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<p>Santa Fe Pro Musica will present “Rhapsody in Blue” in a program of American music at Santa Fe’s Lensic Performing Arts Center on Thursday, Dec. 29.</p>
<p>“We have such a big dose of baroque music at the Loretto Chapel,” music director and conductor Thomas O’Connor said, “so I really felt like it was time to do something different.”</p>
<p>George Gershwin straddled the worlds of jazz and classical music.</p>
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<p>“While he was a great composer in terms of harmony and melodies, he wasn’t a great orchestrator,” O’Connor said.</p>
<p>The composer penned a two-piano score of a jazz concerto he called “American Rhapsody” and gave it to jazz band leader Paul Whiteman’s arranger, Ferde Grofé. It was Grofé who brought it to life, O’Connor said.</p>
<p>Gershwin’s brother, Ira, disliked the title, thinking the music deserved something more poetic. He took inspiration from his favorite artist, James McNeill Whistler, who gave his paintings descriptive titles like “Arrangement in Gray and Black.”</p>
<p>“There’s nothing like ‘Rhapsody in Blue’,” O’Connor said. “It’s very seductive, very jazzy, very, very sexy.”</p>
<p>Guest pianist Melissa Marse will join the orchestra on “Rhapsody.”</p>
<p>The musicians also will perform contemporary American composer Michael Daugherty’s romping “Flamingo.”</p>
<p>“This was inspired by a trip he took with his parents as a child from Iowa to Florida,” O’Connor said. “This was the era of pink flamingos as lawn ornaments.”</p>
<p>Two tambourine players play the roles of the birds.</p>
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<p>“While they were on the trip, the news came on that Marilyn Monroe had died,” O’Connor continued. “It made a huge impact on him.”</p>
<p>A sighing bassoon navigates a slow, melancholy section.</p>
<p>Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” borrows from the old Shaker hymn ‘Simple Gifts” to create a dance for the choreographer Martha Graham.</p>
<p>“She had called the dance ‘Appalachian Spring,’ ” O’Connor said. “He was fascinated with folk music, and he had a collection of Shaker hymns. ‘Simple Gifts’ stuck in his brain, and it became central to it.”</p>
<p>On a more somber note, “Adagio for Strings” was Samuel Barber’s sole string quartet. Written in 1936, it is recognized for its use at memorial services, including those for Princess Diana and the funerals of Albert Einstein and Princess Grace of Monaco. Broadcasters aired it at the announcement of the deaths of both Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.</p>
<p>“People love the piece,” O’Connor said. “It touches an emotional chord. There’s something about Barber and Copland. They codified a style of writing that is recognized as American.”</p>
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<p /> | Pro Musica’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ highlights American music | false | https://abqjournal.com/915140/pro-musicas-rhapsody-in-blue-highlights-american-music.html | 2 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal" />After years of back and forth debate that only seem to be delaying the inevitable, Republicans finally have enough power in Congress to send a bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline to the president’s desk. The Obama administration has said it will veto any such bill and Republicans don’t seem to have the necessary 67 votes in the Senate to override his veto; though the GOP has become infamous for wasting time and millions of taxpayer dollars “passing” (or trying to repeal) legislation when they know their efforts won’t end up being successful.</p>
<p>For a great example of this look no further than the 50+ votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act that Republicans in the House have held over the last several years. Time, resources and millions of dollars wasted on nonsense they knew had absolutely no chance at even getting beyond the Senate, let alone signed by the president.</p>
<p>Hell,&#160;they shut down the government&#160;when they knew they had no chance at accomplishing anything for which they claimed to be “fighting.”</p>
<p>So, at least or now, it appears this debate will continue on for the foreseeable future even with Obama’s veto threat looming. Though I’ve cautioned liberals who have stood adamantly opposed to this pipeline to prepare themselves for defeat eventually. This just strikes me as one of those projects that’s going to end up being built at some point. Personally, I think the pipeline is a “bargaining chip” President Obama is keeping in his back pocket to use at a later date.</p>
<p>Well, be that as it may, the debate in Congress rages on and Democrats attempted to add two amendments to the legislation that just seem like common sense no matter what party with which you align.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://twitter.com/jamiedupree/status/557632304533999616" type="external">first amendment that was defeated by Republicans</a> was proposed by&#160;Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and would have prohibited oil that was pumped through the pipeline from being exported and sold on the global market. Makes sense, right? After all, aren’t Republicans partially selling this to the American people as a “path to energy independence”? We can’t really call this a “boost to domestic oil reserves” if we’re allowing it to be pumped through our country and sold globally to the highest bidder.</p>
<p>As most of us already know, the GOP’s claim that this pipeline will help America become less dependent on foreign oil is complete nonsense. That’s just a talking point that they feed to conservatives who apparently have no idea how oil is bought and sold internationally.</p>
<p>Then <a href="https://twitter.com/frankthorpNBC/status/557636569541410818" type="external">the second amendment that was defeated by Republicans</a> came from Sen. Al Franken (D-MN). It would have required that all of the steel used to construct the pipeline be American made. Haven’t Republicans been pushing this as a “job creator” ( <a href="" type="internal">even though it’s not</a>) since this whole debate started? So, when a Senator proposes an amendment stating that&#160;if&#160;we end up building this pipeline, the steel used for its construction must be “Made in America” – Republicans vote&#160;against&#160;that?</p>
<p>And while Republicans will most certainly try to spin the truth as to why they voted against these two amendments (though I’m almost certain you won’t hear anything about either on Fox News), the truth of the matter is big oil would not have liked either of them and we all know the GOP is nothing more than a shill for big oil companies.</p>
<p>This entire project has been an absolute joke from the very beginning. <a href="" type="internal">It’s not a job creator</a>, nor is it a step toward energy independence; it’s just another pipeline big oil wants so they can make billions of dollars selling their oil to the highest bidder on the global market. This is just the GOP doing what they always do – putting big oil ahead of the American people.</p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal">John Boehner Goes Off on Embarrassing Twitter Temper Tantrum Following Keystone XL Veto</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">3 Things Republicans Have Blocked That Americans Support More Than The Keystone XL Pipeline</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">John Boehner Admits Congressional Republicans Have Been Inept At Getting Anything Done</a></p>
<p>0 Facebook comments</p> | Senate Republicans Block Amendment Requiring Steel for Keystone XL Pipeline to be Made in America | true | http://forwardprogressives.com/senate-republicans-block-amendment-requiring-steel-keystone-xl-pipeline-made-america/ | 2015-01-21 | 4 |
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<p>ARLINGTON, Texas - The mother of a Sikh middle school student accused of threatening to detonate a bomb at his Texas school is asking police to drop charges.</p>
<p>Twelve-year-old Armaan Singh was arrested Dec. 11 after Arlington police say he admitted to making the threat while they were questioning him without his parents present. He spent three days in juvenile detention before being released and was suspended from school.</p>
<p>His mother, Gurdeep Kaur, says a classmate asked whether a battery in Armaan's backpack was a bomb. She says he said it wasn't, but the classmate told the teacher he said it was.</p>
<p>Police say Armaan's religion played no part in his arrest. Sikhs are not Muslim, but reports of Sikhs being harassed have increased with the recent rise in anti-Islamic sentiment.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Sikh middle schooler accused of bomb threat in Texas | false | https://abqjournal.com/693438/sikh-middle-schooler-accused-of-bomb-threat-in-texas.html | 2 |
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<p>NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A doctor who admitted assaulting a sleeping girl on a flight from Seattle to New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport last summer is now headed to prison.</p>
<p>Vijaykumar Krishnappa received a 90-day sentence Friday. He had pleaded guilty in November.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say the 29-year-old physician intentionally touched the girl near her groin over her leggings without her consent. The girl, who he did not know, was sleeping in the seat next to him on the July flight.</p>
<p>The Indian national was studying medicine in the U.S. at the time under a fellowship for doctors from foreign counties.</p>
<p>NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A doctor who admitted assaulting a sleeping girl on a flight from Seattle to New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport last summer is now headed to prison.</p>
<p>Vijaykumar Krishnappa received a 90-day sentence Friday. He had pleaded guilty in November.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say the 29-year-old physician intentionally touched the girl near her groin over her leggings without her consent. The girl, who he did not know, was sleeping in the seat next to him on the July flight.</p>
<p>The Indian national was studying medicine in the U.S. at the time under a fellowship for doctors from foreign counties.</p> | Doctor sentenced for assaulting sleeping girl on flight | false | https://apnews.com/ae723cc446444380acc71dd38130b407 | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
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<p>Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor will wear 8-ounce gloves for their Aug. 26 match in Las Vegas after officials made an exception to normal guidelines.</p>
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<p>Nevada boxing regulators on Wednesday gave the two fighters an exemption to a rule requiring 10-ounce gloves for fights at 154 pounds. Representatives of both fighters appeared before the Nevada State Athletic Commission to request the waiver.</p>
<p>“I am very pleased with the Nevada State Athletic Commission's handling of my next bout today. Fair play was kept all the way through,” McGregor wrote on Instagram.</p>
<p>Commissioners also approved veteran referee Robert Byrd as the third man in the ring for the fight.</p>
<p>Commission Chairman Anthony Marnell said he was comfortable with the fighters using smaller gloves, but unhappy that they used the issue to sell the fight on social media.</p>
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<p>"I do not like the Nevada State Athletic Commission being used as a pawn in a social media battle," Marnell said.</p>
<p>Under Nevada regulations, 10-ounce gloves are required in fights above 147 pounds and the bout is set for 154 pounds. But Mayweather has worn 8-ounce gloves most of his career, and McGregor has worn 4-ounce gloves in his UFC fights.</p>
<p>Mayweather's promoter, Leonard Ellerbe, said his fighter is more comfortable in smaller gloves and would use them to stop McGregor.</p>
<p>"The fight is going to end in a knockout, I'm very confident," Ellerbe said. "And it will probably be early."</p>
<p>McGregor will be in a boxing ring for the first time as a pro when he takes on Mayweather, who is coming out of retirement for a fight that will make him tens of millions of dollars. They will fight under boxing rules, which will be enforced by Byrd, a veteran of many championship fights.</p>
<p>"The referee makes a big difference in this fight, which is the specific reason I chose Robert Byrd," said Bob Bennett, the commission's executive director.</p>
<p>Commissioners also approved Burt Clements and Dave Moretti of the United States and Italy's Guido Cavalleri as judges for the bout. McGregor's camp had asked for an international judge among the three.</p>
<p>Byrd will be paid $25,000 for the bout, while the judges will make $20,000.</p>
<p>The glove issue took up much of the commission meeting, though in the end all voted in favor of the smaller gloves. There was also discussion about the padding in the gloves, with both sides agreeing to be bound by Nevada boxing inspectors approving the foam padding.</p>
<p>Mayweather has fought 46 of his 49 fights with 8-ounce gloves, including his last six. McGregor has never boxed before, but quickly agreed to Mayweather's challenge on social media to fight in smaller gloves.</p>
<p>Commissioners said they struggled with making an exception to regulations in place since 2006, but decided to approve the waiver because of the unusual nature of the event.</p>
<p>"The fight is not normal," said Commissioner Sandra Morgan.</p>
<p>John Hornewer, an attorney for Mayweather, said the unbeaten boxer would likely not be at the 154-pound limit at the fight weigh-in anyway.</p>
<p>"He'll be 150 pounds. That's his best weight and there's no reason to put on extra weight," Hornewer said.</p>
<p>A McGregor representative said his fighter has been about 160 pounds in training camp and would likely enter the ring somewhere around that weight after making the 154-pound limit the day before.</p>
<p>The Associated Press contributed to this report.</p> | Mayweather, McGregor to fight in smaller boxing gloves on Aug. 26 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/16/mayweather-mcgregor-to-fight-in-smaller-boxing-gloves-on-aug-26.html | 2017-08-16 | 0 |
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<p>Since the close of the school year last spring, students have been occupying a tent city on the campus of Gallaudet University, the nation’s only university for the deaf, located in northeastern Washington, D.C. The protests, which have escalated since students began occupying a classroom building on October 6, began when provost Jane K. Fernandes was chosen to become the university’s next president. She is to replace I. King Jordan, who in 1988 became the first deaf president to lead Gallaudet, in January.</p>
<p>During King’s tenure, deafness has made tremendous strides toward being considered a culture, with sign language as its root, rather than a disability. Deaf culture and sign language have flourished to such a degree that a new medical procedure to restore partial hearing has met with strong resistance from some. King is credited with much of that progress. Fernandes is deaf, but learned ASL as a second language at age 23, and protestors don’t think the former provost is the right person to represent deaf culture to the world. They have also claimed that she is cold and aloof and that qualified African-American candidates for the presidency were overlooked. The faculty <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/08/AR2006050801386.html" type="external">gave</a> Fernandes a vote of no confidence in May.</p>
<p>Last week, a group of 200 students, faculty and staff <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/06/AR2006100600405.html" type="external">took control</a> of a classroom building. The football team then blocked the campus entrance, causing the university to shut down. On Friday, dozens of protestors were arrested after Jordan, who is still acting president, gave the go-ahead. The Washington Post, which has been covering the story, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/15/AR2006101500631_pf.html" type="external">reports</a> today that the president of the National Association of the Deaf arrived on campus yesterday and criticized the arrests. The campus <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/14/AR2006101400375.html?nav=hcmodule" type="external">has reopened</a>, but Fernandes is still refusing to resign.</p>
<p>For more coverage of campus activism, see Mother Jones‘s 13th annual roundup of campus activism in the current issue, or <a href="/news/outfront/2006/09/extra_credit.html" type="external">online</a>.</p>
<p /> | National Deaf Group Objects to Arrests at Deaf University | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/10/national-deaf-group-objects-arrests-deaf-university/ | 2006-10-16 | 4 |
<p>Ahead of Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) Model 3 launch tonight, fans, investors, and auto analysts will be watching closely. The vehicle marks an important milestone for both for the electric-vehicle market and <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/28/why-the-model-3-is-so-important-for-tesla-inc.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ae7b5272-73c3-11e7-88ac-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">for Tesla's business</a>.</p>
<p>While much of the focus ahead of the vehicle's final unveiling has been centered on what investors and fans&#160; <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/20/tesla-model-3-launch-event-what-to-expect.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ae7b5272-73c3-11e7-88ac-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">don't know yet about the Model 3</a>, it's worth reviewing what we do know about it. As it turns out, Tesla has already shared a lot of information about the important vehicle, including a preview of the vehicle's range, acceleration, size, cargo capacity, Supercharger and Autopilot capability, and its touchscreen display. Before the Model 3's final unveiling and first deliveries tonight, here's a close look at what we know so far.</p>
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<p>Tesla has already shared arguably the most important tidbit about the vehicle: its price. With a starting price of $35,000,&#160;Model 3 will be the most affordable fully electric vehicle with over 200 miles of range to come to market yet. Of course, General Motors' all-electric Chevrolet Bolt comes close: It has a starting price of $37,500.</p>
<p>The Model 3 will boast a driving range on a single charge of at least 215 miles, Tesla said when it teased Model 3 for the first time in March 2016.&#160;Sure, investors won't know the official driving range until tonight, but it's good to know the minimum.</p>
<p>For context, General Motors' Bolt has an EPA-rated range of 238 miles. And Tesla's cheapest Model S, which has a starting price of $69,500, has an EPA-rated range of 259 miles on its base battery offering. The Model S' largest battery offers an EPA-rated range of 335 miles.</p>
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<p>"At Tesla, we don't make slow cars," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at Model 3's first unveiling last year.</p>
<p>Tesla promised a zero-to-60 time for the base version of under six seconds. In addition, Musk later said on Twitter that the all-wheel-drive Model 3s will be even quicker.</p>
<p>In a more recent update on the Model 3's acceleration time, Tesla said it will be able to achieve a zero-to-60 time of 5.6 seconds.</p>
<p>One area where Tesla has already provided quite a bit of information about the Model 3 is its size.</p>
<p>The vehicle will be about 20% smaller than the Model S, making it a midsize sedan. In addition, Tesla asserts that the vehicle will fit five adults comfortably -- something I can attest to from my <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/11/i-took-a-ride-in-tesla-motors-incs-model-3-3-takea.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ae7b5272-73c3-11e7-88ac-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">test drive of Tesla's Model 3 prototype</a> last year. For comparison, the Model S offers five-plus-two seating, or seating for five adults with an extra two rear-facing seats for children.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Tesla has also already revealed the vehicle's cargo space. Model 3 will include 14 cubic feet&#160;of front and rear trunk cargo volume, less than half of the 30 cubic feet of front and rear cargo trunk cargo volume in Tesla's Model S.</p>
<p>One of the features that will make the Model 3 unique is that it will not include a dash. In addition, Tesla has also said its center digital display will measure 15 inches diagonally and be oriented horizontally. The Model S includes two digital displays: the driver's dash display and a vertically oriented 17-inch center touchscreen.</p>
<p>Tesla currently offers free Supercharging for life for Model S and Model X owners, as long as they purchase the vehicle with a current customer's referral code. The Model 3, on the other hand, will adopt a pay-per-user model, Tesla says.</p>
<p>One of the best selling points for Tesla's Model 3 is that it will include Tesla's <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/20/tesla-all-new-vehicles-are-shipped-with-sensors-fo.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ae7b5272-73c3-11e7-88ac-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">second-generation Autopilot sensors</a>. The sensors currently enable Tesla's driver-assist Enhanced Autopilot system, which features automatic lane-changing, automatic steering, summoning, and more. But Tesla says that the sensors will eventually enable fully autonomous driving -- even without a driver in the vehicle.</p>
<p>Of course, Tesla Model 3 customers will have to pay to enable Enhanced Autopilot, just as Model S and Model X customers must.</p>
<p>Investors can tune into Tesla's live stream of the event tonight at 8:45 p.m. PT on Tesla's website. Stay tuned at <a href="http://www.fool.com/?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ae7b5272-73c3-11e7-88ac-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">The Motley Fool</a> for some Foolish analysis on whatever new information Tesla shares tonight.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDanielSparks/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ae7b5272-73c3-11e7-88ac-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Daniel Sparks</a> owns shares of Tesla. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla. 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=ae7b5272-73c3-11e7-88ac-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | Tesla, Inc.'s Model 3: What We Know So Far | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/29/tesla-inc-s-model-3-what-know-so-far.html | 2017-07-29 | 0 |
<p>The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that while Canada’s economy has regained momentum, housing imbalances have increased and uncertainty surrounding trade negotiations with the United States could hurt the recovery.</p>
<p>The report, written before the central bank raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday to 0.75 percent, also said the Bank of Canada’s current monetary policy stance is appropriate, and it cautioned against tightening.</p>
<p>“While the output gap has started to close, monetary policy should stay accommodative until signs of durable growth and higher inflation emerge,” it said, adding that rate hikes should be “approached cautiously.”</p>
<p>Cheng Hoon Lim, IMF mission chief for Canada, later clarified that even with Wednesday’s rate hike, monetary policy remains “appropriately accommodative.”</p>
<p>“The Bank of Canada’s increase of the policy rate reflects encouraging economic data over the past few months. We welcome the good news on the economy,” Lim said in an emailed statement.</p>
<p>“Given the considerable uncertainty around the growth and inflation outlook, the Bank should continue to take a cautious approach in further adjusting the monetary policy stance,” she added.</p>
<p>In a statement following its annual policy review with Canada, the IMF cautioned that risks to Canada’s outlook are significant — particularly the danger of a sharp correction in the housing market, a further decline in oil prices, or U.S. protectionism.</p>
<p>It said financial stability risks could emerge if the housing correction is accompanied by a recession, but said stress tests have shown Canadian banks could withstand a “significant loss” on their uninsured residential mortgage portfolio, in part because of high capital position.</p>
<p>House prices in Toronto and Vancouver have more than doubled since 2009 and the boom has fueled record household debt, a vulnerability that has also been noted by the Bank of Canada.</p>
<p>“The main risk on the domestic side is a sharp correction in the housing market that impairs bank balance sheets, triggers negative feedback loops in the economy, and increases contingent claims on the government,” the Fund said.</p>
<p>The Fund also warned U.S. protectionism could hurt Canada, laying out a scenario for higher tariffs that could come with the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.</p>
<p>If the United States raises the average tariff on imports from Canada by 2.1 percentage points and there is no retaliation from Canada, there would be a short-term impact on real GDP of about 0.4 percent. (Reporting by Andrea Hopkins; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Chris Reese)</p> | IMF Warns Canada on Possibility of Sharp Decline in Housing Market | false | https://newsline.com/imf-warns-canada-on-possibility-of-sharp-decline-in-housing-market/ | 2017-07-13 | 1 |
<p>Talks between Dell Inc and a consortium led by its founder and chief executive Michael Dell to take the world's No.3 PC maker private were still on track on Monday, with negotiations focusing on a price of between $13.50 and $13.75 per share, a person familiar with the matter said.</p>
<p>Talks are in their final stages and an outcome is expected soon, the person said, cautioning that no final agreement had been reached and negotiations could still break down.</p>
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<p>Microsoft Corp is expected to invest around $2 billion in the deal, while private equity firm Silver Lake is expected to put in about $1 billion, the source said. Michael Dell is expected to roll over his roughly 16 percent stake and put in some of his own money so he has control of the company, the source added.</p>
<p>Dell and Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for a comment while Silver Lake declined to comment.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; editing by Carol Bishopric)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Dell buyout still on track: source | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/02/04/dell-buyout-still-on-track-source.html | 2016-01-29 | 0 |
<p>The Conference Board releases its June index on U.S. consumer confidence Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern.</p>
<p>CONFIDENCE DIPS: Economics expect that consumer confidence will slip to 100 in June, according to a by data firm FactSet. Optimism likely moderated this month after jumping sharply in June. Confidence climbed to 101.4 last month after a May reading of 94.6. The index has increased 17.4 percent over the past year.</p>
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<p>HIRING BOLSTERS CONFIDENCE: A multi-year hiring streak has lifted certainty about the job market and business conditions, but the absence of meaningful wage growth has limited the benefits from the improving consumer sentiment.</p>
<p>Employers have steadily added jobs since the beginning of 2014, creating an average of 242,556 jobs each month and the unemployment rate has fallen to 5.3 percent from 6.7 percent during that time.</p>
<p>Rising confidence generally points to increased consumer spending, which helps to drive overall economic growth. Consumers account for roughly two-thirds of all U.S. economic activity.</p>
<p>Still, the Confidence Board survey of consumers found in June that few people expected the job gains to translate into pay hikes. Average hourly incomes have risen 2 percent over the past year, only slightly ahead of core inflation. The absence of larger pay raises has kept Americans cautious and retail sales fell 0.3 percent in June, according to the Commerce Department.</p>
<p>The government will report Thursday on gross domestic product during the April-June quarter. The economy contracted 0.2 percent during the first three months of the year, pummeled by winter weather and global economic pressures that caused the dollar to rise in value and hurt the affordability of U.S. made goods abroad.</p>
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<p>Economists say that the country likely returned to growth in the second-quarter, expanding at a 2.7 percent annualized pace.</p>
<p>A separate survey of consumer sentiment compiled by the University of Michigan that was released this month showed a preliminary decline in sentiment from June to July.</p> | US consumer confidence likely dipped in July | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/07/28/us-consumer-confidence-likely-dipped-in-july.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Famous for its hot tubs and its yoga and massage workshops, Esalen Institute actually began as a place to explore the underlying philosophy of spiritual experience, and then popularized America's particular brand of "spirituality without religion." Sitting on the deck of Murphy House at Esalen, Steve Paulson talks with co-founder Michael Murphy and comparative religion scholar Jeffrey Kripal, author of the definitive history of Esalen.</p> | The Religion of No Religion | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-06-28/religion-no-religion | 2015-06-28 | 3 |
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<p>PHOENIX - A federal judge will hold a June 23 hearing to consider blocking implementation of a recently passed Arizona law that would require doctors to tell women they can reverse the effects of a drug-induced abortion.</p>
<p>The judge scheduled the hearing at the request of abortion providers who filed a lawsuit challenging the law.</p>
<p>The providers' lawsuit contends the law violates their First Amendment rights by forcing them to repeat a state-mandated message against their medical judgment.</p>
<p>Proponents of the law say doctors can give a woman a drug known as progesterone to stop an abortion after she has taken the first of two medications needed to complete the procedure.</p>
<p>The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says there is no medically accepted evidence that a drug-induced abortion can be reversed.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Hearing scheduled on request to block Arizona abortion law | false | https://abqjournal.com/596838/hearing-scheduled-on-request-to-block-arizona-abortion-law.html | 2 |
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<p>Here's an interesting variation on "citizen journalism." While we traditionally think of non-journalists submitting articles and photos to news websites as embodying the concept, there's also value in the idea of citizens acting as news editors, selecting the news that gets the highest play.That's the idea behind <a href="http://www.commontimes.org" type="external">Common Times</a>, a new social bookmarking site for news developed by Jeff Reifman. It's modeled somewhat on <a href="http://news.google.com" type="external">Google News</a>, with section headings like U.S. News, International, Business, Technology, etc. But while Google News uses sophisticated algorithms to select and rank articles within those categories from various news sources, Common Times does the same thing using just citizen input.To contribute, you create a free account, drag a bookmarklet to your browser toolbar, and then start tagging as you read news around the Web. (Brian Del Vecchio explains how Common Times works better than I can in <a href="http://hybernaut.com/commontimes-20050721" type="external">this blog item</a>.) Common Times users' tagging of articles is aggregated to create an ongoing, citizen-driven version of Google News.As Del Vecchio points out, Common Times harnesses the collective effort of the community to act as an editorial force. He suggests that this kind of collective editorial selection "can be layered on top of the many emerging sources of community journalism, to promote to the front page the content which the community finds valuable. As mainstream media like the BBC incorporate citizen-journalism techniques into their flow by soliciting e-mailed camera-phone photos and eyewitness accounts, eventually these lines will become blurred, and the role of collaborative editorial selection will be the next frontier in citizen journalism."</p> | The Citizen as News Editor | false | https://poynter.org/news/citizen-news-editor | 2005-07-26 | 2 |
<p>Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa was warmly greeted by Hamas representatives when the Middle East’s top diplomat paid a visit to Gaza on Sunday. It was the first time Moussa—or any senior Arab official for that matter—had set foot in the coastal enclave since Hamas’ June 2007 break with Fatah resulted in the latter’s expulsion from the territory.</p>
<p>The 12-hour stop was hailed “as historic” by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Despite the gracious reception accorded, ordinary Gazans likely seethed at Moussa’s audacity and opportunism.</p>
<p>What were they to think, after all, when he toured Gaza’s ravaged al-Zeitoun district and met with families who had relatives killed or homes destroyed during Israel’s vicious 2008-2009 assault? Were they expected to forget that the monarchs and dictators comprising the 22-member body Moussa represents did nothing to stop, and had silently lauded, Israel’s attack?</p>
<p>The disingenuous expressions of sympathy and solidarity with Gaza’s imprisoned population by the head of the Arab League, one-and-a-half years after the war’s end, surely fell on deaf ears.</p>
<p>The role played by the Arab client states in this tragedy must be understood in order to appreciate these present-day feelings of betrayal.</p>
<p>In January 2006, Palestinians held parliamentary elections, characterized as free, fair and democratic by all independent and impartial observers. The unexpected outcome was a decisive Hamas victory.</p>
<p>After their win, economic sanctions were slapped on the Palestinian territories by Israel, the United States and the European Union. The punitive measures were supported by several U.S.-allied Arab countries, notably Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>In the following months, and again with the assistance of the aforementioned nations, the U.S. directly funded Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction with weapons and training in a bid to displace Hamas by instigating a Palestinian civil war (if not an outright coup). Consequently, political disputes over power-sharing between the two factions soon erupted into street battles.</p>
<p>A February 2007 deal brokered by Saudi Arabia resulted in a ceasefire and the formation of a national unity government. Continued clashes, however, meant its quick demise.</p>
<p>Abbas dissolved the unity government in June 2007 and said he would rule by presidential decree. With the majority of support for Hamas found in Gaza though, Fatah officials were ultimately forced to return to their West Bank strongholds.</p>
<p>After the ouster of Abbas’ U.S. and Israeli-supported fighters, both Israel and Egypt sealed their border with Gaza. A crippling land, sea, and air embargo was instituted and remains in place today.</p>
<p>After Gazans had been sufficiently deprived of basic humanitarian necessities, Operation “Cast Lead” was launched by Israel in late December 2008. Many Arab countries quietly hoped that democratically-elected Hamas, an Islamist party rejecting acquiescence to Israel, would be swept aside—irrespective of the civilian toll it would exact.</p>
<p>Gazans withered in the aftermath of this devastating war and continue to do so under the three-year-old siege. Although there have been increasingly vocal calls to lift it, the Arab League has been largely mute, as have its member states.</p>
<p>Although Moussa did not have the decency to visit the beleaguered territory before now he nonetheless had the temerity to declare, “The siege must be lifted. All the world is now standing with the people of Palestine and the people of Gaza.”</p>
<p>The motive behind Moussa’s trip was, of course, worldwide outrage over the Israeli commando raid of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, resulting in the killing of nine activists aboard the Mavi Marmara with scores more injured.</p>
<p>Indeed, Moussa was shamed into going to Gaza. Still some will see his presence as a sign the Arab League has finally recognized they can no longer stand on the sidelines while the deplorable conditions there worsen, especially when Turkey receives accolades for taking a demonstrable stand.</p>
<p>So, better late than never?</p>
<p>Gazans who have endured the collective punishment meted out by the U.S, Israel and the Arab states since 2006 probably had a much different take on the timing of the Secretary-General’s visit. I suspect they would say: better never, than late.</p>
<p>RANNIE AMIRI is an independent Middle East commentator. He may be reached at: rbamiri [at] yahoo [dot] com.</p>
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<p /> | Better Never Than Late | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/06/18/better-never-than-late/ | 2010-06-18 | 4 |
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<p>PENNSYLVANIAPittsburgh Post-GazetteBy Mike Crissey, The Associated Press</p>
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<p>A woman has sued the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese and the oldest Benedictine monastery in the nation, claiming that when her son was a teenager he was plied with drugs and alcohol and abused by three priests.</p>
<p>In her lawsuit, filed Monday, the woman claims her son was sexually abused by three priests while he was an altar boy in 1980 and 1981. The son has not filed a lawsuit but is considering one, the woman's attorney said.</p>
<p>The abuse began when the Rev. Alvin Downey was transferred to St. John the Evangelist Church in Bellefonte in 1980 to fill in for vacationing priests, according to the lawsuit. The boy, who was then 16, was an altar boy at the church.</p>
<p>Downey gave the boy marijuana and alcohol and then fondled him and performed sex acts on him, the woman claims.</p>
<p>The abuse continued until 1981, when the boy stayed at the St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe under the guise of meeting Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw, according to the lawsuit. The teen was sexually abused by Downey and two other priests -- the Revs. Andrew Campbell and Athanasius Cherry -- the lawsuit states.</p> | Mother says priests abused her teen son | false | https://poynter.org/news/mother-says-priests-abused-her-teen-son | 2003-05-21 | 2 |
<p>"My problem is not having to wear the headscarf. My problem is not having a choice."</p>
<p>This is a caption that accompanies a picture on the Facebook page called " <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StealthyFreedom" type="external">Stealthy Freedoms of Iranian Women</a>."</p>
<p>Iranian journalist <a href="http://masihalinejad.com/" type="external">Masih Alinejad</a> came up with the idea for the page after she posted a photo of herself from a few years ago where she is driving in Iran without hijab.</p>
<p>"Other women from inside Iran began sending me photos of themselves that they took secretly in public," Alinejad says. "Secretly, because they are not covering their hair."</p>
<p>Iranian women are required by law to cover their hair and body when they are in public.</p>
<p>The Facebook page has received more than 138,000 Likes so far. Users, including Iranians and non-Iranians, have commented on the posts.</p>
<p>Supportive of the action say it brings attention to a cause that some Iranian women have fought for, for many years.</p>
<p>Critics on the other hand, have called it "armchair activism," that doesn't result in any substantial change.</p>
<p>They also argue that the page reflects views of middle class Iranians who have access to the Internet and social media (which is banned in Iran but can be accessed by special software).</p>
<p>Alinejad says she understands that her page isn't reflective of all views about the hijab in Iran, but she says it has started a conversation.</p>
<p>"The conservative women in Iran can express their opinion on state media," she says, "but these women don't have that platform."</p>
<p>Alinejad insists that she is not asking Iranian women to take off their headscarves in public.</p>
<p>Rather, she sees herself as someone who is collecting and posting these photos.</p>
<p>"If you turn on the TV, you only see women in black, but that's just one side of Iran," Alinejad says. "Iran is full of color."</p> | Why are some women taking hijab-free photos in Iran? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-05-12/why-are-some-women-taking-hijab-free-photos-iran | 2014-05-12 | 3 |
<p>Arris Group (NASDAQ:ARRS) has agreed to acquire BigBand Networks (NASDAQ:BBND) for $2.24 a share, about a 75% premium to its smaller rival’s closing price on Monday, as it continues to convert to an all IP-converged network architecture.</p>
<p>The price equates to an equity value of about $172 million, or $53 million excluding BigBand’s estimated cash on hand. With a market capitalization of $156.4 million, Redwood City, Calif.-headquartered BigBand develops network-based platforms worldwide.</p>
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<p>The deal is expected to expand Arris’ capabilities in the processing, management and distribution of digital video content. Arris, whose shares were down about 2% on the news, is based in Suwanee, Ga., and manufactures equipment for the broadband communication industry.</p>
<p>The company said the additional technologies and R&amp;D investments of BigBand are expected to “accelerate time-to-market and increase opportunities for Arris in several fast growing product areas.”</p>
<p>BigBand’s portfolio includes its converged cable access platform, CableLabs architecture, local and targeted advertising, video distribution and advanced video compression.</p>
<p>If the deal is approved, Arris said it would optimize BigBand’s financial performance through operational synergies, such as eliminating its public-company costs, and aligning sales and R&amp;D.</p>
<p>The acquisition will be conducted through a tender offer for all of BigBand’s outstanding shares.</p>
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<p>The offer is expected to start within 10 business days and will be subject to customary closing conditions, including the acquisition by Arris of a majority of BigBand’s shares and the receipt of antitrust clearance.</p>
<p>BigBand’s board has unanimously recommended the deal and encouraged shareholders to tender their shares. Redpoint Ventures and ValueAct Capital Partners, which together hold 32% of BigBand’s shares, have agreed to vote in favor of the agreement and against any other transaction.</p>
<p>The deal is slated to close later this year.</p> | Arris Tries to Scoop Up BigBand at 75% Premium | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/10/11/arris-tries-to-scoop-up-bigband-at-75-premium.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>If you're like the rest of the world, you probably long to feel unique.</p>
<p>Sure, the concept is a bit ironic. But we often make decisions based on a desire to stand out, from our sense of style to our musical tastes. What about when it comes to picking a favorite number?</p>
<p>It turns out the world’s favorite number is seven — at least, according a recent survey with more than 44,000 participants from all over the world.</p>
<p>Alex Bellos, the survey’s creator and author of the new book <a href="http://alexbellos.com/" type="external">The Grapes of Math</a>, says societies’ fondness for seven is a longstanding one, with deep cultural roots built around a desire to be unique.&#160;</p>
<p>Bellos first got curious about favorite numbers in response to constantly being asked what his favorite was. (For the record, he claims not to have one.)</p>
<p>“At first I was so annoyed by this question," Bellos says. "I thought, you know, you’re trivializing mathematics. Until I said, ‘Well, what’s your favorite number?’ And I realized that, actually, lots of people feel incredibly passionate about numbers. And more often than not, people will have an entire story about what number they like."</p>
<p>And the story of number seven goes back — way back, Bellos says, to ancient Babylon.</p>
<p>“The number seven has actually been cultures' favorite number since as long as we know. You go back to the earliest writers we have, and there are more sevens there than any other number."</p>
<p>The trend toward seven spreads across different cultures and different time periods, too. Most of the world follows the seven-day week.</p>
<p>In China, the number seven is linked to good luck. In the Bible, there are seven sins. We've got seven seas, seven brothers, even seven dwarves ... the list goes on and on.&#160;</p>
<p>But what explains this fondness?</p>
<p>“We react quite clearly to numbers in a way that relates to their numerical properties,” explains Bellos.</p>
<p>Even numbers — which can always be divided into two groups and are often used for approximations —&#160; feel both too common and too vague to inspire an emotional connection. As Bellos puts it, "Who likes number 30? No one."</p>
<p>But if we look at the first 10 digits — the numbers we can count on our hands, so the numbers Bellos says we’re most intimate with — seven is the only one that cannot be multiplied or divided within the group.</p>
<p>"One, two, three, four, and five you can double and they stay at 10 or under," explains Bellos. "Six, eight, and 10 can be halved, and nine can be divided by three."</p>
<p>Seven, it seems, stands alone.</p>
<p>But don't discount your feelings for your favorite digit.</p>
<p>"Numbers are supposed to be things which are abstract ideas that signify quantity and order," Bellos says. "But they have words and they have symbols, and so they're actually part of culture and we have a much more complicated and deep relationship to numbers. We can't just see the arithmetical difference as something abstract. We interpret because we're humans. It's kind of part of who we are to ascribe emotions to abstract concepts like numbers."</p>
<p>Do you have a favorite? What's the story behind your favorite number. Let us know in the comments.</p> | Is seven your favorite number? We thought so. Here's what it says about you | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-04-08/seven-your-favorite-number-we-thought-so-heres-what-it-says-about-you | 2014-04-08 | 3 |
<p>China's largest state-run oil company has <a href="http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=480508&amp;amp;type=Business" type="external">ended contracts in Libya</a> over the civil war there, but an official spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it still "respects the Libyan's people's decision," as rebels have taken control of the Libyan capital.</p>
<p>"We have noticed recent changes in the Libyan situation and we respect the Libyan people's choice," spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said <a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-08/22/c_131066714.htm" type="external">in response to a question</a> at a news briefing.</p>
<p>China has already evacuated thousands of its oil workers from the country, and watched the situation closely. But it has refrained from overt support of those ousting the current regime and seemingly kept somewhat friendly ties with both sides. &#160;</p> | China cuts Libyan oil contracts | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-08-22/china-cuts-libyan-oil-contracts | 2011-08-22 | 3 |
<p>(Reuters) – The British government has banned its departments responsible for national security from using software made by Russia’s Kaspersky Labs, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing a letter sent to government officials. http://on.ft.com/2BuuWPU</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | UK bans Kaspersky software from departments responsible for national security: FT | false | https://newsline.com/uk-bans-kaspersky-software-from-departments-responsible-for-national-security-ft/ | 2017-12-01 | 1 |
<p>Ok, this has got to be one of the funniest undercutting and embarrassing moves against any sitting U.S. President in history.</p>
<p>Republican U.S. Senators, including freshman Tom Cotton (AK) have <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03/10/biden-blasts-gop-letter-to-iran-on-nuclear-deal-approval-saying-it-offends-me/" type="external">penned a letter</a> to the Iranian government, warning them that any nuclear deal that President Obama strikes with them would only be worth the ink and paper it was written on, because congressional approval was required ratify any such deal.</p>
<p>The move by Senate Republicans enraged Vice President Joe Biden so much, that according to some of his aides, several of his hair plugs fell out.</p>
<p>Actually, Biden’s hair didn’t fall out, but Mr. “Big F-ing Deal” did take offense that Republicans Senators “directly” advised the Islamic terror-supporting state of Iran.</p>
<p>Vice President Joe Biden strongly denounced the letter in a statement saying the missive “offends me as a matter of principle” and was “beneath the dignity of an institution I revere.”</p>
<p>“In thirty-six years in the United States Senate, I cannot recall another instance in which senators wrote directly to advise another country — much less a longtime foreign adversary — that the president does not have the constitutional authority to reach a meaningful understanding with them,” Biden said in his statement.</p>
<p>Of course the Iranians dismissed this as just a &#160;“propaganda ploy.” and why wouldn’t they?</p>
<p>Iran wants a nuclear weapon, and striking a deal with Obama will all but insure that they get one.</p>
<p>Cotton stated this:</p>
<p>“It’s the job of the president to negotiate but it’s the job of Congress to approve … We’re simply trying to say that Congress has a constitutional role to approve any deal, to make sure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. Not today, not tomorrow, not ten years from now.</p>
<p>“We’re on the verge of a deal that could allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon in as little as ten years, so it’s important that Iran realize that Congress will not allow that outcome to happen.”</p>
<p>And to quote good ole Joe Biden again, this Republican letter that embarrasses President Obama is a “big f-ing deal.”</p>
<p>Remember this?</p>
<p /> | GOP Senators Advise Iran On Nuclear Deal, Embarrass President Obama | true | http://shark-tank.com/2015/03/10/gop-senators-advise-iran-on-nuclear-deal-embarrass-president-obama/ | 0 |
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<p>Would it have worked? I’m skeptical – but it was at least a clear path to answering the “What the hell do we do about Donald Trump?” question that has been kicking around within the GOP since, roughly, last summer.</p>
<p>But, Trump didn’t bomb. Or, at least, he didn’t bomb in the eyes of the Republican base who, almost to a person insisted he had won the debate going away – thanks to his willingness to take on Bill Clinton’s infidelity, Hillary Clinton’s alleged lies and, of course, the bias of the media. Many conservatives had been waiting 20-plus years for someone to tell the Clintons to their face just how terrible they really are. And Trump did it.</p>
<p>What Trump didn’t do, of course, was find any sort of message that might appeal to undecided voters or to women – especially white women – who remain deeply skeptical of him. He won among conservatives by – willingly or not – losing among the swing voters he needs.</p>
<p>But, if you are a Republican elected official, it’s only the first part of that sentence above that matters: Trump won among conservatives. And he won among conservatives by bashing the Clintons.</p>
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<p>All of which means that walking away from him today is a whole hell of a lot harder than it was before the debate. To win an election – almost any election – you first need your base to come out and support you. Then you build outward from there. It’s Politics 101. So, if you are, say Richard Burr running for another Senate term in North Carolina, you cannot win unless conservatives come out in droves to support you. And walking away from your nominee now – after he has, in the eyes of that base, finally stood up to the Clintons – means risking that a decent-sized chunk of those voters simply don’t turn out for you. And no Republican candidate can risk that.</p>
<p>At the same time, refusing to disown Trump – given all of what he has said about, well, almost everyone – means that loosely affiliated Democrats and many independents are completely lost to you. It’s a rock and a hard place. Period. Please one group, alienate the other. And, if either are alienated, you are going to have a very hard time winning.</p>
<p>This is the pinch that Trump’s performance has put scads of Republican politicians in. Welcome to the conundrum of Trumpism.</p>
<p>debate-trump-analysis</p> | Trump’s debate performance was worst-case scenario for nervous Republicans | false | https://abqjournal.com/864170/trumps-debate-performance-was-worst-case-scenario-for-nervous-republicans.html | 2 |
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<p>DURHAM, N.H. (ABP) — Shortly after an openly gay man was installed as the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, his brethren in the Third World reacted with anger — some of them cutting off their relations with the Episcopal Church in the United States.</p>
<p>Gene Robinson was installed Nov. 2 in an elaborate ceremony held in a sports arena at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Nearly 3,000 Episcopalians attended the ceremony, called a consecration.</p>
<p>With the act, Robinson becomes the first openly gay man to be installed as a bishop in the church. Robinson is in a committed, long-term sexual relationship with another man.</p>
<p>In an address after his installation, Robinson attempted to strike a note of reconciliation to the thousands of U.S. Episcopalians and the millions of other members of the Anglican Communion around the world who opposed his election and consecration. “There are people — faithful, wonderful, Christian people — for whom this is a moment of great pain, confusion and anger,” Robinson reminded his audience, according to the Washington Post.</p>
<p>He added that the majority who supported his election must remain “hospitable, loving and caring to them in every way we can possibly muster.”</p>
<p>But many of his opponents among conservative Anglican clerics in the Third World weren't as conciliatory. “We are appalled that the authorities of the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. have ignored the heartfelt plea of the [Anglican] Communion not to proceed with the scheduled consecration of Canon Gene Robinson,” said Archbishop of Nigeria Peter Akinola in a statement released Nov. 3.</p>
<p>The statement was written under the auspices of a group calling itself the Primates of the Global South. It was signed by 20 primates — or governing leaders of national Anglican denominations — who hail mostly from African, Latin American and Asian countries.</p>
<p>“The overwhelming majority of the Primates of the Global South cannot and will not recognize the office or ministry of Canon Gene Robinson as bishop,” the document went on to say</p>
<p>It also noted that, because of Robinson's elevation to bishop, a “state of impaired communion” now exists between their churches and the American denomination.</p>
<p>One Kenyan Anglican leader went further, according to the South African television station News 24. Bishop Thomas Kogo of the Diocese of Eldoret in Kenya, saying he was speaking for his fellow Kenyan bishops, announced that 50 million Anglicans in Kenya were officially breaking communion with the U.S. Episcopal Church.</p>
<p>-30-</p> | Third World Anglican bishops denounce installation of gay man | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/third-world-anglican-bishops-denounce-installation-of-gay-man/ | 3 |
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<p>The American College of Emergency Physicians is suing the state of Washington over its new policy of paying for only three non-emergency trips to the emergency room per year for low-income <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/doctors-sue-er-limits-washington-state/story?id=14647658" type="external">Medicaid</a> patients, ABC News reports.</p>
<p>The state has defined 700 symptoms as non-emergencies, including difficulty breathing, dizziness, early-pregnancy hemorrhage, gall stones, abdominal pains and chest pains not related to a heart attack, ABC News reports. Patients with these symptoms should visit a regular doctor's office instead, the state suggests.</p>
<p>"The ACEP is opposing the limit primarily because of the list of diagnoses that the state is proposing to be non-emergencies, like chest pains and heart arrhythmias and dysrhythmias, which can result in sudden death, sudden blindness, and hemorrhages during miscarriage," ACEP Washington Chapter president Steve Anderson told ABC News.</p>
<p>The change, which went into effect on Oct. 1, is aimed at reducing costs from <a href="http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/WA-doctors-suing-over-Medicaid-ER-visit-limits-2196654.php" type="external">overuse</a> of the E.R., The Associated Press reports. The Legislature expects the state to save $35 million a year with the new limits.</p>
<p>Dr. Nathan Schlicher at Saint Joseph Hospital in Seattle told 97.3 KIRO FM that a three-visit limit could make some people sicker and increase health care costs in the long term because many of the conditions on the list are tip-offs to serious problems. "There's chest pain on this list, there's issues of kidney stones, there's hemorrhage and pregnancy, a threatened <a href="http://mynorthwest.com/11/555034/Doctors-say-new-emergency-room-limits-pose-danger" type="external">miscarriage</a>," Schlicher said.</p>
<p>The Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA), the Washington State Medical Association (WSMA), and the Washington Chapter of the Academy of Emergency Physicians (WCAEP) have released statements saying they object to the change, ABC News reports.</p> | Physicians sue Washington state for limiting emergency room visits | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-10-02/physicians-sue-washington-state-limiting-emergency-room-visits | 2011-10-02 | 3 |
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<p>Amazon launched its new Kindle Cloud Reader service on Wednesday that provides users with access their Kindle library using Chrome or Safari on Mac, PC, Linux and the Chromebook.</p>
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<p>Kindle Cloud Reader is also optimized for the iPad and offers a caching feature for offline reading.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fox-Business-Technology/190436904308381" type="external">Keep up with the latest technology news on the FOX Business Technology Facebook page. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>To get started, simply navigate to <a href="http://read.amazon.com" type="external">http://read.amazon.com Opens a New Window.</a> and install the small required plug-in.</p>
<p>We gave the service a quick run this morning and were impressed by how fast it loaded our eBook library.</p>
<p>We definitely still prefer the standalone app on the iPad, but were sure Amazon created this option as a loophole to get around Apples iTunes App Store rules.</p>
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<p>Dont use Safari or Chrome? Amazon still has you covered with its Kindle for PC client.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/08/10/amazon-launches-web-based-kindle-cloud-reader/" type="external">This content was originally published on BGR.com Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.bgr.com/" type="external">Opens a New Window.</a>More news from BGR: - <a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/08/09/motorola-is-open-to-building-windows-phones-ceo-says/" type="external">Motorola is open to building Windows Phones, CEO says Opens a New Window.</a> - <a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/08/10/rbc-blackberry-7-phones-wont-help-rims-image-first-qnx-phone-to-be-mini-playbook/" type="external">RBC: BlackBerry 7 phones wont help RIMs image; first QNX phone to be mini-PlayBook Opens a New Window.</a> - <a href="http://www.bgr.com/2011/08/10/apple-looks-to-samsung-as-lg-fails-to-meet-ipad-2-display-demands-report-claims/" type="external">Apple looks to Samsung as LG fails to meet iPad 2 display demands, report claims&#160; Opens a New Window.</a></p> | Amazon Launches Web-Based Kindle Cloud Reader | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/08/10/amazon-launches-web-based-kindle-cloud-reader.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
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<p>FOX Business: The Power to Prosper.DJIA-DI,USD,NORM</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Wall Street celebrated Columbus Day with a 330-point buying binge on the Dow as traders around the world breathed a sigh of relief that European leaders pledged to bolster their banks and the markets look ahead to the start of earnings season.</p>
<p>Today's Markets</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 330.06 points, or 2.97%, to 11433.18, the Standard &amp; Poor's 500 jumped 39.43 points, or 3.41%, to 1194.89 and the Nasdaq Composite leaped 86.70 points, or 3.50%, to 2566.05. The FOX 50 gained 28.49 points, or 3.38%, to 872.36.</p>
<p>While bond markets in the U.S. were closed for the holiday, the bulls on Wall Street did anything but stay home, sending the blue chips to their biggest one-day point gain since August 11. Rallying for the fourth time in five sessions, the benchmark index has surged about 775 points over the past week amid signs Europe is finally racing to get its debt debacle under control before it sends the U.S. to a double-dip recession.</p>
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<p>“I think market sentiment has shifted to a modestly positive tone. Current pricing is, frankly, relatively cheap relative to what earnings should be,” said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital. Kenny also said, “The tone out of Europe has become a lot more constructive over the last week or so” thanks to “pretty aggressive, very proactive policy initiatives spearheaded by both France and Germany.”</p>
<p>Over the weekend German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to take action before the end of October to fix the continent's debt mess and shore up their banks. The leaders of the two largest euro-zone countries said they are close to a deal to recapitalize embattled European lenders. However, Merkel and Sarkozy stopped short of laying out specifics of a plan.</p>
<p>Because of Europe's ties to the global financial and economic systems, the deepening sovereign debt crisis has hurt stocks and growth around the world in recent months.</p>
<p>In another sign Europe is attempting to get the crisis under control, France and Belgium quickly teamed up to nationalize and break up municipal lender Dexia, which had been teetering on the verge of collapse due to its enormous exposure to Greek bonds. Dexia, which appears to be the first banking victim of the current crisis, quickly reached a deal to receive $121 billion in state guarantees and sell its Belgium unit to the government for $5.4 billion.</p>
<p>“They weren’t playing games with that. It wasn’t dragged on, for a change,” said Kenny.</p>
<p>Earnings Season Looms</p>
<p>Tech stocks also rallied in the U.S. as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) said it sold a record 1 million iPhone 4S devices in a single day and IBM (NYSE:IBM) hit a new record high.</p>
<p>All 30 blue-chip stocks landed in the green, led by banking giants Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM). Economically-sensitive stocks like Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) and General Electric (NYSE:GE) also rallied, while safer plays such as McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) and Procter &amp; Gamble (NYSE:PG) saw smaller percentage gains.</p>
<p>Commodities weren't left out of the Columbus Day rally as crude oil soared $2.43, or 2.93%, to $85.41 and gold gained $35.00 a troy ounce, or 2.14%, to $1,674.40.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Wall Street is gearing up for the start of another earnings season, which is set to kick off after Tuesday's closing bell when aluminum maker Alcoa (NYSE:AA) releases its quarterly results. Whether or not companies are able to meet and even exceed expectations for earnings is likely to be a key driver for stocks for the next several weeks. Financial stocks are expected to disclose steep declines in quarterly profits.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting Monday’s big rally was backed up with little volume due to the holiday. Typically investors would like to see more conviction behind big moves. There was remarkably little volatility during most of the session as the Dow moved in a tight trading range of less than 50 points until the final burst of buying.</p>
<p>Last week U.S. stocks stopped their slump, with the Dow rallying 1.7% and the Nasdaq Composite leaping almost 3% amid hopes policymakers in Europe are finally taking the crisis seriously. However, stocks closed in the red on Friday as enthusiasm for a better-than-expected jobs report was drowned out by a credit ratings downgrade for both Spain and Italy.</p>
<p>“If the European debt crisis were to suddenly disappear, stocks would appear very cheap (some would say dirt cheap), but of course the uncertainty over the debt crisis remains the critical wildcard,” Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at BlackRock, wrote in a note.</p>
<p>Corporate Movers</p>
<p>Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) abandoned its unpopular plan to separate its DVD-by-mail service and rename it Qwikster, caving to customer dissatisfaction. The company's stock initially leaped on the announcement, but then retreated on a downgrade to "neutral" from "outperform" by Wedbush.</p>
<p>Sprint Nextel’s (NYSE:S) stock plunged another 8% to 2009 levels after a slew of analysts downgraded the No. 3 wireless company. Sprint’s stock has been in free fall on concerns about the need to raise more cash due to costly plans to roll out its own 4G network and sell the iPhone.</p>
<p>Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) jumped 2% as Reuters reported co-founder Jerry Yang is interested in teaming up with private-equity firms to take the struggling Internet giant private. Meanwhile, Bain Capital has emerged as another potential suitor for Yahoo! and Chinese Internet company Alibaba has reportedly held talks with Singapore’s Temasek about providing financing to buy the 40% investment Yahoo! holds in itself.</p>
<p>Superior Energy (NYSE:SPN) agreed to be acquire energy services company Complete Production Services (NYSE:CPX) for $6.2 billion. The $32.90-a-share deal represented a 62% premium on Complete’s close on Friday.</p>
<p>Global Markets</p>
<p>London's FTSE 100 rose 1.80% to 5399.00, Germany's DAX surged 3.02% to 5847.29 and France's CAC 40 rallied 2.13% to 3161.47.</p>
<p>In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 was closed for a holiday, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng&#160;inched up 0.02% to 17711.10.</p> | Markets Discover 330-Point Rally on Columbus Day Amid Euro Hopes | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/10/10/markets-discover-300-point-rally-on-columbus-day-amid-euro-hopes.html | 2016-03-07 | 0 |
<p>Napoli will go into the delayed winter break top of Serie A after beating relegation-threatened Hellas Verona 2-0 on Saturday.</p>
<p>Kalidou Koulibaly and Jose Callejon scored as Napoli stayed one point clear of second-place Juventus, which won 1-0 at Cagliari in the late game.</p>
<p>Juventus has won the title in each of the last six seasons, while Napoli is bidding for its first since 1990.</p>
<p>"We know that Juve has years of experience," Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri said. "We know they can easily surpass the 90-point mark, while we can't say the same thing about us.</p>
<p>"But we also have players who can make the difference in matches, such as Callejon and (Lorenzo) Insigne ... our job is only to put them in the best conditions to express themselves."</p>
<p>Roma could have moved level with third-place Inter Milan, which is nine points below Napoli, but lost 2-1 at home to Atalanta and is fifth.</p>
<p>After playing over the festive period for the first time, Serie A will resume on Jan. 21.</p>
<p>Napoli had ended 2017 and the first half of the season as winter champions, but was eliminated from the Italian Cup on Tuesday following a surprise quarterfinal defeat to Atalanta.</p>
<p>Sarri's team dominated from the start against Verona and had several chances, with Dries Mertens and Insigne hitting the woodwork.</p>
<p>Mertens also had a goal ruled out for offside before Napoli finally broke the deadlock in the 65th minute, when Koulibaly headed in Mario Rui's cross.</p>
<p>The goal was awarded after checking with the video assistant referee but Verona coach - and former Napoli player and assistant - Fabio Pecchia was dismissed for his protests.</p>
<p>Napoli all but sealed the match 12 minutes from time when Callejon rushed in at the far post to volley in Insigne's cross from the left.</p>
<p>Verona remained two points from safety.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>FOUR-STAR IMMOBILE</p>
<p>Ciro Immobile netted four goals and moved top of the scoring charts as Lazio won 5-2 at struggling Spal to move fourth.</p>
<p>Mirco Antenucci had converted a penalty for Spal to cancel out Luis Alberto's opener before Immobile's first-half hat trick.</p>
<p>Immobile got his first in the 19th, running onto Luis Alberto's flicked pass over the defense and lifting the ball over Alfred Gomis.</p>
<p>The Italy forward doubled his tally seven minutes later, firing home Sergej Milinkovic-Savic's through-ball, but Spal reduced the deficit almost immediately, with Antenucci grabbing his second of the match.</p>
<p>However, Immobile headed in Dusan Basta's cross four minutes before the break to complete his hat trick.</p>
<p>The Spal defense left Immobile completely unmarked six minutes after halftime and he drilled in a corner for his 20th league goal of the season, two more than Inter Milan forward Mauro Icardi.</p>
<p>Spal hit the post, had the follow-up cleared off the line and also had a goal ruled out.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>FIRST FOR BONUCCI</p>
<p>AC Milan defender Leonardo Bonucci scored his first goal for the club in a 1-0 win over Crotone - although the Italy international knew little about it.</p>
<p>Milan broke the deadlock nine minutes into the second half when Crotone goalkeeper Alex Cordaz flapped at a corner, sending it onto Bonucci's back and the ball rebounded into the back of the net.</p>
<p>"2018 couldn't have started better," Bonucci said. "People had been asking me for a while when I would score and the goal finally arrived.</p>
<p>"But what matters is the spirit we showed in the first half and the willingness to all suffer together at the end."</p>
<p>Bonucci joined Milan from Juventus in the offseason for a fee of more than 40 million euros ($45 million).</p>
<p>Franck Kessie thought he had doubled Milan's lead but it was ruled out on video review as he had fouled Rolando Mandragora.</p>
<p>Milan had also hit the woodwork in the first half as Cordaz fingertipped Suso's effort onto the post.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>OTHER MATCHES</p>
<p>Ten-man Atalanta beat Roma 2-1 after first-half goals from Andreas Cornelius and Marten De Roon, who was sent off in the 45th for a second yellow card.</p>
<p>Edin Dzeko grabbed one back for the hosts 10 minutes after the break.</p>
<p>Juventus kept the pressure on leader Napoli after finally breaking through Cagliari's defense with a 74th-minute goal from Federico Bernardeschi. Juve dominated the game with 14 shots to Cagliari's five attempts.</p>
<p>After waiting 19 rounds for a first Serie A victory, Benevento made it two in two matches as it came from behind to beat Sampdoria 3-2.</p>
<p>It remained bottom of Serie A, eight points from safety.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, Walter Mazzarri got off to a winning start in charge of Torino as he steered his new side to a 3-0 win over Bologna.</p>
<p>Genoa beat Sassuolo 1-0.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP Serie A coverage: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/SerieA</a></p>
<p>Napoli will go into the delayed winter break top of Serie A after beating relegation-threatened Hellas Verona 2-0 on Saturday.</p>
<p>Kalidou Koulibaly and Jose Callejon scored as Napoli stayed one point clear of second-place Juventus, which won 1-0 at Cagliari in the late game.</p>
<p>Juventus has won the title in each of the last six seasons, while Napoli is bidding for its first since 1990.</p>
<p>"We know that Juve has years of experience," Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri said. "We know they can easily surpass the 90-point mark, while we can't say the same thing about us.</p>
<p>"But we also have players who can make the difference in matches, such as Callejon and (Lorenzo) Insigne ... our job is only to put them in the best conditions to express themselves."</p>
<p>Roma could have moved level with third-place Inter Milan, which is nine points below Napoli, but lost 2-1 at home to Atalanta and is fifth.</p>
<p>After playing over the festive period for the first time, Serie A will resume on Jan. 21.</p>
<p>Napoli had ended 2017 and the first half of the season as winter champions, but was eliminated from the Italian Cup on Tuesday following a surprise quarterfinal defeat to Atalanta.</p>
<p>Sarri's team dominated from the start against Verona and had several chances, with Dries Mertens and Insigne hitting the woodwork.</p>
<p>Mertens also had a goal ruled out for offside before Napoli finally broke the deadlock in the 65th minute, when Koulibaly headed in Mario Rui's cross.</p>
<p>The goal was awarded after checking with the video assistant referee but Verona coach - and former Napoli player and assistant - Fabio Pecchia was dismissed for his protests.</p>
<p>Napoli all but sealed the match 12 minutes from time when Callejon rushed in at the far post to volley in Insigne's cross from the left.</p>
<p>Verona remained two points from safety.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>FOUR-STAR IMMOBILE</p>
<p>Ciro Immobile netted four goals and moved top of the scoring charts as Lazio won 5-2 at struggling Spal to move fourth.</p>
<p>Mirco Antenucci had converted a penalty for Spal to cancel out Luis Alberto's opener before Immobile's first-half hat trick.</p>
<p>Immobile got his first in the 19th, running onto Luis Alberto's flicked pass over the defense and lifting the ball over Alfred Gomis.</p>
<p>The Italy forward doubled his tally seven minutes later, firing home Sergej Milinkovic-Savic's through-ball, but Spal reduced the deficit almost immediately, with Antenucci grabbing his second of the match.</p>
<p>However, Immobile headed in Dusan Basta's cross four minutes before the break to complete his hat trick.</p>
<p>The Spal defense left Immobile completely unmarked six minutes after halftime and he drilled in a corner for his 20th league goal of the season, two more than Inter Milan forward Mauro Icardi.</p>
<p>Spal hit the post, had the follow-up cleared off the line and also had a goal ruled out.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>FIRST FOR BONUCCI</p>
<p>AC Milan defender Leonardo Bonucci scored his first goal for the club in a 1-0 win over Crotone - although the Italy international knew little about it.</p>
<p>Milan broke the deadlock nine minutes into the second half when Crotone goalkeeper Alex Cordaz flapped at a corner, sending it onto Bonucci's back and the ball rebounded into the back of the net.</p>
<p>"2018 couldn't have started better," Bonucci said. "People had been asking me for a while when I would score and the goal finally arrived.</p>
<p>"But what matters is the spirit we showed in the first half and the willingness to all suffer together at the end."</p>
<p>Bonucci joined Milan from Juventus in the offseason for a fee of more than 40 million euros ($45 million).</p>
<p>Franck Kessie thought he had doubled Milan's lead but it was ruled out on video review as he had fouled Rolando Mandragora.</p>
<p>Milan had also hit the woodwork in the first half as Cordaz fingertipped Suso's effort onto the post.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>OTHER MATCHES</p>
<p>Ten-man Atalanta beat Roma 2-1 after first-half goals from Andreas Cornelius and Marten De Roon, who was sent off in the 45th for a second yellow card.</p>
<p>Edin Dzeko grabbed one back for the hosts 10 minutes after the break.</p>
<p>Juventus kept the pressure on leader Napoli after finally breaking through Cagliari's defense with a 74th-minute goal from Federico Bernardeschi. Juve dominated the game with 14 shots to Cagliari's five attempts.</p>
<p>After waiting 19 rounds for a first Serie A victory, Benevento made it two in two matches as it came from behind to beat Sampdoria 3-2.</p>
<p>It remained bottom of Serie A, eight points from safety.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, Walter Mazzarri got off to a winning start in charge of Torino as he steered his new side to a 3-0 win over Bologna.</p>
<p>Genoa beat Sassuolo 1-0.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP Serie A coverage: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/SerieA</a></p> | Napoli goes into break top of Serie A after beating Verona | false | https://apnews.com/amp/92ebb0be19a14c87ac075695b0f613cb | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — Time for talk running out, President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned wavering House Republicans that their jobs were on the line in next year’s elections if they failed to back a GOP bill that would upend Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.</p>
<p>The countdown quickened toward an expected vote Thursday on legislation undoing much of the law that has provided coverage to some 20 million Americans. Trump huddled behind closed doors with rank-and-file Republicans just hours after GOP leaders unveiled changes intended to pick up votes by doling out concessions to centrists and hardliners alike.</p>
<p>“If we fail to get it done, fail to (meet) the promises made by all of us, including the president, then it could have a very detrimental effect to Republicans in ’18 who are running for re-election,” said Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas. “If it fails, then there will be a lot of people looking for work in 2018.”</p>
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<p>Trump’s message to Republicans: “If you don’t pass the bill there could be political costs,” said Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C.</p>
<p>Even with the revisions, the outlook for House passage remains dicey. After a day of cajoling votes, a senior administration official said the White House is trying to persuade about 20 to 25 House Republicans who are either opposed or undecided. House leaders and Trump can only afford to lose 21. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.</p>
<p>At a Republican Congressional Committee fundraiser Tuesday night, Trump said the American people had handed Republicans the House, Senate and White House with an expectation they would deliver.</p>
<p>“These are the conservative solutions we campaign on and these are the conservative solutions the American people asked us as, a group, to deliver,” he said, calling Thursday’s vote “crucial” for the party and the American people.</p>
<p>“I think we’re going to have some great surprises,” he added. “I hope that it’s going to all work out.”</p>
<p>The GOP bill would scale back the role of government in the private health insurance market, and limit future federal financing for Medicaid. It would repeal tax increases on the wealthy that Democrats used to pay for Obama’s coverage expansion. Fines enforcing the Obama-era requirement that virtually all Americans have coverage would be eliminated.</p>
<p>The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 24 million fewer people will have health insurance in 2026 under the GOP bill.</p>
<p>Trump warned House Republicans they’d seal their political doom if they waver, with the party potentially losing control of the House. Still, several conservatives were steadfast in their opposition even after the session with Trump.</p>
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<p>“The president wouldn’t have been here this morning if they have the votes,” said Rep. Rod Blum, R-Iowa, a member of the Freedom Caucus who complained that the GOP bill leaves too much government regulation in place.</p>
<p>Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., said Trump told Republicans he would campaign for them if they backed the bill. Trump didn’t indicate what he would do to those who vote against the bill, but during the caucus, he singled out Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., an outspoken critic.</p>
<p>Collins said Trump asked Meadows to stand up, called him a great guy and said he is counting on Meadows to get this over the line.</p>
<p>“The president is very adroit at putting somebody on the spot and he did that today with Mark Meadows,” Collins said. Asked if there was a threat to Meadows in that, Collins responded, “There was no threat whatsoever.”</p>
<p>Another person at the event said Trump told Meadows, “I’m gonna come after you so hard.” Trump delivered that line with a smile, but it was also lined with a touch of seriousness, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting.</p>
<p>As for Meadows, he was still a “no” vote at the end of the day.</p>
<p>Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters that if Republicans pass the legislation, “people will reward us. If we don’t keep our promise, it will be very hard to manage this.”</p>
<p>If the bill advances, prospects are uncertain in the Senate, where Republicans hold a slim majority. Six GOP senators have expressed deep misgivings including Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who said Tuesday he cannot support the House bill.</p>
<p>In an Associated Press interview, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., signaled he’d use Trump’s clout to pressure unhappy Republicans in his chamber.</p>
<p>“I would hate to be a Republican whose vote prevented us from keeping the commitment we’ve made to the American people for almost 10 years now,” McConnell said.</p>
<p>The House GOP bill would end Obama-era subsidies based on peoples’ incomes and the cost of insurance. A Medicaid expansion to 11 million more low-income people would disappear.</p>
<p>Instead, the bill would provide tax credits based chiefly on age to help people pay premiums. But insurers could charge older consumers five times the premiums they charge younger people instead of Obama’s 3-1 limit.</p>
<p>The revisions by House GOP leaders to round up votes come at a cost — literally. Congressional budget experts had projected that the original bill would cut federal deficits by $337 billion over a decade. But that amount is dwindling as top Republicans dole out provisions helping older and disabled people.</p>
<p>Democrats remain solidly opposed to the GOP repeal effort.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press reporters Matthew Daly, Kevin Freking, Richard Lardner, Stephen Ohlemacher, Ken Thomas and Jill Colvin in Washington, and Thomas Beaumont in Iowa contributed to this report.</p> | Trump to GOP: Pass health care bill or seal your fate | false | https://abqjournal.com/973038/trump-to-capitol-in-last-ditch-lobbying-for-health-care-bill.html | 2017-03-21 | 2 |
<p>The New York Times recently made <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/us/politics/intersecting-worlds-of-romney-and-obama.html?pagewanted=1" type="external">a less than half-hearted attempt</a> to summarize the similarities between President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican Party nominee, Mitt Romney. As <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/06/obama-and-romney-do-have-a-few-things-in-common.html" type="external">New York Magazine</a> reports, the Times wasn’t able to do much better than: They both like Star Trek, Modern Family, and Chicken. Here at IVN, I thought we could find just a few more similarities of just a little more substance.</p>
<p>The following list isn’t just a bunch of opinions, but documented facts that together draw a compelling picture: Far from being polar opposites, the two “choices” offered as presidential candidates by this country’s two main parties are nearly indistinguishable on the substantive public policy challenges Americans face. Using the New York Times piece as a starting point, here are 100 ways Mitt Romney is just like Barack Obama:</p>
<p>1. Star Trek</p>
<p>2. Modern Family</p>
<p>3. Chicken</p>
<p>4. The signature legislative accomplishment of the man that Republicans have chosen to repeal and replace “ObamaCare” was “RomneyCare,” <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/11/white-house-met-with-three-romney-advisors-to-draft-obamacare/" type="external">which was the blueprint and model for The Affordable Care Act</a>.</p>
<p>5. The most controversial aspect of “ObamaCare” for its critics, was the individual mandate. Mitt Romney, like Barack Obama, <a href="https://youtu.be/y6DrH6P9OC0" type="external">believes individual mandates</a> can be a good ingredient of public policy.</p>
<p>6. Mitt Romney reminds critics that he believed “RomneyCare” was good for the state of Massachussetts, but shouldn’t be implemented nationwide, and that’s how he’s substantively different from Barack Obama. In 2007, however, <a href="http://www.redstate.com/rightwingnut2/2011/04/10/romney-in-2007-romneycare-will-be-a-model-for-the-nation/" type="external">Romney said</a>: “I’m proud of what we’ve done. If Massachusetts succeeds in implementing it, then that will be a model for the nation,” suggesting that, like Obama, he is not opposed to federal mandates either– just controversial ones that his partisan opponents pass.</p>
<p>(Items 7 – 9) As Jon Stewart points out on The Daily Show, Mitt Romney’s proposed legislative replacement for “ObamaCare” would keep everything in it other than the individual mandate, <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-june-28-2012/roberts--rules-of-order" type="external">according to Mitt Romney’s own words</a>:</p>
<p>7. Like Obama and the Democrats provided for in the Affordable Care Act, Romney’s legislative alternative would make sure people who want to keep their current insurance can do so.</p>
<p>8. Like Barack Obama, Mitt Romney wants to expand federal spending on Medicaid to help each state cover residents who cannot afford health insurance.</p>
<p>9. Also like Obama, Romney’s “alternative” would make sure people with preexisting conditions will be covered.</p>
<p>10. Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2012/07/obamacare_tax_flip_flop_romney_s_evolving_record_on_whether_health_insurance_mandates_are_a_tax_.html" type="external">flip flopped</a> on whether “ObamaCare” is or <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/romney-campaign-calls-obamacare-a-penalty-not-a-tax/" type="external">is not</a> a tax when it was politically suitable.</p>
<p>11. The same <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/02/tarp-recipients-paid-out-114-m.html" type="external">Wall Street recipients of TARP</a> bailout money that <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&amp;cid=N00009638" type="external">were top Obama donors</a> in 2008 <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/contrib.php?cycle=2012&amp;id=N00000286" type="external">are top Romney donors</a> in 2012.</p>
<p>12. The Obama Administration <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/05/06/why-can-t-obama-bring-wall-street-to-justice.html" type="external">has failed to</a> prosecute a single Wall Street executive for malfeasance related to the 2007 – 2008 financial crash. Wall Street’s aforementioned donation patterns make for a compelling conclusion: A Romney Administration would be no different.</p>
<p>13. Setting aside the justice system, legislative fixes for perverse incentives on Wall Street have likewise been underwhelming. Dodd-Frank <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/11/news/economy/politics-jpmorgan-regulation/index.htm" type="external">has been impotent to prevent risky trading</a> and stress tests for federally insured banks <a href="" type="internal">only anticipate another housing crash</a>, not a catastrophic hit to America’s very monetary system itself. Instead of a substantive alternative to Obama and the Democrats, Romney’s solution seems to be to do even less: he wants <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/11/news/economy/politics-jpmorgan-regulation/index.htm" type="external">to repeal</a> Dodd-Frank.</p>
<p>14. Like Obama, Romney <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/17/1065790/-Mitt-Romney-s-bailout-problem" type="external">supports taxpayer bailouts</a> of struggling corporations– handouts that go from hardworking Americans to wealthy companies with irresponsible management.</p>
<p>15. The most controversial bailout for Republicans and one of the motivators behind the Tea Party protest movement that began in 2009 was the TARP bailout of big Wall Street financials. Like Obama– who voted for it as a US Senator and continues to support and defend it as President, Mitt Romney <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-03-26/romney-TARP-bank-bailout/53794680/1" type="external">supported and continues to support TARP</a>.</p>
<p>16. Not only does Mitt Romney approve of Barack Obama’s federal management of auto industry bankruptcies, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelinemaynard/2012/05/08/mitt-romney-takes-credit-for-the-auto-bailout-say-what/" type="external">he takes credit for it</a>.</p>
<p>17. Republicans criticize Obama for his role in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/solyndra--explained/2012/06/01/gJQAig2g6U_blog.html" type="external">getting Solyndra’s hands dirty with federal money</a>, but at his own big financial company, Bain and Co., Mitt Romney <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58952.html" type="external">secured millions in a federal bailout</a> of his corporation’s own struggling finances.</p>
<p>18. Though he’s flip-flopped on this issue along with so many others, Mitt Romney has also supported the federal stimulus package passed by the Democrats and signed by Barack Obama, <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/2011/06/30/has-mitt-romney-flipflopped-on-obamas-stimulus/" type="external">writing</a> that the “‘all-Democrat’ stimulus that passed in early 2009 will accelerate the timing of the start of the recovery.”</p>
<p>19. Another thing that Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have in common is that <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-11-12/five-charts-prove-we%E2%80%99re-depression-and-stimulus-hasnt-worked" type="external">the numbers</a> <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/article/qe-2-was-disaster-here-why-us-fiscal-stimulus-was-complete-failure-well" type="external">strongly suggest</a>they were both wrong about the 2009 economic stimulus package.</p>
<p>20. Both <a href="http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Profiles/Governor/Massachusetts/Mitt_Romney/Views/The_Federal_Reserve/" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/obama-administration-ramps-up-opposition-to-fed-audit-provision.php" type="external">Barack Obama</a> oppose a full, yearly, public, top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve’s finances and activities, citing the need for “Fed independence” from Congress.</p>
<p>21. On monetary policy, both <a href="http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Profiles/Governor/Massachusetts/Mitt_Romney/Views/The_Federal_Reserve/" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="http://www.docudharma.com/diary/28332/obama-opposed-the-federal-reserve-audit" type="external">Barack Obama</a> do not see any urgent need to change the status quo and any reform of the Federal Reserve system is not a public policy priority for either candidate.</p>
<p>22. Like Barack Obama, who reappointed Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Mitt Romney <a href="https://youtu.be/aX6T--U8Ll8" type="external">has approved</a> of Ben Bernanke’s handling of the financial crisis and monetary policy in America.</p>
<p>23. Mitt Romney <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/Romney-Geithner-TARP-Republican/2012/01/31/id/426118%20" type="external">approves of</a> Barack Obama’s Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner’s record on economic policy as well.</p>
<p>24. Like Barack Obama, economic stimulus via federal spending on infrastructure development <a href="https://youtu.be/aEXWdba511w" type="external">is a policy priority</a> for Mitt Romney.</p>
<p>25. Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/mitt-romney-middle-class-tax-cut-wont-help-middle-class/2012/07/09/gJQAXtmJYW_blog.html" type="external">favor</a> the extension of Bush’s deficit-funded tax cuts for the middle class.</p>
<p>26. Though they are currently sparring over whether or not to extend the tax cuts for high income earners (ibid.), Mitt Romney supports making these tax cuts permanent for them as well (ibid.), and as president, Barack Obama <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20026069-503544.html" type="external">has already extended these tax cuts</a> for high income earners once. Actions matter more than rhetoric. Are the two really so different?</p>
<p>27. Both <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57337409-503544/mitt-romney-backs-payroll-tax-cut-extension/" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/22/obama-signs-payroll-tax-cut-extension_n_1295208.html" type="external">Barack Obama</a> supported the payroll tax cut extensions.</p>
<p>28. Neither Mitt Romney, nor Barack Obama have charted a course away from <a href="" type="internal">the bipartisan consensus that deficit-funded tax cuts stimulate economic growth</a>, so that other than putting up a big showy fight over the details of tax policy, their substantive philosophies of fiscal policy are essentially the same.</p>
<p>29. Like Obama, Mitt Romney <a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2011/12/27/romney-and-the-vat/" type="external">is open to</a> a Value Added Tax as a potential fiscal policy solution.</p>
<p>30. In discussions of tax policy, Mitt Romney’s working definition of “wealthy” or “high income” seems to be $200,000 a year (ibid.), the same as that commonly used by Barack Obama.</p>
<p>31. <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-19/obama-plan-means-higher-taxes-on-53-of-business-income-study.html" type="external">Like Obama</a>, Romney supports <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/02/politics/main3445281.shtml" type="external">raising taxes on businesses</a>, and did so as governor of Massachusetts, despite speciously claiming otherwise by calling his tax hikes on businesses in the commonwealth “closing tax loopholes.”</p>
<p>32. Both <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/05/20/487285/ryan-romney-budget-debt/" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2012/04/06/Obamas-and-Paul-Ryans-Conflicting-Budget-Visions.aspx#page1" type="external">Barack Obama</a>‘s federal budget plans would add trillions of dollars to the already unsustainable national debt over the next ten years.</p>
<p>33. Neither <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/mitt-romney-budget-promises_n_1445368.html" type="external">Mitt Romney</a>, nor <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/20/obama.cabinet.cuts/index.html" type="external">Barack Obama</a> have offered a plan of detailed, substantive spending cuts to the out-of-control federal budget that pass the straight face test.</p>
<p>34. On Social Security, <a href="http://2012.republican-candidates.org/Romney/Social-Security.php" type="external">Mitt Romney’s plan</a> is to manage, tinker, and keep “kicking the can down the road.” <a href="http://2012.presidential-candidates.org/Obama/Social-Security.php" type="external">Barack Obama’s plan</a> is to manager, not tinker… and keep kicking the can down the road.</p>
<p>35. Both <a href="http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/white-house-backs-off-of-obama-earmarks-pledge/" type="external">Barack Obama</a> and <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/17/news/chi-120217mitt-romney-earmarks" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> have taken strong positions against earmarking in the US Congress.</p>
<p>36. Neither <a href="http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1881855,00.html" type="external">Barack Obama</a>, nor <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/12/mitt-romney-earmarks_n_1271392.html" type="external">Mitt Romney</a>‘s actions are consistent with their rhetoric on earmarks.</p>
<p>37. Spending categorized as defense-related has <a href="http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/spend.php?span=usgs302&amp;year=2008&amp;view=1&amp;expand=30&amp;expandC=&amp;units=b&amp;fy=fy12&amp;local=s&amp;state=US&amp;pie=#usgs302" type="external">only gone up</a> during President Obama’s first term from $616 billion under Bush in 2008 to $768 billion in 2011, and Obama still wants <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/14/defense-enjoys-short-term-boost-under-obama-budget/" type="external">even more</a>. <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/10/news/economy/romney-defense-spending/index.htm" type="external">So does Romney</a>.</p>
<p>38. Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/04/17/150795727/are-obama-and-romney-the-same-guy%20" type="external">have</a> international backgrounds and parents with international backgrounds…</p>
<p>39. But both are foreign policy amateurs with backgrounds in domestic policy, finance, law, and community organizing rather than foreign policy…</p>
<p>40. Yet their team of foreign policy experts, from Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden, and secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, to Mitt Romney’s team of <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/why-colin-powell-bashed-mitt-romneys-foreign-policy-advisers/" type="external">Bush-era neoconservative foreign policy advisers</a>, indicates their equal commitment to Washington’s unpopular and incoherent foreign policy status quo.</p>
<p>41. And <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/04/17/150795727/are-obama-and-romney-the-same-guy%20" type="external">for the first time since 1944</a>, neither of the two major parties’ candidates, Barack Obama, nor Mitt Romney, have military experience.</p>
<p>42. Despite running on a platform of change, Obama’s first term as president has demonstrated his commitment to the Bush era strategies of nation building and counter-insurgency. Mitt Romney <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/us/politics/scrutiny-of-romneys-stance-on-afghan-war-now-more-likely.html?_r=2" type="external">doesn’t think</a> Obama’s commitment to nation building is strong enough.</p>
<p>43. Both <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/29/us/election-news/candidates-on-executive-power.html" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="https://reason.com/archives/2011/03/29/obamas-doctrine-of-pre-emptive" type="external">Barack Obama</a> support the Bush era doctrine of preemptive war.</p>
<p>44. Mitt Romney <a href="http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/romney-president-has-power-act-unilat" type="external">agrees with President Obama</a> that the president can act unilaterally to take the country to war without Congress.</p>
<p>45. Though Obama paints Romney as an American unilateralist willing to take military action without the blessing and cooperation of the international community, Romney and Obama <a href="http://features.rr.com/article/07wHdv12J65V2" type="external">actually both agree</a> with the Bush era foreign policy of unilateral US military action, and Obama took unilateral military action in the Osama bin Laden raid.</p>
<p>46. Though he has, unsurprisingly, held a different position before, Romney <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/mitt-romney-bin-busted-candidate-like-myself-would-have-done-bin-laden-raid-except-2007-mitt/%20" type="external">says</a> he would have ordered the bin Laden raid like Obama did.</p>
<p>47. Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama believe the US military can be used <a href="http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/103782/start-the-attack-then-work-backwards" type="external">for humanitarian intervention</a> overseas without an imminent threat to American national security.</p>
<p>48. Mitt Romney <a href="http://www.mittromney.com/news/press/2011/08/romney-new-libyan-government-extradite-lockerbie-bomber" type="external">approves</a> the NATO-led ousting of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66502.html" type="external">supported by</a> the Obama Administration.</p>
<p>49. <a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/2012/Mitt_Romney_Foreign_Policy.htm" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/9127324/Barack-Obama-US-will-not-countenance-Iranian-nuclear-weapon.html" type="external">Barack Obama</a> both agree that preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons is a national security priority for the United States.</p>
<p>50. Both <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/06/mitt-romney-says-he-could-wage-war-on-iran-without-congress-approval/258607/" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2012-03-04/politics/politics_obama-aipac_1_nuclear-weapon-weapons-grade-uranium-obama-pledges?_s=PM:POLITICS" type="external">Barack Obama</a> would unilaterally take the US to war against Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.</p>
<p>51. Barack Obama has been a consistent <a href="http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/09/military_afghanistan_enablers_091409w/" type="external">supporter and escalator</a>, as <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/03/22/obama_defends_votes_in_favor_of_iraq_funding/" type="external">both Senator</a> <a href="http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/when-is-an-iraq-withdrawal-not-a-withdrawal/" type="external">and President</a>, of George W. Bush’s war and counter-insurgency operations in Iraq. Mitt Romney thinks <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/mitt-romney-calls-obama-iraq-decision-an-astonishing-failure/2011/10/21/gIQANpjD4L_blog.html" type="external">he isn’t supportive enough</a>.</p>
<p>52. Mitt Romney and Barack Obama <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/romney-accuses-obama-of-dawdling-with-iran-sanctions/" type="external">are actively trying to outdo each other</a> on which candidate supports economic sanctions against Iran the most.</p>
<p>53. Barack Obama has involved the US in Syria’s foreign civil war. Mitt Romney <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/301611/romney-s-syria-problem-andrew-c-mccarthy" type="external">wants to get even more involved</a>.</p>
<p>54. Mitt Romney <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2011/1123/In-debate-Romney-says-handle-Pakistan-like-Indonesia-in-the-1960s" type="external">supports</a> continuing the Bush and Obama administration policy of cooperation with Pakistan despite its hostile activities toward US operations in Afghanistan and the fact that it appeared to have been harboring Osama bin Laden.</p>
<p>55. Mitt Romney <a href="https://youtu.be/OBBg7zWiOIM" type="external">supports</a> the Obama Administration’s policy of unmanned aerial warfare via predator drone in Pakistan.</p>
<p>56. Tim Pawlenty– <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/16/us-usa-campaign-romney-vicepresident-idUSBRE86F1BM20120716" type="external">on Romney’s short list</a> for a VP– <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/06/pawlenty-obamas-drone-strikes-dont-go-far-enough/" type="external">has suggested</a> that Mitt Romney would expand Barack Obama’s <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/06/20/155389081/are-drones-obamas-legacy-in-war-on-terrorism" type="external">already unprecedented use of</a> drone warfare.</p>
<p>57. Mitt Romney <a href="http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Profiles/Governor/Massachusetts/Mitt_Romney/Views/The_War_in_Afghanistan/" type="external">supported</a> Barack Obama’s <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/full-transcript-president-obamas-speech-afghanistan-delivered-west/story?id=9220661#.UAWRh_V0hvA" type="external">massive surge</a> of 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.</p>
<p>58. Though he tries to distinguish his position on Afghanistan from that of Obama’s, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/us/politics/scrutiny-of-romneys-stance-on-afghan-war-now-more-likely.html?_r=2" type="external">The New York Times</a> reports that “despite the tough critique, Mr. Romney has loosely embraced the main thrust of White House policy for troop levels after the election: a timetable for pulling out nearly all troops by the end of 2014.”</p>
<p>59. Both <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/mitt-romney-to-travel-to-israel-in-first-foreign-trip-of-candidacy/" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/04/aipac-obama-israel-iran_n_1319494.html" type="external">Barack Obama</a> consider Israel America’s best long-term strategic ally in the Middle East and are committed to using US military power to go to war alongside Israel against its regional enemies.</p>
<p>60. Barack Obama <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/guantanamo-closure-anniversary_n_1195984.html" type="external">has failed to close</a> Guantanamo Bay as promised on the campaign trail and as president; Mitt Romney <a href="https://youtu.be/wEJCf7xx2QU%20" type="external">said</a> in one presidential debate: “My view is, we ought to double Guantanamo.”</p>
<p>61. Both <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30947588/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/t/rachel-maddow-showfor-thursday-may/#.UAWc0_V0hvA" type="external">Barack Obama</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/29/us/election-news/candidates-on-executive-power.html" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> support indefinite detention of terror suspects without trial as a valid and legal tool in the national security state’s war on terrorism.</p>
<p>62. Both <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/us/politics/18policy.html" type="external">Barack Obama</a> and <a href="http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Profiles/Governor/Massachusetts/Mitt_Romney/Views/Homeland_Security/" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> support the controversial practice of extraordinary rendition.</p>
<p>63. Like George W. Bush, <a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/2012/Mitt_Romney_Foreign_Policy.htm" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-20-2009/changefest--09---obama-s-inaugural-speech" type="external">Barack Obama</a> both speak in the rhetoric of American exceptionalism <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-haberski-jr/mitt-romney-theology-of-american-exceptionalism-_b_1674429.html" type="external">and divine providence</a> concerning foreign policy.</p>
<p>64. Both <a href="http://www.issues2000.org/2012/Mitt_Romney_Welfare_+_Poverty.htm" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/at-prayer-breakfast-and-with-birth-control-decision-obama-riles-religious-conservatives/2012/02/02/gIQAgy1blQ_story.html" type="external">Barack Obama</a> base public policy positions and actions on dimensions of their religious faith.</p>
<p>65. Both <a href="http://www.issues2000.org/2012/Mitt_Romney_Welfare_+_Poverty.htm" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/05/04/obamas_faith_based_failure/" type="external">Barack Obama</a> support and want to continue Bush-era faith-based initiatives.</p>
<p>66. Both <a href="https://youtu.be/EjaXfwuGmxg" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and Barack Obama support the warrantless wiretapping of the Bush-era USA Patriot Act, which Romney <a href="http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/7/26/211907.shtml" type="external">has praised</a> and Obama <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/patriot-act-extension-signed-into-law-despite-bipartisan-resistance-in-congress/2011/05/27/AGbVlsCH_story.html" type="external">has acted</a> to renew multiple times as both Senator and President.</p>
<p>67. Mitt Romney says that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/02/president-obama-signed-the-national-defense-authorization-act-now-what/" type="external">like Barack Obama</a> did, <a href="https://youtu.be/D1yY3NCiMVQ" type="external">he would sign</a> the controversial NDAA, including its provisions for the arrest and indefinite detainment of US citizens on US soil.</p>
<p>68. <a href="" type="internal">Like Obama</a>, Romney <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/29/us/election-news/candidates-on-executive-power.html" type="external">believes in</a> the legitimate power of the president to execute American citizens by “targeted killing” done in secret without charges or trial.</p>
<p>69. Mitt Romney <a href="http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/03/8130791-romney-forcefully-defends-killing-of-al-awlaki?lite" type="external">emphatically supported</a> Barack Obama’s decision in 2011 to use “targeted killing” to execute US citizen Anwar al Awlaki by drone strike without charges or trial.</p>
<p>70. On the Bush and Obama-era TSA, Mitt Romney’s position is <a href="https://youtu.be/K_b8hzgFImw" type="external">tinker a little</a>, but <a href="https://youtu.be/-z8pxikHMDE" type="external">maintain the status quo</a>.</p>
<p>71. On undocumented immigration, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22273924/page/6/#.UAWlfvV0hvC" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/barack_obama.htm#Immigration" type="external">Barack Obama</a>‘s position may differ in some details, but can both essentially be summarized as “provide amnesty, but on certain conditions.”</p>
<p>72. Both <a href="http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/274065/romney-talks-up-drug-war?SESS291d6d63d844b2bf6f64a336e382c75d=google&amp;page=full" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/bernddebusmann/2012/04/16/obama-and-the-failed-war-on-drugs/" type="external">Barack Obama</a> support continuing drug prohibition and the forty-year-old, Nixon-era War on Drugs.</p>
<p>73. Mitt Romney also <a href="https://reason.com/blog/2012/05/10/medical-marijuana-is-not-an-issue-of-sig" type="external">supports</a> the continued raids and prosecution of medical marijuana dispensaries (and even patients) that <a href="" type="internal">have characterized</a> Obama Administration as well as Bush-era policy on medical marijuana.</p>
<p>74. <a href="http://romneytracker.typepad.com/files/2007/10/romney-hits-giu.html" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/24/AR2010052403836.html" type="external">Barack Obama</a> both support executive line item vetoes.</p>
<p>75. Despite <a href="https://youtu.be/seAR1S1Mjkc" type="external">criticizing Bush</a> for unconstitutional executive overreach via signing statements, Obama <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/04/obama-embraces-signing-statements-after-knocking-bush-for-using-them.html" type="external">has continued the practice</a>, and Mitt Romney <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/29/us/election-news/candidates-on-executive-power.html" type="external">says he will too</a>.</p>
<p>76. Exemplary of their respectively mixed records on transparency, is <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/11/romney-strikes-back-at-obamas-transparency-calls-what-about-the-fast-and-furious-documents/%20" type="external">the recent exchange</a> between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney over releasing Romney’s tax returns and releasing the DOJ’s Fast and Furious records.</p>
<p>77. Because he’s adopted multiple positions on abortion throughout his political career, it’s hard to determine what his actual views are, but Mitt Romney <a href="https://youtu.be/a9IJUkYUbvI" type="external">has agreed</a> with Obama’s position <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/222htyos.asp" type="external">multiple times</a> on the importance of upholding Roe v. Wade.</p>
<p>78. On gay marriage, what <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec12/gayvote_07-16.html" type="external">Obama</a> and <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/219998/oscar-worthy-performance/deroy-murdock" type="external">Romney</a> have in common is that they have both changed positions (or “evolved”) on the issue, and curiously done so when it would be of maximum electoral benefit to them.</p>
<p>79. On campaign finance, both <a href="http://www.standardnewswire.com/news/631432047.html" type="external">Romney</a> and <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-urges-passage-of-campaign-spending-limits-103202364/126184.html" type="external">Obama</a> have supported campaign spending limits.</p>
<p>80. On the campaign trail, both major party candidates frequently <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/us/politics/on-stump-romney-is-fond-of-bill-clinton-and-obama-praises-reagan.html" type="external">invoke</a> and heap praise on Ronald Reagan, but it’s hard to tell if either <a href="https://youtu.be/a9IJUkYUbvI" type="external">Romney</a>, or Obama, who <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/obama-reagan-wild-eyed-socialist-tax-hiking-class/story?id=16116591#.UAWus_V0hvB" type="external">once said</a>, “In this country, prosperity has never trickled down from the wealthy few,” is really sincere.</p>
<p>81. <a href="http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Profiles/Governor/Massachusetts/Mitt_Romney/Views/The_Second_Amendment/" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Profiles/President/US/Barack_Obama/Views/The_Second_Amendment/" type="external">Barack Obama</a> are both supporters of strict gun control measures.</p>
<p>82. <a href="https://youtu.be/IWDJEc92d38" type="external">Both</a> Barack Obama and Mitt Romney prioritize “reducing our dependence on foreign oil,” pursuing alternative energy sources, and setting regulatory efficiency standards as part of federal energy policy.</p>
<p>83. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2009/09/president-obama-says-global-warming-is-putting-our-safety-in-jeopardy/" type="external">Like Obama</a>, Mitt Romney <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/22/romney-on-climate-change-in-2007-its-getting-warmer-video/" type="external">has said</a> that he believes in global warming.</p>
<p>84. Like <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/2009/02/25/us-obama-energy-idUSWAT01104320090225" type="external">Obama</a>, Mitt Romney supports capping carbon emissions and <a href="http://myclob.pbworks.com/w/page/21956517/12-07-2005" type="external">did so</a> as governor.</p>
<p>85. <a href="https://youtu.be/SAGpLOKtQDA" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/science/earth/01treaty.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">Barack Obama</a> both support international cap and trade policies via global carbon regulatory treaty.</p>
<p>86. As <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/04/obama-vs-romney-unknowable-foreign-policy-differences/256044/" type="external">The Atlantic</a> reports, both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have demonstrated a capacity for taking bold and unapologetic 180-degree turns on their stated policy positions.</p>
<p>87. As exemplified by a Mitt Romney campaign spokesman’s infamous <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/mitt-romneys-etchasketch-_n_1373268.html" type="external">Etch-a-Sketch</a> comment and Barack Obama’s plea to the Russian president for some space on missile defense until after the election, which was <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/26/obama-begs-russians-space-missile-defense-talks/" type="external">caught on a hot mic</a>, both candidates have also demonstrated a willingness to be insincere on the campaign trail.</p>
<p>88. Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama’s signature legislative policies <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/the-bind-that-ties-obama-and-romney-together-the-note/" type="external">are unpopular with voters</a>.</p>
<p>89. This is likely one reason why both <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/13/politics/campaign-wrap/index.html" type="external">Barack Obama</a> and <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/hillary-clinton-attacks-obama-latest-romney-ad-172627886.html" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> have engaged in so much negative campaigning emphasizing their opponent’s weaknesses rather than their own strengths.</p>
<p>90. This is also likely for <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/07/nostalgia_on_the_campaign_trai.html" type="external">the regression</a> of both candidates’ campaign rhetoric into the same old, worn-out, partisan talking points and the trite political rivalry of left and right; blue team and red team; Democrat and Republican.</p>
<p>91. Though Romney has worked in big finance (to lobby for federal bailouts as aforementioned) and Obama did a stint in finance for one year, neither Mitt Romney nor Barack Obama have any small business experience.</p>
<p>92. But <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/04/17/150795727/are-obama-and-romney-the-same-guy%20" type="external">both were</a> community organizers and Harvard Law school graduates.</p>
<p>Several more items that Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have in common are the following people, who represent multiple political points of view, and who all agree that Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have too much in common and few substantive differences on important matters of public policy:</p>
<p>93. <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/01/30/george_soros_not_much_difference_between_romney_and_obama.html" type="external">George Soros</a>: “If it’s between Obama and Romney, there isn’t all that much difference except for the crowd that they bring with them… So it won’t be that great a difference and I think there won’t be a great deal of enthusiasm on either side of the battleground. It will be more civilised than the previous elections have been.”</p>
<p>94. <a href="https://youtu.be/RUcycIc7o_4" type="external">Newt Gingrich</a>: “There’s a lot of parallels between these two guys…”</p>
<p>95. <a href="http://www.sentryjournal.com/2012/01/05/judge-napolitano-no-difference-between-mitt-romney-and-president-obama/%20" type="external">Judge Andrew Napolitano</a>: “Can a man who essentially agrees with President Obama on all the key issues realistically become the Republican nominee for president?”</p>
<p>96. <a href="https://youtu.be/JVAXOLAJcl0" type="external">Rick Santorum</a>: “And there’s no difference between President Obama and these two gentleman [Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich].”</p>
<p>97. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-johnson/afghanistan-war-end_b_1543964.html" type="external">Gary Johnson</a>: “Most Americans are hard pressed to find a difference between Romney and Obama when it comes to intervention.”</p>
<p>98. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57415289-503544/ralph-nader-far-too-little-difference-between-obama-romney/" type="external">Ralph Nader</a>: (CBS News) ‘Consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader says he sees “far too little difference” between President Obama and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, arguing that “we deserve more choices in this country.”</p>
<p>In the interview with Hotsheet on Monday, Nader said the president and his likely Republican challenger are essentially the same when it comes to foreign policy and their attitudes “toward Wall Street and corporate power.” The primary difference, he said, is their position on social services.’</p>
<p>99. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Des_Moines_Register%20" type="external">The Des Moines Register</a>, the newspaper that endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008, endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican Party nomination in 2012.</p>
<p>100. <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/obama-vs-romney-theres-possibly-little-difference-225500640.html" type="external">Voters</a>: (Yahoo! News) “A new Quinnipiac poll shows Barack Obama holding a four-point lead over likely contender Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race. Politico noted that other recent polls project similar preference, with CBS/NYT calling the candidates tied, PPP giving Obama a four-point lead, and Gallup giving Romney a two-point lead. Only CNN/Opinion Research turned up a significant spread, with Obama in the lead by nine points.</p>
<p>Why is the spread so close? Voters don’t seem to find much difference between Obama and Romney. [emphasis added] Gas prices and women’s issues are the only issues where either candidate has a decisive advantage, Politico said, with gas prices favoring Romney and women’s issues in Obama’s camp.”</p> | 100 Ways Mitt Romney Is Just Like Barack Obama | false | https://ivn.us/2012/09/18/100-ways-mitt-romney-is-just-like-barack-obama-3/ | 2012-09-18 | 2 |
<p>Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.Nir Alon/Zuma Press</p>
<p />
<p>The debate over <a href="" type="internal">whether to bomb Syrian military facilities and weapons installations</a> is creating some strange bedfellows. Among them: President Obama and <a href="" type="internal">Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson</a>.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the Republican Jewish Coalition, which <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/us/politics/adelsons-latest-foray-courts-jews-for-the-gop.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">counts</a> Adelson as a donor and a board member, told its members to urge Congress to authorize a strike in Syria. A spokesman for Adelson, a <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/sheldon-adelson-pledges-annual-200-million-to-jewish-israeli-causes-1.206615" type="external">top backer</a> of pro-Israel causes, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-04/adelson-new-obama-ally-as-jewish-groups-back-syria-strike.html" type="external">told Bloomberg News</a> that the gambling mogul supported the coalition’s position—and thus Obama’s—on Syria.</p>
<p>Obama and Adelson are far from ideological allies.&#160;Adelson <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/sheldon-adelson-2012-election_n_2223589.html" type="external">reportedly spent</a> upwards of $150 million, in disclosed and <a href="" type="internal">dark money</a>, to defeat Obama in last year’s presidential election. He and his wife, Miriam, almost single-handedly kept Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich in the running during the GOP primary season, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=Winning+Our+Future&amp;cycle=2012" type="external">giving $20.5 million</a> to the pro-Gingrich super-PAC, Winning Our Future. Once Romney won the party’s nomination, Adelson and his wife <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/contrib.php?cmte=Restore+Our+Future&amp;cycle=2012" type="external">poured $30 million more</a> into Restore Our Future, the pro-Romney super-PAC. On election night, Adelson&#160;attended the Romney campaign’s party&#160;at the Westin hotel in Boston.</p>
<p>During the campaign, Adelson questioned Obama’s commitment to protecting Israel. “Time and again, President Obama has signaled a lack of sympathy—or even outright hostility—toward Israel,” Adelson <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/u-s-elections-2012/adelson-american-jews-shouldn-t-trust-obama-on-israel-1.469644" type="external">wrote</a> in an op-ed for JNS&#160;News Service. These days, Adelson seems to be feeling better about Obama’s foreign policy stance.</p>
<p /> | Sheldon Adelson: I Stand With President Obama on Bombing Syria | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/09/sheldon-adelson-president-obama-bombing-syria/ | 2013-09-04 | 4 |
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<p>Albuquerque police are trying to identify the man with long hair wearing a blue shirt. He’s suspected of shooting at a gas station clerk after an argument over his non-working gas card. (Courtesy of APD)</p>
<p>Albuquerque police are trying to identify a suspect seen driving this car after a confrontation earlier this month. He is suspected of shooting at a gas station clerk. (Courtesy of APD)</p>
<p>Albuquerque police are trying to identify a man who they say got in a fight with a gas station clerk earlier this month and then shot through the clerk’s back windshield when he left for the night.</p>
<p>Officers were called to the Walmart gas station around 8 p.m. on Nov. 6 and learned the suspect had been upset that his gas card was not working.</p>
<p>“Witnesses say the man started yelling at the clerk and when the clerk asked him to leave, they got into a physical fight,” police spokesman Fred Duran said.</p>
<p>The suspect left and waited for the clerk to leave after his shift.</p>
<p>“(He) fired a single shot through the clerk’s back windshield as he left for the night,” Duran said. The clerk was not struck by the gunfire.</p>
<p>Officers are asking anyone who can identify the suspect to call police at 242-COPS. An unidentified woman was with him when the fight happened, Duran said, and officers are also looking for tips about who she is.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Police trying to identify man who shot at gas station clerk | false | https://abqjournal.com/897133/police-trying-to-identify-man-who-shot-at-gas-station-clerk.html | 2 |
|
<p>We're looking for a province of South Africa for the Geo Quiz this time. It's located near the center of the country and it borders tiny landlocked Lesotho. This is a province that's peppered with gold mines. Some extend a mile down or more. A team of scientists has made a discovery way down there …</p>
<p>It's not gold but something potentially more interesting: Nematodes or worms that can live in steamy cracks deep below the surface of the Earth. In fact, scientists previously didn't believe animals could survive that far down.</p>
<p>So where in South Africa can you find these extremophiles?</p>
<p>The answer is the South African province of Free State. Princeton geo-scientist Tullis Onstott tells anchor Lisa Mullins about his underground safaris to study these "worms from hell."</p> | 'Worms from Hell' | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-06-02/worms-hell | 2011-06-02 | 3 |
<p>MILWAUKEE (AP) — Drew McDonald and Lavone Holland II finished with double-doubles and Northern Kentucky shot 60 percent from the floor in a 91-64 drubbing of Milwaukee on Thursday night.</p>
<p>McDonald scored 25 and matched his season high with 12 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season for the Norse (13-6, 6-1 Horizon League), who buried 36 of 60 shots, including 10 of 21 (48 percent) from 3-point range. Holland tallied 19 points and a career-best 10 assists for his third career double-double and first this season. The senior guard added seven rebounds. Tyler Sharpe hit five 3-pointers and scored a career-high 19 for the Norse, who dominated points in the paint 48-22 and never trailed against the Panthers (9-12, 2-6).</p>
<p>McDonald and Holland combined for 28 points in the first half as Northern Kentucky had a commanding 49-23 lead by intermission.</p>
<p>Brock Stull paced Milwaukee with 12 points and five assists, while Brett Prahl scored 11. The Panthers shot 41 percent from the floor and 29 percent from distance in dropping their fourth straight game.</p>
<p>MILWAUKEE (AP) — Drew McDonald and Lavone Holland II finished with double-doubles and Northern Kentucky shot 60 percent from the floor in a 91-64 drubbing of Milwaukee on Thursday night.</p>
<p>McDonald scored 25 and matched his season high with 12 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season for the Norse (13-6, 6-1 Horizon League), who buried 36 of 60 shots, including 10 of 21 (48 percent) from 3-point range. Holland tallied 19 points and a career-best 10 assists for his third career double-double and first this season. The senior guard added seven rebounds. Tyler Sharpe hit five 3-pointers and scored a career-high 19 for the Norse, who dominated points in the paint 48-22 and never trailed against the Panthers (9-12, 2-6).</p>
<p>McDonald and Holland combined for 28 points in the first half as Northern Kentucky had a commanding 49-23 lead by intermission.</p>
<p>Brock Stull paced Milwaukee with 12 points and five assists, while Brett Prahl scored 11. The Panthers shot 41 percent from the floor and 29 percent from distance in dropping their fourth straight game.</p> | N Kentucky shoots 60 percent in 91-64 win over Milwaukee | false | https://apnews.com/amp/846185a3699f4486b42cd5afb0db3c75 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Key senators and farm groups are trying to fix a provision in the federal tax overhaul that gave an unexpected tax break to farmers who sell their crops to cooperatives rather than regular companies.</p>
<p>Lawmakers say they didn’t intend to give a competitive advantage to co-ops. But it’s not clear they can rework the legislation given the partisan divide on Capitol Hill. That means many companies — from local grain companies to agribusiness giants such as Cargill and ADM — could wind up paying more for crops than co-ops.</p>
<p>The provision from GOP Sens. John Thune of South Dakota and John Hoeven of North Dakota surfaced in the final days of the debate over the tax bill, which President Donald Trump signed last month. Thune and Hoeven wanted to replace a deduction that benefited co-ops in the old law, which was being dropped, and they wanted to make sure farmers didn’t wind up with a tax increase.</p>
<p>But the final language went further than maintaining the status quo.</p>
<p>“I think at the end of the day what it boiled down to is the staff didn’t know what they were doing. ... They rushed this thing through,” said U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee.</p>
<p>Agricultural co-ops are typically owned by farmers, and they provide their members with help with marketing crops, purchasing supplies and various other services. They range from small and local co-ops to big, nationwide ones such as Land O’ Lakes and Sunkist Growers.</p>
<p>The new provision lets farmers deduct 20 percent of their gross sales to co-ops, but only 20 percent of their net income if they sell to other companies. The difference is big enough that farmers who sell to co-ops could entirely eliminate their tax bills.</p>
<p>“If it stands the way it is, you’re going to see a dramatic change in who farmers sell their product to,” said Paul Neiffer, a partner with CliftonLarsonAllen, a national accounting firm with clients on both sides.</p>
<p>Farmers who do sell to regular companies may be able to command higher prices to help make up for the lower tax break.</p>
<p>Kristine Tidgren, assistant director of the Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation at Iowa State University, calculated that a farmer with $300,000 in income from grain sales to a regular company and $180,000 in expenses would have $86,400 in taxable income for the year. If that same producer sells to a co-op, she said, the farmer would have just $48,000 in taxable income.</p>
<p>“It’s a huge difference. ... We’ve tried to tell everyone to hold on and see what happens before you make any major changes to your business,” she said.</p>
<p>Hoeven’s chief of staff, Ryan Bernstein, said the senators didn’t intend to give a competitive advantage to co-ops and their farmer-patrons. They’ve been working with the National Grain and Feed Association, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives and other parties to find a quick solution, he said.</p>
<p>Greg Ibach, undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the tax code shouldn’t “pick winners and losers” and the agency expects a correction.</p>
<p>The new tax break has at least one defender, the North Dakota Farmers Union. The group’s president, Mark Watne, said efforts to change it “may not be in the best interest of farmers or the viability of cooperatives.”</p>
<p>Spokespeople for Thune and Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said they’re supporting efforts to fix the provision.</p>
<p>Randy Gordon, president of the National Grain and Feed Association, which represents co-ops as well as regular companies, said there’s been progress in the past week. He said in a newsletter Wednesday that all sides have held several meetings and conference calls to explore alternatives.</p>
<p>Minnesota-based Land O’Lakes, the country’s third-largest agricultural co-op, and Illinois-based ADM both said they look forward to a fix.</p>
<p>But it won’t be simple. Bernstein said Hoeven and Thune are looking at attaching it to must-pass legislation, likely a big spending bill expected to come up late next month. That assumes that everyone agrees on a solution by then.</p>
<p>Even a must-pass bill likely would require 60 votes to pass the Senate, which would require some support from Democrats.</p>
<p>“All it’s going to take is a couple Democrats in the Senate to derail the whole thing. ... I’m willing to help, but it looks like a long shot to me,” Peterson said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Sign up for the AP’s weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: <a href="http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv" type="external" /> <a href="http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv" type="external">http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv</a></p>
<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Key senators and farm groups are trying to fix a provision in the federal tax overhaul that gave an unexpected tax break to farmers who sell their crops to cooperatives rather than regular companies.</p>
<p>Lawmakers say they didn’t intend to give a competitive advantage to co-ops. But it’s not clear they can rework the legislation given the partisan divide on Capitol Hill. That means many companies — from local grain companies to agribusiness giants such as Cargill and ADM — could wind up paying more for crops than co-ops.</p>
<p>The provision from GOP Sens. John Thune of South Dakota and John Hoeven of North Dakota surfaced in the final days of the debate over the tax bill, which President Donald Trump signed last month. Thune and Hoeven wanted to replace a deduction that benefited co-ops in the old law, which was being dropped, and they wanted to make sure farmers didn’t wind up with a tax increase.</p>
<p>But the final language went further than maintaining the status quo.</p>
<p>“I think at the end of the day what it boiled down to is the staff didn’t know what they were doing. ... They rushed this thing through,” said U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee.</p>
<p>Agricultural co-ops are typically owned by farmers, and they provide their members with help with marketing crops, purchasing supplies and various other services. They range from small and local co-ops to big, nationwide ones such as Land O’ Lakes and Sunkist Growers.</p>
<p>The new provision lets farmers deduct 20 percent of their gross sales to co-ops, but only 20 percent of their net income if they sell to other companies. The difference is big enough that farmers who sell to co-ops could entirely eliminate their tax bills.</p>
<p>“If it stands the way it is, you’re going to see a dramatic change in who farmers sell their product to,” said Paul Neiffer, a partner with CliftonLarsonAllen, a national accounting firm with clients on both sides.</p>
<p>Farmers who do sell to regular companies may be able to command higher prices to help make up for the lower tax break.</p>
<p>Kristine Tidgren, assistant director of the Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation at Iowa State University, calculated that a farmer with $300,000 in income from grain sales to a regular company and $180,000 in expenses would have $86,400 in taxable income for the year. If that same producer sells to a co-op, she said, the farmer would have just $48,000 in taxable income.</p>
<p>“It’s a huge difference. ... We’ve tried to tell everyone to hold on and see what happens before you make any major changes to your business,” she said.</p>
<p>Hoeven’s chief of staff, Ryan Bernstein, said the senators didn’t intend to give a competitive advantage to co-ops and their farmer-patrons. They’ve been working with the National Grain and Feed Association, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives and other parties to find a quick solution, he said.</p>
<p>Greg Ibach, undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the tax code shouldn’t “pick winners and losers” and the agency expects a correction.</p>
<p>The new tax break has at least one defender, the North Dakota Farmers Union. The group’s president, Mark Watne, said efforts to change it “may not be in the best interest of farmers or the viability of cooperatives.”</p>
<p>Spokespeople for Thune and Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said they’re supporting efforts to fix the provision.</p>
<p>Randy Gordon, president of the National Grain and Feed Association, which represents co-ops as well as regular companies, said there’s been progress in the past week. He said in a newsletter Wednesday that all sides have held several meetings and conference calls to explore alternatives.</p>
<p>Minnesota-based Land O’Lakes, the country’s third-largest agricultural co-op, and Illinois-based ADM both said they look forward to a fix.</p>
<p>But it won’t be simple. Bernstein said Hoeven and Thune are looking at attaching it to must-pass legislation, likely a big spending bill expected to come up late next month. That assumes that everyone agrees on a solution by then.</p>
<p>Even a must-pass bill likely would require 60 votes to pass the Senate, which would require some support from Democrats.</p>
<p>“All it’s going to take is a couple Democrats in the Senate to derail the whole thing. ... I’m willing to help, but it looks like a long shot to me,” Peterson said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Sign up for the AP’s weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: <a href="http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv" type="external" /> <a href="http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv" type="external">http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv</a></p> | Tax law gives unexpected break to farmers who sell to co-ops | false | https://apnews.com/c189a8a4e1264b3d9f31d31a0fc467f7 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p />
<p>After market close on Wednesday, streaming-video company Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) will report results for its fourth quarter. Just before the report, the stock is hitting new highs, briefly touching $135.40 when the market opened on Tuesday. Further, the stock is up a whopping 35% in the past six months. Clearly, investors are optimistic about the stock's potential.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Ahead of the report, here are some big-picture questions investors will likely be looking for Netflix management to address in its upcoming quarterly report and conference call. With the stock hitting all-time highs and management wrapping up its quarterly reports for fiscal 2016, commentary on these items would help investors gain insight into management's plans and the company's long-term prospects.</p>
<p>Image source: Netflix.</p>
<p>Netflix's total streaming members hit 86.7 million in the company's third quarter, up significantly from 69.2 million in the year-ago quarter. And the streaming-video giant expects to hit about 92 million total members in its fourth quarter. This easily puts the company on pace to hit the 100-million-member milestone in 2017. More importantly, this raises the important question: What comes after 100 million streaming members?</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>When asked during Netflix's third-quarter conference call how he thinks the company's industry will progress over the next 5, 10, or even 20 years, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings implied that 100 million members could just be the beginning:</p>
<p>But with Netflix getting even closer to 100 million subscribers now, investors could use a more specific update on the company's expectations for member growth over the next few years.</p>
<p>Going into 2017, Netflix said it planned to release over 1,000 hours or original programming in 2017, up from over 600 hours in 2016.</p>
<p>"The Internet allows us to reach audiences all over the world and, with a growing base of over 86 million members, there's a large appetite for entertainment and a diversity of tastes to satisfy," the company said in its third-quarter shareholder letter about its target for 1,000 hours of original content in 2017.</p>
<p>Investors may want to know how this big jump in original content investment is going to impact the company's business: Can more targeted original content in international markets accelerate customer acquisition abroad? Did the performance of original content in Netflix's fourth quarter strengthen the case for further original programming investments?</p>
<p>Image source: Netflix.</p>
<p>If one single theme in streaming video stood out in 2016, it was surging interest from competition in the streaming video space. While Netflix fared well in the face of competition in 2016, some investors may want to hear more from management about how the company plans to continue to differentiate itself as media companies and tech giants begin to step up their streaming content services and their original content programming.</p>
<p>Sure, Netflix's sheer volume of original content and hours of movies and TV shows watched on Netflix still put the company well ahead of other streaming movie and TV show services, but as competitors catch up on these metrics, what is the company's plan to stay ahead?</p>
<p>Netflix will report fourth quarter results approximately five minutes after market close on Wednesday, Jan. 18, and management will host a live conference call to discuss the results at 2:00 PM PT.</p>
<p>Find out why Netflix is one of the 10 best stocks to buy now</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDanielSparks/info.aspx" type="external">Daniel Sparks Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Facebook. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook and Netflix. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Netflix, Inc. Stock Hits All-Time High Before Earnings | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/17/netflix-inc-stock-hits-all-time-high-before-earnings.html | 2017-01-17 | 0 |
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<p />
<p>The incident left many Liberians feeling as though the government wanted to bury the past, too.</p>
<p>As the U.N.’s peacekeeping mission prepares to leave Liberia with the country’s return to stability, questions remain about who must take responsibility for the atrocities over 14 years that left some 250,000 dead.</p>
<p>Unlike neighboring Sierra Leone, which also suffered from the fighting that spilled over the border, Liberia has yet to deal with perpetrators of the killings, many carried out by drugged and under-age fighters, overseen by people who may now be in power.</p>
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<p>“If there is a need for exhumation for further investigation, that will happen,” Information Minister Eugene Nagbe told The Associated Press, insisting the remains of the 27 people were not buried in the same spot where victims of the Ebola outbreak were buried.</p>
<p>The government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has said it is taking measures to reconcile with the past, but human rights advocates say the president doesn’t have the political will to allow the pursuit of past crimes. Before she took power, Sirleaf said that if she was elected she would go for reconciliation instead of prosecution.</p>
<p>Some in Liberia see this year’s election as a chance to bring in a government that might take a more assertive approach.</p>
<p>The bones handed over by the U.N. mission are thought to be those of victims of the River Gee massacre in 2003, which left more than 360 dead, the New Democrat newspaper reported, citing a 2008 report of the truth and reconciliation commission set up after the civil wars. The U.N mission had begun a forensic investigation into the killings but chose to turn over the bones as its gradual withdrawal from Liberia continues. The mission ends in March 2018.</p>
<p>The truth and reconciliation commission had blamed on forces loyal to former Liberian rebel leader-turned-President Charles Taylor. Taylor is currently serving a 50-year sentence in Britain after being found guilty of war crimes by a U.N.-backed special court for his role in the bloody civil war in Sierra Leone when he was Liberia’s leader.</p>
<p>Liberia has never had such a special court, though the truth and reconciliation commission had recommended criminal prosecution for dozens of ex-warlords and a 30-year political ban for people who supported the war.</p>
<p>One of those supporters was Sirleaf, who reluctantly appeared before the commission in 2008 and admitted to providing $10,000 to Taylor when his National Patriotic Front rebel movement was fighting the regime of then-President Samuel Doe.</p>
<p>But Sirleaf told the truth commission that the money to Taylor was for “humanitarian purposes.” Her critics have debunked this, saying that in the 1990s Taylor and his rebels weren’t pursuing any humanitarian venture. Meanwhile, Sirleaf held a string of overseas positions with the United Nations and the World Bank and returned to Liberia only in 2004 when Taylor was forced to step down. She was elected president the following year.</p>
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<p>The truth and reconciliation commission’s recommendations for criminal prosecution and political bans have never been implemented, and many people named by the commission are now senior members of Liberia’s government. The National Human Rights Commission, tasked with implementing the commission’s suggestions, remains underfunded.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, many massacres during the fighting from 1989 to 2003 remain uninvestigated, Liberians say. Some prefer to be done with the past, but others feel closure is vital.</p>
<p>“It is hard and worthless to keep repeating the graphic of the scene and see the hate and vices that occasioned the war still exist unabated,” said Isaac Redd, director of press at the House of Representatives who survived a 1994 massacre at Kpolokpai. “I have personally prayed for the lost souls and asked God to take control for the perpetrators. I have forgiven them.”</p>
<p>Redd, a local radio reporter at the time, recalled that “deaths by chopping off limbs and heads with machetes were ordered without discrimination.” Victims were tied up on arrest, and there was no interrogation. “Heads were smashed against the rocks in the middle of the town.”</p>
<p>Those rocks still take center stage in the small coffee-growing town. Visitors stand by them, agape, as survivors explain the atrocities.</p>
<p>Like the rest of the survivors, Redd does not know how many people were killed in the Kpolokpai massacre, but he said that when rebel fighters released him the next morning, “I was confused but remembered seeing around a hundred bodies on the rocks.”</p>
<p>Many have called for the establishment of a war crimes court like the one that existed in post-conflict Sierra Leone, even as some say no amount of accountability can ease the trauma left behind.</p>
<p>Peterson Sonyah, who witnessed killings in another assault that has come to be known as the Lutheran Church Massacre, is among those calling for a war crimes tribunal “so that our ugly past cannot haunt us as a nation.”</p>
<p>Sonyah survived an attack by Doe’s troops by hiding under a church bench. Around him, soldiers opened fire, the flashes brightening the hall as if it was daytime.</p>
<p>“People started crying all over the place. Women were raped and made to give out whatever money they had to the soldiers before they were gunned down,” he said.</p>
<p>Sonyah said Liberia Massacre Survivors Association has identified 69 mass graves in five of the country’s 15 counties in the hope that someone will take interest. None is under investigation by the government.</p> | Liberia asks as UN leaves: Who will pursue war’s atrocities? | false | https://abqjournal.com/967833/liberia-asks-as-un-leaves-who-will-pursue-wars-atrocities.html | 2017-03-13 | 2 |
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<p>SALT LAKE CITY — Insisting that logging could have cleaned up dead, bug-infested trees that are fueling a Utah wildfire, a Republican state lawmaker blamed federal mismanagement and lawsuits by “tree hugger” environmentalists for the blaze that has burned 13 homes and forced the evacuation of 1,500 people.</p>
<p>A conservation group called that contention “shameful” and misleading, saying it fails to take into account climate change and drought.</p>
<p>In addition, a U.S. Forest Service researcher said logging probably would not have made a big difference in the high-altitude fire that is sending embers from tree-to-tree over long distances — normal for the ecosystem.</p>
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<p>Utah state Rep. Mike Noel said Tuesday he wants to use the fire near the ski town of Brian Head and a popular fishing lake to highlight the imbalance of power afforded environmental groups under previous presidents and to ease bureaucratic and legal blockades for logging companies. He believes the Trump administration will provide a more receptive audience for his plea.</p>
<p>The blaze is one of several in the West. Crews in California were making gains against two new fires that spread quickly, and firefighters in Idaho battled five lightning-sparked wildfires burning in grass and brush.</p>
<p>Crews dealt with windy conditions as they battled a northern Arizona wildfire that has burned nearly 7 square miles (18 square kilometers).</p>
<p>Authorities say the Utah fire was started on June 17 by someone using a torch tool to burn weeds on private land.</p>
<p>Noel contends it wouldn’t have spread as fast if federal forest lands had been cleared of dead trees.</p>
<p>A video of his Monday rant against environmentalists generated social media buzz and sparked new debate about whether logging could help prevent Western wildfires. He joined several other state and county officials in speaking out.</p>
<p>“When we turn the Forest Service over to the bird and bunny lovers and the tree huggers and the rock lickers, we’ve turned our history over,” Noel said. “We are going to lose our wildlife and we are going to lose our scenery, the very thing you people wanted to try to protect. It’s just plain stupidity.”</p>
<p>Mark Finney, a researcher at the U.S. Forest Service Fire Science Laboratory in Missoula, Montana, said getting rid of the dead trees in the Brian Head area probably would not have made much difference. The trees died years ago, making irrelevant a 2011 U.S. Forest Service study that found the needles of beetle-killed trees ignite three times faster and burn more intensely than healthy trees.</p>
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<p>“If we’re looking for someone to blame, there isn’t anyone,” Finney said. “Forests burn.”</p>
<p>Steve Bloch, legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said Noel’s assertion is an over-simplification of wildfires that are the result of fire suppression, climate change, drought and unpredictable winds.</p>
<p>“It’s shameful that Rep. Noel has chosen to exploit the fire and mislead the public by saying that conservationists are to blame for this event,” Bloch said.</p>
<p>Stiff winds and hot temperatures have made the Utah blaze the largest in the nation at 78 square miles (201 sq. kilometers). The estimated cost of fighting the blaze has reached $11 million.</p>
<p>Jason Curry of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, said logging or fires being allowed to burn in the state’s forests would help get rid of timber that serves as easy fuel for the blazes. But he also acknowledged that drought and climate play a role.</p>
<p>U.S. Forest Service officials and Utah state officials didn’t immediately have information about logging requests in the area.</p>
<p>Finney said logging companies generally can’t make money in operations at high elevations because the trees don’t grow back quickly enough and logistics are difficult.</p>
<p>Bloch said his group hasn’t challenged logging in the area of the Utah fire in two decades. But Noel says the lawsuit in the early 1990s delayed a Forest Service plan to get rid of an emerging cluster of bark beetles before it spread.</p>
<p>Chad Hanson, co-founder the John Muir Project, co-authored a 2009 study that was one of the first to dispute the theory that bug-infested trees burn faster.</p>
<p>“That’s just logging industry propaganda,” Hanson said. “This is a direct outgrowth of the rhetoric of fear and hate coming out of the Trump administration. It has emboldened some very anti-environmental voices.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile in California, firefighters had two major blazes under enough control to allow evacuated residents to return to their homes.</p>
<p>Mandatory evacuations for dozens of homes were called for in a wildfire in rugged foothills east of Los Angeles that broke out Tuesday, but residents there were allowed back home within a few hours.</p>
<p>The blaze erupted and quickly surged in hot, dry, windy weather.</p>
<p>A half-square-mile (1.4 sq. kilometer) wildfire erupted and quickly surged in hot, dry, windy weather near Highland in San Bernardino County. It was climbing ridges and moving away from homes but came frighteningly close to a subdivision, prompting the evacuations, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Gerrelaine Alcordo said.</p>
<p>In Central California, a 2.5-square-mile (6.5 sq. kilometer) wildfire that burned at least one building was 60 percent contained. About 250 residents were ordered from their homes in the area of Santa Margarita after the blaze erupted Monday, but on Tuesday night they were told they could return home.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.</p> | Utah officials blame lack of logging for major wildfire | false | https://abqjournal.com/1024337/utah-wildfire-grows-as-2-powerful-california-blazes-spread.html | 2017-06-27 | 2 |
<p>Sweden's central bank has left its key interest rate unchanged at a record minus 0.50 percent but says it will expand its bond-purchase program by 30 billion kroner ($3.2 billion) during the first half of 2017.</p>
<p>The Riksbank says "increasingly strong economic activity creates the conditions for inflation to continue rising."</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Stockholm-based bank added Wednesday there were "risks that can jeopardize the upturn in inflation," adding monetary policy must remain "very expansionary."</p>
<p>The Riksbank said "there is still a greater probability that the (repo) rate will be cut than that it will be raised in the near term." The rate decision will apply from Dec. 28.</p>
<p>European Union member Sweden is not part of European Central Bank.</p> | Sweden's central bank expands bond-buying program | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/21/sweden-central-bank-expands-bond-buying-program.html | 2016-12-21 | 0 |
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<p>THE FACT that 2nd Judicial District Judge Charles Brown decided to (set provisions so) Justin Hansen, accused in the beating of Brittani Marcell, (can be released from jail) with supervision is a disservice to the community and to the victim of this crime. To think he can be out with supervision is an insult to this victim, who has had to live in fear and suffering from her injuries all these years while he is out on the street again. (It) is heartless. Justice has certainly turned a blind eye to this victim.</p>
<p>YOLANDA SMELSER</p>
<p>Albuquerque</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Judge’s ruling in Hansen case an insult to victim | false | https://abqjournal.com/1035968/judges-ruling-in-hansen-case-an-insult-to-victim.html | 2 |
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<p>Jan 18 (Reuters) - Nuuvera Inc:</p> * NUUVERA INC. ANNOUNCES $35MM BOUGHT DEAL OFFERING
<p>* NUUVERA SAYS ENTERED INTO AGREEMENT WITH UNDERWRITERS, WHO HAVE AGREED TO PURCHASE, ON “BOUGHT DEAL” BASIS, 6.4 MILLION UNITS OF CO AT C$5.50/UNIT Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>FRANKFURT/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Generic drug maker Mylan NV is in advanced discussions to acquire Merck KGaA’s consumer health business after other bidders failed to meet the German company’s price expectations, people familiar with the matter said.</p> FILE PHOTO: A logo of drugs and chemicals group Merck KGaA is pictured in Darmstadt, Germany January 28, 2016. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo
<p>“Although it’s Mylan’s policy to not comment on rumors or speculation, given the egregious inaccuracy of reports issued this morning, the company is compelled to confirm that the Reuters article is untrue,” Mylan said in a statement on Friday.</p>
<p>A Mylan spokeswoman declined to offer details on what in the Reuters story was inaccurate. Merck declined to comment.</p>
<p>The precise value of Mylan’s offer could not be established but the sources said the companies were negotiating a price between 3.5 billion and 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion-$4.9 billion).</p>
<p>There is no certainty that Mylan will secure a deal, the sources said, adding that Merck had also been in talks with private equity groups on the asset.</p>
<p>The sources, who spoke this week, asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential.</p>
<p>Mylan shares fell as much as 3.7 percent on Friday but pared losses to trade down 1.2 percent at $40.75 in the afternoon.</p>
<p>Mylan’s talks with Merck came as other contenders for the business, including Nestle and Reckitt Benckiser, dropped out of the bidding.</p>
<p>Merck said last year it was looking to sell its consumer healthcare business, which has annual sales of about $1 billion, to help fund its research into prescription drugs.</p>
<p>Mylan has in the past bought assets from the German rival, paying 5 billion euros in 2007 for Merck’s generics business, which included branded drugs like EpiPen for treatment of life-threatening allergic reactions and DuoNeb for treatment of smokers’ lung.</p>
<p>Consumer health is a fragmented sector ranging from over-the-counter medicines and vitamins to sports nutrition products and condoms.</p>
<p>It has proved fertile ground for deals in recent years, as aging populations and health-conscious consumers drive demand.</p>
<p>But the global consumer health market has slowed, from 4 to 6 percent like-for-like sales growth to zero to 3 percent growth, Morgan Stanley analysts said in December.</p>
<p>Major players in the over-the-counter market have been grappling with pricing pressure stoked by online players such as Amazon.com Inc and private label competitors.</p>
<p>However, buyers and sellers have struggled to agree on deals, as estimates differ over how commoditized many of these products are.</p>
<p>Pfizer Inc’s sales process for its consumer health business, which it was hoping would fetch as much as $20 billion, has also stalled, sources have said.</p>
<p>Merck’s over-the-counter brands up for sale include Neurobion vitamins and Seven Seas nutritional supplements.</p>
<p>Mylan has been looking for acquisitions to bolster growth. It said in February fourth-quarter earnings fell due to declining revenue from EpiPen and weak U.S. prices for generic drugs.</p>
<p>Reporting by Arno Schuetze, Greg Roumeliotis, Ben Martin, Ludwig Burger, Martinne Geller, Patricia Weiss; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Matthew Lewis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Two multi-billion dollar takeovers of semiconductor makers are being stalled by Chinese regulatory reviews amid rising U.S.-China trade tensions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.</p> FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
<p>Qualcomm Inc’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=QCOM.O" type="external">QCOM.O</a>) proposed $44 billion purchase of Dutch chip maker NXP Semiconductors NV ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NXPI.O" type="external">NXPI.O</a>) could be at risk due to the delayed review. China is the only country that has not yet signed off on the deal, or on Toshiba Corp’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=6502.T" type="external">6502.T</a>) planned $19 billion sale of its chip unit to a Bain Capital consortium, according to the newspaper.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>Qualcomm’s merger agreement with NXP was extended for a second time in January, giving the two until to April 25, although the parties could decide to extend the deadline.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=QCOM.O" type="external">Qualcomm Inc</a> 55.73 QCOM.O Nasdaq +0.53 (+0.96%) QCOM.O NXPI.O 6502.T
<p>China’s Vice President, Wang Qishan, last month assured Qualcomm Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf that the review would not be affected by politics, the newspaper said.</p>
<p>Qualcomm and Toshiba did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>In a move to force China to lower its $375 billion trade surplus with the U.S., the Trump administration this month unveiled tariffs representing about $50 billion on Chinese technology, transport and medical products, drawing an immediate threat of retaliatory action from Beijing.</p>
<p>At the same time, China pledged to further open the country’s economy and lower import tariffs on certain products, moves it said were unrelated to the trade spat.</p>
<p>Reporting by Gary McWilliams; editing by Diane Craft</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Tesla Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">TSLA.O</a>) will be profitable in the third and fourth quarters of this year and will not have to raise any money from investors, billionaire Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Friday, driving shares in the electric carmaker higher.</p> FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk, founder, CEO and lead designer at SpaceX and co-founder of Tesla, speaks at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Washington, U.S., July 19, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
<p>Tesla has already sought this month to play down widespread Wall Street speculation that it would need to return to capital markets this year to raise more funds for the money-losing company as it ramps up production of the Model 3 sedan seen as crucial to its long-term profitability.</p>
<p>The Silicon Valley car maker, which has consistently fallen short of promised production targets and is fighting bad publicity over a fatal crash of a car using its Autopilot system, said 10 days ago it would have positive cash flow from the third quarter.</p>
<p>Musk went further on Friday in a tweeted response to a story in The Economist which cited estimates Tesla would need $2.5 billion to $3 billion this year in additional funding.</p>
<p>“The Economist used to be boring, but smart with a wicked dry wit. Now it’s just boring (sigh). Tesla will be profitable &amp; cash flow+ in Q3 &amp; Q4, so obv no need to raise money,” Musk wrote.</p>
<p>Tesla shares, which have gained nearly 10 percent since disclosing the Model 3 production numbers on April 3, were up 1.8 percent in afternoon trading on Wall Street.</p>
<p>Musk’s claim about profit and cash flow hinges on a rapid rise in production of the Model 3 sedan, Tesla’s latest vehicle to have experienced production delays. That has postponed revenue from reaching Tesla’s bottom line from cars being delivered to customers.</p>
<p>An unprecedented level of robots used in the Model 3’s final assembly, in a break with automotive manufacturing norms, has added complexity and delays, which Musk acknowledged on Friday.</p>
<p>“Excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake,” Musk tweeted. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated.”</p>
<p>Thomson Reuters consensus of analyst estimates predicts Tesla’s free cash flow to be negative well into 2019, thanks in part to heavy investments. Only one of 19 analysts covering the stock see positive adjusted earnings per share in the third quarter, with that number growing to four for the fourth quarter.</p> FILE PHOTO: A Tesla dealership is seen in West Drayton, just outside London, Britain, February 7, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
<p>Wall Street brokerage Jefferies, which provided the funding estimate cited by The Economist, said in a note last week it expects refinancing risk to remain high for Tesla until it can consistently produce 10,000 Model 3s a week.</p>
<p>The company again missed its own 2,500 target for weekly production at the end of the first quarter, and analysts and fund managers doubt Tesla’s ability to keep production growing to a promised 5,000 Model 3s per week in three months time.</p>
<p>Musk in July said Tesla was going through “manufacturing hell” in ramping up production of the Model 3.</p>
<p>He told “CBS News” in an interview that aired Friday the company “got complacent” and “put too much new technology into the Model 3 all at once.” Part of the interview took place in a Tesla Model 3 Musk was driving with Autopilot activated at times.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">Tesla Inc</a> 300.34 TSLA.O Nasdaq +6.26 (+2.13%) TSLA.O
<p>Musk told CBS Tesla is currently producing 2,000 Model 3 cars a week.</p>
<p>Last month, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Tesla’s credit rating to B3 from B2, reflecting “the significant shortfall in the production rate of the company’s Model 3.”</p>
<p>Moody’s added that its negative outlook for Tesla “reflects the likelihood that Tesla will have to undertake a large, near-term capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall.”</p>
<p>On Thursday, the National Transportation Safety Board said that after a series of public disclosures by Tesla it had taken the unusual step of revoking Tesla’s status as a formal party to its investigation of a March 23 crash in California that killed a driver who was using Autopilot. The NTSB is also investigating two other Tesla crashes.</p>
<p>Tesla lashed out at the NTSB and said it planned to complain to Congress.</p>
<p>Asked by CBS if there was a defect with Autopilot, Musk responded: “The system worked as described, which is that it is a hands-on system. It is not a self-driving system.”</p>
<p>At one point during the interview, Musk did not have his hands on the wheel and the car beeped at him to retake the wheel.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru and David Shepardson in Washington; additional reporting by Dan Burns and Alexandria Sage; editing by Phil Berlowitz</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Financial stocks led a drop on Wall Street on Friday as results from big banks failed to enthuse and fear of broader conflict in Syria further unnerved investors.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P banks index fell 2.6 percent and the broader S&amp;P financial index lost 1.6 percent, the most among the 11 major S&amp;P sectors.</p>
<p>Shares of JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, dropped 2.7 percent after the bank’s quarterly profit fell slightly short of expectations. JPMorgan shares were the biggest weight on the S&amp;P 500.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo sank 3.4 percent after the bank said it may have to pay a penalty of $1 billion to resolve investigations, while Citigroup dropped 1.6 percent despite beating profit estimates.</p>
<p>Weak loan growth weighed on bank shares, said RJ Grant, head of trading at Keefe, Bruyette &amp; Woods in New York.</p>
<p>“If you didn’t own financials going into the quarter, there was nothing in the numbers today that would make you excited about owning them,” Grant said.</p>
<p>U.S. stocks extended losses on Friday after the State Department said that it had proof that Syria carried out a recent chemical weapons attack in the town of Douma.</p>
<p>The renewed possibility of a strike in Syria “is enough to cause heartburn for the market,” said Robert Phipps, a director at Per Stirling Capital Management in Austin, Texas. “There’s a ton of uncertainty right now so investors don’t want to go into the weekend particularly long.”</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 122.91 points, or 0.5 percent, to 24,360.14, the S&amp;P 500 lost 7.69 points, or 0.29 percent, to 2,656.3 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 33.60 points, or 0.47 percent, to 7,106.65.</p>
<p>Still, for the week, the S&amp;P 500 rose 1.99 percent, the Dow gained 1.79 percent, and the Nasdaq added 2.77 percent.</p>
<p>Friday’s bank results kicked off earnings season, with Thomson Reuters data predicting profits at S&amp;P 500 companies increased by 18.6 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, their biggest rise in seven years.</p>
<p>While the U.S. economy is performing well, geopolitical issues are weighing on stock markets this year.</p>
<p>Senior Russian lawmakers said on Friday that the lower house of parliament would consider draft legislation giving the Kremlin powers to ban or restrict a list of U.S. imports, reacting to new U.S. sanctions on Russian tycoons and officials.</p>
<p>Boeing fell 2.4 percent after a Russian lawmaker said the country may stop supplying titanium to the company.</p>
<p>Issues with engines for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner planes also weighed on the company’s shares.</p>
<p>The top gainer among S&amp;P sectors was energy, up 1.1 percent as oil prices rose.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
<p>Tesla rose 2.1 percent after founder Elon Musk said the electric car maker would be profitable in the third and fourth quarters and would not need to raise any money this year.</p>
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.28-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.64-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 5.78 billion shares, compared to the 7.22 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru and Sinéad Carew in New York; Editing by Patrick Graham and Chizu Nomiyama</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Nuuvera Announces $35 Mln Bought Deal Offering Mylan seeks deal for German Merck's consumer products unit: sources China slows review of chip company mergers amid trade tensions: WSJ Musk insists Tesla does not need more capital, predicts profit soon Wall Street falls as bank stocks, Syria conflict weigh | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-nuuvera-announces-35-mln-bought-de/brief-nuuvera-announces-35-mln-bought-deal-offering-idUSASB0C1EM | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>Since Thursday, Swedish witnesses have reported three explosions in various cities across the country, raising the specter of terrorism in a region that has welcomed millions of Muslim refugees from war-torn Islamic countries in the Middle East.</p>
<p>At around 10 p.m. on Thursday, a car bomb allegedly exploded in a suburb just south of Stockholm, according to the Swedish paper <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/03/10/suspected-car-bomb-explodes-swedish-capital-stockholm/" type="external">Expressen</a>. Then, <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/03/11/second-explosion-to-rock-sweden-in-24-hours-suspected-bomb/" type="external">Göteborgs-Posten</a> reported that an explosive had allegedly detonated in the stairwell of an apartment block in the city of Gothenburg on Friday evening. Finally, Swedish paper <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/03/13/suspected-pipe-bomb-thrown-car-sweden-third-explosion-four-days/" type="external">Aftonbladet</a>cited reports suggesting that a man had hurled a pipe bomb from a moving vehicle near the Lulea area.</p>
<p>Right-wing media sources, including <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/03/13/suspected-pipe-bomb-thrown-car-sweden-third-explosion-four-days/" type="external">Breitbart News</a>, are now reporting specialist bomb squads are being flown into Sweden in order to conduct a full investigation into the alleged bombings.</p>
<p>The mainstream media has not picked up these reports.</p>
<p>Swedish authorities have not invoked the term “terrorism” to describe any of the incidents in the last four days. The incidents do not appear to be linked.</p> | Was There Just A Terror Attack In Sweden? | true | https://dailywire.com/news/14372/was-there-just-terror-attack-sweden-michael-qazvini | 2017-03-13 | 0 |
<p><a href="http://theclimatedesk.org/" type="external" />The Senate on Thursday <a href="http://www.grist.org/article/2010-07-22-on-the-death-of-the-climate-bill" type="external">officially gave up</a> on trying to pass a climate bill in the foreseeable future—so what’s plan B? Leadership from states and federal agencies.</p>
<p>A mishmash of state plans and existing laws doesn’t sound like much. Climate experts have long preferred a national, economy-wide approach to cutting carbon pollution. But existing and announced state plans would do more good than you might assume.</p>
<p>Ten northeastern states <a href="http://www.rggi.org/home" type="external">already run</a> a functional cap-and-trade system, and 11 Western states and Canadian provinces are planning to start their own, the Western Climate Initiative, in 2012. And the Environmental Protection Agency continues its own march toward regulating climate pollution—which the Supreme Court <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/washington/03scotus.html?ex=1333339200&amp;en=e0d0a1497263d879&amp;ei=5124&amp;partner=permalink&amp;exprod=permalink" type="external">directed it to do</a>.</p>
<p>So it’s pretty darn useful that the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/washington/03scotus.html?ex=1333339200&amp;en=e0d0a1497263d879&amp;ei=5124&amp;partner=permalink&amp;exprod=permalink" type="external">World Resources Institute</a> has a <a href="http://www.wri.org/publication/reducing-ghg-emissions-using-existing-federal-authorities-and-state-action" type="external">new report</a> out today that calculates what exactly states and federal agencies could accomplish in the absence of Congressional action. The WRI research group looked at current and in-the-works state programs, as well as existing law directing federal agencies to cut carbon emissions. They measured the impact of these combined activities against President Obama’s pledge in Copenhagen last year to cut emissions “in the range of 17 percent” below 2005 levels by 2020.</p>
<p>The top-line finding: States and federal agencies could keep us on track in the near-term—until about 2016—but after that they would be insufficient. That’s the best-case scenario. Because there’s so much uncertainty about how state and federal agency plans will be executed, WRI mapped out “lackluster,” “middle-of-the-road,” and “go-getter” scenarios.</p>
<p>Here’s how each would perform compared to business as usual:Courtesy WRI.org</p>
<p>The bottom line on that graph charts the CO2 reductions the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says the whole world must achieve to avert catastrophic climate change. But even meeting those targets only gets us down to 450 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide-equivalent in the atmosphere; scientific consensus holds that 350 ppm is the safe upper limit.</p>
<p>WRI also mapped out the projected emissions from different sectors of the economy based on the various scenarios:Courtesy WRI.org</p>
<p>The electricity industry (in blue) is the biggest reduction target by far, and that’s where things get wonky quickly. The report considers regulatory action the EPA could take under several parts of the Clean Air Act—New Source Performance Standards, Best Available Control Technology, and even more obscure titles and section numbers. But none of this works if Congress strips the EPA’s authority to regulate climate pollution under the Clean Air Act—something some senators <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/06/11/11climatewire-effort-to-block-epa-fails-revealing-murky-pa-31482.html" type="external">have threatened to do</a>.</p>
<p>“The study highlights both the need to pass climate legislation and the importance of preserving existing authorities,” WRI President Jonathan Lash said in a prepared statement. “The study’s findings make it very clear that current efforts by Congress to curb EPA authority will undermine U.S. competitiveness in a clean energy world economy, block control of dangerous pollutants, and put the U.S. at odds with its allies.”</p>
<p>The report also looks at steps the energy and transportation departments could take to boost efficiency standards for appliances and automobiles. Notably, it does not measure transportation planning—which has a profound effect on oil consumption—or forestry or agriculture.</p>
<p>The authors also concede something that these sorts of reports tend to downplay: It’s hard to predict the future. “Longer-term reductions post-2020 are less certain under all analyzed scenarios,” they write, “primarily due to uncertainty about how quickly aging power plants will be replaced and the transportation sector can be transformed.”</p>
<p>Hence the focus on the next ten years. The report will no doubt meet criticism somewhere—in a hyper-partisan era, it’s easy to dismiss think-tank research as so much political ammunition. What’s interesting about this report is that it doesn’t make any claims about the amount of jobs created, money saved, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI" type="external">double rainbows</a> produced, etc. WRI makes it clear it wants a climate bill; here it looks at what may happen without one.</p>
<p>So is this any comfort? Good news or bad? The devil, as always, is in the details and the execution. The report illustrates the wide range between “lackluster” and “go-getter” policy. That’s the field of play for anyone who wants to help.</p>
<p>Update: Here’s an explanatory video from WRI:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>This <a href="http://www.grist.org/article/2010-07-23-state-and-epa-climate-action-become-key-as-senate-gives-up/" type="external">post</a> was produced by <a href="http://www.grist.org/" type="external">Grist</a> for the <a href="http://theclimatedesk.org/" type="external">Climate Desk</a> collaboration.</p> | State and EPA Climate Action Become Key as Senate Gives Up | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/state-epa-climate-legislation/ | 2010-07-23 | 4 |
<p>Camila Vallejo, president of Chile’s leading student body, is the face of a youth revolt that has been gaining public support since last spring. She’s been attacked with police tear gas and water cannons and targeted with death threats.</p>
<p>At 23, the Santiago native speaks boldly of the internationalization of the uprising against the neoliberal policies that have exploded the cost of college tuition and widened the gap of social and economic inequality in her country and beyond. And from Latin America to Europe and elsewhere, the international public is listening.</p>
<p>“Here in Chile, we are constantly hearing the message that our goals are impossible and that we are unrealistic, but the rest of the world, especially the youth, are sending us so much support. We are at a crucial moment in this struggle and international support is key,” she said.</p>
<p>Seventy percent of the Chilean public now supports the students’ demands and an equal percentage views the government’s proposals as insufficient, according to the Chilean newspaper La Tercera. –ARK</p>
<p />
<p>The Guardian:</p>
<p>Vallejo, an eloquent and attractive young woman who exudes self-confidence and style, took the violence in her stride and focused on what she sees as the positive achievements thus far. “For years, Chilean youth have been consumed by a neo-liberal model that highlights personal achievement and consumerism; it is all about mine, mine, mine. There is not a lot of empathy for the other,” said Vallejo in her office, decorated with a large photograph of Karl Marx.</p>
<p>… In just a matter of months, Vallejo has been catapulted from anonymous student body president to Latin American folk hero with more than 300,000 Twitter followers. Type her name into Google and there are more than 160,000 results just from the past 24 hours. Brazilian students now parade her as a VIP guest at their marches, the Chilean president invites her to negotiate a settlement and when she calls for a show of strength hundreds of thousands of students throughout Chile take to the streets. As an adept and wildly popular social media phenomenon, Vallejo has risen to become the most recognisable face of the student protesters.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/08/camila-vallejo-latin-america-revolutionary" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Meet Chile's New Youth Leader | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/meet-chiles-new-youth-leader/ | 2011-10-09 | 4 |
<p>The release of the captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, appears imminent. The recent flurry of activity in Cairo of high-profile Israeli and Hamas officials along with their Egyptian and German intermediaries point to a deal taking place in upcoming days, nicely timed to Eid Al-Adha celebrations marking the end of Hajj. Although details remain murky, in exchange for Shalit, approximately 500 Palestinian prisoners would be immediately released and possibly another 500 at a later date.</p>
<p>The most prominent Palestinian rumored to be set free is Marwan Barghouti, the widely popular militant-turned-politician thought to be a potential successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (he is presently serving five life sentences for alleged involvement in the killing of five Israelis in 2002). If a prisoner exchange does take place that includes Barghouti, it would not only boost Hamas’ standing among Palestinians, but certainly upstage Abbas’ rival Fatah faction since Barghouti is also a member (and despite his incarceration, was elected to the Fatah Central Committee this summer).</p>
<p>People may not have heard of Barghouti, but everyone knows Shalit. His picture has been seen, his letters read and a recently released videotape of him viewed. If only the same were true for thousands of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, many of whom are held in “administrative detention”; a form of confinement whereby the government holds anyone it deems to be a “security threat” for an indefinite period of time without charge, trial, or access to evidence. Indeed, Palestinians have hundreds upon hundreds of their own Shalits.</p>
<p>That being said, is the swap of 500 prisoners including Barghouti for Shalit reasonable?</p>
<p>If Hamas’ motive in securing Barghouti’s release is simply meant for political gain – and there is no doubt that he is the prize – with hundreds of others tagging along for good measure, then certainly not.</p>
<p>Hamas should shun political opportunism and instead demand the following:</p>
<p>Grant 500 Palestinians held in administrative detention due process of law or allow for their unconditional release.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Halt the uprooting of 500 olive trees. Those familiar with the beauty of the Holy Land – which Israeli settlers seem to abhor for some reason – know it is dotted with olive trees and groves. Many Palestinian villagers make their livelihood from the olive harvest. Yet, Israeli settlers have <a href="http://www.life.com/image/51881838" type="external">uprooted olive trees</a>, <a href="" type="internal">burned their groves</a> and have even taught their children <a href="http://www.multaqa.org/access/album/22.jpg" type="external">to show disdain for the harvest</a>.</p>
<p>Allow 500 tons of reconstruction materials and humanitarian aid into Gaza so the tiny, impoverished territory and its people, cut off from the rest of the world for so long, can rebuild their lives in dignity. Nearly one year after the December 2008 Israeli onslaught, a crippling blockade preventing Gazans from rebuilding homes, schools, mosques, police stations, water conduits and other vital infrastructure remains.</p>
<p>Allow 500 Palestinians to leave Gaza to obtain medical care. Currently, only a trickle are allowed out on both the Israeli and Egyptian sides of the border. Since Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak often appears more concerned with the welfare of Shalit than the life-threatening injuries sustained by Palestinians in Gaza and its deteriorating medical situation, Hamas should equally make Mubarak a partner to this.</p>
<p>Allow 500 Palestinian children to walk unharrassed and safely to school. As <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49378" type="external">reported</a> by Mel Frykberg of InterPress Service, children face daily assault by settlers while trying to get to class.</p>
<p>As one remarked, “It is really scary walking to school. We never know when the settlers will attack us and beat us.”</p>
<p>As Frykberg writes:</p>
<p>“Settler attacks – including arson attacks on agricultural fields, chopping down olive trees, poisoning water wells, killing livestock and assaulting Palestinian villagers living near settlements – have become a way of life for Palestinians all over the West Bank as the Israeli authorities continue to turn a blind eye.”</p>
<p>Although last minute negotiations are likely revolving around the terms of Barghouti’s release or whether so-and-so will be allowed to return home or be exiled to a third country, these details lose sight of what Hamas should demand: legal rights for Palestinian prisoners; respect for – not desecration of – the land; allowing Gaza’s reconstruction to proceed and its people to obtain medical care, and the guaranteed safety and well-being of Palestinian schoolchildren.</p>
<p>A soldier in exchange for humane and civilized behavior – a pity such a deal even has to be offered. Yet if Hamas does so, it would effectively shift the world’s attention from a soldier of the occupation to the desperate condition of the occupied. A better deal could not be had.</p>
<p>RANNIE AMIRI is an independent Middle East commentator. He may be reached at: rbamiri AT yahoo DOT com.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Impending Release of Gilad Shalit | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/11/25/the-impending-release-of-gilad-shalit/ | 2009-11-25 | 4 |
<p>The Black Lives Matter movement took a major step Monday, releasing a list of its demands and policy priorities. The activist group dedicated to fighting police brutality against people of color&#160;and rebuilding the black liberation movement began four years ago after Trayvon Martin’s death in Florida and has grown as young black men and women continue to die and face violence at the hands of law enforcement.&#160; <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/black-lives-matter-releases-policy-agenda-n620966" type="external">Black Lives Matter’s core demands</a>&#160;extend far beyond the police though, seeking to completely change systemic racism in America.</p>
<p>More than 50 organizations from across the country worked together to form the agenda, saying on The Movement for Black Lives’ (M4BL) website, <a href="https://policy.m4bl.org/platform/" type="external">“We can no longer wait.”</a>&#160;The platform’s release comes just before the second anniversary of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri that happened Aug. 9, 2014 and thrust the movement forward.</p>
<p>“It’s us saying that we’re not backing down,” Dara Cooper, an organizer with the National Black Food &amp; Justice Alliance, told the Associated Press’ Errin Haines Whack. “In the tradition of our ancestors and elders who have been in this very long struggle, we’re going to keep working toward what we deserve.” She continued, “ <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/groups-affiliated-black-lives-matter-release-agenda-41039911" type="external">Black life is undervalued and assaulted</a> in myriad ways. Policing and mass incarceration has so much to do with it, but it’s also the education we receive, the type of food we have access to, the ability to be self-determining through land ownership. … We fight against things, but we also need to be fighting for something.”</p>
<p />
<p>The new platform outlines six major demands,&#160;with 40 recommendations for how to make them happen:</p>
<p>In order to <a href="https://policy.m4bl.org/end-war-on-black-people/" type="external">end the war on black people</a> once and for all, the agenda says America needs to end the criminalization of black youth, capital punishment, the money bail system, mass surveillance of black communities, and for law enforcement to be demilitarized.</p>
<p>The platform as a whole is thorough and comprehensive, giving the movement concrete goals to strive toward and detailed demands to ask of legislators. It also highlights how much needs to change in order for black people to truly have equality in this country, which won’t happen quickly or all at once, but needed to be articulated so there’s something to strive toward.</p> | Here Are The Black Lives Matter Movement’s 6 Core Demands, As Outlined In Its New Agenda | true | http://thefrisky.com/2016-08-02/here-are-the-black-lives-matter-movements-6-core-demands-as-outlined-in-its-new-agenda/ | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
<p>As the walls close in on Donald Trump and his crime syndicate associates, the conservative propaganda networks are furiously trying to twist the facts into an unrecognizable perversion of reality. Fox News is at the top of the list of Trump-fluffing sycophants with hosts and contributors who relentlessly defend the President and smear his critics.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewsCorpse/posts/2105615486119902" type="external" /></p>
<p>However, Fox News is not alone on that battlefront. Sinclair Broadcasting is moving at breakneck speed to offer an alternative to Fox that is even more extreme and irresponsibly dishonest. With their “must run” segments featuring former Trump shill Boris Epshteyn, and their mandatory <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/07/media/sinclair-broadcasting-promos-media-bashing/index.html" type="external">corporate written screeds</a> against “fake” news, Sinclair poses a serious risk to journalism and democracy.</p>
<p>During the 2016 presidential campaign, Sinclair’s chairman, David Smith, made a deal with Trump to provide him positive coverage if he granted them greater access. They were blatantly selling their integrity to get closer to Trump. Now <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/apr/10/donald-trump-sinclair-david-smith-white-house-meeting" type="external">the Guardian is reporting</a> that Smith was even more servile when he secretly met with Trump at the White House. The Guardian discloses that:</p>
<p>“The chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group met Donald Trump at the White House during a visit to pitch a potentially lucrative new product to administration officials, the Guardian has learned.</p>
<p>“David D Smith, whose company has been criticised for making its anchors read a script echoing Trump’s attacks on the media, said he briefed officials last year on a system that would enable authorities to broadcast direct to any American’s phone.</p>
<p>“‘I just wanted them to be aware of the technology,” Smith said in an interview. He also recalled an earlier meeting with Trump during the 2016 election campaign, where he told the future president: ‘We are here to deliver your message.'”</p>
<p>Oh really? Promising to be there to deliver a president’s message is not the mission of a legitimate news enterprise. To the contrary, it’s the mission of journalistic lackeys with a political agenda who are brazenly and unabashedly biased. And everything that Sinclair does affirms that it is serving as a mouthpiece for Trump and the Republican Party.</p>
<p>The Guardian also asked Smith about the rightward leanings of his operation, which he forthrightly denied. He called assertions that the scripts he forced his anchors to read were biased in favor of Trump “the most absurd thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” That’s like Hannibal Lecter feigning offense that anyone might suggest he eats people. But his justification for that denial just made matters even worse. He said that:</p>
<p>“If people believe you more than they believe somebody else, they’re more likely to watch you,” he said. “And you know what that means? We might get a higher rating. And you know what that means? We will therefore make our spots worth more. And you know what that means? That means I will make more money, which means I can pay you more money.”</p>
<p>In summary, he’s saying that it’s his policy to convince viewers that all other sources of news are false. And the purpose of that slander is to discredit the press at large in order to get more viewers for Sinclair. That’s different than competing news organizations touting their skills and experience to appeal to their audience. It is a cult-like scheme to convince gullible people that only one truth exists and that Sinclair owns it. And it dovetails perfectly with Trump’s cultist tendencies that aim to achieve the same blind loyalty.</p>
<p>How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QSSMOES/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00QSSMOES&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=newscorpsecom-20&amp;linkId=TLI6JC2OYE22MUTS" type="external">Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.</a> Available now at Amazon.</p>
<p>Sinclair is currently trying to expand their reach by buying their largest competitor, Tribune Media. Trump’s Federal Communications Commission is likely to approve the acquisition, despite its breach of existing regulations. The American people need to join together to preserve the integrity of our free press. And one way to do that is to visit <a href="https://act.freepress.net/sign/journ_trump_sinclair/" type="external">Stop Sinclair</a> and lobby Congress to intervene to oppose this dangerous, anti-consumer merger.</p> | Sinclair State-TV Chairman to Trump: ‘We Are Here to Deliver Your Message’ | true | http://newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p%3D33693 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>RUSH: Trump was in Washington, the National Association of Manufacturers. He went out to pitch his tax cut idea, and I want to play these two before we get into <a href="" type="internal">excerpts of my interview last night</a> with Sean Hannity, which starts with the tax plan. So here’s the presidnto excerpts of my interview last ent, the first of two bites just this morning.</p>
<p>THE PRESIDENT: The single best tribute to our workers can be found in the unmatched quality and craftsmanship of the amazing products they bring from the blueprint to the storefront. “Made in the USA” is a global symbol of unrivaled excellence. My administration is working every day to lift the burdens on our companies and on our workers so that you can thrive, compete, and grow. And at the very center of that plan is a giant, beautiful, massive, the biggest ever in our country tax cut. (applause).</p>
<p>RUSH: And the applause went on. Here is Trump emphasizing — well, here, I’m not gonna characterize it. You just listen to it yourself.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>THE PRESIDENT: Our framework also provides relief to those who care for an older loved one through a $500 tax credit, something that everybody has been wanting so badly for so long, by eliminating the tax breaks and special interest loopholes that primarily benefit the wealthy. Our framework ensures that the benefits of tax reform go to the middle class, not the highest earners. That’s why we also have given Congress the flexibility to add an additional top rate on the very highest income earners to provide even more tax relief for everyday working people.</p>
<p>RUSH: All right, now, I’m sorry, that doesn’t equal growth. If this tax plan is about growth — this is the surcharge. Let me go through this. “Our framework provides relief to those who care for an older loved one through a $500 tax credit, something that everybody has been wanting so badly for so long. By eliminating tax breaks and special interest loopholes that primarily benefit the healthy, our framework ensures that the benefits of tax reform go to the middle class not the highest earners. That’s why we’ve also given Congress the flexibility to add an additional top rate on the very highest income earners to provide even more tax relief for everyday working people.”</p>
<p>That’s just another way of saying we’re gonna levy a surcharge on the top 1% in order help pay for tax cuts for everybody else. Now, that’s Democrat Party language. And I know, folks, that there is no way that anybody is going to succeed defending the rich. I’m not doing that. I’m not defending the rich. I’m actually defending the concept of economic growth. That’s what the proponents of the tax plan say that it is, that its purpose is, and if that is the objective, you’re going to have to cut taxes across the board.</p>
<p>You can’t leave out people who hire. You can’t leave out people who invest and grow things. But, furthermore, to try to attract support for it by blaming all this on the fact that the upper bracket isn’t paying enough? That’s the kind of language that might bring the Democrats into the fold on this. But nobody ever succeeded in defending the rich when it comes time for tax cuts. Most people don’t even try. And that’s not what I am doing here. I’m very uncomfortable with this whole idea that the tax cut has to be paid for. Why does it have to be paid for? If we’re trying to stimulate the economy further, we need to actually put more money in the economy. The way you do that is take less out of it.</p>
<p>The way you do that is you cut everybody’s taxes. You know, every dollar the government takes is a dollar taken out of the economy, and every dollar taken out of the economy is a dollar that cannot grow. If the government is holding it, it cannot grow. Government doesn’t create wealth. The government redistributes wealth and destroys it, but it does not grow it. If you want the economy — some people call that “the private sector.”</p>
<p>If you want that to grow, you have to leave money there. It’s like Obama’s stimulus. There was no stimulus. Obama, the media, the Democrats wanted everybody to believe, “Hey, you know what? We found almost a trillion dollars over there in the Treasury that was just sitting in an account! It wasn’t being used! So we decided to take that trillion and grab a syringe and just inject it into the private sector.”</p>
<p>That’s not what happened. There isn’t a trillion dollars sitting around somewhere. There’s not $500 billion sitting around. We’re $20 trillion in debt. There isn’t any money sitting around. For Obama to get that stimulus — let’s call it a trillion; that’s rounded up — he had to take it from the private sector in the first place. It was a net zero wash. Was there any economic growth at all to speak of during Obama’s seven years, eight years? There wasn’t.</p>
<p>The reason we’re having growth right now under Trump is attitudinal. The Trump agenda — the promises of tax cuts, the promises of getting the albatross of health care fixed, the prospects of limiting illegal immigration in the country and not putting pressure on Americans in the job market. All of these things led people to a more positive attitude, which led to what we now have as a second quarter growth rate of 3.1%.</p>
<p>Obama never saw anywhere close to 3% in eight years. But we were growing seven, eight percent in the eighties. And we could do it again, but you can’t do it if you take money out of the economy and give it to government. This is populism. This is telling the middle class, “The only way that we can give you a tax cut is by not giving a tax cut to some of your fellow citizens and raising the taxes of other of your fellow citizens. That’s the only way we can do it.” And so the people getting a tax cut say, “Well, then you go right ahead!</p>
<p>“If the only way I can get a tax cut is you gotta take it from somebody else, then you go right ahead.” That’s populism. That’s not conservatism. And it continues the myth that all money is Washington’s and none of it is yours. And what you end up with is through the good graces of government policy. But it continues the myth… Well, it’s not a “myth.” It continues the notion that all money in the country is owned by Washington, and what you end up with is the result of government policy.</p>
<p>And so you are campaigned, you are persuaded to support government policy that allows you to keep more of what you earn. But now we’re running around talking about, “The rich don’t need any more relief. I don’t need it; they don’t need it. In fact, we’ve put flexibility in there so Congress can actually tax them even more to ensure that you get your tax cut.” It pits people against each other, creates class envy. It’s unfortunate.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: I want to go back to this, the last thing Trump said in that second sound bite. “That’s why we also have given Congress the flexibility to add an additional top rate on the very highest income earners to provide even more tax relief for everyday working people.” Pitting… This is not… Folks, I’m sorry, this is not right, and it’s not necessary to sell this.</p>
<p>This is how Democrat presidents sell this kind of stuff, and they sell it as a tax increase on the rich. That’s how they sell it. They never sell tax cuts ’cause they don’t believe in ’em. So when they want to change tax policy, they lead with punishing the rich, raising taxes on the rich. Nobody gives Congress the flexibility. Congress owns the flexibility! Congress! The constitutionality of generation of revenue, tax policy, spending all originates in the House of Representatives.</p>
<p>Nobody gives them flexibility other than the Congress, unless the Congress willingly sacrifices its power. Which, when the Democrats ran Congress, they gave up all kinds of power to Obama ’cause they don’t mind dictatorships and authoritarian figures when their side’s running things. If you really want to “pay,” Mr. President, for this tax cut, then start cutting some agencies. Get the government smaller. There’s overpopulation in all these bureaucracies, redundancy.</p>
<p>You got programs and people that you could get rid of 50% of and not affect the objective of these programs. Why make the high earners and the achievers in this country…? Why put the onus on them? The only way working people can get a tax cut is if we raise taxes on these people? It’s unnecessary, and it’s not right. I mean, you say you’re gonna drain the swamp, drain the swamp. You want to “pay” for a tax cut? Get rid of so much redundant government spending.</p>
<p>Here is Jim in west-central Florida. Great to have you, sir. Welcome to EIB Network. Hi.</p>
<p>CALLER: Thank you, Rush. So directional gyro dittos, you know?</p>
<p>RUSH: (chuckling)</p>
<p>CALLER: I believe that many of the problems our country faces today at the root cause is the failed education system that has been ruined by the liberals ’cause they’ve been running it so long. And then they go out to college and then they graduate and become absent-minded college-educated idiots that don’t understand the definition of words. They’re socialist indoctrination centers basically is what it is.</p>
<p>RUSH: I think not only is that true, we had column by Walter Williams earlier this week in which research and studies indicated that way too many high school graduates today and college freshmen have an eighth grade level of education. Eighth grade! They’re adults, but they’re eighth grade in their knowledge and so forth. Nobody would disagree with you on that at all.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: No. No, no, no. I done be gonna telling you why. Everybody, “Why is Trump doing this,” people say, “Why?” You know what people remember. The best tax plan, folks, the best tax plan for the United States economy is a tax plan that takes the most money out of wasteful government bureaucracies and programs and puts that money back into the economy in the form of a tax cut. You let people keep more of what they earn, you shrink government, get rid of unnecessary, burdensome regulations, which Trump has made a good start at but there’s still so much.</p>
<p>They say, “Well, it’s all entitlements, Rush, you can’ –” There’s so much bureaucracy you could cut it in half and not impact a thing in terms of precious government services. Anyway, you take the most money you can out of government, you put that back into the economy so the economy can grow. You can’t grow an economy if you take money out of it. And any tax cut for the middle class that is paid for by taking the same amount of money away from other Americans is not gonna grow the economy. It can’t. The numbers aren’t there.</p>
<p>It’s mathematics. And this is what Trump meant when he said he wanted to make America great again by making America rich again. You can’t cut some people’s taxes and let them keep more of what they earn and then say we’re gonna pay for that by increasing taxes on some Americans because you’re taking that same amount of money back out. While you put it in, you’re taking it back out if it must be paid for. And so the economy does not grow, you’re not putting additional dollars into the economy. So people, “Well, why is Trump doing this?”</p>
<p>Very simple, folks. Populism — let me cut to the chase. Trump believes that this is what his voters want. Everybody thinks that the rich need to be punished. This is an axiom in politics that’s way older than the U.S. The rich are perennially resented and unpopular. And nobody is gonna have any sympathy for them if their taxes are raised. It’s quite the opposite. Most people think that the way you build a bond of relatability to people, the way you strengthen your attachment to voters is tell them you’re looking out for them and you’re gonna get the other guys. It’s the way the Democrats have always done it.</p>
<p>But every party, every politician will come along, “We’re gonna increase taxes on the rich, they don’t need it.” Remember Richard Gephardt? We got a soundbite of Richard Gephardt, Democrat congressman from Missouri, he actually said during a speech supporting tax increases on the rich as a way to grow the economy, imagine that, tax increases on the rich to grow the economy, Gephardt said (imitating Gephardt), “I have a friend, I have a friend, and my friend told me that if you really want to make me rich, you’ll raise my taxes.” Remember that sound bite? We’re sitting here scratching our heads over that, ’cause it’s patently untrue. It is fabulously false.</p>
<p>There isn’t a rich guy around that will tell anybody, “You want to make me rich? You want to make me richer? Then you’ll raise my taxes.” If that were the case, the rich would be firing their tax accountants and they would be paying more than they owe, if that’s the route to wealth, then that’s what the rich would be doing. But it isn’t, is it? The rich are the people using every legal advantage they can find in the tax code to not pay taxes. And, by the way, that becomes a story, and so soaking the rich is a very popular thing for any politician to promise or to say he’s gonna do.</p>
<p>But I’m gonna tell you, if you’re sitting out there in the middle class, and you’re told that your tax cut is going to be paid for by somebody else’s taxes going up, you should realize that doesn’t mean the economy’s gonna grow, and usually the people whose taxes are going up are the people you hope will hire you someday or give you a raise.</p> | Trump’s Pitching His Tax Cut Like a Democrat | true | https://rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/09/29/trumps-pitching-his-tax-cut-like-a-democrat/ | 2017-09-29 | 0 |
<p>Next Tuesday is going to be a big week for iPhone lovers -- and fans of queso. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is hosting a media event on Sept. 12 that is all but certain to feature the <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/08/31/8-reasons-apple-incs-iphone-8-launch-is-so-importa.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=61fca582-930c-11e7-9a1b-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">unveiling of the iPhone 8 Opens a New Window.</a>. Now,&#160;Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG)&#160;is also making that a day to remember, announcing that it will be rolling out queso to all of its restaurants on the same day.</p>
<p>There's no denying that the iPhone 8 is going to be a bar-raising moment. Apple is the world's most valuable consumer-tech company, and the iconic smartphone is its biggest product. However, let's not dismiss the importance of Chipotle rolling out the melty and gooey cheese concoction.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>When it comes to investors, queso may generate a bigger windfall for Chipotle than the iPhone 8 does for Apple. It may seem like a blasphemous thing to say, but let's spell out the reasons why next Tuesday could be a bigger day for Chipotle's prospects than Apple's future.</p>
<p>Shares of Apple are on fire this year. The stock hit yet another all-time high late last week, and the shares have risen nearly 40% in 2017. Apple's current fundamentals don't necessarily warrant the new high-water marks. Revenue and earnings are still trending below peak fiscal 2015 levels. The stock is clearly moving on the potential of the next-gen smartphone that will mark the device's 10th anniversary.</p>
<p>Queso, on the other hand, may just be queso. Most of its rivals already have vats of the stuff in their arsenals. Chipotle is trying to set its offering apart by sidestepping additives, but it's not as if the whiff of a new menu item has set Chipotle stock on fire. We're actually seeing the exact opposite happen, as Chipotle stock is trading near the four-year low it hit just two weeks ago. Chipotle shares are trading 18% lower in 2017, having shed more than half of their value since peaking two summers ago.</p>
<p>In short, Apple investors have already bid up a perfect rollout for the iPhone 8. Apple has tacked on nearly $250 billion in market cap this year, all on the notion that customers won't flinch at the new device's stiff price tag and come running for features that are mostly already available on rival Android smartphones.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Chipotle, on the other hand, is trading lower than it was when it first began testing queso in New York City and then hundreds of stores in California and Colorado. A strong iPhone 8 response is already discounted in Apple stock, while Chipotle stock is, well, just discounted.</p>
<p>The iPhone 8 is going to have a big impact on Apple for a few months, and then it will be years before it raises the bar again with a next-gen update. We saw sales spike in fiscal 2012 and 2015 -- as we will in 2018 -- only to see growth decelerate to modest single-digit growth in 2013 and 2014, with an outright decline in 2016, and still lag 2015 peak levels in 2017. Analysts see the iPhone 8 helping Apple to a 15% surge in revenue in fiscal 2018 only to post flattish top-line growth the following year.</p>
<p>Queso should have a more lasting impact on Chipotle. The novelty of queso will spike near-term sales, but it's not as if Chipotle will be at the mercy of pushing out annual updates with a major overhaul every three years. Queso will be queso, just as guacamole is guacamole. People won't stop eating queso a year from now, just as they haven't stopped paying a premium for guac.</p>
<p>There will be an initial push for new iPhone 8 accessories, including the rumored wireless charger and possibly new cases if the form factor is different, but there's no reason to believe than an iPhone 8 user will be buying more premium apps, or subscribing to more Apple services, than the iPhone 7 user today. In terms of services and other digital offerings, it's just another iPhone with niftier features and a higher sticker price.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/08/29/3-reasons-why-queso-may-save-the-day-at-chipotle.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=61fca582-930c-11e7-9a1b-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Queso will be different Opens a New Window.</a>. Customers will have to pay extra to top their meals with queso -- as little as $1.25, but still an incremental purchase. Queso will also be available in cups for dipping for a bit more than $1.25, something that should also push check averages higher, and likely result in an uptick in chip sales. Queso will dramatically boost Chipotle's tried unit-level sales, and it's happening at the right time. The iPhone 8 may not be a game changer beyond the initial sale.</p>
<p>I'm not suggesting that the party is over for Apple investors. I'm a happy Apple shareholder myself. However, when it comes to what event will impact a bigger percentage stock gain in the coming months, it's hard to argue that this is a battle for Chipotle to lose.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Chipotle Mexican GrillWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
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<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=f0412949-11d6-4ad9-b22a-3be20d73141c&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=61fca582-930c-11e7-9a1b-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of September 5, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBreakerRick/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=61fca582-930c-11e7-9a1b-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Rick Munarriz Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and Chipotle Mexican Grill. 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=61fca582-930c-11e7-9a1b-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Forget the New iPhone: Chipotle Is Getting Queso! | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/06/forget-new-iphone-chipotle-is-getting-queso.html | 2017-09-06 | 0 |
<p>PHOTO: Revolution News</p>
<p><a href="http://www.laizquierdadiario.com/Jornada-de-huelga-y-movilizaciones-en-Grecia-enfrentamientos-con-la-policia-en-plaza-Syntagma" type="external">Spanish version from La Izquierda Diario, July 16, 2015.</a></p>
<p>On Monday, the confederation called for a <a href="" type="internal">day-long strike against the new memorandum</a>.</p>
<p>Syntagma Square, in Athens, was the scene of fierce protests on Wednesday. The police responded with repression and tear gas, and carried out arrests in order to quell the demonstrations taking place outside Parliament.</p>
<p>The leadership of the ADEDY union is composed of members of the anti-capitalist coalition Antarsya, the Syriza-allied union tendency META, and PAME, a union alliance organized by the Greek Communist Party (KKE). The union's declaration to the government reminded Greek officials that only a few days after 62% of Greeks rejected the proposals of the creditors, Tsipras accepted similar conditions put forth by the Troika, as if the referendum had never happened. In this way, the Syriza government is acting similarly to the governments of New Democracy and the social-democratic PASOK, who faced 33 general strikes in recent years.</p>
<p>This is the first general strike carried out during the Syriza government, which is now facing numerous contradictions in order to justify this defeat as the lesser of two evils. In fact, it is a <a href="" type="internal">truly colonialist pact</a> which includes pension reforms, and increase in taxes and social security contributions, and a privatizations program which will include numerous state assets, most notably among them, the Port of Pireo.</p>
<p>At the same time, the pharmacists association has called for a 24-hour strike against the agreement with the Eurogroup which will liberalize their sector. The restaurant federation has called for a protest this afternoon in Athens against the increase in sales tax from 13% to 23%, as set forth in the new law.</p>
<p>The opinions on the agreement and the day of action in opposition are diverse, ranging from enthusiasm that an alternative is possible, to resignation and fear that not accepting the Troika's conditions would mean collapse and economic catastrophe.</p>
<p>The Greek people gave a resounding "NO" (OXI) to the agreement proposed by the Troika on July 5, but they also voted NO to austerity, to misery, and to blackmail by the international financial institutions. However, <a href="" type="internal">Syriza has only moderated its program</a> since then in order to reach a deal with the Troika, a strategy that has ended in absolute failure and profound humiliation.</p>
<p>But the same day that Parliament prepares to approve this colonialist pact, workers have organized a general strike and the working class continues to mobilize in the streets against austerity.</p>
<p>A program is needed which includes the demands: no to the re-payment of the debt, the recovery of all privatized companies, the nationalization of the banks and strategic sectors of industry under worker control, heavy taxes on the rich and the state's monopolization of foreign trade, among other measures. A program like this could be won through a prolonged period of protests, strikes, and direct actions which go beyond the bourgeois framework in which Syriza has attempted to operate, without success.</p>
<p>The tireless struggle of the working class and the oppressed people of Greece, with its advances and retreats is worthy of admiration from all of us. Its clarity and commitment contrasts with the moderation and capitulation of the great majority of its political representatives in government.</p>
<p>Their struggles during these five years of economic crisis, two financial bailouts, and draconian austerity measures which have left the country in a near-postwar situation, have given the Greek workers and youth the experience necessary to rely on their own strength as well as the courage to continue confronting the dictatorship of the markets. It is of the utmost importance to unite their struggles and bring the Greek people to a true break from the Euro, the EU and austerity and toward a government of the workers which would serve as an example to the world.</p>
<p>Related</p>
<p><a href="ADEDY" type="external">ADEDY</a>&#160;&#160;&#160;/&#160;&#160;&#160; <a href="OXI" type="external">OXI</a>&#160;&#160;&#160;/&#160;&#160;&#160; <a href="strike" type="external">strike</a>&#160;&#160;&#160;/&#160;&#160;&#160; <a href="Greece" type="external">Greece</a>&#160;&#160;&#160;/&#160;&#160;&#160; <a href="Labor-movement" type="external">Labor movement</a>&#160;&#160;&#160;/&#160;&#160;&#160; <a href="Europe" type="external">Europe</a></p> | Day of strikes and demonstrations in Greece, clashes with police in Syntagma Square | true | https://leftvoice.org/Day-of-strikes-and-demonstrations-in-Greece-clashes-with-police-in-Syntagma-Square | 2015-07-16 | 4 |
<p>The American death toll in Iraq reached 1,000 last night, the White House announced after yet another day of heavy fighting in Baghdad.</p>
<p>The symbolic figure was reached 18 months after President Bush started the war that has become the defining issue of the US presidential campaign. His rival in the elections, the Democrat candidate John Kerry, called it a “tragic milestone”.</p>
<p>The Pentagon said that 998 troops and three civilian defence employees had been killed in Iraq, and 6,916 soldiers wounded. Yesterday, fierce battles between US forces and Shia militiamen of the Mehdi Army in the sprawling slum of Sadr City left 34 people dead, including one US soldier, and 193 wounded. Shia fighters used hammers to dig up asphalt from the roads, and then planted explosives. Shops shut as roads were blocked with stones and tyres.</p>
<p>Militiamen carrying machineguns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers moved hurriedly towards the fighting. Sheikh Raed al-Khadimi, the spokesman for Muqtada Sadr, the radical Shia cleric, said: “Our fighters had no choice but to return fire and to face the US forces and helicopters pounding our houses.”</p>
<p>US commanders have said they want to clear the Mehdi Army from its stronghold in Sadr City. Talks between representatives of Mr Sadr and the interim government of Iyad Allawi, the Prime Minister, broke down when the government rejected the demand that American troops keep out of Sadr City.</p>
<p>If Mr Allawi and the US want to eliminate the Mehdi Army entirely there could be fighting in Sadr City as bloody as anything seen during the three-week battle for Najaf that took place last month and devastated the holy city.</p>
<p>The US is now fighting two different wars in Iraq: one is against the large but ill-trained Mehdi Army; the other is against the highly effective Sunni Muslim guerrillas who have killed 12 US soldiers in the past two days.</p>
<p>Many of the US soldiers have died when their vehicles were caught by the blast from roadside bombs, usually several heavy artillery shells detonated by a command wire. The US army has not found the answer to this type of attack.</p>
<p>A typical but devastating ambush using a buried mine took place at 11.45pm on Monday in the Khadra district of Baghdad beside an expressway close to an intersection much used by American military traffic.</p>
<p>As a convoy of Humvees–the enlarged jeeps preferred by the US Army–passed along the road a bomb exploded, squarely hitting one vehicle. Rocket-propelled grenades were fired from the other side of the road.</p>
<p>The blast destroyed one Humvee, killing a soldier and wounding another. The explosion was powerful enough to hurl shattered fragments of the weapon on to the roof of a house. A metal door from the vehicle had been flung 40 yards and was lying on top of another roof where it had cut through an electricity cable in its fall. Beside it were torn pieces of American uniform and the broken lid of a first-aid kit.</p>
<p>Ten minutes away from where the Humvee had been destroyed, guerrillas launched another professional ambush yesterday morning. Their target was Ali al-Haidri, the governor of Baghdad, as he sped down the road in a heavily armed convoy on his way to work.</p>
<p>A witness, Ali Faruq, said that as the governor’s convoy drove by two men who were standing by the boot of their car quickly opened it. Inside was a gunman who opened fire. At the same moment,two other gunmen on foot, their faces concealed by kafiyahs, appeared ahead of the convoy.</p>
<p>To get off the main road, Mr Haidri’s convoy turned right into a side street. The ambush party must have been expecting this. Mr Faruq said: “Three minutes earlier a man had put down a box in this street. It turned out to be a bomb.”</p>
<p>It exploded, making a black crater in the tarmac and smashing down the wall of the nearby Ala Allah mosque.</p>
<p>But whoever detonated the bomb did so seconds too early because the governor’s car was still approaching.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | A War on Two Fronts | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/09/08/a-war-on-two-fronts/ | 2004-09-08 | 4 |
<p>TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Japan’s prime minister has kicked off a five-day European tour to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania — becoming the first-ever head of the Asian nation to visit those countries.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived Friday in Estonia’s capital of Tallinn, where he focused on cybersecurity and information technology issues. The small Baltic nation of 1.3 million people is considered one of Europe’s most advanced technological nations.</p>
<p>Tokyo has been increasingly worried about potential cyberthreats from North Korea and China, and is looking to learn from Estonia, whose public institutions and private companies were hit by a large-scale cyberattack in 2007.</p>
<p>Following a meeting with Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas, Abe said both leaders agreed about the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear arms program. He urged the international community to “maximize the pressure” on Pyongyang.</p>
<p>Abe is expected to address the North Korea issue in more detail when he visits Bulgaria, which took over the European Union’s rotating presidency from Estonia on Jan. 1.</p>
<p>Abe announced that Japan would join NATO’s cyberdefense center in Tallinn to boost its capabilities to deal with digital threats.</p>
<p>Abe also met with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid over discussions on EU-Japan relations and bilateral trade, accompanied by a business delegation with several dozen representatives from Japanese companies.</p>
<p>He travels to Estonia’s Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania on Saturday.</p>
<p>TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Japan’s prime minister has kicked off a five-day European tour to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania — becoming the first-ever head of the Asian nation to visit those countries.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived Friday in Estonia’s capital of Tallinn, where he focused on cybersecurity and information technology issues. The small Baltic nation of 1.3 million people is considered one of Europe’s most advanced technological nations.</p>
<p>Tokyo has been increasingly worried about potential cyberthreats from North Korea and China, and is looking to learn from Estonia, whose public institutions and private companies were hit by a large-scale cyberattack in 2007.</p>
<p>Following a meeting with Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas, Abe said both leaders agreed about the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear arms program. He urged the international community to “maximize the pressure” on Pyongyang.</p>
<p>Abe is expected to address the North Korea issue in more detail when he visits Bulgaria, which took over the European Union’s rotating presidency from Estonia on Jan. 1.</p>
<p>Abe announced that Japan would join NATO’s cyberdefense center in Tallinn to boost its capabilities to deal with digital threats.</p>
<p>Abe also met with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid over discussions on EU-Japan relations and bilateral trade, accompanied by a business delegation with several dozen representatives from Japanese companies.</p>
<p>He travels to Estonia’s Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania on Saturday.</p> | Japanese PM kicks off six-nation European tour in Estonia | false | https://apnews.com/54426bab2d25470d885de2815cfd849e | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
<p>Photo by stavros karabinas | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>“The experience that we have of our lives from within, the story we tell ourselves about ourselves in order to account for what we are doing, is fundamentally a lie – the truth lies outside, in what we do.”</p>
<p>―&#160;Slavoj Žižek</p>
<p>A Most Violent Nation</p>
<p>In the United States of America, violence remains one of our greatest pastimes. From slaughtering Native Americans and enslaving, torturing and killing African Americans, to conquering Filipinos and incinerating the Vietnamese, the history of the U.S. reads like a horror story. Without question, this is a nation built and maintained by violence.</p>
<p>Today, Americans shoot and kill each other and themselves at unprecedented levels, and disproportionately when compared to our industrialized counterparts. Uncle Sam, as Chris Hedges routinely mentions, speaks in the “language of violence.” When children grow up watching their presidents and civic leaders threaten to use violence, it should come as no surprise when those same children resort to violence to solve their problems.</p>
<p>Growing up, I was immersed in violence, both personally and socially. My father’s friends spent their time on the streets. They understood how violence works in the real world. They also understood the utility of violence. But they paid the price for their devotion to violence. Many of them turned into alcoholics. Some died from drugs. Others are in jail. Their families and victims pay the ultimate price.</p>
<p>I was born in 1984. I grew up on&#160;COPS, Rambo&#160;and&#160;Navy Seals. I played with toy guns, and eventually, real ones. I grew up shooting. I grew up with cops and military veterans visiting our childhood homes. They spoke in the language of violence. They drank, and smoked, and cursed. They were angry. They remain angry.</p>
<p>Violence, when employed correctly, is extremely effective. That’s why it’s so tempting to use violence as a means to an end. People who argue that violence solves nothing have never encountered much violence. Unfortunately, violence is horrifically powerful and quite useful in many contexts. That said, the long-term social, ecological and cultural consequences of violent behavior are equally destructive.</p>
<p>From the perspective of a nation-state, violence can solve short-term issues, but it cannot solve complex long-term challenges such as climate change, institutional racism, militarism, etc. Right now, U.S. Empire is quickly learning the limitations of protracted violence. The U.S. Empire is collapsing under its own weight, as the historian Alfred McCoy routinely notes.</p>
<p>Any empire, republic, political movement or individual who bases their movement on violence will ultimately succumb to extreme violence. The more the state apparatus lashes out in violent ways, and the more rightwing extremists engage in terrorism, the more likely the Left will respond with violence (a point we’ll return to later in the essay). The cycle of violence must end, and soon.</p>
<p>Breaking from 400 years of colonial history and violence will not be easy, but it can be done. There is no law or rule that says we must continue down this violent and destructive path. However, much like a life-long alcoholic,&#160;it will take great efforts to change the mindset and culture that encourages people to think and behave violently. More importantly, we must dismantle the economic, cultural, social and psychological institutions and mechanisms that create the conditions for violence.</p>
<p>The Charlottesville—Military Connection</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">James Alex Fields Jr</a>., the rightwing terrorist who drove his car into a crowd of protesters, killing Heather D. Heyer and injuring another 20 people, is an Army veteran. According to media reports, Fields was a loner and a confused teenager who became interested in WWII and Nazis during his high school years. Since the attack, pictures have surfaced showing Fields participating in Vanguard America rallies.</p>
<p>While Fields represents the sort of misguided and irrational terrorists he likely despises, the more interesting character in this tragedy is&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Dylan Ulysses Hopper</a>, the CEO of Vanguard America, and one of the primary organizers for rightwing groups who descended on Charlottesville.</p>
<p>Hopper, a former Marine Corps sergeant, officially became a white supremacist in 2012, around the same time he became a Marine Corps recruiter in Ohio. Quickly, Hopper ascended the ranks of Vanguard America, using his recruitment skills and military training to boost the ranks of&#160;the white supremacist organization. Hopper, a veteran of both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, represents a growing trend in the U.S. military. According to the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Southern Poverty Law Center</a>, citing an FBI study:</p>
<p>White supremacist leaders are making a concerted effort to recruit active-duty soldiers and recent combat veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new FBI report. The unclassified FBI Intelligence Assessment, titled ‘White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel Since 9/11,’ bolsters the findings of a 2006&#160;Intelligence Report&#160;exposé&#160;that revealed that alarming numbers of racist extremists were taking advantage of lowered wartime recruiting standards to enlist in the armed services.</p>
<p>‘Military experience is found throughout the white supremacist extremist movement as a result of recruitment campaigns by extremist groups and self-recruitment by veterans sympathetic to white supremacist causes,’ the FBI report states. ‘Extremist leaders seek to recruit members with military experience in order to exploit their discipline, knowledge of firearms, explosives and tactical skills as well as [in the case of active duty soldiers] their access to weapons and intelligence.’</p>
<p>Of course, none of this should come as a great surprise. An institution that’s built on racism, genocide, xenophobia, dehumanization, extreme violence and toxic masculinity should be expected to create such monsters. From the Hells Angels to the Oklahoma City bombing, white supremacists have always found comfort within the ranks of the U.S. military.</p>
<p>During my time in the Marine Corps, it was routine to hear my fellow jarheads refer to black marines as ‘dark green,’ or worse, ‘niggers.’ Iraqis and Afghans were referred to as ‘Hajis,’ ‘towel heads’ or ‘sand-niggers.’ Female marines were called ‘WM’s,’ which stands for ‘Walking Mattresses.’ Hispanic marines were labeled ‘wetbacks’ or ‘spics.’ And Asian marines were routinely called ‘gooks’ or ‘rice patties.’</p>
<p>This sort of behavior and regressive ideology is prevalent in many institutions that are dominated by white men, including sports teams, fire departments and police departments. Remember&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Officer Jason Lai</a>&#160;of the San Francisco Police Department? He was the cop who got busted sending texts to fellow officers that read, “I hate that beaner but the Nig is worse!” “Indian ppl are disgusting!” And, “Burn down Walgreens and kill the bums!”</p>
<p>Officer Lai, of Asian American descent, fully identified with and espoused the sort of rightwing-reactionary views of his white supremacist colleagues in the SFPD. And to think, we’re talking about San Francisco, not Miami, Birmingham, St. Louis or Chicago. One can only assume&#160;that the majority of Lai’s fellow police officers in the SFPD hold similar views. One can only imagine what police officers in various departments across the U.S. think about people of color, the poor, Muslims or protesters.</p>
<p>Fortunately or unfortunately, we don’t have to guess as we have more than enough evidence to prove that these sort of racist and violent outbursts are not isolated incidents. Ongoing and past tragedies, from Charlottesville to Oklahoma City, are nauseatingly predictable. Institutions such as the military inherently feeds the white supremacy that plagues American society and culture.</p>
<p>The Myth of World War II &amp; The Power of Propaganda</p>
<p>In light of recent events, online activists and others have taken to posting pictures of troops storming the beaches of Normandy as a way to tie current anti-Fascist struggles to the defeat of Italian Fascism and German Nazism during World War II. The problem with this sort of reactionary protest is that it feeds the ongoing myths surrounding WWII: namely, the notion that the U.S. got involved in the war to defeat Fascism and Nazism.</p>
<p>The U.S. Empire, like all previous empires, does not engage in wars because it’s the right or moral thing to do. The U.S. Empire has interests. And its interests are not our interests. If within the scope of U.S. imperial interests something positive takes place, such as the defeat of Nazism, it’s a mere coincidence, not a calculated objective. The primary objective of nation-states are not moral crusades (though moral crusades under the guise of enlightened Christianity were commonly used to dominate people around the globe), the primary objective of nation-states is to consolidate and wield power.</p>
<p>Without doubt, the momentary defeat of Nazism and Fascism should be hailed, but not in the way in which it’s currently being lauded. Remember, the Communists defeated Fascism, not the Americans. Some estimates suggest that the Soviet Union lost close to 27 million people during WWII. The Communists bore the brunt of Fascism and Nazism. Yet, Americans revel in the myth that our 500,000+ deaths were the deciding factor in the war effort. Let’s also remember the hundreds of thousands of anarchists, communists, socialists, Jews, Gypsies and others who valiantly fought against Fascism.</p>
<p>Today, the myths surrounding WWII continue to haunt the American psyche, crippling our ability to critically examine U.S. history, ideology and nationalism. Most Americans have concluded that our war against Japan was just, and our efforts against the Germans and Italians righteous. Yet, as the late-great historian Howard Zinn notes in his classic work,&#160; <a href="http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinnpeopleswar.html" type="external">A People’s History of the United States</a>:</p>
<p>When Mussolini’s Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, the U.S. declared an embargo on munitions but let American businesses send oil to Italy in huge quantities, which was essential to Italy’s carrying on the war. When a Fascist rebellion took place in Spain in 1936 against the elected socialist-liberal government, the Roosevelt administration sponsored a neutrality act that had the effect of shutting off help to the Spanish government while Hitler and Mussolini gave critical aid to Franco. Offner says:</p>
<p>“… the United States went beyond even the legal requirements of its neutrality legislation. Had aid been forthcoming from the United States and from England and France, considering that Hitler’s position on aid to France was not firm at least until November 1936, the Spanish Republicans could well have triumphed. Instead, Germany gained every advantage from the Spanish civil war.”</p>
<p>Was this simply poor judgment, an unfortunate error? Or was it the logical policy of a government whose main interest was not stopping Fascism but advancing the imperial interests of the United States? For those interests, in the thirties, an anti-Soviet policy seemed best. Later, when Japan and Germany threatened U.S. world interests, a pro-Soviet, anti-Nazi policy became preferable. Roosevelt was as much concerned to end the oppression of Jews as Lincoln was to end slavery during the Civil War; their priority in policy (whatever their personal compassion for victims of persecution) was not minority rights, but national power.</p>
<p>It was not Hitler’s attacks on the Jews that brought the United States into World War II, any more than the enslavement of 4 million blacks brought Civil War in 1861. Italy’s attack on Ethiopia, Hitler’s invasion of Austria, his takeover of Czechoslovakia, his attack on Poland-none of those events caused the United States to enter the war, although Roosevelt did begin to give important aid to England. What brought the United States fully into the war was the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Surely it was not the humane concern for Japan’s bombing of civilians that led to Roosevelt’s outraged call for war-Japan’s attack on China in 1937, her bombing of civilians at Nan king, had not provoked the United States to war. It was the Japanese attack on a link in the American Pacific Empire that did it.</p>
<p>So long as Japan remained a well-behaved member of that imperial club of Great Powers who-in keeping with the Open Door Policy- were sharing the exploitation of China, the United States did not object. It had exchanged notes with Japan in 1917 saying ‘the Government of the United States recognizes that Japan has special interests in China.’ In 1928, according to Akira Iriye (After Imperialism), American consuls in China supported the coming of Japanese troops. It was when Japan threatened potential U.S. markets by its attempted takeover of China, but especially as it moved toward the tin, rubber, and oil of Southeast Asia, that the United States became alarmed and took those measures which led to the Japanese attack: a total embargo on scrap iron, a total embargo on oil in the summer of 1941.</p>
<p>Leaving aside the justification for Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, it’s important to remember that prior to WWII, the U.S.&#160;had an atrocious track-record of defending struggles for freedom and democracy.</p>
<p>Ask the Libyans (1801-1805), Haitians (1791-1804. 1888, 1891, 1914, 1915-1934), Cubans (1814-1825, 1906-1909, 1912, 1917-1922, 1933) Filipinos (1899-1913), Mexicans (1806-1810, 1842, 1846-1848, 1859, 1866, 1873-1896), Puerto Ricans (1814-1825), Chinese (1843, 1854, 1855, 1866, 1894-1895, 1899, 1900, 1911-1941), Russians (1918-1920), Nicaraguans (1853-1857, 1867, 1894-1899, 1910-1925), Panamanians (1856, 1865, 1885, 1912-1925), Algerians (1815), Hawaiians (1870, 1874, 1889-1893), &#160;or Guatemalans (1920) — just to name a few occasions when the U.S. military was used to protect U.S. interests and repress struggles for freedom and democracy.</p>
<p>Instead of glorifying state-sanctioned violence, activists in the U.S. would be wise to highlight the real heroes of WWII, people such as&#160;Gunnar Eilifsen, those who participated in the Warsaw Uprising, Irena Sandler, Lepa Radic, and countless unnamed others who defending their families and communities from Nazism and Fascism. They weren’t drafted. And they weren’t backed by the most powerful military empire in the world. They were true resistance fighters, and we should remember their sacrifices.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, we should do our best to challenge U.S. nationalism, historical myths and the fetishization of violence, which has reared its ugly head in light of recent white supremacist attacks on leftwing protesters. In the end, WWII was the single-greatest tragedy in the history of the human species. And that’s exactly how it should be remembered.</p>
<p>Antifa, Redneck Revolt, Black Bloc and The Left</p>
<p>Recently, I posted an article written by Louis Proyect entitled, “ <a href="" type="internal">Antifa and the Perils of Adventurism</a>,” on social media and received some limited backlash, but also some interesting reflections. Unfortunately, it’s clear that many people in the U.S., including seasoned activists and organizers, are having a very difficult time processing recent events in a way that’s not overly emotional or irrational in nature.</p>
<p>One person wrote, “Bottom line: Either you’re with Antifa or you’re with the Fascists!” This lack of nuance is symbolic of a Left that doesn’t look in the mirror, a Left that refuses to ask serious questions about its movements, organizations and members, and a Left that lacks discipline, vision and strategy. Remember, vision should dictate strategy, which in turn dictates tactics. Today, many leftists in the U.S. have the equation backward: they focus on tactics first, fail to discuss strategy, and a lack a long-term vision.</p>
<p>Existing anti-Fascist groups such as Antifa and the more militant organization Redneck Revolt, have filled a vacuum at protests, but their tactics are sloppy and their strategy and vision is non-existent. The overwhelming majority of Antifa activists are white, male, middle-class and disconnected from the ongoing day-to-day efforts of organizers and activists. To be fair, some do all of the above, but that’s a rare breed.</p>
<p>Proyect’s point about ‘adventurism’ is well understood: I’ve encountered many ‘adventurists’ over the years, especially during the Occupy Wall Street protests. I also experienced similar phenomena at antiwar protests during the Bush Era. In Charlottesville, the evidence is clear that leftwing protesters weren’t prepared for the Right’s violence, nor were they prepared to provide security for their marches.</p>
<p>As I watched video clips of Fields’ grey Dodge Charger ramming into a crowd of protesters, killing one, I immediately thought to myself: “Why was no one watching their six?” — military terminology for, “Who’s covering the perimeter and our backs?” Undoubtedly, it’s easy to make such critiques from the sidelines, but I’ve been in similar situations, notably in Iraq.</p>
<p>If leftwing activists are serious about security, especially at protests, they would enlist the help of antiwar veterans who have the knowledge and skills to provide the sort of security that’s required at such events. We know how to set up perimeter security. We know how to conduct vehicle check-points. And we know how to stand post. We know how to march in unison, follow direct orders and give direct orders. We know how to patrol city streets, and we know how to operate in teams of 4o (platoon), 12 (squad team) and 4 (fireteam).</p>
<p>Each person has a specific task. Each person’s task operates in tandem with other members’ tasks and skills. Everyone is trained in these skills and tasks for months and years at a time. The training process never ends. Indeed, even in the most disciplined and strict units, grave mistakes were made. People were killed during training exercises. And plenty of folks were injured.</p>
<p>You see, I have no moral qualms about violence or militant resistance. In fact, in many contexts, it’s absolutely required for survival. Here, in the U.S., however, I worry that my leftwing friends are getting ahead of themselves. Should communities be able to defend themselves? Absolutely. But what does that actually look like in the real world?</p>
<p>I would like to break down our security dilemma into three sections:</p>
<p>Internal Security: Are the activists who seek to provide protection at rallies (Antifa, for instance) operating in affinity groups? If not, they should. And to be clear, there are many different forms of affinity groups. What mechanisms are they using for communication? Person-to-person is the best, but there are also supposedly secure electronic applications available. Are activists talking about their challenges and plans on social media, via email or on the web? If so, they’re breaking some of the fundamental rules of security culture. Existing leftwing organizations should be having difficult discussions about the sort of security culture they wish to see in their respective organizations. Over the past 11 years, I’ve seen very little to convince me that this sort of sophisticated organizing is taking place on a broad scale. On the other hand, leftwing activists must be careful not to over-exaggerate our security threat. I’ve seen plenty of folks fall prey to unjustified paranoia. And most of the time this happens because groups don’t have a proper security culture in place. If they did, it would be much easier to operate in a rational manner, and to easily determine who/what is a threat, and who/what is not.</p>
<p>Security for Events: Here, I would highly suggest that leftwing activists seek out military veterans who’ve been active in the peace and justice movement. Make sure they’re vetted. Talk to their friends. Talk to people they’ve worked with. Are they accountable to a community or organization? If not, don’t work with them. It’s that simple. Only the most seasoned activists should be allowed to work in a security capacity at events where Fascists and white supremacists are expected to show up, or in a counterdemonstration against such groups. Newer activists can be trained in the proper methods of security at smaller-scale events: local protests, speaking engagements, workshops, fundraisers, etc. Operating as a team requires strict discipline and adherence to a set of values and rules. Without strict rules, people cannot survive in a combat zone. The same is true for rallies that descend into chaos. All of this is contrary to the typical anarchist-leftwing view that any form of authority is bad and must be rejected. In certain circumstances, extreme authoritarianism is required. Combat zones and riots are two examples.</p>
<p>External/Ongoing Security: Here, I’m thinking of the police and various other governmental entities that wield great power and violence. Going head-to-head with the police is usually a losing strategy. Leftwing activists don’t have the numbers or collective coherence required to overwhelm them, and we don’t have the weapons to stop them. This is true both at single events, and on a day-to-day basis in our local and regional communities. Dismantling the structures that produce violence and fear should always be our primary goal. In the meantime, however, people still require security. Poor communities are scared of both the cops and street gangs. Women are scared of their male partners. Domestic violence is a huge issue. Are leftwing groups prepared to respond to incidents of domestic violence? How can we expect people, particularly those who are vulnerable, to not call the police under those circumstances? Are neighborhoods and communities organized enough to do regular patrols, not so much to keep an eye on their neighbors, but to thwart the influence and power of street gangs and the police? Defending ourselves against rightwing militias or political organizations requires the same level of discipline and organization. Right now, there is no evidence that leftwing groups are prepared to engage in this level of security. That must change if we’re serious about providing alternatives to the state.</p>
<p>On a side note, I should mention a few things about weapons. First, I don’t trust anyone with a gun. I grew up with guns. I own guns. And unlike 99.99% of the leftwing activists, I’ve used guns to kill people. As a child, we spent hours upon hours learning how to clean, safely handle, and shoot our weapons. In the Marine Corps, that training was taken to its most extreme. In short, your individual liberties and rights go out the window once you start carrying a weapon.</p>
<p>One of the reasons the military is such a hyper-disciplined and authoritarian entity is because that’s the only way to survive when operating in groups of hundreds and thousands, with everyone carrying their own weapon. There must be a chain of command. Orders must be followed. If not, expect negligent discharges and unwanted deaths. In case you’re wondering, weapons are no joke.</p>
<p>The fetishization of guns isn’t new. The U.S. was built on the fetishization of guns and violence. Hence, it comes as no surprise that a bunch of folks who can’t even hold regular meetings or conduct effective campaigns are all of the sudden interested in picking up weapons and pretending to be revolutionaries.</p>
<p>From my perspective, maybe less than 1% of the activists and organizers I’ve encountered over the years are prepared for ‘militant resistance.’ They’re prepared to punch Nazis in the face, which is fine, but they’re not prepared to actually do battle with those same Nazis. In Charlottesville, leftwing activists would’ve been killed without the protection of the state. The same was true two years ago when I found myself attending an anti-Fascist rally in Coburg, a small suburb outside the city of Melbourne.</p>
<p>Currently, we can’t ‘outfight’ the Fascists, but we can out-organize them. Going toe-to-toe with people who are more than happy to employ violence is a losing strategy for the American Left. We lack the numbers, training, discipline, vision, coherence and seriousness to properly wage militant battles.</p>
<p>If you want to know what a revolutionary struggle looks like in the real world, talk to a Zapatista. Learn about their day-to-day struggles. Then, and only then, tell me that they’re ready to wage a revolutionary struggle. As my friend Sean says, and he’s right, “If you’re not ready to rats, sleep on the ground, kill people and pick up your dead friends, don’t talk to me about revolution or militant struggle.” I agree.</p>
<p>Dismantling White Supremacy</p>
<p>White Supremacy isn’t a series of attitudes or opinions, it’s a structural-systemic-institutional problem. Indeed, most of the activists and writers on the Left treat racism as if it’s a personal fault. It’s not. It’s a structural issue. The difference between individual racism and structural racism is important.</p>
<p>Since the Civil Rights Movement, one could argue that individual racism is much lower. Yes, there are White Supremacists who feel comfortable espousing their reactionary views online, but nowhere near the number of whites who felt comfortable doing so several decades ago. Yet, structurally, with regard to the prison industrial complex, housing, wealth and education, we’ve made little gains, and in many cases, have taken several steps back.</p>
<p>As a result, leftwing activists are confused. They lash out at racists on an individual level, but have no serious plans to deal with racism on a structural level. Dismantling White Supremacy requires dismantling or significantly altering existing institutions, including the corporate media (TV, Radio, Internet, Hollywood), the prison-industrial-complex and criminal justice system (Courts, Jails, Private Prisons, Police), the U.S. Empire (Bases, Weapons Contractors, Private Security Firms), global capitalism (Private Banks, Property Rights, Corporations, Trade Agreements) and a series of relationships, mechanisms, and institutions that uphold White Supremacy.</p>
<p>The difference between calling out and/or confronting individual racists and addressing structural racism is the difference between Neoliberal Activism (hyper-individualism) and Leftwing Activism (hyper-collectivity). Neoliberal activists have no ties to a collective body of people. They only address racism on an individual/subjective level, and fail to engage in the sort of collective work that it takes to actually dismantle the systems that produce the sort of racism they find so abhorrent.</p>
<p>In the end, the only response to large-scale collective challenges are large-scale collective political projects. In our context, that means creating new economic, political and cultural institutions&#160;aimed at radically changing society. And radically change society we must, at least according to the living world. Today, the concept of a new society is no longer an ideological pipe-dream, it’s a basic requirement for planetary survival.</p>
<p>As organizers, educators, activists and artists, it is our primary duty in the context of Neoliberalism to constantly remind people that our challenges are collective in nature. It’s also our responsibility to think critically and constantly improve upon our existing programs, campaigns, and so forth. The Right is playing to win. Are we?</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Fetishization of Violence: Reflections on Charlottesville, WWII and Activism | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/08/18/the-fetishization-of-violence-reflections-on-charlottesville-wwii-and-activism/ | 2017-08-18 | 4 |
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<p>After the Trump White House Press Secretary <a href="" type="internal">blocked CNN</a> and other media outlets from a press gaggle, Fox News’ Shepard Smith went on a tear, defending the competing network, telling his audience that the reporting done by what is now seen as the least-trusted name in cable news is not “fake.”</p>
<p>According to Smith, the White House has “frozen out media organizations that president Trump has blasted as ‘fake news,’” while choosing “hand-picked outlets to cover the briefing.”</p>
<p>Here’s video of Smith playing the part of CNN lapdog:</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/cnns-reporting-was-not-fake-news-fox-news-shep-smith-slams-white-house-ban-on-news-orgs/" type="external">Raw Story</a>:</p>
<p>Smith—who last week issued a <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/demonstrably-unquestionably-100-percent-false-shep-smith-eviscerates-trumps-lie-filled-presser/" type="external">passionate rebuke</a> of Trump’s claim that the media is the “enemy of the American people”—explained that the outlets barred by the White House were many of the outlets who conducted extensive reporting into Trump associates’ ties with Russia, and those who use off-the-record sources for background.</p>
<p>Referring to Trump’s CPAC speech Friday where the president once again railed into the “fake news media”/“enemy of the American people,” Smith tore into Trump’s go-to insult.</p>
<p>“Fake news refers to stories that are created by entities pretending to be news organizations solely to draw clicks and views that are solely based on nothing of substance,” Smith said. “In short, fake news is made-up nonsense delivered for financial gain. CNN’s reporting was not fake news.”</p>
<p>Many could take issue with what Smith said, and did so on Twitter:</p>
<p />
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<p>For a number, it has already worn thin.&#160; Here’s video of Smith defending CNN in a video posted to YouTube by CNN:</p>
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<p>Good question…</p>
<p>A number of people said Fox should fire Smith:</p>
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<p>Hmmm…&#160; That sounds just like… You got it — a liberal protest chant!</p>
<p>https://twitter.com/dryheat115/status/835252637863796736</p>
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<p>https://twitter.com/ksf90250/status/835250704860119040</p>
<p>It seems many others feel the same way.</p>
<p>Related:</p>
<p>If you haven’t checked out and liked our&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ConservativeFiringLine?fref=ts" type="external">Facebook</a>&#160;page, please go&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ConservativeFiringLine?fref=ts" type="external">here</a>&#160;and do so.</p>
<p>And if you’re as concerned about Facebook censorship as we are, go&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Banned-Facebook-Enables-Militant-Islamic/dp/1944212221/" type="external">here</a>&#160;and order this new book:</p> | ‘Drama queen’ Shepard Smith defends CNN from Trump WH, gets hammered on Twitter | true | http://conservativefiringline.com/drama-queen-shepard-smith-defends-cnn-from-trump-wh-gets-hammered-on-twitter/ | 2017-02-24 | 0 |
<p>When Random House published Obama’s first memoir,&#160;Dreams From My Father, in 1994, they had to fill out a Certificate of Registration to copyright the book.</p>
<p>Attorney <a href="" type="internal">Dr. Orly Taitz</a> obtained a copy of the Certificate of Registration forDream From My Father, and noticed something odd. As Dr. Taitz&#160; <a href="http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/press-release-typesetting-expert-confirms-that-the-copyright-document-for-obamas-book-was-falsifiedforged-as-well/comment-page-1/#comment-333089" type="external">explains</a>:</p>
<p>In the area [of the certificate] where one has to post the birth date of the author, Obama posted USA. Clearly, a constitutional scholar and editor of Harvard law review should &#160;understand the meaning of the question: “what is your date of birth”. Shockingly, Obama answered USA.</p>
<p>So Dr. Taitz asked a typesetting expert, Paul Irey, to look at the certificate. Irey was certified as an expert by Judge Sherry Reid in an Obama eligibility trial in Indiana.</p>
<p>In an email to Dr. Taitz, Irey confirmed that:</p>
<p>Here’s the (fake) copyright Certificate of Registration for&#160;Dreams From My Father&#160;with the telltale signs of forgery circled in red (click image to enlarge):</p>
<p><a href="https://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/copyright-dreams-of-my-father.jpg" type="external" />See also:</p>
<p>~Eowyn</p>
<p>Dr. Eowyn’s post first appeared at <a href="http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2014/06/06/copyright-certificate-for-obamas-book-was-falsified/" type="external">Fellowship of the Minds</a>.</p>
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<p /> | Copyright certificate for Obama’s book was falsified | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2014/06/07/copyright-certificate-obamas-book-falsified/ | 2014-06-07 | 0 |
<p>While the world in general, and the US in particular, are watching the unfolding investigation into Russian hackers and the US election Russia is quietly rearming itself with nuclear missiles in violation of a 30-year-old treaty while <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/us/politics/russia-inf-missile-treaty.html" type="external">Trump</a> does nothing for fear of upsetting Putin.</p>
<p>In 1987 Russia and the United States signed the “Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles”&#160;known more commonly by its abbreviated name &#160;“Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty).”&#160;Now, Russia has chosen to violate this treaty by developing and aiming mobile, intermediate range, ground-based nuclear missiles at Europe.</p>
<p>The signing of the INF Treaty was considered a landmark moment in the de-escalation of the arms race and the beginning of the end of the cold war. It banned the development and deployment of all nuclear and conventional missiles and their launchers, with ranges of 310–620&#160;miles – short-range – and 620–3,420&#160;miles – intermediate-range. By May 1991, less than three years after the treaty came into effect, 2,692 missiles were eliminated.</p>
<p>In December 2016 it was rumored that Russia had violated the treaty by deploying two missile battalions each with four mobile launchers with about half a dozen nuclear-tipped missiles allocated to each of the launchers. One battalion is said to remain at their testing facility in&#160;Kapustin Yar the other is elsewhere in the country with its sights set on Europe.</p>
<p>This decision by Russia, to deploy intermediate range nuclear missiles aimed to the west of their border does not only affect Europe&#160;but the United States as well. By using the new cruise missiles, Russia has freed up its long-range missiles and can use them to take aim at the United States.&#160;Each missile battalion is believed to have four mobile launchers with about half a dozen nuclear-tipped missiles allocated to each of the launchers.</p>
<p>Remote identification of the weapon systems may be difficult because the mobile launching equipment for the cruise missile is very similar to the launcher for the Iskander missile system which does not violate the treaty. &#160;The mobile launcher for the cruise missile, however, closely resembles the mobile launcher used for the Iskander, a nuclear-tipped short-range system that is permitted under treaties.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a U.S. defense official revealed in February that a Russian intelligence-collection ship has been operating off the U.S. east coast, in international waters. The ship has been monitored off of the coast near Delaware and had arrived there following a port call in Cuba</p>
<p>Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a House Armed Services Committee <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2017/03/07/how-washington-should-respond-to-russias-missile-treaty-violation/" type="external">hearing</a>.</p>
<p>“We believe that the Russians have deliberately deployed it in order to pose a threat to NATO and to facilities within the NATO area of responsibility.”</p>
<p>When the General was asked how the US would respond to the Russian violation of the treaty, he said that the military was preparing options to be presented to the Trump administration but that he could not discuss what those options might be. However, he did say the plan would be to:</p>
<p>“…look for leverage points to attempt to get the Russians to come back into compliance, I don’t know what those leverage points are.”</p>
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>Image Source: <a href="http://pop.h-cdn.co/assets/17/07/980x490/landscape-1487101474-oxxpl.jpg" type="external">Popular Mechanics</a></p> | Russia Breaks Nuclear Treaty And Deploys Missiles – Trump Looks The Other Way (VIDEO) | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2017/03/23/russia-breaks-nuclear-treaty-and-deploys-missiles-trump-looks-the-other-way-video/ | 2017-03-23 | 4 |
<p>&lt;img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-48452" src="http://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/kimmelratingsdrop.jpg" alt="Jimmy Kimmel" width="1200" height="627" srcset="https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/kimmelratingsdrop.jpg 1200w, https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/kimmelratingsdrop-300x157.jpg 300w, https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/kimmelratingsdrop-768x401.jpg 768w, https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/kimmelratingsdrop-1024x535.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /&gt;</p>
<p>This interesting nugget comes from&#160;a Salon piece, that granted, was from a day or two before the Las Vegas shooting (see&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Jimmy Kimmel Doubles Down, Blames YOU for the Las Vegas Shooting</a>). When he was pushing Obamacare. Bear in mind, Jimmy Kimmel had a more evenly mixed audience before going hard politics over the ObamaCare repeal (see&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Jimmy Kimmel Blasts the Bill Cassidy Health Care Bill</a>).</p>
<p>Now?</p>
<p>But only one host in that poll attracted the same number of Republican and Democratic viewers: ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel. While Stephen Colbert’s audience skewed heavily Democrat (47 percent Democrat to 17 percent Republican), Kimmel fans were evenly split among the two major parties (34 percent Democrat to 33 percent Republican).</p>
<p>In this, Kimmel may have also alienated some of his conservative viewers in the process. President Trump’s supporters enjoy mocking liberal safe spaces, but when a public person ridicules or critiques the current commander in chief, they often cry foul and boycott the messenger. Their flight may have already begun. “Jimmy Kimmel Live” had 2.04 million viewers last week during the heart of his health care fight, a 5 percent drop from his average. For the show’s future, it’s more than appreciable.</p>
<p>It used to be, alienating half your audience was a bad thing. And granted, I don’t think a lot of people care these days because they’ve gone all in on trying to appease leftist Millennials.</p>
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<p>my wife is an ad exec and she will tell you that this is 100% correct.</p>
<p>— Jeff B/DDHQ (@EsotericCD) <a href="https://twitter.com/EsotericCD/status/915932717455376384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 5, 2017</a></p>
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<p>Here’s another hot take for you: often people say they want one thing, when really… they don’t want it. “Taking a stand for the issues that matter” doesn’t always have to be POLITICS. The problem is the prism through which the left views the world. Not everything should be blamed on young Millennials here.</p>
<p>But like we saw with the NFL, <a href="" type="internal">conservatives have had enough</a>. We used to be able to separate the “art from the artist,” but the artists have gone so batshit crazy, it makes it harder and harder to do. Entertainment used to be an escape. Now it’s just another insane asylum streaming into our homes.</p>
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<p /> | Jimmy Kimmel’s Ratings Are Dropping. Fast… | true | https://louderwithcrowder.com/jimmy-kimmel-goes-hard-left-ratings-drop/ | 2017-10-06 | 0 |
<p>There is a growing movement in both the United States and around the world for taxing financial speculation. The logic is simple: even a very small tax on trades in stock, options, credit default swaps, and other derivative instruments can raise an enormous amount of revenue.</p>
<p>Even assuming large reductions in trading volume due to the tax, the country could still raise more than $100 billion a year in revenue or more than $1 trillion over the 10-year budget horizon. Trading costs have plummeted over the last three decades due to improvements in computer technology. Therefore, modest taxes on financial speculation, such as a 0.25 percent tax on the purchase or sale of a share of stock, would only raise trading costs back to the level of the 70s or 80s.</p>
<p>The United States already had a vibrant and well-developed capital market in these decades, so there is no reason to believe that raising trading costs back to earlier levels would prevent these markets from performing their economic function. Higher trading costs will just act to discourage speculation.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the bulk of the money raised through the tax would be coming out of the pockets of the Wall Street crew, the same folks whose greed brought us this economic disaster. What better holiday gift could we give Wall Street than the opportunity for make up for some of the damage that it has caused the country?</p>
<p>There is not much of an argument against a speculation tax on the merits, so most of the opponents focus on enforcement issues. The claim is that if we put a tax in place unilaterally in the United States, then all the trading would go overseas, therefore we would not collect any revenue.</p>
<p>There are three problems with this argument. First, we already have a model that disproves the basic claim. The United Kingdom has had a tax on stock trades for decades. Relative to the size of its economy, it raises the equivalent of more than $30 billion a year in the United States from just taxing stock trades. Obviously the trading has not simply fled overseas.</p>
<p>If reality is not a sufficient refutation of this argument, one can also turn to the basic logic of the claim. The leaders of most other wealthy countries have already indicated their support for imposing financial transactions taxes in the wake of the crisis. If the United States were to join with the leaders of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and other countries whose leadership has publicly called for financial transactions taxes, it is difficult to believe that they could not craft an international agreement. This is not a necessary condition for successfully imposing a speculation tax, as the example of the United Kingdom proves, but international coordination would nonetheless be desirable.</p>
<p>Then there is the question of places like Lichtenstein and Cayman Islands, which can ostensibly operate as tax havens, allowing for speculators to escape the tax. This argument also strains credulity. Can these tiny countries really act in ways that are harmful to the interests of the world’s largest and most powerful countries?</p>
<p>What would happen if instead of being tax havens, these countries allowed themselves to be used as arms conduits to Al Queda? Would President Obama and other world leaders just sit back and complain that there is nothing that could be done? The reality is that these tax havens can only exist with the willing cooperation of the wealthy nations. If they were cut off from access to the international banking system, their usefulness as tax havens would quickly vanish. The tax evaders of the world will not fill ships with gold to hide their income in the Cayman Islands.</p>
<p>We can also be a bit clever about cracking down on evaders. Suppose that we gave a reward of 10 percent of the tax collected to workers who turn in their bosses. There are few Wall Street billionaires that physically do the trading themselves. They have assistants for this task. And many of these assistants would be happy to make themselves rich by turning in their bosses.</p>
<p>In reality, the idea that a tax on speculation is unenforceable is laughable on its face. Compare the difficulties of enforcing a speculation tax with enforcing copyrights. In the case of a speculation tax, the issue is a relatively small number of very large transactions. No one cares if trades involving a few thousand dollars go untaxed. The real issue is a relatively small number of trades involving millions, or even billions, of dollars.</p>
<p>By contrast, copyright enforcement is all about billions of small transactions involving movies with a copyright-protected price of $15 or $20 or songs with a copyright-protected price of less than a dollar. The problem of enforcing copyrights is several orders of magnitudes greater than the problem of enforcing a financial transaction tax. Yet, none of those insisting on the impossibility of enforcing financial transactions taxes have said that copyrights are unenforceable. The issue is clearly what they want to enforce, not a question of what is enforceable.</p>
<p>The country does need to let itself be ripped off by the Wall Street crew indefinitely. We can make them pay a price for the damage they have caused. We just have to stop listening to the Wall Street apologists and get serious.</p>
<p>DEAN BAKER is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is the author of <a href="" type="internal">Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy.</a></p>
<p>This column was originally published by <a href="http://www.wapost.com" type="external">The Guardian.</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Easy and Fun Money | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/12/15/easy-and-fun-money/ | 2009-12-15 | 4 |
<p>Nevada senate candidate Sharron Angle.</p>
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<p>Heading into the 2010 midterms, there’s no debate on the <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38151.html" type="external">headline issue</a>&#160;topping the marquee for the fall elections: jump-starting the US economy. At every turn candidates are burnishing their job-creation cred and touting plans to create jobs.</p>
<p>And then there’s Sharron Angle, the Nevada GOP and tea party’s pick to challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The&#160;Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/22/AR2010072204078.html" type="external">relays a telling anecdote today</a>&#160;about&#160;Angle fielding a jobs-themed question at a friendly campaign event:</p>
<p>A local actress named Dee Drenta asked Angle what she would do to help people find work. But instead of seizing what seemed like an easy chance to explain her jobs plan, the candidate revealed that she didn’t have one.</p>
<p>“It really comes from the statehouse to incentivize that kind of stuff in our state,” Angle said. “Truly, the lieutenant governor, Brian Krolicki, you should have this conversation with him. That’s his job, to make sure that we get business into this state. My job is to create the climate so that everybody wants to come.”</p>
<p>The woman gave her a puzzled look. “I’m sure you’re probably planning on working with these people to do these things,” Drenta said, hopefully. “Because it’s the end result that matters, whether it’s specifically in the job description or not.”</p>
<p>Bzzt. Wrong answer. And this wasn’t some reporter trying to ambush Angle or skew her words; it was a regular Nevadan at a women’s business lunch in support of Angle. If Angle can’t even make use of easy set-ups like Drenta’s question, how is she going to respond to reporters? That is, if she ever gives the media a chance to talk to her: Yesterday, Angle <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40119.html" type="external">walked out</a> of a room full of reporters, even though she was asked to make herself available to the media, after just a three-minute speech on repealing the estate tax. A pregnant reporter even chased Angle out to the parking lot to try to get a question in. And Angle wonders why news reports about her campaign have been, well, a bit negative.</p>
<p /> | Sharron Angle’s Jobs Plan Whiff | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/wacky-sharron-angles-jobs-plan/ | 2010-07-23 | 4 |
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<p>Stock futures indicated a higher start to Wall Street Thursday, as investors await data on the state of U.S. manufacturing and weekly jobless claims and speeches from two more Federal Reserve speakers.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Several retailers will also report, with Abercrombie &amp; Fitch Co., Dollar Tree Inc. and Target Corp. expected ahead of the opening bell.</p>
<p>Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 32 points to 15,910 a day after a session plagued by fears about Federal Reserve tapering, while those for the S&amp;P 500 index rose 3.3 points to 1,783. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 8.25 points to 3,374.75.</p>
<p>The Labor Department will issue the latest reports on weekly jobless claims and wholesale costs at 8:30 a.m. EST. Economists predict the number of people applying for new unemployment benefits will drop to 334,000 in the seven days ended Nov. 16 from a preliminary 339,000 in the prior week. The producer price index is due to forecast a fall by 0.1% in October.</p>
<p>There are two separate reports due on manufacturing, first up is the Markit flash report due at 9 a.m. EST. The index rose to 51.8 in October, with any number above 50% signifying expansion.</p>
<p>The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's index of manufacturing conditions in the bank's region is seen retreating a second straight month, to 14.5 from 19.8 in October, according to economists polled by MarketWatch. The report is due at 10 a.m. EST.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell is due to speak on financial reform at 9:45 a.m. EST, and Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker will speak on the economic outlook at 12:30 p.m. EST.</p>
<p>Weaker data out of Europe and China weighed on those respective markets.</p>
<p>The European data initially also weighed on stock futures. The French purchasing managers index showed growth slowing, while in Germany, the PMI number rose to a 29-month high, leaving Europe stocks mixed. Chinese manufacturing activity showed a deceleration, which hit Hong Kong stocks.</p>
<p>Wall Street stocks fell on Wednesday after minutes of the latest Fed meeting showed the central bank was on track to slowing its bond-buying program. The S&amp;P 500 stretched a losing streak to three sessions.</p>
<p>Goldman Sachs said in a research note published Wednesday it sees a 67% chance of the S&amp;P 500 falling 10% at one point during 2014. But Goldman stuck to its expectations for the index to end the year at 1,900.</p>
<p>Gold prices remained weaker on Thursday amid tapering worries, while oil prices were largely flat and the dollar continued to push higher.</p>
<p>On the corporate front, Target is projected to report third-quarter earnings of 64 cents a share, according to a consensus survey by FactSet.</p>
<p>Abercrombie &amp; Fitch is likely to post earnings of 44 cents a share in the third quarter, while Dollar Tree is expected to report earnings of 60 cents a share in the third quarter.</p> | U.S. Stock Futures Inch Up Ahead of Data, More Fedspeak | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2013/11/21/us-stock-futures-inch-up-ahead-data-more-fedspeak.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
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<p>PHOENIX - The Maricopa County Bar Association will hold a panel discussion to mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that requires police to warn arrested people that they have a right to remain silent.</p>
<p>Panelists for the May 4 event include retired Arizona Supreme Court Justice Rebecca White Berch, state Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Norris and others.</p>
<p>The landmark ruling sprang from the arrest of Ernesto Miranda in Phoenix.</p>
<p>Miranda was convicted of kidnapping and raping an 18-year-old woman in Phoenix, but the U.S. Supreme Court concluded his rights against self-incrimination and to have an attorney present in the interrogation room weren't protected.</p>
<p>The court made the decision on June 13, 1966.</p>
<p>Miranda was later convicted again of raping and kidnapping the 18-year-old.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Bar association to mark 50th anniversary of Miranda decision | false | https://abqjournal.com/762626/bar-association-to-mark-50th-anniversary-of-miranda-decision.html | 2 |
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<p>As parents begin to apply for seats in magnet and selective schools, CPS officials on Thursday unveiled changes to the admissions process that could set the stage for more racial and economic diversity in the district’s most sought-after schools. As parents begin to apply for seats in magnet and selective schools, CPS officials on Thursday unveiled changes to the admissions process that could set the stage for more racial and economic diversity in the district’s most sought-after schools.</p>
<p>Students from neighborhoods with poor-performing schools will see an advantage under the proposed new guidelines, which will be presented at November’s Board of Education meeting. An analysis of those neighborhoods shows they are mostly black, such as New City, Englewood and Grand Boulevard.</p>
<p>The new guidelines would make race an indirect factor in admissions—something that officials said they were hesitant to do last year after a federal judge lifted a 20-year-old desegregation consent decree.</p>
<p>The recommendations were primarily the product of a blue-ribbon committee that was set up to examine the admissions process following the demise of the consent decree. The committee held three public hearings over the summer. The members included two principals, two aldermen, two community activists, a lawyer and a former monitor of the consent decree.</p>
<p>CEO Ron Huberman, who is stepping down at the end of this month, says he thinks that the admission policy should continue to be tweaked. “It is an evolution,” he said.</p>
<p>Huberman and his team are not recommending any changes to the policy concerning principal discretion because Blue Ribbon Committee members could not come to a consensus about what those changes should be. Selective enrollment school principals will still be allowed to hand-pick five percent of their students, but their decision will continue to be scrutinized by central office. Magnet school principal will still not be allowed any discretion.</p>
<p>With the help of school integration expert Richard Kahlenberg of The Century Foundation, the district last year crafted a complicated new formula that attempted to take a student’s socio-economic status into account by looking at factors in the immediate neighborhood, such as median income and the presence of single-parent families.</p>
<p>Students were then divided into four equal groups, or tiers, based on their socio-economic standing.</p>
<p>But under this policy, black students lost ground in magnet and selective enrollment schools. The percentage of Latino students declined in selective enrollment elementary schools, but went up in selective enrollment high schools, mostly because of an increase in Latino admissions to Lane High School on the North Side. Latinos also secured more seats in magnet schools.</p>
<p>Huberman has maintained he wanted to keep diversity in the schools, but on Thursday he and others made it clear that there were other important considerations. For example, some believe best way for the district to achieve racial balance in these specialty schools is to allot 25 percent of seats to each of the four socio-economic tiers.</p>
<p>But the policy does not adopt that strategy. Here’s how it will work:</p>
<p>Less neighborhood emphasis. In response to fears that the best neighborhood magnet schools—most of them in white, middle-class neighborhoods on the North Side—would become less diverse, the proposed guidelines will set a lower benchmark for opening up seats to a general lottery. Currently, magnet schools give preference to neighborhood children, setting aside 40 percent of seats for them and giving the advantage to students in upper-income communities who live close to a magnet elementary school. Now, based on analysis of the racial mix of neighborhood students admitted, the district will stop the proximity lottery earlier and put the remaining applicants—including those from the community—into a general lottery.</p>
<p>Test scores still a factor. At selective enrollment schools, some seats are awarded to students with high test scores. This year, district officials are recommending that the amount be lowered from 40 percent to 30 percent, but not abandoned.</p>
<p>And principals at some selective enrollment elementary schools will be allowed to set cut scores. Last year, at Northside Prep, Lindblom and Whitney Young, not enough students from the lowest-income groups performed above the cut score, and their seats had to be divided among the three other socioeconomic tiers.</p>
<p>Some members of the committee argued that rank order and cut score provisions should be taken away for selective schools, says Cynthia Flowers, a member of the committee from the Black Star Project, a community organization.</p>
<p>“But district officials felt as though there were too many high-performing children who would be passed over,” she says.</p>
<p>On Thursday, district officials acknowledged that there’s a definite tension between principals, who want to maintain the high academic standards of their schools, and the district, which has devised an intricate policy to maintain diversity.</p>
<p>Huberman sides with the principals. “These schools are not about remedial education,” he said. “The very design of these schools is to put students with others who perform spectacularly well and to give them the best opportunity.”</p>
<p>Help for kids from the worst schools. The district is going to recommend that 5 percent of the seats for incoming freshmen at most of the selective enrollment high schools be set aside for students from the worst elementary schools. Using the No Child Left Behind transfer process, the district did this last year and gave each school that enrolled these children an extra $250,000 to provide them supports.</p>
<p>Abigayil Joseph, head of the Office of Academic Enhancement, says she is monitoring those students closely, trying to see what is helping them and what is not. “Some are excelling and some are struggling,” she said.&#160;</p>
<p>School performance a factor. Another interesting change that might shake up the racial mix of the schools is the addition of a new factor for socio-economic status. Last year, five factors were considered. This year, the district is proposing that the test scores of attendance area schools also be factored in.</p>
<p>About 134 census tracts changed tiers with the addition of the new factor, said Kathryn Ellis, who is overseeing the implementation of the magnet and selective school admission process. But it’s unclear which students the change will help.</p>
<p>More magnet seats for siblings. One change is a bow to parents who complained about having children in more than one school. Last year, only kindergarteners who had older siblings at magnet schools were guaranteed spots with their brother or sister. This year, district officials are recommending that siblings in all grades get spots if their brother or sister is already a student at the magnet school.</p>
<p>Parents also complained last year about twins and other multiples being split up when one won a spot in a magnet school and the other didn’t. This year, the board is recommending that parents be allowed to link the applications of multiples, but warn that those students will only get one chance in the lottery.</p>
<p /> | Huberman unveils new admission guidelines for magnet and selective schools | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/huberman-unveils-new-admission-guidelines-magnet-and-selective-schools/ | 2010-11-04 | 3 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Evan El-Amin</a>&#160;|&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Shutterstock.com</a></p>
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<p>Seen from the outside, whoever wins the 2016 US presidential elections, victory will have been the result of a selfish decision, and not of ‘’sacrifice’’ against the larger rottenness.</p>
<p>“Lesser evil-ism’’ is a choice in unfavorable circumstances—not unlike the current carnival in a swamp that are the autumnal Empire’s 2016 elections. Favored by rationalists and pragmatists, “Lesser Evilism’’ wagers for the best of all possibilities. For Hannah Arendt, that consolation also meant oblivion and self-deception: ‘he who chooses for the lesser evil all too readily forgets having chosen evil.”</p>
<p>This veracious stone that shatters realpolitik’s pretensions is quoted in the provocative book <a href="" type="internal">Drone Theory</a>, by the Francophone philosopher Grégoire Chamayou (first published by Fabrique Éditions in France in 2013, Theorie du Drone was translated recently by Janet Lloyd into English) Chamayou is one of the political theorists who today scathingly analyzes the moral, intellectual and human problems of the current day omnipresence of drone-warfare. For him, drone warfare has its origins not in the ‘’necessities’’, the surgical ‘’minimal damage’’ and ‘’lesser evilism’’ claimed by the apologists of Clinton and Obama.</p>
<p>Rather than the pragmatism spoken of by Washington, drone warfare’s real origins are in a world-view, an idealistic-capitalist ideology. The philosophy of Empire that apologetically emits the drone is highly irrational, anti-humanist, and broken to boot. Drones flock, out-sourcing the crows from the skies, in a postmodern imperialism that wants to conduct war, but which does not want itself to suffer or to be exposed to blazing battlefields. Drone warfare is the signature of Obama-era imperialism, mixed with a cult of personality and illusions of restraint and ‘Soft power’ despite the absolutism of extrajudicial, international long-distance executions. Perhaps the idyll of War-without-Suffering, without risks to the self, has its aesthetic counterpart in today’s artistic mainstreams: Aude de Kerros, French dissident art critic, points out that ‘contemporary art’ which crowns practical consumption-utilities and living room design-accessories as ‘’Sacred Art’’ is also an attempt to offer “art without suffering,’’ anti-poetry.</p>
<p>The reverberations of that euthanasia are endless. There is ‘’soft power’’, meaning soft and slippery coercive hierarchy as a good thing (clearly no one shoved Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World down the throats of Soft Power’s pseudo-intellectual proponents when they were in boarding school.)</p>
<p>There is even ‘’soft death’’ (the term used for euthanasia by the neoliberal Green Parties and progressive parties in the Netherlands). “Soft death’’ might have been predicted by the science fiction thriller-writer Philip K Dick.</p>
<p>Spirituality can happen at various centers with expensive membership—without the passion of mystics, as Passion comes from the Latin passus, meaning suffering; compassion ‘’suffering with’’ characterizes the culture of anti-empathy that characterizes neoliberal superficiality in the guise of ‘’progressivism’’. As the West promotes ‘’contemporary art’’, the ancient art of Mesopotamia and Yemen is ransacked and destroyed by drone strike, 10 years of occupation and loosened mercenary gangs.</p>
<p>The feminist identity politics preferred in the post-modern imperial culture, similarly, is a feminism that completely extracts the female critique of petit bourgeois ways of life from feminism itself, opting for an optimal mesh of career, domesticity, husband-bating, getting rid of any contemplation of risk, danger, solitude and search for romance that previously characterized what emerged since the 19th century as an oftentimes bourgeois, yet sincerely anarchist tradition of late romanticism.</p>
<p>Iraqi exiled literary translator Sinan Antoun (in a recent interview with the Iraqi magazine Shakomako) reminisces upon the day he understood an inherent barbarism to American democracy: “Watching one’s country and hometown get destroyed sears one’s soul and psyche forever. Those years showed me how barbarism was at the heart of our modern world. Not the barbarism of dictatorship, the barbarism of western liberal democracies, delivered through remote-control and watched comfortably by the citizens of said democracies.</p>
<p>After I left Iraq and went to the US I realized that bombing Iraq and its people back to the preindustrial age was a spectacle. Infotainment. I understood why the bombing started at 2:37 AM. Because that is prime time in the USA….Until lions have their historians, histories of the hunt glorify the hunter.”</p>
<p>If in the cultural logic of the USA, “evil” is to suffer, then lesser evil is to minimize one’s own suffering. Obama showed this in his battle against evil: the aforementioned change of house in Iraq, had to be immensely lucrative, incremental, and good for business. Privatization of the Iraq war meant the hiring of mercenary corporations through the Blackwater firm, a mercenary culture that undoubtedly played as major a role as al-Qaeda in giving rise to the ISIL/Da’esh militia.</p>
<p>After the withdrawal of the only civilized contender—social dem Bernie Sanders—there is a cow-tow between a repetition of the political illusions of the 1990s, or the illusions held before the European 1930s. Both Hilary and “Make America Great Again’’ are vain attempts to resist the American imperial autumn.</p>
<p>Beyond any doubt, Hillary will be better for Americans and even for minority populations than Trump, who vies attack the Latin American immigrant populations in the United States, along with any critic, without embellishments and without the casual chatter about ‘’cultural rights’’ and ‘’cultural barriers’’ so prevalent in the narcoleptic, class-unconscious rhetoric of Democrats.</p>
<p>Rodham Clinton vows to nominate her husband as economic advisor, re-enabling the 1990s economic turn to neoliberalism, which devastated many recently emerged democracies in the global South. Clinton wants to oversee the return to salesman-presidents, exemplified by Argentina’s Menem and Venezuela’s Carlos Andres-Peres, in Latin America and the third world generally (the politically correct term is “global South.”)</p>
<p>No matter how unpopular, how resistant to them memory and will of Southern populations, regardless of the coups and media manipulations required, Mrs. Clinton has determined that her husbands 1990s economics must govern the planet again. The existence of Trump as Candidate of Apocalypse, a spectacle that enthralls the lost and the losers of the capitalist game, those who are embittered to the point of crookedness and desperately thirsting for rhetorical evil, only reinforces how Rodham-Clinton has been selected from above, the royal rug unrolled for her stroll into throne.</p>
<p>Much volcanic talk has erupted, meanwhile, about irresponsible idealism (Sanders, then Jill Stein stood accused) the selfish, versus the selfless choice: voting for Hillary, as Sanders upon realizing he would not win, opted for realpolitik.</p>
<p>Dualism and Little Evils, North, South and East of United States: Dare to Compare&#160;</p>
<p>In Argentina, the left-wing Trostkyite and Marxist groups that denounced ‘’lesser evilism’’ were crucial in the slight advantage gained by the Macri neoliberal far-right—supported by both Obama and the Trump-benefactor Sheldon Adelson.</p>
<p>The “trostkos’’ as the mostly young far-leftists are nicknamed, denounced the choice that was presented to an Argentinian population—between Daniel Scioli (candidate of left-leaning Victory Front party of Cristina Kirchner) Macri (of the Let’s Change Party) and minor third party contenders who ultimately stepped out of the race with justifications similar to Sanders’ lesser-evilism.</p>
<p>Daniel Scioli was to the right of the radical social-democrat and anti-neoliberal Cristina Kirchner. Scioli had good relations with prominent neoliberal politicians of the Argentinian 1990s, but was nominated by the populist party as a moderate candidate for 2016. The country was tired from being boycotted and embattled by Washington and the global financial institutions. Scioli was favored by the dominant media monopoly Clarín as ‘’the only viable” FPV, post-Kirchner candidate. Clarín mostly championed the victor Macri, a CEO whose millions were accumulated during a long honeymoon of collaboration with the 1970s junta, and who has currently eviscerated press freedoms and labor rights in Argentina, a country where the history of labor-struggles have shaped part of the dialect spoken in everyday life in the Buenos Aires region. Argentina’s Left has long stood divided between the believers in compromise with Peronist populism—the political movement that enjoys the most support from the Argentine masses, who have a sentimental regard of the Perons not unlike the keeping of saints—and the incorruptible Trotskyite left, which is openly anti-Peron, anti-electoral politics, anti-politics at times. Trostkyites refused to vote for the lesser evil—a Peronist—and voted either in the blank slot, or for the furthest right, going with the logic of some leftist factions of 1920s Europe “the worse, the better.’’ More recently, the Partido Obrero (Worker’s Party, a Trotskyite outfit) issued statements in favor of the bizarre and defamatory insistence by the spectacle-oriented Argentine judge Claudio Bonadio, who demanded that May Plaza Mothers like Hebe Bonafini appear in court to face charges of ‘’misuse of public funds’’. During the Kirchner years, the organizations of the May Plaza Mothers, such as HIJOS (organization for reuniting children of detained, imprisoned or murdered militants of the 70s regime with their remaining family) were state-subsidized; today they have returned to their traditional dependence on international solidarity.</p>
<p>What is the difference between lesser-evilism in Argentina and in the USA?</p>
<p>It is a choice that Americans have never consciously made in their history: between living under a dictator, and merely supporting dictatorial client states overseas and on the confusing world-map.</p>
<p>Liberals typically cast Hillary Rodham as a relief from the so-called ‘’passivity’’ of Obama’s military expansionist foreign policy. Unlike her predecessor, she supported the Iraq invasion by George W Bush and as Secretary of State. The return of ‘’normalcy’’ and realpolitik envisioned in the 2016 election (after Sanders politely allowing, even endorsing his movements defeat) resembles the process of realpolitik in parts of the ‘third world’’, among the countries have oscillated between being at odds, even official enemies of Washington; to showing agile and quick obedience as expected of colonies.</p>
<p>In Argentina’s 2016 elections Scioli, a pro-Washington neoliberal eager to compromise with his party’s radical achievements in social democracy, was the ‘realpolitik’’ option, and the only remaining alternative to the extreme neoliberalism of Macri. He could not stir the people and his defeat by a whisker evoked horror among half the Argentine population, and celebration among the landowners, businessmen and the upper middle class who never believed Macri could win.</p>
<p>The repetition of the Thatcherite mantra—‘’there is no alternative’’ also found its echo in Peru, despite the existence of a stronger left alternative represented by the Justicia Vida y Libertad party led by Verónika de Mendoza, who was maligned as a terrorist in media campaigns that preferred the major neoliberal contenders.</p>
<p>Peruvian elections of 2016 saw the narrow victory by the articulate neoliberal Pedro Pablo Kuczinsky, with the overwhelming parliamentary triumph of the party of Keiko Fujimori, whose sole political program is that of allowing the imprisoned ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori to be released from prison and to subvert the trials against him for his human rights violations and war crimes—often against the impoverished indigenous population of Peru. Both Fujimori and Kuczinsky stand for neoliberalism, though Kuczinsky is championed by Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa as standing for that version of neoliberalism which, like Hilary’s and Obama’s, is meant to be equated—however falsely—with diversity and multiculturalism, in opposition to the hell-born non-alternatives like Trump and Fujimori.</p>
<p>Hillary will, in all likelihood, be much better for North Americans than Trump, who promises dictatorship at home. Trump claims to uphold isolationism in foreign policy. Unpredictable and fond of fire-works, as any Siegfried &amp; Roy Act, Trump is most akin to the sector in which he doubled his capital.</p>
<p>While preserving the meritocracy and slow turn to authoritarianism that persisted since Bush throughout the Obama years upon US topsoil, Former Secretary of State Clinton will, in all likelihood, continue her foreign policy of exporting, befriending and endorsing Trumpisms abroad, for the client regimes in the rest of the world. Such endorsement was loud and clear in her support for the Trump-like phenomenon of Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine (an August 16 NY Times article exposed how a Trump aide funneled millions to Clinton’s ‘’Man in Kiev’’ who recently resigned from the Ukraine Fatherland Party due to the Panama Papers scandal) Poroshenko, the anti-corruption minister and CEO of a chocolate factory among other businesses, according to articles in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz was condemned by Moscow’s Chief Rabbi for promoting the typical East-European nationalist holocaust-revisionism in order to gain political points. Hillary, as Obama, praised the rise of Mauricio Macri in Argentina—despite that Macri has a sponsor in common with Trump (and with their mutual admirer in Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu): the casino-magnate Sheldon Adelson. According to Argentinian journalist and left-wing public intellectual Horacio Verbitsky in articles he wrote for Página 12 and La Campora, the casino-crat Adelson is a major player in the campaigns of Trump—a choice Adelson defended in columns in the Wall Street Journal—and in the coalition of Netanyahu’s Likud and Lieberman’s Israel Beyteynu settler-party currently degenerating the Israeli political scene. “Trumpism” might lose to Hilary in the first world, but the USA will go on vastly exacerbating Trumpism in that lunar kingdom, the battleground and backdrop of the Third World, a place that remains outside of the world to most Democrats and Republicans, even for the average Sanders-supporter.</p>
<p>Thatcher’s Voice and Selfish Choices</p>
<p>It becomes necessary first to understand the discourse of “lesser evil” in the context of North America by first understanding what is meant by evil. In the culture of the United States, the greatest evil is suffering and the greatest good is to minimize one’s own suffering, even if it causes pain to another</p>
<p>To maintain the North-American definition of lesser evil is that of major comfort for oneself and major hazard for the other, is not to say that the United States is Epicurean. Epicureanism was the Greek pre-Socratic, poetic philosophy that believed in avoidance of irrational and needless pain. The Epicurean notion of pleasure was the pre-modern (pre-post-modern) pleasure sought in relative freedom, in nature, in a context that predated the consumption society by thousands of years. The North American consumer society’s definition of pleasure in comfort is different from that of ancient poet-philosophers like Epicurus, or Zeno (who would have opposed the kind of identity politics favored by the culture of the Democratic Party USA, as he maintained that differences can only exist because they spring from a shared heterogeneity) and of Diogenes (who liked suffering a bit more, and the military State not at all)</p>
<p>“Minor evil” in this context is whatever can minimize agony for oneself, even it causes more harm to the other. Whichever choice Americans make in the vote between the Republican or the Democratic candidate, it will be an entirely selfish choice: to vote for Trump in order to sabotage or show discontent with how democracy was made into a farce, or to vote for Hillary, in order to let the Trumpism move its shadow to those who are the most used to understanding and bearing the brunt, the cruelty, the consequences of dictatorship. North Americans, clearly, are not ready to be oppressed by a dictator who is of the kind they have propped up and supported in their overseas client states: better let Hondurans, Argentines, South Americans, Eastern Europeans, Africans and Asians endure what the US citizen is unable to stomach, better deny the imperial autumn and decline for another presidential term. USA as an Empire is in decline. Whether or not it elects a woman for 2017, there will be an autumn of the patriarch. The decline is inescapable, but can be postponed, and the choice between Sanders, Hillary and Trump stood for the only&#160;three roads available for an empire on its last remaining feet: Trump was the decline into madness and senility, a la Nero; Hillary was the dead-end of desperate denial and going down in a blaze. Bernie Sanders’ plan was focusing on his country’s internal problems, in the attempt to create a genuinely social-democratic, grassroots society, perhaps the ”industrial democracy” envisioned by American philosopher John Dewey. The son of immigrant laborers, Sanders represented the civilized way of accepting the Empire’s fall: with wisdom, sobriety and compassion. That is perhaps alien to the American way, as defined by the Bushes, Rodhams and Las Vegas entrepreneurs who live much closer to what pulsates at the vapid heart of the American Dream</p>
<p>Thatcher’s voice, roaming from her cremated ashes, keeps repeating “there is no alternative’’ to a sociopathic economy that directly eviscerates all modern and social institutions, not stopping at the welfare state—even the train was threatening to Thatcherism, as argued by Tony Judt in his unfinished masterpiece Bring Back the Rails, about the subversive modernist power of the locomotive, interrupted by Judt’s death.</p>
<p>None of the arguments I make here are against the choice of self-preservation that North American democrats will make, when they go against their dream of a modern, Neo-Keynesian social democracy in the United States—what Sanders represented—and instead hold their grudge and vote for Hillary. It is their country, after all, and their choice, it is what is good or better for them. Trumpism is not only to be postponed in time, but also in global space: exported, a hurricane diverted. The Hydra may multiply far from imperial shores, now that all Herculean efforts at resistance inside the USA have capitulated.</p>
<p>The Difficulty of “Telos’’ Vs. the Comfort of Consensus</p>
<p>They insist: no alternative. Thatcher also liked to add ‘’there is no such thing as society’’ only atomized individuals and families—the nuclear family being only an aggrandized individual unit of consumption and cooperation. In the absence of society and of politics itself, there is also no common political project: that which the ancient Greek warlords’ democracy called ‘’Telos’’: a common political goal, which unites what might be divergent groups and individuals, with different ideological commitments, towards achieving goals more of them believe in. “Telos’’ the Greek word is the origin of the ‘teleology’’ to be found in many religious thinkers and of liberal humanism, but also in the revolutionary dialectics of Marxism. The ideology of neo-liberalism is for the elimination of all ‘’Telos’’, in favor of the Latin word, Consensus. Consensus claims to allow diversity—but not of ideology, and not of opinion. When liberals, anarchists and communists banded together to fight the Royalists in the Spanish Civil War, it was an act forming a Telos. But general Franco opposed Telos and favored technocracy and its long-term model of peaceful coercion: Consensus, or starvation and obscurity as the alternatives. Today’s Macri regime in Argentina upholds that model of technocracy.</p>
<p>What diversity is left? Identity cannot be reduced to mere accessories if it is to be political.</p>
<p>Sophie’s Choice Menu and the Sophists</p>
<p>The talk-wires and grape-vines of social media (which constitute, along with the private university, the nexus of what is called “the Left”, or for that matter, democracy, in the United States) are aflame with philosophical discussions about opting for “the lesser evil”. Sanders capitulated, instilling a dismay and general malaise in much of the North American disaffected youth that invested their hopes in the first major movement for a grassroots social democracy in the United States. Inevitably Trump has stylistically conjured historical associations with the Fascist demagogues of the European 1930s and Sanders’ choice was based on realpolitik and a long-term strategy, though by the elections of 2020 he will probably be too old to run for president.</p>
<p>The GOP had in many of its organs invested for years in the most significant minority in the United States which has often been ignored, resented or politically castrated by the Democratic establishment: 50 million Latin American immigrants, many of whom are excluded from the black-white racial discourses of the Democratic Party, and many of whom are religious Catholics who have the harsh, reactionary work-ethic to be found among many pressured immigrant groups that strive for acceptance in capitalist societies. The hope of the Grand Old Party of securing a victory by way of the Latin vote—a project shared by Cuban-American Marco Rubio and bilingual Jeb Bush, married to former Mexican citizen Columba Bush—was deeply frustrated by the Trump campaign. Despite shock-value, Trump’s histrionic proclamations about Latin rapists are prejudices shared by many of those close to HRC and her campaign motor. In a 2014 interview, Christiane Amanpour held Hillary to task on her position on Central American immigrants. Rodham Clinton erupted in the show titled ‘’Hilary’s Hard Choices’’ spouting the reactionary views about ‘’drug cartels smuggling children’’ and ‘’irresponsible parents’’, dodging Amanpour’s questions about the support for the ousting of populist Manuel Zelaya in Honduras in 2009 and the refugee crisis that ensued. That was to be expected of the spouse and house-collaborator of Bill Clinton’s unabashedly racist project of restructuring welfare in the 1990s. Under the pretext of fencing out ‘’parasitic immigrants’’—after all, it must be great laziness that motivates people to trek from Salvador along Mexican deserts and past the US border, braving death—the reform was nothing more than another attack on Labor. Such attacks are Clinton’s specialty, seconded only by technical expertise in war.</p> | The Labyrinthine Mini-Mall of Lesser Evils Versus Minimum Superego | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/08/18/the-labyrinthine-mini-mall-of-lesser-evils-versus-minimum-superego/ | 2016-08-18 | 4 |
<p>GILBERT, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a wrong-way crash in Gilbert.</p>
<p>The accident occurred around 5 a.m. Sunday on the Santan Loop 202 near Power Road.</p>
<p>Arizona Department of Public Safety officials say the wrong-way driver was driving westbound in the eastbound lanes when it crashed into the median.</p>
<p>It's still unclear if anyone was injured in the crash and DPS officials say they're trying to determine if the driver was impaired.</p>
<p>GILBERT, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a wrong-way crash in Gilbert.</p>
<p>The accident occurred around 5 a.m. Sunday on the Santan Loop 202 near Power Road.</p>
<p>Arizona Department of Public Safety officials say the wrong-way driver was driving westbound in the eastbound lanes when it crashed into the median.</p>
<p>It's still unclear if anyone was injured in the crash and DPS officials say they're trying to determine if the driver was impaired.</p> | Authorities investigating wrong-way freeway crash in Gilbert | false | https://apnews.com/amp/b61cbccf69a74103ae056d55d6a117cc | 2018-01-21 | 2 |
<p>allenwestforcongress.com</p>
<p />
<p>On Monday, demagogic, <a href="" type="internal">Islam-hating Rep.-elect Allen West</a> (R-Fla.) caused his first congressional controversy.&#160;Today, he announced his first flip-flop.</p>
<p>The firebrand tea partying West, who as an Army officer confessed to abusing detainees and won a conservative South Florida district last week, today reneged on <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/11/09/allen-west-hire/" type="external">a Monday promise to appoint right-wing radio host Joyce Kaufman</a> as his congressional chief of staff. Kaufman is a fellow demagogue who spends her air time railing against Muslims, <a href="http://www.wordsandwar.com/2010/03/01/joyce-kaufmans-crusade-for-israel/" type="external">touting an “infidel” ballcap she wears</a>, advocating the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/09/joyce-kaufman-allen-west-chief-of-staff_n_781178.html" type="external">hanging of illegal immigrants</a>, and saying Jews who vote for Barack Obama “ <a href="http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201006280041" type="external">don’t embrace being Jews anymore.</a>”&#160;West’s office made the announcement this morning in a statement:</p>
<p>It is with deep regret that this Congressional office and the people of CD 22 will not have Joyce Kaufman as my Chief of Staff.&#160; Joyce is a good friend, and will remain loyal to South Floridians and to me. I will always seek Joyce’s counsel for being a good Representative of this Congressional District.</p>
<p>West’s rhetoric tracks Kaufman’s pretty closely, and they were thick as thieves on the campaign trail. But a counsel for the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said yesterday that <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/11/09/allen-west-hire/" type="external">Kaufman’s appointment could be “problematic.”</a> It appears Republican House leaders may have stepped in, prevailing on West to turn down the crazy and pick a chief of staff who (unlike Kaufman) might actually have a modicum of experience with legislative affairs, media messaging, and constitutent services.</p>
<p>West’s already-troubled tenure poses a direct challenge to Republican leadership that’s not going away anytime soon:&#160;While it’s in their political interest to keep loose-talking neophytes like him away from the limelight, where they might turn off mainstream voters, they can’t deny that his brand of anger brings in the campaign cash. He was <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/elections/fl-election-us-congress-20101102,0,7633359.story" type="external">tops among all congressional challengers in donations this year</a>, in no small part because of endorsements from the likes of <a href="http://allenwestforcongress.com/featured/695" type="external">Sarah Palin</a> and small contributions from angry tea partiers and right-wing vets across the country. He has a chance to become the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00027493" type="external">Michele Bachmann</a> of the South, but only if he manages to avoid alienating his constituents with bad governance and worse sound bites.</p>
<p /> | Allen West Won’t Tap Right-Wing Radio Host | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/allen-west-wont-tap-right-wing-radio-host/ | 2010-11-11 | 4 |
<p>Every day hundreds of thousands of Londoners take the Underground to and from work, and most read the Evening Standard, which is a London institution. Times are changing for the Evening Standard. This man has been selling the Evening Standard for 25 years and talks about how readership has dropped. There's a lot more to distract former newspaper readers, and on top of that there are now two new free newspapers. But now the Evening Standard is introducing technology to boost readership by introducing its cashless card. It's not a free give away but a cash list payment system. The Sales and Marketing Director explains how it works: the card is in my wallet, I take the card and tap it against the machine and tells me I have credits in my card so I take the paper and move on. This card uses a communication field so you have to touch it to a machine to pay. The Marketing Director also says the card conveys important information about the user's buying habits. So is this card the future for the pay press? This analyst thinks ease of use and convenience is key. Some commuters are open to the idea, but some aren't.</p> | No cash needed for London paper | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-01-30/no-cash-needed-london-paper | 2008-01-30 | 3 |
<p>On Thursday, 22 year-old Jacksonville, Florida, resident Breon Hollings thought it would be a good idea to go on Facebook Live to boast about the profits from his illegal drug-selling business.</p>
<p>In the video (below) a shirtless Hollings is seen babbling to the camera from inside of a bathroom while fanning out a large sum of money. "You f--k n--gers need to catch up. We gettin money over here, man," he tells his viewers, adding, "We got so much of this sh-t, man, ya'll already know the story."</p>
<p>As Action News Jax <a href="http://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/jacksonville-officers-raid-mans-house-while-hes-on-facebook-live/529004190" type="external">reports</a>, things quickly turned sour for the young entrepreneur when he looked out of the window and suddenly ran out of the room.</p>
<p>"This is Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. We have a search warrant," can be heard in the video, followed by a series of loud noises.</p>
<p>A police officer eventually walks into view of the camera. Officers are seen going in and out of the room before the video ends.</p>
<p>The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said the raid was planned, and the video did not lead to the raid.</p>
<p>Officers found a handgun, crack cocaine, ammunition, oxycodone pills and drug paraphernalia in the home.</p>
<p>Hollings was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of cocaine and possession of paraphernalia for the manufacture or delivery of drugs.</p> | Video: Drug Dealer Brags Over Live Stream About His Cash Just As Cops Bust In And Raid His Home | true | https://dailywire.com/news/17101/video-drug-dealer-brags-over-live-stream-about-his-chase-stephens | 2017-06-02 | 0 |
<p>On today's Geo Quiz we want to know about geographic names that have disappeared. Here's an example: Tanganyika. Can you find Tanganyika on the map? It once bordered the Indian Ocean and Lake Victoria, but its vanished! Harry Campbell has written a book called �Whatever Happened to Tanganyika?: The Place Names That History Left Behind.� We speak with him.</p> | Geo Answer Defunct place names | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-10-13/geo-answer-defunct-place-names | 2009-10-13 | 3 |
<p>KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Asia staged a late comeback to maintain its slim lead over defending champion Europe, 6 ½ to 5 ½, on the second day of the EurAsia Cup on Saturday.</p>
<p>“We came out of the session at 3-3 which wasn’t what we were looking for, but we live to fight another day,” Europe captain Thomas Bjorn said. “We have got to go out and put some blue on the board and try to win the singles.”</p>
<p>Europe took the lead at Glenmarie Golf and Country Club after winning its first three foursomes on Saturday, but Asia pulled level before Li Haotong and Nicholas Fung beat Europe’s Ross Fisher and Bernd Wiesberger 3 and 1 for the lead.</p>
<p>“No one was four or five down after six holes. When you’re one or two down in matchplay, you can easily flip that, and they did,” Asia captain Arjun Atwal said. “If you asked me if I’m surprised or shocked, I’m not. My guys are all champions.”</p>
<p>After trailing 3 ½ to 2 ½ on Friday’s fourballs, Europe drew level through the forceful pairing of Tommy Fleetwood and Henrik Stenson.</p>
<p>The pair upstaged India’s S.S.P. Chawrasia and Anirban Lahiri courtesy of seven birdies, including a five-foot birdie putt from Fleetwood which sealed the win on the 16th hole.</p>
<p>Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton then gave Europe the lead with a 2-and-1 victory over Kiradech Aphibarnrat and An Byeong-hun, before Matthew Fitzpatrick and Thomas Pieters doubled the advantage by beating Poom Saksansin and Kang Sung-hoon 3 and 2. At this stage, it looked like Europe was ready to pull away.</p>
<p>But Gavin Green, who clinched the Asian Tour Order of Merit last month, and Yuta Ikeda started the comeback, beginning with a 1-hole victory over Rafa Cabrera Bello and Alexander Levy.</p>
<p>The pair, who had beaten Pieters and Fitzpatrick on Friday, gained the upper hand on the 17th when the Europeans bogeyed.</p>
<p>Buoyed by that win, Phachara Khongwatmai and Hideto Tanihara combined to beat Paul Dunne and Alex Noren 2 and 1 to draw the teams level after going two up at the 12th hole, and maintaining par for the point.</p>
<p>Li and Fung regained Asia’s lead by brushing aside Fisher and Wiesberger 3 and 1.</p>
<p>There are 12 singles matches on Sunday.</p>
<p>Asia is seeking its first win in the third EurAsia Cup.</p>
<p>KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Asia staged a late comeback to maintain its slim lead over defending champion Europe, 6 ½ to 5 ½, on the second day of the EurAsia Cup on Saturday.</p>
<p>“We came out of the session at 3-3 which wasn’t what we were looking for, but we live to fight another day,” Europe captain Thomas Bjorn said. “We have got to go out and put some blue on the board and try to win the singles.”</p>
<p>Europe took the lead at Glenmarie Golf and Country Club after winning its first three foursomes on Saturday, but Asia pulled level before Li Haotong and Nicholas Fung beat Europe’s Ross Fisher and Bernd Wiesberger 3 and 1 for the lead.</p>
<p>“No one was four or five down after six holes. When you’re one or two down in matchplay, you can easily flip that, and they did,” Asia captain Arjun Atwal said. “If you asked me if I’m surprised or shocked, I’m not. My guys are all champions.”</p>
<p>After trailing 3 ½ to 2 ½ on Friday’s fourballs, Europe drew level through the forceful pairing of Tommy Fleetwood and Henrik Stenson.</p>
<p>The pair upstaged India’s S.S.P. Chawrasia and Anirban Lahiri courtesy of seven birdies, including a five-foot birdie putt from Fleetwood which sealed the win on the 16th hole.</p>
<p>Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton then gave Europe the lead with a 2-and-1 victory over Kiradech Aphibarnrat and An Byeong-hun, before Matthew Fitzpatrick and Thomas Pieters doubled the advantage by beating Poom Saksansin and Kang Sung-hoon 3 and 2. At this stage, it looked like Europe was ready to pull away.</p>
<p>But Gavin Green, who clinched the Asian Tour Order of Merit last month, and Yuta Ikeda started the comeback, beginning with a 1-hole victory over Rafa Cabrera Bello and Alexander Levy.</p>
<p>The pair, who had beaten Pieters and Fitzpatrick on Friday, gained the upper hand on the 17th when the Europeans bogeyed.</p>
<p>Buoyed by that win, Phachara Khongwatmai and Hideto Tanihara combined to beat Paul Dunne and Alex Noren 2 and 1 to draw the teams level after going two up at the 12th hole, and maintaining par for the point.</p>
<p>Li and Fung regained Asia’s lead by brushing aside Fisher and Wiesberger 3 and 1.</p>
<p>There are 12 singles matches on Sunday.</p>
<p>Asia is seeking its first win in the third EurAsia Cup.</p> | Asia keeps 1-point lead at EurAsia Cup | false | https://apnews.com/9c49116f4fe840c78337d6d620613be2 | 2018-01-13 | 2 |
<p>(adds banks’ reactions, details, context)</p>
<p>By Francesco Guarascio</p>
<p>BRUSSELS, Jan 18 (Reuters) - There are fewer bad loans on the balance sheets of European banks but they remain high, the European Commission said on Thursday as it prepares to push through measures to force higher provisioning for soured debt despite the opposition of big lenders.</p>
<p>The 2008-2009 global financial crisis left European banks saddled with piles of non-performing loans (NPLs) which they struggled to recoup from distressed firms and households.</p>
<p>But as the bloc’s economy recovers, the amount of bad debt is slowly receding, the European Commission said in a report.</p>
<p>Using data from the European Central Bank, the EU executive said NPLs accounted for 4.6 percent of banks’ total loans in the period between April and June, a 1 percentage point drop from a year earlier.</p>
<p>Despite the trend, bad loans were still worth 950 billion euros ($1.16 trillion) in the 28 EU countries and accounted for 5.4 percent of total loans in the euro zone, the European 19-country currency area.</p>
<p>They are also unevenly spread across the bloc, with Greece having nearly half of all loans classified as NPLs, while in Germany and the Netherlands they account for less than 3 percent.</p>
<p>To tackle the problem, the Commission is planning new legislative measures in March, to speed up banks’ unloading of bad debts and to prevent a future build-up of NPLs.</p>
<p>An overhaul of insolvency rules and a strengthening of the secondary market for bad loans are among the measures planned to reduce the existing stock of soured debt.</p> BUFFERS
<p>Against a future growth of NPLs, the Commission plans to introduce “statutory prudential backstops to prevent the risk of under-provisioning of NPLs,” the Commission said in a document, stressing that this would apply only to “newly originated loans that later turn non-performing”.</p>
<p>The move clarifies the Commission’s intentions. It had previously said legislative measures on buffers were possible but not certain.</p>
<p>Banks have long opposed new capital buffers, fearing this could reduce their lending capacity and increase costs.</p>
<p>Specific measures for banks with higher exposures would be enough to address the problem of NPLs rather than a “blunt one-size-fits-all approach,” Simon Lewis, Chief Executive at AFME, a lobbying group for large financial companies said.</p>
<p>The Commission will still need to decide what could constitute a new loan and when the requirements would apply, EU officials said.</p>
<p>There is still debate on whether new loans should include restructured debt and new payments of instalments on old loans.</p>
<p>The cut-off date for new loans is also under discussion, the commission’s vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis told a news conference.</p>
<p>The Commission is considering four options: last November; the date of publication of the new proposals, likely to be in March; the date of the entry into force of the new measures, which could be two years away; or an even later date.</p>
<p>Dombrovskis stressed the new requirements will only apply to new loans, discarding concerns that this could set a benchmark that may later be imposed on the existing stock of bad debt.</p>
<p>Italy, one of the EU countries with the highest level of bad loans, has long called for a gradual reduction of NPLs to avoid fire sales that would leave huge holes in banks’ balance sheets.</p>
<p>Other states, led by Germany, have called for a faster offloading of bad loans to reduce risks in the banking sector, which could lead to euro zone’s deeper financial integration. ($1 = 0.8177 euros) (Editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Matthew Mpoke Bigg)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Tesla Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">TSLA.O</a>) will be profitable in the third and fourth quarters of this year and will not have to raise any money from investors, billionaire Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Friday, driving shares in the electric carmaker higher.</p> FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk, founder, CEO and lead designer at SpaceX and co-founder of Tesla, speaks at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Washington, U.S., July 19, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
<p>Tesla has already sought this month to play down widespread Wall Street speculation that it would need to return to capital markets this year to raise more funds for the money-losing company as it ramps up production of the Model 3 sedan seen as crucial to its long-term profitability.</p>
<p>The Silicon Valley car maker, which has consistently fallen short of promised production targets and is fighting bad publicity over a fatal crash of a car using its Autopilot system, said 10 days ago it would have positive cash flow from the third quarter.</p>
<p>Musk went further on Friday in a tweeted response to a story in The Economist which cited estimates Tesla would need $2.5 billion to $3 billion this year in additional funding.</p>
<p>“The Economist used to be boring, but smart with a wicked dry wit. Now it’s just boring (sigh). Tesla will be profitable &amp; cash flow+ in Q3 &amp; Q4, so obv no need to raise money,” Musk wrote.</p>
<p>Tesla shares, which have gained nearly 10 percent since disclosing the Model 3 production numbers on April 3, were up 1.8 percent in afternoon trading on Wall Street.</p>
<p>Musk’s claim about profit and cash flow hinges on a rapid rise in production of the Model 3 sedan, Tesla’s latest vehicle to have experienced production delays. That has postponed revenue from reaching Tesla’s bottom line from cars being delivered to customers.</p>
<p>An unprecedented level of robots used in the Model 3’s final assembly, in a break with automotive manufacturing norms, has added complexity and delays, which Musk acknowledged on Friday.</p>
<p>“Excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake,” Musk tweeted. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated.”</p>
<p>Thomson Reuters consensus of analyst estimates predicts Tesla’s free cash flow to be negative well into 2019, thanks in part to heavy investments. Only one of 19 analysts covering the stock see positive adjusted earnings per share in the third quarter, with that number growing to four for the fourth quarter.</p> FILE PHOTO: A Tesla dealership is seen in West Drayton, just outside London, Britain, February 7, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
<p>Wall Street brokerage Jefferies, which provided the funding estimate cited by The Economist, said in a note last week it expects refinancing risk to remain high for Tesla until it can consistently produce 10,000 Model 3s a week.</p>
<p>The company again missed its own 2,500 target for weekly production at the end of the first quarter, and analysts and fund managers doubt Tesla’s ability to keep production growing to a promised 5,000 Model 3s per week in three months time.</p>
<p>Musk in July said Tesla was going through “manufacturing hell” in ramping up production of the Model 3.</p>
<p>He told “CBS News” in an interview that aired Friday the company “got complacent” and “put too much new technology into the Model 3 all at once.” Part of the interview took place in a Tesla Model 3 Musk was driving with Autopilot activated at times.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">Tesla Inc</a> 300.34 TSLA.O Nasdaq +6.26 (+2.13%) TSLA.O
<p>Musk told CBS Tesla is currently producing 2,000 Model 3 cars a week.</p>
<p>Last month, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Tesla’s credit rating to B3 from B2, reflecting “the significant shortfall in the production rate of the company’s Model 3.”</p>
<p>Moody’s added that its negative outlook for Tesla “reflects the likelihood that Tesla will have to undertake a large, near-term capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall.”</p>
<p>On Thursday, the National Transportation Safety Board said that after a series of public disclosures by Tesla it had taken the unusual step of revoking Tesla’s status as a formal party to its investigation of a March 23 crash in California that killed a driver who was using Autopilot. The NTSB is also investigating two other Tesla crashes.</p>
<p>Tesla lashed out at the NTSB and said it planned to complain to Congress.</p>
<p>Asked by CBS if there was a defect with Autopilot, Musk responded: “The system worked as described, which is that it is a hands-on system. It is not a self-driving system.”</p>
<p>At one point during the interview, Musk did not have his hands on the wheel and the car beeped at him to retake the wheel.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru and David Shepardson in Washington; additional reporting by Dan Burns and Alexandria Sage; editing by Phil Berlowitz</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Two multi-billion dollar takeovers of semiconductor makers are being stalled by Chinese regulatory reviews amid rising U.S.-China trade tensions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.</p> FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
<p>Qualcomm Inc’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=QCOM.O" type="external">QCOM.O</a>) proposed $44 billion purchase of Dutch chip maker NXP Semiconductors NV ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NXPI.O" type="external">NXPI.O</a>) could be at risk due to the delayed review. China is the only country that has not yet signed off on the deal, or on Toshiba Corp’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=6502.T" type="external">6502.T</a>) planned $19 billion sale of its chip unit to a Bain Capital consortium, according to the newspaper.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>Qualcomm’s merger agreement with NXP was extended for a second time in January, giving the two until to April 25, although the parties could decide to extend the deadline.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=QCOM.O" type="external">Qualcomm Inc</a> 55.73 QCOM.O Nasdaq +0.53 (+0.96%) QCOM.O NXPI.O 6502.T
<p>China’s Vice President, Wang Qishan, last month assured Qualcomm Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf that the review would not be affected by politics, the newspaper said.</p>
<p>Qualcomm and Toshiba did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>In a move to force China to lower its $375 billion trade surplus with the U.S., the Trump administration this month unveiled tariffs representing about $50 billion on Chinese technology, transport and medical products, drawing an immediate threat of retaliatory action from Beijing.</p>
<p>At the same time, China pledged to further open the country’s economy and lower import tariffs on certain products, moves it said were unrelated to the trade spat.</p>
<p>Reporting by Gary McWilliams; editing by Diane Craft</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Martin Sorrell, who built WPP into the world’s biggest advertising agency through 33 years of dealmaking, quit on Saturday after an allegation of personal misconduct.</p> FILE PHOTO: Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer of WPP, attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 23, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
<p>The departure of the CEO who built a two-man outfit into one of Britain’s biggest companies with 200,000 staff in 112 countries leaves WPP without a boss at a pivotal time for the industry and when the group is under great strain.</p>
<p>WPP stunned the market last week when it said it had appointed lawyers to investigate alleged misconduct by Sorrell. He denied the allegations but in a letter to WPP staff published late on Saturday he said the “current disruption” was “putting too much unnecessary pressure on the business”.</p>
<p>He said he had decided that “in your interest, in the interest of our clients, in the interest of all shareowners, both big and small, and in the interest of all our other stakeholders, it is best for me to step aside”.</p>
<p>Chairman Roberto Quarta will become executive chairman until a new chief executive is found, while Mark Read, a WPP digital executive, and Andrew Scott, chief operating officer, Europe, have been appointed as joint chief operating officers.</p>
<p>Read, who previously sat on WPP’s main board, is well regarded in the industry while Scott was involved in its acquisition strategy and was not involved with clients.</p>
<p>The company will consider internal and external candidates for the top job in a process that could take several months.</p>
<p>“Obviously I am sad to leave WPP after 33 years,” Sorrell said in a statement. “It has been a passion, focus and source of energy for so long. However, I believe it is in the best interests of the business if I step down now.”</p>
<p>WPP said the investigation, which regarded financial impropriety, had concluded. It made no further comment but repeated a previous statement that the allegation did not involve amounts that were material to the company.</p>
<p>A source close to Sorrell said he had been unhappy with how the investigation was handled, leaving him uncertain whether he could work with the board again.</p>
<p>Analysts have speculated that the sprawling group, which was being restructured after a year of lower spending from some clients, could now sell off some assets if led by different management.</p> PASSION AND FOCUS
<p>The longest-serving CEO on the FTSE 100 blue chip index, Sorrell built WPP into one of Britain’s biggest companies by three decades of relentless dealmaking. He is one of the most high profile, and best paid, executives in the country.</p>
<p>In his time the group expanded to own top creative agencies including J. Walter Thompson and Young &amp; Rubicam, as well as media planners and buyers, market-research firms and public relations groups such as Finsbury.</p>
<p>Present in 112 countries, WPP serves clients including Ford, Unilever, P&amp;G and a string of major corporations around the world.</p>
<p>It largely outperformed its peers Omnicom, Publicis and IPG in the years that followed the financial crisis as the group pitched aggressively for new work. But it has been hit in the last 18 months by a downturn in spending from consumer goods groups Unilever and P&amp;G, and the loss of some big accounts.</p>
<p>The migration of advertising online and the encroachment into market research of consultancies such as Accenture have compounded the pressures. Its shares are down around 30 percent this year.</p>
<p>The company said Sorrell would be available to assist with the transition, and the man synonymous with the British marketing group told the staff they would come through this difficult time.</p>
<p>“As a founder, I can say that WPP is not just a matter of life or death, it was, is and will be more important than that,” Sorrell said. “Good fortune and Godspeed to all of you. Now back to the future.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Alistair Bell and Daniel Wallis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BERLIN (Reuters) - German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Saturday he would press for “reasonable results” in the next round of pay talks with more than two million public sector workers, but he rejected the Verdi union’s demand for a six percent increase.</p> FILE PHOTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Justice Minister Katarina Barley and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer react as they pose for a group photo at the German government guesthouse Meseberg Palace in Meseberg, Germany, April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
<p>Wage talks are due to resume on Sunday after 150,000 public sector employees staged warning strikes and walkouts last week that left thousands of passengers stranded at airports, and hit hospitals, childcare centres and waste depots.</p>
<p>Seehofer, the federal government’s top negotiator in the talks, underscored the importance of public sector workers and said it was “self-evident” that they should benefit from the country’s economic growth.</p>
<p>However, he said Verdi’s demand was unreasonable.</p>
<p>“It is and remains clear that the union demand for a six percent increase is too high for one year,” he said in a statement issued by his ministry. “We will continue the negotiations in such a way that we can quickly achieve reasonable results.”</p>
<p>Verdi said 17,000 people participated in walkouts on Friday, bringing the total for the week’s labour actions to 150,000.</p>
<p>Verdi leader Frank Bsirske said last week he expected a breakthrough in the third round of talks that will begin on Sunday in Potsdam, near Berlin. He said public sector workers should benefit from surging German tax revenues.</p>
<p>The federal government and municipalities have rejected the union’s demands, but the head of the VKA association of local employer organisations last week said he expected an agreement to emerge from the next round of talks.</p>
<p>In the industrial sector, 3.9 million workers agreed on a pay and flexible working hours deal in February that amounted to a roughly 4 percent rise per year for 2018 and 2019. Inflation edged up to 1.5 percent in March.</p>
<p>Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, is in solid shape, with buoyant tax revenues and a record budget surplus. Falling unemployment, inflation-busting pay rises and low borrowing costs are fuelling a consumer-led upswing.</p>
<p>The European Central Bank (ECB) is keeping a close eye on the German pay talks for any sign that wage growth is picking up, potentially lifting inflation and giving the ECB added leeway to start winding down its massive stimulus programme.</p>
<p>Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Helen Popper</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | UPDATE 1-EU says banks' bad loan woes ease but they need capital buffer hikes Musk insists Tesla does not need more capital, predicts profit soon China slows review of chip company mergers amid trade tensions: WSJ Martin Sorrell quits as head of world's biggest ad group WPP German interior minister rejects union's six percent wage demand | false | https://reuters.com/article/eurozone-banks-npls/update-1-eu-says-banks-bad-loan-woes-ease-but-they-need-capital-buffer-hikes-idUSL8N1PD2YM | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
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<p>As leadership within the House of Representatives prepares to unveil their signature tax reform plan, congressional lawmakers from New York are taking a final stand against the potential loss of their coveted state and local tax deduction in a phone conference with White House officials on Monday night, FOX Business has learned.</p>
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<p>Nine Republican lawmakers from New York are scheduled to speak to senior White House officials at 8:30 p.m. ET about&#160;their districts being negatively impacted by the elimination of the deduction, also known as SALT, in the hopes they can come to a compromise before the bill is released on Wednesday, according to numerous congressional aides familiar with the matter.</p>
<p>The officials expected to be on the call are National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and possibly Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, those same sources told FOX Business on the condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>White House Assistant Press Secretary Natalie Strom did not deny that Cohn and Mnuchin may be on the call with the lawmakers, saying, “Nothing to add from our end.”</p>
<p>Of the nine Republicans who are expected to be on the call, only Rep. Peter King (R-NY) confirmed to FOX Business on the record that he will be a participant. Spokespeople for New York Republican Reps. Lee Zeldin, Dan Donovan, John Faso, Elise Stefanik, Claudia Tenney, Tom Reed, John Katko and Chris Collins declined to comment but did not deny that their bosses were going to join the call.</p>
<p>The conference comes after House passed their budget by the slimmest of margins, 216 to 212 in favor of the budget, and as seven of the 20 “no” votes came from disgruntled New York Republicans. Those lawmakers have been looking for a compromise on the deduction in meetings with House Republican leaders, including House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, since the tax reform blueprint was released in September.</p>
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<p>The call between lawmakers and the White House also comes on the heels of Brady announcing he’s willing concede&#160;to those same representatives as well as others from states that have the most to lose from eliminating SALT, such as New Jersey and California. Brady indicated that he will include a property tax deduction in the final bill.</p>
<p>“At the urging of lawmakers, we are restoring an itemized property tax deduction to help taxpayers with local tax burdens,” Brady said in a statement on Sunday.</p>
<p>Still, even with this concession,&#160;House members from New York and New Jersey gave a mixed reaction to the news and called for caution on whether there will be continued compromises leading into the bill’s publication.</p>
<p>In a text message, King told FOX Business on Sunday that he’s happy with Brady’s decision but still has concerns. “It’s a good step forward but still very concerned with losing state income tax deduction,” King said.</p>
<p>Rep. Thomas MacArthur (R-NJ) told FOX Business on Sunday that he’s “cautiously optimistic” but later added, “The devil is in the details.”</p>
<p>For New York Republicans, the phone conference could be a major breakthrough in negotiations for the continuance of the SALT deduction after seven of them reached out to Mnuchin in July requesting that he reconsider eliminating the tax break.</p>
<p>“Without the SALT deduction, taxpayers in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia would be doubly taxed--they would pay federal income taxes on the money they pay to their state and local governments…. We hope you consider the impact on the people we represent as we continue crafting an innovative plan,” the letter read. It was signed by Reps. Donovan, Faso, Katko, King, Stefanik, Tenney and Zeldin.</p>
<p>SALT affects about 30% of all taxpayers, mainly in states such as New York, New Jersey, California, Connecticut, Virginia and Pennsylvania that impose significant state income and property taxes. The GOP Congress is dominated by lawmakers from southern and western states that don’t impose such levies. They have argued for ditching the SALT deduction from the tax code on the grounds that it unfairly benefits taxpayers from just a handful of states and deprives the federal government of trillions in revenue.</p>
<p>Indeed, the Trump administration has called on the elimination of the SALT deduction that would produce close to $1.3 trillion in revenues over 10 years and help pay for his plan to slash taxes for individuals and take the corporate tax rate down from its current level of 35% to 20%.</p>
<p>But lawmakers from these high-tax states argue that the federal government receives a disproportionate share of tax revenues from states like New York and California, where a large percentage of wealthy people reside, thus the tax break provides some degree of fairness in the government’s revenue collection efforts.</p>
<p>Making the matter even more contentious as the Republican-controlled Congress and the Trump administration move toward the politically vital tax reform bill: close to 60 Republican members come from states that benefit most from the SALT deduction and could vote against tax reform if the tax break isn’t preserved in some way.</p> | New York Republicans making last-minute pitch to save tax break | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/10/30/new-york-republicans-making-last-minute-pitch-to-save-tax-break.html | 2017-10-30 | 0 |
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<p>Customers looking to buy Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) new iPhone 5 online through Apple in the U.S. will need to wait two weeks for it to ship, according to Apple's website. Pre-orders for the September 21 debut became available at 3:01 am ET Friday and sold out within an hour.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In comparison, the iPhone 4S, which represented a smaller upgrade, took nearly a day to sell out.</p>
<p>Apple did not immediately return requests for comment on the subject.</p>
<p>People looking to snatch one up on launch day can still do so at Apple's retail stores at 8 a.m. local time. Historically, there have been long lines at these events, although Apple has worked to increase staff and inventory levels ahead of these releases in recent years.</p>
<p>Verizon Wireless, AT&amp;T (NYSE:T) and Sprint (NYSE:S), the three carriers that will support the new phone, all say on their websites that it is possible to pre-order for arrival on launch day on September 21. It is unclear, however, if those measures represent current inventory levels.</p>
<p>The process reportedly didn’t go off without its flaws. Danny Sullivan, a tech writer, <a href="https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/246514493717377025/photo/1" type="external">dispatched a tweet</a> showing a screenshot of Apple’s website that says “we’re currently unable to reach the carrier systems to process your order, but will reserve an iPhone for you.”</p>
<p>The new phone represents a substantial upgrade to the iPhone 4S. It is made completely of aluminum and glass, with a taller screen, faster processor, better camera and a host of other improvements.</p>
<p>Analysts across Wall Street are bullish on Apple and the new device. In fact, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) boosted its price target on the tech juggernaut to $810 from $790 following the announcement earlier this week. The biggest American company by market capitalization is forecast to see sales of $156 billion this year, and $193 billion the following year, according to estimates from Thomson Reuters.</p>
<p>Shares were up 1.8% to a fresh all-time high at $695.21 in morning trading in New York.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | First Round of iPhone 5 Pre-Orders Sells Out | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/09/14/first-round-iphone-5-pre-orders-sells-out.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
<p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening's drawing of the "Megabucks Plus" game were:</p>
<p>01-03-17-35-41, Megaball: 3</p>
<p>(one, three, seventeen, thirty-five, forty-one; Megaball: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $4.9 million</p>
<p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening's drawing of the "Megabucks Plus" game were:</p>
<p>01-03-17-35-41, Megaball: 3</p>
<p>(one, three, seventeen, thirty-five, forty-one; Megaball: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $4.9 million</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Megabucks Plus' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/d4332992ceb449dab77afe7b9fc978a1 | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
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<p>Privacy is forbidden. They cannot leave their compounds without permission. They must take the few steps to the factories in pairs or groups, with North Korean minders ensuring no one strays. They have no access to telephones or email. And they are paid a fraction of their salaries, while the rest — as much as 70 percent — is taken by North Korea’s government.</p>
<p>This means Americans buying salmon for dinner at Walmart or ALDI may inadvertently have subsidized the North Korean government as it builds its nuclear weapons program, an AP investigation has found. Their purchases may also have supported what the United States calls “modern day slavery” — even if the jobs are highly coveted by North Koreans.</p>
<p>At a time when North Korea faces sanctions on many exports, the government is sending tens of thousands of workers worldwide, bringing in revenue estimated at anywhere from $200 million to $500 million a year. That could account for a sizable portion of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs, which South Korea says have cost more than $1 billion.</p>
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<p>While the presence of North Korean workers overseas has been documented, the AP investigation reveals for the first time that some products they make go to the United States, which is now a federal crime. AP also tracked the products made by North Korean workers to Canada, Germany and elsewhere in the European Union.</p>
<p>In addition to seafood, AP found North Korean laborers making wood flooring and sewing garments in factories in Hunchun. Those industries also export to the U.S. from Hunchun, but AP did not track specific shipments except for seafood.</p>
<p>American companies are not allowed to import products made by North Korean workers anywhere in the world, under a law signed by President Donald Trump in early August. Importers or company officials could face criminal charges for using North Korean workers or materially benefiting from their work, according to the law.</p>
<p>Every Western company involved that responded to AP’s requests for comment said forced labor and potential support for North Korea’s weapons program were unacceptable in their supply chains. Many said they were going to investigate, and some said they had already cut off ties with suppliers.</p>
<p>John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute, the largest seafood trade association in the U.S., said his group was urging all of its companies to immediately re-examine their supply chains “to ensure that wages go to the workers, and are not siphoned off to support a dangerous dictator.”</p>
<p>“While we understand that hiring North Korean workers may be legal in China,” said Connelly, “we are deeply concerned that any seafood companies could be inadvertently propping up the despotic regime.”</p>
<p>In response to the investigation, Senate leaders said Wednesday that the U.S. needs to keep products made by North Koreans out of the United States and get China to refuse to hire North Korean workers.</p>
<p>“The administration needs to ramp up the pressure on China to crack down on trade with North Korea across the board,” said top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer.</p>
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<p>___</p>
<p>EXPORTING LABOR</p>
<p>North Koreans overseas work in construction in the Gulf states, shipbuilding in Poland, logging in Russia. In Uruguay, authorities told AP, about 90 North Koreans crewed fishing boats last year. U.N. sanctions now bar countries from authorizing new work permits for North Korean workers but do not target those already abroad.</p>
<p>Roughly 3,000 North Koreans are believed to work in Hunchun, a far northeast Chinese industrial hub just a few miles from the borders of both North Korea and Russia. Signs in this mercantile city are in Chinese, Korean and Russian. Korean restaurants advertise cold noodles, a Northern favorite, and Russian truckers stop into nightclubs with black bread on the menu.</p>
<p>In an effort to boost the local economy, China and North Korea agreed several years ago to allow factories to contract for groups of North Korean workers, establishing an industrial zone with bargain-priced labor. Since then dozens of fish processing companies have opened in Hunchun, along with other manufacturers. Using North Korean workers is legal in China, and not considered forced labor.</p>
<p>It’s unknown what conditions are like in all factories in the region, but AP reporters saw North Koreans living and working in several of the Hunchun facilities under the watchful eye of their overseers. The workers are not allowed to speak to reporters. However, the AP identified them as North Korean in numerous ways: the portraits of North Korea’s late leaders they have in their rooms, their distinctive accents, interviews with multiple Hunchun businesspeople. The AP also reviewed North Korean laborer documents, including copies of a North Korean passport, a Chinese work permit and a contract with a Hunchun company.</p>
<p>When a reporter approached a group of North Koreans — women in tight, bright polyester clothes preparing their food at a Hunchun garment factory — one confirmed that she and some others were from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Then a minder arrived, ordering the workers to be silent: “Don’t talk to him!”</p>
<p>Their contracts are typically for two or three years, and they are not allowed to go home early. The restrictions they work under make them very valuable employees. North Korean laborers are “more stable” than Chinese workers, said Li Shasha, a sales manager at Yanbian Shenghai Industry and Trade Co., a major Hunchun seafood processor.</p>
<p>Chinese workers have job protections that give them the right to take time off, while North Korean workers complete their contracts with few complaints, rare sick days and almost no turnover.</p>
<p>“They won’t take a leave for some personal reason,” said Li, whose company shipped containers of squid and snow crab to the U.S and Canada in July and August.</p>
<p>They are also often considered cheaper. Li said that at the Yanbian Shenghai factory, the North Koreans’ salary is the same as for the Chinese, roughly $300 to $385 per month. But others say North Koreans are routinely paid about $300 a month compared to up to $540 for Chinese.</p>
<p>Either way, the North Korean government of Kim Jong Un keeps anywhere from half to 70 percent of their pay, according to scholars who have surveyed former laborers. It passes on to the workers as little as $90 per month — or roughly 46 cents per hour.</p>
<p>The work can be exhausting, with shifts lasting up to 12 hours and most workers getting just one day off each week. At some factories, laborers work hunched over tables as North Korean political slogans are blasted from waist-high loudspeakers.</p>
<p>Through dozens of interviews, observation, trade records and other public and confidential documents, AP identified three seafood processors that employ North Koreans and export to the U.S.: Joint venture Hunchun Dongyang Seafood Industry &amp; Trade Co. Ltd. &amp; Hunchun Pagoda Industry Co. Ltd. distributed globally by Ocean One Enterprise; Yantai Dachen Hunchun Seafood Products, and Yanbian Shenghai Industry &amp; Trade Co. Ltd.</p>
<p>They’re getting their seafood from China, Russia and, in some cases like snow crab, Alaska. Although AP saw North Korean workers at Hunchun Dongyang, manager Zhu Qizhen said they don’t hire North Korean workers anymore and refused to give details. The other Chinese companies didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.</p>
<p>Shipping records seen by the AP show more than 100 cargo containers of seafood, more than 2,000 tons, were sent to the U.S. and Canada this year from the factories where North Koreans were working in China.</p>
<p>Packages of snow crab, salmon fillets, squid rings and more were imported by American distributors, including Sea-Trek Enterprises in Rhode Island, and The Fishin’ Company in Pennsylvania. Sea-Trek exports seafood to Europe, Australia, Asia, Central America and the Caribbean. The Fishin’ Company supplies retailers and food service companies, as well as supermarkets.</p>
<p>The Fishin’ Company said it cut its ties with Hunchun processors and got its last shipment this summer, but seafood can remain in the supply chain for more than a year. Owners of both companies said they were very concerned about the North Korean laborers, and planned to investigate.</p>
<p>Often the seafood arrives in generic packaging, but some was already branded in China with familiar names like Walmart or Sea Queen, a seafood brand sold exclusively at ALDI supermarkets, which has 1,600 stores across 35 states. There’s no way to say where a particular package ends up, nor what percentage of the factories’ products wind up in the U.S.</p>
<p>Walmart spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said company officials learned in an audit a year ago that there were potential labor problems at a Hunchun factory, and that they had banned their suppliers, including The Fishin’ Company, from getting seafood processed there. She said The Fishin’ Company had “responded constructively” but did not specify how.</p>
<p>Some U.S. brands and companies had indirect ties to the North Korean laborers in Hunchun, including Chicken of the Sea, owned by Thai Union. Trade records show shipments came from a sister company of the Hunchun factory in another part of China, where Thai Union spokeswoman Whitney Small says labor standards are being met and the employees are all Chinese. Small said the sister companies should not be penalized.</p>
<p>Shipments also went to two Canadian importers, Morgan Foods and Alliance Seafood, which did not respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>Boxes at the factories had markings from several major German supermarket chains and brands — All-Fish distributors, REWE and Penny grocers and Icewind brand. REWE Group, which also owns the Penny chain, said that they used to do business with Hunchun Dongyang but the contract has expired. All the companies that responded said their suppliers were forbidden to use forced labor.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>HIDDEN LIVES</p>
<p>North Korean workers in China are under much more intense surveillance than those in Russia and the Middle East, experts say. That’s likely because Pyongyang fears they could follow in the footsteps of tens of thousands of their countrymen who escaped to China, or they could interact with South Koreans living in China.</p>
<p>“If a North Korean wants to go overseas, China is his or her least favorable option,” said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in South Korea. “Because in China, (factories) have essentially prison-like conditions.”</p>
<p>The vast majority of the workers in Hunchun are women in their 20s. Most are thought to be hired back home by labor brokers, who often demand bribes for overseas jobs. The laborers arrive in China already divided into work teams, each led by a North Korean overseer, and remain isolated even from their own employers.</p>
<p>“They’re not allowed to mingle with the Chinese,” said a senior manager at a Hunchun company that employs many North Koreans. He spoke on condition he not be identified, fearing repercussions on his business. “We can only communicate with their team leaders.”</p>
<p>In a sense, the North Korean workers in China remain in North Korea, under constant surveillance.</p>
<p>“They only talk about what they need to,” said a medical worker who confirmed their nationality and had cared for some, and also spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for angering Chinese authorities. “They don’t talk about what they might be thinking.”</p>
<p>They live crowded into rooms often above or next door to the factories, in a world awash in North Korean rituals.</p>
<p>“Let’s Follow the Ideas!” of North Korea’s leaders, urges a poster at the workers’ dormitory at Hunchun Pagoda. Portraits of the country’s first two rulers, worshipped as god-like in the deeply isolated nation, gaze down from otherwise-bare walls. Laundry is often hanging up to dry and potted plants — mostly what appear to be herbs, though one room at Hunchun Pagoda has bright yellow carnations — sit on many windowsills.</p>
<p>It’s a world of concrete. The factory buildings and dormitories at Hunchun Pagoda are grey slabs of unpainted concrete. The yard where the women play volleyball in their free time is concrete. The street outside the front gate is concrete.</p>
<p>At most factories the women prepare their own food and make tubs of their own kimchi, the spicy cabbage dish beloved in both Koreas. Their televisions cannot tune in Chinese programming, and they organize their own sports and singing contests on their days off.</p>
<p>Nearly every compound has a workers’ garden. There are a half dozen rows of corn at Hunchun Pagoda, and kidney beans and melons at Yantai.</p>
<p>A booming Chinese economy means money has come even to cities like Hunchun, where six-lane roads and factories bump up against cornfields that, a year later, often make way for yet another factory. Mercedes are now regular sights on the road and 30-foot billboards at malls show bone-thin models in fur coats.</p>
<p>But when the North Koreans are allowed to leave their compounds, they go to the city’s working-class street markets, where vendors set their wares on plastic sheets or folding tables, or sell directly from the backs of trucks.</p>
<p>Chinese merchants say most North Koreans are very careful about their finances. For instance, while they splurge on expensive spices imported from South Korea, they also buy Chinese noodles that cost less than half of the South Korean brands.</p>
<p>On a recent morning, a group of about 70 North Korean women walked to a Hunchun street market from the nearby Hong Chao Zhi Yi garment factory. They asked about prices for watermelons and plums, browsed through cheap pantyhose and bought steamed corn-on-the-cob for 1 Chinese yuan (about 16 cents) apiece.</p>
<p>As the late summer chill set in one evening, a dozen or so women from Hunchun Pagoda played volleyball in the quiet road in front of the compound’s gate, scrimmaging in the pool of light thrown by the street lamp.</p>
<p>A train horn blew. The women shouted to one another while they played. As a car with a foreigner drove by, one laughingly called out: “Bye-bye!”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>PROPPING UP NORTH KOREA</p>
<p>Estimates vary on how many North Koreans work overseas and how much money they bring in.</p>
<p>South Korea’s intelligence agency estimated in 2014 that 50,000 to 60,000 work in about 50 countries, most in China and Russia. That number may now be up to 100,000, according to Lim Eul Chul, a scholar at South Korea’s Kyungnam University who has interviewed numerous former laborers. Estimates that their labor brings in revenue of $200 million to $500 million annually to the North Korean government come from scholars, who base their findings on academic research papers, South Korean intelligence reports and sources in the Chinese business community.</p>
<p>That has made the workers a significant and reliable source of revenue for the North Korean regime as it struggles beneath the weight of increasing UN sanctions, which the U.S. estimates could cost Pyongyang upwards of $1.5 billion each year in lost export revenues. In the last month alone, China has said it’s cracking down on North Korean exports, businesses and joint ventures, but it has a long history of not enforcing sanctions in practice.</p>
<p>Despite the pay and restrictions, these are highly sought-after jobs in North Korea, a chance to move up a rickety economic ladder and see a bit of the world beyond the closed-in nation.</p>
<p>Their monthly earnings in China are far more than many would earn in North Korea today, where official salaries often equal $1 per month. Experts estimate most families live on about $40-$60 a month, with much of their earnings coming from trading in the growing network of unofficial markets.</p>
<p>And there are plenty of benefits to working overseas. The laborers can use their earnings to start businesses in these markets, and can buy the status symbols of the slowly-growing middle class — foreign-made rice cookers, watches, TVs, tableware — selling them back home or using them as bribes. Simply going abroad is so rare that returning workers can find themselves highly sought-after when it comes time to marry.</p>
<p>Lim Il, a North Korean refugee, bribed a series of officials — with 20 bottles of liquor, 30 packs of cigarettes and restaurant gift cards — to get a job as a construction worker in Kuwait City in the late 1990s, when North Korea was still suffering through a horrific famine.</p>
<p>“I felt like I had won the lottery,” he said. “People fantasized about getting overseas labor jobs.”</p>
<p>Lim, a man in his late 40s who fled to South Korea in 1997 and now writes novels about the North, said that even though he was never paid his $120-a-month salary, he was happy to simply get beef soup and rice every day.</p>
<p>“Unless you were an idiot, you wouldn’t give up such an opportunity,” he said. While he never thought of himself as a slave, looking back he says that is the right description: “These North Korean workers (today) still don’t know they are slaves.”</p>
<p>The new law in the U.S. labels all North Korean workers both overseas and inside the country as engaging in forced labor. (While U.S. law generally forbids Americans from conducting business in North Korea, the AP employs a small number of support staff in its Pyongyang bureau, operating under a waiver granted by the U.S. government to allow the flow of news and information.)</p>
<p>“There are not many countries that, at a government level, export their own citizens as a commodity to be exploited,” said an official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.</p>
<p>For years the State Department has blacklisted North Korea in its human trafficking reports, saying the overseas laborers and their families could face reprisals if the workers complain or try to escape, and criticizing Pyongyang for keeping much of the workers’ earnings. China, Russia and other countries hosting North Korean labor are all members of the United Nations International Labor Organization, which requires workers to receive their full salaries.</p>
<p>Luis CdeBaca, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for human trafficking issues, said both federal law enforcement agents and importers should be making sure workers are treated fairly.</p>
<p>“If you think about a company like Walmart, which is spending a lot of money, time and effort to clean up its supply chain, sending auditors and inspectors to factories, working with suppliers, all of that is thrown out the window if they are importing products made with exploited North Korean labor,” said CdeBaca. “It contradicts everything they are doing.”</p>
<p>CdeBaca conceded the North Korean workers might like their jobs.</p>
<p>“The question is not, ‘Are you happy?’ ” he said. “The question is, ‘Are you free to leave?'”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press journalists Leonardo Haberkorn in Uruguay, Han Guan Ng and researcher Fu Ting in China, Kelvin K. Chan in Hong Kong, Frank Jordans in Germany and Jon Gambrell in United Arab Emirates contributed to this report. Mendoza reported from California.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Read more in the series: https://www.apnews.com/tag/RepublicofKim</p> | Nuclear-armed North Korea profits from US, EU seafood sales | false | https://abqjournal.com/1073807/nuclear-armed-north-korea-profits-from-us-eu-seafood-sales.html | 2017-10-05 | 2 |
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<p>DALLAS (AP) — Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson flashed a few smiles when his bid to save the city’s NBA franchise finally succeeded. Just not too many.</p>
<p>The former All-Star guard didn’t want to celebrate at the expense of Seattle after league owners voted Wednesday to reject, once and for all, an aggressive bid to move the Sacramento Kings.</p>
<p>“I went to Seattle,” said Johnson, who spent all but the first 52 games of his 12-year career with the Phoenix Suns. “I played against those fans in that community. It’s a great sports town, it’s a great basketball community. And for them to come up a little short, especially with what happened in 2008 to have lost their team, that’s devastating. That’s why we fought so hard.”</p>
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<p>NBA owners decided to follow the recommendation of their relocation committee, and Commissioner David Stern promptly announced that he hoped to have a deal in place in 48 hours with a group that wants to buy the team from the Maloof brothers.</p>
<p>“And now we think that because the Maloofs have overall been very good for Sacramento and the Kings and the NBA, that they will be motivated to do something fast so that the franchise can get cracking,” Stern said.</p>
<p>The 22-8 vote by the Board of Governors rejected a deal that would have sold a 65 percent controlling interest at a total franchise valuation of $625 million to a Seattle group led by investor Chris Hansen, who boosted the offer twice after the NBA showed an unwillingness to relocate.</p>
<p>Now the Maloofs will try to complete a deal at Hansen’s original price of $525 million — still topping the NBA record of $450 million — with a group put together by Johnson and fronted by TIBCO software chairman Vivek Ranadive. The plan includes a new downtown arena.</p>
<p>“I think that once Sacramento got engaged in doing this and being able to deliver on the promise, which didn’t really exist when the original deal was made in Seattle, that the principal advantage to the incumbent was going to prevail,” Stern said. “Nobody had any doubt that the same or similar thing could happen in Seattle. It was just, do you give the edge to a city that has a 28-year history of support?”</p>
<p>The vote ended an emotional saga that has dragged on for nearly three years. Hansen wanted to move the franchise and rename it the SuperSonics, who left Seattle for Oklahoma City in 2008 and were renamed the Thunder.</p>
<p>Hansen said in a statement posted on his website that he hoped to pursue a minority ownership role with the Maloofs, but Ranadive said his partners “haven’t really considered” the Maloofs maintaining a stake in the franchise.</p>
<p>Stern praised Hansen’s proposal and said the NBA might consider expansion once a new TV deal is in place, but said “we don’t have anything concrete.”</p>
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<p>“Our day will come, and when it does, it will just be that much sweeter for the struggle,” Hansen said.</p>
<p>It’s the second time since 2011 that the Maloof brothers have made plans that would have ended in relocation for the Kings. The first target was Anaheim, Calif., but Johnson convinced the NBA to give the city another chance to finance a new arena.</p>
<p>Johnson delivered on a promise for a plan for a new downtown arena with help from Stern, but the Maloofs backed out, saying it didn’t make financial sense.</p>
<p>The Maloofs had another surprise when they announced a deal in January with Hansen’s group, which includes Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and members of the Nordstrom department store family.</p>
<p>Johnson fought back again, this time lining up an ownership group led by Ranadive and getting the Sacramento City Council to approve a non-binding financing plan for a $447 million arena with a $258 million public subsidy.</p>
<p>“This is an ownership group that’s played to win and kept us in the game, and put us in a situation where ultimately over the next couple days, if things go right, we can close this out and move to a new chapter in Sacramento,” Johnson said.</p>
<p>In a letter sent to the relocation and finance committees during its April 17 meeting, the Maloofs said they preferred to sell to the Seattle group and expressed discontent with Sacramento’s bid, saying it fell “significantly short.”</p>
<p>After Wednesday’s vote, however, George Maloof denied that his family wasn’t willing to sell to the Ranadive group and that the league was pressuring them to do so.</p>
<p>“It’s been a fair process, a very fair process,” Maloof said.</p>
<p>Hansen spent nearly two years working to get an arena plan approved by the city and county governments and spent more than $65 million buying land in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood where the arena would be built. Hansen has a five-year memorandum of understanding with the city and county on the arena plan.</p>
<p>A small crowd at a Seattle restaurant was subdued as word spread that the franchise wasn’t coming, while horns blared and cheers erupted from bars in Sacramento.</p>
<p>“In Kevin Johnson we trust,” said season-ticket holder Jim Amen, who wore the jersey of No. 16 Peja Stojakovic, the Kings’ first-round draft pick in 1996. “This meant a lot to our city. It’s not just about basketball, but about revitalizing our downtown.”</p>
<p>About a dozen Sacramento supporters wearing Kings jerseys and “Small Market Big Heart” T-shirts waited most of the day in the Dallas hotel to hear what turned out to be good news. Not so for a handful of fans in green and gold hoping for the return of the Sonics.</p>
<p>“It’s been a roller coaster for both cities, but we’ve never looked at this as a competition between Seattle and Sacramento,” Johnson said. “We thought this was about what we needed to do to keep our team in Sacramento. We’d take a back seat to no city when it comes to the way we support our team.”</p>
<p>Now they have the backing of NBA owners.</p> | NBA owners nix Kings’ move to Seattle | false | https://abqjournal.com/199689/nba-owners-nix-kings-move-to-seattle.html | 2013-05-16 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Of the 568 officers who voted, just 39 of them voted in favor of the new contract, Albuquerque Police Officers Association president Stephanie Lopez said in a news conference Friday morning. The majority of those 39 officers work in the Prisoner Transport Unit, she said.</p>
<p>"Now that the city knows how officers feel and can see the results of this overwhelming vote, we look forward to sitting back down and working through these issues so that we can bring a fair contract to our officers," Lopez said in a prepared statement.</p>
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<p>The proposed contract also would have required officers to give up several hours of vacation time a year to fund the union positions. The so-called "union time" issue has been a sticking point for the mayor and union leadership throughout the negotiations, as the mayor contends that taxpayers should not foot the bill for union activities.</p>
<p>Lopez said that she was surprised at the overwhelmingly negative response to the contract, but not that it failed. She said the union leadership felt that officers needed to at least have a chance to have their voices heard, especially after three years of stalled negotiations and a City Council resolution that aimed to restore an approximately 2.5 percent pay cut imposed by the mayor in 2011.</p>
<p>If approved, the contract would have resulted in a pay raise equivalent to about $1,200 next year, Lopez said.</p>
<p>The 2.5 percent pay cut was in addition to the mayor's decision not to honor the third year of the contract worked out between the union and his predecessor, ex-mayor Martin Chavez. That contract called for a pay increase of 3.7 percent, but the mayor cited city budgetary concerns in declining to honor the contract.</p>
<p>In September, the state Court of Appeals said that the mayor was wrong to "unilaterally" exclude pay raises from the proposed city budget that year.</p>
<p>Lopez said she looks forward to sitting down with city officials to address what she calls city leaders' lack of integrity by failing to honor the old contract.</p>
<p>Berry has said that the raises outlined in the contract were always subject to budget appropriations.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | City police union overwhelmingly rejects contract proposal | false | https://abqjournal.com/342403/city-police-union-overwhelmingly-rejects-contract-proposal.html | 2 |
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<p>Last week, prosecutors revealed new information that they say could shed some light into the boy’s life at home.</p>
<p>A picture found on his mother’s cellphone shows Ares with the words “thug life” scribbled in black Sharpie across his tiny stomach, Assistant District Attorney Susan Stinson told The Washington Post. A fake tattoo and the word “loco” can be seen on his forehead.</p>
<p>It’s unclear when the pictures were taken or whether they were somehow connected to the boy’s injuries. But his mother, 27-year-old Miranda Rabago, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, who told police she’s the toddler’s only caretaker, has been indicted on child-abuse charges. Her public defender, Stephen Taylor, said it’s too early in the case to say what those pictures suggest or indicate.</p>
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<p>“It’s difficult to look at something like that and think the worst about that kind of picture, especially in the context of what we know so far,” Taylor said. “I just want to caution everybody into thinking that there’s something to that evidence, when we haven’t gotten everything yet to see the whole picture, the whole story about what led to Ares’s death.”</p>
<p>But Stinson said the pictures indicate, to some extent, how the boy was treated at home.</p>
<p>Prosecutors believe that the boy’s injuries, including the fractures and the brain bleeding, happened over a period of time. Hospital staff also determined that Ares was malnourished and under-cared for, according to a criminal complaint.</p>
<p>Ares was taken to the hospital the evening of Nov. 21. Hospital staff called police after they determined that the boy had a skull fracture and suspected that he was being abused. A detective also noticed bruises and red spots on the boy’s face, according to the complaint.</p>
<p>Rabago, who has denied hurting her son, told police that the boy seemed normal and didn’t have any bruises when she woke up at about 7 a.m. that day. She said she and the boy rested on a mattress in the living room at about noon. The boy fell asleep, Rabago said, and she moved him to his crib, according to the complaint.</p>
<p>Rabago, who was pregnant, slept the rest of the day, she told police. When she woke up at about 5 p.m., the boy was unconscious and wasn’t moving, the complaint states. He was taken to the hospital shortly after.</p>
<p>Ares died two days later.</p>
<p>A doctor told police that the boy had what’s called “black brain,” a head injury caused by shaking, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.</p>
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<p>After searching Rabago and her boyfriend’s apartment, police found blood on a pillow in the boy’s crib and a sippy cup with rotten milk in it, according to the complaint. They also found marijuana pipes in the bathroom and next to the mattress in the living room.</p>
<p>Rabago, who was indicted last month, is adamant that she did not hurt her son, her attorney said. She pleaded guilty in Santa Fe District Court on Friday, according to the Albuquerque Journal. If convicted, she faces up to 21 years in prison and $20,000 in fines, Stinson, the assistant district attorney, said.</p>
<p>Another couple and their two young children were living in the apartment with Rabago and her boyfriend, authorities say.</p>
<p>Court records show Rabago has filed for divorce from Ares’s father, Brandon Baroz, who is serving time in a community corrections facility in Colorado.</p>
<p>Rabago’s two other children are in Colorado with her parents, the Albuquerque Journal reported.</p>
<p>Ares’s death is the second suspected child-abuse death in recent months in Northern New Mexico, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.</p>
<p>Likely the most high-profile and horrific child-abuse case the state has seen is the death of 10-year-old Victoria Martens in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>Officials say Martens was drugged with methamphetamine, sexually abused and killed last August. The girl’s mother, Michelle Martens; Martens’s boyfriend, Fabian Gonzales; and Gonzales’s cousin, Jessica Kelley, have been charged.</p>
<p>The Albuquerque police chief called the girl’s death “the most gruesome act of evil” he has ever seen in his career.</p> | Toddler who died of brain injuries had ‘thug life’ written on his stomach, authorities say | false | https://abqjournal.com/930133/toddler-who-died-of-brain-injuries-had-thug-life-written-on-his-stomach-authorities-say.html | 2 |
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<p>Maryland Congresswoman Donna Edwards speaks with the Washington Blade at her Prince George’s County campaign office on Feb. 1, 2016. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)</p>
<p>Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of profiles of candidates hoping to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.).</p>
<p>LANHAM, Md. — Maryland Congresswoman Donna Edwards says that she would be a “voice” for people of color and other underrepresented groups in the U.S. Senate if she were elected.</p>
<p>“It’s exactly those communities: Workers, women and children who need a voice in the United States Senate,” Edwards told the Washington Blade during an interview in her Prince George’s County campaign office on Feb. 1. “I will be that voice for them.”</p>
<p>Shortly after U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) announced her retirement from the U.S. Senate last March, Edwards declared her candidacy to fill the&#160;seat. She will <a href="" type="internal">face off against Congressman Chris Van Hollen</a> in the April 26 Democratic primary.</p>
<p>Chrysovalantis Kefalas, a gay Republican who was former Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich’s legal counsel, late last year declared his candidacy for the Mikulski seat. State Del. Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore and Harford Counties), Anthony Seda and Richard Douglas will face off against Kefalas in the GOP primary.</p>
<p>Edwards told the Blade that Mikulski’s retirement announcement “really caught us all by surprise.”</p>
<p>“I thought that I could offer a really different kind of voice in the United States Senate that would respect and live up to the legacy that Sen. Mikulski has left, but also add to that legacy,” said Edwards.</p>
<p>Edwards was the first executive director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, which worked to secure passage of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994.</p>
<p>She later worked at Public Citizen and the Center for a New Democracy before becoming the executive director of the Arca Foundation in 2000. Edwards has represented Maryland’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since she won a special election to succeed Albert Wynn in 2008.</p>
<p>Edwards pointed out to the Blade that she was the first member of the Maryland congressional delegation to publicly back marriage rights for same-sex couples, but the Van Hollen campaign disputes this claim. Maryland Congressman John Sarbanes in 2007 expressed his support for nuptials for gays and lesbians during <a href="http://www.freedomtomarry.org/blog/entry/voice-for-equality-john-sarbanes" type="external">an interview on “The Marc Steiner Show.”</a></p>
<p>Edwards publicly spoke in support of Maryland’s same-sex marriage law that then-Gov. Martin O’Malley signed in 2012. Voters in the same year upheld the statute in a referendum.</p>
<p>“It’s from my fundamental value system, which is that you can’t have different categories of equality,” Edwards told the Blade. “Whenever inequality pops up, you have to smack back at it.”</p>
<p>Edwards, who is a congregant at Fort Foote Baptist Church in Fort Washington, acknowledged to the Blade that her pastor “completely disagrees with my views on marriage equality.”</p>
<p>She said that he nevertheless supports her “overwhelmingly anyway” because she “was straight forward with them and that I didn’t dance around the issues.” Edwards told the Blade that she also met with other pastors in her district before her 2008 election to explain her position on LGBT-specific issues.</p>
<p>“It’s hard to concede that you get elected without the support of those pastors and those communities,” she said. “I looked at them and I said to them I could give you an answer that kind of dances around things, but I’m going to tell you that I support equality wherever there is inequality.”</p>
<p>Edwards said she asked the pastors whether they would want the government to interfere with the operation of their respective churches. She told the Blade that their “universal answer was no.”</p>
<p>“Then I said, ‘and so when government has to be about the business of making sure that there is equal treatment of all of our citizens, no matter their gender, no matter their race, no matter their religion, no matter their sexual orientation, why would you as pastors want to meddle in what the government does,’” said Edwards. “That is the last conversation that I ever had with pastors about that.”</p>
<p>She has also taken part in Baltimore Pride and attended events for Equality Maryland, a statewide LGBT advocacy group <a href="" type="internal">that will merge with FreeState Legal</a> later this year. Edwards is also a co-sponsor of the Equality Act, which would amend federal civil rights law to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.</p>
<p>Shortly after she took office, Edwards secured funding that allowed Maryland to join a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that provides dinner to low-income students. The congresswoman last year introduced a bill that would allow state and federal prisoners to once again become eligible for Pell grants.</p>
<p>“It was my experience of visiting jails and prisons that led me to that,” said Edwards.</p>
<p>Edwards also discussed Freddie Gray’s death last April from injuries he suffered while in police custody.</p>
<p>She told the Blade that the case highlights the need to reduce unemployment rates among Baltimoreans of color, rebuild infrastructure and expand skills training. Edwards added Gray’s death also underscores the need to extend resources to law enforcement agencies “to do the kind of ongoing training and competency development that’s necessary for law enforcement to interact with communities in a responsible way.”</p>
<p>Edwards said that she will also work with Baltimore’s next mayor to “begin to deliver” results on housing, increased federal funding to tackle poverty and other issues.</p>
<p>“These are issues that are multiple fold,” she told the Blade.</p>
<p>Edwards’ <a href="http://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/002/201602040200061002/201602040200061002.pdf" type="external">latest campaign filing</a> with the Federal Election Commission indicates she had $299,459.68 in the bank at the end of 2015. This figure compares to the $3,663,652 that Van Hollen had during the same period.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/docs/Gonzales_Maryland_Poll_January_2016.pdf" type="external">poll that Gonzales Research and Marketing Strategies released</a> last month shows Van Hollen ahead of Edwards by a 38-36 percent margin. The survey has a 5.8 percent margin of error.</p>
<p>“It’s a sprint right up until Election Day,” Edwards told the Blade.</p>
<p>Edwards’ LGBT supporters with whom the Blade spoke said they are confident that the congresswoman will be an effective member of the U.S. Senate.</p>
<p>“LGBT issues are sort of based on equity and justice,” said Kathleen Maloy of Chevy Chase on Tuesday during a telephone interview. “Donna has stood for that her whole life.”</p>
<p>Rev. Merrick Moise, an LGBT rights advocate in Baltimore, agreed.</p>
<p>Moise told the Blade on Tuesday that Edwards is “unequivocal in her support of the community.” He said the congresswoman also “understands the plight of everyday Marylanders.”</p>
<p>“She absolutely has a chance because she has the support of grassroots folks,” Moise told the Blade, referring to Edwards’ campaign. “She is uniquely positioned as an African-American woman who has advocated for a whole host of issues.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Anthony Seda</a> <a href="" type="internal">Barbara Mikulski</a> <a href="" type="internal">bisexual</a> <a href="" type="internal">Chris Van Hollen</a> <a href="" type="internal">Chrysovalantis Kefalas</a> <a href="" type="internal">Donna Edwards</a> <a href="" type="internal">Equality Act</a> <a href="" type="internal">Freddie Gray</a> <a href="" type="internal">gay</a> <a href="" type="internal">John Sarbanes</a> <a href="" type="internal">Kathleen Maloy</a> <a href="" type="internal">Kathy Szeliga</a> <a href="" type="internal">lesbian</a> <a href="" type="internal">Maryland</a> <a href="" type="internal">Merrick Moise</a> <a href="" type="internal">Richard Douglas</a> <a href="" type="internal">transgender</a> <a href="" type="internal">U.S. Senate</a></p> | Edwards seeks to be a ‘voice’ in U.S. Senate | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/02/17/donna-edwards-seeks-to-be-a-voice-in-u-s-senate/ | 3 |
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<p>SEATTLE (AP) — The state Legislature approved more than $4 billion in construction projects across the state after reaching a deal on a contentious water issue that had stalled the capital budget for months.</p>
<p>The Senate and the House passed legislation Thursday night aimed at addressing issues in the state Supreme Court decision known as Hirst involving the use of domestic wells in rural areas.</p>
<p>Lawmakers also approved a $4.2 billion construction spending plan that includes money for major projects across the state, including affordable housing, K-12 school buildings, mental health beds and public work projects.</p>
<p>Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to sign the measures.</p>
<p>Several lawmakers applauded the passage of the capital budget and touted the jobs and investments across the state.</p>
<p>Sen. David Frockt, a Seattle Democrat and the Senate capital budget chair, said capital budgets have traditionally been bipartisan efforts. "It's unfortunate that Washingtonians had to wait so long for this funding," he said in a statement after the vote.</p>
<p>Lawmakers adjourned last year without approving the two-year construction budget after Republicans refused to pass it without legislation to address the 2016 Hirst court ruling.</p>
<p>Senate 6091, which passed 35-14 in Senate and 66-30 in the House, would allow landowners in rural areas to tap household wells — know as permit-exempt wells — while local committees work to develop plans for future water use. Those plans must outline how to offset potential impacts to rivers and streams from those wells.</p>
<p>The plan includes $300 million over the next 15 years for projects that improve stream flows and restore watersheds.</p>
<p>Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, a Sequim Democrat who sponsored the measure, said in a statement that his legislation responds to the court decision in "a fair and measured way."</p>
<p>"I suspect no one will be completely happy with this bill," he said, adding that it indicates that the measure does a good job of balancing competing interests.</p>
<p>After the bill passed, Sen. Judy Warnick, a Moses Lake Republican and a lead negotiator on the issued, said in a statement that the compromise deal will bring needed relief for rural families that just want to drill a small household well.</p>
<p>Property owners have provided emotional testimony in Olympia, recounting how they spent thousands of dollars to prepare lots to build homes or to dig wells but weren't able to get building permits.</p>
<p>Building, real estate and property rights groups and other critics said the court ruling resulted in staggering economic impacts in rural communities, from declining home values to stalled building.</p>
<p>The Building Industry Association of Washington supports the bill. "It will provide certainty for local permitting authorities and as a result builders and property owners," said Jennifer Hayes, the group's spokeswoman.</p>
<p>Environmental groups and several tribes across the state maintained that the Hirst decision correctly required local governments to plan ahead so new water withdrawals don't take way from water in streams or from those with senior water rights, including tribes, municipalities and farmers.</p>
<p>"The state does a horrible job with managing water and they're not improving things with this bill," Daryl Williams, a natural resource consultant for the Tulalip Tribes, said Thursday. The bill provides some money for watershed restoration, but he said when that money is spent, people will build without concern for impacts to the watershed.</p>
<p>Bruce Wishart with the Sierra Club said environmental groups have concerns about the bill, including an emphasis on mitigation projects that won't return water directly to streams.</p>
<p>Landowners who already began drilling wells would be grandfathered in under previous rules.</p>
<p>Until new watershed plans are approved, landowners would be able to drill a new household well for a $500 fee.</p>
<p>People with wells in some areas would be allowed to take 950 gallons (3,600 liters) a day, while others would be allowed 3,000 gallons (11,400 liters) a day.</p>
<p>The deal will also allow counties to rely on the Department of Ecology's water rules as they had before the Hirst decision. In its 6-3 ruling, the state's high court said counties must make their own independent assessment of water availability before issuing building permits. Many counties said they didn't have the resources or expertise to do the kinds of studies that would have been required under the ruling.</p>
<p>SEATTLE (AP) — The state Legislature approved more than $4 billion in construction projects across the state after reaching a deal on a contentious water issue that had stalled the capital budget for months.</p>
<p>The Senate and the House passed legislation Thursday night aimed at addressing issues in the state Supreme Court decision known as Hirst involving the use of domestic wells in rural areas.</p>
<p>Lawmakers also approved a $4.2 billion construction spending plan that includes money for major projects across the state, including affordable housing, K-12 school buildings, mental health beds and public work projects.</p>
<p>Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to sign the measures.</p>
<p>Several lawmakers applauded the passage of the capital budget and touted the jobs and investments across the state.</p>
<p>Sen. David Frockt, a Seattle Democrat and the Senate capital budget chair, said capital budgets have traditionally been bipartisan efforts. "It's unfortunate that Washingtonians had to wait so long for this funding," he said in a statement after the vote.</p>
<p>Lawmakers adjourned last year without approving the two-year construction budget after Republicans refused to pass it without legislation to address the 2016 Hirst court ruling.</p>
<p>Senate 6091, which passed 35-14 in Senate and 66-30 in the House, would allow landowners in rural areas to tap household wells — know as permit-exempt wells — while local committees work to develop plans for future water use. Those plans must outline how to offset potential impacts to rivers and streams from those wells.</p>
<p>The plan includes $300 million over the next 15 years for projects that improve stream flows and restore watersheds.</p>
<p>Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, a Sequim Democrat who sponsored the measure, said in a statement that his legislation responds to the court decision in "a fair and measured way."</p>
<p>"I suspect no one will be completely happy with this bill," he said, adding that it indicates that the measure does a good job of balancing competing interests.</p>
<p>After the bill passed, Sen. Judy Warnick, a Moses Lake Republican and a lead negotiator on the issued, said in a statement that the compromise deal will bring needed relief for rural families that just want to drill a small household well.</p>
<p>Property owners have provided emotional testimony in Olympia, recounting how they spent thousands of dollars to prepare lots to build homes or to dig wells but weren't able to get building permits.</p>
<p>Building, real estate and property rights groups and other critics said the court ruling resulted in staggering economic impacts in rural communities, from declining home values to stalled building.</p>
<p>The Building Industry Association of Washington supports the bill. "It will provide certainty for local permitting authorities and as a result builders and property owners," said Jennifer Hayes, the group's spokeswoman.</p>
<p>Environmental groups and several tribes across the state maintained that the Hirst decision correctly required local governments to plan ahead so new water withdrawals don't take way from water in streams or from those with senior water rights, including tribes, municipalities and farmers.</p>
<p>"The state does a horrible job with managing water and they're not improving things with this bill," Daryl Williams, a natural resource consultant for the Tulalip Tribes, said Thursday. The bill provides some money for watershed restoration, but he said when that money is spent, people will build without concern for impacts to the watershed.</p>
<p>Bruce Wishart with the Sierra Club said environmental groups have concerns about the bill, including an emphasis on mitigation projects that won't return water directly to streams.</p>
<p>Landowners who already began drilling wells would be grandfathered in under previous rules.</p>
<p>Until new watershed plans are approved, landowners would be able to drill a new household well for a $500 fee.</p>
<p>People with wells in some areas would be allowed to take 950 gallons (3,600 liters) a day, while others would be allowed 3,000 gallons (11,400 liters) a day.</p>
<p>The deal will also allow counties to rely on the Department of Ecology's water rules as they had before the Hirst decision. In its 6-3 ruling, the state's high court said counties must make their own independent assessment of water availability before issuing building permits. Many counties said they didn't have the resources or expertise to do the kinds of studies that would have been required under the ruling.</p> | Lawmakers pass water bill, $4 billion in construction | false | https://apnews.com/amp/b735068b43034e758e6abf9a57400a86 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
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<p>Editor:</p>
<p>I want to take the opportunity to personally thank the people of Rio Rancho for the tremendous amount of support shown to me and my family through the campaign process and on Election Day. I am so very humbled to have been chosen to be the next mayor of Rio Rancho.</p>
<p>Additionally, I want to publicly recognize all the volunteers that worked so tirelessly on this campaign; your confidence in me and the dedication to this endeavor is something I can never forget and certainly can never show enough appreciation for. Thank you.</p>
<p>I would like to thank Mayor Tom Swisstack for his service to the City of Rio Rancho. Please know that my family and I wish you and yours the absolute best.</p>
<p>Words are not enough to express the feeling of gratitude I and my family have toward the people of Rio Rancho and everyone that played a part in this election. I will work my best over the next four years to serve the people of Rio Rancho and to move Rio Rancho forward.</p>
<p>Mayor-elect Gregg Hull and family</p>
<p>Rio Rancho</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Hull family thankful for city's support | false | https://abqjournal.com/386261/hull-family-thankful-for-city39s-support.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>—Milton Friedman, 1991</p>
<p>The prohibition against alcohol took most of a hundred years to reach its final stage in the 1930s. Then, society gave up on prohibition and settled for alcohol regulation. A surprising thing happened when the same forces of the society who pushed alcohol prohibition applied the same prohibition logic to recreational drugs. Sadly they have gotten the same result from drug prohibition as they did from alcohol prohibition.</p>
<p>Albert Einstein contended the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So how long do we intend to be insane?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>When I arrived at college in 1968, even my cow college had people doing illegal drugs. It was common knowledge that recreational drugs were readily available at “reasonable” prices. Today, at the same college, drugs are still readily available at “reasonable” prices after more than 40 years of the “War on Drugs.”</p>
<p>Many people over the decades looked at the results and recognized the efforts were not effective and did more harm than good. Yet the efforts continue unabated. The sticking point is the principle that society should not allow people to hurt themselves. So we incarcerate millions of American citizens, “for their own good.”</p>
<p>Like alcohol prohibition, the drug war has had three results: crime organizations have grown large and influential; police enforcement and incarceration have become an industry; and more people take drugs than before.</p>
<p>More people started drinking during prohibition than before. Prohibition made our nation a nation of drinkers. The drug war seems to have increased the number of drug users.</p>
<p>So why not stop the drug war? Two reasons: No politician wants to face re-election accused of being soft on drugs — and the drug wars are an industry for our government.</p>
<p>The drug cartels are very sophisticated and technologically savvy. While they have the muscle of the prohibition crime syndicates, the cartels also have the means and inclination to engage in corruption of public officials on a scale never before seen.</p>
<p>Opposing them is the government enforcement industry. Look at the millions of government workers on the enforcement side. They range from the prosecutors and judicial workers to the enforcement agents to the prisons. Recreational illegal drugs are a godsend for government jobs. I am all for the emotion of keeping innocents from harming themselves; it is just the century of our country trying to stop the illegal drug use has had nothing but failure.</p>
<p>So, in many minds, principle needs to be trumped by expediency. This is perhaps as it should be. Imagine if the principle of not harming oneself became a mainstream notion in our government. Let us look at all the ways that Americans make what some believe are unwise choices.</p>
<p>One thing at the forefront of government concern is excess calories. As a society, Americans are fat. I know every pound I carry first went through my mouth to my middle. So why resist the government having a war on our being fat? Should there be a ban on large sugary drinks? What about salt? It is a target-rich environment for our government wanting to save us fat people from ourselves.</p>
<p>What about not going to college or not having a job? If our Intervention Industry really wants a challenge, how about making sure each American does not marry the wrong person? That would get rid of divorce in our lifetime. Just imagine all of the government workers that could be hired to monitor our dating and possible marriage partners.</p>
<p>No matter what the desire is to save innocents from one harm or another, I suspect the cure will be far worse than the disease. None of the above interventions will really work. Innocent citizens will be hurt more by the government efforts than they could possibly be hurt by their own actions.</p>
<p>We need to regulate drugs like we have with alcohol and stop this endless unsuccessful “War on Drugs.”</p>
<p>(Dr. Swickard hosts the syndicated radio talk show “News New Mexico” Monday-Friday on some New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: [email protected])</p> | Michael Swickard: America addicted to drug war | false | https://abqjournal.com/199491/america-addicted-to-drug-war.html | 2013-05-15 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Samsung's recall of 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 phones after several dozen caught fire and exploded may stem from a subtle manufacturing error, but it highlights the challenge electronics makers face in packing ever more battery power into ever thinner phones, while rushing for faster release dates.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Announcing the recall on Sept. 2, Samsung confirmed dozens of cases where Note 7 batteries caught fire or exploded, mostly while charging. It plans a software update that will cap battery recharging at 60 percent capacity to help minimize risks of overheating. But it is urging owners to keep the phones turned off until they can get them replaced, beginning Sept. 19.</p>
<p>The Note 7 debuted to rave reviews in August thanks to its speed, new software features and — not least — the estimated nine hours it would run between charges. But all that power comes at a price: users began reporting the phones were catching fire or exploding, in one case incinerating the SUV it had been left in.</p>
<p>Aviation authorities in the U.S., Australia and Europe have urged passengers not to use or charge Note 7s while flying and not to put them in checked baggage. On Monday, Canada issued an official recall.</p>
<p>Koh Dong-jin, Samsung's mobile president, said in announcing the recall on Sept. 2 that an investigation turned up a "tiny error" in the manufacturing process for the faulty batteries in the Note 7s that was very difficult to identify. The end of the pouch-shaped battery cell had some flaws that increased the chance of stress or overheating, he explained.</p>
<p>That kind of manufacturing error is unimaginable for top-notch battery makers with adequate quality controls, said Park Chul Wan, a former director of the next generation battery research center at the state-owned Korea Electronics Technology Institute.</p>
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<p>Samsung and other experts should search for factors outside the battery cells that could have led to overheating, he said.</p>
<p>"If Koh's argument is right, that makes Samsung SDI a third-rate company," Park said. "But it does not appear to be a simple battery problem."</p>
<p>Time also is a factor in marketing and making the phones.</p>
<p>In 2015, Samsung moved up its unveiling of its new Galaxy Note model to August from September, seeking a leg up on Apple's September iPhone upgrades.</p>
<p>Before the issue of battery explosions emerged, supplies were not keeping pace with demand for the Note 7.</p>
<p>Samsung has not recalled Note 7s sold in China, but the company has refused to say which of its two battery suppliers made the faulty batteries or clarify whose batteries are used in which Note 7 smartphones. The company also refused comment on South Korean media reports that it has stopped using batteries from Samsung SDI, one of its two suppliers, in the Note 7.</p>
<p>C.W. Chung, an analyst at Nomura Securities in Seoul, cited SDI officials in estimating that about 70 percent of the batteries for the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones came from SDI.</p>
<p>The other 30 percent are thought to have been supplied by Amperex Technology Ltd., a Chinese-based manufacturer that reportedly also is a main supplier of batteries for the iPhone.</p>
<p>Problems with lithium batteries have afflicted everything from laptops to Tesla cars to Boeing's 787 jetliner, though having so many lithium-ion battery fires in a short time is unheard of, Park said.</p>
<p>The batteries are ubiquitous in consumer electronic devices, favored by manufacturers because they are lightweight and pack much more energy into a small space than other power cells.</p>
<p>But storing so much energy in a tiny space, with combustible components separated by ultra-thin walls, makes them susceptible to overheating if exposed to high temperatures, damage or flaws in manufacturing. If the separators fail, a chemical reaction can quickly escalate out of control.</p>
<p>That's what happened with the Note 7, Samsung's Koh explained.</p>
<p>"The flaw in the manufacturing process resulted in the negative electrodes and the positive electrodes coming together," he told reporters in Seoul.</p>
<p>It is unclear how Samsung failed to discover the battery problem before launching the Note 7. It confirmed delays in shipments for extra quality tests weeks later, in late August, after photos of charred phones began popping up on social media.</p>
<p>South Korean experts suggested Samsung may have been so ambitious with the Note 7's design that it compromised safety.</p>
<p>"There was no choice but to make the separator (between positive and negative anodes) thin because of the battery capacity," said Lee Sang-yong, a professor at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology who worked more than a decade at LG Chem, a leading lithium battery maker. Thicker separators can improve safety but will not necessarily prevent all overheating issues, he said.</p>
<p>Doh Chil-Hoon, head of the state-run Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute's battery research division, said that based on the limited information provided by Samsung, he believes the push to increase battery power was part of the problem.</p>
<p>"Even with a small manufacturing mistake, if there had been enough elements to ensure safety, it would not explode," Doh said. "It is a roundabout way of admitting weak safety."</p>
<p>The Note 7 phones have a powerful 3,500 milliampere hour battery, whereas the Galaxy S7 smartphone, which has a slightly smaller body than the Note 7, features a 3,000 mAh battery. So does the Note 5, launched in 2015.</p>
<p>Apple does not provide information on the iPhone's battery capacity in milliampere hours. But two research firms that specialize in analyzing tech gadgets and their components said the battery in the iPhone 6S Plus is 2,750mAh. The size of the battery in the newly released iPhone 7 is not yet known.</p>
<p>The 3,500 mAh battery in the Samsung Note 7 is "one of the highest, if not the highest, capacity battery we've seen in a phone," said Wayne Lam, an industry analyst at IHS Markit Technology.</p>
<p>Lam said he thinks the Note 7 battery problem resulted from weak controls in manufacturing, not a poor or unsafe design.</p>
<p>A spokeswoman at iFixit, which publishes repair guides for electronic gadgets, offered a similar view. "We don't think any internal design changes in the Note 7 are responsible for the exploding batteries — more likely just a manufacturing defect," IFixit's Kay-Kay Clapp said in an email.</p>
<p>Apple has tweaked hardware and software it developed itself to make iPhones use power more efficiently, while Samsung has increased the capacity of the batteries in its phones.</p>
<p>That can be done without increasing size by adjusting components or changing the production process, Lam said.</p>
<p>"You have two different trajectories, with Samsung packing in more energy density, versus Apple trying to trim it down by optimizing everything else," he said, adding that the two rivals are "constantly locked in this arms race of improving and one-upping."</p>
<p>While Apple and Samsung are using built-in batteries for their premium phones, LG Electronics, Samsung's smaller South Korean rival, has opted for a replaceable, 3,200 mAh capacity battery for its new premium, jumbo screen smartphone, the V20.</p>
<p>LG chose to make the phone thinner and allow customers to extend battery life by swapping out batteries.</p>
<p>"The security of the battery isn't directly related to whether the battery is replaceable or not," Cho Joon-ho, head of LG's mobile business, told reporters. "But we make efforts to secure safety with quality controlling tests beforehand."</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>AP Technology Writer Brandon Bailey contributed to this report from San Francisco.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>Lee can be reached on Twitter: www.twitter.com/YKLeeAP</p>
<p>Her previous works can be found on: http://bigstory.ap.org/content/youkyung-lee</p> | Galaxy Note 7 recall shows challenges of stronger batteries | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/15/galaxy-note-7-recall-shows-challenges-stronger-batteries.html | 2016-09-15 | 0 |
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<p>NEW YORK — The Latest on the U.S. Open, the year’s last Grand Slam tennis tournament (all times local):</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:40 p.m.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Madison Keys grabbed the last four games to eliminate No. 4-seeded Elina Svitolina 7-6 (2), 1-6, 6-4 and give the United States four women in the U.S. Open quarterfinals for the first time in 15 years.</p>
<p>The 15th-seeded Keys joins Americans Venus Williams, CoCo Vandeweghe and Sloane Stephens in the final eight at Flushing Meadows.</p>
<p>It’s also the first quarterfinal appearance in New York for Keys.</p>
<p>Next for Keys is a match against 418th-ranked qualifier Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:50 p.m.</p>
<p>No. 4 seed Elina Svitolina has come back to take the second set and force 15th-seeded Madison Keys to a third at the U.S. Open.</p>
<p>Svitolina needed just 24 minutes to grab the second set of their fourth-round match by a 6-1 score. Keys claimed the opener 7-6 (2).</p>
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<p>___</p>
<p>10:25 p.m.</p>
<p>Madison Keys has taken the opening set of her fourth-round U.S. Open match against No. 4-seeded Elina Svitolina by a 7-6 (2) score.</p>
<p>The 15th-seeded Keys finished the set with a 19-4 edge in winners.</p>
<p>Keys is trying to reach the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows for the first time in her career.</p>
<p>She lost in the fourth round each of the past two years.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:15 p.m.</p>
<p>Roger Federer took a medical timeout after the second set and otherwise showed no signs of trouble in a 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 victory over No. 33 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals.</p>
<p>Federer did not face a break point and won in straight sets for the second time in a row after being pushed to five sets in each of the first two rounds. He improved to 12-0 for his career against Kohlschreiber.</p>
<p>During the on-court interview at Arthur Ashe Stadium afterward, Federer said with a laugh at the break before the third set Monday night was because he “just needed a bit of a rub on my back or my bottom and I didn’t want to do it on court.”</p>
<p>The No. 3-seeded Federer will face Juan Martin del Potro in the quarterfinals. They met in the 2009 U.S. Open final, when del Potro won his only Grand Slam title and ended Federer’s run of five championships in a row in New York.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>8:20 p.m.</p>
<p>Juan Martin del Potro saved two match points and erased a two-set deficit to come all the way back to beat No. 6-seeded Dominic Thiem 1-6, 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-4 and reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals.</p>
<p>Del Potro, the 2009 champion at Flushing Meadows, used a pair of aces to erase match points for Thiem at 6-5 in the fourth set, then dominating the ensuing tiebreaker.</p>
<p>In the fifth set, as the match stretched beyond 3 1/2 hours, del Potro broke in the last game when Thiem double-faulted.</p>
<p>Here’s how close it was: Thiem actually won more points, 141-139.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Juan Martin del Potro went from looking down-and-out at the U.S. Open to forcing a fifth set against No. 6-seeded Dominic Thiem.</p>
<p>Del Potro, the 2009 champion at Flushing Meadows, dropped the opening two sets of the fourth-round match.</p>
<p>After taking the third set, he then trailed 5-2 in the fourth and had to save two match points. But he took that set in a tiebreaker.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>6:30 p.m.</p>
<p>The U.S. Tennis Association says it has donated $500,000 to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts — and will add more from fundraising at the U.S. Open, with the help of five-time champion Jimmy Connors.</p>
<p>Future funds will be used to help storm-affected tennis facilities.</p>
<p>The USTA says it will match donations encouraged from spectators at the U.S. Open by Connors, who is raising money at the tournament site by signing autographs and posing for photos with fans.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:05 p.m.</p>
<p>Kaia Kanepi is the first qualifier in 36 years to reach the U.S. Open women’s quarterfinals.</p>
<p>The 32-year-old Estonian is ranked 418th after missing much of the past two years with problems in the soles of both feet and a virus known as a precursor to mononucleosis.</p>
<p>No one has advanced to the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows with such a low ranking, although five women — including 2009 champion Kim Clijsters — did so while unranked entirely. That includes Barbara Gerken, who made it that far in 1981 as a qualifier.</p>
<p>Kanepi was able to get into the qualifying event by virtue of a protected ranking.</p>
<p>This is her sixth trip to a Grand Slam quarterfinal, but first since Wimbledon in 2013. She is 0-5 in that round previously.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:40 p.m.</p>
<p>CoCo Vandeweghe reached her first U.S. Open quarterfinal by beating Lucie Safarova 6-4, 7-6 (2).</p>
<p>The 20th-seeded Vandeweghe is into the round of eight at a Grand Slam tournament for the third time this season. She lost at that stage at Wimbledon in July, after making it to the semifinals at the Australian Open in January.</p>
<p>Vandeweghe is the third American woman into the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows this year, joining Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens, who won their fourth-round matches a day earlier. Madison Keys could raise the total to four by winning her fourth-rounder later Monday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:10 p.m.</p>
<p>Andrey Rublev beat No. 9 seed David Goffin 7-5, 7-6 (5), 6-3 to become, at 19, the youngest male U.S. Open quarterfinalist since Andy Roddick reached the round in 2001.</p>
<p>Rublev next faces top-seeded Rafael Nadal, who beat Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 earlier Monday.</p>
<p>The Russian Rublev entered the top 50 for first time in late July.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>2:20 p.m.</p>
<p>Rafael Nadal easily reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals, beating Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-2, 6-4, 6-1.</p>
<p>The No. 1 seed is back into the quarters in Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2013, when he won his second of two U.S. Open titles.</p>
<p>He broke serve six times and needed just 1 hour, 41 minutes to finish off his unseeded opponent and set up a matchup against either No. 9 seed David Goffin or unseeded Andrey Rublev.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:45 p.m.</p>
<p>Rafael Nadal is a set away from the U.S. Open quarterfinals.</p>
<p>The No. 1 seed leads Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-2, 6-4 after a little more than an hour in a fourth-round match.</p>
<p>Though Dolgopolov is unseeded, he had won two of the last three meetings with Nadal.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:10 p.m.</p>
<p>Top-seeded Rafael Nadal has taken the first set 6-2 from Alexandr Dolgopolov in their fourth-round match at Arthur Ashe Stadium.</p>
<p>Nadal is trying for his first U.S. Open quarterfinal appearance since winning the Grand Slam tournament in 2013.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:10 p.m.</p>
<p>Karolina Pliskova powered her way into the U.S. Open women’s quarterfinals, overwhelming American Jennifer Brady 6-1, 6-0 in just 47 minutes.</p>
<p>Two days after fighting off a match point to advance, the No. 1 seed won 22 of 24 points on her first serve and broke her unseeded opponent’s serve six times.</p>
<p>The U.S. Open runner-up last year, Pliskova advanced to face either No. 20 CoCo Vandeweghe or unseeded Lucie Safarova.</p>
<p>She raced to a 4-0 lead and never let Brady get into the match in a much better performance than Saturday, when she struggled past No. 27 Zhang Shuai 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:45 a.m.</p>
<p>Karolina Pliskova has won the first set 6-1 against American Jennifer Brady, a much better start for the women’s No. 1 seed than in her last match.</p>
<p>Pliskova raced to a 4-0 lead in the fourth-round match and closed the set in just 26 minutes after Brady double-faulted on set point.</p>
<p>Pliskova also played the first match on Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday. She dropped the first set and had to fight off a match point in the second before rallying to beat No. 27 Zhang Shuai 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:05 a.m.</p>
<p>Former champions Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro try to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals, while top-seeded Karolina Pliskova and No. 4 Elina Svitolina face American opponents in women’s fourth-round matches.</p>
<p>Federer brings an 11-0 record against No. 33 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber into their night matchup. The top-seeded Nadal faces Alexandr Dolgopolov on Monday afternoon.</p>
<p>The No. 24 seed del Potro faces sixth-seeded Dominic Thiem, with the winner getting Federer if the five-time champion can improve his 31-1 record in night matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium.</p>
<p>Pliskova opens the Labor Day schedule against unseeded Jennifer Brady. Svitolina meets No. 15 seed Madison Keys in the nightcap.</p>
<p>Keys, Brady and No. 20 seed CoCo Vandeweghe are trying to join fellow Americans Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens into the women’s quarters.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP tennis coverage: — https://apnews.com/tag/apf-Tennis</p> | Keys beats Svitolina; 4 US women in Open QFs | false | https://abqjournal.com/1058269/the-latest-nadal-easily-reaches-us-open-quarterfinals.html | 2017-09-04 | 2 |
<p>I n June 1976, Jimmy Carter promised the nation's mayors a "compassionate, realistic" urban policy. Although the President has yet to elaborate his vision of a revitalized urban America, enough has been said and done during the campaign, the transition, and the first two months in office to illuminate the new Administration's balance between realism and compassion in the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>Campaigning last April, Mr. Carter made aid to the cities dependent upon spending for national defense as a first priority. Three months later, he softened that stand; he endorsed the mayors' plank in the Democratic platform declaring the "social defense of the nation as important as its military defense." Yet, apparently, cutting defense spending to finance domestic investment remains unrealistic. Concluding his first budget review, President Carter was expected to recommend an estimated $10 billion increase over the present fiscal year's $110 billion for defense. The President responded to the pleas of his new Secretary for Housing and Urban Development for additional funds for her "starved" Department by giving her about half of the budget increases she had requested.</p>
<p /> | Cities | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/cities | 2018-03-20 | 4 |
<p>Longtime readers will surely remember this case. Via <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-crime-kidnapping-idUSL1N14526Y20151216" type="external">Reuters</a>:</p>
<p>A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of a Mennonite minister accused of helping a woman flee to Nicaragua with her daughter to evade court orders giving her former lesbian partner visitation rights.</p>
<p>The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld the conviction of Kenneth Miller, whose case drew widespread attention as gay rights and evangelical Christian groups took opposing sides in the legal battle over the daughter.</p>
<p>Prosecutors said Miller helped orchestrate Lisa Miller’s flight to Canada and Nicaragua in 2009 with her daughter out of Christian solidarity with her decision to reject homosexuality and her former partner. The two Millers are not related.</p>
<p>He was found guilty in 2012 by a federal jury in Burlington, Vermont for aiding in international parental kidnapping and subsequently sentenced to 27 months in prison.</p>
<p>RELATED: On the same day in 2012 that Miller was found guilty of abetting the kidnapping of her daughter to Nicaragua, lesbian mom Janet Jenkins filed a RICO lawsuit against many of the parties suspected of conspiring in the crime, including Liberty University, the parent of the vile anti-gay hate group Liberty Counsel, whose president Mat Staver is specifically named in the suit. In July 2015 the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s ruling that Liberty University’s liability insurance policy covers such lawsuits.</p>
<p /> | Federal Appeals Court Upholds Conviction Of Pastor In Kidnapping Of Daughter Of Lesbian Mother | true | http://joemygod.com/2015/12/19/federal-appeals-court-upholds-conviction-of-pastor-in-kidnapping-of-daughter-of-lesbian-mother/ | 2015-12-19 | 4 |
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<p>The Albuquerque area broke 143 high-temperature records at 34 weather stations during 15 days this month, according to the National Weather Service. But Tuesday brought the second of three storm systems through the state, scattering rain showers and snowfall in the northern mountains Tuesday and today.</p>
<p>The same goes for Saturday and Sunday, when the third installment of a “wave train” pattern of storms rides into the state, according to NWS meteorologist Randall Hergert.</p>
<p>“The first three weeks of this month, we had very dry, very sunny, very above-normal temperatures across all of New Mexico, the metro area included,” Hergert said. “Those well-above-normal temperatures is not something we see, especially for that length of time.”</p>
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<p>The weather service logged between a tenth of an inch and a quarter of an inch of rain around town by Tuesday evening, as well as pea-sized hail in some areas, and more moisture was likely on the way.</p>
<p>“We’re expecting at least a few more rounds this afternoon, tonight and going into tomorrow,” Hergert said Tuesday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>State climatologist Dave DuBois said the spring showers return the state to a more typical weather pattern, with Albuquerque getting some rain between snowstorms in the north and windstorms in the south.</p>
<p>“I think we are back to an active pattern, a nice typical spring storm,” he said. “In the northern mountains, we get snow, and in the southern Chihuahuan Desert we get dust and winds – a typical spring scenario.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>Rain falls on a North Valley acequia bringing a touch of the green of spring to New Mexico. (Dean Hanson / Journal)</p> | Storms end 3 weeks of hotter-than-normal weather | false | https://abqjournal.com/977751/wave-of-spring-rainstorms-rolls-into-albuquerque.html | 2017-03-28 | 2 |
<p>Jan. 21 (UPI) — Germany’s Social Democrat Party voted in favor of entering the second and final stage of coalition talks with Chancellor <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Angela_Merkel/" type="external">Angela Merkel</a>‘s Christian Democratic Union.</p>
<p>The SPD held a special congress in Bonn Sunday as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/21/germany-spd-gives-cautious-green-light-to-coalition-talks-with-merkel" type="external">56 percent of the party’s delegates</a> voted in favor of moving forward with negotiations to form a “grand coalition” led by Merkel.</p>
<p>A count showed voters were narrowly divided on the issue, with 362 in favor, 279 against and one abstention after a show of hands was failed to produce a visible majority.</p>
<p>Following the vote <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/21/world/europe/germany-coalition-talks-spd.html" type="external">Merkel announced</a> “the path is free for coalition talks” while calling for “a responsible climate, despite all of the divisive issues.”</p>
<p>“There is a lot of work ahead of us,” she said.</p>
<p>Many voters were unhappy with the decision to continue coalition talks, noting <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/spd-delegates-doubtful-martin-schulz-can-achieve-a-better-coalition-deal/a-42247185" type="external">SPD leader Martin Schulz failed to produce</a> any truly Social Democratic policies in the first round of negotiations.</p>
<p>Prior to the vote Schulz promised he will push for eliminating a proposed cap on refugees, establish a “citizens’ insurance” scheme to guarantee basic health care standards for state and private patients and secure greater employee rights.</p>
<p>“We will fight for further improvements in the coalition negotiations if we can continue the talks,” he said.</p>
<p>Schulz had initially opposed forming a coalition between the center-left party and Merkel’s center-right party, but changed his stance after a attempts to form an unorthodox “Jamaica” coalition between the CDU, the pro-business Free Democrats and the Green party.</p>
<p>He described the coalition as a “revolution” for German education policy and “a manifesto for a European Germany.”</p>
<p>“If we want to shape things in and for Europe, then we cannot wait a few more years,” Schulz said. “Important decisions have to be made now – not in three, four, five years.”</p> | Germany’s SPD votes in favor of coalition talks with Merkel | false | https://newsline.com/germanys-spd-votes-in-favor-of-coalition-talks-with-merkel/ | 2018-01-22 | 1 |
<p>Oscar León is an experienced international press correspondent and documentary filmmaker based in Arizona. His work has reached continental TV broadcast in many occasions on Telesur, ECTV, Ecuavisa, Radio Canada, Canal Uno and even Fox Sports Latin America and El Garaje TV; he has been a TRNN correspondent since 2010. Oscar has reported from as many as 9 countries and more than 12 cities in US; his coverage includes TV reports, special reports and TV specials, not only covering social movements, politics and economics but environmental issues, culture and sports as well. This includes the series "Reportero del Sur", "Occupy USA - El Otoño Americano", "Habia una vez en Arizona", "Motor X" all TV mini series broadcasted to all Americas and "Once upon a time in Arizona" finalist in Radio Canada's "Migration" 2010 contest.</p>
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<p /> OSCAR LEÓN, TRNN PRODUCER: In Colombia, the 21-days national strike, which enjoyed broad support, was a victory for the farmers' movement. After 12 deaths, four disappearances, and 485 injured, they got a law to control seeds suspended, along with subsidies to gas and supplies, to compensate the farmers for their losses, competing with international multinationals brought in the country by free-market treaties.
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<p />The government and the strike board are currently negotiating new farming and mining laws, along with a revision of ten free market treaties, trying to compensate or reduce the losses of farmers and miners. In the cities, while the solidarity with the farmers were the spark for the protests, the privatization of health care and education brought even more people to the streets.
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<p />Facing police repression, and despite the threat of paramilitary violence, they got a political victory, paralyzing the country while President Santos saw his popularity fall to an all-time low of 24&#160;percent.
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<p />But even after such demonstration for farmers to oppose mining and oil projects can be a very dangerous activity, "Julio", farmer and human rights defender from Guayabero, has received death threats. He believes not only him but everyone else in town is also in danger:
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<p />"JULIO", FARMER AND HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER FROM GUAYABERO (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): There are about 20,000 farmers near the Guayabero River, and now all we've got is the fight for our rights as Colombians. All these people are suffering the scourge of war; we have been living that for 30 years, being systematically attacked by the Colombian state, by the police and the army, which almost every day they bully us and call us insurgents or guerrilla members. We are honest and humble farmers who want to keep our lands, but all we can do is hope things will get better.
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<p />LEÓN: Adelinda Gomez Gaviria was gunned down, reportedly, by two right-wing paramilitaries on September&#160;30 when she was returning home from an activists meeting accompanied with her 16-year-old son, who was injured but survived.
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<p />Adelinda Gomez was a vocal environment advocate. She was a leader of the group called Proceso de Mujeres del Macizo Colombiano del CIMA, a farmers women group that had organized an Environmental and Mining Forum, to which 1,500 indigenous and farmers participated. Adelinda received threatening phone calls warning her to stay off mining or she would get killed. And she's not the only one. Genaro Graciano from Movimiento Rios Vivos, which means movement for living rivers, had a bomb thrown outside his house at 10:30 pm on October 17. There where no casualties.
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<p />Precisely in the town of Las Acacias, where The Real News recently reported on a local effort against an oil company in the defense of their water resources; a crime occurred on October&#160;10, one that sent a ripple of fear across the villagers from all the area. Ricardo Rodriguez Cajamarca, a local human rights monitor, was murdered by two hit men, who gunned him down around noon, opening fire from a motorcycle while he was driving his car. Rodriguez was well known for defending farmers and indigenous from state abuse.
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<p />Amnesty International has long reported how an unknown number of farmers and indigenous leaders have been murdered because of their opposition to mega mining and oil drilling, choosing to preserve natural resources instead of supporting industrial development.
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<p />Rural communities, students, and intellectuals had lost their voice amid extreme violence by both sides of a conflict that lasts over 60 years now and very often kept the communities paralyzed with gruesome crimes. On December&#160;2012, Telesur reported 600 farmers leaders murdered since 2005.
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<p />ABILIO PEÑA, CHURCH PEACE AND JUSTICE COMMISSION (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): All these crimes against farmer leaders are related to specific claims made by farming communities against businessmen who took over their lands.
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<p />LEÓN: Under Álvaro Uribe's government on 2007, 31,671 members of Autodefensas Unidas Colombianas (AUC), a paramilitary Group that, according to Semana magazine, "in the early 2000s grew to be the most powerful armed force in the country and is responsible for a great number of crimes" were demobilized. Fourteen of their leaders have been extradited to U.S. under drug trafficking charges.
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<p />But the paramilitaries didn't go away. Nowadays there are four right-wing paramilitary armies: ERPAC, for Anti Communist Popular Army; Los Rastrojos; Los Urabeños; and the main one, Agulas Negras, or Black Eagles.
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<p />A video emerged on the news and on YouTube on which we see the last moments of a group of farmers whose lands where stolen by alleged paramilitary men. They where filming with their phone before they got shot dead by the armed men.
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): Call the police! They are shooting at us! The have automatic guns and they are shooting it us.
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<p />LEÓN: Speaking for HispanTV, "Caliche", a paramilitary member, describes their mindset:
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<p />"CALICHE", PARAMILITARY COMMANDER (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): If we must respect someone's life, we will; but if not, we will kill him,
<p />because we do not share many leftist ideals, which are to blame for the way things are in Colombia now.
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<p />Two or three guys invented some leftist crap, and that is how a gunmen war started. That is why we hunt down union leaders, because they are pimps for a lot of bad people here in our town. They are pimps for all those farmers who are guerrilla fighters who then turn around and say they that are farmers displaced by war, helping NGO's collect money from international governments so they can then live the good life.
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<p />LEÓN: Farmers' protest movements are closely linked with victims of forced land displacement and war violence, also organizations of people defending their land from contamination or appropriation by private interest.
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<p />Teofilo Acuña, a farmers leader, was also threaten by paramilitary men. In behalf, he believes of a transnational corporation called Pacific Rubiales Energy:
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<p />TEOFILO ACUÑA, FARMER'S MOVEMENT LEADER AND HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER: In my case, the threats came as an internet pamphlet and a note saying they will kill me.
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<p />LEÓN: He describes a relation between state and private interest:
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<p />ACUÑA: We know the state is involved with private interest on this, because the state had a project to bring transnational corporations to the region. And we mention the state because we have observed that where there are mining interest is precisely where there have been more human rights violations. How else can you understand that in a region so militarized and controlled, threats, murders, and disappearances can happen so easily?
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<p />On the south of the Bolivar regions, we know that between 2003 and 2007 there have been around 700 disappeared and murdered people. So we believe the multinationals are fully supported by the state.
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<p />LEÓN: While covering the March for Peace on 2012, I spoke to many farmers displaced from their lands. "Yupanqui", one of them, describes how does it feel being trapped on a crossfire.
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<p />"YUPANQUI", FARMER, WAR REFUGEE (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): If the army gets to the village, they claim we are all infiltrated guerrillas. If the guerrilla gets there, they claim we work for the army. Any armed faction that gets to the village, we don't know what to do or what to say. Many times they made direct threats to our life.
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<p />LEÓN: It is important to remember that the paramilitary armies were created as a counterpart for the FARC and ELN, leftist guerrillas that have also committed atrocities against civilians. In everyone's memory are the hundreds of kidnapped and the "collar bombs", a terrifying device to used to ask for ransom. The guerrillas have also been accused by the state of acting as security forces for narco cartels.
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<p />The army has also been involved in a case called "False Positives", where many officials have been formally accused of murdering people and then claim that they were guerrilla fighters fallen in combat, not only remaining immune of prosecution for those crimes, but also buffing up the count of dead enemies.
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<p />This video was allegedly shot by a farmer using his phone camera in 2008 and recently resurfaced from a criminal case being filed by the farmers, accusing the soldiers to not only murder the farmers, but also trying to steal the bodies to later claim them as dead "enemy combatants" or "falsos positivos".
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<p />According to a well-known human rights defender, winner of 2007's Roger Baldwin Freedom Medal and Representative for Bogotá district, Ivan Cepeda, this association of state and paramilitary violence reached its climax under Álvaro Uribe's presidency.
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<p />IVAN CEPEDA, REPRESENTATIVE FOR BOGOTÁ DISTRICT (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): Uribe's eight years in power were fatal for Colombia. The paramilitary got their people elected for Congress. All kinds of crimes were perpetrated, like the infamous "falsos positivos" cases--young people were assassinated by the army to be presented before TV cameras as if they were terrorist. Also, there was espionage on the political opposition, using the executive power's secret police. So there is a very long list of human rights violations committed during Álvaro Uribe's administration.
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<p />LEÓN: Defying fear and possible retaliations, on October&#160;11 many students protested Álvaro Uribe's visit to Santo Tomas University.
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<p />STUDENT WEARING A URIBE MASK (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): I am here before you to declare that I am involved on crimes against humanity.
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<p />LEÓN: "Diego" says that they are here to make a statement against a political project of state violence:
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<p />"DIEGO", STUDENT: We are against the "paramilitary political project" that Álvaro Uribe represents, one which continues under the current government by making military targets of human rights defenders and student movement leaders.
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<p />We are a bit afraid to do this, yet here we are to denounce him for what he is and to defend our right to protest, which is the only way to get change, as it has been proven this year by the farmers' and student's strike.
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<p />LEÓN: Both Uribe and Juan Manuel Santos, current president of Colombia, have accused the farmers' movement of being manipulated by Marcha Patriotica, a leftist political organization whom they both accuse of having ties with the FARC, the leftist guerrilla.
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<p />Ivan Cepeda remembers what happened to the last leftist social movement that was accused of similar charges back in the '80s:
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<p />CEPEDA: In Colombia were committed an untold number of war crimes, one of which was precisely the destruction of a whole political movement, a real genocide against the Patriotic Union movement. Today we are here in the rise of a new movement, the Patriotic March. I hope the future of this movement is full of light and not a blood bath like the one that ended Patriotic Union.
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<p />LEÓN: Nancy Vargas and Milciades Cano, two survivors of the extermination of Union Patriotica, were murdered on October&#160;6 at 5pm when they where returning home precisely from a meeting of Marcha Patriotica the movement that wants to bring the left back to Colombia and was founded in memory of Union Patriotica, the original movement.
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<p />Among all this violence, there are still people willing to stand up to mining and oil projects to defend the water, their lands, labor and human rights. However, they do so knowing they don't have the support of the Colombian state. As "Tomas", from Farmers' Union from Cauca, explains:
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<p />"TOMAS", FARMERS' UNION FROM CAUCA: These regimes have always been about defending their own personal interest and those of the multinational corporations.
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<p />We worry when the president goes to Europe and offers supposed "opportunities for investment in Colombia." He then surrenders for cheap our farming lands, those of the indigenous communities and our national parks.
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<p />LEÓN: While neoliberal policies and income inequality will continue putting pressure in the social struggle, Colombia's polarization and long history of violence makes it that much harder for social movements and farmers to vindicate their grievances.
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<p />Reporting for The Real News, this is Oscar León.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Colombian Farmers and Union Activists Under Attack | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D10952 | 2013-11-03 | 4 |
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<p>U.S. Marshals Service officials say 31-year-old Ricardo Sarabia was taken into custody Tuesday evening in Phoenix.</p>
<p>They say Sarabia was wanted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and San Fernando police.</p>
<p>Authorities say Sarabia is a documented member of a California street gang with an extensive violent criminal history.</p>
<p>He’s accused of shooting three people during a gun transaction in San Fernando last December.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Authorities say one of the victims was pronounced dead at the scene.</p>
<p>They say Sarabia fled California sometime after the incident and was found to be living in the Laveen area west of Phoenix.</p>
<p>Sarabia has been booked into the Maricopa County Jail and awaits extradition to California.</p> | Man wanted in California homicide case arrested in Arizona | false | https://abqjournal.com/946519/man-wanted-in-california-homicide-case-arrested-in-arizona.html | 2 |
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<p>Last October, Orlando Cruz, the man they call “The Phenomenon”, &#160;became the first professional boxer to publicly come out as gay. He said breaking the news to his family was difficult. Orlando recalls that he cried, and his mother cried, and when she told him she didn’t care, he was her son and she loved him, he cried even harder. But announcing his sexual orientation to the world was a much more difficult decision that took months of mental preparation. Said Orlando of the process, “I have been living with this thorn inside me. I wanted to take it out of me so I could have peace within myself.”</p>
<p>For the two weeks after his announcement, Orlando walked on eggshells, unsure of the reception he would receive from fans and fellow boxers. “Boxing is difficult, because it’s so macho.” Orlando worried. But when Orlando stepped into the ring for the first time since coming out, facing Jorge Pazos in a WBO title elimination bout, he was greeted by cheering fans waving flags from Orlando’s native Puerto Rico. “I was very happy that they respect me.” Orlando said after the match. “That’s what I want — them to see me as a boxer, as an athlete and as a man in every sense of the word.”</p>
<p>Professionally, Orlando is at the top of his game with a 20-2-1 record that includes 10 knockouts.&#160;Now, he has taken the next big step in his personal journey, and proposed to his partner Jose Manuel via a video he posted on Facebook. The proposal was in Spanish, but NBC Latino posted this translation:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />“I wanted to tell you how much I need you and how much I miss you. Know you are a person that means a lot to me and that supports my career and respects it which is very important, but above all you are always there giving me that push that I need. Now more than ever that I have an important fight coming up for the World Championship, I want to tell you that you are a very special person in my life. I am a little nervous, but I want to tell you and share with your friends and my friends if you want to marry me. I want you to be part of my life and me be part of yours.”</p>
<p>Rumor has it Jose said yes.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Orlando Cruz photo is from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=320695731361959&amp;set=a.320695728028626.69508.320692778028921&amp;type=1&amp;theater" type="external">Facebook</a> The couple’s photo is from Cruz’ <a href="https://twitter.com/ElFenomenoCruz" type="external">Twitter</a>&#160;account</p>
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<p>Tagged as: <a href="" type="internal">boxer</a>, <a href="" type="internal">boxing</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Gay</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Jose Manuel</a>, <a href="" type="internal">orlando cruz</a>, <a href="" type="internal">proposal</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> | Gay Boxer Orlando Cruz To Marry | true | http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/gay-boxer-orlando-cruz-to-marry/news/2013/08/15/73273 | 2013-08-15 | 4 |
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<p>Sophisticated investors define risk as the possibility that an investment will result in a permanent loss of capital. One of the best ways to dampen risk, therefore, is to invest in businesses with diverse revenue streams and steady cash flows that can be counted upon in all manner of market environments. The three businesses that follow excel in this regard.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Perhaps no other company is as broadly diversified as legendary investor Warren Buffett's jewel, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B). The megaconglomerate owns <a href="http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/subs/sublinks.html" type="external">more than 60 different subsidiaries Opens a New Window.</a> spanning industries as varied as insurance, utilities, railroads, and retail businesses, among others. This broad sector diversification helps make Berkshire able to withstand even the most turbulent market conditions.</p>
<p>In fact, it's during these volatile times that Berkshire is best able to deploy its massive cash reserves into value-creating investments. One example is Buffett's purchase of $5 billion worth of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) preferred stock during the depths of the financial crisis. That purchase also included warrants to purchase 700 million shares of Bank of America common stock for $7.14 a share at any time before Sept. 2021. At current prices, those warrants are worth around $11 billion, meaning that Berkshire's investment in Bank of America has already more than tripled in value. And with <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/04/what-will-warren-buffett-buy-next-with-his-86-bill.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">$86 billion in cash Opens a New Window.</a> on Berkshire's balance sheet, Buffett remains on the prowl for new investments that could create even more wealth for the company and its shareholders.</p>
<p>Warren Buffett. Image source: The Motley Fool.</p>
<p>Impressively, even at age 86, Buffett continues to learn and grow as an investor. After mostly shunning the technology sector for decades, Buffett recently took a <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/03/how-many-shares-of-apple-does-warren-buffetts-berk.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">massive stake Opens a New Window.</a> in tech titan Apple. And although he (wisely) avoided the major airlines for much of Berkshire's existence, Buffett recently disclosed investments in <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/18/warren-buffett-doubled-down-on-airline-stocks-last.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">several airline stocks Opens a New Window.</a> after consolidation reshaped the competitive dynamics of this once beleaguered industry. This ability to adapt to a changing investment landscape further lessens Berkshire's risk, and strengthens the company's ability to deliver <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/20/how-much-has-warren-buffett-beaten-the-market-by.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">excellent long-term returns Opens a New Window.</a> to its investors.</p>
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<p>Image source: Anheuser-Busch InBev.</p>
<p>Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD) is the undisputed king of beer. After its recent $100 billion acquisition of SABMiller -- its former No. 1 competitor -- AB InBev's portfolio of more than 500 beers commands nearly 30% of the global beer market, including seven of the top 10 global beer brands.</p>
<p>AB InBev's strength lies in its unmatched distribution system. The company sells its beers in more than 150 countries, making it the world's first truly global brewer. This broad geographic footprint helps to reduce AB InBev's risk profile, in that sluggish sales in some areas of the world can be offset by stronger results in others. For instance, the merger with SABMiller has strengthened the company's presence in high-growth emerging markets like Africa, which are helping to offset tepid sales in countries currently struggling with economic woes, <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/02/anheuser-busch-inbev-polishes-off-a-tough.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">such as Brazil Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The risk to AB InBev's growth-through-acquisition strategy is further lessened by its proven track record of operational success. The company excels at slashing costs and boosting profits at the businesses it acquires. In this way, AB InBev is able to create long-term value for its shareholders, even after acquiring these companies at substantial premiums. That's a rare ability, one that -- when combined with its dominant presence in many of the world's emerging markets -- helps to make Anheuser-Busch InBev an excellent stock to own in the years, and even <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/30/1-stock-to-own-for-the-next-century.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">century Opens a New Window.</a>, ahead.</p>
<p>Image source: The Motley Fool.</p>
<p>Johnson &amp; Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is another great low-risk business with highly diversified revenue streams. The healthcare giant's empire spans three broad segments -- pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer products -- and comprises more than 250 operating businesses in 60 countries.</p>
<p>Moreover, the majority of products that Johnson &amp; Johnson sells benefit from steady, repeat purchases. Regardless of what's happening in the economy, people get sick, need medicine, and require medical procedures. This relatively stable demand helps Johnson &amp; Johnson churn out consistent sales and profits through all types of market environments:</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/JNJ/revenues_annual" type="external">JNJ Revenue (Annual)</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, Johnson &amp; Johnson's strong cash flow generation -- combined with its more than $40 billion in cash reserves -- allows it to invest aggressively in research and development, as well as in the acquisition of promising new drugs and technologies. In 2016, J&amp;J's $71.9 billion in revenue produced $15.5 billion in free cash flow, which in turn allowed it to allocate more than $9 billion to R&amp;D and $5 billion to acquisitions and licensing deals. These moves help to further fortify J&amp;J's already <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/01/26/johnson-johnsons-most-exciting-opportunity.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">strong pipeline Opens a New Window.</a> and position the company for continued growth. It's a powerful virtuous cycle -- cash flow is directed to value-creating research and acquisitions, which help to generate more cash, which can be reinvested, and so on -- that has served Johnson &amp; Johnson's shareholders well for decades, and that should continue to do so for <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/15/no-joke-johnson-johnson-could-grow-sales-by-5-or-m.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">decades to come Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=0cf0b88a-bae6-44a0-a053-ede622ed8af0&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Johnson and Johnson wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGuardian/info.aspx" type="external">Joe Tenebruso Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, AAPL, Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), and Johnson and Johnson. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 3 Great Stocks for Low-Risk Investors | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/03/3-great-stocks-for-low-risk-investors.html | 2017-04-02 | 0 |
<p>Last Tuesday the Supreme Court patted America on the back about its specialness, its&#160; sacred right of free speech, by striking down a law which prohibited the selling of “crush” videos where kittens and other small animals are stomped to death for the sadistic sexual satisfaction of, well, people who have a God-given right to sadistic sexual satisfaction and that most defended corollary American right — the right to make money off of it. The&#160;&#160;8 to 1 majority decision ( <a href="http://is.gd/bAK7p" type="external">http://is.gd/bAK7p</a>) is a straight up over broad interpretation of a very targeted law which let off the hook nearly every other kind of depiction of animal cruelty — hunting, slaughterhouses, bullfighting, etc. —&#160; as Justice Samuel Alito’s WTF! dissent makes obvious.</p>
<p>The case in question involved a man selling videos of dogfighting which, like the brutality in “crush” videos, is illegal in every state. However, the eight injustices weren’t interested enough to look at dogfighting on its own brutal “merits” and, instead, twisted themselves into knots trying to find a scenario where the law could be found “over broad.” They came up with a hypothetical someone&#160; in non-hunting Washington, DC (huh? — isn’t it always open season on Muslims there?) possessing a hunting video made in another state. However, even Congressional opponents of the 1999 bill (like Ron Paul) acknowledged that it didn’t apply to depictions of hunting. As Rep. McCollum said, “ The sale of depictions of legal activities, such as hunting and fishing, would not be illegal under this bill.” No matter, the human supremacist court majority wasn’t taking&#160; any chances.</p>
<p>Alito’s dissent made the point that “crush” videos are analogous to child pornography: the conduct that they depict has no redeeming social value, free speech does not protect violent criminal conduct and, without prohibiting the trade in these videos, the crimes depicted are almost impossible to investigate and prosecute. Here’s Alito citing the Humane Society of the United States brief:</p>
<p>But before the enactment of §48,&#160;the underlying conduct depicted in crush videos was&#160;nearly impossible to prosecute.&#160; These videos, which “often&#160;appeal to persons with a very specific sexual fetish,” &#160;were made in secret, generally without a live audience,&#160;and “the faces of the women inflicting the torture in the&#160;material often were not shown, nor could the location of&#160;the place where the cruelty was being inflicted or the date&#160;of the activity be ascertained from the depiction.” &#160;Thus, law enforcement authorities often were not able to&#160;identify the parties responsible for the torture. In&#160;the rare instances in which it was possible to identify and&#160;find the perpetrators, they “often were able to successfully&#160;assert as a defense that the State could not prove its&#160;jurisdiction over the place where the act occurred or that&#160;the actions depicted took place within the time specified in&#160;the State statute of limitations.”(“[I]t is the prosecutors from&#160;around this country, Federal prosecutors as well&#160;as State prosecutors, that have made an appeal to us for&#160;this”);&#160; (“If the production of the video is not discovered&#160;during the actual filming, then prosecution for the offense&#160;is virtually impossible without a cooperative eyewitness&#160;to the filming or an undercover police operation.”)&#160;In light of the practical problems thwarting the prosecution&#160;of the creators of crush videos under state animal&#160;cruelty laws, Congress concluded that the only effective&#160;way of stopping the underlying criminal conduct was to&#160;prohibit the commercial exploitation of the videos of that&#160;conduct. And Congress’ strategy appears to have been&#160;vindicated.&#160; We are told that “[b]y 2007, sponsors of §48&#160;declared the crush video industry dead.&#160; Even overseas&#160;Websites shut down in the wake of §48.</p>
<p>Wow, a law that worked. A law that resulted in justice and prevented hideous torture and brutal killing. Well, we can’t have that.</p>
<p>And there’s a very good reason we can’t have that: it’s very important for the ruling class that the working class accept brutality, both of itself and other “lesser” beings. It’s also important for anyone climbing the greasy pole of American politics to prove their mettle by supporting the slaughter of innocents. It’s all the better if, like hunters Bush and Cheney, they actually get their hands bloody themselves. Before he was elected, all we had from His Barackness was the promise of killing people in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now he’s made good on that, now he’s a “made” man. He can be trusted to make future “hard decisions” all across the globe.</p>
<p>So Alito did something highly suspicious for a Supreme Court Justice: he showed mercy to creatures who weren’t polluters, war criminals or bankers — and he did it in a way that linked protecting these creatures to protecting human children.&#160; This lapse&#160; clearly alarmed his fellow speciesist bigots on the court, especially Stompin’ John Roberts who wrote the majority opinion. And it contrasts with duck-hunting Justice Antonin Scalia who once again did not recuse himself because of his long-standing conflict of interest — that he’s a vicious bastard.</p>
<p>Now I’m not a lawyer so I can’t speak to all the issues in this case. But I am a revolutionary (i.e., I’m broke and I’m pissed off), so I’m able to say&#160; that the&#160; government always stands up for the nation’s sacred texts and founding myths as long as they don’t bother anyone in power. “Free speech”&#160; is trumpeted when it’s used&#160; to stomp on disenfranchised groups like kittens and hamsters or when it’s used to justify bankers buying more congress critters than they already own — see the recent SCOTUS decision on campaign financing. Capitalist law protects the ruling class, adjudicates disputes between ruling class thieves and sends the working class down long expensive&#160; dispiriting dead ends when the only true “redress” is revolution. And the Supreme Court is the oil that keeps the American capitalist juggernaut stable and running reliably.</p>
<p>The animal rights movement is no practical threat to the capitalist class, but it is a theoretical threat because it attempts to put a class of beings outside the bounds of who can be exploited — and that is dangerous and unacceptable. To paraphrase Animal Liberation Front founder Ronnie Lee, speaking at the end of Victor Schonfeld’s great documentary, “The Animals Film,” “The danger of animal liberation is that the working class might look around and say, ‘Maybe we should liberate ourselves&#160; from capitalism too.’ ”</p>
<p>And now it’s time for sensitive souls to look away, because I’d like to conclude with the written description of&#160; a “crush” video submitted by HSUS to the court so you can see the sadism and brutality that Stompin’ John and his smug&#160; cohorts have sentenced thousands of animals to in the days ahead, the horror that’s going on right now behind the walls of some anonymous house in an anonymous world of evil, where, when they hear you scream, it turns them on:</p>
<p>“[A] kitten, secured to the ground, watches and&#160;shrieks in pain as a woman thrusts her high-heeled&#160;shoe into its body, slams her heel into the kitten’s eye&#160;socket and mouth loudly fracturing its skull, and&#160;stomps repeatedly on the animal’s head. The kitten&#160;hemorrhages blood, screams blindly in pain, and is ul-&#160;timately left dead in a moist pile of blood-soaked hair&#160;and bone.” Brief for Humane Society of United States&#160;as Amicus Curiae 2 (hereinafter Humane Society&#160;Brief).</p>
<p>The inspiration for this piece was a tweet of Salon’s Glenn Greenwald where he defended the court’s decision. Screw you, Glenn Greenwald, and your lofty liberal white bread apologetics, which don’t mean shit in the real world of “crush” videos and capitalism.</p>
<p>RANDY SHIELDS can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p /> | Kitten Stompers at the Supreme Court | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/04/23/kitten-stompers-at-the-supreme-court/ | 2010-04-23 | 4 |
<p>Monday was a quiet start to the week on Wall Street, as major benchmarks eased downward from Friday's close. The S&amp;P 500 and Dow Jones Industrials traded on either side of the unchanged line, flirting with making further advances into record territory. Yet even though a strong economic report from China gave international investors further optimism, gains evaporated in the U.S. as oil prices slipped and investors waited to see how the opening days of the new earnings season would go. Bad news from some companies also had a negative impact on investor sentiment, and AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE: AMC), StoneMor Partners (NYSE: STON), and XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO) were among the worst performers on the day. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so poorly.</p>
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<p>Shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings dropped 10% in the wake of negative comments over the weekend from journalists covering the movie theater operator. Barron's released a report noting that AMC and its peers in the theater business have missed out on the bull market in 2017, suffering substantial losses because of rising competition from at-home entertainment options and a <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/06/20/are-movie-theater-stocks-a-buy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aba1fbfe-6b27-11e7-a58d-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">lack of original, inspired content from Hollywood Opens a New Window.</a>. Particularly disturbing is the idea that movie studios might choose to bypass theaters entirely, offering pay-per-view-like options to allow home viewers to pay ultra-premium prices to watch movies at home within days of their initial release. Given all the capital improvements that AMC and its peers have made to modernize theaters and make them more attractive as destinations, that threat could jeopardize their return on substantial investments, and shareholders seemed uncertain how the theater industry will respond.</p>
<p>StoneMor Partners stock declined 10% after the cemetery and funeral home operator gave investors an update on its efforts to restate its financial results. The company said that it still hasn't finished its accounting review, and because it hasn't been able to file its annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pending completion of the review, StoneMor is now in technical default on its revolving credit agreement. The death-care company also foresees that further default events will occur in mid-August, as it believes it's unlikely to be able to file its first-quarter or second-quarter reports quickly enough to meet required deadlines on that front. StoneMor hopes that it will be able to get extensions of time or other waivers with lenders, but the news was still disquieting to investors, who are already gun-shy about the company following its <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/28/a-deep-distribution-cut-guts-stonemor-partners-lp.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aba1fbfe-6b27-11e7-a58d-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">decision last October to slash its dividend Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, shares of XPO Logistics fell 5%. The transportation and logistics specialist released its preliminary second-quarter results, which included total revenue projections of between $3.755 billion and $3.765 billion and operating income of $183 million to $187 million. XPO sees its organic revenue growth coming in between 7% and 7.9%, and cash flow from operations should be between $205 million and $215 million. In addition, XPO said that it would make a secondary offering of its stock, selling 11 million shares to raise capital for general corporate purposes. The company mentioned the possibility of refinancing or paying down debt as well as making strategic acquisitions as possible uses for the funds. Even with today's declines, <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/13/2-ways-to-play-e-commerce-that-are-better-than-ama.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aba1fbfe-6b27-11e7-a58d-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">favorable trends in e-commerce have helped send XPO stock up Opens a New Window.</a> about 40% so far in 2017.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGalagan/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aba1fbfe-6b27-11e7-a58d-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Dan Caplinger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends XPO Logistics. 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=aba1fbfe-6b27-11e7-a58d-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why AMC Entertainment Holdings, StoneMor Partners, and XPO Logistics Slumped Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/17/why-amc-entertainment-holdings-stonemor-partners-and-xpo-logistics-slumped-today.html | 2017-07-17 | 0 |
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<p>But embedded in the news release was a little-noted catch: While customers may use the self-driving feature to pick up friends or family members, “doing so for revenue purposes will only be permissible on the Tesla Network, details of which will be released next year.”</p>
<p>If you want to earn some extra money – perhaps to help pay off your robot car’s $75,000 price tag – by selling rides to strangers, you won’t be allowed to use Uber or Lyft.</p>
<p>On its face, this demand may seem ridiculous. For over a century, buying a car meant that as soon as you left the lot, you could drive it wherever and however you liked as long as you obeyed traffic laws. Yet, because of the way copyright law handles software, Tesla may have wide latitude to control your behavior by conditioning use of the products you presumably own on your willingness to following its (literal) rules of the road.</p>
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<p>Tesla is not the first company to use its power over software to restrict what consumers can do with the products they buy. John Deere prohibits farmers who buy its software-enabled tractors from doing their own repairs. General Motors informed the U.S. Copyright Office that motorists who purchase their cars “mistakenly conflate ownership of a vehicle with ownership of the underlying computer software in the vehicle” – even though, without the software, your GM car is essentially a giant paperweight.</p>
<p>Keurig sold coffee makers that deny you your daily fix unless you use its proprietary coffee pods. HP and Lexmark printers are programmed to reject other makers’ ink cartridges.</p>
<p>How did we end up in a world where device makers can dictate how we use the products we buy and reasonably believe we own? Starting in the 1980s, software companies began routinely attaching End User License Agreements to their programs without much pushback from regulatory agencies or courts.</p>
<p>Since then, EULAs have expanded both in their length and their ubiquity. Today, these catch-all documents are flooded with thousands of words of legalese attempting to minimize corporate liability and limit consumer rights. What’s more, EULAs are no longer confined to standalone software products. Our phones, watches, TVs and even our vehicles come with complex license terms attached.</p>
<p>Although few if any of us ever bother to read these agreements, there is one consistent message in nearly all of them: Software isn’t sold to you, it is merely licensed. From your copy of Microsoft Office to the code embedded in your Tesla, SmartTV, or even the latest Barbie doll, these license terms insist that you don’t own the copies of code that make your devices work. You’ve just been granted temporary permission to use them, even if you paid the same price that you used to pay to own these items outright, and sometimes even more.</p>
<p>As if that weren’t bad enough, Digital Rights Management technology allows device makers to actually enforce restrictions through code. In the 1990s and early 2000s, DRM was deployed to prohibit everything from having devices read e-books aloud to opening your garage door with a competing remote to using video game cheats to fast-forwarding through DVD previews.</p>
<p>Fortunately, we have of late seen some attempts to safeguard digital consumers’ rights.</p>
<p>For example, in response to carmakers’ leveraging their control over software to clamp down on independent repair shops, some states and industry groups fought and won a “right to repair” for software-enabled cars. But such responses have been few and far between.</p>
<p>Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreesson once famously wrote that “software is eating the world.” That statement describes not only new technologies, but also the legal and policy frameworks that enable them.</p>
<p>If license terms are allowed to control how we use the digital goods we buy, they may well eat away at the very notions of ownership and personal property.</p>
<p>Aaron Perzanowski is a professor of law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Jason Schultz is a professor of clinical law at New York University and director of NYU’s Technology Law and Policy Clinic. They wrote this for the Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.</p>
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<p /> | Think you own your new car? Think again | false | https://abqjournal.com/885150/think-you-own-your-new-car-think-again.html | 2 |
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<p>Former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, now a senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, continues to show that she’s not one to take crap from the liberal media.</p>
<p>Conway unleashed on reporters during a 12-minute gaggle in the lobby of Trump Tower while addressing those who allegedly commit racists acts in Trump’s name, <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/11/donald-trump-hate-crimes-kellyanne-conway-231715" type="external">Politico reported</a>.</p>
<p>“He has addressed it many times. Same question, different week,” Conway said. “He’s told people to cut it out. He said that on ‘60 Minutes’ in front of 32 million people. And he has said that he’ll be the president of all Americans.”</p>
<p>And after dressing them down, Conway had the temerity to then solicit their help.</p>
<p>“But, honestly and respectfully, I think that we can use your help in that,” she concluded.</p>
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<p>For the record, Trump told any supporters who may be engaging in inappropriate behavior to “stop it” during an interview last week with “60 Minutes.” At the same time, he questioned whether the media was playing up any such incidents.</p>
<p>“I think it’s horrible if that’s happening,” Trump told host Lesley Stahl. “I think it’s built up by the press because, frankly, they’ll take every single little incident that they can find in this country, which could’ve been there before. If I weren’t even around doing this, and they’ll make into an event because that’s the way the press is.”</p> | Conway buries reporter for question about ‘racist attacks against people who weren’t Trump supporters’ | true | http://bizpacreview.com/2016/11/21/conway-buries-reporter-question-racist-attacks-people-werent-trump-supporters-415265 | 2016-11-21 | 0 |
<p>Actresses, shows about women win big at Critics’ Choice; Ronan Farrow signs deal with HBO; Actress Mira Sorvino doesn’t want Me Too movement to lose focus. (Jan. 12)</p>
<p>Actresses, shows about women win big at Critics’ Choice; Ronan Farrow signs deal with HBO; Actress Mira Sorvino doesn’t want Me Too movement to lose focus. (Jan. 12)</p> | ShowBiz Minute: Critics’ Choice, Farrow, Sorvino | false | https://apnews.com/74fec049e33040f0b5fa5d11bce0db5d | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
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<p>LAS VEGAS — Long lines of voters outside a Mexican grocery store polling place in Las Vegas were a welcome sign for groups that have labored for months to translate Nevada’s high Latino population into voting power.</p>
<p>Democrats have notched a 6-percentage-point turnout lead in the two-week early voting period that ended Friday.</p>
<p>A patchwork of unions and advocacy groups have tried to push Latinos to the polls to create a political “firewall” that puts victory out of reach for Trump and other Republicans in this swing state.</p>
<p>Hispanics account for about 28 percent of Nevada’s population but tend to vote less frequently than other groups. Their underwhelming participation is part of the reason Republicans seized widespread power in Nevada in the 2014 elections.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Heavy turnout in Nevada after long push to drive Latino vote | false | https://abqjournal.com/883645/heavy-turnout-in-nevada-after-long-push-to-drive-latino-vote.html | 2016-11-07 | 2 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />In my opinion, <a href="" type="internal">Sen. Ted Cruz is easily the worst person in all of Congress</a>. I’ve reached the point where I really can’t stand to listen to him for more than a minute or two before&#160;I can start to taste the vomit coming up.</p>
<p>Well, while speaking to the American Family Association (a known anti-gay hate group), Cruz said that the only way this country can be saved is for evangelicals to rise up and vote for politicians who’ll pass legislation based upon Biblical principles.</p>
<p>“Nothing is more important in the next 18 months than that the body of Christ rise up and that Christians stand up, that pastors stand up and lead,” <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/ted-cruz-tells-afa-mobilizing-christians-vote-biblical-values-key-saving-america" type="external">Cruz said</a>. “In this last election, 54 million evangelical Christians stayed home. If we can simply bring Christians to the polls – is it any wonder we have the government we have – we have the leaders we have if believers stay home and leave electing our leaders to unbelievers. We get exactly what we deserve and nothing is more important that having people of faith stand up and just vote our values, vote biblical values and that’s how we turn the country around.”</p>
<p>In other words, he wants millions of evangelical Christians to go and vote for politicians who would basically <a href="" type="internal">turn this country into a theocracy</a>.</p>
<p>Furthermore, let&#160;me emphasize how “classy” it is for a presidential candidate to happily&#160;speak to an organization which is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.&#160;It’s also interesting <a href="" type="internal">Mr. “Pro-Israel” Ted Cruz</a> would speak to an organization whose members have been linked to anti-Jew rhetoric, such as that by Sandy Rios <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/corsi-and-rios-explain-how-evolution-aclu-and-powerful-jewish-forces-will-destroy-america" type="external">who once</a> said in reference to her belief that the ACLU is out to remove God and destroy America:</p>
<p>I know that there are powerful Jewish forces behind the ACLU.</p>
<p>Then again, the Republican defense of Israel is really more about pandering to evangelical conservative Christians who view it as the “Holy Land” more so than actual concern or support for the Jewish people. It’s always made me laugh how “pro-Israel” Republicans claim to be, yet American Jews tend to vote for Democrats.</p>
<p>While this rhetoric <a href="" type="internal">is nothing new from Cruz</a>, it’s just another example of just how little many Republicans actually understand about our Constitution – a document that literally doesn’t have&#160; <a href="" type="internal">a single reference to Christianity written anywhere in it</a>. One would think that if our Founding Fathers meant for this nation to be built and controlled by “biblical values” they would have at least included a couple of references to the Bible in our Constitution.</p>
<p>Yet there’s not a single one.&#160;</p>
<p>Thankfully, Ted Cruz stands absolutely no shot at winning his own party’s nomination, let alone becoming president. Trust me, we’ll never have to worry about this buffoon leading this nation.</p>
<p>Watch his comments below <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.com" type="external">via Right Wing Watch</a>:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Ted Cruz is a Dangerous Megalomaniac Who Only Stands For and Serves Himself</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Here are the 5 Main Types of Ted Cruz Supporters</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Ted Cruz Booed Off Stage at Christian Event (Video)</a></p>
<p>0 Facebook comments</p> | Ted Cruz Tells Hate Group: Only Way to Save U.S. is by Turning it into a Theocracy (Video) | true | http://forwardprogressives.com/ted-cruz-tells-hate-group-way-save-u-s-turning-theocracy-video/ | 2015-08-12 | 4 |
<p>For the Geo Quiz, consider that there are billions of stars and galaxies out there to identify and study. So astronomers are kept very busy mapping out the far reaches of the universe.</p>
<p>The panoramic image (above) is part of a research project called the Cosmos Survey. It comes from the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) observation site in South America, an observatory equipped with the VISTA telescope.</p>
<p>So can you name the observatory or the country where this telescope is located. It's in a remote spot in the Atacama Desert away from urban light pollution.</p>
<p>The Paranal Observatory in Chile is the answer to the Geo Quiz.</p>
<p>James Dunlop at the University of Edinburgh's Institute of Astronomy says the image shows more than 200, 000 galaxies formed less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang, including some of the most distant galaxies ever seen in the distant universe.</p> | A Panoramic View of Outer Space | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-03-22/panoramic-view-outer-space | 2012-03-22 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Bay Area psychologist Judith S. Wallerstein, founder and former executive director of the Marin County-based Center for the Family in Transition, is considered one of the world’s leading experts on children of divorce. Now, in The Good Marriage (Houghton Mifflin), she investigates what holds marriages together. In a two-year study of 50 white, middle-class, avowedly happy couples, she discusses basic types of marriage. Among them: “traditional” marriages, with a wage-earning husband and a caretaking wife, and “companionate” marriages, in which both partners juggle the pressures of work and home.</p>
<p>Q: We have the highest marriage failure rate in the world. What does that say about American culture?</p>
<p>A: What it says to me, since I’ve spent 25 years of my life studying divorce, is that we’re in serious trouble in terms of what we offer our children for the future.</p>
<p>Q: Yet we’re wedded to this nostalgic ideal of marriage and family. Why?</p>
<p>A: Family does represent a sense of acceptance, a sense of warmth, a sense of being loved, of belonging, and that’s become even more important in contemporary America. People are more isolated, more lonely, and more in need of intimacy.</p>
<p>Q: You described marriage as the only refuge from the essential loneliness of modern life. Is that a pipe dream?</p>
<p>A: I hate to think that it’s a pipe dream. One of my findings is that there are happy marriages out there. What gets in the headlines is the terrible violence in families, the hate in families, and the sense that the family is a disappointment.</p>
<p>Q: Where is the family headed?</p>
<p>A: I think the family is here to stay. It’s the only really good way I know to bring up children. That doesn’t mean a single mother can’t be a perfectly fine mother. But it’s twice as hard, or three times as hard.</p>
<p>The purpose of my book was really to learn what goes into a happy family, a happy marriage. I really think of it as a pilot study. We have everything to learn about how to make a good marriage in contemporary society. What I argue is that marriage used to be held up from the outside. You had an extended family that kept the couple together, you had a church, you had a village, you had a community that kept everybody together; but we’re into a new period in marriage. The only thing that holds it is if it holds from within. And I’m arguing that therefore we have to put an entirely different level of effort and understanding and knowledge into that marriage or we won’t have it.</p>
<p>Q: You say that in a good marriage probably the most important ingredient is flexibility.</p>
<p>A: What people need in a marriage today is a greater recognition that you don’t have the same marriage in your 20s that you have in your 30s, that you have in your 40s. That the marriage without children that you start with–that most people start with–is not the marriage with children, is not the marriage at midlife, and so on. What’s striking about these 50 couples is that they were very open to new ideas. They value change.</p>
<p>Q: Should we also be flexible as a society, valuing change in the structure of the family?</p>
<p>A: We have to value change, but we also have to recognize that what people want has to stay there. What they want is love. They really do want love. And they want friendship, and they want respect, and they–women and men–want equality.</p>
<p>Q: The breakdown of the family has been cited for all sorts of social ills. Is that a realistic assessment?</p>
<p>A: The breakdown of the family has a lot of ramifications in this society. What [Erik] Erikson called “the twilight of the father,” that’s serious. It would be equally serious if it were the twilight of the mothers. I’ve been very worried about children for a long time because they’re less protected and nurtured in a single-parent family.</p>
<p>Q: What can we as a society do to help?</p>
<p>A: I don’t think government policy has caused divorce, and I don’t think government policy can make a good marriage. But the climate of a society affects both.</p>
<p>Q: In the current political climate, we seem to be moving toward a cultural consensus that the traditional two-parent family is the only good family.</p>
<p>A: I’m arguing that there’s a wide range of different kinds of marriage. And that people have a greater choice than ever. I am not buying into the notion that the traditional family–by that we mean a man and a woman and children; the woman stays home and the man works–is what most people want.</p>
<p>It’s a very important finding that, of these 100 people who had created marriages they loved, only five wanted marriages like their parents had. Part of their pride was that they had created something new, something important, something that they thought was good for them and good for their children. The children were very valued in all these marriages, but they did not expect the same kind of conformity in their children that their parents expected from them. So there is a sense of greater freedom to shape the marriage, but there’s also a tremendous respect for the marriage and the willingness to make sacrifices. Which is very important. It wasn’t only “me, me, you, you.” It was “us.”</p>
<p>Q: Is there a policy role for building stronger marriages?</p>
<p>A: First of all, we’re going to have a variety of marriages in the future. But if we’re going to have traditional marriage, you have to have a society that provides salaries that can support them. And you have to have very good re-entry plans. Neither of which we have right now.</p>
<p>The issue is whether one could build insurance for someone who stays home and takes care of the family, so that person could get scholarships to go back to school. We have to have better educational opportunities, but mainly we need better opportunities in the workplace.</p>
<p>In companionate marriages where you have two adults in the workplace, we’re going to have to work out a better interface between the workplace and the family. For example, in Sweden, for the first year of a baby’s life, the woman or the man can stay home at 80 percent salary. There is an attempt in the workplace to recognize the importance of the family. We don’t have these policies; we fought hard to get leave without pay.</p>
<p>Q: What about some of the current conservative ideas for making divorce more difficult? Reinstituting fault, for example, even stigmatizing illegitimacy?</p>
<p>A: I’m a little worried. In America we tend to rush into things without thinking what their unintended consequences may be.</p>
<p>Q: Like what?</p>
<p>A: One possibility: If you make divorce very difficult, you may get higher abandonment. You might get children even less protected economically.</p>
<p>Q: What can we do for younger people?</p>
<p>A: There’s a lot we can do in the education of adolescents. The place to talk about relationships is in high school, and we have to, because 30 percent of America’s children are coming out of divorced families.</p>
<p>These kids say to me, now that I see them as adults, “I’ve never seen a happy family.” They’re taking that inner template into adulthood. And they’re just as lonely for a relationship, they’re just as lonely for intimacy and love and security and safety and all the things that a good marriage can provide, but they’re starting off with a sense of, “I won’t get it.” They’re scared.</p>
<p>Like a 23-year-old from my divorce work who said, “My husband and I have two strikes against us. We’re both from divorced families.” If you start off that way, you’re going to have a very hard time when that baby’s born.</p>
<p>Q: How can we apply what you’ve found in happy middle-class marriages to people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds?</p>
<p>A: For a long time in social science we neglected class differences, and that’s a mistake. But now the pendulum’s gone the other way. It isn’t true that divorce is different for a poor child than it is for a rich child, in its emotional content, and so the psychological tasks of marriage that I wrote about would apply across the board.</p>
<p>Q: Some people on the progressive left are critical of the work you’ve done.</p>
<p>A: In a review of my last book, the last line was, “Doesn’t that woman know that the family is dead?”</p>
<p>What could I say? The notion that women don’t do well in marriage, that all they do is serve men. I mean, that’s nonsense.</p>
<p>So if I’m in favor of the family, I’m by definition in favor of oppressing women? That’s silly.</p>
<p>Q: How do you feel about the tendency of some people on the right to cite your work as evidence that what they’re saying about “family values” is true?</p>
<p>A: I’ll tell you, I’ve been so misquoted in America [laughs]. I cannot worry about it anymore; I’m happy if they spell my name right. So many things have been attributed to me that I never would have dreamed of saying. I’m not against divorce; in some cases, it’s the best choice.</p>
<p>Q: Is the high divorce rate because our values are askew, or because it’s easier to get divorced?</p>
<p>A: We have a higher divorce rate for many reasons; for one thing, women are able to support themselves. But also–and I take this very seriously–people have higher expectations of marriage, and they’re right. One of my findings is that the higher expectations can pay off.</p>
<p>Q: Should society’s expectations of marriage change?</p>
<p>A: I do think it’s important for society to value it, but that doesn’t mean you can only value the little house with the white picket fence. Women are not going to give up their hard-won gains. Why should they? We’re into a period of transition, but, as I say, I think the family is here to stay because it’s the best method ever invented by human beings for dealing with the stresses of adulthood and bringing up children.</p>
<p>Q: There was some talk in Washington state about putting warning labels about spousal abuse on marriage licenses–</p>
<p>A: Oh, that’s nonsense.</p>
<p>Q: If you were going to put some kind of warning label for women on the box that is marriage, what would it say?</p>
<p>A: I wouldn’t put a warning. Not even hypothetically. I would say this is a great opportunity and what you do with it is your whole adulthood. This is the central relationship of adulthood.</p>
<p>There’s you, there’s your husband, and there’s the marriage, and all three need to be taken care of.</p>
<p>Mary Ann Hogan is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>See <a href="/arts/books/1995/07/hotmedia.html#marriage" type="external">Hot Media</a> for more resources.</p>
<p /> | The Good Marriage? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/1995/07/good-marriage/ | 2018-07-01 | 4 |
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<p>MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government says President Enrique Pena Nieto has spoken by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>A statement issued Saturday says the two leaders’ conversation happened in the morning.</p>
<p>It said Pena Nieto congratulated Trump on his inauguration and expressed willingness to work for the benefit of both countries “with a focus on respect for the sovereignty of both nations and shared responsibility.”</p>
<p>Pena Nieto also reiterated his interest in maintaining dialogue. A high-level Mexican delegation is scheduled to hold talks with Trump administration officials in Washington Jan. 25-26.</p>
<p>Trump has promised to build a wall along the United States’ southern border and make Mexico pay for it. He has also threatened some companies with a border tariff on products manufactured in Mexico and exported to the United States.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Mexico: President Pena Nieto, Trump have phone conversation | false | https://abqjournal.com/933684/mexico-president-pena-nieto-trump-have-phone-conversation.html | 2017-01-23 | 2 |
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