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<p>Japan has maintained its hold for a second month on the No. 1 spot atop China among foreign owners of U.S. Treasury securities.</p>
<p>The Treasury Department reported Wednesday that total foreign holdings dropped 1.6 percent to $5.94 trillion in November following a 1.9 percent decline in October.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Both Japan and China cut their portfolios in November but China's reductions were larger.</p>
<p>Japan's holdings declined 2.1 percent to $1.11 trillion, while China's holdings fell 6 percent to $1.05 trillion. October and November marked the first time that Japan has been in first place since February 2015, with China its usual No. 1 spot after that.</p>
<p>Ireland was in third place with holdings of $275.2 billion, up 1 percent from the previous month.</p> | Japan retains top spot in terms of US Treasury holdings | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/18/japan-retains-top-spot-in-terms-us-treasury-holdings.html | 2017-01-18 | 0 |
<p>Apple will show off its newest products Sept. 9. The iPhone and iPad maker set the date in invitations mailed Thursday to reporters and others who typically come to see the unveiling of Apple's latest twists on technology.</p>
<p>These events have become an annual rite since the 2007 release of the iPhone. This year's gathering may be the most anticipated since Apple Inc. took the wraps off the iPad in 2010.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>True to its secretive nature, Apple isn't giving any clues about what's on the Sept. 9 agenda.</p>
<p>The Cupertino, California, company is widely expected to release an iPhone with a larger screen than the 4-inch display on the previous two generations of the device. Apple's first smartwatch also is a possibility.</p> | Apple Expected to Unveil iPhone with Bigger Screen, Possible Smartwatch at Sept. 9 Event | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/08/28/apple-expected-to-unveil-iphone-with-bigger-screen-possible-smartwatch-at-sept.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The Mexico drug war has embroiled that country in internal conflict punctuated by hyper-violence, corruption and impunity. The battle for primacy among drug cartels for control of the&#160;plazas&#160;(lucrative transshipment nodes and routes) has resulted in a seemingly never-ending barrage of violence. Beheadings, dismemberment, massacres, and mass graves (narcofosas) punctuate the state of insecurity. While media outlets continue to report 50,000 killed, the numbers are much higher. Perhaps&#160; <a href="http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2012-07-26/news/mexico-s-unknown-drug-war-death-toll/" type="external">99,667 persons</a> have been killed&#160;in the drug war. An additional 24,000 persons are reported missing or disappeared. Many victims are&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/mexico-violence_n_1695788.html" type="external">never identified</a>. Accurate numbers are hard to come by.</p>
<p>As a result of the narco-violence&#160; <a href="http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexican-cartel-strategic-note-no-8" type="external">refugees and internally displaced persons</a>&#160;are also reported in contested areas with some estimates suggesting as many as 230,000 persons have fled the cartels’ ‘social cleansing.’ Journalists, police, and mayors are often targeted with assassination. In the case of journalists, the death toll ranges from&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/drug-war-mexican-journalists_n_1834568.html?utm_hp_ref=media" type="external">45-67 killed</a>&#160;during the drug war; some estimates are&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_the_Mexican_Drug_War" type="external">higher</a>. The goal of much of this violence is to remove opposition from rival gangsters and the state. Persons interfering with cartel operations are at risk. Again accurate numbers are hard to find.</p>
<p>The&#160;sicario&#160;(or assassin) is the tool of the cartel. Individuals and teams of&#160;sicarios&#160;wage brutal war against their adversaries. The result: assassinations, kidnappings, torture, dismemberment, beheading, persons hung from bridges, rivals boiled in pots to become what is euphemistically called&#160;posole&#160;(or soup), and at least one recent crucifixion. <a href="http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/factbox-worst-atrocities-in-mexicos-drug-war" type="external">Notable attacks</a>&#160;have included grenades launched against Mexican Independence day celebrations in Morelia, killing 8 and wounding over 100 in 2008; the brutal murder of 13 high school students at a party in Ciudad Juárez in 2010; the ambush of Rodolfo Torre, candidate for Governor in Tamaulipas along with 4 others; and an armed assault on a birthday part in Torreón that killed 17 and wounded 18 others. Mass graves (narcofosas) are a recurring gruesome reality. Notable&#160;narcofosas&#160;include 51 corpses found near Monterrey in July 2011and 450 mass internees in mass graves in Durango and Tamaulipas in April 2011. The August 2011 arson attack on a Monterrey gambling house—the Casino Royale—left 52 dead, in under 3 minutes. Numerous mass killings accompany this small sample.</p>
<p>While the brutality and intensity of violence within the drug war is at times staggering, it isn’t random or merely the result of undisciplined&#160;sicarios. It is often orchestrated to achieve distinct ends. In the technical parlance of conflict studies this deliberate use of high intensity violence and barbarization of conflict is designed to meet operational objectives. These objectives fall into two realms. The first is ‘instrumental violence’ used to eliminate a rival. The second is ‘symbolic violence’ used to influence adversaries, the state, and the populace. Both can be used in combination. While individual acts of brutality may result or be exacerbated by undisciplined sociopaths acting out, the logic of violence is a core component of cartel and gang&#160;modus operandi.</p>
<p>Barbarization and&#160;narcocultura&#160; <a href="http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/barbarization-and-narcocultura" type="external">go hand in hand</a>. <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/10/081110fa_fact_guillermoprieto" type="external">Narcocultura</a>&#160;is a social phenomena that glorifies narcotrafficking. The narcos become heros worthy of emulation for the many “ninis” or youths without jobs or education. Think of it as Mexican gangsta rap on steroids. Two threads emerge: 1) the narco as hero; and 2) narco-folk saints like Jesus Malverde and Santa Muerte to bond narcos into a cohesive social structure that provides justification for their actions and spiritual protection for their deeds. Narcomantas&#160;(banners), corpse-messaging (leaving a message on a corpse),&#160;narcomensajes&#160;(messages or communiqués), and&#160;narcopintas&#160;(graffiti) accompany acts of violence and brutality to extend the cartels’ message in a form of narco-information operations. Such imagery can be a powerful social bond.</p>
<p>Consider the groups&#160;La Familia Michoacana&#160;and its successor the&#160;Caballeros Templarios&#160;(Knights Templar). Both originate in Michoacán; in fact the more recent Knights Templar is a splinter group that seeks to replace&#160;La Familia. Both embrace&#160;narcocultura&#160;and alternative religious/spiritual values—in this case, evangelical mutations to fuel social cohesion.&#160;La Familia&#160;employed a range of paramilitary and influence operations to gain control of criminal enterprises—especially the lucrative methamphetamine trade—across Mexico’s Tierra Caliente region.</p>
<p>Descended from traditional marijuana gangsters,&#160;La Familia&#160;cast itself as ‘social protectors’ leveraging regional rivalries and identity to gain community support and freedom of action. In doing so, it identified&#160;Los Zetas&#160;as their rivals, claimed the mantle of ‘social bandit’ providing social goods to the community much like Robin Hood, and used barbarism and violence to demonstrate their power. Their calling card was a nightclub attack in Uruapan in September 2006. In that atrocity 20 masked&#160;desperados&#160;burst into the Sol y Sombra nightclub. They fired weapons into the air and then tossed six bloody human heads onto the dance floor. The gangsters claimed the attack was ‘ <a href="http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Security-Watch/Articles/Detail/?ing=en&amp;id=104677" type="external">divine justice.</a>’</p>
<p>La Familia&#160;followed the nightclub assault with direct confrontation&#160;against the state. In July 2009 it conducted&#160; <a href="http://mexidata.info/id2344.html" type="external">coordinated attacks</a>&#160;against ten cities. At least 19 security officials (police and soldiers) were killed in&#160;La Familia’s&#160;assault on state security forces. The cartel’s actions included six near-simultaneous assaults of federal police stations and a pair of cartel commando raids by nearly 50 gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades. This action was followed by the torture and assassination of 12 off-duty police intelligence agents. As the state reacted&#160;La Familia&#160;fragmented and a new—still cult-like—successor with many of the same attributes, the Knights Templar emerged.</p>
<p>Los Zetas&#160;are Mexico’s paramilitary cartel challenger. Descended from deserters from Mexican army special forces and augmented by gangsters and mercenaries alike, the Zetas have taken brutality to a new level. Like other cartels they conduct ambushes and use extreme violence including beheadings and dismemberments to fuel their battle against the state and rivals. But their prowess in tactical operations gives them an advantage. After serving as enforcers for the&#160;Cartel del Golfo&#160;(Gulf Cartel, CDG) they broke ranks to forge their own criminal army. In doing so, they have turned Nuevo León and Tamaulipas into an ‘epicenter of horror’ where state functions have collapsed and terror reigns. Mass murder and barbarity seal this ‘narcopolitical’ meltdown in what Mexican journalist Diego Enrique Osorno calls ‘necropolitica’ or ‘necropolitics.’ The Zetas have employed extreme violence to secure their position among Mexico’s narco-elite. They now&#160; <a href="http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/09/18/zetas-cartel-dominates-northeast-mexico-journalist-says/" type="external">dominate northeast Mexico</a>. This places them in direct confrontation with the Sinaloa Federation and Mexican government alike.</p>
<p>Mexico is severely challenged by the drug war. Narcos directly confront state institutions, including the police and mayors. Journalists are attacked to shape reportage of cartel activities, and officials at many levels are corrupted and co-opted by the cartels, leading to a state of impunity. Corruption, impunity, and violence punctuate the battle for criminal dominance. Few murders, let alone atrocities or acts of barbarism however extreme, are investigated and even fewer are prosecuted. Indeed,&#160; <a href="http://justiceinmexico.org/2012/01/13/reforma-murder-impunity-at-90-in-some-areas-of-mexico/" type="external">impunity for murder</a>&#160;has been pegged at 90% in some of the most contested regions of Mexico. The resulting impunity amplifies fear and serves to leverage the symbolic violence used by the cartels to secure their freedom of action. According to the 2011&#160; <a href="http://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs44/44849p.pdf" type="external">National Drug Threat Assessment</a>, Mexican cartels operated in 1,000 US cities, often linked with US gangs. This penetration goes far beyond the Southwest border. To address the threat of Mexican cartels we must first recognize that cartel violence has a destabilizing effect on Mexico.</p>
<p>Cartel reach extends throughout Mexico and is not limited to the hotly contested areas of today’s headlines. The cartels operate throughout Latin America and into the US and Canada. To combat this threat we most recognize that the Mexico drug war is not just a border issue. Public corruption in Mexico (and the US) must be eradicated to limit the ability to penetrate state institutions and co-opt state officials and sustain impunity. This makes building Mexican security sector capacity at the Federal, state, and local levels imperative. Police, prosecutors, judges, and corrections personnel need to be trained and their agencies professionalized. US assistance in this endeavor is mutually beneficial.</p>
<p>The need for capacity building for the Mexican security sector is graphically reinforced by a recent uptick in barbarization, in this case a&#160; <a href="http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexican-cartel-tactical-note-13-man-crucified-in-michoacan-mexico" type="external">crucifixion</a>. On Friday, 07 September 2012 a 24 year-old man, Eladio Martinez Cruz was found crucified on a traffic sign in Contepec, Michoacán. Allegedly he was arrested by municipal police for rape and subsequently taken from their custody, tortured, castrated, and crucified (other barbaric details scrubbed). This case, while a single incident, follows the trend of increasing barbarization throughout the life of Mexico’s narco conflict. Actions—such as the Mérida Initiative—to stabilize the threat and contain the reach of the cartels and growth of&#160;narcocultura&#160;are essential to securing Mexico, the US, and Western Hemisphere.</p> | Barbarization in Mexico Punctuated by Hyper Violence | false | https://ivn.us/2012/09/25/barbarization-in-mexico-drug-war/ | 2012-09-25 | 2 |
<p />
<p>I’m sure you heard about the little Liberal shit-stain on Jet-Blue who made a jackass of himself because Ivanka Trump was on his flight.</p>
<p>I want to know when it became okay for a man to harass a woman in public.</p>
<p>Okay, to be fair. It’s not okay to harass some women in public.</p>
<p>If this little Liberal shit-stain had harassed a Muslim woman in a hijab on the same flight, he’d probably be in jail right now charged with a “hate crime.”</p>
<p>CNN would be breathlessly kvetching about Islamophobia and the rise of hate crimes against Muslims since Trump was elected.</p>
<p>And DHS would be putting that man on the Federal No-Fly list in a New York minute.</p>
<p>Likewise, if this little Liberal shit-stain discovered Chelsea Clinton and her family on his flight and acted that way, he’d have been on the floor in a headlock beneath several Secret Service agents.</p>
<p>CNN would be wringing its hands over how awful Trump supporters behave and how full of hate they are.</p>
<p>And Hillary would be demanding Donald Trump disavow the behavior of this passenger.</p>
<p>As it is, since the little Liberal shit-stain harassed Ivanka, he just got removed and placed on a later flight.</p>
<p>The lesson, of course is, if you’re going to harass a woman on a plane, make sure she is the daughter of a Republican whom you hate. And not much will happen to you.</p>
<p>In fact, the media will put the blame on the woman.</p>
<p>After all, Ivanka and her family are rich. Why didn’t they just fly in a private plane to Hawaii instead of flying JetBlue?</p>
<p>It’s her fault, really, for being on that plane in the first place.</p>
<p>Personally, I hate flying.</p>
<p>You’re stuck in a long metal tube breathing stale air and smelling other people’s body odor and perfume for hours.</p>
<p>The only thing that makes it even more intolerable is being stuck on a plane with a loudmouth shit-stain Liberal who thinks he is entitled to share his unsolicited opinions with everybody who is stuck on that plane with him.</p>
<p>Ivanka, to her credit, was gracious and respectful. Of course, she was raised to behave like a civilized human being and not an unhinged Leftist shit-stain. Plus, she was far more concerned with the welfare of her three children.</p>
<p>Goldstein, on the other hand, behaved like a shit-stain while holding his own child in his arms.</p>
<p>These Liberals will never learn.</p>
<p>They’re not making the case against Trump.</p>
<p>They’re making the case against themselves.</p>
<p>Dan Goldstein and his husband Matthew Lasner are the not the heroes of this story.</p>
<p>They’re the villains.</p>
<p />
<p>Average Americans watch this unfold and feel nothing but disgust for these two.</p>
<p>Everything the Left has done in its effort to destroy Trump has blown back on itself.</p>
<p>The riots at Trump’s rallies. The hysteria after Trump’s victory. And the constant, endless displays of intolerance and hatred that have continued for these last six weeks. All of it has been so repulsive.</p>
<p>If they really hope to regain popularity and influence in America, they’re not going to do it like this.</p>
<p>Instead, all they’re doing is make America despise them even more than we already did.</p>
<p>But, as the saying goes, never interfere with an enemy when he is making a mistake.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Please consider making a contribution to PatriotRetort.com. Hit DONATE button in the side bar. Even a few bucks can make a world of difference!</p> | What if she’d been a woman in a hijab | true | http://patriotretort.com/shed-woman-hijab/ | 2016-12-23 | 0 |
<p>George W. Bush’s bulldozing of 5,000 badly needed and little damaged public housing apartments in post-Katrina New Orleans was one of the cruelest measures he imposed on the city’s poor and working class Katrina-survivors. Yet even Bush, and his henchman, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, could not get their hands on the over 800 handsome, sturdy, red brick apartments of the Iberville Public Housing development, located on the grounds of the former Storyville district where Jazz flourished in the first two decades of the 20th century. Protests by the grass roots group C3/Hands Off Iberville before Katrina to oppose privatization, street actions after the storm by multiple groups to demand its reopening, and direct action by displaced residents reoccupying their apartments, all stymied Jackson’s attempt to make a “clean sweep” of New Orleans’ conventional&#160; public housing.&#160; Protest forced Jackson to back-off and disassociate himself from any attempt seize the property. As he told housing advocate James Perry in a 2006 interview “I know people want to do it [Iberville] as a land grab” but, he underscored, “it’s not going to happen on my watch.”</p>
<p>Obama Time: From Public Housing to Social Security</p>
<p>Barack Obama is ready to finish the job, on his watch, that Bush and Jackson could not. Just as sadistic New York City cops screamed its “Guiliani time” as they began torturing Abner Louima in the 70th precinct station house bathroom, the announcement of plans to “redevelop” Iberville presages the reaming, on a mass level, of the city’s poor and working class. Yet instead of thuggish, Brooklynese-speaking cops proclaiming the new era, Obama has well-educated, mannerly, white-collar gangsters like David Gilmore to do the job.</p>
<p>Gilmore–the federally appointed administrator of the Housing Authority of New Orleans, and key player in the 1989-1992 commission that birthed the Clinton-era HOPE VI public housing demolition/privatization program–is now requesting bids for a demolition/privatization plan of Iberville. &#160;But unlike Guiliani’s cops who made no attempt to mask the savagery they were about to engage in, the affable, private consultant/university professor Gilmore sugar coats his intentions. He reassured the community, in a recent interview with Times Picayune reporter Katy Reckdahl, that “residents need and deserve better” as he prepares to drive yet another low income black community from highly-prized inter-city real estate. But since HOPE VI, the former scheme he helped cook-up to drive out the poor, is so discredited he and other members of Obama’s neoliberal housing brain trust have come up with a new, nice sounding name –“the Choice Neighborhoods program”– to do the same old dirty&#160; job of “negro removal”. It’s old wine in new bottles.</p>
<p>Obama’s attack on Iberville–one that even Bush could not get way with–is not an aberration. The assault on this badly needed source of affordable housing in New Orleans is one component of the ruling class’–both the Republican and Democratic Party wings–rapidly advancing austerity offensive. Obama wants to complete the assault on public housing, social security, and other remaining elements of the US’s already shredded safety net and welfare state that his Republican predecessor could not. Thus an effective defense of Iberville and the rest of public housing must be linked to building a broader fight back and working class alternative to the Obama-led ruling class program. Before we outline that alternative agenda, and how it can be won, we need to first outline the particularities of Iberville.</p>
<p>Class and Ethnic Cleansing at Iberville: Then and Now</p>
<p>The Obama administration’s attempt to drive out hundreds of low-income, black working class families from the 30-some acres of the Iberville development is not a historical first. &#160;The land that Iberville sits on has witnessed two instances of class and ethnic cleansing in little over a century–and Obama would like to make it three.</p>
<p>In 1897–only a year after the Supreme Court ruled against nearby Treme neighborhood resident Homer Plessey’s challenge to segregation laws–the area where Iberville now stands was designated as the Storyville red light district–named after a city councilman that created the proposal and ordinance. The ensuing increase in land and housing costs led to the displacement of many residents of this long-established black community. After the closing of the district during World War I, housing and rents became affordable, and by the 1930s it was again a predominantly low income back community–but not for long. In 1937 the newly created Housing Authority of New Orleans appropriated the property through eminent domain for the then-new–and white-only–Iberville public housing development. Black families were forced to pack-up again. It was not until 1965, following passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, that black working class families were again able to reside in the area. Since then there has been an incessant campaign by real estate interests to seize this valuable property for their profit-making ventures, rather than to meet human need.</p>
<p>The only difference with the contemporary eviction plans are the faces and pretexts. Expulsions are no longer carried out under a Jim Crow, all-white officialdom as before, but instead in a post-segregation context, in which some African Americans are in positions of authority. A second difference is that in the past cases of ethnic and class cleansing there was little or no effort to legitimate the initiative. In contrast, developers and public officials now expound on theories of “deconcentrating poverty,” drawn from academic sociology, to explain why driving poor people from their homes is actually a benevolent enterprise. Facts, such as Mike Howells’ study showing Iberville being safer than the French Quarter, do not sway these ideologues away from their incessant demands to “break-up poverty”. <a href="#_edn1" type="external" />(1) What ties the different historical periods together is that power and profits–despite all the benevolent rhetoric–are still the driving forces behind the racist land grabs.</p>
<p>The current attempt to demolish Iberville comes at a time when affordable housing is in extremely short supply. A recent study by HUD–the same agency working to demolish Iberville–provides a window into the on the extent of the crisis in New Orleans. Below are some of the reports “highlights”:</p>
<p>Mid-priced rental units, in the $300 to $600 range, fell to 19,300 in 2009, from 66,300 in 2004. Since 2004 the number of poorest households in the region grew by 22 percent, defined by HUD as people who either paid more than half their income on rent, In 2004, the average monthly cost was $662, compared with $882 in 2009. The 13% decline in the number of housing units since Katrina has contributed to the jump in housing costs The number of Homeless people has doubled since 2005.</p>
<p>Despite this distress the local housing authority and the Obama administration want to demolish over 800 rent-controlled apartments at the Iberville where poor families pay an affordable 30% of their income for rent and utilities. The callousness that Obama is showing towards New Orleans reflects his lack of concern for the unemployment, home foreclosures, personal bankruptcies and other capitalist-made suffering increasingly confronting people across the country as the economic depression for the working class deepens. Indeed, Obama not only has no plans to alleviate this misery through, for example, a public works program, but instead plans to increase the pain. How, you ask? By working with his ostensible Republican adversaries to impose even more draconian cuts! The bi-partisan, Obama appointed “National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform” will report back in December–after the elections–on how they can get the working class to pay for the capitalist crisis through massive cuts in Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and what is left of poor people services, such as public housing.</p>
<p>Non-Profits, Labor Bureaucrats, and Building a Real Fight Back</p>
<p>The rapidly brewing capitalist storms, including the attack on Iberville and Obama’s larger austerity initiative, underscores why workers need to immediately go on the offensive with a proactive agenda. Yet, to forge this political-economic alternative, the US working class will have to confront the liberal-professionals, and their collection of non-profit and union bureaucrats. These officials serve as a protective layer of capitalism, employing soft glove strategies to disarm worker movements.</p>
<p>The obstacles this layer presents to building a fight back is evident in the current struggle to defend Iberville.&#160; Activists with New Orleans’ C3/Hands Off Iberville public housing group have had to do battle not only with developers and housing officials, but with “progressive” non-profits who counsel accommodation to the ruling class’ neoliberal offensive. These non-profits–wholly consistent with the role most of these foundation funded outfits play–encourage Iberville residents and their community supporters &#160;to be “realistic” and work out a compromise within the neoliberal parameters laid out by the ruling class. This thinking and associated political practice is precisely what must be challenged if we are to build an effective political challenge.</p>
<p>Likewise liberal journalist Katy Reckdahl, a darling of the local non-profit complex, also plays an important role in helping cultivate resignation and acceptance. Her September 10 article in the local corporate daily, the Times Picayune, regurgitated the line of the unelected, sell out, developer-paid “tenant representative”, Kim Piper, that the deal “seems inevitable”. Voices of opposition were not included in her front page article heralding the “Change …at Iberville”.</p>
<p>The AFL-CIO and NAACP conveners of the October 2nd “One Nation” rally planned for Washington DC play a similar role to the New Orleans non-profits. They are using the gathering to push a “fight the right,” Democratic Party pep rally for the November elections that will protect Obama from any embarrassing expressions of opposition from below to his right wing agenda. The illusion of the Tea party clowns as the only opposition must be maintained. Instead, as Black Agenda editor Glen Ford has underscored, workers must raise their own demands or else face turning into “just a bunch of Democratic Party groupies with delusions of relevance to the burning issues of the day.”</p>
<p>The demands endorsed by a recent gathering in Newark, New Jersey of over a dozen labor and immigrant rights groups is what this writer and a growing movement will be raising in Washington: Jobs For All, Legalization For All, NOW! &#160;We will not accommodate to the destruction of Iberville and other public housing developments, or other public services either, as advocated by the non-profits. Instead of accepting cutbacks, we will be demanding that the federal government massively expand public services and employment through a direct-government employment (no contractors) public works plan. Instead of workers fighting among ourselves, we call for legalization of all workers to guarantees their eligibility to participate in the public works program. All workers, be they immigrants with no papers, or formerly incarcerated citizens who have lost access to public sector employment and other rights, would be eligible.</p>
<p>Only by uniting all workers to fight for what we want, not what the union bureaucrats and non-profit officials say is possible and permissible, will we create the class power needed to scare the ruling class and win our demands.</p>
<p>To support the movement to defend Iberville, as well as the Jobs for All, Legalization for All campaign, and how your local group can endorse the demands and join the growing campaign, go to <a href="http://njmay1.org/" type="external">http://njmay1.org/</a>. or call JAY ARENA at 504-520-9521</p>
<p>Notes.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref1" type="external" />(1) Mike Howells, ‘Iberville: No Murder, No News.’ <a href="" type="internal">http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2010/08/15314.php</a></p> | Return to Iberville | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/09/23/return-to-iberville/ | 2010-09-23 | 4 |
<p>Taser International, the stun-gun maker emerging as a leading supplier of body cameras for police, has cultivated financial ties to police chiefs whose departments have bought the recording devices, raising a host of conflict-of-interest questions.</p>
<p>A review of records and interviews by The Associated Press show Taser is covering airfare and hotel stays for police chiefs who speak at promotional conferences. It is also hiring recently retired chiefs as consultants, sometimes just months after their cities signed contracts with Taser.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Over the past 18 months, Taser has reached consulting agreements with two such chiefs weeks after they retired, and it is in talks with a third who also backed the purchase of its products, the AP has learned. Taser is planning to send two of them to speak at luxury hotels in Australia and the United Arab Emirates in March at events where they will address other law enforcement officers considering body cameras.</p>
<p>The relationships raise questions of whether chiefs are acting in the best interests of the taxpayers in their dealings with Scottsdale, Arizona-based Taser, whose contracts for cameras and storage systems for the video can run into the millions of dollars.</p>
<p>As the police chief in Fort Worth, Texas, successfully pushed for the signing of a major contract with Taser before a company quarterly sales deadline, he wrote a Taser representative in an email, "Someone should give me a raise."</p>
<p>The market for wearable cameras that can record arrests, shootings and other encounters has been growing fast since the killing last August of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. President Barack Obama has proposed a $75 million program for departments to buy the cameras to reduce tensions between officers and the communities they serve.</p>
<p>City officials and rival companies are raising concerns about police chiefs' ties to Taser, not only in Fort Worth but in such cities as Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Salt Lake City.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"Department heads need to be very careful to avoid that type of appearance of an endorsement in a for-profit setting," said Charlie Luke, a Salt Lake City councilman. "It opens up the opportunity for competitors of these companies to essentially do what we're seeing here — complaining about that public process."</p>
<p>He said he was surprised when he learned last year that the city's police department had purchased Taser cameras using surplus money, bypassing the standard bidding process and City Council approval. The department declined to say how much it has spent acquiring 295 body cameras and Taser's Evidence.com video storage program and hasn't responded to a month-old public records request.</p>
<p>The city's police chief, Chris Burbank, said that his relationship with Taser, which includes company-paid travel to Taser-sponsored conferences, is appropriate. He recently recorded at the company's request a promotional video in which he praised Evidence.com.</p>
<p>Burbank said he does not receive speaking fees and believes he hasn't violated a city code prohibiting paid product endorsements on public time. He said he accepts Taser's speaking invitations to promote the best ways of using body cameras. But Luke, the city councilman, questioned what value Salt Lake City gets from Burbank's trips.</p>
<p>A Taser spokesman said the company has no control over how cities decide to award contracts. Taser says early adopters of technology are the best ones to discuss its benefits and drawbacks and share their experiences with colleagues.</p>
<p>"This is a pretty normal practice for police chiefs and other recently retired individuals to speak on behalf of the industry," Taser chief marketing officer Luke Larson said.</p>
<p>Taser's competitors say its cozy relationships are hurting their ability to seek contracts. They complain they have been shut out by cities awarding no-bid contracts to Taser and are being put at a disadvantage by requests for proposals that appear tailored to Taser's products.</p>
<p>"Every time I do a presentation, as I'm standing there looking through the room, I wonder, 'Who is tainted by Taser?'" said Peter Onruang, president of Wolfcom Enterprises, a California body camera maker.</p>
<p>Taser reported Thursday that orders for body cameras and Evidence.com soared to $24.6 million in the final three months of 2014 — a nearly fivefold increase from the same quarter in 2013. The company said it had contracts with 13 major cities and is in discussions or trials with 28 more.</p>
<p>A no-bid contract in Albuquerque and Taser's relationship with the police chief prompted an investigation by the city's inspector general.</p>
<p>City Council members demanded the inquiry after learning that Chief Ray Schultz, who had supported the $1.9 million contract for Taser cameras and storage, became a company consultant shortly after stepping down. A U.S. Justice Department investigation last year blasted Albuquerque's rollout of the body cameras, saying it had been so hasty that officers had not been properly trained.</p>
<p>Today, Schultz speaks in an online promotional video about Albuquerque's experience with Evidence.com. Although he has recently been hired as assistant chief in the Houston suburb of Memorial Villages, Schultz said he will be paid by Taser to speak at the international conferences in March.</p>
<p>Former New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas confirmed he signed a Taser consulting agreement after he stepped down in August and has spoken at company-sponsored events in Canada and Arizona. Less than a year earlier, in December 2013, the city agreed to a $1.4 million contract with Taser for 420 cameras and storage.</p>
<p>In an interview with the AP, Serpas declined to detail how the consulting deal came about but said it did not violate a state ethics law because he is not lobbying his former employer. He also said he was not on the committee that recommended Taser for the contract.</p>
<p>Serpas said his role is to speak about how technology affects policing and not to promote products. Taser marketing materials reviewed by AP, however, quote him as calling the company's Axon cameras and Evidence.com "a game changer for police departments here and around the world."</p>
<p>In Fort Worth, emails obtained by the AP under Texas' open records law show that then-Police Chief Jeffrey Halstead was seeking 400 more body cameras for officers last year and that Taser promised a discount if the deal could be approved before the end of the company's sales quarter.</p>
<p>"Close of the month? I do not wear a cape or have x-ray vision you know," Halstead wrote a Taser representative.</p>
<p>But over the next three weeks, Halstead successfully pushed the city to approve a no-bid contract worth up to $2.7 million. He kept Taser representatives aware of his progress, adding at one point that he deserved a raise.</p>
<p>In the following months, Taser had Halstead speak at events in Phoenix, Miami and Boston, covering his airfare and lodging, records show. The four-day Boston trip for Halstead and a companion cost Taser $2,445.</p>
<p>Halstead said he reached an oral agreement during the contract negotiations to travel to three other cities at Fort Worth's expense to talk about his experience with Taser cameras. In one email, he told a Taser representative he believed he could persuade San Antonio to buy its cameras, "but my fee is not cheap! LOL."</p>
<p>Halstead, who retired from the department in January, said he hopes to become an official consultant before he travels to speak at overseas events in March. He said he discussed such an arrangement during the end of his city employment, but had nothing promised.</p>
<p>He defended his ties to Taser as a "good business relationship" with a company that supports law enforcement.</p>
<p>Fort Worth City Manager David Cooke said he does not believe Halstead violated rules that prohibit employees from accepting job offers or other benefits that might influence the performance of their official duties. But he said the episode might reveal "gaps that we need to fill" in the code.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Brian Bakst in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Don Thompson in Sacramento, California, contributed to this report.</p> | Body-camera maker has financial ties to police chiefs; questions of influence are raised | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/03/03/body-camera-maker-has-financial-ties-to-police-chiefs-questions-influence-are.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat—nor collective bargaining contracts?—will stay the USPS from the swift completion of its appointed rounds. &#160; (William Thomas Cain/GETTY IMAGES)</p>
<p>The U.S. Postal Service’s plans to cut more than 220,000 jobs—that's right, nearly a quarter million—and break a collective bargaining agreement has its employee unions up in arms.</p>
<p>The financially-strapped U.S. Postal Service revealed last week that by 2015 it plans to trim its workforce by nearly <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904823804576504792300989496.html" type="external">one-third</a>, close 300 <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/12/usa-postal-idUSN1E77B0ZX20110812" type="external">processing facilities</a> and institute its own health and retirement system to replace existing federal programs, according to several reports. About 100,000 of the jobs are expected to be eliminated through attrition. The proposal, which requires congressional approval, has drawn concern from unions and labor observers for its potential to further erode the middle class. And it's renewed fears that other employers will soon follow with their own <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/postal-service-proposal-to-break-contracts-is-blasted-by-unions/2011/08/12/gIQAi3V3BJ_print.html" type="external">cost-cutting measures</a>.</p>
<p>The decision comes after the USPS has suffered continuous declines in recent years due to drops in mail volume, advertising, an increase toward online communication and private competitors like FedEx and UPS. The postal service makes most of its revenue through postage fees and receives little support from taxpayers.</p>
<p>As a result, the agency posted <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iQbsTDMymQJM1VVEsYQi4DWH6wDQ?docId=cc8609fdcd484f4c8a3b5887599490bc" type="external">$8 billion in losses</a> last year and $20 billion in the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/usps-proposes-cutting-120000-jobs-pulling-out-of-health-care-plan/2011/08/11/gIQAZxIM9I_story.html" type="external">past four</a>. Moreover, the postal service expects to be insolvent by next month when the fiscal year ends. The USPS has already implemented a number of cost-cutting moves, including plans to reduce their current career workforce of 583,908. More than 110,000 jobs have been eliminated in the last four years and the AP reports that currently 7,500 administrative staff jobs are also in the process of being removed. In June, the agency stopped funding pension contributions, which it says are over-funded. Almost 3,700 post offices across the country, mostly in rural areas, could be eliminated. Saturday service may also cease. The agency also plans to reduce labor expenses. Last week, the Washington Post obtained “ <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/r/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/08/11/National-Politics/Graphics/WhitePaperRIF.pdf" type="external">white papers</a>” (PDF link) written by the USPS that seek to withdraw its employees from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, essentially because they view as it as too costly and want greater employee contributions. The postal service also wants legislative changes that would allow collective bargaining agreements to be broken in order to implement layoffs. USPS workers represented by the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) with more than six years experience <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/08/16/bloomberg1376-LPTPYJ1A1I4H01-48J1AN1C77JD29GCUBU1UCFVCU.DTL#ixzz1VFu2qxpQ" type="external">are protected</a>. The <a href="http://www.nalc.org/news/latest/08112011_stand-up_fvr.html" type="external">National Association of Letter Carriers</a>'s (NALC) contract also has a clause restricting layoffs.</p>
<p>There's plenty of disagreement about whether Congress' decision to nullify a labor contract would be unprecedented, and whether it's merely a reflection of the current employment climate or a ploy to get an anemic legislature to find a solution. A USPS&#160; spokesman has said that " <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/postal-service-proposal-to-break-contracts-is-blasted-by-unions/2011/08/12/gIQAi3V3BJ_story.html" type="external">everything is on the table</a>."</p>
<p>Bill Fletcher of the American Federation of Government Employees union tells the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/postal-service-proposal-to-break-contracts-is-blasted-by-unions/2011/08/12/gIQAi3V3BJ_story.html" type="external">Washington Post</a>: “When you break a contract, basically what you’re saying is that we have left the era of good-faith bargaining and negotiation and entered into employer unilateralism.” University of California at Berkeley labor professor Harley Shaiken told Bloomberg News that the job cuts would be “ <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/08/16/bloomberg1376-LPTPYJ1A1I4H01-48J1AN1C77JD29GCUBU1UCFVCU.DTL#ixzz1VFu2qxpQ" type="external">politically damaging</a>” to the Obama administration. He adds: "It would make the federal government the largest contract breaker in the country." The <a href="http://www.apwu.org/news/nsb/2011/nsb17-110812-usps_proposals.htm" type="external">APWU</a>, the <a href="http://www.nalc.org/news/latest/08112011_stand-up_fvr.html" type="external">NALC</a> and the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/usps-proposes-cutting-120000-jobs-pulling-out-of-health-care-plan/2011/08/11/gIQAZxIM9I_print.html" type="external">National Rural Letter Carriers' Association</a> have opposed the post office proposals and viewed it as an attack on their bargaining rights. The unions say that labor costs aren't the source of the USPS's budget crisis. The labor groups instead point to a congressional mandate from 2006 known as the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. The measure requires the postal service to pay for the healthcare benefits of future retirees for the next 75 years, all within a 10-year period at the rate of $5.5 billion annually. It is the only federal agency with such a requirement. The payments started in 2007 and unions cite the pre-funding plan as the reason why the postal office has declared its inability to pay the future healthcare costs by September. NALC President Fredric V. Roland wrote in an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun that the postal service would have been profitable during the downturn and losses would have been minimized if it weren’t for the pre-funding mandate. The unions, however, are not asking to remove the legislative requirement but are instead pressing legislators to support a bill that would allow payments to be made using funds from a pension surplus. H.R. 1351, introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), would address the budget crisis, maintain bargaining rights and avoid further cuts, the APWU and NCLA said. “This responsible business move, with zero taxpayer involvement, would leave pensions and retiree health benefits fully funded well into the future while putting the USPS budget back on sound financial footing,” Roland said. Meanwhile, a job that had been a staple for the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/postal-service-long-a-gateway-to-middle-class-is-facing-major-job-cuts/2011/08/12/gIQADpXZDJ_story.html?tid=sm_twitter_washingtonpost" type="external">middle-class mobility</a> is being threatened, echoing similar reverberations in the private sector where Verizon workers are <a href="" type="internal">currently on strike</a>. The USPS is scheduled to begin negotiations with the letter carriers union <a href="http://www.nalc.org/news/latest/08112011_stand-up_fvr.html" type="external">this week</a> and the smaller National Postal Mail Handlers Union next week.</p> | Postal Workers to USPS: Don’t Shred Our Contract | true | http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/11838/postal_unions_oppose_breaking_labor_contract_mass_layoffs/ | 2011-08-17 | 4 |
<p>As Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton prepares to hold emergency talks on Syria this weekend in Turkey, the US and its allies are looking ahead to the end of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.</p>
<p><a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/07/clinton-syria-idINL6E8J7AE820120807" type="external">According to Reuters,</a> the upcoming emergency talks are expected to focus, in part, on the anticipated period right after Assad leaves office.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/clinton-says-time-is-now-to-plan-for-syrias-day-after/2012/08/07/1ddb5ba4-e0a2-11e1-8d48-2b1243f34c85_story.html" type="external">The Washington Post</a>reported Clinton suggested on Tuesday that the US was accelerating plans what she called "the day after."</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/south-africa/120808/hillary-clinton-dances-night-away-south-africa-vide" type="external">Hillary Clinton dances night away in South Africa (VIDEO)</a></p>
<p>"I do think we can begin talking about and planning for what happens next," Clinton said yesterday in South Africa.</p>
<p>"The intensity of the fighting in Aleppo, the defections, really point out how imperative it is that we come together and work toward a good transition plan," she added.</p>
<p>According to the Washington Post, the talks are also likely to include "getting aid or other assistance into Syria" from Turkey.</p>
<p>Reuters also reported that the US and its allies have pledged to increase political support for the Syrian opposition, as their hands are effectively tied at the United Nations Security Council with vetoes from Russia and China.</p> | Hillary Clinton plans for Syria's 'Day After' | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-08-09/hillary-clinton-plans-syria-s-day-after | 2012-08-09 | 3 |
<p>Tuesday, September 26, 2017 by <a href="author/ethanh" type="external">Ethan Huff</a></p>
<p>//www.newstarget.com/2017-09-26-amazon-just-cost-an-oral-health-company-200000-in-lost-sales-by-banning-them-after-receiving-a-complaint-from-a-fake-legal-firm.html</p>
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<p>Selling products on the Amazon.com marketplace is becoming an increasingly high-risk endeavor, as the multinational corporation <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/07/amazon-was-tricked-by-fake-law-firm-into-removing-toothbrush-head.html" type="external">reportedly does next to nothing</a> to protect its sellers against fraudulent complaints filed by other malicious sellers who are simply trying to destroy the businesses of their competition.</p>
<p>Take the case of "Brushes4Less," a toothbrush and oral care products company that recently lost upwards of $200,000 in sales after a fake law firm filed a complaint against the company that resulted in Amazon suspending its seller account. Brushes4Less tried to appeal this arbitrary and baseless decision, but Amazon refused to look at the complaint to determine whether or not it was even valid.</p>
<p>Brushes4Less was instead given the contact information for the alleged law firm that filed a complaint against it, known as "Wesley &amp; McCain," purportedly in Pittsburgh. The owner of Brushes4Less looked into the matter further and discovered on his own that the law firm was completely made up, and that images and information published on the website had been stolen from various other legitimate law firms across the country.</p>
<p>"Just five minutes of detective work would have found this website is a fraud, but Amazon doesn't seem to want to do any of that," the owner of the store, who spoke to CNBC on the condition of anonymity, explained about what happened to him and his business. "This is like the Wild Wild West of intellectual property complaints."</p>
<p>It's something that many experts and store owners alike say is endemic within the Amazon platform - fraudulent complaints that result in entire store accounts being shut down on a whim. It's pretty much the worst thing that can happen to a business, and many business owners are now fleeing Amazon for greener pastures because it's simply too much of a risk to be caught victim of the false complaint racket that plagues Amazon's marketplace.</p>
<p>"Virtually any person can push the right buttons to get Amazon's attention for particular issues," says Paul Dworianyn, founder of Awesome Dynamic Tech Solutions, a company that tries to help brands selling products via the Amazon platform stay protected.</p>
<p>Brushes4Less learned the hard way that Amazon almost always takes the road of lead resistance, accepting the claims of any complaint that comes its way without doing even a cursory investigation into whether or not it's valid. And when store owners try to reason with Amazon about such matters, the company almost always gives the cold shoulder.</p>
<p>"Due to the complainant's failure to respond to our attorney's attempts at contact (or even confirm receipt), we believe these complaints are baseless and were filed in bad faith," the owner of Brushes4Less wrote in a private correspondence to Amazon, which went unanswered. Instead, Amazon issued the following empty response publicly to CNBC:</p>
<p>"Fraud is prohibited on Amazon.com. If we discover that bad actors have abused our systems, we work quickly to take action on behalf of our customers, which includes sellers. If a seller believes we've made a decision that requires further review, we encourage them to contact us directly so we can investigate and take the appropriate action."</p>
<p>Amazon claims that it's been trying to step up efforts to combat fake complaints against its sellers. But many sellers feel that this represents little more than empty rhetoric, as the corporate giant continues to throw its sellers under the bus without remorse. As long as new sellers are waiting in the wings to take the booted sellers' places, Amazon couldn't care less as long as its revenue stream remains contiguous (even though it <a href="//www.censored.news/" type="external">aggressively censors</a> the sales of other items <a href="//www.naturalnews.com/050186_Amazoncom_Confederate_Flag_physical_abuse_of_women.html" type="external">like confederate battle flags</a> in order to keep up appearances of political correctness).</p>
<p>Eventually the public is going to lose faith in Amazon's integrity, though. And when this happens, Amazon's reputation will implode, forcing it to either change its failed policies or descend into the dustbin of history (where it belongs, based on its current behaviors).</p>
<p>Sources for this article include:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/07/amazon-was-tricked-by-fake-law-firm-into-removing-toothbrush-head.html" type="external">CNBC.com</a></p>
<p><a href="//www.naturalnews.com/050186_Amazoncom_Confederate_Flag_physical_abuse_of_women.html" type="external">NaturalNews.com</a></p>
<p>Tagged Under: Tags: <a href="tag/account-suspension" type="external">account suspension</a>, <a href="tag/amazon" type="external">Amazon</a>, <a href="tag/brushes4less" type="external">brushes4less</a>, <a href="tag/corporate-manipulation" type="external">corporate manipulation</a>, <a href="tag/customer-loyalty" type="external">customer loyalty</a>, <a href="tag/fake-complaints" type="external">fake complaints</a>, <a href="tag/political-correctness-tag" type="external">political correctness</a>, <a href="tag/sellers" type="external">sellers</a>, <a href="tag/unfair-business-practices" type="external">unfair business practices</a>, <a href="tag/unproven-allegations" type="external">unproven allegations</a></p> | Amazon just cost an oral health company $200,000 in lost sales by banning them after receiving a complaint from a FAKE legal firm | true | https://newstarget.com/2017-09-26-amazon-just-cost-an-oral-health-company-200000-in-lost-sales-by-banning-them-after-receiving-a-complaint-from-a-fake-legal-firm.html | 0 |
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<p>For the second consecutive day, Newt Gingrich tried to throw some advice toward President Donald Trump — quit attacking the players on your own team.</p>
<p>The former House speaker turned Fox News contributor reminded Trump and conservatives that Democrats are the ones to blame for the failure to repeal Obamacare, not Senate Republicans and especially not Majority Leader <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/repeal-and-replace-mitch-mcconnell-obamacare-senate/2017/08/10/id/806998/" type="external">Mitch McConnell.</a></p>
<p>“No, it’s not the Senate that’s the problem. It’s the whole problem, that’s the problem,” Gingrich said Friday on <a href="http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/5538605789001/?playlist_id=3166411554001#sp=show-clips" type="external">Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria”</a> program.</p>
<p>“As much as I admire the president, and as much as I think he’s handling North Korea well, I think he’s handling the Senate about equally badly,” Gingrich told host Maria Bartiromo.</p>
<p>“I disagree with this entire strategy, if it is a strategy,” Gingrich said. “He’s not gonna get anywhere; Mitch McConnell’s gonna be the Republican leader of the Senate — period. End of story.”</p>
<p>Gingrich repeated many of the things he said Thursday on Fox News when he said <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/newt-gingrich-goofy-donald-trump-blame/2017/08/10/id/806915/" type="external">Trump has to shoulder some of the blame</a> for the failure to repeal Obamacare.</p>
<p>“Look at the language he uses; it’s not a ‘he-us’ kind of situation. The president is on the field. He’s not an owner sitting up in the box. He’s one of the players,” Gingrich said. “There were 16 Democrats who voted no for every Republican who voted no; 49 of the Republicans voted yes out of 52 — by any standard I know of, that’s a lot.</p>
<p>“Yet what do we do — we pick a fight with the guy who led the 49 to a yes, and we ignore the 48 who are getting a free pass here,” Gingrich said. “If I were a Senate Democrat, I’d love this fight. It allows them to have no responsibility.</p>
<p>“The president would do well to read Mitch McConnell’s book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Long-Game-Memoir-Mitch-McConnell/dp/0399564101" type="external">‘The Long Game,'”</a> Gingrich said. “McConnell’s a very smart man. McConnell’s gonna come back and find other ways to get this done.”</p>
<p>Gingrich predicts McConnell and Sen. Lamar Alexander will pass through a series of bills vs. one big deal to get repeal done.</p> | Gingrich: Trump Is 'Handling the Senate Badly' | false | https://newsline.com/gingrich-trump-is-handling-the-senate-badly/ | 2017-08-11 | 1 |
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<p>Ramiro Armendariz was able to enjoy Christmas at home after being released from a hospital this week.</p>
<p>Authorities say Officer Tamas Nadas was investigating a burglary in a second-floor apartment Dec. 14 when he tripped, causing his gun to go off.</p>
<p>Police say the bullet went through the floor and struck Armendariz in the apartment below.</p>
<p>Armendariz underwent surgery and has to use a walker.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>He says he has not spoken to an attorney and wants to focus on getting better.</p>
<p>Nadas, who has been with the department since April 2013, was put on administrative leave.</p>
<p>Police are paying for Armendariz’s medical bills and brought food and presents to his home.</p> | Man shot by police not likely to file legal action | false | https://abqjournal.com/517464/man-shot-by-police-not-likely-to-file-legal-action.html | 2 |
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<p>President Trump just found another creative way to show America (and the rest of the world) his disdain for the EPA, and for science.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the New Republic reported that the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency — now headed by climate science denialist Scott Pruitt — <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/141174/epas-science-office-removed-science-mission-statement" type="external">deleted the word “science”</a> from the agency’s official mission statement.</p>
<p>When writing federal guidelines for water pollution standards, the EPA traditionally used the phrase “ <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170102040601/https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-office-water" type="external">science-based</a>,” as seen in this image from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. This meant that when determining how much pollution is safe for drinking water, swimming, and fishing, the EPA would defer to peer-reviewed science in establishing guidelines. Now, Pruitt’s EPA is softening the standards for polluted water by simply shooting for “economically and technologically achievable standards,” according to the EPA’s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-office-water" type="external">updated website</a>.</p>
<p>Scientists have been organizing their resistance to Trump from the moment he was inaugurated. In response to the administration censoring the EPA’s Twitter account, a new account rose up — <a href="https://twitter.com/altusepa?lang=en" type="external">@altUSEPA</a> — proclaiming to be the work of undercover EPA workers going against the environmental policies of the White House. Scientists are also planning a <a href="https://www.marchforscience.com" type="external">march on Washington</a> in defense of empirical science on Saturday, April 22</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Jamie Green is a contributor for the Resistance Report covering the Trump administration, and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.</p> | Guess which word the EPA just deleted from its mission statement | true | http://resistancereport.com/politics/trump-deletes-science-epa/ | 2017-03-07 | 4 |
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<p>(Fotolia/Tribune Media Service)</p>
<p>Even though just about everyone knows the importance of a good night's sleep, many people pride themselves on being able to get by on just a few hours of shut-eye.</p>
<p>But new evidence suggests that skipping sleep does a number on your health. People who sleep six hours a night or less are four times more likely to catch a cold than those who snooze for more than seven hours, according to researchers.</p>
<p>Poor sleep has long been linked to chronic illness and even premature death. The new study provides the first evidence connecting less sleep and the risk of infectious sickness, researchers said.</p>
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<p>Aric Prather, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California-San Francisco said in an e-mail that he regularly hears friends or colleagues bragging about their ability to accomplish things on little sleep. "It is my hope," said Prather, the lead author of the study published online Monday and in the September issue of the journal Sleep, "that studies like this one will provide the necessary science to show conclusively that chronic short sleep has a health cost."</p>
<p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say insufficient sleep is a public health epidemic. One in five Americans gets less than six hours of sleep on the average work night, the least amount of sleep among six countries surveyed in 2013 by the National Sleep Foundation.</p>
<p>In the past, the few studies on sleep and infectious illness have relied on a person's self-reported history of catching a cold, recollection of his or her sleep patterns, or both, Prather said.</p>
<p>In the new study, researchers recruited 164 volunteers and measured their normal sleep habits with a watch-like sensor for seven nights. Then they put the volunteers in a hotel and gave them a cold virus in nose drops for a week to see who got sick and who didn't. (The amount of virus was about the same as a natural exposure.)</p>
<p>They collected daily mucus samples to see if volunteers had been infected.</p>
<p>What they found was striking: Those who slept less than six hours a night the week before were 4.2 times more likely to catch the cold compared with those who got more than seven hours of sleep.</p>
<p>Prather said the study wasn't designed to figure out the underlying biology between the lack of sleep and susceptibility to colds. Available data suggests insufficient sleep disrupts the immune system and makes it less able to fight off a virus, he said.</p>
<p>As for the six-hour threshold, he said the study's findings are consistent with recent recommendations from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society that urge people to get at least seven hours of sleep for optimal health.</p>
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<p /> | Those who get less sleep are more likely to get a cold | false | https://abqjournal.com/637271/study-skipping-sleep-can-hurt-you.html | 2 |
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<p>Following last year’s re-release of “Halo 2,” “The Last of Us” and “Grand Theft Auto V,” several other titles — and one hand-held device — are receiving similar resurrections in 2015.</p>
<p>A look at recent revivals:</p>
<p>— “Grim Fandango Remastered”: The treasured 1998 adventure game has been lovingly restored for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and PC with better graphics, a new point-and-click interface and a freshly recorded orchestral soundtrack performed by the Melbourne Symphony. While searching for clues in the game’s Land of the Dead locale feels a bit dated by today’s standards, that dry “Grim Fandango” wit still holds up 17 years later. Three stars out of four.</p>
<p>— “Saints Row IV: Re-Elected”: Other than voice commands and slightly smoother graphics, not much change has come to this refreshed edition of the zany “Grand Theft Auto” spoof for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It’s only worth a purchase for die-hard “Saints Row” fans who missed the fourth chapter in 2013, or for those who desire a bundle with all the game’s downloadable bonus content, including the new afterlife-set addition, “Gat Out of Hell.” Two stars.</p>
<p>— “Resident Evil HD Remaster”: The landmark 1996 survival horror game has been rebuilt for new PCs and consoles, making creepy Spencer Mansion feel even creepier in 1080p resolution. The designers have smartly appealed to purists and modern players alike by including the option to switch between original and updated controls, as well as aspect ratios. It’s not quite “The Walking Dead,” but “Resident Evil” still delivers zombie thrills. Three-and-a-half stars.</p>
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<p>— New Nintendo 3DS XL: Nintendo has made over the large version of its glasses-free 3-D hand-held doodad with a faster processor, secondary analog stick, shoulder buttons, eye-tracking capability for improved 3-D viewing and a sensor that can recognize “amiibo” figures. Bizarrely, a power adapter isn’t included, and the redesign annoyingly hides the unit’s micro-card slot underneath the back of the 3DS. Still, it’s an impeccable improvement overall. Three stars.</p>
<p>— Other remastered games due this year: new-gen renditions of the role-playing entries “Final Fantasy Type-0” and “Final Fantasy X/X-2”; a compilation of the “Homeworld” sci-fi strategy series called “The Homeworld Remastered Collection”; versions of “The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask” and “Xenoblade Chronicles” optimized for the New Nintendo 3DS XL; and the re-invigorated hack-and-slash game “Devil May Cry,” dubbed “DmC: Definitive Edition.”</p>
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<p>Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang</a> .</p> | Game Review: A new life for old video games | false | https://abqjournal.com/533260/game-review-a-new-life-for-old-video-games.html | 2 |
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<p>Helena Bonham Carter has starred in five of Tim Burton’s films since they met on the set of&#160;Planet of the Apes&#160;in 2001, but troubles in the couple’s&#160;romantic relationship&#160;may put an end to their extremely successful working relationship. Representatives for the duo&#160;confirmed to E! News on Tuesday that Bonham Carter and Burton&#160;have&#160;separated after being together for 13 years.</p>
<p>Rumors began to spread during filming of&#160;Planet of the Apes&#160;that Bonham Carter and the film’s director, Burton, were secretly dating. Bonham Carter’s representative confirmed the relationship to the New York Daily News later that year, but said that they didn’t begin dating during filming since&#160;being costumed in latex “from head to toe” would have made it impossible for Bonham Carter to get intimate.</p>
<p>“She has been seeing him for the last two and a half weeks. It is a baby relationship,” said the rep. “They’re taking baby steps. It didn’t start during ‘Planet of the Apes.”</p>
<p>Burton then cast his girlfriend in&#160;2003’s Big Fish, 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,&#160;2007’s&#160;Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 2010’s&#160;Alice in Wonderland and 2012’s&#160;Dark Shadows.&#160;While their professional relationship was frequently praised by the media,&#160;rumors began to spread in 2010 that the couple were experiencing some intimacy issues and were&#160;thus sleeping in separate beds.</p>
<p>Bonham Carter quickly addressed the subject&#160;with the U.K.’s Radio Times, stating&#160;“We just have two houses knocked together because mine was too small. We see as much of each other as any couple, but our relationship is enhanced by knowing we have our personal space to retreat to.” However, Bonham Carter was again forced to defend their relationship in 2013, when&#160;photos purportedly of Burton kissing another woman were published.</p>
<p>“This is an absolute nonsense story, the pictures were taken whilst they were out and the large group includes family, friends and work colleagues,” her representative told Us Weekly.</p>
<p>Representatives for the couple have not yet explained whether their breakup was due to the rumored intimacy issues or Burton’s potential infidelity, but told E! News Monday the couple&#160;separated “amicably” earlier this year, and that they “have continued to be friends and co-parent” their son Billy and daughter Nell.</p>
<p>“We would ask that you respect their privacy and that of their children during this time,” concluded the reps.</p>
<p /> | Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton still ‘friends’ after breakup | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/12/24/helena-bonham-carter-and-tim-burton-still-friends-after-breakup/ | 2014-12-24 | 3 |
<p>Residents of Libya's capital <a href="http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7JR0IB20110828" type="external">Tripoli</a> dug makeshift graves as the stench of decomposing bodies and burning garbage filled the streets.</p>
<p>More widespread summary killings during the battle for the Libyan capital were discovered as the city also faced a humanitarian crisis due to failing water and power supplies, Reuters Africa reports.</p>
<p>A week after the fall of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/now-fears-of-disease-rise-as-bodies-pile-up-on-the-streets-2345259.html" type="external">Muammar al-Gaddafi</a>, there were shortages of medicine and no effective government.</p>
<p>In a sign of continuing instability in the city, bursts of heavy machine gunfire and explosions could be heard overnight Saturday, Reuters says.</p>
<p>The rebels in control of most of Tripoli said they would also forcibly take Gaddafi's home town of Sirte if negotiations with loyalists in one of their last strongholds there failed.</p>
<p>The charred remains of about 53 people were found in a warehouse in Tripoli, apparently opponents of Gaddafi who were <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/charred-remains-of-massacre-victims-found-in-tripoli-2345251.html" type="external">executed</a>, Britain's Sky News reported on Saturday.</p>
<p>Sky broadcast pictures of a heap of burned skeletons, still smoldering, in an agricultural warehouse, where the victims were apparently prisoners.</p>
<p>The gruesome discovery comes a day after more than 120 <a href="http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16057724" type="external">decomposing bodies</a> were found in a Tripoli hospital, which doctors had abandoned.</p>
<p>Stuart Ramsay of Sky News was led to the building by residents who had made the discovery.</p>
<p>The Independent reports:</p>
<p>Inside was a scene of mass cremation: more than four dozen corpses of what were once human beings, their ages and genders impossible to tell.</p>
<p>Ribcages, skulls and other bones lay in a blackened mess. Local people told of how the bodies of perhaps as many as 100 others lay nearby, including those of two soldiers with their hands behind their backs who had been executed for refusing to fire on the victims.</p>
<p>In the Tajoura district of the capital, local people prepared a mass grave for the bodies of 22 African men who appeared to have been recruited to fight for Gaddafi, Reuters reports.</p>
<p>One of the dead had his hands tied behind his back.</p>
<p>"The rebels asked them to surrender but they refused," said resident Haitham Mohammed Khat'ei.</p> | Libya: Relatives dug makeshift graves as dead bodies fill streets | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-08-28/libya-relatives-dug-makeshift-graves-dead-bodies-fill-streets | 2011-08-28 | 3 |
<p>The people of Denmark elected their first female prime minister Thursday, bringing the center-left Social Democratic Party to power after 10 years with a right-wing government.</p>
<p>Helle Thorning-Schmidt won the office of prime minister when the opposition coalition she led won a narrow majority of the Parliament’s 179 seats.</p>
<p>The new government means Denmark may get the chance to push off some of the austerity measures that former Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen introduced during Europe’s debt crisis. –BF</p>
<p>The Huffington Post:</p>
<p />
<p>A power shift isn’t likely to yield major changes in consensus-oriented Denmark, where there is broad agreement on the need for a robust welfare system financed by high taxes.</p>
<p>But the two sides differ on the depth of austerity measures needed to keep Denmark’s finances intact amid the uncertainty of the global economy.</p>
<p>Thorning-Schmidt, 44, wants to protect the welfare system by raising taxes on the rich and extending the average working day by 12 minutes.</p>
<p>Loekke Rasmussen says tax hikes would harm the competitiveness of a nation that already has the highest tax pressure in the world.</p>
<p>“We need sound public finances without raising taxes,” Loekke Rasmussen, 47, told reporters after casting his ballot in Graested, north of Copenhagen.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/15/denmark-female-prime-minister-thorning-schmidt_n_965191.html" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Denmark Elects First Female Prime Minister | true | http://truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/denmark_elects_first_female_prime_minister_20110916/ | 2011-09-16 | 4 |
<p />
<p>The dollar struggled near seven-week lows on Thursday on growing concerns over U.S. President Donald Trump's protectionist policies including an executive order to construct a U.S.-Mexican border wall.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The dollar index , which tracks the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was last down 0.2 percent at 99.839. It dipped to 99.835 on Wednesday, its lowest level since Dec. 8.</p>
<p>The dollar was generally weaker despite U.S. shares gaining and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing atop the 20,000 mark for the first time. [.N]</p>
<p>Trump has made several business-friendly decisions since taking office on Friday, including signing executive orders to reduce regulatory burden on domestic manufacturers and clearing the way for the construction of two oil pipelines.</p>
<p>However, the president's broad but divisive plans to reshape U.S. immigration and national security policy rattled some investors partly as the U.S. needs foreign capital to finance its large current account deficit.</p>
<p>Trump on Wednesday ordered construction of a U.S.-Mexican border wall and punishment for cities shielding illegal immigrants while mulling restoring a CIA secret detention program.</p>
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<p>"Amid concerns over Trump's protectionism, the correlation between U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar has gotten weaker," said Junya Tanase, chief currency strategist at JPMorgan Chase Bank.</p>
<p>The dollar last stood at 113.21 yen against the yen, near two-month low of 112.52 yen touched on Tuesday even as U.S. Treasuries yields stayed near four-week highs. =&gt;</p>
<p>U.S. benchmark 10-year Treasury yields last stood at 2.510 percent , close to a 4-week high of 2.538 percent hit on Wednesday. =rr&gt;</p>
<p>"It's similar to the U.S.-Japan trade conflicts in 1990s. Back then, the dollar was weak despite the high U.S. interest rates. Dollar would remain weak if Trump pushes his protectionist rhetoric," said JPMorgan Chase's Tanase.</p>
<p>Sterling was last down 0.1 percent at $1.2627 after hitting a six-week high of $1.2638 on Wednesday. The pound was helped by hopes for a trade deal between Britain and the United States, which Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday would "put UK interests and UK values first." =d4&gt;</p>
<p>The euro traded at $1.0755 against the dollar, slightly below Tuesday's seven-week high of $1.0775 and down 0.1 percent from late U.S. levels. =ebs&gt;</p>
<p>(Reporting by Yuzuha Oka; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)</p> | Dollar wallows near seven-week lows on Trump protectionism | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/25/dollar-wallows-near-seven-week-lows-on-trump-protectionism.html | 2017-01-26 | 0 |
<p />
<p>If you can’t give your top workers a raise, maybe you should rethink the 9-to-5 schedule.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>That’s the key takeaway from a new study by BMO Harris Bank, which found that 53% of business owners believe a flexible schedule is the most valuable perk in retaining top talent, aside from a pay increase.</p>
<p>“We see much more than a third of the clients we support being fine with [flexible hours],” says Dave Casper, BMO Harris Bank’s executive vice president and head of commercial banking. And while some types of businesses likely will never be able to stomach a more flexible schedule, Casper says he sees the flexibility trend growing.</p>
<p>“There may be a cap, but I think we’re at the early stages of this, especially in terms of new business formation,” says Casper. He says many new businesses and startups seem to be working long hours – but not keeping a traditional schedule.</p>
<p>Casper says he wasn’t surprised to find that flexible hours ranked high in business owners’ minds, but was impressed by the degree to which it outranked other benefits.</p>
<p>“What really blew us away was that it was so far ahead. It was 20% above the rest,” says Casper. Indeed, education, training and development opportunities came in a distant second, with only 33% of survey respondents saying that investing in employee growth was a valuable talent retention tool. Increased health and dental benefits came in close behind (27%).</p>
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<p>Breaking Millennial Stereotypes</p>
<p>The survey also examined business owners’ perceptions of the class of 2014. Perhaps surprisingly, given much of the conversation around Gen Y in the workplace, says Casper, 57% of business owners say today’s college grads are either more prepared or equally prepared to enter the workforce today.</p>
<p>Casper says this positive view is supported by his own experience of Millennial workers as well.</p>
<p>“In our own bank, we have found that these Gen Ys … they are not fitting the stereotype that’s out there,” says Casper, especially regarding their alleged propensity to job-hop.</p>
<p>“They are looking for reasons to stay in an organization – they’re not looking for reasons to leave … They want to stay, they want to grow, and they want to stay in the same company,” says Casper.</p>
<p>When it comes to hiring recent college graduates, just over one-third of business owners say they’re most interested in an applicant’s skill set, while 32% say prior work experience, including internships, is critical. Least important, in business owners’ eyes, is the type of degree earned or the specific school attended.</p>
<p>The BMO Harris Bank survey was conducted last November online by research firm Pollara. It surveyed more than 600 business owners.</p> | Survey: Flexible Hours Help Keep Valuable Employees | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/06/03/survey-flexible-hours-help-keep-valuable-employees.html | 2016-04-07 | 0 |
<p>Global stock markets and the dollar fell sharply Tuesday, as investors were rattled by North Korea's launch of a midrange ballistic missile that crossed over northern Japan and fell into the Pacific Ocean. The euro, which breached $1.20 for the first time since January 2015, was one of the major beneficiaries of the risk-averse mood across financial markets.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: In Europe, France's CAC 40 fell 1.3 percent to 5,011 while Germany's DAX slid 1.8 percent to 11,911. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 1.2 percent lower at 7,314. U.S. stocks were poised for declines at the open with Dow futures and the broader S&amp;P 500 futures down 0.6 percent. The dollar was also suffering from the risk averse mood in the markets, posting big falls against its major competitors.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>MISSILE NEWS: The reason behind the risk-off mood in stock markets was the news overnight that North Korea had fired a midrange ballistic missile into the northern Pacific Ocean. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile traveled around 2,700 kilometers (1,677 miles) and reached a maximum height of 550 kilometers (341 miles) as it traveled over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. The distance and type of missile tested seemed designed to show that North Korea can back up a threat to target the U.S. territory of Guam, if it chooses to do so, while also establishing a potentially dangerous precedent that could see future missiles flying over Japan.</p>
<p>ANALYST TAKE: "Equities are firmly in the red after North Korea delivered its biggest provocation in two decades by firing a ballistic missile over Japan, adding fuel to the fires of geopolitical uncertainty," said Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets.</p>
<p>SAFE HAVENS: While stocks were suffering, traditional safe haven assets were in demand, including gold, which was up 0.8 percent at $1,325.30 an ounce. The Swiss franc was also in the ascendant, with the dollar down 1.2 percent at 0.9442 SFr.</p>
<p>EURO STRONG TOO: Europe's single currency also enjoyed further solid gains amid the geopolitical uncertainty, rising above $1.20 for the first time since early 2015. The euro has be buoyant for a while now, benefiting from the stronger than anticipated economic recovery taking place in the 19-country eurozone as well as rising expectations that the European Central Bank will start to rein in its stimulus measures soon. Last Friday, the ECB's president, Mario Draghi, failed to engage in any talk about the strong euro, which could hurt exporters and prevent inflation from rising back to target as it keeps import costs down. Investors took that as a signal for further euro buying. By early afternoon London time, the euro was up 0.5 percent at $1.2042.</p>
<p>ASIA'S DAY: Asian investors largely held their nerve after the North Korea test, with Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 closing down only 0.5 percent at 19,362.55. The Japanese yen was holding up well too as it often does in times of geopolitical stress — the dollar was down 0.7 percent at 108.49 yen. Elsewhere in Asia, Australia's S&amp;P/ASX 200 dipped 0.7 percent to 5,669.00 while South Korea's Kospi lost 0.2 percent to 2,364.74. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.1 percent to 27,828.67, but the Shanghai Composite inched up 0.1 percent to 3,365.23.</p>
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<p>STORM FEARS: U.S. trading had focused on the effects of Tropical Storm Harvey in the absence of other market-moving news. Large parts of the energy and petrochemical industries are based in the Houston area and companies with a lot of stores in the area stand to lose business. While gas price spikes will be temporary, other effects of the storm will last for years. The U.S. Federal Reserve might hesitate to raise interest rates if they think the storm will slow the economy significantly.</p>
<p>ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude was down 4 cents at $46.53 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, fell 20 cents to $51.22 a barrel.</p> | Global stocks in retreat after North Korean missile test | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/29/asian-stocks-fall-rattled-by-north-korean-missile-launch.html | 2017-08-29 | 0 |
<p>People who know New Jersey politics know who Michael Drewniak is.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for Gov. Chris Christie (R) going back to Christie’s days as a U.S. attorney, Drewniak is known for “routinely [channeling] his boss’s invective,” as <a href="http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/is_chris_christies_bridge_scandal_an_extension_of_the_governors_culture.html" type="external">The Newark Star-Ledger put it</a> recently. In 2009, when he was still the spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey and a registered Democrat, the website PolitickerNJ <a href="http://www.politickernj.com/wallye/27130/drewniak-practices-what-he-preaches" type="external">wrote about Drewniak’s “testicular fortitude”</a> in attending Christie’s gubernatorial campaign kick-off event.</p>
<p>“We are not required to act like cloistered drones when it comes to the political process,” Drewniak told the website at the time.</p>
<p>Thanks to the release last week of thousands of pages of documents connected to the George Washington Bridge lane closures, many people outside New Jersey politics have now learned who Drewniak is, too, while also learning a few things about his use of invective.</p>
<p />
<p>“Fuck him and the [Star-Ledger],” Drewniak wrote in an email on Nov. 27 to former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive David Wildstein, after hearing that the Star-Ledger editorial board would call for subpoenas to be issued in the scandal.</p>
<p>While other close Christie aides — former deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly and former campaign manager Bill Stepien — lost their jobs over their presence in the documents, Drewniak is still on the job. Just what role he played in the scandal is unclear. (Drewniak did not respond to a request for comment.) Emails Drewniak exchanged with Wildstein in December, in the days leading up to Wildstein’s announced resignation from the Port Authority, remain one of the more enigmatic aspects of this still enigmatic story.</p>
<p>Let’s pause here to set the stage a little. By early December, Democrats in New Jersey had already spent months suggesting that the lane closures in September, which led to a massive traffic jam in the town of Fort Lee, N.J., had been orchestrated as political payback against the town’s mayor, a Democrat who had declined to endorse Christie’s re-election campaign. Another Christie ally at the Port Authority, Bill Baroni, had by that time <a href="http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/11/gwb_closures_hearing_port_authority.html" type="external">appeared before state lawmakers</a> and said that Wildstein had ordered the closures. At the same hearing, Baroni maintained that the lanes had been closed as part of a traffic study.</p>
<p>A final piece of background information: Wildstein and Drewniak appear to have a longtime friendly relationship. The 2009 PolitickerNJ article that mentioned Drewniak’s “testicular fortitude” was written by Wally Edge — which was the pseudonym Wildstein used when he ran the website.</p>
<p>Now back to the mysterious emails. On Dec. 3, a week after the Baroni hearing, Wildstein and Drewniak traded emails in the morning after Wildstein asked for a transcript a Christie’s comments at a press conference that week, the one were the governor joked about “working the cones” during the lane closures. Wildstein said he needed the remarks for a “board meeting.” Later in the day, Wildstein forwarded an email to Drewniak from a Port Authority spokesperson. The subject was a request from the editorial page editor of the Star-Ledger, who wanted to talk to the Port Authority for an upcoming editorial about the closures. At 9:22 p.m., Drewniak replied to Wildstein, who had forwarded the email from his personal Gmail account to Drewniak’s own Gmail account.</p>
<p>“I did see this earlier,” Drewniak wrote. “Tom will be in full righteous rage, no doubt.”</p>
<p>At 10:51 p.m., Wildstein replied.</p>
<p>“Need to talk to you soon, in person, once you get caught up and have some time,” he wrote.</p>
<p>Drewniak did not respond until the next morning.</p>
<p>“Sounds a little ominous,” Christie’s spokesman wrote to Wildstein at 7:54 a.m. on Dec. 4. “Okay. Urgent for today? Could possibly meet in New Brunswick. Or tomorrow.”</p>
<p>Two minutes later, Wildstein wrote back, sounding more casual.</p>
<p>“Not urgent for today, just want to be on the radar screen sometime in the next week or two,” he wrote.</p>
<p>But Drewniak had a slot open for that night.</p>
<p>“Can you do dinner in New Brunswick this evening?” he wrote at 8:15 a.m. “Everyone here is leaving early for meetings at Drum and it looks quiet on the press front.”</p>
<p>“Sure as long as short notice doesn’t inconvenience you,” Wildstein replied at 8:35 a.m.</p>
<p>“Yeah, same here,” Drewniak wrote at 8:39 a.m.</p>
<p>“Ok let me know what time and where,” Wildstein wrote at 8:40 a.m. “And acknowledge that it’s my turn to buy.”</p>
<p>At 11:57 p.m. that night, and presumably after dinner, Wildstein sent an email to the personal accounts of both Drewniak and David Samson, the chairman of the Port Authority. The email contained the text of an Associated Press article quoting Port Authority Police Department union chief Paul Nunziato, who denied rumors that the lane closures were political revenge.</p>
<p>On the morning of Dec. 5, Wildstein and Drewniak exchanged cordial emails referencing the previous night’s dinner.</p>
<p>“Thanks again for all your sound advice last night, I always appreciate your friendship,” Wildstein wrote to Drewniak on Dec. 5 at 8:26 a.m. “Spoke with O’Toole this morning and he will talk with you later today.”</p>
<p>“Same to you, David, and thanks a great dinner,” Drewniak replied, half an hour later.</p>
<p>Then, just a few hours later, at 12:43 p.m., Wildstein sent another email to Drewniak. This one contained an attachment: a letter that Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich sent to Baroni in 2010 — three years before the lane closures — complaining about how easy it was for traffic to become snarled in his town. Traffic jams would occur almost anytime there was a crash or construction on the bridge, the mayor wrote. He was asking for the Port Authority’s help.</p>
<p>“This is the letter I referred to,” Wildstein wrote. “[N]ote paragraph 2, page 3 — ‘…we find ourselves with no alternative other than to direct the Chief of Police to completely close off our local roads over which we maintain exclusive jurisdiction to avoid Fort Lee becoming a parking lot in the future and thereby require all vehicles to remain on the major approach thoroughfares (i.e. Route 46, Route 4, Route 80, I-95, etc.) and not otherwise meander through our local thoroughfares which cause safety concerns (especially for children) and complete traffic shut-down for all our residents,'” Wildstein wrote.</p>
<p>It is not clear from the released documents whether Drewniak ever replied.</p>
<p>The next day, Dec. 6, Wildstein <a href="http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/timeline_of_the_port_authoritys_george_washington_bridge_lane_closure_controversy.html" type="external">announced his resignation</a> from the Port Authority, saying the lane closures had “become a distraction, and I’m going to move on.” The documents show Wildstein and Drewniak also exchanged emails on Dec. 6. The subject was the wording of Drewniak’s statement to the press acknowledging Wildstein’s “service to the people of New Jersey and the region.”</p> | Scandal Emails Raise Questions About Christie’s Trash-Talking Mouthpiece | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/drewniak-christie-scandal | 4 |
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<p>Smart beta exchange traded funds that pick companies based on various proven market factors have grown as a popular alternative to diminish risks associated with traditional market capitalization-weighted index funds. In the Top Smart Beta Strategies for 2017 panel on the annual online ETF Trends Virtual Summit&#160;(available on-demand for up to 4 CE Credits), Arne… <a href="http://www.etftrends.com/2017/02/smart-beta-etf-strategies-for-2017/" type="external">Click to read more at ETFtrends.com. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Smart Beta ETF Strategies for 2017 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/09/smart-beta-etf-strategies-for-2017.html | 2017-02-09 | 0 |
<p>In May 2008, the major law firm Hunton &amp; Williams launched the Water Policy Institute (WPI), a think tank-esque, industry-supported consortium formed “to address water supply, quality and use issues,” according to its website.</p>
<p>After the initial flurry of press releases, WPI appeared to languish. Then, ten months after its formation, WPI issued its first white paper. “Water Wars: Conflicts Over Shared Waters” focuses on two river basins in the Southeastern United States. The paper urges the states involved — Georgia, Florida and Alabama — to put aside litigation and work with federal mediators to reach an agreement on water allocation. It also supports further study of seasonal water use, ecological issues and efficiency measures.</p>
<p>The white paper’s conclusions seem reasonable, even obvious. So much so that it’s unclear why Hunton &amp; Williams felt the need to recruit major public relations and corporate powerhouses when forming WPI — and what they, and the law firm, get out of the effort.</p>
<p>What is clear is that WPI, Hunton &amp; Williams and their corporate allies have a long history of siding with (or being) polluters and attempting to undermine water quality safeguards. It seems reasonable, therefore, to worry that whatever WPI is up to, it’s likely to do more harm than good.</p>
<p>WPI’s usual suspects</p>
<p>The Water Policy Institute’s chair is former New Jersey governor and Environmental Protection Agency head Christine Todd Whitman. After leaving the EPA, Whitman founded her own public relations firm. The Whitman Strategy Group’s clients include FMC Corporation, a chemical and pesticide manufacturer; the oil company Chevron’s Environmental Management Company; and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), an industry lobby group. Since 2006, Whitman has co-chaired the NEI-funded and Hill &amp; Knowlton-managed Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, a pro-nuclear front group.</p>
<p>“I have, for many years now, believed that water is the greatest environmental challenge facing the world in the 21st century,” Whitman stated, in a speech at WPI’s inaugural meeting. Since first being elected to public office 25 years ago, she said, “I have been wrestling with water issues.” WPI “will help policymakers in every sector better understand — and more effectively communicate and advance — the need for action,” she added.</p>
<p>There are also financial incentives for Whitman’s involvement with WPI. Whitman “is now helping to bring clients to the law firm of Hunton &amp; Williams as chairwoman of its new Water Policy Institute,” reported Congressional Quarterly in June 2008. “Whitman’s firm will get an undisclosed fee for its work.”</p>
<p>In addition to Whitman’s political star power, WPI presumably benefits from the connections and resources of its founding corporate members: BP, GE Water and the Central Arizona Project. As a multinational oil, gas and fuels company, BP’s interests in water issues are significant. For example, the company is invested in Alberta’s tar sands, where oil development requires — and pollutes — large volumes of water. Last year, BP was party to a $423 million settlement compensating U.S. public water systems for contamination from the gas additive MTBE.</p>
<p>GE Water describes itself as “a leading global supplier of water treatment, wastewater treatment and process systems solutions.” In an August 2006 press release, the company enthused, “Globally, the water market is $365 billion and offers a high growth potential.” Its products range from water treatment chemicals, filters and membranes; to industrial water management systems; to “mobile water” emergency back-ups. GE Water boasts “the world’s largest base of desalination systems,” which use an energy-intensive process to produce fresh water from seawater or salty water. GE Water is also involved with Canada’s tar sands, as part of a $15 million effort “to improve water usage” during oil extraction.</p>
<p>The Central Arizona Project is a “336-mile long system of aqueducts, tunnels, pumping plants and pipelines” that directs Colorado River water to three Arizona counties. The “quasi-governmental entity” that runs the project has hired the Hunton &amp; Williams firm to weigh in on several water-related legal cases. Due to growing population, drought and climate change, the Central Arizona Project is likely to face increased competition for water resources. It’s also nervous about possible carbon tax or cap-and-trade policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as it relies on the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station for its substantial power needs.</p>
<p>Hunton for Robb</p>
<p>The Water Policy Institute’s home, Hunton &amp; Williams, isn’t the most environmentally-friendly law firm. In a landmark 2007 case before the U.S. Supreme Court, the firm argued that the EPA shouldn’t be allowed to regulate carbon dioxide. By the time the court ruled against them, Hunton &amp; Williams “had built up a team of energy lobbyists who could … work to minimize the potential damage to their clients through legislation,” reported The Hill.</p>
<p>Hunton &amp; Williams’ lobbying clients include the oil giant ConocoPhillips, the electric industry’s Edison Electric Institute, infamous polluter Koch Industries and the powerful National Association of Manufacturers lobby group. Also on the list is “Americans for Affordable Climate Policy,” a front group formed by coal interests to ensure that any cap-and-trade system gives free emissions credits to industry. Hunton &amp; Williams’ non-lobbying clients include Altria (formerly known as Philip Morris), military contractor General Dynamics, drugmaker Pfizer and Texas energy company Luminant (formerly known as TXU).</p>
<p>On water issues, Hunton &amp; Williams lobbies for the Waters Advocacy Coalition, another industry front group whose members include the National Mining Association, the anti-regulatory and industry-funded Western Business Roundtable, the pesticide industry group CropLife America and the American Forest &amp; Paper Association, which represents the “forest products industry.”</p>
<p>WPI’s director is Kathy Robb, a Hunton &amp; Williams partner focused on resources, regulatory and environmental law. In a 2005 filing with the U.S. Supreme Court, Robb argued that hydroelectric dam operators shouldn’t be regulated under the Clean Water Act. In 2005 and 2006, Robb filed briefs on behalf of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, which operates the Central Arizona Project. The briefs supported a canal lining project that environmentalists and local groups feared would dry up wetlands and harm rural communities. Robb’s clients include “developers, electric utilities, investors, chemical manufacturers, and paper mills,” according to Hunton &amp; Williams’ website.</p>
<p>Robb has said that WPI is interested in issues of water “scarcity and pricing and … how you can encourage people to conserve,” “recycling and reclamation,” “the interconnection between energy and water,” and “the intersection increasingly of water quality and water quantity issues.” How do those laudable goals square with Robb’s legal work to restrict the application of the Clean Water Act, with the interests of WPI’s corporate members, or with Hunton &amp; Williams’ clients?</p>
<p>I called Robb’s office to request an interview. Her assistant quickly identified a time, several days later, when I could speak with her. Then, just before the interview was supposed to take place, the assistant called back to cancel it. I repeatedly contacted the office to reschedule. At one point, a nervous-sounding woman asked me where the interview would appear and what questions I would ask Robb. More than two weeks, several phone calls and emails later, it seems safe to conclude that Kathy Robb doesn’t want to talk with me.</p>
<p>Life, death and water policy</p>
<p>Kathy Robb’s silence doesn’t bode well for WPI. Serious policy groups realize that, in order to have any credibility, they must either scrupulously avoid or fully disclose potential conflicts of interest. If WPI has any such policies, they’re not public. WPI’s website doesn’t even include a list of its members.</p>
<p>In 2003, former United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali stated, “Water will be more important than oil this century.” Today, an estimated one billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water. In 2025, the UN predicts that 1.8 billion people will live in areas with “absolute water scarcity.” According to a June 2008 technical paper for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there is “very high confidence” that “adverse effects of climate change on freshwater systems [will] aggravate the impacts of other stresses, such as population growth, changing economic activity, land-use change and urbanisation.”</p>
<p>These are serious, complex and urgent issues. The last thing we need is another corporate front group muddying the waters.</p>
<p>DIANE FARSETTA is the <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/" type="external">Center for Media and Democracy’s</a> senior researcher. She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | Life, Death and Water Policy | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/05/01/life-death-and-water-policy/ | 2009-05-01 | 4 |
<p>You invade Bahrain. We take out Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. This, in short, is the essence of a deal struck between the Barack Obama administration and the House of Saud. Two diplomatic sources at the United Nations independently confirm that Washington, via Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gave the go-ahead for Saudi Arabia to invade Bahrain and crush the pro-democracy movement in their neighbor in exchange for a “yes” vote by the Arab League for a no-fly zone over Libya – the main rationale that led to United Nations Security Council resolution 1973.</p>
<p>The revelation came from two different diplomats, a European and a member of the BRIC group, and was made separately to a US scholar and Asia Times Online. According to diplomatic protocol, their names cannot be disclosed. One of the diplomats said, “This is the reason why we could not support resolution 1973. We were arguing that Libya, Bahrain and Yemen were similar cases, and calling for a fact-finding mission. We maintain our official position that the resolution is not clear, and may be interpreted in a belligerent manner.”</p>
<p>As Asia Times Online has reported, a full Arab League endorsement of a no-fly zone is a myth. Of the 22 full members, only 11 were present at the voting. Six of them were Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, the US-supported club of Gulf kingdoms/sheikhdoms, of which Saudi Arabia is the top dog. Syria and Algeria were against it. Saudi Arabia only had to “seduce” three other members to get the vote.</p>
<p>Translation: only nine out of 22 members of the Arab League voted for the no-fly zone. The vote was essentially a House of Saud-led operation, with Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa keen to polish his CV with Washington with an eye to becoming the next Egyptian President.</p>
<p>Thus, in the beginning, there was the great 2011 Arab revolt. Then, inexorably, came the US-Saudi counter-revolution.</p>
<p>Humanitarian imperialists will spin en masse this story of a deal&#160; as “conspiracy-mongering”, as they have been spinning the bombing of Libya as preventing a hypothetical massacre in Benghazi. They will be defend the House of Saud – saying it acted to squash Iranian subversion in the Gulf; obviously R2P – “responsibility to protect” does not apply to people in Bahrain. They will be heavily promoting post-Gaddafi Libya as a a new – oily – human rights Mecca, complete with US intelligence assets, black ops, special forces and dodgy contractors.</p>
<p>Whatever they say won’t alter the facts on the ground – the graphic results of the US-Saudi dirty dancing. Players include the Pentagon (via Africom), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Saudi Arabia, the Arab League’s Moussa, and Qatar. Add to the list the al-Khalifa dynasty in Bahrain, assorted weapons contractors, and the usual neo-liberal suspects eager to privatize everything in sight in the new Libya – even the water. And we’re not even talking about the Western vultures hovering over the Libyan oil and gas industry.</p>
<p>Exposed, above all, is the astonishing hypocrisy of the Obama administration, selling a crass geopolitical coup involving northern Africa and the Persian Gulf as a humanitarian operation. As for the fact of another US war on a Muslim nation, that’s just a “kinetic military action”.</p>
<p>There’s been wide speculation in both the US and across the Middle East that considering the military stalemate – and short of the “coalition of the willing” bombing the Gaddafi family to oblivion – Washington, London and Paris might settle for the control of eastern Libya; a northern African version of an oil-rich Gulf Emirate. Gaddafi would be left with a starving North Korea-style Tripolitania.</p>
<p>But considering the latest high-value defections from the regime, plus the desired endgame (“Gaddafi must go”, in President Obama’s own words), Washington, London, Paris and Riyadh won’t settle for anything but the whole kebab. Including a strategic base for both Africom and NATO.</p>
<p>Round up the unusual suspects</p>
<p>One of the side effects of the dirty US-Saudi deal is that the White House is doing all it can to make sure the Bahrain drama is buried by US media. BBC America news anchor Katty Kay at least had the decency to stress, “they would like that one [Bahrain] to go away because there’s no real upside for them in supporting the rebellion by the Shi’ites.”</p>
<p>For his part the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, showed up on al-Jazeera and said that action was needed because the Libyan people were being &#160;attacked by Gaddafi. The otherwise excellent al-Jazeera journalists could have politely asked the emir whether he would send his Mirages to protect the people of Palestine from Israel, or his neighbors in Bahrain from Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>The al-Khalifa dynasty in Bahrain is essentially a bunch of Sunni settlers who took over 230 years ago. For a great deal of the 20th century they were obliging slaves of the British empire. Modern Bahrain does not live under the specter of a push from Iran; that’s an al-Khalifa (and House of Saud) myth.</p>
<p>Bahrainis, historically, have always rejected being part of a sort of Shi’ite nation led by Iran. The protests come a long way, and are part of a true national movement – way beyond sectarianism. No wonder the slogan in the Pearl roundabout – smashed by the fearful al-Khalifa police state – was “neither Sunni nor Shi’ite; Bahraini”.</p>
<p>What the protesters wanted was essentially a constitutional monarchy; a legitimate parliament; free and fair elections; and no more corruption. What they got instead was “bullet-friendly Bahrain” replacing “business-friendly Bahrain”, and an invasion sponsored by the House of Saud.</p>
<p>And the repression goes on – invisible to US corporate media. Tweeters scream that everybody and his neighbor are being arrested. According to Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, over 400 people are either missing or in custody, some of them “arrested at checkpoints controlled by thugs brought in from other Arab and Asian countries – they wear black masks in the streets.” Even blogger Mahmood Al Yousif was arrested at 3 am, leading to fears that the same will happen to any Bahraini who has blogged, tweeted, or posted Facebook messages in favor of reform.</p>
<p>Globocop is on a roll</p>
<p>Odyssey Dawn is now over. Enter Unified Protector – led by Canadian Charles Bouchard. Translation: the Pentagon (as in Africom) transfers the “kinetic military action ” to itself (as in NATO, which is nothing but the Pentagon ruling over Europe). Africom and NATO are now one.</p>
<p>The NATO show will include air and cruise missile strikes; a naval blockade of Libyia; and shady, unspecified ground operations to help the “rebels”. Hardcore helicopter gunship raids a la AfPak – with attached “collateral damage” – should be expected.</p>
<p>A curious development is already visible. NATO is deliberately allowing Gaddafi forces to advance along the Mediterranean coast and repel the “rebels”. There have been no air strikes for quite a while.</p>
<p>The objective is possibly to extract political and economic concessions from the defector and Libyan exile-infested Interim National Council (INC) – a dodgy cast of characters including former Justice minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil, US-educated former secretary of planning Mahmoud Jibril, and former Virginia resident, new “military commander” and CIA asset Khalifa Hifter. The laudable, indigenous February 17 Youth movement – which was in the forefront of the Benghazi uprising – has been completely sidelined.</p>
<p>This is NATO’s first African war, as Afghanistan is NATO’s first Central/South Asian war. Now firmly configured as the UN’s weaponized arm, Globocop NATO is on a roll implementing its “strategic concept” approved at the Lisbon summit last November.</p>
<p>Gaddafi’s Libya must be taken out so the Mediterranean – the mare nostrum of ancient Rome – becomes a NATO lake. Libya is the only nation in northern Africa not subordinated to Africom or Centcom or any one of the myriad NATO “partnerships”. The other non-NATO-related African nations are Eritrea, Sawahiri Arab Democratic Republic, Sudan and Zimbabwe.</p>
<p>Moreover, two members of NATO’s “Istanbul Cooperation Initiative” – Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – are now fighting alongside Africom/NATO for the fist time..</p>
<p>According to the Obama administration’s own official doublespeak, dictators who are eligible for “US outreach” – such as in Bahrain and Yemen – may relax, and get away with virtually anything. As for those eligible for “regime alteration”, from Africa to the Middle East and Asia, watch out. Globocop NATO is coming to get you. With or without dirty deals.</p>
<p>PEPE ESCOBAR is the author of <a href="" type="internal">Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War</a> (Nimble Books, 2007) and <a href="" type="internal">Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge</a>. His new book, just out, is <a href="" type="internal">Obama does Globalistan</a> (Nimble Books, 2009).</p>
<p>This article first ran in Asia Times.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The US / Saudi Deal on Libya and Bahrain | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/04/04/the-us-saudi-deal-on-libya-and-bahrain/ | 2011-04-04 | 4 |
<p>GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) — No travel is being advised in northeastern North Dakota due to blowing and drifting snow.</p>
<p>The state Transportation Department says the conditions are causing near-zero visibility for motorists. Cities in the advisory area include Grand Forks, Grafton, Pembina and Cavalier.</p>
<p>Much of the state is under a wind chill warning, with wind chills dropping into the minus 30s and 40s. The National Weather Service says daytime high temperatures are expected to be in the single digits and teens below zero.</p>
<p>Wind chills overnight into Tuesday are expected to be as cold as 45 below.</p>
<p>GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) — No travel is being advised in northeastern North Dakota due to blowing and drifting snow.</p>
<p>The state Transportation Department says the conditions are causing near-zero visibility for motorists. Cities in the advisory area include Grand Forks, Grafton, Pembina and Cavalier.</p>
<p>Much of the state is under a wind chill warning, with wind chills dropping into the minus 30s and 40s. The National Weather Service says daytime high temperatures are expected to be in the single digits and teens below zero.</p>
<p>Wind chills overnight into Tuesday are expected to be as cold as 45 below.</p> | No travel being advised in northeastern North Dakota | false | https://apnews.com/81c2d2e8842840ec995479717f6e30b8 | 2018-01-15 | 2 |
<p>May 31, 2012</p>
<p>Katy Grimes: A newly released federal study reports that California has not only used very little of the billions of dollars in tobacco tax and tobacco settlement money it receives, the state has raided the tobacco fund to plug budget holes.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that only 6 percent of the funds collected from cigarette taxes and funds from a 1998 tobacco lawsuit settlement went to tobacco programs in California.</p>
<p>This is what happens when governments collect targeted tax money with few specifications on how that money is to be spent.</p>
<p>With all of the recent press for and against <a href="http://www.noon29.com/" type="external">Proposition 29</a>, “The California Cancer Research Act,” which claims to be another tobacco tax aimed at preventing children from smoking, or helping smokers quit the habit, this could end up being a bottomless pit of funds.</p>
<p>But with Prop 29, there aren’t even any restrictions requiring that the money be spent in California. Prop 29 will add another $1.00 tax to each $5.19 pack of cigarettes in California. The tax is expected to generate $735 million a year and create a new, expensive state bureaucracy.</p>
<p>But the CDC study shows that states have a bad habit of not using tobacco taxes for tobacco education or cessation.</p>
<p>The report found that between 1998 and 2010, California collected nearly $22 billion from a lawsuit settlement with tobacco companies and from cigarette taxes, but only spent $1.3 billion, on tobacco prevention and cessation programs.</p>
<p>California’s lawmakers have already proven that they can’t and won’t balance a budget, and this spending shows that they will raid any fund available.</p>
<p>In California, politicians use the cover of compelling health causes as money-making mechanisms.</p>
<p>In 2004, California voters were manipulated into passing the stem cell initiative,&#160; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_71_(2004)" type="external">Proposition 71</a>, which authorized the creation of the <a href="http://www.cirm.ca.gov/" type="external">California Institute of Regenerative Medicine</a>, at a cost of $3 billion to taxpayers. Touted to as the only way to find the cure for Parkinson’s disease, rare cancers and other rare diseases, eight years later, where are the cures?</p>
<p>Next week, California will be faced with voting on another potential fiscal boondoggle with Prop 29.</p>
<p>Prop 29 shows all of the same flaws as the stem cell initiative—a lack of financial accountability, and severe conflicts of interest.</p>
<p>As with the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine , <a href="http://www.noon29.com/" type="external">Proposition 29</a> is exempt from the oversights of the administrative and legislative budget process, which prevents the legislature and Governor from reining in unchecked spending, and questionable uses of funds.</p>
<p>And, Prop 29 was written to remain in place for 15 years, without the possibility of changes–not even by voters.</p>
<p>Prop 29 will provide an even larger discretionary budget to its commission by allowing $110 million to be spent every year on “facilities.”&#160; The nine appointed public employee commission members can spend the money out of the state, or even out of the country.</p>
<p>If additional taxes are going to be imposed on Californians, the money should at least be required to be spent within the state.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | State raids tobacco tax money | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2012/05/31/state-raids-tobacco-tax-money/ | 2018-05-20 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Is he?</p>
<p>The prosecution failed to establish that the former employee robbed the park. We find him not guilty.</p>
<p>Well, which is it?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The verdict depends on which trial is reviewed.</p>
<p>Two teams of University of New Mexico students represented both sides – prosecution and defense – at the Air Force Invitational mock trials competition last weekend in Colorado Springs.</p>
<p>Fourteen schools participated, but in the end, only one thing was certain: UNM was the clear winner.</p>
<p>The university’s A-team was undefeated and took first place in the tournament. The UNM B-team, with a 7-1 record, placed third.</p>
<p>“These kids get very little support from the university, but they went to Colorado Springs and represented UNM,” said Barbara Clinton, the mother of team member Markela Clinton, a senior. “I am so proud of them. They swept the event.”</p>
<p>Laura Worden, another senior, coaches the UNM mock trials teams and, like all the students, had to master opposing roles.</p>
<p>“Basically, both teams had to put together both sides, the prosecution and the defense – and the witnesses,” she explained.</p>
<p>As a prosecutor, Worden prevailed. The defendant was found guilty. But then she took over the role of defense counsel and, “we pretty much got him off,” she said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Lawyers from the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s office, JAGs, judged the performances.</p>
<p>The 14 UNM students – seven per team – have been working on the same case all year. In addition to the team awards, Worden was named top attorney of the tournament, Valeria Garcia took the top witness prize, and Rae Ann Cook was the third-ranked witness.</p>
<p>Moreover, UNM’s A-team was presented with the Team Spirit Award for the most professional presentations, an honor decided on by all the competitors.</p>
<p>Just a few weeks ago, the UNM students travelled to Dallas for another competition, but didn’t fare as well, coming in second and fourth. Now they have their eyes set on the Nationals, which will take place in Miami later in the school year.</p>
<p>The mock trials program at UNM is in its third year.</p>
<p>Worden has a double major in political science and Spanish and, not surprisingly, plans to go to law school after she graduates. One of her top choices is the UNM Law School. Clinton also plans to study law.</p>
<p />
<p /> | UNM team tops in mock trials contest | false | https://abqjournal.com/300430/unm-team-tops-in-mock-trials-contest.html | 2013-11-14 | 2 |
<p>Aug. 29 (UPI) — A match between <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John-Cena/" type="external">John Cena</a> and Roman Reigns was made official Monday on Raw as two of WWE’s biggest stars took part in a war of words.</p>
<p>Cena met Reigns in the ring for a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLZwB1kUXBI" type="external">contract signing</a> to make their mega match a reality at No Mercy, but not before sparks began to fly on the microphone.</p>
<p>“You’re not as big of a deal as you think you are,” The Big Dog said of the 16-time heavyweight champion. “I’ve done something you’ll never do, I retired The Undertaker at WrestleMania. So maybe its not that I don’t wanna fight you, maybe I just don’t need to.”</p>
<p>“They go back and fourth with you because when they look at you, they see what I see,” Cena said about the crowd’s reaction to Reigns. “A cheap ass, corporately created, John Cena bootleg!”</p>
<p>The pair then signed the contract before they were forced into a Tag Team Match together against Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in which they won using an Attitude Adjustment and Spear.</p>
<p>Cena meets Reigns at No Mercy on Sept. 24.</p>
<p>In Raw’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX5_Lw8crHc" type="external">main event</a>, Sasha Banks defended her newly won Raw Women’s Championship against former champ Alexa Bliss following their match at SummerSlam.</p>
<p>A competitive bout, Bliss turned things around after being put through the Bank Statement and was able to plant The Boss with a DDT for the three count.</p>
<p>As The Goddess celebrated in the ring, she was joined by Nia Jax who attacked Banks and held up Bliss on her shoulders. Soon, however, Jax’s smiling expression changed as she slammed Bliss down hard to the mat and posed with the Women’s Championship herself, signaling that she was next in line to challenge for the title.</p>
<p>Also on Raw, Universal Champion Brock Lesnar alongside his advocate Paul Heyman, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if6CZJjlzCQ" type="external">addressed</a> how he was attacked by Braun Strowman last week. In a rare moment, Lesnar grabbed the microphone from Heyman and addressed The Monster Among Men himself.</p>
<p>“Suplex city [expletive],” The Beast said, summing up his plans for Strowman at No Mercy.</p>
<p>Other highlights included Jeff Hardy winning a Battle Royal to become the No.1 contender to The Miz’s Intercontinental Championship; Enzo Amore defeating Noam Dar; Cesaro defeating Raw Tag Team Champion <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Seth-Rollins/" type="external">Seth Rollins</a>; Raw Tag Team Champion <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Dean-Ambrose/" type="external">Dean Ambrose</a> defeating Sheamus; Emma defeating Mickie James; and Southpaw Regional Wrestling’s “Impressive” Pelvis Wesley confronting Elias.</p> | WWE Raw: John Cena, Roman Reigns verbally spar, Alexa Bliss wins back title | false | https://newsline.com/wwe-raw-john-cena-roman-reigns-verbally-spar-alexa-bliss-wins-back-title/ | 2017-08-29 | 1 |
<p>Nov. 15 (UPI) — Six House Democrats on Wednesday announced they signed onto a resolution to introduce five articles of impeachment against President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Donald_Trump/" type="external">Donald Trump</a>.</p>
<p>Rep. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Steve_Cohen/" type="external">Steve Cohen</a> of Tennessee <a href="https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/members-introduce-articles-impeachment" type="external">sponsored the resolution</a>, which was endorsed by <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Luis_Gutierrez/" type="external">Luis Gutierrez</a> of Illinois, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Al_Green/" type="external">Al Green</a> of Texas, Marcia Fudge of Ohio, John Yarmuth of Kentucky and Adriano Espaillat of New York.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/11/dem-rep-al-green-introduces-articles-impeachment-against-trump-forcing-vote.html" type="external">Last month</a>, Green introduced impeachment articles, which focused on accusations that Trump has encouraged racial and ethnic divisions throughout the United States.</p>
<p>Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., has also launched an <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-tom-steyer-impeachment-20171107-story.html" type="external">impeachment effort</a> based on the <a href="https://www.upi.com/Trump-fires-FBI-Director-James-Comey-Democrats-question-timing/9441494366489/" type="external">firing of FBI Director</a> <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/James_Comey/" type="external">James Comey</a>.</p>
<p>The five articles of impeachment in Cohen’s resolution include obstruction of justice to fire Comey, continuing to frequent and profit from his businesses, undermining the independence of the federal judiciary and undermining the freedom of the press.</p>
<p>“The time has come to make clear to the American people and to this president that his train of injuries to our Constitution must be brought to an end through impeachment,” Cohen, the ranking member on the House judiciary committee’s Constitution subcommittee, <a href="https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/members-introduce-articles-impeachment" type="external">said in a release</a>. “I believe there is evidence that he attempted to obstruct an investigation into Russia’s interference with the U.S. presidential election and links between between Russia and the Trump campaign, most notably the firing of FBI Director James Comey.</p>
<p>“The president’s blatant refusal to separate himself from his businesses has led to clear instances of conflict of interest that appear to violate both the domestic and foreign emoluments clauses,” Cohen said. “And his attacks on ‘so-called’ judges and ‘fake news’ have undermined public confidence in the judiciary and the press. It’s time for Congress to take action to stop this reckless and harmful behavior by removing Mr. Trump from office and to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States.”</p>
<p>Cohen, who said other House members will sign “immediately or soon thereafter,” <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/house/360455-house-democrats-introduce-articles-of-impeachment-against-trump" type="external">told reporters</a> he doesn’t expect hearings.</p>
<p>“I don’t expect the House Judiciary Committee, which is operated like a branch of the administration, to take up hearings,” he said.</p>
<p>The Tennessee congressman said he spoke to Tom Steyer, who is spending $10 million in advertising calling for Trump’s impeachment, and House Minority Leader <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Nancy_Pelosi/" type="external">Nancy Pelosi</a>‘s office.</p>
<p>Pelosi, of California, and minority whip <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Steny_Hoyer/" type="external">Steny Hoyer</a>, of Maryland, have opposed impeachment.</p>
<p>“Do we disagree with the policies? We do. But disagreeing with the policies is not enough to overturn an election, a free and fair election,” Hoyer told reporters in the Capitol shortly after Cohen’s news conference.</p>
<p>“There are a large number of Democrats that believe this president ought to be impeached, we have just a made a judgment that the facts aren’t there to pursue that,” he said.</p>
<p>Michael Ahrens, a Republican National Committee spokesman, <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/house/360455-house-democrats-introduce-articles-of-impeachment-against-trump" type="external">said in a statement</a>: “House Democrats lack a positive message and are completely unwilling to work across the aisle, so instead they’ve decided to support a baseless radical effort that the vast majority of Americans disagree with.”</p> | 6 House Democrats introduce articles of impeachment against Trump | false | https://newsline.com/6-house-democrats-introduce-articles-of-impeachment-against-trump/ | 2017-11-15 | 1 |
New Hampshire Senate Race Is Close | true | http://americanactionnews.com/articles/new-hampshire-senate-race-is-close | 2015-08-28 | 0 |
|
<p>NEW ORLEANS (AP) — When you’re in the midst of a historic trilogy, it’s hard to appreciate what it will mean to the ages.</p>
<p>Alabama is focused on beating Clemson.</p>
<p>Clemson is focused on beating Alabama.</p>
<p>Taking time to savor the first two chapters between these college football juggernauts — and, ohhh, are they worth savoring — will only get in the way of preparing for the rubber match.</p>
<p>“I just try to take it day by day,” Alabama center Bradley Bozeman said. “I’ll look back on it when I’m 40 or 50 years old.”</p>
<p>No matter what happens Monday night when the top-ranked Tigers take on the fourth-ranked Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl semifinal game, this remarkable three-year run seems assured of joining all those great sporting rivalries that were doled out thrice.</p>
<p>Ali-Frazier.</p>
<p>Affirmed-Alydar.</p>
<p>Nadal-Federer.</p>
<p>Warriors-Cavaliers.</p>
<p>“We’re in a good place if we’re seeing them,” Alabama safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said of the Tigers. “So, no, I’m not tired of them.”</p>
<p>For whatever reason, the trilogy holds a special place in the sports lexicon.</p>
<p>They come in all shapes and sizes, from one side pulling off a sweep (Affirmed edged Alydar three straight times to claim the 1978 Triple Crown) to those who saved the best for last (Ali beating Frazier in the “Thrilla in Manila” after they split their first two heavyweight bouts) to matchups that signaled a changing of the guard (Nadal’s epic victory over Federer in the 2008 Wimbledon final after losing to his Swiss rival the two previous years).</p>
<p>Which brings us to Alabama-Clemson III.</p>
<p>Already, they’ve produced a matching set of classics that rank among the greatest national championship games in college football history. Two years ago, <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/article54231770.html" type="external">Alabama won 45-40 in a breakneck affair that featured 40 points, a successful onside kick and a kickoff return for a touchdown in the final 10 1-2 minutes</a> . Last season, <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/watson-and-clemson-dethrone-top-ranked-tide-35-31" type="external">Clemson rallied from a two-touchdown deficit and the Tide’s go-ahead TD with just over 2 minutes remaining to win 35-31 on Deshaun Watson’s 2-yard scoring pass to Hunter Renfrow with a single second hanging on the clock</a> .</p>
<p>The stakes are a bit different this time.</p>
<p>Instead of meeting in the title game, Round 3 falls a week earlier in the College Football Playoff semifinals. Clemson claimed the top seed despite <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/dungey-has-3-td-passes-syracuse-stuns-no-2-clemson-27-24" type="external">a loss to lowly Syracuse back in mid-October</a> , while Alabama stirred up the biggest debate when it landed the fourth seed after <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-6-auburn-tops-no-1-alabama-26-14-earns-sec-title-shot" type="external">a setback to Auburn in its final regular-season game and failing to even qualify for the Southeastern Conference championship</a> .</p>
<p>In the end, it’s hard to fault the selection committee for bending to the will of history.</p>
<p>A deciding game only seems right.</p>
<p>“Oh, it’s a lot of fun,” Tigers defensive lineman Christian Wilkins said. “The reason why I came to Clemson was to compete at the highest level, play against the best teams and win championships. You know if you’re Clemson and you’re playing Alabama, then you’ve had a good season. They’re always going to be at the top. That’s just the kind of program they are.”</p>
<p>While many of the faces have changed — most notably, Watson moved on to the NFL after two brilliant performances against the Crimson Tide — there’s a familiarity between the programs that only adds to the buildup.</p>
<p>They know each other’s tendencies, the plays they like to run and the ones they shy away from, their many strengths and those handful of weaknesses that might be exploited at a crucial time.</p>
<p>Adding to the storyline: Clemson is coached by Alabama alum Dabo Swinney, whose goal all along was to turn the Tigers into a Atlantic Coast Conference version of the Tide.</p>
<p>“It’s been great to compete against Alabama,” Swinney said. “One of the things that was a goal of mine nine years ago was build a program that can be consistent and to build a program that can beat the best, and Alabama has been the best.”</p>
<p>Indeed, there’s still a sense that Alabama is college football’s top dog, even though Clemson is the reigning champion. Nick Saban has carried on the houndstooth legacy by guiding the Tide to four national titles in the last eight seasons. His program is the only one to make the playoffs in all four years of its existence.</p>
<p>The greatest testament to Bama’s decade-long dominance? Going back to the start of the 2008 season, Saban’s teams have played only three regular-season games — all at the end of the 2010 campaign — that didn’t have an impact on the national championship race.</p>
<p>“It’s like anything in life,” Saban said matter-of-factly. “You make up a goal, you understand there’s a process of things that you have to do to accomplish the goal, and you have to have the discipline to execute it every day. That’s not necessarily a feeling. It’s a choice that you choose to be persistent at the things that are going to help you be successful and you resist the things that are not going to help you be successful.”</p>
<p>For Saban and Swinney, that leaves little time to dawdle over how this trilogy will remembered in the big picture.</p>
<p>But Renfrow has some idea.</p>
<p>Maybe one day, long after his career is over, he’ll flip on the TV to watch a “30 for 30” documentary.</p>
<p>They’ll call it “Tide vs. Tigers: The Trilogy.”</p>
<p>“I guess the word is appreciation,” Renfrow said. “I’m just very appreciative for the opportunity to go out there and make the most of it and exhausting the moment. That’s something we talk about. Not wishing for tomorrow. Just living in the moment.”</p>
<p>You see, this budding masterpiece is not yet complete.</p>
<p>There’s still another act to go.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963" type="external">www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963</a> . His work can be found at <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/paul%20newberry</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more AP college football coverage: <a href="http://www.collegefootball.ap.org" type="external">www.collegefootball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>NEW ORLEANS (AP) — When you’re in the midst of a historic trilogy, it’s hard to appreciate what it will mean to the ages.</p>
<p>Alabama is focused on beating Clemson.</p>
<p>Clemson is focused on beating Alabama.</p>
<p>Taking time to savor the first two chapters between these college football juggernauts — and, ohhh, are they worth savoring — will only get in the way of preparing for the rubber match.</p>
<p>“I just try to take it day by day,” Alabama center Bradley Bozeman said. “I’ll look back on it when I’m 40 or 50 years old.”</p>
<p>No matter what happens Monday night when the top-ranked Tigers take on the fourth-ranked Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl semifinal game, this remarkable three-year run seems assured of joining all those great sporting rivalries that were doled out thrice.</p>
<p>Ali-Frazier.</p>
<p>Affirmed-Alydar.</p>
<p>Nadal-Federer.</p>
<p>Warriors-Cavaliers.</p>
<p>“We’re in a good place if we’re seeing them,” Alabama safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said of the Tigers. “So, no, I’m not tired of them.”</p>
<p>For whatever reason, the trilogy holds a special place in the sports lexicon.</p>
<p>They come in all shapes and sizes, from one side pulling off a sweep (Affirmed edged Alydar three straight times to claim the 1978 Triple Crown) to those who saved the best for last (Ali beating Frazier in the “Thrilla in Manila” after they split their first two heavyweight bouts) to matchups that signaled a changing of the guard (Nadal’s epic victory over Federer in the 2008 Wimbledon final after losing to his Swiss rival the two previous years).</p>
<p>Which brings us to Alabama-Clemson III.</p>
<p>Already, they’ve produced a matching set of classics that rank among the greatest national championship games in college football history. Two years ago, <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/article54231770.html" type="external">Alabama won 45-40 in a breakneck affair that featured 40 points, a successful onside kick and a kickoff return for a touchdown in the final 10 1-2 minutes</a> . Last season, <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/watson-and-clemson-dethrone-top-ranked-tide-35-31" type="external">Clemson rallied from a two-touchdown deficit and the Tide’s go-ahead TD with just over 2 minutes remaining to win 35-31 on Deshaun Watson’s 2-yard scoring pass to Hunter Renfrow with a single second hanging on the clock</a> .</p>
<p>The stakes are a bit different this time.</p>
<p>Instead of meeting in the title game, Round 3 falls a week earlier in the College Football Playoff semifinals. Clemson claimed the top seed despite <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/dungey-has-3-td-passes-syracuse-stuns-no-2-clemson-27-24" type="external">a loss to lowly Syracuse back in mid-October</a> , while Alabama stirred up the biggest debate when it landed the fourth seed after <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-6-auburn-tops-no-1-alabama-26-14-earns-sec-title-shot" type="external">a setback to Auburn in its final regular-season game and failing to even qualify for the Southeastern Conference championship</a> .</p>
<p>In the end, it’s hard to fault the selection committee for bending to the will of history.</p>
<p>A deciding game only seems right.</p>
<p>“Oh, it’s a lot of fun,” Tigers defensive lineman Christian Wilkins said. “The reason why I came to Clemson was to compete at the highest level, play against the best teams and win championships. You know if you’re Clemson and you’re playing Alabama, then you’ve had a good season. They’re always going to be at the top. That’s just the kind of program they are.”</p>
<p>While many of the faces have changed — most notably, Watson moved on to the NFL after two brilliant performances against the Crimson Tide — there’s a familiarity between the programs that only adds to the buildup.</p>
<p>They know each other’s tendencies, the plays they like to run and the ones they shy away from, their many strengths and those handful of weaknesses that might be exploited at a crucial time.</p>
<p>Adding to the storyline: Clemson is coached by Alabama alum Dabo Swinney, whose goal all along was to turn the Tigers into a Atlantic Coast Conference version of the Tide.</p>
<p>“It’s been great to compete against Alabama,” Swinney said. “One of the things that was a goal of mine nine years ago was build a program that can be consistent and to build a program that can beat the best, and Alabama has been the best.”</p>
<p>Indeed, there’s still a sense that Alabama is college football’s top dog, even though Clemson is the reigning champion. Nick Saban has carried on the houndstooth legacy by guiding the Tide to four national titles in the last eight seasons. His program is the only one to make the playoffs in all four years of its existence.</p>
<p>The greatest testament to Bama’s decade-long dominance? Going back to the start of the 2008 season, Saban’s teams have played only three regular-season games — all at the end of the 2010 campaign — that didn’t have an impact on the national championship race.</p>
<p>“It’s like anything in life,” Saban said matter-of-factly. “You make up a goal, you understand there’s a process of things that you have to do to accomplish the goal, and you have to have the discipline to execute it every day. That’s not necessarily a feeling. It’s a choice that you choose to be persistent at the things that are going to help you be successful and you resist the things that are not going to help you be successful.”</p>
<p>For Saban and Swinney, that leaves little time to dawdle over how this trilogy will remembered in the big picture.</p>
<p>But Renfrow has some idea.</p>
<p>Maybe one day, long after his career is over, he’ll flip on the TV to watch a “30 for 30” documentary.</p>
<p>They’ll call it “Tide vs. Tigers: The Trilogy.”</p>
<p>“I guess the word is appreciation,” Renfrow said. “I’m just very appreciative for the opportunity to go out there and make the most of it and exhausting the moment. That’s something we talk about. Not wishing for tomorrow. Just living in the moment.”</p>
<p>You see, this budding masterpiece is not yet complete.</p>
<p>There’s still another act to go.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963" type="external">www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963</a> . His work can be found at <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/paul%20newberry</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more AP college football coverage: <a href="http://www.collegefootball.ap.org" type="external">www.collegefootball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | Make It 3: Alabama, Clemson complete their classic trilogy | false | https://apnews.com/1142f4d5b153450181a1c8b88ba58c7b | 2017-12-29 | 2 |
<p>PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Tamenang Choh and Obi Okolie each hit a pair of free throws in the final five seconds on Friday night and Brown hung on to beat Yale 81-80.</p>
<p>The Bears (8-7, 1-1 Ivy League) took the lead for good on Okolie’s free throws that made it 79-77 with 4.4 seconds to go. The Bulldogs (8-10, 1-1) advanced to midcourt, called timeout and attempted an alley oop on the ensuing inbounds play. Choh rebounded the miss and added two more at the foul line to make it 81-77 with two seconds left, and Yale’s Alex Copeland hit a 3 as time expired that was too little, too late.</p>
<p>Desmond Cambridge had 16 points to lead Brown, which split the season series, having lost to Yale 78-72 in the conference opener on Jan. 12. Choh and Okolie added 12 points each and Brandon Anderson scored 11.</p>
<p>Copeland had 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting for Yale. Trey Phills added 19 points.</p>
<p>PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Tamenang Choh and Obi Okolie each hit a pair of free throws in the final five seconds on Friday night and Brown hung on to beat Yale 81-80.</p>
<p>The Bears (8-7, 1-1 Ivy League) took the lead for good on Okolie’s free throws that made it 79-77 with 4.4 seconds to go. The Bulldogs (8-10, 1-1) advanced to midcourt, called timeout and attempted an alley oop on the ensuing inbounds play. Choh rebounded the miss and added two more at the foul line to make it 81-77 with two seconds left, and Yale’s Alex Copeland hit a 3 as time expired that was too little, too late.</p>
<p>Desmond Cambridge had 16 points to lead Brown, which split the season series, having lost to Yale 78-72 in the conference opener on Jan. 12. Choh and Okolie added 12 points each and Brandon Anderson scored 11.</p>
<p>Copeland had 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting for Yale. Trey Phills added 19 points.</p> | Brown holds on to split the season series with Yale 81-80 | false | https://apnews.com/48de8eb4445d4e62b74192428a2b9537 | 2018-01-20 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>RUIDOSO - A 23-year-old Texas woman is dead as a result of a skiing accident at Ski Apache near Ruidoso.</p>
<p>Jackueline Caballero of El Paso, 23, died over the weekend when she lost control and struck a tree while on an intermediate slope, Lincoln County Sheriff Robert Shepperd said. The state medical investigator will determine the exact cause of death, he said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Woman dies in skiing crash | false | https://abqjournal.com/343980/briefing-74.html | 2 |
|
<p>President Trump’s decision to leave Paris Climate Treaty on the same day that the EU and Chinese Premier Li reached agreement on steps to move rapidly globally on climate &#160;also marks the day that China ascended to world leadership replacing the United States symbolically and in actuality.</p>
<p>The U.S. is now a rapidly declining figure on the world stage politically and, in the future, economically as the Unite States remains fixated on polluting industries and protectionism while China is stepping into the breach politically and financially under the &#160;leadership of President Xi to exercise global leadership on climate and &#160;sustainable development.</p>
<p>China is &#160;crafting agreements &#160;with willing partners on climate and sustainable development around the globe ranging from the Belt and Road initiative and now with the EU and U.S. states like California. Governor Brown can find &#160;partners for sustainable development in Beijing,not Washington.</p>
<p>The 21st century is rapidly becoming China’s century with the fate of global climate action now in China’s hands. This is moment where China must demonstrate to the world not only that the East is Green, but that under Chinese leadership the World is Green.</p>
<p>The world is turning to China with an open hand as the United States has turned its back and is more interested in erecting walls and withdrawing from global trade partnerships and global climate treaties.</p>
<p>China has swiftly become the world’s best hope for sustainable prosperity and building an&#160;ecological&#160;civilization through green investment and cooperation. China is already the world’s leader in photovoltaics, solar water heating, and wind. China Grid, the world’s largest utility, is planning to help wire the world with high voltage direct current power lines (HVDC) for global renewable electricity. China is global leader in reforestation for carbon dioxide &#160;capture. China is now also &#160;global leader in building gigafactories for electric vehicle batteries.&#160; China is now embraced on a crash program to “Make the skies blue again”, replacing coal plants in major Eastern cities&#160;this year&#160;with natural &#160;gas. China is &#160;ahead of schedule in meeting its carbon dioxide reduction targets and ledges under Paris Climate agreement.</p>
<p>China needs to accelerate it’s phase out of coal, or quickly adopt mass carbon capture and storage as part of its global climate leadership if we are to decisively escape the threat of ecological calamity. China has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to perform stupendous feats of engineering and construction such as a national high speed rail network that seemed to spring into existence overnight. China needs to turn that energy toward capturing carbon dioxide from coal.</p>
<p>Today, it is with &#160;China’s leadership not only can we avoid climate catastrophe, but make economic growth mean ecological improvement and build an ecological civilization the is official Chinese policy.</p>
<p>Exit stage right President Donald Trump. Curtain rises on President Xi stage center.</p>
<p>We anxiously await the next act, harboring hope for our common futures.</p> | China’s Ascent to World Leadership | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/06/05/chinas-ascent-to-world-leadership/ | 2017-06-05 | 4 |
<p>Photo Credit: Steve Heap / Shutterstock</p>
<p>No one living today would want to live in the days before antibiotics, anesthesia and antisepsis were discovered. In those days, patients could and did die from treatments like blood-letting (bleeding the patient), use of leeches and electric eels. Some attribute the death of the first president of the United States, George Washington, to excessive bloodletting for a cold/pneumonia.&#160;</p>
<p>But patients today face another risk that wasn't around in Washington's day: over-screening, over-diagnosis, overtreatment and overmedication. For example, up to 60 percent of people as young as 30 are told on the basis of their X-rays that they have "arthritis," presumed to explain their pain and often leading to surgery. But studies show that most abnormalities and age-related changes shown on X-rays or other imaging technologies are not the source of the patient's pain despite the way they look. This is why traditional medicine’s over-screening and technology-based decisions can do more harm than good. These tests yield provider payments but usually no answers about the source of a patient's pain.</p>
<p>Doctors have traditionally received less than six hours of formal training in pain management in their four years of medical school and are much better at treating acute pain conditions like a broken leg, chest pain or appendicitis than chronic pain. That is because the acute conditions have clear explanations and specific treatments. Unfortunately, in traditional medicine, chronic pain patients are passively shuffled through the system and not taught or guided about pain. They are given pain drugs, time off from work, kind attention and sometimes financial remuneration. These seem to help in the short run, but actually embed the patient’s conviction of disability and pain.</p>
<p>There is another problem. Passive exercise like range-of-motion maneuvers performed by machines is good for acute conditions like a fracture, but not for chronic pain which requires active exercise. Similarly, opioid drugs may be appropriate for acute pain, but are not appropriate for long-term treatment of chronic pain. Studies suggest they not only cease working but can actually&#160; <a href="" type="internal">increase</a>&#160;your body's sensitivity to pain through a phenomenon called opioid-induced hyperalgesia.</p>
<p>Opioid Deaths</p>
<p>Deaths from opioid narcotics like fentanyl, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, morphine and oxycodone—and the heroin these drugs sometimes lead to—have become an epidemic in the United States, taking 91 lives a day. When prescribing guidelines were loosened over a decade ago, brazen pill mills popped up to capitalize on the opioid drugs' popularity on the street. As millions became addicted, Pharma then launched opioid addiction treatment centers to play both sides of the street.</p>
<p>“The drugs to treat OxyContin addiction like buprenorphine, sold as Suboxone, are opioid derivatives that are 10 to 20 times stronger than OxyContin,”&#160; <a href="//www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2243103-interview-with-author-of-the-pharma-thriller-not-safe-as-prescribed/?utm_expid=.5zxdwnfjSHaLe_IPrO6c5w.0&amp;utm_referrer=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.theepochtimes.com%252Fn3%252Fauthor%252Fmartha-rosenberg%252F" type="external">says author</a>&#160;and pharmacist Larry Golbom. “After eight hours of training, addiction specialists have a wonderful revenue stream. MAT—medication-assisted treatment—has doubled Pharma’s revenue.”</p>
<p>As the opioid addiction epidemic grew, lines between real pain patients whose opioid use had gotten out of hand and people&#160;posing&#160;as patients to resell the drugs on the street blurred. Pain clinics and pill operations began to cut off the patients they had originally wooed and the patients often turned to the more readily available and cheaper heroin.</p>
<p>"The problem is patients are started, develop tolerance, need a higher dose, get tolerant to the higher dose, use more than prescribed, ask for early refills, get switched to a 'pain management specialist,' who if they violate the pain contracts, get fired, discharged, and then they go to the street for the opioids," says James O'Donnell, a pharmacology professor at Rush University in Chicago.</p>
<p>Dangerous Combos</p>
<p>Opioid overdoses are characterized by coma, respiratory depression, shock, pulmonary edema and death. Here is how one occurred from a&#160; <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3278176/" type="external">recently</a>&#160;published pharmaceutical textbook:</p>
<p>"A 35-year-old male school teacher and wrestling coach in a southwestern state was seen by a sports-medicine specialist. The patient was taking hydrocodone/acetaminophen (e.g., Vicodin, Abbott) for chronic low back pain. The sports specialist was concerned about potential acetaminophen toxicity. He prescribed 'low-dose' methadone, 10 mg twice daily, and discontinued the hydrocodone/acetaminophen combination.</p>
<p>"The next day, the patient stayed at his parent’s home. He was very drowsy, sleeping on and off most of the day, and went to bed early. On the morning of the third day, his mother was unable to awaken him. He was declared dead by EMS technicians."</p>
<p>The patient died from toxic levels of methadone because he was presumably "opiate tolerant," and the attending physician was unaware "of the unusual (and cumulative) kinetics of methadone," says the article.</p>
<p>Narcotics were once only prescribed for post-surgery, post-accidents and cancer pain because they are so addictive. The liberalizing of opioid drug guidelines was a move by Pharma to increase revenue not help patients. The&#160; <a href="//www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2243103-interview-with-author-of-the-pharma-thriller-not-safe-as-prescribed/?utm_expid=.5zxdwnfjSHaLe_IPrO6c5w.0&amp;utm_referrer=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.theepochtimes.com%252Fn3%252Fauthor%252Fmartha-rosenberg%252F" type="external">Sacklers</a>, a New York family of physicians and philanthropists, parlayed their originally lucrative morphine franchise into OxyContin which they said they did not want to be “limited” to cancer pain. The rest is history.</p>
<p>Certainly Pharma created and perpetuates the opioid addiction crisis and should pay for it like Big Tobacco pays for the smokers it hooked and gave cancer. (Under the Cures Act, we the taxpayers pay.) However, traditional medicine, with its short-term profits orientation, is also responsible for the crisis.</p>
<p>Martha Rosenberg is an investigative health reporter and the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1616145935/counterpunchmaga" type="external">"Born With a Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp the Public Health</a> (Random House)."</p> | Has Western Medicine Completely Botched Painkillers? | true | http://alternet.org/drugs/has-western-medicine-completely-botched-painkillers | 2017-05-08 | 4 |
<p>LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening’s drawing of the “2 By 2” game were:</p>
<p>Red Balls: 19-26, White Balls: 24-26</p>
<p>(Red Balls: nineteen, twenty-six; White Balls: twenty-four, twenty-six)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $22,000</p>
<p>¶ Top Prize $22,000.</p>
<p>LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening’s drawing of the “2 By 2” game were:</p>
<p>Red Balls: 19-26, White Balls: 24-26</p>
<p>(Red Balls: nineteen, twenty-six; White Balls: twenty-four, twenty-six)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $22,000</p>
<p>¶ Top Prize $22,000.</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘2 By 2’ game | false | https://apnews.com/cdfcb309680f49f88aa4f2b7ba25c23f | 2018-01-14 | 2 |
<p>WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — Former FBI director James Comey will co-teach a class on ethical leadership starting this fall at William &amp; Mary.</p>
<p>The university in Williamsburg, Virginia, said in a press release Friday that the class will be taught with another professor primarily at the school's small campus in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>Adam Anthony, executive director of William &amp; Mary's Washington Center, said by phone that it "remains to be seen" whether Comey will discuss his own experiences.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump fired Comey as the FBI investigated possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Comey also led the agency during its probe of Hillary Clinton's email server.</p>
<p>Comey is a William &amp; Mary graduate. He said in a statement that ethical leaders maintain "higher loyalty to lasting values, most importantly the truth."</p>
<p>WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — Former FBI director James Comey will co-teach a class on ethical leadership starting this fall at William &amp; Mary.</p>
<p>The university in Williamsburg, Virginia, said in a press release Friday that the class will be taught with another professor primarily at the school's small campus in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>Adam Anthony, executive director of William &amp; Mary's Washington Center, said by phone that it "remains to be seen" whether Comey will discuss his own experiences.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump fired Comey as the FBI investigated possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Comey also led the agency during its probe of Hillary Clinton's email server.</p>
<p>Comey is a William &amp; Mary graduate. He said in a statement that ethical leaders maintain "higher loyalty to lasting values, most importantly the truth."</p> | James Comey will co-teach course on ethical leadership | false | https://apnews.com/amp/267529eda8a141f68f2e11481b2b8513 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>Thursday night, after attending the Al Smith Dinner, <a href="" type="internal">President Obama</a>‘s interview with <a href="" type="internal">Jon Stewart</a> on The Daily Show aired, and the President promised his administration will not&#160;amend the constitution to restrict rights of gay and lesbian couples– which <a href="" type="internal">Mitt Romney</a> has signed a pledge to do.</p>
<p>“I do think that part of the president’s job is not only moving forward on things that will work but preventing things that won’t work. So, you want a president in the Oval Office who won’t say, for the first time, no, we’re not going to amend our constitution to restrict rights for gay and lesbian couples.”</p>
<p>READ:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Romney Promises To Propose Constitutional Amendment Banning Gay Marriage</a></p>
<p>Stewart grilled President Obama on a wide variety of topics, starting with asking him if his strongest case for winning is because he’s so good or because Romney’s so bad.</p>
<p>“Stewart asked Obama if he has a stronger case for his own reelection or against Romney’s election,” Josh Feldman&#160;at <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jon-stewart-challenges-obama-on-libya-response-in-wide-ranging-daily-show-interview/" type="external">Mediaite</a> wrote. “Obama claimed he has an equally strong case on both. He brought up his administration’s accomplishments on health care reform and foreign policy, saying that he has had victories in both social and economic policy, and emphasized the importance of creating jobs and building new technologies in the United States.”</p>
<p>In the second part of the interview, Stewart asked the president if he has changed his belief from four years ago that the U.S. cannot sacrifice its most important ideals in the name of national security. Obama emphasized that he wants to work on closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay and reign in the power of the presidency, but acknowledged that there are still “tough calls” to make as president.</p>
<p>Related:&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Jon Stewart Bites Into Chick-Fil-A Debate: ‘Gay Marriage Is Happening’</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Watch: At Obama Rally, Bill Clinton Opens For Bruce Springsteen</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Maddow Slams Right Wing Media: ‘Baldly False,’ ‘Babble,’ And ‘Infection’</a></p>
<p>Tagged as: <a href="" type="internal">amending constitution</a>, <a href="" type="internal">amending the constitution</a>, <a href="" type="internal">ask obama</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Barack Obama</a>, <a href="" type="internal">gay and lesbian couples</a>, <a href="" type="internal">human migration</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Jon Stewart</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Mitt Romney</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Obama</a>, <a href="" type="internal">obama claims</a>, <a href="" type="internal">obama promises</a>, <a href="" type="internal">obama rally</a>, <a href="" type="internal">political positions of mitt romney</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Politics</a>, <a href="" type="internal">President Obama</a>, <a href="" type="internal">public image of mitt romney</a>, <a href="" type="internal">romney family</a>, <a href="" type="internal">social issues</a>, <a href="" type="internal">the church of jesus christ of latter day saints</a>, <a href="" type="internal">united states</a></p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Bangkok happiness</a>&#160;|&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Shutterstock.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>George H. W. Bush’s unsurprising support for Hillary Clinton strengthens the alliance of careful, conniving warmongers (including both neocon and “liberal interventionist” camps), admiring former generals,&#160; middle and upper-class “Clinton Coalition” African-Americans (including clerics and TV commentators like MSNBC’s awful anchor/DNC shill Joy Reid snarling first about Bernie as much as Trump, and now trashing Putin along with Trump), Wall Street donors, older women too driven by identity politics, masochistic and naive former Bernie supporters settling for “the lesser evil,” and miscellaneous communities of the confused.</p>
<p>It is a rainbow coalition of everyone she needs on board when she starts bombing Syria—seriously bombing Syria, courageously doing so one-upping Barack Obama (who she thinks blew his opportunities to take out Assad in 2011 and 2013) and producing another regime change accompanied by her triumphant Tarzan yell. This time it will be: “We came, we saw, Syria died!”</p>
<p>Hillary was, you recall, a leading cheerleader of the destruction of the modern Iraqi and Libyan states, and continues to justify those regime-change actions while bemoaning their aftermaths, which she blames on others.</p>
<p>For someone doing so poorly in the polls, and exciting so little enthusiasm—barely edging over a buffoon whose main purpose seems to be to reveal to the world the depths of the U.S. electorate’s abject ignorance and moral depravity—Hillary can boast on the one hand that the Democratic Party platform is the “most progressive” in the party’s history (thanks to the Bernie supporters, whom she regularly acknowledges, pandering with little success); and on the other hand her candidacy is solidly supported by Goldman-Sachs and the neocons and the whole military-industrial complex. From left to right, such a big tent!</p>
<p>Everybody else (especially, we’re supposed to believe, less-educated “middle-class” white men over 40) is for Trump. But (the Hillary camp wants to believe) with such high negatives among blacks, Latinos and women Trump can’t win barring some horrible failure of the good people to go to the polls.</p>
<p>But polls are showing Trump and Clinton neck and neck, or even showing the billionaire leading, including in some key states. This brings out the worst, most dishonest streak in Clinton’s character. Her response indicates that she remains the eternal Goldwater Girl. Running scared, she resorts to the least creative yet tried-and-true ploy imaginable: Cold War-era style redbaiting.</p>
<p>Never mind that there are few Reds in Moscow anymore, and that Russia is a thoroughly capitalist society posing no threat to the U.S.&#160; Never mind that Russia like the U.S. has a multiparty democratic political system (rigged, like that in the U.S.) and like the U.S. is controlled by its billionaire One Percent (that by the way invests heavily in the U.S. and Britain). There is no ideological divide, and Russia does not head an international ideological movement.</p>
<p>The basis for its deteriorating relationship with the U.S. and some of its allies is that Washington has steadily expanded NATO to surround the Russian Federation since 1999 (when during Clinton’s husband Bill’s administration it added Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary); wants to add Georgia and Ukraine to the alliance; and spends billions trying to influence elections or fund movements for regime change such as the one that toppled Ukraine’s elected president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.</p>
<p>The U.S. press has virtually ignored one of the most important geopolitical developments of our time. NATO expansion has been a non-story. Russia’s reactions to it (including recent war games held on Russian territory, in response to the biggest NATO war games ever in Poland earlier this year) are invariably depicted as “threatening” to Europe. Vladimir Putin is personally vilified as a brutal dictator who imprisons and assassinates political foes and journalists and has ambitions to restore the Soviet Union.</p>
<p>All of this is accepted without questions by cable anchors, coached no doubt by news editors who shape the packaging of the news. Instead of noting the obvious fact that NATO is by its very expansion provoking Russia, the mainstream press declares with a straight face that Russia is provoking NATO—by opposing its expansion!</p>
<p>The reportage on Ukraine has been particularly bankrupt. Talking heads repeatedly refer to Russian “invasions” of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and Crimea that never happened. They methodically avoid discussion of the neo-fascist element in the post-coup regime and how its actions prompted separatism among Russian speakers in the east. Journalists for the top newspapers routinely cite unnamed “government officials” as confirming Russian responsibility for all manner of offenses, from shooting down planes to hacking U.S. emails, blissfully free of any need to provide evidence. This is why polls show Putin the most despised man in the U.S.</p>
<p>The vilification is absurd, especially given the kid gloves treatment of much worse leaders in the U.S. camp. (Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan resembles Putin in many respects but the U.S. press ignores his repression, military aggression, aid to terrorists, and mass detention of journalists.) But the press generally echoes the State Department, to which it is sometimes literally wed (Christiane Amanpour). And the post-Cold War State Department and Pentagon have felt the need to posit a new Enemy in the form of a Russia that threatens its neighbors and (in Syria and elsewhere) supports horrible regimes.</p>
<p>So when Hillary gets scared, she plays the Russia card. Her campaign has been doing it in several ways. It notes that Trump campaign staffers arranged the removal of a call to arm Kiev against separatists in the Republican platform, implying that this shows Trump’s support for Putin’s objectives in Ukraine (rather than, say, a disinclination to exacerbate the conflict and to support the Minsk Agreement).</p>
<p>It notes that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort also worked as a campaign advisor and lobbyist for Ukraine’s Yanukovich for over a decade, and implies that this connection explains the platform change. (As though there were something especially nasty about a professional political operative from the U.S. selling his services to a politician who won what everyone acknowledges was a “free” election in Ukraine in 2010. But Yanukovych, because he opposed NATO membership for Ukraine and decided to reject EU membership due to the austerity conditions it would impose on Ukraine, was considered “pro-Russian” by the State Department.&#160; Ergo, Manafort must be a Putin agent. Such accusations forced him to resign as campaign manager Aug. 19.)</p>
<p>The campaign responded to the devastating Wikileaks revelation that the DNC rigged the primary process in favor of Clinton against Sanders—a scandal serious enough to result in the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other top DNC officials—by blaming the leaks on Russia! Even if someone in that country hacked the accounts announcing to the world how corrupt the U.S. political process is, what should it matter more than if the hacker was a high school kid in Florida? Because, the Clinton campaign echoed by the entire bourgeois media proclaims, Russia is trying to influence our elections!</p>
<p>The media sometimes uses the term “bromance” and posits a soul-mate relationship between the Russian leader, who has in fact never met Trump nor said more than a couple sentences relating to him (in answer to reporters’ questions). He has called him “flamboyant” (which is true), not “brilliant” as the press sometimes reports. It’s common sense to imagine that he prefers Trump to the warmongering Clinton, who wants regime change in Syria, and more NATO expansion, and has preposterously compared Putin to Hitler. But Putin has in fact been diplomatically silent on the U.S. election. (RT TV has contrasted this silence to the active U.S. support for the reelection of Russian president Boris Yeltsin, a total buffoon—opposed by the initially more popular Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov—in 1996.)</p>
<p>But Goldwater Girl Hillary wants to make it clear: she is anti-Putin, anti-Russian, while Trump is a Putin fan. (The press refers to Trump’s repeated “praise” for Putin, alluding to his occasional vague comments to the effect that Putin is sharp and popular. But my impression is that his references to Putin are largely allusions to his supposed high estimation of his own narcissistic and solopsistic self. Like the poet Apollinaire, Trump praises all who love him. And he is mercurial. Fawning generals could use these traits to affect his actual policies in power towards Russia. And recall Trump has boasted about being the “most militaristic” of candidates.)</p>
<p>That the first woman president of the U.S. will be elected (as still seems likely, I think, although not with high confidence) might be brought to power by a coalition of self-defined progressives and war criminals like George H. W. Bush, whipped up in part by tired old Russia-baiting, is depressing. It’s depressing that 27 years after the end of the Cold War it’s still possible to exploit a Russian bogeyman to win support for hot war.</p>
<p>That Hillary in power will try (and possibly) succeed in going to war once again, this time targeting Russia or its allies (the Syrian state, the Ukrainian Russian separatists), is frightening.&#160; The electorate is malleable, its collective memory short. What should be universally acknowledged truths (the Iraq War was based on lies, produced horrible death and suffering, generated more terrorism that spread to Syria, etc.) are in fact not grasped adequately by the masses. If they were, how could anybody vote for hideous Hillary?</p>
<p>Remember how the ratings of an unpopular (and actually un-elected) president named George W. Bush leaped from around 50% at 9/11 to 70% just before the invasion of Iraq. Weak, unpopular presidents are sufficiently motivated to study history as to realize that war brings scared people together, causing them to unite around you. While the good thing about this nationally embarrassing farce will be the election of a highly unpopular president (vulnerable to overthrow), the really, really bad thing is that president might provoke World War III with Russia.</p>
<p>In that connection it might be worthwhile to check out the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHyBywic39A" type="external">anti-Goldwater ad</a> of the Democrats in 1964, raising this very issue. Fear, people, fear.</p> | Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Against Russia | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/09/26/hillary-clintons-campaign-against-russia/ | 2016-09-26 | 4 |
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<p>With the economic recovery on a steady path, many taxpayers are looking back at the Great Recession and its impact on incomes, housing and retirement plans and wondering exactly how best to complete <a href="http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf" type="external">Form W4 Opens a New Window.</a> – Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Form W4 is a good tax planning tool. By dictating how many exemptions to claim, you control the size of your paycheck and the amount of money from each check that will be paid to the IRS and to your state’s taxing agency, if you live in a state that levies income tax.</p>
<p>If you claim too many exemptions, your check will be higher but you may find yourself owing a large tax liability at year end. Over the years I’ve had the misfortune of helping folks who didn’t claim properly and found themselves in trouble. It can be devastating, credit-ruining, and very expensive to crawl out from under.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you claim too few exemptions, your check will be smaller and you may receive a substantial refund from the IRS. But here’s the thing with those large refunds: conventional wisdom states that you are giving an interest-free loan to the government for the year. Some folks don’t really care about that and consider it forced savings account that can be used to purchase a new gadget or take a vacation when the refund check arrives. Besides, it’s not like the banks are paying competitive rates on savings these days.</p>
<p>There is also the possibility of claiming “exempt” on line 7 of the form, which works if you will have no filing requirement. This applies to students, part timers making very small incomes, some retired individuals making very little money and with no other sources of income. But naturally, it’s complicated. So check the <a href="http://www.irs.gov/Help-%26-Resources/Tools-%26-FAQs/FAQs-for-Individuals/Frequently-Asked-Tax-Questions-%26-Answers/Filing-Requirements,-Status,-Dependents,-Exemptions" type="external">IRS Filing Requirements Opens a New Window.</a> to find out where you stand.</p>
<p>Otherwise, to determine how many exemptions you should take, complete the worksheet on page 1 of Form W4. Claiming exemptions for filing status of Head of Household and for number of dependents is a great start to deciding how many exemptions will work for you.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>However, there are other factors to consider. Let’s say you are single with three children and can claim the Head of Household status. According to the worksheet, you will be able to claim five exemptions. This may work out as a break even for you next April 15. However, there may be other factors to consider. Perhaps you are also running an online business on the side making a few grand extra every month. That money will be taxable and if you are not making estimated tax payments to cover these extra taxes then you should adjust your withholdings from five perhaps down to zero. Then again, what if you are using the extra monies from your self-employment to pay for your health insurance or fund your IRA account? If so, those are deductions that will substantially reduce your tax liability. My best advice is that if you are also self-employed speak with a tax professional to help you determine the correct number of exemptions to claim.</p>
<p>Page 2 of Form W4 takes into consideration the lowering of your tax bill via your ability to claim itemized deductions and other adjustments to income. It also includes a worksheet for families that have two earners or if you have more than one job.</p>
<p>You might want to pull out a copy of your prior year tax return in order to complete these sections.</p>
<p>Tax law is a very complex subject and can be tricky for even a <a type="external" href="" />professional tax person much less the average taxpayer. If you get confused with all the worksheets and caveats and exceptions and rulings, then I suggest you ask a tax professional to help you complete the worksheet and determine the safest approach to withholding for you.</p> | How to Make Form W4 a Tax Planning Tool | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/06/06/how-to-make-form-w4-tax-planning-tool.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>UPDATE 10:45 AM PT</p>
<p>After special caucus, by unanimous consent, the so-called Goodlatte Amendment was killed. The House Ethics Committee will look at the issues here independently.</p>
<p>It is worth noting that sources in the House have confirmed that Speaker Ryan spoke out forcefully against the Goodlatte Amendment, and issued a statement with regard to the Goodlatte Amendment only in order to clarify how the House would deal with its implementation.</p>
<p>ORIGINAL</p>
<p>On Monday night, Republicans voted 119-74 to make the Office of Congressional Ethics less independent than it had been previously by putting it under the auspices of the House Ethics Committee. Here’s the proposal, according to the Washington Post:</p>
<p>Under the proposed new rules, the office could not employ a spokesman, investigate anonymous tips or refer criminal wrongdoing to prosecutors without the express consent of the Ethics Committee, which would gain the power to summarily end any OCE probe….Under the current House ethics regime, the OCE is empowered to release a public report of its findings even if the Ethics Committee chooses not to take further action against a member.</p>
<p>This isn’t a particularly good move, politically or ethically. <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/443475/there-are-still-groups-can-probe-alleged-crimes-members-congress" type="external">It smacks of corruption</a>, even though it’s a relatively unimportant change, as National Review’s Jim Geraghty notes.</p>
<p>The message from the Trump administration has been mixed. Trump strategist Kellyanne Conway defended the Republican move this morning, while admitting that she had not spoken to Trump; Trump then tweeted his disapproval, stating, “With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, health care and so many other things of far greater importance! #DTS.”</p>
<p>Trump is right. It’s a mistake for Republicans to lead off by providing the appearance of corruption. Note that Trump isn’t chiefly concerned with the actual ethics of the OCE – he’s mostly concerned with the appearance of gutting it. But he’s not wrong.</p>
<p>There is a second question: is this the best way for Trump to deal with Republicans who disagree? The vote hasn’t passed yet – perhaps it would be better for Trump to make some phone calls behind the scenes to press Republicans to scuttle the effort. Instead, he went public in an attempt to garner personal support and demonstrate his power. That's smart for him -- he'll get credit if the plan dies -- but it isn't particularly good for Republican unity around policy.</p>
<p>There’s good news to that and bad news. The good news: we can all see the sausage being made. Trump isn’t going to hide it when he’s in conflict with Congress, and we’re going to be able to determine who’s right, and who’s wrong.</p>
<p>The bad news: everything will be litigated publicly for the Republicans. Trump probably isn’t going to quietly negotiate when he disagrees, or when a bad headline appears. Rather, he’ll quickly leap to Twitter to share his thoughts, ratcheting up tensions with the Republicans with whom he’s supposed to be working, taking the most palatable public position while undercutting the members of his own party on tough issue fights.</p>
<p>On this issue, though, Trump is right. And Republicans should follow his lead.</p> | Trump SMACKS Republicans For Attack on Ethics Watchdog [UPDATE: Republicans Abandon Attack] | true | https://dailywire.com/news/12099/trump-smacks-republicans-attack-ethics-watchdog-ben-shapiro | 2017-01-03 | 0 |
<p>DALLAS (AP) — Ben Bishop is getting regular work, and he and the Dallas Stars have been playing some of their best hockey of the season.</p>
<p>Bishop made 26 saves in his fourth shutout of the season, Tyler Pitlick scored twice and the Stars beat the San Jose Sharks 6-0 on Sunday night.</p>
<p>Bishop’s 23rd career shutout came in his seventh straight start. It was Dallas’ fourth win in five games.</p>
<p>In the first two games of a six-game homestand, the Stars have outscored opponents 10-2. The first five games are all two days apart.</p>
<p>“We kind of had a real hard one there before this homestand, a lot of in-and-outs, so it’s kind of nice to have this homestand,” Bishop said. “We’ve done a good job so far. It’s going to be kind of important to enjoy this one and obviously get some rest (Monday).”</p>
<p>Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said there are few breaks in the schedule.</p>
<p>“We’ve made a little bit of ground, and we’ve created no separation,” he said. “This is the way it’s going to be for the rest of the year. It doesn’t seem like anybody’s missing a beat right now, especially in the Central.”</p>
<p>Dallas scored two goals in each period — by John Klingberg and Pitlick in the first, Stephen Johns and Tyler Seguin in the second and Devin Shore and Pitlick 50 seconds apart in the third.</p>
<p>“I thought this was Pitlick’s strongest game,” Hitchcock said. “He stayed determined on the puck.”</p>
<p>San Jose starter Martin Jones had 18 saves in the first two periods before giving way to Aaron Dell, who stopped eight shots.</p>
<p>The Sharks’ three-game winning streak ended with their most lopsided loss this season. The poor road performance came as San Jose began a stretch with 14 of 18 games on the road.</p>
<p>“I don’t look at this like we’ve been a poor road team. This was a poor game tonight,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “I don’t think it’s a symptom of something bigger. It was just a bad night.”</p>
<p>Klingberg added an assist on Seguin’s 19th goal of the season, a power-play score. Radek Faksa tied his career high with three assists and Mattias Janmark assisted twice.</p>
<p>The Stars had the game’s first six shots on goal and cashed in on their seventh. Janmark circled behind the net and passed to Klingberg near the right faceoff dot. He sent a shot past Jones at 6:19, and then Pitlick gave Dallas a 2-0 lead at 15:07.</p>
<p>Dallas had 17 shots, their most in the first period this season, to five for San Jose. The Sharks had a chance with a power play to begin the second, but Bishop stopped the first six shots on goal. Logan Couture sent one shot into the right goalpost and another into the goalie’s pads.</p>
<p>“We didn’t play very well,” Couture said. “Pretty simple. Left our goalies out to dry. I feel bad for those two. They battled and no one else did.”</p>
<p>The teams were skating 4-on-4 when Johns scored at 4:25 of the second.</p>
<p>Seguin skated in front to deflect Klingberg’s shot into the top of the net on the power play.</p>
<p>NOTES: Dallas RW Alexander Radulov left in the second period with an upper-body injury from a hit by Sharks D Justin Braun. ... The Stars have scored a power-play goal in six straight games, following a stretch of 14 games with only two goals with a man advantage. ... Benn has seven points (three goals, four assists) during a six-game point streak. ... Couture, who leads San Jose with 15 goals, returned after missing four games because of a concussion. ... The Sharks had not allowed more than five goals in a game before Sunday. ... The six-goal win was Dallas’ largest margin of victory. ... Pitlick has seven goals this season. Three times he has scored twice in a game.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Sharks: Play the second game on a five-game trip on Tuesday night at Montreal.</p>
<p>Stars: Host Columbus on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP hockey: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey</a></p>
<p>DALLAS (AP) — Ben Bishop is getting regular work, and he and the Dallas Stars have been playing some of their best hockey of the season.</p>
<p>Bishop made 26 saves in his fourth shutout of the season, Tyler Pitlick scored twice and the Stars beat the San Jose Sharks 6-0 on Sunday night.</p>
<p>Bishop’s 23rd career shutout came in his seventh straight start. It was Dallas’ fourth win in five games.</p>
<p>In the first two games of a six-game homestand, the Stars have outscored opponents 10-2. The first five games are all two days apart.</p>
<p>“We kind of had a real hard one there before this homestand, a lot of in-and-outs, so it’s kind of nice to have this homestand,” Bishop said. “We’ve done a good job so far. It’s going to be kind of important to enjoy this one and obviously get some rest (Monday).”</p>
<p>Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said there are few breaks in the schedule.</p>
<p>“We’ve made a little bit of ground, and we’ve created no separation,” he said. “This is the way it’s going to be for the rest of the year. It doesn’t seem like anybody’s missing a beat right now, especially in the Central.”</p>
<p>Dallas scored two goals in each period — by John Klingberg and Pitlick in the first, Stephen Johns and Tyler Seguin in the second and Devin Shore and Pitlick 50 seconds apart in the third.</p>
<p>“I thought this was Pitlick’s strongest game,” Hitchcock said. “He stayed determined on the puck.”</p>
<p>San Jose starter Martin Jones had 18 saves in the first two periods before giving way to Aaron Dell, who stopped eight shots.</p>
<p>The Sharks’ three-game winning streak ended with their most lopsided loss this season. The poor road performance came as San Jose began a stretch with 14 of 18 games on the road.</p>
<p>“I don’t look at this like we’ve been a poor road team. This was a poor game tonight,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “I don’t think it’s a symptom of something bigger. It was just a bad night.”</p>
<p>Klingberg added an assist on Seguin’s 19th goal of the season, a power-play score. Radek Faksa tied his career high with three assists and Mattias Janmark assisted twice.</p>
<p>The Stars had the game’s first six shots on goal and cashed in on their seventh. Janmark circled behind the net and passed to Klingberg near the right faceoff dot. He sent a shot past Jones at 6:19, and then Pitlick gave Dallas a 2-0 lead at 15:07.</p>
<p>Dallas had 17 shots, their most in the first period this season, to five for San Jose. The Sharks had a chance with a power play to begin the second, but Bishop stopped the first six shots on goal. Logan Couture sent one shot into the right goalpost and another into the goalie’s pads.</p>
<p>“We didn’t play very well,” Couture said. “Pretty simple. Left our goalies out to dry. I feel bad for those two. They battled and no one else did.”</p>
<p>The teams were skating 4-on-4 when Johns scored at 4:25 of the second.</p>
<p>Seguin skated in front to deflect Klingberg’s shot into the top of the net on the power play.</p>
<p>NOTES: Dallas RW Alexander Radulov left in the second period with an upper-body injury from a hit by Sharks D Justin Braun. ... The Stars have scored a power-play goal in six straight games, following a stretch of 14 games with only two goals with a man advantage. ... Benn has seven points (three goals, four assists) during a six-game point streak. ... Couture, who leads San Jose with 15 goals, returned after missing four games because of a concussion. ... The Sharks had not allowed more than five goals in a game before Sunday. ... The six-goal win was Dallas’ largest margin of victory. ... Pitlick has seven goals this season. Three times he has scored twice in a game.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Sharks: Play the second game on a five-game trip on Tuesday night at Montreal.</p>
<p>Stars: Host Columbus on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP hockey: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey</a></p> | Pitlick scores twice, Bishop and Stars beat Sharks 6-0 | false | https://apnews.com/e329164b1cc44124a250b1b75056a332 | 2018-01-01 | 2 |
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<p>In the years since the trial, support for Wilders and his Party for Freedom has soared. He is neck-and-neck in the polls with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. General elections will take place next March.</p>
<p>But now, Wilders is being put on trial for hate speech – again. On Friday, a judge ruled that a trial that began in 2014 but was suspended can proceed. Wilders had argued that he was being singled out for statements that were inherently political, but the judge interpreted the Netherlands’ hate speech laws to include political statements. Wilders will be tried on the “suspicion of insulting a group of people based on race and inciting discrimination and hatred,” said the judge.</p>
<p>Wilders, in response, had this to say:</p>
<p>“Prosecuted for what millions think. #politicalprocess #goaway,” he wrote.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The new charges also have to do with voicing anti-Moroccan sentiment in particular. Wilders asked a crowd of supporters at a rally, “Do you want more or fewer Moroccans in this city?” The crowd then chanted “Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!” Wilders said, “I’ll take care of that.” More than 6,400 complaints were filed based on that incident.</p>
<p>If Wilders’ popularity is any indication, he is probably right that he is voicing what millions of Dutch people think. Anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric is sweeping Europe’s politics as both foreign- and Europe-born Muslim populations grow across the continent. Wilders also endorsed Donald Trump for U.S. president and attended the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July.</p>
<p>His three-week trial will recommence Oct. 31. Wilders has framed it as an assault on free speech and an example of politicized courts targeting opinions they don’t agree with. Whichever way the verdict goes, the trial is likely to bolster the support Wilders already has. And if he is convicted, he will certainly make himself out to be a martyr for freedom of speech.</p>
<p>netherlands</p> | ‘Prosecuted for what millions think’: Geert Wilders’s hate speech trial gets green light | false | https://abqjournal.com/867582/prosecuted-for-what-millions-think-geert-wilderss-hate-speech-trial-gets-green-light.html | 2 |
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<p>FOX Business: Capitalism Lives Here</p>
<p>U.S. stock-index futures pushed higher Thursday as traders eyed rate decisions from key central banks and awaited American economic data.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Today's Markets&#160;</p>
<p>As of 8:07 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 48 points, or 0.29%, to 16455, S&amp;P 500 futures advanced 4.3 points, or 0.23%, to 1837 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 6 points, or 0.16%, to 3571.</p>
<p>It's central bank day. The European Central Bank and Bank of England held their benchmark interest rates steady at record lows as the economic recovery across the pond continue revving up. The moves matched Wall Street's expectations. Still, as the U.S. Federal Reserve suggested Wednesday, low levels of inflation are causing concerns in many developed countries across the board.</p>
<p>A press conference by ECB chief Mario Draghi could help shed more light on the powerful central bank's monetary-policy plans.</p>
<p>Also on the economic front, traders will get a reading on the labor market at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect 335,000 Americans to have filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week, down by 4,000 from the week prior. Outplacement firm Challenger Gray &amp; Christmas said employers announced plans to slash 30,623 jobs last month, down sharply from 45,314 the month before.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Both of these reports come ahead of the all-important monthly jobs reading from the Labor Department, due out on Friday. Economists at Goldman Sachs boosted their outlook on December jobs growth to 200,000 from 175,000 on Wednesday on the back of strong ADP data and other upbeat reports.</p>
<p>In corporate news, Macy's (NYSE:M) said it will lay off 2,500 workers as part of a plan to cut about $100 million in costs a year. Shares of the retailer surged on the news. Ford (NYSE:F) said it will increase its quarterly dividend 25% to 12.5 cents per share beginning in the first quarter. The shares traded higher by less than 1% in pre-market action.</p>
<p>BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) will pay $400,000 for an investigation into whether the world's biggest asset manager traded on non-public information. Family Dollar (NYSE:FDO) shares plunged after the discount store cut its EPS outlook.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, U.S. crude oil futures rose 46 cents, or 0.5%, to $92.79 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline jumped 0.84% to $2.679 a gallon. Gold advanced $4.20, or 0.34%, to $1,230 a troy ounce.</p> | Futures Hold Gains After ECB Holds Rates Steady | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/01/09/futures-hold-gains-after-ecb-holds-rates-steady.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>LONDON (Reuters) – Tesco’s (L:) former UK finance director Carl Rogberg did not coerce and bully employees to manipulate profit figures in 2014, his lawyer told a London court on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Rogberg, 50, is charged with fraud and false accounting at Britain’s biggest retailer in 2014, along with Christopher Bush, 51, who was managing director of Tesco UK, and John Scouler,49, who was UK food commercial director.</p>
<p>All three deny any wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty.</p>
<p>At the start of Rogberg’s defense, barrister Nicholas Purnell told the jury at Southwark Crown Court that witnesses presented by the prosecution had not described being directed by Rogberg to act “one way or another”.</p>
<p>“These propositions that the prosecution would set out to show a group of people set out to coerce and bully people into behaving in a particular way are simply not reflected in the evidence that you have heard,” Purnell said.</p>
<p>The case centers on two statements made by Tesco to the stock market in 2014.</p>
<p>In the first Tesco published a trading update on Aug. 29 in which it downgraded its financial guidance. In the second, on Sept. 22, the retailer said it had found a 250 million pound ($332 million) over-statement of its expected profit, mainly due to booking commercial deals with suppliers too early.</p>
<p>The prosecution has alleged that it is the difference between the first and second statements that exposes fraud. It previously told the court the three former Tesco executives abused their positions of trust to encourage the manipulation of profit figures, lied to auditors and misled the stock market.</p>
<p>Purnell told the jury that Amit Soni, a senior Tesco accountant who is described as a whistleblower by the prosecution, did not bring any documentary evidence of his concerns to Rogberg’s attention.</p>
<p>He said Soni was based in Tesco’s Cheshunt office in south east England, while Rogberg was based at Welwyn Garden City – a 30 minute drive away.</p>
<p>Purnell said Rogberg was in charge of 200-300 people in the UK finance team and was receiving nearly 3,000 financial reports a month when he started his job in 2013.</p>
<p>The barrister said Tesco’s management was like the “civil service of a medium-sized country.”</p>
<p>Tesco’s September 2014 disclosure saw its shares tumble and plunged it into the worst crisis in its near 100-year history.</p>
<p>The forecast profit overstatement, identified three weeks after Dave Lewis took over as chief executive from Phil Clarke, was later raised to 263 million pounds.</p>
<p>The trial began on Sept. 29 and is expected to last beyond Christmas.</p>
<p>($1 = 0.7529 pounds)</p>
<p />
<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Former Tesco UK finance director did not coerce staff his lawyer says | false | https://newsline.com/former-tesco-uk-finance-director-did-not-coerce-staff-his-lawyer-says/ | 2017-11-28 | 1 |
<p>Repeating a charge long asserted by Donald Trump, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said he agreed with the Republican presidential nominee that the system was rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.</p>
<p>In an appearance&#160;on “Sunday Morning Futures,” Giuliani pointed to the nearly 20,000 leaked Democratic National Committee emails as proof that&#160;the Democratic primary was rigged all along to ensure Clinton won the nomination.</p>
<p>“This is a rigged system, and Hillary and [Sen. Tim]&#160;Kaine are right in the middle of the Washington insider rigged system,” Giuliani said. “They take money, they take gifts, they take things that ordinary people don’t get. And Donald Trump is the guy who’s the voice of the outsider.”</p>
<p>Giuliani, who supports Trump, said Clinton and Kaine’s insider status will have an impact on Democrats.</p>
<p>When asked to contrast this week’s Democratic National Convention to the just completed Republican National Convention, Giuliani said&#160;Sanders delegates will not have the same enthusiasm for Hillary that Republicans did for Trump because they’re upset with the selection of Kaine as her running mate and with the way the primary played out.</p>
<p>Watch his remarks here:</p>
<p>Watch the latest video at &lt;a href="http://video.foxnews.com"&gt;video.foxnews.com&lt;/a&gt;</p> | Giuliani goes after Kaine: Hillary and her vp are BOTH corrupt and part of a rigged system | true | http://bizpacreview.com/2016/07/24/giuliani-goes-kaine-hillary-vp-corrupt-part-rigged-system-369653 | 2016-07-24 | 0 |
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<p>“Melbourne University Publishing should drop this whole disgusting project. If they proceed, I urge the Australian Jewish community, and particularly The Australian Jewish News, to treat it with dignified silence. That is our best response. If, God forbid, it is published, don’t give them a dollar. Don’t buy the book.”</p>
<p>Federal Labor MP Michael Danby, Australian Jewish News, August 25 2005</p>
<p>I’m currently writing a book on the Israel/Palestine conflict with Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) and it’s due to be released in May 2006. After sending my articles on the subject to various publications around the world, I was already used to Jews and non-Jews writing and calling with abuse and outright hatred. After my recent column on the Gaza withdrawal, a Sydney doctor emailed me and asked: “How well do you think you would be doing with a name like yours if Adolf would have won?” and “As far as your book goes, I might just take a page out of Hitler’s book on that one.”</p>
<p>“The degree of abuse and outright threats now being directed at anyone – academic, analyst, reporter – who dares to criticise Israel (or dares to tell the truth about the Palestinian uprising) is fast reaching McCarthyite proportions”, wrote Robert Fisk in December 2000. “The attempt to force the media to obey Israel’s rules is now international”. The situation has only worsened since 9/11.</p>
<p>In late August, Jewish Federal Labor MP Michael Danby wrote a letter to the Australian Jewish News (AJN) and demanded MUP “should drop this whole disgusting project.” He claimed that MUP head, Louise Adler, had made comments about Israel and himself that were plainly false. He wanted to “absolutely disassociate himself” from the book because it would be little more than a “propaganda tract” and “an attack on the mainstream Australian Jewish community.”</p>
<p>The exact reason and timing behind his attack remains unclear though after Danby’s refusal to answer some innocuous questions of mine in late 2004 ­ his right, to be sure ­ he seemed to be flagging his disapproval of even debating issues related to the Middle East question. This was true to form. He had slammed me in the past and has a long history of attempting to stop open debate on Israel-related matters.</p>
<p>Leaving aside the irony of a Jewish parliamentarian calling for the censorship of a book that didn’t yet exist, it’s worth remembering Danby is the member for Melbourne Ports, the electorate with the greatest numbers of Jews in Australia [Malcolm Turnbull’s Wentworth is not far behind.] He sees his role as defender of the Israeli cause and he articulates what he believes his constituents want to hear.</p>
<p>Online magazine Crikey picked up the story and asked whether it was appropriate for an MP to call for a boycott of an unpublished book. A few days later, Danby responded to Crikey, denied he had called for censorship and labeled my views on Israel “disgusting.” He cautioned MUP – at a time when Israel was “making a painful withdrawal from Gazaand when the prospects for peace are improving” ­ against publishing books that he thought inappropriate for the times. It begged the question: did Danby truly believe that publishing companies should only produce work that accepted the status quo on issues, rather than challenging or maybe demolishing them?</p>
<p>The intentions of my book are ambitious. I believe that the Israel/Palestine conflict is the defining foreign affairs issue of our time and yet remains woefully misunderstood. Danby and numerous pro-Israel supporters are clearly confronted by me posing questions about Australia’s pro-Israel media, the Howard government’s relationship with Israel and America, the role of the pro-Israel lobby, America’s relationship with the Jewish state, my experiences in the Middle East, including through the Palestinian occupied territories and Jewish and Arab voices of dissent. I am a Jew who doesn’t believe in the concept of a Jewish state, but then, I also don’t believe in the idea of an Islamic or Christian entity either. There is surely room for a non-Zionist Jew to write about the true cost of Zionism both on Israel and the Diaspora.</p>
<p>A week after Danby’s boycott call, the AJN was filled with letters, including one from Louise Adler. “I am dismayed that a fellow publisher such as the AJN gives space for proposals to boycott ideas”, she wrote. “Danby’s proposal is inimical to the central Jewish values of tolerance and open debate.” Larry Stillman wrote that he fully understood the Danby agenda: “I suspect the book will be central of the predominance of conservative views in the Jewish community about the current state of Israel, Danby included.”</p>
<p>The Melbourne Age entered the debate soon after, chastised Danby for denying he had called for my book to be banned and discovered yet more evidence of the MP’s history of “venting sight unseen.” “In the Jewish publication, The Review, he says of David Hare’s Stuff Happens, ‘I havn’t seen the play, nor will I’, then cans it based on a review he read.” The leading broadsheet also compared the controversy to Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz’s failed attempt to ban Norman Finkelstein’s Beyond Chutzpah.</p>
<p>By the following week, the AJN was filled with coverage. A large news story featured another Danby justification for his attack. “If I didn’t tell people about it [Loewenstein’s book] beforehand, knowing what his views are, would I be representing the people I represent?” he said. The paper’s editorial entered the fray. Although critical of Danby’s censorship call, the AJN “unequivocally rejects Loewenstein’s view of a Jewish state as ‘fundamentally undemocratic and colonialist idea from a bygone era'”, the public should wait for the book’s release “before we decide to consign it to the garbage heap of literature.” The letters pages were filled with both supportive and critical contributions, including from Danby himself. My ideas “stink” and he was simply “doing what I was elected to do: speak up for the people I represent.” He again disingenuously denied having called for censorship.</p>
<p>A few days later, I received an unexpected call from well-known Jewish comedian Austen Tayshus. He demanded to know why I was writing my book, suggested Israel was a poor, defenceless Middle Eastern state threatened with annihilation, compared me to a German Jew who collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War and asked why I had the right to air the community’s “dirty laundry.” I explained that he was clearly so insecure in his position that he felt the need to call and abuse me. I soon ended the call.</p>
<p>A few minutes after posting an entry on my blog about the initial call, I received another one from him. He said he would keep on calling me because I was an “ignoramus” and an “asshole.” He suggested we have a public debate, which I declined. He suggested Palestinian Hanan Ashrawi as a moderator (after telling me earlier that she was a “terrorist.”) The point of debating a man like this was negligible, for the simple fact that he didn’t want to debate me – “a sad and lonely man”, in his words – nor actually discuss the issues. He wanted to shout and rant. It may have made him feel good about himself. He clearly needed it.</p>
<p>I told the Green Left Weekly the real fear behind Danby’s attack:</p>
<p>“These sort of people don’t want discussion, because discussion is threatening. Discussion means that more people are aware, or might become aware, of what actually does go on over there: What does occupation mean, what does it mean that Palestinians often have to wait hours at checkpoints in searing sun, what does it mean that women often have to give birth at checkpoints and often die? They don’t want people to know that, for obvious reasons, because it’s shameful. And they know if more people find out that kind of stuff, their view about Israel and the relationship between Australia and Israel could change.”</p>
<p>During this controversy, I received many supportive emails and even financial donations to my website. Mannie De Saxe challenged Danby to put his words into action:</p>
<p>“If Danby feels so passionate about Israel, and it is obvious that he does, why doesn’t he take his supporters, all those vocal Zionists who, together with that publication which should be called the Israeli Zionist Times but is otherwise known as the Australian Jewish News, and move to Israel where Ariel Sharon has said that he needs all the Jews in the Diaspora to come and live to reduce anti-Semitism around the world.”</p>
<p>I was extremely lucky that my publisher backed me 100% during this period. Many a publisher, I suspect, would have been scared to receive such vitriol months before the book’s release. I received some ugly comments on my blog ­ “you’re the nazi Anthony you fucking mental midget. Whose side are you on anyway? THINK about it toolhead” ­ but I remember what John Pilger told me recently; the more they attack you, the more you’re having an effect and doing something right.</p>
<p>The difficulty in even raising questions related to Israel proves that serious debate is ever-more essential. The world is slowing waking up to the true reality in Israel and Palestine and Australians are joining the chorus of disapproval.</p>
<p>ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN is a Sydney-based freelance journalist and author. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>He blogs at <a href="http://antonyloewenstein.blogspot.com/" type="external">http://antonyloewenstein.blogspot.com/</a></p>
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<p>CLARIFICATION</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH</p>
<p>We published an article entitled “A Saudiless Arabia” by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the “Article”), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the “Website”).</p>
<p>Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.</p>
<p>We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.</p>
<p>As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.</p>
<p>We are pleased to clarify the position.</p>
<p>August 17, 2005</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | When the Truth Comes to Town | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/09/27/when-the-truth-comes-to-town/ | 2005-09-27 | 4 |
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<p>SILVER CITY, N.M. — A math teacher who is head volleyball coach at Silver City High School has been arrested and accused of having a sex with a student.</p>
<p>The New Mexico State Police said Tiana Sanchez was arrested Thursday following an investigation that began May 12 when the student’s mother provided the student’s phone to authorities.</p>
<p>According to the State Police, the phone contained text and photographs with sexual content.</p>
<p>Sanchez was arrested and jailed on suspicion of criminal sexual penetration of a child.</p>
<p>Online court records don’t list an attorney who could comment on behalf of Sanchez regarding the allegations.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Silver City teacher accused of having sex with student | false | https://abqjournal.com/1005873/silver-city-teacher-accused-of-having-sex-with-student.html | 2017-05-19 | 2 |
<p>MSNBC announced today that it will launch a new program on Monday called The Cycle to fill a hole in its lineup that was created when Dylan Ratigan announced a few weeks ago that he was leaving the network to pursue other opportunities.</p>
<p>The network had previously decided to move Martin Bashir from the 3 p.m. time slot to Ratigan’s slot at 4 p.m. Thus, Bashir’s show will now precede Hardball with Chris Matthews.</p>
<p>The Cycle will have four hosts:&#160;Touré, Krystal Ball, Steve Kornacki and S.E. Cupp. The first three hosts are liberal while Cupp will be the lone conservative. The format will be almost a mirror image of Fox News Channel’s The Five, with just one less commentator in the mix.</p>
<p>Steve Friedman, executive producer of Ratigan’s show, will now produce The Cycle and gave The <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/21/the-cycle-msnbc-3-pm-se-cupp-toure-_n_1616709.html?1340309042" type="external">Huffington Post</a> some details on the new show:</p>
<p>Friedman said that plans for the new show began two or three months ago, when Ratigan <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/10/dylan-ratigan-msnbc-exit_n_1585149.html" type="external">told</a>MSNBC executives he was thinking of leaving.</p>
<p>“The Cycle” will be an ensemble show; all four hosts will appear every day, with each one taking turns facilitating the discussion. If that sounds like a certain 5 p.m. Fox News show, the team behind “The Cycle” is well aware of it. In the Thursday interview, Cupp, Kornacki, Touré and Ball all jokingly pretended not to know what “The Five” is, and Friedman flatly rejected the notion that his new show was derivative.</p>
<p>“When ‘The Five’ started, did you go and ask them if they were doing ‘The View’?” he asked. “When ‘The View’ started, did you ask them if they were doing the ‘Today’ show?</p>
<p>Testy, testy.</p>
<p>Friedman says he won’t worry about the ratings until the fall and will only have five weeks to work out the initial kinks before the Olympics, which will pre-empt The Cycle for three weeks.&#160; Then, when the show returns, it will have to work on building an audience all over again.</p>
<p>If MSNBC isn’t careful they may wind up having to send the show to the re-cycle bin.</p> | MSNBC Tries To Hit for “The Cycle” at 3 PM | true | http://aim.org/don-irvine-blog/msnbc-tries-to-hit-for-the-cycle-at-3-pm/ | 2012-06-21 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Author: <a href="https://adinakutnicki.com/about/" type="external">Adina Kutnicki</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sgancohen/the-sword-of-militant-islam" type="external" /></p>
<p>WHEN delving into the Islamic muck, there are various methods of operation. In so doing, one high-level prerequisite may be the ability to operate undetected and behind the scenes. Invisible. Ghost-like. Resultant, certain well-honed skill sets must become second skin and front and center. Indeed, if unsuccessful, one should expect to get caught in their jihadi crossfire. Obviously, that would not be a good outcome!</p>
<p>ON the other hand, those who are <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Banned-Facebook-Enables-Militant-Islamic/dp/1944212221" type="external">steeped in counter-jihad via investigative journalism</a>, by definition, are out there in the open, even though (most of) one’s sources must remain hidden. As such, it is often&#160;a surreal situation, in so far that even some of what you know (atop the “who”) must stay underground, while other information is meant for public consumption. So when explained in this manner, it is easier to understand that this work can be akin to a juggling act and acrobatic in nature. Even so, it is not rocket science. Hardly. Admittedly, it does take a tough exterior to deal with the backlash, some of which sneaks up on you.</p>
<p>BE that as it may, no one within this arena expects this sort of work (most of which ends up online, while some surfaces within the print realm) to be risk-free. Besides, nothing of value is without this or that risk, unless one is satisfied living in a bubble and blind as a bat. Stipulated, the aforementioned risk/benefit ratio applies to those who have reached the age of majority. As to the kiddies, they must be protected at all costs. Whatever it takes.</p>
<p>IN this regard, before we get to the threatening nature of&#160; <a href="http://wacdi.net/wacdi/experts-criticism-islam-may-be-banned-us-wndcom?page=7" type="external">WACDI.NET</a> and what they are (more than likely) up to, let’s hark back to one example (out of <a href="https://adinakutnicki.com/2016/06/27/massachusetts-jihadi-william-scanlon-knocks-on-this-door-againfeds-what-say-youfb-et-tu-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/" type="external">numerous</a>) in which Islamists make their “displeasure” known in this direction.&#160;</p>
<p>BACK on May 22, 2014, Joe Newby reported at Examiner.com: <a href="https://adinakutnicki.com/2014/05/22/facebook-yanks-restores-anti-islam-page-after-admins-receive-death-threats-adina-kutnicki/" type="external">&#160;“Facebook yanks, restores, anti-Islam page after admins receive death threats.”</a>&#160;The &#160;following is an excerpt:</p>
<p>Is&#160; <a href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/facebook" type="external">Facebook</a>&#160;okay with death&#160; <a href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/threats" type="external">threats</a>&#160;from Islamists? That’s the question administrators of “ <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheIslamicThreat" type="external">Islam Exposed</a>” asked earlier this week. After administrators received a number of threatening messages, Facebook pulled the page, citing “harassment,” but restored the page on Tuesday, telling Examiner.com it “was removed in error.”</p>
<p>Administrators were extremely grateful to see the page restored, but questions regarding the threats remained. Would Facebook take action against those issuing the threats? The social media site did not say, but the group did not wait and filed complaints with the&#160; <a href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/fbi" type="external">FBI</a>.”</p>
<p>A single bullet will strike ur (sic) head one day [admin] from a jihadist. Insha-Allah,” one threat read. Another Facebook user with a Muslim name threatened to cut off administrators’ heads if they continued to post articles in a rant too profane to quote here. Yet another person threatened to blackmail one of the administrators.</p>
<p>“I am giving u (sic) warning,” said another person. “Stop this page.”</p>
<p>According to the group, one administrator received several threatening phone calls, with some including a Muslim prayer in Arabic. He reported it to the police, they said, but nothing was done. Just this week, they added, he received two threatening calls.</p>
<p>Adina Kutnicki, an&#160; <a href="https://adinakutnicki.com/about/" type="external">investigative journalist</a>&#160;based in Israel, said she has been harassed on Facebook by an individual she identified as Iranian Mohamed Erdem.</p>
<p>“Back off you satanist scum of the earth! You want war, war with me!” he told Kutnicki&#160;on Facebook. The threats she received from Erdem was so alarming, she added, that “heavy duty counter terror contacts decided to ‘check things out.’”</p>
<p>The face of another administrator was photo-shopped into a Nazi uniform and added to a Facebook post intended to incite harassment. Another picture depicted Kutnicki&#160;superimposed on a nuclear mushroom cloud with a warning that Israel would be destroyed and wiped off the map…..</p>
<p>CLEAR as a bell.</p>
<p>BACK to <a href="http://wacdi.net/axaadiith" type="external">WACDI.NET</a>&#160;….the latest “admirers” of this expert’s back-breaking labor. Welcome to the bandwagon!</p>
<p>LO and behold, the aforementioned site is overseen by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tafsir" type="external">tafsir’s</a>, a serious <a href="http://wacdi.net/axaadiith" type="external">fatwa-driven site.</a></p>
<p>Tafsir ( <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language" type="external">Arabic</a>: تفسير‎, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Arabic" type="external">translit.</a>&#160;Tafsīr, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literal_translation" type="external">lit.</a>&#160;‘interpretation’‎) is the Arabic word for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exegesis" type="external">exegesis</a>, usually of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qur%27an" type="external">Qur’an</a>. An author of tafsir is a mufassir ( <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language" type="external">Arabic</a>: مُفسّر‎‎; plural: مفسّرون). A Quranic tafsir will often explain content and provide places and times, not contained in Quranic verses, as well as give the different views and opinions of scholars on the verse.</p>
<p>MOVING right along to what caught their eye….ire….whatever….</p>
<p>IN the beginning of November 2016, a <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2016/11/experts-criticism-of-islam-may-be-banned-in-u-s/#gvXFmmdqRwvuL99m.99" type="external">reporter from WND (World Net Daily) contacted</a> yours truly, regarding the upcoming trial against Dutch politician Geert Wilders, all for daring to “criticize” Islam and its danger(s) to the west. Imagine that. In any case, he wanted some comments and insights.</p>
<p>AS always, when answering interview questions, a direct and honest response is given, PC sensibilities be damned. Besides, since when is free speech no longer free?</p>
<p>BUT, apparently, the tafsirs at <a href="http://wacdi.net/wacdi" type="external">WACDI.net&#160;</a>weren’t all too thrilled with said truth-telling. Understood.&#160;</p>
<p>IN this regard, instead of “merely” linking the interview to their fatwa-driven site, they decided <a href="http://wacdi.net/wacdi/experts-criticism-islam-may-be-banned-us-wndcom?page=7" type="external">to lead into the interview with guess who</a>, even though it wasn’t until midway through the interview that the aforementioned comments and insights were given! You got that?</p>
<p><a href="http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&amp;fd=R&amp;ct2=uk&amp;usg=AFQjCNHlHIPI4jNDVnhQVtA1DwqRySohig&amp;clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&amp;cid=52779264586918&amp;ei=lb4fWLD1J4uUWNCvtYgD&amp;url=http://www.wnd.com/2016/11/experts-criticism-of-islam-may-be-banned-in-u-s/" type="external">WND.com</a> <a href="http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&amp;fd=R&amp;ct2=uk&amp;usg=AFQjCNHlHIPI4jNDVnhQVtA1DwqRySohig&amp;clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&amp;cid=52779264586918&amp;ei=lb4fWLD1J4uUWNCvtYgD&amp;url=http://www.wnd.com/2016/11/experts-criticism-of-islam-may-be-banned-in-u-s/" type="external">Experts: Criticism of Islam may be banned in US</a>&#160;WND.comAdina Kutnicki, an Israel-based intelligence analyst and author of “Banned: How Facebook Enables Militant Islamic Jihad,” noted that particular Lynch speech was given at a conference sponsored by the Muslim Advocates, a Muslim Brotherhood front group. <a href="http://news.google.co.uk/news/more?ncl=dLZrHCWHSokIpgM&amp;authuser=0&amp;ned=uk" type="external">and more&#160;»</a></p>
<p>THE following is <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2016/11/experts-criticism-of-islam-may-be-banned-in-u-s/#gvXFmmdqRwvuL99m.99" type="external">the beginning of the interview at WND</a>:</p>
<p>Dutch politician Geert Wilders has spent years speaking out against the threat Islam poses to his country, and now he finds himself in legal trouble for it.</p>
<p>The controversial lawmaker went on trial this week on charges of “inciting discrimination and hatred of Moroccans,” according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/31/geert-wilders-trial-throws-netherlands-divisions-in-sharp-relief" type="external">the Guardian</a>.</p>
<p>The charges stem from a March 2014 rally in which Wilders asked a room full of supporters if they wanted “more or fewer Moroccans” in the country. When the audience chanted, “Fewer, fewer!” Wilders responded, “Well, we’ll arrange that, then.”</p>
<p>This led the Dutch government to prosecute Wilders for “offending members of a group based on their race, and hate speech and discrimination,” according to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/world/europe/geert-wilders-netherlands-hate-trial.html" type="external">New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>The paper added Wilders could face up to two years in prison if convicted, although other offenders in similar cases are usually fined or slapped with community service.</p>
<p>Don’t think for a moment something like this couldn’t happen to an American politician, says American Freedom Defense Initiative president Pamela Geller – especially if Hillary Clinton becomes our next president.</p>
<p>“While she was secretary of State, the U.S. voted for U.N. Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18, which calls for criminalization of ‘incitement to religious hatred,’ a subjective category that allows for the criminalization of any dissenting voice,” Geller told WND.</p>
<p>Philip Haney, a retired Customs and Border Protection officer and author of <a href="http://superstore.wnd.com/See-Something-Say-Nothing-Hardcover-Autographed?promocode=MSTORY" type="external">“See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad,”</a> agreed an American politician could be prosecuted for “hate speech” if UN HRC Resolution 16/18 and the related “Istanbul Process” are more fully enforced in the U.S. He said there will inevitably come a point when Americans have to decide whether they will honor their Constitution or international laws against criticizing Muslims.</p>
<p>“Is the First Amendment going to stay inviolable, or are we going to submit to the authority of a macro global-level organization like the U.N., and submit our freedom of speech to the resolutions like U.N. 16/18?” Haney asked.</p>
<p>However, it is not just international law that is forming a protective bubble around Muslims. In 2013, <a href="http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2013/05/doj-social-media-posts-trashing-muslims-may-violate-civil-rights/" type="external">Judicial Watch</a> reported on a meeting in Tennessee in which Bill Killian, the region’s top federal prosecutor, was scheduled to tell the community that people who post inflammatory documents aimed at Muslims on social media are guilty of violating federal civil rights laws.</p>
<p>In December 2015, the day after two radical Muslims went on a killing spree in San Bernardino, Attorney General Loretta Lynch promised a Muslim advocacy and lobbying group she would take aggressive action against anyone who used “anti-Muslim rhetoric” that “edges toward violence.”</p>
<p>During a time of increased Islamic terror attacks in America and around the world, Lynch said her biggest concern was the “incredibly disturbing rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric” in America.</p>
<p>Adina Kutnicki, an Israel-based intelligence analyst and author of <a href="http://superstore.wnd.com/Banned-How-Facebook-Enables-Militant-Islamic-Jihad-Paperback?promocode=MSTORY" type="external">“Banned: How Facebook Enables Militant Islamic Jihad,”</a>&#160;…….</p>
<p>MESSAGE received….the singling out….you don’t have to hit this author over the head!</p>
<p>MIND you, it is hardly as if this <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/1009405/the-muslim-brotherhoods-quest-for-global-dominance-an-interview-with-adina-kutnicki/" type="external">Brotherhood Mafia expert</a> is the sole preoccupation of Islam’s jihadis. To be sure, how many are still unaware (unless living in dreamland) of all the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3123703/ISIS-threaten-Pamela-Geller-posting-anti-Muslim-activist-s-New-York-City-apartment-address-message-GoForth.html" type="external">death threats directed at Pamela Geller</a>, a well-known counter-jihadist? For that matter, what about those aimed at Islamic specialist and counter-jihadist, <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/156460" type="external">Robert Spencer</a>,&#160;vowing that he will meet a violent and befitting Islamic end? &#160;</p>
<p>BUT never mind. Just as they watch us, we keep our eyes on them. Enough said.</p>
<p><a href="http://almukminin.sg/web/tafsir-kuliah-in-english/" type="external" /></p> | WACDI.NET, Islamic Fatwa-Driven Site, “Features” WND’s Interview With Adina Kutnicki. What Are They Up To? | true | http://conservativefiringline.com/wacdi-net-islamic-fatwa-driven-site-features-wnds-interview-adina-kutnicki/ | 2016-11-23 | 0 |
<p>The Mexican peso strengthened against the dollar on Thursday after several top Trump administration officials stressed the importance of maintaining positive relations with the U.S.'s southern neighbor. The peso strengthened early in the day, part of a broad-based rally in emerging-market currencies, after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin offered what some market strategists characterized as a lackluster defense of the U.S.'s strong dollar policy. The dollar was down 1.4% at 19.65 pesos in recent trade, compared with 19.94 pesos late Wednesday in New York. He also emphasized that relations between the two countries remain positive. The currency added to its gains later in the day after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said his trip to Mexico was "forward-looking," and that officials from the two countries were focused on their common interests. He also said that Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Videgaray also said the meeting was "a good step" toward cooperation. The currency is presently trading at levels not seen since Nov. 9, the day after the U.S. election. It rallied sharply earlier in the week after Mexico's central bank introduced a new hedging facility. "[President Donald Trump] said a lot of inflammatory stuff during the campaign but in reality their relationship is going to have to be one of mutual cooperation and strong ties," said Win Thin, global head of emerging-market currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Mexico Peso Rallies On Comments From Trump Administration Officials | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/23/mexico-peso-rallies-on-comments-from-trump-administration-officials.html | 2017-03-16 | 0 |
<p>The Chamber of Commerce rolled out a $10 million campaign to support 20 members of Congress&#160;(3 Democrats and 17 Republicans)&#160;for having “supported the Medicare Part D law, giving seniors a quality drug plan.”</p>
<p>However, the group has had to change the ad for three members who were not in Congress at the time of the vote, and pulled the ad for a fourth member who voted for the bill the first time around, but against it the second. That’s a 20 percent error rate.</p>
<p>On July 27, the Chamber of Commerce&#160; <a href="http://www.uschamber.com/press/releases/2006/july/06-124.htm" type="external">kicked</a> off its 2006 election efforts with a&#160;$10 million media campaign&#160;touting the benefits of the Medicare Part D plan which provides seniors with prescription drug coverage.&#160; The campaign included nearly identical ads in&#160;twenty congressional districts thanking incumbents for having&#160;“supported the Medicare Part D law” and&#160;listing the number of seniors from that&#160;state who benefit from drug&#160;coverage.</p>
<p>However, as the Associated Press initially&#160;reported, the group&#160;changed the ad for two members who&#160;were first elected in 2004, and not&#160;yet members of Congress when the&#160;bill became law in 2003. Reps.&#160;Mike Sodrel&#160;of Indiana and Michael Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania are freshmen members who could not have voted on the bill. After the ads&#160;first ran,&#160;the word “supports” was substituted for the word “supported.” Brad Miller, political director for the group,&#160;told the AP that he stands by&#160;the ads because the members backed the program on the campaign trail and during their first years in Congress.</p>
<p>Chamber of Commerce Ad: “Chabot Medicare”</p>
<p>Announcer: Congressman Steve Chabot believes seniors deserve affordable prescription drugs. That’s why Chabot supported the Medicare Part D law giving seniors a quality drug plan. Thanks to&#160;Steve Chabot&#160;close to 1.5&#160;million Ohio seniors now benefit from drug coverage, saving them an average eleven hundred dollars a year. A lot of people in Washington talk about improving healthcare. Steve Chabot is doing something about it.</p>
<p>Announcer 2: Log onto USChamber.com/medicare</p>
<p>On August 3rd, the Seattle Times&#160;reported&#160; that a similar mistake had been made in ads&#160;featuring freshman Rep. Dave Reichert. Local television stations&#160;replaced the original ad with the amended version after receiving complaints.</p>
<p>The ads had previously&#160;garnered media attention&#160;the day after their release because a local station in Ohio had&#160;pulled ads&#160;supporting Rep. Steve Chabot. As the AP first&#160;reported,&#160;three Cincinnati-area&#160; television stations stopped running the ad at the group’s request.</p>
<p>Chabot’s votes on the law are a bit complicated. He actually did&#160; <a href="http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2003/roll332.xml" type="external">vote</a>&#160;for the bill when it first passed through the House in June&#160;2003. However, when the bill came back after conference with the Senate in November of that year, he changed course and&#160; <a href="http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2003/roll669.xml" type="external">voted</a> against it.</p>
<p>Chabot is certainly being consistent about his position on&#160;the bill since then. In&#160;March, according&#160;to the Cincinnati Enquirer ,&#160;the labor-affiliated Working America dispatched automated phone calls in&#160;his district&#160;telling&#160;voters that Chabot backed the prescription drug&#160;plan — much to his chagrin.&#160;Chabot didn’t want to be blamed then, and apparently doesn’t want&#160;to be given&#160;credit now.</p>
<p />
<p>&lt;iframe style="width: 500px; height:300px;" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen src="https://video.factcheck.org/play/legacy-207-1"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</p>
<p>Hammer, David, “Business group pulls ads giving Chabot erroneous credit,” AP . 28 July 2006.</p>
<p>Lester, Will, “Chamber of Commerce’s ad campaign,” AP .&#160;27 July 2006.</p>
<p>Martin, Jonathan, “ <a href="http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=chamber03m&amp;date=20060803&amp;query=reichert" type="external">Ad Backing Reichert edited for accuracy</a>,” Seattle Times.&#160; 3 Aug. 2006.</p>
<p>Rulon, Malia, “Chabot blasts critics’ phone calls to seniors,” Cincinatti Enquirer. 18 March 2006.</p>
<p>Sidoti, Liz, “Chamber of Commerce Alters Ads After Complaints,” AP .&#160;1 Aug. 2006.</p> | Chamber of Commerce: Credit Where It’s Not Due | false | https://factcheck.org/2006/08/chamber-of-commerce-credit-where-its-not/ | 2006-08-03 | 2 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — We have a smiling pile of poop. What about one that’s sad?</p>
<p>There’s loaf of bread and a croissant. But where’s the sliced bagel?</p>
<p>How can our emotional vocabulary be complete without a teddy bear, a lobster, a petri dish or a tooth?</p>
<p>These are the kind of questions that trigger heated debates and verbal bomb tossing — or at least memos with bursts of capital letters — among members of the group burdened with deciding which new emojis make it onto our phones and computer screens each year.</p>
<p>And now more people are getting in on the act.</p>
<p>The Unicode Consortium is tasked with setting the global standard for the icons. It’s a heady responsibility and it can take years from inspiration — Hey, why isn’t there a dumpling? — to a new symbol being added to our phones.</p>
<p />
<p>That’s because deciding whether a googly-eyed turd should express a wider range of emotions is not the frivolous undertaking it might appear to be. Picking the newest additions to our roster of cartoonish glyphs, from deciding on their appearance to negotiating rules that allow vampires but bar Robert Pattinson’s or Dracula’s likeness, actually has consequences for modern communication.</p>
<p>Not since the printing press has something changed written language as much as emojis have, says Lauren Collister, a scholarly communications librarian at the University of Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>“Emoji is one way language is growing,” she says. “When it stops growing and adapting, that’s when a language dies.”</p>
<p>Growing and adapting doesn’t seem like an issue for emojis. The additions for 2017 included gender-neutral characters, a breastfeeding woman and a woman in a hijab.</p>
<p>For better or worse, the expanding vocabulary has given us an emoji movie, emoji short story contests and books written in emoji — someone translated “Moby Dick” into “Emoji Dick.” In 2015, Oxford Dictionaries declared the “face with tears of joy” emoji its word of the year. New York’s Museum of Modern art has added the original emoji set to its permanent collection. Apple’s pricey iPhone X lets you send animojis, animated emojis that mimic your facial expressions and speak in your voice.</p>
<p>HOW DID WE GET HERE?</p>
<p>These tiny pictographs became a part of our online language with the ascent of cellphones, getting their start in Japan in 1999 — “emoji” combines the Japanese words for “picture,” or “e″ (pronounced “eh”), and “letters,” or “moji” (moh-jee). At first, there were just 176: simplistic, highly pixelated icons such as a heart, a soccer ball and a rocking horse. Today there are more than a thousand. Because none are taken away, their number only keeps growing.</p>
<p>“Long after you and I are dust in the wind there will be a red wine emoji,” said Mark Davis, the co-founder and president of Unicode Consortium who also works at Google.</p>
<p>Anyone can propose an emoji. But for it to make it to phones and computers, it has to be approved by Unicode. The nonprofit group, mostly made up of people from large tech companies like Apple, Google and Facebook, translates emoji into one standard, so that a person in France, for example, can send an emoji or a text message to a person in the U.S. and it will look the same, no matter what brand of phone or operating system they use.</p>
<p>From the proposals to the design, a bevy of rules govern emojis. To submit a proposal to Unicode, you must follow a strict format, in writing, that includes your emoji’s expected usage level, whether it can be used as an archetype, a metaphor for a symbol (a pig face, for example, can mean more than the face of a pig and represent gluttony).</p>
<p>There are many reasons for exclusion, too. Emojis can’t be overly specific, logos or brands, specific people (living or dead) or deities. A swastika wouldn’t be approved either.</p>
<p>Each year, a new version of the Unicode Standard is released. This year we got Unicode 10.0, which adds 8,518 characters, for a total of 136,690. It added the bitcoin symbol, a set of 285 Hentaigana characters used in Japan and support for languages such as Masaram Gondi, used to write Gondi in Central and Southeast India.</p>
<p>And then there’s the dumpling.</p>
<p />
<p>AN EMOJI TAKES SHAPE</p>
<p>Back in August 2015, journalist and author Jennifer 8. Lee was texting with her friend Yiying Lu, the graphic designer behind the iconic “fail whale” illustration that used to pop up when Twitter’s network was down. It dawned on Lee that there was no dumpling emoji.</p>
<p>“There are so many weird Japanese food emoji,” she said, but she didn’t understand how there could be no dumpling. After all, dumplings are almost universal. Think about it — ravioli, empanada, pierogi, potsticker — all dumplings.</p>
<p>The process took almost two years, including research, many meetings and a written, illustrated proposal that reads a bit like an academic paper, complete with research on dumpling history and popularity.</p>
<p>But thanks largely to her efforts, the dumpling emoji was added to the Unicode Standard this year. And as part of her dumpling emoji lobbying, Lee decided to join the Unicode Consortium.</p>
<p>It was an eye-opener.</p>
<p>When she showed up at her first quarterly meeting of the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee, she expected a big auditorium. Instead, it was just a conference room. Most people there, she said, were “older, white male engineers,” from the big tech companies.</p>
<p>The debates are as esoteric as they are quirky. Should “milk” be in a glass or a carton or a bottle? Pancake or pancakes? Many of the emoji decision-makers are engineers or have linguistic backgrounds, she said, but very few are designers, which can mean limitations on how they think about the images.</p>
<p>As part of their efforts to diversify emojis, Lee and Lu founded Emojination, a group promoting “emoji by the people, for the people.” While it all started with a dumpling, the group also helped other food, clothing, science and animal emoji, including the woman in the hijab, the sandwich and the fortune cookie. Emojination has worked with companies like China’s Baidu, GE and the Finnish government to help them submit emoji proposals.</p>
<p />
<p>WHAT MAKES THE CUT</p>
<p>But when they proposed the frowning poop, they met with some resistance.</p>
<p>“Will we have a CRYING PILE OF POO next? PILE OF POO WITH TONGUE STICKING OUT? PILE OF POO WITH QUESTION MARKS FOR EYES? PILE OF POO WITH KARAOKE MIC? Will we have to encode a neutral FACELESS PILE OF POO? As an ordinary user, I don’t want this kind of crap on my phone,” <a href="http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17393-wg2-emoji-feedback.pdf" type="external">wrote</a> Michael Everson, a linguist, typographer, in a memo to the Unicode Technical Committee.</p>
<p>Another member, typographer Andrew West, wasn’t happy with a proposal for a sliced bagel emoji.</p>
<p>“Why are we prioritizing bagel over other bread products?” he wrote. Clearly he is not a New Yorker.</p>
<p>Got an idea for an emoji and are willing to fight for it? It’s not too late to submit one for the class of 2019. As for 2018, stay tuned. We’ll know in a few months which ones made the cut. And while there’s a desire to be funny and quirky, the diversity of emojis is a real issue.</p>
<p>Amy Butcher, whose 2015 essay prompted Google to propose emojis to represent women as professionals— and not just brides and polished nails — thinks there’s more work to do. The Ohio Wesleyan University professor would like to see interracial couples and human in a wheelchair to represent a disabled person, rather than the wheelchair icon one might see on a bathroom door.</p>
<p>“These tiny, insignificant images begin to create an everyday narrative, and it’s deeply problematic that one might consistently find their identity or demographic lacking, or pigeonholed, or altogether absent,” she said.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — We have a smiling pile of poop. What about one that’s sad?</p>
<p>There’s loaf of bread and a croissant. But where’s the sliced bagel?</p>
<p>How can our emotional vocabulary be complete without a teddy bear, a lobster, a petri dish or a tooth?</p>
<p>These are the kind of questions that trigger heated debates and verbal bomb tossing — or at least memos with bursts of capital letters — among members of the group burdened with deciding which new emojis make it onto our phones and computer screens each year.</p>
<p>And now more people are getting in on the act.</p>
<p>The Unicode Consortium is tasked with setting the global standard for the icons. It’s a heady responsibility and it can take years from inspiration — Hey, why isn’t there a dumpling? — to a new symbol being added to our phones.</p>
<p />
<p>That’s because deciding whether a googly-eyed turd should express a wider range of emotions is not the frivolous undertaking it might appear to be. Picking the newest additions to our roster of cartoonish glyphs, from deciding on their appearance to negotiating rules that allow vampires but bar Robert Pattinson’s or Dracula’s likeness, actually has consequences for modern communication.</p>
<p>Not since the printing press has something changed written language as much as emojis have, says Lauren Collister, a scholarly communications librarian at the University of Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>“Emoji is one way language is growing,” she says. “When it stops growing and adapting, that’s when a language dies.”</p>
<p>Growing and adapting doesn’t seem like an issue for emojis. The additions for 2017 included gender-neutral characters, a breastfeeding woman and a woman in a hijab.</p>
<p>For better or worse, the expanding vocabulary has given us an emoji movie, emoji short story contests and books written in emoji — someone translated “Moby Dick” into “Emoji Dick.” In 2015, Oxford Dictionaries declared the “face with tears of joy” emoji its word of the year. New York’s Museum of Modern art has added the original emoji set to its permanent collection. Apple’s pricey iPhone X lets you send animojis, animated emojis that mimic your facial expressions and speak in your voice.</p>
<p>HOW DID WE GET HERE?</p>
<p>These tiny pictographs became a part of our online language with the ascent of cellphones, getting their start in Japan in 1999 — “emoji” combines the Japanese words for “picture,” or “e″ (pronounced “eh”), and “letters,” or “moji” (moh-jee). At first, there were just 176: simplistic, highly pixelated icons such as a heart, a soccer ball and a rocking horse. Today there are more than a thousand. Because none are taken away, their number only keeps growing.</p>
<p>“Long after you and I are dust in the wind there will be a red wine emoji,” said Mark Davis, the co-founder and president of Unicode Consortium who also works at Google.</p>
<p>Anyone can propose an emoji. But for it to make it to phones and computers, it has to be approved by Unicode. The nonprofit group, mostly made up of people from large tech companies like Apple, Google and Facebook, translates emoji into one standard, so that a person in France, for example, can send an emoji or a text message to a person in the U.S. and it will look the same, no matter what brand of phone or operating system they use.</p>
<p>From the proposals to the design, a bevy of rules govern emojis. To submit a proposal to Unicode, you must follow a strict format, in writing, that includes your emoji’s expected usage level, whether it can be used as an archetype, a metaphor for a symbol (a pig face, for example, can mean more than the face of a pig and represent gluttony).</p>
<p>There are many reasons for exclusion, too. Emojis can’t be overly specific, logos or brands, specific people (living or dead) or deities. A swastika wouldn’t be approved either.</p>
<p>Each year, a new version of the Unicode Standard is released. This year we got Unicode 10.0, which adds 8,518 characters, for a total of 136,690. It added the bitcoin symbol, a set of 285 Hentaigana characters used in Japan and support for languages such as Masaram Gondi, used to write Gondi in Central and Southeast India.</p>
<p>And then there’s the dumpling.</p>
<p />
<p>AN EMOJI TAKES SHAPE</p>
<p>Back in August 2015, journalist and author Jennifer 8. Lee was texting with her friend Yiying Lu, the graphic designer behind the iconic “fail whale” illustration that used to pop up when Twitter’s network was down. It dawned on Lee that there was no dumpling emoji.</p>
<p>“There are so many weird Japanese food emoji,” she said, but she didn’t understand how there could be no dumpling. After all, dumplings are almost universal. Think about it — ravioli, empanada, pierogi, potsticker — all dumplings.</p>
<p>The process took almost two years, including research, many meetings and a written, illustrated proposal that reads a bit like an academic paper, complete with research on dumpling history and popularity.</p>
<p>But thanks largely to her efforts, the dumpling emoji was added to the Unicode Standard this year. And as part of her dumpling emoji lobbying, Lee decided to join the Unicode Consortium.</p>
<p>It was an eye-opener.</p>
<p>When she showed up at her first quarterly meeting of the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee, she expected a big auditorium. Instead, it was just a conference room. Most people there, she said, were “older, white male engineers,” from the big tech companies.</p>
<p>The debates are as esoteric as they are quirky. Should “milk” be in a glass or a carton or a bottle? Pancake or pancakes? Many of the emoji decision-makers are engineers or have linguistic backgrounds, she said, but very few are designers, which can mean limitations on how they think about the images.</p>
<p>As part of their efforts to diversify emojis, Lee and Lu founded Emojination, a group promoting “emoji by the people, for the people.” While it all started with a dumpling, the group also helped other food, clothing, science and animal emoji, including the woman in the hijab, the sandwich and the fortune cookie. Emojination has worked with companies like China’s Baidu, GE and the Finnish government to help them submit emoji proposals.</p>
<p />
<p>WHAT MAKES THE CUT</p>
<p>But when they proposed the frowning poop, they met with some resistance.</p>
<p>“Will we have a CRYING PILE OF POO next? PILE OF POO WITH TONGUE STICKING OUT? PILE OF POO WITH QUESTION MARKS FOR EYES? PILE OF POO WITH KARAOKE MIC? Will we have to encode a neutral FACELESS PILE OF POO? As an ordinary user, I don’t want this kind of crap on my phone,” <a href="http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17393-wg2-emoji-feedback.pdf" type="external">wrote</a> Michael Everson, a linguist, typographer, in a memo to the Unicode Technical Committee.</p>
<p>Another member, typographer Andrew West, wasn’t happy with a proposal for a sliced bagel emoji.</p>
<p>“Why are we prioritizing bagel over other bread products?” he wrote. Clearly he is not a New Yorker.</p>
<p>Got an idea for an emoji and are willing to fight for it? It’s not too late to submit one for the class of 2019. As for 2018, stay tuned. We’ll know in a few months which ones made the cut. And while there’s a desire to be funny and quirky, the diversity of emojis is a real issue.</p>
<p>Amy Butcher, whose 2015 essay prompted Google to propose emojis to represent women as professionals— and not just brides and polished nails — thinks there’s more work to do. The Ohio Wesleyan University professor would like to see interracial couples and human in a wheelchair to represent a disabled person, rather than the wheelchair icon one might see on a bathroom door.</p>
<p>“These tiny, insignificant images begin to create an everyday narrative, and it’s deeply problematic that one might consistently find their identity or demographic lacking, or pigeonholed, or altogether absent,” she said.</p> | Will we get a sad poop emoji? Well, there’s a process | false | https://apnews.com/21483993462746d0857ba1d6edcd61e6 | 2017-12-29 | 2 |
<p>Republicans held their <a href="" type="internal">Super Tuesday</a> election contests earlier this week and despite media build-up, it was a decidedly split decision. As <a href="" type="internal">IVN reported earlier</a>, this split means the Republican primary season is likely to stretch much longer. With the results of 10 races, four facts were re-established.</p>
<p>Ohio Primary Voters Reject Extremism</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Senator Santorum</a> is losing because he has major and substantial on-going problems with Catholic voters – particularly Catholic women voters who are turned off by his extreme social conservatism. <a href="" type="internal">Governor Romney</a> won Ohio due to those Catholic voters – principally the Catholic women decisively rejected Sen. Santorum.</p>
<p>A byproduct of this trend was the nature of the Ohio Congressional delegation changed, with voters rejecting extremist incumbents on both sides of the aisle. In the Cincinnati Suburbs, Congresswoman Jean Schmidt, the Ohio version of <a href="" type="internal">former GOP nominee Rep. Michele Bachmann</a>, lost her primary to Brad Wenstrup, a less polarizing individual who is more Libertarian Conservative. In addition, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, arguably the left wing version of Michele Bachmann, decisively lost his primary to Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.</p>
<p>The social issues that seem to animate Sen. Santorum’s campaign are losing their traction.</p>
<p>Santorum’s Inadequate Campaign Organization</p>
<p>Sen. Santorum is a disorganized candidate with a campaign incapable of performing the nuts and bolts of electioneering. If Sen. Santorum fell short of a victory in Washington State due to unappealing social rhetoric, Ohio proved to be an organizational nightmare. In terms of the delegate count, Sen. Santorum’s lack of structure showed in Ohio.</p>
<p>According to Ohio Republican Party rules, Sen. Santorum was ineligible to receive up to 18 of Ohio’s 63 delegates at issue. He was ineligible for nine delegates because he failed to register delegates in three of Ohio’s 16 congressional districts. But he also failed to file complete three-delegate slates in six other districts, including two in Southwest Ohio.</p>
<p>Because of the results, Sen. Santorum forfeited at least seven delegates that he otherwise would have won. In terms of where those delegates go, three of those delegates go to Gov. Romney and the remaining four are unallocated with Republican Party officials making the ultimate decision. The establishment getting to pick their choice is bad news for Sen. Santorum.</p>
<p>Gov. Romney’s campaign noted that this disorganization was evidence that Sen. Santorum is not “ready for prime time,” as Ben Ginsberg, Gov. Romney’s campaign national counsel, said in a conference call with reporters last Saturday. Mr. Ginsberg stated that getting on the ballot in every state is “a true test” of whether a candidate has the organizational muscle for the general election. The same criticism can be applied to any of the other candidates, except for Ron Paul, who appeared on all the ballots.</p>
<p>It is awfully presumptuous of Sen, Santorum, in light of Super Tuesday, having his campaign call on conservatives to pressure <a href="" type="internal">former Speaker Newt Gingrich</a> to abandon his bid for the White House. There is no indication that Gingrich voters would in fact vote for Sen. Santorum. Moreover, what is driving this competition is the way Gov. Romney is running his campaign. He is making it less likely that anyone will drop out.</p>
<p>Mitt Romney’s Road To Nomination Still Tricky</p>
<p>Despite his lead and the shortcomings of his competitors, Gov. Romney remains a very, very weak candidate who may yet blow the nomination.</p>
<p>In terms of the delegate allocation, here is the hard count based on the most recent estimates of delegates actually awarded:</p>
<p />
<p>For Gov. Romney, be it his LDS faith or otherwise, he has tremendous problems as a candidate –particularly in the South. In Virginia, which is a presidential swing state, Dr. Paul got 42% of the vote and three delegates, in a non-campaign effort. In Vermont, a state Gov. Romney should have swept, he split the delegates with Dr. Paul and Sen. Santorum. The sole southern state that he might have won with some effort is Tennessee, but he hit his 28% ceiling and stalled out, ultimately losing the state to Sen. Santorum. As consolation, Gov. Romney did pull in delegates in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. This trend will likely continue next week in Alabama, Kansas, and Mississippi, where Romney is expected to lose, yet pick up some delegates.</p>
<p>Gov. Romney’s problem is that large portions of the Republican party still do not want him. As former California Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte once noted, “You are not a leader until you take your caucus where it did not want to go”. Liberals have experienced this firsthand with President Obama. For all the complaining within by the so-called “Professional Left”, President Obama has taken the Democratic Party to places where it did not initially want to go. In doing so, he has mostly delivered on core Democratic objectives.</p>
<p>The same was true of <a href="" type="internal">George Bush 43</a>, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, <a href="" type="internal">John F. Kennedy</a>, Harry Truman, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They were allowed some flexibility because the vast majority of the party core trusted them to “watch their back”. The same cannot be said of Governor Romney.</p>
<p>The former Massachusetts Governor has various supporters that are antithetical to the GOP’s conservative wing. Indeed, many of his Super PAC funders are gay or have gay immediate family members. Many business groups pushing “green technology” are also some of his biggest funders. Gov. Romney’s campaign has recently put out a series of memos explaining that his opponents cannot get to 1144 delegates – all true, but he has not shown how he is going to get close to that number himself. Given questions raised as to the nature of awarding delegates, Gov. Romney’s allocation in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, and Ohio maybe challenged in Tampa at a contested Republican Convention.</p>
<p>What Gov. Romney needs to do is to have a “Sister Souljah” moment with the Republican Party and tell them to grow up. Republicans might welcome that no nonsense approach. Either way, Gov. Romney might want to follow the lead of his wife Anne, whose campaigning among women in Ohio delivered the state to him.</p>
<p>What’s Next</p>
<p>Kansas Caucuses will be held this Saturday, Mississippi and Alabama follow with primaries on March 13th. Caucuses next week include Hawaii and Missouri. Sen. Sentorum “won” Missouri’s “beauty contest” back in February, however won’t be held until next Saturday. It’s in Kansas and Missouri that Dr. Paul is campaigning, on par with his team’s strategy to target accruing <a href="" type="internal">pledged delegates</a>.</p>
<p>In all, the biggest winner coming out of Super Tuesday was likely <a href="" type="internal">President Obama</a>.</p>
<p>David Axelrod told reporters on a conference call, “Instead of Super Tuesday, it became Super Glue Day for them. They’re still stuck with Santorum and with Gingrich and with the prospect of a long race here.”</p> | Aftermath of Super Tuesday Split Decision | false | https://ivn.us/2012/03/08/aftermath-of-super-tuesday-split-decision/ | 2012-03-08 | 2 |
<p>A pair of New York state lawmakers&#160;are suggesting&#160;Governor Cuomo to use&#160;an executive order to arm National Guard members in the wake of the Chattanooga terrorist attack.</p>
<p>Via <a href="http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S3857788.shtml?cat=300" type="external">WNYT</a>:</p>
<p>Seven states are taking action to arm their National Guard members. Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin says New York should be the eighth.</p>
<p>"If we sent them off to war to protect this nation they would certainly be armed. To leave them unprotected in their place of business is unconscionable and it needs to change," he said.</p>
<p>A federal law dating back to 1878 prevents military from engaging in domestic law enforcement. But, McLaughlin says there needs to be new laws to face new threats.</p>
<p>"There are radical elements within this nation that want to do harm to us as citizens and certainly to our military because they are high profile targets," he said.</p>
<p>The WNYT report cites an anonymous former national guardsman who disagrees with the proposal, saying that by putting the Guard and the police force on the same level would be "a step toward a totalitarian state."</p>
<p>McLaughlin however, took to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SteveMcNY?fref=ts" type="external">social media</a> to say that while he understands that concern he's "not calling for troops to be policemen, I'm calling for them not be easy targets at work."</p>
<p>He added:</p>
<p>What didn't get shown in the interview was me talking about 9/11 and the fact that we armed pilots after that. That was a logical response to a clearly increased danger. So is arming our troops.</p>
<p>Assemblyman <a href="http://blog.timesunion.com/tedisco/arm-nys-national-guard-to-protect-against-terror-attacks/1719/" type="external">Jim Tedisco</a> agrees, saying "the Governor should&#160;use his authority as Commander in Chief of the New York National Guard to &#160;arm our Guard members to protect the lives of civilians and our brave service men and women."</p>
<p>Tedisco argues that Cuomo could execute this plan on his own, without federal authority.</p>
<p>Tedisco&#160;wrote:</p>
<p>While the President and Congress should allow our active duty service members to be armed, we don't need permission from the federal government to make this happen for New York's reservists - nor should we wait for federal action.</p>
<p>The Governor can and should do this immediately.</p>
<p>What do you think of this proposal?</p>
<p /> | Lawmakers Ask Cuomo To Arm National Guard In Wake Of Chattanooga Attack | true | http://menrec.com/lawmakers-ask-cuomo-to-arm-national-guard-in-wake-of-chattanooga-attack/ | 2015-07-22 | 0 |
<p>Writing letters to Santa is a treasured holiday tradition, but have you ever wondered where all those letters end up or who responds to them?</p>
<p>This year is the 105th anniversary of the United States Postal Service's Operation Santa program, which is responsible for providing a written response to many of those letters.</p>
<p>It started back in 1912 when Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock officially authorized employees and citizens to start responding to the increasing number of letters written to Santa each holiday season.</p>
<p>Charities, community organizations and corporations were also invited to participate in the 1940s because of the influx of letters to Santa, <a href="https://about.usps.com/holidaynews/operation-santa.htm" type="external">according to the USPS</a>.</p>
<p>Now, post offices <a href="https://about.usps.com/holidaynews/pdf/2017-op-santa-locations.pdf" type="external">across the country</a> "adopt" letters to Santa and volunteers provide a written response signed by Father Christmas himself.</p>
<p>For safety reasons, in 2009 the USPS started redacting all references to the child's address and assigning a number to each letter to Santa. Now those who choose to adopt letters to Santa have to fill out an official form and when they're ready to mail their response, the post office simply matches the number on the letter to the child's address.</p>
<p>Although Santa Claus, Indiana, isn't officially part of the Operation Santa program, they too receive letters every year because of the town's name.</p>
<p>Patricia Koch, the founder of the Santa Claus Museum and Village, said her father came home from World War I and realized the village's postmaster was overwhelmed by the number of letters to Santa.</p>
<p>"So he decided to ask other people to help," Koch explained. "At one point the villagers, the people who lived here, would just go to the post office, pick up letters and answer them. So it’s a community legacy to actually to do this."</p>
<p>In the early 1940s, when Koch was just 11 or 12 years old, she started helping her father with all the letters.</p>
<p>But it wasn't until about 1976 that the operation, now known as Santa's Elves Inc., became what it is today.</p>
<p>Now, Koch and the rest of Santa's helpers gather around a big table in the back room of the town's original post office building every year after Thanksgiving to begin responding to all those letters.</p>
<p>"We’re up to about 19,000 letters so far this year," Koch said.</p>
<p>Koch added that she and the other elves will be working hard to get responses out by Dec. 21 so they arrive before Christmas.</p>
<p>Although children are more likely to print or type letters to Santa nowadays, rather than writing in cursive, Koch said the sentiment behind the wishlists and notes remain the same.</p>
<p>"These children are writing from the heart," Koch said. "I mean they’re telling Santa everything”</p>
<p>For Koch, just knowing that she's bringing a little bit of joy to children she responds to makes it all worthwhile.</p>
<p>Related stories on Circa: <a href="" type="internal">For singer-songwriter Elizabeth Chan, it's Christmas 365 days a year</a> <a href="" type="internal">This village was designed by architects but built with gingerbread</a> <a href="" type="internal">Eyebrows decorated like Christmas trees are now a thing</a></p> | Ever wonder where all the letters to Santa go? Here's why some end up in Indiana. | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/12/20/whoa/santa-claus-indiana-receives-thousands-of-letters-to-father-christmas-every-year-heres-why | 2017-12-20 | 1 |
<p>IM Global Television has acquired global distribution rights to “SuperSwede,” Henrik Jansson-Schweizer’s critically-aclaimed documentary biopic about Ronnie Peterson, the legendary Swedish Formula 1.</p>
<p>“Superswede” marks the first original documentary film of <a href="http://variety.com/t/mtg/" type="external">MTG</a>. It was produced by <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/global/mtg-mayweather-jr-mcgregor-fight-1202498447/" type="external">MTG</a>-owned Nice Drama. Jansson-Schweizer’s previous credits include “Midnight Sun” and “100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappear”).</p>
<p>The documentary chronicles Peterson’s journey from small-town Sweden to the international fast lane, featuring interviews with Formula 1 champions such as Niki Lauda, Emerson Fittipaldi, Sir Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti and Jody Scheckter, as well Peterson’s daughter, Nina Kennedy.</p>
<p>“Ronnie Peterson was a global phenomenon — and now his turbocharged life story is coming to audiences everywhere,” said Jakob Mejlhede, exec VP and head of programming and content development at MTG.</p>
<p>Eli Shibley, president of international distribution and co-production at IM Global said “‘Supersede’ gives a thrilling glimpse into Formula One’s rock n’roll era through the eyes of one of its most iconic figures, Ronnie Peterson.”</p>
<p>Shibley added that “Superswede is a visually compelling and character driven testament to the fabulous filmmaking and creativity coming from MTG and the wider Nordic region.”</p>
<p /> | IM Global Television Picks Up ‘SuperSwede’ for Global Distribution | false | https://newsline.com/im-global-television-picks-up-superswede-for-global-distribution/ | 2017-10-13 | 1 |
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<p>What’s worse is the fact that we simply cannot trust President Obama anymore. We were deceived about Obamacare’s true costs, and we were led to believe we could keep our current coverage if we liked it.</p>
<p>We have heard plenty of promises about the benefits of Obamacare from Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the president. However, the results have been condemning.</p>
<p>Let’s review a few blatant deceptions about Obamacare.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Health insurance premiums were said to decrease for the average family by $2,500 per year. However, New Mexico premiums could increase by up to 142 percent.</p>
<p>There was supposed to be more access to health care. However, there are now fewer options and millions are receiving cancellation letters for policies they wanted to keep. We now know government officials knew as early as April that this would happen but chose to keep the information from us.</p>
<p>Obama was supposed to offer better government through technology. The Obamacare website cost $600 million. It has been an utter failure.</p>
<p>This administration and its supporters constantly glaze over realities and deceive the American public in the face of certain facts. It reminds me of “Baghdad Bob,” Saddam Hussein’s comical propagandist and spokesman during the 2003 Iraq invasion, who famously denied there were American troops in Baghdad, while they had actually been in control of the city.</p>
<p>It seems similar to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sitting down and trying to log into the Obamacare website in front of reporters when the site crashed. Would she admit it? Of course not.</p>
<p>Time after time, we have been blatantly lied to. From Benghazi to the IRS targeting groups based on political affiliation, this administration can no longer be trusted.</p>
<p>Obama sort of apologized for leaving families with massive new health care bills and for being kicked off their current plans, and he offered a “fix” that would allow individuals to stay on their current plans for another year.</p>
<p>Not only will this “fix” not actually reverse course for most individuals losing coverage, but it is too late for empty apologies. The fact is, the best way out of this epic disaster is a repeal and replacement.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Never in our nation’s history have we been taxed for failing to purchase something that isn’t available to us. While millions of Americans are receiving cancellation letters for their existing health insurance coverage, massive glitches and prohibitive costs are leaving many with no options.</p>
<p>Also never in our nation’s history has it been acceptable for our representatives to pass a law from which they are exempted. Is Lujan Grisham simply too comfortable with her congressional salary and Obamacare exemption?</p>
<p>If politicians in D.C. were serious about health care reform, we would pursue tort reform instead of protecting wealthy trial lawyers. Rather than achieving more governmental control, we would allow the opening of competition across state lines for insurance companies of all sizes.</p>
<p>New Mexicans need better access to affordable health care, and we certainly deserve representatives who do not deceive us for political gain. This is why I am running to represent New Mexico’s First Congressional District.</p>
<p>We need problem solvers in Washington who are not afraid to talk about politically risky issues. We must have a candid discussion, set goals and determine how to get there.</p>
<p>Focus on results, not rhetoric. Demand better leadership out of your representative in Congress.</p>
<p>Mike McEntee is seeking the Republican nomination to run for representative in New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District.</p>
<p /> | Obamacare just a series of lies; time to repeal and replace | false | https://abqjournal.com/322889/obamacare-just-a-series-of-lies-time-to-repeal-and-replace.html | 2 |
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<p>SPRINGFIELD – The pending amendment to <a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=21520418&amp;msgid=276162&amp;act=XKH7&amp;c=220062&amp;destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ilga.gov%2Flegislation%2FBillStatus.asp%3FDocTypeID%3DSB%26DocNum%3D16%26GAID%3D12%26SessionID%3D85%26LegID%3D68381" type="external">SB 16</a>, the <a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=21520418&amp;msgid=276162&amp;act=XKH7&amp;c=220062&amp;destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ilga.gov%2Flegislation%2F98%2FSB%2F09800SB0016sam001.htm" type="external">419-page school funding reform amendment</a>, was pored over and examined and scrutinized, argued over and debated by witnesses and legislators on the Special Issues Subcommittee of the Senate Executive Committee for nearly three hours yesterday before it was approved for full committee consideration.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, members of the Illinois State Board of Education endorsed the proposal during today’s regular meeting.</p>
<p>The amendment authored by state Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) returns most of the revenue distributed to Illinois school districts to that money’s original path – the General State Aid formula that was designed to minimize the disparities in funding from one district to another.</p>
<p>“We own the most inequitable [school funding] system in the nation,” Manar told a gathering in Springfield last week. Currently, only 44% of all school funding is directed through the GSA formula. Manar’s proposal would raise that percentage to 92% and would “weight” the distribution to districts on the basis of poverty and other factors.</p>
<p>Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon led off Tuesday’s testimony by congratulating Manar for having crafted a fair proposal, and she especially praised one of factor that will be part of the weighting formula: &#160;development of “Advanced Standing Students,” those who take and succeed in Advanced Placement courses and high school coursework that leads to college credits. (College-credit coursework in CPS is on the upswing.) <a href="https://www.catalyst-chicago.orgearly-college-expansion-paying" type="external">https://www.catalyst-chicago.orgearly-college-expansion-paying</a></p>
<p>The panel also heard from Miguel del Valle, former Chicago mayoral candidate who is a founding board member for the advocacy group Advance Illinois and previous Chicago City Clerk, state senator and long-time chair of the Senate Education Committee. He was strongly in favor the Manar proposal because it shelters the poorest districts from fiscal harm.</p>
<p>State school funding fell by more than $1 billion&#160;since 2009&#160;and cuts on the horizon (due to a scheduled decrease in the state income tax from 5% to 3.75% on&#160;January 1, 2015) will&#160;“hurt those most who can afford it least,” del Valle said. By funneling most state funding through the general state aid formula, schools with high concentration of poor children will be spared much fiscal pain, he said.</p>
<p>Most of the interaction during the protracted hearing consisted of Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine), the only Republican on the subcommittee, challenging Manar and other proponents, as well as witnesses in favor of the amendment.</p>
<p>Murphy pushed del Valle into a corner and an admission that “the wealthy school districts would not do as well” under the Manar bill. Currently, more state funding reaches wealthier districts in the form of block grants based on average daily attendance.</p>
<p>The proposal would shring the “flat grant” given to wealthier schools that are not eligible for money under general state aid.</p>
<p>Support that might have been unexpected&#160;came from Jeff Mays, president of the Illinois Business Roundtable. Mays is&#160;a former state representative from Quincy, where he now serves on the elected local school board.</p>
<p>“When I showed this to my [Business Roundtable] board, I said ‘There are principles here that we have long stood behind,’ ” Mays said.</p>
<p>“This is a good first step,” he added. “It may not make it all the way [to being enacted into law], but I don’t think it should stop here.” The Business Roundtable is an elite club of corporate CEOs who usually oppose higher government spending.</p>
<p>Easily the most eloquent testimony of the hearing came from David Lett, superintendent of Pana CUSD 8, which has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars&#160;in state support in recent years. He described the impact of having to cut teachers and school support staff, scale back music and art programs, and limit student access to libraries.</p>
<p>Since state support for education began to shrivel&#160;in 2009, Lett pointed out, the percentage of students from poor families has risen from about 40% to 60% in his district, with one elementary school posting an 80% poverty rate. These are the students who are hit the hardest when state money is cut under the current system, he explained.</p>
<p>He called for “boldness” and described Manar’s proposal as “the boldest plan” because it has positive effects even without adding more revenue.</p>
<p>Another witness was Larry Joseph, director of research for Voices for Illinois Children. “We believe very strongly in the objectives” of the Manar proposal, Joseph said, praising the bill’s “effective targeting toward schools with the greatest need.”</p>
<p>The panel voted 2-1 to send the bill to the full Executive Committee. State Sen. Kimberly Lightford and state Sen. Heather Steans voted “yes”; Murphy voted “no.”</p>
<p>Jim Broadway is publisher of Illinois School News Service.</p> | Education funding reform bill advances in legislature | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/education-funding-reform-bill-advances-in-legislature/ | 2014-04-09 | 3 |
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<p>In Wilmore, Wisconsin, angry atheists are FURIOUS about a cross which had been on the city’s water tower for four decades.</p>
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<p>The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent Mayor Harold Rainwater a letter demanding that the cross be removed and all photos of the tower taken off the city’s official website.</p>
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<p>But the Mayor, who first thought the letter was a joke or spam, is refusing to back down. He is assuring everyone the cross will remain in place!</p>
<p />
<p>“It means a lot to us. It’s important to our town. There’s nothing that’s drawn our town together more than the possibility of losing this cross.”</p>
<p>On Sept. 29, lawyers with the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent Rainwater an email asking that the cross be removed from the water tower and that pictures of the water tower and cross be removed from Wilmore’s official website.</p>
<p>“It is unlawful for Wilmore to display a patently religious symbol such as a Christian cross on public property,” wrote Rebecca S. Markert, a staff attorney for the foundation. The group could not be reached for additional comment Sunday.</p>
<p>The email cites several federal court cases regarding the separation of church and state, adding that “a majority of federal courts has held displays of Latin crosses on public property to be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.” […]</p>
<p>“I’m not going to reply to an email,” Rainwater said. “I’m not going to respond to a leftist, liberal foundation that wants to tell me in Wilmore what is appropriate.”</p>
<p>via <a href="http://www.kentucky.com/2015/10/11/4082831/despite-lawsuit-threat-mayor-says.html" type="external">Herald Ledger</a></p>
<p>Here is video of the courageous Mayor who is standing up for America’s Christian heritage. This is incredible!</p>
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<p>In the era of Obama, religious liberty is under attack. This cross is of historical significance, and isn’t hurting anyone. It is simply a reflection of the beliefs of the community. No atheist should have the right to rip it down.</p>
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<p>Do you support keeping the cross on the water tower? Please leave us a comment (below) and tell us what you think.</p> | Atheists DEMAND This Cross Be Removed – The Mayor’s Response is INCREDIBLE! | true | http://thepoliticalinsider.com/atheists-demand-this-cross-harold-rainwater/ | 2015-10-14 | 0 |
<p>By Joe LaGuardia A pile of rubble and a towering, broken steeple are all that is left of the historic Scott Boulevard Baptist Church building on the corner of Scott Boulevard and North Decatur Road in Decatur, Georgia. To many passersby, it is an eyesore. To those who are entrenched in Baptist history and the…</p> | Scott Boulevard Baptist: A church without walls | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/scott-boulevard-baptist-a-church-without-walls/ | 3 |
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<p>The space race may well speed up after these new findings: Jupiter and Saturn could contain an abundance of diamonds on and under their surface.</p>
<p>Astrophycists from&#160;University of Wisconsin, Madison and California Specialty Engineering said that the planets may have&#160; <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/1010/Are-there-diamonds-in-Jupiter-and-Saturn-s-skies" type="external">just the right conditions</a> to create the precious stones.</p>
<p>In particular, giant storms on Saturn and Jupiter create carbon particles that become diamonds as they rain down and face massive pressure that shapes them.</p>
<p>Incredibly, the stones&#160;may even liquify to form a " <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/1010/Are-there-diamonds-in-Jupiter-and-Saturn-s-skies" type="external">diamond ocean</a>."</p>
<p>"At the boundaries — locations of sharp increases in density — on Jupiter and Saturn, there may be diamond rain or diamond oceans sitting as a layer," <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/10368895/Diamonds-may-fall-as-rain-and-form-oceans-on-Saturn-and-Jupiter.html" type="external">said study author</a> <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/10368895/Diamonds-may-fall-as-rain-and-form-oceans-on-Saturn-and-Jupiter.html" type="external">&#160;Kevin Baines</a>, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.</p>
<p>"Previously, <a href="http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/diamond-oceans-jupiter-uranus.htm" type="external">only Uranus and Neptune</a> were thought to have conditions in their interiors that would allow the formation of diamond at their cores."</p>
<p>Whereas on Jupiter diamonds would melt to form a liquid, researchers say, on Saturn they'd likely remain in chunks due to differing atmospheres and temperatures.</p>
<p>In sum, it's all about the right amount of pressure — i.e., a lot — and enough carbon to make diamonds.</p>
<p>The paper was presented at the <a href="http://aas.org/meetings/dps45/science_program" type="external">American Astronomical Society's recent conference</a>.</p> | It rains diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn, scientists say | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-10-10/it-rains-diamonds-jupiter-and-saturn-scientists-say | 2013-10-10 | 3 |
<p>A wafer of 3D XPoint memory chips. Image source: Intel.</p>
<p>At Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC) investor meeting last year, the company highlighted its non-volatile memory solutions group, which the company says "includes NAND flash memory products primarily used in solid state drives," as a key growth segment. It was even kind enough to finally break out revenue and operating profit for this segment separately some time ago so that investors could keep tabs on this business' revenue and operating profit trends.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this segment did quite poorly last quarter. Revenue plunged 20% year over year to $554 million, and the business swung from a $92 million operating profit in the second quarter of last year to a loss of $224 million.</p>
<p>What's driving these poor financial results? Let's dig a little bit deeper.</p>
<p>CEO Brian Krzanich said that the 20% year-over-year decline during the quarter represented a shortfall relative to the company's prior expectations. This revenue weakness was, per Krzanich, a result of "a more competitive pricing environment."</p>
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<p>However, this "competitive pricing environment" wasn't the only contributor to the steep decline in the company's operating income in this segment. CFO Stacy Smith attributed it to pricing along with two other factors.</p>
<p>The first factor is that the company decided last year to convert its China-based logic manufacturing plant from a trailing-edge logic factory to a factory that builds non-volatile memory devices (both 3D NAND flash and 3D XPoint technology). The start-up costs associated with bringing this factory online contributed to the operating profit decline, according to Smith.</p>
<p>Additionally, Smith said that the company saw "increased 3D XPoint spending." I suspect this increased spending is research and development aimed at facilitating the development of future 3D XPoint memory technology generations.</p>
<p>In terms of financials, Smith told investors to expect operating losses to continue in the second half of 2016 and will be "consistent to what [Intel] saw in the first half [of the year]."He also indicated, though, that revenue in this segment should "see an improvement" in the second half of the year."We'll see the first production costs play through on 3D XPoint, which as you know from watching us over the years, those production costs tend to be fairly high in any factory when you're starting it up," Smith explained.</p>
<p>Although this business is expected to continue to bleed money for the remainder of the year, management remains upbeat about the longer-term prospects of the company's non-volatile memory business.</p>
<p>Krzanich was quite positive on its 3D NAND technology, claiming both "large cost advantages" and a "good performance position" with this technology. He also took the opportunity to play up its 3D XPoint technology, which he expects to arrive in traditional storage drives by the end of the year and as memory modules next year.</p>
<p>Smith, unsurprisingly, said that over the longer term, due to both 3D NAND as well as 3D XPoint, the company's memory segment should have a "good value proposition and a very good overall profit position for the business."</p>
<p>In light of these comments, investors should pay close attention to what management has to say about what it expects for its non-volatile memory business next year. Can this business swing to profitability as 3D NAND and 3D XPoint are in full swing? Or will investors have to wait another year or more before it starts to contribute positively to the bottom line?</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2668&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/aeassa/info.aspx" type="external">Ashraf Eassa Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Intel. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048" 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" 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" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Intel Corporation's Memory Business Plunges | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/07/28/intel-corporation-memory-business-plunges.html | 2016-07-28 | 0 |
<p>Welcome to The Lid, your afternoon dose of the 2016 ethos… Hillary Clinton is holding a contest where one lucky supporter's mom will get a call from her on Mother's Day. In an unrelated strategy, it’s entirely plausible that Joe Biden will call your mom just to gab about The Voice or whatever.</p>
<p>Get The Lid straight to your inbox each afternoon -- <a href="" type="internal">click here to sign up.</a></p>
<p>’16 AT 30 THOUSAND</p>
<p>Yesterday, Ben Carson proclaimed “I am not a politician.” In her announcement video, Carly Fiorina professed that “our founders never intended us to have a professional political class.” But do voters really want to elect a president with no prior political experience? Turns out – not really. In our newest survey, Our NBC/WSJ pollster wizards asked respondents how they felt about certain candidate traits, and the WORST rated one in the bunch (BOTH for the general electorate and for Republican primary voters) was “a person who is not a politician and has no previous elected experience in government.” Another kind of candidate that rated very poorly across all groups, including conservatives, was one without a college degree. Sorry, Gov. Scott Walker.</p>
<p>Political skill always trumps individual characteristics, and color us skeptical that Walker’s lack of a diploma alone is going to stir up a behemoth debate in this election. But the data is a good reminder that, for all the applause a candidate can get for snarking on “Washington elites” and “career politicians,” voters still want proof that their guy or gal has the experience, savvy and the smarts to get the job done. At least for now, that’s still largely about having the right resume.</p>
<p>POPPING ON NBC POLITICS</p>
<p>Mike <a href="" type="internal">Huckabee became the sixth Republican to announce</a> a presidential run on Monday.</p>
<p>But the second time around will likely be even tougher for him than it was in 2008, <a href="" type="internal">NBC’s Perry Bacon writes.</a></p>
<p>Hillary Clinton will push for "a full and equal path to citizenship" for undocumented immigrants during a campaign stop in Nevada Tuesday, <a href="" type="internal">Kristen Welker and one of us reports.</a></p>
<p>Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. is still a "hell no" on taking up a bipartisan bill that would grant the White House "fast-track" authority to negotiate a sweeping multinational trade deal, <a href="" type="internal">NBC’s Frank Thorp V reports.</a></p>
<p>And <a href="" type="internal">First Read notes</a> how President Obama and Clinton are now trading places when it comes to approval ratings.</p>
<p>CAMPAIGN QUICK READS</p>
<p>CHRISTIE: <a href="http://www.northjersey.com/news/christie-comments-on-gwb-developments-in-live-stream-with-reporters-1.1325858" type="external">He told reporters</a> in Mississippi that if defense attorneys want to subpoena him, they can go ahead.</p>
<p>RUBIO: “Clinton Cash” author <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/clinton-cash-author-i-like-marco-rubio-117630.html" type="external">Peter Schweizer said</a>he likes Rubio.</p>
<p>BUSH: He is the only 2016 candidate who released <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/05/05/here-is-jeb-bushs-cinco-de-mayo-message-to-mexican-americans/" type="external">a Cinco de Mayo message.</a></p>
<p>PERRY: <a href="http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2015/05/rick-perry-says-greg-abbott-went-too-far-in-questioning-u-s-military-exercises.html/" type="external">He said</a> his successor, Gov. Greg Abbott, went too far in questioning a military exercise that has some conspiracy theorists concerned.</p>
<p>KASICH: He <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2015/05/john_kasich_has_one_last_hurdl.html#incart_river_mobileshort" type="external">told the Northeast Ohio Media Group</a>, “If we have enough money, we run.”</p>
<p>FOR THE RECORD…</p>
<p>“America’s elected a guy from Hope, Arkansas. They’ve probably had their chance at that.”</p>
<p>Gov. Mike Huckabee responding to a question about his presidential ambitions during a 2001 appearance on Meet The Press.</p>
<p>TOMORROW’S SKED</p>
<p>Mike Huckabee campaigns in Oskaloosa and Urbandale, Iowa.</p>
<p>Bernie Sanders holds a press conference on Capitol Hill to unveil legislation to break up the nation’s biggest banks.</p>
<p>John Kasich is in New Hampshire</p> | The Lid: How We Know Voters Secretly Like Experienced Politicians | false | http://nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/lid-how-we-know-voters-secretly-experienced-politicians-n354191 | 2015-05-05 | 3 |
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<p>There are the bonds Xavier Madrid has issued in his family’s business, and then there’s the bond he has with his chosen sport.</p>
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<p>How many bail bondsmen are playing college football? Madrid might well be the only one.</p>
<p>But it was Madrid’s bond with his University of New Mexico teammates, and with UNM’s coaching staff, that so impressed Bob Davie.</p>
<p>On Valentine’s Day, Davie, the Lobos’ second-year head coach, assembled his team after an offseason conditioning session to make an announcement.</p>
<p>“I said, ‘I’m gonna keep this simple. Xavier Madrid is now a scholarship player at the University of New Mexico,’ ” Davie says.</p>
<p>“The players went crazy. (Madrid is) just a guy that has everyone’s respect.”</p>
<p>Davie had told Madrid earlier that he was hoping to put him on scholarship, so the junior running back from St. Pius wasn’t totally surprised.</p>
<p>But, he says, it was a moment he won’t forget.</p>
<p>“Everybody was hugging me and clapping and slapping me (on the back), throwing me around and all that,” he says. “So, it was cool. It was good energy.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It was Madrid’s energy on the practice field that first caught the new head coach’s eye during last year’s spring workouts.</p>
<p>In the fall, though the walk-on running back never played in a game, Davie considered Madrid’s contributions invaluable.</p>
<p>“Every day, first of all on special teams on that scout squad, going 100 percent, full speed.” Davie says. “Every day (at scout-team running back), going against the defense full speed.</p>
<p>“Just the energy he brings.”</p>
<p>Davie was aware, as well, that Madrid was bringing that energy to the team on top of his schoolwork and hours put into his family’s bail-bond business — sometimes working the graveyard (10 p.m.-6 a.m.) shift.</p>
<p>“He’s one of those guys that I think makes the other guys realize, because of his story, how much they have to appreciate,” Davie says.</p>
<p>Madrid was an All-State and All-Metro running back at St. Pius, doubling as a cornerback. But his size — 5-foot-7 and, at the time about 160 pounds — limited his college football prospects.</p>
<p>He had offers from small colleges in New Mexico and one in Nebraska, but instead chose to come to UNM in the fall of 2010 as a preferred walk-on. “Preferred” status meant he did not have to try out.</p>
<p>He lost that status, however, and his spot on the team, when he fell behind academically.</p>
<p>“I missed the whole year because of that, and I had to walk back on and try out,” he says.</p>
<p>The tryout was successful, and then-head coach Mike Locksley reinstated Madrid to the squad. Now, Davie views that episode as one more thing Madrid has overcome in his desire to play college football.</p>
<p>“He just stayed at it, stayed at it,” Davie says. “… You love to reward a guy like that. I’m just glad we could do it.”</p>
<p>There’s a reward for Davie and his young UNM program, as well.</p>
<p>After a walk-on has been in the program for two years, that player can be awarded a scholarship that does not count against the yearly limit of 25 but counts toward the overall ceiling of 85, as prescribed by the NCAA.</p>
<p>Because of scholarship reductions imposed because of NCAA violations incurred by assistants to coach Rocky Long in 2008, and because of player attrition during Locksley’s tenure, UNM does not have 85 scholarship players. Madrid makes 78.</p>
<p>If Davie can give a scholarship to a contributing walk-on such as former Rio Rancho wide receiver Jeric Magnant — which he did last fall — or to Madrid, it’s a win-win situation.</p>
<p>“I love doing that,” Davie says. “That’s a no-brainer to me.”</p>
<p>It’s a process the coach plans to continue.</p>
<p>Last month, Davie and his staff conducted a “New Mexico Day,” to which he invited 50 New Mexico high school football seniors and their parents.</p>
<p>Some of those kids, he told them, could in time earn a scholarship as Magnant, and now Madrid, have done.</p>
<p>“That’s the perfect model,” Davie says.</p>
<p>Madrid, meanwhile, will focus on being a model citizen within the UNM program.</p>
<p>“I come in every day and take it as an opportunity to get better,” he says. “You have to do that to improve, and that’s what I did, working hard and always having a positive mindset.</p>
<p>“That’s what got me where I’m at.” — This article appeared on page D2 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | St. Pius alum Madrid earns scholarship | false | https://abqjournal.com/238986/st-pius-alum-madrid-earns-scholarship.html | 2 |
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<p>Rescuers and doctors said the explosion was so large there were nearly 100 wounded and burned. Over 50 wounded were transported to the Turkish border town of Kilis for treatment, as local hospitals couldn’t cope.</p>
<p>There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Locals said a rigged tanker caused the explosion and blamed Islamic State militants, who have carried out attacks in the town before. The militant group has been increasingly pressed in Syria and Iraq, and has escalated its attacks against Turkey — which backs Syrian opposition fighters in a campaign against the group in northern Syria.</p>
<p>Azaz, only a couple of miles from the Turkish border, is a key town on a route used by opposition fighters moving between Syria and Turkey, and is a hub for anti-government activists as well as many displaced from the recent fighting in Aleppo city. Activists say its pre-war population of 30,000 has swelled.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It is also sandwiched between rival groups, including Kurdish fighters to the west and Turkey-backed opposition groups to the east. Islamic State militants, who have tried to advance on the key border town before have been pushed back farther east in recent months in the Turkey-backed offensive.</p>
<p>The bomb went off early Saturday afternoon outside a local courthouse and security headquarters operated by the opposition fighters who control the town, resident and activist Saif Alnajdi told The Associated Press from Azaz.</p>
<p>“It hit the busiest part of the town,” Alnajdi said, referring to the administrative part of town.</p>
<p>A medical worker speaking to a local media outfit, al-Jisr, said many charred bodies, and body parts mixed with bones and mud, were piled up in local hospitals.</p>
<p>Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, said at least 48 people were killed, including 14 fighters and guards to the local courthouse. He said the explosion was caused by a rigged water or fuel tanker, which explained the large blast and high death toll. The activist-operated local Azaz Media center and Shabha Press put the death toll at 60, adding that search and rescue operations continued for hours after the explosion.</p>
<p>Alnajdi said rescue workers were still working to identify and remove the bodies from the area, suggesting that the death toll was not final. He said some of the severely wounded were transported across the border into the Turkish town of Kilis for treatment. The Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency said 53 wounded Syrians were brought to Kilis’ local hospital for treatment, including five in critical condition, transferred to Gaziantep. The agency said one later died.</p>
<p>Media activist Baha al-Halabi, based in Aleppo province and who gathered information from Azaz residents, said witnesses reported many unidentified bodies. Footage shared online showed a large plume of black smoke rising above the chaotic street with the sound of gunfire in the background as onlookers gathered around the site. In one instance, a father ran away from the scene, carrying his child to safety.</p>
<p>The court house and the security headquarters were damaged, as well as the Red Crescent and municipality offices, according to activists in the area.</p>
<p>Many rebels and civilians who were pushed out of Aleppo city during a massive government offensive late last year have resettled in Azaz. Syrian Kurdish forces control territory to the west of Azaz, and have often tried advancing toward the town, causing friction with Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters. To the east, opposition fighters backed by Turkey have been pushing back Islamic State extremists, gaining territory and advancing on the IS-stronghold town of al-Bab, further east. Turkey considers Syria Kurdish factions there terrorists, linked to a local group it is battling at home.</p>
<p>A nationwide week-long cease-fire has mostly held across most of Syria after Russia and Turkey, who support opposite sides of the conflict, reached an agreement late December. It is set to pave the way for peace talks between Assad’s government and the opposition in Kazakhstan later this month. The Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked group Fatah al-Sham Front are not included in the deal, according to the Syrian government.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated press writer Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul contributed to this report.</p> | Blast in Syrian town on Turkish border kills nearly 50 | false | https://abqjournal.com/924550/blast-in-syrian-town-on-turkish-border-kills-nearly-50.html | 2017-01-10 | 2 |
<p>NBC News <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/priebus-immigration-order-doesn-t-include-green-card-holders-anyone-n713731" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus muddied the waters on President Donald Trump’s new executive order barring immigration from select countries, saying Sunday it “doesn’t include green card holders going forward” but adding that anyone traveling back and forth from the countries in question will be subject to further screening, including U.S. citizens.</p>
<p>In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Priebus was asked about reports that the executive order affected green card holders, contrary to recommendations from the Department of Homeland Security.</p>
<p>“We didn’t overrule the Department of Homeland Security, as far as green card holders moving forward, it doesn’t affect them,” Priebus first said. But when pressed by host Chuck Todd on whether it impacts green card holders, Priebus reversed himself, saying, “Well, of course it does. If you’re traveling back and forth, you’re going to be subjected to further screening.”</p>
<p>He also suggested the executive order could come to encompass more than the current seven countries included in the ban, and that the order focused on people coming from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen because those were identified by Congress as “being the seven most-watched countries in regard to harboring terrorists.”</p>
<p>“Perhaps other countries needed to be added to an executive order going forward — but in order to do this in a way that was expeditious, in a way that would pass muster quickly, we used the 7 countries” already identified by Congress, he said.</p>
<p /> | Priebus: More Countries Might Be Added [VIDEO] | true | http://joemygod.com/2017/01/29/priebus-countries-might-added-video/ | 2017-01-29 | 4 |
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisaut" type="external">Christof Autengruber</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/" type="external">(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)</a></p>
<p>The Nation’s Gary Younge writes in a recent piece tellingly titled “The Unbearable Whiteness of the American Left” that more often than not, organizations and conferences organized to assist those in need are missing a very important component: the poor and minority community members they’ve set out to help. This is not to say, he explains, that those who are white and wealthy should be banned from activism, but it’s important to integrate members of all socioeconomic backgrounds in order for the progressive movement to be successful. Most importantly, Younge poignantly writes, “It’s not that these [minorities and low-income families] don’t have a voice. It’s that even when they’re shouting at the top of their lungs, their voices are too rarely heard by those who would much rather speak for them than listen to them.”</p>
<p>The Nation:</p>
<p>“However rebellious children may be, they have their parents’ genes,” wrote Andrew Kopkind in 1968. “American radicals are Americans. They cannot easily cross class lines to organize groups above or below their own station. They are caught in the same status traps as everyone else, even if they react self-consciously.”</p>
<p />
<p>…The point here is not that only minorities or the poor can run organizations that advocate on issues that primarily affect minorities and the poor. That way madness lies. There is nothing inherent in an identity or a circumstance that automatically makes someone a better leader. Michael Manley, John Brown, Joe Slovo—history is not teeming with examples of the wealthy and light providing leadership for the poor and dark, but they do exist. People have to be judged on what they do, not who they are. This is not simply about optics. What an organization looks like is relevant; but what it does is paramount.</p>
<p>The point is that for a healthy and organic relationship to develop between an organization and its base, the organization must be representative of and engaged with those whose needs it purports to serve. In other words, to do good work one should not speak on behalf of the people but empower them to speak for themselves. Once empowered, the people may exert pressure to change the organization’s agenda in unexpected ways—and that’s a good thing.</p>
<p>It’s not as though there aren’t examples out there…</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/179507/unbearable-whiteness-american-left" type="external">Read more</a></p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Natasha Hakimi Zapata</a></p> | The American Left Is Too Damn White and It's Time to Admit It's a Problem | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/the-american-left-is-too-damn-white-and-its-time-to-admit-its-a-problem/ | 2014-04-29 | 4 |
<p>Phototreat/Getty</p>
<p>This&#160;story&#160;originally appeared on&#160; <a href="https://features.propublica.org/bankruptcy-inequality/bankruptcy-failing-black-americans-debt-chapter-13/" type="external">ProPublica</a>&#160;and&#160;was co-published with the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/09/bankruptcy-memphis-chapter-13/541194/" type="external">Atlantic</a>.</p>
<p>Novasha Miller pushed through the revolving doors of the black glass tower on Jefferson Avenue last December and felt a rush of déjà vu. The building, conspicuous in Memphis’ modest skyline along the Mississippi River, looms over its neighbors. Then she remembered: Years ago, as a teenager, she’d accompanied her mother inside.</p>
<p>Now she was 32, herself the mother of a teenager , and she was entering the same door, taking the same elevator. Like her mother before her, Miller was filing for bankruptcy.&#160;</p>
<p>She’d cried when she made the decision, but with three boys and one uneven paycheck, every month was a narrow escape. A debt collector had recently won a court judgment against her and, along with that, the ability to seize a chunk of her pay. Soon, she would be forced to decide between groceries or electricity.</p>
<p>Bankruptcy, she figured, despite its stink of shame and failure, would stop all that. She could begin anew: older, wiser, and with a job at a catering company that paid $10.50 an hour, a good bump from her last one. She could keep dreaming of a life where she had money left over at the end of each month, a chance of one day owning a home.</p>
<p>What Miller didn’t know when she swallowed her pride and called a local bankruptcy attorney is that she would probably end up right back where she started, with the same debts, in the same crisis. For the black debtors who, for generations, have made Memphis the bankruptcy capital of the U.S., the system delivers neither forgiveness nor renewal.</p>
<p>Up on the sixth floor of that tower where I met Miller last February, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Tennessee appeared to be a well-functioning machine. Debtors, nearly all black like her, crowded the wedge-shaped waiting area as lawyers, paralegals and court staff, almost all white, milled about in front. Hundreds of cases are filed here every week, and those who oversee and administer the process all proudly note the court’s marvelous efficiency. Millions of dollars flow smoothly to creditors, to the court, to bankruptcy attorneys.</p>
<p>But the machine hides a harsh reality. When&#160; <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/bankruptcy-data-analysis" type="external">ProPublica analyzed consumer bankruptcy filings nationwide</a>, the district stood out, both for the stunning number of cases in which debtors were unable to get relief, and for the reasons why. In Memphis, an entrenched legal culture has made bankruptcy a boon for attorneys while miring clients like Miller in a cycle of futility.</p>
<p>Under federal bankruptcy law, people overwhelmed by debt have a choice: They can either file under Chapter 7, which wipes out debts and, since most filers lack significant assets, allows them to keep what little they have. Or they can choose Chapter 13, which usually requires five years of payments to creditors before any debts are eliminated, but blocks foreclosures and car repossessions as long as debtors can keep up. In most of the country, Chapter 7 is the overwhelming choice. Only in the South,&#160; <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/bankruptcy-chapter-13" type="external">in a band of states stretching from North Carolina to Texas</a>, is Chapter 13 predominant.</p>
<p>The responsibility of knowing which path to pick falls to those seeking relief. In Memphis, about three-quarters of filings are under Chapter 13. That’s how Miller filed. She thought the two chapters were “the same,” she told me.</p>
<p>Initially, they are. Upon filing, debtors are shielded from garnishments and debt collectors. But whereas under Chapter 7 those protections are generally made permanent after a few months, under Chapter 13 they last only as long as payments are made. Most Chapter 13 filers in Memphis don’t last a year, let alone five.</p>
<p>As efficiently as cases are opened, they are closed—usually because debtors fail to keep up with payments, according to a ProPublica analysis of court data. In 2015, over 9,000 cases in the district were dismissed—more cases than were&#160;filed&#160;in 22 other states that year. Less than a third of Chapter 13 cases in the district result in a discharge of debts. And when their cases are dismissed, debtors are often in worse straits, because as they struggled to make payments, the interest on their unpaid debts continued to mount. Once the refuge of bankruptcy is gone, the debt floods back larger than ever. They’ve borne the costs of bankruptcy—attorney and filing fees, a seven-year flag on their credit reports—without receiving its primary benefit. A system that is supposed to eliminate debt instead serves to magnify it.</p>
<p>Driving this tremendous churn of filings is a handful of bankruptcy attorneys with what sounds like an easy pitch: immediate relief, for free. In Memphis, it typically costs around $1,000 to hire an attorney to file a Chapter 7, but most attorneys will file a Chapter 13 for no money down. Ultimately, the fees for Chapter 13 filings are higher—upwards of $3,000—but the payments are stretched over time. For many people, this is the only option they can afford: debt relief on credit. For attorneys, they gain clients—and a regular flow of fees—they might not otherwise get, even if few of their clients get lasting relief.</p>
<p>Chapter 7 Filing Rates Are Higher in Black Areas, With Patterns Similar to White&#160;Areas…</p>
<p>Chapter 7 Filings per 1,000 Residents—Majority Black Zip Codes vs. Majority White Zip Codes</p>
<p>For black filers in Memphis, relief is particularly rare. They are more likely than their white peers to file under Chapter 13 and less likely to complete a Chapter 13 plan. Because failure is so frequent in Memphis, many people file again and again. In 2015, about half of the black debtors who filed under Chapter 13 in the district had done so at least once before in the previous five years. Some had filed as many as 20 times over their lifetimes. Here, bankruptcy is often not the one-time rescue it was envisioned to be, but rather a way for the poor to hold on to basic necessities like electricity for a couple months.</p>
<p>“The way we have it set up, our culture, has a lot of unintended consequences,” said Judge Jennie Latta, one of five bankruptcy judges in the Western District of Tennessee. Since 1997, when she took the bench, the racial disparities in Memphis have been evident, she said. “It was troubling to me then, and it’s still troubling to me.”</p>
<p>When I asked judges, trustees, who administer the cases, and debtor attorneys what could be done to reduce racial disparities and improve outcomes, I was mostly met with resignation. I heard a lot about the poverty in Memphis and a legal culture with deeply rooted traditions. But ProPublica’s analysis identified bankruptcy attorneys in Memphis who had much more success in getting their black clients out of debt. These attorneys had a different approach, preferring Chapter 7 to Chapter 13, and, crucially, allowing more flexibility in what clients paid upfront in fees.</p>
<p>Scrutiny of Memphis is important, because the racial differences we found there&#160; <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/bankruptcy-data-analysis#National" type="external">are present across the country</a>. Nationally, the odds of black debtors choosing Chapter 13 instead of Chapter 7 were more than twice as high as for white debtors with a similar financial profile. And once they chose Chapter 13, we found, the odds of their cases ending in dismissal—with no relief from their debts—were about 50 percent higher.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the $0-down style of bankruptcy practiced in Memphis, long common across the South, is quietly growing in popularity elsewhere. Chicago in particular has seen an explosion of Chapter 13 filings in recent years. A recent study found that&#160; <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2925899" type="external">the “no money down” model is becoming more prevalent</a>, prompting concerns that it is snaring increasing numbers of unsuspecting debtors and ultimately keeping them in debt.</p>
<p>About 10 miles south of the black glass tower lies the community of Whitehaven. Famous as the site of Graceland, Elvis Presley’s mansion, its streets are lined with miles of humbler homes, mostly one- or two-bedroom bungalows. The houses reflect the range of financial security among Whitehaven’s almost exclusively black residents: Some lawns are immaculately kept in front of neat, pretty facades, while others run riot with weeds next to broken-down cars.</p>
<p>This is where Novasha Miller was born and raised. She went to Hillcrest High on Graceland Drive and still lives in the area. Here, bankruptcy has a startling ubiquity. Count the bankruptcies filed from 2011 through 2015 by residents of Whitehaven, and there is almost one for every three households.</p>
<p>Miller’s spiral downward began in late 2014, when she and her sons moved into a $545-per-month apartment in Highland Meadows, a complex pitched on its website as nestled in a “serene woodland setting.” Inside, roads wander around shaded clusters of two-story structures, some with boarded-up doors and windows.</p>
<p>Miller soon realized she’d made a mistake by signing the lease. Roaches emerged every time she cooked, she said. Underneath the kitchen sink, mold was spreading that seemed to aggravate her 10-year-old son’s asthma. The stove broke; then bedbugs arrived, leaving telltale marks up and down her and her boys’ arms.</p>
<p>Despite her calls and complaints, she said, management didn’t fix the mold issue and told her she’d have to pay for an exterminator herself. Finally, she decided to move. She wrote a letter saying she was breaking her lease and explaining why.</p>
<p>“My kids’ health is more important than anything, and I just had to leave,” she told me. (The company that manages Highland Meadows did not respond to requests for comment.)</p>
<p>A couple of months after she moved, Absolute Recovery Services, a collection agency, sent her a letter saying she owed $5,531—a total that seemed inflated to Miller. If she didn’t pay up immediately, the agency wrote, it might sue. It followed through the next month, tacking on a $1,844 attorney fee, for a total bill of $7,375.</p>
<p>Derek Whitlock, the attorney who represented Absolute Recovery Services in its suit against Miller, provided ProPublica with an accounting of Miller’s debt. Only $1,635 was due to back rent; the rest stemmed from eight different types of fees—all of which, Whitlock said, Miller had “contractually agreed to.” Miller’s lease had also stated that residents were “responsible for keeping the premises free from infestation of pest, etc.,” he said.</p>
<p>With no attorney to represent her, Miller went to court. Delayed by a search for parking, she missed her case, and Absolute Recovery won a judgment against her. A court employee told her the agency could soon move to garnish her paycheck, she said.</p>
<p>Under Tennessee law, debt collectors can seize up to a quarter of debtors’ take-home pay, and in Shelby County, which contains Memphis, they sought to do so in over 21,000 cases in 2015, according to a ProPublica analysis of court records. Such garnishments are&#160; <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/debt-collection-lawsuits-squeeze-black-neighborhoods" type="external">far more common in black neighborhoods</a>.</p>
<p>“I cried, stressing at work,” said Miller. “I couldn’t work, trying to figure out what to do.”</p>
<p>At the time, Miller earned $9 an hour working for a catering company where her hours were often cut without warning. Although she’d never had an extended stretch of unemployment, the last several years had been a struggle. She still carried $19,000 in student loans from a cosmetology program, and a $1,100 loan from a car title lender, TitleMax, which she’d used to cover one month’s shortfall. TitleMax routinely lends at annual interest rates above 150 percent in Tennessee, and every month Miller had to come up with about $100 in interest to keep the company from seizing her 2003 Pontiac Grand Prix. If Absolute Recovery garnished her wages, Miller stood to lose her apartment, her electricity or the car she drove to work.</p>
<p>The pressure, she said, pushed her into bankruptcy court. “It’s hard out here,” she said. “I hate that I had to go through it just to keep people from garnishing my check.”</p>
<p>She Googled “bankruptcy attorney” and landed on the website of Arthur Ray, who has been practicing in Memphis since the 1970s. His website was topped with “$0” in large type. “Most of our Chapter 13 bankruptcies are filed for $0 attorney’s fee up front.” She called and made an appointment.</p>
<p>Earlier this year,&#160;I headed to Memphis to meet people like Miller and find out why attorneys there kept funneling their black clients into Chapter 13 plans when so few could complete them. I came armed with&#160; <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/bankruptcy-data-analysis#Differences-Among-The-Largest-Firms" type="external">what amounted to a score sheet for each attorney, showing how their black and white clients had fared</a>. ProPublica had taken every case filed in the district over 15 years, paired it with census information and put it on a map. In a starkly segregated city like Memphis, we could deduce the race of their clients with confidence based on where they lived.</p>
<p>I caught up with Ray by phone. Like most of the higher volume lawyers in the district, Ray is white while most of his clients are black. About nine out of every 10 of his cases is a Chapter 13. And he was twice as likely to file under Chapter 7 for a white client as he was for a black client.</p>
<p>None of this troubles Ray in the least. If Chapter 13 has an evangelist, it’s Ray, who trumpets its attributes unapologetically. In his eyes, debtors need Chapter 13 to train them to get their financial houses in order and instill discipline on their unruly spending.“</p>
<p>“A Chapter 13 shows people how to live without buying things for that 60-month plan,” he said. “With a Chapter 7, wham bam it’s over, and they’re back to the same old thing, the bad habits that got them in trouble to begin with.”</p>
<p>When debtors squander Chapter 7’s power to erase debt, he argued, they are stuck—barred from filing again for eight years. Better to keep that option in reserve for something truly catastrophic, he said.</p>
<p>Ray conceded that most of his clients do not successfully complete their Chapter 13 plans, but he argued that wasn’t so bad. “It may be a long time before the creditors come after them,” he said. And when the phone calls and the legal notices do come back, “then they can file again.”</p>
<p>In Western Tennessee, More Bankruptcy Filings, But Less Debt Relief for Black&#160;Debtors</p>
<p>I told Ray that Novasha Miller hadn’t understood the difference between the two chapters. Ray was not troubled by this either. As required by law, he said, he provides clients with documents explaining the difference, but any client who asks about Chapter 7 will get an argument from him. “They need to learn how to live not buying things on credit,” he said.</p>
<p>Few attorneys are likely to express this paternalistic view as bluntly as Ray, but the idea that bankruptcy courts should rehabilitate debtors instead of simply freeing them of their debts dates back to the 1930s, when, buoyed by creditors’ lobbying efforts, Chapter 13 first became law. It’s a form of bankruptcy that sprang from the South: Started as an experiment by the bankruptcy court in Birmingham, Alabama, it was added to the federal bankruptcy code through a bill authored by a Memphis congressman. To this day, many see Chapter 13 as the more honorable form of bankruptcy because it includes some attempt to repay debts.</p>
<p>But when I asked some of Ray’s colleagues why so many of their clients filed under Chapter 13, honor was rarely mentioned. Instead, they said it was about holding on.</p>
<p>“Chapter 13 is generally a ‘keep your stuff’ chapter,” is how Bert Benham, a Memphis bankruptcy attorney, put it.</p>
<p>Most people who end up filing in the district don’t own much. In 2015, 69 percent of those who filed under Chapter 13 didn’t own a home, and the median, or typical, income was less than $23,000 per year.</p>
<p>For many people, the most important thing is keeping their car, a necessity in Memphis, which has little public transportation. Used car lots abound, offering subprime credit. When borrowers fall behind and lenders threaten repossession, Chapter 7 won’t stop that from happening. But Chapter 13 allows secured debts to be repaid over the course of the plan. In theory, loan payments on a car or mortgage can be reduced to an affordable level, providing time to catch up without fear of repossession or foreclosure.</p>
<p>Lured by this promise, desperate Chapter 13 filers can spend years caught in a loop. One Whitehaven resident told me how, in order to hold on to her car, she’d filed under Chapter 13 four times since 2011. The first time, she lost her job a year and a half after filing, and her case was dismissed after she fell behind. She immediately filed again to keep the car for job interviews, using unemployment benefits to make the payments until she couldn’t. She then filed a third time. Finally in 2014, after her third dismissal, she got a new part-time job paying $11 an hour and filed again.</p>
<p>She still has two years of payments to go and will have spent most of her 30’s trying to hold on to her car. “If I’d known,” she said, “I just would have let my car go.”</p>
<p>Bernise Fulwiley, 60, filed for Chapter 13 in 2014 to avoid foreclosure on her home, a brick bungalow with a large maple in the yard on a corner in Whitehaven. The following year, she lost her warehouse job when she required foot surgery and couldn’t keep up her payments. She got another warehouse job, earning $9.50 an hour, and filed again. She has kept up the payments for two years, and is determined to make it for three more.</p>
<p>“‘God, go before me. Open this door! Help me, Lord!’ That’s been my prayer,” she said. “I ain’t gonna never give up.”</p>
<p>For decades, the most prolific bankruptcy firm in Memphis has been Jimmy McElroy’s, known for its long-running TV commercials featuring the now-deceased Ruby Wilson, a legendary blues and gospel singer dubbed the Queen of Beale Street. At the end of 30-second spots, she exclaimed, “Miss Ruby sings the blues, and you don’t have to!”</p>
<p>McElroy, a mild-mannered white man in his 70s with a genteel lilt to his speech, told me that “the ultimate success” for a Chapter 13 filing is “to pay it out, get a discharge, get out of debt. And then learn to live within your means.” From 2011 through 2015, McElroy’s firm filed over 8,000 Chapter 13 cases and fewer than 900 Chapter 7 cases. About 80 percent of his clients come from predominantly black neighborhoods.</p>
<p>But “ultimate success” is rare at his firm. Only about one in five of the Chapter 13 cases&#160; <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/bankruptcy-data-analysis#Differences-Among-The-Largest-Firms" type="external">filed by his black clients</a>&#160;reached discharge, a rate typical for the district. When I asked why, McElroy, whose office is in the same tower as the bankruptcy court, said clients generally “get the temporary relief they needed,” but then things just happen: “They lose their job. They get sick. They get a divorce.”</p>
<p>Sometimes Chapter 7 does seem like a better choice, he said, but the client can’t afford to pay the attorney fee, which, at his firm, is about $1,000. In those cases, he’ll advise them to start with a Chapter 13, since it’s “more affordable to get into,” he said. “I tell them … ‘If you get in a better situation, we can convert later.'”</p>
<p>Debtors are, indeed, allowed to switch from Chapter 13 to Chapter 7 after their cases have begun, although it typically requires paying an additional attorney fee. But this rarely happens in the district. Only about 5 percent of Chapter 13 filings since 2008 converted to Chapter 7, according to our analysis. For McElroy’s firm’s cases, it was 2 percent.</p>
<p>Often in Memphis,&#160;the whole goal of bankruptcy is just to address basic needs, even if only for a month or two.</p>
<p>Last year, Memphis Light, Gas and Water cut off customers’ electricity for nonpayment 98,000 times. It’s an “astoundingly high” number given that Memphis provides electricity to fewer than 400,000 customers and “far higher than any other large urban utility that I’ve seen,” said John Howat, senior energy analyst with the National Consumer Law Center.</p>
<p>Nearly half the Chapter 13 cases filed by black residents in the district had utility debt, our analysis of 2010 filings found. The typical debt with the utility company was $1,100. For customers with poor credit, the utility has a policy of disconnecting service within a couple months if the arrears grow beyond $200.</p>
<p>MLGW does offer programs for low-income customers and installment plans for those who fall behind. “We have probably some of the most liberal customer assistance programs of any utility in the country,” said Gale Carson, spokeswoman for MLGW.</p>
<p>But that assistance is limited to just a few thousand households. And the installment plans require customers to make the payments in addition to their normal monthly bills.</p>
<p>By declaring bankruptcy, debtors can start a monthly Chapter 13 plan tied to their income and get the power turned back on within a month or so.</p>
<p>In February, I visited Michael Baloga, an attorney at Long, Umsted, Jones &amp; Kriger, at the firm’s downtown storefront, just down the street from the Shelby County Jail and next door to a bail bond agent.</p>
<p>“Chapter 13 bankruptcy can be a necessary evil at times,” he told me. “Like, for today, there are people who are coming in because it’s cold, and they don’t have electricity.”</p>
<p>Baloga said he didn’t like to file cases just for that reason. “But on the other hand, am I going to let them sit and freeze in their home because they don’t have it? … I know that they’re going to file the bankruptcy and that they’re not going to stay in it very long. In the alternative, am I just going to turn them away and say, ‘No, you’re not going to get a chance at all?'”</p>
<p>For the firm’s predominantly poor and black clientele,&#160; <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/bankruptcy-data-analysis#Differences-Among-The-Largest-Firms" type="external">the chances are remarkably low</a>: Only one in 10 of the cases result in a discharge. Most don’t last six months.</p>
<p>Using bankruptcy this way “seems like using a sledgehammer to hang a picture,” said Judge Latta. But she understands why debtors do it. “I think bankruptcy, in Memphis anyway, is very much part of the social safety net,” she said, “and all these problems fall down into it.”</p>
<p>About 18,000 times each year, Tennessee suspends the driver’s license of a Shelby County resident for failing to pay a traffic fine, according to state data obtained by Just City, a Memphis nonprofit advocacy organization. About 84 percent are black drivers, although only half of Shelby County’s residents are black.</p>
<p>In 2010, about a quarter of black residents filing Chapter 13 had outstanding debt with the Shelby County General Sessions Criminal Court, which handles mostly misdemeanors and traffic offenses, our data shows. Their typical debt was around $1,600.</p>
<p>Court officials said licenses are only suspended if defendants fail to pay fines within 12 months. The court offers installment plans, including one called the Driver’s Assistance Program that allows drivers to regain their licenses. But only about 230 people were enrolled in the program as of March, they said.</p>
<p>For those who can’t afford or don’t qualify for the court’s programs, Chapter 13 provides an answer. They can get their licenses reactivated within a matter of months and stretch payments over five years, if they make it that long. Such fines can’t be eliminated through Chapter 7.</p>
<p>In Chicago, similar pressures have led to a recent boom in Chapter 13 filings. Chapter 13 filings by black residents in the Northern District of Illinois rose 88 percent from 2011 to 2015, we found. There, the issue is mostly parking tickets, according to ProPublica’s analysis and&#160; <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2845497" type="external">a recent academic study</a>&#160;of filings in Cook County. But, like Memphis, it’s overwhelmingly black debtors who file for Chapter 13 to forestall license suspensions or car seizures.</p>
<p>Black households are particularly vulnerable to financial difficulties like these. They have&#160; <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/06/27/1-demographic-trends-and-economic-well-being/" type="external">less income</a>,&#160; <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gaps-great-recession/" type="external">fewer assets</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2017/03/how-income-volatility-interacts-with-american-families-financial-security" type="external">less financial stability</a>&#160;than white ones—all&#160; <a href="http://www.insightcced.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Umbrellas_Dont_Make_It_Rain_Final.pdf" type="external">deficits</a>&#160;with&#160; <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/" type="external">deep roots</a>. When they are&#160; <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/assets/2015/10/emergency-savings-report-1_artfinal.pdf?la=en" type="external">hit with financial emergencies</a>&#160;(a cut in pay, a needed car repair), they are&#160; <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/about/news-room/press-releases/2015/11/18/pew-finds-american-families-ill-equipped-for-financial-emergencies" type="external">less likely to have the resources to withstand them</a>. The same vulnerabilities that make black Americans more likely to file for bankruptcy make them less likely to succeed in bankruptcy.</p>
<p>In Memphis, that means the debtors who use the bankruptcy system the most—low-income black debtors—fare the worst.</p>
<p>“I say all the time that in Memphis, debtors don’t earn a living wage,” said Sylvia Brown, one of the two trustees for Chapter 13 cases in Memphis.</p>
<p>A&#160;few floors above the bankruptcy court&#160;are the offices of Cohen &amp; Fila, a firm with a mostly poor clientele and&#160; <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/bankruptcy-data-analysis#Differences-Among-The-Largest-Firms" type="external">one of the highest volume practices in the district</a>. I asked Tom Fila, a Yankee transplant who has practiced bankruptcy law in Memphis for more than 20 years, about one of his clients: The firm had filed 17 cases on her behalf, all but two under Chapter 13. She was one of at least 465 people who had filed for bankruptcy 10 or more times in the district between 2001 and 2015, ProPublica’s analysis found. These repeat filers tend to be among the poorest.</p>
<p>Fila bristled at the implication that his firm had filed the cases for any reason but the best interest of the client. “I’m not making money on these cases, and I probably shouldn’t file them,” he told me. “I often tell my clients that repeated filings aren’t doing them any good. They are ending up in the same spot they started in, only now they have multiple bankruptcy cases on their credit report…but at the end of the day I’m not the one living without utilities or being evicted or being without transportation.”</p>
<p>Of course, most of the time attorneys in the district do get paid something. When we analyzed the Chapter 13 cases filed in 2010, we found that, on average, attorneys in the district collected $1,340 per case out of their full $3,000 fee. Some firms, like Fila’s, collected much less (about $700), and some collected more.</p>
<p>But what has made bankruptcy a viable business for the biggest firms in Memphis for so long is the sheer volume. From the 12,000-plus Chapter 13 cases they filed in 2010, we estimate that attorneys reaped at least $16 million in attorney fees over the next five years. McElroy’s firm, the largest, collected at least $2 million.</p>
<p>Things have worked this way in the district for as long as anyone can remember. The district’s chief judge, David Kennedy, who has presided over cases since 1980, said attorneys have been charging $0 down to file Chapter 13s at least since the 1970s.</p>
<p>He sees no clear need for reform. Chapter 13 “provides, I think, better relief, depending on the circumstances,” he said, adding that the large number of dismissals is not necessarily bad. “Just because it doesn’t go to discharge doesn’t mean it’s a failed case.” A homeowner might file Chapter 13 to stop a foreclosure, he said, then use the breathing room to work out a loan modification with the mortgage servicer and drop the case voluntarily.</p>
<p>That undoubtedly does happen. But most debtors in the district don’t own a home.Judge Latta said efforts to help the poor file under Chapter 7 for free have met with resistance. “We get a lot of pushback on pro bono programs here,” she said. “[Attorneys] say, ‘But, judge, we can put them in</p>
<p>That undoubtedly does happen. But most debtors in the district don’t own a home.</p>
<p>Judge Latta said efforts to help the poor file under Chapter 7 for free have met with resistance. “We get a lot of pushback on pro bono programs here,” she said. “[Attorneys] say, ‘But, judge, we can put them in</p>
<p>Judge Latta said efforts to help the poor file under Chapter 7 for free have met with resistance. “We get a lot of pushback on pro bono programs here,” she said. “[Attorneys] say, ‘But, judge, we can put them in a Chapter 13, and we can get paid for that.'”</p>
<p>It’s no secret in Memphis that bankruptcy works differently outside the South, but the scope of that contrast is staggering. In 2015, for example, there were 9,000 Chapter 13 cases filed in Shelby County, while in Brooklyn, New York, there were fewer than 300. Brooklyn has a similar poverty rate, median income and higher housing costs. Like Shelby County, it has a large black population. It also has 1.6 million more people.</p>
<p>What’s the biggest difference? How bankruptcy attorneys are paid. In Brooklyn, attorneys usually ask for around $2,000 upfront to file a Chapter 13, said Michael Macco, a trustee in the Eastern District of New York. As a result, poorer households simply can’t afford to file. The typical Chapter 13 debtor who hired an attorney in Brooklyn in 2015 was a middle-income homeowner with $420,000 in assets—over 40 times more in assets than filers in Shelby County.</p>
<p>The reasons for vast differences like these among courts are largely arbitrary. While bankruptcy is a federal institution, ruled by laws made in Washington, D.C., each local court is essentially its own kingdom with its own customs shaped by the judges, trustees and attorneys who work there. Scrutiny of these differences, and how they affect debtors, has been scant.</p>
<p>While judges like Kennedy are untroubled by the flood of unsuccessful Chapter 13s, our analysis found Memphis attorneys who have built successful bankruptcy practices in a different way. In an office park on the eastern edge of the city, I met Jerome Payne, who has filed more Chapter 7s on behalf of black clients than anyone in the district in recent years, despite not being in the top 10 firms in terms of total volume.</p>
<p>That alone would make Payne stand out. But Payne is also, unlike all but a few debtor attorneys in Memphis, black.</p>
<p>A cop turned nurse turned attorney, Payne, 66, has been practicing bankruptcy law in Memphis since the 1990s. Inside his office, the thick carpeting and friendly banter between Payne and his two long-standing employees give the place a homey feel, albeit a home with files stacked everywhere and large binders labeled “GARNISHMENTS” spilling out of a cabinet.</p>
<p>African-American identity is a major part of his practice. When his firm sends out letters to prospective clients—usually people who have been sued over a debt – he tries to make sure they know. “I use black heritage stamps,” he said. Sometimes he uses Kwanzaa stamps. He includes a page with inspirational sayings, like one with a quote from Marcus Garvey, a leader of the Black Nationalist movement, who is depicted with his body in the shape of Africa.</p>
<p>The emphasis on blackness is not just a marketing gimmick, he said. Because the clients are “people who look like me,” he said, “they feel more comfortable with me.”</p>
<p>And that, he said, may help in convincing debtors that Chapter 7 is a better choice. Payne’s challenge, he said, is getting them “to take the emotions out of a home, the apartment, out of the vehicle” and decide that they are better off without the debt.</p>
<p>This discussion is what he calls his “come-to-Jesus meeting.” Contrary to Arthur Ray’s emphasis on teaching his clients financial discipline through five years of payments, Payne promotes the discipline of letting go of possessions they can’t afford.</p>
<p>“Me being African American, and me understanding my community, maybe I’ve been more successful in showing them that this is not the way you ought to go,” he said.</p>
<p>Crucially, Payne also approaches fees differently. Whether it’s a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, the down payment is usually a couple hundred dollars, and his clients can pay the remainder in installments.</p>
<p>He doesn’t file Chapter 13 cases for no money down, because he just doesn’t like the idea. And he has an employee, instead of him, discuss fee arrangements with clients, he said, because “I found that it colors the way that I do business.”</p>
<p>Brad George is another attorney in the district who often files Chapter 7 cases for his clients. His approach is simple. “It’s not rocket science, I can tell you that,” said George, who is white and has practiced bankruptcy in Memphis for 20 years. If there is a good reason to do a Chapter 13, like a threatened foreclosure or driver’s license issue, then he will file that way. Otherwise, he said, “I think you should try and always, always, always do a [Chapter 7].”</p>
<p>To file a Chapter 7 with George, it costs the debtor $555, with most of that due upfront. That is about half of what many other attorneys charge in Memphis. But, to George, it just seems like enough.</p>
<p>“I figure I spend about two hours on average per Chapter 7 [case],” he said. “So that’s pretty fair, I’d say.”</p>
<p>George also doesn’t file Chapter 13 cases for no money down, instead asking for around $200 dollars, giving his clients a much more balanced choice between how much money they have to come up with to file Chapter 7 versus Chapter 13.</p>
<p>George’s black clients file under Chapter 7 almost half the time, according to our analysis, a rate that is almost two and a half times what is typical in the district. There is also little racial disparity in what portion of his black and white clients end up in Chapter 7.</p>
<p>Payne and George agree that their flexibility with fees is likely a key reason they are able to file more Chapter 7 cases for black clients.</p>
<p>There are understandable reasons why attorneys tend to be less flexible with Chapter 7 fees. When debtors receive a discharge of their debts at the end of the case, outstanding fees to their attorneys are also wiped out. Any further payments are voluntary. As a result, debtor attorneys—in Memphis or anywhere else—generally require the entirety of their fee upfront. To address this problem, some scholars&#160; <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2925899" type="external">have called for Congress to change the law</a>&#160;to make attorney fees clearly exempt from discharge.</p>
<p>Such a change could have a large effect. The firm that files the most bankruptcy cases in Atlanta, for example, files Chapter 7 cases for $0 down, with the entirety of the fee due through an installment plan that lasts several months. The chief judge in the Northern District of Georgia has ruled that such arrangements are legal, and other large firms in the Atlanta area have adopted the practice.</p>
<p>The result is clear. In the heart of the South, most of the filings in the Northern District of Georgia are under Chapter 7—compared to less than 30 percent in the rest of the state. And notably, black debtors in that district file under Chapter 7 almost half the time, a rate significantly higher than even the white debtors in the Western District of Tennessee.</p>
<p>For now,&#160;things in Memphis continue as they seemingly always have. In April, less than six months after it began, Novasha Miller’s Chapter 13 case was dismissed. Though she hasn’t heard anything yet, her old landlord’s collection agency is again free to attempt garnishment of her wages.</p>
<p>Miller said that a miscommunication with her attorney led to the dismissal. After she changed jobs again (the new one pays a little bit less, $9.36 an hour, but it’s full-time and she likes the people), she notified Ray’s office, she said, but the plan payments were never set up to be automatically withdrawn from her paychecks. However it happened, having paid about $600, all of which was absorbed by court and attorney fees, she was back to square one. Choosing Chapter 7 could have resulted in her emerging from bankruptcy with her student loan as her only remaining debt. Instead, her debts, having gone unpaid for months, were now larger—she’s not clear yet just how much—the interest applied as if the bankruptcy had never happened.</p>
<p>She is thinking of filing again, maybe with a different attorney. And hopefully, she said, this time it’ll work out.</p> | How the Bankruptcy System Is Failing Black Americans | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/09/how-the-bankruptcy-system-is-failing-black-americans/ | 2017-09-28 | 4 |
<p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These New Hampshire lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Gimme 5</p>
<p>03-04-11-31-38</p>
<p>(three, four, eleven, thirty-one, thirty-eight)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>03-17-23-49-66, Mega Ball: 23, Megaplier: 3</p>
<p>(three, seventeen, twenty-three, forty-nine, sixty-six; Mega Ball: twenty-three; Megaplier: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Day</p>
<p>6-6-6</p>
<p>(six, six, six)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>8-5-6</p>
<p>(eight, five, six)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Day</p>
<p>7-2-8-7</p>
<p>(seven, two, eight, seven)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>1-4-6-3</p>
<p>(one, four, six, three)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $78 million</p>
<p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These New Hampshire lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Gimme 5</p>
<p>03-04-11-31-38</p>
<p>(three, four, eleven, thirty-one, thirty-eight)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>03-17-23-49-66, Mega Ball: 23, Megaplier: 3</p>
<p>(three, seventeen, twenty-three, forty-nine, sixty-six; Mega Ball: twenty-three; Megaplier: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Day</p>
<p>6-6-6</p>
<p>(six, six, six)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>8-5-6</p>
<p>(eight, five, six)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Day</p>
<p>7-2-8-7</p>
<p>(seven, two, eight, seven)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>1-4-6-3</p>
<p>(one, four, six, three)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $78 million</p> | NH Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/f0c62af050c84c2da2cebb14b4212eba | 2018-01-20 | 2 |
<p>Harvey Daniels</p>
<p>Professor, National-Louis University</p>
<p>Co-author, Best Practice: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America’s Schools.</p>
<p>Q What would [whole language] mean in terms of classroom practice?</p>
<p>A whole language classroom has less teacher-directed and controlled instruction, like lecturing and talking at children. It has less student passivity and less rewarding of sitting and silence. It has less time given to worksheets, dittos, and workbooks. It has less time spent reading textbooks and basal readers. It has fewer attempts by teachers to cover huge amounts of content area. … It has less rote memorization and less stress on competition and grading. …</p>
<p>[It has] more hands-on, inductive, active, experiential learning. … There is more emphasis on higher-order thinking and a deeper study of fewer topics. There is more time devoted to whole, original, real books, as opposed to short little basal stories that are disconnected from each other. …</p>
<p>Most of all—and my feeling is that this is the single most important element—in a whole language classroom, kids have more choices. This means that much of the time they pick their own books to read, their own subjects to write about, their own partners to work with, their own projects to research. …</p>
<p>Whole language is not just about reading and writing. It’s about what learning is, what teaching is, what the classroom should be like, what education should be about. I read a survey today in which 82% of fourth-grade teachers claimed they were whole language teachers. That’s ridiculous. Maybe 5% of the teachers in America are doing something that I would call whole language.</p>
<p>Q One of the key criticisms of whole language is that kids need phonics to learn to read and that whole language doesn’t teach phonics.</p>
<p>The phonics approach to reading was popularized only since about 1915. So the first question is, how the hell did everyone learn how to read in the 4,000 years of written language before phonics was invented?</p>
<p>In fact, whole language is a return to the eternal fundamentals of education: kids reading whole, original books, writing whole, original texts of their own in a community of fellow learners with an experienced adult guiding them. That’s whole language. That’s the ancient way, the “primitive” way, the truly back-to-basics form of education.</p>
<p>This idea of breaking language down into its parts and teaching the individual pieces—dipthongs and gerunds—is a product of twentieth-century behavioristic psychology that’s already discredited in most quarters. Twenty or thirty years from now it will be gone. However, we have a problem, which is that a whole generation of parents and taxpayers had lots of phonics instruction and they think they turned out pretty well. … Maybe 10%, some people say 20%, need some formal phonics instruction in the first two years of school and, at the most, ten or fifteen minutes a day.</p>
<p>Q What about the argument that kids are going to have to take standardized tests . . . and whole language doesn’t adequately prepare them for the tests?</p>
<p>… You don’t need to study only the test and distort your entire curriculum eight hours a day, 180 days a year, for twelve years. We’ve got very interesting studies where teachers do thirty-five or thirty-eight weeks of what they think is best for kids, and then they’ll give them test cramming just before the test. And the kids do just as well as kids who have forty weeks of test-driven curriculum.</p>
<p>Q Let’s talk about the spelling controversy. It’s one thing for kids to use invented spelling when first writing … but by the time children are in fourth grade, shouldn’t they be given spelling tests?</p>
<p>Spelling tests are not spelling. I’ve got a son who’s gotten 100 on every spelling test he ever took. But when he is doing an original piece of writing, his spelling isn’t nearly as good. … I don’t care whether anybody can spell or not. I care whether they can edit [and] that they know how to find the help they need to turn their misspellings into correct spellings before they release their writing to the public.</p>
<p>Q Another criticism of whole language is that … the lack of structure … might be great for white, middle-class kids but a disadvantage for poor kids, particularly students of color.</p>
<p>There’s lots of structure in a whole language classroom; they’re just different structures from what people are used to seeing. … Some of these new, different structures include teacher-student conferences, collaborative group investigations, thematic units, partner reading, dialogue journals, portfolios, observational assessment, and dozens more. These are each carefully crafted activities with complex rules, procedures, and norms; they just happen to be different norms from the ones in the traditional classroom.</p>
<p>I don’t think that these structures have any racial dimension. … However, [they] do have a cultural or economic class dimension, and therefore racial and ethnic politics do enter the picture indirectly. Because many urban children of color are poor, and because poor families often endorse authoritarian discipline styles, the decentralized whole language classroom sometimes seems to clash with family or cultural values. It is often said, especially by educators of color, that minority inner-city kids need more discipline, more authority, more control than middle-class suburban white children.</p>
<p>So this creates a real problem. Should schools recreate for kids the same culture found in their neighborhood, even if that means omitting the best educational models we have and use for other children? Or should schools exclusively operate according to middle-class values, styles, and standards?</p>
<p>I think that, especially for minority children, schooling must be both a mirror and a window. … [Schools should] positively reflect their heritage, their community, their culture. But at the same time, the school must also provide a window for looking at the rest of society, at other ways of being and thinking, and offer youngsters a genuine chance to enlarge their repertoire. Valuable schooling helps kids extend their range, their ability to operate and succeed in a widening arena. Still, we have to admit that many African-American teachers are wary and skeptical about whole language.</p>
<p>… In my experience working in Chicago’s schools, many black public school teachers are middle-class people who have worked their way up the socioeconomic ladder for the first time to that level. They tend in general to be quite conservative educationally, and pretty cautious. One of the comments you’ll sometimes hear from African-American teachers about whole language or other experiments is, “You might be right, but we can’t afford to take a chance with our kids.” And the question I ask in return is, “Are you arguing that the system of education we have devised for inner-city black kids in America is so effective that we should keep it up because it works so well?”</p>
<p>… By and large, urban education has been both more oriented to skill and drill approaches and generally less effective than middle-class suburban schools. … Whole language is not part of the problem of urban education; it’s part of the answer. We are offering an option that we think is far, far more promising than the skill-and-drill that has dominated education for 75 years.</p>
<p>LISA DELPIT</p>
<p>Professor, Georgia State University</p>
<p>Author, Other People’s Children: White Teachers, Students of Color, and Other Cultural Conflicts in the Classroom</p>
<p>Q Several years ago, you wrote an article challenging the way the process approach to reading and writing affected children of color. Can you summarize your main points?</p>
<p>I don’t agree with placing oneself in a political camp, be it process reading and writing, or skills reading and writing. The best strategy depends on what a particular child needs. …</p>
<p>Teachers with many strategies will be less likely to blame the child for not learning, because they can continue to pull something else out and try. …</p>
<p>Q Some people have inferred from your article that you support more of a basal reader approach that emphasizes short, sanitized reading selections and fill-in-the-blank workbooks. Do you?</p>
<p>I believe just the opposite. I believe, first of all, in an approach that seems to work for the child you are working with. But I also believe literacy instruction should be in the context of real reading and real writing, and reading and writing for real purposes. This means using literature that children like and that connects with them in their homes and lives. It means writing for purposes the children find useful. …</p>
<p>Q Do African-American teachers feel estranged from progressive white educators on issues of learning to read and write? If so, why?</p>
<p>The African-American teachers I am in contact with … feel that white progressive teachers seem to believe they know better how to teach African-American children than the African-American teachers. … Many progressive teachers … believe that in order to maintain their identity as a progressive, they can only teach in a certain way. …</p>
<p>Q [Is the disagreement over] an emphasis on skills?</p>
<p>It’s not really just so-called skills, it’s the explicitness that’s important. And this … applies to whatever you’re teaching, whether it’s a process or an item of information.</p>
<p>For example, one of the African-American teachers told me how to explicitly teach first grade and make use of an open classroom. She told me to have the children practice going to a particular center, working there, cleaning up. Otherwise I had kids who were taking the materials and throwing them around the room, particularly the African-American kids, who may not have had the chance to work in those kinds of settings as much as the white middle-class kids did. There’s also explicitness to the point of saying, “Well, yes, there are such things as capital letters and here’s when you might see them.”…</p>
<p>Essentially, it is the opposite of assuming that everybody is going to discover everything on their own. I found that the people who appear to be discovering everything on their own have actually received direct instruction at home, although it’s not in a way that parents might think of as direct instruction. … All day long there is direct instruction that middle-class parents provide for their kids. And then the kids go into a “language-rich environment” and appear to achieve without any kind of explicit instruction. So that leads people to think, “What we need—all we need—are these language-rich environments, or science-rich environments, or math-rich environments, and kids will just excel.”</p>
<p>What they fail to realize is that there are other children who haven’t come in with the same kinds of explicit instruction or direct instruction from parents. By not providing it for them, along with the language-rich environment, what teachers are doing is putting those children at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>LINDA CHRISTENSEN</p>
<p>English teacher, Portland, Ore.</p>
<p>In our society language classifies me. Generosity, warmth, kindness, intelligence, good humor aren’t enough—I need to speak correctly to make it. … Grammar [is] an indication of class and cultural background in the US, and there is a bias against people who do not use language “correctly.”… It would be misleading to suggest that people in our society will value my thoughts or my students’ thoughts as readily in our home languages as in the ‘cash language’ as Jesse Jackson calls it. … [But] English teachers must know when to correct and how to correct. … When more attention is paid to the way something is written or said than to what is said, students’ words and thoughts become devalued. Students learn to be silent, to give as few words as possible for teacher criticism.</p>
<p>Students must be taught to hold their own voices sacred, to ignore the teachers who have made them feel that what they’ve said is wrong or bad or stupid. Students must be taught how to listen to the knowledge they’ve stored up, but which they are seldom asked to relate.</p>
<p>Too often students feel alienated in schools. Knowledge is foreign. It’s about other people in other times. … As teachers, we have daily opportunities to affirm that out students’ lives and language are unique and important. We do that in the selections of literature we read, in the history we choose to teach, and we do it by giving legitimacy to our students’ lives as a content worthy of study. …</p>
<p>I teach [students] the rules. It’s the language of power in this country, and I would be cheating him if I pretended otherwise. [But] I don’t humiliate [students] or put down [their] language. I’m also more effective because I don’t rely on textbook drills; I use the text of [their own] writing. … I also teach [students] that language … functions as part of a gatekeeping system in our country. Who gets managerial jobs, who works at banks and who works at fast food restaurants, who gets into what college and who gets into college at all are decisions linked to the ability to use Standard English.</p>
<p>So how do we teach kids to write with honesty and passion about their world and get them to study the rules of the cash language? We go back to our study of society. We ask: Who made the rules that govern how we speak and write? … Who already talks like this and writes like this? Who has to learn how to change the way they talk and write? Why? We make up our own tests that speakers of Standard English would find difficult. We read articles, stories, poems written in Standard English and those written in home language.</p>
<p>We determine when and why people shift. We talk about why it might be necessary to learn Standard English. …</p>
<p>We must teach our students how to match subjects and verbs … because they are the ones without power and, for the moment, have to use the language of the powerful to be heard. But in addition, we need to equip them to question the educational system that devalues their life and their knowledge.</p>
<p>These interviews are excerpts from the new book Rethinking Schools: An Agenda for Change (The New Press, New York), edited by the editors of the activist periodical Rethinking Schools. Reprinted with permission from Rethinking Schools, 1001 E. Keefe Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53212. (414) 964-9646.</p> | On Pedagogy, Race and Class | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/pedagogy-race-and-class/ | 2005-07-22 | 3 |
<p>Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) hasn't met with much success in India so far as premium&#160;pricing, limited internet speeds, and high data costs have checked its growth. Additionally, the streaming giant made a mistake by not offering its <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/12/why-netflix-cant-chill-in-this-market.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=350ece26-9120-11e7-9f08-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">full content library Opens a New Window.</a> at launch. This defeated the purpose of buying a Netflix subscription, as its value didn't compare well with that of alternatives such as Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) Prime Video service and local provider Hotstar, which provide more features at lower costs.</p>
<p>Netflix's basic plan, costing INR 500 (about $8) a month, is expensive when compared to Amazon Prime Video, which comes along with a Prime membership that costs the same for a one-year subscription. Netflix had an estimated 4.2 million subscribers in India earlier this year while Amazon Prime had nearly 10 million.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>But Netflix's recent moves in India suggest that it is looking to change the state of affairs by ramping up its content strategy.</p>
<p>Netflix reportedly recently splurged $4 million to acquire the streaming rights to the famous Baahubali franchise. The two films in this war epic have been highly successful, with their worldwide collections&#160; clocking almost $370 million collectively. In fact, the second installment in the franchise was the first Indian film to cross the INR 1,000 crore mark (almost $160 million at the current exchange rate) at the box office.</p>
<p>The franchise's popularity could be a big deal for Netflix in India and help it gain some ground over rival streaming services. Additionally, the exclusive streaming agreement for such popular films could help Netflix justify its premium price tag. &#160;</p>
<p>Furthermore, the global popularity of the Baahubali movies could be beneficial for Netflix as a whole. As it turns out, the second part of the franchise got 20% of its collections from overseas markets, so it might help Netflix pull in more subscribers around the world.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>According to Netflix executive Jessica Lee, the streaming giant is "doubling down" on content in India.</p>
<p>Last month, Netflix appointed Simran Sethi as the new creative executive for India. She will be a part of a group that produces original shows for the international market. This makes it evident that Netflix wants to add more India-focused originals to its content library. As it stands, the company currently has just three original shows for this market, with two of them currently in production.</p>
<p>The first Netflix original for India was launched over a year ago, so the company has been slow to add to its library. Meanwhile, rival Amazon released its first India-centric original in July 2017, and it became the most-watched show on Prime Video. Netflix needs to get more originals into its content library since they seem capable of increasing viewership and subscriptions, but it needs to do this quickly as Amazon is moving into popular niches of the Indian streaming market.</p>
<p>Soon after Netflix announced the two new originals for India, Amazon fired shots of its own by announcing three original comedy shows that will start airing from the first quarter of 2018. In fact, Amazon plans to launch a total of 21 original shows for India, which makes it the company's first market outside the U.S. with so many originals.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Amazon has charted out a shrewd strategy to bring more viewers onto its platform by streaming reality shows. The company didn't get into details as to whether it will produce a reality show of its own or acquire the rights to one of the many reality shows currently running on Indian television.</p>
<p>As it turns out, reality shows account for two of the five most-viewed television programs in India, according to weekly data from the Broadcast Audience Research Council. So, any move by Amazon in this space should be a plus and could bring new viewers to the platform.</p>
<p>Amazon has been much more aggressive than Netflix when it comes to tapping the Indian market. Though the streaming specialist might have landed a coup of sorts with the highly popular Baahubali franchise, Amazon seems to have a better strategy. The e-commerce giant has already announced a big slate of original shows for this market, while its strategy of streaming reality shows can potentially boost viewership.</p>
<p>Netflix's recent content moves might not be enough to make a dent in India's fast-growing <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/14/is-netflix-inc-falling-behind-in-the-worlds-fastes.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=350ece26-9120-11e7-9f08-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">online video subscription market Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of August 1, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TechJunk13/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=350ece26-9120-11e7-9f08-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Harsh Chauhan Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Netflix. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=350ece26-9120-11e7-9f08-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Is This Netflix Move in India Enough? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/16/is-this-netflix-move-in-india-enough.html | 2017-09-16 | 0 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">Rep. Barney Frank</a> has just released a lengthy, scathing statement defending comments in which he called gay GOP groups, especially the Log Cabin Republicans, “Uncle Tom,” during the Democratic National Convention. The U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts, who is 72 and retiring at the end of his term, told attendees at the most attended LGBT caucus in DNC history,&#160;“ <a href="http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/09/barney-frank-likens-gay-republicans-to-uncle-toms.php" type="external">I’m … inclined to think they’re called the Log Cabin Club because their role model is Uncle Tom</a>,”</p>
<p>Acknowledging his words last week as “admittedly very harsh criticism,” Frank did not back down, and noted he is “offended” by the Log Cabin Republicans who are “campaigning in the name of LGBT rights.” Rep. Frank also&#160;expanded his statement, explained his reasoning, and contrasted the Democrats and Republicans on LGBT issues:</p>
<p>The Democratic President and platform fully embrace all of the legal issues we are seeking to resolve in favor of equality.&#160; The Republican candidate for President and the platform on which he runs vehemently oppose us in all cases.</p>
<p>Congressman Frank noted, of the Log Cabin Republicans:</p>
<p>On the face of this, for a group of largely LGBT people to work for our strong opponent against our greatest ally is a betrayal of any supposed commitment to our legal equality.</p>
<p>Below, in full, is Congressman Frank’s statement:</p>
<p>I am not surprised that members of the Log Cabin Republicans are offended by my comparing them to Uncle Tom.&#160; They are no more offended than I am by their campaigning in the name of LGBT rights to elect the candidate and party who diametrically oppose our rights against a President who has forcefully and effectively supported our rights.</p>
<p>That is the first reason for my admittedly very harsh criticism.&#160; This election is clearly one in which there is an extremely stark contrast between the two parties on LGBT rights.&#160; The Democratic President and platform fully embrace all of the legal issues we are seeking to resolve in favor of equality.&#160; The Republican candidate for President and the platform on which he runs vehemently oppose us in all cases.&#160; On the face of this, for a group of largely LGBT people to work for our strong opponent against our greatest ally is a betrayal of any supposed commitment to our legal equality.</p>
<p>But my use of “Uncle Tom” was based not simply on this awful fact that they have chosen to be actively on the wrong side of an election that will have an enormous impact on our right to equality, both in fact and in the public perception of the popularity of that cause.&#160; If the Log Cabin Republicans – or their even more outlandish cousins, the oddly-named GOProud –were honestly to acknowledge that they let their own economic interests, or their opposition to strong environmental policies, or their belief that we need to be spending far more on the military or some other reason ahead of any commitment to LGBT equality, and on that ground have decided to prefer the anti-LGBT candidate to the supportive one, I would disagree with the values expressed, but would have no complaint about their logic.</p>
<p>The damaging aspect of the Log Cabin argument, to repeat the most important point, is that they may mislead people who do not share their view that tax cuts for the wealthy are more important than LGBT rights into thinking that they are somehow helping the latter by supporting Mitt Romney and his Rick Santorum platform.</p>
<p>It is a good thing for Republicans to try to influence other Republicans to be supportive of LGBT rights.&#160; The problem is when they pretend to be successful when they haven’t been, and urge people to join them in rewarding the Republicans when they have in fact continued their anti-LGBT stance.&#160; I have been hearing the Log Cabin Republicans proclaim for years that they were improving the view of that party towards our legal equality.&#160; In fact, over the past 20 years, things have gotten worse, not better.&#160; Most recently, on DOMA, when the House Republicans offered an amendment to reaffirm it, they voted 98% in favor of it, while Democrats voted more than 90% against the amendment.&#160; And it is not surprising that they have not been successful.&#160; Giving strong political support to people who are maintaining their anti-LGBT stance is hardly an effective strategy for getting them to change it.</p>
<p>The argument Mr. Cooper and the others in the Log Cabin Republicans have put forward in their defense is that they have succeeded in getting the Republicans to reduce the extent to which they denounce us, and, in Mr. Cooper’s phrase, the fact that Paul Ryan is “willing to engage” with gay Republicans.&#160; That is where Uncle Tom comes to mind.&#160; They are urging people to vote for the anti-LGBT candidate over the most supportive LGBT candidate and platform imaginable because the “antis” are calling us fewer names and are willing to talk to some of us.&#160; It is this willingness to acquiesce in a subordinate status as long as the masters are kinder in tone, although in substance, that emulates Uncle Tom.</p>
<p>I note Mr. Cooper points to a couple of Republicans as reasons for supporting that party and helping advance its anti-LGBT crusade.&#160; As to Representative Ryan, in addition to his “willingness to engage with them,” Mr. Cooper cites his vote for the Employment Nondiscrimination Act.&#160; In fact, Paul Ryan has an overwhelmingly anti-LGBT voting record, including opposition to the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and a transgender-inclusive hate crimes bill, and support for a constitutional amendment not just to ban future same-sex marriages but to dissolve existing ones.&#160; It is true that on one occasion he voted for ENDA, but he did so only after voting minutes before for a Republican procedural maneuver – a motion to recommit the bill – which falsely invoked the specter that passage of ENDA would compel same-sex marriage and which, if it had passed, would have killed the bill.&#160; In other words, Paul Ryan has always voted against us, except for one occasion when he voted for us only after first trying to make the bill he theoretically supported inoperative.</p>
<p>Mr. Cooper also cites Susan Collins.&#160; She was very good on the question of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”&#160; But the argument that supporting Susan Collins advances LGBT rights ignores the fact that Senator Collins has twice defeated Democrats who were far more supportive of our issues than she was.&#160; And an example of that is the current referendum in the state of Maine on marriage.&#160; We have a very good chance of winning in Maine, and winning a referendum is important both for the substantive rights of the people in Maine and for the political point that it demonstrates.&#160; Unlike the two Democratic Representatives from Maine, Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud, Susan Collins has been stubbornly silent.&#160; That is, in a state where marriage is on the ballot, and in a year in which she is not up for reelection, Senator Collins is withholding her support from us, unlike any Democrat who would have run against her.&#160; And remember, these are the best that the Log Cabin Republicans can cite.</p>
<p>Some have complained that in comparing the Log Cabin Republicans to Uncle Tom, I was ignoring the fact that they are nice.&#160; I accept the fact that many of them are nice – so was Uncle Tom – but in both cases, they’ve been nice to the wrong people.</p>
<p>Veteran journalist <a href="" type="internal">Michelangelo Signorile</a> interviewed Rep. Frank last week. You can read excerpts and listen to the full interview at <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/06/barney-frank-democratic-national-convention-_n_1861019.html" type="external">The Huffington Post</a>.</p>
<p>Tagged as: <a href="" type="internal">Barney Frank</a>, <a href="" type="internal">cabin club</a>, <a href="" type="internal">congressman frank</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Democratic Party</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Don't Ask</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Don't Tell</a>, <a href="" type="internal">employment non-discrimination act</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Franks</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Gay Republicans</a>, <a href="" type="internal">gays</a>, <a href="" type="internal">GOProud</a>, <a href="" type="internal">lgbt rights in the united states</a>, <a href="" type="internal">log cabin</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Log Cabin Republicans</a>, <a href="" type="internal">political parties in the united states</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Politics</a>, <a href="" type="internal">politics of the united states</a>, <a href="" type="internal">republican party</a>, <a href="" type="internal">scathing</a>, <a href="" type="internal">sexual orientation and the united states military</a>, <a href="" type="internal">social issues</a>, <a href="" type="internal">the log cabin</a>, <a href="" type="internal">united states</a></p>
<p>Friends:</p>
<p>We invite you to <a href="http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001whLQo73KzGhEjdskYG07rHNy_XoDDkSBBO4INZHx6oD9kfp2yeeQAJeMQUu9oTviZa0VEl5k0rNiLifxlZsOFScMz8rVGmIaN-FFOO3GTKc%3D" type="external">sign up for our new mailing list</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TheNewCivilRightsMovement&amp;amp;loc=en_US" type="external">subscribe to The New Civil Rights Movement via email</a> or <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/thenewcivilrightsmovement" type="external">RSS</a>.</p>
<p>Also, please&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Civil-Rights-Movement/358168880614" type="external">like us on Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/gaycivilrights" type="external">follow us on Twitter</a>!</p> | Barney Frank Doubles Down, Defends Calling Gay GOP Group ‘Uncle Tom’ | true | http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/barney-frank-doubles-down-defends-calling-gay-gop-group-uncle-tom/politics/2012/09/11/48839 | 2012-09-11 | 4 |
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<p>A Russian spacecraft that launched from Kazakhstan Thursday morning suffered a problem as it was making its way to the International Space Station, NASA said. If the vehicle doesn’t reach the station, it would mark the fourth time spacecrafts launched on resupply missions to the station have failed in two years.</p>
<p>No one was on board the Progress vehicle, officials said, which was to deliver 2.6 tons of food, fuel, and supplies to the astronauts on the orbiting station. The rocket blasted off at 9:51 a.m. East Coast time. But then “an anomaly occurred sometime during the third stage operation,” NASA said.</p>
<p>It was unclear what caused the problem, or if the vehicle was lost.</p>
<p>“Our astronauts and the Russian cosmonauts are safe aboard the station,” NASA said. “Consumables aboard the station are at good levels.”</p>
<p>The incident is the second time a Russian spacecraft has had problems in recent months. Last year, another Progress vehicle tumbled uncontrollably through space and failed to reach the station. In 2014, a rocket operated by a Virginia-based company now known as Orbital ATK blew up shortly after lifting from the launchpad at Wallops, Virginia. One of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets exploded a couple minutes into flight while headed to the station in 2015.</p>
<p>SpaceX, one of the companies NASA relies on to to supply the station, is grounded after another of its rockets blew up earlier this year. It expects to return to flight later this month, pending the outcome of an investigation into the explosion.</p>
<p>spacecraft</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Russian spacecraft headed to resupply International Space Station in trouble, NASA says. | false | https://abqjournal.com/899809/russian-spacecraft-headed-to-resupply-international-space-station-in-trouble-nasa-says.html | 2 |
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<p>Fox News military analyst retired Gen. Jack Keane discusses the implication of President Donald Trump moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump declared that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on Wednesday, setting plans in motion to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to the Holy City.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>“Today we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital,” Trump said from the White House. “This is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done.”</p>
<p>In an interview with FOX Business’ Trish Regan, Fox News military analyst retired Gen. Jack Keane said the declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel gives Trump leverage to negotiate peace.</p>
<p>"You can never get a peace settlement that doesn't involve Israel and doesn’t involve Jerusalem being the capital of Israel and also a claim for the Palestinians,” Keane said.</p>
<p>The retired four-star general said Trump’s decision is an important symbol for the region.</p>
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<p>“Our diplomatic efforts will be enhanced obviously by being in the same city with the government that you are connected to,” Keane said on “The Intelligence Report.”</p>
<p>The president’s decision reverses decades of American foreign policy. The U.S. is the first country to officially declare Jerusalem as the capital since Israel’s founding in 1948.</p> | Jerusalem as the capital of Israel will help peace negotiations: Gen. Jack Keane | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/12/06/jerusalem-as-capital-israel-will-help-negotiate-peace-gen-jack-keane.html | 2017-12-06 | 0 |
<p>Meet Portland's Radiation City.Shannon Woolf</p>
<p />
<p>Radiation CityAnimals in the Median Tender Loving Empire</p>
<p>Dreamy and wistful is the default mode for plenty of modern bands that haven’t figured out who they want to be when they grow up, but the striking Portland, Oregon quintet Radiation City shows how to do it right. Their second album, Animals in the Median, shimmers like a unearthly mirage, weaving together misty melodies, analog electronics and the siren vocals of keyboardist Lizzy Ellison to create a poignant sense of faded optimism and missed opportunities. Hazy gems such as “Wash of Noise” and “Lark” echo the melancholy retro-futurism of Stereolab, albeit with a more delicate touch, while the gauzy “Wary Eyes” evokes the gently eerie sensation of hearing soft music from another room at 3 a.m. Ellison and company could create a great soundtrack for David Lynch.</p>
<p /> | Review: Radiation City’s “Animals in the Median” | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/review-radiation-citys-animals-median/ | 2013-05-20 | 4 |
<p />
<p>The Washington Post has an article today arguing that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_added_tax" type="external">value added tax</a> (VAT), which is popular in Europe and used in more than 130 countries, is getting a “fresh look” in the United States. Hogwash.</p>
<p>A value added tax is like a sales tax that applies at every stage of the production cycle. The tax is collected from wholesalers and raw materials suppliers, not just retailers, but the end result for consumers is the same, since the businesses pass their tax costs down the supply chain. Other countries have found VAT useful because the costs of collecting it fall largely on businesses, not government, and because its structure discourages the black markets that high sales taxes often create. And economists say VAT doesn’t discourage work, savings, or production as much as some other taxes do. But most liberals don’t like VAT because, like sales taxes, it’s regressive—its burden falls disproportionately to the poor.</p>
<p>According to the Post, Kent Conrad, the Democratic chair of the Senate budget committee, is giving the VAT a look-see because the Dems are hoping to find a way to pay for universal health insurance. Well, it may be “on the table,” as Conrad said, but VAT isn’t going anywhere soon. When you consider the politics of the situation, it seems pretty clear that the Dems are trying to look like they’re considering all the options. But any sort of significant VAT isn’t really in the cards. “While we do not want to rule any credible idea in or out as we discuss the way forward with Congress, the VAT tax, in particular, is popular with academics but highly controversial with policymakers,” Kenneth Baer, a spokesman for White House Budget Director Peter Orszag, told the Post. That’s a long way of saying that VAT is an interesting idea that isn’t politically viable right now. Consumption taxes raise the final prices of goods and services. Consumers would definitely notice even a modest VAT when they bought their apple pie, beer, and baseball tickets. Do the Democrats, now at the height of their power, really want to be blamed for instituting a new regressive consumption tax in the middle of a recession? Don’t bet on it.</p>
<p /> | An American VAT? Don’t Bet On It. | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/05/american-vat-dont-bet-it/ | 2009-05-27 | 4 |
<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Pookie Powell scored 28 points with seven rebounds and La Salle rolled to an 83-60 win over Saint Louis in an Atlantic 10 Conference opener on Saturday.</p>
<p>Powell was 12 of 19 from the field and 3 of 4 from beyond the arc for the Explorers (7-7). Amar Stukes scored 20 points with four rebounds and Tony Washington and Miles Brookins added 10 points apiece. Saul Phiri led the team with 10 rebounds.</p>
<p>La Salle shot 51 percent to 34 percent for Saint Louis.</p>
<p>The Explorers jumped to a 16-8 start and built it into a 44-19 advantage at the break.</p>
<p>Powell scored 10 points as part of a 12-6 run to open the second half, stretching the Explorers’ lead to 56-26 with 15:16 to play.</p>
<p>Freshman Jordan Goodwin led the Billikens (7-7) with 16 points and 13 rebounds.</p>
<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Pookie Powell scored 28 points with seven rebounds and La Salle rolled to an 83-60 win over Saint Louis in an Atlantic 10 Conference opener on Saturday.</p>
<p>Powell was 12 of 19 from the field and 3 of 4 from beyond the arc for the Explorers (7-7). Amar Stukes scored 20 points with four rebounds and Tony Washington and Miles Brookins added 10 points apiece. Saul Phiri led the team with 10 rebounds.</p>
<p>La Salle shot 51 percent to 34 percent for Saint Louis.</p>
<p>The Explorers jumped to a 16-8 start and built it into a 44-19 advantage at the break.</p>
<p>Powell scored 10 points as part of a 12-6 run to open the second half, stretching the Explorers’ lead to 56-26 with 15:16 to play.</p>
<p>Freshman Jordan Goodwin led the Billikens (7-7) with 16 points and 13 rebounds.</p> | Powell has 28, La Salle rolls to 83-60 win over Saint Louis | false | https://apnews.com/ef00172a51394c5a9afe8a787003588f | 2017-12-30 | 2 |
<p>Screenshot courtesy of US Navy</p>
<p />
<p>…Aaaand we have closure, kinda sorta. The Navy <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/01/without-honors-navy-fires-captain-for-lewd-vids" type="external">fired Captain Owen Honors</a>, skipper of the USS&#160;Enterprise, for <a href="" type="internal">those imprudent “morale” videos he cut a few years back</a> as the ship’s second in command. Spencer Ackerman at Danger Room <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/01/without-honors-navy-fires-captain-for-lewd-vids" type="external">sums up</a> what was at stake for an eminently qualified combat commander whose sense of humor wasn’t in the service’s spirit of honor, courage, and commitment.</p>
<p>I still have one unanswered question, which is:&#160;Where was the ship’s old skipper, <a href="" type="internal">Captain Lawrence Rice</a>, when his right-hand man was going all <a href="http://teamcoco.com/" type="external">Coco</a>on the camera (minus the funny, plus sexism and homophobia)? Rice, the one man who could have counseled Honors on prudence, apparently never did…perhaps because he was <a href="" type="internal">a member of the Navy’s last total fraternity</a>: the all-male Naval Academy class of ’79 (“last class with balls,” they call themselves). And now <a href="http://www.navy.mil/navydata/bios/navybio.asp?bioID=430" type="external">Rice is an admiral</a>, assisting former Iraq commander Gen. Ray Odierno in forming military-wide joint startegy and policy. Nothing succeeds like excess.</p>
<p>Not much else to add here, except that Honors’ defrocking has been an interesting learning lesson and opener of dialogue on what all Americans, liberal or conservative, want their military to be. Regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum, you probably expect service members not only to be professional about their military missions:&#160;You expect them as well to uphold some sort of moral example to their shipmates and subordinates. My <a href="" type="internal">previous post on Movie Night-gate</a> led to a lively discussion between commenters who have very different visions of an officer’s moral responsibilities. And as Ackerman and Foreign Policy‘s Tom Ricks recently pointed out, <a href="http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/04/is_the_air_force_spanking_its_generals_good_or_bad_bd_versus_gen_dunlap" type="external">the US has sort of slipped away</a> from its longstanding tradition of holding admirals and generals (and captains and colonels) to account for failings of all sorts. So, even if you’re hopping mad at the “politically correct” brouhaha surrounding Honors’ sophomoric video scripts, enjoy the fact that we as a society are again talking about what is and isn’t acceptable behavior in the commander of a nuclear-powered floating airbase.</p>
<p /> | Navy Captain Sunk by Videos | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/navy-captain-fired-videos-enterprise/ | 2011-01-04 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>Arizona Sen. John McCain and three other GOP senators introduced the bill Tuesday, the latest response in Congress to a furor over patient delays and cover-ups at VA health facilities nationwide.</p>
<p>A federal investigation into the troubled Phoenix VA Health Care System found that about 1,700 veterans in need of care were "at risk of being lost or forgotten" after being kept off an electronic waiting list. The investigation also found broad and deep-seated problems throughout the sprawling health care system, which provides medical care to about 6.5 million veterans annually.</p>
<p>A document released Tuesday by Sens. Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran, both Kansas Republicans, showed that at least 108 veterans waited more than 90 days for appointments with a primary care doctor at nine hospitals and 51 outpatient clinics in Kansas, Missouri, and parts of four other states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Arkansas.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A bill being crafted by the Republican chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee would require the VA to offer outside care to veterans who cannot be seen within 30 days. And the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee's chairman, an independent, has proposed a bill to pay for veterans' appointments at community clinics and military hospitals or with private doctors if they cannot get a timely appointment at a VA facility.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House panel, asked acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson on Tuesday to respond within a week to a month-old subpoena demanding documents related to an investigation of alleged falsified records and other problems that have surfaced in the past six weeks across the 1,700-facility VA health care system.</p>
<p>Miller said he is frustrated by the "stonewalling" to his request by the department under then-Secretary Eric Shinseki, who resigned under fire last Friday.</p>
<p>"Right now, Secretary Gibson has a chance to begin to repair the reputation of a department that has gained notoriety for its secrecy and duplicity with the public and indifference to the constitutionally mandated oversight responsibilities of Congress," Miller said.</p>
<p>A career banker, the 61-year-old Gibson had served as deputy VA secretary since February. He came to the department after serving as president and chief executive of the USO, the nonprofit organization that provides programs, services and entertainment to U.S. troops and their families.</p>
<p>McCain and the other GOP senators said their bill would make it easier for veterans to get care. It would direct all 150 VA hospitals to publish on their websites the current waiting time for an appointment and require the VA to establish a public database of patient safety, quality of care and outcomes at each hospital.</p>
<p>Veterans who can't get a VA appointment within 30 days or who live at least 40 miles from a VA clinic or hospital could go to any doctor who participates in Medicare or the military's Tricare program. The bill is co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Richard Burr of North Carolina. Burr is the senior Republican on the veterans panel.</p>
<p>"I've always believed that veterans could choose and should choose" their doctors, McCain said. He added that he first proposed private care for veterans during his 2008 presidential bid.</p>
<p>Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, proposed legislation this week that would allow veterans who can't get timely appointments with VA doctors to go to community clinics, military hospitals or private doctors.</p>
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<p /> | Republicans offer option for veterans' health care | false | https://abqjournal.com/410351/republicans-offer-option-for-veterans-health-care.html | 2 |
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<p>By Martyn Herman</p>
<p>MILAN (Reuters) – South Korea’s Chung Hyeon maintained his 100 percent record at the Next Gen ATP Finals with a crushing victory over Russian Andrey Rublev on Wednesday to surge ahead in Group A.</p>
<p>Just as he did on Tuesday, the 21-year-old showed a liking for the various new innovations being tested out in Milan as he proved too solid for Rublev – the highest ranked player in the ATP’s new showcase event for the best players aged 21 and under.</p>
<p>World number 54 Chung, easy to spot in his distinctive white spectacles, won 4-0 4-1 4-3(1) to follow up his defeat of Canadian Denis Shapovalov – sealing a semi-final place with one round-robin match to spare.</p>
<p>Chung finished off Rublev in just over an hour, slightly longer than it took Karen Khachanov to beat American Jared Donaldson 4-1 4-3(2) 4-2 in Group B.</p>
<p>Donaldson is still without a set after two matches.</p>
<p>“I’m so happy to get my second win here, I had never played Rublev before,” Chung told reporters. “I’ve never played with these rules before, but I like them.”</p>
<p>The 18-year-old Shapovalov notched his first win when he beat Italian wildcard Gianluigi Quinzi 4-1 4-1 3-4(5) 4-3(5).</p>
<p>Shapovalov, ranked 51st, raced through the opening two sets against his fellow former junior Wimbledon champion before the match burst into life when the Italian found another gear.</p>
<p>Despite double-faulting on match point, however, Shapovalov claimed victory and will need to beat Rublev to reach the semis.</p>
<p>The eight-man tournament, showcasing the players who are tipped to be the future of men’s tennis, is using radical new rules aimed at increasing the popularity of the sport.</p>
<p>As well as sets being played only to four games, there are no advantage points, shot clocks to enforce the 25-second between points rule, no let serves and coaching via headphones at the end of sets.</p>
<p>Line judges have also been removed for the tournament with Hawk-Eye technology calling lines using an automated voice which on Wednesday was changed to include a female version after complaints that Tuesday’s voice was repetitive.</p>
<p>Shapovalov cracked 41 winners in an entertaining contest enjoyed by a sizeable crowd and said the new short set scoring format made for more intense matches.</p>
<p>“I feel with this format it’s going to go down to a lot more tiebreaks, a lot more intense moments just because there are so many less chances to break,” he said.</p>
<p>“If you do break, there’s not many chances to break back.”</p>
<p />
<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Chung taking new rules in his stride in Milan | false | https://newsline.com/chung-taking-new-rules-in-his-stride-in-milan/ | 2017-11-08 | 1 |
<p />
<p>Do UFOs really exist?</p>
<p>Not only are they real, claim some top researchers, the entities that pilot them have bases all over the world.</p>
<p>UFO bases have been pinpointed on every major continent including Antarctica. One of the largest is claimed to be hidden in the Andes mountain range of South America.</p>
<p>North America has a major base too located in one of the Great Lakes: Lake Erie. Evidence suggests the base is underwater.</p>
<p />
<p>Amateur photo of lake UFO snapped in 1952.</p>
<p>Lake Erie a hot spot for UFOs</p>
<p>It’s true that strange things have been occurring in and around Lake Erie for more than 100 years. The great airship flap of the 1880s occurred throughout the American Midwest and Northeast, the radial patterns of their flight paths often tracked back to a point in the Lake Erie region.</p>
<p />
<p>Classic saucer UFO photographed near Cleveland, 1954.</p>
<p>In more modern times it’s been suspected for decades that Lake Erie—a hot spot for UFO sightings since the early 1950s—harbors a base.</p>
<p />
<p>Squadron of ‘scout craft’ UFO’s photographed over lake.</p>
<p>Back when UFOs were still called flying saucers sightings were rife in the Lake Erie area. Disc shaped craft were seen at all hours. Daylight sightings were common. Many eyewitnesses said they saw saucers rising from the lake or diving into it. The infamous US Air Force Project Grudge—later Project Bluebook—launched investigations several times to research sightings of otherworldly craft near Lake Erie. Their conclusions appeared in cut and dried reports buried within with columns of statistics.</p>
<p />
<p>The ominous ‘Men in Black’ investigated some Lake Erie sightings.</p>
<p>The more interesting investigations were conducted by nameless, ominous men who only identified themselves as “representatives of the United States government.” Those men interrogated witnesses and tried to intimidate them into silence. Some of those men later became known in flying saucer circles as the “Men in Black.”</p>
<p>Of course the results of their investigations were never released.</p>
<p>Today, most people think of Men in Black as two entertaining comedic films, but back in the 50s no one was laughing.</p>
<p />
<p>Frame of video taken of craft hovering over Lake Erie.</p>
<p>Men in Black often appeared after sightings near Lake Erie and it was back then that prominent flying saucer investigators such as Major Donald Keyhoe, Gray Barker and Morris Jessup focused some of their attention on the mysterious comings and goings of the unidentified aerial craft haunting Erie.</p>
<p>National organizations such as the <a href="/r2/?url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_Phenomena_Research_Organization" type="external">Aerial Phenomena Research Organization</a> (APRO) and <a href="/r2/?url=http://www.nicap.org/" type="external">National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena</a> (NICAP) also had thick files on sightings in and around the growingly eerie Lake Erie.</p>
<p>Researcher Robin S. Swope recently compiled a very impressive case book of stunning sightings occurring around southern Lake Erie over the past few years.</p>
<p>In his book, <a href="/r2/?url=http://www.amaz%20on.com/Eerie-Erie-Unexplained-Northwest-Pennsylvania/dp/1609493567" type="external">A Hidden Underwater UFO Base in Lake Erie</a>&#160; Swope describes sustained UFO flaps and many sightings of massive craft plunging into the lake.</p>
<p />
<p>Artist depiction of incredible U.S. Coast Guard sighting.</p>
<p>He spotlights an amazing encounter between the U.S. Coast Guard and a UFO. They witnessing a mammoth craft landing on the lake and launching a flurry of small scout ships. Of course, as is the norm, the mainstream American media chose to ignore the incident concentrating there attention on the travails of Britney Spears.</p>
<p>The record of incidents since 2000 has ticked upwards and it’s safe to say that more UFOs are being tracked, seen and encountered in the Lake Erie area than during all previous years.</p>
<p />
<p>Swopes writes in a <a href="/r2/?url=http://www.blogger.com/profile/16008265694116146151&amp;g%20t" type="external">blog post</a> that “Recently places on the western part of the lake such as Sandusky and Cleveland have been hotbeds of UFO activity and similar lights have been filmed, making them a Youtube sensation.</p>
<p>“These UFOs have been investigated by world-famous UFO researchers [and] Cleveland ufologist Aaron Clark in the March 8, 2007 Cleveland Plain Dealer declared that ‘Some believe there’s a UFO base on the bottom of the lake.’”</p>
<p>If you’ve sighted a UFO in the Lake Erie area, please report it to the National UFO Reporting Center <a href="/r2/?url=http://www.ufocenter.com/reportform.html" type="external">here</a>.&#160; You may also report sightings using their hotline telephone number: 206-722-3000 (they ask you call them only if the sighting has occurred within the last week).</p>
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<p>The U.S. Supreme Court announced three historic 5-4 decisions this week. In the first, a core component of the Voting Rights Act was gutted, enabling Southern states to enact regressive voting laws that will likely disenfranchise the ever-growing number of voters of color. The second pair of cases threw out the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the legal travesty that defined marriage in federal law as only between a man and a woman, and effectively overturned California’s Prop 8, which bans same-sex marriage. For those who struggle for equality and civil rights, these three decisions mark one brutal defeat and two stunning victories.</p>
<p>“What the court did … is stab the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in its very heart,” Georgia Congressman John Lewis said of Tuesday’s decision. “It is a major setback. We may not have people being beaten today. Maybe they’re not being denied the right to participate or to register to vote. They’re not being chased by police dogs or trampled by horses. But in the 11 states of the old Confederacy, and even in some of the states outside of the South, there’s been a systematic, deliberate attempt to take us back to another period.”</p>
<p>Lewis is the 73-year-old dean of the Georgia congressional delegation. As a young man, he led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and was the youngest speaker to address the March on Washington 50 years ago. He recently recalled a signal moment in that struggle, appearing on the “Democracy Now!” news hour:</p>
<p>“On March 7, 1965, a group of us attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to dramatize to the nation that people wanted to register to vote. … In Selma, Alabama, in 1965, only 2.1 percent of blacks of voting age were registered to vote. The only place you could attempt to register was to go down to the courthouse. You had to pass a so-called literacy test. And they would tell people over and over again that they didn’t or couldn’t pass the literacy test.”</p>
<p />
<p>What happened to those marchers as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge into Selma has entered the canon of American protest history. Lewis continued: “We got to the top of the bridge. We saw a sea of blue — Alabama state troopers — and we continued to walk. We came within hearing distance of the state troopers … you saw these guys putting on their gas masks. They came toward us, beating us with nightsticks and bullwhips, trampling us with horses. I was hit in the head by a state trooper with a nightstick. I had a concussion at the bridge. My legs went out from under me. I felt like I was going to die. I thought I saw Death.”</p>
<p>Lewis had his head bashed in, and was one of 17 seriously injured that day. He recovered and continued the struggle. Months later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.</p>
<p>Throughout his career, John Lewis has forged a solid record of fighting for civil rights — not just for African-Americans, but for all who suffer discrimination.</p>
<p>Which brings us to the second key decision this week from the Supreme Court. The court ruled unconstitutional the Defense of Marriage Act, which federally defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Backing that up was another 5-4 decision that essentially overturns California’s notorious Prop 8, which banned same-sex marriage. Soon, it will be legal for gay and lesbian couples to marry in the most populous state in the country.</p>
<p>Back when DOMA was being debated in 1996, with President Bill Clinton championing it and with bipartisan support in Congress, John Lewis spoke out against it with the same passion he showed in the struggle for voting rights. Lewis said then, on the floor of the House: “This bill is a slap in the face of the Declaration of Independence. It denies gay men and women the right of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Marriage is a basic human right. You cannot tell people they cannot fall in love. I will not turn my back on another American. I will not oppress my fellow human being. I fought too hard and too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation.” After this week’s DOMA decision, he reiterated, “It’s better to love than to hate.”</p>
<p>For John Lewis, human rights cannot be compromised, they are indivisible. Following his lead, people should channel the joy they feel for the marriage equality victories today to a renewed struggle for voting rights, for equality for all.</p>
<p>Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.</p>
<p>Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,000 stations in North America. She is the co-author of “The Silenced Majority,” a New York Times best-seller.</p>
<p>© 2013 Amy Goodman</p>
<p>Distributed by King Features Syndicate</p> | The Supreme Court Makes History: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/the-supreme-court-makes-history-two-steps-forward-one-step-back/ | 2013-06-27 | 4 |
<p>In a brutally frank and at times contentious interview, former Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales sat down with Dan Abrams to talk about:</p>
<p>•their definition of torture (“Were the interrogations harsh? Yes. Did they save lives? Absolutely.”) •whether it was illegal (“It was a very close call.”) •mistakes they made (“Wouldn’t it be great, if all of us in public service, could go back and correct any mistakes that we may have made on behalf of the American public?”) •when it’s acceptable to fire a U.S. Attorney (“I think it is improper, as I indicated before, to remove a U.S. attorney, because that U.S. attorney failed to prosecute, say, a Democrat.”) •a fear of prosecution and disbarment (“only a fool wouldn’t worry about it“) •and who the attorney general really answers to (“I think the Constitution and the American people are your primary clients.“).</p>
<p>Our interview, part of a speaker series organized by the American Jewish University on April 27, included a dinner and post-event cocktail “meet and greet.” Maybe I was naïve, but after chatting with the guests, I assumed the audience would be pretty evenly split politically. But on that stage, in front of about 2,500 people, I felt like the visiting team shooting free throws at a crucial moment in the game. I was booed, hissed, and heckled while Ashcroft and Gonzales were regularly applauded. While I occasionally received polite applause, their supporters made sure to have their voices and hands heard.</p>
<p>“I think that the U.S. government provided advice to CIA interrogators based upon the best legal reasoning by the lawyers in the Department of Justice. Was it torture, when that advice was given? No.”</p>
<p>Throughout my career, I have conducted many contentious interviews but they were generally for my show or my network—on my turf. Not this time. The two men fidgeted. I fidgeted. I pushed and they pushed back. They rolled their eyes and I continued to pursue some clearly uncomfortable topics—the definition of torture, who the attorney general actually works for, and under what circumstances U.S. Attorneys can be fired.</p>
<p>You can find a full transcript of the interview on my <a href="https://twitter.com/danielabrams" type="external">Twitter page</a>.</p>
<p>Dan Abrams: Let’s start by just talking broadly for a moment. Attorney General Ashcroft, how’s Obama doing?</p>
<p>John Ashcroft: [Laughter] I think he’s done pretty well. I’m glad he hasn’t decided precipitously to close down Guantánamo. Because it’s the national interest that we be able to keep dangerous people who we apprehend on the battlefields from being released. We know that out of the people we have released, hundreds of people that have been released—even the ones that we thought it was OK to release. So I’m glad he made that decision. I don’t want anything to happen that impairs the national interest, particularly in the area of national security. So there are lots of things I’m thankful for. I don’t have quite the same tint in my glasses that you do in yours, but that doesn’t keep me from being grateful.</p>
<p>I just can’t decide, Attorney General Gonzales, if Attorney General Ashcroft is kind of pulling his punches. Do you agree with those comments, or are you more critical?</p>
<p>Alberto Gonzales: I tend to follow President Bush’s model in terms of saying less—as opposed to Vice President Cheney’s [Laughter]. The decisions at this level are so incredibly hard, you can’t even imagine how difficult they are.</p>
<p>Let’s assume they’re hard. Let’s assume the questions are hard. How’s Obama dealt with them. Has he dealt with them well?</p>
<p>AG: I think it’s probably too early to tell. It’s 100 days. The man should be given the opportunity to succeed or fail. He was elected by the American people, and he deserves the benefit of the doubt, and I think it’s just too early to tell. I’m pleased generally with some of his decisions. Some of his decisions I’m not so happy with. But I just think it’s too early to tell.</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
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<p>OK. Speaking of Vice President Cheney. He did have something to say about President Obama. He said: “He’s making some choices that in my mind will in fact raise the risk to the American people of another attack.” Judge Gonzales, do you agree with that?</p>
<p>AG: You know, I’m a lot more interested in the assessments by the intelligence professionals, quite frankly. When I hear Mike Hayden, former CIA director, express concerns that the release of the interrogation memos, for example, has weakened our national security, that concerns me. And so, again, we need time to evaluate.</p>
<p>But can you theoretically say that the release of the four memos is somehow going to lead—is going to make an attack more likely?</p>
<p>JA: Well, whether you elevate the risk by providing more information to the enemy—</p>
<p>That elevates the risk?</p>
<p>JA: Very frequently.</p>
<p>In this case.</p>
<p>JA: No, no—</p>
<p>Do you think the release of these memos elevated the risk?</p>
<p>JA: I don’t know. I haven’t made that decision. I’m talking about the fact that when you provide information to the enemy, and it’s valuable to the enemy, the risk goes up. When you also suggest to the American people that the risk is going down, there’s almost the situation where when people guard against the risk less because they feel more secure, the risk goes up. We’re dealing with an enemy that has sworn that they want to destroy us. And they call us the Great Satan, and they have continued to say that they want to fight us and that they want to injure us, and I take them at their word on that. Without adequate regard at one time it has cost us greatly. So I don’t think it’s reckless to say that if you provide something that assists the enemy.</p>
<p>And I think the difficulty we have here is the idea that we have to somehow hand them an engraved invitation to hit us again before people think it helps them. There are lots of things that could help.</p>
<p>But it sounds like you’re suggesting that the release of these memos is somehow handing them an invitation to attack. Let me read you what President Obama said about this. He said: “the interrogation techniques recorded in these memos have already been widely reported. The previous administration publicly acknowledged portions of the program, and some of the practices of these memos. I’ve already ended the techniques described in the memos through an executive order, therefore withholding these memos would only serve to deny facts that have been in the public domain for some time. This could contribute to an inaccurate accounting of the past, and fuel erroneous and inflammatory assumptions about actions taken by the United States.”</p>
<p>AG: Let me just say, Dan, that [former CIA director] Mike Hayden and Mike Mukasey, who followed me as attorney general, responded in an Op-Ed to the release of the memos in response to these arguments. It is one thing to say that we engage in these kinds of techniques—</p>
<p>Engaged, past tense.</p>
<p>AG: [Puts his hand up.]</p>
<p>Well I mean, there’s a difference. You can’t just say we engage, because it’s almost like they got an old playbook. Right? From five years ago. And they’re saying, “Hey, we got the playbook! We got the playbook!” And it turns out they got a new coach, and a new play.</p>
<p>AG: The main point, the main point, is—it’s one thing to say that this particular technique, but the level of detail in these memos have never been made public before. In does provide, in my judgment, important information to the enemy.</p>
<p>Like what?</p>
<p>AG: But more importantly, in the judgment of Mike Hayden, and the current CIA director, and four previous CIA directors…</p>
<p>But CIA Director Leon Panetta did not say that it was providing comfort to the enemy or providing information…</p>
<p>AG: I’m not saying comfort to the enemy, but I’m saying it does harm the national security of our country.</p>
<p>He didn’t use that term, but—</p>
<p>AG: And then secondly, to say that we have now discontinued these techniques. They may be necessary in the future. And by disclosing it, means you take them off the table and they can never be used again.</p>
<p>JA: I believe there’s been a law change since some of these memos were originally written. And I think if the president wanted to, he could withdraw and discontinue things, maybe predicated on the change in the statute, which was endorsed, I think, by the Republican candidate for president and in the legislative process as well, as the members of the Senate generally and the House, and signed by the president. So, it may well be that there is a minimization of the potential damage here that could happen based on a discontinuity, but I think that General Gonzales makes a point that’s worth understanding.</p>
<p>Judge Gonzales, I’m going to ask you a very direct question. And it relates to something you just said. Do you believe waterboarding is torture?</p>
<p>AG: Here’s what I’ll say. I think that the U.S. government provided advice to CIA interrogators based upon the best legal reasoning by the lawyers in the Department of Justice. Was it torture, when that advice was given? No. Were the interrogations harsh? Yes. Did they save lives? Absolutely.</p>
<p>[Applause]</p>
<p>Did they get it right? I’m asking your legal opinion. Waterboarding is—they define it in all the memos how waterboarding is defined—and if we need it defined I’m happy to read from it—how torture is defined. Do you think legally that waterboarding is torture?</p>
<p>AG: Dan, when I served in the administration, the position of the administration was that under certain conditions and circumstances, this technique would be lawful.</p>
<p>Now that you’ve had some time to think about it. You’ve been out of office for a while, and you get the opportunity to look back with 20/20 hindsight. Do you look back and do you say to yourself, we got that one right?</p>
<p>AG: Wouldn’t it be great, if all of us in public service, could go back and correct any mistakes that we may have made on behalf of the American public?</p>
<p>Well, you’ve got the opportunity right now.</p>
<p>AG: —We don’t have that opportunity.</p>
<p>You have the opportunity to say you know what, we blew it. We messed this one up, we got this one wrong.</p>
<p>AG: I will say that I made my fair share of mistakes in government. But I will also say that I, and the people that I work with, took actions to the very best of our abilities to protect our country in a very difficult period in our nation’s history. [Applause.]</p>
<p>Let me follow this. The U.S. military prosecuted our own troops for using waterboarding in the Philippines, tried the Japanese for war crimes for using it against the Allies and the U.S. troops in WWII. And yet, we’re suggesting that it’s not torture. [Applause]</p>
<p>JA: First of all, the word waterboarding can be defined in a lot of ways.</p>
<p>Let’s talk about the definition that was used in these memos—this is a legal document—of the definition of waterboarding. “Lying on a gurney that is inclined with an angle of 10-15 degrees from horizontal, with the detainee on his back. . . head toward the head end of the gurney, cloth pasted over the detainees’ face, and cold water poured on the cloth approximately 16-18 inches—this is the definition. The question is—</p>
<p>AG: Dan, the opinions have been withdrawn. There are no longer binding position of the department…</p>
<p>I understand that, but that doesn’t mean, as lawyers, we can’t sit and discuss whether this was a correct legal assessment. Because it seems to me, in my opinion, that it is impossible to explain how this particular procedure would not be considered torture. [Applause]</p>
<p>JA: Members of the department went and underwent the procedure.</p>
<p>Once or twice, not 266 times.</p>
<p>JA: Many members of our military in training undergo the procedure—</p>
<p>Once or twice.</p>
<p>JA: Were you there?</p>
<p>No, the memos explain it. It’s once or twice.</p>
<p>JA: OK. I don’t know how many times they underwent it. Let me just put it this way. We relied—I relied—on the best judgments of the lawyers in the department. There are 110,000 employees in the department, the lawyers are expert, and they came up with an opinion that became part of a memo. Later, some lawyers came to me and said "We’re not confident that that memo best expresses the law here." And I said to myself, "Well, I’m the attorney general, and if we have stuff out there that’s not the best expression, we ought to amend it. We ought to get the best information we can." You know we’re in a war, you give it to the president, you give information to the other individuals, but you say, you know, they deserve the best judgment. They reworked the memo, and they came a second time, these professionals did, and according to the definition of torture, they came to the conclusion that the procedure as provided along with the advice to our personnel did not amount to legal torture.</p>
<p>Did they get it wrong?</p>
<p>JA: I don’t think they got it wrong. It’s different now.</p>
<p>It’s different in what sense?</p>
<p>JA: Because the law has been changed. [John Ashcroft called me after the event to correct a mistake he made. He wanted to let me know that, in retrospect and after conducting more research on the matter, he realized that no such change in the law was ever enacted.]</p>
<p>The definition of torture?</p>
<p>JA: Yes! The definition of torture.</p>
<p>So the answer then, it sounds like, is the only reason you still believe the legal assessment was correct was because there’s been a change in the law?</p>
<p>JA: I believe that the work of the department by these professionals came to the right conclusion.</p>
<p>That waterboarding is not torture.</p>
<p>JA: That, as described, and as commented on in their memorandum, that it was not torture.</p>
<p>Judge Gonzales, are any of the following torture, and these were all things that were in the memo.</p>
<p>AG: Dan, I’m not—</p>
<p>Nudity, facial grasp, facial slapping, abdominal slap, cramped confinement, stress positions, water dousing—including 41-degree water—sleep deprivation, and waterboarding. Are any of those torture?</p>
<p>AG: Dan, as John said, and again I’m [saying] that what you’re reading from represents the work of the department. The lawyers within the department looked very, very carefully at the words of the statute, looked at the conditions and circumstances in which these procedures would be undertaken, and rendered a legal conclusion that under these circumstances, it would not violate the statute. Now, my understanding of the legal positions of the department has now been changed. So we can spend all evening debating the merits of a legal opinion of the Department of Justice, which by the way, opinions get changed—I don’t want to say all the time—but it’s not unusual to have opinions change and be modified as conditions change, as administrations change, as the Supreme Court renders a decision, opinions change.</p>
<p>[Applause]</p>
<p>So let me ask, in your view, this was a close call. It sounds like you’re saying this was a close call because there was a legal judgment made, and you think that they made the right call.</p>
<p>AG: It was a very close call. These are very, very difficult issues.</p>
<p>If in a year from now, Judge Gonzales, Attorney General Eric Holder fired eight or nine U.S. attorneys because they would not pursue, or at least in part, because they wouldn’t pursue certain politically charged cases against Republicans, would that be a problem?</p>
<p>AG: That would be a problem. Assuming if there were no merit. You know.</p>
<p>But what if it was part of the decision?</p>
<p>AG: If it was to interfere with ongoing prosecution or to punish a U.S. attorney for failing to prosecute someone when there’s no reason not to—that would be improper.</p>
<p>Well, take it apart, and let’s assume for a moment that there have been reasons that have been laid out for firing U.S. attorneys, and those stated justifications, there have been some questions about that, but you’d agree—if the primary reason why they were fired was because they wouldn’t pursue politically charged cases, they would not be proper.</p>
<p>AG: What do you mean politically charged cases? For example, if you’re saying one of the president’s priorities is voter fraud. And if we have U.S. attorneys who say "I don’t care about voter fraud, I don’t care what the president thinks, I’m not going to prosecute those kinds of cases," I think it would be legitimate to replace him. They serve at the pleasure of the president.</p>
<p>Well that’s the question, that’s why I’m asking the question.</p>
<p>AG: That would not be an improper reason.</p>
<p>Because voter fraud, you’d agree, is a politically charged issue, and it tends to be something Republicans pursue more than Democrats.</p>
<p>AG: But it also happens to be a crime. It’s stealing someone’s vote. There is a law against it. It is OK to enforce that law. And if a U.S. attorney doesn’t want to enforce it, and it happens to be a priority of the president of the United States—you bet.</p>
<p>So it sounds to me like you are saying it wouldn’t be—let’s use the voter fraud example—that it wouldn’t be improper for nine U.S. attorneys to be fired if they refuse to pursue cases like voter fraud?</p>
<p>AG: If you’re talking about as a general category, I’m fine with that. If you’re talking about specific cases, then I have to look at the facts of the specific case.</p>
<p>So is there any difference to you in appointing a U.S. attorney and firing one? Meaning, that everyone agrees that the appointment of U.S. attorneys is a political position. A president can clean house. When a Democrat comes in, they can appoint an entirely new group of U.S. attorneys that they want. Is there a different standard for firing them than for hiring them?</p>
<p>AG: I think the problem is that people have different definitions of what it means to be a political reason to remove someone. Because everything as you indicated with respect to the appointment is very political.</p>
<p>Should it be for firing?</p>
<p>AG: I think it is improper, as I indicated before, to remove a U.S. attorney, because that U.S. attorney failed to prosecute, say, a Democrat.</p>
<p>Even if that was the president’s—you said the president has a certain set of policies and positions he wants to take—even if that was one of them?</p>
<p>AG: To prosecute Democrats? President Bush would not have had that as a policy. [Laughs]</p>
<p>Let me move to a serious issue that has gotten a lot of, that has been testified to in front of Congress, that has been reported on extensively, and that is an incident that occurred when you were quite ill, Attorney General Ashcroft. And James Comey, the assistant attorney general, testified to this, as has former director of the FBI Mueller. That basically Mr. Gonzales, and [former White House Chief of Staff] Andrew Card had come to your bedside in order to get approval for the NSA spying program. And according to Mr. Comey, that basically you pointed at him and said he’s still the attorney general. And many have said that was a very brave thing to do at the point, particularly in your condition, at the time. And when the spying program was renewed, despite the fact that Mr. Comey had objected to it, that you and a group of others threatened to quit. Is that true?</p>
<p>JA: It’s true that it’s been reported in the papers that way.</p>
<p>Is this one of those times where they got it right?</p>
<p>JA: You know, I consider my health records to be confidential. [Laughter] And I don’t discuss my hospital records.</p>
<p>What about after the hospital? Put aside for a moment what happened at the hospital, what happened in the days after? This, I think very important claim, that you and a group of others threatened to quit.</p>
<p>JA: I’m not going to comment on that. But let me just say this, everybody who serves in the federal government ought to be ready to quit if they need to.</p>
<p>AG: We often want to quit, let me tell you.</p>
<p>DA: Judge Gonzales, you mentioned in your testimony—you mentioned you testified about it—and one of the controversial issues has been that in February 2006, that you had said that there has “not been any serious disagreement about the program the president has confirmed,” referring to the NSA program. And yet, we learned later, through the testimony of Comey and others, that there was real disagreement as is evidenced by what happened in Attorney General Ashcroft’s hospital room. James Comey testified, “I was angry. I thought I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man who did not have the powers of attorney general because they had been transferred to me.” Mr. Mueller testified that “I had an understanding the discussion was on an NSA program.” Were you candid in your testimony when you said there has not been any serious disagreement about the program?</p>
<p>AG: Dan, I stand by the testimony.</p>
<p>Were you candid?</p>
<p>AG: I stand by the testimony. And subsequent testimony. And believe me, I’ve been asked this question many times. I submitted a letter amplifying, clarifying my testimony. I think that letter was sent August 1, 2007, so there’s a lot already out there on the record about my testimony. I’ve got nothing else to add.</p>
<p>But how could you have said that there was no serious disagreement about this, when there was this major showdown?</p>
<p>AG: Here’s the problem, folks. We’re talking about the sensitive, classified programs of the United States. The president disclosed only one aspect of many things that we do. And so it’s very difficult to talk about these things in a public setting, it really is. So obviously I did that, Dan. I’ve said everything I could say in testimony. In closed hearings, I’ve amplified my remarks, but I can’t say anything more in a public setting. [Laughter]</p>
<p>Did you have any qualms about going to the room of a sick man? [Audience boos] You’ve got the audience’s support.</p>
<p>AG: You know, John is right. What’s really important is that at the end of the day, a very important program on behalf of the United States of America, it continued. There may have been some modifications, there may have been some changes, but the lawyers worked these things out.</p>
<p>Judge Gonzales, as attorney general, is the president your client?</p>
<p>AG: The president is obviously someone who receives legal advice from the attorney general. But I think the Constitution and the American people are your primary clients.</p>
<p>You say primary. Is the president also—is it a shared responsibility?</p>
<p>AG: The president looks to the attorney general for legal advice. He looks to the attorney general for legal opinions. Not just the president, the other executive branch agencies, turn to the Department of Justice, the AG, the Office of Legal Counsel, for legal opinions which represent the legal position of the executive branch. So in a sense, yes, the president, the executive branch agencies, represents one of the clients of the attorney general, but the attorney general takes an oath to defend the Constitution. He has an oath to the Constitution and to the American people.</p>
<p>B ecause as you know, some have said about you, that as Attorney General, you viewed the president too much as your client, as opposed to the American people.</p>
<p>AG: I think that people have said that because I had a relationship with President Bush that I could not have been an effective attorney general.</p>
<p>Judge Gonzales, and this is something that’s come out in the news as of late, and it relates to Representative Jane Harman. The CQ, and I’m sure you’re familiar with this report, has reported that the Department of Justice lawyers concluded that Rep. Harman, they believed, had actually committed a crime by promising to put in a good word for two AIPAC officials being prosecuted for passing classified information. In exchange, the report says, an Israeli agent pledged to help Harman get chair of the Intelligence Committee, but the investigation was halted, the report says, by you. And the sources who were quoted said because you wanted to maintain her credibility, so she could publicly defend the NSA wiretapping program which had just been exposed. And the quote from the article was “Gonzales said he needed Jane to help support the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about to be exposed.”</p>
<p>AG: Yeah, I’m not going to comment publicly whether or not there was or was not or is an investigation. I will say that I would not interfere with an investigation for an improper reason. And that’s all I can say about that.</p>
<p>As you know, you’ve become a kind of a target for many on the left. A lot of people say that you should be prosecuted, that you should be disbarred, etc. Do you worry about any of that?</p>
<p>AG: Well you know, Washington being such a political town, and certain groups being so politicized, only a fool wouldn’t worry about it. But I think that if it really is a question of what happened, if it’s a question of the truth, then no, I’m not worried. I did my best, and that’s all that we can do in these positions, in these very difficult positions. I think John’s comment of being grateful for the privilege to serve summed it up well. I too, am very proud of the fact that I played a very small part in the safety of our country following the attacks of 9/11. That’s something that will always be very, very special to me.</p>
<p>Do you believe that if different legal decisions hadn’t been made, then there would have been another terrorist attack?</p>
<p>AG: Well, we’ll never know for sure.</p>
<p>Do you think there’s a real chance that the legal decisions prevented another attack?</p>
<p>AG: The legal decisions?</p>
<p>The choices made by the Department of Justice.</p>
<p>AG: As lawyers, you provide to policymakers an opinion on whether a certain policy which would make America safe is available to them. They then decide if this is something they would want to exercise to make America safer.</p>
<p>JA: Legal decisions sort of suggest that the business of the department is just making decisions. But the Department of Justice includes the FBI, which has not only national intelligence responsibility, but international intelligence responsibility. It’s the universal intelligence agency. I have no doubt that there were very serious contributions made to our safety and security by them.</p>
<p>I want to ask you both one final overall question, and that is, when you both talk about your greatest regret, you talk about your failure to explain. Some people are going to look at that and say, of all the problems this administration has had, you have two attorneys general sitting up there, saying the biggest problem we had is that we failed to explain?</p>
<p>JA: Let me tell you, I’m not talking about problems we had. I’m talking about problems I had. I’m talking about a personal failure. I don’t think it’s a failure of the administration, it’s a failure of mine. I’m not here to apologize, you have to remind me that there’s something else that I need to apologize for. I don’t regret my service to the country. I don’t back up to the pay window to get my pay. Now I do think I should have done a better job there if I were to do a better job there, but I don’t want to do it again, so thank you.</p>
<p>Dan Abrams is CEO of <a href="" type="external">Abrams Research</a>, an attorney, and chief legal analyst for NBC News and <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/" type="external">MSNBC</a>.</p> | Bush's Lawyers Strike Back | true | https://thedailybeast.com/bushs-lawyers-strike-back | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
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<p>Comedian Eugene Mirman, <a href="http://www.grist.org/" type="external">Grist</a>’s Special Correspondent in Copenhagen, goes to the Bella Center, the epicenter of the U.N. Climate Conference. He unofficially represents the US in this official U.N. conference center. And because he’s Eugene, he makes friends doing it. Like the local whom he makes apologize for the loud dance music played in all the restaurants in Copenhagen.</p>
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<p />
<p>This video was produced by <a href="http://www.grist.org/article/2009-12-10-eugene-mirman-reports-from-trash-can-in-copenhagen/" type="external">Grist</a> as part of the <a href="/mojo/2009/12/copenhagen-time-get-over-ourselves" type="external">Copenhagen News Collaborative</a>, a cooperative project of several independent news organizations. Check out the constantly updated feed <a href="/environment/2009/12/copenhagen-news-coverage" type="external">here</a>. Mother Jones’ comprehensive Copenhagen coverage is <a href="/blue-marble" type="external">here</a>, and our special climate change package is <a href="/special-reports/2009/11/climate-countdown" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p /> | Watch: Eugene Mirman Represents the US at Climate Talks | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/eugene-mirman-represents-us-climate-talks/ | 2009-12-16 | 4 |
<p>ANKARA (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said on Wednesday the U.S. judge hearing the trial of an executive at Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank had taken part in events organized by a cleric Ankara blames for last year’s failed military coup.</p>
<p>“The issue has gone beyond a legal case, it has become a political case,” spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in reference to the New York trial of a deputy general manager at the bank, who is charged with helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions.</p>
<p>The executive has pleaded not guilty and Halkbank says it has abided by Turkish and international law.</p>
<p>Erdogan’s government has portrayed the case as a “plot against Turkey” by the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who it alleges engineered last year’s coup attempt.</p>
<p>“It is known that the judge has participated in events upon Gulen’s invitation,” Kalin told a news conference, without giving details. Turkish newspapers have said Judge Richard Berman attended a legal symposium in Istanbul in 2014 organized by Gulen supporters.</p>
<p>Berman could not be reached for comment. At the first hearing in the case he said he was one of five U.S. legal experts who spoke at the symposium and moderated a panel discussion on independent and effective judiciary.</p>
<p>In response to previous criticism from Turkey, the United States has said its judicial processes are independent.</p>
<p>Already strained ties between NATO allies Ankara and Washington have deteriorated further over the court case, in which Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors, has detailed a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions.</p>
<p>Zarrab has implicated top Turkish politicians, including Erdogan. Zarrab said on Thursday that when Erdogan was prime minister he had authorized a transaction to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions.</p>
<p>Although he has not yet responded to the courtroom claims, Erdogan has dismissed the case as a politically motivated attempt, led by Gulen, to bring down the Turkish government.</p>
<p>“We will continue watching it within the framework of the law, but the public is seeing how this is trying to be used as an instrument of blackmail,” Kalin said.</p>
<p>“We have not done anything in violation of international laws, we carried out our activities transparently,” Kalin said.</p>
<p>Turkey has repeatedly requested Gulen’s extradition, but U.S. officials have said the courts require sufficient evidence before they can extradite the elderly cleric, who has denied any involvement in the coup.</p>
<p>Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.</p>
<p />
<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Turkey links U.S. judge in sanctions case to wanted cleric | false | https://newsline.com/turkey-links-u-s-judge-in-sanctions-case-to-wanted-cleric/ | 2017-12-06 | 1 |
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<p>The Democratic governor wants to quadruple the five-year renewal fee for pistol permits from $70 to $300 as part of his plan to offset a budget deficit estimated at $1.7 billion in the next fiscal year. For people getting their first five-year pistol permits, the fees would increase from $140 to $370, which includes a $70 charge collected by cities and towns. The proposed fees would be among the highest in the country.</p>
<p>Fees for background checks needed to obtain pistol permits also would increase, from $50 to $75. Malloy’s pistol permit and background check fee plan would raise nearly $12 million a year in additional revenue.</p>
<p>The National Rifle Association called Malloy’s proposal “outrageous.”</p>
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<p>“The ability to protect and defend yourself should not be reserved only for the wealthy,” said Chris Kopacki, Connecticut legislative liaison for the NRA. “Some of our state’s poorest residents, many of whom live in high-crime neighborhoods, may not be able to afford a firearm for self-protection under Malloy’s proposed fee hikes.”</p>
<p>Rich Burgess, president of Connecticut Carry, a non-profit gun rights advocacy group, said Connecticut’s fees already are high.</p>
<p>“That is a lot of money for the exercise of a right,” he said. “What other right is subject to these kinds of costs for individuals? And now to increase that, it is preposterous.”</p>
<p>Malloy defended the proposed fees last week, saying they are in line with fees in other jurisdictions and will cover the state’s administrative costs for issuing gun permits.</p>
<p>“What was true was that our fee was unreasonably less expensive and, quite frankly, given the amount of work that has to be done with respect to licensure, we weren’t recovering our costs,” Malloy said. “I suspect that everyone who has a pistol permit is going to get a renewal. If you’re going to have a gun and you’re going to seek a permit, we have a fee structure.”</p>
<p>Most states’ fees, however, are $100 or below for multiple-year permits. The only nearby jurisdiction Malloy’s proposed fees would be in line with is those in New York City, which charges $340 to apply and about $90 for fingerprinting for a three-year license.</p>
<p>Malloy, however, said on Friday that he would consider a “carve out” of the fee for people on fixed incomes. He did not elaborate.</p>
<p>Republicans in the legislature vowed to fight the proposed gun permit fees. Democrats hold a slim majority in the House of Representatives. There is an even split in the Senate, where Democratic Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman can cast tie-breaking votes.</p>
<p>“To single out those people who work hard, pay their taxes and want to exercise their constitutional rights and protect their families is unfair,” said Rep. Themis Klarides, of Derby, the House Republican leader.</p>
<p>Democratic House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz said he also believes Malloy’s proposed fees are excessive, but said it’s too early in the budget process to rule anything out.</p> | Governor’s proposed gun permit fees come under fire | false | https://abqjournal.com/953483/governors-proposed-gun-permit-fees-come-under-fire.html | 2 |
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<p>On Tuesday, the Clinton campaign on Tuesday <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Clinton-campaign-slams-hateful-Max-Blumenthal-comments-on-the-late-Elie-Wiesel-459657?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=twitter" type="external">ripped</a> the vicious comments made by anti-Israel Jewish journalist Max Blumenthal, the son of Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal, regarding the late Elie Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor who died on Saturday.</p>
<p>Jake Sullivan, senior policy advisor to Hillary Clinton, told The Jerusalem Post, “Secretary Clinton emphatically rejects these offensive, hateful, and patently absurd statements about Elie Wiesel.”</p>
<p>Blumenthal had tweeted these:</p>
<p>Elie Wiesel is dead. He spent his last years inciting hatred, defending apartheid &amp; palling around with fascists. <a href="https://t.co/3bRTq4QDye" type="external">pic.twitter.com/3bRTq4QDye</a></p>
<p>Elie Wiesel repeatedly lauded Jewish settlers for ethnically cleansing Palestinians in East Jerusalem: <a href="https://t.co/ApSzs57Wcw" type="external">https://t.co/ApSzs57Wcw</a></p>
<p>Elie Wiesel went from a victim of war crimes to a supporter of those who commit them. He did more harm than good and should not be honored.</p>
<p>Yet the Clinton campaign’s protestations ring more than a little hollow and insincere. As <a href="http://observer.com/2016/02/hillarys-email-trail-of-troubling-anti-israel-conversations/" type="external">The Observer</a> has noted:</p>
<p>A number of columns have been written exposing how Mr. Blumenthal sent articles to Ms. Clinton from his son Max, one of America’s most notorious Israel haters. Ms. Clinton responded very favorably to them. Some of these writings would later be the basis for Max’s anti-Semitic <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B3M3TPC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" type="external">Goliath</a>, whose book launch was thrown by Sid at his own home. The disgraceful writings compare Israel to the Nazis, call for the expulsion of the Jews from Israel and whitewash Palestinian terrorism. For good measure Max also compares the Israel Defense Forces to the SS …</p>
<p>Here are some of Hillary’s email responses to Max’s missives:</p>
<p>7/6/2010 – “Pls print 5 copies but w/out heading from Sid.”</p>
<p>8/17/2010 – “Pls congratulate Max for another impressive piece. He’s so good.”</p>
<p>11/18/2010- “A very smart piece as usual.”</p>
<p>4/7/2011 – “Will Max’s piece be published anywhere else? It is powerful and touching.”</p>
<p>12/23/2011 – “Max strikes again!”</p>
<p>1/21/2012 – “Interesting reading.”</p>
<p>9/13/2012 “Your Max is a mitzvah!”</p>
<p>12/7/2012 – “Good stuff. Where is he now?”</p>
<p>Yet the Clinton campaign’s protestations ring more than a little hollow and insincere</p>
<p>Factor in Hillary Clinton’s own dubious record regarding Israel, as this is the same woman who once hugged Yasser Arafat’s wife after Suha Arafat <a href="http://www.jpost.com/International/As-first-lady-Hillary-was-a-prized-Jewish-keynoter-until-she-kissed-Suha-Arafat-398658" type="external">claimed</a> Israel was using poison gas to pollute Judea and Samaria’s water and land. Factor in Clinton’s cozy relationship with Huma Abedin, whose mother, Saleha, as Andrew McCarthy noted in <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/312211/huma-abedins-muslim-brotherhood-ties-andrew-c-mccarthy" type="external">National Review</a>, was “a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s female division (the ‘Muslim Sisterhood’), and a major figure in not one but two Union for Good components. The first is the International Islamic Council for Dawa and Relief (IICDR). It is banned in Israel for supporting Hamas under the auspices of the Union for Good.”</p>
<p>Factor in the <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/No-holds-barred-Torrent-of-anti-Israel-advice-found-in-Hillarys-emails-443523" type="external">consistent anti-Israel advice</a> Hillary Clinton receives from friends and advisors. Put all of it together and it becomes patently obvious that the Clinton campaign’s public efforts to distance themselves from Max Blumenthal are a poor fig leaf to cover Hillary Clinton’s own inherent anti-Semitism.</p> | Hillary Campaign Slams Top Advisor’s Son For Smearing Elie Wiesel. But They’re Full Of It. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/7234/hillary-campaign-slams-top-advisors-son-smearing-hank-berrien | 2016-07-06 | 0 |
<p>FBN's Lori Rothman breaks down late-morning market news.</p>
<p>After 15 years at the helm, Harold McGraw III revealed plans on Thursday to relinquish the CEO and president titles at McGraw Hill Financial (NYSE:MHFI), handing the keys over to Standard &amp; Poor’s Ratings Service exec Douglas Peterson.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>While McGraw is stepping down as CEO and president effective November 1, the 64-year-old will stay on as chairman of the board.</p>
<p>“Doug's&#160;strategic thinking and client focus have been evident throughout his career and he brings to the role of President and CEO a distinct combination of vision, thought leadership, global insight and commitment to realizing the great future opportunities for McGraw Hill Financial," McGraw said.</p>
<p>Peterson joined McGraw Hill in 2011 and is currently president of the company’s formidable ratings arm, Standard &amp; Poor’s Ratings Service.</p>
<p>Prior to leading S&amp;P, Peterson served as an executive at Citigroup (NYSE:C), including a stint as chief operating officer of Citibank, N.A. and CEO of Citigroup Japan.</p>
<p>"I feel honored and proud to be asked to lead this great company,” Peterson said. “Terry and the board had the vision to create McGraw Hill Financial and now I look forward to leading this new, fast-growing financial intelligence company.”</p>
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<p>McGraw has been at the top of the company for almost two decades, having been elected to serve as president and COO in 1993, CEO in 1998 and chairman in 1999.</p>
<p>According to McGraw Hill, since McGraw became CEO in 1998, the company’s total return to shareholder has been about 300%, compared with 97% for the S&amp;P 500.</p>
<p>However, S&amp;P and its rivals Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) and Fitch, have been heavily criticized for their role in the 2008 financial meltdown. The ratings companies continued to bless questionable mortgage-related securities with pristine AAA ratings right up until the crisis.</p>
<p>McGraw Hill said it is searching for a successor to Peterson to lead S&amp;P.</p>
<p>Shares of New York-based McGraw Hill were inactive in premarket trading on Thursday after having gained 2.2% so far this year, underperforming the S&amp;P 500’s 16% rally over that span.</p>
<p>The company had been known as McGraw-Hill Cos. until earlier this year when it finalized a $2.4 billion sale of its education business to private-equity firm Apollo Global Management.</p> | Longtime McGraw Hill CEO to Step Down, Taps S&P Exec Peterson as Replacement | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/07/11/longtime-mcgraw-hill-ceo-to-step-down-taps-sp-exec-peterson-as-replacement.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>BURGER KING Restaurants Spicy Big Fish Sandwich (Photo: Business Wire)</p>
<p>With many BURGER KING® restaurant guests looking to relish in more fish options this time of year, the Spicy Big Fish Sandwich combines the classic Big Fish Sandwich fish-lovers are hooked on with a creamy spicy sauce that adds a signature fiery flame of flavor.</p>
<p>“This fish season, we’re giving our guests a new way to savor the flavors they love,” said Eric Hirschhorn, Chief Marketing Officer North America, Burger King Corporation. “We listen to our guests and want to continually provide them with new seasonal options. Now they can choose between the original Big Fish Sandwich or opt to turn up the heat with our new Spicy Big Fish Sandwich – a real catch for fish fans.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Spicy Big Fish Sandwich retails for $3.69 and is also part of the 2 for $5 promotion which allows guests the power to choose two sandwiches in the lineup for an unbeatable price. Sandwiches currently on the 2 for $5 menu include the BIG KING™ Sandwich, Big Fish Sandwich, Original Chicken Sandwich and the YUMBO® Hot Ham &amp; Cheese Sandwich.</p>
<p>*Source: Technomic’s 2013 The Flavor Consumer Trend Report</p>
<p>About Burger King Worldwide</p>
<p>Founded in 1954, BURGER KING® is the second largest fast food hamburger chain in the world. The original HOME OF THE WHOPPER®, the BURGER KING® system operates in approximately 14,000 locations serving more than 11 million guests daily in nearly 100 countries and territories. Almost 100 percent of BURGER KING® Restaurants are owned and operated by independent franchisees, many of them family-owned operations that have been in business for decades.&#160;BURGER KING®&#160;is owned by&#160;Restaurant Brands International Inc.&#160;(TSX,NYSE:QSR)&#160;one of the world’s largest quick service restaurant companies with approximately $23 billion in system sales and over 18,000 restaurants in 100 countries.&#160;To learn more about Burger King Worldwide, please visit Burger King Worldwide Inc.’s website at <a href="http://www.bk.com" type="external">www.bk.com</a> or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.</p>
<p>Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20150217005056/en/" type="external">http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20150217005056/en/</a></p>
<p>CONTACT: ALISON BROD PUBLIC RELATIONS</p>
<p>Brooke Scher Mogan, 212-230-1800</p>
<p>[email protected]</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>[email protected]</p>
<p>KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA FLORIDA</p>
<p>INDUSTRY KEYWORD: RELIGION RESTAURANT/BAR RETAIL FOOD/BEVERAGE CONSUMER</p>
<p>SOURCE: Burger King Worldwide, Inc.</p>
<p>Copyright Business Wire 2015</p>
<p>PUB: 02/17/2015 09:02 AM/DISC: 02/17/2015 09:02 AM</p>
<p><a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150217005056/en" type="external">http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150217005056/en</a></p> | BURGER KING® Restaurants Look to Hook Guests with the New Spicy Big Fish Sandwich | false | https://abqjournal.com/542598/burger-king-restaurants-look-to-hook-guests-with-the-new-spicy-big-fish-sandwich.html | 2 |
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<p>Bastiaan Slabbers/ZUMA Wire</p>
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<p>Hours before the final presidential debate, Breitbart News, the conservative news site until recently headed by Donald Trump’s campaign CEO, <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/10/19/exclusive-video-interview-new-bill-clinton-sexual-assault-accuser-goes-public-first-time/" type="external">published</a> a 19-minute interview with a former Arkansas TV reporter who alleged that Bill Clinton sexually assaulted her in 1980. Leslie Millwee, a one-time journalist for Fort Smith’s KLMN-TV, told Breitbart‘s Aaron Klein that Clinton tried to grab her breasts and rubbed his genitals against her neck in her station’s editing room. She also claimed that Clinton had once tried to visit her at her apartment after hours but she did not let him in.</p>
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<p>Millwee had not spoken publicly about the alleged sexual before. But her story closely matches what she wrote in her 2010 memoir, You Can’t Make This Stuff. In that book, she recounted her fright at the governor’s late-night visit to her apartment, and described Clinton’s repeated advances, including an incident in the editing room, although there is no mention of the alleged assault:</p>
<p>The new allegations come on the heels of a series of bombshells about Trump allegedly assaulting women. In the weeks following the publication of a decade-old Access Hollywood tape in which Trump bragged about sexual assault, <a href="" type="internal">nearly a dozen</a> women have come forward to accuse Trump of unwanted contact. Breitbart, whose executive chairman Stephen Bannon took a leave of absence to work on Trump’s campaign, has taken an aggressive role in combating critics of the Republican nominee’s treatment of women. Prior to the second presidential debate, Breitbart published an extensive interview with <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/juanita-broaddrick-wants-to-be-believed" type="external">Juanita Broaddrick</a>, who has accused former president Clinton of raping her while he was attorney general of Arkansas (a claim he has furiously denied). Bannon, for his part, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/10/trumps-debate-plan-to-seat-bill-clintons-accusers-in-family-box-was-thwarted/" type="external">reportedly</a> persuaded Trump to invite Broaddrick and two other women who have alleged misconduct by Clinton, to that debate, in the hopes of forcing a televised confrontation.</p>
<p>BuzzFeed’s Katie Baker <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/new-clinton-sex-assault-accuser-will-be-at-debate-tonight?utm_term=.kbnDz3kM2#.wa62yWa7J" type="external">reported</a> Wednesday evening that Millwee would be in attendance at the third presidential debate.</p>
<p>Bill Clinton, as Democrats have noted repeatedly in response to such allegations, is not on the presidential ballot this year. But he is still one of the campaign’s top surrogates, and is poised to play a big role in a future administration. Hillary Clinton has promised that if elected, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/us/politics/bill-hillary-clinton-administration-economy.html" type="external">she would ask</a> the former commander-in-chief to “come out of retirement” to accept a new post “in charge of revitalizing the economy.”</p>
<p /> | Former Reporter Accuses Bill Clinton of Sexual Assault in Breitbart Interview | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/leslie-millwee-bill-clinton-sexual-assault-breitbart/ | 2016-10-19 | 4 |
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<p>Shown is the area where scaffolding collapsed Tuesday at Presbyterian Rust Medical Center. (Courtesy KOAT-TV)</p>
<p>All but one of the construction workers injured when a scaffolding collapsed Tuesday have been released from the hospital.</p>
<p>A six-story scaffolding buckled and collapsed just before 1 p.m. at the second patient tower under construction at Presbyterian Rust Medical Center on Unser Boulevard.</p>
<p>Eight workers were injured, four critically, and one later died of his injuries.</p>
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<p>On Thursday, Patti Johnson, spokeswoman for project contractor McCarthy Building Companies Southwest, confirmed most of the workers had been released from the hospital. She declined to release any identifying information about them.</p>
<p>Rio Rancho Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Richard Doty arrived at the scene of the collapse, which happened in an interior courtyard, minutes after the call was aired over the radio.</p>
<p>"I can only describe the scene as utter chaos," he said.</p>
<p>When Doty was led to the scene, he saw 60 to 80 construction workers and dozens of hospital employees climbing on the pile of debris. One worker was trapped, but about two dozen of his co-workers freed him before other firefighters arrived.</p>
<p>Doty was concerned about a secondary collapse, as well as figuring out the number of patients. His portable radio wouldn't work inside the building, so he had to return to his truck to call for more help.</p>
<p>He also had a construction supervisor evacuate workers.</p>
<p>"Our concern inside was the triage of patients, their initial treatment," Doty said.</p>
<p>An Albuquerque Ambulance Service crew was already on scene and took a critically hurt patient to University of New Mexico Hospital before Rio Rancho firefighters were aware of it. The other seven injured workers were treated in the Rust emergency room until they could be taken to UNMH, which happened within a half-hour, he said.</p>
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<p>One PHI medical helicopter was already at Presbyterian Rust and the emergency room staff called in two more.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Doty was worried more people might be trapped under the debris. He had dispatchers call in the Albuquerque Fire Department Heavy Technical Rescue Team and had a head count done of construction personnel.</p>
<p>The roll call accounted for all 238 workers just as the AFD team arrived 30 minutes later.</p>
<p>First responders turned the scene over to McCarthy and Presbyterian personnel about 4:30 p.m. Doty estimated more than 50 fire and rescue personnel, including 14 Rio Rancho units, Albuquerque and Corrales firefighters, Albuquerque Ambulance personnel and PHI crews, were at the scene.</p>
<p>Police officers also responded.</p>
<p>"In the history of the city, we've never had a structural collapse of this magnitude," Doty said.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, firefighters train for such situations, and he said first responders, construction workers and hospital staff did a good job of mitigating the situation and preventing further injuries.</p>
<p>The ongoing investigations began immediately after the incident. Johnson said the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and local authorities are doing an investigation, which McCarthy is supporting, and the contractor is doing its own internal investigation.</p>
<p>Johnson didn't know how long inquiries would take.</p>
<p>"We want to be as thorough as possible," she said.</p>
<p>Construction has stopped at the site.</p>
<p>A subcontractor working for McCarthy built the scaffolding and all of the people injured were subcontractor employees. Johnson declined to release the name of the subcontractor.</p>
<p>"Our thoughts and prayers are certainly with those impacted by this," she said. "We're committed to safety and will take appropriate action once we receive the investigation report."</p>
<p>Work on the patient tower began last year and was scheduled to finish in November. However, the pause in construction during the investigation may delay that date.</p>
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<p /> | Scaffolding collapse scene 'utter chaos' | false | https://abqjournal.com/632529/scaffolding-collapse-scene-utter-chaos.html | 2015-08-22 | 2 |
<p>Syria imported nearly six times more weapons from 2007 to 2011 than during the previous five years, and Russia accounted for 72 percent of the arms to the Syrian government, an international research institute said Monday, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/03/18/world/middleeast/ap-weapons-trade.html?ref=world" type="external">the Associated Press reported</a>.</p>
<p>The report by the <a href="" type="internal">Stockholm International Peace Research Institute</a> highlighted how Moscow continues to provide Syria with weapons while the European Union and US maintain an arms embargo.</p>
<p>However, it did not specify the volume of weapons exported after the start of the uprising in 2011.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/120318/car-bomb-blast-rocks-syrian-city-aleppo" type="external">Car bomb blast rocks Syrian city of Aleppo</a></p>
<p>SIPRI researcher Pieter Wezeman said the arms delivered from 2007 to 2011 included air defense systems and anti-ship missiles, which have no direct use in the current conflict. But Wezeman said they have upgraded the government's military capabilities.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/diplomacy/120316/annan-urges-un-unity-syria-will-return-talks" type="external">Annan urges UN action on Syria, will return for talks</a></p>
<p>The United Nations estimates <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/diplomacy/120316/annan-urges-un-unity-syria-will-return-talks" type="external">more than 8,000 people have been killed</a> as a result of the violence in Syria.</p>
<p>The report showed the US is the No. 1 weapons exporter while on the flip side - India, South Korea, Pakistan, China and Singapore - were the five largest arms buyers.</p>
<p><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/18/world/meast/syria-unrest/" type="external">CNN</a>reported fresh explosions on Monday in Damascus and other cities around Syria, according to opposition activists.</p> | Report: Syria imported 72% of arms from Russia from 2007 until 2011 | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-03-19/report-syria-imported-72-arms-russia-2007-until-2011 | 2012-03-19 | 3 |
<p>WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A public elementary school in Kansas is ending the free distribution of Bibles to students after complaints about the practice violating the constitutional separation of church and state.</p>
<p>Herington Elementary School's giveaway took place about two weeks ago. A table was placed at the school with a sign inviting fifth-graders to help themselves to a free Bible, <a href="http://www.kansas.com/article192656399.html" type="external">the Wichita Eagle reported.</a></p>
<p>"In no way were we trying to impose anything on anyone," said Ron Wilson, superintendent of Herington Schools.</p>
<p>The legal branch of the American Humanist Association sent a letter to the school district, demanding that it end the practice, after receiving complaints from parents.</p>
<p>"The district's actions in assisting the Gideons in distributing Bibles to elementary students represents a clear breach of the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution and we hereby demand assurances that this practice will discontinue immediately," wrote Monica Miller, a lawyer with the Appignani Humanist Legal Center.</p>
<p>Gideons International is an evangelical Christian organization known for distributing free Bibles in locations such as hotel rooms and schools, as well as countries overseas.</p>
<p>Bible distribution tables outside classrooms are legal in junior high and high schools only if other groups that want to distribute their literature to students are allowed to do the same, said Jeff Jackson, a constitutional law professor at Washburn University.</p>
<p>But such tables have been barred from elementary schools because courts ruled that the young students "are especially open to coercion," Jackson said. "Because of their age, they're particularly impressionable."</p>
<p>Wilson, in his first year as superintendent, said he visited with the principal and decided to change the annual tradition of the one-day Bible giveaway.</p>
<p>"Our district respects all religious beliefs and the constitutional rights of every student," he said. "We will no longer allow distribution of religious materials."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, <a href="http://www.kansas.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.kansas.com" type="external">http://www.kansas.com</a></p>
<p>WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A public elementary school in Kansas is ending the free distribution of Bibles to students after complaints about the practice violating the constitutional separation of church and state.</p>
<p>Herington Elementary School's giveaway took place about two weeks ago. A table was placed at the school with a sign inviting fifth-graders to help themselves to a free Bible, <a href="http://www.kansas.com/article192656399.html" type="external">the Wichita Eagle reported.</a></p>
<p>"In no way were we trying to impose anything on anyone," said Ron Wilson, superintendent of Herington Schools.</p>
<p>The legal branch of the American Humanist Association sent a letter to the school district, demanding that it end the practice, after receiving complaints from parents.</p>
<p>"The district's actions in assisting the Gideons in distributing Bibles to elementary students represents a clear breach of the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution and we hereby demand assurances that this practice will discontinue immediately," wrote Monica Miller, a lawyer with the Appignani Humanist Legal Center.</p>
<p>Gideons International is an evangelical Christian organization known for distributing free Bibles in locations such as hotel rooms and schools, as well as countries overseas.</p>
<p>Bible distribution tables outside classrooms are legal in junior high and high schools only if other groups that want to distribute their literature to students are allowed to do the same, said Jeff Jackson, a constitutional law professor at Washburn University.</p>
<p>But such tables have been barred from elementary schools because courts ruled that the young students "are especially open to coercion," Jackson said. "Because of their age, they're particularly impressionable."</p>
<p>Wilson, in his first year as superintendent, said he visited with the principal and decided to change the annual tradition of the one-day Bible giveaway.</p>
<p>"Our district respects all religious beliefs and the constitutional rights of every student," he said. "We will no longer allow distribution of religious materials."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, <a href="http://www.kansas.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.kansas.com" type="external">http://www.kansas.com</a></p> | Kansas elementary school ends Bible giveaways | false | https://apnews.com/73234bfb4c5c484ba8b3a4a8e11b0ea2 | 2018-01-03 | 2 |
<p>Analysts are abuzz over a potential U.S. airstrike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Although the certainty of such an attack has grown hazier with a new Congress and a new defense secretary, a number of Bush loyalists have already indicated their desire to deal militarily with Iran's nuclear program.</p>
<p>AFP via Common Dreams:</p>
<p>With the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, hard-liners in the government have lost one of their leading advocates, and his replacement, former Central Intelligence Agency chief Robert Gates, has in the past favored direct talks with Iran, said one expert.</p>
<p>"But they remain within the administration at the highest level, the office of the vice president, the National Security Council staff, perhaps the president himself," said Joseph Cirincione, policy analyst at the Center for American Progress.</p>
<p />
<p>He also accused neoconservative circles of promoting the military option against Tehran.</p>
<p>In a Sunday op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times, Joshua Muravchik, resident scholar at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, called for getting tough with Iran.</p>
<p>"We must bomb Iran," he said. "The path of diplomacy and sanctions has led nowhere. - Our options therefore are narrowed to two: We can prepare to live with a nuclear-armed Iran, or we can use force to prevent it."</p>
<p>Israel has also been pushing Washington to get tough on Iran.</p>
<p>Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh did not rule out preventive military action to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons in a recent interview with the English-language Jerusalem Post.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1122-07.htm" type="external">Link</a></p> | From the People Who Brought You the Iraq War | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/from-the-people-who-brought-you-the-iraq-war/ | 2006-11-25 | 4 |
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<p>LUBBOCK, Texas — A man who disrupted an American Airlines flight from the Los Angeles area, forcing it to make an unscheduled landing in Lubbock, Texas, has pleaded guilty to interfering with a flight crew.</p>
<p>Jerry Ba Nguyen (win) could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. No sentencing date has been set for the 24-year-old Las Vegas man.</p>
<p>The incident happened aboard a Sept. 22 flight from Ontario, California, to Dallas-Fort Worth. The Boeing 737 was carrying 143 passengers and six crew members.</p>
<p>Nguyen had behaved erratically since the start of the flight, but his banging and kicking on the cockpit door and suicidal statements finally forced fellow passengers to subdue him until an emergency landing could be made.</p>
<p>Nguyen has remained in custody since his arrest.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Man pleads guilty to interfering with commercial flight crew | false | https://abqjournal.com/956930/man-pleads-guilty-to-interfering-with-commercial-flight-crew.html | 2 |
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<p>Los Angeles TimesJohn Carroll, who led the Los Angeles Times to 13 Pulitzer Prizes in five years as the newspaper struggled with declining circulation, retired today and will be succeeded by managing editor Dean Baquet (left). Carroll says in a statement: "I hired Dean five years ago, hoping he'd be right for this job. I doubt there's a better qualified editor anywhere." Baquet, who is on Poynter's National Advisory Board, says: "It is an extraordinary honor to succeed John Carroll, one of the best editors in America, and to have the chance to lead one of the country's greatest papers." ALSO: LAT editorial and opinion pages now will report directly to the publisher.</p> | Baquet succeeds Carroll as Los Angeles Times editor | false | https://poynter.org/news/baquet-succeeds-carroll-los-angeles-times-editor | 2005-07-20 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Over the past few days, Iranian leaders have promised Israel’s coming destruction about half a dozen times, and have gotten so overheated they’ve begun to mix metaphors: There has been much talk about wiping the cancerous tumor of Zionism from the map, and so on. The Iranians’ language has become sufficiently genocidal that even the secretary-general of the United Nations, not generally known as a hotbed of Zionist feeling, said he was “dismayed by the remarks threatening Israel’s existence.”</p>
<p>Israel’s leaders are also “dismayed.” But their dismay is prompted by something much deeper than rhetoric. They understand that much of the civilized world is prepared to live with a nuclear Iran, and they harbor seemingly ineradicable fears that President Barack Obama, and his Western allies, might secretly be willing to do the same.</p>
<p>The Israelis – Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in particular – have been suggesting to the news media these past two weeks that the time is nearly at hand for a strike on Iran’s nuclear sites. Of course, Barak and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been discussing the existential threat posed by Iran since they came into office. (Netanyahu, in an interview with me three years ago, said Iran was led by a “messianic, apocalyptic cult,” and told me he thought the two great tasks before Obama were fixing the U.S. economy and stopping Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold.)</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Which is partly why the White House seems to be taking the most recent Israeli statements and strategic leaks in stride – a bit too much in stride, in fact. They seem to be discounting the rhetoric as idle threats.</p>
<p>There is, naturally, an element of gamesmanship to the Israeli government’s media campaign. But one way to tell that Netanyahu and Barak may actually be intent on striking Iran in the coming weeks is that those Israelis who oppose a unilateral strike appear to be panicking. Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, is the most prominent. The Israeli presidency is mainly a ceremonial post, and Peres crossed the line into overt political interference last week when he said that Israel “cannot do it alone.”</p>
<p>The Obama administration is adamantly opposed to an Israeli strike this year, and is obviously also opposed to launching its own attack in 2012. Administration officials believe that Netanyahu and Barak should have faith in Obama’s assurances that he’ll stop Iran, and that the United States has time before Iran crosses the nuclear threshold. So far, though, the administration has failed to convince the Israelis – or the Arabs of the Persian Gulf, who also quake in fear of Iran – that it will take preventive military measures.</p>
<p>I think the president is serious about confronting the threat. I also understand why Israel’s leaders are conditioned to disbelieve him: Jewish history is strewn with examples of promises unfulfilled and outright abandonment.</p>
<p>There is one sure way, though, that Obama can get his message across, and that is to deliver it in Israel, and soon.</p>
<p>Amos Yadlin, a former chief of Israeli military intelligence (and one of the pilots in the 1981 Israeli raid on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor), argues that Obama should visit Israel to deliver a face-to-face message that stopping Iran is a vital U.S. national security interest.</p>
<p>A visit to Israel would do more to delay a strike on Iran than any other step the administration could take. The beauty of this idea is that Obama won’t have to say anything new. He’s on record explaining why the idea of containing a nuclear Iran isn’t an option; he’s on record promising to stop Iran by whatever means necessary; and he’s on record explaining why a nuclear-free Iran is in the interests of the U.S.</p>
<p>“If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, this would run completely contrary to my policies of nonproliferation,” he told me in an interview this year.</p>
<p>When I asked him what his position would be if Israel were not in the picture, he answered: “It would still be a profound national-security interest of the United States to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.”</p>
<p>These words, delivered in the Oval Office, are powerful. But delivered in Jerusalem, before the Knesset, they would deeply reassure the prime minister and the Israeli public. What could be more effective than the U.S. president explaining to Israelis, in Israel, that their two countries share the same interests?</p>
<p>Yes, Obama is running for re-election, and it is hard to leave Ohio and Florida. But a trip to Israel – a place he hasn’t visited as president – would put Iran on notice that Obama is deadly serious about thwarting their plans. Combined with stops in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, such a visit would also allay the fears of our Arab allies. Most important, such a visit could prevent war. Which, of course, is a very presidential thing to do.</p>
<p>Jeffrey Goldberg is a Bloomberg View columnist and a national correspondent for the Atlantic.</p> | Obama Must Book Israel Visit | false | https://abqjournal.com/126244/obama-must-book-israel-visit.html | 2012-08-24 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Nobel Prizes cannot be revoked, so the judges must put a lot of thought into their selections for the six awards, which will be announced in the next two weeks.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A discovery might seem groundbreaking today, but will it stand the test of time?</p>
<p>Prize founder Alfred Nobel wanted to honor those whose discoveries created "the greatest benefit to mankind." Here are five Nobel Prize decisions that, in hindsight, seem questionable:</p>
<p>When a German who organized poison gas attacks won the chemistry prize</p>
<p>Fritz Haber was awarded the 1918 chemistry award for discovering how to create ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen gases. His method was used to manufacture fertilizers and delivered a major boost to agriculture worldwide.</p>
<p>But the Nobel committee completely overlooked Haber's role in chemical warfare during World War I. Enthusiastically supporting the German war effort, he supervised the first major chlorine gas attack at Ypres, Belgium, in 1915, which killed thousands of Allied troops.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>When the medicine committee awarded a cancer discovery that wasn't</p>
<p>Danish scientist Johannes Fibiger won the 1926 medicine award for discovering that a roundworm caused cancer in rats.</p>
<p>There was only one problem: the roundworm didn't cause cancer in rats.</p>
<p>Fibiger insisted his research showed that rats ingesting worm larvae by eating cockroaches developed cancer. At the time when he won the prize, the Nobel judges thought that made perfect sense.</p>
<p>It later turned out the rats developed cancer from a lack of vitamin A.</p>
<p>Oops.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>When chemistry prize honored man who found use for DDT, which was later banned</p>
<p>The 1948 medicine prize to Swiss scientist Paul Mueller honored a discovery that ended up doing both good and bad.</p>
<p>Mueller didn't invent dichlorodiphenyltricloroethane, or DDT, but he discovered that it was a powerful pesticide that could kill lots of flies, mosquitoes and beetles in a short time.</p>
<p>The compound proved very effective in protecting agricultural crops and fighting insect-borne diseases like Typhus and Malaria. DDT saved hundreds of thousands of lives and helped eradicate malaria from southern Europe.</p>
<p>But in the 1960s environmentalists found that DDT was poisoning wildlife and the environment. The U.S. banned DDT in 1972 and in 2001 it was banned by an international treaty, though exemptions are allowed for some countries fighting malaria.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>When the man who invented lobotomy won the medicine prize</p>
<p>Carving up people's brains may have seemed like a good idea at the time. But in hindsight, rewarding Portuguese scientist Antonio Egas Moniz in 1949 for inventing lobotomy to treat mental illness wasn't the Nobel Prizes' finest hour.</p>
<p>The method became very popular in the 1940s, and at the award ceremony it was praised as "one of the most important discoveries ever made in psychiatric therapy."</p>
<p>But it had serious side effects: some patients died and others were left severely brain damaged. Even operations that were considered successful left patients unresponsive and emotionally numb.</p>
<p>The method declined quickly in the 1950s as drugs to treat mental illness became widespread and it's used very seldom today.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>When India's Mahatma Gandhi didn't win the peace prize</p>
<p>The Indian independence leader, considered one of history's great champions of non-violent struggle, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize no fewer than five times. He never won.</p>
<p>The peace prize committee, which rarely concedes a mistake, eventually acknowledged that not awarding Gandhi was an omission.</p>
<p>In 1989 — 41 years after Gandhi's death — the Nobel committee chairman paid tribute to Gandhi as he presented that year's award to the Dalai Lama.</p> | 5 decisions that made the Nobel Prizes look bad | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/10/01/5-decisions-that-made-nobel-prizes-look-bad.html | 2016-10-02 | 0 |
<p>WASHINGTON—Calvary Baptist Church, a 150-year-old congregation in the heart of the nation’s capital, is emerging as the destination of choice for an increasing number of mission trips and summer camps for churches in the Mid-Atlantic.</p>
<p />
<p>This summer Calvary will host three sessions of Passport Missions 2, an intensive service opportunity for youth held in cities around the country under the auspices of Passport, a Birmingham, Ala.-based camping program with ties to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.</p>
<p>For several years, the CBF of Virginia has held its mission immersion events at Calvary, encouraging youth groups in Virginia churches to participate in a week of intense missional engagement with urban life.</p>
<p>Calvary’s urban setting and commitment to social ministries lends itself well to raising youths’ awareness of poverty and homelessness that exists in America’s cities. In 1955 it was the first white Baptist church to admit an African-American member and it was the first to open a shelter for homeless women in Washington. Its location near Chinatown has provided opportunities for outreach to Asian communities in the capital, and it offers a worship service in Spanish.</p>
<p>Amy Butler has been pastor of Calvary since 2003.</p>
<p>“Calvary has a vibrant presence in our Washington DC community and we take pride in our work to bring some of the kingdom of God to our neighbors here in the city,” the church says on its web site.</p>
<p>Last year the youth at Haymarket (Va.) Baptist Church participated in CBFVA’s mission immersion at Calvary, taking them “out of their comfort zone,” wrote Matthew Hensley, Haymarket’s minister of education, in a blog.</p>
<p>“Everyone has an opinion about the plight of the poor—how they became poor and how to help,” wrote Hensley, “But most people don’t know the poor. For the youth at Haymarket Baptist Church, [the immersion experience at Calvary] gave them the opportunity to experience poverty and urban life up close.”</p>
<p>Hensley said that such experiences can make a dramatic difference in youth’s lives.</p>
<p>“Many churches desire ways to move their members from a discipleship that is removed from the rest of life to one that is holistic and intersects with the world’s needs,” he wrote. “In doing so, they are asking members to understand that God is at work outside the church walls, to look for God’s presence in all of life, and to respond to the places and people in which God is working. While Bible studies are useful in training our churches for this missional approach, mission immersion experiences like the one in Washington are truly formational.”</p>
<p>Calvary has a key role in Baptist history. It was in its sanctuary that the Northern Baptist Convention (now the American Baptist Churches USA) was founded in 1908. At one point, the church had simultaneously as members the presidents of two Baptist denominations: the American Baptists’ Clarence Cranford, then the church’s pastor, and the Southern Baptist Convention’s Brooks Hays, a former Democratic congressman from Arkansas.</p>
<p>Other well-known figures who have been affiliated with Calvary are Warren G. Harding, who attended while president of the United States, and Charles Evans Hughes, a chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court who was the first president of the Northern Baptist Convention.</p>
<p>Robert Dilday ( <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.</p> | D.C. church popular site for youth mission experiences | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/dcchurchpopularsiteforyouthmissionexperiences/ | 3 |
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