hot sun is another favorite technique, which caused me chills, as the Japanese tortured my father in the same fashion in a camp in the Philippines in the Second World War. My father saw several tough Australian soldiers resort to suicide attempts at his prison camp, and at least forty suicide attempts in a six-month period have been documented at Guantanamo. Small wonder. Like at my father’s POW camp, the possibility that one will not survive, or ever be allowed to leave, is perhaps the cruelest torment of all.</p>
<p>Ah, but there’s more. Loudspeakers at one time continually blared out little Rumsfeld lies like, “Cooperate and you’ll go home.” Sometimes the loudspeakers blared bigger lies, like, “We know who is telling the truth and who is lying and we can tell. Tell the truth.”</p>
<p>This is the venerable “Eye of God” trick, which was used by the CIA as a facet of its Phoenix Program in Vietnam.</p>
<p>Take note again, dear reader: the Eye of God trick is being employed, incrementally, on you, too. As the Homeland Security color codes continually rise and fall, based on “chatter” about unconfirmed threats, and as the level of surveillance reaches ubiquitous proportions, we are all finding ourselves under spiritual assault.</p>
<p>Then there is the old medicine trick, which consists of denying medicine to prisoners unless the cooperate. This is another torture technique that has personal meaning to me. I remember interviewing Congressman Rob Simmons (R-CT), about his experiences as a CIA officer running an interrogation center in Vietnam in 1972. Yes, Simmons, now a member of the Armed Services Committee, used the same trick on detainees way back then. A counter-terror team or the secret police would drag in a guy with a gunshot wound, and Simmons would present him with the choice: cooperate and get medicine, or take your chances.</p>
<p>Simmons says that doesn’t amount to torture and (big surprise) the people running Guantanamo, even the CIA Doctor Menegles on there, agree.</p>
<p>Not everything at Guantanamo is derivative. Some torture techniques are innovative, and incredibly bizarre. Michael Ratner tells of about an interrogation room that displayed posters of Israelis who had apparently murdered Palestinian women. According to Ratner, the idea was to get Muslim detainees to believe that if they cooperated, they would be freed to return to the Middle East to kill Israelis.</p>
<p>What The Future Bodes</p>
<p>For me, it hurt at times to listen to Ray and Ratner’s interview. I’m sure many other readers will personally relate to different aspects of this timely and important book, too.</p>
<p>It was especially bad news to learn that there is there a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Operations, a Mr. Paul Butler, who sits in the Pentagon and reviews cases. However, final judgments about the fate of any of Guantanamo’s lab rats are not made by Butler, or even some secret review board, but by a “designated civilian official (DCO)” appointed by, you guessed it, Bush. This DCO can hold a detainee indefinitely for any reason that is deemed “in the interest of the United States,” a term which really means, in the political interests of Bush.</p>
<p>Ray and Ratner’s book raises some disturbing questions. For example: What’s to stop Bush from turning his star chambers and designated civilian officials on his political opponents, here, in America?</p>
<p>One might also ask: How long does a national emergency last, and how does one know, quantitatively, when it’s over?</p>
<p>It’s a fact that our government is waging psychological warfare against us. Is it paranoid to ask: Are mini-Guantanamo, political indoctrination camps for recalcitrant Americans looming on the horizon?</p>
<p>This book makes one thing painfully clear: we’re in big trouble if these new terms and instruments of government become part of our national dialogue, and not just an ominous conversation between Ellen Ray and Michael Ratner.</p>
<p>Reading this book made me angrier than ever before. I don’t want to live by Bush’s leave, as a lab rat in a corporate experiment in a military dictatorship, under the guise of what Michael Ratner calls a “metaphorical” war on terror. Maybe it’s time to new form a new government? One not modeled on the totalitarian corporate paradigm, and certainly not a government where a mentally unstable chief executive has the power to torture, murder, invade foreign countries under false pretenses, dispense with due process, and otherwise break the supreme law of the land. Maybe it’s time to change our current form of government to ensure that the people, not the government, control their fate?</p>
<p>The book raises one other matter for consideration. Approximately 2,800 soldiers and CIA interrogators have already served as de facto torturers at Guantanamo, which houses only a few hundred prisoners. The total number of Americans who have served there is certainly larger, as soldiers and spooks are rotated in and out. Many others are being trained as torturers in military indoctrination courses. Already thousands of Americans at Guantanamo, and in other God-forsaken places around the world, have whole-heartedly embraced the role of torturer. Like those Abu Ghraib, they enjoy it.</p>
<p>What does this mean for America, as these torturers return home? Is it our patriotic duty to validate their service, and adopt their values? Or shall the privates, corporals and sergeants be held responsible for the war crimes they committed, while following the orders of policy makers like Bush? Will there be a prison big enough to hold all the war criminals America is producing at places like Guantanamo?</p>
<p>DOUGLAS VALENTINE is the author of <a href="" type="internal">The Hotel Tacloban</a>, <a href="" type="internal">The Phoenix Program</a>, and <a href="" type="internal">TDY</a>. His fourth book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859845681/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Strength of the Wolf: The Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 1930-1968</a>, is newly published by Verso. For information about Mr. Valentine, and his books and articles, please visit his web sites at <a href="http://www.DouglasValentine.com/" type="external">www.DouglasValentine.com</a> and <a href="http://members.authorsguild.net/valentine" type="external">http://members.authorsguild.net/valentine</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | What the World Should Know | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/09/04/what-the-world-should-know/ | 2004-09-04 | 4 |
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<p>LONDON — Upbeat economic figures from around the world helped shore up global stock markets on Thursday ahead of a raft of U.S. data that could determine the scale of upcoming rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: In Europe, Germany’s DAX rose 0.6 percent to 12,072 while Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.7 percent to 7,419. The CAC 40 in France was 0.7 percent higher too at 5,091. U.S. stocks were poised for a steady opening with Dow futures and the broader S&amp;P 500 futures up 0.2 percent.</p>
<p>US DATA: Following jitters at the start of the week over North Korea’s firing of a missile over Japan, the mood has improved somewhat with most investors monitoring a raft of economic data that culminates with Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for August. That could help shape market expectations over the pace of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.</p>
<p>ANALYST TAKE: “Of course, Friday’s jobs report is widely regarding as the most important data release each month due to the insight it offers on hiring, wages and therefore potential future inflation pressures,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA. “Today’s data though is arguably equally important, if not more so at the moment, as it contains the latest inflation numbers — as per the Fed’s preferred measure — as well as income and spending figures.”</p>
<p>EUROZONE INFLATION: Inflation across the 19-country eurozone struck a four-month high of 1.5 percent in the year to August largely because of higher energy costs, in a development that’s unlikely to alter expectations that the European Central Bank will play it safe at next week’s policy meeting. The increase was anticipated in financial markets, but inflation remains below the European Central Bank’s goal of just below 2 percent.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>CHINA MANUFACTURING: An official gauge of Chinese factory activity improved for a 13th straight month in August. The preliminary version of the purchasing managers’ index from the China Federation of Logistics &amp; Purchasing and the National Bureau of Statistics rose to 51.7 from July’s 51.4 on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 show activity expanding. An index of new orders rose to 53.1 from July’s 52.8.</p>
<p>ASIA’S DAY: The Shanghai Composite Index was unchanged at 3,360.81 while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.7 percent to 19,646.24. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.4 percent to 27,970.30 and Seoul’s Kospi lost 0.4 percent to 2,363.19. Sydney’s S&amp;P-ASX 200 advanced 0.8 percent to 5,714.50.</p>
<p>ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude rose 28 cents to $46.24 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange while Brent crude, used to price international oils, added 35 cents to trade at $51.08 in London.</p>
<p>CURRENCIES: The euro was down 0.4 percent at $1.1837 while the dollar rose 0.3 percent to 110.55 yen.</p> | Global stocks advance ahead of US data run | false | https://abqjournal.com/1056209/asian-stocks-mixed-after-china-factories-wall-street-gains.html | 2017-08-30 | 2 |
<p>Just a few short weeks ago, President Obama made an announcement that even his cohorts in the liberal media <a href="" type="internal">wished he never said</a>– that every single one of his&#160;policies are up for election this fall.</p>
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<p>Now the President has gone&#160;a step further in bringing Democrat candidates down, saying that all of those individuals who are trying desperately to distance themselves from him -see <a href="http://menrec.com/watch-democrat-squirm-way-admitting-voted-obama/" type="external">Alison Lundergan Grimes</a> – are only doing so to fool people in states that weren’t smart enough to vote for him in the first place.</p>
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<p>Obama spoke to MSNBC’s Al Sharpton, suggesting that Democrats were just pretending to not embrace him because the Republicans would use it against them. He then gave those candidates the kiss of death, and what is sure to become an instant GOP soundbite played right up until Election Day.</p>
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<p>Obama claims that all those Democrats trying to run away from him “are all folks who vote with me” and are “supporters of me.” &#160;He would also add that every one of them have&#160;“supported my agenda in Congress.”</p>
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<p>Take a listen …</p>
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<p>A fairly recent&#160; <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/02/fox-news-poll-only-24-percent-personally-better-off-gop-has-edge-in-midterms/" type="external">Fox News poll</a> indicates that on a personal level, only 24% of Americans believe their family is better off than when Obama took over for George Bush in 2008.</p>
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<p>Democrat candidates are well aware that Americans believe wholeheartedly the nation is moving in the wrong direction under President Obama, and they’ve had enough. &#160;That’s why they’re all jumping ship from this administration.</p>
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<p>The President however, keeps putting a hitch in those plans, placing a&#160;foot squarely in his mouth every time he links them to an unpopular&#160;agenda.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What do you think? Is the President killing Democrat’s chances on Election Day? Tell us your prediction below …</p>
<p /> | Obama Just Killed Democrats’ Chances In This Year’s Election (Part II) | true | http://thepoliticalinsider.com/obama-just-killed-democrats-chances-years-election-part-ii/ | 2014-10-21 | 0 |
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<p>The woman was Margaret Wood; the artist was Georgia O’Keeffe, and their pairing would launch an adventure into food and friendship that would last a lifetime.</p>
<p>Wood was living in Lincoln, Neb., when she received a call from an acquaintance about a job opening in Abiquiu. Wood had graduated from Nebraska’s Hastings College with a degree in art education.</p>
<p>O’Keeffe was 90 at the time, and her eyesight was failing. She needed someone to stay with her throughout the night and to prepare simple meals. Wood’s duties included brushing O’Keeffe’s long white hair, using just the right pressure, reading to her and accompanying her on her walks beneath the red cliffs of Ghost Ranch or down her sweeping Abiquiu driveway.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>She always called her “Miss O’Keeffe.”</p>
<p>Wood recalls her five years with the great artist in “Remembering Miss O’Keeffe: Stories from Abiquiu” ($19.95, Museum of New Mexico Press). Wood will talk about her time with O’Keeffe and sign books at Collected Works, 202 Galisteo St., No. A, at 6 p.m. Tuesday.</p>
<p>“I knew someone who had been a companion for Georgia O’Keeffe, and she was looking for someone to take her place,” said Wood, now living in Santa Fe and working as a speech therapist. “Her (O’Keeffe’s) eyesight was failing due to macular degeneration.</p>
<p>“I was very excited,” she continued. “I thought perhaps I could do this. I had studied art, and I knew of her paintings. I was a fan. I especially liked the paintings of New Mexico.”</p>
<p>Her friend warned her of O’Keeffe’s exactitude; everything had to be to her specifications. She cautioned Wood to be patient. Wood rented a former schoolhouse in the small village of Barranco. She thought she knew how to cook, but she quickly learned otherwise.</p>
<p>O’Keeffe took great pride in her healthy lifestyle. Whole wheat flour was always ground fresh with the artist’s personal mill. Yogurt was homemade, often from the milk of local goats. Fresh herbs, fruits and vegetables came from the artist’s garden.</p>
<p>“I tried to fit in what she needed,” Wood said. “It took me several months to make friends with her. She was such a private person and an independent person that it was an invasion to have someone assist her in this way.</p>
<p>“It was hard because I had to learn everything from how to make the lunch soup just right to how to brush her hair with just the right pressure. If the plates were not heated, she would say, ‘Oh, my dear, these plates are stone cold.’</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I didn’t expect the level of simplicity yet perfection that she liked in her food and her surroundings.”</p>
<p>Freshly made beds had to be perfectly tucked in. Food had to be attractively arranged on the plate.</p>
<p>Wood worked from 5 p.m. to 8:30 a.m., while the rest of the staff went home.</p>
<p>“She enjoyed listening to music,” Wood said. “She had two beautiful stereo systems — one in her studio and one in her house.”</p>
<p>O’Keeffe was a fan of Bach, Schubert and Monteverdi. She liked Wood to read to her — mostly Prevention, Time and Newsweek magazines, the bold print version of the New York Times and art books.</p>
<p>But no rock and roll.</p>
<p>Despite her carefully cultivated image as a recluse, O’Keeffe regularly welcomed visitors. Wood was thrilled when singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell came calling, resplendent in gold eyeshadow.</p>
<p>“That was a great visit for me,” Wood said. “Georgia O’Keeffe didn’t know much about her. (Mitchell) was a painter. She gave her an album. We listened to it, and Miss O’Keeffe thought the music made her drowsy.”</p>
<p>Allen Ginsberg arrived with his partner Peter Orlovsky. They admired the late afternoon light as they compared the nature of words to action. O’Keeffe declared that talk was easy but it was action that got things going. Ginsberg countered that words often inspired people to action. He and Orlovsky climbed the ladder to the roof to watch the sunset.</p>
<p>O’Keeffe often talked about her late husband, the photographer and impresario Alfred Stieglitz.</p>
<p>“She talked about how people thought he liked the arts page, but he (really) liked the sports page because of the horse races.</p>
<p>“She thought Alfred could look down on her and smile.”</p>
<p>Sometimes, O’Keeffe’s traditional ways clashed with the changing times — especially the women’s movement. Wood felt like she was in a time warp.</p>
<p>“I was being trained in these old ways,” Wood said. “I felt like I was in an old-fashioned place.”</p>
<p>She left to pursue graduate school.</p>
<p>“I knew I needed to get more education in a field I could use for the rest of my life,” Wood explained. “All the positions in the O’Keeffe house were filled.”</p>
<p>She visited O’Keeffe after Juan Hamilton, her companion, had moved her to Santa Fe for 24-hour care. But on her second visit, Hamilton warned her that the artist’s memory was fading.</p>
<p>O’Keeffe did not recognize her. Wood was stunned, then felt waves of grief. She stopped going but still dreamed about the artist.</p>
<p>Today, Wood finds a direct link between her profession and her years spent with the great artist.</p>
<p>“I work for elderly people, and I think it’s because of my work with Miss O’Keeffe,” she said. “I like their stories and their experience of being in this world. Most of them are very comfortable with themselves.”</p>
<p>But mostly, she remembers the food.</p>
<p>“I have an appreciation and a style of cooking simple, nutritious food,” she said.”I still cook the lemon chicken. I still make the herb salad. I make the lemon pecan fruitcake every Christmas.”</p> | Former Caretaker Recalls O’Keeffe | false | https://abqjournal.com/117198/former-caretaker-recalls-okeeffe.html | 2012-07-08 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>The district had 13,941 habitually truant students, about 16 percent of all students, in 2013, the last year state data is available.</p>
<p>APS teachers and school officials work hard to ensure students succeed academically, but if kids don’t show up, it doesn’t matter, interim Superintendent Brad Winter has said.</p>
<p>Candidates in this year’s three school board races – in email responses to the Journal – discussed their views on the district’s truancy problem. District 1 incumbent school board President Analee Maestas and District 4 candidate Sina-Aurelia Pleasant Soul-Bowe did not respond to the truancy inquiry by press time.</p>
<p>A majority of candidates said they like APS’ current truancy pilot program, in place at 23 schools, which involves hiring social workers who work with families of habitually truant students to address underlying issues. Those include lack of transportation, complicated home lives and undiagnosed mental health issues for students and family members, among others.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>District 4 candidate John “Jake” Lopez said he thinks the program is “a step in the right direction,” but he would like to see more data before he would move to expand it.</p>
<p>Lopez said it is important that schools make their curriculum culturally relevant to all students so they feel welcome in school.</p>
<p>Similarly, Pleasant Soul-Bowe said at a recent candidate forum she, too, would work to make sure students feel welcome in schools.</p>
<p>Charles “Ched” MacQuigg, a District 4 candidate, said school officials have to make school a place where kids want to go.</p>
<p>“The idea that you can force kids to attend school against their will and then they will happily take a seat and begin learning is as unrealistic as it is naive,” he said.</p>
<p>Barbara Petersen, a District 4 candidate, said, “This (pilot) program, by addressing the actual causal factors in truancy, has made a significant difference and should be expanded.”</p>
<p>Mark Gilboard, also a District 4 candidate, had a similar take.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Lastly, we can’t underestimate the value of community organizations and local businesses and their midlevel managers in emphasizing the need for young people to stay in school,” he said.</p>
<p>District 1 candidate Colt Balok said the state’s Breakfast After the Bell program, an anti-hunger program, is a good program for combating truancy, and he would support making attendance mandatory for students to participate in extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>Madelyn Jones, also a District 1 candidate, said she supports the APS truancy pilot, but not the proposal to strip truant students of their licenses.</p>
<p>In the District 2 race, both candidates said they like what they’ve seen from the program.</p>
<p>Peggy Muller-Aragon, however, said she would need to see more data showing positive results before she would support the pilot’s expansion.</p>
<p>Incumbent Kathy Korte, meanwhile, said overtesting is part of the truancy problem. She said “school should be a learning ground of all types of experiences that allow students to explore themselves, their talents and contemplate their futures. Rigid testing is killing that and is making kids not want to go to school.”</p>
<p>None of the candidates who responded to the Journal inquiry said they were in favor of a proposal to strip habitually truant students of their licenses.</p>
<p>“I support truancy strategies that provide positive reinforcement rather than strategies that are punitive in nature,” Muller-Aragon said.</p>
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<p /> | APS board candidates like anti-truancy pilot program | false | https://abqjournal.com/534421/aps-board-candidates-like-antitruancy-pilot-program.html | 2 |
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<p>On Sunday, Donald Trump’s new political hitman Paul Manafort attempted to reconcile the apparent dichotomy of ‘Primary Trump’ and ‘General Election Trump’ by suggesting that while the campaign itself will “evolve,” the candidate himself will not.</p>
<p>On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace confronted Manafort with an audio clip that seemed to suggest that Trump has been of full of sh*t. “The part [Trump’s] been playing” during the Republican primary season is the “first phase,” Manafort can be heard saying in the clip. The second phase will presumably be different. “You’ll start to see more depth to the person, the real person,” announced Manafort. “You’ll see him in a different way.”</p>
<p>Perhaps it was a poor choice of words, but Manafort’s diction made it seem as though he was talking about reprogramming a Manchurian candidate or the Terminator. Operation Humanize Trump is now underway, apparently. Indeed, it’s quite odd to hear a campaign admit to lying before their man is elected to office.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Manafort made this same argument to the Republican establishment. The only reason we even know about this backdoor deal is because the audio was leaked by the New York Times, Washington Post, and other outlets. Here’s what Manafort <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/04/22/paul_manafort_tells_rnc_that_trump_been_just_playing_a_part.html" type="external">said</a> about Trump at the RNC meeting:</p>
<p>When he's sitting in a room, he's talking business, he's talking politics in a private room, it's a different persona.</p>
<p>When he's out on the stage, when he's talking about the kinds of things he's talking about on the stump, he's projecting an image that's for that purpose.</p>
<p>He gets it. The part that he's been playing is evolving into the part that now you've been expecting, but he wasn't ready for because he had to first feed the first phase.</p>
<p>There it is. Finally, we had hard evidence of what many of us suspected all along. The entire campaign was a ruse. It was all an act. “But Manafort making that argument explicit illustrates the lengths Trump is now going to run twin campaigns: a public one aimed at stoking the passions of his base against the Republican Party, and a private one designed to convince that same Republican Party that he’s actually been one of them all along,” <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/04/22/paul_manafort_tells_rnc_that_trump_been_just_playing_a_part.html" type="external">writes</a> Slate's Josh Vorhees.</p>
<p>When Wallace pressed Manafort about this apparent duplicity on Sunday, the political hitman provided an answer that insulted human reason. “We were evolving the campaign, not the candidate, and the settings were going to start changing,” he squawked. Case closed. He wasn’t talking about Trump the candidate, but the ethereal, abstract “campaign.”</p>
<p>Predictably, Wallace smelled the bullsh*t from a mile away. Things got a little testy when the Fox News host called Manafort out for his chicanery. Here’s a partial transcript:</p>
<p>WALLACE: Forgive me, it does seem a little bit like spin because -- I mean, the words, the part that he has been playing, "You will start to see more depth of the person, the real person." You're not talking about rallies versus some other setting.</p>
<p>MANAFORT: I was talking about rallies versus setting.</p>
<p>WALLACE: That's not what you said.</p>
<p>Rather than explaining his campaign’s inconsistencies, Manafort opted to attack GOP rival Ted Cruz instead. “There's the liar, not Trump. I mean, he’s got to change the narrative,” Manafort barked. “He's losing”</p>
<p>When asked why the Cruz team seems to be far more adept at navigating the political waters and securing unpledged delegates, Manafort essentially threw his own candidate under the bus, fluffing his own ego instead. “Now, most of the conventions that happened yesterday were set in state -- stages a month or two ago and before frankly I was involved,” he boasted in a fit of narcissism not seen since the days of Napoleon.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Manafort predicted that there will be no second ballot at a convention, if it goes that far. Trump will win in the first ballot, he declared.</p>
<p>To watch Paul Manafort’s full interview with Chris Wallace, see below:</p> | Trump's Political Hitman Flip-Flops; Suggests Donald The 'Candidate' Will Not 'Evolve' But 'Campaign' Will | true | https://dailywire.com/news/5201/trumps-political-hitman-flip-flops-suggests-donald-joshua-yasmeh | 2016-04-24 | 0 |
<p>From The Sacramento Bee:</p>
<p>Complying with a court order, the California Assembly released thousands of pages of documents about its members’ expenditures today that it fought against providing to the public.</p>
<p>The documents detail budgets and spending by each of the Assembly’s 80 members. The data should enable the public to better determine what portion of committee funds are used for lawmakers’ personal staff.</p>
<p>Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley ordered the records to be released in a lawsuit filed by The Bee and Los Angeles Times. Frawley issued a tentative ruling in December, which the Assembly did not contest.</p>
<p>( <a href="http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/01/assembly-releases-member-budgets-under-superior-court-order.html#mi_rss=State%20Politics" type="external">Read Full Article</a>) <a href="" type="internal" /></p> | California Assembly releases member budgets under court order | false | http://capoliticalreview.com/trending/california-assembly-releases-member-budgets-under-court-order/ | 2012-01-07 | 1 |
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<p>DENVER — Colorado lawmakers have voted to restore funding for a teen survey that asks about their drug use, sex habits and suicide.</p>
<p>The Republican-led state Senate voted late Wednesday to restore $745,000 to next year’s budget to pay for the anonymous Healthy Kids Colorado Survey.</p>
<p>The survey of middle and high school students asks provocative questions about sex and drug habits and whether they are contemplating suicide.</p>
<p>Republicans originally blocked the funding, calling the survey intrusive.</p>
<p>Other Republicans moved Wednesday to restore funding after state health officials insisted the survey’s results provide crucial knowledge about risky childhood behaviors. The vote means the survey conducted since 1991 will likely continue.</p>
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<p>Sen. Don Coram, a Republican, acknowledged the survey may be intrusive but said paying for it is worth it “if we can save the life of one child.”</p>
<p>The survey provides a rare opportunity for education officials to discuss suicide with students, including those who might be contemplating taking their lives and have no one to talk to, said Sen. Kerry Donovan, a Democrat.</p>
<p>The surveys are sent every other year to randomly selected middle and high school students across Colorado and are used to chart risky behaviors such as smoking, drinking and bringing guns to school.</p>
<p>The list of 2016 questions included: “During the past 12 months, did you make a plan about how you would attempt suicide?”</p>
<p>The state’s proposed $26.8 billion budget is up for debate and votes in the Senate before it can be sent for consideration to the Democrat-led House.</p> | Colorado restores funding for youth sex and drug survey | false | https://abqjournal.com/979256/colorado-sticks-with-youth-surveys-on-drugs-sex-suicide.html | 2017-03-30 | 2 |
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<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Two fossilized dinosaur skeletons, dubbed the “Montana Dueling Dinosaurs” because they appear forever locked in mortal combat, failed to sell Tuesday at a New York City auction.</p>
<p>A pre-sale estimate had predicted that the skeletons, offered as a single lot, could fetch between $7 million and $9 million — a price out of the reach of most museums. There were hopes that a wealthy buyer would donate the skeletons to a public institution, similar to how The Field Museum came to own Sue, a Tyrannosaurus rex discovered in South Dakota in 1990.</p>
<p>But the skeletons did not make the reserve at the Bonhams auction; the highest offer was $5.5 million. Auction officials said they remained hopeful that they’d find a buyer, possibly among institutions that had previously expressed interest.</p>
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<p>The discovery began with a dinosaur pelvis protruding through rock at the Montana ranch. Three more months of chiseling and digging revealed a remarkable discovery: two nearly complete, fossilized dinosaur skeletons of a carnivore and herbivore, their tails touching.</p>
<p>A pushed-in skull and teeth of one dinosaur embedded in the other suggested a deadly confrontation between them. Clayton Phipps, a fossil hunter who made the discovery on his neighbor’s land in 2006 in the fossil-rich Hell Creek Formation, gave the fossils their name.</p>
<p>The fossils are believed to be a Nanotyrannus lancensis, a smaller relative of the T. rex, and a newly discovered species of Chasmosaurine ceratopsian, a close relative of the Triceratops, which lived at the end of the Cretaceous age some 65 million years ago.</p>
<p>“I am just the lucky guy that happened to stumble out there and find this dinosaur,” Phipps said. “I really appreciate the academic paleontologists that understand the importance of what us amateurs bring to the mix. I am hoping that it will be professionally and academically studied. … I want to know more about them.”</p>
<p>They were found fully articulated with pockets of skin tissue attached. They have been separated into four large blocks because of their total 40-ton weight and are on display in a plaza adjacent to Bonhams.</p>
<p>Kirk Johnson, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, called the dinosaurs “a significant discovery.”</p>
<p>“They are a superb pair of specimens and are certainly of great scientific and display value,” he said. “This pair is certainly a unique find” for the Hell Creek Formation.</p>
<p>Thomas Lindgren, Bonhams co-consulting director of natural history, said scientists will have to determine whether the ceratopsian was indeed a new species, but either way, it would “still be one of the rarest ceratopsians of all time.”</p>
<p>“It is either the most complete and oldest triceratops that had lived at the end of the Cretaceous or it’s a brand-new species,” he said.</p>
<p>But Jack Horner, a paleontologist at Montana State University, called the promoters’ claims a means “to enhance the price of the specimen.”</p>
<p>“These fossils are not worth anything because they were collected to sell and not specifically for their science,” he said.</p>
<p>Johnson said the skeletons would need to be extracted from their enclosing sandstone and compared to other skeletons in various museums to determine their “actual completeness.” But he said finding a carnivore and herbivore together is still “very unusual.”</p> | ‘Montana Dueling Dinos’ fail to sell at NY auction | false | https://abqjournal.com/304260/montana-dueling-dinos-fail-to-sell-at-ny-auction.html | 2013-11-19 | 2 |
<p>By Kenneth Li</p>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bloomberg News said on Tuesday it changed its dateline policy, scrapping the traditional practice of indicating the location of the reporter at the beginning of a story.</p>
<p>Bloomberg LP's move follows criticism over its dateline policy after media reports in March and April pointed out discrepancies in datelines on Bloomberg's Iraq war coverage. Those stories, some of which carried a Baghdad dateline, reflected where a particular story's action was taking place, not the reporter's location, said Matt Winkler, Bloomberg News editor in chief.</p>
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<p /> | Bloomberg News Breaks with Tradition on Datelines Following Iraq War | false | https://poynter.org/news/bloomberg-news-breaks-tradition-datelines-following-iraq-war | 2003-05-28 | 2 |
<p>When Reid Davenport was in college, he planned to spend a semester abroad.</p>
<p>He was accepted into a program in Florence, but then was strongly discouraged from attending after program officials learned Davenport has cerebral palsy.</p>
<p>That could have been the end of the story. Instead, it gave him a powerful idea.</p>
<p>I met Davenport in his small apartment in downtown Washington, DC. He's cheerful and clean cut. Davenport, who graduated from George Washington University in the spring of 2012 with a degree in journalism, is now living on his own. He says his parents raised him to be self-reliant.</p>
<p>"I have challenges, but everyone has challenges. Just because my challenges are more apparent doesn't mean that I can't do something," he says.</p>
<p>Davenport can walk, but he uses a wheelchair most of the time. He says for one thing, people stare at him a lot less when he's in the wheelchair.</p>
<p>"It kind of explains a lot. Whereas if I'm walking, people may not know why I'm walking differently, why I'm talking differently."</p>
<p>Davenport has to work a lot harder than most people to get the words out, but he didn't want me to use a voiceover for him for the radio story. In fact, in addition to being a freelance reporter, he's an occasional public speaker. His cerebral palsy gives him a unique perspective.</p>
<p>"At times it's really therapy for me to write about what I go through," he says. "And I like to have my voice heard."</p>
<p>During his junior year in college, Reid hoped to study in Italy. But when the program officials learned he used a wheelchair, they talked him out of it because of the lack of accessibility. He was disappointed. But then he began to wonder: What's it like for people with physical disabilities in Europe?</p>
<p>In the winter of 2012, Davenport went with a cameraman to find out. He produced a documentary about the trip called "Wheelchair Diaries."</p>
<p>Davenport was shocked by how hard it was to get around because so few buildings, public transportation, even sidewalks, were wheelchair accessible.</p>
<p>"Europe is such a progressive society," he says, "and it was the juxtaposition between the progressive society and the lack of accessibility."</p>
<p>He interviewed people from Ireland, Belgium, France and Italy, including Carlotta Besozzi, director of the European Disability Forum. She says about 14-percent of Europe's population are living with disabilities.</p>
<p>"They are not first class citizens," Besozzi says in the film. "There is a lot of discrimination."</p>
<p>Davenport learned that discrimination takes different forms there. It's also much more hidden than in the United States. He went around Brussels with a journalist named Francois who also has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. There weren't even curb cuts in the sidewalks, so Davenport had to ride in the street alongside traffic. He and Francois spent several hours trying to find a place to eat – nothing was accessible.</p>
<p>"It's always a vicious circle," says Francois in the movie. "If you don't accessibilize [sic] your building, people will stay home. And if people with disabilities stay at home, those responsible for making buildings accessible will say what's the point of getting it accessible because no one is using it?"</p>
<p>Davenport says in order for people with disabilities to be included and win social acceptance, they first need to be able to get through the door.</p>
<p>So why has Western Europe done relatively little to accommodate people with physical disabilities?</p>
<p>"I mean the obvious answer, and the excuse I hear all the time is, it's older, and the old buildings just can be made wheelchair accessible."</p>
<p>But Davenport doesn't buy it. He thinks it's mostly indifference.</p>
<p>We're not talking about restructuring one of the Seven Wonders of the World, he says. "We're talking about putting a ramp up, making sure the elevator works, making sure public transportation is accessible."</p>
<p>On the other hand, Davenport says people in Europe were always willing to help. In Naples, a group of 14-year-old boys carried him in his wheelchair on and off of a bus. He questions whether that would happen in the U.S. A repairman in Brussels fixed his broken wheelchair for free. All of which makes it hard to generalize about countries, or cultural attitudes towards disability.</p>
<p>"There were closed minded people in Europe and there are closed minded people in the United States. People helped me in Europe and people help me in the United States. "</p>
<p>Maybe it's more about individual empathy. Gavin, an Irishman with chronic progressive muscular dystrophy who appears in "Wheelchair Diaries," put it this way: "The moment you know someone in a wheelchair is the moment you look at the world differently. You start to see it the way they see it. "</p>
<p>Reid Davenport's documentary, "Wheelchair Diaries" is being shown at film festivals around the country.</p> | Wheelchair Diaries: Getting Around Europe on Four Wheels | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-06-21/wheelchair-diaries-getting-around-europe-four-wheels | 2013-06-21 | 3 |
<p>BEIJING (Reuters) – Beijing’s city authorities have taken down from their website a policy document put up just a few days ago that looked to help improve the city’s notorious air quality by banning construction during winter months.</p>
<p>It is unclear if the move means the prohibition is no longer in place, with an official at the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development who gave his name as Yu saying the document had been pulled from the website due to misunderstandings over the rules in media reports. He declined to give further details.</p>
<p>The statement, dated Sept. 15, was posted on the commission’s website last Friday, but it was no longer available on Wednesday. It was not clear when it was withdrawn.</p>
<p>Under the plan, all construction of road and water projects, as well as demolition of housing, would be banned from Nov. 15 to March 15 within the city’s six major districts and surrounding suburbs.</p>
<p>As part of dust control measures, the government often instructs construction sites in northern cities to close during bouts of heavy smog in the winter when households crank up heating, drawing on the power grid which is mainly fueled by coal.</p>
<p>Provincial authorities are rushing to enforce the central government’s ambitious targets for preventing toxic air during the upcoming colder months as it has ramped up its years-long war on smog.</p>
<p>The possible pulling of the construction rules underscores the complexity of implementing some of the steps. Among the most stringent measures are orders for heavy industry such as steel mills to curb output by as much as 50 percent during the colder months.</p>
<p>Recent checks of factories across the north have forced many to close or curb operations, roiling supplies of some critical raw materials like coke and coal and sending prices of base metals soaring.</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> | Beijing government pulls winter construction ban from website | false | https://newsline.com/beijing-government-pulls-winter-construction-ban-from-website/ | 2017-09-21 | 1 |
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<p>RUSH: Here’s Tim in Toledo, Ohio. It’s great to have you, sir. Welcome to the program.</p>
<p>CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thanks for taking my call. Listen, I’ve been a Cleveland Browns fan since I was a teenager and I’m 56 now. I used to have season tickets ’til Modell moved the team. I was just wondering — have been wondering — what your opinion would be if you’d have been an owner or part-owner of the Browns what you might have done with ’em?</p>
<p>RUSH: Well, jeez. I’ll tell you: What I would have done is irrelevant. Here’s what you should hope for. You should hope that [quarterback Johnny] Manziel is the real deal. You should hope that he’s able to stay sober and play. This is a quarterback’s league. You should hope he becomes the next Joe Namath. You should hope this guy is the biggest partier off the field and just nails it on the field, that he can do both.</p>
<p>Because if this guy is the quarterback in the NFL that he was at Texas A&amp;M, you’re gonna have a renaissance there. Even if the team doesn’t win right off the bat, given that this is a star-quarterback league, you could build a team around his talents. If this guy pays off, if that draft choice pays off, it could be a turning point for the Browns, I think. But those are big ifs.</p>
<p>CALLER: Yeah, I know they’re big ifs, and I don’t expect them to go to the Super Bowl or anything this coming season. But do you think they should hold onto Josh Gordon and help him out or let him go?</p>
<p>RUSH: Depends. You know, that’s a clubhouse decision. That’s a, “Hey, locker room thing.” If they could hold the team together, I think it might be wise to try to give the guy one more shot to help him out and cut him. You know, everybody needs a second chance, okay. Give him a third chance, but no more than that. But that’s a locker room thing, too.</p>
<p>It depends on what you do with him how that’s gonna impact cohesiveness, chemistry, all that in the locker room. Your focus is Manziel right now. That’s where they roll the dice, and that’s the biggest opportunity you’ve got for a turnaround. (interrupotin) I know not winning, but at least you like going to the stadium to watch. That would be a big step up. That could happen if this it turns out.</p>
<p>Here’s James in East… No, what happened to the guy? Aw! We had a guy up there. What did say he does for a living, did it say or not? (interruption) Okay. He and his wife are polar opposites. He’s a Dittohead. His wife, he actually referred to her as “a low-information Democrat.” His point is that she hated my guts, despised me, and had never listened to me.</p>
<p>He convinced her to listen one day recently and was going to report but he hung up, and I wanted to find out how that went. He said, what, she listened one time? (interruption) He’s been trying for years to get her to listen. (chuckling) She probably happened to tune in one day when I was making fun of contraception and birth control pill prices. That’d be my luck. (chuckling) If she’s an anrdent Democrat and she tunes in that day, there’s no hope.</p> | Your Host’s Take on Johnny Football | true | http://rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/07/17/your_host_s_take_on_johnny_football | 2014-07-17 | 0 |
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<p>The measure, Senate Bill 12, would change the composition of the NMFA board by giving both the governor and the legislative branch the authority to appoint board members. It would also establish new attendance requirements for NMFA board members.</p>
<p>Several ideas to overhaul the Finance Authority, which functions like a bank for local government, have surfaced since a fraudulent audit scandal rocked the agency last year (here’s an <a href="" type="internal">overview</a>).</p>
<p>The NMFA legislation co-sponsored by Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, and Rep. James White, R-Albuquerque, would follow a similar template to the one lawmakers used to overhaul the State Investment Council two years ago.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I think we need to take some type of action following that audit problem,” White said.</p>
<p>Senate Bill 12 now moves on to the Senate Finance Committee.</p> | Bill to Overhaul NMFA Board Cruises Through Senate Committee | false | https://abqjournal.com/166002/bill-to-overhaul-nmfa-board-cruises-through-senate-committee.html | 2 |
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<p>Dec. 14 (UPI) — Dealing with claims of sexual harassment, Texas U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold won’t seek re-election next year, sources said Thursday.</p>
<p>Farenthold, a Republican lawmaker since 2010, has not yet officially announced his plans — but <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/14/politics/blake-farenthold-not-running-reelection/index.html" type="external">CNN</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/farenthold-wont-seek-reelection-amid-allegations-of-sexual-harassment/2017/12/14/7217a402-e0dd-11e7-bbd0-9dfb2e37492a_story.html?utm_term=.6e0037267438" type="external">The Washington Post</a> and <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/14/farenthold-wont-seek-reelection-after-sexual-harassment-allegations-295492" type="external">Politico</a> cited sources Thursday in reporting he won’t seek to remain in the House.</p>
<p>“I spoke with his campaign manager, and he confirmed Blake will not run for re-election,” said Mike Bergsma, chairman of the Nueces County Republican Party, told the Post.</p>
<p>The House Ethics Committee has opened an investigation into harassment accusations against him — and former staffers have alleged abusive conduct.</p>
<p>Farenthold spoke Wednesday with House Speaker <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Paul_Ryan/" type="external">Paul Ryan</a> and National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers, according to GOP sources.</p>
<p>Former aide Lauren Greene said Farenthold told another staffer in the office that he had “sexual fantasies” about her. Greene received $84,000 from a congressional fund to resolve workplace disputes, and she told Politico that she was blacklisted on Capitol Hill after raising her concerns.</p>
<p>Farenthold, who is 55 and married, has denied the accusations. He said he’s working on a loan to repay the money from the fund.</p>
<p>“I just want to let everyone know, I absolutely did not engage in any improper conduct,” he told <a href="http://www.crossroadstoday.com/story/37066030/farenthold-calls-it-quits" type="external">constituents on Skype</a>. “I was investigated by the office of congressional ethics, and they found 6-0, there wasn’t enough effort.”</p>
<p>Michael Rekola, Farenthold’s communications director in 2015, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/13/politics/blake-farenthold-accusations/index.html" type="external">told CNN</a> the congressman often told sexually explicit jokes and berated aides.</p>
<p>Sam Taylor, a spokesman for Texas’ secretary of state, said Farenthold’s name will appear on the ballot in the March primary because he missed the deadline to withdraw.</p>
<p>“Barring any challenge to the candidate’s application before the mail-in ballots go out in late January, his name will still be on the ballot for the March 6 Primary,” Taylor wrote in an email to the Post.</p>
<p>Farenthold’s district covers Texas’ Gulf Coast, including Corpus Christi.</p>
<p>Two other members of the House — Democrats <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Conyers/" type="external">John Conyers</a> of Michigan and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Trent_Franks/" type="external">Trent Franks</a> of Arizona — have announced their immediate resignations amid sexual misconduct allegations. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Joe_Barton/" type="external">Joe Barton</a>, a Republican Texas congressman, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/30/politics/joe-barton-re-election/index.html" type="external">also said</a> he won’t seek re-election after nude photo of him surfaced online.</p>
<p>Last week, Democratic Sen. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Al_Franken/" type="external">Al Franken</a> of Minnesota said he will soon resign his seat after women accused him of inappropriate conduct.</p> | Amid scandal, Texas' Farenthold won't seek House re-election: reports | false | https://newsline.com/amid-scandal-texas039-farenthold-won039t-seek-house-re-election-reports/ | 2017-12-14 | 1 |
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Morgan Freeman first stood on a stage when he was 8 years old, playing Little Boy Blue in a pageant. That’s when he knew he wanted to be an actor.</p>
<p>More than seven decades later, the now 80-year-old Freeman accepted a lifetime achievement award Sunday from the Screen Actors Guild for the much larger roles he’s played in his career, including his Oscar-winning performance in “Million Dollar Baby.” Freeman was nominated for Oscars four other times, including for his work in “Shawshank Redemption” and “Driving Miss Daisy.”</p>
<p>Actress Rita Moreno, who presented Freeman with the honor, recalled another lesser-known role Freeman played, acting with her in 1971 on the children’s show “The Electric Company.” She had the audience laughing about a role that would surprise some for the smooth-as-silk, dulcet-voiced Freeman.</p>
<p>“Morgan Freeman, Mr. Elegant. Morgan Freeman, Mr. Debonair, Morgan Freeman playing Dracula. With fangs coming out of his mouth,” Moreno said to laughs before impersonating the creepy voice Freeman would use. “And he talked like this: ’Hello, little girl. I come all the way from Transylvania to scare the daylights out of you.”</p>
<p>On a more serious note, Moreno said Freeman was more than just an actor, narrator, producer and humanitarian. “This man is a national treasure,” she said.</p>
<p>Freeman’s acceptance speech was short. Donning a black baseball cap, Freeman said he wouldn’t try to thank everyone he should because he couldn’t remember all their names.</p>
<p>“This is beyond honor,” Freeman said. “This is a place in history.”</p>
<p>Backstage, Freeman recalled a tough time in his career, in the early 1980s.</p>
<p>“I thought my 15 minutes were up ... I needed to get a job,” he said. “By the time I got down to the moment when you make that decision — give it up — something happened. Paul Newman came along.”</p>
<p>Freeman was in Newman’s 1984 film “Harry &amp; Son,” a gig that turned Freeman’s career around.</p>
<p>It was almost too late.</p>
<p>Earlier Sunday, Freeman said that if acting hadn’t worked out for him, he once thought of a career in driving.</p>
<p>“I used to imagine myself being a chauffeur because there came a time I thought it was all over,” Freeman said in a Facebook video taken from inside his car ride to the show. “I thought my career had reached its pinnacle, its peak.”</p>
<p>It was seven years later that he did become a chauffeur of sorts — driver Hoke Colburn in “Driving Miss Daisy.”</p>
<p>About his award for lifetime achievement, Freeman wondered back stage if there was a hidden message in it.</p>
<p>“The inference might be, ’Get off the stage, you’re done,’” he said as reporters laughed. “It might, you don’t know. My hope is that’s not the case, that they’re saying, ‘Congratulations so far.’”</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Morgan Freeman first stood on a stage when he was 8 years old, playing Little Boy Blue in a pageant. That’s when he knew he wanted to be an actor.</p>
<p>More than seven decades later, the now 80-year-old Freeman accepted a lifetime achievement award Sunday from the Screen Actors Guild for the much larger roles he’s played in his career, including his Oscar-winning performance in “Million Dollar Baby.” Freeman was nominated for Oscars four other times, including for his work in “Shawshank Redemption” and “Driving Miss Daisy.”</p>
<p>Actress Rita Moreno, who presented Freeman with the honor, recalled another lesser-known role Freeman played, acting with her in 1971 on the children’s show “The Electric Company.” She had the audience laughing about a role that would surprise some for the smooth-as-silk, dulcet-voiced Freeman.</p>
<p>“Morgan Freeman, Mr. Elegant. Morgan Freeman, Mr. Debonair, Morgan Freeman playing Dracula. With fangs coming out of his mouth,” Moreno said to laughs before impersonating the creepy voice Freeman would use. “And he talked like this: ’Hello, little girl. I come all the way from Transylvania to scare the daylights out of you.”</p>
<p>On a more serious note, Moreno said Freeman was more than just an actor, narrator, producer and humanitarian. “This man is a national treasure,” she said.</p>
<p>Freeman’s acceptance speech was short. Donning a black baseball cap, Freeman said he wouldn’t try to thank everyone he should because he couldn’t remember all their names.</p>
<p>“This is beyond honor,” Freeman said. “This is a place in history.”</p>
<p>Backstage, Freeman recalled a tough time in his career, in the early 1980s.</p>
<p>“I thought my 15 minutes were up ... I needed to get a job,” he said. “By the time I got down to the moment when you make that decision — give it up — something happened. Paul Newman came along.”</p>
<p>Freeman was in Newman’s 1984 film “Harry &amp; Son,” a gig that turned Freeman’s career around.</p>
<p>It was almost too late.</p>
<p>Earlier Sunday, Freeman said that if acting hadn’t worked out for him, he once thought of a career in driving.</p>
<p>“I used to imagine myself being a chauffeur because there came a time I thought it was all over,” Freeman said in a Facebook video taken from inside his car ride to the show. “I thought my career had reached its pinnacle, its peak.”</p>
<p>It was seven years later that he did become a chauffeur of sorts — driver Hoke Colburn in “Driving Miss Daisy.”</p>
<p>About his award for lifetime achievement, Freeman wondered back stage if there was a hidden message in it.</p>
<p>“The inference might be, ’Get off the stage, you’re done,’” he said as reporters laughed. “It might, you don’t know. My hope is that’s not the case, that they’re saying, ‘Congratulations so far.’”</p> | Morgan Freeman accepts life achievement honors at SAG Awards | false | https://apnews.com/b36f482b3e064fc795bbd12f64497844 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
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<p>LOS ANGELES – The driver parked outside a hotel and surveyed the leisurely summer scene at the Venice Beach boardwalk: Hundreds of people were sitting at cafes, walking along the seashore or shopping at vendors selling jewelry or art.</p>
<p>Then, according to surveillance video, the man got into a large black car, steered around a vehicle barrier and accelerated mercilessly through the crowd, hitting one person after another as bystanders tried desperately to get out of the way.</p>
<p>Saturday’s hit-and-run killed an Italian woman on her honeymoon and hurt 11 others who only a moment earlier had been enjoying an afternoon near the beach at the height of vacation season.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A couple of hours later, authorities arrested a man on suspicion of murder after he walked into a police station in neighboring Santa Monica and said he was involved.</p>
<p>Nathan Louis Campbell, 38, of Los Angeles, remained jailed Sunday on $1 million bail.</p>
<p>Police declined to discuss a motive but Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese said there was no indication that the attack was a terrorist act or that anyone else was involved.</p>
<p>By the time it was over, the driver had covered about a quarter of a mile along the boardwalk before fleeing. The entire incident was over in minutes.</p>
<p>Witnesses reported a horrifying aftermath.</p>
<p>People were ” stumbling around, blood dripping down their legs, looking confused not knowing what had happened, people screaming,” said Louisa Hodge, who described “blocks and blocks of people just strewn across the sidewalk.”</p>
<p>The Italian woman was identified as Alice Gruppioni, 32. Her family in Bologna told the Italian news agency LaPresse that she had been on her honeymoon after a July 20 wedding.</p>
<p>Gruppioni worked as a manager for the family business Sira group, which makes radiators.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Another person was critically injured. Two others were taken to hospitals in serious condition. Eight suffered less serious injuries, police said.</p>
<p>According to security video and witness accounts, the driver parked next to the Cadillac Hotel and twice walked out to the boardwalk before getting into the Dodge Avenger. He carefully maneuvered between a storefront and metal poles that had been erected to prevent anyone from driving onto the boardwalk.</p>
<p>Then he stepped on the accelerator and plunged into the crowd.</p>
<p>“I heard a big ‘boom, boom,’ like the sound of someone going up and down the curb, it was super loud,” said Alex Hagan, who was working the desk at the hotel.</p>
<p>The driver knocked over two mannequins and an ATM and started hitting people, swerving from side to side and often running straight into victims. Video showed the car struck at least three vendors – a fortune teller, a couple selling jewelry and a woman who does tattooing.</p>
<p>Two women who appeared to be in their 60s were also hit. Many people ran after the car, screaming and cursing as it sped away, Hagan said.</p>
<p>Golestan Alipour was bartending at Candle Cafe &amp; Grill when the menacing vehicle drew near.</p>
<p>“The restaurant was full. Everybody ran,” Alipour said.</p>
<p>It was not immediately clear how fast the car was going.</p>
<p>The driver eventually turned up a side street and headed away from the ocean. The car was later found abandoned less than two miles away, police said.</p>
<p>At the scene, detectives searched for evidence across the boardwalk, which is in a part of Los Angeles known for eccentricities.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Video: Driver assessed crowd before plowing through | false | https://abqjournal.com/242391/video-driver-assessed-crowd-before-plowing-through.html | 2 |
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<p>Cisco Systems posted solid fiscal fourth-quarter results Wednesday, sending the computer networking gear maker's shares higher in aftermarket trading.</p>
<p>Cisco said revenue from its collaboration and data center businesses improved. The seller of routers, switches, software and services said it's selling more subscription-based and software products. The San Jose, California-based company's net income and revenue both surpassed analyst estimates.</p>
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<p>Shares of Cisco Systems Inc. added $1.05, or 3.8 percent, to $28.95 in aftermarket trading.</p>
<p>The company said its net income rose 3 percent to $2.32 billion, or 45 cents per share.</p>
<p>Excluding one-time charges and gains, the company said it earned 59 cents per share. Sales rose 4 percent to $12.84 billion.</p>
<p>Analysts expected net income of 56 cents per share and $12.66 billion in revenue, according to Zacks Investment Research.</p>
<p>The quarter also marked a change for Cisco because it was the company's last one with John Chambers as CEO. After 20 years in the position, Chambers stepped down on July 26 and longtime executive Chuck Robbins became CEO. Chambers remains chairman of the company.</p>
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<p>Cisco forecast an adjusted profit of 55 cents to 57 cents per share on to $12.49 billion to $12.73 billion for the current quarter.</p>
<p>Analysts expect 56 cents per share and $12.54 billion, according to FactSet.</p>
<p>Cisco shares are up 11 percent over the last 12 months and closed at $27.90 on Wednesday.</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CSCO at http://www.zacks.com/ap/CSCO</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Keywords: Cisco Systems, Earnings Report</p> | Cisco Systems 4th-quarter results surpass Wall Street forecasts; shares rise aftermarket | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/08/12/cisco-systems-4th-quarter-results-surpass-wall-street-forecasts-shares-rise.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Trump administration’s anti-marijuana move has some members of the president’s voting base fuming.</p>
<p>Fans of President Donald Trump who use marijuana say Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ move to tighten federal oversight of the drug is the first time they’ve felt let down by the man they helped elect. The move feels especially punitive to Trump voters who work in the growing industry around legalized marijuana that has taken root in states of all political stripes.</p>
<p>It remains to be seen whether Trump’s pot-loving voters will take their anger to the ballot box in 2018 and 2020. But pro-legalization conservatives are also chiding the administration’s anti-pot move as an affront to personal liberties and states’ rights.</p>
<p>“Trump needs to realize that a lot of his supporters are pro-cannabis and it would be extremely hurtful to them if he allowed Sessions to move forward with this,” said Damara Kelso, a Trump voter who runs Sugar Shack Farms, a marijuana grower in Eugene, Oregon. “It’s not lazy pothead stoners smoking weed all day in their parents’ basement.”</p>
<p>Sessions’ move allows federal prosecutors to decide what to do when state rules conflict with federal. It comes as legalization of marijuana is at an all-time high in popularity with Republicans.</p>
<p>A Gallup <a href="http://news.gallup.com/poll/221018/record-high-support-legalizing-marijuana.aspx" type="external">poll</a> from last year found 51 percent of Republicans expressed support for legalization of the drug. It was the first time a majority of GOP supporters supported the idea and represented a jump of 9 percentage points from the previous year. In the early 2000s, only about one in five Republicans agreed with legalization.</p>
<p>Legalization has also flourished at the state level. Maine, Nevada, Massachusetts and California all voted to make recreational marijuana use legal for adults in 2016. It is also legal in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Alaska and Washington, D.C. Alaska and Maine gave Trump electoral votes in 2016.</p>
<p>Marijuana legalization is typically most popular with the libertarian-leaning wing of the Republican Party. But any such Republicans who felt Trump would be a pro-marijuana president were misguided, said Jeffrey Miron, a Harvard University economist who studies the economics of libertarianism with a focus on illegal drugs.</p>
<p>Weed-loving Trump fans might be experiencing buyer’s remorse, but it’s too early to say whether that could make a difference at the polls, Miron said.</p>
<p>“Libertarians certainly knew when he appointed Jeff Sessions that there was a serious risk in an escalation of the war on drugs,” he said. “I think you get what you pay for.”</p>
<p>Still, some of Trump’s high-profile supporters are criticizing the move.</p>
<p>Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign adviser with whom the president has a long and rocky history, shared a video on Facebook on Jan. 7 urging Trump to support legalization and block Sessions’ move. And some Republicans in Congress have also slammed the decision.</p>
<p>“We have a Constitution to protect people from the federal government,” Republican Rep. Jason Lewis, R-Minnesota, a Trump voter, said in an interview. “This is a longstanding limited-government principle.”</p>
<p>Trump fans who use medical marijuana are also concerned they could lose access to treatment. In rural Fryeburg, Maine, college student Zac Mercauto drives two hours roundtrip, he said, to buy marijuana to manage chronic pain and other health problems. He said he would hate to lose that ability to federal politics.</p>
<p>Mercauto is also one of thousands of Mainers who helped give Trump his sole New England electoral vote. Unlike most states, Maine splits its electoral votes by congressional district, and Trump won the vast 2nd District, home to both New England conservatism and a marijuana culture.</p>
<p>Mercauto, who had his <a href="https://www.conwaydailysun.com/news/conway-teen-meets-idol-trump/article_ffd98b2a-95a2-5bce-bdf0-632cc4d1e8f4.html" type="external">picture</a> taken with Trump in 2016, said he is still a big fan of the president. But he believes the anti-pot move is bad for his state’s economy and health.</p>
<p>“I believe it’s going to take a hit at medical marijuana and the industry as a whole here in Maine,” he said. “It’s disappointing to see him take that stab at the industry. And I guarantee you all the tax money the state of Maine from medical marijuana really helps people all around.”</p>
<p>PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Trump administration’s anti-marijuana move has some members of the president’s voting base fuming.</p>
<p>Fans of President Donald Trump who use marijuana say Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ move to tighten federal oversight of the drug is the first time they’ve felt let down by the man they helped elect. The move feels especially punitive to Trump voters who work in the growing industry around legalized marijuana that has taken root in states of all political stripes.</p>
<p>It remains to be seen whether Trump’s pot-loving voters will take their anger to the ballot box in 2018 and 2020. But pro-legalization conservatives are also chiding the administration’s anti-pot move as an affront to personal liberties and states’ rights.</p>
<p>“Trump needs to realize that a lot of his supporters are pro-cannabis and it would be extremely hurtful to them if he allowed Sessions to move forward with this,” said Damara Kelso, a Trump voter who runs Sugar Shack Farms, a marijuana grower in Eugene, Oregon. “It’s not lazy pothead stoners smoking weed all day in their parents’ basement.”</p>
<p>Sessions’ move allows federal prosecutors to decide what to do when state rules conflict with federal. It comes as legalization of marijuana is at an all-time high in popularity with Republicans.</p>
<p>A Gallup <a href="http://news.gallup.com/poll/221018/record-high-support-legalizing-marijuana.aspx" type="external">poll</a> from last year found 51 percent of Republicans expressed support for legalization of the drug. It was the first time a majority of GOP supporters supported the idea and represented a jump of 9 percentage points from the previous year. In the early 2000s, only about one in five Republicans agreed with legalization.</p>
<p>Legalization has also flourished at the state level. Maine, Nevada, Massachusetts and California all voted to make recreational marijuana use legal for adults in 2016. It is also legal in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Alaska and Washington, D.C. Alaska and Maine gave Trump electoral votes in 2016.</p>
<p>Marijuana legalization is typically most popular with the libertarian-leaning wing of the Republican Party. But any such Republicans who felt Trump would be a pro-marijuana president were misguided, said Jeffrey Miron, a Harvard University economist who studies the economics of libertarianism with a focus on illegal drugs.</p>
<p>Weed-loving Trump fans might be experiencing buyer’s remorse, but it’s too early to say whether that could make a difference at the polls, Miron said.</p>
<p>“Libertarians certainly knew when he appointed Jeff Sessions that there was a serious risk in an escalation of the war on drugs,” he said. “I think you get what you pay for.”</p>
<p>Still, some of Trump’s high-profile supporters are criticizing the move.</p>
<p>Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign adviser with whom the president has a long and rocky history, shared a video on Facebook on Jan. 7 urging Trump to support legalization and block Sessions’ move. And some Republicans in Congress have also slammed the decision.</p>
<p>“We have a Constitution to protect people from the federal government,” Republican Rep. Jason Lewis, R-Minnesota, a Trump voter, said in an interview. “This is a longstanding limited-government principle.”</p>
<p>Trump fans who use medical marijuana are also concerned they could lose access to treatment. In rural Fryeburg, Maine, college student Zac Mercauto drives two hours roundtrip, he said, to buy marijuana to manage chronic pain and other health problems. He said he would hate to lose that ability to federal politics.</p>
<p>Mercauto is also one of thousands of Mainers who helped give Trump his sole New England electoral vote. Unlike most states, Maine splits its electoral votes by congressional district, and Trump won the vast 2nd District, home to both New England conservatism and a marijuana culture.</p>
<p>Mercauto, who had his <a href="https://www.conwaydailysun.com/news/conway-teen-meets-idol-trump/article_ffd98b2a-95a2-5bce-bdf0-632cc4d1e8f4.html" type="external">picture</a> taken with Trump in 2016, said he is still a big fan of the president. But he believes the anti-pot move is bad for his state’s economy and health.</p>
<p>“I believe it’s going to take a hit at medical marijuana and the industry as a whole here in Maine,” he said. “It’s disappointing to see him take that stab at the industry. And I guarantee you all the tax money the state of Maine from medical marijuana really helps people all around.”</p> | Some fans of Trump and pot feel allegiances go up in smoke | false | https://apnews.com/1b6d1a65bf294f0c9e6df10e51d31440 | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>In a bid to end the scourge of criminals seeking political office, India plans a new law that will bar people accused of heinous crimes from competing in polls, <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Those-charged-with-grave-crimes-may-face-poll-bar/articleshow/9474792.cms" type="external">the Times of India reports</a>.</p>
<p>In recent years, the nexus between politicians and local criminals -- who deliver votes with "muscle and money power" -- has become more dramatic as alleged gangsters have taken to running for office themselves, making the parliament a veritable <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/03/06/the-house-in-ill-repute.html" type="external">house of ill repute</a>.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://adrindia.org/criminalization-of-politics.html" type="external">Association for Democratic Reforms</a>, the number of politicians implicated in criminal cases has steadily increased over the past several elections, despite new rules that compel candidates to declare any charges pending against them and make public their financial assets. &#160;</p>
<p>Around a quarter of India's current members of parliament have criminal charges pending against them.</p>
<p>If cleared by the cabinet, the new amendment to the Representation of The People Act will raise the bar for those wishing to run for office, however, the TOI said.</p>
<p>In its current form blocks only those convicted in criminal cases and sentenced for more than two years. But because Indian criminal cases typically drag on for decades because of long delays in judgments and&#160;disposal of appeals against convictions, the law has not been effective in stopping so-called "history sheeters" with a raft of criminal charges pending against them from campaigning and winning election to the parliament or various state assemblies.</p>
<p>Because some have expressed fears that making the law too tough would allow rival politicians to block their opponents from running by filing false cases against them -- which would take equally long to resolve -- the proposed amendment would only block those candidates accused of heinous crimes including&#160;terrorism, murder, kidnapping of any form, counterfeiting, sexual assaults against women, narcotics offenses and (most controversially) sedition.&#160;</p> | India plans law to bar accused criminals from politics | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-08-04/india-plans-law-bar-accused-criminals-politics | 2011-08-04 | 3 |
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<p />
<p>No injuries were reported in the blaze at the Richmond Yacht Basin, said Capt. Taylor Goodman of the Henrico Fire Department.</p>
<p>Fire officials estimate 12 to 15 boats were likely destroyed, Goodman said, along with part of a boat storage structure.</p>
<p>“The problem is, so much of the structure over the boats has collapsed down on it, it’s hard to tell” the extent of the damage, he said.</p>
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<p>The blaze was first reported about 7 a.m. by a neighbor who went to the scene and alerted people staying on their boats, Goodman said.</p>
<p>Mitch Romig, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was renting a houseboat at the marina for the night, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.</p>
<p>“We heard someone running around saying the marina was on fire. So we got up and got off the boat as quickly as we could,” he told the newspaper. “It was pretty big already (when we got off the boat). I don’t know how many boats on the end were all already … on fire — pretty big flames.”</p>
<p>Images from the area show a plume of smoke visible from several miles away.</p>
<p>Some of the vessels were floating downriver on fire late Friday morning. Five or six boats have sunk, marina President Max Walraven said.</p>
<p>A Henrico County fire boat was trapped by the burning dock and sustained “quite a bit of damage,” Goodman said.</p>
<p>It’s not yet clear what started the blaze.</p>
<p>Goodman said he expects firefighters to be at the scene the rest of the day Friday and possibly into Saturday.</p>
<p>The marina is in southeastern Henrico near the Chesterfield border, about 10 miles from downtown Richmond.</p> | Virginia marina fire destroys at least a dozen boats | false | https://abqjournal.com/905820/virginia-marina-fire-destroys-at-least-a-dozen-boats.html | 2016-12-09 | 2 |
<p>SYDNEY (AP) - Usman Khawaja's first century in more than a year guided Australia to 479-4 at stumps on day three, helping build a commanding 133-run first-innings lead in the fifth Ashes test.</p>
<p>Khawaja batted for nearly nine hours over two days in amassing his 171, just missing his highest test score of 175, and was well-supported by half centuries from Steve Smith and the Marsh brothers on Saturday as Australia pushed hard for victory and a 4-0 series win.</p>
<p>England had a torrid day - highlighted by having TV umpire reviews on Khawaja and both Shaun and Mitch Marsh all go Australia's way - and wilted late as the hosts accelerated their scoring.</p>
<p>"It was a tough day," England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow said. "We're 150 overs into the innings so there's going to be a few tired bodies out there.</p>
<p>"I thought the way the guys toiled out there and really worked hard was impressive and that's really good to see for us as a side going forward."</p>
<p>At the close, Shaun Marsh was unbeaten on 98, nearing his second hundred of the series, with his younger sibling Mitch on 63 not out. The brothers combined for an unbeaten 104-run partnership.</p>
<p>Resuming on 91 on Saturday, Khawaja calmly guided his way through the 90s to raise his century in the eighth over with a cut off Moeen Ali to backward point for his maiden Ashes century. It came off 222 balls with seven boundaries and a six.</p>
<p>A clearly relieved Khawaja celebrated by removing his helmet and raising his bat toward his teammates and family in the stands at the Sydney Cricket Ground, before being warmly embraced by Smith.</p>
<p>"You don't get to celebrate test centuries too much unless you're Steve Smith, you've got to enjoy them when they come," Khawaja said. "The SCG was where I grew up playing cricket for New South Wales and an Ashes century is something I have wanted for a long time and I haven't been able to achieve, so it was very satisfying."</p>
<p>It was a timely innings for the 31-year-old Khawaja, who hadn't scored a test hundred since his 145 against South Africa in Adelaide in November 2016, as questions around his spot in the team had begun to arise after only scoring two 50s in six innings this series.</p>
<p>Despite losing Smith after combining for a 188-run partnership that swung the game firmly in Australia's favor, Khawaja progressed to his 150 off 333 balls, with 16 fours and a six, with consecutive boundaries off Ali. His milestone drew warm appreciation from a near-capacity SCG cloaked in pink to support the McGrath Foundation breast cancer charity fundraiser, which is in its 10th year.</p>
<p>Khawaja's 381-ball, 515-minute innings, including 18 boundaries and a six, ended when he skipped down the wicket to Crane and was stumped by Bairstow.</p>
<p>After earlier having an lbw decision review on Khawaja turned down for overstepping, there was no denying the 20-year-old Crane this time, giving the England leg-spinner his maiden test wicket.</p>
<p>Mitch Marsh accelerated Australia's scoring late with some lusty hitting to reach his 50 off 64 balls with six boundaries and two sixes off Ali.</p>
<p>He survived a DRS review when given out lbw to Curran near the close of play, only for the referral to confirm the batsman had edged the ball before it hit his pad.</p>
<p>"Those guys have received a lot of (flack) over the last couple of years," Khawaja said. "To see them go out there and play really well, to play the way we know both of them can play, is really rewarding to see."</p>
<p>Steve Smith was out moments before the lunch interval, missing another century that would have matched Bradman's 1930 feat of scoring four hundreds in an Ashes series.</p>
<p>England faces the increasing likelihood of a large first-innings deficit, despite its strong rally on Friday morning by their lower order which lifted the tourists to a competitive 346.</p>
<p>Australia won the first three tests convincingly to regain the Ashes, and the fourth test was drawn last week in Melbourne.</p>
<p>SYDNEY (AP) - Usman Khawaja's first century in more than a year guided Australia to 479-4 at stumps on day three, helping build a commanding 133-run first-innings lead in the fifth Ashes test.</p>
<p>Khawaja batted for nearly nine hours over two days in amassing his 171, just missing his highest test score of 175, and was well-supported by half centuries from Steve Smith and the Marsh brothers on Saturday as Australia pushed hard for victory and a 4-0 series win.</p>
<p>England had a torrid day - highlighted by having TV umpire reviews on Khawaja and both Shaun and Mitch Marsh all go Australia's way - and wilted late as the hosts accelerated their scoring.</p>
<p>"It was a tough day," England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow said. "We're 150 overs into the innings so there's going to be a few tired bodies out there.</p>
<p>"I thought the way the guys toiled out there and really worked hard was impressive and that's really good to see for us as a side going forward."</p>
<p>At the close, Shaun Marsh was unbeaten on 98, nearing his second hundred of the series, with his younger sibling Mitch on 63 not out. The brothers combined for an unbeaten 104-run partnership.</p>
<p>Resuming on 91 on Saturday, Khawaja calmly guided his way through the 90s to raise his century in the eighth over with a cut off Moeen Ali to backward point for his maiden Ashes century. It came off 222 balls with seven boundaries and a six.</p>
<p>A clearly relieved Khawaja celebrated by removing his helmet and raising his bat toward his teammates and family in the stands at the Sydney Cricket Ground, before being warmly embraced by Smith.</p>
<p>"You don't get to celebrate test centuries too much unless you're Steve Smith, you've got to enjoy them when they come," Khawaja said. "The SCG was where I grew up playing cricket for New South Wales and an Ashes century is something I have wanted for a long time and I haven't been able to achieve, so it was very satisfying."</p>
<p>It was a timely innings for the 31-year-old Khawaja, who hadn't scored a test hundred since his 145 against South Africa in Adelaide in November 2016, as questions around his spot in the team had begun to arise after only scoring two 50s in six innings this series.</p>
<p>Despite losing Smith after combining for a 188-run partnership that swung the game firmly in Australia's favor, Khawaja progressed to his 150 off 333 balls, with 16 fours and a six, with consecutive boundaries off Ali. His milestone drew warm appreciation from a near-capacity SCG cloaked in pink to support the McGrath Foundation breast cancer charity fundraiser, which is in its 10th year.</p>
<p>Khawaja's 381-ball, 515-minute innings, including 18 boundaries and a six, ended when he skipped down the wicket to Crane and was stumped by Bairstow.</p>
<p>After earlier having an lbw decision review on Khawaja turned down for overstepping, there was no denying the 20-year-old Crane this time, giving the England leg-spinner his maiden test wicket.</p>
<p>Mitch Marsh accelerated Australia's scoring late with some lusty hitting to reach his 50 off 64 balls with six boundaries and two sixes off Ali.</p>
<p>He survived a DRS review when given out lbw to Curran near the close of play, only for the referral to confirm the batsman had edged the ball before it hit his pad.</p>
<p>"Those guys have received a lot of (flack) over the last couple of years," Khawaja said. "To see them go out there and play really well, to play the way we know both of them can play, is really rewarding to see."</p>
<p>Steve Smith was out moments before the lunch interval, missing another century that would have matched Bradman's 1930 feat of scoring four hundreds in an Ashes series.</p>
<p>England faces the increasing likelihood of a large first-innings deficit, despite its strong rally on Friday morning by their lower order which lifted the tourists to a competitive 346.</p>
<p>Australia won the first three tests convincingly to regain the Ashes, and the fourth test was drawn last week in Melbourne.</p> | Australia 479-4 at stumps on day 3; lead England by 133 runs | false | https://apnews.com/amp/8a598712e85d46eb93f22ce767a800ba | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
<p>HOLLYWOOD — Jim Jefferies doesn’t want his new Comedy Central late-night show to be all about <a href="" type="internal">Donald Trump</a>. But he can’t help warming up the crowd at Tuesday afternoon’s taping of The Jim Jefferies Show premiere with his best <a href="" type="internal">“grab ’em by the pussy”</a> material. More than being offensive, he tells the crowd that he just finds it confusing. He knows how you grab a boob. But a pussy? That’s more of an interior part of the female anatomy, right?</p>
<p>Jefferies is about to join a growing list of foreign-born late-night hosts that includes <a href="" type="internal">South Africa’s Trevor Noah</a>, <a href="" type="internal">England’s John Oliver</a> and <a href="" type="internal">James Corden</a>, and <a href="" type="internal">Canada’s Samantha Bee</a>. Born and raised in Australia, it makes sense that Jefferies has a harder edge than those comedians. He seems to have practically no interest in being liked.</p>
<p>When the show’s director encourages the audience to laugh at a taped piece, Jefferies adds, “But if you don’t find it funny, don’t fucking patronize me.”</p>
<p>“People trust a British accent,” he tells me, referring to Oliver’s show. “I don’t know if they trust an Australian one. We’ll soon find out.”</p>
<p>“I also think there is something to an outsider talking about things, because I didn’t grow up here,” he adds. “I’m not so entrenched as a Republican or Democrat. I didn’t grow up with these rules and this health care and these gun laws and all these different things. I’m just coming over and looking at it firsthand.”</p>
<p>He says he’s been able to identify the “absurdity” of American life through his stand-up, including last year’s widely praised Netflix special FreeDumb, which addressed the 2016 election directly, and he’s hoping the show will be able to do the same.</p>
<p>The often-cocky comic lets his nerves get the better of him while filming some promos, stumbling over his words. “You’ll find out over the course of today that I can’t read,” he jokes from behind his new desk.</p>
<p>But once the show gets going, he settles in fast, that signature confidence taking over as he leans back in his chair and casually delivers jokes about President Trump’s <a href="" type="internal">Twitter war with London’s Muslim mayor</a>. He says the president was right to criticize Sadiq Khan for telling Londoners not to be “alarmed.”</p>
<p>“Trump’s the leader of the free world,” he says. “There’s never a reason not to be alarmed!” Another segment, titled “This Fucking Guy,” examines <a href="" type="internal">Trump’s odd reverence for authoritarian leaders like Rodrigo Duterte</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Vladimir Putin</a>.</p>
<p>After the taping, Jefferies invites me back to his office. It’s the biggest one in the Los Angeles studio that was once used to tape The Cosby Show so he can only assume it’s Bill Cosby’s old office, a possibility he finds seriously unsettling. Some gifts have arrived on his coffee table, including what looks to be a very expensive bottle of tequila. “Every time something good happens to you, people give you gifts,” he says. “When something shit happens, everyone ignores you. You know what I mean? I don’t need gifts right now!”</p>
<p>Producing a topical show in the age of Trump has caused writers all kinds of problems. Last month, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee had to scrap a fully written piece on the Republican health-care bill at the last minute when Trump <a href="" type="internal">surprised the country by firing FBI Director James Comey</a>. How much do you let your agenda be driven by the latest news developments, let alone the president’s latest tweets?</p>
<p>It’s a balance that Jefferies and his team are trying to find. The first segment of the first show addresses the recent London attack and Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord. But subsequent segments, including a field piece from the Netherlands that examines that country’s bizarre blackface Christmas tradition and another broader discussion of police shootings, were put together back in December when Jefferies made a test pilot of the show. A surprise apocalyptic weather report from a very famous friend of Jefferies’ closes things out.</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>Among the upcoming far-flung field pieces is one in Melania Trump’s hometown in Slovenia. Jefferies traveled there after the election and went on a tour of the “sleepy little place” where the first lady grew up. “At the end of it, I liked her a lot more,” he says of the experience. “I got her. I think you can visit people’s hometowns and see where people are from and you get them. She’s a small-town girl from a fairly small country who is now the first lady of the world. It’s quite remarkable.”</p>
<p>So while there will be jokes about Trump’s third wife on The Jim Jefferies Show, don’t expect to hear him say anything about their son, Barron. When I ask if jokes about the president’s youngest child are “off-limits,” Jefferies replies, “I think they’re off-limits for about the next 10 years.” But when he finds out that Barron is 11 years old, he amends that statement. “I think we’ve got five more years then,” he says. “I think when he’s 16 we can go for it.”</p>
<p>Jefferies likes the idea of getting to do deep-dive pieces on a weekly basis as opposed to the types of quick reactions someone like Trevor Noah has to do fours nights a week. “Hats off to that guy, that’s a fucking grind doing that every day,” he says.</p>
<p>“Often I’ve been accused of being anti-American because I’ve said things about gun control or about health care,” Jefferies says. “I’ve said things about Trump. And I don’t believe I’m anti-American at all. That’s just the world I’m living in at the moment so that’s what I’m talking about.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think that America is worse than every other country,” he insists. “I think every country has little fucked up things about them. No place is a utopia. So if I hate America, then it turns out that I hate the world.” As for his home country, Jefferies adds, “Australia’s got fucking huge atrocities going on over there. It’s not just America, it’s not just Trump. There’s Brexit, these things are happening all over the world.”</p>
<p>“I love America, it’s my home, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else,” he says. “But you can go get fucked if you think I’m not going to take the piss out of it from time to time.”</p>
<p>Jefferies gained a lot of new fans—and lost some old ones—when he <a href="" type="internal">told Piers Morgan to “fuck off” for defending Trump’s Muslim ban</a> during an episode of Real Time With Bill Maher this past February. “A lot of people thought I got this show because of the Piers Morgan thing,” he says, but in fact they had already shot the pilot and Comedy Central had agreed to pick it up to series when that episode aired.</p>
<p>“But I will say right now, Piers Morgan is welcome to come on my show,” he adds. “We’ll go another round, man. I think we’re good competitors. He’s always looking for attention and maybe I’m the guy to give it to him.”</p>
<p>As someone who knows what it’s like to face criticism for the jokes he delivers, Jefferies was hesitant to condemn Maher <a href="" type="internal">for casually using the “n-word” during last week’s show</a>, but also acknowledged that it was a serious mistake.</p>
<p>“I think that Bill Maher made an error in judgment when he did that,” Jefferies says, his words becoming more deliberate. “And I think as soon as he said it, he knew he did. I always say you shouldn’t apologize for jokes, but what he did there was a racially insensitive thing to say.” He thinks Maher was right to apologize for being “racially insensitive,” but not for making a joke. “But it was a misplaced joke, yeah.”</p>
<p>Jefferies does not believe that Maher should have been fired by HBO, as <a href="" type="internal">some prominent black activists and artists suggested</a>, partly because he knows he could end up in a similar position some day. “I assume that if this show is successful, I’ll fuck up along the way somewhere else. So at the moment, I’m going to say no, he shouldn’t be fired.”</p>
<p>Unlike Real Time, Jefferies’ show does not air live. “Thank fuck for that,” he says, laughing.</p> | Jim Jefferies: Don’t Fire Bill Maher Because I Could Be Next | true | https://thedailybeast.com/jim-jeffries-dont-fire-bill-maher-because-i-could-be-next | 2018-10-07 | 4 |
<p>With the depression that followed World War I, Detroit became a beehive of radical activity. Splits occurred in the Socialist party, with some of the members flocking into the Communist party and others forming new groups, like the Proletarian University or the Marxian Club. Also making themselves heard in those days were the Socialist Labor party, the Industrial Workers of the World, the Anarchists, and free-lance radicals too individualistic to fit into any group. Some groups conducted forums of their own, like the Proletarian University, which was formed by Al Renner, John Keracher, and Dennis Batt. The Proletarian University also sponsored classes and published a magazine, copies of which can still be found in the University of Michigan Labor Archives. The Proletarian University developed factions and splits, and eventually Batt, Renner, and Keracher formed the Proletarian party. And now I want to say something about a gentle anarchist woman to whom I owe a lasting debt of gratitude. Miss Haug was a retired schoolteacher; I met her for the first time when she delivered a lecture on geology to a socialist audience.</p>
<p /> | From a Labor Journal | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/from-a-labor-journal | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening's drawing of the Wisconsin Lottery's "Megabucks" game were:</p>
<p>04-05-09-23-40-41</p>
<p>(four, five, nine, twenty-three, forty, forty-one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $1 million</p>
<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening's drawing of the Wisconsin Lottery's "Megabucks" game were:</p>
<p>04-05-09-23-40-41</p>
<p>(four, five, nine, twenty-three, forty, forty-one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $1 million</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Megabucks' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/ac897604bf834a56b08152b0db7cad60 | 2017-12-31 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>But for the 7-foot center from Los Alamos who played in his first NBA game Tuesday night in Portland, Ore., the moment was the fulfillment of a dream he was too long told would never come true.</p>
<p>Former Lobo Alex Kirk, left, guards Grizzlies forward Jon Leuer (30) during a Cavaliers’ preseason game last month in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill)</p>
<p />
<p>“At first when they said to go out there, I was shaking a little bit to be honest,” said Kirk, the former University of New Mexico Lobo who is now a rookie center for the Cleveland Cavaliers. “I was nervous, but Andy kind of stepped up to me and looked at me before I went out of the floor and just said to take advantage of the minutes and just play. Do what you do and don’t try to do anything different and just try to enjoy it. And I did. It was an amazing feeling walking onto that court.”</p>
<p>Ten seconds into his career he chalked up his first statistic: an assist to starting point guard Kyrie Irving. Later he drew a foul and calmly knocked down both of his free-throw attempts.</p>
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<p>The Cavaliers lost to the Portland Trail Blazers 101-82, but it was hard not to feel some euphoria for Kirk, the undrafted free agent who worked his way onto the opening night roster of a team assembled this past offseason with championship-or-bust aspirations thanks to having the likes of superstars Lebron James, Kevin Love and Irving, among others.</p>
<p>And how does a roster full of some of the world’s best players reward its rookie backup center for scoring his first points in the NBA?</p>
<p>KIRK: Played 1st NBA game Tuesday vs. Portland (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)</p>
<p />
<p>After flying to Salt Lake City late Tuesday after the game, he and fellow rookie Joe Harris from the University of Virginia were right back to their early morning duty of walking to the nearest Starbucks to make sure the veterans had their coffee to start the day.</p>
<p>“They’ve put me in my place,” Kirk said. “I’m the rookie. I know my role, but that’s never been an issue with me. If that’s going with Joe Harris and getting Starbucks in the morning, hey, that’s my role for the team right now. It’s just playing the rookie role and playing that right – doing all the little things that help the bigger picture.”</p>
<p>Truth is, Kirk said despite the star power he shares the Cavaliers locker room with, he’s never felt big-timed by his teammates or star-struck with his new co-workers. He says James, Irving and Love are great teammates on and off the court, and called Varejao “one of the best teammates I’ve ever had,” adding the 10-year veteran center has worked especially close with Kirk helping him develop.</p>
<p>And while Kirk isn’t suggesting he’s on par with those teammates, he said he genuinely believes he belongs on this team that the rest of the basketball world has under a microscope this season.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I think so,” Kirk said. “And I think if you ask any of these guys here, they see that I do, and I know I’m getting better. And you know, it’s crazy, but I have two points in the books. You can’t take that away from me. You can’t take that away from my career. It’s a huge achievement not only for me, but for everyone who helped me get here.”</p>
<p>It’s an achievement not many outside of his close circle always had much faith would happen.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>From the days of hearing critics rumbling about the 7-footer from Los Alamos High School having inflated statistics only because he was beating up on 6-foot-4 post players at schools like Española Valley, St. Michael’s and Taos; to the times at the University of New Mexico when he was told he’d never be able to replace Drew Gordon, especially after spending a year off the court rehabilitating from back surgery; to the weeks and months of criticism from his own fan base that followed his decision to leave the Lobos with a season of eligibility remaining, he knows there have always been doubters about his ability to reach basketball’s highest level.</p>
<p>None of it stopped him before, so he doesn’t plan on letting it stop him now.</p>
<p>“If my potential is only to be a third-string center in the NBA, I’m going to be the best third-string center I can be,” Kirk said. “But I believe I can be better than that, and that’s what I’ve been working to do and keep working to do. This is still the dream.”</p>
<p>LOBO LINKS: <a href="" type="internal">Geoff Grammer’s blog</a> | <a href="" type="internal">Schedule/Results</a> | <a href="" type="internal">Roster</a></p>
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<p /> | Kirk has silenced some doubters by living his NBA dream | false | https://abqjournal.com/493792/kirk-has-silenced-some-of-his-doubters-by-living-nba-dream.html | 2 |
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<p>But it won’t be in Santa Fe — or New Mexico.</p>
<p>Santa Fe’ s David Cohen and his partner George Castro of Mucho Gusto are exploring the creation of a chain of fast-casual Mexican restaurants.</p>
<p>Cohen owned and ran the popular Cerrillos Road grill for 17 years before selling it. He and Castro are seeking investors to launch a chain of taquerias or taco shops across the West. The pair are looking at money-rich Flagstaff and San Diego as launching pads.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“They’ll be kind of like Chipotle, but with our food, which is regional Mexican,” Cohen explained.</p>
<p>The owners have already nixed Santa Fe as a potential model site for a litany of reasons: Tourism is down, real estate is still too expensive, most locals prefer New Mexican food, and a liquor license can cost in excess of $300,000.</p>
<p>“It just doesn’t make sense to open a prototype in Santa Fe,” Cohen said.</p>
<p>The menu will concentrate on Mexican “peasant food” — tacos, burritos, tortas, chalupas, four fresh and four cooked salsas, stews, grilled and marinated dishes, soup and salad, he said. The concept is based on Cohen’s original plan for the Old Mexico Grill. “It started out as a taqueria and ended up as a full-blown restaurant.”</p>
<p>An enduring trend in the field, fast-casual encompasses eateries such as Chipotle, Boston Market, Panda Grill and Panera.</p>
<p>“It means an increased percentage of customers want something upscale, but are willing to add a little more time than a quick stop at a taco stand,” Cohen said. “It’s not fast food.”</p>
<p>The average tab will be $11.</p>
<p>The Old Mexico Grill, which closed in 2003, gained national attention through glowing reviews in the New York Times, Gourmet, Food &amp; Wine and Zagat’s.</p>
<p>“It was casual, but it was complex,” Cohen said. “The idea (with the new venture) is to keep it simple. We’re seeing if there are any people interested in getting involved.”</p>
<p>Cohen figures he’ll need a minimum of $875,000 for the first restaurant. He hopes to see construction start within four to six months. He says he has already gotten calls from three or four interested investors. He’s also meeting with large restaurant chains.</p> | Chain of Old Mexico Taquerias Planned | false | https://abqjournal.com/123799/chain-of-old-mexico-taquerias-planned.html | 2012-08-12 | 2 |
<p>Despegar CEO Damian Scokin on the company’s first day of trading as it debuts on the New York Stock Exchange.</p>
<p>Latin America’s leading online travel company Despegar.com (NYSE:DESP) went public on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>During an interview with FOX Business’ Ashley Webster of Varney &amp; Co., Despegar CEO Damian Scokin discussed how he plans to compete with big travel companies such as Priceline (NASDAQ:PCLN).</p>
<p>“We cater to the Latin American consumer through very tailored offering not only of specific destinations and packages, but also through payment methods that are very particular in each Latin American country,” he said.</p>
<p>Despegar.com, which offers airline tickets, packages and other travel-related products, raised $332 million by offering 12.8 million shares at $26. The stock opened at $29.00, hitting a high of $32.63 on its first day of trading.</p>
<p>According to Scokin, business is going well so far this year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"The first half of 2017 shows booking growing over 40%, revenues over 28% so the overall market is doing pretty good,” he said.</p> | Despegar.com goes public on NYSE, raises $332M | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/20/despegar-com-goes-public-on-nyse-raises-332m.html | 2017-09-20 | 0 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — Unemployment rates fell or were unchanged in all 50 U.S. states in November, evidence that hiring is improving across the country.</p>
<p>The Labor Department says employers added jobs in 43 states and cut jobs in just seven. California, Texas and Indiana reported the largest job gains.</p>
<p>Nationwide, hiring has been robust for the past four months. Employers added an average of 204,000 jobs from August through November, a strong pickup from early this year.</p>
<p>The national unemployment rate fell to 7 percent last month, a five-year low.</p>
<p>Still, the decline in state unemployment rates has occurred partly because many people have stopped looking for work. When people who are out of work stop looking for jobs, they’re no longer counted as unemployed. The unemployment rate can fall as a result.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Unemployment rates fall in nearly all US states | false | https://abqjournal.com/324122/unemployment-rates-fall-in-nearly-all-us-states.html | 2 |
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<p>During the crazy 2016 presidential election, scores of Hillary-backers from the across the nation and <a href="" type="internal">numerous Hollywood elites</a> vowed to pack up and leave the United States if Republican Donald Trump became President-elect Donald Trump on November 8. Well, that day has come, and they are still not gone.</p>
<p>One local traffic reporter, making note of such unfulfilled promises, decided to respond by helpfully giving directions to Canada, since this is precisely where many promised to move to—oddly enough, they didn't vow to move to Mexico or Iran (racism?).</p>
<p>"I know a lot of people said that if their candidate lost the election, they’d be moving to Canada," said the Tulsa reporter. "Not sure why, but that was some of the folks’ promises out there. So, let me give you the quickest and most direct route to Canada from Tulsa."</p>
<p>While he gave directions, his fellow employees began laughing.</p>
<p>"They’re laughing at me," he says. "This is serious stuff!"</p>
<p>"Now, when you get to Canada, you're gonna hit the border here; make sure you have either your card or your passport to get into Canada now," he continues.</p>
<p>"So, that’s your route to Canada!" he concludes, fully satisfied with himself.</p>
<p>Savage.</p>
<p>Of course, none of these people will actually leave. Instead, some will riot, others will cry uncontrollable tears on their social media accounts, and the rest will call other Americans racists and sexists for voting against the most corrupt presidential candidate in history. But again, none will actually move.</p>
<p>To view a list of celebrities who have vowed to leave the country after a Trump win, yet still haven't, <a href="" type="internal">click here</a>. To sign and share a petition encouraging these fine folks to fulfill their promises and actually leave America, <a href="https://www.change.org/p/amanda-prestigiacomo-now-that-trump-won-let-s-encourage-celebs-to-fulfill-their-promise-to-leave-the-u-s" type="external">click here</a>.</p> | WATCH: Traffic Reporter's Savage Message to Those Who Threatened to Leave U.S. If Trump Won | true | https://dailywire.com/news/10750/lol-watch-traffic-reporters-savage-message-those-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2016-11-14 | 0 |
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<p />
<p>That chilling phrase is familiar from countless movies and TV shows set in Nazi Germany or the occupied <a href="" type="internal" />lands during World War II. Or in Soviet Russia and the satellite states during the Cold War.</p>
<p>Or in fine New Mexico restaurants whenever a middle-aged person orders wine with dinner. Although, to be fair, our servers generally rephrase it along the lines of: "I just need to see your ID."</p>
<p>We New Mexicans love to brag about how unique our state is. But when we boast about our many distinctions, we tend to omit this one: New Mexico is the only state in the nation where people are routinely carded into their 40s and beyond. People with kids in college aren't regularly required to prove their adulthood anywhere else.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In 2006, my wife helped organize a weeklong summer master class at UNM taught by Trevor Wye, one of the biggest of bigwigs in the flute world, an Englishman whose books of flute pedagogy have sold in the millions. His Albuquerque class attracted top-level students from around the country.</p>
<p>One summer evening, he and a dozen students went to eat at one of Albuquerque's better-known Nob Hill restaurants. Wye, born in 1935, ordered a cool refreshing beer. The server snapped, "Papers, please!" Or the equivalent.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Wye hadn't realized he needed to bring his passport to dinner. The manager was called over, but proved as firm as any border guard in a peaked cap. The restaurant would happily serve alcohol to students half a century younger than their teacher but, without his passport, the teacher would have to make do with ice water.</p>
<p>For a state whose economy depends so heavily on the hospitality industry, we are remarkably inhospitable to our middle-aged visitors. With regard to customers who are obviously older than 21, the carding ritual is as ridiculous as it is unfriendly.</p>
<p>But that's not the only reason it's so annoying. In your twenties, getting carded can be viewed as a rite of passage. Up until about age 35, you can pretend it's a kind of flattery. But after that, the ritual forces you to think about the absurdity of anyone thinking you're still young. Gee, thanks.</p>
<p>This past year, I tried to buy a bottle of wine at a grocery store. The checker demanded that I take my license out of my wallet's clear plastic sleeve so she could closely examine the expiration date. Her concern, apparently, was that the moment my license expired, I would revert back to my teens.</p>
<p>As I complied, I felt like I was falling for a practical joke. She couldn't be serious, could she? Apparently so, even though it's been decades since anyone mistook me for a young person. As she handed back my license, I couldn't stop myself from reflecting that, just as the glaring fluorescent light enabled me to see every imperfection in her face, she couldn't possibly fail to notice the innumerable signs in my own face that I was much older than twice 21. And - would you believe it? - this train of thought had a dampening effect on my mood.</p>
<p>Which, presumably, is not something the store is eager for its checkers to induce in customers. "Come in for the fresh organic produce, stick around for the dismal reminder of your rapid decline!"</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Other states control liquor sales to minors without requiring waiters and checkers to annoy and depress their customers. What makes New Mexico different?</p>
<p>Our Legislature, as you might have guessed. The Annoy and Depress Customers Act of 1981 was last revised in 1985. It's currently codified as section 60-7B-5. It actually commands that licensees "shall refuse to sell or serve alcoholic beverages to any person who is unable to produce an identity card as evidence that he is twenty-one years of age or older."</p>
<p>New Mexico has an entire web of statutes and regulations providing fearsome penalties for selling to underage customers. Those statutes and regulations give business owners and servers every incentive to check the IDs of young-looking people. But 60-7B-5 isn't one of them. It doesn't prohibit underage sales. It prohibits uncarded sales. Peculiarly, however, the statute has no enforcement provision. There is no prescribed penalty for "failing" to demand an ID from a customer older than 21.</p>
<p>Giving the Legislature the benefit of the doubt, perhaps it meant the statute to apply only when the customer reasonably appears to be younger than 21. Maybe through absent-mindedness, it forgot to include those qualifying words when it drafted the statute. If so, it's not too late to go back and put them in.</p>
<p>As it is, the statute serves no purpose. Demanding IDs of 71-year-old visiting Englishmen does nothing to curtail underage drinking. Nor does it address any other social ill, unless "forming pleasant memories of the Land of Enchantment" is counted among them.</p>
<p>The current law is a pain for customers, especially visitors from out of state who aren't used to ritual harassment at the beginning of restaurant meals. But it isn't good for businesses, either. It requires employees to waste time on a pointless task while generating ill will among customers. Lost sales extend beyond the refused glass of beer. It can mean the loss of repeat patronage. I've never bought another bottle of wine from that grocery store, for instance. Who needs the hassle?</p>
<p>Which is a question we should all be asking every time another middle-aged or elderly customer is required to flash a driver's license or passport to convince another server that, yes, damn you, I'm even older than your parents. Now get me that beer.</p>
<p>Joel Jacobsen is an author and has recently retired from a 29-year legal career If there are topics you would like to see covered in future columns, please write him at <a href="mailto:href=" type="external">legal.column.tip</a>[email protected]?&gt;href=?http://legal.column.tip?&gt;[email protected]</p>
<p />
<p /> | ID-for-liquor law taken to extremes | false | https://abqjournal.com/683122/idforliquor-law-taken-to-extremes.html | 2 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told lawmakers on Wednesday that they should vote to increase the government’s borrowing authority — and avert a disastrous economic default — before their August recess.</p>
<p>Within hours, the conservative House Freedom Caucus said it would oppose such a vote unless certain conditions are met.</p>
<p>The timeline is earlier than previous estimates. It had been expected that Congress wouldn’t have to act on the politically painful measure until sometime this fall, but tax revenues are coming in lower than previously estimated.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Mnuchin also urged the House Ways and Means Committee to pass the debt limit legislation as a bill without controversial additions, such as spending cuts sought by conservatives, that could complicate its approval.</p>
<p>“We can all discuss how we cut spending in the future and how we deal with the budget going forward but it is absolutely critical … that we keep the credit of the United States as the most critical issue,” Mnuchin said.</p>
<p>Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, have promised to support a debt limit increase provided it’s not weighed down by GOP policy changes. But such a vote is sure to be painful for conservative Republicans who opposed hiking the debt limit, presently set at almost $20 trillion.</p>
<p>In a statement, the Freedom Caucus said it would oppose a “clean raising of the debt ceiling,” and “we demand that any increase of the debt ceiling be paired with policy that addresses Washington’s unsustainable spending by cutting where necessary, capping where able, and working to balance in the near future.”</p>
<p>The Freedom Caucus counts several dozen conservatives who wield considerable clout in the House.</p>
<p>White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told a separate House panel that the reason for the new deadline is that “receipts currently are coming a little bit slower than expected.”</p>
<p>Mnuchin said in a letter to lawmakers in March that that he has started employing bookkeeping measures to avoid breaching the debt limit.</p>
<p>Those maneuvers, set out in law, are deemed “extraordinary measures,” but in reality they have been employed numerous times by Mnuchin’s predecessors to buy time until Congress could pass the legislation needed to raise the borrowing limit.</p>
<p>The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bookkeeping maneuvers Mnuchin can use will be exhausted by sometime in the fall.</p>
<p>Mnuchin has urged lawmakers to move quickly to remove investor doubt about any potential default. Lawmakers had been expected to wait until September or later to act.</p> | Treasury chief to Congress: Raise debt limit before August | false | https://abqjournal.com/1008099/treasury-chief-to-congress-raise-debt-limit-before-august.html | 2017-05-24 | 2 |
<p>WASHINGTON — Let’s take a brief respite from politics to consider the elasticity of human potential:</p>
<p>On April 2, 2002, the Los Angeles Dodgers played a home game against the San Francisco Giants. In the top of the second inning, with two men on base, Dodgers ace Kevin Brown had to face slugger Barry Bonds. Brown blew his first pitch past the game’s best hitter for a called strike. Bonds slammed Brown’s second pitch over the left-center-field fence — his first home run of the year, and number 568 in his storied career.</p>
<p>It is now assumed, of course, that Bonds may well have been juiced on steroids at the time; the previous year he had set the all-time single-season record of 73 home runs, and his musculature was almost freakishly swollen. But even the baseball fundamentalists who want to excise all of Bonds’ suspect home runs from the hallowed record books should make an exception for number 568, right? Because we now have an allegation that Brown was juiced, too — on human growth hormone and maybe steroids as well.</p>
<p>If both pitcher and batter are artificially enhanced, doesn’t that level the playing field?</p>
<p />
<p>Brown is one of more than 90 major league players mentioned in former Sen. George Mitchell’s voluminous report on the problem of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in the sport once considered our national pastime.</p>
<p>According to the report, Kirk Radomski — a former New York Mets batboy, equipment manager and hanger-on who became a kind of Dr. Feelgood to the stars — says he routinely shipped quantities of growth hormone to Brown via overnight mail. He claims that Brown, who declined to be interviewed by Mitchell, shipped back wads of cash as payment. A receipt from one of Radomski’s shipments to Brown is reproduced in the report as evidence. Radomski also says that on one occasion he sold Brown a quantity of Deca-Durabolin, which is an anabolic steroid.</p>
<p>Last summer, as Bonds closed in on the all-time home run record and baseball purists were all but calling for him to be hauled away and waterboarded, I wrote that in terms of steroid use, Bonds was “simply a man of his age.”</p>
<p>That was an understatement, it turns out.</p>
<p>Steroid abusers in baseball “range from players whose major league careers were brief to potential members of the Baseball Hall of Fame,” Mitchell reported. He said he could not establish how many players used performance-enhancing substances, but he quotes estimates by former players that range from 20 percent to “at least half.” And among the players specifically named are not just sluggers such as Bonds or Jose Canseco, but also 31 pitchers — including the best pitcher of our time, Roger Clemens, who denies the allegation.</p>
<p>Let me be clear: People shouldn’t abuse steroids or growth hormones in an effort to improve their athletic performance. These substances are bad for you. They are especially dangerous for kids who seek to emulate their athletic heroes by bulking up to Schwarzeneggerian proportions. Steroids don’t make great athletes out of non-athletes; there’s no pill or injection that will give you the ability to pick up the rotation of the ball as it leaves the pitcher’s hand and discern whether it’s a fastball or a slider.</p>
<p>Eye surgery might, though. To switch sports for a moment, golfer Tiger Woods — who added muscle the old-fashioned way, in the weight room, and who still has a neck to prove it — had laser surgery that not only remedied his nearsightedness but actually gave him better than 20-20 vision.</p>
<p>Have any major leaguers with normal vision gone under the laser in an attempt to gain an edge? Wouldn’t submitting healthy eyes to a performance-enhancing operation be just as problematic as taking steroids or growth hormones?</p>
<p>To switch sports again, as the college and professional football seasons wrap up with bowl games and playoffs, note the size of the linemen. Anything under 300 pounds is considered “small.” Of course, it’s not really healthy to carry around that much weight — and players pay the price when their football careers are over. Yet you can now see 300-pound linemen playing for elite high school programs.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, there are improved tests for detecting steroids but not for human growth hormone, which increases muscle mass. Does anyone imagine that there is no professional athlete still using the stuff?</p>
<p>My point is that we, the paying customers, don’t want normal-size athletes with normal abilities. We want to see supermen and superwomen performing super feats, and we’re willing to pay these gladiators a fortune. Why should they disappoint us? Why should we expect them to?</p>
<p>Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com.</p>
<p>© 2007, Washington Post Writers Group</p> | Take Me Out to the BALCO | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/take-me-out-to-the-balco/ | 2007-12-18 | 4 |
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<p>SB 334, sponsored by Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, would replace the existing method of calculating unemployment insurance premiums with one based on the type of business the company is in, its own experience and a factor to raise or lower premiums to keep the UI fund solvent. That’s according to Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce CEO Terri Cole.</p>
<p>“The bill will provide consistency and certainty to the business community, both of which have been missing in the schedule-setting process in the past,” Cole said.</p>
<p>A Legislative Finance Committee analysis estimates the new approach would raise an average employer’s premium 0.21 percent over the premium schedule in place today. However, if the current law remains in place premiums are expected to increase a total of $141.9 million in 2013 to about $448 million, compared to premiums estimated to be $302.2 million under the SB 344 approach.</p>
<p>UI rates today are based on an employer’s experience and on the ratio between the balance in the unemployment insurance fund and covered wages at the end of the previous calendar year.</p>
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<p>LFC analysts said the approach produces unfair premiums and does not allow the premiums to adjust quickly in response to the fund’s balance.</p>
<p>SB 344 also charges an additional premium on businesses with “excessive claims” in an attempt to encourage employers to prevent benefits from going to workers who do not qualify.</p>
<p>Legislative battles over premiums have become an annual event. The existing approach was thrown “into a political arena in Santa Fe every year,” Cole said. “This bill takes all that drama out and replaces it with a sensible approach based on the solvency of the fund.” Jobless funding overhaul passesGovernor expected to approve reform</p>
<p>LEGISLATURE 2013 — This article appeared on page B01 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Jobless funding overhaul passes | false | https://abqjournal.com/178543/jobless-funding-overhaul-passes.html | 2013-03-15 | 2 |
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<p>Source: Annaly.com.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Annaly Capital Management <a href="http://www.annaly.com/investors/news/2016/02-24-2016-210737584.aspx" type="external">reported fourth-quarter earnings</a> on Wednesday. The top- and bottom-line earnings looked fine, but if you read between the lines, there are a few key stats and metrics that give greater insight into how Annaly is doing, along with its strategy for the future. Let's take a look.</p>
<p>Managing interest rates One of Annaly's top priorities is to manage interest rates. This priority has become even more relevant recently as the Federal Reserve began increasing short-term interest rates this past December.</p>
<p>Annaly makes short-term borrowings to fund its investments. So when the Fed increases rates, it also increases Annaly's cost of funds. To protect itself, Annaly uses things such as interest-rate swaps. These hedging tools allow Annaly to trade the floating interest rate on its debt for fixed rates and lock in its borrowing costs. The catch is that interest-rate swaps can get pricey.</p>
<p>For instance, instead of paying a floating rate of 0.90%, Annaly has entered into contracts to lock in a portion its borrowings at an average fixed rate of 2.26%. This is a miserable trade-off unless Annaly believes rates will rise, and looking at Annaly's "hedge ratio" -- or the percentage of borrowings that have been swapped for fixed rates -- is a good indication of how worried Annaly is about rising rates.</p>
<p>Annaly's peers, such as American Capital Agency and Two Harbors , believe that rates will stay low. In fact, Two Harbors CEO Tom Siering stated during the company's fourth-quarter call that "lower for longer seems like the most likely scenario." As of the fourth quarter, Annaly's hedge ratio was 57%. That figure is down considerably from 92% in December 2013, but it's also up from 48% in December 2014. This figure suggests that Annaly is more cautious than a year ago but more or less on the same page as its peers, in that rates will rise more slowly.</p>
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<p>Net interest rate spread The decision to use, or not use, hedges is important for protecting against rising rates, but it also has an impact on Annaly's borrowing costs, which can influence profitability.</p>
<p>The net interest rate spread is like a profit margin for mortgage REITs. The metric measures the difference between what it costs Annaly to borrow and the yield on its assets. This metric is useful because a narrowing of Annaly's spread has historically correlated with a decline in its dividend.</p>
<p>The good news is that Annaly reported a spread of 1.47%, which is a significant improvement over 0.83% in the previous quarter. The Fed's increase in rates pushed Annaly's cost of funds up slightly, but that increase was offset by higher yields on its investments. This figure matches American Capital Agency's spread of 1.47%, but it's lower than Two Harbors' spread of 3.26%.</p>
<p>Credit investments Two Harbors' dramatically larger spread is a product of its investments in higher-risk assets -- and Annaly is shifting in that direction. In fact, the improvement to Annaly's spread is partially a product growing its credit investments.</p>
<p>Like American Capital Agency, Annaly has historically focused exclusively on agency residential mortgage-backed securities, or agency MBSes. These are pools of mortgages packaged into fixed-income securities and stamped with a guarantee against default by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However, over the past couple of years, Annaly has expanded its investments into non-agency MBSes -- pools of residential mortgages packaged into securities by private companies -- as well as commercial debt and equity. These investments have a higher yield, which can easily double the 3% yield on 30-year agency MBSes, but they also carry the risk of default.</p>
<p>As of the fourth quarter, credit investments represent 23% of Annaly's equity, or about 9% of assets, compared with 11% of equity and 2% of assets at the end of 2014. For comparison, 45% of Two Harbors' assets are in credit investments. However, this trend will be interesting to watch, as Annaly has explicitly stated in past annual reports that investments other than agency MBSes will not exceed 25% of shareholders' equity. But, then again, rules were made to be broken, and I see no sign that Annaly is slowing down the growth of its credit investments.</p>
<p>Managing interest rates and profitability is important, but the move into credit investments has the more significant long-term implications. I appreciate the new strategy, and I like the opportunity it creates. But this is a company that has historically focused on one very safe asset class, and now it owns retail properties, apartment buildings, subprime mortgages -- which you may remember as the low-quality mortgages that became infamous during the financial crisis in 2008 -- and billions of dollars' worth of commercial debt.</p>
<p>Annaly is becoming a very different business, and I'm curious to see how far it's willing to go in this new direction.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-income/2016/03/06/3-key-takeaways-from-annaly-capital-management-inc.aspx" type="external">3 Key Takeaways From Annaly Capital Management Inc.'s Q4 Earnings</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/PeoplesInvestor/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Dave Koppenheffer</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | 3 Key Takeaways From Annaly Capital Management Inc.'s Q4 Earnings | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/06/3-key-takeaways-from-annaly-capital-management-inc-q4-earnings.html | 2016-03-28 | 0 |
<p>China reportedly executed a truck driver for running over a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/25/china-truck-driver-executed-mongolian-herder?CMP=twt_fd" type="external">Mongolian herder</a> who had been protesting noise and pollution from coal trucks. The case had led to the biggest protests in Inner Mongolia in 20 years.</p>
<p>Mergen, the herder, had joined a group of Mongols to protest the trucks, which drive across the grasslands. He and his friends had attempted to prevent the truckers from driving through the area. Police said Li Lindong, the trucker, ran over Mergen on May 10 and then dragged his body for 145 meters before he died, the Associated Press reports.</p>
<p>Li was a Han Chinese, which make up over 90 percent of the country's population.</p>
<p>( <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-rice-bowl/mongolia-uighurs-tibetans-chinese-rule-protests" type="external">Earlier from GlobalPost: In Mongolia, thousands catch the protest bug</a>)</p>
<p>China's official Xinhua news agency reported that the trucker was executed August 18.</p>
<p>"His death and that of another Mongol in a clash with Chinese coal miners sparked protests across the sprawling northern pastureland by herders and students demanding justice and greater protection for Mongol culture and the nomadic herding lifestyle," AP states.</p>
<p>The Telegraph reports that the swiftness with which how the case was handled and the severity of the punishment reflects that <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8567219/Chinese-truck-driver-to-be-executed-for-death-of-Mongolian-herder.html" type="external">China</a> wanted to ease the public anger over the death. It also shows that China is fearful of the power its ethnic minorities could have if they used it against the communist party.</p>
<p>Li was sentenced in June. His co-driver was sentenced to life-imprisonment, and two other truckers who helped him escape were given three years in prison.</p> | China executes trucker for running over Mongolian herder | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-08-25/china-executes-trucker-running-over-mongolian-herder | 2011-08-25 | 3 |
<p>Hollande and one war per year</p>
<p>If there is an area where the French President seems effective, it is in the unprecedented level, in recent history, of France's military intervention.</p>
<p>Mali was first, then the Central African Republic, and now France has involved itself in Iraq, together with the United States, and it is getting ready from now on for a possible intervention in Libya. An entire record of military interventions in the recent history of the fifth-strongest imperialist power internationally. Although without a result for the moment, Hollande is seeking to reverse the bad economic situation and his enormous domestic weakness, by appearing as a tough guy in foreign policy.</p>
<p>France's role in Iraq</p>
<p>Paris' leadership in this affair has been increasing. Last Friday, Hollande was the first Head of State to meet with the new Iraqi government. Meanwhile, from now on French soldiers are already partners in the planning of the aerial operations in Iraq at the headquarters of the US general staff of Centcom [US Central Command] in Tampa (Florida).</p>
<p>Why is France in the foreground, if at a military level the United States would not need the French Air Force in order to do its job? The answer is a mutual political benefit to both sides of the Atlantic. From the US side, Obama is interested in showing that the US is not the only one that is behind the Jihadists, but that a huge international coalition is backing it.</p>
<p>In the absence of military involvement, a vast coalition of countries is seeking to give political support to this dangerous new US intervention. This is the function of the Summit jointly presided over by Iraq and France, carried out today in the French capital, together with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and some 39 countries from the West and Middle East, that are participating in some manner in the coalition that the US is assembling.</p>
<p>From the French side, Paris, for its part, is managing to accept the illusion of appearing, in a not very costly way, in a theater of operations where, for some time, it has not played an important role. Hollande's trip, the Paris Conference, some bombs dropped well against the Jihadists in the days to come, after the delivery of 12.7 mm machine guns and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Kurds, everything recorded well by the cameras.</p>
<p>In turn, the Iraqi crisis is one of the few questions that, on a domestic level, wins a consensus among the French political class. Sarkozy's former Defense Minister and now a member of the centrist party (UDI), Herv?? Morin, defends France's role in this conflict. Recently, former Prime Minister Fran??ois Fillon and Pierre Lellouche (both from the right-wing party UMP) traveled to Iraq, to support the Christians of the East, a popular cause in public opinion. Even Marine Le Pen's international advisor, Aymeric Chauprade, approves of the US attacks and French backing.</p>
<p>In the near future, Libya</p>
<p>But the reality is that the real war that interests Paris is in front of the Mediterranean coasts. Some days ago, the French Defense Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, asked for intervention directed by France in Libya, saying that Libya was becoming a "center for terrorist groups."</p>
<p>In Libya, French hypocrisy does not lag behind that of the US in Iraq. Three years ago, France and England, with logistic support from the United States, bombed Libya, while assembling a coalition of Islamist militias linked to Al Qaeda and tribal forces, to destroy the Libyan state and assassinate its leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Now, they are cynically using the chaos they unleashed in Libya as a reason to invade the country again, allegedly to fight against the same Islamist forces that they supported in 2011.</p>
<p>It is for that reason that it would be necessary, once and for all, to eradicate from the face of the earth the primary source of all these disasters: imperialist world domination. Let that action be presented as something humanitarian and as assistance to the Arab revolutions, as was the case in Libya; the only rescue for the refugees pursued and murdered by the Jihadists is now, in Iraq, to stop the chaos, as is the case in Libya; these military interventions worsen the supposed evils that they try to solve, by increasing the number of countries that have been destroyed, as land devastated after the action of the imperialist powers.</p>
<p>The disastrous state in which the countries that have been invaded remain for years is one more sign of the decline of US imperialism, that French imperialism follows in its support beyond its own limited economic means, that cannot guarantee the most minimal stability of anything they touch.</p> | France: Hollande and one war per year | true | https://leftvoice.org/France-Hollande-and-one-war-per-year | 2014-09-18 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Apparently, Hawaiian Holdings is tired of leaving lots of first class seats unsold. Last week, the company announced that it will auction off first class upgrades on its mainland-Hawaii routes to main cabin customers.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Hawaiian Airlines will auction off unsold first class seats. Image source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hawaiian_Airlines_A330.jpg" type="external">Wikimedia Commons Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>U.S. airlines, led by Delta Air Lines , are increasingly trying to boost revenue through better customer segmentation. In other words, they offer cheap tickets to entice price-sensitive travelers while encouraging customers to spend more for an upgraded experience. Hawaiian's new auction system fits into this trend and could represent a valuable ancillary revenue opportunity.</p>
<p>Round-trip coach fares for Hawaiian Airlines' flights from the West Coast to Hawaii are typically $400 to $500 or more. First class fares are usually more than twice as expensive. That price gap means that Hawaiian Airlines sometimes can't sell all of its first-class seats, even when overall demand is strong.</p>
<p>Hawaiian Airlines' new "Bid Up" service will allow customers who buy coach tickets to bid on upgrades to first class. This new initiative will be managed by a company called Plusgrade that specializes in helping airlines maximize ancillary revenue.</p>
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<p>Customers on eligible flights will receive an email roughly 10 days before their flight, offering them the opportunity to bid on a first class upgrade. The winners will be notified 48 hours before the flight takes off.</p>
<p>The average amount that Hawaiian Airlines will get from auctioning off first class seats will surely be lower than the first class fares published on its website. (Customers who are willing to pay that much would just buy first class tickets in the first place!) However, since the upgrade bidding process won't start until 10 days before departure, Hawaiian will only be auctioning off seats that it is unlikely to sell. From the company's perspective, it's essentially free money.</p>
<p>Hawaiian Airlines isn't the only company trying to squeeze more money out of its first class seats. Delta Air Lines has similar ambitions.</p>
<p>In 2013, Delta had a 45% paid load factor for its domestic first class seats. The rest of the seats were filled by customers getting free upgrades. By 2015, Delta had increased its domestic first class paid load factor to 57%. The company's goal is to improve that to 70% by 2018.</p>
<p>Instituting an auction system would allow Delta Air Lines to fill its first-class seats with paid upgrades even if there wasn't enough demand for regular first-class fares. However, this wouldn't necessarily be a good idea.</p>
<p>The problem is that network carriers like Delta have traditionally used their unsold first-class seats to provide complimentary upgrades to frequent fliers with elite status. Frequent fliers who may spend tens of thousands of dollars a year on Delta flights wouldn't like to see the airline auctioning off first-class seats at a discount rather than offering them as upgrades.</p>
<p>In fact, Hawaiian Airlines is somewhat unique in that it almost exclusively carries leisure traffic on its mainland-Hawaii routes. As a result, it doesn't have the same base of frequent business travelers that need to be pampered with complimentary first-class upgrades.</p>
<p>By contrast, business-oriented airlines need to weigh the short-term opportunity of squeezing some incremental revenue out of their first-class sections against the risk of alienating their most valuable customers. Thus, while first-class auctions represent an enticing ancillary revenue opportunity for Hawaiian Airlines, auction systems aren't likely to be widely adopted by other U.S. airlines.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/20/first-class-seats-go-on-the-auction-block-at-hawai.aspx" type="external">First Class Seats Go on the Auction Block at Hawaiian Airlines Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGemHunter/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Adam Levine-Weinberg Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Hawaiian Holdings and is long January 2017 $40 calls on Delta Air Lines and short October 2016 $50 calls on Hawaiian Holdings. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | First Class Seats Go on the Auction Block at Hawaiian Airlines | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/20/first-class-seats-go-on-auction-block-at-hawaiian-airlines.html | 2016-06-20 | 0 |
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